Guardian Cryptic 29163 Paul

by

Thank you to Paul. Definitions are underlined in the clues.

Across

1. In the main, might augur set about a captive? (3,5)

SEA POWER : SEER(an augur/a soothsayer in ancient Rome) containing(set about) [A + POW(abbrev. for “prisoner of war”, an example/? of a captive) ].

Defn: A country’s strength/might at sea/in the main.

6. Bacon brought home as yet unslaughtered? (6)

LIVING : Double defn: 1st: Occupation that brings home the bacon/the work that supplies the money to live on); and 2nd: …/alive and kicking.

9. See 24

10. New palace overseas for Lothario (8)

CASANOVA : “new house, eg. a palace” in non-English languages/overseas – CASA(“house” in Spanish as in “mi casa su casa” or “your house is my house”) NOVA(“new” in Portuguese as in “bossa nova” or “new wave”).

11. Death ultimately captured by tormented Yeats, for example, in common parlance (2,4,3)

AS THEY SAY : Last letter of(… ultimately) “Death” contained in(captured by) anagram of(tormented) YEATS + SAY(for example).

13. Arm better, if leg’s bandaged (5)

RIFLE : Hidden in(…’s bandaged) “better, if leg“.

Defn: …/weapon.

15, 29. PM with brown ale dancing in nude (6,5,3)

ANDREW BONAR LAW : AND(with/plus) + [ anagram of(… dancing) BROWN ALE contained in(in) RAW(naked/in the nude) ].

Defn: Former UK Prime Minister.

17. Shame about grubbiness, that needing clearing out? (6)

PIGSTY : PITY(shame/cause for regret or disappointment) containing(about) “grubbiness” minus its inner letters(that needing clearing out).

Defn: …/a grubby, in this case, enclosure which needs regular cleaning.

18. Thin rakes in back of storeroom? Correct (6)

REMEDY : REEDY(tall and thin) containing(rakes in) last letter of(back of) “storeroom“.

Defn: …/to make right.

19. Tailor working in a marketplace (6)

RIALTO : Anagram of(… working) TAILOR.

One in Venice:

21. Parade flopped with minimum of wonga invested (5)

SWANK : SANK(flopped/collapsed) containing(with … invested) 1st letter of(minimum of) “wonga“.

Defn: …/to display boastfully and showily.

22. Free crack in plastic I’d seen (9)

DISENGAGE : GAG(crack/a joke) contained in(in) anagram of(plastic) I’D SEEN.

25. Survey soldiers entering country (8)

PANORAMA : OR(abbrev. for “other ranks”/collectively, non-commissioned officers in the army) contained in(entering) PANAMA(a Central American country).

Defn: A complete …/overall view of a subject.

26. Con elected crony (6)

INMATE : IN(elected/to obtain the position/post for which the election was held) + MATE(crony/sidekick).

Defn: … or convict.

28. First of all, some tabloid, appallingly shabby it seems is where circulation has dropped to zero (6)

STASIS : 1st letters, respectively, of(First of all) “some tabloid, appallingly shabby it seems“.

Defn: …/a state of stoppage of flow of a body fluid.

29. See 15

Down

2. Australian runner in team, sub regularly used (3)

EMU : 2nd, 4th and 6th letters of(… regularly used) “team, sub“.

3. Try to sell field (5)

PITCH : Double defn: 1st: …/try to persuade someone to buy or accept; and 2nd: An area of ground for playing on an outdoor team game.

4. Boy with drawers off toyed with balls (5,5)

WORRY BEADS : Anagram of(… off) [BOY plus(with) DRAWERS].

Defn: …/balls that are toyed with/little decorative balls that someone who is worried or bored can play with in their hands.

5. Material passed round court relating to lower chamber (6)

RECTAL : REAL(material/not imagined) containing(passed round) CT(abbrev. for “court”).

Defn: …, ie. the final section of the large intestine ending at the anus, through which waste material passes.

6. Large tree, birch (4)

LASH : L(abbrev. for “large”) + ASH(tree).

Defn: …/to beat, in this case, with a bundle of twigs from the birch tree.

7. Alcohol-fuelled actor? (3,6)

VIN DIESEL : Cryptic defn: Reference to VIN(wine, an alcoholic drink) + DIESEL(a fuel for engines).

8. Book fighter, third of eight, odd number? (7,4)

NOVELTY SONG : NOVEL(a book that tells a story) + TYSON(Mike, American boxer/fighter) + 3rd letter of(third of) “eight“.

12. First thing in sixth line, technique beyond dispute (7,4)

SPARROW FART : [ ROW F(the sixth line after Row A, B, …) + ART(technique/skill in a particular field) ] placed below(beyond, in a down clue) SPAR(to dispute/to argue, in this case, without hostility).

Defn: Slang for … in the morning/dawn.

14. Online editor promoted assistant after rest overwhelmed by success (10)

WIKIPEDIAN : [ Reversal of(promoted, in a down clue) AIDE(an assistant/right-hand man) placed below(after, in a down clue) KIP(a rest/a nap) ] contained in(overwhelmed by) WIN(a success/a triumph).

Defn: …/one of the volunteers that maintain/edit Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia.

16. Crack henchmen controlled areas (9)

DOMINIONS : DO(to crack/solve a problem) + MINIONS(henchmen/servile followers of someone important).

20. Writer with cups tipped over soda (6)

BICARB : BIC(a popular French brand of ballpoint pen/writing implement or writer) plus(with) reversal of(… tipped over, in a down clue) BRA(short for “brassiere”, undergarment consisting of cups supporting the female breast).

Defn: Informal term for “bicarbonate of soda”, an example of sodas/simple inorganic compounds of sodium.

23. Player tiring in the end, one of the Yankees missing second half (5)

GAMER : Last letter of(… in the end) “tiring” + “American”(a Yankee) minus(missing) its last 4 letters(second half).

Defn: … of video games or in role-playing games.

24, 9. Do succeed, does Queen have to? (4,6)

PASS MUSTER : PASS(to succeed in, say, a test or exam) + [MUST ER? ](does the Queen/ER, Elizabeth Regina have to?) .

Defn: …/is acceptable.

27. Drink served with gin, when initially announced? (3)

TEA : Homophone of(when … announced) 1st letter of(initially) “tonic”, a drink mixed with gin and served as a “gin and tonic” cocktail).

There is also a gin and tea cocktail, but that doesn’t go with the wordplay.

85 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29163 Paul”

  1. Paul at his cheekiest with lots of laughs including the hilarious WORRY BEADS, SPARROW FART, ANDREW BONAR LAW, VIN DIESEL and NOVELTY SONG. Other favourites were WIKIPEDIAN, BICARB and GAMER. Delightful stuff.

    Ta Paul & scchua

  2. Thanks Paul and scchua
    A couple unparsed – I thought the dispute in 12 was the “row”, so didn’t see the rest.
    Raised an eyebrow at the double duty of “that needed cleaning out” in 17.

  3. I find “schoolboy humour” sort of disgusting in an old fashioned way. I guess young kids are still using this type of humour but do adults also use it on a daily basis? Is it healthy? It’s a real turn-off for me!

    New for me: ANDREW BONAR LAW, SPARROW FART.

    I did not parse 12d apart from ROW = line + ART = technique.

    Thanks, both.

  5. Wanted to get back to the soap I’m bingeing, so revealed Bonar Law. Nice puzzle with a fun bit of ribaldry (at Paul’s mild end, as pdm noted in the other place). Thanks both, great pics and a vid scchua, bravo!

  6. Never heard of VIN DIESEL
    Usually SPARROW’S FART-often without the FART but its a Paul puzzle
    I found this annoying
    Les Bercaux in Epernay used to inspect Moet’s latest offering and give it a oui or a non as it so inconsisent.
    So are Paul’s puzzles. This one was a NON!

  8. Hadn’t heard of OR for other ranks meaning soldiers, so hadn’t managed to parse 25a. I only think of PANORAMA as a noun, and it is not really a survey. I have never heard the expression of SPARROW FART. Thanks Sschua for parsing WIKIPEDIAN for me. I thought too many of the clues used similar devices: like 1st letter of, last letter of etc. I tend to agree with Michelle @3 regarding the over-pervasive attempts at humour in this puzzle. Not one of Paul’s best.

  10. Michelle @3. Apologies if it offends, but yes, some of us still enjoy schoolboy humour.
    Kind of agree with Copmus@6 – I thought this was one of Paul’s more irritating offerings.
    Scchua. Re the novelty song example. Not sure the white actor doing a cod Indian accent is a good idea.
    Thanks for the blog, and thanks to Paul for the puzzle.

  12. Paul at his mildly smutty but brilliant best – the immaculately rude surface for WORRY BEADS is wonderful, as is the carefully constructed charade for SPARROW FART. And a surface offering a suitably horrible image for ANDREW BONAR LAW, a justly forgotten PM the legacy of whose seditious and probably treasonable manoeuvres in cahoots with Carson we are still suffering to this day.
    In PASS MUSTER, I don’t know whether, as may well be the case, Paul composed this crossword before His Maj ascended the throne; if not, it’s interesting that ER is still “Queen” rather than needing to be “late queen” or similar.
    Haven’t enjoyed a crossword so much for some time. Thanks, Paul (and scchua for the excellent blog).

  13. The expression SPARROW FART (no possesive) for early in the morning is used occasionally here in the north of England.

  15. “Up at sparrow fart” reasonably common here (in the North West of England). Thought this was the usual ‘too clever by far’ Paul ie. guess the answer from the definition and crossers then retrofit the wordplay. Thanks both.

  16. (paddymelon, see my support for “taxing” on yesterday’s blog. While he was at the bar I taxed a couple of ciggies from his pack.

  17. Yes, SPARROW FART still in fairly common use among northerners. This was a particularly Paulian effort, after completing 4d and 5d I found myself thinking that it was a good thing that he doesn’t seem to be especially interested in chess.
    Thanks to Paul and scchua.

  18. Not as enjoyable as the usual Paul for me. Granted there’s a bit of silliness but this was just quite tough without much flair for once. No clever cross referencing clues for instance. Were it not for SPARROW FART and a couple of others I’d be tempted to say this was Paul with his Times hat on. Got worn down by the end and revealed BICARB. Had lost the will to fight on. I guess you can’t expect something exceptional the whole time.

  19. 25: surely other ranks are all who are not commissioned officers, i.e. not just NCOs but privates etc as well?

  20. I don’t get the grammar and indicators in WORRY BEADS. Why is the def toyed with balls.?
    Either off or toyed would have done as an indicator. Worry is not past tense (toyed with). I don’t geddit.

  26. paddymelon @20… “off” is the anagrind, “toyed with balls” is the definition. Worry beads are balls that you toy (play) with, hence they are balls that are toyed with, or “toyed with balls”

  27. muffin@22. Yes, I’ve finally come to some state approximating prajna 🙂
    As the lama said to me, or was it something about dementia/, if you can remember you’ve forgotten, you probably have it.

  30. Firmly in the south (London), and sparrow’s fart (always in the possessive form) used and heard regularly.

  31. CASANOVA is Italian rather than Spanish (or Portugese) for ‘new house’. Palace might be a stretch, but I’m no expert (casino is ‘little house’ so I suppose it might be legit). The Spanish expression is ‘mi casa es su casa’ but despite living in Latin America for over 30 years I don’t recall anyone actually saying it.

    I agree with Michelle@3. The relentless schoolboy humour has long lost its charm for me.

  32. Sparrowfart as one word in my case but, yes, a word/phrase I know and occasionally use. I started off at a cracking pace with this one and, overall, it was certainly a gentler Paul than many. I was beaten by the PM, though, and am disappointed that my knowledge of British political history seems to have skipped the six months of his premiership. WORRY BEADS was funny, for sure, and I’m kinda surprised that I haven’t encountered VIN DIESEL in a puzzle before. Other faves included RIFLE, REMEDY, RIALTO, PITCH and DOMINIONS.

    Some of the surfaces were rather strained – whilst I liked the WP for SPARROW FART, the clue makes no sense to me as a sentence or phrase – and I was surprised by what is surely a very plainly signalled and rather clunky acrostic which seems out of keeping with the rest. And which uses 16 words to clue 6 letters!

    Thanks Paul and scchua

  33. I knew Bonar Law as one of the least durable Prime Ministers, but had forgotten his first name. Brings back memories of “Round the Horne” on the radio.

  34. Crispy@10 the NOVELTY SONG was, I think, originally done by Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren for the 1960 film “The Millionairess” based on a G B Shaw play, in which an Egyptian doctor falls in love with the heiress’s pulse

  35. michelle@3 and revbob@8 agree with you about the humour. Crispy@10 I don’t find it offensive, just tiresome.
    Shame really, as apart from that I really get on with Paul’s puzzles.

    Thanks scchua third the blog. The illustrations much appreciated as always. 🙂

  36. Had confidently put in SEA Tides at the very start – Set about the letter A, and Ides as in Ides of March i.e might augur, so held myself up for some considerable time before I realised that something wasn’t quite as it should be…

  38. I was held up by not knowing ANDREW BONAR LAW and SPARROW FART. I didn’t understand why CASA was clued as palace rather than house (palacio is the Spanish palace). Like muffin @2, I got my knickers in a twist with the parsing of SPARROW FART, thinking of ROW F, and then why is spar = line?

    I liked the main might in SEA POWER, the definitions in WORRY BEADS and NOVELTY SONG, and the wordplay for GAMER.

    Thanks Paul and scchua.

  41. I think PIGSTY must have been intended as an &lit / clue-as-definition, otherwise there is indeed the problem of the double duty (muffin @2 and KVa @4).

    AC @33: yes! When Julian and Sandy start operating as lawyers they call their firm Bona Law – brilliant!

    Thanks Paul and scchua.

  42. PIGSTY
    muffin@2
    Sorry. I didn’t realise that your comments and mine were similar.
    Lord Jim@41
    The ‘Grubbiness, that needing clearing out?’ works as the def well, I think. Only the ‘shame about’ is
    left out. It seems to work as an extended def.
    An extended def and a wordplay involving the whole clue.
    &lit or something close.

  44. Crossbar @34. Just because it’s based on Shaw doesn’t mean a white actor doing an Indian accent is agood thing.

  45. Thanks to Paul who was at his creative best. I find the trademark smuttiness fine in small doses, but today it was a little OTT.
    Thx to scchua for the blog and for parsing the two we couldn’t.
    Lots to enjoy with favourite of the day WIKIPEDIAN

  46. Thanks to Paul for some ingenious and entertaining surfaces. I suspect that my 14yr old self, if I had learned about Cryptics at that age, would have had a wail of a time. Many thanks to Schhua for the excellent blog.

  47. I liked this – I almost always like puzzles by Paul. He has a reputation for schoolboy humour, but I think it must have been earned mostly before I came across his efforts. Generally he seems little different from other setters in this respect, and if it’s only noticeable in a very occasional crossword, like today’s, I for one have no problem. Indeed I thought WORRY BEADS one of the better clues, along with DISENGAGE, ANDREW BONAR LAW and others.
    I agree with Montague1@40 about the parsing of TEA.
    Thanks Paul and scchua.

  48. Sparrow fart in common use in and around London. OR, other ranks for “men” is, I think, fairly new but is now frequently used in the Guardian crossword, however it still takes me by surprise.

  49. Using my newly created database of 3 years worth of guardian crosswords times from my app, this came in as slightly more difficult than normal for a Paul. In fact it took me 15% longer than my average for Paul.

    To partially answer Pavement from yesterday, Paul is my my fourth most difficult setter (of setters with at least 10 puzzles). Third is Imogen, then Vlad and finally Boatman, which was a real surprise to be honest.

    Thanks to Paul and scchua.

  50. [Crispy@44 I didn’t say it was, just pointing out where this came from. But it’s an interesting question as to where the line is drawn. ]

  51. A strange mixture of very simple and very difficult clues. Also some infelicities. I reckon the clue for PASS MUSTER was written before the death of ER last year – surely now one would write “did the queen have to”?

    And in 12d isn’t ‘sixth line technique’ under ‘dispute’ rather than ‘beyond’ in a down light? It wouldn’t spoil the surface and it works better cryptically. I don’t think SPARROW FART is regional, it’s just that some people use it and some don’t. Think how tedious life would be if everyone used it. 🙂

    I was beaten today by SWANK and DOMINIONS. I’m mystified by solvers like BirdFossil@49 who find that their solving times depend on who has set the puzzle. I find it depends on how I’m feeling, how well I slept, whether I’m worried or distracted, how much or how little alcohol I’ve consumed, what environment I’m in, how much time I have to spare. Unfortunately I don’t have any evidence, from a database or otherwise, to support this. It’s just a feeling.

    Thanks to Paul and scchua

  52. michelle @3. I’m with you on this. The schoolboy humour seems to have been over used of late. Valid clues, but just getting a bit tired of them. Oh well, it’s only a game.

  53. I find the odd bit of ribadry more enjoyable than reading some of the po-faced reactions above. As the Irish have it, “Catch yourself on”.

  55. To think that I was solving a Paul puzzle and consciously dismissed the possibility that _ART might be FART.

  56. Thanks Paul. Some of this was a slog for me and I finally revealed ANDREW BONAR LAW, SPARROW FART, and PASS MUSTER. I hadn’t heard of the first two and I never would have seen the latter. I did like some of this including the “schoolboy” WORRY BEADS, CASANOVA, the &litish PIGSTY, SEA POWER, and GAMER, the latter for its surface. (The NY Yankees are having a bad year, especially in the “second half” of this season.) Thanks scchua for the blog.

  57. Enjoyed most of this. As is often the case for me with Paul puzzles, much of the fun is in finding the disguised definition, then getting the word, then parsing. SPARROW FART made me groan, but the misdirection in the clue was excellent. I liked the use of ‘bandaged’ for a hidden word; hadn’t seen it before. Thanks Paul and scchua

  58. I was certain Bonar Law’s name was Robert for some reason (& still involves something being inside RAW), which held me up. Loved CASANOVA and SEA POWER especially. Only query was whether WORRY BEADS really should have had a hyphen amid “toyed with”.

    Thanks Paul & scchua

  59. Thanks scchua, I got flummoxed by the parsing of SPARROW FART (one word not possessive for me but no real issue) as per muffin@2. (Minor point but I think the ? in 1A is only for the surface – as POWs are a subset of captives not vice-versa I don’t think a def-by-example qn mark is needed.)
    BirdFossil@49 interesting as I thought this was a bit easier than standard Paul, though perhaps only because I have warmed up after 3 or 4 days of sober solving? (another variable to be controlled for!)
    Those complaining about Paul’s schoolboy humour should be grateful for his restraint when clueing 21a I reckon, and I thought 4d a fantastic clue with plenty of others to enjoy, thanks Paul.

  60. Thanks for the blog, I liked the definition for SEA POWER , DOMINIONS was neat , ANDREW BONAR LAW flowed nicely , he has now lost his bronze medal position thanks to Truss.

    Bird Fossil@49 , I do not time myself but my memory is good. Current top three- Enigmatist , Vlad , Imogen . We do not seem to get Enigmatist anymore but we do get IO in the FT.

  61. I really struggled with this but I did have a bit of a big night out so only myself to blame.

    Ticks for SEA POWER, LIVING & PASS MUSTER

    Cheers P&S

  63. NHO of SPARROW FART, and found the parsing convoluted too. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle with some excellent surfaces.

  64. Amoeba@58. I had BONAR LAW in memory cell retrieval as an Arthur, probably conflating him with Balfour. In the end, not being able to unscramble the word play, I had to give up and find him in a biographical dictionary (where he was listed under Law rather than Bonar). Given his Canadian Scottish origins, I should have guessed ANDREW.

    This is what I meant @51 about the difficulty of the crossword being in the mind of the solver.

  65. Oofyprosser @53: as an Ulsterman I lol at ‘catch yourself on’ and I’m in full agreement. As much as we all love the intellectual challenge from Vlad/Picaroon/Qaos/Pasquale and Paul especially, a bit of harmless, ‘Carry on’ light relief is sometimes welcome. We all have our own bar for taking offence, but surely we’re all adults here, and as my great great grandma would say, ‘ I didn’t come up the Lagan in a bubble’.
    [Roz @62: just watch me half-loop out of this one].

  66. sh @64: A J P Taylor mentions Bonar Law’s nationality in an interesting passage about the changing usage of the word “England”:

    When the Oxford History of England was launched a generation ago, “England” was still an all-embracing word. It meant indiscriminately England and Wales; Great Britain; the United Kingdom; and even the British Empire. Foreigners used it as the name of a Great Power and indeed continue to do so. Bonar Law, a Scotch Canadian, was not ashamed to describe himself as “Prime Minister of England”… Now terms have become more rigorous. The use of “England” except for a geographic area brings protests…

    (Preface to “English History 1914-1945”, published 1965)

  67. …have chewed away at this for hours today before admitting defeat. Not being able to decipher PIGSTY or LIVING, both of a porcine flavour. And therefore couldn’t get the nho VIN DIESEL, or NOVELTY SONG. Very glad that Paul wasn’t at all tempted to clue SWANK another way, either…

  69. [Lord Jim@66. Coincidentally I’ve been re-reading some AJP Taylor recently, and as I recall he makes the same conventional error (if that’s the right word) himself. (Similarly he often writes “men thought” as a shorthand for “it was a general opinion that” – something he might think twice about if writing today). It’s writing that is of its time.

    It’s a fact that Wales was subsumed within England at a very early stage (death of Llewellyn 1282?), and Scotland has had a diminishing international presence since long before 1707.

    Bonar Law, despite his Canadian birth, was clearly Scottish, though. Or “Scotch” as Taylor would have written. 🙂 )]

  70. Thanks both but a similar experience to ronald@67: too much input required for very little return.

    To me SPARROWFART is an expression used to dismiss someone of smaller stature (smaller than the interlocutor at any rate). Now I know it refers to the crack of dawn I must try to insinuate it into conversation. (But friends here may care to note that my recent attempts to bring chat around to an octopoidal plurality have met with firm social resistance; forewarned is half an octopus.)

  71. Alphalpha @70
    For various reasons, I haven’t commented on this puzzle (and certainly didn’t take part in the octopus discussion yesterday, having said all I have to say years ago) but …
    …’forewarned is half an octopus’ – brilliant !! It made my day.

  72. Alphalpha @70 – that’s excellent. I shall have to nick it to use in a clue… though I wouldn’t be surprised if Paul had already used it.

    I’m generally ambivalent about Paul’s schoolboy humour but 4d made me laugh out loud. Strictly needs a hyphen in toyed-with though.

    Thanks, Paul and scchua.

  73. Alphalpha @71 – I’m familiar with sparrow-fart meaning the crack of dawn but I’ve never understood why it means that. (Supposedly because it’s quiet enough to hear a sparrow’s fart at that time of day, according to the internet.)

    Your alternative definition makes more obvious sense to me – and the OED lists a citation from Joyce’s Ulysses with this meaning:
    “Miss This Miss That Miss Theother lot of sparrowfarts skitting around talking about politics they know as much about as my backside.”

  74. [Eileen: If you have the time check out the Quince crossword in today’s Indy. You won’t be disappointed.]

  75. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sparrow-fart
    sparrow-fart
    Alternative forms – sparrowfart; sparrow fart; sparrow’s fart
    Etymology – From sparrow + fart. – In the dawn sense, apparently UK dialect (Yorkshire) from ante 1828.
    Noun – sparrow-fart (uncountable) – (plural attested only as sparrowfarts)
    TheDialectofCraven_10267838.pdf(1828):
    ‘SPARROW-FART, Break of day, very early. It is said to be three hours before day-light.
    This truly ludicrous expression is, I think, a corruption of sparkle-fert. A.S. speark, scintilla, et fert, crepitus, break of day.’

  76. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/palace
    ‘1 – Official residence of a head of state or other dignitary, especially in a monarchical or imperial governmental system.
    2 – A large and lavishly ornate residence.’
    So a palace is a residence or house.
    House in Portuguese, Spanish or Italian is CASA.
    New is NOVA in Portuguese, NUEVA in Spanish, NUOVA in Italian.

  77. Tony @74 – thanks for that.

    Thursday’s always a busy day for me (though retired!), so I didn’t get round to the Quince – the Guardian’s my paper and so I always do that one first, whoever the setter is – but I usually look at all the blogs and it seems as if I missed a good one here – loved the AMNSD allusions (tough, though!).

  80. Struggled to finish this as Vin Diesel, wickipedian and sparrow fart were all new to me. I also missed the ROW F in the latter. An enjoyable tussle though, so thanks Paul and scchua.

  81. I first heard the term in 12 as ‘At the crack of a sparrow’s fart’ and always assumed ‘sparrowfart’ was a contraction. Maybe not.

  82. It took me a while to winkle out some of these, but fun in the end. Thanks Paul, and to scchua. (It’s a bit sad, IMHO, that some people seem unable to enjoy a bit of inoffensive smut. Yes, it’s juvenile and unsophisticated, but life must be very dull if you can’t have a ribald titter now and then.)

  83. I’m relieved that Chris@30 claimed SPARROW FART for London. I’ve never heard the expression and don’t want to. Anyone who thought it was common in the northwest – no.
    I didn’t see any schoolboy humour in WORRY BEADS as I managed to read without innuendo. I must be an innocent… er but I noticed SWANK and BONAR. Sorry Michelle.
    Thanks both

Comments are closed.