Guardian Cryptic 28,418 by Picaroon

100 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,418 by Picaroon”

1. Enjoyable puzzle to solve.

   Favourites: SCANDAL, ETHERISED (loi).
   IN A BAD WAY – I saw it as ‘poorly’ and did not understand the ‘one way or another’ bit.

   Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.

2. Lots to like here — CAPON, UTTER, STERNLY, TUNEFUL, and FUCHSIA (great surface) were favourites. Couldn’t fully parse IRISH WOLFHOUND (Harry=hound) or AT SEA (rating=sailor). Surprised to see “way” in both the clue and answer in 15a. Thanks Picaroon and to manehi for the blog.

3. Very enjoyable, nice uniformity of clues throughout – though glad I never dropped across an ACID HOUSE PARTY.
   LOI ( after much head-scratching) was VESPERS, then the penny dropped (duh!). Thanks setter for a fun evening..
   PS: Currently am working through (for the second time) the prize-cryptics from the start of the century. Actually dropped across a rather-easy-solve by Araucaria earlier today – didn’t think the species existed, having slogged through a dozen previous brain-busters of his. Give it a go if want bragging rights, or a quick boost to your solving ego (#22,749).

4. It sometimes amazes me that I can be both on-form and off-form at the same time. I had CANAL and AT SEA after only reading half the respective clues, yet TRANSMITS took forever since I had an idee fixe on the wrong meaning of “hands on” (as in a hands-on manager). On the whole, a nice puzzle, although I was a bit underwhelmed with ASHEN=colourless.

   With 6d, did anybody else get stuck for a while trying to work in the original Avengers (John Steed and Emma Peel)? I’m sure that was Picaroon’s intent, and I fell for it.

5. I too opted for SCULL instead of SKULL in 13a — but arguably it’s ambiguous and… the ambiguity is unchecked. What am I missing?

6. I thought having WAY in clue and solution for 15a was inelegant even though the wordplay as manehi explains it is quite clever. 13a seems precise – it is the brainbox that’s outspoken, not the row. If SKULL was the answer, what would the ’in’ be doing?
   Nice puzzle. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

7. No, Dr. Wh, my garden path in 6d was a fictional horse (other than Rocinante), d’oh. Our last UK visit was ’08, before The i, so that made etherised a bit que? And 15ac too was a bit of a shrug as I didn’t really get the two meanings..it sort of works I spose. Similarly, wondered what abyss has to do with bed in 27ac. So, a mixed bag, but more in my head than the setter’s. Thanks both.

8. I agree this was a very likeable puzzle – several of my smiles and ah-has! have already been mentioned, including 28a SCANDAL and 1d VESPERS. I also enjoyed solving 9a SAINT AUGUSTINE and 16d ANNALISTS (a fun pun, Picaroon!). Great to see a mention of the greatest rock and roll band in the world, the Rolling Stones, in 25a/26a – they still know how to STRUT (their) STUFF if the 2019 concert I saw in the US is any indication! [Sigh! big outdoor concerts with that electric atmosphere – will they ever happen again? Indeed, when will Aussies ever be able to travel freely overseas again?]

9. JinA! Warm welcome back, you’ve been missed… hope all has been ok in the meatime. Best, ginf.

10. … meantime..

11. Some brilliant clues here. My favourites were the long ones: IRISHWOLFHOUND and SAINTAUGUSTINE and ACIDHOUSEPARTY and STRUTONESSTUFF. Loi was ETHERISED and had to wait for this blog’s parsing to spot the ‘i’ so thanks manehi. Like Ilan Caron @5 I went SKULL and couldn’t really see why SCULL was necessarily correct.

    Thanks Picaroon

12. ginf @9/10 re JinA @8: hear hear!

    Same garden path as Dr W – happy thoughts of Diana Rigg (Mrs Peel, we’re needed!) though they didn’t help with the solve; neither did Jane Austen for that matter.

    The SAINT (are there any more refs to classic 60s series?) could have been Hippo or Canterbury, but as the latter made it to archbish I guess manehi is right to go with the hippopotamine option.

    ABYSSAL was a new one on me. It sounds a little bit like what the Bavarians/Austrians say for ‘a little bit’.

    I agree with all manehi’s favourites; thanks to him and Picaroon.

13. Great fun from start to finish. Wondered at first whether 3d was somehow REBUT, but that was definitely out once I saw VIADUCT. Loved VESPERS and the long clues in particular. I was rather bemused by WAY appearing in the clue and also answer for 15a. Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

14. Nice puzzle. Lovely word ETHERISED cf Eliot ‘Let us go then, you and I When the evening is spread out against the sky
    Like a patient etherised upon a table.’
    Thanks Picaroon and Manehi

15. Customary excellent fare from Picaroon. 15a is uncharacteristically awkward, and the repetition of ‘way’ could have been avoided quite readily, but even Homer nods and it did not spoil another very enjoyable puzzle.

16. That was a lot of fun. Thanks Picaroon and manehi. FOI was 15ac but it became LOI because I felt sure that there wouldn’t be a repetition of’way’. Also, I had Skull for 13ac and I’m telling myself that it’s as acceptable as scull!!
    (Julie@8, so looking forward to that first live concert. So desperate that yesterday I got tickets for a Queen tribute band in July.)

17. I always enjoy a Picaroon – particularly like CANAL and ASHEN today for their sleek simplicity, but am I the only one who’s really not convinced by IN A BAD WAY? Especially given the repetition of ‘way’ in the clue. I came here looking for a better parsing, but it seems manehi was as baffled as I was.

18. Re 15: I guessed that it might be that just from the enumeration. And then thought “there’s no way he’s going to use the same word in the clue and the answer, is there?” So only inked it in once I had ALL the crossers. A sort of negative misdirection, perhaps…
    [I wondered why “Harry Barker” sounded familiar until Mrs B. pointed out that it was also the name of my father-in-law’s best mate. Lovely chap, and by a strange coincidence his wife was called Flo.]

19. Quick fun for me this morning. Enjoyed the long-ones especially IRISH WOLFHOUND and STRUT ONES STUFF.

    Like others, bit confused at 15a – I had “IN A BAD” for ages and was trying to think of something that didn’t have “WAY” as the expession.

    But all-in-all, a very nice puzzle!

    Thank you Picaroon and manehi!

20. Brilliant crossword, thank you Picaroon, totally fooled by both hands on and under in my two LOIs, 11a and 4d, but grinned widely once I finally got them. After all, that’s the main point of a clue!

21. Agree with the general opinion that this was a lot of fun. I didn’t even notice the duplication of ‘way’ in 15. I guessed ‘poorly’ was the definition and tried to think of a phrase to match the enumeration. When I landed on IN A BAD WAY, I had the other meaning in mind but a moment later realised that this could mean that, and that could mean this. So I was delighted with the word play and entered it with no further thought required.

    Many thanks Picaroon and manehi.

22. Another here, where WAY got in the way. IRISH WOLF HOUND went in from a couple of crossers and took a while to parse. SAINT AUGUSTINE was nice (I dreamed I saw him, you know). Also nice (clues, that is): Jim CALLAGHAN, MISMANAGE, TUNEFUL. I was trying to work out the wordplay for ABYSSAL when I tripped over the inclusion – d’oh! Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.

23. All the best ones have already been mentioned but IRISH WOLFHOUND was top. There used to be one in the Ulster Museum in Belfast, which I used to stare at forever when I was a child, a truly monumental creature.
    [As others have noted, welcome back JinA. I saw the Stones about 5 yrs ago at the London Olympic Stadium and your assessment of their amazing longevity is spot on. However it will always be LedZep for me] 🙂

    Ta Picaroon for a top class puzzle & manehi.

24. What George Clements @ 15 said.

    I can’t see any ambiguity in 13ac (see NeilH @6) and I’m with others in enjoying memories of The Avengers.

    Many thanks to Picaroon for the fun and to manehi for a great blog.

25. Thanks Picaroon and manehi
    Mostly very good, as usual, but I too was surprised by the duplicate “way”. I gave 13a considerable thought and decided that the clue leads to SCULL.
    Is “Caesar” actually doing double duty in 3d?
    Favourite was FOI VIADUCT for the wonderfully appropriate surface.

26. Once again, AlanC speaks for me (even LZ over RS) and I’m desperately short of time this morning. IRISH WOLFHOUND is a clue to savour and I wanted to add my name to those welcoming back JinA. These days, unexplained absences always cause a degree of concern.

    Lovely puzzle Picaroon, way to go. Thanks manehi for the blog.

27. Never thought of the Stones as rockers (Status Quo maybe)

    Otherwise good fun

28. [Pedro @27 – it’s only a crossie clue but I like it]

29. Let me add my voice to the general clamour of approval for this excellent and fun puzzle. Yes, it was a shame about the ‘way’ in 15a (and I still don’t see two ways of reading it: whether ‘under the weather’ or ‘not to a satisfactory standard’ — both are a ‘bad’ way), but I can overlook that for the sake of the sparkling clues elsewhere. I love a good homophone and Picaroon seems to have satisfied even the most aggressive homophone deniers here. Wonderful!

30. Thanks for parsing ETHERISED: I was having a mumblegrumble about being expected to get the I by expanding threes into THREE IS – but of course it wasn’t that at all. Having WAY in both clue and solution for 15a made me doubt the answer for some time. Failed to parse TRANSMITS (same problem as DrWhatsOn@4) pand MISMANAGE, and thoroughly ashamed of myself for failing to spot the Stones in STRUT ONES STUFF (last saw them at Twickenham in 2018).
    Favourites IRISH WOLFHOUND, SAINT AUGUSTINE, REMAINS, AT SEA.

31. Pretty much agree with comments above. Some very satisfying clues, though I’m another who wasn’t particularly taken by WAY appearing in both clue and answer in 15ac, such that I paused to see if there might possibly be another solution for a while. I think The Stones knew how to Rock and Roll, though, as well as deliver the Blues…

32. A very nice crossword. ABYSSAL was an excellent hidden. UTTER was very clever. muffin @25: I don’t think “Caesar” is doing double duty, as “words to Brutus” is sufficient to indicate ET TU. Though of course “Caesar’s last” does help to suggest which particular words!

    15a did raise an eyebrow, but of course the clue does in fact work perfectly, and maybe it was deliberate misdirection as we’re all thinking: can it really be “way?”

    [Pedro @27: er, what? Perhaps you’ve never thought of Shakespeare as a playwright? As Julie says @8, they are commonly referred to as “The World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band”. People might argue about the “greatest” but surely not about the “rock” bit.]

    Many thanks Picaroon and manehi.

33. Very good. I thought 15ac was pretty feeble when I entered it purely from the definition, but I now see that was only because I completely failed to parse it. Very neat, and I don’t think the repeated WAY is a problem at all.

34. I enjoyed that, particularly the long ones.

    [You can’t always get what you want, but I got a great deal of satisfaction out of essexboy’s comment @28.

    TassieTim @22 You’re not alone in dreaming you saw SAINT AUGUSTINE. Apparently Jimi Hendrix loved it and wanted to do his own version, but decided that the song was too personal to Dylan, so he covered All Along The Watchtower instead. Not a bad decision.]

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi

35. Many thanks, rodshaw @ 3, but when I tried to get the Araucaria puzzle I was told the page was out of date. Is there any other way I can access it, for the joy of doing one of his puzzles again, and for old time’s sake?

36. I, too, missed the subtlety of 15a so delayed writing it in. Also the R of UTTER. And I had written in SKULL. I must try harder. I had so many circles of potential anagrams today that I used up nearly all the space provided. All very enjoyable. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

37. I assumed it was St. Augustine of Canterbury, but I suppose either would fit.

    I agree scull and skull are equally valid and should not have been left unchecked, and the repetition of ‘way’ was unfortunate and made me reject on the first pass what eventually and inevitably turned out to be the only possible answer.

    Still an excellent puzzle. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

38. Crosser @35
    Try this link.

39. Is there some ruling or protocol governing which way you should dive on clues such as 13
    (boviously thinking from a goalie’s POV)

40. Bunged in ‘abysmal’ at 27a but soon realised I would have to check it. I always start a Picaroon with a smiley face and it stayed there most of the time; it slipped a little with the double ‘way’ but the ACID HOUSE PARTY brought it back.

    [Was it just me that couldn’t get on the site late morning yesterday? It kept timing out, and other sites weren’t affected.]

41. Thanks for the blog , very comprehensive . Nice crossword, good clues have been mentioned, somewhat let down by 11ac and 15ac.
    ETHERISED does not work, the I refers to the newspaper not the boss , hence we have BOSS = ED which is not on.
    IN A BAD WAY is just shocking in many ways.

42. copmus@39 (and others earlier): not really, but I think NeilH @6 makes a useful point. The link word “in” suggests splitting the clue into “brainbox outspoken” and “row”. If the clue had been “brainbox in outspoken row”, which would also be a reasonable sentence, that would suggest splitting into “brainbox” and “outspoken row”. (Punctuation doesn’t do the same job because it’s usually intended to be ignored in cryptic clues, but link words do.)

43. [Trailman @40 I had problems with the site yesterday too.]

44. Interesting how many of us have described this puzzle as fun – which it was for me as well – and I’m wondering what the essence of fun in a crossword is? A light touch? Variety? Lack of obscurity? Whatever it is I look forward to more of it. I went with SKULL but can now see that SCULL is the solution that best fits the clue – solver not setter error as usual. Unlike ChrisM@14 my first reaction to ETHERISED was “horrible word”! VESPERS is my favourite clue, despite the closest I’ve come to being a mod was going to a Paul Weller concert a few years ago. Many thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

45. And hello JinA – great to hear from you again.

46. Very many thanks, Gaufrid.

47. Another with ‘skull’ for 13a, but I agree with commenters above that SCULL is the better answer because of the ‘in’. It was reassuring that I wasn’t alone in not being able to parse IN A BAD WAY and I couldn’t account for that I in ETHERISED.

    Favourite bit was the Steed / Peel reminder “Avengers” reminder at 6d. RIP Diana Rigg.

    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

48. Really beautifully hidden definitions today!

49. Thanks to setter and blogger.

    I also enjoyed the puzzle, though not as much as usual with Picaroon; in a lot of places the solutions were write-ins from the crossers without recourse to the wordplay and sometimes not even the definitions – I like better to have to solve a clue by working from both ends. But a pleasant pastime nevertheless, with some excellent clues (apart from 15 ac!). ‘Bishop’ is a strangely vague definition for SAINT AUGUSTINE – the Hippo one is better known as an author and theologian and the other as the first ARCHbishop of Canterbury

50. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    Roz @ 41: Why shouldn’t ‘newspaper boss’ be ‘I ED’?

51. Nice to get a sort of name check at 11a. I too think that 13a is ambiguous and, I’m afraid, 1d just doesn’t work in my accent.

52. Simon @ 50. If newspaper boss is I ED we cannot split them, so we have ETHREIEDS or multiple alternatives but NEVER do we get ETHERISED.

53. Roz @52: I take your point, but maybe ED is an example of a boss, albeit abbreviated (with the newspaper context helping us to home in on the right kind of boss), just as ET TU are examples of ‘words to Brutus’ (with the Caesar context nudging us toward the right ones).

54. If we are going to accept BOSS = ED then we may as well give up and do the word search on the back of G2.

55. 🙂

    [By the way, rodshaw @3/Crosser @35/ Gaufrid @38 – thanks! It’s a delight. (From the Stones to T-Rex?) There’s still one I can’t parse but I don’t think 15² was around back then.]

56. And also ET TU would work fine without any mention of Caesar in the clue. They are probably the only words to Brutus that most people know.

57. The fault, dear Brutus…?

58. Nice idea but I think you maybe over estimate the knowledge of most people.

59. . . . lies not in our stars but in ourselves, that we are underlings. Or something.

    Did Julius Caesar for Eng Lit O Level a long while back, knew it would come in handy one day!

60. Same here @ Fiery Jack, the only bit I remember is … Et tu Brute.

61. Rox @56: surely “Caesar’s last” is needed for the R after the reversal of ET TU??

    [Trailman @40 & muffin @43: I also had problems loading the site yesterday]

62. I put SKULL without too much thought, because I was still puzzling my last two: 14d and 4d. With the latter I had misled myself by thinking of MITS for ‘hands’, but this left me with TRANS for ‘man’s bum’ (?) and the wrong tense for ‘sent up’. And I had forgotten about LAMINA being a reversal of animal, so what with those two being last ones in, I forgot to make sure I had the correct SCULL. Ah well, at least it was a more enjoyable solve than yesterday’s Quiptic, which was a minefield from start to finish.

    Rox @41, 52 & 54. I do take your point about ‘newspaper boss’, but it’ll take more than that to get me doing the wordsearch instead of this!

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

    [Thanks to rodshaw for the suggestion of that Araucaria from 2003, and Gaufrid for the link.]

63. 50 comments before any complaint about schwa for ER in VESPERS! Is this a record? Given that Picaroon is producing the crossword for a newspaper, I think Ed is ok for boss, as the editor would be boss to him. I am another who wrote SKULL. I can see Quirister’s point, but I don’t like “in” as a way of introducing a definition anyway. It feels like an arbitrary crossword convention.

64. Good crossword. Not keen on the use of ‘way’ in the clue, where it’s also in the solution though.

65. GrannyJ @ 61 yes I totally agree, I was just making the point that Caesar was not necessary for the second part, the r could have been clued in a different way.
    Petert @ 63, the clue in my newspaper did not actually say ” my boss “.

66. 6d I hadn’t realized that Jane Austen was a writer on The Avengers, isn’t scholarship wonderful?

    Nice puzzle, WayWay didn’t bother me, especially loved UTTER, welcome back Julie!

67. Roz@65 Nor in mine. My point was that it is ok to call your boss “boss” without saying what sort of boss she is.

68. Roz @65: of course – sorry I misunderstood you!??

69. [Me @68: I’m new to this, and didn’t realise emojis don’t work! I’ll try the old-fashioned way… :)]

70. [me again: read the FAQs!! “:)”

71. GrannyJ @68 that is okay , I was replying to Essexboy who suggested that Caesar was helping with the second part about Brutus. I suppose it was but was not strictly necessary to work out the ET TU.

72. [I still haven’t got it, but I’ll stop now & email admin for explanation. Sorry if I’ve annoyed anyone]

73. Entertaining crossword; most of the points have now been raised by others above. At last, for the most part, posters have stopped writing “that’s not how I say it.”

    The clue for 15 was IN A BAD WAY, but my personal picks were IRISH WOLFHOUND, LAMINATES and TRANSMITS (get your ‘mits’ off that man’s bum!).

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

74. Granny J; from the FAQ: Make sure you have a space before and after the text otherwise the graphic will not be created 😉

75. pserve_p2 @ 29: “He’s unwell” means the same as “he’s poorly”. “He did his job poorly” means the same as “he did his job in a bad way” (it doesn’t mean he did his job whilst unwell).

    I thoroughly enjoyed this. Looked like a struggle after only getting 1 of the across clues on first pass, but then got just enough on the downs to start teasing the thing apart. Irish Wolfhound was a particularly satisfying one to crack.

76. Thanks manehi, despite it being second one in I had not appreciated the full subtlety of UTTER, somehow thinking it a poor reversed homophone and not quite sure where the R came in. I am another SKULLer but agree SCULL better although not really happy with “outspoken” as homophone indicator if I think hard about it. At least VESPERS was clear enough for me!
    Other grumbles already well aired, but I did try to get upset about FUCHSIA being more pink than than purple until what turned out to be an interesting visit to Wikipedia (both flower and colour pages) and it was hardly a barrier to solving – also nice coincidence that Fox appeared in the next-but-one down clue.
    Thanks Picaroon, the image of Steed and Emma Peel was naughty but nicely misleading, just pipped by similar TRANSMITS.

77. Just to muddy the waters about whether the stones were rockers or rollers or bluesmen…

78. [I didn’t know enough about blues when the Stones were starting out to realise how bluesy they were. When I listened to the early stuff much later on, it really struck me.]

79. Thanks Picaroon and Manehi. My kind of crossword, some easy ones to get you started and some proper chewy ones to make you think. VESPERS definitely my favourite here (although I always preferred Lambrettas back in the day !)

80. Rodshaw @3 reference the Araucaria 22749. Had a bash after finishing this one. Agreed was an easy one by the main man. Theme helped with lots of easy write ins. Please help me parse 11.16. if you can.

81. Steve Corless @80. I’ve had a go: ‘I find folk wild’=I + (FOLK)* ‘and barbarian’=HUN ‘including’=with ‘the generality of folk’=MANKIND inside, ‘amid’=all inside ‘the chaos’=THE MESS, so THEM(I(LKOF)HU(MANKIND)N)ESS.

82. [Muffin@77: They started out hoping to be bluesmen, became pop stars for a while, flirted with psychedelia, went back to the blues, added some country into the mix, tried a bit of soul and funk and reggae and even (briefly) disco, and somewhere along the road they became the parents of Rock. Last album they went back to being bluesmen again. Whatever they try, they just end up sounding like the Stones.]

83. [Gladys @82
    I must confess that the most recent Stones album I’ve heard was Exile on Main Street (1972!). Perhaps I should chase up some more modern ones!]

84. Bless you, sheffield hatter @81 – I’ve been working on this and I can sleep now!

    I got as far as I + 9FOLK anagram) + HUMANKIND (generality of folk) in THE MESS – but of course, I had an extra N – and hadn’t accounted for ‘barbarian’. I’d toyed with somehow fitting in inhuman([e] along the way.

    In my defence, I did Macbeth for O Level and was beguiled by remembering my English teacher pointing out that her reading was HUMANKINDNESS, rather than HUMAN KINDNESS – and that’s stuck with me.

    Many thanks. all, for the prompt and the reminder of how much I still miss the beloved Rev.

85. For far too long I was absolutely convinced that the answer to 7d was EDITH; ie woman = reversed tide + H. Very disconcerting.

86. (FOLK anagram), of course.

87. [muffin @83: if my memory serves me well, you ordered Dylan’s More Blood More Tracks a while ago after I recommended it. Dare I ask what you thought of it?]

88. [Lord Jim @87
    I did indeed. It’s a great album, but I still prefer the original – Dylan’s greatest work, IMHO.]

89. [Though the much later “It’s not dark yet” might be my favourite track of his. Unlike my Stones discography, I do have several more recent Dylan albums, including the strange and rather haunting “Rough and rowdy ways”.]

90. I have been doing cryptics for just over two years now and this was my first completed Picaroon.
    Was stuck for ages over 4d which was my LOI and feared would defeat me. Thought ‘stint’ was the time inside and was trying to arrange ‘ass’ to fit around it with an M somewhere. So close to the right answer, and then Transmit leapt out at me. So many thanks to Manehi for explaining the parsing, of this and a few others, and of course to Picaroon for a very enjoyable puzzle

91. Congratulations, GingerTom! – Picaroon’s well worth persevering with. 😉

92. Eileen @84. Ah, the condition of being human, rather than the kindness of humans. I must admit I hadn’t given it any thought. Thank you (and your teacher) for that.

93. GrannyJ@: There was a (brief) discussion here the other day about emoticons (/emojis?) and I thought I registered a temperature inclination towards the negative. But Eileen uses them so they’re definitely ok in the right hands. Not an authority in the matter, I am the model for the person who thought “LOL” meant “lots of love”.

94. sh @92 – thanks for responding (and for understanding). Not sure that I agree now with the estimable Miss Read but I’ve never forgotten it. Strange the titbits we remember from school – and so much we forget.
    Thanks again for your parsing – it was driving me mad.

95. Nice puzzle but I’m still not convinced by 15a IN A BAD WAY. Re 3d UTTER, Caesar’s last words actually were “then falls Caesar”, so I don’t think that Caesar is doing double duty. The word play imo is – Caesar’s last + words to Brutus, all backwards. Many thanks to Picaroon and Manehi’

96. Well done GingerTom@90, it took me two years to complete Guardian crosswords on any sort of regular basis. You can start trying the Azed now.

97. LOI was IN A BAD WAY for reasons much given. SCULL/SKULL was a toss up and I chose SCULL, so must have subconsciously noted why.

98. Eileen @94 Are you saying Miss Read misread?

99. Many thanks to Sheffield Hatter and Eileen for your input re milk of human kindness.

100. On 15ac – it’s now little mentioned, but another “bad way” to be in is Queer Street.

     Just a thought…

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