Guardian Prize 27,393 / Paul

by

I suspect this is the Paul puzzle which appeared on line for a while by mistake on the day Rufus’ retirement was announced – in which case, perhaps some of you did it then.

The last Paul Prize puzzle I blogged, just four weeks ago, had the theme of billionaires. The first theme answer I solved in this one was 18 24 – and I thought, ‘Surely not again?’. But then I got 1ac and a penny dropped: the key was the very last clue, 24dn, which neatly led to a mini-theme, involving 5,12 and 21ac.

There were some really good clues here and I enjoyed solving it – many thanks, Paul.

[Definitions are underlined in the clues and I’ve provided links to the Vice Presidents.]

Across

1 24, extremely late after period of 20 hours? (7)
MONDALE
L[at]E after MONDA[y]  [5/6 of Monday] for Walter Mondale, 42nd Vice President

5 Project concealing road defect (7)
FAILING
FLING [project] round AI [A1 – The Great North Road]

9 Bound books, note inside (5)
LIMIT
MI [note] inside LIT[erature] – books

10 Democrat in backing 24, out of bounds (9)
FORBIDDEN
D [democrat] in FOR [backing] BIDEN [24] – I spent some time trying to make something of  [Gerald] FORD  but it’s Joe Biden 47th Vice President

11 Bill’s encapsulated by combination of corn and bean stew (10)
CARBONNADE
AD [bill] in an anagram [combination] of CORN and BEAN

12 By the sound of it, puzzle 5 across (4)
FLAW
Sounds [‘to some people’] like ‘floor’ – puzzle

14 Noisy battle developing in stubborn manner (11)
OBSTINATELY
Neat anagram of NOISY BATTLE

18 24, English man on pitch (11)
ROCKEFELLER
E [English] FELLER [man] on [after] ROCK [pitch – as a boat does]  for Nelson Rockefeller, 41st Vice President

21 24 last to return (4)
EVIL
A reversal [to return] of  LIVE [last]

22 Embellished passage actual, or doubly fanciful (10)
COLORATURA
Anagram [fanciful] of ACTUAL OR OR

25 European revolutionary following queen in this short play (3,6)
THE RIVALS
A reversal [revolutionary] of SLAV [European] following ER [queen] in THI[s]: I well remember reading this play at school –  Mrs Malaprop and her ‘allegory on the banks of the Nile’ [shades of 19dn?]

26 Authority to get broadcast? (3-2)
SAY-SO
Not sure about this: “Say ‘Sow!'” could mean ‘get broadcast’ but then ‘broadcast’ is doing double duty – or is the question mark the homophone indicator?

27 Aardvark – this beast originally coming in close behind start of alphabet (7)
ANTBEAR
T[his] B[east] [originally] in NEAR [close] behind A[lphabet]  [I thought it was only Puck who had it in for me with these creatures 😉 ]

28 Mundane letters from listener (retired), sent back (7)
TERRENE
Reverse [sent back] hidden in listENER RETred

 

Down

1 Venom in cobras initially collected by boy, say? (6)
MALICE
I[n] C[obras] in MALE [boy, say]

2 A thousand  in African country abandoning river on the rise, departed (2,4)
NO MORE
[M [a thousand] in a reversal [rising] of [cam]EROON [African country abandoning Cambridge’s river]  – I’m sorry but this phrase always reminds me of the dead parrot sketch  [which you can see again here, if you want to]

3 Sign reader lost, ergo a lost traveller, ultimately (10)
ASTROLOGER
Anagram [lost] of ERGO A LOST and [travelle]R

4 Slight mistake: all of Saudi Arabian conclusions (5)
ELFIN
Last letters [conclusions] of mistakE alL oF saudI arabiaN

5 Shoot monkey in safety procedure (4,5)
FIRE DRILL
Simple charade: fire [shoot] DRILL [monkey]

6 One put on gravy, but not to bird (4)
IBIS
I [one] + BIS[to] [gravy but not to]  – non-UK solvers see here

7 Pampers: sticky glue in diapers emptied (8)
INDULGES
Anagram [sticky] of GLUE IN D[iaper]S

8 Passages mob considers, recited (8)
GANGWAYS
GANG [mob] + WAYS  [sounds like {recited} ‘weighs’ – considers]

13 Terrifying thing that may skin something like a rabbit, did you say? (4-6)
HAIR-RAISER
HARE RAZOR, did you say?

15 Old herbivore wiggling ears with gusto (9)
STEGOSAUR
Anagram [wiggling] of EARS with GUSTO

16 Time to feed author a drink (5,3)
GREEN TEA
T [time] in GREENE [author] + A

17 Part of the mind hampered by stress –  that’s unfortunate (8)
ACCIDENT
ID [part of the mind] in ACCENT [stress]

19 24 listening to shrink (6)
QUAYLE
Sounds like [listening to] quail [shrink] – Dan Quayle, 44th Vice President

20 Everywhere, 24 pinching himself? (6)
GALORE
GORE [round – pinching himself] AL –  not an exact synonym but my favourite clue by a mile: Al Gore, 45th Vice President

23 Working class beginning (5)
ONSET
ON [working] SET [class]

24 Tool 5 across (4)
VICE
Double definition  + a third for the theme of the puzzle

36 comments on “Guardian Prize 27,393 / Paul”

  1. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. I could not quite make out SAY-SO and had to look up CARBONNADE and Bisto for IBIS, but here was the rare instance where a U.S. solver may have had a slight advantage with the collection of vice-presidents – and GALORE was a treat Lots of fun.

  2. Thanks Eileen. I was much slower than you in finding the theme and the names were among my LOIs. I also flirted with Ford in 6a. I needed confirmation of 22a and 28a which were new to me. I wasn’t altogether happy with razor=skin in 13d and share your uncertainty about 26a, I just thought it was a loose double definition.

  3. Thanks Eileen – It was 1A, typical Paul having 20 hours=Monda, that showed me the theme.  Eschewing online help this proved a fun challenge, no more so (as with ACD #1) than 20D which earned a loud chuckle (just ahead of the hare razor in 13D).  Last, inevitably, was the exceptional 21A, lots of head-scratching before resolution.  Marvellous.

  4. Got stuck on GREEN TEA AND EVIL, till I realised I’d wrongly marked up the grid for a 3,5 so wasted a lot of time trying to think of a DRY something, but got GREEN TEA as soon as I’d realised my mistake, and EVIL soon thereafter.

    Fresh and enjoyable as ever. Light on the smut this week. Loved the stegosaurus wiggling its ears with gusto.

    Eileen, in SAY-SO, I think SAY is the homophone indicator and the question mark is because it’s one of those reverse-engineered jobs. I.e. “say so” could be wordplay for “broadcast”.

  5. Great theme puzzle! I have to say by far, hands down, Paul is my favorite cryptic setter! And this time he used an American topic: Vice Presidents! I didn’t have to look up any unfamiliar names this time. Although after I had solved Biden, Rockefeller, Quayle, etc., I found the one clue out of all of those that used VICE in a totally different way: as a synonym for sin or offense. I finally got EVIL, but at first I thought there was a Vice President I was unfamiliar with(and for that matter he/she could have been British, so I definitely would have had to look up that one)! I can’t remember, but I think it might have been my LOI.

    Edited by Admin to remove references to a current prize puzzle.

    When I first got interested in cryptics in college, I was lucky just to solve two clues in the whole thing! Of course now I do a little detective work every so often with unfamiliar answers. Then, if it’s right, it should parse out just right too. I like Tramp’s work, but as I said before, Paul’s my favorite. As an amateur setter myself, I really admire his gift for wordplay. I only wish it came as naturally to me.

  6. Patrick J. Berry @5, your enthusiasm is understandable, but please don’t give away answers on current Prize Puzzles. Not only are they meant to be competition for solvers to enter, but some people (me, for example) haven’t had a chance to look at them yet.

  7. Thanks Paul and Eileen

    Ho-hum, it’s Paul – in contrast to many, not one of my favourite seters.

    Minot misprint, Eileen – COLORATURA.

  9. Not the hardest – but ‘Prize’s rarely are, these days (I didn’t even try the recent Maskarade).

    I was fortunate in picking up VICE quite early on – so all the VP’s fell into place rather neatly.  I’m glad he included the esteemed Mr Dan (“potatoe”) Quayle in the list – always good for a larf!

    If I have any gripes it’ll be the homophones – always dangerous territory!  FLAW doesn’t work for me – perhaps I’m more of a ‘rhotic’ than some speakers?  I asked my wife and son and both of them agree with me!

    As to ROCKEFELLER, I can only think of the old joke: Three young lads see a sign on a forestry site hut saying “TREE FELLERS WANTED” – they march in and say “OK, we’re three fellers, what d’you want us to do?”  Needs an indicator at the very least!

    And then HAIR-RAISER.  Nothing wrong with it, but a homophone too far, maybe?  Perhaps two per puzzle ought to be a sort of limit.

    TERRENE was a new word to me, but easy enough to write-in then check.  I’d thought it was a sort of paté, but that’s ‘terrine’.

    OK, with apologies for the niggles, on the whole excellent from Paul (as always) – thanks to him and Eileen.

  10. I should have added that SAY SO also appears to be a homophone, though I didn’t parse it.  Tony @4 gives the best interpretation – thanks.  Now that’s a homophone that really is ingenious!

  11. Re NO MORE – like your Python allusion Eileen, but in fact it’s a common euphemism in French.  E.g. a few weeks ago the news sites were busy proclaiming “Johnny Hallyday n’est plus 🙁 “.

  12. Hi Laccaria @9 – FELLER isn’t a homophone. Chambers: ‘fellow n. [also (inf) fella, fellah or feller]’

  13. Sorry I got carried away and revealed a clue from the next Prize puzzle. I should have realized someone might object. I’m not new to commenting on puzzle blogs, but every now and then I have said the wrong thing. It was an unusual word, you have to admit. I’ll try not to do it again. BTW TERRENE is also an unusual word too. I saw it hidden in the clue, but at first I didn’t think it was a real word. Then, I got enough letters from the Down answers crossing it that I realized it must be the answer. Needless to say, that can help a lot when you do puzzles like these.

  14. Thank you Eileen.  I don’t do the Guardian very often these days as we can no longer get the paper delivered here.  I do remember solving this one as it was billed at the time as Rufus’s very first puzzle so out of respect for Rufus I downloaded this and solved it.  It was the strangest Rufus I had ever seen.

  15. Yes, a bit of deja vu when I opened the paper a week ago; a great puzzle which appeared in some versions of the paper on the last day of Rufus.  I had completed it then, though parsing the original version of 1ac had defeated me completely.  The amended clue (as above) helped me understand the earlier version (something along the lines of “24, 5 of 6 of 1 of 7, 50, last of 3”, which is so obvious now, practically a Rufus!).  I wonder if Paul eased it up a bit the second time around.  Regarding the homophone question raised by Laccaria @9, the fact that FLAW doesn’t work for you is not really the point; unless one leads a terribly sheltered life, one probably hears other accents and therefore has an awareness of other pronunciations.  A poll sample consisting of you, your wife and your son is not really rigorous enough to invalidate the point!  Great stuff Paul, and thanks again Eileen.

  16. I seem to be finding Paul a mixed bag of late. I got the VP theme after three of them appeared, but VICE was actually one of the later solutions. Like Eileen I thought GALORE was an outstanding clue, and FORBIDDEN was neat as well. I also had questions about SAYSO and thought there were some less than smooth surfaces (eg 6&7d). And there were two new words for me COLORATURA and TERRENE so that was a bonus.
    I’ve just looked at my grid again and realised I haven’t put FLAW in, and can’t remember whether we came up with it at the time – so it’s really a dnf!
    Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

  17. P.S. Laccaria @9  I’m worried about your suggestion to restrict homophones to a limit of 2 per puzzle – sounds dangerously like homophobia to me, and this is the Guardian after all!

  18. Thanks to Paul and Eileen. Enjoyed this a lot and particular liked galore and forbidden. Unpacked quite readily but spent a long time trying to shoehorn a Vice President into 21a until the penny dropped.

  20. The surface and elegance of 20d more than made up for any stretching of the definition for me. I’d always rather have a smooth surface and stretched synonym than clunky surface precisely defined. Of course the best clues do both, and as I had no problem getting from GALORE to EVERYWHERE that’s what Paul has achieved here – imho of course. But then I’m very much in the libertarian camp when it comes to this sort of thing.

  21. I completed this after a mighty struggle, but re 1A I believe MONDA ought to be 20 hours, not 22.

    5/6 = 10/12 = 20/24

    Cheers

  25. I’d forgotten about this one but now I look back at it, I remember enjoying it. Well, once I’d got the theme! I knew most of the vice presidents but for some reason, I’d forgotten MONDALE and he was LOI. In retrospect I thought the clue was brilliant and so typical of Paul.
    Thanks Paul.

  28. Some googling required, which of course always makes me feel guilty!

    But yes I agree with those who found it fun – despite those obscure (to me) words like 11a CARBONNADE and 22a COLORATURA (great to learn some new vocab though).

    Really appreciated the parsing of and link for 6d IBIS, Eileen, which totally escape me. [And I’m with Laccaria@11: revisiting the parrot sketch in reading your parse for 2d was an added bonus.]

    I enjoyed the two meanings of 24d VICE being employed for the theme and mini-theme…

    With gratitude to Paul and Eileen.

  29. A late response. Hooray for Paul and Eileen, and here’s the mystery Paul puzzle from the Rufus day.  Could somebody explain Blanchflower’s odd numerical clue?  And what does Everywhere have to do with Al Gore?  (I loved that clue too!)

    We’ve dug ourselves out from the snow here in New England, but it’s dreadful cold and I can’t stand the thought of going out.  Worse because my car’s in the shop and if I go anywhere it has to be in my 40-year-old camper/caravan that gives me the habdabs every time I have to back it out of the garage.  I might just curl up in my burrow and mumble an old parsnip.

  30. Valentine @ 29: here goes…

    24 – definition, VICE (-president),
    5 of 6 [you need to get the next bit first) means 5 of the 5 letters of [= MONDA]
    of 1 of 7, = one of the days of the week, and if your week begins with a Monday 1 of 7 is also the first
    50, Latin number, so L
    last of 3 – spell out THREE and the last letter is E

    So MONDA-L-E

    hth

  31. [Oh Valentine, so sorry to hear how cold it is there in for you in New England. Our son and daughter-in-law moved from Melbourne Australia to Brooklyn in NYC in November. We are watching the temperatures and news stories with dismay. Today there were temperatures between 40 and 45 degrees C in SE Australia, meanwhile in NYC predictions of minus eleven to minus sixteen. Valentine, I hope you can stay safe and warm…the advice I gave our ex-pat Aussies was to make soup, read books and stay indoors.]

     

  32. Valentine,

    “Everywhere” is the definition for GALORE. A bit loose, as others have suggested, but perhaps compensated for by the delightful wordplay?

    “There were beartraps everywhere/galore”: i.e. lots of them

  34. Weirdly I had solved almost all of this before realising I had seen it before, and it took longer the second time. I suspect a few of the clues changed, but I didn’t keep a copy of the original version.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen

  35. Really annoying puzzle, in my view and the assumption that ‘vice’ means ‘vice president’ was also irritating.

    Thanks for the explanations – this was a puzzle I didn’t enjoy.

  36. I did this puzzle at least two weeks late so I don’t expect anyone will see this. I just wanted to agree with the previous poster Cath’s irritation that ‘vice’ was assumed to mean ‘vice president’. I’m amazed no-one else queried that. How can it be justified? Apart from that though, it was quite a good puzzle, as usual, from Paul.

Comments are closed.