Guardian Cryptic 29,360 by Paul

131 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,360 by Paul”

1. Enjoyed this one. Lily of Laguna has a rather dodgy history.

2. Thanks for the blog, manehi
   Paul + lots of “follow-on” clues = don’t bother
   Having read the solutions, I’m glad I made that decision

3. Well, that’s left me with an unwanted earworm!
   Great fun. Thanks to Paul and Manehi.

4. I know how you feel muffin @2. I finished it just because I’m a curmudgeon but CBA parsing a load.

5. What muffin said.

6. Paul’s puzzles with multiple clues that start off with the word “See this or that clue” are more of a chore/groan than a pleasure for me. I picked up on the theme fairly early on then got help online for TA RA RA BOOM DE AY (had a vague memory of this from the film My Brilliant Career starring Judy Davis and Sam Neill) and other songs with which I was less familiar. Tbh I could not have solved this unaided.

   I did not parse:
   10/25/11 apart from inky pinky = stained finger [I had never heard of this song, ditto LILY of LAGUNA]

   17ac – is BRITAIN a country? or is it an island that contains three countries?

   Thanks, both.

7. I initially refused to be intimidated or tied up in knots by 10,25,11 or 19, 12,9 or 22,8 or 24,14, just a series of numbers, eh? In fact this was over in a (jumping Jack) flash. Spent more time wondering what TRENDY had to do with Splits, rather than the word In, than the rest of the crossword put together. Well, almost. Had fun with this, even if some of these particular songs are rather dubious in meaning and intent…

8. My initial reaction to five of the first six clues being “See…” was similar to muffin’s. But I’m glad I persevered. In particular, the INKY PINKY was hilarious.
   As Davey @1 reminds us, Lily of Laguna has a dodgy history. There is a Wikipedia link to a discussion of a genre known as coon music, which appears to have been every bit as offensive as one might suppose; but then, it’s not all that long ago that comfortable pink-skinned Brits regarded The Black and White Minstrel Show as the last word in slick light entertainment.
   Thanks to Paul for cheering up the morning and to manehi in particular for parsing CAPUCHIN, which had to be the right answer but I couldn’t see why.

9. There was so much about this puzzle that I did not like that I don’t know where to start. Yes, I did finish it without aids but, like Tim C@4, only because I’m a curmudgeon and wouldn’t want people to think that my displeasure was sour grapes because I couldn’t do it.

10. A popular World War I song and another from the 1880s… I know cryptics aren’t the most popular among the younger generations but would it kill Paul to make some cultural references from even the last 100 years? These songs are older than my grandparents.

11. I’ve now got an earworm from INKY PINKY PARLEZ-VOUS, which I remember someone somewhere singing in my childhood, which I got from the inky pinky, and didn’t bother parsing the rest. That was about the same time as I encountered TA-RA-RA BOOM-DE-AY, which I worked out from the artists and a horrible flash of memory. I had to google LILY OF LAGUNA, so whoever acquainted me with those dubious musical items did have some filters. I also spent a long time looking at -O_VE trying to work out why SOLVE didn’t fit, because I think YOU’VE should be two words.

    Like all multi-entry Paul crosswords, it’s finding a foothold and then the crossers releasing more.

    Thank you to Paul and manehi.

12. …oh, and had meant to say that the appearance of the two Jacks in 5d made it the COTD for me…

13. Nah c’mon, it was quite fun really, but yeah agree quite a few parsings in the cqba category. Of the ones I could ba about, failed on the obliquish indent= nick. I’ll try to remember it. Thx P&m.

14. Another one whose initial reaction was similar to Muffin’s@2, but my personality type is closer to Tim C@4 and George@9. As usual with Paul, lots of answers went in without need for parsing, so it was not a long struggle. I like INDOLENT now that it has been explained to me, and enjoyed the brevity of BUZZER. Thanks Paul and Manehi.

15. Finished, but with relief, rather than pleasure or satisfaction. A shame, because Paul can be an enjoyable mix of fun and frustration. But this time, no, for so many reasons… Thanks to Manehi for the blog.

16. Usually I like Paul puzzles, and I don’t mind the occasional one with clues referencing each other, but I have little knowledge of or interest in very old popular songs whether or not they can be sung in polite company, and I really dislike long rambling wordplay (10,25,11). I did about 2/3 of this, got bored and revealed the rest. Nevertheless, a few good clues including TRENDY, ABSEILER and IN TURN.
    Thanks both

17. My heart goes out to anyone doing this on a mobile phone – I started on mine and at least it motivated me to get up and fetch the paper 🙂

    I thought there’d be some grumbling but about the old numbers but at least they weren’t anaesthetics

    Top ticks for CYPRIOT, ABSEILER & CAPUCHIN with an honourable mention for the INKY PINKY

    Cheers P&M

18. I think Paul has to carry on being Paul. From comments above and in other similar puzzles he obviously frustrates lots of regular solvers – but I think he delights just as many. I also like the fact that occasional crosswords are different and do not admit to usual solving toolkit.

    Thanks Paul and Manehi

19. Matthew @18 – he does both for me.

    I recall seeing plenty of comments expressing frustration and me thinking, well I’ve enjoyed it (whichever puzzle in question). But lately I’ve felt at least some of those same frustrations and the last two Paul outings have been a curate’s egg to put it mildly, including this one. The shorter clues went in relatively steadily, whereas I got three of the four long ones unparsed and partially from the crossers. I find it difficult to wade through that kind of convoluted wordplay.

    I’m none the wiser as regards the ‘two jacks’ reference in 5d, though.

20. Falling around laughing this morning. Thanks Paul and Manehi, and I agree with Matthew Newell @18.

21. Following my usual technique with Paul’s themed puzzles full of cross-references I dealt with all the regular stand-alone clues first to obtain as many checkers as possible and then tackled the multi-word answers. The key for me was understanding the significance of ‘number of old’ right away and spotting TA-RA-RA BOOM-DE-AY from enumeration and a couple of checkers. The other song titles followed on swiftly as this was a theme I felt very at home with, unlike the one on Nordic noir we had not long ago.

22. What a discouraging start! “See x” for five of the first six. Once I had some crossers, all the numbers of old went in from enumeration, because the older generation of my family were music hall fans so all were familiar to me, but I’m sorry for anyone who hadn’t heard of them trying to work them out from the wordplay. Do I get the impression that Paul recently is doing his best to be outrageous by including all the things he knows annoy people (dreadful puns, multiple cross references) and turning them up to 11?

    Anyway, as I knew the songs I quite enjoyed this, and I liked YOU’VE GOT ME, ASHTRAYS and ABSEILER. I think there’s a bit of double duty in CAPUCHIN: Cain was one of the first brothers as well as one of the first humans.

23. Enjoyed the blog, thanks manehi..

24. Re ABSEILER: I think we may need to ask the homophone police to investigate the seiler/sailor pair which doesn’t seem to work for everyone.

25. Took me longer than it should have to understand what was going on but then, with a little Google verification, I made it through unscathed. Lots of fun–thank you Paul. Interestingly, on my side of the pond the song is known as Inky Dinky (not Pinky) Parlez-Vous.

26. Superb puzzle and high-class blog! Thanks Paul and manehi!

    Loved many. Just mentioning a few: INKY PINKY…, CAPUCHIN, ABSEILER, KNEES UP…, and LUSH.

    KNEES U M B:
    Shouldn’t we read the ‘unlike old PM’ as one unit to indicate ‘OTHER BROWN’?

27. Personally I enjoy Paul’s multi-word cross reference clues, which offer a bit of variety (not that Paul, fortunately, will care two hoots what I think; any setter should produce the puzzles they enjoy producing). And this particular puzzle led me to play some songs I wouldn’t otherwise have played, including hearing the actual words to Knees Up Mother Brown, which often crops up as a stock music hall song reference. Hearing the songs our great-grandparents enjoyed has some educational value as well, even if only to reflect that tastes can change. So thanks to Paul, and to manehi for the blog.

28. All the songs were familiar to me from their being used in historical documentaries and films as background music, which I dislike, but they somehow wormed their way in.

29. Isn’t Inky Pinky etc. actually called Mademoiselle from Armentières?

30. Left all the “See another clue” clues and surprised myself by doing the rest pretty quickly.
    Realised the interlinked ones were old songs. Parsed the “TaRaRa…”, guessed “Knees up…” from Brown (I think it has been clued before) and had heard of “Inky pinky…” (couldn’t parse it).
    Thought from crossers the last was either “Loll on Legend” or “Lily of Laguna” and got lucky.
    I finished, yes, but didn’t find much to like in terms of construction, wordplay, surfaces, theme etc.
    Thank you to Paul for the puzzle and Manehi for the blog, especially for parsing “Emmy”

31. Michelle @6. Re BRITAIN. Technically, neither is correct. The country is The United Kingdom of Great Britain And Northern Ireland. Not sure where you are, but we have a TV quiz programme called “Pointless” which defines country as “a sovereign state that is a member of the UN in its own right”. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland form part of the UK.

    Re Inky Pinky. I always thought the song was “Mademoiselle From Armentières”, and Inky etc was the tag line

32. Galdys @ 30 – you beat me to it!

33. @Gladys30 Yes.

34. gladys @25… please don’t encourage the “homophoners”. 🙂

    This crossword just confirmed my belief that Paul is a UK regurgitation of Australia’s David Astle.

35. Me @33. Sorry – Gladys.

36. God forbid we ever got a clue that expected us to know a Playstation game, or a character from LOST, there’d be riots – but these ancient songs I’ve never heard of are fair game?

    Also POUR sounds nothing like POOR. It reminds me of an Only Connect answer that hinged on “Pause” sounding exactly like “Pores”. It’s so blinkered.

37. ABSEILER
    Tim C@35
    Yes. We have shifted to aural wordplay already.

38. Michelle@6: the island is Great Britain. I had the same reservations about ‘Britain’, but I think we would accept ‘America’ as a country with no more justification.

    POUR and ‘poor’ don’t sound much alike in Co. Down, but I suppose by Pauline standards they count as homophones.

    Some of the non-theme clues were good (ABSEILER, CAPUCHIN). The linked ones I mostly got from crossers and revealed INKY … etc. when I lost patience. Does anyone aside from the blogger actually parse these things? As is so often the case with Paul, he seems to be having more fun than we are.

39. A bit late to the party today, but I’m on the side of those who look forward to Paul’s puzzles, terrible homophones and multiple cross-references and answers spread across the puzzle and all. You know you’re going to groan and laugh your way through. Knowing Paul’s style it was obvious the them clues were all old songs, so it was a question of getting some crossers in and then a mixture of guesswork and a bit of parsing, with the full parse once you had the answer. I wasn’t sure of what came before PARLEZ-VOUS, as I thought it was cod French from the first world war. I liked ABSEILER (for what it’s worth SEILER/sailor is a homophone for me), CAPUCHIN and CYPRIOT. I do think that ‘one of the first’ refers to Cain being one of the first brothers. Thanks to Paul and to manehi for the blog.

40. I’m with KVa @27: amusing way to start my birthday.

    Ta Paul & manehi for the superb blog.

41. poc@38. I certainly didn’t bother trying to parse them. For me, it was a case of guess an answer from the crossers, put it in, press ‘check’, yep, so move on.

42. Self-indulgent garbage

43. What Tim C@4 said, but chacun a son gout.
    Thanks Paul and Manehi.

44. Fru @36, poc @38 – POOR/POUR are indistinguishable in my accent, and accents I’m used to hearing, but I’m also aware of the different pronunciations out there.

45. I actually finished this before breakfast but too busy to post till now. Like others I looked in despair at the mutliple split answers, but thought I’d start with all the single words and amazingly I got quite a few right away. Then I looked at Guardian comments and realised that number meant song, and then I recognised Ta Ra Ra Boom De Ay and I was away! Last one in surprisingly was Britain! Thanks Paul and manehi

46. Another dogged curmudgeon here. Woke early, saw the first few “See…” clues, finished the tea and went back to sleep. Astonishingly, woke up with the awful KNEES UP…song, and that was it. Had to persevere, but cqba with some of the convoluted parsing.

    Many thanks, both.

47. Too much of this required guessing without parsing for my taste, but I very much liked INDOLENT and ABSEILER. I found the long clues difficult given their convoluted nature and the obscurity of the answers to me – but as others have pointed out before this would be a dull game if setters confined themselves to a standard style and subject matter.

48. I know Paul divides opinion, but I’m in the camp that enjoys his puzzles. There’s always something accessible to get you started (DOWNPOUR and IRANIAN for me), and then it’s a cavalcade of homophones and groan-worthy puns. I needed Ecosia’s help (I won’t use Google) with some of the old music hall songs, but the cluing was fair. CAPUCHIN, ABSEILER and INDOLENT were my favourites.

    I initially echoed Michelle@6’s sentiments about “Britain”, but my passport says “British Citizen”. The island is Great Britain (the largest of the British Isles).

    Thanks Paul and Manehi.

49. I see Paul has once again divided opinion… As an aspiring to improve solver, I usually try Eileen’s method and start with the across clues first. Today no chance! Instead I adopted the method described by jackkt@21. I have to admit the old songs were a get the title first then parse… Manehi, thank you so much for the detailed explanations which I needed for a few, especially 20A CAPUCHIN. I thought it was a monkey and had convinced myself monkey=brother in a genetic way. Oh well… I remember as a child we sang a song to Ta ra ra which we thought rude. In hindsight, it’s not really. Finally, just to thank Paul. I’m a definite fan 😎.
    [Jay@25, just taking the opportunity to say that I finally finished the Xmas special with the help of your magic grid. Very good fun. Thank you again. I’ve not forgotten that I owe you a 🍻 if we ever happen to meet!]

50. PIB@49…I think the CAPUCHIN monkey is so called as they somewhat resemble the appearance of one of those religious brethren with the way their fur grows to look like a monk’s cowl ..

51. …and just to complete the CAPUCHIN monk > CAPUCHIN monkey, the delicious CAPPUCCINO is apparently named after the brown colour of the monk’s hoods. Its literal translation is “little capuchin”. ronald@50, PIB@49

52. I appreciate that doing this on a mobile phone would be irritating but then so would be doing any crossword other than a write-in, I should think. (Not possessing a mobile phone I’ve never tried.) As for those for whom poor and pour don’t sound exactly the same, I very much doubt if this makes solving more difficult for you, so stop moaning. For me Paul’s crosswords are a highlight of my week and have been for as long as setters have been named.

53. I normally see Paul on a Thursday and very quickly turn away, but thought I’d give it a shot this week. Happy to have got a few of the “regular” clues done, which made me think I’d start making headway on the longer ones but… well I’m one of the aforementioned “younger” solvers, and I can say I’ve never even heard of the songs here, so no chance I was ever going to finish this.

    Will carry on trying Paul in future – I’m not quite in the “love” camp yet, but I don’t mind trying something a bit different. This one just relied too much on General (or rather, very hyper-specific) Knowledge.

54. These days my heart sinks when I see Paul is the setter. Yes, he’s continually inventive but that’s outweighed by clunky clues and far too much interlinking. I got a few solutions but gave up after about ten minutes because I couldn’t be bothered.

    Thanks to manehi. You have my sympathy for being lumbered with this one.

55. This puzzle took me a very long time and while I found discovering the ”old numbers” a bit of fun, all the interlinking wasn’t really to my taste and seemed to slow me down. But it was a clever puzzle and I did like 17a BRITAIN, 5d ABSEILER and 16d ASHTRAYS. However I needed manehi’s blog to understand fully how some of the clues worked. Thank you to Paul and manehi.

56. I thought this was playful and clever and mostly enjoyed the challenge. I remember people of my grandparents’ generation singing these songs, but can see how this puzzle could be alienating for younger solvers.
    My favourites were ABSEILING, CAPUCHIN and of the old numbers, INKY PINKY etc was the most amusing.
    With CAPUCHIN, I saw it as Tomsdad@39 did, that CAIN was one of the first brothers.
    Thanks for the fun, Paul and for the great blog, Manehi.

57. Michelle@6 and others

    I was taught that “Britain” is acceptable shorthand for the United Kingdom. If you add “Great” you make it smaller!

58. AlanC@40 – Happy Birthday! 🎂

59. Paul is the best compiler since Araucaria. Putting in these old standards reminded me of family parties from years ago when the old girls sang Knees up Mother Brown, Little Brown Jug, My Old Man and Lily of Laguna, among many others.

60. This was great fun! I thought it would be a real struggle but once I got ta-ra-ra etc it all fell satisfyingly into place. The songs may be old but so am I. Great fan of Paul’s puzzles..

61. Well I solved this on a mobile phone and wasn’t irritated. I really don’t understand the issue with the linked clues. Is it just because we end up with less clues in total? Thanks Paul and manehi.

62. 13D was FOI – after I rescued its placement from 11A, duh. That helped. 24D was my fave, two words I love. I thought 17A / 23A were as close as I could get to any kind of ‘theme’, but there’s nothing like a crossword to get one overthinking! I remember “the olds” singing those songs, usually at Xmas, when the booze was flowing freely and we children would sit under the dining table untying and retying all the shoe laces. Fun for all. As was this. Thanks very much P&m.

63. Deeply unenjoyable. It is meant to be a puzzle, not a research project.

    This is essentially a segment from the King Williams quiz in crossword form.

64. I have to join in. Thanks a lot to Paul for stirring up not just one but FOUR earworms!
    When I was born, just ten years after WWI ended all the songs were still on the go, unlike nowadays when yesterday’s pop star (with a few exceptions) fails to grip the next generation. We danced round a bonfire on Kew Green on VE Day singing “Knees up Mother Brown”
    “Mademoiselle from Arrmentieres had a smutty version known to schoolboys (the quote, rather than the title, was a bit misleading here).
    Like most bloggers Ta-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay was my first in and a trailer for the others. CAPUCHIN’s parsing made it the LOI. Now I’ve got to try and rid my brain of those jolly ancient airs.
    P.S. I think T-R-R-B-D-A was amongst the giant brass discs in the family’s Symphonion collection!

65. [Fru @36
    You’ve reminded me of buying the “Young Persons’ ” version of Trivial Pursuit for our daughter when she was a young teenager (she’s now in her forties). A lot of the Entertainment questions started “In Fraggle Rock…”.]

66. Hooray, I finished a Paul puzzle! I gave up on yesterday’s Tramp, just couldn’t get into the setter’s mindset, but once I remembered that “number” could mean “song” I got encouraged to persevere with today’s.
    I needed a few checks to confirm things but was able to parse everything, albeit often after guessing the answer.

67. Keith @64 – are you 96 then?

    (genuine question)

68. Is hyper-specific knowledge just GK that one doesn’t have?

    I didn’t know the LILY song but it was gettable from the wordplay albeit with a bit of googling to confirm

    The Wikipedia entry for homophones makes it clear that they can’t be guaranteed to work in every accent. I’m a northerner so class doesn’t rhyme with arse but I’ve learned to live with everyone else pronouncing it wrong.

69. Laugh? I almost did
    Blog superior to puzzle
    Roll out the Barrel l

70. I’m one of those who enjoy teasing out Paul’s interlinked puzzles and am tickled by his wordplay, so plenty of smiles for me today. My kids in their 30s know most of the songs better than me thanks to their primary school history projects and recent films/TV. Loved ABSEILER and (when the penny finally dropped) TRENDY. I don’t want to get bogged down in homophonia (upon which they’re jolly strict in the not-country of Scotland), but could we maybe agree that reportedly / picked up / sounds like, in cryptic wordplay, does not mean “pronounced identically, in every possible social and geographic accent variant of English”?

71. [muffin @65 – I’m just back from a rainy family holiday where we made the kids endure a 1980s vintage Trivial Pursuits provided at the house. Once I told them they just needed to guess Willie Carson or Ian Botham for any of the Sport questions, they rather enjoyed it.]

72. Read all the clues. Filled in the obvious ones. Left the rest. I find Paul irritating

73. I was rather put off at the beginning by all the interlinked clues but I soldiered on and got there in the end, despite not being able to fit in ‘Two German officers crossed the Rhine’ in front of PARLEZ VOUS.

    I BIFD a few and parsed later. I liked the wordplays for ABSEILER, LUSH, CAPUCHIN and KNEES UP MOTHER BROWN. The IRANIAN was well hidden and I also liked the surface for CYPRIOT.

    Thanks Paul and manehi.

74. That was brilliant. Thank you Paul, and Manehi for the blog. I’m old enough to be familiar with all the songs, even though they are “before my time”. It’s history, innit? Great change from all those post-1970-band-themed puzzles. 😉

75. PS, Chambers has Great Britain but not Britain and Scotland but not England or Wales – go figure?

76. Add me to the list of those who saw Paul’s name and inwardly groaned, scanned the first half dozen clues and outwardly groaned, and moved on with my day.

77. Those complaining about “old” songs remind me of the people on TV quizzes who justify their lack of knowledge with the lame “before my time” – a ridiculous position that implies nothing worth knowing happened before they honoured the world with their presence.

78. Crispy@31 – thanks for explaining re BRITAIN.

    poc@38 I think Britain and America are different. I think of America as an abbreviation for the United States of America, but Britain is not a direct abbreviation of The United Kingdom of Great Britain And Northern Ireland.

    Lechien@48, Judge@57 and Robi@75 – thanks and… I start to think it is quite confusing!

79. I’m amazed at the negative comments about this puzzle and its setter, who’s one of my favourites. As others have said, it’s good to have a variety of setting styles. I find with Paul that I read a lot of clues before I find one that I can solve, and then things speed up. Satisfying.

80. Richard Evans @77 – And I’m sure you’d have a similar reaction if you got a clue with a definition of “modern song” that could refer to anything from Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, or Stormzy…

81. Solving this over lunch, I started slowish, and then picked up speed as I understood the theme (prompted by T R R B D A). I loved it.
    Rushed here to see what the Paul-deniers would have to say and wasn’t disappointed, or surprised.
    I actually rather enjoy making the leap to a long answer (enumeration, whatever) and then going back to dissect – and often marvel at – the setter’s ingenuity. Inky Pinky was a classic case, where I’d spotted the Inky soon enough, but hadn’t seen the Pinky following on.
    Lovely puzzle, well blogged.
    Thanks.

82. Similar experience to manehi – took a while to get started but it all came together in the end. Haven’t heard of Lily or Inky Pinky but managed to tease both out from the clues. Overall, I found this great fun. Please don’t ever change, Paul.

83. Ronald@50 and Leichen@60, thank you for the CAPUCHIN information. I’ve learnt quite a few new things today.🤔

    Bc@70 your contribution on Northern accents and homophones made me laugh and laugh. Me too… 🤣.

    Thanks to all for what is proving to be a very entertaining thread. Paul, I echo Widdersbel@82 .😎

84. Re: Britain. Given that at the UN we have the UK, in the Olympics we have GB, in the World Cup we have England et al., don’t we have to conclude that nobody out there much cares what the precise definition of a country is? Just sayin’!

85. Dr. WhatsOn @84
    It could be argued that there is no such thing as “Britain”. There’s the British Isles (which includes all of Ireland), Great Britain (England, Scotland and Wales), the United Kingdom (as GB plus Northern Ireland – not Ulster, as Ulster and Northern Ireland are not exactly the same), then England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Eire, Channel Isles etc. I don’t know which of those agglomerations would correspond to “Britain”.

86. me @85
    Google suggests that “Britain” is used as an informal shorthand for GB, in the same way as “America” for the USA. I dislike both usages.

87. Dr Whatson; in the Olympics it’s Great Britain and Northern Ireland because Ukraine bagged the UK.

88. Dr WhatsOn @84; I often wondered why in the Olympics it’s Great Britain and Northern Ireland but then I found out that Ukraine had bagged UK.

89. Thanks Paul for making me laugh out loud, as often, today. Yes, I’m in the I love marmite camp, but do have sympathy for young solvers.

90. Lots of fun – didn’t know two of the songs by name, but got them.

    I’ve decided that people who object to loose-ish homophones are probably the type of people who say “po-ta-ta” from the song “Let’s call the whole thing off”. If you can get the answer then the clue is fine. Please stop boring me with the same whinges – it’s so tedious.

    Britain – christ – just look at Wikipedia – it’s not hard!

    “The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain,[k] is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of the continental mainland.”

    Ta Blogger and Setter.

91. Enjoyed this, even though there were several left unsolved when I gave up.
    BRITAIN was one I failed on … so I’ll use the “not a country” as my excuse (wink)!

92. Like most people, not hugely pleasurable. Got the theme from the off, ‘a number’ nearly always refers to songs, especially as the clues have several words, and figured they must be very old songs, but for the life of me I couldn’t think of any until I started searching. Then the ‘normal’ answers started to make themselves known.
    Bring back ‘The Good Old Days’ I say.

93. Amusing to see so many people getting their knickers in a twist over a crossword. At least they can be pleased they have knickers. Mine flew away and did not come back yesterday (or today).

94. Daunting at the start but got easier as it unfolded. I like Paul’s humour. Reminded of a late arrival at the lawyers ball: Please welcome from the USA, Mr & Mrs Raboom and their daughter 22/8.

95. I’m in the camp which generally avoids Paul’s puzzles as linked clues usually irritate rather than entertain me, but today I saw the songs early on and breezed through the rest. The fact that I’m about half the age of most of the songs raises more questions in my mind, but so be it. Thanks to Paul and our blogger and commenters.

96. Enjoyable from Paul – more accessible for me. Favourites were 5D and 22A – thanks to Paul and manehi

97. Started this one – but having glanced over the clues and noted several beginning with ‘Number of’, I decided to give this one a miss after filling in just six lights.

    I revealed LILY OF LAGUNA, which of course I’d never heard of, and looked it up. It appears to be an old song which used to be performed in blackface. That told me enough! Sorry Paul…

    This explains, maybe, why I much prefer puzzles with a ghost theme – where knowledge of the theme is unnecessary towards solving the puzzle.

98. Jay@25 I think I learned it as INKY DINKY too, or even HINKY DINKY.

    How is a silo a BIN?

    Anybody else think a number of old was an obsolete anesthetic?

    Pauline@49 You remind me of a childhood song — is this the one you sang?
    Tarara boom-de-ay
    We have no school today
    Our teacher passed away
    She died of tooth decay!

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

99. Most enjoyable puzzle and easier than many from Paul, but I am 91 and my grandmother sang all these songs. Thanks to Paul and manehi

100. Like many, my heart sank when I saw the first 2 across clues and all the multi-word linked ones. But I stiffened my sinews and summoned up my blood because I’m damned if I gonna let Paul defeat me…
     Tarara etc was an early lucky guess, closely followed by Inky-P – though Gladys@29 & others are correct: that’s the chorus, not the title.
     Knees-up therefore became almost a write-in – but then the fourth was a Coon Song. Ah. Right. (Presumably the Crossword editor had no problem with this)
     Actually, my faves were all stand-alone clues, especially ABSEILER, IN TURN and CAPUCHIN.
     Thank you Manehi for a tough job, smoothly achieved, thank you Paul for the challenge –
     Happy Birthday AlanC!
     – and VanWinkle@93: I do hope you replaced them quickly – you wouldn’t want to catch a chill!

101. Loved the puzzle and definitely have a nostalgia for music hall song and comedy…..
     No problem with the long clues, all adds to the fun!
     Always enjoy Paul, thank you and also manehi for parsing parlez vous !

102. Richard@77 – being born in the late 70s doesn’t prevent me from knowing a great many songs from the 60s or 50s, maybe even a few from the 40s, but songs that predate the gramophone is pushing it too far. It’s about time the setters realised that most people’s frame for popular culture is more recent than the pre-war era.

103. Thanks for the blog, about as annoying as a puzzle can get , fortunately so easy I had time to do a proper puzzle from the FT on my way home.

     Happy Birthday AlanC , I will alert the fire brigade before you have the candles on your cake.

104. MarkN@90
     it never occurred to me to go to wikipedia and look up The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. All I did was look at my online dictionary for BRITAIN and this is what I got:
     the island containing England, Wales, and Scotland. The name is broadly synonymous with Great Britain, but the longer form is more usual for the political unit. See also Great Britain, United Kingdom.

     I tend to think of England, Wales, and Scotland as all being individual countries (and so does my online dictionary), so to also have Britain as a country makes it a bit confusing for this Antipodean as it leads to a country containing 3 countries! In contrast, it seems that Northern Ireland is a province of the United Kingdom, not a country. There are clearly various ways of referring to Britain, Great Britain, the British isles, the UK and the countries, provinces and Crown dependencies within it.

105. MarkN @90; thanks for sharing your boredom with it all. No thanks for your offensive expletive.
     Not Paul’s best today, but thanks to him and manehi

106. Michelle @104, Pointless has a lot of rounds based on countries, their definition is – A sovereign state that is a member of the UN in its own right.
     In this case it is the UK which also avoids any controversy concerning NI .

107. Brilliant puzzle – I am in daily awe of the linguistic ingenuity of Guardian setters and their ability to combine mental challenge and entertainment. All the better too for this one reminding me of Leonard Sachs and The Good Old Days and happy times watching it with my parents. “And, this time, chiefly… yourself!…”. (Yes, I am of somewhat mature years).

108. Thanks both,
     This had a distinct Araucarian flavour for me, than which there is no higher praise. As for the commentators who didn’t like it, particularly those who made multiple comments, had you thought of keeping stum and moving on?

109. Well.
     Mr and Mrs S found this most entertaining, as we emerged from quite different cultural backgrounds. Mrs S remembers the old songs and I have bright ideas which sometimes work. Today – wonder of wonders – we filled the grid, and came here to be enthralled by the wonders of parsing.
     Dad jokes and crosswords have a lot in common and provoke some to mirth but others to apoplexy or despair.
     Thanks all, we love it!

110. Thanks FrankieG and Roz for your amusing birthday wishes.

111. I know lots of folks hate the concatenated solutions but I find them quite satisfying when (and if) I get them. I found this one simpler than most since the theme was made obvious. Last one in was of course the NHO LILY OF LAGUNA. I also had do a quick PARLEZ VOUS google since, in the southern US at least, we say Hinky Dinky.

112. Variety is the spice of life that gives it all its flavour. Without multiple clues, we’d never get answers longer than 15 letters which would be a bit boring. And if you don’t like it best to move on as many have done. As for strictness of definitions, it’s a crossword so more art than science surely. Plus aren’t these puzzles free?! Thanks to setter, blogger and members of the academy.

113. I love the fact that all the “number[s] of old” are over a century old, but the “old PM” isn’t even 15 years out of office yet and is still very much alive.

114. I always enjoy Paul’s puzzles – interlinked clues, mad surfaces, complex parsing, occasional smut and all – and this was no exception. OK I will pass on his very infrequent excursions into Bunthorne/Enigmatist territory, but that’s all. I will doubtless annoy many here if I say that I agree with some of the above posters who would like to see some more recent cultural references, but hear me out – when I first began solving cryptics as a callow youth, most setter’s references seemed to come from a classical education or from general knowledge most familiar to solvers aged 60 plus. Now that I am a good long way into that age bracket myself, I find many setters seem to be trying to appeal to octogenarians and above. This seems a trifle odd not to mention frustrating, especially from a setter like Paul who is 16 years younger than me !

     But enough of that. I will just add in passing that I always thought that INKY PINKY PARLEZ VOUS was called “Three German Officers” – which I guess is another illustration of a mis-spent youth ! Thanks to Paul and Manehi.

115. Staggering that there was seemingly no point between this puzzle’s inception and its publication at which anybody looked at the answer LILY OF LAGUNA and thought “yeah, this probably shouldn’t be in a crossword”

116. I’m rather late to this party having struggled with this all day and then finished it off rather quickly. But I do not understand why Ashtrays (16 down) are small dishes. Can anyone throw any light on this?
     Not sure if I liked this puzzle or not. The songs, apart from Knees Up Mother Brown, were obscure to say the least. But when the penny drops, that’s where the satisfaction comes from, so on balance a thumbs up from me
     Thanks Paul and Manehi

117. Kelly@115
     Perhaps it’s because there are many like myself who have sung this song without realising from the words that it is a “coon song” (a term I learned here today). I see from Googling that there are other words that were not known to me. This version, I suspect, is American and probably the clue wouldn’t find a place in an American crossword

118. Late to the party ‘cos we’re in the colonies and several hours behind but we still love Paul. We think he’s going for the record number of comments – pro and con – and seeing how many people he can piss off. Keep it up Paul!

119. Valentine@98, not that one (which is more polite), but VanW@93 clearly remembers it….

120. Me@117
     Apologies to Kelly@115. Further Googling shows that it is in fact an English Musical song from the 1890s.
     I suspect that reason it was instigated and published was that those responsible like me only know the chorus from which would never guess that it is, to quote cover of the sheet music, “The Greatest Coon Song ever written”

121. Thanks Paul, great fun, and not a single interlinked clue. Surely interlinked clues are ones which reference other answers, usually by their numbers. Araucaria was a master of these and I always enjoyed them. It seem to me there were many more of them around back then, by several other setters.

     Thanks also manehi

122. This puzzle embarrassed me, because I’m a devotee of old songs, and I didn’t get the theme until heaven knows when.

     I’m too lazy to look it up, but I doubt that the refrain (not title) of “Mademoiselle from Armentieres” is “inky pinky”; I rather think it’s “inky dinky.” But I could be wrong.

     As for dodgy history, and I don’t know “Lily of Laguna” well enough to say whether it fits into the pattern, but so-called “coon” songs, at least in America, were usually the most sophisticated, musically speaking (because they were composed by black jazz or proto-jazz composers), and the lyrics were usually the most natural (instead of singing about Perfect Love, they sang about, say, how hard it was to get a date for Saturday night–reality, in other words). Overall, a better class of song altogether, in every way–so that, with a little judicious editing, the songs can be appreciated for what they are: timeless, universal expressions of romance, in a way that the non-“coon” songs never can be. You might be surprised to learn how many of the songs we all remember from the era are actually sanitized “coon” songs.

123. Roz@106 – thanks. I don’t know Pointless but I’ll take your/their word for it 🙂

124. Pino@117: you are certainly not alone in the UK in only knowing the chorus of LILY OF LAGUNA (which has completely inoffensive lyrics) and having been unaware of its coon-song origins and a racist verse that probably hasn’t actually been sung in living memory until reading Wikipedia’s entry for the song.

125. Thanks, I think, to this crossword I now know where the word ”coon” comes from. A derogatory term applied to indigenous Australians. We used to have a cheese called Coon, but only recently its name has been changed because of the offence.

126. The Guardian crossword landscape would be considerably duller without Paul’s wonderful, less mainstream contribution.

127. pdm@125 The offensive use of “coon” started in the US, as the song would indicate, since its speaker is a black American. No surprise that it’s spread to other countries.

128. Quite right Valentine@127. That’s what I learned … how the word travelled to Auztralia and came to be used here.

129. I’m a day behind and was surprised to find 128 comments here when I completed mid-Friday afternoon, about half of which seem to have been from people who either didn’t attempt it or soon gave up or completed the grid but didn’t bother with parsing the clues. Which is a shame, because I enjoyed this and got a real buzz from finishing it, and parsing everything, which I don’t always do. You don’t know what you’ve missed.

     Thanks to Paul (that one) and manehi.

130. Coming late to this, as I always save up Paul and Picaroon puzzles until I have time to do them.
     I found this hugely enjoyable.The songs referenced were not the equivalent of the pop songs of their day, here today and gone tomorrow. They were great communal songs, known, sung and parodied by everyone irrespective of age or class over a period of around 50 years and had strong emotional connections for the entire country for generations. Many thanks Paul for your respect for and tribute to them.

131. MikeB @ 52 – agree with your final paragraph

     Regarding some of the aural quibbles, where does Paul use the word ‘homophone’ anyway?! These are simply ‘soundalikes’ as indicated by wordplay….

     The large number of comments shows that Paul is clearly engaging, if nothing else, though he’s a great deal more for me; the man’s an artist, in my immoderately humble opinion….

     And manehi – you deserve respect and thanks for such a comprehensive blog ….

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