Guardian 28,539 / Picaroon

85 comments on “Guardian 28,539 / Picaroon”

1. Two excellent puzzles in a row, and, as for yesterday, almost b-t-h (and to be honest went over it, since after the grid was filled an ten extra minutes were needed for parsing several bung-ins – yet these made me appreciate the puzzle even more).
   Outstanding clues included BIDETS (cheeky!), ACUTE ACCENT, LOW-CUT, ETHELRED, REMAINDER and HEART, among others.
   Had never heard of those festivals, but enjoyed the learning opportunity. Likewise DUNCIAD & MIMI were n-t-m, but quite solvable from the clues.
   Thanks Picaroon, for a veritable TOUR DE FORCE.

2. I’m not entirely convinced by 15d – I suppose spotted = found, but is unfounded really “only alleged”? Maybe I’m still being a lawyer. I really ought to stop it.
   That apart, this was a delight, with Picaroon on top form. The behind mischievously displayed in 1d and the bush eliminated in 6d were laugh-out loud amusing (I have a happy memory of the Iraq War march of long ago; a beaming young woman in a hijab carrying a placard announcing THE ONLY BUSH I TRUST IS MY OWN). And 10a (with the implicit misdirection that no well-rounded character would ever…), 11a, 25a, 7d, 8d, 13d, 20d were particularly good as well.
   In other words, “what Eileen said”.
   Grateful thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

3. Another belter from Picaroon, which I found harder than his customary offerings. I flirted with ‘Pong’ at 24d (Turandot) until the crossers put me on the right track.
   I would prefer it if Picaroon left the Paulisms to Paul, but it would be churlish to criticise such an excellent puzzle.

4. Difficult puzzle. It was hard for me get started on this one, with only a couple of clues solved on first pass. I think I was not on the setter’s wavelength but I started to enjoy it about halfway through.

   Favourites: BOLOGNA, ACUTE ACCENT, UNFOUNDED, CURRENCIES, BAYREUTH, SCREENSHOT, HEART, TSETSE, TOUR DE FORCE (this was the last one that I parsed, after Rub-a-dub).

   New: RUB-A-DUB, DUNCIAD.

   Thanks, both.

5. What a lovely puzzle, thanks Picaroon.

   I particularly enjoyed the sneaky definitions: snaps here for ALBUM, PC still for SCREENSHOT, and of course They clean behind for BIDETS. Lots of laughs.

   But I don’t quite get the reversal of RE in CURRENCIES? Can anyone help?

   Thanks for the blog Eileen.

6. A really class act, I thought. Endless good clues, including (for me) TOUR DE FORCE, REMAINDER, BAYREUTH and SCREENSHOT. Many thanks to Picaroon and to Eileen.

7. Found this a lot easier than yesterday but still quite a few head-scratchers and help needed…

   RUB-A-DUB was my FOI especially given the death of the great Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry for which I offer this – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvRaEJbLioY

   Off to do Monday’s Quiptic whilst on the next conf call… groan.

   Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

8. In 6D, BUSH, strictly speaking, ‘Forest’s’ is unnecessary – the clue would work perfectly without it, and so the first panel of the semantic triptych is nailed on in a way that some who value economy in cluing may find questionable. However, it gives the surface an extra political/environmental bite (perhaps appropriate in a puzzle that evokes Greta Thunberg) by alluding to the appalling destruction of the rainforest under Brazil’s current president, Jair Bolsonaro: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/press-release/2020/12/brazil-accelerating-deforestation-of-amazon-a-direct-result-of-bolsonaros-policies/

9. CURRENCIES It’s ER (I’m unsure) reversed, isn’t it? I didn’t understand it at the time (I thought the I’m unsure was superfluous), but I was trying to fathom your explanation and saw the light.

   Thanks Eileen and P.

10. Yep that was fun. Vaguely remembered dub as sub-genre of reggae, thought ‘our name’ in TNT pretty smooth, head-scratched about **nciad until Ethelred clicked, but had no trouble with Bayreuth [saw Windy Wolfie as Siegfried there in ’67, but even so I do like Rumpole’s Wagner joke]. The est est fly was neat too, and Mimi evocative (“her tiny hand…). So, not too high on the tuffometer but enjoyably sensory, ta Pickers and as ever Eileen.

11. yesyes @5
    I parsed it as CUR (dog) + RE (reverse of ‘er’ = I’m unsure, like the word ‘um’) + anagram of since

12. Thanks Eileen for explaining Tsetse (my weak excuse is that it’s not over/across the channel for me so thought channel = street somehow!) and pointing out the correct Greta whom I had shamefully forgotten about.
    You also explained the reversed ER of CURRENCIES ( I couldn’t see past RE = about) but in the blog have typed RE (about) whereas it is a reversal of ER (I’m unsure) as you know! Which again answers yesyes@5, sorry for repetition.
    Lots of fun in here with some super definitions (and I approve of the Pauline touches) so I didn’t mind a little hit-and-hope on the more cultural entries. Out of many candidates I will give top marks for EWER – but maybe this is an old chestnut for some? – thanks Picaroon.

13. Very sorry – I made a mess of 22ac: that’s not what I meant at all.
    Dave Ellison and Michele are right, of course. I’ll amend it now.

14. Thanks for your understanding and indulgence, Gazzh @12 – we crossed.

15. Re 6d, NeilH@2, one of the threaders said Of the three defs, two could involve a merkin.

16. Excellent and very satisfying. I like others wasn’t sure what ‘I’m unsure was doing in 22A, as the ‘ about’ gives RE by itself, never thought of reversing ER. Very clever.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

17. So nearly gave up with about half completed but in the end only 27ac and 24dn defeated me as complete dnk’s. Glad I persisted as this was an excellent crossword with lots of misdirection but also variety. I have to say I don’t have the least problem with clues/solutions referring to certain body parts or functions (usually referred to here as Paulian). All part of the rich tapestry of our language.
    Much thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

18. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
    Great fun. Particular favourites TOURNAMENT, REMAINDER, and BIDETS (reminds me of the scene from Crocodile Dundee!).
    I didn’t parse TSETSE either, and needed a wordsearch for DUNCIAD.

19. Thanks for the blog. Good puzzle as you say.

    I was thinking of an old French squeeze of mine, who exhibited “a cute accent”, but I am sure that your parsing is what was intended …

    DNK Dunciad and failed miserably on Mimi, dimwittedly trying to shoehorn AIDI in instead.

20. I was too late to post anything yesterday but I enjoyed the blog immensely! Today’s crossword was fun too. I was slowed up by wanting coup De Force or maybe Coup de-Sired if such a phrase existed for 18a but Ethelred sorted that out. Such a memorable name! 10a is magnificent. Backstory for ‘ensures well rounded characters’ would always be clever, but to pair it with the Boris surface was a tour de force.

    Googling ‘dunciad work of satire’ and getting a hit was a high point for me too. Thanks picaroon. Thanks for the blog Eileen.

21. Anyone else think “Does he mean Gretna?” before remembering the young activist?

22. Bellissimo! No gripes here-an amazing setter-really entertaining
    Thanks all.

23. Thanks Dave Ellison @9 and Michelle @11 and Gazzh @12 and everyone else who explained CURRENCIES, Got it now. Happy boy.

24. Slightly easier than yesterday but much more satisfying. Some super clues already identified and was chuffed to dredge up DUNCIAD from misspent Eng Lit tutorials. Probably done before, but I thought ACUTE ACCENT was marvellous. Thanks for parsing TSETSE, Eileen

    Ta both

25. Thanks Muffin for giving us the Crocodile Dundee scene! Loved it.
    And thanks to Picaroon and Eileen – and others – for the parsing, great fun.

26. Eileen, your link for ETHELRED leads to Ethelred (or Æthelred) the First, who was undoubtedly an “old king”, having been King of Wessex from 865 to 871. However, I wonder if Picaroon was thinking of the not-quite-so-old but more well-known Ethelred the Unready, King of the English (978-1013, and 1014-16)?

    Incidentally, I do think it’s a shame we no longer apply epithets to our monarchs. Charles the Bald, Charles the Bold, Charles the Fat, Charles the Simple… those are all taken unfortunately, but I’m sure we could think of something. The other day I was reading about the medieval kings of Georgia (as one does), and I came across the delightfully named Dave the Builder (he fixed things nicely for the Georgians on several occasions) and George the Brilliant.

    Lovely puzzle, thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

27. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. A DNF for me as I couldn’t make anything that seemed even feasible fit the crossers for Dunciad. I wasted a good 5 minutes trying to get something out of Greta Garbo at 3d before the tea tray smacked me on the head – age-related, I suppose.

28. [essexboy @26
    L think I read somewhere that “Unready” derives from a Saxon word “unraed”, which means something like “badly advised”]

29. Hi essexboy @26

    I’m sure you’re right – I confess that, in my haste to get the blog posted, I simply took the first Wiki Ethelred entry, without reading it properly. ‘The Unready’ is, of course, the well-known one.

    I like your idea: I think it might be even more amusing, these days, to apply epithets to politicians. 😉

30. muffin @28 – I nearly added that!

31. Today is definitely the day for tricky but enjoyable crosswords

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen

32. PS: cf Ophelia’s advice to Hamlet:
    :
    Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
    Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
    Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
    Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
    And recks not his own rede.

33. Found this extremely hard to get a toehold at first, but gradually worked my way in through a maze of misdirections. As there were editorial problems with the Quick Crossword this morning, though at first that the gremlins had got in here too with Gretna (Green) misrepresented by Greta in 3d. Last two in were the interlocking DUNCIAD and ETHELRED.
    Because of my earlier struggles I really appreciated today’s Picaroon excellent offering. Particularly liked the very neat and clever EWER…

34. …thought at first…

35. muffin @28/Eileen @32 – thanks!

    Yes, the etymology is fascinating. Unræd (badly advised) was apparently a pun on the name Æthelred, which means ‘well (or nobly) advised’, from Anglo-Saxon æþele (‘noble’, cognate with German edel, as in Edelweiss) and ræd (‘advice’, cognate with German Rat).

36. Tough but as scrupulously fair as ever, so gaps in GK could be filled with wordplay. Loved TSETSE, BAYREUTH, HEART and TOURNAMENT but couldn’t for the life of me parse ALBUM, so thanks for that, Eileen and thanks to Picaroon for another excellent workout.

37. Wonderful puzzle from the pirate, with too many clever constructions and smoothly misleading surfaces to enumerate.

    Several posters have commented that this was not as difficult as yesterday’s crossword – for me it was the opposite, curiously, but it was a most pleasant struggle.

    LOI was ETHELRED – I agree with essexboy @26 that the uncounselled one is the more obvious [And I share his enjoyment of regal epithets. There were several for Medieval English kings which have rather fallen out of use: Henry I Beauclerk and Henry II Curtmantle, but my favourites are the parents of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V: Philip the Handsome and Joanna the Mad].

    Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen

38. eb@21 and Gervase@37, hasn’t someone, e.g. Private Eye, run a series of current royal epithets, a la Farmer George? I might have missed them. Or would it be libellously liable?

39. Great puzzle with some nice misdirections, thanks to Picaroon and Eileen, and also to those who have provided information about Saxon etymology – very interesting.
    I feel ashamed as I couldn’t parse 20d despite having lived in France for nearly 50 years!

40. grantinfreo @38 – Not sure that Private Eye has gone further than Brenda (Her Maj), Brian (the future Charles III) and Yvonne (Her Maj’s late lamented sister). There are probably pointedly demotic nicknames for the rest of the clan, too.
    Working on from Ethelred “Unraed”, at some stage Private Eye probably will come up with something referring to the fact that our future ruler is far from un-eared, in fact is fairly spectacularly eared.
    I’ll get my coat.

41. It took me a long time to get started on this, with only EWER to show for my first pass, giving two of the world’s least helpful crossers. But a good hard stare revealed BIDETS and after that it was steady going.

    Lovely stuff: favourites TOURNAMENT, BACKSTORY, SUPERMAN, BAYREUTH ( where I wasted ages trying to fit the Wye into the answer), GREEN CARDS and the aforesaid BIDETS. I started TOUR DE FORCE as COUP DE something: coup = love (o) in race (cup) – COUP DE GRACE maybe? Like several others I tried to fit ST=channel into TSETSE, and failed to parse ETHELRED. But the one that took longest to parse was DOWSE.

    thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

42. ACUTE ACCENT and SCREENSHOT were absolutely marvellous. Always something fun to find in a Picaroon puzzle.

    Thanks Eileen.

43. Sometimes I think that those clues that take the longest to parse have nothing to do with their intrinsic difficulty (even if that is a meaningful concept). You just get stuck in a blind alley.. This time it took me twice as long to parse TOUR DE FORCE as it did to fill in the whole puzzle, including that one. Go figure!

44. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen. Tough start with some very clever definitions, parsing, and learning eg ‘DUNCIAD’. Favourites 3dn, 5ac,11ac,13dn,14ac.
    Having a Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry tribute day in thanks for some of my favourite reggae dubs.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

45. Lovely, elegant puzzle which very smoothly fell into place (although I needed help with DUNCIAD and SCREENSHOT, which provided a pdm.
    I really like the economy of clues such as REMAINDER.
    Thanks to Picaroon & Eileen.

46. Quite right Dr WhatsOn @43. Screenshot eluded me for ages, as I toyed with whether it was PC meaning computer, police constable or politically correct. It was clearly screen something but I simply couldn’t see a definition which led to that. Then it struck me. Doh! Lovely clue.

47. NeilH @40, we had a PM monikered ‘Bog flap with ears’… no I think for Charlie it’ll need more subtlety, praps something to do with his trisers …

48. Could someone please explain the second part of 6d? (‘something eliminated by Brazilian’)

49. Sheltered life, pompeyblue? It’s a type of haircut, only not on the head…

50. I loved it. Tough but thoroughly clued.

51. What a complete delight this was! Not overly difficult but with some superb hidden definitions and mis-direction.

    Too many to list all my favourites but top of my list were BUSH and SCREENSHOT

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen

52. Thanks for the blog, did not know DUNCIAD so thanks for the reference , good to learn. Of course the clue was good enough to get it.
    No theme , no Ninas , no pangram just quality clues through and through, a rare treat these days, too many favourite clues to list.
    BUSH is hilarious but actually my only minor quibble, it should be Hollywood not Brazilian.
    Perhaps the setter made a small mistake to confirm they are mortal like the tilers of the Alhambra.

53. pompeyblue @48, no easy way to sugar coat this, a Brazilian is a type of female waxing to remove most of the pubes ( bush ) . The clue says ELIMINATE so is really called a Hollywood.

54. Roz @52 – you’re right – maybe “decimated” is better than “eliminated”

55. Good idea Ark Lark , the Brazilian actually woks very well in the clue, it is the “eliminated” that is too strong a term.

56. [ Muffin I think it was you telling us about crack/craic , there is an interesting letter in the paper today ]

57. Roz & Ark Lark, perhaps this is not a matter that calls for precise semantic and procedural discrimination, but I think it could be argued on the setter’s behalf that a Brazilian, even if it not a Hollywood, does eliminate the ‘bushy’ characteristic of the pertinent area.

58. I think eliminated is too strong,also for the forest. Bolsonaro has allowed damage to the rain-forest but not eliminated it.
    Only a very minor quibble on my part.

59. [Roz @56
    Thanks – I had missed that.]

60. [It was exactly what you said, originally NE term , changed later to make it more “Irish” ]

61. [the letter today re crack/craic is worth reading. Hilarious!]

62. Thanks Picaroon for my favourite crossword of the week. I ticked many clues including BACKSTORY (great surface), TOURNAMENT, ACUTE ACCENT, HEART, LOW-CUT, DOORSTEP, SCREENSHOT, and MIMI. I’m putting Picaroon in my top setters’ list along with Brendan and Nutmeg (sorry Roz) because they all write clues that read so well and they all use misdirection so adroitly. Thanks Eileen for your active blog.

63. Failed on BUSH (couldn’t see past the surface and never thought of triple wordplay/definitions) and didn’t write in DUNCIAD (didn’t see DUD=’failing’ – thought of it as a failure, as in light bulbs and fireworks). ETHELRED & MIMI also escaped me, the former because I (again) failed to penetrate the surface (‘old Spanish king’), and the latter because I mistrusted the surface (‘role in Italian opera’). So another victory for Picaroon, though sadly it’s not much of a triumph these days. 🙁

    Despite a DNF, there was much to enjoy about this crossword – especially BIDETS when I finally cottoned onto the parsing – so thanks to Picaroon, and thanks also to Eileen for the blog.

64. In my defence for needing a wordsearch for DUNCIAD, I don’t think the parsing is as clear-cut as some have suggested. Yes, it will probably include an N for “new”, but CIA aren’t the only agents, and DUD for “failing” is the loosest component of the puzzle (not wrong, just loose – there are lots of possible alternatives).

65. I wish clues didn’t resort to Yoda-like sentence structure — in normal English 9a would read “Some medicine bottles ‘with'”, which makes no sense without the quotation marks.

    Eileen, thanks for parsing TOUR DE FORCE. Like Gladys, I kept trying to make it “coup de” something, got nowhere. Finally bunged in the answer but had no idea why.

    rodshaw@1 b-t-h? n-t-m?

    [grantinfreo@10 Rumpole’s Wagner joke is actually Mark Twain’s: “Wagner’s music is better than it sounds.” In looking it up, to see if the Rumpole line was the one I thought it was, I learned that Rumpole began as a TV series and then went to being books. I had always assumed the opposite.

    essexboy@35 How do you get the ae combined, and the eth or the thorn (I can never remember which is which) without their turning into question marks?

    Would somebody like to give a link to the letter on craik/crack?

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

66. [The Wagner quote that comes to mind – I’ve not checked who made it – is “Wagner’s music has some wonderful moments, but some boring half-hours”.]

67. [@32 Eileen: advice to Laertes, not to Hamlet]

68. [Valentine @65: I got all those ‘funny letters’ from an extremely helpful link which Eileen posted a while back. Æ is alt 146, æ is alt 145, þ is alt 0254, ð is alt 0240.

    You have to make sure that Num Lock is on – it only works with the number keypad, not the numbers across the top. Also – I think Apple-y products may be different.

    The æ looks fine in my Word documents, but when I post it as part of a comment on 15² (the ² is alt 253, by the way 😉 ), it gets transformed into something which looks almost indistinguishable from œ.

    And here’s some crack.]

69. [Note to self: don’t use italics with Anglo-Saxon! The normal æ is fine 🙂 ]

70. No further praise needed from me for this, so I’ll just ask if there’s a mnemonic for distinguishing grave from acute accents?
    Thanks P&E.

71. Valentine @65:
    b-t-h = “broke the hour” (it’s my own measure of difficulty level … usually manage to solve cryptic puzzles in under the hour).
    n-t-m = “new-to-me” (these days I nearly always drop across them – though usually in Brit-specific general-knowledge & modern pop-culture items etc).

72. [muffin@66 The quote I found was
    Horace Rumpole : Who was it that said that Wagner’s music isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds?
    which sounded pretty close to Mark Twain’s.]

73. Andrew Tyndall @67 – oh dear, of course it was. Thank you.

    Valentine @65, if you’re still there – I’ve been out at choir practice
    Here’s the link to the letter https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/aug/31/its-not-just-the-irish-who-have-good-crack

    …in reply to this one

    which I think is where muffin got his information the other day.

74. Eileen @73
    Yes, I think that’s where I saw it.

75. Gonzo@70: the best i can do is that A comes before E in the alphabet, so if you plot the AcutE accent as two points on a graph with the first pt at height 1 from a = 1st letter of the alphabet and the other at height 5 from e=5th letter it will rise from left to right. Similarly G is after E so a graph for GravE from G=7 to E= 5 will fall from left to right. Or think of us all sliding slowly down into the grave and as we read from left to right the slope of that accent will go downwards.

76. [Gazzh @75: good thinking. It works musically too – although not on the recorder!]

77. gonzo@70

    Sir Cornflakes sat upon the roof alone out in the rain.
    I inquired after his fever, whether it was causing pain?
    “Ça va”, said he, “just leave me. You should learn how to behave!”
    But his fever rose accutely: he declined towards the grave.

78. [Cornflakes @77: 🙂 wot no tréma?]

79. Enjoyed this though didn’t spot ETHELERED. Was there a continental theme? ACUTE ACCENT, BOLOGNA and reference to TOUR DE FRANCE (easy for me ever since accidentally crossing its path on a cycle tour in 1952. No Brit had ever ridden it then. There were also BIDETS, BAYREUTH, MIMI and a misleading Spanish king.

80. [Keith @79. Nice try, but according to this, there were two British riders in the 1937 TdF: Charles Holland and Bill Burl. The former had mechanical problems that forced his retirement, the latter was “forced to abandon with a broken collarbone on stage two after colliding with a photographer”. A mere broken collarbone would be thought a feeble excuse nowadays! They entered as part of a small British Empire team, which some lists would no doubt describe as not actually British, but they clearly were.

    No British rider *finished* until 1955, which was only the second time British riders entered.

    Almost forgot to say “chapeau” for crossing the path of the Tour de France on a bicycle!]

81. Beaten by culture once again. Couldn’t figure out either BAYREUTH or DUNCIAD from the wordplay. A real belter of a puzzle with enough clever clues to fill at least 3 podia.
    Thanks all.

82. Very late to this today but just had to pop in to add to the general praise – excellent work, Picaroon – and Eileen too, of course.

    My experience was identical to gladys @41 – EWER the only one in on first pass, then much time staring at it without joy, before getting BIDETS and BOLOGNA and the rest gradually falling into place after that.

    sh @80 – Burl and Holland were definitely British. The third member of the Empire team was a Canadian, I forget his name. Pierre something, I think.

    As a massive cycling fan, I especially loved the TOUR DE FORCE clue. (Incidentally, the reason I’m so late to this is that I was out most of the day on a 220km bike ride – cycling to exercise the body, crosswords to exercise the mind. Not entirely sure which I find harder.)

83. [Thanks, Eileen, for the articles — most diverting. I was fascinated at the celtification for the tourists of a word that’s had English spelling in Ireland for ages.

    The articles were something pleasant to read while we all wait for the leftovers of Hurricane Ida, which by the time it gets to New England will just be a whole boatload of rain. We’ve had some, more coming late tonight, should be gone tomorrow.]

84. Didn’t know DUNCIAD and didn’t parse TSETSE (!)
    BIDET has had a few good clues and this is one of them.
    Thanks both

85. This American was still beating his head in Thursday on this Tuesday puzzle! Finally got rolling on 4th and fifth tries. Stumped at the last by Dunciad with which I was unfamiliar. Tough solve! Rub-a-dub is nonsense as a drumbeat, IMHO.

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