Guardian 29,593 / Paul

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It’s Paul back again, with another themed puzzle, cleverly and interestingly exploited.

Having said that, I have to add that anyone coming here for help with certain bits of parsing is likely to be disappointed, as I have failed miserably in several instances. I put it down to a head cold having caused a kind of brain fog: while I could see clearly, in most cases, what the clue was getting at, I just couldn’t piece the bits together. With the four-minute delay with the Edit facility, it won’t be possible to acknowledge every helpful comment, so I’d be grateful if you would take my thanks as read, if yours isn’t the first. (All my problems were settled within the first ten comments – which is no less than I expected. Bless you all: what a wonderful community this is!)

In spite of my frustration, I really enjoyed uncovering the wide variety of twins – mythological, biblical, literary and musical – in the puzzle. Favourite clues included 12ac DOUBLE, 17ac PRIMACY, 23ac CASTIGATOR, 24ac GRUB, 1dn MATT GOSS, 6dn ABLE SEAMEN, 16dn EULOGIES, 18dn CONSUMER and 19/25 TARTARE SAUCE.

Thanks to Paul for the puzzle – my apologies for not having done it full justice.

Definitions are underlined in the clues.

 

Across

8 Around temple, spill clear liquid (3,5)
TAP WATER
TAPER (spill) round WAT (temple)

9, 24 King of music I recalled after investing in 2 (5,4)
ROBIN GIBB
I can’t see this one at all, I’m afraid – one from my era, twin of Maurice, of the BeeGees

10 Shock when crackers pulled back (4)
STUN
A reversal (pulled back) of NUTS (crackers)

11 2 guided by dope in character at conclusion of argument? (10)
TWEEDLEDEE
[argumen]T + WEED (dope) + LED (guided) + EE??

12 Ultimate aim of pub game, large drink (6)
DOUBLE
Double definition, a double being required at the end of a game of darts – an apt surface

14 Actor’s cut in just behind the scenes? (2,3,3)
ON THE SLY
A reference to Sylvester Stallone?

15 Giant biblical character sweats, say (7)
OSMOSES
OS (outsize, giant) + MOSES (biblical character)

17 Superiority in mother dear’s stifling? (7)
PRIMACY
PRICY (dear) round (stifling) MA (mother)

20 Whips offender has sliced through geezer (8)
FLAGELLA
LAG (offender) in FELLA (geezer)

22 Pointer for example that’s pointed (6)
CANINE
Double definition: a pointer is a breed of dog, used in game hunting and a canine tooth is pointed

23 2 laid into by flipping nasty person, a critic (10)
CASTIGATOR
A reversal (flipping) of GIT (nasty person) + A in CASTOR, twin of Pollux

24 Ferret eats maggot (4)
GRUB
A neat triple definition

26 Bubbly thing, robot excited always (4,4)
ROOT BEER
An anagram (excited) of ROBOT + E’ER (always)

 

Down

1 2 left out in choice of painter? (4,4)
MATT GOSS
MATT (or) G[l]OSS (choice of painter) minus l (left) for the twin of Luke Goss, of the band Bros

2 12 for the prize, nothing less (4)
TWIN
Since I had 12ac, the answer was clear but I can’t see the parsing – T[o] WIN??

3 Image abbreviated in petition, work of art (6)
STATUE
This one has me beaten, too

4 Right way up after endless worry (7)
FREEDOM
FRE[t] (worry) + a reversal (up, in a down clue) of MODE (way) – as in FREEDOM of speech, or ‘right to roam’

5 One lending money, I say banks not done with it (8)
CREDITOR
COR (I say!) round (banks) RED (not done / cooked – like meat?) + IT

6 Crew bales out over capital in Europe with word of benediction (4,6)
ABLE SEAMEN
An anagram (out) of BALES + AMEN (word of benediction) round E[urope]

7 Live broadcast after a foreign show (6)
UNVEIL
UN (French – foreign – a) + an anagram (broadcast) of LIVE

13 Brusque initially, coarse solicitor revealed (7,3)
BROUGHT OUT
B[rusque] + ROUGH (coarse) + TOUT (solicitor)

16 Register that is in use having failed, these acknowledge those who’ve passed (8)
EULOGIES
LOG (register) + I E (that is) in an anagram (having failed) of USE

18 Scam with which 2 set up client (8)
CONSUMER
CON (scam) + a reversal (set up, in a down clue) of REMUS (twin of Romulus – legendary founders of Rome)

19, 25 Something served with fish two 6 and 2 caught, ending on plate (7,5)
TARTARE SAUCE
TAR TAR (two able seamen – see 6dn) + ESAU, twin of Jacob, + C (caught) + [plat]E

21 Article remains in story for talk (6)
LIAISE
A (article) + IS (remains) in LIE (story)

22 Box where there’s a lack of evidence, almost up-ended (6)
CARTON
A reversal (up-ended, in a down clue) of NO TRAC[e] (lack of evidence, almost)

108 comments on “Guardian 29,593 / Paul”

  3. For the ‘EE’ at end of 11a, I had the sound of the letter T.
    It does pick out particularly the character of the letter at the end of argument.
    But I’m not overly confident. Just a stab, like most of my parsing.

  8. Ashamed to say first Twin I got was Matt Goss.

    As always I enjoy Paul’s puzzle. Two proper challenges so far this week. Friday and the prize have a lot to live up to

    Thanks Paul and Eileen (hope you get well soon)

  9. 9,22 is BB (King)I reversed after Robing (investing).
    3d is sue (petition) around tat(too).
    Thanks Eileen for blogging with a cold and Paul

  10. Phew, that was tough, but well worth the effort. I imagine it will divide opinion amongst commenters. Brilliant variation of a theme, and luckily I had a moment of inspiration with MATT GOSS. I wasn’t sure about the parsing of ON THE SLY, hoping that THES was short for thespian, although I was wondering whether Sly Stallone was being referred to, as Eileen thought, for the second time this week. Favourites included ROBIN GIBB, TWEEDLEDEE, (I had TEE as referring to the letter T, the conclusion of argument), CASTIGATOR, BROUGHT OUT, EULOGIES, TARTARE SAUCE and CARTON.

    Ta Paul & Eileen.

  11. Many thanks, so far, to Auriga @1, Andy Doyle @2, MCartney @3 (I think you’re right), Hovis @4 and Shirl @5 – I’m not keen on TAT = image but thanks for the reassurance: I hope to do better next time. 😉 ).

  12. Thanks Paul and Eileen.
    Liked several clues. ROBIN GIBB, TWEEDLEDEE and CARTON were my faves.
    TWIN
    T(o) WIN (Eileen’s parse) seems all right. I took ‘for the prize’ as ‘to win’.

  16. For 8ac – why does TAPER = spill?

    I did not parse 9ac/24d; 14ac THEF = actor? in ONLY = just – oh whoops, got this wrong as I was thinking of ON THE FLY instead of ON THE SLY!

    Like others above, I parsed 11ac as WEED = dope + LED = guided in TEE = letter T (end of argument)

    New for me: ROBIN GIBB being a twin; ’80s pop twins, Matt and Luke Goss of the band Bros (never heard of this band); OSMOSES = sweats.

    Thanks, Eileen.

  17. Don’t get me started!! I’m not surprised you struggled Eileen. I should learn to read “Paul” at the top and not bother wasting ink on printing it.

  19. Unlike Matthew Newell @8, MATT GOSS was the one to defeat me. I have vaguely heard of him but he’s absolutely not one to come to this old rocker’s mind. It’s a very neat clue. This was a classic Paul experience – tricky at first but unwinding once some crossers went in. OSMOSES made me laugh, GRUB is a neat triple def and ROBIN GIBB makes nice use of the musical BB.

    I had a different solution for 14a which I thought I had parsed! I had ON THE FLY – it means improvised which I felt could describe an actor’s cut in and theatre flies are where the scenes are controlled. Given Paul’s penchant for what are often described as allusive clues, that seemed close enough to work.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

  20. I’m with you Tim C – Paul + interlinked clues = don’t bother. Having read the blog, I think my decision was a good one.

    michelle @16
    tapers and spills are both names for things used to light fires

  21. I enjoy a Paul, and can usually parse in retrospect, but I do feel his internal definitions teeter between stretchy, and downright sketchy. It could well be inexperience.. I find myself having to do an awful lot of reverse-engineering.

  22. Michelle @16 a taper or a spill is a thin longish piece of wood, often used to light a gas fire. You light the taper with a match, then light the fire without (hopefully!) getting too close to burn yourself

  24. Tim C @ 17 I would urge you not to give up on Paul based on this particular puzzle.
    My standard approach with him is to persevere knowing that if I do I WILL complete the puzzle.
    Unfortunately today was not the case and in my view he over egged it somewhat.
    The clue for Robin Gibb was absurd and the clue for Matt Goss might have been clever if, given the fact that the subject is not exactly the most famous example of twins, perhaps “decorator” might have been a little more helpful than “painter “.
    But I like Paul very much so thanks to him and Eileen. I am secretly pleased that she didn’t find it a breeze either.

  25. [I wasn’t a fan of Bros but their 2018 documentary ‘After the Screaming Stops’ was a very bittersweet account of the loss of their mother, reunification and mens’ inability to express their emotions. Surprisingly riveting].

  26. Such head-scratchingly good fun!
    Couple of NHOs – and I still can’t find the TAPER/SPILL connection – but jolly good company for the day.

    Very impressed by your dedication, Eileen (I would’ve called in sick and hidden under the doona/duvet). I hope you’re on the mend.
    And big thanks to Paul.

  27. I thought BB for king straight away, but robing for investing was sly. Didn’t think darts, didnt get double, so had to get all the way to 18d and find the reverse Remus before getting twin. Then it unfolded. Good one, thanks PnE.

  28. Not the easiest of puzzles (litotes 🙂 ). Paul returns to normal, with plenty of cross-references, imaginative constructions and some unexpected synonyms- TAT, THES(P), WAT.

    It took me a long time to find TWIN, after which it became a bit more straightforward. I agree with ‘character’ = TEE. I managed to parse everything except the Bee Gee.

    I didn’t like ‘sweats’ = OSMOSES; apart from the verb being a horrible back-formation, the mechanism of perspiration is not osmosis.

    I particularly liked TAP WATER, with its clever use of the two meanings of ‘spill’, and the linked ABLE SEAMEN and TARTARE SAUCE.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen (get well soon)

  29. Many thanks for the blog Eileen. I share your sense of frustration. There were too many I couldn’t parse for me to be happy with my attempt today. I’m glad other people have been able to explain the ones that defeated me.

    I wondered about ON THE FLY but went for SLY the actor.

    One of my earliest in was NEEDLE, which I was convinced was right until I was proved wrong by other solutions and it turned out to be CANINE. I wonder if anyone else barked up the wrong tree with that clue?

    My many favourites have been named so I shall just pick out three of the themed solutions: TARTARE SAUCE, CONSUMER and TWEEDLEDEE. I also really liked ABLE SEAMEN.

    Too tough for me today Paul. Thank you for the challenge.

  30. I struggled with this. I was expecting a Paul dodgy homophone involving Castor’s twin. Thanks for all the elucidations.

  32. I didn’t quite finish this, revealing UNVEIL, FREEDOM and ON THE SLY, with many more not fully parsed, but it’s a good use of an interesting theme and I enjoyed it. Took me a while and most of the crossers to remember MATT GOSS.

    No idea if it’s scientifically accurate, but OS MOSES was a jorum that made me smile. Of course if you’re in Yorkshire, T’WIN is obvious.

    Pauline in Brum@29: I might have gone for NEEDLE if I hadn’t already had a crosser by then. It certainly fits the clue.

  33. Great stuff. One of the reasons I love Paul puzzles is, as gsolphotog @24 said, I almost always solved them . . . eventually. Frequently looks impenetrable at first, but with patience and several revisits of certainly clues it gradually falls in the end. Exactly how a good puzzle should be IMHO.

    Did anyone else have LAC WATER for 8ac? Anagram of CLEAR instead of TAPER, so in my view and equally acceptable solution. Google tells me that it is “A natural resin varnish used to fix watercolor and tempera paint”, so presumably it is a clear liquid. Tap is probably the better answer, but the spill / taper link eluded me.

  34. Much to dislike here. Nho MATT GOSS, nor the band. Very dubious OSMOSES for ‘sweats’. I presume ON THE SLY inserts THES(P) in ONLY, but if so I hate it as an abbreviation of an abbreviation. I won’t go on.

  37. A synonym for ‘dew’ is ‘sweat’.
    The mechanism for dew is the passing of water through a membrane by osmosis.
    Does this help?

  39. Loved this apart from the loose “talk” in 21d LIAISE – that could cost lives.
    [Wondered whether 15a OSMOSES might be the Latin plural, like 20a FLAGELLA, but found the English noun (1854–) and verb (1884–) citing:
    “1975 She was chattering with her brother and Jimmy as if she’d OSMOSEd pertinent knowledge from her TWIN‘s brain
    A. McCaffrey, Kilternan Legacy (1976) x. 118″]
    L2i: 8a TAP(WAT)ER, then 1d MATT (or) G[L]OSS

  41. LAC WATER for me too. Failed by bunging ON THE FLY assuming it was an acting term for improvising.

    Thanks setter, blogger and other contributors.

  42. I loved the puzzle–easily my favorite in a while. Tweedledee is T(WEED + LED) EE with TEE being the conclusion of argument.
    For STATUE I had image abbreviated as TAT in petition (SUE).
    For ON THE SLY I had actor cut as THES and just as ONLY: ON (THES) LY.

    Thanks Eileen and big thanks to Paul!

  43. MCourtney @ 37 – Thanks for the idea, but dew is condensation on the leaves (of humid air as the temperature drops to the dew point at which point the water condenses on to available surfaces), not diffusion through the leaves as part of transpiration (which results in evaporation, not collection).

  44. Fiery Jack@33 I also had LAC WATER, for the same reasons as you. Unfamiliar with spill = taper. Also NHO of MATT GOSS so left that empty.
    Managed to struggle through the others. Didn’t figure out the “TWIN” theme until the backward REMUS in 18D CONSUMER. For me a CONSUMER isn’t really a client, but I guess it’s enough of a connection.

  45. I founded this very tricky, but quite enjoyable and worth persevering with. All completed but with a fair bit of guessing, checking and retro-parsing.
    Thank you Eileen and the other clever solvers for help with parsing:
    I hadn’t known who MATT GOSS was (guessed from crossers then looked him up) and couldn’t parse it, but it turned out to be a great clue. I knew ROBIN GIBB was a twin, but hadn’t parsed that either. Nor had I parsed CREDITOR or known that spill=taper.
    I found the interlinked clues were helpful eg I got TWIN via Remus in CONSUMER and TARTARE SAUCE via ABEL SEAMAN.
    Favourites included CASTIGATOR, OSMOSES, EULOGIES (for failed and passed in the surface), TWEEDLEDEE (last in, it made me laugh).
    Thanks Paul and Eileen and hope you feel better soon, Eileen.

  46. poc @ 34
    I struggled massively with this one today. But I don’t think THES(P) is an abbreviation of an abbreviation.
    I just took it as cutting in half THES(PIAN)

    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

  47. This twin enjoyed this very much, thank you Paul and Eileen! [Gervase@28, I took OSMOSES to be a plural noun, referring to a more general definition of the noun ‘sweat’ (eg Collins – “the act of inducing the exudation of moisture”)]

  50. 1d was my LOI, because I was only ever peripherally aware of the band Bros, and certainly knew nothing about the members.

  51. SueM4@45: I also found the linked clues helpful. I got tartare sauce from the definition on a first reading of that clue, before solving either 2 or 6 (it was one of my first ones in) and that gave me additional hints to those two answers (although I had to google Esau to find a bit more about him as he was just a name from the OT to me).

  52. Sympathy for you,Eileen having this atrocity thrust upon you
    With a bit of editing it could have been OK
    I have never heard Bros and I doubt if I am missing much
    Thanks for whoever spotted BB King-I couldn’t squeeze Bach or Mozart )(or Dylan) in there

  53. Adrian @47: Sorry, but osmosis is the diffusion of solvent molecules through a membrane from a region of low solute concentration to one of higher concentration, ie liquid to liquid. In no way does this equal sweating, either literal or metaphorical.

    The word is also used metaphorically to mean the diffusion of ideas or practices from one person or group to another, with the implication that the process happens gradually and is not forced. That is certainly a reasonable analogy to the physical process.

  54. Gervase@53, my point@47 was that OSMOSIS is indeed an example of ‘an act of inducing the exudation of moisture’. I don’t think Paul was referring to body sweat.

  55. Dare I suggest an improvement to clue for 14 .

    “Actors HALF cut…” would be both neater and a totally unwarranted (but hey ho) slur on the profession.

  56. I’m with those wincing at OSMOSES for sweats because it’s incorrect. Amused by MATT GOSS when I had enough crossers to see it. @ AlanC@25 I saw the Bros documentary when it came around on repeat.

    Fiery Jack @33 I started with LAC WATER too thinking I recognised it, even have a bottle somewhere, but when I hit check all that bit went so I rethought.

    Late to this as doing enough hand sewing my daughter’s new coat that we could disappear off, and now on the tube heading for Euston.

    Get well soon, Eileen. Thank you for the blog and to Paul for the entertainment.

  57. Like several others I only spotted the theme at 18d. Then used Google for MATT GOSS and slowly got there in the end. Couldn’t parse loads but very satisfied to have finished. COTD: TARTARE SAUCE

  58. [Shanne @56
    I hope they have resolved the problem yesterday at Milton Keynes, affecting services out of Euston.]

  60. Adrian @54: Exudation (from Latin ex-sudare, ‘sweat out’) is the release of liquid out on to a surface – not liquid to liquid transfer like osmosis.

  61. I love a Paul crossword. It’s great when I’ve got enough time to do it.

    Got GRUB straightaway but then took ages to get properly started.

    I got TARTARE SAUCE purely from the fish association, and then got the TWIN theme from noticing ESAU in the sauce.

    I really liked MATT GOSS when I saw what was going on there.

    In the end I revealed Tweedledee as I had spent far too long trying get a Greek-sounding twin from LED for “guided by” and GEN for “dope”. TEELEDGENES????

    All good fun and thank you Eileen for your super commentary.

  62. A fairly typical Paul where I BIFD (bunged in from definition) quite a few and back-parsed, although without a head cold I couldn’t see how ROBIN GIBB worked.

    My picks were TWEEDLEDEE, CANINE, GRUB, TARTARE SAUCE, and FREEDOM. I also raised both eyebrows at the definition for OSMOSES.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen (get well soon).

  64. I thoroughly enjoyed this and got the theme early after alighting on DOUBLE while scanning to see what kind of Paul puzzle this was. I liked TARTARE SAUCE almost as much as I like it with fancy fish fingers 🙂

    G@60 I asked the AI gods “is sweating an example of osmosis” and they said “Yes, sweating is an example of osmosis because it involves water moving into sweat glands through a semipermeable membrane”. You may need to do battle with them on our behalf 🙂

    Cheers E&P

  65. Jacob @63, is Matte a US spelling? Not like them to go for the longer version.

    I was surprised by taper/spill. I have come across taper as a very thin candle and spill as a thin sliver of wood, both with a similar purpose, but I suppose usages differ. I wouldn’t use pin as a synonym of needle …

  66. bodycheetah @64: Not for the first time, AI has served up a load of Castor’s brother 🙂 The physiology of sweat production involves active transportation of water, plus some salts, across membranes, and not passive diffusion.

  67. Brilliant as ever; brilliant clues, brilliant use of theme and brilliant fun to solve…. brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
    If only I could think of an adjective to describe this ever fresh craftsman of note!

    Many thanks, and to Eileen, of course, for her brilliant generosity – even when under the weather

  68. Petert@30, I too had the same grubby thought about a possible dodgy homophone for Castor’s twin, ashamed to say. Paul not tempted, however, this time.
    Last one in was the unknown to me MATT GOSS, as Bros are not a band I’ve noticed or listened to. The usual fun and games as ever with Paul, and pretty much all those parsings that Eileen struggled with, until the cavalry charged up – same here…

  69. Thanks for the parsings, Eileen and everybody.

    I’d never heard of either of the rock singers or their groups, so had no idea what they had to do with twins. Didn’t know the rule about doubles in a darts game.

    Eileen, your canines aren’t your incisors, they’re next to them in the front of your mouth. You have eight of the first and four of the second.

    Monkey@65 In the US matte is a type of paint, and Matt is a person.

    Thanks, Paul and Eileen, and thanks Eileen for bravely struggling on. Do feel better soon!

  71. We enjoyed this, getting TWIN fairly early, which helped.

    But just popped in to remark surprisedly on the many who have nho Bros, the many who denigrate their art, and the select few who do both.

    Did they not have daughters? our elder (now 46) still has a grudge over me not taking her to see Bros, particularly as I took younger to see both Boyzone and The Spice Girls.

    And have loved the education on OSMOSIS.

    Many thanks to Paul and Eileen – soon to be fully restored we hope.

  73. Rerun of yesterday for me in that I slogged through most, found several solutions not to have been worth the effort so revealed the last three. We all have different tastes. Please let Friday be more enjoyable.

  74. Brilliant from start to finish! Very inventive use of the theme word. Never thought I’d see MATT GOSS in a cryptic! Tough but worth the effort.

    Thanks Paul and Eileen (and get well soon)

  75. Matte is known in the UK, but MATT is definitely the word you will find on paint cans for a non-glossy finish.

  76. After my “often on Paul’s wavelength” comment last week this one completely stumped me. Everything seemed fairly clued though, once explained (thanks Eileen and others!). Glad I wasn’t alone in finding this one tough.

  77. [muffin @58 – apparently it’s OK, 8 minutes delay at some point because stuck behind local train, but predicting a minute late into Glasgow. It’s Celtic Connections and last touring gig of the Oysterband – not completely gone just not touring any more, playing Shrewsbury this year. Slow responding as spent this journey hemming and hand-picking said coat. Still needs fastenings but can’t fit that on the train..]

  79. [Shanne @77
    I like the Oysterband – even more when they are backing June Tabor! Last time I saw them together, someone in the gents loo asked “Who is this June Tabor anyway?”]
    Bonus for you!

  80. Like some others, it took me a while to get into this puzzle because I didn’t get 2dn – I filled it in once the theme was established – but I had fun. I like 12ac, 1dn, 18dn, 19dn, 22dn. 8ac: I remember taper/spill from school Chemistry class. 15ac: I assumed the def and answer are both plurals rather than verbs. 22ac is a bit loose – hard to confirm the answer from the clue. At the end I was in a similar position to Eileen, with several clues unparsed.

  81. When Eileen can’t parse some of the answers than there is no hope for me, perhaps indicating that Paul has tried to be too clever by half.

  82. I got TWIN, and most of the NW corner, relatively quickly. However the rest of it felt like a fairly random stumble through often unparsed territory. Half completed this morning, managed the rest just now, but there wasn’t much by way of enjoyment in this for me.

  83. Tough but clever puzzle. I enjoyed it, although I failed on MATT GOSS and OSMOSES. I think the latter definition is ok colloquially. Putting salt on slugs causes them to “sweat” through osmosis.
    Likes ROBIN GIBB, ABLE SEAMEN, BROUGHT OUT and EULOGIES.
    Thanks, Paul and Eileen.

  84. Monkey@65, I definitely expect “matte” in the US (for the paint, not my name), to the extent that Lil Nas X, no doubt incorrectly, pronounces it “matty black” in Old Town Road. Lil Nas X, that’s a musical name I’d like to see in a cryptic! Surely there are a lot of possibilities.

    As you might gather I was defeated by Matt Goss and sputtered incoherently for a while after revealing it–Bros did not cross the pond. (My wife hadn’t heard of them, and if there’s a British 80s pop band she didn’t hear of, they didn’t get much of a foothold in the US.) Thinking of constructing a puzzle like this where one of the answers is JOE MAUER.

    Quite a workout anyway! Didn’t parse TWEEDLEDEE at all or the TAT part of STATUE but pulled everything else out, with some help from the check button to eliminate LAC WATER for instance. ROBIN GIBB was quote something to parse! CASTIGATOR, TARTARE SAUCE, and CONSUMER were very nice uses of the twins. Thanks Paul and extra thanks to Eileen for taking this on!

    Shirl@40, you are right that younger people talk about their “tats” (not that I got this, as I said).

  85. Phitonelly@83, agreed, the same ‘sweating’ process (an example of osmosis) is used in the tanning of hides and preparing steaks. Gervase@60 and Shanne@56 disagree I fear, but we defenders of this clue DO at least understand that the process of sweating in the ‘first’ meaning of the word is not osmosis. It’s the colloquialism that we argue Paul is using.

  86. But Adrian @85, sweating is such a different thing to osmosis that it’s inaccurate – beyond colloquialisms and into misinformation. (Justification of inaccuracies in science makes me sad having tried to teach it – so much misinformation out there

    [muffin @79 – we saw the Oysterband’s last London gig with June Tabor too, last October.
    Personally like them better without her and saw them do that. ]

  87. Thanks to Paul, and especially to Eileen. Unlike the one at 9/24, the twin at 1D is pretty obscure this side of the pond, so of course for me the painter’s choice is among EARTH OILS (umber, ochre or sienna?). Even with Google AI, no sign yet of Eart Hois. MS @78: brilliant spot.

  88. I usually get on well with Paul, but not today. I had to cheat on about a half-dozen clues, my worst performance in quite some time.

    It’s true that we in the US would always write MATTE rather than MATT when referring to paint. That, plus more importantly the fact that I’d never heard of Mr. Goss, makes it not surprising that that clue was one of my failures. Most of the rest were perfectly reasonable clues that in hindsight I should have gotten.

    [There’s an Agatha Christie (perhaps one of her plays rather than a novel) whose plot depends crucially on the presence of spills above a fireplace. Never having seen this meaning for the word, I was totally baffled.]

  89. Shanne et al,
    Sweat is used in a wider sense in general English than in science alone. Specifically, to describe the gathering of moisture on surfaces by processes other than physiological sweating. Cold drinks “sweating” on a warm day, for an example grabbed from Collins online.

  91. Sitting by the fire in the front room with a beer / a wine and some fruit-and-nut chocolate, at the end of a productive day…
    Paul – and it isn’t even Friday!
    We adjust our expectations accordingly and use the check button without compunction!
    6D able seaman – amen isn’t a word of benediction (blessing) but an affirmative response to what has been said.
    Otherwise great fun.

  92. Amen to you Scotblok@91. I was wondering when someone would raise the question of ”amen” being a ”word of benediction”. I initially discounted it when solving ABLE SEAMEN but let it go through to experts in the field.

    From Dictionary.com
    Amen is derived from the Hebrew āmēn, which means “certainty,” “truth,” and “verily.” It is found in the Hebrew Bible, and in both the Old and New Testament. .

    From Etymology.online

    amen (interj.)
    Old English, from Late Latin amen, from Ecclesiastical Greek amen, from Hebrew amen “truth,” used adverbially as an expression of agreement (as in Deuteronomy xxvii.26, I Kings i.36), from Semitic root a-m-n “to be trustworthy, confirm, support.”

    Compare similar use of Modern English certainly, absolutely. Used in Old English only at the end of Gospels, otherwise translated as Soðlic! or Swa hit ys, or Sy! As an expression of concurrence after prayers, it is recorded from early 13c.

  94. [It may have been a good few decades since I last approached a dart with puckered fingers – but the phrase “double to win” offered a little sparkle to a couple of clues when it came to mind…!]

  100. Ted@88
    We do write “matte” in the US. We use the leftover e’s we saved by not tacking them onto tartar sauce.

    Scotblok@91 Your fruit-and-nut chocolate reminds me of the time I’d just landed at Heathrow and was buying a Cadbury’s bar at a snack stand. The lady asked “Do you want plain chocolate?” and I was just about to say, “No, I want the fancy kind with the fruit and nuts,” when I remembered that “plain chocolate” is Britspeak for what I call “dark chocolate,” the kind that isn’t milk chocolate. Since that was what I wanted, I just humbly said “yes.”

  101. I failed on 19,25 TARTARE SAUCE because thanks to Beyond the Fringe I can’t see Esau as a twin. I expect with Paul’s puzzles that there will always be a little piece in the corner that I can’t get out, but this time there were too many, and some not even in a corner. Sometimes life is rather like that.

    Thank you Paul for the frustration, and Alan Bennett for the fun.

  102. As a child I remember having an old brass shell case by the hearth with multicoloured ‘spills’ in it that was about 1949. I can’t see many people these days knowing what a spill was ie a taper

  104. I didn’t know ”spill” either in TAP WATER, but the definition was helpful. I did know of the temple, saw the ER at the end and guessed it had to be TAP (—) ER. So I just put taper and spill in the same line on the search and the light appeared.

  105. Strange thing about this Paul puzzle. After a few lucky solves, the definition pointed to the right word almost too obviously. But parsing it correctly afterwards was the true challenge
    I read reverse-engineering on many posts – good word. These puzzles work as reverse-engineering ones too, for the less accomplished!

  106. R Srivatsan@105. I don’t agree that reverse-engineering is necessarily for those ”less accomplished”. Many accomplished solvers have commented that often it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to follow Paul’s wordplay. It seems that he must be aware of that, and really doesn’t mind that solvers have to retro-parse.
    That could mean that Paul himself is ”less accomplished” at setting clues that can lead to the solution from wordplay. But it’s just his style. Some people don’t mind a lot of retro-parsing. Others of us prefer to work in the other direction.

  107. Just missed 4.5 solutions on the left side, which is not a bad outcome for me for a Paul puzzle. Missed the same parsings as Eileen

    8a Couldn’t figure out what kind of WATER. Tried LAC, as some other commenters, but wasn’t convinced. HOT? SEA? TEA? TAP just wouldn’t come to mind

    NHO MATT GOSS, so there wasn’t enough wordplay in the clue for me to get it

    14a I also had ON THE FLY, parsed as PostMark@19

    Agree with some others that a few of the definitions are rather dodgy, and “Actor’s cut” for THES(PIAN) is imprecise. Good fun though!

    Got a little behind in posting thanks to the new “improved” web interface, introduced a couple of days ago. Doesn’t work on my ancient tablet, so it took me a while to work out a new method. Hoping it will eventually start working again

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