Guardian 29,822 – Fed

by

A welcome return for Fed after a couple of months’ absence. After yesterday’s puzzle from Paul I hope this will prove less controversial, though it was no less tricky, with a couple of very ingenious constructions. Many thanks to Fed

 
Across
1 TAVERNS First of the States to restrict new pubs (7)
First letter of The + N in AVERS (states)
5 ANTONYM Not many working early to late, say (7)
(NOT MANY)* – early is an antonym of late
9 COVER GIRL Model cake’s good in real life (5,4)
COVER (to cake) + G + IRL (texter’s abbrevation)
10 LIFER Prisoner appearing in twisted feature film (5)
Hidden in reverse of featuRE FILm
11 TALE 14 to follow story (4)
Sounds like (“listen” – 14 across) “tail” (to follow)
12 SMALL PRINT Shopping centre advertising in street outside – most people ignore it (5,5)
MALL PR IN in ST
14 LISTEN Pay attention – nothing’s holding French and Saunders’ finale back (6)
ET (French “and”) + [Saunder]S in NIL, all reversed
15 NATURAL Note planet discovered by a student is untouched by human hand (7)
N[ote] + [s]ATUR[n] + A + L (student driver)
16 TITANIC Film about hot American singer making a comeback (7)
Reverse of C (about) + IN (fashionable, hot) + A[merican) + TIT (bird, singer)
18 TRIAGE Nurse’s job? Get air supply (6)
(GET AIR)* – for those who haven’t seen this trick before, “supply” has to be read as “in a supple way”
20 KINGFISHER One’s brilliant with Wings, Elvis and Queen on bass for example (10)
KING (Elvis) + FISH (e.g. a bass) + ER
21 DALI Welshman capturing El Salvador? (4)
L (el) in DAI (Welsh name), giving the surrealist painter
24 ADIEU Regularly attending academic lecture – it’s so long (5)
Every third letter of AcaDemIc lEctUre
25 UNINSTALL Loveless marriage? Slow down and get off the phone? (9)
UNION less O (zero, love) + STALL (slow down). “Get off phone” in the sense of removing an app
26 MANATEE Crew devoured a little exotic sea creature (7)
MAN + ATE + E[xotic]
27 ESSAYED Journalist on paper tried (7)
ESSAY (paper) + ED
Down
1 TACIT Understood 16 across broadcast (excluding Northern Ireland) (5)
Anagram of TITANIC (16 across) less NI
2 VIVALDI He scored six with just one dropped (7)
VI (6) + VALID (just) with the I dropping to the bottom
3 RARE Bloody hell – gross national product taking just seconds to bounce back (4)
Second letters of hEll gRoss nAtional pRoduct, reversed
4 SWIMMING COSTUME Hint to cut some habit at the beach? (8,7)
“Swimming costume” could be a cryptic indication of CUT SOME
5 ALL ALONG THE LINE Throughout Los Angeles hills, ants ultimately stripped ground (3,5,3,4)
A very clever find – it’s an anagram of LOS ANGELES HILLS ANTS, but omitting all the last letters (which are all S)
6 TELEPATHIC Clairvoyant’s lie that collapses assuming recording caught … (10)
EP (record) in (LIE THAT)* + C
7 NIFTIER … name provided on stage quicker (7)
N + IF (provided) + TIER
8 MARITAL Ruin sex and – essentially – what’s left of marriage (7)
MAR (ruin) + IT (sex) + middle of whAt’s + L
13 STONE FRUIT Perhaps Olive and Ruby maybe able to hold game (5,5)
STONE (e.g. ruby) + RU (Rugby Union, game) in FIT
16 TAKE AIM Bear advanced – I’m ready to shoot (4,3)
TAKE (to bear) + A[dvanced]+ I’M
17 TENSION Worry one isn’t exercising (7)
(ONE ISN’T)*
19 GRANARY Player of golf round stood to make this kind of bread? (7)
RAN (stood, in an election) in GARY (Player, golfer b. 1935)
22 IDLED Italy was first after Germany did nothing (5)
I + D + LED
23 ASKS Poses when taking smack on vacation (4)
AS (when) + S[mac]K

101 comments on “Guardian 29,822 – Fed”

  1. I so enjoyed this last night and thought COVER GIRL and ADIEU were staggeringly clever but DALI was my favourite. Such a brilliant puzzle with ticks for the whole lot.

    Ta Fed & Andrew.

  2. Maybe ground could be mentioned as the anagrind in ALL ALONG THE LINE. Indeed a very clever find Andrew.

  3. I found this a struggle, but a surmountable and rewarding one. It took some time to get going, and with a bit of help for a couple of clues, but then I was able to progress steadily and marvel at the likes of 12 and 21.

    Also, it feels worth asking: is the clue for NATURAL potentially a double definition? Since a natural is a musical note.

  4. I really enjoyed this – along with AlanC I thought COVER GIRL, ADIEU and DALI were terrific, but really, the whole thing was superb. One tiny disagreement re ASKS – I think it’s an envelope rather than a charade: A(SK)S. Many thanks to Fed and Andrew.

  5. I love the way this setter twists the wordplay to come up with very plausible, readable surfaces. Too many clever clues to list. Goldilocks level of difficulty, I thought. My only speed bump was trying to parse DALI, as the Welsh name was unknown.

  6. Few untwigged bits: IRL in textspeak; get off = remove from, and Gary the golfer — known but not recalled. So, a few mild shrugs, but ntl most enjoyable, thx Fed and Andrew.

  7. Scraggs @3: is the clue for NATURAL potentially a double definition? Since a natural is a musical note. For me, no it’s not. Just coincidence. If ‘note’ were to be a definition, you’d either have superfluous wordplay or you’d need the word to do double duty.

    GRANARY, TAKE AIM, the amusing MARITAL, VIVALDI, ADIEU, TRIAGE and the superb DALI were my faves. As Andrew says, ALL ALONG THE LINE is a clever spot.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew

  8. PostMark @7: fair enough, and thanks for thinking through it. I’d possibly have reached that conclusion eventually but my brain was taking a pause after completing the puzzle.

  9. Tough but quite enjoyable.

    Favourite: KINGFISHER, LISTEN.

    Took me a while to remember Gary Player for 19d.

    I could not parse 11ac (loi); 16ac apart from def and C = about, IN = hot; 3d apart from def.

  10. Since Paul’s excruciating mind-boggler yesterday I’ve become completely disillusioned with cryptic crosswords ,at least from this site.Today’s was no exception either,perhaps setters have run out of ideas,and are subconsciously embracing “Paulism” one way or another?Thank God there are other enjoyable options.

  11. A relief for us after managing less than half of Paul’s offering yesterday. Didn’t fully parse 5D, but could see it was more or less an anagram.
    KINGFISHER and COVER GIRL particular favourites, along with the reverse anagram of SWIMMING COSTUME

  12. @kenmac

    Re your site policy reminder – if I post a comment here are you likely to remove it? There is nowhere else to comment

  13. Thanks Fed and Andrew
    Too many went in from definition and crossers for me to be satisfied with my effort today. For instance, I got TITANIC from TACIT + NI, but no idea how its clue worked.
    Favourites DALI and ANTONYM.

  14. I thought we were about due a Fed. I seem to remember gushing about the last one and, once again, I absolutely loved this. It took about as long as yesterday’s. After a slow start, I saw the majesty of the KINGFISHER, the hidden player in GRANARY and the neatness of ASKS and was motivated to uncover the remaining gems. I accelerated towards the end, with a brief pause to unpick the parsing of LOI RARE.

    We often see setters criticised for trying to be clever, but I feel that’s pretty much the essence of their job. Then we can feel clever for working it all out. Mission accomplished Fed. I’m pleased with myself and so should you be.

    Cheers again Andrew and (almost) everyone else.

  15. Thanks for the blog.
    Interesting that it was “no less tricky than yesterday”. I solved this very quickly yet I am rarely able to solve more than a few Paul clues, none yesterday. Wavelength thing, I suppose.
    Just the parsing of 4a eluded me, NHO IRL, anyone know what that stands for?
    Thoroughly enjoyed today’s crossword.
    Ta Fed.

  17. I thought this was great fun – cryptic not only in the sense of being composed of wordplay and definition, which were often hard to disentangle because of the clever surfaces, but often cryptic in definition (pace muffin @13 – I also got Titanic from “tacit” but not from the definition). “get off the phone” – lovely! “ready to fire” as an imperative, very neat. Just the right side of doable with some cool anagrams to get started on.

    I think setters must approach cluing “antonym” much as they do “patella”, knowing that there is such a classic clue for it in the past they have to steer well clear of!

    I had “all along the ???e” for quite a while before finally figuring out what the anagram was (exceptional spot!). It’s not an expression I am familiar with. “All down the lane” rings a bell for me, though.

    Many thanks Fed and to Andrew.

  18. It’s good to see Fed back – and on top form, too.

    I always enjoy his innovative cluing, as in ALL ALONG THE LINE here – and SWIMMING COSTUME was a neat device, too. Among other favourites were ANTONYM, SMALL PRINT, TRIAGE, ADIEU, VIVALDI, RARE and MARITAL – and DALI was a little gem.
    Nice to see two of my favourite anagram indicators (supply and ground), too.

    [JOFT @17 – did you see Goliath’s (Philistine’s) ‘Start to tuck into Spanish dish to find a bone (7)’ on Wednesday?]

    Many thanks to Fed for the fun and Andrew for the blog.

  19. Fabulous Friday fun From fed. Hard to pick a favourite from the, possibly record-breaking, nine double ticks I had.

    Loved the indirect homophone for TALE

    Reading the blog I realised I hadn’t parsed TITANIC – an epic fail 🙂

    Cheers F&A

  20. Very entertaining surfaces, and clever wordplay-wise. Elvis and Queen and bass for example in KINGFISHER, Olive and Ruby in STONE FRUIT, and French and Saunders in LISTEN. So many others brought a smile. The kind of crossword I like. Wordplay to solution.

  21. Bingy@12: “there’s nowhere else to comment”. Presumably, if you are concerned that kenmac might remove one of your comments, you think it would be because the comment was considered invalid, negative or impolite (I’m simply picking up the language used in the Site Policy). If you want to make such comments (and everyone can express their opinion), why not post them on the Guardian’s own Crossword Comments section? That way you’re communicating directly with the people who actually published the puzzle. Nobody on Fifteen Squared is responsible for what’s in the Guardian, so it’s pointless sounding off here (whereas Fifteen Squared absolutely is the place for discussing how to parse a clue, whether there is a theme, whether a word is correctly defined, and all the other enticing trivia that make crosswords enjoyable).

  22. Anyone else have a problem with TELEPATHIC? It is not the same as clairvoyant.
    I accept a looseness in definitions usually, as the cost of a smooth clue ( along with “sounds like”), but this is wrong.

  23. Absolutely loved this one. Very clever cluing with very smooth surfaces. For me, it was everything that yesterday’s wasn’t.

  25. [Re Salvador, anyone read the little book “Dali by Dali”? There was a baby Salvador before him, who died. Then there was him, the replacement, given the same name. And then there was the Salvador on the Cross, on his bedroom wall, eyes following him. So he says is it any wonder I have identity issues and my paintings are weird!]

  26. Orange @22: I thought that at the time but then forgot when I posted – good point. You are quite right of course. Doubtless some dictionary will have confused the two and we’ll be back to the point of dictionaries. For me, while I accept that language develops over time, I rue the fact that words lose clarity of meaning and fineness of distinction (un- vs dis-intersted etc), or that neologisms are created for words we already have (“deplaning” for “disembarking”).

    [Eileen @18: Indeed – I think the coincidence of the two in a couple of days is what made me reflect on the point. Congratulations to both for novel clues!]

  27. That was my initial reaction Orange @22, but the “alleged power of discerning things beyond the normal range of sense or perception” as Chambers has it, seems to have enough crossover.

  28. Really enjoyable and excellently clued crossword, favourites for me KINGFISHER and MARITAL. Thanks Fed, hope to see you sooner than a couple of months.

  29. “M,James Bond here.I unravelled Fed’s secret code in 45 minutes.Two other things of note:-(1)I found a few missing marbles,probably belonging to Paul (2)Fed is NOT Paul’s alter ego.Over and out”

  31. I’m rarely on this setter’s wavelength so it was good to have been able to finish this one. I liked DALI, RARE and the surface to VIVALDI.
    I’m another who got TITANIC after having solved TACIT, rather than the other way around. (“Film” is as vague a clue as “Man”/“Girl” etc etc: there are lashings of films with one seven-letter title.)
    KINGFISHER was a guess, largely prompted by the mention of Elvis.
    5D was another crossed-fingers guess: once I had all the crossers, there really weren’t many likely options. It’s not an expression I’d ever come across and, given how much longer and clumsier it is than “throughout”, I doubt I’ll ever use it. Have a sneaking feeling I’ll have forgotten it by the time I encounter it again…
    Thank you Andrew & Fed

  32. Very enjoyable crossword to end (almost) the week. Here’s my list of ticked answers: TAVERNS, LIFER, KINGFISHER, SWIMMING COSTUME, GRANARY, LISTEN, TITANIC, ADIEU, and VIVALDI. I particularly liked the use of regularly to indicate every third letter (a good find and not often used). Personally, I don’t like the use of textspeak, which is unindicated, but perhaps I’m just old-fashioned.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew.

  34. Orange@22: yes, I raised an eyebrow at some of the putative synonyms, including ‘clairvoyant’ for TELEPATHIC, ‘advertising’ for PR, and ‘just’ for VALID. Despite this, I did enjoy it.

  35. Pleased to attain another full solve today (my third!) to finish the week. Thank you to Fed for some really clever clues. My list of favourites, like those of several previous contributors, is quite long, and the appreciation already expressed for Fed’s style of setting is well-deserved. Thank you to Andrew too for a thorough explanatory blog.

  37. From his early days when Fed was a bit difficult to grasp he’s now up there with the best. Thought this was good fun although have never heard of 5d.

  38. I guessed “all along the line” and could see most of the anagram fodder, but the phrase is unfamiliar to me and I couldn’t quite find the trick to get the exact fodder. Is anyone else unfamiliar with the phrase or is it just me?

  41. As so often with Fed I find myself completing the puzzle, but with a few unparsed. This was no different. And then I come here and have my Aha! moments. Thanks to Fed and Andrew for a great puzzle and illuminating blog.

  42. @Sagitarius

    You’re making a lot of assumptions about a comment I haven’t even made, but to put it simply, I wanted to comment on the post kenmac had put up about site policy. It would be bizarre to post that on the Guardian thread

  43. Right off the bat with 1a TAVERNS I knew I was in for a treat. And so it proved to be, all the way to my loi 19d GRANARY (“Player of golf”). The clues were approachable and fun. A consistently pleasant journey from start to finish

    Of note, 14a LISTEN (French and Saunders), 18a TRIAGE (get air supply), 20a KINGFISHER (“bass” misdirection), 21a DALI (El Salvador), 24a ADIEU (“Regularly” for every three letters!), 2d VIVALDI (a cricket surface reading I actually liked!), 5d ALL ALONG THE LINE (using (almost) all the letters of “Los Angeles”, not just LA, and a phrase that seemed somehow familiar), 16d TAKE AIM (great surface)

  44. JOFT@17: I seem to have missed the famous classic clue for ANTONYM: what was it?

    This was quite a struggle over several sessions, and I didn’t get all of them parsed, but unlike yesterday’s, Gary Player in GRANARY was the only one where a lack of general knowledge was an issue. Fed is very clever at disguising essential bits of the clue as something else (“first of The” in 1a is a good example, but there are many) and the knotty results are hard work, but worth the effort. Likes: SWIMMING COSTUME, SMALL PRINT, TAKE AIM.

    There’s All Along The Watchtower and All Down The Line, but ALL ALONG THE LINE wasn’t familiar: took a while to identify the right fodder.

  46. Splendid puzzle. Am grateful for the blog in explaining the second A in MARITAL. Just couldn’t see it and the ‘s was the key to omitting the H in what. Thank you!

  48. I found it tough and needed the check button at times; couldn’t parse quite a few which, after having read the blog, I find rather ingenious, in particular ADIEU, RARE and the homophone with a cross-reference (TALE). A great puzzle, thanks Fed and Andrew!

  49. Like others I found yesterday’s offering by Paul a real struggle and didn’t manage to finish it, but it was a fine tussle. Today’s from Fed was really enjoyable, particularly the brilliant DALI.

    Alfred Hayes @10 – I don’t think the complexity of Guardian crosswords has particularly changed in recent years. To my mind, Paul has always been a bit of a one-off in terms of difficulty, along with Enigmatist.

    La Usurpadora@43 – are you a troll, by any chance?

  50. What an interesting comment @La U ! But perhaps you meant to post elsewhere? I haven’t come across any demented or delusional folks on this site. Those qualities would make cryptic solving a wee bit tougher. On the other hand, I would never assume anything about the generally amiable crowd that posts here, and I would never presume to put all cryptic enthusiasts into a single narrow box.

  53. Dear La Usurpadora @43
    (great handle btw),
    I still have all my teeth, I’m not osteoporotic, nor a colonist – and I can’t even control our cat, let alone entire countries.
    Tackling a crossword is a brief way of exercising my mind in the morning and – with the exception of a few setters’ work – is a far more entertaining and rewarding breakfast pastime than reading my various online news feeds.
    I leave them till later in the day.
    And, here in France, I can indeed smell the coffee. It’s delicious!

  54. In the past I have found Fed clever but not much fun, so I was delighted by today’s offering. Once I got onto their wavelength it was a steady (but not easy) solve, albeit with a couple unparsed. The “reverse definition” of 4D escaped me (again). Impossible to pick a favorite, so many good surfaces.

    Like others I have not come across 5D, but it was the only thing that could possibly work.

    Thanks Fed and Andrew

  56. An enjoyable solve. Took me a while to realise how the anagram with Los Angeles worked. Very different to yesterday’s but I had fun solving both.

  58. Hello approximate namesake HarpoSpeaks@11 — haven’t yet solved this puzzle but, following a private query just now, popping in to clarify that you and I are different peeps! 🙂

  59. Like any others, I thought that was a very, very, Very good crossword. So many clues where I puzzled and thought and struggled … and then suddenly saw it. Such clever twists and turns, with superb surfaces. All completed and parsed, so also very satisfying for me.

  60. gladys@44: Apologies – one should never assume any knowledge is general!

    Independent 9174 by Klingsor (March 10, 2016) blogged here:

    11ac. Friend of Caesar, J? The opposite (7)

  61. A very satisfying puzzle which unfolded gradually for me. Lots of favourites but I think I must single out KINGFISHER which I thought was brilliant.

    I couldn’t quite figure out why UNINSTALL was “get off the phone” so thanks for explaining that — of course.

    gladys @44 (previously @45) and anagrammarian @52: yes I have a note of that clue in my personal hall of fame as being by Araucaria (25,645, 25 May 2012). But looking at the blog for that puzzle I see that PeterO comments “A real chestnut” so it presumably dates back earlier than that!

    Many thanks Fed and Andrew.

  63. I’m another who marvels at how Fed found the long anagram at 5D. I know that Dave visits this site (see the hilarious Modern Life is Goodish episode about crosswords), so maybe he could enlighten us as to how he derived this superb anagram

  64. My apologies, what happened @43? Another disgruntled customer? On the puzzle side i thought it was a bit on the chewy side,but it’s Friday!

  65. Great puzzle, lots of wonderful clues, standout was DALI.

    GRANARY made me wonder about current UK-election-speak. Years ago, before I moved to the States, candidates definitely only stood in the UK and ran in the US. Has the American usage seeped across the pond, because the clue had no “foreign” indicator?

    [Due to that thing called life, I was unable to comment on yesterday’s Paul. I didn’t find it bad at all, but maybe because I got degrees at the themed University. I hope that if it had featured the Other Place I would have done as well – we do know about each other.]

  66. Enjoyed this and finished without being able to parse several so thanks Andrew for a series of ‘aha’s.

  67. I don’t usually comment but I’m curious about the emergence of trolls,jokers,smart arses,who periodically pop-up,after seemingly controversial crosswords,i sincerely hope,this miscreants are not manufactured by Guardian to boost its ratings,the kind of stuff that the movie industry is so famous/infamous for.

  68. I don’t usually comment but I’m rather curious about the emergence of trolls,jokers,smart-arses who periodically pop up after seemingly controversial blogs.I sincerely hope this miscreants are not manufactured by the powers that be at Guardian to boost its ratings,the kind of stuff the movie industry is so famous/infamous for?

  69. Andrew — no one has commented that you jumped in late yesterday when the expected blogger was unavailable, but now we see that you did it knowing that you’d have to blog again today! Thanks for yeopersonlike service! Good blogs on both days.

    A quibble, perhaps, but 16dn “TAKE AIM” is a verb phrase and “ready to shoot” is an adjectival one.

    I tried to make 9ac be some equivalent of “real life”, maybe “civil” something. It took a lot of crossers to get me off that and see that “model” was actually the definition. Am I alone?

    Thanks to Fed and to the valiant Andrew.

  70. Valentine @67 I gave Andrew thanks “again” @14 but maybe that was a little subtle. I solved both the puzzles, but would have surely floundered under the pressure of having to come here and present the parsing flawlessly to an enthusiastic bunch of pedants. It’s a great effort.

  72. Couldn’t get on with Paul’s offering yesterday despite being highly praising of his last few offerings. I took the Hamish/Soup route though and changed the channel.

    Was dreading what was coming Friday but soon made rapid progress with this and good to end the week on a completion.

    Enjoyed MARITAL, SMALL PRINT, DALI, TITANIC and quite a few others.

    Great puzzle thanks Andrew and Fed

  73. Like (almost) everyone else I thought his was a joy – it was tough, but the clues were fair and very enjoyable.

    To those quibbling about TELEPATHIC (Orange @22, JofT @26 and others), I thought similarly at first, but I wonder if the definition is “Claivoyant’s”, i.e. “Clairvoyant is”, in which case TELEPATHIC seems spot on?

    Many, many thanks to Fed , and to Andrew for stepping up to difficult crosswords two days in a row.

  75. All done, but needed help here to parse GRANARY: I never remember that US politicians run for election while Brits stand. I liked KINGFISHER and ALL ALONG THE LINE, though the latter was parsed only once I’d filled it in. Thanks to setter and blogger.

  77. TTP@71: I cannot speak for Orange@22 but my quibble with “telepathic” = “clairvoyant” is not a part of speech as both can be adjectives. It is in the definitions in that telepathy is the ability to read minds or project thoughts and clairvoyance (“clear sight”) is the ability to see the future or things out of sight. But maybe I just played too many fantasy role-playing games 🙂

    The dictionaries give some leeway, however, and allow for clairvoyance being used more generally for all sorts of ESP which I think lets the setter off. It’s just that, as I’ve said before, I prefer words to meaning something, not just anything!

  78. An ngram plot of ALL ALONG THE LINE shows similar bell curves for American and British English, peaking in about 1920. This bears out my sense that the phrase originally referred to railroad “lines”. Who better to bring this home than Doc Watson in “Freight Train Boogie” (at about 1:55).
    Thanks Fed & Andrew.

  80. I didn’t have time to engage properly with yesterday’s Paul, but it seemed fiendishly difficult. I loved this puzzle, one of the best weekday puzzles of the year in my view, with about eight or nine clues that I thought were superb. Nice surfaces and some creative devices. Favourites were TELEPATHIC, ADIEU and UNINSTALL.

  81. 21a DALI goes into my notional notebook of all-time great clues. I had ticks for several others, all of which have been applauded by others.

    Re 6d TELEPATHIC/Clairvoyant(‘s), there is a tendency on this site to say “it’s in Chambers, therefore it’s OK” or “just because it’s in Chambers doesn’t make it OK”, without going further to explain the approval/disapproval. But today people on both sides did go further, which I found refreshing.

    Thanks, Dave, for keeping us well-fed, and Andrew for assisting with the digestion of some of the trickier clues.

  84. Thanks Fed and Andrew – an enjoyable tussle got me through somehow, but needed the help here to finish the parsing. Interesting – and helpful – direction about the anagram indicator in 18a: I laboured my way there by taking “supply” = the other letters supply the answer; but your explanation re suppleness gives a far more elegant approach.

  85. BethRoss @80 I agree. I have only once been lucky enough to see a KINGFISHER in flight. But they are mesmerising in their beauty. I always think of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ line – ‘As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; …’

  86. [Balfour @83
    I’ve seen a few since, but my first kingfisher was memorable. I was about 10, on a family camping holiday in Somerset. I was standing in a stream (as you do), and one missed me by about a foot!]

  87. I thought that this was excellent for the many reasons stated by others earlier.

    On a general point of policy – and I administer another site – I can see why comments which break a site rule might be removed, but not, unless there were so many that the job became unduly onerous, why comments would be closed to all?

    Not having much of the GK I found yesterday’s Paul puzzle a challenge, but ground away at it using every available aid until it gave way, and found pleasure in that. I’d quite like to have expanded on that on the appropriate blog.

    Thanks all.

  89. Etu@87. Re the site policy. I support kenmac/admin in closing down the comments yesterday on the Paul blog as I believe the job had become ”unduly onerous” as you say. As kenmac indicated in his post ”Site policy reminder” the bloggers are volunteers, as is Admin, and some comments can be hurtful to bloggers, setters and fellow commenters.

    The negative comments were starting to have a life of their own, with responses and counter responses. Andrew stepped in later in the day yesterday to blog Paul, already scheduled to blog Fed today. Only the bloggers and Admin can monitor comments in real time, and they also have lives to live and get some sleep in between. 15 squared is an international community with people posting at all times of day and night. No one can be expected to monitor it 24/7.

    It’s a privilege to be able to join in here, relying on trust that people are going to do the right thing, at least to do no harm. It’s a lesson to all, that if that trust is broken, everyone will experience the consequences. There have been many comments in the past as to how respectful and well-managed this site is and what a pleasure it is to be able to participate. I share that view, and think that, on this occasion, “punishing the whole class” for the behaviour of a few was necessary, if only so that our wonderful volunteers, who maintain these standards for the benefit of us all, could have a break.

  91. 2 things. (Maybe 3). I love Paul as a setter, and I love Fed. 1) I don’t understand why people are complaining about cryptic crosswords being difficult to solve. 2) I don’t understand why people seem to be personally offended if they can’t solve a cryptic crossword. 3) Paul was mates with Araucaria – they were actually very similar tricksy setters, although Araucaria missed out the scatology and Paul missed out the blank verse. One of the most touching crosswords I’ve ever done (after Araucaria’s crossword literally spelling out, clue by clue, that he was in palliative care) was Paul and Shed’s joint effort, which ended with one answer ‘love’

  92. Fascinating to see how folks compared Thursday’s and Friday’s puzzles, we have the full matrix of opinions on difficulty. It really is very individual.

    For me yesterday just never got going, but today seemed at the perfect level – a challenge where I always felt on the cusp of the next breakthrough.

    Favourites UNINSTALL and ANTONYM.

    Thanks fed, Andrew, and the whole community here for your entertaining debates! I will take the positive view that it’s great to see such passion in a crusty old pastime like cryptic crosswords!!

  93. Thanks for the reply pm, and as a volunteer administrator myself I appreciate its content.

    A large proportion of negative comments – for any crossword – seem to me to be of a general form, and either express or imply the following:

    1. I consider myself to be intelligent and well-informed.
    2. I find gratification in the fact that I generally succeed in solving a type of puzzle, that many people would say was hard, and which reassures me that my opinion of myself is correct.
    3. I found problems with this puzzle, which I claim – apparently on the basis of inductive reasoning – proves that the setter has departed from good practice.
    4. I find that a personal affront.
    5. I will therefore say something which will perhaps hurt the setter.

    Most things are relative. There will always be infinitely more things that we don’t know than we do. To have this simple truth demonstrated by a puzzle shouldn’t really anger us, should it?

  94. Late to the party, as always, but can someone please explain to me what indicates that the ‘s’ and ‘n’ should be removed from Saturn in 15ac?

  95. Hi Piers 94,

    Yes, the word “discovered” as in the negative of “covered”, that is without its covering letters.

  99. ÉTU@93 Well said. As my mother used to say, “if you’ve got nothing good to say, don’t say anything “, in other words “stop your wingeing, lass”
    We don’t want trolls on this brilliant blog of a bunch of enthusiastic pedants . Thank you setters, parsers, explainers and admin for all your interest and hard work. I love all Guardian crosswords.

  100. Late to this as I was otherwise engaged most of yesterday – but thanks to Andrew for the blog and thanks to all for the spirited comments.

    I have to say, I’m not sure I accept the argument that Clairvoyant is meaningfully different to Telepathic.

    Clairvoyance = the alleged power of discerning things beyond the normal range of sense or perception

    Telepathy = communication between mind and mind otherwise than through the known channrls of the senses.

    If that isn’t a power of discerning something beyond the normal range of senses, I don’t know what is. It’s just that the something in question is the mind of another.

    Arguing over the original root meaning of the word seems a bit odd to me – Ambulances don’t ambulate but we all know what the word now means.

    Jack of few trades @26 “Doubtless some dictionary will have confused the two”
    I think this misunderstands the role of dictionaries. If a word’s meaning has changed and dictionaries reflect that, it’s not them “getting confused” – they’re not rulebooks – their job is to reflect what words actually mean, not what they should mean.

    If a word is used in the real world to mean X and that meaning is broadly understood, then dictionaries reflect that.

    Fantastic isn’t it. (In the modern sense of being excellent, rather than the less commonly seen sense of being ‘not real’).

  101. Might be a coincidence but for 27A,
    “essayer” is the French for “to try”, so “tried” is “essayed”!

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