The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28227.
Paul doe it yet again: a creative and entertaining concoction, even if he sails a little too close to the wind for my comfort in one or two places (and I am not talking about 3D).
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | MEA CULPA | Acknowledgement came out: yours truly wrong? (3,5) |
| Anagrams (‘out’ and ‘wrong’) of ‘came’ plus PAUL (‘yours truly’, a derived anagram, but obvious), with an extended definition. | ||
| 9 | AMAZON | Giantess, great runner (6) |
| Double definition. | ||
| 10 | See 6 | |
| 11 | TROUSER ZIP | Flies in flight, perhaps, circling druggie in Australia (7,3) |
| A double envelope (the second ‘in’ and ‘circling’) of USER (‘druggie’) in OZ (‘Australia’) in TRIP (‘flight, perhaps’). | ||
| 12 | HAGGIS | Savoury pudding crony fails to finish? (6) |
| A bit of creative word formation here: ‘crony’ as like a crone, or HAGGIS[h] minus the last letter (‘fails to finish’). The definition recalls the great chieftain o the puddin’-race. | ||
| 14 | BITINGLY | In acerbic manner, money invested in presidential coinage? (8) |
| An envelope (‘invested in’) of TIN (‘money’) in BIGLY (‘presidential coinage?’ – a well-deserved question mark. The word is associated with Trump, but has a history from well before his time; further, according to Wikipedia, its usage in the first 2016 presidential debate is a mis-hearing of big-league). | ||
| 15 | DENSITY | Squat plastered in refuse — how stupid? (7) |
| An envelope (‘plastered in’) of SIT (‘squat’) in DENY (‘refuse’), with a rather allusive definition. | ||
| 17 | DORMICE | Rodents cooler in student accommodation? (7) |
| ‘In’ suggests an envelope – but not here. DORM ICE answers to the wordplay entirely. | ||
| 20 | ESWATINI | Ground is wet in a country in Africa (8) |
| An anagram (‘ground’) of ‘is wet in a’. Swaziland as was. | ||
| 22 | See 24 | |
| 23 | BY A LONG WAY | Times analogy failing to comprehend point, to say the least (2,1,4,3) |
| An envelope (‘to comprehend’) of W (west, ‘point’) in BY (‘times’) plus ALONGAY, an anagram (‘failing’) of ‘analogy’. | ||
| 24, 22 | PICKPOCKET | Artful Dodger, say, best Dickens character (10) |
| A charade of PICK (‘best’) plus POCKET (‘Dickens character’, Matthew and son Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations) | ||
| 25 | UNCOIL | Release attention-seeker in relative, shortly (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of OI (‘attention-seeker’ as an interjection) in UNCL[e] (‘relative’) minus the last letter (‘shortly’). | ||
| 26 | DRIPPING | Ultimately, wad super fat (8) |
| A charade of D (‘ultimately waD‘) plus RIPPING (‘super’ as an old exclamation of commendation). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | HERITAGE | Background: what a lady may not wish to reveal about it (8) |
| An envelope (‘about’) of ‘it’ in HER AGE (‘what a lady may not with to reveal’). | ||
| 2 | ACRE | Some land already claimed, Russians excited, first of all (4) |
| Initial letters (‘first of all’) of ‘Already Claimed Russian Excited’. | ||
| 3 | FLATUS | Release of this undesirable unlikely, initially confined to accommodation in block? (6) |
| An envelope (‘confined to’) of U (‘Unlikely, initially’) in FLATS (‘accommodation in block?’). | ||
| 4 | FALSETTO | Voice disagreement after brief collapse (8) |
| A charade of FAL[l] (‘collapse’) minus the last letter (‘brief’); plus SET-TO (‘disagreement’). | ||
| 5 | PATRONYMIC | Cypriot man (Greek to me?), Giorgiou son of Georgios, for example (10) |
| An anagram (‘Greek to me?’) of ‘Cypriot man’. | ||
| 6, 10 | SOCIAL LIFE | Flipping English cram onto perfect Greek island, visiting nightclubs etc (6,4) |
| A reversal (‘flipping’) of E (‘English’) plus FILL (‘cram’) plus AI (A-one, ‘perfect’) plus COS (‘Greek island’). | ||
| 8 | AMOEBA | Having smuggled in drugs, a Mafia leader on Alcatraz moving cell (6) |
| An envelope (‘having smuggled in’) of E (‘drugs’) in ‘a’ plus MOB (‘Mafia’) plus A (‘leader on Alcatraz’). | ||
| 13 | GAS BALLOON | Plastic bags Belgian hasn’t opened, carrier of basket (3,7) |
| A charade of GASB, an anagram (‘plastic’) of ‘bags’ plus [w[ALLOON (‘Belgian’, French speaking) minus the first letter (‘hasn’t opened’). | ||
| 16 | TRIANGLE | Percussion instrument, altering when beaten (8) |
| An anagram (‘when beaten’) of ‘altering’. | ||
| 18 | CRESCENT | Three quarters of team recognise shape (8) |
| A charade of CRE[w] (‘team’) with one letter deleted (‘three-quarters of’) plus SCENT (‘recognise’). | ||
| 19 | VIEWED | In short film, female animal seen (6) |
| An envelope (‘in’) of EWE (‘female animal’) in VID[eo] (‘film’) minus the last two letters (‘short’). | ||
| 21 | SAYING | Saw not going to lose teeth, originally (6) |
| A subtraction: S[t]AYING (‘not going’) minus the T (‘to lose Teeth, originally’). | ||
| 22 | PHYSIO | Therapist calling for sparkling water? (6) |
| Sounds like FIZZY EAU (‘sparkling water’). | ||
| 24 | PIPE | Channel going in deep I pulled towards the surface? (4) |
| A hidden (‘in’) reversed (‘towards the surface?’ unusual, but I get the idea in a down light) answer in ‘deEP I Pulled’. | ||
Second excellent puzzle in a row .. very promising start to the week. Floundered for a longish time, then finally achieved grid-entry with PIPE, and worked SE to NW segments, with HERITAGE last-one-in. Especially enjoyed DORMICE, ESWATINI and TROUSER ZIP along the journey. BY A LONG WAY seemed a bit contrived, but that’s a minor quibble. Thanks to the setter for worthy challenge.
I found this quite hard. Looking back, it’s not terribly clear to me why; probably because of the indirectness of a few of the synonyms and descriptions. All fair, though.
Somehow I missed the renaming of Swaziland a couple of years ago (I wasn’t invited to the ceremony), so I had a bit of trouble with this one despite parsing the clue correctly from the outset. I’m guessing I’m not the only one.
I managed to win the consonant lottery for ESWATINI but dipped out on HAGGIS for which I put in a lame ‘mangos’. Hard to get going, and some complicated parsing eg for SOCIAL LIFE, AMOEBA and the amusing TROUSER ZIP meant this took a bit of working out.
Ah, homophones, love ’em or hate ’em, but this time the former for ‘fizzy eau’, my pick today.
Thanks to Paul and to PeterO
Thanks Paul and PeterO, especially for the pun.
The clue to PATRONYMIC looked hopelessly impossible to me, but got it in the end. ESWATINI I didn’t know, but managed to build it up letter by (check) letter. BITINGLY last one in.
Phew, that took hours, only a few on first pass..by a long way, heritage, acre… Couldn’t parse haggis, groan!, and Eswatini was a lottery as WordPlodder says (the w helped, I thought of Botswana). So, bit of a slog, though as Dr. WH says, not sure why, and not a lot of laughs, but hey ho. Thanks P and P.
..but yes, fizzy eau was fun..
Dr WhatsOn@2-they never asked me either and I ‘m sure iI would have had a stamp from Swaziland as a nipper
7 was such an easy parse that I missed it-I saw CAME* leading to MEA CULPA but somehow forgot that Yours Truly was PAUL
I liked the Dickens clue-what I call a remix.
PHYSIO is Franglais but who cares?
So excellent puzzle and blog.Thanks to Paul and Peter O
copmus@7 Philately will get you nowhere.
Paul on fine form as always.
Like copmus @7 I failed to see the second half of the wordplay for 7ac.
With exquisite timing, found myself writing in the answer to 3dn just as a Government spokesman came on the radio…
Thanks PeterO for sorting out parsing of HAGGIS, AMOEBA and a couple more. Some lucky and/or inspired guesses helped me, but this was enjoyable precisely because there was a lot of headscratching before each eureka moment. I was glad to have the crossers for PHYSIO or I may never have got it. Uncommonly, first in was Eswatini which I knew because of work (though I have never visited) – copmus and Dr Whatson I believe the ticket to the ceremony required you to buy the King another new Roller as a gift, which may reduce your disappointment at missing out. I especially liked HERITAGE and TROUSER FLY but plenty of others were the right side of the cryptic but fair line and with some amusement too, so thanks Paul.
Another one guessing the little-known country after juggling the options. Otherwise a gas.
After FOI ACRE I also found this really hard and struggled with a lot of the parsing. Much of it was done using letter checks to find the answer and the trying to ubderstand why. I did see the anagram for ESWATINI but had also missed the renaming, so checks tgere too. I am another who missed yours truly being Paul: I did even think that I should look who the setter was… but then did not do so. (In the Guardian app it requires going back a level.) Duh! PATRONYMIC was really good once I had worked out how to spell it, helped by the anagram and the need to have a Y in there somewhere. However, although I had HAGGIS, I would never have sern haggish for crony! Many thanks to Paul for the challenge and to PeterO for the much needed explanations.
King Mswati III of Swaziland announced that he was renaming the country “the Kingdom of eSwatini” during a ceremony to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Swazi independence and the his 50th birthday. The new name means “land of the Swazis”.
He explained that the old name had caused some confusion, saying: “Whenever we go abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland.”
Slow and steady today, with only DRIPPING after the first read-through of the across clues. Got a few downs so the grid started to open up.
Failed to parse PICKPOCKET (our Dickens knowledge is very limited), and got lucky with the ESWATINI and PATRONYMIC anagrams.
Favourites were MEA CULPA and PHYSIO.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO!
GUARDIAN CROSSWORD EDITOR LIVE ON ZOOM TONIGHT. JOIN US!
Tonight, September 1st, 7.30pm, hosted by John Halpern (aka Paul): a very rare opportunity to meet and speak with Professor Hugh Stephenson, the Guardian crossword editor.
Cryptic or quick, Hugh has very kindly offered to answer your questions. To be on the call, subscribe at johnhalpern.co.uk and you will be given a Zoom link half an hour before the call.
After the questions, John Halpern will be discussing today’s cryptic and how to make the transition from quick to cryptic, for those who wish to.
We look forward to seeing you then. And thanks for all your brilliant feedback today.
John Halpern aka Paul
I thought MEA CULPA and BITINGLY were excellent, and looked forward to enjoying the rest of the puzzle. However:
– The AMAZONs were warriors, not giants. Neither WIkipedia nor the Encyclopedia Britannica mention their size.
– I’ve only ever heard the singular version of FLIES in this context. Chambers bears me out.
– I didn’t like the wordplay for HAGGIS. It only works if you take ‘crony’ as an adjective, which is rather a stretch.
Thanks, PeterO. Good fun from Paul, as ever. A touch of I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue in some of the wordplay (fizzy eau, crony), but that’s not a complaint.
9a: Why “giantess?” I’ve sometimes seen Amazon/Amazonian used to describe women of formidable appearance, with maybe an implication of more than average height, but I don’t recall any description of the mythical warriors as being of giant size. Maybe there’s some other cultural reference I’m missing.
Dithered for ages over what kind of BALLOON was intended for 13d, and also took time to see BY A LONG WAY. So held up in the left side of this tricky puzzle. Liked the misdirection with HAGGIS. That was what we rather unkindly called Matron at our small Wiltshire boarding school in the Sixties…
poc @16: We crossed re Amazons. But as for flies, the expression “Your flies are undone” is common enough.
Wow. That was hard work. FOI was DORMICE followed by ESWATINI but only because my son went there about 18 months ago on a school trip (best we did was the pier at Southend…)
Penfold @13 – When I tried to order the currency at the local Post Office (before I realised that that SA Rand is pegged and used throughout) I was given Swiss Francs.
Not sure about “GAS” BALLOON (other than it may fit with 3d?) – more used to “AIR BALLOON” but got there.
Anyway, that was good fun and generally well-received so thank you to Paul and PeterO.
I remember when my family used to spend Christmases with my grandparents in the early Fifties. The four of us all in one improvised bedroom in a basement flat in Victoria, London. As a five year old, seeing my father laboriously buttoning up his trousers in the mornings, I dreaded growing up and having to do the same myself one day. Then along came the TROUSER ZIP, and all was suddenly well with the world…
Paul never ceases to entertain. How does he do it?! And keep on doing it?
Peter O – respectfully disagree; the closer to the wind the better! (though, for me, the anenometer didn’t register….)
Many thanks, both and all.
Agree with your point about Amazons. Re 11ac: You’re flying without a licence. Failed on Swaziland – new name has SWAT in the middle, perhaps something you would do to flies.
I’m surprised that nobody’s carping about the lack of a “French” cue for eau in physio (although I was [fairly] happy with it). But it just accurred to me that Spa is in Liège which is in Wallonia, so “sparkling spa water” would have done the trick.
Penfold @8 Arf!
Yes, I thought Paul was on top form. The indirect anagram of PAUL was a bit naughty but having rejected ‘me’ as part of the clue I got it with a few crossers. Some might also object to the somewhat superfluous ‘going’ in 24D.
I think Amazon is often used as a descriptor for tall women, viz [Collins]:
‘People sometimes refer to a tall, strong woman as an Amazon.’
I loved the flies. ESWATINI was unfamiliar for me; thanks Penfold @13 for the ‘background.’
Thanks Paul for the fun and PeterO for a comprehensive blog.
Paul on a Tuesday is a bit unusual but John @15 explains all.
I’ve never found Paul the easiest to unravel but got there with only one mini-cheat – despite carefully going through my mental map of Africa, it’s not been updated recently, so a list was consulted to find a nation with the requisite letters. Managed to get through the derived anagram and the Greek anagrind however.
OK, hands up all 15squared users for whom nightclubs etc have at all recently been part of their SOCIAL LIFE. I count that not so much a historical reference as a fantasy one.
Robi@26, fair enough, but if I was a tall, strong woman (I’m not, I fail on all three counts) I think I’d be pretty unhappy to be described as a “giantess”.
Thanks to Paul and PeterO
DuncT @28; maybe something like: ‘Tall woman, great runner’ would have been more PC but I doubt it has caused offence (?) At the start, I thought of ‘ogress’, which fitted in but of course didn’t parse.
I started slow but accelerated mightily. No obtuse vocab, which was nice.
PATRONYMIC definitely worthy of mention for the creative anagrind, PHYSIO was laugh-out-loud great, and SOCIAL LIFE was very neatly constructed. I excused FLATUS on the basis that the man can’t help himself. Thanks Peter and Paul – don’t fly away now, will you?
Thanks both,
I had ‘physic’ – fizzy plus initial letter of ‘calling’ – but ‘physio’ is better. Also needed to look up Eswatini having failed to recognise any of the 4! possible combinations.
In 19d, a ‘vid’ is a common shortening of ‘video’ were anyone to worry about knocking off two letters rather than just the one.
Boffo @30 “I excused FLATUS…” Fnar.
I have to say I loved PHYSIO as well.
Excuse my ignorance. I’m happy with “AMAZON” as a female of large stature, even if it is common usage nowadays and not related to historical descriptions. But why would she be a “great runner”?
Found this tough going, especially on the parsings. Too many synonyms of synonyms and the like to make me happy. I only had to reveal one, though, and I’m fairly pleased to have got off so lightly given the tortuitous cluing.
So huge thanks to PeterO for the much needed explanations. Thanks to Paul too, but in more hushed tones…
Trismegistus @33
Riverrun.
PeterO @34: Oh THAT kind of runner… (slaps head in shame)
Thank you.
Hi
What word are we cluing for tonight’s Zoom?
L
I got well and truly stuck in the SE quadrant. Loi was the FIZZY EAU, which is now my favourite.
[Tyngewick @31: you may have been thinking of Every bubble’s passed its fizzical – from the official-looking notice under the YouTube video it seems somebody thinks it’s an attempt to spread misinformation about Covid!]
Did anyone spot the inconsistent spelling in 5d? I’m not talking about the patronymic ending – I realise -ou is genitive, making it mean ‘of Georgios’ – but I wonder why the e/i discrepancy after the initial G?
Nitpicking aside, this was a tough but satisfying challenge – thanks Paul and PeterO.
I’m relieved that others didn’t know about Eswatini. I was feeling quite embarrassed to have never heard of an entire country.
I would never have managed to parse the clue for HAGGIS.
Two of my favorite clues, strictly speaking, break the rules, as others have noted: I think there should be some foreign-language indicator for EAU in 22dn, but and as PeterO notes, 7ac (MEA CULPA) contains the dreaded indirect anagram. But both were quite gettable and made me laugh when I saw them, so I enjoyed the rule-breaking in both cases.
I thought this a very fair puzzle in comparison with those of The Telegraph Toughie which I have abandoned due to incompatibility with the political stance of the organ within which it resides. I have never encountered ESWATINI before, but I’ll remember it for the future. 2d was my first entry, followed by 5d, 16d and 21d and then progress was slow but steady. It took a while for the parsing of 7a to dawn on me!
Paul never ceases to amaze. Not so long ago there was hypocrites (actors), now the lovely Cypriot patronymics, he must be Greek!
Failed to parse the Belgian part of 13D, inexcusable since by ancestry I are one!
I just assumed AMAZON was a gender fluid reference to the retail giant and moved swiftly on. Many thanks for parsing HAGGIS!
Also I gave PHYSIO a pass as (a) it made me laugh and (b) it’s in Chambers albeit described as the French word for Easter but in use in English eg eau de cologne etc
Could 7a be a sly meta of Paul admitting to his indirect anagram? If so, it is even more brilliant.
As a rubbish solver, I don’t even attempt Paul’s puzzles, but I am full of admiration for those who complete this. Thanks to PeterO for the notes, they make fascinating reading, i think I was able to parse about 3 clues.
I always thought cos was a type of lettuce. The Greek island is Kos.
In 8d, why is E “drugs” rather than “drug”?
Sorry – thanks Paul and PeterO – unsurprisingly, I didn’t enjoy this. I did like PICKPOCKET and PATRONYMIC, though.
…and FLATUS.
NNI @46: “Kos or Cos is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain” (Wiki).
Muffin @47: Yes, drugs rather than drug doesn’t look right for E.
The vaguery that got my goat was crony=haggish. Crone and crony are not derived from the same roots, and the word is used as a noun in the clue, and from that we’re meant to reach for a non-existent adjective, find a synonym for it and take off the last letter? Fortunately the clue can be solved from definition and crossers. And don’t get me started on the indirect anagram in 7a. Again, the answer was fairly obvious from the letter split and the anagram of came, so was written in with a shrug and a wry smile. (Manoj @44: you are very generous.) And BIGLY? (I had BITTERLY at first, which fits the definition and the letter count, but of course cannot be parsed.)
I did enjoy 15a DENSITY (after toying with an unparsable DENSELY) and 24a,22 PICKPOCKET, which did exactly what it said on the tin, while being sufficiently (but fairly) misleading to make it a pleasure to solve. And PATRONYMIC was good, though I share essexboy’s doubts @37 about the inconsistent spelling of George.
I did not finish this one, partly because of brain fade on 6d, 10 and 11a, partly because I didn’t know about Swaziland being renamed, and I wasn’t going to go through the 24 different ways of arranging W, N, T & E in the gaps in _S_A_I_I. (If I had the same clue to solve tomorrow, I’d probably still fail.)
Thanks anyway to Paul, and to PeterO who deserves a medal for understanding the whole thing; “even if he sails a little too close to the wind for my comfort in one or two places” may be a contender for the understatement of the year.
sh @49
Yes, I could quote the inimitable Pulp – – Sorted for Es and whizz!
More fun from Paul, with a couple of Greek islands left over from his recent brilliant Prize puzzle. My favourites were Paul’s cameo appearance as ULPA, crony as HAGGISh, and getting that anagram from Cypriot man. ESWATINI had to be googled to confirm, though it couldn’t really be anything else. Thanks both.
1961Blanchflower @51. If it couldn’t be anything other than ESWATINI, why Google it? I guess what you mean is that you were pleased to have got it right first time. But it could have been any of these:
ESTAWINI
ESTANIWI
ESWANITI
ESNATIWI
ESNAWITI
sh @ 49
To my surprise HAGGISH is in Chambers, so it’s not a ‘non-existent adjective’.
And Crony > < crone is an example of a (too) regular Paul trope to generate answers ending in -ish or -y, which I think he overplays and get bored with. But it’s probably me, as so many swoon every time he appears.
poc @16, Miche @19 – Here in Oz, I only ever heard ‘fly’ for trouser zip, until I travelled and met some Poms. Never could work out why they pluralised it.
Great puzzle! Only nit to pick – the “plastered” in 15 ac. seems superfluous, no? It misled me for a long time…
NNI @46
Chambers tells me that cos the lettuce is named for Cos (or Kos, following the Greek more closely) the island.
Simon S @53. I probably should have made myself clearer. I was aware that haggish was in Chambers, but crony as an adjective is not!
Fun but slow. Biffed in PATRONYMIC, AMOEBA and HAGGIS, had no clue how to get there.
poc @16 “Crony” is an adjective in the sense of the clue — “crony” meaning “like a crone” as “haggish” means “like a hag.”
I got more fun reading the last third of the comments than I did from the puzzle.
A lot of non-nonsensical clues and (to me) unparsable answers.
Well done PeterO
The bottom half went in quite quickly. In the top half I had three iffy answers: MEA CULPA (didn’t see the PAUL anagram), AMAZON (giantess, not really) and HAGGIS (I did see like a crone, but didn’t like it). I knew Swaziland had changed its name and had SWATI in the name somewhere, luckily Wikipedia redirected from the old name.
Yes Jay, (@55), I would say “plastered” is actually wrong, not just superfluous (and a cheap device thrown in merely to confuse). To me, you plaster the outside of something… And indirect anagrams? – Don’t get me started 🙂
Got fed up with this crossword! Way too abstruse for my old brain.
Glad PeterO could untangle it. Thanks.