Guardian Cryptic 28,469 by Paul

75 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,469 by Paul”

1. Good, fun solve from Paul this morning, with a belter at JERRY BUILT.

   Some of the surfaces perhaps lacking the smoothness we have been treated to recently but that’s just my opinion.

   Enjoyed the playful partial homophones, though.

   Many thanks, John.

2. Found that I got quite a few just from the definition and guesswork – like TROMBONIST which just sprang into my mind and was my FOI even though I couldn’t parse it. And getting COMPANIONSHIP next helped a lot. Couldn’t parse quite a few though.

   Favourites (of the ones I could parse) were: FIFE, CORRUGATE, JERRY-BUILT, TUAREG, BABOON, TIMPANI

   Thanks Paul and manehi

3. Unlike yourself, I found this reasonably tough. I wasn’t convinced by the spoonerism this time, but most of the rest quite enjoyable.

   Thanks Paul and manehi

4. Thank you Paul, I enjoyed that, especially CORRUGATE.

   And thank you manehi without whom I could never have parsed PLATOONS or JERRY-BUILT.

5. A cruciverbalist’s guide to the orchestra? I enjoyed it, thanks Paul and manehi.

   I read JERRY-BUILT as an &lit.

   In ANNULLING, I agree that withdrawing = pulling, in the sense of removing from circulation. Wiktionary gives the example of ‘The book was due to be released today, but it was pulled at the last minute over legal concerns’.

   I loved the BUBBLED ACE, but then I like surreal spoonerisms.

   My only quibble, and it’s one I’ve gone on about (at some length!) before – the use of words like ‘vertical’ or ‘standing’ to indicate reversal in a down clue, as in TRATTORIA. Yes, I know that if you stand (up), you rise, but in that case there is no implication that the constituent parts of your body are now in reverse order. My grandfather always stood when the National Anthem played, but he never did a handstand.

6. Feeling very smug this morning because I managed to parse all of them…
   Eventually.
   There was some very twisty stuff here, and I had quite a few answers before I knew why: PICKLE (ouch!), GROOVE and PROCLAIM were the last holdouts, though I think TROMBONIST was the one that took longest. JERRY BUILT was a great clue, though I expect the PC police will arrive before long to charge it with something or other.
   Nice to see the old meaning of explode.

7. I was amused to see that by the time I finished the crossword there were adverts for musical instrument sellers appearing above it.

8. Btw…anyone know the origin of JERRY BUILT?

9. Either I was on Paul’s wavelength today or this was much easier than last week’s from him… took a little while to get the parsing of a couple, but got there eventually. Bottom right corner was last to be filled in, with REBUT, CHROME, TIMPANI and GLUTEI taking a while to click.

   Thanks, manehi. Pretty much in agreement with you on the highlights. “Lovely” felt slightly superfluous in 11ac (unless there’s a nuance I’m missing?), but I was happy with “withdrawing”=PULLING (as per essexboy’s definition). Also agree with essexboy in reading JERRY-BUILT as an &lit, and on enjoying the groansome bubbled ace.

   And thanks to Paul, of course. That was enjoyable.

10. William @8 – my understanding, which is not necessarily supported by hard evidence and may be folk etymology, is that it shares its roots with the “jury” in jury-rigged, which I believe was originally a nautical term for an improvised sail (and nothing to do with 12 angry men or shoddy German labourers).

11. There were some corny (pun intended) old puns this morning, what with OBOE and REBUT and PICKLE. You’d only get away with this sort of thing in the Guardian.

    But it all seemed a lot easier and less forced than the last Paul, for which we should be grateful. Thanks to Paul and manehi.

12. Clunky surfaces (agree with William) and convoluted parsings made this one that I could only finish by definition and guesswork (agree with Fiona).

    Nevertheless enjoyed the theme which made it enjoyable.

13. Well, lots of musical fun this morning!

    The phrase JERRY-BUILT is a new one on me. The next door neighbours have a dog with the name PICKLE that I hear them calling every morning as they take it for a walk – it is the biggest black Labrador you’ve ever seen so about as far from a ‘Pickle’ as you could expect.

    [Nice to see TUAREG appear so in a continuing musical connection, please have some of the wonderful Tamikrest https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8XHMm2wLdM a Tuareg ‘desert blues’ band]

    Thanks to Paul and manehi!

14. Thanks Paul and manehi. I liked the musical instruments theme. I had fun with 10a TROMBONIST and 14d TRATTORIA (where I accepted the standing idea, your story of your grandfather notwithstanding, essexboy@5). Couldn’t parse 1a PICKLE despite originally thinking that the answer could be piccolo but there weren’t enough letters! D’oh! Unlike eb@5, and like Dave E@3, I wasn’t smitten with the Spoonerism of 20d/9a DOUBLE BASS.

15. Great fun – things went in smoothly until I ground to a halt, but GROOVE and BEAU eventually fell into place. Favourites were CORRUGATE, JERRY-BUILT and TIMPANI; couldn’t parse PICKLE or PLATOONS. Many thanks to Paul and manehi.

16. Thanks for the good workout Paul and the excellent parsing, Manehi. Maybe, in 11ac, the nuance is a ref to the “summer of love” when groovy and grooving related to loving as much as it did to music (or more..?.).

17. And thanks for the Tamikrest burst, MaidenB@13. I love getting these links to great music (this one manages to be joyous, haunting and visual all at the same time) and/or comedy sketches, factoids etc. It’s one of the unexpected bonuses of the forum.

18. I see someone did some research on “jerry built”: https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/jerry-builder-origin-of-the-term/

19. [There was a young setter called Paul
    Whose themes were not welcomed by all
    Many disliked his ABBA
    But this one was fabber
    And didn’t drive me up the wall]

    If I had a day job, I wouldn’t be giving it up 🙂

20. I thought engineering was more about the actual execution, after the planning, but a mere quibblet. Filled the grid no prob, visitor arrived, then came here without back-parsing a few, e.g. trombonist and double bass (what the bleep is a dace .. d’oh!). Agree, gladys @6, explode as in explode e.g. a theory is nice. Collect, as well as in get physically, is also used as in get = understand (by, e.g., Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey). Fun puzzle, ta Paul and manehi.

21. Thanks Widdersbel @10. Your proposition of a link between JERRY & JURY induced me to see what Chambers had to say about it. No help at all ‘re JERRY BUILT but offers the Latin root of adjutare , to help, as the origin of JURY-RIGGED.

22. Ta for the blog.

    Couldn’t see the Spoonerism for double-bass at all, got as far as bubble, doh.
    Hesitated a long time on annulling = cancellation – wrong part of speech, it’s annulment = cancellation?

23. ginf @20: Your Patrick O’Brien observation neatly draws in the conversation re JERRY-BUILT & jury-rigged. Jack Aubrey’s crew were forever having to cobble up a jury mast or jury rudder after some maritime disaster or other. Those blokes must have been damned handy…they could set up a forge on a remote island and fashion some new pintles for a rudder…amazing.

24. [Probly my addled ear, MB @13, but the rhythm and the interval structure of that Taureg number sound sort of Celtic]

25. bodycheetah @19 – I like your rhyme . . . and have just realised that your moniker is a homophone of bodhicitta – ?

26. Great puzzle, finished it at last, couldn’t parse lots of them, so thanks to both Paul and manahe.
    One small quibble – I didn’t like 16a as surely rolling around is not the same as a reversal?
    LOI was 8d – d’uh!
    And thanks again to this forum, especially the musical references, given the theme. You are a clever lot!

27. [William @21 – I’m wary of folk-etymologising, but the jerry/jury link at least has a vague ring of plausibility. TerriBlislow @18 – thanks for sharing this fascinating article, it seems to be based on slightly firmer evidence than my theory!]

28. I cant imagine someone like Tricky or Dr Dre using the word :”lovely” in a session
    “Thats a wicked groove, man!” more like it-but a minor quibble,
    Re the Spooner-can see the answer immediately but not the justification so thanks manehi for taking the trouble.
    But I must say I’ve seen better Spooners some from Paul’s pen
    Quite fun outing

29. Very enjoyable and satisfying solve; BEAU and GROOVE were my LOI and both elicited a simultaneous groan and grin, which is symptomatic of Paul at his best. I couldn’t for the life of me parse TROMBONIST, so many thanks to manehi and of course to Paul.

30. Grantinfreo@20 and William@23: collect, jury-rig and explode are all familiar from Patrick O’Brian, a wonderful source of obscure vocabulary (someone is always saying that some unfashionable thing is now “quite exploded”). I saw somewhere that a jury-rig might be from French “jour”, i.e. not meant to last longer than a day. Anyway, it’s good to know that jerry-building pre-dates the World Wars by nearly a century so cannot be accused of National Offensiveness With Intent, so the PC police can put their handcuffs away.

31. Andy Smith @ 22: it’s being used as a noun (gerund?), eg ‘The annulling of Henry VIII’s marriage cleared the way for his next”.

32. I learnt a lot from this – https://theprioryandthecastironshore.wordpress.com/2017/07/06/jerry-builder-origin-of-the-term/ Being a war child I always thought it was a chauvinistic slight on German construction ethics – and am relieved to find it’s not …

33. Enjoyed that.

    [As soon as I saw TUAREG, I was off down the bookies to get a bet on MaidenBartok posting a link to the guitar-driven, desert blues of Tinariwen. Then he thwarts me with his Tamikrest. I enjoyed it though, as did William Hill.]

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

34. Almost enough instruments roaming about to form a full orchestra, and many clues to relish in this puzzle (PICKLE, TROMBONIST, JETTISONS, CORRUGATE, CHROME, GLUTEI, etc, and only a few to groan about. Overall a sufficient challenge to almost break-the-hour, with 16A and 18D providing me with a final ten minutes of running around like a headless chicken (not a pretty sight), and COLLECT as LOI . Some lovely deceptions along the way.
    Thanks Paul, for never failing to entertain.

35. Might instruments have been better in 19d (always thought timpani was plural, or at least collective)?

36. Very difficult. Did not really get onto Paul’s wavelength today and did not enjoy many of the surfaces. Was helped by the theme of musical instruments.
    Did not understand the spoonerism Bubble dass? bubbled ass? Ugh, I see now.
    Guessed a few solutions, and parsed later.
    Guessed that COMPANIONSHIP was an anagram but got confused working out what was the fodder.
    Did not parse PLATOONS, PICKLE.
    Guessed COLLECT, did not parse it.

    Favourite: TUAREG

37. I failed on REBUT–I have trained myself that Paul is officially at war with the letter R (he seems to never have a puzzle without a non-rhotic homophone) but having it be backwards to boot threw me off, as did the unusual definition. Having cheated on that, BEAU was my last in.

    I liked the fact that few of the instruments were entered directly into the grid–most were (word-) played in some way. So to speak.

38. Enjoyable but more straightforward than usual for Paul. Quite a few were write-ins. Loved JERRY BUILT and TUAREG.

    Thanks Paul and manehi

39. I really enjoyed this. I groaned out loud (in a good way) at piccolo, and I was not convinced by the Spoonerism (Paul’s recent fish theme made me think this had something to do with dace). Overall this was much easier than his puzzle of a week ago, or maybe I was just more on his wavelength today. Thanks P and M.

40. [More tangential musings: “French horn” in 17ac can perhaps be taken as an oblique reference to another musical instrument, the cor anglais – literally “English horn”, though it is neither English nor a horn, while the French horn is a horn of sorts, but isn’t French… Even more tangentially, this reminds me that what we in the UK euphemistically call a “French letter” is known in France as a “capote anglaise” (English cap). Funny old world, innit.]

41. I think of a GROOVE as a particularly smooth rhythm, so ‘lovely’ would be appropriate; it worked for me, anyway, which is more than I can say for BUBBLED ACE (good grief!). The other homophones were fine by me, though I knew there’d be a complaint about REBUT=>tuba!

    I’m sure I’ve seen COLLECT for understand/get in Jane Austen – I’m dare say essexboy will be back to confirm. TIMPANI are of course Italian plural, so ‘instrument’ is incorrect, but according to this Wiki article, they are (like pannini) often referred to as timpanis (eugh!), though this surely does not justify back-forming a singular definition?

    I struggled with PROCLAIM, being stuck on ‘filling of long’=ON, but just this once it was ‘filling of long cake’, so this was my last one in.

    Thanks Paul for the challenge, and manehi for the detailed and helpful blog.

42. Thanks manehi, as per Fiona Anne@2, like many Paul puzzles this required repeated visits and a few bursts of inspiration with some stubbornly refusing to make sense afterwards, but all of which you have cleared up eg PICKLE. I couldn’t quite deconstruct my LOI COMPANIONSHIP to fit the clue (was convinced old man = PA) and now feel a little bit cheated that some manipulation pre-fiddling was required, although it was in hindsight pretty obvious and minor. After Philistine yesterday I gave myself a tick for spotting the lift and separate in “withdrawing” but of course now see it’s not necessary, i wonder if Paul saw both? Another crossword that hit the spot for me, I liked the ingenious BEAU most, thanks Paul.

43. [MaidenBartok@11: thank you for that link, fantastic music – reminds me of Songhoy Blues but more varied and a bit more Africa in there. Grantinfreo@24 your comment made me think immediately of Celtarabia, well worth a listen if you don’t know them.]

    And again@35 plus sheffield hatter@41, I once carried a timpani half way across town for a musical friend, pretty sure he didn’t call it a timpanus or anything like that, it was pretty bulky but definitely singular or I would have collapsed! but perhaps we can agree to think of it as a ‘set of drums’ and it thus works fine as is.

44. In 12 ac isn’t “filling of long cake” an example of double cluing (you have to get eclair first then take the middle) and so frowned on?

    Regarding the discussion of jerry/jury and the dangers of folk etymology I thought I would note that the meaning of jerry can originates allegedly as a better quality petrol container, so the meaning is opposite to jerry rigged. The story is that in the Desert War (WWII) the British troops preferred to use captured German cans because they were better quality than their own.

45. Ravenrider@44, it seems to be that while indirect anagrams are forbidden, double cluing is allowed when the clued word is only lightly treated – beheaded, cycled, something like that. Taking the middle of it might be pushing up against the permitted limit: its being a reference to a famous ‘humorous’ definition in Chambers probably helps it get under the wire.

46. If water = eau I think a hit of foreignness might have gone down a treat.

    I’ve only seen 2d spelled cuzco, but wikipedia tells me that the S spelling is standard.

    5d surface “Bishop replacing Nazis in instrument for primate” … huhh??? What’s that for a surface?

    Pleasant crossword, Paul, and welcome accompaniment, manehi. Thanks to both.

    JERRY-BUILT must also be a cad, since “terribly” is part of both the definition and the anagram fodder and “constructed” is both the rest of the definition and the anagram indicator.
    JURY, a temporary makeshift to bring a disabled vessel back to harbour. A jury mast is one erected to take the place of a mast which has been carried away; jury rig is the contrivance of masts and sails to get a ship under way after she has been disabled; jury rudder is a makeshift arrangement to give a ship the ability to steer when she has lost her rudder. The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea (love that book!).

47. Sorry — a “hint” of foreignness might have gone down more of a treat.

48. [Penfold @33: Tinariwen are The Masters but there are many new-kids-on-the-block such Tamikrest, Kel Assouf and Songhoy Blues.

    Even more interesting than the fact that many of these musicians were fighters who put down their weapons and turned to music instead of war is that Tuareg society is traditionally matrilineal – hence my choice of a track from Tamikrest’s fantastic ‘Chatma’ (‘Sisters’) album.

    I’ll try to be more predictable in my next suggestion so that you can recoup your losses chez Mssrs Hill…]

49. Am I right in thinking that, in 12ac, an eclair is a pastry, not a cake? I know that “pastry” also appears in 14dn, but surely Paul, of all people, could have found an alternative way to clue TART.

50. Building on Valentine@46 a bit: my first few included (as answers or parts) BEAU, EAU, COR, GLUTEI, so I thought a foreign word ghost theme might be in play. This lead to the unfortunate seeing of ROT (German for red) in the surrounds of TROMBONIST – but it was not to be.

51. Sheffield Hatter @41.

    I’ve seen *collect* = understand/get in books by Georgette Heyer which are historical romances – Regency period I think.

52. I enjoyed this immensely. I’ve just installed the Guardian puzzles app, so I’m renewing my acquaintance with the different style of these puzzles after a considerable absence. I solved daily between 1976 and 1993, but these days I’m a Times subscriber. Today, I parsed everything OK, but I’ll be dropping in here on the days that I can’t.

53. SH @41
    And I have found an example:

    “I collect,” said Frederica in a resigned voice “that the pains Charis and I took to send him out in good trim were wasted.”

    from Frederica – a favourite of mine.

54. Nice one, Fiona Anne. Of course Jane was also Regency, so I guess Ms Heyer could have picked the usage up from her or other writers from that period.

55. I am always reluctant to present myself here on days when Spoonerisms are being critically discussed and often objected to, having burdened myself with one of perhaps dubious pedigree. Therefore, I was quite happy to leave to essexboy the responsibility of tracking down ‘COLLECT’ = ‘understand’ in the works of Jane Austen if it were to be found there. However,, more than 2 hours have elapsed since Sheffield Hatter raised the query, and in case essexboy is preoccupied or disinclined, here it is in Chapter 6 of Mansfield Park:

    “I collect,” said Miss Crawford, “that Sotherton is an old place, and a place of some grandeur. In any particular style of building?”
    “The house was built in Elizabeth’s time, and is a large, regular, brick building; heavy, but respectable looking, and has many good rooms.”

    That said, I am not sure that one needs to pursue this sense of COLLECT to vindicate the clue, as the sense of ‘acquire’ seems to me to cover the territory. We now, of course, use ‘gather’ instead in both senses.

56. In 1, eau is the sound o, with no hint that water was suggesting a French word. Are all languages fair in such “homophonic” clues. or just French, or just EU (!) or what?

57. Spooner’s catflap @55. Thanks for the research. Mansfield Park again!

    Daniel @56. I think that “eau is the sound o” is familiar enough from words like Bordeaux, chateau, Black Forest gateau, or even from 25a, so needs no warning of foreignness.

    Gazzh @43. I’m a little sorry to hear that timpano has seemingly gone the way of panino, bacterium and criterion in existing only in the plural form and being treated as though singular, somewhat like “social media” are/is. But on the other hand, I’m glad that you weren’t actually required to carry timpani – they would have been a burden indeed.

58. I stupidly got gibbon for 5 down. I only replaced half of the SS from Gibson (guitar manufacturer) with a B. Once that was in it was hard to see past it though – I’d found one of my favourite animals.

59. Daniel, Valentine, etc: I’m fine with eau, since thanks to eau de cologne we see it in English often enough. But in general the British crossword assumption that we all know French kinda gets my goat.

60. sheffield hatter @57: Kindly add datum to your list.

61. Mrpenny@59 It is my understanding that prior to 2004 learning a foreign language was a compulsory part of the British school curriculum, and that by far the most popular choice was French. [The percentages are very different today.] So the setters’ assumptions aren’t unreasonable.

62. Late to the party today. Long lunch.
    EB@5 and JinA@14 if I type STANDING standing it looks like this:
    G
    N
    I
    D
    N
    A
    T
    S
    (although I am actually sitting.)
    I agree with GinF@35 and others that instruments would have been better.
    “recollect” has survived where “collect” in that sense has faded.
    MrP@59 I agree about the French assumption.
    Thanks to all contributors, and Paul – I enjoyed it!

63. MrP@59 and DrW@61. I learnt Spanish and Latin at school, German, Italian, Russian and Japanese as an adult. I have picked up bits of French along the way.
    I notice in English literature French is rarely explained or given footnotes while all other languages almost always are. I love languages, but the assumption that French words are necessarily part of an educated person’s idiolect irritates me.

64. Dr W @61: Here, learning a foreign language is strongly encouraged, and compulsory in many school districts. But while the most common choice is Spanish, the others (French, Latin, and German most prominently) are common enough choices that you can’t assume an American knows much more Spanish than you can find on the menu at your local taqueria. [This despite the fact that the US is the fourth-largest Spanish-speaking country, even limiting yourself to native speakers–if you include those who speak it as a second language, we’re in 2nd. We really should require kids to learn it. Meanwhile I took German in school, and never use it.]

65. Auriga @62. As essexboy implied @5, why does your ‘standing’ version of standing start with the G? I get it as a crossword convention (and solved the clue accordingly), but the question is, why is it so?

66. William Hill also cashed in on my bet that Paul would include SACKBUTT in a musical instrument-themed crossword.

67. SH@65
    Because I wrote it L to R and then stood it up on the S. I could equally havfe stood it up on the G, I suppose, but then it would not have needed any instruction to modify it. QED.

68. Auriga: good answer. (Until proven otherwise!)

69. Apologies to sh @41 for deserting my post, and thanks to Spooner’s catflap @55 for stepping in. (In any case, I would have used the Project Gutenberg / Ctrl F search method which I learned recently from your good self.)

    Another point occurs to me though. I think we’re dealing with two quite distinct meanings of ‘understand’:

    (1) I understand = I am given to understand/ I infer from what I have been told. This is the sense in which Jane Austen uses ‘I collect’, and for which we still use ‘I gather’.

    (2) I understand = I (truly) comprehend/appreciate. This is the sense that corresponds to the modern ‘get’, as in ‘I just don’t get Schoenberg/quantum mechanics’.

    So as far as I can see there is no overlap between ‘collect’ and ‘get’ if we only think of them as synonyms for ‘understand’. The only instance I’ve been able to find which might contradict me is in Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety: ‘The riot is so great that it is very difficult to collect what is being said’. But perhaps Mantel had come across the old use of ‘collect’ in her historical research, but didn’t quite ‘get’ the precise meaning.

    Fortunately, as has been pointed out, there’s no need to go down the path of understanding for the clue to work. COLLECT = get in the much more mundane sense of ‘I collected/got 186,564 signatures for my petition to stop setters using ‘standing’ as a reversal indicator’. 😉

70. essexboy @69. Neat footwork, there. But I think if we refer back to Mary Crawford as quoted in #55: “I collect,” said Miss Crawford, “that Sotherton is an old place…”, I think we can allow that a modern equivalent (and she was nothing if not modern) would have been quite happy to substitute “get” for “collect”. As in “I get that Sotherton is an old place, innit?”

71. sh @70: ‘I get that Sotherton is an old place’ is a concession. It implies ‘you’ve got a valid point there’, but leaves us expecting a ‘but’. ‘I get that Sotherton is a bit of a dump, but if we do it up nice, it’d be a bangin’ place for a crossword setters’ convention.’

72. eb: No, I don’t see an implication, and didn’t expect a ‘but’; Mary Crawford was always right, and always cleverer than everyone else. So I see it more as a bit of boastfulness: no one has bothered to explain anything about Sotherton to her, but she has nevertheless gleaned snippets here and there which enabled her to deduce what a bangin’ place, etc.

    Not sure that this sheds a lot of light on the clue, but ‘get’ and COLLECT seem to meet fairly closely in several contexts, sufficient to justify the setter. Shall we leave it there? (It’s dinner time for me, otherwise I’d be happy to dispute with you further.)

73. sh: Bon appétit!

74. According to the OED, “jerry” as in JERRY-BUILT comes simply from the abbreviation of the name Jeremy or Jeremiah: no idea why it should mean “badly” but it also gives “jerry-shop” as a “cheap beer house” (good luck finding one of those these days).

75. How about, ” I’m off to collect/get the kids from soccer practice”.

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