Guardian 29,493 – Pangakupu

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An enjoyable puzzle that I found mostly straightforward, though there are a couple of clues that I can’t parse to my satisfaction: please enlighten me. Thanks to Pangakupu.

Looking for the traditional Māori Nina, I can see PARAMU (plum) in column 5, but that’s as far as it goes.
Across
1 SHRIMP Quiet power across border seen in diminutive figure (6)
RIM (border) in SH + P[ower]
4 FLYOVER Surreptitious deliveries in stretch of road (7)
FLY + OVER (deliveries in cricket)
9 ORDINANCE Soldiers make organised moves to suppress one new regulation (9)
OR (soldiers – other ranks) + I N in DANCE (make organised moves)
10 CURIA Copper and different element brought back for court (5)
CU (copper) + reverse of AIR (one of the four classical elements)
11 ATRIA Entrances a court case short of conclusion (5)
A TRIA[L]
12 DOGMATISM Variation of stigma seen in Dominican belief (9)
STIGMA* in DOM (title of a Dominican friar)
13 HAYWIRE Crazy way to go wrong in employment (7)
WAY* in HIRE
15 THESIS Article is about singular position (6)
S[ingular] in THE (article) IS
17 HANGAR Large vehicle storage – expression of annoyance with area reduced by 50% (6)
HANG (expression of annoyance, as in “hang it all”) + half of Area
19 VIOLENT Intense rage about spillage of oil (7)
OIL* in VENT
22 BALTIMORE Style of Indian cooking increasingly seen in US city (9)
BALTI + MORE
24 GO FOR Be keen on Sally after forgetting Thursday (2,3)
GO FORTH (to sally) less TH
26 TENET Nolan film, complex mesh reversing at midpoint? (5)
I think this is two NETs back to back, with the Ns overlapping, but I’m not sure exactly how the wordplay works; it gives this film, which I had not heard of
27 AU NATUREL A rule at sea about swimming tuna not covered in Marseilles? (2,7)
TUNA* in (A RULE)* – Au naturel is a French expression for being naked
28 DISH OUT Pass round and round after I’d returned (4,3)
Reverse of I’D + SHOUT (a round in a pub, as in “it’s my shout”)
29 ESCORT Key harbour rejecting first convoy (6)
ESC (computer key) + [p]ORT
Down
1 STOMACH Bear source of sound to specialist in sound? (7)
S[ound] + TO + MACH (Ernst Mach, Austrian physicist who gave his name to the Mach Number for measuring supersonic speeds)
2 RIDER Indication to stop taxmen overturning amendment to contract (5)
Reverse of RED (signal to stop) + IR (Inland Revenue, former name of the UK’s tax collectors)
3 MAN‑EATING Ferocious Scotsman’s one engaged in copulation (3-6)
ANE (Scots version of “one”) in MATING
4 FREIGHT Odd-looking person carrying drug goods on board (7)
E (drug) in FRIGHT (“you look a fright”)
5 YUCCA Why you texted about sequestering carbon in exotic plant (5)
C[arbon] in Y U (“why you”) + CA (about)
6 VERMICIDE Animal poison, absolutely not unknown, Medici misused (9)
VER[y] + MEDICI*
7 REALMS Monarchs’ responsibilities regarding charity (6)
RE ALMS
8 ON EDGE Apprehensive magistrate overlooking nothing after lunchtime? (2,4)
ONE (lunchtime) + DOGE less O
14 YEARLINGS What may be used to race grey snail possibly (9)
(GREY SNAIL)*
16 ELONGATES Makes more extensive alternative to Bill Musk? (9)
A mash-up of billionaires Bill Gates and Elon Musk
18 RIOT ACT Measure for crowd control – delicate approach in Brazilian city (4,3)
RIO TACT
19 VIENNA European city: Volume One’s encouragement to go initially ignored (6)
V I + [s]ENNA (laxative, “encouragement to go”)
20 TARTLET Item served in café? Sharp service to be repeated (7)
TART (sharp) + LET (in tennis, a service that has to be repeated)
21 ABATED Reduced rate accepted by a newspaperman (6)
Presumably this is BAT in A ED[itor]. “Rate” can mean scold, reprove: can BAT also mean this?
23 INTRO I note apprentice dismissing second basic guide? (5)
I + N + T[y]RO
25 FARGO Passable attempt to exclude independent Coen brothers’ film (5)
FAIR GO (a passable attempt) less I, giving a film that I have heard of, though not seen

73 comments on “Guardian 29,493 – Pangakupu”

  1. Generally very good and a bit of light relief after The last couple of days. Nothing really outstanding but ticks for ON EDGE, BALTIMORE & TENET

    Cheers P&A

  3. Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew
    I had several question marks alongside my answers, though it wasn’t too difficult to fill the grid. I was puzzled by the BAT in 21 too. “Item served in cafe” is a very vague definition for TARTLET. I know that I’m always complaining about “ins”, but surely the “in” in 18d is wrong?
    I liked the construction for VERMICIDE, even if the surface was a bit weird!

  4. I parsed TENET the same way, and also wondered about BAT in ABATED, but rate as a slang meaning of bat is in Chambers when I looked.

    Fun puzzle, thank you Andrew and Pangakupu.

  5. muffin @3: “surely the “in” in 18d is wrong” I really don’t see how. The Boston Marathon is a marathon in Boston, so tact in Rio is RIO TACT.

  8. Thank you Andrew. I was puzzled by bat in ABATED. I found bat=rate on Onelook/Wiktionary:
    (informal) Rate of motion; speed.
    1842, Sporting Magazine, page 251:
    On starting, The Nun led at a very slow pace for a quarter of a mile, when the Shrigley colt made running at a good bat.
    1898, unknown author, Pall Mall Magazine:
    a vast host of fowl […] making at full bat for the North Sea.

    I was going to say no doubt it’s in Chambers. Tim C@7 has confirmed that it is.

  10. I thought “batting along without care in the world” – usually of a motorcyclist overtaking dangerously. Occasionally we’ve encountered them again, a few miles later, in a bloody heap.

  11. I think the large in HANGAR refers to the storage rather than the vehicle.
    BALTIMORE was a nice spot and GO FOR was nicely done. I also enjoyed REALMS and Bill Musk and ELON GATES was genius.
    I parsed RIOT ACT as you and others above.
    If you haven’t seen FARGO (both the original film and the series) do yourself a favour Andrew and try to find it to watch.

  12. The only slight quibble for me with this puzzle might be over YEARLINGS
    – racehorses don’t race till they become two year olds, so maybe the word “eventually” ought to be part of the wording. Found this fairly straightforward, though several I couldn’t parse, including INTRO and TENET. Didn’t know FARGO the film, only the old Western series on TV, Wells Fargo…

  13. ELONGATES is doing the rounds. Boatman and Philistine have also clued it. Musk and Gates are descending into ignominy, so maybe we’ll see the last of them.

    Liked the clue for YUCCA, and that I knew it!, and that Pangakupu used the texted indicator, which other setters seemed to have dropped lately. Not much of a social media user myself, but these abbreviations (dare I say it, homophones? ) are now becoming normalised.

    MAN-EATING fav.

  14. Balfour and Crispy @5 and 6
    I suppose so, though the Boston Marathon is rather more concrete a concept than Rio tact!

  15. Bat/Rate sounds like it comes from cricket or baseball to me – “he/she scored at a fair bat/rate”. I’ve not seen Tenet, but I’m told it is based on words in the Sator magic square

  16. paddymelon @13: I loathe Microsoft software with the best of them (I remember WordPerfect, a vastly superior word processor, being effectively killed off in the 1990s by Word’s massive advertising budget) but to do him justice Bill Gates does appear to have attempted to do some good with his obscene wealth.
    Elon Musk, on the other hand…
    (And don’t even mention Jeff Bezos).
    Enjoyable puzzle, more gettable (IMO) than the last two offerings; even the ones I couldn’t parse had pretty clear answers. Thanks, P and A.

  18. 21d ABATED: Oed.com has ‘bat, n.² … III. A stroke. … III.15. 1824– dialect and slang. Beat, rate of stroke or speed, pace; in Scottish dialect rate, manner, style.’
    Latest citation: ‘1961 We turned on to the main..road and started going a hell of a bat across the Cotswolds. ‘J. Welcome’, Beware of Midnight ii. 20′

  19. Less taxing on the little grey cells than recent offerings, but enjoyable enough.

    I was also uncertain quite how TENET works. ELON/GATES is such a fortuitous juxtaposition that many setters have hit upon it, to the extent that it has developed a chestnut flavour, as paddymelon @13 notes.

    Particular favourites were BALTIMORE and RIOT ACT (unlike muffin I’m quite happy with the use of ‘in’ either as a linker or a locator, as here), though I expect it isn’t the first time this construction has been used.

    Thanks to S&B

  20. Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew!
    Lovely puzzle. Neat blog.

    COTD: ELONGATES (for the ‘alternative GATES-ELON’).
    Liked GO FOR, ON EDGE, RIOT ACT, INTRO and VIENNA.

  21. Steady solve with big ticks for BALTIMORE, RIOT ACT, AU NATUREL and VERMICIDE. Agree with Tim C that FARGO is a must see, the spin-off series is also a good watch. DuncT @ 9: Andrew pointed out PARAMU in his preamble.

    Ta Pangakupu & Andrew.

  23. Favourite: SHRIMP

    New for me: FLY = surreptitious (for 4ac); VERMICIDE; Mach, Ernst = specialist in sound

    I did not parse:
    2d
    3d – never heard that ANE = one in Scotland
    19d apart from V I = volume one. Never heard that SENNA is a laxative!

    21d I wondered why does BAT = rate…

    Thanks, both.

  24. TENET was a write-in, but I wondered about ‘complex’ in the clue. It doesn’t appear to be necessary.

    Didn’t know that meaning of BAT, but assumed it must be in some dictionary somewhere.

  26. 8d ONE D[o]GE – Nice to see the Doge reappearing from Paul’s Palace yesterday.
    And speaking of chestnuts, 18d RIO TACT is a real old one, but they’re always new for somebody. [No, Google, I didn’t mean: “riot act” “riotact“.]
    Agree with AlanC on both Fargos. I liked Tenet, too – a very “complex” film.

  28. FrankieG @26: Thanks for confirming my suspicion that RIO TACT is an old favourite. ELON GATES is different in that it is relatively recent, and it has appeared several times in quick succession, like buses.

    And I’ll add my commendation for Fargo – the movie, particularly

  29. I really liked ELONGATES, VERMICIDE, and AU NATUREL. VIENNA made me smile and RIOT ACT was my COTD and was new to me… Thanks to Pangakupu and Andrew. Have a lovely weekend everyone 😎.
    [Kirsty@25 Tyro is the apprentice bit].

  31. [NeilH@16. Bill Gates’ ignominy is personal. His association with Jeffrey Epstein, and affairs, which led to the end of his marriage. There are several sources, but often behind a paywall, like NYT]

  32. TENET
    I don’t have the exact parse tho I thought in the same direction as Andrew.
    I think the word ‘complex’ is needed to indicate that it’s more than one mesh/
    NET. Instead of knitting them (two NETs) together as NETNET, they are knit
    together as TEN-NET. In the process, one N is lost. Dunno why. Missing the
    knitty-gritty!!! 🙂

  33. [paddymelon @31: I’m currently watching the attorney on Sky news, who represented Epstein’s victims, talking about the hideous allegations against Al Fayed and Harrods].

  35. Thought that ‘tenet’ must be the ubiquitous ‘ET’ reversed plus net for mesh, but bunged it in with an unconvinced shrug. Never heard of the Nolan film and only vaguely the Coen Brothers one. I’m not a film buff, but I did enjoy the Coen brothers ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ for the excellent soundtrack.

  37. I’ve seen Fargo, but thought it overrated. Apparently there have been deaths from exposure of people searching for the loot, thinking that the story was fact rather than fiction. For example, here.

  41. A bit of a relief after the last two days’ tortures.

    I liked ORDINANCE, AU NATUREL, MAN-EATING, ON EDGE, RIOT ACT, and TARTLET. I also liked the texted reference for the Y U of YUCCA.

    [muffin @37, the first time I saw FARGO I was very unimpressed but on subsequent viewing I thought it was great. Maybe worth a second look?]

    Thanks P&A

  42. I didn’t know bat=rate, and forgot Mach the sound expert. Didn’t spot the tyro or the fair go; got both answers from def and crossers. I liked RIO TACT (the Riot Act was last officially read in 1919 and was finally repealed in 1973, but “reading the Riot Act” has passed into the language) and BALTIMORE. When 19d so clearly began with V, I thought we might be in for VENICE again, but no.

  43. I’ve always considered very and absolutely to be different (very hot, absolutely boiling but never very boiling or absolutely hot). But I note Collins gives absolutely as a synonym of very in spite of its definition, which is given as ‘used to add emphasis to adjectives and adverbs that are able to be graded’.

    Any thoughts? Are there examples of when very can substitute absolutely that I’m not thinking of?

  45. Gladys@42 What are the odds on us getting Vilnius tomorrow? BALTIMORE was my favourite in a surprisingly accessible puzzle.

  47. MartinL@46 I think qualifiers like ‘very’ and ‘absolutely’ detract from the adjective rather than giving emphasis. For example, ‘Let me make this clear…’ carries more weight without unnecessary ’emphasisers’.

  48. I suppose I shouldn’t begrudge the afficionados their hard grind but this was much more accessible than the last two days. My constant whinge is at the Guardian’s lack of consistency. Oh well.
    Thanks both.

  49. Redrodney @43: ‘Very’ certainly denotes ‘absolutely’ when used with a superlative – ‘the very best’. Etymologically it means ‘truly’, of course, which is certainly equivalent – and makes KVa’s comment @44 a tautology 🙂

  51. That was much more my level than the previous two days. I had the same struggles as many others including BAT and ANE (although I’m pretty sure that has come up before and is worth remembering).

  52. I absolutely loved this one. I found the clues charming and fun (two non-serious exceptions). I particularly liked 27a – it isn’t a particularly smooth surface, but I loved the mental image it gave me.
    My exceptions: I couldn’t find bat = rate, so I’m grateful for the explanations here. Also … I can do without any reminder of Elon Musk!
    Thanks Pangakupu for a great crossword, and to all contributors.

  53. Yes, definitely a relief to have a puzzle in my sweet spot after being brutalized the last two days.

    Whether YUCCA is “exotic” or not depends on where you live, surely? (I live a bit too far north for most yucca species to flourish, but only a bit.)

  54. Alistair @48 – the Guardian prides itself on the inconsistency of its crosswords – to quote from the supporters’ newsletter from 16 April 2024 (it’s emailed to people who pay to access the Guardian, so I can’t link) which focussed on crosswords:

    “When Hugh Stephenson, the previous crossword editor, left, we wrote on his pretend front page [a newspaper tradition for people leaving jobs] that “the Guardian has built a crosswording culture unlike that of any other newspaper, all of which prefer such things as consistency and some of which even have a coherent house style.”

    With a cryptic crossword, you don’t know what you’re going to get. You don’t know what the rules of engagement for each clue are – whether it’s an anagram or requires general knowledge. With the Guardian, it’s even more so because it doesn’t have an accepted set of conventions. You get some setters who create puzzles that other newspapers could slot in unchanged – and then you get very idiosyncratic setters whose puzzles could only actually exist in the Guardian.”

  56. LHS was worryingly blank for a while, but I got there in the end. Don’t like ATRIA for entrances. Bit different, aren’t they?
    Still can’t see how TENET works.
    Another big FARGO fan. See also Burn After Reading and No Country For Old Men.
    Thanks, Panga & Andrew.

  57. Shanne@54 thanks for that quote.
    I think what Alistair@48 may have been meaning is that there is sometimes no variation between consecutive crosswords. If they appeared as say, tough, easier, tough, easier for example people might feel happier. Two easier crosswords followed by two tough ones can be frustrating, but we prefer the excitement of not knowing what is coming next!

  60. A very pleasant surprise for the normally ‘difficult’ Friday slot, especially after the Paul and Vlad offerings which preceded. The only clues which caught me out were ABATED as I thought ABASED fitted better as a bung, Base Rates being quite a thing now and the word meaning to belittle or degrade which does for me as “Reduced”. Then MAN EATING. Having tried MAN MAKING and MAN HATING which at least gave me the T…I stupidly revealed my one missing letter and spent a few minutes denting the tea tray.
    All in all a very enjoyable puzzle indeed.
    Thanks to Pangakupu and Andrew for a succinct blog.
    ANE added to the poitrine.

  61. Steffen and HIYD @58-59: Wednesday and yesterday were, by general consensus, brutally hard, so there’s no shame in whiffing on those. (It just occurred to me that “whiff” is probably American: to whiff, to strike out, to swing at the baseball but hit nothing but air.) I gave up on both of them halfway through too, and I consider myself pretty good at this! Today’s was a little better, but really only a little. So you’re coming along as you should, even if it might not feel that way!

  62. In 3d, I took “one” to be just that (not “ane”), and so the ferocious Scottish animal was MON-EATING. A technical DNF therefore, but I liked my solution better.

    Thanks Pangakapu for the very but not absolutely enjoyable puzzle, and Andrew for the much-needed blog.

    [ Paddymelon@13 and subsequent commenters, I think what a wealthy person does with their money is much more important than what they do with their personal life, so I think there is a world of difference between Bill Gates and Elon Musk. I like the elongates clues, but I don’t think they are comparable human beings. ]

  63. mrpenney @61 – it’s odd because the previous week I completed every one, including Paul’s prize?
    No rhyme or reason…

  64. Cellomaniac@62 [ I agree with your 3rd paragraph, but would prefer to live in a world where such wealth were more equitably distributed.
    Nice to see YUCCA, the title of the only arrangement done by the inspiration of my pseudonym.]

  67. 🌓 Witching hour on 15sq 😊
    Enjoyed this, I found LHS quite tricky (like @56 Phitonelly) and I agree that atria aren’t entrances. I also liked @12 Ronald’s correction about yearlings 🐎 , definitely live and learn on this site.
    I do love crosswords with themes and hidden words, even if I don’t spot them – so many great composers (Bach downwards) use hidden ciphers, it’s a binding as well as a parallel puzzle, and must inspire the composer to greater heights. 🙏 Pangakupu and Andrew

  68. Phitonelly @ 56 & Adrian @ 67: from Chambers

    atrium /äˈ or āˈtri-əm or -ŭm/
    noun (pl aˈtria or sometimes aˈtriums)
    1. The entrance hall or chief apartment of an ancient Roman house
    2. A church forecourt or vestibule
    3. A central courtyard (architecture)
    4. A cavity or entrance (zoology and anatomy)
    5. Specif either of the two upper cavities of the heart into which blood passes from the veins

    So whether one likes it or not Pangakupu is on solid ground.

  69. @68 Simon S ok, I’ve been Chambers-ed,….but it’ll always be the hall an entrance opens into for me (and the entire Roman Empire?!) Ironic that CHAMBERs says otherwise. Where’s Eileen when you need her? 😊

  70. Colonelmaniac@62 , first of all I know less than nothing about this myself but my students have told me that when Gates ran Microsoft he behaved very badly , killing off smaller companies that had different and better products.

  71. I found this easier than Thursday’s (Paul) but a bit more difficult than Wednesday’s (Vlad). For me the last 3 cryptics have something in common though, in that the fun factor has definitely been there alongside the challenging aspects.

    A couple of clues in the NE escaped me, including the already mentioned ‘ane’ in MANEATER, and a few also unparsed, but such things were more than compensated for by some absolute blinders: 5, 7, 18, 22, 29.

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