Guardian 27,612 / Vlad

60 comments on “Guardian 27,612 / Vlad”

1. Thanks Vlad and Eileen

   I made a fast start and was thinking “this is an easier Vlad than usual”, but I was wrong! I found the SE in particular hard, though I had no idea of the parsing of DIRTY WORD.

   My favourites were GOING RATE and ASPEN.

   Why is “bed” PIT in 18d? I was trying to work something with PLOT – unsuccessfully, of course.

   OYSTER CARD needs explaining for non-Londoners, not just non-Brits! I have used one on a visit, but it could easily have completely unknown to me.

2. Another hard one: after yesterday’s Picaroon, Vlad’s rather tortuous surfaces. But all good fun. My favourites were OYSTER CARD, YOUNGSTER and BURRITO. I didn’t really understand WAGON-LIT, but never mind. Many thanks to Vlad and Eileen.

3. I parsed 14ac as GETS IN [enters] as a container for TUCK. Also had the R in 21d from [relationship in the van] meaning the first letter of [relationship]. Nice, tough enough crossword with some clues that made me think hard.

4. Muffin – to be “in your pit” is a colloquial expression for being in bed.  Thanks Eileen, I completely agree that was a “consummate” crossword – so thanks also Vlad for a spiffing crossie; toughest we have had for a long while.

5. This was quite a difficult slog for me. Usually I enjoy Vlad’s puzzles more than this one – maybe my mood is wrong today?

   I solved but was unable to parse 15d.

   I am a non-Brit/non-Londoner but I could solve OYSTER CARD as I always use one on my trips to London (I still have one in my purse now).

   Thanks Vlad and blogger

6. Thanks TerriBlislow – not an expression I’ve ever heard.

7. Many thanks, MarkP @3 – right on both counts! I’m going out now so will amend the blog later on.

8. drofle @2

   WAGON-LIT is the French name for a “sleeping car” on a railway, so beds for rest are provided. Ithink it may also be a trade-name for them.

9. I needed full brain engagement for this one! Some quite elliptical wordplay, so much lateral thinking required.
   Particularly liked the Pauline Aspen. Didn’t see the Stormy connection until Eileen pointed it out, and that’s great too.
   thanks!

10. Some really challenging and satisfying clues here, but is it OK in 9 across to use “why” to denote “y” without more?

11. Down with the kids was last in as I hadnt heard of it.No excuse with Youngster lying underneath.

    So what with Pickerts. yesterday, Monk and Vlad today, I feel spoilt.

    Thanks Eileen and Jim.

12. Yes another toughie but great, though several unparsed. Didn’t see the reversed row in 9a or the replaced ‘L’ in 5d; couldn’t reconcile pit for bed in 18d, which held up the SE, along with not remembering tile for hat ’til after getting infantile. Slow, too, to get 14a (thought of ingrate immediately but the forgot it), and to get model as indicator in 6d, and to get reversed fib in biff. In 20/21d, both arrant and consumate = utter but not sure that consumate= arrant (consumate nonsense??). And I’d thought nuns for sisters in 10a, but dnk the name. If I hadn’t used an 3/8, that would’ve been tough too.

    Eileen, I read 14d as gets in (enters) around (carrying) tuck; little difference, both work.

    So; lots to chew on, lots to like, and a bit of cheek (eg 21a).

    Many fhanks Vlad and Eileen.

13. ….and lots of similarities to above posters, all of whom I crossed with while slowly typing….

14. Superb blog and crossword. Many thanks, Eileen and Vlad.

15. horreur, left an ‘m’ out of consummate, three times!

16. I loved this challenge though I needed to come here for a few explanations: as others have, I queried the wordplay regarding “bed” in 18d MPLICIT and I didn’t see why Stormy was part of the clue for the President in 15d, though I got EISENHOWER form the crossers. I think I have somehow encountered the OYSTER CARD before in a crossword; anyway I dredged it up from somewhere. Here in SE Qld we have the Go Card, in Melbourne the Myki.

    Impetuous fill-ins at 9a where I started with DIRTY JOKE, and at 7d where I had PHRASE (as in the ray from a lighthouse beam – well it made sense to me!) held me up – but then re-thinks can often be part of the fun!

    All well worth the effort. I agree re others’ favourites: I had lots of ticks for ASPEN (“willows whiten, aspens quiver, little breezes dusk and shiver”), and also favoured 23a BURRITO and 24a CORGI. But as you say, Eileen, well worth pulling back afterwards and savouring many good clues.

    Thanks to Vlad, Eileen, and other participants.

17. In 18d what indicates that the E is to be left off LICE?

18. Very satisfying in the end. At my first run through I got almost nowhere, with about 4 answers put in lightly and uncertainly. Gradually I worked out the intricate clueing and finally completed, with 4d the last one in.

    Re Richard’s query @ 10 about whether it’s OK for “why” to mean “y” without some indicator like “sounds like,” this also escaped me for a time. But by the same logic that “see” can often mean “c” without any indicator, I do accept that it’s within the conventions.

    Very rewarding. Thanks very much, Vlad and Eileen

19. Ah never mind – “lots of” = “most of” right?

20. Mountaineers etc. call their sleeping bag ‘their pit’. They ‘fester in their pit’ when the weather is too bad, or they are too tired or lazy to go climbing. I first came across this expression in a biography of Julie Tullis, who died on K2 in 1986. The expression sounds to me, at least, as if it could be a quote from Milton.

21. Top notch. This repaid the effort to work out the intricate parsing in eg 2d, 9a and 5d, and there were some other excellent clues such as CORGI, the surface for 15d and the ‘Rufus-like’ 17d.

    A big thanks to Vlad and to Eileen who obviously enjoyed this one as much as everyone else.

22. What Julie said @14

23. Julie in Australia@16 – Storm(z)y is a lady who is making trouble for President Trump, hence the use of his name. ‘Pit’, usually with an unprintable prefix, was used to mean ‘bed’ in the army in my National Service days.

24. Thanks to Vlad, for an excellent puzzle, meticulously clued throughout, and to Eileen for a sterling effort with the blog (not an easy one, that.) Very few ‘gimme’ clues, and some nice misdirection.

    Got held up in the top half by some wrong assumptions (1d, dead embarrassed = d+red, 6d, model = T or sit/pose, 7d, ray, as in radiation) and a (tentative) wrong answer at 10a – Fiona (trying to associate sisters with the religious history of Iona.) Also assumed 9a must be either dirty joke (JinA) or dirty look, ’til the (old) penny dropped.

    Favourite clues? 1 through 25. A most satisfying solve (eventually.)

25. Stormy/Trump entirely escaped my notice! Now I see it, it’s a great clue.

26. [Thanks Harhop@23; Yes, news of Stormy Daniels has reached us here in Australia, so I knew of her association (!) with the current POTUS, but could not see the link to a former President, Eishenower. It was a very clever piece of misdirection to use “Stormy” as the anagrind, so I was thanking Eileen for the elucidation.]

27. Thanks Vlad; very tough I thought but enjoyable with Eileen’s splendid blog.

    David Stallard @18; I disagree about ‘why’ for Y. See or cee for ‘C’ is in Chambers, as is ‘wye’ for Y, but not why. So, to my mind it’s text speak or a homophone, so it should really be indicated.

    I was quite grumpy about the unknown to me DOWN WITH THE KIDS until I eventually found it in Collins, so that’s kosher then.

    The clue for EISENHOWER was superb.

28. I was about to post about WHY/Y but Robi has said exactly what I was going to – the comparison with SEE/C is not a valid one. I loved this puzzle but I agree that WHY =Y is not acceptable without something indicating text speak

29. Always find it a bit unsatisfactory when there are too many answers that I haven’t managed to parse. Feel you should always have a fighting chance to get the answer from the wordplay, rather than wait to be able to guess the word from the crossers and only then untangle overly-complex parsing. So there were today lots of examples of that, and lots that only became clear after coming onto the blog (thanks Eileen). Even after all that, I still just had to resort to Google to establish that “trembler” referred to the tree, rather than anything to do with knees trembling down a ski slope! Much preferred Picaroon yesterday.

30. Thanks to Vlad and Eileen. Always a feeling of apprehension when I see Vlad’s name. I thought yesterday’s was quite tough but this was up a few notches again. First few passes I had virtually nothing, but then slowly (very slowly) I began to unpack a few. However found the right side much tougher than the left. Last ones were down with the kids (new expression to me), inveigle and Nuala (new name to me). However, always very satisfying to crack a Vlad and makes the struggle worthwhile. I needed Eileen to clarify some bits of parsing (e.g. Inveigle) but I loved the clue for Eisenhower. Thanks again to Vlad and Eileen.

31. Vlad is a top class setter, and this was pretty tricky, particularly just to get started. Once a few crossers were in place the rest started to give way – a very satisfying solve. INVEIGLE was last in. Too many favourites to single anything out. Whoever we get tomorrow has a hard act to follow.

    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen

32. Excellent!

    Vlad lets you always walk the extra mile, doesn’t he?

    But I like walking and enjoyed every minute of this crossword.

    Many thanks Eileen & Vlad.

33. Like Sil, I enjoyed the walk with Vlad today, finding a lot of original twists in the clues.  And there was a lot to get my teeth into, more than I could in yesterday’s Picaroon.  I started with CORGI and WAGON-LIT and had to work my way round clockwise to the SE corner, which opened with the wonderful EISENHOWER, for which I will join in the praise for its topical and clever surface.

    I had no problem with DIRTY WORD, being accustomed by now to seeing ‘why’ for Y (and ‘see’ for C and no doubt a few others).

    Like copmus, I hadn’t heard of DOWN WITH THE KIDS, but in my case I left the last word unsolved rather than try to guess what it might be.

    Many thanks to Vlad and Eileen.

34. Why is COR a clue for ‘my’ in 24 across?

    Minor correction for the explanation of 21 down: the definition part is ‘says’.

35. Superb. In a similar bracket with yesterday’s puzzle ie top class.

    Why do people constantly refer to any clue which has a slightly bawdy aspect as “Pauline” or “Halpernian” or some such nonsense? It’s ridiculous.

36. Tim H @34

    ‘Cor’ and ‘My’ are both interjections expressing surprise.

    Thank you for the correction – blog amended now.

37. Finished quite quickly but couldn’t parse a couple. Thanks for explaining them.

38. Baerchen above.
    Pauline because Paul is well known for his innuendo?

39. Rewolf @ 38

    I suspect baerchen’s remark is suggesting that while Paul, in his various guises, is known for his bawdy clues, he is far from the only one. Arachne venturs to the risqué side fairly frequently, as do many others, though naturally at the moment I can’t think of specific setters (Picaroon a short while back?). But in recent memory there have been non-Paul uses of GO/WEE/No1, and arguably today’s Monk 22 has a component heading for that territory.

    Thanks Vlad and Eileen

40. Fantastic surfaces make the unraveling of the parsing all the more fun.
    Wonderful entertainment.
    Thanks Vlad and Eileen

41. I haven’t posted for ages. Where did the Captcha go?

42. Quite a toughie. A very slow start for me with IGNITED being the only one I had in until WAGON LIT was dredged up from the recesses of my memory and then BURRITO and so it started. I did have parsing trouble e.g. I didn’t quite see EISENHOWER but it had to be right. I particularly liked CORGI and NUALA.
    Thanks Vlad.

43. Something of a beginner but have had a great run over the last few weeks; not this time though.

    Skimmed through – got one – skimmed through – got no more – gave up.

    I have much to learn.

44. I must be in a mood. I appreciated many of the clues but my enjoyment was outweighed by my irritation with others. My way into the puzzle was SUCK and that turned out to be more apt than expected.  DOWN WITH THE KIDS was a quick write-in for me but the link to 19A was unsatisfactory. I still don’t get how GET STUCK IN = don’t hold back. But it’s really NUALA that put me over the edge. I hate name clues anyway, and perhaps that name is common in the UK, but I have never, ever heard of it. You could just as easily have clued it as “random jumble of letters”.

    Rant aside though, I really liked CORGI, EISENHOWER and DIRTY WORD.

45. Also haven’t posted for a while – on holiday near Lisbon, Cascais to be precise, very hot. I know it’s grumpy but I can’t help agreeing with BlueDot@44. I only knew the name NUALA because a former Cambridge Proficiency examiner like myself was thus called and came from Ireland. EISENHOWER was brilliant!

    Sil@32: I would have thought it was more a matter of Vlad always making you walk the extra mile rather than letting…

    Thanks Vlad and Eileen all the same.

46. Down with the kids stumped me too, not an expression I’d come across before…

47. A sheer delight. The Stormy clue was particularly brilliant.

    Regarding Paul’s smut: I think he was a trailblazer for introducing Cyclopsian, scatological references into the Guardian cryptic.

48. [NUALA was the name of one of The children of Lir, an Irish folk story. It has been retold many times. My favourite (though rather long!) is the atmospheric one by Robert Lamb. This link provides an entry point, if anyone is interested.]

49. Gave up with just the top left corner filled. The comments above strengthen my Vlad theory that his crosswords favour those that work more by isolating the definition part of clues and using crossers and a allusive mind to arrive at the answer, with the cryptic element being almost an afterthought (see also Enigmatist). My preferred crosswords are those where the crossers open up the cryptic element, with the definition often being confirmatory (such as those of Paul and Arachne).  Sometimes difficult to start, but then a lovely momentum builds. With this crossword, I found solving one clue didn’t take me much closer to solving the next.

    Gripe – as a term largely used ironically for someone trying to be cool and failing, 16a should be spelt DOWN WIV DA KIDZ.

50. Van Winkle @49

    You are referring to a recurrent theme of mine – “top down” or “bottom up” solving. You like the latter (as do I), but Vlad’s mostly seem to require the former.

    I think an ideal clue would be susceptible to solving from either direction!

51. EISENHOWER is absolutely brilliant!

52. Van Winkle @49

    If this crossword was mainly of the sort you describe that favours ‘intuitive’ solvers who use the definition, crossers and an allusve mind to solve clues, I don’t think I could have completed it (which I did except for the word KIDS in DOWN WITH …).  I know my intuitive skill is not great, whereas my skill at deconstruction and problem-solving is pretty good.  In view of your comment, and muffin’s following it, and because my solving experience is still fresh in my mind, I decided to identify which clues I solved by building up from the crossers and wordplay first (10) and which I got from the crossers and definition first (8).  There were 4 that I got from the definition and wordplay concurrently (where a bit of wordplay gets part of the answer, the definition gets the whole answer, and the rest of the wordplay complies).  That leaves 6 that I don’t remember how I solved.

    I think I have confirmed my original impression that this puzzle could have appealed to solvers with different strengths, and I would just add that although it was quite demanding it was also enjoyable.

53. Impaled here, as I confidently put in LIFE for 23d (think 3 strikes/lives).
    Thanks Vlad and Eileen.

54. Alan B @52

    Interesting post – it made me go back and analyse. I got 15 “bottom up” and 11 “top down” – most of these in the down clues, as it happens. 1d I saw simultaneously both ways.

55. muffin @54

    Snap (1d both ways).  For me also 5d, 14d and 23d.  (But let’s not overdo the fine detail.)

56. Unfortunately I didn’t complete enough clues for a valid comparison, but 1d was the only clue (apart from DDs and CDs) that I got just by isolating the definition. And even that one I wasn’t confident to enter until I had worked out the parsing. The common occurrence with Vlad puzzles, but not (eg) Boatman, whose puzzles give similar first impressions. Will keep wondering what it is.

57. Thanks for the nice blog, Eileen. Thanks also to others who commented

58. Too late for anything other than brilliant! And tough. And a great discussion by VanE muffin & Alan B to top off the usual high quality blog. Thanks all.

59. Tricky yes but so satisfying. Had to cheat with 9a to get started and again with 16a which had never heard of. So many ‘of course! ‘ moments. Favourite has to be ‘going rate’ which had me flummoxed for ages, and which gave me the lead for ‘inveigle’. Great crossword Vlad. Thanks to you and Eileen

60. Quality blog for a quality puzzle!

    Entered NUALA with crossed fingers…! And ADMINISTER took a while to parse exactly…. Particularly liked DOWN WITH THE KIDS and EISENHOWER.

    Many thanks to Vlad and Eileen.

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