Guardian Prize 28,649 by Paul

45 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,649 by Paul”

1. Thanks bridgesong.
   16 “We started out/off from the hostel at 8”?
   Thanks Paul for a fun puzzle.

2. Thanks bridgesong. Some easy ones and some cliches (see=Ely, boxer=Ali, doctor as anagrind) but more than made up for by Paul’s inventiveness e.g. schpyreme, the deft anagram for A CUT ABOVE a d the Enigma cracker.

3. Often struggle with a Paul prize puzzle so pleased to see it was correct & just about parsed ok. On the gentle side for Mr H I suspect.

4. Thanks bridgesong. A pleasant interlude with a mix of the straightforward and the more demanding. I share your reservations on 16a and 1d but don’t have any difficulty with dear = too much (expensive). LOI was 22a-6d, the crossing letters for 6 meant the answer could only be MACHINE but it wasn’t until HARISSA revealed itself that TURING became apparent, I’d been casting about for the name of a warrior.

5. Entered all the answers correctly, but there was a bit of shrugging, as I couldn’t always see the parsing (or was it that I couldn’t be bothered spending the time to do it? it was a week ago), so thanks for the assistance there, bridgesong, and thanks to Paul for the crossie.

6. Despite scratching my head for some time over its seemingly nonsense surface, in the end 4d19a PYRAMID SCHEME became my favourite clue. Wasn’t 8a PLUMP FOR a lovely clue as well? I was unfamiliar with USANCE but I got it from the anagram and it was all that would fit the crossers at 10a. My margin jottings also show a question mark against 1d GALES as “Some wind”. All in all, I took a while to solve some clues but enjoyed the mental exercise. Very NICELY done! Clever Paul. Many thanks to him and bridgesong.

7. GASTROPOD was my FOI (and one of my favourites) – got it immediately from the description and then parsed it which also happened with HARISSA, DIPLOMACY and COLOSSEUM.

   Lliked PLUMP FOR, NORMAN MAILER, DEEPENED – never seen PEND used before.

   PYRAMID SCHEME made me laugh once I got it after spending way too long wondering what schpyreme meant.

   Didn’t parse DUNGAREES or TURING MACHINE.

   Thanks Paul and bridgesong

8. Yes my favourites were PLUMP FOR and PYRAMID SCHEME like others.
   As well as the example of off/out by Gonzo@1, I thought of measurement… “that is off/out by 1 mm”.

9. Thanks for the blog , agree with your favourites , plus DEEPENED had many misleading paths and TURING MACHINE was very clever .
   SCHPYREME reminded me of Araucaria – cox at me (6,3,6 ).

   [ A Turing Machine is really a theoretical construct used to explore the limits of computability and links to Godel’s incompleteness }

10. The Air Raid Warden’s shout of Turn that light off/out also comes to mind for 16a. The equivalence that didn’t quite work for me was nick=score in NICELY. It took me a while to see that “hang” in 15a was PEND rather than DEPEND (which resulted in either too many Es, or not enough, depending on where you put the river…).

    Pyreme, schpyreme… that was a fun clue, as was the suspect Prof in PLUMPED FOR. USANCE and the TURING MACHINE were new words and had to be Googled.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

11. Regarding NICELY, the first words given in Chambers’s definitions of both ‘nick’ and ‘score’ is ‘a notch’, before any other meanings, so I think it works.

    Another possibility, as well as those of Gonzo@1 and gladys@10, for out=off is as an interjection – ‘go away!’.

    A pleasant puzzle, thanks Paul and bridgesong. Rosario was a clever choice in the clue for TANGO – they both provide an Argentine theme. I was given a new Chambers for Christmas, so was pleased to use it to discover HARISSA and USANCE.

12. I sometimes grumble a bit (only to myself) about Paul’s tendency towards nonsensical surfaces, but not this time. This was a most enjoyable crossword from start to finish. I suppose you could point out that “schpyreme” is nonsensical, but wasn’t it fun to figure out?
    Other favourites: the laugh-out-loud Spoonerism at 24,12 NORMAN MAILER, the clever academic 8a PLUMPFOR, the excellent surface and construction of 22,6d TURING MACHINE, and the vision of the lascivious god (I imagine Zeus) getting caught with his pants down at 5d.

    I didn’t share all of Bridgesong’s quibbles. Others have justified out=off at 16a, and I have always heard “dear” (meaning expensive) in the context of costing too much. I agree that 1d calls for a singular solution – but pluralizing “wind” would have ruined the typically Pauline surface.
    I did need Bridgesong’s help in parsing 2d SEMINAL and 1a GASTROPOD (what an amusing surface – ugh), so thanks for the excellent blog, and thanks Paul for the entertaining puzzle.

13. Well, I posted – the day before this came out – that I was looking forward to a nice normal non-themed puzzle for a change. And last Saturday delivered two beauties – this and Knut’s cracker in the Indy. I definitely got my wish and this was a Paul I enjoyed from start to finish. I really didn’t have any quibbles whilst solving and relished the inventiveness, wit and irreverence.

    As usual on a Saturday, earlier posters have nominated favourites – PLUMP FOR and PYRAMID SCHEME – with which I wholly concur. And I’m with Roz in admiring TURING MACHINE . Far from querying GALES, I had it as a tick for the surface, along with DUNGAREES for the same reason, GASTROPOD for the amusing construction, DEEPENED for that clever and unusual insertion of ‘pend’ and NORMAN MAILER. I suspect there may be some homophone debate – Norman vs Mormon – but they’re close enough for me and I laughed out loud. Outrageous.

    Thanks Paul and Bridgesong

14. [Hello cello @12: you are either up late or up early. It’s rare to find myself coincident with you. Today we appear to share not only timing but favourites almost to the letter.]

15. Thanks for the blog bridgesong. Fun stuff from Paul, especially liked PLUMP FOR and the Spoonerism, which genuinely made me laugh out loud.

16. Thanks as ever, Paul. A lovely puzzle. PLUMP FOR, PYRAMID SCHEME and STRAP UP were favourites.

    Thanks also bridgesong. Not sure there is really anything “off” at all. As regards GALES, “We’re going out for some beer” doesn’t imply singularity. It surprised me when I first realised that pend can mean hanging. But “pendant lights” helps me remember.

    I think “art of” is part of the definition of DIPLOMACY.

17. PM @13 – and in turn, I find myself in step with you… especially your comment: “ I really didn’t have any quibbles whilst solving and relished the inventiveness, wit and irreverence.”

18. [ Hello PostMark@14. Yes, we certainly were on the same page today. I seldom finish the crossword until the next day, so if I comment it is usually very late in your day. But I always look for your posts, which I enjoy very much. And I’m not up early – I’m just turning in now, 3:30am here. ]

19. Worth it for the hilarious NORMAN MAILER and ridiculous PYRAMID SCHEME. Defeated by DUNGAREES and DEEPENED but why? I solved much tougher clues…ah well. Same likes as Cello/PM. Great fun again.

    Ta Paul & bridgesong

20. These Saturday puzzles continue to delight and challenge (I make these weekend ones part of my staple diet, and I have barely missed any over the last year or so.)

    I thought this was Paul at his best, with some admirable clues, of which I would highlight NORMAN MAILER, TURING MACHINE, PLUMP FOR and DUNGAREES as favourites. I also liked PYRAMID SCHEME, a playful, imperfectly formed (!) clue of the sort I like to see occasionally.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong..

21. Mostly straightforward, with grins at Professor Plum and the schpyreme as others have mentioned, but I held myself up by bunging in GELSA at 1d: hidden (some) and backwards (up) in the clue, ‘
    Some wind, as leg cocked up’. (The surface was a flatulent response to those who have observed an absence of smut in Paul’s recent efforts!) Of course this is an entirely made up word, and not very well hidden either, but I assumed it would be confirmed by crossers and forgot to check it online. This made the anagram at 10a more unlikely than it should have been, and not seeing SEAL for ‘guarantee’ meant that the NW corner was last to be filled. So I guess I should say that I *did* have a problem with 1d, albeit not the same one as bridgesong had…

    Thanks to Paul and our blogger(s).

22. Agree about the Saturday puzzles. Nice to have a week to chip away at bits every now & then.

23. Favourites: NORMAN MAILER, PYRAMID SCHEME, DUNGAREES, STRAP UP.

    New for me: USANCE.

    I could not parse 22ac/6d or 13d.

    Thanks, both.

24. hatter @21: given that the clueing included ‘schpyreme’, it was entirely possible that the solutions might include ‘gelsa’ …

25. Another good one from Paul.

    I did like GASTROPOD; pet=strop was something I must have seen before in crosswords. Despite the usual boxer=ALI, I also enjoyed CAVALIER, particularly for the ‘person going down.’ Another tick for DUNGAREES, where trousers didn’t mean a container word. I confess that I checked the unlikely schpyreme in case it was a word (like quinquereme?) but I’m not a great fan of nonsense words although I appreciate the humorous intent.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

26. I have encountered USANCES in only one place, but remembering it (from long ago) helped me in getting that word. It is from Merchant of Venice:
    Signor Antonio, many a time and oft
    In the Rialto you have rated me
    About my moneys and my usances.

27. Thanks both. It took a while but I got there in the end.

    I seem to be far from alone in particularly enjoying PYRAMID SCHEME.

    It’s strange how the brain works. I had CHER instead of DEAR which works, I think, except it’s French.

28. A fun puzzle, PYRAMID SCHEME brought to mind he who made off with the money…
    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

29. 22,6d, not knowing that CHI was a vital force I couldn’t parse this. The best I could come up with was an anagram of G UNIT and MACH although German unit would be doing double duty and I couldn’t make R=vital force. My son eventuslly helped me out and admitted that he had been sidetracked by Dr Mach (who was Austrian anyway)
    I liked 4d,19 though some may object that SCHPYREME isn’t a real word.
    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong

30. Thanks Paul, top-notch/nick. And thanks bridgesong.
    Love all the clever clues already mentioned.
    I also like the alliterative clue for DIPLOMACY.

31. re 26a: I’m sure an etymologist here can expound on how, in many languages, the word for ‘beloved’ and ‘costs too much’ is the same. Is it simply that we are prepared to sacrifice more for that which we hold dear?

32. Plenty of fun here, Paul in top form and bridgesong very helpful. Thanks both.

33. Pino@29 schpyreme not a word? I’m sure it’s been used since the Romans conquered Jerusalem – “Oy! Trireme schpyreme”
    I liked the echo of Martin Luther in the Mormon Nailer spoonerism.
    Thanks all

34. I really liked the clue for PLUMP FOR and solving it was very satisfying.

    I didn’t like the use of the non-word “schpyreme” in a clue, though. That’s a fun type of puzzle, but a different game, to my mind. In its favour, the clue did include a definition, unlike the Araucaria clue Roz quotes @9 (for which “annual duty?” could serve as a definition, for anyone who wants a fair chance to solve it), although that one at least used all real words.

    DUNGAREES are only “trousers” in America. It’s traditional to indicate Americanisms (and usage from other dialects) in British crosswords, but Paul doesn’t seem to want to follow this tradition. (AlanC@19, is that perhaps why it didn’t yield to you?)

    I wasn’t keen on “too much” for DEAR. Arabic doesn’t have a word for ‘too’ and while teaching English to Egyptians it was very difficult to get across that something could be ‘very big’ but not ‘too big’, yet something else could be ‘very small’, yet nevertheless ‘too big’. I think we have to recognise, however, that ‘too’ (like ‘so’) is now sometimes used to mean simply ‘very’. Too, so unfortunate, imo!

    As Choldunk@16 points out, some words, like wind and beer, can be used as countable or uncountable nouns. So, a few pints constitute beer and gales constitute wind.

    I didn’t know USANCES, but didn’t find it difficult to work out and look up. A shame for those who didn’t know it and don’t allow themselves sources to inform themselves. Thanks for the Shakespeare, AlanB@26. Well remembered!

    Postmark@13, are you suggesting Mormon doesn’t rhyme with Norman?

35. Loved this one, especially TURING MACHINE (I used to teach that stuff), as well as PLUMP FOR anc PYRAMID SCHEME.

    Re:Tony@34 – I was surprised and a little confused when first I learned that the superlative can sometimes best be translated into English as most, very or too, since they seemed to me to be quite distinct, but apparently not to everyone.

36. Dr Whatson

    I take it you’re referring to translation from Arabic? The superlative is formed in Arabic by the addition of the definite article to the comparative and I think can only be translated by ‘most’. To say ‘too big’, you would just say ‘big’ and rely on the context to carry the sense of “too”, or add something like “for you”.

    One anomalous and very well-known phrase is allahu akbar, which, literally, is ‘God is greater’, but is usually rendered as ‘God is great’ or sometimes ‘God is greatest’. Is that what you were thinking of?

37. Tony@36 actually no, I was thinking of Latin. Sorry, should have said.

38. I share Mr Collman’s reservations about ‘schpyreme’ being in the clue. It doesn’t seem quite clever enough to justify using a nonsensical word.

    I think it’s inclusion is arguably justified by the many who did like it though! Otherwise thought this was a good all-rounder, which even I managed to complete! Cheers Paul.

39. [Dr. Whatson, Oh! :-S. Btw, I was interested to learn you used to teach Turing Machine. I first learnt about it reading Douglas Hofstadter’s brilliant Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Can’t say I’m fully across the concept as a result, but I certainly got a flavour!]

40. Tony @ 34 the Aracauria clue did have no definition , just as I have stated it. However the clue number was referenced by another clue in the puzzle, answer SELF-ASSESSMENT .

41. 10FC@38, you make a fair point when pointing out how much the SCHPYREME clue was enjoyed, generally. Of course, I felt the mild pleasure of the “aha” when I realised what was meant, but also relief at getting what this non-word was doing there. Such clues don’t demonstrate that much art really, though, and without the constraint that the result of following the implicit “specification” in the answer should result in a proper word, are very easy to make. E.g. Vain sort — japopy? (8)

42. Roz@40, aha! I like it a lot better now. I do note, however the contrast between this and TAFFETA from the recent Maskerade, which didn’t have a def originally, but could be got once you had solved the clue for TATA elsewhere, which referred to it. That was so widely condemned that it was thought necessary to edit in a definition after the show was over and everyone had gone home, as pointed out by Adrian Michaels on 11 Jan.

43. Late thanks bridgesong, I was confident enough from the definition to enter TURING MACHINE but had no idea how to parse it – “broadcast” always gets me thinking of homophones. Strangely I found dear = too much easier to get than gales = some wind but prefer the latter as a direct equivalence (eg strong wind caused ski lifts to be closed last week). Add me to the schpyreme likers because I was misled for quite a while, as suggested by Haggis@33, into thinking it might be an obscure real word – but I think this trick may get tiresome if not used sparingly. Anyway although it was a while ago I remember greatly enjoying solving this so thanks Paul.

44. Gazzh @43. “Add me to the schpyreme likers because I was misled for quite a while, as suggested by Haggis@33, into thinking it might be an obscure real word.” Quite right, well said. Anyone who says they didn’t like that clue because “it’s not a real word” must be a trainee curmudgeon. 🙂

45. SH, I’ll have you know I’m a fully paid-up, card-carrying curmudgeon, thank you very much!

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