Guardian Cryptic 29492 Paul

86 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29492 Paul”

1. Just as tough and superb as yesterday’s Vlad. I managed to get VENICE reasonably early and then started to think of all its landmarks, leading to the familiar DOGES PALACE and BRIDGE OF SIGHS. However I needed the PRIVY SEAL (funny) to solve VAPORETTI from the wordplay. I thought there might be a wee footy theme as well with PALACE, BRIDGE, ARSENALE and BIG GAME (Roz even KPR, the (H)OOPS made an appearance). Favourites were ABSOLUTISM, ESURIENT, EGO TRIPPER, DETONATOR, SPORRAN but the standout has to be the brilliant SMILEY 😃.

   Ta Paul & scchua for the colourful blog.

2. I had the same parsing for LEGAL, scchua and I agree, ‘Lists’ seemed like an error in DETONATOR.

3. While I’m sure your parsing of 1d is correct, “class actor” made me immediately think of an actor playing a famous schoolteacher role and To Sir With Love.

4. Put in Eddie CANTOR for 11a “20’s singer of biblical teachings?” and felt very smug.

5. That felt like Paul auditioning for the FT World Puzzle. Fun but chewy.

   (If anyone wants an accessible Paul, there’s a gentle Mudd in the FT this week).

   Thank you to scchua and Paul.

6. Ah! ‘Ace’ and ‘Dog’.
   I was looking at the friends of wizards.
   Ron or Hermione. Bilbo or Aragorn. Arthur, even Nimue…
   It took me a long time and then I got to Elphias Doge. Needed the three crossing letters in the five-letter word.
   It all fell into place once I had the European city. But if I hadn’t remembered an obscure friend of Dumbledore I would still be staring at a half empty grid.
   Liked the challenge. But thought that the general knowledge required to crack it open was quite hard to find, if you haven’t read those children’s books.
   Frankly, Elphias Doge seemed more like a Mastermind answer on the specialist subject of Harry Potter, rather than an obvious piece of popular culture like James Bond, Superman or Hermione Granger.
   Should have known I had correctly solved the wrong clue.

7. Jusigator @3: I agree that class plays two roles in the definition. 👏

8. Got the theme word VENICE via 12ac ARSENALE. After that the theme word answers were easily solved even if I could not parse them immediately.

   I gave up on 9ac PING (not familiar with ping = email) and 26ac SMILEY mainly because I had entered an unparsed VAPORETTO for 14d but now I see that VAPORETTI works very well.

   I could not parse 17ac; 2d apart from LEG= supporter.

   I did not enjoy the mention of big game hunting – it is such a terrible activity practised by horrible people.

   Thanks, both.

9. Thanks (as ever) to scchua for the illustrated blog but (and I can only speak for myself) I always feel a little short-changed when the blogger does not give a brief personal assessment of the crossword. He/she is, after all, given the task of solving and parsing, the rest of us are just doing it for the fun of it, so a blogger’s overview is always more than welcome, Just saying …….

10. Liked VENICE, BRIDGE OF SIGHS, DOGE’S PALACE, EGO TRIPPER (a brilliant surface), ASPARAGUS TIPS and more.

    LEGAL
    Parsed it as the blogger but I am not sure if the ‘takes’ is accounted for in this parse.

    Thanks Paul and scchua!

11. Vannucci @9 – I’ve also had feedback that the blogger describing a puzzle as easy when the solver finds it a slog is unhelpful – so we can’t win.

12. Maybe I just got out of bed on the wrong side but I found this a bit tedious. In marked contrast to Vlad’s masterpiece yesterday the difficulty here stemmed from the GK and some fairly dubious definitions for the themers – I had assumed I was missing something but evidently not.

    Top ticks for ASPARAGUS TIPS, BRIDGE OF SIGHS & EGO TRIPPER

    Cheers P&S

13. michelle @8 I think the “ping” refers to the sending rather than the EMAIL itself so the definition is EMAIL as a verb rather than a noun

14. I also found this very hard, but I’m here because I got up very early (for me) and it still took two hours and a lot of pressing the check button. I felt that several clues did not give the meaning of the required answer, and I got many of them simply by the crossers.
    So thank you scchua for the parsing and lovely photos. I’ve been to Venice three times, initially in 1964 as a teenager, and most recently with my husband in2019 when we realised he had never been. It is still lovely, but the huge cruise ships are terrible.
    Thanks Paul for the endless trickery.

15. Like Michelle, I got to Venice via the Arsenale and like others I don’t have a parsing for “leg et al” beyond the supporter.

    I toyed with “spider” for the icon of fictional intelligence, thinking of Charlotte’s Web and the spider who created words in their web. It didn’t quite fit but it reminded me that the author, E.B. White, not only also wrote Stuart Little but also was the White of “Strunk and White” (“The Elements of Style”) which many here will be familiar with.

    Good fun if frustrating until the key word fell. Thanks to Paul and Scchua must’ve been rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of the lovely images the puzzle would inspire.

16. This one required a second cup of coffee to solve, but I enjoyed it. My jorum today was ESURIENT, I knew it had to contain RIEN and SUET, but hadn’t come across the word before. As usual with Paul there were a number of groan moments…BRIDGE OF SIGHS and PRIVY SEAL. I thought the reverse clue in ASPARAGUS TIPS was brilliant, and liked EGO TRIPPER too.

    Thanks, Paul, for an entertaining puzzle (I’d missed him in the daily cryptic slot…nearly a month, I think) and to scchua for the well-illustrated blog.

17. Re 15.
    Eton can be regarded as a ‘Finishing school’. – where the elite go to complete their education.

18. By absolute chance, there is an article in today’s Times newspaper about the new trend in the UK to sell beer in two thirds of a pint glasses – as a “healthier alternative” so I think 2d is LEG + ALe.

19. I’m with you bodycheetah @12. Paul today reminded me that it’s the similar David Astle in the SMH (Sydney Morning Herald) tomorrow. Since when is 20’s (4a/16d, 11a, 12a, 23d/1a) a decent definition for anything? 14d is fine as at least we’re told it’s transport. No idea about LEGAL either.

20. Very nice indeed 😊
    Thanks Paul for the customary wit and invention, & scchua for the illustrated grand tour, one for the day-TRIPPER.
    Also liked the two GOATs, the gaoled criminal and the allusion to Animal Farm in ESURIENT, leaving me hungry for more.

21. Good puzzle, much easier than yesterday’s for me. Favourites among others were ASPARAGUS TIPS (unparsed until I came here), LEGAL (I thought AL for two-thirds of ‘all’ was clever), SPORRAN (although I’m Scottish I’ve never worn one – nor, indeed, a kilt).
    ESURIENT is a word I’ve met only in crosswords, or the Python Cheese Shop sketch.
    Thanks Paul and scchua.

22. Don’t know which I even bothered. I spent ages falling to get VENICE. Since when is very nice exquisite? I really dislike Paul’s crosswords and have only once completed one. Waste of time.
    ..

23. Alastair @22 – because it’s fun stretching my brain,
    because the neural links keep developing happens when I add geography to word puzzles,
    because learning new things may be a way to stave off dementia

24. Agreed michelle@8, but I persuaded myself to think of shooting with my camera.
    Just a shame Paul couldn’t have worked in pong, for Venice’s famed aroma, in place of PING.
    Thanks both. I definitely needed the blog today to expkain how I’d got to the solutions.

25. Took ages to get “Venice” then lots of thing fell into place. Figured out Doges Palace just from crossers but could not really parse it.

26. Just as hard as Vlad yesterday. AL for 2/3 of ALL comes into cellomaniac’s third category of clues: too clever by half (sour grapes because I didn’t get it). Actually I didn’t enjoy this one very much: VENICE was a bit of a themo collapso once it was clear what it was. I didn’t spot VE(RY)NICE – in fact for a long time I thought the city might be London since I was busy trying to see if I could subtract RY from Londonderry. I finally got VENICE from DOGES PALACE (which sneakily has the same enumeration as HARRY POTTER, to misdirect the unwary).

    Took a disgracefully long time to get ETON, liked PRIVY SEAL, OLD AGE (neat surface) and of course SMILEY, but many of the others seemed laboriously clued and vaguely defined (EPSILON, for instance). Probably just me having an off day.

27. I found this considerably trickier than yesterday’s Vlad, not helped by most of the Venetian things not having proper definitions. My way in was from DOGES PALACE, but that took an age to grind out. For a long time I just had unconnected solutions dotted round the grid, one of which was ESURIENT, as it happens (it helps if the words are familiar – and this is a beautiful one).

    ASPARAGUS TIPS is clever, and I liked the linked clues for BIG GAME and BRIDGE OF SIGHS (at last Paul crafts a real homophone!).

    But give me Vlad any day.

    Thanks to S&B

28. gladys @26: Snap!

29. Never heard of ripper being good. 20d exquisite very nice? I didn’t enjoy this at all. I didn’t feel any ahhh when I revealed. Just ugh. I think the theme didn’t appeal to me. But I can see it was artful.

30. Second toughie in a row for me. My 20 minute egg timer soon ran out with little achieved, Roz, and coming back after a considerable pause made little difference, another DNF, sadly. Though I did find my way to the key word VENICE not by the Grand Canal, but through the sneaky backwaters of solving OLD AGE and GOAT and realizing with the D and G crossers in place for 1, 23 the solution could only be DOGES PALACE.
    I also imagined that 2d should be Legit rather than LEGAL, as I was trying to use two of the letters, the i and the t, from “thirds”.
    Had fun along the way, however, as far as I got, with today’s Paul offering…

31. I’m with NeilW @ 18 re LEGAL. I hadn’t seen the piece in The Times, but two-thirds of a pint of ale was what immediately occurred to me.

32. beaulieu@21, Rog@31 or NeilW@18: Ingenious suggestions but can you please let me know which part of the clue for 2d indicates “all” or “ale”? For the ale-lovers, would “half” on its own be enough to clue be[er] or [be]er? I’d give either a very hard stare and beer in pints or half-pints is much, much more common than two-thirds of a pint.

33. I didn’t enjoy this for the same reasons as @26 and 28. Shanne @23, all good points, but if it a crossword is frustrating and impenetrable then it won’t have many of those positive outcomes. I got to the end of this and wished I hadn’t bothered too!!

34. I did somewhat better than yesterday’s complete fail, but it was a curate’s egg for me. I generally struggle with getting on Paul’s wavelength, and I’m no fan of themes (a good crossword for me is lots of little puzzles, not one big one followed by half a dozen write-ins).

    However, I did enjoy many of the non-theme clues, in particular 13A, 17A when I finally parsed it, 21A, 26A, and 3D. And I was pleased to twig to “butter” in 25A, which I keep in the same pocket as “lower” for COW.

    And the surface for 24A is absolutely brilliant IMO.

35. Lovely illustrated blog. Thank you, sacchua. I love Paul’s crosswords but find them really difficult to get into but Mr PB and I managed this after he got Venice.

36. I’m in awe of bloggers who actually solve cryptics and provide the answers with interest.Its going to take me light years to negotiate around cryptics of this calibre🥹

37. Thanks both,

    I got nowhere with Vlad yesterday. This was quite hard but much more fun. I had a couple of errors – POINTER for 1d and OTELLO for 11a, which I was quite pleased with even if some of the parsing escaped me. It is set in Venice and has OT at the beginning and it’s sung.

    Alto’s are large(ly) ladies these days.

38. Got six words last night with no access to the check button. Slogged through the rest this morning. I’ve enjoyed other Pauls, but not this one.

    I agree that “very nice” does not equal “exquisite,” and I’ve never heard of a ripper meaning beauty.

    Thanks, Paul and scchua.

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    After that experience you may not know who to trust so best read Beyond Enkription, the first novel in The Burlington Files series. It’s a noir fact based spy thriller that may shock you. What is interesting is that this book is apparently mandatory reading in some countries’ intelligence agencies’ induction programs. Why? Maybe because the book is not only realistic but has been heralded by those who should know as “being up there with My Silent War by Kim Philby and No Other Choice by George Blake”. It is an enthralling read as long as you don’t expect fictional agents like Ian Fleming’s incredible 007 to save the world or John le Carré’s couch potato yet illustrious Smiley to send you to sleep with his delicate diction, sophisticated syntax and placid plots!

40. I understand the criticism of Paul’s puzzles by some commenters above, but all setters test us in different ways. I found this one very hard but got there in the end, with some LOL moments including BRIDGE OF SIGHS and DOGE’S PALACE. Paul has his own kind of convoluted brilliance (interwoven with his lavatory humour), and as I see it, it’s all part of the rich tapestry of Guardian cryptics. Thanks to him, and to scchua!

41. Isn’t any kind of game a “shooting target”? For me this spoiled the otherwise wonderful football misdirection of the BIG GAME surface. Maybe the question-mark provides the latitude.

    The blog seems to suggest VAPORETTI is a single boat, but it looks plural to me. The word “transport” in the clue allows for either, so the clue is fine.

    I didn’t think it was great to use “email” to define PING. A ping could be an email, and I’m sure that’s the only way some people use it, but its general computer network -related meaning is a signal sent to a remote site to see if the network and said site is up, and what the latency is. At least in the original network sense, the respose was generated automatically. Maybe we needed a DBE indicator.

    Sorry to be appearing grumpy – I quite enjoyed the puzzle despite the initial intimidation.

42. Can someone please enlighten me as to how “20’s” qualifies as a definition?

43. Yep the Ace of Spies was pretty cool.

44. I’m glad so many enjoyed this one but for me it was a non-starter and much harder than Vlad yesterday. Of the handful of clues I managed 20d was not one of them so the obvious landmarks remained a foggy mystery. I never get far with Paul and too often find the helpful parsing on this site still leaves me thinking “yeah but would I ever have seen that”. Maybe in a few years time I’ll have enough experience to get on Paul’s wavelength but for now it is a depressing experience picking up one of his undoubtedly popular puzzles.

45. Arjay@42 I think it works in two ways. 20’s equates to Venice’s equates to (thing) belonging to Venice. Alternatively, just as one might say ‘London is Trafalgar Square’ to mean that Trafalgar Square embodies the spirit of London, might one not say ‘Venice is the Doge’s Palace’?

46. And while I’m here, ‘esurient’ has given me an earworm. Singers of classical music quite often sing ‘Esurientes implevit bonis’ meaning ‘he has filled the hungry with good things’.

47. The spread of these comments surely just demonstrates perfectly the existence of ‘setter/solver wavelength’, some insisting it was harder than yesterday’s Vlad, others that it was easier. I’m much more on Paul’s wavelength than Vlad’s, and (consequently?) am a big fan. I know the surfaces can clunk a bit but his special humour and incredible ingenuity make him my favourite setter. And thoroughly deserving of the epic illustrated blog by the Tintoretto of 15sq, scchua!

48. Tyngewick – that’s from the Magnificat, which has a lot of settings as it’s part of Evensong, plus appears in some Communion services. It continues “and the rich he has sent empty away”.

    Arjay and various others – that trick of solving the place and clues around it is the way a monthly crossword in the FT works – appearing on a Sunday as the World Puzzle. I sometimes find it an exercise in how little I know about somewhere, which was why my sarky comment about auditioning for the World Puzzle.

    If you’re finding Paul particularly challenging here, he sets as Mudd in the FT, and his puzzle this week 17844, was a lot more accessible. That link opens the printable page, but you can find it to solve online.

49. I found this too hard, like yesterday’s. I may have missed a comment, but surely the Right supporter in 2D is alt-right?

50. Re Tyngewick #45, if that is the qualification I think it is unconvincing, Edinburgh is not the Scott Memorial.

51. Jack of Few Trades @32: my thinking was along the lines you suggest. I would say that ‘a half’ when said in a pub might be short for ‘a half of bitter’ and therefore might give you ‘bit,’ ‘two-thirds’ when said in a pub might be short for ‘two-thirds of ale’. I agree that it’s a stretch, but when I solved it that was how my instinctive reasoning went. It’s entirely possible that it’s not what Paul was thinking at all/ale though!

52. Can appreciate the comment by Adrian @47. I was far more on Vlad’s wavelength yesterday. I enjoyed what I was able to do of today’s, but while I got VENICE then a number of linked clues were beyond my ken (and parsing). Fun, but less satisying due to several reveals.

53. I thought this was easier than yesterday. But, the GK was a good area for me (due to numerous Italian interrail excursions). I thought the clue for 14d rather gave away VENICE (as it basically re-clued 20d as “think of a city with remarkable modes of transport”). I particularly enjoyed the BIG GAME / BRIDGE OF SIGHS pair and the Rufusian SMILEY. I don’t really understand LEGAL or ASPARAGUS TIPS. All in all a good week of puzzles with welcome variety in both style and difficulty.

54. [Rog@51: As my father would say “What’s a half?”… :)]

    Mandarin@53: I don’t think anyone has adequately explained LEGAL so I would not worry about that. ASPARAGUS TIPS is one of a breed of clue which seems to come up in the Guardian every other week or so, where you have to solve the clue and work backwards in a sense. Imagine you saw the words “asparagus tips” in a clue….you would probably think of the letters “AS” as part of the answer. Here those words are in the answer and “AS” is in the clue. Annoying when overdone, but as an occasional trick I like it because it at least conforms to my informal rule which is that I should be sure an answer is right once I see it.

55. Adrian@47 I used to believe in the wavelength thing, but then I did some experiments. After finishing the cryptic I did some other puzzles, including cryptics and non-crosswords. On days I thought I was on the setter’s wavelength I breezed through the other puzzles; on days I thought I wasn’t, I had trouble with the others too. Draw your own conclusions, but tennis great Arthur Ashe’s being “in the zone” comes to mind.

56. Thanks for the blog , I get annoyed when the first two Across clues refer to others but it was not too bad overall, most clues were stand alone.
    LEGAL , my view is the “takes two thirds” implies 2/3 of the whole or everything or AL(l) . When we use fractions there is an implied complete whole .

    AlanC @ 1 , are KPR really known as the Hoops ? I suspect you are testing my gullibility . If not, I apologise and I never knew that Oscar Wilde was a KPR fan .

57. Nobody seems to agree with me about LEGAL: al is 2/3 of alt, and alt-right is also the supporter.

58. Finally broke through to the 20s, after a fear that the blank spaces of yesterday’s Vlad would be repeated today. This one gave us many more laughs along the way. When we sorted out the Vlad gaps on 225, we felt much better, seeing that it was our UK GK that failed us at some crucial spots.

    It’s interesting to see so many different opionions on these puzzles. Experience sure helps, and so does familiarity with a setter. GK varies among us solvers, of course, as does anagram-skill (at both spotting and at solving) — and having two of us looking at it is also a gigantic help.

59. Xerxes@57 I suppose we will never know unless the setter explains . Alt -right is a nice idea but I think we lose the LEG .

60. Way too hard for me, I solved only a smattering. I was very interested to hear that some found it easier than yesterday’s, which I was close to finishing.

61. Roz @56: the Supa Hoops actually but we don’t sing as loudly as we did a few years ago. Love the OW reference but I won’t be enticed.

    As an aside, after reading all the later comments I’m staggered that people still criticise Paul. He is a gift to our generation of solvers, but crack on…

62. Since I have never been to Venice and was unfamiliar with its’ landmarks I had to Google them. Otherwise, I found the puzzle very enjoyable and, when it was over, I was happy to have learned some new things. Thanks Paul!

63. AlanC I suppose it is slightly better than The Reds or The Clarets , you could come up with something new – The Peregrine Falcons , The Humpback Whales , The Spendolini-Sirieix’s.

    I think I have just become bored with Paul , I have probably done every single puzzle he has ever set for the Guardian so I am never surprised .

64. If you get the theme clue – 20d VENICE in this case – you can do this puzzle. If, like me, you don’t, then you haven’t a hope. If the related clues – all the “20’s” clues – were gettable without knowing that you were looking for Venetian landmarks, then you might be able to back-solve 20d. They weren’t, so I hadn’t a hope.

    Like Arjay@42and50, I don’t think that “20’s” adequately defines a Venetian landmark or tourist attraction.

    Paul’s combination of themes and multiple cross-referenced clues make his puzzles “all or nothing” (“all or two-thirds”?) propositions. I think the comments here reflect that – there is no middle ground.

    At least I was able to enjoy scchua’s colourful and educational blog, and I am happy that many of us enjoyed this puzzle. I look forward to tomorrow’s challenge.

65. Kirsty @29 and Valentine @35
    A piece of antique British slang: ripping was a general highly commentatory adjective (slightly more recently, Ripping Yarns was a TV series created by Michael Palin and Terry Jones), and ripper the corresponding noun.

66. @55 Dr WhatsOn understood, that’s really interesting and I can relate to it, it’s personal voltage – which goes up and down – as well as wavelength. Confidence must come into it; the better you’re doing the more switched on you become, like in music and sport.

67. On another topic, why is this blog so quiet at night?! I think it’s a shame the traffic peaks in the morning, necessarily highlighting the quick solvers. They are inspirational but we slower solvers who need a few looks throughout the day and like to finish it at night shouldn’t be put off, I think evening traffic should be encouraged, and might have a smokier, more reflective flavour!

68. Adrian @68 – late enough for you?
    13a calls to mind the observation variously attributed to Edward Heath and Ernest Bevin that the peculiarly named Minister the Lord Privy Seal is “neither a lord, nor a privy, nor a seal”. Reliably enough, Paul gives us a nod to the second of those, anyway.
    Enjoyable puzzle, which I personally found a bit easier than yesterday’s Vlad, but chacon a son gout. And thank you also scchua for the customarily thorough blog.

69. NeilH@68 – 100% 👏🌓

70. Adrian @67 – it also skews towards those who solve online. By the time I’ve got my hard copy the blog is in full cry.I read the blog late at night, after, mostly, completion, so please keep providing a smokier flavour.

71. Thoroughly enjoyed it and a damn sight easier than yesterday’s!

72. Agreed, Adrian. For myself, I’ve no crossword routine – it can be any time from midnight (at publication) through to following midnight, or later…
    Knowing, after a quick look, that this could be one of Paul’s chewier puzzles, as one might expect if it comes out on a Thursday, I decided to settle down and enjoy it with Newsnight in the background and before the cricket highlights….
    Just perfect
    Another great Paul ….. Though I remain unconvinced by suggestion(s) for LEGAL’s parsing, which still has me scratching my head….
    And I remain in awe of sschua’s scintillating bloggery!
    Bless you all!

73. Another Paul fan here, but always interested to hear the comments from both sides of the divide. Like others I’d been working through 6-letter European cities for 20, but then solved VAPORETTI from the wordplay so it had to be VENICE. That in, I had no problem with the ‘not otherwise defined’ aspect of the themesters, given they are all in the very-shortlist of Venice attractions. 7d I parsed as ELON (Mr Musk, a ‘suspect one’ if ever there was) around PSI, with “fifth in total – here?” alluding to epsilon being the fifth letter in the Greek alphabet. I can see your parsing, not mine, is correct but I still quite like it!

74. MattS @73 – Certainly any basis for being mildly rude about Mr Musk should be explored.

75. My crossword routine is to do it with a cuppa before getting up properly (the joys of being retired). And because my paper does not usually arrive until after I want to start, I am one day behind as a rule.

    So I have stopped commenting. Maybe I should start again if the late night brigade are going to be there!

76. Used to think Paul was the new araucaria, but nowadays I hesitate before diving in. I find his parsing too tedious and it overwhelms his genuinely clever and often amusing clues. His love of innuendo grates too.

77. Paul has several different styles, and I enjoy some of them but not others. Today’s, heavily themed and cross-referenced with some laboured parsing, wasn’t a favourite. On another day he will be the witty setter I used to like.

78. I agree with AlanD, though I am not very advanced as a cryptics crossword solver. Many clues are extremely laboured – almost addressing an in crowd.

79. So we still don’t know what Paul was thinking on LEGAL. Very frustrating.

80. @Eric I totally agree: please PLEASE explain Legal

81. If cryptics are all about mind-reading then it’s an absolute waste of time.

82. Just going to dip a timid toe into the waters of the “too hard… no fun” debate.
    I nearly always get a 100% result for all setters. I don’t claim superior solving skills as a reason for this, simply that I don’t set myself any time limit. (I am in awe of @30 ronald’s 20-minute egg timer.) I do what I can when first I open the crossword, then continue when on the bus to work or otherwise unoccupied. I don’t do the weekend puzzles so have an extra two days if needed to catch up on the Monday-to-Fridays. If there’s anything I can’t answer, or have to guess without parsing, I come here for enlightenment. And I can honestly say that if I’m defeated by a clever clue, my feeling is admiration for the setter (and blogger) rather than annoyance. Of course there are sometimes (arguably) unfair and ungettable clues or parts of clues – today’s “al” maybe? – but in my opinion very, very rarely.
    I guess all I’m trying to say is that there are some brilliant ideas in crosswords, and the brilliance can be seen as independent of the difficulty. Appreciation of this need not be linked to “success”.

83. Interesting to read the comments here, posting the next day. I absolutely loved this, whereas found the vlad way too hard to be fun. So I guess ymmv! I did find the “20’s” definition a touch vague but forgivably so for many excellent clues.

84. Is there (or is there going to be) a blog for Friday’s Pangapu crossword. There are a couple of parsings I am stuck on.

85. @David, thanks for your comment. I agree, brilliant need not be “solved by me”. But a great clue may or may not defeat you, but leaves you awestruck, laughing or saying Aha!!
    Of course many clues are culture specific, and I accept them as inevitable. But sometimes the clues I am talking about leave me sore and irritated, because the line of “reasoning” is so tenuous. Thanks

86. @David, thanks for your comment. I agree, brilliant need not be “solved by me”. But a great clue may or may not defeat you, but leaves you awestruck, laughing or saying Aha!!
    Of course many clues are culture specific, and I accept them as inevitable. But sometimes …

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