Guardian 28,677 – Paul

by

I made a promising start on my first pass through the clues, but rather struggled to finish it offl as is often the case, it all looks reasonably straightforward in retrospect.

The subject of the email advertising Paul’s Zoom session tonight was “Read across the top of Thursday’s completed Guardian grid. Do I really feel like that?”, but it didn’t give me much help in deducing BOREDOM after HEIGH-HO. Thanks to Paul.

 
Across
1 HEIGH-HO Oh dear, less effective tool than a pitchfork, by the sound of it? (5-2)
Homophone of “hay hoe”, which might be less effective than a pitchfork
5 BOREDOM Malaise rare in report (7)
RED (rare) in BOOM (report, as from an explosion)
9 SPOON BENDER Unintentionally funny man taking bow in illusionist (5,6)
BEND (bow) in SPOONER (whose verbal slips were unintentionally funny)
11 AMATEURISH Clumsy butchering of the samurai (10)
(THE SAMURAI)*
12 STOA Passage from one end of Salonica to the other? (4)
S TO A, using the outer letters of SalonicA
14 CONSERVATIVE Fellow accommodating illicit tavern is party guy? (12)
(TAVERN IS)* in COVE (fellow) – given the Partygate shenanigans, the definition can perhaps be taken in two ways
18 ASK ME ANOTHER I’ve no idea if hatmaker’s one for tailoring? (3,2,7)
(HATMAKER’S ONE)*
21 DOLT Idiot‘s point inspiring intellectual, finally (4)
[intellectua]L in DOT
22 PERSEPHONE Goddess, essentially mobile? (10)
PER SE (essentially) + MOBILE (phone)
25 TOSCANINI Maestro elected to double back on opera (9)
TOSCA (opera) + IN (elected) reversed, twice
26 ACTED Did content of bidet career from behind? (5)
Hidden in reverse of biDET Career
27 INTRUDE Meddle, as some Canadian leader? (7)
Hidden in justIN TRUDEau – it’s unusual to have a hidden clue where the “fodder” is not given, but Trudeau (Pierre or Justin) is perhaps the only Canadian leader most of us could name
28 SHE-BEAR Shave round blonde fringe, this female’s hairy (3-4)
B[lond]E in SHEAR
Down
1 HUSSAR Soldier with swimmer and aviator on the periphery (6)
HUSS (fish, swimmer) + A[viato]R
2 ISOBAR I do well to conceal black line on map (6)
B in I SOAR
3 HANDED OVER Article removed from deceased in house, surrendered (6,4)
DEAD less A (article) in HANOVER (royal house)
5 BEL ESPRIT Wit in funny replies penned by discontented Bennett (3,6)
REPLIES* in B[ennet]T
6 RILE Nettle rash itchy, less excruciating first of all (4)
First letters of Rash Itchy Less Excruciating
7 DOVETAIL Carry out check on trouble in joint (8)
DO VET + AIL
8 MASSAGED Large amount on a pension, perhaps, worked hard (8)
MASS (large amount) AGED (as one on a pension might be)
13 PAPER PLATE Groundwork backfiring in appetite for party piece? (5,5)
Reverse of PREP (groundwork) in PALATE (appetite)
15 SONNETISE Write poetry, very intense rubbish (9)
SO + INTENSE*
16 BANDITTI Criminals in party, it needing reflection? (8)
BAND (party) + IT + its reverse
17 SKILL SET Working range, where pan’s filled with stew, originally (5,3)
S[tew] in SKILLET (pan)
19 HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES Spouse’s situation on easy street, comparatively? (3,3,5,4,5)
Double definition
23 SPIES Notices Christmas fare if served with mint, did you say? (5)
MINT SPIES = “mince pies”, Christmas fare
24 OAHU Tropical island I see in middle of Slough (4)
AH (I see!) in [sl]OU[gh] – Oahu is one of the islands of Hawaii

51 comments on “Guardian 28,677 – Paul”

  1. Quite a tough one today.

    I parsed 27 with as = in then Trude(au) but wasn’t convinced. Your parsing is much better Andrew.

    Thanks both.

  2. I would have thought that palate is a very different thing to appetite in PAPER PLATE.
    Favourites were HEIGH-HO for the word picture and PERSEPHONE for the conciseness. Overall challenging.

  3. I found the opposite to Andrew, only two solved on my first pass through but as I persevered and found more crossers it steadily fell into place. Very enjoyable.

  4. Oh dear, indeed: I parsed SPOON BENDER and meant to go back to the dictionary to see if a SPOON really was an unintentionally funny man as I’d guessed, because ‘bow’ seemed to indicate BENDER! All the right answers but not necessarily for the right reasons.

    BANDITTI appealed for the ‘it’ trick, MASSAGED for the clueing of AGED, DOVETAIL is so cleanly clued and SHE-BEAR had a fun surface. Two real standouts for me – the inspired assembly of PERSEPHONE and the anagram for AMATEURISH.

    I suspect SPIES and INTRUDE might inspire some discussion today.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  5. Thanks to Paul and Andrew.
    Tim C@2, I also had HEIGH-HO at 1a and PERSEPHONE at 22a as two favourites; I appreciate the sense of humour Paul always brings to his puzzles (who else would have thought of the word association of pitchfork, hay and hoe, or to mention mobile phones in the same breath as a Greek goddess?).
    I couldn’t parse INTRUDE fully though I got the idea to shorten TRUDE(au) – when I read the blog I thought perhaps it was a little unfair as there was a Pierre Trudeau as well. But then I decided a long time ago that all’s fair in love and crosswords and so I shouldn’t complain. It’s always the setter’s prerogative to use tricks to try to mislead us – that’s why they are called cryptic crosswords after all. And I know that as a solver I have picked up some skills over the years, but I would make for a very 11a AMATEURISH setter indeed!
    I still thought the best clue was 19d4d10a HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES, but then again I always love those little cryptic sayings that I invariably get by employing the enumeration as much as the word play.
    I remain very grateful for this forum for many reasons, today being because I also couldn’t understand 1d HUSSAR, so my TILT was that a HUSS is a fish.

  6. [PM@4, I blathered on so we ended up crossing, thus my lack of acknowledgement of similar mentions. Sorry.]

  7. [Absolutely no need, JinA. I know completely top form is to check for updates immediately before pressing Post but I tend to look at the blog in ten-minute windows at this point in the day so anything within that window is ‘simultaneous’ in my book 😀

    BTW, I agree with your point about sayings and enumeration. I think the long one today jumped out after RILE and DOVETAIL went in.]

  8. A toughie as usual from Paul, but worth the effort – particularly for DOVETAIL, CONSERVATIVE and BANDITTI. Worked out BEL ESPRIT somehow. Didn’t question the Trudeau in INTRUDE – seemed OK to me. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

  9. Thank you Andrew.
    I also liked DOVETAIL, a straightforward charade, with a great surface. And SPOON BENDER was fun.
    SONNETISE. Is that a word? Don’t have Chambers but I’m sure someone will put me straight.

    PM @ 4. SPIES mints/mince . essexboy has educated us on epenthesis.

    Can do without the hairy women and bidets, Paul’s trademark humour, which I find tedious in their predictability, although I think it’s been a while since we’ve had clues from the nether regions.

  10. Tough – I needed to use a word-finder for the last few – but Paul at his best. HAY HOE, CONSERVATIVE (including a subtle and entirely apt dig at The Dear Leader), PER SE PHONE, DO VET AIL and SPIES (involving the glorious homophone MINTS SPIES) were especially good. I could do without the word SONNETISE, but I don’t mind it when the word play is so clear.
    Like Julie @5, I didn’t quite parse INTRUDE – thank you Andrew.
    Curiously, the one characteristically Pauline clue, the one involving the content of a bidet, was the one with a rotten surface. There’s possibly a moral in there.

    Thanks both.

  11. I think the only place where I have ever encountered BEL ESPRIT is in Thackeray’s description of old Miss Crawley in Vanity Fair:

    “She was a bel esprit, and a dreadful Radical for those days. She had been in France (where St. Just, they say, inspired her with an unfortunate passion), and loved, ever after, French novels, French cookery, and French wines. She read Voltaire, and had Rousseau by heart; talked very lightly about divorce, and most energetically of the rights of women.”

    Can anyone provide other examples?

    (Note to self: reread Vanity Fair)

  12. The mint spy joke has stuck in my mind since I heard it about 40 years ago in a repeated Goon Show. It’s probably older than that.

  13. I agree with previous bloggers that this was indeed quite tough, but that’s Paul, he’s never going to be easy, and we’d all complain if he was.
    I guessed a few without parsing – conservative, ask me another, hussar, isobar – so thanks Andrew for the help.
    FOI was Toscanini followed quickly by acted, then much slower.
    Favourite was How the Other Half Lives – brilliant!

  14. 21A – I’ve not seen ‘inspiring’ used in that way before?

    With 7 DNKs, not a hope in hell of finishing this, as is usually the case with Paul for me!

  16. My experience summed up nicely by JinA @5. HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES was the stand-out for me. I don’t understand why a bidet or hairy female is offensive but each to their own I suppose.

    Ta Paul & Andrew

  17. paddymelon@9 yes it is a word (as is sonnetary adj. and sonneteer n.)… C2014 sonnetize or -ise vi to compose sonnets.

  18. Difficult but amusing and interesting, with an appreciative OUCH for the mint spies (obviously a different MI5 branch from the shepherd spies, who I think were the ones in the Goon Show). Saw the TRUDEau but not the JustIN, and failed to get PAPER PLATE at all.

    I so wanted 9 to be TOMMY COOPER from the enumeration, but of course it wasn’t. Couldn’t actually parse SPOON BENDER.

    Enjoyed the SHE BEAR, DO VET AIL, PERSEPHONE and of course the topical CONSERVATIVE. SONNETISE must be a word, but it’s a new one to me.

  19. Thanks for the blog — which helped me understand the homophone at 23a which defeated me (maybe it’s because I’m Jewish? 🙂

  20. One is in the hands of an expert with Mr Halpern, who has a website of his own I see, but I was not too excited by this effort unfortunately. Unlike others, I felt the ‘other half’ clue a little lacking in punch, though there were some nice moments within many of the other clues.

  21. Good challenging puzzle. Slow start, but got there in the end though one or two not completely parsed. I’m a bit lazy about that once I’ve solved the clue.

    Enjoyed the topical CONSERVATIVE. I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard COVE used to mean fellow, except by P. G. Wodehouse and in crosswords.

    Liked SPOON BENDER.
    Groaned at SPIES.
    No quibbles anywhere.

    Thanks Paul, and Andrew for supplementing my parsing

  22. I found this none too taxing, and seemed to be on the wavelength. I enjoyed the witty sleights, especially the Spooner twist, the homophones of hay and mince, the hairy female and the oblique defs (‘party guy’, ‘party piece’, ‘did’=ACTED). On reflection after completing the solve, I do think that there were a number of infelicitous points in the clueing. The surface of the illusionist clue is a bit naff, because the ‘in’ breaks it. The spouse’s situation was rather lame, although I do enjoy the multi-word sayings and clichés clues. And the Trudeau trick didn’t do it for me. But PERSEPHONE was an absolute cracker, eh?

  24. I struggled with this but got there in the end using a few word searches. Some good Paulian humour; I liked HEIGH-HO especially.

    A bit strange that there were two OTHERs in the grid. SONNETISE and BANDITTI were rather unusual but gettable. NeilH @10, maybe reread the surface for ACTED, a rather explosive result in the bidet!

    Thanks Paul for the humour and Andrew for the blog, including the JustIN TRUDEau. Like many others I got the Trudeau bit but not the ‘in’.

  25. Overall probably easier than I made it. I got stuck a couple of times. Not knowing OAHU didn’t help; I was on the right lines but didn’t say “ah!” until I saw it in the solution.

    I liked SPIES but ACTED didn’t impress me – maybe “cascade” for “career” would have made the surface flow better?

  26. Much to enjoy today with plenty of wit and invention, for which thank you Paul and Andrew.
    I liked AMATEURISH, BEL ESPIRIT (for its apt surface), ACTED (for an image I now sadly can’t jettison).

    And I liked PERSEPHONE, who once espied the nymph Minthe with her husband Hades, trampled her to death and then turned her into a mint plant, perhaps as suggested by her position in the grid?

  27. Thank you Andrew for the reassuring knowledge that I am not the only one who made slow progress after a solid start, and for the In of INTRUDE (a long way from being alone there too). I don’t think I have met an incomplete homophone either (or whatever we call the equivalent of those partial anagrams) but enjoyed the SPIES today.
    PostMark@4 I parsed it as you did as, at school, any wally/muppet could also have been called a spoon, and Steve Wright in the Afternoon used to feature a character called Mr Spoon who fitted that bill (I think – it was a long time ago). But I do think that Andrew has a better explanation especially as it invokes one so beloved (and occasionally reviled) among setters and solvers!
    Monkey@25 although I liked that clue anyway you have improved it, nice one.
    I thought this was another puzzle where, freed from the constraints of a specific theme, Paul has used a lot of imagination and wit to come up with something really worthwhile, so I hope his feelings do not really chime with the top row – thanks Paul.

  28. I thought this was on the easier side of Paul’s offerings but still hugely enjoyable.

    PERSEPHONE was brilliant for its wit and brevity.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  29. Thanks both – I enjoyed that.

    Technically a dnf as I revealed ‘banditos’ to find it was BANDITTI and get the ‘it’ trick (as mentioned by PM@4) only if I purse my lips and squint. (Or do I..) I don’t know where I have encountered TOSCANINI outside of a crossword; some might perhaps agree that he’s a bit of a stretch for anyone born after (mmm, I’m gonna say..) 1960? But much to enjoy as has been said.

  30. I also didn’t know OAHU, and after OACU failed me I resorted to a list of tropical islands, which rather helped.

    PERSEPHONE was superb.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  31. 1a To me, HEIGH-HO conveys less “oh dear” than “oh well.” But it’s in a foreign dialect to me, so I’ve probably got it wrong.

    Andrew, thanks for parsing SPOON BENDER, PAPER PLATE and especially MINT SPIES. I’d never have figured those out. You might want to capitalize the A in the fodder for ACTED.

    Thoroughly enjoyed this, had to cheat a bit with the check button this morning but got most of it last night.

    Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

  32. Wasn’t my best effort. I spell the expression “hey-ho” if I ever wrote it down and a hoe is nothing like a pitchfork is it? AGED and pension jarred with me too though I see someone liked it.
    Also didn’t know OAHU or HUSS except Jan.
    Bad job.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  33. Valentine @31 – I tend to agree about HEIGH-HO, and that note of resigned accommodation to circumstances is certainly closer to its use in Shakespeare’s song, ‘Blow, blow, thou winter wind’, from As You Like It, which was immediately replaying in my mind as I entered the solution. That said, there is probably a semantic Venn diagram in which the two expressions have some overlap, so I was not going to mention it; but thank you for ding so.

  34. Kept going away then coming back to this, solved eventually in fits and starts. The NE corner the last to yield with BOREDOM and MASSAGED the very last two in. SPIES was clever and raised a chuckle. OAHU I had to cheat a little with, as a NHO…

  35. Busy morning so posting late.
    Thx to Paul for a very enjoyable puzzle with some excellent clues, with many lol moments. Especially liked 14ac for poke at recent practices by the current Prime Minster.
    My favourites were ISOBAR, PERSEPHONE, SPIES, CONSERVATIVE and ACTED. Looking forward to joining Paul and others on his Zoom WordPlay session later this evening.
    Thx also to Andrew for his blog.

  36. Spooner’s catflap@33 & Valentine@31 re HEIGH-HO: I agree that ‘Oh well’ springs to mind more readily than ‘Oh dear’. Can HEIGH-HO also be cheerful encouragement or is that hey-ho? I would love to know the derivation of ‘heigh’.

  37. Thanks for the blog, agree with Gazzh@27 that the lack of a theme has improved things. a lot of neat , imaginative clues with SHE-BEAR my favourite. OAHU is new to me but the clue was completely fair.

  38. I liked STOA, CONSERVATIVE party guy, HANDED OVER.

    Failed 23d.

    I could not parse 27ac IN + TRUDEau? I forgot about the Justin part of his name…

    Thanks, both.

  39. wynsum@36 – Well, when Disney’s seven dwarfs go home after a day toiling in the world’s most insanely productive diamond mine, they sing ‘Heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s home from work we go’. Is this ‘cheerful encouragement’ or resignation to their lot? I leave it to those more qualified than I am to interpret Disneyan discourse to determine the matter. I’ll stick with Shakespeare.

  40. The Collins definition for HEIGH-HO seems to cover all the bases:
    hey-ho or heigh-ho ?he??h?? ? interjection
    An exclamation of weariness, disappointment, surprise, or happiness

  41. Completely thrown by Trudeau and Bennett – I can’t surely have been the only one to be misdirected to a Canadian prime minister theme?

  42. Phew! Got there in the end. Now I need to go and lie down in a darkened room to allow my remaining brain cell to recover. Thanks Andrew for parsing the ones I couldn’t and to Paul (I think).

  43. It’s all been said already. I did not parse either the MINT SPIES or CONSERVATIVE, so thanks for that.

    OAHU is, of course, by far the most populous island in Hawaii–the southern half of the island is metropolitan Honolulu. The state’s two Congressional districts are basically 1. most of Oahu; 2. the rest of the state.

    I’m another who tried BANDITOS before BANDITTI; I guess Spanish-speaking bandits are more common over here than Italian-speaking ones.

    [Oh, and mentioning this late because this is the first time I’ve commented here this week: for those who do American-style crosswords, this past Sunday’s New York Times was a thing of beauty. I’ll leave it at that, but it’s a truly breathtaking bit of construction, well worth a look.]

  44. Enjoyed that. Felt like an older style of crossword to me and I think that’s why I liked it. Faves were SHE-BEAR, BEL ESPRIT and PAPER PLATE.
    pserve_p2 @22, I think the in in SPOON BENDER is fine because the inclusion indicator can be taking in rather than just taking.
    Spooner’s catflap @39, I thought it was the dwarves’ song on the way to work and they were lamenting their lot: “I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go”. 😉
    Thanks, Paul and Andrew

  45. A very entertaining crossword with lots of inventive clues. Really nice to see the Reverend Spooner appearing again for non-Spoonerism purposes. Great that there were no arguments about the “mint spies” homophone, perhaps because it’s obviously a bit of fun. Maybe we could bear this in mind for the future? (Some hope!)

    [mrpenney @43: my son texted me a copy of a twitter post about the Sunday New York Times crossword. Brilliant, and no doubt destined to be a classic.]

    Many thanks Paul and Andrew.

  46. Lord Jim @45: I’m quite delighted that my early prediction of a homophonic debate proved to be unfounded. Likewise the hidden word within two words that didn’t appear in the clue. Fifteensquared in an accepting mood today.

  47. 1a then 1d my LOIs. Normally I get going with a Paul and the answers eventually come, but this was a slog from start to finish.

  49. I think hiding answers in words that do not appear in the clue is even better.
    Mints/mince or prints/prince have been done to death in previous blogs, it is one I actually say differently but could not be bothered to raise it. The clue could have had – did someone say ?

  50. [mrpenney@43, a while back I failed to acknowledge your very good point about that other word game originating round your way thus US English being acceptable – I still think it is a shame as, created by a Welshman, it was an opportunity (to strike back at US English dominance) missed! But while I still avoid that game I do enjoy a US crossword so thank you for your tip which I will try to track down.]

  51. The lowest number of comments for a long time (for a weekday puzzle – Saturdays are often quieter). Very pleased to have finished what I too found to be a difficult puzzle, especially after having failed (narrowly) to complete Tuesday’s Nutmeg and Wednesday’s Imogen. I think Paul may have taken a vow not to use Spooner in the spoonerism sense, which is refreshing.

    I think the “heigh-ho” of the Seven Dwarfs is different from the HEIGH-HO – certainly pronounced differently. Also, Chambers has “heigh” as an exclamation of encouragement and “heigh-ho” as one of weariness, which seems odd to me.

    The surface readings of the clues for ACTED and SHE-BEAR, which one or two say they found offensive, totally passed me by, as in the first the word ‘content’ told me I was looking for a hidden answer, and ‘from behind’ told me it would be reversed; and in the second ‘blonde fringe’ told me the letters B and E would be inside a word meaning ‘shave’, so both answers came to me without having to read the clue as a whole.

    Thanks to Paul for an entertaining puzzle, and to Andrew for the blog.

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