Guardian 28,479 / Nutmeg

88 comments on “Guardian 28,479 / Nutmeg”

1. This slipped in very smoothly and satisfyingly this morning. Thought loi DOGMATIST simply excellent. Dish of the day was OMELETTE. Took a while to work out the parsing of TOWN PLANNERS, with Tanners the obvious wrap around…

2. Eileen, I think it is a clue to Royal Ascot (horse-racing) which was last week.

3. A pleasant midweek solve, with much to enjoy along the way. Among those especially appreciated were MONOCULAR and SCRIVENERS – and stared hard for a minute at LOI (FIAT), which then caused a final little guffaw. All quite rapidly done-and-parsed to personal satisfaction.
   Thanks very much, Nutmeg.

4. akaRebornBeginner – yes, I’m sure it is: it was SCOT = fine that I was (mildly) querying.

5. Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen
   Lots of fun. Favourites MONOCULAR, EXPRESS DELIVERY, and for the misleading “superintendent” (misprint there, Eileen), DISHONEST.
   I didn’t parse DOGMATISTS – very clever.
   Despite Chambers, I’m not convinced by “when” = IF!

6. FIAT my last too. I was looking for a car beginning with T (going up)

7. yes, akaReborn @2, that’s why she underlined royal meeting as the solution!
   Great crossword, thank you Nutmeg, I loved all the clues, even the ones that foxed me to the end which were FIAT (and I even owned one!) and DISHONEST which I couldn’t parse properly so thank you too Eileen.

8. What I really love about Nutmeg is that on first glance the puzzle is a complete blank – in fact for the first 15 minutes the ONLY thing I had in was the first four-letter of 1a, PARA – and then slowly things happen.

   In fact the whole puzzle was done in under an hour. As with rods haw @3, FIAT took a while to reveal itself which reminds me that a LANCIA is a FIAT only FANCIA.

   Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen!

9. DOGMATISTS was my last one in and I stared at the bizarre clue for ages, eventually thinking, “DRAMATISTS would go in that space if it wasn’t for the G” – at which point the penny dropped with an almighty clang. As Eileen says, brilliant.

   This was a surprisingly easy start but got tougher. PARALYTIC jumped into mind early and those helpful starting letters got me off to a flyer. I was misled by thinking 6ac might be COURT which gave me TREASURER but held me up on the lovely anagram for CHINESE LANTERN. I did like TOWN PLANNERS (not that I’ve ever said that before), PRIVATE PRACTICE and, again like Eileen, the docked ship in SUSHI which must be a very difficult word to clue, given the general need to include Japanese and food in the wordplay. MONOCULAR gets COTD for the neat definition.

   I wonder if our US colleagues will struggle with SNIP. Did we establish recently that nipping out to the shops is not a phrase in use across the Atlantic? And, yes, I thought ‘if’ was a bit iffy.

   Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

10. I finished and said to myself “What a lovely puzzle!” – but you have said it so much more eloquently than me, Eileen and Ronald@1. Nutmeg in top form. I feel like a bit of a copycat, as several of my “Likes” parallel yours, Eileen, but when I look at my ticks, I obviously really liked 1a PARALYTIC, 9a PRIVATE PRACTICE, 16a SUSHI, 25a EXPRESS DELIVERY, 26a TERMS and 7,19d CHINESE LANTERN. In fact, I would have trouble telling you a clue I didn’t like. But my top favourite was definitely the delightful MONOCULAR at 18a. Even Aussies know about Horatio Nelson. But I didn’t know the CIRCLE LINE at 5a straightaway, having only spent a total of five days ever in London, so I am unfamiliar with the Tube lines (although crime novels set in the UK have helped). Thanks heaps to Eileen for the explanation of a couple I couldn’t see, and huge appreciation to Nutmeg for the fun today.

11. [Crossed against seven posts – slow typist here!]

12. I got all of this except for 13d, and even when I revealed the answer I still couldn’t parse it – so thanks Eileen.

    For 6a I took “venue for a royal meeting” as the definition, with ASCOT racecourse being the venue and “Royal Ascot” being the meeting – but maybe I’reading too much into that.

    Thanks Nutmeg & Eileen

13. muffin @5 (thanks for the correction – sorted now) and PostMark @9

    I don’t go out if / when it’s raining?

14. I suppose, Eileen, that the whole phrase “venue for a Royal meeting” should be underlined as the solution to the clue, though that is rather nitpicking on my part!

15. …posts crossed there…

16. I think 20a should specify that OME is going around E + LETT.

17. Thank you, Eileen, for unmasking DOGMATISTS which I bifd finally.

    Not overly convinced by particular for own but it went in anyway.

    I was going to claim that you can’t really substitute ‘when’ & ‘if’ but the example @13 keeps my trap shut.

    Smooth stuff from the Spice Girl this morning, many thanks.

18. Hovis @16: I thought ‘adopting’ did this adequately, no?

19. Liked ASCENDANCY, SUSHI, MONOCULAR.
    Did not parse AMEER (a + meer?), DOGMATISTS apart from rev of GO.
    New: TANNER = sixpence, SCRIVENERS.

20. Quite right, hovis @16 – careless slip, which I’ll amend now.

    William @ 17 – the word in the clue is ‘peculiar’.

21. I had ASCENDENCY (E, not A), making 15a EMEER. Either form works.

22. Beautifully crafted. Finished last night and marvelled at the smoothest of surfaces. Far too many ticks to mention but happy to have parsed everything for once.

    Ta Nutmeg & Eileen

23. At first I put COURT for 6A parsing it as a double definition. COURT = a fine venue (a place where you get fined) and COURT = a royal meeting. Only the crosser from 6D put me right though I thought SCOT was a tax not a fine.

24. Classy as always
    Thanks Nutmeg and Eileen

25. minty @12 and Ronald @14 – I agree: I’ve amended the definition for ASCOT.

26. muffin @5: when = IF came more naturally to me, mainly I think because it’s the same word in German (wenn). But it does work in English too in some contexts, as per Eileen @13, and also ‘In those days, if I went into town, I’d always take the train’.

    I put EMEER first for 15a, and was interested to discover that ameer, amir, and emeer are all variant spellings of emir, and that the plural of emir can be either emirs or umara!

    I’ll add my praise for MONOCULAR, favourite among many great clues ; thanks Nutmeg and Eileen.

27. Eileen @13 (and essexboy @26)
    Good examples.

28. Eileen @20: That’s what I meant to type! Predictive text grrrr.

29. Yes, a lovely puzzle. +1 for DOGMATISTS and MONOCULAR.

    I agreed with PostMark on the dodgy FIAT Venti­quattro and the iffiness of ‘if’, but I’m coming round a bit after the various explanations.

    SCRIVENERS is an excellent bookshop in Buxton.

    Thanks to Nutmeg & Eileen

30. William @28 – I don’t see your problem with peculiar = own: it’s one of Chambers’ first definitions. – and Collins: ‘belonging characteristically or exclusively (to)’.

31. I had a rare triple tick for DOGMATISTS and doubles for MONOCULAR and TOWN PLANNERS. I wondered initially if AMEER was a 3D but the homophoney parse works better

    [Eileeen – I think you mentioned a while ago that you solved crosswords in numerical order? I’ve been giving this approach a try for the first pass and it has dramatically improved my solving performance. So many thanks for both the blog and the tip]

32. Thanks Eileen, I now realise I never parsed TOWN PLANNERS and even now have taken a while to see OWN for peculiar in the possessive sense, although I do recall TANNERS from old Jennings books I think. Took me a while to get from lift to REAR but Python’s Sir Robin eventually popped into my brain, and I was very happy to work out OG for RA all by myself (but only after a second coffee). Even happier that AMEER turned out to be a word but happiest to see the wonderful MONOCULAR – with a shout out to HERB – thanks Nutmeg.

33. Eileen @13 and others inc Penfold @29: thanks for the examples which are fair enough. There was something about the conditionality/non-inevitability of ‘if’ that prompted the comment – but I was equally tempted by the chance to use the phrase ‘if was a bit iffy’.

    [Eileen and bodycheetah @31: I’ve always taken a first pass through a puzzle in numerical order and filled in what I can before taking a scan of the crossers and revisiting those that at first eluded me. I do fall for temptation and occasionally pop in a ‘write in’ out of order but generally follow my principle until the last numbered clue, after which it’s a free for all. (I also take the same approach with Sudoku, going through the digits from 1 to 9 before revisiting anything, even if the equivalent of write ins are thrown up by the process.)]

34. bodycheetah @31 – it’s just my boring way of doing things! It worked well with today’s grid, giving lots of initial letter.

35. Re: solving crosswords in numerical order (bodycheetah @31 and Eileen passim): I always set off to do that, but I find I can’t concentrate exclusively on one clue until I’ve solved it, because my brain just seizes up, so I always move on to the next pretty quickly. If I find I’ve solved the first two lines across, I’ll then often switch to down clues because of the (hopefully) helpful crossers. More often, though, I’ll get to the end of the across clues with only two solved and then, like today, only four down answers on the first pass through. At this point despair sets in, or would if I allowed it. Today, though, enlightenment appeared steadily and joyfully, with (as others have noted) the excellent and delightful MONOCULAR and DOGMATIST revealing themselves in quick succession. Solving FIAT was, somewhat appropriately – in that it recalled fiat lux – a lightbulb moment.

    Many thanks to Nutmeg, Eileen and other commenters here.

36. sheffield hatter @35

    I find I can’t concentrate exclusively on one clue until I’ve solved it

    I’m sure I said ‘Try to solve’!

37. Not much left to be said about another excellent puzzle from the Spice Girl.

    MONOCULAR was the standout for me (as for many of us). The clue for DOGMATISTS has a wonderful construction, let down for me just a tad by a surface which is not quite up to Nutmeg’s characteristic high polish.

    Thanks N and E

38. Gervase @37: I know what you mean about 13d. I described it as bizarre which, on reflection, is perhaps a bit strong. It did get me playing with studio, loft and garret though (and hoping I wasn’t supposed to be trying to find a particular locale associated with an artist – Cezanne’s mountain, Gauguin’s Tahiti etc) so, if it is the setter’s job to misdirect, that certainly worked.

39. 2,12,14 and 26

    Apologies for raising this, I thought Eileen might have been unaware that it was Royal Ascot last week, because I have not a clue when the Melbourne Cup is run and that race is world famous.

    I also saw “fine” as “a fine venue” , and it does not get grander than Royal Ascot where you have to wear a particular colour of waistcoat to get into certain areas. I think Eileen probably got the setter’s meaning – a noun rather than an adjective. Thanks Eileen.

40. Lovely stuff from Nutmeg and thanks to Eileen for a suave blog and particularly for parsing DOGMATISTS.

    I am led to wonder if, in the absence of 15^2, I would not have wrestled a little longer with that one and enjoyed this pearl to its fullest extent – reading the parsing here was in this case a delightful pdm denied. But then if it weren’t for the bloggers and Gaufrid I would probably not bother with crosswords too much anyway.

    On methodologies, I am an unrepentant mouse – any clue solved leads immediately to a sniff at all crossers, continuing onward until all and any subsequent crossers have been exhausted, then back to point A and repeat. Today I had to go as far as OMELETTE before anything cracked and that yielded nothing, so for a while there I thought I was done for. But Nutmeg can always be relied upon so thanks to all concerned for the entertainment (not least the contributors here).

41. For 9a, wouldn’t GENERAL PRACTICE also be a valid solution? Or do I need my brain examining by a private practitioner?

42. Londoner @41: no, you just need the crossers 😉

    But thanks for reminding me of the ‘saluting game’ – on hearing ‘general practice’, ‘major issues’ etc, anyone in on the joke is required to salute.

43. I always start with the bottom right hand segment on the entirely fallacious grounds that the setter will have run out of fiendishly cunning clues by then!

44. [sheffield hatter @35 yes I meant “try to solve” too! If I can’t get one after a few minutes I either go back to sleep or move on]

45. Lovely crossword, with lots of (similar) favs. Thanks to N and E.

46. “Getting off scot free” means avoiding punishment, which would suggest a scot is a fine. I was thinking ameer was a poor clue until I realised I’d missed dictator as a homophone indicator. Very enjoyable crossword.

47. Excellent work by Nutmeg.

    Londoner @41 – I confidently entered GENERAL PRACTICE at 9a, but the down clues soon put me right.

    A hap’orth of quibble: was Horatio Nelson monocular? His vision certainly was, after he lost (most of) the sight in his right eye in battle, and he is often quoted as saying “I have only one eye – I have a right to be blind sometimes,” but he was in possession of two eyes. Depictions of him wearing a patch are erroneous, though he did wear a green shade over both eyes, having developed photophobia after his injury. (Checking my facts, I came across this interesting article – https://www.aao.org/senior-ophthalmologists/scope/article/admiral-horatio-nelson-failing-eyesight-napoleon – which suggests that Nelson might have developed sympathetic ophthalmia, and that the consequent fear of total blindness might have led to greater risk-taking, since he felt his naval career would soon be over, one way or another.)

48. Many thanks for that, Miche @47 – very interesting.

49. Great puzzle, really wonderful.

    I do the clues in numerical order too (well strictly, first the acrosses, then the downs) and would recommend it for the following reason. When you’ve made that first pass you can see how many clues you’ve got “all on their own”, and it gives you some measure of how difficult the puzzle is that day, at least by the clues’ intrinsic contents. The ones you’ve done are all effectively FOIs.

50. Forgot about tanners. I did know it from books, but one of my great disappointments in life is that by the time I got to the UK, shillings and pence had disappeared and all was decimal.

    I’m bothered that the definition for MONOCULAR seems to be “Like Nelson’s.” How do we get rid of the S?

    Silly me, I got stuck on the fact that a LETT is a North European.

    Having put DISTORTED in 14d for “bent,” and 25a beginning with T I thought maybe there was some gag like a singing telegram that was a “topless delivery.” When Check knocked out the D at the end of “distorted” I began to work it out.

    [“Bartleby the Scrivener” is a short story by Herman Melville, from the time when “scrivener” was a job description, about an odd duck in an office that nobody can get rid of, even though the only thing he ever says when somebody asks him to do something is ,”I prefer not to.”]

    Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen for a delightful session.

51. Valentine @50 – I read the apostrophe S as a contraction of “is”: [definition] is [wordplay].

52. What I like about Nutmeg puzzles is that they are a great solving experience. So often what seems at first impenetrable reveals itself in the end.
    I am increasingly trying to solve the clues in order, prompted in part by the Independent on my phone, which encourages you to do so, but I am often tempted off course by enticing crossers.

53. Generally I find Nutmeg’s crosswords on the difficult end of the spectrum but this went in rather smoothly with a few exceptions due to my lack of British knowledge. ASCOT, SNIP, MONOCULAR, and TOWN PLANNERS all required look-up’s for me . As always her surfaces are top drawer; favourites included PARALYTIC, SUSHI, EXPRESS DELIVERY, and DISHONEST. Thanks to both.

54. Valentine @50 – I’m with Miche @51. Surely we see this device frequently? (I didn’t underline the ‘s in the blog.)

55. Late to the party, but I thought I would add my appreciation for another super crossword from Nutmeg.

    I particularly liked SUSHI, MONOCULAR, RAILWAY SLEEPER, CIRCLE LINE, TREASURER and DOGMATISTS, and the others weren’t too bad either. I thought there must be more to the ASCOT clue, so thanks to Eileen for the explanation and the rest of the blog.

    Thanks Nutmeg for the entertainment.

56. If terms are the same as conditions then why do we sign to accept terms AND conditions?

57. Chardonneret @56: I think it’s a belt and braces approach to cover off all the bits and pieces and the odds and sods.

58. I was thinking along the same lines as PostMark @57 – cf let or hindrance, null and void. I thought there was a word for such terms (sorry – unintentional) but while I was searching (unsuccessfully) for it, I found this.

59. As ever, close but no cigar, but hugely enjoyable.
    Missed on 13d, 18a, 6d and 15a. No amount of headscratching wax going to sort that.
    Was a bit confused as to how IF =WHEN in 24d.
    Looking forward to checking some parsings.
    Thanks both.

60. [Eileen @58: it’s all stuff and nonsense really 😉 ]

    HoofIt @59: you might glance at Eileen @13 and essexboy @26. (And, btw, lovely typo (I think). You had me wondering what on earth headscratching wax might be

61. Eileen @58: perhaps you were thinking of ‘legal doublets’? There’s a list here, which, pace your interesting link, includes ‘terms and conditions’!

62. A sheer delight from FOI 1d PIPIT to LOI 22d PAYEE, and therefore satisfyingly almost numerical as some have mentioned.

    Just beautifully constructed and clued with plenty of smiles along the way.

    So big thanks to Nutmeg for the fun and also to Eileen for the blog and the numerous responses to comments.

63. PostMark @60, yes I read the Eileen and Essexboy’s comments and agree, just about! I would blame auto correct for the typo, but really my typing competence was to blame.

64. [Hoofit, PM and essexboy Head & Shoulders may not be a legal doublet, but it could alleviate the need for headscratching wax. ]

65. Tough. Took me forever.

66. Thanks both,
    I eventually got through, but not without effort. Although I try to have a first pass of across clues then down clues, I am easily led astray by tempting crossers such as an ‘m’ or a ‘v’. The advantage of the systematic approach is that you quickly get the easy clues to help with the more difficult ones. For example, today I didn’t do a systematic trawl through the clues and consequently did not look at the easy 23d until after some useless headscratching over 27ac. Once 23d was solved, 27ac was obvious.

67. [On solving process, I always attempt any clues that would give me more than one first letters – generally along the top or down the LHS (depending on the grid, of course). I then go through the (remaining?) clues in order. Today, for example, FOI was PIPIT, followed by PARALYTIC.]

68. Ianw @65: no it didn’t. You’d finished by half four. Would be the pedant’s response. But your comment did bring to mind the wonderful quote by Stephen Hawking (admittedly on eternity rather than forever but I think it translates): Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.

69. Mark @68. Yes, I’ve had solving experiences like that.

70. [PostMark @68 and SH @69
    Isaac Asimov’s The end of eternity was the first SF book I read, aged about 12. I’ve read quite a lot more since!]

71. Very very late to party. Just to say: brilliant puzzle – loved every minute, especially PARALYTIC, MONOCULAR and DOGMATISTS. Many thanks to N & E.

72. Enjoyed that. Needed the blog to understand 13d DOGMATISTS, otherwise I would have still been looking at it trying to make sense of it! Many thanks to Nutmeg and to Eileen for the usual terrific blog.

    [Oh and re Terms & Conditions – Chardonnay @ 56, PostMark @ 57 Eileen @58 – I don’t think it is pure repetition as the ‘Terms’ will also generally include definitions use in the T&C]

73. [hatter @69: I’ve had dining experiences like that…]

74. Which historical or contemporary figure would best be described as a PARALYTIC, MONOCULAR DOGMATIST? Answers on a postcard to the usual address

75. [BC @74
    If you inlcude mythical, how about Wotan?]

76. bodycheetah @74: in researching paralytic monocular dogmatists, I just discovered that pirates often wore a patch over one eye in order to enable them to fight in the dark if needed, rather than because they had lost an eye. Not sure whether that qualifies as monocular.

77. drofle @ 76, pirates were clearly very clever, in the dark the pupil opens almost instantly but this only makes a small contribution to improving night vision. Far more important is the retina becoming far more sensitive to photons but this takes about twenty minutes usually. Using a patch would keep one eye in a permanent photo-sensitive state , ready to fight in the dark with maximum night vision.

78. Roz @77 – I’m amazed I never learned this before about pirates. I wonder what other profound misconceptions I’m carrying through life?!

79. Miche@51 and Eileen@54 I suppose you could read the clue as” ‘Like Nelson’ is ‘tooth with lack of metal filling.’ ” I didn’t think of bringing in “is” in that configuration.

    Eileen@56 I’ll add “rules and regulations,” which used to make my father fulminate every time he thought of it. Thanks for the article –which, having described the distinction between terms and conditions, ends with “in any transaction terms are mutually agreed conditions that need to be fulfilled for a transaction to be complete..” So terms are conditions?

80. Miche@51 and Eileen@54 I suppose you could read the clue as” ‘Like Nelson’ is ‘tooth with lack of metal filling.’ ” I didn’t think of bringing in “is” in that configuration.

    Eileen@56 I’ll add “rules and regulations,” which used to make my father fulminate every time he thought of it. Thanks for the article –which, having described the distinction between terms and conditions, ends (or perhaps penultimates, if that’s a verb) with “in any transaction terms are mutually agreed conditions that need to be fulfilled for a transaction to be complete..” So terms are conditions?

81. Oops, sent comment twice. Read the second, it has one more phrase in it.

82. [If there are long words/phrases I always try to solve those first – but rarely succeed.]

83. drofle@78 I did not know it was a trick used by pirates. It is used by amateur astronomers, full shade not a patch for 20 minutes, same principle.

84. LOIs AMEER and DOGMATISTS went in solely from the definitions. Thanks for the parsing.

85. Although I’m a day behind and so very late to the party, I thought the setter was on sparkling form here: a thoroughly enjoyable solve. Cotd was surely that for MONOCULAR, with DOGMATISTS a very close second. Thanks to Nutmeg and Eileen.

86. As with GENERAL/PRIVATE PRACTICE, where you’re relying on the crossers, I felt that FORMS was a perfectly cromulent answer for 26ac and that threw me off 14d for a long time…

87. What a fun puzzle, blog and comments. Thanks all.

    [ I use muffins methodology – one across and the one beside it, followed by one down and the one below it, then in numerical order. On a day when I want to disrupt routine, I use Alphalpha’s mouse method. ]

    Eileen, essexboy et al, re legal doublets: There are also illegal doublets – e.g., crimes and misdemeanours.

88. Crosbie @86. Just in case you pop back, I was toying with FORMS but was never quite convinced, especially with an F required at the end of 14d. Thanks for cromulent; now to fit it into a sentence…

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