Guardian 27,478 / Arachne

71 comments on “Guardian 27,478 / Arachne”

1. Fantastic puzzle as always from Arachne. Loved PROPHET, SWAMI, BEFOREHAND, IN ANY EVENT, CRIME WAVE, ADORES . . . . Many thanks to A & E.

2. Thanks Arachne and Eileen

   I had more difficulty with parsing than usual with Arachne, and didn’t manage with RATIONS, PROSECUTE, IN ANY EVENT and I didn’t see ASS = “turkey” in ASSISTANT.

   I loved the ALEC GUINNESS clue!

3. No complaints from me either.   Thanks to Arachne and Lucky Eileen

4. Like Muffin@2 I had some difficulty with some of the parsing and so Eileen’s excellent blog was very welcome.  However, notwithstanding that, I agree with Eileen’s comment that the puzzle is “meticulously clued and scrupulously fair” and felt that Arachne had (as usual) produced a great puzzle.  So many thanks to both setter and blogger!

5. 4D. I did not know money (rupee) is slang for bread.  But in that case why Indian bread in the clue? Bread would have sufficed? First I thought of puree as the answer which of course turned out to be wrong.  Interestingly we have poori, also an Indian bread made of wheat flour like chapati and roti but fried in oil.

6. VDS Prasad @5 –  ‘bread’ is slang for ‘money’, generally – see here – so ‘rupee’ = ‘Indian bread’.

7. VDS Prasad@4: it’s the other way round.Bread is slang for money, hence Indian.

    

   The print version has 14 as 5,7, which is unsolvable

8. Precision clueing once more from the spider lady. We have gone from the ridiculous Russ (Abbott) to the sublime rose-cut in just a couple of days.

   Thanks to Arachne for the puzzle and to Eileen for the clarity of the blog.

9. Goujeers @7 – it’s 4,8 in my paper.

10. Thank you, Eileen and Goujeers@7.

11. A superb start to the week. I so admire the way that compilers like Arachne and Nutmeg can apply the thumbscrews to any degree between gentle and excruciating yet always provide impeccable clues, and rarely resort to obscurities. Among many excellent clues, 5d is, appropriately, a gem.

12. Thanks Eileen-glad you got to blog this excellent start to the week.

13. Really enjoyed this. I, too, loved the Alec Guinness anagram.

    Many thanks to Arachne and Eileen.

14. Habitués is an anagram of BUT HE IS A.

15. Thank you, Jam @14 – careless error corrected now.

16. Thank you Eileen, good blog of a fine puzzle.

    One trivial correction, HABITUES is (BUT HE IS A)*

    Failed to parse STEP but ticked many others including the excellent PROSECUTE, surely a candidate for COTY.

    Thank you Arachne, come again soon.

    Nice week, all.

17. So sorry, Eileen & Jam, crossing.

18. Yes, quite a workout for a Monday but I managed to finish, just about. Many thanks Arachne and Eileen.

19. I really enjoyed this puzzle, as I always like to be spun in the web that is Arachne’s setting style. But I think this puzzle said to me, “Goodbye to ‘easy Mondays'”.

    Somehow I intuitively solved ALEC GUINESS at 14a, which I only got with a couple of crossers, as I did not recognise “representing” as an anagrind. But I did recall he was a classy actor…and that solution gave me several key letters for other clues.

    On a recent blog, someone complained about obscure and clumsy anagrinds – I didn’t agree at the time – and here again in 14a we have “re-presenting” and in 7d “vagrant”, both of which I think worthy of adding to the list of clever anagram indicators I am compiling. Long gone are the days when “stew” or “mix” sufficed to alert us to an anagram. I admire greatly the creativity of our setters.

    The gambolling nuns in the clue for 2d USABLE made for a visually interesting clue!

    Thanks a million to Arachne and Eileen – good to see the blog back on an even keel!

20. Re 5d: I agree it’s a beautifully crafted clue but doesn’t “dons” here mean put p and e at front and back rather than “round”, Eileen, i.e. “with pe round it”?

21. Good entertaining crossword to start the week; thanks Arachne.

    Thanks Eileen; don’t you mean ‘inside’ or some such rather than ’round’ in 5d, which I failed to parse anyway.

    Nice spot for the ALEC GUINNESS anagram, although it has been done before e.g. Falcon’s ‘Actor could be genuine class, if trained.’

    I liked the clue for STOOL PIGEONS, where the ‘grasses’ misled me for quite a while.

22. Sorry – GUINNESS – my bad!

    Eileen, I just re-read your introduction; apologies that I merely skimmed over your words earlier. I should not ever take for granted the way in which you have summed up so well here the joy I glean from solving The Guardian cryptic crosswords:

    Arachne is an excellent teacher … she really wants you to get the answers and have a few laughs along the way. The puzzle is meticulously clued and scrupulously fair, so all you need to do is follow the instructions, savour the witty surfaces and enjoy the fun. 

23. Thanks Eileen and Arachne.

    I enjoyed this despite not being able to parse STEP. “rebellious” doesn’t really suggest “reversal”, more of an anagram indicator to me.

     

    I had a slight difficulty following your “A [alto] + S [soprano] after” in 20d, until I realised it was only the S (and not A and S) that was after DORE.

24. Martin @20 and Robi @19: yes, of course that’s what I meant, thank you. 😉 . My apologies for messing up such a wonderful clue – I’ll fix it immediately.

25. JinA@19:  I take your point about the Monday Cryptic often being a bit harder now that Rufus no longer holds sway but I recommend looking at the Quiptic on Mondays (you may already do so of course – apologies if so).  In my opinion these are normally very good puzzles (today’s was no exception) and are intended to be somewhat less difficult than the normal Guardian Cryptic.   On Mondays I usually try the Quiptic first (to mentally limber up as it were) and then move on to the Cryptic.

    I’m with you on the point about anagram indicators (and share your admiration for the creativity of our setters).

26. Thank you Arachne and Eileen.

    A lovely puzzle.  I stupidly first entered MONOLITH at 17d, of course it would not parse.

    Those who have visited Geneva are probably familiar with the term “ESCALADE”, a festival which is celebrated there each year. During the night of December 11-12, 1602, the city of Geneva was attacked by Savoyard soldiers, who attempted to scale the city ramparts. The Duke of Savoy, who had lost his former possession of Geneva, was trying to reclaim the city. The battle was severe, but the people of Geneva valiantly defended their town. Examples of bravery were many: Mère Royaume is especially remembered, she climbed onto the ramparts and poured her pot of hot soup over the head of a Savoyard soldier mounting a ladder.

27. Dave Ellison @23 – I think you’re right about ‘rebellious’: when writing up the blog [after I’d been to sleep in between] I was thinking of it as being a down clue, where it would have worked, wouldn’t it?

28. Many thanks for that, Cookie @26.  😉

29. 12a cannot be an anagram – that would make it an indirect anagram, which is a no-no that I very much doubt Arachne would consider. Rebellious is fine in terms of going the opposite way.

    Another superb puzzle by Arachne, with her professionalism evident in every clue. As is typical of many experts, she makes it look so easy.

     

    Thanks Arachne and thanks as always to Eileen

30. You’re absolutely right, of course, dutch @29 – many thanks. I’ll go back and ‘unedit’.

31. Thanks to Arachne and Eileen. I found this a tougher than usual solve for a Monday. Lots went in quite steadily, but others were quite tricky and there was quite a bit of guess and parse later. Last two in were stool pigeons and prosecute (I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to fit procedure in, but obviously it would not parse). That said still an enjoyable solve with lots of nice clues even though I had to come here to clarify some bits of parsing. Thanks again to Arachne and Eileen.

32. An Arachne puzzle with Eileen blogging. I suppose it is a bit sad but that is likely to be the highlight of my week!

    Only one comment that hasn’t been said already (and I hope this doesn’t run foul of site policy). I had an extra smile at 23dn when I realised from the crossers that OXTER would fit. I know the word only from the first line of a risqué ditty – “I was up to me oxters in mud sir”, that I have recited numerous times without knowing how far up the body the “oxters” were. So now I know. Thanks for that, and the marvellous puzzle, to Arachne and Eileen.

33. Is “bread” still used to mean money outside of crosswords?  I was surprised to learn from Eileen’s website reference (thanks for that, Eileen, I’ll have to go back and give it a good study) that it was rhyming slang, “bread and honey,” because I thought of it as American hippy talk.

    I enjoyed the Alec Guinness clue and anything else that makes me think of Alec Guiness — genuine class indeed.  But as an anagram it isn’t all that exciting, compared with, say, yesterday’s abhorent/earthbound.  That one was a real dandy!

    That said, great thanks to Arachne and Eileen for the excellent puzzle and blog!

    earthborn/abhorrent  alec

34. KLColin @32 – of course, I couldn’t resist googling. You’ll perhaps be chuffed to know that your comment is third on the page. 😉

35. Oops, I forgot to erase my note to myself at the bottom of the post.

    “Rosecut” totally eluded me.  I didn’t get any farther than struggling with “procedure.”  Anybody have any thoughts on why “and” is in italics?

     

36. Hi Valentine @35 – a play on ‘multi-faceted’, I think: dons can multi-task?

37. Thanks, Eileen — that makes sense where nothing else did.

38. I agree with Eileen@36.  A “rose cut” is a type of diamond cut that leaves the resulting diamond multi-faceted; see

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cut#Rose_and_mogul_cuts

    for example.  I’m not sure about dons being able to multi-task however!  (-;

    Valentine@35:  I too was baffled as to why the word “and” was in italics.  The only explanation I could think of was that Arachne was being kind and emphasizing that the “and” connected the cryptic and the definition parts of the clue (but I wasn’t convinced by that).

     

39. Thanks both,

    I did find this a bit easier than average, but also a joy because of the wit and precise cluing. I still don’t follow why ‘and’ was in italics in 5d unless it was purely for emphasis. The setter might have underlined it and the printers then put it into italics. 14ac and 15d were pure delight. ‘Oxter’ is, geographically, quite widely used so I thought the Scotsman was redundant in 23d; it’s not like ‘lum’ or ‘outwith’ which are pretty much confined to Scotland.

     

40. I thought the italicised and was for surface, which is legit. The clue reads so much better with the and italicised. multitasking dons. what’s next?

41. Eileen @9: I printed the puzzle from the website (not the PDF), because the squares and clues are a little larger. Just checked the PDF and that agrees with what you said about the paper. I’ve also gone back to look at the print version, and that has now been corrected.

42. A welcome surprise, but pretty tricky for a Monday. PROSECUTE was last in – the ROSECUT part was unfamiliar, as was ESCALADE

    Thanks to Arachne and Eileen

43. I set off thinking “this isn’t as smooth as I expect from Arachne – I wonder if she’s tried to adapt things for a Monday puzzle?” And then I thought the setters generally don’t know when their puzzle is going to appear, so what’s different? And I think the difference was my mindset – because it’s a Monday I wasn’t expecting a top class Arachne, and surprise, surprise that’s the solving experience I created for myself. That said I did find myself with lots of ticks as I went along, and I’m so glad I came here and read Eileen’s blog with other comments to re-set my paradigm and see that it is an Arachne masterclass. I particularly like the misdirection of KITTY=POOL and GRASSES=STOOL PIGEONS – so clever that the sentence construction sends you (me) off down the wrong rabbit hole.

    Like PetHay@31 I persisted with PROCEDURE and then failed to parse PROSECUTE (a brilliant clue); I had a lazy STOP instead of STEP; and RATIONS took ages and was loi. I was, and still am, baffled by and – I don’t see it makes this particular surface that much better than other clues with “and” in. It would be good to know whether this is how Arachne wrote it or whether some gremlin got in the works.

    Thank you Arachne and Eileen – a great start to the week.

44. I remember the ALEC GUINNESS anagram from an American-style crossword entitled “Amazing Anagrams” that Games Magazine ran a decade or so ago. The clues to the theme entries were all simply phrases you had to anagram. All also were apt definitions (or close enough for crossword-land).

    The other one from that puzzle that has stuck with me is ELEVEN PLUS TWO. What that anagrams to is left as an exercise for the reader, as they say in math textbooks.

45. Can’t help but think that RATIONS is ‘sex shunning the Spanish’ rather than vice(!) versa.’The Spanish evading sex’ might be more logical? . . .

46. All fine. I obviously don’t know much about diamonds as I couldn’t parse 5d. Mind you I didn’t get the parsing in 28a either and what does that imply?

47. Thanks Eileen, we agree with you about 5d. Our last one in!

    Thanks Arachne – hope to see you in Derby.

48. Thanks to Arachne and Eileen. Great puzzle whatever the day. My experience was the same as beery hiker @42.

49. dutch@29 Thanks, I take your point; I think because I hadn’t parsed it and saw PETS in Eileen’s explanation, I overlooked it wasn’t a direct anagram. Still not sure about “rebellious” though; it kind of works for me, then the next second it doesn’t.

    Apologies I forced you to a double edit, Eileen.

     

50. Hi all. The Alec Guinness/Genuine Class also cropped up in an episode of the Simpsons – Lisa’s Rival – from 1994. In it, her clever new friend takes part in her father’s anagram games  – they use actors’ names – and gives the Genuine Class answer for Alec Guinness answer. When Lisa is given Jeremy Irons as an actor anagram to work out by her friend’s father, all she can come up with is ‘Jeremy’s Iron’

     

    Thanks to Arachne for a great puzzle and to Eileen for an excellent analysis.

51. (Incidentally, I’ve always been amused by the fact that) BRED is a French bank…

52. As you say, meticulously clued and scrupulously fair, and so enjoyable from first to last.

53. Uncleskinny @ 50: Thanks for that. Glad I’m not the only one here who also watches that program enough to remember episodes.

54. A DNF and several unknowns here.  The one I missed was PROSECUTE – I pencilled in PROCEDURE (for no very good reason) and then didn’t go back to it before visiting 225, so I have to admit to a DNF.

    Unknowns?  Well I had to assume that FRIENDLILY is in fact a word (would we then admit SLOVENLILY, COMELILY, TIMELILY, etc…?)  At least the wordplay didn’t cast any doubt.  AXON did ring a bell, though I thought it came from particle physics rather than nerve cells (I think the word I had in mind was ‘axion’).  OXTER was a total stranger – I’m not sure I like ‘bitten by’ as a hidden word indicator very much.

    On the other hand, I knew the word ESCALADE (I think I must have picked it up in some account of mediaeval warfare) – which meant that 16d looked ridiculously easy.  I’m not sure if it’s fair to pan Arachne for making that too obscure.

    I’m not sure if the biblical ‘Daniel’ is considered a prophet or not.  I suppose it depends on who you believe.

    And I didn’t quite parse several.  Amongst them IN ANY EVENT.  I haven’t come across VENT = “voice” before.

    Anyway, we can see that Mondays are no longer going to be a walkover every time!

    Thanks to the web-spinner and Eileen.

55. Lovely crossword and blog – thanks!  I have to admit that 2 down made me think of this.

56. Huge thanks, geof – I’d forgotten that one. 😉

57. I did this all except for the ridiculously obscure 23D. A slight quibble with 11A — lingerie is not necessarily underwear.

    I get accused, on the wikipedia, of being a pronunciation nazi because I protest the pronunciation of “lingerie” favoured in the USA. But, I mean, come on you guys—lahn-zhuh-rey???? It’s doubly wrong.

    Another linguistic battle I fight is the typical American menu item “Sliced beef served with au jus”. If that’s not wrong, nothihg is wrong and we can use the language however we like.

58. El Inglés @ 57

    “Ridiculously obscure” just means you didn’t know it. To some of us it isn’t obscure at all, and in any event it was clearly signalled by the wordplay.

59. If my friend from the North turns up in the pub tonight I shall ask him ‘hows yer oxters’ and see how he reacts.

60. Fun, but sometimes too far removed, as:24 hours=a day=a particular day: Friday=abbreviation. I got it, but it’s a stretch!

    And to all those budding cruciverbalists out there, sorry, it appears Mondays just aren’t a sure thing anymore.

61. Nothing more to add. The usual high standard from Arachne.

    14A held me up for quite a  while. If you are familiar with Arachne any clue with a definition of “ACTOR” is nailed on to be a woman 😉 . So I spent ages trying to find a 4-letter woman’s first name in the fodder. Could only come upwith ANNE but assumed I must not know the actress!

    I finally convinced myself that perhaps it actually might be a man and then ALEC GUINNESS became obvious.

62. I struggled with ‘step’ and one or two others.  Living in Denmark, my lovely doctor, in her best English, suggests that this is one of my ‘slow brain days’.  I suspect she’s right.

63. If I knew the plural for BRAVA! I would use it – Arachne and Eileen will have to do with one each.  BRAVA! BRAVA!

    Favourite was ADORES

64. Didn’t realise Arachne was in the chair until late in the day, so now I’m going to be really late in bed – just had to get it finished!

    Three new words for me – AXON, OXTER and ESCALADE – and a bit of a frown over 3d but much enjoyed the battle.

    Thanks to the weaver of webs and to Eileen for the blog.

65. Sorry late to the party. Very good crosser I dare say but too tough for us ‘mondayers’. I got 70% of it eventually and if it’s any other day I’m proud of that but acteal effort. Lots of carving words into 3 or 4 bits and tricksy definition elements made it tough. Which is what I guess makes it fun for the rest of you.

    One gripe/question I have is 28a. In what vaguely normal use of English is ‘the Spanish shunning sex’ relations without el. Surely that’s ‘sex shunning the spanish’ and i can’t see it the other way.

66. Hi Stuart @65 – to shun is ‘to avoid deliberately’ [Collins and Chambers], which I saw as ‘to stay away from’, so it worked for me. I’ve just looked at my old SOED, which has ‘to keep away from, escape’.

67. We just wanted to say thank you to Arachne and Eileen. Lovely crossword and lovely blog.

    But a difficult captcha. Need to know our 9 timestable.

68. thanks for the reply Eileen…I guess I saw shunning in the pushing away rather than getting out of sense (are we in transitive rather than instransative verbs here?) … I’m not sure if I saw that clue again I’d get it unless all of the crossers were in ??

69. Thank you Arachne for a delightful crossword. Made Monday much more amusing!

70. Still catching up with my dead trees after a week away…

    I thought that I was going to manage all of this one, & so was getting ready to get the bunting out and hold a spontaneous demonstration to voice my gratitude & joy, but I fell at the final hurdle; 28ac 🙁
    The answer was clearly going to be ‘RATIONS’, but I absolutely could not parse it – I totally agree with AdamH at 45.

    I do hope that the fug in my brain will dissipate soon. Perhaps it might as more time passes since my days of dissipation 😉

    Slàinte,
    Gem.

71. And so I am grateful to Eileen for her reply at 66. to Stuart Drysdale, which explains the clue beautifully 🙂

    Now, where *did* I leave those Liver Salts…?

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