It’s giving nothing away to say that Paul has served up a fishy offering to round off the week.
Lots of witty clues, with plenty of misdirection and not a risqué one in sight. Parsing was generally straightforward, apart from 26ac and 3dn, which took a little longer. I can’t really see why now but hindsight is a wonderful thing.
A fun puzzle – many thanks, Paul: I enjoyed it.
Definitions are underlined in the clues
Across
1 Fishy sanctuary for a lot of Americans? (3,4)
CAR PARK
CARP ARK (sanctuary for fish): Americans call a car park a parking lot – (why would fish need the ark?)
10 Fishy weapon? (4)
PIKE
Double / cryptic definition
11 Where local workers are detained (6,4)
BEHIND BARS
Cryptic definition, a local being a pub
12 Sounding hard, nothing has replaced one chapter in something easy (6)
PHONIC
H (hard) O (nothing) has replaced I (one) C (chapter) in P[ic]NIC (something easy)
13 Soldier on set I look to knock over (4,2,2)
KEEP IT UP
A reversal (over) of PUT (set) + I + PEEK (look)
14 Bone goes with third of fillets, fishy Italian dish (9)
BOLOGNESE
An anagram (fishy) of BONE GOES + fiLlets
16 Middle Eastern city in Doha, I fancy (5)
HAIFA
Contained in doHA I FAncy – did anyone else look for an anagram of DOHA I?
17, 5 One gliding along, fishy pupil at Eton, say (12)
SKATEBOARDER
SKATE (fish) + BOARDER (pupil at Eton, say)
19 Targeted by marketing strategy, left shambolic extremists initially in command (9)
LEAFLETED
An anagram (shambolic) of LEFT + E{xtremists] in LEAD (command)
23 Fishy water? Helper on the way (2-6)
CO-DRIVER
COD (fish) + RIVER (water)
24 Fishy weapon? (3,3)
RAY GUN
Cryptic definition, ray being a fish
26 Central circles with rings around — might these be flowers? (10)
PERENNIALS
A reversal (circles) of INNER (central) with PEALS (rings) around
27 Predator catching egg layer (4)
COAT
CAT (predator) round O (egg)
28 Deception, fishy fizzy drink? (7)
CHARADE
A whimsical clue – CHAR (fish) + ADE, giving a fizzy drink, by analogy with orange or lemonade
29 Mannerly, fishy chap? (7)
GENTEEL
GENT EEL – another bit of whimsy
Down
2 Reaction, by the sound of it, when apartment evacuated and I go away! (7)
ATISHOO
A[partmen]T (evacuated) + I + SHOO! (go away!) but see AlanC’s comment @11
3 Tart up, on prodding feather once? (5)
PREEN
RE (on) in (prodding?) PEN (feather once – reference to quill pens)
4 Second river crossed in heading on — point of no return? (7)
RUBICON
RUB[r]IC (heading) with the second r (river) crossed (out) + ON
A clever reference to the stream separating Cisalpine Gaul (Julius Caesar’s province) from Italy; Caesar crossed it, illegally, at the head of his army, thereby precipitating the Civil War – see here
6 First of orders signed — sounded like Napoleon? (6)
OINKED
O[rders] + INKED (signed) – Napoleon is one of the pigs in Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’
7 Dump in African capital with English religious job (9)
RABBINATE
BIN (dump) in RABAT (African capital) + E (English)
8 Material originally sewn into each frill, one of two pads (7)
EARMUFF
EA (each) + M[aterial] in RUFF (frill)
9 Dramatic Irishman secreting fishy weapon? (13)
SHAKESPEAREAN
SEAN (Irishman) round (secreting) HAKE (fish) SPEAR (weapon)
15 27, for example, wife found in location of canal (9)
OUTERWEAR
W (wife) in OUTER EAR (location of {ear} canal)
18 9 recognises king, these days the vagrant (7)
KNOWETH
K (king) + NOW (these days) + an anagram (vagrant) of THE
Shakespearean for ‘knows’ (recognises)
20 Divine number and letter mentioned? (7)
FORESEE
Sounds like (mentioned) four (number) + C (letter)
21 Follow fast runner, then slow (7)
EMULATE
EMU (fast runner) + LATE (slow)
I wondered about the definition here but then thought of it as ‘follow as an example’
22 Flattened garden ever rising, to some extent (6)
EVENED
Hidden reversal in garDEN EVEr
25 Vessel unknown, number spoken by U-boat crew? (5)
YACHT
Y (unknown) + ACHT (German for eight – number spoken by U-boat crew)
You won’t be the only one who struggled with parsing 26a (what on earth are RENNI, I asked myself repeatedly) or 3d, Eileen.
A Friday treat from Paul; thanks both.
This was funnier than anything on TV. I loved the fishy Etonian and the CARP ARK (maybe Aqua-Noah would have built an ARK-uarium for when the oceans dried up?)
As for CHAR-ADE – like one or two commenters on 15², Paul really should get his COAT.
And how clever was KNOWETH?
Huge fun, thanks Paul and Eileen
This was great fun and produced lots of smiles. The “char-ade” (fishy fizzy drink!) and the “gent eel” were hilarious.
I got RUBICON from the definition but couldn’t parse it, so thanks for that Eileen, and many thanks to Paul.
Very difficult, lots of head scratching but laughs-a-plenty as the penny dropped!
Thanks Paul and Eileen!
Re.18D. Although ‘KNOWETH’ occurs as the third-person form of the verb, (the second-person form being ‘knowest’), in the King James Bible, and in literary texts from a century (eg Malory’s ‘Morte d’Arthur’) and from two centuries (eg ‘The Canterbury Tales’) earlier, Shakespeare in fact never uses it. He uses the modern ‘knows’ invariably as the third-person form, although he does consistently use ‘knowest’ with ‘thou’. It can be inferred, therefore, that the modern form had begun to displace the older form in late-16thC usage, and that the authors of the KJ Bible conservatively adhered to ‘knoweth’, feeling perhaps that the traditional form possessed greater gravity and dignity.
Just brill from head to tail. SHAKESPEAREAN was FOI and gave me a flavour of what to expect. Thanks for parsing CAR PARK and RUBICON Eileen, the latter very clever as you explain. I thought PERENNIALS was COD, so to speak
Ta Paul & Eileen
Spooner’s catflap @5 – thanks for that. If this had been a Saturday puzzle and I’d had all week for the blog, I think I would have been tempted to look for an example!
Oh and yes Eileen, I bunged in IDAHO instead of HAIFA at first, without thinking it through.
That’s interesting Spooner’s catflap @5. Language was changing quite rapidly in Shakespeare’s lifetime – a few years ago I attended a fascinating talk on the subject by Penelope Freedman (author of “Power and Passion in Shakespeare’s Pronouns”).
I think Paul can be excused though, if we take a slightly broader meaning of SHAKESPEAREAN to mean “in Shakespeare’s time”, when, as you say, KNOWETH was still being used, in the King James Bible for example.
Eileen @7: thank you for the blog on Paul’s characteristically tricksy puzzle (it was PREEN that foxed my parsing skills, such as they are), and you’re welcome to the clarification re. ‘KNOWEST’. It is a blessing for you that you did not have time to go searching for an example, as it would have been a lengthy and fruitless trawl through WS’s complete works!
I parsed ATISHOO as reaching for a tissue as a reaction and therefore by the sound of it.
I think you’re right, AlanC @11- that’s the way ATISHOO is usually clued!
Wow – hard work! Like others I couldn’t parse RUBICON; spent a long time trying to use an anagram of ‘central’ before I saw PERENNIALS; loved CAR PARK, OINKED and PHONIC among others. Many thanks to Eileen and Paul.
Missed rubric as heading, and the reversed inner, so filled the grid but not feeling clever. I usually groan at fish.. gar, ide..so many of the little buggers, but no real pescatorial pain here… and great question about the carp, Eileen (it’s ringing a faint bell re a ‘perverse red tape’ joke). Sounding for phonic was pretty neat, while GoD goes char ade.. erk. Not sure about the knoweth issue, bit beyond my erudition, or lack thereof. All good fun, thanks Paul and Eileen.
Tricksy, as S’s c aptly put it – this took me longer than usual, unaccountably, but with lots of smiles along the way.
Couldn’t parse PREEN, so thanks for that.
Methought KNOWEST the best of a great bunch, though anachronistic, as mr flatcap pointed out (I believe the compilers of the KJB deliberately chose somewhat old-fashioned language to make the text sound ancient and authoritative).
I winced slightly at BOLOGNESE – nice clue, but spag bol is as Italian as chilli con carne is Mexican (although they do serve it up for the tourists, all self respecting natives prefer tagliatelle al ragù).
Thanks Eileen and Paul (though I’m faintly disappointed that you’re becoming rather demure!)
…sorry, KNOWETH
Yes, Gervase. I mad the same slip in my follow-up comment to Eileen. D’oh!
Once I got going with Pike and Ray Gun, I loved this, even though the last two forced me to seek help from clever hubby – 7d and 18a. Thank you Paul, I usually find you impenetrable but for my tiny brain all the clues were clearly stated except the two I could not parse – rubicon, which I got from the definition, and the old perennial which I guessed from the crossers. So many thanks to Eileen (who is always early by the way, unlike yesterday!) and other bloggers. Maybe atishoo was a cryptic cryptic as it were!
1ac: the only fish I can think of that might need the ark would be lung fish.
They do have a tendency to drown.
I remember now why Paul used to be my favourite setter. Clever, amusing, solvable and parsable (exept like others I couldn’t parse RUBICON).
Opens the door for the pun enthusiasts and I’m tempted to start .. but will resist 🙂
Above my pay grade today so I’ll just say I enjoyed the ones I got.
I found that very tough and needed help parsing several.
But there were lots to make me smile when I got them including KNOWETH, OUTERWEAR, CO-DRIVER, CHARADE
Thanks to Paul and Eileen
I knew this was going to be tough after the first pass. And it’s Paul!! Slowly but surely the answers were revealed. Loved the fishy theme. Classic Paul. Struggled to parse 19 and 26ac. My one failure was Car Port which sounded more American than Car Park. Doh!
Thanks Paul and Eileen.
An amusing, fishy treat.
This was difficult but doable, and I was pleased that I could parse all my solutions.
Favourites: SHAKESPEAREAN, CO-DRIVER, PERENNIALS, GENTEEL, LEAFLETED, CAR PARK, RUBICON, PHONIC (loi).
This one took me a long time to conquer. RUBICON was biffed, and I was completely unable to parse it. PERENNIALS went in just from the crossers. But the whole puzzle seemed to me a fair challenge. The sudden switches from loose whimsical allusion to tightly knotted manipulation of letters made this particularly hard, I think.
My thanks to Paul and our blogger today.
No mention of
Barra Monday
Choral trout
or Sole Music-Dear me!
Great fun. GENT EEL was my loi with another smile to join CHAR ADE, COD RIVER etc. Thanks for the parsing of RUBICON Eileen and the rest of the blog, and to Paul for the puzzle.
Took me around an hour, but everytime the penny dropped, it brought a smile.
Hard but fun!
Late to the blog today, though the puzzle was completed with enormous pleasure accompanied by the Dawn Chorus this morning. What a delight from Paul with so many giggles along the way. And, like michelle @24, I was so pleased to be able to parse the lot for once. RAY GUN was a real highlight, along with CAR PARK, SKATEBOARDER, CO-DRIVER, RUBICON, PREEN and KNOWETH. For once I was able to anticipate some of Paul’s whimsy – both CHARADE and GENTEEL are classics. SHAKESPEAREAN deserves the plaudits it’s already earned and I did enjoy PHONIC which confused me for a while as I missed the relevance of ‘hard’ and explored whether PIONIC was a word. It is – but connected to atomic physics which was unhelpful.
Thanks Paul and Eileen (and SC @5 for the illumination and clarification. I shall try to remember there’s no S in KNOWETH)
[“Oh Ron! Do you expect me to just sit here… like a lemon?
KNOWETH, I’ve just had a banana.]
[essexboy @30. Lordy! The Glums from ‘Take it from Here’! That’ll be a Whoosh for anyone under 70.]
This had me floundering for a while but I got there in the end and even parsed them all. Tough but clever and fun (I do like puns). Thanks to Eileen for the helpful blog, Sponners catflap@5 for the erudite info and Paul for the workout.
ngaiolaurenson @32 – ‘floundering’?!!
Nice one essexboy!
PICNIC for something easy is another expression that seems only to exist in the negative — does anybody say, “That was a real picnic!”
Anybody else try to work GI (soldier) into 13a? or SKATER/SKATE R??????? into 17, 5?
Eileen, your Rubicon link took me to a paying National Geographic site that I couldn’t read without subscribing, so I didn’t. (I can probably find the Roman Civil War elsewhere.)
essexboy@30 … huhhhh?
Am I right that “Atishoo” is the British word for what we say when we sneeze? Americans go “Achoo!”, the French go “Atchoum!” and the Hungarians go “Hap-tzé!”
Thanks to Eileen for the parsley and to Paul thanks for all the fish.
[Valentine @35: lovely HHGTTG reference. This puzzle was made for it.]
Hi Valentine – that’s a shame: it’s a particularly good article. I try to find alternatives to Wikipedia but needs must … so see here
[Valentine @35: “I can probably find the Roman Civil War elsewhere.” Indeed you can:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossing_the_Rubicon ]
Spooner’s catflap – Snap! 😉
[Valentine @35: Sorry for causing you huhhhhitude. You might remember this exchange from back in February. I have very little fresh material, so I keep recycling the old stuff. 😉 ]
Nice end to the week that – I’m a lover of terrible puns which helped quite a bit. Still laughing at the audacity of CHARADE – whilst trying very hard not to imagine how it would taste…
I failed to complete after confidently entering ‘croc’ for 27a. Predator ‘catching’ = ‘c’ plus ‘egg layer’ = ‘roc’. Serendipitously this still allowed me to solve 15d as a croc, like a coat, is an item of clothing. . .
Generally Paul gives me problems but this seemed to go in easier than usual; you didn’t have to be a brain sturgeon to figure out most of the clues, especially the fishy ones. Favourites included PHONIC, KEEP IT UP, and SHAKESPEAREAN. With three clues having a weapon component I expected to find “sword” somewhere but apparently there was no plaice for it. Thanks Eileen for parsing — I had the same problems as others. Thanks Paul for the fun.
Huge fun. I love Paul days. Just seem to be on his wavelength. So many thanks to him, and to Eileen for a great blog and for parsing RUBICON.
Found this the usual witty fun and games with Paul, but somehow (because it fitted perfectly at the time), I had found and thought that the obscure term Obscurator answered the call about possible bodily canals. Meaning that the more obvious PERRENIALS wouldn’t fit. Cart before the horse doesn’t quite describe my DNF therefore, today…
…sorry, I meant to put the word Obturator. Tying myself in knots of my own making…
Lord Jim – I’m sorry that I did not notice, until now, your comment @9 in response to my somewhat pedantic intervention @5 regarding KNOWETH. This forum is hospitable to various forms of pedantry, often scientific or mathematical, and the point of mine on behalf of the Humanities was not to undermine Paul, because I completely agree that ‘SHAKESPEAREAN’ in his clue allows a ‘general period’ frame of reference. I’m afraid that my eyes light up when I see anything literary in a crossword, as it enables me to feel just occasionally that I can contribute something distinctive and – perhaps – usefully informative.
Thanks so much for all yourkind comments. Do pop along to have a chat withme and fellow wordplay fans here, at 7.30 – tonight!
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Thanks for the blog . A lot to enjoy here, will just mention OUTERWEAR for the reference to canal.
Rubric one of my favourite words, I am always saying read the rubric.
[ Mr PostMark @ 29 – PIONIC is used in PARTICLE physics, very very different. ]
Roz @50: can’t see either without my glasses so both look the same to me 😀 You’re right, of course, and I’m guilty of loose language. It’s why I’d never make a decent setter.
Forgot to say, note that Paul had SECOND river crossed for RUBRIC. Setters can often be careless here, for example MORDRED yesterday.
Roz @52. It is rather late in the commenting day, and especially so for me after a exceptionally poor night’s sleep, so forgive me if I am failing to grasp the issue here; but surely Paul’s point is that in RUBRIC there are two Rs (ie. two [R]ivers) , and the ‘crossing (out)’ of the second will give RUBIC, which +ON delivers the solution.
Exactly right, just river crossed would be ambiguous. Yesterday we had E removed from ordered and there are two Es. I was praising the precision of Paul.
Roz @52 and 54 – I’m absolutely with you here: I did make the point in the blog but didn’t exactly hammer it home: part of my problem in parsing the answer was racking my memory to think of what other rivers Caesar had had to cross before the Rubicon – then the penny dropped. I did call it ‘a clever reference’! My favourite clue, I’ve decided.
A tour de fish. Thanks both.
I thought there was another layer of meaning to 2dn – ATISHOO sounds like “at issue”, which is a (rather loose) synonym for “re: action”.
Eileen @55 , the more I look at it the better this clue gets. Did Caesar actually cross a FIRST river prior to the RUBICON.
I only noted it at first because I was annoyed by the clue on Thursday which did not indicate the E to remove from ordered.
I suspect he crossed several rivers, Roz – I think the ‘second’ is there to misdirect, although essential for the parsing, of course. It is a really good clue.
Very late thanks Eileen for explaining RUBICON (very clever and thanks also Roz@52 as Eileen’s reference was too subtle for me) and PREEN. This took several sessions over a couple of wet days, time well spent so thanks Paul. i don’t like “circles” for a reversal indicator though!
Sorry, Gazzh @60 – I thought I’d made it clear that it was the second r that had to be deleted: “RUB[r]IC (heading) with the second r (river) crossed (out) + ON”