Guardian Cryptic 28,448 by Philistine

77 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,448 by Philistine”

1. Favourites: SCHMALTZ, COURGETTE, NOVA SCOTIA, GURKHA, ASSISTED (loi).
   Got help from google for Le Pétomane / Joseph Pujol.

2. Same as michell @1 – got them all except for a bit of oline help for the Farty Act.
   Slow solve for me, but enjoyable.
   Also need help from manehi on parsing Sunderland
   Thankns Philistine & manehi

3. Good fun and a fair bit easier than yesterday. Thanks to Philistine and manehi. One quibble, wasn’t Adonis a mortal not a god?

4. It was lovely to learn about Le Pétomane, and there was a lot to like. COD was NOVA SCOTIA. A very pleasant solve. After yesterday’s Quiptic I began to suspect another pangram, but couldn’t find anywhere to bung a J, or W for that matter – never mind!

   Thanks to Philistine and manehi

5. JerryG @3. I think the clue’s fair. Adonis started life as a mortal but ended up being worshipped as a god.

6. I had 1 down parsed differently. “Under” (down) and “Lands” moving (going). I thought it was a bit weak but went with it.

7. It’s a pity Philistine couldn’t squeeze Joseph puJol in as an answer, which would have completed the pangram.
   [25A reminded me of the limerick:
   There was a young girl of La Plata
   Who was widely renowned as a farter.
   Her deafening reports
   At the Argentine sports
   Made her much in demand as a starter.]

8. Ah M Pujol and Krug in the same puzzle
   Very nice
   Thanks Phil and manehi

9. ‘Java’ rather than ‘CAVA’ at 22 down would have secured the pangram. I had arrived, finally, at the furthest SW corner looking for that missing J and came away a little perplexed that Philistine had missed the chance.

10. Another Spooner, another disappointment as my wait for a setter to bamboozle us by using the don’s device in a non-spooner way continues 🙂
    I was very familiar with Le Petomane as my younger brother was a fan of “comic” singer Ivor Biggun who penned this gem I should warn you it does contain schoolboy humour and suggestive pictures of grapefruit

11. Philistine on superb form this morning with wit aplenty, some really neat devices and good surfaces in the main. The arrangement for SUNDERLAND, the extraction to arrive at SCHMALTZ, the 2 a’s in RATATOUILLE, the dates in NAILBITER, the minus sign in TAKE AWAY, the Latin clue for NOVA SCOTIA (which defeated me): all very, very clever. And a couple of lovely anagrams to get to EVERLASTING and NAUTICAL. And as for the Spoonerism! I had to look up Le Petomane but it was a real lol moment when the penny dropped. And blaise @7 – lovely suggestion re PuJol: if only. Finally, nice to see a fellow contributor namechecked – I’m sure we’ll see essexboy later. [Which makes me wonder whether Penfold is going to return at some point; unless I’ve missed it, I don’t think we’ve seen or heard anything since spoilergate. Beyond a ‘mea culpa’ on the day which was good enough for me. If you are still reading, my friend, do pop back in at some point.]

    Thanks Philistine and manehi

12. Great puzzle! SCHMALTZ was brilliant, and I found many more to savour including COURGETTE, HOUSE-TRAIN and the Spoonerism. I couldn’t parse SUNDERLAND. Many thanks to Philistine and manehi.

13. Thanks Philistine and manehi
    On the easy side for Philistine, I thought. My resort to Google was for both parts of ARIEL – I vaguely remembered the PM, but had no idea what the Little Mermaid was called.
    Favourites CONSULTANT and, though I don’t generally like Spooners, ARTEFACT.

14. [Spooner’s catflap @9: that’s a great spot. There was a puzzle a while ago (I’ve just checked – almost precisely one year!) on the Aardman Animations/Wallace and Gromit theme. Every major character fitted in except SHAUN the sheep and down in the bottom right hand corner was the solution SPAIN with the necessary three crossers. Similar situation.]

15. Fabulous puzzle and quite an easy solve with a number of laugh-out-loud clues and answers.

    [Bodycheetah – thank you SO much for the Ivor Biggun – as a sometimes Viz reader, unfortunately this style of humour always appeals to me. Therefore I offer the great Le Petomane in full (err…) flight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYS4i-rsJFY ]

    Thank you to Philistine and manehi!

16. [I remember seeing a programme that Leaonard Rossiter made about Le Petomane back in the 70s. It’s here if anyone wants to watch it (about 33 minjutes, though).]

17. After SCHMALZ (a lovely clue) and LIQUOR STORES, like others, I started looking for a pangram – though only because of yesterday.

    Enjoyed this and found it easier than yesterday’s but couldn’t parse a few including SUNDERLAND and RATATOUILLE. Not heard of TED for talks.

    Also liked NAIL-BITER, HOUSE TRAIN (which is relevant as my dog has had a few accidents recently)

    Thanks to Philistine and manehi

18. I’m warming to Philistine, given that he has been known to rub me up the wrong way. Not impressed with the device in RATATOUILLE (although I worked it out eventually), but there was plenty to make up for it, including SCHMALTZ, the intricate AS EXPECTED, and the groan-worthy ARTEFACT.

19. I failed to parse several clues and failed on 3d because I thought that Sharon’s name was spelt with an ‘a’ and I did not know the name of Disney’s little mermaid. Nonetheless, an entertaining crossword.

20. Dammit! Fell for the “2 as” gag again.

    Many thanks, manehi, for the excellent parsing of SUNDERLAND and also the TED part of ASSISTED which I bifd and would never have guessed.

    Loved NOVA SCOTIA and EVERLASTING.

    Great stuff, many thanks both.

21. I took it that an Adonis today is regarded as a god …

22. muffin @16: Quite astonishing! Well found.

23. Blaise @7: your post demands a response…

    There was a young fellow called Carter,
    A truly remarkable farter,
    On a diet of beans he’d fart Good Save The Queen
    And Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata

24. What a wonderful crossword. Thank you Pjilistine.

    I adored the 2 as device for RATATOUILLE and both its ingredients were clever. SCMALTZ was genius as was ARTEFACT. And I didn’t even appreciate how clever SUNDERLAND and TAKE AWAY were till manehi pointed them out. A Tuesday joy.

25. I assembled the ratatouille from the ingredients, having managed to get AUBERGINE and COURGETTE from the wordplay. I also googled Duns Scotus to see if he was a Stoic, before the denarus dropped.

26. Thanks manehi, excellent explanation of Sunderland ( on which subject i strongly recommend “Alice in Sunderland” by Bryan Talbot which is full of interesting digressions) and more.
    Agree with Gordon Mcdougall@26 re Adonis.
    [Thanks bodycheetah, maidenbartok, muffin for the various links to people who have profited from flatulence, good for them – I remember someone called Mr Methane who advertised in Viz years ago and occasionally cropped up on late night TV, still going strong it appears: https://www.youtube.com/user/MrMethane1 ]
    And thanks Philistine, i thought myself quite clever when getting SCHMALZ pretty quickly but that feeling didn’t last long!

27. A wonderful crossword indeed, yesyes!

    Ticks for SCHMALTZ, NAILBITER, RATATOUILLE, ARTEFACT, HOUSE-TRAIN,, TAKEAWAY, LIQUOR STORES, AUBERGINE, CAVA and NOVA SCOTIA.

    Huge thanks to Philistine for the fun and to manehi for a splendid blog (and especially for the parsing of SUNDERLAND).

28. PostMark @11 – I enjoy Penfold’s contributions for sure. I hope s/he returns (though as someone who has crosswordless days, I’d missed the recent brouhaha, or whatever transpired)

    re: Ivor Biggun and the various people who’ve mentioned him… as a child of the 80s, I was fairly astonished to learn not that long ago that he was also Doc Cox off That’s Life. Maybe others know this, but I trust there’s at least a couple of (UK) solvers who’ll remember the show and be similarly surprised

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doc_Cox

29. This was great fun and got ARTEFACT quite early, still being that EVERLASTING schoolboy. First time I’ve seen two Quiptic clues, OF LATE and AZALEA appear in consecutive Cryptics. I agree with yesyes @24 that SUNDERLAND and TAKE AWAY were clever, having read manehi’s explanations. SCHMALTZ and NOVA SCOTIA were just brilliant.

    Ta P & m

30. oh and to endorse Gazzh @26, Bryan Talbot’s Alice in Sunderland is great. I found it fascinating and also highly recommend it.

31. Fun puzzle with good use of varied devices to make some great surfaces. I knew I was going to like this one when I got SCHMALZ straight off!

    SUNDERLAND and NOVA SCOTIA stood out for me for their ingenuity, but other good clues are too numerous to mention. With all that fizz and the farty act this was definitely a pétillant puzzle.

    Nobody has mentioned the setter’s reference to his day job in the cardiological clue for LARVA.

    Many thanks to Philistine and manehi, who was lucky to land this one.

32. Spooner’s catflap@9 (and what a neat name, as no doubt others have said before): yes, it was odd of Philistine to miss the pangram, having set up the open goal of JAVA. Philistine does seem to enjoy flirting with pangrams: I think I’m right in saying that last year he was two letters short on four occasions, and one short on Sept 30th, missing only an X. Maybe there is a full Philistine pangram, further back?

33. [Thanks PM @ 11, and hear hear re Penfold (surely Danger Mouse can afford to give him a little time off from his onerous duties?)]

    Yes, I was rather chuffed to see ESSEX make an appearance. I suppose it’s not quite a full namecheck (it wouldn’t meet Pierre’s strict criteria for a bird pic) but I think it’s fair to say that the combination of 19 with 24ac makes it pretty clear who the setter was thinking of, so I’ll take the compliment.

    Talking of Essex, I was pleased to see Sharon in the clues, but sadly no sign of Tracey.

    Lots of other great clues too, especially NOVA SCOTIA.

    Many thanks Philistine and manehi, and to various fellow-contributors for all the flatulence – just as well good ventilation is de rigueur at the moment – and to Gervase @31 for (I think intentionally) pointing out the etymology of pétillant. Not necessarily what you want to think about when sipping champagne!

34. [essexboy @33: Yes, this was intentional! To go further with the etymology, the general consensus is that Proto-Indo-European had two closely related words for flatulence – *perd- (to fart noisily) and *pesd- (to fart quietly). Most IE languages, English and French included, have words descended from one or other, or both]

35. Fun and games from Philistine. I loved the recipe for 20a RATATOUILLE! Much appreciated.

36. William @23. Nice one; thanks. All these almost-off-topic comments are a real gas. Got me thinking of the scene in Liar Liar where the son of the crooked lawyer has made a wish that his father has to go a whole day without telling a lie, even by omission.

37. [ Last on this (I promise). This is from Douglas Adams’s The meaning of liff (a collection of words lazing about on signposts that could be given more work to do)
    Berepper (n.)
    The irrevocable and sturdy fart released in the presence of royalty, which sounds quite like a small motorbike passing by (but not enough to be confused with one).]

38. Very enjoyable. Only hold-up was putting in MOET for 22dn (modus operandi + French “and” = sparkling wine) before AZALEA blew that one away.

39. For me the “in 20” references were helped by the fact that I make RATATOUILLE a few times a year.

    The clue for EQUATIONS looks a little woolly. Firstly, equations don’t necessarily have to do with mathematics, as the following lines, an equation, from Abbey Road attest:

    And in the end
    The love you take
    Is equal to the love you make.

    Secondly, even in mathematics, they are not processes, they are more like statements of eternal truths.
    Oh, and sorry for the earworm.

40. Yes, delightful puzzle with lots of good clues.

    I particularly liked NOVA SCOTIA, NAILBITER, ARTEFACT [and thanks to the posters for the humorous links], HOUSE-TRAIN and COURGETTE. I’m not so keen on clues like the one for ARIEL that rely on two pieces of GK (although Ariel Sharon is in the news a lot at the moment; I didn’t know the Little Mermaid though).

    Interesting device for GOLDBERG, although of course that gives the same ‘berg’ in the solution.

    Thanks Philistine for the fun and manehi for useful parsing.

41. As an American, I do need to point out (as always) that I make ratatouille with zucchini and eggplant. Same thing, you say? Oh. (Though to be fair, the dish is French, so may as well use the British, French-derived names for the veggies.)

    Also, as an American, that Spoonerism didn’t quite work for me, so I failed on that clue.

42. Thanks to Philistine and manehi.

    I have to give this one a standing ovation. In fact not only will I stand, I’ll just move over here a little.

    With all crossers in place I embarked on an alphabetical trawl for (LOI) ARTIFACT but all too precipitously I’m afraid and as a result over-shot the “A” leading to a reveal and a DNF. Is there a word for a cross between a cringe and a laugh?

    Contributors are regularly sniffy about Spoonerisms but I don’t think I’ve met one that didn’t have an articulate parse.

43. [essexboy@33: I laughed (but possibly too much) at your concatenation of 19a and 24a – thanks for the chuckle.]

44. Gervase @34: it could make one blush with pride at the accomplishments of the Proto-Indo-European civilisation. The Inuit may have 100 different words for snow but we have words for flatulence that account for variations in volume. I’m feeling chuffed on account of my linguistic ancestors.

45. Enjoyed this much more than yesterday’s (sorry, Anto!), with plenty of variety in the devices used (again, sorry Anto, I didn’t click with your “add something to the answer and you’ll get something else”, despite seeing it several times) and no NVCDs (see Andrew’s comments at 23a & 24a yesterday – once again, apologies to Anto). Like others, I had to remind myself about Le Petomane before solving the Spoonerism, and had to overcome my habitual brain-fade before SCHMALTZ made itself known, for last one in, a great penny-drop moment and clue of the day.

    Many thanks to Philistine for a thoroughly enjoyable solve, to manehi for parsing the ones that I had shrugged at (though I did get the very good S-UNDER-LAND for myself!), and to fellow commenters for the usual enjoyable burblings about bodily functions.

    [I wonder if Philistine deliberately eschews pangram opportunities, just to give you obsessives something obsess about? Just a thought. Sorry, couldn’t resist the opportunity to type eschews – what a great word!]

46. Solve the puzzle — what does this address on the envelope mean?
    WOOD
    JOHN
    MASS

    Answer: John Underwood, Andover Massachusetts.

    I enjoyed SUNDERLAND, and also NOVA SCOTIA and AUBERGINE. Mrpenney has already made my comment about that.

47. Dr Whatson@39, I think the first part of your objection to EQUATIONS can be dealt with using Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, as the clue isn’t stating that all equations are mathematical (though even your example, which I would class as an identity, could be expressed formally as L(M) = L(G) perhaps, or more elegantly with subscripts if I could do them), but i agree that the definition is a bit suspect and maybe ‘problems’ would have been better than ‘processes’. But really I think Philistine hamstrung himself somewhat by having “about a” immediately preceding a plural definition.

48. Gazzh @47. I don’t see ‘set of mathematical processes’ as plural. But neither is it a very accurate definition for EQUATIONS! Possibly today’s weakest clue, unless I’m missing something.

49. I was aided in solving 22d by glancing up the grid and spotting the answer in the first four letters in column 2. Does that count as a Nina?

    sheffield hatter @45: I had the same thought as you concerning Philistine and pangrams.

50. This is the most enjoyable crossword I’ve done in ages. Some great clues, and managed to parse nearly all of them which is a first for me.

    Was delighted to see ‘GURKHA’. I tried clueing this for a crossword of my own a while ago and couldn’t get anywhere with it.

    Was not aware of Le Petomane’s act, but I remember being on a stag do a few years ago with Mr Methane as the entertainment. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed as much in my life. Amazin

    Top stuff today

51. [PM and The Essex Adonis
    The Court of Arbitration for Spoilers handed down a two month ban, reduced to one month on appeal, as the infringement wasn’t intentional.]

52. [Penitent @51: good to welcome both you and your pen back into the fold!]

53. Gazzh@47 I suspect the root of the problem (no pun intended) is that in elementary mathematics, equations are all about solving them, which is indeed a process. Guilt by association.

54. Blaine @7: my late father was in the RAF, though not recently, and often recited:

    There once was a pilot named Carter
    Now he was a champion farter.
    He could fart everything
    From God Save The King
    To Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.

    I suppose eventually it will come back into fashion, though it’s been dated these last 70 years (almost).

55. Sheffield hatter@48 yes sorry should have said plural solution (thus needing set, class, group etc to bridge the gap from “a”) although agree that’s not the real problem.
    Dr WhatsOn @47 that makes sense to me.
    But now that I have bothered to look, my standard online resource dictionary.com has first defn of equation as “noun: the act of equating or making equal; equalization” which could certainly imply a process! But this wouldn’t really be a mathematical equation, more of a symbolic one as per the example on that website. So I reckon either the ‘mathematical’ is extraneous OR processes would be better replaced by something else. I’ll stop now!

56. A pleasant ride after yesterday’s slog — thanks Philistine. Really enjoyed NAILBITER, CAVA, and NOVA SCOTIA. Some of this crossword went in via crossings and definitions so thanks Manehi for parsing. I didn’t know “offies” but LIQUOR STORES easily fit. I needed a word finder for ARTEFACT (out of my realm) and the clever SUNDERLAND.

57. [William @23 & Big Norm @54 (and blaise @7 who started this):

    Just for the sake of variation

    A brother of Carter (and Carter)
    Was ruled persona non grata
    Adjudged to have sinned
    By breaking his wind
    In the form of a sacred cantata 😀 ]

58. Am I the only dabbler at this site to find it incredible that clues like 17a can generate such opprobrium.
    Plainly an anagram of question and a, the answer being to do with mathematics. Good enough for me.
    By the way , lovely crossword after yesterday’s horror.

59. Tc @58. It’s not whether the clue is easy to solve, as it clearly is: “an anagram of question and a, the answer being to do with mathematics”, as you say. It’s whether it is accurate and makes any sense. I don’t see my criticism @48 as “opprobrium”, more as recognition that this clue was not as good as a lot of the others. Which were top of the toppermost!

60. Enjoyable puzzle. Got stumped by 3d ARIEL and had to reveal. Would never have thought about Ariel Sharon and did not know abou the mermaid. In fact, had trouble thinking of anyone beyond Sharon Stone! Enjoyed the explanantion for SUNDERLAND.
    Re 17 EQUATIONS, I too found the definition a little strange (without being disparaging, pace 58 @Tc). I would have said that a mathematical equation is an assertion rather than a process; an assertion which may be true, conditionally true or have no solutions at all. I suppose one situation where an equation may be described as a process is in the field of computing where the strange looking ‘equation’ a = a+1 (for example), is indeed a process: it tells you to take the current value of a and increase it by 1. Anyway, it did not spoil my enjoyment so many thanks to Philistine and Manehi for the excellent blog.

61. matematico @60
    Interesting example
    a = a + 1
    Is definitely a process, but can it be regarded as an equation? The two sides cannot be equal!

62. 61 @muffin, agreed. That’s why I said ‘strange looking equation’ in my original comment.

63. Yes, you did indeed said “strange looking”. What do you call things with equals signs in the middle that aren’t equal? Perhaps “equals sign” is too restrictive?

64. muffin: I think, if I have understood this expression, you read it as “becomes” rather than “equals”. It’s not so much a “strange looking equation” as an instruction, so perhaps it would be better written as =>.

65. SH @64
    That makes very good sense. However it isn’t how you would write it in a program (or it wasn’t the last time I wrote code, about 20 years ago!)

66. matematico@60 et al. These things are called “assignment statements”, never equations.

67. Dr. Whatson @66
    That resolves one problem, but leaves another – what is an equation”, then?

68. To be clear, this was Philistine at his very best.
    Amidst all the mathematical ding dong, it’s perhaps better to have a closer look at what has to be a minus sign in the (splendid) 7, 8dn.
    What looks all right in manehi’s blog, is printed in the actual newspaper as a ‘hyphen-minus’, a short dash.
    For us, my solving partner and me, both mathematicians, that is not how you represent a subtraction – the symbol should be longer.
    It didn’t ‘take away’ any of the fun but it isn’t fully right as it is here.

69. [ Alphalpha@42, how about a crinkle or winkle (portmanteau of cringe or wince and chuckle). Or, since they are already words, maybe crickle or wickle. ]

70. Solving this in Australia, I am interested that Sunderland is a Northern City. I remember once driving out of London and seeing a road sign for “Hatfield and The North” and wondering as I drove past Hatfield whether I had arrived at “The North”. Where is the dividing line? Of course if you live in Edinburgh, Sunderland is a Southern city.

71. [ a = a +1 is certainly true for Cantor’s set theory of Aleph-nought. ]

72. [Peter Williams @70: as a Southerner, I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that once you leave the Watford Gap services on the M1 you are in ‘The North.’ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_Gap_services.

    Also, your statement is incorrect – if you live in Edinburgh, you can drive north to get to Sunderland; it’ll just take a little longer than if you drive south…]

73. Not qualified mathematically or typographically to pronounce on the correctness of TAKE AWAY, but it’s a lovely clue which I didn’t spot until I started wondering where the missing first half of the sentence had got to. (I get irritated by linked clues where the dots aren’t relevant … but occasionally they are, so you have to check.) Very late to Philistine’s party, but I wanted to say what a good one it was: favourites among many the three RATATOUILLE clues, ESSEX and NOVA SCOTIA.

74. cellomaniac@69: having looked up the meanings perhaps crickle would serve best. (My attempt at an illustrative Spoonerism seems to have been passed over – ah well.)

75. Peter Williams @70, if one is from Newcastle upon Tyne, as I am, one regards S*nd*rl*nd as a hellhole of degeneracy and deviance, as well as being “down south”. It irks me to this day that “The Dark Place” was given city status in 1992. Whatever were they thinking!

76. Now that’s what I call fun; nicely quizzical with plenty of originality. Philistine always a favourite…. I do agree with Postmark@11
    Many thanks both and all

77. Thanks both.
    It’s all been said about equations. I was so fooled by the – didn’t even see it!

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