Guardian Cryptic 28,589 by Fed

90 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,589 by Fed”

1. Pretty straightforward but none the less enjoyable.

2. Enjoyable challenge.

   Favourites: ACCIDENT-PRONE, NIGHT, REPRIMAND, REALISTIC, RECYCLED PAPER.

   New for me: ILIUM.

   Thanks, both.

3. Great starting anagram. Loved the surface for NIGHT.

   It has often been commented upon that E is an abbreviation for “European” but not “Europe” (14a). Was this issue ever resolved?

4. A minor correction:
   9 D
   “per PA”

5. Like manehi I had only about 3 solutions on the first pass through this but then was quite surprised I got it all done without any aids. RECycled Paper my LOI. I’d missed the reference to LEAR in 6d which is lovely. Also liked reprimand and advertisement. Thanks Fed and manehi.

6. Not generally given to negativity where our setters are concerned, but this is just not my cup of tea.

   “Half-heartedly encourage hard nut, struggling during extremely tedious valuable pursuits” a prime example of how to create a crossword clue with no coherent surface.

   Quite liked UPPER CASE and PALMISTRY however, and the rest was over mercifully quickly.

   Sorry to cast a sour note but honesty is surely to be preferred to false praise.

7. Possibly a slow manehi start is a lot more than 3 solutions!

8. Thanks, Fed and Manehi.

   Liked 9D and 19D.

9. I was reluctant to enter “ill gotten” because with “ill” also part of the clue it seemed too obvious. Other than that, it was pleasant enough.

10. Some convoluted surfaces, as noted by William @6, and not quite as testing or elegant as recent challenges. I like Fed/Bluth so will look forward to better next time. Like Hovis, I did appreciate the opening anagram and the clue for NIGHT. I often fail to spot the type of clue that resulted in RECYCLED PAPER so, having spotted it today, it’s my COTD.

    Thanks Fed and manehi

11. I thought this would have been fine for a Monday, but on a Friday it was disappointing to have about 85% of the answers write-ins, many without even having to read to the ends of the clues.

12. Thanks Fed and manehi. All fairly straightforward but enjoyable, though I couldn’t parse ILL-GOTTEN – the ‘NETT’ part completely foxed me but it makes sense.

    William @6 – I think it does make grammatical sense, it’s just a bit tortured and the mental image it conjures up is slightly bizarre.

    I’ve noticed from Bluth puzzles in the Indy that fairly complex wordplay to indicate adding or removing single letters is a hallmark of Mr Gorman’s style but it generally serves to make the surface into more of a story, and I quite like that on the whole.

    As an aside, 8d came easily to me because I recently used ‘half-heartedly comfort’ in a clue of my own (for TREASURERS). Not that I’m claiming to have been the first person ever to use that particular bit of wordplay – that would seem very unlikely.

13. Thanks Fed and manehi
    I also thought it looked difficult at first, but in fact it went quickly. NIGHT was favourite, for the doubly misleading surface.
    ALARM is a good example of a type of clue I don’t like – guess, then parse.
    I think even the apologists might struggle to explain why the S in “artist’s” in 23a disappears – neither “is” nor “has” will work, as the subject of the surface sentence is the plural “volunteers”!

14. My last one parsed was PALMISTRY. I had PAL OK, but was trying to get mis-try as something to do with Rugby. I wondered if ‘the church’ was an esoteric name for the area over the try line, so if you were ‘not in the church’ it was a mis-try. Doh! Glad to say I got there in the end.

    I enjoyed this one. Thank you Fed & manehi.

15. muffin @13 – ‘volunteers’ is a component of the wordplay, not the subject of the verb. The wordplay taken as a whole is the subject (ie [wordplay] is [definition]). For the sake of the surface, it’s a possessive apostrophe, not an elision of the verb, so no agreement with the noun is necessary.

    That wasn’t a struggle to explain at all, seems fairly standard crosswordese to me.

16. muffin@13
    I like both sorts of clue – those where I ‘solve’ first and parse afterwards, and also where the wordplay leads me to an answer I wasn’t thinking of. In truth, probably most of my solving is a bit of both.

    Trying my hand at being an apologist, I suppose RA could stand for Royal Academy (rather than Acamedician), in which case it consists of artists. You have to ignore the apostrophe then, but I believe misleading punctuation is not uncommon.

17. I enjoyed this although it is a hard act to follow Enigmatist and Brendan. so thank you Fed and manehi for help with a couple I was not able to parse. Sorry to be forgetful but have we seen this setter before and does he set for any other crosswords? For the reasons that muffin gives my favourite was NIGHT

18. I should have said @17 does she or he set for any other crosswords. Sorry!

19. Recovering from a dose of food poisoning yesterday this was a good way to get the brain working again. First pass saw about 30% go in easily but a bit more work was required to get to the finish line. Liked 9dn and 13ac. One minor quibble for an otherwise excellent clue would be defining night as evening. Summer evenings are anything but night!
    Thanks to DG and manehi.

20. With the exception of TREASURE HUNT, I thought Fed managed to avoid the convoluted surfaces today. Nice to see ADVERTISEMENT in full. PLAID was both a neat clue and too apposite a surface for me.

21. Well, I really enjoyed that. I liked the surfaces. And hip insider for ILIUM particularly made me smile, now manehi has explained it. I’d forgotten all about the bone, but had bunged it in anyway and was too lazy to check the meaning. Also like UPPER CASE.

    I’m not bothered which day has which level of difficulty. Being in the happy position of not going out (or staying in) to work anymore, the days have lost all meaning. 😀

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

22. SPanza: Fed is Dave Gorman, who sets for the Indy as Bluth. I think he also sets for the Telegraph from time to time.

23. widdersbel @15
    You are confusing wordplay with surface. Yes, “Volunteers” gives TA in the wordplay, but it is the subject of the surface.
    As for the possessive, “artist’s” should give “RA’s”.

24. Even to a numbskull like me this was light, but after a virtually blank grid on Tuesday, a pleasant stroll.
    No hold-ups and everything parsed…
    There never were such times.

25. muffin @13 and 23: in the surface, the s is the possessive. In the cryptic reading, TA around I plus RA is TIARA.

26. What George said @1.

    My favourite was RECYCLED PAPER.

    Many thanks, Fed and manehi.

27. The phrase ‘a curate’s egg’ is generally misused: the original joke was that the curate was trying to be positive about something that was just plain bad.

    However, I did find this puzzle good in parts, but I’m afraid I’m in William’s camp today. This isn’t Fed/Bluth’s best crossword IMHO. Sorry.

    Thanks to S&B nevertheless.

28. JerryG @19: Me and my pal Danny are OK with the summer NIGHTs. 😉

    I’m with widdersbel and Lord Jim re “[chunk of wordplay] is [an example of ‘jewellery’]” for the cryptic grammar in 24ac, and I solved ALARM by building it up from the wordplay, so for the purposes of this morning’s solve I appear to be the anti-muffin. We’d better not meet up or the universe might implode.

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

29. Fed’s new to me and, like manehi, I started slow then got into a rhythm.

    It’s the first time I’ve attempted to do a cryptic crossword every day. This week’s crosswords (using times – reported by the Guardian app – as a proxy for effort) were like walking up and down a mountain, with Tuesday’s Nutmeg being a (slightly) false summit to Enigmatist’s actual summit on Wednesday, and Brendan beginning the delightful descent to Fed.

    Although it took me only slightly longer to complete Enigmatist than Nutmeg, it seemed much much longer. So he’s off my Christmas shopping list (but I might try one more to prove I’m making an effort 😉 ).

    Thanks Fed and manehi – and everyone else for being such entertaining, enlightening and erudite company this week.

30. This wasn’t as tough or quite as satisfying as the past two days’ puzzles but I still enjoyed solving it. All my favourites have already been mentioned by other contributors above. Thanks to Fed and manehi.

31. 8d conjured up images of clapping Tyson Fury as he stumbled on his way to the world championship so no quibbles from me. Other than my subconscious providing the answer from the TS before I’d had chance to parse it

    Overall I enjoyed this despite its slightly quiptic quality but maybe I’m just relieved that my two week cold is finally over 🙂

32. I found this easier than I eememberctha last Fed being. My favs have also already been mentioned. Thanks to F and m

33. Thanks Fed for the Friday workout, and manehi for blog.

34. muffin @23 – the verb that ‘volunteers’ is a subject of is ‘guarding’, and ‘international artist’s jewellery’ is the object – for the surface, the whole clue is to be read as a gerund phrase rather than a complete sentence. But then RA’s (possessive) in the surface transmutes into ‘RA is’ in the solving. I don’t think I’m the one who’s confused on this occasion – which makes a nice change!

    Like essexboy, I solved ALARM by breaking down the wordplay, though I had to reverse engineer the parsing of PALMISTRY from the solution.

35. Unlike William @6 I didn’t have a problem with the incoherent surface of 8d; in fact I thought the surfaces were generally smooth, witty and interesting. But they were also fairly easy to unpack, with lots of crossword standards. Having said that, ‘not in church’ was a fairly novel way to get to (PAL)MISTRY, and despite having all the crossers I had to kick myself for how long it took to see RECYCLED!

    ‘Mostly pack rupees’ made up my favourite anagrist among today’s anagrams. Favourite comment so far has been essexboy’s “anti-muffin” @28: nothing personal, muffin @13&23, but the idea of the universe meeting its doom due to that particular collision is a captivating concept.

    Thanks to Fed and manehi.

    PS It’s disappointing to see one or two commenters still saying how much they hated Enigmatist’s puzzle of two days ago. Some of us enjoyed it!

36. muffin@23 and widdersbel@34: yes, widdersbel’s explanation seems very good to me and clarifies the use of the apostrophe-s on artist’s. I don’t see any problem at all with widdersbel’s reading.
    OTOH, I did find the surfaces of some clues to be horribly contorted and others rather lame. Is Fed a newbie setter? This puzzle conveys a sense of a compiler straining to make it work.

37. Thanks for the blog, William @6 says it all for me. I suppose it does balance out the week really.
    On a positive note 1Ac and 26 Ac were pretty neat but I do prefer clues with the definition at the end so I can solve it before I get there.

38. widdersbel @34
    I think I see what you mean. The “artist is tiara” that was bothering me only features in the wordplay, not the surface. I can accept that.

39. [ Sorry to disappoint you MrEssexboy @28 – using reasonable estimates of mass , the energy released would be roughly equivalent to that released by the sun every 40 nanoseconds . Or about 10 to the power MINUS 25 as a fraction of the energy of a typical supernova. ]

40. [Roz @39. How disappointing!]

41. An enjoyable romp today, with a fair number of write-ins on the first pass but some chewier ones to ponder over on the second. I failed to parse PALMISTRY or RECYCLED PAPER, my last two in, even though they had to be the answers, and I agree about the tortured nature of the surface for TREASURE HUNTS, but I must applaud those for PICKLED, ILL-GOTTEN and ACCIDENT PRONE, all of which raised a smile. Thanks Fed and manehi.

42. SPanza and Simon S
    David James Gorman is django in the Telegraph, a conflation of his mans DJa ‘n’ Go

43. I’m slightly surprised about some of the negativity on here, but different strokes for different folks! I thought the surfaces were mostly very good, and I was glad to see a crossword where pretty much all of the answers (bar 3d, which was sympathetically easily clued) are relatively common words/phrases. I wasn’t left with two or three answers which I would never get (as sometimes happens). Definitely easier than Wednesday (and Thursday) but no bad thing to actually finish the week on a completion!

    Thanks Fed and manehi

44. [Roz @39 – thanks, I was kind of hoping you’d step in to put me right. My apologies for over-estimating my and muffin’s combined mass, but at least this region of the galaxy can sleep easier tonight.]

45. I thought this was quite a pleasing crossword.

    If it helps in looking at the surface of TREASURE HUNT, a ‘hard nut’ is a tough person. I liked UPPERCASE, ADVERTISEMENT, REALISTIC and RECYCLED PAPER. I also thought ILIUM was well hidden.

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

46. I enjoyed this, although agree 8D is a bit convoluted – the definition deserved better from the wordplay. Not the biggest fan of “I see” to mean “I C” (do people still use txtspk now?).

    Thanks manehi and Fed.

47. [eb @44: unless, of course, you’re kept awake by the whistling of the Andromedans. Good to see fifteensquared is having so much engagement with the wider universe.]

48. [ Sound waves in a vacuum ?? Tut tut tut . ]

49. Thanks manehi, my experience was similar in terms of slow start leading surprisingly rapid completion except for RECYCLED PAPER (I hadn’t considered that the Guardian would actually be made of this but makes sense) and DRAUGHT (which I have never used to mean “drink” standalone and possibly also pronounce as a southerner unlike short-a draft).
    While acknowledging criticism of others, I did think this was easier than recent Bluth Indy efforts precisely because many of the clues and surfaces read much more smoothly – i feel sorry for setters, must feel like they can’t win either way! Anyway it worked for me, top marks today to REPRIMAND for definition (after curtains yesterday, soon we will have fully furnished a house) thanks Bluth.

50. [PS Roz@39, if I scoff an anti-muffin straight after a custard slice would my overall intake be NETT-calorie neutral? Or would I need to be travelling at the speed of light for that to work?]

51. I enjoyed this. Thank you Fed. My only little disappointment was in 17D having I’ll and ILL, but there was a good sprinkling of clues which seemed impossible at first, but once I got there I couldn’t see how I’d been so slow. UPPER CASE took far too long to unravel! Thanks to Manehi too for the blog.

    [May I also say that if we’re allowed to have favourite commenters, mine is definitely Roz – even though I don’t understand what she’s saying half the time. The craic between her, EB, PM and others is great fun 😀 ]

52. A delightful puzzle today. Width of interest and range of clue styles added to the fun – logic and intuition. Solving in both directions got the day off to a great start. Thanks to both.

53. Straightforward but fun. Extra bonus points to Fed for “hip insider” (I’m sure ILIUM has cropped up recently, which helped)
    Thanks to both.

54. Same as manehi I had a slow start but then finished quite quickly.

    Enjoyed it and like Crossbar @21 I liked the surfaces.

    Favourites include ADVERTISEMENT, UNAWARE, UPPER CASE, PLAID, RETRIAL

    Thanks Fed and manehi

55. Like Stuart @43, I’m surprised at some of the negative comments on here. Not perfect but some quality clues such as RECYCLED PAPER and ADVERTISEMENT. Congrats to those who can solve before finishing the clue, you are truly blessed. I look forward to the next Fed

    Ta both

56. Jim @46, we’ve discussed this before. See=C is in Chambers, so no need for text speak:
    see3 /s?/
    noun
    The third letter of the alphabet (C, c)

57. I though this was quite fair, and for me one of the quickest solves this week.

    What I really need to know is whether the nuclear explosion being discussed is going to affect us living overseas, or will it just be a footnote in the news?

58. Oof – I think a few people got out of bed the wrong side today Mr Gorman. Well I enjoyed it, just over a bit too quickly – helped by write-ins for the longer answers which then took a while to parse.
    Thanks to Fed and manehi.

59. [Roz @48: my Hoover has a particularly irritating whistle!]

60. [ You need to empty the bag, have you not been watching The Good Life ? ]

    [ Trish@51, you are too kind. EB and PM frequently take advantage of my trusting and innocent nature. I occasionally get revenge when they stray into science topics. ]

61. [PostMark @59 and if you are bagless it might be the filter!]

62. Trish @51: there are some people I would love to meet in person and Roz would def be top of my list (you as well of course) 🙂

63. [ Gazzh@50, the anti-muffin would have the same MASS as an ordinary muffin. It is interesting that there was speculation about antimatter having “antimass” or more likely antigravity. Dirac predicted the properties of the positron in 1929 and only had to wait 3 years for the discovery of the first antiparticle.
    Beams of positrons bend towards the Earth exactly like electrons. Every antimatter particle has the same ordinary mass as its particle counterpart, every other quantum number is the opposite. ]

64. I seem to remember from a few months ago that Fed is a bit of a marmite setter. Clearly Mr Gorman has his fans. Still not sure who he is or what he does. Thanks for the blog.

65. ….and that’s why

66. [ AlanC @ 62 many thanks but you are just embarrassing me . ]

67. [Alan C @62. I would love to meet lots of people on here. Maybe at Betters and Sloggers next year if travel is a little easier]

68. [I’ve no idea what that is Trish but I’d take a punt from London]

69. After failing miserably with Serpent in yesterday’s Indy this Fed crossword was exactly what I needed. Favourites were REPRIMAND, NIGHT, and PREFABS as well as UNAWARE, PICKLED, and AROMA for their amusing surfaces. Thanks to both.

70. AlanC @68 – see the post at the top of the Home page!

71. … and the original post here

72. Oops! – or here

73. Sorry – I don’t know what’s going on!

74. [Eileen
    It looks like you are highlighting the text for the link, then clicking on b(old) rather than link. Either that, or the linking just sin’t working!]

75. muffin – no, that’s what I thought I might have done, so tried again.

76. Here?

77. …and it’s possible to join in virtually here.

78. I mostly enjoyed this, but I agree with William@6 that life’s too short to parse things like TREASURE HUNTS.

79. Well I liked it all,especially recycled paper, and I quite enjoyed the image conjured by 8d.
    Thanks to Fed and manehi.

80. I must be getting curmudgeonly, as I was disappointed today. I usually enjoy a Fed or a Bluth more than this but wasn’t a fan of the last two Bluths in the Indy as they were definitely over-convoluted and I didn’t get the sense of fun I used to get from this setter. Today was far less convoluted and many were write-ins with several chestnuts, and I found myself missing the complications. Talk about hard to please!

    Saying that I did like ILIUM (hip insider was brilliant) and RECYCLED PAPER very much.

    Thanks Fed and manehi.

81. Simon S @22 Thank you for your post. Sorry I am late in acknowledging it but I have been out walking in the Altiplano ‘Los Badlands’ around where we live here in Andalucia.

82. Many thanks, sheffield hatter – I had a visitor in between!

83. [thank you Roz@63, i didn’t think it would be that easy but worth checking]

84. Ta Eileen-looks like fun

85. Roz @63 I once bought a fascinating book on antigravity – I couldn’t put it down 🙂 Sorry, couldn’t resist.

86. Surprisingly ‘concise’ for a Fed/Bluth.
    Apart from – like others said – 8dn where I entered the solution from the definition and the available crossing letters alone before parsing.
    Splendid anagram indeed at 1ac (although I am not sure whether the grammar is right in this clue (Doctor … will be …?)).
    Also a big plus for ADVERTISEMENT (26ac) and a few more like 10ac, 21ac or 7dn.
    Not very keen on the order of things in 13ac: “not in the church”? But it didn’t prevent me from getting the answer.
    E = ‘Europe’ is one of my pet hates in Crosswordland.
    I don’t understand why some setters keep on using it (and certainly not Fed who often tackles critics with a handful of dictionaries within reach).
    Altogether a nice little puzzle though but, yes, a bit too easy perhaps for what you expect on a Friday.
    Many thanks to manehi & Fed.

87. I can’t pretend I solved it unaided, but as Fridays go this was a much easier puzzle than I’m used to and quite a contrast to the Tuesday one which probably should have been swapped over.
    I’ve not tried a Fed before, but I have to say that a good 80% of this was very witty and well constructed, some of the other 20% was a bit too laboured. Was confused by the ‘mostly pack rupees’ as having discarded the final s and found the Upper quite quickly, I just couldn’t think of any capitals that fitted. Very clever.
    Thank you Fed – in my good books.
    Cheers for the explanations manehi, I needed them today.

88. Hopefully not too late to thank Fed and manehi for lightening the load today. And to praise the honourable contributors for their various donations to life’s leavening – bravi! (It really is TILT city around here – today it’s Hovis@85’s joke.)

89. Very enjoyable. Got stuck with an unfamiliar Britishism (“Territorial Army”), but only one.

90. I’ve been away in a treehouse for the weekend, so have only just been able to catch up with this post. Thanks Manehi for the blog, and everyone else for the comments of every hue. I’m inclined to agree that 8d falls short of expectations.

    Thanks all.

Comments are closed.