Guardian Cryptic 29,663 by Imogen

88 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 29,663 by Imogen”

1. Same setter two days running, is that a first? Weirdly found this a bit easier than yesterday’s, maybe I’d been tuned in, or maybe the egos are altering? Thank you I&P

2. Nice puzzle, nice blog.

   Before we hear complaints that PAIR is not elementary French, unlike, say, QUI, may I point out that it appears quite visibly on roulette tables as the labelling of the area in which to place bets on the evens. [OK, probably not ALL roulette tables, but a fair number.]

3. Six decades since Chem 101 but vaguely remember cis, trans, and chirality etc [I’m sure they have something to do with evolution and the inherent ‘know-how’ of matter].
   Lovely puzzle from Imogen. Took ages remembering walrus while moustache sat there alone, and needed crossers for “So what else .. etc” to avoid the laborious Lego. SW held up by stupidly putting translatEr (read the bleep clue, it says it’s a homophone, and besides you know how to spell it). So Shinto loi after sorting that. All part of the fun, ta Im and Peter.

4. Frighteningly tricky. I managed to solve 1, 7 and 22d.

   Thank you for the explanations.

5. After PAIR (yes, from roulette) putting me into French mode, I tried I BIS for the bird at 6d – took me some time to get the right answer, and to give up trying to shoehorn PHO into SACRAMENTO.

   I liked the WALRUS MOUSTACHE and the TRANSLATOR (ginf@3: I think the reference may be LGBT politics rather than chemistry, or maybe either would work?) The trick used in DRAUGHTIER seems to be seen more frequently lately: can’t say I like it.

   Thanks Imogen, and PeterO for a nice early blog to coincide with my insomnia.

6. It didn’t help putting in Kaka instead of FOWL, but I got there eventually.

7. What Dr WhatsOn said

8. Isn’t the ‘young’ in 2 superfluous? I can see that it’s pointing to the next generation to be helpful, but daughters also don’t have to be young. A very minor quibble. Like gratinfreo@3 I had MOUSTACHE for ages and diverting via ‘pachyderms’ before seeing WALRUS. A KNOCK-ON will lead to a scrum in both rugby codes, of course, but that clue was one of the Vulcan-like clues that PeterO referred to, for which I was grateful as the centre of the puzzle took quite a bit of work to complete. I admired the wordplay in 12 after solving it via the crossers. Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

9. Thanks Imogen and PeterO
   I didn’t parse RIVAL, and didn’t even attempt to parse 12a, which was easily gettable from definition and crossers.
   I was happy with EN for a short dash (the width of the letter n in the font used, contrasting with an em dash, the width of a letter m), so ENCROACH was a favourite; another was MEANDER for an alternative clueing of the old chestnut.
   Tomsdad has already pointed out that knock-ons result in scrums in Union too.

10. [btw those of you who remember the hoopoe discussion last week might be interested in this]

11. gladys @5, oh yes of course. Completely forgot that gender-speak has, rather cleverly, borrowef cis/trans from science.

12. Thanks Imogen and PeterO.
    I struggled through with a degree of ‘enter & check’ing today, and needed to come here for a few parsings, so beaten on a points verdict. TIL that Imogen and Vulcan are one and the same person, and it impresses me greatly that they can set at what was for me two very different levels (having cruised through yesterday). Bravo!
    One query; can anyone explain how in 24 is ‘AY’ derived from ‘Always’, is this a bit of crosswordese I’ve not previously encountered?

13. Okay, nobody else has yet so I’ll whinge about PAIR being French. Recently, there seem to have been a lot of non-English used in clues, even if they are mostly commonly known.

14. Very tricky, especially after his alter ego yesterday. I solved SWEIN just from the definition, which was an early boost and then took delight in parsing it at the end. Also liked WALRUSH MOUSTACHE, TRAVESTY, SHINTO, CLAPTRAP, THISTLY, CHATTERERS and GANACHE. I had to Google cis to work out the wordplay in TRANSLATOR, which I also enjoyed.
    Graham @12: AY is an archaic form of ALWAYS, which I also learnt from crosswords.

    Ta Imogen & PeterO.

15. I’ve never been in a casino or played roulette so did not get the French Connection with PAIR. Given the number of clues that involve drinking, drugs and gambling in crosswords, I’m beginning to think I would be much better at solving if I had lived a more dissolute life.

16. No problem with en dashes from this old hack – it was common parlance on the back bench back in the day. Didn’t know about pair meaning even in French though. Found this a delightfully tricky and elegant puzzle, complemented by the delightfully elegant blog. Thanks to Peter O and Imogen.

17. Dod @15: a more dissolute background would certainly help you to tackle a Hoskins in the Indy!

    I found this surprisingly tricky to get into – as others have observed the North is trickier than the South – but eventually everything made sense. DRAUGHTIER was LOI and only because all the crossers forced me to it. How did I not think of ‘daughter’ earlier? I guess it just seems an improbably long word to work into a solution but there it is. Oh, and PAIR was well beyond my ken, either the NHO parliamentary practice or the French/roulette term.

    Likes inc HOOVES, PERCH, TRAVESTY, SHINTO, CHATTERERS and MEANDER. Nice to be reminded of another classic Rufus with ‘one on each arm’.

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO

18. Enjoyable solve. Never heard of en dashes. Parsed it as short en(d) as in dash/end one’s hopes.

19. I found yesterday’s puzzle easy and this one quite hard. I eventually solved it, but for a while in the beginning I had serious doubts as to whether I would. My favorite by far was TRANSLATOR. I thought that was a brilliant clue. Thanks Imogen and thanks to PeterO for a great blog.

20. Coincidentally, I’ve just realised that ‘filthy swine’ also applies to the initial letters of the solution.

21. I didn’t know the French PAIR, but apart from that it all seemed fair. I think the stand-out was the clever SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW, even if “filthy” maybe seems a bit of a stretch as an anagram indicator.

    Cis and trans appear in other contexts apart from gender and science, as in cisalpine and transalpine.

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO.

22. [I’d take issue with PeterO, Tomsdad @8 and muffin @9 and suggest that there are only scrums in Rugby Union. Rugby League may have something called a scrum, but it’s not really worthy of the name as it’s never a real contest for the ball (at least that’s the case here in Australia where the scrum half just seems to chuck the ball into the second row somewhere. I don’t know why they don’t just tap and go.]

23. Nice spot AlanC @20

24. Thx Tim.

25. BTW, could someone please explain why CLOSED is TO in SACRAMENTO? Thank you!

26. [Muffin @10: Thank you for that – will keep an eye open.]

    Re the cis/trans question I think the LGBTQ+ interpretation is the most likely as that is a context in which the words are used other than as prefixes (e.g. “They are a [trans|cis] man”) and the reference is to a person rather than a chemical.

    “Pairing” in the House of Commons has a fascinating history of skullduggery, leading to the fall of governments and Michael Heseltine famously swinging the Mace around his head, causing the suspension of parliament on different occasions. House of Cards looks positively tame by comparison!

    Thanks to Imogen and PeterO

27. Jay@25: It’s an old crossword trick, worth storing. “Make sure the door is closed/to”

28. OK, I’ll moan. SHINTO is not ancestor worship (though I suppose may include it). I got married in a shinto ceremony and ancestors didn’t come into it! And translation and interpretation are related but different.

29. Jay @25: I think it’s something to do with pulling a door to, which also means closed. JOFT, we crossed.

30. Jay @25. Can you put the door to? I suppose the door is to after you’ve done that!

31. Sorry. Too slow. Lots of similar replies!

32. TimC @22 – I can’t remember the last time I saw the ball being put straight into a scrum in Rugby Union. The scrum nowadays is merely an excuse for having seven or eight players on the pitch built like brick outhouses (and, with the latest abuse of the subs rules, seven fresh brick outhouses to replace them when they get out of puff with carrying all that lard around).
    (As a very unsporty child I was made to play rugby, which has left me with a lasting loathing of the game. You’d never guess, would you?)
    Very good crossword, BTW. Thanks, Imogen.

33. Tough but (almost) doable as I failed to solve 3d. I found it easier than the puzzle yesterday which I gave up on after struggling to solve just a few clues.

    Favourite: SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW.

    New for me: Sacramento being the capital of California; MORTICE joint.

34. ginf @ 11 And science borrowed cis / trans from the Romans, who divided Gaul into Cisalpine and Transalpine. I believe the dividing line was the river Rubicon, hence Caesar crossing it on his way back from exile in Gaul to take power in Rome led to the phrase meaning passing a point of no return.

35. Am I the only one who confidently put CANULA in 21a?

36. Thanks for the crossword and blog, Imogen and PeterO. Isn’t 22d a homage to the famous clue “two girls, one on each knee”? And, NeilH @32, I had the same experience and share the lasting loathing, so I sympathise.

37. Simon S@34 The Rubicon was the boundary between the province of Cisalpine Gaul and the territory of Rome itself. The boundary between the two provinces of Cisalpine and Transalpine Gaul was the Alps themselves.

38. Managed it all apart from the walrus, but wondered why the exceptions in 4d are ‘predictable’. I suppose it could mean ‘regular’. Never mind. I guessed PAIR by thinking of the Spanish equivalent (‘par’) but didn’t understand the voting reference so thanks PeterO.
    I hadn’t know that Vulcan and Imogen were the same setter. Very odd, as I generally don’t much like Vulcan and do like Imogen.

39. Admin @35. No, you aren’t the only one

40. Thanks Andy @ 37 – I guess I should have spotted that myself!

41. Knowing nothing of printer’s jargon, I took the short dash to be hyphEN. Anyone else?

    Lovely puzzle and very helpful blog so thanks to Imogen and Peter O.

42. Thank you AlanC and Jack of Few Trades!

43. Only half a dozen solved on first attempt, and had to return to this after a pause for breath a second and third time before I suddenly twigged WALRUS MOUSTACHE with only a couple of crossers in place. Thereafter things slipped nicely into place. Knew SACRAMENTO, both as a place I had visited yonks ago and also as the surname of someone I know. However, finally defeated by SHINTO and PAIR. Many thanks for the explanation with that last one PeterO. Some very cleverly constructed clues I thought today…

44. Thanks Simon S and Andy. Always enjoy etymological history. Wouldn’t be surprised if there were Greek origins too …

45. Mostly enjoyable, but a few nits.

    I got en [dash], but agree with PeterO it is a stretch. This is the second time in recent memory that something has been justified as, to quote PeterO, “a common usage among printers”, a trade whose jargon few of us could be expected to know. Furthermore, I would be surprised if such usage does exist since there are also en and em spaces, so saying “en” alone would be ambiguous.

    I also hope that the trick in 2D of taking an abbreviation from a US state, splitting the letters, and inserting them separately does not become regular practice. With 50 states to choose from and no hint as to where to insert them, it will almost certainly mean finding the answer and then reverse parsing, which is never satisfactory.

    Finally, I thought that 4D would work better as “regular exceptions”. I have not seen “predictable” before in this context, and “regular” works perfectly well with the service.

46. Historical footnote: what is now the West Bank was briefly under Jordanian control, and was known as Cisjordan, while what is now simply Jordan was Transjordan, the dividing line being, obviously, the river.

47. En and em dashes and spaces do crop up often enough to be worth remembering (and the en-thing makes a change from the old Enrolled Nurse abbreviation for “en”. Is that still a thing in real life?)

48. Just for those who have never come across en and em in crosswords (and they do crop up pretty regularly so they are worth remembering as gladys @47 says), Chambers has…
    en
    noun
    1. The fourteenth letter of the modern English alphabet (N or n)
    2. A unit of measurement equal to half an em (printing)
    ennˈage noun (printing)
    The length of a piece of type measured in ens
    en dash or en rule noun (printing)
    A dash that is one en long, used as a punctuation mark

    em
    noun
    1. The thirteenth letter of the modern English alphabet (M or m)
    2. A unit of measurement (equal to the width of the lower-case letter ‘m’ in 12-point) used in spacing material and in estimating dimensions of pages (printing)
    em dash or em rule noun (printing)
    A dash that is one em long, used as a punctuation mark

49. I had no hope with PAIR, since I am unfamiliar with French, roulette, and parliamentary voting practices. Other than that, this was tricky but fair.

    For those complaining: your word-processing software knows en and em dashes. Incidentally, you use an en dash to indicate a range of numbers (e.g., “pages 216 – 217”). An em dash is the one you want to connect related clauses or phrases–like this. They’re also useful Scrabble words, incidentally.

    Of course, WordPress just turned my attempt at an en into an em. Space-hyphen-space (which is what I typed) does work to get an en dash in Microsoft Word. Two hyphens gets you an em dash.

50. I’m another who found this slightly easier than yesterday’s (I’ve no idea why…), though the NW was quite tough. I think my favourite was HOOVES. With thanks to Imogen and PeterO.

51. Enjoyed the puzzle, but I’m surprised nobody has commented on the clunky surfaces to some clues. 2, 4, 5 and 25 hardly make sense.

    Thanks though, Imogen and PeterO.

52. Thanks to Imogen and PeterO

    Missed pair and thistly, even though there is current discussion here in the states about using this procedure (pair) to allow representatives to take time out for newborn childcare etc. rather than being allowed to vote remotely, which would apparently be open to all kinds of misuse. (Which of course is NOT happening at present – they would have us believe)
    On writing this, “pair” and “impair” suddenly come to mind. Probably from James Bond movies.

53. A good test today. All completed and parsed. I had no idea those two setters were the same person. I like reading Peter’s informative explanations. I feel like they are educational even when you don’t require them.

54. On the subject of cis/trans, some may be familiar with the Roman neighbourhood of Trastevere (across the Tiber, elided). There was no corresponding Cis name, though: back in the day, the other side of the river was, well, just Rome (or Roma).

55. I know nothing about parliamentary practice or roulette, but my ‘French is up to supplying “pair” for “even.” Then again, I know nothing at all about any kind of rugby (apparently there are several), so the scrum discussion was really beyond me.

    This was a pleasant puzzle, workable with time. Anybody else try BRISTLY for 4dn? It fit the definition, if not the wordplay.

    Thanks, Imogen and PeterO.

56. Like poc@38–gave up on the particular tusker at the end (and felt I should’ve got it) and didn’t see that “predictable” meant the even letters. Didn’t know “pair” as even but got the parliamentary trick for that. Overall very enjoyable puzzle, I liked the clever multi-part construction in 12ac and the wordplay for 8ac, 10ac, 5d, and 14d especially. For 14d I was first trying to work in an anagram for NOODLE and then thinking “how can PHO fit in there?” but then the penny dropped about the other noodle soup.

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO!

57. I thought there was going to be a nina on the bottom line which contains ARE YOU, but hopes were dashed.

58. Thanks to Imogen and PeterO.
    Jay@26, I remember (many decades ago) in Ulster, being told to “close the door to”, meaning to push the door all the way into the frame, but not to actually close it shut. I don’t know if it was also used in other parts of the UK. You would close the door to, perhaps because someone else was about to enter a few steps behind, to keep out the cold air, but it was easy to shoulder the door open.

59. Thanks for the blog , some good clues but I prefer full Imogen , this was a Spock puzzle . DRAUGHTIER and THISTLY were neat and very precise .
    Macmorris @58 I remember the opposite , TO meant totally shut . Leave a door 1mm ajar and you were clearly born in a barn . Leave a single light on for 1 microsecond longer than necessary and you were re-creating Blackpool Illuminations .

60. Those lacking the print button on the web site: You can render it by appending the web address of the crossword with /print

61. [Re 14d: for those who love a bit of etymology and history, I was surprised to see on my first visit to Japan that “ramen” on a restaurant was spelled using Katakana (ラーメン), the writing used for foreign/loan words, rather than Hiragana, the writing system for native words. The dish is a Japanese take on southern Chinese noodle dishes, imported into the country as little as 100 years ago. National popularity soared with the invention of instant ramen in the 1950s. I guess it is like our “traditional” Christmas roast turkey – not as traditional as many would think.]

62. [Gladys C Hugh @60
    I just right-click in the puzzle and select “Print”. I usually picked “Customised > Page 1 only” as sometimes it finds more than one page to print.]

63. As with POC@38 and others I wasn’t totally sure why predictably was used.
    Macmorris@58 and Roz@59, as I grew up in London in the ‘60s and ‘70s my parents (one from Mayo, one from Down) would use “push the door to” as Macmorris remembers, into the jamb but not fully closed. I don’t know which side of the border originated this usage in our family.

    And I’ve just caught autocorrect changing jamb to lamb.

64. Mostly pretty good.
    Agree with those unenthusiastic about ‘predictable’ meaning ‘regular’ in THISTLY wordplay.
    I’d have thought that the first definition for PAIR was GK in the UK, and the second def easily inferred, if not known, so I liked that clue; also liked the simple FOWL.
    Justigater@28 – an interpreter is by necessity a TRANSLATOR, though not necessarily vice versa.
    Thanks both

65. Admin@35 & Crispy@39 – me too 🤷

66. A nice entertaining puzzle from Imogen; I had no idea that Imogen and Vulcan were the same setter operating at different points on the difficulty scale. Double thanks for the entertainment!

    My late mum – a journalist – explained ENs to me when I was starting out on crosswords many years ago. I had assumed they were only used in “crossworld”, but she assured me the newspaper industry found them meaningful too. The French part of PAIR passed me by, but “agree not to vote” was a nice definition.

    17D was my favourite for using “change” as anagrist rather than anagrind.

    I thought there was a fish theme today after PERCH and -ROACH, but in the end it turned out to be a very small theme; you should have seen the theme that got away.

    Thanks PeterO and Imogen.

67. beaulieu @ 54 A cover version of a song, especially if radically different (cf The Move’s version of The Last Thing On My Mind), is an interpretation of it without being a translation.

68. On the subject of the en dash, by coincidence I came across this yesterday:

    https://www.tiktok.com/@elle.cordova/video/7489972127379213614

69. Danny@66 very funny , and a valiant effort , but surely you know that perch and roach are both fonts along with many others in the grid .
    EN and EM called nut and mutton to avoid confusion in very noisy printing rooms .

70. Completed on a commute back from London. This felt very Vulcanesque with a few spicier bits.

    NE corner caused me some trouble and I ended up with FAIR instead of PAIR but all great fun otherwise.

    Liked: CHATTERERS and TRAVESTY

    Thanks Imogen and PeterO

71. I enjoyed that. The clues told you what to do, if you thought hard enough. They may not have been the wittiest, but they were thought provoking and fair. On that I thought that ‘predictable’ was rather good for ‘regularly’. It is novel. This seems better than just learning some arbitrary rules like ‘nurse’ means ‘en’, ‘on vacation’ — just the first and last letter and ‘regularly’ — every other letter.

    I didn’t finish. For some reason I couldn’t spot HOOVES. It may be that is because ‘hoovers’ was forbidden as a verb growing up, ‘hoover’ being a trade name. We vacume cleaned chez Roberto. I was never going to get FOWL unaided by the ‘o’. Where does ‘f’ = following come from? Cricket? ‘fo’ as follow on? If so, I don’t like it, because it isn’t the participle. I did think that varients of the clue would give us ‘stalk’ or ‘tail’.

    Definitely a fun solve. Thanks Imogen/Vulcan and Peter

72. Roberto@71 F = following is used when annotating text , refers to a line , or page , plus the next one . The younger sibling of ff .

73. Ahhh yes, thank you Roz @72. That is fair. Too tricky for me though

74. I dared to think of a bird as being a F(emale) as in the sixties! It worked though

75. SimonS@67 – a bit late for me to reply … yes, but there are several meanings of ‘interpreter’ – the one required by the clue is in the sense of a foreign-language interpreter; it’s common and IMO legitimate for the setter to use only one of the meanings of a word as a definition.

76. “.. but I would hope that there are enough more Vulcan-like to provide an entry for the less experienced solver” How very magnanimous. Boring puzzle.

77. beaulieu @ 75 In that case, surely your comment should be “an interpreter in this context is by necessity…”?

78. Re the pointlessness of scrums in rugby of both codes. NeilH@32 By storing 6 or 8 players into a heap it leaves more room for the backs to be creative.

79. As I recover from an unexpected event/hospital stay, a relatively gentle Imogen was exactly what I needed to ease me back into Guardian cryptics. I did however have to reveal PAIR, as both of the definitions were new to me. Onwards and upwards…

80. Is everyone a pastry chef these days? I’d never heard of GANCHE. Though I got it as the only possible jorum from the available fodder. And, yes, Kenmac, I also confidently wrote in CANULA. So a dnf for me.

    Probably the easiest Imogen I can recall, but that’s as much to do with with not recalling all that much about past puzzles, as it is about the ease of this one.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

81. sheffield hatter@80
    Not everyone is a pastry chef but ” everyone” watches The Great British Bake Off, where to the best of my memory (it ‘s on but I’m usually reading the paper) ganache is more often an icing than a filling. At least that’s my excuse, though the real reason I didn’t get it was that I couldn’t think beyond “change” as an anagrind – as Imogen intended.

82. Wouldn’t the 23 across clue be better without the apostrophe ess?

83. A late note – and I’ve not proofread the comments.

    I’m surprised that the familiar “au pair”* wasn’t mentioned. That is, a lady hired into a household to even up the numbers. After all, a son couldn’t be expected to do housework eh? Good lord no.

    I was made to play rugby too and feel the same about all sport. There seem to be quite a few of us do cryptic crosswords now…

    Cheers all.

    *Yes I know that there are male au pairs.

84. “Some beautiful Namibians, one on each arm” is surely a riff on the “Two girls, one on each knee” that is classic enough to have a book named after it

85. Are Vulcan and Imogen one and the same person?

86. I interpreted 6 down as F=female (one bird) followed by another (OWL). Would that work too?

87. Khg1945 @85
    Yes
    Nick @86
    Certainly not as you state it: “followed by” is not the same as ‘following’. For your idea to hold, the parsing would have to be OWL (‘one bird’) ‘following’ F (female, ‘another’ bird). But this would leave us hunting for a definition: an &lit (the whole clue as the definition) hardly applies, and otherwise ‘one bird’ would have to do double duty as definition, which is frowned upon (and the two-step bird -> female -> F might raise some objection). When there is a more straightforward interpretation (straightforward at least if you admit the often-used F for ‘following’) go with it.

88. Only got halfway again — seems to be par for the course for me lately, aside from Mondays. Easier Imogen? Not so much

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