Another delightful, entertaining and amusing offering from Paul.
Place cursor over clue number to read the clue
| Across | ||
| 4 | SUCKER | dd |
| 6 | GOMORRAH | Rev of HARROW (school) minus W + MOG (slang for cat) of Sodom and Gomorrah infamy |
| 9 | HONOUR | Ins of ON (working) in HOUR (time) |
| 10 | ATROPINE | A + *(PROTEIN) for a poisonous alkaloid found in deadly nightshade, used in medicine eg for premedication |
| 11 | OUT OF BOUNDS | A most amusing and cheeky self-explanatory clue, my COD for making me laugh |
| 15 | ZIP CODE | cd Gettysburg is in Pennsylvania, USA where the postal code is so called; nothing to do with Abraham Lincoln’s Four scores and seven years ago …. |
| 17 | GELATIN | *(GENITAL) |
| 18 | PANDORAS BOX | Ins of *(BARD SOON) in PAX (peace) Pandora’s box refers to the container jar opened by the Greek mythological woman Pandora releasing all the evils of mankind into the world |
| 22 | PORT SAID | Another outrageously funny homophone clue linking LEPHT (pronounced or SAID as LEFT, which is PORT in marine terminology |
| 23 | STOOGE | ha for one of The Three Stooges (Moe Howard, Curly Howard & Larry Fine) |
| 24 | MALINGER | MA (rev of AM, morning) LINGER (hang about) |
| 25 | PLANET | PLANE (surface) + T (time) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | REBUFF | To buff is to polish and to re-buff is to polish again and rebuff is a snub or slight |
| 2 | MONTENEGRO | Ins of TEN (figure) EG (exempli gratia, for example, say) R (right) in MONO (one) for Montenegro, a country in Southeastern Europe |
| 3 | COLOSSAL | Ins of LOSS (death) in COAL (black stuff) |
| 4 | SCHMOOZE | Ins of C & H (Cold and Hot taps, but actually in honour of Charles Higgins, a Liverpool plumber who invented the modern tap) MOO (low as in cow) in SIZE (capacity) minus I (not one) for Yiddish slang for gossip, chatter and gas |
| 5 | CENOTAPH | Rev of PAT (Patrick, the Irishman) ONE (i) C (caught in cricket) + H (hospital) for a memorial, say, in Whitehall, London |
| 7 | RAIN | ha |
| 8 | HEEL | dd heel being a very common order to a pet dog |
| 12 | OCEAN LINER | *(RELIANCE ON) |
| 13 | STUBBORN | Charade of STUB (remaining part of say a coupon) BORN (delivered as in maternity ward) |
| 14 | INEXPERT | I (first letter of ignoramus) + ins of PER (through) in NEXT (after) |
| 16 | OPPOSING | *(GP POISON) |
| 19 | ATTILA | Sounds like A TILLER (guiding influence) for Attila the Hun, a king of the Huns in the 5th century who killed many people |
| 20 | SPAM | SPA (health resort) M (first letter of McDonald’s) |
| 21 | ARAL | Rev of LARA Croft, portrayed by Angelina Jolie in the Tomb Raider |
Key to abbreviations
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
tichy = tongue-in-cheek type
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Excellent Crossword and blog. Thanks Paul and UY.
Entertaining and amusing.
ps UY following your advice, read (and re-read) Green Eggs and Ham to grandson who loved it – but I couldn’t help thinking of the Black-eyed Peas throughout!
Thanks, UY.
Easiest Paul for a long time. Perhaps he’s waving the white flag after hearing that Tramp’s starring in the Indie today? 🙂
A rather easy Paul. Entertaining
Great blog
Thanks Paul and UY
Thanks Ucle Yap. Knocked this off in hospital this afternoon either side of a minor procedure, and had a few laughs, thanks Paul. Last in was SCHMOOZE=gas, but that may have been due to the anaesthetic. All good.
Thanks UY.
Serial killer, Attila. Cockney rhyming slang.
Could only think of HEED for 8 down. Hate it when I fail to finish by a single letter. Either way, certainly very easy for a Paul, but I won’t complain about an easy one on a Tuesday.
Thanks UY and Paul
Very entertaining and challenging enough without being over-difficult.
I thought for a time there might be a pangram afoot.
I ticked 11a, 18a, 3d, 4d, 13d, 14d.
Re 4d, I have always thought of schmoozing as engaging in ‘massaging’ sweet talk and (as in Collins) ‘to chat to (someone) for the purposes of self-promotion or to gain some advantage’. But simple chatting is given there too and in Chambers.
I also wondered briefly when the ‘z’ appeared whether ‘not one for gas’ represented ‘oz(one)’.
Thanks, UY.
Good fun. 22a reminded me of a line from the Goon Show.
“Steward, where’s the lavatory?”
“Port side, sir.”
“Good heavens, I can’t wait that long!”
rhotician-
Apparently “Attila” is cockney rhyming slang for 2:1 (Attilla the hun – 2:1), not serial killer. It would be unusual to having rhyming slang where the slang is one word representing a two word phrase. It’s always the other way round as far as I know, with the long phrase (often abbreviated to the first, non-rhyming part – originally to disguise it, the point of the slang) representing the shorter one. Apples and pears = stairs; butcher’s hook = look; porkie pies = lies and so on.
Thanks, UY.
A puzzle to brighten the day: not too taxing, and with a good variety of clues and plenty of smiles (6ac, 11ac, 22ac, 23ac and 21dn did it for me).
Paul is an Araucaria acolyte, but 15a is pure Bunthorne.
Like tupu, I suspected a pangram for a while. And I agree that SCHMOOZING generally implies some purpose other than simple conversation – but this may simply be a hangover from Jewish humour in which everyone is suspected of some ulterior motive.
Thomas99-I do know how rhyming slang works and that my jest was therefore rather feeble. But thanks for the information. Quite amusing really.
(I take it you mean 2-1, as in odds, rather than 2:1 ratio.)
I think it’s 2:1 as in degree result. There’s a selection:
Geoff (Hurst) = First
Desmond (Tutu) = 2:2
Douglas (Hurd) = Third
How my sides ache.
Hi Gervase
A small point. Your final comment seems a little uncharitable. I don’t think it involves suspicion of everyone’s motives so much as a more general feeling of caution and pessimism about the hand that one has been dealt by fate.
The perfect Paul for a day at home suffering from a summer lurgy. Not too difficult but lots to make me smile. I can assure the boss that 24a definitely doesn’t apply to me today.
Thanks Matt. Instructive and amusing.
Liked 7d with its extra hint, not mentioned above, that plants need rain.
Disliked 20d as I don’t think M is a common abbv of McDonald’s, although I suppose that it comes from the “golden arches” and the answer is obvious. I am a bit touchy about using the initial letters of words to fill out clues.
No, it’s the ‘superior to’ that tells you it’s a first letter. I think!
Thanks all
After recently reaching the level of good or even very good this one represents a relapse for this setter.
Enumeration is often neglected in the assessment of puzzles here.
I find it critical when combined with over precise definitions.
Two fine (?) examples today: 11ac and 18ac. And because of their lengths and positions they turned a large part of the puzzle into a series of write-ins.
I didn’t know that Curly was one of the three stooges.
I quite liked 22ac but I’m sure the anagram in 10ac is an old chestnut.
15a looked like a (reversed) tribute to the clue mentioned in “Pretty girl in crimson rose (8)”:
Amundsen’s forwarding address? (4)
Belter – thanks Uncle & Paul.
Failed on HEEL which I think is one of the weakest clues – well, I would, wouldn’t I?
I’ve reached the point where I love to see Paul’s name when I open the crozzie.
More please.
Easier than many of Paul’s offerings.
Thanks UY; I didn’t know about the Stooges and couldn’t parse MONTENEGRO.
Well that was quite nice to come back to after a morning in the countryside.
At 23a I could see that STOOGE was hidden but couldn’t see how it fitted with ‘Curly’. I remembered the Three Stooges so took a punt. Surely, Paul wouldn’t pull out a 1950s comic troupe? In the same crossword as the (nearly) contemporary Lara Croft? Oh yes he can.
Bit of a raffle (and ticket) = ricket up the thread, but then he’s probably not from around these parts, is he. And nor am I.
I think I’ll go with whoever else likes 15 as the best one today, but a great puzzle from a great compiler. As for MUSH, well: I think it fair to say that old Bob Bunthorne’s work is much missed.
All fairly straightforward but I couldn’t parse some of the clues although the answers were obvious.
LARA was the last one in and I groaned when I got it – the original Lara originated in these parts and we’ve even got part of our inner ring road named after her. Favourite today, though, was ZIP CODE.
Thanks, Paul and Uncle Yap.
Much fun, as usual with Paul with the odd bit of rudery here and there. Like others, I was hung up on the Gettysburg Address before the penny dropped.
Giovanna x
Paul B -I have to agree. Lightning and thunder, bit of a blunda.
Thanks to all for a good puzzle and the enlightenment about 19d, in particular. Got bogged down by it for a while where tried to wring the clue to solve out as ‘chlorine’ until the crossers eliminated this and, by a process of elimination, led to ‘schmooze’ – like tupu@7 I was only aware of this in a more limited sense. Most confess, knowing Paul’s previous puzzles, I also toyed with something related to ‘pubics’ for a time.
Thanks Paul and Uncle Yap
Didn’t get to this one until today – for some funny reason I cannot print Paul crosswords from my work PC, so had to wait until I got home. Anyway, also found this one easier than normal with only a slight holdup with ZIP CODE and SCHMOOZE which was the last in. Did have to ponder between HEEL and HEED for a little while until the parse-able HEEL won out.
Thought that the two geographical clues – PORT SAID and GOMORRAH were the best, but did smile at 23.