Guardian 29,136 – Vulcan

by

Mostly very straightforward, though there were a couple of clues that held me up briefly at the end. Thanks to Vulcan.

 
Across
1 PLASTER Material for the cast that comes from Paris (7)
Cryptic definition, referring to Plaster of Paris, used to make casts for broken limbs
5 SLAP-UP In seconds, eagerly devour such a feast (4-2)
S + LAP UP
9 SPOTLESS Notice not so much is really clean (8)
SPOT (notice) + LESS
10 STOOKS Sheaves carried on board ship (6)
TOOK in SS
12 BODY LANGUAGE Beg a young lad to change his suggestive attitude (4,8)
(BEG A YOUNG LAD)*
15 ALICE BANDS Lewis’s girl gets together some hair products (5,5)
ALICE (Lewis Carroll’s heroine) + BANDS (gets together)
17 ADS Notices a detective (3)
A + DS (Detective Sergeant)
19 FEE Charge for short distances (3)
A shortened FEET
20 DIDGERIDOO Could Ginger achieve nothing on this instrument? (10)
DID GERI (Geri Halliwell, Ginger Spice) DO 0
22 IN TRIPLICATE Complicated, going round one place three times (2,10)
I PL in INTRICATE
26 TENDER Loving offer (6)
Double definition
27 INTIMATE Hint from close friend (8)
Double definition
28 DE SADE See Dad created a marquis (2,4)
(SEE DAD)*
29 HOGWASH Where to get your pig clean? Nonsense (7)
By analogy with a car wash, you might get your pig cleaned at a HOG WASH
Down
1 POST After a job (4)
Double definition
2 AWOL Perhaps deserting a sexual predator, female leaves (4)
A WOLF less F
3 TALK OVER Lecture being finished, have a discussion (4,4)
TALK (lecture) + OVER
4 RUSTY Well-behaved prisoner misses opening, being out of practice (5)
TRUSTY (well-behaved prisoner, often given special privileges) less its first letter
6 LETS GO Encourages to start fires (4,2)
Double definition
7 PROPAGANDA Information disseminated needs a good look, we’re told (10)
Homophone of “proper gander”, gander being slang for a look: its origin is not certain, but probably not rhyming slang; more likely from the way a goose looks around by stretching its neck
8 POSSESSION Almost all the law, they say, for demonic state (10)
A reference to the expression “Possession is nine-tenths of the law” (sometimes “nine points”)
11 LAPDOG Pom perhaps has drink to follow (6)
LAP + DOG (follow) – the Pom is a Pomeranian
13 HALF-WITTED Ted appears so stupid (4-6)
TED is literally half witTED
14 MILESTONES Note smiles spreading, achieving these marks of progress (10)
(NOTE SMILES)*
16 AFIELD A cricket ground is at a distance (6)
A + FIELD
18 FROTHING Effervescent amphibian keeps slim (8)
THIN in FROG
21 BIG END Try to acquire information for part of engine (3,3)
GEN (information) in BID
23 CINCH Simple task overall commander finds hard (5)
CINC (command-in-chief) + H
24 SAGA Slump over a long story (4)
SAG + A
25 YEAH Informally, I agree you need a husband (4)
YE (you) + A H

76 comments on “Guardian 29,136 – Vulcan”

  1. Thanks, Vulcan and Andrew!
    Like DIDGERIDOO (a spicy one! No. Didn’t blow it!), IN TRIPLICATE (one two many. Go green. e is key.) and POSSESSION (Sound position was a myth. Saying now certainly.).

  2. Never heard of the marquis, nor STOOKS. And I didn’t know engines have big ends. Do they also have small ends?

    All fell into place without too much head-scratching, and there were quite a few smiles. Thanks Vulcan & Andrew.

  3. Thanks, Andrew and Vulcan

    DIDGERIDOO has appeared only twice before, both by Paul: Jan 4th 2020, and May 7th 2013 (Was there nothing Ginger Spice accomplished that’s musical?)

    HOGWASH my favourite

  8. I liked the anagrams for BODY LANGUAGE and IN TRIPLICATE. STOOKS, HOGWASH and FROTHING made me smile. PLASTER didn’t feel particularly cryptic but I guess, if one read it with the theatre in mind, it might deceive. Less keen on ‘def for wordplay’ in FEE.

    Thanks Vulcan and Andrew

  9. Yes, mostly straightforward but held up for a while by my favourites, DIDGERIDOO and the hilarious PROPAGANDA. I also enjoyed HALF-WITTED, BIG END and HOGWASH.

    Ta Vulcan & Andrew.

  10. Really enjoyed my Monday challenge. A bit stuck over 4d as thought the well behaved prisoner was a trustee (i.e one who is trusted) rather than a trusty (normally an adj.), but the answer was suitably obvious once the clue was parsed so no big deal.

    Thanks Vulcan and Andrew

  11. Quite enjoyable and tricky in places. I could not parse 23d.

    Favourites: HOGWASH, HALF-WITTED, LAPDOG (loi as I was wrongly thinking of Pom=British/English!)

    New for me: BIG END engine part; STOOKS.

    Thanks, both.

  13. Gander sounds a bit dated, but I always remember it from the Goon Show exchange – “May I take a gander round your shop?” “Only if it’s house-trained.”

  16. michelle@11 I’m with you about the Pom, but where is it indicated that it’s an abbreviation for Pomeranian?

  17. PS@me@16. Oh, well, you have to take LAPDOG in its’ entirety. Tricky clue. You gotta get one and the other, altogether.

  19. I had the same problem with Pom though as my daughter had one (or a dog supposedly a Pom but definitely with something like a terrier in his ancestry) I really should have seen that that was more likely than the Australian meaning. So many very satisfying clues when they finally clicked into place. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.

  20. PROPAGANDA: two non-rhotics in a single word really set my teeth on edge. Why ‘cricket’ in 16d? I thought the usual term was ‘pitch’ but my ignorance of the sport is profound.

  21. Thanks Vulcan and Andrew
    Not one of Vulcan’s best. “In seconds” in 5a doesn’t work. ALICE BANDS are so-called after Lewis’s Alice. so it’s a weak clue. I agree that “cricket ground” is odd for FIELD, and I’m not sure that AFIELD means at a distance.
    I didn’t parse DIDGERIDOO, but I like it now “Ginger” has been explained.

  22. DIDGERIDOO fell into place quite quickly but I had to come here to understand the parsing. I liked HALF-WIT, LAPDOG and BIG END. With thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.

  23. Nutmeg’s obituary is in the paper version of the Guardian today. (I know it was online a few weeks ago.)

  24. paddymelon @16: I was surprised at POM but it is, indeed, in Chambers as informal for a Pomeranian dog.

  25. Nice bit of Monday morning fun, thanks, Vulcan and Andrew.

    poc @20 – in cricket, the pitch is specifically the bit in the middle, the strip between the wickets. The field is where the fielders stand waiting to catch the ball.

  26. I thought this was a very entertaining start to the week.

    I particularly liked the Paulian PROPAGANDA (as usual, check the dictionary pronunciations of proper and gander), HALF-WITTED, where without the crossers I was playing with Ed, Ned etc, DIDGERIDOO, where I couldn’t fit in Spice, and the misleading Pom for LAPDOG. Muffin @21; both Chambers and the ODE have ‘to or at a distance’ for AFIELD.

    Thanks Vulcan and Andrew.

  27. Favourite for me was HALF WITTED. Great clue.

    GDU @2, The BIG END is at the piston end of the Con Rod (which I was unsuccessfully trying to parse as a solution for a while). The Small End is at the crankshaft end of the piston rod (con rod).

    paddymelon @15, please don’t get them started. I’m bored with “I don’t pronounce it like that” and “I’m a rhoticist” comments. I’m with Rob T. They should just be called puns. The word “homophone” is never mentioned in any of this sort of clue.

    PostMark @8, I’m not convinced about the “def for wordplay” argument, but I’m happy to be convinced. Is the word “for” directional? In mathematical terms is it commutative (does A for B = B for A)?

    paddymelon @16, I don’t think pom needs an abbreviation indicator. The BRB has pom not as an abbreviation but as informal for pomeranian. I suspect it has gone beyond an abbreviation just as pom= pommie bastard (speaking as one) has done likewise. 😉

  29. Thank you, Tim C, for your clarification of things mechanical. I’ll be able to sleep better tonight. 😉

  31. Thanks to Vulcan – I enjoyed this. Favourites I ticked along the way have all been mentioned. STOOKS at 10a was also unfamiliar to me, but gettable. Thanks to Andrew for the blog.

  32. Couldn’t fathom out AWOL, so deserted this at the very end as a DNF. And LAPDOG was the loi before I abandoned ship rather tamely this morning. However, ticks for BODY LANGUAGE, PROPAGANDA, HALF WITTED, and DIDGERIDOO…

  33. As we often say, a crossword doesn’t have to be difficult to be entertaining, and this was a case in point. There were some clever surfaces – “Beg a young lad to change his suggestive attitude”, “Perhaps deserting a sexual predator, female leaves” – and overall it was very enjoyable.

    My one slight quibble was that “Information disseminated” – which could be information about the weather, road closures etc etc – is not really an adequate definition of PROPAGANDA.

    PostMark @8 and muffin @21: I suppose these things are a matter of opinion, but I was fine with both “for” and “in”. FEE(t) can give you FEE, but equally FEE can give you FEE(t), can’t it? And in 5a, “in” the wordplay you find the answer.

    Many thanks Vulcan and Andrew.

  34. Very good Monday puzzle. I don’t have a problem with ‘in seconds’ (‘in’ being an equivalence indicator) or ‘def for wordplay’ in FEE: the sense of crossword clues is clearly commutative and any ‘rules’ of directionality are arbitrary conventions. However, the grammar of the clue for DIDGERIDOO doesn’t quite work for me, though I like the construction.

    I enjoyed PROPAGANDA whilst registering that it was two fingers put up to the rhotacists (poc @20: complaints about such things are always shouted down – by non-rhotic speakers, of course. Phonological imperialism! 🙂 ).

    Thanks to S&B

  35. Lord Jim @33:the word PROPAGANDA comes from the organisation set up by Pope Gregory XV: Congregatio de Propaganda Fide – Committee for the Propagation of the Faith – so it’s primary meaning is certainly ‘information disseminated’. The modern political connotation is quite recent, and wasn’t originally disparaging.

  36. Thanks for the blog, good puzzle but perhaps a tad tricky for a Monday. I will agree with the list of AlanC @9 and add LETS GO which was nicely deceptive.
    Not quite sure that ALICE BANDS are hair products, I would call them accessories . Products makes me think of things you use on your hair such as shampoo.

  37. Pom is not a particularly recent usage for Pomeranian dogs. It’s used by T.S.Eliot in his “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats” in the tale of “The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollicles (Together with Some Account of the Participation of the Pugs and the Poms and the Intervention of the Great Rumpus Cat)”. See Wiki.

    Thanks Vulcan and Andrew

  38. I agree with Roz about LETS GO. It was a late entry for me because I originally interpreted the clue as: Enourages // to start fires.

  39. Tim @27, I think you have the big and little ends the wrong way round. The big end of the connecting rod is on the crankshaft and the small end on the piston. Big and small refer to the physical size of the bearings of the connecting rod.

  40. Gervase @35: I suppose it depends what you mean by “quite recent”! I doubt that the word has been used to mean the neutral dissemination of objective information for at least a century.

  41. Enjoyable, with STOOKS being a new word for me and I came here to understand the parsing of CINCH. Not what I would describe as ‘very Mondayish’ but definitely not Fridayish either. Thanks Andrew and Vulcan.

  42. Nice start to the week. STOOKS was new to me and I needed Andrew’s parsing of 22A. Otherwise good, clean fun. Thank you Vulcan.

  43. Quibbling a bit, but shouldn’t LET’S GO be “What you might say to encourage to start fires”? I like POSESSION.

  44. Couldn’t parse DIDGERIDOO — didn’t know Ginger = Geri.

    Couldn’t get AFIELD, but otherwise strolled through. Thanks to Vulcan and Andrew.

  45. Petert@43
    That is a nice extended def.
    I have a doubt.
    LET’S GO is an ‘encouragement to start (whatever)’. Does ‘encourages to start’ fit in?
    The second def for LETS GO (of), ‘fires’ is fine.

  46. Petert @ 43 I think the clue stands as is. On eg Masterchef when the contestants are told to start, the presenter says “Let’s cook” even though he isn’t doing any cooking himself.

  47. So much quibbling on a Monday – what’s it going to be like by Friday?
    I found this fun – no problems with any of it.

  48. I’m certain I’ve seen the “proper gander” before, and I’m almost certain it was Paul. I am not going to object to it–in fact, I think it was that one that convinced me to stop trying. It’s too funny to quibble with.

    We know “gander” for look isn’t rhyming slang because it’s a thing in America, and rhyming slang isn’t. I think of the first number in The Music Man (not a song, exactly, where the salesmen on the train are talking in the rhythm of how a train moves–it has a name that I forget):

    Take a gander at the store
    At the modern store
    At the present-day store
    At the present-day, modernized, departmentalized grocery store.

    And they’re in Iowa!

  50. Thanks both,
    I maybe the only one here who has stooked sheaves. Ie stacked them to form a ridge tent shape so they would dry. They were always stacked going North South so the sun would dry both sides during the day. There is an annoying painting in the Tate where the stooks are pointing to the setting sun.

  51. Propaganda is that branch of the art of lying which consists in nearly deceiving your friends without quite deceiving your enemies.”

    — Francis Cornford

  52. TimC@22: That’s the wrong way round. The big bearing is on the crankshaft end.
    A stook is what you arrange 4 sheaves into to keep the rain off, you can also stook (small) bales, and I don’t care what Chambers has to say, whoever wrote the entry never sat on a binder,or cleared the fields afterwards.

  53. I thought there was a mistake in RUSTY with trustee being a trusted person but the lack of similar posts suggests trusty is ok.
    Thanks for that guys.

  55. Tim@53: A trusty is specifically “a well-behaved and trustworthy convict to whom special privileges are granted”.

  57. Chambers93 is okay for STOOK – n. a group of sheaves set up in the field
    or vt. to set up in stooks.
    The clue just about okay , two stooks are eight or more sheaves.

  59. GDU@2 – an oft-reheated joke hinges on the big end. Involves a car with no engine, gets motive power from a giant chicken. Breaks down. The AA is called. Mechanic arrives. Lifts bonnet. Chicken has run off somewhere. “Yer big hen’s gone.”

  61. Enjoyable quick solve. HOGWASH and DIDGERIDOO both gave us a laugh. STOOKS was LOI … should have remembered it from numerous farm holidays as a child!

  62. Thanks both and I found that hard; in fact a dnf thanks to AFIELD, YEAH (my bad both) and LETS GO.

    I never complain (never) but I did bridle on revealing this last – I’m with Petert@43: this might better have been ‘Encouragement to start fires’ (and I think KVa@45 agrees). ‘Encourages to start…’ would be ‘says LET’S GO’ or some such.

    But I never complain (ever). Always grateful for the entertainment.

    (Well, hardly ever)

  63. Is a rhoticist (rhotacist?) someone who uses rhotic speech or someone who is intolerant of those who use rhotic speech? Defend your answer.

  67. Sometimes anagrams are completely confounding. I cannot remember one being so completely the opposite: as straightforward as MILESTONES for “note smiles”

  68. Martin D @39, nicbach @52. You are both quite correct. It was obviously a vaguer memory than I thought. 🙂

  72. I remember an Araucaria clue for HOGWASH. ‘If pig was p and swine was a – nonsense!’ A nice memory

Comments are closed.