The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28346.
A very genial composition from the Don – I found it progressed quite smoothly, with some chuckles on the way.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | ANTILOGARITHMS | That moralising upset numbers in old-fashioned school lessons (14) |
| An anagram (‘upset’) of ‘that moralising’. | ||
| 8 | SHARK | Quiet refuge for animals and fish (5) |
| A charade of SH (‘quiet’) plus ARK (‘refuge for animals;). | ||
| 9 | INVITING | Attractive home — paying a call is not permitted (8) |
| A charade of IN (‘home’) lus V[is]ITING (‘paying a call’) minus IS (‘is not permitted’). | ||
| 11 | PREPAID | Like some bought items with quiet salesman to help (7) |
| A charade of P (‘quiet’) plus REP (‘salesman’) plus AID (‘help’). | ||
| 12 | GENERAL | Friendly Queen knocking one out as usual (7) |
| A substitution: GENIAL (‘friendly’) with the I replaced by ER (‘Queen knocking out one’). | ||
| 13 | FIFTH | Some relief if there’s a musical interval (5) |
| A hidden answer (‘some’) in ‘releiF IF THere’. | ||
| 15 | RAREE-SHOW | Artist with Welsh name who transformed old entertainment (5-4) |
| A charade of RA (‘artist’) plus REES (‘Welsh name’) plus HOW, an anagram (‘transformed’) of ‘who’. | ||
| 17 | BOOB TUBES | Mistake with awkward bust, female finally squeezing into these? (4,5) |
| An envelope (‘squeezing into’) of E (‘femalE finally’) in BOOB (‘mistake’) plus TUBS, an anagram (‘awkward’) of ‘bust’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 20 | INCUR | Old police force, given its situation, about to suffer (5) |
| A reversal (‘about’) of RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary, ‘old police force’, superseded in 2001 by the Police Service of Northern Ireland) plus NI (Northern Ireland, ‘its situation’). | ||
| 21 | EXTRACT | Yesterday’s religious leaflet or a passage from it? (7) |
| A charade of EX (‘yesterday’s) plus TRACT (‘religious leaflet’). | ||
| 23 | CHEAPIE | Energy-packed tea with cooked item — it’s not expensive (7) |
| An envelope (‘packed’) of E (‘energy’) in CHA (‘tea’) plus PIE (‘cooked item’). | ||
| 25 | JOE BIDEN | I need job done … (3,5) |
| An anagram (‘done’) of ‘i need job”, with the ellipses leading to the indirect definition. | ||
| 26 | TRUMP | … to eclipse my predecessor (5) |
| Double definition, the second referring back to the previous clue. | ||
| 27 | PROMISSORY NOTE | Financial document provided by three characters joined in impecuniousness (10,4) |
| The ‘three characters joined’ are ‘impecunIOUsness’. A novel twist on an old theme – or, at least, it had me wondering for a while. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | AESOP’S FABLES | Feel boas and asps get nasty in old stories (6,6) |
| An anagram (‘get nasty’) of ‘feel boas’ plus ‘asps’. | ||
| 2 | TEASE | ‘Card‘ as someone who might pull your leg? (5) |
| Double definition, the first referring to the combing of wool or other fibre prior to spinning. My first thought was KNAVE – too obvious and too close in meaning; | ||
| 3 | LIKE A SHOT | Without hesitation, fate has sealed ex-president as initiator of hatred (4,1,4) |
| An envelope (‘has sealed’) of IKE (‘ex-president’) plus ‘as’ plus H (‘initiator of Hatred’) in LOT (‘fate’). There is still over a day to go before the ‘ex’ … | ||
| 4 | GRINDER | Smile, looking embarrassed, showing up tooth (7) |
| A charade of GRIN (‘smile’) plud DER, a reversal (‘showing up’ in a down light) of RED (‘looking embarrassed’). | ||
| 5 | RAVAGER | Partygoer stealing silver is one causing much damage (7) |
| An envelope (‘stealing’) of AG (chemical symbol, ‘silver’) in RAVER (‘partygoer’).. | ||
| 6 | TITAN | Big person to get screwed up, we hear? (5) |
| Sounds like (‘we hear’) TIGHTEN (‘get screwed up’). | ||
| 7 | MONARCHIC | Head of state’s icon, working with charm (9) |
| An anagram (‘working’) of ‘icon’ plus ‘charm’.. Note the apostrophe s included in the definition, to give the adjectival form. | ||
| 10 | FLOWER PEOPLE | Hippies quietly elope, running south of river? (6,6) |
| A charade of FLOWER (‘river’ – the other way round, for a change) plus P (‘quietly’) plus EOPLE, an anagram (‘running’) of ‘elope’, with ‘south of’ indicating the order of the particles in the down light. | ||
| 14 | FRONT DOOR | Father on time to meet party men in entrance to house? (5,4) |
| A charade of FR (‘father’ ecclesiastically) plus ‘on’ plus T (‘time’) plus DO (‘party’) plus OR (Other Ranks, ‘men’ militarily). | ||
| 16 | EMINENTLY | Very gradually start off to conceal excavation (9) |
| An envelope (‘to conceal’) of MINE (‘excavation’) in [g]ENTLY (‘gradually’) minus its first letter (‘start off’). | ||
| 18 | BETIDES | Before Caesar’s last day something risky happens (7) |
| A charade of BET (‘something risky’) plus IDES (of March, ‘Caesar’s last day’). | ||
| 19 | SECONDO | Musical part that you get with Prokofiev but not with Mendelssohn (7) |
| There is a SECOND O in ‘PrOkOfiev’ but not in ‘Mendelssohn’. The definition is the lower part in a duet, such as piano four hands. | ||
| 22 | ALBUM | A seat occupied by Liberal — is this a record? (5) |
| An envelope (‘occupied by’) of L (‘Liberal’) in A BUM (‘a seat’). | ||
| 24 | PLUTO | Greek philosopher half ignored old Roman god (5) |
| No, Plato has nothing to do with the case (at least directly), |
||
I enjoyed this, and concur with PeterO. Talking of whom, Peter mentioned that KNAVE might do for TEASE in 2d. I had JOKER myself, until it caused problems, and I do think if works.
15a reminded me of an old joke punchline (the only part of it I remember): “It’s a long way to tip a raree” …
Thanks Pasquale for an amusing crossword. I found this easier than expected, being stumped only by EMINENTLY and the parsing for SECONDO. Favourites included INVITING, GRINDER, and BETIDES. I was impressed by the 1a anagram. Thanks PeterO for the blog. I parsed PLUTO as half of Plutarch plus O.
Favourites: PLUTO, LIKE A SHOT, FRONT DOOR, EXTRACT. BETIDES, SECONDO, EMINENTLY (loi)
New: RAREE-SHOW
Did not parse INCUR (never heard of Royal Ulster Constabulary, and did not think about the NI bit). Still do not really understand the IOU to explain 27d PROMISSORY NOTE.
I parsed PLUTO in the same way as Tony @2. [The parsing in the blog would end up as PLOTO.]
Thanks, Peter and Pasquale.
Ignore my comment above re 27 across: “Still do not really understand the IOU to explain 27d PROMISSORY NOTE.”
I understand it now.
The Don can be much tougher than this but it was so enjoyable.
Forgive me for thinking TEASE referred to the setter.
Thanks DM and Peter.
Yep, Pluto as per Tony and michelle. And I too didn’t get the iou in 27ac, d’oh. I’m sure the second o sort of trick isn’t new, but can’t think when. Raree does sound the tiniest bit familiar once I’d guessed it (after first thinking Rhys in the middle…er, no), but a dnk really. Enjoyable from the Don, and thanks PeterO.
Liked the pair 25a and 26a. Is the publication of the puzzle early by a day or something?
‘Quiet’ in Clues 8a and 11a lead to different components. Again we have ‘quietly’ in 10d. But that doesn’t bother me.
micelle@3: IOU (I owe you, from a time when texting was unheard of) is a a document that acknowledges a debt owed.
Re 17a BOOB TUBES. Don’t know why a woman should squeeze herself into more than one boob tube, but I guess she may have her own reason. And when I see the kind of clothes women sport nowadays on Tamil TV shows, I can understand how weird they could get. And housewives run to shops and ask for what X wore in Y show. The salespeople dutifully spread the wares.
An odd puzzle, with the outsides bunged in within seconds, but then a few stumbling blocks in the middle proved EMINENTLY annoying, especially getting fixated on DAI when REES turned out to be the go-to-guy. However, worth completing if only for SECONDO and its euraka moment.
PeterO, blog omits LOT (= fate) from parsing of LIKE A SHOT. Perhaps that’s why it forced itself into PLOTO. Thanks both.
Plotinus is more Roman than Greek (even though he was considered Hellenistic) and would give Ploto. As others have pointed out Plut[arch] plus o[ld] makes more sense. I had SNOOK for 8a which is a fish but didn’t notice a missing H until 2d was not working out. Thanks PeterO and the Don.
I knew it would be a PeterO blog when almost the first comment I saw on the Guardian threads was “I didn’t know 225 was up this early”. And it will be a while, I suspect, before he can pop in to correct PLOTO/PLUTO poor chap. Too many P’s, T’s and O’s for comfort. So I’m not even going to mention it.
I did think I was on cracking form today – until those Guardian threads and the posts already here at 6.45 in the morning confirmed that this was a fairly straightforward Don. Wavelengths, Goldilocks etc. But I don’t think, for a moment, that it deserves criticism for being ‘Mondayish’ or similar. Some delightful clues and clever devices. I had JOKER a la DR W@1, followed by KNAVE a la PeterO for 2d, neither of which helped solve the long anagram. Interesting to see ‘card’ used differently on this occasion. I loved SECONDO but IOU was a device too far for me. Not complaining, just didn’t see it so couldn’t fathom the parsing.
Big ticks for INVITING and GENERAL with their subtractions/additions, BOOB TUBES for the surface, INCUR for just being clever, BETIDES again for its cleverness but there seemed an ominous topicality about it given the imminence of the JOE BIDEN/TRUMP changeover. SECONDO, I’ve mentioned and I did smile at ALBUM. FLOWER PEOPLE? How on earth am I meant to get ‘flower’ from ‘river’?????
Super puzzle, Pasquale, for which many thanks and likewise PluterO
A tough puzzle for me and ultimately a DNF due to RAREE-SHOW at 15a, something with which, like michelle@3, I was unfamiliar. Agreeing with PostMark@11, I liked 17a BOOB TUBES (not that I ever liked them enough to wear them back in the day), as well as 1d AESOP’S FABLES and 10d FLOWER PEOPLE. I also relished the contemporary reference of the ellipsis-linked 25a JOE BIDEN and 26a TRUMP (as Rishi@7 and PostMark have commented).
Thanks for the enjoyment, Pasquale, and thanks to PeterO for the helpful blog, especially for explaining the ones I couldn’t parse like 27a PROMISSORY NOTE.
[PostMark@11 – I am not sure you were genuine in asking the question regarding 10d FLOWER PEOPLE, but just in case, the flowing river (“FLOWER”) is an old crossword chestnut.]
JinA @13: firmly tongue in cheek 😀 Although it gives me the opportunity to observe that, amongst the many things we have in common, not wearing boob tubes is yet another…
Thanks, Peter O., for the illumination – but a small query re the explanation of 24d. Surely you need the U from Plotinus, so the half ignored leaves PLoTinUs, plus the O for old?
Excellent crossword from Pasquale. SECONDO was my cod. I also liked the two long anagrams at 1a&d. RAREE SHOW was a dnk, but easily gettable from the wordplay. The same with BOOB TUBES – We call the garment a tube top in North America, while the Boob Tube is a television set, but the British meaning was guessable.
3d LIKE A SHOT was another favourite for the brilliant surface. And the BIDEN/TRUMP pair at 25and 26a produced not a chuckle but a welcome sigh of relief.
Thanks PeterO for a couple of parsings, including the tricky (for me) 27a PROMISSORY NOTE
ZenoofWatford @15: see posts 2, 3, 6, 9, 10, 11…
Good fun. It seemed a bit easy at the start, but then things slowed down and the whole was very satisfying. Couldn’t parse 27a; also reckon 24d is half of Plutarch plus O. Many thanks to Pasquale and PeterO.
I’m not usually a fan of Pasquale’s puzzles, but I enjoyed this one. Failed on the parsing of 27a, and admired the cleverness and juxtaposition of Joe Biden and Trump.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Isnt the philosopher PLUTARCH?
+1 for enjoying the puzzle. +1 for Plutarch.
Loved the second ‘o’ in SECONDO and the RUC in NI for INCUR, reminding me of Alternative Ulster by Stiff Little Fingers
Take a look where you’re livin’
You got the Army on the street
And the RUC dog of repression
Is barking at your feet
The JOE BIDEN/TRUMP thing is very clever and topical, but I’m growing a bit weary of them cropping up all the time.
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO
Like others, I found this much easier than I had anticipated, AESOPS FABLES going in straight away and all flowed from thereon. I liked the amusing GENERAL, INCUR, BOOB TUBES, the BIDEN/TRUMP link and my favourites are now SECONDO and PROMISSORY NOTE after seeing PeterO’s blog. RAREE SHOW was new and I parsed PLUTO as others have. I have no issue either with the repetition of quiet/quietly, Rishi @7. Lovely stuff from Pasquale. Thanks both
An enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked the JOE BIDEN anagram!
Another Plutarch here.
A nice start for a wet Tuesday. Thanks Pasquale and PeterO. I’d never heard of a Raree Show but the clue clearly pointed the way.
(Thanks Penfold @21 for the Alternative Ulster reminder, that and Suspect Device are still great favourites and reminders of the great John Peel.)
Penfold @ 21: I first saw SLF, when I was a spotty 16 year-old oik growing up in Belfast and they ‘blew us all away’ with their alternative message and music. One of my friends went to school (Boys Model) with the various members. I saw them about 5 years ago in London and they were still a ‘blast’ 🙂
As others have said, the philosopher must be Plutarch. I hated him.
Otherwise, this puzzle was only marginally more demanding than yesterday’s. As I wrote yesterday, it was mainly a write-in, with a few clues thrown in to make me think.
Disappointing that US politics have to come into it, but I suppose that is to be expected from the US-obsessed Guardian. I have to remind myself that the puzzle is free.
I have never heard of a RAREE-SHOW but it was easily gettable from the wordplay and crossers.
I loved SECONDO, got EVIDENTLY for 16d until I checked (a vide could be a sort of excavation??) and was perplexed by initially spelling REES as RHYS. Dr Whatson @1 that joke takes me right back to my Primary School playground; you get better puns from Penfold, MaidenBartok and PostMark.
The Don on top form for me…never disappoints.
Needed PeterO to spot the clever IOU in the PROMISSORY NOTE clue.
BETIDES & SECONDO the pick of the crop today.
Many thanks, both.
Quickish for me today with the exception of RAREE SHOW which was a DNK. The two long-ones fell in quickly which helped.
SECONDO was pretty quick as I’ve been recording many such over the past gawd-knows-how-long-months wishing just wishing to get back to the real stuff.
Dr. Whatson @1 and PeterT @27: there are various forms of the “Tip a Rar(e)y” joke all about various animals that were tipped off cliffs.
A quick Interweb search brings up this variation, a novelty track from Zola Bud about her encounter with Mary Decker in 1984 entitled “It’s the wrong way to trip a Mary.” Released on Decca, obviously.
Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO!
[JiA @12 and PostMark @14: A correction fluid company used to make a promotional T-Shirt for those of a busty-persuasion with the centrally-located phrase:
“Cover you boobs with Snopake”]
MB @29 &30 (and Petert @27): Decca – she certainly did. No more boob jokes, please: I suspect, with you, that was just the Tippex of the iceberg… he says, coat in hand…
Thanks PeterO, I didn’t understand PROMISSORY NOTE wordplay (like it a lot) nor SECONDO (also vg, I had wondered if E Europe allowed this musical direction when W Europe didn’t for some reason). I had to google the latter to check validity, along with RAREE SHOW although at least I understood the wordplay for that (but am another who tried the Welsh spelling Rhys first).
I am of the same opinion as many above in terms of difficulty (and grateful that the longer boundary items weren’t too devious, once I had stopped trying to shoehorn ALGORITHM into 1A) and what seems to be an unusually playful approach based on my relatively recent acquaintance with this setter. And I have to acknowledge Rishi@7, after my confusion with NIGHTIES the other day I agree that the plural here doesn’t quite sit right with the surface.
But of the many clever and amusing clues I am giving GENERAL today’s gold star for its remarkable surface which brings to mind Tim Vine’s description of crime in a multi storey car park. Thanks Pasquale.
Wiggers @9
3D LIKE A SHOT is now corrected…
The World and his Wife
… likewise the little brainfart in 24D PLUTO.
Marvellous stuff from Pasquale as usual. I didn’t know RAREE SHOW and was a bit hesitant on ANTILOGS, but I always expect to learn something from Don.
GENERAL was mischievous (and extraordinarily well-composed) fun, but was completely eclipsed by the marvellous SECONDO, which had me quietly chuckling away for several minutes.
I’m with George Clements @19. I don’t think I would have guessed the name of the setter of this puzzle if it hadn’t been there in front of me. I don’t usually associate ‘chuckle’ with Pasquale but today there were several of them and I really enjoyed the solve.
The BIDEN / TRUMP combination was very clever and I also ticked INVITING, INCUR, LIKE A SHOT, FLOWER PEOPLE, FRONT DOOR, BETIDES, SECONDO and PLUTO.
Many thanks to Pasquale for an enjoyable puzzle and to PeterO for a great blog.
[PostMark @31: Groan. Can’t think off any more; in fact, I’m Wite-Out. Where’d I put that sou’wester?]
[PostMark and MaidenBartok
With or without correction fluid, Petert @27 is probably now amending his pun quality assessment.
I once ordered a gallon of Tipp-ex. Big mistake!]
MaidenBartok @ 36. Never mind about tipping Rareees, I think we should Tipp-EX President Trump over a cliff (metaphorically, of course)
Good puzzle. Started off well as got 1ac and 1d straightaway and managed to get the top half quick quickly. The bottom half took a lot longer. Needed help parsing a few in particular INCUR, PROMISSORY NOTE (very clever – not seen this before) TITAN (yet another homophone I didn’t get).
Loved FLOWER PEOPLE. Fun to see river being the clue for flower instead of the other way round.
Also liked: LIKE A SHOT, BETIDES, GENERAL, RAREE-SHOW
Thanks to Pasquale and PeterO
Loved it, particularly SECONDO and PROMISSORY NOTE. I’d never heard of a RAREE SHOW before.
[Penfold @37: no he’s not. He’s just lowering the bar. See his 38. (Although I’m in full agreement with the sentiment)]
Like some others, didn’t know RAREE SHOW, but seemed the most likely answer given the wordplay. Interesting to read up on it post solve. Loved SECONDO.
Pasquale in a gentle mood, for which no complaints from me. Thanks to him and to PeterO
You can rely on Pasquale to use a word that no longer has any real meaning and has been dragged from the depths of obscurity. But that’s enough about TRUMP
I actually found this easier (and more fun) than yesterday’s and having got ALBUM, TRUMP and GRINDER did wonder what kind of theme might be emerging
[Petert @38: You line him up and I’ll give him a push (metaphorically, of course). Would be a tonic for all, (with a twist of lemming…)]
I flirted (figuratively) with Dios the Welshman, which would have given me ‘radio show’, but decided that as I’d never met him he didn’t exist. Rees was next off the block.
Likewise it was a close call for Goneril at 12a but from what I know of Lear she wasn’t all that friendly.
So elephant traps avoided in what was, for Pasquale, a fairly straightforward solve with few of his trademark rarities. But it was nice to be taken back 50 years with ANTILOGARITHMS!
I did eventually get RAREE SHOW, after talking myself out of thinking it must be radio-something involving DAI as the Welsh name somehow.
Like many others I tried JOKER for 2d – should have known that no Pasquale clue would be that easy.
Liked SECONDO though I don’t know the word, and of course failed to spot the IOU. It didn’t help that I thought Plutarch was a Roman and therefore ineligible.
More fun than I expected from Pasquale and some nice surfaces.
Enormously entertaining puzzle!
Like Alan C at 22, I saw AESOP’S FABLES almost immediately, and thereafter the answers to its right slotted in smoothly and steadily.
1a was a smashing anagram. It made a pleasant change to have the ellipse between 25 & 26a actually signifying a connection for once. FIFTH, SHARK and FLOWER PEOPLE were satisfying – whilst SECONDO and ALBUM had me chuckling out loud.
I’m another member of the regiment who’d never heard of a RAREE SHOW, needing all the crossers before piecing it out.
(Then again, for what it’s worth, I may just possibly be the only commenter here who’s actually worn a boob tube. Yes they are a little tricky to put on – but the same can be said for various makes of sports-bra, and don’t get me started on wetsuits. Once on, however, they’re surprisingly comfy. Just saying…)
Thanks to PeterO for the EMINENTLY-readable blog, and to Pasquale for a classy oeuvre.
Wellbeck@47
[May I say your handle takes me back to several years ago when I was a lad. We in Chennai (then Madras) used to get letters from a relative in Pune (then Poona]. His address had ‘Wellbeck Street’.
Don’t know if the name still survives.]
Lots of brilliant clues today. Thanks Pasquale for an enjoyable half hour. Favourites? SECONDO which took ages before the penny dropped and GENERAL (I knew Goneril wasn’;t ‘friendly’ queen) but there were so many great clues. I too was stiumped by the parsing of PROMISSORY NOTE so thanks PeterO.
I find it etymologically fascinating that teasel in French is cardère, for the same reason (utilisée pour carder la laine). I always have some growing in my (French) garden. Not only do they make the bees happy, they self-seed like mad, so I probably couldn’t get rid of them if I tried. I suspect I suffer from dipsacomania…
1A would obviously start with ‘arithmat…’ but no, that threw me for a while. I also looked at radio-show but of course it didn’t parse. I didn’t know RAREE – it’s a bit rare! And I didn’t parse INCUR or PROMISSORY NOTE (clever clue).
I guess a female could have more than one BOOB TUBE, so I was OK with the plural. Lots to like, including the Joe and Don get-together, FLOWER PEOPLE, GENERAL, INVITING and EMINENTLY, with my favourite being SECONDO.
Thanks Pasquale and PeterO.
Gazzh @32 (& Rishi @7). “I agree that the plural here doesn’t quite sit right with the surface.” I don’t see a problem with someone owning two or more BOOB TUBES (or NIGHTIES, for that matter) and wearing them on alternate days. If they were the same size, presumably the same amount of “squeezing into” would be involved on Wednesday as on Tuesday?
Thanks to Pasquale for an enjoyable solve, and to PeterO for parsing the IOU at 27a. And for coming back here in what must be the middle of the night for you @33.
Well, that was enjoyable.
I’d never heard of RAREE-SHOW but I can live with obscure words where the wordplay is as precise as it is here.
19dn was clever, as was the gentle whimsy of 25ac and 26ac.
So was 27ac – so clever that I couldn’t see it at all until it was (entirely convincingly) explained by Peter). Likewise I thought TEASE was simply a rather weak and not very cryptic definition until PeterO enlightened me.
Thanks to P and P.
sh@52
I don’t think I criticised the BOOB TUBES clue, did I?
I merely wrote the Comment after it evoked a picture in my mind of a female squeezing herself into more than one boob tube.
Pleasure in solving a crossword does not merely lie in resolving a clue after working out the wordplay.
The surface and what it means to us – that is important,
The understanding of a clue lies in us.
Robi @51. “1A would obviously start with ‘arithmat…’ ” I can remember learning the correct spelling of arithmetic when I was about nine years old, but having just Googled your attempt at it, I see that you are far from being the only one to be still getting it wrong! 😉
Glad we agree on BOOB TUBES, though.
[Rishi @54. Apologies. I read Gazzh’s remark about agreeing with you without checking back to see if that was the correct interpretation of yours @7.
I enjoyed your description of people dashing out to buy clothes seen on the TV. And the shopkeepers already having them in stock!]
I’m not sure what’s old fashioned about logarithms, though nobody else seems bothered. They are an essential mathematical tool.
sh@56
[In Tamil Nadu it is very common for shops to sell a sari by the name of a film or TV serial because the main actress in it wore it.
A colour was known by the name of a very famous Carnatic music vocalist because she wore a sari in that shade when she appeared in public on the stage. ]
Thought this was worth it for the JOE BIDON, TRUMP (dis)connection alone. Did toy with THUMB early on for 6d. As with Tony Santucci @2, EMINENTLY was LOI, and had to rely on Peter O for the parsing of SECONDO. Lots to like today.
Ravenrider @ 57 I think it’s the fact that the slightly tedious use of tables of logs and antilogs for calculation is no longer a feature of the school curriculum rather than the concept of logarithms itself.
I agree with Eileen, pretty much word for word. Great stuff from setter and blogger. I can’t remember a better or more entertaining puzzle from the Don.
Hi Mike @61- I do remember laughing out loud at a delightfully self-mocking Pasquale clue from 2013: ‘Pasquale, working inside, using long obscure words (14)’ – blogged here http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/06/07/guardian-25968-pasquale/
It’s in my little book of classic clues.
[Ravenrider @57, indeed logarithms are an essential element of mathematical theory, but that Pasquale is talking in terms of computational, school-based mathematics. I remember being exhorted by my maths teacher to treasure my first set of logarithmic etc tables carefully, as I would need them ‘all my life’. Within a decade the electronic calculator was ubiquitous.]
Eileen @62: thanks for the link. A new word to add to my lexicon – though doubt my ageing brain will remember it! How apt that a word of such length means what it does. Delightful clue: thanks for quoting it in full as the blog only gave solutions. (Either Pasquale’s prescience or the simple ubiquity of the orange buffoon but I see he also had NO TRUMP half a dozen answers later!)
Eileen @62. Yes, very nice – “delightfully self-mocking” indeed. Thanks for that.
sh @55; must be me being asthmatic.
Thanks both,
A quick but enjoyable solve. You mean to tell me logs are no longer taught in schools? You’ll be telling me they don’t have slide rules, next.
Very enjoyable – lots to like for a beginner – though struggled with SE corner – couldn’t parse 16 or 20.
Enjoyed topicality of Biden and Trump though because of the ex-president reference in 3dn got the wrong vowel for the third word. Then I remembered that wasn’t until tomorrow.
Many thanks to Pasquale and PeterO: very enjoyable.
On ‘Raree-show’ (15ac, comments passim): Back in 1966, reading Barker Fairley on Goethe – fortunately just before I gave up on it – I’d come across a reference to Goethe’s enthusiasm for Shakespeare’s plays (“Ein schöner Raritäten Kasten”, translated as “Raree show”. Eh? I thought, pushing Mr Fairley’s work aside, probably for ever. I never heard, read or thought of the phrase since until it surfaced this afternoon from some very deep layer of the brain to enable me to solve 15ac.
More or less a fill-in but with some very pleasant surfaces. I could not parse INCUR – thanks PeterO for the explanation!
Not too tricky, but fun. I didn’t know the verb ‘to card’ meaning to comb and clean (tease) wool etc but I put it in anyway once I’d got all the across clue letters.
sheffield hatter @52 – my very mild peeve with this is that, in the not unpleasant image brought to my mind by the surface, the word “finally” implies that the mystery lady has, after some struggle as per Wellbeck@47 (I have had similar experience with the wetsuit she mentioned but that’s all) just completed the specific action of squeezing into the boob tube, which would surely mean one single garment. Of course she may do this every day of the year, but surely only dons one at a time, hence the minor discrepancy between surface and answer. I will look in our Guinness Book of Records to see if there is an award for wearing most boob tubes simultaneously, in which case I will concede the point. (I saw on QI there is one for Christmas jumpers or something like that.)
Gazzh @72: agreed. And in the case of a record attempt: to preserve the integrity of the surface, because the final squeezing into plural garments takes place after a singular mistake, the lady in question would have not merely to wear them simultaneously, but also don them simultaneously. Perhaps this was indeed what the Don had in mind 😉
Gazzh & essexboy: I’m surprised we’ve got the comments counter into the 70s for what was by and large a very uncontroversial crossword. I could keep things simmering nicely by asking whether Gazzh is sure that it was the same wetsuit as mentioned by Wellbeck, but on second thoughts maybe I’ll concede that you are both correct.
Unlike some others here, I am someone who actually does like the crosswords of Don Manley.
Totally fair, no iffiness at all, good surfaces – the three most important things in crosswords IMO [wit? what is wit?].
On the day before the American election started (2 Nov 20), in the Independent, Alchemi had a crossword built around the event.
It was a really nice puzzle but I wasn’t happy with (only) one of the clues which seemed to infuriate some, and in particular the setter himself.
In that crossword, he clued JOE BIDEN (in 14ac) with “I need job, possibly as vice president”.
And so, for me, today’s 25ac was just a write-in.
Probably an example of “great minds think alike” but if, I say if (you never know), he was the first to come up with this anagram all credits to him!
[that said, the link 25/26ac today worked very well too]
Many thanks to P & P.
There’s nothing surprising in two setters using the same anagram for a given word/phrase.
A couple of anagram finders that I used returned I NEED JOB (these words may be in the same or different order).
Antony Lewis’s Crossword Compiler, the highly popular and software that most professional setters use, returns these three words.
No setter can be expected to know what anagrams have been used by other setters and none can claim to be the first to use a certain anagram.
Having said that, I may add that certain anagrams are likely to be original and unlikely to have been used by someone else!
For a lengthy English word or phrase, if I use a typically Indian word (which is not in an English dictionary and so not in the in-built dictionary) as a part of my anagram, that one is likely to be unique.
Dr Whats On @1
The joke with the tip a raree punchline, if I remember, was one of the My Word radio show (ran until 1988) items. I can’t remember the joke also but it was a long one.
My problem with RAREE SHOW is that REES is the English spelling of the name RHYS. Ho-hum.
Neill97 @ 77 (if you see this)
I first heard the ‘tip a aree’ joke in the mid 1960s.
This appeared in today’s weekly Guardian that we get down under.
Very nice Crossword even if I didn’t get the all and sub-parsed even more.
Usually I like sub-pars but not in this context. Har har.