Guardian Cryptic No. 26,296 by Paul

by

The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26296.

It seemed at first that this was going to be Paul at his easiest – I started at the top a I usually do, and the first few clues yielded readily, although I was warned of a couple of mistakes, in 2D and 9A,where my first try was FISH, which kind of almost nearly works (and even fits with 11/19, but it does not give the meanings of DISH required for a couple of the later clues). Apart from these hiccups, the top half went in in short order, but the bottom half took quite a bit longer, even if there were no further disagreements on the answers!

 

Across
1. Greatly respect the slough of publicity? (6)
ADMIRE A charade of AD (‘publicity’) plus MIRE (‘slough’) – the order of the particles is fine, even if splitting the phrase up as I have done might suggest otherwise.
4. Protection from rays — shell? (6)
SHADES A charade of ‘s’ plus HADES (‘hell’). SHADES as sunglasses.
9. Lovely taste of food is here (4)
DISH A hidden answer (‘taste of’) in ‘fooD IS Here’ – or you might just see it as a double definition.
10. Gut sac where eruption has me bothered (10)
PERITONEUM An anagram (‘bothered’) of ‘eruption’ plus ‘me’.
11,19. 9 of squiffy dwarves? (6,7)
POTTED SHRIMPS Definition and literal interpretation.
12. Bomber returning friendless — then happy? (5,3)
ENOLA GAY A charade of ENOLA, a reversal (‘returning’) of ALONE (‘friendless’) plus GAY (‘happy’), for the bomber, named after the pilot’s mother, which delivered the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
13. Peas — unknown quantity devoured by boy, a game backfiring! (9)
GARBANZOS An envelope (‘devoured by’) of Z (‘unknown quantity’) in GARBANOS, a reversal (‘backfiring’) of SON (‘boy’) plus ‘a’ plus BRAG (card ‘game’). Sometimes called garbanzo beans, or chickpea.
15,25. Weapons costing an arm and a leg pinched by Carry On star (4,4)
SIDE ARMS An envlope (‘pinched by’) of DEAR (‘costing an arm and a leg’) in SIMS (Joan, ‘Carry On star’).
16. Altogether an expert (4)
BUFF Double definition (“in the buff/altogether” – naked).
17. Distance between roads most extraordinary (9)
STRANGEST An envelope (‘between’) of RANGE (‘distance’) in ST ST (streets, ‘roads’).
21. 9 sliced up, that is something to eat (5-3)
CUTIE PIE A charade of CUT (‘slicd up’) plus I.E. (‘that is’) plus PIE (‘something to eat’).
22. A tapering structure, long (6)
ASPIRE A charade of ‘a’ plus SPIRE (‘tapering structure’).
24,7. Meat 9, beginning to catch something burnt, acquires treatment (10,7)
CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE A charade of C (‘beginning to Catch’) plus UMBER (‘something burnt’) plus LANDS A USAGE (‘acquiress treatment’).
25. See 15
– See 15
26. Taste fish, including last of tunny (3,3)
TRY OUT An envelope (‘including’) of Y (‘last of tunnY‘) in TROUT (‘fish’).
27. Disease like that restricts young people for starters (6)
TYPHUS An envelope (‘restricts’) of YP (‘Young People for starters’) in THUS (‘like that’).

Down
1. A house unseen on skyline over a US state (7)
ARIZONA A charade of ‘a’ plus  [ho]RIZON (‘skyline’) without HO (‘house unseen’) plus ‘a’.
2. Nonsense that’s going to this setter’s head? (2,3)
MY HAT Definition and literal interpretation. I was in the process, on the strength of the initial M, of confidently entering MY EYE, with discourse about Betty Martin on the side, when the software I use informed me that that was not what Paul had in mind. So here is my second guess (and thanks to the software and to PeeDee its creator).
3. Writer, not entirely enthralled by French sculptor, forced to help out (5,2)
ROPED IN An envelope (‘enthralled by’) of PE[n] (‘writer not entirely’) in RODIN (‘French sculptor’).
5. Powerful car stolen with pistol (3,3)
HOT ROD A charade of HOT (‘stolen’) plus ROD (‘pistol’).
6. Girl gripped by consumption sound as a bell? (4-1-4)
DING-A-LING An envelope (‘gripped by’) of GAL (‘girl’) in DINING (‘consumption’). Nothing to do with Mimi.
7. See 24
– See 24
8. Rehydrate food after processing — that’s what we’re going to do (5,2,3,3)
ORDER OF THE DAY An anagram (‘after procesing’) of ‘rehydrate food’.
14. Super to travel north, if by an unlikely link between oceans (6,3)
BAFFIN BAY A charade of BAF, a reversal (‘to travel north’ in a down light) of FAB (‘super’) plus FINBAY, an anagram (‘unlikely’) of ‘if by an’. Baffin Bay connects the Arctic and Atlantic oceans.
16. Fight, having boxed that Spanish nose! (7)
BOUQUET An envelope (‘having boxed’) of QUE (‘that Spanish’) in BOUT (‘fight’).
18. Break off one of seven (7)
AWAYDAY A charade of AWAY (‘off’) plus DAY (‘one of seven’ in a week).
19. See 11
– See 11
20. Disposable vessel neither opens nor closes — that’s illuminating (6)
APERCU [p]APER CU[p] (‘disposable vessel’) without its first and last letters (‘neither opens nor closes’).
23. 9 of fruit? (5)
PEACH Double definition, if DISH is taken in its ‘lovely’ meaning.

22 comments on “Guardian Cryptic No. 26,296 by Paul”

  1. Many thanks, Peter.

    I thought this was Paul on top form, with some witty clueing and clever use of the theme. Luckily I saw the gateway clue quickly, which helped with all the 9s. I liked the anagram at ORDER OF THE DAY as well as DING-A-LING. Needed a word search for GARBANZOS, though.

    I thought APERCU was a clever spot, but was slightly surprised that, when taking two Ps out of a word is what’s required, this setter didn’t choose another option to tell us that …

    Fine puzzle, thank you to Paul.

  2. A theme for the foodies!

    Dishes everywhere and ORDER OF THE DAY down the centre.

    Good job Paul 😀

  3. Thanks, PeterO, for the blog. [I did initially enter ‘MY EYE’ – I’m not sure I know ‘My hat’ as an expression of disbelief, except as in ‘I’ll eat my hat’.]

    Pretty much what K’s D said.

    The only weakness, for me, was the use of ARM in the clue for 15,25, which held me up for a while, because I didn’t believe that could be the answer. [I must confess that, even when I did finally enter it, I tried at first to parse it down the SID [James] route. 🙁

    Thanks, Paul – most enjoyable.

  4. A Paul puzzle I enjoyed, though, like Kathryn’s Dad, I needed some help to find ‘garbanzos’. I twigged the ‘garb’ part quickly enough, and the ‘son’, but didn’t know whether to insert another ‘n’ , a ‘y’ or a ‘z’ (‘x’ always seemed unlikely). My only quibble is over 15/25, with the repetition of ‘arm’, but that’s a small issue, and I thought for a while that the Carry On actor might be ‘Sid’, for James of that ilk.
    Several clues to relish, but I especially liked those for ‘Arizona’, ‘apercu’ and, my favourite, ‘shades’.

  6. Thank you, PeterO, nice blog.

    Eileen @3 me too with MY EYE. I don’t know why, either.

    I complicated things by trying to believe Alistair SIM was a Carry On actor. Was he ever? Too early I expect.

    Good puzzle, Paul, many thanks.

  7. I am not too thrilled by this puzzle. I have many quibbles and hairs to split. 20d: no epiphany for me there, grok. 15,23: Needs trivia GK about some actress in some tv show, what is this NYT? Then onomatopoeia in 6d, with multiple bell sounds that could fit in.

    Is it kosher to check the solution or use software aids? I solve on line and Guardian provides me a button to check one solution at a time.

  8. We enjoyed this – agreeing with Peter O that the apparently easy start was a bit of an illusion,because we got slower and slower! Failed completely on Enola Gay – unknown to us. But there were lots of real chuckles, such as Apercu, cutie pie and Baffin Bay. Surprised that My Hat was unknown to some. Garbanzos was fun.

  9. ravilyn @7

    The Carry On series (films primarily, though there was a television series) was very popular in the UK, but I doubt it had much impact elsewhere.
    As for the check button, it is there for you to use or not, as you wish; there are no crossword police to call you for the transgression. The software I referred to in my preamble has the primary function of allowing me to blog each answer as I enter it, and help format the result; as such it is an invaluable aid to getting published in good time. If the solution is available at blogging time, the programme will just warn me that my answer does not match – and again, that is a useful time-saving feature, as the discrepancy would eventually become obvious, certainly in this case, on solving the remaining clues.

  10. Thanks, Paul for a super crossword and PeterO for the blog.

    Like others, I thought of MY EYE first for MY HAT but the expression wasn’t unknown and, of course, fitted the clue.

    Sid James sprang to mind and was hard to get him out again!

    I didn’t know GARBANZOS and like George Clements @4, didn’t know which unknown symbol to go for.Certainly needed help for that one.

    APERCU and CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE were favourites.

    Giovanna x

  11. I would rate myself as slightly below average. Grew up in South India, settled in USA now. These puzzles are very hard for me. I assumed people who post here would routinely solve the whole puzzle without checking the answers or using software aids. It is very difficult to set cryptic crosswords for Indic languages because they are written syllable by syllable. But I have come across true cryptic crosswords set according to the same rules in Tamil, my mother tongue. I have felt the way my brain thinks through the clues and searches for solutions. Orders of magnitude difference. There is no way I could catch up to a native born Brit in English cryptics.

    I am playing against myself, so I make up my own rules. And they are: don’t look up things like towns of Cumberland county or Italian foot ball clubs on the net, don’t do pattern matching using wild cards in onelook.com, don’t use cheat button, use check button only if the answer is iffy, if the answer is wrong delete the accidentally revealed letters. Works for me. Eventually check the parsings in this site.

    I am sure people with far more skill are quiet and here I am yapping away to glory.

  12. As a constant user of ‘my hat’ I can safely say that I have never used it to indicate disbelief. I use it to indicate wonder of an enthusiastic kind.

    Is Paul trying to set some sort of world record for using cheapening epithets for females? If so, he is doing quite well.

  13. Thanks Paul and PeterO
    Found this hard work, largely because 9a was my LOI (despite all the references!).

    I’m with Eileen and George on SIDE ARMS – clumsy to have “arm” in the clue. I also failed to parse the answer, as I too couldn’t get any further than Sid.

  14. Not yapping at all, ravilyn; it’s interesting to hear your perspective. I don’t think you can really ‘cheat’ at a crossword: it’s not an exam, just a bit of fun. Some people eschew aids, but personally, if I’m really stuck, I’ll use a wordsearch to get me going again. If I’m having to use e-help too much, then it’s usually an indication that the puzzle is beyond me, and it’s certainly not unknown that I’ll give up and then come here later to see what I missed. And learn something for next time, hopefully.

  15. Hi ravilyn. I’m in agreement with Kathryn’s Dad in thinking that you can’t really cheat. A lot of the fun of crosswords for me is in the learning process and seeing the different ways that the clues make the words. It’s lovely if I can do that without looking anything up, but sometimes/often I need a little bit of help. I’ve only being doing crosswords for 10 years though, so maybe in another 30 years…

    If I find myself looking up too many answers it’s usually a sign that I should be doing some work instead.

  16. Thanks Paul, nice puzzle.

    Thanks also to PeterO; I also used a wordsearch for GARBANZOS – too many boys names and games to sort it out if you don’t know the word.

    CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE was quite fun but might have been better with ‘a treatment’ methinks.

    I’m amazed that Paul eschewed mention of PERINEUM in 10. 😉

  17. I’m afraid I admitted defeat without getting GARBANZOS (never heard of them) or CUTIE PIE, so at least for me it was the hardest Paul for a long time, but as always there was plenty of entertainment and plenty to admire. Liked APERCU, SHADES and BUFF…

    Thanks to Paul and PeterO

  18. Count me as another who started quickly but slowed down considerably towards the end. An excellent puzzle, IMHO.

    CUTIE-PIE was my LOI after I finally deciphered the wordplay. I teased GARBANZOS out from the wordplay and was relieved to find it was correct when I checked it post-solve, and the same goes for PERITONEUM, although the assumed connection to peritonitis made it the likely arrangement of the anagram fodder. I’m another one who was trying to shoehorn SID James into SIDE ARMS before the Joan SIMS penny dropped.

  19. This seemed an easier Paul for me than usual, helped by write-ins at 5d, 8d, and 10ac. I did get briefly hung up on 19d, though: in the U.S. we tend not to pluralize “shrimp.”

  20. Thanks to Paul and to PeterO.

    I was another one who was held up by being conviced that ‘arm’ could not be in the answer at 15,25ac. I thought of Joan Sims straight away, and for a while, thought that it might be the whole answer (especially when 19 rendered tha ‘m’ for 25ac).

    I was also fooled by my initial belief that 18 was ‘avarice’ (‘off’ = ‘ice’), which made me doubt ‘cumberand sausage’.

    I found it to be a very enjoyable puzzle, even if, like Tom Hutton, I’m not terribly impressed by the “cheapening epithets for females”.

  21. Thanks Paul and PeterO

    Running a day late this week with the Guardian puzzles. Was lucky to be travelling on the train this morning with an ex English colleague who was able to help me with a few of the British-isms – Ms SIMS, MY HAT and POTTED SHRIMPS – I did have to find the CUMBERLAND SAUSAGE by myself a bit later.

    Did remember the ENOLA GAY today.

    I found all of the references to women to be more along the affectionate line, rather than ‘cheapening epithets’ and thought that it added to what was a clever theme where DISH fluctuated between female and food ! But as has been said many times before = we are all different.

    Good fun in my book.

  22. Indeed, Bruce, we are all different! This site proves it: for me, the stand out clue – by far – was SHADES and I presumed everyone would be raving about it. But when I visit, I find it’s hardly mentioned! What do I know…….?

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