Guardian Cryptic 29,563 by Paul

66 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,563 by Paul”

1. Thanks for explaining where Dutch came into it, Manehi.
   I always think of a HUMAN DUSTBIN as somebody who eats what others have left.
   Thanks to Paul. Nice challenge today.

2. Liked HIDDEN TALENT, UNSUNG, GRANULAR and SEX PISTOLS.
   Thanks Paul and manehi.

3. I needed a word finder for CARNEGIE, because even with all the crossers I couldn’t see it, and would never have thought of either Carnegie.

   Other than that, chewy, but in and mostly parsed – my other failure in parsing was OCCIDENT. I don’t get on with Paul’s soundalike solutions.

   Thank you to Paul and manehi.

4. I don’t like DRUID for ‘healer’ or is there a meaning I don’t know?

5. I think that’s the first time I’ve encountered “kind of” as an anagrind. Nice one!
   I never thought of Paul as doing good surfaces, and my initial impression was that they were really dodgy today. But as solving progressed (slowly) I changed my mind: such slick misdirection.

6. I thought this was a very unfriendly grid (two in a row!). The long clues were a great help but it took me a long time to solve some of the clues, and many were solve then parse. I needed help with UNSUNG and DUVET DAY was a new concept for me.

   My favourites were BIGAMIST, HIDDEN TALENT, GRANULAR and DREAMY.

   Thank you for the help Manehi, and to Paul for the less than SPEEDY solve.

7. A puzzle of two halves, with the right side going in much more easily than the left. Technically a DNF as I needed selective letter reveals for UNSUNG (kicking myself) and CARNEGIE (I don’t think I would have got this anyway, especially having not spotted that it was an anagram…)

   Overall it was less tricky than many Pauls I’ve attempted. Liked BIGAMIST, LIDO, LILY, DREAMY and MANET.

   Thanks to Paul and manehi.

8. New for me: DUVET DAY.

   Favourite: HUMAN DUSTBIN.

   5ac – I wondered why it was double Dutch, forgot about the Cockney slang. I’m curious to know if there are still any Cockneys born and raised in London these days? I saw/heard a few in the mid-1980s, but what about now?

   Thanks, both.

9. How is ay alas … like oy as in oy veh?

10. “Dutch” for wife is a shortening of “Duchess”, not rhyming slang.

11. No idea what quite a few of the surfaces meant here. Also no idea how druid=healer (Anna @4). I’ve known a few druids and I’m not sure they would associate with the moniker “healers”.

12. Trouble and strife/DUTCH (Dutchess of fife?) appeared elsewhere earlier this week.

13. ginf @9… from the big C
    “ay1 /ā/
    interjection
    Ah, oh
    Alas, esp in ay me
    ORIGIN: ME ey, ei, perh from Fr ahi, aï; cf Sp ay de mi”

    Andrew @10 Duchess of Fife = trouble and strife = wife?…. again from the big C…
    “dutch /duch/ (Cockney sl)
    noun
    A wife
    ORIGIN: Perh short for Duchess of Fife, rhyming slang for wife”

14. I did better than expected with this though I couldn’t parse many – figured out PELVIS and UNSUNG. 11a and 20a just came to me, as did 8d and 15/22d, and they helped with crossers. I was pleased to make some progress but so much guesswork isn’t very satisfying.

15. [Michelle@8 I’ve worked with proper Cockneys in and around the London area for the last 40 odd years. In my experience you’re far more likely to hear MLE (multicultural London English) unless listening to the much older generations. Post-war, after large areas of the East End were flattened and communities were moved where rebuilding happened – Harlow, the huge Limes Farm estate in Chigwell. What was left of Docklands in the 1980s was rebuilt as Canary Wharf, further marginalising East End communities. The Call the Midwife books were set in the old East End, and there are only tiny pockets left of the areas she wrote about (I had a student whose family came from that area, Kray links and all). In Harlow 20 odd years ago, Cockney was to be heard among the older people, but it’s moved on there too as new communities move in and the influence of wider culture.]

16. Painted myself into the NW corner and eventually revealed ELATED and OCCIDENT (I’m no chemist) before getting LICK. Some convoluted surfaces today (whatever are the ones for CHASTITY and GRANULAR all about?) but I did like BOTANICAL GARDEN, BIGAMIST, HIDDEN TALENT, THIGHBONE, SEX PISTOLS. I eventually remembered both CARNEGIEs, but that was the last I actually solved.

    Minor quibbles: DRUID=healer? And I’d have spelt it SLYLY, but I expect it’s a legitimate spelling. I agree with Crispy@1 about the HUMAN DUSTBIN – they’ll eat anything.

17. I note re 11ac that The Guardian puzzle suffers the same problem as The Times for those of us solving on paper that it is impossible when printed to distinguish between ‘r-n’ and ‘m’. Usually it’s clear from the context which is intended, but in today’s clue I assumed that ‘in tur-n’ was more likely than ‘in tum’ and it indicated a reversal might be involved.

    Elsewhere I had BEAT as the answer at 1dn which worked perfectly until the answer at 1ac became apparent.

18. I thought 14ac was a little clumsy as “in” and “to bank” could both be envelope indicators so one is redundant. Other than that a slow start until I eventually got on Paul’s wavelength, as is usual.

19. Seemed impenetrable at first, but finally teased out all the tricks and devices. Favourites were BIGAMIST, SEX PISTOLS, BOTANICAL GARDEN, HIDDEN TALENT, HUMAN DUSTBIN, LIDO, LILY and CARNEGIE. OCCIDENT, is what it is, it’s Paul after all. The SEX PISTOLS may be an old band but they are still touring with only Frank Carter replacing Johnny Rotten.

    Ta Paul & manehi.

20. Yes, I wondered about BEAT, but wasn’t convinced.

21. I found this very tough today, had to make liberal use of the check button but got away with no full reveals. Lots of parsings escaped me, so thanks for all the elucidation, manehi. I’m not familiar with Duchess of Fife rhyming slang, despite my father being a proud cockney (to answer michelle@8, yes, they still exist!)

    I liked HUMAN DUSTBIN and BOTANICAL GARDEN, ELATED was my LOI despite being one of the most straightforward parsings!

    Thanks to paul and manehi

22. Personally I consider chastity to be more of a vice.
    I saw the anagram for CARNEGIE after I entered it. I had forgotten about Dale, thought doi I have any reason to remember him. HIDDEN TALENT ditto.
    It made me chuckle, so that’s a win.
    Thanks both.

23. [AlanC @19. What? Have they dug Sid Vicious up?]

24. Similar to AlanC @19, this was hard to get into for a while. I found it challenging but not unfairly so, regardless of one or two question marks around some of the parsing (which have been covered in the blog and comments so far).

    So it was rewarding to finish, aided by Word Wizard on a couple of the clues which held out.

    This felt largely free of some of the methods Paul employs which tend to prove divisive.

25. Crispy @23

    Glen Matlock has an inbuilt advantage over Sid, for two reasons:

    He’s alive
    He can play bass

26. Delightful and very tricky!! I was misdirected by surfaces and slowed down by complex clueing. All solved with frequent checking, but not all parsed.
    So thank you manehi for explaining ‘Dutch’, the occidental/oxidant homonym (didn’t hear it), what bank was doing in 14a, and the hidden TALENT (didn’t see that either).
    Favourites were BOTANICAL GARDENS, BIGAMIST, THIGHBONE, HUMAN DUSTBIN, UNSUNG.
    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

27. Did anyone else try CAPACITY for CHASTITY with space instead of haste? I liked BIGAMIST but had to use a word finder for a number of clues.

28. As entertaining and inventive as ever.
    I liked DREAMY, BLUDGEON, the positioning of CHASTITY over LILY its symbol, and that of OCCIDENT too.
    Thanks to Paul and manehi

29. It took me a while to get into this, but it mostly went smoothly from there, apart from feeling like crumbling into dust after realising that ‘old band’ was The Sex Pistols.

30. Thought Venutian had to be a misprint (this is the Grauniad after all) but apparently not. Nho HUMAN DUSTBIN nor DUVET DAY so DNF.

    I too disliked DRUID=healer (Chambers doesn’t give that as a definition) but since virtually nothing is known about the original Druids, and that was written by Romans with an agenda, I suppose anything goes.

31. MAC089 @29

    Just on that point, it reminds me of a conversation about music with someone a few years younger than me, and Public Enemy came up. ‘Public Enemy?’ said the other person, ‘they’re ANCIENT’.

    The conversation in question was in 1995.

32. me@28 … the placement of 9a is probably occidental

33. Struggled through this in two helpings. Took me towards the end to solve TALK TO THE HAND which is an expression I’ve never been particularly fond of. It could only have been DIVISIONAL with all the crossers in place, but no idea why this was the answer. Both body parts THIGHBONE and PELVIS took a while, then provided a chuckle or two. And I always thought it was Slyly rather than Slily in the clueing for the bloomer at 18ac.
    Last to submit was my CHASTITY, so thanks for explaining that Manehi. And many thanks for providing this morning’s entertainment, Paul…

34. Frankie @18: I read the “in” as being the link word, as in the generic clue format ‘Definition (found) in wordplay” so no doubling up.

    For “chastity” I thought “hasty” a better fit for “hurrying” than “haste” – both can be used as adjectives. Nicbach @22: Chastity is certainly part of traditional Christian virtues, although the importation of it from Aristotelian virtue ethics is not exact, as Aristotle dealt with “temperance” as a virtue, and it was more Aquinas’s doing to adapt that into a sexual thing. Virtue ethics is having something of a revival in modern philosophy, with both deontological and consequentialist approaches failing to answer many people’s needs.

    A slow start – but everything fell eventually, with a bit of trademark smut and no cross-referencing for once (thank you Paul…). Thanks manehi for the lucid explanations.

35. Not too bad for Paul. Favourite was HUMAN DUSTBIN. Not quite sure of the DRUID definition either.

36. I cannot remember the last time I gave up with so many clues unsolved. This was another puzzle I could not enjoy.

37. scraggs @25: indeed 🙂

38. Thank you, Paul and Manehi. Managed to solve over 90% without revealing, normally Paul’s puzzles really are, err, too cryptic for me. Very enjoyable. I liked human dustbin, bigamist and the sex pistols. My family calls me the human dustbin because I usually end up eating what the children leave in restaurants.

39. I generally get to the end of a Paul puzzle with relief rather than satisfaction, and today was no exception, although perhaps on the easier end of Paul. Never seen ANNEXE spelled like that, nor slily rather than slyly (my spell checker objects to the former). 24A is new to me. And several parsings escaped me.

    20A is clever in hindsight, 19D was a favorite.

40. Out of curiosity, does anybody still say “talk to the hand”? It feels like something that had a moment about fifteen years ago.

41. Praise be! – a Paul puzzle with no linked clues or split entry solutions.

    Enjoyable and tricky in parts. Like Rob T, I found the RHS yielded more easily, though HUMAN DUSTBIN was a late entry, as I originally read ‘tum’ as ‘turn’ (snap, jackkt @17) and missed the anagram at first.

    I liked HIDDEN TALENT, BOTANICAL GARDEN, LIDO and CARNEGIE (‘kind of’ is a splendid anagrind).

    I share the dubiety about ‘healer’ = DRUID but also ‘oxidant’ as ‘corrosive agent ‘ – it ain’t necessarily so.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

42. A fairly gentle offering from Paul. I agree with Rob T@7 that the right hand half went in much more easily than the left.

    Some gems of course – HIDDEN TALENT, DUVET DAY, CARNEGIE and DREAMY.

    Struggled to parse OCCIDENT though with the crossers it was obvious, but thinking about it, perfectly fair.

    Thanks Paul and manehi

43. I enjoyed this one a lot, with OCCIDENT, ELATED, BIGAMIST, LIDO, GRANULAR and CARNEGIE as particular favourites. Not easy, but I only finish Paul within the day about half the time, so not too difficult either. Thanks manehi and Paul

44. [Earworm: 15d, 20d from Jerry Springer: The Opera]

45. I thought that was Paul back to his brilliant best. A really good challenge but not too hard. COD for me was BIGAMIST, but several others ticked. Thanks both.

46. The first Paul I’ve managed to finish and parsed everything, better go buy a lottery ticket.

    Anne- Druids tend to be a healing class in many video games and I suspect board games like D&D.

47. Like grantinfreo @9, I wasn’t sure about “ay” for “alas” in the clue for DUVET DAY at 24ac. But I had vague memories – from Shakespeare, I supposed – of “ay me” for “alas”, and I knew the Italian word “ahimè”. If spoken with a deep and regretful sigh, “ay me” and “ahimè” sound pretty similar. Tim C @13 points out other European connections.

    I thought the clue for ANNEXE at 10ac had a nice surface, and – like Blaise @5 and Gervase @41 – I enjoyed “kind of” as the anagrind in the clue for CARNEGIE at 16dn.

    Many thanks to Paul and manehi.

48. This was another Paul I came close to enjoying. The natural syntax of 14 would indicate to me that hast would envelope city.

49. An enjoyable outing from Paul, although I missed the anagram for CARNEGIE, so thought it was just a dd.

    One of Paul’s better ones IMHO; I liked BIGAMIST, CHASTITY, DUVET DAY, and DREAMY.

    Thanks Paul and manehi.

50. Jacob @39: As a verb, or meaning an appendix to a document, the spelling is almost always ‘annex’, but as an extension or addition to a building it is usually ANNEXE – though why, I’m not sure. Architectural French?

51. Highly enjoyable. HUMAN DUSTBIN, BOTANICAL GARDEN, HIDDEN TALENT among my all time favourites. Thanks Manehi and Paul!

52. Ay there’s the rub… and it’s in chambers

    Superb puzzle from Paul. Top marks for 13a providing not just today’s earworm but also inspiring this slightly risqué clue “Finally played Lido Shuffle for Steely Dan (5)”

    Cheers P&M

53. A sometimes tricky but fair Paul, without the usual excruciating aspects. When I was very little my mother used to call me DUSTBIN (affectionately of course); I haven’t heard the term in that sense since.

54. A tricky solve with a decent amount of check button, but got everything in the end with no full reveals and everything parsed. A puzzle of quarters, working around from the SE to the SW and then the NW and NE last of all. Slapped my forehead when I realized what 1ac was. (I did get BOTANICAL GARDEN early but that didn’t help till I got more crossers, partly because I spaced out and kept trying GARBAGE as part of the anagram instead of HUSBAND for some reason!)

    Quibbles first then ticks: Was the exclamation point in 13ac significant? Had me looking for an &lit and LIDO is only vaguely familiar so that blocked me getting from the SE to the NE for a while. (The Venetian island works as well as the word for “pool” I guess.) I can see the exclamation point in 4d as part of the exclamation “Well!” as manehi has it. “One direction” seems a bit loose as a definition for Occident but I guess it has a question mark, and for once Paul’s pronunciation wasn’t an issue for me. Obligatory grumble about “girl” for ANNE instead of something more specific like Queen or Archer.

    For ticks, very much like GRANULAR, THIGHBONE (once I was able to work it out!), HIDDEN TALENT, and BOTANICAL GARDEN. I found DRUID for “healer” defensible because druids have cure spells in Dungeons and Dragons and that is a more common usage these days than the ancient Celtic priests. Overall very chewy and fair.

    Thanks Paul and manehi!

    ps looking at the grid again the four H’s composed of black squares jump out, and two of the longer answers begin with H, but I expect that’s a coincidence?

    pps Bodycheetah@52 haha on that clue

55. Duvet day! Loi. Tricky as ever.

56. For some odd convoluted reasoning I put in STEADY instead of SPEEDY (STEAD = second as in stead and STEADY = fast) but SPEEDY was a much more obvious solution.

57. A Paul that I couldn’t finish. No surprise there. But as I only had 2 clues outstanding I am still overly pleased with myself (Paul being the name that usually gets spat out in frustration at my own shortcomings). Loved the Sex Pistols clue.
    Big thanks to Manehi for explaining my parsing failures and Paul for giving me a chance this time

58. Paul’s surfaces can be a little dissonant but his resolutions are second to none imho, HUNAN DUSTBIN a perfect example – just wonderful

59. wynsum@32 That’s the funniest thing I’ve seen all day. Bravo!

60. Does anyone else think that powdery and granular mean different consistencies. Instant coffee is usually granular. It used to be powder.

61. Bodycheetah @52 In the murky realm of risque clues (and with reference of Blaise @5,who had nor met ‘kind of’ as an anagrind) there is Kind of Blue may facilitate the business of Congress (4). Zoot will get the reference is no one else does.

62. Thought this was Paul at his best, challenging but not infuriating. The top left corner was very tricky and ended up going in last. HIDDEN TALENT is clever and LIDO is a bit of a classic.

63. Balfour@61 Ooh er, missus!

64. Like several others I’m not convinced by the spelling of “slily” but apart from that a good Pauline brain workout – thanks, P & M.

65. Jacob@39, Gervade@50. In my experience, ‘annexe’ is estate-agent speak for any kind of outbuilding (e.g. a privy, shed or garage) that could conceivably ‘add value’ to any property they are trying to sell.

66. B@61 🙂

Comments are closed.