Guardian 26,093 / Arachne

60 comments on “Guardian 26,093 / Arachne”

1. Eileen – many thanks, not least for underlining Arachne’s brilliance!

   ON 20dn – well, see 24dn: an inadequate lecturer might be so-so, that is, average = par?

2. Thanks Eileen
   In 20dn I read ‘inadequate’ as ‘below par’ which works for me in a down clue.

3. Thanks Eileen, another goodie from Arachne.

   Perhaps the DON is 20d is “below PAR” (which is a good thing in golf but can be bad elsewhere).

4. Thanks A&E. I agree – a brilliant puzzle, suffused with wit. My favourite was 22ac – BRUSCHETTA. Has anyone noticed that the mispronunciation of this word (BRUSSHETTA) is rapidly overtaking the correct BRU-SKET-TA? Even Paxo did this on University Challenge the other day. And in some restaurants, the staff will actually try to correct you if you use the true pronunciation.

5. I wish I’d waited for the right answer, Gaufrid!

6. Many thanks, Gaufrid – of course!

   Hi cholecyst

   I certainly have: I was talking about it just the other day – that and ‘paninis’!

7. Thanks Eileen. I agree ‘So much to savour.’

   I am glad to see that I did parse 18a STATESWOMAN correctly. I had not spotted the quadruple definition of ROUND! The Brahms and Liszt anagram indicator I loved as soon as I read the clue. Sillily I rushed to fill in NEOPRENE in 16d and only realised later that it was an anagram.

   Great setting Arachne.

8. Very enjoyable puzzle, with many highlights. It’s amazing not only how many slang terms for ‘inebriated’ there are, but also how many I don’t know (‘canned’). I took 9ac as a triple, describing a simple type of canon. Given this was an Arachne puzzle, I saw ‘Clinton’ and immediately thought ‘Hillary’.

   Definition of obduracy? Me in Hong Kong ordering “scollops”, knowing full well the waiter will “correct” me to “scallops”. Just as well there’s isn’t much “venson” on the menu…

9. Thanks Eileen. This was pretty good. BRUSCHETTA (second last in) I got by staring long enough at the 4 letters I had: it’s not toast, but the synecdoche is valid I guess. Never heard of 5d: but it was a light globe moment to get it. Hohum Spooner. A grin for the stray toff. Thanks Arachne.

10. ulaca – I had a similar problem in Bettys in Harrogate the other day (as I was telling my wife) –

    I asked the maid in dulcet tone
    To order me a buttered scone
    The silly girl has been and gone
    And ordered me a buttered scone.

11. Harrogate? Sounds like that wonderfully parochial Tyke couple on Catherine Tate! My daughter, at 5, used to give me the eyebrows when I told her it was scoan until you ate it then it wa scone.

12. Thanks for the blog, Eileen. Superb puzzle from Arachne! I loved BRUSCHETTA and DEIGHTON was a real aha moment. I was another one who was trying to make NEOPRENE at 16dn.

13. Thanks for the blog Eileen and to Arachne for yet another great puzzle.

    After a sound drubbing by Arachne last time round, I was very pleased to complete this and greatly enjoyed it. I particularly liked the stray toff, the quadruple in 9a and Brahms and Liszt as an anagram indicator amongst others.

    Off topic I’m afraid but I just wanted to say how nice it was to meet you on Saturday. Also, to thank you for being so kind in introducing me to other bloggers and commenters here and setters.

14. There’s always a treat with Arachne and this was no exception. 🙂

    Thanks Eileen (and Gaufrid & Andrew); ‘below par’ was brilliant!

    I’m more used to ‘Britishisms’ and didn’t realise there was an alternative spelling.

    I also particularly enjoyed CHINCHILLA, PAPS, REWARDING and PRIVATION [fantastic surface] Once I saw VERITY I thought there might have been a ‘Lambert’ around, but no.

15. [Thank you, ClaireS @13. I very much enjoyed meeting you, too.]

16. Excellent puzzle and that rarity for me, an Arachne completion.

    I’m with Robi @14 and didn’t know the variant spelling. It was last in for me.

    ECONOMIST top clue for me, even though ‘only’ an anagram, closely followed by the wonderful 3d. You’re more likely to see chimps than lairds in Blair Drummond these days, as it’s a safari park, but nevertheless very much an &lit I think.

17. Thanks to both the lovely ladies. Arachne on top form today and lucky Eileen getting to enjoy it twice over.

18. Thanks, Eileen.

    Typically good stuff from the Spider Woman. Not only does she take great care over her surfaces, as Eileen points out, but she always provides a wide range of clue types and devices – there are never too many anagrams or single letter substitutions. I’m not a huge fan of Spoonerisms, but 8d has the virtue of a perfectly good surface reading (which they don’t usually have).

    Favourites were the stray toff, the characteristically feminist statesperson, the hazel blooms and, of course, the toast. The mispronunciation of BRUSCHETTA is irritating, but wilful mangling of foreign food vocabulary seems to be a characteristic BRITICISM: ‘chorizo’ rendered as cho-REET-so is also depressingly widespread.

19. Thanks to Eileen for the blog. There were several cases where I had the right answer without understanding why.

    I finally spotted, in 17d, that ‘advanced’ meant that the lawman advances to the front of the answer.

20. Gervase, I’ve even heard Mexicans calling it cho-REET-so. Of course, Spaniards always accuse Mexicans of bastardizing the language (in the same way that y’all do to us Yanks), but there you go.

    In other septic news, I really ought to have a Cockney rhyming slang cheat-sheet handy every time I do these puzzles. Today’s mystery was what Brahms and Liszt were doing in the bruschetta clue.

    As for bruschetta, I think we have a need to see “sch” as a single phoneme, German-style. We’re not used to parsing it as two sounds, which makes the correct Italian pronunciation likely to disappear.

21. So close to completing an Arachne! Really loved BRUSCHETTA and DEIGHTON, failed to solve the triad DEPOT, PRIVATION and BRITICISM but great clues all along, so thanks to Eileen and the spider woman. I’m especially annoyed about not getting privation as my degree is in the aforementioned dismal science, shame on me! A bit 20D on my behalf.

22. Thanks Arachne and Eileen
    Several I had to get the parsing from Eileen – OEDIPUS REX and PARDON in particular I had no idea of the word play.
    I’m being a bit slow, but I still can’t see the first definition in the quadruple – why does “plain-spoken” = “round”?
    BRUSCHETTA my favourite too – and I am also irritated by the mispronunciation. I agree about “paninis”, and I once had (in a posh restaurant) one “ravioli” (though it contained lobster and was so good that I overcame my disappointment at its singular appearance).

23. Another enjoyable puzzle from Arachne. Last one in was 19d and we had to resort to electronic assistance – DOH – what plonkers we were.

    Sorry not to have seen you on Saturday Arachne but hope the family celebrations went well.

    Thanks Eileen!

24. Thank you, Eileen.

    This wasn’t one of Arachne’s Quiptics, was it? I struggled to finish it, but then when looking over it couldn’t find any excuse other than my own limited ability. PAPS is excellent. BRITICISM also very clever, nesspa?

    Since we’re off on one, my favourite restaurant mispronunciation is when the waiter or waitress tells me that they recommend the Spanish wine called REE ODGER.

    My head tends to fill up with random crap, so to get rid of some of it, here’s today’s trivia: when was the last time that the Grauniad published two consecutive daily puzzles set by women? Nutmeg yesterday, Arachne today. And of course the doyenne of 225 doing the blogging. The planets are aligned.

    [And ClaireS, I was really pleased to meet you at Sheffield too.]

25. muffin @22 – in a list of 22 possible definitions of ROUND as an adjective, Chambers gives: “16 – Plain-spoken”. I’d wondered it too when solving the clue and realising that canon, drinks and stout were all meanings for round.

    [Kathryn’s Dad@24 – likewise here. I hope to parse along with you in the future 🙂 ]

26. Thanks, ClaireS – not a usage I’m familiar with.

27. Hi muffin

    I think I had only come across it in the adverbial form, e.g. to be told off ’roundly’.

28. Hi Eileen
    Yes, I’ve heard that – didn’t make the connection!

29. The OED gives (as its 19th adjectival definition of “round”): “Of behaviour, attitude, etc.: open, honest; spec. (of speech) plain, clear, straightforward.”, and labels this usage as “now rare”. It cites Othello I.iii: “I will a round unvarnish’d tale deliver.”

30. Another magnificent Arachne.

    She never lets you down: there is always a clue about food, about politics and one that is a little rude: brilliantly delivered via 22ac (and tangentially via 19d), 10ac (plus, sort of, 18ac and 26ac), and 21ac.

    And usually a triple definition – this time going one better.

    22ac has to be a contender for clue of the year. To add to the wonders of an anagram of Schubert (my favourite composer)the glory of misleading synonyms at either end – toast and cheers.

31. Tennis Elbow, Iraq Knee, it’s all the same to me.

    An excellent puzzle again: but easier than I’d come to expect from her good self, I found.

    My cooking pet hate is when people use the noun “marinade” as a verb rather than “marinate”.

    Thanks setter, blogger, and posters, for an enjoyable puzzle and read.

32. A frisson this morning when I saw that Arachne was the setter, and I was not disappointed. Super puzzle and, as usual, beautifully blogged by Eileen, so thanks for that. I have never come across ‘isoprene’, though I’m familiar with neoprene, nor Briticism, but solved both from the wordplay. I wondered how our overseas contributing friends would get on with parsing ‘Swanson’, or are the famous vestas equally well known in foreign parts?

33. Hi Martin P

    “My cooking pet hate is when people use the noun “marinade” as a verb rather than “marinate”.”

    Your comment rang a loud peal of bells for me and sent me scurrying to the archive, because I knew I’d made a similar comment. I found it in my very first blog, over five [gasp] years ago, here:

    http://www.fifteensquared.net/2008/09/24/guardian-24502orlando/

    I’ve just checked again and SOED, Collins and Chambers all give ‘marinade’ as a verb – but I still marinate in a marinade! 😉

34. Thanks all
    The usual lovely product from Arachne.
    Martin P., those vey annoying people are merely agreeing with Mr Chambers, I wonder what they think of you.
    Still you are in good company today.
    My last in was ‘chinchilla’,favourite ‘paps’.

35. Rather belated comment on ISOPRENE: This is the common (!) name for the hydrocarbon more systematically named as 2-methyl-1,3-butadiene. Whereas Neoprene is the name of a synthetic rubber, isoprene is not a ‘rubber’ itself, but is the monomer – the repeating unit – in the polymer that is natural rubber (though the biosynthesis of latex doesn’t actually employ free isoprene). So ISOPRENE is a ‘rubber compound’ in the sense of a chemical compound closely associated with rubber, rather than a composite material.

36. What a wonderful puzzle. Eileen’s blog says it all really.

    There were so many good clues, but if I had to pick the one that made me smile the most it was the “stray toff”. It reminded me of the scene in last night’s Ambassadors in which Tom Hollander didn’t know where his valet had disappeared to. I also thought the clues for OEDIPUS REX and PRIVATION were excellent.

    ATKINS was my LOI after SETTS.

37. Thanks Eileen and Arachne. Nothing to add, except splendid work both!

38. What a good puzzle! Yes, we are all Arachnophiles. Learning, observation and sociopolitical comment gently delivered with style and wit. The best surfaces too. Thank you.

39. RCW: yes I wonder too!

    However dictionaries also say “beg the question” can mean “raise the question” as well, and so on. Usage, not etymology, seems to trump all.

    If athletes can say they “medalled” well, sure, anyone can “marinade” then.

    I’m sure Alice would agree. Nice to know Eileen feels as I do at least though.

40. Thanks Arachne and Eileen

    I really enjoy Arachne’s puzzles and today’s was no exception.

    But for once the ex-builders merchant in me has told me I have to raise a pedantic quibble with 23 “What I do on backstreet cobbles”

    Cobbles are rounded stones, sourced generally from a river bed, with an irregular diameter of 75-100mm. Setts are quarried atone, often granite, and generally roughly 100x100x100 to 200x200x200mm, cuboid or rectangular. Walking on a street paved with setts is not a problem, on a cobbled street it’s very uncomfortable.

    I accept that the definitions have probably merged in the dictionaries, but as a comment on previous puzzles has pointed out, dictionaries aren’t always right!

    Still enjoyed the puzzle a lot!

    Simon ô¿ô

41. Simon S @ 40
    I recognise your description of “cobbles” from my upbringing in Devon. I was very surprised, on moving to Lancashire, to discover that their “cobbled streets” were paved with much flatter stones that they referred to as “setts”.
    It seems to be a regional usage.

42. muffin, this Lancashire lad agrees with Simon S’s usage of cobbles and setts.

43. I’d like to agree with you, Dave, but I have actually heard locals refer to roads “cobbled with setts”.
    Perhaps we should just resort to French and call them all “pave” (that’s with e acute, which I don’t know how to enter).

44. Most excellent puzzle as always from Arachne, and interesting comments.

    Muffin@43: to produce an acute accent on a Mac, you hold down the Alt key, press e, let go the Alt key and press e again. I don’t know how it works on a PC.

45. Hi Muffin @43
    “… (that’s with e acute, which I don’t know how to enter).”

    Ctrl + Alt + e will give you é.

46. Re SETTS

    I think this is perhaps getting a bit silly.

    As Arachne is preoccupied today, I’ll take it upon myself to repeat her comment on the ‘sue / prosecute’ issue, a couple of puzzles ago:

    “Apologies for offending those in the know with ‘sue’=’prosecute’: the trouble is, setters have to rely on the dictionaries and sometimes dictionaries can be wrong. When things go awry we can only hope for indulgence and pray for forgiveness.”

    Give her a break, chaps!

47. Cobbles, setts; marinade, marinate; we’ll be off on sewage and sewerage next … But that’s what makes English fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.

48. Eileen @46

    With apologies for the lack of nuance in this monochrome medium, I said I knew I was being pedantic, perhaps I should have used a smiley. And I deliberately used the word quibble as I see it as of lesser weight than criticism – go on, tell me the dictionaries prove me wrong 🙂

    I’m very happy to indulge and forgive, but “those in the know” can be stymied by the apparently synonymous use of words which we think have different meanings.

    White flag now raised, olive branch extended…

49. Hi Simon S

    “I’m very happy to indulge and forgive, but “those in the know” can be stymied by the apparently synonymous use of words which we think have different meanings.”

    I know!! – it was I who raised the sue / prosecute question!

    Re ‘the lack of nuance in this monochrome medium’: smileys don’t always fill the bill, do they?

    I really think we’re pretty much on the same wavelength: white flag not necessary – olive branch gladly accepted. 😉

    Time for bed now, I think.

50. I heard bruschetta pronounced bruSHetta by Sicilian waiters in Syracusa last month. Language doesn’t stand still………..

51. As expected, another tour de force from Arachne.

    I wouldn’t have commented as it’s all been said by previous posters.

    However I must comment on all this discussion of pronunciation, word usage and incorrect dictionary entries!!!

    Language is the result of usage not etymology. Dictionaries merely report this. Etymology is a strange word as it means two different things.

    a) An account of how a word came to mean what it does today
    b) A word’s original meaning.

    It is itself a good example of what seems to annoy some previous posters.

    Thanks to Eileen and Arachne

52. Great puzzle. I agree with Eileen about speed-solving. Good luck to those who enjoy it and particularly those who are good at it (I’m hopeless) but in puzzles like this you might fill up the grid but you’ll miss a lot of extra nuances. I have recently been catching up on some old TV shows about Alfred Wainwright, who took the same view on walking.

    My two-bobsworth on the pronunciation wars. The accepted practice in English English is to sort of half-Frenchify French loanwords – full Frenchification is considered to be pretentious – full Trotterisation ignorant – yet the longer a French loanword stays in use the more it leaves Calais and the closer it gets to Peckham.

    Surely that applies to other languages too – and if so might it not include all the various foodstuffs my parents generation were able to label generically as “foreign muck” but which we are now all expected to be able to identify by name.

    My favourite Italian word is the musical term “cantabile”. Given the full Australian pronunciation it usually raises a smile. Mangetouts are marketed in Australia as “Snow Peas” – prolly for the same reason.

53. BTW only Gervase #18 noted one of Arachne’s regular tricks – the inclusion of a specifically female term where the male is the usual default – ie STATESWOMAN.

    Sadly Oxford online only lists this under STATESMAN – and there are further battles to be fought to get derivatives such as STATESWOMANLIKE accepted.

54. Coming so late to this I expected to have nothing to add. What do I find?

    #4 on BRUSCHETTA leading inexorably to #51 on the meaning of etymology! Along the way we have entirely off-topic observations on the pronunciation of foreign foodstuffs and the usage of culinary terms, various thoughts on dictionaries, references to earlier puzzles, indulgence and forgiveness, and some (on-topic) discussion of paving-stones.

    I had never heard of SETTS. I just assumed it was another word for cobbles. So Simon S, @40, you were interesting on the subject (though I could have done without the dimensions). And, more to the point, Collins on-line, rather elegantly, proves you were right to quibble.

    I hope you were not being disingenuous @48 in response to Eileen @46 where she quotes Arachne – “sometimes dictionaries can be wrong”.

    Now, Eileen, you know how much I love and admire you. And to be fair, your quibble was slight, but in the case of ‘sue/prosecute’ the dictionaries aren’t wrong. In my experience they rarely are. That is my point. One of my pet hates (nice oxymoron that) is the insistence by some that they know better than the dictionaries and that, for instance, the most common use of the expression ‘beg the question’ is incorrect and that its only true meaning is a rather strange description of a logical fallacy, a use I have never encountered.

    Finally I think B(nto) makes an important point, particularly relevant to the cause of our losing the services of Uncle Yap.

    PS The etymology of etymology is based on a Greek word meaning true. Language, Truth and Logic. Which Ayer got wrong.

    PPS Great puzzle, fine blog. Thanks.

55. Simon S @40 – I very much enjoyed your quibble over cobbles complete with detailed dimensions, it made me laugh out loud. This would be perfect fodder for Pedants Corner In Private Eye.

    Thanks to Arachne for a super puzzle and to Eileen for the very comprehensive blog.

56. Yes, I think Arachne is my favourite setter these days, along with Bannsider in the Indy when he’s on form.

    It’s a small point on an otherwise fine blog, but 10ac is PRIVAT[isat]ION rather than PRIV[atis]ATION; it’s ‘is a time’ that’s abandoned, not ‘a time is’.

    According to the OED, ‘marinade’ has been used as a verb since 1682. Let’s hope people get over it soon.

57. What a great way to start the weekend. This was a fantastic magnum opus from the woman who recently became my better half 😉

    As a solver, it was a delightful challenge on all fronts, with 22ac the runaway COD. As a setter, it was a mistressful(?) combination of technical wizardry, witty orchestration, inspired definitions and fiendish occlusion, with 22ac the runaway COD, where now “D” means, for me, decade.

    Brava!

58. Thanks, Mr A Writinghawk @56 – stupid slip, corrected now.

59. Thanks Eileen for the blog, although you didn’t really answer many of the questions I came here with. Not your fault, of course.

    This one left me feeling a little stale and rubbery. Many grubby clues that seem unsolvable without magic insight.

    I ticked none as “special” but sadly down-arrowed 9 (what???), 14 (more junk), and 22 (OK, sorry, not a cockney) Across; 5 (again, what???), 7 (what???), 8 (who would say what? awful clue! worst “spoonerism” I have ever read), 20 (the least of the worst, I can see it I suppose).

    Sorry to spoil the love party, but I really found this puzzle to be a verminous warren of clumsiness.

    Oh well, not every day and every puzzle is perfect for everyone.

    Thanks for the effort, Arachne.

60. In 23d, setts are defined as cobbles. “Stones” would have been more accurate, because setts and cobbles are different. Very enjoyable crossword, though.

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