Guardian 27,038 / Picaroon

42 comments on “Guardian 27,038 / Picaroon”

1. 1A and 1D in the first 30 seconds but happily it got tougher. Loved the Lesbian, learned a new (old) word for barge, nodded hard at the double-duty ‘night’ in 14A and shoved AMI in last not knowing quite why. Thanks for that and allyour elaborations Gaufrid. Nice one, Picaroon

2. As usual, plenty of enjoyment particularly in the surfaces. 16d gave me the longest pause – knew the barge but forgot the cyclist!

   Thank you Picaroon & Gaufrid.

3. Thanks Picaroon and Gaufrid

   1a and 1d were write-ins for me too, which made the rest go much faster than a typical Picaroon. All very enjoyable though, with TWEET and HOY being particular favourites.

   I didn’t see the first definition for LONGEST until reading the blog, and I’m not sure the “by” in 30 puts the components in the right order (“nursed after” gets them the right way round, but makes less sense, of course).

4. …or “old lady boy nursed by”.

5. Thanks, Gaufrid.

   Quick to start, slow to finish. I spent ages trying to think of a word meaning “in vain” for 9a. Couldn’t see why AA meant capital – didn’t think of A1.

   Muffin @3: if you read “by” as “beside,” LAD can go either side of MINISTERED, in this case on the left.

6. (Sorry for typo @5 – I meant AI, of course.)

7. Thank you Gaufrid and Picaroon.

   We struggled with the first definition of LONGEST even after reading the blog. In the end we decided that ‘thou art desiring’ could be ‘thou longest’.

   Muffin @3 if you are still not happy with 30a we thought of it as being ‘nursed by boy’ is being ‘lad ministered’

8. Like molonglo and muffin I got 1a and 1d, and then it took some time. LOI was MALADMINISTERED. Favourites were mostly French: BONSOIR, RICHELIEU and AMI, plus HIBACHI and HELLENE. Many thanks to Picaroon and Gaufrid.

9. Thank you Picaroon and Gaufrid.
   I loved the German barman and the Knight Rider.
   But what does ‘adjustment’ add to 3d? Voicing is making sound.

10. Thank you Picaroon and Gaufrid.

    Luckily 1a and 1d were not write-ins for me, so the fun lasted quite a while. I remembered LUM, but forgot Sir Chris HOY and failed to get the first definition for LONGEST.

11. Lots of lovely surfaces and smiles. Our progress seems to have followed the pattern of others – edge ones instant, and failed to fully parse LONGEST. Too many good clues to list them all. Thanks Picaroon and Gaufrid

12. Really enjoyed this, especially the German barman und so weiter, and especially the -French Freund in 24, but despite comments above, I still don’t get the double def in 23D LONGEST. If anyone can give 14, I’d be most grateful.

13. paddymelon @12
    My take ws the same as Jenny and Charles @7

14. Phew! Finally caught up. The weekend’s offering by Puck was hanging around so long that I’ve been a day behind until this morning!

    Loved this and share most people’s favourites, especially LONGEST, RICHELIEU & TWEET.

    This setter rarely disappoints, many thanks to the pirate.

    Nice week, all.

15. Regarding 23, the explanation above is probably right, but it quite work as far as I am concerned. The equivalent of desire is long for, not long on its own.

16. David @ 15. ‘I long to be a crossword setter’ is synonymous with ‘I desire to be a crossword setter’, I think. So ‘long’ without ‘for’ is ok in my book.

    bagel @ 9. I’m aware of ‘voicing’ as a term of art amongst organ builders and tuners, meaning making slight adjustments to the sound of the pipes.

17. I’m less happy with 19ac though. I would have thought that the rowing in galleys was compulsory rather than compulsive.

18. Bagel@9: “voicing” is the term for adjusting the volume and tone of a harpsichord by trimming and shaping the quills and positioning the jacks. Perhaps a bit obscure for anyone not involved in early music.

19. Voicing a chord is also choosing which of the pitches in it goes at the bottom, which comes next up, and so forth. Same for a piece of choral music.

    I dredged up “hoy” from somewhere, but I really don’t know from cyclists.

    Thanks, Picaroon and Gaufrid.

20. I meant to say I dredged up “hoy” meaning barge from somewhere, so I must have heard of it, who knows when?

21. Thanks to Picaroon and Gaufrid. Like others I had trouble dredging up HOY as cyclist (encountered in previous puzzles) and needed help parsing LONGEST and also RETREAT (I missed Prince Edward as “tater”). I got the four long solutions early on and last in was HELLENE. Lots of fun.

22. I’m with Rog (17) – “compulsive” is poor. And like Paddymelon (12) I can’t connect “Art” with LONGEST.

23. I didn’t know the cyclist Hoy or the meaning of King Edward. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen them both in past puzzles, but I managed to forget. And “hoy” as barge is also unfamiliar, so I had to look up all the (not very many) possibilities in a dictionary to get that one. And like others, I failed to parse “longest”, although now that I see it I think it’s fine.

    The trick of using “art” as the second person archaic form of “are” has come up before. I’m pretty sure that I’ve seen either “French art” or “Roman art” used to indicate ES (the French and Latin forms of the second-person singular “are”). But I still didn’t get it.

24. Thou art desiring
    Means the same as
    Thou longest
    Or
    Thou desirest
    Is how I read it

25. I’ve seen HOY in the boat sense very recently, but it must be in the wordplay of a clue, as the search only turns up the cyclist from last month

26. 19a, there could be another take on this, what about kitchen-sinking, compulsive arguing in the galley?

27. Chambers has compulsive meaning “0f or relating to compulsion” so I think 19a is ok

28. Re HOY, anyone else a fan of Patrick O’Brien? If you are, you’ll have come across powder hoy a number of times.

    “a vessel specially fitted to carry powder for the supply of war ships. They are usually painted red and carry a red flag.”

    It was often the last thing Captain Aubrey was waiting for before being able to slip anchor and head to sea.

29. Another fine crossword, but then Picaroon’s always are, so I can’t find much more to say. LONGEST was last in – took a while to convince myself that was right.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Gaufrid

30. muffin @23 Given just “Hoy”, Google took me to Orkney. Given “hoy” + “barge,” it took me right to the boats, with lots of fine pictures when I clicked Images.

31. Thanks Gaufrid and Picaroon.

    Lots new to me here LUM=chimney, LIE=porkpie!, HOY=barge (good job I’m a cyclist) and HIBACHI=grill. Hence found it quite a battle and the check button got rather warm. One day I’ll maybe catch up with all these “secret” words.

32. ALEWIFE for a fish is a word encountered more frequently in crosswords than elsewhere – also IDE.

33. Thanks gaufrid and Picaroon for fine blogs and Xword.

    The 1s were first in for me too, in a few seconds; the other fifteeners took longer, especially when I tried for sometime to stretch MOLLYCODDLE into the bottom one.

    The clue for AMI was gibberish to me until I came here; I must make an effort to remember CHINA = FRIEND in future, especially as we have had it so frequently recently.

    I though HIBACHI was a propriety name – we used to own one when we were in Canada in the 70s.

34. Dave Ellison @33
    Your comment on HIBACHI reminded of this Dilbert cartoon:
    http://dilbert.com/strip/1999-04-25

35. We are with beeryhiker on this one. Longest last in and still don’t like it. However, after rattling in the long ones at the start,it was a good workout. Thanks to everyone.

36. Hammer @31. Have you never heard of the Hogmanay greeting “Lang may yer lum reek”?

    Anyway, I thought this a very good crossword.

    I particularly liked HELLENE and AMI

37. Muffin @32 Alewives used to be abundant from the Maritime Provinces to the Tidewater States. There are fewer now, but they still swim up many rivers to spawn, like salmon. There is a stop on the Boston MTA, at the far end of the Red Line, even beyond Harvard Square, called Alewife. They’re like herring; I don’t think I’ve ever seen one, but they do exist around here.

38. HOY and LONGEST delayed me the most-I’d forgotten Sir Chris. And this was rather a slow solve for me- delayed reaction to the Donald, I suppose!
    Nice puzzle though.
    Thanks Picaroon.

39. Cholecyst @36

    No, but I had heard the one about the wee sleekit……..

    And its a swede!!

40. I’m another who started with 1a and 1d. My last in were AMI and LONGEST, both of which I half-solved rather than solved. I think I must have been a bit dull today – I simply forgot about the other meaning of ‘art’ (in 23d LONGEST).

    This was another really good crossword from a skilful setter. ‘Knight Rider’ in 16d HOY made me smile, and I had a few other favourites, but I have nothing to add to comments already posted.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and Gaufrid.

41. Re 23 down, the saying “ars longa, vita brevis” also came to mind.
    Overall a fine puzzle.

42. My reading of 30ac was ‘MA that LAD MINISTERED to’.
    VOICING is also what you do to consonants like c and t to make them into voiced consonants g and d.

Comments are closed.