A headscratcher from Puck.
When I saw MONKEY PUZZLE straight away, I thought I may have been in for an easy ride this morning, especially when I was able to fill in a few other straightforward entries on my first pass, then I hit a brick wall. I'd never heard of BAFFLEGAB, BLEB or NORN which didn't help, and SNACCIDENT is a portmanteau that I managed to dredge up from somewhere. In the end, I had a full grid but a few unparsed, and I spent a while trying to work them out, so I hope I have managed to do so correctly.
Although many of the clues were clever, I didn't particularly like DECLARE, especially as CLARE was in the clue for IRISHWOMAN, and I really didn't like DAHLIA.
In the end, I was just happy to complete the grid without resorting to dictionaries until I checked that I was right with my guesses, and to see if I could find SNACCIDENT in any of them.
Thanks, Puck.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | MONKEY PUZZLE |
Araucaria‘s £500 crossword? (6,6)
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MONKEY (slang for "£500") + PUZZLE ("crossword?") |
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| 9 | POSIT |
In a blog entry, one gets put forward (5)
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I (one) in POST ("blog entry") |
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| 10 | INNER TUBE |
Bike part from Benin? True, surprisingly (5,4)
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*(benin true) [anag:surprisingly] |
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| 11 | DECLARE |
Whimsically remove 19’s county from state (7)
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If you remove CLARE (an Irishwoman's "county"), then whimsically you DE-CLARE |
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| 12 | ELEVENS |
Teams of 6 making a comeback (7)
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<=SIX [making a comeback] would give you XIs ("elevens" or teams, as in cricket and football) |
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| 13 | SNACCIDENT |
Unintended eating from tins is back happening? Not at home (10)
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<= CANS ("tins", is back) + (in)CIDENT ("happening", not IN (at home)) "Snaccident" is not in any of my dictionaries, but I think I've come across it before somewhere to mean "absent-minded overeating", like when you open a big gag of crisps, then a little while later realise you've eaten the whole bag (or is it just me that does that?) |
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| 15 | IBIS |
Flyer billed at length by hotel (4)
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Double definition, the first a mildly cryptic definition of a long-billed bird and the second referring to a French-based hotel chain. |
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| 18 | GULL |
Rook? It’s a bird (4)
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Double definition. "Rook" and "gull" can both mean "simpleton". |
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| 19 | IRISHWOMAN |
Who am I, off with sister on vacation in Clare, perhaps? (10)
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*(who am I sr in) [anag:off] where SR is S(iste)R [on vacation] |
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| 22 | TSUNAMI |
Am I nuts swimming in this? Yes (7)
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*(am I nuts) [anag:swimming] |
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| 24 | BIPOLAR |
Suffering ups and downs, as extremely nervous? (7)
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The extremes of N(ervou)S are North and South, as in North and South Poles, so both Poles, so by inference, BI-POLAR |
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| 25 | BAFFLEGAB |
Long-winded government-speak? Floundering fleabag fibs regularly (9)
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*(fleabag fb) [anag:floundering] where FB is F(i)B(s) [regularly] |
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| 26 | NOBLE |
Le Bon compilation? Great! (5)
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*(le bon) [anag:compilation] |
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| 27 | STRATOSPHERE |
Eight Miles High? One’s in this guitar shop, playing before … (12)
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STRAT ("guitar") + *(shop) [anag:playing] + ERE ("before") Strat is short for Stratocaster, a Fender guitar. |
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| DOWN | ||
| 1 | MUSIC HALL |
… beginning to smoke a chillum (new variety) (5,4)
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*(s a chillum) [anag:new] where S is [beginning to] S(moke) |
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| 2 | NUTHATCH |
Tweeter is Greek character with thick hair? (8)
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NU ("Greek character") with THATCH ("thick hair") |
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| 3 | EXILE |
Deport half of 11 out of 12 shortly (5)
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[half of] ELE(ven) out(side) of XI (eleven, the answer to "12" ac, shortly) |
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| 4 | PENDENNIS |
Writer was angry, maybe about Thackeray hero (9)
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PEN ("writer") + <=SINNED ("was angry", about), wrath being one of the seven deadly sins. "Pendennis" is the eponymous character of a Thackeray novel, published in 1848. |
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| 5 | ZEROED |
Readjusted to show zip (OED) (6)
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ZERO ("O") + ED |
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| 6 | LOUSE |
Leftover unpalatable Scotch egg, primarily indicating a bad egg (5)
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L (left) + O (over, in cricket) + U(npalatable) S(cotch) E(gg) [primarily] |
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| 7 | SPADES |
Cards passed around (6)
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*(passed) [anag:around] |
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| 8 | YESSES |
Positive indications in last of many letters (6)
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[last of] (man)Y + ESSES ("letters") |
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| 14 | DERRING-DO |
Fish head removed by daughter during party? That’s bold stuff (7-2)
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(h)ERRING ("fish" with its head removed) by D (daughter) during DO ("party") |
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| 16 | BUMBLEBEE |
Bottom spot, with blistering pace: ultimately just last on the buzzer (9)
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BUM ("bottom") + BLEB ("blistering spot") + (pac)E [ultimately] +[last on] (th)E |
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| 17 | TWOPENCE |
Pair of coppers employed for a trivial sum (8)
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Double definition |
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| 18 | GETS BY |
Manages to understand both Sun and Times (4,2)
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GET ("to understand") + S (sun) + BY ("times", in arithmetic) |
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| 20 | NOREEN |
Maybe 19‘s fate, after swallowing two tablets (6)
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NORN ("fate" in Norse mythology") swallowing two E's ("tablets" i.e. ecstasy) |
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| 21 | DAHLIA |
Bloomer occurring more regularly, we hear (6)
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Homophone [we hear] of DAILIER ("occurring more often") If "dahlia" is the answer, I don't like this – "dailier" is a nonsense word, and to us Scots, not a homophone of DAHLIA. |
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| 23 | UNFIT |
Ineligible female included in squad (5)
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F (female) included in UNIT ("squad") |
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| 24 | BEBOP |
Sort of jazz dance covered by black European (5)
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BOP ("dance") covered by B (black) + E (European) |
Like loonapick, 1ac was FOI and everything went swimmingly for a while. However, DNF due to Snaccident which I’d never heard of and couldn’t derive from the clue. Loved Bafflegab which is new to me but one to keep in the locker. Can’t see a theme but that doesn’t mean there isnt one. Thanks to L and Puck.
I quite liked DE-CLARE. But I’d never heard of SNACCIDENT (and don’t regret the fact), I had to Google NORN, and I think being expected to be familiar with French hotel chains is a bit much.
Possibly if the rest of it hadn’t irritated me I’d have appreciated 12a and 24a; as it was, they just felt too clever by half.
Thanks to Puck for the challenge and to loonapick for the explanations
Thanks, loonapick. And slightly grudging thanks to Puck! Describing this one as a headscratcher is spot on. Lots to quibble about – eg sinning is not synonymous with being angry, surely? And for 19ac – where do you get the IN?
BAFFLEGAB and SNACCIDENT are new words for me, as is BLEB.
I couldn’t parse 24ac or 5dn at all, so thanks for clearing those up.
Ignore me – I’ve just twigged how 19ac works. Doh! It’s the “on vacation” bit that threw me.
Thanks Puck and loonapick
A new record – question marks of one sort or another against 11 clues! Most are my inability to parse them – BIPOLAR, now it’s explained, becomes a favourite, for example.
Some I’m still not happy about. As loonapick says, “dailier” is nonsense, even without the rhotic problem. Why “employed” in 17d (and everyone says “tuppence” anyway)? “Was angry” is rather loose to give SINNED in 4d.
Another favourite was 27a. “Eight miles high” is a great song by The Byrds, and is today’s earworm.
Thanks loonapick, same experience for me and I never worked out what was happening with a few of these, so appreciate your time and effort – and after a recent Jaffa cake-related SNACCIDENT can assure you that it is a common affliction. Am I allowed to simultaneously dislike IRISHWOMAN for being too convoluted and ZEROED and IBIS for not being complex enough? A few other gripes but also enjoyed learning some new terms, chuckled at GETS BY among others, and nice to see the lovely NUTHATCH, thanks Puck.
[I remember Stratocasters from my university days, when I spent most of my time skiving off to see The Who gigs. I think Pete Townsend used to play a Stratocaster for most of the act and then swap it for a (cheaper) Telecaster before smashing it into the amps for the finale. But I may be mixing things up.]
Despite the many obstacles placed by Puck I fairly whizzed through this today, discovering words I hadn’t known and at least one non-word that fit the bill. The secret to my enhanced solving ability was a shorter morning run in cooler weather (only 24C today) so I was not as drowsy for my post-lunch solving session. A reassuring experience but not one I expect to repeat often – body over mind for now.
I did have to correct a couple of early entries when the crossers objected. One was 17d, where I confidently entered TUPPENCE, as when I last used the currency 55 years ago, TWO PENCE was two words. I am curious if the modern one-word version is pronounced as too or tup.
The recorded version might be better.
1d is good too, as I discovered that a “chillum” is a type of pipe.
So “Clare” is a DBE for an IRISHWOMAN? Reminds me of one of Vic & Bob’s Shooting Stars quiz questions like “name a dog”
Happy to add BAFFLEGAB to my vocab though 🙂
It seems muffin@5 has answered my question while I was typing. Thank you.
I didn’t much like this for reasons mentioned already. I particularly object to SNACCIDENT. If we have to tolerate a non-word like this the cluing needs to be a bit less obscure. 12a irritates because afaik the “s” is unclued. I parsed 18ac with Rook and Gull as synonyms for “to trick” or “to fool” rather than per the blog. DNF as NHO BAFFLEGAB though it was fairly clued.
Thanks to Puck but especially to loonapick for the blog.
Bodycheetah @10
Clare is a county on the west coast of Ireland, so a woman living there would (probably) be an Irishwoman.
I agree with TimW on GULL.
I solved 18ac as ROOK and GULL both verbs meaning to cheat. I think those meanings are more well-established than rook as a noun meaning simpleton.
Sorry, TimW@12. Too slow once again. At least we agree.
Sorry Pan but not your best in my opinion – though I may well have missed a load of subtleties that will be highlighted by others and force a revised opinion. No problem with including some unfamiliar words – I’m assuming SNACCIDENT exists though it shouldn’t! And I share loonapick’s ignorance of BAFFLEGAB and BLEB. But I was disappointed by much of the clueing and quite a few of the surfaces today, whereas Puck is often up there with the best when it comes to whimsy and wit. TWOPENCE is barely a double definition, DAILIER is not just a nonsense word but a nonsense concept – like more unique or more virginal, I really don’t like the anagram indicator appearing in the middle of the fodder for IRISHWOMAN, I’m not convinced by the ‘by’ in IBIS, I thought the anagram for NOBLE was pretty weak. And someone raised the subject of write-ins recently and how individual solvers define them: 1ac was one for me – I think I knew the answer before I’d even looked at the enumeration.
NOREEN was best of a poor bunch today – fortunately I remembered the Norns. Good job it wasn’t NIAMDH which I can’t spell.
Nonetheless, thanks Puck and loonapick
Sorry – That should be sorry Puck of course!
Too much GK and too many DNKs make a DNF. Never met SNACCIDENT or BAFFLEGAB, or the IBIS hotel chain, or BLEB: just about remembered NORN and PENDENNIS. Not really keen on a dodgy homonym of a word that doesn’t exist, either, and had TWOPENNY (“for a trivial sum”) instead of TWOPENCE.
I did like ELEVENS and DERRING DO and ZEROED. Rook and gull are both nouns meaning simpleton, but they are also both verbs meaning to scam or deceive.
I must admit that when I see that Puck is the setter my heart sinks a little,but when I got 1 across straight away I thought it would be plain sailing,it wasn’t,a struggle all the way to the end. I’ve never been able to tune into Puck’s wavelength and today was no different.
Thanks muffin@13 I’m aware of the county but doesn’t that mean the “in” is doing double duty as it’s also part of the anagram fodder?
Bodycheetah @21
Sorry, I misunderstood. I see what you mean, now.
Same as others above. Found it hard – needed to use the aids and didn’t manage to parse quite a lot including ELEVENS which I thought was clever once explained.
Think DERRING-DO was my favourite. Lovely word.
Thanks Puck and loonapick
(The previous bloggers have covered my own feelings fairly well, but I’ll say it again in my own words).
Like yesterday – at a first glance, this seemed a challenge, but in fact having strolled quickly and casually through almost the entire puzzle was halted by BAFFLEGAB (ugh), which I barely winkled out from the anagram. Then drew to a complete halt with S?A?C?D?N? Having not solved this, but now seeing the answer (ugh, ugh), I regard this as one of my all-time non-solving achievements, and I’m quite proud of myself.
So, no thanks from me to Puck, but thanks to loonapic for having waded through to the very end …..
PS: trying desperately to be positive, I did at least enjoy IRISHWOMAN, but perhaps only because I married one.
What an odd crossword. After the obvious FOI 1ac I thought this was going to be a 15-minuter so I forwent the 2nd coffee. What a mistake. 45 minutes later and I find that I’m angrily wondering what on earth has happened to the language such that unwords SNACCIDENT and BAFFLEGAB exist. And I’m a Viz and Popbitch afficionado!
Slightly peeved at the definition for ‘BIPOLAR’ – suffering ‘ups and downs’ really doesn’t quite do it for me but I’m not going to go all puritanical about it and I share the various IRISHWOMAN quibbles. [I have a colleague ‘Niamh’ who my American co-workers regularly refer to as ‘Knee Am H.’]
And TWOPENNCE really could (should?) have been TUPPENCE if I were a setter (which I’m not).
15a – the ‘by’ only works if you pronounce the hotel chain as ‘Eye Bis’ – in most countries it is pronouced ‘Ih Bis’ (French ‘i’) much as IKEA is pronounced ‘ih kay ah.’
Altogether a big hmmm and a reminder of why two cups of coffee are required.
[Bodycheetah @10: I must go and slip a petri dish under a rabbit.]
Thanks Puck and loonapick!
[rodshaw @24: ‘I did at least enjoy IRISHWOMAN, but perhaps only because I married one’ – just for the purposes of this crossword? Wow – such dedication to duty…]
It sounds as though I had a similar experience and the same issues as everyone else, but I like Puck’s style of cluing and enjoyed the challenge, as well as learning BAFFLEGAB, BLEB and SNACCIDENT. I know a NOREEN, which helped. Hadn’t parsed the clever BIPOLAR. Thanks to Puck and loonapick.
Muffin @5. As the song goes “…and when you touch down, it’s strange and unknown.” Pretty well sums up my experience today, although I wasn’t totally baffled by BAFFLEGAB.
Well I thought it was fun, even DAHLIA, as I need to water mine dailier in this weather. I like to derive words I never heard of, like BAFFLEGAB and BLEB, from the wordplay and I appreciate Puck’s slightly different style.
KLColin@12. I don’t think TWOPENCE is necessarily a modern version, ref. Patrick Hamilton’s Twopence Coloured published in the 1920’s. Other references to “Penny Plain, Twopence Coloured” seem to use TWOPENCE/TUPPENCE interchangeably. A DNF for me since I had never come across SNACCIDENT; I sincerely wish that was still the case. Thanks both.
[MaidenBartok @26 – sorry for confusing you. I didn’t marry an IRISHWOMAN very recently just for the sake of the crossword, but in fact fifty-eight years ago – so cannot blame it on Puck!]
I’m afraid that I too didn’t much like this, for reasons given by others. Also, “just” seems to be redundant in 16d (BUMBLEBEE). SNACCIDENT defeated me – I had unparsed “coincident”, which messed up the NW corner until I revealed the correct answer. I did like ZEROED, STRATOSPHERE and MUSIC HALL. A couple of commenters were unfamiliar with IBIS hotels – it’s the largest chain in Europe, but admittedly non-existent in N America according to Wikipedia.
Thanks loonapick and Puck.
loonapick – apologies, I should read more carefully/slowly – I missed your seven deadly sins explanation for angry first time round… and me a good catholic boy, too, really should remember these things. All makes perfect sense to me now though.
TimW @12 / KLColin @15 – I assumed the same meaning for rook/gull
On the twopence/tuppence question, I’ve always been led to believe that “tuppence” is how you say it, but “twopence” is how you write it, so this one caused no problem for me. [Wiggers @30 – good reference point. I’m a big fan of Patrick Hamilton though I’ve not read that one – my wife reckons it’s far from his best.]
With regard to TWOPENCE, do you think Puck has been reading General Discussion?
I completely agree with Beaulieu@32 re the superfluous “just” in 16d. Also, although I greatly appreciate your parsing loonapick, I cannot buy the interpretation of “bleb” as a blistering spot. I have not therefore sorted the wordplay in 16d to my own satisfaction. I had taken the second b and e from the first and last letters of the phrase “blistering pace” (I know – ultimate means last not first and last) and, like you, took the final e from the last in “the.” It bothers me that I cannot do better. It does not bother me that this or any other crossword is not completely pristine (though I love it when they are). The fact that the great master is cited at 1ac reminds me that one of the best ever also took liberties. As I have said before, the day when I can set a crossword as good as this or another daily Guardian setter then I might start quibbling. For now, I remain content to admire and enjoy pitting my wits as best as I can.
[Earworm alert! Not the right spelling but homophonically ok (at least to some) – not sure the lyrics would pass present day scrutiny]
TerriBlisow @35 – “The day when I can set a crossword as good as this or another daily Guardian setter then I might start quibbling. For now, I remain content to admire and enjoy pitting my wits as best as I can.
Well said.
Timezone issues and supper duties normally make it tricky for me to post. Plus failure to finish the crossword issues too. Today I enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks Puck. My LoI was SNACCIdent but I did succeed (eventually) in constructing it from the clue components and then had an aha moment, together with a ‘what will 15^2 make of this’ moment! Thanks to loonapick for excellent blog. I didn’t know BLEB so couldn’t pass BumbleBee. I agree with comments above re. Dailier but apart from that I thought everything was pretty ok.
Some great clues here: I smiled at 1d and 5d. And for those that aren’t already well aware of it, I think the definition of BAFFLEGAB is perhaps the wittiest (well, my favourite) in Chambers:
“The professional logorrhoea of many politicians, officials and salespeople, characterized by prolix abstract circumlocution and/or a profusion of abstruse technical terminology, used as a means of persuasion, pacification or obfuscation”.
A Chambers definition that could be described as being both long in shape and long in duration 🙂
Actually I’ve decided I think DAHLiA is fine. DaIlier might not be a word but it ‘sounds like’ more daily so I think PUck is playing the crossword game fairly.
Encota @ 39 THANK YoU! Fabulous
Beaten in SE corner by entering NOBEL (whom perhaps I could be forgiven for considering to be “a great”) instead of NOBLE.
This made NOREEN even more impossible.
Some jolly clever trickery from the elf this morning but I don’t really enjoy these when so many get entered with a shrug.
Many thanks, for the excellent blog, loonapick.
Encota @39: Superb, thank you.
TerriBlislow @35
See https://www.breastfeeding.asn.au/bfinfo/white-spot-nipple
For bleb.
Loath though I am to engage in the homophoney war over accents, if something is clued as “we hear” then doesn’t that mean that you could hear it that way regardless of your own personal accent? It’s not as if everyone in Scotland has a rhotic accent – certainly not if Edinburgh’s anything to go by 🙂
I think this a thinly disguised ad for a new dictionary.
But I loved the 8 miles high clue
Thanks Puck (this blog is rather full and poor old Monk has barely a handful of posters)
[copmus @46: it is ever thus. Eccles has produced a lovely puzzle in the Indy as well and not up to double figures yet.]
Thanks for the blog – very helpful re parsing of some clues.
DNF here – gave up on the last couple of (to me) obscure refs, but I enjoyed the puzzle, always pleased to see Puck as the setter.
Lots of hrmmphing in comments. Personally I didn’t even blink at DAHLIA – read as crossword-ese for Daily-er, which I found a mildly amusing clue.
The OED has this for BAFFLEGAB from the Daily Telegraph of 23 Jan 1952 – “A new word for lovers of officialese is bafflegab, invented by Mr. Milton A. Smith, assistant general counsel for the American Chamber of Commerce. He has won a prize for the word—and its definition: ‘Multiloquence characterised by a consummate interfusion of circumlocution..and other familiar manifestations of abstruse expatiation commonly utilised for promulgations implementing procrustean determinations by governmental bodies.”
All of the citations for variations thereof are hosted under the TWOPENCE entry. The separation of the two parts is a new development post-decimalisation.
No mention of SNACCIDENT, unfortunately.
Did not parse 1ac MONKEY (never heard of it being 500 pounds), ELEVENS, DE/CLARE, BIPOLAR, BUMBLEBEE (never heard of BLEB but got the BUM + E bits).
First time I heard SNACCIDENT – quite a funny concept. Well clued.
Took me a while to pronounce DAHLIA correctly for the clue.
Ibis hotels are as “international” as Hilton or Hyatt, but I think Ibis are budget hotels.
[bodycheetah @36 Clair/Clare. Yes, I see how listening to Gilbert O’Sullivan can be a help when trying to remember Irish counties. It could also be useful if you were trying to get Down.]
Forgot about the blog [watching The Durrells, always loved Keeley Hawes since …I think it was Tipping the Velvet], and guilty of posting before reading, so apols for any betises. First three acrosses wrote themselves, after which chewier. Agree loonapick that dahlia was GoD (groan of the day), but rather than annoying, it amused, as did the nho neologisms snaccident and bafflegab. Le Bon is apposite, his theory of crowd behaviour quite suits today’s populist echochambers. Always lots to enjoy, thanks P&L.
I’ll never complain about a crossword that introduces me to new words. I knew neither BAFFLEGAB nor BLEB and I consider myself richer for making their acquaintance. Thankyou Puck.
And thankyou loonapick for the parsing. My LOI was ZEROED and I couldn’t parse it (too many Os in my version) and now it has been explained to me I realise what a beautifully neat clue it is.
Btw: I’m sure I have seen an almost identical clue leading to NUTHATCH in the very recent past. Perhaps Azed or Everyman?
I think 19a is meant as an extended definition, with the whole sentence leading to IRISHWOMAN.
I don’t think a historian of entertainment would regard Music Hall and Variety as the same.
Two thumbs down for “dailier.” I liked NU + THATCH and the headless herring, though.
Similar experience to many others in that MONKEY PUZZLE went straight in and led to the start of a fast solve, but then I ground to a temporary halt.
SNACCIDENT is given as a new word suggestion in Collins, and has apparently appeared in The Telegraph. BAFFLEGAB is given by WordWeb and ODE as N. American, although not as such in Collins and Chambers. I didn’t know/had forgotten the IBIS chain but there are a number in London and elsewhere in England, so fair enough, I guess, although adding ‘chain’ might have helped.
I liked ELEVENS and IRISHWOMAN.
Thanks Puck and loonapick.
There was so much to enjoy about this crossword that it seems a pity that so many people have negative feelings about some of the clues. I was unable to solve SNACCIDENT without putting in possible letters and pressing the check button, which is a clear DNF for me.
I thought INNER TUBE was clever, as rubber is actually grown in Benin; I liked the reference to “19’s county” for DECLARE (I see it as referring to the county that’s in the clue, rather than a county of an IRISHWOMAN); IBIS and GULL were both good, and I used to work with a NOREEN, and I remember the Norns; I even dragged BLEB from the memory banks.
I was another who confidently entered TUPPENCE; my edition of Chambers agrees that TWO PENCE is post-1971, and that TUPPENCE is colloquial, reflecting the pronunciation of the correct TWOPENCE.
Thanks to Puck, and to loonapick for the Herculean blog.
The other NUTHATCH is in a puzzle that won’t get blogged until the weekend, so we are not allowed to talk about it yet.
I can remember my parents and grandparents saying “daylia” for DAHLIA 50 years ago – although I tend to say it the same as Dahl, since that is what the H implies; but Chambers says this is the US pronunciation. An odd clue, with a homophone from a whimsical and therefore non-existent word to give an answer that has two accepted pronunciations; and that’s before we even consider rhotic accents!
I found this fun (thanks Puck!) although like many commentators I found it a strange mix of very easy and very challenging, with not much in between. Frequent use of the check button enabled me to finish the challenges, but with several unparsed, so thanks very much loonapick for help with my failures ELEVENS, SNACCIDENT, BIPOLAR, ZEROED and BUMBLEBEE.
I had two parsed differently from the blog: I defined Rook and Gull like KLColin@8 and several others. And in 3d I assumed 12 was XII so the XI was “twelve shortly”. Anyone else, or just me?
AllyGally @59. Yes, that’s how I saw ’12 shortly’ too.
loonapick, you have a typo in the blog –“gag of crisps.”
And thanks for parsing IBIS. I’ve never heard of the hotel chain and the bill part escaped me.
yesyes@3 I think I remember a recent NUTHATCH too.
DAHLIA isn’t a homophone of “dailier” to us Yanks either, loonapick. I at least pronounce it “dollier.” I had no idea what the clue was about.
Enjoyed it, though I had to use “check” a lot this morning. Thanks to Puck and loonapick.
[Valentine @61: I suspect the typo was also a SNACCIDENT! Given how many crisps our blogger is confessing to getting through, gag might be the appropriate reaction!]
Me too for “twelve shortly”, but I didn’t like it – why not just say “eleven”? Loonapick’s parsing is much better.
I quite enjoyed this it was a totally ludicrous experience, which is not totally unexpected given the setter, but I liked the general mode of anarchy. Completely failed to grok GULL, but enjoyed the corresponding IBIS and DAHLIA as well
Well done to loonapick for unpicking it all.
I am firmly in the “liked this a lot” camp today. Favourites were BAFFLEGAB (wonderful definition – my mission today is to use it in context) and DERRING-DO. Didn’t like SNACCIDENT, but though it was fairly clued. Many thanks Puck and Loonapick.
I am gobsmacked concerning the number of 15^2 contributors who claim unfamiliarity with the term BAFFLEGAB, as it’s a phenomenon I witness here dailier.
There was some clever stuff and some peculiar stuff here – mb@25 had it right. On balance, not really so much fun, I’m afraid.
I was wondering about the “just” in 16d BUMBLEBEE as were a couple of others. It works fine in the wordplay, but I feel the surface would have been better without it. So maybe a little worse than redundant.
A fair amount of headscratching for me too but also some nice ones. Can confirm the Americans pronunciation of “dahlia” ; after working that out from the crossers I stared at it a little wondering how “dollier” meant more regularly.
Agreed with some of the grumbles about twopence/tuppence where in addition the two definitions hardly seem different, and the French hotel chain; BLEB also unfamiliar to me. Also the intersection between 19ac and 20d made me slightly cross (pun intended); when a clue intersects a clue that depends on it, that’s one less crosser that one can get before solving it.
However! I thought 2d and 12ac were brilliant, and I was able to work out “snaccident” (with a bit of help from the check) and “bafflegab.” Somehow able to guess Pendennis as well, though I’d never heard of the book.
Thanks Puck and thanks loonapick for some much needed explanation!
[Postmark@17–my Irish-American wife suggested Meadhbh as a name for a girl and I eventually thought of Staidhbh as a name for a boy. Somehow we are still celebrating our anniversary today.]
Thought SNACCIDENT was fairly unobjectionable – Jack Monroe used it on Twitter just a couple of days ago without needing to explain what it meant. I might save it up and quote it the next time someone says some piece of slang from the 1950s is perfectly acceptable GK…
Agree with AllyGally @59 though that this featured a weird mix of the very easy and very hard at the same time though – possibly why so many people dislike it. A jar of sweets is a snaccident waiting to happen until you find it’s been laced with extremely sour ones as a prank…
[matt w @68: I’m assuming that’s names for children? They will both thank you, for sure, as they grow up in a world of name and voice recognition; the need to communicate one’s name endlessly to officialdom ; the need to establish identities with call centres and on web-sites etc. A friend of Welsh ancestry similarly came up with Brynmor and Ellenydd which are beautiful in themselves but don’t trip easily off the tongue or the keyboard for those with whom they engage]
[PostMark @70
I’m guessing Maeve and Steve?]
I really enjoyed this. Being able to come up with solutions that are words I’ve never heard of before is one of my favourite things about cryptics, so getting both bafflegab and snaccident was fun (I didn’t get bleb, so failed to parse bumblebee, but entered it confidently anyway. I rather like snaccident – I’m convinced I’ve never heard it in my life before, but now I know it I’m surprised it’s not more common. If you happened to coin that on the spot, everyone would know what you meant.
Thanks Puck, and loonapick for parsing a couple I missed.
Needed the blog for several explanations, most of which have been mentioned above. I actually quite liked 12a ELEVENS once I’d seen the explanation. I was confused by ZEROED as I took the OED part literally from the clue and could not see how ZER = ZIP! Of course as it stands the clue could be further expanded to ZERZEROED, or indeed to the infinite expansion ZERZER………ZEROED, where the dots represent an infinite number of ZERs. (Well it’s the kind of thing that amuses me!)
Many thanks to Puck and to Loonapick for the blog.
Doug431 @66 – Ooooh – that’s a bit close to the bone!
@56 Sheffield hatter – I agree. That was tough! It occurs to me this was a homage to Araucaria. He would have loved DE-CLARE and DAHLIA, and with words like BAFFLEGAB and SNACCIDENT, the whole puzzle delights in word play for its own sake. A huge thank you to Puck for old style Guardian enjoyment ( maybe more Bunthorne than Araucaria given the difficulties I had?)
Many thanks to loonapick for parsing a couple of my guesses
It isn’t just the lack of the R that makes DAHLIA not a homophone of “dailier” for Americans. We pronounce the first syllable of “dahlia” with the vowel with which the Mr Dahl for whom it was named pronounced his name.
I won’t complain about the Guardian using home counties pronunciation, though. I would complain about SNACCIDENT but so many others have that I won’t bother.
drofle @74 — Despite the frequent outbreaks of excessive verbiage, I enjoy coming here. I enjoy gleaning the occasional nuggets of wisdom or wit, even though they may be, as it were, hidden under a bushel.
“I thought I might be” or “I thought I was” but not “I thought I may have been”
Couto @78
I’m not sure that comparing posters here to pubic wigs is entirely appropriate….
Would like to be positive about the new SNACCIDENT, but surely it has the clunkiest surface of the year?
I think Couto meant ‘mercuns.
Valentine @61: Ibis is a brand of Accor, better known by their old name, Novotel.
I don’t believe they’ve ever been successful in North America but Accor brands are very-well known across the rest of the world.
oofyprosser @81, Clunky surfaces? Gosh, you chaps down at the Drones Club lead a sheltered life! How about this from a very recent Everyman: ” Labyrinth lieutenant, old, vanquished at first? Congratulations! (5.3)”?
Spooner’s catflap @84
I liked MAZEL TOV. Made me smile – though I did see what you meant about what on earth is a *labyrinth lieutenant*
[By the way, Tommy, one of the two heroes of The Secret Adversary (Agatha Christie, 1922) realises who the arch-villain is when he receives a message supposedly from his kidnapped future wife, signed “Twopence”. He knows that she always spells it Tuppence… It’s the sort of clue that Ms Christie apparently hoped that people would notice… I didn’t!]
[Thank you, Valentine, for the poem by Cicely Fox-Smith yesterday. One of my favourite poets and a great source of songs.]
FWIW, I went instinctively for “twopence” for 17 down, simply because “tuppence” seems more of a euphemism these days… Got to love the English language. 🙂
MarkN @88 this puzzle made me love it even more. Great fun!
Memories of the 60’s when I was working behind the bar to finance my university studies. Rounds often consisted of 5 or 6 people wanting light and bitter, stout etc. Many of the prices ended in a halfpenny. The round would sometimes change then I’d have to do a mental re-calculation. Happy days!
Blimey. I did the Times puzzle at the weekend and although it was on a par with your average Guardian puzzle, I did at least know when I’d go the answer right, and could parse every single one.
Gif@52 I can see I was on completely the wrong track with LE BON having entertained the nightmare concept of a compilation of Duran Duran’s Simon Le Bon’s experimental side-projects. Phew!
A DNF for me so in a bad mood made worse by listening to the live version of Eight Miles High waiting for the singing to start – it never did! A 9 minute drum solo and it looked as if the 2 guitarists even walked off in digust.
Ark Lark @ 89: I’m with you, and agree with your earlier comment re: thinking Araucaria would have enjoyed this. This felt very much like his pushing at the boundaries, somewhat cheekily.
David Mansell @ 79 – so heartening to know that somebody else knows the difference between “may” and “might”. Extraordinary how native speakers no longer seem to register it.
AllyGally @59: I too interpreted 12 shortly as XII “shortened” to XI.
Like several others apparently, I too finished the grid correctly but had no clues about some of the parsing – BIPOLAR was impossible for me to parse, and I’d never heard of BLEB or NORN (for that matter, is NOREEN an exclusively Irish name?).
And I’ve always pronounced DAHLIA as “DAHlia” not “DAYlia”
All in all, rather mixed feelings about the whole puzzle…
Very sorry, jellyroll @93 – see mine @9.
Never finished a crossword with so many question marks. Hmmph. When the word play is that hard I can do without surplus words – just, employed.
I thought the deal was the solutions had to be in a dictionary?
SNACCIDENT – BO***CKS (which is in the dictionary)
PostMark@17 (muffin@5: Why “employed” in 17d): “TWOPENCE is barely a double definition….” – imho “employed” refers to that “something is not worth…” is a common usage. No double definition is involved.
“…..DAILIER is not just a…” – but wadr (and again imho) it’s DAHLIA and a charade(?) (but I get these things wrong).
beaulieu@32; Dr. WhatsOn@67: ““just” seems to be redundant in 16d (BUMBLEBEE).” I feel “just” is (just) justified by the requirements of the surface, what with “blistering pace” still resulting in “bottom spot”?
rodshaw@31: Chapeau!
muffin@71: Staidhbh needs an extra “o” to be Steve: Staoidhbh.
Macmorris:82: Laughly.
Alphalpha @100: I doubt you’ll see this but I popped in this morning before looking for the Philistine blog and, it’s probably me, but I didn’t understand either of your two points responding to mine @17. “employed” refers to that “something is not worth…” is a common usage: I really don’t see what you’re trying to say and wadr (and again imho) it’s DAHLIA and a charade(?) ‘wadr’ is new to me as an abbreviation and I don’t see the charade. Sorry
Mark: I think Alphalpha was just saying that TWOPENCE is used/employed in the expression “something is not worth (insert worthless thing here)”. No idea about “wadr” though. (If “daylier” were the only way of pronouncing the flower, this would have been a reasonable clue; as it is not, the clue fails in too many ways and should have been rejected.)
doug431 @66: Bravo, hear hear.
In 20d how does a Norse Fate connect to an Irishwoman?
Also 17d I’ve always known it as ‘tuppenny’ or ‘tuppence’ as in ‘he’s nothing but a jumped up tuppenny hapenny prat!’ usually referring to some official of some kind.
Quite a few I didn’t fully parse: EXILE, BUMBLEBEE, ELEVENS and BIPOLAR (thought that was just a CD). SNACCIDENT was just a NHO – could have got it if I’d Googled it, but the Chambers app didn’t have a word that matched S*A*C*D*N*.
That’s my 2d (2c/2p) worth anyway.
tony smith @104. In 20d how does a Norse Fate connect to an Irishwoman? I’m not sure what you mean, as loonapick has explained how NOREEN is NORN with two Es inserted. Noreen is “an Irish given name, anglicised from Nóirín.” Perhaps you are referring to the surface of the clue? This seems to refer to the ‘fate’ of an Irishwoman after taking an overdose – it is for the solver to reinterpret this and realise that ‘fate’=>Fate=>Norn.
Hope this helps.
Tony Smith: Took a while for me but – Irishwoman is Noreen, then you have fate (who would know?) = NORN, and stick the E’s in that.
Jay@96 A friend of mine from Massachusetts has a sister Noreen, but her family is very Irish-American, so that doesn’t really address your question.
I’ll just add my two cents — in the US two pennies is a modest but not worthless contribution.
[Alphalpha@100: You’re right, I misspelled it! That spoils the joke a bit. Anyway, to muffin@71 and PostMark@70, Maedhbh is a real spelling though I think she was thinking of something more moderate like Medbh, but Staoidhbh is not.]
[PostMark@101, sheffieldhatter@102: Just in case anyone sees this, I think wadr is “with all due respect.”]
[Thanks Matt. That’s a phrase I really hate! It’s meant to denote a respectful attitude, but to me it comes across as “OMG, you’re such an idiot” or worse. I’m sure Alphalpha meant it respectfully, though.]
A very late one @76 Vinny D.
A long time ago the BBC’s Gardener’s Question Time had a presenter called Bill Sowerbutts – from Ashton Under Lyne, I think.
He pronounced dahlias as “dairliurrs” if memory serves.
* a panellist, not a presenter.
I’m surprised that BLEB is a new word for so many. It’s a commonly used word for a small blister or fluid filled spot – at least in my Sheffield family it is.