[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here
A themed puzzle from Tramp in this morning’s Guardian, which can be found here.
The theme is not disguised, but younger solvers may not be aware of who Columbo is/was. He was a scruffy, but brilliant, police detective in an eponymous TV show which ran from 1968 to 1978 on American TV, and then was resurrected for a couple of series a decade later. It shows up fairly regularly on British TV still especially if you have satellite TV. Columbo, the actor who played him (Peter Falk) and the word “detective” or associated terms appear in several clues and solutions.
My favourithe themed entry was 1dn, as Columbo was famous for catching people out by asking them “one more thing” just as they thought he was finished with his questions.
As to the puzzle itself, the long answers were crucial to opening up some of the shorter entries, and in the main, they were very good, although the clue for METHAMPHETAMINE was (necessary) convoluted.
Thanks, Tramp.
| Across | ||
| 1 | CONCAVE | Depressed? Do cocaine before farewell (7) |
| CON (“do”) + C (cocaine) before AVE (“fairwell”) | ||
| 5 | BECOMES | Grows into suits (7) |
| Double definition | ||
| 9 | PAVER | Person covering ground, state policeman initially going in front (5) |
| AVER (“state”) with P(oliceman) [initially] going in front | ||
| 10 | DETONATOR | One could go off with detective working around schedule (9) |
| DET (detective) + ON (“working”) + [around] <=ROTA (“schedule”) | ||
| 11 | PRISON CHAPLAIN | Can churchman approach sin? Characters inside clink set free (6,8) |
| *(approach sin lin) [anag:set free] where LIN is [charcters inside] (c)LIN(k) | ||
| 13 | NAPE | Casually sleep with English scruff (4) |
| NAP (“casually sleep”) with E (English) | ||
| 14 | INTERPOL | Peril not unusual for crime fighters (8) |
| *(peril not) [anag:unusual] | ||
| 17 | EXAMPLES | Former lover with big bosom, essentially models (8) |
| EX (“former lover”) with AMPLE (“big”) + (bo)S(om) [essentially] | ||
| 18 | PEER | Like No Time to Die (4) |
| PE(t)ER (“die”, as in “peter out”) with no T (time) | ||
| 21 | CRIMINOLOGICAL | Icon Columbo’s back with cigar: mill around like his character? (14) |
| *(icon o cigar mill) [anag:around] where O is (columb)O [‘s back] | ||
| 23 | VOLTE-FACE | Foe messed with lieutenant’s head, TV ace making U-turn (5-4) |
| *(foe l tv ace) [anag:messed] where L is L(ieutenant)[‘s head] | ||
| 24 | ALIBI | Defence of Italy twice cut ball out (5) |
| *(i i bal) [anag:out] where I I is Italy twice and BAL is BAL(l) [cut] | ||
| 25 | REFUSES | Turns down rubbish song’s intro (7) |
| REFUSE (“rubbish”) + S(ong) [‘s intro] | ||
| 26 | See 2 | |
| Down | ||
| 1 | COPS | Catches case of Columbo with ‘one more thing’ (4) |
| [case of] C(olomb)O with PS (post script, so “one more thing”) | ||
| 2, 26 | NEVER SPEAK ILL OF THE DEAD | Show respect for late ‘disheveled’ Peter Falk on a broadcast (5,5,3,2,3,4) |
| *(disheveled peter falk on a) [anag:broadcast] | ||
| 3 | ARREST | Do search in the centre with others (6) |
| (se)AR(ch) [in the centre] with REST (“others”) | ||
| 4 | ENDING | Conclusion, say, to cover news about investigator (6) |
| EG (for example, so “say”) to cover N N (two “news”) about DI (detective inspector, so “investigator”), so E(N(DI)N)G | ||
| 5 | BITCHING | Being spiteful is beginning to be irritating (8) |
| [beginning to] B(e) + ITCHING (“irritating”) | ||
| 6 | CANOPIES | Covers preserve work that is special (8) |
| CAN (“preserve”) + OP (opus, so “work”) + I.E. (“that is”) + S (special) | ||
| 7 | METHAMPHETAMINE | Drug satisfied husband in the morning, dear, keeping hard with a source of supply (15) |
| MET (“satisfied”) + H (husband) +AM (“in the morning”) + PET (“dear) keeping H (hard) with A MINE (“source of supply”) | ||
| 8 | STRANGLERS | They murder visitors around lake (10) |
| STRANGERS (“visitors”) around L (lake) | ||
| 12 | UNDERCOVER | Subordinate to screen detective might work like this? (10) |
| UNDER (“subordinate”) + COVER (“to screen”) | ||
| 15 | SPLICERS | They join police with round going off: run in two seconds (8) |
| P(o)LICE with O (“round”) going off + R (run) in S S (two “seconds”) | ||
| 16 | REMOVALS | Recover arm: solve murders (8) |
| *(arm solve) [anag:recover] | ||
| 19 | MODEST | Plain or flash coat for detective on street? (6) |
| MO (“flash”, as in “a short time”) + [coat for] D(etectiv)E on ST (street) | ||
| 20 | PIRATE | Detective with charge that’s appropriate (6) |
| PI (private investigator, so “detective”) with RATE (“charge”) | ||
| 22 | MIND | Watch out for intellect (4) |
| Double definition | ||
*anagram
Yes, 7dn was a bit convoluted, but enjoyably Pauline with it. Some neat bits of work, with 11ac probably the favourite.
An enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to setter and blogger.
I liked the detective/policing theme. I quite enjoyed the bumbling detective Columbo back in the day. “Mad” magazine once did a spook on the show and called it “Clodumbo” and I guess he was both a clod and a dumbo in lots of ways, but he was quirky and droll too.
Favourite answers were 11a PRISON CHAPLAIN, 12d UNDERCOVER and 15d SPLICERS.
Thanks for some clever clueing, Tramp, and for the helpful blog, loonapick. Glad to see the 15² site up again, Gaufrid – it must have been even more frustrating for you than it was for solvers yesterday. But I decided my inability to post was very much a first world problem, and I now about to catch up with the 100 plus comments on the Anto.
[We crossed, NeilH@1, or I would have acknowledged your previous mention of 11a POLICE CHAPLAIN.]
P.S. I really wasn’t sure of PEER at 18a, but parsed it as you did, loonapick. Also, meant to say that it took me far too long to see that appropriate was a verb form, and therefore to see PIRATE at 20d, my LOI.
Thanks Tramp and loonapick
As I was reading the blog, Radio 3 was, bizarrely, playing a Stranglers track (a tribute to the keyboard player, who has just died).
I’ve only seen Peter Falk in The Princess Bride, but I solved it OK, so it was fairly clued.
Foe me Tramp is never easy, but he did give us plenty of gentle starters. PEER went in last and unparsed but that explanation does make sense.
Thanks to Tramp and loonapick
muffin @5 – it wasn’t 5d was it?
I enjoyed the long anagrams which helped me solve the rest of the puzzle.
New for me was REMOVAL = murder.
I forgot (or failed) to solve PEER.
Thanks loonapick and Tramp.
Sorry BH – no. I think it was called Black Waltz.
btw did you see the late support for you on yesterday’s thread?
Sometimes you just have to parse a clue to be certain your solution is right; in this case for me modest and peer – I just couldn’t see mo=flash or peter=die, and the definitions felt a little vague.
Methamphetamine made me wonder how many abbreviations meaning H you could sneak into one clue. Husband, hard, hydrogen, hospital, … Perhaps the same could be said for many letters.
Many thanks, loonapick.
Like others, I saw PE(T)ER at 18a but failed to spot see a justifiable reason for PEER = like.
Favourite today was the smoothly economical BECOMES. (Why does our spell-checker underline favourite, preferring favorite?)
Returning to today’s theme, I seem to recall that the actor had a not-unattractive cast in one eye – is that the chap?
This grid is almost in two triangular halves and I would have struggled a lot more with this had the 4 intersecting long answers not come to the rescue.
Many thanks, Tramp, stay safe, everyone.
Morning all. A slight let off in the pace, this morning. No disrespect intended to Tramp. A reasonably steady solve (bar one) with no obvious controversies to kindle flames. I was defeated by PEER, having guessed it would be expire minus a T but the crossers didn’t help me and I eventually resorted to reveal. I hadn’t thought of peer=like and it’s completely fair. Some clever anagrams and I did like the definitions in eg PAVER, CONCAVE, NAPE, MIND and PRISON CHAPLAIN. CRIMINOLOGICAL and SPLICERS were favourites today.
A strange commentary yesterday and it ran, as they say, well into the night..
Thanks Tramp and loonapick for the helpful blog
That ‘one more thing’ ploy is such a crime show standard that I wonder where it did in fact start, but anyway I liked Colombo’s scruffy lumbering bear style. How many times has ‘do’ meant con or equiv, and I was going Is ‘conc’ an in-word for snort?…talk about thick! And did anyone else bung in criminAlogical without an anagrist check? Removals, loi, corrected it but…slack. Well, there were a few gimmes to ease the way, like refuses and stranglers, and the long one too once you got ‘late’ and sounded out the rhythm. PI for detective has popped up somewhere recently too. It all helps. I liked the can churchman and the slightly naughty 7d. Enjoyed it, thanks Tramp and Loonapick.
Zipped through this, only to fail on PEER, ‘Like’ a few others I see. Favourites were the ‘Person covering ground’ def for PAVER and the ‘flash coat for detective on street’ wordplay for MODEST
I enjoyed the Columbo theme, which reminded me of Peter Falk and the less than gleaming old Peugeot he used to drive around in.
Thanks to Tramp and loonapick
Thanks for the blog, loonapick.
I really enjoyed this [as I would expect to]. Some lovely clues – I particularly liked 1dn COPS and the clues for 21ac and 2,26dn, which together called up a great image of Colombo / Peter Falk. [I enjoyed Tramp’s defence of the American spelling of ‘dishevelled’. 😉 ]
Away from the theme, my favourite was PRISON CHAPLAIN.
Many thanks to Tramp for another great puzzle.
Nostalgia, eh? I do so miss Columbo, The Who, Star Trek,… But luckily there’s a YouTube clip that brings them all together (and some others too).
I thought this was great! Really enjoyed it from start to finish (which was PEER). Favourites were CONCAVE, PRISON CHAPLAIN and METHAMPHETAMINE (which seemed to have a Viagra-like subtext). Many thanks to Tramp and loonapick.
Lovely crossie and blog-did anyone see Wings of Desire?Peter Falk, Wim Wenders(dir) and the Bad Seeds(Nick Cave)
But at 1ac AVE does not mean ‘farewell’ (adieu), but rather ‘hail’ (hello). The Latin for ‘farewell’ is VALE. More fully, AVE ATQUE VALE is ‘hail and farewell’.
Thanks, loonapick. Didn\’t get, and don\’t think I ever would, 18a, but it is worth mentioning that NO TIME TO DIE is the title of a Columbo episode. Here\’s a full list. I don\’t think any others are referenced but sure someone will prove me wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Columbo_episodes
Cheers muffin @5 and copmus @18 for a couple of excellent film choices to lighten up these dark days. I got METHAMPHETAMINE from the initial MET and had to force myself to parse the rest of it. Btw there’s almost a musical mini-theme with the STRANGLERS, INTERPOL, THE (GRATEFUL) DEAD, the DETONATORs, the ALIBIs and, er, Nick (CON)CAVE bringing us full-circle to Wings of Desire
It could only be a Tramp! Great use of a minitheme; and a lovely choice of subject too. In my mind, Columbo is the most entertaining and well constructed (just like this puzzle!) of TV detectives – not that Ive seen too many others – and Peter Falk is a brilliant actor. Some masterful performances by guest actors. Patrick Macgoohan is fantastic in several (he, like Falk, directed several; he even managed to smuggle in several of his “be seeing you” trope from the Prisoner!). Faye Dunaway’s performance in one episode earned her an Emmy nomination and the young Stephen Spielberg directed an episode! Worthy of Tramp’s attention – I do hope Neil enjoys Columbo as much as I do!
Lovely diversion. Many thanks Tramp and loonapick
JW @19 I bow to your superior knowledge of Latin but Wikipedia says: ‘Ave is a Latin word, used by the Romans as a salutation and greeting, meaning “hail”. It is the singular imperative form of the verb av?re, which meant “to be well”; thus one could translate it literally as “be well” or “farewell”‘
You beat me to it, bodycheetah!
It’s pretty much all been said – perhaps a bit easier to get into than many Tramps (where I often stare at a grid with a couple of random entries for a fair while before enlightenment slowly dawns). It was harder to finish, with the difficult but ultimately satisfying “pirate” and “peer” requiring a bit of brain adjustment. Count me as another fan of Colombo, who I always enjoyed as the sort of antithesis of Sherlock Holmes. Holmes specialised in obscure knowledge and ludicrous physical clues (types of tobacco ash…) but for Colombo it was all about people, motives and spotting liars – a lovely counterpoint to often high-octane alternative police dramas. And as others have mentioned, Falk is a super actor and seeing his name always reminds me of The Princess Bride, possibly the most fun film ever made.
Very clever use of the theme – you really did not need to know anything about the show to solve the puzzle, but the more you knew the more fun it was. Bravo.
Many thanks Tramp, for a (non public transport) trip down memory lane, and loonapick for the blog.
VOLTE FACE somehow reminded me of the latest coronavirus guidance from our illustrious leader 🙂
Thanks so much blaise@16, that was a blast! (And I don’t care about its pc rating).
Columbo is my favourite TV detective since 2005, when I came across him in a Melbourne hotel room, while idly surfing channels. We were watching a Columbo marathon just yesterday on one of the ITV channels. So, throughly enjoyed this crossword. I still don’t understand 18ac, how come PEER = LIKE?
Thank you loonapick, I agree with you about 1 down, and you’ve cleared up the S of EXAMPLES for me. Would have had to agree with John Wells, not bodycheetah: Catullus poem 101 gives ave atque vale which traditionally is taken as Hail and Farewell. However: Lewis and Short’s dictionary gives plenty of examples where AVE itself is used for farewell, including in funerary inscriptions. (Full article on p 214 – I expect L & S is online these days, but I have my own.) I see I must eat humble pie (again) in the Guardian strand…
Muffin – The Stranglers track was probably Waltzinblack and as Beery Hiker says, 5d Bitching was a Stranglers track too.
picadillyjim@28 – think of them both as nouns: a peer is an equal; Chambers – ‘like: one of the same kind…’ – as in, ‘We shall not see his like again’.
Picadillyjim “We shall not see his like again”. Like = equal = peer worked for me. Though that’s with hindsight. Peer defeated me this morning.
Eileen @31 (I’m on my phone which doesn’t show comment number so I got lost earlier!). We crossed. And with the same quote.
Yes seen that, bodycheetah@26; my sister in London, now a virus survivor along with hubby and kids, sent it over.
Never seen Columbo, never heard of Peter Falk, (never had a telly) but the obvious detective theme was helpful anyway. LOI was, of course, PEER, reached by grinding through the alphabet and my glamorous assistant suggesting possible parsings. She was quite correct, too. 7d by contrast was a write-in (sorry) once you think of MET and H it’s obvious.
Thanks to Tramp and loonapick.
I thought I was in for a hard time when I had but two entries on first pass. But then two long ones – 2d/26a and 7d gave me a way in, and most of the rest was reasonably quick. My LOI was PEER (as for others, I see). I remain unconvinced, either that peer = like (although they are sort of adjacent, and it might just pass muster), or that peter (out) = die (would it work without the ‘out’? I think not. Does it work even with it? Still not convinved – to peter out is to gradually decrease to very little). I could not find either in any list of synonyms I consulted. I only – very dubiously – entered PEER when a complete alphabet trawl threw up nothing else. I liked the can churchman, and the 21a construction was neat.
Komornik @29 You may be eating humble pie on t’other site but your contribution here is as erudite as I might have expected!
TassieTim @36
In bridge, playing a higher card in a suit, then next time playing a lower one, is called a “peter”. (It is done to legitimately convey information to your partner about the cards in your hand.)
Yes, nice to be reminded of Columbo and thanks to TheZed for putting the show in context. As usual a very enjoyable offering from Tramp. We did parse PEER but not DETONATOR or MODEST which was the loi. The short and sweet BECOMES and PRISON CHAPLAIN for its sinful surface were my favourites. Thanks to Tramp, loonapick and other contributors for recommending The Princess Bride which I’ll look out for.
Used to love Colombo, and Peter Falk in general, though none of that was required for the puzzle.
However I have to disagree with bodycheetah and others regarding AVE. It quite definitely means ‘Hail’, is defined as such in Chambers, and is used repeatedly in works such as the various versions of ‘Ave Maria’. To say that ‘farewell’ can be used as a greeting smacks of special pleading. ‘Goodbye’ itself (from ‘God be with ye’) can be read in the same way. That doesn’t mean they would ever be used as a greeting or that we would accept them in this sense in a clue. I appeal to Occam’s Razor and contend that Tramp simply made a mistake.
I agree with Eileen – a very enjoyable themed crossword with the expected level of difficulty from Tramp
Thanks to him and loonapick
William @11 Peter Falk’s “not unattractive cast” was caused by a glass eye – per Wikipedia “Falk’s right eye was surgically removed when he was three because of a retinoblastoma; he wore an artificial eye for most of his life. The artificial eye was the cause of his trademark squint.”
I really liked the very neat definitions at 11a (“Can churchman” for PRISON CHAPLAIN) and 2, 26 (“Show respect for late” for NEVER SPEAK ILL OF THE DEAD). And I enjoyed the theme. Interesting how different setters go for different sorts of theme. We have the hidden theme as used by Qaos (sometimes so hidden that I can’t see it even after finishing the puzzle). We have the surface theme favoured by Boatman (and sometimes Brendan I think) where the cleverness lies in the different and misleading uses of the theme word(s) in the clues. And we have the mixed theme, as here, where the theme features in both clues and solutions. All good in their different ways.
Columbo was a great show, and quite innovative in that it showed the crime being committed at the start, so the identity of the perpetrator wasn’t a mystery to the viewer. All the interest was focused on how Columbo would catch him/her. (I think I read that Bing Crosby had been considered for the lead role. That would have made for a very different show!)
Is REMOVALS (16d) gangster slang for murders?
Many thanks Tramp and loonapick.
muffin @38 – I didn’t know that, having (virtually) never played bridge. But in any case, how does that help? That is, what does it have to do with becoming dead? It isn’t clear to me.
TassieTim @44 I’ve been looking at various sources and they all define peter as a fading, a diminishing, an exhausting. They all seem to concur that it is a ‘fatal’ decline. I.e. leading to and ending with death. But – to support your earlier point – they also tend to point out that ‘peter’ is nearly always used along with ‘out’. However, the verb is simply ‘to peter’. Hope that helps.
Thanks, Mark @45. I got the answer (eventually), so I guess the clue did its job. But I still don’t like either part of it – the peer or the peter. They were sort of almost near enough, but that’s all. By the way, do your sources apply the fading, diminishing, exhausting to animate beings – i.e. ones that can die? I better stop – I think I’ve made my reservations known.
TassieTim @46 No probs. Reflecting on your question, my take would be that it is the life in the animate being – the quality that animates it – that peters [out] rather than the animate being itself. Does that work?
copmus@18
> did anyone see Wings of Desire?
Yes, beautiful film. I’d forgotten Peter Falk was in it. He was so likeable as a character.
Columbo was a favourite back in the day, so recalling him added to the enjoyment of this for me. COPS made me smile for the “one more thing” reference and stood out among many fine clues. The parsing was clear except for the much-discussed PEER (my LOI also), but like grantinfreo @13 I failed to see con = do in 1a (does that make you feel any better, ginf?).
Thanks to Tramp and loonapick.
poc@40 – Tramp has not made a mistake. Chambers is not a Latin dictionary, whereas Lewis and Short, quoted by Komornik @29 is probably [still] the most comprehensive one there is: the entries for AVE – and there are many, as Komornik says, appear on page 214 – there are 2009 pages! [I have my own copy too.] The verbs avere and valere both mean be / fare well and Ave can be a farewell, especially to the dead. [My SOED has ‘Ave: a shout of welcome or farewell’ 1603 and Collins has ‘Ave: sentence substitute, hail or farewell’]
Just to clarify – I don’t actually know any Latin – I was quoting verbatim from Wikipedia
Managed to carelessly write in another version of METHAMPHETAMINE, so ended up puzzling over – T – R for 18ac. So had ultimately to refer here. But otherwise great fun.
Like many I struggled with PEER, both with regard to peer=like and peter=die, and guessed that the strange capitalisation was because it was the title of a Columbo episode. Does the combination of obscurity and looseness make it a bad clue? I only know I spent as long on this as the whole of the rest of the puzzle.
REMOVALS=murders has not been adequately explained. It couldn’t be anything else, with the crossers and the anagram fodder, so I just shrugged and moved on, but it would be nice if someone could come up with an explanation, an example or a source.
sheffield hatter @53 – Chambers gives REMOVAL as a euphemism for murder.
sheffield hatter @53 I can’t find you a quoted example but I had in mind one mob boss ordering the removal of another. Or a black op to remove a terrorist leader. As Eileen says, it would be euphemism rather than direct synonym. Death would be implicit in the order – and probably not a petering out kind of death either!
Thanks to Tramp for an excellent puzzle, loonapick for a clear and helpful blog, and especially to Eileen and the other serious classicists for the enlightenment regarding AVE. My own remnants of O-level Latin 50-odd years since had me in the ‘Tramp’s made a mistake there’ camp, so a very nice TOIL. I think I would have quaked a bit handing in work to Eileen!
TILT!
If you’ve ever wondered if there was such a thing as an intrinsically difficult clue, as opposed to the eye of the beholder thing, then PEER gives us a pointer, and maybe also the same can be said for PIRATE. The only true measure is statistical, namely that a large number of solvers agree a clue is difficult, but what us going on inside? Granted there are many ways to make clues challenging, but what these two have is non-obvious (but perfectly fair) synonyms both for the definition and one of the words in the wordplay. This means that even if your brain should light on one of the alternatives on either side while exploring, it won’t immediately cause resonance with the other part.
Of course there are nearly 60 comments before I get here. Harrumph.
I’m among the many who was defeated by PEER. I started to do the alphabet trawl, but life is just too short for that. I was not, however, among those who found the clue dodgy. I do see the argument that while peer can mean equal, and equal can mean like, the transitive property doesn’t necessarily work for language; and I do think it’s tough to write a sentence in which either word would fit naturally, but “I’ll never see his like/peer again” is close enough for crosswordland.
Interestingly, my Latin dictionary lists “goodbye” for ave before it lists “hello”.
Lastly, William all the way at the top of this thread: your spell-checker probably prefers favorite to favourite because you have American English set as your default somewhere. (Test this by typing some other words we misspell–aluminium, colour, theatre, haemophilia, etc.–and see what happens.) You can change that in your device settings, or in the settings for whatever program you’re using.
Thanks Eileen & Mark. I bow to Chambers, of course.
Rather like “cat” for THROW UP a few days ago, I have difficulty in seeing how REMOVALS would be used in a sentence to mean “murders”. Never mind.
I liked the ‘can churchman’, EXAMPLES and MODEST.
I did, like, get PEER, although it was the LOI. At the beginning, I didn’t have much of a population in the NE corner, but got there eventually.
Thanks Tramp for an entertaining crossword and loonapick for a good blog.
I loved this puzzle, right in my goldilocks zone as I particularly enjoy this type of theme with so many references in the clues, solutions and parsings. I had lots of ticked clues, but tops were COPS, EXAMPLES, PRISON CHAPLAIN, and PEER – which I particularly liked for its two hidden references to the theme in just four words.
Grantinfreo@13 wondered where “just one more thing” came from. There’s a nice explanation in Wiki: According to Levinson [one of the 2 writers], the catchphrase “one more thing” was conceived when he and Link were writing the play: “we had a scene that was too short, and we had already had Columbo make his exit. We were too lazy to retype the scene, so we had him come back and say, ‘Oh, just one more thing . . .’ It was never planned.”
I too remember Ave atque Vale from Latin lessons and I agree with Eileen and Komornik that you can’t argue with Lewis and Short. I wondered if a more convincing argument for non-classicists that Ave can mean both Hail and Farewell might be the fact that Italians today still use the word Ciao to mean both!
AllyGally @62 Ciao. What an interesting point. It struck me when I read your post that “Good Day” can be used for both as well. Are there similar words in other languages, I wonder, that mean both Hello and Goodbye? Salut maybe?
Thanks loonapick for setting this all out clearly, I agree with you that 1D is a great clue and I also especially liked the very helpful 2D/26A. I thought 18A was a double-stretch but not too much of one, fortunately – a couple of others were loose but also within bounds (because I got them, otherwise might not feel so charitable!). The Grauniad has, in its blog for newcomers, a short discussion of words that also mean their opposite (“Sanction” being the one that comes most readily to my mind) and I will now add “Ave” to my mental list – thanks to everyone for their contributions on this, my lack of classical education was no hindrance today thanks to the definition. AllyGally @62 I think that argument does help and will add this to my list too. Oh, just one more thing – thanks Tramp!
Gazzh @64
Coincidentally cleAVE is another “autoantonym”!
Thanks to Tramp and loonapick.
Lovely crossie with many ticks, and STRANGLERS got the blue riband from me. Great contributions all round. As a youngster I used to love Columbo mainly because it was set among the wealthy of LA and showed a world beyond my own mean horizons – fridges, extravant phones (with long flexes), air conditioning, private swimming pools. Almost science fiction to a juvenile me.
Loved this one – great fun. I’m another huge fan of Columbo – definitely my favourite detective series. For anyone interested in the UK, it’s usually shown back-to-back all day each Sunday on the channel 5USA, which is one of the free ones you have to scroll down a bit to get to.
For those wanting an example of “removal” as a euphemism for murder, here’s a perfect example:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6cake3bwnY&list=RDtDedpreZH-0&index=20
thank you muffin @65. Learning a lot today!
The comments on PEER may be clearer if the word is used as a noun. In academic terms, in sociology a peer group is a group of persons with similar or like attributes, such as age, education and social class. (peer = same = similar = like as in like/same/similar minds, my wife uses it a lot in qualitative research)
thanks to Tramp and loonapick, here in France we still get Columbo on main channel television in French, but then again we are still getting Zorro from 1950s at peak time.
Thanks to Tramp and Loonapick. It’s worth noting that “No Time to Die” is the most atypical of the episodes of the show, in that Columbo is there from the beginning and there is no murder.
I reckon PEER must have been LOI for a high percentage of solvers. For my money, it works very well. Like = PEER as nouns, peter = die as in fade, e.g. the sound died/petered out. But, yes, tough to spot. It came down to a choice of HEAR (HEART (like) minus T) or PEER for me, but as I couldn’t think of any way that Hear could equal Die, I was was left with PEER by a process of elimination. Elementary, my dear Columbo 😉 .
I loved CRIMINOLOGICAL. Tramp routinely comes up with these amazing long anagrams.
Great puzzle. I liked Columbo and I like the more recent example of the genre, Monk, which if you’re a Columbo fan and haven’t seen, I would recommend.
Thanks, Tramp and loonapick.
Thanks Mark N @ 67. Enjoyed the sketch (and the one after). But this is still the use of removal as a euphemism for murder, not removals as a synonym for murders. How about this: “He tried not to think of them as murders – too grisly. It felt more comfortable to call them removals.” Hmm.
Re 18a – I can see that your PEERS are people LIKE you, but how does that make PEER = LIKE?
AllyGally. Also in Spanish: adios = hello or goodbye.
I am relieved to find I was not the only one who failed on peer. Thus a dnf for me but I enjoyed the rest of it. Always an education to read this site. Thanks to all
Thanks for that re ‘one more thing’ AllyGally, and yes I too was going to say Ciao is both Hi and Bye.
CIAO in Italian can mean Hello or Goodbye
…but surprised to learn from Dicho that the same applies to Adios. Always learning here!
John Wells @19. I would have agreed, because I am certain if I’d put ‘Ave ‘ as farewell in Latin translation at school I’d have been marked down .
Excellent use of a theme as always. The ‘one more thing’ idea was brilliant.
COPS was my FOI and it set the stage for an amusing solve. PIRATE was another favorite and I like the surface of 7d. Had to use a word finder for VOLTE-FACE, an unfamiliar term to me. I used the same word finder for 18a — PEER was in the list but that made no sense to me. Thanks Loonapick for the enlightenment and to Tramp for another beauty.
Copmus @18 Wings of Desire ranks as one of my favorite films. I saw it shortly after it was released and it still plays vividly in my mind, unlike so many films whose names escape me a week after I see them.
Fumblefingers @76. It may be because PEER means “equal”. The House of Lords in the UK is also referred to as the House of Peers. PEERS was my LOI like so many others. I parsed it in the same way as the blog but I can’t say I was convinced.
Quite enjoyed this. I used to find Tramp very difficult but I seem to have found his wavelength. I used to like Columbo back in the day. The last time I saw one was in a gym-remember them?- and was quite miffed to have to leave before the denouement.
Thanks Tramp.
Thanks Loonapick for the blog and thanks to others for the kind words.
My daughters and I are watching Columbo daily during the lockdown. I was saddened to read the end of Peter Falk’s Wikipedia entry in which it describes how, towards the end of his life, due to dementia, he couldn’t even identify who Columbo was. I think it’s great TV to stay alert to.
Neil
As another one who failed to get Peer I think it must qualify as the hardest clue of the month. Thanks to Tramp and Loonapick.
Re Removals: there’s a short story by Dorothy L. Sayers called The Leopard Lady (collected in In the Teeth of the Evidence) in which an organised firm of murderers draw the [anti-]hero’s attention to their existence by slipping an advertising card into a magazine that he’s just bought. The card reads “SMITH & SMITH / Removals”.
I knew it sounded familiar.
One for the Columbo fans – I just remembered this speech that I stumbled across a few years ago. Rewatching it left me in stitches again – Peter Falk is so perfect here (it’s worth looking up his Emmy acceptance speeches too – there’s some lovely humour in them):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_UN2S8SasY
Enjoy. 🙂
In 15d, would it be too picky to suggest that ‘run’ = R is not quite right. Presuming that it’s the cricketing abbreviation, then R = ‘runs’
Well done Blaise @86. I can relax now. Thank you.
Feel better now – managed to parse DETONATOR, PIRATE, MODEST and LOI PEER – boy felt good when I finally got that one! Thanks both.
Give over, pal
Just to add to the total, grüss gott although more often a greeting, is also used as a farewell in those parts of the germanophone world where it persists.
M @92, interesting, I only ever heard Grüß Gott as a greeting when I lived in Bavaria, but I do remember ‘Servus!’ being used both ways.
[On ‘one more thing’, I once had a boss who invariably initiated contact by poking his head round the door and announcing ‘Two things’. We used to marvel that it was always two. It was as if he could not bring himself to trouble us if there was only one thing to be dealt with, but never let things get sufficiently out of control that it got to three!]
Bonsoir.
essexboy @93
“Two things” very much chimes with my memories of authority figures too. I wonder if they all go to the same training course?
Or possibly the same two courses!
I very much enjoyed this crossword, thanks Tramp!
Like others I was one shy with Peer…I take a different view to some … I don’t have a serious problem with either element of the clue … more that pragmatically two parts of a clue with multiple answers plus crossers at best for the 2nd and 4th made it tough … maybe a clue with fewer possibilities could’ve been justified…
But hey ho, great fun!
Stuart @ 96
A clue with fewer possibilities may have led to an unambiguous solution. Or vice versa.
A bit late in the day but could someone explain how DO means ARREST in 3 down please
Thanks Tramp and Loonapick. Good work both. (If anyone’s seen The Irishman, doing removals = painting houses? Great film btw)
PC98: ‘He was done for armed robbery’.
Chambers has ‘to prosecute (inf.)’.
Great puzzle, thanks Tramp and loonapick.
This was a tough but satisfying puzzle. I got about 70% of it on the first go and was then completely stuck . Came back after about 4 hours and got methamphetamine, and then it all fell into place. I still don’t get “do”=”arrest” – is that a Britishism?
Anyway, thanks to Tramp for a great puzzle and loonapick for the explanations (I simply couldn’t parse PEER or ALIBI for some reason!).
Jay@101 – Yes, it’s correct English. Is “Britishism” an Americanism?! ?
Buried deep in the Oxford English Dictionary, entry 22 for “do” – arrest.
Eileen@50: TILT. I bow to your superior dictionary. Nonetheless, I doubt that most solvers would know this.
Eileen@50. We used to be able to rely on a solution being in Chambers. Now contributors here justify words by finding them in Collins, COED, SOED, and Wiktionary but this is a first for L&S. I sold my copy in 1958.
I was with poc@40 in thinking that Tramp had made a mistake but the he popped in and might have said so if he had.
Some may remember the full version of the poem about the young lady who couldn’t make up her mind between two suitors – Peter who began to pall and Paul to peter out.
printed this out first thing yesterday morning but only just got around to it. much fun. specially liked bitching and nape as well as all the themed entries.
I always did like Columbo
Eileen
I don’t know much Latin and lifted the definition of ave from Chambers.
PEER was LOI for us too. PEER isn’t really LIKE and PETER isn’t really DIE, but rather DIE OUT. How anyone got this without this construction though beats me.
Nice crossword, Tramp, and thanks to Lunapick.
Tramp@107. Apologies. I assumed that, because nobody had said that “ave” = “farewell” was in Chambers that it wasn’t. It’s the sort of thing that Eileen herself often picks up. Actually, now I look at it my edition gives “be well and happy” in which case “farewell” would have to be split, which is a step too far for me.
[Sorry! I run a few weeks late with my Guardian cryptics.] I looked in vain in these comments to find any nod to the availability of the word ‘before’ in the clue to 1a to ‘justify’ ‘ave’ – which, to my vintage is simply ‘farewell’. I was first foxed that nobody said this, and then disarmed that Tramp@107 had little Latin! Ah, well!
Dunelmian
[Sorry! I run a few weeks late with my Guardian cryptics.] I looked in vain in these comments to find any nod to the availability of the word ‘before’ in the clue to 1a to ‘justify’ ‘ave’ – which, to my vintage is simply ‘farewell’. I was first foxed that nobody said this, and then disarmed that Tramp@107 had little Latin! Ah, well!
Dunelmian