Guardian 28,316 / Vulcan

94 comments on “Guardian 28,316 / Vulcan”

1. Just came here to find out what 25a was all about. Thank you.

2. A fine start to the week – thanks Vulcan; and thanks to Eileen for parsing asterisk – elicited a groan when I read it, like all great clues it is obvious once you know.

3. I’ve never been first to comment before! This early posting from me is indicative of how relatively easy this was today.  I agree with Eileen, though, ‘a gentle, pleasant solve’.  Lots to like, although I was a little disappointed to see Romeo and Juliet pop up again so soon after the last time.  Thanks to Vulcan.  A pleasant start to the week.

4. I’ve never been third to comment before ….

5. Gentle start to the week with nothing too much to find difficult.  For the unknowns (or at least needing a prod in the bonce) the construction was so clear!  Nice to start the week feeling that I might not get to the point of collapse and dismay as I did with Saturday’s “prize!”Thanks to Vulcan for the fun and Eileen for the blog!

6. [trishincharente @3,4: does that make me 5th or 6th?]

7. [MB @6: 4th 😉 ]

8. [essexboy @7: Ah!  We’re going unique rather than cumulative then, are we?]

9. like @1 and @2, and quite possibly a few others, I did not parse ASTERISK even though given I was on the keyboard it was literally staring me in the face.Thanks Eileen and Vulcanps today’s Quiptic took me perhaps 50% longer than the cryptic should anyone else want to try something  (it’s certainly variable in level, but today’s is not so easy by Quiptic standards)

10. I wondered what would happen when I encountered my first Vulcan after learning of his alter ego; would I see it differently?  The answer is No: still decidedly Mondayish and in keeping with the Rufusian tradition.  I did wonder if something was going on with all those multiple word answers but unless there’s a vague preposition theme, I don’t think so.  A blend of straightforward anagrams and cryptics with not too much to trouble the grey matter and Vulcan is unfortunate to be posing his first clue so soon after Brendan’s alternative.Amongst relatively thin pickings, I’ll go with Eileen’s ticks for ASTERISK and NO SWEAT and SEDGE WARBLER was an amusing anagram. SABOTAGED was nicely constructed, along with THRASHING.  Despite the temptations of Death Metal suggested by the latter, my earworm is probably the gentle theme music of the delightful FATHER TED: “More tea, Father?”Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

11. Thanks Eileen for putting me straight on 25a, I could have stared at that for years with no joy.
    Nice gentle Monday crossword, Rufus comes to mind…

12. Juliett is double ‘t’ in the phonetic alphabet, unlike the Bard’s Juliet, not sure why the phonetic ‘T’ is spelt that way?

13. HoofItYouDonkey @12 – see OddOtter’s comment @18 on last Saturday’s blog.

14. MARK THAT MAY BE ONE OVER THE 8 – unless you are using a French keyboard!  Amazingly I did suss it though.  Thanks, Eileen, for the parsing of SUSPENSE.  I didn’t know the other meaning either.

15. My step-daughter Alexa was delighted to have found crossword fame … although she has now insisted we call the Amazon device ‘Echo’ after we spent years happily saying ‘Alexa: shut up’. 25ac was a brilliant clue, my favourite of today. Thank you Eileen and Vulcan

16. Gogol reminded me of the skimpy girls gyrating in raised cages while Engelbert Oomperdink sang at the Kings Club in Preston. I loved the ’60s, but I love liberated women more. Someone on on the G thread said “5 minutes”; well, not quite, but quiptic-ish. Thanks V and E.

17. Enjoyed ASTERISK, but any crossword that name-drops FATHER TED in such a suitably endearing way also gets my thumbs up.

    Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

18. I have to admit I had a guess at Gagal as my Russian author, not having come across anything written by by GOGOL. Thinking the singer Gaga also dances quite erotically in some of the videos of her songs. Plain sailing across the STRAITS OF DOVER otherwise..

19. Yes, agree with everybody about NO SWEAT and ASTERISK (wonderstevie @9 – “staring me in the face” – indeed! – although did wonder about French, and possibly Finnish, keyboards)Isn’t 3d a dd, with one of the d’s being c?ginf – Gogol made me think of this fella. Perhaps this morning’s sad news was putting me in an espionage frame of mind.[MaidenBartok @8:  all 15²-ers are unique, but some are more unique than others 😉 ]Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

20. …Lady G, that is…

21. Easier than the Quiptic again for me, and a pleasant start to the week. Parsed ASTERISK… buy not INTONER (not a soccer fan). Always like SABOTAGED, just for the amusing derivation of the word.

    Eileen, no intent to start a debate (sure others are tired of my carping anyway), but just curious re no underling of the cd at 1a, unlike cds at 9a & 27a… was there a particular reason?

    Also curious re 3d, which seems a dd w/cd?

    For 1d, know we don’t always agree on handling for such clues, so just offering my perspective: I read it as a full cad.

    Thx, all, for the fun/elucidation/discussions…

22. Impeccable. Easy yes but so enjoyable.Thanks Vulcan and Eileen

23. Re SUSPENSE: I took it as being account as in a story only. Any connection to possible financial terms being co-incidental. 

24. Very nice. Thanks for ASTERISK Eileen and also good to see FATHER TED. Thanks also to Vulcan.

25. OddOtter @21 – I often have problems deciding what to underline in cryptic definitions and admit to inconsistency today. There’s no logic in not having underlined the whole clue in 1ac – but I’ll leave it now.

    In 9ac, I wavered about including ‘cliffhanging’: I disagree with Pedro @23: surely the clue depends on ‘account’ having two different meanings?

26. essexboy @19. You’re right about French AZERTY keyboards making ASTERISK impossible to parse. Not only is the asterisk elsewhere (under the µ) but also the 8 is above the underscore character “_”, so you need the caps shift to type the digit and “over the 8” doesn’t suggest a keyboard. I raise my hat to trishincharente for deciphering it: I couldn’t. […and I almost wrote in ASTERIX, to boot]

27. [blaise – Ah, ces Gaulois!!]

28. Thanks, Eileen.

    Re 9a, DNK the financial “suspense account” meaning, but w/that in mind, and revisiting the clue, wonder if it might be a dd? I.e. “cliffhanging”=suspense ala story telling, and the rest being the financial sense?

29. me @26. [I never thought about it before, but I suppose AZERTY keyboards have the digits 1 to 9 and zero on top because the French language requires rapid access to the accented characters é, è, ç, and à (below 2, 7, 9, and zero, respectively). What has always bugged me is that you need the shift key to type a period, which is surely used more often than the semicolon that it sits above.]

30. This was the fastest solve for me yet with very few uses of the check button. So encouraging Monday puzzles.This had some lovely clues. I particularly liked SABOTAGE (haven’t heard the word sabot for ages) ASTERISK (so clever – made me laugh when I got it) EAST ASIAN, ALEXAHave had a quick look at the Quiptic – that looks a bit more difficult.Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen

31. Eileen @25: I’m sure you’re right if its a dd (as you seem to imply @25 but say none in your intro).  But if its a cd would it not need the additional meaning?[Sorry, just trying to get my head round it]

32. Gentle, witty, and a perfect Monday puzzle.

33. That was a fun quick solve. Thanks for the SUSPENSE explanation, that sort of account was new to me. Favs ASTERISK, ALEXA and, as you did Eileen, I did like seeing TS ELIOT with a different anagram. Thanks to V and E

34. This must have been my fastest solve in ages – much faster than the Quiptic – but none the worsr for that. Many have mentioned clues I liked, but no-one has mentioned LIE IN, which certainly tickled my fancy. Thanks Vulcan – and Eileen, though I had no need of your services today. Now back to the one clue in the Quiptic that has me stumped (so far).

35. This was a delight from start to finish. A host of clues the solving of which made me hug myself with glee. Too many to mention all, but DECAF, BY NOW and LIE IN were dead neat, ASTERISK was classy – whilst FATHER TED was as gentle and sweet as its namesake. Up with this sort of thing!!
    Big thanks to Vulcan and Eileen for starting my week with a big soppy grin on my face…

36. [Apologies for an off-topic – but relevant – query to posters here today.  Is anybody else finding that the paragraph breaks are not working?  My post @10 appeared to me as three short paragraphs before I pressed Post but then came out squashed into one.  I’ve tested on GD and then exchanged comments with Gaufrid on Site Feedback.  And it continues to happen.  As he points out, it’s clearly not happening to Odd Otter or Eileen.  But I wonder if MaidenBartok, essexboy and Fiona Anne might have experienced same?]

37. PostMark @36 – I logged in and amended my comments here but I made a similar comment to yours on the Indy thread. Gaufrid is on the case!

38. Yes, gentle but enjoyable solve.I came here to see what to make of ASTERISK – thanks Eileen.I liked RED IN THE FACE, which is how I looked when reading the blog about ASTERISK.Thanks also to Vulcan.

39. 16d made me look up the origin of the word SABOTAGE. Not, apparently, workers chucking their wooden clogs into the machinery as I’d thought, but the clonking noise these shoes make by slow peasants. Sabotage meant people working slowly (to rule) to frustrate the bosses.

40. [blaise @26, essexboy @27; In the days before everyone travelled (remember that?) with etickets and smart things, Eurostar used to have terminals in their departures lounge at Gare du Nord where you could print last-minute changes.  The codes for the tickets were always (I think) 8 letters and, when in a rush, to be presented with an AZERTY keyboard and told to type in your code as the a*se-end of your train is about to leave the platform is on the stressful side of stressful…]

41. Yes PostMark @36 me too

42. I know some people resent the tradition of an easier Monday, but after dutifully trudging through the Quiptic this was just what I needed. Agree with others that the recent interview in the blog with Vulcan made this an interesting solve for a different reason – as did applying some of his comments to the Quiptic…

43. Quickest I’ve ever solved a Guardian cryptic, so, yes, very easy but lots of fun. Worth it for 17 alone. Well said Wellbeck!Thanks Vulcan and Eileen.

44. [Postmark @36: I hadn’t noticed but then when I paid some attention I notice you are correct… Wonder what’s happened there then? As someone who runs a few WordPress sites I have to say that I feel for Gaufrid and the ever-changing code-base which can break things with no notice. Oh look – no breaks!]

45. This was a fun way to start the week. Re 3 down I think that there’s a reference to tennis, as in a match being moved from centre court to number one court

46. Thanks, Colin Cohen @45 – yes, that’s what makes it a cryptic definition. Sorry if I should have spelt it out – I’ll amend the blog now.

47. Yes, gentle, but pleasant.Thanks Vulcan and Eileen[Dire Straits playing on a loop? There must be something else to listen to. WANNABE? No thanks. I think I’ll go with The Go-Go’s Our Lips Are Sealed.]

48. Considerable easier than today’s Quiptic! Filled several in on a first scan, although 12A held me up for a while (the ‘must’ was superfluous, I felt). Like others, 25A stumped me, and I wondered for a while if it was [XXXX]NINE.Thanks Eileen and Vulcan.

49. Eileen@25Yes, it’s quite right that, at 9ac, you have underlined the entire clue for the def.We can’t see it as DD. While ‘sort of account’ may lead us to ‘suspense’ (though I am very bad at maintaining even household account, I was aware of the term),”cliffhanging” is ‘suspenseful’, not ‘suspense’, I think. “{S]ort of account” suggests it’s not mere ‘story’ but alludes to a kind of account, viz. bank or financial account.[Don’t know if para indents will appear. At the moment I am using Windows 10 desktop/Chrome ]

50. For me, a very good start to the week. I can’t even attempt the hard ones but I finished this.

51. Like many others, I found this the easiest Guardian cryptic in ages. I’d barely finished my cup of tea before it was finished.One unusual feature that – in my opinion – made it so easy was the large number – 14 – of hyphenated or multi-word answers. With such clues the solver is likely to get extra help from the enumeration, especially from the shortest components. For example, two-letter bits are likely to be NO, AT, UP, ON, etc. If it’s a three-word answer with a three-letter word in the middle, there’s a good chance that the middle word will be AND or THE.Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.

52. I also see my line breaks vanished. I am on Chrome on a Macbook Air running OS Catalina v10.15.17.

53. Like Lesley (50) I often can’t get started on some setters puzzles – and I have always been a bit sceptical about other bloggers claims to have finished before their coffee was cold. Today I finished between coffee (not DECAF!) and lunch so perhaps it can be done. Enjoyed 4 down, 16 down; 22 and 25 were the last two in – didn’t get the keyboard reference – very clever. Perhaps next time I’ll just ask Alexa. Thanks Vulcan & Eileen for a Monday morning confidence booster.

54. FATHERTED would have come much faster for me if I’d have remembered how your side of the Atlantic spells OFF-CENTER sooner….

55. Got ASTERISK but, like many others, couldn’t parse it. Thanks!

56. Very nice and easy for the most part.I did not parse 25a – very clever!New: Ford Transit van, Father Ted TV show, suspense account, SEDGE WARBLER.Favourites: NOWHERE, WANNABE.Thanks to Vulcan and Eileen.

57. I think this is the first Vulcan puzzle since his “Meet the Setter” appearance on the Guardian site, so we are now allowed to admit the not so well kept secret that Vulcan and Imogen are one and the same.https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2020/dec/07/crossword-blog-meet-the-setter-vulcanToday’s puzzle was very easy, but that has always been expected in the Monday slot, so this is not a criticism.Thanks to Eileen and Vulcan

58. Colin @45: it’s Wimbledon specifically. All the other major tournaments (and I think also all the Masters series ones too) have names for their show courts (Laver and Court; Chartrier and Lenglen; Ashe and Armstrong, the latter the only one who didn’t play tennis–he just lived in that part of Queens, and apparently was a fan).

    Tyro: you get faster with practice, I promise! When I started doing these about fifteen years ago, a Guardian puzzle typically took me an hour if I finished at all. Now, it really does sometimes take me just ten minutes. It’s a hobby with a fairly steep learning curve.

59. & 57: Thanks for the revelation b h. Interesting and impressive change of character of the 2 aliases.

60. Just a warning to new solvers: most mortals are not like mrpenny @58, even with a straightforward solve like today. I’ve been solving longer than mrp and if I could regularly manage a cryptic in ten minutes I don’t know if I would bother. The good things in life need a bit of struggle.

61. Trailman–I did say “sometimes.” A more typical time for me is 25-35 minutes these days, more like 45-60 for the Prize (and several hours for Maskarade-style bank holiday puzzles).

62. HoofIfYouLikeIt@12: in one of the other fifteensquared discussions, someone said that the alphabet J is “Juliett” so French speakers don’t say “zhoo-lee-ay” which could lead to confusion, which is the opposite of the purpose of the alphabet! Honestly I don’t see why they don’t go all the way to “Juliette” which is a name in all the relevant languages by now.1ac was first one in because these puzzles have thoroughly familiarized me with the NATO alphabet by now! And then the rest was a write-in, LOI was 12 because it took me a while to figure out what a potential starlet was, and I kept trying to make “ANNE” go back. A relief because I really should be doing some other work! Thanks Vulcan for a quick diversion

63. Everybody else has said it all, but I’ll still be the umpteenth to thank Eileen for straightening out my very little brain on ASTERISK.  And, Eileen, you have too many capital letters in the parsing of ALEXAMPLE.  Only typo I can see.And thanks to Vulcan 

64. Re the ‘am I the first to comment’ reminiscent of Monty Python Election Special; ‘can I just say this is the first time I’ve been on TV?)Enjoyable, like others, loved 25a what a doh

65. Valentine @63 – many thanks. how on earth did I miss that?

66. I’m having problems logging in, so can’t amend the blog at the moment.

67. [Tyro @53: if it’s any consolation, when I started this cryptic obsession on the 24th March a crossword such as this one would have been unthinkably impossible. Whilst a Paul is still mostly beyond me without a lot of help, the average weekday Guardian now takes me just under an hour with today being a 20-minuter and the fastest yet. I would say “stick with it” but it is an obsessive hobby so you won’t have any choice than to stick with it.]

68. Thanks Vulcan and Eileen
    Very enjoyable. I hadn’t parsed ASTERISK either, or know of the SUSPENSE account.
    NOWHERE is so neat I’m surprised I haven’t seen it clued like this before. NO SWEAT was another favourite.

69. muffin @68 said all that I wanted to say!!

70. Thanks Vulcan!
    I just started doing cryptics a week or so ago and this is my first finish 😀
    Yes I know everyone says it is easy but I will celebrate regardless.
    I was convinced 25a ended in “nine” which threw me off for a while …

71. After completing Paul’s excellent prize on Saturday this felt very breezy to me but I must say it was a pleasant breeze. DECAF, BY NOW, T. S. ELIOT, ALEXA, and NEGEV (great surface) all amused me. Thanks Vulcan and thanks Eileen for explaining ASTERISK.

72. I feel almost alone in having parsed ASTERISK without Eileen’s help. I wouldn’t say this whole crossword was a write-in, but it was completed in just two sweeps through the clues, which must be a first for me. Slight disappointment that the clue for 21a was an anagram, not a charade. (I bet Imogen wouldn’t have missed that trick.)

73. Re 9a, my dd idea (given w/caveats and ?’s, so not an assertion), depended on a noun defn for cliffhanging (as true of some -ing words), in addition to the usual adj. Online searching doesn’t seem to support this (only a couple weak refs in lesser thesauri), and was about to yield the point. But one last check, in hardcopy Chambers (ca 1980’s) bore fruit, w/both noun and adj being indicated 🙂 Alternately, suspense might also be an adj? As in a “suspense novel”? Either way, for me dd still seems a possible parsing.

    … And now, let’s see if line breaks still work for me?

74. [ No idea why line breaks still work for me… FYI, I’m using Firefox on Android… if anyone needs more info let me know. ]

75. [OddOtter -it’s because you’re using a mobile (sorry, cellphone!)

    See this update from Gaufrid.

    I was just about to say the problem has been fixed – but now I see I can’t do italics or bold, or embed a link in the paragraph above.

    Oh well, I’ll do it the old-fashioned way: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/12/14/missing-paragraph-spaces/ ]

76. 25a very clever – but given my FRENCH keyboard I would never have got it!!!

    Easy enough to encourage ly husband to try doing the crossword. SO thank you VULCAN

77. essexboy @75
    I’m working on it and hope to have the formatting/link options available again tomorrow morning.

78. Thanks Gaufrid @77, your efforts are much appreciated!

79. Well, that took a whole fifteeen minutes ! A very enjoyable Monday solve, that’s set me up for the week now. Thanks to Eileen and to Vulcan. Best part was not having to check that any of the answers actually existed before inserting them – even SEDGE WARBLER was so obviously correct. Loved ASTERISK and SABOTAGE, but although only a simple anagram I think 17a was my favourite clue. Drink ! Girls ! A**e !!

80. Excelcis – many congratulations. Stick with it. It does get easier when you know the conventions. Thanks, as ever, to Vulcan and Eileen. COD ASTERISK for me too.

81. Matt w @62
    I agree that if they were going to change Juliet to Juliett they might have added a final “e” if they were trying to help the French but why bother? If the purpose of the phonetic alphabet is to indicate “J” it doesn’t matter how you pronounce the final syllable.

82. Pino, et al: The phonetic alphabet is meant to maximize accuracy of letter/number communication in critical situations, despite possibly noisy/flaky transmission, and accent/pronunciation variation (both speaking and listening) across dozens of nationalities.  To that end, whole words matter, not just first letters, with extensive thought/testing going into selecting words, spellings, and pronunciations (which might differ from what we think standard… e.g. 5=”fife”, 9=”niner”).  I recommend Wikipedia’s “NATO Phonetic Alphabet” page for more background.  They cite a key point from a ’50s NATO memo: “One of the firmest conclusions reached was that it was not practical to make an isolated change to clear confusion between one pair of letters. To change one word involves reconsideration of the whole alphabet to ensure that the change proposed to clear one confusion does not itself introduce others”

83. essexboy @78
    I’m sorry but my efforts for a solution haven’t been successful (see my latest Admin post), so no change tomorrow morning, but I will continue to try to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

84. Thank you, Gaufrid, for persevering with a tiresome task. We’re all in your debt, setters, bloggers and commenters.

85. Chambers and Ofcom (my amateur radio license) give JULIET. It’s not how it’s spelt, but how it’s said.

    [I once included the double quotation mark in a password, unfortunately when logging on the keyboard was configured as a US one. I had to contact IT help desk to find out where ” was on A US keyboard.]

86. Re 1ac – Oh dear, not again! The alphabet in question has nothing whatsoever to do with phonetics. The ICS or NATO alphabet is a spoken alphabet used to uniquely identify spellings. The (international) phonetic alphabet is a written alphabet used to uniquely identify speech sounds.

87. Couldn’t parse 25A (I have a Swiss-German keyboard in front of me and “open parenthesis” didn’t seem to fit). English geography is not my strong point, but goggle seems quite adamant it’s STRAIT. Last ins were SEDGE WARBLER then BY NOW, which was ironic (or maybe the other one) as I’d just this morning chatted with an Italian colleague about the subtle difference between “by now” and “until now”. And Peter @86, India Charlie Oscar Mike Papa Lima Echo Tango Echo Lima Yankee Alpha Golf Romeo Echo Echo Whiskey India Tango Hotel Yankee Oscar Uniform.

88. OddOtter@82
    Thank you. I still can’t see why pronouncing JULIET “juliett” or “Juliay” affects a listener’s ability to identify the initial letter as “J”. But let it pass.
    Peter Best @ 86.
    I think you are probably right but in that case those who refer to the NATO and ICAO phonetic alphabets, who may, as far as I know, include NATO and the ICAO themselves, are wrong.
    Billy Tell @87
    Did you mean “Alfa”?

89. Pino, I think it’s that on a noisy channel you might miss the J sound, but nothing else ends “-lee-ett” (or even “-ett”) so you still might get the meaning, while the “-ay” in x-ray might be confused with that of “joo-lee-ay”. I.e. multisyllable words (chosen to minimize similarities) provide redundancy in case part of the word is garbled/misheard; important in life/death situations (e.g. aviation).

    As Peter Best notes, IPA & NATO/ICAO ”alphabets” have different purposes… opposite in fact: IPA communicates accurate spoken sounds via written symbols (aka phonetic transcription), while NATO/ICAO communicates accurate symbols via spoken sounds. Both are “phonetic” in that spoken sounds (phones) are essential to their purpose/function.

    [ The “redundancy” aspect of the NATO alphabet reminds me of language research on how much (usually overlooked) redundancy is built in… I.e. despite major disruptions the brain can still groc it; e.g. see https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/can-you-read ]

90. OddOtter@89
    Thank you. My 5 having been mistaken for 9 on the phone in the past I could understand why NATO would want me to say “fife” and “niner” but I didn’t realise that Juliet and X-ray might be confused if reception as poor.
    Peter Best appears to think that NATO/ICAO isn’t phonetic whereas
    you suggest that it is, but in a different way, which makes sense to me, who makes no claim to knowledge on this topic.

91. Definitely an easier cryptic. I finished it sans checks or reveals, but am still stuck on the Quiptic.

92. This was a delightful solve, easier than usual (which I think of as a plus), with some clever clues. 25a was LOI but raised an immediate smile, and I particularly liked 4d.

    Can someone help me with the cryptic grammar of 19d, “Doctor to consume fluid and toast = DRINK TO.”?

    It feels like “to” is doing double duty, with DR TO (to consume) INK. Alternatively DR TO (consumes/consumed/consuming) INK makes sense to me. Does DR TO (consume) INK work? If so, why? I’m a mere neophyte compared to the wonderful Vulcan and the rest of you, so I assume I’ve missed something.

93. Hi ContrapuntalAnt @92

    You’re right – ‘to’ does seem to be doing double duty.

94. Re 19d: I think this works if one reads “doctor to” as a plural list of individual particles rather a single monolithic one… i.e. “(particles) consume”, where (particles) = (DR and TO) or (DR, TO).

    An alternate take sometimes seen is to view wordplay as manipulation of individual letters until the very end; thus instead of “doctor to” = “DR TO” you might say “doctor to” = (D,R,T, and O), again providing the desired plurality.

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