Guardian 28,845 / Philistine

109 comments on “Guardian 28,845 / Philistine”

1. Fairly zipped through the puzzle today – most unusual especially for a Thursday. Favourites were READILY (my LOI), CASTRATED (unusual to have a homophone for a definition in my limited experience), and GLANCE (I love a bit of cockney rhyming slang to remind me of home). Not sure about dividing SOB S TORY in that way, but it fits the parsing. Interested to hear others’ views but it brought out the OCD in me. Thanks Philistine and Eileen.

2. Worth it for SOB STORY alone!

3. Forgot to see that MIRADOR was new to me, same as Eileen.

4. Great treat for a Thursday morning….SOB STORY favourite among many other brilliant clues.
   Dash to clue INSTRUMENT PANEL also inspired, apparently the dash was a wooden board on horse drawn vehicles to keep mud from splashing up…..new fact for today!

5. Surely spayed is an exclusively female procedure and castrated exclusively male? Therefore is one an acceptable definition for the other?

6. At any mention of Mrs Malaprop ginf snr used to say The higgorance of the masses is a paling. Dnk where he got that. So, yes nice puzzle. Dnk mirador, which wiki says is a turret rather than a whole tower, but whatev. I said echolalia aloud and my housemate, an autism specialist, said Yes? When I told her how the bits went together she said Omg, a brainscramble! But fun, and we love it don’t we. Thanks PnE.

7. Can somebody please explain 6 down?

8. MikeB @5 – that was my first thought, too, but Collins has, for ‘castrate’: ‘to remove the ovaries of; spay’, so I didn’t mention it.

9. Thank you, Eileen, excellent blog. You may wish to correct PrIti Patel for SOBS TORY.

   Loved this, so satisfying to derive unknown words from the clues and then look them up to find they exist!

10. I wondered about CASTRATED and whether it’s OK to have what seems to be 2 wordplays without an explicit definition. Also is there a noun MALAPROP being a person who engages in malapropisms similar to a dogberry?
    Those minor quibbles aside, this was enjoyable with some nice touches, particularly INSTRUMENT PANEL for the definition ‘dash’ and GLANCE for ‘butchers’.

11. Crispy @7: Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing often uses words which he thinks makes him sound important and learned but are actually wrong Mrs Malaprop did similarly.

12. Very clever, though some would say a bit too clever at some points – the “‘s” is doing a lot of work in 10 across, and not everyone is going to be happy with a homophone (which I think it is, Eileen…) as a definition of CASTRATED.
    Absolutely everything is forgiven for SOB STORY, though. (There is a cheery piece in today’s Indy suggesting that before too long we shall be yearning for the return of “the awful boss” after she is succeeded by Braverman).
    Thanks to Philistine and to Eileen.

13. Crispy @7 – have you followed the links in the blog? Mrs Malaprop and Dogberry were both noted for using the wrong words, hence ‘malapropism’ and ‘dogberryism’.

14. Thanks William and Eileen. Bit obscure imo.

15. It’s also HOLA in Catalan – I’m sure Philistine knew that 😉

    Re 14a – double wordplay, no def – OK by me, as I think the essence of the cryptic-solving experience is the coming together of two (or more) mutually confirmatory elements.

    Eileen, a couple of typos – homophone not anag in 14ac, and instrument rather than instrumental.

    Thanks Peony (we hear?)

16. Thanks, NeilH @12 – corrected now.

17. Sorry Eileen – you already spotted that 😉

18. I enjoyed this, and didn’t get stuck anywhere, apart from being unable to parse ECHOLALIA as I’d forgotten that EC somehow is a city. BLUE MOON was probably my favourite. I’m not a fan of splitting words over two locations, but putting a 3,5 clue into 4,4 (SOB STORY) is a bit of a stretch, methinks. Mention of malapropisms reminds me a recent Australian prime minister who told us he couldn’t be expected to be a suppository of all wisdom.

19. And essexboy, re 16ac.

20. Summed up perfectly by Eileen with all the same favourites plus PERMISSIVE SOCIETY and the Shakespearean BLUE MOON. Joyful jaunt throughout.

    Ta Philistine & Eileen.

21. INSTRUMENT PANEL (no AL, Eileen) was one of a number of very clever clues. It took me ages to see GLANCE, because I failed to pay attention to the apostrophe s.

22. What a treat! Particularly liked SACROSANCT and SOB STORY.

    Great fun – thanks Philistine and Eileen

23. Lovely challenge. Enough straightforward clues to get a foothold and then some more challenging ones to work the brain and a few new words to keep me on my toes. Thanks Philistine and Eileen. (Surely P wasn’t suggesting PP is an SOB!)

24. Your parsing of DELIBERATE makes a lot more sense than my tortuous one Eileen! It was something like this: definition “reflect”, wordplay RATE (rebuke) on DELI BE (purpose of shop, ie to be a deli…)

    Nice puzzle. Many thanks Philistine and Eileen. [Glad you enjoyed All’s Well – we’re going to see it in Stratford in a couple of weeks, and a friend’s nephew is playing Bertram.]

25. Thanks Eileen and very impressed with your stamina! I guessed 6d from crossers not knowing anything about Dogberry and didn’t see the M1 in 23A (my online dictionary has the whole as “… any architectural feature affording a view” which might suggest a ? for dbe is needed).
    I raised an eyebrow at bank/rely without “on” especially after recent quibbles on eff(ing), petering (out) and the Spaniard, but at least there is a direct swap equivalence with the “on” assumed (and maybe without it?).
    I think Bluth or Fed has used a homophone def before so I was more concerned with the male/female difference but if the dictionary say there isn’t one then fair enough.
    And while the grid split of 22/8d was unusual the wordplay does separate (4,4) so I am happy especially given the brilliant surface! That certainly wasn’t the only star, thanks Philistine.

26. Re 7d: although ‘geist’ is a German (and hence Bavarian) word for ‘spirit’ there is also a Bavarian drink from the Penninger distillery in Bavaria called ‘Waidla Geist’ – I wonder whether Philistine had this in mind.

    Thanks Philistine and Eileen

27. I read MALAPROP as a surname rather than a noun, if that is what you mean Tim C @10.

    SOB STORY clever and cheeky and I like JerryG’s possible additional inference. I didn’t know ECHOLALIA , and a lovely word it is, though the parsing made it gettable.

    Thanks to Philistine for a good romp and to Eileen for the blog.

28. Meant to say great puzzle – fun and clever

29. Salad @27, it is a surname for Mrs, but not for Dogberry, so is Dogberry a malaprop? Is someone who comes out with a malapropism a malaprop, in the same way that a dogberry is a pompous, muddle-headed person who comes out with malapropisms?

30. Loved it. I was not sure Spayed=CASTRATED (although I could see it was the right answer), so thank you Eileen for the justification @14.

    I liked the interesting split of SOB STORY. OK I think, because both Sobs and Tory are real words. But I am a pen & paper solver. I can see this might be trickier online. (Although looking back, I see I didn’t have to write it out to get it.)

    Definitely not complaining, but 6 down requires both a fairly solid knowledge of Shakespeare, and at least a passing acquaintance with 18th century literature. That is absolutely OK by me, as long as those who have it don’t then complain about clues that need an awareness of commonly played/televised sports.

31. This was a little beauty – and I thoroughly agree with Shirl at 2!
    I’m another who hadn’t encountered MIRADOR before, although I do recall once staying at a hotel called The Mirador…
    EXUBERANT and MALAPROP also made me grin.
    I couldn’t completely parse 14A and 20D (I really must try to memorise the Greek alphabet) so thanks to Eileen for the clarifications, and huge thanks to Philistine for the fun

32. Another good one from Philistine.

    I liked SACROSANCT for the ‘holy order’, INSTRUMENT PANEL for the dash, and SOB STORY, which fairly describes Priti useless. I did have small quibbles about using a homophone for a definition. MIRADOR (at least in Mallorca) can mean any viewpoint, rather than a tower.

    I did check castrate, and, notwithstanding Collins, both Chambers and the ODE give it as removal of testicles, which I think is the most usual meaning (because spay is the female equivalent). I don’t think most people would say that they are going to get their female cat castrated.

    Thanks Philistine and Eileen.

33. The Chambers app #1 def for CASTRATE is “deprive of the power of generation” which would seem to be gender-neutral?

    My grimace at the 3/5 – 4/4 for SOB STORY was instantly replaced with guffaws – COTW for me

    Superb crossword – many thanks P&E

34. [Excellent example, GDU @18, and he a Rodes Collar too!]

35. Tim C @29 the clue has a question mark so perhaps Philistine indicating exactly the same question you raise. I don’t mind some references being oblique but each to their owl.

36. Yes, Salad @35, which is why it was a minor quibble for me.

37. Moth @30. Good point re the sports clues / lowbrow references we frequently get.

38. Always such fun! Something light and uplifting about solving a Philistine.
    Same favourites as Eileen though I’d add BLUE MOON – super! ECHOLALIA puts me in mind of Adrian Chiles mind of Adrian Chiles Adrian Chiles. (Also, those people who can’t help repeating every word one says, even as one’s speaking! I’d love to be a fly on the wall when two such folk are having a conversation!! ? )

    Many thanks Philistine and Eileen – two great scarecrows! (11,2,5,5)

39. Wonderful puzzle. As others have pointed out, the word split in SOB STORY made things a bit odd. But a fantastic clue. Many thanks to P & E.

40. I did wonder if the inhabitants of Barcelona also say “Hola” when they are not saying “bon dia”, so thanks essexboy@15 for clearing that up!

    And thanks to Philistine for a fun puzzle with some new learning for me (MIRADOR stands out, to coin a phrase…) and to Eileen for the usual excellent blog

41. Thanks to Philistine and to Eileen for the blog. I did this at a single sitting. 9, 10 & 11 were write-ins after 75 years of cryptic experience- could have been used if one were teaching a youngster how cryptics work. I did think ECHOLALIA was the kind of cobbled-together clue that could be better. perhaps excusable for an out-of-the-run word. Good fun and with some really elegant twists.

42. I love a good Philistine and this was one! Not a pushover by any means, but I savoured each little breakthrough moment. Too many favourites to mention; many already mentioned. Thanks in abundance to both Philistine and Eileen for the entertainment.

43. Salad@35 Each to their owl!? ?

44. Laughing face!

45. [My parents used to love staying in some holiday units at the Gold Coast – it was very unpretentious and not a tower by any means, but was called El MIRADOR, so 23a was a nostalgic solution for me.]

46. @18 Geoff

    EC1 to EC4 are the post codes for the City of London. Not sure why this should be considered the sort of general knowledge needed for a cryptic crossword. I would love to see the (Mancester) Guardian put a few north-western post codes in the puzzle to fox the Londoners like me

47. SOB STORY (correctly enumerated as (3,5) and not (4,4)) was one of my two favourites, and I think it is fair because the two entries are both real words (corresponding to the wordplay, as it happens).

    My other favourite was ECHOLALIA.

    Excellent puzzle and blog. Thanks Philistine and Eileen.

48. AuntRuth @43 – yeah, typo that annoyingly doesn’t even work as a malapropism. Would have been fortuitous if it had but nah, just slapdash guff.

49. I just have to add another vote for SOB STORY – sheer brilliance. The rest wasn’t bad either. Thanks, Philistine and Eileen.

50. 15d is perhaps a TRIPLE definition? Reflect, on purpose, shop rebuke = deliberate,

51. [Salad@48: Don’t be too hard on yourself, I think you have coined a fine new phrase, surely everyone has a favourite owl? Mine’s the Morepork (if you discount owlets).]

52. (Had me ‘owling with laughter Salad)

53. Never heard of a Morepork Gazzh and am off to check Discworld connections, which there surely are. Thank you for the chronic pun JerryG – glad to be of amusement even if unintentionally!

54. I knew MIRADOR only through the title of a wonderful book about the doomed Franco/Russian novelist Irene Nemirovsky,, by her daughter.

55. I knew MIRADOR as a view point from trips to Mallorca and Gran Canaria, so guessed it might be a tower too.

    Thanks Eileen and Picaroon, a good steady solve

56. SOB STORY. Quite aside from the inevitable glee about a kick for Priti Patel (I don’t actually care about that) I’m really surprised that there has been no outcry about the splitting of the clue. 3,5 in the clue. Fine. But then you go to the grid and it’s 4,4. Never seen that before and I don’t like it. Please explain if I’m missing something.

57. trishincharente @56

    I’ve never seen this before either, but as you may have seen (@47) I came out in support of this ‘trick’ with the splitting of the answer. The setter is in a sense testing the rules (and the editor’s judgement), but the main reason I was happy with it is that the two entries are both real words, and the clue clearly leads to the answer (3,5).

58. Thanks Philistine for top notch enjoyment. Favourites included INSTRUMENT PANEL, BEING A GOOD HOST, BLUE MOON, SACROSANCT, and URCHIN. MALAPROP was beyond my orbit and I missed AGEIST. Thanks Eileen for parsing; if you still have the energy there’s Rodriguez in the Indy today.

59. tinc/Alan B @56/57 – interesting points. You could see it as linked to the ‘no definition’ issue in 14ac. In fact there’s no definition for 14ac, 22dn, or 8dn – it’s all in the wordplay.

    [Salad et owl: All howl to the owl, as the Pub Landlord might put it. (You can call him Owl.)]

60. Alan B @ 57 Yes, I read you @47 but I’m still not convinced. Sorry. Split clues are always two real words but I don’t like the split in the clue not agreeing with the grid. But hey, I can’t get too wound up about it. It’s only a crossword. But I was surprised that others didn’t object.

61. eb@59
    Definition spade we hear rather than spayed. Yes, I take your point, but that still doesn’t alter the fact that the grid doesn’t equate to the clue enumeration.

62. Thanks both. I knew the name MALAPROP from way back in school days, but not Dogberry, and it only just about works for me having needed and read the further explanations here, but all is fair in the world of crosswords provided you add a question mark, right? I was fearful of researching castration but solved from either vague knowledge or ignorance

63. Am I missing something with 6d? ‘Mrs Dogberry’ defines Malaprop simply because she’s a woman similar to Dogberry? If so, that’s a bit of an unsatisfying element in a puzzle I otherwise enjoyed.

64. Not as enjoyable as yesterday’s Picaroon, and a dnf for me, which always makes me a little grumpy.
    I’ve never come across Dogberry as an alternative to Malaprop – I may have seen Much Ado… once on the telly, but have never studied it, so I had no chance with 6d. Though it does seem very clever in retrospect.

    MIRADOR popped into my head from somewhere, but I couldn’t unscramble the wordplay, which still seems a little tortuous (or do I mean torturous?). And I drew a complete blank with READILY, probably from thinking that it was more complicated than it actually was. I did enjoy SOB STORY, especially anticipating the inevitable complaints about the split lights; likewise the homophone as definition for CASTRATED, which was also pleasingly inventive.

    Thanks Philistine and Eileen.

65. George @63. I think I see what you mean about “an unsatisfying element”. I tried to justify it in terms of them both being pompous people who don’t realise how ridiculous they are, and therefore deserve to be married to each other, for our further entertainment, presumably. But also there’s this assumption, which I find grating, that it’s normal and inevitable that the wife takes her husband’s surname, so that it would seem unlikely that the clue Mr Malaprop could ever lead to DOGBERRY as a solution. Perhaps I’m being ungenerous.

66. The character in ‘The Rivals’ was Mrs Malaprop.

67. Tough one for me today, possible wavelength fail, but I got there in the end with a bit of bung-and-check. I learnt a couple of new words (ECHOLALIA and MIRADOR). Without quite saying it was a slog, I will say that some days doing a crossword puzzle feels like necessary practice for a much-loved hobby than a sheer joy every time. Hope that doesn’t sound too derogatory!

    I join those raising an eyebrow at the (3, 5) numeration in a split clue with (4,4) squares. I get that both SOBS TORY and SOB STORY can be read as 8-letter phrases, but only the former actually fits in two 4-letter spaces, and only the latter is a regular English phrase (SOBS TORY reads like a fragment of wordplay, not a solution). If you look at 22d in isolation, the enumeration split (visibly marked in print and on the site, not the G app, oddly) reads as SOB [space] S… but S is not a letter that works standalone. The whole clue might be (3,5) but 22d becomes (3,1) because in reality the whole thing needs to fit a total space of (4,4). It’s like the setter is trying to have it both ways…

    I know this sounds pedantic (and I think I’m generally quite receptive to ‘imaginative’ clueing) but it feels like a logical flaw that a crossword editor should have picked up.

    Anyway, thanks both – one for scrambling my brains and the other for unscrambling them!

68. Loved this, as always with a Philistine puzzle, though last one in was AGEIST, and I had to come on here to have Eileen explain to me what a Geist might be – a new one for me. MIRADOR was also new to me as well as Eileen, though it had to be that from the clueing. MATINEE and SACROSANT both cleverly and smoothly disguised…

69. Eileen @66. I know. Sorry if I wasn’t clear. What I was trying to point out is that ‘Mrs Dogberry’ is expected to be read as a clue for MALAPROP, whereas ‘Mr Malaprop’ (using the female character’s name and supposing that someone similar would take her surname upon marriage) would be thought wrong/obscure/inappropriate as a clue for DOGBERRY.

70. Rob T @67. I don’t object to pedantry (my middle name begins with a P) but I find your argument rather twisted. The clue is listed as 22,8; is enumerated (3,5); and the definition leads to SOB STORY. If this were an eight letter light (such 2 or 18 in this grid) no one would have even blinked. But because it is a split light (22d and 8) of twice four letters, there is a convention that each of these should be a real word – which they are! And – although this is not strictly necessary – the wordplay leads separately to each four-letter word. I really can’t see what the problem is.

71. The objection is that the answer requires (3,5) not (4,4). Thus one cannot enter the answer correctly.

    Apart from that, I always enjoy a Philistine puzzle. Not necessarily always a hot Ximenean, but and entertaining compiler with good ideas.

72. Apropos of 7d: For those looking for additional ways to exercise their minds (and their reflexes) I recommend Geistes Blitz from which I knew that Geist was a German ghost.

73. Thanks Philistine and Eileen

    fwiw, my two penn’orth re SOB STORY / SOBS TORY

    – Philistine is known for having an original / quirky approach to his clueing

    – he and others often cue single-word solutions across split lights

    – there is generally little objection to lift-and-separate elements in clues. By extension, why shouldn’t there be lift-and-separate solutions?

74. sheffield hatter @69
    Oh dear, sorry, I can’t think of anything further to say about that – and I thought it was such a clever clue! (and 22,8, too – but at least we seem to be more on the same wavelength about that one. 😉 )

75. I disliked 22,8 not because of the 4,4 v 3,5 split discussion, but because of the negative insinuation towards a living person. The crossword editor of 2d would not have allowed this clue.

76. We crossed, Simon S – many thanks (as ever) for that two penn’orth. 😉

77. Eileen – sorry for raining on your parade! I did say @64 that I might be a little grumpy!

78. My Chambers app says that “Dogberry” is a word meaning a person like the Shakespeare character, so we are only asked to find a Mrs who is also a Dogberry, so I can’t really see a problem.

79. Many thanks, Petert @78 – you’ve expressed it so much better than I did @66. 😉

80. Yes, nice one Petert @78. So the equivalent reverse clue for DOGBERRY would be ‘Constable Malaprop?’

81. For 6d, I read it as a double definition and &lit. Mrs = Malaprop and Malaprop (Sheridan) is the equivalent of Dogberry (Shakespeare). The whole is a malapropism since Dogberry is actually a man.
    For 22/8, I don’t have any objections. Splitting words across 2 lights as long as they’re both words is well established. The only difference here is that the answer happens to be 2 words and not a single 8-letter word.
    For 15, I have to wonder whether it’s actually a single definition reflect on purpose of, since on purpose is an adverb and deliberate an adjective. Not sure, tbh.
    Great fun. I loved how SACROSANCT was constructed and hidden. ECHOLALIA and MIRADOR were both new to me. I toyed with ECHOLALLI for the former before cracking 5d.
    Thanks, Phil and Ei.

82. sheffield hatter @70 – oh I completely see and understand the explanation you gave (thank you), I felt strongly enough about it to come down on one side of the argument 🙂

    To be fair, other commenters have expressed peeves on aspects of other puzzles that I thought were perfectly acceptable, so I guess maybe we all carry round some internal (subjective) conventions about the limits of acceptability… I’ve seen the split solution thing done before and thought it worked fine, this one just crossed an arbitrary and imaginary line in my head; maybe the end result of this debate is that I quietly erase that arbitrary line…

    And it was a good clue, very clever. I didn’t think it was bad, unfair or obtuse – just slightly illogical *Spock fingers gesture* 🙂

83. Sh@80 Almost but, because we say “She’s a bit of a Mrs Malaprop” rather than”he’s a Malaprop”, it doesn’t quite work.

84. [Rob T @82. Thank you for your level-headed and good humoured response. I feel rather like I had been using a sledgehammer and a crowbar to break into a locked house, only to find that the door was on the latch. 🙂 ]

85. My, Philistine has set a cat among the pigeons. I am happy with the Petert explanation @78 seeing as we are looking for a ‘Mrs’ MALAPROP and not ‘a’ MALAPROP.

    You can fight over SOB STORY on your own but I liked the wrong-footing of it.

86. @84 🙂

87. s h @84 – I loved the imagery!

    Dare I say that we seem to have reached a reasonably amicable resolution (agreeing to differ) of 6dn and 22,8?

    Most people seem to have enjoyed the puzzle, anyway, as is usual with a Philistine, I think.
    Thanks for all the comments.

88. trishincharente @60

    Thank you for your further comment. I had it in mind to say also that some setters would clue a word like LAVATORY as one word, split (4,4), leaving real words in the two 4-letter entries, but Simon S @73 has made that point. I find that OK (as you would imagine), but I know sone solvers do not.

89. I own a house in Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur (Mex) on a promontory overlooking the bay and Pacific Ocean. The view is sensational and the house is named El Mirador, local Mexican Spanish for The Lookout.

90. Not a fan of PP (22.8) and own up to being wrong-footed

91. Re SOBS TORY

    I have seen, say, a 8-letter word (not 3,5 just 8) requiring to be entered in two 4 lights, the only requirement being the 4-letter entries are words in themselves. 22/8 meets that requirement.

    Thanks Eileen and Philistine.

92. Jay @75. This could be considered not insinuation but a reference to recent news. As such, the clue may not age well, but 2d is often too respectful of authority for my taste.

93. 2d aka The Times does not allow the use of names of living persons in its puzzles apart from The Queen. That would not account for being ‘too respectful of authority’ in my book, as it’s simply a rule long applied in that organ, and as regular Times solvers will attest, both HM and persons who have hopped the twig can come in for a bit of a caning from time to time. So there.

    There is a special list, of course, of those who have made into the puzzle whilst still living, where the assumption of their demise was incorrectly made by the compilers concerned.

    Nice one by the surgeon, though I concur with (3,5) not fitting very well into a (4,4). The practice of splitting words across lights like that began because it was part of a clever cluing idea, y’see, but now it gets a bit of abuse here and there.

94. Houston Tony @92 – from your pseudonym, I guess you might not be aware that, as I believe, 2d has a strict rule banning any reference in crosswords to living people. The Guardian, mercifully, has no such constriction, which means we’ve been able to enjoy brilliant clues such as 22,8 – and many others – especially in the the last couple of years.

95. Darn it, paul b – we crossed!

96. Times puzzles sound no fun at all, glad I do the Guardian’s:-)

97. Throughout Latin America, you will see signs along the road for MIRADOR, always a scenic viewpoint. What we in the US call a lookout point.

    My university had a poetry magazine called ZEITGEIST, which is where I first ran into the term.

    Although I had forgotten Patel and had to look her up, I loved SOB STORY, especially with the clever way it was broken up. Also BLUE MOrON

98. Calgal@97

    I agree BLUE MOON was clever. But I wonder if I was the only solver who was suckered into taking the wordplay ‘sad ignoramus to dump Romeo’ to mean ‘anagram of (IGNORAMUS minus R)’ at first. Probably! (I even thought this was a deliberate red herring.)

99. Alan B – I went down that cul de sac. Even wrote down the letters for the anagram! The crossing E from MATINEE was a wake up call!

100. AlanB@98. We share the same rabbit hole. I only saw the light (!!) when the crossers from 9a and 11a convinced me that the anagrist could not work.
     Great puzzle and blog. Thanks both.

101. Calgal @97. I look forward to the day when we Brits can say that we have forgotten Priti Patel!

     BTW, I’m glad you agree that the way the answer is split up is clever – after Eileen’s “agreeing to differ” @87, I had resolved not to reply to paul b @93’s slightly provocative “…part of a clever cluing idea, y’see, but now it gets a bit of abuse…” but have decided instead to concur with you. The more I look at this clue and the splitting of the split light, the more impressively innovative it seems.

     Perhaps I need to go and lie down.

102. Not a fan of split clues but I suppose it’s OK if they leave two complete words, however, 22d becomes SOB S. if the space want there it would work.

     Echolalia and Mirador are lovely words.

103. * I should have said ‘split solutions’

104. Oh good grief. 22d *is* SOBS; 8d *is* TORY. Together they make up 22,8 SOB STORY. There is no space between the two parts of the light. They are just in different and non-contiguous parts of the grid. I often berate myself for a lack of flexibility, but I’m psychedelic compared with some of the comments on this clue. (Sorry, 4:58 – nothing personal.)

     I really should have gone for a lie down.

105. Classes ‘tendency to fluctuate’ with ‘intelligence’ (7,7)

     (Enigmatist) went across two lights (6) and (8) IIRC, so all the cryptic bases were covered. Y’see.

106. Another here Alan B@98 and Mike C@100 who tried ‘sad ignoramus to dump Romeo’ to mean ‘anagram of (IGNORAMUS minus R)’ at first for BLUE MOON. I was sure it must have been some sort of SIGN.

107. Fun puzzle.

     I did not parse 3d.

     Thanks, both.

108. No problem Shef @104, my argument is that the space indicator makes it ‘SOB S’ not ‘SOBS’ but life’s too short really isn’t it?

109. Just a little more thought provides a super clue.

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