Guardian 29,520 / Anto

77 comments on “Guardian 29,520 / Anto”

1. I thought this was Anto at the top of his game with lots of misdirections and humour. The juxtaposition of BACK ISSUE and ENEMA is surely deliberate and reminded me of Paul as did FALSE. The appearance of THE MIKADO so soon, was also amusing. Lots of likes including ALL SQUARE, DOG OWNERS, INVIOLATE, TOTES, COWLS and YES DEAR. I couldn’t parse UP FOR either. All over too soon.

   Ta Anto & Eileen.

2. Quite tricky and enjoyable. I solved the NW corner last.

   Favourites: COWLS, PREDATE.

   I did not parse 21ac UP FOR apart from the definition=game.

   Thanks, both.

3. Thanks Anto and Eileen
   I found this irritating in parts. Surely a chessboard is ALL SQUARES rather than ALL SQUARE? I didn’t understand UP FOR either. “Something crumbly” is a very loose definition for ROQUEFORT. Why “perhaps out for” in 7d (apart from the surface). 17d is flawed as AUTHORIZE is also a valid spelling (though I always spell these with an S as it saves remembering which can be Z and which can’t).
   THATCHING was favourite.

4. Being up in a game is opposite of losing, (as well as for opposite of against)

5. Many thanks to A & E.
   I struggled with UP FOR – the best parsing I could eventually come up with is that Opposition refers to the “opposites” of losing and against, i.e. UP and FOR

6. A very enjoyable puzzle with ticks for INVIOLATE, DOG OWNERS, YES DEAR and THAT’S LIFE. OKAPI always reminds me of this classic from 1979 for the bizarre loop on its fadeout. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0VdIX2YM9c I thought that the ’t’ in ROQUEFORT was silent, which would spoil the answer a little, but no doubt someone on this forum can put me right. Also puzzled by UP FOR. Many thanks Anto and Eileen.

7. Thanks both @4&5: that makes sense.

8. Thought we might be on to a medical theme after I got ENEMA and VASECTOMY early on, but nothing else doing.

   For 21ac, I think UP FOR is taken to be the opposite of LOSING AGAINST? If you’re not losing, you’re winning (or up), and if you’re not against something, you’re for it. At least, that’s how I made sense of it.

   Thanks to Eileen for the blog and Anto for the puzzle. Relatively nice fare with few grumbles.

9. Seems like I crossed with Brian and jkb – sorry!

10. Alex in SG@8. I think you’ve nailed UP FOR.

11. I liked this puzzle from Anto which raised several smiles as my solve progressed. I know the parliament of owls has been used before but like Eileen, AlanC@1 and michelle@2, I still enjoyed 24d COWLS. Other than that one I also ticked many of the ones Eileen and AlanC mentioned. I also appreciated SACKCLOTH at 23a. UP FOR at 21a was my LOI and my unparsed sticking point too (sorry I can’t help more with that one).
    Many thanks to Anto and Eileen.

12. Alex in SG @8 – that’ll do me: I’ll amend the blog.

13. What a brilliant puzzle! Thanks Anto and Eileen. Like others I was left with UP FOR entered but unparsed, but looking again I think it must be UP (as in “the game is up” = losing) + FOR (the opposite of “against”, so “against opposition”)

14. [It took forever to type that – I’m sorry I didn’t mention Comments 3-10. However, thanks to Brian L, jkb_ing and Alex in SG for your suggested parses for “UP FOR” – it makes more sense now.]

15. Alex in SG – my apologies: I was in too much of a hurry to say, ‘Thank you’.

16. 10ac: Why is DRAWING a definition of ALL SQUARE? I’m not seeing it.

17. Colm @16
    As in a match – tied, drawing, all square

18. Just seen the crossed-in-the-posts from jkb_ing@5 and BrianL@4 and agree that these work better than my effort, i.e. UP/FOR are simply the opposites (“opposition“) of LOSING/AGAINST.

19. Where does b = boy? I can’t find support in any of the main dictionaries.

20. The SW corner held out longest as I was pretty sure with an E blank W in place at the top the answer for 14d simply had to be EDWARDIAN, though I couldn’t see how it parsed. But bunged it in eventually and that made things easier. Then wasn’t at all sure either about how UP FOR deserved its place in the grid. Glad that Eileen could clarify FALSE as well. DRAKE, SLATE and FIERY each took quite a bit of mental activity for mere five letter solutions, even with the help of several crossers in place. A good work out today…

21. England v Pakistan test match series is currently at 1 – 1 They’re DRAWING; they’re ALL SQUARE.

22. …and G and S seems to be flitting in and out of our Cryptics at the moment…

23. Maybe this wasn’t quite TOTES amazeballs (which we had a while back – from Paul?) but it was very enjoyable with some really nice clues. My favourite was YES DEAR which was very clever, and a CAD (or semi &lit if we want to get technical). And it’s always good to see that familiar crossword animal the OKAPI.

    Many thanks Anto and Eileen.

24. Jay @19 – this abbreviation (usually for ‘boys’) always raises queries: I couldn’t find it either, hence my question mark.

25. To get to B = BOY in my Chambers 2003, you have to go to to start of the “O” chapter and then take half of oB = old BOY ( reasonably standard abbreviation ).

    Forgot to say thank you to Anto and Eileen.

26. Anto’s trademark mix of some nice clues (DOG OWNERS, BACK ISSUE) and some nonsense either in the cryptic grammar or just entirely irrelevant padding (ALIBI, FIERY, EDWARDIAN, DRAKE). The latter spoil the former, as usual. He has his defenders I know, but my heart sinks every time as it’s inevitably sloppy and seemingly unedited.

27. The only way I can get EDWARDIAN to work is to make Edian the location of the medical facility. Otherwise I can’t see why ward is in the middle.

28. Eileen@15

    As a long time lurker and only extremely occasional commenter on this blog, I would say that no thanks are needed. You and your fellow bloggers have provided so much help over the years, just glad I could finally contribute!

29. 6d would be better as “Reportedly surprise stronghold….” because, as Paul said earlier, the T isn’t pronounced in ROQUEFORT.

30. Petert @27, I think you’re right: ward = medical facility, and “location” means that [m]EDIAN is where you put it (in the middle). Perhaps Eileen meant that but it isn’t quite clear.

31. I do like Anto for his quirky clues and he’s a much better fit for the Cryptic slot (he regularly turns up in the Quiptic slot. This was fun, lots of good clues, with the odd “huh” for UP FOR.

    Thank you to Eileen and Anto.,

32. Peter @27 and Quirister @30 – thanks: I struggled with how to express that and I agree that it wasn’t clear. [m]EDIAN seems to be doing some heavy lifting.

33. I saw SLATE (my last one) as a triple definition.

    Neat that Eileen was the blogger again for DOYENNE.

    Challenging in the southwest, where I needed a little help, and not exactly straightforward elsewhere. Probably the best Anto I have tackled.

34. Muffin @17: ah, yes, thanks!

35. I still find Anto a bit iffy in his definitions. For one thing, I question the plural ‘reports’ in 17d where the singular would be better. Similarly, shouldn’t the singular ‘part’ in 3d be plural?

36. No, I couldn’t parse UP FOR either (thanks all). Couldn’t sort out my last in FALSE either, and took ages to see why ALL SQUARE = drawing though I got there eventually. And the member of parliament catches me every time.

    DA for father is Welsh: it took some time to realise that DAD, although present, wasn’t needed for DAUNTED.

    I agree with muffin@3 that the clue for AUTHORISE leaves the ise/ize question open, which wouldn’t do in a Prize puzzle. But I did enjoy BIT PART, DOG OWNERS, SACKCLOTH, YES DEAR and THATCHING.

37. Shanne@31: I enjoy Anto, and unlike a number of commenters I’m usually on his wavelength (I have wavelength problems with other people). But I prefer him in the Cryptic slot – he isn’t very good at dialling down the difficulty for the Quiptic.

38. Thanks both and I was beaten badly by the SW corner for no good reason I can now come up with. I had ticks for FALSE, DRAKE (although D for ‘fourth rate’ is a dangerous precedent – what next, ‘seventh rate’=G?) and PREDATE (that took a lot of staring).

    Has no-one else a problem with INVIOLATE=’perfectly safe’? A boiled egg may be inviolate but it is not perfectly safe.

39. For once I find myself in the majority, having been held up for a while by the NW corner and baffled by the parsing of 21a.

    I liked 22d, which nobody else seems to have mentioned, for both the construction and the surface.

    Thank you Eileen for the blog, various commenters for the parsing of 21a, and Anto for the puzzle.

40. Enjoyable, and nearly unassisted today – had to look up DOYENNE, and couldn’t parse DRAKE (D and RAKE both new defs for me) or UP FOR (though that’s a nice fit now I see it). I also had a different FA for “nothing” 😉

    Favourites were THATCHING and COWLS. Thanks Anto and Eileen.

41. Struggled with the SW corner, revealing 23d and 25: shame, as there would have been great satisfaction in completing such an enjoyable puzzle.

42. I think some people are too quick to pounce on perceived mistakes because Anto had a slightly rocky start in The Guardian. I enjoyed this one, with some delightful clues.

    There must be a statistic for the number of times OKAPI crops up; I suppose because of the fit-in with the number of vowels. My LOI was SLATE, although there was nothing wrong with the clue. I was another mystified by UP FOR, but I think it has been adequately explained above. I particularly enjoyed the surfaces for ENEMA, YES DEAR and COWLS. I also liked the wordplay in DOG OWNERS, the THATCHING cd, and the good anagram for VASECTOMY.

    Thanks Anto and Eileen.

43. Thanks Anto and Eileen. Some enjoyable stuff here – notably YES DEAR and THATCHING, both super clues, and ticks for a good half-dozen more. But overall marred by poor grammar (UP FOR, ALIBI, EDWARDIAN, VASECTOMY, AUTHORISE, FIERY, COWLS), surface padding (BIT PART, DRAKE), BLOBBED’s “boy” for B, the jarring past tense in DAUNTED, ROQUEFORT’s soundalike only really applying to the first bit, ALL SQUARE’s second definition really leading to the plural (and personally not at all keen on FALSE’s “FA”) … mostly ‘gettable’ enough, and no problem with taking a few liberties here and there, but there shouldn’t really be a list of quibbles *quite* so long. Apologies for the long list but had to get that off my chest – and thanks again!

44. Robi @42, his rocky start nearly 10 years and well over a hundred puzzles ago? People pounce on the mistakes because they’re so glaring and numerous, still.

45. Well I never. Just after midnight I breezed through this in less time, I would say, than yesterday’s Vulcan and maybe about the same time as Sunday”s Quiptic, and I turned over to go to sleep muttering inwardly about the quiptification (as someone here called it yesterday) of Tuesdays. SW corner? I saw comments later on the G thread about being held up there, echoed by a number of contributors here, but I just didn’t see it. I must have just been completely ‘in the zone’ as sports people say. I only wish it could happen more often.

46. Liked DOG OWNERS, YES DEAR and EDWARDIAN.

    EDWARDIAN
    Had the same cryptic reading as Petert@27 (Did Quirister@30 say the
    same thing or indicate that the ‘median’ was doing double duty?)
    ‘EDIAN location for WARD’ with the ‘location for’ meaning ‘the setting for’.

    Thanks Anto and Eileen!

47. Nice one Anto! Personally, I’d rather that boy be “b” than Frank or George or Bill or Tom……..

48. KVa @46: I meant that “location” is intended to give us the placement in the middle, so [m]EDIAN doesn’t need to do double duty. I think PeterT, you and I agree on that.

49. How does “drawing” = ALL SQUARE?

    How does 21a “Game” = UP FOR? I’m UP FOR a picnic doesn’t = I’m game a picnic.

    BLOBBED is new to me, as is FRY for “greasy food.”

    I pronounce 6d “Roquefort” (when speaking English) as “roke-fort.” Never heard anybody pronounce the first syllable as “rock,” but if there are people who do they’d surely also pronounce the final T.

    Loved COWLS!

    Thanks, Anto and Eileen.

50. I found this to be on a par with Monday’s Vulcan difficulty wise. I’ve never had any significant style issues with Anto and didn’t detect any problems here. This was TOTES enjoyable from my point of view.

51. Thanks both,
    Not difficult, but I found this irritating in parts. Perhaps it’s because I’m doing ‘Stoptober’ and there’s still 9 days to go.

52. Quirister@48
    Thanks.

53. DOG OWNERS and THATCHING were my two favourites. LOI was SLATE for which I had to go through the alphabet for in order to get the missing two letters, and this only after having put in SCARE which on reflection would have worked better if the clue had read ‘possible credit record’.

54. Having been doing the quick cryptic (thanks Shanne for all the tips) I managed to get a few of these but still needed to come here for most of the explanations

55. Valentine@49 (and I continue the rhyme) – ALL SQUARE = DRAWING as in a tied scoreline.
    UP FOR =GAME as in ready and raring to go with whatever activity is ahead.

56. Valentine @ 49 Roquefort is a French cheese, so the final T isn’t pronounced, while the QU is a sort of soft K.

57. Is M as a standalone for master in Chambers? I couldn’t find it online. I didn’t think UP FOR did what it said on the tin. Phrase could happily be deleted from YES DEAR.
    Liked the rest. Out for a duck meaning looking for a duck is quite good, on reflection.
    Valentine@49, never been to McDonalds? They have a few fries there 🙂.
    Thanks, A&E

58. No one can convince me that EDWARDIAN parses. It is a truly dire clue that should have been returned by the editor

59. Bingy @58 – despite the best efforts of PeterT and Quirister (thanks again to them) I still haven’t managed to get my head round it, either!

60. Bingy@58. Look on the bright side, at least the clue doesn’t end with ‘Scotsman’.

61. In the US we have the BSA – the Boy Scouts of America. My understanding is that the British Boy Scouts changed to the The Scout Association in 1967.

62. I’ve always pronounced “Roquefort” with a long o (as in rose), so that part of the clue didn’t work for me. Is “Rock” fort a British pronunciation? Just curious.

63. I’m never happy about justifying a single letter abbreviation by extracting it from a longer one. It’s like saying that B stands for “broadcasting” as that’s what the second letter in BBC stands for.

    I think Valentine’s point @49 is that “up for” can’t be substituted by “game” by itself. UP FOR = GAME FOR.

    Just seen yours, Nakamova. I’ve only heard ROQUEFORT pronounced “rock for” in England.

64. I take your point muffin @63. So should we say that abbreviations can consist of two letters at most (“old” from OT). Hence Flea @25 has the correct source with OB?

65. Thanks Anto for some very clever and enjoyable clues such as ENEMA, DOYENNE, YES DEAR, THATCHING (COTD), VASECTOMY, and AUTHORISE. I couldn’t parse UP FOR and FALSE so thanks Eileen for the help. I agree with muffin @63 about single letter extractions for legit abbreviations — e.g. L for laughing from LOL or P for possible from ASAP would be very wrong.

66. SimonS@56 I am quite well aware of how Roquefort is pronounced in French, which I have been speaking since childhood. That’s why I said “when speaking English,” at which times I don’t necessarily follow French pronunciation — I don’t say “Paree” when speaking English and I bet you don’t either. Apparently there actually are English people who say “Rock for.” News to me.

    WinstonSmith@55 It is true that UP FOR and GAME refer to the same mental state, but they aren’t grammatically equivalent. Can you give me a sentence where each would work without adding a word to one or the other? I can’t, and apparently muffin can’t either. (Thanks, muffin.)

67. I once heard an interviewer ask a couple celebrating their golden wedding anniversary the secret of a long, happy marriage. One of them ( I won’t say which) said ” I can tell you in two words. ‘YES DEAR’ “.

68. Valentine@66 Why should I explain/justify further after you couldn’t even acknowledge the other explanation I put on a plate for you @55?

69. [Zoot @67: Fitness guru Jack LaLanne (married 51 years) was once asked for the secret to such a long marriage — he replied, ‘she’s always right’! ]

70. muffin @3 ( And others?)
    7D DRAKE: as I think phitonelly @57 suggests, consider ‘duck’ as the female of the species.

71. Odd that the article about Sweet Fanny Adams doesn’t mention why it’s a euphemism for nothing!

72. Valentine #66

    It’s not a minority of English people who pronounce the cheese ‘Rock for’. I have never heard anyone pronounce the first syllable ‘Roke’, despite spending countless hours on cheese stalls. That would sound very posh, and to my ears, very odd indeed. As for the second syllable, I don’t pronounce the ‘t’ – just like I don’t in ‘sorbet’. To say that ‘apparently people pronounce things differently to me’ is a bit patronising. The millions of people who say ‘Roque for’ in English are not quirky. Or wrong. Or rare.

73. Valentine @66

    I am French. Most French people in the north of France say “Rock for.” In the South of France they tend to stress the second syllable more strongly.

74. How people say the FORT bit does not matter for the puzzle , the ROQUE bit is the soundalike . stronghold=FORT which simply gives the correct letters for the answer, once they are in you can say ROQUEFORT howefer you like .

75. Here in Minneapolis, the Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera Company is preparing a production of THE MIKADO, but set in Scotland and titled McAdo. It may be light opera (and we love seeing these G&S references in the puzzles), but this particular show has fallen afoul of public opinion and been accused of stereotyping Japanese behavior and usually requiring “yellowface.” So far no howls of outrage from the Scots, thankfully.

76. Roz @74
    The “reportedly” is in the wrong place – it implies both parts are homophones. See mine @29 for a better order.

77. Regarding b as an abbreviation for boy: Baby names can be disambiguated with a (b) or (g). I.e. Sam(g) or Pat(b)

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