Guardian Cryptic 29,236 by Fed

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29236.

Just right after a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner – enough meat (but no more turkey just yet, thanks) to be filling (do I detect a gastronomic frame of mind?), but nothing too overtaxing (the CLARET was Margaux ’81). One curiosity: it so happened that I started in the NE corner, and straightway came across two answers and definitions (10A BAZAAR and 13A SPAGHETTI, and one usage (8D PORRIDGE) which have appeared in Guardian Cryptics in the last few days.

ACROSS
1 FULL-PAGE
Satisfied Press Association, say, over large print ad? (4-4)
A charade of FULL (‘satisfied’) plus PA (‘Press Association’) plus GE, a reversal (‘over’) of EG (‘say’). The definition is a little cryptic, as ‘large’ and ‘print’ are to be read as separate ideas, not as intended for people with poor eyesight.
5 UNWRAP
Open posh prawn cocktail (6)
A charade of U (‘posh’) plus NWRAP, an anagram (‘cocktail’) of ‘prawn’.
9 UNTITLED
Like common people in Bristol entering without guidance (8)
An envelope (‘entering’) of TIT (‘Bristol’ City, rhyming slang) in UNLED (‘without guidance’).
10 BAZAAR
Ex-boozers acquiring unknown pub to host market (6)
An envelope (‘to host’) of Z (mathematical ‘unknown’) plus (‘acquiring’) AA (Alcoholics Anonymous, ‘ex-boozers’) in BAR (‘pub’). The word ordering of ‘acquiring’ and ‘to host’ is tortuous, but not impossible. We have to go back to Wednesday’s Carpathian for the same answer (and definition), with different wordplay.
12 DUE TO
As a result of love song’s opening (3,2)
A charade of DUET (‘song’) plus O (‘love’), with ‘opening’ indicating the order of the particles.
13 SPAGHETTI
Food from no ordinary urban quarter in unnamed European country (9)
An envelope (‘in’) of GHETT[o] (‘urban quarter’) minus the O (‘no ordinary’) in SPAI[n] (‘European country’) minus the N (‘unnamed’). We have to go back over a week for the same answer and definition, in Tramp’s 29,227.
14 PROMULGATING
Announcing retrospective – assign it a glum or pessimistic segment (12)
A (well) hidden answer (‘segment’) reversed (‘retrospective’) in ‘assiGN IT A GLUM OR Pessimistic’.
18 FASHION MODEL
Manufacture prototype one’s seen on runway? (7,5)
A charade of FASHION (‘manufacture’) plus MODEL (‘prototype’).
21 EPICUREAN
Run a piece about hedonist (9)
An anagram (‘about’) of ‘run a piece’.
23 TRAWL
Use covering of tinfoil to wrap uncooked fish (5)
An envelope (‘to wrap’) of RAW (‘uncooked’) in TL (‘use covering of TinfoiL‘).
24 TRAGIC
Awful jerk’s penning paper (6)
An envelope (‘penning’) of RAG (‘paper’) in TIC (‘jerk’).
25 SPLUTTER
Show confusion as small club’s getting to grips with Arsenal at last (8)
An envelope (‘getting to grips with’) of L (‘ArsenaL at last’) in S (‘small’) plus PUTTER (golf ‘club’).
26 DITHER
Delay as detective meets the resistance (6)
A charade of DI (‘detective’ inspector) plus ‘the’ plus R (physics symbol, ‘resistance’).
27 SNAKE-PIT
25 fences largely exposed in competitive environment (5-3)
An envelope (‘fences’) of NAKE[d] (‘exposed’) minus its last letter (‘largely’) in SPIT (’25’ SPLUTTER).
DOWN
1 FOUNDS
Establishes heaps after gender reassignment (6)
MOUNDS (‘heaps’) with the M changed to F (‘after gender reassignment’).
2 LATHER
State discovered art by Turner? (6)
A charade of LATHE (‘turner’ – deceptive capital) plus ‘[a]r[t]’ minus its outer letters ‘dis-covered’). ‘State’ as in ‘in a state” – perturbed.
3 POTPOURRI
Cover up bucket and regularly ruin collection (9)
A charade of POT, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of TOP (‘cover’) plus POUR (‘bucket’ with rain) plus RI (‘regularly RuIn’).
4 GREASE MONKEY
One might be in the pit as a Little Mix musical starts in tune (6,6)
A charade of GREASE (‘musical’, stage and film) plus M (‘a little Mix’) plus ON KEY (‘in tune’), with ‘starts’ indicating the order of the particles. In the definition, the ‘pit’ might be in a body shop.
6 NEATH
Welsh town‘s tidy hotel (5)
A charade of NEAT (‘tidy’) plus H (‘hotel’).
7 ROAD TRIP
Correct terminal of Stansted Airport for excursion of sorts (4,4)
An anagram (‘correct’) of D (‘terminal of StansteD‘) plus ‘Airport’.
8 PORRIDGE
Possibly breakfast time (8)
Double definition. If you are not familiar with PORRIDGE as prison, ‘time’, you should be; Paul used it yesterday.
11 BALLPOINT PEN
Writer of Black Swan keeping completely on topic (9,3)
An envelope (‘keeping’) of ALL (‘completely’) plus (‘on’) POINT (‘topic’) in B (‘black’) plus PEN (female ‘swan’).
15 AWE-STRUCK
Stunned as Kanye maybe getting into a fight (3-6)
An envelope (‘getting into’) of WEST (‘Kanye’) in ‘a’ plus RUCK (‘fight’).
16 AFFECTED
Changed camp (8)
Double definition.
17 ASPIRANT
Surprisingly partisan candidate (8)
An anagram (‘surprisingly’) of ‘partisan’.
19 LAPTOP
Ultimately wanting Apple to supply computer (6)
An anagram (‘supply’ – in a supple manner) of ‘appl[e]’ minus its last letter (‘ultimately wanting’) plus ‘to’.
20 CLARET
Blood banks to control rough rate (6)
A charade of CL (‘banks to ControL‘) plus ARET, an anagram (‘rough’) of ‘rate’. Chambers lists CLARET as old slang for ‘blood’.
22 UNITE
Ally in uniform caught man on board (5)
A charade of U (‘uniform’) plus NITE, sounding like (‘caught’) KNIGHT (‘man on board’, chess).

picture of the completed grid

98 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,236 by Fed”

  1. Last time I attempted one of Fed’s it ended in tears, so I’m not sure why I tried today. Masochistic?

    I got much further today, which is to say not very far at all. Maybe half. So I look forward to reading the blog and indulging in multiple “D’oh!”s.

  2. A bit of a breeze after Paul yesterday, very enjoyable. ENTITLED made me smile. DUE TO & LATHER held me up for quite a while.
    Thanks Fed & PeterO

  4. I had KVa’s interpretation of BAZAAR – a little less tortuous, I think.

    I noted the same reappearances that PeterO noted (and I think maybe others too). It’s got to happen occasionally just by chance, but it does seem to be happening rather a lot recently.

    UNWRAP made me smile.

    Thanks F&P

  5. I feel slightly guilty, given GDU’s comment @1, at putting myself firmly in the nicbach @2 camp. A whizz through this POTPOURRI of pleasures this morning, finding myself right on the setter’s wavelength. UNWRAP is a delightful short ‘un and PROMULGATING a very cleverly hidden long ‘un. FASHION MODEL is a super assembly with a very natural surface, followed by the similarly smooth EPICUREAN and TRAWL. Amongst the downs, LATHER was nicely disguised and BALLPOINT PEN made very neat use of the Black Swan. Lots to smile about.

    Thanks Fed and PeterO

  6. I didn’t find this a walk in the park either. The East side was filled in quite quickly, but had to work to complete the West. Noticed the same answers as previous crosswords this week. I’m in the same parsing camp as KVa and others for BAZAAR. Paused to google the author of The Black Swan before seeing how the clue for 11 worked (and then kicked myself, of course). 1d was my way into the NW corner, despite thinking of LATHE for turner on the first pass through, but I didn’t see the meaning of state in the clue until near the end of the solve. Ultimately satisfying. Thanks to Fed and PeterO

  7. Got myself very tangled in 11 due to remembering Swan Ink from my struggles with fountain pens at school. I kept counting the letters in ‘fountain’ but there were only 8. I wasn’t allowed to switch to a ballpoint until Uni.

  8. Tough and enjoyable. I agree with PeterO that some of the words had a déjà vu feeling to them.

    New for me: BRISTOL = tit.

    I could not parse 2d; or 4d apart from GREASE = musical and it felt like KEY had something to do with tune but I couldn’t put it all together.

    Thanks, both.

  9. I’m racking my brain to try and guess how Fed came up with the extraordinary reverse inclusion of PROMULGATING. Did he notice it and decide it would make a good clue, or did he painstakingly tease it out?
    [Btw, if you’re into surprising English-French translations, one of my favourites is BRISTOL = Robert. But my favourite is still sugar = mercredi.]

  10. Gentle sparring after yesterday’s slugfest. Was in a pub in Bristol listening to common people (the song not the locals) recently – not sure if it helped

    Top ticks for PROMULGATING, GREASE MONKEY & AWE STRUCK

    Cheers F&P

  11. Thank you PeterO for emerging post prandially to serve us up your blog today, with everything neatly laid out..
    I read somewhere not so long ago, I think it was here, that we are now likely to get a few more of the same words cropping up in crosswords due to the software that compilers use, and probably compounded by the range of grids available for the Guardian setters.

    Like Blaise I was struck by the extraordinary reverse inclusion of PROMULGATING.
    Liked the surface of SNAKE-PIT for the image of the 25 fences in a competitive environment.
    Spent way too long thinking of orchestra pit, nice musical (mis)direction, in the clue for GREASE MONKEY

  12. What nicbach @2 says: a breeze after yesterday’s Paul, which almost defeated me. Nothing too taxing, but enjoyable. Thanks to F & P.

  14. Claret as a synonym for blood reminds me of the splendid Victorian term for bare-knuckle boxers – Claret Tappers.

  15. Thanks Fed and PeterO
    For the record, I parsed BAZAAR exactly as PeterO gave it. I didn’t parse or understand SNAKE PIT – why is it a “competitive environment?
    Favourite a late one in, LAPTOP.

  16. [Blaise@9. Btw, if you’re into surprising English-French translations, one of my favourites is BRISTOL = Robert. But my favourite is still sugar = mercredi.. ??? I’ve been all over the world on the web googling those pairs. Intrigued.]

  18. muffin@15. SNAKE-PIT, Collins online
    NOUN informal
    1. a place characterized by chaos, mutual hostility, or extreme competitiveness
    a snake pit of corporate competitiveness

  20. A very elegantly constructed challenge and a steady, enjoyable solve. I share the admiration for PROMULGATING. The northwest corner held me up a bit: I thought of TIT in 9ac on the first read-through, and then thought “Oh, surely not?” … Thank you to Fed and PeterO.

  23. Exactly what Meandme@20 said.

    Body Shop is a British cosmetics, skin care and perfume company; in N America it is a repair garage for car bodies.

    Thanks Fed and PeterO

  24. Paddymelon@16: both Bristol (Eng) and Robert (fr) are euphemisms slang for women’s breast. Bristol as explained by Peter0 – rhyming slang for Bristol City (titty) and Robert after a famous make of baby feeding bottle. [sugar and mercredi are both polite ways of avoiding saying s**t / m**de respectively]

  25. I was hung up on LA (Louisiana) as the state in 2 down and lather as a turner of wood ur someone using a lathe, so couldn’t parse. Doh!

  26. Like nicbach and PostMark I sailed through this – surprisingly, as I usually find Fed’s cleverly tangled constructions much more of a challenge. I didn’t see much in the top half at first glance, so I started at the bottom, which I found much more straightforward, and worked up. The familiar SPAGHETTI PORRIDGE BAZAAR did help!

    Some characteristically intricate charades here, but also some more straightforward clues with splendid surfaces. My favourites were UNWRAP, FASHION MODEL, EPICUREAN, and the small but perfectly formed TRAWL. I hadn’t come across that meaning of CLARET, but the metaphor was obvious. My LOI was PROMULGATING – from the crossers. I was trying to work out a charade/partial anagram and it took a while to see the solution hidden in reverse. Duh!

    Thanks to S&B

  27. I’m in the group that really loved this and found it a steady solve. I didn’t parse LATHER – although I got the equivalence of lathe = turner, but it was the last in, and I tend to come here to parse the last few rather than bend my brain if I haven’t solved the word as I go along.

    SNAKE PIT I’ve seen to describe a competitive environment before and count me another one impressed to see PROMULGATING hidden.

    I find with Fed that if I just follow the instructions I can build the solution. And I found this easier than yesterday’s Bluth in the Independent, but that could have been to do with starting the Bluth in the open youthwork sessions when no kids had appeared, which worked like a summoning spell, so I had to put it down until I had a break much later. I didn’t have much problem with the Paul yesterday either, well in the wee small hours when I couldn’t sleep, along with the FT, long before the blogs appeared, which is why I reached for the Bluth when I was left at a loose end yesterday afternoon.

    Thank you to PeterO and Fed.

  28. I agree with Shanne about following the instructions usually getting you there – and I find I am nearly always right on his wavelength. Maybe it’s because Mr Gorman’s been in both the Telegraph and the Indy this week so my eye is in, but I flew through this in nearly as little time as Wednesday’s Carpathian. LATHER was a little tricksy, and I liked GREASE MONKEY, SPAGHETTI, and BALLPOINT PEN, among others.

    Thanks PeterO and Fed.

  30. I’m totally with Shanne and Amoeba: one of the things I find most satisfying about Fed’s puzzles is that all you have to do is follow the instructions!

    Like others, I was particularly impressed by the reverse inclusion in PROMULGATING and also especially liked the ‘lift and separates’ of Black Swan and Stansted Airport. Other favourites were UNWRAP, SPAGHETTI, EPICUREAN, TRAWL, GREASE MONKEY – great surfaces throughout.

    Many thanks to Fed and PeterO.

  33. That was fun, an epicurean feast, with neat anagrams (ASPIRANT etc) and envelopes (eg TRAWL).
    I incorrectly parsed LATHER as someone who lathes, after beheading blather!
    Thanks Fed & PeterO

  34. Blaise @9 and Larry @24 — as a Robert living in France I’m rather perturbed by learning that particular piece of French slang!

  35. I found this tough in places but somehow managed to finish it, albeit with a few parsings I couldn’t get e.g. SNAKE PIT. I also started in NE and I also noted a few answers and indicators that featured in other puzzles recently. Could this simply be a coincidence? Not quite the same, but it reminded me of the famous Times crossword of 1944 where the compiler had used several secret words associated with the planned D Day Landings e.g. Mulberry and Pluto. Not surprisingly, it turned out to be pure coincidence, though am sure there were many of a conspiratorial frame of mind who never quite accepted that.

  37. Dave Ellison @23. Interesting. I’m in my 70s and have never lived anywhere but the UK (mainly Sussex, London & Oxfordshire) but I’m entirely familiar with ‘body shops’ as places where car bodywork is repaired. Indeed, I just googled ‘body shops near me’ and found three such (self-described) businesses within three miles of my home. I always assumed that Anita Roddick’s decision to call her cosmetics business ‘Body Shop’ was a humorous reference to such places?

  38. Never heard of the bristol slang. And I live there. 9a. And 27 across even with explanation its hard to follow. I’ll never ever manage to get clues like that. Makes me want to give up.

  39. I was also struck by the similar answers as mentioned by PeterO. I also concur with nicbach and PostMark. PROMULGATING was genius. Feeling somewhat relieved after yesterday’s mauling.

    Ta Fed & PeterO.

  41. Kirsty @38. It’s not Bristol slang. It’s Cockney rhyming slang – Bristol City, titty.
    Thanks to Fed and PeterO

  42. Wonderfully seamless surfaces, reminding me of an advert with Stephen Fry describing something (I forget the product) to be “as smooth as an otter in silk pyjamas”. My LOI and favourite was the hiding-in-plain-sight PROMULGATING. A two session Friday, a bit easier to my mind than yesterday’s puzzle, and very enjoyable. Thanks Fed and PeterO.

  44. As someone who only manages 3 or 4 answers in a Paul puzzle, I managed all bar two in this – 1d and 9a. The “Bristol” clue is known to me but was unexpected here.
    I also felt a tad uncomfortable with camp = affected, but went with it anyway.
    Thanks to Fed and PeterO.

  50. Enjoyable, the NW was the last to yield.

    I liked the song’s opening in DUE TO, the wordplays in SPAGHETTI, GREASE MONKEY, SPLUTTER and POTPOURRI, the surface of ROAD TRIP, and of course the very well-hidden PROMULGATING. I’m another Brit very familiar with body shop (it must be my driving!)

    Thanks Fed and PeterO.

  51. kirsty @38 don’t feel bad, it is a common feeling (and not always when just starting) some devices that seem impossible, start to become clearer as you do more and it is an introduction to a whole set of vocabulary that you may never have known before (I have learned more about cricket than I ever wanted to know from cryptics)

  54. [Blaise @9: Also in Italian, ‘mercoledì’ is euphemistic for ‘merda’, though ‘cavolo’ (cabbage) instead of ‘cazzo’ (a dysphemism for ‘penis’) is far commoner!]

  55. I forgot to mention last night, I knew the name of the author of the Black Swan (one of them, anyway), which therefore held me up longer than most other clues. As they say, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing!

  56. I’m with those who found this pretty difficult because of the superb wordplay in so many clues – despite getting a couple of easy ones early on and assuming it would all be like that. But ultimately rewarding, especially 14a , and never heard of claret meaning blood.
    Thanks Fed and PeterO

  57. [Dr WhatsOn @55: They do indeed say that, misquoting Pope, who wrote: A little LEARNING is a dangerous thing 🙂 ]

  58. I struggled to parse a handful, and NHO PEN for a female swan. Hopefully that is now tucked away in memory, it seems like the kind of thing that might come up again. Nonetheless an enjoyable outing.

  59. PROMULGATING was genuinely astounding.
    I very nearly got into a lather with my last two in due to being a tad dense.

  60. Jacob @58: add COB to that. It’s the male.(And, being English, it is of course also a loaf of bread, a horse, a nut, a corn-head, a lump of coal and a method of building houses … 😀 )

  64. Thanks both,
    A very enjoyable puzzle. I sometimes overthink Fed puzzles, expecting them to be more devious than they turn out to be.

    I took the ‘pit’ in 4d to be on a race track.

  65. I thought this was well worth persevering with, in particular for the impressive PROMULGATING. TRAWL rather nice, but I have to admit I had to work my way through the alphabet all the way to W to discover what A-E was, and to give the thumbs up to AWE-STRUCK too.
    However, I was left with 9ac and 2d unsolved, so was most unimpressed to see that UNTITLED required Tit as Bristol. Spoiled things rather at the very end, a pity, not trying to sound prudish or anything….haven’t read the other sixty odd comments as in a rush, so have no idea if my comments chime with others…

  66. PeterO, thanks for parsing DITHER (I got stuck on “detain”), the ALL POINT part of the literary swan, and the h*****phone in UNITE.

    A niggle, but I think MODEL in 18a means two similar things in the answer and the wordplay.

    Yes Me@7 [Do you remember cartridge pens? You bought little plastic cylinders full of ink and inserted them into pens with a fountain-style nib. I’d forgotten them till now.]

    Michelle@8 “Bristol city” is rhyming slang for “titty.”

    Larry@24 [A variation on the “sugar” euphemism I recall from childhood was “Sugar, Honey and Iced Tea.”]

    Lots of fun last night. Thanks, Fed and PeterO. (I hope you had a magnificent Thanksgiving!)

  67. Grizzle@37 and GrannyJP@43 the Roddick Body Shop that first opened in Brighton was next door to a funeral director so it’s far more gallows humour and created a lot of (probably useful) publicity at the time. As for today I came a distant second but enjoy reading 225 to further help me on the road to success one day. Thanks to Fed and PeterO and all the bloggers and contributors here.

  68. AlanC @45: Indeed. She was the daughter of the Earl of Bristol, and from a long line of Bristols. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. Perhaps just as well…

  69. It quite often seems to happen that the same answer comes up a few times in quick succession. I sometimes suspect setters have a competition among themselves, agreeing a term and then seeing who can come up with the most elegant clue for it

  70. Good puzzle, thanks Fed, which I didn’t find all that easy. (I didn’t have time for Paul yesterday and am now dreading it based on the comments!)

    Top marks for PROMULGATING, of course, and ASPIRANT is super neat. Needed the blog for the parsing of LAPTOP, thank you Peter.

    (Speaking as a south Londoner, I’ve heard CLARET used for “blood” a great deal more often than I’ve heard a “tit” called a “Bristol”.)

  71. Just wanted to add that the Body Shop beauty-product chain is well known on this side of the Atlantic too, and I think most people take it as a pun on the place you go to get the dents hammered out of your car. I have nothing to add about the puzzle that hasn’t already been said; thanks to blogger and setter.

  72. [Muffin @49 ??]

    Lovely puzzle, agree with all who’ve observed one simply needs to ‘follow the instructions’. All I’d add is: ’tis considerably easier said than done!

    Thanks, F & P

  76. I may be very stupid, but I thought ‘following the instructions’ was the best strategy for solving ALL cryptic clues 🙂

  77. So much praise for the brilliant 14a PROMULGATING, so I won’t add mine.

    In 11d, B_PEN for “Black Swan” was particularly fitting, as she was of course a female dancer.

    I thought 20d CLARET was rather ordinary until PeterO mentioned the ‘81 Margaux. 🙂
    Not knowing that claret was a synonym for blood, I parsed it as two synonyms for red (and approximately the same shade of red).

    Thanks, Fed for the excellent puzzle, and PeterO for the helpful blog.

  78. Thanks for the blog, good set of neat clues, prime numbers having a rest. SPAGHETTI was well constructed and a less insulting term for ghetto.
    AlanC@ 45 raising the cultural tone yet again.
    Nuntius @35 , not that it matters but it was the Telegraph crossword.

  80. Carry on Cleo , but actually written by Norden and Muir for Take it From Here, my favourite was Carry on up the Khyber but do not think I could watch them now.

  81. No amount of praise for PROMULGATING will be enough, honestly. Ta PeterO for tidying up the unparsed bits for me, Fed for a good post-thanksgiving puzzle.

  82. Unlike some others, PROMULGATING was my FOI. “retrospective” and “segment” put me on the alert, and “announcing”, ending in “ing”, led me immediately to the answer.

  83. SueB#25
    I did the same as you… LA (Louisiana) then ‘the r’ for lather one who lathes? I don’t think we’re right though.

  85. Pace Manhattan @61, I always knew the phrase as “Bristol Cities”, because, of course, they are a pair and typically referred to as such. As in, a nice pair of Bristols! So, Bristol for one tit made perfect sense to me.

    And, for the record for all you southerners, the northern version is “Bradfords” as in “Bradford Cities”! I had not heard Bristols used till I moved south in the late 1960s. For us, they were always Bradfords.

  86. PROMULGATING!! Is there a record for the length of a reverse hidden word and if so has Fed beaten it?
    PeterO, your Thanksgiving Dinner, are you blogging from the US? Thanks to you and Fed!

  87. PeterO
    If it was Chateau Margaux ’81 that you were drinking, Wow. A quick search shows a London wine merchant currently offering it at £506 a bottle!

  88. Thanks PeterO and thanks all.

    My intended parsing for BAZAAR is as suggested by KVa @3:
    Ex-drinkers aquiring unknown = AA acquiring Z = AZA
    And B/AR is hosting it = B-AZA-AR. It’s an envelope within an envelope but perhaps not as logically tortuous as AA acquiring Z = ZAA, which I’m not sure stands up to scrutiny.

    Blaise @9 I didn’t spot the opportunity for PROMULGATING and build a grid around it. I rarely have a clue in mind for much of anything before the grid fill. That’s the joy of setting for me. Filling the grid is also setting oneself about 30 little puzzles to solve. When you then spot such an opportunity it’s impossible to resist.

    Manhattan @61 I’m not sure I understand the issue you’re expressing with: “Bristol City = Titty (Tittie) not tit!” They’re synonyms surely… you might as well say, “a jerk is a jerk not a tic” !

    Valentine @66 “A niggle, but I think MODEL in 18a means two similar things in the answer and the wordplay” Um… it isn’t… is it? Prototype and person-modelling-clothes-at-a-fashion-show?

    Caroline @86 – if there is a record for the length of a reverse hidden word… well, I’ve done longer. I did one for CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR recently over in the Telegraph.

    Cheers all!

  89. Fed@88, yes, that one is longer, but this one is a single word – which is the greater accomplishment?

    Thanks for coming on here with your enlightening comments. Always appreciated.

  91. @Roz and all, I’ve started a list for “long” reverse hiddens, 12+ letters to qualify, any publication.
    So far…
    CROCODILE DUNDEE
    CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR
    PROMULGATING

    Do alert me if you see more.

  92. Fed @88
    Thanks for your comments. My parsing of 10A BAZAAR was rather perverse – but in my defense I would say that ‘acquiring’ does not have much to say as to where the acquired item ends up.
    Caroline @86
    Yes, I am based in the US, which is why I can get the blog out in good time; this crossword arrived at 7pm. on Thursday.
    Pino @87
    Indeed it was, although bought long before wine prices took off into the stratosphere. Even so, it seemed expensive at the time, but the Chateau is perhaps my favourite wine.

  93. Gervase @76 – there’s a class of clue, that the much missed Rufus was renown for setting, where there are no instructions to follow – like “Bar of soap? (6,6)”. Fed’s clues don’t tend to be of that ilk.

  94. SueB @25, Speliologist @83, same here. I kept trying to add letters to the ends of THER to get something that means “art”…

    I hadn’t run into ‘caught’ meaning “sounding like” before. Another random fact to remember…

  95. ThemTates @94
    Indeed one to remember: ‘”caught’ means “sounding like”. Except when it means C (cricket summaries) or an envelope, or …

  96. Quick but pleasant start to the week. I thought BLATHERED and ALLOT was a neat segue and also enjoyed TALK RADIO, AFTER THAT, BEER GUT, SCROTUM and TEA-CHESTS.

    Ta Matilda & PeterO.

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