Guardian 28,914 / Kite

113 comments on “Guardian 28,914 / Kite”

1. Well this was a lovely challenge for Monday and the theme especially topical. Thought PENMANSHIP and POLLUTION were superb but I had a lot of ticks. I thought AGISM was missing an E and like Eileen, don’t understand the clue. I also couldn’t parse CRUXES. Look forward to seeing this setter again.

   Ta Kite & Eileen.

2. Morning Eileen. I imagine the reference to Charlotte (North Carolina) in the clue for AGISM is to point us to the US spelling

3. AlanC – I nearly said that ‘agism’ looks odd to me, spelt that way but it’s in both Collins and Chambers as an alternative.

4. Ha! – many thanks, Baerchen. 😉 (We crossed.)

5. PS: but, looking again, neither dictionary indicates that that is the American spelling – I think you’re right, though.

6. Great challenge and theme. Thanks Kite and Eileen. Also Baerchen for explaining Charlotte.

7. In 28 across I had the definition as “dispersing” = “heating”, which in the context of the theme seemed to make sense. It does avoid “energy” doing double duty.

8. Got it in one sitting, so hope that bodes well for the rest of the week.

   I parsed AGISM the same as baerchen@2. But I was stumped as to why Toe=Strike, so thank you Eileen. I was also a bit doubtful to start with about HEATING. I was thinking double duty for Energy, but couldn’t bring myself to put it in before I had all the crossers.

   And I was also struggling for the second A in AUTOBAHN, as I thought it was alternate letters of Then, instead of Dashing. So thank you again Eileen.

   I’m still counting it as a success though!

9. And so you should, Moth!

10. Aha, I will now look suspiciously at Charlotte in a clue in the same way I do Nancy 🙂

    I enjoyed this, and the theme helped me for once. Lots of good clues but LASH OUT AT was a particular favourite.

    Interesting to see the double duty in HEATING. I don’t mind it all all (the clue was fair and gettable) but I understand that some solvers frown upon the technique?

    Thanks both.

11. I spent ages trying to convince myself that Dispersing=HEATING as I thought that energy couldn’t possibly do double duty as that would break all the roools!!! It seems I was incorrect.
    No idea about Charlotte. Why Charlotte, USA when it could be Charlotte, Australia and therefore spelled ageism, except that it doesn’t fit. I went down a rabbit hole of Sex and the City for a while but let’s not go there.
    Favourite was OOMPH.

12. 20D – I realise I’m being very picky here, but why again class? It’s ungrammatical and ugly.
    Also Charlotte to indicate an American spelling is a bit of a stretch.
    Sorry to dampen the enthusiasm of others but we were a bit put off by these examples.
    Thanks to Eileen though for her usual upbeat blog

13. A bit of a wrestle with this one but prevailed in the end without resort to aids. 12a was my last one in. All in all, an enjoyable challenge from a rarely seen setter.

14. I don’t quite understand the surface in CLIMATE. It feels like there’s a word missing. The wordplay is fine C + LIMA + T[emperature]E but …creates a [environmental] after change. Surely CLIMATE creates an environmental (something) before ‘change’.

    Perhaps I’m reading it wrongly.

15. Hi William – I think you have misread ’19’ as ‘9’: CLIMATE, after a change, has created an EMERGENCY (19ac).

16. Many thanks to Eileen for a good blog and to all the ‘posters’ so far. Just to clarify on a couple of points – AGISM in the ODE, which tends to give current usage, is given as the US spelling and, yes, it’s Charlotte in North Carolina. The clue for HEATING was intended to be an &lit i.e. the whole clue was the (approximate) definition.

17. Wouldn’t it be good if Kite were to enlighten us about Charlotte? “Agism” isn’t especially US spelling, I thought of the Bette Davis film Hush Hush, Sweet Charlotte – but that was as much about madness as it was about ag/eism. Otherwise it was great to get something really chewy on a Monday, and the theme was clear enough and helped with some pretty tricky clues. Thanks all round.

18. My typing was so slow I crossed with Kite’s v welcome explanation and confirmation. Thanks very much Kite.

19. Tough puzzle. Almost gave up on the NE corner.

    Liked OOMPH, AUTOBAHN, PENMANSHUP, INSULATE.

    I did not parse:
    12ac
    14ac – I got how the clue works but the definition baffles me – what does ‘9 this’ mean? if ‘environmental this’ – what does that mean?
    17ac Charlotte
    3d
    7d could not see why TOE = strike.

    Thanks, both.

20. Thanks Kite and Eileen
    I filled the grid in, but quite a lot of question marks.
    CRUD for dirt was loose, espeically as it had to be de-tailed. TOE for strike doesn’t look right, despite Eileen’s golf suggestion. “Bay” for SHOUT is also loose. 27 could be almost any name – I tried RUTH first, which is just as good as MARK.
    Even I saw the theme!

21. Eileen @15: What a chump! Apologies, Eileen.

22. I was another wondering where the extra ‘a’ was coming from in AUTOBAHN, so thanks Eileen.
    For 27 I had CARD, based on the now prevalent use of the word as a verb in football etc for the ref booking someone. I rather thought it makes a snappier DD than the setter’s version.
    Not convinced by anyones take on the HEATING clue, buit there was plenty of good stuff.
    With a theme that smacks you in the face and tweaks your nose even I saw it!

    Thanks Kite and Eileen (again)

23. Thank you Kite@16 for explaining HEATING. That makes sense!

    muffin@20. I agree Ruth & Mark are both books, and are also Characters in the way any person is. But Mark has the added distinction of being used to mean a Mark on paper, which is a possible other meaning of Character. But I admit to needing crossers before working that out.

24. I took MARK to refer to e.g. ‘the mark of a gentleman’.
    Nho TOE=strike.
    Didn’t think much of the double definition of TWISTER. Very vague.
    Didn’t get Charlotte at all. Quite obscure I thought.

    Despite the foregoing, I did quite like the puzzle overall, and even spotted the theme, which I almost never do.

25. I don’t think I’ve tackled a Kite crossword before – and I found it very satisfying for a damp and chilly Monday.
    I’m another who hadn’t encountered AGISM without the E and simply assumed it was an alternative, possibly American, spelling. I’m glad I’m not the only one baffled by Charlotte…
    However, I had lots of ticks, AUTOBAHN, GLUCOSE and OOMPH made me smile – and the theme was pleasingly topical. What’s more, often when a crossword contains so many theme-related answers, some of the clues can be really tortuous. I generally sympathise with setters who may have boxed themselves into a corner – but I see no sign of that sort of desperation here.
    So, thank you Kite for the entertainment and I look forward to the next encounter; plus a big thanks to Eileen for yet another upbeat and informative blog!

26. For my sins, I tried to compile a COP27-related puzzle, and the result will be in the November issue of 1Across – but I ended up with some seriously obscure words as I tried to complete the task. Chapeau to Kite for managing to get in a lot of theme – GLOBAL HEATING, CLIMATE EMERGENCY, CARBON DIOXIDE, POLLUTION (not confined to the radioactive kind), ENVIRONMENTAL, INSULATE – while keeping the puzzle do-able, if perhaps a little more chewy than normal “Monday Guardian” fare.
    A lot of stuff to enjoy here, I think my favourites being ENVIRONMENTAL and the very clever AUTOBAHN.
    As an Aston Villa fan, I was evilly amused by the surface of 2d…!
    Must remember Charlotte for the future – and specifically that in this context it isn’t Russe.
    Thanks to Kite (and how nice to have a setter who pops in here) and to the ever-reliable Eileen.

27. Other than also being confused by Charlotte I found this a lovely chewy solve. I wasn’t worried by HEATING, thinking as I solved it that that’s what heat does.

    If someone toes a ball or a backside, they are kicking the object, actually or metaphorically.

    Thank you to Kite and Eileen.

28. https://charlottenc.gov/newsroom/cityhighlights/Pages/Nondiscrimination-Ordinance.aspx

    I found this link to Charlotte Ordinance, Eileen.
    Thanks to you for the brilliant blog and to Kite for an ingenious puzzle.

29. michelle@19: as you correctly posit, the setter sets up a frame of
    “ENVIRONMENTAL [this]”
    and the solution POLLUTION fits into the frame to complete the phrase “environmental pollution”, derived from the answer to 9d and this answer to 14a.

30. Thanks for that, Julie @28. This is what I found: https://inside.charlotte.edu/news-features/2022-10-03/author-ashton-applewhite-discuss-ageism
    At least we both got as far as Charlotte being a place. 😉
    …and thanks for that, pserve_p2 – I’d missed michelle’s query

31. I was a bit “meh!” about this puzzle. Clearly the “Charlotte” device was a flop, since we all seem to have missed it. The &lit at HEATING was unfortunately a bit lame, such that many commenters here missed that too. The surface of 14a was really very lumpen. METHANE at 29a used more clue-number references, creating another clunky surface — and all for a very simple solution heavily signalled by the theme. I know we are all very keen to applaud the theme (how timely, how apt, how Guardian), but it did feel to me that the aesthetic of the crossword suffered badly as a result. Yours grumpily, Tunbridge Wells.

32. For TOE I was thinking toe punt in rugby, Aussie rules football and toe poke in soccer.

33. Enjoyed the puzzle and the blog. Thanks to Kite and Eileen. Extra thanks to Kite for nipping in with a couple of explanations.
    Didn’t know that REX was a breed of cat, considering I’ve been in Devon for 25 years I’m a tad ashamed.

34. Forgot to mention I am just about to leave for a golf lesson in which I will, no doubt, hit the ball with the toe, the heel and, in extremis, the hozzle. I offer up all three to non-golfers for future solving.

35. This was one of those mornings where I got 10 minutes in, thought, “[expletive] this,” and started hitting the cheat buttons. Some days I just don’t have the patience to be challenged!

    I’m unsatisfied with “Charlotte” as an indicator of a supposedly American spelling. Data point: I see AGEISM far more frequently than AGISM here in Chicago, though perhaps that might not be true down in the Carolinas.

36. [STP @34: I will be doing something very similar this afternoon, I feel your pain]

37. We found this mostly a slog, with some tenuous cluing. Still not sure what a gismo is

38. Thanks to Eileen and all the helpful posters today. I also found this a slog, despite knowing gismo which I thought was spelled with a z. But I liked the theme, although at first I thought it was gases, as I got carbon dioxide and methane early on. But a bit on the hard side for a Monday, Kite!

39. Lots to like – my favourite was 4d with Santander’s affirmative bank. But I am bothered by recurrent used in 12ac to mean back to front. In my mind recurrent means repeatedly. Not sure that cruxes at 12ac can really be defined as ‘baffling problems’ The crux of a problem isn’t the problem itself.

40. I liked CHAGRIN, AUTOBAHN and OOMPH. I spell gizmo with a z, which held me up. One of those puzzles where you think you aren’t going to solve it, but you get there in the end. If only it were the same for GLOBAL HEATING.

41. After guessing AGISM I thought I’d try Mr. Google with “agism charlotte” and see what he came up with. Now, remember that everyone gets different Google results, biased by what Google knows about you. I got pages of results mentioning Charlotte NC, which I immediately discounted since the city is only 2 1/2 hrs from me (basically next door). It also “corrected” agism to ageism. I came here hoping to find the real interpretation!

42. I found this straightforward and enjoyable, just right for a Monday. Perhaps I am just on Kite’s wavelength. (As is often the case I seem to prevail with ones others here find tricky, and struggle with those they find easy!).

    The one parsing I don’t get is 3D although the answer was very obvious from crossers. How does “neat” give us OX?

43. @39 Bayleaf – Merriam-Webster has for its first definition of Crux “1: a puzzling or difficult problem : an unsolved question” with the more familiar sense of central point to a problem following. I don’t know whether this is a more American usage.

    https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/crux

44. Neat and OX are both names for cows. You may have heard of “neats-foot oil”.

45. Bayleaf @39 – ‘recurrent’, as a reversal indicator, often causes discussion. It’s from the Latin recurrere, to run back and, in fact, Chambers has ‘running back in the opposite direction’, after ‘returning at intervals’, which is, perhaps, its more familiar meaning these days.

46. I liked all of this very much, except when I ended on 27ac. Oodles of better ways to clue MARK. I’d go with “Stain on character? (4)” or something.

47. Thanks Jacob @43; for crux, Collins also has: 2.A baffling problem or difficulty

48. Bit of a mixed bag for me. I like OOMPH, COSTA BRAVA for the surface and XEROX because we don’t get many X words

    Most of the numbered x-refs seemed a bit clunky and the theme made for quite a few write-ins

    Pretty good for a Monday though

    Cheers K&E

49. For once, I got the theme before I came here.

    “Crud” being dirt didn’t occur to me. Now that it’s pointed out to me the line comes back “Her breast like to a bowl of cream uncrudded,” (uncurdled), which on looking up I am reminded that it’s a poem “The Bride,” by Spenser.

    19a How is “agency” a vehicle?

    Early on, in 23a “dashing” gave me AHN as alternate letters of “dashing” to end the word. “Well, that can’t be right,” thinks I, and went on to more words until some more crossers put me right.

    The golf meaning of “toe” was new to me (and I’m apparently not alone), so thanks for that Eileen and Steve@34 for “hozzle,” which I’ve looked up.

    I don’t know what “extraction” is doing in the clue for REGRADE, since “de” is already “of, French.”

    I don’t think of a crux as a “baffling problem.” Wikipedia was no help.

    Santander Bank (I dunno about affirmative) has established itself here in Hartford — there’s a branch a short walk from my house.

    Thanks to Kite (and welcome) and Eileen for the blog and for entering the conversation as needed. Also thanks to Kite for joining in.

50. Well well! That was a pleasant change for a Monday. I found it overall of medium difficulty, but mainly because the theme was so clear and helpful in solving a fair proportion of the grid.

    I, like so many others, failed to understand the significance of Charlotte. And I needed Eileen’s clarity of explanation to parse AUTOBAHN – I had the alternate letters of “then”, but no “a”.

    If energy is doing double duty in 28a I don’t mind. I’m glad Kite tells us it’s intended as an &lit because that’s how I read it.

    A very enjoyable and interesting puzzle.

    Thanks Kite and Eileen

51. Thanks Kite, it’s refreshing to see someone different in the Monday slot. This crossword may have taken me longer than Brendan’s prize but I’m not complaining. I liked many clues including CRUXES, EMERGENCY, GLOBAL, LASH OUT AT (nice misdirection with bay), and OOMPH. I was another who didn’t get Charlotte; I’ve only seen AGISM with an E in the US but it’s a big country and I’ve seen only half of it. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

52. Valentine @49 – I reconciled vehicle and agency as being, basically, a means of getting something done (Latin vehere, to carry and agere, to do), which worked for me.

53. Very tough for a Monday I thought. nho ‘rex’ for cat, ‘twister’ for rogue or ‘neat’ for ox. Like most, had no inkling that Charlotte would indicate an American spelling. I get all the bits in the parsing of POLLUTION but can’t quite make sense of it – ‘leaving’ seems to be in the wrong place. My favourites were OOMPH and CLIMATE – a nice penny drop moment after I had solved EMERGENCY and understood what Kite was telling us. Thanks Kite and Eileen.

54. Thanks Eileen, Jacob and Kite for answering my questions – I will try to remember those clarifications for another occasion. Overall it was a good solve. Thank you, Kite.

55. Thanks Kite. I enjoyed the theme and the challenge of a slightly tougher Monday puzzle. Hope to see you again. Thx to Eileen for parsing the ones I couldn’t.
    Favourites were 14ac POLLUTION, 2dn INFERNO, and 9dn ENVIRONMENTAL

56. Thanks, Eileen. It doesn’t really work for me but I’ll call it acceptable.

    I knew there were Rex cats but looked them up anyway because I’ll read anything that’s about cats. The Wikipedia article was charming and I’ll choose the Devon Rex if someone offers me a choice. (I’m quite happy with calico Zoe anyway.)

57. Thanks Kite – enjoyed that and the currency of the theme. Thanks Eileen for an excellent blog – new use of ‘recurrent’ for me and although I guessed the answer to 17dn didn’t know the link to Charlotte.

58. Thought this was going to be fairly straightforward when AFAR, INFERNO and ENVIRONMENTAL whizzed in. Then realised that this was chewier than the usual Monday fare. After solving METHANE foolhardily dashed in GLOBAL Warming, which of course held things up in the SW corner for a while. Though I thought the grid today was helpful in connecting up the crossers. Struggled with the last two in, INSULATE (its definition) and LIAISE. Also found CRUXES tricky, and how DEPOSIT worked exactly. Liked PENMANSHIP most of all. Thanks KITE for the challenge and Eileen for the explanations…

59. Re AGISM – the evidence so far from our US-based contributors (mrpenney, Dr W, Tony Santucci; I don’t think Valentine has commented on that particular clue; pity we haven’t seen DaveinNCarolina for a while) is that AGEISM is the dominant spelling in the US, as it is here in the UK.

    I decided to look up the two spellings on Google Ngram, which is a very useful tool measuring frequency of usage in printed sources from 1800 to the present day, across a range of settings including British English (here) and American English (here). According to the graphs, AGISM is currently less common in the States than it is over here! On both graphs it’s clear that the E-less version is very much a minority choice – AGEISM with an E is about 100 times more common in the UK, and 200 times more common in the US.

    There was a time in the 70s when AGISM was more common in America than here, but even then it was less popular than AGEISM. AGISM’s usage peaked in about 1978, then declined steadily through the 80s and has now dwindled to very low levels.

    It seems that Kite was misled by the ODE, which may itself have been misled by the fact that ‘aging’ is the dominant American spelling of ‘ageing’.

    [Curious that, this side of the pond, we tend to write ageing, but not rageing, engageing, pageing or wageing.]

    I did enjoy the rest of the crossword, though; thanks Kite and Eileen!

60. I have been puzzling over what ‘Copycat is over neat’ could mean. It could literally mean a copycat is in a higher position than a cow but presumably that’s not intended. I assumed it meant that a copycat is too neat. But that should be overneat, not over neat. I wonder why sticking the words together so that the clue makes apparent sense has been done in the case of copycat, but not for overneat.

61. James @60; the original clue did have overneat but it was felt that two lift-and-separate words in one clue was too extreme, hence separating the last two and hoping that people would read it as overneat.

62. Kite@61: nice to see you here. Lots of people seem to be puzzled by Charlotte: would you be able to explain what she’s doing in AGISM?

63. Thanks Kite and Eileen.

    I was a DNF due to 17A. In all honesty I’m surprised I got down to 1, and I did have three or four more bashed in not fully parsed. No comment on Kite’s brilliance but I’m not sure the Editor should’ve put this in on a Monday?

    [personal peeve – people who say ‘it’s great to see a tougher one than usual on Monday – You’ve got all week! Let us dullards have our day!]

64. Thanks Kite and Eileen

    Chambers Thesaurus has bidirectional equivalence for agency and vehicle.

    It didn’t raise an eyebrow with me: “the CIA is the vehicle through which the US takes undercover action”, for instance.

65. Kite @61, thanks for the explanation, should have seen the editor’s hand at work.
    Dodgy advice when putting ox on bottom (3,5)

66. Late start so just finished with several not fully parsed. Like others, I struggled with Charlotte but, in retrospect, isn’t it the same as 4d and, as far as I can see, no one has complained about the use of Santander? I’m not convinced that remembering hozzle will be as much use in future crosswords as knowing mashie, niblick etc.

67. Bayleaf @39 and Valentine @49, in my more active days as a monkey, I often found the crux of a climb to be a baffling problem.

    I needed quite a lot if help with this puzzle, but largely enjoyed it all the same.

68. Great crossword but OX neat 3d

    Puzzled?

69. Paul Rock @68
    I explained NEAT = OX @44 Did you read the comments?

70. Neat = Ox

    New to me!

71. Just found it! Thanks Muffin

72. Paul Rock @71
    You are welcome!

73. Bit late but no one else has said this – 14a refers to 9 not 19 in the on-line version, so people are entitled to be confused!

74. southofnorth @73
    ? The blog and the paper version both have 9 rather than 19.

75. southofnonorth @73 – Have you perhaps been misled bycomments 14 and 15, which refer to a different clue?

76. [Lovely word “misled”, Eileen – when I was young I always read it as “mizzled”!]

77. jellyroll@66. I would say that both Charlotte and Santander were a bridge too far. I don’t mind googling for help with clues but spent way too long on Charlotte, after the solve. Surely it wasn’t ”trifling discrimination!?” Came up with something almost plausible from Charlotte’s Web. As they were only language indicators, it was hardly worth it. No frisson in solving the clue. And no point in storing them away for future crosswords, unless it’s Kite and I’ll be on the lookout next time. As Rob T said @10, we’re a wake-up to Nancy.

    I also found Kite’s last cryptic on Remembrance Day 2021 and thought this one might be an anniversary crossword as well. Learned a lot about 14 November, over centuries. Another fruitless exercise, but entirely my fault.

    Not sure if I’m game to attempt Kite’s Geniuses. It seems we have to be geniuses to read his mind.
    Apart from that, was glad of the challenge, solved and parsed, all bar the Charlotte bit.
    CARBON DIOXIDE and OOMPH favourites.

78. I’m more sympathetic to Santander than Charlotte. The former can really only be a bank or a place in Spain; there are many more possibilities for the latter.

79. [Echoed muffin@76. Still say ”mizzled” as a joke. It’s seems to convey so much more meaning, like a portmanteau, and almost onomatopoeic, if you scrunch up your face in mizery at being misled. ]

80. jellyroll @66 – you’re right: the use of Charlotte is analogous with that of Santander, to indicate the language / spelling of a location. I’ve always enjoyed the recurring Nice / Nancy clues and these are welcome additions – but the discussion here has been about whether or not ‘agism’ is an exclusively American spelling and that seems to be substantiated only by ODE. Please see essexboy’s very helpful contribution @59 (for which thanks, eb – I’ve been out in the meantime!).

81. Heating is an anagram of ‘a thing’ plus e for energy.

82. muffin @76 and paddymelon @79 – me too! (and many others I know).
    Then I met ‘mizzled’ in Jane Austen, I think – a dialect portmanteau word from mist / drizzle.

83. Lin @81. Which is exactly what Eileen wrote in her explanations of the clues many hours ago!

84. Lin @81 – as I explained in the blog, I think.

85. Sorry sheffield hatter – I’ve had a few crossings!

86. [Yes, “mizzled” is a word frequently used around here!]

87. I struggled with many of the clues today, partly because of brain fog and distraction, but also because I found a lot of the definitions tricky; and some of the wordplay even trickier!

    Many of these have been mentioned by others, but one that hasn’t is CHAGRIN. However, this too was down to me, as it seems I must have first encountered the word in French, where it means distress or grief. I don’t think I’ve ever realised before that it means annoyance in English.

    Thanks to Kite and Eileen.

88. PS: re ‘misled’ – a teaching colleague of mine observed that eager young readers see words in print some time before they hear them pronounced. For most of my childhood, for instance, I read ‘bedraggled’ as ‘bed-raggled’ – how I looked when getting up in the morning.

89. Eileen: Snap!

90. And dis – hevelled!

91. My’s’l’d and incle-ment are two that I like.

    But as they say, never criticise someone for mispronouncing a word, it means they’ve learned it by reading.

92. sheffield hatter @ 87 – if you’re still there

    Re CHAGRIN: one of my favourite words, which I’ve always taken as meaning a combination of annoyance and grief. I’m always wary of using it in conversation, as I’m not quite sure of how to pronounce it – the French way seems pretentious. I can never hear / see it without adding ‘and dismay’, from the lyric of ‘Hush Hush’ from ‘Salad Days’, a perhaps long-forgotten musical which coincided with my own graduation and which our Parish Players have performed a couple of times:
    ‘But all my job appeared to consist of,
    Much to my chagrin and dismay,
    Was a painfully comprehensive list of
    Things I must never do or say’
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OD8UDEzMg4
    (Please forgive the self-indulgence.)

93. Re misled and mizzled….. mizzle is unlike hozzle in that mizzle is a real word (3 meanings in Chambers) whereas hozzle is a misspelling of the word hosel.

94. Tim C – yes, as noted in comments 82 and 26,

95. Thanks for the self-indulgence, Eileen!

    CHAGRIN is an odd one, as not only is it a false friend – there is no hint of ‘annoyance’ in my Collins Robert – but it also means the skin of a shark or a ray. This version of the word is now normally rendered in English as shagreen, which perhaps serves as a hint as to the pronunciation for those who find the French way “pretentious”!

96. And I cherish my lovely Danish daughter-in-law’s ‘Archie Pelahgo’, which my son won’t let her forget.

    I’ve really enjoyed this late night correspondence – thanks all – but it’s now past my bedtime: I was up quite early for the blog 😉

97. Thank you Kite for a fun puzzle and for the explanation of “Charlotte” above. Although I recognised it as a US spelling I’d almost convinced myself that it was something to do with Charlotte Rampling’s views on the lack of Hollywood roles for older women!

98. Thank you to Kite for a great puzzle and to Eileen and the other contributors – I had a good read of the blog this morning and it was helpful to follow the discussion of the different explanations.

99. Thank you to Kite for a puzzle that this novice managed on day of publication (just).

    Penmanship was my favourite answer – a lovely word and a better clue.

    And thank you, too, Eileen, for uncovering some corners where inspiration beat explanation, and I was reassured I wasn’t barking up the wrong tree.

100. Simon S @91, it’s good to see that there’s someone who wasn’t misled into confusing my-zuld with mizzled.

     I once managed to come out with “hyper bowl” despite really knowing the correct pronunciation!

101. I struggled with this one in several places. Also was missing an A from AUTOBAHN as I took H and N as from “then” instead of “dashing”. I dashed them into answer.
     Thanks Kite and Eileen

102. jellyroll@66 Maybe it’s because Santander can’t be mistaken for a person, while Charlotte can, and there’s the misdirection.

     [Eileen@82 — Like “mizzled” as a weather term, a word I use occasionally is “drismal.”]

     eb@59 I didn’t comment on “AGISM” because I’ve seen “ageing” where I would put “aging,” so assumed that AGISM by analogy must be American too. (What do I know, I’m just an American.) But mrpenney is probably right, ageism is common over here too. Now they either both look wrong to me or both look right, I can’t decide.

103. [Monkey@100 The Hyper Bowl is an over-publicized football game.]

104. Eileen @94 – yes, I’d seen those comments. My comment was really directed (if poorly) at non-word hozzle.

105. [Valentine@103. 🙂 Or an agitated tree trunk, a bit like those football players. ]

106. Please bring back the easy Monday puzzle! I haven’t got time for Kite’s effort on a Monday.

107. Catching up. Great blog, but I had HEATING as a super &lit – my favourite clue!
     Lovely puzzle, actually – is Kite related to Phi I wonder?
     Many thanks, both and all

108. TimC@104. Thanks for elucidation. I am a beginner golfer and looked at a Google’d diagram of a club before my post. It had the incorrect double z spelling of hosel which I used above.
     Thus, for all non-golfers, it is ‘hosel’!

109. Thanks Kite and Eileen.

     Finished with some difficulty and then came here for further explanations, and to be delighted by bed-raggled.

110. Muffin @44 – I had not, but I have now! Thank you.

111. Valentine@102, Never having heard of the Santander bank, in the 4d clue I immediately thought of Anthony Santander, an outfielder for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. Then I thought, what language does he speak? Spanish, of course. Which just goes to show, it doesn’t matter what route you take, as long as you get there in the end.

     I thought I was a minority of one in my pronunciation of “my-z’l’d”, so I am delighted to find support from Simon@91 and Monkey@100. Eileen@88 and Valentine@102 and 103, I love “bed-raggled” (really a better pronunciation of the word), “drismal” (how apt) and “Hyper Bowl” (a true description of the event).

     Like several others, at 27a instead of MARK I also had CARD, which I think is an equally good solution, corrected only by the crossers. Nevertheless I thought it was an excellent clue for its deceptive concision.

     Excellent puzzle, Kite, and great blog as usual from Eileen. My favourite was 23 AUTOBAHN for the clever construction and evocative surface.

112. Good blog! I really love how it is easy on my eyes and the data are well written. I’m wondering how I could be notified when a new post has been made. I’ve subscribed to your RSS which must do the trick! Have a great day!

113. Re 17a AGISM – sorry to come so late to this. We thought it referred to Charlotte Smith who won her age discrimination case against the BBC

Comments are closed.