Guardian Cryptic 29,298 by Picaroon

81 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,298 by Picaroon”

1. Thanks Picaroon and loonapick
   Went in quickly, though a couple of parsing blanks, and I had never heard of 24a.
   I agree about 9d, and 4d another favourite.
   Yes, a bit parochial in places.

2. Top faves: BLISTER PLASTER, COST THE EARTH and SATURATED.
   Thanks both!

   COALESCED
   A minor correction
   COD instead of CAD for phoney.

3. One of several reasons I usually enjoy Picaroon’s is that there are normally very few or no clues requiring specific British knowledge. But today my enjoyment was diminished as I spent more time than I’d have liked trawling Wikipedia and Google.

   That said, otherwise I thought it was a great puzzle.

4. TILDE
   The reference to ‘A Coruña’ gives an additional layer to the clue
   as TILDE is more associated with Spanish than any other language,
   I gather.

5. No real prob with the gk, met them all before, including Pep, and those comics (tho them only here), but aih didn’t actually remember Beano, so beau was a bit of a bung. But yes, lovely clues from the pirate, and thanks loonapick.The SW took a bit of staring, as b-list er, tho a chestnut, didn’t immediately surface in aging brain, and the ñ was a Oh, right, d’oh. All part of the fun on a Choosdee morn.

6. All went in smoothly and most enjoyable, 9d is a corker. I agree with KVa re COALESCED.

   Ta Picaroon & loonapick.

7. Cracker of a puzzle. I agree. BEACHED WHALE my top. First encounter with a Picaroon. Look forward to more. Cheers.

8. Definitely on Picaroon’s easier side today, though the parsing took a bit of teasing out, e.g. for 8 and 4d. I did work out BLISTER PLASTER from the wordplay as it wasn’t an obvious dressing. I also had singled out 9 for its surface. Obviously a lot of UK specific GK required for this, so more of a challenge for non-UK solvers. Thanks to loonapick and Picaroon.

9. 3 letter word for manager… Ummmm… Oh of course, PEP. Pfft. Is there a reversal of a DBE indicator?
   And how is BEA half of BEANO? Yeah, I know…..

   I did like MIAOW.

10. Thanks loonapick, I couldn’t parse MOWED and HOUSEMEN thanks to being led astray by clever cluing, like yesterday I found a few stubborn clues held out after a fairly smooth start and as always plenty to savour here so thanks Picaroon.
    (I wondered if 23d was a little unfair, as half of “the Beano’s” is not BEA, but the definite article was dropped from the front page logo in 2016 according to wikipedia so it’s fine. And while BLISTER PLASTER does not appear in eg Collins online it is clearly a thing (I have bought them) so liked that one too.)

11. 8a I got AL for American State (Alabama) then COCK AND BROWN as you have it.

12. Love some clues – Cost the Earth – for nothing wordplay and surface. Others less so.

    Overall, positive experience; started very slowly, sudden understanding, last two slow again. Finished crossword before finished breakfast coffee which is the target.

    Thanks Setter and Blogger

13. Really enjoyed this one. Favourites were MIAOW and COALESCED with plenty of additional ticks including BEACHED WHALE, PEPPER POT, SATURATED, BLISTER PLASTER, COST THE EARTH, A bit confused by the capital M in the clue for TILDE, but I think I saw a comment here once saying that it was ok to capitalise a clue word that was uncapitalised in the answer, but not the other way around. However, I might have got mixed up! I was always a Beano kid, my brother got the Dandy. Thanks Picaroon and loonapick

14. Happy for all those who found this easy. I didn’t finish, but no complaints – I was beaten by a better man on this occasion.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

15. Picaroon is a very clever setter and I frequently find myself guessing the answer and then trying to work out the passing. There were a lot like that today. And quite a few I needed loonapicks help with. So thank you both.
    My first reaction to 18ac was it should be (3,6) but I’m sure I have seen it written as one word. 24ac was my favourite today.

16. DIPSWITCH
    Given as one word in Chambers and Collins.

17. I’ve run out of superlatives for Picaroon’s puzzles.

18. Well that was fun. I rarely finish over breakfast, let alone a Picaroon. Favourite was COALESCED, probably as it was the last one in, and the Aha moment when the penny dropped.
    Thanks to P and I

19. This felt like a Friday puzzle on a Tuesday. I gave up on the SW corner, failed to solve 25ac (although I do know about Jeremy Hunt), 20d, 23d (I know zilch about the Dandy and the Beano but have heard of the latter via crossword puzzles).

    I could not parse 10ac; the BEW bit of 1d; and the PEPPER = manager bit of 14d (I know zilch and football, rugby and soccer).

    The UK GK was quite difficult for me today. I never heard of the aviators ALCOCK & BROWN (8ac), but luckily I found out that the athlete Seb Coe has been made a life peer when I listened to a podcast recently. Also new for me is the fact that Ipswich is in Suffolk.

    New for me: BLISTER PLASTER (and I liked the way it was clued).

    Thanks, both.

20. Agree with Harpo above…Great fun.

    Fooled by the doctor in MOWED. Was convinced it was MD with reversed water inserted.

    Otherwise, all good with lovely inventive cluing.

    Many thanks, both.

21. I’m totally with George @17.

    I think paul @13 has accounted for the ‘rival’ in 23dn: kids seemed to go for one or the other, as I remember.

    I’ve been very grateful for BLISTER PLASTERs on walking holidays and so that went in with no problem, as did PEPPER POT, after its appearance in another puzzle yesterday.

    I can’t, today, whittle down over a dozen ticks and so I’ll leave it there, with the usual thanks to Picaroon and lucky loonapick for a great start to the day.

22. The usual high standard from Picaroon. Not his most difficult, though it took me a little while to parse my way to COALESCED and I lingered a bit over BLISTER PLASTER. There’s something about its half-rhyme from which my mind recoils.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick.

23. Absolutely lovely puzzle. Almost every clue a gem. Fortunately, I had the requisite GK for this one so no complaints on that score. All sorts of cunning deceptions and hidden synonyms – just what I like when it’s fairly done which it will be with Picaroon. I did spend far too long wondering how to halve BEANO, even when I had the solution inked in.

    paul @13: you’ve pretty much got it right. Decapitalising in the clue a word that needs a capital – generally a proper noun of some kind – is beyond the pale. Capitalising in the clue a word that does not need that capital is acceptable deception – though there are those here who disapprove.

    Thanks Picaroon and loonapick

24. Excellent as usual from Picaroon. Lots of great clues, but my favourites were LETS GO and PEPPER POT, the latter for the brilliant use of “season”.

    Yes there was some UK-specific general knowledge, but I think at least ALCOCK AND BROWN deserve to be better known internationally, for the first non-stop transatlantic flight. They beat Lindbergh by 8 years and he’s much more famous. (Though to be fair he did it solo.)

    Many thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

25. Kva@4: The diacritical known as ’tilde’ in English is used in Spanish and somewhat less so in Portuguese, but the Spanish word doesn’t actually refer to the squiggly line but to the accent mark. Not a problem for the clue of course.

26. I normally get on better with Picaroon’s puzzles than today. Some of the GK was beyond me, plenty of it I know (I’m UK based) but the route to much of it just didn’t present itself to me.

    Other references are totally unfamiliar to me, also – how does U = “posh”?

27. I never mind “G”K that I don’t know. I welcome that as an opportunity to learn something new. Had a good guess about the “high flying duo” and wordplay did it for me.
    I did go down the wrong track for Dandy and BEA. (Two airlines.)
    I tossed up between Lord Coe and Lord Lucan, who also ran 🙂 , while the Britishism (mostly) of COME COME wasn’t foremost in my mind. But again the wordplay settled that.
    My favourite was BEACHED WHALE, for the chuckle on getting the “northerly” surfing place.

28. PostMark @23 (and paul @13): yes that’s the Ximenean line on capitalisation and decapitalisation, for those who like such “rules”. Personally I’m fairly relaxed about either. On decapitalisation, remember that Ximenes’s book was written in the 60s, and usage has changed a lot since then, with lower-case being used where it wouldn’t have been previously. We’ve had text-speak, and brand names in lower case. Look at some of the names on today’s blog: as well as paul we have loonapick, muffin, michelle and so on.

    (On misleading capitalisation, as I said I have no problem with it as in 20d, but it is particularly clever when the setter disguises it by putting the relevant word at the start of the clue.)

29. Name check for you Lord Jim.

30. Usual good puzzle from Picaroon. Several favourites including my two LOI’s HEADHUNT and COALESCED both of which needed a mental alphabetic search for credible unchecked letters (“what could be between C and A … E, H, I, L, O – ah, that’s it!”).
    I parsed WIDTH a little differently from loonapick – WITH (‘accompanying’) surrounds (‘escorts’) D (‘daughter’).
    Thanks both.

31. beaulieu@30. You have also been name-checked today. I parsed WIDTH as you did.

32. beaulieu@32 – it’s a new one on me, not that I’m new to crosswords: must be one of my blind spots. Thank you, anyway.

33. scraggs@s6 – see wikipedia on U and non-U. U for posh is very common in crosswords.

    (comment numbering has been confused by my deleting and re-writing this comment)

34. beaulieu@33, we’ve managed to mess with the fabric of time… Anyway, thanks again, and taking the time to re-edit also.

35. poc@25
    That’s some additional info on what TILDE means in Spanish. Thanks.
    I didn’t add TILDE to my original list as I had not noticed the second layer of ‘A Coruña’
    (a city in Spain to indicate the use of TILDE in Spanish).

36. Splendid puzzle from the Pirate. A lot of UK-centric references, certainly, but of course these were no problem for this Brit – though Chancellor = HUNT took me a long time to spot and HEADHUNT was my LOI.

    So many clever constructions to give beautifully crafted surfaces. ‘I think we should set off fires’ is a wonderful example. Relatively few anagrams but a lot of single letter insertions/deletions (an observation, not a complaint).

    poc @25: In fact the tilde is much more frequent in Portuguese where it is used over vowels to denote nasalisation – and Portuguese has loads of nasal vowels. That is also its usage in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

37. another splendid crossword from Picaroon

    Many thanks to him and Lucky Loonapick

38. Nice to have to think on a Tuesday, excellent!

39. paddymelon @27 – I was working on Lord Lucan for too long as well. As soon as I saw the ‘high flying duo’ with that enumeration, I thought BATMAN AND ROBIN – but I couldn’t parse it. The two C crossers put paid to that, but the requisite pair popped straight into my mind (and certainly I didn’t see that as Pommy GK: cf Lord Jim @24). Thanks, Picaroon and loonapick.

40. This is a bit full-I’ll just add my admiration for BEACHED WHALE and DIPSWITCH
    Memories of Bobby Robson

41. I went into this full of confidence after getting BENIN with no problems, but overall, I found that more challenging than yesterday. I got some clues (BEAU and BEACHED WHALE), but couldn’t parse them until I came here. I’d forgotten about U as post/upper class.

    I also parsed the AL in ALCOCK as the abbreviation for Alabama, John W@11. And my parsing of WIDTH was the same as yours beaulieu@30

    It was a fun one today. Thank you S&B.

42. [The TILDE was originally a small letter N written over a vowel, so its usage in Portuguese (São Paolo) and the IPA is perhaps more transparent than that in Spanish. All the major Romance languages apart from Romanian have a palatalised N sound but it is represented in different ways: Ñ in Spanish, GN in French and Italian, NH in Portuguese and NY in Catalan ]

43. Add DIPSWITCH to your list of difficulties for non-Brits. It’s a dimmer here.in North America. That and PEP Giardiola were the only ones I had never heard of, but it’s one thing to have heard of the Beanio and th pe Dandy in a vague sort of way and another to have BEA come to your mind when clued as the Dandy’s rival’s not half, and similarly with most of the others

44. Lots of brain stretching with some guess first, parse later today. First one in was DUNCES CAP and last one in was COALESCED as I didn’t know a phoney could be a cod. I recently read the Novel “Transatlantic” which opens with a nail biting description of the Alcock and Brown flight. I’m a City supporter, so PEPPER POT was an easy one for me. My brother and I fought over the Dandy and the Beano. Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick.

45. Oh, and BLISTER PLASTER and COST THE EARTH as well. and maybe DUNCES CAP, which is a dunce cap here.

46. Thanks for the blog, USED TO was a clever clue and I will have to praise COME COME for the Lord who ran , it cost me a perfect write-in.

47. John W@11
    Your parsing of ALCOCK AND BROWN doesn’t include where the AND comes from?

48. While I did finish this brilliant puzzle, I found it quite tricky and there was a bit of UK specific GK I didn’t know. Mostly I could guess from the clues and crossers, then google it. Some names came from the depths, eg Alcock and Brown. And Lord Coe is well known even in Aus. But I didn’t know Pep or The Dandy and Beano, so appreciate the 225 blog for filling in the gaps.
    I completely missed B-lister (doh!), so that half of Blister Plaster was lost on me.
    Favourite is BEACHED WHALE. Also loved COALESCED, CORKSCREW, COST THE EARTH, BLISTER PLASTER, HEAD HUNT, MIAOW.
    Thanks Picaroon for the challenge and loonapick for the great blog.

49. The usual impressive setting from Picaroon.

    In trying to parse BEACHED WHALE, I came across the fairly useless fact that BEW is the airport code for Beira, but it’s certainly not a northerly place (unless you live in Australia). I liked the wordplays for DUNCE’S CAP and NOCTURNAL, the surface for COST THE EARTH and the definition for PEPPER POT. The definitions for BLISTER PLASTER in dictionaries seems to relate to a historical use, viz: (medicine, historical) A vesicant plaster made of Spanish flies. However, as Eileen @21 points out, it has a more modern meaning in the consumer world.

    Thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

50. Gervase @42 We have a palatalised n of a sort in Glasgow Scots. A tiresome irritating fellow is a Nyaff.

51. Well that was fun. HEADHUNT was my LOI once I’d stopped looking for European chancellors (Kohl? Merkel?), or trying FELT for ‘experienced’. Never heard of ALCOCK AND BROWN, but now I have!

    COALESCED was probably my pick of the bunch.

    Thanks loonapick and Picaroon.

52. A super puzzle. In the end I was defeated by one clue: TILDE. I have given myself a kick. I can see why people who don’t live in the UK might find a few of the clues a bit obscure, though I think everyone should have heard of ALCOCK AND BROWN (there used to be a statue of them at Heathrow; am not sure if it is still there as I believe it was moved to Ireland to mark where they landed for the centenary). Their plane can be seen at the Science Museum in London…I completed the NW very quickly and thought this rather Mondayish (though easy Monday puzzles seem to be of a past time), but it got more challenging as it went on. Too many favourites to mention. With thanks to Picaroon and to loonapick.

53. The city is in Spain, but the definite article “A” (and also “O”) is Portuguese, so what’s going on? A Coruña is Galician, that’s what. If you look at a map of the area, you’ll see streets called Rúa, beaches called Praia, Vello/a used for old, etc. – definitely not Castillian Spanish. [Capitalization of Galician words for emphasis]

54. Completed this in double quick time on the train to London, so either I’m a lot cleverer than I’ve been for about six months or this was an easier than normal Picaroon. I know which is more likely. Plenty of enjoyable stuff and only one parsing that eluded me, WEB? in 1d, and that was only because I lacked motivation as the answer was clear from definition & crossers.

    Favourite possibly MIAOW for the surprise when it appeared in my mind and then actually worked in the grid and in relation to the wordplay too.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick.

55. Great puzzle! So many wonderful moments eg COALESCED, USED TO and BLISTER PLASTER.

    Thanks Picaroon and loonapick

56. Thanks PostMark @23 and LordJim @28. I’ll do my best to remember it from now on.

57. I knew a few of loonapick’s UK-specific GK bits,. I not only knew Ipswich, I’ve been thereshi — but I’ve never heard of a DIP switch, though it’s apparently American.

    scraggs@26 U stands for “upper class.” Non-U is the opposite and often refers to a word or phrase that betrays someone as not “quite quite.”

    Another Britishism, I think, is HOUSEMAN for a junior medic. I’ve never heard it in the US, though I’ve met it in books.

    Thank you Picaroon and loonapick.

58. Really enjoyed this witty puzzle.

    I must say I spent a while looking at 20d before the 12a fell off.

    One of my constant mild amusements is the different slant on political wordplay in clues across various papers. You would never see 9d in the Telegraph!

59. Huge thanks to Picaroon. Got there in two sittings but another great puzzle from a master setter on top form. Loved the depth of the clues and, ultimately, their precision. Too many favourites to list but must give a shout out to 20D TILDE – it’s a work of art. Thanks also to loonapick for the excellent blog.

60. Am I the only one who found this really difficult? I did finish without using the reveal button but there was much usage of the check facility! I’ve never heard of Alcock and Brown but “got” the other cultural refs. I could only parse a few clues. 🙁

61. Thanks, Dr W, for the linguistic help. I was puzzled by A Coruna and wondered what Portuguese was doing in Spain, so I loved your explanation.

62. Pretty well what Postmark@23 said in the first paragraph.
    I absolutely loved this one. I did finish it … eventually! But on the way, I was intrigued by all the twists and misdirections, with sooo many Ah-moments, when I finally understood what was needed.
    There were lots of clues which I loved, so just a few: TILDE (LOI, and very clever), BLISTER PLASTER (brilliant construction), RESIT (ooo, misdirection!), and, obviously, that 14d clue for the surface.

63. Mrs Goatstrangler@60 – no, you’re not the only one. My experience was quite similar to yours, except that no goats were harmed etc.

64. I enjoy Picaroon but only with tactical use of “reveal” when stuck, after which I can marvel at the parsing then motor on for a while before getting stuck again. The joy of a crossword on an app!

65. I’d never heard of ALCOCK AND BROWN (or I’d forgotten about them, which is the same thing really), but the joy of Picaroon is that any GK / niche word is always gettable from the scrupulously fair clueing. Loads of smiles as always – enjoyed the “b-lister” in 24ac and the very fine dd for LETS GO. And MADE is a great example of how a short everyday word can be neatly and elegantly clued. First rate as always, from one of the most reliably enjoyable setters around.

66. I found this quite tricky, although looking back it was all fair and it didn’t actually take me that long. As many have commented the definition was quite clear for several answers so a lot of retro-parsing was done to get there. Alcock and Brown should be better known than they are. Thanks Picaroon & Loonapick

67. Can report that this was a challenge for this non-Brit, all the ones you mentioned and VinnyD @43’s DIPSWITCH as well–I was wondering if it was going to somehow involve an IRON or TEE as an aid for driving (in golf). I also got thoroughly buffaloed on 14d and 4d because I had DUNCES HAT and didn’t realize it till I was checking POT as a partial bung. Which is my fault really.

    Particularly liked SATURATED, pleased to see U-RATED instead of the old chestnut U (which I’ve picked up on by now!), MIAOW, and BLISTER PLASTER. Thanks Picaroon and loonapick (are you named after each other?)

68. Great use of Ipswich. Fun one.

69. We can be thankful that it wasn’t Norwich

70. muffin @69: I prefer supper when I come home….

71. All done for a change.
    A completed grid is a rarity for this feeble solver.
    I had DUNCES HAT which I thought was more common until I saw the error of my ways.
    BLISTER PLASTER was very clever and my favorite.
    Thanks both

72. 3 sittings at this.

    Nothing.

    Zero.

    Everyone who posts on this page will receive a bottle of Veuve Clicquot if I ever solve an entire crossword.

73. Well, I grew up on British tv shows, and have often visited UK since. Nevertheless Picaroon managed to find scores of words, places and characters that were completely unknown to me. While I finished, I had no idea what I was entering much of the time and no idea why for the rest. Good setting (and a few lucky guesses) got me over the line. Favourites were LETS GO and COST THE EARTH (it was a relief to recognise one British person).

    Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick

74. Steffen@72
    I was there once. Keep at it. Reading the blogs and taking in the “aha, that`s how it works” is the way to go.
    I am confident that if you do, you will get there, and I can remind you of your promise.

75. Late to the party, but loved this. Last one in TILDE which I wasn’t entirely clear about till I came on here for the explanation…

76. The TILDE occurs in Vietnamese too. It denotes the broken rising tone. It was, of course, introduced by French monks when they Romanised the alphabet.

77. Yeay! HYD@71. Bask in the moment. Perseverance pays off. I liked BLISTER PLASTER too, although I’d never heard of it before.

78. Steffen@72 – been there!
    Made me laugh so thank you (and sympathy).

79. For me this was much harder than Picaroon’s February Genius puzzle. My sense is that it should not be like that.

80. Took me till just now and several revisits. Couldn’t get TILDE but I did get the rest in the end very slowly, not all the parsing, but having read blog it’s “oh so that’s what it is”. Eg I didn’t understand the order of Otto I – added the letter I but couldn’t work out what to use for OTTO – various attempts with German abbreviations to make CH as I’d got enough crossers to know what the answer was.

    Faves were Blister Plaster and Miaow!
    Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick.

    Now to tackle Philistine!

81. Alternatively for 7d: WOE for upset, in which the W (water) drops to make OWE, in MD for doctor.

    Probably saw it that way because we had the M and D first!

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