Guardian 29,463 – Jack

66 comments on “Guardian 29,463 – Jack”

1. Also puzzled by “true” in REM SLEEP. I went with S AM in SEE[d] for SESAME, and didn’t think of the other which works just as well. I didn’t parse the pun in SCANDALISE and I originally had Crafty instead of ARTFUL which caused me problems with LOW-CAL.

   Favourite for me was EARTHLING.

2. Yes, very nice. Noticed the nina at the very end, which helped with last entries (CONCERTINA and SEEK). Like Tim C@1, I thought EARTHLINGS clue was wonderful. Many thanks to J & A.

3. Complete Nina bypass but thoroughly enjoyable solve with the SW providing some food for thought. PEDESTAL was neatly hidden and top marks for SCANDALISE & CONCERTINA

   Cheers A&J

4. I had SMALLS as SM (MS about) + ALLS (EVERYONE’S) but I prefer yours. I still don’t get on with Jack’s puzzles, but thanks to him and Andrew

5. Like drofle, I spotted the Nina at the end which helped with LOI’s ESTEEMED and CONCERTINA. I’m another who raised an eyebrow at ‘true’ in REM SLEEP. I fear it may have gone in just for the surface as I see no role for it in the parse. ‘Notorious’ in the clue for KISS also seemed a bit like filler.
   SCANDALISE was the only one to beat parsing. Faves inc SMALLS, LUCK, PEDESTAL, KOHL, ESTEEMED, PLUNGE, SENTRY, SAMPHIRE and ALPINE.

   Thanks Jack and Andrew

6. Thanks Andrew for your blog and etymology of SAMPHIRE. Needed your help with ECHELONS. It was the only clue that didn’t seem to have the brilliance of the other surface structures in this otherwise very satisfying and entertaining crossie by Jack.

   I wondered why notorious KISS, thinking it might have been a song or album by Kiss, as I wouldn’t consider them notorious. Found a Hitchcock film Notorious with a ”notorious kiss” between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, described as ”one of Hollywood’s most memorable kisses, still today occasionally mistaken and celebrated as ‘the longest kiss in movie history'” (until a 6 minute one in Kids in America 2005). From Rearview Mirror.

   Ticks galore, but to just mention a few, ESTEEMED, a nicely misdirecting hidden, SCANDALISE for the homophone and having to think twice about the tense of read and the noun/verb question with shock, EARTHLINGS and SHERPA for the humour.

7. I don’t have a problem with dreams come true in REM SLEEP. Very good in the surface, true, but I’ve found synonyms online for come true which I think fit the bill. actualize, become existent, come into being.

8. Top faves: EARTHLINGS, FINGERNAIL & SHERPA.

   REM SLEEP: Someone may have a better explanation (paddymelon@7 didn’t see your post while posting mine. You may well be right).

   Thanks Jack and Andrew!

9. Thanks Jack and Andrew

   I found this most enjoyable. Same reservations to a few as noted above. Loved Earthlings.

10. Maybe PostMark @5 and paddymelon @6, the notorious refers to Kiss songs like “Christine Sixteen” about infatuation of a 27 year old man with a 16 year old girl.

11. Not being familiar with this setter, I found this puzzle very tough. Like bodycheetah@3, I had a complete nina bypass!

    Favourite: EARTHLINGS.

    New for me: SAMPHIRE = a European plant of the parsley family, which grows on rocks and cliffs by the sea; ESCARP.

    Thanks, both.

    Re the band Kiss, I have vague memories of them being described as scandalous & notorious when I was a teenager in the 1970s.

12. Very proud of myself for getting this out – I’ve been practicing a lot with past quiptics and the very helpful quick cryptic (which taught me to better recognise cryptic definitions), and it seems finally to be bearing fruit. I found this a lovely stretch and the solutions most satisfying. Thank you Jack and Andrew.

13. Congratulations Greyhound.

14. Thanks Jack and Andrew
    Some peculiar clues here. Despite attempts to justify it, I think 14a would be better if “true” were omitted. Herring come in shoals, not schools. Again a setter confuses “games” with PE!
    I didn’t like the “in” in 21d. Why shouldn’t a SHERPA be a “social climber”?
    Never heard of the band KISS.
    I liked the hiddens at 4 and 20.

15. Thanks both. Initially put in crafty for 12a, and was not until I saw the nina which gave the obvious solution to 3d…not often you get a wrong solution that hits two of the crossers.

16. The increasingly common usage of ‘scan’ to mean ‘glance through’ is becoming a major bugbear for me. I assume, without any evidence, that there is a conflation with ‘skim’. But, if I go to hospital for a scan, I want them to have a proper look, not just take a quick shufti and say, “Yeah, you’re fine, mate.”
    Apart from that (and it’s a big ‘apart’), I quite enjoyed this one.

17. Rare indeed that I am able to parse every clue before coming here for enlightenment. Not going to praise myself though; my mother consistently said: ‘Self praise is no praise at all’. Instead a thank you to Jack for creating a puzzle that hit my medium level solving ability perfectly.

18. Jack is not my favourite kind of setter. Rather going against the grain of the laudatory comments so far. Didn’t know REM SLEEP or LOW CAL. Too many wordy, fiddly clues today for my liking. Sorry, just not my cup of tea this morning, though I did like SAMPHIRE and ALPINE…

19. It’s good to be back, after a few days away, and a Jack puzzle is a great way to get the crossword brain back into gear. As Andrew said, there were just enough less difficult clues to ease me in gently.

    I didn’t spot the two ways of parsing SESAME: I prefer Andrew’s first one – the one I didn’t get. Like paddymelon @6, I didn’t get the right tense of ‘read’ immediately, but SCANDALISE was one of my favourites when I did.

    Other ticks were for the well-hidden PEDESTAL and ESTEEMED, the small but beautifully formed LUCK, KOHL and SEEK, REM SLEEP, where I’m happy to go along with paddymelon @7, the clever and amusing EARTHLINGS and SAMPHIRE, which I’ve always thought a lovely word and I’m pleased to learn the derivation – thank you, Andrew.

    A most enjoyable crossword and blog – many thanks, Jack and Andrew.

20. I expect Jack to be a workout under his various nom de guerres, and should know to look for the NINAs, but didn’t. I wrote in some things others had problems with, KOHL, and took ages to see PEDESTAL, which was well hidden, but all in and parsed.

    Thank you to Andrew and Jack.

21. Thank you Jack and Andrew. Thoroughly enjoyed this. Clever and entertaining. And the Ninas helped at the end. I was thrown by some of the Guardian comments talking about Easter eggs. I still don’t get it. Can anyone explain?

22. muffin@14
    ESCARP
    One of our experts explained that the ‘def in WP’ format was all right. That explanation was convincing.

    SHERPA
    Read it as ‘not a social climber but a mountain climber’. Of course, a SHERPA or anyone else could be a social climber.

23. Superb and loved the Ninas.

    Ta Jack & Andrew.

24. T@21 easter egg is slang for something hidden – often in films, tv shows etc. I think in this case it just refers to the nina

    SHERPA
    I wondered if it was suggesting they were professional rather than social (amateur) climers?

25. I took ‘social climber’ in the way that bodycheetah suggests.

    And I forgot to say that I saw a Jack Nina! 🙂

26. [Thank you bodycheetah. I had never heard of that. Have now googled it and found a rich seam – Hitchcock, Tarantino …
    I feel I’ve really learnt something today! Can’t believe how long I spent looking for ninas of egg or Easter. Doh!]

27. Like Eileen, I am delighted that I saw the Nina! I am also in the ‘put crafty first’ club.

    An enjoyable mix of the friendly and the tricky

    Many thanks to Jack and Andrew

28. Only saw the nina after pdm’s hint on the G thread; qudrriphonic anagrams, pretty cool! No sooner had I thought Echelon, lovely word, haven’t seen it in a while, than it popped up in the next cw I did (from the Indy archive). Enjoyed this, ta Jack and Andrew.

29. I’m so pleased to have completed this and parsed nearly all. Really enjoyable, thanks both. Completely missed the ninas though.

30. Surely REM sleep doesn’t ‘make dreams come’ (true or otherwise). Isn’t it rather the reverse?

31. I thought that a SHERPA is not a social climber because he/she is working.

32. Like quite a few of you, I thought “Jack = nina” towards the end (for the very first time, I have to say), with only a couple to solve. In common with most of you, it helped me with CONCERTINA, but the other one was that it confirmed 21d ended in P (which I had suspected) and led me to ESCARP. I was, as several of you were, puzzled at KISS being described as notorious (and amazed that muffin @14 hasn’t heard of them). There were a couple I couldn’t parse, so thanks to Andrew for assistance there (two parsings for SESAME? I couldn’t see one!), and to Jack.

33. Another Nina misser, but at least I completed the grid.

34. Did not finish. I always find Jack hard, and then kick myself when some clues turn out to be simple. No crosswords for the last 3 weeks camping, so maybe just rusty. Should have done some Quiptics and quick cryptics online first to ease back in!
    Liked SCANDALISE, REM SLEEP and KHOL.
    Had to reveal ECHELONS and CONCERTINA – totally fooled there.
    Didn’t even think to look for a Nina.
    Thanks Jack and Andrew and fellow bloggers

35. Didn’t find this as easy as some did: I’m still getting used to Jack. With two crossers in place, I misread the clue for 12a as “Ingenious description of galley”, confidently entered CRAFTY and didn’t find out what was wrong until much later. I like the real clue.

    Haven’t met ESCARP before, or the financial sense of EXPOSURE. PEDESTAL and ESTEEMED were nicely hidden and I liked the rat-eating EARTHLINGS (maybe they could serve them fried with ketchup, like Terry Pratchett’s dwarves do?) If “structure” isn’t doing double duty in the clue for ECHELONS, there doesn’t seem to be an anagram indicator – not that it stopped me getting the answer.

    The Ninas came in useful later on, providing the last letter of SHERPA, among others. It took a while to work out that it wasn’t one circular message but a set of anagrams: neatly done.

    In a world full of notorious bands, I don’t know why KISS should be particularly so.

36. ECHELONS
    Wanting week—->without w
    Off—->anagrind
    Doesn’t it work this way?

37. KVa@36: Thanks, so it does. I score my usual 0 out of 10 for Observation.

38. Started slowly as I usually do with Jack’s puzzles. Unfortunately, I failed to look for the NINAs but pieced it together anyway.

    Like some others the ‘read’ in 23 misled me as I thought it was just SCAN; then wondered what DALISE was, doh! I liked the wordplays for CONCERTINA and ACQUIRED and the nicely hidden PEDESTAL and ESTEEMED.

    Thanks Jack and Andrew.

39. From the Web: Kiss shocked audiences through pyrotechnic displays, fire-breathing and levitating equipment – and still do to this day. However, Kiss are also notorious for their startling lyrics, which often range from uncomfortable to downright offensive.

40. I spotted a-s-l-e-e-p shortly after solving REMSLEEP (I’m with those who think “true” is messily superfluous) and so thought there was a sleeping theme.
    But no.
    For me this was a mixture of easy and frustratingly tricksy, and I’m guessing it was largely to make the solutions fit the surrounding ninas (though I can see why setters may enjoy these self-imposed challenges).
    I thought the surface for 21D was a tad clunky, agree with Muffin that herring swim in shoals not schools, and share TheGreatArturo’s dislike about scan being wrongly thought a synonym for skim.
    On the other hand, ESTEEMED and PEDESTAL were neatly hidden, the surface for SENTRY was pleasing and ARTFUL made me grin.
    Thanks to Jack for the challenge, and Andrew for the explanations

41. Enjoyed the puzzle, although no particular favorites today.

    This would be a good time for Jack to drop in and explain the true, don’t you think?

42. Hmmm. I found lots of minor irritations here, including a homophone that does not work even a little bit (with a loose definition to boot). But that seems to be normal for me with Jack’s puzzles and in future I should probably pass. I’m glad others found this more enjoyable.

43. Isn’t SCAN to some extent a contranym? Chambers has it meaning both to examine closely and to glance over quickly

    So “quickly read” would be synonymous with at least one of its meanings. Or are we in wonderland where “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less” 🙂

44. I can’t normally do Jack’s puzzles, but I found this one quite gentle with a bit less “chopping bits up” than usual. ARTFUL, ALPINE and KOHL my favourites here. Absolutely no chance of me spotting the nina, as usual. Enjoyed this.

    [KISS were certainly notorious in the 1970s, including suffering accusations of being Nazi sympathisers despite half the band being Jewish. They are also notorious for being terrible, which is equally unfair. They are a perfectly decent hard rock outfit, but they offended the boring beardy music critics of the day by embracing pop music trappings such as make-up and commercial success.]

45. Managed to deliberately ignore Nina (and to boldly split infinitives) until I had just a few left. She told me 12a wasn’t CRAFTY, but that always feels like cheating.

46. Unlike some posters, who seem to do as many as six impossible crosswords before breakfast, I rarely attempt anything other than my daily dose from the Grauniad. So I haven’t solved many (recent) puzzles from this clever setter and therefore forgot to look for the inevitable Nina 🙁 . But I finished the puzzle without needing it.

    I was also puzzled by ‘true’, I missed the parsing for SCANDALISE (this seems to have escaped from a Paul puzzle), and I thought the surface for ESCARP uncharacteristically awkward, but there are many fine clues here.

    Favourites were ESTEEMED, PEDESTAL, ACQUIRED and KOHL (great surfaces).

    Thanks to Jack and Andrew

47. [Did anyone follow the link I put on “shoals” @14? It’s Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger singing McColl’s song Shoals of herring.]

48. For a while I had LUKE for the person of faith in 2d, justifying it by thinking our setter might be from a part of northern UK where they pronounce look (Try to find), like Luke.

    ECHELONS quashed that idea soon enough, though.

    Most enjoyable, many thanks, both.

49. What a lovely crossword.
    I think Jack is a very clever setter. Generally very smooth surfaces, with clues that require thought, but I can solve most of them – albeit with a lot of time. Probably my favourite setter.
    Today I failed on CONCERTINA (shame that I didn’t look for a nina!).
    I paused at “true” in 14a, but decided that during sleep dreams do indeed seem true, only in waking are they no longer true. Also, there are wish-fulfilment dreams.

50. Nho “scarp” or SMS text, so I prefer Crispy’s parsing @4.

    English speakers pronounce ” Sikh” as “seek,” but Hindi speakers pronounce it “sick.” It’s just
    that referring to them as sick sounds horrid in English.

    “Intrusion prevention mechanism in key address resolution protocols originally” means exactly what?

    But good puzzle overall. Thanks, Jack and Andrew.

51. Clever, and entertaining, but hard to enjoy. Maybe too clever. Throw us solvers a ******* bone occasionally, setter

    Thanks all the same

52. I wondered if the “true” in 14a came froma sophisticated spellcheck changing “makes dreams come” to “makes dreams come true”?

    [Giraldus Cambrensis @51
    Surely with over 850 years’ experience you should be an expert by now?]

53. What an excellent set of clues — thanks Jack. I liked the expertly hidden PEDESTAL and ESTEEMED as well as LUCK, REM SLEEP (despite the apparent ‘extra’ word), ACQUIRED, EARTHLINGS, and SHERPA. I always look for a Nina with Jack and I spotted what was happening early in the game. I had a few parsing deficiencies — thanks Andrew for explaining things.

54. [muffin @47, yes, I did, but I admit I did so only to confirm it was the song I suspected. I’m not a great fan of either Ewan MacColl or Peggy Seeger, though I acknowledge their important place in folk music. Slightly to my surprise, I much prefer Kirsty MacColl.]

55. Although Andrew’s parsing of 9a SMALLS works, I prefer Crispy@4’s solution. ALLS = All’s as in All’s Well That Ends Well.

    I failed on 11 CONCERTINA for two inexcusable reasons – I didn’t know the non-music meaning of the word, and I fixated on agreement being CONSENT. I did think that the answer might include INA from “derestricted final” but could get no further. Funny how the mind works (or doesn’t) to make a clue hard for one when it was easy for everyone else.

    Favourite clue was the concise 12a ARTFUL, for its witty second definition. I also liked the excellent surface of 22d SHERPA.

    Thanks Jack and Andrew for the enjoyable experience.

56. Is there a minor uk garage theme – (dj} Luck, artful (dodger), kiss (fm), (phats and) smalls? Was hoping for more!

57. [Monkey @54
    Ewan was a great song writer, I think, but I don’t think I would have liked him much. Kirsty was his daughter, but not Peggy’s. He wrote the very famous “the first time ever I saw your face” about Peggy.]

58. [Thanks Robi@39 for enlightening me about KISS’s notoriety. Sorry everyone for wasting so much space on the Hitchcock film Notorious. Kiss was very popular in Australia, but I confess I’ve never listened to their lyrics. More into folk music, like muffin.]

59. Monkey @54, muffin @57. Unfortunately, Peggy Seeger singing ‘The first time …’ is – at least for me – a bit excruciating, although it may be what Ewan intended. On the other hand, if you don’t know it, here is the late lamented Kirsty at her finest:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwW7Y7FTZNE

60. [Listen to Roberta Flack, or even better, June Tabor singing it.

61. Ricardo@56. I don’t get the UK garage thing.
    Another dodgy artful mini theme could be KISS who SCANDALISE(d) , REM, CONCERT(ina), SEEK(ers), SMALL(s Faces)
    Then we have the heights in ALPINE, SHERPA, (est)RANGE, ESCARP(ment) where you can die of EXPOSURE.

    But maybe it’s that Jack is REM SLEEP deprived. He seems to be crying out ASLEEP PLEASE in the top and bottom ninas.
    Good LUCK , Jack, hope you find what you SEEK .

62. Finally caught up with this week’s crosswords! My Tuesday paper became unusable after my water bottle leaked, and didn’t dry out until Thursday. Too many distractions to finish any of them in time to comment here, and in fact I gave up on this with 11a incomplete. Then I saw the mention of the Nina in the preamble above (thanks Andrew!), which enabled me to write CONCERTINA in, but it’s a bit like the marathon runner being helped across the line – it has to be a dnf for me. 🥺

    Thanks to Jack and Andrew

63. Jack is relatively new to me but I enjoyed this a lot, even more impressed once the nina anagrams were revealed above.
    ESCARP was new (unlike escarpment);
    REM SLEEP didn’t need the “true”, but otherwise there was plenty to admire with PEDESTAL my favourite: cleverly hidden in plain sight.
    Thanks to Jack and Andrew

64. 10a was the limit of my success.

65. Bodycheetah @43: that’s my point. If your boss asked you to scan a report, would you read it thoroughly or just flick through it? Dictionaries should reflect usage, but if the usage is wrong, and leads to a confusion of meaning, it should be stamped out – now!

66. Tga@65 one of the fundamental building blocks of cryptic crosswords is that words can have multiple meanings. If we followed your approach each word would have one and only one meaning. So what happens to “cleave”? In your example, if it wasn’t clear from the context you might have to ask

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