Thank you to Picaroon for the challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
The central column of the completed grid (9 down) gives a landmark of London. Six other landmarks are hidden in the remaining columns – from left to right: TOWER, THAMES, GHERKIN, SHARD, TATE (Britain), GLOBE.
Across
1. Day ending often in scandal, where sailors may be found (7)
FRIGATE : FRI(abbrev. for “Friday”) + -GATE(suffix/ending often used to signify a scandal, which usage started after the US Watergate scandal).
5. Measure to avoid disorder in South American diplomacy? (4,3)
RIOT ACT : RIO(de Janeiro, city in South America) as a qualifier to TACT(diplomacy/discretion).
10. Pose and sit in odd places? This shows I crave attention (4)
PSST : Respective 1st and 3rd letters of(in odd places) “Pose” plus(and) “sit“.
Defn: Exclamation to attract attention but surreptitiously.
11. Dull article in Paris Match about leaving Tours (10)
UNEXCITING : UN(article in French grammar, as can be found in the magazine Paris Match) + [ C(abbrev. for “circa”/about/around the time of a particular year) contained in(… Tours/travels round) EXITING(leaving/getting out of) ].
12. Mostly try to score before Hearts in tie (6)
ATTACH : “attack”(to try to score in, say, a football match) minus its last letter(Mostly …) plus(before) H(abbrev. for “Hearts”, the suit in a deck of playing cards)
13. Concerning muscle contractions, getting treated is costly (8)
SYSTOLIC : Anagram of(treated) IS COSTLY.
Defn: … of the heart.
14. Loudly criticise pudding getting stick down under (9)
BOOMERANG : Homophone of(Loudly) [ “boo!”(exclamation to criticise/show disapproval) + “meringue”(a pudding/a dessert made from egg whites and sugar) ].
Defn: …, in Australia, that is.
16. Phase one neglected in prehistoric period (5)
STAGE : “one” deleted from(neglected in) “Stone Age”(the prehistoric period when weapons and tools were made of stone or organic material).
17. Chic European wanting second husband (5)
SWISH : “Swiss”(a national from Switzerland in Europe) minus(wanting) “s”(abbrev. for “second” in time notation) + H(abbrev. for “husband”).
19. Coat reapplied with flair in building with eight columns (9)
OCTASTYLE : Anagram of(… reapplied) COAT plus(with) STYLE(flair/elegance).
23. Atmosphere in April, possibly a revolutionary month (8)
PRAIRIAL : AIR(atmosphere where one breathes and lives in) contained in(in) anagram of(…, possibly) APRIL.
Defn: … in the French Revolutionary calendar.
24. Policeman carries little British idiots across the pond (6)
DWEEBS : DS(abbrev. for “Detective Sergeant”, a policeman) containing(carries) [WEE(little/tiny) + B(abbrev. for “British”) ].
Defn: …, that is, as they are called in the USA.
26. Unreal match, Spain getting hammered (10)
PHANTASMIC : Anagram of(… getting hammered) MATCH, SPAIN.
27. Singer‘s articles from Buenos Aires (4)
ELLA : EL,LA(2 articles in Spanish grammar as spoken in Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Answer: … Fitzgerald, jazz singer.
28. Perhaps one of those who backed Holly in game (7)
CRICKET : Double defn: 1st: …, that is, played with Buddy Holly, rock and roll singer.
29. Bar worker‘s rent cut by politician given latitude (7)
TEMPLAR : TEAR(a rent/a rip) contained in(cut by) [ MP(abbrev. for a Member of Parliament, an elected politician) plus(given) L(abbrev. for “latitude”) ].
Defn: Whimsically, …/a lawyer who has been called to the Bar and lives or has chambers in the Middle or Inner Temple in London.
Down
2. Male German teacher needing return fare from Italy (7)
RISOTTO : Reversal of(… needing return) [ OTTO(a somewhat common male German name) + SIR(form of address for a male teacher) ].
Landmark 1:
3. German district capital is not quite New York (5)
GOTHA : “Gotham”(informal name for New York) minus its last letter(not quite …).
Defn: Capital city of the German district of the same name.
Landmark 2:
4. Jerk accepting old lady’s more badass (7)
TOUGHER : TUG(a jerk/a hard or sudden pull) containing(accepting) O(abbrev. for “old”) + HER(third person feminine pronoun, say, for a lady).
Defn: …/intimidating.
Landmark 3:
6. Way of paying hotel led by former empire-builders (2,4)
IN CASH : H(letter represented by “hotel”, in the phonetic alphabet) placed below(led by, in a down clue) INCAS(former/long past empire builders in South America).
Landmark 5:
7. Idiot favouring rubbish principle of The Avengers? (3,3,3)
TIT FOR TAT : TIT(an idiot/an ineffectual person) + FOR(favouring/seconding) TAT(rubbish/cheap and bad articles like clothing or jewellery).
Defn: …, or “one bad turn deserves another”.
Landmark 6:
8. Hapless chap playing with words, not initially clever (7)
CUNNING : “chap” minus(…less) “Hap” + “punning”(playing with words/making a joke with the meanings of words) minus its 1st letter(not initially).
Landmark 7:
Then: 
… and now: 
9. New and funny no less, opinion piece is a capital feature (among six others here) (7,6)
NELSON’S COLUMN : N(abbrev. for “new”) plus(and) anagram of(funny) NO LESS + COLUMN(a regular article/piece in a newspaper or magazine, giving the opinion of the writer on a particular subject).
Defn: …, that is, features in the capital city of London, hidden in the completed crossword grid.
Landmark 4:
15. Football star caught gathering in a shot, miraculously able to save (9)
MESSIANIC : [ MESSI(Lionel, Argentinian footballer) + C(abbrev. for “caught” in cricket scores) ] containing(gathering) anagram of(… shot) IN A.
Defn: Describing one who is …/a saviour.
18. Literary Romantic hero briefly used to be the king (7)
WERTHER : “were”(used to be) minus its last letter(briefly …) + THE + R(abbrev. for “Rex”/the reigning king).
Defn: Fictional hero in “The Sorrows of Young Werther”, written by Goethe, and which influenced the Romantic movement.
20. Doctor raced outside of healthcare department in France (7)
ARDÈCHE : Anagram of(Doctor) RACED + 1st and last letters of(outside of) “healthcare“.
Defn: An administrative region/department in Southeastern France.
21. Fling and booze-up, one admitted, is a bloomer (7)
LOBELIA : LOB(to fling/to toss something high) plus(and) reversal of(…-up, in a down clue) ALE(booze/alcoholic drink) containing(… admitted) I(Roman numeral for “one”).
22. A bit of work in a search for enzyme (6)
KINASE : Hidden in(A bit of) “work in a search“.
25. Look over VIP speaking in EastEnders (3,2)
EYE UP : Homophone of(speaking) “high-up”(a VIP/a very important person in an organisation) or “‘igh-up” as expressed by inhabitants of the East End of London who are featured in “EastEnders”, the British TV soap opera.
I did wonder whether lu was a spanish article to give Lulu instead of ELLA. Also whether Lola would be acceptable a la (or should that be a lo?!) The Kinks
Favourites were RIOT ACT for South American diplomacy and STAGE for “one” being one instead of ‘i’ or ‘a’
I also enjoyed finding the extra features including the extra “EYE” overlapping with the TATE at 25 down
Solved the puzzle without aids but missed the theme. Relied on wordplay for some solutions (e.g. ‘prairial’, ‘kinase’ and ‘Ardeche’) but all fair enough. As always, an excellent challenge from Picaroon.
Seven words I’d never heard of, but I didn’t mind, as the wordplay worked well. I never knew that a tit could be an idiot, and the workings of CRICKET eluded me. Also I couldn’t work out how “Match” was involved in 11a.
Thanks Picaróon.
Oh, and I missed the theme.
Thanks for the blog, scchua.
Hard work and great fun, made harder by entering an unparsed CHAPLIN then CHARLIE at 8d. Also missed the theme after seeing RIGA in 1a and RIO in 5a so was looking for capital cities instead. I know, Rio is not a capital, so I was quite far off the mark all in all.
One quibble, is a DWEEB an idiot? I always thought it was more of a nerd, but I stand to be corrected on that.
Tedious.
I’m sure “boo meringue” has been done before but it raised a smile. For TEMPLAR I thought maybe there was a composer of that name but couldn’t trace one.
Before I’d spotted all the hiddens I did wonder if ANGST and MICE might be features of the capital, and I suppose they are, but not the intended ones.
Many thanks Picaroon and scchua.
Fiery Jack @5…. Chambers has dweeb (US derog sl) n a fool, nerd.
I still didn’t see the London landmarks though the clue to 9d told us about them. I thought there were too many words unknown to me (and probably many people) in this very clever puzzle.
Wouldn’t have spotted the theme / Nina without the hint. Never heard of the twin Germanic clues GOTHA and WERTHER, not helped by tricky parsing for the latter. KINASE was a good example of a hidden that took ages to spot.
There’s also EYE at 25d as another London landmark, though it doesn’t span two answers.
Thanks to scchua and Picaroon
The literary knowledge of this poor slogger way too shallow to have any chance with WERTHER, and needed a word search to find PRAIRIAL, KINASE, & GOTHA.
Got there in the end and all reasonably fair but hard going, I felt.
Smiled at Boo meringue and Rio tact.
Still don’t quite understand what ending is doing in FRIGATE.
Many thanks, both.
Like Fiery Jack, I was looking for some more to go with RIGA and RIO, before spotting what was in the other columns (I like the way NELSONS COLUMN gives a hint about where to look). Lots of rare words today, but the wordplay was mostly effective in deducing them. I needed a list to find PRAIRIAL, and OCTASTYLE was a jorum, but it was GOTHA that gave me the most trouble. I have worked in a legal environment for a good many years without ever hearing TEMPLAR for lawyer – but no doubt it’s old slang preserved in a dictionary somewhere.
This was tough but enjoyable. I liked FRI-GATE, RIO TACT and BOO MERINGUE, and of course CRICKET.
Yes, I wondered about LULU too.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
I didn’t see the theme, of course, and I needed your parsing for TOUGHER. PRAIRIAL was a jorum, and Google initially told me it was a submarine!
I laughed out loud at BOOMERANG, but when I showed the clue independently to my wife and daughter, they both said “that’s terrible”!
William@11: I think “ending, often, in scandal” gives GATE as in Watergate and a multitude of other scandalous something-gates.
Some nice clues as always, but I find this type of puzzle tiresome. The many obscurities suck the fun out of it for me, and I don’t think I’m alone.
I foolishly went looking for Ionic, Corinthian and Doric having guessed that columns were the thematic element. (There is also a Knights Templar column), but a good day for those classic crossword experiences of finding a word that you hardly knew from the wordplay (PRAIRIAL, OCTASTYLE) and its opposite of seeing the definition and then the penny dropping about the wordplay.
There’s also a ‘generous’ version of Tit-for-Tat – something which might have appealed to Simon TEMPLAR, perhaps.
The French Republican calendar (PRAIRIAL et al) is a fascinating story. They also tried to decimalise time. Each day had 10 hours, each hour had 100 minutes, each minute had 100 seconds. It didn’t catch on.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua, this was right up my rue/Straße. Loved SWISH.
William @11, re ‘ending’ – I think we’ve had a discussion before about Watergategate 😉
Another brilliant puzzle from Picaroon. It’s getting quite a feature of his to introduce a theme well into the solve, for people like me who work through the clues in order, giving an extra level of enjoyment in going back to discover the bonus.
(As if there wasn’t already enough to enjoy here!) I had ticks for 11ac UNEXCITING, 13ac SYSTOLIC, 14ac BOOMERANG, 16ac STAGE, 28ac CRICKET, 6dn IN CASH, and15dn MESSIANIC – I’ve pared down the list. I loved the reminders of one of my favourite singers at 28ac and French holidays in 20dn.
Lord Jim @7 – you’re right, of course: ‘boo meringue’ has been done before. My favourite previous one is from Julius in the FT in 2018:
Give some stick to Pavlova; by the sound of it, quite some stick! (9)
It also reminded me of the classic Scottish joke:
Short-sighted Scotsman to a baker: Is that a doughnut, or a meringue?
Baker: You’re right—it’s a doughnut.
Many thanks to Picaroon for helping me start a snowy morning with a smile on my face and to scchua for a super pictorial blog.
Sheer class from start to finish.
Not much else to compare with it today so this blog was a neat reminder for me to seek out the other landmarks
although I couldnt see the Star, Belgravia!
Thanks Pickers and scchua.
What Eileen said in her first paragraph
I had quite a battle with this one, even though I knew once I’d solved 9d that I had to find other landmarks. I did smile at FRI GATE
Thanks very much to Picaroon and scchua
Badly defeated by this, thought that when NELSON’S COLUMN popped up it would lead nicely to six other London landmarks in the grid. Even tried Meme at 10ac for a while. Eventually floundered out and came on here for clarification. Well done to those who succeeded with this today…
Lovely puzzle – thanks to Picaroon. It fell in its separate quadrants for me, north-west, north-east, then the central clue at 9d, then the south-west and finally the south-east. There were a couple of references here with which I wasn’t familiar, but fortunately the wordplays, anagrams etc made them gettable. Thanks to scchua for the helpful and interesting blog – I forgot to go back and look for the other six columns after I solved NELSON’S COLUMN at 9d, so was pleased to be enlightened. Those clever inclusions added to the admiration I feel for Picaroon as a setter. At this risk of repeating the solutions others found enjoyable, the ones that received ticks from me were 13a SYSTOLIC, 14a BOOMERANG (though not sure it’s a “stick” per se), 28a CRICKET and 15d MESSIANIC, while 19a OCTASTYLE made a lot of sense.
Lovely puzzle from the Pirate. As a scientist, having studied biochemistry, KINASE was a write-in, but my former profession doesn’t mean that I have no knowledge of Goethe, architecture, French geography and the revolutionary calendar, or didn’t know that the Windsors were really Saxe-Coburg GOTHA (qv yesterday’s contretemps 🙂 ). Consequently, there were no unknowns here for me, fortunately. But I couldn’t make any sense of CRICKET (should have seen that 🙁 ).
I liked the RIO TACT and the sneaky ‘old lady’s’. Lionel Messi makes another appearance (more successfully in crosswords than with PSG, it seems). ‘Hapless’ is an example of a device we have seen a lot lately but we haven’t had a ‘gate’ for a while. And PSST is a favourite. But all well employed, with good constructions and surfaces.
Although I found the key phrase quite early, I forgot to look for the other landmarks, feeling so smug at having finished the puzzle. Sorry!
Thanks to S&B
An amazing puzzle this morning. Coincidentally, PSST and Messi have come up very recently in clues and solutions. Pleased to say that I’ve been to all those London attractions in my time, including the “eye” ( twice ). “Swiss” was a major building block in 17a and “The Swiss Re Building” is the official name of The Gherkin.
Thought 8d was a CUNNING clue, especially as TIT FOR TAT punnings are often observed in this forum.
When I spotted it was Friday that unlocked 1a, I said to myself “That’ll be the day” and then lo and behold – Buddy Holly and The Crickets appeared in 28a. Here’s my tribute earworm
https://youtu.be/eq9FCBatl3A
Thank you Picaroon and scchua.
Interestingly, although the revolutionary government attempted (with varying success) to decimalise weights, measures, hours, minutes and seconds, and even ten days to the week, they stuck to twelve months.
[JinA @22
What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t come back?
A stick!]
I knew what the theme was, having solved 9dn early, but the implementation was much too obscure for me to spot, as were some of the clue parsings.
Eileen @18 and Copmus @19 sum it up perfectly for me. Lovely puzzle. Thanks, Picaroon & scchua.
Enjoyable puzzle, but I failed on ELLA. Heard of Ella Fitzgerald, of course, but haven’t previously heard her referred to by first-name only. After revealing the answer, I wondered if there was another singer called simply “Ella”.
Lots of looking up unknown words, like WERTHER, PRAIRIAL and OCTASTYLE, which meant I learnt a lot.
I was wondering where the other landmarks were after solving this, slowly, and didn’t spot them. Although when I read your blurb listing them, my immediate thought was Tate Modern to go with the other modern sights of the Gherkin, Globe and Shard.
Thank you to Picaroon and scchua (and I started writing this hours ago, so who knows who I’ve crossed with.)
I felt very pleased to solve this challenging but rewarding puzzle, but although I realised there were 6 other London landmarks I could not – and still cannot – see them in the answers or wordplay. Can anyone help?
Thanks to P and s
Since we’re recycling old jokes, I remember this one from I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue: FRIGATE – a warship that no-one likes.
Gladys @14 & essexboy @17: Thanks. You’re right, we’ve discussed gate before, should have spotted it but couldn’t get my mind off Day ending…”.
SinCam@31 : Identify the central horizontal puzzle lights involving 3 black blanks, 3 black blanks, 3 black blanks, 3 black blanks. Scan the verticals immediately above and below that horizontal line. ( where the verticals are solutions ). You’ll have the London landmarks as the last fragment of upper + the first fragment of lower. The leftmost and first I’d TO WER.
Brilliant puzzle, which I’m very pleased to have solved given all the unfamiliar words in the solutions. Never spotted the theme, which makes me realise it was even more brilliant than I thought. CUNNING and CRICKET were two favourites but there was a lot to enjoy here. Many thanks to Picaroon and scchua.
is. Drat predictive text !
Challenging and enjoyable, helped by relevant GK. My only complaint is 21D which I got from parsing but had never heard of. I have a general dislike of names of flowers as answers; I tend to think of them as a last resort of the setter. But perhaps that simply reflects a huge gap in my GK: to me, all flower names are obscure!
Brilliant puzzle! A joy from start to finish.
Favourite was the hapless chap’s CUNNING
It took a lot of looking to find the six other capital features even though we’re clearly announced.
Thanks to Picaroon and scchua
Jacob @37: Commiserations over your knowledge gap – we all have them. But I’m sure LOBELIA (widely used as a bedding plant) is familiar to far more people than ARDÈCHE or OCTASTYLE. Just be thankful it wasn’t ESCHSCHOLZIA 🙂
Having got NELSON’S COLUMN quite early, I kept looking in the increasingly completed grid for more landmarks, all the time marvelling how I just happened to be randomly solving non-themed clues. When there were only a handful left I realized something was afoot, but couldn’t see what, until I saw G LOBE right after the last clue went in (and thenI saw the remaining themers). That brought more of a smile than most of the clues, although I really liked PSST.
I got all the jorums already mentioned, through the meticulous wordplay, but failed on FRIGATE and RIOT ACT, which with hindsight, we’re not difficult. Knew there was obviously a theme on London landmarks but apart from the EYE, I failed to spot them. Maybe a bit too clever by half but congrats to y’all who completed it.
Ta Picaroon & scchua for the cracking blog.
Defeated me today. OCTASTYLE new to me but clear from the clueing, so no problem there. However, I had never encountered PRAIRIAL and since I’m too uncouth to have read Goethe I didn’t have all the crossers. As a result the south west corner remained incomplete.
Thanks for the elucidation. Excellent puzzle despite my travails.
A very slow start, less than a third done before I took a break. Came back later and things gradually fell into place. A couple of new words but gettable one way or another (with a touch of external assistance, admittedly). I got NELSONS COLUMN early and made a mental note to look for other landmarks, but evidently forgot this until coming here.
Liked RIOT ACT, STAGE and CRICKET.
Cheers both.
[Among the months in the French Revolutionary Calendar there are really only two which have some further currency: Germinal (novel by Zola – but is that ‘obscure’?) and (lobster) Thermidor]
Wow, that is such a cool puzzle! Challenging, fun, satisfying.
The bottom half of this was much harder than the top for me, probably because that’s where most of the less-familiar words were. I cheated on the flower; botany is one of the biggest lacunae in my vocabulary. To me, once you’re past the basic daisies and daffodils, they’re all just flowers.
As I’m of course a fan of the musical theatre, TIT FOR TAT always makes me think of Mama Morton from Chicago: “Some say that life is tit for tat, and that’s the way to live / Well I deserve a lot of tat for what I’ve got to give!”
Did anyone else spot Ella phant and oCtASTyLE?
Oh, and to answer the question above: DWEEB is (or was–it’s probably already passé) an all-purpose playground insult aimed at the non-cool kids. So yes, more often a nerd than an idiot, but could be either.
I’ve never read Goethe but I’m familiar with WERTHER because of the Massenet opera based on the novel. Just saying…
Like others, After I got NELSON’S COLUMN,I started looking for other answers that were London landmarks and once the grid was completed(with help from aids) I still did not spot them.
Found it tough. My favourites were MESSIANIC, FRIGATE, IN CASH, LOBELIA, DWEEBS
Thanks both
A very good puzzle. I suppose it was rather taxing, but that was never due to overly fanciful cluing, in my view.
Gervase@44 The 18th Brumaire is familiar to students if Marx.
Clever to get all the broken themers in; so clever that I missed them!
I was wondering why Picaroon had done a Pasquale on us. Mind you, I think Botha for 3 and probate/tribute for 1 would have been easier, at least for some of us. My favourite was the RIO TACT, but there were many other fine clues.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
I found this puzzle very tough and I forgot to look for a theme.
I did not parse 11ac, 16ac; 29ac bar worker = TEMPLAR but suspected it might have something to do with what scchua has suggested.
Wondered if 27ac ELLA = singer referred to Fitzgerald.
New for me ARDECHE; WERTHER, SYSTOLIC; OCTASTYLE; I have heard of Buddy Holly but not the CRICKETS; KINASE; PRAIRIAL.
Thanks, both.
Very nice blog. Thanks scchua. Found the puzzle a bit of a slog with WERTHER, OCTASTYLE, PRAIRIAL, ARDECHE, LOBELIA and GOTHA all showing the limits of my GK. SYSTOLIC was my favourite and KINASE, annoyingly (!) the LOI but immediately became a second favourite. thanks Picaroon.
Half of this was tedious for me, the other half impenetrable. Too bad because I like Picaroon. Maybe next time. Thanks to both.
I’ll repeat my occasional gripe about ambiguous anagrams. No reason to expect a solver to know PRAIRIAL, and it could equally have been ARPIRIAL. Even worse is that to get the R you needed WERTHER, although at least spotting the theme would confirm that. ARDECHE is an example of how to actually do it – no ambiguity there.
Otherwise, some very enjoyable bits and pieces (BOOMERANG, SYSTOLIC, the ‘hapless chap’), but ultimately a bit on the clever-clever side for this solver.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua.
cardamom @ 57 The clue (to me at least) signals clearly that only APRIL is to be anagrammed, with a synonym for ‘atmosphere’ within the result. So it was a case of looking for plausible result of that exercise. I solved 18 later, so 23 gave me the R for Werther, not the other way round.
Thanks both,
Grand puzzle but I managed to convince myself that the theme was newspaper columns like Peter Simple and surely there were diaries and gossip columns called ‘Nelson’, ‘Octastyle’, ‘Ella’ and so on. Alas it was not to be.
Simon S @58 You know, I’ll concede that. I couldn’t get a handle on the parsing while solving so was also trying to making something (i.e. AIR) reverse due to ‘revolutionary’, which it is in both praiRIAl and arpiRIAl. But if it were the latter the ‘a’ would be entirely redundant. Still feel it’s asking rather too much as the concept of a ‘revolutionary month’ is hardly common, but not technically sloppy as I’d first thought.
I am amazed at the quantity of grumbles about the vocabulary in this crossword. Obviously Picaroon was constrained by wanting to put in all those Ninas, but I found nothing here as out-of-the way as you would regularly find in a barred puzzle. Am I the only one for whom the GK worked? This is the Guardian, not the Sun!
Gervase, if you can’t understand why a puzzle including SYSTOLIC, OCTASTYLE, PRAIRIAL, GOTHA, WERTHER, ARDECHE, LOBELIA and KINASE might be considered a little rich for a regular weekday slot then I can only suggest you’re lacking in imagination. Frankly I find your comment somewhere between unimaginative and arrogant.
(naturally some people will have heard of some of the above, as indeed I had, but together they’re a pretty gruesome set)
Thanks for the blog, I liked the GATE bit of 1AC , the neglcted ONE in STAGE and CUNNING was very cunning. Very good overall but ELLA has raced to the top of my list for worst clues of the year. The relative obscurities were very fair in the wordplay.
The Sorrows of Young Werther is so sad, I defy anyone to read it without crying, It is only short ISBN 978-1-84749-157-2. Apparently the character was one of the first trend-setters.
Can the themes stop now please.
Custard a tad over-egged for me too, though whoever it was suggested that we’d somehow been Pasqualed is a fearsome wit.
[Impala @62: Well said. If this had been a crossword by Vlad, Enigmatist, or even Imogen (setters I avoid) I would not have been surprised to see these words in their subsequent blogs. I was disappointed to see Picaroon use so much of this sort of vocabulary.]
Great fun spotting the landmarks after completing. Also great fun when I finally got Eileen’s meringue joke on the fifth reading. Really helps to do the accent 😉 .
Beautiful puzzle and outstanding blog!
Thanks, Pickers and scchua.
Kinase and systolic are part of medical vocab, all enzymes end in -ase so i really shouldn’t have missed that! Lobelia (bought some for the garden!) Werther (Mrs S knew this being better read than I)
Oh, and boomerang (etym uncertain) is simply a throwing stick. If used in hunting you don’t really want it to come back but to do its job of incapacitating unlucky wallabies.
We win some we lose some. All’s fair in love and war, and in crosswords which I think occupy the middle ground!
Thanks to all the erudite and witty posters who increase our cunning and make life less unexciting evening by evening.
Anyone who has ever had their blood pressure measured will have been told (if not explicitly) their SYSTOLIC (and diastolic) readings.
Gervase @61. I sort of see your point, but surely the setter should see that the constraints he’s placed on himself are leading to less familiar words, and could have abandoned the idea?
Yes, I tend to agree with thoughts like Impalas @62, but in this case I thought Picaroon did deserve the often-trotted-out “all fairly clued” attribute. I think tight clues + good surfaces + a clever theme go a long way to dampen down my tendency to gripe, at any rate.
My 2p on Dweeb is that (despite what the dictionary may say), in technology circles it is pretty much exclusively used for nerdy, socially-inept types; often the opposite of idiots in their field.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
I’m sorry if I sounded arrogant – it certainly wasn’t my intention. Clearly, though a combination of advanced age and breadth of interest, there wasn’t anything here that I didn’t know (and I did say ‘fortunately’ in my first post). There are plenty of areas where my GK is much weaker – sport and popular culture, for instance. But there are also areas that I would consider more specialised than anything in this puzzle – parts of medieval armour and old sailing ships, or tools used in ancient crafts, for instance.
I realise that I have a larger than average vocabulary, but Pasquale is a setter who almost always includes at least one word that I have never come across. What does surprise and dismay me is when posters complain when puzzles contain words that they don’t know. It would get rather boring if the vocabulary was restricted to the highest common factor of what everyone knows.
Gervase @71
I mostly agree, but don’t you mean lowest common denomitor?
Gervase @ 71
“What does surprise and dismay me is when posters complain when puzzles contain words that they don’t know”
I agree wholeheartedly. Don’t parade your lack of knowledge, relish an opportunity to learn.
muffin @ 72
Muphry’s Law in action?
Simon S @73
🙂
[Gervase @61, Simon @73: One of the aspects of Pasquale/Bradman and Tees/Neo that I enjoy is their inclusion of a word or two that’s entirely new to me especially when I can solve them via the wordplay. There is a point, however, when too many oddities spoil the fun for me. ]
muffin@72: In Gervase’s defense I think (therefore I am wrong) that highest common factor is well put.
I’m inclined to agree – filling out a puzzle containing ‘common’ words, no matter how cleverly wrought the clues, is less satisfying than having one stretched a bit. Today for me it was PSST – not a word I would ever have cause to write and therefore a bit of a stretch.
Thanks both.
[muffin @72: Don’t you mean “denominator”? ?]
PSST occurred quite recently elsewhere, so wasn’t difficult.
Speaking personally (as I have to, of course), only OCTASTYLE and PRAIRIAL were unfamiliar, but both were well clued. (‘me surprised that people don’t know Lobelia – the commonest one is the blue flower alternated with Alyssum in many borders.
Tony M @6
A brilliantly self-referential comment if I may say so!
Thanks scchua for 25d ( could not get past a sort of northern ish greeting), 18d (had hero briefly = her and only got the rest once I very belatedly spotted the landmarks) and, embarrassingly, 17a. I think this set a new record for me in terms of hitherto unknown words but a tribute to the setter, I hope, that all were plausible from wordplay and the whole easily entertaining enough to keep me hooked. Enjoyed the discussion above too. Thanks Picaroon.
I think it’s healthy for people to give their honest assessment of how they found the puzzle. If they found it obscurity-heavy, by all means let them say so, because for them it turns it into a different kind of puzzle, and a less enjoyable one.
If I were a setter I would want honest feedback. In each case it’s only one person’s opinion – but if those who don’t like it hold back for fear of ‘parading their ignorance’, the overall picture is skewed, and we’re all the poorer.
A bit up its own arse for me I’m afraid. Maybe a Saturday puzzle.
Quite a few I didn’t parse but were obvious. It was a pity for me that I forgot about the theme but then it was an easy solve this time yesterday.
Thanks Picaroon and scchua
Ps Eileen…the meringue joke has always been set in Balymena whenever I’ve heard or told it.
….whoops Ballymena of course
Bit of serendipity . . . . looking for help with the theme, I came across Nelson’s Pillar (unknown to me), erected in Dublin. It was bombed and destroyed 8th March, 1966
Am with eb@81. I tend to not comment on words I don’t know. I expect that. It adds to the fun.
I think we’re so fortunate in having a range of wonderful setters, crosswords, and enjoyment.
I don’t like caramel, as apparently is the case with about 25% of the population, but I do like umami.
@https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dweeb: ‘This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 06:10.
DWEEB (plural DWEEBs)
(US, originally university slang, now general slang, derogatory) A boring, studious, or socially inept person. [from 1968]
Usage notes: Although DWEEB frequently involves some more sense of boring studiousness than DORK, DWEEB does not carry the connotations of actual intelligence or mastery of an (unimportant) subfield frequently intended by the similar NERD and GEEK.
Synonyms: NIGEL (Australia); see also Thesaurus: DORK
Derived terms: DWEEBery, DWEEBish, DWEEBness, DWEEBy
Anagrams: BEDEW, BEWED
References: Douglas Harper (2001–2023), “DWEEB”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.’
@https://www.etymonline.com/word/dweeb: ‘DWEEB (n.) : 1968, U.S. college student slang, probably a variant of FEEB “FEEBLE or FEEBLE-minded person.”
Entries linking to DWEEB: FEEB (n.) : slang for “FEEBLE-minded person,” by 1914, American English, from FEEBLE.
Other words used in the same sense were FEEBLE (n.), mid-14c.; FEEBLING (1887). – updated on October 22, 2014’
I went out and forgot to post yesterday, so not many will see this, but I might as well anyway.
Today is one of the many that I’m grateful not to be the blogger of this puzzle. I would never have spotted those landmark columns!
But I’m also grateful that scchua is the blogger — what a wealth of pictures this puzzle evokes!
The kangaroo can jump incredible.
He has to jump, because he’s edible.
I could not eat a kangaroo,
But many fine Australians do.
Those with cookbooks as well as boomerangs
Prefer him in tasty kangaroo meringues. (Ogden Nash)
How does EC = health care?
I missed the Buddy Holly reference, having heard of him (and heard that song) but not the CRICKETS.
Thanks, Picaroon and scchua.
Valentine @88 I assume your question about EC relates to 20D. If so, it seems you’re a bit confused. The wordplay is an anagram (indicated by “doctor”, used in an imperative sense). The anagram fodder comes from “raced outside of healthcare”, where “outside of healthcare” means the letters at the front and back ends of “healthcare” – H and E. So the answer is an anagram of RACEDHE.