Guardian 28,296 – Paul

85 comments on “Guardian 28,296 – Paul”

1. I opened this at midnight with trepidation just to get a feel for it but after FOI, MADE UP, it was done and dusted within 30 minutes. Some nice clues such as PHILANDER, WHOOPSIE and MIAWOED, but this must be the easiest Paul I have ever completed. I look forward to other comments. Ta Andrew & Paul

2. Perhaps the ‘potty’ references in the clues for 2d and 6d could be emptied into the solution for 4d? Well find out tonight.

   Thanks Andre and Paul

3. Agree with AlanC @ 1 that this is an easier-than-average Paul.  But still very enjoyable.

   Loved CANNABIS, WHOOPSIE, BEEKEEPER, PHILANDER, MIAOWED.  I’m not sure I would have got WHOOPSIE, were it not for the two easy clues KRONE and CRIER.

   Didn’t know that MILLET is another name for cannabis.

   KVETCH was new to me.

   Thanks Paul and Andrew.

4. Anna, I think it’s that millet is a grass.

5. .. (or did I fall in?)

6. … and maybe a 5d could end up a 4d too

7. Too dim to get miaowed, stared at the crossers for ages. Otherwise, yes an joyable solve, not fast but gentle enough. Both elipsis clues have shared defs, that’s pretty rare isn’t it? I remember chuckling at Phil and ER before, but it feels like ages ago. Otoh, my supermodel gk amounts to about Twiggy and Elle, but it had to be Nobel. Whoopsie is one of those cringeworthy euphemisms only allowed out in comedies. All good fun, thanks Paul and Andrew.

8. Alan @6… good spot and 25a !

9. grantinfreo @ 4

   Ah, OK.  Thanks

10. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

    4A to arrest is NAB rather than BAN.

    Yes, I enjoyed PHILANDER, but thought that I’d seen it somewhere before.

11. Well the upside is that we won’t have Pottymouth Paul tomorrow.

12. Pendold @10 yes, Armonie in the FT clued PHILANDER in the same way…

    http://www.fifteensquared.net/2019/12/30/financial-times-16361-by-armonie/

     

13. I think one of the coincidences must refer to a certain royal couple’s 73rd wedding anniversary today.

14. After a long slow solve yesterday I found this more straightforward and much more enjoyable. As usual I grinned at the wit and creativity of Paul’s clues! Favourites include PHILANDER and KVETCH.

    Pottymouth or not (and I don’t really care), I welcome Paul’s puzzles, which rarely fail to raise a chuckle or two.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

15. I did get the answer, but… [am I the only person in the world to be annoyed by the widespread presumption in 18D, which just happened to turn up in a book I was reading yesterday as well? I’ve owned four cats and been on friendly terms with at least a couple of dozen. And never, ever have I known one that would drink milk, or even go near the bowl. I’ve tried. So, please, pretty please, is there anyone out there who has ever seen a cat drinking milk?]

16. Another possible coincidental solution, which would only have worked if the grid allowed for a six-letter word in the down answers, would be MADE UP as an answer to “Fabricated cheese? (4,2)”

17. blaise @15 – yes, frequently, though we never gave our cats anything other than “cat milk”, as cats are lactose intolerant.

18. Managed everything except KVETCH which was new to me. Seemed so weird to try and put a V in, do I tried to put an I in (from the answer to 5d).

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

19. Three days ago Robin asked what the Guardian setters have been smoking and there certainly seems to have been a whiff of something in the air this week.  I hope it’s not going to upset anyone or be classed as a spoiler if I observe that’s at least three solutions referring to Cannabaceae as well as DeeGee’s baking reminiscences inspired by Tramp’s puzzle on Wednesday.  Though the setters are clearly keeping themselves awake with plenty of AMERICANOs which also appear on a regular basis.

    I’m another who found this easier than Paul can be, with the exception of the NE corner where I ground to a halt.  Eventually had to reveal PREPARED and then realised the significance of the ellipsis.  I’d been looking for a solution that meant ‘freshly’ and, understandably, got nowhere.  Likewise BEEKEEPER; rather like the frequent complaint that ‘lad’ can indicate a whole range of three/four letter male names, I find the range of possible exclamations similarly tricky.  So many things could be indicated by ‘Yikes’ and ‘eek’ never came remotely close to mind.

    I thought DOMINICAN was splendidly constructed, likewise REAFFIRM and KVETCH was an unusual word to uncover.  I echo Anna in loving CANNABIS though that shouldn’t be seen as any kind of admission.  MIAOWED was excellent and brought a smile, as did WHOOPSIE – though I arrived at WHOOPIES which I thought was the same thing.  I didn’t even notice when I pressed Check All at the end.  Looking up my alternative I find it seems to be – perhaps rather unfortunately – a brown American pie.  As Penfold has noted, PHILANDER has appeared clued in a similar fashion on quite a number of previous occasions as, to be honest, has NUMBER ONE.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

20. As always with Paul, after getting a few of the easier ones, I struggled and there was considerable use of the crossword books and the check this button. But also as always I enjoyed them once I got them (although needed help with parsing a few).

    Loved KVETCH lovely word.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

21. Thanks Paul and Andrew

    In contrast to earlier posters, I found this much harder than usual, not helped by my first entry being TRAM(p) at 6a.  I was thrown by the “running on” definitions, so took ages to see MILLET – I don’t this one is quite fair, as usually if the ellipsis means anything, it refers to the solution of the previous clue.  I had no idea what was going on in RED PEPPER, and didn’t see the EN in ENCORE. The only LeBon I’ve ever heard of is Simon of that ilk, singer with Duran Duran, and hardly a supermodel.

    I liked DOMINICAN and HOLDALL.

22. Great fun as usual – I always enjoy Paul’s toilet humour. I expect our US colleagues would have found KVETCH very straightforward – Yiddish words are much more commonly used in American English.

    I think the first use of that construction for PHILANDER (in the form: ‘Royal couple flirt’) was in a puzzle by Araucaria quite a while ago.

23. Having read the posts that arrived whilst I was composing mine, I have to say I think today is an odd day to pick to take a swipe at “pottymouth Paul”.  If WHOOPSIE is as bad as it gets, I’d have no problems putting this one in front of my grandmother.  (Though I might have to suggest CANNABIS is just a vegetable!).  Potty itself does appear but not in a context or with a definition that should upset the sensitive and even NUMBER ONE avoided the obvious.

24. Brilliant Andrew.

    I am still learning the use of punctuation marks.

    Wasn’t sure if “…” was a link to another clue, or whether grass and millet were coincidental.

    Now I know. Thank you.

     

    The use of “:” still does not convey anything to me personally, in fact it adds to my confusion.

     

25. muffin @21: Simon Le Bon is married to Yasmin Le Bon.

26. Whatever “tough but fair” means, I think this was the epitome of that…

    As regards “I could probably dumped two more solutions in a third. Can you see where?” I think “dumped” here referes to clues of-and-related-to poo:

    – Clue 1 is obviously 25a WHOOPSIE;

    – Clue 2 is 4d CESSPIT;

    – I think the “…in a third…” would mean that 5d “NUMBER ONE” could have been “NUMBER TWO” and therefore the third clue to have a “two” “dumped” in it.

    Hoping I am right but worrying as to what prize may be handed out – a loo roll, perhaps?

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

27. PS it was in a Guardian Prize crossword in November 2008

28. Gervase @22: Yiddish is full of lovely words – may I suggest Leo Rosten’s “The Joys of Yiddish” which is never too far from my reading list.

    [I managed to sneak past “Schmaltz” in a dull-as-ditchwater academic paper a couple of years ago reinforncing my belief that peer-reviewers only ever look for the affiliation and read the abstract…]

29. Interesting that no-one has picked up on what must be Paul’s other “coincidence”: 1across. I believe today is that modern phenomenon known as “Black Friar Day”? Good to see MIAOWED spelt in the good old British manner; great clue too. As for his scatological references: par for the course. If you want droppings from a setter, he’s the manure looking for.

30. Thanks Andrew, couldn’t parse my LOI REAFFIRM as I fixated on do re mi etc for the notes but eventually hit on the solution – also couldn’t see what “reviewing” was doing in there – now I think it is a very good clue thanks to your explanation.

    I didn’t really get where RED = rare came from except for some idea that it means endangered animals (is/was there such a thing as the red list?), if your explanation is right Andrew I think it is a little weak from Paul (rare steak is more likely to be called blue isn’t it?).

    I hadn’t seen PHILANDER before so gave me a smile once I had got past the infinitive to realise it worked grammatically too. In a more pernickety mood I might argue that buzzing and beeping aren’t really the same but in Cruciverbia (as Crosswordland is known on the continent) they’re probably close enough and it was a good clue I thought.

    blaise @15 I know what you mean but I think it works well enough for the clue on a “folklore” basis, and can’t think of anything that specifically a cat might  call for – eg food doesn’t really lead us towards the yowling of a cat rather than another animal.

    Lots to enjoy as well as the coincidences or otherwise noted above, just to be a bit different I will nominate CESSPIT as my NUMBER ONE today, thanks Paul.

31. [PostMark @19: just realised my spelling mistake on refers in 26 could also be narcotic… whoops]

32. ‘Potty covered in hair, as an artefact’ reminded me of Marcel Duchamp’s ‘Fountain’ (a porcelain urinal), which he described as a ‘readymade’, but could equally well be called a MAN MADE

33. [Komorník @29 I believe that your friars have to wait another week to have their day. Good gag though.

    ‘Manure looking for’ – we see what you did there. Very good. Is that enough with the poo puns, ordure prefer to carry on?]

34. [Penfold: careful – poo puns have a habit of growing excrementially]

35. I was brought up on a dairy farm and the farm cats always drank milk, but that was before anyone had heard of lactose intolerance.

    Surely the wordplay for 4D is a reverse of TIPS SEC, not PITS SEC?

36. [Penfold @ 33

    I can’t but Jerry can!}

37. [MaidenBartok @34: now you’re just being faecestious … I’ll get my coat …]

38. [PostMark @37: ha! I believe we are one pun away from a Royal Flush? Your coat or mine?]

39. Only one of the five cats I have owned drank milk, and then only evaporated milk. None of them would touch “cat milk”.

40. Thanks, Penfold. My inbox is so full of B, um, F material already that I thought it must be today. Oh dear, another week of hysteria. Of course the clue involving “carp” gives more scope; we also have a clue beginning “Cop” – as in coprolite etc. Paul must surely soon move on to another hobby-horse: nearly all the excretion-related jokes exhausted, dropping like flies. Of course the reverse is true also.

    On the major “coincidence” (or big job), Mrs K is astonished that anyone could live with a British man for 73 years. As we now live near Sandringham, she’s always looking over the fence to see how they do it.

41. It is impossible, to my mind, not to enjoy a Paul. And what can be more important to a crossword addict than enjoyment? He has a graceful way of shaping his phrases ambiguously so that definitions can be as much fun as the wordplay (eg “Setter’s dropping….” in the lovely WHOOPSIE clue, “chamber pots” in HOLDALL and “Switch units…” in FUSE BOX, the last two being examples of “Lift and Separate” clues).
    All lovely stuff. Ive said it before, and will again, how does he keep on doing it?!
    Great blog.
    Many thanks both and all.

42. I find myself at odds with many of the comments above, both in difficulty level and nature of the clues.  For me, a third great puzzle in a row … and happy days are here again …. . Difficult to get a base on the grid, thought (wrongly) I had it with the only easy clues (KRONE and KVETCH), but the NE segment was actually the first to fall. Almost every clue had to be wrestled to the ground, but well worth the effort. PHILANDER, DOMINICAN and MIAOWED were just a few examples of excellent clues bringing broad grins. COAX finally unlocked the tough SW segment, and LOI resisted for while, but then …. WHOOPSIE … and all done. However, failed to defend the integrity of the hour, so thanks Paul, for a fascinating puzzle, and you were the clear winner.

43. I think it was this site that told me I could safely ignore the ellipsis at the end of clues. Hence MILLET was LOI. Clever to break that convention (if it is really a convention?). Having a “plastic cockney” accent, I solved 14d as PHIL AND ‘ER. I really liked POTS in 6d. A great finish to the week.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

44. [Komornik @39: “live with a British man?!” It’s all Greek to me…]

45. Penfold @10 and others:

    Re PHILANDER, this has been discussed here a few times before, as Andrew hinted in the blog. This is a list I shared here back in 2016 when Pasquale did something similar, and there have been several more since then: Philander and Meander clues

    That clue was a write-in for me today, but every time it comes up it impresses someone who has never seen the device. Not by any means an easy puzzle overall, but generally an entertaining one.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

46. [beeryhiker @45: your contributions ,and the record keeping you do to enable them, are hugely appreciated by those of us that find coincidence and repetition in both solutions and clueing to be fascinating.  I rather liked Shed’s clue in the list you gave.  It also gave me an opportunity to glance over the solutions from that Pasquale puzzle. I hope no-one has it on their To Do list for this afternoon when I observe that his propensity for unusual words was just as strong in 2016: Achitopel, Deneb, Gehenna and probably Maghrib would have defeated me then as they would today.]

47. Really enjoyed this much gentler that normal Paul challenge today. Very much liked WHOOPSIE and the Phil and ER, or was it Phil and ‘er?

48. Great fun, hard slog! LOI was MIAOWED, which I stared at for about half an hour. I though the link between 8a and 9a was interesting and unusual – but why not? Loved DOMINICAN, BEEKEEPER and WHOOPSIE. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

49. Echoing Togs@35: how does the clue for CESSPIT work? Is TIPS = dumping grounds? Don’t get this one.

    In any case, I found it a more difficult Paul than the last few ones (not counting the jigsaw). The clues came in bursts. A DNF as I had CRAPPER for 4d. “Dumping grounds dry up” I argued was CRAP = reverse of [PARC]hed, dry after dumping its “grounds” as in floors, and then “one of this” = PER. Quite a stretch, but it was quite a lot of guess and argue for me (like KINSHASA and BEEKEEPER)

    Was fun though, as it always is with Paul 🙂

    Thanks, PaulAndrew

50. Brain stuck in first gear, so I didn’t find it easy – I solved the bottom half but the top was unpopulated for a while.

    Adriana @49; yes, tips = dumping grounds as in refuse tips.

    I liked the use of ellipses today, and BEEKEEPER, DOMINICAN and HOLDALL.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

     

51. Adriana @49: yes, tip is a colloquial term for a waste reclamation facility and, in less developed situations, is precisely what the word says: a place where stuff is simply tipped.

52. Sucked in and spat out by Paul today. I made (for me) surprisingly rapid progress at first. I was MADE UP and had no reason to KVETCH until I came to a grinding halt in the SE corner, unable to produce a WHOOPSIE, among others, without assistance. It was also a struggle to coax my brain to see the rather obvious solution to 26.

53. akaRebornBeginner @24 & keyser soze @43. The thing about ellipses is that they are sometimes just there to make the surfaces of the adjoining clues smoother, and sometimes they have a function in terms of words in one also doing duty in the other (as definitions or even, as far as I can recall, as anagram fodder). A bit like any sort of punctuation, really, except that the ellipsis links two clues.

54. Adriana @49 (and Robi & PostMark), yes it is TIPS SEC reversed, but Andrew in his blog has muddied the waters by inadvertantly writing Reverse of PITS SEC instead.

55. I moaned about the difficulty level of Paul’s last two so credit where it was due, this was much more to my taste or shall we just say my capabilities. And with WHOOPSIE and NUMBER ONE, a couple of Paul’s trademarks too! All quite retro.

    And another thing. Paul can be quite prolix in his word count but the clues were all quite pithy here – that to HOLDALL being a shining example. I can’t join Paul online tonight as I’m expected to cook dinner (rubbish excuse I know) but if I had I would have called for more please.

56. Interesting to read the variety of reactions to Paul’s puzzle today. What I liked about it, by way of contrast with Vlad yesterday, is that whenever I got stuck, something in my brain would suddenly unstick – a bit like the tumblers in a safe, perhaps, if I had enjoyed an alternative career – and what had previously been obscure would become obvious. (This is not to criticise Vlad, except that I still don’t like 1, 18 in yesterday’s puzzle, just how my brain happened to be working on two otherwise similar days.) Perhaps it’s the presence or absence of this sort of process that has led some commenters to say it was easy whereas some found it hard.

    To some extent I suppose this is just about how the grid started to open up; for example, I could see how 15a worked (envelope of bread inside drink) but in the absence of crossers I had no inkling of the synonyms or which author we were looking for until I got the (at that stage speculative) P in 7d, when the words TOPE, ROLL and TROLLOPE all arrived at the same time. Again, with 25a I had an idea that we were looking for W with anagram of SO I HOPE, but the definition was obscure despite three crossers; then suddenly it wasn’t obscure any more and WHOOPSIE was quickly followed by MIAOWED to complete the puzzle.

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew and commenters here.

57. hatter @56: you have described my experience of both TROLLOPE and WHOOPSIE (or whoopies) precisely and, yes, MIAOWED followed immediately the W appeared where it did.

58. SH @56

    Yes, the clue for TROLLOPE is an example of my least favourite type. Obviously it will be a word for “bread” inside a word for “drink”, but there are so many alternatives that there is little chance of hitting on the right ones before guessing the solution.

59. Thank you Paul for a fun solve today which had enough difficulty to challenge but not enabled me to finish after my disaster with Vlad yesterday. Guessed at the supermodel (not my specialist subject). Favourite was 4d.

60. muffin – I agree that clues like this can seem impenetrable, and on first pass I quickly moved on, but I wrote a detailed description of how it unfolded for me (and, as it turns out, for Mark too) because I thought it was interesting how just one crosser changed the clue from absolutely impossible to ridiculously easy.

61. I initially took the definition of WHOOPSIE, “Setter’s dropping” to mean something like “Oh dear I’ve dropped something”, with setter meaning “I” rather than a dog.  I’m sure you’re right, Andrew, with the Frank Spencer interpretation, but as not all dogs are setters, shouldn’t there really be a definition-by-example indicator?

    [Re the discussion of the last few days about whether it’s ok to refer to clues/answers from a previous puzzle, I’ve just put some thoughts on the General Discussion page.]

    Many thanks Paul and Andrew.

62. My first ever “Paul”,in over three years trying, without looking up the answer (except to confirm) or being reduced to tears… Drinks are on me…

    OK so I still needed the Word Wizard for a few… But, hey, it’s progress…

63. Barobalti: Congratulations! (And thanks for the beers.)

64. Never heard of LeBon, my supermodels stop at Jean Shrimpton and Twiggy.  Fortunately, I’ve heard of Nobel. Bunged in from the definition 100%.

    blaise @15  I’ve never known a cat who didn’t like milk, though I don’t usually give them any because it’s hard for adult cats to digest.  My childhood cat Midge got diarrhea when she drank it.  But just to test your statement, I gave my current cat Zoe a little saucer with a tablespoon or so of milk in it.  She lapped it right up, and then licked and licked the little plate.  I’ve never heard of “cat milk,” though I bought some kitten formula once for four little ‘uns who got born in my camper in the garage.

    A friend and I lived on a boat with Max the cat, who loved milk.  Having no refrigerator, we’d mix up powdered milk as needed for coffee.  Max would get very excited when he saw us stirring up powdered milk and water in a glass mug — and then we’d ruin it by adding coffee, which he could see through the glass.  He’d give up in disgust.

    PostMark @19  A whoopie pie is actually not a pie but a biggish cookie, a sandwich of two rounded soft chocolate cookies with a creamy filling.  For some odd Maine whoopie lore, google the wikipedia entry for whoopie pie.  The word “whoopsie” doesn’t exist over here as far as I know, so there’s no connotation problem.

    Gervase @22 — yes, kvetch and a lot of other Yiddish words are part of my everyday vocabulary.

    keyser soze@43 What is plastic cockney?

65. Valentine @64: thanks for the confirmation/clarification.  For a quite specific topic, it’s funny how often we end up discussing pies cookies, cakes etc and the different traditions either side of the Pond.  Even without Pauls’ recent biscuity excursion.  Given Paul’s typical fare, I’m surprised he didn’t use the whoopies/whoopsie opportunity on that occasion.

    And, in case keyzer soze doesn’t pop back, plastic cockney is affecting a fake East End/cockney accent and colloquialisms and dropping aitches is very much associated with Cockney (and, indeed, often appears in clue instructions to that effect).  So ER in PHILANDER could be the conventional Elizabeth Regina or (h)er.  The latter particularly as part of ” ‘er indoors” – a rather dated and dismissive description of a wife.

66. It’s Friday and it’s Paul so I expected a tough puzzle and that’s what I ended up getting. I always try to soldier through his crosswords, however, because I usually find some amusement in them. HOBO, KVETCH, and MAN-MADE were favourites. Thanks to both.

67. Only just finished Paul’s alphabet crossword from 2 weeks ago, so confidence not high, but this was a nice one. My favourites: BEEKEEPER, PHILANDERER, DOMINICAN, COAX.

68. Great crossword. Paul’s always fun. About 40 mins which is about what I want to spend on a crossword.

69. I’m guessing Paul’s not online tonight as he would usually drop in by now to confirm ….. ?? Anyone knows differently? W

70. Never posted here before and am joining the conversation a bit too late maybe. Anyway I can usually figure out what Paul’s up to if I can fill the grid one way or another, but can anyone tell me what I’m missing with 24 please? Not sure why ‘stick’ means BAR or ‘bottom’ means BED. I’m sure it’s really obvious!

    The odd grid with only two clues joining top and bottom meant I filled in the bottom completely (with some checking, cheating etc, I’m afraid) before putting anything in the top half. Lot’s of really clever stuff from Paul today. I’ve never seen linked clues work this way before. PHILANDER may be an old chestnut but I’ve never seen it before. Really pleased to have completed this one but would be really grateful if someone could put me right on BARBED.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

     

71. Sean @70

    “Bed” is “bottom” as in “sea-bed”. I wasn’t convinced by stick=BAR either.

72. Sean Evans @70: welcome to the community and congratulations on your first post.  To address your query, bar is an accepted synonym for stick (they’re both wooden rods of a sort) and bed as in sea- or river-.

73. Sometimes not a Paul fan, but quite liked this one… lots of creative, entertaining, and well constructed clues/answers… with only a couple minor quibblets and nothing major to spoil the party. Difficulty felt roughly as yesterday, and happy to have solved it all, though with a few DNK defns, and one DNP at CESSPIT. LOI was DRAKE, also a COTD candidate; refreshing to see duck as defn rather than the usual stale wordplay!

    A couple more by-description defns today (MAN-MADE, CESSPIT), and nicely blogged. But BEEKEEPER is the one I really pondered over, as “its owner” doesn’t fully convey the defn. But might see it as straight by-synomymy if the defn is taken as non-contiguous in the clue (no rule that underlining need be unbroken, is there?)… i.e. “buzzer… owner” instead? An effective and fair (albeit tricky) clue, but challenging to denote clearly! (And perhaps no one way that would satisfy all.)

    Thanks to our setter, blogger, and commenters, for all the fun!

74. Sean Evans @70: I too was stumped by BARBED – only clue I did not fill in despite having all the crossers!  I’m guessing that bed is “bottom” like in river bed? And I guess a stick might serve as a bar or (vice-versa?) – like the stick in a high jump event is called a bar?

    This was the one clue I did not enjoy…

75. [Sean @70: as you have seen, one of the services provided by the site is the muffin.  If you ever have a parsing problem and post on here, odds are muffin will be able to help.  I’d swear he has a clever alarm set up to notify him when someone has a query like yours (and I’ve had plenty of them of my own) as he’s often there within minutes. 😀  ]

76. [PostMark @75

    🙂 ]

77. Of course! river/sea bed = bottom is very neat, I think, hope at least, on another day that would have come to me. Stick and bar as synonyms is less convincing to me, though I see the logic. Thanks everyone for your quick responses and kind words.

78. Sean/Jay/muffin: I’ve just had a Eureka moment (and, now I think of it, I might have seen this very issue before).  Bar of soap/stick of soap.  Bar of candy/stick of candy.  I think we’ve all been fixated on the wood/metal.

79. Thanks PostMark. That makes sense. I see that Paul is hosting one of his on-line sessions in a few minutes, so I could get it from the horses mouth maybe, except that I can’t make it tonight sadly.

80. Always enjoy Paul but today I didn’t finish (grrr) and finally came here. I had LASH OUT instead of FUSE BOX (although of course I couldn’t parse it) and that just totally messed everything up. Tried forever to work out WHOOPSIE. Had all the letters but still failed, and didn’t get anywhere with MIAOWED. And now all is revealed I feel like I missed the party! Brilliant, as ever, Paul, but you beat me today.

81. muffin @ 58

    my thoughts too

82. [I stand corrected about cats not liking milk. Apparently some do, some don’t. One that we had adored frozen peas…]

83. [One of our cats loves cat milk, the other doesn’t. Both will lick out my cereal bowl, though. We once had a cat that stole olives and chillies from bowls in the kitchen. Unfortunately he tended to leave them under th furniture.]

84. I’m curious about the post solve puzzle that Andrew mentions. Is there anybody still around who joined Paul’s Zoom and can report back?

85. blaise @82 and muffin @83

    Max, the cat on the boat, loved raisins.  Rainbow, my calico friend, was an asparagus fiend!  And quite a few cats, including some of mine, seem to love canteloupe!

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