Guardian Cryptic 29,275 by Anto

74 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,275 by Anto”

1. I didn’t know that meaning of ANGEL. GRIMALKIN was new to me. Everything else was tickety-boo. Didn’t think much of BAD BOOKS.

   Thanks Anto & Loonapick.

2. Thanks Loonapick, as I didn’t follow the wordplay for CAP IN HAND, it’s not how I would usually interpret the instruction “turned up” but within the realm of acceptability I think (as are the swap in CHESTNUT, and the EU reversal). I thought the definition for THE ACROPOLIS was a bit weak (I am sure we used to see these “in XXXX” definitions much more often a while ago) but that it had great wordplay, one of those anagrams that seem very unlikely at first glance. Nice to see GOOGOL and learned a new word in ENDUE. I think the economical DHOTI and KEATS were my favourites, thanks Anto.

3. Thank you loonapick, especially for ETERNITY, eight fallen over. We have a graffitist in Sydney who etches ETERNITY.
   I spent too long looking for a link to 8d.
   Never seen a device like HAND IN CAP. Not a reversal as we know it. I like it.
   I was a wake-up to manure initially in BREEDS. Kudos to Anto for getting past the editor.

4. PS Loonapick: minor error in blog wordplay for 12A: you have EATS=”poet”, should be “takes in”.

5. Thanks, Gazzh @ 4 – I’ll amend when next at my ‘pooter”.

6. [Sorry, our graffitist is long dead, but I remember him well. And even Banksy does.
   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_(graffito)%5D

7. [Not again. I can’t even correct this in 2 minutes.]

8. [Have been trying to edit this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_(graffito)%5D

9. paddymelon @3, I think we had a graffitist in Sydney (Arthur Stace) who wrote “Eternity” in chalk randomly on the pavement. He died nearly 2 years after I was born which is quite a while ago. That thought also came to mind when I filled in ETERNITY. I’m too slow for you pdm (edit).
   Good to see GOOGOL. There’s an even huger amount called a googolplex which is 10 to the power of a googol.

10. [paddymelon@6,7,8
    Just follow the link Wiki offers.]

11. paddymelon @8, I think this Wikipedia article is the one you wanted to link to.

12. I was on Anto’s wavelength this morning going from top to bottom, which is rare for me. I too enjoy GK questions and remembered GRIMALKIN from Macbeth. BS also featured in Picaroon’s puzzle yesterday. I liked CAP IN HAND, OYSTER BAR, SPARKLING and BRAD PITT. When you come back to your pooter, Loonapick, you have a tiny typo beside PITT, and thanks for explaining ETERNITY.

    Ta Anto & Loonapick.

13. A MEASLY theme of old PMs in three of the first four down clues.

14. I enjoyed the cryptic definitions, but was annoyed with myself at failing to parse ETERNITY. Thanks loonapick and Anto.

15. [Thank you Auriga and TimC. Happy to see Eternity, Arthur Stace’s never-ending story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_(graffito) ]

16. Thanks Setter and Blogger.

    Some lovely clues and a few less so (unfo next to each other in bottom rh corner).

17. ETERNITY
    Is the clue to read like this:
    8 fallen over-to understand its meaning, it (INFINITY) takes ETERNITY (forever)?
    One can understand INFINITY as ETERNITY in a way?
    Def: ‘forever’?

18. Have no quibbles with Anto’s cluing of GRIMALKIN, but looking it up, it’s very Grimm.

19. I had SPEAKING ROLE for a long time, then I noticed ETERNITY would fit 16d if the second letter was a T not an E I also failed to parse it, but gave an appreciative groan when I came here. Took a while, but good fun.
    Thanks both.

20. 13a: I tried very hard to get The Parthenon in.
    8d: I noted down Theism quite early on, but couldn’t parse it. Then it was so simple. Similarly with 9a.

21. Nicbach @19 I had speaking role initially as well but it didn’t feel quite right to me.
    I guessed Peel as the PM which held up 13 until I realised I had too many Es for the anagram, and I guessed eternity but was totally unable to parse the clue. It still seems a bit clunky to me.
    Thanks to Anto and Loonapick

22. I didn’t parse ETERNITY, although I should have: in one of Larry Niven’s stories there’s a starship called the Lazy Eight.

23. We had SPEAKING ROLE until the BAD BOOKS set us right. That’s the trouble with cryptic definitions, but also, I suppose, the role (part?) of crossers. I dragged up the ALKIN but of 23a, but took a while to come up with the GRIM bit. I thought it was from Old Possum’s Book of Cats, but no. We learners how to spell MILIEU too. Thanks, Anto and loonapick.

24. Slow typing, nicbach @19. Same issue.

25. I put in infinity for 16d straight off the bat till I realised it wouldn’t work. Guess they are sort of similar but (as with Kva @17?) not convinced that ETERNITY and Infinity are synonyms.
    Thought PETRI DISH was not cryptic. Otherwise enjoyed this. Thanks to Anto and Loonapick

26. A much more satisfying day for me today after a very poor start to the week. I didn’t parse eternity but I now think it’s quite a clever clue. I’ve never heard of Grimalkin but the parsing was pretty clear. Thanks to Anto and loonapick.

27. Lots of lovely inventiveness here – I really liked the reversal of “cap in hand” as who says reversing means doing it letter-by-letter rather than word by word? Ditto with the “promoted Brussels” which would usually mean taking “eu” from a word and moving it up to an earlier part (“Tory promoted a Saudi” – RAAB -> ARAB)

    I really didn’t like “eternity” though – I assumed that’s what it had to be but I don’t think a good clue should leave you just shrugging and saying “well maybe”, it should be clear. This was just too loose to my mind.

    Apart from that gripe, many thanks Loonapick and Anto – lots of really great clues here, with plenty of variety to keep me happy.

28. Thank you loonapick for the explanations! Anto pushes the envelope in a characteristic and very welcome way. I’m very bad at spotting lovely macro wordplay such as CAP IN HAND – but would be so pleased if I’d thought of it myself. ETERNITY is probably the match that can only be struck once: very good fun. More power to Anto!

29. No significant eyebrows were raised in the solving of this puzzle, which is unusual! ETERNITY got a bit of a groan when the penny dropped (and was my LOI as I hunted a parse). Was pleased MILIEU didn’t turn out to be some unknown _ISITU, which had me scratching my head for a bit about whether it would be MI or TI at the start!

    I liked GRIMALKIN, which I’ve seen before, but was nicely clued if you haven’t, and the anagram for THE ACROPOLIS.

    Thanks loonapick and Anto.

30. Minor correction for the explanation of 5d, In the US, similar designs are called Rube Goldberg machines.

31. The Guardian app doesn’t give the name of the setter today – always a bad sign 😉 .

    Some good clues here – I like the anagrams, especially for HEATH ROBINSON. No problem here with the device for CAP IN HAND. DHOTI has a nicely allusive surface.

    Thanks to S&B

32. Thanks Anto and loonapick. I enjoyed today’s challenge. Yes AlanC, it was Macbeth’s Witches who taught me GRIMALKIN (23a). My ticks crossed over with some previously mentioned, and were for 13a THE ACROPOLIS, 17a SPEAKING PART, 1d BRAD PITT, 6d SPARKLING and 10d A BIT OF A LOOKER.
    [Doesn’t seem that long ago since we lost Arthur Stace, paddymelon and other Aussies – the fireworks tribute in Sydney was quite an amazing memorial for a man so humble.]

33. ETERNITY
    Read somewhere:
    “The infinity symbol (figure eight) is not just a Chinese infinity symbol; it is universally recognized as a symbol for eternity.”

    My thoughts:
    If the fallen over 8 is a symbol of ETERNITY, then it becomes easier to understand the clue. The wordplay part simply could mean: ‘forever’ is the meaning of ETERNITY (in addition to the philosophical intent).

34. A very pleasant, gentle solve for me this morning, though like others I struggled to see the parsing of ETERNITY, and also THEISM. A couple of SPARKLING anagrams in HEATH ROBINSON and THE ACROPOLIS…

35. I thought Shakespeare had it as graymalkin (but I may have misremembered) so it took a little longer to get there. I enjoyed this. Mostly a write-in for me, though I had a block with THEISM and MEASLY. I loved CHESTNUT. With thanks to Anto and loonapick

36. Correction: Nobody wears a DHOTI in Dubai. I was conflating the clue with that for DELHI. Duh!

37. Late to the party, but I really enjoyed this and for once got a whole load of clues on the first read through. Last one in MEASLY though I can’t think why. Lots to enjoy, thanks Anto and loonapick

38. I thought this was all fine. DHOTI is a very nice clue.

39. I don’t understand the parsing of ENDUE. Surely ‘promoted’ can’t be intended to mean ‘reversed’ (even in a Down clue).

40. PS my version gives the crossword author, on my iPad. Again I wonder why not on others?

41. An almost Quiptic-ish puzzle from Anto today. I enjoyed it a lot. although I failed to solve 26ac MEASLY & 15d BAD BOOKS and I could not parse 8d & 16d.

    New for me: GOOGOL; HEATH ROBINSON.

    Favourites: MILIEU, CHESTNUT.

    Thanks, both.

42. It’s probly a bit indirect, poc @39, as in promoted = put up …

43. As a kid about 60 years ago I read in an encyclopaedia what a GOOGOL is. The mind boggled. I never found a use for it until today! One of my FOIs without any crossers. I’ve no idea why I remembered it. Strange how the brain works. Great fun today, thanks to both.

44. Nicely put together puzzle with some good cds, they are always quite difficult to clue in a satisfactory way.

    Unlike ngaiolaurenson@25, I liked PETRI DISH, which didn’t seem obvious to me, and the good anagram for HEATH ROBINSON. I wanted to squeeze in SPEAKING clock but I had too many characters (thinking about it, I doubt whether such would be allowed during a chess match).

    Thanks Anto and loonapick.

45. NHO GRIMALKIN, and see I was not alone trying find something from Eliot. And did not parse 16D. Otherwise a straightforward and enjoyable outing.

    Thank you Anto and loonapick.

46. Really nice crossword. Didn’t know Heath Robinson but the clue in the form of an anagram was quite helpful to work it out.

47. I’m afraid I thought this pretty dull. The clue for PETRI DISH barely qualifies as cryptic, and too many of the others were write-ins. Sorry, Anto. Thanks to loonapick for the blog.

48. Mondayish fun today. Some neat clueing- I particularly liked THEISM.

    Thanks Anto and loonapick

49. Thanks for the blog, some good anagrams here , THE ACROPOLIS, HEATH ROBINSON and OYSTER BAR , nice bit of swapping about in a few places. I thought this was ideal for newer solvers, good variety and interesting ideas.
    The fallen over eight symbol was not used in mathematics until about 1650 , John Wallis used it for infinity. It has been around much longer with various meanings , including ETERNITY.

50. [ AlanC@12 my students tell me that the KPR manager has bought a house in London }

51. Started off thinking this should have been a Monday but soon slowed to a crawl. Good puzzle but annoyed with myself for not seeing the infinity sign.
    Thanks both.

52. I think the US version of Heath Robinson is Rube Goldberg and not Rude Goldberg, though I’d be interested to see a Rude Goldberg machine.

53. GRIMALKIN. At last a clue for those of us Box of Delights appreciators who remembered to read The Midnight Folk as well. Needed the crossers to choose PART over the potential ROLE in 17A.

54. Anyone else pondering why Anto has included the circumflex in ‘roles’?

55. Failed to parse ETERNITY – Usually the sign of a good clue…
    https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-f
    ‘forever continually: he is forever changing his mind
    for ever for always: I will love you for ever’

56. Infinity and ETERNITY are a curious pair. They are clearly synonyms if the requirement is that they are defined the same way (something like “with no end”), but they don’t seem to be readily substitutable. In mathematics you use the one, in poetry and everyday idioms the other. It’s kind of the opposite to the “red bus”/”London bus” discussion we had some time ago, where the modifiers are not synonyms but in this case ARE substitutable (because bus carries 99% of the semantic load – probably on the top deck).

57. [Roz @50: it will be back on the market soon, and thanks for the gen about infinity/ETERNITY].

58. [ It is a new design – a 2 up and 3 down ]

59. Perhaps infinity we think of as number but eternity as time, but we can have an infinite time.

60. FGW@54: I did, but I think it is considered a fair, though rare (?), alternative in this context as from the original French meaning a paper containing an actor’s part.

61. [Roz @58: too funny, your students are such wags].

62. [ I am glad you do not think it is my fault AlanC, blame my students, I just listen and remember everything . ]

63. FrankieG@55
    forever (Chambers)
    adverb
    For ever, for all time to come (among other meanings)
    noun
    An endless or indefinite length of time, or one that seems so
    (forever=ETERNITY)

64. I enjoyed solving this for the interesting bits of GK I encountered and for the variety of its clues. I had to think about the clues to ETERNITY and THEISM for a while, and I appreciate others’ thoughts on them in the blog and comments above.

    Thanks to Anto and loonapick.

65. Having previously grumbled about Anto puzzles I’m delighted to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Nice mix of difficulty (if tending towards relatively gentle, no bad thing some days) and some clever and smile-inducing clueing. Liked CHESTNUT, THE ACROPOLIS, MEASLY, THEISM and A BIT OF A LOOKER.

    Thanks both!

66. I’d never heard of HEATH ROBINSON, but I’m happy to have now made his acquaintance (along with the codebreaking machine named for him).

    I didn’t much like the clueing of BAD BOOKS until I remembered that “getting into someone’s bad books” means having them be upset with you, such that “one has trouble”. So, yes, two distinct senses rather than variations on one.

67. I had never heard of the phrase “bad books,” so contented myself with LAW BOOKS, and my many decades of teaching Constitutional Law convinces me that the parsing works just as well!: you won’t find your case in one of those books without some trouble in life, and they are difficult to read!

68. Thanks both and well done Anto for converting (inter alia) Rob T@65.

    big@67: That’s sadly amusing (there should be a word for that).

69. Thanks Anto, that was fun with BREEDS, HEATH ROBINSON, SPARKLING, NECTAR, and THEISM among my favourites. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

70. Alphalpha@68: “Bathetic,” perhaps?

71. Thanks Anto and loonapick. This puzzle made me happy because I finished it without groaning and the parsing was clear.

72. I couldn’t parse ETERNITY (nor could I see a def. for it) so it was unarguably a guess. Perhaps the clue would have better led to INFINITY – then the infinity sign would have twigged – but INFINITY didn’t fit the crossers.

    LOI was MEASLY (after I’d written in ETERNITY) – I tried JERSEY but couldn’t make sense of it. Perhaps “…it’s a small portion” would have worked better – at least in the Grauniad (like what’s served up in the sort of restaurants Grace Dent and Jay Rayner visit…)

    My parsing of CAP IN HAND was a bit off the mark: I didn’t suss that it was a reversal of words, rather than of letters. But the definition was clear enough.

    But apart from these, much to like. A BIT OF A LOOKER gets an uptick, also BAD BOOKS, THEISM (clever wordplay – reminds me of the ‘them’ in Good Omens), and PETRI DISH.

    Thanks to Anto and loonapick.

73. I could have added, re ETERNITY, that I tried the concept of a capsize in the Boat Race, or a collapsed scrum in rugby – but neither of these would work…

74. Minor typo in the write-up: the American cartoonist was Rube (not Rude) Goldberg.

    I missed DHOTI and had to look at D(uba)I [on vacation] more times than I care to admit before I understood it. Thanks!

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