The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29252.
An excellent puzzle from Picaroon, with an astonishing range of references, including perhaps just enough to make a themelet of soccer.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | DREADED |
Feared having a West Indian hairdo? (7)
|
| A reference to dreadlocks (or dreads). | ||
| 5 | UPBRAID |
Have a go at attack after United lead (7)
|
| A charade of U (‘United’) plus PB (chemical symbol, the metal ‘lead’) plus RAID (‘attack’). | ||
| 9 | BLUES |
Extravagantly spend start of Sunday in Chelsea (5)
|
| A charade of BLUE (‘extravagantly spend’) plus S (‘start of Sunday’), for the nickname of Chelsea Football Club. | ||
| 10 | SEDUCTION |
Incitation to Congress succeeded, with instruction American ignored (9)
|
| A charade of S (‘succeeded’) plus EDUC[a]TION (‘instruction’) minus the A (‘American ignored’). | ||
| 11 | ON THE LOOSE |
At large empty synagogue, using the facilities at first (2,3,5)
|
| A charade of ON THE LOO (‘using the facilities’) plus SE (’empty SynagoguE‘), with ‘at first’ indicating the order of the particles. | ||
| 12 | ARCH |
Taking first of month off is cunning (4)
|
| A subtraction: [m]ARCH (‘month’) minus its first letter (‘taking first of … off’). | ||
| 14 | SUPERLATIVE |
Rocky mostly very upset Ali is possibly The Greatest (11)
|
| An anagram (‘rocky’) of VER (‘mostly very’) plus ‘upset Ali’. | ||
| 18 | GET AROUND TO |
Finally do buy everyone drinks and case for tobacco (3,6,2)
|
| A charade of GET A ROUND (‘buy everyone drinks’) plus TO (‘case for TobaccO‘). | ||
| 21 | CANE |
Outspoken England footballer getting stick (4)
|
| Sounds like (‘outspoken’) KANE (Harry, ‘England footballer’). | ||
| 22 | ADRIAN MOLE |
Plug job, engaging new main writer for Leicester Chronicle? (6,4)
|
| An envelope (‘engaging’) of IANM, an anagram (‘new’) of ‘main’ in AD (advertisement, ‘plug’) plus ROLE (‘job’). Adrian Mole is the main character in a series of books by Sue Townsend. They are presented as his diaries, so ‘writer’ both refers to the diaries and the character’s aspirations as an author; ‘Leicester Chronicle’ (not the newspaper) may refer to his childhood in the city, or to the first appearance of the character in a real magazine published in Leicester. | ||
| 25 | LEATHERED |
Lead ultimately lost, Liverpool almost beaten (9)
|
| A charade of ‘lea[d]’ minus its last letter (‘ultimately lost’) plus THE RED[s] (nickname of ‘Liverpool’ FC) minus its last letter (‘almost’); cf. 9A. | ||
| 26 | INERT |
Where American casualties may be tense still (5)
|
| A charade of IN ER ( in Emergency Room, ‘where American casualties may be’) plus T (‘tense’). | ||
| 27 | SLENDER |
Scant capital in Santander bank (7)
|
| A charade of S (‘capital in Santander’) plus LENDER (‘bank’). | ||
| 28 | AVERRED |
Swore what sinner did on the Bible (7)
|
| A charade of AV (Authorised Version, ‘the Bible’) plus ERRED (‘what sinner did’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | DEBTOR |
Rubbish teacher gets sent up, one who’s not yet settled (6)
|
| A reversal (‘gets sent up’ in a down light) of ROT (‘rubbish’) plus B ED (Bachelor of Education, ‘teacher’). | ||
| 2 | EQUITY |
Give up, imprisoned by entirely heartless justice (6)
|
| An envelope (‘imprisoned by’) of QUIT (‘give up’) in EY (‘EntirelY heartless’). | ||
| 3 | DISPENSARY |
Drug supplier swans into entrance to Scotland Yard, I suspect (10)
|
| An envelope (‘into’) of PENS (female ‘swans’) in DISARY, an anagram (‘suspect’) of S (‘entrance to Scotland’) plus ‘yard I’. | ||
| 4 | DISCO |
Policeman’s firm where E might be taken (5)
|
| A charade of DI’S (‘policeman’s) plus CO (‘firm’). | ||
| 5 | UNDESIRED |
Unwanted lingerie I put down, looking embarrassed (9)
|
| A charade of UNDESI, which is UNDIES (‘lingerie’) with the I moved down (‘I put down’); plus RED (‘looking embarrassed’). | ||
| 6 | BUCK |
Horny male one evicted from American car (4)
|
| A subtraction: BU[i]CK (‘American car’) minus the I (‘one evicted’). | ||
| 7 | ACID RAIN |
Trip facilitator rushed round island showing awful precipitation (4,4)
|
| An envelope (’round’) of I (‘island’) in ACID (‘trip facilitator’ – the drug LSD) plus RAN (‘rushed’). | ||
| 8 | DINGHIES |
Little craft displayed by chess champ – is he struggling? (8)
|
| A charade of DING (‘chess champ’ – probably Ding Liren, the current World Chess Champion, but it might also be Ding Yixin, a lesser light in the Chinese Womens Chess Championships, although the following ‘he’ makes that even less likely) plus HIES, an anagram (‘struggling’) of ‘is he’. | ||
| 13 | MAYONNAISE |
Is one permitted to catch Welsh lady from the south dressing? (10)
|
| An envelope (‘to catch’) of NAIS, a reversal (‘from the south’ in a down light) of SIAN (‘Welsh lady’) in MAY ONE (‘is one permitted’). | ||
| 15 | PLUNDERER |
One takes swag from place south of Exeter on vacation (9)
|
| A charade of PL (‘place’) plus UNDER (‘south of’) plus ER (‘ExeteR on vacation’). | ||
| 16 | EGG CELLS |
They enable reproduction of European goods and US phones (3,5)
|
| A charade of E (‘European’) plus G G (G is good, so two of them is ‘goods’) plus CELLS (‘US phones’). | ||
| 17 | STONE AGE |
Time for early people to invade Edgbaston eagerly (5,3)
|
| A hidden answer (‘to invade’) in ‘EdgebaSTON EAGErly’. | ||
| 19 | POSEUR |
One showing off for all to see, cracking tough puzzle (6)
|
| An envelope (‘cracking’) of U (film certification, ‘for all to see’) in POSER (‘tough puzzle’). | ||
| 20 | NETTED |
Caught person keeping dry in state of distress (6)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of TT (abstainer from alcohol, ‘person keeping dry’) in NEED (‘state of distress’). | ||
| 23 | INDIA |
Gandhi wanting resistance here? (5)
|
| A subtraction: INDI[r]A (‘Gandhi’, who served as Prime Minister of India 1966-1977 and 1980-1984) minus the R (‘wanting resistance’). | ||
| 24 | SHED |
Haggard female has day in Slough (4)
|
| A charade of SHE (‘Haggard female’ – a reference to the novel She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard) plus D (‘day’). The definition does not deserve its capital. |
Thank you, I found this fairly straightforward on a sleepless night. I’ve never come across blue meaning extravagantly spend and can’t find an online reference to it. What am I missing?
Very steady progress during two sittings. I completed this – is Picaroon getting slightly easier?
STONE AGE very well hidden.
Thanks peterO and Picaroon.
Haven’t heard of ‘blue’ to mean spend extravagantly.
To blow money, yes.
He blew the lot, yes.
He blued the lot?
Things I learnt today:
Blue = extravagantly spend
AV is a bible
U is a film classification (I lie; I actually remembered this from a previous English crossword)
Dreadlocks can be called dreads
Harry Kane is an English footballer
Liverpool FC are the Reds
Haggard wrote She
Americans have emergency rooms
So much to learn, so little time. 🙂
Enjoyable, as Picaroon’s almost always are, my particular favourite ON THE LOOSE.
I had a very vague recollection of the required meaning of BLUE, and found it buried as meaning #27 in Collins online, see here.
Liked ACID RAIN and SEDUCTION, and the lead misdirection in UPBRAID.
Brain’s definitely addling; even after using check to get the i, still stared dumbly at the 8d crossers, then revealed and felt totally stupid. One or two others took a bit staring too. Ah well, no point worrying. Enjoyed the rest, ta Pickers and Peter.
Anne @3, that meaning of blue has come up here before, but can’t say I’ve ever heard it in the wild.
Two real laugh out louds: ON THE LOOSE, and STONE AGE. That version of “blue” came up a while ago and was extensively discussed on 225. Can’t say I had ever known it, but I remembered it now, and found out Chelsea are called the Blues. Many other good ones, including lead to give Pb. Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO.
Fabulous midnight puzzle with a bit of a football theme as PeterO points out, as in Chelsea, where their hooligans in the violent era of the 70/80s occupied the notorious SHED, Liverpool, Leicester and Exeter where they’ve all NETTED or LEATHERED the ball, plus the homophonic CANE, the footballer who keeps on giving. Too many ticks to mention but my favourite was MAYONNAISE. SUPERLATIVE all round.
Ta Picaroon & PeterO.
I didn’t know the name of the chess champ, but was happy to go with 8d as a familiar word. “BED” = “TEACHER” was the only thing that really puzzled me. Fairly gentle for a Picaroon otherwise.
Picaroon used trip facilitator and Kane in the same puzzle earlier in the year.
https://www.fifteensquared.net/2023/02/15/guardian-cryptic-28994-by-picaroon/
A nice puzzle with lots of smiles. I didn’t parse AVERRED. I meant to go back to it but forgot and I parsed SLENDER wrongly, but otherwise all tickety-boo.
Thanks both.
DNF, despite all being absolutely fair and within my GK except the chessman. One up to Picaroon. Thanks both.
GDU @4, I know it’s difficult for us Aussies when blue means red or a fight. Get used to Bible = AV, KJV, NKJV, ESV, NIV, RV etc. Don’t toss the dreads mate. 🙂
3 question marks resolved (one including trying to fit Shed into what ended up as BLUES) by the blog, and no particular favourites but perhaps I’m just being curmudgeonly as Picaroon can write crossword clues a lot better than Jugular can.
A good stiff challenge today, finished with assistance from the check button I’m afraid. Excellent, misleading surfaces: I was completely fooled by the fact that “craft” can be plural as well as singular and “lead” can mean a metal as well as a first letter. BLUE = overspend is fine by me, so perhaps it’s just very old slang, or a regional use? Thank you to Picaroon and PeterO.
On the basis that the pettiness of the quibbles is an indicator of the quality of the crossword, I’ll just say that the question mark in Adrian mole is certainly earning its keep!
Top ticks for SHED, SUPERLATIVE & ACID RAIN
cheers P&P
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO
I wrote in DREADED for 1a, then DEBRIS for 1d – nearly works! Eventually corrected by ON THE LOOSE – one of my favourites, along with UPBRAID and SHED.
I knew DING as a snooker champ rather than chess – might have been more familiar to many?
A tricky one from the Pirate and I had to come here to parse a couple.
My father often used the word BLUE to mean to spend extravagantly: “he got paid on Friday and blued it all at the pub”. Chambers has it if you have the patience to read to the end!
Enjoyed this immensely despite being unable to parse quite a few. Fav UPBRAID. Very clever stuff. Thanks Picaroon and Peter
According to the OED, ‘blue’ meaning to squander began life as slang in the 1840s, with usage peaking in the 1920s and 1930s. I was familiar with it (though it didn’t exactly spring to mind), I suspect through novels of the period.
Finished after much staring. Wish 6A had been spent and not spend. Then I would have stopped trying to make something fit bun. Thanks P and P O.
Enjoyable as ever from the dependable Pirate. Not his trickiest puzzle, but full of imaginative constructions and humour.
To pick just a few highlights for me: SUPERLATIVE, DISPENSARY, SHED and MAYONNAISE for their constructions and surfaces, and the use of Pb and B Ed (which I don’t think I’ve encountered before).
Am I alone in considering INDIA an &lit?
Thanks to S&B
I liked all the football/soccer references – I’m certainly no expert, but it’s more familiar to me than chess 😉
Thank you PeterO, especially for ADRIAN MOLE. I nearly gave this away when I thought that knowledge of football teams and colours and players would be needed, but I managed with guesses and checks with my fonafrend, aka husband.
As others have said, blue , in the sense of spend extravagantly, has come up recently. From Collins online,
the 27th, and last, entry, (transitive) slang to spend extravagantly or wastefully; squander. I thought of squander with the u in third position, but the rest wouldn’t fit.
I liked MAYONNAISE, as Picaroon could so easily have clued something Irish with Mayo, but he chose to use a Welsh lady standing on her head. Made me laugh.
I took it that the “Chronicle” in 22a just referred to ADRIAN MOLE’s diary. The question mark is perhaps to excuse the upper case C.
Very enjoyable. Thanks both.
Gervase@22. I’d agree with you. INDIA an &lit. Great clue. Also agree with your other picks for the same reasons.
Gervase@22
INDIA
I am one more who agrees with you.
Quibble about DISCO. Do discos still exist? Es are more likely to be taken down here at outdoor music festivals. Very dangerous in the heat at this time of year.
Another splendid puzzle from Picaroon. It’s so satisfying to be able to trust implicitly in the unfailing integrity of his clues.
As usual, I had lots of ticks, including GET AROUND TO, DISPENSARY, MAYONNAISE, PLUNDERER, STONE AGE and – way out ahead – ADRIAN MOLE.
[Sue Townsend was an extraordinary woman, who had an extraordinary life and was much loved here in Leicester, where she lived throughout her life. I have enjoyed rereading her Guardian obituary https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/apr/11/sue-townsend-1946-2014. As a huge fan of her books, I was delighted to meet her several times while my 14-year-old son was going through a series of auditions for the part of Adrian (he got down to the last three of 200-odd). As an adult, he was an habitué of one of the two pubs that she bought to save them from being closed down, as mentioned in the obit!]
Many thanks to Picaroon for brightening yet another grey day and to PeterO for the blog.
I spent so long reading the obit that I missed the comments from 21 onwards. I agree with those who read 23dn as &lit.
I agree with Eileen’s first and last paragraphs @ 28
Many thanks to Picaroon and PeterO
Like Basilisk this was petty doable but another masterclass in setting.
paddymelon @23
From Picaroon’s Prize puzzle (29,219) last month:
‘Unfortunately rejected wish to hug leader of County Mayo’s close cousin? (5,5)’ 😉
I must confess that I never did GET AROUND TO reading her books but this was a fascinating read Eileen. Thx.
It’s not too late, AlanC!
Thank you Eileen@32. I must have been in dreamland not to remember that!
Lovely puzzle from The Pirate this morning.
Felt the same as muffin – Ding the snooker ace might have been a shade fairer.
Don’t want to di the blue thing to death but here’s some background for anyone interested.
I found this relatively straightforward for a Picaroon, though I bunged in ADRIAN MOLE from crossers and assumed there was some connection with Leicester (I haven’t read the books). Very smooth, but perhaps the snooker star Ding Junhui would be better known than the chess champ.
William@36. Always interested in the background/etymology. Thanks for the link.
Good link, William @ 36. I’m just afraid that by the time it appears in a crossword again I’ll have forgotten. 🙁
Like poc @37, I found this more straightforward than many of Picaroon’s previous ones, but still very enjoyable.
I liked the surface for UPBRAID, the wordplays for ON THE LOOSE, DISPENSARY and UNDESIRED, the definition for GET AROUND TO, and the well-hidden STONE AGE. It’s just as well for crosswords that the other contender for 2023 World Chess Champion, Nepomniachtchi didn’t win!
Thanks Picaroon and PeterO and William @36 for the blues.
Sorry to be contradictory, but 23a INDIA isn’t an &lit as the “here” serves no role in the wordplay.
Fairly tough going not helped by putting RAIN FALL (trip) for 7D. Several others unparsed but no quibbles. “Blue” as the past participal of “blow” has turned up before.
Thanks both.
Van Winkle @41: If you interpret ‘here’ as ‘in this word’, there is no problem 🙂
VW @41. I’m afraid don’t really see how the presence of ‘here’ disqualifies it from being an &lit. One of the most memorable &lits that I ever saw was many years ago in, I think, a Scotsman cryptic, which my father used to attempt. It perhaps resonates more in Scotland than elsewhere. I think it read, ‘Strategic slaughter done brutally here (8)’ Solution on application if anyone doesn’t see it.
I know very little about football, but still managed to get within three of finishing this. It was just the SE that held me up. I do know something about chess, but thought Magnus Carlsen was still World Champion (he had been for so long). A quick Google search put me right. Anyway, all very enjoyable. With thanks to Picaroon and PeterO.
Had to come back to this chewy puzzle a couple of times, with the NE corner the last to yield, and UPBRAID the loi. Couldn’t quite parse MAYONNAISE or AVERRED. Not too fond of UNDESIRED as a word. Thought SUPERLATIVE lived up to its meaning as COTD…
Can anyone explain why ‘on vacation’ can mean hollowed out in cryptic speak (as in 15D.) Have come across this a few times and it still makes no sense to me!
Hunnibadger @47
Vacated can mean emptied
Spooner’s catflap @ 44 – I’m afraid to say that Van Winkle is absolutely correct and the example you cite is not strictly an &lit because “here” (or even “in this word”, Gervase) do NOT form part of the wordplay – it’s a semi- (or, more precisely, partial-) &lit at most!
Agree with others (Eileen’s first para in particular). Further, I found this a very straightforward solve but …… oh, so beautiful
Many thanks, Picaroon
Hunnibadger@47 I think it’s a play on the concept of, say, ‘vacating a room’ meaning to leave the room so it becomes empty.
muffin, man – I too was surprised that the better know cue-wielder Ding (or even the campanological onomatopoeias of a certain seasonal song currently being overplayed in our shopping centres) was not used!
Muffin @48 polyphone @50
Thanks for the responses, still doesn’t click for me, especially as a re-used standard meaning; If I move out of my house it becomes ‘vacated’, but it isn’t ‘on vacation’.
Is there a sentence where ‘on vacation’ could substitute for ‘emptied/vacated’?
Hunnibadger @52: analogize to the phrase “on reflection” to mean “after reflecting [on the matter at hand for a bit]”: “on vacation” is whimsically used to mean “after vacating.” It doesn’t have to be literal if it’s clever.
Mrpenny @53 Aaaaaaah, that makes sense! Thanks!
Expecting us to know about Adrian Mole is fair enough — I’ve run across many references to him and his diaries — but I think the Leicester connection is a “GK” too far. Never heard of the chess champ either.
How do you say “emergency room” in British?
But overall a delightful puzzle. I liked everybody’s favorites. Thanks, Picaroon and PeterO.
So the literal replacement would be something like ‘once the action of vacating has been carried out…’
Knew I was missing something!
Oh, and as regards the puzzle, hadn’t remembered ADRIAN MOLE, so that was my last in–constructed via the wordplay. And “teacher” for BED was a head-scratcher, though that’s not a degree we award here. Teachers generally get either a BA (if their specialty is primary education) or a BA or BS in their field, for secondary education. M.Ed. and Ed.D. are not unknown here, though, so I should have been able to figure it out.
Lastly, as soon as I saw BLUE in that meaning, I knew someone would gripe that they’d never seen it before, someone else would point out that it’s dated and/or dialectic, and yet a third person would point out that it pops up in these puzzles with regularity. We should just cut-and-paste the whole discussion for next time. It’d save some time.
Another day I came up one short, missing out on SHED. I will have to get more familiar with the works of Haggard. There was a conversation about ‘blue’ on here a few months ago (if my memory of time lapsed is at all accurate) and I recall having come across the word in a novel for the first time just a few days before the crossword was published.
Valentine@55 ER in British English is A&E (Accident and Emergency).
Thanks Peter O and Picaroon.
Mostly fun with a couple unparsed. NHO Ding Liren, blue, or the book by Haggard. S as abbreviation for “succeeded” was dubious for me, especially with no indication to take the first letter only.
I dredged up a memory of the existence of Adrian Mole when I had all the crossers and AD for the opening, but confess to never having read the books nor knowing anything about their author.
Thank you, Picaroon and PeterO
Valentine @ 55: We have A&E in the UK (Accident & Emergency).
William F P @51: I beg to differ. ‘Here’ = ‘in this word’ works for the wordplay and ‘here’ = ‘in this place’ for the solution. For me this is no different from words like ‘is’, ‘makes’, ‘from’ etc which are used to link the wordplay and the definition in order to give a smooth surface – and which are not strictly necessary for the mechanics of the clue but are considered unremarkable. I’m perfectly happy to consider this an &lit clue.
Jacob @ 59 s = ‘succeeded’ is found in eg aristocratic lineage where someone succeeds to an earldom or duchy or similar.
But Gervase @61, the definition of an &lit for us purists is a clue where all its words are strictly necessary for it cryptic mechanics. And what would “in this word” refer to except for INDIA, making that interpretation definitional too? In any case, this would still leave the question mark at the end excluded from the wordplay.
It’s been a long time since I read ADRIAN MOLE and I had forgotten the Leicester connection, but I eventually got him from the crossers. Another Leicester connection is to their former player (and England player) Gary Lineker, currently “getting stick” from the BBC again for being too outspoken on social media – as described in 21a.
Lender for bank seems to have joined winger/flyer for bird and runner/banker for river in the crossword lexicon – I’ve seen it several times lately. But blue for spend doesn’t seem to be memorable: we get the same discussion every time it appears.
Anyway, very nice as usual from Picaroon: I liked the invitation to Congress, “using the facilities”, the trip facilitator and the haggard female, among many.
Re #28, to set the cat among the pigeons, I’d have written ‘a habitué’ as the _h_ is not silent.
VW @63: Chacun a son goût. I am in awe of your pernicketiness 🙂
Thanks for the blog , I liked the PB in UPBRAID and the ACID bit from ACID RAIN . Haggard female is a nice touch . Decent puzzle but I do find the praise here very overblown, almost makes me wish the Guardian did not publish the setter’s name.
As explained by several, INDIA is certainly not &Lit.
The Geminids should be good tonight with clear skies and a very newish moon. Just look for Castor and Pollux although they will be visible all over the sky. The best free show you will ever get, even better tomorrow if the clouds behave.
Roz, does one need a telescope?
Gervase @66 – in the matter of the award of the ultimate prize for the daily crossword setter, pernicketiness is a prerequisite.
AlanC @69
They move too fast for a telescope to be any use; even binoculars wouldn’t help much. Open eyes is the only requirement!
[ AlanC , definitely not , I do all my star gazing with naked-eye. Dark skies are better , and dark-adapted eyes , at least 20 minutes, avoid looking at anything bright including PHONES . ]
I could not parse 14ac, the BED bit of 1d, the BLUE bit of 9ac.
Favourites: ACID RAIN, BUCK.
Thanks, both.
Re “Blue= Extravagantly spend” there were plenty of alternative and far less obscure options that could have been used .
I gave up on DINGHIES and had a few more problems but I have to say that this puzzle demonstrates that Picaroon is the absolute master of clever surfaces. Two examples out of so many: EGG CELLS and SEDUCTION. Loved it.
[Thanks Muffin & Roz. I’m at KPR this evening so may be looking to the skies very often 🙂 ]
Tim C @14: “blue” certainly used to have this meaning in Australia – see Flash Jack From Gundagai, “once I rung Cudjingie shed and blued it in a week” – although that’s from more than a century ago.
[ AlanC you can cheer yourself up watching meteors after the game. Later is better , more meteors and darker sky. I am surprised that KPR play at night , is it not dangerous with all those candles ? ]
[lol Roz]
Very good puzzle, though blues annoyed me – but I stand corrected
In the US, A&E is a TV network and stands for “Arts and Entertainment.”
To my thanks, I add thanks to Eileen for the obituary of Sue Townsend. I understand more than I did about Adrian — I’d thought he was one more of those fictional public school boys in books filled with incomprehensible public school jargon. I see there was more to him than that, and more to Sue Townsend as well.
Adrian Mole was very definitely not English Public Achool, Valentine!
btw doesn’t “public school” mean exactly the opposite in the USA to what it means here?
I had CANONNAISE for 13, and found some hits for Canonnaise sauce online, so never corrected it. Also missed NETTED. I enjoyed the Ding clue as he has indeed been struggling lately.
Good stuff. Thanks, P’s
Valentine @81 – thank you for following the link.
[Paddy Melon @27: perhaps I am being thin-skinned, but pointing to ecstasy-plus-heat as the thing that is very dangerous about outdoor music festivals struck me as jarring]
Blue is not the word for ‘spend extravagantly’…..it’s ‘Blow’ as in blow away, so the past tense is ‘blew’….simples!
Antony @86 it’s in the Chambers app although you do have to scroll to the very bottom to find it!
I’d love to see a moratorium on discussion of BLUE, which, as several folk have mentioned, has been going on for some years, it seems.
There really isn’t a problem, even for newer solvers – if they have a dictionary. Blue is in both Collins and Chambers – not hidden (see Chambers blue² as ‘squander’ (= ‘spend extravagantly’]. The past tense is ‘blued’, not to be confused with ‘blew’: ‘blow’ (in both dictionaries) is also defined as to squander.
bodycheetah @87 – we crossed. Sorry – my brackets got rather confused!
Antony@86
Earlier comments have shown that the use of “blue” precedes the use of “blow” to mean “spend extravagantly” .
Eileen@88. I support your call for a moratorium. We could do with a “frequently queried synonyms” tab/link on this site for dealing with queries like this. For such a common word as BLUE it’s not really possible to search previous puzzles, so being able to refer solvers to such a resource would be really useful. And would relieve the tedium of looking it up in Chambers and finding it still at number 27.
After all the use it gets in crosswords, I thought it might have reached the top 10 by now
Thanks for the support, Sheffield hatter – a good idea!
(Just to say again, though, in this instance, it isn’t even a case of scrolling down to number 27: as above, blue in this sense has a separate entry in Chambers.)
I wasn’t really expecting a response – I’m going to bed now!
sheffield hatter @91 I agree about the search facility on the site. However, if you revert to google you can often find what you want. So I tried “guardian cryptic crossword blew blue discussion” and came up with Guardian Cryptic 28,980 by Vulcan
January 30, 2023 – quite recent, really.
However, I had a notion that Brendan had used the 4 Hs cleverly (see discussion on Jack 2 days ago)in one of his earlier crosswords, but I failed to find the reference using google (though if you search images it does find many grids)
muffin@62 Yes, I understand now that Adrian wasn’t one of those privileged brats.
Also yes, “public school” in the US means “operated by the government” — usually the city or town government for grades K-12, and by the state for university level. What are those called in the UK? The privileged sort are called “prep schools,” which I think is true also in the UK for privately-run schools for the earlier grades, is that right? For the kids who will be going on to public schools in a few years?
[Andrew Tyndall @85. Apologies if my comment was ”jarring”. It’s simply the truth and young people die here in those conditions. If anything the clue could be seen as a little flippant, but I just saw it as neutral and that’s okay.]
[Roz@68. Our best time is at 2.50 am tomorrow morning AEST but summer thunderstorms and clouds may get in the way. Still, plenty more opportunities.]
[Andrew Tyndall@85. Perhaps a misunderstanding. I love outdoor music festivals. The fact that some people use ecstasy and other substances at these festivals and end up in hospital or worse doesn’t make the festivals themselves inherently dangerous. It’s just an added risk in the heat as they can’t control their body temp and fluids as well. The heat alone is a risk, and a couple of festivals have been cancelled lately due to a heat wave.
What I was interested in is if discos still exist. Are they still called that, or did they morph into something else? ]
[Paddy Melon @95: I was referring to how very much more deadly it was to attend an outdoor music festival a couple of miles from the Gaza Strip]
mrpenney@57 second para re BLUE . LOL I’ll remember about the cut-and-paste next time. Maybe you’ve started something which will take off. Look at how the homophone debate has been squashed and we now have aural wordplay.
{Andrew Tyndall@98. Oh, I understand. Thank you for clarifying.]
Valentine @94
The Brit equivalent of your “public schools” is “state schools”.
Eileen@88 et al
Sorry, we crossed. I share your views on resurrecting old discussions but I’m not so concerned about that (in this case after 11 months, thanks Dave Ellison@93), more about people commenting without having read what’s gone before on the same day.
On a related point, do you know why commenters bother to tell us that a word or phrase is new to them if that’s all they have to say about a clue? Are they trying to tell us how clever they are to have worked the answer out from the wordplay or to have guessed correctly from the crossers?
paul @58 – I wouldn’t recommend getting more familiar with the works of H Rider Haggard (1856-1925) The books are very much of their time, written by a colonialist, seeing African as an exotic place, with his all male explorers. I read King Solomon’s Mines and She as a child, and my abiding memories of them are gung-ho adventure, misogyny and racism.
Pino, I’m with you. Whatever is the reason for someone commenting that the word is new (I may have been guilty myself occasionally) it doesn’t add anything to the conversation. Unknown words is what I’d expect in a crossword, and adds to the fun. I don’t believe it’s about people saying how clever they are, but I do think it doesn’t add anything to the discussion of the crossword.
Gervase @ 66 – it is not “pernickety” to consider a beautiful garment unfinished if it has frayed edges. Nor is it a question of taste!
“&litt” has a particular meaning as explained by Van Winkle, the very precision of the definition is part of its beauty and, with respect, the laxity of explaining an inaccuracy as ‘taste’ looks like an unjustified refusal to simply admit that you’re wrong (and unhelpful for those who visit 15² for enlightenment) 🙂
On the other hand, Van Winkle @70 makes the point brilliantly …..
Well, many congratulations, William F P, on penning the most sanctimonious comment I have ever seen on this site. Happily, coming as late in the commenting window as it did, it will have been seen by few. For as long as I have been lurking and commenting here, there has been a vexed relationship between CAD (Clue As Definition) and &lit. These are often assumed to be interchangeable, even by bloggers. I don’t imagine that your (and VW’s) punctiliousness in the matter will have forever cleared the matter up.