Guardian 29,579 / Paul

70 comments on “Guardian 29,579 / Paul”

1. Geronimo and lampooning were Paul at his finest.

   Loved this crossword – probably the longest solve time of the year so far. And Paul with no multiparty clues!

   Thanks Paul and Eileen

2. How does Driver = MOTOR OIL?
   I know I’m a bit thick at times…. New Year’s Eve? What’s that? Time for bed obvs… 😉

3. Maybe I was just in the right mood but this was a Paul I very much enjoyed solving. The repetitions were intriguing. TOGA for the use of ‘tog’, SLUMBER for the misdirection with ‘hamper’, GERONIMO for the fun of it, ALABAMA for the mother’s ruin, DEMOISELLE for the misdirection with ‘miss’ and LAMPOONING for the surface were my favourites. Only query – I am no motorhead but is MOTOR OIL the actual driver of a car or just the lubricant that keeps the engine moving?

   Thanks Paul and Eileen

4. Witty, tricky and topical. Carboy was new to me and I hadn’t heard of a toga party. Sounds fun! Many thanks to Paul and Eileen and happy new year everyone.

5. I think you’ve said it all Eileen.Thank you for your last blog for 2024. In addition to the clues you selected, I also liked the short clues – BUNG, TOGA etc. My favourite was LAMPOONING.

   Thank you to Paul for the festive themes this week, leftover sandwiches and now a variety of parties, some of which sound more appealing than others.

   Happy New Year to everyone. Although there is no great cause for optimism, I really hope 2025 will bring peaceful times to a troubled world.

6. Tim C @2 and PostMark @3

   Well, I’m not even a driver! I was hoping someone else would explain that one. 😉

7. Liked TOGA, MARKSMAN, GREASY, SKUA, ALABAMA and ENTAIL.
   MOTOR OIL looks like a weak def as others have pointed out.

   Thanks Paul and Eileen.

8. Eileen @6, as someone with a PhD in Tribology (Lubrication) I’ve no idea. 🙂

9. For internal combustion engines on road vehicles then motor oil is a lubricator not a driver – but engine oil / bunkers / motor oil are all terms used for stuff burned in Motor Vessels at sea. It’s still weak imho

10. Maybe I wasn’t in the right mood, but I didn’t enjoy that. Having seen these explanations, it’s all fair and above board though.

11. Loved this – playing spot the ‘lift and separate’: 12a “rubbish bags”, 17a “spoilt child”, 20a “Love Child” (1968), 22a “dripping taps”, and
    18d “Fancy dress” (another kind of party)

12. Thanks both. I’ll just echo what Postmark said @,wherever he was.
    And thanks again Eileen for explaining ALABAMA, I should have gat that, love the joke, and for all your blogs
    As far as MOTOR OIL went, I simply assumed it was a synonym for heavy fuel oil, which doesn’t drive a lot of motors these days.

13. What a flattering crossword to end the year. It seemed knotty, tricky and a surefire dnf, then the last word fell into place and I felt rather clever!
    Thank you Paul, and Eileen for a year of great crosswords and erudite blogs.

14. What’s happened to Paul? Second puzzle in a row with no cross-referencing or split entry solutions!

    Good fun, with some tricky parsing here and there. FOI was SKUA – an old favourite which I haven’t seen for a while. LOI was TOGA – I had to run through the alphabet for that one. MOTOR OIL has a great construction, but I shared the puzzlement about the definition. I think nicbach @12 is probably right.

    I particularly liked HOOLEY, GERONIMO, ALABAMA, LAMPOONING.

    Best wishes to all for 2025, though there’s not a lot out there to be happy about.

    Thanks to Paul and our favourite blogger

15. Plenty of fun to be had here, though I wasted time (it being a Paul puzzle) trying to substitute ‘sex’ for ‘it’ in 18D. Loved LAMPOONING and DEMOISELLE. I too thought MOTOR OIL uncharacteristically weak.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

16. I couldn’t parse 4d or 22d – never heard of RAG = student charitable event.

    New for me: HOOLEY=party.

    Happy New Year to everyone!

17. I was just not on it this morning, which is a shame as there were some great clues. Thanks to all setters, bloggers and fellow solver’s for brightening the year

18. MOTOR OIL wouldn’t be a “driver” even if used as fuel, and TAIL=detective doesn’t persuade, but those are my only complaints (unusually for a Paul puzzle).

19. I’ve never heard of a Toga party.
    I presume folk are obliged to arrive wearing a toga – but I do hope there’s more to it than that, for if not it sounds a tad lame.
    I’m obviously in the minority here, but for me this one was a real slog. Knowing Paul’s tortuous style, I wasted an eternity writing down names/acronyms for all the political parties that I could think of…. though at least that meant GREEN TEA was a write-in.
    Still, no multi-word nor linked clues, which is something to be thankful for.
    As are Eileen’s contributions to this site. Thank you Eileen for your incessant good humour and enthusiasm. Even when I haven’t enjoyed my battle with a crossword, your delight at details that sailed over my head, always cheers me up. Happy New Year to you and to everyone here!

20. Maybe someone can answer Eileen’s question, does Rag Week still exist?

21. Surely HOOLEY and CEILIDH are the same word? Does anyone know? I agree with everyone else who found this an excellent puzzle (apart from the dubious MOTOR OIL). When TOGA was my first one in, I feared I would be faced with parties I’d never heard of, but after that all were familiar once the answers were prised out of the clues. I was looking out for ‘LAB’ and ‘CON’ and wasn’t disappointed. Thanks to Paul and Eileen (plus all the setters and bloggers who’ve kept us happy this year). Blwyddyn Newydd Dda i bawb, Happy New Year to everyone.

22. I found this tricky but for some reason (it’s me not you as they say) I’ve never been a fan of these puzzles which require you to find 1500 synonyms for the same word or phrase.

    I’ve never heard “hooley” used to mean a party – but I have used it to describe fairly riotous weather (“It’s blowing a hooley out there”). Apparently the original use is the Irish wild party meaning, so it may be a metaphorical borrowing, or it may also be from Orcadian scots “hoolan”. Anyhoo, I learned something today, which is a good way to end 2024.

    On “motor oil” I wondered if the term was used more generically for fuel when cars were introduced – I could quite see Peter Wimsey getting the garage where he kept his car to “top up the motor oil” – but a search on google books for the phrase only seems to throw up instances of it as a lubricant, even from quite early on.

    All good fun – thank you Paul and Eileen and Happy Hogmanay even if the parties have been cancelled and the rain will dampen the fire balls at Stonehaven.

23. I loved this, despite being held up and misdirected all over the place by Paul’s exquisite wordplay and his devious surfaces eg looking at you, dripping taps and whoopee. The party theme was both seasonal and joyful although, not being a raging party animal, I confess that the ‘party’ entry in the online Chambers Thesaurus was very useful. Who knew there were so many types of them?
    I loved so many of the clues; special mentions to ALABAMA, DEMOISELLE, CEILIDH, LAMPOONING and GERONIMO, which seemed particularly daft.
    Thanks for the year of great puzzles, Paul and clear and helpful blogs, Eileen.
    Best wishes everyone for 2005.

24. Yes Rag Week still exists and students still do silly things for charity.
    Thanks Paul, Eileen and all you wonderful and clever bloggers whose comments I’ve enjoyed so much all year.
    Hopes for peace in 2025. Never thought I’d live that long!

25. What a brilliant finish to the year, nicely summed up by Eileen and PostMark @3. I’ve been to a few Irish HOOLEYS and CEILIDHS in my time so I enjoyed those along with LAMPOONING, DEMOISELLE, MARKSMAN and GERONIMO. Surprised that some haven’t heard of a TOGA party, I’ve had the dubious pleasure of attending a few but certainly a long time ago. Took me much longer than usual but definitely worth the toil.

    Ta Paul & Eileen for another year of marvellous blogs. HNY all.

26. nicbach @20 – I googled – there were some Rag Weeks advertised in 2024 – lots of schools involved too.

    I couldn’t understand the definition of MOTOR OIL either, and thought a HOOLEY was spelt hoolie, which is in my idiolect as a strong wind and a party. (I’ve got various bits of Orcadian dialect in my idiolect, when we check back on words we use, which doesn’t entirely surprise me as my maternal grandmother’s family came from Papa Hoy). I found this tougher than the sandwiches version, which I solved much quicker than this one.

    Thank you to Eileen and Paul – Hogmanay wishes to everyone on this day of hoolies cancelling the outside parties.

27. Shanne @26 – you prompted me to do a bit of googling myself and I was chuffed to find a feature on Rag Weeks at my own alma mater – and some of them went back to my era!
    https://epigram.org.uk/10-weird-and-wonderful-things-bristol-university-students-did-to-raise-money-for-rag-week/
    The daftest thing we did, to mark the Transantarctic Expedition, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commonwealth_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition
    was to camp out on a traffic island overnight (in February) near a bus station, in order to catch home-going cinema crowds in the evening and early workers in the morning. I didn’t sleep a wink and have never been so cold, before or since – but we did collect a lot of money!

28. Only half a dozen solved on first pass, but gradually winkled away at this. Each solve accompanied by a barely audible, “Ah, of course”. Last few in the intersecting DEMOISELLE, GREASY and GARDEN. CARBOY a new one for me too. For 40 years I could have been splendidly costumed up for a TOGA party thanks to a wonderful place in our city that is sadly closing now, as the owner is retiring. It is even said that Steven Spielberg wrote her a complimentary message of thanks when filming in the area…

29. Great stuff from my favourite setter and blogger. I only failed on 21 down and 25 across – I convinced myself that 21 down was EATING (collection): EG call for help (B)EG around A TIN. I’ll get me coat.

30. Eileen @27: very admirable indeed. I remember dressing up in a Girls Brigade uniform with long wig and startling makeup, carousing around the bars in the Queens University area with semi-intoxicated friends. There used to be a magazine called PTQ (Pro Tanto Quid) produced by the Queens Rag committee which was very bawdy, especially the ‘blue sexion’, which would never be allowed today, but it made a lot of money for charity. It was also a great non-sectarian celebration for both sides of the divide at the height of the Troubles. Happy days.

31. This finished Paul for me. just wont waste my time any more. @2 and @3, nope Driver= motor oil,? and I’m pretty sure “Geronimo!” is/was a war cry? nothing like “Whoopee”. Greasy? when did “silver” stop being ‘AG’ and become ‘grey’? But especially for my last Paul, there was no smut? which made a pleasant change.

32. Surely one of the best known toga parties in post-Roman times must be that featured in National LAMPOON’s Animal House starring John Belushi. Though I can imagine that’s a movie that doesn’t feature too highly in the fifteensquared listings of favourite flicks …

33. Thank you Paul and Eileen for today’s shindig, a cracking delight. And thanks to all setters and bloggers for a year of much merriment.

34. [Eileen – it’s also knowing what the charity weeks are called in different places – Nottingham it’s Carni, according to my daughter, who studied there for her first degree. London it was definitely RAG (it stands for Raising and Giving), and back when it was all London University and different colleges it happened at the same time across the city.

    We had an annual tiddlywink challenge down the middle of Oxford Street as one event, you can see it in action on this video at around 6:30, plus the 5-legged race and silly walks. (I saw the guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth playing the piano at the funeral of one of the lads getting gunked earlier this year). It was worth getting our hands on the RagMags from the hospitals. We were raising for deaf children as someone had a younger sibling who was deaf, and there were at least one very, very noisy party for deaf children later that term.]

35. A nice way to end the year. But Paul with no cross-referencing, no smut and no horrible homophones! Perhaps he’s reformed for the new year. Hope not! A very clever crossword about one word. Thanks Eileen, Andrew and Co for all your graft. I appreciate all you do. Happy New Year

36. @4 SueB
    You obviously haven’t seen the movie Animal House. It includes a super Toga Party

37. …also, whenever I see a mention of TOGA I get to smile, remembering Frankie Howard and his performances in Up Pompeii…

38. Aided by a list of parties, I managed this quite well, although I got held up a bit in the NE corner.

    Paul back on top form, I thought, although one or two definitions were a bit dodgy. I liked the rubbish bags for HOOLEY, the love child in GERONIMO (Collins and the ODE give: ‘An exclamation expressing exhilaration’), the dripping taps that were GREASY, DEMOISELLE’s auction, the foreign senator AT ONE’S DOOR, and the light starter in LAMPOONING.

    Thanks for sterling efforts by Paul and Eileen in 2024, let’s hope crosswordland is just as enjoyable in 2025.

39. I think of TOGA parties as an upmarket version of pyjama parties (sadly missing here!)

    Shanne @34: I think your etymology is a backronym. RAG is an old term for a practical joke.

40. Gervase @39 – I wouldn’t disagree that it was a backronym, but those RagMags did say Raising and Giving on them, and it’s how my daughter knows those weeks, having attended university 30 odd years after me.

41. Wait…there was a theme???
    Happy New Year Paul, Eileen and all

42. I’m one of the few party poopers. I find these type of crosswords (eg the recent sandwich one) end up with clue or definition being a bit of a stretch. A tail is not a detective to me. I was one for many years and never tailed anyone. I’d give it 9/10 for ingenuity but 4/10 for fun. But obviously lots of people like it. To finish the year on a positive note, I loved Alabama.

43. To my disbelief, I completed it a few minutes ago. A lot of use of the check button. A lot of going away and coming back later. Some parsed, some not – which is why I’m here of course.

    But while there’s something to be said for completing it, I’m stuck with the feeling that I haven’t gained anything along the way, I’m sorry to say.

    [Edit] – in fairness, there was some satisfaction in having solved DEMOISELLE.

44. Could not get one answer.
    Thanks both.

45. First it was sandwiches, now it’s parties. Can’t get anywhere with Paul’s crosswords.

46. Amma @45 – this puzzle took the longest any puzzle has taken me for quite some time. I either get straight on Paul’s wavelength, spot what’s going on and race through his puzzles, (which I did for the sandwiches one) or I slog through them. This I got some stuff in on first pass – CEILIDH, MARKSMAN, and the TEA of GREEN TEA, AT ONE’S (and there’s an R in the rest), EMISSARY and DISASTER, then had gave up for a break part way through the rest. Four of those are anagrams or anagram adjacent. It helps having seen bar = Mars or other names of chocolate bars before. He is one of the setters who is more mischievous and allusive with his definitions, and the tricks he plays.

    A lot of solvers don’t like Paul, but when he’s on form, he’s one of the more entertaining setters.

47. Shanne@46 – I’ll take your word for it that Paul can be entertaining! Maybe in time. I would never have come up with Mars bar.

48. Paul remains one of my favourite setters; perhaps I have a twisted mind; but, as with some other contributors today, and despite the obvious theme, I found today’s offering rather tricky to start, and more so to finish (HOOLEY holding out until after a second cuppa with a slice of my Best Beloved’s Christmas Cake this afternoon).
    May I add my thanks to the righteous Paul and to the saintly Eileen for this year’s work, and I trust for many to come. Indeed, seasonal greetings to all the Grauniad setters and bloggers here, you make my days.
    We passed round a well-thumbed RAG Mag at MGS in the 50s / 60s; I can still remember some of the jokes, utterly inappropriate nowadays, and probably even then.
    [Eileen, we awoke to a couple of inches of festive snow in Askrigg last Sunday. Doubly gorgeous.]

49. Well, I very nearly did it – I nearly ignored the puzzle because it was a Paul. Only failure – I wrote in BASH.

50. Steppie @48

    I think, for me, Paul is the most variable of all the setters. I just never know what to expect when I see his name on a puzzle. Often, I can’t be bothered with his scattering the entries all over the grid, or his bizarre surfaces or, depending largely on my mood, his schoolboy humour. At other times – not quite so often – I’m moved to say, ‘This puzzle reminds me of why Paul used to one of my favourite setters’. I didn’t say that this morning – but I could have: I really enjoyed it.

    [Thank you for the ‘postcard from Wensleydale’ – I could picture it so easily 😉 ]

51. When but a raw youth in the early 60s’ sailing the seven seas as a navigating apprentice on oil tankers, diesel was known as Gas oil. This could be it re 1d

52. What a fu puzzle, time well wasted!

53. David W @51
    And in French, it’s « gas-oil » or « gazole »

54. HoofitDonkey@44 and Amma@45, like Shanne@46 I found this loads more difficult than Paul’s sandwiches puzzle (Friday), I don’t think the awkward grid helped, and I prefer sandwiches to parties in real life, though hoping I enjoy tonight’s 25ac one. Definitely worth the slog, thank you both!

55. I was puzzled by “detective” for TAIL, but Chambers does include the following in its list of definitions for the latter:

    “21. A person engaged to follow and keep a constant watch on someone (informal)”

    I think that’s OK then.

    Even after reading the blog and the comments, I confess I have no idea how the definition for 20ac (GERONIMO) is supposed to work.

    I generally get on well with Paul, but not this time. I had to cheat on a couple of clues and then had to come here for explanations of quite a few.

56. Found this and the sandwiches one much more difficult than Paul”s usual fare, but got there in the end. TOGA was one of my first ones in (as it would be for any fan of the film National Lampoon’s Animal House!), but both HOOLEY and CARBOY were new to me, so they were the last two to fall. Thanks Eileen, especially for the parsing of GREASY, which had completely stumped me… and agree with others above that the definitions for GERONIMO and MOTOR OIL were very weak.
    Happy New Year to one and all.

57. Eileen@50. I have also said that ‘Paul used to be one of my favourite setters’ and I am sorry that he had adopted a number of ‘trademarks’ that, to me, have taken the pleasure from his puzzles. You have mentioned the schoolboy humour, the linked solutions and the loose definitions (which are frequently ludicrous, like today’s ‘motor oil’ and ‘Whoopee’): I would add his more recent tendency to include the names of lesser known geographical locations and also unfamiliar, to me, musical terms to remind us that he studied music. There is no question that Paul can write first rate clues, but I find puzzles like today’s more irritating than entertaining, and it is surely not too much to expect setters and editors to check that definitions are accurate.
    After that rant, I wish everyone a happy, healthy and peaceful year in 2025.

58. Ted @55, HoagyM @56 and George @57 (and others, I think, earlier) re GERONIMO

    I almost invariably find Collins more helpful than Chambers:
    GERONIMO
    def 1 :the Apache Indian chieftain (qv)
    def 2: US a shout give by US paratroopers as they jump into battle
    def 3: an exclamation expressing exhilaration , esp when jumping from a great height

    WHOOPEE: an exclamation of joy, excitement, etc

    It works for me.

59. Thanks, Eileen @58. I’m still unhappy with “as” and “made” in the definition, but that may be just my problem.

60. Not entirely, Ted – I do take your point. 😉

61. I don’t like ‘classes’ as the definition for GENERA. They are completely different taxonomic categories. I usually enjoy Paul’s puzzles, but not the last two.

62. Brilliant! Sure, there may be a few quibbles as described above, but I thought that this was great fun, with lots of satisfying penny-drop moments including GERONIMO, GREASY, and DEMOISELLE. Not at all easy, but welcome to have something to come back to over the holiday period. Thanks Eileen and Paul. And all best wishes to the 15 squared community for a healthy and happy 2025.

63. Should I feel old? Toga parties were very much a thing when I was a student in the ’80s although I never went to one myself. (I think it might have been more popular with some faculties than others.) Basically, you wrapped yourself in a sheet.

64. I like a Paul to get my teeth into and expect it to take a day or more, having a go every few hours when I get a chance.
    Really liked GERONIMO when I finally saw it and GREASY and TOGA.
    I gave up on HOOLEY and CARBOY.
    I’m new to this site and blogs like Eileen’s, as well as the comments they inspire, are a nice haven of civilisation- so thanks to all.

65. AlanC@30: Ah yes, the PTQ. Our school authorities attempted to keep it away fron the grounds, not always successfully.

66. Paul has a gift for perfectly grammatical distractors. Also some of the most exquisitely tight clueing.
    But a crunchy diet of nuts and bolts all the same.

    Thanks both

67. Eileen@50. A bit late to this discussion, having only just remembered to go back and ‘finish’ (I.e. reveal 12 and 22a). But interested in your comment on change in Paul’s puzzles over time. A friend and I were voicing our disappointment in many of his recent offerings – convoluted clues and weird surfaces – and she was wondering whether it was still the same Paul.

68. Ted@59, Eileen@60 – “Geronimo” is a word cried out I think, according to (radio) sitcom writers and modern comedians, during those few seconds of most excitement in the bedroom. As “making whoopee” is a phrase describing such congress, then the presence of “as” and “made” is explained; the clue is actually rather good (and offers that little taste of ‘smut’ that others thought missing)
    …Hope that makes sense (it’s late on Sunday and I’m catching up….)
    A brilliant, wonderful puzzle as ever (but then I just like Paul, with or without cross-referencing!)
    Great blog and great puzzle. Many thanks

    (And a belated Happy New Year to the one or two folk who may see this – and particularly to Kenmac for his kind oversight)

69. My first exposure to cryptics was in 1968. Colleagues at NSA who had had tours at GCHQ subscribed to the Manchester Guardian, which would arrive weekly as flimsy paper. At lunch we would solve. I was 23 years old and thrilled to be invited to the group. The first clue I solved myself was “Bird up, birds down,” a less subtle version of Paul’s 2D. Seeing it again was a blast.

70. Completed the SW and a smattering of others. We move on…

    Amused to see SLUMBER and CEILIDH next to each other in the middle row. That probably didn’t work out too well!

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