Guardian Cryptic 29,585 by Brummie

65 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,585 by Brummie”

1. A fun solve with some lovely misdirections, where I had to start in the SE to get a foothold. I liked BAVARIA, SWELTER, LEGIT, TABLE WINE, TORONTO, NANTUCKET, BACCHUS and EARTH SCIENCE. BIT PLAYER reminded me of the carnivorous Luis Sanchez, when playing for Liverpool.

   Ta Brummie & manehi.

2. Fairly straightforward Brummie, but well clued throughout. I’d forgotten Suarez, so for me the BIT PLAYER was Mike Tyson, though boxers are hardly ‘players’. Not sure I’ve ever used CAHIERS in speech since the days of schoolboy French, but it crops up in English puzzles from time to time.

3. Good solid stuff with lots to like. For some reason the NW corner was empty when the rest of the puzzle was finished, but it yielded eventually.

   Trailman @2 I would use cahiers in speech if I were more confident how to pronounce it.

4. Thanks manehi.
   Liked this. Solvable without aids, and sufficiently challenging.
   Ticks for the surface and wordplay for EARTH SCIENCE and BAVARIA.

   Someone on the G site suggested there might be a connection between 8, 15, 21 and 27 which made me have a look. Is there anything going on with ENDLESS, THANKLESS and SUNLESS, FRIVOLOUS and ONEROUS, and BACCHUS and TITUS, apart from all having the same final syllable phonetically, at least in my dialect?

5. Why is tolerance resistance in 14 down?

6. SueB @5: I wondered about that also. I think that that if you tolerate something you have a resistance to it, like the hot sun for example.

7. SueB @5 I wondered that too, but I wonder if it’s I’ve a tolerance/resistance to poor behaviour? (Although I’d like tolerance for and resistance to).

   Thank you to manehi and Brummie.

8. Sue@5 et al – ‘wind tolerant’ plants are ‘wind resistant’, for example – I think that’s the idea.

9. I thought there was something going on with the letter T. All my early answers started with it and then one ended with it. Very enjoyable once I’d got over that.

   Thanks Brummie and manehie.

10. SueB @5: I can see ‘tolerance’ and ‘resistance’ being used sort of similarly-ish when referring to drugs or diseases. Perhaps a slight stretch, but it’ll do for me.

11. Jacob @3: I’ve always said it ‘Kai-ee-a”. But I have never spoken French to a French person without getting a look that is at once bewildered and contemptuous in return.

12. Thanks everyone

13. Jacob @3, if I was speaking to a French person I would say ka-y-ay and hope they didn’t laugh, but if I was speaking to an English speaker I would pronounce it as ‘notebooks’.

14. SueB@5 – if you can tolerate something you have resistance to it, I think. It’s an overlap of meaning rather than a synonym. As for several others, it seems, the NW was the last to fall, the grid not giving a lot of crossers from the rest of the puzzle, but it all came together nicely. I hadn’t heard of that meaning of ‘welter’ before in 9, but SWELTER had to be the answer with the crossers and a quick google confirmed. Otherwise, I join with the others in praise of Brummie’s craftsmanship. Liked BACCHUS, HAIRNET and CAHIERS. Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

15. Nice puzzle, fave was the EARTH SCIENCE anagram.

    Calling TABLE WINE a “consumer’s drink” seems both weird and correct at the same time.

    I paused for a moment over “Massachusetts resort” before remembering I’d attended a wedding on NANTUCKET just last summer. A nice place to visit, but really expensive!

16. Slow start, but once I’d cracked the SE corner others rolled in. Dr. WhatsOn@15 — as a Massachusetts resident, NANTUCKET came quickly to me, as did the [in]famous limerick “There once was a girl from Nantucket…” You’re right, it’s a terribly expensive place. Last time I visited was over 40 years ago, as a summer worker.

17. Enjoyed the puzzle. I agree about the consumer’s drink — if you drink anything you consume it, so what drink isn’t a consumer’s drink?

    Thanks Brummie and manehi.

18. Like Jacob@3 and Tomsdad@14 the NW corner tolerated my solving onslaught the longest, SWELTER was my LOI. Thanks Brummie and Manehi!

19. Fun puzzle. I didn’t have a problem with resistance = TOLERANCE, for the reasons already suggested. CAHIERS was familiar as a French word, but I don’t think I’ve come across it in English (Chambers suggests it should be pronounced as in French, albeit with the usual diphthong for the final long vowel, à l’anglaise).

    Favourites: BAVARIA, NANTUCKET (which always reminds me of the limerick), BIT PLAYER (well noted AlanC @1 🙂 ), SUNLESS, BACCHUS.

    I made a desultory scan of the completed grid, looking for a theme, but nothing leapt out.

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

20. NANTUCKET got me replaying a certain song by 70s US rockers Mountain, which all fans of Weekend World will love dearly …

21. AlanC @1 I think you mean Luis Suarez. Brilliant player but, as a Liverpool supporter, I was ashamed of what he did. Great puzzle, thanks!

22. No wonder I couldn’t work out why LIGHT was the answer to 13A.

23. [Nakamova’s comment @16 about an (in)famous limerick prompted me to investigate. There are indeed several ribald versions, but the one I knew is more staid:

    There once was a man from Nantucket
    Who kept all his cash in a bucket.
    But his daughter, named Nan,
    Ran away with a man
    And as for the bucket, Nantucket

    But he followed the pair to Pawtucket,
    The man and the girl with the bucket;
    And he said to the man,
    He was welcome to Nan,
    But as for the bucket, Pawtucket]

24. [26a TORONTO, Guardian and Observer style guide: O: ‘on to not onto — Kingsley Amis, perhaps slightly overstating the case for this, argued: “I have found by experience that no one persistently using onto writes anything much worth reading”’]

25. Favourites: ONEROUS, BASHFUL, BAVARIA, BIT PLAYER.

    New for: WELTER = flounder (9ac) – my last one in.

26. Gervase @23 I guess it’s a fairly tame limerick by today’s standards, but I’ve heard ruder variations…

27. [FrankieG @24: It’s typical of the quirkiness of English that ‘into’ is unremarkable but ‘onto’ is strongly deprecated]

28. Lovely crossword. Thanks Brummie, and thanks manehi.

    As for cahiers, Jacob@3, Juandango@10, trailman@13 and Gervase@19 might enjoy this, from wonderful Wodehouse:

    “Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.”

29. A nicely diverting puzzle, not too tricky and full of good clues. Liked UNTIE, TABLE WINE and THISTLE. Like paddymelon @4 I noticed the three -LESSes and the four -USes but am none the wiser. THANKLESS was a tad same-sidey, I thought?

    Thanks both.

30. Wodehouse nailed it perfectly. Thanks, Clyde @28!

31. Thanks Brummie and manehi
    I mostly worked from the bottom upwards. Raised eyebrow at 13a – as LEG IT is a genuine expression, whereas “legit” is an abbreviation, I would have preferred it to be enumerated (3,2) (taking the definition to be “Dash off”).
    Favourites RETRO and ONEROUS.

32. I was thinking about the tolerance/resistance discussion above, in particular Tomsdad@14. There are clearly contexts where either word would work, but digging deeper, they are in a way more opposite than synonymous. When faced with a possibly unfortunate situation, the one means dealing with it by acceptance, the other by rebuffing.

33. Jacob @3, Juandango @11. I am French and say ka-yeah.

34. I was about to embark upon (“up on” anybody?!) a bout of slow two-finger typing until I refreshed and saw muffin@31 and Dr. WhatsOn@32 have said exactly what I would have done re LEG IT/ LEGIT & TOLERANCE/RESISTANCE. I resist modern jazz, I do not tolerate it.
    Thanks to Brummie and manehi

35. For those not up on New England geography, Nantucket is an island off Cape Cod and Pawtucket is a city in nearby Rhode Island. Both names are presumably from indigenous roots.

36. [Valentine @35
    Could you explain why Rhode Island isn’t an island? I’ve always wondered!]

37. Aoxomoxoa @21: indeed I did, can’t believe I typed that surname. Maybe a case of mixed metaforwards 😉

38. CAHIERS du Cinema is still going.
    I know of NANTUCKET from its whaling history. I like the phrase Nantucket sleighride to describe an open whaler being towed at speed by a harpooned whale. ( I suppose I’d better add my disapproval of the activity itself, though autres temps, autres moeurs.)

39. AlanC @37 🤣

40. Thanks both,

    FrankieG@24 and Gervase@27: I’m surprised by the simplistic advice given by the Guardian style guide. SOED and Partridge (E not A) confirm that ‘onto’ is a valid preposition but sometimes ‘on to’ is required. ‘Onto’ works when it could be changed to ‘on’ or ‘upon’ without changing the meaning. ‘On to’ is required when the ‘on’ is part of a phrasal verb eg ‘Please log on to your account’. Sometimes which is used can change the meanting of a sentence, eg ‘After the turning go onto the bridge’ is different from ‘After the turning go on to the bridge’.

41. muffin @36: “Rhode Island” was the name given by the colonists to the actual island bit that contains Newport and Portsmouth. The rest was the “Providence Plantations”, and when it became a state after the Revolution it was incorporated as “The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations”, which everybody shortened to just “Rhode Island”. The “and Providence Plantations” was officially dropped by voter referendum in 2020, as the word “plantation” is inextricably linked to slavery, even though that had nothing to do with what it meant in Rhode Island. (It just meant colonies that were “planted” there.) There’s more detail in the Wikipedia article on Rhode Island. (Sorry, don’t know how to do a link.)

42. [Thanks EleanorK]

43. muffin @ 31 the SHORT in 13 surely signals an abbreviation?

44. Simon S @43
    That wasn’t my point. Perhaps I didn’t make myself entirely clear. “Dash off” is a completely accurate definition for LEG IT, which would be 3,2. I’m taking the “genuine short” as the wordplay.
    [There was an Alex cartoon* where he was giving advice to a disgraced financier that he should make sure that his next step was legit – sorry, leg it.
    *of course I didn’t read the appalling rag it was in, except perhaps at the barber’s, but I was given a compilation one Christmas.]

45. [muffin @44: The Alex strip first appeared in the Independent, whilst that newspaper was still in reputable hands, but after several years transferred to the Telegraph]

46. Tyngewick@40 Nice explanation. Of course onto is valid, as are into and upto.

    I guess it follows that downto is valid too. Put it downto luck. Looks a bit funny, though.

    I thought tolerance and resistance meant the same thing in Physics.

47. The NW corner the last to yield, as I just couldn’t get BAVARIA. Didn’t think CORER particularly cryptic despite the cute misdirection. Liked pretty much the rest of this, though. Many thanks Brummie and Manehi…

48. Anne @46
    Resistors in physics do have “tolerance”, but that just expresses the limits by which their actual resistance might vary from their stated one.

49. I agree with Tomsdad@14 that if you can tolerate something, you can resist it.

    To my mind, tolerance and resistance can mean proof in the sense of waterproof or fireproof.

50. muffin@48 Oh, I see. I’m afraid I’ve forgotten what Physics I knew.

51. A most enjoyable solve. My pet peeve is too much French in English crosswords. Not all of us had this subject at school. I wanted to complain about cahier, then found all the local bookshops sell them here in NZ. Well that’s me schooled.

52. Frogman@33 I am French and say ka-yeah.

    Is that yeah as in ouais?

    All these years I’ve been saying ka-yay ;(

    I had no idea the word was used in English, though.

53. A customarily fair and enjoyable challenge from Brummie. Nothing not to like, with THANKLESS being my favourite.

54. 18 dn is tersion,surely !

55. Paul @54
    It’s not TERN, and I don’t know how you would pronounce NRET!

56. Thanks Brummie, a nice crossword. Some simpler ones to get me going but tougher ones to make a hard solve. Got there in the end and could parse them all.

57. Tomsdad @14 & michelle @25 – Sorry I’m late to the party, as usual, but my way in to (two words!) SWELTER was Black Sheep’s Ale…
    “Named after the local Yorkshire Dales farming term ‘riggwelted’, where a sheep has rolled onto its back and is unable to get back up. A Dark Strong Ale clocking in at 5.9%, you might be able to guess why.”
    [Ever tried it, Eileen? Campbells have it in Leyburn]

58. I had parsed 5 across as including a clever double clue, with seacow hidden in “of course a cow mainly”.
    As a relatively new puzzler, and first time commenter, I’ll also say thanks for all the blogs – it’s been a great way for me to learn my new hobby. Enjoyed this blog and puzzle!

59. Welcome to Fifteensquared, Alistair @58! I’ve always been glad to have found it.

60. Almost nothing on the first pass, but then yielded steadily once the SE corner fell. Very enjoyable.

61. Good Lord. I have not seen the word CAHIER since I had to write it on the cover of my first French Exercise Book in 1954
    Likewise all Homework in the said book had to be topped by DEVOIR. the latter word has the makings of a good clue, eating, you & I coming to mind

62. Brilliant puzzle. Thanks Brummie & manship.
    But when was the last time one saw a Cashier in a Supermarket – or Bank, come to that? They are as rare as hens’ teeth in our local shops & there are no banks left within a three mile radius

63. Re 8a, no one has mentioned that the word Sabbath, with S as an obscure variation, is completely unnecessary in the clue as the French “the” can just as easily be “les” rather than “le”.
    As for NANTUCKET, surely famous for the Edgar Allan Poe tale, Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket.

64. Started attempting the full cryptic as a new year resolution and this is the first I have competed without having to ‘guess letters and hope’

    Some really great clues and I thought there was an honest use of indicators – that really helped me an an intermediate solver

    SE and SW were the easier parts for me with NW being the killer – FRIVOLOUS being my last clue and even then I was mistakenly using IV as 4 for my way in

65. Missed six, all in the NW corner, where others also struggled. All were fair and made sense, though

    Nice to have not only a Canadian reference, but also my home town, TORONTO, where CAHIERS was printed on the cover of our bilingually-titled notebooks in elementary school

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