Quite a tricky one this morning, with a couple of clues that I can’t parse to my satisfaction. Both now resolved: see comments. Thanks to Qaos.
And of course there is a theme: somewhat outside my comfort zone, but there are lots of names of American Football teams: I found the Los Angeles CHARGERs, Arizona CARDINALS, Philadelphia EAGLEs, Las Vegas RAIDERs, New York GIANTs, Green Bay PACKERS, Atlanta FALCONs, Dallas COWBOYs, and Miami DOLPHINs. Splitting 7d we also get the Los Angeles RAMs and New York JETs.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | PESACH | Pub holds back 12 bottles of wine for festival (6) Reverse of CASE (12 bottles) in PH (Public House). Hebrew name for the festival of Passover |
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| 4 | CHARGER | Provider of juice to warhorse (7) Double definition, with “juice” in the sense of electric charge |
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| 9 | CARDINALS | Members of the clergy 2 and 3? (9) 2 and 3 are exanples of cardinal numbers |
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| 10 | DURUM | Cereal for everyone kept in barrel (5) U (for everyone, in film classification) in DRUM |
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| 11 | EAGLE | Dog free of lead, might one take flight? (5) BEAGLE less its first letter |
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| 12 | CRIMPLENE | Politician caught in awkward recline with unnatural material (9) MP (politician) in RECLINE* |
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| 13 | SECTION | Put away slice (7) Double definition: to section someone is to have them “put away” in a mental hospital |
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| 15 | RAIDER | Looter‘s assistant breaks into expensive car (6) AIDE in RR (Rolls Royce) |
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| 17 | KRONOS | God sleeps on (or kips inside) in retirement (6) Hidden in reverse of sleepS ON OR Kips |
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| 19 | CLASSED | Ranked ‘secret’, provided I quit (7) CLASSIFIED (secret) less IF I |
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| 22 | EYESHADOW | See how day developed with make-up (9) (SEE HOW DAY)* |
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| 24 | VOCAL | Outspoken pub reducing headcount by 90%? (5) LOCAL (pub) with title first L (50) “reduced by 90%” to V (5) |
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| 26 | GIANT | Colossal insect chasing soldier (5) GI (soldier) + ANT |
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| 27 | CLOWNFISH | At first, critics likely upset if shown Finding Nemo? (9) C[ritics] L[ikely] + (IF SHOWN)*. Remembering Qaos’s last puzzle, which was themed around the film Finding Nemo, was a help with this one. |
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| 28 | LEECHED | Vampire actor, he punctured child’s skin and drew blood (7) {Christopher) LEE + HE in C[hil]D |
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| 29 | DEAFEN | Stun grenade in China made of wood ends disastrously (6) Anagram of the last letters of grenadE iN chinA madE oF wooD |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | PACKERS | Travellers going without support of boxers? (7) Not sure about this – is packer short for backpacker, which is someone who “travels without support”? And a box-er is also a packer. I was nearly there: the travellers are BACKPACKERS, from which we have to remove BACK = support |
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| 2 | SPROG | A little bit of sherbet for good kid (5) S[herbet] PRO G |
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| 3 | CRITERION | Standard Catholic ceremony on top of wrought iron (9) C + RITE + IRON* |
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| 4 | CASHIER | Dismiss bank clerk (7) Double definition |
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| 5 | ADD UP | Sum 500 + 500 + 1? (3,2) Another I’m not sure about: we have A D for the first 500, then another D; then +1 for “up”? 500 + 500 + 1 gives DDA, which is ADD UP |
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| 6 | GARDENERS | They take special need cutting wild grass, endlessly (9) R (take) + NEED* in anagram of GRAS[s], and the whole clue defines GARDENERS |
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| 7 | RAMJET | Engine to drive Jack over Egypt on vacation (6) RAM (drive) + J + E[gyp]T |
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| 8 | FALCON | Golfer swaps one party for another to make birdie? (6) [Nick] FALDO with DO (party) replaced by CON[servative] |
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| 14 | CORRELATE | Soap delayed? Missing one link (9) CORRIE (nickname for Coronation Street) LATE less I |
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| 16 | IN ADVANCE | 500 against adult being bitten by naughty canine earlier (2,7) D (500) + V (versus, against) + A[dult] in CANINE* |
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| 18 | SEDUCED | Tempted by rum used about December (7) USED* + reverse of DEC |
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| 19 | COWBOY | Rogue trader‘s modest about fancy bow (6) BOW* in COY |
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| 20 | DOLPHIN | Strangely upholding skinless mammal, in the main (7) Anagram of [u]PHOLDIN[g] |
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| 21 | BENGAL | Mountain lass found in area around Kolkata (6) BEN (Scottish mounain) + GAL (girl, lass) |
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| 23 | HITCH | Couple‘s welcome to church — nothing’s forgotten (5) HI (welcome) + T[o] CH |
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| 25 | CHIEF | Conservative lawbreaker ignoring the first leader (5) C + [t]HIEF |
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Backpackers are travellers, less support (back) becomes packers.
On the theme, there’s also Cincinatti Bengals. Thanks A and Q
For add up it’s 500 D 500 D 1 A all reversed or up.
5 gives DDA the answer tells you to reverse it UP in a down light.
Theme outside my ken.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
Blah – you’re a genius!
I don’t get why R = Take in 6d any help?
Chris@6. R is short for the Latin imperitive “recipe” meaning take. A doctor’s prescription used to start with a crossed R with this meaning.
Chris@6 R for short for Recipe, which is Latin for take.
It’s one to add to your crossword vocabulary as you’ll see it regularly.
Thanks crispy@5
On 1d, is it “people who travel without someone to put their things in boxes for them” = people who have to pack their boxes/cases themselves = packers?
Blah and I seem to be typing in tandem!
I echo Chris’s query. I thought 6d had an error in the anagram, but await enlightenment.
Didn’t know Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee until I googled, nor the verb meaning of cashier. Deafen is a rther loose synonym for stun. Never heard of Pesach. The NW corner was the last to be conquered. We don’t have U for film classifications here, so I scractched my head DURUM. I wasn’t aware that Coronation Street is affectionately known as Corrie, so I found 14d difficult.
I see Auriga has answered the question. A bit obscure, methinks.
I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one to struggle with PACKERS, but I arrived at the same conclusion as Crispy@1.
Just the right amount of chewiness, I thought, with a few standout clues. 9a was a clever piece of misdirection, causing me to spend quite a bit of time trying to work out how members of the clergy fitted a sprog criterion (although when I updated the history of our local parish church I did come across someone in the 16th century who became Rector, by Papal dispensation, at the age of 11). DEAFEN was very clever, too. And the surface of 25d was a delight.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
Re 5d: 500+500+1 = DDA = ADD UP in a down clue
Other teams ? Cincinnati Bengals, Kansas City Chiefs
Why does “take” = R?
Thanks both
… and yes, packers are box-ers as you say, Andrew. Yes well, the G-threaders said theme, so I googled a couple, falcon and charger, saw the hits and tbh lost interest (tho we do currently have 8 Aussie NFL players). All good, ta QnA.
I’m obviously a slow typist!
And the Kansas City CHIEFs. Only at the end did I spot the possible gridiron team names as the theme, even though I looked regularly as I solved. I was wondering – with all those aggressive names – if it was some superhero film (I know zilch about them). I agree with Crispy @1and Blah/Auriga @3/4 for those parsings. And the recent Nemo theme was indeed helpful for 27a. I initially though PH around CASE backwards, but that gave me a ‘nonsense’ word – until much later I thought to check if it existed as a word. Thanks, Qaos (always fun looking for your theme) and Andrew.
What I want to know is why there are no CRIMPLENES, SPROGS or CLOWNFISH football teams?
R for the Latin Recipe (take) is common in crosswords so it’s worth remembering.
It took me a while to parse (Back)PACKERS which ended up as a pleasing clue.
I did like CORRELATE of which “soap” I was well aware having seen the first episode when I was a SPROG. My Aussie wife watches it here via UKTV.
How many of those 8 Aussie NFL players are punters, GinF? That’s what they always seem to be, because you have to know how to kick the ball in Real Footy.
…forgot about take = the doctors’ R, d’oh, and like others thought the fodder was an R short…
And what’s Pesach without MaidenBartok … we could chat about matzah and borscht …
PACKERS
BACKPACKERS less BACK
Sorry, if someone has already said this.
In the very first comment, Crispy said that. Sorry again.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
Even I saw the theme! FOI was DURUM, after checking that BUTUT wasn’t a cereal. NHO PESACH, but quite constructable from the clue.
I agree with GdU about “stun” being loose for DEAFEN. The surface of 6d doesn’t make sense; and how does “with” work in EYESHADOW?
Favourites SEDUCED and BENGAL.
[Yes TT, and hence my being fullback in the RU 15, I could punt it a fair way into touch from inside the 25 line…]
Pesach was my first one in even though I’d never heard of it. Googled it anyway and lo and behold it meant Passover so I was off and running. The NE was my blind spot until Gardeners fell into place. Overall, this was tough but enjoyable. I didn’t spot the theme but nothing new there! Thanks Qaos and Andrew.
Thanks, Qaos & Andrew. PESACH went straight in but after that flying start, the rest proved a fair bit trickier. All good fun as we expect from Qaos though. I did spot the theme but I’d already filled in most of the grid(iron) by then, so it wasn’t much help. PACKERS was the giveaway.
I had an alternative take on ADD UP – with “+1” accounting for the UP, as in being in the lead in a game of eg football. But I wasn’t really satisfied with that and I’m sure Blah/Auriga have the correct parsing. Very good.
I parsed FLACON as FALLON with the Conservative party replacing Labour. Google assures me that there is a Scottish golfer called Fallon who designed some courses, but he seems more obscure than FALDO, which gives a much better clue anyway.
Even as a sports fan, American Football never was my cup of tea so didn’t get the theme. Hard to take seriously a sport where you need to stop for a chat after every tackle.
Me @ 27, FALCON, obviously
Agree, muffin @23, the “with” is a linker but a bit dodgy, and in 6d I was more inclined to take the def as just “They ..”
Not happy with GARDENERS whatever anyone says.(it does list r under take in Chambers crossword dictionary-but….)
Baseball yes, Gridiron -forget it.
Otherwise OK
Convinced myself that there was an engine called a ‘rampet’. Should have thought longer, but Inwas losing interest.
Very good, got the theme towards the end. Parsed ADD UP as Blah @3. We had a Finding Nemo theme recently so CLOWNFISH went straight in.
Ta Qaos & Andrew.
When I discover that, among the many bizarre things in cryptic crossword land, I need in future to remember that “R” equals “take”, I have a terrible thought that perhaps I’m becoming as weird as some of my non-cruciverbalist friends think I am.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
I think STUN = DEAFEN works in the case of, wait for it, a stun grenade.
I am afraid I had PACKETS for PACKERS reasoning that a packet is a boat, hence a traveller and that ones packet goes without the support of boxers. Fortunately I remembered to look for a theme and a more sensible answer ensued. I thought GARDENERS was a bit tortuous.
R for take. NEVER seen that before, and I’ve been crosswording for decades.
Like others, I missed the Recipe and thought GARDENERS was missing a letter. I suppose we’ll keep seeing this obsolete abbreviation until dictionaries get round to retiring it.
Tough puzzle. Failed to solve 29ac and 25d.
I could not parse 24ac, 1d, 8d (I never heard of Nick Faldo).
New: RAMJET, PESACH.
Liked SPROG.
I did not see a theme – clearly, I know nothing about football or soccer!
Thanks, both.
7d remains a mystery to me. I got RAM + J + E and I knew RAMJET, but where is the T coming from, and what is “on vacation” referring to?
Jacob @39, Egypt on vacation means vacate the word Egypt which gives you ET. That’s where the T comes from.
I echo Michelle, late to the party as a result. The theme would have helped my better half, but even though the G website people mentioned its existence, of course they did not say what it was. But despite some frustration, i did finish it – just! – and PACKERS was my LOI!
For those who’ve never seen R for recipe (take) before, it is quite common. A very cursory search on this site gives a number of Guardian cryptics where it’s been used in the last few months…..
28,882 by Imogen on 7 Oct 2022
28,875 by Picaroon on 29 Sep 2022
28,867 by Imogen on 20 Sep 2022
28,798 by Pangakupu on 1 Jul 2022
28,693 by Brummie on 1 Mar 2022
and the Quiptic 1,156 by Anto on 10 Jan 2022
not to mention all the other crosswords that are blogged on here.
Most enjoyable puzzle. Good to see some of Qaos’s arithmetic clues: ADD UP is clever and CARDINALS is pleasingly sneaky.
No theme for me, natch, but it’s outside my GK and not needed anyway because the neurones were firing well today, fortunately. However, PACKERS was LOI (parsed as Crispy @1).
PESACH was my FOI as it happens, because the word was familiar. Mazel tov 🙂
Thanks to S&B
Enjoyable puzzle even if I didn’t spot the clever theme. Glad to get back into the groove as I have been on a crossword hiatus due to a road trip to Sydney. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew, and to other contributors for an interesting blog. I liked 24a VOCAL a lot once i came here to understand it. As a non-mathematician, I had a quiet smile at the fact that 9a CARDINALS was my favourite.
On the theme: 17a KRONOS is one of the (Tennessee) Titans.
Well that was the fastest I’ve ever got a Qaos theme. My FOI was RAIDER and I thought “He wouldn’t, would he?” – and he did! I live in the States and have never watched a full American football game, but despite that the team names were very familiar [unlike in the English and other countries’ football league systems, there is no annual promotion and relegation, so for the most part the same team names stay around and in the media pretty much forever].
Even though it was over quickly, I enjoyed it as usual. Tx Q&A
TimC @42. I haven’t looked, but I’m guessing those examples use R for Recipe. The comments here are about its use to mean Take.
[My American mate says that Gridiron is the quintessential American game: endless committee meetings punctuated with acts of random violence.]
[TT@48 Very funny. I’ve never understood how time-outs (My team isn’t doing so well so let’s pause the game so we can regroup) are considered sportsmanlike, especially given the origin of sports in Ancient Greek preparation for war.]
R is clued as ‘take’ in this (published a year ago-just a sample):
To start with, Sheffield United take on Spanish side – hard to believe (7)
SURREAL
Found this rather impenetrable at first, but began to make some headway in the NE corner before solving this in a very pleasing manner, strictly in a clockwise direction, helped by the way the crossers fitted nicely into the grid. Ending up with PESACH, which I was able to look up for confirmation. Thought Qaos repeated certain devices a bit today (first and last letters of words used in the compilation of clues a few times) but an enjoyable solve nevertheless. Couldn’t quite parse DEAFEN. Wondered for a while whether Toucan might be the answer to the birdie at 8d with the C and N in place. And DURUM, though I wasn’t familiar with the word, reminded me of the tune that accompanied the Pink Panther series, repeated out loud several times to the correct rhythm. Only when I had got PACKERS did I realise there might possibly be a Gridiron theme..
This is probably the most help I’ve ever had from spotting a theme having looked for one – probably four or five of the teams. Luckily I’ve been a fan of American Football since it was first shown on Channel 4 in 1982.
Very clever of Qaos to use KRONOS instead of TITANS, as James E points out @45.
Nice penny drop moment when I saw CON replacing DO in the golfer!
It’s interesting to see the split between those who say, “Hmm, that’s something I didn’t know, I must remember that” and those who say “That’s obscure, it’s about time the setters stopped using it”. 🙂
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
Crispy @47 – some but not all – Pangakupu 28,798: 16a Drug I take during a trip (7)
Of course, the first comment on the blog that day was “I just couldn’t work out why the R…” (I haven’t cross-referenced comments to see if the same people who had never seen it before then are the same people who had never seen it before today.)
It also came up in the Guardian crossword blog back in January.
Take=R is one of that small collection of items that persist in crosswordese after they have ceased to exist in real life – it’s worth adding it to your crossword vocabulary because setters will continue to use it (as Tim C has demonstrated), but you don’t have to like it.
Widdersbel @53. In the comments on 28,798, our frequent commenter Gladys wrote almost exactly the same @51 as she did today @37!
As I have probably commented before, I used to work in a job where I read a lot of historical medical records, and I saw quite a bit of the R with a stroke through its downward slope. But I still didn’t immediately think “R” when I read ‘take’ in 6d.
We live and learn. Or not.
Sorry, gladys. You posted @54 while I was still typing.
I totally missed the theme, though I’ve heard of most of the teams. (I even spotted BENGALs all by myself once the theme had been pointed out.) With EAGLE, FALCON and CARDINALS, I thought the theme might be birds, but that
15a Did anyone else try putting something in MG instead of RR?
KRONOS is not one of the first dozen gods I’d think of. I needed help.
If it weren’t for Roz I wouldn’t have known 2d SPROG, so thanks, Roz.
I never remember R for “take,” so couldn’t figure out where 6d GARDENERS got its other R. Thanks, Andrew.
TT@17 That’s a classic jorum story — the wordplay produced something that didn’t look like a word, but you looked it up and there it was! That happened to Eileen once with the word “jorum,” she tells us, so now jorum is our word for that sort of discovery.
Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
Missed the theme, but only because after CARDINALS, EAGLE and FALCON I thought it was going to be something more straightforward. PACKERS should have put me on track, but failed to.
FOI PESACH, as I live in North London where the PESACH SEDER is a common topic of bus-top conversation around that time of year….
Surprised at others’ surprise around R=RECIPE, as I thought this was a fairly well-known cryptic crossie device.
DeepThought @58
I think in most cases it was R for “take” rather than “recipe” that was the unknown.
muffin@59, sorry perhaps I should have said “R=RECIPE=TAKE”
Thanks Andrew and team above for parsing 1d which I only got thanks to the theme – [Tim C@18, in a parallel universe the Chattanooga Crimplenes are one of the great franchises]. Enjoyed this and thought 5d a superb Qaos trademark clue, and plenty of others led to head scratching and/or smiles (aside from theme my journey was exactly as JerryG@25 in fact), so thanks Qaos.
gladys @37 & 54
R=recipe=take is not quite dead yet. It still appears, at least in the USA, generally in the form RX (which as pointed out above is really an R with a cross on its tail) to indicate a dispensary.
For gridiron teams, no-one has mentioned the Parsipanny Gardeners; they used to play in the Frisbee Football League, but disbanded when their running back got the mange.
I did this puzzle in two sittings–right before sleep and after waking up–and so didn’t think to look for a theme until it was almost too late to help. It was just in time for FALCONS, my next-to-last last in, though. It should have been obvious by about the time I put in PACKERS, since that word is way more common in its capitalized form here (the great nemesis of our locally beloved Chicago Bears–the oldest rivalry in the league).
I was surprised at how many had not heard of PESACH, but I guess the Jewish community in the UK is considerably smaller than in the US–and even here I’m unusual as I’ve always lived in either university towns or major cities. Anyway, I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have a zillion Jewish friends, and I could probably have rattled off a list of the major Jewish holidays by the time I was 12.
[mrpenney @63: The Jewish population of the UK makes up only about 0.4% of the total, whereas in the US it is around 1.6% – concentrated in large cities in both countries, of course. Jewish culture eg Ashkenazi food (bagels, pastrami etc) is also much more mainstream Stateside]
sh @52: I too became a fan via C4 in 1982, but my enthusiasm has long since waned. Shame, as was it was very exotic and exciting at the time.
Thanks for the blog , missed the theme, SPROG3 once gave me a Carolina Panthers mug which I really like but do not know any other names. They seem to have more interesting titles then the muddied oafs from England.
GARDENERS and VOCAL very good, I always find Qaos a bit too easy, I think the setting style suits my solving style.
Another here who neither got the theme or the R-take.
Thank you very much Widdersbel@53 for the link to Alan Connor’s article. I’ve bookmarked it and would highly recommend it to all solvers, especially beginners. The links down the bottom would have saved me months of looking up multiple sites when I was starting out. What a great job that was putting it all together.
Coronation Street was very popular here in Australia, but I’d never heard the word Corrie. I’ve now seen it twice in one day, in today’s Qaos, and under the section on cars in Alan Connor’s list, where he gives a Puck example (Soap that is used on company car). And now that we know Alan Connor is the current Everyman, I’ll be on the lookout for his tricks from his vast wealth of knowledge of all things cryptic, including R: “recipe” is the second singular present imperative for “take”.
[edit: nor]
[Roz@66 I heard you were a Houston Eulers fan. I always assumed the exotic names were marketing related, at least recall my dad grumbling as much when the trend started spreading to rugby and, heaven forbid, cricket (one day version).]
[Incidentally, PESACH is etymologically related to “paschal,” a word the more churchy of you might know, just as Passover and Easter are liturgically related.]
I will add that I enjoyed discovering PESACH, and calculating VOCAL, and DOLPHIN and CLOWNFISH and the BEN GAL.
Christopher Lee would probably be well annoyed to still be typecast as a vampire actor.
Thanks Qaos. I was greatly assisted when I spotted the theme and that allowed me to write in several answers. I seldom watch an entire game but I do enjoy the soap opera that surrounds the sport. My favourite clues were CLASSED, DEAFEN, ADD UP, and DOLPHIN. I missed SPROG and only guessed KRONOS and PACKERS so thanks Andrew for the blog.
Very good Gazzh@69 , is there really a Houston Oilers ? If only it was Oilers.
I am a Panthers fan, I have a beautiful blue and black mug with a fierce panther on it.
The muddied oafs are strictly football, cricket is flannelled fools and I dare not say what rugby is.
[ me @ 73. If only it was Eulers ]
Roz @ 73: The Houston Oilers decamped to Tennessee–first to Memphis for a season or two while they built their stadium, and thence to Nashville. The temporary move to Memphis was necessitated by the fact that when they announced they were leaving Houston, their fans down there basically deserted them in protest and they weren’t selling any tickets at all. In Memphis they were known as the Tennessee Oilers, which made just about everyone angry; they renamed themselves the Titans when they moved to Nashville.
There is still an NHL ice hockey team called the Edmonton Oilers (whose glory days were in the 1980s with Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, possibly one of the best teams ever assembled); I’ve made the joke that if they ever sold a jersey that said e^[i(pi)] +1 = 0 instead of OILERS, I’d break my vow about never spending money on sports swag, and buy a hockey jersey.
Didn’t know PESACH and RAMJET. Did spot theme. R for “take” and S for “little bit of sherbet” I did not spot and not my favourites.
Thanks Qaos and Andrew
Thank you Mrpenney@78 it is strange how the teams move around, very rare here. I have actually heard of Wayne Gretzky, he turns up in quizzes.
One of my students has a T-shirt and i is arguing with pi. i says “be rational” and pi replies “get real” .
[Re Timeouts – I always think it’s because Americans are so eternally optimistic that why should there be a problem stopping Time]
Fun crossword. I spotted the theme before the end, which is extremely rare, even with Qaos setting. Well done to commenters who pointed out that Kronos is a Titan. Clever.
My local team, the Eagles, are doing really well this year, so I’m watching quite a bit of football currently. Coincidentally, the Eagles (Crystal Palace) were also my local team where I grew up in the UK.
Thanks to Mr Penney for posting the Oilers history. Some franchise relocations end up making nonsense team names, one of the most obvious examples being the New Orleans Jazz (NBA) relocating to Utah to become the Utah Jazz, somewhat incongruously.
Thanks, Q and A.
Phitonelly: another egregious one, though it happened so long ago we no longer notice: Minnesota is, as their license plates proclaim, The Land of 1000 Lakes. Southern California has zero lakes, to a first order of approximation. Yet….those iconic gold-and-purple jerseys still say Lakers.
[MrP @80
Due to chance and good fortune, apart from passing through airports, the only place in the US I have visited is Minneapolis (and St. Paul and surrounding countryside). I must say we loved it, though being totally unable to finish meal portions put in front of us! Yes, there were lots of lakes, many within the city limits.]
I’m getting used to manipulations like detailed, gutted and skinless hence could parse DOLPHIN. On vacation is new: E[gyp]t (little typo in blog).
Thanks both.
We considered whether Qaos included EYESHADOW as a reference to the eye black worn under the eyes of players to reduce glare.
[muffin@81 It’s true that American restaurant portions are often enormous, but it’s also true that asking for a container to take leftovers home is completely accepted and normal, so I often get two or three meals out of one visit to a restaurant. When I asked for a food container in Ireland, where the portion had been also enormous and beyond my capacity, they had to scrounge around to find such an odd thing.]
[Valentine @84
Taking leftovers away has become much more normal in England as well. The containers are euphemistically referred to as “doggie-bags”!]
The Green Bay Packers are unique in the National Football League in that they aren’t owned by a rich individual or even consortium but by thousands of individual shareholders, nobody being allowed to own more than 4% of the total.
The Ashkenazi community also brought carrrot cade to the US, beginning with New York, where it was once a curiosity and is now all-American. I didn’t realize how unusual it was until we had a British performer at our folk club, who expressed surprise that Americans made cake out of carrots. I’d thought everybody did.
muffin@85 We used to call them doggy-bags too (I’d love to take this bone home for my dog) but that fiction is long gone here, and it’s assumed that the carrier will be the consumer.]
American football not my bag but annoyed I didn’t twig the theme as heard of all the teams & I’d have had more confidence in PACKERS though wouldn’t have parsed it correctly. DEAFEN beat me hands down & worst of all (for a keen but inept golfer) failed to parse FALCON. Tough but enjoyable
Thanks all.
[muffin @81: American restaurants have either excellent food served in tiny portions or dreadful food served in huge portions.]
[mrpenny @70: I’m told that the pesach/paschal combo is one of the earliest recorded puns. In Hebrew one word means to pass over and one means lamb. The story goes that if a house had a smear of lamb‘s blood on the door then the 10th plague (death of firstborn son) passed over that house.]
mr penney@80
In Leeds, Yorkshire, England, where I was born, I used to lake at cricket so was a laker. Not sure if it is still used to mean “play”. The change you mention wouldn’t have been so inappropriate there. One of the best cricketers (born in Yorkshire) was called Jim Laker – a bit of nominative determinism there
Vanentine@57. Over here, MG is just about the cheapest new cars on the market. Even the old UK marque were considered affordable.
Valentine@86 i will now switch my allegiance to the Green Bay Packers even though I have never watched a game, I am sure the sprogs can find me a new mug.
Tim C @40 Thank you for resolving so neatly both parts of my confusion.
In what world does cashier mean dismiss? Unnecessarily obscure.