The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28966.
Some tricky parsing here – I found the bottom half the more difficult. Thanks for the workout, Harpo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BLACK-EYED SUSAN |
Need to stop by Sudanese recycling plant (5-4,5)
|
| An envelope (‘to stop’) of LACK (‘need’) in BEYEDSUSAN, an anagram (‘recycling’) of ‘by Sudanese’. | ||
| 9 | ENAMOUR |
Regret about an eastern monarchy spinning charm (7)
|
| A reversal (‘spinning’) of an envelope (‘about’) of OMAN (‘an eastern monarchy’ – specifically a sultanate) in RUE (‘regret’). | ||
| 10 | LONGBOW |
Wish to bend arm (7)
|
| A charade of LONG (‘wish’) plus BOW (‘bend’). | ||
| 11 | SLEEK |
Smooth ridges going west (5)
|
| A reversal (‘going west’ in an across light) of KEELS (‘ridges’). | ||
| 12 | INVERNESS |
City‘s former special police after fashionable old writer (9)
|
| A charade of IN (‘fashionable’) plus VERNE (Jules, ‘old writer’) plus SS (Schutzstaffel, ‘former special police’ – the Allgemeine SS had the more police-like duties), with ‘after’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 13 | HAMFATTER |
Mediocre performer wanting praise, forgetting line after overacting (9)
|
| A charade of HAM (‘overacting’ – but the word is probably derived from hamfatter) plus F[l]ATTER (‘praise’) minus the L (‘forgetting line’). ‘After’ gives the order of the particles, and ‘wanting’ is a link word. | ||
| 14 | TOSCA |
Work component of photo scanner (5)
|
| A hidden answer (‘component of’) in ‘phoTO SCAnner’, for Puccini’s opera. | ||
| 15 | SNEAK |
Last pair taken from shoe shop (5)
|
| A subtraction: SNEAK[er] (‘shoe’) minus the final two letters (‘last pair taken’). | ||
| 17 | COLOSSEUM |
Stadium leaders saving skin in short newspaper section (9)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of [b]OSSE[s] (‘leaders’) minus the outer letters (‘saving skin’) in COLUM[n] (‘newspaper section’) minus the last letter (‘short’). | ||
| 20 | ODD ONE OUT |
Ordinary bloke initially escaping suspicion surrounding complete maverick (3,3,3)
|
| An envelope (‘surrounding’) of DONE (‘complete’) in O (‘ordinary’) plus DOU[b]T (‘suspicion’) minus the B (‘Bloke initially escaping’). And with that, the blog is done. | ||
| 22 | ABASK |
Adult underwear picked up in the sunshine? (5)
|
| A charade of A (‘adult’) plus BASK, sounding like (‘picked up’) BASQUE (‘underwear’ – see Wiki) | ||
| 23 | SPRIGHT |
Starts to see phantom, true ghost from the past (7)
|
| A charade of SP (‘starts to See Phantom’) plus RIGHT (‘true’). | ||
| 24 | ROSSINI |
Old Italian footballer recalled first couple of internationals — it’s a long time since he scored (7)
|
| A charade of ROSSI (Paolo, ‘old Italian footballer’) plus NI, a reversal (‘recalled’) of IN (‘first couple of INternationals’), for the composer Gioachino Rossini. | ||
| 25 | LEAVE WELL ALONE |
Do not disturb unaccompanied spring holidays taken retrospectively? (5,4,5)
|
| Taking the words in reverse order (‘taken retrospectively’): ALONE (‘unaccompanied’) WELL (‘spring’) LEAVE (‘holidays’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BLESS THIS HOUSE |
Song period mostly covered by book — inferior revised thesis (5,4,5)
|
| An envelope (‘covered by’) of HOU[r] (‘period’) minus the last letter (‘mostly’) in B (‘book’) plus LESS (‘inferior’) plus THISSE, an anagram (‘revised’) of ‘thesis’. | ||
| 2 | ANAHEIM |
US city hospital in area north of Maine, abandoned (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of H (‘hospital’) in A (‘area’) plus (‘north of’ – which just states the obvious, in a down light) NAEIM, an anagram (‘abandoned’) of ‘Maine’ | ||
| 3 | KNOCK BACK |
Turn down drink (5,4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | YORKIST |
Risky to upset old royal supporter (7)
|
| An anagram (‘upset’) of ‘risky to’. | ||
| 5 | DELIVER |
Did rail, northbound, for free (7)
|
| A reversal (‘northbound’) of REVILED (‘did rail’). | ||
| 6 | ULNAR |
Curling regularly pared part of a bone (5)
|
| A charade of ULN (‘cUrLiNg’ regularly’) plus AR (‘pARed part’). | ||
| 7 | AMBLERS |
Leisurely walkers better ignoring leader, heading south (7)
|
| A charade of [g]AMBLER |
||
| 8 | SWISS ARMY KNIFE |
Playing safe, my risk wins multi-tasking aid (5,4,5)
|
| An anagram (‘playing’) of ‘safe my risk wins’. | ||
| 14 | TASMAN SEA |
British island protected by French vessel on American body of water (6,3)
|
| An envelope (‘protected by’) of MAN (‘British island’) in TASSE (cup, ‘French vessel’) plus A (‘American’). | ||
| 16 | ENDORSE |
Sanction Diana, for one, bearing crosses (7)
|
| An envelope (‘crosses’) of DORS (‘Diana, for one’ – she made an appearance in Guardian 28869 by Picaroon, which I blogged last September) in ENE (east-north-east, ‘bearing’). | ||
| 17 | CHOCTAW |
Constant love in vigil over Native American (7)
|
| A charade of C (‘constant’ – the speed of light, for example) plus HOCTAW, an envelope (‘in’) of O (‘love’) in HCTAW, a reversal (‘over’) of WATCH (‘vigil’). | ||
| 18 | LITERAL |
Something signifying a huge amount in colloquial little typo (7)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of TERA (prefix, ‘Something signifying a huge amount’) in LIL (‘colloquial little Thanks to A Different Geof @1, the first to supply the omitted parsing … and to SueB @56 for the better version. |
||
| 19 | EX ANIMO |
Cut up nothing, devouring game earnestly (2,5)
|
| An envelope (‘devouring’) of NIM (‘game’; this matchstick game came up not so long ago, but I have not yet tracked down where, even though I commented on it – the only reference I could find was to a Qaos puzzle that I blogged in 2017) in EXA, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of AXE (‘cut’); plus O (‘nothing’). | ||
| 21 | NEGEV |
Laze mindlessly, seen regularly around desert (5)
|
| A reversal (‘around’) of VEG (‘laze mindlessly’) plus EN (‘sEeN regularly’). |
My take on 18D… ‘a huge amount’ = TERA
‘Colloquial little typo’ = LIL (as per L’il Abner, for instance)
Put the former inside the latter.
Def. = ‘Something sigifying’
TERA as in terabyte
Re: 6d The ‘AR’ in Ulnar comes from ‘paring’ pARt, yes?
It could also be part of ‘pARed’ as you have mentioned, PeterO, that also holds good….
18d, I went with “something signifying a huge amount = Tera, “colloquial little” = L’il which left me with literal = typo 🙂
A literal is a typo. Tera = something signifying a huge amount. That’s what I thought anyway.
Snap TPS!
I like paring part better than taking a part of pared, but whichev.
Thanks Peter O, the game Nim came up over the holiday period in a themed crossword Guardian 28,951 by Picaroon, where the games were embedded in reverse in down clues. You commented on Eileen’s blog @#44.
Never heard of ‘basque’ as underwear, but now I’ve looked it up I’m probably going to get all sorts of unwanted ads.
Is that why you didn’t hyperlink it to Wiki? I should have thought of that. Too hot in this climate. I can remember the days of restrictive girdles etc with non breathable fabric in the middle of summer, walking miles to Church.
Looking for a theme, being Friday the 13th, BLACK being the first word, but drew a LONG BOW.
Loved TASMAN SEA, not being parochial, but because of the misdirections with British island, French vessel and American body of water. Fortunately I knew the French ‘vessel’. As commenters have said, how much foreign language are solvers supposed to know to solve these crosswords. French is indicated, but if you looked up vessel in French, I doubt you’d come up with ‘tasse’.
So, first scan of the acrosses got precisely one, Tosca. Second look added sleek and sneak, both with a hmm. Keel for ridge a bit loose, and yes someone who shops you is a sneak, but doesn’t sneak you. Then the downs started to interweave and the lattice took shape. Dnk ex anima, and yes I remembered the recent Nim, but only after getting the n by checking, so a dnf. Quite fun though, ta Harpo and PeterO.
Thanks Harpo. My wrestling match with Monk in the FT prepared me for this struggle. I still failed with HAMFATTER and EX ANIMO and I couldn’t parse a few but generally I enjoyed the craftsmanship of this crossword with clues like COLOSSEUM, ROSSINI, INVERNESS, TASMAN SEA, and NEGEV at the top of my list. Thanks PeterO for the blog.
Surprisingly straightforward for a Friday, though the last third or so did slow me down somewhat. Getting 1 across straight away helped hugely with the first few downs. Not sure about shop=SNEAK. Quite a few unparsed until I got here, as per. I thought all four long ones were well done.
Cheers both.
In the sense of ‘snitch’, SNEAK and shop are the same, I think.
paddymelon@8
I agree with you on ‘tasse’. With all crossers already in, I could get TASMAN SEA without any difficulty. Then I looked up TASSE (MAN and A seemed obvious).
After reading your post, I googled and got navire and vase, but not tasse. 🙂
KVa @12 – I’m having trouble with the parts of speech on that… a snitch (noun) can shop, or snitch on (verb), someone, but you can’t “sneak” someone like you can shop someone, can you? I can’t think of a workable substitution test. I’m still missing something…
No chance of HAMFATTER or EX ANIMO.
The pdf that I printed had a different clue for BLACK-EYED SUSAN which was “Plant analyses bucked up” and thought that “up” was a strange anagrind. How do these differences happen?
Favourite was DELIVER for the clever “did rail” reversal.
PeterO – your parsing of 7d has a slight error. It should be ‘[G]ambler (‘better’) plus S’. Thanks for the blog.
Rob T@14
I think you are right. Sorry for not getting your point the first time around.
There could be another explanation. Let’s see what others say.
KVa@13, Yes, I suppose it’s fair as we always have to be on the lookout for ‘vessel’ meaning a container of some kind, and if the wordplay or our GK doesn’t give us the whole picture, we put on our reverse thrusters. Although I’m usually on the alert for ‘Man’ in British cryptics, it passed me by in terms of being ‘obvious’, British isle being such a huge category, as was American body of water. The trick for me was working out what the def was.
paddymelon and KVa, re the use of TASSE… I’m a French speaker and I thought that particular clue was probably too stretchy for the general solver, as it requires two steps: first, knowing the French word for cup, and second, recognising that cup is a synonym for vessel. Oh, and then you had to wrap it around another word!
KVa@12, 17 and Rob T@ 14. I initially tried to resolve whether SNEAK and shop were verbs or nouns, but came down to them being verbs, and if so, transitive or intransitive. I don’t have Chambers. Collins online has for SNEAK, Verb (intransitive) informal, mainly British, to tell tales (esp in schools). But ‘shop’ is Verb (transitive), slang, mainly British, to inform on or betray, esp to the police. I’m not convinced either that you can substitute one for the other.
Re TASMAN SEA: I had the initial T, realised that the definition was Body of water and the seecond word was 3 letters ending in a, so SEA TASMAN SEA, there’s the Island and there’s the cup. My French is passable.
I stuggled with this but got there eventually, Thanks both for puzzle and blog.
Thanks to Harpo for an enjoyable Friday challenge. Lots to enjoy although I’d never heard of a hamfatter or ex animo. ( I thought the clue for hamfatter was the only really weak one today with ham presumably derived from the longer word.) 15ac was my favourite although I accept it appears not to work completely!!
Thanks PeterO for the blog.
I think that ‘demitasse’ is common enough (I’m not saying it’s rife) to make ‘tasse’ a reasonable stretch. My take on ‘literal’ was its use hyperbolically, but I wasn’t too fussed about nailing it. I thoroughly enjoyed this one, but wonder whether my pleasure has been increased by reading the discomfited whinings below the puzzle itself on the Guardian site. Schadenfreude? NHO it!
Most of this was good fun, with TASMAN SEA the standout; as others have commented, the misdirection encouraging you to look for an American body of water was brilliant. ENAMOUR, COLOSSEUM, NEGEV, INVERNESS are also very fine.
And then…
I have never heard the expression EX ANIMO. I have also never heard the expression HAMFATTER, and do not consider myself deprived on that account. And ANAHEIM – really. How much obscure American geography are we expected to know? (Interesting that a few people wonder whether we can fairly be expected to know the French tasse; I seem to be the first to crib about being expected to know “the 10th most populous city in California”.
Thanks to Harpo and PeterO.
I crib about being expected to know old Italian footballers – we all have our areas of General Ignorance. Though I must admit that ANAHEIM was also a stretch.
Hard getting started, but then many clues just fell into places. Did not always manage to parse them so many thanks PeterO. Loved the long clues, and the 5/4/5 which people on the Guardian blog thought might be something mathematical as apparently Harpo AKA Monk is a mathematician. We can wonder. They also saw an Australian or maybe American band in there somewhere, hoping for a theme I guess.
Anyway thanks Harpo/Monk – my namesake! – for a great Friday workout
Thanks Harpo and PeterO
A lot was pretty easy, but the bits that weren’t were very difficult. I needed electronic help for EX ANIMO – I had never heard of it, and neither had Wiki! Also nho ABASK. I only saw the SS (leaders Saving Skin) so was missing O and E from my parsing.
ENAMOUR favourite, as I constructed it from its components.
Use of foreign languages again resulting in much discussion. It’s all down to the individual, I guess. I remember a lot of French (including tasse), a little Russian, but never learned German, which is where I always struggle.
Knew Anaheim, having heard of the Anaheim Ducks ice hockey team. It’s also home to Disneyland.
ANAHEIM was my FOI – I thought I knew it from the Steely Dan’s “My Old School” but that turned out to be Annandale 🙂
Harpo sits pretty close to the bottom of my league of setters – I think this would have really put me off cryptics when I was starting out – HAMFATTER, latin, obscure GK etc.
At least it’s not raining here
Cheers P&H
Eventually completed without recourse to any aids, but it took me a long time and the parsings were very challenging. I hope that those who complain about puzzles being too easy are satisfied.
Thanks to Harpo and PeterO.
I thought this puzzle very mixed in terms of difficulty. Some answers I saw straightaway but others I got from the crosses and couldn’t parse.
Like PeterO I found the bottom half more difficult and really slowed down after I had completed the top half.
Thanks Harpo and PeterO
Thought this might be a stroll in the park when I swiftly saw BLACK EYED SUSAN, one of my favourite flowers in our back garden these last couple of years. However, really ground to a halt after that, and a disappointing DNF. Quite glad I decided quite early on to come on here, as I’d never have got HAMFATTER or ABASK or SPRIGHT or EX ANIMO or perhaps even ANAHEIM. And there were several I had hopefully bunged in and couldn’t parse – ENDORSE, LITERAL, DELIVER. Rather a pathetic effort from me this morning despite my bright start. Many thanks PeterO for the clarity and elucidation…
…meant to mention that I enjoyed my chocolate croissant rather more than my cryptic crossword with my coffee this morning, sad to say…
Black eyed peas and Choctaw Ridge both feature in Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billie Joe”… but I can’t see any other links to the song, so probably just a coincidence. A nice earworm though.
Thanks both
14d: re the discussion of TASSE and its use in an English puzzle. The word has at least achieved a kind of English presence in the form of the small coffee cup, the DEMITASSE (the Chambers entry has no hyphen). And indeed an American presence, in the great payoff to the verse by Ogden Nash, ‘Coffee with the Meal’ (though why would anyone want to drink coffee with absolutely everything?)
https://unemployedlawyermom.blogspot.com/2014/09/finally-topic-worthy-of-poetry.html
Some I could do: far too many above my pay grade or level of knowledge. I don’t have a Do Not Attempt list, but I’m tempted to start one.
Completed about half and enjoyed it but then decided I would never complete it in a month of Sundays. Got BLESS THIS HOUSE from the Brit sitcom starring Sid James although nothing to do with clue. I liked ROSSINI and BLACK EYED SUSAN and thought the French vessel was reasonable. I will tackle this setter with some trepidation next time around.
Ta PeterO & Harpo.
Why are there two versions of the clue to 1ac: the one on the PDF version is different from the first computerised version, and is different from the one here. My PDF version reads “Plant analyses bucked up (5-4,5).
Tough puzzle, I was not on the setter’s wavelength and needed google for some GK.
Liked TASMAN SEA.
New for me : SPRIGHT; CHOCTAW; HAMFATTER; ABASK; EX ANIMO; NIM game (for 19d)
I sort of solved 25ac but not properly!
I did not parse:
17ac apart from OSSE IN COLUM[N]
20ac
22ac – never heard of BASQUE (‘underwear’)
24ac IN in ROSSI – I guessed ROSSi was a footballer?
1d only got as far as B + LESS + something in anagram of thesis?
16d DORS in ENE?
18d – thanks ADG @1
For 6d, I pared pARt.
Thanks, both.
By a curious coincidence I’ve been searching for my Swiss army knife for the last two days. I did find the mini-biro on the kitchen floor and the toothpick on the dining room table but the main implement itself seems to have totally disappeared. Does anyone have Harpo’s phone number so I can ask him to return it?
Another who found chunks of this easy and some outside my general knowledge. The French was fine, as was ANAHEIM, but HAMFATTER and EX ANIMO I had to use word finders for. Or I could have dug out a dictionary as I had enough to start with.
Thank you to PeterO and Harpo
Some of this was hard but enjoyable, other parts were straightforward and still others were a complete blank. Far too many obscurities and dodgy parsings which I won’t enumerate. A curate’s egg for me.
This ruined a run of completions, which for a below average solver had me preening. Several blanks drawn.
HAMFATTER was a new one on me. Still not overly sure about this one. Is HAM meant to be a synonym for overacting? Enlightenment gratefully received as I was thinking it should be HAMMING?
Thanks to Harpo and PeterO.
[pedrox @34, great ballad, but I played it on a jukebox in a Munich bar, ’67, and my Afro-American mates said Man, don’t play songs with picking cotton in, not around black folks. Young and a bit callow!]
would any one use abask except in a limerick and I haven’t seen 23 ac spelt that way before. I needed to check hamfatter was a real word and I needed to google american cities to get 2d. Maybe I’m just not much good on American stuff.
pedrox@34 GIF@9 @44. Seem to be on a similar wavelength. I got precisely TOSCA and nothing else after first scan. But after due consideration, it all came good.
Was also in Munich in ’67 – quite a coincidence – and love the Bobbie Gentry track Ode to Billy Joe.
Funnily enough ( Friday 13 ? ) the word “Tupelo” also appears in that lyric – birthplace of Elvis and today it was announced that his daughter, Lisa Marie, died yesterday.
With “Munich” in my mind, I think I’ll jot down a limerick for mark@45
Lionesses were up to the task
After Euros drank cask after cask
Next Summer instead
They’ll reserve each sunbed
Brits before Germans ABASK
Thank you Harpo and PeterO
I had to use a lot of electronic help to ‘solve’ this.
I put in Arnheim at first, but that is Arnhem; I don’t think that ANAHEIM is very obscure as it hosts Disneyland in California, which surely most people have heard of. However, maybe most people haven’t heard of HAMFATTER and ABASK. Obviously I wasn’t on Harpo’s wavelength today but I did enjoy the clue for ROSSINI and the anagram for SWISS-ARMY KNIFE.
Thanks Harpo for the unequal contest and to PeterO explaining it all.
Thanks both – I was entertained until I ground to a halt over many of those already quoted (quoth?).
But among my gradients was ENDORSE which asked us to see ‘Diana’ and think ‘Dors’ – surely a stretch for anyone born after, oooh, 1960? (And why ‘for one’). On the other hand I was also beaten by ODD ONE OUT (grr) (it had to be ‘out and out’ but why? – sloppy thinking that’s why).
Well all my ignorant bungs proved to be right, but I wouldn’t call it fun. Three words/phrases I didn’t know and other GK I did but others might not. A slog, but not a jolly one. Thanks both.
Ugh. Obscure components to give obscure answers. Far to clever for me and, dare I suggest, it’s own good.
Hamfattery all round.
After the battering from Monk in the FT yesterday, I approached this with some trepidation, but I needn’t have feared – it wasn’t a quick solve by any means but it was very rewarding. Probably a tad easier than yesterday, but maybe that’s just because like Tony S @10 I was still tuned in to the setter’s wavelength. Among many favourites were BLACK-EYED SUSAN, LONGBOW, ROSSINI, YORKIST. Superb work yet again, thanks, Harpo. I love to see a wide range of cultural references in crossword clues and nothing seemed particularly obscure to me. Please don’t change your style to suit the naysayers.
Thanks for the blog, PeterO, although no assistance needed today – I found this so precisely clued throughout that I was in no doubt about any of the parsing once those pennies finally dropped. I had the opposite solving experience with the bottom half going in relatively easily and the NW corner holding out longest.
Pedrox @34 – I got the earworm from CHOCTAW alone, didn’t make the black-eyed peas connection. Good spot! Now I’m going to have to spend some time hunting for other references to the song…
Pedrox – there are quite a few examples of the letter N in the grid. “Third of June” – geddit? 😉
…Four K’s as well, unusually perhaps, but each helping as crossers…
With a difficult puzzle to blog, I skimped on the proofreading; so thanks to A Different Geof @1 et al for the omitted entry for 18D LITERAL, and Crispy @16 for the typos in 7D.
Paddymelon @8
Actually I did attempt to insert the Wiki link for 22A ABASK, but somehow it did not take.
mark @45
Hence the ‘from the past’ in the clue for 23A SPRIGHT, a largely obsolete version of sprite.
In addition to Disneyland, those with horticultural and/or culinary interests might have come across the Anaheim pepper
Have been away for the past month, Christmas in Wales, Hogmanay in Scotland, back to Helsinki this week. So this was my first crossword in quite a spell. And I did struggle!
I can’t see the fuss about foreign words. Everyone in the world must have access to an on-line dictionary, surely. And even I knew ANAHEIM, as it crops up in American sit-coms. (Well OK, in Two and a half men, anyway) .
There’s a typo in PeterO’s entry for INVERNESS.
Thanks H and P. Hopefully I’ll be back in the swing fairly soon …
I’m not sure if this point has been made, exactly, but a “literal” (18 down) IS “a little typo” ie a misprint of a single letter.
Anna @55
Well spotted: 12A INVERNESS corrected.
Being a British immigrant to America who happens to be fluent in French and a football fan, I lucked into several clues that others found difficult.
Conversely – as so often – I completely failed to parse several clues that others seemed to find easy, despite eventually filling the grid from definitions and crossers. I join others in questioning “sneak” for “shop” on grammatical grounds.
New to me: HAMFATTER, an alternate spelling of SPRIGHT, ABASK.
I knew BASQUE as underwear a long time ago but had forgotten it until reading the blog.
Briefly popularized by Madonna, I think?
SueB @56
Indeed, that is a great improvement. Of course, ‘little’ is needed for the wordplay, but ‘typo’ is a sufficient definition for LITERAL (and one that I had forgotten, if I ever knew it).
Thank you Jorge Ramon @23 for giving me a real belly laugh, after plenty of belly aching.
TimC @15: My version of 1a was “Plant analyses bucked up” as well. I recently learned from one of the blogs that “up” can be an anagrind in the sense of “high” or “drunk.”
I’m glad to see the consternation about this puzzle was generally felt, so it wasn’t just me. I won’t repeat any of the other comments, except to note that even though I’ve been to Anaheim (twice!) and am well familiar with it as a sports fan (it’s home of the Ducks of hockey and the Angels of baseball), it may not be too fair for a British crossword. I suppose I should be saying something like “now the obscure-foreign-geography shoe is finally on the other foot, ha ha,” but that’s not actually how I feel (and it’s not very nice either).
mrpenny @63: There seem to be occasional complaints about clues that have too many “inside Britain” references but I ignore these because these are British publications. I can understand, however, the irritation at the inclusion of lesser known Americana like ANAHEIM and CHOCTAW.
Thanks for the blog, fantastic puzzle , so many clever clues and original ideas and it almost lasted my whole journey home. Even had my quark mentioned for 9AC.
Perhaps the 5,4,5 idea forced a few obscurities in the rest of the grid but they were very fairly clued.
[PDM@8 the modern basque with modern fabrics is vastly superior to the corset/girdle . It is the SWISS ARMY KNIFE of undies performing multiple tasks. Very popular with brides , I still have my Gossard Wonderbasque from my wedding. ]
So many different reactions to a “difficult” puzzle. Like others I struggled, but I still aspire to be able to enjoy such puzzles rather than add Harpo to a do not attempt list, or bemoan the alleged obscurities. (Roz I hope the Wonderbasque doesn’t become a clue type like the Playtex)
[Roz @64, there were a couple of late Dirac comments the other day. Mine was that John Polkinghorne said watching Dirac work out stuff in real time on the blackboard was like watching Bach compose …]
Well, I am feeling a little smug today. I usually struggle with Picaroon with much of it not completed and often come to the blog only to be told how superb and easy it was, which always feels like a kick in the face. No such trouble with Harpo – the boot is on the other foot today.
Choctaw popped into mind quite easily (I remembered Choctaw ridge from the song, too)
Thanks PeterO and Harpo
Didn’t know ANAHEIM, HAMFATTER, ABASK, or EX ANIMO, though solved the last from the wordplay. It’s Latin for “from the soul” .
My earworm is BLESS THIS HOUSE and I don’t mind that. Googling it to remind myself of the words the first hit was the Mahalia Jackson version on YouTube.
Thanks to Harpo and PeterO
Me @ 69
Apologies if anyone Googled as I said. You need to add “song” or you get a Sid James sitcom.
Unsatisfying slog. A bit like chewing a piece of tripe that simply won’t go down.
I found the right half much easier than the left.
“Work” for TOSCA seems a bit feeble as a definition, though the word was pretty obvious — I too got it first time through.
HAMFATTER and BASQUE were both new to me.
Defeated by the Byzantine parsing of 1d, good going, PeterO! Same for LIL in LITERAL.
19d would seem to mean “from the soul,” but soul=anima, which is feminine, so why isn’t it “ex anima”? Apparently “animus” can also mean a part of the psyche, even before Jung. Where’s Eileen when we need her?
PeterO I think KNOCK BACK = “turn down” and “drink.” KNOCK BACK doesn’t mean “down drink” because it doesn’t have an object.
Thanks Harpo and PeterO.
Yes missed a few parsings and the new HAMFATTER and rather old sounding ABASK. A bit hard I thought.
Thanks Harpo and PeterO
[Sorry Grant@67 , I missed these, my end of the week is always busy and I do not check back. Late for me is after 8pm Uk time ]
I’m with Nicola @71. Too busy yesterday but had a look at this in the morning and gave up at “work” defining (?) “TOSCA” and “ridge” for KEEL. Typical weekday Guardian.
Very late thanks PeterO but I ended up having to use a wordsearch for HAMFATTER and EX ANIMO, both perfectly parsable post-fill though I share the concern that an acting Ham is too close to the full answer in the former – having said that I look forward to the bemusement on the face of an unsuspecting friend as I accuse them of “Hamfattery” at some point in the near future. Well said Petert@66, a few times I was able to sit ABASK in my own smugness when some penny or other dropped and enjoyed the tussle despite my failures (loved 24a) so thanks Harpo.