Guardian Cryptic 28,911 by Nutmeg

67 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,911 by Nutmeg”

1. Another tough challenge, which felt like a bit of a grind. Nice to see Liz II getting a couple of mentions still. I like SEASONED, TYPING POOL, AD LIBBER, GROOVE and ERSATZ but the homophone deniers might have a problem with NORTH KOREA. ACID was also a bit weak, using ‘identifying’ for ID. GOPHER timber was a nho. Thanks for parsing RARITY as I thought it RIT short for musical term Ritardando but couldn’t see how Ray equalled Network.

   Ta Nutmeg & manehi.

2. That was enjoyable, though I struggle with “uses” as a container indicator in 2d, and I’m not convinced by thick = deep in 14a.
   Particularly liked RARITY.
   Thanks, both.

3. I did not parse:
   14ac – I guessed that set = sink but can’t think how to use it as such.
   3d – never heard of gopher wood.

   New: Crab NEBULA (25ac).

   Liked TYPING POOL, ERSATZ, SEVERE (loi).

   Thanks, both.

4. Thanks Nutmeg & Manehi. Unlike AlanC, I got on better with this one than I usually do with Nutmeg. Found the clue for AVATAR particularly amusing. For 21d, I tried AIR BED and SUN BED before finally hitting on the correct solution.

5. michelle @3 – how about to describe a sunset? viz “The sun sinking below the horizon.”

6. Thanks Nutmeg and manehi

   michelle @ 3 how about “I watched the sun set / sink over the horizon”?

7. Must be awake and alert this morning as I thought this was fairly routine. (It’s obviously the prospect of a few days in the Shropshire hills and some real ale with old friends!) I’m happy with ID for means of identifying (AlanC@1); it’s common parlance to ask if someone’s “carrying ID”. The only difficulty I had and, indeed, my LOI, was 22D…which would have been a heck of a lot easier if I hadn’t misread it as “moving abroad” from start to (almost) finish!

8. While there were plenty of Nutmeg’s precisely clued lights, we found some of these forced: RARITY, GOPHER (be interesting to see how many solvers have heard of that wood), THICKSET (where we questioned both thick=deep and set=sink) were all ones we hesitated quite a while before entering. HARD-BITTEN, AVATAR, SEASONED, BACK-DOOR, TOBOGGAN were all great. Thanks, Nutmeg and manehi.

9. Widdersbel @5 and Simon S @6 – I can’t say that I see the sun sinking below the horizon is the same thing as a sunset, which can often take up the whole sky.

10. Had a bit of a problem with THICK-SET. Thick = deep is just about ok (carpets etc) but not so convinced by set = sink. Perhaps someone could propose an example.

    Students of the bible now believe gopher wood was probably teak, although I don’t know where evidence of this comes from.

    Not quite as tough as yesterday but still a battle to finish.

    Many thanks both.

11. I’m not going to comment on NORTH KOREA in case it sets/sinks off the dreaded homophone discussion. Neither am I going to comment on whether OKRA is a legume.

12. Degree @7: Another “moving abroad” here. Amazing what the brain does unbidden, isn’t it?

    Enjoy your beer.

13. A little more accessible than yesterday’s for me, though as ever a few remained half-parsed or unparsed. I think I’m getting better at playing ‘spot the definition’ but sometimes elements of wordplay still elude me, eg RIT is new to me but RARITY suggested itself anyway. I had the first and last S for SUSPICIOUS so that went in before I spotted that ‘spiritual’ = PIOUS. I knew the first but not the second meaning of GOPHER. But the only one that gave me real trouble (and made me resort to a word-finder) was NEBULA, and it was forehead-slappingly annoying not to recognise it as an anagram clue…

    Liked ERSTAZ, TYPING POOL, SEASONED (lego, but well constructed) and EXAMINER.

    Cheers both!

14. Regarding SET, a nail set is used by a woodworker to “set” a nail flush with or just below the surface of the wood. You can’t do this with a hammer alone without marring the wood.

    And another word for driving a nail or (especially) a screw below the surface is to “countersink”, or simply “sink”. Hence you might hear a woodworker say “to countersink a nail, use a nail set”.

    On the whole “sink” is a little bit of a stretch here, but not too much. And oddly, one I got quite easily while struggling with the ones others apparently found easy.

15. How novel to see Betty Windsor clued as ”leading lady once” in ERSATZ. I did know this word before coming to cryptics, but ERSATZ has come up many times, and this is the most original clue I’ve seen. Kudos to Nutmeg.

    Is OKRA a legume? I’ll leave it to other experts.

    AlanC @ 1. I have no truck with Korea/career (but do I dare ask, is it a rhotic thing? For me, they sound the same.)

    GOPHER was my first one in from def, but had to check the ark-wood. A TILT.

    I liked the outlandish form of transport in TOBOGGAN

16. I knew GOPHER in both senses, but I’ve read the Bible (yes, all of it), so that was a write in on first pass. Didn’t parse RARITY as I didn’t think of the musical term. I had more problem with SUSPICIOUS and DATABASE, which was my last one in, although I did parse it when I saw it.

    Thank you to Nutmeg and manehi.

17. Bit of a toughie, but we got there. Some taxing clues, but also satisfying solves. Particularly enjoyed puzzling out the spoonerism in TYPING POOL, and enjoyed ERSATZ. Thanks Nutmeg – see you next week…

18. Jacob @14: Thanks for those excellent carpentry examples. You’ve sold me, I do both so should be ashamed not to have that of it.

19. Widdersbel@5 and Simon S @ 6
    thank you – that makes sense, even if it is not something I would ever say

    TassieTim@9 – good point!

    Jacob@14 – thanks for the explanation of nail sets

20. Some nice clues in here – HARD BITTEN, AD-LIBBER, TYPING POOL, TOBOGGAN and SEASONED were favourites. However, I was surprised to see A taken direct from the clue on 3 different clues and, I’m sorry, but I felt the clue for GAMBLING was guilty on two counts in the same phrase: ‘Walking slowly after a girl …’ : The ‘a’ is ignored on this occasion and girl = G doesn’t appear in any of the sources I consult. I also found it odd to have ER clued as both ‘queen’ and ‘leading lady once’ within two clues of each other; seems to me she is one or the other. Clearly I’m in a picky mood this morning but it is not like Nutmeg to produce these kinds of issues.

    Nonetheless many thanks to both her and manehi

21. It has become a bit of a cliche to refer to Nutmeg’s “precision”, but I felt there were a few “close enough for crosswords” definitions here. As well as those mentioned above, there’s BASE for evil intent, SEVERE for showing no compassion, DATABASE not necessarily online. I have no problems with any of these, but it doesn’t seem like “trademark precision” either. Having said that RARITY and SEASONED were good.

22. Got there in the end, but along the way felt that some of the definitions were not quite on the money. HARD BITTEN took a while for me to be happy with. Question marks at the end of clues often mean there might be a slight lack of clarity there – possibly in the setter’s mind. As with DAY BED and TYPING POOL. Liked the EXAMINER clue, and last one in was GROOVE. Thanks for the challenge Nutmeg, and Manehi, particularly with the explanation re GOPHER.
    (The memory of running the gauntlet of the Typing Pool with a taped message to be typed as a teenage office junior still sends a shiver down my spine).

23. Foolishly biffed ‘Caesar’ at 12a (and I gather from the Grauniad site that I was not alone) and I also misread ‘abroad’ for ‘aboard’ for quite a while. Nonetheless, I was very happy to see Nutmeg’s byline and I think it was another excellent puzzle from her.

24. [Tim C@11. You’ve mentioned, but chose not to mention, the question of the homophone in NORTH KOREA, and the legume in OKRA. I wish could recall the word that essexboy (and others) have used to describe this not mentioning, while at the same time, pointing to the (non) mention.]

25. Gopher wood as the material for Noah’s Ark is one of those bits of knowledge that at one point it was assumed everyone would know because of regular Bible readings in school assemblies or Sunday schools; I’m sure P G Wodehouse drops into his stories references to weather so foul that one starts seeking out supplies of gopher wood. It’s a generational thing. But for the word’s other sense as used in the clue, I would always spell it “gofer”, since it means somebody who has to go fer things that others need. I am sure both spellings are in dictionaries, but it feels inartistic to mix them up rather than treating the word as a homophone. But the usual thanks to blogger and setter.

26. I think I’ve always seen GOPHER (in the sense of a junior who fetches and carries) as GOFER, from ‘Go fer the files/coffee/memo’ etc. and Chambers agrees.

    I’ll not rabbit on about the dubious ‘homophone’, if we agree to call these things puns, which seems to me more appropriate.

    Databases may or may not be online. The two concepts are entirely independent.

27. I found this quite tricky but it all fell out in the end, with a lot of penny-dropping moments at clues which seemed so obvious once I had eventually worked them out.

    FOI was OKRA (which didn’t bode well, as ‘legume’ is restricted to members of the pea family, Fabaceae, and okra is malvaceous. Tsk tsk 🙂 ).

    Favourites were RARITY, AVATAR and NEBULA – and I enjoyed the Spoonerism. I did remember GOPHER from the Noah legend, though my first thought was ‘shittim’ (too many letters), another mystifying biblical timber.

    LOI was DATABASE – a very unpromising set of crossing letters.

    [Nutmeg is very ill, and her puzzles are being tidied up by other hands, which probably explains why the last few have seemed uncharacteristic. Best regards to this most elegant of setters]

    Thanks to manehi

28. paddymelon @24: The word is apophasis (but it can alternatively be called paraleipsis 🙂 )

29. Gervase@27. Sorry to hear the bad news about my favourite setter. Get well soon, Nutmeg.

30. Gervase, So sad to hear that Nutmeg is very ill. I love her crosswords. In this house when “It’s Nutmeg!” the whole household is cheered.

    Thank you for ”apophasis”. I’m so happy you mentioned that. 🙂

31. There may be many laudable features of this Nutmeg crossword setting: but precision ain’t one of them, I think. I baulked at the laxity of “a girl” = G in 4d. And in 22d, one certainly doesn’t have to be moving to be afloat.
    But there were many clues (such as those for TYPING POOL, KAISER, AVATAR, SEVERE) which worked very well, I thought.
    I did wonder why the question mark was added to the RARITY clue — does anyone out there see a need for it?

32. Oh! While I was typing my comment the information about Nutmeg’s illness appeared. I add my best wishes for Nutmeg’s speedy recovery.

33. I struggled with this, although I usually like Nutmeg’s puzzles. It felt like a bit of a chore.
    However, I had no problem with set = sink. The sun was sinking / setting as we drank our cocktails on the balcony.
    Thanks Nutmeg and Manehi.

34. Gervase @27 I am so sorry to hear that Nutmeg is very ill! Oh dear, I do hope she recovers soon, and not just for more puzzles.
    I found this hard but got there in the end. That’s the difference between me and my better half, he gets bored but I HAVE to finish (although I have been known to press reveal in desperation for a final clue).
    Loved the crab, which I knew, and the hallucinogen. Simple but satisfying. I also read abroad for a while then kicked myself as the answer was quite easy.
    Thanks to Nutmeg and manehi for the parsing – how on earth do you do it?

35. Sorry to hear Nutmeg is ill. Whether there were extra contributors or not, I found this an interesting puzzle. PostMark@20 I thought ( although have had no need to use/read ) GF was texting standard for “girlfriend” and hence G could be “girl” without formal sources.
    Ta Nutmeg and mannehi

36. Sourdough @33 – the sun is sinking from noon onwards (assuming no daylight saving, and that you are on the right longitude).

37. A few head scratchers. Never heard of A E Housman, but easily googled. Set/sink? Hmmm. I suppose sunsets are sunsinks. No idea of the biblical gopher. Agas ranges? Now I’m reminded of it, I do recall vaguely encountering this once before.

    Niggles over, this was quite enjoyable and a good level of difficulty. Thanks Nutmeg.

38. Delightful!

39. PM @20 – I’ve seen other discussion of this point, but must say that I don’t see a problem with referring to Queen Elizabeth II either with or without a past tense qualifier. I’ve seen ‘queen’ used to mean Victoria several times (and Anne at least once) so I think it works either way. One could add a past tense qualifier to help the surface I suppose, but I wouldn’t regard it as strictly necessary in order for the clue to make sense.

40. I’m with manehi and copmus @38, I thought this was terrific fun.

    TT @36, I was happy with Sourdough’s cocktails. The sun may be past its zenith at 2 pm, but nobody describes it as ‘sinking’ until it occupies roughly the same visual space as the horizon beneath which it sinks.

    Thick = deep is fine if you think of a deep/thick layer of snow.

    Gopher and gofer are alternative spellings for the dogsbody; I like the ‘go for’ etymology as it reminds me of ‘titfer’ (from tit for tat = hat), my grandfather’s preferred term for any kind of headgear.

    Re AFLOAT, I wondered about pserve’s query @31 – is a boat that’s afloat necessarily moving? But I decided that it would be a very strange body of water if the vessel upon it were perfectly motionless – it would always at least be bobbing about, even if anchored.

    PM/Rob T – I agree it’s fine to continue referring to ER as queen, but I think Nutmeg was right to insert a ‘once’ after ‘leading lady’, as the phrase (to me) implies a current leader, or a female star in a film/play, or a word that is synonymous with the idea of leadership, irrespective of time.

    I’m glad paddymelon and Gervase mentioned apophasis, so I don’t have to.

    And six cheers for the TYPING POOL – best Spooner of the year IMO. Ta for the blog manehi, and very best wishes to Nutmeg.

41. I am often a phobe of the agora, as in when the pantry is bare and I think Oh sh one t, I guess it’s replenish or starve. Good workout today, ta both.
    [And well done the Poms, galloped into the final of the T20 Pyjama Downunder]

42. I had a BACK-ROOM for 1a; ROOM is backwards MOOR, which is MO (second) + OR (men). Well, it almost works. Messed me up on 8d.

    I’m with Sagittarius@25 and poc@26 — a GOFER is someone who has to “go fer” things. A gopher is a rodent of the Americas. (One of our critters, like raccoons and beavers, who don’t live in the Old World.)

    5d Korea = career reminds me of the remark about President Kennedy’s Boston accent — to him the pronunciations of “career” and “Korea” were reversed. Korea gets an added R, like such other words as “idear,” especially if the next word starts with a vowel, and “career” loses its final R in a Bostonian’s usually non-rhotic speech.

    Lots of fun with this puzzle. Thanks to manehi and Nutmeg, with heartfelt wishes for a good recovery.

43. I struggled a bit with this, solving the top half first but getting stuck ‘down under’.

    I liked ERSATZ because it’s a lovely word, TYPING POOL, which was an excellent Spoonerism, NEBULA [where’s Roz?], where it took me too long to realise it was an anagram, EXAMINER for the Pitman, and DATABASE for the wordplay.

    Sorry to hear about Nutmeg, I hope she gets better soon.

    Thanks Nutmeg and manehi.

44. Pserve@31 I think the ? is DBE as uncommon occurrences are only one type of rarity. Four-leaf clovers, long-serving cabinet ministers etc

    I found that a few rough edges made this more fun than Nutmeg sometimes is.

    RARITY my favourite for the cheeky use of two abbreviated synonyms

    Cheers N&M and wishing you a speedy recovery

45. Splendid crossword! So much to like.

    Faves were NEBULA and TYPING POOL

    Get well soon Nutmeg, looking forward to your next puzzle, and thanks to manehi for the blog

46. An enjoyable crossword with a great variety of clues. I often find spoonerisms and homophones quite hard to get, but I had little trouble with those on offer here, and I liked TYPING POOL particularly. I’m another who tried SUN BED first before having to correct it. I also liked NORTH KOREA, in which ‘Communist’ forced one to identify the right bridge hand.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg, to whom I send my best wishes, and to manehi for the blog.

47. Spice lady, we love you. Be deeply at peace, no matter what x

48. Someone has been meddling here for sure.

    Get well soon, Nutmeg, and subdue those philistines!

49. Quite apart from any problems with the synonyms in THICKSET, I spent far too long trying to make an anagram out of DEEP SINK…

50. Knew neither the musical instruction nor the ark wood so didn’t entirely parse RARITY or GOPHER but otherwise pretty straightforward. Loved the Spoonerism.
    Thanks all.

51. Just read the news & very sorry to hear.
    Best wishes for a full & speedy recovery Nutmeg

52. Had ‘serene’ for ‘severe’ briefly but skipped lightly over Caesar trap. Good fun. Thanks.

53. A challenge today, with the setter winning by two: DATABASE and ERSATZ eluded me. I had a couple unparsed as well, including HARD-BITTEN, for which I’m not convinced the clue works (‘left river’ does not, to me, suggest ‘minus river’, but rather ‘river remains’). I think this has come up before, however, and it seems to be acceptable in Guardianland. So I’ll leave it at that.

54. Thanks for the blog, good to see AVOCET and BITTERN (nearly) in the same puzzle, both great successes for the RSPB, agree with MrEssexboy for TYPING POOL, the key bit was nice as well.
    AlanC claiming number 1 yet again, I have warned you about KPR .
    The Crab NEBULA produced by a supernova from 1054 , recorded by the Chinese , very difficult to see really , need perfect conditions.

55. BigNorm @53, left as in abandoned.

56. Thanks Nutmeg for another gem and the best of health to you. I had many favourites including ERSATZ (like the “leading lady once”), AD-LIBBER, TYPING POOL, NEBULA, OKRA, and SEASONED. I failed with AEON, knowing neither the poet nor “donkey’s years.” There were gaps in several parsings so thanks manehi for the blog.

57. I hope you improve soon Nutmeg. I enjoy your puzzles and this one was no different. I know I am in for a tussle when I see you as setter.
    Thanks for the blog. Manehi.

58. Put me in the ‘oh great it’s a nutmeg’ camp. This hit the sweet spot for me. Get well soon nutmeg and thanks to manehi for the blog.

59. Fun crossword though missed a couple of parsings due to my gaps in biblical and musical GK. My favourite was TYPING POOL though, strangely as I rarely spot a theme, this sidetracked me with shorthand when I came to Pitman. Cluing Communist country these days is a bit like clueing British country (for the limited number choices I mean).
    Thanks manehi and Nutmeg and best wishes.

60. Thanks manehi, don’t think I have seen RIT before, hope it sticks. Had to think hard for a few (that non-anagram got me too gladys@49) and despite some quibbles already noted I enjoyed plenty eg NEBULA and ERSATZ, a nice but distant memory of my dad taking me to see the ladies in the 23a, and that the Bard of Brumsgrave, as he isn’t known, got a mention. Thanks and all the best Nutmeg.

61. Can anyone explain how ‘Korea’ and ‘career’ might be pronounced differently?

62. Steve69 – see Valentine’s post @42.

    [It’s the second R in careeR that’s the issue. Those of us who don’t pronounce our final R’s (broadly, most of England, Wales, Aus, NZ) tend not to even notice whether it’s there or not, because for us it no longer serves any meaning-distinguishing function.

    Those who do (Scotland, Ireland, India, Canada, USA – although not in Boston as Valentine says) are much more attuned to its presence or absence, because for them it does serve to distinguish meaning.

    But since poc @26 (from Ireland, I believe) has generously adopted the “let’s call it a pun” approach on this occasion, I’m certainly not going to moan. It’s more of a problem in the case of ‘homophones’ like saw/sore, where not only is there the ‘R’ issue, but the preceding vowel sounds completely different to most rhotic speakers.]

63. eb @ 62

    I’ve been calling for ‘homophones’ to be seen as puns for four or more years. Finally may be getting some traction.

64. I had a lazily bunged in Caesar. I thought the hosting king might be CR. And I’d like to think RIT will stick this time, but who am I kidding.

65. A lovely puzzle. Thank you to Nutmeg and manehi. Adding my very best wishes, concern and prayers in abundance for improvements in Nutmeg’s health.

66. Finished this morning, before checking the paper. 🙂 I was beginning to think that after a week of total success, I was going to have a week of total failure. It was the top right corner that delayed me, and NORTH KOREA was the one which let me in this morning.

    I like the idea of considering homophones to be puns.

    And I ‘m sorry to hear of Nutmeg’s illness. I hope she recovers soon.

67. I, too, polished this classy crossword off over breakfast this morning (funny how a night’s sleep can untangle even the trickiest clue) – and wouldn’t have commented, but for the news about Nutmeg’s being unwell.
    Nutmeg, your crosswords are works of art. My heart lifts whenever I see your name beside one, and I often save it till the evening to give me some fun after a stressful day.
    Get well soon!!!
    Warmest regards from this corner of south-west France xx

Comments are closed.