Guardian Cryptic 29,597 by Philistine

71 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,597 by Philistine”

1. Thanks for explaining DELTA, loonapick. I always have difficulty seeing those separation-type clues which I should remember are something of a Philistine speciality. I realise that I didn’t fully parse BUDGIE SMUGGLERS either, not being particularly au fait with the Harry Potter opus. Laughed at 23. Thanks Philistine and loonapick.

2. Thanks for the parsing of 10. It never occurred to me to split ‘DRIVER’. I did parse 19 after the fact, and only now realise that 12 is sort of a leg up to it, being the same conceit only simpler. 16 always alas makes me think of a certain loathsome Aussie (although British at heart) ex-PM. Thanks loonapick and Philistine.

3. I have the vaguest feeling the budgie smugglers have appeared before, but I might welll be wrong. Exactly as per loonapick in the NW, d river was very sly, and fling around ‘said why’ was pretty neat too. For ginf’s lazy brain, bulk-fodder subtractive anags are a pain, so I cheated by guess-and-checking the e to get feast which made bean easier. Lovely puzzle, ta Phil and loona.

4. As usual, some very clever stuff and some tricky parsing. The long one is, of course, very clever – I am no Potter addict but I’m certainly alert to the idea of using MUGGLE. The subtractive anagrams were both a challenge; it took ages to spot what was going on with BEANFEAST. I thought STRONG SUIT, DIGGING IN, RUING, GATEPOST, AUNTIE and DAS KAPITAL were all delightful and it was interesting to encounter our setter’s other job in OPEN HEART.

   I was amused to encounter the old ‘indeed’ trick which I’ve not seen for a while. The parse of DELTA beat me as it did some other commenters. I am never really sure about how I feel about this device: it is probably just sour grapes but I feel there are so many possibilities for a setter to beat solvers by using the single letter L&S trick. I plumped for the fact that ‘Driver’ had a D at one end as my rather lame parses at least I was partly correct.

   Thanks Philistine and loonapick

5. Thanks, loonapick, needed you to unravel ON TRIAL. The answer was easier to come by than the parsing. Isn’t this a derived anagram?

   Ridiculously chuffed to have spotted the d-river ruse. Usually miss those.

   Satisfying solve, many thanks, both.

6. Favourites: FLAME, KARL MARX, DELTA, INFRINGE, DEPARTED.

   Like loonapick, FLYING was my LOI.

   I did not parse 19ac but guessed it was somehow an anagram. Also realise now that I did not parse 16ac, got it from the crossers.

   New for me: NISSEN HUTS.

   22ac – I think that mankinis are so ugly, they should be banned as a crime against fashion and aesthetics!

7. Superb. Top Marx for DELTA, BUDGIE SMUGGLERS, BEANFEAST & EXAMINER

   Didn’t know publish or perish but what else could it be?

   Cheers P&L

8. I wondered for a while if I was going to finish this as I was left with crossing unsolved clues in the four corners, with the south falling first. As for loonapick I put in “delta” which gave me crossing and it took a stare which would have made Paddington proud to see the lift and separate.

   I am always in equal parts delighted and annoyed when a clue which has held me up for ages (“emanate” in this case) turns out to be a simple hidden answer. Points to the setter for hiding it from me.

   A delightful puzzle – thanks Picaroon for the wit and the inventiveness, and thanks loonapick for the write-up.

9. I loved this, and got DELTA and FLYING earlier than I unravelled BUDGIE SMUGGLERS and BEANFEAST. I thought we’d seen budgie smugglers before, too. The tickle in my hindbrain says Paul. I also found it helped thinking this is Philistine while solving.

   Thank you to Philistine and loonapick

10. Thanks Philistine and loonapick

    Fun and fair but tough going especially the parsing. Budgie Smugglers, beanfeast and mankini all went in easily – but needed work to parse. Still not completely convinced on the subject object of wearing in Mankini

    Enjoyed the silly humour immensely though – only place you find both Karl Marx and bad beachwear in the same place – two mini themes?

11. Isaw the Playtex for DRIVER, but was wondering what the D was. I also had a different parsing for FLYING, but I can’t remember what it was, but I don’t think I was convinced by it, so thanks. I kept coming back to BUDGIE SMUGGLERS,it bought back memories of cross country skiing and old people in latex, and realised people who can’t spell could be non-magical, but I couldn’t remember the term and had to look it up. Thankyou Philistine for the image!
    Otherwise highly enjoyable, thanks both.

12. I hate lift and separate clues.

13. Liked DELTA, BEANFEST, DIGGING IN and STRONG SUIT.

    Thanks Philistine and loonapick.

14. Thanks Philistine and loonapick
    This went quite quickly for a Philistine, though I didn’t parse BEANFEAST. DELTA was favourite as I did spot the trick (after some looking!).
    The clue for INFRINGE is a bit odd, as it is fully clued by “trendy hairstyle”, so the Fringe in Edinburgh seems irrelevant, and it’s not a triple as the IN would remain unclued in the Edinburgh part.

15. … me @3, I meant NE of course …

16. A site search shows that “budgie smugglers” was used by Paul as a solution to “Brief horrors finding one trapped by move alongside runners (6,9)” in his alphabetical jigsaw 28362 (Feb 13 2021), blogged by bridgesong. The blogger notes he also used the clue in puzzle 26394 (“Musicians welcoming five hundred dancing emus gatecrashing concert, as not much on when swimming in Australia? (6,9)”)

    He also used it in a clue in 29038 (“Promise broken by Paul’s wife in budgie smugglers, perhaps? (8)”).

    So those thinking they had seen it come up before in a Paul are spot on.

    (Sorry I tried to include links to the relevant blogs but my posts with links seem to be rejected by the system)

17. Postmark @6, you may not be sure about the device used in DELTA, but I think I am. It’s f***in’ awful!!!

18. This was great fun with BUDGIE SMUGGLERS and MANKINI making me chuckle, although with awful images. I was too lazy to parse BEANFEAST last night, but I could see the anagram fodder was in there somewhere. Like loonapick, FLYING was LOI and I also spotted his mini-themes. DELTA, DONER KEBAB and DIGGING IN were my favourites.

    Ta Philistine & loonapick

19. A lovely lovely puzzle – what an extra treat that it appeared the day after one by another favourite setter, Arachne. So enjoyable. Like MAC089 @2, I was forced by 16a BUDGIE SMUGGLERS to think of their embarrassing association with a former monarchist Aussie Prime Minister. I’m another solver who missed how DRIVER became 10a DELTA but I like that one a lot now. As Post Mark @4 already said, the droll use of 1a OPEN HEART given Philistine’s day job was just another appealing part of a great crossword.
    Thanks to loonapick and Philistine.

20. I enjoyed this a lot. Liked DIGGING IN, BUDGIE SMUGGLERS, ODD THING, EXAMINER and AUNTIE. The combination of mini-themes being Kark Marx and unappealing male beachwear was quite amusing.

    The discussion of the ‘single word lift & separate’ device is interesting. When they are entirely unindicated I find them hard to spot and borderline unfair; when there is some hint that trickery is afoot I am more amenable. Over on MyCrossword a convention has developed among many setters to add a ‘!’ to clues where such a device is used.

    Many thanks to setter and blogger.

21. Left staring at all the crossers in place for BUDGIE SMUGGLERS, but not an expression I’d come across before, so sadly a DNF with a Reveal. DELTA took a while to convince, and then to read about this clever device that is becoming more frequent in Crypticcrosswordland, so thanks for that one Loonapick. And PUBLISH for Perish went in rather in hope than anything else. Lots to admire as ever with this setter, and first one in OPEN HEART a personal reminder that I’m actually on the waiting list for a date with one of Philistine’s amazing colleagues in the near future…

22. Very nice. I was tripped up by not knowing the older word uses ie beanfeast, nissen, gatepost, scargill. And publish was absolutely fiendish.

23. Best wishes ronald @21.

24. Another very enjoyable puzzle – this week has got off to a good start. Being alert to Philistine’s day job, which he always references somewhere, OPEN HEART went straight in for me. Like loonapick, my last entries were DELTA (clever! – I’m a fan of such clues) and FLYING.

    I agree with muffin @14 that INFRINGE doesn’t quite work, but an interesting clue nevertheless.

    I liked the Speedos and MANKINI (michelle @6: surely these are fancy dress rather than serious beachwear?), the hidden EMANATE (which took a while to spot), the phrasal definitions for GATE POST and PUBLISH, and the economical AUNTIE.

    Thanks to Philistine and loonapick

25. Is the single word lift and separate a relatively new or recently more common device? I can’t recall seeing it much in the past but it could be faulty memory.

    I would prefer to have some sort of hint like Rob T @20 mentions, but would not go as far as to say it is unfair without one – it just makes the clue rather tricky. Sometimes when a clue seems impenetrable, it’s worth running through a mental list of devices that can be hard to spot, and I think this is one example. Containers are another for me.

26. 2d DEPARTED: if you don’t like the Playtex (not L&S), you can parse it as Some inDEed = DE; left = PARTED; with a single definition “dead”.
    [You can’t do that with 10a DELTA, though. They’re always hard to spot.]

27. Once you start looking for the trademark clues, you see them everywhere. I was sure BEANFEAST involved an anagram of seat ( seat belt). On the other hand, I thought DELTA was going to be WOODS (Driver = .wood end in reaches and semi &lit). Great puzzle.

28. BUDGIE SMUGGLERS went in fairly quickly for me (oo er?) once I realised that a non-speller must be a muggle. Like others, each corner seemed to have something that made it complex, but some intense brain whirring managed to eke most of them out, even if only by process of elimination in cases (needed to come here to parse PUBLISH, and it was only because the Cambridge online dictionary happened to show the idiom that I got GATEPOST)

    Still, my first finish in a while and a lot fun.

    Thanks Philistine and loonapick

29. Between you and me and the GATEPOST, it’s been a long time since I last heard that turn of phrase. Or “PUBLISH or perish”, or NISSEN HUTS. But we also had the muggle and the MANKINI (ugh!) and the BUDGIE SMUGGLERS to bring us back into the present day.

    If the parsing for BEANFEAST (last in) was tricky to untangle (and it was), think how difficult it must have been for Philistine to spot that combination in the first place! Lots to enjoy here: DELTA was a trademark Philistine trick, and I liked the STRONG SUIT.

30. Petert @27: My first thought for DELTA was GREEN, ie a cryptic definition.

    ravenrider @25: All L&S clues, together with the ‘indeed’ type (which I call the ‘in joke’) are seriously frowned upon by the Spanish Inquisition. Perhaps setters who also compile for the stricter newspapers like to let their hair down when producing puzzles for the more libertarian publications and therefore test the boundaries more often?

31. I am deliberately refraining from putting a name to the ingenious device used in DEPARTED and DELTA, since I know it always results in disagreement over the correct term. I don’t care what it’s called: it’s fun and Philistine is very fond of it.

32. Good fun with some tricky parsing. Like PM @4, I just thought D for Delta was at one end of driver, so got there via the wrong route. I thought EMANATE was well-hidden, ON TRIAL took much too long looking at the wrong heartless words, BEANFEAST, where as gladys @29 said, I don’t know how the setter managed to spot that one, the rather revolting picture of Hanks wearing a MANKINI after taking off a dress, darling’s DONER KEBAB, the STRONG SUIT of armour, the LOI FLYING like little bird said, and the NHS NISSEN HUT. Without the crosser for ODD THING, I thought this could be new thing, bad thing etc, given that ODD THING is not in most of the main dictionaries as a separate phrase.

    Thanks Philistine and loonapick.

33. Muffin@14 – 17 is a triple – something IN (the) FRINGE “can be seen in Edinburgh”.
    Great crossword, thanks all

34. DELTA was loi, but it’s wrong isn’t it, without something to indicate translation? The two letters correspond to each other, but they are not the same. Some Greek capital letters are written identically to their Roman counterparts, but not this one.

    On the lighter side, while I was entering AUNTIE for “A free woman” it occurred to me that “A not good free woman” would be INGRID. Just sayin’.

35. DuncT @33
    In the Fringe, certainly, but not in Fringe.

36. Dr.WhatsOn@34
    DELTA (I think)
    If we consider the NATO phonetic alphabet, no Greek/foreign word indicator is needed.
    INFRINGE
    I am with muffin on this.

37. What an excellent and enjoyable puzzle. I felt I could have ticked almost every clue, but I think I’ll single out BUDGIE SMUGGLERS as my favourite.

    I parsed DEPARTED like FrankieG @26, but I think loonapick’s version is better. And I hesitated about ODD THING (before I’d got DELTA), thinking it might be RUM THING. As for DELTA itself, you’ve just got to expect that type of clue in a Philistine puzzle!

    Many thanks Philistine and loonapick.

38. Wrote in DOVER at first. ( “Over” at the end of a radio transmission. A driver would reach the end of dry land at Dover.)
    That didn`t fit with crossers, so went for D + Elta . The Elta being a river in Germany. Sadly, the Elta is a tributary of the Danube – so does not end in a delta and the logic doesn`t quite work.

39. Dr Whatson @34, I think the definition is fine if you think DELTA = D in the NATO alphabet, some knowledge of which is often needed for these puzzles, rather than the Greek alphabet.

    I was very tentatively thinking GREEN at first, which you might reach with a driver if you were lucky.

    I see KVa got there while I was typing.

40. The NE also held me up for a while. Eventually got FLYING, then bunged DELTA. Thank you for the parsing of that, loonapick, which I would never have gotten. The parsing of BEANFEAST also defeated me, and in hindsight I can see why. One for the more talented amongst you!

    Despite my shortcomings it was an excellent puzzle with lots of ticks, in particular DIGGING IN, GATEPOST, and the second-least funny, after Zeppo, of the Marx Brothers.

41. I’m with KVa @36 – DELTA in the NATO alphabet

42. DrWatson@34, and KVa@36; fair points, both, re DELTA.
    It’s a bit of an anomaly , I suppose, because the 4th letter in the 24-letter Greek alphabet – δ / Δ, is pronounced sort of “dtheh”, so not “dee” at all. So “delta” is “dthelta”.
    Ditto, many other Greek letters, e.g. π , is “pea” not “pie” as in English.
    One of the many, many reasons that Greek is a fiendish language to learn. After 12 years in Greece, I still get laughed at ( in a very nice way, though…the Greeks love a trier!)

43. KVa@36 et al. Yes I had that thought right after I posted, but was in the shower so couldn’t amend it. I suppose the blog needs changing too.

44. Anyone else pencil in DIVOT?! When DELTA dawned it was, for me at least, that perfect ‘aha’ moment setters aim for, congratulations to Philistine for that. It occurs to me he must do a lot of lifting and separating in his day job (surgeon), never mind trimming off excess letters and sewing words back together. No wonder it all comes so naturally! Thank you both.

45. A nice puzzle, chewy for me. FOI GATEPOST which had me hopping all over the grid, LOI BEANFEAST.

    For BUDGIE SMUGGLERS I was trying to put “squib” in for the person who can’t spell for a while–once I got the crossing G I realized it was that “smugglers” thing I’d seen here before and looked the term up. JackOfFewTrades@16, it was also half used by Anto in Quiptic (!) 1,261, blogged by Pierre, “Singer smuggled in shorts for bathing (6).”

    Thanks for the explanation of DELTA (very clever!) and the extra parts of DEPARTED and INFRINGE.

    WIlliam@5: I think it’s not considered a derived anagram because every letter is in the clue and the subtractors can be derived deterministically. “Heartless yob” can only be YB so it’s possible to figure out exactly which letters to anagram before you anagram. Similar with BEANFEAST (not that I got that parsing before bunging it from the crossers). This prevents the underdetermination problem that I think is what’s disliked about derived anagrams.

46. Yes Paul has used budgie smugglers before: who else!

47. I parsed INFRINGE as IN=trendy FRINGE=”hairstyle that can be seen in Edinburgh”

    Yes you could leave out the Edinburgh bit but as someone recently posted, setters are not obliged to indulge in “hair shirt minimalism”

48. I was also held up in the NE, with doubts about ODD causing delay in fully committing to DELTA, which I never did parse, so well done to those who did. (Would a pling have helped as per Rob T@20? I guess we’ll never know.)

    In 2d I saw ‘left for dead’ as not so much a double definition as a way of saying “this word means gone but is also used to mean deceased”, so the for is not merely a connector, as Loonapick’s underlining implies.

    So many amusing moments in this hugely entertaining crossword, but special mention for DIGGING IN with its enjoyable two drinks before dinner. Superb.

    Thanks to Philistine and Loonapick.

49. I liked FLYING a lot, though it took me a while to see it. Similarly EMANATE.
    I filled in BEANFEAST, though didn’t see what was going on until I read loonapick’s commentary!

50. bodycheetah @47: yes, as Brendan once said on here, “I don’t share the view sometimes expressed here that superfluous words in clues must be avoided at all costs”.

51. [E.N.Boll& @42: And beta is now pronounced ‘veta’. Lenition! The letters theta, phi and chi were originally just aspirated versions of the unaspirated tau, pi and kappa, but now represent th, f and ch (as in ‘loch’) respectively. Progressive ‘softening’ is a common process in language evolution, particularly affecting intervocalic consonants. In the Romance languages, Spanish exhibits it more than Italian, and in French it has often resulted in middle consonants disappearing altogether. Thus Latin ‘aqua’ has given acqua, agua, eau , and ‘Petrus’ has given Pietro, Pedro, Pierre]

52. Adrian @44
    I would hope not to take a divot with my driver (not always the case, though!)

53. Thanks Philistine. Generally I like Philistine but there was too much beyond my orbit for me to fully enjoy this. DONER KEBAB, BEANFEAST, and BUDGIE SMUGGLERS all elicited a big question mark in my head. I did like many of the other clues including EMANATE, DIGGING IN, RUING, GATEPOST, DAS KAPITAL, and AUNTIE. Thanks Loonapick for the much needed blog.

54. Thought this was very good. Not easy, but a great variety of clue types and enough gettable ones to make the harder ones doable. DEPARTED is very clever, whichever way you arrive at it. DRIVER and EMANATE also fine examples of their type. As Gervase said earlier, a strong start to the week.

55. I parsed 10 differently – I searched for a river Elta and there is one – in Germany, it flows into the Danube. So I took it to be a lift and separate, charade and semi-&lit

56. Really enjoyed that. Had to do some proper parsing to get some of the answers. So many good ones but a clear winner in BUDGIE SMUGGLERS

    Does MANKINI and BUDGIE SMUGGLERS make a theme? I did look for others but came up dry.

    As with others needed the help understanding Delta but got it from the crossers.

    Thanks to both blogger and setter.

57. E.N.Boll& @42 Having done A-level Classics, I didn’t find starting to learn modern Greek particularly taxing. I was surprised to find how much was the same. The problem has been lack of opportunity to put it into practice recently. But you’re right, all efforts are greatly appreciated.

58. Thanks to Philistine, and to loonapick for help with several parsings. Regarding BEANFEAST, I’m all for subtractive anagrams, but shouldn’t there be some upper limit on ratio of subtrahend length to that of minuend?

    Tergiversation, with vain egotist missing mistake? (3)

59. Me @58: make that:
    Tergiversation, with vain egotist missing weird mistake? (3)

60. EMANATE hid in plain sight for far too long!

    Decided not to check the blog before I parsed everything. Persistence did eventually pay off which hopefully means I am improving as a solver, albeit very slowly.

    Thank you to Philistine for the fun challenge and to loonapick for the explanations.

    Off to remove my hot towel. Just hope the mental images resulting from the mini theme of swimwear (which really don’t go well with Tony Blair) will now depart.

61. 7D. So “Like little birdie” is a definition for “flying”!!!!!

    Not even a mention on here. You all seem to have lost the plot.

    I solved this with disbelief at the dodgy cluing here.

    One of my brief visits here when I have no alternative. Certainly my last.

    I thought you had a new crossword editor?

62. To make everyone feel good, I can solve 21d and 22a.

    Gibberish to me otherwise.

63. Nobody seems to have commented on the neatness of having DAS KAPITAL follow immediately on KARL MARX (for those of us who consider clues in order). I agree with the various comments that ODD THING was underdetermined by the clue: entering NEW THING held me up there a long time. Thanks Philistine and loonapick.

64. Thanks Philistine and loonapick. My first time doing one of their puzzles – a different flavour to other setters I know! Lots of fun stuff – favourite for me was DIGGING IN for the Gin Gin! Some new ones for me too – hadn’t heard of BEANFEAST

65. Good to see Philistine again after a while. Quietly proud to have parsed everything before coming here ! Thankfully I was familiar with the concept of muggles and even managed to spot the playtex after some thought – haven’t seen one of those for some time. Some very witty clues, and of course we had Philistine’s trademark medical/surgical reference. Good fun overall. Thanks to loonapick and to Philistine.

66. Fun! BTW trivia: apropos BUDGIE SMUGGLERS, the sitcom Friends in one episode has Mag Meg Phoebe wanting to adopt a middle name BANANA HAMMOCK till her boyfriend played by Paul Rudd asks her to think of what it means.

67. Lots of utterly new to me terms and phrases here, but I got there in the end. BUDGIE SMUGGLERS, GATEPOST, BEANFEST, NISSEN HUTS, The Fringe, Arthur Scargill… Very broadening.

    For DELTA, surely this is about the NATO voice alphabet, rather than the Greek alphabet (which has no such character).

68. Mostly enjoyable, but failed on DELTA. For ages (till I realised the crossers weren’t going to work) I had it as GREEN. I don’t play golf, but believe you use a driver for the long shot(s) to the green, when you switch to a putter. Apologies to golfers if this isn’t quite right.

69. A very straightforward solve but like our reviewer DELTA & FLYING were last in & I didn’t peg the parse with the former. ON TRIAL needed explanation too.
    Thanks Philly & loonapick

70. A very straightforward solve but like our reviewer DELTA & FLYING were last in & I didn’t peg the parse with the former. ON TRIAL needed explanation too.
    Thanks Philly & loonapick

71. All but three in the SE. Tried to cram in BREAKFAST (party?) at 19a

    If “hairstyle that can be seen in Edinburgh” were a complete clue for FRINGE, it would be called a double definition. Not sure that it’s fair to have a double definition as part of the wordplay

    Eventually got DELTA but couldn’t parse it. “Driver” is very clever — and fair

    Great set of clues!

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