Guardian Prize 28,697 by Picaroon

78 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,697 by Picaroon”

1. It’s not often I spot a Nina, and even rarer that I go looking for one; rarest is that it helps me solve a clue or two. In fact, after trying to fit the book title around the edge of the grid with too few letters to help work out the starting point, I then completely forgot about it until the last half dozen clues were left.

   Overall, an enjoyable and somewhat unusual solve.

   Thanks to Picaroon and bridgesong.

2. Thanks bridgesong. The global tour theme (not the ninja) soon emerged but the NW corner took an age, notably for the airline and 4D’s topless soldier.

3. Like molongo I spotted the Round the World theme-ette early on. However the Nina only revealed itself in all it’s round the grid glory about 5 minutes after I’d put in the last clues.

   As per molongo @2 the NW corner was by far the hardest for me, though with different clues. As an expat Irishman, Aer Lingus (known to Irish of my generation as ‘Aer Flingus’ for their supposedly rough treatment of luggage ) was a doddle. And Nunnery came out easily enough. No, I spent the last ages on UNIONS and YEARNS — both of these are in the category (which exists at least in my head ) of ‘Clues that are so easy they are hard’. Of course, had I spotted the Nina, at this stage lacking only 2 letters I would have had 2 gimmes. Doh!

   Thanks bridgesong for an excellent blog; on 27A — the fact that Phileas Fogg travels EAST becomes critical right at the end of the book, so I think this is a great reference by Picaroon, to whom I will say ‘Bravo’.

4. Oh dear. I blew it with this one. Didn’t finish even after I saw the spoiler at the top of 225 (when I was looking for yesterday’s blog)
   Can’t win ‘em all.

   Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong

5. Didn’t spot the Nina even after realising the theme. Foolishy had Jetbag (is there such a thing) initially for KITBAG but got it in the end. Favourites were DALEKS and the old crossword staple ASSEGAI.

6. Like Epee, if I’d seen the Nina it would have helped with the last few in the NW and the SE, for which I needed a bit of guess and check this morning. Clever puzzle, ta Picaroon and bridgesong.

7. Very nice, very clever puzzle. Picaroon does it again.

   FOGG gave the game away for me. I don’t think VERNE is an &lit. since the part after the comma does not participate in the wordplay – some call this kind of clue an extended definition.

   7a reminded me of Britannia waives the rules, which I first heard on ISIRTA in the 60’s, and has been used many times since, but is still funny.

8. Like TimC @5, I spotted the theme reasonably early (with FOGG), but never saw the nina until I came here. I have to say I enjoyed this a lot more than yesterday’s Picaroon, which I found a real slog towards the end. Lots of clever clues, incuding AER LINGUS, VERNE, RELLIE, TAWNY OWL… Had to check the unusual spelling of the Jewish holiday. Thanks, Picaroon and bridgesong (and Timon, of course).

9. VERNE was my FOI and, as bridgesong remarks, pointed so clearly to an encircling thematic nina that i just needed TAWNY OWL (we seem to have had a number of parliamentary owls recently) to determine whether the E was that of ‘THE’ or that of ‘EIGHTY’. So, with the nina written in after only two clues solved, I sat here both pleased and at the same time disappointed that I had cracked the puzzle open so early. However, there were still some pleasures and perplexities in store, and in he end I needed SLOWDOWNS to enable me to get NUNNERY, having puzzled for too long over how NURSERY could be compatible with the clue.

10. Thanks bridgesong. Well, like others I completely missed the nina. I enjoyed the puzzle and idly noticed the theme but my respect for Picaroon’s ingenuity has now reached a whole new level, how very clever. Unlike others 7a was my FOI but the top right corner held me up at the last.

11. Another excellent crossword by Picaroon — I discovered the theme early since FOGG was one of my first answers. I failed with RELLIE, an unknown word to me, and that somehow blocked the very obvious nina. Favourites included YEARNS, OTHELLO, CHANUKAH (great surface), and ALUMNI. Thanks to both.

12. Thanks for the blog and the coloured grid which has just surprised me, for once I did get the theme but totally missed the perimeter.
    I had to frown at TAWNY OWL for the indirect anagram but I did like the clue and I do love tawny owls , especially this time of year. Agree with DALEKS and will add DARK AGES and ERUPTION.
    The clue for RELLIE is fine but such an awful word.

    [ I tell my students that if you travel EASTBOUND and circle the globe every 23 hours , you will go backwards in time due to crossing the date line. ]

13. Parsed bar two … 😉

14. Roz@12… I am sure you would know about the Hafele-Keating experiment demonstrating the losing of time (but not due to crossing the date line). I’m sure there are plenty of people who misunderstand that the date line has nothing to do with time travel.

15. Nice one from Picaroon. I finally saw the nina when I was struggling with the last few entries, at which point it helped a lot, particularly with the NW corner and SLOWDOWNS and RELLIE. Even so, I never did spot bank=rely. I don’t usually spell CHANUKAH like that, but it wasn’t a problem – and I had to look up the Albanian Lek to sort out the DALEKS.

16. I did this early this morning. FOGG was FOI so the theme came early but missed the brilliant nina. NUNNERY was an inadvertent gift from the 225 blog yesterday but not a tricky clue. Frowned at the use of CID as a force in ACIDIFY, as pointed out by bridgesong. RELLIE (agree Roz @12) and SLOWDOWNS held up longest. Super puzzle and incidentally, an excellent David Tennant as FOGG, in the recent series mentioned by bridgesong.

    Ta both.

17. Was held up having acetify for 14a and hanukkah for 15d and being unable to fully parse either. Finally got the correct answers and liked both.

    Spotted the theme but not the Nina sadly as there were a few I didn’t get that would have been helped if I had (like YEARNS which is now so obvious). Never heard of RELLIE.

    Liked TAWNY OWL, KITBAG, FOGG, EASTBOUND

    Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong

18. Well, we could not make any inroads into this puzzle – more than DNF: didn’t get anything outside the SW corner except AER LINGUS.
    Even some of the ones we did get weren’t very comfortable. KITBAG had to be correct but a kit(e) is a bird, not a plane surely? And ‘no time for learning’ as a definition for the DARK AGES .. ?
    With your help bridgesong we can learn much from the post-mortem. Sorry Picaroon, not at all on your wavelength this week.

19. VicTim @ 18: “kite” is old RAF slang for a plane, and this definition is to be found in Chambers.

    I also raised an eyebrow at the definition of DARK AGES, and was waiting for a historian to come to their defence…

20. KITE is old slang for a plane, possibly RAF ?
    AlanC @16 I did wonder about CID=force, what would you call it ?

21. [TimC’14 my student problem is getting them to find the mistake in the logic. H-K was a bit of a mess really , too many variables and time dilation swamped by General relativity effects. It had been shown anyway with extreme precision in accelerators for decades . ]

22. Roz @20: when I was a young uniformed PC, I would have called them a bunch of lazy, useless layabouts 🙂 Seriously, they are a Department within a Force.

23. I thought you were CID ? I suppose by then the uniform people were useless . Department would not work in the clue really.

24. This brought back happy memories of th first time PostMark made the Passepartout joke. It’s still my favourite 15 squared pun. (Independent 10706) The same Nina too.

25. I usually prefer short concise clues, but I really liked many of these for their wit and misdirection, though they are a bit wordy. I also didn’t mind the VERNE round the world theme. I must be mellowing and I’d just watched the TV version. I’m a huge fan of David Tennant.

    Stand-outs were
    RAJAH and the Mumbai Royal Hotel
    the NUNNERY where order is kept (see also yesterday’s Picaroon)
    DALEKS for the doctor eating Albanian bread (did the TARDIS take him/her to Tirana?)
    The TAWNY OWLish MP (why does that meaning of parliament always catch me out?) [Aren’t owls lovely. This in today’s Graun.]

    So it all went merrily in until my final two. SLOWDOWNS, which appropriately slowed me down, and worried me because I couldn’t quite see that low meant little. Which made me think the L in 1d was wrong.
    And then I was completely stumped by 1d. In the end cheated by using a wordfinder and still wasn’t any the wiser, so bunged in keelie. How on earth did I not see RELLIE? I’ve even been known to use the word (in a semi-ironic sorry of way of course). If I had noticed the Nina it might have helped. Hangs head in shame.

    But apart from that, it was great fun.

    Many thanks Picaroon, and bridgesong for the explanations.

26. [Roz, I was a Special Branch Detective most of my career, a completely separate Department. The Met changed its name from Force to Service quite a few years ago to soften its image, I guess].

27. I’m a bit ashamed that RELLIE was my LOI given that here in Straya there is a propensity to shorten a lot of words. It should have jumped out at me. Chambers 2014 defines it as “(Aust and NZ inf)n a relative” (as bridgesong indicates).
    I can understand other posters dislike of the word. Really, how difficult is it to say “relative”?

28. Thanks to Picaroon and bridgesong.
    Spotted the theme but not the Nina.
    VicTim @ 18 and bridgesong @ 19 – I’m not a historian (though once a prehistoric archaeologist) – but the Dark Ages, like all human ages, definitely had learning.

29. [Petert @24: same joke, different audience! In my defence, as you know, about 4 people saw that on the Indy blog and it was over a year ago! 😀 ]

30. Another great puzzle from Picaroon. I got temporarily stuck at the end with RAJAH and VERNE, not then having the nina to help
    As others have said, I have to admire the construction of this puzzle, with the nina to add to all the interesting thematic content.
    Thanks to Picaroon and bridgesong.

31. [PostMark@29 Well worth repeating for a wider audience]

32. I saw the Nina and the theme and I enjoyed the crossword – always nice when it’s Pirate Weekend

    Thanks to Picaroon and bridgesong

33. Thanks so much, Picaroon, for a great puzzle, which kept me engaged and entertained for much of the past week. Got the theme immediately with FOGG FOI so how could it be that the three clues that completely eluded me included VERNE? The other two were DALEKS (I’ve never encountered the LEK) and RELLIE, also new to me. Favourites were YEARNS, OTHELLO and DARK AGES, which I’ll defend as ‘no time for learning’, not because it is true, but because it is entailed by the phrase. Isn’t this an example of begging the question, assuming what needs to be proved, an expression now almost universally used as a pretentious way of saying ‘raising the question’?
    Missed the nina, which would have helped me complete. It’s not something I normally look for. But I will now.

34. Great puzzle, Picaroon. What creativity. Many thanks also to Bridgesong. Happy to have overlooked the nina. A really nice challenge. My partner read out the “doctor who” clue with just the right change of emphasis.

    Was I the only one who had “not on your NELLIE” pencilled in for 1D?

    [Thanks, Dr WhatsOn @7. A fellow ISIRTA fan in earlier days. Recollections of the radio play Mathry Beacon, anyone?]

35. Great piece of setting. The problem with NINAs is that it is often the case that only obscurities fit in somewhere. This wasn’t the case here – faced with RE?L?E, there are not many usable options except RELLIE and the ugly reglue. CHANUKAH seemed to be a rather unusual spelling of Hanukah but was gettable.

    I really liked DARK AGES for the surface picture (notwithstanding the objections to the definition), and the nicely misleading ‘bank statement’ in RELLIE.

    Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong.

36. Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong

    Re the low / little equivalence, how about “It was a bargain as I bought it for low / little cost”?.

37. A lovely crossword which kept me distracted sporadically for most of the week. Ridiculously, I failed on VERNE in part because I read ‘not once’ as meaning twice or more. I deserve a good slap with a large fish.

    (The prize is the only Guardian crossword that I do with paper and pen and I fill in only the crossers (lazy, saves ink) so I had no chance of seeing the circumferential nina. This has happened before (most recently at Christmas) and may cause me to change my methodology – but I’ve proposed before that a cryptic crossword with the crossers pre-filled would perhaps allow an entry point for those who might want to take up our innocent pastime.) (Here endeth…..)

    Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong

38. Thank you bridgesong, I had VERNE and FOGG early on and through some miracle then worked out the Nina which sadly led to a mild downgrade of ‘travel enjoyment’ as per Spooner’s Catflap, though I resisted the temptation to look up the Albanian currency which meant big smile when the lek dropped.
    Despite being a solver of relatively low experience I had no problem with SLOWDOWNS once i had convinced myself it was a valid plural, and my very sketchy knowledge of history helped me get DARK AGES from the definition, I should probably apologise to the many unknown scholars who must have kept the light of intelligent thought burning all that time.
    I always abbreviate to RELLO (and had some idea that that was the Antipodean term too, any corroboration?) so that was last. Thanks Picaroon, i think OTHELLO was my top clue this time.

39. [How generous, Alphalpha @37. Do you leave the partly-filled crossword on the train and hope that a receptive soul may happen upon it?
    If I discovered such a thing, I might think I stumbled into a secret club where the cognoscenti have their own secret language and … ]

40. Tough puzzle, I never read the book which is the theme for it so I probably missed out on some of the finer points that other solvers would have enjoyed. Gave up on NW corner – failed to solve 7 & 9ac, and 1,3,4d. And did not see the nina even though I had solved all but most of the NW corner.

    Liked OTHELLO, ERUPTION, DALEKS.

    Thanks, both.

41. I struggled here and there so I asked my mother and ran it past Pa too.

42. Another good one from the Pirate. Shamefully, I missed the Nina, but the puzzle didn’t give me too much trouble, so it wouldn’t have helped me much.

    Favourite was RAJAH and LOI the odious word RELLIE – I had to check that such a monstrosity existed 🙂 .

    DARK AGES was the name formerly given to the early medieval period following the collapse of the Roman Empire. It used to be considered barbarous and ‘no time for learning’ (learning in the sense of scholarship), but it is now recognised that a sophisticated culture persisted, and hence the term is no longer used by historians.

    Thanks to S&B

43. Solved it and, for the first time ever, spotted the nina! (thanks to the 10ac clue). Misdirected into looking up the names of all the steamers in the book for 9ac though.

44. VicTim@39: I have tried to attract converts by means of shoving the ‘Alphalpha’ grid under a potentially receptive nose. No joy so far. And I have left them on trains….

45. Alphalpha@37
    A friend used to fill in only the crossers and I thought of copying him but was worried that I might leave some unsolved as I don’t tick the clues as I solve them – it would be a waste of ink!
    I thought “going round here” @ 10a was superfluous until I came here and learned of the Nina.
    Thanks to Picarooon and bridgesong.

46. [Tim Phillips@41 Unlike Alphalpha, I fill in all the spaces. He’s not as filly as me]

47. [PostMark/Tim P/Petert – I hope you don’t set off any punning duels.]

48. [eb @47: you can fogget that … ]

49. I guess today’s nina could be described as circumnavigational.

50. Alphalpha @49: and isn’t it nice that it starts off in an easterly direction.

51. eb@47 I believe even the Scottish royal house was provoked to puns by Jules Verne. I think that’s what “Nemo me im pune lacessit” means.

52. There’s an apocryphal story that Edward Lear, late of this parish, was at a dinner party and made endless quips throughout. Later, some of the guests had had enough and locked him in a wardrobe … after which all they could hear was constant knocking and “Oh-pun the door, oh-pun the door!!”

    I’ve just sorted out my young son’s second-ever travel document – passport two.

53. Thank you, Gazzh@38. Having revisited this thread a couple of times since my initial post @9, only to see the nina having completely escaped most contributors, including many of our most experienced and wily solvers, I had begun to think that my own experience was completely freakish. It derived only from taking the phrase ‘going round here’ in the clue for 10a as being significant coming from a cluist not given to wasting words..

54. Held back a bit by having put SLOWBOATS in for 9ac. Realised my error some time on Thursday when I finally realised what 4d was!

55. I totally missed the Nina (I’m good at that), though I did recognize what I thought was a micro-theme of FOGG and VERNE. Got all of it before today except for RELLIE, though I realized it had to end in LIE. This morning RELLIE floated into my head.

    bridgesong It’s “Phileas,” not “Phineas,” who visited New York. I’ve never seen that name anywhere else. A lie is a “statement that’s false,” you’ve left the first word out of the definition.

    I saw the 1959 film of “Around the World in Eighty Days” as a kid, with David Niven as Phileas Fogg and the Mexican comedian Cantinflas as Passepartout. There were also cameo appearances by dozens of famous actors in tiny roles. The only one I remember now was Fernandel.

    I must be dense. Where is PostMark’s Passepartout pun?

    This spelling of CHANUKAH looks normal to me, as do several others, though I’d have expected two K’s. The CH- beginning reflects the Hebrew pronunciation, where the word begins with the sound that CH represents in German or Welsh.

    Thank you, Picaroon for the enjoyment and bridgesong for the enlightenment. Nice morning’s read.

56. Valentine @55: See PM @13, “Parsed bar two” 🙂

    Petert @51 – Thistle never do. In fact it’ll never never do.

    PM @50 – yes, although I think Fogg’s journey only appears to be clockwise if viewed from the Centre of the Earth.

57. One of those ‘themed ones’ that didn’t impact on the clues much. A nice puzzle IMO.

    The series was for me mindbogglingly drawn out and rather dull as a result. I suppose the fashion is to have a minseries these days, and writers have to stretch all the events to make up the time.

58. Valentine @55: yes, you’re right on both counts. My apologies.

59. Spooner’s catflap @53. If my experience is anything to go by, it’s because VERNE was a very early solve, so there weren’t sufficient crossers to enable me to accurately place the book title around the perimeter. At which point I forgot about the, in your words “significant”, hint of a Nina contained in the clue for VERNE. Maybe others had similar experiences, and I was just lucky in that I remembered it again before finishing the grid.

    Another setter might have told us about the “circumnavigation” of the grid in a special instruction, but Picaroon is more subtle than that.

60. eb @56 It’s clockwise if viewed from the South Pole or from anywhere between that and the center of the earth.

    bridgesong@58 Apologies hardly needed, a minimal slip up, both.

61. MrEssexboy@56 the grid itself does not have independent helicity, it also depends on the viewpoint of the observer.

62. Thanks for your clarifications, Valentine and Roz. (I generally do the puzzle while looking in the mirror, and simultaneously holding the crossword page, reversed, up to the light, and reading the clues from the other side. 😉 )

    Coming back to the date line business, it’s been pointed out how odd it is that Fogg, a man ‘whose sole pastimes were reading the newspapers and playing whist’, somehow failed to notice the date on a single newspaper during his time in the United States, not to mention on the tickets he bought for his transatlantic voyage, and, on returning to Victorian England with its working Saturdays and strict Sunday Observance, was apparently unable to tell the difference between the two days just by looking out of the window.

63. Parity is of course invariant under two consecutive transformations. I have never read the book, does he put his watch forward one hour every time he crosses a time zone ? If not and he ignored the date line the overall effect would be zero.

64. I mentioned to my therapist this morning (Saturday rates) that the eponymous(?) had turned up in my life and that I had never read it so I bought a copy and now it’s just spoiler after spoiler. 🙂

    bridgesong@: the only apology needed from a blogger is a very rude word spelt DIY. Even Homer nods (cf any pigeon).

    petert@46: ‘filly’ indeed. There should be such a word: “I’m not on a diet, just trying not to be too filly pro tem”.

    petert@53: That wins the prize.

65. essexboy@62: Your solving methodologies made me laugh. Thanks.

66. Thanks for a fun puzzle Picaroon, I did spot the Nina and it did help with one or two. I think The Doctor should be capitalized at all times. Thanks bridgesong too.
    I read the book recently and enjoyed it. As for the BBC production of the same name… hark, what is that whirring sound from a tomb in Amiens?

67. [Roz @63: Here’s Passepartout in conversation with Detective Fix of Scotland Yard:

    “You have plenty of time; it’s only twelve o’clock.”
    Passepartout pulled out his big watch. “Twelve!” he exclaimed; “why, it’s only eight minutes before ten.”
    “Your watch is slow.”
    “My watch? A family watch, monsieur, which has come down from my great-grandfather! It doesn’t vary five minutes in the year. It’s a perfect chronometer, look you.”
    “I see how it is,” said Fix. “You have kept London time, which is two hours behind that of Suez. You ought to regulate your watch at noon in each country.”
    “I regulate my watch? Never!”
    “Well, then, it will not agree with the sun.”
    “So much the worse for the sun, monsieur. The sun will be wrong, then!”

    So the watch stays on London time all the way through. Passepartout is delighted, when crossing from Yokohama to San Francisco, to observe that the sun has seen the error of its ways (it’s a 12-hour watch, of course).

    At the last minute the dateline mistake is revealed, and all is explained –
    
    And Passepartout’s famous family watch, which had always kept London time, would have betrayed this fact, if it had marked the days as well as the hours and the minutes! ]

68. Strewth! Don’t youse Poms and Yanks have rellies?

69. They don’t have budgies or take selfies either TassieTim

70. [ Thanks EB@67 , so they think they are a day ahead on return , the watch is correct and if it had days ( a lot did then) that would give the correct day . This is actually the solution to my Around the World in 23 hours , time travelling student problem. Even more exciting time travel next week . ]

71. Tim C @69 I’m afraid we do take selfies, and sadly these days also go to uni.

72. Thanks for the blog!

    I spotted the theme but still only managed a handful of clues. So I came here in defeat – but learning of the nina I went back and managed to crack through most of the rest. A few still missing, not helped by throwing in UNRESTFUL as a poor match for “travelling” and a worse (ie wrong ) match for the anagram fodder!

73. When I see a grid like a sticklebrick, I always note there might be a perimetrical nina … then forget, usually. This time, the prompt at 10ac reminded me in time for it to be quite helpful.

    I thought the clue for12ac, “Does long journey finally and gets paid”, was about as good a summary of the novel as you could write in seven words.

    3dn UNIONS: “the clue would have been improved by some other indicator of the initial U.” Should a setter’s response to such a remark be: “DIY”?

    Roz@12: perhaps the clue for 6db, TAWNY OWL could have avoided your frown as “Member of Parliament said why town law is to be changed around”?

    Dr Whatson @7, aka a semi&lit, I believe.

74. A very enjoyable puzzle for me and I liked re-reading the plotline of the Jules Verne story once I finished and spotting all the clever references in the clues. Well done, Picaroon!
    So thanks to Picaroon as the setter, as well as to bridgesong and to fellow contributors for the interesting persectives in this blog.

75. A very enjoyable solve … up until getting stuck on LOI 1 down. Now decidedly less than gruntled to discover the solution is a word from the colonies, without that having been indicated. Azed would have.

76. Never in a million years did I think of a fictional character for 16D. I’ll know better next time!

77. ah, not able to edit comment – I didn’t solve 10A, otherwise I might have finished it. I’ve only a little experience with Picaroon and haven’t had a lot of success.

78. Are prize puzzles meant to be easier versions by a setter? I’ve often found I complete Picaroon prize puzzles a lot faster than I do his normal ones.

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