Guardian Cryptic 29,629 by Brummie

59 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,629 by Brummie”

1. Thank you for the parsing of 20d. I could not get my head around the grammar even though the solution was clear enough. I found the “dwarf” in 17d a tricky solve – even when I finally twigged I thought it a bit of a stretch. I also struggled with 21d “perversely” meaning either an indirect anagram of “as” or a indirect reversal. Apart from those uncertainties I thoroughly enjoyed the mix of fairly straightforward and fairly chewy clues. Thanks all round.

2. Thanks Brummie and manehi
   No particularly good ones stood out, but there were a couple of clunkers: UNHAPPY is a feeble clue, and clueing STAR as “dwarf” was ridiculous. A dwarf star is a star, but a dwarf isn’t.

3. Liked THESAURI, IMPUGNS, DEBACLE, ENTREATY and BRASH. Only able to parse MILIEU after a handy hint from paddymelon on the G site. GENES is sadly coincidental after the announcement of the death of the wonderful Gene Hackman and his younger wife.

   Ta Brummie & manehi.

4. When I saw HAPPY in 8a and ‘dwarf’ in 17d, I thought there might be a dwarf theme. Unless Sloppy, Nippy, Beaky, Sami and Thesauri are lesser known ones, I guess not.

5. Thanks for the blog, manehi. The Taylor variety of Swift is not the first one that comes to my mind, so I appreciated the parsing of 17d. I was trying to figure out how a MEGASTAR could also be a dwarf star (insert facepalm emoji). That was my LOI and only the crossers gave it to me.

   I liked ENTREATY, SLOPPY, IMPUGNS and THESAURI (after getting _H_____I, I was initially trying to think of a word that ended in HOUDINI!). Quite an enjoyable solve overall.

   Thanks to Brummie and, again, manehi.

6. Very difficult, I am amazed I could complete this puzzle.

   New for me: SAMI; AWN = beard of barley.

   Took a while for me to think of Taylor Swift for 17d.

7. 13A was a favorite, as was 18A once I too stopped thinking Houdini and the penny dropped.

   At first I thought that comPLIANT and PLIAble was a weak clue/solution combination, but according to etymonline they have quite different roots.

   Like others, I thought that 8A was weak and 17D a stretch. I vaguely recall we might have had controversy before about poorly-clued STARs?

   AWN was new to me, so that was a bung and google.

8. Thanks for explaining why BEY is an “address” as well as being Turkish. I too thought we might be in for a sort of alternative seven dwarfs here with NIPPY, BEAKY, UNHAPPY and SLOPPY, but if it was intentional it went no further. Couldn’t parse ROAD RAGE (though I like the def) and took ages to spot the neatly hidden ENTREATY and the Swift MEGASTAR.

   Favourites HAYSTACK, STAIRWELL, EUROPHILE.

9. Ticks for ROAD RAGE, MILIEU and MEGASTAR

   M@2 Chambers/DWARF: “A small star of high density and low luminosity (white dwarf, red dwarf, brown dwarf, etc according to strength of light emitted)”

   Cheers B&M

10. I needed the blog to parse MILIEU too, so thank you for that. Lots of fun, but not especially chewy for me.

    I also looked for a theme – and with the BEAKY wondered about Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich (with link to earworm) but nothing else materialised.

    Thank you to Brummie and manehi.

11. Hovis@4 🙂
    oed.com has “dwarf …I.2.c. 1912– Astronomy. A star of relatively low luminosity and size, spec. a main sequence star, such as the sun; = dwarf star n.
    Also: a celestial object intermediate in size between a giant planet and a small star; = brown dwarf n.
    Often with preceding adjective denoting the spectral type; see red dwarf n…” [Other colours are available: black, white, yellow] — A citing. without the word “star”:
    “1996 If the dwarf is not collapsing, the degeneracy pressure of the electrons and the gravitational collapse of the protons must just balance.
    Scientific American June 83/1″

12. Didn’t have a problem with ‘Dwarf?’ for STAR, but wondered why MEGASTAR was Swift, stupidly. The NE corner held me up a bit a still a bit 8a about 8a, but I can see that it’s a hard word to clue. Liked EUROPHILE and DEBACLE. Thanks to manehi and Brummie.

13. There were some lovely misdirections in this – with STAIRWELL the best of the lot!
    Thank you for explaining MEGASTAR, manehi: I’m another who completely overlooked “Swift” and got bogged down wondering about dwarf stars instead. (And trying to recall all of the seven dwarves, just in case.)
    Like Lechien, I, too, attempted at first to squeeze Houdini into 19A. I’d clean forgotten about Geller. Hey, that’s showbiz!
    ENTREATY was well-hidden, SAMI, BAZAAR, GENES and NEUTRINO were very satisfying as well – but then, a satisfying solve is the norm with Brummie.
    Big thanks to him and to manehi

14. Wellbeck@13 I too had forgotten Uri Geller (probably for the best) so I hadn’t completely parsed THESAURI although it was clearly correct.

15. I was opposite to AlanC@3 and Shanne@10 – I couldn’t get MILIEU until I’d parsed it, and it took ages trying to get ‘one’s = my’ out of my head. But that’s how I like it, parse before solve, the ‘aha!’ kick is then somehow stronger, so no complaints. Great crossword, thank you Brummie and manehi.

16. I solved the bottom half first with some in the NW reluctant to yield. I also was thinking about urinals for stalls, so it took a while to see BAZAAR. I enjoyed the allusive definitions for ROAD RAGE, STAIRWELL, HAYSTACK and MEGASTAR, and the good anagram for EUROPHILE.

    Thanks Brummie and manehi.

17. SAMI was a write-in, living as I do in Finland.
    I’ve never heard of Taylor Swift.

18. (Excuse the random italics)

19. I liked STAIRWELL a lot, and also EUROPHILE and the “foreign”s. I too struggled with dwarf for star, so thanks to those who’ve demonstrated it to be legit. I was defeated by the parsing of MILIEU, and needed manehi for that. Tx to Brummie for the challenge.

20. I found THESAURI and DAIS tricky, and loi SAMI I had to look up. Took a while to understand how BAZAAR or MILIEU worked, and didn’t at first clock the ubiquitous Taylor Swift as an important MEGASTAR.
    Apart from that, straightforward enough, and I too liked NEUTRINO and EUROPHILE…

21. Looks as if the days of ‘Brummie – there must be a theme’ are long gone – but if anyone made a film of dwarfs answering to the names listed by Hovis @4 and Gladys @8, I’d go. Thanks B and M. Needed help with some of the parsing. And thanks Google for AWN.

22. Thanks everyone for all that. I managed it all except for 20d. By contrast, I’m still staring at Saturday’s by Enigmatist and have only completed 3 with 3 more possibles. Will one of the bloggers please put me out of my misery soon.

23. AlanC @3 I too, post-solve, saw paddymelon’s ‘handy hint’ about MILIEU on the G commenting thread and thought it was, frankly, a spoiler even though it did not disclose the solution. This surprised me, as paddymelon is a very experienced contributor there as well as here.

24. This was fun, easier for me than yesterday’s by Paul. MILIEU is one of those strange “6-letter words starting with M” that I’ve learned to look for. For me PLIABLE at 2A was a bit weak, jbecause it has the same root as “Compliant”. Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

25. Norfolk Dumpling@22 no comments, however oblique, allowed before Prize deadline, house rules

26. ND@22 and Hadrian@25, ashamed to say, my mantra with Enigmatist’s tough Prize last Saturday changed from Education, Education, Education to a rather sorry Reveal, Reveal, Reveal, helped by a certain online clue solver…

27. My first thoughts for “stalls here” were THEATRE (too many letters) and STABLE.

28. Lovely, fun puzzle. I was nicely misdirected by a few of these clues, so they were my favourites: THESAURI (Houdini anyone?), MILIEU (character), STAIRWELL (flight), IMPUGNS (mobile as anagrind). I also liked EUROPHILE for the surface.
    I did notice several solutions with y endings and have enjoyed the comments about possible alternative dwarfs – Hovis@4, gladys@8.
    Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

29. Agree with Muffin @2

30. Nakamova@24 “pliable” and “compliant” have different roots, as Jacob@7 says. Pliable comes from the French “plier,” meaning to bend or fold, and compliant comes from comply

    Hardish puzzle, needed a good deal of try-one-letter-and-check this morning.

    Thanks, Brummie and manehi.
    .

31. Nice one from Brummie, with a few comments.

    MEGASTAR has two DBEs – one for the esteemed Ms Swift (I’m not a fan!) who’s just one example of a Megastar, and one for ‘dwarf’ which is just one kind of star. So is it OK for the ? to serve for both?

    Took me ages to figure out IMPUGNS because I didn’t realise that ‘is’ was part of the def. – I was looking for words ending in -ING. But it was satisfying when it finally clicked! And for STATUS I was trying words of the form S—-A without success. AWN was a word which rang a bell, but I had to look it up. And MILIEU was my LOI – after having scanned the Periodic Table to no avail!

    Rest went in fine. Likes for DAIS, ROAD RAGE (been on the receiving end of that – haven’t we all!); WOLF PACK; THESAURI, STAIRWELL, ENTREATY, OPEN MIND. As always, a very subjective selection.

    Thanks to Brummie and manehi.

32. In MEGASTAR, I thought the question-mark a little too parsimonious a way of indicating two clues-by-example.

33. A random thought that Brummie might have in mind some alternative version of the 7 dwarves. We have Beaky, Sloppy, Unhappy and the controversial Star. At a stretch we could add Sami and the sadly abbreviated Dais(y).

    Thanks for an enjoyable solve and an entertaining blog. I’ll get my coat.

34. A random thought that Brummie might have in mind some alternative version of the 7 dwarves. We have Beaky, Sloppy, Unhappy, Nippy and the controversial Star. At a stretch we could add Sami and the sadly abbreviated Dais(y).

    Thanks for an enjoyable solve and an entertaining blog. I’ll get my coat.

35. In a context in which stars are being discussed it would be OK to refer to a “dwarf”, as “dwarf star” would be implied, but without that context there’s nothing to point “dwarf” in the direction of stars.

36. Came back to this one several times today, and found it a tough solve. Lots of satisfying clues, with THESAURI, MAGUS, STAIRWELL, DAIS, and MILIEU my favourites. Got SAMI from the crossers after thinking for a while how to fit ‘as’ into the clue. Like others, I am not sure about ‘perversely’ as a reversal indicator. Thanks Brummie and manehi.

37. Thanks Brummie. I enjoyed the quirky definitions & misdirection so common in this crossword. My only stumble was MILIEU. My top picks were FLEA, OPEN MIND, BRASH, MEGASTAR (I think the question mark certainly allows dwarf=star), and STATUS. I was a bit surprised to see ‘foreign’ used twice to indicate foreign words when ‘French’ could have been used in either 8a or 25a. (My nit to pick for the day.) Thanks manehi for the blog.

38. Thanks both.
    Has anyone questioned why ‘milieu’ is ‘element’? Chambers gives it as ‘environment’.

39. Tyngwick @38 I wondered that as well, though as it was my LOI I was more consumed by success at finishing. Only thing I can think of is being in one’s element / environment, but it feels a stretch. There is usually a sense which I am unaware of when questioning this sort of thing though, so any suggestions very gratefully received.

40. Tyngewick @3 my Oxford Thesaurus gives this example for element with MILIEU as a synonym:
    Graham was in his element building a fire and cooking the steaks

41. I rationalised milieu/element/environment as did Fiery Jack @39 “In one’s element”, “in one’s milieu”, “in one’s happy place” seem more or less equivalent.

42. Had to cheat on Sami, Stairwell, Milieu, and Sawn, even though (because) I’d spent most of the day in a state of anguish. Remind me why we do this again…?

43. In 5 I think the ZA is Zambia, not South Africa…….but maybe i’m just over-influenced by my username

44. Very difficult, thanks for the answers.

45. Lizinzambia@43 – ZA is the Internet country code for South Africa. Sadly I don’t know why, or what the code for Zambia is.

46. Mars and Jupiter, I think, very visible in Kent

47. So, I’ve been doing this enough months I know there are no set ‘rules’ as long as the clueing gets you to the answer, but this felt like quite a stretch in a few points that I’d be grateful if someone could clear up.

    There seemed to be a few very vague references that related to contractions. Is ‘of foreign’ considered fair game? I’d normally see it clued as ‘of French’; while I know most of the time it’s going to be a relatively well known foreign language in the UK, this seems like asking to do a lot of leaping from start to finish. I was even more bothered by ZA as ‘African country’; I know where it comes from but there’s a lot to jump through to get there.

    I’m also not totally convinced by ‘IMPUGNS’ as ‘is challengning’ – I guess I can just about see how they’re the same part of speech, but again it feels a stretch.

    Am I being too picky here? I’ve been feeling a bit grumpier going through a lot of the puzzles this week, so it might just be accumulated frustration. But it felt a lot to work through.

    For balance – thought ENTREATY was tremendously well hidden, was impressed by STAIRWELL’s misdirection, and ROAD RAGE was well done, too.

48. [My daughter is getting her astronomical telescope out and has promised to call me if she finds Jupiter. Venus is quite easy, soon after sundown.]

49. [ Muffin @ 48 I found Mercury, but only with a pair of binoculars, and even then it was surprisingly difficult. I have seen it maybe a half dozen times in my life – still a few sightings more than Copernicus (possibly). I would be surprised if Saturn could be seen here tonight (I am 56 degrees N)]

50. 7a and 14d were my successes.

    1d I had FLEE; I remain poor at knowing which version of a word to use.

51. Anyone who is impressed with their progress and maybe thinks they’re getting quite a crossword dab should try coming late to this forum – EVERY cleverness they think they might have uniquely spotted has already been revealed hours ago!
    Anyway, I didn’t think UNHAPPY was weak at all (spouse got it, not me) albeit I can’t think when I’ve heard HAPPY stand in for MERRY, but perhaps someone can?
    RE Enigmatist prize, I hope I am not breaching Hadrian(@25)’s Wall by saying that we thought this was a superb crossword and well worth persevering with. The key to doing it is thinking: Enigmatist? He very likely speaks with forked tongue! Question Every Single Word!

52. Despite the many protestations, FrankieG @11 is right. Muffin’s complaint @35 doesn’t stand up at all – since when has context been a requirement for alternative definitions? Dwarf (not dwarf star, just dwarf) is literally in the dictionary as ‘a star of relatively small size and low luminosity, including the majority of main sequence stars’. Very good clue.

53. A lot of dodgy clueing IMO, although a few elegant clues.

54. GeeDubya @45: it’s ZA (which catches
    me out nearly every time) because the name of the country is Zuid-Afrika in Afrikaans: Zambia apparently is ZM and SA is Saudi Arabia.

55. Gladys @54: South Africa is Suid-Afrika in Afrikaans, Zuid-Afrika in Dutch.

56. Apologies to all South Africans.

57. Except E**n M**k

58. [Been trying for Mercury this evening about 6pm but couldn’t find it – trees in the way. I’ll need to try from somewhere else I reckon.

    Venus of course is brilliant in the West, and ]upiter and Mars easy to find nearer the zenith. Note the contrast in colours! Unless your location and clear skies are excellent, you won’t have a prayer of spotting Saturn or Uranus. And Neptune at mag. 8 needs a telescope.

    So much for all the hype about “all the planets lined up…”!]

59. Enjoyed completing this excellent puzzle. I have a lot in common with previous commenters — all of my questions and comments have been covered by them, including not being able to figure out how “Swift” meant MEGASTAR — how did I not see that?? — looking for HOUDINI; the weakness of comPLIANT and PLIAble — even though their roots aren’t related — parsing MILIEU; looking for an ING ending before hitting on IMPUGN

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