Guardian Cryptic 28,457 by Enigmatist

98 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,457 by Enigmatist”

1. More slog than delight here, with several nhos: Titograd; bootee for Royal Marine (and I’d spell the tootsie warmer bootie); Lachesis; putlog; tone as body (eh?); hawse rather than hawser, and sess as tax (thought it was cess). Mostly gettable, with a bit of check button, but not much fun, unlovelier (erk!) than usual. Probly my mood more than anything. Ta both.

2. I found this quite hard, as I expected seeing the setter’s name, until I “cracked the code”, when the remaining half of the puzzle fell into place. But why was it hard, I asked myself. Usually on reflection the hard clues seem straightforward, but I have a few ideas here. As well as a few uncommon terms, we have:

   In UPON OATH, “not this” doesn’t seem like a good definition, or leader-in to an extended definition.
   UNLOVELIER implies all oil paintings are lovely. You haven’t seen any of mine!
   In the Venn diagram, UNTWISTS and “opens” do overlap, but not by much.
   In LOGLOG, “daily” is unnecessary.
   Some wordplays were fair but quite contrived.

   Still, I did quite enjoy it.

   BTW in MONOTONE, I took the NOTONE segment to be “not one”=nobody.

3. Yep, not one makes more sense, Dr. Wh.

4. Oh, one more: might=can in CANCAN. Venn diagram again.

5. 24ac: didn’t see the Jolly. Instead, I figured that a BOOTEE got their marching orders by being booted (out); presumably by a bootER (outerer)?

6. As did Dr Whatson@2, I found this a slog but looking back the clues were fair. It took forever for me to see FOREORDAIN. The device was helpful but I didn’t fully appreciate it till finished.
   Dr WhatsOn 14a I assumed was referring to the phrase” S/he’s no oil painting” meaning someone is not so good-looking.
   Thanks to E and P

7. Complete agreement with PeterO – and no quibbles – this was a very worthy and enjoyable challenge. For me it was a story of four quadrants. Was pleased to survive and complete the NE, with TINTIN and CANCAN both memorable clues. Then spread out gradually into the other four quadrants, and watched the pattern emerge. Got a real chuckle out of IVORY TOWER, and enjoyed HOWSES (I’ve had great luck lately, have either lived in or taken a holiday at many obscure places referenced in recent puzzles, in fact only yesterday had a good smirk at all the to-do over UPSTATE – lived there for a quarter of a century). LOI was PUTLOG, which was new-to-me and needed a bit of side research. Thanks setter, for a very enjoyable evening.

8. I also agree with PeterO. Perhaps my judgement is slightly clouded as I think this only the second ENIGMATIST I have ever completed. I put BIT BY BIT in early as a guess, without having solved any of the connected clues and forgot about it until I read this blog, so it didn’t help me.

   Very clever device and a bit of a feat to fit them in I imagine.

   Thanks PeterO and Enigmatist

9. Wow. Thank you Enigmatist.

   And thank you too PeterO. I needed parsing help!

10. Both too hard and too easy: once it became clear how the sets of six letter clues worked (in my case, from the TINTIN-TIN CAN-CANCAN group) many became write-ins, even though I’d never heard of TEETEE, SESSES or LOGLOG, and tried BOOTIE at first. But many of the “real” clues were far beyond me: of the knot of 10s round the middle I only solved the lovely IVORY TOWER and the CRAFT bit of CRAFT UNION.
    Those who worship difficulty will have loved this: I didn’t.

11. [yesyes @9: Looks like you are ‘on theme’ today!]

    I really enjoyed that; the ‘device’ became clear after PUTPUT (my FOI) and LOGLOG and from there wtih the 3-3s solved much of the rest fell into place. Not quick or easy by any stretch and there were a few DNKs but it was a logic puzzle and a crossword combined so right up my street!

    Thank you Enigmatist and PeterO!

12. I’ll join PeterO in saying that I found this a delight. I spotted what was probably going on when I solved 5, 10 and 12 down, and this helped enormously when solving the clues in the other three corners

    Thank you to Enigmatist for the brain-stretching (don’t leave it so long next time) and to PeterO for the blog

13. I really admire this crossword but it defeated me. I had to reveal 4 answers. For me that is a good score with Enigmatist! Thanks to both setter and blogger, although I still do not understand the parsing for 1d – what do you mean by ‘second version’? I just guessed it of course!

14. “He’s got two degrees in beebop, a PhD in swing
    He’s a Master of Rhythm He’s a rock n roll King”

    Lowell George

15. When I saw the name on the puzzle, I thanked my lucky stars that it was my blog yesterday! I began the solve thinking that I might well not get very far.

    However, I saw 5, 10 and 12ac immediately, and, like crypticsue, thought I might have detected a theme and gradually worked my way clockwise around the grid, enjoying it more and more as I went. It was kind of Enigmatist to spell out at 15dn exactly what he was up to. I would never have got PUTLOG in the last corner without that.

    Favourite clues: the well-hidden LACHESIS (ARACHNE wouldn’t fit!), UNLOVELIER (I’m with ngaiolaurenson re ‘no oil painting’), and IVORY TOWER.

    Thanks to Enigmatist for an enjoyable workout and to PeterO for a great blog.

16. Wasn’t quite up to this today. Also felt as if it was a puzzle rather separated into four quarters by the grid. Had TINTIN, TINCAN and CANCAN in early, and thought I was making some kind of headway. Trying to take in a clue such as “Coming about ahead in shot on green thing with a noisy engine” doesn’t really fill me with joy and anticipation, I’m afraid. And discovering on here that PUTLOG was one of the required solutions made me realise that I was correct to leave things unfinished. Not my cup of tea, therefore, though I realise that many will enjoy and appreciate Enigmatist’s usual wit and ingenuity…

17. For me this was clever, original and great fun once the theme was spotted. Some obscure words needed checking but nothing unfair. Thanks!

18. Thanks Enigmatist and PeterO

    A DNF – I revealed NON-ENTRY. A coupIe of others not parsed, too. I did know PUT LOG, though, from reading about the construction of mediaeval cathedrals.

    Tongue-in-cheek, I would question “Hawes” as “Gateway to the Dales”. Places that call themselves “Gateway to…” are invariably not actually there, whereas Hawes is ensconced in Wensleydale. Skipton, or, to a lesser extent, Settle (which I tried first), or Sedbergh fit the description better (Skipton calls itself “Gateway to the Dales”, in fact).

19. Rather like Mike Campbell’s bankruptcy in The Sun Also Rises, this solve happened gradually then suddenly. Something of a curate’s egg for me as a consequence. Thanks both.

20. Funnily enough I got PUT-PUT and then BOO-BOO, straight away and then seeing 15d realised that the others identified in that clue must follow the same pattern, though like Gladys @ 10 I didn’t know SESSES, TEETEE even after googling and couldn’t really parse all of them.

    Managed to get some of the rest but gave up – way above my level.

    Thanks Enigmatist and especially PeterO for the blog – really needed it.

21. Many thanks PeterO. But it’s a slow handclap from me for Enigmatist, showing off his cleverness again. It was challenging puzzle, granted, but not a crossword puzzle – more a slog through the undergrowth of Chambers, Google and Wikipedia.

22. Once I cracked the device, like PeterO, I too found it a delight. Same favourites as Eileen and PUTLOG was also, not surprisngly new for me. Like ngaiolaurenson, I struggled way too too long with FOREORDAIN. Remarkable feat today.

    Ta Enigmatist & PeterO

23. Not my sort of puzzle. Thanks to PeterO for the blog; it fixed a few mis-parsings and rank guesses.

24. I hadn’t seen that ‘trick’ before so give full marks to Enigmatist for coming up with something differently clever.

25. Very cleverly put together, but it calls to mind a comment of Boatman’s – when you solve it, it should be an “Aha!” moment, not a “Grr!” moment. And for my taste there was far too much Grr.
    Which said, there are some very neat and enjoyable clues, favourites being 14a, 18a, 13d, 16d.
    Thanks Enigmatist up to a point, and thanks PeterO for an immaculately helpful blog.

26. Like Dave Ellision I was delighted to finish an Enigmatist with just one unparsed – NON-ENTRY – and now that I’ve seen PeterO’s explanation I think I can forgive myself for that.

    SinCam @13: the ‘second version’ means that PU appears twice in PUT-PUT, and it’s the second one which is a reversal of UP.

    muffin @18: Balham, Gateway to the South 😉

    Thanks E and P

27. Typically quirky and ingenious puzzle from Enigmatist. As ever with this setter I found it challenging and enjoyable – up to a point. The wordplay varies from the straightforward to the extremely tortuous, and the surfaces from the brilliant to the plainly nonsensical (“Ship’s parts stuck, to begin with, in a Gateway to the Dales”. Eh? And like muffin @18 I first tried vainly to do something here with Skipton!)

    I didn’t know PUTLOG, TEETEE (though this came easily) or SESSES (great clue), which didn’t help. Plaudits though for UNLOVELIER, LACHESIS -and IVORY TOWER.

    Thanks nevertheless to setter and blogger.

28. I found this very difficult today, and was DNF by some distance. But what I managed to complete, I enjoyed very much. Great work, Enigmatist, and great blogging, PeterO.

    [Because I have nothing much to contribute about the puzzle itself, here’s an irrelevant anecdote instead: we have a cake tin adorned with Tintin artwork, aka the Tintin tin. If the cake isn’t inside it, what do we say?
    ‘t i’n’t in Tintin tin, of course!]

29. Dr WhatsOn @2 – “no oil painting” is a common enough figure of speech, not to be taken too literally.

30. [me @26/muffin – oops, meant to link to the Peter Sellers version]

31. Remarkably clever, but for me a sorry catalogue of guess and check, bung and shrug, BIFD and NHOs. More a chore than a pleasure at this end, I’m afraid. Nevertheless, thanks to Enigmatist for the mind-bending workout and to PeterO for explaining why my guesses were correct.

32. [essexboy @26
    Thanks for that. I haven’t heard it for ages, and never realised that it was filmed!]

33. [essexboy @30
    Yes, that’s the version I remember.]

34. Great piece of setting and a very clever idea.

    I solved it with a lot of help; quite a bit of GK needed – for instance, if you hadn’t come across HAWES, 20 was very difficult to piece together. The obscurities were forced by the theme – I realised the definition for PUTLOG was ‘Support for the Scaffold’ but it’s not a word I’ve come across before. For LACHESIS, Chambers gives: ‘ … and who spun the thread of life …’, which seems to be a mistake.

    All-in-all, I really enjoyed this with the theme helping to piece together some of the answers. I liked UNLOVELIER, IVORY TOWER and CRAFT UNION.

    Thanks Enigmatist for the brain stretching and PeterO for all the explanations.

35. As yesyes@9 said: Wow!! Tremendously clever but incredibly hard work. I had to resort to all kinds of ruses to finish. Podgoria in 9a could have been a plant for all I knew. Favourites were UNTWISTS and IVORY TOWER. Admiration to Enigmatist and thanks to PeterO.

36. I’m quite new to this, I’ve been doing them for a few weeks now and getting more and more each day.

    I’ve managed find explanations for a lot of the crossword short hand, but I don’t understand why posh = ‘U’ I’ve seen it a couple of times and apparently it’s so self evident that it doesn’t need explaining. Could some one please enlighten me?

37. [Alex @ 36. Rather than enter into a long explanation, let me just recommend this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English%5D

38. Is it Saturday already?

    A very good puzzle, but kudos to anyone who finished it without looking anything up: I didn’t know Podgorica/Titograd, for one. It took me a while to work out the “triplets,” and lots fell into place once I did.

    23a (BREAKAGE): is Ag really a “contraction” of silver? Chemical symbols aren’t abbreviations.

39. This felt more like Prize standard than typical weekday fare, with some swearing when I reached 15 on the first pass.
    After getting CAN-CAN, I guessed that all the listed answers would be similarly doubled up, but as the clue didn’t highlight the half-way steps, I didn’t even notice those, and went down a dead end trying to connect up the 3-letter components by changing one letter at a time. Without seeing the pattern, PUTLOG and HAWSES were far too obscure for me.
    The forest-dwelling TEE-TEE was also difficult to verify (search engines seem to like t-shirts), but the only option left given the crossers.

40. I’m not having a go at Martin@31 here, even though it might look as though I am. I’d just like to make a general point that I think I may have made before: It always surprises me when people seem to regard a word or topic that they had never heard of before as constituting some kind of valid criticism of puzzle and setter whenever one comes up as the answer they’d been searching for. I should have thought that finding out something new (whether courtesy of Professor Google or not) would, if anything, be a cause for celebration, congratulation even.

    Having said that, I’d like to undermine what I just said by saying that I really enjoyed this particular puzzle because I think it’s the first Enigmatist I’ve ever solved virtually unaided. (And I have also learnt that ‘tee-tee’ is, inter alia, an American euphemism for urine – who knows when that might come in useful one day?)

41. What RogerN @21 said.

42. A puzzle where I think the editor might have given the traditional Azed advice that Chambers is recommended. It would signal to those who don’t know Enigmatist what they must expect. I have no problem with the Guardian setting such a puzzle, but quite a few Guardian setters don’t base their definitions around Chambers, so an inexperienced solver has no particular reason to expect clues like 8D, where the definition is practically lifted word for word, or 26A (where Chambers lists tee-tee as an alternative spelling for the more common titi, but Google produces nothing but tee shirt slogans). I enjoyed it all, but then I have Chambers and have been round these blocks a few times.

43. Miche@38
    Most chemical symbols are abbreviations, however not of their English name.
    Attached is a full list with explanations.
    https://www.bodycote.com/list-chemical-symbols/
    Good crossword, thanks to PeterO and E

44. What graninfreo said @1. A DNF (14a, 13d). Far too much “well, it could be…”, enter it and check, which was the only way I could make progress.

45. Sagittarius @42: Fair point, but I think if I’d seen ‘Chambers recommended’ next to the puzzle I might have given up before I started! And that would have been a shame, because (to blow my own trumpet yet again) I did eventually find it was possible to get there without aids.

    To take an example – quite a few people have said they had never heard of Podgorica. I didn’t know where it was, but it had a kind of Yugoslavian/SE European feel. Then I thought of places that had changed their names after the collapse of the old Communist regimes. No more Karl-Marx-Stadt in (East) Germany, no more Leningrad and Stalingrad in Russia. What might an ex-name be for a place in ex-Yugoslavia?

    So with a bit of luck, a bit of logic, the TOG reversal and the crossers… Tito’s your uncle.

46. [Any visitor of ruined castles will have seen those mysterious square holes halfway up the tower wall, where the first floor used to be. That’s where the ends of the support beams used to go, and they are (drumroll) PUTLOG holes. I knew reading all those guidebooks would come in handy one day.]

47. Unbearable

48. gladys @ 46

    A lot of the time the putlog holes climb the tower in a spiral, as the scaffolding height was increased to match the growth of the walls.

49. I found this hard. I am getting used to Guardian cryptic over the last year. 25 across I was thinking of spin bowlers!

50. Various comments about the obscurity of Podgorica/TITOGRAD (which actually was a write-in for me, unlike some of the other solutions) reminds me of Chamberlain‘s remark about “a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing”. And look where that led…!

51. But as always I’ve learned a new word – putlog.

52. Brilliantly constructed and clued! A toughie and I had a couple unparsed but overall fair. Getting the theme early helped. I thought 7d TACO CHIP was genius.

    I remember doing Enigmatists first Grauniad puzzle when he was 16 if I recall correctly. Still going strong!

    Thanks to Enigmatist and to PeterO for parsing 27a

53. I’m reminded of the (presumably apocryphal) review that “people who like this sort of thing will like this sort of thing”.

    For my part I don’t expect to make much headway on a Friday crossword anyway, but after getting PUTLOG as my FOI I got drawn in, albeit with a fair degree of checking (I was literally reading the Pevsner for Gwynedd this morning, which mentions the distinctive pattern of holes for putlogs in the Edwardian castles, so they were on my mind). Agree with essexboy @45, btw – this is how I solved TITOGRAD

    I’m still not sure this was my sort of thing, but glad I gave it a go – and that the Guardian lets its setters do their different things.

54. [Wow! A real Marmite puzzle today…]

55. This was the crossword equivalent of one of those pub quizzes in which the question-setter/quizmaster fails to realise that his chief duty is to entertain, regarding it instead as a chance to show off his supposed erudition.

56. I always allow myself a modicum of cheating when Enigmatist is the torturer-of-the-day, and although I recognised Podgorica I was unable to get myself down the pathway that essexboy found @45, so gold star for him and “see me” for me.

    I couldn’t get UNTWISTS, so even allowing the use of Google and Chambers I still didn’t finish.

    Things I learnt today: PUTLOG, LACHESIS, TEETEE, “a vassal heir’s failure to renew investiture” and of course TITOGRAD.

    Thanks to Enigmatist and extra special thanks to PeterO for the blog. I’m off now to try to work “putlog” into a conversation.

57. Thanks to those pointing out the oil painting expression. My TILT.

58. A joyless exercise for me today — some decidedly unlovely words (UNTWISTS, FOREORDAIN, and of course, UNLOVELIER), a slew of alternative spellings, and the use of a formula, rather than wordplay, to solve several clues. That said, I have grudging admiration for a setter brave enough to explore new ground.

    Thanks to PeterO for the all parsings I couldn’t work out. The clever ’10-4′ device in 4 was wasted on me. CRAFT UNION was a rare write-in from the definition, and I moved on without another thought.

59. I like Marmite so I think I’d have to characterise this crossword as “peanut butter” – a substance that I have an inexplicably passionate dislike of. I didn’t enjoy Enigmatist’s last offering and tried really hard to avoid confirmation bias but almost every clue irritated in some way. One the plus side, one of my brother’s prized possessions is a Tintin tin in which he keeps his “smoking” paraphernalia and I remain on the lookout for a Cancan can to complement it 🙂

60. Hard work and not a lot of fun for me today. Like copmus@14 I am going to seek solace with the Rock’n’Roll Doctor.

61. Thanks very much PeterO, you had your work cut out today – what a bizarre experience that was, solutions coming like buses, I’ve never been so confident about entering words I have never heard of despite having little clue what the definition and wordplay were – thanks also gladys and Simon S for interesting elaboration on one of those! But I still needed artificial assistance for a few (Eileen I spent a while with my shoehorn and Arachne, before moving on to cricketers and SpAds before guessing/spotting and googling) and overall my feeling is a strange mixture of relief, satisfaction and frustration – all very odd, and while I am glad these don’t pop up every day, it would be a shame not to see its like again (just hope i remember some of the things I learned), thanks Enigmatist.

62. Ark Lark@52 and anyone else – while I liked the clue once I got the second half, is a Taco Chip a thing? I am familiar with a Taco (as a filled tortilla) and Tortilla chips: a couple of online dictionaries seem to equate these latter to taco chips but i’d like to find some product or menu doing so to be sure. Every time I google “taco chips” I get references to tortilla chips or taco fries (which seem to include chips as I would understand them but then would not make sense in the singular). Help!

63. The upper right clues were very cleverly constructed, but unfortunately 2d had broken my will by then. The parsing of that is so convoluted that I could only hope to work back from guessing the word, and the word is so obscure that I could only hope to get it by working out the wordplay exactly. Also buffaloed by a couple non-Americanisms (we say “under oath” and “tortilla chip”), and other obscurities. No straightforward clues to get a foothold in the puzzle.

    Thanks PeterO for the explanation.

64. matt w @ 63: re PUTLOG, one person’s ‘obscurity’ is another’s write-in.

65. I knew “hawser” as a mighty thick rope, and “hawsehole” as what it went through, and google informed me that hawse is the very pointy end of a vessel. That being so, Hawes sounded as if it might be the name of a place, and sure ’nuff it was.

    Never heard of a PUTLOG or a TEE=TEE (in the latter case, neither has google.) I’ve also never seen “teetotaller” as TEE-TEE, just as TT.

    Anybody else try CRAFT GUILD for 4d? It’s half right.

    Spooner’s catflap @37 Your link doesn’t work. I’m surprised nobody else has commented on it.

    Tee-tee as an American euphemism is news to this particular American.

    I put NON-ENTRY together from “access refused” and (not owning a
    Chambers) would have no trace of access to this special feudal meaning.

    Copmus@14 and JerryG @60 What’s all that about?

66. I had to resort to every device short of a reveal, but got there in the end. Is Lachesis pronounced “Laker’s is” to satisfy those of us who had the wrong type of spinner, before trying Arachne?

67. Could I solicit a small ripple of appreciation for struggling valiantly to the end of this while deriving no pleasure whatsoever in the journey? Quite surprised at the end to discover how many I’d actually parsed – almost all of them retrospectively. A pleasure for the setter, I’m sure. But for the solver? Well, some of you liked it.

68. What an original, and delightful, thematic design. It was hard to get started, but once I got CANCAN and TIN CAN I sussed what was going on, and I advanced through the grid quadrant by quadrant in the order (in shorthand) TIN CAN, BOOTEE, HAWSES and finally PUTLOG.
    I intended to start with the four long words, but I got none of them and was happy to let them follow my efforts in each corner.
    Thanks to Enigmatist and PeterO.

69. Curate’s egg of comments to which I’ll add – if all crosswords in the Grauniad were like this then I wouldn’t bother. Thankfully they aren’t and I’ll know to just pass on Enigmatist in the future.
    Huge respect to the masters of the art who can complete at this level of complexity. .

70. There has been so much discussion about the answer to 2dn – kudos to the few who had heard of such an unlikely-sounding thing – that I don’t think anyone has mentioned the surface, which gave me an earworm for the day.

71. [My thanks to Valentine@65 for pointing out that the link to U and Non-U does not work. There are a couple of rogue characters there – I have no idea how they crept in. Here hopefully is a better version:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English

72. It’s here. i hope.

73. For the first time since I’ve been doing Guardian crosswords on a regular basis (since the start of lockdown), I didn’t enjoy this one (sorry Enigmatist!), despite managing to finish it. Like others, it felt more of a chore. It seemed too contrived, even though it was clever. However, I think PeterO deserves a gold medal for his explanations.

74. Me @ 71. No, that link has been corrupted as well. I give up. Just type ‘U and non U English’ into the Wikipedia search window

75. Buddy @67, can you spare two and fourpence for a ripple?

    Spooner’s @various – hopefully this is it

    Eileen @70: thank you so much for the medicinal compound! As one of the commenters on YouTube puts it, “the choreography in this video is severely underrated”. 😉

76. Spooner’s catflap
    I was editing your comment #71 to correct the link whilst you were writing comment #74. The problem was that you had a ] immediately after the link which I have now removed.

77. catflap@71 That link worked for me.

78. Can someone tell me why OP is ‘work’ and U is ‘like snobs’? I feel like I’m going mad.

79. Q @78: op is short for opus, Latin for work (often used for ‘works’ of classical music)

    For U, see Spooner’s catflap’s link @71, which thanks to Gaufrid now works.

    (Btw thanks for all the gadgets. Your country owes you. 😉 )

80. Q@78
    OP = shorthand for operation: a task, a work item.
    U is explained in the links above, that now appear to be correctly formed (“U and non U English”).

81. A DNF for me…and I’ve been doing so well lately. Q@78 op is an abbreviation for opus, work, used for musical compositions and U in the U and non-U classification of Alan Ross and Nancy Mitford

82. Many thanks to Gaufrid @76 for sorting that out. Those pesky ]s!

83. I’ve enjoyed reading the contributions here. To those who say they’re never going to try an Enigmatist again, I say “think again”. Yes, it’s difficult. Yes, it’s obscure. Yes, it’s outside your comfort zone. These are reasons for doing it!

84. [bodycheetah @59: I’m with you on the Marmite which often makes a midnight (ish) snack on a Matzo and was known when I was a lad as ‘Matzomarmite’ (we’re simple folk in Southend…). These days it tends to be washed down with a glass or two of red.

    And so nice to meet another peanut-butter-hater – it is disgusting stuff more akin to sweet, lumpy Polyfilla than any kind of treat. The only thing worse than peanut-butter itself is anything made from it – there is a chocolate bar in the US called ‘Butterfinger’ which needs to be given the finger, IMvHO and those Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups are beyond awful…]

85. [MaidenBartok @84
    …then there’s the Marmite and peanut butter sandwich (that my wife sometimes makes) – doubly disgusting, as far as I’m concenred!]

86. That was really challenging but ultimately rewarding. I hadn’t heard of a lot of the words used in the device (Tee-Tee, Putlog, Log-Log) but they were gettable once I’d figured out the elegant device.

    I do have a quibble with the and lit. definition for 7a, though. I’m a big fan of Mexican food, but had never heard of a “Taco Chip”; a bit of googling tells me that it’s a Belfast specialty. You certainly wouldn’t find it in Tijuana, or anywhere else in Mexico.

87. Clear as mud I’m afraid, along with Paul in future I think I’ll just reveal the lot and try to figure out where the hell they get the answers from.

88. Good one tony smith (and a couple of others).
    Came to that conclusion some time ago but reinforced when I saw how TITOGRAD was made up.

89. For Petert and anyone else still here Lachesis is pronounced lack-eh-sis since the e comes from Gk eta and not epsilon. Knew that would come in useful one day.

90. Marmite? I can take it or leave it. And I think one of the great joys of doing crosswords is their unpredictability – some Grauniad puzzles take 15 minutes, but this one I only finished this morning after taking an Azed type approach to eg NON-ENTRY. Slightly frustrating at times, but got there and that is a satisfaction in itself. Let’s welcome the diversity of puzzles.

91. Postponed solving till Saturday lie-in when I saw Enigmatist was at the helm. Respected ingenuity of theme but didn’t like some of the solutions. Agree with other grumbles re ‘BOOTEE’ spelling, couldn’t find ‘TEE TEE’ on Google, and words like ‘PUTLOG’ and ‘SESSES’ are too obscure to provide that ‘penny drop’ moment which is key to a satisfying solve. But these are quibbles when weighed against the crafty delights of ‘UNLOVELIER’, ‘FOREORDAIN’ and ‘IVORY TOWER’ and, more generally, the love and labour which distinguishes all Enig’s puzzles. Keep doing what you’re doing, sir.

92. Yogdaws @ 91

    An observation, not a carp

    ‘Putlog’ would be familiar to anyone with an interest in mediaeval buildings and their construction, which even a subset of the membership of National Trust and English/Welsh/Scottish Heritage [or whatever they’re called these days] would seem to be a large number.

    And ‘sess’, in its more familiar guise as ‘cess’ is a not infrequent visitor to crosswordland.

93. Petert @66 and Plotinus @89: I didn’t know this, but Plotinus’s post (dictum Plotini?) sparked my curiosity. According to wiki the Greek spelling is

    Λάχεσις

    …which means its anglicised pronunciation would be lacki-sis, with the stress on the lack. Sadly still no homophonic nod to Jim Laker, or his sister!

94. Found this bit of a struggle as didn’t spot the now obvious pattern in the 3+3 answers. That and the obscure words made it unsatisfying for me.

95. Very clever though. Thanks both

96. Definitely the lanterne rouge where these comments are concerned as I didn’t finish it until today. A hard uphill slog. A neighbour asked me a few months ago what the significance of the holes left by scaffolders might be, in the front of her house. Nice to now have a word for them: putlogs. My uncle, who was in the Royal Navy, used to refer to Marines as bootnecks. Bootee does smack of one who got the boot.

97. I’m very NeilH@25 on this one, even shades of Buddy@67. More enjoyed in the after-reflections than in the doing I’m afraid.
    But big respect to PeterO (and tickled by the “t’int in Tin Tin tin” @? above)

98. Ridiculous.

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