Guardian Cryptic 28,271 by Tramp

91 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,271 by Tramp”

1. This was far from easy, but I can’t quite put my finger in why it wasn’t a fun solve, more of a grind in fact. I think PeterO may have said it better, already. Likewise for me, PLAZA went in first, along with the two big and obvious anagrams (1D and 8A) giving the appearance of a general write-in, but the rest was a slog. NAUSEANTS was – perhaps appropriately – the last one in.

2. I agree with rodshaw – a struggle and many a guess and check of bits and pieces of clues. Six left unparsed: 4a and d, 1, 6, 13 and 14d, so thanks for these PeterO

    

   Thanks, too, Tramp

3. Bit the same, with only a few of the acrosses, but then it unravelled with pleasant rumination rather than slog. A few hmmms, like did canary get shortened from canary-bird? And not oxidising but oxidating (a rare equivalent, apparently). Spalpeen was as per on the tin, but nho. The bi-purpose ‘breaks’ in 24ac was pretty neat. Started by looking for two letters for ‘in court’ (up?) in 25ac, but no, it was just ct, forget the ‘in’. Only just now clicked VD for STI in 3d, d’oh. Entered tap dancer and then got the ‘tower’ bit. And so on…a bit of a cogitate in general, but quite fun, no nausea. Thanks Tramp and PeterO.

4. I rather enjoyed that though my 3 am brain could not parse some of it. Thank you to PeterO for explaining TAP DANCER (I had completely missed the reindeer.. ) and the ABH bit of ABHORRENT. As children my sister, my friends and I signed off letters with oodles of hugs and kisses: XOXOXOXO. The middle-of-the-night blog is much appreciated, so thank you to PeterO also for that, and to Tramp for the fun puzzle.

5. Much like GinF I wondered about canary-bird (reminded me of the American tendency to refer to tuna as tuna-fish) and hadn’t encountered oxidating before. Didn’t pass 6dn but got a giggle out of tower of presents when it was explained to me (thanks PeterO). All in all an enjoyable enough solve, if not particularly challenging.

6. Oops! Parse not pass

7. The first part of “Congo” had me fooled; an “Andantino” is not that slow. And does a radiotherapist really use “waves”?–although I guess that a radio-broadcasting therapist might… But once I got on right wave-length, this was fun: thanks to all.

8. If I remember correctly,  oxidating and oxidizing are maybe not 100% the same:  both can refer to combining with oxygen, but oxidizing also can mean removing electrons (the opposite of reducing), not sure if oxidating can mean this too.

   As for the puzzle as a whole, I did not find it the slog others have reported, but instead, unusually for a Tramp for me, it went in rather smoothly.  But then I did have a large mug of Deathwish coffee earlier.

9. Thanks to Peter O for the prompt blog which explained a couple parses where I had solved the definitions but not the wordplay, e.g. 10d TONE-DEAF, 4d REHEARING (as mentioned by Dave@2), and 13d ABHORRENT. Like grant@3 and Desmodeus@6, I had a question mark beside the -BIRD after CANARY at 11a/5d. However overall, I enjoyed this offering from Tramp and felt particularly chufffed when I unravelled the long answers. Isn’t 21a SCALPEEN a gorgeous word – I was imagining my Irish cousins prounouncing it very differently from me! And I too got a broad smile out of “tower of presents” in the clue for TAP DANCER at 6d. Many thanks to Tramp.

10. Needed to come here for parsing “dancer” in 6D. D’oh! I am inclined to agree with PeterO regarding 4A; I was always taught to butt WITH my head but FROM the waist, to impart more power and reduce the risk of neck injury.

11. Thanks Peter, your blog echoes my experience almost exactly!

    I thought it was going to be easy when I wrote in PIAZA for 1a (hoping Piazza and Peewit were  similar from earlier in the week), so Plaza was fine after chech this!

     

    I was defeated by 21a however, with only the second P to get to complete the crossword, I thought I had tried P already so ended up revealing one poxy letter :O)

     

    Good to know it wasn’t easy for everyone- now back to see how 22 was put together in a very modern looking clue! I was almost embarrassed by it.

12. Whoops , I meant 25 , how on earth did you unravel that lot? Brilliant.

13. I really enjoyed this – a fine tussle which took quite a lot of work. Hadn’t heard of SPALPEEN; and for me PLAZA was LOI rather than first as for PeterO. I enjoyed the long anagrams, CYSTITIS and POOCH. Many thanks to T & P.

     

14. Wiggers @10: you were taught to butt???  I bet that’s not on the school curriculum these days.

    I wasn’t really on Tramp’s wavelength today and this was not a stroll in the park.  My knowledge of musical instructions is largely crossword-based and ANDANTINO was a dnk.  No issues with it but couldn’t assemble the elements, even with the crossers so a dnf.  I couldn’t parse ABHORRENT or TONE DEAF and I am still struggling to see how the wordplay in 4ac leads to REBUTTAL.

    I did see the tower of presents though and enjoyed it like others above and I share JinA’s delight in SCALPEEN.  It was also satisfying to assemble, bit by bit, GATEPOSTS and CYSTITIS and, whilst the four long anagrams were fairly obvious, I rather liked them all – especially XYLOPHONISTS for the definition.

    Thanks Tramp and PeterO (and Beobachterin @4 for explaining the equivalence of O and hug which is completely new to me but I see it’s even in Wikipedia!)

15. Quite a few write-ins here and a couple of the longer answers went in quickly, leading to a fairly quick completion today. Not a slog for me, but perhaps I was on Tramp’s wavelength today. Thanks Tramp and PeterO.

16. Next time you’re inflicting ABH, or at least knocking a bloke’s hat off, remember the wise words of John O’ Donnel in “Rollicking Shannon”

17. It’s a good job Tramp’s definitions are sound, because I always struggle with the parsing.

    Thanks to T and PeterO.

18. I really quite enjoyed this. Broad smile, almost a chuckle at TAP DANCER. Also AVOID brought a grin for misdirection. SCALPEEN was also much appreciated as a word is never heard of but got through the careful clueing. Thanks to Tramp and PeterO

19. Thanks Tramp and PeterO

    I enjoyed constructing some of the answers – XYLOPHONISTS in particular; REBUTTAL another favourite.

    Why “driver” in 14d (my LOI)? You don’t need to be in a car to go through gateposts.

    I taught chemistry for nearly 40 years and never came across OXIDATING – “oxidation”, yes.

20. A dnf as I didn’t know SPALPEEN and didn’t guess GATEPOSTS; to be honest I’m rather with those who found it a bit of a slog, so I used Reveal for these two, sooner than I’d have done if I was really enjoying it. I did like TAP-DANCER.

    From the point of view of the recipient, a butt is a strike from the head, so I had no problem with 4a.

    Thanks both.

21. Interesting to see a slight diversity of opinions here. I often struggle with Tramp and find myself at odds with the general praise for his puzzles, but I found today’s a very smooth and enjoyable solve.
    Thanks all.

22. muffin @19: are you being a tad harsh?  Driver works well with the surface and is surely a decent definition by example.  And who’s to say the driver’s in a car?  Could have got out – or could be herding cattle.

23. I also found this relatively straightforward for a Tramp. SPALPEEN was new, but everything else slotted in neatly. CYSTITIS and XYLOPHONISTS gave me a chuckle when faced with Tramp’s typically perverse view of definitions.

24. I loved this! So much so that I promoted descaling the espresso machine to the top of my todo list so I could finish it off while restoring full caffeine capability. And they say men can’t multitask 🙂

    I thought that REBUTTAL was maybe RE BUTT = “of strike from head” and AL = the lines (in the sense of limits) of “actual”

     

25. It’s fascinating how solvers’ experiences differ. I found this one of the easiest Tramp puzzles I have done – and lots of fun into the bargain.

    I thought all the long anagrams were very clever and witty and I also had ticks for CANARY BIRD (loved the ‘flying Ryanair’), the delightfully succinct CONGO, CYSTITIS (for its intricate construction, rather than for painful memories of the condition). Like others, I loved the ‘tower of presents’ and SPALPEEN, which I dredged up from some dim memory and enjoyed working out the clever wordplay.

    Thanks for your comment, DuncT @21, which appeared after I started typing.

    Many thanks to Tramp for a fun start to the day and to PeterO for the blog.

     

26. Muffin @19 to play devil’s avocado, it does say “might”. I had a vision of hurling my golf clubs through the gateposts after an unspeakably bad round

27. And two more comments in between, from Boffo and bodycheetah – I’m a bit slow this morning!

28. Not too bad but not too good either!   FOI was ANDANTINO followed by PLAZA but really struggled with TAP DANCER not really being into the whole impending christmas thing (which we are told is going to be “bumpy”) even after reading the blog!

    DNK SPALPEEN – nice word; must both aspire to and use it more.

    Thanks Tramp and PeterO

29. To clarify, I had come across “oxidate”, but as a noun rather than a verb.

    [bodycheetah @26 – you’ve reminded me of a story a fellow golfer told me. While he was having a libation at the nineteenth hole, he watched a golfer walk off the eighteenth green and throw his clubs, bag and all, into the lake. Half an hour later the golfer returned, waded into the lake, picked up the bag, retrieved his car keys, then threw the bag back in.]

     

     

     

30. Two thoughts…

    1. ‘Tower of presents’ meaning reindeer is one of the most charming puns I’ve encountered!

    2. ‘Lit’ is also an synomym for ‘tight’ in yoof slang – the former being more recent than the latter, both meaning good (or bad…)

31. As most have said, it was the parsing with a few that was the problem – well done PeterO.

    Its been said before that clues should be solve-able from the wordplay rather than just definition then try to parse.

    In some here, although bits could be found, it seemed to me that there was no logical progression in putting them together.

     

32. [Penfold @16:  I’m assuming the SPALPEEN had been caught mid-XOXO 😉 ]

    I’m more with the DuncT school of thought on this one.   Big ticks for XYLOPHONISTS and TAP DANCER.

    Thanks Tramp and PeterO, and thanks also to Gillafox @30 for enlarging my street vocab.  Do the yoof apply ‘lit’ and ‘tight’ to things as well as people?  If so, I’ll describe this crossword as lit, tight, bad, wicked and sick (but maybe not rough?)

33. I found this a fun solve, and quite mild by Tramp’s standards. Particularly liked the four well constructed long anagrams.
    I parsed 4a as RE BUTT = of strike, and AL = actual lines, ie ‘from head’.
    Thanks Tramp & PeterO.

34. I thought this was very entertaining; a mixture of some, almost Quiptic-style clues (eg for AT SEA and TESTS) with many more that were chewy.

    I constructed SPALPEEN from the wordplay and thought: “Can that really be a word?” And it was.

    As muffin @19 said, I can’t think of anyone using the term OXIDATING instead of oxidis/(z)/ing these days. However, it’s in the dictionaries, so it’s fair.

    I loved the clues for TONE-DEAF and CYSTITIS, (and now the ‘tower’ has been explained in the blog – ouch! Not again I’ve got caught by this) TAP DANCER.

    Thanks Tramp for a fine crossword and PeterO for unravelling the mysteries.

35. 21ac – did anyone else try looking up “Skisseen” – from one of Prince’s best-known records?

36. I enjoyed this. SPALPEEN new to me also but I agree with JinA and others, a great word. Took a moment to see CYSTITIS, as from the definition my first thought was prostatism, but it didn’t fit nor parse. Fav clue: XYLOPHONISTS. Thanks to Tramp and PeterO.

37. Re Canary bird this is from Wordsworth’s Solitary Reaper:

    A voice so thrilling ne’er was heard
    In spring-time from the Cuckoo-bird,
    Breaking the silence of the seas
    Among the farthest Hebrides.

38. I found this hard and even when I guessed the answer sometimes could not parse. I liked the long clues – got three of them quite easily, then guessed 9d from the description and second letter alone but did not spot that it too was an anagram (duh).

    Thanks to Tramp and to PeterO for the much needed help parsing.

39. G & D above: No, but I did try “samimeen”, with MIM as 1999!

40. Phew.  That was quite a grind but got there in the end with only REBUTTAL unparsed.  Still don’t quite see how it works.

    If a chemistry teacher of 40 years (muffin @19) has never heard of OXIDATING, I feel exonerated.

    A fair enough puzzle but with rather too many ‘spose moments for me to properly enjoy.  (Chuckled at the ‘tower of presents, though).

    Many thanks PeterO, sterling work.

     

41. A little bit of trouble parsing but no more than is usual for me, the likes of O for hug. But the trouble with uncertain parsing is that you doubt yourself. So on 12a I biffed in ‘oxidising’, cos I’ve heard of that in chemistry, and left the parsing to sort itself out later. But then 13d didn’t work, and I saw the error of my ways.
    I’m another who found this fairly straightforward for a Tramp. I found I was getting a good few more clues than usual from winkling out which bit forms the def, which worked well with the long anagrams today.

42. For the first time in my life I can say I enjoyed CYSTITIS. greensward and Grim and Dim another samimeen from me. Wish I had got tower of presents. Clunky CANARY BIRD well worth it for the surface as Eileen suggests. An ejoyable solve enhanced by a helpful blog.

43. I’m in the “I enjoyed this and didn’t find it especially hard” camp. I hadn’t heard of SPALPEEN, but the clue told you exactly what to do. I also didn’t know the abbreviation ABH –thanks to PeterO for explaining. Otherwise, I have nothing to add to what’s already been said.

44. Probably my quickest ever solve of the Guardian cryptic, though I admit that I didn’t give too much thought to the ‘tower of presents’ (thanks PeterO for the parsing of that) and couldn’t see how REBUTTAL was put together (not sure about PeterO’s parsing – I prefer bodycheetah @24 or greensward @33). [Like PostMark @14, I’m glad I wasn’t at school with wiggers.]

    The four long anagrams were easy to solve, but their witty definitions made them enjoyable, as was most of the rest of the puzzle. (Sorry, rubbing it in a bit here to make up for all the times that rodshaw (see #1) has said how easy he found what I had ground out over the course of several hours. I’m sure the boot will be back on the other foot very soon.)

    [greensward @39 & Petert @42: see Saturday’s blog (muffin @77) for why MIM is not 1999.]

45. Slow starting this today.

    Had never come across O to mean hug.  Clearly I’m too old.

    And didn’t know why the tower was DANCER.

    Not too happy with GOT for managed in 18 ac either.  I can’t think of a sentence where they would be equivalents.

    Otherwise, thanks to Tramp and PeterO.

46. [muffin @19 & 29, bodycheetah @26: briefly revisiting the driver who may or may not be in his car, I was thinking of this from the delightful You Have Been Warned by Fougasse and McCullough.  It was part of the Roads Scholarship:

    Question: A motorist comes suddenly out of a small side road, dashes straight across a main line of traffic against the lights, mounts the pavement, runs right up the steps of a publichouse, crashes through the door and finally comes to rest hard up against the bar.  Is he liable for damages?

    Answer: No, not unless he has his car with him.]

47. sheffield hatter @44/Muffin. Thanks for that. Unfortunately ‘SAMCMXCIXEEN’ wouldn’t fit!

48. I really enjoyed this.  Meaningful surfaces throughout and AVOID was brilliant. Loved the ‘tower of presents’ too.

49. Anna @45: “I failed English Lit, but got/managed a B in Finnish”?

50. Really enjoyed this one. Loved XYLOPHONISTS. I got 6d using the short clue and other letters, but still have absolutely no idea why a ‘tower of presents’ means Santa’s reindeer. Can anyone enlighten me?

51. Graeme @50 – tower to rhyme with lower, rather than power. 😉

52. As with others only one not parsed was 6dn. Good fun and all went in at a good rate. FOI 8ac LOi 13dn.

53. Graeme Calvert a tower is one who tows (pronounced ‘toes’).

54. essexboy @ 49

    Ah yes!  That will do it.  Thank you Sir from Essex.

    And I taught at a school in Essex, too !

55. Got there in the end but parsing a nightmare. Began to think there was a pangram. Ta for explanations

56. Given that commenters today fall into two camps – those who ‘got’ ‘tower of presents’ and those who didn’t – herewith the results of some cursory research:

    St Nicholas dates back to the 3rd Century but Father Christmas doesn’t make his appearance in the UK until the mid 17th Century (first pictured riding on a goat (unknown whether it was herbivore or omnivore)).  Santa Claus was meanwhile developing his presence in North America and was first associated with a sleigh and reindeer in 1820.

    The eight named reindeer first appeared in the US in the Clement C. Moore poem A Visit From St Nicholas (also known as ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) in 1823 though they were listed as Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder and Blixem.  Rudolph made his appearance in 1939 in a story by US writer Robert Lewis May and the song appeared ten years later with an introductory verse including

    “You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
    Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen,
    But do you recall
    The most famous reindeer of all?”

    Discretion, for once, has got the better of me and I’m resisting the urge to be risque, merely confining myself to the observation that, if Dancer is a reindeer from Lapland, s/he’s presumably a Lapp Dancer!  …I’ll get my goat…

     

    Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen,
    Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen

57. PostMark @ 56

    Everybody here in Finland knows that the Joulupukki (aka Father Christmas) lives on the Korvatunturi, a mountain in NE Finland on the border with Russia.  Presumably he has dual citizenship.

58. I’m with DuncT@21 on Tramp’s puzzles in general, and I also agree with him that this was rather fine.  As Eileen said it was one of his easiest but unlike her I could not summon up SPALPEEN from anywhere, so actually a DNF.  muffin @ 19 I was an organic chemist for over thirty years – albeit in the applied field – and have also never come across OXIDATING, but it still went straight in so can’t complain.  Thanks Tramp for the fun, and thanks PeterO for explaining the rather brilliant ‘tower of presents’ among others!

59. @Postmark boom boom 🙂

60. Anna @57: it will be interesting to see what challenges he’ll face popping in and out of the UK post Brexit.  I picture the reindeer meeting the ‘non existent’ border half way over the Irish Sea.

61. Thanks both,

    6d rather begs the question whether tap dancing can be considered as entertainment. But it did give a smile.

62. Tyngewick @61 – as someone who grew up watching the legendary Roy Castle on Record Breakers, your words are little more than heresy to me l. :p

63. Aha! Thanks Eileen @51. Much appreciated!

64. I remembered SPALPEEN from reading Victorian comic stories written in stage-Irish: I would love to know if it is actually used by real Irishpersons, or whether it belongs in the dressing-up box along with faith-and-begorrah and the like.

    Like many others I fell into the OXIDISING trap and loved the tower of presents. I never did work out CYSTITIS though I have painfully vivid memories of the thing itself.

    PostMark: delighted to find another Fougasse & McCullough reader. Ho for the open road!

65. I was a chemist for 40 years and I never heard of OXIDATING either.

66. sheffield hatter @44

    As I hinted in the blog, I saw other possible parsings for 4A REBUTTAL, but in the cold light of day I see no compelling reason for changing my choice; in particular, I winced at the suggestion of greensward @33 that ‘from head’ should give the first letter of two words. As beaulieu @20 points out, ‘from head’ make more sense – at least grammatically – from the perspective of the buttee rather than the butter.

    Incidentally, Chambers lists CANARY-BIRD, meaning either canary or jailbird.

67. The Irish rascal was totally beyond my ken, but thought the anagrams for PARATROOPERS, RADIOTHERAPISTS and XYLOPHONISTS excellent. All in a day’s work…

68. I genuinely adored this one. Thought it perhaps my favourite crossword of the year so far. Surprised to see so many others felt differently. So many things to love. The “tower of presents” was obviously wonderful, but there were lots of great bits all over, and then super smooth clues like Plaza too. Maybe I just like Tramp’s style. Almost every clue is a fun thing to read in it’s own right. (I struggle with some setters who write clues that – even if well-constructed – are as dull as dishwater.) Many thanks to setter and blogger for a fun afternoon.

69. I really loved this. Couldn’t parse TONE-DEAF – so many thanks PeterO. Favourites were SPALPEEN, LIMIT, OXIDATING and TAP DANCER. Tramp – I raise my hat to you.

    [SPALPEEN is a memory from my youth, playing in an Irish Ceili Band, which we named The Spalpeens because one of our dads used to call us that – and also Latchicos (regardless of gender!). So if the latter comes up, you heard it here first. Thanks to Penfold for the picture. DANCER I got because one of my favourite trivia questions is “Can you name all of Santa’s reindeers?”…]

70. [Pauline in Brum @69 – I was about to become all pedantic on you with Ceili until I decided to check and it turns out that Ceili (with an acute accent on the “e” and the second “i”) is the Irish one whereas the Scottish one is a Ceilidh (with a grave accent on the e).  So thank you for making me learn something else new today!  It also made me realise just how much I’m missing my trips to the pubs of Cork and Limerick at the moment 🙁 ]

71. PeterO @66. Thanks for responding

    On reflection, I agree with you that ‘from head’ (greensward @33) is too horrible to contemplate if it is supposed to indicate the initial letters of the next two words. I toyed with the idea of it referring solely to the first letter of actual, with lines indicating the letter l, but this won’t do; line can be l,  but lines would be ll.

    I quite like the suggestion from bodycheetah @24 where he uses ‘lines’ in the sense of limits, as in across the county line, or over the Mason-Dixon line. So, the outer limits of ActuaL? This still requires ‘of strike from head’=RE BUTT; both of and re mean concerning, so this seems to work.

    I agree that your parsing of BUTT inside REAL looks a likely reading, but (as you commented yourself in the blog) the clue reads the other way round, if we understand ‘lines’ as taking the meaning found in lining a cake tin or applying lining paper to the walls of a room. I can’t at the moment think of any context when to line something would be to put something on the outside of something else. Or at least I couldn’t when I typed that sentence, but waht about a crowd lining a street?

72. Not so much that I couldn’t parse some of them, but that I couldn’t be (p)arsed, after so many similar clues.  A good crossword, which I didn’t think I’d finish, until the style of envelopes clicked. LOI was CANARY BIRD. I simply didn’t spot the CD element.

73. sh @71: interesting last thought of yours.  A crowd lining a street.  I’m not sure that’s the same sense of lining as your paper in a cake tin.  Or, if it is, the houses form the outer layer of the street and the people, thus, become the lining.  Which seems a bit tortuous.  I think lining in the street sense is indicating being in a line (rather in the sense of lining up but perhaps more lining along).  People, trees and buildings can line a street so I’m not sure the the sense of ‘providing a lining’ is met.  So I don’t think that’s the way out of the 4ac ‘wrong way round problem’.

74. On SPALPEEN: the word occurs at page 32 line 16 of Finnegans Wake. Not that that makes it any more everyday.

75. PM @73. I was thinking along the same lines (sorry!) as you when I thought of lining a street. But then I thought, what does the street consist of? Is it simply the carriageway, or is it the road, pavement, houses and shops? If the latter, then the crowd lining the street performs the same function as the lining paper (cake tin/bedroom wall). But then, don’t the houses, shops, trees, railings also line the street?

    It seems to me that when the crowd at a bike race line the road, they are standing on the outside of the road, or very often on both sides, just as the letters RE and AL do on the sides of the word BUTT.

76. My final word on lines, as I’m going out to the pub while I still can. This from Merriam-Webster on tree-lined roads. And some nice images of trees lining the roads. (RE trees on the left, AL trees on the right!)

    I hope Tramp doesn’t turn up and see how long it took us to parse 4a…

77. [sh @76: hmmm.  For openers, I should observe that I’ve seen others get into debates with you at this stage of the day and it doesn’t end well.  Last time, you sentenced someone to be taken out and thot!]

    I do quite like your second paragraph.  It’s seductive … but I fear it’s misleading.  The crowd – be they people, elks, insects, goats or reindeer – are in lines along the street and, yes, on the outside of the carriageway but I can’t see them ‘providing a lining’.  Surely that’s what should result from the application of the verb.  I’m sticking with my “they’re in lines” interpretation.  Which doesn’t help with 4ac I’m afraid.

78. PeterO@66, sheffield hatter@71. I’m not trying to defend the cryptic grammar, but simply suggesting a construction which has been employed numerous times before, by various setters, whereby a singular noun (in this case ‘head’) is used to denote the initial letters of multiple words. It seems to pass muster as far as the crossword editor is concerned.

79. Got pretty well stuck in NW, as had GO TOWARDS at 18ac, which meant i spent far too long trying something to fit 16dn before usyng ‘check’ for SERGEANT. which showed that it was wrong.

    BTW, not surprised 12ac was unheard-of as Collins shows it had pretty well dropped out of use by the 19th century – but wordplay left no doubt.

80. Quite a bit of looseness as per previous comments but one that hasn’t been mentioned.

    How does ANTI = “one against”?

    ANTI is a preposition or prefix, not a noun.

81. jeceris @80

    From Collins online:  ANTI – NOUN. an opponent of a party, policy, etc

    Liked the puzzle.  I found I got most of the answers on the first pass.  I don’t agree with the suggestion that Tramp’s clues are hard to parse before guessing the answer first.  I find, of all the setters, his clues are amongst the most helpful in constructing the answers.

    Thanks, Tramp and PeterO.  I think your original parsing of REBUTTAL (with BUTT as a noun) is fine.  As sheffield hatter @76 suggests, tree-lined means trees on the outside.  Interesting example of a dual-purpose indicator in “lines” – can mean either inside (as in coat lining) or outside!

82. Hi phitonelly @81

    You just beat me to it  re ‘anti’.

    I’ve also been trying to compose a response  re ‘lining’ – I remember a lengthy discussion on this years ago. I think it’s one of those autantantonyms that we talk about from time to time. I was going to use almost the same analogy as you – pocket rather than coat – so many thanks for that!

83. jeceris@80: I dunno though.  I am ANTI-something = I am one against something.  No? [other offerings intervened]

    Nice to see Pauline in Brum@69 reporting recent usage of SPALPEEN – it would be borderline stage Irish (cf gladys@64) but it’s amazing that such expressions still bubble up in the right place. I have a friend who when offered a pint (this would be while in the starting blocks) will always say either “Begor I will” or “Ah Jaysus no”.  I was recently remonstrated with for referring to a distant social nuisance as a clúracán: that person, I was politely informed, might be a luadar, but he was certainly no clúracán.  It’s all a question of degree apparently.  A SPALPEEN would probably be no harm, but not to be trusted nonetheless. A latchico on other hand would be up to mischief.

     

84. Thanks Tramp. Liked OXIDATING, POOCH, and TAP DANCER among others. I understood tower quite readily but I tried to wedge Santa into the answer at 1st. SPALPEEN and ANDANTINO were new to me. If it weren’t for the anagrams this would have been a slog. Thanks PeterO for parsing.

85. I try not to drive through gate posts, but do occasionally scrape through. Driving between them is better.

86. Second time this week, in totally different contexts, I’ve come across Rudolph’s mates. 3rd day running that one clue has defeated me. This time it was SPALPEEN which was totally unknown to me. Got good starts with all 4 long clues and ANDANTINO going in early. Not come across OXIDATING or NAUSEANTS either but parsing was fairly obvious so OK with those. Enjoyed CYSTITIS and TAP DANCER and did not find 13d too abhorrent.

87. [PostMark @77: the firing thquad is reserved for perpetrators of dreadful puns. And they usually know they’ve deserved what’s coming to them (I’m sure essexboy will agree). My record shows that I’m prepared more than happy to change my mind when the evidence is there, as in this case. The most important thing, whatever you do in life, is to have fun while doing so. Hope you liked the images of tree-lined streets!]

    Eileen @82. Thanks for the autantonym reminder. I’m sure I must have missed that earlier discussion about lines/lining, so make no apology for revisiting.

    [What a lovely word autantonym is! Not in the same class as spalpeen (or clúracán, luadar or latchico, though – thanks to Alphalpha @83. It’s a shame that “Ah Jaysus no” is easier to say than “Begor I will”. 😉 )   ]

88. hatter @87: I think, when the dreadful pun revolution comes, Penfold will also find himself up against the wall.  And one or two others come to mind who can relax in anonymity for now.  Bon soir.

89. Thanks PeterO, I thought this was a classy puzzle. Not sure about ‘managed’ still (since in essexboy’s example it is short for ‘managed to get’). Having tried to clue XYLOPHONIST myself, I enjoyed Tramp’s clue for the plural.
    Thanks Tramp.

90. Just to add to the general OXIDATING debate: although it’s not strictly dictionary, I found the term of use when teaching A-Level. We used OXIDATING to mean ‘losing electrons in a redox reaction’ and OXIDISING to mean ‘reacting with oxygen’. Made it clearer for students and exam board confirmed usage was OK in exam answers.

    Surprised it hasn’t caught on more.

91. Important distinction, Norman edward Armitage! Thanks, Tramp. I particularly loved your clueing of the 5-letter solutions.

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