The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28577.
This looked formidable at first glance, with all the 27s scattered around, but 27D itself was straightforward (with the even easier 26A as hint if needed), and the BONDs were well varied and accessible. As a good crossword should, it all fell into place.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | AROMATISE |
Atomiser sprayed around a perfume (9)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of ‘a’ in AROMTISE, an anagram (‘sprayed’) of ‘atomiser’. | ||
| 10 | LONER |
Person opposed to 27 backing place for better learner (5)
|
| A reversal (‘backing’) of RENO (‘place for better’ – known for its casinos) plus L (‘learner’); BOND here is just a union. | ||
| 11 | SAVED |
Day behind bar in 27 work (5)
|
| A charade of SAVE (‘bar’ “bar/save none”) plus D (‘day’), for Edward BOND’s play. | ||
| 12 | DESPERADO |
Criminal dares to get involved with dope (9)
|
| An anagram (‘to get involved’) of ‘dares’ plus ‘dope’. | ||
| 13 | HIDINGS |
The man’s receiving little knock in instances of corporal punishment (7)
|
| An envelope (‘receiving’) of DING (‘little knock’) in HIS (‘the man’s’). | ||
| 14 | CONNERY |
One who incarnated 27 almost learnt lines (7)
|
| A charade of CONNE[d] (‘learnt’) minus its last letter (‘almost’) plus RY (railway, ‘lines’), for the original film James Bond.. | ||
| 17 | MOTET |
Sacred work is a tiny bit tacky at the outset (5)
|
| A charade of MOTE (‘a tiny bit’) plus T (‘Tacky at the outset’). | ||
| 19 | PAS |
Balletic movement not for Depardieu (3)
|
| Double definition … and definitely not balletic for Gérard Depardieu; there is a reason he was cast as Obelix. | ||
| 20 | COYPU |
Showing false modesty, leading around rodent (5)
|
| A charade of COY (‘showing false modesty’) plus PU, a reversal (‘around’) of UP (‘leading’). | ||
| 21 | NO CAN DO |
Bob carries jug round? Impossible! (2,3,2)
|
| A charade of NOCAND, an envelope (‘carries’) of CAN (‘jug’ prison or otherwise) in NOD (‘bob’); plus O (’round’). | ||
| 22 | FLEMING |
This person, about to stop affair, is creator of 27 (7)
|
| An envelope (‘to stop’) of EM, a reversal (‘about’) of ME (‘this person’) in FLING (‘affair’), for Ian, the author of the original James Bond books. | ||
| 24 | BRING DOWN |
Make blue colour hems in Gerald’s jacket (5,4)
|
| An envelope (‘hems’) of ‘in’ plus GD (‘GeralD‘s jacket’) in BROWN (‘colour’). | ||
| 26 | THROB |
Pulse in broth that needs stirring (5)
|
| An anagram (‘that needs stirring’) of ‘broth’. | ||
| 28 | AVAIL |
A bridal accessory said to provide help (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘said’) A VEIL (‘a bridal accessory’). | ||
| 29 | OVERDRAWN |
Like some accounts with exaggerated depiction (9)
|
| Definition and literal interpretation. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | JAWS |
Character from 27 works in Spielberg film (4)
|
| Double definition, the first being from the James Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker | ||
| 2 | SOLVED |
How shoe may be repaired, outside very cracked (6)
|
| An envelope (‘outside’) of V (‘very’) in SOLED (‘how shoe may be repaired’). | ||
| 3, 24 | PADDINGTON BEAR |
Character from 27 works readapting 27 works (10,4)
|
| An anagram (‘works’, the second) of ‘readapting’ plus BOND (’27’), for the creation of Michael BOND. | ||
| 4 | HINDUS |
Believers back from America? (6)
|
| A charade of HIND (‘back’) plus US (‘America’). | ||
| 5 | BEDSOCKS |
Qualified teacher strikes to get retirement cover (8)
|
| A charade of B ED (Bachelor of Education, ‘qualified teacher’ – identified by the qualification) plus SOCKS (‘strikes’). | ||
| 6 | GLUE |
Creator of 27 in toboggan, raising £1,000 (4)
|
| LUGE (‘toboggan’) with the G (‘£1,000’) moved to the front (‘raising’ in a down clue). | ||
| 7 | UNSAFELY |
Take back grappling iron left in a risky way (8)
|
| An envelope (‘grappling’) of FE (chemical symbol, ‘iron’) plus L (‘left’) in UNSAY (‘take back’). | ||
| 8 | DR NO |
27 work about way to the north (2,2)
|
| A charade of DR, a reversal (‘to the north’ in a down clue) of ON (‘about’) plus RD (‘road, ‘way’), for the first James BOND film. | ||
| 13 | HYMEN |
One who incarnated 27 English put in song (5)
|
| An envelope (‘put in’) of E (‘English’) in HYMN (‘song’), for the god of marriage (not as 14A). | ||
| 15 | NUCLEOTIDE |
I need clout, fooling around — it’s in my DNA (10)
|
| An anagram (‘fooling around’) of ‘I need clout’. | ||
| 16 | YOUNG |
Not yet getting on with my interlocutor, nattering emptily (5)
|
| A charade of YOU (‘my interlocutor’) plus NG (‘NatterinG emptily’). | ||
| 18 | TACTICAL |
Strategic opening of play in tense state (8)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ACT I (i.e. Act 1, ‘opening of play’) in T (‘tense’) plus CAL (California, ‘state’). | ||
| 19 | PROTOCOL |
Rules of behaviour for officer to keep to (8)
|
| An envelope (‘to keep’) of ‘to’ in PRO (‘for’) plus COL (colonel, ‘officer’). | ||
| 22 |
See 25
|
|
| 23 | INROAD |
1 and 8 shot, including a hostile attack (6)
|
| An envelope (‘including’) of ‘a’ in I (‘1’) plus NROD, an anagram (‘shot’) of DR NO (the answer to ‘8’ Down) | ||
| 24 |
See 3
|
|
| 25, 22 | GOLDFINGER |
Person opposed to 27 shot after part of target (10)
|
| A charade of GOLD (‘part of target’) plus FINGER (‘shot’, a drink of spirits). | ||
| 27 | BOND |
English playwright sure to leave university (4)
|
| BO[u]ND (‘sure’) minus U (‘to leave, university’ – the inserted comma explains the inverted syntax) – or to put it another way, if you take BOND from BOUND, U will be left (with U). Christopher or Edward. |
The first of the themed answers that I got was JAWS which allowed me to guess 27d, and then I could solve the various themed clues.
I liked: OVERDRAWN, DESPERADO, SOLVED, HINDUS, PAS.
New for me: NUCLEOTIDE; gold colour being the the bullseye of an archery target (for 25d); playwright Bond, Edward (for 27d); HYMEN = god of marriage ceremonies (for 13d).
I did not parse 11ac SAVED = save + d / but why Bond work? something to do with savings bonds? Oh, I see now – never heard of that play although I had googled the existence of playwright Bond earlier.
I realise now that I had not parsed LONER.
Thanks, both.
Thanks Peter for explaining L,ONER — I was puzzled. Defining TACTICAL as strategic always has me confused – a constant theme at work as I try to tease out the difference.
Another day, another theme. Fewer themes please.
This looked harder than it was, even to someone like me with a complete disinterest in all things 007. Must have imbibed it all through some kind of weird osmosis. Still, PADDINGTON BEAR, was there, so that cheered me up.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
Thanks PeterO and Picaroon.
2d, repaired would mean resoled not just soled.
@2 Ilan Caron: strategy vs tactics is another question mark.
Wow, that was jerky, if that’s the right word. I started off fine with a lot of the non-theme clues, then ground to a halt. Got CONNERY, thought we were off to the races with 007, but only got a couple before the grinding recurred. Then I really figured out what was going on, and coasted to the finish line. A great puzzle, with only a couple of googlings for verification.
I was also a little surprised to see strategic clueing TACTICAL. I know people use them interchangeably, so there is bound to be dictionary support, but I thought that when properly used they are “pseudo-opposites”, like medical and surgical.
Crossbar @3
I also was very happy to see PADDINGTON BEAR – at which point I realised I would not have to be googling a lot of 007 trivia.
3d is such an exquisite anagram I wonder if this was the genesis of the theme. Having avoided all JB films I was pleasantly surprised to muddle through without that GK, eventually rather ironically getting stuck on GLUE. Lots of challenging fun. Thanks Picaroon & Peter.
Out of interest, did anyone else throw Michigan into 18 unparsed before solving the tricky 17?
Being peripherally aware of the Bond franchise but not intimately connected with it I found this crossword to be more of a chore than a delight. There was nothing wrong with any of it but I’ve enjoyed other Picaroon puzzles much more. I guess all of us can’t be happy all the time — I’m OK with that. Thanks to both.
Picaroon 1 Yesyes 0
Thanks for parsing the tricky ones, PeterO. I didn’t understand some of the ones michelle@1 mentioned like 10a LONER and 25d/22d GOLD FINGER. (Thought LONER was L for Learner but with a reverse of “RENO” – pron. “renno” – in Australia it is used to describe a house that one could improve, better or renovate, but now I think Peter’s answer is better!!! I misread the clue for GOLDFINGER and got the enumeration round the wrong way – I was trying to make a word starting with F and with BULL on the end!!!). NUCLEOTIDE at 15d was something new I learned today and I was also unfamiliar with Edward Bond’s work so I had to look him up: I was on safer ground for the most paert with James and Michael. Favourite clue from this retired (!) teacher was 5d BEDSOCKS. Some fun to be had getting to the end, so many thanks to Picaroon.
Aren’t we a funny community? A theme will often tease out a subject that polarises commenters. I recall Friends and Tolkien inspiring similar reaction and today it’s the world of James Bond. I wonder if Picaroon suspected that the puzzle would divide opinion. I’m perfectly happy to admit to being a fan of 007. Not all have been to the same standard and they’ve certainly dated but they’ve provided plenty of enjoyment.
As did the puzzle, once I’d made some headway. It took CONNERY to confirm the solution to 27 – having not heard of the playwrights. And it was clever to mislead us with some alternative BONDs along the way. Kept us on our toes and avoided the trivia quest.
All that said, I can’t accept TACTICAL as a synonym for STRATEGIC. Tactics are how you achieve strategy. But it was my only serious complaint.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
Not going to bother. I had the B and N in 27d, and revealed the other two letters. Google found the two English playwrights, neither of whom had I heard of.
I read 19a as from “ne pas”, French for not.
Is Tactical = Strategic?
Thanks PeterO and Picaroon
We had PADDINGTON BEAR a couple of weeks ago from Maskarade, clued as Apt reading Bond created.
I agree with Dave Ellison @14. on the parsing of ‘pas’. And like Paul @7, I was defeated by ‘GLUE’ in the end, the word LUGE not coming to mind for a sledge. Kicked myself afterwards of course. I thought the use of the theme was very good with a mix of Bonds (Edward, Michael and James) to suit a multitude of tastes. An entertaining Friday puzzle. Thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Dave Ellison @ 14 – Me too (PAS from ne pas).
Quite a slow solve for me, but much to enjoy, especially BEDSOCKS and NO CAN DO. Didn’t parse PADDINGTON BEAR so missed a brilliancy. Many thanks to Picaroon & PeterO.
Dave Ellison @14
I had 19a PAS same as you
I liked this very much. As others have said, the variations on the ‘Bond’ link were clever and taxed General Knowledge in different spheres.
I feel like my brain has had a real pummelling this morning. 27dn came quickly (but unparsed) thanks to the crossers and then a few of the linked clues fell in making it clear this wasn’t just a JB theme. It still took a while and I had to kick myself when I got Jaws as that should have been obvious.
I thought 13dn was really tough, I initially thought Niven as he incarnated Bond once! Again, the crossers led to the parsing and the solution but the definition was very subtle.
Thanks P for the workout and PO for clarifying more than a few.
Dave Ellison @14 and Tomsdad @16: having parsed PAS as did you both, when I read PeterO’s analysis, I took it to mean he’d done the same. But now I re-read it, I think his comment’s ambiguous.
Sigh – yet another thematic. However, rescued by the pirate’s clever constructions and surfaces. This looked very tricky but I found it fell out reasonably easily. I agree that TACTICAL and strategic are not equivalent. PeterO did parse PAS as several posters have suggested – look at his underlinings – but didn’t make this explicit.
Favourites were BEDSOCKS, GLUE (nice thematic misdirection) and the Peruvian ursine (even though a Bond anagram is too tempting, as Andrew @15 notes).
Thanks to S&B
Systematically reading across then down clues, seeing what I could solve, the long anagrams, DESPERADO and NUCLEOTIDE, slotted in, but I was looking at all the 27D linked clues with bemusement until I got to 25&22D, which I solved as GOLDFINGER and then realised that 27D had to be BOND. I did know that Edward Bond is a playwright and he was linked to the Royal Court, but that’s about all I know about him, so SAVED passed me by. Having spotted BOND I was hoping that Michael Bond and PADDINGTON BEAR would feature, so I’m happy. I found this more accessible than the Boatman on Wednesday and much easier than yesterday’s Vlad, thank you PeterO and Picaroon.
Entertainingly sticky: GLUE had me in a fix, and I liked the ‘tacky’ in MOTET. Altogether, a happy union of BONDs, thanks Picaroon & PeterO.
There’s also a nod to the Charlie Higson book series in 16d & 27d.
The “pas” struck me almost as a Spoonerism – pas de deux vs Depardieu. An enjoyable puzzle.
Thank you Picaroon and Peter O. I found this very entertaining although my knowledge of James Bond is limited. It was still very accessible though. I thought it was clever, and PADDINGTON BEAR was my clue of the week.
25, 22:
Gold-part of target.
Could someone explain this to me, please?
Like many I was horrified at first with the theme and thought that I would never complete. However a 20 minute puzzle in the end. Loved how I was dragged down the 007 rabbit hole but then had to come out and rejig my thoughts. Enjoyable and some neat clues
A very clever and entertaining puzzle with great misdirection involving different Bonds/bonds. LONER in particular was brilliant.
When I got 18d I thought “We’re going to get some moans about this”. Strategy is of course higher level than tactics, but informally “strategic” and “tactical” can both simply mean calculated or planned.
Many thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
S Krishna @27 – michelle explained it @1.
Thanks (Missed it).
S Krishna @27: here’s a link that should present you with a load of bull whilst answering your query
Thoroughly confused by this at times, my way in was through FLEMING, which had to indicate that with B-N- the key clue at 27d had to be BOND. Though I simply couldn’t parse it from the clueing. Then didn’t realise there was a further twist to the BOND theme apart from 007 and Michael B, in that it could also stand for a joining together. Couldn’t fathom out LONER or GLUE therefore, or SOLVED and SAVED. A rather poor DNF this morning. Too many balls up in the air at the same time for me, I’m afraid. But did like the devious UNSAFELY and BEDSOCKS, however…
A puzzle bursting with Bonds – a touch of Michael, a sprinkling of Edward and a hefty amount of the testosterone-heavy James – and yet, no letter Q!
My favourite was BEDSOCKS. Paddington wouldn’t be averse to them, either, but I really can’t picture 007 in a pair…
Thanks to Picaroon for the fun and Peter O for the blog
How is Conned learnt?
Clever stuff with all the uses of BOND which I got first with THROB but not much fun for me today. I did like BEDSOCKS and PADDINGTON BEAR.
Ta Picaroon & PeterO
Those griping about too many themes will be happy to know that of the last 25 Guardian cryptics (not including Prize 28572), only 10 have had a theme, whether it’s a ghost theme, or a more obvious one such as today’s. That’s only 40%, so cheer up 🙂 (I realize 25 isn’t much of a sample space, but I imagine the trend continues further into past crosswords, and I was getting bored with looking them up anyway.)
Timmo @31 Chambers gives the third sense of con as to know, to learn, or to study. Marked as archaic, but it’s a usage that persists in crossword-land.
Sorry, should be Timmo @35
Timmo @38: ‘study’ in crosswords clues is more often than not either ‘con’ or ‘den’ but today I’ve learnt for the first time why. Thanks for raising that query.
I thought for a little while that 27 would entirely refer to Edward B., of whom I know nothing other than what I have just skimmed from his Wikipedia entry, but fortunately (as I saw from 3,24) the clues were much more accessible.
What PostMark said.
Timmo/Brian/AlanC –
For Cassius is aweary of the world;
Hated by one he loves; braved by his brother;
Cheque’d like a bondman; all his faults observed,
Set in a note-book, learn’d, and conn’d by rote…
Loved it, thanks P & P
I’m a bit surprised by PeterO’s parsing of 27d. You might get that sort of inversion from Vlad but I’d be surprised if that’s what Picaroon meant. Leave always seems to cause difficulty. Isn’t it just ‘bound leaves u’, as in discards?
Steve B @37, thanks for counting. You’ll probably find that the anti-themesters use your statistic to support their own argument. I don’t mind themes, but 40% strikes me as a lot.
Thanks Picaroon, PeterO
eb @42: neat to find a verse that illustrates conned whilst also referring to bond!
[Timmo @35
Also ‘con’ as ‘learn’ is maybe the earliest meaning of those three letters (with the related ‘cunning’/knowing).
I think all the others are abbreviations:
convict
confidence trick
conduce
convention
conservative
… where the prefix ‘con-‘ (with) is used and then ‘contra’, which confusingly means the opposite to ‘with’!]
essexboy@42 nice bondman!
I solved BOND fairly early on, but then my heart sank a bit when I looked up Edward Bond. I thought: “This would be more entertaining if it was/were based on James BOND…
I liked the clues for LONER and PADDINGTON BEAR. NUCLEOTIDE is an everyday word for some of us here. Good switches from one BOND to another, although some with little/no knowledge of James BOND might have got a bit frustrated.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO.
Having deduced BOND from GOLDFINGER, I was relieved to find that other BONDs were available: I don’t dislike the films but I’m not that knowledgeable. The only 007 reference I forgot was JAWS. I remember SAVED because it caused a scandal when it was first produced: a baby in a pram was stoned on stage. I doubt if I could name any other Edward Bond work. Sadly I failed to parse PADDINGTON BEAR: obviously I didn’t give it a hard enough stare.
I thought BEDSOCKS was fun.
[While on the subject of PAS,
Depardieu and Obelix, there’s a good line in Asterix chez les Bretons. One of the Britons is explaining his country’s peculiar measurement system:
“Les Romains mesurent les distances en PAS, nous en pieds. Il faut six pieds pour faire un PAS.” Cue Obelix deciding that these Britons are crazy. Don’t know how the English translation did it: something like you need six feet to make a step.]
Like maarvarq @41 I initially thought this was going to be all about Edward Bond (having got Bond and Saved), which I also thought a bit over-specialised even though I know a little about his work. I was much happier when Paddington Bear and Connery fell into place; I should have had more faith in Picaroon. I enjoyed this a lot – one where the theme actually helped. Usually they pass me by completely.
I agree re thematics.Some seem a little stretched, I.e. the theme becomes more important than good clueing.Pehaps a ration of one a week ,maybe Saturdays.
I got BOND early on, from the helpful THROB at 26ac. but I had to google to find the playwright. I’m amazed that I (and, it seems, a number of others here, have never heard of him, considering that Wikipedia tells me that he has written ‘some fifty plays’, helpfully adding ‘among them SAVED’, which turned out to be the only one I needed. Having noted the number of ’27s’ strewn throughout the grid, I had envisaged a dreary trawl through a list of unknown works – but I should have known better: this was a Picaroon puzzle, so there was much more to it than that and I was soon able to settle down and enjoy it.
I have to say that had the theme been purely 007, I’d have been almost equally disenchanted but, at least, I wouldn’t have had to look up the films: I don’t think I have ever seen one but, like Crossbar @3, I seem to have absorbed knowledge of them through ‘some kind of weird osmosis’.
I won’t rehearse the strategy / tactics discussion (I did like the clue) but I have to agree with Paul, Tutukaka’s @7 ‘exquisite’ for PADDINGTON BEAR: I think that has earned a free pass into my little book of classic clues. I also very much liked the construction and surface of PROTOCOL.
Huge thanks, as ever to Picaroon. Thanks, too, to lucky PeterO (although I still counted myself lucky yesterday!) for the blog.
There have been several posts since I started (slowly) typing mine, so my apologies for duplication.
I, too, went looking for Mary Whitehouse as an opponent of BOND and ROMANS IN BRITAIN as a work, but got there eventually, with a bit of a struggle. I was tempted to blame the theme but, as Cassius (pace Essexboy) so nearly said. “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our setters, but in ourselves.”
Worth the effort for PADDINGTON BEAR alone.
Another cracker from the Pirate. No quibbles or complaints from me; I’d heard of Edward Bond, am familiar with Fleming’s oeuvre and used to read Paddington stories to the kids, so I enjoyed every moment spent on this. That said, I can’t believe I finally had to search a list of Spielberg films to come up with JAWS. Many thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO.
Wellbeck@34 I was sure there was going to be a Q or and M in there somewhere, so I tried to make Qaos and Mars work for 1 dn. M + ARS=work tempted me for a while.
On looking up Edward Bond I noticed that 8D is also a reference to his play Narrow Road to the Deep North.
What PeterO said. Initially daunting but it all fell into place nicely in good time.
The anagram for PADDINGTON BEAR was wonderful.
Having picked up on the various BONDs, it was a master stroke to have the misdirection in GLUE and LONER (my LOI).
I laughed out loud at NUCLEOTIDE (it takes all sorts).
Thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO – we’ve had a good run of puzzles this week.
essexboy @42: nice..
Pretty cool connecting a Peruvian bear, a Spielberg character, sticky stuff and much more on the basis of a four letter word
Great puzzle. thanks all
Got 27 BOND through GOLD FINGER, and had to check on Wikipedia to find the playwright. Did not see how the clue worked, so needed the blog for a full understanding. Likewise for 6 GLUE which I got from the definition and crossers rather than the wordplay. So thanks to Picaroon and to PeterO. for an excellent blog.
Many years ago I went to a lecture by Edward Bond. He spoke (very well) for about forty-five minutes about the State of the Nation. At question time, someone stuck his hand up and asked “Can we talk about the plays?” to which he replied “I’ve been talking about nothing but…”
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO. This was a most enjoyable solve for me, though I didn’t manage to parse FLEMING or LONER. Infuriating!
Nice to see another outing for PADDINGTON BEAR so soon after Maskarade, and again with a very well worked anagram.
Eileen @50 – to be honest, I’m slightly disappointed that so many appear to be unaware of Edward Bond – I’m sure I’m not alone in considering him to be one of the most important living British playwrights, though I suppose he is a bit out of fashion these days and I don’t know when he last put out a new work. When SAVED was first put on in the 60s, it became instrumental in overturning the censorship laws.
gladys @47 – I was in a production of Saved at uni. I can’t remember the character’s name but I was the one who stoned the baby! We were performing it in the round, so I had to be very careful to make sure the stone went into the pram and not the audience…
Togs @55 – I wasted a lot of time looking for a solution to 8d that was relevant to that play, completely ignoring the obvious solution… Fiendish misdirection!
Postmark @21 et al
I tend not to expand on definitions in my blogs, unless I see some deviousness going on; after all, we are all here out of an interest in words, and if one does not have a dead tree dictionary to hand, there is onelook.com or the like. As a result, every now and then I am pulled up by not spelling out something that I think of as obvious. Here, I might have suggested that nyet might be as good a fit for the second definition (apart from the mere peccadillos that it does not fit and does not match the first definition – on which I did not elaborate either). Obviously, I was more tickled by the appearance of ‘Depardieu’ and ‘balletic’ in the same sentence – hence the link to Obelix.
Of course, in French pas is not necessarily paired with ne (pas du tout).
Any chess player knows that ‘tactical’ and strategic’, far from being synonymous, differ significantly. “Tactics is what you do when there’s something to do; strategy is what you do when there’s nothing to do” – SaviellyTartakower
It’s a strange one to quibble over. Strategy and tactics are often used synonymously, as per Lord Jim’s comment @29.
PeterO @62 – it took me a while to twig that “for Depardieu” meant “in French”, and I think this might have been worth spelling out in the blog, but aside from that, I think your approach is fine and I always find your blogs clear and helpful. So thanks again!
Re dictionaries, Collins is free to use online and is more reputable than most freebies. It also has a thesaurus, which even includes “con” as a synonym for “learn”, as I found today. In the UK, many people who hold a library card can also access the full OED online. I find this an invaluable resource.
Re 10A LONER: a person who gambles is a BETTOR, not a BETTER, no? Chambers seems to agree.
I was overwhelmed with consultancy work this morning and unable to make any other intervention than my nano-contribution @30. essexboy’s citation of the passage from JC @42 is spot on. To supplement it, I would only add this from a considerably more modern source, Ulysses, which I have invoked here before and with which I am perhaps improbably familiar. Here, in section 2, Stephen Dedalus is letting his mind wander while teaching a literature class at Mr Deasy’s school. Listening to a pupil reciting clumsily some lines from Milton’s ‘Lycidas’, his thoughts drift back to his time in Paris:
“Aristotle’s phrase formed itself within the gabbled verses and floated out into the studious silence of the library of Saint Genevieve where he had read, sheltered from the sin of Paris, night by night. By his elbow a delicate Siamese conned a handbook of strategy. Fed and feeding brains about me: under glowlamps, impaled, with faintly beating feelers: and in my mind’s darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds. Thought is the thought of thought.”
Thanks both,
OED says in its entries for both ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics’ that they are used in contrast with each other. I would have thought that, whatever some lesser tome might say, this would suggest one term should not be used as the definition of the other.
When I taught business studies the rule was that strategy was where you wanted to get to and ta tics was how you got there .Likewise the military strategy is to win war the tactics are men tanks bombing et al.
Thanks for the blog , I normally love a Picaroon but this was not my cup of tea. Far too easy very weak theme and some poor clues. Is 1D even remotely cryptic ?
Only PADDINGTON BEAR was of the usual standard.
tuliporturnip @65; the entry in Chambers says: bett?er noun
A person who bets (also bett?or)
… or even better (also bettor)
Thank you, Cedric @68, that comment has done more to clarify what earlier commenters have been objecting to in the alignment of the two terms. Coming late to the forum today, I have read through the thread without entirely grasping the problem. I think that my problem, in turn, is that a ‘stratagem’ equals a ‘tactic’, and I tend to read ‘strategic’ as an adjective pertaining to a stratagem, rather than an adjective pertaining to a strategy, which seems to be the issue here. We do not seem to have two adjectives to serve these two subtly different nouns, which is perhaps why ‘strategic’ comes to be equated with ‘tactical’. I like to think that I practise semantic exactitude in most matters, and I would not have had an issue with this for the reason stated.
Tyngewick@67 seems to be confirming what I was suggesting all the way back me@5. The two terms are in the same domain and have some similar associations, but are to be thought of as alternatives, not the same.
Cedric @68: I think strategy is a bit more particular than to win the war – you wouldn’t thank a strategic planner for coming up with that. The SOED has for strategy:
The art of projecting and directing the larger military movements and operations of a campaign
and for tactics:
The art or science of deploying military or naval forces in order of battle.
Just be glad you don’t work somewhere that where management use words like STRACTICAL 🙂
Enjoyed the puzzle once I got a toehold in. It’s funny the different ways solvers got to Bond—myself I got 3D and reverse engineered the missing letters of the anagram.
Happy Friday, esp to PeterO and Picaroon.
Lord Jim @ 74 That´s more or less what the great Prussian General Clausewitz wrote. Strategie ist die Führung der Truppen auf das Schlachtfeld, Taktik die Führung der Truppen auf dem Schlachtfeld. Onto the battlefield (Strategy) as opposed to on the battlefield (Tactics). The General has a cameo appearance in the Hornblower novels. And as a fan of Clausewitz, chess AND Hornblower, I will never ever accept that they can be synonymous…except in a Picaroon puzzle. Thanks for the puzzle, the blog and the comments.
DrWhatson @73 – I think Tyngewick @67 is being a tad disingenuous. The OED lists several definitions for both words and only contrasts them under one of those definitions in each case. This is what it says, verbatim:
Strategic
A.1.b. ‘Frequently contrasted with tactical.’
Tactical
1.b. ‘Frequently contrasted with strategic.’
Note: frequently, not always
Also, under Strategy I.4.a. it says ‘Often distinguished from tactics’ – again, not always.
It’s the same argument that comes up every time a setter dares to use a scientific term with anything other than a precise scientific definition. You simply have to accept that these words are commonly used synonymously in everyday speech. As is often said, it’s sufficient that they are synonymous in some senses, not necessary that they are synonymous in all senses.
Spooner’s catflap @66 – that is an absolutely gorgeous passage, thanks for sharing. I love Joyce but have to confess I’ve never tackled Ulysses. I really ought to one of these days. (Dubliners has my single favourite line in any book I’ve ever read – ‘Her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.’)
bodycheetah @75 – that makes me feel nauseous.
Roz @69 – horses for courses. For me, this was just the right level of difficulty at the end of what has been a very challenging week at work, and a nice change of pace after yesterday’s Vlad, which was too much for my frazzled brain. If they were that level every day, many people would be put off crosswords altogether. Also, I subscribe to the view that crosswords don’t have to be hard to be enjoyable, and I enjoyed this one for some inventive uses of the theme word. That said, I agree with you on 1d, which only held me up at all because I started off by looking for some wordplay involving ET, which is generally the only Spielberg film whose existence is acknowledged in crosswordland.
Strategy and tactics somehow seem more different than strategic and tactical. “Ole is not a great strategic/tactical manager” for example.
widdersbel @78
I have read your post very carefully and can’t find a single word that I disagree with.
Thank you so much.
ilipu @4: Here’s justification for SOLED:
“It just goes to show” said his mother. “The future is never revealed. If I’d known our Albert would be et by a lion I’d not have had his boots soled and healed”
Re. Ulysses, widdersbel @78, go for it. Expert primarily in the Elizabethan-Jacobean and Romantic periods, I found myself having to teach it in 1975, never having previously read it, and probably made an appalling hash of it – I cannot now, or choose not now, to remember. But over successive opportunities to teach it at different universities and in different contexts, I got on intimate terms with it, and now my copy is never far from my workspace.
A friend once phoned me at lunchtime to say he had just been given tickets for ‘Lear’ at the Barbican for that evening – did I want to go? I did, but finished work late and met him there just as the performance was about to start. We rushed in – after a rather shocking first few minutes I turned and whispered to him that this was not ‘King Lear’. The people beside and behind me were all very amused. It was ‘Lear’ by Edward Bond. Oh dear.
No chessplayer would use TACTICAL as a synonym of STRATEGIC. Great crossword, though.
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
I didn’t know the play SAVED. Though not a bond watcher most of the theme word have passed into common parlance.