Guardian 29,812 / Alia

28 comments on “Guardian 29,812 / Alia”

1. I’m never quite sure what to expect on a Monday these days. This was firmly back in the gentle tradition – which is no criticism. Some very nice surfaces in here and plenty of crisp, clean constructions. AD HOC, LIVER SAUSAGE, AUTOMATON, INCENDIARY, SLAPDASH and OVERSTEP are my picks today.

   Thanks Alia and Eileen

2. Didn’t parse SCAMPI, but clues which use a series of abbreviations tend to have that effect. I did find this very enjoyable though and ANNOY raised a smile. Felt it was a bit more challenging than most Mondays of late (which may be about adjusting to a relatively new setter’s style) but no less enjoyable for that.

3. Confidently entered FURLONG at 28a. Wrong!

4. That was my first thought, too, Shirl!

5. Another who found this a struggle to get going but with a few across clues in the down ones seemed to go much more readily – either the “getting on the wavelength” effect or the help of a few crossers. Some lovely anagrams and I like that the setter avoided over-complex cryptic parsing and also gave us some very readable surfaces. Some modern references too, which is good to see, though I am pretty sure the Swifties in the forum will be aware that the tour was called “Eras” not “Era” so I don’t think that quite works.

   The Instagram reference was new to me but perfectly guessable as a standard film term, which is the kind of trivia/GK I like – I learned something and was not frustrated that it was outside my spheres of knowledge.

   Thanks Alia and Eileen.

6. Had fun doing this last night. Not a write-in but didn’t require any search engine for once. Pretty much agree with Eileen’s picks with SLAPDASH and FLAMBÉ my favourites.

   Ta Alia & Eileen.

7. A pleasure to start the week with this very good Monday puzzle, which was elevated by numerous fine surfaces. Favourites were SALON, SLAPDASH and FLAMBÉ.

8. I thought PROPERTY was the COD in an enjoyable Monday puzzle.
   And I must say I like Eileen’s clear, straightforward explanations, without recourse to lots of colours or tabulation.
   So thanks to her and to Alia.

9. Couldn’t quite see why days, (plural) was a single D in DREAM, but other than that a good Monday offering.

   Thanks, Eileen, for digging out the Taylor Swift reference, I doubt if I could have bothered.

10. Very enjoyable.
    Thanks to Alia and Eileen especially for help with Taylor Swift. I guess the definition should include ‘segment of’ so that ERA = one concert from ‘The Eras Tour’?

11. JOFT@ 5: I know next to nothing about Taylor Swift but the tour name came up recently in another puzzle. Given that ‘Somewhat’ in the clue is indicating the hidden, I took ‘segment of a recent Taylor Swift concert’ to be the definition and a segment of ERAS would be ERA. I have no idea whether the concert is, in fact, segmented but it explained the presence of those otherwise superfluous words.

    I just checked and, according to Google: Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is divided into distinct segments, or “acts,” each representing one of her studio albums

12. Jack @5 I saw the defn in 12A as “segment of a recent Taylor Swift concert”, hence ERA as a segment of Eras

13. PostMark GMTA!

14. Another furlonger here. Very enjoyable start to the week. Thank you, Alia. Nice to meet a new setter- I must have missed their first one. Fave clue was ANTELOPES! Picturing it made me smile.

15. For me this was perfect for a Monday. Not overly taxing but required some thinking and plenty of humour.

    Liked SUMMITS, HIPSTER, AUTOMATON and quite a few others.

    Luckily already had some checking letters so I didn’t experience the FURLONG dilemma.

    Thanks Aria and Eileen

16. Good fun. Enjoyed ANTELOPE, HIPSTER & SLAPDASH to name but a few

    Also needed the crossers to eliminate furlong

    Parsed ERA(S) as others have commented

    Cheers E&A

17. I’m not a follower of Taylor Swift — a swiftie? — so ERA was a guess. Neither am I a golfer, so YARDAGE was a head scratch. All else was OK and enjoyable.

18. I’ve never heard of Taylor Swift.

19. Thanks to all re “segment of…” – I knew there’d be a few die-hard Swifties to sort it out! I wasn’t aware that the individual concerts were themselves divided into eras, which makes sense.

    William @9: My only stab at justification is that, when a letter is used as an abbreviation for an amount then it is not pluralised. So we happily write 1cm or 10cm and read the latter as “ten centimetres”. In a similar fashion “10d” could read as “ten days”. I’m not wholly convinced by this explanation however!

20. I enjoyed that, very pleasant start to the week. As someone who usually does quiptics it’s nice when a Monday puzzle is on the easier end. This one went in more smoothly than some recent quiptics. I have little to no knowledge of golf so needed all the crossers for 28. Favourites were POIGNANTLY, SLAPDASH and ANTELOPES for the surface.

    I agree that “segment of” is part of the definition for 12A

    Thanks Eileen and Alia

21. I’ve never seen ‘tannoy’ used as a verb (though it’s in Chambers) so 23d made me hesitate. Otherwise a good puzzle and well suited to a Monday.

22. Taylor Swift…. ‘tintin Chambers. A’ll ave t’ ava word wi t’editor.

23. Good Monday puzzle with a few thought-provoking entries. I liked HIPSTER, INCENDIARY, RINGLEADER, and FLAMBÉ.

    Thanks inter ALIA and Eileen.

24. Thanks Alia and Eileen
    In contrast to others, I found this hard – harder than Saturday’s Prize, in fact. The SE took longest.
    I had never heard of REEL as something on Instagram, though, to be fair, I’ve never used Instagram.
    Why “typical” in 28a?
    Favourite POIGNANTLY.

25. I just happened to be discussing George Orwell’s ideal pub a few days ago, and that features a “snack counter where you can get LIVER SAUSAGE sandwiches, mussels (a speciality of the house), cheese, pickles and those large biscuits with caraway seeds in them which only seem to exist in public-houses”. So 18a sprang readily to mind. Mm, I could just fancy one of those sandwiches with a pint of wallop 🙂

    I agree that this was an excellent puzzle with a great range of clues. Many thanks Alia and Eileen.

26. Enjoyed it; not difficult, although I couldn’t parse my last two – ANNOY and YARDAGE – and only put them in because nothing else seemed to fit. Liked ANTELOPES, INCENDIARY, AD HOC, APROPOS. Thanks Alia and Eileen!

27. Good puzzle, no major quibbles, though I wouldn’t personally use ‘Tannoy’ as a verb, and the YARDAGE clue was a bit weak. Also not sure that HIPSTER is a trendy word these days, as distinct from a decade or so ago. Favourites include AD HOC, INCENDIARY, CINEMA.
    Anna@18 – back in July you said you’d never heard of Bart Simpson … I assume you live ‘off-grid’ in a cave somewhere and your only connection to the outside world is doing the Grauniad crossword (without reading the paper, or hearing/seeing any news)! 🙂
    Thanks Alia and Eileen.

28. JoFT@19: well, you may not have convinced yourself, but I thought it an excellent defence! Thanks for trying!

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