Guardian 28,352 / Vlad

133 comments on “Guardian 28,352 / Vlad”

1. I loved this puzzle. Heavens, was I glad I made an early start, as, after half an hour I still had only a sprinkling of answers. But there were a few easy clues to get me on track – AVID, RUED, AFRO, YASMIN.
   I had no idea why MIDNIGHT was correct but it was the only word I could fit in the crossers. Thanks for the explanation.
   Nice to see humour theory getting a mention, too.
   Ticks abounded but inter alia MOROCCAN, SAYONARA, A BIT MUCH, CONSORTS. And some of these had excellent surfaces too.
   I did not know the artist and guessed incorrectly, so I suppose technically it was a DNF, but it all kept me amused for a good two hours. The sign of a good puzzle, indeed.
   Thanks to Vlad and to Eileen.

2. Difficult but doable.
   Favourites: AFICIONADO, GASKET, DAMMIT, COUNTERFEITS., A BIT MUCH, ARSON, MIDNIGHT (loi)

3. Great crossword! Lots to like, particularly PUT OUT MORE FLAGS and SANGUINENESS.

   I couldn’t parse AFICIONADO (by the way, there’s a typo in your definition for this, Eileen), and I’m still not entirely convinced by ‘implying’ as an inclusion indicator, if that’s what it is, but that’s my only quibble.

   Many thanks Vlad and Eileen.

4. Thanks, Conrad – fixed now.

5. Eileen, Conrad… I think “first implying” gives you the second letter I in AFICIANADO ?

6. Apologies – AFICIONADO

7. Eileen, you have a delightful typo in 13 A. Ahagram really should be a word. Please keep it. You are also to be admired for posting at a more sensible time of day than your colleagues. Lovely crossword. Just as well I had friend to help me out. Thanks to blogger and setter.

8. Vlad’s crosswords are never as bad as they seem at first sight. Thanks for parsing MOROCCAN, Eileen. Obvious now, but I couldn’t see it.
   And thanks to the impaler.

9. Superb. Thankfully there were a few gimmes but worth the effort just for PUT OUT MORE FLAGS. I don’t think clues get much better than that. Also ticked pretty much the same as you Eileen, especially SANGUINENESS and thanks for parsing PISSARRO. Ta both.

10. Thanks, Grizzlebeard and Phil (I thought I’d corrected that one!). Blog amended.

11. Grizzlebeard @5 – ah yes, so it is! Thank you.

    That really is an awkward clue for an awkward word, I feel.

12. Another fine puzzle, as Vlad’s always are. A few more openers than he usually gives us, but still quite tricky to finish, particularly for those of us whose knowledge of Waugh is less than extensive – I spend a lot of time reading about books but have never seen PUT OUT MORE FLAGS mentioned. Nice to see a nod to dirky in the SANGUINENESS clue.

    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen

13. Hard work but satisfying. Am not familiar with Evelyn Waugh’s works (apart from Brideshead Revisited via the tv series a few decades ago) so PUT ONT MORE FLAGS obtained purely from word play. Loved FATHER CHRISTMAS but lots more to enjoy, similar favs to Eileen. Thanks to Vlad and Eileen.

    Anna@1 I am not sure what you are referencing re humour theory.

14. Thought hmm, that brrm brrm bloke who’s been featuring lately must’ve been dubbed by HM to make midnight, and so it was, hey ho. And thought the first part of the artist might’ve been a Pauline No 1, but no, just me being infantile. Homour theory, Anna…? Will have another look, between overs of the local cricket. Haven’t read that Waugh novel (Scoop, and the iconic Beeb’s Brideshead, only), so that was a bung and pray…lucky! All fun, thanks Vlad and Eileen.

15. Well at one point I only had the four 4-letter solutions filled in which is not an auspicious start but then the fog began to clear and I ended up with that rare treat – a filled in Vlad with no assistance. Though I needed to come here to understand PUT OUT MORE FLAGS which I entered rather more in hope than expectation having not encountered the novel. Lovely clueing throughout – hard but fair – with particular ticks for the anagram at 1ac (fabulous), MIDNIGHT which made me smile, another appearance of GUINNESS as part of a solution, HANDS DOWN, the about device in MOROCCAN, the surface for SAYONARA and the sublime definition of ARSON.

    Eileen, I think REINSTATES is REINS over STATE rather than your current parsing. COUNTERFEITS reminds me of the delightful incident in Alexander McCall Smith’s Scotland Street books where an anthropologist heads off to Malaysia to live with and study a modern-day pirate community. Only to discover that they are actually engaged in the illicit manufacture of DVD’s.

    Thanks Vlad and Eileen

16. Thanks Eileen and Vlad.

    Are Vlads getting slightly easier and a tad more enjoyable? I finished this in two standings, apart from failing on AILING. I did wonder if the second M in DAMMIT was from Mark, but probably not. I really must remember AFICIONADO has neither two Cs nor two Fs.

17. I parsed 8d as STATE in REINS.

18. I found this really tricky but I did enjoy the battle. I too liked 22d as it is rare for a setter to admit that an anagram isn’t really much of one!

    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen

19. Yes I also parsed it as STATE in REINS

20. Forgot to mention I didn’t see the second explanation of WAR = WAUGH; I usually complain about such, but not today as Vlad included “some might say”; I have often advocated including such a device in the past – can’t believe Vlad has listened to me??? No, of course not.

21. A tough but enjoyable solve.
    On the first run through I think I only had three or four solutions, but gradually it all came together. It’s invidious to pick favourites among so many first rate clues, but the construction of 20ac and 8dn struck me as particularly neat.
    It took me some time to get AFRO – very much a case of hiding in plain sight.
    And I will admit the tongue in cheek references to those allegedly in charge amused me. While I shall continue to try and leave the room when a certain shambolic Old Etonian comes on air, I shall enjoy thinking of him as an oaf who first implied that Covid was not very problematic!
    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen

22. 8d I also parsed it as STATE in REINS

23. Enjoyed this puzzle, in part because it managed to highlight my fallibility. Having solved all and parsed everything except 9a I then utterly fails to parse it. I’d got the reversal, and the reference to Lewis Hamilton’s knighthood, but got completely lost down the rabbit hole of why “MIDNIGHT” could possibly have anything to do with “AFICIONADO”. Even after I read the blog I was baffled. Then the penny dropped. DUH!
    Many thanks to Vlad and to Eileen for my belated enlightenment.

24. PostMark, rullytully, ngaiolaurenson –
    Re REINSTATES – you’re all right, of course: that was a real blind spot! I’ll amend it now.

25. [PM @15, love the Scotland Streets (and somewhat identify with Bertie) and all of AMS’s oeuvre]

26. ngaiolaurenson @ 13
    grantinfreo @ 14

    The reference to humour theory is in the word SANGUINENESS. The theory was that the four humours (blood, black bile, yellow bile, phlegm) in the body exerted their own influences and health depended on them being in balance. A preponderance of one would cause illness. Mediaeval medecine is full of this stuff. We had great fun reading it at university. Sanguineness of course refers to blood.

27. [Anna – since you’re here. A view from Finland, please, relevant to a puzzle at the weekend. Part of Scandinavia or not? Many thanks in advance. PM]

28. Like many others I thought this was a tremendous puzzle – top notch. I ticked FATHER CHRISTMAS, PISSARRO, MIDNIGHT, COUNTERFEITS, SAYONARA . . . the list goes on. Vlad gets better and better. Many thanks to him, and to Eileen as ever.

29. Thanks Anna, of course that kind of humour, which yes I know about. I was thinking about comedy, duh.

30. Lovely puzzle and a fitting blog.Thanks Vlad and Eileen

31. Thanks Vlad and Eileen
    I found this hard going, but worth it for the revelation that FATHER CHRISTMAS is an anagram of “Mrs Thatcher as if”. Other favourites included AFRO, SAYONARA, and LOI ARSON.
    In what context does E = “extra”? Certainly not cricket, as the different types of extra have different abbreviations (b, lb etc.)
    I was a bit put off by the “more” in the clue for the long one, as I didn’t think it would be in the solution as well. Would “two ways” have been neater?

32. [PS Sayonara for now to Brian Lara, who has been downunder as guest commentator, a real gent. And totally ditto Sunil Gavaskar]

33. Not bad for a Vlad.

    [Can’t see that Sanguineness is intended to refer to humour although nice to see the clever reference to the dark beverage]

34. muffin @ 31 – E doesn’t = “extra”: E is ‘a little {of} E[xtra], as indicated in the blog.

35. Thanks Eileen. Not a favourite trick for me.

36. PostMark @ 27

    It’s a bit of a hot potato, is that question. Finland is not really part of Scandinavia ethnically or linguistically. But politically they are lumped in with Sweden, Norway and Denmark – and Iceland. And of course Finland was well under the Swedish paw for many centuries, which inevitably left its mark. Finland was only given a measure of independence when they were passed to Russia in the early 19th century. (Not exactly sure of the reasons but I assume it’s to do with Sweden being on the losing side in the Napoleonic wars ????)

37. …… and we’ve got a longish land border with Norway, too, and a slightly shorter one with Sweden.

38. Loved the long anagram. My brother was tickled pink by the fact that MARGARET THATCHER was a [sic] ahagram of THE GREAT CHARM RAT.

39. Splendid puzzle from Vlad, with typically tightly constructed clues and polished surfaces. Unusually, the four letter solutions were relatively straightforward and gave a bit of a purchase.

    I had parsed 8dn as REIN + STATES, with ‘Washington’ as the USA by metonymy, but the alternative is neater.

    Too many good clues to list, but the Santa one is wonderful.

    Thanks Eileen – a lucky one today

40. The Impaler on top form this morning. Thought I was in for a mauling (as Grantinfreo might say) having entered a tiny handful on first pass but the puzzle yielded most agreeably afetr the long novel went in.

    Many thanks, both.

41. Another enjoyable puzzle from Vlad. As I have commented previously, I feel that his contributions have got better as he has made them a little easier. My only reservation today is 5a, where I found the wordplay of the clue a little over-contrived, but that’s just a minor personal quibble.

42. Towards the finish of this challenging puzzle I wasn’t too sure about the long, pivotal SANGUINENESS and PUTOUTTHEFLAGS. Also not too confident about the parsing of PISSARRO. So the NE quarter took a while, finally. Liked the concise clue for AFRO and pretty much everything else!

43. Tough today – just not on the right wavelength at all and that was very-much a DNF with much revealing and prompting required. Might have something to do with staying up until 2am with a non-functioning central heating system as well – of course, being an engineer, I believe I can fix anything which means that I am now on the phone to a plumber…

    1,15a was lovely. Blaise @38: that seems much more appropriate.

    Thanks Vlad and Eileen!

44. MaidenBartok @43 You’re not alone in struggling to get on Vlad’s wavelength, although the clues are a perfectly fair.

    I try to be phlegmatic, but Maggie Thatcher made my blood boil and Evelyn Waugh was full of bile. Sanguine you’re winning, you’re only sanguine when you’re winning.

    Hope the plumber REINSTATES your central heating quickly.

45. Penfold @ 44
    Ha! Love your comment!

46. Hard going and thoroughly satisfying throughout. Many thanks Vlad and Eileen.

47. Hi folks.
    Just want to posit an alternative parse for 13a.

    AFRO Anag (shock) of FOR A = Criminal.

    Clever, but not remotely funny. Why criminal in this context? Tangled, combed and I am sure many others would have been more appropriate.

48. Very tough for me; I had nil points after the first pass, but then got FATHER CHRISTMAS, which started things off. I didn’t know PUT OUT MORE FLAGS, so a word search came in handy.

    I thought of PISSARRO early on but thought it had only one R, doh! Lots to like in retrospect, including Lewis Hamilton, Margaret Thatcher, the German lawyer et al.

    Thanks Vlad for a difficult challenge (Easier? Not in this neck of the woods) and Eileen

49. Taffy @ 47
    Eileen’s parsing is perfectly adequate – and correct.
    Why the need for an alternative, which is, in my opinion, wrong?

50. Thank you, Anna.

51. Anna @ 49, I believe Taffy might be objecting to Vlad’s choice of ‘criminal’ in the surface and not to Eileen’s parsing – if so, I had a similar quibble in what was otherwise a wonderful puzzle.

    Thanks, Vlad and Eileen!

52. Hi Anna and Eileen. You are both absolutely correct and I have no exe to grind.
    My point being that my alternative parse is to some folks equality valid and rather amusing “Banter” as someone called it. My gripe is with the setter. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but to not have seen the
    implications of alternative parsing is poor. It’s certainly been picked up by several in the Guardian comments.

53. Similar experience to MaidenBartok@43 including, spookily, having to ring a plumber this morning.
    Vlad in great form and perfectly fair in retrospect, but consider the clue “Was sorry about making vulgar sound” for RUED – if this were “Regretted making vulgar sound” it would have been too easy: the “about” introduces a level of possible complexity which provides the necessary distraction. It’s all there in plain view with Vlad (cf NeilH@21). DAMMIT.
    beery hiker@12: “dirky”? Between this, Penfold@44’s “sanguine when you’re winning” and Anna@1’s “humour theory” (but thanks for the explanation)(and well said@49) I’m feeling the need for a blog of the contributions….

54. such a pity that 5 (which is a great clue) uses more in both clue and solution …

55. MB@43
    Snap!
    Mala suerte. Our CH packed up this morning. Does your plumber cover Spain? Course not. We can’t afford to pay for his quarantine!

56. AFRO
    I don’t understand the need some people feel to see alternate parsing in clues, just so they can imagine something they can be offended about. Is it a form of virtue signalling?
    I think there was another case recently, when someone was offended over something quite innocuous.

57. The AFRO hairstyle ( for which “shock” is an adequate definition) went out of fashion many years ago, but in its day was sported by both black and white wearers. The AFRO… prefix, unlike the hairdo, is still in use to denote all things African, but I don’t think it has a definition as a noun meaning a black person, though I am old and these things do change over time.

    The clue works as Eileen says: shock is the definition and criminal the anagram indicator. The other way round is both cruciverbally unlikely, and seeking to create offence where none so blatant could possibly have been intended.

    The one possible ground for offence might be if the clue is (wrongly) taken to be a CD: an AFRO is a hairstyle worn by criminals? But although originally a Black hairdo, it wasn’t exclusively so.

58. Anna @56 and gladys @57 – I’m with you all the way. I’d seen some of the reaction on the Guardian thread, mentioned by Taffy, and felt thankful that it hadn’t cropped up here.
    My only reaction to the clue had been ‘criminal’ as anagram indicator again – I’m sure we see it every week, don’t we?

59. Just when I was getting a bit sanguine about my solving abilities, I’m back to staring at an empty grid. Some great clues, though, when I finally got there, which stopped me getting too melancholic or choleric. I parsed YASMIN as an anagram (wanton) of IMSAYN (not totally I’m saying) but I can see that’s rubbish and not intended as a slur on people like Pritti Patel who pronounce “ing” words as /in/

60. Hi Eileen. I’m genuinely sorry to rain on your parade as I really enjoy this site for helping me get my head around some wonderfully constructed and occasionally convoluted answers.
    I started the chat here as folks get very angry if answers are revealed on the guardian and many were saying that they couldn’t see the issue, so I came here to explain.
    Having sat through hours of diversity, unconscious bias, equality training in the City, the alternative meaning leapt out immediately.
    White folks do not have Afro hair as the default. I never saw anyone white with one. Dreadlocks, yes.
    Anyways, time to give this a rest. Have been called a shit on the Guardian and a pathetic virtue signaller here so will withdraw and cede the field to the bigots.

61. George Clements @41. I got PISSARRO straight away from the first letter and description (I only know a limited number of artists beginning with P) but could not at all work out how to parse it. I completely agree with you. I found charades very difficult at first and am slowly getting better at them but sometimes, like here, they really are over-contrived.

    Difficult puzzle for a Tuesday I thought. As always I saw *Vlad* and thought Ooooops. I made slow progress and eventually got there (not helped by never having heard of the book). But it was easier than some other Vlad puzzles I have seen.

    Thanks to Vlad and Eileen (I needed your help with the parsing of several)

62. Anna @56: well said. Sometimes it feels that these woke entries are just gratuitous, in an effort to provoke.

63. I loved this. Took a while, but evoked more smiles than these puzzles have for a long time.

    Anna@36 the definition I’ve seen is that Scandinavia is just those three countries, but the “Nordic countries” includes Finland too and all the islands. Is that how you understand it?

64. Complete disaster for me today. I just couldn’t get in the right frame of mind.

65. I don’t know what Eileen’s original parsing was for REINSTATES (the original seems to have been erased after her change of mind @24), but I am now puzzling as to how ‘some method of control’=REINS; the clue would work without any need for the word ‘some’.

    I saw this one as ‘some’=part of/not all, ‘method of control’=reins. So ‘part of reins’= either REIN(s) or REIN (ie just one rein, not both). Then ‘Washington’=STATES by metonymy (as mentioned by Gervase@39). Then ‘over’ in a down light is just REIN on top of STATES.

    This may be more convoluted, but it seems to me to be more accurate.

66. Dr WhatsOn @63 (and PostMark, Anna and Robi passim) It was I who objected to ‘Scandinavian’ being used to clue FINN in a charade in a recent Everyman puzzle, when the setter could easily have substituted ’Nordic’. This just seemed to me ignorant and culturally a bit insensitive.

    ‘Scandinavian’ is not defined to include Finnish in my Chambers or SOED (or even the despised Wiktionary) although some dictionaries do, as Robi pointed out. Generally speaking I agree that a meaning listed in dictionaries is fair game for a crossword setter, but I draw the line at loose ethnic terminology. Dictionaries are full of words for black, Jewish and Roma people which we wouldn’t dream of using.

67. Just a little bit beyond my level; with just SAN***N***S*, I decided to cheat to see if a word with that combination existed, or whether I was totally barking up the wrong tree. But once SANGUINENESS was in place, it wasn’t too long to finish. But oh, I do (usually) find Vlad so tortuous! I can’t learn to love him as I can the Picaroons of this world.

68. sheffield hatter – yes, that’s the way I originally read it – as you (and Gervase) did. Perhaps I was too easily persuaded otherwise. As Gervase says, either way works really., although ‘over’, in a down clue, usually indicates ‘before’, although it can also mean ’round’. I’ll add a comment to the blog.

69. I don’t want to get involved in the discussion of the clue for AFRO except to say that if there is to be a discussion it would be better not to use the term virtue signalling. This is a pejorative term that is normally “used in a critical manner online by rightwing activists to sneer at leftwing individuals on culture war topics“. I have been accused of it myself (not on this forum) and I can testify that it left me feeling very upset and angry. I know the term has become almost uniquitous, thanks to its use being picked up in right wing mainstream media, so I am not suggesting that any use of it here implies that the user is “sneering at left wing individuals”, just that use of it should be avoided in future, please.

70. Alphalpha @53 I like your suggestion of a blog for the contributions 🙂

    [My “Sanguine you’re winning” comes from the crowd singing at football matches. When a team are losing, their supporters tend to go quiet and the opposing fans will then chant
    “Sing when you’re winning
    You only sing when you’re winning…”

    I hope that helps to explain my ramblings.]

71. Hi Penfold @70

    Like Anna @45, I enjoyed your comment @44. Thanks for explaining ‘sanguine’ – I should have worked it out. 😉

72. Dr WhatsOn @ 63
    Gervase @ 66

    I’ve just done a google search in Finnish to see if I can shed any more light on this.

    https://www.kielikello.fi/-/mika-pohjola-mika-skandinavia-

    Scandinavia should only be the peninsular of Norway and Sweden. (So not necessarily Denmark, then). In practice, Denmark is included and Finland often is too ‘in some languages’.

    Pohjoismaat (the Nordic countries) do include Finland and Iceland.

    There is also a vague word ‘Pohjola’ which seems to mean anywhere and everywhere in ‘the North’, as you want it to. Pohjola is an ancient word in Finnish literate.

    So, this doesn’t really help you, does it?

73. [Dicho @55: “snap” is the operative word… I’ve discovered that the problem is a stuck (in the closed position) TRV. “No problem” says the engineering brain; “I’ll remove the nut that holds the little pin in under the valve, wiggle it around and the job’s a good’un.” Stilsons out, nut removed, pin jetisoned at speed by a 2ft jet of hot, black, mucky water up the magnolia-painted wall and over the hard-wood floor (and therefore down the cracks).

    You might say 5a -ing all over the place.

    “Eek” says the engineering brain. “Put the nut back in quick!” Only I can’t, because the actions of this particular brainless primate in removing said tiny nut with gargantuan Stilsons has managed to sheer the thread off the very thing that holds the pin in that stops the jet of hot, black, mucky water from spewing out all over, etc., etc.

    Do you do board-and-lodging? I may be sleeping in the kennel this evening; except we don’t have a dog. Or a kennel. Quarantine somewhere else currently appeals…]

74. …… literature, that is. Pohjolan tyttäret (the maidens of the north) appear in Kalevala.
    And lots of Finnish companies have Pohjola- in their name.

75. Anna@72 and then of course there is the Scandinavian Peninsula …

76. [Anna @72: Sibelius wrote a rather beautiful tone poem, Pohjola’s Daughter, based on the story of the “Daughter of the North” in the Kalevala.

    I’d always assumed that it was similar in usage to “ultima Thule” which just meant someone far away from the known lands but I see the “north” connection where north of north is just so far away as to be outside the known world… Interesting.

    Anywyay, here is the Gothenburg Symphony with Neeme Jarvi and Pohjola’s Daughter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGKnKpa-6m0%5D

77. The FATHER CHRISTMAS anagram is delicious, and having spotted it fairly early, along with MIDNIGHT and A BIT MUCH, I erroneously thought I must have managed to get on Vlad’s wavelength.
    Alas, no.
    Took a long time to winkle the remaining solutions out – and I couldn’t completely parse a fair number, so huge thanks to Eileen for explaining everything. PUT OUT MORE FLAGS was quite splendid (the book isn’t bad either) and it was pleasing to close with ACME – although, for me, that word always conjures an image of Wily Coyote plummeting to the bottom of the Grand Canyon….
    Thanks to Vlad for the entertainment.

78. [Penfold @44 & 70. As a football fan who likes a witty chant, I did enjoy your “only sanguine when you’re winning”. I look forward to giving it a go next time I’m allowed to follow Luton Town on the terraces.]

79. MaidenBartok @ 76
    Thanks for that link. I have saved it and will listen later on tonight. I like Sibelius. Well, it’s compulsory here, anyway.

80. Penfold@70: Ah, football matches – beyond my ken you see. Thanks for the illumination.

81. sheffieldhatter@69 Very well put.

82. [Anna @79. Sibelius should be compulsory everywhere!]

83. [MD @73
    Sorry but the kennel is currently occupied by our dog and yours truly – punishment for not booking the annual CH service. However the cave houses in our lands may provide you with a refuge- no running water or electricity. Lo siento. ]

84. [Anna
    During the period when Finland was officially “dry”, wasn’t a law enacted that specifically excepted Sibelius from the ban on alcohol?]

85. muffin @ 84
    I didn’t know that there was a time when the country was officially dry. I’m having a lot of trouble imagining it!!

86. [Anna @various: having posed the Scandinavian query earlier and been away since, I wanted to dip in and thank you – and others – for your various contributions. It would appear to be a moot point – though sensitivities about who is associated with whom can certainly be understood. The line between terminological convenience and cultural insensitivity can be Finn. Thanks to Gervase @66 for popping in with context. ]

    I’m going to stay away from the AFRO debate too; as one whose own hairstyle throughout the early 70’s invited comparisons with Leo Sayer, I could be argued to have a conflict of interest.

87. Yes, thanks to Anna for the deFinnitive answer that Finland isn’t part of Scandinavia (apart from those times when it is).

    Thanks also for PostMark’s Finn blue line. It’s good to know that when it comes to puns, I’m not a One Man Band. When I Need You, you’re Just A Boy who’ll come back from Moonlighting on the Indy blog, because The Show Must Go On.

88. PostMark @86 To follow yesterday’s clueing of contributors. As Everyman would say, “One who primarily puns often shuns tendentious muttering and replies keenly.

89. [Penfold @87: Finnished yet?]

90. Didn’t know the Waugh novel & one of four reveals & a few not parsed correctly if at all. Very tough & particularly in the NE. Still at least I’m making progress as wouldn’t have got anywhere near this not so long ago.
    Thanks Eileen

91. [Petert @88: thank you. Might I respond with ‘Cheeky poster of lassie; perhaps royal model? (6)’

    On Friday you asked about studies of crossword psychology and Alan B and Eileen both spoke of the University of Buckingham study. I read it over the weekend and, from there, followed various links to other interesting writing on the subject. Many of the articles by Kathryn Friedlander who co-authored that study are interesting and links are provided to other articles by her and others on the subject. The first of three successive articles on types of clue is here. There is also a review of what looks like a fascinating book on the subject here.]

92. Penfold@87 “Suomi the way to go home. I’m tired and I want to go to bed”

93. I can recall an early visit to this place, thoroughly dispirited after having solved precisely one clue in a Vlad puzzle (and that was a guess).

    I feared I had overnight lost the ability to do cryptics, and a hobby I had enjoyed for years would no longer be possible to follow. Or else that Vlad was somehow operating under different rules from any I had known.

    I can’t say I gained much pleasure from the many positive comments of other posters who had enjoyed solving the whole thing, either.

    This latest Vlad was over in a very enjoyable 45 minutes or so (only a Times reader would actually time themselves surely). The only query I had was the parenthetical “Waugh novel”, which I missed. I highly recommend the Trilogy though: very powerful books from a writer perhaps better known for humour.

    Anyway, maybe Vlad has dialled back the difficulty as some have said. Maybe I was just on better form. Whatever, I know I am a far more capable solver now than I was then, and much of that is due to the bloggers and posters on here.

    So thanks Eileen and the rest for the unceasing excellence. Thanks also Vlad for a fine puzzle.

94. Thanks both,
    Much to enjoy today. Even more if one doesn’t misspell 12 d.
    [Maidenbartok @73: I feel your pain. I once twisted a radiator valve off the pipe by using a stilson in the wrong direction and had to fly around town trying to beg an olive off a friend while my better half sat with her thumb over the pipe. ‘Never do plumbing when B&Q is closed’ has been my mantra ever since.]

95. 1961Blanchflower @93: my first Guardian crossword, after years of doing the DT, was a Vlad. I had eschewed the G for years, my father (again!!!) having enjoyed Araucaria and his predecessors which bestowed upon the publication a fearsome reputation. To say I was thoroughly mauled is an understatement. So, sharing your experience of today, I can fully appreciate how satisfied you must feel and the value you’ve gained from this site. Spats and all.

96. Postmark@91 Thanks for the clue and the links. Fascinating stuff

97. Wow, that was hard. But I got there in the end. And some of the clues were glorious. I adored LOI SANGUINENESS and SAYONARA. Thank you for a fantastic challenge, Vlad.

    And thank you Eileen for parsing PUTOUTTHEFLAGS (I missed the war waugh homophone partly becasue I didn’t know he wrote it) and for showing me the two abouts in MOROCCAN.

    Great fun!

98. [Tyngewick @94 – not just plumbing. I took down a long established shelf in my kitchen, painted the wall, and at 7 p.m., replaced the shelf. One screw went back into the hole it came out of, and as I turned it a quarter turn tighter than it had previously been, there was an ominous HISS and a spurt of water. Result, a flooded kitchen floor, several hours with no water and 24 with no central heating, and an insurance claim for the hole in the wall the plumber had to make to get at the pipe. And then I had to paint the wall again. The accident had been waiting for that extra quarter turn for years.]

99. I thought I was beginning to get the measure of Vlad, but today’s, easier or not, was a near-total impalement.

100. Did anyone else think that the “in more ways than one” in 5D referred to the two meanings of “standards” namely MORE[flag]S & FLAGS, and that PUT OUT was good enough for “increasingly disconcerted”? I see now it was wrong but it felt close enough for government work, as they used to say in World War II.

101. Presumably too late for anyone to read this, but the blog wasn’t up when I finished the puzzle this morning. I enjoyed the solution to 1, 15 so much that I nearly didn’t bother to finish it!

102. @69 thank you kind sir. As well as Virtue Signalling, can I add “Woke”, and of course shit, which was another I received. There are none so blind as those who will not see. Seems to have split opinion in a rather depressing US manner. I guess I’m now Antifa (what’s not to be proud of that, the name at least). The Proud Boys/Girls have also shown their hand.

103. I’m sorry, Taffy, I’m entirely missing your point.. AFRO is, as Eileen says “An anagram (criminal) of FOR A”. I don’t see why you have to associate “AFRO” with “criminal”.

104. After the dizzy heights of finishing my first cryptic yesterday it was back down to earth with a bump today. Still a long way to go… :o(

105. Thanks to Eileen for the blog and to others who commented.

     Obviously no offence was intended in 13ac and to find it relies, I would have thought, on an unlikely interpretation of the words. Then again, context and intent seem to be largely disregarded nowadays.

106. Don’t be upset, slowowl – Vad is generraly reckoned to be one of the two or three hardest compilers.

107. [Taffy @102: you have every right to your feelings and this community is generally able to absorb and move on from its occasional bouts of contention. Yours is by no means the first argument on these pages about perceptions of political, cultural, racial or other forms of insensitivity. Personally, I do not believe for one minute that any setter has ever intended offence. Many things are in the eye of the beholder who has the right to perceive them as he or she does.

     However, whilst I appreciate your drawing of an analogy with the polar divide that is the current state of US politics and society, I am a lot less fond of your attribution of labels such as Proud Boys/Girls to any in this community. Or Antifa for that matter though you have accepted that label for yourself. Please don’t bring such associations to this site.

108. Taffy I respect your right to express your opinion about the AFRO clue but I’m less impressed with your inability to do that without resorting to insulting people who don’t agree with you

109. Ladies and Gentlemen of the Jury. I merely pointed out that for a casual observer of the paper, novice solver level even, as I am, the clue was abysmal given its other interpretation. I think ‘Criminal’ is a much weaker hint at an anagram than ‘Shock’, which then leads inexorably to AFRO=CRIMINAL. No amount of bleating changes this. None. Picked up repeatedly by many in the Guardian comments, with which I agree. Postmark/BodyCheetah. It was I who was called a shit, virtue signalling and woke before kicking back. Astonished to find such attitudes in the Grauniad/here. Eileen was very gracious and as I said, I had absolutely no axe to grind with her whatsoever. Others chose to pile in with the insults. First.

110. “However, whilst I appreciate your drawing of an analogy with the polar divide that is the current state of US politics and society, I am a lot less fond of your attribution of labels such as Proud Boys/Girls to any in this community. Or Antifa for that matter though you have accepted that label for yourself. Please don’t bring such associations to this site.”
     “Taffy I respect your right to express your opinion about the AFRO clue but I’m less impressed with your inability to do that without resorting to insulting people who don’t agree with you.”

     Then I will simply accept that I have been ‘cancelled’ as you both choose to look beyond ‘virtue signalling’, ‘woke’ and ‘shit’ and condemn me for pointing out, not Alternative Facts but Uncomfortable ones.
     “I’m not not going to get involved in 13a….” but Taffy is an arse….

111. the guardian closed comments immediately after i submitted my own ha’p’orth; i suppose i shouldn’t be surprised. i daresay this is far from the kind of animated conversation the guardian likes to drum up.
     vlad, you should apologise without qualification for failing to appreciate the glaring, racist connotation of 13A’s surface.
     your suggestion that such an interpretation is “unlikely” is highly dubious considering your skill as a compiler. please either be more careful, or less racist.
     otherwise, a tough, but decent crossword
     cheers.

112. There are occasions when being a crossword AFICIONADO is more of a hindrance than a help when it comes to understanding ‘normal’ people’s reactions.

     Like most of us here I parsed AFRO without a second thought – as Eileen points out ‘criminal’ is such a common anagram indicator that the experienced crossword solver’s (and setter’s!) mind will go automatically to that interpretation.

     Equally I don’t think Taffy’s alternative parsing @47 works, for the reasons given by gladys @57.

     In that post however she also raises the possibility of a ‘cryptic definition’ style of clue, which would be offensive. To that I would add the following thought: we very often have ‘&littish’ or ‘extended definition’ type clues, where you have definition and wordplay, but then the whole surface of the clue can be taken as a description of the solution.

     My guess is that’s where the problem lies for most of those who took offence on the G thread, though maybe not Taffy. ‘Shock’ = hairdo = AFRO, but then the rest of the surface alluding to the racist stereotype that an Afro is a fitting hairstyle for a criminal.

     Because I was already familiar with Vlad’s puzzles it never entered my mind for one moment that he intended that kind of racist joke, and, pace ozof @111, I don’t think he has any need to apologise. But I do think that on future occasions an editor with a feel for what’s going on in the world beyond Crosswordland might usefully cast a veto.

     None of this excuses Taffy’s rudeness and false accusations – nobody called him ‘pathetic’ on this site (see @60) and it was he who raised the temperature of the debate by calling those who disagreed with him ‘bigots’.

     Taffy, the people you insulted really aren’t bigots, let alone fascists as implied by your post @102 – they’re just people (like me) who have spent so many years thinking/parsing in a certain way, with a certain set of crosswording conventions, never meaning any offence to anyone, that they find it really really really really really hard to see what to ozof @111, and many others, seems ‘glaring’ and offensive.

113. I can see why some of you are upset, but in crossword terms you have created an association that isn’t there. The surface reading of the clue has plenty of innocent interpretations, and the offence only starts when you have half solved it by seeing the definition. Surface readings are supposed to paint misleading pictures – that is the nature of good cryptic clues. I feel sorry for Vlad getting caught up in this – anyone who knows him could never believe any offence is intended.

114. Sorry, Taffy. DIdn’t get on with this crossword yesterday so didn’t visit this site to provide support. It is usually me who is usually the ironic butt of people taking great offence at others taking offence. Perhaps it is because I am so woke, but my initial reading of the clue was that it was asking me to think of a haircut that a criminal might have. It was only I got the AFRO answer from the crossers that an “I can’t believe it” allowed me to see what was intended.
     As previously communicated on many occasions, Guardian readers are entitled by the newpaper’s editorial code to be this sensitive. And as a Guardian crossword, this issue will have been particularly relevant for readers who have been following the debate about schoolchildren being prohibited by their white teachers from wearing their hair in its natural state.
     No offence was intended, but insufficient care was taken to ensure that none was given.
     This carelessness extended to the technical content of the clue. A shock and an afro would be at opposite ends of the thickness spectrum of haircuts. And why, apart from “convention” does “criminal” mean to mix letters up to make a proper word?

115. VW @114: I can’t believe I’m responding to yesterday’s blog half way through Wednesday morning but I’m disappointed you’ve come in in the way you have today. You are a respected member of this community and you (and OddOtter before he departed) have consistently argued your points and, for the most part, others have entered into that debate with civility. The posts disagreeing with Taffy here fall largely into two camps – those who simply didn’t see the slur and those who respected Taffy’s right to an opinion but asked him to refrain from insult. To which he responded with further insult. I take enormous exception at being associated with Proud Boys simply because I didn’t see an unintentional slur and that is what I objected to @107. Taffy’s response was simply more insult. I can understand you sharing his view but not supporting his approach to getting it across.

     And ‘criminal’ means wrong which is why, as I’m sure you know perfectly well, it’s such a staple anagrind across all of crosswordland.

116. [Ugh – moving on…

     Glays @98: I once arrived for a weekend at my then sister-in-laws house where she declared “if you want a shower, you’ll have to fix the hot water first.” Turned out that the pump was knackered and knowing I was coming up she had left it for me to fix. This was Saturday afternoon at 4.30 and in those times, plumbers merchants shut at 5pm not to repopen until Monday. By luck, the first store, 15 minutes drive away had an identical pump in stock and having drained down the system everything was back-up-and-running by 1am…

     Slightly unhappy about being put to such manual labour, next time I went and was asked to run a telephone cable along the top of the skirting board, I nailed the cable clip straight through the main water feed causing the reduction of an entire set of end-of-term reports to be reduced to pulp…]

117. Thanks for sorting all this out Eileen, i didn’t get the last part of MIDNIGHT (not being up to date with that news) and like Fiona Anne@61 (and many others) i find much of Vlad’s wordplay as tortuous as him name would suggest, such as SANGUINENESS where I was thrown by “a little” extra – couldn’t Extra just be E by virtue of its appearance in abbreviations such as ESP and ESB (extra strong bitter)? Similarly the “as” before pirates led me on all sorts of dances. But this was all worthwhile thanks to FATHER CHRISTMAS and my favourite (for surface and misleading nature) SAYONARA, thanks Vlad.

118. PostMark@115 – I think that you will find that Taffy’s error was to conflate their description of their experience on this site and the Guardian site, and appear to be insulting contributors to the former when these critical references were largely to contributors to the latter. Neither allowed under the site polices, of course, but ironically in the circumstances the impression I got was of people on this site being too quick to be insulted.
     The civility of the debate on the other side is also overstated. The posts at 56 and 62 were both personally critical.
     And back to the crossword … my point is that “criminal” does mean wrong – why is “AFRO” “FOR A” wrong, and not just different? A lazy staple that doesn’t have any logic to it.

119. Oh dear!
     I suspect that part of the problem is that all these equality and diversity courses train you to look for possible offence when there is non intended.

     Will any compiler ever be able to use the word criminal as an anagrind again?

120. Pedro. Couldn’t agree more.

121. Pedro @119 – that might be no bad thing. At least the fashionable craze for pants seems to have subsided a bit.

122. @119. Thank you, that raised a smile. Close but no cigar. What the courses teach you is to think carefully before doing anything. It’s something that is learned as we unfortunately have picked up some behaviours that should not be tolerated. On a simplistic level, ‘eeny meeny’ and ‘…in a woodpile’, no chance. Baa Baa…. and simply …. sheep of the family. Both a bit snowflakey in the correct sense of the word. What is also drilled into one is that intent is absolutely not a defence. HR will assess the offence taken on its merits and will either dismiss as trivial (snowflakey) or you’d get a verbal or written warning or if merited the sack. Your feelings count for zero. Abject apologies and contrition may work to mitigate the sanction.

     Late ’80s, three senior department heads (2M,1F) buy a graphic card for a female staff members’ wedding, the message inside saying “Hoping you get plenty of this on your Honeymoon, all the very best, A,B and C.” Offense taken, absolutely none intended, sacked within a few hours. 67 years of combined service ruined.

     Same with recruitment. All CVs go through HR. You choose very carefully who to bring in having consulted with colleagues. Those CVs discarded have to have a proper reason given, same for the rejected and accepted interviewees. It’s tedious but necessary.

     As for Criminal as an anagrid. Absolutely fine, no problem whatsoever – in the correct context. It really is very simple.

     @115. Nowhere did I call you a Proud boy, that was specifically and to me quite obviously, directed at those who had chosen, for whatever reason, to call me a shit, a virtue signaller and woke. Nobody else.
     My reaction may have been intemperate, but the inflammatory words were directed at me first.

     @112. You were doing so well there, I thought that was a very reasoned reply. See the sentence above as to clarification of where my insults were directed. The fact that I stated pathetic Virtue Signaller where ‘pathetic’ had not been mentioned is, as the lawyers say, rather specious, but accepted as putting words in others’ mouths.

     Therefore to make absolutely clear, Postmark and Essexboy, please accept my humble apologies. I did not set out to offend either of you, but if offence was taken, I accept that I should choose my words more carefully and not accidentally tar others.

     For those who joined in on my side, thank you. Much appreciated. For those who’ve seen this too often in the past and chose to sit it out, my apologies if it spoiled your day.

123. Van Winkle @118 – If you’re objecting to criminal as an anagrind, because “wrong” doesn’t mean “shake up the letters to make another word” then there are an awful lot of other really common ones that you’d have to stick in the same boat. If the clue was “Shock for a drunk” would you complain that drunk doesn’t mean specifically “make another word out of it”.

     But anyway, if someone asked you to spell the word “afro” and you said “F, O, R, A” then you’d clearly be wrong (and quite possibly drunk).

124. MarkN – yes. This is part of my campaign against crossword cliches. Things that don’t make sense apart from that you have seen them before. My campaign particularly focuses on the use of terms related to mental illness as anagrinds. The campaign is not widely popular.

125. [MaidenBartok@73 Thanks for the warning! According to the youtube video I found, removing the TRV and unjamming the pin is a pretty straightforward task. Perhaps I’d better leave mine to the plumber rather than attempting it myself as I had planned …]

126. I have to admit, ‘shock’ for AFRO made me uncomfortable. I know we have the phrase ‘a shock of [usually some colour] hair’, but when did you last actually hear it used?
     There has been a lot of publicity recently about the need for Black people to be able to wear their hair naturally, rather than being obliged to ‘tame’ it to conform to white norms of ‘tidiness’ and ‘appropriateness’. Given that ‘shock’ frequently has negative connotations, it is perhaps unhelpful to use it specifically in relation to AFRO hair.
     And, I suspect Taffy has a point. If ‘shock of hair’ is an unfamiliar phrase to some solvers, ‘criminal’ could perhaps be seen as the definition.
     Yes, it’s easy to take offence when none was intended, and it would be very hard for setters and editors to ensure that no perfectly innocent clue could be misinterpreted perjoratively. But I suspect this little clue would have benefitted from a bit more editorial attention.

127. My problem with ‘shock’ as the definition is that it is not really appropriate. The AFRO hairstyle is characterised by being neat and very carefully tended (with specially designed combs), in my experience and observation, whereas Chambers defines shock in the sense of hair as “a mass of thick shaggy hair”. (Shaggy is defined as “long, rough and course”, btw. Not at all like an afro imo.)

     Good to see Taffy @122 say that he should “should choose [his] words more carefully” to avoid offending people unnecessarily. Pausing and reading again what you have written before posting would also be a good idea!

     The idea that ‘criminal’ might be seen as the definition in this clue once the solution is known to be AFRO (Katherine @126) is just laughable. Sorry if that causes offence.

128. Still scratching my head over SAYONARA. Can some kind brit please explain the connection between ON and LEG? Fruitless googling found nothing to set me straight. Never watched a cricket match in my life, being Canadian and all. Sorry.
     Cheers

129. MightyCue @128, this link may be useful. (There’s a nice diagram showing fielding positions, and also a comparison with baseball if that helps.)

     Essentially, the leg side or on side is the side of the field that corresponds to the batsman’s non-dominant hand (as opposed to the off side).

     But there are complications! You can’t always use ‘leg’ and ‘on’ interchangeably – a shot played forwards into this area would be an on drive, never a leg drive, while a pull or sweep shot that goes level with or behind the wicket would be said to go to the leg side, not the on side. And from the bowler’s perspective, a leg break (never an on break!) is, confusingly, a ball that spins from the leg to the off.

130. If you see this, MightyCue, in cricket picture this: the batsman (or woman) stands sideways relative to the bowler. Now think of the whole playing area as being in two halves, the centre line being through the middle of the wicket (i.e. from stumps one end through the stumps at the other). Therefore in principle one half has the batter’s legs in it and that is known as leg or, for historic reasons of which I am unaware, ‘on’. It follows that the other half is ‘off’, which may help you in a future crossword! Depending on how much you know about the game, you may be aware that there is a batter at each end. The one facing the bowler determines which side is ‘leg’ or ‘on’. So, if one batter is left-handed and the other is right-handed, OFF and ON change sides depending on which one is facing the bowler.

     I would have thought that was obvious!!!

131. Blast! Essexboy knows more than me!

132. Tough indeed. Vlad, you have a knack of making me fail to see the obvious. Great crossword, only disappointment was the now obligatory North American slang word. I presume it’s Guardian policy.

133. Finally completed but had to cheat on PISSARRO, didn’t know the novel or 6d. When there are a lot of the intricate clues and some solutions have already proved to be unknown to the solver, it is tempting to give up in case the next solution is yet another unknown. However, if time is available it is rewarding to stick at it, knowing that a blog awaits that will explain everything. Thanks Eileen, I wouldn’t like your job, and thanks Vlad for the mental exercise.

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