Guardian 29,280 / Picaroon

103 comments on “Guardian 29,280 / Picaroon”

1. I got there in the end but it wasn’t a pleasurable experience. Too many convoluted surfaces, but not to be unexpected from this setter. Couldn’t parse SINE QUA NON, PER CAPITA, STUTTERER and BRIDE. I liked GENESIS, GATSBY, TITAN, BLANQUETTE, BEACHY HEAD and FREIGHT.

   Ta Picaroon & Eileen.

2. I almost always enjoy Picaroon’s oeuvre but today’s not so much, as it was uncharacteristically riddled with unfamiliar UK-specific terms (1d, 7d, 16d, 22a, 21d). I had to reveal a few, and there were a couple I couldn’t parse. I’d never heard of diet/parliament, COHO, BLANQUETTE and SINE QUA NON.

3. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen!
   Liked STUTTERER, UXORIOUS, SEWING and PER CAPITA

4. I’ll echo AlanC and GDU, though I would swap a few of Alan’s no parse/likes. Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen (needed you today!).

5. That last one should have been 24d, not 21d.

6. Now I know SATIE wrote that beautiful piece of music and those unparsed clues don’t seem so tricky now. Much appreciated Eileen.

7. I’m not convinced about western as a reversal indicator in SUCCUMB. It seem the wrong part of speech for one, but maybe I’m missing something. I also couldn’t work out how UM was about CC and B when it seems to be the other way round.
   Favourite was BEACHY HEAD.

8. Tim, I see SUCCUMB as “Western America I’m unsure about measure of volume” followed by “breadth”.

9. Tim C @7: I see what you mean re SUCCUMB, but I think it’s just the way Eileen has worded it. A comma between unsure and about would spoil the surface.

10. What Lucky Eileen said

    Thanks to her and Picaroon

11. Thanks Picaroon & Eileen – that was a treat, with plenty of misdirection and devious definitions!
    Favourite probably NOTBAD or maybe TITAN.

12. Yes Geoff @8 (who needs nested comments!!!), now I think of it that’s how I ended up parsing it (also AlanC @9, – who needs nested comments!!!). Still unsure about western though. Off to bed now.

13. SUCCUMB
    Western is ‘coming from the west’ as well as ‘towards the west’.
    If we take ‘western America’ as ‘towards the west US’, it works all right, I feel.

14. Loved it. Although I knew GANG as Tyneside dialect. Hence my invasive earworm risking an achy head…

15. PS another bonus of the edit facility is that you can check whether a link works. If you’re quick!

16. Thanks for parsing SUCCUMB, SINE QUA NON (which I don’t really understand, either) and PER CAPITA: I couldn’t. And I failed to notice that OSTMARKS wasn’t an anagram of Kate Moss, or UXORIOUS of “or Sioux”. Not my day today.

    The mandarin, alas, isn’t one of the dabbling ducks – but it didn’t stop me getting it and enjoying the clue.

17. TimC@12: My old phone’s browser was incapable of showing comment numbers, so I’d have liked nested comments then – but on the whole I’m happy without them.

18. Blaise @14 – I immediately thought of that song, too, but decided not to muddy the waters: both Collins and Chambers give only ‘Scot to go’. Thanks for the link – I enjoyed it!

19. Eileen. Your comment on 5d makes it look like Picaroon has used T as an abbreviation for ‘town’, but that’s not the case here.

20. So is it from or towards KVa @13 (who needs nested comments!!!). Westbound or westward I would pay. Now I really am off to bed.

21. More hard work than pleasure today. Probably got brain freeze.

22. Hovis @19 – thanks for that: it was a hiccup between solving and blogging. I’ll delete that comment.

23. gladys@17… what’s a phone browser? 😉 😉

24. I’d forgotten about Peter Gabriel and Genesis, so 1a took me a while. Thought I’d forgotten some biblical reference. I should know better. Eileen summed the puzzle up well at the start; lots of trickery. Some GK required (or learnt en route to the finish), but I don’t mind that. Liked BEACHY HEAD and GATSBY. Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

25. That was chewy – and the bottom half went in relatively quickly (except BRIDE), in the wee small hours having been woken up then finding it difficult to get back to sleep. After completing those clues I gave up, deciding sleep was a better idea, leaving the northeast pretty much blank. When I woke up I still found the top half took a fair bit of chewing over to parse. It all made sense in the end – although I could see the Bike bit of Bike RIDE to get BRIDE, I didn’t think of the whole phrase.

    If initial letters are indicated for Small Towns by vans (short for vanguards?) for STUTTERER does it matter if S and T are not recognised abbreviations?

    Thank you Eileen and Picaroon.

26. Shanne @25 – please see comments 19 and 22.

27. I enjoyed this enormously. I have to say that quite a few entries went in from the crossers and the definition, once I had spotted that – there are some cleverly hidden ones, as Eileen points out – and the parsing followed at a respectful distance. But I have no problem with that – I’m happy to solve clues from either end.

    Too many good clues to list them all, but NOT BAD and BRIDE were particularly entertaining.

    I don’t see that ‘town’ = T is necessary in isolation for the parsing of STUTTERER. ‘Vans in small town’ gives ST directly.

    Ducks are often characterised as either dabblers or divers: the former remain on the surface of the water and just stick their head down to find food.

    Thanks to the Pirate and Eileen

28. Apologies to Hovis and Shanne for repeating their comments. I compose my posts very slowly….

29. Definitely more pleasure than hard work for me. Thanks, Picaroon and Eileen!

    Tim C @7 – western can mean “having a westward direction”, as in eg a western voyage.

30. Not complaining either, as Eileen says. Most enjoyable. I liked it all. As a former migraine sufferer, I could really relate to the “achy head” in 22a BEACHY HEAD. Many thanks to Picaroon, and, as ever, to Eileen for a very helpful blog.

31. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen
    An early entry was RAVEL @4d – raved with Down changed to Left. Oh well..
    Favourites were GENESIS, once I couldn’t fit “annunciation” in, and SUCCUMB for the hidden definition.
    Pedants’ corner: a B. Ed is qualified to teach, but that doesn’t mean that he or she is actually a teacher. I don’t know the numbers, but I would guess a substantial proprtion aren’t teaching.

32. There’s a famous quote from Burns that (in its full form) includes “gang”:

    “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley”

    Many thanks to Picaroon and Eileen

33. This was very tough. I guess I was not on the setter’s wavelength today.

    I could not parse 1ac (haha, did not think of Peter Gabriel!), 5ac, 25ac apart from A PIT = a colliery and 1d, 3d but the answers were obvious. Also 5d.

    Favourites: NOT BAD, BRIDE, DIETETICS.

    New for me: COHO salmon; BEACHY HEAD; CHAFF = banter; OSTMARKS.

    Thanks, both.

34. I failed to get SUCCUMB, NO SCORE DRAWS, UXORIOUS and PER CAPITA and had to reveal them in order to finish. Some of the others were guesses and then parsed. BEACHY HEAD went in straight away and fooled me into thinking might be able to finish it. Favourites were GATSBY, BRIDE and SINE QUA NON. Thanks Eileen for teaching me that vans means initial letters, not trucks or vehicles.

35. Found this a tad too tricky to be enjoyable. Clever clues but SO difficult at times to unpick them. In the end, I rather enjoyed just pondering a while and then revealing the answers and working backwards…. Better luck (and brain power) tomorrow (maybe!)

36. I found this unusually tough for a Picaroon, whom I usually solve smoothly. I failed on 12A and 26A although they are completely fair in hindsight, and could not parse a couple of others.

    NHO of “dabbler” for that thing ducks do, although with the crossers in place the solution was inevitable.

    Thanks to Eilleen and Picaroon.

37. Love Tina, always thrilled that she soared after subtracting him, but it didn’t transfer to parsing bike ride minus Ike. Ho hum. Lots of fun, ta PnE.

38. Very difficult for me, as is usual with Picaroon, but my computer and I solved it eventually.

    I didn’t understand the vans and thought of ute, doh! I also failed to parse GANG and BRIDE, where I thought of bicycle ride, near, but no cigar (I got stuck thinking of JMW Turner).

    I liked the definitions of SUCCUMB and ODDEST, and the wordplays for NO-SCORE DRAWS, BEACHY HEAD, PER CAPITA, UNSWAYABLE, NOT BAD and OSTMARKS.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

39. I had three reveals at the end, including SUCCUM. As with others above I found this quite hard work but there was much to enjoy including: SINE QUA NON, OSTMARKS, MANDARIN DUCK, BEACHY HEADY, and TOUCHWOOD. The last touched a nerve as I tried last night to get the wood burner in my new house going for the fourth time. It keeps going out and I can’t work out why. Still, although it’s cold for London I see from the BBC weather forecast that it is due to go down to minus 27 in parts of Iowa on Friday night. Another reason not to visit that state: ever…

40. Nobody else chose a HOOK as the punch and came up with BEDHOOKS, then? I mean, they do seem to be things that hold beds together, so might be used when retiring…

41. Loved it. One of my favourite Picaroon’s ever. Top marks for TITAN, OSTMARKS, and UXORIOUS – one of those words I was aware of but didn’t know its meaning

    Cheers P&E

42. It’s somewhat reassuring to see that others have struggled with this today, I feel like a bit of a Billy No-Mates on the Guardian comments as it’s getting a lot of love over there. Nothing wrong with that, either, and seeing many here that I couldn’t parse has been helpful (as usual).

    I think (as mentioned over there) it might have been a smoother or more fun solve for me if it wasn’t for me struggling to rouse my brain from a properly deep sleep and unintended lie-in…

43. Slightly harder, according to my averages, than a typical Picaroon. A Mandarin Duck is a dabbling duck, and is now firmly part of the British natural world, having become a successful breeder across much of the country. Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean has a very strong population. Once again, the male is quite something to see.

44. I wasn’t sure whether Picaroon was being trickier or I was a bit denser, but I made heavy weather of this. Looking back, there are lots of great clues, though. SINE QUA NON my favourite.

45. I hated it at first, but things started to click, and I ended up loving it. But pretty tough for a Tuesday, I feel.

46. Yes, agree with those who thought this was on the harder side for a Picaroon. In particular, got stuck like gif@37 trying to shoehorn Tina in.

    I saw Gabriel (I think it was at the Oval) the same year I attended my first (and only) sit-in, so I thought it was nice those clues intersected.

    We have the old chestnut that NO-SCORE DRAWS are boring, and of course they can be, but any fan knows they don’t have to be. Particularly when the two teams on the pitch are vying with your team for the League, you might be hoping for 0-0.

47. Very tough – took twice as long as both Guardian and Indy combined yesterday! Enjoyable – a few stretches but nothing I would think of as unsporting

    thanks Setter and Blogger

48. Picaroon is the master of the concealed def coupled to a smooth surface…bravo.

    Not heard of TOUCHWOOD before but now I’ll use it in preference to kindling I think.

    Toughie but goodie, for this plodder.

49. I, too, had to learn Ducks Ditty at my primary school on the Isle of Wight.

50. So much to love about this puzzle! The disguised definitions are my favourites so DIETETICS, MANDARIN DUCK, NOT BAD and SINE QUA NON were my top choices.

    Top half much harder than the bottom half, I thought.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

51. Definitely a tussle, but very rewarding, with CIAO my last one in. The ‘dull ties’ was very good, as was the ‘consumption’ as TB. But my favourite was the lovely GATSBY.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

52. [Tim C @23
    There is the problem of what to do with vast numbers of defunct phones. A pilot project has now been set up to feed them to phone browsers.]

53. Thanks Picaroon. Like others I found this difficult and I ended revealing four just to be done with it. As always with Picaroon, however, there was much to enjoy such as ARMS, FREIGHT, NOT BAD, and SATIE. Thanks Eileen for the blog.
    Dr.What’sOn @46: NO-SCORE DRAWS might not be dull to some but they certainly are pointless.

54. I’m firmly in the non-complaining camp. A tough but fair, and very enjoyable, start to the day. Particularly delightful were some of the ingenious charades, whose full cleverness appeared as I unpicked them. Really too many ticks to mention, but certainly BLANQUETTE, NO SCORE DRAWS, BEACHY HEAD (even though I’m more fortunate i the migraine department than Julie @30), PER CAPITA, BRIDE, DOSAGES (not least for the glorious surface, but also the deeply ironic reminder of the meaning of our Dear Leader’s name), SINE QUA NON, STUTTERER, UNCAPPED, OSTMARKS. And, pace Tony @53 and Dr @46, dull is the politest description available for the first goalless draw of Unai Emery’s reign, and against bally Everton…
    Many thanks to Picaroon, and to Eileen for so reliably being there even though today I got home without having to call on her aid.

55. Just managed to complete within my self-imposed elapsed time limit of 75 minutes. Lazy entry of CHUM was silly but the crosser put me right.
    Regular trips to BEACHY HEAD as a child so that brought back happy and very wind blown memories.
    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

56. Lots of reverse parsing, but a very satisfying completion of a tough challenge. Thanks both.

57. Eileen, thanks for parsing NO-SCORE DRAWS, PER CAPITA (I kept trying to make it some kind of sports car), GATSBY (nho TSB Bank), BEDSOCKS, UNSWAYED, and UNCAPPED.

    Gabriel is mentioned in the Bible, but as far as my recollection or a brief google excursion go, not in Genesis.

    [Thanks for the note on Beachy Head, Eileen. I feel compelled to say, though, that the Wikipedia article refers to “Spanish Ladies” as a sea shanty, and it isn’t, though it is a traditional song sung by sailors, which describes the homeward voyage up the Channel. A shanty is something sung during work to coordinate the sailors’ efforts, and this one wouldn’t serve that purpose at all. It’s what we call a forecastle song, sung during leisure hours for entertainment. I’ll add that the song crossed the ocean — I’ve sung “we’ll rant and we’ll roar like true-born young whalermen/like true Newfoundanders/like true Yankee sailors” at various occasions.]

    I have the impression that UXORIOUS is mildly negative, meaning “excessively devoted to one’s wife.” There isn’t, of course, a word for “excessively devoted to one’s husband.”

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

58. Phew, found this tricky. I’m beginning to think that Picaroon can award himself the accolade of Master Of Misdirection. And even when I had all the crossers in place for 26ac, I just couldn’t see that Bike Ride was the route in. Struggled to solve both PER CAPITA, fiendishly clued, and OSTMARKS, my last two in. The mighty struggle I had with this was rewarding, nonetheless, some exceptionally clever clues, and yes, lots of Misdirection…

59. [PeterO @52: might that result in a waste line problem?]

60. Valentine @57: True, Gabriel is not mentioned in Genesis but often clues are pure fiction. I believe that’s acceptable as long as the grammar and syntax are intact.

61. Tony Santucci @60 (and Valentine @57?)
    Am I misunderstanding? The clue does not suggest that Gabriel is mentioned in Genesis. The first of the two definitions, as underlined, is ‘Gabriel had a main role in this’, i.e GENESIS, the band.

62. I liked 7d

63. Dutch @62
    🙂

64. Far too devious and convoluted for me

65. One of Picaroon’s trickier offerings, but no complaints from me. GENESIS was a tremendous start to proceedings, BEACHY HEAD amused me, and I enjoyed the tricksy but fairly clued construction of NO-SCORE DRAWS. New to me: COHO.

66. Well I absolutely loved this – chewy, flavoursome, varied, witty, just tick after tick. And I broke a tooth on BRIDE (and hence UNSWAYABLE (but it was very late last night)) – I concocted ‘abike’ (ab-andoned by ‘ike’) for the cycling outing and just couldn’t shake it off (I know).

    Such fun. Thanks Picaroon and tvm Eileen for connecting Gabriel to GENESIS.

67. I expect you liked 14a, Mandarin!

68. Eileen @61: With your correct parsing the clue does not say Gabriel was in Genesis; however, when mere mortals (like me) read the clue, the surface suggests that the angel does make an appearance in the book.(Nice misdirection!) My point is that it doesn’t matter one way or the other.

69. After Eileen’s praise in the prologue, I was relieved to read the first two comments from AlanC@1 and GDU@2 which reflected my experience.

    I finished, but had several unparsed. I just did not want to spend any more time on it. I have never done a Picaroon before, so it may be a wavelength thing, but I found little to smile at. I only mention the latter because I am fond of the puzzles of Buccaneer in the FT, Picaroon’s alta ego. Quite a difference

    I am fully in awe of and deeply grateful to Eileen for her blog and excellent explanations, and happy for those who enjoyed the puzzle.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

70. Like many it seems I had to reveal a few and needed Eileen for the parsing of others. They were all great clues though and my note to self is “must try harder”. If only vans were like busses, I’d be ready for it next time. Thanks Eileen and Picaroon.

71. Thanks, Tony @68 – it seems I wasn’t quite understanding!

    Martyn @69 – do stick with Picaroon a little longer: I think you’ll find it worth your while, especially if you enjoy Buccaneer (and have you tried his Rodriguez in the Indy?).

    Paul @70 – I’m not sure I’ve met van (short for vanguard (‘the leading position in any movement or field’ – from French avant-garde, which hadn’t occurred to me before) to indicate initial letters – but I liked it!

72. Eileen@70, I had come across it in a crossword but clearly not recently enough to retain.

73. I agree with Eileen’s (and many others’) assessment. I grin when I see Picaroon’s name, knowing that I’m in for some fun as well as a real tussle. This one did not disappoint.

    I’m normally not a fan of long itsy-bitsy charades, but 3d SINE QUA NON was brilliant, and got my double-tick.

    muffin@31, I too first thought of Ravel at 4d, for the same reasons as you did, until the crossers made me rethink. This was a SATIsfying clue.

    Another favourite was the clever subtraction at 26 BRIDE. Although, at the risk of offending the easily-offended (few and far between on this site), I wondered if some would be offended by the offensive reference to Ike, given his offensive treatment of his partner. I’m with ginf@37 re Tina, but I did get the parsing.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen for your usual excellence and fun.

74. Muffin@67 – I did indeed, though in the early morning fug I spent an undue amount of time pondering if there were such a thing as a “Japanese Duck” before the penny dropped.

75. Mandarin @74

    🙂 – so two name checks for folk here today!

76. Eileen @ 71

    I’m not convinced that ’van’ comes from ‘avant-garde’.

    The OED has ‘van’ as “The foremost division or detachment of a military or naval force…” with the first reference from 1633.

77. Me @ 76 – my edit time ran out in mid edit

    On checking ‘avant-garde’ apparently Malory’s Arthur (1470-85)? has “ Lyoneses and Phartaunce had the aduant garde”, and there’s a reference from 1582–88 of “the Queenes avantgaird”, so it seems plausible.

78. Hi Simon @76

    I discovered the ‘avant-garde’ derivation in Chambers only just before posting. It sounded plausible and I didn’t pursue it further. I sometimes regret mentioning these afterthoughts. 😉

79. Eileen @71: you have come across “van” to indicate a first letter before – Picaroon used it in 28,288 (11 November 2020) and 28,742 (27 April 2022) and you commented on both puzzles. In both of those cases the van was in York!

    Maintaining speed, a van in York street is purple (8)

    Leaves less polluting van in York (8)

80. Sorry to see so many people who didn’t know COHO (6D). That was one where we laughed aloud when we got it. It’s a great clue!

81. Lord Jim @79 – thanks for that: I’ll take your word for it and look it up later! (To be fair, I did say, ‘I’m not sure …’)
    I had a familiar discussion yesterday with other octogenarians about memory and the well documented irony of being able, for example, to quote quite lengthy passages from A Level English Literature, etc, but not remember things we read very much more recently (like last week 😉 ).

82. Eileen @ 81

    ‘like last week’? How about yesterday?

    And I’m not even septuagenarian yet!

    😉

83. Simon – oh dear, yes!
    In the same conversation, I said that I don’t read so many books these days, because, each time I pick them up, I have to go back a dozen pages or so to check up on who’s who and what’s what.
    I’m relying on crosswords! 😉

84. [Eileen @83
    I heard a story of a literature student studying a Hnery James novel (I can’t remember which) telling her tutor that she couldn’t put it down. Surprised, he asked her why not. “Because every time I put it down I forget who everyone is and have to go back to the beginning again”]

85. I suppose one of the many reasons that solvers might not immediately associate Gabriel with Peter Gabriel is that he’s been relatively quiet on the music scene recently. Last year’s i/o album was his first full length one of original music since Up in 2002…

86. Thanks, muffin @84 😉

87. “Van” for first letter fooled me several times before I started to get it (rather like “my” for COR). The trouble is that when you’ve eventually conditioned yourself to make the connection, setters will know what you’re expecting and misdirect you by using the word in a different way! How about this (which I’ve just made up)? –

    Passing East and North in van (9)

88. Late to the show today.

    I found this not nearly as hard as some others did, but still chewy. I guess I was on the wavelength. I was another who saw “Turner’s wife” and immediately thought of Tina–which was close to the right thing to think, at least. Recent trivia discovery: Waylon and Willie’s good-hearted woman (in love with a two-timing man) was, of all people, Tina Turner.

    At the other corner, I’ll say (as a pretty big fan) that Peter Gabriel-era Genesis is superior what came after, even though my intro to the band was in the 80s when it was nearly inescapable on American radio, and Phil Collins was fronting the band.

    By way of mild surprise that the PC police haven’t swooped in yet, the word “Oriental” to mean “East Asian” (in the clue for MANDARIN DUCK) is one of those words we’re not supposed to use any more. It’s Eurocentric (obviously) and imperialist (supposedly). (It’s fine for rugs still, but not people; languages are closer to people than rugs, so “Oriental language” is better avoided.) I personally don’t object, but there are certainly those who do!

89. [mrpenny @88: Maybe using Oriental was an Occidental slip on Picaroon’s part.]

90. TS @ 89 🙂 🙂

91. For 3d, I’ve not seen QU for queen before. I thought it was Q in EU, hence European.

92. Thanks for parsing GENESIS Eileen. I got it right, but assumed that it was just a more literal reference to the Archangel Gabriel. Turns out the angel Gabriel does not appear in Genesis, so I got it right for the wrong reasons.

    I found this very challenging, and needed a few explained to me here. Thanks to both Eileen and Picaroon.

93. My, that’s very prophetic of you Lord Jim @87.

94. I’m enjoying these early week puzzles by Picaroon. Typically his puzzles come out late in the week and then you get a whole bunch of them (FT, Independent and Telegraph). Nice they’re staggered somewhat.

95. Sorry for the late reply Widdersbel @29 as I’d gone to bed. I know western can mean “having a westward direction” but it can also mean from the west, and therein lies my problem. Presumably, if western can mean to the west as well as from the west, then eastern can mean to the east as well as from the east. So the clue could have said quite happily “Cave in Eastern America…” instead of “Cave in Western America…” and have exactly the the same (reversal) wordplay. That seems to break the bounds of fairness in a clue, as well as being confusing.

96. Isn’t the point about the use of ‘western’ that the normal direction of travel for words written in the English language is from west to east, so using western to indicate ‘from the west’ would be grossly unfair.

97. Valentine@57 MARITORIOUS: ‘Etymology – From Latin maritus (“husband”).
    Adjective – Being fond of one’s husband to the point of obsession; excessively doting on one’s husband.
    1607, George Chapman, Bussy D’Ambois: “Dames maritorious ne’er were meritorious.”‘

98. Got them all except CIAO in the end, but it took forever and I couldn’t parse a few. I hadn’t run across “picked up” as an indicator of “sounds like” before; I’ll just have to file it as one of those arbitrary rules to be memorized.

    NHO: touchwood = tinder, TSB, Dutch = wife, OSTMARK, BED = teacher.

99. Where to start…

    I solved 1a and that is it.

    #demoralised

    I have tried to learn the meaning of VANS from everyone’s comments but i am none the wiser; why does it indicate the initials of words?

100. Hi Steffen @99

     Don’t be discouraged – it was quite a tough one (and so was today’s Jack), as you will have seen from the comments.
     I hope you enjoyed 1ac, anyway. 😉

     Re ‘vans’: I didn’t spell it out in the blog but I added a comment later (@71), where I’ve given another dictionary definition. I hope it makes sense.

     Please keep commenting!

101. This was no fun, first time I have given up on a crossword completely and not even wanted to try to understand half of it. I got about seven clues. though that might be just cos it’s been a very full couple of days of work. I don’t think I get Picaroon so might just allow myself to reveal most of this setter. I feel your pain Steffen @99
     Sounds like I should avoid Jack too!!

102. Duchess of Fife, wife.

103. Am I alone in having bunged in CHAR for 6D? (“Har!”, I thought, expressing surprise pleasantly). OK, a char isn’t exactly a salmon, but they do both belong to the Salmoninae sub-family. But I’ve never heard of COHO, so thanks, Eileen for untangling my line, and thank you Picaroon, for the hook, the bait… and this sinker. My fave was NOT BAD, which was very very good.

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