Guardian 29,433 – Paul

84 comments on “Guardian 29,433 – Paul”

1. Joint COTD: STEVENSON and PORNO.
   Other faves: ODYSSEY, EGOMANIAC, NICOSIA and SQUARE ROOT.

   IMPEACH
   EACH 1 P becoming I P EACH in the cryptic reading (after excluding the ‘charge’): is this ok?

   Thanks Paul. Very enjoyable puzzle.
   Thanks Andrew. Excellent blog.

2. Paul’s “homophones” – the outrageouser the better. LOi 25d PORNO 😉
   Thanks A&P

3. The clues for Cleopatras Needle and Egomaniac were witty and I also liked state of the art with Tate as sugar daddy. Many thanks.

4. As you say, Andrew, a tough week – especially for bloggers.

   It took some teasing out but I ended up, to my surprise, with only PORNO totally beyond me – but I just cannot believe that I missed the VEN[i]SON at 14ac having had four children who delighted in the ‘What do you call a deer with no eyes’ joke (followed up with ‘What do you call a dead deer with no eyes?).

   I enjoyed 5ac IMPEACH, 11ac UP TO A POINT, 19ac ETHNICITY, 23ac PETANQUE, 7dn EGOMANIAC and 9dn STATE-OF-THE-ART.

   Thanks to Paul and heroic Andrew.

5. The usual horror. I ended up revealing a lot as ICBA in the end. What is “written” doing in DITTO MARK for a start?
   Paul after David Astle on a Friday is a bridge too far I’m beginning to believe.

6. Well, I’ve never had to resort so much to today’s rather sneaky method of guess, bung it in and press the reveal button. Which I suppose is a form of cheating. But quite remarkably I was right every time. But still had no idea about the piecing together of STEVENSON, DITTO MARK or STATE OF THE ART, or indeed how the Maths worked exactly with SQUARE ROOT. Thought another numerical clue, THREATEN, excellent however. Too many raised eyebrows moments for this to count amongst my favourite Paul offerings IMHO ..(at least mine are still natural and not tattooed on, btw. The eyebrows, I mean…)

7. Hard work. No idea about no-I-deer in STEVENSON. Enjoyed PETANQUE and SQUARE ROOT muchly. Thanks to P & A.

8. I’m with Tim C. Ended up revealing all as life’s too short. Can the editor not get that mixing things up during the week would be a good idea? We seem to go from one extreme to the other. Thanks Andrew. In a court of law, I’m sure the bloggers for the last three days would be excused blogging duties for life.

9. …oh, yes, thanks for reminding me, Eileen@4, PORNO was yet another one way beyond my powers of parsing…

10. Came here to parse a few – and groaned when I saw how STEVENSON was parsed. I’m glad to see PORNO was beyond me, although I got it from the definition (haven’t those films changed since I was a teenager?).

    CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE amused me, although it’s not really that massive an erection having studied it recently for a Geocache (Earthcache looking at geology). And the SQUARE ROOT I did get, but it’s not that helpful mathematically.

    Thank you to Andrew and Paul.

11. Thanks, Andrew, for the parsing of 14 and 25. For 14, the anagram of SET at the start made the answer STEVENSON obvious, but I missed the homophonic part of the clue. I agree that this was Paul piling on his normal style with the cross-references, multiple-light clues and groan-worthy homophones, and certainly a difficult puzzle to get to grips with initially. Several, such as STATE-OF-THE-ART came from the enumeration and crossers, with the parsing taking much longer than seeing the answer, but they helped to complete the puzzle. Thanks to Paul and to Andrew.

12. Thanks Paul (?) and Andrew
    As I was reading the across clues I was thinking “I’m not going to enjoy this; why am I bothering?” When the first one solved was ODYSSEY, I gave up.

13. Heaven help us if tomorrow’s Prize continues this trend.

14. DITTO MARK
    Wiki
    The ditto mark is a shorthand sign, used mostly in hand-written text, indicating that the words or figures above it are to be repeated.
    The def seems ok going by the above. Of course, after providing for the routine Paulian allowance.

    Some of Paul’s puns will be ok UP TO A POINT to some. I love them all generally (my lack of knowledge of phonetics lets me enjoy them better, perhaps).

15. Wow that was tough. I thought after first run through I was going to be forced to abandon with nothing written it. Then vindaloos came to my rescue and slowly the puzzle began to fill.

    Will study Andrew’s parsings as I am sure I had some wrong ones.

    Thanks Paul (for yet another amusing but taxing challenge). And Andrew for what must have been a very tough blog

16. Gave up on this puzzle with not a single clue solved.
    I started to read the blog and gave up on it a few clues in. I think I need a break from cryptic crosswords. My failure at the puzzles has almost made me feel depressed and that’s not a good reason to do them. I better read a book instead!

    Or I will go back to the old Everyman puzzles from 2014.

17. Slightly annoyed with myself for not parsing PORNO – it’s Paul, so dropping is probably going to be Poo.
    Very annoyed with myself for not parsing STEVENSON, having spotted, groaned at, and rather enjoyed, the outrageous homophones of ODYSSEY and NICOSIA (mildly surprised, it being Paul, that the latter involved a thief rather than a singular item of frilly underwear).
    Much to enjoy, including CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE, SQUARE ROOT, VINDALOOS, CONVENT and the superb EGOMANIAC (which, again, I didn’t parse, but given the surface, I don’t care).
    I agree with those who remark that with this following Enigmatist and Vlad it’s been a tough old week. But quite an enjoyable one, if you’ve got the time to persevere.
    Thanks to Paul and to Andrew who has certainly earned his corn this morning.

18. Count me in the “life’s too short” camp too. Didn’t enjoy this at all. As others have said, too many ‘bung in an answer that fits the crossers then go back and try and work out why’. Thanks for the blog.

19. I am another who is losing confidence in their solving ability this week. At least I finished this one with a little help. Pity to miss the no-eyed deer. Thanks to Andrew for the explanations and to Paul (grudgingly)

20. As usual with Paul, the heart sank at the sight of all those cross-references, and sank even further when I got all the way to NAKED before anything went in at all. But gradually the grid began to fill and in the end it was only ODYSSEY (Ow!) and TREBLED that had to be revealed. Sorry to have missed the no-i deer in STEVENSON: liked VINDALOOS, EGOMANIAC, IMPEACH, THREATEN and the Cleopatra pair. But failed to parse PETANQUE. Not happy with TAUREAN – tan isn’t a particularly dark colour, and a Taurean is only a “spring child” in the Northern hemisphere.

    Thanks and commiserations to Andrew.

21. Yep, no i deer and nicker seer qualify for entry in the heats of the HH comp (Homo Horribilis (homophone, that is)).

22. 😀

23. Enjoyed the tough challenges of this week culminating in a Paul.
    Couldn’t parse PORNO, so thanks to Andrew!
    Thoroughly enjoyed all the dreadful aural puns and CLEOPATRA’S NEEDLE
    Thanks to Paul

24. I found this OK to start with as I guessed the long ones straight away from the wordplay – no idea how to parse them. After a bit it went more slowly, and in the end I had to reveal TAUREAN, PANOPLY (which I should have got) and PORNO which I would never have got in a million years as I simply cannot see how Paul’s mind works. Ah well, seeing how hard some others found it I was quite pleased with myself.
    I also loved the dreadful puns.
    Thank you Paul and Andrew – I will keep on trying…

25. … oh yeah and odder sea as well …

26. All the answers went in, but not all parsed.

27. gladys @20, now you’ve made me ask the question “Is Astrology hemisphere independent?” 🙂

28. How do I dislike this? Let me count the ways. Actually I won’t bother. As a rhotic speaker I don’t find the “homophones” amusing or in most cases even gettable, but we’ve been over all this before and I know it’s not going to make any difference. I just have to resign myself to not solving most of these clues.

    Also ‘ping’ for ’email’? As one who worked in IT networking for many decades I can only roll my eyes.

    I did quite like CLEOPATRAS NEEDLE, but that was poor recompense in the overall frustration. Paul used to be my favourite setter. Not any more.

29. Thanks Paul & Andrew.
    Liked ‘the sprawling metropolis’, ‘in need of dressing’, EGOMANIAC (a great surface & inverted envelope) and SQUARE ROOT.

30. I have found the comments here very reassuring and comforting. I have always known that my habitual daily exercises (both physical and mental) will provide me with unignorable markers for my inevitable decline. I have already had to give up early morning jogging and I am now waiting for the signs that my brain cells are getting furred up and inexorably destroyed by dementia plaque. Wednesday’s crossword scared me a bit but I coped reasonably well and I am relatively unfamiliar with Engigmatist’s style. This morning’s depressed me (because of the inordinate length of time it took me to struggle through – and not being able to parse “Stevenson”) until I read others’ remarks. Thanks to the honest admissions of other solvers I have rallied a little. However, I still feel rather low because of the savagery with which some people attack Paul. He is simply a brilliant, gifted, ingenious, funny and slightly wicked setter. It seems to be fashionable to attack him and, to me, it looks like herd bullying. I wish some critics would lay off. It’s true he takes some liberties but so did Araucaria. The latter was also sometimes attacked for not being Ximenean – but who wants absolute logic when there is so much fun to be had with wordplay? Not me. Anyway, must get on with morbidly monitoring my decline. Thanks all.

31. I said I was putting Enigmatist in the bin with Paul, and speak of the devil.
    Couldn’t get this one started at all.
    I do think the crossword editor has abandoned the printed paper solvers who don’t have the aid of check or reveal. My opinion remains that Paul is compiling for his own enjoyment rather than ours.

32. A bit of a mixture for me with some ticks and some complete failures. I initially thought “might that have mummy in stitches” might be something to do with a caesarean section but then the penny dropped. The linked 11a was good (and reminded me of Evelyn Waugh’s “Scoop” in which the newspaper magnate’s underlings dare not say no to him and can only manage “UP TO A POINT, Lord Copper”).

    Like you Andrew I thought “dark colour” didn’t seem right for TAN. I suppose that if a (white) person has a tan they are darker than they would otherwise be – is that the idea?

    As soon as I got ODYSSEY I thought “muffin won’t like this”.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

33. A mixture of excellent (ETHNICITY, VINDALOOS, STEVENSON), baffling (PÉTANQUE), and downright awful (ODYSSEY). It was also a bit frustrating to get ones referring to others from enumeration and definition ((and check button)) before getting anywhere with the references. Too hard for me without cheating.

34. Well I thought it was one of the funniest. Brilliant. I had to wait for an explanation of “no idea”, despite knowing that joke. An he’ll be on Putin’s and Trump’s hit lists. Again.

35. LJ@32 Dark TAN is a shoe polish colour which may be what Paul had in mind?

    For the first time in years I just gave up about half-way through this. With hindsight the clues I left seemed fair enough

    Chortled at the no-eye-deer – reminded me of the follow-up joke: What do call a blind deer with no legs? Still no idea 🙂

    And I take a perverse delight in solving clues like GRANITE before looking at the cross-reference

    Cheers P&A

36. I had to trawl through the alphabet letter by letter for the northeast corner, but managed to finish in the end. Groaned audibly at some of the puns, and needed the blog to parse several, so thank you, Andrew. Pleased to have solved it eventually, so thank you, Paul.

37. Disappointed to find my bung of BIRTH MARK was wrong, as this was a challenge I was pleased to finish. Not sure about film=external letters, or trebled =swelled, or PETANQUE being a diversion ‘through’ France, but the usual Paul inventiveness elsewhere excuses the oddities I suppose. Thanks both.

38. A beautiful and moving disquisition, TB @30, with which I 100% concur, especially that his wickedness is only slight 😉 .

39. I loved this puzzle. I found it challenging and frustrating but satisfying to nut out the many very clever clues. I enjoy Paul’s wit and don’t mind groan-worthy homophones. While completed, there were several clues or parts of them that I was unable to parse: no idea about VEN(i)SON, unfamiliar with TATE, so couldn’t work out the sugar daddy, couldn’t work out PORNO and didn’t see bled in TREBLED.
    Favourites were the topical EGOMANIAC, UP TO A POINT, ETHNICITY, PÉTANQUE, SQUARE ROOT.
    I’d like to encourage other strugglers or newer solvers, like me in both cases, to not be discouraged but to persist, and to savour the opportunity to learn from the brilliant and experienced setters, bloggers and commenters who contribute to this site.
    Thanks for the excellent blog Andrew and for the challenge Paul.

40. Good blog

41. Michelle @16. I was feeling equally dispirited, but I spent a day at the Cheltenham cricket festival and the sun, literally and metaphorically, broke through. Fresh air and merry banter. Put Paul and his chums in sweet perspective.

42. Very well put TerriBliSlow@30, and grantinfreo@38.

    Excellent blog and enjoyable puzzle.

43. I just can’t get into Paul’s puzzles and although I was able to solve a few, (esp.EGOMANIAC), I spent the time revealing answers and then trying to parse them. Some were beyond me so thanks to Andrew as always for unravelling it all. TB@30 I’ve read all the comments and cannot see any savage attacks on Paul, just people being upset with themselves for not being on his wavelength. Different strokes for different folks as they say.

44. I know we’re not allowed to complain about this any more, so chalk this up as an observation rather than a complaint. Each of the several “homophones” here–every single one–depends on eliding or dropping the letter R. Paul is at war with the letter R, y’all. What’s his grudge? Did someone named Roderick or Rigoberto shiv him once in his youth?

45. Thanks to Andrew.
    I think I need to skip the Guardian on Paul days. I almost never enjoy them and it’s becoming self-fulfilling. No point in spending (too much) time on a gentle hobby just to feel irritated. Next time I’ll go for a walk instead.

46. I still don’t get DITTO MARK. What is the indication to put IT TOM inside DARK?

47. michelle @ 16
    Don’t know if you are still reading the blog.
    By all means have a break from the crosswords, but don’t give up.
    I have been doing these cryptics for almost 60 years and I found today’s very difficult to get started. And I only managed to get it done out of sheer tenacity and bloody-mindedness! It took me all day.
    It’s not you. It was a very challenging puzzle.

48. Another brilliant piece of mind-bending and ably assisted by my sister for her first ever Guardian attempt, (she does the Belfast Telegraph cryptic). She guessed NEEDLE and I got CLEOPATRAS for example. Like Matthew @11, VINDALOOS was my starter for the SQUARE ROOT of 100. PORNO, STEVENSON and ODYSSEY were very funny and I thought of those dreadful jokes as well Eileen. A tough old 3 days indeed.

    Ta Paul & and well done Andrew.

49. Tricky crossword, which took me longer than the offerings from Enigmatist and Vlad (What’s happened? Is upping the level supposed to give us an alternative way to spend our time rather than watch wall-to-wall Wimbledon and the Euros? That isn’t a complaint, because I like to be challenged sometimes, but to get three together like buses?)

    I enjoyed Paul’s election puzzle much more than this, which is a return to the usual gallimaufry of split entries randomly scattered, cross-references and ‘sounds a tiny bit like’ clues, all of which I don’t particularly like, but thankfully it was relieved by some splendidly clever ones – already flagged up.

    Thanks to JH (the other one) and the long-suffering Andrew

50. Good point about the randomly scattered split entries, Gervase. Enigmatist’s a couple of days ago showed how it can be done, in that all the split entries lined up in the grid.

51. Thanks for the blog, I quickly switched to solving the Downs first, a real mixed bag. IMPEACHED , ETHNICITY and PETANQUE all pretty neat . SQUARE ROOT does not work without overdoing the double duty .
    Unfortunately somebody once told Paul his clues were witty , alas he believed them.

52. This one finally broke me–nho “sugar daddy” Tate (have some mercy and use the gallery next time!), Joe Root, gite, or, fatally, Cleopatra’s Needle; it was obviously some Egyptian pyramid-like structure but I had to reveal it. With none of the first letters crossed, having a 10, 6 that I couldn’t get made most of the left half inaccessible to me. For once the homophones (except “i dear”) were some of the easier parts, being at least clear from definitions. Even many of the clever and more letter-play based clues in the north wound up as bung-and-admire-the-parses in many cases, maybe because my brain was worn out.

    Thanks Andrew and Paul.

53. This was really hard, I’m not the first to say. All I got cold were UP TO A POINT and TINFOIL, and then TAUREAN, once I realized it wasn’t spelled with an I. After that it was guess and check all the way.

    Thanks to Paul and oh heavens yes to Andrew. Nobly done, Andrew, and it’s another “thank-heavens-I’m-not-a-blogger” day.

    I don’t know what happened to the name thingy, but hello, this is Valentine.

54. My comment is the one above.

55. Jacobs @4_.
    I thi k we’re supposed to read it as ‘”dark” providing a “skin” for the rest of the fodder.

56. Michelle @16, don’t give up. You are not alone as the comments above demonstrate. From my perspective, I’ve found this week far more of a chore than a joy, with three tough challenges in a row. I really was not on the right wavelength for any of them.
    Andrew your blog is brilliant.
    I just hope I feel less grumpy next week. Did love UP TO A POINT and STATE OF THE ART. Thanks Paul, it’s me not you.😞

57. P.S. I should have said “black”(dark)

58. No idea how you could have parsed NICOSIA or STEVENSON – brilliant solving, Andrew. I had plenty of smiles along the way, but plenty of grimaces too. I am starting agree that some the humour shown by is of the practical joke sort, where the only person that laughs is the perpetrator.

    thanks Paul and Andrew

59. matt w @52: Henry Tate was the sugar magnate and philanthropist who gave his collection of paintings to the nation together with a donation of cash towards the building of the art gallery which was named after him. So it’s just the same Tate with a different indication

    mrpenney @49: Though a non-rhotic speaker myself , I feel your pain. I suspect the ones who like this sort of thing are all non-rhotics. Southern English imperialism, I’m afraid, but as far as I am concerned it isn’t clever and it isn’t funny 🙂

60. Only got to Paul in the afternoon which is a rarity. Normally I complete or get close to completion by 07:00. Therefore, I doubt that many commenters will read my comment about how difficult I found this crossword. It was simply above my pay grade. Having been a cryptic crossword solver – generally successful – for fifty years clearly my powers are waning.As an example of my struggle: ‘IN A MO’ for ‘very soon’ was simply unattainable.
    On the other hand, perhaps it was a poor crossword.
    (Thank goodness I spent the morning on Dartmoor which allows me some equanimity about my possible mental decline.)
    All that said, Andrew, you are a star for unravelling the whole shebang.. Thank you.

61. I don’t find Paul’s “aural wordplay” particularly bothersome. I come in realizing that it probably isn’t going to be anything like a true homophone, and that I’m probably not going to get the answer from the wordplay. Given that, working out the aural pun backwards from the answer doesn’t seem to be dependent on my own rhoticity (or lack if it), in the same way that I can understand people with rhotic or non-rhotic accents without too much trouble.

62. I parsed 20 D as ‘nicker’s ‘ere’. I enjoyed today’s offerings, both puzzle and blog.

63. It’s very reassuring to come here and see that so many experienced solvers have had a tough three days too! Hopefully, I’m not losing it and will return to form soon.

    I got there in the end with this one but with lots of parsing gaps. Thanks to Andrew for plugging all these gaps so expertly. And to Paul for the stiff challenge.

64. Paul may be somewhat surprised that 7d is so topical?

    How strange to see both Trump and Putin in the same clue after yesterday’s gaffes by Joe Biden!

65. Don’t mind it being hard, do mind it being self indulgent and boring.

66. I also agree with those saying more variety is needed. This week has been a grind and anyone just starting to move up from Quiptics is going to think the regular puzzles are not for them. I used to enjoy having a Rufus or Vulcan one day and a Picaroon or Vlad the next.

67. Can’t recall having to use the wordfinder so often and even when presented with a fulsome list, I often failed to pick the right one. I did manage to solve quite a few myself but yet another curate’s egg for me, awful in parts, delightful in others.
    Thanks Paul and extra thanks to Andrew. It has been a tough three days of blogging.

68. Paul gets a pass because of his reputation, but some of the clues (26,12), (22,27) are a stretch at best. This isn’t sour grapes (I solved the puzzle); I just think Paul sometimes tries too hard to be creative.

69. I generally get on well with Paul, but like others I had a very tough time solving and parsing this one.

    [Eileen @4 — Is the answer to “dead deer with no eyes” “still no-eyed-deer”?]

70. 1a – how does GRANITE = 17?

    Michelle @16 – I feel your pain.

    Complete and epic failure every day this week. Zero.

    I’m hoping to solve a few in the Quick Cryptic tomorrow.

71. 13a – where does A come from?

72. Ted @ 69 – yes, I’m afraid so 😉

73. Steffen @70 — The 17 in that clue refers to 17 across, which is STONE.

    Don’t give up! This was a brutally hard puzzle.

74. Steffen @71 — The A comes from the word “a” in the clue (right before “bully”). So it’s THRE[e] TEN “punched by” A, and the definition is “bully”.

75. Hard work, but mostly solved until I dropped into a coma.
    Agree with many that the level of crosswords now seems completely rudderless. Enigmatist, then Vlad, then Paul.
    I did enjoy this, just takes too long to solve.

76. I got as far as ODYSSEY and NAKED and then concluded that I was having an extended Jo Biden moment. Very encouraged to find that others also had difficulty.

77. I solved this steadily in 3 efforts throughout the day. Some great clues – ETHNICITY, EGOMANIAC and STATE-OF-THE-ART being my picks.
    I didn’t think “burning food” for VINDALOOS adequately suggested the plural – maybe dishes would work better.
    I agree with Lord Jim that the idea for tan is that it’s a darker colour than untanned skin.
    Fun puzzle that seemed more old-style in that it required the solver to think a bit. I’d be happy to see more like this. But I do agree that a more even mix throughout the week may be better.
    Thanks, Paul and Andrew.

78. Yawn

79. I haven’t looked through the blog or comments yet, but as I just gave up and revealed nearly half of the puzzle, after a day and leaning heavily on Word Wizard for those I did get, then I thought I’d set my response down here (I’ll see how much I’m in accord or not with others subsequently):

    I’ve enjoyed most, perhaps all of Paul’s puzzles recently, they’ve had character and quirks which have been plenty of compensation for some of the clueing that I sometimes struggle with, and they’ve been satisfying to solve. Fun, too.

    This wasn’t one of those puzzles, and for me there was little to enjoy or find accessible here. Pressing ‘reveal’ for a sizeable chunk of it was the right decision for me.

80. TerriBlislow@30 – well said. Although I do worry about Paul sometimes.

    Anyway, started and finished this today but with much help from my favourite pattern matching website and parsed all except the Scottish author (doe!)

    Many thanks to Andrew for the blog

81. Petanque is NOT a Diversion in France, it is a SERIOUS SPORT!

82. I’m not very good but I normally get a few, even on a Paul. But this one just left me rather miserable, as have too many in recent weeks. It’s just not fun when you can’t even get started without revealing and I find even the gettable clues humiliatingly beyond me when presented in such dismal company. Can’t they reserve these for the ‘genius’ or similar? Even the Everyman seems harder on average than many of the older weeklies.

83. In case the Guardian crossword editor should happen to read this thread, I personally thought that having Enigmatist, Vlad and Paul in quick succession was a beautiful thing – this week felt like Christmas! Congratulations!! Please do it again
    As for this Paul, yes – probably one of his toughest; a little unnecessarily abstruse in parts so less enjoyable. But it still brought joy; TATE described as “sugar daddy”, for just one example of Paul’s witty creativity – yet some here moaned about it!!
    I cannot agree at all with the unjustified ending to Roz’s negative comment
    On the other hand, I thought terriBlislow@30 wrote delightfully – and I concur with the message of it’s final third

    Many thanks both and all (particularly Andrew!)

84. terriBlislow@30
    Very well said.
    If Paul is not one’s cup of tea, fine – but why come on here and post an unpleasant comment about his style? The need some feel to post such things is far more irritating than any smut or tenuous homophones (or, as I prefer to call them, amusing bits of wordplay).
    Loved the puzzle, and very much appreciated the blog.

Comments are closed.