Guardian Cryptic 29,436 by Brockwell

94 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,436 by Brockwell”

1. Thanks Brockwell and manehi
   I enjoyed this more than previous ones from Brockwell. Favourite CRATER.
   Thanks for the explanation of BROWNS in14d.
   I got confused in 24d as I thought the RUBBER was a direct reference to bridge, so didn’t see where the “difficulty” fitted in.
   I DARE SAY was clued using ARES quite recently.

   Uncategorized at the moment, manehi.

2. New for me: DOR beetle; TREE PIPIT (thanks, google); CUSCO city in Peru; BLACKTHORN

   I could not parse 11ac apart from reverse of PIPE = westbound tube; 24d.

   Thanks, both.

3. Thanks Manehi. I needed a couple of parsings. The lyric, by the way, is Goodbye Mary, Goodbye Jane, not MaryJane.
   Thanks to Brockwell – I enjoyed this more than his previous puzzles

4. Minor typo in 13, manehi – it’s an anagram of Hitler’s. I found this all fell into place once I had SNAKE and saw the theme. It’s quite a few years since Arthur Ashe won Wimbledon, but I still remember watching his game against Connors. It was quite something. A bit of Greek mythology in the mix as well with ARGO and ARES. Like 10 in particular, but enjoyable overall. Thanks to manehi and Brockwell.

5. Very entertaining use of theme. I spotted some but certainly not all of the SNAKEs you list manehi. Maybe the completed grid resembles a SNAKEs and LADDERs board?

   Just like singer is always CHER, tennis champion always seems to be ASHE.

   Many thanks Brockwell and manehi.

6. Pedantic point: NEEPS (as in the Scottish dish “neeps and tatties”, served with haggis) are swedes rather than turnips. They taste quite different!

7. Only a couple of acrosses and a few downs first pass, then it slowly wove itself together. Nice ref to Led Zep. Good anag for slither. The European rights were cute (oui+ja not new, but ‘rights’ is obliquish). Had forgotten Kipling’s snake, so a guess there. Good puzzle, ta B and m.

8. This was fun, with lots of takes on SNAKEs. I liked the trick in CORAL REEF and spotted some of the other interesting variations on building clues.

   Thank you to Brockwell and manehi

9. The usual spelling is CUZCO, though the variant is allowed. Aside from that, I was defeated by the TREE PIPIT (nho) but thought the remainder was well set.

10. Very enjoyable puzzle with a nice simple theme. Likes included OUIJA. MILK BAR and I DARE SAY. We also had Spies and Spooks. I really like this setter’s style.

    Ta Brockwell & manehi.

11. Unlike our doughty blogger, I found this all fell out neatly. Enjoyable puzzle, though with rather too much reliance on single letter deletions and additions.

    I did like the L&S in ‘clear forecast’ and ‘overtones’. CRATER, BLINDNESS and SEAT have particularly good surfaces.

    Thanks to S&B

12. An absolute pleasure. I even spotted the theme. Top marks for CORAL REEF, RASPIEST & TREE PIPIT which was an NHO but neatly clued

    I guess setters will never get bored of OUIJA 🙂

    There’s even a homophone of krait

    Cheers B&M

13. Thank you manehi for your blog, and the themesters, many of them known here downunder. A theme as close as my backyard.

    Slight tweak. SLITHERS is an anagram of Hitler’s. What a brilliant find.
    I liked the run on in 15a RATTLE and 16d SNAKE, winding its way down the grid. And the contrast of SNAKE and LADDER in different quadrants. It made me look at the grid, to see if it was a like the games of SNAKES and LADDERs, but that would have been a dead giveaway.

    RUBBER was a clever clue, although I had to look up Johnny before I could solve it. Rubber was an eraser down here, not a condom. But I did have a rubber snake as a child, didn’t everyone?

14. One of my favourite trick English/French translations is Bristol/Robert so it was nice seeing them [almost] juxtaposed in the early clues.

15. Hope CR doesn’t follow that prescription, bad stuff, speed.

16. There’s SNAKE PIPIT and SEAT SNAKE, too…

17. KAABA – a Jorum. LOi & COTD: RUBBER! 😀

18. And a MILK snake is a species of king (5d clue) snake.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_snake

19. I thought the lift and separate for the anagram indicator for CORAL REEF was clever. I’m not sure if I have seen that before. An enjoyable puzzle all round.

20. So for once, with my very first one in BOAT indicating Boa and therefore the key word SNAKE, the theme was staring me plainly in the face. And then I was actually slightly disappointed that not more of the reptiles appeared SLITHERing about. Liked the different take/meaning with WEASEL. And I too wondered for a while whether there might be a subtheme of board games when LADDER appeared.
    Last one in the rather awkward word RASPIEST. Had to look up KAABA and DOR as not in my lexicon. OUIJA an old chestnut in crosswordland. But all in all, a fun solve for me…

21. Thanks Brockwell and manehi!
    Great puzzle! Excellent blog!

    Enjoyed the SNAKEs theme. As the theme was explicit, I didn’t have to ‘spot it’ (read: wait for someone to spot it for me). There is a BLACK RAT SNAKE, it seems. already mentioned?

    COTD: TREE PIPIT
    Other faves: CORAL REEF, BLINDNESS, HASH BROWNS, LADDER (two SNAKEs for the price of one) and RUBBER.

    Someone asked a couple of days ago about the difference between a ‘Playtex’ and a ‘lift and separate’. We have a few examples in this grid.

    OLIVE: Robert Plant (the singer) –a lift and separate. Robert in the WP and Plant the def.
    CORAL REEF: forecast split into two words fore and cast–a Playtex.
    NEEP: Joe Root–a lift and separate. Joe in the WP and Root the def.
    HASH BROWNS: overtones—>over tones—a Playtex.
    There are more…

22. I think I’m getting the hang of Brockwell, and I enjoyed this. Needed to check that there was such a word as SINUATE, revealed KAABA and TIGERISH (not a very close fit to the def) and couldn’t quite sort out RUBBER though it was obvious what the answer was. Annoyed that I spotted lots of SNAKEs but failed to notice the LADDER.

    By the way, manehi, I usually spell it SCEPTERED, but the actual answer today is SCEPTRED.

    Muffin@6: please don’t start the “what is a turnip” debate again!

23. Kva @21: that would have been me. So ultimately it depends on whether what is being lifted and separated is one word (forecast) = Playtex, or a pair or group of words normally regarded as belonging together (Joe Root, President Bush) = L&S?

    Whereas I had always assumed that no special term was necessary for the two- word version, and the L&S was the single-word specimen. I expect I shall continue to get it wrong (mentally if not in public) but thanks for explaining the official party line.

24. I’m not sure it really amounts to much, but regulars in the Guardian’s comments may have been puzzled by the disappearance of replies to caymancanuck’s comment today.
    It appears that j801206 replied with something offensive, but they certainly didn’t, and it’s not the first time the G’s moderators have censored a conversation straying too close to criticism, at the expense of a commenter’s standing.
    In fact, j801206 only suggested, quite mildly, that CC’s comment might be a bit spoilery. CC agreed an was profuse in her apology, wishing – as many of us have – that the G could implement a time-limited edit/delete capability to save us from our occasional blunders. There was a chorus of agreement to this and I suggested – perhaps provocatively – that the G wouldn’t wish to sacrifice the engagement mistakes generate by allowing us to correct them.
    When I came back a short while later, j801206’s comment and all replies had been removed, leaving only the standard moderator message.
    It is possible that j801206’s account has actually been deleted, either by its creator or by the G, and the comments section only has one message it can display when a comment no longer exists, but this is also a problem.
    It seems very poor form to use the same defamatory statement, that a comment didn’t abide by the their community standards, when it means that person may be unfairly vilified.
    I’ve made a formal complaint – not that I imagine much will come of it – but I hope I can persuade my fellow solvers to call this out when it happens. Nothing ever changes unless we all insist, after all.

25. And there’s a PIT viper.

26. loved brockwell’s puzzle, btw.
    thanks for the blog, manehi 🙂

27. TREE PIPIT and KAA not in the BRB? What is the world coming to? 🙂
    muffin @6… how do you get Neeps from Swedes. Neeps from Turnips I can understand. The Dictionars o the Scots Leid seems to agree.
    Paddymelon @13 I don’t know about RUBBERs, but I was amused when first landing on the shores of Oz as a refugee from the Old Dart to realise that Durex was a brand of Sticky Tape. 🙂

28. 9a OLIVE is a ‘lift and separate’ of “Robert Plant” to get an “R” and the definition.
    [Confusingly a ‘lift and separate’ is of two words that are already separated by a space]
    10a CORAL REEF “forecast” is a Playtex, when you have to insert the space yourself.
    A Gossard would be the reverse of a Playtex, when you have to delete a space between two words in wordplay.
    [Confusingly they all refer to what are far too often lazily clued as “support(er)s”.] — {Edit – Hi, KVa@21! ;)}
    [OLIVER! requires a “!”. The sequel Twang!! must have been twice as good!!]

29. paddymelon @25
    i also figured a ½ a point for CRATER, cos of the krait homophone 🙂

30. (Yes, TimC, the reverse for me, when I went to England I learned about durex.)

31. Sorry gladys @22, I seem to have taken the bait re neeps while your comment was posted. 🙂

32. [Tim C @27
    It’s because the Scots mistakenly refer to swedes as turnips!. Honestly, there’s very little overlap in taste (and cooking method).]

33. paddymelon @30, it also reminds me about when I was fresh off the boat here and mentioned casually that I would go and have a root in my suitcase for something. Much hilarity ensued. 🙂

34. Yes ozofriendly@29. . I also wondered if CRATE(R) was there as a homophone of KRAIT

35. I must be in the minority, but I found this easier than yesterday. There were many good clues, though I wonder what the difference is between sinuate and sinuous.
    I did find tigerish=relentless questionable. I gave up on it when I got as far as *i*erish. I couldn’t think of a definition for relentless that fitted and couldn’t be bothered with trying to find a golfer’s name that fitted. It can’t be denied that Tiger should have been an obvious choice for golfer though.

36. [muffin @32… even this fake news site can’t seem to make up its mind. As for me, give me a swede any day (turnips are too bitter) even though when I cook them I call them “carrots and turnips” 🙂 )]

37. oed.com TIGERISH ‘1.a. ?1573– Like, or like that of, a tiger; esp. of the nature or having the qualities of the tiger; cruel, bloodthirsty, fierce, relentless.’

38. I doubt any setter includes OUIJA willingly, but at least they don’t have to spend long thinking up how to clue it. This was a neat way to freshen the chestnut.
    Hitler’s aunties and teenagers anagrams were very nice in generally fun puzzle.
    No.1 from Robert Plant, lead from Captain America, end of Joe Root, finale for President Bush and heart of Monty Python are all the same. Rather too much of a good thing.

39. Nothing too tricky here. CORAL REEF and HASH BROWNS were neat.

    Thanks Brockwell and manehi

40. muffin & TimC: My Northern English family always referred to swedes (rutabaga) as turnips – it isn’t just a Scottish usage.

    Sorry to be pedantic (but why break the habit of a lifetime?), but isn’t ‘krait’ pronounced to rhyme with ‘kite’ rather than ‘Kate’?

41. [ozofriendly@24. Yes, it’s a mystery as to what the moderators on the Guardian site will delete, including spoilers which I have inadvertently made and reported myself. There has been a rare poster recently who expresses erotic responses, ”cream” or some variation on that , with next to no comment about the clues. I don’t know if the Mods are cryptic solvers themselves, but it doesn’t seem like it. They let some things go through, miss some, and, as your example, shows, they appear to be overreactive to others.]

42. So it is Gervase@40 krait in both British and American English.
    https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/krait

43. [Here’s a clue that was just a ‘lift and separate’ and nothing else, not even a definition: “Robert Lindsay? (6)”]

44. I am not surprised, given this setter’s record, that comments have unearthed additional themers to the list kindly produced by manehi in the blog. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there also turn out to be HASH snakes, DOR snakes and AUDIO snakes. The theme desnity is always impressive. And some nicely crafted surfaces throughout. Maybe a little bit of overuse of the single letter acronym device in connection with the named personalities as James observed @38 but it would be churlish to complain, given the overall quality of the puzzle. Great fun.

    Thanks Brockwell and manehi

45. The word “swede” is a contraction of “Swedish turnip”.

    Many thanks to Brockwell and manehi

46. Snakes are a nightmare topic for me, so I didn’t really enjoy this

47. Thanks for the blog and all the extra snakes which I missed . Buenos dias mis amigas.
    I thought this was brilliant, I really like this setter , clever clues throughout , very neat Playtex for CORAL REEF , TREE PIPIT is devious , so is RUBBER , MILK BAR is lovely , many more…..

    HASH BROWNS , I do not know if the setter meant this but BROWN is the most common slang term for heroin , not the horse or H beloved by setters.

48. [DuncT @45
    So what? Jerusalem artichokes aren’t artichokes!
    It’s an example of a more general problem. I hate it when words with different meanings become used interchangeably, like “irritate” and “aggravate”, for instance. There is a useful distinction between swedes and turnips, so calling them both turnips isn’t helpful.]

49. Pdm and TimC @various, in our school yard here I Perth we knew (about) both sorts of Durex, and about rubber Johnnies. There was a rude ditty with the latter in, can’t remember the rest …

50. [ Frankie@ 28 , slight correction , Gossard is any clue where two words are pushed together before solving, could give the definition . I still have copyright on this . ]

51. Grant @49 it may be – 3 6 9 the goose drank wine.

52. Impressive use of the theme and an enjoyable solve.

    Although varieties of the two European yesses has been used quite often, I liked the current iteration, which read well. Good GREEN TEAS and SLITHER anagrams, and I enjoyed the wordplays for BLACKTHORN and RASPIEST.

    [Fresh out of university, an attractive female friend went to Canada and got a job as a Maths teacher. During one lesson, she innocently said: “Has anyone got a rubber”. She was then rather surprised by the mirth that ensued.]

    Thanks Brockwell and manehi.

53. KVa @21, gladys @23, FrankieG @28: I think the “lift and separate” business is a bit more complicated and confused than that. The term has been used (in a crossword context) in different ways by different people, and there is no “official party line” – in fact it has given rise to some quite heated debate, for example William F P versus Pierre on the blog for Matilda’s Quiptic 1,086.

54. . as per the Stones in Brown Sugar, Roz @47, but smack, H or scag more frequent
    And yep, @51, I think that might be it …

55. Good to see Brockwell’s name this morning – one of my favourites, along with his alter ego Grecian.

    I didn’t spot quite all the snakes – not surprising for this setter, as PostMark remarks.

    As nearly always, my favourites matched manehi’s, with the addition of 9ac OLIVE, for the L&S, 15ac RATTLES, for the abrupt PM, 21dn I DARE SAY, and 29 dn seat – a little gem to end with.
    We have, as remarked above, seen OUIJA clued in myriad ways, but I thought today’s was one of the very best.

    Many thanks to Brockwell for the fun and manehi for a great blog.

56. Robi @52 – I won’t give the link to the Two Ronnies sketch yet again(!), but that was the ultimate punchline (from the nun 🙂 )

57. [Grant@54 , smack and scag very out of date in the UK , this is not from personal use but it is from personal knowledge, brown still going strong ]

58. Very nice puzzle but I think it’s time to retire Bristol/tits. I think that humour went out with the Cortina.

59. Really good – I was pleased to see Brockwell as the setter today. I enjoyed the snakes I saw and then a couple more I found out about when I came here.
    Didn’t really understand the Bristol reference at 11a.
    I agree, Eileen@55, lots of ticks from me for today’s version of the affirmatives for 20a OUIJA.
    It’s mostly all been said – just need to thank Brockwell and manehi. And thanks to contributors for some interesting posts which made this a very readable blog.

60. Roz@47 and grantinfreo@54 – yes, I was thinking of “Golden Brown” by The Stranglers when I solved 14d HASH BROWNS.

61. I think manehi may be over-analysing Breakfast in America, I took it to mean simply a breakfast item from America. Hash browns may be ubiquitous now, but that’s where they originated.

62. [Robi@52 That actually happened to me in 1975, no kidding, although I’m male (that makes it work a bit better) and it was Massachusetts. The female students all laughed, the males reached into their back pockets. It was a great way to break the ice. I heartily recommend it.]

63. Clever stuff from Brockwell today: lots of SNAKEs and just the one LADDER. How did I get to age 70 before realising that LADDER includes a snake as well?

    I was a fan of Arthur ASHE, a great player who made history in his way, and died tragically young – nice to imagine the cricket trophy being named after him too. I also liked the reference to Squeeze, an underrated British band of the 70s and 80s, in 22A.

    A few areas of general knowledge to brush up on for future puzzling: Peruvian cities, beetles and holy shrines.

    Thanks to B and m.

64. Warning to Dr WhatsOn @62 ! An English colleague was working in the US temporarily and went in to the office and asked the Secretary if she had a rubber he could borrow. She complained to HR that he was sexually harassing her. Not a joke to be repeated!
    Enjoyed this puzzle although defeated by Cusco and dor. Thanks to all for an entertaining puzzle and blog.

65. @61: agree, many of you have been over-thinking it — so the definition should be all of “feature of Breakfast in America.” It’s interesting that the McDonalds-style triangular fried cake of shredded potatoes seems to dominate in the UK, while US breakfast spots typically serve looser formations of diced spuds.
    Nice theming and clues here, no quibbles from me.

66. I must have been on Brockwell’s wavelength, as I found this much easier than last week’s horror trio. Thanks Brockwell and manehi.

67. Oh, and also, I made the connection between weasel and snake as both being tools to unclog a drain. Although now that I look they work slightly differently …

    https://www.dennyshop.co.uk/products/drain-weasel-anti-clog-tool
    https://www.diy.com/departments/2pk-drain-snake-unblocker-100cm-kitchen-sink-unblocker-tool-plumbing-snake-shower-drain-unblocker-tools-for-kitchen-sink-drain/5056175958559_BQ.prd

68. Another one hitting just my level. Didn’t parse RUBBER and Bristol is a bit overused/outdated but otherwise fun.
    28D could have been Punch Prince Andrew?
    Thanks both.

69. Many thanks to manehi for the excellent blog and to all you solvers for the nice comments. Happy World 🐍 Day to you all.

    https://www.apexvets.com/article/world-snake-day-16th-july/

70. Roger @65: the finely julienned then pan-fried potatoes are the real thing; the McDonald’s method of reconstituting them into a cake is something they came up with to make HASH BROWNS suitable for fast food. My guess is that their global reach has meant that their version is more common abroad.

    You will also see “home fries” on American breakfast menus, wherein the potatoes–usually skin-on–are cut into a half-inch dice rather than julienned, and are often accompanied in the pan by onions, capsicum, and too much salt. 🙂

71. Oh, and the tedious turnip/swede debate would go away if we all just agreed to call it a rutabaga.

72. [mrpenney @71: Indeed – and ‘rutabaga’ is from ‘rotebagge’, a Swedish dialect word for the vegetable. Your clarification on what constitutes HASH BROWNS is well made, though you omit that they are almost certainly the Swiss rösti, having emigrated towards the end of the 19th century, perhaps crossed with the Ashkenazi latke 🙂 ]

73. manehi, you’re missing an A in parsing KAABA. It’s “a bishop? inside “kaa”.

    Blaise@14 What’s with Bristol and Robert?

    Roger@65 “Fried cake of shredded potatoes” is a pretty good description of hash browns. “Loose formations of diced spuds” is a good description of home fries, which would not be called hash browns in the US. MacDonald’s got it right, except for the industrial production bit. I see now that mrpenney has made a similar point, so I’ll just say I agree with him.

    Thanks to Brockwell and manhehi.

74. Valentine @73: both slang words for “boob” (in the sense of “breast”) in their respective languages. But my top favourite is sugar = mercredi.

75. Thanks all

    KAABA – I do mention the A taken from the surface

    HASH BROWNS: my comment on the album was an extra note about a way to read the surface, rather than explanation of definition or wordplay. I agree that “feature of…” also belongs in the definition.

76. Very nice puzzle, I was making appreciative little noises throughout. Thanks Brockwell and sschua! A few NHOs like TREE PIPIT, CUSCO in this spelling, DOR, and KAABA, but not too hard to work those out. At the end I failed with OUIJA, figuring it was some European organization I hadn’t heard of, and smacked my forehead when I revealed it.

    [mrpenney@71/Gervase@72: it was only while checking that NEEP was a root that I realized that swedes are rutabagas, which is why we don’t have swedes and the UK doesn’t have rutabagas! had even heard of neeps, having had a tower of tatties, neeps, and haggis in Bridge of Allan once.]

77. Thanks Brockwell. I enjoyed the theme and liked clues such as RATTLES, OUIJA, CRATER, RASPIEST, I DARE SAY, and ARGO. I failed with KAABA, TIGERISH, and RUBBER (new to me). I was a bit put off with oddities like KAABA, DOR, SINUATE, and TIGERISH but I realise such words often result when there’s such an extensive theme. Thanks manehi for the blog.

78. Ozofriendly@24 – very interested to read your comment – I too went back to the thread later and was mystified re the deletion of j801206’s comment – and more following (all perfectly harmless.) For the record I agree there was nothing remotely offensive about j801206’s comment – quite the opposite – if the moderator were going to delete a comment, it would have been more useful to delete my inadvertent spoiler, but that remained there! Appreciate your input!

79. “Oh, and the tedious turnip/swede debate would go away if we all just agreed to call it a rutabaga.”

    But what is “it”? Is it large and yellow, or smaller and pink and white? And then what do we call the other one?

80. Apparently today is World Snake Day, hence the theme

81. Ref the deletion of comments on the g thread, it would seem from observation over the years that comments work somewhat like a directory tree.

    That’s to say that if a comment is deleted replies which are appended to it, and replies to those replies (etc), disappear because their initial ‘hook’ has been removed.

    I didn’t see the original comment(s), so have no idea about their content.

82. I found this easier than Brockwell’s typical level of difficulty, but enjoyed it as I always do with their puzzles. Favourite was HASH BROWNS.

83. The oak eggAr moth is in the Guardian today in the Country diary .

84. [Roz @83
    A bit obscure for anyone who didn’t see the Qaos Mel Brooks puzzle!]

85. Managed to solve this despite a few nhos but the clues were fair enough. Chewy but enjoyable and everything else has been already said with typical elegance and insight. Thanks to all

86. CaymanCanuck @78
    Glad to see you here.
    It gets worse. Swarby’s follow-up and my reply, (merely mentioning that I was contacting the G with my broad concerns), have now also been removed.
    The Guardian’s response to my email was an evasive,
    “Hello, thanks for getting in touch.
    I’m afraid we cannot discuss moderation decisions relating to other users’ accounts.
    Best wishes,
    Pete
    Community moderator”
    It’s so ironically authoritarian, you have to laugh.

87. ozofriendly @ 86

    I had a very friendly discussion with the g moderators about removed posts a few years back

    They told/me that any post that refers directly to or addresses the moderators will be removed

    It’s not part of their role to become involved in a BTL discussion

88. Simon S @87
    Any policy, however friendly it’s enforcement, that effectively silences criticism, is a hallmark of authoritarianism, and apologising for it is not a good look.
    jussayin’

89. Thank you, a setter who makes me tick. Loved it.

90. Very, very hard.

    I had PIMP for 28d.

91. I found this quite hard, and I think deliberately so. I didn’t write in CUSCO or KAABA as I wasn’t convinced they were correct. The setter missed a trick for the theme by not having KRAIT at 31a and a different word (SATE, SETH?) at 29d, but obviously not obscure enough.

    I didn’t write in OLIVE, either, as I thought ‘plant’ was a pretty poor definition for what is normally referred to as a tree.

    I enjoyed CORAL REEF, even though it meant more tedious posts about Playtex and Gossard.

    Thanks to Brockwell and manehi.

92. ozofriendly@86 andSimonS @86 and 81
    Appreciate your efforts ozofriendly and am inclined to agree with you – hope it hasn’t put j801206 off commenting! Don’t want to belabour the point but for Simon’s benefit – the comment made was simply “might be a bit spoilery?” I cannot see how anyone could possibly take offence. Simon’s explanation about the replies appended to the initial “hook” all disappearing as well does at least explain that part of the mystery.
    A shame…

93. ozofriendly @ 87

    I said nothing about the application of the policy, merely about its existence

    And I see nothing untoward about moderators removing posts that refer to them, as they should be behind the scenes

    That’s the end of my contribution to this discussion

94. I initially had KABAH as the shrine as that’s how the Wikipedia entry on Mecca spelt it. Checking that Kipling’s snake was called KAH, I found it wasn’t. KABAA wasn’t in Chambers but KAABA was.

    Re turnip, to say dialectal use of a word is wrong is a bit condescending to say the least.

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