Guardian Cryptic 29,545 by Picaroon

86 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,545 by Picaroon”

1. Highly satisfying with some lovely clues. NASHVILLE and SEEMLY my favourites. Bottom half tough, top half tougher. Glad I gnawed away at it. 1a new to me but eventually the word play and crossers showed me the way. Was a little puzzled by the seemingly spurious ‘s’ after Hamlet. Would that not imply a plural solution? Happy for someone to help me out.

2. STP @ 1 The extra is ” ‘s ” reading “Hamlet is”, so no spurious “s”.

3. Like SteveThePirate, I found the bottom easier than the top, though neither was easy going.

   I had to cheat on BEND SINISTER, though I knew the term, but had forgotten the bastard reference.

   I also puzzled over the s in the clue for VILLAGE, but I suppose it is hamlet is.

   Thanks loonapick and Picaroon

4. Nice to see a return for this setter after what feels like a while. FICHU is nho but a successful bung and for some reason I thought the fruit tree was a pawpaw. Very cheeky using a five word phrase to give us a single letter M in PASHMINAS.

   ADVENTISTS, TRAINER, NEUROSIS, NASHVILLE, USHERS and SUNDER were my faves. I did throw myself for a while by entering AMBIT for SOMME being a part = A BIT cut by Head of Music = A M BIT for which department seemed like a mildly cryptic def. But BEND SINISTER is one of the few heraldic phrases I recognise so, when I realised its place, AMBIT had to go.

   Thanks Picaroon and loonapick

5. Loved the puzzle albeit with a few fills that were new to me. My favorite clue was for NASHVILLE which I thought contained a clever play on country. Thanks Picaroon and a great job as always by lookapick.

6. I think this is only the second time I’ve not enjoyed one of Picaroon’s. And I only solved about two thirds. One reason I enjoy this setter’s is that there are very few obscurities and UK references, but there were a few today. My knowledge was found wanting. And perhaps I wasn’t on the right wavelength.

   I’m familiar with pawpaw and papaya, but PAPAW is new to me. Never heard of FICHU or BEND SINISTER. Collins says TITCHY is British informal — I don’t think we use it here.

   I’m sure I’ll enjoy Picaroon’s next one. His quiptic the other day was fabulous.

7. Top faves: INIMITABLE, BACKSWING, NASHVILLE and SUNDER.

   Thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

8. I too found the top half much harder. Like PM@4 I initially went for AMBIT and was surprised PAPAW wasn’t pawpaw. Nashville was my top favourite and I agree with the others named above and would like to add IN DEEP to the list.
   When I looked up BEND SINISTER which I vaguely remembered, it appears that a bendlet (i.e.narrow bend) sinister is used for illegitimacy, and that there is a band of that name. So, as is often the case, I’ve learnt something new today. Thank you to loonapick and Picaroon for a great blog and puzzle.

9. I once lived in Fitzrovia, so some knowledge of b*****ds, and 1ac FOI. I personally found the pop culture close enough to gk to be reverse-engineered, and am still a sucker for Picaroon’s devious definitions. The misdirection made for some lovely ‘Aha!’ moments, so a delightful solve. Thanks, Picaroon and loonapick!

10. Well, it was worth waiting (six weeks!) for – Picaroon on top form – but I hope it doesn’t happen again.

    I got off to a good start with BEND SINISTER, which, luckily, I knew and MYSTERIES, second one in, reinforced the good feeling – brilliant construction and surface.

    Other favourites were VILLAGE, ADVENTISTS, LANCE, SHOP STEWARDS, NEUROSIS, SOMME, UFFIZI, AARGH and PAPAW, which I, too, thought had a different spelling. As it was for loonapick, PASHMINAS was my last one to parse – cheeky, indeed! I liked the ‘lift and separate’ STROLLER.

    Many thanks to Picaroon – welcome back! – and to lucky loonapick.

11. I’m another one who found the top half tougher than the bottom half, and also entered AMBIT confidently in place of SOMME. I spotted 1a was a heraldic reference, but confess I lazily googled the term rather than working out the anagram (though having an ‘A’ for ambit rather than an S for the second word made the anagram harder). Shame on me. Like GDU@4 I usually expect ‘pawpaw’ rather than PAPAW, but the wordplay made it clear.
    Others have already pointed out my favourites, so thanks to Picaroon and loonapick.

12. PAPAW is an unusual spelling, as Geoff Down Under @6 says. Usually Pawpaw or Papaya, I’ve never really seen the attraction. Tasteless crud. Give me a strawberry, mango or raspberry any day.

13. Wow, very tough. I had most trouble in NE corner, gave up on 5d & 6d.

    Favourites: IN-DEEP, VILLAGE AND AARGH – which is how I felt when I started this puzzle. Solved only 7 clues on my first pass – mainly down clues in the lower half.

    New for me: FICHU, BEND SINISTER.

    I did not parse the F1 race bit of 7d but the answer was obvious to me anyway.

    Thanks, both.

14. Thanks Picaroon and loonapick
    Unusually GK heavy for Picaroon, as loonapick implies. I knew all of it except FICHU, which was a fairly obvious hidden.
    LOI PAPAW, which I’ve never seen spelled like that.
    Favourite UFFIZI. Tip – don’t even try going there now; even when you have a pre-booked ticket you have to wait for ages (as with most of the popular sights/sites in Florence).

15. Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

    I loved lots of this crossword esp Adventists (my thought process was literally; well it can’t be dentists with a v in it – oh!)

    Some might know term Bend Sinister from the Nabokov novel

16. Picaroon is the master of wittily misleading surfaces and cleverly hidden definitions. Lots of ticks, but NASHVILLE probably my overall favourite.

    I twigged the Clark Kent reference in 26a but briefly wondered if “locis” was a word before the penny dropped!

    Many thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

17. Same experience as others with top half being an enjoyable grind. Also tried AMBIT until the lovely MYSTERIES changed my mind and also shrugged at PAPAW. PASHMINAS was sensational for its bizarre surface and NASHVILLE and UFFIZI were just brilliant. Thought there was a horsey theme in the bottom half with TRAINER, HORSEWHIP and LANCE but nothing doing.

    Ta Picaroon & loonapick.

18. I fully concur with SteveThePirate@1.
    Half of this puzzle was hard work, whereas the other half was harder.
    I will not disclose my time, but think football match, going into penalties.
    No complaints, just very crafty setting, and artful solutions. Nearly every one a winner, with NASHVILLE and EVITA the stand-outs for me.
    I’m going to get blasted, but FICHU spoiled my party, even though my gungadin was correct, because the wordplay was fair.
    I don’t mind GK whatsoever, ( providing I know it!), but I feel a wee bit sour when it’s OK (obscure knowledge).
    Of course, one man’s poisson is another man’s meat.

    Excellent puzzle, + blog.
    Regards, to Picaroon & picaloon

19. Lord Jim @16 – me too, re LOCIS. 😉

20. Interesting that FICHU is so unknown, because that’s a word I do know from reading about women’s garb in previous times. Didn’t actually know what it was until I looked it up – it’s usually something the lady in question fusses with to avoid a question.

    I’m with those who solved from the bottom up and thought about LOCIS first too. For those muttering it’s a while since they’ve seen Picaroon, it was my third Picaroon in a week, and I blogged the first two. Very glad loonapick got to blog this one, not me, and wonder how the newer solvers will get on with this one.

    Thank you to Picaroon and loonapick.

21. PS I was just wondering if AARGH is actually in dictionaries, and it is in Chambers, as “interj expressing pain, dismay etc”. It was a very common exclamation in the comics of my childhood, though I seem to remember that tougher characters contented themselves with UHH! and more excitable nationalities (as they were seen in the rather racist attitudes of the time) favoured AIEEE!

22. This felt like Picaroon allowing himself full rein after so many Quiptics. Another AMBIT here.

23. ‘Bend Sinister’ was also the name of a 1986 album by the band ‘The Fall’. That was where I knew the expression from.

24. Lucky Shanne @20 – I know well that Picaroon writes excellent Quiptics and Quick Cryptics (and Geniuses, too, such is the breadth of his talent) but, like others, I’ve sorely missed his Cryptics!

25. A masterclass from Picaroon. So many delightful clues it is impossible to cite them all, but INSTORE, SPAS, SHOP STEWARDS, NASHVILLE, EVITA, TITCHY and USHER (my LOI) had clever misdirections and enjoyable penny drop moments. The parsing of PASHMIMAS defeated me, despite cogitating long on the Bond movies, so especial thanks to loonapick for explaining it, as well as the rest of the excellent blog.

26. Postmark @4 cheeky it may be, but I much prefer the five word phrase for M to the one word ‘Mark’.

27. Are there any anagrams to get started with?

28. Very smooth, accomplished puzzle. Not sure which is my favourite, maybe NASHVILLE.
    Do a sash, a scarf, a shawl and a one-piece garment constitute an on/off-the-shoulder theme? Probably not!
    Thank you to Picaroon and loonapick.

29. Surprised that no one queried who Eric Ambler is, but even better coming straight after the clue for PASHMINAS -genius👏

    Steffen, unfortunately, unfortunately only 1ac but it’s v v difficult. Hope this doesn’t put you off

30. AARGH! seemed an appropriate word for this challenging but excellent puzzle.
    Like some others I found the top half tougher, so I completed the bottom half before moving north. FOI was LANCE, LOI was SEEMLY – didn’t get those tabs for a while.
    BEND SINISTER and FICHU were new. I realise I hadn’t fully parsed UFFIZI and TITCHY (case of brain fatigue).
    Thanks loonapick for a great blog and clear explanations.
    There were just so many wonderful clues in this puzzle. Some stand-outs for me were PASHMINAS (loved the M clue), SOMME, MYSTERIES, SUNDER, SHOP STEWARDS, INIMITABLE.
    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

31. Tim C@12: papaya (papaw) is good when used in a smoothie, and helps settle the stomach. It contains an important anti-inflammatory enzyme (papain). All the same. I’ve never seen it written PAPAW.

32. Tough but fair, with some very neat ideas, FICHU (because the cape turned out not to be Horn or Good Hope), NASHVILLE, VILLAGE, ADVENTISTS, SHOP STEWARDS for a start.
    Didn’t manage to parse HORSEWHIP completely, and grateful for the customarily excellent blog; hadn’t encountered PAPAW and am thinking “You learn something every day” – except that at my age you promptly forget it.
    Thanks, Picaroon and loonapick.

33. It took me a while to remember that it’s UFFIZI rather than UFIZZI (I’d guessed that FIZZ was champagne). Should have known better… Way back when, working in France, Mrs B’s company’s social department was offering a guided tour of Italy at a very good price. Her parents were scheduled to visit us at the same time, and we managed to squeeze them in, to their great pleasure. One day in Florence we decided to skip the day’s planned group visit because we wanted to see the Uffizi gallery. Wandering through the displays, who did we see but our fellow trippers. Instant d’oh: Galleria degli Uffizi translates into French as Galerie des Offices…

34. Much like others, I found this hard, top left hand corner in particular. Had to call on Bradford’s crossword dictionary for help, as well as my husband who remembered bend sinister and the Euros. The only answer I disliked was PROPMAN, is that really in common use?
    But thanks for a challenge, and for the parsing.

35. I thought it was BAR SINISTER, which the dictionary tells me is “a common and erroneous term” for BEND SINISTER. Oh well, the crossers eventually gave me the right word. Common and erroneous, that’s me.

    I found this tough, possibly because I am snuffling with a cold today and feeling particularly unintelligent, but possibly because it was. I didn’t spot “Madonna’s part” for EVITA or LANE the “lover of Kent”, though I did remember who played M and the inhabitants of Poe’s house. Thought the PROPMAN was 2 words, failed to get FICHU, ADVENTISTS and SOMME (I’m so used to spelling it departEment that the misdirection gets me every time).

    I enjoyed MYSTERIES, SHOP STEWARDS, NASHVILLE, HORSEWHIP and BACKSWING, and the definition for INIMITABLE.

36. I’m sure I’m being rather dim, but why does ‘in store’ mean ‘about to come’?

    Another ‘ambit’ here until I realised it had to be ‘bend sinister’, which fortunately was familiar, as was ‘fichu’ (I suspect from historical novels), but which I thought of more as Chambers’ second definition of ‘a triangular piece of muslin for neck’, used, I think to make a décolleté gown more ‘seemly’; which took me far too long to see (LOI).

37. Excellent puzzle, full of clever misdirections and with superb surface readings. Like many others, I found the top half trickier.

    Such great definitions: ‘a sign of lacking legitimacy’, ‘unable to be taken off’, ‘country’s main city’, ‘Lover of Kent’, ‘Madonna’s part’. SEEMLY, PASHMINAS, SUNDER and AARGH also gave delight.

    I have seen papaya rendered as PAPAW before, but it is a rare spelling. (And I think they are delicious, but require a squeeze of lime).

    Many thanks to the Pirate and the lucky loonapick

38. Sarah@46: I also thought of a fichu as something altogether lighter and more delicate than a “cape”. It didn’t help that I was trying to fit C(ape) into a “hurricane” to make “pacific”.

39. For me this felt a very similar experience to yesterday’s Fed Puzzle in terms of difficulty level. Downed tools with pretty much the bottom half filled in, then returned much later, when suddenly I remembered my heraldry and was able to insert BEND SINISTER, which then unlocked the test of this entertaining puzzle. Last two in USHERS, with another ah! moment when I remembered Poe’s work, and SEEMLY, needing Loonapick to unpick that one for me…

40. I found this a bit stiffer than the usual Picaroon, but in a good way. Slow but steady progress got me there in the end. NHO of BEND SINISTER, FICHU, or PAPAW spelled that way, although all clued sufficiently clearly.

    I was happy to remember the “department” misdirection this time around, and enjoyed the novel cluing for EVITA.

    I dredged up PASHMINAS from somewhere but needed the blog for the M, not having watched Bond movies in a very long time, so thank you Loonapick for that, and thank you Picaroon for the excellent surfaces throughout.

41. Sarah@36 – as in ‘I wonder what’s in store for me today’

42. Fichu was LOI for me. Tough but enjoyable, loved the clues with misdirections and loved eventually figuring them out. Thanks to P & L.

43. Another good one from the pirate; like many others the bottom half was solved first.

    I was another who thought of locis before I changed to the fairly obvious LANE. I thought FICHU was well-hidden with the C for cape nicely misleading. I also enjoyed NEUROSIS, NASHVILLE and PASHMINAS, where it took me far too long to see the M. I failed to parse the native in EVITA.

    Thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

44. A very general question for the regulars—do you feel you have solved the puzzle if it is completely filled in correctly but you cannot parse some answers or only when it is completely filled in and parsed?

45. Struggled with some of the wordplay, though FICHU went in on wordplay alone before I looked it up. But I’m not a fan of “tab” indicating E; I agree with your parsing, but it seems like a stretch.

46. Battered by a brilliant Picaroon; frankly the versatility in QC, Quiptic and Cryptic is award-winning.

    A couple were completely new to me. As many have said, NASHVILLE was a real highlight!

47. pavement@41 – thank you! I really was being dim, thinking much too literally about ‘in store’.

48. Nick Jason@44 If my grid is full, but not fully parsed, I consider it a solve* or perhaps an “B+/A-“ (in U.S. grading). On the kind of math exam where you’re asked to show HOW you got your answers, you would be in trouble.

49. NJ@44, I can only speak for myself, but I regard completely filled in as a win and completely parsed as a victory. I don’t see myself as a competent solver yet and certainly couldn’t write the wonderful blogs we are privileged to have to help, but I am a regular and slowly improving…

50. Another who confidently entered Ambit at 3d as my first one in, thereby messing up the next 10 minutes.

    This was a real challenge but great to complete. Didn’t parse PASHMINAS despite it (them) staring me in the face.

    Favourites were NASHVILLE, UFFIZI and INIMITABLE for wonderful disguise and surfaces.

    Thanks Picaroon and loonapick

51. Thanks to Picaroon for the challenging but fun workout. Completely engaging and I wanted more clues. Amongst many favourites I would especially pick out Nashville and Evita.
    Thanks also to loonapick for the blog.

52. Nothing to add to what everyone else has said, just want to add my compliments to the pile! Thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

53. SHANE @20 [as a ‘newby’ this puzzle was one of my favourites and I’m looking forward to the next challenge from Picaroon.]

54. Nick Jason@44, a really good question.
    Different strokes for different folks, I expect.

    I only consider that I have been successful if I have solved the wordplay, got the right answer, and I “know” the solution. (For all the clues).

    Thus, I completed this one, but didn’t know what a FICHU is: so that’s a fail.
    If I crack only the definition correctly, but I cannot reverse- engineer the way in which the clue generates it, that is a fail, too.

    I correctly “complete” many cryptic crosswords, that I’m not happy to call a success, by my “rules”.
    Other solvers will see it differently, I’m sure.

55. Nick @44: Interesting question. For me a crossword is for pleasure, not an exam. Getting right answers is fun, getting them and being sure they are right is more fun. Knowing how they work is even more fun, but sometimes I cannot be bothered to sort every single nuance of the parsing, especially when I can see it is a complex subtractive anagram. If I am a bit tired, or did not enjoy the puzzle for some reason (probably my mood rather than any failure of the setter) then detailed picking apart becomes less enjoyable so I am happy to leave it.

    For me, it’s like climbing a hill – being there, doing it is fun, not just getting to the top. Even then, if I am tired out, I’d rather go for a low level walk than force myself to slog along.

    Obviously others have different opinions, which you should also hear!

56. 25a – HORSE/HEROIN is a connection that I do not understand.

57. Nick @44: I second JoFT. Crosswords are simply a pastime, and everyone is free to take from them what they will. For me, simply filling in all the blanks is ‘success’, providing that I’m sure of all the solutions. Being able to parse everything is something I also aim for, but occasionally I don’t have the patience to work out a particularly intricate construction when the solution is so obviously correct.

    Others aren’t satisfied if they haven’t found the theme, if there is one, and every clue which references it, or any possible Ninas, but I’m not bothered by this. Whatever floats your boat.

58. Steffen @56
    HORSE is street slang for heroin. You may have come across the Len Deighton book “Horse under water” – no actual horses were harmed in its writing 🙂

59. Steffen @56: Street slang – horse, or “H” are (were?) common terms for heroin, just as “E” is ecstasy. Probably it hasn’t been used since the original airing of “The Sweeney” but that seems to be considered modern popular culture in some parts 😉

60. Nick @44: A further point – those who enter crossword competitions are just expected to fill the grid with correct solutions and aren’t required to justify anything 🙂

61. I’m another AMBIT person, I also managed to get TRAMPER for 22a, Tram on P(ublic) with er as one who goes on foot. Which left me puzzling over 21d for a long time before it clicked.

62. Tougher than last two days, certainly. Bottom half less tough but still chewy. Had to resort to a couple of cheeky Reveals in the NE (I hardly ever do that) but in each case I kicked myself for not spotting what was going on – the clueing was generally very fair. My only slight eyebrow wiggle was the use of actors’ names to define a character name in PASHMINA. I can’t quite put my finger on why, but that seems just slightly unfair. But I got it eventually…

    Many thanks both.

63. Yet another cracker from Picaroon. Like others, it took me a while to accept that the solution to 3d wasn’t ‘ambit’, even though the definition would have been dodgy. I also thought of ‘fishu’ as a lacy modesty accessory -ala Georgette Heyer – rather than a cape, but Everything was sorted out in the end. I don’t know how Picaroon unfailingly manages to be so good, but hope it continues.

64. Thank you 56, 58, 59,

65. Can’t wait for the next Eric Ambler theme puzzle.

    Sorry my comment @29 didn’t help Steffen but keep on trucking fella

66. @65 😂😂😂

    One of these days….

67. Rob T @62: I don’t see why the use of two actors’ names to indicate a character is unfair. It would certainly be more difficult if only one had been given – with two it prompts us to think of what links them. And is the device so different from ‘Madonna’s part’ in the clue for EVITA?

68. Gervase @67: as usual, spot on.

69. FICHU rang a dim and distant bell – can I really have remembered it from this 2021 Brendan clue? Seems highly unlikely!
    19 If upset, put on such varied neckwear (6)

    If I can figure out the wordplay but don’t know the meaning of the solution (and that’s virtually every clue if it’s Azed) I take it as a win – it’s a cryptic crossword not a quiz / vocabulary test. And I like learning new words so it’s a win-win 🙂

    Cheers P&L

70. Nick@44. I actually quite like finishing without parsing. I the come here and enjoy the “Doh!” When I realise what a numptie I’ve been

71. Nick @44 Personally I like to at least see how the clue works. If I can see the structure but not quite work everything out, I’ll sometimes not worry later in the solve. Earlier in the solve it is often essential to parse the clue fully to be sure the answer is correct.
    For example, if I can see a clue is an anagram and see where most of the letters come from, I don’t necessarily look for all of them.

72. My son-in-law often attempts the Quick Crossword, and is surprised when he asks me for help and I struggle to give it. I usually find the cryptic easier as you can be more confident that you have the answer.
    Having said that, I do enter answers from crossers and definition quite often, and don’t always bother to fully parse!

73. Andy @23 That’s where I remembered the term from as well. A lot of MES’s song titles read like cryptic crossword clues! It’s also the title of a Nabokov novel.

74. Nick@44: you can also think about the question the other way round, from the setter’s point of view. The setter has put thought into devising a puzzle, and the greatest satisfaction will be obtained if you can get inside their thought process and then emerge with a “solution”. In some cases (a quick crossword) that’s a matter of thinking of synonyms or simple knowledge; in cryptic crosswords such as the Guardian’s, more complex thought has gone in, and it’s more of a challenge to follow it fully, including noting themes or ninas; there are other crosswords, such as the Inquisitor in the Weekend I, where solving cryptic clues is just the start of unravelling where the compiler’s tortuous mind has ended up; look at the most recent Inquisitor blog on Fifteen Squared for an example of a truly knotty puzzle. So it’s like a book or a piece of music; there’s satisfaction in getting out of them everything that the author has put in. But as others have said, if you put in all the right answers you have “solved” the crossword; the puzzle doesn’t require you to do more than that (and nobody cares how you’ve done it!)

75. For this Gooner STROLLER straight away brought George Graham to mind so I just bunged it in.😀

76. Sagittarius @74, Nick@44, et al. I loved (and upticked) MiketheEel’s comment on the Guardian thread which went ‘I found this one very easy, and completed it by simply pressing the button labelled “Reveal this” for each clue. Tip: there is also a “Reveal all” button if you look carefully. I found it after a while and it did speed things up tremendously, I must say.’
    Personally, I never worry that there’s an eye in the sky measuring my success or failure. Basically, I’m miserable if I can’t fill in all the answers or get some wrong, sad if I get them all but can’t always explain why, happy if I get and parse the lot, and ecstatic if I fill in and understand 100% without resorting to any outside help (including reveals, check buttons, word wizards, synonym dictionaries, and anagram helpers, but I do allow checking the dictionary for the meaning of unknown-to-me words that I derived from the wordplay).
    PS. For example, living in France, I did know the sequence of letters FICHU but in a different context. Interesting that my French/English dictionary gives two possible but diametrically opposite translations: ‘up the spout’ and ‘down the drain’.
    PPS. The translation it gives for the nounal meaning is quite simply ‘scarf’.

77. I went down the same blind alley as many others with AMBIT, which seemed very straightforward and it never occurred to me that it could be wrong until the second word in 1a quite clearly couldn’t start with an A.

    Had to give up on USHER when my knowledge of Poe’s work proved insufficient. I thought the clue for PASHMINAS was unnecessarily verbose with regards to M: when the answer became obvious, I was insufficiently motivated to parse the whole clue. The verbosity is a criticism, the laziness an admission.

    I was glad to see that no knowledge of Eric Ambler was required, which I suppose makes STROLLER my favourite, closely followed by EVITA, where I had no idea what ‘Madonna’ was doing in the clue but solved it anyway!

    Thanks to Picaroon and Loonapick.

78. An enjoyable and interesting puzzle. I was most interested in the clue for UFFIZI, because I remembered being stuck on a clue for UFFIZI in a Guardian crossword by Picaroon several years ago. It was puzzle no. 29,545, and the clue was “Arm broken by fellow when climbing Italian building (6)” (it was a Down clue). I thought the definition in today’s clue (“Where art lovers go”) was much better than in that earlier clue (“Italian building”).

    Thanks to Picaroon for this puzzle and to loonapick for the blog.

79. Phew! My Picaroon withdrawal symptoms were in overdrive. Being fed quicks and quiptics can only satisfy your cravings so much. Great to see a normal puzzle although it was a dnf 😞 Couldn’t get SEEMLY, IN DEEP or SOMME. Otherwise a great puzzle

80. @All I’ve been doing back issues of Arachne and she had a similar clue for Nashville.

    https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27724#25-across

    Architect run down in outskirts of Vientiane, country’s capital (9)

81. My only entry in the top half when I had the bottom completed was LOUVRE. Where art lovers go, right? [red face] A DNF for me – very tough top half. Thanks, Picaroon and loonapick.

82. Agree withJohnW@45 re SEEMLY – I’ve never taken any, but Google suggests that ecstasy doesn’t come in tabs; tabs are little squares of paper for LSD, tab is not short for tablets in drug-speak. But who needs drugs when you’ve got crosswords – thank you Picaroon for a massive challenge and loonapick for meeting it so eloquently.

83. A slight mistake in the parsing for 13A, it should be a reversal of I and mini, not I followed by a reversal of mini

84. Masterclass !

85. What a brilliant puzzle – took me two days to complete, and I loved it!

86. We know pawpaw as a (southern) North American tree, but have never seen this spelling. The pawpaw is not at all a papaya, different taste entirely.
    But apparently some people (and dictionaries) use pawpaw and papaya interchangeably. Mysteriously confusing.

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