Guardian Saturday puzzle 28,494 / Paul

88 comments on “Guardian Saturday puzzle 28,494 / Paul”

1. Thanks Eileen, superb fun from Paul.
   Slight typo in 25 btw, you have a + for the second A. Fair once you knew the theme, I think.
   I think the first themed clue I got was ALGIERS, and I too was looking at A is for Africa, until I think CANBERRA made it clear it was just ‘capital of …’.
   I’ve always thought of ‘vixen’ as having sly and sexy connotations, even if Chambers disagrees.
   LOI LUANDA, with online help.

2. Thanks Eileen. I found this very hard, hard to make a start on and hard to finish. It took some time for the theme to emerge per medium of 20d after I had been toying with the possibility of island names, and it helped after I had consulted a list of national capitals but still left a few defying explanations. 4a yielded partly because it was fresh in my memory from last week (no problem for me with is = in existence) but I had to work on 17 and 21a. Entering ‘aslant’ for 27a didn’t help.
   I never did see the difference between and significance of the introductory capital As and Is, so thanks for that, and wonder at shot = ran. LOI after a lot of frustration was 25a, it had to be BAKU but it took a long time for the PDM. Paul’s cleverness is admirable but I can’t say I enjoyed this very much.

3. Doing these puzzles on my tablet, the continual challenge is to scroll the screen so that the clue I’m working on is visible with as much as the grid as possible, since there is no way to see everything at once. That’s my excuse, anyway, for not seeing the Special Instructions until I had done only a few clues and ground to a compete halt. So in that regard I was on the same page, so to speak, as those with the paper version. I really thought I was going to have to give up with only 1/3 done. However, I saw the instructions eventually, and after CANBERRA I was off to the races.

   It was still quite tricky, due to Paul’s typical substitutions, such as tease->vixen and familiar->thick, which are fine retrospectively but my brain just does not conjure them as synonyms. The one I, like Eileen, did not think worked quite right was existence->is in 4a, since, somewhat circularly, “is” can be defined as “is in existence” but it needs all the words.

   I first had DRAW instead of FOLD for 15a – I still think it fits both parts (gather = infer = draw, plus pen as verb = draw).

4. Is = exists = in existence?

5. Indeed, a cracker from Paul.
   We had a discussion about indirect anagrams earlier in the week, and I had to make a definite effort not to bring 25A into it – and probably other commenters had the same problem. Well done, all of us!
   My entry into the themed clues was 13A JERUSALEM, even though the MELA part was unfamiliar.
   Thanks to Eileen, and Paul.

6. Very difficult even for a prize Paul. I only got BAKU once I twigged the theme (at which point everything unlocked and it became a fill in) but still couldn’t parse it so thanks Eileen for clearing that up.

   Vixen for tease will certainly be a topic I did raise an eyebrow at it I’ll admit.

   Thanks Paul and Eileen

7. Biggles@4 I couldn’t come up with a sentence where the substitution works.

8. Not for me, Biggles A – but I’m going to bed now.

9. Dr. WhatsOn@3: I can just about fit the whole puzzle and clues on screen in landscape mode on an iPad (though not the special instructions!). Agree about 4ac.

10. Well OK then, but what about ‘is’ hidden in ‘existence’?

11. It took me a while to work out what the special instructions meant. [theme = capital cities of countries starting with A or I]

    Did not parse BAKU (capital of Azerbaijan).
    Liked MARIONETTE, TRACE ELEMENTS, PROFILE (loi).

    New: MELA.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen.

12. Thanks Eileen. Red-faced! Despite sitting in 12A (and having got TRACE ELEMENTS early) I couldn’t crack the AI code and, after the weekend, had to get help from the crossword solver forum. The missing second half then fell quickly enough. APPLAUSE (last in) for Paul for a brilliant stinker – and for solvers who did it all on their own.

13. There are a few setters I’ve placed on my “no fly” list because I find them impenetrable i.e. Vlad and Enigmatist; after spending over an hour with this prize and solving four measly clues I’m adding Paul to that elite group. With the pandemic in its waning stages and many more diversions available I don’t have that much time to kill anymore. Thanks Eileen for another super blog.

14. I thoroughly enjoyed yesterday’s offering by Paul, and also purely by coincidence just completed a delightful cryptic of his (#23,356) from 2005, which confirmed that he was one of my favorite long-term setters (thanks Paul).
    However concerning this recent prize-offering, it’s hard for me to believe it came from the same setter. It’s not that I found the clues – even after finding the theme – extremely difficult (which I did), but they were also tedious, and led to a slow and unrewarding solve: I almost walked away from it, and in retrospect wish I had.
    Sorry Paul – a thumbs down from me for this one – though I’m sure (nay, I promise) that I’ll enjoy your next one.
    (PS: today the prize puzzle swings to the other extremes – a very rapid but joyful solve).

15. Never did twig what the surplus As and Is were doing, even after getting the
    idea of the capitals … thick! Stared balefully at the last few in the SW, until giving up and using a finder for unselfish, which unlocked the rest. On top of that, had no idea about the reverse ‘mela’ in Jerusalem, the parsing of Baku, or why shot=ran in Tehran. All that said, I still quite enjoyed it, and appreciate it much more now, albeit with some mers as per Eileen, e.g. the is in stasis, and ‘ta’ as ‘nice one’. So, nice one Paul, and ta Eileen.

16. Thanks for the blog. I am glad the preamble was not int the paper, we are not children and can think for ourselves.
    JERUSALEM was very easy from the word play and then ALGIERS when I did the downs.
    I then had a little think and went straight for the A and I clues so it collapsed quickly.
    I actually think Paul made the non-theme clues easier than usual so I cannot see the problem with this one.

17. A nice stiff challenge this one! Thanks Paul and Eileen for the blog. Besides the theme ones 3d, 6d, and 10ac got checks from me.

    After getting ALGIERS I thought it might be some phonetic alphabet I hadn’t heard of, then BAKU told me what the theme was but it still took me forever to parse it. I tried to explain it to the Crossword Genius bot but I don’t think it took.

    I’d always thought VIXEN meant more of a seductive woman than a quarrelsome one, though looking at Tom Jones and Adam Bede quarrelsome was the old meaning; Merriam-Webster has “vixen” as informally meaning “a sexually attractive woman” so that’s related. I fear looking for evidence of this has not been great for my search history. My problem with this was that with the N and A in place I wrote in LUANDA and tried to justify it, thinking that 20d must start with Z for Zulu! When I got 20d the penny dropped about Vienna.

    For 6d, I thought “aced” was “passed” as in a test–they’re not synonymous, but if one has aced a test one certainly has passed it.

18. A week on and this blog’s triggered a mild PTSD. It seems the degree of difficulty has to be in the Goldilocks zone for a satisfying solve. This serving was too hot for me, but sufficiently appetising to keep me going back for more. Like Molonglo@12 I sought assistance from the crossword solver forum and found them to be a very helpful and friendly bunch, though some of their hints were more cryptic than the clues. Thanks to Eileen & Paul (I think).

19. I suspected this would be a puzzle that split the audience. I note yesterday’s blog ended with a few acknowledgements that Paul’s efforts were ‘eventually’ enjoyed and that sums up my experience to a T. Like Tony S @13, I only had four solved for quite some time and ended up taking three bites at this cherry but got plenty of satisfaction when I cracked the AI code and ended up with a completed grid. However, some remained unparsed so I definitely needed Eileen’s help today. I never came close to parsing BAKU.

    It might amuse some that, having realised A and I signified capitals but not yet made the connection to countries beginning with those letters, I justified ZAGREB as the solution to 20d: A Zulu and African bands (6). The A meant a capital, Zulu is Z and Agreb is the name of oil fields in Algeria – African bands seemed a possible cryptic definition for oil bearing strata!

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

20. matt w @17: I appreciate we tend to acknowledge crossing less these days, to cut down on posts, but we did and it’s a relief to see another who went down the Z route. Even with LUANDA hiding in plain sight!

21. Aah – all is revealed. Thank you Eileen. I’ve never needed the blog more. We did finish this and we did get the capitals theme, but could not for our lives see the significance of the As and Is. Kicking ourselves now.
    I enjoyed this though. It was a good challenge and lasted just the right amount of time, keeping us company through the weekend. So thank you Paul – great fun.

22. I’m glad others seem to have had that “I think I’m just not going to get into this one” experience too! In retrospect, I feel I might have got in much earlier with ROME, but in fact that was my last capital to go in. In the end I got in with JERUSALEM and then with CANBERRA I started to see where this might be going, although I did need some geographic help and I confess BAKU was new to me. I did eventually realise most but not all of the capitals were from countries starting with A, and then it fell properly into place (and I got ROME at last, with its ‘I’). Agree with PostMark @ 19 that ‘eventually enjoyed’ expresses it pretty well. Thanks Paul, it was a challenge, and thanks Eileen – glad you too seem to have enjoyed it eventually.

23. Have grown to love St Paul but this Saturday paper purchase finished that. So am relieved to hear that the Grauniad was in part to blame. Seldom have I so much agreed with Eileen and (all but one of) the regulars. Some really spot-on comments. Thanks. Took me all week (with some aids) but my initial verdict of “this crossword is too hard” still stands. No quarter given. “Foxy lady” instead of “Tease” would not have saved.

24. I was lost until I got CANBERRA, and then it was pretty straightforward from there.
    I think HOLD also works for 15A, although arguably FOLD is a better answer.
    I still do not see how the definition part of 27A works at all. The answer is a noun, and the definition words are not, unless there is some tortured way to read this that I am just missing.

25. I had two goes at this on Saturday, but it wasn’t until Sunday morning that CANBERRA unlocked Paul’s box of tricks – after which I resorted to a list because I just wanted to get the thing done by then. Getting CANBERRA told me that A and I were not Africa and India as I had suspected, and ROME told me what they were.

    Typical Paul semi-synonyms – it took me quite a while to spot thic(k) = familiar and fold = gather and others already mentioned. I think I now understand how BAKU works, but would never have parsed it unaided, even after knowing it was an indirect anagram. “Find another word, then subtract a letter, and only then do the anagram” was an indirection too far for me.

    Can’t say I enjoyed this much, though I liked TOPMAST, LIE-IN, CRICKET.

26. My experience was similar to Eileen’s. I was really annoyed at not having the special instructions in the paper version. How irritating that they were not printed: it was only after reading the comments on last week’s crossword that I realised the mistake and I was similarly irate due to lack of inroads made prior to that.

    As with molonglo@12 and Paul T@18, I admit to having resorted to external help to get a foothold. I just wasn’t quite on Paul’s wavelength this week (had my first weekend properly away in many months is my excuse – hooray) and kicked myself when pennies dropped on my many visits to the Saturday crossword, the last being Friday evening before the appearance of the midnight blog!

    With the benefit of hindsight, I agree with Eileen and others here that this was a tour de force and a proper prize as it was a really gritty solve especially while the theme took shape (capitals, Africa?, finally alphabetic countries). Thanks in particular for parsing BAKU for which I totally kick myself in retrospect for not having construed and becomes CoD. Also loved CARD READER, APPLAUSE and ASCENT (“A….neither across nor down”!)

    Many Thanks Eileen and Paul: long may your offerings bring old devotees back into the fold!?

27. Nice analogy Paul@18, this was Earth for me, today is Mercury , next week could be Neptune.
    Our current bone of contention has another week to run.

28. I’m afraid the whole thing beat me, Ten only filled in. In fact it reminded me strongly of the old riddle we had when I was in primary school. YYUR YYUB ICURYY4me. Pity, as I usually enjoy Paul.

29. My first one in was CANBERRA funnily enough and from the comments on the Guardian website I guessed that I was looking for capital cities. And from the special instructions that there wasn’t a definition in the clue.

    At first I thought that the special clues started with A but there weren’t enough beginning with A. Never got that the A and I they started with referred to the country. And although I guessed BAKU would never have parsed it even if I had worked that out.

    Took me ages and heavy use of aids to nearly complete and quite a few not parsed. Didn’t get TABLE because I had aslant instead of ASCENT for 27ac.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen (much needed your explanations)

30. An amazing combination of difficulty and boredom. And very little enjoyment although technically sound.

31. Completely missed the A&I theme. Think I was just so relieved to finish it that I never looked any further than the capitals. Shame on me!
    For me this felt like a proper prize and even more so now I see the full picture
    Many thanks Paul & Eileen

32. I enjoyed the eventual penny drop moment with the A&I capitals and countries thing. Also liked PM @19’s excursion into Algerian oilfields to justify Zagreb. He also managed to get Split into his post, but that nothing to crow at.

    JERUSALEM and TOCCATA are the first two tracks on ELP’S Brain Salad Surgery, but Benny the Bouncer was nowhere to be found.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

33. Thanks Paul and Eileen
    Very clever, but not a lot of fun. I got LUANDA quite early on, and correctly guessed what was going on, so the other capitals fell easily.
    I liked the definition for SEMANTICS too.

34. Thanks, Gonzo @1 – fixed now. (I can’t think how that happened, since it was in the clue – which is presumably why I missed it when checking.)

35. I got the theme from CANBERRA, and guessing BAKU helped me to get CRICKET, but I never did parse the clue to the Azerbaijani capital. Congratulations to Eileen for doing so, but this clue could be used to illustrate why indirect anagrams are unfair.

36. For VIXEN, Chambers does have ” an attractive young woman ” . It is in the entry for fox with a sub-section for vixen. Still not really tease.
    grantinfreo@15. The vixen shot across the road in front of the car.

37. Eileen, slight typo at 18d – should be anagram of IS LARGE. Also, saw 19d as a dd: CRICKET is ‘where leg = on’ and also an ‘insect’.

    Cineraria @24, re 27a: I read the def as ‘THAT (gesturing towards ‘ASCENT’) is neither across nor down’.

    The car-dreader was just great, as was Punfold’s crow-at 😉

    sh @35: glad we agree on that!

    Thanks Paul and Eileen.

38. essexboy @37 – of course it’s a dd: what on earth was I thinking of? Off to fix it now.

39. Oh of course, shot/ran, silly me, ta Roz@36

40. Not saying I didn’t enjoy this, but the lack of the special instructions in the printed version made for bafflement. Finally concluded that, for whatever reason, Paul had simply decided not to include definitions for answers which were capital cities. Still not sure I understand the significance of the A’s: explanation of 25 ac parsing is lost on me.
    I similarly don’t see that “in existence” = “is”.
    But thanks, anyway, to Paul and Eileen.

41. Xenopus @40. Parsing 25a: Definition is ‘A’ (read as “capital of Azerbaijan”=BAKU). Wordplay is the second ‘A’ (read as “capital of Afghanistan”=KABUL) ‘endlessly’ (=KABU) ‘sozzled’ (anagram of KABU=BAKU). Note the all-important question mark on the end, indicating “you will probably stare at this for the best part of a week and still not get it”.

42. Xenopus@40 . The A simply means the capital of Australia, Austria , Albania ……..
    The I is the capital of Italy, Iran ……..

43. As the special instructions gave no hint of what the unusual cluing method was, they were valuable only in determining that there were only nine instances. This, after a countback of the ones I had solved, prevented me from pursuing 27A fruitlessly as the capital of a country beginning with A. I thought this was a witty and knowing reversal of the crossword convention whereby ‘the capital of Norway’ in a clue parses as ‘N’ rather than ‘Oslo’ and ‘the capital of Italy’ parses as ‘I’ rather than ‘Rome’. Here, therefore, ‘A’ means ‘the capital of Austria’ (or whichever) and ‘I’ is ‘the capital of Italy’. BAKU, in fact, was the one that cracked the code early for me, as, with CRICKET and TABLE in place, there is a very limited number of words that fit with B–K–.

44. Too cool for school this one Paul, obviously not a problem for Roz, her brain was made in a crossword foundry, but for us lesser mortals I thought tricky and quite honestly unsatisfying, even when finally solved. Can we have at least an interesting theme if its going to be this tedious please.

    Thanks Eileen for explaining it all, but was it really fun!!

45. Ant @44 – yes, in retrospect. My draft blog had ‘fun’ in inverted commas. 😉

46. Thanks all for the explanations. I finally get it! (Though if I were being pedantic – heaven forfend – I’d say that A is the initial or first letter of Austria etc, rather than its capital.)

47. Ant@44 I have had a lot of practice and in fact being stubborn is the best quality for getting good at crosswords. I have also suffered many, many defeats at the hands of setters , one in particular whose name I will not even say. Paul does seem to suit my solving style and it helps that I have attempted every single crossword he has ever set in the Guardian.

48. Xenopus @46. A cryptic crossword blog is not the place to begin taking up pedantry! 😉

49. sheffield hatter @48

    hear hear ?

50. me@49

    The ‘?’ was meant to be a LOL emoji but failed again on my iPhone. Grrrr

    Just echoing sh @48 re pedantry

51. Don’t think I would ever have got the right parsing of the AA clue without this excellent blog, so thanks Eileen for that as well as for all of your other comments.

    Loved Cricket and Card Reader, but, though I generally manage to have a good go at completing the Saturday Prize, I barely got started on this one and did not even manage to get to stage one in solving the similarly defined entries. Greatly enjoyed the reveal, however.

    Thanks, Paul. You remain one of my favourite compilers, but you seem to have upped the difficulty level over the past few months. Could you spare a thought for some of your more ancient admirers?

52. [Ed The Ball @49/50. Thanks for the echo. But were you reacting to the surface meaning or the exclamation mark and emoji? 😉 ]

53. If I had to sum this one up in one word, I’d say “Araucarian.” Occasionally loose (vixen/tease) but playful, inventive and clever. I loved it, even though it took a deal longer than usual.

    It took me quite a while to see the connection between the themed clues. As for some others, CANBERRA was the way in (it’s a Paul puzzle, so obviously “cups” means BRA).

    I wasn’t able to join Paul/John’s Zoom call last week – did anyone ask him whether 27a was a deliberate red herring or a coincidence?

54. Xenopus@40 I think therefore I am; he thinks therefore he “is”.

    I did enjoy this, but it took Eileen to reveal the full reverse parsing of themed clues. Lovely
    Thanks to Eileen and as ever to Paul – once my nemesis; now my favourite setter.

55. For me this was sheer humourless too-clever-by-half drudgery. Glad to say, Paul redeemed himself later on in the week.

56. I didn’t find this puzzle tedious, I just found it near impossible. Until I hit the check button I had the NW quarter filled in and nothing else at all. JERUSALEM didn’t enlighten me, but when I added ROME and VIENNA and forgot to look at JERUSALEM, I thought it was going to be European capitals.

    Thanks for parsing APPLAUSE and MARIONETTE, Eileen, they were beyond me.

    In 7d I thought the shaved organ was hEARt (lIVEr got me nowhere), not registering that an ear is also an organ. Oh — you mean “shaved” is the definition?

    I did enjoy the cities theme, though even then I didn’t get the I/A gimmick until the very end. It was fun because I enjoy admiring cleverness, whether or not it defeats me, and it’s long been obvious that Paul is cleverer than I am. Good show, Paul! And good show Eileen too, for your usual spirited blog that makes me feel that you’re in the room with me.

57. [sheffield hatter @58 definitely the exclamation mark and emoji. Pedantry is definitely endemic on crossword blogs but I am not complaining about that as it often makes for the most fun conversations here]

58. I was surprised by the largely negative reaction to this puzzle last week. Apart from the dodginess of the “is” = “in existence” synonym, this all seemed very well clued to me. I did find the SW tough to finish, but the parsings are all fine. LOI to my shame was LUANDA where I didn’t recognise “bands” as an inclusion indicator for far too long. And yes, I thought it would be a capital beginning with Z too.
    I like the A & I as definitions trick the more I think about it. Xenopus @46 and others, since the countries are proper names, then the only letters in the name that are capitals are the first ones. So, for example, A parses nicely as “the capital of Australia”.
    The BAKU clue is an indirect anagram, but the fact that the theme, once cracked, limits the choice of fodder once so drastically justifies the clue to my mind, especially in a prize. And. as someone said, BAKU jumps out once the crossers are in.
    Thanks, Paul and Eileen. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

59. Ed@57

    Surely you meant pandemic? ?

    There are comments originating from at least three continents and who knows how many countries? ?

60. Blah @ 59 – yes, isn’t it wonderful? I never cease to wonder at the variety and number ( 😉 ) of correspondents we have.

61. Very much so Eileen. I used to lurk here many years ago and it’s nice to see the old place again, even more so with the diversity of contributors.

    Ed please excuse the double ?s. In each case the second should have been an Emoji. I just read my post and felt it was perhaps a bit confrontational as it appears. That was not my intention. 🙂

62. Blah @ 61 – no worries!

    Thank you, all, for your comments – it’s ben a very enjoyable exchange and it seems about time to call it a day. (But of course, obviously, I’ll still be receiving your comments via email.)

    [I know that Paul has fairly recently set up a community (to which, it seems, a number of you belong) to discuss his puzzles. I think that’s great but I still wish that he might drop in here occasionally, as he used to, and as other setters do from time to time, to address a wider audience, particularly with an intriguing puzzle like this one, where there was lots to say.]

63. [blah @61 – and anyone else who experiences the problem with emojis appearing as question marks. You have to type a space *before*, and a space *after* the characters that make the emoticon. Only then does it become an emoji.]

64. I managed to grasp the trick fairly quickly, even without the rubric. ROME, VIENNA and CANBERRA and I was away. But I then spent an inordinate amount of time trying to slot REYKJAVIK (I for Iceland) into 13ac, having convinced myself that the capital of Israel is Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem. So by the time I’d got rid of that idée fixe it was a very long solve indeed.
    But very satisfying, Paul at his ingenious best.

65. The main reason I buy the weekend paper is to try and do the crossword without having to go near my computer or smartphone. So infuriating to find that the hard format puzzle was incomplete. Please, editors : take more care over this kind of thing. I love prize puzzles with a trick or theme, but really feel I was denied the full pleasure of this one.

66. g larsen@64 I actually got Jerusalem first but I was unhappy about it when I started getting other capitals. Tel Aviv was the capital recognised by many countries. Jerusalem as capital is very contentious for many reasons, the USA recognised Jerusalem in 2017 and moved their embassy from Tel Aviv , highly controversial.

67. Shocking. I had the online version, which had the instructions, but they are totally misleading – “Nine entries are similarly defined” but, of course, they don’t contain the definition at all! This made it virtually impossible.
    Also, 19a. “Where leg is on insect” – what is the word ‘on’ doing there?
    Disappointed in Paul.

68. Oh, ok, I get it, the leg side is also the on side.

69. We need a new acronym. Replacing DNF (did not finish), this puzzle deserves HGS (hardly got started).

70. Isn’t this the wrong blog my paper has 28500 philistine?

71. Came here specifically for the parsing of 5D – Tirana. Can someone please explain how I would infer ‘thank you’ from ‘nice one’? My mind went to Nice, France, and the archaeological site there when I tried to reason what the TA stood for – oops. Ta!

72. Hi Tamara B @71 – this is an example of the ‘little bit of looseness in some of the definitions’ that I referred to in the preamble, hence my question mark. I don’t associate TA (thank you) with ‘nice one’, which most online dictionaries give as expressing approval. However, I have just found this (verbatim!) in the online Urban Dictionary:

    “To express feelings of Gratitude, Wickedness, Dopeness, Likeability, Sickness etc..”

73. Hi Crisis @70 – this is the blog of the Saturday puzzle of July 10th. Yesterday’s Philistine puzzle will be blogged next Saturday, 24th.

74. Sorry, thought that was just when it was a prize crossword. Will have to wait for explanations to that one.

75. Tamara B & Eileen. I’ve often had “nice one” addressed to me by young bar staff by way of expressing gratitude, so didn’t have any trouble solving and parsing TIRANA. I’ve been addressed as dude too, which is not relevant to the clue but it made me wonder what strange world I had been teleported to.

76. Hi sheffield hatter @75 – thanks for that.

    I still haven’t really come to terms with ‘Cheers’ expressing gratitude!

77. Ta is dying out I think and nice one is quite common among the youngsters.
    Even worse is “no worries” instead of you are welcome.

78. My students even say “awesome” instead of thank you.

79. Late comment
    Thank you Eileen for the blog. I too was using the paper version, but realised after a while that the G has a history of overlooking special instructions, so I went online and there they were. I had already parsed some of the ‘specials’, but not understood where/what the definitions might be. After that, all slowly fell into place. Never appreciated what the I and A signified though, until your comprehensive blog (I was unable to tune in to his talk-in on the Saturday).
    With Paul, I find that ‘subconcious persistence’ pays off in the end, but he is more erratic than he used to be. Perhaps that’s part of the ‘fun’ too?
    I had no problem with synonymity of ‘is’ and ‘in existence’ (especially because it’s Paul). Thanks to him too.

80. Spooner’s C @43 – thanks for your spot-on articulation of the literal justification for the A’s & I’s in the cluing. While I caught the gimmick early enough to be helpful, I failed to work out how they could be components of decent surfaces.
    And I have no problem with the indirect anagram in 25A – I suspect many of us were wondering where Kabul would land in the grid anyway, since it seemed a rather obvious choice.

81. Hi yehudi @ 80 – sorry that my ‘articulation of the literal justification for the A’s & I’s in the cluing’ in the preamble (‘It wasn’t until I’d practically finished that full light finally dawned: the themed answers were all capital cities of the countries indicated by the capital letters A and I – a real tour de force on Paul’s part’) wasn’t clear.

82. Hi Eileen, and thanks for the blog (sorry to leave that out of previous post). You were quite clear about “A” = capital city of . . .” and that the letters themselves were capitals. No worries there, and ditto on “tour de force.”
    I just appreciated having the “reversal” pointed out – that one had to perform a sort of backward solve to get the clue to read smoothly.

    Perhaps it is my articulation which is lacking ?

83. Hi yehudi@82 – thanks for clarification. 😉
    I don’t remember seeing your name before, so welcome to the site if you’re new – and my apologies if you’re not.

84. @Eileen, sheffield hatter, Roz: Thank you very much for the additional explanation and insights! I live in Australia and can’t say that I’ve heard ‘nice one’ and others in those contexts often. Even then I don’t think I made the connection to gratitude, only to approval and being pleased. Brilliant, all of you.

85. Tamara@84 , maybe nice one never made it to Australia, it was very popular here but I do think awesome is replacing it among the students, I suppose it is nice really that young people change the language.
    Is “no worries ” to mean you are welcome from Australia ? Or is that South Africa ?

86. Stared at B-K- for a while before the penny and hence theme dropped. Didn’t parse it and barely noticed the additional hints A and I.
    Thanks Paul and Eileen for great puzzle and blog.

87. Very angry about this time-waster. Angrier still because I buy the paper, but all the smug freeloaders who download the digital version were given the special instructions. They were not even given in the ‘Corrections’ section on the Monday.

88. This was like pulling teeth but I got there in the end, bar about 4 answers, which is good for me.

    I find it hilarious that with all the difficulties in this crossword, everyone’s moaning about IS not meaning ‘in existence’, which it clearly does!

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