Guardian Cryptic 29,578 by Vulcan

74 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,578 by Vulcan”

1. Some unusual parsings that I’d never have got.

   Never heard of ÉTAGÈRE nor HA’P’ORTH, HIP BATH, TAI.

   I tend to think of ADIEU as more permanent than “I’ll see you”, which might be closer to “au revoir”.

2. I tried to make an anagram of eats lots for TEA BAGS. I failed (or forgot) to parse RICOTTA, so thanks for this and the blog, manehi. Thanks Vulcan, too.

   Nice crossword, though took me twice as long as the last Vulcan.

3. Thanks Manehi. A couple of unparsed answers you’ve cleared up for me.
   You’ve made a slight error in your parsing of PEA. It should read [re]-PEA-[ts]

4. Seem to remember someone saying Th’art a daft haporth, can’t remember who. My housemate has an étagère in her bathroom. Nice puzzle, ta both.

5. I also took EGG to be a CD but in a different way. Not all species develop from an egg. Not sure any fungi, plants or bacteria originate in an egg.
   Is it me or has Vulcan become harder the last few months?

6. [grantinfreo @4, I woodah said that in me early days, and I can remember avin’ haporths in me loose change) ]

7. My faves: MOISTEN (this trick looks quite fresh), RICOTTA (for one of the Costas), T F O JULY (not the Y in the day but in the month…that’s Y), H-T HOLIDAY (in sum, great) and EGG (a well-hatched plot!).

   Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

8. I made a slow start on the downs – for me, even though he is the ‘gentle start to the week’, Vulcan is very much a wavelength setter and it takes me a while to get on it. Then the acrosses began to resolve and did so fairly smoothly leaving me with the pleasant task of revisiting those earlier challenges for the pdm’s. LOI was the rarely encountered ETAGERE. The long perimeter clues were fun – even though enumeration plus crossers made them fairly easy when revisited. For me, the gems were in the shorter clues – RICOTTA, as KVa says, for the Costa; MOISTEN for the laugh; TEA BAGS for the neat combo of devices and, yes, the misleading potential for the whole thing to be an anagram; DEFAULT, TROUPES, PONTIFF and IRASCIBLE which were very smooth and SPATTER which was COTD for the lovely use of ‘pitch’.

   Thanks Vulcan and manehi

9. Vulcan definitely getting a little harder, with some unusual/foreign words this time (ETAGERE which I vaguely knew, TAI which I didn’t but was obvious – I expected it would be a relative of koi rather than a sea fish – and the franglais). HAPORTH was familiar from the saying “don’t spoil the ship for a ha’p’orth of tar”. I can’t quite work out the parsing of H-T HOL but the answer was clear which is all that matters. Favourites include the four long ones on the perimeter and several others.
   Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

10. Thanks Vulcan and manehi
    I too found this much harder than Vulcan usually is. On the first pass of the across clues RYE was my only entry. Several not parsed even after entered.
    I had TEA PIGS at first for 19 – nearly works as well.
    Thanks for the PIERROT link. I saw the parsing, but wondered why “seaside”.
    Favourites TROUPES and PINTAIL.

11. Thanks Vulcan and manehi

    2024 is ending with toughies. Yesterday’s Quiptic and today’s ease-into-the-week both considerably harder than normal. I love it.

    Enjoyed the 4 fifteen letter boundary clues but even with those in place many others took a lot of puzzling out. A few hopeful pencilled-in guesses caused more harm than good for me.

12. ‘Adieu’ (27dn) is not ‘I’ll see you’ , it’s the final farewell i.e. ‘I’ll never see you again’.

13. After some dismal failures last week, I’m thrilled to say I completed this one – definitely on my wavelength. I liked the four long answers and HIRSUTE and PIERROT made me laugh. I live quite close to a rotting pier which is at last being renovated. If only all of the cryptic were like this one . . .

14. This looked tough at first but it fell in quite quickly once the lovely perimeter clues had been cracked. Liked MANIFESTO, ÉTAGÈRE, RICOTTA, AWFUL, IRASCIBLE and PONTIFF.

    Ta Vulcan & manehi.

15. As manehi has said, a very competent and enjoyable puzzle.

16. MOISTEN and RICOTTA were great clues. Still not totally convinced by HALF TERM HOLIDAY.

17. What a delight. Vulcan continues to hone his skills.

    Ticks everywhere but loved the inventive MOISTEN and the rusty pier in PIERROT, and ADIEU was so elegant.

    Many thanks, both.

18. Today I learned that the French for month is MOIS. It’s curious: in American-style crosswords, you’re expected to know approximately as much Spanish as British crosswords expect of French; I indeed can tell you, in Spanglish, that enero is the first mes, learned from doing too many crosswords. Also new to me was ETAGERE, more half-digested French. I think I’d give that piece of furniture a different name here, but it’s in the dictionary, so all fair game.

19. Never heard of ETAGERE or TAI, though the latter has very clear wordplay so I didn’t mind.
    Apart from that, lots to enjoy; the long ones were especially good (I don’t have a problem with HALF-TERM HOLIDAY) and I like the idea of the pier rot putting the clown out of a job.
    MOISTEN manages a device I don’t think I’ve seen before.
    Many thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

20. The shaggy one at 11ac has made a swift return, I notice. Thought MANIFESTO very clever, and MOISTEN and PIERROT both employed similar unusual clueing…

21. Regarding ADIEU, it may mean a final parting in French, but in English I’d say it’s just another (rather uncommon) word for “goodbye”, with no particular indication that it’s for the last time.

22. Tough but fun. One slight quibble – the word REFERENDA is a gerundive plural so would surely be better (if more clunkily) clued as “Judge has purpose in period for issues to be put to public consultation”. The public consultations themselves (cf the issues to be voted on) cannot grammatically be described as REFERENDA because gerunds cannot be plural in Latin. Nice paper on the subject here.

23. This was in my sweet spot today, and I sailed though it, unlike many of our colleagues. ETAGERE was my LOI (NB diacritics are optional with upper case letters in French), although it is a crossword standby, with its versatile arrangement of letters.

    Favourites: PIERROT, MOISTEN, RICOTTA and the anagram for CHTR. HA’P’ORTH was good to see – a great expression from the past, though the surface is not as smooth as most of the others IMHO.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi

24. thanks M and V! on the ADIEU topic, why not simply a comment to god about your impending arrival?

25. Adrian @22 as a proud pedant myself , I salute you on a magnificent piece of work

26. Quite tricky – I solved only 3 across clues on my first pass. Enjoyable puzzle – I did it quite slowly and needed some online help for the GK.

    Favourites: THE FOURTH OF JULY, MOISTEN.

    New for me: TAI=a deep red-brown Pacific sea bream; HA’P’ORTH = halfpennyworth (but probably saw ha’pennyworth in 19th century novels); PINTAIL duck; the seaside PIERROT troupes of the early Twentieth Century in the UK; ETAGERE – I know from French but did not realise it is used in English as well.

27. Adrian @22: You’re quite right with your Latin grammar, but in English ‘referendum’ can be pluralised either as REFERENDA or ‘referendums’. Most other languages also permit either a ‘Latin’ or a native pluralisation.

    English plays fast and loose with gerundives. ‘Agenda’ means ‘things to be acted upon’, but the double plural ‘agendas’ is commonly found.

28. Adrian @22, Dave F @25, I would like to annoyingly top this piece of excellent pedantry with even more pedantry. Adrian’s analysis is perfectly correct were we speaking Latin, or even respecting Latin grammar. However, in English ‘referendum’ long ago became a noun, detached from its Latin origin, and then acquired the bogus but impressive sounding plural ‘referenda’, perhaps in imitation of memorandum/memoranda, and the back-formed agendum from agenda.

    “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.” ― James D. Nicoll

29. Alluding to Costa Rica, the name of an actual country, as “one of the Costas” as if it was on a par with the Costa Brava or Costa del Sol strikes me as in rather poor taste.

30. Agree with the comments above that this was trickier that the usual Vulcan Monday. I hope the beginner solvers are not put off, but the Quiptic, and the excellent Quick Cryptic show that the Guardian has their interests in mind. NHO ETAGARE, but the parsing was clear and then I could look it up and add to my lexicon. TAI is a traditional New Year dish here in Japan, so nicely timed for today’s puzzle.

    I was quite amused by the misdirection of ‘one of the Costas’.

    Thanks Vulcan and Manehi.

31. poc @29: But it is at least a rich one, like Costa de Marfil 🙂

32. poc @29, in my opinion Costa coffee would be a matter of poor taste …

33. Re referenda. We’ve got a nice logical approach to plurals in English: more often than not, just stick an s on the end. So why complicate matters by taking an alternative approach from a dead language and getting the grammar wrong to boot. I personally wince when driving in to Liverpool you see road signs directing you to the stadia.

34. Blaise @ 33, that’s an argument I’ve seen in several fora. 😉

35. Had to look up ETAGERE, but the rest were fair enough for a Monday. As someone that was addressed frequently by my parents as a ‘daft a’porth’, I appreciated one for the oldies.

36. ETAGERE new for me too, but the clueing pointed very directly to that. I missed a couple of details such as ART = archaic ARE, but this was a very enjoyable wrangle.

    I’m reminded that there’s a Swedish Prog/Death Metal band called Opeth – I don’t know their music but struggle to take the name too seriously as it makes me think of HA’P’ORTH.

37. I got my Xs wrong, thinking of lotharios or Valentino, neither of which would parse. PEA is a good example of how to successfully clue a three-letter word. I liked the PIER ROT, HIP BATH (where ‘start to cheer’ wasn’t C), 4th of July, the nice anagram to give COME HOME TO ROOST, the small pitch for SPATTER, and LOI ETAGERE with the raised barrier.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi.

38. DaveF@25 Jacob@28, Gervase@27 , Blaise@33 – I hereby promise only to get pedantic when subtle but critically meaningful distinctions are lost, in this case the between two plurals referendums and referenda. Lovely MacNicoll quote Jacob, if this comes to Dictionary Court I just hope Dave F is foreman of the jury

39. I liked this puzzle very much but didn’t put adieu in straightaway because it is such a final goodbye.

40. I really liked this grid. Not come across ETAGERE, HAPORTH or OMBRÉ before but managed to parse them and isn’t that the sign of a good clue? Had MOISTEN quite early but didn’t fully ‘get it’ before the grid was complete. Definitely my favourite clue today but quite a few good ones.

    Seems to me Vulcan has added a bit of spice to their usual Monday offering.

41. TIL ETAGERE (used a crossword solver for that, my LOI)

    Got MOISTEN from crossers and definition and delighted with the parsing when I got it from here.

    Went down a rabbit hole for 9 thinking of things that would want lots of kisses (Xs)

    Enjoyed PIERROT and ART DECO.

    Thanks Vulcan and manehi

42. Adrian@38. I hope you didn’t sense any criticism of you or your post in my comment. On the contrary I found the article about the proposed distinction absolutely fascinating. Wasn’t the classic case of people trying to apply Latin rules to English the injunction to never split an infinitive because an infinitive was a single word in the dead language? You have my heartfelt permission to boldly exercise erudite pedantry as and when the fancy takes you.

43. My thought, on entering EGG, was, Aha, Vulcan has solved the perennial question of Which Came First. Although maybe the “some” provides a hedge here too. Nice puzzle.

44. [Adrian @38: My post was also a comment and not a criticism – although my maxim is: if you’re going to be pedantic you should do it properly 🙂 ).

    It isn’t just English that mistreats gerundives. The Italians, who should know better, also do it. What we call the ‘agenda’ of a meeting are in Italian ‘ordine del giorno’. However, ‘agenda’ is the usual Italian word for ‘diary’, in the sense of ‘daily appointments book’. It is treated as a feminine singular noun, and has the plural ‘agende’.

    But this is a natural process in the development of Italian. When the Latin neuter gender disappeared in the evolution of the colloquial language, many neuter nouns became masculine. But in some cases the neuter plural was reanalysed as a feminine singular. So ‘folia’ (leaves) became ’foglia’ (leaf). Most extreme is ‘pecora’ (flocks), which is now the usual Italian word for a single sheep. ]

45. Blaise @33. Be careful when you call Latin a dead language on this forum. Some people are very sensitive to that description. Any sudden pains you feel will be somebody sticking needles in an effigy of you.

46. Curious as to why “our civilisation” requires a “?”, especially as “our ships” has already established location.

47. Jay @46
    Possibly in deference to the Gandhi quote; on being asked what he thought about Western civilisation, he replied “I think it would be a good idea”?

48. Slightly chewy in parts but enjoyable nonetheless. As a fluent Franglais speaker I loved MOISTEN. Regarding ADIEU (and REFERENDA), once a word from another language is established in English, it means what it means in English 🙂 so neither of them concerned me at all.

    Many thanks both!

49. Blaise@42 invitation accepted! And I took no criticism, on the contrary I thought your @33 was a perfect summary (notwithstanding Crispy@45’s needling). Thanks too Gervase@44, I relish the debate, I would just ask that you refer to this article to challenge your @27 proposition, in specific relation to this crossword clue, that “in English ‘referendum’ can be pluralised either as REFERENDA or ‘referendums’”, and note that over 99% of quality American journalists disagree; it’s political scholars, not necessarily charged with guarding literary standards, who seem to have come up with the hypercorrection. #rabbit hole alert, I promise not to comment further on this! And I should repeat how much fun this crossword was, PIERROT was just brilliant.

50. scraggs @36: Opeth are well worth a listen, especially their album Damnation (which is nowhere near as Death Metal-y as its name implies). Like others, I found it challenging to get a foothold in this crossie, but once I did… apart from ETAGERE, that is (LOI by a long way). Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.
    [grantinfreo@4: we are presently in Perth visiting our son. How nice it is to have the crossie appear at 8am, rather than the 11am we are subjected to in the Eastern Daylight Savings states!]

51. Happy to admit I could do virtually none of this.
    I simply have no idea how Vulcan’s clues work.
    Thanks both.

52. I kind of parsed Half-term holiday as – summer being the term and half the term, i.e. “mer” taking off, as in – “on holiday” – the whole thing being school break

53. [Yep ditto here downunder, Tim C @6, though I think farthings had gone … except as a cultural memory, as in penny-farthing]]

54. I am often perceived by my family as a pedant but I’ve realised since coming on here that I’m a rank amateur in pedantry as well as the solving of cryptic crosswords. Although I haven’t given a thought to the gerundive in many a year, it’s heartening to know that there are people who still care about such things! I won’t be joining in the debate though. My approach is usually ‘what would Susie Dent say?’ and she’s very tolerant of the constantly evolving nature of language. Nevertheless, I didn’t really like ‘ADIEU’.

55. ETAGERE is a bit much for a Monday cryptic, I think, but otherwise a fair challenge all round. 30a had Number 2 Youngling groaning when explained.

    For all of us in Southport, where the Council has had the pier closed for two years now, 12a is a bit of a sore point.

56. Thanks to muffin@47 for the reminder about Gandhi. I hope that was what Vulcan had in mind. As far as the rest goes, I struggled to get a toehold, with OMBRE my only entry among the across clues on first viewing – the downs were a lot easier, though I still can’t see how 8d works – either in Vulcan’s clue or in manehi’s explication. (Apologies if anyone has already written a convincing parse of this clue – I have read everything, honest!)

    I don’t mind this being more difficult than many Mondays, though got there on the end. ÉTAGÈRE was perhaps a bit too much, but I understand that some will be disappointed. Keep on trying, HoofIt@51 and anyone else who was hoping for something more accessible. I hope you are able to appreciate the wit of the likes of PIER ROT and PIN TAIL, even if only in retrospect.

    Thanks to Vulcan and manehi.

57. The singular of COSTA RICA is, of course, COSTUM RICUM. Some prefer COSTUMS RICUMS. Many simply can’t be bothered with such stuff, and marvel at the ability of intelligent people to fritter their time and our money away writing learned articles about the best way to dance on a pin.

58. Sitting here in Liverpool it was nice to see two local references in today’s blog Blaise @ 33 and Hungry Dragon@55. (I laughed at PIERROT nonetheless).
    I enjoyed today’s crossword but it wasn’t the usual Vulcan Monday.
    Worked out ETAGERE but hadn’t heard of it before.

59. The spelling of HAPORTH threw me. I’m a Southerner, but I’ve been living in Yorkshire the past 30 years, so for me it’s an ‘apeth, or – in full – hapeth.

60. Andy@59. I have a similar migratory history but the compilers of Chambers obviously do not share our background and are sticking with HAP’ORTH. 😃

    To be fair, the “ORTH” is short for “worth”, but once shortened, pronunciations are likely to differ.

61. Doesn’t Costa thing to be respectful of Vulcan’s work.

62. Adrian@22 et al. A true pedant would have pointed out by now that October is properly MOIS EIGHT. 😉

63. Came here to express my appreciation for THE FOURTH OF JULY and PIERROT, shall be leaving with more than I ever wanted to know about gerunds (and off to refresh my memory of the fabulous Molesworth cartoons concerning the same).

64. Interesting to see that there seems to be few gardeners amongst crossword solvers. ETAGERE is frequently used to describe a structure used to display plants either in the garden or in greenhouses and conservatories.

65. [Greg@62: Couldn’t agree more. When will we ever discard this nonsensical mensual nomenclature? The Romans and their various emperors and gods have held sway for far too long imho. (And while we’re at it introduce the Alphalphine calendar so that we can get on with the rest of eternity in a logical and civilised manner.)]

66. Thanks both for the entertainment btw. ETAGERE was my nloi so a dnf.

67. Loved INDEPENDENCE DAY! What a clue.

    But in 18d: Japanese fish: the answer is initially obvious (3). It could more succinctly have been “The answer is initially Japanese fish.” Obvious seems superfluous.

    Thanks Vulcan and Manehi

68. Loved it. The right level for a Monday crossword and for me.
    Very nice clueing. Thanks Vulcan and Manehi.

69. Staggered that so many of you found so much of this difficult
    It was beautiful & easy peasy.
    Also, please stop trying to dumb down English grammar. The plural of referendum is referenda & of stadium- stadia

70. Almost put in disease for 12a, till I got crossers. Not familiar with Pierrot.

71. B Squared at 69

    Re: English Grammar.
    Thanks for that. Now we know.
    The most confident are not always the most right.

72. A bit hard in places and reasonable in some others. ETAGERE for instance confounded me and was the last clue (and I had to reveal it). Stuff like PIERROT was obscure although I liked the idea of the rotting pier causing the theatre to fail. Guessed all of the outer 15 letter clues. While I’ve managed some of the other Monday Cryptics this one made me realise that I’ve still a long way to go in the ways of the cryptic crossword.

73. We enjoyed this. My wife cracked most of it. One quibble – I thought ADIEU was a final goodbye, meaning to God. Au revoir when you expect to see them again. Of course at my age one might turn into the other……….

74. All complete and parsed. Finished on one sitting, which is rare for me. A lot of clever and enjoyable clues that I was able to put together from the wordplay, which is very satisfying

    MOISTEN and REFERENDA are great Canadian clues!

    Thanks for all the delightful pedantic comments!

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