Guardian 28,090 / Brummie

70 comments on “Guardian 28,090 / Brummie”

1. Thanks Brummie and Eileen

   Nice puzzle. When I had got to GRATIFY before entering anything, I thought that it was going to be  difficult, but that turned out not to be the case. I didn’t know the Ibsen play, so PLAY was entered unparsed. I was pleased to be able to parse ONCE-OVER.

   Favourite was POSTILLION.

2. That was easy. Last one in and favorite was body blow. I think in 21d annoyed would have been better than annoying. Thanks Eileen and Brummie.

3. Thanks Eileen. I too did not find a theme. Isn’t it interesting what we learn from crosswords: for me yesterday it was Rod Hull and his emu, today that Brand is a play by Ibsen (I tried to find a phrase using JOin for Jo Brand for a while) and about postillions. Thanks for the link, I’ve never heard the phrase previously. Initial thought was golfplayer but that did not parse at all.
   Thanks to Brummie for the fun.

4. I also thought that there must be a theme, but, if there is, it has passed me by.

5. Similar comments to the first three. I didn’t know the Ibsen play, I also tried to make JOIN ???? work, and I was also initially thrown by annoyed/annoying. I’m now happy with this last point. Was annoying = did nark = narked. Fair enough.

   Good clean fun. Thanks Brummie, and Eileen

6. 21a – shouldn’t the pair have been annoyED?

7. Very enjoyable.  I particularly liked 4d GRATIFY and 6d POSTILLION.  Eileen, thanks so much for the link regarding the latter: “Where is the nearest rollercoaster?” – brilliant!

   It was nice to see IMPOSTOR at 8a spelt correctly rather than “imposter” which seems to be so common these days.

   Nitsuj @2: as Eileen says, in 21d the definition is “were annoying” not “annoying”.

   Many thanks Brummie and Eileen.

8. Thanks Eileen – needed your explanation for a couple or so (PLAY and COT).

    

   I thought HEROIC is one of the worst clues I have ever seen – the answer is almost there in the word HEROIN.

   BODY BLOW also my LOI – took ages to see BODY.

   I did like several, amongst which were BODY BLOW and ONCE-OVER

   I couldn’t see a theme either.

   Thanks Brummie

    

    

9. Er – make that 21d !

10. Found this fairly easy by Brummie standards, though I wasted a few minutes on a fruitless search for a theme. No complaints.

    Thanks to Brummie and Eileen

11. Thanks Eileen, especially for the postillion link, my hovercraft is now overflowing with eels.

    As the blog makes clear, the definition in 21d is “were annoying”, not “annoying”.

    Thanks to Brummie

12. Chapeau for the link Eileen, the ‘Sorry to leave you…’ has that delicious quirkiness, best belly laugh in ages, healing at this time, ta.

13. Thoroughly enjoyed this, nothing too taxing, but all the clues solved with a sense of satisfaction this morning. POSTILLION last one in…

14. Two points I forgot to mention. Cottontail, as well as being a generic rabbit, is one of Peter Rabbit’s sisters.

    Is “great” needed in 18d?

15. Consistently good throughout which isn’t intended as faint praise. FOI and favourite was UNABATED – I seem to have a soft spot for the lift & separate subtractions.

16. Like others I needed Eileen for the Ibsen play and the postillion explanation – many thanks. I got the wordplay for ONCE-OVER but not the rhyming slang definition. GRATIFY was a gratifying clue – I started with SATISFY as I just had the F in but couldn’t make it work. Thanks also to a themeless Brummie.

17. I’m another who harrumphed about annoyed/annoying in 21D, until Eileen’s blog clarified matters – as it always does. And Eileen, your link regarding postillions is delicious: I’d pop out in search of a lap protector, were I not confined to house arrest here in France.
    I only know “cottontail” from The Tale of Peter Rabbit and it’s decades since I last read it; that word took quite a while to bubble up from the memory-depths. I enjoyed FATALIST and IMPLICIT (lovely surfaces) and ROCK BOTTOM made me grin. Having been born within the sound of Bow Bells, and therefore being a genuine Cockney, it was nice to see butcher’s ‘ook getting a mention. Thanks to Brummie for the fun and Eileen for the extras – mind ‘ow you go, me ol’ chinas!!

18. Did anybody else try SOCRATIC for 5d (well, “puzzle” in the clue sort of fitted in with the socratic method)? Soon saw the light when that made the only possible answer to 9 OOOOPS!

19. IMPLICIT and HEROIC were almost like underarm bowling-you expect something more involved and sometimes miss the obvious but HEROIC made me chuckle.I normally have Brum down as 90% chance of a themed puzzle but if there was one today it certainly wasnt in neon lights.

    Thanks all.

20. I got waylaid by putting in HARD BLOW instead of BODY BLOW, but eventually got things sorted out. Lots to enjoy – many thanks to Brummie and Eileen.

21. I liked BODY BLOW, with “stiff” for body.  I agree with Eileen’s question mark on DINGHY — I don’t think “dingy” is the same as “run-down.”             Thank you, Eileen, for the link to the wonderful page on phrasebook phrases.  Now I know what to think when I see a frog in somebody’s pocket!                   blaise@18  I’m another SOCRATIC till ACROSTIC put me right.  Thanks, Brummie and Eileen.  (Sorry, the carriage return on this computer is dead.  Makes me a bit run-on.)

22. Very enjoyable, but not as easy (I thought) as some of you found it.  I had to approach the top left corner both from the left and from underneath in order to complete it.

    I loved the description of two of the clues as ‘underarm bowling’ (copmus @19) – I agree.  On the whole, though, there was plenty to like.  Pairs of four-letter words in corners often stump me, but the two ‘(4,4)’ phrases here were among the first few solutions I entered, despite not knowing Brand by Ibsen.

    Thanks to Brummie and Eileen.

23. I was amazed at the speed at which I wrote this in as I haven’t finished yesterday’s yet! Couldn’t parse ONCE-OVER but otherwise I was on the right wavelength today. Loved POSTILLION. Thanks Eileen and Brummie

24. I’m lucky enough to have seen Brand (in the Swan at the RSC with Ralph Fiennes in the lead – terrific production of an early Ibsen play I’d never expected to be produced here), but of course it still didn’t occur to me as the reference until I’d got ‘play’ from the letters. I made what turned out to be unnecessarily heavy weather of a few clues, but really enjoyed this.

25. Thought I had this all solved and parsed until the check button showed that to my chagrin I had misspelled IMPOSTOR. Even wondered how “ret” = rubbish, d’oh! Senior moment, perhaps? I’d like to think that I wouldn’t have made that slip twenty years ago. Google gave me the explanation for POSTILLION, but thanks to Eileen for the extra link and thanks to Brummie for a pleasant hour or two.

26. Thank you for the excellent link re POSTILLION.

    I really liked ‘Butcher’s’ for ONCE-OVER, and ACROSTIC. I did like HEROIC even though it was very easy.

27. Slow to start with the bottom half completed before much appeared at the top. Sounds like the way my brain is working at the moment. Good, entertaining crossword, though.

    Yes, a bit unfortunate that heroin was almost the same as HEROIC. I particularly liked ONCE-OVER.

    Thanks to Brummie and to Eileen for an excellent blog [Brand was unparsed by me and I very much enjoyed your postillion link.]

     

28. Unlike a few of the other commenters, BODY BLOW was my first one in. (I usually start with the short words.) It goes to show that there are many styles of solving, just as there are many styles of setting. And that gave me PLAY BALL right away. Yes, I’d heard of Brand, though I’ve neither seen it nor read it. At least in this country, Ibsen’s reputation seems to rest on his later prose works (A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler in particular, but several of the others as well) rather than the earlier verse dramas.

    The POSTILLION phrase was new to me; thanks to Eileen for the excellent link.

    Hope everyone is staying safe and healthy.

29. A very enjoyable crossword – thanks to Brummie and Eileen – My favourite has to be 6d as I did smile when I saw the link to something I haven’t heard for ages

     

     

30. By link, I mean ‘connection in my head’ not Eileen’s link in her hints

31. Thanks Brummie and Eileen – lots of fun. I was familiar with postillion, though it took a few crossers before it occurred to me.  Didn’t know Brand, but otherwise managed to parse everything eventually.  16d is a very cleverly misleading double def.

32. I have a lot of phrasebooks, not used much nowadays in the age of Google Translate, so I thought I’d take a look and see if I could find any postillions by looking at a few random pages. Not much to report, but the Hungarian phrasebook (yes, it would have to be the Hungarian one) offered the terribly useful “I had a heart attack last night”.

33. In a senior moment (@22), or perhaps addled by present circumstances, I claim to have approached the top left corner from the left in order to complete the puzzle. I did no such thing. It was the top right (CHOPPY, COTTONTAIL, ACROSTIC and OPTICS) that finally yielded that way.

34. I liked even the ones I didn’t get – body blow, play ball, cottontail and schiller.

35. Like drofle@20, I started out with hard blow, then realised i needed PLAY though i didn’t understand the connection with Brand.

    FATALIST was my favourite.

    enjoyable puzzle

    many thanks brummie & eileen

36. Another who was a bit despairing at first pass, a little hopeful at second and then pretty chuffed about 20 minutes later. How odd – perhaps my brain warmed up, much as muscles need to when exercising. Now I am thinking about ways to test that, with 5 minute warm-up sudokus and the like, but hard to do a controlled difficulty crossword that remains the same from day to day!

    I was a little surprised by the crossing “cot”s, was thrown a bit by “great” in describing Schiller – I mean, he was, but not something you see in puzzles often. “implicit” was so easy it was hard!

    On phrase books the best has to be that which accompanies Malcolm Bradbury’s “Why Come to Slaka?”, the fictional guide book to the fictional East European country from “Rates of Exchange”, translated by the excellent Professor Plitplov. Such useful phrases as “Why have you taken my passport?” and “I demand to see the Consulate!” and all in a helpful order too…

37. Very user friendly so a quickish solve. I did know BRAND: I went to see a production of it in Hull when I was at University. I thought HEROIC rather a cheeky clue but that certainly didn’t spoil my enjoyment.My FOI was ROCK BOTTOM which put me in mind of the album by Robert Wyatt- still very listenable.
    Thanks Brummie

38. TheZed @ 36

    Hope I haven’t misinterpreted you. “ Schiller – I mean, he was, but not something you see in puzzles often. ”.

    Schiller has appeared four times this year as a solution across the graun and indy.

39. It’s the “great” that seems superfluous, I was slightly thrown by it as well.

40. FOI was going to be HARD BLOW until I thought I would check 10/24 again and saw PLAY BALL (I forgot to go back and wiki Brand to be sure), so neither went in until I saw “stiff” = BODY. So OPTICS was FOI. Generally fairly easy – I only left my wife four to do. Of these I was considering IMPOSTOR and ONCE-OVER, but hadn’t parsed them (and me a Londoner).

    Thanks Brummie and Elaine.

41. As a assiduous and very appreciative follower of 225 (but shamefully lazy as a contributor) I think it’s my clear duty to tell you that the only phrase book needed is the one which gives the translation in every known language of a single phrase “My friend the British ambassador will pay”. But thanks to Eileen for the link and the typically excellent blog, and to Brummie for an effective distraction on the handcart’s route to hell.

42. Thank you Brummie for a lovely puzzle and Eileen for yet another super blog.

    Schiller certainly was a great poet and should be well known,  he composed the “Ode to Joy”…

43. Simon S @38: Apologies – what I meant was that you don’t see unnecessary adjectives in definitions often. Yesterdays “Argentinian revolutionary” was slightly odd – revolutionary is often used for a number of characters but in this case I guess it was actually slightly to point away from the answer.

44. My Lonely Planet French phrasebook has a great 6-page section on “Romance” (“l’amour”), going from “Would you like a drink?” and “You have beautiful eyes”, via “I want to make love to you”, “Do you like this?”and “Don’t stop!”, to “You’re just using me for sex”, “Are you seeing someone else?” and “I never want to see you again”.  I like to imagine someone reading these out from the book at the appropriate moments.

45. COT, the Ibsen PLAY and POSTILLION were new, but generally lots of fun, a steady solve, and what a great link the last one led to. I dimly recall a Polish textbook with references to “the Ambassador’s weasel” or some such (my cousin was half Polish. She was a Brummie as well.)

    Thanks Brummie and Eileen as always. Stay indoors all!

46. Cookie @42
    Thank you for reminding me of where I have most often seen Schiller’s name. I have heard the Ode to Joy many times in only one context (Beethoven’s 9th), but I momentarily forgot that it was Schiller’s work.

47. Lord Jim @44
    And I remember an example from many years ago in a French phrase book:
    “This man has been following me for hours”
    which might belong under a sub-heading of Romance – “Definitely not Romance,” perhaps.

48. [Wasn’t there a Monty Python sketch where someone wrote a phrasebook with intent to cause public disorder? I seem to remember that the English translation of one phrase was “Great boobies, honeybunch”.]

49. [muffin: that was the Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook ]

50. Muffin@48. There was; “Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook”. I remember “My hovercraft is full of eels” as if it were yesterday. Link refers. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4NNm1p1Y-XQ

    Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Brummie and Eileen.

51. Thanks Andrew and Wiggers

52. The Youtube seems to have subtitles in Spanish!

53. I enjoyed this a lot.  Favorite was FATALIST.  I also enjoyed HEROIC, even though it seems obvious after the fact.  I’m a little surprised that there is some doubt about dingy = run-down.  That’s the only meaning of the word that comes to my mind.

    Loved the POSTILLION link and discussion.  I wasn’t familiar with the term, so I only got to 6 from the wordplay.  The link’s examples are hilarious.  Would be a bit hesitant to try the Swahili one on site, as it were.

    Thanks, Brum and Eileen.

54. Can’t leave a comment as I have to go and buy a hat.

55. Benington @54

    Is that so that you can look out of the window?

     

     

    (My deceased father-in-law used to say that his family was so poor, they couldn’t afford any clothes for him, so he had to stay indoors. When he was six, they bought him a hat so that he could look out of the window.

    Have you noticed that in crowd scenes in silent films, everyone is wearing a hat?)

56. The only phrase you need to know in a foreign language is “two beers, please”.

57. Philip @56

    I could say once that in half a dozen languages. I’ve forgotten my Norwegian, though – it was impossible to find anywhere in Norway that would sell beer for a reasonable price in the 70s!

58. I added “once” after writing, and put it in the wrong place!

59. I have a 1930s edition of Teach Yourself Spanish.  The phrases for translation include:

    “Do not beat the poor boy! He has worked with all his might.”

    “One could tell from his complexion that he was a foreigner.”

    “Do you deny that the defendant has insulted the plaintiff in the most unpardonable manner?”

    Loved the puzzle, and Eileen’s blog and link.

60. 10ac is appallingly bad. Since when does ‘Brand’ define ‘PLAY’? Ibsen: who? I do know who Ibsen is, but a fair clue should contain fair information. This is typical of elitist cruciverbalist obscurantism. Bad form, Brummie.

    I did solve 10/24ac, but only because ‘PLAY’ was the only word that would sensibly fit the definition.

61. I’m always relieved when others were led astray in the same way as I was — in this case, by entering HARD BLOW for 2dn. I took a course in Modern Drama many years ago, in which no doubt the Ibsen play Brand was mentioned (although I’m reasonably sure we didn’t read it), but it long ago slipped my memory if so.

    I had no idea about postillions and lightning, and to make matters worse I had forgotten the meaning of the word “pillion”, so it’s something of a miracle that I managed to guess the answer to this clue. I did remember that there was a word “pillion”, just not its meaning. Once all the crossers were in place I saw where to put OST and the rest fell into place.

    Sadly, though, it was a DNF for me, as I failed to get two (ECLIPSE and COTTONTAIL) that in hindsight were perfectly gettable.

62. Exact experience of DaveinNcarolina for me. Chuffed to complete and then wrongly spelt imposter.
    I am still counting it as a finish though.Need all the small wins we can get in these strange times.
    Great crossword.Thank you Brummie and Eileen.

63. Very enjoyable, though I needed Eileen’s help with some of the parsing, including, I’m sorry to admit, HEROIC.

    I knew the ‘postillion struck by lightning’ phrase, but the word has a more recent resonance for me as at the end of last year I was lucky enough to see a production of Adolphe Adam’s comic opera, ‘Le Postillon de Lonjumeau’ in Rouen. This is legendary among opera buffs for the high notes it demands of the leading tenor. It had not been revived by a major company for 125 years (some would say with good reason) but I enjoyed it hugely.

    Even by operatic standards the plot is particularly absurd, requiring us to believe that the hero meets his former wife after ten years, and not only does not recognise her, but marries her again. But who cares when the music is such fun.

64. Much fun, thanks to Eileen and Brummie.
    I looked for alternative spellings of WHERRY and ‘weary’ for 22ac before abandoning the idea.
    I recall the small Cassells phrasebooks all had, in the ‘In Bars and Restaurants’ section, the phrase “I’m not interested, leave me alone.”

65. Just found an apposite phrase in a 1920 German-English Conversation Book: “Has Schiller even been determined not to publish his works, he would have bestowed the same care upon them.” Not sure who would be having that conversation!

66. [Not quite a phrasebook moment, but I was once the third wheel where the other two, who had just met, were a Spanish woman who spoke no English, and an Irishman who spoke no Spanish. They communicated by writing stuff down, and consulting a bilingual dictionary. I was somewhat surprised when the Irishman appeared out of the bedroom dead set on making a cup of tea. He showed me a piece of paper. “That does mean “I want a cup of tea. I like it.” doesn’t it?”, he asked. The Spanish was “Te quiero y me gustas”.]

67. Alan B @46, “Ode to Joy” is enshrined in the European Hymn.

68. Here is the European Anthem in case some of you have forgotten.

69. I like your translation story, o Bear of Little Brain!

    As an antidote to some of the antiquated and useless phrasebook sayings that have been quoted, I’ve just found one in my ancient Spanish phrasebook that’s exceptional topical, and would be really useful if only you could get there:

    “There is no toilet paper.”

70. Cookie @67
    Ah yes, I would have mentioned that if I had remembered (about the Ode to Joy being enshrined in the European Anthem – music and all).

Comments are closed.