Guardian 29,516 – Paul

89 comments on “Guardian 29,516 – Paul”

1. 23a NABOKOV – Oxford BBC Guide to Pronunciation: “Although the author’s surname is often pronounced nab-uh-kof, he told the BBC that this [nuh-boe-kof]
   was his preferred English pronunciation, with the middle syllable stressed, and rhyming with ‘smoke’.” (Not “nab a cough”, but “nuh – boke off”)
   [19d – “Waiter, have you got frogs’ legs? … Well hop into the kitchen and bring me a crocodile sandwich and make it SNAPPY.”]

2. Thanks for the enlightenment, Andrew.
   Paul’s puzzles remain completely beyond me.

3. Thanks Andrew for the explanation of DOGLEG and TABBY. Didn’t know about silver tabbies. I thought the clue for DAVID COPPERFIELD was a bit weak, in truth, and like Andrew, I thought RINKY-DINK sounded positive. COTOPAXI new to me, but the clue spelt it out. Is Paul trying to improve his surfaces? I like Paul puzzles and particularly the multi-word answers, plus BOSCH, UNITARIAN and MONICKER. Thanks to Paul and Andrew.

4. Liked COTOPAXI and POOR EXCUSE.

   Struggled with a 2 letter word for barrel thinking the opposite of yang was ying. (26 ac), until the penny dropped. Struggled with RINKY DINK – check button helped.

   Thanks Paul and Andrew

5. Thanks Paul and Andrew. Completely missed the reference to DAVID COPPERFIELD the magician: I was looking for the name of a book of spells (which of course I didn’t find) and was mystified by the real answer when it became obvious. NABOKOV didn’t work for me, but the MO-NICKER and the South American hothead made me smile. Also liked DOGLEG, POOR EXCUSE, the neatly hidden wordplay for OVERSTATE, and INFESTATION, and I even managed to parse FISH AND CHIP SHOP.

   I know silver tabbies exist, but I found that definition a bit too vague.

6. Liked DOGLEG, AXE TO GRIND, SNAPPY and INFESTATION.

   Thanks Paul and Andrew.

7. Thanks Paul and Andrew
   Several unparsed. Should have parsed DOGLEG, but no chance with TABBY, 11a or 8d.
   I don’t think “takes” works in 4d. It implies “surrounds” rather than “forms part of the anagram fodder”.
   I liked LETHAL for the inventive anagram indicator, COTOPAXI for the definition and attention-seeker, and MONICKER for the construction.

8. HoofitYouDonkey@2, you’re not alone. Paul has consistently inhabited my “Don’t attempt” list. Nevertheless, I was feeling brave today and gave it a go, but had only solved about half, with my “Huh?” list and “NHO” lists getting awfully long, when I gave up. I’ve only once completed one of Paul’s, which was probably a fluke.

9. Paul on top form, particularly FISH AND CHIP SHOP, POOR EXCUSE, IN THIS DAY AND AGE, MONICKER.
   20a reminded me of the formidable chairwoman of a local bench years ago. A habitue of her court mentioned to me that one of her nicknames (she had several, some of them repeatable) was The Dioniger. From the habit of informing the local tearaways that their behaviour was unacceptable in this dye and ige…
   Oh, and a tune called Rinky-Dink was used as the signature tune for ITV’s televised wrestling back in the day. Definition seems apt.
   Thanks, both.

10. I enjoyed that – it emerged gradually for me, which is the way I like it.
    For 18 I originally had side=principal (one side in a dispute?), made=put removed from anagram (awkward) of dispute, but it never felt quite right. Tiff is of course a much better answer.
    I’m another who thought rinky-dink sounded good. I encountered it once in this form: Rinky Dink Sound System. The wikipedia page says “The system was named after the American slang expression “rinky-dink”, which originally meant “rip-off”, but came to mean anything that was poorly put together, amateurish, shoddy, cheap or insignificant.”
    Once I knew what hothead I needed and had worked out the start, I had to complete the name via google, where it appeared after entering the first four letters.

11. Some tricky ones as expected. I had to check here for a few. No wonder that i couldn’t parse bosch.. those phrases have morphed into “my arse” and “tosh”. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

12. Easier than most Paul crosswords, although never heard of Rinky-dink. Did this early as we have a power cut, and only the laptop provides a distraction (I normally do this in the actual paper but it was difficult to see!).
    Thanks Andrew for parsing and Paul for the challenge.

13. I couldn’t parse BOSCH, got it from the artist, tried to parse and shrugged, also failed on NABOKOV – got the nab, shrugged the rest, but I never get Paul’s awful punning soundalikes. But I solved TABBY from parsing it, and knew the silver tabby, knew COTOPAXI and RINKY-DINK, so didn’t have a problem parsing them. Helpful grid with the long anagram for IN THIS DAY AND AGE and the parse-able FISH AND CHIP SHOP. And DAVID COPPERFIELD leapt out from a few crosses.

    Thank you to Paul and Andrew.

14. I join the club of those who needed Andrew’s parsing for both DOGLEG and TABBY. nho the silver tabby and I looked up both silver and tabby in the dictionary hoping to find a reference to the other. I liked the construction of FISH AND CHIP SHOP and the anagrind for LETHAL.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

15. Not sure I would say that a dogleg is a ‘sharp’ turn. Obtuse not acute.

16. I don’t understand. Do you only get one chip with your fish in a fish and chip shop?

17. The usual, well this is going to be a GRIND after a quick read through, but it turned out to be reasonably straightforward, as Andrew stated, apart from COTOPAXI. I also needed DOGLEG parsed and another who thought RINKY-DINK was a good thing. I agree with PostMark about the construction of FISH AND CHIP SHOP, the standout for me. Bizarrely, I tried SPAT for TIFF first and was pleasantly surprised to find it was the solution elsewhere.

    Ta Paul & Andrew.

18. Every time I see Paul my heart sinks. I give it a go, get a few, get disheartened and cheat some answers. The frustration suffered when they are revealed is not alleviated by his humour or clever clueing that so entertains others. One day I’ll follow my instincts and ignore his puzzles altogether. Sorry it’s just not for me.

19. TonyM@ 15. I was trying to fit zigzag into the sharp turn.

20. Snappy should have been the punchline for Granny Weatherwax’s joke about alligator sandwiches in Terry Pratchett’s Witches Abroad, but she keeps telling it wrong. Unlike me: FOI!

21. I wondered if the sharp turn might be a U.

22. Quite tough and I’m surprised that I finished it.

    I wondered how/why ‘motive’ was the anagrind for 2d.

    Favourite: IMPLIED.

    I did not parse 13ac apart from REX = king.

    New for me: RINKY-DINK, the volcano COTOPAXI; DINK = drop shot.

    Thanks, both.

23. As with yesterday managed to complete this – enjoyed the journey – though the list of unparsed entries went as follows: DAVID COPPERFIELD, TIFF, INFESTATION, BOSCH, NABOKOV. Down to the last one, all crossers in place, let’s try COTOPAXI as that rings some kind of bell. Looked it up, ah yes, a volcano. Cue an eruption of self-congratulatory applause…

24. COTD for me IN THIS DAY AND AGE, many thanks Paul and Andrew…

25. Foxhead@18. You’re not alone. I also have given up Paul at different times, for a lot of different reasons. He’s very polarising.

26. I’ve just started reading David Copperfield, so that fell quite easily. I remembered COTOPAXI from a little phrase my mother used to say: “Cotopaxi, Chimborazo and Popacatepetl”, In fact I’ve actually seen Cotopaxi in the distance from Quito. However I also was under the impression that RINKY-DINK was a positive expression, though apparently not. Bunged POOR EXCUSE without attempting to parse it, knowing Paul’s proclivities. Fortunately the homophone was clear enough (though I do pronounce the author as Na-BO-kof)

27. I see Paul, I run. Then I come back and have a go. Got about 8 this time. I don’t find it frustrating though, more something to aspire to. Once I’ve got as far as I can I quite enjoy revealing the rest and trying to figure out how they work before coming to 15 Squared for elucidation.

28. Andrew I really needed the blog today – so many thanks for all the help with completing the parsings!
    I don’t normally need to have aural wordplay explained, and I’m not bothered by variations in regional pronunciation, but NABOKOV and BOSCH were both quite beyond me. Probably because I was always told (perhaps wrongly) to stress the second syllable of the author’s name, and “bosh” is not a word I’d encountered. (It sounds like something Billy Bunter or Bertie Wooster might say – and I’ve never cared for either character.)
    RINKY-DINK was another wild guess: I, too, thought it meant nice not nasty.
    I resisted writing SATANIC for ages – for to me tan is a light colour, not dark.
    On the plus-side, COTOPAXI, AXE TO GRIND and MONICKER were neat, and POOR EXCUSE made me grin.
    Well it wouldn’t be a Paul creation without a little poo or pee somewhere, would it?
    Thank you Paul for the fun.

29. Stumped for a while by FISH AND CHIP SHOP, but liked it. Favourite was HYBRID for the “free” misdirection. Also didn’t parse INFESTATION, initially trying to shoehorn in INFIRMARIES or similar with the crossers I had!

    Not sure I really liked the definitions of AXE TO GRIND = tool for mincing or BICEPS = might contractor.

    nho silver TABBY, RINKY-DINK, NABOKOV or BOSCH, so those needed double-checking the defs.

    Not going to pretend I didn’t have a couple of slightly frustrated bung-and-check moments today, but overall I enjoyed the challenge. Thanks Paul and Andrew!

30. 17a AXE TO GRIND – not a DD: “Tool” = AXE; “for mincing” = TO GRIND; definition = “beef “.

31. Wellbeck @28
    I supposed that if you get (sun)tanned, you go darker?
    CJ @29
    You may not have heard of NABOKOV, but you have probably heard of Lolita? He wrote it.
    For BOSCH, see here.

32. My favourite was MONICKER, very clever, with the surface maybe referring to the time we’ve all spent on this and other puzzles by Paul. Also a big tick for LETHAL, particularly for “motive” as the anagram indicator.

    Many thanks Paul and Andrew.

33. michelle @22 – In automotive, the original name for a car, the motive is suggesting movement or motion – I did double think that anagrind and was amused, not one I’ve collected so far.

    Joining with the others I say NABOKOV with the emphasis on the second syllable too – which is probably why I couldn’t get that one. And biff bosh bash is the Beano, isn’t it? Or Jennings? But it didn’t come to mind.

34. [FrankieG@1 Slavic languages are highly inflected. His first name, I believe, should be pronounced vlad-EE-mir with the a in Vlad being a mumbled schwa sound. I have also been told by a Czech speaker the famous tennis player is navra-TEE-lova the second a and o also being schwa sounds. Boris is buh-REES although many prefer the pronunciation as liar, amoral, or even narcissist.]

35. Shanne @33
    “Bish bosh bash” is fairly common, and has become a Jamie Oliver (TV chef) catchphrase.

36. muffin @35 – probably – I do my best to avoid him, find him too derivative.

37. Presumably the writers of the Pink Panther cartoon theme song also thought that RINKY DINK was positive.
    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

38. Muffin @31: the suntan idea is why I eventually relented and bunged SATANIC in – but it still felt a bit meh. (I’m pasty-pale as a rule, so even in summer I’d hardly describe my colouring as dark.)
    To me, a tan coloured coat is a light colour.

39. Thanks for the explanations. I think DAVID COPPERFIELD was a bit weakly clued. Oddly, I put it in as a guess simply because it’s a book and it fitted, and I got nothing else on my first pass.

40. So RINKY-DINK is a negative but RIDGY-DIDGE is a positive. Isn’t English interesting/confusing?

41. I got interested enough to look it up: according to this bish-bash-bosh was popularised in the UK by the LoadsaMoney character – so Ben Elton/Harry Enfield- and from there the Bosh became a shortened form.

    Bosh has 6 etymologies and in this version originally came from Ottoman Turkish according to this source and meant nonsense – the comparitive words for the noun version the link uses are blatherskite, balderdash and malarkey.

42. I only knew RINKY-DINK from the Pink Panther Show, where it seems to be used in a positive sense. I didn’t understand DAVID COPPERFIELD and I’m not convinced a POOR EXCUSE is really an apology but I loved the two long ones and had that typical Paul experience of thinking it’s completely impossible until the pennies start to drop.

    Thanks Andrew and Paul.

43. The usual Paulian difficult crossword; I eventually revealed DOGLEG as I was getting frustrated.

    I didn’t understand DAVID COPPERFIELD or the MO-NICKER, the latter being quite cute. I wonder why so many of us thought RINKY-DINK was positive? Maybe DuncT @37 is right. I liked the FISH AND CHIP SHOP, POOR EXCUSE, COTOPAXI and INFESTATION.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

44. COTOPAXI was second one in, thanks to Turner’s poem, Romance, referencing it along with Chimborazi and Popacatapetl; such evocative names. Hadn’t heard of a silver tabby, and hadn’t realized RINKY-DINK was NA slang, so two new bits of GK for the etui.

45. Thanks to Andrew for sorting out 1 or 2 tricky parsings, and thanks to Paul for making me laugh, as he usually does.
    Enjoying the references to Pink Panther! Had no idea rinky-dink was an actual word but bunged it in anyway.

46. Didn’t the American guest in Fawlty Towers refer to the M4 as a “rinky-dink byway”, after he couldn’t find the “freeway”?
    COTOPAXI was a particular tick, since my best beloved and I climbed it in 1998. Chimborazo has the distinction of being the highest point above the centre of the earth, owing to the appropriately Equatorial bulge.

47. I’m another who thought RINKY DINK was a positive descriptor, but didn’t know why until DuncT @37 reminded me of the cartoon theme tune. Thanks Dunc! Not sure if yes is the answer to Tomsdad @3’s question. I still find surfaces such as “retina operated upon after I will find sloth” pretty meaningless in any real world situation, which forces you to go straight to the cryptic reading. Favourites today were DOGLEG (used on a golf course to describe a much sharper than usual bend in the fairway), BICEPS, LETHAL, HYBRID and KEYING for neatly hidden definitions. Like Andrew, I much prefer Paul in this mode to the spaghetti crosswords. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

48. Frankieg@30 I parsed 17a that way too.

49. Steppie @46 , he just called it a little backstreet .

50. Thanks for the blog, DOG LEG and LETHAL pretty neat , as for the rest …

    HYD @2 I have known you finish Paul in the past and you still had ALL day to try this one , just 10 minutes now and then and let your brain work in secret. Be more mule than donkey , I am sure the Millwall players do not give up just because they are playing someone really good like West Ham .

51. As always Paul divides opinion, and as always I find myself in the camp where so many of the parsings are, when revealed by the blogger, not worth the candle (I’m looking at you, 6d), and many of the surfaces appear to be a random assemblage of words that are barely grammatical. I missed the homophone(?) in 23a because I was hampered by knowing the correct pronunciation. NHO Cotopaxi but evidently many have.

    In fairness, 5a was amusing and long anagrams like 20a always solicit my admiration. And I knew rinky-dink as a favorite expression of Frank Sinatra.

    Good wishes to those of you who find Paul a fun challenge, we all have our own tastes I suppose. De gustibus, etc.

52. Enjoyed this – thankfully free of well known phrase or sayings chopped up and sprinkled over the grid. Some ingenious constructions, though with some weird surfaces, but heigh ho.

    I particularly liked IN THIS DAY AND AGE, BOSCH, LETHAL, MONICKER and AXE TO GRIND (parsed as FrankieG @30).

    NABOKOV went in from the crossers, rather than from a homophonic mispronunciation! [Dave F @34: I don’t know which part of the country your Czech friend is from, but that isn’t the standard pronunciation of Martiná’s surname – Navrátilová. There is a secondary stress on the third syllable, but like all Czech words, the primary stress is on the first syllable. Neither A is a schwa – the accents show they are long vowels – and you have missed the palatalisation of T before I (like the T in the British pronunciation of ‘tune’). It’s more like nAvrahtyilovah (ˈnavraːcɪlovaː in IPA)]

    Thanks to Paul and Andrew

53. Such a shame to have this setter’s wit rendered irritating by his so often use of nonsensical surfaces and strained synonyms.

    Gel for form and use for appropriate to give a couple of examples.

    Hey-ho, others seem to admire it, so I’ll sit in the corner and sulk.

54. [Czechia produces a lot of good tennis players, so umpires and commentators have to contend with the likes of Kateřina Siniaková and Tomáš Macháč. But Slavic names are tricky in general. A former Yugoslav player, Slobodan Živojinović was too much for a Wimbledon umpire, who kept stumbling over his name, and each time it happened the spectators started to giggle, which prompted an irritable ‘Quiet, please’. ]

55. I loved this! Full of Paul’s wit and originality

    Thanks Paul and Andrew

56. Almost finished this, but whiffed on COTOPAXI. Not sure why an apology is considered a POOR EXCUSE? I don’t think of them as interchangeable. On my side of the pond we do use “RINKY-DINK”, though not often, and probable not if you’re under a certain age. Roughly a combo of rickety (not well made) and dinky (small).

57. Thanks both,
    I always marvel at the way Paul comes up with fresh ideas to stretch our imaginations. I much enjoyed this puzzle as I do the self-referent and spaghetti ones.

58. Nakamova @56 had exactly the same experience that I did.

    I think I have used the expression RINKY-DINK perhaps a total of three times in my life, now four. (I am 50.)

59. Like most people, I had only heard “rinky dink” in the lyrics for the Pink Panther cartoon theme song. In that context, it seems to have a positive connotation.
    Well here he is, the pink panther
    The rinky-dink panther
    Isn’t he a panther ever so pink?
    He really is a groovy cat
    And what a gentleman, a scholar, what an acrobat !
    He’s in the pink – the pink panther
    The rinky-dink panther…etc.

60. Enjoyed it a lot.

    The apology/poor excuse is fair because they can both mean a bad example of something. “A poor excuse for a human being” or “an apology of a human being” both being hopeless individuals.

61. I’m generally permissive regarding homophones — if it works in some reasonably widely spoken version of English, it’s fine — but the case of NABOKOV feels like an exception. His name just is pronounced with the emphasis on the second syllable, which is said as an O, not a schwa sound.

    I generally get on well with Paul’s puzzles, but I had a tough time with this one. I managed to finish, but I had to come here for quite a few parsings. They all make sense to me now.

    I liked “motive” as an anagrind, although on another day I can imagine objecting to it, on the grounds that it means “causing motion” rather than “moving”.

62. Roz @49: must be my memory failure again.

63. belatedly…

    thanks Frankie@30, that def makes more sense I agree

    also muffin@31 of course I have heard of BOSCH – but apparently was able to draw a complete blank (even after googling their paintings) because their surname never appears without the utterly unforgettable given name!

64. I remembered the names Chimborazo, Cotopaxi from a poem, but couldn’t remember which one so had to look it up: https://allpoetry.com/poem/8607799-Romance-by-Walter-James-Turner

65. I thought this was very likeable, with some very clever (though not unduly so) disguised definitions and anagrinds. Favourites were the super neat IMPLIED and the devious LETHAL.

66. Steppie@62 we watch Fawlty Towers every Christmas when the sprogs are home, I know most of it word for word.
    Muffin@59 the Pink Panther is from the NE of England so it may have a differenrt slang meaning there.

67. Spent several sessions worrying at this. Finally cracked and revealed what I felt may be an unlocker for the rest: David Copperfield. So weak I really couldn’t be bothered struggling any more. Memo to self: See Paul and run. No problems with other people liking his style. Just not for me.

68. Many thanks to Paul for a terrific crossword and Andrew for a very good blog.
    “Well here he is, the Pink Panther,
    The Rinky-dink panther “

69. As with several posters before, I’m generally a Paul disliker, but I thought that this was considerably better than most of his.

70. Oops sorry missed muffin @69!

71. Thanks both and I’m very much in the pro-Paul camp with items like MONICKER and AXE TO GRIND showing a level of deviousness that tickles my ulnar nerve.

    Steffen (if you drop in) the methodology outlined by Greyhound@27 is highly recommended. It’s what we all had to do at some time in the past (although the slightly antique among us would have had to wait for tomorrow’s paper to get the answers…).

72. I’ve been familiar with my RINKY-DINK my entire life but that didn’t help me solve it because I NHO “dink”.

    To me, Paul seems to be returning to his old style, i.e. very clever but still ultimately solvable, after a turn at being completely baffling. So – I really enjoyed this puzzle. I particularly liked COTOPAXI and FISH AND CHIP SHOP.

73. Late arrivals as usual.. The days work is done (such as it is).
    We had a good innings today, unlike India….
    Very satisfying to get Monicker! I thought it was moniker but I see it’s a legitimate variant.
    We’re getting better at spotting the various devices. Anagrams are an easy way in, the constructional ones (fish and chip shop, poor excuse) made us laugh.
    We do rely on the blog to fill in the gaps! So thanks to all.

74. Roz @50 – My other pastime is reading. I stared at this for an hour and got three answers. On that basis it would take me about 10 hours. So I give up and read.
    Having said that, I am honest enough to admit that with Paul puzzles I am beaten before I start.

75. Not for me today, got maybe a third of the grid filled in. I see others have enjoyed it, but I didn’t take to it like I’ve been able to with a fair number of Paul’s puzzles.

76. HYD@74, 20 minutes is the optimum for the first look or you just keep getting stuck down the same blind alleys . Leave it for a while , then look for 10 minutes , new ideas , you will be surprised .
    Off to see the comet now and maybe the Aurora.

77. This took the usual 3 or 4 sittings, loved every minute of it, Paul’s convolutions mean you can’t easily treat it like a ‘spot the straight part of the clue and then parse the cryptic bit’ – the quasi-quick crossword that too many setters deliver. I reckon the secret with Paul is to relax into it, don’t tense up after those initial glances that make you think it’s going to be an impossible solve? Thank you Paul and Andrew!

78. [‘Bosh’ always reminds of a friend being told that another friend had got a job teaching English in Brazil: “But he only knows 3 verbs – bish, bash and bosh!”]

79. Perhaps it’s only because Paul has so many fans that he gets so criticised here even by my favourite analyser (is that the term?). I feel compelled to say that unlike Foxhead @18 and others, my heart lifts when I see that it’s a Paul. Having said that, and though I usually get onto Paul’s wavelength eventually, today was a struggle for me. I still enjoyed the struggle even though I failed. And unlike Andrew, I love his themed crosswords that range across the grid. I don’t understand why there have to be complaints every time one appears, and this time even when one doesn’t!

80. To each their own. I don’t enjoy Paul’s puzzles. Once in a while he’ll have a cracker clue but most of his clues I find to be very average. Just my humble opinion.

81. I am probably just bored with Paul , I think I have done every single puzzle he has set in the Guardian since 1995 so far too many and I just find it all too obvious . I also think he just plays up to the audience sometimes . I much prefer the puzzles he sets for the FT as Mudd these days.

82. Two earworms for 14a RINKY-DINK: The Pink Panther Show (1969-78, a 55th (Emerald) anniversary) Theme Song (Karaoke Version) and …

83. … Henry Mancini’s Theme from The Pink Panther (1963) (also a Karaoke Version, but you’ll have to replace all the BA-DOPs with DURHAMs). (cf. Roz@66)
    Loved the puzzle. Thanks P&A.

84. Nice and sometimes nasty. But Paul’s puns are really dad bad!

85. Thank you FrankieG at 1. Though he’ll be smiling carelessly now in the cypress groves with Proust, once upon another time that clue would have irritated him.

86. It’s taken me over 24 hours to finish this. I’m almost sorry to have read through all the comments here. So much negativity.

    I enjoyed it.

87. You’ve numbered this puzzle wrongly – took me a while to find it.

88. Paddymelon@16 You buy fish and chips at a fish and chip shop.
    (You can also buy bouquets at a flower shop, and can buy more than one at a time from a bookshop.)

89. Took a long while to complete this one.
    Paul makes them tough sometimes by making the definition hard to spot. 5a BICEPS for example. It wasn’t difficult to see ‘might’ as being a force but not ‘might contractor’ meaning a muscle. I suppose that’s what stumps a lot of puzzlers, including me at first.
    Thanks Paul, and thanks Andrew for the enlightenment especially DAVID COPPERFIELD. I could see the Dickens novel but never thought of the American magician.

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