Guardian 29,055 / Paul

92 comments on “Guardian 29,055 / Paul”

1. I agree with Eileen that ‘It was a relief to see immediately that there were no multiple clues scattered around the grid.
   Favourites: BANDIT, OBSCENE.
   New: MAN ON THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS and also these three new words for me, all of which I think were well-clued: CROWN GREEN BOWLS; COPING SAW and NAIL SETS.

   Thanks, both.

2. Thanks Paul and Eileen
   A couple unparsed, and I still don’t see why “spring” gives STEM by itself – doesn’t it need a “from”?
   Favourite 1a.

3. NAIL SET has come up in the Guardian at least twice before. I remembered this one.

4. muffin @2 – surely both words are followed by ‘from’?

5. Lots unparsed, but a few smiles raised on reading the blog explanations. I’m confused, Eileen, by your comment that Paul has only produced 6 puzzles in the last year. He seems to appear weekly.

   Thanks to Paul and Eileen,

6. Another gem from the master. Getting the long answers early, helped a lot and made for a smooth, steady solve. Lots of likes including the above and the clever BANDIT, SWEETIE PIE, OBSCENE, SANDMAN, PALETTE and MAMMALIA.

   Ta Paul & Eileen.

7. What struck me about today’s puzzle was the sheer diversity of the GK that was needed. From S&M and PIC in abbreviating longer words and expressions to Italian, Latin and German in MAMMA ANNO and EIN respectively to rarely used entities like Parliament of owls, COPING SAW and WEBINAR, it featured all of the very many Pauline skills. The usual “close to home” English and Irish solutions were present as well – CROWN GREEN BOWLS, CLAPHAM OMNIBUS and SHANNON – and I expect remarks from our overseas friends.

   It seemed to be Paul in a more serious and less jokey vein but it was still SENSATIONAL and didn’t lose PASSION. Too many favourites to list “individuals”.

   Thank you Paul and Eileen.

8. Eileen, I am equally confused by your opening comment. You appear to have last blogged Paul in February and he’s done over a dozen in 2023 (two others of which, you also blogged)

9. I found this an unusually orthodox puzzle from Paul. Thankyou Eileen for explaining the clues I had not yet parsed, especially 28,10. I had thought “in touch” had something to do with BT but couldn’t then see where the I had come from. I agree with you about 22d. Unusual for Paul to do those things: especially when there were other Pauline like clues (cf 26a) available.

10. Had much less difficulty with this than the last Paul: today we had the easier version without multiple cross-references, though a hint of the behind-the-bike-sheds Paul in the wordplay for SANDMAN and MAN ON THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS (which several non-UK solvers btl in the Guardian found unfamiliar).

    Liked the neat little NEE, BANDIT, EVERY INCH, CROWN GREEN BOWLS and MAMMALIA.

11. Though it’s obvious what it means, I don’t think I have met DESCRAMBLES before.

12. And for me this was a gentle relief after the torture of Fed yesterday. Although I realise he was right on the money for others.
    Couldn’t quite parse PALETTE, but thought EGOMANIAC and BANDIT both very good. I had a Man On The Highbury OMNIBUS, an ancestor who in 1870 ended up fatally injured under its wheels at Highbury Corner. Only in his thirties, and left a widow and 8 small children. Read all the grisly details of the Coroner’s inquest at the London Metropolitan Archives. So 28, 10 struck a bit of a chord for me…

13. crispy @5 and PostMark @8

    I seem to have had a complete brainstorm , which I can’t account for! My only excuse is that I’m preoccupied this morning, awaiting some happy family news.
    I have amended the preamble and will continue to try to omit the second paragraph on the front page.

14. A really nice Paul and, like our blogger, I have a tinge of relief when I find there is less interlinking; although the gentleman travelling in South London certainly requires a few lights. I’m afraid I got that one straight from def and enumeration. Lots to like including DESCRAMBLES, PALETTE, SANDMAN, BANDIT, EVERY INCH and SHANNON. Same raised eyebrow at 22d for the same reasons.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

15. Classic Paul. Unlike many here, I don’t mind his predeliction for multiple clues but their relative absence does make things more straightforward. Needed the crossers for DESCRAMBLE and had a lengthy mental block about WET, possibly the most straightforward clue here. I liked CROWN GREEN BOWLS. Believe it or not there was a TV programme dedicated to it when I was young. Not what one could call an extreme sport.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

16. Eileen @4
    That’s sort of my point. “Stem from” and “spring from” are equivalent, but I don’t think that means that “stem” and “spring” are.

17. Me @13 – done it!
    My sincere apologies for the previous nonsense.

18. Thanks Eileen @13. Relieved that I’ve not been living in an alternative universe for the past year.

19. In German, ein is one but is also the indefinite article i.e ‘a’. So in 14d, being pedantic, it should say “German for ‘a’”

20. The only bit of GK I lacked for this was that MANON was an opera. However I remember the phrase being used by Macmillan and it jumped into my mind. My COD,
    Thank you boyh.

21. Chambers has “stem 1…. vt …;to spring;…”
    That said, I found this a pleasant solve with favourites SANDMAN (purely for the surface) and CROWN GREEN BOWLS, a great succinct clue for a long answer. Aussie bowlers think pommies are a bit weird for not having a flat bowling surface. I did play it once with my Auntie when on holiday as a youngster. Interesting, as it adds an extra level of difficulty as to whether the bias of the bowl is with or against the “crown” of the green.

22. Thanks, AidaN @19: a careless error, amended now.

23. Flea @ 7 – if you studied some law in a Commonwealth country (as I did) you would be familiar with the man on the Clapham omnibus.

24. muffin @2: How about, “an interesting lecture from which many good ideas will stem/spring”.

25. I was a bit puzzled by your comment on 22d Eileen, that it’s “a pity… that CREW is the answer at 15ac”, because in the version in the paper the clue is “15, ultimate of those names at sea (6)”. But having now checked the online puzzle, there it’s “Crew, ultimate of those names at sea (6)” (as you have it). Why the difference I wonder?

    I enjoyed this. in particular the way 28, 10 was broken up.

    Many thanks Paul and Eileen.

26. Although Chambers does allow CREW as past participle of ‘crow’, it jars to my ear. “No-one can defeat my cunning plan”, he crowed. Presumably that explains the question mark. It’s similar to The picture was hung, the criminal was hanged.

27. If only all of Paul’s puzzles were like this, my heart might not quail at the sight of his name. As for PM @14, the bus passenger went straight in on the first pass with no crossers. Certainly a phrase I have heard many times before. And I have palyed CROWN GREEN BOWLS before – much more interesting than the flat variety, for the reasons TimC gives @21. Eileen, I agree about the CREW/SEAMAN issue (I solve online and so didn’t see what Lord Jim @25 did. Would you believe I went almost completely through the alphabet before I got WISE to what was going on at 18a. Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

28. Hi Lord Jim @25 – that’s curious.
    I copied and pasted the clues from the print version online, in the early hours before my paper came. If I hadn’t been blogging, I’d have seen the ’15’, which I would have expected. There’s no amendment to the online version.

29. poc @26
    In some versions of the bible “a cock crew” after Peter denied Jesus so it’s sort of familiar to me from that.

30. I think that’s the only place I’ve heard of it, SueB, so I thought nothing of it – it’s cropped up in crosswords quite a bit, though.
    Come to think of it, poc @26, I don’t seem to hear the present tense ‘crow’ much these days – sounds rather old-fashioned.

31. Yes, less frustrating Paul without the darting around the grid.

    I’m always amazed at the people who can put in a long answer from just the definition and enumeration. I was held up for a while thinking the definition was an opera, so I needed the M at the start before I twigged what it was. I liked BRAKE SYSTEM because ‘stopping’ was not an inclusion indicator, COPING SAW with the nicely misleading grasped, and EVERY INCH for the definition. There were four double definitions, which I always find difficult to solve.

    Lord Jim @25, sometimes last-minute edits are too late for the paper version, but appear in the online one. At least, that is maybe what happened.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen (yet again I managed to miss the ‘with in’ instruction!)

32. … BTW, Paul has said: ‘There’s a last-minute amendment to this puzzle I hope gets through – my fault entirely if it doesn’t.’

33. What a treat – thanks Paul, we particularly enjoyed your CROWN GREEN BOWLS, and becoming reacquainted with THE MAN ON THE CLAPHAM OMNIBUS who was lurking in the deep recesses of our memory. Thanks all.

34. That was a whole lot more fun than certain others this week. Knowing both of the long answers off the top of my head was a big help. Thank you Eillen for the parsing of SHANNON at 19D (LOI) and MAMMALIA at 17D, both of which had me scratching my head in that familiar “it must be the answer but I don’t see why” kind of way.

35. It is ‘descramble’ not ‘descrambles’ parsing doesn’t work with descrambles only 1 ‘s’ .

36. I concur with other colleagues that the relatively conventional layout of the puzzle made it a joy to solve on my smartphone (which had the unfortunate double crew).

    Lots to like: SANDMAN, EVERY INCH and the two long entries stood out for me. I confess that the bus passenger was solved from the enumeration and two crossers without my stopping to parse it, but the parsing of the sport was immediately transparent.

    The modern version of the said passenger is ‘white van man’.

    Thanks to JH and Eileen

37. Thanks Jenny @35 – the definition doesn’t work either, of course: a simple typo,which I can’t correct until I get home, later this afternoon.

38. Liked BRAKE SYSTEM, MAN ….OMNIBUS and BANDIT.
    Thanks, Paul and Eileen!

39. Eileen@37
    You tirelessly keep responding to comments and queries. I think this is a unique
    feature of your blogs. Thank you.

40. I saw nothing gospelly about CREW but I thought that 28/10 could have possibly bumped into Mrs Dalloway on his way to 1a.
    Just needed a perambulator or two and maybe a suicide and we’d be cooking with gas!
    One of Paul’s better moments
    Thanks all.

41. Clever and inventive, Paul is my favourite setter. This did not disappoint, even though it was much more approachable than his normal level.

    I loved it all!

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

42. Robi @31, maybe you have to bear in mind that just because a few people got the answer from the enumeration, it doesn’t mean they can do it every time; they possibly just get lucky occasionally as I do. My mind process was 2,3 is probably “in/at/on the” (which is a general case), then average joe suggests the first 3 letter word is man, so “man on the …”, and the rest just jumps out if you know the phrase.

43. With some crossers I biffed in WEBINAR, but hadn’t a hope of parsing it.

    Gladys@11 I agree, DESCRAMBLES doesn’t look like a real word., though it must be in some reference book or it wouldn’t be here. Surely the normal word is “unscrambles.”

    Charles@15 and I may be alone in saying er kind of like the scattered clues. Araucaria used to create lots of them, some of them very long, in the 70’s and 80’s. Back then I lived in San Francisco, and my local second-hand bookshop used to take the Guardian weekly. I used to photocopy the puzzles, which were almost always Araucaria’s, and that’s how I got to know him.

    ravenrider@42 I got as far as MAN ON THE… with the opera and the guess that it was some variant of “man in the street.” Some crossers made me guess CLAPHAM for no particular reason, but this morning I had to google MAN ON THE CLAPHAM to see what the last word was.

    Lots of fun. Thanks Paul for a good romp and Eileen for careful and helpful parsing. KVa is right — you’re a conscientious companion through the whole journey.

44. KVa @39 and Valentine @ 43 – I can’t help it: once a teacher ….
    I did look up DESCRAMBLE (no s!) this morning and it does have a technical meaning but I haven’t got my Chambers with me!

45. A fair puzzle with a nice mix of the challenging and the more straight forward.
    Thanks to Paul and to Eileen for the blog.

46. Found this tough today, mainly as didn’t get either of the two big ones (BOWLS, OMNIBUS) until quite late on. Minor query, that I don’t think anyone has yet mentioned… is WET really a synonym for chicken??

47. Managed to finish with only a few unparsed. Spent too long on 27 thinking it must be PasTY and stupidly missed TasTE. Pencilled in … OMNIBUS quite early but it didn’t help much.

    Thanks both.

48. Eileen @44; DESCRAMBLE:
    Chambers: To unscramble, decipher
    Collins: To restore (a scrambled signal) to an intelligible form, esp automatically by the use of electronic devices
    ODE: convert or restore (a signal) to intelligible form: a hacking system that can descramble everything.

49. Nice to finish a Paul puzzle (or any puzzle for that matter) with everything parsed.
    Luckily 28/10 went in straight away, greatly simplifying the solve.
    I had to drag 26 up from somewhere, I seem to recall it was a brand name for port or sherry years ago.
    Beautifully set by Paul and the easiest of the week. I still find Vulcan on a Monday the hardest.
    Thanks both.

50. HIYD @49
    SandEman, I think.
    Here is the Sandman’s aria from Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.

51. Thanks Robi @ 48: I misrembered: it was Collins, not Chambers.

52. muffin @50 – Ah yes, I make you right…though I seem to recall the advert was a silhouette of a man holding a stilton looking very menacing a la the bogeyman.

53. Valentine @42, part of the point I was trying to make was that you have to know the phrase, which makes it partly down to luck, particularly when it depends on where you were born or your age.

54. HIYD @52
    Last time I was in Portugal, I remember seeing a huge “cut-out” figure of the silhouette on a hillside somewhere.

55. Valentine @43: The best of Araucaria’s split entries were his extremely clever &lit long anagrams. I loved those (and nobody since has quite matched them) – but that was before smartphones, and such clues were easier to solve from the newspaper. No need to scroll up and down.

56. An interesting puzzle and an interesting blog. Thanks, everybody!

    I knew the phrase beginning MAN ON but just couldn’t think of it for a while (but I entered MAN ON anyway because I knew of the opera). Anyway, part way through that very British phrase came to me and in it went. I didn’t know that ‘other’ meaning of CREW – but I do now. NAIL SETS is also new to me. I liked CROWN GREEN BOWLS very much and appreciated the great variety of clues.

57. poc@26 and others: a half-remembered Coleridge quote had been nagging at me, and suddenly it clicked: the opening lines of “Christabel”

    ‘Tis the middle of night by the castle clock,
    And the owls have awakened the crowing cock;
    Tu—whit! Tu—whoo!
    And hark, again! the crowing cock,
    How drowsily it crew.

58. ravenrider@53 I took your point, since I hadn’t heard the phrase. The point I thought I was making was that when you don’t know the phrase you google the part you have hoping it will come up with something, which in this case it did.

    Gervase@55 I solve the puzzle on paper (I print it out) so the smartphone problem doesn’t bother me.

59. quenbarrow @57
    “Christabel” was one of the poems I had to study for O level English Literature. I’ll just say that I preferred it to Sohrab and Rustum!

60. Enjoyed this one, another great crossword from Paul. My partner and I solved it together and we particularly liked the use of BSc as ‘degree’ in OBSCENE because that’s our degree and it rarely gets a look in with crossword clues. Also our own term of endearment for each other, SWEETIE PIE.

    I would encourage anyone to sign up to Paul’s regular (free) Zoom calls which usually take place the day after publication in the Guardian.
    Email info@johnhalpern.co.uk for details. (Sincere apologies if an ‘advert’ on his behalf is against the rules.)

    Many thanks to Paul and Eileen.

61. I find Paul a challenging setter and rarely complete his puzzles without assistance however for some reason I don’t find myself feeling quite so belittled by him as I do with other setters.
    Thanks Eileen for the blog (yours are always especially worth reading) and Paul

62. Nice puzzle, thanks Paul and Eileen

    Re: descramble. It might look a bit less likely than unscramble, but de- is often used for technical reversal, e.g. decoder and the (now well out of fashion) modem stood for modulator/demodulator

63. This USAnian has come across the man in the Clapham omnibus often enough that I got it immediately from the definition and the word lengths. CROWN GREEN BOWLS, on the other hand, was entirely new, and “politician” did not suggest GREEN, so this was a dnf.

64. Excellent puzzle. Loved the 2 long ‘uns & my ticks pretty well matched Eileen’s. Missed the within wordplay so failed to parse BANDIT.
    Thanks to Paul & Eileen

65. [Chicken dripping is actually schmaltz]

66. Many thanks for all the comments – as I said in the preamble, an interesting puzzle.

    Me @13 – in a limp excuse for my totally irrational comment this morning, the happy family news I was awaiting was the imminent arrival of my first great grandchild – delivered safely this afternoon. 🙂

67. Congratulations, Eileen.

68. Bless you, muffin. 😉

69. Pleased to hear your news, Eileen, and your momentary brainstorm is entirely understandable. Congratulations.

70. Ian@46
    I share your thought on 25a. To me “chicken” (cowardly) and “wet” (weak, ineffectual) aren’t synonyms but just about pass with a push as my late mother-in-law would say.
    An enjoyable solve as usual. Thanks to Paul and Eileen

71. And congratulations to you, Eileen. Your news came through while I was typing 70.

72. Cheers Eileen. Now that calls for a jorum.

73. Thanks, Pino – I agree ( also Ian @46): I thought this was a pretty weak clue but left it others to comment.

74. @72: Perhaps a tiny scotch?

75. Gwyn@60

    Would this be of use to novices wanting to improve?

76. Alphalpha @ 72/4 – oh dear, you’ve lost me – too many celebratory toasts!
    My late Scottish malt whisky devotee husband would undoubtedly know what you were talking about but I’m ready for bed now, after a long and eventful day – I look forward to your explanation in the morning.

77. 1a – why is GREEN a definition for politician?

78. Poc@26, Collins online has crew or crowed for past tense of crow, but in the American section, it says “chiefly British” for the first.

    I looked for ‘ere the cock crew thrice’, but it’s a prediction, not a report, so no past tense, I don’t think. Amusing that many of the American sources substitute rooster for cock. Cock, cock, cock. Heehee.

    Didn’t know NAIL SETS and there are a lot more beauty products on the internet than useful tools. Had to be, though.

    I knew SANDMAN mostly from the Metallica song, Enter Sandman. Not really a fan of heavy metal, though and this bluegrass version beats it hands down:

    https://youtu.be/3c7bISLhVl8

    Always thought it strange, the idea that throwing sand in a child’s eyes would make it sleep; certainly it would make its eyes close, but sleep?

    Regarding the change to 22dn, Paul is holding a Zoom meeting tomorrow (Friday) @7.30pm BST (where he will discuss this puzzle) and in the email announcing it, he mentioned a late change to today’s puzzle, hoping it got through. Half and half, Paul!

    Link for meeting:

    https://click.convertkit-mail2.com/zlumm52kz9anh4392w0up/x0hph6hwrerqdrf5/aHR0cHM6Ly91czAyd2ViLnpvb20udXMvai84MjkwMTA2NDAzMw==

79. Steffen@77, because https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Party_of_England_and_Wales

80. Steffen@77 – if you’re still here – I guess you’re not in the UK? We have a political party called the Green party, whose main emphasis is promoting environmental protection to minimise climate change etc. Unfortunately they win very few seats in Parliament, though tend to do a little better in local elections.

81. [Tony Collman @78: surely we only know that the Sandman has visited and has done his job by the crustiness around our eyes the next morning. So the sand is not so much part of the effort to make the child sleep but evidence, after the fact, that that effort had been successful.

    To your Metallica, I raise one Roy Orbison
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVRunwyoTMA%5D

82. I’m a non-UK solver, and I got 28,10 much faster than 1a. I knew of the former as an alternative to ‘man on the street’, but had never heard of the sport, not that I have any reason to have. 6 was a bit of a reach.

83. Steffen @75, yes I would say Paul’s Zoom calls would be of help to an improving newbie, there’s usually an explanation of some of the clues people couldn’t parse and he also sets a clue writing challenge for next time.

    You can join in the discussion, ask questions or just listen.

    I think it’s at 7.30 this evening (I’ll miss this one as we’re flying home from our hols).

    Huge congratulations to Eileen on the happy news!

84. Eileen@76: A ‘celebratory toast’ would be one definition for a ‘jorum’, which in its original sense derives from the Gaelic (whether Irish or Scots) for ‘I take a drink (ie an alcoholic drink)’ so a ‘jorum’ is an alcoholic drink such as might be taken ‘to wet the baby’s head’ (ie in celebration of a newborn great grandchild) and appropriate in your circumstances (but I think you were ahead of me?).

    And a ‘small Scotch’ is my attempt at a charade(?) for a tiny person with some Scottish blood in their veins. 🙂

85. Many thanks, Alphalpha – I see where you’re coming from now. 😉

    (As far as I know, I have no Scottish blood and neither has my granddaughter, or the baby.)

86. Belated but heartfelt congratulations, Eileen! (Didn’t you say your late husband was Scottish? The new family member would carry his blood as well as yours, no?)

    Enjoy your frabjous day!

87. [AndrewTyndall@81: In Dreams, great stuff, thanks. I notice Roy’s Sandman sprinkles stardust, not actual sand. Hard to know how abrasive that might be by comparison. Are you sure the warning of the Sandman’s coming isn’t supposed to convey the message, “You’d better close your eyes now, before you get sand chucked in them”?]

88. [Andrew, I don’t think the Sandman was part of the contemporary mythology when I was a kid here in England, although it has probably arrived and settled here from the US now. Checking Wikipedia, it seems it got there from Scandanavia:

    The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes.

    I suppose “magical sand” might not be as abrasive as the common-or-garden stuff.

    Wikipedia also supports, to some extent, your remark about the tell-tale traces of the sand next morning.]

89. No, Valentine – he was my second husband: my first was from Northern Ireland, (Ah but yes, I’m forgetting the Plantation of Ulster …)
    Despite my name, I am English as far back as I’m aware of!

90. I found this very tough yesterday when trying to solve on a train back from a day out – managed about three answers before giving up. Finished off the rest just now in about half an hour between watching snooker sessions on the TV. It was still tough, but I was fully focused.

    My mother used to sing a lullaby by Brahms based on the SANDMAN myth to me and my brothers when we were very young, and a few years ago I sang it at her funeral. I’m not sure whether it being clued with S&M spoiled this story. (She was broadminded enough to have found it funny.)

    Eileen – thank you for sharing the news about your first greatgrandchild. Fabelhaft!

    And thanks to Paul. Can we have some clues split over several lights again, please. 🙂

91. The Sandman was often spoken of in our household. I thought it was related to how my eyes felt when I was overtired, that is, dry and scratchy.

92. mightyCue@91, interesting but you don’t give the when or where.

    Not sure what it’s like when something feels “scratchy”. Is that similar to ‘itchy’? (Checking Collins online, I see it is in American English, so maybe that’s a clue to the where?).

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