Guardian 28,125 – Brendan

by

Well, that was fun. An obvious theme of years in the clues, some of them actually being other things in disguise. Inevitably heavy on general knowledge, which some people may not like, but nothing too obscure, I thought (at least, I recognised or could guess everything). Even a couple of mathematical references (Brendan is a mathematician and mathematical educator) and an Irish one. Thanks to Brendan for a different and very enjoyable puzzle.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. CINERARIA Plant, during historical period, run inside spy organisation (9)
IN ERA + R in CIA
11. TIMES Source of news heard in 1045 and 1115, for instance (5)
The newspaper, and 1045 and 1115 can both be seen as times of day – “heard”, I suppose, because you would expect some punctuation in them, as 10:45 and 11:15
13. ANNUALS They’re out every year, you said, breaking records (7)
U (“you”) in ANNALS – the annuals could be either annual plants or books
14. GATWICK Opening of games at Scottish town that got off to flying start in 1930 (7)
G[ames] AT WICK – according to Wikipedia. “Gatwick opened as an aerodrome in the late 1920s; it has been in use for commercial flights since 1933”, but the official Gatwick website says that “Gatwick Airport began life in 1930 as the Surrey Aero Club”
17. HARES Noted runners from previous era hurrying back (5)
Hidden in reverse of previouS ERA Hurrying
19. HAL In 2001 he computed a bit less than 45 minutes? (3)
The name of the computer in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey – I think the wordplay is a truncated HAL[f], referring to the 45 minutes of the halves of a game of football (“a games of two halves”)
20,10. MAGNA CARTA Agreement commemorated in 2015 revised as act (anagram) (5,5)
(ACT ANAGRAM)*
21. SATYRIC Lecherous racist misbehaving around end of century (7)
[centur]Y in RACIST*
22. BISECTS From 2020, produces scores in sections over short time (7)
SEC[ond] in BITS (sections). If you bisect 2020 you get two 20s, or scores
24. CROSSWORD Fun starting in 1913 irritated a lot left out (9)
CROSS (irritated) + WORLD (a lot) less L. The famous “word-cross” puzzle by Arthur Wynne was published in 1913
26,12. ANNUS MIRABILIS Dispersed in mass burial in 1666 (5,9)
(IN MASS BURIAL IN)*. Several years have been described as an annus mirabilis: 1666 was one which was particularly fruitful for Isaac Newton (while he was sheltering from the Great Plague)
28. BLAIR MP in 1983, initially, he was recalled for 1984 (5)
Tony Blair was first elected as an MP in 1983, and Eric Blair, aka George Orwell, wrote 1984 (or, more accurately, Nineteen Eighty-four)
29. EASTER DAY Eve of historic event in 1916, for which date’s varying with year (6,3)
The Irish Easter Rising began on Easter Monday, 1916; and the date of Easter varies from year to year and more cleverly, as Lord Jim points out in the comments, it’s an anagram of DATE’S + YEAR
Down
1. SCOT Historical tax for one joining union in 1707 (4)
Scot is an old tax (as in “scot free”), and the union of Scotland (i.e. the SCOTs) and England took place in 1707
2. ONE-MAN Call number set up, like a moment­ous step taken in 1969? (3-3)
Reverse of NAME NO, and a reference to Neil Armstrong’s “one small step for [a] man”, which could be described as a “one-man step”
3. TRESPASSER France’s extremely dated monarch, unwelcome visitor (10)
TRES (French “very”, extremely) + PASSÉ + R (king or queen, monarch)
4. PRIMES Prepares for 2027 and 2029, for example (6)
Double definition: 2027 and 2029 are both prime numbers. A famous unsolved problem in number theory, the Twin Primes conjecture, is whether there are infinitely many pairs of primes that differ by 2
5. MADRIGAL 16th-century music distracted capital over half a century (8)
MAD (distracted) + RIGA (capital of Latvia) + L (50, half of 100)
6. SCAB Article penned by second-century bishop, one undermining union (4)
A in S + C + B. A scab is a strike-breaker
7. DRILLING Military exercises that started to link two countries in 1988 (8)
Double definition: construction of the Channel Tunnel began in 1988
8. DAYS Parts of every year produce confusion, so to speak (4)
Homophone of “daze”
13. ASHES Since 1882, it marks success in tests for trees (5)
Double definition: reference to The Ashes
15. TIMESHARES Properties split among people in 1117 (10)
A cheeky of charade of two other answers from the puzzle: TIMES (11) + HARES (17)
16. KEATS Takes off a Romantic author (1795-1821) (5)
TAKES* – this would be a perfectly acceptable clue without the dates, but they fit nicely with the theme
18. RATIONAL Like some numbers, within moderation always (8)
Hidden in modeRATION ALways. Rational numbers are those that can be expressed as the ratio of two integers
19. HECTORED Male, having no heart about middle of 60s, was intimidating (8)
HE (male) + middle letter of sixTies in CORED (“having no heart”)
22. BADASS Like hundreds of dates accepted by male singer, American tough guy (6)
A.D. (as hundreds, indeed thousands, of dates) in BASS
23. CANADA Preserve commercial area in country since 1867 (6)
CAN (to preserve) + AD + A. Canada was created as a federal dominion in 1867: I was surprised to find this was so recent
24. CUBE Hint, having book set in 1728, say (4)
B in CUE. 1728 is the cube of 12
25. SARK Small rescue vessel, in 1945, lib­erated part of the British Isles (4)
S + ARK. Sark is one of the Channel Islands, liberated from Nazi occupation in 1945. (Geographically speaking the Channel Islands are not strictly part of the British Isles)
27. SKYE By the sound of it, a Channel Island providing oversea refuge in 1746 (4)
Homophone of SKY (TV channel), and a reference to Bonnie Prince Charlie going “over the sea to Skye”

82 comments on “Guardian 28,125 – Brendan”

  1. Enormous fun. Completed without aids, but I was unable to parse a couple (both 19s), so many thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  2. Thanks Andrew and Brendan. Lots to like here. Needed your help with parsing 22a – a particularly ingenious clue.

  3. Yes, loads of fun. I was daunted by the prospect of dates at the beginning as I was never good at history, but I managed to work everything out. Many thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  4. This looked very daunting at first, but gradually yielded.  A brilliant range of clue types apparently or actually relating to dates.

    In addition to your parsing of 29a, Andrew, EASTER DAY is an anagram of “date’s” and “year”.

    Many thanks Brendan and Andrew.

  5. That was fun, although I needed your help parsing a few, like scot, hectored and bisects. I’m not convinced on “one-man”; it seems a bit vague to me. I originally put in “for man” which I think is more germane as the definition, but it didn’t fit with the rest of the clue.

  6. Always a treat when Brendan’s name appears above the crossword and this one was a double treat.   Surprising how many historical dates you don’t know you remember until you meet this crossword.   My particular favourite was the sneaky ‘anagram’ in 20/10

    Many thanks to Brendan for the fun and Andrew for the blog

  7. Thanks both. I needed your help in the parsing of HAL. Agree with Lord Jim @4 about the anagram for EASTER DAY

  9. Thanks Brendan and Andrew

    Most of this went surprisingly quickly, though I didn’t parse HAL; I was also puzzled by the “heard” in 11. However I was completely stuck on the 24s when I had to go shopping. On looking at it again, I saw that I had inexplicably written the O and I of RATIONAL the wrong way round, so all became clear!

    Favourite was the sneaky TIMESHARES.

    Thanks for additional point about twin primes, Andrew.

    [btw a good quiz question with a slightly surprising answer. When Flora MacDonald rowed Bonnie Prince Charlie “over the sea to Skye”, where did they start from?]

  10. Thought it was going to be beyond me at first, then got clued in and really enjoyed the workout.   Failed on 22d then kicked myself when saw answer.   Thanks Brendan and Andrew

  11. That was different, certainly. The general knowledge required was not too obscure, in the main (I couldn’t have told you when the large source of pollution adjoining the London-Brighton railway line had kicked off, or when they started ensuring that the Continent could no longer be cut off by fog, but the word play was clear enough).

    My LOI was 15dn at which I stared for some time before realising how beautifully straightforward the clue actually was.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

     

  12. What crypticsue said – and I also particularly liked 26,12 ANNUS MIRABILIS. [John Dryden wrote ANNUS MIRABILIS 1666 ]

    I share NeilH’s admiration for 15dn, which made me laugh out loud, having thought that HARES was a rather strange answer

    Huge thanks to Brendan – I absolutely loved it – and to Andrew for a great blog.

  13. Lots of googling both before and after solving some of these clues, so ultimately not a satisfying experience for me, though now reading the solutions to my many entries that were only partially parsed (nine in total), I can see it was a clever puzzle.
    9a CINERARIA was unfamiliar, and I had to look up things like “historical union 1707” to solve 1d SCOT, just one example of basically cheating to achieve my goal of filling in every square.
    Did anyone else try to fit BODGIE into 22d – of course it didn’t fit with the anagram for EASTER DAY at 29a, and when I saw BADASS it was a much better answer (obviously, because it was the right answer!).
    Thanks to Brendan and great to see how much the mathematically gifted among us enjoyed it. Your blog is much appreciated, Andrew.

  14. I’m not sure I’ve ever solved so much of a puzzle from the definitions alone. Think of a short-lived romantic author etc. Most of them parsed afterwards – though thank you for “timeshares” which I missed completely.

    Another who thought “one-man” made no sense. Armstrong never said anything like it, it was not a one-man mission and so it does not fit the “definition” in any way at all. HAL is actually a nickname for the computer, who is HAL 9000 more correctly. And 1984 is the (annoying) title of the film of the book, so although it is wrong to write the book title as numerals, I guess the film also recalls Eric Arthur Blair.

    As for the British Isles, sources disagree whether the CI are part of them – the OS thinks they are. They are absolutely not part of the UK however, being Crown Dependencies. A visit to Alderney, in particular, reveals much evidence of the German occupation including an old concentration camp and massive concrete gun emplacements amidst the Victorian forts. Fascinating stuff.

    The dates that were not dates were clever. 1728 famously relates to the Ramanujan number, 1729, which is 12 cubed plus 1 cubed and 10 cubed plus 9 cubed, the smallest number that can be so expressed. I am sure Brendan was aware of this tragic story.

    Many thanks Brendan – I found a lot of this frustrating as I went along but looking back it was much better than the sum of its parts! And thank you Andrew for working it all out with added detail.

  15. At first glance thought oh no a Brendan maths test but then it dawned and much fun was had.

    From a long list my favourites were BADASS and BLIAR.

    [Did this in the early hours during a marathon Kinks listening session inspired by the Guardian culture piece yesterday. Luckily I’d just completed a lockdown vinyl reorg so all the Ks were together]

    Thanks to B&A for a great puzzle n blog.

  16. Favourites too numerous to count (I’ll get my coat). Many thanks to Brendan; a wonderfully crafted grid. Thanks 2 2 Andrew 4 teasing it all out. I’ve avoided looking at the parsing for HAL as I’m still working on it. On screen for circa 44 mins of the three or so hours of the film perhaps? I’ll be back later for enlightenment, no doubt.

  17. What a brilliant crossword! Thoroughly enjoyed this. Couldn’t parse 22ac, so thanks Andrew and thank you Brendan for an absolute cracker.

  18. That was a lot of fun. Very clever use of numbers that all looked like dates – and some were. I managed to parse most of it, but I was puzzled by DRILLING in 1988 (was someone starting to drill into the Berlin Wall that early?). Never knew when the Chunnel was started. And I could not figure out how they had TIMESHARES (LOI) in 1117 – thanks, Andrew, for putting me right. What a ripper of a clue, once it is revealed. Couldnt work out the 45 minutes either – in Real Footy, they have quarters. [JiA – a bodgie is surely an Aussie term – I doubt they had them in America, or anywhere else for that matter.] Excellent crossword and excellent blog.

  20. Oh of course, nearly a soccer half, should have clicked that. Yep fun, and ditto lots of the above although a dnf as I bunged in Mays (maze) for 8d, der! Reacted as drofle did at 1st, my history being scratchy at best, but no matter, lots of easies to help, like Times, annuals, hares, tres passe r, rational and Canada. In 24ac, can’t think of a swap without an article: she meant the world to me; it made a/the world of difference. Anyone? Blair was neat with its double reference. And had the same thought as Andrew, ie “indeed thousands!”, re 22d. Most enjoyable, thanks both.

  21. Oh yes Tassie Tim, had the same thought re 7d..is it the Wall? Been through the Chunnel but no idea when drilling started.

  22. A really enjoyable, fun crossword from Brendan, a super setter who doesn’t date (usually!). Absolutely nothing not to enjoy here. And a wonderfully comprehensive blog from Andrew.
    I’m sure everyone knows of the – ‘supposed’ – derivation of HAL from IBM (consecutive letters) but how many noticed the clever way that Brendan had cornered a favoured ELK?!
    Many thanks, both and all.

  23. Thank you Brendan and Andrew

    Like others I was daunted at first, but after that it was great fun, and didn’t take too long.

    I thought 29ac was brilliant: perhaps a contender for clue of the year (theme related comment …).

  24. 26,12, most apt just now, re Newton’s isolation and output, and also re Geraldine Brooks’s Year of Wonders.

  26. I’m another who loved this. Very clever and not too difficult. Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  27. To my (eternal) shame this Brendan thought that the 1916 Rising began on Easter Sunday (Éirí Amach na Cásca in Irish), so I learned something new today.

  28. Like many others, really enjoyed the quirky fun and games here today, a genuine sense of pleasure and satisfaction at the realisation that I had managed to solve some of these in spite of the clever misdirection in places.

  29. Agree with the general consensus that this was an awful lot of fun and after seeming initially daunting came together satisfyingly without anything too impenetrable.

    I also agree with others that the weakest here is ONE-MAN which doesn’t really work for me although totally gettable from wordplay and a sort of “I s’pose I’ll allow it” feeling re the definition – a minor gripe given the general superlative quality.

    If I were being super nit-picky I’d say it’s a slight shame that 18d seems to be linked to the wrong theme of numbers rather than dates/times which all the other surfaces link to. But even so a puzzle themed this heavily is no mean feat.

    Thanks Brendan and Andrew

  31. [grantinfreo @24 – Interestingly, it turns out that Newton’s “annus mirabilis” is something of a myth he invented about himself – a lot of work over many years contracted into a single year in his own later writings. See e.g. The New Yorker here or this article (an author who has a long history of correct science history howlers). It doesn’t make the clue invalid, as the year is so called, but what does seem to be clear is that Newton did not do quite such a remarkable amount in one year and also the lockdown (ie staying in with servants to look after your needs) was any different than living in Trinity College, Cambridge with servants to look after your every need!]

  32. 24 across is nice because the World’s First Crossword had the word FUN already inserted into the grid.

  33. This was heavy-going for me with so much trivia and GK. I needed to use dictionary, google, and wikipedia a lot! Not my favourite way to solve a puzzle, but I can imagine that it was a lot of fun for other solvers.

    I could not parse the “construction of the Channel Tunnel began in 1988” meaning of DRILLING. Also, I could not solve BISECTS + ONE-MAN.

    Thanks, B+S

  34. This was Brendan at the top of his game, as evidenced by the general praise here. I admired the ingenious misdirections in CUBE, BISECTS, TIMES and PRIMES, and especially the brilliant TIMESHARES, which I failed to see before revealing it. I thought KEATS would have been a better clue without the dates, but that’s a quibble hardly worth mentioning. Thanks to Brendan and to Andrew for the parsing of HAL.

  35. Like so many others have said, this started off looking daunting but gradually got easier and eventually enjoyable. Last one in for me was TIMESHARES, a marvelous penny drop moment. Many thanks to Brendan for the entertainment and the scrupulously fair clues. (Thanks Andrew,too. Though for once I didn’t need any help with the parsing!)

  36. It has all been said already but I still wanted to post just to add my name to the long list of admirers for this excellent test from Brendan.  I needed Andrew’s help for parsing quite a few I’d solved from wordplay – HAL, BISECTS, HECTORED and CUBE.  2d was the only question mark – having gone with the trend and initially entered ‘for man’.  GATWICK and ASHES were favourites until I discovered -again from Andrew – the parsing of TIMESHARES which is, of course, superb.

    Thanks again Brendan and Andrew

  38. [Hmmm, thanks TheZed, much to contemplate, with the roots as ever going all the way back to the Greeks. Reminds of the Einstein relativity tale in which (v approx) it arose from his vision of riding a light wave while watching another receding in the opposite direction but with the distance between himself and the other wave front increasing at only one times c].

  39. Some puzzles turn into a real slog, but this was a real delight – a game of When is a Year not a Year. A couple of dodgy definitions – ONEMAN has been mentioned, and BISECTS almost seems like double wordplay rather than wordplay+definition – but all gettable and a whole load of fun.

  40. Muffin@19 could be deliberate could be subconscious could be bastard predictive text!

    I forgot to give a shout out to “I’m sorry Dave I’m afraid I can’t do that” HAL – the trope for so many SF films and TV series including Red Dwarfs wonderful Holly.

  41. Thanks Brendan for a very enjoyable challenge and to you Andrew for this excellent blog: there is often more to a Brendan clue than meets my eye (and well spotted Lord Jim @4, a perfect example) so your assistance with 15d and 22a especially was welcome. My favourites were those with a mathematical bent particularly 4d (one of the few where the ‘dates’ helped me without needing google/wikipedia) and 24d which brought the Hardy/Ramanujan taxi story to mind. My only query apart from those already raised is the switch from passive definition to active solution in 19d, this took me a long time to solve as maybe I don’t see enough of these to easily make the step, is it a common ‘device’?

  42. I have nothing new to add, but I couldn’t pass by without noting that this was a complete joy. I’m afraid I needed Andrew’s help to fully parse HAL and BISECT. I think it’s hard to argue that 1984 doesn’t make one recall Orwell even if it’s not title of the book, and HAL was frequently called HAL even if it wasn’t his full name!

  43. [No-one has given an answer to my quiz question @9. They started on Benbecula, in the Outer Hebrides – i.e. they were going towards mainland Scotland. Charles had initially fled to Stornoway on Lewis, but the townspeople refused him entry, so he made his way south over Lewis and Harris, then took a boat to North Uist and then Benbecula before hitching a lift to Skye.]

  44. That was great. And educational at times. I couldn’t parse MADRIGAL because I was distracted by MADRI(D), which wasn’t relevant.

     

  45. Fun and clever I guess but some reservations that I wouldn’t mention were it not for the extent of praise for this offering that seem to ignore some – imperfections (for want of a better word) in my mind.

    I think TheZed @14 best reflects my thoughts.

    Thanks to William F P (@22) for the IBM snippet – I didn’t about that.

    [first saw this ground breaking film on the curved screen of the Abbey Cinerama in Liverpool – Wow! Wonder if Peter Aspinwell saw it there]

  46. Absolutely top class, as so many have said.

    Muffin @43:  Thanks, that will stick now!

    Gazzh @41:  (with apologies for pedantry!) Re 19d, both HECTORED and ‘was intimidating’ can be understood as ‘active voice’ rather than passive (the clue definitely, the solution possibly).  E.g. ‘He bullied and he hectored’ = ‘he was abusive and he was intimidating’.  For the passive use of ‘hectored’, you would need a sentence like ‘He was constantly being hectored by his boss’.

    But what we do have is a change of tense.  In the clue it is past continuous (was intimidating), in the solution it’s simple past tense.  And yes, I agree it does require a bit of a mental leap, but I have seen the device used before so now I’m on the look-out for it.

    William F P @22: How could I have missed the elk?!

    Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

  47. Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

    I am not in UK, are 10:45 and 11:15 broadcast times for News in BBC or Ch 4? When News is heard?

  48. Like GinF @ 20, I had Mays rather than Days for 8d, and it seems to me arguable that it’s a better answer: Mays are parts of every year, and Maze (as a verb) perhaps fits the definition better – Chambers – “to bewilder; to confuse”.

    Many thanks to Brendan for a brilliant crossword, and to Andrew for the comprehensive explanations.

    Btw, someone posted a link some time ago to a (video of a) long (and very interesting) interview with Brendan partly about crosswords and partly about maths and politics. I’ve been trying to find it recently (to send it to my daughter) but could only find a partial clip. Does anyone know if it’s still available and if so where?

  49. ilippu @47: If you read out 1045 not as ” a thousand and forty-five” but “ten forty-five” it sounds like a time. Ditto for 1115. Hence they are “times” when “heard” and The Times is a daily newspaper here in the UK (and in many other countries).

  50. Just to say that there can never have been a blog in which the word ‘fun’ appeared more often than it does here (but, to be clear, I’m not asking any of our regular statisticians to check this, even with lockdown time to do so!). Rightly so, this was a real joy.

    I’m disappointed not to have been able to parse HECTORED, but pleased to have thought of the double-clue device used for TIMESHARES early on.

    Many thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  51. TheZed@49
    Thanks, I got all that from Andrew.
    My question was whether they are also News broadcast times.

  52. Thank you essexboy @46, your explanation is very clear and while I hadn’t described it correctly it’s good to know that there was something a little slippery going on: I will hopefully add it to my little lumber room of tricks to remember. I don’t recall ever learning English grammar in any formal sense when I was at school (in England) and am only now coming across some of the terminology as I slowly and miserably learn German (Plusquamperfekt popped up a few months back). A few years ago a colleague asked me something about “gerunds” and I assumed it was a local dialect word as I had never heard of them.

  53. muffin @43 That’s twice in recent days your input has not been acknowledged!  I mused on your question – briefly, had no idea (despite a great fondness for the Highlands and Islands) and then dropped out of 225 for yet another Zoom call.  (Or was it Teams, or Bluejeans, or…?  The plethora of video call platforms that seem to have popped out of the woodwork amazes me.  Sooner or later they’ll be a theme for a crossword).  And have only just returned to the site.  Thanks for the addition to the GK: I hope I’ll find a use for it.  I should have realised it was Benbecula: I think I recall visiting a memorial to Flora on my one trip to the Outer Hebrides.

  54. Great Puzzle! Needed to come here for a couple of parsings which also were excellent. I was another “Mays” for 8d. Many thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

  56. ilippu@51; apologies – misunderstood what you were asking. The only consistent and notable news times in the UK to my mind are 9pm and 10pm – the two main channels (BBC and ITV) having seemingly divided the nightly news slots thus early on and stuck with it. Pretty much all channels seem to do news at 6pm but it doesn’t resonate with those of us old enough to remember only 3 channels the way “9 o’clock news” does.

  57. As I was unable to complete this crossword without multiple references, it felt more like a school assignment than a source of amusement for me. I do recognize the brilliance involved in constructing such a puzzle and I enjoyed BADASS, MAGNA CARTA, PRIMES, and MADRIGAL among others. Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

  60. Well, that was fun! Thanks to Andrew and to Brendan. Much to like here but favourites were CUBE, BLAIR, PRIMES and for sheer cheek TIMESHARES.

  61. Brendan as reliable as always. I couldn’t parse BISECTS so that was a guess but the rest was uniformly lovely!
    Thanks Brendan.

  62. Hi anotherAndrew @59 – but there’s a lot of interesting stuff in the body of the text interview with schuchi  [who used to be a blogger here]. I think I do remember the video you’re talking about – but it’s a long time ago!

  64. I really like this man’s crosswords, what a treat I had though math’s not my forte. 15d my COD, the cheek of 1117!

  65. Quite liked that many of the dates weren’t essential to the clue, more of an extended definition, e.g. “[since 1882] It marks success in tests for trees (5)”, “Takes off a Romantic author [1795-1821] (5)” etc.

    loved those dates that weren’t, though i didn’t bother to untangle the cube

    many thanks Brendan and Andrew

  66. @dutch,

    I checked the cube. It was the only one that worked for the surface reading. The previous one being 1331, and the next one being 2197.

  67. TheZed@56, not at all. Thank you for responding.

    It is possible to miss deatails when not reading the blog or earlier comments properly.

    0900 and 1000 do not help much in the context…

  69. That was most enjoyable. Needed help to explain HAL and (to my embarrassment!) MADRIGAL. As a lapsed maths/science student, loved the mathematical hints. Many thanks to Brrndan ama Andrew.

  70. Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

    I feel ambiguous: I’ve been neglecting my crosswords (Well I do occasionally.  And it is possible to be busy even in these non-peripatetic TIMES to be distracted, rosewhite* even.) so to return to this little gem casts me as the prodigal son: the unworthy recipient of lardy veal dishes – delicious.

    Especially pleased with PRIMES – an area of fascination as my antiquity progresses – and CUBE.  I like to think that my background is in Mathematics and Science; the university thought I had a better future in other areas – perhaps.  So this was lip-licking stuff, a pleasure-filled magpie’s nest.

    I thought EASTER DAY was a bit over-stretching (from a GK point of view but particularly) as there is no such thing as Easter Day. Isn’t it just Easter? Easter Sunday at a stretch.

    * Otherwise engaged.

     

     

  71. Hi Alphalpha @70

    EASTER DAY – or Easter Sunday –  commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,- is celebrated in the Western Christian Church on the first Sunday after the first full moon occurring on or after the vernal equinox. The festival of Easter is celebrated for fifty days from EASTER DAY until Pentecost,

  72. Eileen@71.  I did not know that.  Thanks as always for the steer.

    The Fifty Days of Easter.  Now that would be a good song to sing.

  73. Loved this puzzle. I completed it without being able to parse several things – thanks Andrew for the explanations.

     

  74. Can’t say I thought it was fun but it grew on me! I spent a lot of time googling dates and, from the responses Google gave me, I was clearly not the first. I wrote SARK in at 27d but when I came back to 25d… I also tried FOR MAN at 2d. I knew the properties of 1728 (and I already had the B) and it was at this point I realised the numbers weren’t all dates so that cheered me up. Couldn’t fully parse BISECTS and TIMESHARES. I chose DAYS over MAYS because the clue says parts (plural) of every year and there’s only one MAY. Thanks to Brendan and to Andrew.

  75. Loved it. Had to check in wikipedia that the events I thought happened on these dates did so and that the two primes were so. Guessed that it was twelve cubed, and confirmed by multiplying 144*12.

  77. g Larson@50: Yes, this crossword was fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun.

    Thanks Brendan and Andrew for the fun – and all the bloggers for the enlightenment about Newton, Benbecula and other fun facts.

  78. 17a immediately reminded me of the erstwhile schoolboy game of hares and hounds, where the ‘hare’ left a paper trail for the ‘hounds’ to follow – literally a noted runner from a previous era! Very enjoyable and kept me busy for a couple of days

  79. Finally! I liked this one so much I kept going long after I’d usually have thrown in the towel.

  80. Late Guardian Weekly solver adds: I don’t think anyone mentioned the notable fact that every clue contained either a “date” (24 in all) or another theme-related word: number, day, date, year, century, era, historical period… And many of the solutions did too: day, days, times, annus, annuals, primes, cube, rational (numbers)…

     

  81. Another late Weekly solver. Lovely. And I discovered from Wiki that 1666 is annus mirabilis in another way – that it is written in Roman MDCLXVI which are all the letters used in Roman in descending order used once. What a treat.

  82. As I live in Alice Springs, my Guardian Weekly arrives weakly. This one limped home only yesterday. Loved Brendan’s crossword, the blog and the comments. Here’s one more: 24d is 1728, and 1728 is 24 times half of 24 times half of half of 24.

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