Guardian 28,463 / Paul

145 comments on “Guardian 28,463 / Paul”

1. Klein – I believe this is ELK< (leather making a comeback) + IN (chic)

2. Offside – I think this might be “edge” = side and “high” = off?
   Pager – a reversal (turned) of RE + GAP (ON before INTERVAL)

3. Don’t play yourself down, Eileen. Sometimes a puzzle just doesn’t ‘click’ at all (I actually struggled to get into Picaroon’s yesterday and he’s normally such a pleasure to solve).

   This did feel a bit contrived, though. Once I’d gotten SPEEDY GONZALES (by def alone, so I’m hoping someone will come along and parse it for us) and realised what was going, most of the cartoon characters were write-ins, and I didn’t even bother trying to decipher the wordplay.

   Thank heaven we’ve had a Brendan this week, eh?

4. 2, 18 is an anagram of [legend] with [zip so easy], without the I (one)

5. 11 I think is elk (leather) backwards then in for chic with designer being the clue. 14 is side (edge) on off (high). 2 18 is anagram of legend z(i)p so easy

6. SPEEDY GONZALES is an anagram of LEGEND + ZIP SO EASY missing I.

7. Thanks, everyone.

   I think that, like a number of others I know, I’m suffering from lockdown ‘brain fog’, which is taking a while to clear. I’m expecting a phone call any minute now, so I’ll make the amendments as soon as I can.

8. PAGER: ON before INTERVAL = RE before GAP.

9. I sympathise Eileen as sometimes the parsing just won’t click. I struggled with Klein so thanks Lyman @1. After a quick gander last night I had U-BOAT and nothing else, so approached this with some trepidation. A strange moment of inspiration gave me DAFFY DUCK and then I was off with my misspent youth in full flow. I imagine that the convoluted cross-referencing of numbers will be off-putting to some but it was worth the effort.

   Favourites were YOSEMITE SAM, WARNER BROS, CANARD, PAGER and PEPE LE PEW. All good fun.

   ‘That’s all folks’

   Ta Paul & Eileen

10. Thanks for the effort Eileen. Paul used to be my favourite setter and still reaches those heights occasionally but this was a disappointment. I cracked a few that you missed but with no pleasure, and failed on a couple of others. I still don’t get 1dn. With the crossers in place I considered every _E_K and discarded BEAK because it matched neither of the apparent definitions. I had heard of a magistrate referred to as a beak, but never schoolmaster. OK, I went to a different school system. But what has beak to do with DIAL PLATE? And what is a dial plate anyway, other than part of a clock apparently?

11. I hadn’t noticed the Devious Leporine Rival initials – asumed it was meant to be Bugs Bunny!

12. 17 parses as re +gap, reversed

13. I agree with Lyran@4 for 4a. High in the sense of ‘off’, i.e. smelly, and side as edge. Like Eileen I didn’t particularly warm to this crossword, and was staring at blank spaces with only a couple of clues completed until the combination of ‘m’ at the end of 19 plus gunslinger in the clue prompted a vague memory of ‘SAM’ that sent me to google, though I thought at first it was going to be just Bugs Bunny characters. I wasn’t convinced by TWEE for pretty in 22d, but the cartoon reference confirmed the answer. A crossword for afficianados of Warner Bros cartoons. Thanks to Eileen for the blog and Paul of course, who I think probably enjoyed setting the puzzle.

14. I agree with Lyran @2 about PAGER and OFFSIDE, but I think it really needs a ? in the clue.

    Thanks Eileen – nice to know some of the experts also struggle at times. ELMER FUDD was my first theme answer, but I didn’t know several of the others (YOSEMITE SAM and PEPE) by name (I know them by sight, however). They were more or less workoutable.

    Thanks also to Paul

15. KLColin@10 Ducks have BEAKs

16. A tough one, Eileen, if you are unfamiliar with the Looney Tunes oeuvre. I am, although whether as a symptom of misspent youth or misspent parenthood I shall not venture to say. SPEEDY GONZALES fell immediately, and I knew where Paul was gong with this.

    [Colleagues who do not follow such matters may be interested to learn that recently Warner Bros decided that Pepe Le Pew was ‘noisome’ in more ways than one, being, to unsuspecting pussycats who have had an unfortunate accident with a white paintbrush, pretty what Harvey Weinstein was to aspiring actresses. There is, it has to be said, some truth in this. Pepe was therefore unceremoniously removed from the LT pantheon, causing a huge amount of vacuous and hilarious synthetic outrage on Fox News and other US right-wing commentary outlets about ‘cancel culture’.]

17. I was entirely out of my comfort zone here. I had only heard of two of the themers and have never watched any of them. Can’t win ’em all!
    Thanks to Paul and to Eileen who got the short straw this time!

18. I quite enjoyed the WARNER BROS theme as it gradually unfolded. However I was on a wavelength with Jack@11: I biffed BUNNY BUGS for 16,6 down (mostly unparsed except for the “leporine” reference, thinking Paul might have made a mistake!). Gradually sorted it all out. Clues I enjoyed have already been mentioned. Thanks to Paul and Eileen.

19. It doesn’t look as if Paul has quite hit the mark today, going by the general tone of comments thus far. This didn’t do it for me, either. Not so much because the theme is fairly unfamiliar – beyond the very obvious names. (ELMER FUDD was a complete nho and I only got it from checking that YOSEMITE SAM was a character and finding his companion named and able to fit the crossers). More because it’s a case where the clumsy surfaces, convoluted clueing and cross references needed to force the theme have meant it dominated the puzzle. No subtlety as a result. Shame. (And did anyone else solving on a laptop or similar find it particularly tricky to always be scrolling off the grid to look at cross referenced clues? Not normally an issue but I was up and down like a yoyo this morning.)

    Thanks, nonetheless, Paul and Eileen for your struggles.

20. KLEIN and BEAK were my downfall. I think elk for leather is a bit iffy, unless it’s some kind of antelope in-joke. And am I right in assuming that there’s a convention that if a down clue (i.e. 1) references another clue (i.e. 24) which has both across and down answers, then you should take the directionally matching (i.e. down, here) answer to be the one that’s meant? For some reason, I was trying to do the opposite. [Ties knot in handkerchief and gets his coat.]

21. Some of the definitions certainly seemed a bit vague or obscure, but I got there in the end. My way in was an inspired guess at Speedy Gonzales, though I couldn’t parse it. I didn’t even link it to Warner Bros until I looked SG up on Wikipedia, and I don’t think I would have completed it without looking up a list of characters. Most rang a very quiet bell, but shouldn’t Tweety be Tweety Pie, or is that something else?

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

22. I rather enjoyed that, although Paul’s clues sometimes tend to the convoluted at the best of times, and doubly so here. Just two clues that I came here to check on, and both seem to have been easily parsed by everyone else, which illustrates how much is down to the individual solver.

    Spooner@16 I didn’t know that about Pepe, but it doesn’t surprise me, any of it. I always felt his cartoons were pretty weak anyway, and that every black cat in every part of the world must have been accidentally coated with a stripe of white paint by now. #MeowToo indeed.

23. Editing all done now.
    Many thanks for all your help, forbearance and sympathy – and to Spooner’s catflap for the gen on Pepe Le Pew.

    ravenrider @21 – I wondered about TWEETY Pie, too, but it is indeed something else

24. I enjoy all the other setters in the Guardian, with varying degrees of success, Paul remains a complete mystery. No idea why.
    Thanks Eileen for the parsings.

25. Having read the blog, if Eileen has struggled to parse some of the clues, what chance have I got?

26. Like Eileen re the themers, absorbed by osmosis via the the kids; recognized them post facto, which did help in recalling others. Quite a few mers, like everything that’s ‘in’ isn’t necessarily chic, and no doubt things are made of elk skin, but is elk a ‘thing’, like calf?; a beak (which I know as magistrate but not headmaster) is part of a dial/face, which is only part of 24, and, as for ‘in’ but and chic, not all pretty things are twee. Meanwhile, Speedy Gonzales was the protagonist in a very rude schoolyard joke. Hey ho, enjoyed it so wie so, thanks Paul and Eileen.

27. Hi grantinfreo @26 – 1dn refers to 24 down.

28. KLColin @10: Our headmaster at school (Westcliff High School for Boys, c.1978) was known as ‘The Beak’ including by many of the masters. This nickname was changed to ‘The Boot’ when a certain Dr. Clarke took over. Oh how (un)imaginative we were…

    I have to say that this was the easiest Paul I have ever done (15 minutes) but mostly because the theme leapt straight out at me having spent FAR too much time watching cartoons a) as a child and b) as an adult. Can we have a ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’ theme next please?

    [Trying to find an appropriate musical connection was hard because most of the cartoon music is awful with the exception of Scott Bradley’s output for the original ‘Tom & Jerry’ (now owned by Warner Bros.). Bradley was strongly influenced by Bartok, Hindemith and Stravinsky and much of his incidental music for the cartoons is written in the 2nd Vienesse serial (12-tone) style. The 2013 Proms inlcuded a set https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYrUWfLlYI0 ]

    Thanks Paul and Eileen and sorry to be missing the Zoom session this evening as I shall be out at a live gig (not Auriga’s which I do hope went well…)

29. 2, 18 anagram of legend zip so easy without i (one)

30. I’m glad I’m not the only one to have struggled with this. I’m afraid I ended up looking up Looney Tunes characters once I’d got the first (more by luck than judgement), bunging them in, and then attempting to parse. More use of the check button than is really enjoyable.

31. Enjoyable apart from being stumped on 1d and 11a for a while. I’m obviously of the right age to get the linked clues – a lot of them fell into place once I’d got 3d fairly early.

32. Bodger @22 “#MeowToo” Brilliant!

33. Sorry it wasn’t your cup of tea, Eileen – more like China tea, perhaps? 😉

    Like AlanC and MB I clearly had a misspent youth (I started as I meant to continue) so this was a much more enjoyable ride for me.

    Apologies for lowering the tone, but TIFFIN brought this to mind, and with WINDSOR making an appearance too I wondered if there was going to be some more carry-on.

    Thanks to Paul and Eileen, and to Van Winkle and others for the parsing of SPEEDY GONZALES which went completely over my head.

34. A mixed bag. I think Paul’s probably overcommitted in various arenas. While there have been a couple of gems , the output is prolific, but inconsistent in quality. It must be hard to make a living from setting cryptics. Glad I don’t have that calling.

35. I often feel at a disadvantage, with cricket terms and whatnot, but this was right down my alley. Once I twigged to the theme, it was off to the races with 2, 18.

36. Not a lot of fun and didn’t manage to finish it though I did eventually suss the theme and its respective answers.

    Spooner’s Catflap@16: a similar fuss has been made about SPEEDY GONZALEZ as reinforcing stereotypes about Mexicans. Oddly enough, Latin Americans of my acquaintance, including my late wife, found him amusing and not offensive.

37. First pass with only a single solution (U-BOAT) – a few minutes later came the eureka moment of winkling out WARNER BROS – and then fun-packed solving until LOI (STREAMER – one of the easiest clues in retrospect). Parsing the outliers then took a few minutes longer.
    Leaving aside the nostalgia of those lovable pesky characters (although I’d never encountered YOSEMITE SAM before) – A GOOD DEAL of enjoyment came from KLEIN, RHEUM & JEROBOAM, to name but a few.
    Thanks Paul for delivering the final seal of excellence on an outstanding week of Guardian puzzles.

38. I agree with Eileen and others who commented on the surfaces of the clues.

    Picked up on the theme @ SPEEDY GONZALES, but needed help from wikipedia as I am not a fan of Looney Tunes.
    New for me: YOSEMITE SAM (guessed Sam and then searched google for gunslinger Sam).
    Did not parse 26ac DAFFY (I never heard a daffodil referred to as a daffy, 23d TIFFIN.
    Also never heard that ELK = leather.

    Favourites: the clue for EXTENSION, CANARD, BEAK.

39. Thumbs down from me as well, I’m sorry to say. As with quite a few other folks on here, I’ve really gone off Paul as a setter. In my book, he’s often far from good these days. This puzzle displayed several of his negative traits: nonsensical surfaces, stretched definitions and heavy use of cross-linking, all of which give it a very contrived feel.

    After two slow, careful passes through the clues, I’d got three solutions. At that point I gave up and came here. Having Bugs Bunny as the theme gave me no chance.

    Thanks to Eileen for trying to make sense of it all.

40. [MaidenBartok @28
    It was a moonlit night in old Mexico
    I walked alone between some old adobe haciendas
    Suddenly, I heard the plaintive cry of a young Mexican girl:
    La la la, la la la la la la la la, la la la la la la la la, la la la la
    La la la la

    You better come home, SPEEDY GONZALES.]

    Thanks Paul and Eileen

41. Not one of my favourite Paul efforts. I wouldn’t have thought of ELK for leather unless I knew that it must be; and I must admit that I cheated KLEIN anyway as being a thing I was very unlikely to know about and couldn’t put together from the clue.
    The WARNER BROS crew were all familiar and great fun to find (what, no Roadrunner?) but almost without exception horrible to parse, and like Boffo I decided that life was too short. Of the rest, I enjoyed the misdirection of EXTENSION (BEAK+FUDD+X=????). Horologists may know what a DIAL PLATE is, but I don’t.

42. I am in full agreement with Eileen. In any case I have never understood the enthusiasm in some quarters for Paul whose schoolboy smut humour I find distasteful. His abject recent “minced oath” offering was no triumph either. This puzzle I disliked for a different reason: too many interlinked clues requiring knowledge of an arcane and not especially interesting cartoon series dating back half a century. With luck Philistine tomorrow

43. My sympathies for you, Eileen for having to blog this one.
    I liked his fruity puzzle last week but this one didnt float my boat
    and I took refuge in a 2010 Araucaria with a constellation theme
    That was more like it.

44. Never heard of BEAK for school master. I had it justified it as ” be a k(ing)”, which seemed tenuous, but not inconceivable in this puzzle.
    Thanks to Eileen and Paul

45. Thanks Eileen @27, long day since this morning (and am I going blind… I can’t see 24d in the blog).

46. Beg to differ with most but I enjoyed this. After 30 minutes all I had was Yang, then AM led to Sam which led to Yosemite Sam. The themed clues then went in fairly easily but the remaining clues still proved challenging. So to finish the whole thing felt satisfying, thank you Paul. Sorry it was a drag Eileen.

47. [While agreeing about the personal obnoxiousness of Pepe Le Pew, the cartoons are a hilarious showcase for the inspired cod-French of Mel Blanc, who was also the voice of every other character in this puzzle and of many others.]

48. Thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, as did my competitive solver on the other side of the country. I had a very well spent youth so knew all the Warner Bros characters without recourse to Google.

    29a was a particular favourite.
    ELK = Leather my only concern.

49. Many thanks, Eileen, for the blog – but this puzzle really wasn’t up my street. I grew up in the 50s with no TV, so most of the cartoon characters were totally unknown to me. I worked out Warner Bros early on, guessed Speedy Gonzales, somehow managed to deduce Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam, but Pepe Le Pew …?! Impossible.
    13ac had to be LAYERED, but why ‘in a number of beds’?

50. I gave up on this, not knowing enough about the theme to make it enjoyable. However, I’m glad that some others enjoyed it – that’s the same with many themed crosswords – they can be marmite.

    I see that elk leather is ‘The world’s thickest soft leather’. However, it’s not even on the list of leathers in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary.

    Thanks Paul for the effort, it’s my fault that I didn’t enjoy it. Maybe as a Saturday Prize I would have spent the extra time on it. My sympathy for Eileen who made a valiant attempt to unravel it.

51. After all the negativity, I feel the need to reiterate that Paul remains one of my favourite setters, and this puzzle was no exception. After I figured out ELMER FUDD, the rest of the theme answers came relatively easily, and I got to relive a joyous part of my childhood. I can understand the dislike for his convoluted surfaces, but I like everything else about him that others seem to hate.

52. [gladys @47, agreed. Mel Blanc was a genius. I imagine that, in preparing for this themed puzzle, Paul probably devised clues for several of the other LT cartoon characters – Road Runner, Coyote, Porky Pig, Sylvester, Foghorn Leghorn, etc. I suspect, therefore, that some will crop up from time to time over the next few months, rather as Paul’s spare biscuits did after his biscuit-themed Prize some months ago.]

53. Hi grant @45 – see under 26,24down. 😉

54. We liked it, lots of clever clues.

    It’s quite ok to not be able to finish a crossword, or to be ignorant of some area of knowledge, but I don’t think that’s a reason to critisize the setter nor belittle the subject matter.

55. As a comparative newcomer to the cryptic crossword world I’m learning the tricks. While I’m aware that liberties are taken with punctuation in clues so that the surface reads better, I think that slamming words together as in 19d where only part of the first word is the definition is a liberty too far. Or am I just being too conventional?

56. [peter & ant @54, well said. I detect an implicit reference to pnin@42, a comment that, rather heroically, I refrained from responding to, as I was not sure I would be able to do so while keeping within site guidelines. I will leave your contribution as an appropriate rejoinder.]

57. I thoroughly enjoyed this. Thank you Paul

58. I put myself squarely in the Enjoyed It camp. Elmer Fudd was the first of the themers – and he just floated into my head serendipitously, despite never having seen him in an actual cartoon so far as I know. He came courtesy of a U from the German submarine

59. (as I was saying….) and a D from the good deal. The others must have been lying around, semi-conscious if that, for the last 70 years or so.
    KLEIN, on the other hand was far less obliging.

60. Thank you Eileen – and gang – for explaining a fair few of these, not for the first time the answer was often easier than the why of it (and certainly easier than the Y of DAFFY, fully agree michelle@38), and I also struggle with a few definitions or parts thereof. Relief was the overriding emotion but can really only blame my own lack of sharpness as I too confused down/across, so the final brace/pair took way too long. Have to highlight EXTENSION, very neat, thanks Paul.

    [PS essexboy thanks for the Brian Auger link yesterday, enjoyed a few of his today, great wikipedia history too – how many of us can claim to have lived in a jazz rock commune? Here’s a non-loony-tune from 1D:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IfkqtGHnwc ]

61. Two candidates for worst clue of the year in one crossword. Impressive in its own way I suppose.

62. Thanks Paul, Eileen et al. I managed this but found it quite a struggle.
    (If you have time, Google “What’s Opera, Doc?”. Just a cartoon? Wow! Sorry, I can’t do square brackets or hyperlinks)

63. Not exactly Bugs Bunny, but Warner Bros characters, including Bugs, who doesn’t get a light of his own, and who is the nemesis of Elmer Fudd (“you wascally wabbit!”). Although I’m about Eileen’s age, I remember these characters from my own comic-reading childhood. For once I have a body of knowledge relevant to the theme, a comic book expertise!

    How does RHEUM = “cold”? I looked it up and it’s the crusty white stuff that accumulates around some people’s eyes and nose, a really
    unappealing picture.

    Thanks for parsing 24a, Eileen. I couldn’t get past DIAL being “laid back,” hence slow, but couldn’t fit the bits together. News to me that daffodils are called daffies.

    KLColin@10 I think BEAK is meant to be part of a DUCK (24d), but I don’t think a bill and a beak are the same. Ducks and platypuses have the former, most birds (and octopuses, apparently) have the latter.

    Like Boffo@3 I got SPEEDY G from the definition and was totally stuck for the parsing. Thanks, TonyG@6.

    Who’d ever think of “petal” as a natural opener? Thanks, Eileen.

    judygs@49 I grew up in the 50s without T too, but I remember the characters from comic books, which i consumed by the ton.

    Thanks to Paul and sympathy to Eileen. Thanks for persevering.

64. Re DAFFY: I’ve only ever seen ‘daff’ as an abbreviation for daffodil and that’s the only one Collins gives but Chambers has both.

65. Thanks Paul and Eileen
    Another “didn’t enjoy – or complete either; no idea on PEPE LE PEW or DIAL PLATE.
    I knew ELMER FUDD as I have a winter cap that my daughter calls my “where the wabbit” hat.

66. Valentine @ 63 – for RHEUM, Chambers has, apart from the mucus, ‘a cold in the head’, but does give it as obsolete.

67. I have no problem with seemingly unintelligible surfaces being the reason for disliking a particular puzzle; sometimes I think Paul simply tries to defeat the solver rather than encourage them along. But claiming Looney Tunes/Bugs Bunny characters as, somehow, unfair theme ground is a bit much! You’d have to be pushing ninety-odd to claim complete ignorance. I recall at least one crossword with a Star Wars theme; I really have not seen the films because I’m not a fan of the SF genre, but I don’t claim never to have heard or had a reasonable opportunity in everyday life to hear the names of key characters. By all means, dislike a puzzle or even a setter but let’s not think it’s only a good one of we’re au fait with the theme. Some of these were very good clues. My one gripe is equating daffy with daffodil; daff, certainly, but I’ve never heard a florist or gardener refer to a daffy.

68. Had to come back to this a couple of times, but defeated finally by KLEIN and therefore BEAK. Didn’t quite have the negative feelings that Eileen had earlier today. Still thought there was plenty to enjoy.

69. Thanks to those who pointed out that for 1dn I should have been looking at 24 down. I have always thought that the default was Across, but that is no help if setters don’t agree. Glad to see I wasn’t the only one on the wrong axis.
    I like to think I would have twigged to BEAK as part of a duck (instead of a dial plate??) but as Valentine@63 says, ducks have bills, not beaks.
    I wonder if that was one of Roz’s candidates…

70. BEAK and KLEIN, DAFFY a close third. I enjoyed the theme and most of the crossword but clues that poor spoil everything.
    In my annoyance I forgot to thank you Eileen and it is more the case that the puzzle does not do justice to your blog. In fact I am a big fan of Paul so I am more disappointed than annoyed.

71. I have just understood the reason for the multiple references to daffodils. I confidently wrote in Daisy Duck – it seems like a cartoon character and parses perfectly. Of course TIFFIN was a DNF but I was never going to get NIFF = aroma anyway.

72. Yep agree about BILL vs BEAK hence the joke: How do you turn a duck into a soul singer? Put it in the oven until its Bill Withers

73. This was a rare occasion for me; I finished a Paul puzzle AND was able to parse everything – although I was, like you Eileen, held up a while thinking “speedy” = “with zip”.
    I dnk elk=leather, but Collins online has “3. a stout pliable waterproof leather made from calfskin or horsehide”, so that’s one to try and retain for future reference.
    Re: Daffy – I, too, would abbreviate them to “daffs” but I have heard of “daffy-down-dilly” so maybe we can give Paul a pass on this one?

    I’m on the “very enjoyable” side of the divide.

74. Thanks both,
    I’m in the thumbs up camp, although I resorted to google once I spotted the theme.

75. @KLColin daisy duck does exist, so you needn’t feel too bad about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daisy_Duck

76. Ta Eileen @53, not blind, I’m just going daffy ?

77. 😉

78. Well I’m with the minority today who had little trouble with this, either conceptually or practically.

    There seems to be a theme amongst the comments: you were very familiar with the cartoons and you liked the puzzle, or you weren’t and you didn’t. Sounds like business as usual, but more black-and-white. Not really something to be laid at Paul’s feet.

79. [MB@28. Thank you. Well enough to be invited back.]

80. SC @ 52: I suspect it’s more likely that Paul decided the theme listed the characters available, then clued the ones that fitted the grid, rather than writing clues for solutions that might or might not fit in a subsequent grid. A later grid might not be themed, so would need different (more indicative) clues.

    JM @ 55: the ‘lift and separate’ clue is an increasingly used part of the setter’s armoury.

    Thanks to Eileen for the blog.

81. John @55, yes its a common enough device. Sometimes referred to as “Lift and separate”.

82. Thanks for corroborating DAFFY and RHEUM Eileen, I had assumed the latter was OK as “rheumy” rang a bell for someone bunged up with a cold, but always nice to have some proof however obscure.

83. [Auriga @79: Fabulous!]

84. Saturday morning Warner Bros. is a part of shared American culture, so for most Americans I imagine the Looney Tunes would be write-ins. My first was Elmer Fudd; the rest came quickly. The other stuff, however, was much trickier.

    In American cryptics, Elmer Fudd-isms are an occasionally-seen device: if Fudd appears, you know you have to do something like turn read into weed or rating into waiting. It has the same weakness as a Spoonerism: since you can only indicate the device by naming it, it’s easy to figure out what has to happen.

    I agree with the general sentiment that when Paul got too prolific his quality slid a little. But I do still enjoy his puzzles.

85. Dr. WhatsOn @78: I’m reasonably familiar with the theme, and I enjoyed this reasonably well. KLColin @71: I was another Daisy Duck, so also a DNF.

86. So for example, “Pausing while anticipating Elmer Fudd’s review (7)” gives WAITING.

87. ELMER FUDD and a few others went in quickly and then I hit a brick wall. I decided to reveal a few because sticking with Paul can be rewarding. DAFFY DUCK gave me the theme; being familiar with all the Looney Tunes helped me finish. I liked A GOOD DEAL, the clever EXTENSION, and STREAMER. I ‘ve done enough of these crosswords to eye all compound words (like flagship) suspiciously. Thanks to both.

88. DrWhatsOn@78: I don’t fit your theme: knew the cartoons and enjoyed spotting them but found lots of the parsing difficult and contrived so didn’t enjoy the rest of the puzzle. Mind you, Speedy Gonzales and Yosemite Sam are hardly the easiest characters to deal with, so well done Paul for trying.

89. I enjoyed it! I can do ‘low’ culture like the Loony Tunes. Thanks Paul.

    And many many many thanks to Eileen for showing that even the experts to whom I bow down can sometimes have an off day.

90. [Also on the subject of Warner Bros. speech impediments in crosswords, the New York Times crossword (non-cryptic but very clever, if you are unfamiliar with the series) clued LISPS as “Talks like Sylvester” a couple days ago.]

91. I enjoyed this as well, and completed it (which is pretty rare)!

    I don’t quite get how ‘high’ = OFF, but the rest I followed.

    I find some of the comments on here bizarre. I didn’t actually think the surfaces were bad at all. Identifying the theme helped, and there were a couple of write-ins afterwards, but if you can’t be bothered to then figure out the wordplay, that’s just up to you.

    It is certainly not an unreasonable theme, and anyone claiming it is needs to have a rethink. Crosswords don’t have to all be operas and flora, and mustn’t be if they’re going to survive as an artform.

    Thanks Paul, and Eileen.

92. Jimmy @91
    High means off in the sense of rotten and smelly.

93. Jimmy @ 91

    Re high / off, think decomposing food or roadkill. They also hum.

94. Dr WhatsOn @78 & gladys @88: I’m another who doesn’t quite fit. My original comment, back in the mists of time @19 confessed to not knowing the theme well but I certainly don’t object to it or take a culturally highbrow stance as some have suggested. Rather, as gladys says, the clueing was convoluted and many of the surfaces clumsy – most of the themers and the disease spread – the surfaces for LAYERED and U-BOAT are pretty dire. Paul can do so much better than this – as EXTENSION and STREAMER prove.

    mrpenney @84 ff: thanks for the snippet on Fudd-isms. I had no idea. I’m not sure we have an equivalent – unless we refer to Monty Python’s Life of Brian where Pilate is a Fuddite and Biggus Dickus the Sylvesterine. If that makes no sense to anyone, here’s the clip from the movie

95. Well . . . this took me longer than any puzzle has in yonks. I normally post a comment before 9 or 10am, but now it’s almost 5pm and I’ve been looking at it on and off the whole day.

    Like some others, I was totally unfamiliar with almost all the cartoon characters, apart from SPEEDY GONZALES, for which I tried PANCHO first, but he was a tennis player and the anagram didn’t work.

    I’m either very determined or a masochist, but I managed to finish apart from having DAISY instead of DAFFY, which I had to correct before getting TIFFIN. All in all I did enjoy myself, but it was unbelievably hard work.

    Thanks to Paul, and to the indefatigable Eileen.

96. Seems like some of us are less excited than Paul about the imminent picturehouse release of Space Jam – A New Legacy. All of the stars featured in the grid (some of them already Oscar winners) show up in the trailer for the film, except for the disgraced Pepe Le Pew, making the theme very topical.

97. PM @94: I took the surface for LAYERED as a dig at our very own noisome Casanova (sorry, good Catholic boy 😉 )

98. Still don’t understand 3ac: why does LAYERED = ‘in a number of beds’?

    Valentine@63 I wasn’t ‘allowed’ comics, and my pocket money wasn’t enough to buy them … 🙁

99. The British crossword equivalent of Elmer Fudd is customarily TV chatshow host Jonathon Ross, eg as employed by Philistine a year ago in Guardian 28,158 – “Jonathan Ross’s expert declared to be a charlatan (5)”.

100. gladys@ 88 you have expressed my views much better than I could have done myself.
     Mressexboy@97 – good spot.

101. judygs@98. I think it is from geology. Beds of rock.

102. judygs @98
     Rock strata are layered in a number of beds.

103. I guess this was one for the Americans–ELMER FUDD was FOI when I worked out the anagram, and then most of the cartoon characters were write-ins, though I needed the parses explained for Speedy Gonzales and Pepe Le Pew and Tweety, which I thought might be TTY round WEE somehow. All characters I watched as a kid (Speedy is not shown much anymore due to the Mexican stereotyping, though honestly I don’t remember him being that funny).

     Outside of that 12 and 29 and 5 all were nice wordplay.

     Thanks Paul and Eileen–sorry this puzzle was so much not on your wavelength!

104. For the lithp kind of impediment, somebody quite recently tried referring to Violet Elizabeth Bott (who could famously “thcream and thcream until I’m thick”) – and was met with considerable incomprehension. Just William must be going out of fashion.

105. I really enjoyed this. I’m not the biggest fan of the convoluted cross-referenced clues, but if I can unpick it all I’m happy. And this theme was right up my street. As others – I’m amazed at how little knowledge of these absolute iconic characters there seems to be.

     KLColin @ 69: I believe the convention is that if you reference another clue, and it’s the same direction as the current clue you don’t need to mention the direction. So here, it had to be down, because it’s a down clue. It would have specified across, if that was what was needed.

106. VW @99 & gladys @104: good points and, yes, I do recall seeing both now you mention them. (Still quite pleased to have thought of the Brian episode though. I remember the audience in the cinema rolling around as much as the crowd in the film scene as the clip unfolded)

107. matt w @103 Maybe Speedy wasn’t the funniest cartoon character, but when you’re having carpet laid, can you honestly say that you don’t go around shouting ‘Underlay! Underlay!’?

108. Thank you very much, Roz @101 and muffin @102!

109. I liked this more than most here, despite not being a fan of the theme. Apart from Pepe the others had worked their way into my head by osmosis over time.
     I had never heard of Elk as leather and don’t ducks have bills rather than beaks. That made my last two in very stubborn.

110. [judygs @98: oh good! It wasn’t just me who was denied comics as a child! My mother looked (looks) down on such things – she every refers to ‘the IBA’ in disparaging terms!]

111. [MB @110
     Until I had enough pocket money to make my own choices, I was allowed a comic – but only the Eagle, of course!]

112. I was comfortable with the theme, but was undone by KLEIN and BEAK. It was unusual of Paul not to specify which 24 he meant, so I briefly tried to think of other meanings of 24. I agree with those who pointed out that ducks have bills, not beaks.

113. BEAK is also public school slang and surely has no place in our crosswords.

114. [Another whose parents thought comics (and the Top Forty) were a form of pollution … sigh]

115. Funny that tiffin is commonly used in India for a meal that is not quite lunch or dinner, Imperial no more.

116. Completely agree with Eileen about this puzzle. I eventually completed it without aids, but found the clues over-contrived and lacking the precision, wit and conciseness that was do admirably displayed in yesterday’s offering. Having never heard of ‘Pepe Le Pew’, I was not at all sure that I had deciphered the clue correctly.
     Does anyone know why we have not seen an Arachne puzzle for far too long ?

117. Couto @112. The ‘pale’ was an imperialist construction to protect the comfortable Anglo-Irish lifestyle in Dublin from any incursion from the appalling native Irish who lived ‘beyond’ it. Perhaps you would be so kind as to inform us as to where, and on what principles, your personal ‘pale’ in these matters has been erected and what it is engineered to protect you from and to exclude (American cartoons, perhaps).

118. Not my favourite Paul puzzle by a long way, and a DNF because I couldn’t work out DIAL PLATE (helpful person at breakfast – “Have you finished the crossword?” “Oh, I’ve only got this one left” [Fairly brief pause] “What about Dial plate…?”) but personally I thought there was quite a bit to enjoy. In particular, 13A, Paul abandoning the toilet humour for the second favourite, taking the mick out of the Dear Leader.
     I was familiar with Elmer Fudd and Yosemite Sam, but worked out Pepe le Pew from the wordplay and then had to google him.
     “Leather” for “Elk” came as a bit of a surprise, and I am comforted that it threw Eileen even more than it threw me.

119. Just to lower the tone on speech impediments etc. Clive James once said that Roy Jenkins was “one of the highest ranking politicians in the country, although he could never say so.” But like this crossword, you have to be a certain age to get the joke. In desperation at the last two blanks, we put in “facade” so therefore did not get “layered” but otherwise we succeeded although it took the whole day on and off.

120. Late to this one today, so I see that most of what needs to be said has been said already… possibly too much has been said by some. But I will add a well done, Eileen, for persevering. If you’re not a Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies fan, you drew the short straw getting today’s blogging duties.

     My way in was getting TWEETY and SPEEDY GONZALES, which gave me the theme, and being an unashamed devotee of Bugs, DAFFY, ET AL, I quickly filled in the rest of the themed clues from the word count alone, then worked backwards to parse them. But eventually ran aground, and threw in the towel with several gaps still to be filled. Without knowledge of the theme, I would have found this mostly impenetrable today. Not unenjoyable, though – even if some of the enjoyment was reading someone else’s unravelling of the clues rather than getting there under my own steam.

121. Started this far too late in the day and only put in about 6 solutions before I gave up! Tomorrow is another day.

122. [Gazzh: I’ve just seen your post @60. Thanks for the BEAK link – first time I’ve come across them, though I see they did a session for 6 Music, parts of which are on YouTube. I’m glad I’m not the only one who likes Brian Auger! I think some might be familiar with him through his cover (with Julie Driscoll) of Dylan’s This Wheel’s on Fire, which seems to get a regular outing on BBC4. The song then got a new lease of life with Ab Fab, and is possibly the only piece of music to be performed by both Siouxsie Sioux and Kylie Minogue.]

     [Penfold: I can’t believe there’s been no appreciation for your link @40. I’d have thought this forum was natural Pat Boone territory. 😉 ]

123. GC @ 117: it’s been posted a times or two over the last year or so that Arachne is taking a break for personal reasons.

124. Finally on the musical front – before the sun goes down today, somebody should really provide a link to I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat. I thought of posting the Mel Blanc classic version, but we all know that one.

     So instead, here’s ISIHAC with One Song to the Tune of Another.

     First, Jeremy Hardy with I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat to the tune of I Vow to Thee My Country (there’s also a reminder of Tim Brooke-Taylor on the same clip).

     And secondly, Miles Jupp (and also a Tina Turner tribute by Pippa Evans).

     Tweet dreams everyone.

125. widdersbelI @121 – I think I’ve been misunderstood – and, like some others, I don’t fit into either of Dr WhatsOn’s categories. I don’t think I said I objected to the theme – simply that I didn’t recognise all the names.

     My main point really was to comment, as I’ve wanted to for a long time, on the variability of Paul’s puzzles. At his best, he’s excellent and, at other times, there are too many what I think some folk here have called ‘That’ll do’ clues and I think there’s been a fair amount of agreement on that. Usually, if I don’t warm to a puzzle (anyone’s puzzle), I follow the Thumper puzzle and don’t comment – an option that’s not available when blogging.

     But most of all, I have to admit that most of my frustration is with myself, that I missed so many (now obvious) parsings. I think this was a record. 🙁

126. [@52 Spooner: I had so hoped that my favorite — Foghorn Leghorn — would be included. On your advice I’ll keep my eyes open for the Kentucky Fried Rooster in later Pauls. In the meantime, here are the nine Rules For The Road promulgated by Chuck Jones concerning Road Runner & Wile E Coyote. Does anyone have an opinion on Road Runner’s gender?

     [1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going ‘Beep-Beep!’ 2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products. 3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic. (Repeat: ‘A fanatic is one who redoubles his effort when he has forgotten his aim.’ — George Santayana). 4. No dialogue ever, except ‘Beep-Beep!’ 5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — otherwise, logically, he would not be called Road Runner. 6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert. 7. All materials tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation. 8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy. 9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.]

127. Eileen @ 126

     “That’ll do” for Paul clues was, I believe, originated by me on the graun thread two or three years ago. Others there have certainly acknowledged me when they’ve re-used it.

     And I agree with you about the huge variability these days of Paul puzzles. He used to be a favourite, but since he started spreading himself so broadly I now see his name and wonder what level we’re in for.

128. Eileen @ 126: Fully agree with your appraisal of Paul’s variable standards. He’s tending towards a curate’s egg (although he’s usually worth persevering with). Thanks for the hardest blog for anyone to tackle.

129. SimonS @128 – I thought I’d remembered that it was you, wherever 😉 – and nametab @129 – huge thanks, both, for the reassurance – greatly appreciated.

130. My problem with this puzzle was that the themed clues were easy to do without parsing if you knew them, but very difficult if you didn’t. I was expecting CHEEP to involve a transformation based on “I tort I taw” etc. with a t for an s or a th.

131. Eileen @126 – sorry, I think I wasn’t clear – I didn’t mean to suggest you were disapproving, just that your self-confessed lack of familiarity with the theme must have made life extra difficult for you today as blogger.

     For me, the theme clues were easy to fill in, but I struggled with much of the rest of it. But I’m never sure if that’s down to me or the setter… Some days I find Paul a breeze, others I can stare at one of his puzzles for hours without finding a way in.

132. I took daffy to be from daffydowndilly

133. Petert@131: exactly. If the themers had been, say, Nobel Prize winners for economics, or great Aston Villa strikers of the 1980s, or any other group of which I know nothing, I would never have deduced them from those clues (like KLEIN, where I just gave up).

134. Now I’ve seen lots of references to it — what is a dial plate? Wikipedia won’t tell me.

     muffin@111 — What’s the Eagle?

     Thanks for the perseverance, all, especially Eileen.

135. Eileen @126 do not be hard on yourself, we all do it even without the pressure of a blog. I call it brain freeze or one track mind where you can only view a clue in one way that does not work. Only solution is to put the paper down for a while and return later, not an option if you are blogging. If you want a laugh, look at the comments in Mudd in the FT this week, I missed something very obvious and Diane had to help me.
     You only missed a few and one of those was Klein which was an awful clue in many ways.
     Sorry to go on, do NOT reply, your blogging duties are more than discharged for this crossword.

136. It was just hard.

     Some crosswords are.

     Thanks Paul as ever.

137. Came to this very late after a hot day on the allotment. Started to tackle the crossword over several very necessary beers at my favourite pub, and struggled. Woke up this morning and YOSEMITE SAM immediately popped into my head, and quickly finished all except the clumsily incorrect OFFLINE where SIDE was required.

     SPEEDY GONZALES was a write-in for me, as I remembered the song from my very early years – though I somehow mixed up the S and the Z! The rest of the characters were slower to come, and I was helped by crossers and clues. I don’t understand some of the complaints about cross-referencing clue numbers – Araucaria used to do this a lot, and I don’t suppose anyone would have criticised him!

     As to variability in the quality of the clues, to me there was just a certain amount of variation in my solving ability. Who do I complain to about that?

     Thanks Paul and much sympathy for Eileen having a bit of a torrid time with the parsing. 🙂

138. Coming to this late having been out enjoying the sunshine yesterday. Your sentiments resonate with me Eileen. Paul is one of my favourite setters but I felt this was not one of his finest but still an enjoyable struggle. So thanks to you and to Paul.

139. Roz @114: I would agree with you except it was known at my very-average state Grammar school (although strangely this little Jewish-boy went to a Catholic Convent Prep school for 4 years run by a bunch of sadist hirsute nuns who loved the smell of the cane).

     I was trying to remember where I first heard the phrase and it turns out that it was common-place in the Jimmy Edwards TV series ‘Wack-O!’

140. Valentine @135
     The Eagle was a British periodical comic, featuring Dan Dare, among others. Would be found in the newsagent along with The Dandy and The Beano et al.

141. 11ac – I can see “Nike” as a chic designer and L for leather, but I can’t make it work with the clue as presented.

142. Thanks Pail and Eileen. Apart from not parsing KLEIN this was fine for me. A good test.
     I do wonder why there is an apparent condescension about variation in puzzles by Paul. I like variation and what a pleasure to get an easy mainstream theme for a change.
     Some above seem to think watching cartoons is a misspent childhood…..?

143. Tony @142 – I edited the blog in accordance with comments by Lyran @1 and others. Their parsing works for me.

144. [Timmytimtim @143: The whole cartoon/’graphic novel’/bande dessinée thing is really interesting.

     At least for my family, the idea of reading anything with ‘pictures’ was seen as a failure – the whole goal of reading was to move away as-quickly-as-possible from comics, books with pictures in, etc. and the entire cartoon genre was looked down on.

     Now this is VERY interesting because the same is not true in other countries; France has a very strong tradition of cartoon books not just for children but for adults as well and the term ‘graphic novel’ was one I learnt when my son started at school in the States – in the UK, the idea of a 9/10/11 year old reading anything like this would be seen as quite shocking (not so much now but certainly 30+ years back). ]

145. I have to say I hugely enjoyed this, particularly the chutzpah of the Elmer Fudd (and his devious leporine rival) and Warner Bros clues (half a dozen more). Hard yes but made me laugh out loud a couple of times! Thanks Paul.

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