Guardian Cryptic 28,466 by Nutmeg

103 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,466 by Nutmeg”

1. A wonderful puzzle! A lot of clever stuff – I particularly liked “Spartan character” and “naval base”.

   It didn’t bother me, but I was wondering if some may not like the clue for WIGWAM, since “Native American” and “US” may share the same geography but are not the same.

2. A quick scan of the clues told me this might be a challenge – and indeed it was, almost broke the hour. At one time I had the RHS completed and next-to-nothing on the left. That long down anagram got under my skin for far too long, but when it yielded the rest fell smoothly until the NW corner, when I took a DIVE on GALL (LOI). On the journey, especially enjoyed WIGWAM, FAIR EXCHANGE and YEARBOOK, among others.
   Thanks for a fun puzzle, Nutmeg.

3. The i hadn’t come out when were last there, so paper bag was a bung and pray. Ditto setscrew, a dnk. But otherwise yes it was pretty clear and with Nutmeg’s characteristic succinctness, like d ive, t hen, fell flat and angle r (spot of fishing, nothing nasty!). Plangent is a lovely word. Always enjoy a Nutmeg, and ta PeterO.

4. I think “potentially” indicates that “I” is an example of a paper rather than the definition thereof.

5. Whew. I can’t believe I finished that, after achieving nothing on the first pass. Lovely whimsy in many of the clues that required a free-wheeling imagination to unpack. Thank you, Vulcan and PeterO!

6. In what sense does LIBERALISE mean “moderate”?

7. Even though I suspected 1a would end with CUP right from the start, it still ended up being LOI after GALL finally suggested itself. And the smile of admiration lasted just as long. Lovely smooth surfaces – perhaps apart from 19d which is smooth but a less lovely image (not that that’s a complaint). I took ‘potentially’ in PAPER BAG the same way as ILAN CARON, though I’m not sure the clue actually needed it.

   I very much enjoyed PHIALS, the aforementioned EGGCUP, FAIR EXCHANGE, ALL ROUND and FELL FLAT. My favourite was SQUARE RIGGED for the delightful definition. I’m not sure I understand the parenthesised comment about the clever insertion of RETSINA into CANISTERS you’re a day late for any further comment: was June 7th International Retsina Day or similar? I’m always missing these vital events.

   Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

8. Nice work as ever from Nutmeg.

   Chambers has, under “sheet,” “a sail (poetic).” Presumably used by landlubber poets, since a sheet is a rope:

   nautical
   a line or rope for controlling the position of a sail relative to the wind
   [Collins]

9. PostMark @7 I think the comment refers to how retsina gets its distinctive flavour.

10. Another top class example of clue writing, and a very enjoyable start to the day. Nutmeg regularly shows that wordy clues are not needed in order to provide witty challenges.
    Thanks, as always, to setter and blogger.

11. A fun puzzle to start the day. The couple of dnks being SETSCREW and ROWEL were nicely availble from the wordplay. Thanks as always PeterO and Nutmeg

12. This was an enjoyable puzzle from start to finish. Worth it for CANISTERS alone.

13. Lots to enjoy as always with Nutmeg. I wondered a bit about L being the base of ‘naval’ – I would expect the first rather than last letter. Stared for ages at 24a before getting ALL-ROUND. Loved WIGWAM, FAIR EXCHANGE, PHIALS, and FELL FLAT in particular. Many thanks to N & PeterO.

14. I often think the sign of a good clue is that it is obvious once you’ve solved it, and there were plenty of those. Setscrew is new to me, and it’s a thing I recognise and have used but previously didn’t have a name for. I’m not sure about boss in this context though.

    The only one I thought unfair was square rigged. I don’t think anybody would ever call a sail a sheet, certainly nobody who knows anything about sailing.

15. We have had comments about the ubiquitousness of ASTI for wine, but not as recently as yesterday as far as I know – retsina in CANISTERS makes a welcome change.

    Took me a long time to get going on this, but the answers gradually spread out from GALL at the top and GNAT at the bottom, and nearly all rewarding to parse. Dnk the exact meanings of SETSCREW or PROXIMAL and just realised I failed to fully parse TALKED OVER.

    Favourites FELL FLAT, FAIR EXCHANGE, the man adjusting his flies and WIGWAM: I parsed this as GI in MAW W reversed: so that the mum, the whiskey and the soldier, as well as the home, are all “American-style”.

    Many thanks Nutmeg for a lovely puzzle and PeterO for the blog.

16. Unlike PeterO (thanks for the blog) I found this much trickier than usual. Nothing to complain about – I just wasn’t properly tuned in this morning and only had a couple of solutions at first pass.

    Very good use of homonyms in the clues – I loved FELL FLAT and SQUARE RIGGED. Though no sailor, I have come across ‘sheet’ for ‘sail’ – ‘three sheets to the wind’ being one of the more picturesque but decorous expressions for ‘intoxicated’.

    LOI LIBERALISE – ‘moderate’ as a synonym is a bit off-centre for me.

    Thanks to the Spice Girl for the challenge.

17. The less said about my solving experience the better. But I think PeterO’s cryptic aside re RETSINA refers to the fact that yesterday’s blogger, Eileen, recently admitted that she dislikes it as much as Chinese tea.

18. Having been well-and-truly Nutmegged in the past, today was a welcome change in that 45 minutes after starting I had a full grid!

    No DNKs but quite a lot of head-scratching agree wtih ravenrider @14 that the joy is in how obvious the clue is once you’ve solved it.

    FOI PAPER BAG; LOI FELL FLAT but only because of the order of things. I thought that the surface of 15d was lovely – a bit of a chorttle.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO!

19. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO
    I was another who found this more difficult than usual. First pass yielded only GALL (in which, unsurprisingly, I didn’t like the “in”), GNAT, and a tentative STING.
    I didn’t like “moderate” for LIBERALISE either.
    I too liked CANISTERS, though I think I’ve seen a similar use of retsina before (I agree with Eileen – the best use for it!). FELL FLAT also amused.

20. Oh, and I’m another who had never heard of a SETSCREW, so that was LOI.

21. Great crossword, as always with Nutmeg. I wondered if 6d read ‘I potentially’ because the newspaper styles the letter as lowercase for its name. Enjoyed all the clues on offer today.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO.

22. ravenrider @14: re SQUARE-RIGGED, Nutmeg hasn’t defined sheet as sail. That was PeterO (sorry Peter). I rationalised the solution on the presumption that a certain arrangement of sails – which is how I would normally recognise the phrase – surely requires a certain arrangement of rigging and ropes. I’m no sailor but could that work? I’d be surprised if Nutmeg simply got that wrong; not like her.

23. Gladys @ 15 I parsed WIGWAM as you did.

    Made good progress on the top half but found the rest very tough – lots of use of aids. Found that I got quite a few from the description and the crossers but could not parse them.

    Like others loved the use of retsina in CANISTERS. Also liked APOSITE, PRENUP and FAIR EXCHANGE.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO

24. Thoroughly satisfying solve, loved it.

    Eileen, if you’re around, I feel sure you mentioned retsinavery recently but can’t recall the context.

    Didn’t spot the spartan charactergag at PHIALS but everything else went in smoothly.

    Many thanks, both.

25. Lovely surfaces from Nutmeg in this puzzle. I do appreciate the aesthetic of the clue in combination with its cryptic wordplay.
    I wasn’t convinced by ‘moderate’=LIBERALISE, but otherwise really enjoyed the whole experience.
    My thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO today.

26. [Whoops! I am actually ‘pserve_p2’ but this friend’s MacBook insists on silently replacing ‘pserve’ with ‘serve’. Grrrrrr!]

27. I’d not noticed before, but Nutmeg’s impeccably polished surfaces certainly make it difficult to spot the definition part. My last in, PLANGENT is a good example: I thought proposition would mutate from verb to noun to provide a synonym of the answer that was wanted… Luckily, I did know the word so once all the crossers were in place that was it.

28. I don’t always like Nutmeg as much as some others do, but I thought this was excellent. Almost all crosswords have at least one clue which can be criticised,: for me there were none in this one. Favourites included ANGLERS, TALKED OVER and SQUARE-RIGGED. I agree with PostMark@22 – the sheets are the ropes which control the sails, and a square-rigged ship has a particular set of sails, which require a particular set of sheets.
    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

29. I was not on Nutmeg’s wavelength today and it felt like a chore. Not her fault that I am so dim.
    Failed PLANGENT, GALL.
    Guessed a few answers. Did not parse 10ac, 6d, 8d, 26ac.
    23ac rev of MA GI – why the 2 Ws? Oh I see now – I forgot that w = with.
    New for me: ROWEL.

    Liked EGGCUP, PRE-NUP, FELL FLAT, FAIR EXCHANGE.

    Thanks, P+N

30. Michaelle @29: Re WIGWAM: you can parse this two ways. Either as PeterO does, or as Gladys @15, Fiona Anne @23 and I did: Mum = Maw, making an all-American clue.

31. ‘Fell flat’ could also be ‘down-home’ (albeit with a hyphen and until you get the crossers).

32. Nutmeg on top form today with a real treat of a puzzle.

    I loved EGGCUP, PHIALS, FELL FLAT, REFITS and AFTER MY OWN HEART – I’m dying to know which quirky weatherman has captured Nutmeg’s heart. 😉

    Re retsina: if PeterO was referring to me, all I can say is, KLColin, ‘dislike’ is far too mild a word: when I was foolish enough to try it, decades ago, I couldn’t believe it was wine! (I promise I’ll try not to mention it again: I’ve obviously done so enough times already.)

    Many thanks, as ever, to Nutmeg for a real treat and to PeterO for the blog.

33. Peter O, re 13a. I think the definition is “swift dive” rather than just “dive” otherwise the clue makes ‘swift’ redundant. Just a thought. Enjoyed this . thanks to Nutmeg and Peter O.

34. chargehand @33: I presume you mean swift decline ?

35. Phew! Got there in the end. On a 1-10 scale, this got an 8 from me for both enjoyment and difficulty. Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO for the explanations.

36. FELL FLAT sums up my solving experience today. Just not anywhere near completion but having revealed, I can appreciate what a lovely puzzle it was. Ah well…

    Ta Nutmeg & PeterO

37. Was trying to convince myself that somehow the solution to 19d was Selfie, with an anagram of Flies in there with an extra E from somewhere. Also played with the possibility of Backer instead of BETTER as I had the B in place for 15d. Therefore my SE corner became difficult till I saw the light. Last two in the tricky ROWEL and therefore WIGWAM.
    A proper old challenge set by Nutmeg this morning, I thought…

38. A Nutmeg and I can’t access any Guardian sites, anywhere?! Doo doo doo.

39. …and as it was 1ac, the first clue of the day faced, I spent some time considering the possibility of Pot being the receptacle rather than Cup. As in Teapot, with some kind of homophonic golf association with Tee. Ah well, all’s well that ends well…

40. Ronald @39: Same here except Teacup rather than Teapot and with the same golfing connection…

41. Always a pleasure to solve a Nutmeg puzzle (or sometimes slip on a cunningly disguised banana skin! Stayed upright today though
    Thanks

42. PostMark @22, beaulieu @28: So sheets are ropes and not sails. Thanks for the elucidation. I recognised them as nautical items, so I was nevertheless able to solve the clue without difficulty.

43. Moderate = Liberalise???
    Also fishermen use flies not anglers!

44. manhattan @43 – Wow – I didn’t realise there was a difference between fisherpersons and anglers.

45. Another great puzzle from Nutmeg that I found very tricky.

    I toyed with tea cup for 1A, although it never looked right. I also saw the potential ‘maw’ in 23, as others have done. It works both ways though. I particularly liked ANGLER, WIGWAM, TALKED OVER and AFTER MY OWN HEART.

    BTW, Chambers Thesaurus gives ‘moderate’ as one synonym of LIBERALISE.

    Thanks Nutmeg and PeterO.

46. Further to my comment at 42, ‘sheet’ = rope explains the terminology of the knot known as a ‘sheet bend’. I always imagined it was used by the illicit lover to tie bedding together to escape from an upstairs window….

47. BTW, Chambers also gives this for sheet: ‘7.A sail (poetic).’

48. Delightful as ever from Nutmeg. Took me a while to accept that EGGCUP was one word and sent to long trying to start ROWEL with RI from the reversed edges of inferior 🙂

    [Tenuous musical link of the day: PLANGENT Visions are a music publisher responsible for a fabulous roster of post-punk talent including Elvis Costello, The Specials, Squeeze, Nick Lowe and, er, Chesney Hawkes who was perhaps the one and only lapse of judgement on their part]

49. Robi @47 et’al. People have been looking for ‘sheet’ being used to mean ‘sail’. Instead, look up ‘sail’. This is Chambers online: “sail noun 1, a sheet of canvas, or similar structure, spread to catch the wind as a means of propelling a ship.” The clue does not, therefore, depend on a sheet being a sail, but simply on a sail being a sheet.

50. [bodycheetah @48: Ugh – horrible ear-worm wtih the Chesney Hawkes. Thank you (not). I was invovled in the early days of IP contact centres and frequently had to listen to hold music whilst fault-finding (and my goodness, we had a LOT of faults). There were two pieces of ‘hold’ music on our systems; Mr Hawke’s supremely awful trash or another named ‘Opus 1.’ Both stick with me like you-know-what to a sheet…]

51. Robi @47 (and others). I was another who thought that a sheet is a nautical rope, but Chambers defines sail thus: ‘a sheet of canvas (etc)’. So I think Nutmeg is quite right to clue SQUARE RIGGED as she has; Mark’s explanation @22 also works but is unnecessary, in my view.

    I agree with ILAN CARON that ‘potentially’ is necessary to define PAPER as ‘i’ defines newspaper by example.

    This was the best sort of crossword, with tricky surfaces hiding the definitions well, but all revealing itself with perseverance. Most enjoyable.

    Thanks to Nutmeg and PeterO.

52. Spooner’s catflap @49. You posted while I was typing – yes, I’m a slow typist! But good to know that we thought the same about sheets and sails.

53. In 10a could not the Spartan reference be to (E)PHIAL(TE)S who betrayed the Lacedaimonians at Thermopylae? The TEE would be the character short?

    O xeine angelein…..

54. KLColin @17
    Indeed; my aside was intended for Eileen and other dedicated followers of fifteensquared.
    cherghand @33 (as corrected by William @34)
    That was my intention, but somehow it did not happen. Now corrected.
    ravenrider @14
    I put in the definition from Collins largely because it mentioned ‘boss’. When a setscrew is used to secure something wheel-like to a shaft, the screw is generally set in a small cylindrical boss on one side of the wheel. If all goes well, here is an example, showing a cog and boss without the shaft.

55. [All this discussion of sheets etc. reminds me of the question
    “How many ropes are there on the fully-rigged Cutty Sark?”

    I am (fairly) reliably informed that there are 2 – the tow-rope and the bell-rope. All the other “ropes” are actually called something else – sheets, shrouds, halyards etc.]

56. PeterO @54. Your link took me to a worm gear, but here, hopefully, is a link to an actual Hex Single Boss Nub with Set Screw. (Most other results to the search for “boss setscrew” seem to lead to sites discussing this clue!)

57. I didn’t like setscrew, and, to be pedantic (which is surely normal in a crossword blog), the newspaper is always i and never I. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this a lot.

58. ILAN CARON @4
    Conventionally, an indication by example should have something to identify it as such, but I am not sure how ‘potentially’ does that job. Another possibility too tortuous to mention, but I am going to anyway: PAPER as a material, rather than short for newspaper; after reading the news, the publication is ‘potentially’ just PAPER, say for lining the birdcage. In the cold light of day (even if it is actually quite warm here), I agree that ‘potentially’ is more likely to go with ‘I’ than with ‘procure’. Topic for discussion: if the newspaper i appears at the start of a sentence, is it capitalized? (That is not intended to provide the fodder for the next 50 comments).

59. PeterO @58. I remember reading a comment by Eileen (@57 yesterday) that changing lower case to capitals is ok in cryptics, but decapitalising something that normally begins with a capital is not allowed. Whether this continues to apply when the word that is being capitalised is normally lower case *despite it being a proper noun* is what will be discussed in the next 49 comments.

60. (Not here!) Ok, so I@1 was wrong: nobody was bothered by the “cultural insensitivity” of the WIGWAM wording – in fact many seemed to love it. I’m guessing there are no Native Americans in this crowd!

61. Thanks PeterO and various contributors above for digging into these and confirming all in order (sorry manhattan@43 but I think you are fishing there – Ronald@37 I went looking for a Selfie too at first). pnin@53 I did do a google search for famous Spartans but didn’t unearth that one, and then landed on the parsing as described by PeterO and was happy, but full marks for depth of research.
    My very minor gripe, but you are welcome to put me straight, is that “Coppers formerly” gives CHANGE+EX (because coppers are still change, except farthings and ha’pennies, so there’s nothing EX about them, so we take the word order as set out in the clue) but “Former coppers” would have suited the surface just as well and given us the right order.
    But overall although it was tough I think this admirably passes the fairness test as 3 or 4 obscurities (including PLANGENT, thanks for the connection bodycheetah@48) all went in from wordplay alone, and I would have found it even harder had Nutmeg omitted eg “on table” from EGGCUP or “prior to match” in PRE-NUP, so thanks Nutmeg!

62. Great puzzle from Nutmeg! And thanks to PeterO for the blog. I found this trickier than normal and struggled to start the LHS. I don’t really get the quibbles mentioned above – I thought the surfaces were a joy. CANISTERS definitely my favourite for the reversal of Retsina.

63. PeterO @54 and sheffield hatter @56: I think those are both grub screws, not set screws? They are fully tapped and can be driven through the hole using the internal hex shape, i.e. there is no head to stop the thing going all the way through.

    A set screw (I think) is one that performs the same function but has a head that protrudes beyond the hole and can therefore be adjusted with a more standard screwdriver (although many have a hex head).

    In the US, I think both types are called ‘set screws.’

    Both have a horrible habit of shaking loose so usually a couple of drops of Loctite Blue are applied to thread prior to tightening.

64. Gazzh @61. I think it’s ‘coppers formerly’ in the sense that small change is not made from copper any more, so although those coins may still be called ‘coppers’, they are not actually copper. See this on the Royal Mint website: “the composition of 1p and 2p coins was changed from bronze [an alloy of copper with zinc and lead] to copper-plated steel in 1992”. Pure copper coins stopped being made even earlier (2nd world war?).

65. Dr. WhatsOn@60: “American” rather than “US” might avoid the presumed offence, but since we don’t have a Native American here to consult, we don’t know. The hypothetical Native American might be more offended if we were to confuse the hut-like WIGWAM or wikiup with the teepee, which is the pointed dwelling with the lodge-poles sticking out of the top, not used by as many tribes as Hollywood would have you believe.

66. [hatter @56: (Most other results to the search for “boss setscrew” seem to lead to sites discussing this clue!) We should probably be grateful for that. You might have found yourself immersed in accounts of the behaviour of certain movie moguls …]

67. Sheets are not sails – they are the ropes which control the sails

68. It may have been ‘a shade easier than usual’ for a Nutmeg, as the blogger suggests, but it still beat me easily today. Could be that attempting crosswords in the sunshine in the back garden is not a good idea. After a pleasant hour’s slumber, not only was the crossword unsolved and the tea cold, but the nose and forehead were distinctly warm and, on close inspection, worryingly red and shiny. Time to apply the after-sun ointment and really to learn that the sun in June is just as strong as it is in late August.

69. So, if you are 3 sheets to the wind, why are you drunk? It must have something to do with how the sails are rigged. A great puzzle and blog. Thanks, both.

70. Unlike Fiona Anne @23 I found the bottom filling itself in first, and then the tide slowly rising.

    Gervase@42 and others — a sheet is a “line,” not a “rope.” muffin@55, “line” is the collective word for sheets, halyards etc.
    Rope is the stuff that becomes lines once a length of it is put to work as part of the running rigging in a particular place on a vessel. Now it’s a sheet (which ,moves sails left or right) or a halyard (which raises or lowers sails) or a painter or … If you’re three sheets to the wind, you have three lines that are supposed to be governing sails flapping loosely instead.

    Could SQUARE-RIGGED be a reference to certain bed sheets with square corners? line sheet sail

    A new meaning for setscrew, which I know as a tiny (i.e. easy to drop and lose) bolt (i.e. square at the end, not pointy) which fits in a hole on a plumbing fitting and holds it to a pipe. Same function, different place.

    5d Great anagram!

    China tea Brendan May 31 retsina? Can’t find a reference to it in yesterdays’ or any earlier blog. When did you dis retsina, Eileen? And what is the supposed best use for it? Actually, I rather like both retsina and Lapsang Souchong, the only China tea I know. Unless jasmine is also a China tea? Phooey on that one.

71. [Valentine @70: ‘which I know as a tiny … bolt’ Hmm. I was always told the difference between a bolt and a screw was that the former used a nut whereas the latter didn’t?]

72. Petert @69 – Here’s Ebenezer Cobham Brewer in his Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (he phrases it “three sheets in the wind”):

    The sheet is the rope attached to the lower end of a sail, used for shortening and extending sail ; if quite free, the sheet is said to be “in the wind,” and the sail flaps and flutters without restraint. If all the three sails were so loosened, the ship would “reel and stagger like a drunken man.”

73. ,[Thanks Miche and Valentine]

74. Chambers has one meaning of sheet as “Sail (poet.)” hence as Petert @69 says Three Sheets to the Wind.

    Just because a sheet is normally a rope to sailing folk doesn’t preclude another meaning.

75. sheffield hatter@64: thanks, that had not occurred to me and I think it makes sense.
    Dr WhatsOn@60 – I did raise an eyebrow at the definition but no more than that, so thanks gladys@65 for informing me of that distinction – [a happy corollary is that in researching WIGWAM online I came across a Finnish prog rock band of the same name which will now accompany my work for the rest of the day.
    BigNorm@68 you have my sympathy, I was caught out on a cool, breezy but bright day a couple of weekends ago, I think if we were capable of learning we would have done by now!]

76. MB@71 You’re probably right. I was never taught anything on the subject, so I just went by how they looked.

    Miche@72 Why “all three sheets”? Many vessels would have more than three.

    [In a square-rigger, sheets were the lines that moved the lower corners of a sail. The upper ones, which moved the yards that held the sails up, were braces. I’ll add that the lee side of the ship, the side away from the wind, was always the more dangerous, because that ws the side that dipped toward or occasionally into the sea. And the lee fore brace one of the most dangerous places of all. And with that I’ll add this poem my Cicely fox-Smith, an important sea poet: https://allpoetry.com/Lee-Fore-Brace ]

77. Valentine @76 – I don’t know. Just quoting Brewer.

78. Valentine@76, you have done exactly what I did recently, which is to type a closing square bracket immediately after the link, which adds ‘%5D’ to the address and makes it dysfunctional. Gaufrid had to come to the rescue on that occasion, but perhaps you could try again leaving a space between the link and the ]

79. S c @78
    I have corrected the link.

80. Valentine @76. Miche@72 Why “all three sheets”? I would guess this refers to the fact that the most common square rigged ship would have three masts. So for instance in normal sailing conditions the ship might have the fore topsail, the main topsail and the mizzen topsail set. If the sheets of those three sails are in the wind, the helmsman will have no control of the ship, to say the least. See this Wiki article on square rigged ships.

81. [Sheffield hatter @52. I know, it happens. I have adopted a policy of copying (Ctrl+C) any comment that I draft, then refreshing the site to see if someone else has got in ahead of me, and only then, if not, pasting and posting. It has spared me several embarrassments over the last few months.

    Meanwhile, does it not piss you off when commenters arrive late in the commenting day, do not bother to read through the commenting history and post supposed apercus that have been posted, rehearsed, discussed and resolved hours earlier?]

82. [Spooner’s catflap: I know what you mean! And then presumably don’t hang around to see how appreciative we are of their enlightening information. It doesn’t piss me off so much as make me wonder why they do it. I always want to know if anyone has posted a reply, especially if I’ve said something enlightening, just in case I’ve been proved wrong! ]

83. Spooner’s catflap and Sheffield hatter

    “Meanwhile, does it not piss you off when commenters arrive late in the commenting day, do not bother to read through the commenting history and post supposed apercus that have been posted, rehearsed, discussed and resolved hours earlier?”

    Yes! – and could I please include ‘(amendments to) the original blog’?

84. Re: 6d, I took “I potentially” to mean that the now online only Independent would only qualify literally as a paper, if the decision was made to print it again.
    Challenging puzzle. LOI was ROWEL, where I found the wordplay in the form of a command quite difficult to interpret and was not familiar with the term for the pointy wheel of a spur.
    Thanks, Nutmed and PeterO

85. NutmeG. Apologies!

86. [MB@50 apologies for the Chesney earworm and any call-centre related memories it dredged up. I had a similar experience with Rick Astley’s “Never gonna give you up” but did at least remind me of Nick Lowe’s lyric “Well do you remember Rick Astley?
    He had a big fat hit it was ghastly” in fact the whole song is a bit of a paean to slightly iffy rhymes]

87. Phitonelly @84. The i is a different entity from the Independent, which as you say is online only. The i is “a British national morning newspaper” with a circulation in the region of 140k, unless the information I have read is out of date, or possibly even fake news.

88. [bodycheetah @86. Nick Lowe is second only to Bob Dylan in his ability to pull off an iffy rhyme. For some reason he is miles behind in terms of hit records and Nobel prizes, despite being a much better songwriter, singer, guitarist and producer. As one of his songs proclaims (plagiarising Kurt Vonnegut), “So It Goes”.]

89. [bodycheetah @86: Now you’re ruining my lugs with Rick Astley! Oy vey! I remember much smooching with somone who I rather quickly gave up over that particular tune.

    I suppose you are aware of Quantum Physics paper who’s author managed to start every line with the next word from the lyrics? http://www.warpedfactor.com/2014/01/marvel-at-finest-rick-astley-quantum.html ]

90. [Sheffield hatter@88 oh don’t be silly. Dylan is the ultimate cryptic, Nick Lowe is a quick crossword. Love them both, seen them both many times, but chalk and cheese]

91. sheffield hatter @87,
    Ah, I see. My knowledge of the current state of British publishing is clearly lacking. Happily, my ignorance got me to a parsing that I liked. Nice when that happens.

92. [Ark Lark @89. Thanks, but I like to be silly from time to time! Glad you have seen and like Nick Lowe. Good analogy with the cryptic/quick thing.]

93. [ MaidenBartok @89. Thankyou for the link to Sairam Gudiseva’s paper on Niels Bohr. What a feat of writing! I’ve never heard of rickrolling. Links also led to another ‘physics paper’ ; ‘Two body interactions: a longitudinal study’. (sorry can’t do the hyperlink, found it on Open Culture). Also very funny.]

    Thoroughly enjoyed Nutmeg, but came to it late, and all’s been said. As I posted @38, my Guardian solving time, the Guardian, and many other sites worldwide, had crashed, which I only discovered this morning. At the time the G was a potential paper, and I thought I was in some other time warp, definitely not 3 sheets to the wind.

94. [paddymelon @93: https://www.enchufa2.es/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/two-body-interactions.pdf

    On a total tangent, it is interesting how many ‘web-sites’ were affected and really exposes the true nature of the Internet as being highly distributed due to its inability to provide end-to-end transport. The truth is that whilst you think you are reading, say, The Guardian from their office at Kings Place, more likely you are pulling the data from a cache server no-more than a couple of miles away where-ever you are in the world run by one of only a handful of companies such as Fastly, Akamai, Limelight, Cloudflare, etc. I spend my life trying to explain this to the powers-that-be and they just don’t get it…

    Can you tell I spent my day yesterday trying to explain this to people?!]

95. [ and as for when we get the next nearby supernova or gamma-ray burst or even an unusually large solar coronal ejection ….. . All of these things will happen at some point. ]

96. [Roz @95: It was for this reason (EMP) that the Russians kept valve-based radios on the MIGs for as-long as they did.]

97. Surprised that no mention has been made that SET SCREW should be 2 words – surely?

98. William @34. Thanks for the correction. Yes, that’s what I meant!

99. [ MaidenBartok @96, nuvistors were used on Polaris submarines right up until their replacement but this was more to do with damage from the reactor and the missiles. The same principle though. ]

100. Spooner’s catflap@81: Give us a break… Time zones being what they are, some folks come late to the game. It’s nicer to be polite and welcoming than to claim an exclusive right to be “pissed off.”

101. 6d People are described as having “pulled something out of a paper bag”. That is how I read “potentially procure”.

102. @101 et al. Re PAPER BAG: my thinking was that a little i is potentially a big I. That’s how I saw it and it made me smile. I may be wrong, of course, but (having had the politeness to read through above, albeit weeks after solving! @100 – I think this is the point catflap and others were making; it also adds more for later readers to bother with!) still think it the best explanation!

103. I’ve seen several explanations of “three sheets to the wind” that refer not to sailing ships but to windmills. They suggest that each of the sails (or blades) on a windmill can be feathered in strong winds to limit the force of the wind. A fully rigged mill would be 4 blades or sheets to the wind. But feathering just one sail (leaving 3 sheets set to the wind) would result in a very uneven set, leading to a dangerous wobble, and the mill would resemble a drunk man walking home.
     I’m not entirely convinced, but it’s a refreshing alternative to the unlikely theories about sheets on ships.

Comments are closed.