Guardian Cryptic 29,295 by Imogen

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29295.

A very enjoyable crossword. Mostly it seemes Imogen in a benign mood, although the SW corner was the last to yield.

ACROSS
1 TOP OF THE POPS
Regularly, man bursts on to peak programme (3,2,3,4)
A charade of TOP (‘peak’) plus OFT (‘regularly’) plus HE (‘man’) plus POPS (‘bursts’).
8 ASTERIX
Roman fighter gives Daisy one kiss (7)
A charade of ASTER (‘daisy’) plus I (‘one’) plus X (‘kiss’). Asterix the Gaul fought against the Romans in the French comic books.
9 PIE-EYED
Drunk – on power, that is. Like some potatoes? (3-4)
A charade of P (‘power’) plus I.E. (id est, ‘that is’) plua EYED (‘like some potatoes’).
11 SMASHED
Drunk a little soup. Like some potatoes? (7)
That seems a little familiar. A charade of S (‘a little Soup’) plus MASHED (‘like some potatoes’).
12 OKINAWA
In part of Japan, old family on holiday short of yen (7)
A charade of O (‘old’) plus KIN (‘family’) plus AWA[y] (‘on holiday’) minus the Y (‘short of yen’), for the Japanese prefecture.
13 EMEND
Do some editing, taking Imogen in last (5)
An envelope (‘taking … in’) of ME (‘Imogen’) in END (‘last’).
14 TOMATILLO
Closed in a twinkling a drawer for small fruit (9)
A charade of TO (‘closed’ “Tehee quod she and clapte the window to”) plus MATILLO, an envelope (‘in’) of A TILL (‘a drawer’) in MO (moment, ‘a twinkling’).
16 FACE CARDS
Some honours that won’t give you the pip (4,5)
Cryptic definition, the reference to ‘pip’ being the number symbol on those cards in a pack which have numbers – that is, not the face cards.
19 AGREE
Nearly a colour match (5)
A GREE[n] (‘a colour’) minus the last letter (‘nearly’).
21 IRELAND
One way to maintain vigour in the country (7)
An envelope (‘to mainitain’) of ELAN (‘vigour’) in I (‘one’) plus RD (road, ‘way’).
23 CAST OFF
Exeunt, trousers perhaps not wanted (4,3)
A double not quite definition . ‘Exeunt’ is a direction in a play (particularly Shakespeare) for everyone to leave the stage, hence CAST OFF. A CASTOFF, sometimes hyphenated, is an article of clothing (‘trousers, perhaps’) ‘not wanted’.
24 EPICARP
In Paradise Lost, say, pressure on pair oddly missing a piece of fruit (7)
A charade of EPIC (‘Paradise Lost, say’) plus AR (‘pAiR oddly missing’) plus P (‘pressure’), with ‘on’ indicating the order of the particles.
25 IGNOBLE
After training I belong in base (7)
An anagram (‘after training’) of ‘I belong’.
26 OMNISHAMBLES
Moans with blemish turning into utter mess (12)
An anagram (‘turning into’) of ‘moans’ plus ‘blemish’.
DOWN
1 TITRATE
Bird falls on rodent with energy to test strength (7)
A charade of TIT (‘bird’) plus (‘falls on’ in a down light) RAT (‘rodent’) plus E (‘energy’), for a chemical test.
2 PERCHED
Why Italian duke sat up (7)
A charade of PERCHE (‘why Italian’) plus D (‘duke’).
3 FIXED STAR
From hole stared out seeing skylight (5,4)
A charade of FIX (‘hole’ in the sense of an insurmountable difficulty) plus EDSTAR, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘stared’.
4 HIPPO
Creature smaller than whippoorwill? Yes and no (5)
A hidden answer (‘smaller than’ – the ‘yes’ part) in ‘wHIPPOrwill’.
5 PREDICT
Expect platter but no coffee – it’s on order (7)
A charade of ‘p[latte]r’ minus LATTE (‘no coffee’) plus EDICT (‘order’).
6 PAYWALL
Always wrapped at first in a cloak of obscurity? Not a feature of our website (7)
An envelope (‘in’) of AY (‘always’) plus W (‘Wrapped at first’) in PALL (‘a cloak of obscurity’ – smoke, for example). A justified puff for the Guardian.
7 LAISSEZ FAIRE
Tolerant principle in assize: a lifer released (7,5)
An anagram (‘released’) of ‘assize a lifer’.
10 DRAG ONES FEET
Manifest reluctance as fiery type set out to claim payment (4,4,4)
An envelope (‘to claim’) of FEE (‘payment’) in DRAGON (‘fiery type’) plus EST, an anagram (‘out’) of ‘set’.
15 MASOCHISM
Taking pains to enjoy oneself at great speed, covering in this way first of several miles (9)
A charade of MASOCHI, an envelope (‘covering’) of SO (‘in this way’) in MACH I (Mach 1, the speed of sound, ‘great speed’); plus S (‘first of Several’) plus M (‘miles’).
17 CAESIUM
Element, one strengthening teeth – oddly easy to replace lack, likewise (7)
CALCIUM (‘one strenghening teeth’ – that is, an element) with ES (‘oddly EaSy’) replacing LC (‘LaCk likewise’).
18 CHAPATI
Man didn’t quite swallow one piece of bread (7)
A charade of CHAP (‘man’) plus AT[e] (‘swallow’) minus its last letter (‘didn’t quite’) plus I (‘one’).
19 ARSENAL
Gunners picking themselves up on the ways back (7)
A reversal (‘back’) of LANES (‘ways’) plus RA (Royal Artilliary, ‘themselves’), for the soccer team with nickname “The Gunners”.
20 RHOMBUS
After clearing out rubbish, order transport in regular form (7)
A charade of RH (‘after clearing out RubbisH‘) plus OM (‘Order’ of Merit) plus BUS (‘transport’).
22 DEPTH
The most intense part of section 8? (5)
A charade of DEPT (department, ‘section’) plus H (‘8’, if the departments are labelled A, B …. H).

picture of the completed grid

98 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,295 by Imogen”

  1. Thanks Imogen and PeterO! Loved the puzzle and the blog!

    Top faves: HIPPO, CAESIUM and ARSENAL.

    OMNISHAMBLES
    I was reminded of paddymelon’s humorous comment when this word
    appeared last time in a grid.

    FACE CARDS
    FACE CARDS are called honours/honour cards. Right?
    HIPPO
    Creature (HIPPO) smaller than whippoorwill. No!
    &litish.

  2. I found this tricky but very enjoyable. Favorite ASTERIX.
    Intriguing that cadmium, calcium, and caesium are all elements that could potentially go in at 17 down, but the parsing makes it clear which is right.
    Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

  3. Thanks for the prompt blog to PeterO. I was frustrated by the SW quadrant, so was very glad to come here to find out some answers. It ended as a DNF for me, mostly caused by putting CALCIUM (which I couldn’t parse but I thought just had to be right) at 17d. So in the wash-up, I missed 21a IRELAND, 24a the unfamiliar EPICARP, and 17d CAESIUM.
    Just the same, doing the puzzle was worth it for the already-favourably-mentioned and delightful word 26a OMNISHAMBLES, and 15d MASOCHISM (which seemed fitting somehow given my fail in that lower left quadrant).
    Thanks to Imogen for a clever puzzle.

  4. I found this not easy, but easier than most of Imogen’s offerings.

    I liked the definition part of MASOCHISM, but the surface as a whole is a bit of a trainwreck.

    CAESIUM was good; I raised an eyebrow at the missing “The” in the clue for ARSENAL.

    Since we’re speaking Italian now (no complaints), PREDICT could have been clued with “… no milk”, since that is what latte comes from.

    Thanks

  5. We hardly complain about a missing article here!


    Since we’re speaking Italian now     LOL!

    What’s an omnishambles? An all-inclusive abattoir. ? A paddmelon quote!

  7. I thought this rather strange. I mostly found the clues easy to answer but almost impossible to parse. While there were several expressions I did not know or did not think of, in the end it was a simple matter of the setter and I being on completely different planets.

    My favourites were three in a row. I loved the two drunk potato clues (PIE EYED and SMASHED) as a set, and ASTERIX.

    I was going to attempt a witty question about OMNISHAMBLES. But it seems there is already an in joke, so I will just ask it straight. Would someone please explain what OMNISHAMBLES are? I could not find it in my dictionaries. My best guess is an expression from the deep north of rural England or from a radio show never broadcast outside UK.

    Thanks Imogen for the puzzle and thanks PeterO for explaining my answers to me

  8. I entered CALCIUM at first for 17 until I saw the error of my ways, but I think the clue is quite clear. Saw the IX ending early for 9 and thought I’d have to find a technical Roman name for a type of gladiator until the penny dropped (on the second trip through the puzzle). Took a while to spot 1a as I wasn’t looking for a ‘historical’ programme. The East side went in before the West side, but I didn’t think this was on Imogen’s easy side. Required quite a bit of work. Got 14a from the crossers, because I’ve grown them, but then took a while to tease out the parsing. Liked 7, 15 and 18. Thanks to Imogen and PeterO

  9. Martyn@7
    Chambers says Omnishambles is ‘A state of total confusion’.
    An interesting sentence I picked from Collins:
    It’s less omnishambles, more omnirambles as everyone walks out.

  10. Cafes here in Oz are serving SMASHED potatoes now (sort of half mashed, chunky) which made me pause at 11a, wondering where the soup came in. But I AGREE with Martyn @7 that the spuds/ drunkard clues were great. TOP OF THE POPS occurred to me immediately, but I couldn’t parse it for ages. Apteryx@2 – I can see why ASTERIX appealed to you! – I liked it too. We had the top filled long before the bottom. Thanks, Imogen and PeterO.

  12. Another who found the top went in faster than the bottom. I took longer to solve this than I did the last two crosswords, but about the same time as I took over the Monday Vulcan (and not as long as the Brendan). Are the Imogen and Vulcan personae converging?

    ASTERIX went straight in, because I love those books, but a neat anagram for LAISSEZ FAIRE and OMNISHAMBLES.

    OMNISHAMBLES has come up before, it’s used to describe the UK Government and comes from The Thick of It, a TV satire, but there’s a quote in the online dictionary definition:
    omnishambles
    noun INFORMAL•BRITISH
    a situation that has been comprehensively mismanaged, characterized by a string of blunders and miscalculations.
    “anyone with five minutes to spare, a Maths GCSE, and a calculator could have averted the entire omnishambles by checking the civil servants’ sums”

    [and cross posted]

    Thank you to Imogen and PeterO.

  13. [TassieTim @10… even worse than “smashed potatoes” in Oz are “mashed peas” which are supposedly a substitute for “mushy peas”. They’re nothing like it. I could tell them how to make them properly.]

  14. Like Martyn, I’d nominate the two drunken potatoes clues as favourites. I’d add the CAESIUM clue and DRAG ONE’S FEET for the neat reference to the fiery character. Like others, I found the SW hardest with EPICARP being last one in (I was cursing the setter for the inclusion of ‘a’ in the definition as I was desperately trying to delete an ‘a’ in response to ‘missing a’ in the clue)

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO

  15. Dept. H is a fictional branch of the Canadian government concerned with humans with superpowers (Marvel comics) – shame it’s never referred to as Department 8!

  16. Also, I was surprised that omnishambles is not in Chambers. I thought is was word of the year shortly after Brexit…

  18. KVa@1 – a Face card is literally what it says; a card with a face on it in a normal pack. That means king, queen or jack; you can see their faces on the cards. But it doesn’t include the ace or 10, both of which are “honour cards” in Bridge. These cards have pips; one for an ace, and 10………

  19. Amusing. Mostly not too difficult, though I had to look up EPICARP to check it existed and couldn’t find any trousers in 23ac until I came here. Still not wholly convinced (spouses can be CAST OFF, too) but fair enough, I suppose. Enjoyed MASOCHISM, but that’s why I do these, isn’t it?

    Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

  22. Like Martyn@7, there were a few where I had the right answer but failed to see the parsing (TOP OF THE POPS, TOMATILLO, PREDICT) and I didn’t know EPICARP. Nevertheless, not as tough as I was expecting from Imogen, and I liked the trouble taken to make sure we got the right element for CAESIUM. Favourites PAYWALL and ASTERIX (yes, I thought he was going to be some kind of gladiator too, at first).

  27. Lovely stuff. I regularly use a couple of recipes for SMASHED potatoes: i.e. summarily squidged up with a fork rather than beaten to a purée

  29. Nice gentle stuff from Imogen today, though hadn’t come across a TOMATILLO before, nor PAYWALL. The penny took a while to drop for loi FACE CARDS…

  30. SW corner was hardest for me.

    New for me: TITRATE, EPICARP, CAESIUM.

    Favourites: ARSENAL, DEPTH.

    I did not parse 14ac, 16ac, 23ac apart from the 1st def, 17d.

    Thanks, both.

  31. I quite enjoyed this puzzle, Imogen in “relatively” benign mood. Having said that there would have been no way i’d ever have parsed DEPTH which I think is just patently unfair. . And whilst I can appreciate the parsing of PREDICT, I’d never have seen that one either. Also resorting to the Italian language with a word that actually needs some linguistic skill, what gives? Russian, Dutch?

  32. A slow solve but satisfying to complete.
    Strange that several people couldn’t find omnishambles in Chambers, as it is most definitely there. Is the online version out of date? I have a pretty new (2002) hardback and so far it has had every unfamiliar word I have needed to look up (for the meaning, mainly).
    Thank you Imogen and PeterO

  33. AT(e)=”swallow” doesn’t seem to work.
    I parsed DEPTH as DEPT H from the crosser, but couldn’t see where the H came from and don’t much like the definition as ‘most intense’.
    Aside from those quibbles, I enjoyed it.

  34. Also defeated in SW corner. Aren’t we going to quibble whether Ireland is a country or an island?

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO.

  35. I liked DEPTH when it clicked and IGNOBLE for the anagrind. Brexit is synonymous with OMNISHAMBLES in the Google dictionary. Thanks PeterO and Imogen.

  37. Took three sittings, two of which were devoted to the south west corner. EPICARP finally fell to a hard stare at the wordplay and I’m happy to learn a new word today. I liked the ‘potato clues’, FACE CARDS (a real penny drop moment) and, now that PeterO has parsed it for me, DEPTH. Thanks Imogen and PeterO.

  39. KVa@1 and 5. I’d forgotten all about that, and solved it again from first principles. So much for cryptic crosswords heading off memory loss.

    JohnW@16, You’re right. OMNISHAMBLES was OED word of the year in 2012, as in the link to the link that TimC posted@11. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-20309441 (A good read).

    TimC@13. This Aussie does know how to make mushy peas. (But you can also buy them in a can. Wash my mouth out with soap and water. )

    In terms of recycling, there was also another ARSENAL/GUNNERS clue recently, which I did remember.

    I was totally on the wrong track with FACE CARDS. Having the F and the enumeration 4, 5 I was going for FREE STONE (no pip). That did give me the pip.

    Favourite clue ASTERIX. Most satisfying solve EPICARP, which I got from wordplay without knowing the def, although there may have been some subliminal memory from helping my son, a horticulturalist, prepare for his tests. (Don’t take any credit really. He got 100% in his plant identification. I may have helped linguistically.)

  40. Oh this was huge fun – but then Imogen’s crosswords always are. Even with the ones I can’t finish, coming here to learn the explanations is a real pleasure.
    This one was a delight from start to finish: my faves being ASTERIX, DRAG ONES FEET, CAESIUM, the delicious PERCHED, and OMNISHAMBLES courtesy of the peerless Malcolm Tucker (though personally I use his term “Numfup” rather more often).
    Thank you PeterO for the blog and help with completing the parsing to DEPTH and FACE CARDS; like you – and many others – the SW corner held out the longest. Especially EPICARP: a new one to me!
    Grateful thanks to Imogen for a masterly creation – and for today’s generous helping of setsunai….

  41. poc@33
    CHAPATI
    Lemme try to defend AT(e):
    Can we read the relevant part of the clue as ‘Did -not quite- swallow’?
    Did swallow-not quite!
    Convoluted? Kinda…

  42. My father always referred to Jack (or Knave), Queen, King as “court cards”; I’ve never come across ‘’face cards”. I think I may have encountered “pip” in that context once or twice in the dim and distant past.

    A mixture of delightful and heavy going today.

  43. The usual shudder when I saw Imogen’s name but, as with some others above, the top half went in quite smoothly. The bottom half needed more brain power (which is getting limited).

    For ‘one strengthening teeth’ element, I thought of fluorine at first, although that didn’t last for long. I did like the wordplays of PIE-EYED, TOMATILLO (where I only just remembered closed = TO) and RHOMBUS, the good anagram to get OMNISHAMBLES, and the ‘platter but no coffee’ to give PREDICT.

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO.

  44. Thank you Imogen and PeterO.
    I made heavy weather of this but fortunately it wasn’t a complete 26, and I enjoyed the ‘drunk pair’ amongst many others.

  45. Tomsdad @8 My brain took exactly the same path to 8A. I smiled when I got it.

    On the whole this was difficult but satisfying, with a couple left unparsed and, like several others, the SW corner the last to fall. 17D my favorite.

  46. Like others, I found the SW the toughest and had to use the Check button a few times to make sure I was on the right track. Overall, a really good puzzle which was very much within my favourite zone of not too easy but not impossible. FACE CARDS took me far too long given that I am in the process of learning Bridge (!) Favourites were ASTRIX, OMNISHAMBLES, CEASIUM and PERCHED (I don’t speak Italian as such, but I knew “perche” from listening to opera, and it’s not a million miles from the Spanish and the French equivalents). With thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

  49. 1a TOP OF THE POPS(1964-2006) – first broadcast New Year’s Day 60 years ago – a diamond anniversary.
    The first show … featured (in order) Dusty Springfield with “I Only Want to Be with You”, the Rolling Stones with “I Wanna Be Your Man”, the Dave Clark Five with “Glad All Over”, the Hollies with “Stay”, the Swinging Blue Jeans with “Hippy Hippy Shake” and the Beatles with “I Want to Hold Your Hand”] that week’s number one.

  50. Bodycheetah@47
    CHAPATI
    I was unsure if ‘not quite’ could mean ‘remove the first letter of’ (used to the last letter removal all the time).
    You might well be right about (e)AT.
    ‘Almost swallowed’ might have worked
    unambiguously but the setter must have had some new trick in mind.

  51. Toughie for this plodder, but got there in the end.

    Raised an eyebrow at regularly = often. I often go to football matches but my attendance is most certainly not regular.

    Many thanks, both.

  54. FrankieG @49: great memories, many thanks…six of the best ( which I clued recently as Beating Thebes (3,2,3,4)

  55. Thanks PeterO, Sagittarius@18 for the face/honour explanation (I had only thought of both as equivalent in Far Eastern terms so couldn’t make sense of the “Some”), FrankieG for the significance of 1A. I found this tough (esp SW as per PeterO) but maybe I am having a slow week as I struggled yesterday too. Liked the way the wordplay required concentration but was precise enough to rely on (barring the odd preposition). Still not entirely sure why DEPTH =”the most intense part” vs just “intensity”, and agree William@51 in a different way – Halley’s Comet is a regular visitor to our night sky but hardly “often” in the human timescale (and in which other timescale is it recognised?). This was nicely balanced and I got a lot of enjoyment from it, thanks Imogen.

  56. I really like the word OMNISHAMBLES…really liked the wild energy of music group Babyshambles fronted by Pete Doherty, when I saw them performing live a few years ago…and I really like ambling down that medieval street The Shambles in York, though that meaning has a completely different derivation…

  57. Alaster @38
    Indeed tomatillos do exist, particularly in Mexican gastronomy. They are a principal ingredient of salsa verde.
    KVa @5 (and the quoted paddymelon)
    Right – an omnishambles is one with a café and a gift shop.

  60. ASTERIX and Caesar’s Gift(1974) – a golden anniversary.
    And CAESIUM looks like it derives from Caesar – but no – it means ‘bluish-grey, grey-eyed, blue-eyed, cat-eyed’ – not PIE-EYED.
    He’s the only character without a clever name – Cacofonix, Dogmatix, Fulliautomatix, Geriatrix, Getafix, Obelix, Vitalstatistix

  62. Having just done today’s Indy crossword, I see there is an additional point to the repeated potato clues, as it is Feb. 2nd

  67. Thanks for the guidance on Omnishambles.

    After reading the interesting Paul blog, it turns out my Chambers was published before the word was invented. I am slightly annoyed that the Shorter OED app that I use does not have it either, as I expect that to be up to date. It was nice to see from one of the articles posted last time around that OED only included the word once it had crossed over into real life. My Chambers seems to include words that have been uttered but a single time…..

  68. Martyn @67
    It is odd that omnishambles is not in the SOED app, as it is in the online Oxford Learners Dictionary, and was the 2012 Oxford Word of the Year (UK).

  69. TOMATILLO is all very well but what about TAMARILLO, the Yorkshire fruit whose whereabouts were questioned by Peter Kay?

  70. 9a & 11a – Liked the consecutive “Drunk” clues PIE-EYED & SMASHED – “Like some potatoes?” – Yes, please. Nice spot, Petert@62 😉
    19a & 21a – Liked the consecutive A GREE[n] IRELAND, too.
    Alec@69 🙂

  71. oed.com – I sign in with my library card – has OMNISHAMBLES – the latest two quotes are !rish and Aussie:
    2019 It’s a testament to the strength of the interminable Brexit omnishambles gripping our island neighbour that record numbers of British are looking to become Irish citizens. Irish Times (Nexis) 2 February 16
    2022 What an omnishambles that debate on Sunday night was. Cairns (Queensland) Post (Nexis) 10 May 11

  72. Thanks for the blog, neat set of clues, the grid is very friendly, every clue has the first letter crossing. for MASOCHIST , Mach 1 is really rather slow.

  74. Despite the extra ten minutes solving time during afternoon coffee break – my overlords allow me two a day as well as lunch – I struggled, as others did, with the SW corner and ultimately failed with 16a and 24a. I should have known the former but never met the latter before which sounds like a description of a huge lyre if you ask me. Thank you Imogen and PeterO.

  75. Late to this again, but just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this. My favourite was PREDICT for the neat surface.

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO

  76. Slowed down a bit on the UK-isms, most notably the element, which we spell differently. In fact, Ms. P contributed a limerick to the Omnificent Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF.com) about it:
    On the chart, a big C, little s—
    This is cesium, sure to impress.
    Through this element’s quirks,
    The atomic clock works.
    And its heart is (in Spanish) a “yes”!
    (Rest assured that there’s also a defining limerick with the other spelling.)

  77. ASTERIX
    I originally dismissed Asterix as I didn’t immediately realise that ‘Roman fighter’ could be a Roman who was fighting and also someone fighting against the Romans. I was trying to think of well-known Roman soldiers …..
    Good puzzle.

  78. Never thought of hole meaning fix, but a FIXED STAR is one that can continually be seen by looking through a small aperture (staring out of a hole).
    A non fixed star (anything other than the Pole star ?) will soon move out of the view of the small aperture as the Earth rotates.

  79. Almost everything has already been said but I only know pips as seeds or the time signals on BBC radio, so I failed on that one. I know smashed potatoes as roast potatoes taken out of the oven when almost done, smashed with the bottom of a drinking glass then put back in the oven to make a delicious omnishambles.

  80. Wellcidered @78
    Before Roz descends on you: with your definition, even the pole star is not quite fixed (so it would depend on the size of the hole). The normal definition of a fixed star is one that remains (in human time) in the same relative position in the heavens, as opposed to the wanderers, the planets.

  81. Surely the FIXED STARs contrast with the wandering stars (i.e. the planets), Wellcidered @78 (does your handle mean you are 9a or 11a? 🙂 ).

  82. PeterO @80
    Yes, quite right. ( My helmet is now on to protect against further onslaught.)
    Not totally relevant, but I am reminded that when I was at the bottom of my garden well, I could clearly see stars even though it was daytime.

  83. TassieTim @82
    I cannot lie that I have never been 9a or 11a -but it would have been quite a while ago.
    ( My small orchard has a well. I do make my own cider and my name is Ed.)

  84. Me @80
    … and before Roz descends on me, it should be said that the idea of fixed stars dates from before other denizens of the heavens – moons, comets, asteroids, Όumuamua, whatever – were considered, and that some of the nearer fixed stars do show a tiny parallax.

  85. Mostly completed and mostly enjoyable, save the Italian and alphabet count. I’ve not come accross OMNISHAMBLES – a typically polite Britishism. Over here clusterf*** serves the same purpose. Thanks Imogen and PeterO.

  86. AlanC@36: there’s some discussion about that ad in the comments on this Guardian article.

    John M@31: Er is niks mis met Nederlands! (? ??????? ????). [OK, Cyrillic didn’t come through – never mind]

  87. Not read the blog yet but just wanted to come here to say I am doing this at the end of a long day with a nasty cold and have just done the top half, absolutely loving it. The potato clues are making me laugh and I have loved Asterix since I was a little girl!

  88. Almost got there, but the SW defeated me. OMNISHAMBLES, EPICARP, and CHAPATI new to me, though I figured the first had to be. Defeated once again by forgetting to spell CESIUM with an extra A. Couldn’t parse DEPTH, and seeing the answer doesn’t lead me to think I should have, what with an unclued abbreviation and an unmotivated enumeration of letters. Should have figured out FACE CARDS, but didn’t — I was stuck on FINE WORDS or FAIR WORDS as honours that don’t get you the actual reward.

    More importantly, 12a breaks what I thought was an inviolable law of cryptic crosswords: the literal part neither begins nor ends the clue. No one else has commented on that, which worries me.

  89. FIXED STAR (s) the comments were far too late for me but it is one of those terms where the meaning has changed. Current general meaning refers to the very distant stars in the fixed background whose “movement” is negligible as the Earth orbits. The nearer stars then produce a parallax angle over 6 months which is used to measure their distance. A diagram would help.
    There is also “proper motion” which complicates things.

  90. Them Tates@88 things like section 8 = DEPT H turn up fairly often, whenever you see a number in a clue it may refer to a different clue or a letter of the alphabet, transgression 11 = SIN K etc.
    There are no laws in crosswords, just one rule – the setter sets and we try to solve. A definition nearly always turns up at either end but this is just the way most clues work. I have seen defintions in the middle at times.

  91. Roz@89
    Thanks for the explanation.
    For reasons above, I still like the clue surface of “staring out of a hole”.

  92. Wellcidered@91 I think the clue is hinting at viewing stars from a well, Polaris is pretty much fixed on an ordinary time scale but difficult to have a well shaft facing due North.
    Wells are important in the novels of Murakami , especially ” The Wind-up Bird Chronicle ” .

  93. Roz above
    Thanks for confirming that Imogen and I might have been thinking along the same lines on this one.
    As you can see, I am a fan of wells. I shall look up Murakami.
    I am aware that wells were useful, when travelling, for determining whether you had entered the tropics.

  94. Finished it now (didn’t get face cards or caesium or fixed star). Had to have some help with agree but once I had that could finish that corner.
    Pleased with myself as did all but 4 unaided.

  96. May I ask, Roz, are you a physics professor or the like (as people refer to you often for correction etc). I assume you are also a heavenly being (“before Roz descends”!

  97. ThemTates@88
    Okinawa could be described as “In part of Japan”.
    To me this is “OK in a limited way”.

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