Guardian 29,273 / Paul

86 comments on “Guardian 29,273 / Paul”

1. Thanks Paul and Eileen
   Favourite CALENDAR YEAR.

2. As Eileen says, this was quite a workout for a Monday, but a very enjoyable one. I’d never heard of FUMAROLE nor POODLE FAKER, but there was plenty to enjoy along the way. Many thanks to P & E.

3. Hope this isn’t the way Monday’s are going to be from now on. Lots of people try the Monday Guardian cryptic as an entry level, which this wasn’t. Okay, there’s still the Quiptic, but even as a reasonably experienced solver, I found this hard going.

   Thanks Paul and Eileen

4. Thanks Paul and Eileen.
   Top faves: RUBBER GLOVES and GEAR STICK.

5. Isn’t manifesto doing double duty in ELIOT? I just took the definition as author.
   Thanks for the parsing of CALENDAR YEAR Eileen. I missed Grant, Cary.
   Favourite was RUBBER GLOVES.
   Maybe Paul on a Monday is the new editor starting a fresh paradigm.

6. I guessed 26a by starting with O old RR motor manufacturer. Never thought of Morris.

7. Usually l like Paul but wasn’t very keen on this, and agree it was very hard for a Monday. The clue/definition for GEAR STICK was especially tortuous. The dog impersonator was new to me, as to others. I assumed (and still think more likely) that ELIOT was intended as George rather than TS (like Tim C@4, I think).
   Among a few others clues, I did like BLOOD BANK because it reminded me of this (about half-way through).
   Thanks Eileen and Paul.

   PS I do like the new (or just noticed) “Click to edit” feature for comments)!

8. I realised I knew FUMAROLE as I worked it through with some crossers but didn’t remember the context – I’ve possibly even taught volcanoes, but it didn’t stick. POODLE FAKER felt new but I suspect I have encountered it in the past, maybe Kipling? Nope army uncle

   I found this relatively straightforward for a Paul, with enough of a toehold in the first pass to work out the rrst.

   Thank you to Eileen and Paul.

   Edited to change woked to worked

9. btw I had heard of POODLE FAKER, but thought it was a derogatory name for a male ladies’ hairdresser.

10. All summed up perfectly by Eileen and not as tricky as it first looked. Same favourites plus STANDPIPE.

    Ta Paul & Eileen.

11. I have quite a lot to do today so was slightly alarmed to find a Paul awaiting me. As always, I found it challenging but great fun. Lots of ticks.
    I managed to complete the grid but needed to come here for the parsing of Calendar Year.
    Poodle-faker was new to me so I googled it later and found that it crops-up in the Flashman books, in Orwell’s ‘Burmese Days’ and, as recently as 2003, in a Telegraph article by Boris Johnson (then Mayor of London) attacking Tony Blair. So not quite as dated an expression as I assumed.
    Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

12. I found this very tough – not heard of ORRIS or POODLE-FAKER, and quite a bit of chewy stuff elsewhere. I agree that the latter was beautifully clued; dredging the carmaker from my memory took quite a bit of effort, however, and perhaps on the edge of reasonableness for me (it seems the company hasn’t existed since 1952, and the brand since 1984, five years before I was born!). Think I’d probably heard of FUMAROLE, and FUM- seemed the obvious start.

    Even though I once hit 100wpm teeline, SHORTHAND TYPIST took me a while.

    A solid and satisfying workout, but not for a Monday in future please. Won’t somebody think of the newbies?

    Thanks Paul & Eileen.

13. Massively more entertaining than the usual Monday Guardian fare, which is far too often more Quiptic than cryptic. I hope it isn’t just a one-off and that there’s been an editorial decision to raise the level. Very interesting, too, to see Paul produce a puzzle that is significantly easier than his usual offerings but retains a lot of his idiosyncratic style.

    Like others I’d never heard of POODLE FAKER but the clueing couldn’t really have led anywhere else and it’s a very nice addition to one’s vocabulary. Thanks to Paul and Eileen for a better-than-expected start to the week.

    P.S. Thanks also for the new edit feature…

14. Paul on a Monday? What fresh hell is this?

    I don’t regard IF and ‘even though’ as equivalent.

    Some of the slang terms Paul comes up with (POODLE FAKER) make me wonder if we speak the same language, but I suppose it’s an education.

15. I found this just as tricky as it first looked! In the end I failed on SOCK PUPPET for which I’d lost the energy to do an A-Z trawl and bunged in a lazy HOOK. Never heard of a POODLE-FAKER but enjoyed reading about the origin of the term afterwards; seems like Grizzlebeard @11 and I looked at the same source.

    Do SHORTHAND TYPIST(s) still exist? Maybe the def could have been ‘secretary once?’. Made a change from PA anyway.

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

16. I realised too late for the (lovely) new edit function that I’d forgotten to credit my favourite clue of the lot: RUBBER GLOVES. Delightful.

17. I managed to complete this during a spell of insomnia last night. (I must avoid red wine in the evening…). I’m another who’d never heard of POODLE FAKER, but wrote it in and hoped for the best. I especially liked SOCK PUPPET, STANDPIPE and RUBBER GLOVES. I think we had Berg at least once last year. He was the composer who died because his wife tried to remove a carbuncle from his back with a knife and he developed blood poisoning. They were too poor to engage a doctor.

18. Yes I was with others who found 17d FUMAROLE and 21/24d POODLE FAKER unfamiliar, but I love learning new things. I agree 27a CALENDAR YEAR was a very good clue. Thanks to Paul for lifting my Monday and to Eileen for her usual helpful and thorough blog.

19. I forgot to thank Paul and Eileen. (I clicked on the edit button but the seconds ticked away before I could complete).

20. Hard for a Monday but no harder than many beginning of the week puzzles. I left the Quiptic with a few to finish and completed this in one pass, excluding leaving the coffee shop, having breakfast and going home. So I lied or bent the truth a little, but I’m wimp enough to admit it. Anyway, the Quiptic was much easier, I just needed time to get my head found the final few clues. Thanks to everyone concerned and remember Nils illegitima carborundum. I knew him well, Swedish mum and Roman dad .

21. A slow but satisfying solve, thank you.
    I knew POODLEFAKER from reading old detective stories, but thought it meant a con-man, so I’m pleased to be corrected. Embarrassingly, I failed to prse STANDPIPE. Hadn’t heard of a SOCK puppet, just glove or string ones. It’s always interesting to see the different “never heard ofs” across the blog – variety being the spice of life.

22. Thanks Eileen – I needed your parsing of STANDPIPE – not sure why, but it stumped me. This pleasurably reminded me of the Paul of old – back when he was my favourite setter, without the convoluted nature of his recent offerings.

23. “Sock puppet mouth” is quite a common description of someone looking sad.

24. I made rather heavy weather of this, particularly the bottom half. But the usual tactic of leaving it for an hour and coming back to it worked a treat.

    POODLE FAKER was new to me also. I parsed MASSIF as MA + AS IF, which I think works a bit better for ‘even though’. I liked SCRATCH CARD, RADIO STAR, ESSEX (almost clue as def), FLORA and RUBBER GLOVES (pity about the surface 🙂 ). And the memory of our former colleague Spooner’s catflap.

    Thanks to JH and Eileen

25. I echo the first para of Charles@13

    What a joy, I thought, to have a Paul on a Monday (albeit a 10 min solve, and at his most straightforward) – it’s going to be a good year!

    [And a belated Happy New Year to my fellow unravellers !]

    Many thanks both and all

26. Gervase@ 24

    I wasn’t entirely happy with if = even though but I can’t make your parsing work!

27. Too slow to correct my parsing error! 🙁

28. I hadn’t heard of “sock puppet mouth” either, muffin@23. A quick Google for sock puppets shows me a load of things I would, inaccurately and in ignorance, just have called glove puppets. Nice to learn something new.

29. I found this massively (MASSIF-ly?) too difficult–harder than the average Saturday puzzle. I wound up cheating on nearly half the entries, which unfortunately made it no fun at all. And I’ve been doing the Guardian puzzle for something like 15 years at this point, so I’m hardly a novice solver. I’m not trying to be a Debbie Downer; just wanted to let others who struggled know that they’re not alone.

    Thanks to Eileen, and also thanks to Paul, whose offerings I usually like.

30. What fun I found this, on a Monday too, and perhaps with the paper version of The Guardian going up to £3 now I was getting more value for my extra expenditure as I whiled away my time in our local famous heart hospital waiting for my appointment this morning. Had Stretch “for what a criminal might do” at 12/18 for a while which seemed to agree with all the crossers, before I fathomed SCRATCH CARD. Paul’s always so up to date with clues like FATBOY SLIM. Loved the RUBBER GLOVES. Loi ORRIS…

31. poc@14 Maybe: Having reached the top of the mountain, I felt on top of the world, /if/even though/ very tired.

32. Thank you for the nods, Eileen and Gervase @ 24. I am still alive and well and out here in the lurkosphere, although, for a variety of reasons, I have almost entirely ceased commenting. I may pop up again from time to time if I think there is something useful that I can contribute.

33. It’s really good to hear from you, Spooner’s catflap – congratulations on the namecheck! You know that you’re always welcome. 😉

34. A late start, followed by a shock when I saw Paul’s name on the top. I thought this was Paul on top form, although I DNK POODLE FAKER, but it went together well from the cluing.

    I liked the wordplays of RUBBER GLOVES and RADIO STAR, the wave anagrind in STANDPIPE, the key that wasn’t a key in SCRATCH CARD, the Grant in CALENDAR YEAR, and the CAT FLAP Spoonerism, although it must have been done before.

    Thanks Paul for the workout (no 10-min solve here) and Eileen for the beautiful explanations.

35. mrpenney @29 I concur with your sentiment. I only had to reveal one (STANDPIPE) but whatever the merits of this puzzle – and I thought there were plenty – I found it far more challenging than Mondays generally are. I think there’s worth in saying it was difficult because I do appreciate finding out that it’s not just me, when that’s the case.

36. Since there are two puzzles available on Monday (or Sunday to me and some others around the world) I’m glad they’re both traditionally on the easy side – but this one certainly wasn’t. Needed a lot of guessing and checking.

    Eileen said two Spoonerisns were one too many for her. Well two are two too many for me!

    Nho POODLE FAKER. When I looked it up, Wiktionary told me it was an anagram of LEAKPROOFED. Well, fancy that!

37. Maybe they’re still struggling with the Monday slot. Traditionally it had been the ‘easy one’, per Rufus, but he is no more. I’m always happy to do a Paul puzzle, but I’d been labouring under the delusion that Imogen’s Jekyll Vulcan is now the preferred ‘easy’ option.

38. Dr WhatsOn @36

    I was sorely tempted to write ‘at least one too many’!
    My dislike of Spoonerisms is well documented here – but that’s because so many of those in crosswords involve meaningless definitions. ‘Flat cap’ and ‘cat flap’ are both recognised phrases – but ‘head rot’??

39. Amazed that Fatboy Slim was familiar, via some sort of osmosis, as I’ve absy no idea about anything about them. Must be the noosphere (who coined that?). Fun to be challenged on a Monday, but sympathy for the beginners.

40. Robi @34. Having a particular interest in the matter, I can disclose that the last appearance in these parts of the CATFLAP / FLAT CAP Spoonerism occurred in Cryptic 28521 by Nutmeg on 3rd September 2001 at 16 Down.

41. Like the new feature, esp for re-correcting autocorrects (eg Badgerman > Badger’s recently). So, many thanks techs and admin ..

42. I think I must be missing something with RUBBER GLOVES in that I get the individual bits but can’t see how the wordplay leads to the required arrangement?

    Top ticks for SCRATCH CARD, CHUBBY & FATBOY SLIM for which I have to praise you Paul

    Cheers E&P

43. Some lovely clueing here. I particularly enjoyed RADIO STAR and FATBOY SLIM.

    ESSEX works as an &lit (I think?) given that if you look north across the Thames estuary from Kent you see Essex. In fact that’s how I got it – had to come here for the parsing!

44. Thanks both for the entertainment but more or less what mrpenney@29 said – my Monday GEARSTICK refused to shift from neutral and that combined with the starting handle on my PC jamming for half an hour led to a frustrating interlude.

    For all that I will be looking for an opportunity to use POODLE FAKER at the earliest, erm, opportunity.

    [Btw muffin – if your still hovering – thanks for the heads up the other day about Bunthorne. Much appreciated but on examination I’m inclined to think I have enough challenging xwords on my plate as it is. Life is (increasingly (decreasingly?)) too short.

45. Nice, different, start to the week.
    Top ticks for GEAR STICK, SHOEBOX and the delightful ESSEX.
    Thanks to Eileen for the help with MASSIF and STANDPIPE.

46. Over an hour (off and on) for a Monday!

    I do like Paul’s puzzles though; so a fun way to spend Breakfast and lunch break.

    A few new words phrases too, so educational.

    Thanks Setter and Blogger

47. I have to say I didn’t find this any easier than Paul’s usual standard, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Nice to see Spooner’s cat flap, both as clue and commenter. I had the same favourites as Eileen.

48. GinF @39
    Noosphere (needs an accent on one of the Os, but I don’t know how to do that) was coined by the discredited Jesuit “scholar” Teilhard de Chardin, who may have also been responsible for the Piltdown Man hoax.

49. Redrodney@43
    ESSEX
    Kent area, looking north: the other county —Maybe this could be taken as a clue-as-def considering what you said.
    However, this may not qualify as an ‘&lit’ clue because the word ‘county’ isn’t required for the wordplay.

    GEAR STICK
    The clue here could be classified as &lit, I feel.
    It’s a CAD and also the wordplay utilises every word of the clue.

50. Bodycheetah@42 A favoured massage of an Austrian musician could be a RUB BERG LOVES…!

51. POODLE FAKER just came to me so it must have been in a crossword once before?
    Excellent start to the week, good to see Paul on a Monday.

52. I enjoyed this, yet another creative & humorous puzzle from Paul.
    The RADIO STARs – FATBOY SLIM, David ESSEX, CHUBBY Checker, RED HOT Chilli Peppers?
    And items of clothing – GLOVES, CAP, SOCK & SHOE to boot!
    Thanks Paul & Eileen

53. I finish most crosswords but have never completed one of Paul’s. On a Monday? You must be joking.

54. Great fun to have a Paul today but now I have less incentive to get up for the rest of the week. I clearly remember POODLE FAKER from a Biggles book seventy years ago – if only I could recall what I did yesterday. Thanks Paul & Eileen

55. I found that difficult for a Monday, and, as such, somewhat unwelcome.

56. OOF. I generally like Paul but didn’t get on with this. I eventually got everything without reveals (albeit with checks) but now wonder if it’s the shock of seeing Paul on a Monday that discombobulated me. A few obscurities (the ones already pointed out) and a few stretchy allusions (e.g. What criminal might do with key / SCRATCH CAR) that made sense after the event but would not come to mind before definition and crossers kicked in.

    Oh and Spoonerisms are my least favourite clue type by a country mile and there should be some sort of rule against >1 in a puzzle…

    Query re ELIOT… I can see the reversal indicator (‘doing a U-turn’) but what indicates the hidden?

    Thanks both.

57. I see what you did there Bodycheetah @42, re Fatboy Slim – nice one.

58. …I’ve just realised I actually had a dnpc (did not properly complete) on my hands today as I had Hook PUPPET instead of another sort of blow, SOCK. I’m pretty sure I googled Hook PUPPET, and up it swung/hung. Wasn’t “Sock It To Me” a bit of catchphrase in one of those U.S. comedy shows in the Sixties or Seventies, maybe…?

59. ronald @58
    “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in”, principally, though not always, Judy Carne

60. What a delight to have a Paul on a Monday, even though this was him at his unusually gentlest!

    RUBBER GLOVES, SCRATCH CARD, FATBOY SLIM and SHORTHAND TYPIST all great clues.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

61. In view of all the negative comments about spoonerisms I’d just like to say that I rather like them. They usually bring a smile to my face. I think it’s only keystone type clues that I dislike. Paul used to provide these on a regular basis, but I don’t want to give him any ideas…(!)

62. So it’s Monday. So what? Less whining please. Give thanks for a Paul, the best of the bunch!

63. I found this quite hard to get into over breakfast and it all came together quite smoothly mid-afternoon. Terrifying to think that my subconscious has spent half a day chewing over crossword clues!
    Good fun, POODLE FAKER being new to me but pretty clearly clued. Apparently the last Prime Minister but one (if you don’t count the lettuce) used it to describe a Mr Blair some time in about 2003. Just saying.
    Thanks Paul and Eileen

64. Manhattan @51
    11 POODLE-FAKERS – POODLE(freak)*S; very old Victorian slang for a lothario

    Times 23894 April 2008

65. What a lovely easy romp for a Monday.

    Except that I have just lied blatantly. Despite getting ORRIS early, and not having too much trouble with FUMAROLE, and guessing ESSEX without understanding the clue at all, much of this puzzle was rather puzzling.

    GEAR STICK was gettable, but the clue doesn’t really make sense to me, particularly as a definition. And I still don’t understand ESSEX: ‘sex’ = ‘the other’? Can someone explain please?

66. Fun? FUN?? Entertaining? You have to be joking. As always from Paul, tortuous. Completely lacking in wit.

67. Monkey@65 – “a bit of the other” is a euphemism for a bout of conjugal activity.

68. Monkey@65: I’m gonna take a punt and say that GEAR STICK is an &lit. (I will now retire to a safe distance….)

69. Ticks for RUBBER GLOVES and RADIO STAR and nice to see Spooner’s catflap get his due. (And very nice to see you out there @32!) Somewhat less than ticks for POODLE FAKER, BLOOD BANK, and ORRIS. Heavy reliance on the check button for me and I usually did not feel bad about it.

    Did anyone else come up with HAND PUPPET? “H” = hit, “AND” = with?

    Thanks Paul and Eileen.

70. Well, I thought, at least we won’t get the usual litany of complaints about the Cryptic being easier than the Quiptic… hey ho.

    I enjoyed this one. Found it about medium difficulty for Paul. RUB BERG LOVES made me laugh out loud. Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

71. RobT@56 – ‘of’ is the hidden indicator, I think. Not that often seen, and not my favourite, but in its sense of ‘from’ it’s OK. The definition is a bit mislabelled in the blog I think – it should just be ‘author’, because ‘manifesto’ is part of where the answer is hidden, and ‘of’ is the hidden indicator.

72. Amoeba @71 – thanks, that makes sense, although I’m not at all keen *borrows one of Roz’s Paddington Stares*

73. Thanks Amoeba @50 – I’m definitely having a slow day 🙂

74. Paul on a Monday. What can we expect by Friday?? Sigh. Too any Britishisms this time for a Yank. But I’m getting there: still refuse to look anything up.

75. Ah yes of course, Teilhard, thanks muffin @48.

76. [Muffin@48. Theilhard de Chardin was a great scholar – a paleontologist who did great work, and a visionary who helped lay the groundwork for the Gaia concept. Gould was totally wrong about any association he may have had with Piltdown person: here’s a good rebuttal link. It is always sad for me to see folks’ reputations assailed in this way.]

77. I’m a big fan of Paul but found this one tougher than his usual. Had to ‘guess and check’ a few. Definitely harder than expected on Monday!

78. [polyphone @76
    Have you read The phenomenon of man? I did, back when it was fashionable to do so. It is so confused that it’s difficult to believe that even he knew what he was talking about!]

79. I’m in Canada and agree with Big@64. This was so difficult and I might stop trying to complete Paul’s puzzles. Never heard of Fat Boy Slim or Poodle Faker but appreciate they might come in useful in the future. I thought criminal was a bit of a stretch for car scratching. Technically it’s a crime but it’s usually treated as mischief.

80. 1 across the laugh out loud moment. Poodlefaker is usually expressed as one word, not two. If it doesn’t occur in PG Wodehouse, it should. An entertaining but tough puzzle. Thanks to all the setters for another year of keeping me sane.

81. (Late) thanks Eileen especially for your note on the POODLE-FAKER, a term I must try to use in 2024 – MikeB@54 I was a Biggles fan more recently but don’t recall it nor any occasion when it might have be used – was there ever a woman, or mention of one, in a Biggles story? oakvillereader@79 the “criminal” definition definitely held me up too, doubtless technically correct in the uk, i suppose “vandal” would have been too much of a giveaway. My only quibble (as others have raised the def of 4d) is whether RADIO STAR is a sufficiently established term in its own right, well-known murder by Video notwithstanding – eg it is not in Collins online (except as a precursor of quasar etc and unlike film and pop…). But the wordplay was sound, and overall I thought this was another inventive and enjoyable challenge, thanks Paul.

82. I’m with mrpenney@29 in finding this too difficult – never mind which day of the week it appeared. This is often the case when I am away, as I am this week, though I usually manage to grind the answers out eventually. But I had to cheat massively on RUB BERG LOVES (FFS) and FATBOY SLIM just to give me some crossers, and wouldn’t have got POODLE FAKER in a million years. Glad to finally consign Monday’s paper to the recycling bin!

    I did enjoy the two Spoonerisms though – sorry, Eileen!

83. I am away and coming to these late.

    1a – where does LOVES come from?

    26a – I can’t see where “lifted bonnet” comes from.

    1d – tar/jack? I don’t understand this.

    3d – SEX/other…..? No idea what this is about. I thought SEX = IT.

84. I was so hoping that “Porky and fishy?” would turn out to be GAMMON…

85. Steffen. the other’=SEX was answered by Mandarin@67.

    Eileen explained 1 across in the blog. Breaking it down a bit more, it’s ‘massage’=RUB which is ‘favoured’ by an ‘Austrian musician’, so a RUB which Alban Berg LOVES(=favours). This was too tricky for me. I guess that most people got it by thinking of RUB first, then ‘theatre’ which is often used to make us think of where a play is performed, whereas the setter is thinking of an operating theatre in a hospital, where they wear (doh) RUBBER GLOVES.

    TAR and ‘jack’ are both ways of referring to a seaman. Sometimes a “jolly jack tar”.

    In 26a Paul uses ‘lifted bonnet’ so that it seems like he’s talking about a car, where this would be how you get at the engine, but in fact he wants us to realise that he’s actually referring to a hat. (The question mark at the end is way of indicating that bonnet is a type of hat, rather than being a synonym for hat.) In crosswords if you take a hat off a word it can mean to remove the initial letter, in this case (M)ORRIS.

    As others have mentioned, this was much more difficult than regular Monday crosswords, so don’t be downhearted. 🙂

86. Late to comment but Alan Hollingsworth using “poodle faking” in one of his novels as a
    public schoolboy euphemism for gay sex – The Swimming Pool Library, I think.

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