Guardian 28,449 / Pasquale

87 comments on “Guardian 28,449 / Pasquale”

1. Dustcart is St (street) Car and Duty with the y (last of grotty) removed.

2. Many thanks, AP – I will amend the blog.

3. DUSTCART = ST (‘street’) CAR (‘vehicle’) in DUT[y] (‘task’ with the last letter of ‘grotty’ removed).

4. Finished this o.k., but 20d had me perplexed. I have come across ‘scamp’ to mean do work shoddily (I think from ‘The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists’, but not ‘skimp’.

5. Wow – that was a struggle. I agree with AP about the parsing of DUSTCART – very nice as it’s also a &lit. Had to look up DALASI; remembered Modesty BLAISE; all in all, very enjoyable. Many thanks to Pasquale for the serious workout, and to Eileen for the blog.

6. Tougher than yesterday but doable other than not spotting 1d.

   Some music in Lydian mode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouNyvk5Whuo

   Thanks Pasquale and Eileen!

7. Thanks Pasquale and Eileen
   I’m afraid I just Googled “currency Gambia” for 1d – too many possibilities to build it up. I was also not convinced by SKIMP = dash off, but wrote in SKIM anyway.
   Favourite MACHIAVELLI.

8. I think the woman in ll ac is Eva rather than Eve. MACHIAVELLI was cotd for me.

   Thanks Pasquale and Eileen

9. I really liked this one. Some gentle 4-letter ones to get going (SUSS, SHUN, TEAL); some more recherché vocab (LYDIAN, DALASI), a spiffy &lit with DUSTCART; some partial and some complete anagrams; a couple of DDs; clever palindrome at PULL UP; a cheesy cryptic with LEFTMOST — what a lovely pot pourri!
   Thanks to Pasquale and to our blogger today.

10. Quite right, yesyes @8: that was careless – will amend now.

11. Typo in 11a. EVA not EVE. Also, I think 5d only works as an &lit/CAD.

12. 25 by the several answers that could not be constructed from the clue unless you got the answer first.

13. I parsed DUSTCART as AP @1 (and others): I believe it’s cad (purists might argue there are too many words for an &lit but I’d be happy to call it such.) And the same purists might quibble with ‘Last thing park’ as an indicator for K but I could see the intent and it worked for me.

    I liked KOHLRABI (though not actually much of a fan of the veg), VANDERBILT, DIABOLICAL, MACHIAVELLI and the aforementioned DUSTCART. BLAISE is my COTD for bringing back the memories of guiltily admiring that fine young lady’s exploits through my formative years. I agree with our blogger on the one unfamiliar word but its construction was clear enough.

    What an ugly grid, though. Didn’t affect the solve but surprising that anyone would select it. I haven’t spotted anything lurking as a result so maybe nothing significant in it but I always wonder.

    Thanks Pasquale and Eileen

14. Mebyon Kernow members might have a quibble with FestAL. But I’m glad to see that Pasquale spelt my handle right, for this site at least.

15. [It’s just been pointed out to me that the theme from The Simpsons is also in Lydian mode… https://youtu.be/SR8WWFzrZAg Well!]

16. Me @14. …and I’m ashamed to admit that BLAISE was my last one in. Maybe I’m too modest to suspect that I’d get a look in?

17. blaise @14 &16: as one who takes delight in seeing namechecks for others, my apologies for not congratulating you earlier. And unlike essexboy who shamelessly (as to accurately – I have no idea) appropriated ‘adonis’ to his moniker yesterday, I think you have every right to claim modesty as your own. 😀

18. 23a BLAISE was one of my favourites, along with 10a IBERIANS, as well as a couple mentioned by PostMark@13, 22a KOHLRABI and12d VANDERBILT. Thanks Pasquale and Eileen.

19. P.S. I had never heard of 14d KNOTWEED. I see you also liked VANDERBILT, Eileen.

20. Enjoyable puzzle.
    Favourites: PULL UP, LEFTMOST (loi).
    I guessed but did not parse KNOTWEED apart from the K.

    New for me: DALASI, DUSTCART.

    Thanks, Pasquale and Eileen.

21. I thought 5d DUSTCART (are they still called that?) was a really good &lit. And 4d LEFTMOST got a tick too. Like muffin I’m afraid I just looked up “Gambian currency” for 1d.

    PostMark @13: I think it’s “Last thing park wants” for the K in 14d (not just “Last thing park”) – ie the last letter the word “park” needs.

    Many thanks Pasquale and Eileen.

22. Lord Jim @21 – that’s how I read the K in 14dn – I’ve amended the blog to make it clearer.

23. Lord Jim @21: thanks for that. It makes sense. I, of course, read ‘wants’ as both part of the surface, as acknowledged by Eileen, and as a link to the remainder of the answer.

    An aside on the subject of dustcarts – relevant, I hope, in that it pertains to how we look at, process and then pronounce words in our minds. Our local authority, in an attempt to safeguard workers processing the waste, advertised the risks of broken glass etc in bins with – spread across the three panels of the vehicles’ sides – the words:

    DU ST BIN
    DA NG ERS

    It was almost impossible to read the second word without making it rhyme with ‘bangers’!

24. Good Pasquale with some trademark unusual words – is it memories of a misspent youth with LORRAINE, LYDIA and EVA?

    I liked BLAISE and DUSTCART (&lit or cad), although I didn’t see the parsing at the time. I’m a bit surprised at the Don using ‘last thing park’ for K. I think he would normally use something like ‘park’s last thing’.

    Thanks Pasquale and Eileen.

25. … just seen Lord Jim @21; that makes more sense.

26. I’m afraid I thought of KNOTWEED as Not weed, but I think yours is better! Too much Paul in my mind…

27. BTW, I thought at the beginning that ‘no running water’ in 14 was ‘no wee’ – must have been doing too many Paul crosswords recently!

28. Being a yoof of the 60s, the Gambian bread clue flew in.

    Somewhat surprised that The Don would allow himself the indulgence k = last thing park but the clue is so nice otherwise as to not matter.

    Trivial point; at 38% is this the blackest grid we usually see?

    Lovely puzzle, Pasquale, most enjoyable.

29. James @26; great minds!

30. Robi @24: Apologies for repeating your point, missed it on the SKIM through.

31. Typically Donnish puzzle, with a sprinkling of more recondite vocab (I did a wordsearch for DALASI) and some very clever clues, but norra lorra laffs.

    I concur that DUSTCART is excellent, and my LOI was BLAISE (he admitted, modestly. Never followed the cartoon strip, but I enjoyed the high camp of the Losey film with Monica Vitti as the eponymous heroine).

32. [Robi @24: I seem to have popped in rather a lot thus far but work commitments beckon so this will be the last (at least for a while!). I just wanted to express relief that at least one other regular commenter saw KNOTWEED in the same way as I. I’ve been feeling rather dim since the pointer from Lord Jim!]

33. 5d, st (street) car (vehicle) in dut, duty losing the y which is ultimate of grotty.

34. Why the extra “s” in 4ac? Wouldn’t “new daily newspaper’s leader” be a neater surface as well as a more precise clue?

35. [As someone said earlier, a park definitely wouldn’t want Japanese knotweed. I think it’s a notifiable weed. Actually, this article says it isn’t notifiable, but it would be a serious problem.]

36. For 20d, I had SKID, until, at last despairing of D_N_T_L_, I saw MINUTELY and had to change it. Skid = glide (though perhaps not quite so elegantly) and skiddaddle = dash off, not finishing. Seemed pretty convincing to me (a lot more so than skimp = dash off, I have to say). Otherwise, quite entertaining. Thanks, Pasquale and Eileen.

37. Very neat as usual-Monica as Modesty takes me back!

38. DAILY’S should have read DAILY — result of a late change imperfectly executed. Thanks for all comments. Pasquale

39. Thank you, Pasquale @38 – I’ll amend the blog.

40. Dwyster @34. Lizard(Pasquale)’s just added this comment to the Guardian: DAILY’S shoud have read DAILY — error due to late change imperfectly executed.

41. Me @36 – more explanation. I meant to say “skiddaddle = dash off” (but it doesn’t finish, to give ‘skid’). On ‘skimp’, I cannot see that it means ‘dash off’ (despite your “dash off – Collins: ‘to perform {work, etc} carelessly or with inadequate materials’”, Eileen). ‘Dash off’ in this sense means ‘do rapidly’, to me – which might involve carelessness or lack of the right stuff, but it certainly doesn’t require it. I might ‘dash off’ a reply to an email, and it could be perfectly adequate. On the other hand, not having adequate resources is absolutely central to ‘skimp’.

42. I enjoyed this, with the same favourites as others. Seeing the V and the N for VANDERBILT, I jumped to the conclusion that the “blinder” was Venetian. I was another “not weed” for KNOTWEED, in spite of the fact that a couple of weeks ago I was walking beside the beautiful Tweed,

43. TassieTim @41 – apart from the fact that ‘skid’ is not the right answer, both Collins and Chambers give ‘skEdaddle’, with no alternative spelling.
    To be honest, I wasn’t too keen on ‘skimp’, either, but I was prepared to go along with the Collins definition. I’ve just looked up Chambers, which gives ‘to carry out hurriedly or recklessly’ – I should have looked there first but I prefer Collins!

44. Thanks to Pasquale and Eileen – while I found this a bit biffy it was also enjoyably chewy and I was very glad to know that some of the parsings would be articulated for me here.

    Like Eileen I had something of a crise de cerveau (well there should be such a term if there isn’t already) with DUSTCART until the elements started to reveal themselves – at one point I wondered if Pasquale had just written a NVCD in crossword-ese and worried about where that might be leading us all.

    Although it’s a down clue PULL UP might just as easily have been “back and forth” or “both ways” (perhaps better) in order to avoid the weakening “up and down” whereby the wordplay includes part of the answer. But, hands up, I couldn’t do what Pasquale (nor Eileen for that matter) does.

    [If I may be allowed an essexboy concatenation, 2d and 3d brought to mind the ex- of a friend whose wedding we all watched through our fingers. Brrrr….]

45. Hi Alphalpha @44 – it was just one of those things: I can’t tell you how long I stared at 5dn and just couldn’t see it. The only thing I could come up with was a NVCD – but this was Pasquale, after all (and it turned out to be a clever &lit 🙁 ).

    On the other hand, either of your options for 19dn would have been better than the repetition of ‘up’ in clue and answer.

    I’m intrigued by your concatenation of 2 and 3dn. 😉

46. Had the vaguest of inklings that Modesty Blaise was somebody’s name, but thought it must have been a stripper or a drag queen. Or a Bond girl.

    Thank you Eileen for the blog. You’re my favourite. And I only have one. 🙂

47. Several people giving examples of LYDIAN as a musical mode, but I haven’t met it as a language before – Lydia was in what is now Western Turkey. Like most people I had to look up DALASI, being ignorant enough to think it might be the name of a literal loaf. I thought Modesty BLAISE was much longer ago – surprised to find the strip was still running as recently as 2020.
    Favourites DUSTCART and KNOTWEED (the clue, not the plant which is a horrible vegetable thug). Nice to see the Fal and the Tweed as a change from the usual crossword rivers.

48. Alphalpha @ 44 clearly has his own memories of LORRAINE, but I confess my mind still turns to the goddess who wafted here from paradise:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaEjIlZsuTg

    (Well, not quite; with all respect to the hatter, Luton’s in the wrong county.)

    I also liked the idea of MACHIAVELLI going supersonic.

    Respect to BLAISE for (unlike yours truly yesterday) preserving his modesty, and many thanks Pasquale and Eileen.

49. On VANDERBILT: the Hudson Valley, or most of it, was a Dutch colony before it was British (New York began life as Nieuw Amsterdam and there’s still an Amsterdam Avenue in the city). There are many Dutch place names in the Hudson Valley and many fine old Dutch families as captains of industry, although Cornelius V.came from a humble family. That’s why swanky people in films, comic books and popular culture generally often had names beginning with “Van.”

    Peter Williams @70 There’s a story in my family from the days when its headquarters were in Boston, which has companion ones among other Bostonians, about a trip somebody took to the West Coast, probably in the late 19th C. When asked what route he took, the answer was “By way of Dedham” — a Boston suburb a bit to the west of the city. The only part of the trip the questioner would be likely to care about. Which reminds me of another anecdote — a Boston lady was entertaining a friend from the Midwest. When the guest said she was from Iowa, a member of the party corrected her — “Back here, we pronounce that ‘Ohio.'”

    What is a dustcart? We don’t have anything by that name in the US.

    alphalpha @44 “Crise de cerveau” is a thing, it’s French for a stroke. I hope you didn’t have one.

    gladys @44 One of Britain’s assets, unrecognized outside this community, is its wealth of three-letter rivers. Nice to se Fal, I’m still waiting for WYE. That reminds me — when I first visited the UK in the 70’s I realized that place names with ‘mouth in them were actually at the mouth of the river named. Dartmouth was the mouth of the River Dart, Falmouth of the Fal .. is there a River Ply? Plymouth, Falmouth and Dartmouth are ll in New England, and I never thought about mouths till I got to one of the originals.

    Puzzle was great fun, I had just the right amount unfinished this morning to amuse me over breakfast, and Eileen, you’re a delight as ever. Thanks to both.

50. It’s the River Plym, Valentine. 😉

51. [Valentine @49: you probably already know this but, just in case, ‘Inver’ and ‘Aber’ carry out essentially the same function in Scotland and Wales respectively. I understand that, when British place names were adopted by locations in North America, the geographic reference didn’t always translate so there are towns thus prefixed that don’t stand at river mouths but, if you have any of those in New England, it’s the same derivation.]

52. Valentine @49 – I live near the River Dart. In east Devon there’s the River Sid (another three-letter one that might be useful for setters) with its related place names: Sidmouth, Sidford and Sidbury.

53. Like Eileen and others I had never heard of the Gambian currency unit, but used the potential crossers in the obvious reversal of SALAD + I to confirm by solving 4a and 9a before writing it in – I prefer that way to looking it up online! I enjoyed most of this before grinding to my inevitable halt. I must have a blind spot for the letter K, as I failed on both KOHLRABI and KNOTWEED, so consequently also missed SKIM and BLAISE. I could have stared at the latter pair for hours without enlightenment, and the former pair would have benefited from a friendlier definition than ‘plant’ (or at least, benefitted me).

    I’m still struggling to see ‘last thing park wants’=K. If you were writing the word park, when you had got to the stage of needing a K, you would have par, not park; whereas park doesn’t want a K any more. And if it had been Paul I might have got NOT WEED, but to me NO TWEED says that you’ve left your favourite jacket at home. Oh well.

    Thanks to Pasquale and Eileen.

54. Thanks Pasquale for the clarification on 4ac – that had me scratching my head for a bit, assumed it had to be a typo. And thanks for yet another exemplary puzzle. “Bird leaves lake” is a beautiful clue.

    And thanks Eileen for the blog.

55. It would make for an interesting theme sometime to see how many different rivers could be involved in the wordplay. If Paul was setting it, I’m sure he could find a use for the Piddle (It’s in Dorset).

56. sheffield hatter @53: interesting point about 14d. I think it’s been commented before that “wants” can indicate two opposite things in clues: “wants X” can mean that the answer requires an X to be included; but equally it could mean that the answer is something that lacks an X.

    In this case I just thought along the lines that, in order to be spelled correctly, the word “park” requires (= wants) a P, then an A, then an R, and lastly a K. It worked for me anyway.

57. Firstly, thanks to Eileen and the Don. I managed it all today without look-ups, except for 1d.

    Gladys @ 55: perhaps setters know about the Anna Livia Plurabelle chapter in Finnegans Wake, which features loads (hundreds?) of river names from around the world as wordplay. A difficult act to follow.

58. Defeated by the NHO currency at 1D.

    Valentine @49: I don’t think anyone has yet answered your question. A dustcart is a garbage truck. A strange word as it carries much more than dust, of course, but we also put much more than dust in our dustbins. The US version is much more sensible – though I personally dislike the word ‘trash’. It also gives rise to the common Australian name for dustmen/garbage collectors, which is “garbo”. They’ll abbreviate anything, of course.

59. Valentine@49: oops- don’t want one of those. (I should have known not to try neologising in French.)

60. [A question for our friends down under (who I suppose will be underneath their blankets – unless ginf’s up late – but maybe when they reach Morningtown): does a garbo ever get called a greta?]

61. gladys @55: If any setter picks up on your idea of a river-themed puzzle, I hope they make it about rivers of the world, and not just rivers-of-the-UK-that-outsiders-don’t-know-about; the latter could prove very tedious for solvers like, well, yours truly. The Guardian prides itself these days on its international reach, and its puzzle setters would do well to keep that in mind and exercise restraint with respect to UK-centric clueing. That said, today’s offering falls well within bounds that I find acceptable: a couple of rivers, SAN for hospital, Modesty Blaise, dustcarts. I’m open to learning more about your island’s quaint customs and colourful patterns of speech, just not all at once. 😉

62. Doug431 @ 61

    Some years ago there was a holiday double alphabetical, I think 15×15, probably by Araucaria, which included a total of 26 rivers of the globe across the two grids.

    To add the icing on the cake, the names of the rivers, as well as the standard clues, ran the full distance from A to Z.

63. Lord Jim @56. Thanks for the response to mine @53. If it hadn’t been for my blind spot to words beginning with KN (and I can recall failing on a word that may have been GNARLY a few months back, too), I might have been able to spot the solution and would have been happy with your suggestion for the way ‘last thing park wants’=K. I’m not really complaining about the clue, but I do have a quibble, perhaps philosophical, perhaps linguistic, about ‘wants’ being able to mean both “hasn’t got it yet but could really do with it” AND “would have needed it to be complete but now has it”.

64. [ I remember the rivers , it was summer , did it in the garden so August special. 2008 maybe , not sure but will be close. ]

65. PostMark@17. Were I not so modest, I’d be jumping with joy at seeing TWO namechecks in today’s puzzle: 15² AND the Graun (although, for some unknown reason, Pasquale misspelled the other one…)

66. OK, I get it. It’s a paltry parochial idea, and anyway it’s already been done, and better, by Araucaria and James Joyce, no less. I know when I’ve been put firmly in my place.

67. Late thanks Eileen, I misled myself down the same sidestreets as many earlier commenters (NOT WEE etc) and you have resolved these and in dealing with TassieTim’s points on SKIM/SKID have killed my bird too (I think that boils down to the old usage vs what’s in the book argument, and it’s hard to argue with a book written down in black and white).
    I learned not only the currency but that LYDIAN could describe more than a tattooed lady! And with some snazzy new devices seen earlier this week I enjoyed an “old school” crossword where I had to recall minor rivers, old terms for medical centres etc – plenty of room for puzzles that keep some lingo alive as well as ones that bring in slang only heard last week at the back of the 141 bus.
    BLAISE kept me guessing longest and I was going to grumble that a fiery blaze is far more intense than a gently glinting shine until I remembered “it will flame out like shining from shook foil” and that calmed me down, thanks Pasquale.

68. [gladys@66, i was going to suggest that you console yourself with a pint of Piddle – various decent ales brewed at the Wyre Piddle Brewery near Piddle Brook in Worcestershire and reassuringly served at cellar rather than body temperature! But the web tells me it shut down several years ago, sorry. ]

69. [Gazzh @68: literally on my doorstep. Walking distance. And, yes, sadly closed down pre-Covid. And Piddle, of course, means a small stream and we are very proud of our Piddle Brook!]

70. The rivers puzzle was 26035 by Maskarade, summer bank holiday 2013.

71. Gazzh @68 – many thanks for the Gerard Manley Hopkins reminder.

72. Thanks, BigNorm@58. I thought it might have some connection to things like dustbins.

    I’d bet that not a single person on this forum knew the mysterious currency, you and I are not alone.

73. I confess that I am too idle to follow up the link to Maskerade’s rivers puzzle so helpfully provided by Simon S @20 but if it was not included it is high time that one of our illustrious setters acknowledges the cryptic potential of East Sussex’s River Uck.

74. Whoops! Simon S @70 And big thanks to Eileen and the Don

75. HI Jezzerami @73/74

    I don’t recognise your name, so welcome if you’re a new commenter and my sincere apologies if I’ve missed you and you’re not!

    That sounds like a good one – I look forward to seeing it. 😉

76. Gazzh@68
    The Piddle brewery in Piddlehinton in Dorset is still functioning. It opens at 8am tomorrow. It’s a long time since I had a pint of Piddle but I seem to remember enjoying it.

77. essexboy @60 – nope, never heard that one (i.e. garbo = greta). Nice idea, though.

78. [ Rivers – finally found my crossword diary for 2008, it was March 2008 for the Araucaria rivers, must have been a warm Easter. ]

79. [PostMark@69, Pino@76 – so the Piddle still flows, in both senses – marvellous.]

80. A late contribution to the rivers/mouth conversation. Here on the Isle of Wight, with a notable lack of imagination, two of our three rivers have the same, three-letter, name – YAR. One of them has the lovely little town of YARMOUTH where it meets the sea.
    The other (Great) Yarmouth is at the mouth of the Yare in Norfolk.

81. [Belated thanks for responding, TassieTim @77. While attempting to investigate the Aussie garbo, I came across this little gem (from the Sydney Morning Herald, 1951) lamenting the sad disappearance of the bottle-oh.]

82. g larsen@80: I love the two Norwich rivers, the Yare (the fast one: Shakespeare knew yare=quick) and the Wensum (the slow, winding, wend-some one).

83. Good stuff , thanks Pasquale and Eileen.
    “The Vanderbilts have asked us up for tea …
    We don’t know how to get there, no siree No, siree ”
    – We’re A Couple Of Swells, from Easter Parade.

84. Doug431 at@61. Not only is there an UK bias, I have never heard of a “dustcart” in northern England. And never heard of “san” outside crossword for that matter. But hey ho.
    Thanks both.

85. San, like pi=good and a few others, is ancient public-school slang which only survives in Crosswordland. It helps to have read Billy Bunter in your youth.

86. [ Dustcart probably from dustbin, in the past most houses had coal fires and most of the waste would be the ash which is very dusty. Also people would have thrown away far less rubbish in the past. Hence the dust cart to collect the dustbin waste , they also became known as dustbin lorries. ]

87. Cornelius Vanderbilt made his money in, and was known for, shipping and railroads, not as a financier.

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