Guardian Cryptic 28,439 by Brendan

91 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,439 by Brendan”

1. Thanks manehi. Does the definition in 12a include ‘managed’? I particularly liked 11a and 7d too and the anagram for HOMO SAPIENS. Thanks to Brendan for the fun

2. ngaiolaurenson @1 Coppicing is a method of woodland management, and the woodland under management is called a copse.

3. The grid also contains a couple of antonyms: PUT IN and THREW OUT.

4. NYM (18a) is internet speak for pseudonym; thus, the role sounds like one that anyone (or at least anyone adopting a pseudonym) could play.

5. Would have been a fairly rapid solve, had it not been for all the HOMO- cross-references, which called for organizational as well as solving skills, and all but defeated me. One new word (STEGOSAUR), and one old one nicely disguised (STOCHASTIC). Thanks setter, for the challenge.
   PS: Dropped across another superb old Araucaria prize puzzle this morning (2003, #22,941, with fascinating theme). After first hour had just three grid entries, but it was such a fun challenge that I was determined to see it through – which took several coffees and almost three glorious hours (the last fifteen minutes of which were spent on the parsing 22A !).
   Enthusiasts of the master-setter may want to give it a try, and see what they make of parsing 22A

6. Well this was fun. I was thinking, there are an awful lot of homophones in this puzzle, and then I saw the theme. A bit backwards, I suppose, but it worked.

   I actually used the word STOCHASTIC the other day, believe it or not.

7. Only Brendan could set a crossword with so many homophones and still have me praising it — he’s taken one of my least favourite cryptic devices and elevated it to new heights. Add in the homographs and homonyms — quite a feat! Thanks manehi for the blog.

8. Great puzzle.
   Slight typo… SUCCOUR=25ac (not 25dn) (and certainly not 26)
   Thanks manehi & Brendan!

9. Thanks for the blog manehi-makes me feel du8mb but makes Brrendan better than ever

10. Yep, another fun hour or so. Had no idea how you play Nym, and didn’t get the themed sound of threw out… dense! [Stochastic always reminds me of SJ Gould’s argument that there’s no teleology in evolution. And goon reminded me of my Filipina neighbour’s description of the Marcos era: guns, goons and gold]. Hey ho, all enjoyable, thanks both.

11. …agree ngaio @1, managed is part of the def for copse..

12. Good fun. Like Dr WhatsOn @6, I noticed quite a few ‘sounds likes’ before twigging. When I did, I knew that 23d must be PHONES, but couldn’t figure the wordplay – until an almighty penny bounced off my head. Now with the TRICK, I used it on a lot of the remaining clues. Trying to get YOBBO into 9a THREW me OUT too. I often find Brendan’s quirks entertaining, so thanks Brendan and manehi.

13. Acknowledging the praise this puzzle is already earning, all I can say is “hear, hear”.

    Doug431 @4: No one has yet picked up on your point which sounds like a pretty decent and valid alternative. Your qualifier – that anyone (or at least anyone adopting a pseudonym) could play – could just as easily apply to the solution in the blog – something anyone (or at least anyone with a box of matches) could play.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi

14. TassieTim @12: I was another YOBBO for much of the puzzle 😀

15. New STOCHASTIC.
    Failed GOON, SLEW.
    Did not parse NYM apart from role in Henry V (never heard of the game NIM); HANDEDNESS, AGAPE apart from def (and still do not understand the parsing). They seem very complicated!

    Favourite IRONCLAD.

16. michelle, agape = very open…

17. Very annoyed with myself for carelessly entering the wrong homophone at 26a, but I enjoyed the puzzle thoroughly. Brendan is certainly master of the theme crossword for me.

18. What Tony Santucci@7 said. (Hear here). Most enjoyable puzzle for some time. TILT; COPSE and coppice are synonymous. I had always distinguished between the two, thinking that a copse was not necessarily managed. Thanks both.

19. A very clever puzzle! Really enjoyable, and quite an education. Failed on SLEW – had STEM. Many thanks to Brendan, and to manehi for the parsing.

20. 1d surely ‘ayes’ as opposed to ‘noes’ as in ‘the ayes have it’. Fits better than ‘ a yes’?

21. Impressive! Do French schoolboys giggle at PUTIN?

22. Teacow @8: That error had me searching for ages – how could a homophone of GOON or GROWN start with an S!?

    Toughest this week by-far but my goodness, how clever was that? Once I’d worked out the ‘theme’ it worked very well and was enjoyable.

    Thansk to Brendan and manehi!

23. I only got 29 after trying STEM, which I couldn’t parse convincingly and failed the check, and wrote in the wrong 3 23 for GROWN, so Brendan beat me today. Enjoyed it immensely though.

24. What a brilliant puzzle. Thank you Brendan.

    Couldn’t parse 14dn; many thanks manehi.

25. Geoff Cleasby @20: I missed that in the blog and agree with your take. I think it’s being doubly defined – One (A YES) or more (AYES) – followed by the homophone element

26. I struggled a little more than necessary because the online version struggled to show the grid and the lower down clues at the same time, making the cross references a bit tricky, and also I couldn’t be bothered to look up the difference between homonym, homograph and homophone. All fair though and a nice challenge.

27. Geoff Cleasby @20 and PostMark @25: that’s what manehi is saying in the blog. ‘Positive responses’ is underlined as the definition for AYES, and he says ‘“One… positive response[s]” also indicates A YES’.

    Very clever puzzle as always from Brendan. Many thanks both.

28. LJ @27: shouldn’t “One or more” be underlined as part of the definition?

29. Magnificent work from Brendan. It’s always a treasure, waiting to see what he can come up with next.

    About halfway through the first pass, I thought ‘gosh – there are a lot of homophones here’, but even then he managed to wring every last ounce out of the devices and I missed GROWN until the very end.

    I thought STOCHASTIC and PUTIN were great bits of political commentary, but I’m grateful to manehi for properly parsing HANDEDNESS for me. For what it’s worth, I parsed NYM as the game.

30. I’m full of admiration for this puzzle, Brendan’s ingenuity led to a very satisfying solve. After I finished it I insisted on explaining just how good it was to my long-suffering wife! Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

31. PM @28: I don’t think so, because the enumeration is (4) rather than (1,3 or 4) (which might have been a bit of a giveaway!)

32. Brendan at his brilliant best – hugely enjoyable from start to finish – and with a blog to match.

    Many thanks to Brendan and manehi (and to Doug431 @3 for finding the extra bit).

33. A masterclass from Brendan today and a very useful and intelligent blog from manehi – grateful thanks to both for giving us inspiring displays of well-oiled brain cogs. Thanks, particularly, manehi for the parsing of 14d, “handedness.” I was 3/4 there but lazily gave up on the “post” element. I enjoyed the missing breaks and stops for “goon” and “putin” (and did not at all mind the so-called politicisation re the latter) and was tickled pink to work out “stochastic” seeing as I have never met this word before, not being a devotee of the art of lies, damned lies and …

34. Excellent puzzle – pervasively thematic without being abstruse or over-reliant on esoteric GK. I particularly liked AYES, STOCHASTIC and MISANDRY. It took me a long time to parse HANDEDNESS….

    I interpreted NYM a a homophone of the game. The clue is somewhat ambiguous, as manehi points out, although the correct interpretation is the more obvious one, but could have been disambiguated(!) by a dash after Henry V.

    Thanks to Brendan and manehi.

35. I can only echo the praise for puzzle and blog and vow to think more carefully about picking the right homophone in future.

36. [sheffield hatter: a belated thanks for your point at 38 yesterday, which I can see now]

    A lot to enjoy but disturbed by PHONES which I could not see as cells. I know Americans call mobiles cellphones so are they cellcells or phonephones?

37. Most enjoyable puzzle in a long time. Very clever. Thanks Brendan. I’m rather fond of HOMO phones, nyms, graphs – even when they’re not quite exact. Apologies to the purists.

    Thanks manehi for explaining AGAPE. I’d forgotten the Greek, if ever I knew it.

38. It is always a treat to have a crossword from Brendan and this was definitely one of his best.

    Thanks to him for the entertainment and manehi for the blog

39. Lord Jim @31: fair point. It’s always tricky when the definition is squeezed in the middle, rather than at the conventional ends. A lovely clue, either way.

40. The harder trick to pull off with a clever conceit is to also leave the solver feeling smart – felt Brendan was well on the right side of that line here, even for a duffer like me. Fortunately HOMO SAPIENS was foi, otherwise it might have been a longer ordeal!

    Thanks manehi for parsing the unparsed, and everyone else for your company through the week

41. A linguistic treat, here. Loved it! Such clever clueing.

42. Fabulous piece of setting.

    I think I agree with Doug431 @4 that NYM is more likely to be the pseudonym because of the ‘anyone’ in the clue. However, either NYM or nim works; unfortunately I didn’t know any of them.

    Apart from the homos, I liked TRATTORIA. Lots of other good clues.

    Thanks Brendan and manehi.

43. Thank you manehi for the singular sense of AYES which I completely missed, and the NYM/NIM explanation as I only got this backwards from homonym. Thanks also DOUG431 for the extra layers.
    I was happy to get SUCKER for free but then that typo really confused me, and I had ADORE ( getting my homowhatsits confused, as a door can be open wide, weak i know) instead of AGAPE for a long time until the neat IRONCLAD forced a rethink and I had to google to get the loving sense of the word (religious and ancient so doubly unlikely for me to have known it).
    I get paid to do STOCHASTIC things (NB TerriBlislow@33 despite this I am a terrible liar!) so nice to see that and also a reminder that it has been too long since I read Silverberg’s “The Stochastic Man”.
    Another English lesson made as enjoyable as ever with HANDEDNESS my favourite, thanks Brendan.

44. Lovely, satisfying puzzle, many thanks, both.

    Re SUCKER/SUCCOUR, I read a story once (really) but have no evidence for or against its veracity, about a young USAF Airman who was stationed in East Anglia during WWII. He fell in love with a local girl whose father ran the village pub, and when the war was over, married her in the little church in the village. A few years later the couple and their young family went back to his family home in Pennsylvania where he made his fortune in the paper industry. They kept in touch with old friends in Suffolk and were horrified to learn by letter that the little church where they had been married was due for partial demolition as the spire had become irredeemably unsafe and the necessary funds could not be raised in such a small village. Further enquiries revealed that the sum involved to rectify the problem was a footling £750,000. Without hesitation, the money was transferred, and the work was carried out successfully. The Bishop begged them to come over for the reconsecration service, which the family was delighted to do, but the poor American was aghast to be sitting in the front pew to hear the vicar say, “We thank you Lord for this timely succour…”

45. Very clever and well-constructed, and congrats to Brendan for managing to avoid the rhotic/non-rhotic issue with the homophones (other setters please take note). My only quibble was the definition of PHONES as ‘cells’, a term I’ve only come across on American TV.

46. Took me a while to get going, but once I twigged 3,23, the rest more or less fell into place – although I didn’t quite complete it and now I’m kicking myself at the few I didn’t get (8d MATE and 31a AGAPE especially). The typo in 24d had me confused for a bit, until I realised that it was a typo.

    14d HANDEDNESS – I worked this one out from the ‘left or right’ definition and the crossing letters, but I’m still slightly unclear on how the clue works. Hmmm.

    As per Tony Santucci @7, the homophone is probably my least favourite type of clue, but Brendan shows us here how to do it well, and this was a hugely enjoyable solve with lots to make me smile. Bravo, Brendan! And thanks manehi for the explanations of the bits I didn’t get.

47. As a (once professional) linguist, I can honestly say that this made my day. Hats off to Brendan, and thanks to Brendan for the blog.

48. Doug431 @3 – good spot!

49. Sorry, manehi, I meant you!

50. I thought this was brilliant, my only disappointment being unable to finish because I didn’t know the alternative pronunciations of 6d and 31a. Thanks to manehi for parsing 14d and to Brendan for such clever use of our crazy English language

51. Thanks to Brendan for an absolutely top-notch puzzle. So clever that you have to admire the skill required in composition.

    Thanks also to Manehi for a clear blog pointing out the subtleties that I had missed.

52. STOCHASTIC is an interesting word. The Greek original meant ‘pertaining to aiming at a target’ and hence metaphorically to ‘guessing’. In English it started off with the same meaning – ‘conjectural’ – but now has lost any sense of targeting and just means ‘random’. A stochastic semantic shift.

53. Didn’t quite get there in the end, with AGAPE and SLEW finally defeating me in the SE corner. Lots of fun along the way, however. STOCHASTIC and MISANDRY until now not part of my vocabulary. Not sure whether HANDEDNESS can stand on its own two feet (if that’s not a contradiction in terms) without the Left- and Right- prefix…

54. Excellent crossword that unfortunately I couldn’t complete. I was convinced that 29D was STAY. That is, prevent movement and sort of control/reinforcement.
    Thanks to setter and blogger.

55. Bodycheetah @21 The Russian leader is transliterated into French as Putine, pronounced poo-teen.

56. [roughtrade @55: so Putin must sound very cheesy in Québec]

57. Nim may be something anyone can play, but I never have, so I had to rely on my Henry V knowledge for NYM.

    Interesting (and very clever of Brendan) to have the technical names put to the clue types we are so familiar with, but in the end I found it mostly confusing rather than helpful, and started to suffer from the “centipede effect”:

    A centipede was happy – quite!
    Until a toad in fun
    Said, “Pray, which leg comes after which?”
    This raised her doubts to such a pitch
    She lay distracted in the ditch
    Considering how to run.

    Anyway, I enjoyed THREW OUT, HOMO SAPIENS, STEGOSAUR, MATE – but not the ill-defined MISANDRY. And how do you tell which of GROAN/GROWN is the answer?

58. A brilliant and entertaining crossword. I endorse what Tony Santucci said @7 about homophones – they are not my favourite device, but there was nothing to fear from them here, and having so much language play using different devices was right up my street and much appreciated.
    Thanks to both Brendan and manehi.

59. rodshaw@5 If STEGOSAUR is new to you, google it and look at its picture. It’s quite a critter!

    What did Macbeth say when he saw Birnam Wood approaching Dunsinane? “Cheese it, the copse!”

    yesyes @24 I couldn’t parse HANDEDNESS either, thank you manehi.

    gladys @58 The clue says “Audibly, complaint,” which tells me that the answer sounds like, but isn’t, GROWN, but is GROAN instead.

    Fine puzzle. I enjoyed the HOMO- devices and also the “without a break” one. Thanks Brendan and manehi.

60. Valentine @59: I am often guilty of being dim – so may be misreading your comment – but didn’t you mean the other way round with your GROAN/GROWN above?

61. Re the often vexed issue of homophones, nobody has observed that Brendan is originally from Strabane in Northern Ireland. So his native accent is presumably rhotic and therefore he is likely to be sensitive to such things.

62. I don’t often comment and there has already been heaps of praise for today’s puzzle, but I felt I had to say how much I enjoyed this wonderfully clever display of wordplay. I am now even more of a Brendan fan! Can’t pick a favourite clue as I thought it worked so well as a whole.
    Thanks also to manehi for two bits of parsing I didn’t spot – A YES and HAND E.

63. [Pedro @36. Thanks for the acknowledgement!]

64. oops! I meant H and E

65. What a fabulous puzzle! Filled in more than half of it over early morning coffee, then the rest after a few hours of teaching. Stared at MATE for far too long, before remembering Cockney rhyming slang to make this LOI.

66. Failed the same clues as Ronald @53. But it was a lot of fun. Thanks Brendan and manehi.

67. Enjoyed this very much, with the solving of HOMO following on, as others have said, from observing the large proportion of (very well executed) HOMOPHONES in the grid, and then remembering NYM from Henry V (and recalling the game Nim from reading Martin Gardener’s books and columns in Scientific American).

    Like Gazzh @43, having read Robert Silverberg’s STOCHASTIC Man was a great help, but I then ground to a halt in the far SE (like Ronald @53) with a not-quite-there STOP not written in (a stop is a control of sorts on an organ, but ‘out of’ then lacks a function). Having seen SLEW in Manehi’s blog (for which many thanks, btw), I immediately solved AGAPE; should have remembered it anyway, which would have got me 29d, I expect. So a DNF or doh! for me. But many thanks to Brendan for a super crossword. And to all contributors btl for all the appreciative, good-natured and informative responses.

68. [gladys @57. Forgot to say thanks for the “centipede effect”. I was similarly confused, and it’s good to have a name to put to the phenomenon!]

69. I’ve been mulling over 14d and the penny has finally dropped, but I think manehi’s explanation might need a minor tweak…

    SEND=”post”

    OK, I get this, but this left me struggling to work out where “put in” fits in the clue – until I realised that in fact it should be:

    SEND=”put in [the] post”

70. Super puzzle, only complicated for an age by the typesetter’s boob in the clue for 24D. Thanks to setter and blogger.

71. So homonyms are double definition clues. Never heard of homographs but they too can be double definitions. Usually find homophones quite tricky. And have in the past mixed up homonyms and homophones. I will try and keep them straight now.

    Difficult puzzle for me but thoroughly enjoyed reading the blog once I had done what I could of which I particularly liked COPSE, POKER, TRICK, CONTRACTS

    Thanks Brendan and manehi

72. PostMark@60 No, I’m the one what’s dim. I often have trouble with those clues where it could be either of two homophones or reversals or anagrams and it’s not obvious which.

73. My comments are a combination of TS’@7; drofle@7 re SLEW and step; poc@45; and those who couldn’t parse HANDEDNESS; and Eileen@32 for her praise for setter and blogger. Thanks to all.

74. I didn’t get the various homo-clues until quite late in the solve, and before I worked out what was going on I toyed with the idea of 23d being an unparsable PRISON: cell for a PHONE is the usual word in the US, but here it’s more often a mobile, so it wasnt immediately obvious.

75. Valentine @72: your analysis and explanation was spot on! You just swapped the words. i am convinced you actually meant to say precisely the opposite of what you did 😀

76. [Mark @75. Been there, done that, put the T-shirt on back to front.]

77. Sorry I’m so late today, but I think it’s worth pointing out that 3D HOMO is effectively yet another homograph, with a different pronunciation in HOMO SAPIENS from that in HOMOPHONE etc. (At least it is the way I speak).

    Wonderful puzzle, thanks to Brendan and manehi.

78. Thanks Brendan & manehi. I don’t usually do midweek Guardians but really enjoyed this. Did Henry IV in School Certificate in 43 so Nym leapt out. Nim is brought to mind by the family crest of the Blundells of Little Crosby ( ten “billets” stacked 1, 2, 3, 4)
    A propos bodycheetah @21 in a conversation with Belgian friends 25 years ago I referred to the Russian president as Putin in my best French and brought the house down- they spell him Poutine.

79. Absolutely wonderful. Thanks Brendan. And manehi.
    Another one here who prefers Doug431 @4’s parsing of 18ac.

80. Brilliant puzzle. Best of the year so far.
    I agree with others above that 1d must be the plural of AYE because (1) A YES is pronounced wrongly and (2) the “or more” would not fit.
    After solving 8d and 15a, but before seeing the full theme, I thought “there must be a name for that” and looked it up on Google to get “heteronym” – which didn’t help much with 3d or 7d.

81. [The game of Nim is often described in puzzle books as an example of a game that can be “solved” with mathematics – by thinking of the size of each pile in binary numbers instead of decimal.]

82. Me@80 after rereading earlier comments, I think PostMark@25 has expressed it perfectly.

83. manehi, whatever Chambers may say, something like your expected pronunciation of agape is common in UK Christian circles, and I don’t think I have ever heard the Chambers pronunciation.

    An interesting and quite tricky puzzle.

84. Monkey @8e, come to think of it, Chambers may be righter than we think. In other Greek words with the last syllable -e (Aphrodite, for instance) we pronounce it “ee” rather than “ay,” which would be more like modern Spanish or Italian. I could speculate about where the “ay” pronunciation came from, but it would be so much gas, because I really haven’t a clue.

85. That’s Monkey @83, of course.

86. [ William@44, re sucker/succour, thanks for that great story. I will choose to think it’s a true one.

    tandemist@30, I inflict my joy with Brendan’s puzzles on my wife too. I ignore the rolling eyes. ]

    I can’t believe I failed on 14d HANDEDNESS – I just couldn’t see either the wordplay or the definition, which was a tea-tray moment on reading manehi’s excellent blog. Can’t believe it because just this afternoon I had a conversation with a china (8d) on the subject of (my) left-handedness.

    Thanks Brendan for yet another favourite puzzle – and as Eileen said a few days ago, I can have many favourites.

87. I prefer my crosswords without politics, thanks. Putin is by no means a kind, well-intentioned and lovable man, but neither is he a despot.

88. Tollcross @87. Perhaps he’s not a despot, but do you have an alternative name for someone who changes the constitution to ensure that he continues in power, and who eliminates dissidents? I don’t think anyone on here has complained about being unable to solve the clue using ‘despot’ as the definition.

89. [ Tollcross@87, I would ask sheffield hatter’s question in a slightly different way. How would you define a despot, and in what ways does Vladimir Putin not fit that definition? ]

90. This was such a great puzzle! Thank you to Brendan and manehi.

91. Suuuupurrrrb!

Comments are closed.