Guardian Cryptic 28444 Picaroon

76 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28444 Picaroon”

1. In 1A, I had taking stimulants as being ON ES ( e as in tablet).

2. Found this a hard solve, but satisfyingly so. Though took until the very end in to work out which SAUCE I could splodge on to complete the NW corner. PUTTI took a lot of head scratching too, trying out Pet and then Pat at first – for stroke – to make something out of it…

3. Finished this but couldn’t parse rather a lot of clues! Thank you scchua and of course Picaroon!

4. Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

   I found this tricky to get into – the only solution that leapt at me in the top half was REBEC! So I adopted my usual strategy in these circumstances, which is to start at the bottom of the puzzle. That worked, fortunately, and the crossword yielded steadily.

   I think the parsing of 1ac includes ON ES (taking stimulants).

   A lot of interesting clues and solutions containing words of foreign origin, but I can’t identify a theme….

5. Nice crossword. I agree with Larry @1
   Thanks Picaroon and scchua

6. Thanks scchua – there were a few I couldn’t parse today, or only partially (eg I’ve never heard of TENT wine [14a]), so the explanations are very helpful. And thanks Picaroon too, of course.

   19d ‘in US’ confused me slightly – as a lifelong Brit, I would consider EON an acceptable spelling even without that qualification.

   REBUT and PUTTI were my favourites today. Both raised an appreciative smile.

   Only real quibble is II for 11 in 12ac. Feels like a bit of a liberty to expect you to get team=11 and then 11=II (I spent a while trying to make XI fit).

7. Larry @1 – Yes, I think you might be right re ON ES. That makes more sense to me, at least.

8. Yesterday was a wipe-out crossword wise so it was good to put this one to bed. Some nice clues but nothing unsolvable. Thanks Picaroon and scchua.

9. Thanks Picaroon and scchua
   Mostly straightforward. The only one that gave problems was ALLOT. I even Googled the order of books in the OT, and came up with two answers, neither of which has Malachi as last – one followed it by Apocrypha, starting with Tobit; the other put “writings” after Malachi, starting with Psalms – neither much help!
   I must be losing it. I was convinced that I had seen the clue for EROTICA the other way round very recently – i.e. subtract T to give EROICA, defined as “symphony” – but the site search gives the most recent EROICA solution as a Pasquale in 2019. Does anyone else remmber a more recent example?

10. I found this quite tricky (including the parsing of SENTIMENTALITY). I agree with Larry @1 about the parsing of TURN ON ONES HEEL. Lots of ticks: OUTDO, OCEANIC, EXUBERANT and NEOPHILIA. LOI was ISRAELI, which took some time. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

11. Very enjoyable solve today, despite a couple of nhos ( TENT, REBEC) and a couple unparsed (ISRAELI, OUTDO). Generally excellent clueing, though, so thanks to Picaroon for the challenge and scchua for enlightenment.

12. A pleasant crossie with some lovely clues: ENORMOUS, EXPAT, CHAIN MAIL, NO_HOPER, CARLISLE, OUTFITTER, EROTICA, NEOPHILIA and BIBLIOGRAPHY all tickled my fancy. Thanks Picaroon, and scchua for occasional parsing clarification.

13. Steady solve of an entertaining crossword. I managed to parse everything, although I agree with Larry @1 about ‘taking stimulants’ being ON Es (alcohol is not a stimulant). I had to check what Malachi was doing.

    I liked ENORMOUS and OUTFITTER.

    Thanks Picaroon and scchua.

14. Phew that was a tussle and what a great week so far! Being a member of the metropolitan liberal elite I struggled to understand the parsing of CHAI tea in CHAIN MAIL 🙂
    [HMHB double bubble today with BIG CHEESE and coke referenced in the classic ditty Improv Workshop Mimeshow Gobsh*te

15. Mid-difficulty puzzle today with a few DNKs (PUTTI, CENTAVO) but do-able with an acceptable level of head-scratching.

    Thanks Picarron and scchua!

16. Like SinCam @3 I couldn’t parse several clues. I didn’t spot the ONES (or ON ES) in TURN ON ONES HEEL, I didn’t get the anagram of ISNT E in SENTIMENTALITY and as for the ISI in ISRAELI (but now, I learn I should have been looking for II which is an eleven I suppose) … So many thanks to scchua for your help here.

    And thanks to Picaroon for a lot of fun, especially BIBLIOGRAPHY, EXUBERANT (we don’t have Ubers in my city so that took a while!) , NO HOPER and ALLOT.

17. Another who went with Larry@1’s parsing of 1a. REBEC was new to me, and I’d only heard of NEOPHOBIC (in connection with rats). My favourite was OCEANIC because I had it written down as a solution but rejected it as I had the last C as cocaine and couldn’t figure out where the OCEANI came from! Getting 1a made me revisit it and the penny dropped.
    Thanks to Picaroon and scchua for the illustrated blog.

18. This was hard work. Bottom half was easier than the top half.
    Did not parse ALLOT (assumed it was a biblical reference); SENTIMENTALITY.
    Failed ISRAELI – rev of LEAR’s in II? Eleven players in a team?
    Favourite: EXUBERANT

19. I couldn’t parse the extra ON in 1a so thanks for that. Lovely surfaces throughout and a real joy to finish this. Faves were ISRAELI, TARTARE SAUCE, PUTTI and EXUBERANT. NEOPHILIA and TENT wine were new.

    Ta Picaroon & scchua

20. Particular pleasure take from ALLOT, the anagram and surface for OCEANIC (where I flirted for a moment with Ms Le Pen), The Tchaikovsky misdirect with EROTICA and the definition for SENTIMENTALITY. FOI was TARTARE SAUCE: regrettably, I now think of TRAT whenever I encounter a suggestion of a small Italian restaurant even though, as had been discussed here before, the abbreviation is questionable as to usage and downright ugly as a word.

    As alternative earworm to bodycheetah’s HMHB offering @14 (or, of course, the loftier strains of Beethoven’s 3rd), there is the Afterwords album by Dutch rock band The Gathering.

    Thanks Picaroon and scchua

21. 1ac was one of a few in the bung now, parse later (or not) list, and yep I too reckon Larry’s on es has it. Israeli was another bnpl, sentimentality yet another. Putti took a bit of remembering; there was a rash of them some time ago but the synapses had faded, though the ones for Noh were still there. Quite fun, ta both.

22. Another super puzzle from Picaroon.

    It’s all been said, really – i have lots of ticks, as usual with this setter, but I’d just like to highlight NEOPHILIA, which I especially enjoyed working out, and OCEANIC: I always love to see ‘supply’ as an anagram indicator and it was particularly apt here.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

23. I thought OUTDO was a shocker.
    Can someone explain why ‘on’ signifies that ‘do’ comes after ‘out’ which in itself is not a very satisfactory synonym for ‘off’.
    Of course I am miffed because I had solved as ‘outre’ for offbeat which explained ‘on’ but not the note. And as a result couldn’t solve bibliography.

24. Enjoyably devious, and I didn’t succeed with all of them: had PETIT for PUTTI until it got overtaken by incompatible crossers; couldn’t sort out the middle of TURN ON ONES HEEL; took ages to realise that OCEANIC = (Cocaine)* and revealed ISRAELI. The Malachi clue is fun but doesn’t allow for other editions of the Bible.

    TARTARE SAUCE was last in (thought it was going to be something spice) and favourites were CHA IN MAIL and BIBLIOGRAPHY.

25. Another tough one for me but a bit better than yesterday and I liked more of the clues – even the ones I couldn’t quite parse.

    My favourites included CHAIN MAIL, REBUT, BIBLIOGRAPHY, POTENTATE (largely because I remembered TENT as wine from a previous puzzle which was the first time I had heard of it).

    I parsed EXPAT as EP (record) AT (about) holding X (vote) but I didn’t think it was right.

    Thanks Picaroon and scchua

26. Using RE as the note in 20a to give OUTRE for ‘offbeat’ made it impossible to find anything for 10d

27. Thanks Picaroon & scchua

    TC @ 23: ‘on’ = ‘comes after’ is a convention in across clues (no idea why).

    How about “Turn the light off/out”?

28. TC @23

    Tim Moorey’s book on how to solve cryptic crosswords which I got a year ago when I decided I really wanted to learn how to do them explains that, in across clues *on* means *after* or *follows*. I don’t know why.

29. Simon S 2 27 – We crossed – does anyone know why?

30. What Eileen said, including the thanks

31. Thanks for the parsings of LIT UP and SENTIMENTALITY. I dislike it when I’m expected to have working knowledge of French, since I don’t. But as I said before, that’s down to cultural difference [here, the most common second language learned in school is Spanish, but you can’t assume knowledge even of that]. For SENTIMENTALITY, I guess I was just too lazy to suss it out properly–it was obviously the right answer and I just sort of moved on.

32. Thank you Picaroon for the challenging puzzle and Scchua for the illustrated blog.
    I tried to parse EXPAT as Fiona Anne @25 did…

33. Simon S & Fiona A: I guess it’s because you put it ‘on’ the end of whatever else is there?

34. Good puzzle with a few niggles.

    scchua — you have “they had a one” for what I assume you meant to be “they had one.” But probably Larry’s parsing is actually right.

    8a We don’t have King Edward potatoes in the US, but Wikipedia tells me that the equivalents are russet, which I’ve heard of, or Kennebec, which I haven’t as a potato. The Kennebec is one of Maine’s biggest rivers, so these wouldn’t be Idaho potatoes. Maine is also a big potato state.

    In 11a U = uniform? why?

    II = eleven is a stretch too far. I can be “one,” but II is two, dammit.

    I think the parsing of SENTIMENTALITY is “anagram of (isn’t E)* + “mentality.”

    1d TARTARE SAUCE took a while because it’s “tartar sauce” over here.

    scchua, you didn’t give us a picture of a REBEC. You can find one here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebec

    Delightful puzzle I didn’t finish last night. Thanks to Picaroon and scchua.

35. I’m away from my old Collins, which has the Books on the back page, without which heathens are lost, so the parse for allot was beyond me, but now I’m thinking Hmmm, innovative clue, and wondering if it’s a first.

36. ‘Malachi’ meant almost nothing to me, apart from a minor character in Nicolas Freeling’s Over the High Side, which I have recently re-read after many years. Didn’t remember TENT from a previous crossword – still haven’t ever seen such a wine on the shelves in Aldi. Can’t remember seeing EON spelt AEON for about 200 years, so was puzzled by ‘US’. Never heard of PUTTI, and failed on the clue having got stuck with PAT for ‘stroke’, and when I realised that golf might be what was referred to, forgot to double the T!

    Apart from that I enjoyed today’s crossword, especially the unexpected anagram of ‘cocaine’, the clever ‘football team’ in ISRAELI (I think we’ve seen this device recently? Maybe Picaroon used it on another newspaper’s crossword.) and the ‘out of it’ Parisian leaping out of bed.

    Thanks to Picaroon and to scchua for parsing SENTIMENTALITY so that I didn’t have to.

37. Valentine @4. U=uniform on the radio alphabet (sierra, tango, uniform, victor, etc).

38. I’ve always rationalized ON this way. In the real world it can mean either side (think of adding carriages to a train). In cryptics, we have plenty of ways of indicating in the given order, before, including no indication, so it is customarily used for after. I’d bet some setter somewhere has used it to mean before.

39. sheffield hatter @33

    Thanks – that will make it easier to remember.

40. For some reason Chambers XWD Dictionary lists “on” as a juxtaposition indicator for down clues only. I’ve seen it used many times in across clues.

    I very much enjoyed this puzzle apart from the clue for OUTDO. I do not think it’s fair play to have “offbeat” performing the function of partly providing wordplay and partly providing definition. It’s a pity, because all the other clues were exemplary.

41. Thinking about it, if I encountered “on” in a down clue, my first reaction would be to read it as “on top of”, i.e. first, whereas in an across clue it would be an add-on, i.e. last. Is there an Official Ruling about it?

    (RichardCV22, the accepted name for beasts like OUTDO is a lift-and-separate, and they are becoming increasingly popular, so you will have to live with them.)

42. Thanks Picaroon for a great puzzle. All fairly straightforward with some nice misdirection. 20a was my LOI and as a result my favourite. I had stared at it for too long before the penny dropped. Thanks to scchua for the blog

43. Super crossword — thanks Picaroon. Favourites included OUTDO (I’m a fan of splitting compound words), NO-HOPER, CARLISLE, and NEOPHILIA. Could not parse ALLOT — kept thinking of Malachi Constant from Kurt Vonnegut’s Sirens of Titan, clearly a blind alley. PUTTI was a new word for me. Thanks scchua for parsing.

44. muffin @9 There was a recent Guardian crossword with Exotica as the answer, which may be the one you’re thinking of.

45. gladys @41; ‘on’ in a Down clue generally means on top of, as you say. However, some have argued that in, for example, ‘on the ceiling’ it means underneath! I think that is rather unusual, though, and I don’t think most setters would use it in that way. In an Across clue it generally means ‘after’, although some setters also use it as ‘before’ – so no absolute clarity there.

46. Valentine@34, thanks for pointing out my mix-up with SENTIMENTALITY. Blog corrected.

47. [Phil @44
    Thanks, but I can’t find that one either – the most recent on the site search is last November.
    The Pasquale clue from 2019 I referred to has similarities with this one. It was
    Symphony offering racy stuff (not Beethoven’s Fourth) (6)]

48. [Mystery solved. It was in next week’s Radio Times.]

49. I’m pretty sure the brilliant setter Tramp has commented in here before (a few years back maybe) about “on” saying that he’d be happy to use it in any direction. If you’re standing in a room, there could be a fly on either wall, the ceiling, or the floor. It works in every direction.

50. I liked the Beethoven- Tchaikovsky interaction

51. MarkN @49: Tramp’s rules aren’t always everybody else’s rules 😀 but I’d struggle to contest that point, even if it does open the door to all kinds of mischief. sheffield hatter @33 makes the point that you ‘put’ the whatever-it-is ‘on’ what was there; you might just as well ‘stick’ it on – which would, again, open the way to using ‘on’ in all directions. Heaven help us!

52. Quite a different solve to yesterday – this time a need to secure a foothold and then use all the crossers. ENORMOUS and ISRAELI gave a grid entry (fabulous clue), but only after I’d got locked into thinking (wrongly) that REAL (as in Madrid) must figure into the answer. Then it flowed from one set of crossers to the next in an anticlockwise pattern. PUTTI was LOI, and a new word for me. Not my favorite type of puzzle by any means, but it passed a pleasant hour. Thanks, setter.

53. sh@37 Thanks. I forgot about the NATO alphabet. I recognize Romeo and November, not all of them.

54. [H in the Nato alphabet has always struck me as an oddity, as a lot of people – everyone in France, for instance, and many elsewhere – don’t pronounce the H in Hotel!]

55. I realise SUM = Problem is a bit of a crossword staple, but it seems a little weak to me. Do other mathematical operators get used in the same way? “Fast food’s a problem 4-4” for example.

56. Nice to start with a word I didn’t know, CENTAVO. I liked ALLOT a lot. The South was quite simple compared to the challenging North.

57. muffin@54
    The international radio alphabet, which NATO adopted, was developed so that only English speakers could pronounce the words correctly, so the fact that the French dropped the ‘h’ excluded them, there are words that other nationalities do not pronounce correctly in English.
    By the way I am in France and only if I speak french do I drop the H, so not everyone in France does

58. Cliveinfrance
    Weren’t France in NATO? The French usually have firm ideas about language; I’m surprised they let that through!

59. [muffin @58: the NATO alphabet, although often called a ‘phonetic’ alphabet, in fact has nothing to do with phonetics – so it doesn’t actually matter to the French that the H in Hotel is silent. What matters is that, even with lots of interference, the word HOTEL comes across clearly – and of course no French person would dream of spelling the word hôtel without an H, muet or not – so the required clarity is achieved.

    There is one modification specifically introduced with the French in mind: the official spelling for J is Juliett with two t’s. This avoids the risk of someone pronouncing it jooli-ay, which could cause confusion.

    I gather there are some variations to accommodate religious or national sensibilities. The ban on alcohol in some Muslim countries means Whiskey becomes Washington or White. And in Pakistan they like saying ‘India’ even less than sheffield hatter likes saying W*tf*rd, so Indigo or Italy do the job instead.]

60. muffin @54 They probably can spell hotel, though. And if they don’t pronounce it in hotel, they won’t pronounce it anything else either.

61. Petert @55. Totally with you on ‘problem’=SUM. I can remember from about six or seven, doing arithmetical exercises at school which were always referred to as “sums”, even if they were subtractions, multiplications or divisions, and I’d never come across ‘problem’ as a synonym until doing crosswords.

62. Good point, Valentine @60!

63. [essexboy @59. If the NATO alphabet didn’t take account of the post-1947
    animosity between Pakistan and *nd*a, I suppose I should be grateful that we have Whiskey for W rather than any other word beginning with that letter. ]

64. muffin@58
    The international radio alphabet predates NATO and was introduced during WWII, when France was occupied, as Essexboy states there was a change in J to accommodate them in NATO, but the French use H to inficate hotels pn maps and signage.

65. [I’ve read of an alphabet that predated “alpha bravo” that started “able baker” – World War II RAF?]

66. [muffin: there’s quite a long and detailed article about this on Wiki, including the footnotes that essexboy quoted re Indigo and Washington.]

67. [Thanks SH
    I think the Dambusters (617) squadron named their planes Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, etc. in the war]

68. hatter, muffin, eb et Clive: thanks all for your recent contributions. A lot of interesting nuggets picked up on a topic i’ve always been aware of but never properly investigated. eb’s post about the regional variations in particular. Thanks folks.

69. [At the risk of being slapped by Gaufrid again, on the topic of missing letters, I recently found out why the Scottish Royal family changed its name from Stewart to Stuart. When Mary, Queen of Scots, married the French Dauphin, she changed her surname, as the French alphabet doesn’t have a W, so “Stuart” was as close as they could get.
    I wonder why the French bother to have an H, if they never pronounce it?]

70. Failed to get Putti. Looked it up in my Chambers and it didn’t have it. Not able to get it by parsing either. Rest was gradually sorted out OK.
    Enjoyed EROTICA. Started looking up Tchaikovsky symphonies until the penny dropped

71. [muffin @69: it helps you tell your chouchou from your coucou 😉 ]

72. mufffin @ 69

    To stop them not pronouncing the letter that comes after the h?

73. What a lovely crossword. Thank you both!

74. EB@71 😀

75. Many thanks to you, too, scchua, for the splendid blog.

76. Would have been easier if I hadn’t snookered myself by misspelling “opossum”. Scribbled “outro” in 20 in desperation. Otherwise not bad. I liked ALLOT but only because I happily remembered Malachi’s position in the canonical Bible.

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