Guardian 29,831 – Pangakupu

by

An interesting mix of some very easy clues and some that were a lot chewier, and a word that was new to me. Thanks to Pangakupu.

The traditional Maori Nina is in row 4: WAIMARIE, meaning “good luck”.

 
Across
1 BACK‑SEAT DRIVER One offering unwanted advice to support troubled advertiser (4-4,6)
BACK (support) + ADVERTISER* – it’s always nice to get a long 1 across answer quickly, and this was very obvious from the definition and enumeration
8 EULER Mathematician’s principle, first to last attached to basis of logarithms (5)
E (e, base of natural logs – actually named after Euler) + RULE with the R moved to the end
9 GO STEADY Date energy stabilised (2,6)
GO (energy) + STEADY
11 ESSENCE Being caught probing religious ascetic (7)
C in ESSENE
12 BOTANIC Program linked to a reduced kind of plants (7)
BOT (type of computer program) + A NIC[e]
13 SQUIB Short comic piece brother’s written capturing Queen (5)
QU in SIB (sibling, e.g. a brother)
15 TWENTY-TWO Players in soccer game forming line on another pitch? (6-3)
Double definition: two football teams, and the 22-metre line in rugby
17 REEF KNOTS Keen frost wrecked fasteners (4,5)
(KEEN FROST)*
20 RANCH US farm subdivision not opening for business (5)
BRANCH less B[usiness]
21 ONSTAGE Performing for men in unit (7)
STAG (for men) in ONE
23 FRUSTUM Look at sites, backing corporation’s slice (7)
Reverse of SURF (look at websites) + reverse of TUM (stomach, corporation)
25 LEAP YEAR Spring not entirely long? There’s an extra day in it (4,4)
LEAP (to spring) + YEAR[n]
26 KRONE Krypton, oxygen, neon and tin from Scandinavia (5)
The chemical symbols KR + O + NE, given the currency of several Scandinavian countries– tin=money
27 STOCKTON‑ON‑TEES Twice note collapses in funds for Durham town (8-2-4)
(NOTE NOTE)* in STOCKS (funds, as in stocks & shares)
Down
1 BREWER’S DROOP A night at the pub may give you it when you want it (7,5)
Cryptic definition for this slang term for sexual inadequacy when drunk. The first “it” in the clue refers to the answer, the second to sex
2 COLAS Drinks cold water on leaving bar upset (5)
C + reverse of SALOON less ON
3 SPRINGBOK Release volume dismissing an old rugby player (9)
SPRING (release, e.g. from prison) + BOOK less one of the Os (“an old”). The Springboks are the South African rugby union team
4 AUGMENT After a month, satisfied to receive new increase (7)
AUG[ust] + N in MET
5 DISABLE Stop papers reversing demand about book (7)
Reverse of ID (papers) + B in SALE (“demand, volume of selling” says Chambers)
6 INERT Still no start of better time (5)
[f]INER + T. This always reminds me of Sir Humphrey in Yes, Minister struggling to explain what an inert compound is, and finally saying “well, it’s not … ert”, after which Bernard mutters “wouldn’t ert a fly”
7 EDDINGTON Scientist’s wife abandoning marriage fashion (9)
WEDDING less W + TON (fashion)
10 ECHO CHAMBERS Unexpectedly chose to inhale pot – resounding effects in these places (4,8)
CHAMBER (pot) in CHOSE*
14 UNEASIEST A Parisienne and American together, mostly sleeping? Extremely disquieting (9)
UNE (French “A”) + A[merican) + SIEST[a]
16 TURDUCKEN Extravagant dish largely avoided during occasion (9)
DUCKE[d] in TURN (occasion). I hadn’t heard of this dish, a chicken stuffed in a duck, all inside a turkey
18 OVEREAT Finished early race, skipping second part of Cheddar Gorge (7)
OVER (finished) + HEAT (an early race) less [c]H[eddar]
19 SAFFRON Colourful parts of plant, small and mainly slight (7)
S + AFFRON[t]
22 ASPIC Jelly son consumed in a shot (5)
S in A PIC (photo, shot)
24 TROPE Figure of speech elevated by English Left (5)
Reverse of E PORT

46 comments on “Guardian 29,831 – Pangakupu”

  1. Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew
    A couple of oddities. “basis” in 8a should really be “base”. We had the “chamber/pot” thing recently – it’s called a chamber pot because it’s a pot(ty) put in a chamber, i.e. a bedroom. The chamber isn’t the pot, whatever Chambers (!) may misguidedly say.
    “Sale” in 5d is strange too.
    1d is a bit weak.
    I hadn’t heard of SQUIB in that sense, though I had heard of TURDUCKEN!
    Favourite 1a.

  2. Thanks Andrew. Never knew that the E for the base in logarithms came from E for Euler.
    BREWER’S DROOP I still don’t get it.

  3. I enjoyed this immensely last night and eventually found the lucky number 41, WAIMARIE, on the fourth row for the setter’s numerical quest. I loved all the perimeter clues, especially BREWERS DROOP, which made me chuckle. I didn’t know EDDINGTON but the wordplay was fair and I knew EULER which surprised me. (I did A-level maths but still feel so ignorant in that area). Other favourites were BOTANIC, KRONE, SPRINGBOK, TUDUCKEN, SAFFRON and OVEREAT. Great workout.

    paddymelon @2: nor does the man who has it😊

    Ta Pangakupu & Andrew.

  4. Paddy @2:
    I refer you to Macbeth, Act 2 scene 3 where the Porter tells Macduff “Drink, sir, is a great provoker…
    Lechery, sir, it provokes, and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes away the performance”.
    Brewer’s Droop is a slang term for the taking away of the performance.

  5. I found this an odd mix too though I was pleased to see Arthur Eddington and Leonhard Euler get mentioned. Quite a few joining words which confused things I thought – “by” in “trope” is needed for the surface but misleads on the construction. Why is “brother’s written” a “sib” and not just “brother”? And a few went in from enumeration, to be parsed afterwards, which takes the fun away a little.

    Nevertheless, many fine clues and an enjoyable start to the morning’s puzzles. Perhaps later I’ll start work on “unch” which arrived yesterday.

    Many thanks Pangakupu and Andrew.

  6. Euler worked out a remarkable equation which links e, pi (the ratio of circumference to diameter) and i (the square root of -1, a quantity which doesn’t actually exist): e to the power of i times pi, minus one, equals zero.
    A friend of mine, a maths graduate and a lifelong atheist, once remarked thoughtfully that Euler’s equation came nearer than anything else to making him believe in God.

  7. [On 1d, I remember a short Jasper Carrott film which ends with the voiceover “think before you drink before you get your leg over”. You can imagine the rest!]

  10. NeilH @6 Euler’s equation is indeed a remarkable thing. I feel I have to point out that all numbers are abstract – you can point to one item of any kind but “one” as a concept exists independently of anything physical.

    There are probably many scientists with the name of Eddington, and very few even among scientists would probably recognise any of them. As AlanC @3 says though, the wordplay was straightforward. I still needed a couple of crossers to be confident it was correct.

  11. AlanC @3 and NeilH@4. I did know the term BREWER’S DROOP. Just couldn’t get on with the wordplay. I may be on to it now, but I don’t think I want to be. 🙂

    Agree JOFT25. . by in TROPE threw me off the wordplay.

  12. Some nostalgia from Panga today — isn’t “go steady” a sweet old expression, swept away in the ’60s by pill, rock’n’roll and cohabitation. Brewer’s droop is another old one; who was it said alcohol “raises the expectation but lowers the execution”? Frustum was a déja-jorum, ie “no idea but it does look familiar”. Overall, enjoyable, ta Panga and Andrew.

  14. I could not parse 13ac; 21ac; 18d. Also 15ac – I guessed the number, have no idea about soccer teams; 3d – I only heard of that team’s name because they were banned from touring Australia in the 1970s and 1980s but I didn’t know they were a rugby team.

    New for me: SQUIB = short comic piece; STOCKTON-ON-TEES = town in Durham county (thanks, wikipedia!); scientist Eddington, Sir Arthur Stanley (1882–1944); FRUSTUM; BREWER’S DROOP.

  15. It’s apposite that after your”Yes Minister” comment for 6d that the next answer is “Eddington” as it was Paul Eddington who played Jim Hacker!

  16. NeilH@6: The number ‘i’ exists just as much as all numbers do. Numbers are a construct of mathematics. The astonishing thing is how useful they are for modelling the real world. Nobel prizewinner Eugene Wigner even wrote a paper on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Unreasonable_Effectiveness_of_Mathematics_in_the_Natural_Sciences

    Lizzie@8: Think of ‘his onstage presence’.

    NHO 1D so had to reveal it and I didn’t like SALE=’demand’. Otherwise the puzzle was fairly straightforward, as I had heard of TURDUCKEN (sounds pretty unpleasant to be honest).

  19. ravenrider@10: Surely the Eddington in question is Arthur Eddington, who became extremely famous when he organised the expeditions in 1919 which made observations to confirm Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. This was, quite literally, front page news around the world, and he is the only Eddington to come to this scientist’s mind. I think you dismiss him, and his fame, rather too lightly.

  21. I needed help with TURDUCKEN, but for the next Pangakupu puzzle, I am sure I will get the answer to everything.

  22. Definitely a dnf, but I enjoyed the ones I knew, and some of the ones I didn’t. No idea who EDDINGTON is/was, but his wordplay was clear enough, and I learned a new word, TURDUCKEN, for a three-bird roast – that was a reveal. We had FRUSTUM quite recently from Vlad: that was the first time I had met it and sadly I didn’t remember it today. I needed some extra Maths lessons to understand EULER, but that’s just my ignorance: Pangakupu is always more scientific than me.

    Can’t see what “written” is doing in the SQUIB clue, and SALE=demand doesn’t work for me. But I enjoyed all the four outside clues, and TWENTY-TWO and the Swedish tin and REEF KNOTS, which took me ages to disentangle from the fodder. I remember being taught how to tie REEF KNOTS when I was a Brownie: our neckerchiefs had to be tied out of sight behind the neck with the correct knot, checked by the Brown Owl, and woe betide you if you got it wrong.

    Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew.

  24. grantinfreo @12. 🙂 Love your déja-jorum! You’re going to have to go on record for coining that.
    FRUSTRUM was familiar to me too from a recent clue.

  25. Ditto muffin @1, nho that meaning of squib. Here, as verb, it means “chicken out of’; as noun it’s a firework, often used negatively as in damp squib = failure. Speaking of failure, I guess the droop syndrome witticism was probably the Bard’s, as per NeilH @4.

  26. Crossbar @18 – You are of course correct.
    In my defence, I only got a B and that was in 1968.
    Poc @16 – i is different from other numbers, surely, in that even mathematicians refer to it as “imaginary”

  28. gladys@22. Another ex-Brownie here. I still use REEF KNOTS today. They even help solve crossword puzzles!

  29. I have been lurking on this site for many a while, but am finally sparked to comment, being surprised that no one has yet offered he following poetry in regard to 8a

    It often puzzles me as why
    One so humble as I
    When squared should become
    Not just zero less one
    But e to the I to the pi

  30. “A couple of oddities” as someone described earlier in the blog is the understatement of the year! FRUSTUM,BREWER’S DROOP,TURDUCKEN,i’m, sure these are very useful words to have in one’s vocabulary!

  31. NeilH @ 26 – I didn’t remember it either, B in 1966. I found myself down an internet rabbit hole looking up Euler and noticed it there.

  32. I seem to be alone in disliking this setter’s style. He continually pushes the envelope on GK, sometimes unfairly in my opinion. At the same time, some clues are so basic as to be almost non-cryptic. “There’s an extra day in it (4,4)”. “One offering unwanted advice” (4-4, 6)”. Really?

    It’s not easy setting crosswords, but shouldn’t the editor be suggesting tweaks when needed? Moan over. Thanks setter and blogger.

  33. Thanks Pangakupu and Andrew

    Re the chamber / pot debate, the OED cites ‘chamber’ as a euphemism for the pot, especially in the crockery trade.

    Anyone going to gainsay the OED?

  34. I enjoy the mathematical and scientific discussions here. I don’t understand most of it, but at this late stage in my life it’s a joy that I didn’t experience in my youth. But I also know (it’s been scientifically proven from university studies) that people who excel in these areas, also excel in solving cryptic crosswords, so I bow to their wisdom. (Where’s Roz? 🙁 )

  36. khayyam @35: yes I googled lucky and 41 and one search indicated Euler but there were all sorts of hits which identified 41 as lucky for different reasons, for example, well-being and spirituality, which left me bemused. I am sure, as you indicate, that the setter was referring to EULER’s.

  37. Talk about a mixed bag. Very little to enjoy here, between unknown words, tough references and a few write ins. Must be on the wrong wave length entirely today. Agree with pancake@30

  38. Yes I was a bit unhappy with the vagueness initially (aren’t all numbers lucky to some people for some supposed reasons?) but quite happy with it being EULER’s specifically once that penny dropped.

  39. Have you ever been to a restaurant you usually enjoy only to discover it is the chef’s night off, and everything is just a little disappointing?

    I had so many quibbles (“it’s in Chambers” is, to repeat myself, a necessary but not sufficient condition) I felt like the editor must have been out the day it was approved. In addition to those already mentioned, PORT does not mean “left” *unless you are facing the bow*. The entire point of port and starboard is that it doesn’t matter which way you are facing, thus avoiding the whole “my left or your left?” business. Bonus fun fact: at one time, port was called larboard, but this was too easily misheard as starboard.

  40. Roundly, soundly defeated by this. Just didn’t know either of FRUSTUM or TURDUCKEN. Should have got EDDINGTON I suppose as there’s a fairly recent housing development nearby where I live with that place name, though had no idea that it was named after a famous scientist. I wasn’t quite sure how BREWERS DROOP worked exactly but I did like BACK SEAT DRIVER. A bit of a learning experience for me today, nothing wrong with that…

  42. Oofyprofessor@ 32.
    No you are not alone. We particularly dislike the clues where a word has to be shortened e.g. siesta in 14d.
    There are at least 5 in today’s crossword which we noted.
    However I don’t want to moan as it takes all sorts of setters and styles which is the joy of doing the Guardian crosswords.

  43. muffin@1
    Whatever the origin may be,
    Chamber pot has been abbreviated to chamber for well over a hundred years. My grandfather told me they were called this when he was a boy ‘ before 1910.
    It’s no different from calling an aeroplane a jet (from jet aeroplane), or a passenger ship a liner (from being a ship of e.g. the White Star Line)

  44. I don’t want to take anything away from an enjoyable crossword but I counted 10 uses of subtraction which felt like a lot for one crossword. Also an above average number went straight in from the definition but it was still fun post solving them

    S@43 the rule of thumb is that if you’re unaware of the meaning of a word but it’s in Chambers then Chambers must be wrong 🙂

    Cheers P&A

  46. I didn’t think I’d finish this, but got there in the end. I had no idea why it should be TWENTY- TWO (sport being my blind spot), though it could only be that. I thought the GK perfectly fair, and really liked the puzzle. I was pleased to see a reference to Eddington. Thanks to both.

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