Guardian Cryptic 29,508 by Tramp

92 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,508 by Tramp”

1. Re: 2d, strictly speaking, the family of curves made up of circles, ellipses, parabolas and hyperbolas are conic sections, but in crossword land close enough. I assumed that the shortened ‘deal’ in 19d was TREATY. No idea about 14a , which I guessed would be of maximum intelligibility to Brits.

2. Thanks loonapick.
   HEAD RESTRAINT: definition is “perhaps miss whiplash with this” referring to a car seat fitting that prevents injury in case of rear collision.

   RETREAT: I think the deal is TREATy.

3. What NeilW @2 says for HEAD RESTRAINT re the definition. Wordplay is head=leader and chains=restraint. Also Treat(y) is how I parsed RETREAT.

4. In 13a I think ‘red’ is ‘sore’ reversed, rather than ‘rose’. Maybe its a typo in the blog. Maybe I’m wrong.

5. Conic(s) is shorthand for conic section(s) (Chambers has conic = a conic section) so I don’t have a problem with it being defined as “curve”. They are curves formed by intersecting a cone with a plane.

6. Busy day ahead, so I’m a bit earlier than usual.

   I really enjoyed this, especially Miss Whiplash, when the penny dropped.

   Ticks, too, for BEETHOVEN, CARAFES, TEAR GAS, POWER BREAKFAST, CUBISTS, PAVAROTTI and CHARLIE CHAPLIN.

   I agree with MAC089 and NeilH re TREAT[y] and sofamore re SORE.

   Last one in: FAROUCHE – thing I learned today.

   Thanks to Tramp for the fun and loonapick for the blog.

7. [My earworm – and I’m pretty sure no one else’s – for 13a: Basque group Korroskada’s TORERO (1986) – jumping to the chorus:
   ‘Yo quiero ser torero | Torero, yo quiero ser | Torero, mucho dinero | Para gastarlo como yo quiero’]
   ‘

8. I’m with learning something with FAROUCHE as a word I’d read but decoded in context incorrectly, so looking at the crossers and anagram material then checking the meaning, I’ve learned something.

   I liked HEAD RESTRAINT – the surface refers to this lady, who claimed she serviced 252 members of parliament.

   Thank you to loonapick and Tramp.

9. HEAD RESTRAINT and TOREROS were the stars for me in a typically tightly worded and clever puzzle. I’m another for whom FAROUCHE is a new word but it had to be that. CUBISTS, CARAFES, LUNGI and ABSORBENT along with TEAR GAS for the excellent definition.

   Thanks Tramp and loonapick

10. Top faves: FEASTING (I think the whole clue should be underlined as the def), TEAR GAS, HEAD RESTRAINT and GENII.

    CONIC is a curve. No issues.

    Thanks Tramp and loonapick.

11. Why does ‘post’ mean ‘standard’ in 18D?

12. Having had SMART PRACTICE entered, 18d was left as my last blank. When I eventually twigged to SHARP, I came up with PASSAGE. A pass is a standard (in an exam), and a birth can be described as either a delivery or a passage. I was pretty proud of that… Otherwise, I found this required quite a bit of thinking, but with plenty of nice PDMs. Thanks, Tramp and loonapick.

13. Standard
    Chambers
    18. An upright post, pillar, stick

    Thanks Tramp and loonapick

    Two NHOs and a mis-entry made this very hard for me. But got there eventually. Thanks for the parsing of head restraint which totally baffled me

14. Some unfamiliar words for me that required a Google after working out.
    I struggled with SIT = MEET until I realised that the house of commons sits when it meets.
    I have never heard of a POWER BREAKFAST and, being retired will probably never experience one. It sounds like a deeply unpleasant way to start the day so I am grateful for small mercies.

15. A tricky crossword, but well worth the effort. I too had PASSAGE for a while. Is UN ok for “one” (12a), without mentioning it’s French or Spanish? Thanks T and L

16. Like Eileen @6, I learned a new word – FAROUCHE. Thanks to Tramp and loonapick.

17. Thanks Tramp & loonapick.
    I especially liked TOREROS for surface, the ‘street artists’ and ‘zoom chat’.
    And of course, Miss Whiplash

18. I’m another who had PASSAGE at 18d, thinking safe passage = safe delivery.
    Thanks to Tramp and loonapick

19. thanks loonapick
    Some great surfaces. I liked the humour in TOREROS, the self referential (?) CHARLIE CHAPLIN, and ABSORBENT, PAVAROTTI and LUNGI.
    Agree with KVa@10 about FEASTING.
    I don’t understand why POSTAGE is delivery.. One online source gives it as the opposite of delivery.

20. paddymelon @19 – I think you might see postage / delivery on an invoice. Collins has ‘postage: the charge for delivering a piece of mail’.

21. This was a treat to feast upon. Liked HEAD RESTRAINT, TOREROS, POWER BREAKFAST, PAVAROTTI and CHARLIE CHAPLIN. I also agree with KVa @10 re FEASTING. A lot of fun.

    Ta Tramp & loonapick.

22. 18d I wonder why POST = standard?

    New for me: FAROUCHE = unsociable; CONIC = curve; SHARP PRACTICE.

    I did not parse 27ac or the II bit of 23d.

    I parsed HEAD RESTRAINT & RETREAT in the same way as the early posters above.

    Thanks, all.

23. James G @15, no foreign indicator needed for “un”, but maybe a dialect indicator would be in order. “un’ is English dialect for one or him. In commenting on a creature squirming, in a previous life I would have said “it’s a wick un” meaning “it’s a lively one”.

24. Under my setters notes for Tramp it says “left-field definitions and likes to spread the anagram fodder throughput the wordplay”. This definitely helped with HEAD RESTRAINTS, TEAR GAS & FAROUCHE which is one of those words that I knew while being clueless as to its meaning. I’d have guessed a pastry maybe

    Jason@11 Chambers has “An upright post, pillar, stick” for standard

    Cheers T&L

25. I was really confused byMiss Whiplash (maybe that’s what you pay her for?) because I imagined that a HEADREST might prevent you from getting whiplash, that lash might be RAIN (it was certainly lashing down last night) and that T is the leader of This, and that a HEAD RESTRAINT combined them all in a particularly incestuous fashion. Unfortunately that didn’t account for the chains (although I saw the other parsing once I’d pencilled it in). Heigh-ho…
    Favourites FEASTING and TOREROS.

26. Found this very tough at first, with only three and a half clues filled in on first pass (well, the half was actually five fourteenths as P OWER simply had to be part of 3d. With both PAVAROTTI and BEETHOVEN in next I thought there might be a classical music theme, but no. Had no idea what RESTRAINT Madame W might have preferred, but Leader meant it had to be HEAD.
    Then, after returning from a long pause, things started surprisingly to whoosh in, though FAROUCHE was a new one for me. Rather thought POSTAGE the opposite to delivery, and last two in were TEAR GAS, wherein I didn’t much care for Tear for Zoom, and FEASTING which immediately became my COTD.
    An proper challenge, enjoyed by me, in stages this morning.

27. I had to drag FAROUCHE from the depths of my brain. Not a word you hear often. Sadly. I was held up at the end by LUNGI. I suspected it was a word I didn’t know (which was the case), but I didn’t connect lung and organ for several minutes. I really enjoyed this. With thanks to Tramp and loonapick

28. …and as with James G@15, I did think UN for one deserved some kind of foreign indicator…

29. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

    When you look at the stars, you’re looking at history as the light has taken years to travel here. It’s a bit like that when I look at this puzzle as it was written in September 2020.

    I’ve given virtually no thought to crosswords of late. I find out today if I’ve escaped the latest wave of redundancies at work. It’s at times like these when you realise which people matter and who is scrambling over you to get to the air vent.

    Neil

30. James G@15, ronald@28
    Un is also used in English – the job’s a good un, for example.

31. ronald@26
    TEAR GAS
    I think Zoom=TEAR in the sense of ‘to move very quickly’.

32. Thanks for the entertainment Tramp, and good luck. It’s sobering to think that in all that time light (travelling in the opposite direction) is only now approaching the closest star to our Sun. Travelling at a speed equivalent to seven times around the Earth in one second.

33. Thanks Tramp and loonapick
    Quite a few unparsed, and I too have never heard of FAROUCHE. I needed a wordsearch for LUNGI.
    GENII is uncommon as the plural for “genie”, but at least it’s better than my first thought, GENIS!
    Several question marks have been resolved by earlier posters, so thanks.
    I liked TOREROS for the misleading definition, and ABSORBENT for its construction.

    [In cricket, a googly bowled by a legspinner is often referred to as a “wrong’un”. Commentators from the subcontinent, who often have better English than the English ones, cannot bring themselves to say this, so use the odd sounding “wrong one” instead!]

34. I’m with those who don’t think postage means delivery. With today’s postal services, you pay them for postage, but delivery may or may not occur.
    Also, is a lungi really a loincloth? A bit off target, IMHO.
    But I enjoyed the puzzle, thanks.

35. Street light posts are referred to as lamp standards.

    Didn’t finish as I forgot to fill in EXTENDING! I was on the wrong tracks as my one track mind thought the definition was reaching climax.

    Thanks loonapick and Tramp. Redundancies (been there several times) are survivable but difficult – I hope it doesn’t come to this for you.

36. ronald @28, see me @23.

37. Neil/Tramp@29. Hard times. Hope you get a boost way up and beyond the air vent, knowing how much we are lifted by your puzzles.

38. Dave@35
    thanks for explaining that “Street light posts are referred to as lamp standards.” I never heard this usage before.

    also bodycheetah@24 – thanks re post/standard. I cannot access chambers online.

39. Tramp@29 – I took voluntary redundancy over eight years ago and have been working on temporary contracts since. I don’t regret it for a minute. Less involvement in office politics and long term plans, better pay, the ability to leave with seven days’ notice if you don’t like a placement, flexibility, etc. i hope that’s something that you can consider, but I suppose it depends on your profession.

40. Loonapick@39
    When I left employment and became a contractor my first thought was that the office politics was all going on above my head. Later I realised it was going on beneath my feet.

41. If 23d GENII were a Latin plural, then “spirits” would be correct, but the “bottled” suggests it’s supposed to be the plural of GENIE. oed.com says it’s singular:
    ‘genie Variant forms: 1600s genyes (plural) | 1600s–1700s geny | 1600s– genie | 1700s genié, genii (singular) | 1800s– geni’ …

42. Two bung and hopes with FAROUCHE and the definition of POST in POSTAGE.
    And to be contrary, TOREROS was my least favourite, blood boiling clue. It’s not sport. It’s slaughter.
    Thanks both.

43. Some rather clever clues (IPOD, TOREROS, ABSORBENT), some rather good surfaces, my favourite, perhaps, being the cafes full of empty retsina bottles. Didn’t know LUNGI or FAROUCHE, but the latter in particular gettable from very clear wordplay.
    Frankie @14 – you certainly haven’t missed anything with POWER BREAKFASTs. Thank you for reminding me of another reason I was glad to get out of private practice 24 years ago…
    Eileen @ 6 – I guess I should be flattered that you assume that a sensible comment from a Neil (NeilW @ 2, with whom I entirely agree) would be from me… 😉
    Interesting to learn (Tramp @29) that this puzzle has been in the Editor’s To Do heap for four years. Tramp, I hope things work out for you.
    Thanks to you for the puzzle and to loonapick for the excellent blog. As usual, having finished the Grauniad crossword the day can only go downhill from here.

44. I enjoyed the puzzle–thanks Tramp. Good luck today!

45. Thank you Neil/Tramp for a very satisfying puzzle. Good luck with your other career, as one door closes another one opens- or the French say it better « un perdu, dix retrouvés « 

46. Good luck today, Tramp – hope you get a result you can live with.

47. I know it’s only a crossword clue but I hate the implication that bullfighting is a sport.

48. Could you parse POSTAGE as “for delivery”?

    [After a particularly brutal round of redundancies in my first week at Lehman brothers our boss sought to rally the team with this inspirational insight “sooner or later you’re gonna get whacked. It’s just part of the career path”. Memorable rather than motivational!]

49. It often seems to be the case with Tramp – perhaps more than any other setter – that one of his puzzles appears having sat in the crossword editors’ intray for a while. Or is it just that he tells us about this by coming on here.
    Anyway, Neil, I hope things work out for you today in the best possible way…

50. … For 23d GENII: Another earworm: Christina Aguilera’s Genie In A Bottle (1999, a 25th (Silver) anniversary)

51. The things I particularly like about Tramp crosswords are the great definitions – as in HEAD RESTRAINT and TEAR GAS. Clever wordplay also in TOREROS and ABSORBENT. I also liked the ‘twice’ misdirection in CUBISTS and the good anagram for PAVAROTTI. TILT (thing I learned today) was FAROUCHE.

    A very satisfying solve.

    Thanks Tramp and loonapick.

52. Good solid crossword. Strange that it’s been sitting in a Guardian in-tray for five whole years.
    Agree with all about bull-fighting as a ‘sport’, but there is a question mark in mitigation.

53. Excellent puzzle. I lost my old IPOD about ten years ago, and it was found the other week inside our sofa when it was being reupholstered. So that went in straight away. Like loonapick I didn’t fully understand HEAD RESTRAINT – thanks to NeilW @2 for the explanation. In retrospect it’s a brilliant clue.

    Re the comments about this having sat in the editor’s in-tray: Tramp didn’t actually say that. Maybe although he wrote it four years ago he actually submitted it more recently?

    Many thanks Tramp (and good luck) and loonapick.

54. The usual joy from Tramp, with some clever constructions, great surfaces, and a little sprinkling of ribaldry.

    I agree with the parsings: TREAT(Y) and >SORE.

    Lots to like: the dominatrix, the lacrymator, BEETHOVEN, FAROUCHE, CARAFES, PAVAROTTI and FEASTING did it for me.

    Thanks to Neil (courage, mon brave) and loonapick

55. Many thanks to Tramp for puzzle and for popping in.
    His puzzles cellar well-this was ready to go with my muesli
    FEASTING was a standout but it was all excellent
    Thanks loonapick

56. Very enjoyable, and not at all easy. Failed to parse HEAD RESTRAINT, so thanks to those above who provided the explanation. The second recent case of a French word being in the answer (last time it was the answer PAIN, this time it is ‘un’ in UNCORKS with no indication that we are looking for a foreign word. FAROUCHE surprised me by popping up from somewhere in the noggin once the crossers were in place. Favourites were CARAFES, CUBISTS and TOREROS (notwithstanding the issue with bullfighting). Many thanks Tramp and loonapick.

57. paul @56
    As I and others have commented (see 33), “un” for “one” could be English dialect rather than foreign (though maybe still should have had an indication?)

58. Oh, Tramp – what a horrible day for you and your colleagues. I hope everything will turn out for the best.

59. …and I liked the way Tramp appeared today in his own puzzle at 9d, albeit as a bit of a misdirection. In the same way Boatman sometimes appears in his as AB, or Tar or whatever, in the makeup of some of his clueing…

60. Oof. Not on the right wavelength for this today, so a struggle for me.

    CONIC / FEASTING / CARAFES / ACROSS were the only ones I got on first approach. Should have got OVERSTATE quickly too but had a block for a while!

    14a seemed a bit of a gruesome surface, but appreciated the CD that resulted (and with the explanations above the surface makes a lot more sense). Also loved the CD in TOREROS, but I’d never heard that word (only TOREADOR).

    Plenty of clues I just didn’t have in my brain as synonyms: no idea what a FACE PACK is, nho LUNGI, SHARP PRACTICE, GAS=chat or SIT=meet.

    Plus a few which I needed 225 to help parsing – II = is was new, CHARLIE=idiot and OR=men all need adding to the bag of tricks.

    Thanks loonapick for the blog, and Tramp for defeating my meagre capabilities today!

61. Thanks for the puzzle, the blog and the link from shanne@8 – I had no idea.

    A lot of good clues, I kind of liked IPOD the best. As for DANISH, I tried for a bit to use PASTIE – it almost works, right?

    Good luck, Tramp

62. I escaped the cull this time, but, my friend didn’t. Not the best day I’ve had.

    I have about fifteen puzzles in the pipeline, but, I don’t want to appear more than once every four or five weeks. It’s hard keeping the crossword plate spinning along with all the other crockery. That’s why sometimes puzzles sit there for years. It’s also hard to keep up with those who do this full-time.

    I used to think “un” for “one” needed a dialect indicator; the dictionaries suggest it does. However, I think its usage has become more widespread than just the north of England. It’s a bit like “you” for U: technically it needs a homophone indicator but everyone knows what “while u wait” means. As with all crossword grammar conventions, setters are somewhere on the continuum between loose and perfectly Ximenean. I try to be towards the Ximenean end (I have set in the Times and the Listener), but, will sometimes bend the rules in the Guardian: like McDonald’s for M, say. I usually know when I do it that I’m being naughty and that someone will pick me up for it.

63. GENII
    FrankieG@41
    Chambers app: I couldn’t find the plural form of genie.
    Collins says genies. A couple of other online dictionaries agree with Collins.
    M-W and Wiktionary give ‘genies or genii’.
    We have something in Tramp’s defence.

64. When I get a plausible but incorrect answer to a crossword clue, it’s a wrong’un (and as I am a lifelong Londoner, this isn’t Northern dialect.)

    I enjoyed the well disguised definitions for TEAR GAS and HEAD RESTRAINTS, but I think “sporting” could usefully have been omitted from the clue for TOREROS while still leaving it solvable. I liked BEETHOVEN and UNCORKS too, though I don’t know why they need ellipses.

    I thought we hadn’t seen much of Tramp lately: sorry to hear the reason, and I hope things settle down before long.

65. FrankieG @41: Quite right that GENII is more properly the plural of ‘genius’ (from Latin, originally ‘innate nature’ – related to ‘genetic’ and ‘generate’) whereas the bottled variety is from Arabic singular ‘jinni’ (plural ‘jinn’, confusingly) which is etymologically unrelated, but the convergence has happened

66. I didn’t get any of these.

    The closest I got was 18d, where I came up with “passage”. Standard = “pass” (instead of “post”).

67. Thanks for the blog, very neat clues with clever ideas scattered throughout.
    GENII – Chambers 93 under Genius has several meanings including ” a good or evil spirit” .
    Plural geniuses or in sense of spirit – GENII .
    CONIC – The classic treatise on conic sections by Apollonius of Perga has the simple title , CONICS .

68. [I don’t think that anyone has mentioned why circles, parabolas, and ellipses are called “conic sections” is because they are the curves you get when you slice a regular cone at various angles. If it’s a double cone (point to point) you can get a hyperbola too!]

69. Before I completed 14a I had a partial parsing of whiplash=strain + this leader, but it left me having to make miss=”….re”. Having finally guessed head you could argue that the head(mistress) of a school would be known as miss, but “re” is unaccounted for and the definition would have to be chains=”head restraint” which doesn’t really work. NeilW’s suggestion is much better.

70. Like Bodycheetah@48 I took POSTAGE = for delivery .
    I have seen LUNGI a lot in Conrad stories.

71. Loved Miss Whiplash. Puzzle up to Tramp’s high standard. Neil many years ago I took redundancy and have never looked back. Best thing is getting away from office dramas and suffering over-promoted buffoons.There’s a big world out there!

72. muffin @57 and Tramp @62 – many thanks for the continuing discussion of ‘un’. I usually read the comments carefully before chucking in my two penn’orth, but only scanned today and missed the explanation @33. The dialect version of ‘one’ seems fair; I didn’t consider it, perhaps because I still had the PAIN example in my head and so went straight to French. Hope that you get the decision that you want today Tramp/ Neil.

73. Lots to like here. 14A is a lovely clue with a great surface and a “Penny Drop” moment when it went in. 1D and 25A were new to me and 5D defeated me.

    MAC089@1 14A will be familiar to Americans, particularly those who follow NASCAR (in full, “head and neck restraint system”).

    And it always feels odd to be reminded that cruciverbalists are real people with other lives. Good luck, Neil.

74. @34 you are absolutely correct. Lungi is more a sarong/skirt than a loin cloth. I own several !

75. [Jacob @73: A common colloquial expression in Italian for ‘I have been working very hard’ is ‘ho sudato sette camicie’ (I have sweated seven shirts). There is even a chain of shops, selling shirts, called Sette Camicie]

76. Thanks Tramp for an excellent crossword and your participation in the blog. I started off rather quickly in the NW but slowed considerably in the SE. I didn’t understand the definition in SHARP PRACTICE but all else made sense. My top picks were TEAR GAS, POWER BREAKFAST, SWEATER, DANISH, and FEASTING. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

77. It’s nice to read, for a change, that several respected solvers found this a bit of a stretch. I was expecting to take most of my train journey over this (Sheffield to Angouleme) but found myself twiddling my thumbs far too soon.

    I’m sure that UN has been discussed on here several times before, and I reckon Tramp is fully entitled not to indicate it as dialect or cricketing obscurity.

    Thanks to Tramp and Loonapick.

78. @Tramp. Please take care. When I had a working life years’ ago, the accompanying pressures led to three stress breakdowns and, eventually, depression. Make sure you look after yourself. Love your puzzles btw and look forward to more. Very best wishes to you.

79. Thanks Tramp and Loonapick. I enjoyed this a lot, even if I posted the passage (or is it failed to pass the postage?). Glad to hear you’ve survived the day, Tramp. Difficult times.

80. Another Connecticut lunchtime solve for me – I was quite pleased to see a Tramp puzzle, he is one of the top setters. Sorry to hear about the work problems – I retired more or less involuntarily myself.
    I did understand the correct parsing for each answer – it helps to have heard of lungi and farouche. Un is often seen in Mephisto, so no problem there. I really liked the Miss Whiplash clue.

81. ” ‘un” is a perfectly good English word, if it’s preceded by a space and an apostrophe. It means “one”. I’m very surprised oed.com has no entry for it on its own,
    but there are these entries containing it: pink ‘un (e.g. The FT), thick ‘un (Formerly: a gold sovereign), and wrong ‘un (a crook).
    Plus quotations galore containing bad ‘un, good ‘un, big ‘un, little ‘un … Take Your Pick! of adjectives. (1952)
    It’s easier to find the plurals: old ‘uns, young ‘uns, wee ‘uns, blind ‘uns, dead ‘uns…
    [And guess what – ‘It’s in Chambers‘ (’93): “un or ‘un … (dialect) pronoun and n for one; also for him …”

82. It’s always a real treat when a Tramp puzzle comes round due to the surfaces and even better when I can complete it, despite being slowed down by putting FACE LIFTS.

    Thank you for the blog and the explanation of GENII which I couldn’t parse.

    My favourite clue was TEAR GAS, incredible to think the Guardian has been sitting on this corker for five years!

83. HaddenUff @82
    FACE LIFTS was my first thought too – it very nearly works!

84. Tramp@29&62, so good to know that today went as well as it could. Hopefully better times will come. I wish you all the very best.
    Thanks for a lovely puzzle – it was a real treat.
    loonapick, great blog as ever.

85. We’ll be using cockfighting as a sport next

86. Struggled at first but then things gradually fell into place, aside from Nho farouche. Count me as another fan of Miss Whiplash, but the surfaces just about everywhere were delightful. Glad to hear our setter survived the day’s events but I’m sure it was tinged with sadness for a friend. It can be a cruel world.

87. Great crossword as ever Tramp, thank you (and Loonapick) ! Just read your profile, with its shout out to your twin brother – can we have a twin theme crossword some time please! You’re clearly valued at work if you’re escaping redundancy when those around you aren’t, but maybe it’s time to look around for a move anyway if the atmosphere is wrong? Every strength to you whatever happens, and thanks again for your brilliant crosswords.

88. Didn’t know FAROUCHE, nor LUNGI. I originally had 1a as FACE LIFTS, which fits the clue just as well, until disabused by the check button.

89. Bit late, but never mind, eh? Should’ve looked up ‘un at Premium Oxford Dictionaries (as used on Countdown):
    “Pronunciation: /ən/ – informal or dialect contraction – one: a good ’un a wild ’un”.
    One click on ‘More example sentences’ yields all these: ”
    I always knew he was a wrong ‘un. | Carol’s brother Jimmy is a bad ‘un. | Perhaps you have a “little ‘un” for whom you think a Montessori start would be good.
    This ‘un won’t do anythin’ to endanger the rest of ya. | I’ve always wanted to be the kind of mother who spends as much time as possible with her young ‘un.
    However, this hasn’t stopped it from being a good ‘un. | He got her and me a place to stay across the river, and a young ‘un to help her.
    There are some pretty good midpriced gifts for the young ‘uns in here. | You may have to leave the little ‘uns at home. | I’ll leave it up to you young ‘uns.’

90. [Of course, as usual, GeneratePress (the artist formerly known as WordPress) gets most of the apostrophes wrong,
    making them opening single quotes that look like sixes, instead of nines.
    The earworm for this would be Ivor Biggun – an aural wordplay on “I’ve a big ‘un” – subtle, eh?]

91. Major General Stanley says, “In conics, I can floor peculiarities parabolous”, so he knew this meaning of “conic”.

    [One of Gilbert’s more ridiculous rhymes, and that’s saying something. (The other half of the rhyme is “Heliogabalus”.)]

92. Heliogabalus

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