Guardian 29,007 – Pasquale

84 comments on “Guardian 29,007 – Pasquale”

1. FENCER

   One who you want to get: Can this be another def?
   Boundary? This is another def, I feel.

2. one you want to get*

3. Who knew RISHI was a Sage?
   Favourite was SCREWDRIVER.

4. I still can’t understand why these obscurities are needed in a weekly puzzle, fairly clued or (sometimes) not. And Gracie Fields in 2023?

   Then again, I doubt I could set a puzzle to save my life, so…

5. Lovely puzzle from the Don I thought. Personally I enjoy learning new words (Cabbala in this instance) . It’s great fun to work at the elements of a clue and come up with a word that you then look up and find it exists and fits the definition.
   And I chuckled at the idea of Pence as Trump’s Reserve!
   Thanks all.

6. There was a 2009 Gracie Fields biopic made for TV that even won a BAFTA (Jane Horrocks and Tom Hollander starred), so those film makers must have thought she was still relevant.

   I enjoyed this, looked up REMANET to see if I’d worked it out correctly, and I did have a vague inkling that RISHI meant a Hindu sage, but other than that, some great anagrams.

   Thank you to Andrew and Pasquale.

7. Oofyprosser @ 4, I think some setters like to pepper their works with a smattering of obscurities to prove themselves. I don’t mind one or two, expanding my lexicon (albeit very temporarily), but of course it is possible to create very fulfilling puzzles without any. I thought this one kept the obscurities within the legal limits! I’d never heard of CABBALA, RISHI, REMANET, and had only a vague recollection of WAPITI. I was also unable to parse COALITION & WHITE SAUCE, and was unaware of the Fields in 20d.

   Time is the enemy again! It’s been around a bit lately.

   Overall very likeable, thanks Pasquale & Andrew.

8. I had WHITE SAUCE with a blank for ESAU for a while as I tried to remember four letter Biblical men starting with E, and had a pdm. I use my Biblical and church GK regularly solving these crosswords.

9. REMANET and WAPITI new to me. I’ve no objection to well-clued obscurities, though, feeling that it is legitimate to look up a previously unknown word to confirm the answer. Failed to parse COALITION. Thanks for the help.

10. I think Pasquale’s becoming one of my favourite setters. The obscurities are well clued. As somebody pointed out to me when I whinged about obscurities recently, they’re in the dictionary – even Rishi. I wouldn’t want a puzzle that overdoes them, but I find Pasquale usually just offers one or two. I suspect, also, that one man’s obscurity is another’s every day word. Thanks to Pasquale and Andrew

11. Personally I enjoy having my vocabulary expanded. REMANET was the only unknown today and with the generous crossers and fodder it was easy enough to solve.

    I’m sure some people will baulk at the definitions for WHITE SAUCE and AL DENTE but I think with wordplay this precise you can indulge a degree of looseness

    Cheers P&A

12. There goes the WAPITI,
    Hippety hoppety!

    Thanks, Ogden Nash. But I didn’t know REMANET and will probably have forgotten it by this time next week – just as I always forget TIME=the enemy.

    Enjoyed the two big anagrams, TEMPER AT ELY, ADHERED, VILLAGER.

13. Some new words as others. Enjoyable but less AL and ABBA please. They’re becoming a bit boring now. Favourites were SCREWDRIVER, TUITION and the two excellent long anagrams.

    Ta Pasquale & Andrew.

14. Andrew, tiny typo in your second definition for FIELDS.

15. Pasquale is always a pleasure and this was no exception. I always enjoy the clever definitions such as Trump’s reserve. The 2 long anagrams opened up the puzzle quite quickly but plenty of head scratching still needed.
    I have no objection to obscure words as I recognise ( if it’s not obvious) that my own vocabulary is a best average. I also have no objection to looking up obscure (to me) GK online. I think to define what is out of bounds because of obscurity would be an impossible task so no point trying.
    Thanks to P and A

16. I also enjoyed this and agree with others that the obscure words were fairly clued and interesting to learn. I’ve only seen Cabbala spelt Kabbala but it was gettable from the clue.

17. Breezed through a Pasquale for a welcome change. Though my memory bank of a thwarted drive in snow up to Lake TAHOE in the late Sixties was probably the only reason I managed 23d. Excellent long anagram for the SOCIAL SCIENTIST, last two in the tasty WHITE SAUCE and AL DENTE. Lip smackingly good, I thought today…

18. One person’s obscurity is another’s daily fare…..if crosswords were restricted to the words everyone knows there would be such a limited pool of words we’d just see the same words every day.
    An Azed crossword is maybe half composed of words we’ve never heard of, and they are the best fun!
    Nice crossword Pasquale,
    Thanks for the blog

19. Sympathies for those who knew neither Gracie Fields nor cricket, but for once this Antipodean was not stumped on UKGK, as in FENCER. However Biblical references made me struggle with WHITE SAUCE.
    Liked MELANIN, once I finally worked out that the dash was ELAN and not em or en dash in typesetting.
    The 15 letter pillars were friendly, as was the grid.
    SCREWDRIVER made me laugh, as did the surface for DEBUTANTE, although in my youth in rural Australia, a debutante wasn’t necessarily posh. I do relate to food and drink alleviating slight depression in AL DENTE.

    Got COALITION, although pretty predictable with the usual gangster, and crossword/dated (?) euphemisms for sex?
    Am with AlanC@13 re ABBA. Saw a letter to the Editor on the Guardian site yesterday about the demographic the Guardian cryptic may appeal to. Cricket, the bible, drinks and songstresses from another era.

    RISHI was my FOI, but not because of the current Australia vs India cricket test.

20. Nice to see a lake that isn’t Erie for once (though I did waste time trying to fit it in).

21. Lots to enjoy, and DEBUTANTE was probably my favourite among several cracking clues.

    I’m among those a bit irritated by multiple unfamiliar words in a weekday puzzle. ALWAY, COITION, WAPITI are fairly clued but if you’ve never heard of REMANET then what’s the answer? It could just as easily be RAMENET or REMENAT. Obscurity per se is ok, but when allied with an anagram device offering multiple possibilities (rather than other wordplay making the answer certain) then it grates a bit.

    Still, it’d be a boring world if we all thought the same and maybe I should just have a better vocabluary.

22. Typical Pasquale – properly clued and with his customary sprinkling of rarities; for me, only REMANET was a complete unknown, but well clued and etymologically transparent. (If oofyprosser complains about the antiquity of Gracie FIELDS, why does he take his moniker from a Wodehouse character of the same vintage? 🙂 )

    I agree with bodycheetah @11 that the two culinary expressions were vaguely clued, but tightly constructed, so no harm done.

    I liked the long anagrams (including an oxymoron for Roz?). Glad that Ely wasn’t a ‘see’ for once.

    Thanks to S&B

23. On the easy side for Pasquale. Didn’t see COITION, though.
    I hope Oofy Prosser (@4) won’t take it amiss if I point out the irony of his thinking Gracie Fields is out of date!
    Thanks to the Don and to Andrew.

24. SueB @16, yes, I think people might be more familiar with Kabbala or Kabbalah, since the latter is used by the Kabbalah Centre made famous by Madonna and other celebrities.

    It comes from the same root as ‘cabal’, currently in vogue with the QAnon-ers and their ilk, and historically often used as an antisemitic ‘dog whistle’.

    pdm/AlanC – Abba boring/from another era??? Mamma mia!

    Thanks P & A.

25. Thanks, Pasquale and Andrew. Enjoyable as ever from the always reliable Pasquale.

    Crispy @10 – “one man’s obscurity is another’s every day word” – precisely! Which is why I hesitate to call any words obscure. The only one today that was unfamiliar to me was REMANET, though I’m sure I’ve come across it before, and as you say, it will be an everyday word for some people. (PJ @21 – I think you can make an educated guess at REMANET even if it’s not familiar itself, because of its cognates, eg REMAINDER, REMNANT, which are hinted at by the definition – at least, that’s how I deduced the correct answer in this case.)

    Interestingly, the OED gives frequency ratings to words – a score from 1-8 based on how often it appears in the kind of sources the OED uses, which provides a relatively objective measure of “rarity”, though not of “obscurity” since it doesn’t really tell you how many people will know the meaning of the word, only how often it is used.
    https://public.oed.com/how-to-use-the-oed/key-to-frequency/

    WAPITI is one of those useful grid-filling words, like ETUI, that probably appears in crosswords far more often than “in real life” because of its helpful combination of vowels.

26. Gervase @22 – “etymologically transparent” – I like that. A neat way of saying what I was trying to say in a lot more words.

27. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew
    Pretty easy for Pasquale, nthough I had to check REMANET, and didn’t parse DEBUTANTE.
    I agree with Widdersbel @25 – WAPITI used to be almost as common a crossword animal as gnu, ide, and ling, but it’s some time since I’ve seen it.

28. @4,22,23
    Sorry to labour the point, 22 wasn’t up as I typed 23.

29. Andrew, re AlanC@24, the same typo turns up at 14a in your script.

    Enjoyed this one, with just the right balance of familiarities and obscurities. Have a good friend Selina and friends in Galway, so SELENIUM and ALWAY were my first ones in.

    Re Gracie Fields, there was an interesting dichotomy of opinion, in the 2nd World War, when she married an Italian in 1940. The people loved her but the government were in an impossible position. She emigrated to Canada.

    Here’s two of her most famous, the first with all its ascentions to high notes and the second with a pleasant bouncing rhythm.

    https://youtu.be/w65azxoATH4

    https://youtu.be/3I9C_aUKcmU

    There’s a mini documentary made by BBC One Show. Google Gracie Fields One Show YouTube if interested. Sorry to write so much but my parents often talked about their mixed feelings re a British musical heroine being Canadian resident during a world war.

    Loved the long anagrams and although “Rishi” is generically a sage, everyone’s currently wondering whether “THE Rishi”, with his current Northern Ireland proposals, will turn out to be a sage or not so.

    Thank you Pasquale and Andrew.

30. A generally satisfying solve, with a few of the more obscure words challening us till the end. A particular fan of PENCE, TEMPERATELY, WHITE SAUCE and FEATHER BED.

31. I like the way Pasquale’s slightly oblique definitions encourage you to solve from the wordplay rather than bung and parse later.

32. Typical Pasquale with his usual fairly precise cluing.

    I thought both of the long anagrams were good spots. I liked COALITION with the slightly unusual synonym for ‘it’, FEATHER BED for the use of ‘down’ where I was picturing what is sometimes called a pull-down or fold-down bed; apparently, over the pond it’s called a Murphy bed – TILT together with REMANET.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew.

33. @Widdersbel You mean that crosswords aren’t real life? Good grief. Maybe I should get one.

34. REMANET doesn’t seem to come up very often, February 21, 2013 for the last Guardian outing in a Picaroon (25, 877), blogged by someone called Andrew, curiously.

    Kathryn’s Dad (we haven’t seen him recently?) said “EIGENVECTOR, NGULTRUM, SESTINAS and REMANET in a daily cryptic? (Yes, I know, they’re all clearly clued.)”, so Pasquale is not alone with obscurities.

    Pasquale used to be a real struggle for me, so I tried one of his older ones recently to check, and I found it quite straightforward, so I think I must have acclimatised to his style.

    Thanks Andrew and Pasquale

35. Don’t diss poor old Gracie Fields, oofyprosser at 4: look her up online (or simply click on the links Flea at 29 has helpfully given). She was very much of her time but was also enormously popular. Possibly because she never gave herself airs nor took herself too seriously. And if some figure from the Old Testament is allowed, I hardly think a star of the mid 20thC can be called out-of-date!
    I’m another who’d only seen CABBALA spelled with a K – and had no idea a rishi is “an accomplished and enlightened person”. What a misnomer!!
    Many thanks Pasquale for the fun and Andrew for the blog.

36. Dave Ellison @34: Kathryn’s Dad rarely posts these days, but appears frequently as a blogger under the alias Pierre.

37. Everything else has already been said, but have we all forgotten the Maha-RISHI Mahesh Yogi? Not this former(?) Beatle freak.

38. More obscure, but the seven rishi is the English translation of a reference, inter alia, to the Big Dipper.

39. The only word that was new to me is REMANET. (As a retired Government lawyer I am rather ashamed of that). I had to use the check button to get there. Otherwise, a steady solve. Just what I like: not too easy and not impossibly difficult. Just needs some concentration. I especially liked SCREWDRIVER. I realised after a while that I was looking at the clue the wrong way around. As soon as I changed gear it fell into place. There is a tendency to get stuck in one gear, but I think I’m getting better at exploring different perspectives. With thanks to Pasquale for a most enjoyable puzzle, and to Andrew.

40. A fine puzzle. All so clearly clued that even the obscurities become obvious.

    RENEWABLE ENERGY was a brilliant clue with an appropriate surface.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

41. Date Ellison@34 – Your last para interesting, but I’d been thinking that Pasquale’s puzzles are lighter and more fluent of recent days (I don’t think my solving ability has changed, certainly not improved, in many years). And wittier. And more entertaining. Perhaps it’s just that generally (notwithstanding Andrew’s first observation) he appears less often these days?
    I certainly enjoyed today’s.

    Many thanks both and all

42. Very enjoyable, and I agree with those who felt it was as ever very fairly and carefully clued. Thanks P and A

43. gpm@37: Funnily enough, the link is doubled, in his name and in the meditation location, Rishikesh. It came up in quizzing, in the last fortnight – Celebrity Mastermind 22/23 – Epi – – sode 7 – Debra Stephenson ( impressionist ) answering questions on John Lennon. ~ around 3 min 40 sec into the iPlayer run. I was pitching myself against DS.

    The question was something like “during an Indian meditation, which song did John Lennon write in order to persuade Mia Farrow’s sister to come out of the bungalow where she’d been meditating for days ?”

    Always attached to my Liverpool roots !

44. Charles @33 – I think a lot of people use crosswords to escape from the horrors of real life.

    Never mind the Beatles, there’s another Rishi we should all be familiar with here.

45. gsolphotog@5 We all enjoy that process when it happens — putting together what looks like a word from the wordplay and then finding that it’s a real word. The term we’ve been using for that is “jorum,” from an experience our blogger Eileen had with that word in a puzzle.

    Shanne@8 I had a different problem. I had _ _ _ _ E SAUCE, having got Esau, but couldn’t come up with WHIT. I’m still not convinced that “Whit” without “Sunday” is a festival.

    Nice puzzle, good anagrams, thank to Pasquale and Andrew.

46. I thought REMANET was pushing it – yes, some people will know it, but I’d strongly expect it to be obscure/NHO for a majority, and the crossers left several options open. Although like Widdersbel @25 I did get there eventually. Dragged WAPITI from the depths of my memory, which was very satisfying indeed.

    Really liked WHITE SAUCE, SOCIAL SCIENTIST, PENCE, and SCREWDRIVER.

    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

47. Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

    Valentine @ 45 Whit is not restricted to the Sunday. From Chambers

    Whit?suntide noun
    The season of Pentecost, comprising Whitsun week or Whit week, the week beginning with Whitsunday

    As Don Manley is Crossword Editor at the Church Times he probably knows what he’s talking about.

48. Amoeba @46
    I’ve not found anything else to fit – he was lucky to have REMANET!

49. Simon S@47 I still think Whit isn’t a festival. The word doesn’t occur without another time word like Sunday or week or -suntide. I can’t imagine somebody saying “Where are you spending Whit?”

50. REMANET seemed vaguely familiar to me, but from something more recent than 10 years ago (tx DE@34); maybe one of my crossword books.

    To continue the explanation from Widdersbel@25, those who have done O-level Latin (or equiv.) might recognize it as an inflection of remaneo (stay behind), which also gives us remain and remnant, or even of maneo, which with different prefixes gives us permanent and immanent. So maybe it’s the teensiest bit less obscure than you first thought.

51. Valentine@45, Whit is equivalent to Whitsuntide apparently, which starts on Whit Sunday. Not sure how many of the days count towards the festival.

52. Whit Friday is a thing; it’s when Whit Walks are held. But I still take Valentine’s point that you would never just say ‘Whit’ for the festival, any more than you would just say ‘White’, which is what it means.

53. I confidently plunked in the more commonly seen KABBALA, without it really occurring to me that that didn’t match the wordplay, which led me to no end of difficulty finding whatever menu item was WHITE _A_K_. Okay, the difficulty did have an end: I hit the cheat button. Other than that, this all went smoothly. I agree with the above sentiment that the Don’s puzzles are getting both a little easier and a lot more enjoyable. The only word I hadn’t seen before (in English) was REMANET, but it’s undiluted Latin so even that I could be confident of.

    I had never heard of the singer FIELDS, but the cricket reference was enough. Agree that these crosswords are definitely pitched at people of a certain age, with little pop culture more recent than, say, Cher (who hasn’t had a true hit record in about 20 years, it pains me to report).

54. Valentine @49
    Referring to ‘Whit’ as a holiday period (of a week) was (and still is in some quarters) commonly used as a shorthand reference to Whit week.
    I used to regularly hear the question ‘where are you spending Whit?’, when I were a lad 🙂

55. Collins:
    Whit
    in British English
    NOUN
    1. See Whitsuntide
    ADJECTIVE
    2. of or relating to Whitsuntide

56. muffin@48: The same is true of CABBALA.
    For WARTIME the only alternative was WARLIKE
    and for AL DENTE ” ANDANTE

57. pog @56
    The personal difference is that I had heard of CABBALA (more often with the C than the K, in fact).

58. … in fact the K version is kabbalaH, I think.

59. Muffin @58: as with many transliterated words, there are several variants. Merriam-Webster gives: “kabbalah, or less commonly kabbala or kabala or cabala or cabbala or cabbalah — a medieval and modern system of Jewish theosophy….”

60. [muffin/mrpenney, from Wiktionary:
    Alternative forms
    • Qabbala, Cabala, Cabalah, Cabbala, Cabbalah, Kabala, Kabalah, Kabbala, Qabala, Qabalah
    • kabballah, qabbala, cabala, cabalah, cabbala, cabbalah, kabala, kabalah, kabbala, qabala, qabalah, kabbalah, kaballah
    😉 ]

61. Ah, oh that we would all use the same alphabet, if not the same language….

62. Liked RENEWABLE ENERGY, DEBUTANTE, SCREWDRIVER.

    New for me: REMANET; ALWAY = for ever / always.

    Thanks, both.

63. ALWAY is quite common in folk songs (though an example doesn’t spring to mind!)

64. [Knock three times… means you’ll meet me in the alway?]

65. [EB @64
    I think that might be a mispronunciaition of “hallway”!
    There was an odd question on Ken Bruce’s “Popmaster” this morning about a cover of a Tony Orlando song (I can’t remember which). I think he got it the wrong way round!]

66. essexboy@64 🙂
    muffin@63
    “rejoice in the lord alway
    and again I say rejoice”
    Purcell – not really folk music, though.

67. [pog @66
    I should have rememberd the “Bell anthem” – my favourite Purcell[

68. Thanks Pasquale for a satisfying crossword. The top half was almost a write-in for me but I slowed way down in the SW. I got there in the end with favourites being SCREWDRIVER, MELANIN, COALITION (I got “it” for once), DEBUTANTE, and TUITION. I like occasional “obscurities” (i.e. things I don’t know) in crosswords, otherwise I feel shortchanged somehow. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

69. [muffin@67
    I prefer the sad stuff – Dido’s Lament “When I am laid in earth”. Alison Moyet (a real essexgirl) does a fine version.]

70. Thanks Andrew and agree that as usual I was largely comfortable entering what might not have been a word at all thanks to the clear wordplay, though I did cross my fingers for 4d – i think the related words noted by Widdersbel@25 must have subconsciously put me on the right track vs the two alternatives. Thanks also bodycheetah@11 and Gervase@22 for changing my mind about 16a despite a whit of doubt about the first part of wordplay, and essexboy@24 for somehow knowing that I was wondering about a possible “cabal” connection. Before this gets any longer, thanks Pasquale!

71. […& Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary. Cheerful, eh?]

72. Tony Horlando and Dawn lyric then ( fm K.T.T. ) ” ey girl watcha doing down there … “

73. [pog @69, yes, everything Alf does is great. Not bad for a girl from Baz Vegas.]

    [Flea @72: “Pull in the string with the note that’s attached to my art”]

74. pog @71 – love it! (We sang that in our church choir on Ash Wednesday last week.)

    Nothing to add about the puzzle except thanks to Pasquale and Andrew

75. EB@73 : Very good ! To be CANDID A thought DAWNED on me that you are the true punmaster of this forum. Said to myself “What are you doing Sunday?” and answered “Watching Liverpool v Man UTD”. I believe this will be the true homecoming of “de Pool” after their loss of form, so I’ll tie a yellow ribbon round the ole oak tree.

76. [Flea – it’s been three long years, but back at the height of the Covid lockdowns it was Ur-Penfold, Mark/PostMark and MaidenBartok who regularly occupied the punning podium here. I used to come in a poor fourth or fifth. Together we strained poor Gaufrid’s patience to its limits – and occasionally beyond 😉 ]

77. Lovely puzzle, thanks both…

78. Did anyone else spend time wondering how to parse BOLIVIAN as 5d, having leapt on the ’54’ and determined to make it fit?
    I did feel the ‘had briefly’ was unnecessary in 22ac – TUBED = ‘with pipe’ in crossword English at least.
    No matter; still an enjoyable exercise, thank you.

79. muffin@63 I know a fair number of folk songs and can’t think of one that has “alway” in it. Can you give a f’rinstance?

80. Hmmm 5 newish words for me as above stated but guessable mostly.
    Thanks Pasquale and Andrew

81. EB@76
    Warming. To recall familiar figures and to see Gaufrid’s name as soon as he came to mind …
    I surface to thank you, every one.
    Him, most. x

82. Thanks for the blog, I was too late and tired to read all the comments last night.
    Unusual to have an oxymoron for each of the long down clues.
    WHIT marches are still a thing, brass band competitions in the villages around Saddleworth.

83. eb@76, I echo dirkybee@81. I love a good pun, and I love a bad one even more. I miss Ur-Penfold and MaidenBartok, but I’m glad that you and PostMark are keeping the flag flying.

84. Fairytale of New York:
    “..and the boys of the NYPD choir were singing alway Bay…”

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