Guardian 29,254 – Vlad

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I got off to a good start by guessing the long answer to 1,12 from the definition and enumeration, and it was reasonably plain sailing (by Vlad’s standards) from then on. There was one word I didn’t know (though clearly clued), and a couple of UK references may be unfamiliar to some. Thanks to Vlad.

 
Across
1,12 I HAVE A BRIDGE TO SELL YOU Vlad must cut in – Spooner’s call-girl makes proposal to the gullible (1,4,1,6,2,4,3)
ABRIDGE (cut) in I HAVE TO (Vlad must) + SELL YOU – a Spoonerism of “yell Sue” (call girl). This “proposal to the gullible” originates from the American con man George C. Parker, who fraudulently “sold” property he didn’t own, including the Brooklyn Bridge
8 MORAL Mike’s spoken message (5)
M + ORAL
9 RECENTLY Not much money in bank lately (8)
CENT (little money) in RELY (to bank [on])
11 BEER GUT Always first to get into bar … which might explain this (4,3)
E’ER + G[et] in BUT (bar,as in “all bar/but one”)
13 LOGOS Ultimately confusing toilets without identifying symbols (5)
[confusin]G in LOOS
15 DIRECTORS Board and lodging for priest in the Underworld (9)
RECTOR (priest) in DIS (underworld in Roman mythology)
17 SALAD DAYS Like daughters, speaks about youth (5,4)
A LA (like) D D in SAYS – meaning one’s youth, from Antony and Cleopatra: “My salad days, When I was green in judgment”
20 INDRI Bird nightly entertains returning primate (5)
Hidden in reverse of bIRD Nightly. The Indri is a type of Lemur
21 NAIPAUL Fleming returned with Gallico and another author (7)
Reverse of IAN [Fleming] + PAUL {Gallico]
23 DEADPAN Boring, rubbish kind of humour (7)
DEAD (boring) + PAN (to rubbish, criticise)
25 HATE MAIL Hello! Are police back probing who sent this? (4,4)
A (are, unit of area) + reverse of MET (Metropolitan Police) in HAIL
26 TARSI Rita’s broken bones (5)
RITAS*
27 STRESS FRACTURE Farce! Set right Truss’s mismanagement – it’s likely to be painful (6,8)
Anagram of FARCE SET R TRUSS
Down
1 IMMOBILISING Crippling one motorway, I tell the police, is about oil giant (12)
MOBIL (oil company) in 1 M + I SING (I tell the police about a crime)
2 AGREE Correspond with a nameless politician (5)
A GREE[n]
3 EULOGISED Pop Idol segue highly praised (9)
(IDOL SEGUE)*
4 BERATED Told off sleeping judge? (7)
RATE (to judge) in BED (i.e. asleep)
5 INCISOR Sort of ironic about Stimpy’s original canine companion (7)
S[timpy] in IRONIC* – the incisors are next to, so companions of, the canine teeth
6 GENAL Cheeky angel representation (5)
ANGEL* – a new word for me, meaning “of the cheek”, from “gena”
7 TALLYHOED Unlikely end to Tory do, eh – Cleverly shouted at Hunt (9)
TALL (unlikely, as in a tall story) + [tor]Y + anagram (“cleverly”) of DO EH
10 QUESTION TIME Perhaps why issue’s raised in political show (8,4)
QUESTION (perhaps why) + reverse of EMIT (issue)
14 GALLIVANT Having lost tablets, unfortunately, late leaving for jaunt (9)
Anagram of LATE LEAVING less two Es (Ecstasy tablets)
16 CLIMACTIC Caught taking type of acid – I’m involved bringing about resolution (9)
C + I’M in LACTIC
18 ALL EARS Listening intently – debt’s twice changed hands (3,4)
ARREARS with the first two Rs changed to L
19 SADDLER Sister about to confuse worker in leather (7)
ADDLE (confuse) in SR
22 ADELE Singer and presenter Richard getting naked (5)
[M]ADELE[Y} (Richard M, TV presenter)
24 PERDU Hidden diamonds in country ( 5)
D in PERU

75 comments on “Guardian 29,254 – Vlad”

  1. Thanks, Vlad and Andrew!
    Liked I HAVE A BRIDGE…., SALAD DAYS, BEER GUT and BERATED.

    BEER GUT
    Is it a CAD (not an &lit though)? Or just an extended def?
    Found it humorous.

  2. I liked BERATED, GALLIVANT, TALLYHOED and. SALAD DAYS. I had forgotten about the bridge flogger, or was the last word in, I had the others and couldn’t think of anything else to fit.
    GENAL and TARSI were new to me.
    I managed the left hand side quite quickly, but struggled a little with the right. I smiled a lot, my sign of a good puzzle.
    Thanks both.

  3. Can’t recall an easier Vlad. But still enjoyable. Beer gut was excellent….not something I often say about mine….

  4. Unlike Andrew, I needed a lot of crossers before I got 1,12, but progress was steady, though perhaps a tad slower than Andrew’s. GENAL was new to me as well, but fairly obvious. Liked SADDLER, GALLIVANT and CLIMACTIC amongst others, including SALAD DAYS for its Shakespeare reminder. I think the INDRI is a bit of a crossword chestnut, but not seen it for a while. Thanks to Andrew and Vlad.

  5. Enjoyable stuff from Vlad. The surface to 27a is brilliant, and 13a offers a theme-ette with a reminder of Kemi Badenoch’s stunt as she sought the leadership (the most important issue of the day obviously being that gender-neutral bogs should be labelled “Men” and “Ladies”(sic)).

  6. Thanks Vlad and Andrew
    Lots of good stuff. FOI and a favourite LOGOS; others included DIRECTORS, EULOGISED, and BERATED.
    I was stuck for a long time on 1a etc. and 6d. I only crossed the line by making anagrams of “angel” and checking to see if they were right.
    ADELE won’t be obvious to many, I suspect.

  7. All parsed. The GK I needed I didn’t really need, not even Madeley. I like the way that Vlad clued Truss and Cleverly. We also have a bridge to sell you.

  8. I meant to say that PERDU means “lost” rather than “hidden” in French. How did it come to be the latter in English?

  9. Thanks Andrew and Vlad.

    I am often surprised at FOIs: 1ac was almost my last, my FOI being NAIPAUL.

    I also thought this was much easier than usual Vlad material, but I am putting it down to my improving!

    I had ANGLE for 6d, until disabused b the checker: it fits the clue with cheek the anagrind, and representation being an angle on things.

  10. Not sure I need images of Richard Madeley naked with my breakfast 🙂

    Top ticks for BERATED, DIRECTORS & ADELE

    Fun while it lasted

    Cheers V&A

  11. This and the last Vlad have, IMHO, been easier than his normal standard. But I’m not complaining as it gives me great satisfaction to complete a Vlad after a difficult week. 10dn was my FOI followed by 1dn. The lengthy 1/12 was LOI mainly because I wasn’t familiar with it as a phrase in its own right. Thanks to V and Andrew.

  12. I’d never heard of the expression at 1,12, either and so it was one of my last ones in – great construction but it still took a minute or two to fathom the Spoonerism.

    I had a dozen or more ticks and could only whittle them down to 11ac BEER GUT, 15ac DIRECTORS, 17ac SALAD DAYS, (happy memories of performing in the show – Julian Slade and Dorothy Reynolds, not Shakespeare, years ago), 21ac Naipaul, 25ac HATE MAIL, 27ac STRESS FRACTURE, 1dn IMMOBILISING, 7dn TALLYHOED (James Cleverly is proving a boon to setters), 14dn GALLIVANT (lovely word!) and 18dn ALL EARS – all cleverly constructed, with witty surfaces, producing lots of smiles, as for nicbach @2.

    Many thanks to Vlad for an excellent puzzle and to Andrew for a blog to match (and for explaining 1,12).

  13. Plenty to like and enjoy as this puzzle slowly gave up its secrets with only PERDU defeating me as a nho. Or, at least, I’ve encountered it in French – notably in a certain book title – but had no idea it had been adopted into English. SADDLER, GALLIVANT and TALLYHOED were favourites. That said, I appear to be the only one so far to be underwhelmed by the Spoonerism of ‘Yell Sue’ for ‘sell you’ in 1 across. It works at a purely technical level but neither fodder nor result are meaningful phrases: I’d be astonished if anyone solved that element direct from the WP rather than by reverse parsing.

    Thanks Vlad and Andrew

  15. Certainly easier than the usual Vlad. All my ticks already mentioned but a shout out for BEER GUT and STRESS FRACTURE.

    Ta Vlad & Andrew.

  16. A gentler than usual Vlad? I’m not sure, but I didn’t have too much trouble with it. Full of good constructions and humour, as usual. GENAL was new to me, but seemed the most likely solution (I then checked it), as was the long phrase – my LOI, with all but BRIDGE having been entered tentatively.

    All the political clues are ingenious, but my favourites were the simple ones with clever surfaces: RECENTLY, BEER GUT, BERATED, ALL EARS.

    Many thanks to Vlad and Andrew

  17. I’m surprised no-one has queried Stimpy in INCISOR. It’s from the Ren & Stimpy animated cartoon about a dimwiitted Manx cat and a psychopathic chihuahua. I only know of it because my son loved it.

  18. Well, my experience this morning was completely the opposite to Andrew. Had no idea about what 1/12 ac might be, but swiftly solved 1d. Then crept my way in an anticlockwise direction across the grid. With some very satisfying solves on my way. However, frustratingly left with a word I had nho in GENAL, though the anagram was clearly indicated at 6d. And finally I had to reveal 1/12 ac as it was an expression I’d nho either. A bridge too far, in fact. But a most enjoyable journey on the way. Most bizarre…

  19. AlanC@17. I haven’t seen the cartoon Ren and Stimpy. It was another bit of GK I didn’t need for the solve. But now that I know that Stimpy is the cat, the clue is cleverer and funnier, as Stimpy’s canine companion would lead you to think of Ren (except the answer is 7 letters).

  20. 1a popped into my head after a few crossers and I confirmed it with the check button. I don’t find these elaborate constructions much fun.

    Muffin@8: I had the same thought about PERDU, but Chambers reassured me.

    As others have noted, this was pretty straightforward for a Vlad.

  21. LOI was 1/12. Is this really a well known phrase or saying? I’ve never seen or heard it. Apparently, it follows “If you believe that, then …”.

  23. Loved 7d TALLYHOED – using Jimmy Dimly as an anagrind. And “Pop” for the same purpose in 3d EULOGISED – why not?

  24. When, oh when, will I remember the are = A ruse? Catches me every time.

    Took for ever to spot the BRIDGE part of the first clue, but loved it finally.

    Enjoyed looking up GENAL and all the others people have mentioned.

    Many thanks, both.

  26. Well that’s my first Vlad completion! I thought Vlad was much more friendly than normal – the definitions did not seem to be as cunningly disguised as normal so I was able to complete a large part of the grid from the definitions alone, more or less as a non cryptic, and the long 1,,9 ac I was able to guess from a few crossers and enumeration. I presume that was Vlad’s Christmas gift and I fully expect a return to normality in the New Year.
    Many thanks to Andrew for the blog and to Vlad for letting me get off the mark – I was 9-0 down before this and I might have relegated myself to the Telegraph crossword if I’d gone 10-0 down!

  27. 1a etc went straight in (it’s a very well-known phrase, I think!), which was a promising start for what turned out to be a speedy solve. NHO GENAL, but knowing -AL as a suffix (e.g. renal) meant I was fairly sure. Also never heard of Gallico, but thankfully had heard of NAIPAUL.

    Liked BEER GUT, ADELE, and TALLYHOED once I untangled it.

    Thanks Vlad & Andrew.

  28. I didn’t get 1a/12a until later either, but it’s a phrase I’ve come across – as a child it was much chortled over when Ivan Luckin bought London Bridge, but bridge was still my last word in of the phrase.

    Another who found this more straightforward than Vlad can be. I got BEER GUT in first, then a lot of downs – 1d was very helpful plus the anagram at 3d for EULOGISING, which opened up the grid. PERDU was one of my last ones in too, but it had to be that. Pain perdu is a version of French toast/eggy bread that hides the bread, so maybe that’s how we get that meaning?

    Thank you to Andrew and Vlad.

  29. 1a,12a nearly put. E off bothering with the rest of the puzzle as it isn’t anything I’d heard before and seems like a meaningless string of words to be honest.
    However, glad I persevered as there were some very enjoyable clues to be found. Thanks for all the explanations Andrew

  30. There were several expressions new to me – not only GENAL and the …BRIDGE… phrase (though I was vaguely aware of the scam), but also PERDU as an English word and Stimpy as a cartoon cat. But it all went in easily enough and I tend to agree this was gentler than Vlad’s usual offerings.
    Favourites BEER GUT, DIRECTORS, SALAD DAYS, ALL EARS.
    Unlike some, I wasn’t keen on TALLYHOED in spite of the amusing surface – it just seems to me a word formation that no-one would actually use – but maybe it’s commonplace in contexts such as Jilly Cooper novels?
    Thanks both.

  31. I cannot say I enjoyed this as too many went unparsed. I did parse 7d but was not happy about it. I have never heard the “tall” as meaning unlikely separately from the phrase “tall story”.

    NHO genal, indri, tarsi, or Richard Madeley.

  33. mervyn@21 The bridge line is well-known in the US — not surprisingl since it was born here.

    Thanks to Vlad and Andrew for the diversion.

  34. manhattan @32
    Rather to my surprise, given as such in Chambers, principally in the sense of lying in ambush.
    I asked earlier how the change in meaning from the French happened, but I haven’t had a suggestion yet!

  35. muffin @34: I don’t think there is so big a semantic shift from ‘lose’ to ‘hide’. Wiktionary gives this possible meaning for ‘lose’, which is very familiar:

    (transitive) To cause (somebody) to be unable to follow or trace one any longer.
    ‘We managed to lose our pursuers in the forest’

  36. Gervase @35
    Thanks, but ‘We managed to lose our pursuers in the forest’ and ‘We managed to hide our pursuers in the forest’ are hardly interchangeable!

  37. I only know PERDU as the French for lost and have never met it meaning “hidden” in English. But both it and the other unknown GENAL had nice straightforward wordplay, unlike the long answer which I got from crossers and never managed to parse. Liked the surface of RECENTLY.

  40. As an American, I chuckled a bit at Andrew’s comment that “UK references may be unfamiliar to some”: one place I stumbled was over the unfamiliar (to me) American author Paul Gallico. Although in my case Andrew is right about another name, Richard Madeley.

    On the other hand, I would have thought that the “I have a bridge …” expression would be more familiar to American solvers, so perhaps I had an advantage there. Anyway, that one went in right away for me, from the definition and enumeration.

    Are as a unit of area gets me every time.

    I found the misleading definition for 5dn (INCISOR) particularly amusing. I do remember the existence of Ren and Stimpy, but it was quite a long time ago. I don’t think I ever watched it, and I couldn’t have told you which name went with which species.

    As expected with Vlad, there were some other unfamiliar words — indri, genal, perdu as an English word — but in all cases the clues were clear enough that they were quite solvable. Like some others, I found this surprisingly gentle for a Vlad puzzle.

  41. I agree with those who found this easy by Vlad’s usual standards.

    As an American, I am well familiar with I HAVE A BRIDGE TO SELL YOU. It went in quickly, early, and based solely on enumeration and definition. (It indeed usually follows “Well, if you believe that…”, so basically it’s saying, “how gullible can you be, you twit?”) I never did go back and parse it, so thanks to Andrew.

    Paddymelon @19: Ren and Stimpy were part of my own adolescence, so I did indeed spend a few seconds trying to see if REN might be part of the answer.

    I also raised an eyebrow at PERDU being hidden rather than lost. [I know the word from A la recherche du temps perdu, of which I of course have only read a few dozen pages, in English. Oh, and my father spent his entire career teaching at Purdue University in Indiana, and over that length of time, sooner or later you’ll hear a joke based on a Purdue/perdu pun.]

  42. I meant to add that I didn’t know Richard Madeley either, but a five-letter singer is pretty much going to be ADELE, right? Never mind, I’ll find someone like youuuuu…..

  43. I thought this was a fairly typical Vlad puzzle, but he’s one of those setters who I seem to on the wavelength with quite easily and I always enjoy his work.

    This was no exception. Most of went in smoothly, but I didn’t know the saying at 1ac so bunged it in last. I also didn’t know “Dis” so DIRECTORS detained me for a long while. I thought TALLYHOED an extremely fine clue and would also pick out BERATED (needed the blog to fully get the parsing) and SALAD DAYS. It was also nice to see BEER GUT not clued as a “corporation” (as I’m sure I’ve seen that at least twice in the last 12 months).

    Thanks to Vlad and Andrew. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

  44. My recollection was of the London Bridge story, not Brooklyn – took a while to get enough crossers that the answer had to be what it was, but it didn’t really feel like a comon phrase.
    Once 1a was in, the rest went in fairly easily. Enjoyed DIRECTORS and SALAD DAYS (I didn’t know the Shakespearean origin, I thought it was much more recent), and DEADPAN and GALLIVANT were lovely. Never came across TALLY-HO as am verb – I must be moving in the wrong circles! I’d always wondered why posh eggy-bread was called pain perdu as I thought that meant ‘lost bread’, so it’s educational to learn that on loan in English PERDU means ‘hidden’.
    Thank you Vlad and Andrew.

  45. New for me: PERDU, GENAL.

    I could not parse 1/12 apart from I HAVE TO (Vlad must), 14d, 25ac apart from MET + HAIL.

    Thanks, both.

  46. Well, not at all straightforward for me. Wiktionary gives the bridge thingy as US idiomatic, so I guess it’s not very well-known over this side of the pond; likewise Madeley and, maybe, QUESTION TIME over the other side.

    Once I had struggled to the finish, I appreciated the wordplays in BEER GUT, HATE MAIL and GALLIVANT.

    Thanks to Vlad for the impalement and to Andrew for unravelling it all – I’m impressed you knew the bridge thingy.

  47. [I’ve heard that the origin of the phrase “pain perdu” is that it is a way of rescuing stale bread, which would otherwise be lost.]

  48. Enjoyable all round, and I learnt some new words, which is always good.

    Postmark@13: a call-girl is definitely a thing.

  49. I’m amazed that the Spoonerism police haven’t got into YELL SUE yet – allow me to be the first. Had to reveal GENAL rather than guess from a choice of two unknown words. I see my spellchecker doesn’t know it either. Struggled with a lot of parsing today so many thanks to Andrew.

  50. Thanks for the blog, well I put in 1/12 last of all , after trying all the clues in order I worked up from the bottom with what was left. Good set of clues , I liked the ALADD from SALAD DAYS.

  51. I remember a story of a rich Texan buying London Bridge to dismantle it and move it to Texas before a new one was built to replace it (in the 60s?). He thought he was getting Tower Bridge!

  52. Typically fine surfaces from Vlad. I loved the IMMOBILISING and STRESS FRACTURE ones. Lots of others to laugh at too.
    HATE MAIL is interesting. The who sent part is not needed strictly but definitely helps the definition by pointing towards the answer. Cleverly done.
    Thanks, V&A

  53. [muffin @51 — London Bridge was indeed bought by an American, but to quibble, it’s in Arizona, not Texas. For what it’s worth, the buyer denied that he mistakenly thought he was getting Tower Bridge.]

  55. Feeling very pleased today that I finished and parsed a Vlad puzzle, even though some thought it was easy. Perhaps I don’t need to be afraid of him now. I had to look up the meaning of genial. Thanks Vlad and Andrew and all the commenters.

  57. Thanks Andrew and Vlad.
    Very nice puzzle.
    Didn’t know the words PERDU and GENAL though I could work them out from the clues.
    You learn something everyday

  59. Jane @58. Are is needed for the surface which is in the form of a question. So area wouldn’t work there. Abbreviation for are is a. . This clues the a in mail.
    So the reversal in HA- – – – IL for hello, is MET (police) and A (from are) HATE MAIL

  64. A ‘BRIDGE’ too far for me – can’t say I enjoyed it. But an amount of entertainment and much thanks to Andrew for doing what I couldn’t do and allowing me to benefit.

    Jane@: It has become a (recent?) convention that the EU measurement of area – the ‘are’ (which is signified by the letter ‘a’ (as in my garden has an area of 1.5a) (think hectares)) – may allow setters to equate the word ‘are’ with the letter ‘a’. So it’s not a misprint.

  70. Vlad is always a challenge but a thoroughly worthwhile one – and a chance to expand one’s knowledge and vocabulary rather than to complain about unfamiliar words or ‘too much UK GK required’.

    It seems that comments have been disabled for this crossword, with the effect that the convention of using that thread for comments on the Prize has been ended. I’m not sure if this is a deliberate consequence.

    IMHO, the debate about ‘perdu’ is just another revival of the long-standing discussion about the accuracy of the definitions in cryptic crosswords. My personal view is that some latitude can be allowed – in part, because if the definition is too precise, it can obviate the need to wrestle at all with the word-play.

  71. [Ian W @70. I hope that the early shutdown of Friday’s Guardian cryptic comments is just a one-off. Where there’s a choice between a conspiracy and a stuff-up, I usually opt for the latter. Maybe they just couldn’t cover it this weekend. I’d hope that Alan Connor/Everyman, the new Editor and longtime columnist of Guardian crosswords, hasn’t made a decision to close the comments off early on a Friday ongoing, so that we can’t play over the weekend, even while mindful of the rules about no spoilers for the Prize and Everyman.]

  72. Thanks PM. I have mixed thoughts about the shutdown, but can’t help feeling that, if one of the motives was to prevent spoilers, then those who persistently engage in this barbarism ought to feel suitably chastened. I’m not optimistic, though, that this will happen — in which case, they will have spoiled things for the rest of us. Which, of course, is what posting spoilers is all about in the first place.

  73. [Ian W @72. The weekend is a nice time to reflect and communicate outside the busy weekdays. It would be such a shame if that was no longer possible. It’s a great part of the Guardian cryptic cycle.]

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