The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28397.
Paul as inventive as ever.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | SAPPHO |
Greek poetess with an aversion to fools erasing name on biro? (6)
|
| SAP PHO[bic] (‘with an aversion to fools’) minus BIC (‘erasing name on biro’). | ||
| 4 | THESIS |
Dissertation not say in essay, described with what we have here (6)
|
| An envelope (‘described with’) of ES (‘not say in ESsay’) in THIS (‘what we have here’). | ||
| 9, 16 | CHIP SHOT |
Approach food items fresh from the frier? (4,4)
|
| CHIPS HOT (‘food items fresh from the frier’). | ||
| 10 | POPEMOBILE |
Vehicle where one after mass transported by people in a ferment (10)
|
| An envelope (‘transported by’) of MOB (‘mass’) plus I (‘one’) in POPELE, an anagram (‘in a ferment’) of ‘people’, with a hint of an extended definition. | ||
| 11 | ARGYLE |
See elderly woman briefly reversing pattern in socks (6)
|
| A reversal (‘reversing’) of ELY (‘see’) plus GRA[n] (‘elderly woman’) minus the last letter (‘briefly’). | ||
| 12 | KEEL OVER |
Darling behind my back, swoon (4,4)
|
| A charade of KEE, a reversal (‘back’) of EEK (‘my’ as an interjection; not very close, I feel) plus LOVER (‘darling’). | ||
| 13 | DON’T ASK ME |
Head bagging new job, I haven’t been informed (4,3,2)
|
| An envelopoe (‘bagging’) of N (‘new’) plus TASK (‘job’) in DOME (‘head’). | ||
| 15 | IFFY |
Dubious humming, intro forgotten (4)
|
| [w]IFFY or [n]IFFY (‘humming’ in the sense of strongly smelling) with the first letter removed (‘intro forgotten’). | ||
| 16 |
See 9
|
|
| 17 | GLAMORISE |
In need of repair, some girl pinning a dress up (9)
|
| An envelope (‘pinning’) of ‘a’ in GLMORISE, an anagram (‘in need of repair’) of ‘some girl’. | ||
| 21 | MISSOURI |
What we do carelessly in writing about an Amercan state? (8)
|
| I can only see MISS OUR I, which strikes me as weak. | ||
| 22 | BHUTAN |
Country cabin in block (6)
|
| An envelope (in’) of HUT (‘cabin’) in BAN (‘block’). | ||
| 24 | CRANKSHAFT |
Engine part with nut on screw (10)
|
| A charade of CRANK (‘nut’) plus SHAFT (‘screw’, defraud). | ||
| 25, 3 | AS IT HAPPENS |
Actually live (2,2,7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 26 | POSTER |
Bill when Charles will reign? (6)
|
| POST ER. | ||
| 27 | IRVING |
Name dividing Washington and Berlin? (6)
|
| ‘Washington’ IRVING (author of Rip van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow) and IRVING ‘Berlin’ (composer). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | SCHERZO |
Movement as follows lion stopped by head of zookeepers (7)
|
| An envelope (‘stopped by’) of Z (‘head of Zookeepers’) in SC (an abbreviation, not given in Chambers but it is in Collins online, of scilicet, meaning namely, ‘as follows’) plus HERO (‘lion’). | ||
| 2 | POPPY |
Musical flower (5)
|
| Double definition; apparently there have been two musical comedies of that name. | ||
| 3 |
See 25
|
|
| 5 | HUMBER |
River hot, shade burnt? (6)
|
| A charade of H (‘hot’) plus UMBER (‘shade burnt’; burnt umber is a brownish colour). | ||
| 6 | SUBWOOFER |
Sound of setter filling puzzle up for speaker (9)
|
| An envelope (‘filling’) of WOOF (‘sound of setter’) in SUBER,a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of REBUS (‘puzzle’). | ||
| 7 | SILVERY |
Fine material cut, so lustrous (7)
|
| A charade of SIL[k] (‘fine material’) minus the last letter (‘cut’) plus VERY (‘so’). | ||
| 8 | SPIKE MILLIGAN |
Surrealist dunking fish factory in gin, as weird (5,8)
|
| An envelope (‘dunking’) of PIKE (‘fish’) plus MILL (‘factory’) in SIGAN, an anagram (‘weird’) of ‘gin as’, for the main writer of The Goon Show, and the surreal television comedy series starting with Q5. | ||
| 14 | THOUSANDS |
A raft travelling south carrying pieces from shore? (9)
|
| An envelope (‘carrying’) of SAND (‘pieces from shore’) in THOUS, an anagram (‘travelling’) of ‘south’; the definition is an indeterminate large quantity. | ||
| 16 | STIRRUP |
Bone crusher ultimately in ferment (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of R (‘crusheR ultimately’) is STIR UP (‘ferment’); the bone is in the ear. | ||
| 18 | MOBSTER |
Tough seafood, starter changed (7)
|
| LOBSTER (‘seafood’) with the L replaced by M (‘starter changed’) | ||
| 19 | SEARING |
Belt out to bind organ, very painful (7)
|
| An envelope (‘to bind’) of EAR (‘organ’) in SING (‘belt out’). | ||
| 20 | AUSSIE |
As well for French and English as English rival? (6)
|
| A charade of AUSSI (‘as well for French’) plus E (‘English’); rivals in the Ashes. | ||
| 23 | UMAMI |
On reflection, somewhat grim, a musty taste sensation (5)
|
| A hidden (‘somewhat’) reversed (‘on reflection’) answer in ‘grIM A MUsty’. |
Bunged in Sappho from crossers, thought ‘something bic’ but didn’t go back…pity.. sap pho-bic is pretty cute. And yes, Missouri was a wot? Had met sc ilicet (probably here) but forgotten it, and remembered W Irving but had forgotten that he wrote RVW (congrats on the namecheck, VW) which, for some odd reason was a favourite story of mine as a kid. And why do I remember burnt umber… was there one in the Lakelands dozen? Anyway, lots to enjoy, ta P and P.
PS GoD (groan of the day) … post ER
Found this not as tough as Paul’s recent offerings, but like Peter and Grant@1 couldn’t come up with a satisfactory explanation of the wordplay for MISSOURI. I had not heard of the POPPY musical(s), so read 2d as pop-py (having a pop music character).
MISSOURI
What we do carelessly in writing about an Amercan state? (8)
Notice the ‘i’ missing in American. I think this improves the clue
A very satisfying crossword for me — I usually struggle with Paul but this fell into place more quickly than I expected — I loved MISSOURI when I saw the misspelled Amercan — we “miss our i” ! Also fun were SUBWOOFER, SILVERY, and MOBSTER. Thanks Paul and PeterO for parsing.
A quick but enjoyable solve from Paul this time. His range seems to have broadened recently from consistently tough but doable to anything from a cakewalk to impossible.
I filled this on the second pass with a couple of head scratchers in the parsing. Didn’t twig the pho-bic connection. Is BIC the name on a biro, or BIRO the name on a bic? Agree with Tony S @5 that AMERCAN turned a lame clue into a playful Paul invention. He has a special knack for finding such gems.
Didn’t know niffy and the whiffy I know has two letters to remove but nothing in the clue which contradicts that.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO.
“Amercan”! That is brilliant – I didn’t even notice the mis-spelled word in the clue, let alone realise that it was a deliberate part of the word-play rather than just another Graunism. It seems that I wasn’t alone!
Well spotted inertiareel @4 and others who spotted Amercan. (Easier to miss than the gorilla on the soccer pitch, which Psych subjects miss in so-called change-blindness experiments!).
As often with Paul, the answer becomes obvious, the parsing much less so. Failed to parse SCHERZO (nho SC) and SAPPHO: had to look up Poppy the musical. Thought 8d might be Magritte, but he was Rene, not Henri, wasn’t he…
Anyway, this was fun. Favourites SUBWOOFER and MISSOURI. I also had the “introduction” to IFFY as WH.
With the final Y of IFFY, I was tempted to bung in WARY unparsed, but luckily it seemed dubious.
[Seeing PostMark’s comment yesterday about being ticked off for not responding to a reply proving information he requested, I realise I too am guilty.
Several times recently I have asked for further clarifications of clues as I have not understood the explanation in the blog. Help has always been forthcoming but I have not commented further to thank the person providing the answer. This was to avoid cluttering up the comments after the recent discussion about unnecessary comments.
So thanks belatedly to those who provided responses. In future I will put thanks in advance as PostMark suggests.]
Brilliant crossword from Paul. Clue of the day was MISSOURI: I spotted Amercan from the start and then forgot about it tell the end. Couldn’t parse THOUSANDS so thanks PeterO. Other favourites include … well, nearly all of them but a special mention for POSTER. Thanks Paul.
Entertaining and clever, particularly MISSOURI. I also enjoyed SUBWOOFER and THOUSANDS.
Like gladys @9, I needed the blog to explain the parsing of SCHERZO and SAPPHO and I’m with Dr. WhatsOn @3 in thinking of POPPY as an adjective rather than the name of a musical. I went all around the body before I got to the ear to find the STIRRUP bone.
Thanks Paul and PeterO
I too was guilty of carelessly misreading 21ac (v apt, considering the surface meaning) and spent ages pondering why/when we would miss out an “i”? I think the modern parlance is “doh!” I am with DrW@3 in seeing 2d as one of Paul’s signature clues – a flower that is like pop music. Made me laugh. Whole exercise was great – heart lifting, funny in a number of places, ingenious and in the Goldilocks zone. Thanks all round. (I always enjoy your blog, PeterO – and you are not one to bounce back defensively or crushingly when people make comments you don’t like, unlike some bloggers.)
Strange start for me as I was unable to parse the first three clues that I solved. Last to fall was the SW corner.
Favourites: KEEL OVER, AUSSIE, CHIP SHOT, THOUSANDS, MISSOURI (haha), and POSTER (loi).
Did not parse: SAPPHO, POPPY – I guessed maybe it was ‘like POP music’? Never heard of the musicals).
Thank you, Paul and PeterO.
* I especially liked 21ac MISSOURI because in the clue the ‘i’ was missing from the word American.
Woo hoo. Done and dusted inside an hour. Unheard of for me and Paul. Thanks for several parsings that had eluded me.
I’m in agreement with all the praise already lavished on yet another Paulian gem. I spotted the MISSOURI misspelling – and, I’m sorry to say, assumed it was a Guardian typo! So that, together with SCHERZO and IRVING remained unparsed. I also had it in my head the ‘miffy’ meant smelly and I discover it means over-sensitive which is my TILT.
Now I’ve been informed, it’s hard not to put the aforementioned MISSOURI as COTD. The other main contenders for me were the lovely anagram and misleading definition for GLAMORISE, the delightful construction of SUBWOOFER, POSTER which is so elegant and the creation, again with misleading definition, of THOUSANDS. CHIP SHOT and SAPPHO were my other ticks and it’s nice to be reminded of Spike Milligan – a definite surrealist and brilliant comic on his day. [It’s probably a coincidence but the surface did remind me of my second favourite lightbulb joke: how many surrealists does it take to change one? A fish.]
Thanks Paul and PeterO for the blog
I’m another who missed the missing I in AMERCAN; and I also thought this to be at the easy end of Paul’s spectrum, but no less enjoyable, particularly SUBWOOFER, SAPPHO and CHIP SHOT. Many thanks to Paul and PeterO.
Thanks Paul and PeterO
MISSOURI my favourite too. I didn’t parse SAPPHO, although it was FOI (how many Greek poetesses are there?), or know the musical POPPY. I did parse SCHERZO, and am surprised that sc. isn’t in Chambers.
Our school French vocabulary seems to be increasingly tested!
I saw Amercan quite early (decades of proof-reading will do that to you). Lots of smart Paul cluing, especially MISSOURI, CHIP SHOT, POPEMOBILE etc, but I thought a lot of the surface readings today were a bit clunky.
Oh, and the HUMBER is an estuary, not a river.
Feel sorry for Phi-I am so far the only one to comment but here its chocka already
I liked this but….
Boffo @20 – Re Amercan: unfortunately decades of proof-reading didn’t do it for me!
[copmus @21: it is ever thus, I’m afraid. I’m just about to start on the Indy so will see you there at some point later today.]
THESIS was the cherry on the icing on the cake for me with MISSOURI a close second. Wonderful stuff from Paul at his accessible and inventive best
I’m applying to join the got-the-answer-but-no-idea-why club (SAPPHO, HUMBER, IRVING, MISSOURI… thanks PeterO for clearing up the first three, and for making me feel better about not spotting the fourth).
Not sure about ARGYLE – is it a sign of ageing that the GRANs all seem to be getting younger?
Earworm of the day for me has to be the Elvis impersonator working on his CHIP SHOT that Kirsty MacColl so very nearly sang about.
Thanks P & P
Like Michelle @15, the SW held out longest until I got the splendid CRANKSHAFT. I also couldn’t parse SAPPHO and SCHERZO.
Lots of favourites but always a pleasure to be reminded of the hilarious SPIKE MILLIGAN. POPEMOBILE also reminded me of the other comic genius, Dave Allen.
Rebus appears to be the go to puzzle at the moment.
Ta Paul & PeterO
Many thanks Paul and Peter , some excellent raveling and unravelling in this one.
I have picked up some new tricks….setter (not Paul), my (!), see (Ely) and humming (unsound).
Mobster now so obvious, I couldn’t see where the M came from having put a B into oYster”.
Good to see Peter had difficulty with Missouri too – there is hope for me yet!
[MOBSTER and LOBSTER feature in a line from The Clash’s Magnificent 7. Closely followed by seafood. Spooky]
Didn’t get ARGYLE, never having heard of the pattern in socks, and, it being Paul expecting the definition to have something to do with socks to the jaw. Also had forgotten about Washington Irving.
But everything else was a delight; probably the favourites were KEEL OVER and SUBWOOFER, but I am with those who thought MISSOURI was clever, too. Particularly as the puzzle was appearing in the Graun. And the precision of “what we do” was Ximenean.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO.
Another fine puzzle from Paul, with some clever clueing. Favourites were MISSOURI (I did have to look twice to spot the missing i), CHIP SHOT, SUBWOOFER and DONT ASK ME – imaginative clues for well known phrases have become a trademark of this setter.
As soon as I looked at 1ac I thought of SAPPHO but passed as I couldn’t parse it – and it was still unparsed when I finally had the courage to enter it. Clever construction, but terrible surface – or is that just sour grapes?
[Sappho is, of course, better known as the pigeon that took the message to bring the firefighters in Arthur Ransome’s Pigeon Post…]
Made a rather tentative start to this as the only Greek poetess I knew was SAPPHO, and the musical movement with a Z in it had to be SCHERZO. So they got pencilled in though I couldn’t properly parse either clue. Everything else fell into place very sweetly after that, with ARGYLE completing that IFFY (doesn’t that occur often in crosswords these days?) NW corner. Lots to enjoy and admire throughout. Particularly liked the Heavy Lobster…
Didn’t feel like Paul to me.
[Ronald @32: your Heavy Lobster got me searching. Here’s 7 of the biggest – scroll down to the bottom of the page for No 1 weighing in at 50lb/23kg!]
Comforting to see that I have good company in my failure to parse SAPPHO and SCHERZO (which delayed my entering them despite thinking of them quickly) and in my (in)ability to carefully peruse, despite some takent in proofreading, yes MISSOURI, I’m talking about you. An easier Paul today for me. Lots to like, including CRANKSHAFT and POSTER, both of which raised a chuckle. Thanks to Paul and PeterO
“Poetess” is of course one of those feminine forms strongly disapproved of by the Guardian style guide, as we discussed recently. In fact in the case of “poetess” it’s not just the Guardian. I find it hard to imagine anyone calling Carol Ann Duffy a poetess for example. And as far back as the 1940s Vita Sackville-West said how much she hated the word and insisted she was a poet.
However for crossword purposes the feminine form does very much help in narrowing down the answer!
Talking of poets and lobsters and SPIKE MILLIGAN:
Libster Lobster Labster Lee
Living in the deep blue sea.
Libster Lobster where are you?
Gone to lunch, back at two.
Like Ronald@32, entered 1ac and 2dn unparsed – thanks PeterO for explaining former, but did see how 2dn worked eventually (btw, my copy of latest Chambers does have sc.). Long experience of Grauniad meant I never noticed the missing ‘i’ at 21ac.
This was rather less tortured than previous Paul’s I have done, and more enjoyable, I thought. Good work-out for the brain, but a shame that several of the surfaces were rather grotesque.
Like others here, I really enjoyed post-ER: neat clueing!
My thanks to PeterO for the blog. I think their comment on 21ac (that it is a “weak” clue) acknowledges the missing ‘i’ in “Amercan”, doesn’t it?
Thanks to setter, too, for an entertaining puzzle.
Can RAFT ever mean thousands? It’s usually used in that sense in phrases like “a raft of proposals”. There may be lots of them, but not thousands!
2d, isn’t the ‘musical’ = ‘Poppy’ as in pop like?
PostMark@34…not the heftiest, but I rather liked the look of Louie The Lobster there, and the story of his enduring long life…
Is there a Goon Show theme… some hidden references? (And (Prince) Charles makes a guest appearance at 26 across)
I’d never heard of the Poppy musicals, but you don’t need to. I took “poppy” to be like pop (music), much simpler solution.
Not sure Andre Breton would have cared for defining Spike Milligan as a surrealist.
Offspinner @40 I don’t know about the precise etymology of the phrase, but did you not see the raft of ants on the latest Attenborough series? There was definitely thousands of them.
Boffo @45
I didn’t see the Attenborough programme, but a raft of ants is literally that, a flattish thing that floats. In the quantitative usage (which may, I believe, have a different etymology), it doesn’t usually refer to such a large number.
Good fun from Paul.
I liked the CHIP SHOT and SUBWOOFER, and now the spelling has been highlighted, MISSOURI.
A couple of quibbles: I can’t think of an occasion where eek would replace my (“My, that’s good” doesn’t seem to translate); I know surrealists are weird but ‘dunking a fish factory in gin’ seems a tad improbable. As peterM @38 says, sc. is in Chambers.
I couldn’t sort out the parsing of the poetSAPPHO (perhaps in them there days she might have been called a poetess).
Thanks Paul for the entertainment and PeterO for the elucidation.
offspinner @40; Chambers has ‘a large number’ for raft, and Oxford has this example: ‘If I’m trying to find information on something, search engines very often fail me, throwing up rafts of irrelevant results.’ That could be thousands, I think.
One of those puzzles where you need fifteensquared to really appreciate, so thanks to PeterO and the commenters who turned IFFY clues into clever ones.
Given it’s Paul, I think he had other senses of screw and shaft in mind at 24ac.
BTW, in looking up sc. in Chambers, I found SBIRRO: ‘an Italian police officer’ TILT.
Very enjoyable. Thanks Paul and PeterO. I missed the missing i too. I love it when my irritation at what I take to be a weak clue can be turned around by a brilliant compiler like that.
I suppose – Offspinner @ 40 – raft can mean thousands when thousands doesn’t literally mean thousands, which it often doesn’t when used hyperbolically.
A most enjoyable and strangely not too difficult Paul today.
Lovely to see László Bíró pop up, the Hungarian/Argentinian inventor who sold the patent to his invetion to Baron Bich (he of the BIC brand).
I’m desparately trying to find a reference, but I’m sure that Miles Kington had the translation of “Moi aussi” in the Indy’s Franglais as “I’m from Australia” back dans le jour.
[I missed the last Paul Zoom session and I know there is one this evening – can anyone fill me in on what the word-to-clue is please?! I’d like une chance combattant.]
Well, I liked this puzzle very much. Far from being weak, I thought MISSOURI was playful and inventive. Even in the Graun, I would never assume that a clue that appears to contain a typo actually does – especially when Paul has inserted a ? just after it.
And I see nothing wrong with “poetess”, regardless of style guides. It’s a valid word, and crosswords work to different rules. In some cases, it may be just what’s needed for the right wordplay or anagram fodder. In this case, it was a helpful nudge in the right direction for a clue which could otherwise have been much trickier. As it was my FOI, it possibly could have withstood that extra difficulty, but that’s for the setter to decide – a matter of degree, not principle.
I must say, although I generally enjoy Paul, I think I prefer him like this when he sets a puzzle that’s a little more accessible. Solving this was still challenging, but not an ordeal!
well, we rattled through it pretty quickly , but only by ignoring the fact that we couldn’t actually parse more than half of them. Perhaps the theme was surrealism, with the parses mostly being that?
What a good week this has been! Consistenly fun challenges with nary a Google needed. Thank you editor.
Thanks Paul, ‘Amercan’ alone worth the entrance fee. Thanks PeterO for the explanation of Sappho.
Oh, and I love hot chips.
Thanks both,
At first I thought this was going to be tough, but it fell in the end, albeit with some unparsed answers. I wondered if 24 might have been clued as ‘Engine part with eccentric on screw’ as crankshafts have eccentrics, but that might have provoked complaints about ‘eccentric’ doing double duty.
Warning: Paul’s puzzles are for EXPERTS ONLY.
Anyone else attempting them is likely to find the experience thoroughly demoralising.
Wow, I (me@3) totally missed the missing I – despite reading the clue umpteen times. That changes it from the worst clue of the day to the best.
Dr W @59: I don’t know which is worse – missing it completely or noticing it and then dismissing it as a probable typo! They have happened but I should have known better. I wonder if Paul had to issue special instructions to the G to make sure no-one took it upon themselves to correct it before publication. Now that would have been ironic 😀
Oh, the combinations tried before ARGYLE fell… Was it see = eye or elderly woman = cro(ne)? Which bit was reversed? Eventually see = Ely got me there, but a clue about Plymouth would have been a darn sight quicker. Ditto if dear old Spike had been a comedian.
peterM @38
I have just taken another look at Chambers, and this time the abbreviation sc. was there. How I missed it I do not know. Having failed to see something which was there …
… Thanks for the defence, pserve_p2 @39, but I failed to see the I which was not there. All I can say in mitigation is – Daylight Saving Time. We have gone on DST, and the UK has not yet; as a result, I had an hour less than usual, and the blog was a little rushed. At the other end, we keep on DST longer, so I will lose out at both ends.
For those who saw 2D POPPY as Paul being whimsical, you are very likely right, but since the musicals exist, even if they are far from well known, I think they should at least get a mention.
Re Spike Milligan as a surrealist, I think the film version of his Bed Sitting Room was considered surreal when it came out.
To my mind, “scilicet” (familiar to readers of judgments of the late Lord Diplock) means “namely” but not “as follows”, which is surely something different altogether. Otherwise, an enjoyable and relatively quick solve and Amercan was just great.
On the idea of Spike Milligan as surrealist, a Google entry of “Spike Milligan surreal” turns up plenty of references to the man himself, his take on life and, in particular, to the Q5 series where the word is used. By some reasonably authoritative sources (BBC, National Portrait Gallery, IMDB, RTE – Ireland…). From the Guardian’s own obituary, “He didn’t invent surrealistic radio comedy – nor did he ever claim to – but he opened up the medium with his uncluttered anarchic vision, and his influence since the early 1950s has been vast.”
Boffo@20: other HUMBERs are available. The one I’m familiar with is in Newfoundland.
MaidenBartok@52…tonight’s solution, to be clued, is ‘easy’ in 5 words or fewer (or 6, not sure). Paul asked for ‘outrageous clues’. Nothing new there.
Thansk PeterO, I hadn’t a clue how to parse SCHERZO (I had S…O for “as follows” and the Z is clear but that got me nowhere), agree about EEK and admire your aPauline restraint re the second half of 24A (as per Peter@49). I’m with Boffo@20 today as the surfaces got in the way a few times but as always plenty to enjoy despite that, I liked solving SAPPHO backwards ie starting with the part that didn’t appear in the grid, and a suitably hatstand surface for Spike Milligan was nice. MISSOURI excellent but have to plump for UMAMI as my favourite for its coherent yet misleading surface, thanks Paul.
Interested to read the comments suggesting this fine puzzle was less Paulian (I prefer that to Pauline) than usual because several answers could not be readily parsed. I think that is precisely why I enjoyed it even more than usual. Imagination is just as essential a part of solving crosswords as Ximenean logic for me. Paul increasingly leaves room for that I think. Thanks to all who have added to today’s enjoyment on this site.
Dropping the I reminds me of when President Lyndon Johnson caused amusement when he pronounced American as “merkin”, which is something else entirely.
A CRANKSHAFT isn’t an engine part. It’s a component of the drivetrain, or powertrain.
16 dn. Does “stir up” really mean “ferment”. Surely it should be “foment”?
simonc @58: I found I clicked with Paul first back when I started getting into cryptics. I found them tough, but I tended to stick with them because I liked the cheek, occasional smut, and use of fun words and phrases. It took me a lot longer to get to grips with other setters, whose styles I may have found drier, less-fun, and more prone to using words and themes that don’t interest me. I’ve actually given up on crosswords before just because I found the clues so dull to read – I just felt I wasn’t at all on the same wavelength as the setter. It was odd when I first came to 15Squared that folk were saying Paul was tough, because I found him easier, just because I’d got used to his style. It took me a lot longer to deal with some of the others, and there are still a couple I have real problems with, more through style, rather than difficulty I think.
POPPY was easy for me as I had the privilege of seeing the RSC production at the Barbican, back in the early 1980s iirc. It’s always been a puzzle to me why this superb work was panned and dismissed. It was a perfect panto, observing all the conventions (gender switching, cow, dance-troupe dream sequence, “behind you!” et al, which was simultaneously a biting satire on the Opium Wars. I still occasionally find myself humming its singalong chorus, ‘Christianity, Commerce & Civilisation/All go together/And they all begin with C’. I am not making this up…
simonc @58: Paul can be a tough nut to crack sometimes but not always. Give his gentler alter-ego in the FT, Mudd, a try. He often sets the Saturday crossword and it’s generally top notch. The more of those you do the more accessible Paul will be.
I failed to parse SAPPHO (who, like muffin @31, I fondly remember from Arthur Ransome’s Pigeon Post), but after getting the confirmatory crossers I was not really motivated to do so. (Thanks PeterO for taking up the slack!)
Paul gets a lot of praise for inventiveness, but ‘see’=ELY is as old as the hills, and IRVING was barely cryptic. We have seen ‘my’ used to clue all sorts of exclamations in recent months, but I tend to agree with PeterO that EEK is not close enough. The clue for SPIKE MILLIGAN, on the other hand, was appropriately surreal, and I had a little grin at POST ER, though whether Charles lives that long may be moot – he doesn’t look well to me.
The clue and solution to 14d reminded of a song by the Kinks about eating at motorway service stations in the 1970s, with a reference to Thousands on a Raft, aka beans on toast. The parts of the ear at 16d and the combustion engine at 24a took me longest, being unable to either justify of totally get rid of DRIVESHAFT until the crossers made it totally impossible.
SimonC @ 58 – I’m with you. I often get far with other setters and finish others regularly, but I am rarely able to answer a clue of a Paul crossword and I have been doing cryptics for 4 years. I got one answer today and gave up. It must be his style for the Guardian as he sets as Dada on a Sunday in the Telegraph and I never have a problem finishing.
Nice crossword, thank you for the blog, everything has been said, I am always too late on a Friday.
Bit of an easy week , perhaps we will get a recently discovered Torquemada tomorrow.
[@52 and @67.
What is the Zoom with Paul?
Might I suggest, (encoded with rot13 (see rot13.com) in case this is considered a spoiler)
“Creg jvgubhg fuveg vf erynkrq”
]
I said of the last Paul I did it I thought it was his best ever – this one had too many convoluted surfaces for me. However it was redeemed by the brilliant MISSOURI which I thought was weak until coming here and getting my comeuppance. I had several unparsed and was surprised how many people found it relatively approachable – I was definitely not on his wavelength today. Thanks to Paul for the puzzle and pushing boundaries again, and to PeterO for the blog and shedding light on the clues failed to understand.
Much mirth here when SUBWOOFER emerged. I snorted so forcefully, it startled our generally docile retriever into barking loudly, much to the consternation of Mrs KJ. Splendid puzzle, many thanks to Paul, and to PeterO for parsing SAPPHO. I was never getting that!
I don’t think that SEARING on its own means very painful. You can have a searing pain, but not a very painful pain. I think it means intensely hot.
As a non-native English speaker, and relative newbie to English-language cryptic crosswords, “described by” feels like a weird “word in word” indicator. Is there some meaning of “to describe” that I’m not aware of?
Frederik @83
Welcome, and congratulations at solving in a foreign language!
“Described by” can be a rather obscure way of saying “surrounding”. I wouldn;t say it was everday English!
Frederik @ 83
Chambers’ first definition: ‘To trace out or delineate‘, ie to set the boundaries of > go around.
I sympathise with Frederik; ‘described by’ is a weird envelope indicator. In fact I wish setters wouldn’t use it (which they do frequently). I don’t think I’ve ever come across the ‘surrounded by’ meaning outside Crosswordland. To trace out/delineate doesn’t naturally equate to ‘encircle’ – geometrically, the circle (say) that you’re describing is the line, not the space enclosed therein.
To be honest ‘transported by’ and ‘pinning’ aren’t much better.
[Frederik@83: sitting in Frankfurt airport a couple of years ago, I once attempted to pass the time by attempting a crossword – more of a simple quickie than anything else – in a magazine. Only eight 4/5 letter words. I got one! UBER – and only because the word ‘taxi’ was in the clue. I have huge admiration for any non-native speaker who even tries the Guardian let alone comes here to post queries about nuanced meanings!]
essexboy @86: we crossed. I get your point about ‘described by’ but would be sad if it disappeared from crosswordland which is the final home for some of our loveable antiquities. It’s a beautiful and poetic – if weird – way of saying surrounded by. Rather like the word ‘without’ meaning outside.
PM @88: I think I’m outnumbered. In fact, I’m described. 😉
We would like to know which is PostMarks first favourite light bulb joke?
essexboy @86. I can remember in geometry lessons at school being instructed to “describe a circle with radius 5cm”. I agree that the circle is the line, geometrically, but in normal English it encircles or encloses whatever is inside the line so described (or overwhelmed in your case 🙂 ).
11@ reminded me of the Tommy Trinder remark at the time of the Duchess of Argyll’s divorce – “She shouldn’t have married the Duke of Argyll, she should have married Plymouth Argyle”.
11@ again. The last time “ely” = “see” came up I was thinking of other sees that could be used. Perhaps “See without whiff of American night time visitor (7)” or “Go about round London suburb round 500, see (4,3,5)”
Answers tomorrow, if anyone’s still awake and interested.
Frederik @83 – hopefully it helps that crosswordese is barely standard English anyway – certainly I’m constantly learning that words are not what I think they are. I’m not up to the standard of doing crosswords in another language (yet!), but my wife’s never forgiven me for beating her at German Trivial Pursuit after she pulled it out and announced that she was fed up of losing at the British version…
As for this particular crossword I’ll confess to missing the missing I, but generally the ones others have struggled to parse gave me no issues – and vice versa. Thanks to PeterO for filling in the gaps!
[Panthes @90: I doubt you’ll see this, though I have certainly popped back into old blogs to see if a question has been answered or an argument concluded. So, just in case you do, my favourite joke of the genre is “How many folk singers does it take to change a lightbulb? Five: one to put in the new bulb and four to sing about how good the old one was”. It’s always tickled me.]
SAPPHO and SCHERZO were difficult to parse, but got there in the end. It didn’t help that the Chambers app seems to have a blip with SC. “sc” didn’t link to it whereas “sc.” did. Wikipedia referred me to “viz.”. I’m another who doesn’t like EEK = MY.
LOIs POPEMOBILE and HUMBER.
Me@92
Answers as promised.
SODOR AND MAN without ODOR (the American spelling) is SANDMAN, bringer of dreams.
STAB (go) backwards round HANWELL round D (500) is BATH AND WELLS. A better clue would be “Crazy about crew member? We’ll see” .
BATS about HAND WELL, ignoring the punctuation.
I’m a first time poster, inspired because I really loved this puzzle, think Spike would be proud of the surface in 8D and I got the missing I in Amercan so feeling a bit smug. Lots of other clues made me smile or laugh or groan too. However as a relatively new puzzler who only started on cryptics because of lockdown a year ago, please can someone explain to me why see =Ely and my=eek? I kind of understand both, but I don’t like them because they’re impossible to work out unless you already know what they mean, and that seems a bit against the rules of a cryptic.
DamsonSam @ 97
Ely is an episcopal see, and is a crossword staple as an apparent verb gives an ending for many adverbs, among other options.
My = eek are both intended as standalone expressions of surprise, though as others have commented there isn’t much correlation between My! and Eek!. My giving cor is also a staple.
NB that there aren’t rules for cryptics. There are conventions, which setters may or may not follow as part of their individual set of ‘rules’.
Anyone else notice PLATO descending from SAPPHO in column 5?
Thanks Simon S, I am starting to notice quite a few of the recurring conventions, but I’ll remembered from now on…it reminds me a bit of the fact that “capital” keeps cropping up as Lima!