Guardian 29,182 / Paul

104 comments on “Guardian 29,182 / Paul”

1. 15D DISUSED
   Work out=(to) SUS when filling DIED (gone)

2. 21D MIDFIELD
   Mid fi-E-ld is E (energy).

3. 9A WELLS
   I applaud your observation=WELL SAID.
   When 5=when brief–>WELL S.
   Does it work?

4. 31D VILLA
   One two three=ALL?
   (referring to the first three positions being taken by
   one country in a sport/athletic event?)
   Not quite sure.

5. For 7 down, fourth letter is D – river Dee. 24th is x – Exe. 25th is Y – don’t get that. All going to the third letter C – the Sea!

6. KVA @3 – I think that’s what I said?

7. Paula @5
   That’s better – thanks!

8. 9a WELLS connects to 5a POTTED – well spotted!

9. Thanks kva

10. Eileen@6
    Sorry. Misunderstood.

11. Thanks, Wallyzed – and the same to you!

12. Thanks Paul and Eileen
    I don’t know why I bother with Paul’s puzzles. I rarely enjoy them. I had 8, 27, 31, 4, and 21 unparsed. I still don’t understand the second definition in 27.
    Far too many “guess the answer, then attempt to parse”. One that wasn’t like that was my favourite, RIVERS.

13. Y is river Wye.

14. 1,2,3,4 in VILLA is ALL 4, or ALL IV back. Just realised as I had the same hurdles as you Eileen.

15. VILLA = ALL IV (4) reversed

16. Well Spotted – a combination of 9a and 5d

17. Thanks Wallyzed @ 8. I was trying for some sort of drunk pronunciation, but well spotted!

18. Wallyzed @ 8
    Thanks.

19. Paula @13 – I did have that one. 😉

20. Tim C@14 and Aoxomoxoa@15
    Yes. That is a better parsing.

21. Eileen, have you not seen the episode of Fawlty Towers where the chef Kurt is drunk. It’s one way to remember POTTED among other words for drunk.

22. I had Dee as the fourth river/letter.
    Also abbreviated the HIS rather than the ANUS in the person whose name I can’t bring myself to write twice in one day

    Lots of ticks but faves were DISUSED FRIDGE MAGNET and the Rufus-like NOMAD

    At least it wasn’t a jigsaw 🙂

    Cheers E&P

23. 13D TABOO
    ‘nice one’ is another way of saying cheers/thanks?

24. As so often with Paul, many were a case of guess the answer then try and retrofit the wordplay. Thanks Paul and Eileen

25. Thanks, Paul and Eileen!
    Looks like everything is sorted out.

26. Bodycheetah @22 – would you please give me your parsing of DISUSED – and the rest of 6dn?
    Thanks, KVa @23 – that’s what I thought 😉

27. TimC @21 – yes, I do remember now. 😉

28. While awaiting Bodycheetah’s parsing of DISUSED,
    is this not convincing?

    15D DISUSED
    Work out=(to) SUS when filling DIED (gone)
    Def: Empty
    Some element is missing?

29. As usual, I was not on this setter’s wavelength. Tbh I can’t say I ever really enjoy his puzzles. With 2 fails and 7 answers unparsed by me today, it was quite disheartening, or as Eileen experienced, a less than satisfying ‘solve’.

    Failed to solve 7d, 29d and I could not parse 9ac, 15ac, 25ac, 27ac apart from def = What dog might wish to do, 31ac apart from rev of IV=four, 6d (apart from HIS being in there somehow – besides the letter count, the word inadequate made me think of this PM), 13d apart from TA = nice one / thank you; and 21d.

    Thanks, Eileen and other bloggers for your explanations/parsings.

30. 6D RISHI SUNAK
    I had the same parsing as you Eileen.
    Bodycheetah’s alternative parsing should be worth looking at, however.

31. Eileen 15a
    SUS – work out, more usually past tense “he’s been sussed”, inside DIED – gone. Empty = disused as in a vacant house.

32. KVa @28 – yes, I’m sorry, I’d overlooked your comment @1.

33. Eileen@23
    TABOO
    TA: I was not aware of this usage. Also, looking at the ? in the blog, I thought this usage was probably not
    standard.
    Anyway, I have now learnt the usage.
    I think I should take more time to read the blog before commenting on it. Sorry again.

34. Eileen – same parsing as KVA @1

    6d is RISK containing HI(S) and ANUS backwards?

    Apologies for any overlap – caught in the comment storm this morning!

35. Not a potted “well said” but well spotted, d’oh! Always enjoyed Paul’s wit and smart-arsery, no exception here. The Dee, Exe and Wye all heading to the C, very cute, as was the reversed All IV, where the key was the italicised and, which I didn’t twig. Lots of fun, ta PnE (now be sure to come straight home after, Eileen, no flirting with the boys on the way 😉 )

36. 21D MIDFIELD
    Contd from @2
    Is the clue possibly an extended def (in addition to the energy (e in the middle of ‘field’) wordplay)?

37. I think I’ve now made all the amendments – huge thanks to all (what a wonderful community!) and it’s time for me to go. (grant @35 – yes, I promise. 😉 )

38. If it makes you feel any better, Eileen, there were quite a few that stumped me too. For some, when I parsed them or read someone else’s, I thought “That’s clever.” But many elicited a groan.

    I look forward to my next trip to the UK, when I can visit all the rivers I’ve learnt from crosswords. Maybe Isle of Dogs too. 😉

39. For VILLA, the clue really needs the italic that Paul used, but which has been lost when you cut-and-pasted to this blog: “One, two, three and four” gives us a clear steer to “all four”.

40. SLUG is an alternative answer to 1D – lugs (ears) are attached to ones head.

41. Am not sure how I managed to get as far as I did with this one: four left blank. It felt very much like wading through treacle. That said, it was worth it for RISHI SUNAK and RIVERS. Somewhere from deep within my brain I managed to draw out POTTED. Not a word you hear often in this context. With thanks to Paul and Eileen.

42. Most of this went in relatively smoothly (for a Paul), before I ground to a hilariously dreadful halt on 7d. Had no idea what was going on so resorted to forcing it, and somehow came up with about 30 options to fit _I_E_S before getting to RIVERS, which snagged in my mind and eventually I figured it out. It’s brilliant.

    Didn’t know stock as a type of flower.

    Thanks Eileen & Paul.

43. I share the feeling expressed by some other commenters here that Paul’s contortions sometimes become so strained that the process of solving loses its charm.
    But, the Dee, Exe and Wye leading to the Sea was a pretty clever clue. Paul, I applaud your ingenuity.

44. Thanks Paul and Eileen. I failed on several, mostly the ones Eileen struggled to parse I think, but in retrospect they are all nice clues.

    Isomorphic could be interpreted as similar in maths, but does it work outside maths? Not a problem with the clue if not, but I was wondering if there are less specialised examples.

45. Eileen, I think the parse for MIDFIELD is as KVa@2 suggests: that the ‘energy’=E is in the middle of ‘field’ i.e. E is MID-FIELD.

46. me@45: Oh, sorry. I see you’ve gone out now for the day. OK. Fine.

47. “Fourth, twenty fourth and twenty fifth letters …. reportedly” could be interpreted as the letters bit only applies to the preceding two items, so the river Forth also works in my opinion.
    It of course all depends on whether your personal style guide requires the Oxford comma. “4th, 24th, and 25th” makes it unambiguous single list.

48. Well that was hard!
    Why POTTED=Brief? I get the pissed/bladdered/ratted etc. meaning but not the other.
    It does my heart good when the bloggers on here admit to failure (never knowingly undersolved?). So a special thanks to Eileen and a standard one to Paul.

49. “It’s a potted history of the Anglo-Saxons” for instance.

50. SPOTTED POTTED as TimC@21 from Flowery Twats – Polly is trying cryptically to convey to Basil that the chef is drunk, without the guests knowing.
    P: It’s Kurt. | B: Yes?
    P: He’s POTTED… the shimps. | B: What?
    P: He’s POTTED… the shimps. | B: Shrimps? We’re not having shrimps tonight, Polly. Now, if you would…
    P: He’s SOUSED… the herrings. | B: What’re you on about?
    P: He’s PICKLED the onions and he’s SMASHED the eggs IN HIS CUPS, UNDER THE TABLE.

51. In 16 the DY could equally be the ends of anD daY. RIVERS is brilliant. Amidst all the routine complaints about Paul, for me his puzzles (including jigsaws) are the highlight of the week. As are Eileen’s blogs – thanks to both.

52. This was extra-knotty for a Paul. Managed to get WELLS POTTED, ALL IV<, DI(SUS)ED, TORTE BO(L)G<, RIS(H)K, MID FIELD.
    Had to sleep on 7d to see the D, X, (Oxford comma) and Y “sweep down to the” C
    Thanks E, and Thanks P for not cycling !rish for RISH! – here’s an !rish LOVES O NG as a reward:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xR4-zYE0jqQ

53. Fantastic crossword – I really enjoyed it. I worked out 15, but needed all of you to help me parse 5 others. 7 down is genius. I was very slow to see that, but if you read the letters aloud it’s dead simple.
    Thanks Paul, Eileen and helpers.

54. Add me to the list of those who arrived at the destination but did not enjoy the journey. Oh well, horses for courses I suppose.

55. For 17a, could it be AS = equally and SO = true (‘just so’)

56. 27ac Seems to me that GO WALKIES is not so much a double definition as the same definition twice, since “go for a walk” is a euphemism for “get stolen.”

    How does DIDDY (whatever that means) = “minute”?

    Eileen — E (energy) is in the middle of the word “field.”

57. Just being pedantic re 7d solution, but the river Wye does not flow into the sea; it exits into the Severn Estuary at Chepstow.

58. Quite a struggle but way up to Paul’s standard. Didn’t twig the “rivers” which IMO was brilliant. Typical of Mr Halpern to get anus into the PM!

59. Martin @57 to be pedantic about your pedantry, the clue says “to” not “into” and “to” can mean “in the direction of”

60. bodycheetah@59 It’s “toward” that means “in the direction of.” If I say “I’m going to Boston,” I imply that I’m going to get there, not just closer to it.

61. Valentine @56. “Diddy” means “small” or “minute”, even. Our local football rivals, who reckon themselves as the bigger and better team, refer to the club I support as “the diddy team”.

62. In the UK We know Ken Dodd’s Diddy Men and Diddy David Hamilton.

63. TomW@55
    17 BASSO
    Sounds better than parsing ‘AS SO’ together.

64. I found this immensely frustrating. Drew complete blanks on some, unable to parse more and eventually gave up on 15a and 7d. I thought I was pretty clever putting SIDELINE as the part of the field where E(nergy) is, but all that did is hold me up.

65. Crossword setters are paid very poorly, so it seems unfair to Paul to pile on. But I did find this extremely challenging and not as much fun as usual. Yes, usually I like Paul’s puzzles. Usually, I stare at them with almost nothing filled in for an uncomfortable length of time, and then gradually things start to click, and I get there in the end. Today, though, I had about a quarter of the puzzle left when I started hitting the cheat buttons.

66. @42 as a rule in crosswords stocks are flowers and flowers are rivers.

67. I seem to be out of sync with everyone this week. Didn’t enjoy Jack’s puzzle at all, then came here to find I was pretty much the only one. Groaned when I saw Paul’s name today as I don’t usually like his much but thought this was his best for a long while! Tough, yes, but satisfying with particular likes for RISHI SUNAK, WELLS POTTED and GO WALKIES. Enjoyed it!

68. Thanks both,
    Defeated by four clues but very much enjoyed the ride. I think there’s a grammatical mismatch in 27. ‘Lifted’ would be ‘gone walkies’. Moreover, I’d always say ‘gone walkabout’ in that sense. I took the ‘lifted’ to mean ‘taken for a wee’ as one would ‘lift’ an almost potty trained child a couple of hours after bedtime.

69. GO WALKIES
    Eileen has underlined ‘to be lifted’ as the second def. There is no grammatical mismatch, I feel.

70. A puzzle so ingenious and engaging that it filled much of a morning when I should have been doing something more dutiful . My experience was the opposite of my favourite blogger, Eileen. I found this relatively straightforward with some perseverance, though WELLS seemed poorly clued as I had not spotted the link with potted. Thanks to Wally for that. And thanks to Paul. Brilliant as ever.

71. I thought this was a brilliant puzzle. It was a fair challenge, which when you look back on you wonder what delayed you.

    WELLSPOTTED was genius. Also loved the construction and devices in DISUSED, OFF FORM and NAKEDLY.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

72. Sorry, haven’t done the Paul yet so haven’t read the comments, but do we know why the “print” option on the Guardian site now only gives a small offering?. I’ve used the PDF last couple of days but it’s still only half size. (Can’t afford more powerful glasses ?).

73. After crackers from Jack and Fed I felt let down by this mixed bag. I enjoyed NAKEDLY, SKIMP, NEGLIGENT, and MIDFIELD but I ended up revealing WELLS, GO WALKIES (I first had “go walking”), ISLE (Isle of Dogs is new to me), and POTTED. I guessed RIVERS but couldn’t parse it. Thanks Paul and to Eileen for the blog.

74. [GreginSyd @72 when you print it, check the settings and make sure “Scale” is set to something like “Fit to printable area”. It will. vary a bit between browsers / windows / mac etc.]

75. After being a bit gloomy about the last Paul (not the jigsaw which I thought was great) I feel this one was just stretchy but fair. Like many I had to come here for some parsings but they all make sense. It’s rare to see such a collective effort in getting everything sorted out. I think that makes this a super puzzle.

76. Like lenmasterman @70, this took me most of a morning I had planned to use differently – but I thought it superb. I particularly liked WELLS(POTTED), GLOBETROT, NOMAD, VILLA, ISLE, RIVERS and MIDFIELD. Thanks to Paul; thanks and commiserations to Eileen!

77. Those who didn’t like this puzzle were either having an off day (like Eileen) or are middling solvers (not like Eileen). I fall into both categories, and so I found this to be too clever by half. I also like a good and witty surface, which was not a feature of many of the clues.

    On the other hand, I can see how this puzzle would please the better solvers, particularly those who appreciate clever constructions more than good surfaces, so thanks Paul for giving them such a good experience.

    And thanks, Eileen for making me feel that I wasn’t alone on this difficult journey.

78. Just on the train home. Many thanks to Cellomaniac @77 and others for restoring some of my morale 🙂

79. I did a lot of this but utterly clueless as to most of the parsing.
    Thanks

80. This was a bridge or two too far for me today (have just changed trains in fact at Three Bridges to get my homeward bound train), even if I’m normally a great admirer of Paul. And we’re seeing a bit too much of RISHI at the moment, IMHO. Anyway finally ground to a halt in the NE corner. Liked ABORIGINE, FRIDGE MAGNET and NAG along the journey…

81. I confess, zanitie @40, I too bunged in slug and checked it, giving me the g for globetrot, so a dnf in the end.

82. I’m quite new to the world of the cryptic. I’m learning mostly through this blog. I’d like to give a huge thank you to everyone who blogs, posts and aids my understanding.
    However, I can’t fathom why one puzzle seems a lot easier than another. Quite often I’ve come here to discover that a long struggle for me was a doddle for everyone else and my version of parsing is way off the standard view! This week, I found Monday’s was really tough and today’s I found far easier… I was even fully understanding the parsing of the clues which isn’t always the case. It’s helped me that there was no unusual vocabulary. I’ve found the discussion today fascinating. Maybe we’re just all individuals!
    I’m really struggling with the prize jigsaw so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

83. Thanks to Eileen for making me feel better on my performance on this puzzle. I had five solutions that I could not even begin to parse and I had question marks everywhere you did. I love Paul’s puzzles but this was a slog.

84. Thanks Paul & Eileen. I didn’t solve RIVERS & couldn’t parse DISUSED so thanks to 15sqd commenters too.

85. KVa @66 ‘to be lifted’ would be ‘to go walkies’. I’ll grant the phrases are interchangeable in, say, ‘Don’t leave that there it might ‘be lifted/go walkies’ which would leave us with an extraneous (but forgiveable) ‘to’.

86. Simply masterful although I accept that Paul’s surfaces can be somewhat clunky at times. I thought GONE WITH THE WIND and MIDFIELD were excellent but my favourite was WELLS with POTTED. Ta FrankieG @50 for the funny scene, a real classic
    [I got a mention twice today, Roz, with MET(A) and dodgy Irish copper 😉 ].

87. …and ta Paul & Eileen for your perseverance.

88. Welcome, Gilamon @82!
    I’m sure many here would identify with your experience. Hope to hear from you again.

89. 10a ABORIGINE:
    https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-a
    Aboriginal Australians
    should be identified by their country or language groups at first mention if known, eg a Wiradjuri-Yorta Yorta man, a Noongar-Badimaya woman – or take your cue from how they identify themselves. The term “ABORIGINE” is outdated and offensive; Aboriginal should only be used as an adjective. Indigenous Australians is an umbrella term that covers both Aboriginal people from the Australian mainland and Torres Strait Islanders

90. Could I just add my thanks to FrankieG @ 50 for reminding me of the classic scene (aren’t they all..) from Fawlty Towers (Gourmet Night) which I just found on Youtube (hopefully this is legal). I hadn’t really appreciated the word play before, and wasn’t previously au fait with the word soused other than as related to food; and which I will add to my memory banks. A good weekend to one and all.

91. 11a GLOBETROT – “Travel Lodge” gets a lift and separate. – Wait a minute – it should be Travelodge – it’s already separated.

92. ravenrider@44 Isomorphic -I think Paul is not too au fait with maths terms – last Saturday’s alphabetic one had a very vague definition for klein bottle

    Too late to make any other comment that hasn’t already been said. A few alternatives, perhaps for Rishi Sunak: Risky Sunak, Rickety Sumac – any other suggestions?

93. So interesting to see the different reactions. This was tough but as ever with Paul I ended with no question marks. For whatever reasons I get on his wavelength. Loved it all. And yet other puzzles this week, which others loved, were for me a real struggle and felt contrived compared to this one.

94. Ravenrider@44 Isomorphic occurs in biology and psychology. It may have more general application.

95. The problem I have with Paul is has some very good clues mixed with some very average ones

96. Brilliant crossword
    Thanks Paul and Eileen

97. In mitigation for my failure to parse 15A, allow me to plead that “suss” is the preferred spelling.

98. I played with (s)CRIMP for a bit which almost worked. Didn’t parse a couple of hard ones but answers were pretty clear.
    Thanks both

99. pserve_p5@43 is a good representative of many here who have offered a view at complete odds to mine. I always seem to be rapt when solving a Paul and I never cease to wonder at his originality; I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again “how does he keep doing it?”
    Definitely a “top favourite”
    Blessed
    Bless

    …and to Eileen and all and reverneverendingly …. to Paul!

100. Thanks bodycheetah @74. Unfortunately I’m not offered scale setting from this browser, I’ll make do with the slightly larger PDF.

101. @99 he was mine after araucaria, but alas these days his ridiculous parsing has become tiresome.

102. ravenrider@44, Dave Ellison@92
     ISOMORPHIC from its Ancient Greek etymology should just mean ‘of equal form/shape’.
     OED, Collins & Merriam-Webster all have this sense.
     I’m surprised Chambers and Wiktionary only have the technical senses from Maths, Biology & Crystallography.

103. 21D Energy (E ) is found mid fi E ld

104. […See @2,36,45,52,56,64]

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