Guardian 29,695 – Paul

by

I’m still in the Highlands, after over a week of amazingly (and, for me, unprecedentedly) good hill-walking weather. Perhaps as a result of the change of scene I found this quite a struggle, with one clue I’m unable to parse. There are a few sporting references, but probably not enough to constitute a theme, unless I’m missing some. Thanks to Paul for the puzzle.

I’ll be out on the hills again today so won’t be able to correct any errors in this rather hurried post until later.
Across
1 JUMBO JET Burst from trumpeter? One can’t go as high as Armstrong did (5,3)
JUMBO (elephant, a trumpeter) + JET (burst), with the definition referring to Neil Armstrong, not Louis, as the surface suggests
9 GOBLET Vessel for wine in tiny mouth? (6)
A tiny mouth might be a GOB-LET
10 DJOKOVIC Tennis player for whom Covid jabs originally OK? That’s unlikely (8)
Anagram of COVID J[abs] OK
11 GUM SHIELD Mouthpiece, glue’s stuck around one (9)
I in GUM’S HELD
13 MAGIC Prestidigitation, smoke and mirrors initially given reflection? (5)
Reverse of CIG (cigarette, a smoke) A[nd] M[irrors]
15 FALCON Anything but a real swine cradling head of love bird (6)
I can’t explain this, apart from the L as “head of love”
17 REGINA Sovereign a nation recalled (6)
Reverse of A NIGER
18 ANSWER Parting shot from spinning of S. Warne (6)
(S WARNE)
19 PAPYRI Old documents reviewing pay in middle of April (6)
PAY* in [a]PRI[l]
21,6 SPACE HOPPER Bouncer with velocity punching customer (5,6)
PACE in SHOPPER
22 DAMASCENE Syrian mother has a tantrum (9)
DAM (mother, usually referring to an animal) + A SCENE
25 OBDURATE Hard bread out at sea (8)
(BREAD OUT)*
26,3 SIMONE BILES Gymnast: be lissome in twists (6,5)
(BE LISSOME IN)* for the Olympian multi-medallist
28 PESETA Franco’s money put into plant (6)
SET in PEA
29 GASOLINE Fuel like crude oil in engine not half backfiring! (8)
AS (like) OIL* in reverse of ENG[ine]
Down
2 UFO Regular servings of bug food for a drone, probably? (3)
Alternate letters of bUg FoOd. I’m not sure a UFO is “probably” a drone (or vice versa) – “possibly” might have been better
4 JETTISONED Black-coloured stocking is lost (10)
IS in (“stocked by”) JET-TONED
5 TIDDLY Teensy bit squiffy (6)
Double definition
6 HOOF House of dance (4)
HO + OF
7 PROFANITY Shame about leader in fanzine penned by hack, say – filthy language (9)
F[anzine] in ROAN (horse, a hack) in PITY
8 EDIFICATION Enlightenment in rebranding of Labour Party post-David Miliband? (11)
David Miliband was beaten to the Labour party leadership by his brother Ed, who might have brought about the ED-IFICATION of the party
12 UNFLAPPABLE Composed, as are rigid wings? (11)
Double definition
14 METATARSUS Skeletal structure in Facebook address of Paul? (10)
META (parent company of Facebook) + TARSUS (original of Paul/Saul from the New Testament)
16 LOST CAUSE Sinking ship proceeds to capsize, with rat running around (4,5)
Reverse of ACTS (proceeds) in LOUSE
20 BAD EGG Black sheep spoiled food on farm? (3,3)
Double definition
23 CAMEL African carrier, first of containers, A, B or C? (5)
C[ontainers] + A + MEL (Mel B or Mel C from the Spice Girls)
24 CAVA Fine wine? (4)
From the French ÇA VA, meaning OK, fine
27 NUN Celibate, with some frustration, understandably (3)
Hidden in frustratioN UNderstandably

62 comments on “Guardian 29,695 – Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and Andrew
    I didn’t parse 15a either, but did wonder if “fake one” was something to do with it.
    I enjoyed this a lot, unusually for a Paul. Lots of favourites, of which METATARSUS was top.
    CAVA needs a French indication for the first meaning.
    I parsed CAMEL correctly, but are the two Mels in the Spice Girls well known?

  2. 15a I saw as FA (sweet FA) meaning anything and CON being a real swine. Happy to be corrected though.

  3. “Facon” is sometimes used as a term for bacon substitute, so I think that’s the idea behind “anything but a real swine”. I was totally stuck on the parsing for CAVA, though, so thanks for that Andrew. Enjoy the walking!

  5. Hi muffin @4 – Mrs MOH is a vegan, so such things do, alas, sometimes cross our threshold…

  6. Paul pushing the boundaries again – unadvertised foreign words, vegan ultra-processed products, wide-ranging GK, unnecessary words (“on a farm”?) and dodgy word order (“of Paul” for “tarsus”?). How does he get away with it and still produce a crossword that is fun rather than enraging? edification and unflappable were groanworthy (in a good way) but the crossing “jet”s was a tad unfortunate.

    Many thanks Paul, and Andrew I envy you your walking trip!

  7. A search for FACON got me this – after a few entries translating fashion from the French, so I reckon miserableoldhack @3 has it right. I’d parsed as Hawa @2, but wasn’t convinced. As a vegetarian by preference because I don’t really like the taste of meat, I don’t go for the fake meat products, so hadn’t come across that one.

    This was fun, thank you to Andrew and Paul, and I’ll try not to be too envious that you’re walking in Scotland (in May, which is the time I’ll go back, after a summer walking holiday meeting the wee midgies, years ago).

  8. Thought this was quite straightforward for Paul, and clean! I was with Hawa for 15a. Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  9. I thought this was Paul on pretty good form. Well, I enjoyed it so that’s how it translates for me. Admittedly, I did not parse METATARSUS and I am grateful to MOH for explaining FA(L)CON but everything else clicked into place. CAMEL is my COTD for the absolutely brilliant cluing of MEL: what a spot. I also enjoyed UNFLAPPABLE, HOOF, DJOKOVIC, JUMBO JET and even one of Paul’s classic whimsies in GOB-LET.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew whose calves must be like iron after two weeks of scaling Munros

  11. A few bits of non-gk, like gumshield (mouthguard here), the bouncy thing, and where Paul hung out [vaguely knew it was somewhere in now Turkey; nice bit of coast, our mates have a holiday pad along there]. But the best bit is thanks to MOH @3, facon = fake bacon is a hoot. All good fun, ta Paul and Andrew.

  12. I think Jack @6 hits the nail on the head. Some quite brilliant cluing, such as the surface for DJOKOVIC; some splendidly groansome stuff; a few that really were pushing it, but overall it was really good fun.
    There were several that I didn’t parse, most of which I’m mildly kicking myself about having read Andrew’s excellent blog. I don’t think I’d have parsed FALCON in a month of Sundays. I’m quite sure miserableoldhack @3 is correct, and I think the clue teeters on the boundary between clever and too-clever-by-half, but I guess that’s where Guardian solvers really want our setters to go.
    There are a couple which an editor should/would have picked up – as Jack @6 points out, “on farm” in 20d is quite unnecessary, and “Fine French wine?” (a nice misdirection given that Cava is Spanish) would have improved 24d no end. But attempting to get “Guardian” and “crossword editor” into the same sentence has been a lost cause on here for ages.
    Many thanks to Paul, Andrew and miserableoldhack.

  13. Tank@10: doh, yes – much better.

    Forgot to say that the Djokovic clue was beautifully on point – he was initially rejected from the Australian Open for refusing the covid vaccination.

    Space Hoppers always put me in mind of John Carpenters “Dark Star” but looking back I see the alien was more likely just a beachball than a space hopper. Memory plays funny tricks with you over the decades.

  14. Thanks MOH@3. FALCON was the one I couldn’t parse either.
    PS: All the people I know who have become vegetarians (rather being that way since birth) say that what they miss the most is bacon.
    PPS: Thanks Andrew. Hope the midges aren’t too voracious this year.

  17. I tried to make something out of Dizzy for JUMBO JET. METATARSUS was my clue of the day. Boatman and some other setter’s often use their pseudonym in its actual meaning, rather than to clue my, I ,me l, -ive etc., but I have not seen Paul do it before.

  18. Loved EDIFICATION & DJOKOVIC

    Just realised I forgot to parse LOST CAUSE so it’s a TKO to Paul

    Cheers P&A

  19. I’m also a vegan and the term “facon” never entered my head. I parsed it as Hawa@2 with the memory that “FA” is a Paulism. Oddly, neither me nor my wife have missed bacon in our 15 years eating a plant-based diet. Mrs. L missed Southern-fried chicken for a while, but it was more the flavour of the breading than the chicken itself. I always said that the only thing that could make me fall off the wagon would be a proper Yorkshire pork pie from Hector Ellis in West Bretton, but they’ve been closed for years now.

    There were a lot of great puns today, which reminded me why Paul used to be my favourite setter. I liked EDIFICATION, and METATARSUS made me smile too.

    Thanks Paul & Andrew – enjoy the rest of your trip!

  20. muffin @1 – “are the two Mels in the Spice Girls well known?” Yes, I think, even here, or maybe especially here, in crosswordland. See, for example, Brummie’s clue on 30th November last year: ‘Amalgamate a new Spice Girl? (4)’ >> MELD.

  21. Don’t know whether it’s possible for admin to delete my posts 12 and 13, which were the result of the site playing up this morning. Sorry, all.

  22. My top faves:
    GOBLET (I like such whimsies), DJOKOVIC (the covid jabs ref and more), SIMONE BILES (the lissome girl who has introduced her ‘own’ twists in the tale), HOOF (such a crisp one), EDIFICATION (some UK GK doesn’t hurt. Didn’t have to Google), FALCON (Google didn’t let me down) and NUN (It’s a joke sister! No disrespect meant).

    Failed to parse CAVA.

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  23. I actually found this gentler than previous Paul offerings. Though the NW corner took a while at the end, but once I had sussed JUMBO JET things became clearer. Liked DAMASCENE, and the humour involved in GOBLET and BAD EGG. Last one in was GUMSHIELD. Many thanks Paul for the entertainment, and hill walker Andrew for the clear view from those SCOTTISH peaks….

  25. Lovely gentle crossie for a Thursday morning. Thanks P+A!

    Some hilarious eye-rollers to boot, looking at 23d most of all, but 1a, 10a, 15a and 8d too!

  27. There’s almost a micro-theme: Paul of (meta) TARSUS had a DAMASCENE conversion, as related in the book of ACTS (backwards in 16d).

    I must say I’ve never encountered “facon” so FALCON remained unparsed. I saw the political in-joke in EDIFICATION, but thought there might have been more to it – there wasn’t. I liked METATARSUS, GOBLET, DJOKOVIC and the neat HOOF. I can remember the first time (not so very long ago) that I encountered a drone, and it did indeed seem like a vaguely insectoid UFO hovering there.

  28. I’m with Hawa@2 et al on the parsing of FALCON. I don’t think the clue needs knowledge of some little-known (to non vegetarians) meat substitute to work.

  29. FALCON Anything but a real swine cradling head of love bird (6)
    I can’t explain this, apart from the L as “head of love
    I think it is FA , as in sweet FA for anything, then a swine is a CON artist and the L as in Head of Love= FALCON

  30. I’m afraid I must respectfully disagree with those parsing 15ac as FA + L + CON. Surely “FA” or “sweet FA” (which I agree is a likely Paulism) means “nothing at all”, whereas “anything but…” implies that there is something – just something other than the thing that’s mentioned.

  32. As always with Paul, many were guess-first-parse-later – a few were semi-parse-later. I’m glad I’m not the only one who had trouble with FALCON.
    Many thanks Andrew for the parsing of JUMBO JET: completely beyond me. I’d figured it was Neil not Louis but then, UFO having been a write-in, spent ages trying to do something with “outer” or “Lunar”…
    I liked the surface of OBDURATE, UNFLAPPABLE & EDIFICATION made me grin; TIDDLY, NUN & CAVA were also neat – the latter being a write-in (but then I live in France so I probably have an unfair advantage).
    Speaking of vin pétillant: the sun’s out and it’s lunchtime. Fizz o’clock…
    Cheers Andrew and Paul

  33. MOH@30 I agree with you that ‘sweet FA’ correctly means nothing at all rather than anything but (it was not my favourite clue), however, that same argument applies to the alternative parsing. Facon is not ANYTHING BUT a real swine, but just one particular alternative.

  34. I loved EDIFICATION. It made me laugh and laugh. I also enjoyed UNFLAPABLE and METATARSUS. I really love Paul crosswords when he is not being too scatological. The clues tell you what to do when you think about it and they somehow suggest connections between the word play and the definition.

  35. Andy in Durham @33, as I understand it, “facon” is applied to any number of bacon alternatives, most but not all plant-based – some are made from turkey, some from tofu, some from seitan, some from dessicated coconut. I’m sure there are others! Hence, I think, “anything but” is (more or less) appropriate here.

  36. I thought this was Paul again back on top form (I think I said something similar recently).

    I liked the humour in EDIFICATION and CAMEL, the wordplays for JUMBO JET and JETTISONED, and the wonderful surfaces (I don’t often say that for Paul’s clues) for DJOKOVIC (COVID vaccination refusenik) and SIMONE BILES (who famously got ‘the twists’ in one competition), and Paul’s Facebook address for METATARSUS. I failed to parse FALCON (where I think MOH @3 is correct) and CAVA (where I think NeilH @12’s suggestion would have been neat).

    Thanks Paul and Andrew.

  38. Another one for the Facon= fake bacon parse or atleast that’s how I justified it. I have eaten it but it tastes like plastic flavoured as smokey bacon crisps. Don’t recommend.

    Very tricky and as it is often with Paul and I only half parsed a few. Didn’t get METATARSUS other than the META. I assumed it was a usual Paul homophone so just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

    Glacial but I often enjoyed the wit when the penny dropped.

    Favourite today: SPACE HOPPER

    Cheers blogger enjoy your walk. And thanks to Paul as well.

  39. Woo I finished a Paul! Excellent all round, but I think DJOKOVIC might be my favourite for the clever surface.

    I’m a bit iffy on HOOF – I don’t mind small words being used literally in a clue and answer, but it feels wrong to me when both the clue and the answer are so short.

    FALCON went in quite late, but I had no problem parsing FACON because I’ve been using the word for a couple of decades now.

  40. Writing SPACE HOPPER straight in from the word lengths (plus simple parsing) was gratifying yet depressing. They may have made a comeback, but this is 70s childhood stuff for me and that was a long time ago. Some great clues I thought. I liked EDIFICATION, CAVA and UNFLAPPABLE. I would never have parsed FALCON, thanks @MOH @3 for a convincing explanation. I can see why roan and hack are synonyms at a stretch, I didn’t parse that bit either. All good though. Thanks Paul and Andrew – happy trudging!

  41. JoFT @13: DJOKOVIC in fact missed the entire 2022 hard-court season because of his vaccine refusal–besides Australia, he was unable to get a visa to the US or Canada either. (Despite getting zero points on outdoor hard courts, he still finished the year at #6 in the world, which tells you what kind of tennis he was playing elsewhere.) He also missed Indian Wells and Miami in 2023, but the US’s vaccine requirement had been lifted by the time the ’23 US Open came around…which he naturally won.

    That was the best clue in a mostly good lot, with lots of groaners (but I love a good bad pun). I did not parse CAVA, which is understandable since I don’t speak French, and that’s not among the bits of French one can have picked up from general knowledge. So yeah, that one irks me now. On FALCON, I’m among those who got there as FA + L + CON, without being fully satisfied by that; FACON is better.

  42. I thought I was getting better at cryptic crosswords, but this one thoroughly defeated me. There was a lot of GK/slang that I just couldn’t get:

    GUMSHIELD – never heard this term, I’d call it a mouth guard
    TIDDLY – I’d heard the term, but would not be able to give a def for either TIDDLY or squiffy
    EDIFICATION – I know next to nothing about UK politics, so I had no chance here
    HOOF – even after reading the blog and googling, I still don’t understand how house = HO

    I did appreciate UNFLAPPABLE and PROFANITY

    Thanks Paul and Andrew!

  43. clueless american @42
    Ho. is a standard abbreviation for “House” (in a house name, e.g Chatham Ho.) over here.

  44. [With Harpo’s puzzle earlier this week I asked how those not in the UK are supposed to get SAGA, and was met with “Expect UK GK in a UK puzzle.” I didn’t explain my thinking, but this puzzle does. I have found that most of the UK GK is gettable from abroad if you have some one-time or ongoing contact with the UK: you’re an ex-pat, or visit frequently, or read the Guardian occasionally as well as doing the puzzles, or watch a lot of British TV (especially panel shows – YouTube is full of them), etc. From some selection of those, that’s how the Miliband clue fell for me. Tx for listening.]

  45. SamW@39: See yesterday’s blog for a disagreement over whether clues should always be pared down to the absolute minimum number of words: HOOF is an example and CAVA another (very slightly unfair imho as both halves of the double def are unindicated foreign words).

  46. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen HOOF used to mean “dance”. I’ve seen “hoof it”, and a “hoofer” is a very old-fashioned term for a dancer, but not “hoof” by itself. But at least one dictionary says so, so that’s fine.

    GUMSHIELD defeated me. I’ve never seen this word and would call this thing a mouth guard or something like that.

    DJOKOVIC is a brilliant clue.

  47. Some delightful wordplay today. DJOKOVIC the absolute standout for the combo of play and subject, but loved SIMONE BILES, EDIFICATION, and CAMEL as well.

  48. Dr. WhatsOn @44: one can also learn by Googling. Today, for example, the clue mentioned David Milliband, whom I wasn’t familiar with; I follow British politics just closely enough to have heard of Ed (I can reliably have heard of all prime ministers and most of the more recent opposition leaders, but only those cabinet members who are at the center (excuse me, centre) of scandals). But I’d never heard of his brother Dave. Wikipedia told me he lost the leadership contest to his brother, at which point the Ed-ification groaner leapt out at me.

    Also, the more of these puzzles you do, the more of this stuff sticks.

  52. Thanks for the blog , I think I have done too many crosswords by Paul , I found this as dull as a dull day in Dullsville .
    As a level 5 vegan I mainly miss fruit and non rootcrop vegetables .

  56. Have to concur that MOH@3 has the right reading for FALCON. “real swine” is an unwarranted stretch for “con”. In fact a con can be quite lovable, à la Dickens’ Mr Jingle.

  57. I wasn’t able to parse 15 across, but agree with Hawa and others, and I am happy with ‘anything but ‘ in the sense: (anything but real) swine. I always love a Paul cryptic – and I finished this one (nearly all parsed!)
    Thanks Paul and Andrew

  58. Thanks Paul for providing just the tonic I needed before a tough week ahead medically: a sunny day in the garden with the company of a clever and funny puzzle. Brighter than a bright day in Brighton. Greatly appreciated.

  59. I had a broad grin on my face when I got CAVA. If ‘French’ had been added to the clue it would have been far less satisfying. I enjoyed the struggle today, and I won’t let anyone spoil it by using words like “gentle” and “Dullsville”.

    Thanks to the setter from Tarsus and the blogger in the Highlands.

  60. I came here with three answers unparsed. FALCON I see I’m not alone, I considered FA CON about L as did many, but even accounting for the Pauline reference to FA, not really. EDIFICATION, I mistakenly remembered Dave as the brother that won, even to the extent of thinking Ed’s misstep with the bacon sarnie, was his. CAVA, just getting fed up towards the end.

  61. As usual, enjoyed this from Paul, though I couldn’t solve them all. Getting better, with fewer guesses, brute force trials and post hoc parsing.

    Thanks Andrew

  62. Completed, but with an asterisk because I had to correct 8d. Still, pretty good for a Paul. Getting more comfortable with his quirky style, like the clues for GOBLET, EDIFICATION, UNFLAPPABLE, and METATARSUS. Did manage to parse FALCON

    DJOKOVIC was my favourite for the brilliant surface. Usually I prefer the surface to misdirect, rather than direct, but this was exceptional

    Re CAVA, Chambers has Fine(3), “fine Champagne”, so I took that as the parsing (even though it’s referring to French Brandy)

Comments are closed.