Guardian 29,584 – Brendan

85 comments on “Guardian 29,584 – Brendan”

1. Well, it was all about the grid today. A novel one for me, and made things fairly easy once the long clues were in. Favourite was OSTINATO, both as a new word and because the solution stared me in the face so long before the penny went 5D. WENT WEST was new to me as well, although ‘gone west’ is familiar. Favourite, and LOI, was INFINITE for the cheeky definition. Thanks Andrew for the blog, I had the same parsing as you for MIDNIGHT, and also for PAVEMENT, although I was unsure. Thanks Brendan for an enjoyable puzzle.

2. I loved the whole concept of opposites that lay behind this puzzle – from left to right and from top to bottom! Thanks in abundance to Brendan, who is such a great setter, and also to Andrew for the excellent explanatory blog. (I thought the same for 11a, MIDNIGHT.) Tops were the long answers, as well as 22a TWO-SIDED, 7d DANGLING and 8d WENT WEST, but really I liked it all a lot!

3. I couldn’t get further than the blog parsing for MIDNIGHT. For PAVEMENT I parsed it as P (pawn) + A + VET (check) around MEN (pieces).

   Entertaining puzzle with the layout being everything. Really nice to see Brendan after a break.

   Thank you to Andrew and Brendan.

4. As ever from Brendan, the puzzle was not only entertaining but a work of art.
   My thanks to him and to Andrew.

5. I’m used to “sans serif”, but I see that it can be abbreviated such. The boxing allusion in 14a eluded me. I couldn’t fully parse MIDNIGHT: outside parties/IND. Check/vent and do/serve were other head-scratchers.

   An enjoyable puzzle, thanks Brendan & Andrew.

6. I parsed PAVEMENT same as Shanne@3. Thanks to blogger and setter

7. Surely Shanne@3 is correct on PAVEMENT – Andrew’s parsing has a superfluous N.

8. Thanks Brendan and Andrew
   All went quickly except for 23a and 4d, both of which baffled me.
   I liked OSTINATO, PAVEMENT (sorry, Andrew, I think Shanne has the correct parsing), and GERONIMO.

9. There’s always something interesting going on in a Brendan puzzle, and often he seems to want to set himself a challenge as well as challenging us. A fascinating and unusual grid, nice theme of OPPOSITEs, and some good surfaces (eg “Moron I’ve converted who’ll swallow all kinds of things?”).

   Many thanks Brendan and Andrew.

10. Consternation on viewing the grid turned to pleasure as the clues turned out not to be as difficult as anticipated – indeed, the long ones hardly needed solving, given the crossers. A remarkable grid fill with barely an unfamiliar word – OSTINATO maybe. OPPOSITE, PAVEMENT, ABSEILER, DOWNPOUR and OVATIONS were my faves. Nice to see Brendan back.

    Thanks Both

11. Fascinating grid! Also, maybe it’s a wavelength thing, but I found myself going down just about every misdirected blind alleyway on Brendan’s map which made this both tougher and more fun than I expected. Smooth, with a variety of constructions and ordering of parts so nothing felt repetitive or obvious – thank you setter (and blogger).

    “ostinato” – surprised this was new to people. I’m someone who doesn’t know which end of a viola to blow in to but crosswords have taught me a few basic score instructions over the years.

12. An unusual grid and only two clue lengths – I do like to when setters find new ways to play with the format. It helps that this was significantly more accessible than it first looked… the two long ones fell early on, and that gave so many crossers that much of the rest was steady-away until a few holdouts in the north-west. OSTINATO was new to me but whenever a clue refuses to make any sense then I find looking for a ‘hidden’ is often the way to go! READABLES was my LOI and needed all the crossers, although the similar construction TWO-SIDED was a write-in. Favourite clues: OMNIVORE, SANSERIF and OVATIONS.

    Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

13. As a bit of a grid nerd, ( synonym:saddo ), this was a new one on me, and very interesting.
    I suspect that it poses a tougher challenge for the setter than for the solver, so like a sunny bank holiday, we may not see many, enjoy it while you can.
    And this puzzle was very enjoyable indeed, nearly every one a winner.
    PAVEMENT (22ac)…I think it’s only a slip of the blogger’s pencil, AVENT instead of A VET.
    I can’t see how 11ac, MIDNIGHT, works, so for me, that’s the only blot on the gridscape.
    Ta, Brendan + Andrew

14. I parsed MIDNIGHT the same way as Andrew, though “outside parties” for IND seems a bit of a stretch.

15. Yes a great clue craftsman is Brendan. I’m sort of asleep about grid patterns, so vaguely went Hmm, no short downs today. Like Andrew, shrugged at the reverse parties in 11a … ind? ndi? Whatev. Fun anyway, many tas both.

16. Very good puzzle. I made inexplicably heavy weather of it, not helped by starting confidently with DOWN TO THE GROUND for 5dn! (Note to self – check the numeration). Even when I had corrected this, many of the clues gave me trouble, although they are all perfectly formed, and seemed obvious once I had cracked them 🙁

    Independents are candidates who do not belong to political parties, and are abbreviated in election results as IND, so that parsing works fine, and I agree with Shanne @3 on PAVEMENT.

    SAINTDOM is a rather strange word (SAINTHOOD, anyone?).

    Favourites: SANSERIF. MIDNIGHT, ABSEILER, OMNIVORE, OVATIONS and the nicely hidden OSTINATO.

    Thanks to Brendan and Andrew

17. Thanks Brendan and Andrew

    Excellent puzzle: I particularly liked that ABSEILER, DOWNPOUR & DANGLING were entered vertically, while PAVEMENT was horizontal (as is the client of a MASSEUSE).

    Re ‘outside parties’, think of a ballot paper, which lists candidates from the mainstream political parties with eg CON, LAB, LIB and those outside them as IND (possibly with a qualifier).

18. Yes, check/vet makes more sense — which I think was how I parsed it …

19. [16d LIGAMENT: the GI< needs to be “upset”]
    11a An INDependent is “outside parties”.

20. Another amazing grid-fill from Brendan – great to see him back.

    1ac put me in a great mood for the solve, with its immediate reminder of the utterly brilliant Guardian April 1 spoof of 1977. If you’re not familiar with it, do have a (good) look.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Serriffe

    As so often with a Brendan puzzle, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Individual favourites were the well hidden OSTINATO, PAVEMENT (great surface – with, as E.N.Boll& surely has it @13, an understandable typo in the blog), GERONIMO, ABSEILER, OVATIONS and INFINITE, for the literal definition.

    Huge thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

21. I couldn’t get on Brendan’s wavelength but still agree that most, if not all, the clues were excellent. Infinite was my favourite despite giving up on it.

22. A game of four quarters, this, and the NW one with no helpful initial letters, the unfamilar OSTINATO and SAINTDOM and the variant spelling of SANSERIF was the one that defeated me. (Sorry, Jack Of Few Trades @11, another one to add to your surprise at how few people know OSTINATO: you can be justifiably smug that you do).

    Elsewhere, I enjoyed OMNIVORE, PAVEMENT and DANGLING (like the ABSEILER) but not OPPOSITE, READABLE or TWO SIDED.

23. Good to see one of my favourite setters back in great form. Interesting grid as others have commented, but it was a really straightforward solve in the end. Agree that Andrew’s PAVEMENT is a simple typo, or it wouldn’t make sense. Thanks for the link, Eileen @20, I’ve a feeling you may have highlighted that one in the past.

    Ta Brendan & Andrew.

24. The literal meaning of OSTINATO is ‘obstinate’ – just like we dogged solvers 🙂

25. My faves: The two long entries, SANSERIF, OPPOSITE, PAVEMENT and HIGHNESS.
    Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

26. Will this grid be added to the Guardian stable – for surely it’s not been seen before. Quite a challenge for the setter, so maybe not, but Brendan rose superbly to the challenge. I hope ‘Monday solvers’ weren’t too put off, for it’s accessible once you’ve worked out what’s going on.

27. I always thought that double unches were a no-no in crosswordland. I did enjoy the puzzle though.

    [two unchecked cells together]

28. [AlanC @23

    You’re quite right – and I’m not ashamed.]

29. This was a curate’s egg for me. The two long ones were filled in quickly which helped a lot, despite completely missing the boxing allusion in 14A. There were some very nice surfaces, e.g. 21A. OTOH I was not convinced by “DO” for “serves” nor “MASS” for “widespread”. OSTINATO was new to me, music not being my forte, and so was LOI.

    And the unusual grid completely passed me by until I read the blog.

    Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

30. Jacob@29: How about “that’ll do”/”that’ll serve”? I’m often one complaining about equivalences so happy to suggest one for once! Also for “mass” as “widespread” how about “mass hysteria” or “mass unemployment”?

    [Gladys@22: I was not in the slightest bit smug and find the suggestion a little offensive to be honest. I was pleased to solve the puzzle and be reminded of a word I really only know through crosswords.]

31. [Eileen@20 me too with SANSERIF. That April 1st spoof has never been surpassed. 😀 Particularly clever as the Graun at that time used to do 4 or possibly 8 page pull-outs about remote places, so completely believable at first glance.]

32. Ken @27: You’re right about double unches being generally frowned upon. I thought the Guardian had a definitive set of grids from which setters had to choose – unlike the Independent, which permitted any grid as long as it was symmetrical (and didn’t have double unches). I wasn’t firing on all neurones this morning, so I didn’t notice how unusual this one was. Has Guardian policy been relaxed, or has Brendan received special dispensation?

33. The non-standard grid with double unches (as Admin @27 points out) made some of the solving difficult. Rather than TOP TO BOTTOM, I solved this BOTTOM TO TOP.

    I liked the uncomplicated type for SANSSERIF, the well-hidden OSTINATO, the directional ABSEILER, WENT WEST for the wets, and OVATIONS for the (not) eggs on. I thought the definitions for READABLE and TWO-SIDED were somewhat vague, although maybe others thought they were ingenious.

    Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

34. Yes, Eileen@20 and Crossbar@31 – add me in to those old enough to have fond memories of April Ist 1977! In fact I’m such a hoarder, that I still have the original San Serriffe Guardian special filed away amongst my newspaper cuttings in a cabinet somewhere.

35. Thanks Brendan for a super grid-fill, and to Andrew for the blog & parsing MIDNIGHT for which I had no epiphany.
    I love that 5d is illustrated by the DANGLING ABSEILER, the cascading DOWNPOUR and the parachuting GERONIMO (even if he is across), and that the movement 14a is countered by its WESTerly OPPOSITE.

36. Much enjoyed, only quibble for me is that (at least here in the U.S.) SANS SERIF is two distinct words, each with their own “S” in the middle

37. This is such a beautiful composition, in addition to the obvious self-referential answers can we assume that RELOCATE is an alternative definition of TOP TO BOTTOM and LEFT TO RIGHT; and that OSTINATO nods to the constant repetition of 8-letter clues? And then he manages to get ABSEILER, DOWNPOUR, GERONIMO and DANGLING as down clues – virtuoso!

38. Nakamova @36 – being a French speaker I also felt sure it needed that extra S, but apparently not in (British) English, according to Chambers 🙂

39. I agree with Auriga@4
    Brendan is a master of his craft

    The grid is unusually helpful (for solver, if not setter!) which is perfect for a Monday

    I cannot think of a more exquisitely formed puzzle with which to commence the first full week of the ‘interesting’ year facing us..

    Many thanks to Brendan and Andrew

    And a belated Happy New Year (somehow this feels like the first day of the year – one particularly pregnant with possibilities – as well as the twelfth day of Christmas) to all my co-addicts at 15² – with especial thanks to our generous bloggers – and particularly Kenmac for his kind oversight

40. A pleasant surprise for a Monday! The grid itself was fascinating and very cleverly constructed- the long solutions have only two letters each unchecked by other solutions. So, much admiration for assembling the answers that would extend the theme.

    PAVEMENT, LAND GRAB and WENT WEST were all great.

    Thanks Brendan and Andrew ( I scratched my head about IND for ages but I think your parsing must be right)

41. Can I do yer now sir? Although I had saintism equating “is in” with “serves in”.
    Thanks Brendan and Andrew.

42. Jack Of Few Trades @30: Please accept my apologies for causing offence. My fault entirely.

43. [thank you gladys @42]

    With all the comments on the appropriateness of the directions of solutions such as dangling and abseiler, I’m disappointed Brendan could not find a way for “went west” to be entered from right to left. If anyone could, he could…

44. Re sanserif vs sans serif, the OED gives the former as lead entry with the latter as a variant.

    Further, it says that sanserif appeared long before the appearance of serif per se, and suggests that serif is actually a back-formation from the supposed compound word.

45. Excellent puzzle, a great way back in for me after a break for holidays. OMNIVORE my favourite of many fine surfaces.

46. Gutted, finished this and when I clicked check all I had SAINTISM instead of SAINTDOM. Needed the blog to understand the parsing for a few of them.

    I thought this was tough for a Monday and needed the two long clues, which I got first or it would have been more of a failure.

    Had to think back a few decades to Miss Allen’s music classes for OSTINATO. Thank heavens it was a hidden word clue.

47. Unusual grid by all accounts, and not one that’s been used in the Grauniad before, I reckon (has the rule of only using grids from the list been dropped? It’s certainly not in the list I was supplied by Boatman). I have to admit, having no fewer than twelve lights with two adjacent unches is not my favourite set-up, even if it’s made up for with the two long ones having only two unches apiece.

    Now to the solutions. I had to have a good chuckle at 1a, recalling the Grauniad’s famous April Fool hoax (was it really as long ago as 1977?! And if so, does the esteemed General Pica still hold sway?).

    But I’m not decided on the argument as between SAN SERIF and SANS SERIF. If I had to choose, I’d go for the latter. But the former fits in with the April Fool thingy.

    All the rest went in fine, not too taxing as a Monday puzzle, though I wasn’t sure if SAINTDOM is a word. (“Sainthood”?).

    Likes for two unusual words: OSTINATO and GERONIMO (was he the bloke who “jumped from 40,000 feet without a parachute” or have I got that mixed up? 🙂 ). But plenty of other ingenious clues – too many too mention! And almost all of eight letters. Is that a record?

    Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

48. If you have ever heard any Philip Glass, you have nothing much there except ostinato!
    [Laccaria @47 – you are thinking of the guy doing his first parachute jump. The instructor showed him how to pull the ripcord.
    “But what if the parachute doesn’t open?”
    “You pull the ripcord on the reserve chute”
    “What of that doesn’t open?”
    “You shout Geronimo as you head into the ground”.
    A while later, there was a tap on the cockpit window. The guy was outside, waving his arms up and down.
    “What was the name of that Indian again?”]

49. [muffin@48 – ROFL 🙂 ]

50. [As someone who habitually looks at the shortest letter-count clues first, this grid raised my eyebrows instantly. Definitely new to me (as far as my failing memory serves). And as someone who spent more than a quarter of a century editing music beds to avoid vocals for television items (mainly for sports programmes), I was surprised to find only a short time before I ceased doing such things that what I was doing was effectively creating ostinati (if that’s the correct plural of ostinato). So that one went straight in & brought back a few memories for me.
    And I noticed in the print version the solution to Prize Crossword 29,577 contained “jorums” and how a while ago Eileen had to repeatedly deny she had coined the term for getting correctly an answer from the clueing alone without previously knowing it was a word!]
    Thanks to Brendan and Andrew.

51. Thanks Brendan for the pleasant Monday surprise. The grid was a nice change of pace and I didn’t even notice the double unches. I couldn’t pull ABSEILER from my brain but all else went in smoothly. My top picks were SANSERIF, LAND GRAB, OUTFIGHT, GERONIMO, MASSEUSE, and DANGLING. Thanks Andrew for the blog.
    [Geoff Down Under @5: In boxing, a basic punch combination consists of a jab (a short punch) followed by a straight right (for right-handed boxers). This is where the ‘one-two’ comes from.]

52. [Why has the name of the Apache leader Goyaalé (Hispanicised as GERONIMO, the Spanish equivalent of Jerome) become associated with jumping out of planes?]

53. Eileen@20 [Do you remember Araucaria’s April 1st puzzle which was a jigsaw where all the vowels were A (1st of April) so that the answers could go in anywhere they fitted?]

54. Me @53 [It might have been just the crossers that were As. It was a long time ago.]

55. [Zoot @53: I think it was all the crossers. And it was in the 70s, as I recall. But I don’t remember it as not having numbered clues]

56. [Gervase @52 – I too wondered this! Wikipedia documents a few theories, mainly around a film and song of that name popular in the early 1940s]

57. I enjoyed this a lot. Particularly TWO-SIDED, READABLE, and my LOI ABSEILER

    I do feel a slight craving for a normal cryptic though i.e. without a theme, cross-references, special instructions etc.

    And I guess I can add grid-blindness to my theme-blindness failing

    Cheers A&B

58. For the record, the grid is from the (large) fixed set I was supplied with. I’m surprised people have not seen it before. I chose it after noticing how the two long ones crossed obligingly — and provided an obvious theme.
    Double unches don’t bother me — a five-letter word with odd letters unchecked is, if anything, worse.
    Thanks as always for informative responses and to Andrew.

59. Brendan @58: Thanks for the clarification. My relative slowness today was nothing to do with the unchiness of the grid!

60. Lovely puzzle! Many great and smooth clues like the well hidden OSTINATO (kept trying to work BOO in there–I guess the word is familiar to me from jazz liner notes as well as Herbie Hancock), WENT WEST which I tried as WENT DOWN before realizing it was cleverer than that, the novel device in 4d and 23ac, and LOI INFINITE. LIke Brian/Brendan@58, I don’t mind the double uncheckeds, since every clue is at least half checked (the long ones much more so), and all but six clues have their first letter checked–a difficult trick with even-lettered words. (I get the impression that US Cryptics, by which perhaps I mean the cryptics from the NYTimes and Games Magazine in the 80s and 90s, are much stricter about checking at least, which means well over half the clues have their first letter checked.)

    Welcome back Brendan, and thanks Andrew for the blog!

61. [E.N.Boll& @13, that blot has to be an echo of the one on the landscape, surely? First time I saw David Suchet … brilliant! Geraldine James and George Cole also great, and already well loved]

62. Well, that was different!!
    Getting the two long ones across and down the middle wasa great help.
    Good to see Brendan who I usually struggle with, so happy to complete.
    Some of the parsing needed a head scratch.
    Thanks both

63. Lovely puzzle, very enjoyable.

64. Gervase@55 [ No numbers. That was the joke. You were fooled into thinking it was a normal jigsaw until you remembered the date and realised the answers would go wherever they would fit.]

65. grantinfreo @ 61
    thanks for reminding me of David Suchet. Saw him in Oleanna in 1993, absolutely brilliant.

66. Brendan, tell us OSTINATO was there to reflect constantly repeated 8-letter clues! (Or pretend it was?!). Bravo again, wonderful crossword.

67. [Zoot@64. That’s exactly the way I remember it.]

    I was another with SAINTISM (confusion with satanism, perhaps?) although as I wrote it in there was a devil on my shoulder whispering “what about SAINTDOM?”, but I paid no attention.

    Is “Indian” OK for a native American? I felt a little uncomfortable with it.

    Thanks to Brendan and Andrew. Good to see a Monday blog without the word “gentle”. 😜

68. sheffield hatter @67. I too wondered about ‘Indian’. It is now two years since the Cleveland baseball team felt it better to drop the name – they are now the Cleveland Guardians. However, I did not want to ignite a debate this morning about political correctness/wokeism, which I guess at 20.50 is now unlikely. But thank you for mentioning the matter, which I was slightly surprised had gone unremarked-on until now.

69. Balfour @68
    Also the Washington Redskins are no more, as aren’t the Exeter Chiefs over here (I’m a bit miffed about the latter – it was traditional in Devon rugby teams for the First Team to be called “the chiefs”. My father played for Barnstaple Chiefs until he aged and went down to the ‘Tics (Athletics, though not so much!). [The All Black Jerry Collins famously played some games for Barnstaple when on holiday.]

70. Nice puzzle. Sadly you can count me as the third person who wrote in SAINTISM – working the anagram I had confidently put in the TISM part before returning to the clue later on. Lack of crossers and due attention did for me there.

71. muffin@69
    The Atlanta Braves, however, carry on, with their fans performing the ‘tomahawk chop’. Native American advocates have not presented a united front in protest, so I guess it carries on. Ho-hum.

72. All the Native Americans I know here in the States (quite a few) have no problem with “Indians”, and I think that is general. Nevertheless it should probably be avoided, so noted.

73. 14d – I had FORE PLAY. It fits.

    No laughing at the back.

74. Sorry, Steffen. I have a broad grin as I type this. If the FORE PLAY is 14a and 5d then it’s no wonder you are unable to concentrate on the crossword! Enjoy it while you can.

75. A really good Monday crossword, with nothing obscure about British culture. Just the right level for me.

76. sheffied hatter @67, Brian Greer @72: According to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian both ”Indian’ and ‘Native American’ are acceptable. Practically speaking, however, using Native American avoids confusing America’s indigenous people with the citizens of India.

77. [Muffin @69. All references I can find for Exeter rugby, including their own website, suggest they are still called Exeter Chiefs]

78. [Crispy @77
    My mistake – it’s just their logo that has been changed. It’s no longer a “Native American” in a headdress; it looks more like a Norman soldier.]

79. grantinfreo @61. Thanks for reminding me of where I first saw David Suchet. Since I don’t watch much Poirot on the rare occasions I saw his version I could never quite unsee Blott. I sometimes think I should see if I can find Blott on the Landscape available anywhere, but I fear that it may no longer seem as funny as I remember it after an interval of 40 years or so.

80. [Ravenrider@79 – Have you read the book?]

81. What I like about Brendan is that when one is “in” the rest follows like a Domino Rally. It is the getting in that is the problem.
    This was beautiful & a classic.

    The Republic of San Serif was priceless. Its only real competitor was Cliff Michelmore’s mini-“documentary” on spaghetti trees in those wonderful innocent days of “Tonight “

82. [Balfour@68 and passim re the Cleveland baseball team: I think the issue there was not so much the use of “Indian” for Native Americans as the use of Native Americans as a mascot at all, particularly in combination with the “Chief Wahoo” logo which was as dubious as you might expect from the name. “Guardians” comes from The Guardians of Traffic sculptures and I’m fond of the name. On the other hand, the former name of the Washington Football Team is considered a pejorative as a word, as best I know.]

83. grantinfreo@61
    and others……well spotted, I sometimes feel on a different planet.
    The problem seems to be, that my age is about the number of posts made. @61 is a distant memory.

84. Brilliant gridfill by Brendan! Two related crossing long entries, and all others with eight letters, none of which would be considered obscure or unusual. Bravo!

    I also had SAINTISM, but wasn’t sure about serve/is. Haggis@41 comes close, but no cigar

    The problem with GERONIMO has been addressed and resolved above. Apache leader would have worked well

    Missed OPPOSITE and WENT WEST — no excuse!

85. Is there a connection between the “one-two punch” in 14a and the many “one-two unches” in the grid? 🙂

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