Guardian 28,861/Anto

82 comments on “Guardian 28,861/Anto”

1. Another relatively quick solve with a few amusing solutions, especially THE SOUND OF MUSIC, PARCEL BOMB and TAN LINE. The setter also got a mention in ANTONYM without using a self-reference. Spoiled slightly by rector and diner being used twice. In the current state of austerity, FOR THE TIME BEING was spot on.

   Ta Anto & Andrew

2. The Hills are alive with TSOM.

3. I think Jimmy, Graham and Benny all had the surname Hill. (The hills are alive with the sound of music). Only just seen it myself.

4. The only ones I scratched my head over were THE SOUND OF MUSIC & UNINTENDED. Looking forward to being enlightened in the following comments.

   Otherwise no problems, and quite enjoyable.

5. Thanks Anto and Andrew
   Several rather odd clues here. What does “becomes most precious” in 3d contribute, for instance?
   Schoolchildren always delight in learning about the Diet of Worms.

6. Ah, thank you Hawa!

7. Is it Monday again already? I think PARCEL BOMB held me up as long as all the rest. Probably I was just being dense, but still not sure I love it. I guess that’s the nature of CD. Otherwise an enjoyable if quick solve, thanks for the puzzle and blog.

8. 3D – without ‘info’ rainforest becomes ‘rarest’ hence most precious. Don’t think I’ve seen that trick before.

9. Hawa @3 is right – football pundit, F1 driver and comedian all being brought to life by the sound of music.

   muffin @5 I wondered that about “becomes most precious” – the clue works fine without it.

   1D – a CD isn’t a record.

10. Thanks Eileen, Andrew & Anto.
    3: What does “becomes most precious” add?
    5d: The Hills (Jimmy, Graham & Benny) are ALIVE with the sound of music.
    13: Something to do with unfriended??

11. YesMe2@10
    RAINFOREST less INFO becomes RAREST

12. AlanC beat me to explaining 5d. Re UNINTENDED and the Facebook reference, I do use it and it still took me a while to work out a plausible parsing, which is that Facebook invented the word ‘unfriend’ and so adding UN- to INTENDED might be read as a Facebook-ish way of breaking an engagement? It’s a little tenuous but it has a kind of linguistic logic.

    Anyway, today marks a milestone in my crosswording education, as that’s the first time I’ve completed a cryptic in one sitting without leaving the page (I usually need a dictionary, thesaurus or Google for at least one clue). And while I didn’t time myself, it felt like one of my quickest solves as well. Must have been a lucky wavelength match today!

    Bets clue was definitely THE SOUND OF MUSIC, the penny drop was exquisite. I also found the double use of ‘diner’ and ‘rector’ slightly odd, with the latter used as exactly the same device (leading to an R). But overall a most enjoyable puzzle for me.

    Thanks Anto, and Andrew for stepping in!

13. GDU @6 & Steve69 @9: my entry @2 also mentioned the Hills are alive but I won’t be offended 🙂

14. AlanC @13 Sorry Alan, I missed that!

15. I found this reasonably straightforward, but with the usual little Anto twists.

    For 13D, I read it that in FaceBook and other such online media, the reverse of follow is to unfollow, so to change someone from being an intended to not happening it becomes UNINTENDED (I thought on FaceBook, not that I have it, that the options for relationship status are married, engaged or in a relationship, and possibly, if it’s still there, it’s complicated.)

    I saw all the Hills for THE SOUND OF MUSIC and thought if the Hills were alive, too, but I didn’t parse SAMEY either

16. Rob T@12: As another user of FB, I think your explanation for UNINTENDED covers it nicely.

17. UNINTENDED
    On Facebook, you ‘unfriend’ someone (not ‘unintend’-Or do I not know this?)
    Could there be more to it?
    Broke engagement could be ENDED.
    Book could be NT.
    Face could be UNI? Why why why? I have no answer.
    Kinda stuck. Someone will help.

18. And cross-post with Rob T @12, for UNINTENDED. Apologies

19. Agreed about 3d. The clue works without the elaborate second half.
    I liked EASTERN, didn’t much like SAMEY, and am mystified by UNINENTENDED.

20. I’ve added a note to the preamble, but just to reiterate: the blog is Eileen’s work, all I did was make it appear on the site.

21. Was typing and missed the posts from post no.12.
    So UNINTENDED stands parsed!

22. AlanC @ I 3, your explanation wasn’t there when I posted! I’m a slow typist _ especially on a tablet.

23. Thanks Eileen, then!
    Thanks for the explanations for 3d. Clever, but unnecessary – as is often the case with Anto’s clues!

24. Strangely found this rather impenetrable at first, but then it suddenly whooshed in. Whenever I see the word SHROPSHIRE I’m curious why it’s often referred to as Salop. So I looked it up for the very first time, and it’s apparently derived from the Anglo-French word Salopsberia. We’ll, there we are…
    Lots to like today, thanks Anto and Andrew.

25. Firstly, I’m hugely grateful to Andrew for so promptly stepping in for me – not an easy task to decipher someone else’s blog. I still can’t get into the blog, so can’t make any amendments there.

    The penny dropped re 5dn soon after I sent the blog to Andrew – Doh!
    Thanks to all for the explanation of UNINTENDED – I can’t say it has prompted me to
    subscribe to Facebook!

26. …and Eileen of course, should have read the blog intro properly…

27. muffin@5, Steve69 @9, YesMe3 @10 – please see Robin @8 and KVa @11.

28. Steve69@9 A CD is a record in the sense that it is a recording of music or whatever, doesn’t need to be a vinyl disc like an LP, 45 etc.

    My thoughts on this mostly expressed above. Best for me was all the Hills at 5d, once it clicked. Now I have an earworm. 😀
    Thanks Anto, Eileen and Andrew

29. Loved the surface for IN STAG RAM.

    I agree that 3d is very odd – not only are the last three words unnecessary, they mean that the clue as written points to RAREST as the solution, not INFO. Perhaps changing the ‘becomes’ to ‘becoming’ would fix it.

    Thanks setter, blogger, and go-between!

30. I thought 13d was brilliant. As others have suggested it’s just a pun based on “unfriended”.

    16a was also nice, but not quite as good as the classic “Friend of Caesar, J? The opposite (7)”.

    Many thanks Anto and Eileen (and Andrew).

31. I have puzzled over ‘eventually’ in 26a. It seemed redundant but perhaps it’s a pun on event as e.g. a dog show. Any ideas?
    Thanks to Anto, Eileen and Andrew.

32. Crossbar @28 I’ve had this discussion re CD before. For me, it’s not really enough to say that a CD is a record of something. You can record something by writing it on a beer mat – that doesn’t really make beer mat synonymous with record.

33. Nice gentle potter from Anto. Knew of the Benny Hill Show, via the kids, but the others were shrugs (know more of Jims … Morrison, Reeves).
    Some slang, (chow down, dump), irks, and some argot, like caff, warms, inexplicably. [Probly associative, from eg Minder, or Freddie Fisher in PITS saying Is there anything in this caff not swimming in saturated fat? Cue amazed look as the signature steak and kidney with hint of anchovie hits his taste buds].
    All fun, ta AnEnA.

34. Spotted a typo in blog: 3d – it’s raINFOrest, not raIN FOrge.

35. I spotted it, too, Rob T – my fault not Andrew’s.

    Now corrected – A

36. Thanks Eileen, and Anto for a Mondayish Tuesday. I found INSTAGRAM especially pleasing, as the crossword/punning part of my brain (ie approx 90 per cent of it) had long been making weak jokes about the STAG and the RAM within the word, to generally puzzled audiences.

37. bagel@31
    I agree with you.

38. Steve69 @32. Can’t agree with you there. EP, LP and CD are well-used letters clued as “record”, and as you can/could buy all of them in a record shop, seems perfectly permissible, just as “film” is regularly used for ET – it’s only an example

39. No problem with TSOM. I laughed and also now have an irritating image of three old geezers singing it. Also no probs with UNINTENDED (I unfriended FB a few years ago when they tried to heavy the Australian government) or with CD in CHARD (“Put the record on…. but it’s not a record, it’s a CD…. OK I’ll do it).
    Favourite was EASTERN for the nicely hidden “finishes fast”.

40. This record / cd debate goes on and on like a stuck … 🙂

    For what it’s worth, Chambers defines it as a disc on which sound us registered for playback by a device such as a record player. That would seem to leave the door open for CD players

    I love the way Anto takes a few chances and always makes me engage the grey matter in unusual ways

41. Surely “eventually” just means that every SHOW DOG is not necessarily best in class but can become so eventually.

42. This was one of my fastest finishes ever but I did enjoy it. I did think that 26ac and 3dn had some redundant words but smarter contributors than me have shown that they are relevant.
    Regarding CD=record, the jury’s out for me. You could say, ‘Led Zep IV was their best record’ which would suggest the delivery format is irrelevant but if somebody said they were going to lend me their Led Zep IV record I’d be surprised if it turned out to be a tape or CD.
    Thanks to Anto, Eileen and Andrew today.

43. I really liked 5d but wondered if it would have been kinder to younger solvers to put in Graham’s son(I think)Damon.
    Slight connection there with Benny Hill who appeared on the Italian Job but I dont think he was driving any of the Minis
    I recall the episode in Stellar Street where Jimmy Hill enters his PIN at an ATM and its 4266

44. A record is not limited to music but in the wider sense is a quantity of information / data. So jotting some notes on eg a beermat is de facto a record of one’s thoughts at the time.

    Saying that a record in the musical sense can only be a round black thing and can’t be a round shiny thing is taking an extremely narrow view.

    And if you record a round black record onto tape (or indeed a solid state device), then what you have created is a record of the state of the round black record at the time.

    😉

45. compas @43 – I think the problem with using Damon is that he’s still very much alive already!

46. [sorry copmus, blooming autocarrot]

47. Excellent. I missed the parsing of UNINTENDED, but loved PARCEL BOMB, the device for INFO and especially THE SOUND OF MUSIC. I don’t think the latter would have worked with Damon HILL, copmus @43, as explained by Rob T @45.

    A big thanks to Anto, Eileen and Andrew

48. Liked EASTERN.

    Did not fully parse 5d. I guessed it might refer to some dead musicians but did not know who it referred to. I still do not know who Graham, Benny and Jimmy Hill are…

    I also did not parse 13d – did not see the connection to FB but I agree it might be a play on unfriended.

    Thanks, both plus Andrew for posting the blog.

49. michelle @48 – see Steve69 @9
    “… football pundit (Jimmy Hill – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Hill)
    F1 driver (Graham Hill – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Hill
    and comedian (Benny Hill – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Hill)
    all being brought to life by the sound of music.”

50. I have a few gripes in an otherwise good crossword.
    How can you parse THE SOUND OF MUSIC unless you know the Hills?
    UNINTENDED is an equally obscure in-joke.
    And what is the definition for ANTONYM? Quite the opposite?
    I also wondered about TAN LINE. Cryptic def or is there something with ”physical”? I remember tan from geometry.

51. paddymelon@49 – I guessed THE SOUND OF MUSIC from the crossers and word count. It semed to me that it must refer to some (unknown to me) dead musicians. That said, can anyone tell me who these people/Hills were? I have googled Graham Hill but he seems to be a racing driver. Benny Hill was a comedian? Jimmy Hill was a footballer?

52. pdm @49 – to be honest I only parsed it when I’d finished the whole puzzle and went back to study the clue again to see what I’d missed. Benny was the way in, he’s probably the most famous of the three, I reckon. I actually got it as my FOI just from the “Hearing it” and the numeration (first word having 3 letters and third having 2, in a four-word phrase, screamed THE something OF something) and didn’t even think to try to parse it until the end. I was just pleased to get a long one right first time 🙂

53. Much fun, so thanks to Anto and to those involved in the blog today.
    I agree with Bagel@31, ‘Eventually’ must refer to the events which SHOW DOGs go to, not the fact that they might have to wait a long time.
    PARCEL BOMB fell into place once we had all the crossers; I felt it a bit weak to start with, but it has grown on me. Or should I say groan.

54. Same michelle@50. I think your searches concur with Steve69@9’s post.

55. michelle @51 – I posted a reply to your comment @48 some time ago but it’s ‘awaiting moderation’, which happens sometimes when there are too many links in the comment. I’d given links to the Wikipedia entry for each of the three Hills.

56. Steve69@32 I agree that you couldn’t define a beer mat as “record”, though as others have pointed out it could in some cases be a record of something. However its main purpose is to sit under your pint or whatever. On the other hand the purpose of a CD IS to be a record of something (though I’m sure there are other creative uses of them).

57. Nup, nothing to do with the tangent that just touches a curve, pdm @49, unless it’s the bikini curve 🙂 .

58. gif@56. In my youth there were tan-through bikinis.
    Don’t you blokes have lines on your arms and legs from your T-shirts and shorts?
    I don’t know how anyone could get this from the def. Guess from crossers maybe.

    I must admit I’ve been very relieved that our UK friends aren’t in the middle of their recent heat-wave and passing out in the queues. Hardly a hat in sight, and they’re not allowed to carry much in the way of drinks. I’ve had heat stroke a couple of times. Very nasty.

59. [And re ‘record’ etc (EP, LP, Cassette, Disc, CD), it’s to do with history. In Oz in 1952 a new 33 1/3 rpm vinyl LP cost £2/17/6. That, believe me, was half the basic wage! And that can leave an indelible, er, microgroove!]

60. I thought this was a misplaced quiptic, based on my first pass, but changed my mind as I worked on the rest. Took quite a while to see PARCEL=plot. Really liked 5d (the Hills) when I saw it. I was hoping to find here a convincing explanation for TAN LINE, but it seems CD is the best anyone can come up with – maybe a question-mark would have helped.

    Thanks to the Andrew-Eileen tag-team!

61. 22d Eileen, SAMEY is a homonym only for “Say mi”, not “say me.” The musical note ME is pronounced as in Italian and rhymes with RE.

    Folks, would you please read others’ comments before posting? Both “rarest” in 3d and “unintended/Facebook” are explained early in the comments, and questions about them keep popping up and having to be answered again. Steve69@9 and YesMe2@10, your query about “becomes most precious” is answered, and not for the first time, directly above you by Robin@8. So it’s answered yet again directly below you by KVa@11. Eileen also has noted previous answers.

    TimC@39 CD doesn’t come into the clue for CHARD. It’s C(ooking) + HARD. It’s in 1d, C(AGE)D.

    I’ve never heard of any of the Hills, so biffed in TSOM.

    Thanks to Anto, Eileen and helpful Andrew.

62. Too Mondayish for my liking. Took almost half my time to get PARCEL BOMB though.

    Favourite was FOR THE TIME BEING

    Thanks Anto and Eileen and Andrew

63. Have to admit, pdm @57, that first I thought tropics (Cancer, Capricorn) and then only twigged with all crossers.

64. I’ve read all the comments and the penny has dropped in all cases! Thanks bloggers who have given extra explanations for Eileen’s blog, and thanks Anto for a great puzzle. Unfortunately I have only just finished it as I felt sick all morning, no idea why, and fine now.
    Oh, and thanks to Eileen and Andrew for making it happen!

65. Thanks for the blog, AlanC straight in at Number 1 again and 2, think I am too far behind now, I will start wearing my blue and white hooped top .
    I think the main cause of a TAN LINE is wearing a watch.
    Two puzzles like this in one week is fair enough but I really hope we do not get any more.

66. Absolutely loved this. THE SOUND OF MUSIC was a favourite; gave me a chuckle. TAN LINE too. Took me a while to figure out that it was the plural for ALPACAS and then got the clue retrospectively. Thanks Anto for great fun. Thanks team Eileen/ Andrew for the blog.

67. I am very much a beginner to cryptic crosswords (really should have spent more time with my Mum who was an addict!) and this website is a jewel. I’ve previously tried working backwards from solutions, but these explanations are great! Just need to practise, and practise, and…..

68. Anto’s always fun and this crossword was no exception. I found this much more Monday-like than yesterday’s Vulcan which I never bothered to finish. My top picks were INSTAGRAM, INFO, and ITEMISE. I couldn’t parse TSOM though I had heard of Benny Hill and SAMEY was a strange word to me. Thanks to all.

69. Eileen’s comment that was awaiting moderation is now published as number 49.

70. Roz @65: 🙂 be prepared for pitying looks from others

71. Alas I didn’t see the Hills or get the UNINTENDED.
    Re what makes a record…yes a beer mat can be a record but usually isn’t, whereas a CD is a record always but could be used as beer mat but not absorbent.

    Thanks Anto and Eileen

72. Nice.
    Like others, I was confused by the FACEBOOK, has anyone bottomed that out yet?
    I’m also grateful for TSOM enlightenment.
    Shouldn’t 17d be ‘sourceS of wool”?
    Thanks both.

73. Valentine@61: To quote TSOM, “Me, a name I call myself…….”

    Thanks to Eileen and Anto

74. [ AlanC@70 it is my penance for always being so low in the charts. I was number 1 for the Azed blog today. It could be worse, I could wear a top that is completely dark blue or even a ghastly orange with white splodges ]

75. HYD@72 , perhaps 13D is something to do with UNpaying taxes.

76. Thanks Eileen, Andrew, AlanC, Hawa, Robin, KVa, Rob T (and congratulations), the Academy, and of course Anto, plenty of smiles as usual and some neat new-ish references among the classics.

77. A dreadful omission on my part:
    Thanks, of course (and my apologies) to Anto for the puzzle!
    (Not one of my better days.)

78. An enjoyable solve, so thanks, Anto, and no quibbles!. I loved THE SOUND OF MUSIC – the clue, that is, not the film!

79. Steve69 @9 and Eileen @49 – thanks for explaining the dead Hills to me.

80. Yes to Bagel @31 and Harpo Speaks @53: Crufts and the Westminster Kennel Club are events…but also every dog shall have his day…eventually

81. [Valentine @61, my bad, cheers for the correction]

82. Nice puzzle, overall – not too difficult a solve for me but I had to come here to check on the reasoning behind a couple of clues. ‘Diet’ as ‘Parliament’ was a new one for me, I’m sure that will come in useful in future! I wrote in PARCEL BOMB but didn’t see the connection to a plot [of land] and am now kicking myself.

    Meanwhile I think the parsing above for UNINTENDED is probably correct – but I don’t much like it, personally. More than made up for by ‘The hills are alive…’

    Thanks to Eileen and Andrew for the post 🙂

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