Guardian 28,595 – Paul

65 comments on “Guardian 28,595 – Paul”

1. Much easier than yesterday I thought, though I struggled with the fodder for FOOD FIGHT, I eventually settled on the same parsing as Andrew, but can’t see an instruction to remove racas or to just take the first F? PIROUETTE was a deuce to parse as well.

   Quite a lot of filling in from crossers and parsing after the fact today.

   Thanks Paul and Andrew.

2. Well I thought Paul was on top form today. One of those puzzles where a first pass delivers very few solutions but they gradually come into line with a series of pdm’s and big grins as previously impenetrable wordplay starts to make sense.

   The definition of HOGWARTS EXPRESS is simply brilliant, the PEACE TALKS and FISSURE homophones outrageous, the inevitable manure in MANICURE (well, with Paul, what else was stools going to be?). FOOD FIGHT (anyone else think about FIST at first?) is a smashing &lit, the surface of MOHAIR brought a smile and Boris just carries on delivering (at least in crosswordland) with the delightful (!) JOHNSON.

   A great way to start a Friday (and a super Phi in the Indy too). Thanks Paul and Andrew

3. Blah @1: I took ‘kicking off’ to indicate the starting letter of Fracas, as then ‘thrown around’ was the anagram indicator.

   Nice puzzle – favourites were FOOD FIGHT, HOGWARTS EXPRESS and EVERY INCH. New for me was ROUÉ, so I absolutely failed to parse that one. Thanks to Paul and Andrew!

4. I love a good Paul and for me this was one, as I found lots to enjoy along the way. I agree that 16a4d HOGWARTS EXPRESS was fun as I built it from its separate building blocks, helped along by some crossers. Like PostMark@2, I also liked 21a MANICURE and smiled at 20d JOHNSON. The use of EH for “What” in 27a and HEY for “over here” in 23/17d was clever and that particular device pleased me. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

5. Thank you Andrew and Lovable Jim @3; I now understand FOOD FIGHT; I too started with FIST FIGHT PostMark @2 but that was even more unparseable.

   I enjoyed today’s crossword and even thought it was simpler than a normal Paul. Loved HOGWARTS EXPRESS. Many thanks Paul.

6. Loved it – took forever to get HOGWARTS although I’d seen (S)EXPRESS. Loads of letter F in the first ones I solved FIFE and FOOD FIGHT), so I began to wonder if there was a theme. Plenty of tortuous Paul clues as usual. Many thanks to him and to Andrew.

7. As my FOIs were sQuare off and faJita, I started wondering whether this was going to be a pangram. Once again, just one letter short (Z). Loved the groanworthy homophones and the not-so-subtle humour.

8. Thanks Andrew, while overall my experience was similar to PostMark@2, there were a few that I had no idea how to parse but was lucky (or maybe Paul was being kind today) in that all were clear from definition and crossers eg MOHAIR, although I don’t really like “between” in the clue for MANICURE. Very minor gripe though especially given the wit on display elsewhere, top marks to FOOD FIGHT of course but a random other highlight was BACKFLIP – thanks Paul.

9. Thanks Paul and Andrew. My solving experience was in line with you and PostMark @2 – took a while to get into it but it all fell eventually. Couldn’t parse ADORATION, but it’s obvious now I see it.

   HOGWARTS EXPRESS is great – initially thought it might have been a pointed comment about Richard Desmond until the penny dropped.

   LovableJim @3 – yes, that’s exactly how I parsed FOOD FIGHT too. I thought that was a splendid clue. Probably my favourite today.

10. Vlad followed by Paul guarantees a tough end to the week. This was great and the lack of a theme (not least dual theme) will please some. Took me ages to get Hogwarts Express and couldn’t get Johnson for ages despite having the J. Thanks Paul and Andrew for explaining manicure and several others.

11. Took a couple hours but then I’m always a slowcoach, and pretty thick too at times … all that time with it filled in and still never clicked pea stalks!! Good puzzle … the online trick was devious, though probly not new. Knew stools would be from that end, but again a bit slow to, er, drop. As was the ‘after women/roue’ bit of pirouette. And another who couldn’t sort out the effs in food fight. And I had my sci-fis confused .. thought Klingons were from Dr Who. Oh well, all part of the fun, ta to both and to all.

12. This being a Paul, did anyone else contemplate JOBBIE for 20d?

    Thanks Andrew and Paul

13. PIROUETTE had me in a bit of a spin and was far from effortless, but otherwise, I really enjoyed this. For the first time in my life I admired Johnson. Was the POTUS abbreviation used in Lyndon’s day?

14. Not my day. Lots of equivalences that didn’t work for me (player=roue, and others). No complaints, just not my day.

15. This puzzle was tough for me because I did not really enjoy the surfaces of most of the clues.

    I did not parse:
    2d – not a fan of Star Trek, never heard of Klingon
    5d – did not really get it – SQUARE (flat) + OFF (out)
    7d F + anagram of IFHOTDOG? did not understand the F[racas] bit

    Favourite: HOG/WART/S EX/PRESS.

    New for me: TURNSPIT.

    Thanks, both.

16. Slow but steady, which is about all I can hope for from Paul. I couldn’t figure out the parsings for 24a, 20d or 23/17d.

17. The NE went in quickly but then I ground to a halt for eons. All my favourites have been mentioned by PM @2, and lovely to see my tipple of choice, IRISH WHISKEY and spelt properly as well.

    Ta Paul & Andrew

18. SO glad I persevered with this, having begun with what seemed a flurry of F’s in the NE, and the rest of the grid empty for some while. The HOGWARTS EXPRESS held me up, but once I had that the rest seemed to fit in quite quickly. A tentative incorrect Silent (protest ) instead of PICKET for 24 ac prevented IRISH WHISKEY slipping down satisfyingly at 23, 17. EVERY INCH of the way a battle, but an enjoyable one this morning. Last one in was TURNSPIT. Thanks Andrew for the parsing of FISSURE, yet another onto the bonfire of the homophone debate, I imagine…

19. A spit is a piece of kitchen equipment, but unless I am mistaken a TURNSPIT was a boy or in some cases a dog employed to turn the spit, a formation along the lines of killjoy or cutpurse. I don’t think it is accurate to refer to either the boy or the dog as a piece of kitchen equipment; it’s rude, in any case. Having said that, I did get it from the crossers.

    I don’t know why I have a mental block about PI, which was never a word on this side of the Atlantic. I must see it as often as a lot of the cricket terms I have learned from these crosswords.

20. FOOD FIGHT recalls dressing room activities after Man U Arsenal -didnt young Fabregas begin hurling something (pizza?) at someone?

21. Enjoyable crossword with Paul’s usual humour.

    A four-in-one crossword where I got stuck in the NW corner until I got the pea stalks. I eventually parsed PIROUETTE; gladys @14, as it says in the blog, it’s ‘player after women’ that is the roué. Vinny @19, the third Chambers definition for TURNSPIT is: 3.A spit, roasting jack, so that seems to be OK to me.

    I particularly enjoyed BACKFLIP, MANICURE, EVERY INCH and FOOD FIGHT.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

22. Thanks Paul & Andrew for blog – I found this quite a challenge, struggling to parse INKLING (I had no inkling) and PIROUETTE (thanks Andrew).
    Loved FOOD FIGHT and all the effs and esses.

23. This was not as tough as I’ve come to expect from Paul. But it still contained some iffynesses that I’ve come to expect from Paul: SQUARE=flat? OFF=out? the absolutely horrible surface of 14d, PINTLESS=’empty beer glass’ (oh, come on!), the scatological stools=MANURE, et al.
    But there were some neat touches to compensate: the &lit of FOOD FIGHT, the excellent ‘online literary creation’ for the Harry Potter train, the concise and precise FIFE.

24. In English phonetics, “peace talks” vs. its near-homophone “pea stalks” is one of the standard examples to show the effect of word boundaries on pronunciation. The voiceless /s/ at the end of “peace” causes the preceding vowel to be ‘clipped’ ( = shorter in duration). This effect does not operate across the boundary in “pea stalks”. Compare also “great ape” vs. “grey tape”.

25. Hi. First post.

    My breakdown for 16,4 was HOG WARTS (something hideous) then X for pornographic inside E-PRESS for the online. Definition being just the literary creation, not necessarily on railway lines.

    Have been lurking and reading for over a year. Always a good bit of banter. Cheers.

26. John Wells @24 – another famous example is of course “four candles” vs “fork ‘andles”

27. pserve_p2 @23 – PINTLESS works as ‘with empty beer glass’. I think this is fine. Agree with you that SQUARE=flat is a wee bit of a stretch though.

28. Thanks Paul for an entertaining puzzle with just the right amount of head scratching before the PDM. Thanks also to Andrew for explaining Inkling which had me stumped. I’ve never pronounced fissure like fisher but after checking on-line it seems I may have been wrong all these years.

29. Great puzzle! My only raised eyebrow came from requiring GENIUS to be a student, but that’s certainly one kind and it makes the surface work fine.

    Anybody notice that the much admired HOGWARTS EXPRESS is not a normal wordplay+definition type clue, but a wordplay+cryptic definition? Paul seems to love these, and so do I, but they do increase the diffuculty.

30. Thanks LoveableJim@3, that’s roughly what I ended up with too, but I Still think it’s a little off. Lovely surface though so I’m not too bothered by it.

    For various above square is a synonym of even which is a synonym of flat, and how about that light is out = that light is off

31. John Wells@24 You’re right about the duration of the vowel/ There’s also a difference in the T. Hold your open palm in front of your mouth and say “talks” and “stalks.” You’ll feel a little puff of air after the first but not the second, because the T’s are pronounced differently. There’s a technical name for it that I can’t recall.

    Enjoyable puzzle, needing some use of the check button. Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

32. John Wells@24 You’re right about the duration of the vowel/ There’s also a difference in the T. Hold your open palm in front of your mouth and say “talks” and “stalks.” You’ll feel a little puff of air after the first but not the second, because the T’s are pronounced differently. There’s a technical name for it that I can’t recall.

    Enjoyable puzzle, needing some use of the check button. Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

33. John Wells@24 You’re right about the duration of the vowel/ There’s also a difference in the T. Hold your open palm in front of your mouth and say “talks” and “stalks.” You’ll feel a little puff of air after the first but not the second, because the T’s are pronounced differently. There’s a technical name for it that I can’t recall just now.

    Enjoyable puzzle, needing some use of the check button. Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

34. I was rather pleased to finish this by lunchtime although 1,3 and 2d all went in unparsed. I’ll never feel the same about MANICURE. Loved JOHNSON and many others for total misdirection. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

35. Blah @30 – by that reckoning, you could equally say that horse=badger

    (horse=nag and nag=badger)

36. John Wells@24 Are you the famous phonetician? And did you really invent the term rhotic do beloved by posters here?

37. So beloved

38. Petert@36 – Yes, and yes – see:
    http://phonetic-blog.blogspot.com/2010/07/rhotic.html

39. Well – not for me this one. Funny mixture of easy and very difficult. And not much fun.

40. I really liked this puzzle. Very witty and not difficult by Paul’s standards.

    HOGWARTS EXPRESS was brilliant and a really fun clue (I agree with Andrew’s parsing and hence the great definition), STONE AGE had a sublime surface, EVERY INCH again the smoothest of surfaces and IRISH WHISKEY so perfectly put together.

    In 7d Fracas kicking off = F, had no problem with that so again I parsed it as Andrew did.

    Re the homophones, whilst I got PEACE TALKS, I still can’t get to say it as pea stalks, so completely failed in parsing. PICKET was more straightforward.

    Good end to the week! Thanks Paul and Andrew

41. [re KLINGON, I used to work with an avid Trekkie, who spoke Klingon and attended their annual conferences! Weird! But helpful for the crossword 20 years later.]

42. Thanks for the blog, enjoyed this and nearly lasted my journey home . STONE AGE , PIROUETTE and IRISH WHISKEY were very neat.
    I presume MrEssexboy has been banned after his Elvis reference yesterday ?

43. Unusual to have a Paul puzzle in which there are two homophones neither of which depend on having a non-rhotic accent. I’m used to dropping my R’s here by now, but that’s a particular specialty of his. I swear the man is in a state of outright warfare against the letter R.

    My solving experience was similar to others: the puzzle yielded slowly, with many nice clever touches; but no one would list Paul among the setters that usually produce an elegant surface to his clues.

    To whoever asked: Webster’s says that the acronym POTUS first appeared in 1894, so it’s plausible for Lyndon Johnson, but not Andrew. I don’t recall widespread public use of it until the Clinton administration, though.

44. [Roz @42: presumably, he has left the blogging…

    Enjoy your neat IRISH WHISKEY 😀 ]

45. [Oh, and now I’m off to have some FAJITAS for lunch, as it happens.]

46. Roz @42: If there were any justice in this world… but no, I’m still here 😉 I liked what everybody else liked today, especially HOGWARTS EXPRESS and FOOD FIGHT. Reminds me of when I was just a young wizard, or wizard-li, as your Swiss friends might say.

    Many thanks Paul and Andrew, and John Wells for dropping in enlighteningly.

47. [eb @46: when you were a Happy Wanderer? ]

48. [ Do not encourage him MrPostMark@44 , I had to lie down in a dark room for several hours ]

    Do other countries use the whiskey spelling ? I only know it for the Irish version.

49. Roz – it’s Scotch Whisky, hence my comment and PM I would have beaten you to the neat comment if I had beaten you to the comment 🙂

50. Oops misread – yup American whiskey

51. Surprised that one of Paul’s best in a while has elicited so few comments. No science to this blogging lark..

52. Thanks AlanC , I just wondered if you could say whiskey and everyone would assume it was Irish.
    I was surprised by so few comments, I am always late on a Friday and normally have a lot to read before posting.

53. Ooph. First clue, 1a adjectival answer with a nounal definition. Surfaces (eg 14d). Sorry.

54. 1a: “This argument is pointless”/”This argument is a waste of time”.

55. Dutch@53 In 1a both answer and definition can be complements, so I think that’s ok. I thought 14d was a good, though libellous description, of a particular well-known footballer.

56. Roz@48 I think we had some whisk(e)y chat connected to the phonetic alphabet not so long ago, outside Scotch/Irish and possibly N American I think it is dealer’s choice.
    Dutch@53 I think it is pointless/ a waste of time complaining about surfaces on a Paul blog!
    Gervase Two@25 a belated Welcome! especially as I always enjoy reading alternative parsings or attempts as they remind me of the number of times i tie myself up in knots in solving some of these clues.

57. I am not particularly impressed by INKY and INKLING appearing in the same grid in the absence of a cross-reference in the cluing

58. John Wells@24 and Valentine@31 – it was the sibilant sounds in 1d that threw me for a loop as to me they are clearly different.

59. Gazzh @56 yes I remember you helping me with the WHISKEY for the Nato alphabet. I just always think that whisky is Scotch , whiskey is Irish and Bourbon is US, although I accept it is actually more complicated plus other producers such as the Japanese.

60. Excellent puzzle by Paul, [my favourite setter] and thanks Andrew for the parsings that eluded me. Much to learn from the comments too – esp Valentine @33 cotd – HOGWARTS EXPRESS

61. Roz@59 As far as I know, it’s whiskey for every nationality except Scotch. If they make it in Norway or Tibet, it’s whiskey.

62. Many thanks Valentine , I will try to remember this in future.

63. I’m sure Paul used to be a lot better than this.

    In particular, PIROUETTE is clumsy charade of obscure bits and bobs, which couldn’t even be justified by the surface. And are we now allowing E=effortless without any indicator, or the word “in” to just be thrown in there?

64. I took HEADER IN effortless to be E so the IN is required and the word play is precise.

65. PH @63: it is probably too late, but the E is generated by ‘header in effortless’ – i.e. its first letter, so the ‘in’ is not redundant and the E does not, on its own, stand for ‘effortless’.

Comments are closed.