Guardian 28,684 – Picaroon

by

As Storm Eunice makes me worry about the state of my fences (we’re promised 75mph winds here today), an enjoyable diversion from Picaroon. Not too difficult, but beautifully constructed as always. Thanks to Picaroon.

 
Across
1 BACK‑SEAT DRIVER Advisor who’s not welcome to dine in rugby players’ club (4-4,6)
EAT in BACKS (rugby players) + DRIVER (golf club)
8 TAINT Corrupt leaders in thrash arranged inside Number Ten (5)
First letters of Thrash Arranged Inside Number Ten, with a surface reference to the ongoing Partygate scandal
9 REFINISH Official to an extent securing home cover again (8)
IN (home) in REF (referee, official) + -ISH (suffix meaning “to an extent”, sometimes used humorously on its own)
11 HOGARTH Artist drawing horse behind farm animal (7)
HOG (farm animal) + ART (drawing) + H[orse]
12 CORONER He investigates passing round pickle sandwiches (7)
O (round) “sandwiched” by CORNER (tight spot, pickle)
13 REBUS What must be cracked on vehicle (5)
RE (about, on) + BUS
15 PROVISION Expert insight for furnishing (9)
PRO (expert) + VISION
17 HILLSIDES Husband has problems stifling camp inclinations (9)
H + SIDE (camp, as in a political grouping etc) in ILLS
20 CELLO Business chief pockets £50 in big fiddle? (5)
L (£) + L (50) in CEO
21 OIL DRUM It stores crude ancient booze tucked into by setter (3,4)
I (setter) in OLD RUM
23 AUREOLA Sign of virtue from samurai, periodically welcoming new role (7)
ROLE* in alternate letters of sAmUrAi; an aureola is “a circle of light or brightness surrounding something, especially as depicted in art around the head or body of a person represented as holy”
25 DISPOSAL Chucking away soggy food, about to stuff face (8)
Reverse of SOPS (soggy food) in DIAL (face)
26 EATER Tea drunk by queen in Royal Gala, say (5)
EAT* + ER – Royal Gala is a kind of apple
27 BATTLE STATIONS Positions men take up in Waterloo and Austerlitz? (6,8)
Waterloo and Austerlitz are railway stations named after battles (in London and Paris respectively)
Down
1 BUTCHER’S HOOK Gutless emperor trembled after very macho glance (8,4)
BUTCH (very macho) + E[mpero]R + SHOOK – rhyming slang for “look”, usually shortened to just “butcher’s”
2 CLING Stick characters in erotic lingerie (5)
Hidden in erotiC LINGerie
3 SATIRISES Takes off part of the weekend, given flowers (9)
SAT[urday] + IRISES
4 AIRSHIP What pretentious people put on, hot in transport (7)
AIRS (put on by pretentious people) + HIP (fashionable, hot)
5 DE FACTO Ate up most of ham, in reality (2,5)
Reverse of FED + ACTO[r] (ham)
6 INNER Bull’s neighbour has meal first off (5)
[d]INNER – the bull and inner are adjacent areas of an archery target
7 ESSENTIAL A must see: Stalin getting overthrown (9)
(SEE STALIN)*
10 BRONTOSAURUS Old browser? A bot runs ours loosely (12)
(A BOT RUNS OURS)*
14 BALALAIKA British recalling space traveller’s instrument (9)
B[ritish] + A LA (in the manner of, recalling) + LAIKA (dog sent to space in Sputnik 2 in 1957)
16 INCORRECT Getting cross, perhaps, in my play area before time (9)
IN + COR (my!) + REC (children’s play area) + T; an incorrect answer would be marked with a cross
18 DEMESNE Land‘s ground seemed to contain nitrogen (7)
N in SEEMED*
19 SHALLOT Bulb, one often lit up around foyer (7)
HALL (foyer) in SOT (one often drunk or “lit up”)
22 REPOT Plant once again lush, climbing (5)
Reverse of TOPER (drunkard, lush)
24 OUTRO Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s repeated conclusion (5)
Hidden twice in bOUTROs bOUTROs-ghali

110 comments on “Guardian 28,684 – Picaroon”

  1. Lots of fun this morning. I wasn’t sure about ALA in BALALAIKA so thanks Andrew. I think my favourites this morning were the witty ones: BATTLE STATIONS, BUTCHER’S HOOK and AIRSHIP. Thanks Picaroon.

  2. I enjoyed this. Several, many more than usual, went in on the first pass. Some very intriguing definitions kept me on my toes: Getting cross, Old browser.

    Thanks for the elucidation of INCORRECT, my LOI, Andrew (the definition in DE FACTO is missing an underline, incidentally)

    Thanks Picaroon

  3. We’re in a red zone. Gusts could be over 90 mph.

    I enjoyed that, and no overarching theme – hurra, though there were a couple of stringed instruments.

    CLING made me smile. I had to ponder on some of the parsings a while (cor = my, side = camp, hip = hot) but got there in the end. Liked old browser definition for BRONTOSAURUS.

    I wonder if our transatlantic friends are familiar with BUTHCHER’S HOOK?

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  4. This was quite an easy solve so no complaints from me. Some cunningly disguised definitions made it fun. Some have already been mentioned but I will add 17ac.
    Thanks to P and A.

  5. The last time OUTRO was in the G – was another Picaroon in September where it appeared in the same quarter of the grid and gave the blogger of the day the chance to link to the Bonzo Dog Band. So I won’t go there today; one can have too much deja vu.

    But not too much Picaroon! Lots of elegant clueing, snappy surfaces and clever reveals. I enjoyed the verb/adj switch in TAINT, the definitions of CORONER, OIL DRUM, INNER and INCORRECT, the slang in BUTCHERS HOOK, the anagram in ESSENTIAL. SATIRISES and AIRSHIP my favourites.

    I was held up by HOGARTH, convincing myself that artist drawing horse accounted for RAH at the end – which left me searching for an odd word to mean farm and an even odder one giving the animal that had to be the answer. Very flummoxing and I confess to throwing in the towel – and then kicking myself.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  6. Lots of ‘aha’ moments when realising what the definitions meant. I wonder whether Picaroon was fasting when he wrote the clues: he seems a little fixated on food and booze – or are we back to Partygate? Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew. (Btw 25a should read SOPS I think)

  7. Loved this from start (BACK SEAT DRIVER leapt out immediately) to finish. Certainly my fastest solve for this setter and summed up well as usual by PM @5. Also wondered about BUTCHER’S HOOK for non-Brits after yesterday’s puzzle from Paul, but I think from that blog it is clear that our global friends are very much familiar with our weird and wonderful words.

    Ta Picaroon & Andrew

  9. A very quick but thoroughly enjoyable solve which would have been even quicker if I hadn’t entered ACTION stations first and slowly realising that it made for very awkward endings in the crossing down clues.
    Thanks all.
    Keeping my fingers crossed that Eunice passes harmlessly and that it’s a Buccaneer in the FT tomorrow. (Favourite setter two days running cannot be a bad thing)

  10. Elegant and enjoyable as usual from Picaroon, just wish it had been a bit more challenging so I could enjoy it for longer! Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

  11. I don’t know about transatlantic Crossbar@3 but this global friend(AlanC@7) and more specific transpacific cruciverbalist from the colonies didn’t have much of a problem with BUTCHERS HOOK. Maybe it’s because my roots are in the UK but I’m sure I’ve learnt it after migration from doing loads of crosswords.
    Favourites were REBUS, CELLO (for big fiddle) and INNER.
    Stay safe in the storm over there.

  13. As always, an absolute delight from Picaroon. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to parse 12a: I must still be half asleep. 8a is simple to solve, but the surface reading of the clue is just brilliant.

  14. Thanks Picaroon and Andrew
    Lots of fun. I didn’t see camp=SIDE in17, or the SOPS in 26.
    Favourites FOI CELLO, INCORRECT, and OUTRO.

  15. Apologies Tim C @11 if I inadvertently ignored our other global friends. I must have the Atlantic uppermost in mind as that’s where this storm is coming from. I also realise that Eunice isn’t as fierce as weather events can be elsewhere, but unusual for here.

  16. To avoid repetition, I’ll say that I had the same favourites as PostMark, for the same reasons.

    SATIRISES leapt out: a couple of years ago, Picaroon clued it with ‘Takes off bloomers after a day’ and Julie in Australia commented, ‘I love it when you get a clue that means you can never look at a word in the same way again because a setter has seen its component parts in a whole new way’. I agreed – and I’ve pronounced it that way in my head ever since.

    Many thanks, as ever to Picaroon and to Andrew.

    (Best of luck to all in the storm – no real signs here yet: we’re Amber.)

  17. (gsolphotog @9 – Buccaneer seems to appear pretty regularly every two weeks these days, so there’s a good chance. Meanwhile, there’s another of my favourites , Redshank (our Crucible) today.)

  18. Postmark @5 who can forget INTRO OUTRO-that band was amazing in its day
    And thanks you Pickers and Andrew for keeping the aspidistra flying

  19. As Andrew says, beautifully constructed by Picaroon as always. I particularly liked BALALAIKA, AIRSHIP and DE FACTO. Lovely!

  21. I found it easier to guess/solve than to parse 14d.

    Favourites: TAINT, BUTCHER’S HOOK, DISPOSAL (loi).

    Thanks, both.

    [Good luck to all those in high wind areas today. I am travelling to the western edge of the Mendips tomorrow and hope that the winds are gentler.]

  22. In clues like 12a (which was a good one) it would be nice to see she instead of he sometimes. There are women coroners.

  23. revbob @22
    Arachne always used “she” for a gender neutral person, and some other compilers have started doing the same – Nutmeg, for one.

  24. Another wonderful crossword from one of my favourite setters. Not his most difficult but extremely enjoyable. I’m quite pleased to say that I too noticed all the long clues started with a B

    Thanks very much to Picaroon and to Andrew

  25. [Incidentally, BRONTOSAURUS has had rather a difficult history, being an invalid name for over a hundred years. See here if you are interested.]

  26. Eileen @ 17 Thanks. Yes he seems to alternate with Mudd so it makes for a pleasant Saturday one way or another and of course Rodriguez makes the odd Saturday Indy appearance.
    Just about to start Redshank .

  27. I finally gave up on my last one INCORRECT, so dnf and couldn’t parse it either, but enjoyed the rest. No, Partygate is not dead while it can generate clues like TAINT, which took me a disgracefully long time to see.
    Liked all the long ones. I did wonder whether everyone would know that Royal Gala was an eating apple, especially as they are usually just called Gala nowadays.

    (Crash outside: my small growhouse has just been blown over. No glass involved, so I’ll just have to clear up the mess once Eunice has calmed down.)

  28. I think that “butcher’s” is used Down Under (though I have to confess that, having a Pommy wife and having spent a fair amount of time in Old Blighty, I cannot always remember whether words I know are Aussie or Pommy). I couldn’t quite make AIRSHOT or INCURRENT work – until the penny dropped for each. And I should learn to spell DEMESNE (it isn’t demense!). Thanks, Picaroon and Andrew.

  29. Thanks Picaroon – the party is truly thrashed.

    Have we seen the clue for REBUS or similar recently?
    Coroner made me think of corona which sort of helped with aureola.

    All four perimeter solutions begin with B …
    so fitting to see HOGARTH the satirist- (anagram of ‘artist is’!) crossing with SATIRISES.

  32. Another excellent puzzle from Picaroon.

    Thanks DuncT; it’s always interesting to speculate on how setters approach a blank grid if there is no theme. In this case, maybe the Bs have it.

    I enjoyed BACK-SEAT DRIVER and CORONER for their definitions, and
    BUTCHER’S HOOK and BALALAIKA for the wordplay.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  33. Yes, an excellent puzzle. Not difficult, apart from OUTRO – a new word for me – which isn’t in my edition of Chambers, but I found it in Collins.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  34. Thank you Andrew and hope your fences emerge unscathed (and everyone else’s + hope not too much devastation for you gladys). I got off to a flier here too but some tricky parsing and cunning definitions brought me back to earth towards the end.
    I do have two minor quibbles – while Collins has the INNER defined as “the red innermost ring on a target” somehow doesn’t sit well with me as the Gold also has an inner ring apparently (as does each colour) so it isn’t clear what the INNER would be if you just asked someone to aim for it.
    AIRSHIP would be smoother (in my opinion) if “hot” was left out, as in = HIP anyway.
    But of course overall it was great – is it me or does Picaroon prefer grids with a number of long (10+ letter) entries? He does them very well anyway, thanks Picaroon.

  36. Gazzh @34. Regarding INNER, although Andrew parses this in terms of archery, of which I know little, it would also work for a dartboard, with which, as a result of a misspent 20s in village pubs, I am more familiar. This may possibly be less problematic.

  37. There’s gotta be a significance to the 4 X Bees around the perimeter, and REBUS. (5 bees if you count balalaika.)

  39. Thanks for the blog, will agree on the word beautiful , especially CORONER which was a stunning clue.
    MrEssexboy@20 , I was going to say poor LAIKA, I do not know what your link is but Laika never made it into orbit alive, although this was covered up at the time.

  41. [gladys @ 27 Shame about your storm casualty. So far we haven’t fared too badly, just 3 keeled over Pampas grass plumes. ]

  44. “Not too difficult”, “quite an easy solve”, “my fastest solve for this setter”, “very quick”, “wish it had been a bit more challenging”, “not difficult”.

    I found it rather tough, both to solve and, in places, to parse.

    BATTLE STATIONS popped into my head, and I assumed Austerlitz was a railway station somewhere. I liked DEMESNE, CELLO, HOGARTH, ESSENTIAL, EATER. Many of the others were a matter of finding a word that fitted, then seeing a definition in the clue, then trying (and occasionally failing) to parse what was left.

    Enjoyable on the whole, but not easy for me today!

  45. [Not much in the growhouse (which is why it blew over so easily) and all at ground level, so no major damage to plants, and they’ll be OK outside in this mild weather.]

  46. There never were such times…a completed (though not completely parsed) grid.
    Remarkable because:=
    A) It’s Friday
    B) It’s Picaroon
    C) I’m completely useless at cryptic crosswords
    Must have been a gentle Friday.
    More comments to follow when I come down from seventh heaven.
    Thanks both.

  47. A very slow start indeed, followed by gradual progress. 16D took me ages because I was thinking of DEN or PEN for the play area…

    But all good fun. CELLO and CORONER get the big ticks.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

  48. muffin@38
    6d confused me as I assumed that it referred to darts and was thus an error. My knowledge of archery is now 50% greater.

  49. A very pleasant solve, so thanks, Picaroon. I was held up for a while, thinking OSOSI might be an answer to 24 down, before correcting myself, and it took a while to parse INCORRECT, but I eventually managed it before coming here.

    It was nice to see a mention of Austerlitz, a word/name I’d never heard of before I went to live in Paris as a student. When I asked a French friend why one of the railway stations in Paris had a Germanic name, he grinned and explained it was named after a battle Napoleon won. In British school history lessons they concentrated on Battles that Napoleon lost – but no mention of Austerlitz!

  50. Congrats to HoofIt @46!

    [Roz @39: yes, the link was just to the Wikipedia entry for Laika. There were quite a few other Soviet space dogs. Some survived, like Belka and Strelka. Some died in accidents, like Bars and Lisichka. The vehicle containing Pchyolka and Mushka was destroyed after a re-entry error sent it off course, to prevent foreign powers from inspecting the capsule. But Laika was doomed from the outset.]

  51. Beautifully constructed and a joy to complete! What more can you ask for from a cryptic?

    Favourites – HOGARTH, CELLO, DISPOSAL and INCORRECT.

    BRONTOSAURUS was out of date when my kids were learning about dinosaurs 30 years ago! So I agree with muffin @25.

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew

    (PS I have just watched an enormous eucalyptus tree snap into three pieces 2 doors down! Take care everyone.)

  52. erike44 @49 – We certainly covered the battle of Austerlitz at school. Total victory for Napoleon against the combined Russian and Austrian forces. Probably remains the pinnacle of Napoleon’s success in battle.

  53. Monkey @44 – To counter my showing off about finding this one fairly straightforward, I failed on Wordle today for the first time. Which is simply mortifying.

    Since I finished this one early, I used my time wisely by finally getting round to Picaroon’s Prize from last Saturday – and that kept me busy for a good deal longer. Though I’m not sure why, because looking back over the clues, they don’t seem to be noticeably harder than today’s. It could be partly down to the grid – today’s grid is a lot more solver-friendly.

  54. [Ark Lark @51
    If you follow my link, you will see that a way to reinstate Brontosaurus was found – in 2015, I think.]

  55. [widdersbel @53
    I’m a newbie to Wordle, but I thought today’s was hardly fair. I had 4 correct letters in two goes, but the remaining goes were insufficient for me to discover the first letter!]

  57. HYD you are far too modest.

    (EB@50 for some reason the Soviet Union used dogs and the USA used monkeys at that time, the Russians used a few monkeys much later. It is amazing Gagarin survived really, although he did not land as claimed, that was covered up for many years. [

  58. widdersbel @53, as it happens, I did rather better with Picaroon’s prize. I think the difficulty of a puzzle can be quite, er, difficult to define. Maybe on another day I would have found today’s easier – or even harder.

    SATIRISES was rather good, but took me ages to see.

  59. [widdersbel/muffin/Hoofit – today’s Wordle was a tricky one, got it in 5. By the way, if anyone would like to try their hand at French wordle (‘Le Mot’) and German wordle (Wördl) they’re here and here.]

  60. Median @ 33

    Just for info, OUTRO is in the current Chambers app, though as OUT’RO, which I’ve never seen in the wild.

  62. All very enjoyable were it not for the fact that I will never see “play area” and think “rec”, and so a DNQF for me. INCORRECT was ironic when I think of what I tried to shoehorn in there.

    Le Petomane was apparently known to open his show with a representation of the opening salvos of the Battle of Austerlitz. (Not a lot of people know that….)

  64. Really enjoyed that, needed a bit of help today with the parsings, so thanks for that, and was about to make the comment re “inner” being perhaps also a darts reference (which is what I took it to be), but see that several of you are ahead of me on that (clearly dubious) point anyway!

  65. Thanks Andrew for the heads-up on BALALAIKA. I didn’t know the poor monkey’s name, but I feel for him…
    I enjoyed the old browser, though my dinosaur mad grandson would pick me up if I used it describe one of his models.
    The storm is not too bad here in darkest South London. Even the rottweilers go round in pairs around here, so perhaps it’s been frightened off.

  67. Spponer’s catflap@36 thanks for the suggestion but I thought of darts straight away as per muffin@38 and Lyssian@48, came here about to get really angry when Andrew’s blog set me off on a different course and maybe that initial grump is why I am still not quite satisfied. But all pales into insignificance besides HoofIt’s screamer – back of the net! [Muffin also thanks for your brontosaurus link – the Pluto of the Saurian world? Sadly don’t recall if it was in my Dinosaur Top Trumps pack. essexboy@59 thanks i will try the DE version. Simon S for 5 letter words like OUTRO we will soon use appearance in Wordle not Chambers as the litmus test.]

  70. I was glad to find myself closer to Picaroon’s wavelength today, having failed abysmally on his puzzle of three weeks ago. Plenty of penny drop moments, and a few tougher clues that kept me chewing my pen long after I’d finished my coffee. One of my last in was REFINISH (having toyed for too long with the idea of ‘cover again’=REINSURE) and I couldn’t get INCORRECT until I had written the crossers and blanks down on the edge of my newspaper – a technique that I often find helpful with down lights.

    I’m still struggling though with ‘ate up’=DEF, as I can’t quite equate feed and eat. Either feed is transitive (as in feed the hens, for example) or requires a preposition (as in feed upon strawberries, sugar and cream). Chambers does have ‘to take food’, but I can’t think of an example that doesn’t have either an object (feed oneself) or a preposition (feed on). Though since no one else has queried this, no doubt half a dozen uses of feed=eat will come to mind as soon as I press the “post comment” button.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  71. I thought there were some really good misdirections in this one, like Royal Gala, browser, drawing, passing round. Picaroon doesn’t disappoint.

    [I stopped playing Wordle when I saw how, if you give me today’s word, I can give you tomorrow’s. I’m not the only one, so if you see someone’s great performance posted on social media, don’t be too impressed.]

  72. I’ve gone from being unable to finish Picaroon to looking forward to his puzzles. Lots to enjoy today; I’ll pick out CELLO, CORONER and TAINT for the obligatory dig at No. 10: the satirist’s gift that keeps on giving.

    Although I’d not seen it, I’ve always thought that there’s too much going on in Boutros Boutros-Ghali’s name for it not to be useful in other contexts. Pleased to see Picaroon found a way.

    [London is in the red zone – lots of gusts at the moment and trees swinging wildly.

    The only Wordle I didn’t get had the same letter twice, which, at the time, I didn’t think was allowed. Today’s took four guesses. Sometimes you get to a stage where you have, say, the first letter missing, which could be one of several and you don’t have enough guesses to try them all.]

    Thanks Picaroon and Andrew.

  74. This transatlantic solver knows BUTCHER’S HOOK…from solving too many British crosswords. It was a few years of solving before Cockney rhyming slang was really part of my solving vocabulary.

    Waterloo and Austerlitz appearing together reminded me of this poem. If I recall, the schoolbook in which I saw it as a high-school student had a footnote about Austerlitz, which is certainly not covered in the average history curriculum in the U.S. by anything more than a sentence.

  77. Too many unparsed-by-me clues before I came to Andrew’s explanations for me to say that this was a truly enjoyable solve today. Last one in was the tasty apple at 26ac. Had bunged in Pigalle early on instead of the other porcine variant needed for HOGARTH, so got round to solving the NW corner towards the end. Thought DE FACTO excellent….

  78. [Pdp11 – I didn’t want to give away too much, so I thought I’d use a little misdirection. Now you know how to do it.]

  79. I had no hope of parsing BACK-SEAT DRIVER.

    I remember Laika going into space, but surely that’s bit of a stretch for younger solvers. I had a comment written about the Soviets’ indifference to her survival and failure to provide for her safe return, but you beat me to it, essexboy@20 (as did others later). We seem to have similar takes on some issues.

    I had no problem with BUTCHER’S HOOK or rhyming slang generally. In my case, it’s years and years of British detective stories. I remember an old sitcom episode, though — was it “The Good Life”? — when everybody got more and more competitive coming up with real and then made-up rhyming slang.

    muffin@25 I’ve long been confused about brontosaurus/apatosaurus. The explanation comes across as “there never was a brontosaurus, it’s called apatosaurus”, which feels like saying I never existed because my name is really Gwendolyn. I’m glad brontosaurus has been restored, it’s a much better-sounding word.

    gladys@27 I’d never heard of Gala apples, Royal or otherwise, but the components put themselves together to make EATER so I figured it must be some kind of apple. The words “eater” and “cooker” don’t exist over here, though of course we have both kinds. What’s a growhouse?

    We had a bit of a blow here too, no Eunice but they warned us on the radio, and it blew over a section of fence between my house and the neighbor’s.

    And thanks to Andrew and Picaroon for a pleasant morning.

  80. I have never understand this name ????? (Laika). My Russian-Finnish dictionary tells me that ????? means pystykorva, which is a spitz dog (whatever that is). My Russian-English dictionary tells me it means husky or kidskin. I have looked at several Russian sights giving dogs’ names and nowhere is there a ????? mentioned. Though I did come across a ????; on Russian websites you can click on ???? (like).
    So is it like calling a dalmatian Dalmation or a collie Collie? Or have we got the wrong end of the stick entirely by assuming ????? to be a name, not a breed?
    Are there any Russian speakers who can shed light on this?

    Excellent puzzle, by the way. Thanks to Picaroon
    And thanks to Andrew, too. Hope your fences are OK. When I lived in Shetland, all the fences were wire, to let the wind blow through.

  82. Thoroughly enjoyed this whilst Eunice-watching. For once, completed without aids though I missed the parsing of INCORRECT. Lots of lovely clues. We had REBUSES in a recent Saturday puzzle. Many thanks Picaroon and the great hurricane.

  84. Valentine@79 it was The Good Life. Tony Selby playing a rag and bone man and laying the Cockney slang on very thickly. He swapped an old cast iron range for some electrical appliances.

  87. Tim @85 – are you familiar with the term milksop? That’s literally a bit of bread soaked in milk until it’s soggy, but more commonly used to mean a weak or ineffectual man (what would have once been called “effeminate”, but down with that sort of thing). Sops generally are bread soaked in any liquid.

  88. Thanks Picaroon, it’s always a treat when you’re the setter. My favourites included BUTCHERS HOOK (I’ve bookmarked a list of Cockney rhyming slang so I’m getting to know it), SATIRISES, and BRONTOSAURUS. I did not know BALALAIKA but I remembered the dog after I revealed the answer. I could not parse BACK-SEAT DRIVER and I didn’t understand INNER — thanks Andrew for explaining.

  89. [Valentine@79: This is a growhouse: a very cheap and cheerful mini greenhouse, useful for bringing half-hardy plants through a British winter.]

  90. As an aside, did anyone else notice that yesterday we had “Lowers” used to mean moving something downwards and today we had “Flowers” to mean, well, flowers.

    Just when I’d got used to looking for cows and rivers! 🙂

    Thanks andrew and picaroon

  91. Excellent and enjoyable throughout. January’s Genius puzzle was by Picaroon, and I remarked then on the exemplary clues (of which all but one were actually two clues rolled into one, for a bit of added complexity). I rate these clues just as highly, and (making no attempt to avoid repetition!) I’ll say that I had the same favourites as PostMark [@5], for the same reasons.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Andrew.

  92. [Anna @80/pdp11 @86 – I’d never thought about Anna’s question, and I suspect my Russian is less advanced than hers, but on re-reading the wiki article it seems her suggestion is right – it is a bit like calling a collie ‘Collie’.

    “Soviet personnel gave her several names and nicknames, among them Kudryavka (Russian for Little Curly), Zhuchka (Little Bug), and Limonchik (Little Lemon).”

    Лайка is the name for a breed of dog (or several breeds). Its literal translation would be ‘barker’, from the verb лаять to bark. “According to some accounts, the technicians actually renamed her from Kudryavka to Laika due to her loud barking”.

    As you can see from the above (hopefully) there is a way to get the Russian letters to come out – see here. But it’s fiddly, and I wouldn’t try more than one or two per post.]

  93. Great fun & mostly do-able for me except 14,16,18.
    As it happens I picked our season’s first royal gala just yesterday (not counting all the low hanging fruit my two kunekune have been feasting on for some time).
    Thanks Picaroon & Andrew.

  94. Surprised that no one else has raised Ate up = Fed in 5D. I ate a pig and I fed a pig are quite different actions and I don’t understand the equivalence.

  95. sheffield hatter @70 and PhilM @94,
    For Feed, Collins online has:
    3. (intransitive)
    to eat food
    the horses feed at noon

    Good fun. I enjoyed BRONTOSAURUS very much. Ta, Roz and essexboy for the shaggy dogs stories. I Laika good tail. And I have to mention first American in space was Al Shepard, though he clearly spelt his last name wrongly.
    Thanks, P and A

  96. SC @36 (Late to the party, I know) I am an archer. The centre of the target is never referred to as the ‘bull’ ; it is the ‘gold’. Must be darts I guess (of which I know little)

  98. Anna @80 I believe that Laika was the dog’s name, not her breed. She had no particular breed.

    [gladys@89 Thanks. Some of those look like the one at my next-door neighbor’s (the one whose fence blew down). He’s got one you can go inside and sit down in, and he’s got all sorts of plans for starting plants early. It would also do to get half-hardy plants, whichever ones those are, through a Connecticut winter, I should think, though perhaps not a Maine one. But we’re certainly going well below freezing tonight.]

  100. What makes “horse” indicate “h” in 11? “Hotel”, maybe, due to the NATO alphabet, but surely you need more than it just happens to be the letter a word starts with.

  102. GregfromOz @100

    I believe it’s horse used as slang for heroin or H. You’re right that you need more than just any old random word beginning with H.

  104. Butcher’s Hook defeated me – this Cockney slang is a bit too much for me, although I’ve been trying to learn!
    Great puzzle…

  105. Jay in P @104 if you’re still around. It may interest you to know that BUTCHER’S HOOK is still commonly used, and not just by Cockneys. But you would never say the whole expression, just ‘butcher’s’ as in ‘Come and have a butcher’s at this’.

  106. Surely I’m not alone in being thrown by Big fiddle=Cello? As a brilliant musician myself, and a friend (and relative) to many world-class cellists, I cannot imagine anyone making the connection. They are completely different instruments ne c’est pas? So, a DNF for me today. Otherwise a delightful crossword.

  107. Hello essexboy@20,

    Thanks for the shout out. I’m a couple of days behind with the crosswords, so I’m lurking until I get caught up. But I eventually do read the blogs, and I enjoy your posts.

    Podule@106, yes the cello and the fiddle are obviously different instruments, but they are of the same family, so I thought the clue was fine. Now if the answer had been the bass, that would have been a different kettle of fish.

  108. cellomaniac@107 I was hoping you would see your name in lights , Chambers does give some support for fiddle applying to other members of the violin family including ” bass-fiddle” .

  109. Roz, thanks for noticing. I do enjoy your comments, even, or perhaps especially when they touch on topics I know little about. That’s the beauty of this site – we never stop learning.

    The violin, viola and cello are all members of the violin family, as distinct from the earlier viol family, which is quite different. The double bass is a holdover from the viol family, hence my “kettle of fish” wordplay.

    A lot of string players refer to their instrument colloquially as a fiddle, and I have a book of traditional Scottish music called “Fiddle Music for Cello”.

  110. Many thanks for the extras, I like to get things from the horse’s mouth.
    My topics have little overlap with others and I think most people are not interested . They do not turn up often so I have to make the most of it but I go on too much.

Comments are closed.