A bit of an American flavour (or should that be flavor?) to this one, with the NW corner holding me up for a while at the end. Full of ingenuity and wit as always. Thanks to Paul.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | SECOND FIDDLE | Deputy’s role in recidivist’s scam? (6,6) The scamming recidivist would repeat his crime, doing a SECOND FIDDLE |
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| 9 | WAGON | Ride in white vehicle (5) GO (ride) in WAN |
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| 10 | PNEUMATIC | Ultimately, storm in teacup brewing as American tires? (9) Anagram of [stor]M IN TEACUP, using the American spelling of what we write as “tyres” |
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| 11 | TERSELY | Some retro hairstyles returning shortly (7) Hidden in reverse of hairstYLES RETurning |
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| 12 | WHEREAT | Temple guards at this spot, so there! (7) HERE (at this spot) in WAT (Buddhist temple) |
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| 13 | HORN-RIMMED | Descriptive of some optical equipment, instrument with 5,7? (4-6) HORN (instrument) + a “switched” or anagrammed DIMMER |
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| 15 | OGLE | Look of golfer regularly missing (4) Alternate letters of Of GoLfEr |
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| 18 | BLED | European lake drained (4) Double definition – Lake Bled is in Slovenia |
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| 19 | IVY LEAGUER | Number of suits and doctor eagerly embracing university student in America (3,7) IV (4, number of suits in a pack of cards) + U in EAGERLY* |
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| 22 | DECLINE | Slump in queue for turkeys? (7) The turkey queue is a DEC[ember] LINE |
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| 24 | CROATIA | Country with occupied territory fled by yours truly, cereal crop in blockade? (7) OAT (cereal crop) in CRIMEA less ME (yours truly) |
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| 25 | NORTH POLE | New porthole battered, where it could be many times (5,4) N + PORTHOLE*. As the North Pole is at the intersection of all lines on longitude it could be said to be in every time zone |
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| 26 | IN ONE | As a unit, aware of fate in the end (2,3) IN ON (aware of) + [fat]E |
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| 27 | MONTEREY JACK | Bread filled with something salty, though not a standard cheese (8,4) TE[a]R (something salty) in MONEY (bread) + JACK (flag, standard) |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SUGAR-FREE | Served up always with minimum of fuss, sauces less sweet? (5-4) Reverse of E’ER + F[uss] + RAGUS |
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| 2 | CANBERRA | Capital is sometimes available remarkably, resources initially raised (8) CAN BE (is sometimes) + first letters of Available Remarkably Resources, in reverse order |
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| 3 | NIPPY | Like a cheetah – with sharp teeth and claws? (5) Double definition – nippy in the sense of speedy for the cheetah |
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| 4 | FREEWHEEL | Cruise: sense that’s inspiring where at sea (9) WHERE* in FEEL |
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| 5,7 | DIMMER SWITCH | Electrical device has to cross a channel for Spooner? (6,6) Spoonerism of “swim a ditch” |
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| 6 | LATTE | Tea, it’s said, in bedtime drink (5) T (homophone of “tea”) in LATE (bedtime) |
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| 8 | SCYTHE | Second article about evacuation of country cut (6) C[ountr]Y in S[econd] THE |
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| 14 | MOVIEGOER | Picture lover with jockey on top of Guernsey transported by cow? (9) VIE (to jockey, e.g. for position) + G[uernsey] in MOOER (cow) |
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| 16 | GRUNT WORK | Drudgery of the pig farmer? (5,4) Definition + hint |
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| 17,20 | CAROLINA REAPER | Air, in part, through American burner? (8,6) Carol (song, air) + IN AREA (part) + PER (through). The Caroline Reaper was the world’s hottest chili pepper between 2013 and 2023 |
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| 18,21 | BE DONE WITH IT | Put down ace and joker on deck and throw in one’s hand? (2,4,4,2) BED (put down) + ONE (ace) + WIT (joker) + HIT (to deck) |
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| 23 | CURIO | Relic in rogue I love (5) CUR (rogue) + I + O (love, in tennis) |
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| 24 | CHEVY | Coach originally weighing a ton, not a car (5) C[oach] + HEAVY less A |
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These days I’m finding myself more entertained and less irritated by Paul than I used to be. Is it me or has he dialled the very stretchy definitions down a bit? Enjoyed this one very much indeed, with ticks for 27a, 5/7 and (my LOI) 17/20. Among others. Thanks to Paul and Andrew
Hadn’t heard of lake BLED, so that clue held me up. Struggled to parse CAROLINE REAPER because I thought the part must be ROLE and I don’t normally think of a carol as an ‘air’. MONTEREY JACK was another one guessed from the definition and then parsed slowly. Favourites included SCYTHE, DIMMER SWITCH, GRUNT WORK and CROATIA. Thanks to Paul and to Andrew for the usual clear blog.
Failed on the pepper. Had vaguely heard of it, though, so no complaints. Thanks both.
Some clever stuff. Enjoyed unpicking MONTEREY JACK and HORNED-RIMMED.
Would have avoided using “not a” twice in the crossing 27a and 24d.
Cheers Paul and Andrew.
A rapid solve until I ran up against CAROLINA REAPER. Don’t think I ever would have worked out “in part” = “area” and am not sure that I understand it even now. HORN RIMMED was very clever. I think that “cow” = “mooer” has been in a Paul puzzle before; it certainly popped into my head surprisingly quickly. Is the definition of NORTH POLE because it is a place where international time zones meet? If so, I like it. NIPPY made me groan (in a nice way) and BE DONE WITH IT was probably my favourite. Thanks Paul and Andrew.
Paul@5 “… because it is a place where international time zones meet?”. Yes, that’s exactly how I read it.
I agree with paul and Jay about the definition of NORTH POLE – apologies not explaining it in the blog; now corrected.
Thanks to Andrew (I didn’t get all parsings) and Paul. I did like DIMMER SWITCH and HORN-RIMMED but surely Lake Bled is too obscure?
Yep, the cheese and the chili didn’t ring (though the latter now does faintly), and I failed to twig the intersecting time zones … dim! Nothing else mysterious, and nice to see the national capital get a mention. Nothing risqué either lately — I do hope we haven’t Whitehoused him! Thanks Paul and Andrew.
I don’t get where RAGUS comes from in 1d. Otherwise all good, thanks Paul and Andrew
Also does anyone know why I have to log in each time I try to post? Obviously I checked the SAVE button
I powered through the north very quickly (however 2d was my last to parse) then hit a bit of a roadblock in the south and needed some dictionary/thesaurus help to unlock, particularly with the American burner.
Liked the punny 16d, 22a and the wordplay of 17/20d, 24a, 14d in particular.
@Sarah Monk, ragu is a bolognese-style sauce. I’d considered it more of a full meal but looking it up it’s just the sauce that is technically a ragu.
Thanks Paul and Andrew.
Liked SECOND FIDDLE, HORN-RIMMED, NORTH POLE, DIMMER SWITCH and BE DONE WITH IT.
SUGAR-FREE
Sarah@10
sauces=Ragùs
CAROLINA REAPER
paul@5
‘in’ from the surface and part=AREA.
Much to like in this one, I thought it was Paul at his best.
HORN-RIMMED and MOVIEGOER were brilliant. PNEUMATIC was a fantastic spot. CAROLINA REAPER went in without too much problem too – I have some homemade Caribbean-style hot sauce in the fridge, which was made with Carolina Reapers and mango. Delicious, but fiery! I found the south easier going than the north, but it was all fairly and amusingly clued.
Thanks Paul and Andrew.
I seem to be the opposite of everyone else in that I powered through the south including the pepper and cheese (I obviously eat too much) but the North was a slow glacial solve. Frustrating but ultimately satisfying as ever with Paul.
Liked the paired clues of DIMMER SWITCH and HORN RIMMED.
Not a clue about BLED which went in with a shrug. So cheers blogger.
Thanks Paul and Andrew
I had SCATHE (CanadA, etc) which I think works.
Also remembered wat from the last Paul puzzle.
A grunt for GRUNT WORK!
Far too much america. But then, what do you expect from a ‘newspaper’ dedicated to the total americanisation of Britain. They have even been publishing articles effectively telling us to speak american.
Disgusting.
It’s a pity because Paul’s clueing can be very clever.
I couldn’t get on the right wavelength and gave up. First dnf in a long time.
Three months in Houston put me off MONTEREY JACK for life 🙂
Liked GRUNT WORK, DECLINE and chuffed to finally remember WAT=temple
Cheers P&A
Too many issues to go into with this (including the non-rhotic Spoonerism), but is G=Guernsey accepted? It’s not among the long list given by Chambers for meanings of G.
Loved the idea of a December line as a queue for turkeys!
I’m slowly learning to ignore Paul’s more bonkers clue surfaces and just enjoy the wit.
Many thanks, both.
poc@19. G is not an abbreviation of Guernsey, but its ‘top’ (i.e. first) letter, as stated in the clue.
I mostly tackled the south first with IVY LEAGUER my first one in. I too thought of WAT and MOOER straight away, which helped. I thought this was a decent challenge and was pleased to finish. I didn’t completely parse CROATIA but I had the C and the OAT and thought that would do as I have to get some work done at some point. When I asked Google for European lakes, it kindly dished up BLED in third place. I liked DIMMER SWITCH, SECOND FIDDLE, HORN RIMMED…well, I liked most of it once I was finished. PNEUMATIC (another tick) was the key to a stubborn NE quadrant.
Thanks Paul, Andrew and everyone else who had something positive to say.
Beaten by the nho chilli and the cheese which vaguely rings a bell but would not feature if I had to list out every cheese I knew. I thought the definition for NORTH POLE was inspired. On the other hand, I seriously wonder just what percentage of solvers will have known of Lake BLED. I know – there is no accounting for GK but that one strikes me as beyond verging on the obscure. It’s half a square mile in surface area, for Goodness’ sake 🤣
Thanks Paul and Andrew
Thought I’d done pretty well to struggle to get the top half filled in. Rather ground to a halt after I realised that the parsing of DECLINE left a lot to be desired. Americans would hardly be queueing for their Thanksgiving turkeys in December, I thought. Rather gave up disheartened after that and came on here to see how some of the more convoluted clues were parsed…
Thank you, Paul, for a chewy puzzle, and to Andrew for the helpful blog – I missed the subtlety of NORTH POLE time zones, and nho of CAROLINA REAPER, but the crossers said it had to be, and I back-parsed it. In defence of BLED, I googled ‘most famous lakes in Europe’, and guess what came up first in the list …
Oh, wait, it was 1d I parsed last, not 2d – I got my grids confused. Here’s an embarrassed Aussie thinking I struggled with 2d.
And shouldn’t university technically belong to the wordplay in 19a?
Ground through this with lots of help. I liked the wordplay in HORN-RIMMED and IVY LEAGUER, the DEC LINE (here in the UK, we have our turkeys at Christmas), and the surfaces (often not Paul’s strong point) of SUGAR-FREE and BE DONE WITH IT. I was somewhat hindered by not knowing MONTEREY JACK and CAROLINA REAPER, although for some reason I did know Lake BLED. Somewhat surprisingly, Merriam-Webster doesn’t have CHEVY or chevvy as the car.
Thanks Paul and Andrew for a few of the parsings that mystified me.
The usual curate’s egg for me with Paul. Some smiles, some groans, several unparsed (I could have stared at MONTEREY JACK until Doomsday), and a couple of complaints. I don’t know any Slovenian lakes (are we in ‘Bolivian poet’ territory there?) so that was only half-solved; and in 14D, are we just randomly taking the first letter of anything without any indicator now? The IBAN codes for Guernsey are GG and GGY, so there’s not even that as an excuse.
On the plus side, all of the American GK and spelling was familiar to me.
Ace@28, “Top of G[uernsey]” = G. It’s not an abbreviation, but rather a single letter indication.
As a CANBERRA resident, I must say it was a bit NIPPY here today (3rd meaning), so I was pleased to see those clues next to each other.
I loved this puzzle – so witty and beautifully clued. Thanks to Paul.
My favourites were SECOND FIDDLE, the pair of DIMMER SWITCH and HORN-RIMMED, MOVIEGOER, a splendid misdirection with that bonkers surface, and CROATIA.
Thanks Andrew for the blog and the parsings. Nho the chilli pepper 🌶️, and I was unable to parse it as well. I also missed the time zones connection in NORTH POLE and DEC(ember) in DECLINE. But I did remember WAT=temple from recently.
Thanks for the blog , I like the NORTH POLE idea .
Lake Bled is beautiful , I have swam in it , always worth a visit on InterRail , it was Yugoslavia then . AlanC gets a mention for 15AC .
Is anyone else unable to post using their usual name ?
zoRro@31 Yes, Lake Bled is stunning. I haven’t swum in it, but in 1968 I was part of a delegation welcomed by the mayor (?) in Bled castle on the island in the middle of the lake 🙂
Judy@32 I have swam to the island , visited Bled three times as a student on InterRail , my favourite part of the whole of Europe . ( Roz )
Paul is known for his loose synonyms, so drained=BLED fits right in. (BLED DRY, surely?)
Glad there weren’t too many multiple-location answers (anyone who does the puzzle online and thus has experienced the worsening of the app (the tabbing) by the last update will know what I mean).
I am more familiar with “as one” than IN ONE to mean “as a unit”.
We’ve had a lot of WATs recently, haven’t we?
The DIMMER/RIMMED bit was clever. All in all a typical Paul puzzle.
KVa@12 thanks! I see that Andrew actually has that in his blog, but I failed (not for the first time) to separate out the two words.
Dr. WhatsOn@34 – drained the radiators/ bled the radiators – seems fine to me.
The Clue for 4DN contains the exact answer to 12AC.
zoRro@31 and @33 – Roz? If that has happened to me, I have just changed my name again in the box below the comment. Is that what you meant?
Thanks Sue @37 , yes nothing would work for Roz so I was advised to try a different name .
Paul@35 ok, maybe it’s just me. I think of bleeding meaning any amount, draining meaning all of it. The last time I bled, I had some blood left!
I wasn’t intending to comment, but bleeding and draining radiators are not the same – draining is letting the water out, bleeding is letting the air out!
Now I’m here, I’ll add that I liked HORN RIMMED very much.
I found this relatively straightforward despite the American references with all my favourites already mentioned, especially the DIMMER/RIMMED switch. Yes Roz @31, I did identify strongly with OGLE – I’m currently in Porto, but not wasting time on that stupid game. I also thought of the radiator difference, muffin.
Ta Paul & Andrew.
[btw I’ve been to Lake Bled too, though we camped a little further up the valley at Lake Bohinj. If Bled isn’t well known, it certainly deserves to be.]
Many thanks to Paul and Andrew!
Lake Bled is astonishingly picturesque. It has an island in the middle, with a flight of steps leading from the landing area right up to a church at the top. It is a tradition for grooms to carry brides up the stairs and then get married. All this to say that it is a wonder of the world. It’s the kind of place people recognize in photographs even if they can’t name it.
PostMark @23: Area is not the only thing that matters; not even for a lake.
Anna @16: Your claim that the Guardian is trying to Americanize its readers is at odds with everything I know about the Guardian’s politics and American politics. It is Britain’s more ostentatiously populist, nationalist, right-wing newspapers that have been working the hardest to drag the country towards American values. This is especially true of the ones that dress themselves up in the Union Jack.
[I’m in the same quandary as Girabra above with regard the Anna’s assertions @16. I’d be grateful if she or anyone else would post a link to a G article advocating the “speak[ing] of american”.]
There have been letters recently supporting US spellings, though I can’t remember any actual articles. They were triggered by an article that used “gotten”, which was traced back to Shakespeare!
I had a lot of this unparsed when I came here, so many thanks to Andrew for the blog.
MONTEREY JACK is an excellent melting cheese, but to most people’s taste it suffers from a lack of flavor; this is why these days you more often see pepper jack–the kind flavored with hot peppers (though never anything as spicy as a CAROLINA REAPER).
And yes, this puzzle was so American that my thought after solving DECLINE was, “actually a NOVLINE here, but okay.” (Some people here do also eat turkey at Christmas, but that’s a minority opinion. A couple of years, my mother made a Thanksgiving turkey big enough to feed a family of ten, and then froze the leftovers to reheat at Christmas. (This proved unpopular.) .)
[muffin @45: 😄]
Unlike many of you, I continue to find Paul wilfully obscure and thoroughly irritating. I did, however, enjoy all the American references
Since most of his clues end with a “?” , Paul can save on punctuation by using a symbol for clues that don’t have one! 🙂
Just joking. Tough as ever for a Paul puzzle but managed to finish without reveals and plenty of fun. Some parsing got cleared up here.
Thanks, Paul and Andrew
Anna@16 I know you have to read the paper online in Finland and that is the major issue .
The Reader’s Editor wrote a long article about this last week , online has its own American office producing some online material , any that makes it into the paper is re-edited for a UK audience , occasionally things slip through but not many .
The actual paper is its usual loveable self with a few things to annoy me . Letters sometimes refer to articles online only , this should never happen . If the nerds want their own Letters Page they can have one online . Overall I just like buying a paper that is not owned by a rightwing tax-dodging billionaire criminal .
Roz @50: yes, the Guardian online has deliberately marketed to the US, and it’s been modestly popular precisely because it’s not owned by a right-wing billionaire. But it’s annoying because it’s my primary source of UK news, meaning that every so often I have to reset the toggle that says I want the UK edition!
MrPenney @51 I have no knowledge in this area , maybe Anna is looking at a US version instead of UK or European ? Maybe she can change this with some advice ?
She is not being anti-USA itself , just anti “Americanisation” . I know she is worried about Finland/Europe , especially for the young and especially for languages .
It would be good if people on here could encourage Anna to share her wonderful linguistic knowledge and skills .
I thought Paul had introduced a completely new clue type at TERSELY. I parsed it as a reversal (returning) of some of each of RETro and hairstYLES. Sometimes one simply cannot see the wood for the trees 🙂 .
Have heard of Lake Bled but not been there. Yet another place to add to the bucket list.
Thanks, Paul & Andrew.
Great crossword! very enjoyable.
Fun challenge from Paul today, and thank you to him and Andrew for the puzzle and parsing.
I wonder if Anna @15 is referring to the most recent Guardian Crossword blog, which asks if puzzles should avoid Americanisms or these letters referring to an article about the use of gotten – which I also know from West Country dialect, along with fall and sidewalk.
[Shanne @55
I loved the letter about practice/practise! I saw an example today – can’t remember where – that I didn’t find it all that obvious whether it was a noun or a verb.]
I certainly decry the prospect of invasive Americanisms causing the extinction of home-grown locutions, as one of the articles cited by Shanne@55 suggests they may. Interestingly, Ben Yagoda, a professor at the University of Delaware, has shown that there’s significant influence in the opposite direction, having coined the term NOOB, for “Not One-Off Britishisms”. Quite a few gobsmackers in that list.
Apparently people from the Carolina islands speak the closest to Tudor English heard anywhere.
Thanks Paul and Andrew. Good stuff. (I visited Lakes Bled and Bohinj in the early 70s – the latter memorable partly for Savica Slap, slap being the Slovenian for waterfall.) Sorry, my phone doesn’t want to do square brackets.
muffin@40 – I don’t think that the point is radiator servicing. Letting out (whether it is air or water) drain and bleed are all close enough in meaning for crossword parlance.
Dr WhatsOn@39 – that’s a fair point. I tend to assume that for crosswords a close and identifiable meaning is ok even if not an exact synonym.
I’m generally a big Paul fan – the joy of his puzzles is that the initially seemingly impossible gradually unfolds, and I always finish in the end. Like others above, I could not get CAROLINA REAPER, as it combined loose wordplay with an overly obscure answer, which was unfair by the setter’s usual standards.
I was another who was let down by my unfamiliarity with USA foodstuffs. the cheese and pepper being outwith my usual diet. Even paprika can be too hot for me! I was convinced the American burner was going to be GASOLINE something, and kept looking for a cheese …. ?E?K.
Tough going for me, the last (CAROLINA REAPER) only dropping this morning. No complaints and enjoyed the NOOB list Coloradan@57, it reminded me of some American friends trying to learn to say bollocks in a British accent, happy days!
Also came here for the parsing of DECLINE and MOVIEGOER. I missed DEC being December, doh, and had MOVE for jockey. For one, I was happy with G for ‘top of Guernsey’. Been there!
Thought this a great crossword, though might be biased as I was on Paul’s wavelength this time. Have never eaten & only dimly heard of Monterey Jack, but Carolina Reapers I have cooked with. You need about a third of one chilli to make a fearsome curry.
poc@19, this rhotic speaker had no difficulty with the non-rhotic spoonerism at 5/7 DIMMER SWITCH. Why do other rhotic speakers object to them? Have you never heard non-rhotic speakers on tv and film? I’m genuinely curious.
Two-thirds complete. The incompletes felt like they were solvable, but just out of reach. Probably would never have solved CAROLINA REAPER, though, even if I had persisted
10a “…as Canadian tires?” maybe?
12a, finally got temple = WAT, after several recent opportunities
Missed 13a HORN-RIMMED, but very clever
19a Yes, the definition should just be “student in America”. “University” is part of the wordplay