It’s Brummie occupying the midweek slot again, with a reasonably straightforward puzzle. My apologies for a rather rudimentary blog, any errors or omissions and my possible inability to revisit later, owing to family circumstances at the moment.
We have a number of simple charades (11ac, 20ac, 5dn, 8dn and 15dn), with a couple of more complicated ones at 9ac and 3dn, some helpful anagrams at 12dn and 14dn and some amusing surfaces. I haven’t been able to spot a theme but, as always with Brummie, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one.
Thanks to Brummie for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues
Across
1 Olden (i.e. retro) housing owner? No (6)
DENIER
Hidden in (housed by) olDEN I E Retro – a DENIER is one who fails to own (admit) something
5 King doing a U-turn on primary headwear (8)
KERCHIEF
K (king) + a reversal (doing a U-turn) of RE (on) + CHIEF (primary)
9 Major city’s society put up hospital with computer technology (8)
SHANGHAI
S (society) + HANG (put up) + H (hospital) + AI (computer technology)
10 It’s routinely filled by a minor agent with relief, perversely! (6)
DIAPER
A reversal (perversely) of REP (agent) + AID (relief) – neat definition
11 Cold outbreak between flights here prompts emergency action (5-7)
CRASH-LANDING
C (cold) + RASH (outbreak) + LANDING (between flights – of stairs)
13 Reinforced housing data (4)
INFO
Hidden in (housed by – again) reINFOrced
14 Who’s bothered about mite when performance starts? (8)
SHOWTIME
An anagram (bothered) of WHO’S + an anagram (about) of MITE
17 Artist’s mountain resort (8)
WHISTLER
Double definition
18 Look, one’s in pieces (4)
MIEN
I (one) in MEN (chess pieces)
20 Stiff tongue that reveals your true feelings? (4,8)
BODY LANGUAGE
BODY (stiff) + LANGUAGE (tongue)
23 Optical feature’s nucleus almost within reach – almost (6)
CORNEA
COR[e] (nucleus, almost) + NEA[r] (within reach, almost)
24 Weight of detailed, misshapen rocks (8)
EMPHASIS
An anagram (rocks) of MISSHAPE[n] ‘de-tailed’
25 Epic character extracted dues – so, yes, heartless (8)
ODYSSEUS
An anagram (extracted) of DUES SO Y[e]S
26 Lionel’s cracking surface decoration (6)
NIELLO
An anagram (cracking) of LIONEL
Down
2 Newspaper essential to free choice? (4)
ECHO
Middle letters of freE CHOice – a common name for a local newspaper
3 If one has name and number taken by copper, ring Guardian – ‘Blameless!’ (9)
INNOCUOUS
I (one) + N (name) + NO (number) + CU (copper) + O (ring) + US (Guardian)
4 One in three casually put back on the burner? (6)
REHEAT
A (one) in an anagram (casually) of THREE
5 Thousand things to be settled, going forward – that covers the whole board (7,8)
KNIGHT’S PROGRESS
K (thousand) + an anagram (to be settled) of THINGS + PROGRESS (going forward) – a second reference to chess
6 Car part needs right sort of aid (roll-up) (8)
RADIATOR
R (right) + an anagram (sort of) of AID + a reversal (up, in a down clue) of ROTA (roll)
7 Firm confiscates ball collection (5)
HOARD
HARD (firm) round O (ball)
8 One isn’t this emphatically less sensitive (4,6)
EVEN NUMBER
EVEN (emphatically) + NUMBER (less sensitive)
12 Human tornado with hip replacement! (10)
ANTHROPOID
An anagram (replacement) of TORNADO and HIP
15 To toughen up, partook of mild (9)
TEMPERATE
TEMPER (to toughen up) + ATE (partook of)
16 Division, about to go over Georgia, turned back (8)
CLEAVAGE
C (about) + LEAVE (go) round a reversal (turned back) of GA (Georgia)
19 Snake – shot it with a tracking movement (6)
TAIPAN
An anagram (shot) of IT + A + PAN (tracking movement)
21 ‘Theatre in the blue’ over a long time (5)
YONKS
A reversal (over) of NO (Japanese theatre) in SKY (the blue – as in ‘out of the blue’)
22 Fellow Brummie is going to charge (4)
FILL
F (fellow) + I’LL (Brummie is going to) – as in ‘Charge your glasses’
10ac
I don’t accept this use of the word in English. It should not be in a British crossword. But absolutely typical Guardian.
Yep, pretty smooth sailing, though niello was new, the word that is … that diptych has a familiar look, thanks Eileen (best thoughts re the family). And thanks Brummie.
Does anybody know what the mountain resort is supposed to be? Google found one in Canada but it seems a rather obscure reference. Maybe it’s better known than I realise.
ravenrider@3: WHISTLER is the largest ski resort in N America. Often referred to as Whistler Blackcomb.
ravenrider @3 – see here: https://www.whistler.com/
18ac is so obvious now but I had it as an anagram (in pieces) of MINE (one’s). Doh!
Anna @1 are you suggesting that Americans don’t speak English? An american woman did once tell me she’s overheard me speaking British 🙂
Top ticks for TAIPAN, DIAPER (sorry) and BODY LANGUAGE
Cheers E&B
Very enjoyable puzzle with clever clues and great surfaces. I think my favourite was ODYSSEUS – he did indeed take his revenge heartlessly, in the slaughter of the suitors and then the hanging of the maids who had slept with them. (There’s a forthcoming film on the subject with Ralph Fiennes – I hope it does it justice.)
I also really liked DIAPER. Anna @1: the word may be American (Chambers says esp N Am) but it’s very well known in the UK and I don’t think it needs any indicator as such.
Many thanks Brummie and Eileen.
I enjoyed that very much. New for me was No(h), the Japanese theatre. I also liked ODYSSEUS, and enjoyed INNOCUOUS, which went together like Lego blocks.
I’m with LordJim@8 and don’t have an issue with DIAPER, Anna@1. The word, although not in its “nappy” sense, was used by Shakespeare, and even then had the idea of towelling or napkin.
Thanks Brummie & Eileen (and I hope the family circumstances get sorted and aren’t too serious!)
digbydavies @6: that does seem to work as an alternative parsing of MIEN! Though it would be an indirect anagram, and so frowned upon by many.
Really struggled with the top half of this, and took a long time to realise there was a faint ECHO of the name of that newspaper at 2d in my head, and hidden in plain sight. Although I used to be a (not very competent) chess player, I wasn’t familiar with KNIGHTS PROGRESS, so that was almost the last one in.
Enjoyed the CRASH LANDING as a clue if that doesn’t sound too flippant of me for such a terrifying event. Didn’t know the mountain resort either, but it had to be that artist from the crossers.
Found this challenging…
Your Lordship @ 8
I normally like foreign words in crosswords, have no problems with well-known words from French or German, for example. But the spread of american language absolutely everywhere poses a huge threat. I know you won’t believe me, but it is true. I am shocked every time I go back to England and hear youngsters speaking american. It’s everywhere here in Finland, too. Signs written in american absolutely everywhere. Sometimes nothing in Finnish at all. A huge threat to the world’s languages and cultures. Think of the way spoken Latin destroyed the native Celtic languages of what we today call France and Spain. That happened at a time without internet or telephones or text messaging. People just thought it was advantageous to speak Latin, and (initially at least) to be on the right side of the Romans. It’ll happen much faster in our communication age. Very sad. Glad I’m old.
Faves: DIAPER, CRASH LANDING, KNIGHT’S PROGRESS and YONKS.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen.
Very difficult or maybe I am not in the mood for a cryptic crossword today. I also find the new online format a tad annoying, as do many commenters on the Guardian blog.
I failed to solve 10,23,24,26ac and 16,19,21,22d.
I could not parse 5ac apart from K=king and CHIEF = primary, and 15d.
Anna@12 unfortunately, perhaps, you can’t stop languages changing despite the best efforts of grammarians. With the prevalence of US films (or movies!), people globally hear US English and adopt the usage. However, Celtic languages did survive in varying degrees, with Latin loan words (such as ffenestr for window and eglwys for church in Cymraeg) but with the grammar largely intact. Sometimes it’s an enrichment of a language. I found the crossword tricky today with INFO my graceful first one in. NIELLO was new to me and TAIPAN unfamiliar, but I think I’ve encountered it in crosswords previously. Thanks to Brummie and to Eileen for producing the blog in the middle of family concerns.
I think AEONS (reversal of NO in SEA) would work equally well for 21D. In fact I entered that first, but decided _O_A was a bit unlikely in 20A.
I found this far from “reasonably straightforward”. Glad to see I’m not alone. Had to reveal a few and failed to parse many. No problem with DIAPER and liked both CRASH LANDING and BODY LANGUAGE. Thanks Brummie and Eileen for the much needed explanations.
Tomin isälle @ 15
I am a Welsh speaker and a linguist and am well aware of all that.
Incidentally, the word for fish in Welsh is an interesting one, it was borrowed from Latin several times before it came for good!
Celtic only really survives in France today in place-names. -dour being water, for just one example.
It’s a bone of contention whether Breton is a remnant of the original Celtic language of Gaul, or if it was re-introduced from Devon/Cornwall, or a mixture of both. It doesn’t seem to be respected or appreciated by many of the inhabitants of Brittany, though.
I have been to both Brittany and Ireland in the hope of practising those languages and been unable to find any speakers at all, even in the ‘strongholds’. (The one exception being the Arran islands).
I did quite well with the top half but Brummie wore me down in the end so I revealed the remaining answers. NIELLO and TAIPAN were new to me.
[In the year or so I’ve been using this site, I’ve been impressed by how articulate, thoughtful and knowledgeable commenters are. It’s a pleasure being in the company of people who still use proper sentences and care about language. I’m not sure I’d have persisted with cryptic crosswords without the help and encouragment I’ve found here. But I’m mystified by the furore over avatars. I don’t want one myself as I aspire always to invisibility on- and offline but I feel under no pressure to have one and can’t see what difference they make to how comments appear on the page. I use an iPad. Maybe it’s worse on a phone? Anyway I have read the lengthy debate and have no wish to prolong it. I just hope no one leaves the site because of the change. It would be a shame.]
[I solve on paper, so I miss the Print option. It disappeared a few weeks ago except in Edge, which I don’t routinely use, than it came back in Firefox, and now it’s gone again. Printing a PDF is decidedly inferior, at least in part because the solution to the previous day’s puzzle takes up so much horizontal space]
Nho the mountain resort, nor of KNIGHTS PROGRESS (I’ve always seen it called a Knight’s Tour). Why was ‘Major’ used in 9a? It adds nothing to the clue and other major cities are virtually never described as such in crosswords. Didn’t much like ‘casually’ as an anagrind. YONKS was fun and DENIER well hidden.
…yes YONKS is a term I often use in messages to family and friends. It has a nice old fashioned ring to my ears, but also has a surprisingly up to date feel…
To get the Print version of the crossword:
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29646/print
(I got if from someone commenting on the Guardian site).
poc@20 If the definition for SHANGHAI had been simply ‘city’, then (although technically correct) many people would have been complaining on here that it was too vague a definition. Adding the qualifier ‘major’ indicated that it was a significant world player, and therefore narrowed down the list of possibilities. Since none of the major British cities fitted the spaces, then it was going to be an international one.
This was a struggle with almost nothing going in on the first pass, but eventually it mostly fell into place.
10A made me chuckle. 26A was new to me, as was 19D, which I had to reveal (as always, I struggle with flora and fauna). I have NHO of a knight’s tour called a ‘progress’, but it couldn’t be anything else. As for Whistler, I have been there but did not make the connection until reading the blog.
Thank you Eileen and Brummie.
Not all that straightforward for me. KNIGHTS PROGRESS was last in and needed all the crossers: I had only vaguely heard of it (but managed to remember WHISTLER eventually).
Lego charades are not my favourite clue type, but I liked the surface for INNOCUOUS and the one for ANTHROPOID, and the definition for DIAPER. It originally meant a diamond pattern (like the Tudor brickwork here). It then came to mean a cloth with a diamond pattern, which was used for…
SHOWTIME had me puzzled: it’s an anagram of WHO’S followed by an anagram of MITE. Neither element is embedded in the other and neither element is reversed, so the use of “about” as the anagram indicator is some serious misdirection.
Another one who found this anything but reasonably straightforward overall, though a few of the answers fell in to place after a lot of slow progress. Satisfying to actually finish it therefore, but I needed the check button and recourse to Word Wizard for a lot of it.
I got WHISTLER but only for the artist, NHO the mountain resort. Couldn’t make the association between FILL = charge, but I get it now.
gladys@25 SHOWTIME is two separate anagrams, each with its own anagrind – ‘bothered’ for WHO’S and ‘about’ for MITE.
I found this a tricky puzzle, but both fair, and skilfully clued. As Eileen observes, 7 charades, ( albeit I’m not sure 8(dn) is one?); but they were all very cleverly presented, and by no means spoiled the challenge.
“whylist”: NIELLO, but happy to learn of it.
Like poc@20, KNIGHTS PROGRESS is meaningless to me ( I do play chess), is there something I’m missing?
ECHO: as a paper-boy in 60s Liverpool, and later North Wales, the famous “Liverpool Echo” was my heaviest evening delivery run.
It carried the next day’s horseracing cards, and the standing scouse joke was that street vendors would shout out ” Get yer Evening Echo – all tomorrow’s winners are in ‘ere”. They were, of course…all you had to do was pick ’em!
Cheers, Brummie & Eileen
I thought that DENIER (no stockings in sight) was well-hidden. I liked the definitions of EVEN NUMBERS and DIAPER (an ‘In America’ might have been useful), the cold outbreak between flights for CRASH-LANDING, the stiff tongue of BODY LANGUAGE, and the theatre in the blue for YONKS. I DNK NIELLO, although there were few other alternatives from the fodder.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen.
Anna, I sympathise and try to avoid speaking American myself, but fear it’s a lost cause. And I think you mean Aran islands; Arran is a single Scottish island.
Good stuff. One mistake (nho NIELLO) but happy with that.
A one point I had the top filled in but none of the bottom including half of KNIGHTS PROGRESS. I saw what Brummie was getting at but I have always called it KNIGHTS TOUR. Hadn’t heard of either WHISTLER so that was based on the crossers.
Two erroneous answers needed correcting. I had BULL (fellow Brummie/is going to charge) and NOSE (anagram of one’s – ‘in pieces’/ LOOK) . I guess the Birmingham Bull might be a bit obscure for those outside my home city.
Liked: BODY LANGUAGE, EVEN NUMBER
One day I will remember detailed means remove the last letter.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
Liked the puzzle, was just the right level of difficulty for me last night.
Maybe this is a regional usage thing, but I would never had said INNOCUOUS meant blameless, rather it means harmless, which is not quite the same. Innocent could be clued by blameless.
Was there a missed opportunity for a third definition for DENIER? If there was a full stop at the very end we would have had No. = number, referring to the unit of measurement for hosiery. I know it doesn’t quite work, but maybe there was a way.
Ravenrider @3
Whistler is the name of a mountain in British Columbia, Canada, that has a ski resort at Squamish BC . I don’t think it’s the largest in N. America, but it is a good size
WHISTLER hosted the snowy parts of the 2010 Winter Olympics (Vancouver, being at sea level, hosted only the sports requiring ice). You can’t say it’s obscure! Well, you can say it, but that says more about you than it does about Whistler.
I can’t find the exact quote, but Whistler’s mother apparently complained that he used her less flattering profile.
I had to cheat on both TAIPAN and NIELLO, with the former unknown and the latter forgotten; someone here pointed out recently that obscure words are often to be found in the lower right, often since the setter has painted themselves into a corner.
Just a short word to support and congratulate Anna on her defence of the use of language. I try to avoid pedantry but I am often irked when I hear people in a fast food restaurant saying, “can I get…” or even worse, the ghastly, “what’s not to like!?”
Hey-ho, glad I’m old, too.
Oh, and another thing…loved the crossword but found it tougher than our blogger with NIELLO resisting to the end.
Thanks for the blog.
Due to my ineptitude, I found this ridiculously difficult.
“Simple” charades do not exist in my world; all clues are complex.
Anna@22: thanks, I’ll try to bear that in mind. Nevertheless, the fact that they removed the button gives me no confidence that this option will continue to exist.
Andy in Durham@23: Cities such as New York, Capetown, Kyoto and so on appear routinely in crosswords without being described as ‘major’. I still think it’s redundant.
poc @37: agreed about “major” city–maybe helpful, but certainly not necessary, and also not that helpful since “major city” is itself pretty vague. (I live in Chicago, a major city for most, but is (say) Milwaukee a major city? Depends on your definitions, right?) Anyway, the only real test for crossword purposes is if the city is well known enough to the relevant audience to be fair game. If he thought he needed to narrow it down, he could have gone with that old standby, “port” (which Shanghai certainly is).
AndyinDurham@27: yes, I know it’s two separate anagrams, but the use of “about” makes it look as though it isn’t. Legitimate misdirection.
William@35 I agree with you about “can I get…?”, but I find “Whats not to like?” charming. It sounds Yiddish to me, and I’m guessing it comes from our Jewish immigrant community in New York.
Thanks Brummie and Eileen
In contrast to Eileen, I found this the hardest for ages. I had never heard of NIELLO, and I still don’t understand the “progress” in 5d. SHANGHAI favourite.
KNIGHT’S PROGRESS
muffin@41
‘going forward=PROGRESS’ seems fine. Am I missing something?
KVa @42
It’s the “covers the whole board” that’s puzzling me. Surely all the pieces (except bishops and pawns) can do that?
Thanks muffin.
Anna, I have to respectfully mention the fact that “diaper”, in that sense of the word, is older than “nappy”, which only came into use about 100 years ago. I share your interest in linguistics and have found that, in general, American usages reflect the language our ancestors brought with them from Britain and are usually older than equivalent British terms. British English seems to evolve much more quickly.
I found this crossword very challenging and felt very proud that I was able to complete it. Many thanks to Brummie and to Eileen.
muffin @ 43 – I found KNIGHT’S PROGRESS in Chambers: ‘in chess, a series of moves in which a knight may visit every square on the board.’ I didn’t expand on that in the blog, because I presumed that chess players would (unlike me) know that already or be able to look it up for themselves.
Thanks Eileen @46
It seems an odd thing to have a name for. It couldn’t happen in a game.
It is called a Knight’s Tour , in the pure form you visit every square once and end up at the starting point , I have played chess and done chess puzzles for many years and never seen progress used . The setter has cover from Chambers but no idea what Chambers is playing at .
Muffin@47 , if you look up Knight’s Tour I suspect you can find out all about it .
muffin@43 I agree.
Plus, to cover the whole board, a knight must advance, but also retreat, etc.
For me, it is a “green paint” solution.
( I will not comment on “promoted pawns”).
It’s stalemate, I think, a nice clue that’s just a bit [?]
Doesn’t detract (too much) from a good puzzle.
I ask students to find a tour on a 7 x 7 board and it is not possible due to non-conservation of parity .
Anna @1 and others – wow, as an American, I am quite nonplussed. What DO you guys on the other side of the pond call a diaper?!
Jay @52
It’s a “nappy” – diminutive of “napkin”.
Jay @52
It’s a “nappy” – diminutive of “napkin”. Babies often suffer from “nappy rash” – what do you call that?
[Sorry, my comment at 53 took ages to appear!]
Muffin @52:
Hmmm, a napkin here usually refers to what you guys might call a serviette, and if it’s made of paper, then it is called…a paper napkin!
And for your other question – we call it diaper rash. Of course 🙂
Kudos to Pops @45. 60+ years ago, I read a book that said “hillbilly” (Appalachian) language was pure Elizabethan English, due to the people in the mountains being so isolated after the region was settled. I’ve never forgotten it. A few years later, I saw a production of As You like It at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. It was set in the antebellum South, and Arden was Appalachia. The language (given the appropriate accent) worked perfectly. I was over-the-moon excited.
Muffin@54 we call it diaper rash (sorry, we crossed here Jay). My English grandparents (sorry, don’t want to date myself) also called them diapers. So my parents grew up in “diapers”, and “nappies” can be considered kind of a newfangled word, depending on your age.
Alas, I had hoped that this setter would be the next Nutmeg, and there’s still hope, but the sw corner is someone painted into a corner.
So when Stevie Wonder sang “Looking back on when I was a little nappy headed boy” in I Wish did have a diaper or a paper serviette on his head? Or just some fluff maybe?
bodycheetah @59: I’m sure you were kidding, but for further edification of others, “nappy” this side of the ocean is typically an adjective used to describe hair that is naturally coarse and tightly coiled…
Posterntoo @56, on a completely unrelated note, I recall being quite surprised when I discovered (many moons ago) that “kudos” is derived from a Greek word, and is not the plural form of “kudo.”
Jay@61 in Pittsburgh
Wowzer. My Anglo- Greek is laughed at in Greece, and kudos never crops up that much, in conversation!
The equivalent is “glory ” ” κλεος” [ “clay-oss”] (I think), but I can see that might be lost in translation, into “kudos”.
(I’ve just looked back in to read the comments and am rather surprised that there hasn’t been more praise for 25a ODYSSEUS. With its suggestion of an extended definition (me @8) I thought it was brilliant.)
[ I assume that Balfours comments #67 yesterday were aimed at me # 42. I apologise for breaking the rules of the page. I never knew of that one.
The reprimand reminded me of the time over 70 years ago when my infants school teacher commented not on my neat handwriting but instead that I had put the date in the wrong place.
Advice regarding the problem would have been helpful. Today it is worse and with regret we will now move to another daily crossword. I have enjoyed Fifteensquared.net and until Balfour’s comment felt part of the ‘family’. Now, like that little 6 year old clutching his wrongly dated work, I will leave the room, brackets and all. ]
Gotta Let You Go (Nappy Headed Woman) performed by Joe Hill Louis is excellent.
I write software manuals for a living. American English is the industry standard. For the sake of my sanity, I gave up being bothered by it ages ago. Though, of course, diapers/nappies rarely crop up in technical documentation.
As with the previous Brummie I tried, I solved half of this. It’s about the level I need in order to progress. So, thanks Brummie, and Eileen.
WearyB @64
I don’t think it was unreasonable of Balfour to point out that your comment @42 yesterday wasn’t about the day’s puzzle, so should have been posted in General Discussion. Don’t take the “reprimand” the wrong way.
LOL, Anna, I live in California, was born in the Bronx, and I too try to avoid speaking American. What you think of as American is much preferred to what one actually hears in the states.
I completely agree with Michelle; I miss the print button. Also, the PDF button does not appear at the same time as the puzzle first does so there is a delay in beginning if your preference is to solve on paper.
WearyB@64 I’m sorry you didn’t find help here with your problem yesterday and even more sorry if you feel you want to leave the site because you’ve been ‘told off’ and transported back momentarily to your childhood (happens to me too). There does seem to be a set of unwritten rules about what is and isn’t acceptable. I’m not sure I’ve entirely grasped them.
Just more information about Knights Progress (or Knights Tour). This is a chess puzzle, where the knight is put on its original square and the object is to map a path around the board, using the correct knight moves, so that it is can be placed on every square on the board, once and only once, and arrives back at its original square.
Brummie is a master of misdirection by word order (eg “doing a U-turn on” rather than “on doing a U-turn”) and commas (eg “Weight of detailed, misshapen rocks” rather than “Weight of detailed misshapen rocks”). Confuses me anyway. Such a good setter. KERCHIEF took me ages but the ‘aha’ moment made it worth it. Thank you B&E
The clue for ODYSSEUS is outstanding. Many thanks to Brummie and to Eileen.
WearyB@64 there are “rules” on here both written and unwritten and most people break some of them some of the time , Your comment@42 could have been on General Discussion but a lot of people never look there , it could have had brackets but so what ? When things change online there is often a bit of chatter on the blogs and some advice , I can cheerfully ignore this and it does no harm at all . Please do not leave because of this , continue to comment , break some more rules . I am not going to put brackets around this , shock horror .
Reminiscent of a Chas & Dave (No2 hit 1981)…
Reminiscent of a Chas & Dave (No2 hit 1981)…
“I am shocked every time I go back to England.” Good luck protecting British English if you don’t even live here.
[wearyb@64 (should you see this) – please do not stop joining in at 15². Your name is clearly a new addition to the fold, so there is, in my opinion, no justification in being addressed as you were; not by a direct friendly explanation, but by a general plaint at third parties – all a bit passive aggressive and, as I say, not justified. I’m surprised that muffin has added to it – and saddened. I recall during the pandemic that 15² was on some days stuffed full of dozens of, I considered, irrelevant coffee shop small talk postings (mostly between Australians!) and without square brackets!! And hardly ever upbraided – unlike Balfour who has chosen to speak to you in an unwelcoming fashion, which doesn’t reflect the feeling most of us hold for “newcomers” – so that I chose not to visit 15² nor even solve a Guardian cryptic for a year or two. I’m catching up now – which is nice… So please don’t disappear; try to forgive us, rather than forget us!]
[muffin@65 – He didn’t just point it out. It was, in my view, a snide sideways comment – he didn’t even address it to our newcomer! And, given your choice to remake the point – how come your comment was not in square brackets?!! 😇]
Completed this great puzzle. It fell into place gradually, with DIAPER holding out the longest. Appreciate that these crosswords feature words from all over the world!
Nice to see a rare Canadian reference with WHISTLER. To my shame I didn’t get it until I had all the crossers
EVEN NUMBER was amusing. You may be numb, but I’m even number!
Loved all the little tiny pieces put together in order in INNOCUOUS