Guardian 28900 / Paul

50 comments on “Guardian 28900 / Paul”

1. I spose one does see pro babies, e.g. in movies and nappy ads … clue’s a bit odd though. Someone … Petert? … just mentioned Rees-Mogg … yesterday?…and now up he pops [and he no longer thinks Sunak a socialist; someone on youtube says you get whiplash following his zigzags].

   Found this proper Friday-tough. Nho the comedian, nor Paddy’s Wigwam (great bit of Scouse sardonism), needed guess-and-check help. Loved bodega, deicide and onerous (helped by the Gloriana refrain in the Victoria soundtrack). Lots to enjoy, thanks Paul, and thanks duncanshiell for standing in.

2. I suspect I’m not alone in thinking the homophone in 2d doesn’t work. Cue more discussion on homophones! Loved Paddy’s Wigwam. Thanks to Paul and Duncan for stepping in.

3. [… yes it was Petert, but on Wednesday … Now to watch Us v Poms in the Pyjama T20 🙂 ]

4. Pyjamas are still wet? Hope they dry up in 30 minutes or so.

5. Loved PETER KAY and SEDAN.
   Dunno what the experts may say about these homophones. I liked them.

6. Tough for me and I needed help from the blog to parse PETER KAY (clever clue once it’s explained). It’s a homophone very much in line with Peter’s misheard song lyrics.
   I also needed SEDAN explained. I was trying to make an anagram of AS DE N(iro) but couldn’t find the anagrind. Doh.
   Not impressed with EXTRACOR=Cooler but I did like GROSS.

7. That was chewy, but fun.

   A few like ANAGRAM with a real groan when the penny dropped, particularly as I’ve seen that trick before and it really shouldn’t have been my last one in. I didn’t parse PETER KAY, worked him out from crossers and the check button, but having seen the answer, it’s a specific accent comes with that homophone. The other homophone worried me less as the answer SEDAN was a partial anagram of AS DE Niro.

   Thank you to duncanshiels and Paul.

8. Thanks, Duncan, for stepping in and posting so early. Re. ONEROUS, in his letter to Sir Walter Raleigh, published along with the first three Books of The Faerie Queene in 1590, in which he explains his allegorical framework, Spenser makes the identification of the character Gloriana with QE1 explicit:
   “In that Faery Queene I mean Glory in my generall intention: but in my particular I conceive the most excellent and glorious person of our soveraine the Queene, and her kingdome in Faery land.”

   No question mark therefore needed in your explanation. Good to see Spenser getting a rare outling in Crosswordland.

9. I hope Robert De Niro sues.

10. The internet says “Fitting extractor fans to remove the hot air that gathers in the roof space and to provide early morning cooling, is the most cost effective way to reduce the temperature inside commercial buildings.”

    So it must be true 🙂

    I think Paul has turned homophones into a form of cruciverbal trolling. I’m all for it

    Hopefully we can have a row about where P to K is 6 letters too 🙂

    Brilliant stuff from Paul and many thanks to Duncan / I like the tabular formatting of the clues

11. Gosh this was tough and it took me ages to get a real foothold. I finally twigged Paddy’s Wigwam which is a lovely name for the Liverpool Cathedral. That gave me Peter Kay which I thought was very clever. I needed a break before completing the NW but Rees Mogg popped into my head as I was coming back downstairs. (Ugg!) I think I was misled by the definition of him as a politician! Should have focused on the word nauseating.
    Thanks Paul for a fantastic Friday challenge and Duncan for stepping in.

12. Great blog duncanshiels. Paul at his most devious and ‘go’ had nothing to do with toilets for a change. PETER KAY is a doozy, SEDAN a hoot and ANAGRAM just so clever.

    Ta both.

13. [essexboy – when you happen along, I’ve added to the chat about diacritical marks on Matilda’s blog yesterday. Too well. My first attempt showed the marks because this site recognised them and I had to add another post to show what I was doing.]

14. Bodycheetah @10… surely there’s only 4 letters between P and K in PeterK? 😉 That’s my bit of cruciverbal trolling done for the day.

15. Bodycheetah@10. My father, who had to contend with extreme heat in his butcher shops in some of our hotter inland towns, encouraged me to put an extractor fan in my western-facing (afternoon sun) kitchen, flued up through the roof to the outside, covered with a ‘Chinaman’s hat’. Works wonders.

    Speaking of homophones, I can’t hear what Paul can hear of De Niro’s accent, but SEDAN could almost be a Queenslander accent. Always a risk, homophoning in a regional variation of English.

16. Very tough puzzle. Solved only one clue on first pass and was tempted to give up on it. Obviously I was not on the setter’s wavelength.

    Top half was easier for me.

    New: AREOLAR; Cassini spacecraft (14ac); HOAR = grey (17d); Paddy’s Market; Peter Kay (thanks, google).

    I did not parse 16d, 18ac, 20d.

    Thanks, both.

17. 18,22 – Paul, keep your nasty scouse insults to yourself!!

18. I made extremely heavy weather of this. It took me ages to see that HATPEG was an anagram and PIANIST a reverse hidden clue. PETER KAY is clever, SEDAN is pushing things a bit far 🙂

    BODEGA, SATURN and SEA BATTLE are splendid, but my COD has to be ANAGRAM.

    The clue for PADDY’S WIGWAM (very familiar to this Scouser but that didn’t make it any easier a solve) takes the prize for most bizarre surface of the week 🙂

    [The egregious REES-MOGG dated his recent resignation letter: St Crispin’s Day. – which has Agincourt significance – but someone pointed out on social media that Crispin is the patron saint of cobblers]

    Thanks to Paul and Duncan for stepping once more into the breach

19. Not a great day for me – I missed PROBABLY at 11a and biffed in a hopeful PROVABLE. I didn’t understand 18d22a PADDY’S WIGWAM and looked up “PADDY’S ……” to get the answer, so that was a fail too. I also had to google check whether 18a PETER KAY was a comedian, as like some other solvers above, I hadn’t heard of him. I liked PIANIST at 16d once I spotted the clever hidden.
    Overall, an unsatisfafctory performance from me. Thanks to duncanshiell for the helpful explanatory blog and to Paul for a very challenging puzzle.

20. Paul definitely likes the ANAGRAM clue – here’s some he made earlier;

    “Khachaturian’s inspiring mount, main reason being so 26, possibly? (7)”
    “What cinema promotes is of some importance (7)”
    “A pair of animals, or an insect, for instance? (7)”
    “Trestle, for example? (7)”
    “Some part of poem’s art, perhaps? (7)”
    “Honest sight is 14 20 (7)”
    “A horse and sheep, one as a shepherd? (7)”

21. TimC@6 thank you for the hilarious clip! We like Peter Kay the comedian and PETER KAY the clue!
    Didn’t parse ANAGRAM but enjoyed all.
    Thanks Paul and Duncanshiell

22. Oddly enough I found that on the more accessible end of my Paul-solving continuum. As a (lapsed) Catholic from north-west England, PADDYS WIGWAM was a write-in in my first pass. The SEDAN homophone worked fine for me. ANAGRAM I’ve seen done many times already. I thought PETER KAY was rather clever.

    Good work both!

23. Like S’s c @8, Gloriana immediately brought to mind Good Queen Bess. I wonder when Paul set this puzzle? Does this indication of ER reflect our transition to CR? For as long as we have all been solving puzzles ‘queen’, if not Q or a full name, has almost invariably been ER, although AR, MR and VR would have been possible.

24. [Nope, KVa @4, pyjamas getting wetter, Aggers getting ready to head off….yes, washout 🙁 ]

25. Annoyingly undone by top right corner. Tried to fit ER and nous in so many ways, “chances are” beginning with p, 6 letter wine seller….all so obvious in hindsight. Suppose that’s what makes it a good challenge so thanks Paul, and also our stand-in.

26. I liked SEDAN (partly because I solved it; but also, I guiltily confess, as I expect it to attract a few harrumphs and raised eyebrows!) BODEGA is nice (though seen construction before) and PETER KAY and ANAGRAM great fun. Didn’t seem to flow, or sparkle as Paul at his best – but that’s probably me; I’m wallowing self-absorbedly in the indescribable agonies of a toothache that has doubled the size of my face!
    Mainly commenting to convey my appreciation to Duncan for his breach instepping – above and beyond!
    Many thanks to him – and to Paul of course

27. PADDY’S WIGWAM? I thought it was the Mersey Funnel.

28. Thanks Paul and Duncanshiell
    Nobody has mentioned what a horrible grid this is – only 2 squares connecting the top to the bottom. I had the top complete, but nothing (apart from those squares) in the bottom.
    I liked WHO’S WHO.

29. Great puzzle as ever. 19d would make an excellent clue for AIR PUMP or CAR JACK as well as the correct TOW ROPE.

30. Tougher than a Brazil nut today, but I did get a few.
    Thanks both

31. I never thought that I would one day be able to use my knowledge of PADDYS WIGWAM to provide a way in after not much success on first pass in a Guardian cryptic. Having sat in it years ago and admired the rainbow effect overhead. Lots of Paul-etic licence today, but none the less enjoyable for that. Couldn’t quite parse BODEGA, though it immediately sprung to mind. Struggled with PROBABLE, and last one in was HATPEG. Thanks Paul, and to Duncanshiell for stepping in with such an excellent blog…

32. I agree with muffin @28 that this is a rather horrible grid; but I thought it was a most enjoyable puzzle. Tough, but worth the effort.
    Paul often has a problem with meaningless surfaces, and I think this puzzle is one of his better ones in that respect. And there are a few clues which are a real delight. I thought the cluing of PETER KAY and HOARDER was brilliant, and although the surface is a bit hit-and-miss, the cluing of REES-MOGG is quite wonderful. As duncanshiell observes, an &lit.
    A bit of the trademark Paul nudge-nudge in SATURN, but done in a delightfully subtle way.
    Oh, and I liked SEDAN. But then, I always like outrageous homophones, and the more outrageous the better.
    Thanks to our regular setter and our irregular blogger.

33. Started easily, then steadily got slower for no obvious reason. Some corking clues in here so definitely worth the effort.

    REES MOGG and SEDAN were laugh-out-loud funny! Also loved AREOLAR and PROBABLY

    thanks to Paul and duncanshiell (all those colours!)

34. Typical Paul – tough but gettable, with some wicked humour.

    I don’t know this for a fact, but de Niro was so arbitrary that I like to think Paul actually heard him pronounce sedan that way in a film or interview. Much as I’m happy to research the odd bits of confirming info, this would take too many hours! (Or someone could ask him!)

35. Sometimes I like Paul, sometimes I don’t. This was a case of the latter. There was too much beyond my orbit e.g. PETER KAY, PADDYS WIGWAM, DEICIDE, and BIRTHDAY HONOURS for me to enjoy this. At least I knew REES-MOGG. Thanks to both.

36. The top half came easily, although not always the parsing; the SE corner slowly; the SW corner not at all. After reading some of these parsings, I forgive myself.

37. Thanks for the blog, I liked SATURN, the Cassini mission was a great success, especially the Huygens probe on Titan.
    Saturn fairly easy to see but our seventh planet visible for the next few nights , difficult to find and need ideal viewing conditions.

38. I found myself wondering if we had an American equivalent to “scouse” — a food item standing for a city. It’s Boston, or Beantown, home of Boston baked beasns.

    Thanks to Paul and to Duncan for stepping in. Quite the showpiece of a display format for the blog!

39. Thank you Duncan, clear and colourful again. I will spare anyone an earworm by 1d but recommend reading “Gloriana” by Michael Moorcock, the only reason I got the ER part of 5d. Funnily enough had exactly the same solving pattern as muffin@28 and agree with NeilH@33 that a lot of effort seems to have gone into the surfaces today. Gute besserung William@26, i often notice that my solving pleasure (not to mention ability) is reduced when a little under the weather so hope you are back firing on all cylinders soon. is “squirrel” a general synonym for a hoarder (i know the verb sense is) as I wondered if it was more of an unindicated d-by-e. Anyway I thought this was fantastic, thanks Paul.

40. Valentine, scouse stands for the people of Liverpool, not the city itself.

41. [Shanne @13 – I happened along rather late today, but I saw your interesting post on the Ma~ blog and responded – many thanks.]

    pdm @15, re SEDAN – I’m glad you mentioned that; I was just thinking it sounded more like an Aussie accent than an American one. Actually, ‘down’ pronounced like ‘dan’ wouldn’t go amiss in parts of Essex – Sah-fend comes to mind.

    Here in my tine hice, of course, I tend to sit dine.

    Thanks to Paul for an enjoyable challenge, and to Duncan for his amazing technicolour dreamblog.

    [Jacob @36, not sure if I’ve seen you post here before? If not, welcome (notwithstanding 12a 😉 ) ]

42. Gloriana is an opera about QE1 by Benjamin Britten which gave me ER in 5d. Unfortunately I didn’t dredge up NOUS for “wit”. Should have got 8d but put in PALING, which parses but is
    a failure as a definition. What with that and not knowing about Cassini the top right hand corner was a bit of a failure.
    Thanks to Paul and duncanshiell

43. Forgot my manners in not thanking Duncan for his blog, as described so well by essexboy@41, and going above and beyond.

    Couple of queries:
    1A DISOWN I don’t understand ‘has to be’ cluing ‘is’. I parsed it as ‘has’ for the surface/linkword and ‘to be’ > IS.
    16A PIANIST . Doesn’t ‘scaling’ belong with the wordplay, rather than the definition? However, it does have a sense of double duty and makes for a good surface.

44. pdm @43. I think ‘has’ is just a link word from the definition to the wordplay. So it’s ‘ditch’ (defn) has the following wordplay: ‘to be’=IS ‘found in’ (insertion indicator) ‘county’=DOWN.

    I saw scaling as part of the wordplay because we have to read upwards from the first letter of ‘perhaps’ to find the answer, but I agree that it could be doing double duty and there’s a question mark at the end, which suggests you are right.

45. Thanks sh@44. It seems we’ve parsed both words similarly. I asked the question because no-one mentioned them, or the underlining in the blog, and wondered if I’d missed something.

46. Pino @42 I also had PALING for 8d which meant I completely failed to solve 11a. I was so convinced it was right I didn’t bother to check it which I usually do when I’m not sure.

47. Archetypal Paul. All surfaces designed to repel casual approach. Once in, the 2 long anagrams provide the tools to dismantle his elaborate constructions. Loved 12 – sums him up nicely.

48. Slow but steady solve today (couldn’t get round to it yesterday) with PROBABLY and LA LA LAND my two favourites. Thanks duncanshiell for the excellent blog and for explaining BODEGA and PETER KAY to me. Very enjoyable puzzle, thanks Paul

49. Might this blog format be adopted as a standard? Excellent crossword and blog.

50. No objection to the clue in 4A (except that I didn’t get it), but I don’t think application forms these days ask for age or DoB, to try and avoid age discrimination.

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