The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29537.
The Don here gives us generally simple wordplays, as befits a Monday, but with a few tricks to keep up on our toes.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | HEY PRESTO |
The strange ring round battle site? That’s magic! (3,6)
|
| An envelope (’round’) of YPRES (World War 1 ‘battle site’) in HET, an anagram (‘strange’) of ‘the’ plus O (‘ring’). | ||
| 10 | MOOCH |
Loiter a while by old church (5)
|
| A charade of MO (moment, ‘a while’ – a short while)plus O (‘old’) plus CH (‘church’). | ||
| 11 | ROLLERS |
Posh cars? Amblers should avoid street (7)
|
| A subtraction: [st]ROLLERS (‘amblers’) minud ST (‘should avoid street’). | ||
| 12 | KERNELS |
Essential bits coming from officers listened to (7)
|
| Sounds like (‘listened to’) COLONELS (‘officers’). | ||
| 13 | ANNIE |
Woman more cagey, having had the edges knocked off (5)
|
| [c]ANNIE[r] (‘more cagey’) minus its outer letters (‘having had the edges knocked off’). | ||
| 14 | SWELLHEAD |
Conceited American doing odd deal with Welsh (9)
|
| An anagram (‘odd’) of ‘deal’ plus ‘Welsh’. A fairly obvious answer, but I had not come across it before. | ||
| 16 | PERSONAL PRONOUN |
She is one particular religious lady full of love meeting sex worker (8,7)
|
| A charade of PERSONAL (‘particular’ – Chambers definition includes “relating to a single person or thing; individual”) plus PRO (prostitute, ‘sex worker’) plus NOUN, an envelope (‘full of’) of O (zero, ‘love’) in NUN (‘religious lady’), ‘Meeting’ hardly counts as another envelope indicator, but perhaps suggests that PRO goes before NOUN. | ||
| 19 | EXPOUNDER |
Old boxer maybe, one in the pulpit? (9)
|
| A charade of EX (‘old’) plus POUNDER (‘boxer maybe’). | ||
| 21 | LITHE |
Gay bishop emerging as sylphlike (5)
|
| A charade of LIT (‘gay’) plus HE (His Eminence, ‘bishop’).
The world and his wife agree that the suitable parsing is [b]LITHE (‘gay’) minus the B (‘bishop emerging’). |
||
| 22 | CONCEAL |
Hide no longer in west-coast state (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of ONCE (‘no longer’) in CAL (California – not the USPS approved two-letter abbreviation, but still in use – ‘west-coast state’) | ||
| 23 | POMPEII |
Ruined city with exaggerated style – one that is seen in retrospect (7)
|
| A charade of POMP (‘exaggerated style’) plus EII, a reversal (‘seen in retrospect’) of I (‘one’) plus I.E. (‘that is’). | ||
| 24 | PUNIC |
Ancient city’s the reverse of elevated and not totally pleasant (5)
|
| A charade of PU, ‘the reverse’ of UP (‘elevated’) plus NIC[e] (‘pleasant’) minus its last letter (‘not totaly’). Note that the apostrophe s is part of the definition, indicating a possessive, of or relating to Carthage. | ||
| 25 | STARE DOWN |
Part of descending flight said to make one overcome somehow (5,4)
|
| Sounds like (‘said’) STAIR DOWN (‘part of descending flight’; ‘part of’ justifies its existence if STAIR is taken as a single step). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | THORN APPLE |
Poisonous fruit makes god sleep with aid not initially coming round (5,5)
|
| A charade of THOR (‘god’) plus NAP (‘sleep’) plus PLE, a reversal (‘coming round’) of [h]ELP (‘aid’) minus its first letter (‘not initially’). Botanically, Datura. | ||
| 2 | EYELINER |
Look at ship’s bit of ‘paint’? (8)
|
| A charade of EYE (‘look at’) plus LINER (‘ship’). | ||
| 3 | BREEZE |
Cheeses, you may say, and a piece of cake (6)
|
| Sound like (‘you may say’) BRIES (‘cheeses’). | ||
| 4 | ASKS |
Requests from idiot pinning king (4)
|
| An envelope (‘pinning’) of K (‘king’) in ASS (‘idiot’). | ||
| 5 | BOOKKEEPER |
Reserve goalie, a record-holder (10)
|
| A charade of BOOK (‘reserve’) plus KEEPER (‘goalie’). | ||
| 6 | AMARILLO |
American city has a stream seen in an instant (8)
|
| An envelope (‘seen in’) of A RILL (‘a stream’) in A MO (‘an instant’). The second appearance of MO in this sense. | ||
| 7 | COHERE |
Gathering round, revolutionary soldiers hold together (6)
|
| An envelope (‘gathering’) of O (’round’) in CHE (Guevara, ‘revolutionary’) plus RE (Royal Engineers, ‘soldiers’). | ||
| 8 | THUS |
The American putting off English so (4)
|
| TH[e] US (‘the American’) minus the E (‘putting off English’). | ||
| 14 | SCANDALISE |
Look at naughty ladies, creating outrage (10)
|
| A charade of SCAN (‘look at’) plus DALISE, an anagram (‘naughty’) of ‘ladies’ | ||
| 15 | DANDELIONS |
Daughter on mountains with cat collected plants (10)
|
| An envelope (‘collected’) of LION (‘cat’) in D (‘daughter’) plus ANDES (‘mountains’). | ||
| 17 | OPULENCE |
Top-class girl finally coming into old money and luxury (8)
|
| An envelope (‘coming into’) of U (‘top-class’) plus L (‘girL finally’) ln O (‘old’) plus PENCE (‘money’). | ||
| 18 | ON THE DOT |
He’d not to go off course at the exact time (2,3,3)
|
| An anagram (‘go off course’) of ‘he’d not to’. | ||
| 20 | PENANG |
Writer that’s good, penning article in Asian state (6)
|
| An envelope (‘penning’) of AN (indefinite ‘article’) in PEN (‘writer’) plus G (‘good’). Penang is a Malaysian state. The use of ‘penning’ in the wordplay is a little unfortunate. | ||
| 21 | LIMBER |
Pliant mountaineer maybe heading off (6)
|
| A subtraction: [c]LIMBER (‘mountaineer maybe’) minus its first letter (‘heading off’). | ||
| 22 | COPY |
‘Firm has sacked man’ – journalist’s submission to editor? (4)
|
| A subtraction: CO[m]P[an]Y (‘firm’) minus (‘has sacked’) ‘man’. It is your take whether it is OK that the the letters of ‘man’ are not consecutive (but in the right order). | ||
| 23 | PLAN |
Map showing lake in shallow depression (4)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of L (‘lake’) in PAN (‘shallow depression’). |
I parsed 21a as bLITHE for gay, minus B for bishop
SWELLHEAD was new, otherwise I found this a straightforward solve
Thank you to PeterO and Pasquale.
22a, I was once, but am no longer … hmm.
Ditto Shanne re [b]lithe.
Ditto Shanne
Was also a bit thrown by 20d with penning in the wordplay, PEN in the answer and all of it sounding a bit similar. Seems a bit of a weak clue in an otherwise great Monday offering.
Thanks PeterO and Pasquale.
I thought this was going to be hard, as I entered only a couple first time through, but thereafter I found it to be a straightforward solve.
Another blither.
Thanks PeterO, especially for explaining COPY.
Thanks also Pasquale.
After a recent flurry of less familiar names, what a joy to see a Don puzzle – and on a Monday. One can’t help but be impressed with (and reminded of) the skilful and accomplished craft displayed here by one who’s honed it over years
Yes, very short (well it is a Monday!) but very sweet….
Many thanks
Thanks for a lovely puzzle and blog. I parsed 21a as (B)LITHE.
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO.
Top fave: STARE DOWN.
Liked COPY. I think the clueing for removing m,a,n is ok.
PERSONAL PRONOUN:
NOUN meeting PRO seems to mean that NOUN is placed by the side of PRO.
Solvers to choose between NOUNPRO and PRONOUN.
Yet another with bLITHE, although I could see that there was no appropriate indicator to remove the bishop. Thanks PeterO for the correct parsing which makes much more sense. LIT = gay was new to me.
My favourite clue was PERSONAL PRONOUN.
Ticks also for HEY PRESTO, COHERE, DANDELIONS, COPY.
Lovely puzzle, just chewy enough for me today.
Thank you to Pasquale and PeterO.
HEY PRESTO: I thought YPRES was an appropriate inclusion for Armistice Day today (Remembrance Day here).
Yes, SueM48, I had the radio app on while solving and thought Why are thy starting the News with the Last Post … and of course it was 11am on the 11th of the 11th …
I thought this was a tiny bit harder than the regular Monday offerings.
SueM48: bishop emerging
Thanks Peter O for your excellent blog. Lucky you to have Pasquale this Monday.
Only hold up was my poor eyesight. Kept reading ”plant” for pliant in the clue for LIMBER,.
I liked the way PUNIC was clued with the ‘s. .Not sure why ”paint” was in quotation marks in EYELINER. It kind of spoiled the surface. POMPEII favourite.
Good point SueM48@9 about Ypres on Remembrance Day. I see Justigator@12 has given the indicator for the deletion of the B in (b)LITHE.
Justigator@12. I think ‘emerging’ was my justification at the time, though I couldn’t quite see it. But I guess it means ‘coming out’, so yes.
So are there two possible parsings for this clue?
Looks like (b)LITHE is going to be the discussion point today. Unusual to encounter two parsings leading to the same answer but they both appear valid. How odd. Definitely Mondayish. I agree the pen/PENANG overlap is unfortunate and the two MO’s slightly more so since they share the same M. Nice to see the clever spot of YPRES.
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
Just chewy enough to be challenging, and as fair as one expects from this setter. SWELLHEAD was new to me but with very clear wordplay to point the solver to it. The surface for 16a is delightful, and the understated insertion of YPRES is nicely done.
I wondered about COY (abbreviation for company) containing (as in a sack) P (pawn, or man on a chessboard) but undoubtedly PeterO’s parsing is better.
Ah, well. No excuse for not getting on with the day. Thanks, both.
I agree with PM@15, it appears there are two valid parsings for LITHE. My favourites were COPY, EXPOUNDER and HEY PRESTO. Thank you both.
A pleasing variety of cryptic devices, and I certainly needed crossers to crack some of the definitions.
In 24(ac) [PUNIC], I was dummied by the ” ‘s”, so searched for an ancient city, rather than “of an ancient city”.
I spent 10+ minutes on 7 (down), [COHERE], before finally going gungadin, at which point the wordplay clicked.
Sort of felt that “record-maker” or “record-setter” chimed better for BOOKKEEPER, but that’s only me being pedantic.
Enjoyed HEY PRESTO, and EYELINER.
And finally, Esther…I may be old-fashioned, as well as old, but 16(ac) was a nice idea spoiled by a not-so-nice pejorative, and, for me, it took the shine off an otherwise very well-constructed puzzle.
Thanks, Pasquale + PeterO
Thanks Pasquale and Peter
I found tougher than the average Monday. Personal pronoun a great clue. I was a Lit + he parser so in the minority.
Not too many rare words for Pasquale, though SWELLHEAD was unfamilar (but easy enough to get). I failed to parse COPY or the PLE bit of THORN APPLE. The (b)LITHE parsing for me, like Sunday’s child who is “blithe and bonny and good and gay”. But the other one works too.
I’ve sometimes wondered why PUNIC is “of or relating to Carthage” when the words appear to have nothing in common, so today I looked it up: apparently Carthage was inhabited by a people called the Poeni.
Lots to enjoy: I liked SCANDALISE, but didn’t like ANNIE just clued as “woman”.
E.N.Boll& @18… who is Esther, and what is the pejorative at 16a?
The usual high standard from The Don this morning.
Not really in the “2 definitions” camp for LITHE. Lit for gay needs rather more effort than the more obvious (B)LITHE. Whichever floats your boat, the “gay bishop” makes a fab clue.
Many thanks both.
Thanks very much to Pasquale and PeterO.
I couldn’t get much at all on my first pass (cf. Dave Ellison@4), but as often happens, with the reliability of the word play offered by the Don, it all started to open up on my second and third passes. In this regard, 5d BOOKKEEPER and 14d SCANDALISE were particularly helpful.
My favourites already mentioned (although I see also ticked 6d AMARILLO).
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
Very good puzzle. I missed the parsings of 16a and 22d, and am not completely happy with either. I was another (b)LITHE, and thought it a better explanation than Peter’s.
I was pleased to see YPRES indicated as “battle site” rather than “battle”, but, to be pedantic, depending on how you count them, there were 3-5 battles there.
[I’ve visited Ypres. It’s a beautiful old-looking town. The restoration work must have been excellent.]
I had stair down instead of stare down, which in retrospect is obviously the wrong choice although the clue could fit either. Homophones that don’t make it clear which half is the definition are a pet hate.
I also had Marie instead of Annie. m=more + (w)ARIE(r). M=more is probably dubious, but as has been frequently commented, it seems possible to justify just about any single letter abbreviation, and warier is closer to more cagy than cannier. I’ve only just noticed that my solution needs “more” to do double duty.
For me, this was harder than usual on a Monday, whereas a very recent crossword must have hit my sweet spot because I breezed through it.
I’ve noticed that my comments can sound negative because the clues I struggle with stick in my memory. No criticism is intended.
Talking of Amarillo
Another one for whom the grid yielded little on the first couple of passes, but things started to flow eventually. On the challenging side for a Monday, I thought, but fun all the same. I had no idea about LITHE so either parsing leaves me feeling more in the know than I was.
Thanks, Pasquale and PeterO. For Tim C @21 “And finally, Esther …” (E.N.Boll& @18) is a reference to the old tv show, That’s Life, when one of Esther Rantzen’s acolytes would introduce the final observation with this, one of the more unimaginative catchphrases. I’m so old! Edit: and the pejorative is PRO.
Thanks Pasquale & PeterO, and good to see the commemorative inclusion of Ypres for Armistice Day.
I was another blithe spirit.
I liked the three cities – ‘ruined’, (of the) ‘ancient’ and ‘american’, the pairing of LITHE & LIMBER, the two MOs,
and possibly my favourite, the welsh deal!
I can’t really equate cannier with cagier.
I’m pretty much with winsum @29 – although I have looked up ‘cagey’ and ‘canny’ and find Collins has ‘wary’ for both.
I see no ambiguity in the clue for LITHE: His Eminence is the form of address for a Roman Catholic Cardinal, not a bishop – as Pasquale surely knows. 😉
Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO
I’m another (B)LITHE supporter. HE for His Eminence is used for Catholic cardinals, but not I think for Anglican bishops, who are either Most Reverend or Right Reverend.
Apart from the unfamiliar and loi SWELLHEAD this was an enjoyable start to the Guardian Cryptic week. Wipers hidden away at 9ac a sombre reminder of Remembrance Day today, with silence to be observed here in less than hour’s time…
Please excuse the self referential aspect to this, but just looked back at my comment @27, and ‘for whom the grid yielded little’ sounds like if Hemingway wrote a novel about cryptic crosswords.
poc @31 – that’s amazing: I waited ages for someone else to make that point and then we crossed!
I liked the timely YPRES in HEY PRESTO (great clue) and PERSONAL PRONOUN – I cannot for the life of me, see how the abbreviation of PRO for prostitute is pejorative. Other favourites were MOOCH, SWELLHEAD, EXPOUNDER and OPULENCE. Straightforward solve and as Gladys states @20, not too many rare words.
Ta Pasquale & PeterO.
Quite chewy for a Monday, I felt, but enjoyable. I can’t find any reference to ‘lit’ meaning ‘gay’, and ‘HE’ is dodgy for ‘bishop’, so I’m another one for (B)LITHE.
21a I wonder if the clue originally had “gay bishop coming out” and it got toned down to the less satisfactory “emerging”?
Solidly clued puzzle from Pasquale, as we expect.
Definitely (b)LITHE – apart from bishops not being their excellencies (point well made Eileen and poc), ‘gay’ for LIT is a bit of a stretch.
‘She is one’ is a nice definition, but the wordplay is cumbersome (and there are pleasanter ways to clue PRO).
My favourites were OPULENCE (great surface), POMPEII, PUNIC and the cleverly topical HEY PRESTO.
Thanks to the Don and PeterO
Judge@37. Yes, good thought! A much better clue.
Like some others above, I started slowly but it all came together in the end.
I didn’t understand the LIT=gay, and given Eileen’s@30 comment, I believe that (b)LITHE is the correct parsing. I liked the PERSONAL PRONOUN’s misleading description and the naughty ladies.
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO.
Request please. Many early commenters said this was easy. I didn’t find it so and comments about the “easiness” is very off-putting for those like me who are somewhere between the Saturday beginners and difficult mid-week Guardians.
I did complete it with a bit of help, and couldn’t parse lithe, but for me it was not easy.
In 14a why is the conceited American?
Thanks to setter and blogger, indeed to all setters and bloggers as I only comment occasionally.
WynnD @41
I didn’t think this was as easy as a typical Monday, and if you read the comments you will see that several experienced solvers found it difficult to get going.
14a “American” because it isn’t a common British English expression. Presumably it’s more familiar to Americans.
WynnD@41 Many early commenters said this was easy. I didn’t find it so and comments about the “easiness” is very off-putting
Yes I agree, and I often find this sort of comment with such as Vlad and Philistine crosswords quite insensitive.
Rather than say “this was easy” I always try to phrase it as “I found this easy” or similar
Whilst I was of the (b)LITHE persuasion anyway, Wikipedia tells me that Roman Catholic cardinals do tend to be bishops and archbishops as well, even though they are addressed as His Eminence. So, technically, one could be addressing a bishop with HE.
ravenrider @25: if you were to watch Simon Anthony on Cracking the Cryptic more than once, you would hear him repeating, which he does every single week, ‘it bears repetition but a word cannot be used to indicate its initial letter unless it is backed up by a dictionary’ before delving into his Chambers. There are some fairly obscure abbreviations in there – but ‘more’ is certainly not one of them.
I have just reviewed all the “easy” and “chewy” and “hard” comments, and I see almost everyone says “I found” or similar.
WynnD@41, I agree completely with your sentiment. This was a beast!
Anyone else put PLOT for PLAN so get held up for a shower and half a dog walk? If only the app had a light pencil option. Bravo Judge@37 for Paul-style alternative. Thank you Pasquale and PeterO.
Tricky and enjoyable.
New for me: SWELLHEAD, THORN APPLE.
Favourite: HEY PRESTO (loi).
I’m another one in the blithe camp!
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
PostMark @44: Nice bit of sophistry, but it would be uncharacteristic of the Don to play so fast and loose with ecclesiastical terminology. ‘Bishop’ is conventionally RR 🙂
For once I find myself firmly among the majority of setters, with one exception. A modest start, solid progress, eventually everything fell (bar one). Just challenging enough for one of my middling ability. I’m also in the [b]LITHE camp, and SWELLHEAD was familiar to me as I write unpublished novels set in the 1940s America. And I thought the two crossing MOs at 10A and 6D was a minor flaw in an otherwise excellent puzzle.
16A entirely defeated me even with all the crossers in place. After seeing the parsing I don’t feel quite so bad about that.
Thank you Pasquale and PeterO
Tim C@21, sorry for a late response. ( I never expect anyone to read my ramblings, much less, respond!)
BUT, brian-with-an-eye@25, had my back covered.
( cheers, brian)
Apologies for being obscure, on both counts.
What’s the betting, the next time we see “book” in a cryptic clue, it’s going to be a “Bible-Book play”……..ESTHER!
Book on recycling compounds (6)
I won’t give up the day job.
Another for bLITHE here, since I wouldn’t have thought lit=gay in a month of Sundays (or in this context, Saturdays, when the puzzles tend to be harder).
I’m not disagreeing with Eileen@30, but just want to point out that one is skating on thin ice when suggesting that if two words match a third, they match each other: a friend of your friend is not necessarily your friend. It’s the triangle inequality in some ill-defined semantic metric space.
Dr WhatsOn @53 – point taken, absolutely!
PostMark @15
I suspect that it is not all that odd for a clue to give more than one route to the answer … but probably not in the case of 21A LITHE. I was prepared to declare my interpretation as flat out wrong, but you @44 give it at least a sliver of respectability (although of course LIT is equally dubious). Let us just say that I now have no doubt that the [b]LITHE route is what Pasquale intended. However, as a blogger, I pick a parsing which seems sensible to me, and leave it at that. Commenters often come up with alternative explanations; some of them on the fanciful side, but some strike me as just as valid. For example, in this crossword NeilH @16 comes up with an alternative for 22D COPY (COY as an abbreviation for company may not be common, but it is in Chambers).
My favourites were PUNIC and THORN APPLE, the latter an addition to my vocabulary. paddymelon @13, I think that the quotation marks were to indicated that the definition ‘paint’ was being used in a slang or metaphorical sense e.g. ‘putting on my face paint/ war paint’ for ‘putting on my make-up’ and was not actually a reference to paint. I agree that the quotation marks looked odd. Thanks PeterO and Pasquale.
In 13a, I thought maybe the cage and the can are both prison, so cannier could be cagier that way. But that seems less like Pasquale and more like something Paul would do if he was feeling cheeky.
This American has no recollection of having encountered the word SWELLHEAD. If it is US slang, I suspect it’s quite old. But the clue was quite clear. I also don’t recall having heard of the THORN APPLE, and I failed to parse 22dn (COPY).
I’m coming to the view that Pasquale is one of the best Guardian setters. I’m particularly impressed at his ability to create interesting and engaging clues at a wide range of difficulties. I found this more difficult than his Quiptics but much easier than his puzzles that appear later in the week or in the Prize slot.
For what it’s worth, I never thought of PRO (when used to mean a sex worker) as an abbreviation for “prostitute”. I thought it was simply short for “professional”, referring to the fact that these people are paid to do something that most of us do as amateurs. And while the term undoubtedly has a somewhat mocking origin (when applied to sex workers), it feels only very mildly pejorative to me — much less so than “prostitute”, for instance. But I don’t know what actual sex workers think.
Where is Paul? He used to appear twice a week – we haven’t seen him since Oct 17.
Ted @58: Several species of Datura are native to Mexico and the desert regions of the South West USA. As well as THORN APPLE they are often called jimsonweed. No species are native to Britain, incidentally.
Dave Ellison@59 – or Roz, for that matter?
Both are missed I’m sure, though like DrWhat’s On@53’s synonyms, they don’t necessarily miss each other!
Ted @58: I used to work in Vice in the Met many years ago, and when the ladies were brought into custody and asked for their occupation, some replied housewives (which indeed they were) but most declared themselves to be prostitutes without any sense of shame. Some were very funny and never caused any trouble. It was indeed their profession. To court the next morning for the customary £50 fine having made a lot more money than that. I trust this doesn’t offend anyone.
SWELLHEAD may be an American term, but not one I’ve ever used or read (speaking as an old lady living on the Western Atlantic Coast).
Good puzzle. I needed the blog for the parsing of COPY. I thought SCANDALISE was very nicely done.
We put Singular Pronoun in, early on which caused some confusion . Eg Eye-linen ?? 🙂
Thanks Pasquale for a well-crafted crossword with EYELINER, BREEZE, BOOKKEEPER, SCANDALISE, DANDELIONS, and LIMBER being my favourites. Another American here who’s never heard the word SWELLHEAD but in a country of more than 330 million I’m sure someone somewhere uses that term. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
Thanks both. We had LIT plus HE for 21A, same as you PeterO, regardless!
[Gervase @60 — I do know of jimsonweed. Thanks for telling me of its connection to the thorn apple. I had a landlord many years ago who pointed to jimsonweed growing in our garden and explained that we shouldn’t eat it, because it was hallucinogenic. To this day, I don’t know if he meant “Don’t eat it because it’s bad for you” or “Don’t eat it because it’s mine.”
AlanC @63 — Thanks for sharing the reminiscence. For what it’s worth, it’s totally clear to me that adults who freely choose to do this work should be allowed to do so legally and should be treated with dignity.]
Ralph Houston @68
Welcome to the club!
Adrian @61. It is not the first time Roz has disappeared after being rebuked over her comments (in this case on Ludwig). On Saturday May 1st 2021, Peedee, blogging the previous Saturday’s Prize, lost his rag with her over some injudicious potential spoilers about that day’s puzzle and about her complaints of easiness in the previous week’s. Peedee swore never again to blog a Guardian Prize, while Roz swore never again to comment on a Guardian cryptic. One of those resolutions proved more durable than the other.
Adrian@47. Not only did I try plot I tried plat. Both pot and pat seemed plausible as “shallow depression” and both fit one definition of map. Of course another meaning was intended. The beauty of cryptics.
Adrian @47 – I lived in an area called Pann’s Bank at one stage – where the salt pans had been – so knew that meaning of pan.
Being a newbie graduating from the Quick Cryptics, I managed to complete today, albeit with two reveals (KERNELS and COHERE). I’m totally ignorant when it comes to army terms, any clue involving an armed forces reference tends to go right over my head.
Had to come here for several parsings – I couldn’t work out PERSONAL PRONOUN – I got the “noun” aspect but thought maybe sex was personal and a worker was a pro(fessional), hah.
I get on well with Pasquale’s Quiptics, so I’m glad the same seems true for his Monday puzzles.
As someone who considers Mondays my level I have to say I struggled with this; don’t think I’ve encountered Pasquale and found it hard to get on his wavelength. My sticking point was 1d which was a NHO and I had to tortuously construct. Once that was in place the rest eventually yielded, and in retrospect there are some lovely clues. Another step upwards in my cryptic re-education.
After several weeks competing the monday puzzle I got 2 answers. Not happy. Several minutes wasted. The numbers of steps from clue to solution was in many cases too many.
Pen as in sheep pen, btw
(And we are all more than the work we do. It doesn’t define us or give us our identity)
As someone graduating from the Quiptic, I found this cryptic a pleasant step up. It took me a mo longer than the Don’s quiptics but his signature was quite obvious. Loved pompeii, eyeliner and dandelions, even though it took a while for the penny to drop.
WynnD @41 you may be reassured to hear that I, also being quite new to crosswords, found this one quite a challenge. I started it on Monday lunchtime and have worked out a few clues during quiet moments between work, kids etc all week. Just completed today (Friday)! Although Adrian @47, I also had ‘plot’ for 22 down, which meant I got stuck on 25 across.
I think ‘Punic’ and ‘Expounder’ were my favourites.
Thanks to Pascale and to PeterO, plus all the comments on here are always useful and entertaining.