Guardian Cryptic 28,367 by Picaroon

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28367.

Welcome today to the Chinese New Year, and the start of the year of the ox. A splendid crossword – amusing, diverting, and with a satisfying degree of difficulty for me at least. And, of course, a spot-on topical theme to boot (with a notable number of bibulous clues thrown in).

ACROSS
9 DARKROOMS
Are they still development areas? (9)
One of the better cryptic definitions.
10 ERATO
Inspiring figure to speak after switching sides (5)
ORATE (‘speak’) with the O and E exchanged (‘after changing sides’), giving the muse of lyric love poetry.
11 TIGER
Fierce sort of row about £1,000 (5)
An envelope (‘about’) of G (‘£1,000’) in TIER (‘row’).
12 KITTIWAKE
Seabird I rouse after Manx cat, perhaps (9)
A charade of KITT[y] (‘cat’) minus its tail (‘Manx … perhaps’) plus I WAKE (‘I rouse’).
13 FANTASY
Fancy drink, with sherry having been emptied (7)
A charade of FANTA (‘drink’; trade name) plus SY (‘SherrY having been emptied’).
14
See 22
17 VOCAB
Vehicle must follow very old terms (5)
A charade of V (‘very’) plus O (‘old’) plus CAB (‘vehicle’), giving the abbreviation for vocabulary.
19 SEC
Like some wines, this doesn’t last long! (3)
Double definition.
20 SNAKE
Alcohol in Asia contains new twist (5)
An envelope (‘contains’) of N (‘new’) in SAKE (‘alcohol in Asia’, Japan specifically).
21 ROOSTER
Male‘s small jumper with shortened back (7)
A charade of ROO (‘small jumper’ – ‘small’ to indicate the abbreviation for kangaroo) plus STER[n] (‘back’) minus its last letter (‘shortened’).
22, 14 CHINESE NEW YEAR
Event now associated with elements of 10, 24, 28, 29, 3, 4, 8, 23 and four other solutions (7,3,4)
Do you think this could indicate a theme? The Chinese twelve Earthly Branches are now associated primarily (even among non-Chinese) with the Chinese New Year celebrations, ushering in the twelve year cycle.The eight clues listed contain their animals hidden in the answers (4D is borderline, as the light contains the animal whole, but it is part of the pair 4/27. The remaining four clues have the whole animal as answer.
24 HORSEHIDE
Leather dancing shoe hired (9)
An anagram (‘dancing’) of ‘shoe hired’.
26 DJINN
Spirit said to show spirit (5)
Sounds like (‘said’) GIN (‘spirit’ the first).
28 OXEYE
Daisy‘s back into phoney exoticism (5)
A hidden reversed (‘back into’) answer in ‘phonEY EXOticism’.
29 HAVE A GO AT
Attack, as a farmer may (4,1,2,2)
HAVE A GOAT (‘as a farmer may’).
DOWN
1 EDIT
Raised energy in regime change (4)
DIET (‘regime’) with the E (‘energy’) moved to the top (‘raised’).
2 DRAG ON
Put on wrapping paper, which is to prove tedious (4,2)
An envelope (‘wrapping’) of RAG (‘paper’) in DON (‘put on’).
3 BRER RABBIT
Trickster’s gossip in support of British ruler (4,6)
A charade of BR (‘British’) plus ER (‘ruler’) plus RABBIT (‘gossip’; more often the sense is “talk inconsequentially”, but as the derivation seems to be rhyming slang RABBIT and pork – talk – so ‘gossip’ would seem to be an acceptable definition). ‘In support of’ gives the order of the particles in a down light.
4, 27 MONKEY NUTS
King’s tucked into bread loaves or snacks (6,4)
An envelope (‘tucked into’) of K (‘king’) in MONEY (‘bread’) plus NUTS (‘loaves’, heads).
5 ISOTONIC
I really drink and like some drinks (8)
A charade of ‘I’ plus SO (‘really’) plus TONIC (‘drink’).
6 DELI
Shop one managed to put up (4)
A reversal (‘to put up’ in a down light) of I (‘one’) plus LED (‘managed’).
7 HABANERA
Cuban steps in stadium with sound of contempt rising (8)
A reversal (‘rising’ in a down light) of ARENA (‘stadium’) plus BAH (‘sound of contempt’). No, don’t tell me, the answer’s Carmen.
8 DOGE
Big cheese from Italy to follow starter of eggs (4)
A charade of DOG (‘follow’) plus E (‘starter of Eggs’).
13 FEVER
Frenzy? Not so many, when half-hearted? (5)
FEWER (‘not so many’) with V as half a W (‘when half-hearted’).
15 WEST INDIAN
Islander is wanted in training (4,6)
An anagram (‘training’) of ‘is wanted in’.
16 REEVE
Judge once concerned with one found guilty of stealing fruit (5)
A charade of RE (‘concerned with’) plus EVE (‘one found guilty of stealing fruit’). The answer should be familiar from The Canterbury Tales.
18 CHOIRMEN
Executives with love for a vocal group (8)
CHAIRMEN (‘executives’) with the O changed to A (‘with love for a’).
19 STRAIGHT
Channel for auditor having got rid of The Kinks (8)
Sounds like (‘for auditor’) STRAIT (‘channel’). I was hesitant about what to underline for the definition, but the OED lists STRAIGHT as a form of the verb straighten. Of course, the capitals are misleading.
22 CLEAVE
Corps given permission to split up (6)
A charade of C (‘corps’) plus LEAVE (‘permission’).
23 EPIGON
Electronic stuff working for imitator (6)
A charade of E (prefix for ‘electronic’) plus PIG (‘stuff’, overeat) plus ON (‘working’). My first thought was EDISON, which fits, and involves DIS, which could possibly be ‘stuff’ as disparage, with a definition coming down resolutely in the Tesla/Edison debate; however, this putative meaning of ‘stuff’ hardly holds water, and the correct definition is, to say the least, less controversial. Also, the PIG is required for the theme.
24 HOOP
Circle dance goes around in a circle (4)
An envelope (‘goes around in’ – I think ‘in’ belongs here, with a convoluted word order) of O (‘circle’) in HOP (‘dance’).
25 EPEE
It’s used to fence bounds of estate hosting games (4)
An envelope (‘hosting’) of PE (‘games’) in EE (‘bounds of EstatE‘)
27
See 4

picture of the completed grid

107 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,367 by Picaroon”

  1. Nice that my year is part of the inspiration for love poetry (once saw Rat described as the playboy of the eastern world…hmm, in my 20s maybe). Yes, great topical puzzle. My only ? was what does tide have to do with regime (There is a tide in the affairs of men…?)… dill ! And took ages getting the old ‘change a to o’ trick in choirmen, d’oh. Been a while since djinn has appeared, and ditto doge tho praps not as long. All good fun, ta to the Pirate and PeterO. And all the best for the year for oxen and all other creatures.

  2. You know, I thought that on getting CHINESE NEW YEAR it would be a race to the finish line, but I found it pleasantly challenging all the way. The theme did help, but not excessively so. Besides, its been a long time now since I’ve been in a Chinese restaurant with the traditional Chinese Zodiac place mats, thus the poor old grey cells were taxed even more than they might have otherwise been.

  5. That was a treat — thanks Picaroon. My last animal was “pig” from EPIGON, a new word for me that I guessed correctly. I missed HABANERA and DARKROOMS but otherwise things fell into place fairly routinely. I liked FANTASY and FEVER in particular. Thanks PeterO for the blog.

  6. Anyone else try MACARENA before realising it must be HABANERA? Nice theme (I’m an Ox) and although signalled so clearly it wasn’t a themo collapso, but it did help with the unknown EPIGON. I suspected I was missing something about EDIT, and indeed it’s one of those horrible sliding letter clues that I can never see (like COSMIC yesterday).

  7. Taking off from the excellent clue 9a.
    In south India in the early decades of the 20th century in Tamil Nadu there was what was called “‘camera room” (literal translation of the Tamil term ‘camera uLL’).
    It was a small inner room with very little light in which certain members of the orthodox family were confined. They rarely went out of the house. A large mirror hung on the wall was an indispensable part of the decor. The women in the household changed clothes in that room
    In my grandfather’s house in Coimbatore women were free but I remember there was a room with no window whatever but just a door opening onto the hall. Childbirths at home took place there, with a midwife come to take care of the proceedings. We children were hustled off and were put under the care of an elder!
    R. K. Narayan, an early and well-known Indian writer in English, has written a novel titled The Dark Room

  8. This was very topical for me, with the requisite fireworks going off around the neighbourhood as I was solving. (I have lived in mostly Chinese communities for 20 years.) I don’t usually twig themes but since CNY was so front of mind it only took MONKEY to put me on the track. That should have meant an easy solve but I found some fairly well hidden and some of the non-theme clues quite chewy. Favourite was FEVER for remembering the V=W/2 trick.

    Two asides re Japan – the clue for SAKE, alcohol in Asia, is general in only one sense. The word is only used in Japan, but it does mean any alcoholic drink. The rice wine called sake in English is Nihonshu in Japan, just one form of alcohol (and not the most popular).
    The Japanese zodiac uses the same 12 animals but the year begins Jan. 1, so I am a Snake in China but a Horse in Japan.

  9. Loved this. As Dr WhatsOn noted @2, despite getting the theme link it was still a good challenge and a thoroughly enjoyable solve. Many thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO.

  11. Thanks to Turbolegs over at today’s FT blog who drew my attention to CNY and therefore helped with this puzzle. An added bonus was that I’ve just found out I’m a GOAT. Well I never.

    My pick of the day was DARKROOM; thanks to Rishi @7 for the added information which I found fascinating.

    Never heard of EPIGON, my last in. Quickly learnt and just as quickly forgotten I fear.

    Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO

  12. A nice crossword. I confess to looking up my last two animals, having already got all the relevant crossers. I might have got there in the end but it took me a while to parse doge, and epigon was new to me. I suppose it is the counterpart of paragon. I too considered edison; “e” and “on” were obvious in the wordplay but I couldn’t see any definition or the rest of the wordplay.
    I couldn’t parse diet, and I got fever early on but only pencilled it in because the penny only dropped on the wordplay when it was my last but one.

  13. Ravenrirder @12 This is why linguistics is a minefield. I looked up paragon and epigon, and it seems paragon derives from the Greek from whetstone, whereas epigon is from Greek for “one born after”. Still, the similarity will help me to remember epigon in future!

  14. Yes, gladys @6, I was another doing the MACARENA for a while at 7dn (albeit the Al Gore version).

    I’ll join in the chorus of praise for this. For HOOP, I have an idea how Picaroon would defend the ‘convoluted word order’, having had an interesting discussion with him on this site last year. Just as ‘man I saw’ can be interpreted as ‘a man that I saw’, so ‘circle dance goes around’ can be parsed as ‘a circle that ‘dance’ goes around’, i.e. ‘an O that HOP goes around’, leaving the ‘in’ as a connecting word.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.

  15. I’m a MACARENA man too (Gladys @6 and essexboy @14). Like others, hadn’t heard of EPIGON. Couldn’t parse EDIT, but got DARKROOMS (great clue) next to last, so it had to be. Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.

  16. A clever use of the Chinese New Year animals. A really enjoyable outing. I liked the farmer’s attack at 29a HAVE A GO AT. Much appreciated, Picaroon, and thank you for the clarification of a couple of parses, PeterO.

  17. Lovely Friday puzzle. Despite the existence of a theme being explicit, this was still a stretch. Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO. (Definitely feel like I’ve got my mojo back after last week!)

  18. I normally find myself on Picaroon’s wavelength and after the key answer slipped in relatively early (aided by HORSEHIDE AND OXEYE being already there), then the rest was straightforward enough. Although, even then, TIGER and DRAG ON were my last two in and I had to look twice at DRAG ON before the seeing the connection. HAVE A GO AT made me grin.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Peter for a Friday treat.

  19. Wow – absolutely not on Picaroon’s wavelength today; I was aware that it was Chinese New Year but didn’t really have much of a clue about the animals associated with it (yes, I appreciate I’ve probably been living under a rock!) and this took ages and was very-much a DNF. Oh well; some you win, some…

    Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO!

  20. Since I tackle the clues in order, TIGER, SNAKE and ROOSTER had alerted me to the possibility of the theme before I got to 22,14 and I was delighted to find that it was so. Very ingeniously done and I had lots of fun tracking them all down.

    Re 19dn, I took STRAIGHT as an adjective and ‘having got rid of The Kinks’ as the definition, rather than ‘straight’ and ‘rid’ as verbs.

    A Happy New Year to KLColin ( I remember you as TokyoColin) and everyone else celebrating – and many thanks to Picaroon for the fun and PeterO for the blog.

    [Now for Julius in the FT – it’s a good day!]

  21. The first thing Aurigetta said to me this morning was “Happy Chinese New Year”, so 22 14 went in as soon as I saw SNAKE and TIGER. I was then able to write in the other ten. It was the three independent four-letter answers that held me up! EPIGON and CHOIRMEN both new to me.
    Great fun, Pickers! and thanks to Peter O.

  22. I found this a bit laborious until I got the Aurucaria Auracana halfway through and then it all made sense. Liked DARKROOMS, WEST INDIAN and HAVE A GO AT and another thank you to Rishi@7 for your input.
    The crossword reminded me of this wonderful Al Stewart song from the 70s https://youtu.be/cqZc7ZQURMs.
    Even my beloved QPR, THE SUPA HOOP(s) got a mention, although I fear that will probably be the only excitement I get this weekend.
    Ta P & P

  24. An excellent, fun and timely puzzle. For once I caught the theme, but I had already solved HORSEhide, brer RABBIT, MONKEY, OXeye, DRAGON and TIGER at the point that I solved 22/14.
    New for me: ISOTONIC.
    Favourites: HAVE A GO AT, FEVER, EPIGON, DOGE, CHOIRMEN (loi)

    Thank you, Picaroon and Peter

  25. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
    I had TIGER early on, and MONKEY confirmed the theme and helped me guess the unknown EPIGON. I stalled about 3/4 of the way through, looked up the missing animals, and it all then finished rather quickly.
    Before I had any crossers I toyed with the topical SUPREMES for 18d; it nearly works, but needs E for O, rather than O for A.
    Favourites KITTIWAKE (they’re such elegant birds) and DARKROOMS.
    [25d – when I was at school, we made a distinction between “games”, which most of us liked, and “PE”, which even more of us hated!]

  26. [Does everyone know about what3words?
    It’s an app that divides the world into 3 metre squares and gave each square a unique combination of three words (words must be at least 4 letters and homophones aren’t allowed). If you were lost on the moors or in the forest, your phone would pinpoint exact location and the emergency services could come and find you.

    Anyway, when I saw edit.fever.hoop down the left hand side of the grid, I thought ‘wouldn’t it be cool if that was in China’. It isn’t. It’s northeast of Phoenix, Arizona. But then I found that tiger.snake.rooster is near Taiyuan in Shanxi province, so that’s better.]

    Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO

  28. [Penfold @26: The Electronic Freedom Foundation suggest using something similar for passwords https://ssd.eff.org/en/module/creating-strong-passwords

    Unfortunately, many commercial sites have not kept up with their work and still insist on words with characters, numbers, capitals, etc. making them very easy to crack.

    The example they give is “panoramic nectar precut smith banana handclap” much easier for someone to remember without ever having to write it down or send to themselves via email (go on, admit it – you’ve done it – I have). Last IETF meeting we had (which was 6 days of on-line session – ugh – I didn’t have to write a single passphrase down.]

  29. Thanks you Eileen@20. I have been doing Guardian crosswords since the 90s when I lived in Singapore but only discovered 15sqd after I moved to Tokyo in 2000. I saw your “handle” and tried to join in as just Colin, but was politely advised, by Gaufrid?, that there was another poster of that name. So I prepended Tokyo which I assumed was fairly safe. I then became HKColin (Hong Kong) for 5 years during my second stint there, and the current KLColin 3 years ago when I came back to KL to retire. Almost everything I know about British culture I have learned from Guardian crosswords and further elucidation from 225, still insufficient for some of the Guardian setters. It is a pleasant surprise to come across a single clue which references my part of the world, so a whole theme was a real feast.

  30. muffin@25
    Yes. 29a HAVE A GO AT raised a smile in me.
    I wonder if the clue should have had an ellipsis (…) suggesting that we fill in the rest.
    What do others think?

  31. Rishi @7: thanks for another interesting insight into life and traditions in your part of the world. Always intriguing.

    essexboy @14: that’s certainly how I parsed HOOP. No problems with the word order.

    MB @19: even living under a rock, you’d have had a chance of encountering snake, rabbit or rat?

    Eileen @20: I agree with your longer definition of STRAIGHT than currently appears in the blog.

    Auriga @21: is it impertinent to ask what Aurigetta had to say about the recent discussions of gender distinction/feminisation of words?

    [Penfold @26: I’d heard of it but nice to be reminded and what a super spot. I wonder how many of us will be playing around on what3words today?]

    A lovely way to end the week; lots of smiles and Aha’s and I am totally with those who have posted their pleasure. Nothing particularly to add to the comments so far other than to note several references to the Chandler Brer Rabbit stories on Fifteensquared over the past few months. Very few appearances before.

    Thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  33. DNF – realised on reading the blog that I hadn’t yet solved CHOIRMEN (ghastly word). I had even played with ‘choir’ for quite a bit. Also I had MACARENA – the ‘mac’ part unparsed. Took me quite a while to realise it was CHINESE NEW YEAR – I was searching for some animal event – farm expo or the like. Not my day, really. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.

  34. [muffin @25 – I also thought Games and PE were not the same. I did my teacher training in Wales and was aghast to find that the PE method I had signed up for was all gymnastics (taught by ex-army sergeant majors, it seemed) – which I had never done – and not teaching lovely games like Aussie Rules (i.e. real footy) and basketball, which is largely what we had done in PE in Oz.]

  35. Expected the CNY theme before I began on this, so that helped, but it still provided some chewiness. 8d DOGE took me too long, because I just couldn’t let go of the notion that something had to ‘follow’ an E (‘starter of eggs’). ERATO was a biffed write-in — I was just on the Picaroon wavelength, and we do seem to have had a lot of muses recently.
    All in all, a very enjoyable puzzle. Many thanks to Picaroon… and to PeterO, for blogging it.

  36. grantinfreo @1: You’ve probably spotted it by now but the regime is a diet, and if you raise the E you get EDIT (change).

    What a lovely, neat puzzle with a chuckle or two including HAVE A GO[AT] .

    KLColin @29: Happy retirement – I must have started this malarkey as I remember you as TokyoColin.

    Many thanks

  38. What an enjoyable puzzle! If you google “Chinese New Year” you are greeted with fireworks – just found out I am a snake…
    I was another who tried to enter Edison, EPIGON is new to me.
    Thank you Picaroon and PeterO.

    All the best to those who celebrate the Chinese New Year

    [Rishi @7, I am looking froward to reading The Dark Room, we have several books by R. K. Naryan, but not that one.]

  40. Is it just me who’s a little bit miffed that 17/19 across are both abbreviations without any indicator ?

  41. I’ve just found out I’m a 21, so must crow about finishing this. Good setting to get in 12 themers.

    Thanks Rishi @7 for the insights.

    The only one I failed to parse was EDIT – neat use of ‘regime change’. I ticked DARKROOMS, HAVE A (GO)AT, MONKEY NUTS and FEVER.

    [Following on from PM @31, the usual comment is that we call female medical practioners doctors. However, looking in the dictionaries, I’m staggered to see that both ‘doctress’ and ‘editress’ are there!]

    Thanks Picaroon for a sparkling reminder of CNY, and to PeterO for a good blog.

  42. CM @40; I think in the informal ‘wait a sec’ I wouldn’t add a full stop to indicate an abbreviation. Vocab. is somewhat different, although I might still write: ‘My vocab is poor’ but maybe that’s just laziness to omit the full stop.

  43. CM @40 both are in Chambers as informal terms – presumably derived from abbreviations but now words in their own right

  44. AlanC @22 Loved that album – it’s down in the cellar along with the album with *Roads to Moscow* on it. By the way I also wondered if Matilda was referring to the comments about Anto the previous week.

    At first I thought this was going to be impossible. Then after getting CHINESE NEW YEAR, I started to make slow progress. Unlike others I found the theme very helpful (after googling to remind me of the twelve animals) and couldn’t believe I had missed DRAG ON till the very end.

    Liked EPEE and haven’t seen DJINN before.

    Needed quite a bit of help with parsing.

    Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO

  45. Robi @41 – I still smart at the memory of having to blog, in my very early days, AMBASSADRESS – with the definition ‘diplomat’s wife!

  46. If vocab and sec have lost the latter part of original words to become or almost become words in their own right, I think we also have words formed by originals losing their front part. Wasn’t bus once omnibus? Am I right?

  47. Thanks to Picaroon for a puzzle that was both highly ingenious and highly entertaining – you don’t always get both together.

    Like Eileen @20 I always start at the top and work down. Because I solve the puzzle from the Guardian app on my iPhone, I only tend to look at the clues one at a time, and having solved one, forget it and move on. So I rarely spot a theme as I’m going along. In this case I didn’t see 22,14 until I was half way through. Duh! Memo to self: look at all the clues before starting.

    I’m another who toyed with MACARENA.

    HAVE A GO AT was wonderful.

    [Im a DRAG ON, incidentally. Sorry!]

  48. Rishi @46: [Yes indeed – the abbreviation was originally written ‘bus, from the Latin dative plural omnibus- ‘for all’]

  49. If one wants to hear one of the best musical interpretations of a habanera then listen to Carmen. As a photter who was brought up on FP3 and HPS loved 9across Thanks all

  50. [If testratrix is the feminine form of testator, what is the feminine form of cicatrix? I will throw my angavastram on my shoulder and leave the room.]

  51. Loved this. 22a seemed very obvious and gave it away but I had to Google which animals were in the Chinese zodiac and that helped a lot. Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.

    Rishi@46 et al: cello is short for violoncello and also seems to have lost its apostrophe

  53. Apologies to everyone (especially Eileen ) for filling up yesterday’s blog with my technical problems. Thanks to all helpers. Am trying an alternative email address and then I’ll just live with it.

  55. You’re welcome, Julia – I’ve had the same problem myself for several weeks. It seems to have cleared up just today, so fingers crossed. All the best with yours!

  56. [Cookie @38: I had to clear out my cache since my earlier post to enable another app to work properly with the result that, when I came back on here, everything from your comment onwards suddenly appeared accompanied by the box that says “Do you accept Cookies?” 😀 I do and I did.]

  57. Another three-letter vehicle! I got stuck for ages trying to work in CAR, BUS or VAN. Finally with the B from RABBIT the answer popp

    PeterO, what is the topical theme “to boot” and the animals? And I don’t understand the color scheme in the grid. TIGER, DRAGON, SNAKE and ROOSTER are the “four other solutions,” and the other animals are incorporated into a word or phrase. But that doesn’t seem to be the plan to distinguish the green from the beige or the blue words.

    I hadn’t heard of “isotonic drinks” before.

  58. Great fun, in spite of a couple of unknowns intersecting with DJINN and EPIGON. Very much liked the elision/eliding(?) of HAVE A GO AT…

  61. [Postmark @56, oh dear, have I jinxed the system? I only chose that user name because when a child I was always being told that I was half-baked, a bit soft in the head, not a proper biscuit…]

  63. [( don’t know if ‘omnibus’ is still used in GB. You will be surprised to know that omni (after slicing off bus!) is very much in use in southern India. I don’t know if it exists in upper parts of my country.
    What is it? A small bus. What you may call a van, a 11-seater + driver.
    A group of family members or friends will hire it for an excursion outside their town.
    The Tamil Nadu Government has introduced it to ferry passengers from the bus depots on main routes to some interior parts of the ever-expanding Chennai. They call it ‘small bus’.]

  64. I’ve had no time for the daily crosswords this week, but I made time for this one after a tip-off. It was a (Chinese) cracker!
    As others have said, the thematic material was very well incorporated into the puzzle, and when I got the main thematic entry it was still no pushover – again as has been said. I liked the way DRAGON was clued as DRAG ON (which was a kind of complement to GOAT in HAVE A GO AT). Excellent clues throughout.
    Thanks to Picaroon, PeterO and commenters.

  66. [Cookie @61 Not a proper biscuit? That seems very harsh. I think perhaps they meant that one day you would make your fortune, Cookie.

  68. Robi@41: Doctress and so on are in the dictionary because dictionaries are there to describe what exists, not to dictate what ought to be used (though they might note that something is obsolete or offensive).

    I agree with Eileen about the longer definition of STRAIGHT.

  69. Off the top of my head I was only able to write down five of the 12 animals, so I was pleased to eventually finish without looking the rest of them up. This is a testament not to my abilities as a solver, but to Picaroon’s immaculate clues. Plenty of inventiveness and nimble phrasing. Most enjoyable. Smiles were raised by ‘I so drink’, KITTIWAKE and the aggressive farmer.

    [Rishi @46&63. “Wasn’t bus once omnibus?” Yes, you are right. But it was lost so long ago that many people think that bus, if it’s short for anything, is short for autobus or motorbus.]

  71. [Penfold @66, no, they did not; but I married a lovely man named Cook, he was considered to be a fortune hunter.]

  73. An ancestor of mine was unfortunate enough to be run over and killed by a London horse drawn omnibus outside the Cock Tavern, Highbury Corner in 1870. Both the cock and the horse fit in well with today’s theme too…

  74. After looking up EPIGON (drawing a blank in the brain) I remembered the epigoni, the not-quite-so-heroic sons of a group of heroes.

    I won’t post it again, but here’s the link to the wonderful macaronic poem about a Motor Bus.

    Rishi, your mini sounds like the jjitneys that used to drive up and down Mission Street, the central artery of the Latin community, in San Francisco. They were little vans that you could hop on and off where you liked, having paid the fare. They were a separate system from the city transit network, run by the police department of all things, and you could ride with folks who spoke your language (Chinese, Filipino, whatever …). I miss them.

  75. I was over the moon with this one. [though I am not quite sure how a lunisolar year works. All I know is that you get moon cakes not sun cakes.]

  76. Valentine @57: I’m not sure anyone has addressed your query – if it is a genuine query. “PeterO, what is the topical theme “to boot” and the animals?” Just in case you haven’t encountered it, “To boot is ideal for adding something extra to a statement, as it essentially means “on top of that.” You might describe your best friend by saying, “She’s so funny, and incredibly loyal to boot.” The term comes from the Old English to bote, which was once used as part of a legal term in English law, meaning something extra that is added as part of a bargain or compensation.” (copied straight from vocabulary.com). Apologies if I’ve misinterpreted. Not sure what “and the animals” refers to.

  77. [Ronald @73 After a lovely Chinese meal, my Grandad was very pleased when his fortune cookie told him that a lot of money was coming his way. Crossing the road after leaving the restaurant, he was run over by a Securicor van.]

  80. PostMark@76. My questions wasn’t about the phrase “to boot,” which is familiar. It was about the second theme, if there was one.

  81. Penfold@77, I do hope this isn’t a true tale! In my ancestor’s case (he also had the unfortunate forenames of John Thomas) the proximity of the Cock Tavern had no alcoholic bearing on his demise. According to witnesses at the Coroner’s Inquest 4 days later, it appeared that he might have fallen asleep in the top deck after a hard day at the office in The Strand, had suddenly woken to realise that he was just about to miss his stop, blundered down the external stairs and fell under one of the rear wheels as the omnibus began to move off again…

  82. So it seems like no one else tried starting with PANCAKE RACE DAY! Once that was ousted by WEST INDIAN things became much easier. Like others I was sure it had to be MACARENA and I was being thick on the parsing but I got there after resorting to the check button. It surprises me how quickly the correct answer comes to mind once the wrong one is definitively eliminated. DARKROOMS was my loi – great misdirection and great supplementary info from Rishi.
    Thanks to Picaroon for the puzzle and PeterO for the blog, and to all contributors.

  83. [Valentine @80: no probs. I was a tad surprised if you were saying it was a new phrase to you but willing to help in case!]

  84. [Ronald @81 No, just my little joke. Actually, my Grandad had a very profitable night at the greyhound track, got drunk on barley wine, went to bed and never woke up. Now that’s a good way to go, unlike your poor ancestor.]

  85. Great crossword as is normal for this setter, the best in my opinion along with Philistine, and Arachne who seems to have given up!
    Already mentioned are my favourites so I will just say many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
    [Yes, what3words is an innovation and will, I suspect, be universal before long. My what3words address is giblet,give,explored. I take great pleasure in the giblet!!]
    Does anyone, Eileen perhaps, have any news of Arachne and whether she will give us some more pleasure in the future. I do hope she is well!!

  87. By the way heaven forfend that I should join the pedants brigade but a West Indian only really exists in cricketland, but for what its worth many come from Guyana which is anything but an island

  88. Thanks PeterO, I didn’t parse EDIT although have seen diet=regime before so must be having a slow brain day (although I did manage to spot the FEVER trick), and needed the theme for ERATO as well as EPIGON – at least I am not alone there. DOGE and OXEYE also took awhile, so without the theme given away I would really have struggled. Despite the brainfuzz I managed to avoid wondering whether there is a “Year of the KITTIWAKE” – agree muffin@25 that it is a fine bird. My favourite of many contenders, because my mind turned immediately to Scotch and i spent a long time trying to work out what a distillery under construction might be called, is DARK ROOMS – thanks Rishi for adding some extra colour – and thanks Picaroon .

  89. COD DARKROOMS, Rishi@50, also came across executrix in my early years as a teacher when teaching English, wonder whether younger people know these things nowadays.

  90. Another treat today – all has been said. I think we had an in-depth discussion of CLEAVE a while back (one of those words with two opposing meanings – I need a “reverse dictionary” here (irony in play since I don’t have a word for that either – if such a thing exists)). Cleft, Cloven – wonderful old survivors.

    Penfold@: When I saw @26 I began to worry that you needed to get out more (don’t we all?) but your Grandfather’s unfortunate demise@77 re-assured me that you are in top form. Thanks for the chortle.

    And thanks to Picaroon for similar from HAVE A GO AT and to PeterO for the blog (Note to self: a regime can be a “diet”. Repeat…)

  96. With three answers left to go I was looking for a themed animal to fill one of them…. I just hadn’t connected DRAG_ON. [I once had a book all about the Chinese year animals. It had an appendix in which they crossed Chinese years with European star signs, and listed famous people with the same combination. As a gemini tiger, I matched Marilyn Monroe and Adolf Hitler! I think I must have binned it…]

  97. I only got 22/14 towards the end, which made for a wonderful illuminating moment. I had been looking for chemical elements to build the answer.

    Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO

  98. [AlanC@93 – a favourite childhood memory but I don’t think much of it is to be found even online these days. I have read ( a translation of) “Journey to the West” on which it is based and can recommend it, plenty of humour along with the philosophy. And there was a really good live version, hard to describe but involving Chinese acrobats and popular beat combo Gorillaz, ten to fifteen years ago.]

  100. (Always do xword the following morning.)
    Wonderful theme, as expected. I can still smell and hear the explosion of millions of tiny red crackers, hung from top to bottom of every building in central Kowloon. We were too scared to go out until they ended. Very difficult to breathe for a while. Everything else about the celebrations seem magical.

  102. With an unparsed EDIT and unsolved DJINN, I went up for my shower this morning. The parsing of EDIT came as I got wet and DJINN shortly after. The shower never fails to unblock the crossword, if I can remember the clue.

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