Guardian Cryptic 28,980 by Vulcan

95 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,980 by Vulcan”

1. Quick solve with the usual nice surfaces expected from this setter on a Monday. I liked QUATRAIN, SEANCE, KITSCH, RED PLANET and the adjoining HOT TUB and COLD SHOWER. Very nice indeed.

   Ta Vulcan & manehi.

2. EVERTON have just sacked their manager, Frank Lampard, (for which I won a few bob on a bet), so they are in very bad shape at the mo.

3. Fairly quick solve and slightly chewier than usual for a Monday IMO.
   Favourite was KITSCH. Not convinced by 7d – far too vague but the only word that would fit when I had all the crossers. Ta both.

4. Hmm… struggled a bit with this.

   Several clues where there was a vague hint rather than a def. Miss Saigon, barn owl etc. All getable, just an unusual style.

   Thoughtgo for enter a tad loose and couldn’t see up for revolting.

   Somewhat stiffer challenge for a Monday than I was expecting.

   Many thanks, both

5. Thanks Vulcan and manehi
   I was a bit unlucky as I had an issue with both the first two I entered: “”So-called” doesn’t justify calling ANTELOPES “deer”, and “a year” in 8a implies removing A Y – “the year” would have been less ambiguous.
   I enjoyed the rest, though I imagine EVERTON will be baffling to non-English solvers (there are other troubles in the club, manehi – they are rarely out of the papers).

6. …plus the board were advised to stay away from a game recently as intelligence suggested there was a genuine threat to their safety from disgruntled so-called fans.

7. Thanks, Vulcan and manehi. Just the ticket for a Monday morning, though a couple had me scratching my head – UNINSTALL and OWLET. Favourites were SOTTISH and SORE POINT.

   AlanC – to make matters worse, they’ve just replaced him with Sean Dyche…

8. btw third (at least) appearance of KITSCH (or KITSCHIEST) in the last few days.

9. I wasn’t au fait with waste=blue and wondered whether a ‘sounds like’ indicator was needed. I also wondered whether DEAN needed a DBE indicator (maybe or ?) for Martin.
   UNINSTALL was annoying in that I don’t install or uninstall anything on my phone (as is true for many others) and would have been better to refer to computer/laptop/tablet etc. Too cutesy by half.
   Favourites were ANTELOPES and SEANCE.

10. For those of us who are still using old fashioned land line phones, 7d was incomprehensible!

11. muffin @5: I had the same reservation about ANTELOPES but I thought a y was fair enough.

12. Widdersbel @7: indeed! I imagine a BLUE CHIP that HIT THE BAR would sum up EVERTON’s form right now.

13. I agree with manehi that this was tricky for a Monday. Some nice clues (KITSCH, RED PLANET) but also some quibbles:

    STOOL = low seat? Not the bar stools I know. Surely a stool is normally just a chair without back or arms, irrespective of height?

    RESETTLE: I can see how ‘get comfortable again’ could work as cryptic wordplay, by splitting it into re + settle, but can anyone find dictionary support for it (or examples of actual usage) as a definition? All I can find for ‘resettle’ is to settle (i.e. take up residence), or cause to settle, in a different place.

    SAIGON: I initially shared William @4’s doubts about ‘go’ = ‘enter’, but then wondered if it could be read as a ‘wordplay implied in solution’ -type clue, i.e.
    SAIGON = I GO in SAN = I enter into sanatorium/clinic.

    Thanks V & m.

14. Never mind land line phones Shirley @10. Some of us (me) have mobile phones with real buttons so I can avoid touch screens which don’t mix well with my benign essential tremor. I can make and receive phone calls and SMSs and so it does everything I need a phone to do.

15. Didn’t get all this out. Settle/bench, up/revolting and blue/waste were a bit odd. I managed Everton, but was unaware of the Ideal Home Show. 25a was a pretty undistinguished clue.

16. essexboy @13 The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary has…

    ?[intransitive, transitive] resettle (yourself) to make yourself comfortable in a new position

    The birds flew around and then resettled on the pond.

17. The NE corner held out the longest with SKINHEAD and SOTTISH eventually providing penny drop moments. Last two in SOUP (cute but clever), and UNINSTALL which went in with a bit of a shrug. Distant memories as a boy of being dragged round the IDEAL HOME exhibition at Olympia some time in the late 1950’s. And collecting a pile of leaflets advertising the latest in appliances such as the television…

18. …and new manager of The Toffees Sean Dyche might well organise his team to put up some sterner resistance against table toppers The Gunners when they TACKLE them next weekend too…

19. I thought 23d was tithe (‘it nestling in the’) – threw me for a while.

20. Having a bit of a blue means a stoush down here, and feeling blue is having the blues, language that’s a bit blue is a bit, well, you know … But to blue meaning to waste? … that’s new. And acute was cute, Waa that cluing new too? All good fun, ta both.

21. Definitely not a quick solve for me, with SOUP, SAIGON and especially UNINSTALL holding out longest. Even the now simple looking CHIFFON was pretty hard with ‘off’ misleadingly part of the anagram fodder rather than being an indicator as I’d thought.

    KITSCH was my favourite.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi

22. Was that cluing …

23. Thanks TimC @16, objection withdrawn.

24. I’ve checked a couple of online dictionary sites for BLUE=waste, to no avail. Can someone point me at a source please?
    (I really enjoyed this today, slow start, fast finish. Thanks to Vulcan and manehi)

25. Steve @24 – Collins online has it (definition 27!)

26. essexboy @23… I did refrain from the example of….

    The love of my life: “Can I get you anything my dear?”

    Me: “No thanks, I think I’ll just resettle myself on the couch here. Oh wait, another beer from the fridge would go down well my dearest”.

27. And just to add – Chambers’ second definition of ‘blue’ is ‘squander’.

28. Thank you essexboy @25 and Sarah @27 (I need to up my Dictionary game ?)

29. [Tim C, I’m sure I’ve quoted this before, but…
    Eth: Oh Ron! Do you expect me to just sit here… like a lemon?
    Ron: No thanks Eth, I’ve just had a banana.]

30. Nice solve this morning with ANTELOPES being my favourite.

    The use of the homophone ‘dear’/’deer’ seems to have occurred in so many crosswords recently. Such a pity.

    EVERTON have an ( indirect ? ) link with the UNESCO removal of the Liverpool from its list of world heritage sites. The Liverpool waterfront will shortly have a towering new Everton stadium at the Bramley Moore dock site. Unesco felt that “heritage” here was most definitely the presentation and preservation of Victorian docks and, among modern developments, EVERTON’s Bramley Moore was the last straw.

    Thank you Vulcan and manehi.

31. The ? above replaced a smile emoji.

32. [essexboy @29 🙂 ]

33. I’m with aqualung @19, I had TITHE right up until 27a couldn’t be anything else. To my mind it is a far neater parsing than OWLET and could have passed as a clue/solution in its own right in any crossword anywhere.
    SOUP was second last in anmd UNINSTALL was a bung in and wait for 225.
    Overall a good Monday though, with thanks to Vulcan and Manehi.

34. As others have said, a little tricky for a Monday, but rather fun. I liked UNINSTALL!

    BLUE CHIP and RESETTLE were my LOIs as I wasn’t sure how to get to BLUE or SETTLE, but they turned out to be the only plausible options.

    Thanks Vulcan & manehi.

35. I often find Vulcan quite frustrating (but not in a good way) for what is billed as an easy puzzle. I guess I’m just not on his/her wavelength. I did finish this but OWLET doesn’t seem to be even slightly cryptic.

36. I also confidently entered TITHE until it had to be the less satisfying OWLET.

37. Doofs @33 – see Brendan 28,971

38. I think TITHE doesn’t really work here because barn doesn’t define tithe. A tithe barn is one where tithes were stored. The Brendan clue defines it as “kind of barns”.

    Still not 100% clear how the clue defines OWLET either though, tbh.

39. I suppose a Barn Owl might nest in a barn and raise OWLETS. Rather a weak clue, though.

40. This was a little tougher than the usual Monday fare but I thought it was a really enjoyable puzzle.

    22 across would make more sense to me without the word ‘into’ being in the clue.

    Thanks V&M

41. Steady solve with a few tricky bits of vocab and – to me at least – some pretty unconvincing cryptic definitions. I can’t remember a puzzle where I’ve entered so many answers thinking “that sort of makes sense…” I quite liked KITSCH as a slightly novel but fair mechanism. Thanks V&M.

42. Nice start to the week. Thank for for the parse of 9A.

    Favorite was 15A, nicely constructed.

43. Mostly pretty good although UNINSTALL felt a bit half-baked – was the ! a DBE indicator perhaps? And I’m still not sure I understand the “not right” part of ACUTE

    I’m sure we all enjoyed the Half Man Half Biscuit reference to “Took Problem Chimp To IDEAL HOME Show”

    Cheers V&M

44. Generally good Monday fare, although as others have noted, maybe a bit trickier than usual.

    I was also stymied by BLUE = waste. STP @24, here’s what the ODE says: British informal, dated squander or recklessly spend (money): they blued it all on sweets, toys, and cigarettes.

    I quite liked SEANCE (took ages thinking of other words for funeral) and SORE POINT. I didn’t understand UNINSTALL, but think it’s quite good now that it has been explained.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

45. I was lucky insofar as BLUE = squander has appeared in puzzles before; I’ve never ever encountered it out in the wild but it’s odd enough to remember. SOUP, KITSCH, SKINHEAD, RED PLANET, PINCHES, SORE POINT and UNINSTALL were favourites today. I do agree with muffin @5 that the A is not ideal in the clue for QUATRAIN; it could have been left out altogether.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi

46. Never heard of blue meaning waste. I thought it was a homophone of blew, without an indicator.

47. Found dictionary blue = squander. Does that mean I’ve been wrongly thinking the word was blew?

    Good puzzle. Thanks both.

48. I’ve met blue=spend irresponsibly before, but not up=revolting. I’m not sure that ANTELOPES are ever so-called “deer” – certainly not by the sort of people who do cryptic crosswords!

    Liked ACUTE though I missed the grave accent not being related to angles like the others. Also liked KITSCH (again), QUATRAIN, RED PLANET and SEANCE.

49. Shouldnt 8 have been “year missing” rather than “a Year missing”
    (From pedants corner)

50. [Tim C, and eb @29 (and yes, I too have probably quoted this before, but) …
    Ron (repeatedly): Take them off Eth, go on, take them off
    Eth (finally): No Ron, you know I can’t see without them]

51. poc@35. 23d works okay as a cryptic definition, because the surface definition appears to refers to something that may be nestling (verb) in a barn, whereas the hidden meaning is something that may be A nestling in a barn, i.e. a reference to a young bird likely to be found in barns

52. PostMark and copmus
    If there were more than one Y in the fodder, “a year” would have worked. As there is only one, it either doesn’t make sense, or it implies that the A should be subtracted as well. That’s why I suggested “the year”.

53. Nice.
    Just needed help with the parsing of 6a and 7d.
    Thanks both.

54. Somewhat embarrassed to say I initially put SICK in for 6a (liquid lunch, rather revolting)…

55. A little tricky for a Monday? I’m sorry to say this went down for me without touching the sides. But then I always solve on my smartphone, so UNINSTALL gave no trouble 🙂

    I agree that the ‘a’ in the clue for QUATRAIN shouldn’t be there, but otherwise I was more than happy with the
    standard and variety of the clues. Being of the red persuasion, the clue for EVERTON provoked mixed feelings…

    Thanks to S&B

56. Alastair @47 – with youmin that, I though it was BLEW.

57. I agree with manehi that this was tricky in places but I enjoyed the humour in this puzzle. Liked ANTELOPES, SOUP, EXPOSED, IDEAL HOME.

    I could not parse:
    21ac BLUE = waste (that’s new for me)
    22ac only got as far as I in SAGON
    25ac
    5d
    7d

    Thanks, both.

58. Bit tougher than the quiptic. I had the same parsing issues as many others, notably BLUE meaning squander (I too thought it was a homophone lacking an indicator), and EVERTON I got from wordplay but I have no idea of their troubles. I had no bother with UNINSTALL (my phone is never far from my hand) but the surface would have made as much sense, and been more accessible to more solvers, as e.g. ‘Get off the computer!’

    I liked HOT TUB followed by SNOWFALL.

    Thanks both.

59. HoofIt @54 – I will hold my hand up to that too…

60. Blew means squandered so BLUE is a homonym if the past tense if a synonym. “San” seems to be another of those words only encountered in crosswords

61. 1a Antelopes are not deer, as I have learned from this site. Deer are cervids and antelopes are bovids, being more closely related to cows than to deer, though they’ve evolved in a parallel sort of way to look like them. “So-called” is working here as a homophone indicator, so it can’t be doubling as a way of saying “erroneously called.”

    20d CHIFFON I took “off” to be the anagram indicator and “about”
    to mean “on,” instead of the reverse. Anybody else?

    Thanks, Vulcan and manehi.

    It seems unusual for a clue such as the one for EVERTON to refer to a current problem, which will make the clue baffling for solvers who come to it later. Clues do refer to current political events, but those are more likely to stick in memory.

    bodycheetah@43 As the blog says, an acute angle is not a right angle.

62. Stools aren’t low (bar stools?). Antelopes are never deer, unless so called by idiots. Too many vague clues for me. It wasn’t helped by my initial entering of QUARTINA for the poem – I have written a lot of quartinas – 4-line versions of seatinas.

63. sestinas, I meant.

64. Picking up on Valentine@61’s comments on ANTELOPES, if we want to be generous and allow the double-duty, we have two operations to get there from “dear”. So along with the rest of the clue, which is certainly wordplay, doesn’t that make this clue a double-wordplay, with no definition?

65. Thanks for the blog, I thought BLUE CHIP was good in a misleading sense.
    To BLUE = to waste always seems wrong but it is fine although probably only seen in crosswords.
    I can easily beat TimC @14 , our only phone is a 1950s green bakelite GPO model, totally original apart from the wire into the wall. A proper dial and a proper bell to ring.

66. [ AlanC number 1 yet again but I have the lead. The FT has a new monthly puzzle and I was Number 1 in the very first blog, this counts for 10 , see the small-print in the rules. I make it 12-5 to me this year . ]

67. I’d imagine that the people who were baffled by UNINSTALL skew old. My mom, 76, has an iPhone now, but I’d be willing to bet she’s never installed a single app on it, let alone uninstalled one. Meanwhile, for those of us under say 50, smartphones have made themselves indispensable. (Full disclosure: I had to cheat on that one–ran out of time–but understood the clue right away once I did.)

    The dodgy ANTELOPES clue had me thinking of this:

    Oh give me a home,
    Where the buffalo roam,
    Where the deer and the antelope play,
    Where seldom is heard
    A discouraging word,
    And the skies are not cloudy all day.

68. Bodycheetah@43: someone else may have filled you in, but just in case: not right …. an acute angle is not a right angle …

69. Was tempted by SNOT for 6ac……TONS backwards. I have a cold.

70. More than 80% of this went in without, as Gervase says, touching the sides. But I was well and truly stuck in the SE corner with the clue for 25a giving me no inkling of how to solve it, and synonyms for ‘fine fabric’ and ‘tackle’ also eluding me. But, as usual, a complete break led to me seeing ‘cold shower’ with freshened brain cells and the other two fell in a trice. So, as others have said, this felt trickier than usual for a Monday.

    I thought ‘so-called “dear”‘ was good – I’m sure there have been many clues where the definition has been deer but the answer a member of the ANTELOPE family, which Vulcan was surely alluding to. The clue suggests to me that Vulcan sometimes lurks here (or below the line on the Guardian’s own page) and has seen the criticism, so I’m sure he’ll be disappointed that his little joke seems to have fallen so flat.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

71. BLUE as “waste” was new to me.

    As a toffee (Everton fan) I think it’s a bit harsh above to blame Everton for the UNESCO debacle. The planners have revitalised the city centre and waterfront with a number of new buildings. I was there on Saturday and it still impresses. The new Everton stadium promises to be a worthwhile part of this regeneration and well away from the famous waterfront “graces”.

72. I’m quite familiar with blew as in “I blew 50 quid at the races” but have always thought it was spelt as I have – not blue

73. Yes, BLUE as waste is in the dictionary but the entry also indicates ‘perhaps a variant of blow’. I suppose this is one of those misuses that has unfortunately entered the language due to frequent usage. It should, of course, be “blew”.

    I try not to blow my paycheque all in one go but last week I blew it all at the pub on Friday.

    I don’t think this kind of misuse should be further solidified by being in the Guardian crossword!

74. Tyro @72
    As a past tense, the “blue” version would have been “I blued 50 quid at the races”, so they aren’t exactly equivalent.
    I must say I’m surprised that so many here haven’t heard the expression.

75. Just a contribution to the “blue” thread, it was common in conversations about Australian shearers, e.g. , “And once I rung Cudjingie shed and blued it in a week”.
    NB. “ring” for shearers was to be the most prolific performer at a particular station/shed.

76. And here’s The Magnet from 1913 (the Greyfriars/Billy Bunter story paper):

    “You don’t mean to say that you’ve blued a whole quid in one afternoon?”

    (p.13 of the paper, p.15 of the pdf, right-hand column, about half-way down)

77. Valentine @61. Could the quotation marks be serving as homophone indicators? Then ‘So-called’ wouldn’t be doing double-duty.

    Thanks for filling us in about cervids and bovids. I don’t think I’d ever thought about antelopes’ family trees before but I shall endeavour to remember this next time they make an appearance : )

78. There is a very significant difference between deer and antelopes; deer lose their antlers every year, antelopes (and cows, for that matter) retain their horns.

79. Katherine @77. That’s a possibility, and I wouldn’t discount it. I think (see #70) that Vulcan was indicating that he GNU (sorry, knew 🙂 ) that ANTELOPES are not deer, but either ‘so-called’ or the quote marks could be indicating that, or the homophone, or both.

80. ‘Blue’ meaning ‘waste’ generates an amazing amount of discussion every time it appears!

81. coyb!

82. Ok, navidier @75 and eb @6, you’ve convinced me it’s a genuine thing and not an auditory blur of blew.

83. [Hi Simon S. It’s going back a bit now but you were right of course about Jeff Beck
    … it was Truth, I’d just forgotten]

84. Add me to the nho ‘blue’ list, even in this hallowed blog. Add me to the dunce list too because I couldn’t parse CHIFFON and there’s just no excuse for that.

85. mrpenney @67…. you need to get with the current trend

86. A milking stool is a low seat ..

87. AS @ 86 So is a footstool

88. Finished just in time – bit of a struggle, but got there. Never come across that meaning of blue. Loved antelopes. Thanks Manehi and Vulcan

89. Thanks Manehi and Vulcan. Mainly a quick some but the NW corner held out for some time. I rather liked SKINHEAD and HIT THE BAR as well as ANTELOPES. As regards UNINSTALL, at the grand (???) old age of 71 I have an Android smartphone and often install and uninstall apps. But then, I did spend my entire working life looking after computers….

90. If it’s “blue” and not “blew” (or both), how do you say “don’t blow it” if you mean blue and not blew?

91. Sorry to be slow, I lacked access to electronics yesterday while my fuse box was updated.

    I found it interesting to read the comments, as CHIFFON for me went in as I read it, but I do have some chiffon to sew with, a couple of lengths with planned garments. One of the easier clues, but I find that with fabric and sewing terms, because I use them I don’t find them as esoteric as others do.

    On blue for blueing pocket money, I have read it before, probably in the first book mentioned, but not for a while, but it did come to mind when I was solving the clue, when I had enough crossers. Because I find these discussions fascinating, I checked the Grammarphobia Blog (because this is what came up when I searched), blue was used in English English decades before the verb blow acquired the meaning of blowing budgets, but has faded out of use, last seen used in a novel in 1990.

    Thank you to Vulcan and manehi.

92. 21 I interpreted blue as blew, then it makes more sense.
    Otherwise good.

93. Probably too late for anyone to notice, but I remember an Irish man in my local in the 80’s and 90’s who often used to sing: ‘There was johhny mcEldoo amd McGee and me and a couple or two or three went on a spree one day. We had a bob or two which we knew how to blue and the beer and whiskey flew and we all felt gay…… etc.

94. I had no idea that blue meant blow. I hadn’t a clew.

95. Took me all week, but finally got there. I wasn’t impressed with UNINSTALL.

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