Guardian Prize 29,009 by Paul

71 comments on “Guardian Prize 29,009 by Paul”

1. I loved this. Got FAMILY MEMBER straight away and started looking for usual family members as I am sure Paul intended. Got a few down clues and started thinking about a CHURCH for 16 22

   But the real breakthrough was 25a – was sure that KIN had to be in there . Decided the answer was THINKING so taking away KIN that left THING and since I had recently watched Wednesday on Netflix I knew which family was referred to.

   I then got LUTHERAN CHURCH (lovely clue – my favourite) and I loved SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY and of course MORTICIA

   Thanks Paul and bridgesong

2. Thanks bridgesong. Can’t say I enjoyed this, the theme just seems too esoteric to me. I’d heard of the Addams family but that was the whole extent of my knowledge. The key 10,24 emerged quite readily and I settled down with a mindset of parents, uncles, aunts and cousins etc expecting in vain that they would be of assistance. I finished with a letter in every square, fairly confident they were correct but unable then to see why. My two LOIs were BICKY and MORTICIA, I didn’t like the first and like you would have spelt it ‘biccy’ but it has to be BICKY. this led to MORTICIA and Google did the rest. So I found it frustrating which is a pity because there were a number of unrelated clever clues.

3. I originally had Tars instead of PISH, and would argue that it was a valid answer for the clue until the crossers disabused me.
   Otherwise, favourites were AMAZED and MOPEDS.

4. I thought this was the most fun Paul puzzle for a while. It was not easy by any stretch, but yielded after a few sittings. I got the key FAMILY MEMBER pretty early, and was looking for Mum and Dad and the rest for some time. I had two particular cross-referencing clues tentatively answered, but how on earth could FESTER and THING qualify as family members – oh wait a minute, that’s how! I resisted the temptation to look up Addams family members, which prolonged the challenge quite nicely.

5. This was outstanding, and, having completed it, I looked at LUTHERAN CHURCH for several minutes in sheer admiration at Paul’s inventiveness and dexterity. I remembered the TV show from the 1960s , and I saw the first of the films on a transatlantic flight many years ago, Some actors seem born to play certain roles: John Goodman and Rick Moranis as Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble, for instance, even though the resulting film was pretty crap; but Anjelica Houston as Morticia Addams was made in heaven. “Don’t torture yourself, darling; that’s my job.”

6. Got the theme pretty quickly I recall from THINKING though no expert. Vaguely heard of Wednesday but the others are frequently referenced.
   Thanks both

7. Like others I got 10,24 and then tried to fit uncles and cousins into the linked answers. I had C.U… which would have fitted cousin nicely. Then I got the crossers on Morticia, the only member name I knew and consulted Wikipedia for the others.

   9a was last in. i couldn’t parse it.

8. 3d. “Too sweet” is “icky”, so “bicky”. “Biccy”, “bicky”, “bickie”, are they regionalisms? None of them here in the USA.

9. Hardly watched the show, but the kids did and used to say “You rang” like Lurch. Took me a while to get the trick, but quite fun. Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

10. I couldn’t get 14d but it now appears fairly straight forward thanks to the blogger. It read to me that the “fleece” has on the “city” and not vice versa. Is this a common trap for new players? Either way it was an enjoyable puzzle and a helpful blog. Thanks to both.

11. Another who spotted FAMILY MEMBER early then took a while to recognise which family. In my case it was LUTHERAN CHURCH and Lurch which suddenly made sense of FORESTER, which I had solved but not parsed. I then made short work of the rest of it as I have seen enough of the show to know them. Girlguiding even sings a grace to the theme tune.

    Thank you to Paul and bridgesong, I enjoyed this.

12. Me Too: I had FAMILY MEMBER early on and when I saw THING aroud KIN I thought ADDAMS FAMILY, but at that stage I thought it was just a clever variant, but then I saw MORTICIA staring me i the faceand went looking. THis is the first time I have spotted a less than obvious theme and it helped me.
    Another PAUL this week and another theme but it is obvious so I am not ruining anyones enjoyment by stating the fact.
    I enjoyed this one a lot, thanks both

13. As Biggles A has pointed out at 2, (and Dan Milton at 8)it has to be BICKY at 3 down (because ICKY means too sweet, and ICCY doesn’t mean anything). Unfortunately, Chambers doesn’t offer BICKY, just BICCY or BICKIE, so I went with the former. I’ve now checked the annotated solution, and it is indeed BICKY, whatever Chambers may say. I should have checked with Oxford Dictionary of English which does have BICKY.

14. Thanks for the blog , a very traditional numbered theme but expertly done. Did not know Wedneday ( unfortunately I did know the football team ) but all the others seem to have become familiar even to me. I liked the “rotating” in 1Ac , very deceptive, a typical Playtex for RATS, MOPEDS was very neat, SNARE DRUM my favourite of the lot,

15. My first two in (F2I?) FLEA BITES FLORA.
    Accusing Flea of anthophagy.
    How very dare they!

16. I thoroughly enjoyed this, possibly related to having recently watched the excellent Wednesday spinoff on Netflix recently.

    I thought the last two clues CHILE and CANNY were oddly simple compared to the rest, and it put me in mind of some advice in Alan Connor’s Two Girls, One on Each Knee book — start solving in the bottom right, as most setters write clues in order, and most write marginally more straightforward clues at the end compared to the beginning! (I’m sure there are lots of counter-examples, of course)

    Favourite was SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

17. Loved this even though never got the thematic link of The Addams Family. Not my … thing. Great clues and almost everything got parsed. Just didn’t work out what the odds and ends leftover had in common. Let’s hear it for PHALLUS. Many thanks Paul and bridgesong.

18. I’m not a fan on Paul’s cross-linked clues but this time I managed to solve 10/24 quickly. When the Addams Family theme appeared it became easier to solve and parse having enjoyed the TV mini-series Wednesday on netflix last year.

    LIked CANNY, SNARE DRUM.

    New for me: PISH; SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY (football club).

    Thanks, both.

19. Great fun, lots of favourites including the CHURCH and the football club.
    DM@8 – as I think you realise, BICKY (which is how I’d have spelt it) in its various spellings is a common UK colloquial term for ‘biscuit’ – (‘cookie’ to you, I guess).
    GA@10 – in 14d, the clue doesn’t clearly state the order so it could be either, but ‘screwcork’ is meaningless so it must be CORKSCREW. Ambiguity like this is very common. (Some might argue that the answer components should match the order they appear in the wordplay, as they do here, unless there is a clear indication of reversed order, but there are really no set rules.)
    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

20. I used to have a cat called MORTICIA, named by someone who was more familiar with the FAMILY than I was.

    I think the only other 10, 24 I knew was LURCH, but I didn’t get that for a long time as I had TINNY at 23d (it seemed to make sense, thinking of the sharp sound of tinny loudspeakers), and even then I had to spot the crossers for RANCH before the penny dropped.

    I liked the way the first half of my moniker was clued at 7d, and 27a was then obvious. One of my last in was FORESTER, a favourite author, but I couldn’t parse it having never heard of the appropriate 10, 24.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

21. Enjoyed this and thanks for a good blog. However, thematically this is perhaps best seen as a puzzle to mark the mighty Owls’ twenty game unbeaten run, which has made us safe from relegation well before Easter; with a nice subtheme thrown in to get us to 27ac

22. There may not be many opportunities to say that the LUTHERAN CHURCH was fun, so I feel I should take this one.

23. Paul can be quite CANNY, he sets a HIGH BAR, and I was AMAZED at MOPEDS, and clever how he kept it in the FAMILY, kept me THINKING!

24. [Andrew B @21. Typical Owls fan worrying about relegation when the team is in a fantastic position at the top of the table, with by far the best defensive record and not having looked like losing for several months now. 🙂 ]

25. Loved this one. Used to watch the Addams
    Family in the 60’s. After eating a BICKY, naturally, upon returning from school.

    https://youtu.be/ZZ5IWRz78DY

    and, throughout life’s chapters, always have had friends who are big SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY supporters.

    Fave was of course FLEA BITES ( I’m the non-chomping variety and there’s that “NON-” again ). 2nd fave was MOPEDS. I identified with those MODS, rather than the rockers. Went, every year, to the Isle of Man, where band leader Joe Loss had a residency ( old Scouse joke : “I remember his brother ‘Dead’, moreso” ). Anyway here, with some video capturing of the mods/rockers battles, is Joe with the Mods marching anthem

    https://youtu.be/xPkKgrmgFTw

    Thank you Paul and bridgesong.

26. Looks like I followed the fashion with FAMILY MEMBER first and then a flash of inspiration; in my case that was MORTICIA and everything fell into place after that. I’m afraid (or should that be I’m a-Frey-D), I parsed AMAZED as AZED chasing or following a reversed MA. It seems to me, it can go either way – describing AZED as a Grand Inquisitor didn’t seem that outrageous and, whilst those in the know will be aware the pseudonym is a reversal, is it more likely solvers will be aware of the Spaniard or the Observer setter?

    PISH, LUTHERAN CHURCH and MOPEDS were my favourites.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong

27. Another who has recently watched the excellent WEDNESDAY on Netflix but having got FAMILY MEMBER early, I failed on the clues which would have led me to the ADDAMS – PISH! Irish rather than European city for CORKSCREW would have helped but can’t complain.
    [Andrew B, please spare a thought for us QPR supporters, as we are heading for a twenty game BEATEN run].

28. Oh and ta P & B.

29. [Sheffield hatter@24 if your moniker reflects a football allegiance, then you may recall the 1990 relegation battle in the old division one: one of the many causes of my inveterate football pessimism. But yes, deep down even I think it will end well for us this season, tho’ perhaps with a few plot twists to come]

30. This was an unusual experience for a Saturday Guardian – in fact a bit of a slog, since the theme, except for one thematic item, was a closed book to me. After solving all that I could of the unthemed clues I eventually got SHEFFIELD, and the word ‘club’ in that clue enabled me to get WEDNESDAY – but not match it to ’10 24′. Somewhat later, I was relieved to get LUTHERAN CHURCH (a very good clue), in which I saw the only character (LURCH) that I remember and recognise as having been in The Addams Family. FAMILY MEMBER then became clear, as did other family members like Morticia and Thing. I didn’t mind having to look up these names, but on this occasion I did not particularly enjoy spending most of my solving time having to work round the theme.

    Thanks anyway to Paul for what was a well-designed thematic puzzle – for the initiated! And thanks to bridgesong for the blog.

31. I would spell it BICCIE. Oh well.
    Great fun to be misdirected at the level of the theme as well as the clues. Thanks!

32. I didn’t figure out the theme until beyond half way. Eventually THING as a family member stirred a very distant memory of the 60s TV series, and its other characters, especially Lurch and Uncle Fester, and the introductory tune which has been bugging me ever since. Obviously the puzzle theme wouldn’t suit some, but a recent theme about dogs was a complete ‘don’t start’ for me. Has the Beverly Hillbillies ever been done? Other non-thematic clues were all good fun. It’s definitely ‘Bicky’, and I never use the Chambers dictionary of misuse of English. Good puzzle. Thanks

33. Always encouraging to have a good start with most of the NW corner going in quickly followed by SHEFFIELD (fine!) and WEDNESDAY (unparsed), and FAMILY MEMBER.
    Then some time wasted trying to shoehorn aunt, uncle, Pa, bro etc into solutions, the penny finally dropping with MORTICIA for which I needed all of the crossers.
    As I had never watched the series- not my thing- I had to google the Addams Family and the remaining solutions all fell quickly.
    Since I regard this as cheating- I’m a pre-internet solver- this was marginally less satisfying for me than usual from my favourite setter.
    Still , an enjoyable morning awaits with another Paul Prize.

34. Thankfully Paul in easier mode this Saturday. Good luck all.

35. As a member of the theme loving contingent, I enjoyed this & particularly so as it brought back happy childhood memories of this TV family. Fester got me going here as at first Wednesday only had me baffled. Now I can’t the theme tune out of my head.

36. MrPostMark@26 I had similar thoughts for AMAZED but decided DEZAMA is okay for chasing , one of those words that can be before or after in a crossword. Deza
    ( Azed) Ximenes and Torquemada all Grand Inquisitors and the only three setters of the main Observer crossword for 97 years, pretty amazing.

37. AlanC@27, I am not going to say I told you so, but you were warned about quantum entanglement. You can only blame yourself for the demise of KPRN.

38. Good fun. FAMILY MEMBERS came easily but I had to wait for the crossers to solve MORTICIA, which then sent me on the way.

    The key phrase, SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY and LUTHERAN CHURCH are really good. Paul’s surfaces can be a bit wayward but I thought these were all very successful.

    ACETIC acid is certainly ‘sharp’, but I don’t think you would say that something tasted acetic, so the words aren’t strictly synonymous. ‘Citric’ is possible in this context though, because it can either refer to citric acid itself or as an adjective from Citrus.

    Thanks to S&B

39. Well, I ground this one out THINKING that FAMILY MEMBER was an impossibly broad topic, doh! I found that MORTICIA was part of the Addams family but did not make any other connections (I’m not sure I have ever watched The Addams Family). I guess that Paul could have put ADDAMS in 9 but presumably thought that would be too obvious, and many others seemed to have twigged the theme without further guides.

    I liked the fortune teller reciting letters.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong.

40. Thanks Bridgesong, I needed that explanation to understand the parsing of AMAZED. Deza, eh… didn’t know that!

41. bridgesong, you’ve got more C’s in Biccky than will fit in the grid.

    I never saw the TV show, but I remember the characters from their originals in Charles Addams’s ghoulish cartoons in the New Yorker. The characters didn’t have names in the cartoons, but I ran across them somewhere. My first in was Morticia.

    I wasn’t British enough to be bothered by BICKY, I just popped it in without knowing the proper spelling(s).

    Andrew B@21 Not having heard of the owls, I googled around with sport terms and found that they’re the men’s soccer team at Temple University in Philadelphia. Adding uk to the googlefodder got me to Wednesday.

    Roz@37 What’s KPRN? Google tells me it’s a small local airport in Alabama, a Colorado radio station or the Kentucky Pharmacy Reseidency Network. Somehow I don’t think you were referring to any of those.

    Thanks to Paul and bridgesong.

42. Valentine @41: if you look closely, the middle C has a line through it, indicating that it was an error. If you look at the grid (which I haven’t corrected) you will see that I originally had BICCY as the answer, now corrected to BICKY.

43. Great prize. I discovered, as Valentine points out, that the cartoon characters were unnamed, I also kept trying to figure out where the most likely (I thought!) 10, 24 would appear in an answer, but ITT never did.

    Loved SNARE DRUM and LUTHERAN CHUCH for the cracking constructions, but had a time with AMAZED, which held out for a couple days.

    Tiny nitpick, and it certainly didn’t hold me up in solving – we here are all so accustomed to OR = GOLD = AU as wordplay fodder that it wasn’t until today, reading the blog for 15A FORESTER, that it occurred to me that OR is not equivalent to “something precious,” but to a colour, when used in heraldry. The word for that colour, GOLD, in another sense of course, does mean something precious, but a direct equivalence is surely lacking. A small slip in a very enjoyable puzzle.

    Thanks to setter and blogger(s)

44. Valentine@41
    Alan C is a fan of Queens Park Rangers(QPR), a not very successful football club. It is Roz’s little joke that following the demise of her late majesty it should now be called KPR.
    Not a fan of themes as obscure as this. Besides I’m told that Lurch was the butler, so not a family member. Do the Lutherans still regard themselves as reformers? If so, of what?

45. A typical challenging but entertaining puzzle from Paul.

    LURCH was my way in, identifying the FAMILY in question. Having recently watched the WEDNESDAY series helped – I wonder if Paul watched it. I loved the original TV series, and the new show as well. Just a shame that Gomez the Adams paterfamilias didn’t make it into the grid, but all the other theme clues were fun.

    Deza was new to me.

    Thanks to both.

46. Surprised at how many people are so totally unfamiliar with the members of the Addams family, but then I had an uncle and aunt who were big fans of the 60s series, so have known it more or less forever. It still didn’t stop me hunting for more conventional FAMILY MEMBERS at first. On the other hand, I didn’t know DEZA, even though I looked up the Inquisition – how did I miss him?

    Good fun, this. And who but Paul would clue member=PHALLUS?

47. [Roz @37 & Pino @ 44: I won a few quid today on the losers].

48. Haven’t had time to read the comments, so apologies for any repetition in these notes on the puzzle and blog.

    I also got FAMILY MEMBER fairly easily and expected aunt, nephew, etc to come up. MORTICIA was my way in to the particular family and although I used to watch the Adamms Family avidly as a kid in the sixties, I had to look them up to remind myself of all the names.

    I’m surprised at the remark “As usual with a puzzle by Paul, the surfaces were excellent”. Surely Paul is better known for very clever wordplay than excellent surfaces? Just looking, for example, at 1ac, it’s a clever clue but not a sentence you can really imagine encountering in the wild

    9ac Azed was, of course, influenced in his choice of pseudonym by that of his predecessor, Ximenes and his predecessor in turn, Torquemada. https://www.theguardian.com/observer/comment/story/0,6903,439507,00.html

    13ac is a double definition, with the second being cryptic.

    25ac Was THING actually a family member? Or something more akin to a pet?

    23dn I entered TINNY at first, thinking of ‘musically sharp’, but I think the word has more to do with timbre than pitch, so I was relieved when I realized the answer was CANNY, meaning sharp in a different way.

49. For those who are unfamiliar with the Addams Family, I highly recommend checking out the New Yorker cartoons, which have been frequently anthologised, before watching Wednesday, the excellent Netflix series.

    Like Shanne@11, LURCH at 16,22 was my way into the theme.

    Petert@22 is spot on about fun in the Lutheran church, although I do make an exception for J.S. Bach.

    I echo Gervais@38. Paul’s surfaces are often “a bit wayward” (politely put), but this time they crackled with ingenuity and humour – very well done.

    Thanks Paul and bridgesong for the fun.

50. { AlanC@47 , very pleased for you but it has spoilt my joke . KPRN was meant to be their new name, Kings Park Rangers Nil . ]

51. Always enjoyable to complete a Paul puzzle. Don’t know what a 24a of 16, 22 would make of 6d though. 🙂

    Thanks to Paul for the entertainment and to bridgesong for parsing FLEA BITES (doh!).

52. bridgesong, re: 4d TEA LEAF and other similar clues, may I respectfully suggest that you follow Eileen’s lead and substitute the term “aural wordplay” for the more complaint-generating term “homophone”. (Although they are exactly the same in this clue, they aren’t always, as the homophone sticklers are quick to point out.)

    Thanks for your excellent blog. I completely agree with your assessment of this puzzle in your preamble.

53. Perhaps for the first time ever, I gave up on a Guardian puzzle, once the theme, of which I had neither knowledge of nor interest in, became obvious (I solved LUTHERAN CHURCH, leaving LURCH unaccounted for, so googled it and thus twigged FAMILY MEMBER.)

    I’ve come here simply to reiterate that I promised cellomaniac, a couple of weeks ago, to adopt her/his ‘aural wordplay’, in favour of ‘homophone’ in my blogs, where necessary and will henceforth add a ©, as I did with muck’s ‘Araubeticals’.

54. Eileen@53 You might then also add a (c) thing to “Jorum,” since it’s your contribution.

55. Cellomaniac@52 aural wodplay is one of the biggest culprits for ambiguous answers when the indicator is in the middle.

56. I twigged to the theme very late, which helped solve my last ones to parse, LUTHERAN CHURCH, and THINKING.
    The Addams Family was the only television program we were allowed to watch at boarding school, apart from the Moon Landing. Why that was I have no idea. Time of day, after tea, before the news, before prep? Were we even allowed to watch the news? I don’t remember. That was the 60’s. They probably didn’t want our minds to be corrupted by what was really going on in the world, but some macabre humorous fiction was okay.

    ‘You rang’ is still a ‘joke’ today, as is time to go to the hairdresser when you’re looking like Cousin It, who sadly didn’t get a mention

    On the other hand, while I knew Mods and Mopeds I didn’t know the link between the 2. Thanks Flea@25.

    Liked LUTHERAN CHURCH, for the unlikely image of Lurch defending the homestead with University
    reformers. However, the original actor who played Lurch, Ted Cassidy, was university-educated, very accomplished, and a reformer, active politically.

    Ticks also for the wordplay in SNARE DRUM and for the fodder in FAMILY MEMBER.

57. I put Forester in at 15 across and lazily thought the family reference was Foster (as in foster family) thus thinking all types of family were fair game (including the Swiss family Robinson leading me to Robinson Crusoe at 16 early on – two crossers fitted this).
    Shame there was no Addams nina somewhere.
    Always nice to learn new things in a crossword and I’ll now give Wednesday a proper go on Netflix (only half-heartedly watched episode 1).
    Great fun again. Thanks to blogger and setter.

58. [Roz @50: so cruel 🙂 ]

59. cellomaniac @52: I always enjoy your posts, even when I don’t agree with them, and I know your ‘aural wordplay’ suggestion was proposed (and seconded by Eileen) with the best intentions.

    My problem with it is that it could be taken as ‘lowering the bar’ for soundalike clues, and opening the way for much looser pun-type indications, which I would have thought are likely to produce more controversy, not less.

    For example – in my part of the world, where Cockney influence is very near, I know people who pronounce ‘axle’ almost the same as ‘hacksaw’ (the ‘dark L’ becomes a U/W sound, and the H disappears). Would that equivalence be OK in a crossword? It certainly seems to be covered by ‘aural wordplay’.

    How about:
    Is culture astir in Essex? Sounds like it (10)

    Then of course there’s Strine, Affabeck Lauder, and ginf’s beloved plate sarty.

    Could ‘ears are alight’ be an aural wordplay clue for ISRAELITE? (thanks bodycheetah)

    And there’s a whole world of mondegreens out there – Peter Kay’s misheard song lyrics could provide rich pickings.

    By abandoning ‘homophone’ in favour of something looser, we might actually increase the number of arguments on 15² – which I’m sure is the opposite of your intention.

60. [ Sorry AlanC @58 , I get all my football jokes from my students, some of them are very good ]

61. Didn’t get a single themed clue. Got maybe 7 or 8 of the regular ones, and didn’t even like the parsing much on a couple of those. Figured Paul was off on one of his obscure days, and gave up.
    Not liking it much now when I see the answers, even. Luckily was more on the same wavelength this week.

62. Thanks bridgesong, relieved to see PISH as I only knew it as a disparaging term for eg cheap beer in Scotland, for obvious reasons. I entered BICKY but was sufficiently perturbed by the ICKY/BICCY mismatch that I wrote a note on the printout to that effect (and that Collins online did not support the correct answer – though I suspected that there may be many spellings in actual use whereas have only seen ICKY thus). Tony Collman@48 I had TINNY at first too, maybe even my first in. Gee Andrew@10, maybe more experienced/more widely travelled solvers can confirm, but I think the G is quite relaxed about “on” possibly meaning on the top, on the bottom, on the end or on the start of some other term and perhaps other organs are more restrictive in how it can be used. Anyway despite, or maybe because of, only vague interest in and knowledge of the theme I thought this was a fine challenge, thanks Paul.

63. essexboy@59, although I like a good pun, I like a bad one better, and I think they should be fair game for setters. Aural wordplay allows for this while insisting on accurate homophones does not. And I‘ve never understood why “sounds like” and similar indicators have to mean “sounds exactly the same as”. I don’t think I have ever seen a clue where the setter says explicitly that it is a homophone – that is just one interpretation of whatever indicator the setter has used, and the most restrictive one at that.

    The other reason I like the less restrictive term is that it includes the word “play”, which is what crosswords are supposed to be. I sometimes think that some people (certainly not you) occasionally need a reminder of that.

    The only “rule” that I would argue for is that the aural wordplay should be fair to the solver. I don’t think that puns (good or bad) or “near-homophones” are inherently unfair, and if they are fun, they ought not to be discouraged.

64. [Cello @63, thanks for responding. I think the problem is that everyone is going to take a different view as to what kind of aural wordplay is ‘fair to the solver’. One possible ‘fairness boundary’ is the homophone test – and that appears to be the one that is in use at present. Crossword clues may not explicitly say ‘This is a homophone’ – it would be rather strange if they did – but the fact that almost all soundalike clues are homophones, or are clearly intended to be homophones, suggests that that is the convention setters (and their editors) are abiding by.

    Most of the complaints arise, not because a clue isn’t a homophone, but because it’s a homophone in RP, but not in other varieties of English. I understand the justification – you have to have a generally accepted standard, and in most UK dictionaries the RP pronunciation is the one given first – but I also understand the sense of annoyance that some feel, especially those with accents which have historically been looked down on or discriminated against by speakers of the ‘prestige dialect’ which is RP.

    If editors really were to allow looser soundalikes such as ‘ears are alight’ for ‘Israelite’ (which I don’t think is going to happen any time soon) I think complaints would come thick and fast. They’re great fun in the context of a comedy show, but when you are trying to solve a cryptic clue, that degree of latitude could lead to an explosion in the number of possible permutations – and cause the average mere mortal to throw in the towel or stick to Sudoku!]

65. Thanks Paul and bridgesong. I only spotted the theme with my loi, Morticia, the only member of the family I remembered. I never watched the show. All the other themed answers I had entered without understanding the parsing until the end. 18 down I misunderstood, as I thought somehow NOTATE = CONTRACT. Right answer, but wrong parsing.

66. eb and cellomaniac, love your dialogue. Can see both sides.
    Earworm:
    https://www.google.com/search?q=both+sides+now+joni+mitchell&rlz=1C1ONGR_en-GBAU987AU987&oq=both+sides+now+joni&aqs=chrome.0.0i13i355i512j46i13i512j69i57j0i13i512l3j46i13i512j0i13i512l3.13053j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

    and eb, an earworm for Israelites; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtfdH3-TQ4

67. We were away in London last week and at some point the crossword got lost. Once home we were completely distracted by trying to solve 10,24 when in fact many of the other clues were relatively simple. I have never knowingly watched the Addams Family except that once we got the theme my memory contained some of the names in particular Morticia and Lurch and I have never heard of Wednesday in this context. We got amazed but did not understand why and had forgotten the Snare Drum. We were delighted by Lutheran Church which deceived us nicely. All in all as usual we enjoyed this Paul Puzzle very much and knowing his predilection took some time to remember the member for 6 down.

68. [pdm @66: thanks, love Joni (and all other Canadians, of course 😉 )]

69. [I have enjoyed the dialogue here (and previously) on the subject of what I long ago used to call a homophone (when referring to what is indeed intended to be exactly that!). Now, when I want to make a comment on such wordplay, I use terms like ‘sounds like’ or ‘soundalike’. I take essexboy’s point about RP being the standard against which soundalikes are judged. It’s sensible for setters and solvers to recognise this, since RP is what is used in the popular ‘standard’ dictionaries, as eb said.

    I would never have thought of a term like ‘aural wordplay’, but it’s meaning is obvious and clear, and I fully understand why it was proposed (and is already in use). It is practically a synonym for ‘intended homophone’, which has an altogether different connotation!]

70. paddymelon@66, now that’s an earworm that I can live with. Joni has been a favourite since I saw her live in the late ’60’s, and she’s still going strong. I’m glad you like her too, eb. I didn’t continue the (very enjoyable) dialogue for fear of going round and round and round in the circle game.

    eb@64 and and Alan B@69, my last (?!) comment is that RP is not actually spoken by anyone in North America outside of Boston (and certainly not by me), so reliance on it as the definitive pronunciation of the English language seems a bit parochial. I do not object to aural wordplay that relies on non-rhotic pronunciation – I’ve watched enough British tv and films to be able to get it – but I do question it being defined as the only true homophonia.

71. Ooh! And this, to which I was rather addicted for a few months about twenty years ago, when one turned up in a pub near where I was staying.

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