Guardian Prize 26,615 by Boatman

by

A suitably-themed puzzle for one appearing on 4th July.

The theme – US Presidents – was immediately obvious from the clues.  I only realised its significance when John McEnroe referred to the date while commentating on Wimbledon (I was watching Andy Murray win his third round match as I did the puzzle).  I counted no fewer than 18 clues which either led to the name of a President or incorporated a President’s name in the clue, or as part of the answer.  Congratulations to Boatman for getting so many in the grid (the names are highlighted).  The surfaces of the clues were often very elegant, even if the answers were often on the easy side for a prize puzzle.

In the blog I have added brief details for some of the less well-known Presidents (on this side of the pond, anyway).  I particularly look forward to reading comments from our US solvers, such as Mr Penney.

completed grid

 

Across
7 JACK FROST
Kennedy famously meeting Castro in crisis — no sign of thaw? (4,5)

*(JFK CASTRO).  The first presidential reference.
8 GRANT
President opening Gettysburg Address with passion (5)

G(ettysburg) RANT.  And the first answer which is itself the name of a President (Ulysses S Grant, 18th President, 1869 – 1877).
9 MT OLYMPUS
Gods here reflect the head of state on high, my fate, my beginning (2,7)

S(tate) UP (on high) MY LOT M(y) (all rev).  At first I thought that PUS at the end of the word might stand for President of the United States, but the usual abbreviation is  POTUS (understandably), and in any event it wasn’t reversed.
10 SHRUB
Perhaps Bush shredded his letters about the end of the USSR (5)

(USS)R in *BUSH.
12 DAMSON
Constituents of Adams once produced fruit (6)

Hidden in ADAMS ONCE.  There were two Presidents of this name, John Adams (1797 -1801) who was the second President, and John Quincy Adams (1825 – 1829), who was the sixth, and the son of John Adams.
13 RESIDENT
Perhaps Reagan lost his head in office? (8)

(P)RESIDENT.  Presumably any other President would have served just as well.
16 FLAT AFT
Sails hauled tight on boat of Florida president (4,3)

FLA (abbreviation for Florida) TAFT (William Taft, 27th President, in office 1909 – 1913).  I couldn’t find the phrase in Chambers: any sailors out there recognise it?
19 WIDGEON
President losing his cool but triumphed without getting the bird (7)

(COOL)IDGE in WON.  Calvin Coolidge (1923 – 1929) was the 30th President.
22 LOTHARIO
Clinton reputedly with wanton harlot says: “I have to pay?” (8)

*HARLOT, I O (sounds like “I owe”).  If he hadn’t already appeared, this clue might even more appropriately have referred to JFK.
25 CARTON
President: no hesitation getting on the box (6)

CART(ER) ON.
27 NIXON
President laid bare? (5)

Sounds like “nicks on” and may also be a reference to the impeachment of Richard Nixon.
28 STARLIGHT
Boatman caught in delicate illumination (9)

TAR in SLIGHT.
29 HAYES
Lack of clarity in speech by president (5)

Sounds like “haze”.  Rutherford B Hayes (1877 – 1881) was the 19th President.
30 SCROLL BAR
Start to salivate about bun (chocolate?) seen in window (6,3)

S(alivate) C (circa= about) ROLL BAR.  A fairly elliptical definition; I spent some time looking for phrases ending in “bay”, thinking of a different sort of window.
Down
1 MANTRA
I keep saying this femme fatale has no power (6)

MANTRA(p).
2 SKILL SET
My abilities sell tragic content in satire (5,3)

*SELL in SKIT.
3 TRUMAN
Boatman’s spirit seen in colour of president (6)

RUM (the Royal Navy’s traditional drink) in TAN.  Harry S Truman (1945 – 1953) was the 33rd President.
4 ESTUARY
Revolution in USA! Try supporting last to give mouth (7)

(giv)E over (it’s a down clue)  *(USA TRY).
5 ORCHID
Alternatively, dressed down with a flower (6)

OR CHID (which is the past tense of chide).
6 IN TURN
Clue for Northern Ireland, taking its place (2,4)

If you turn NI, you get IN TURN: at least, that’s how I interpret this clue.  In other words “IN TURN” is itself a clue for Northern Ireland.
11 ASTI
Bottoms up! It’s a reason to fill your glass (4)

Hidden and reversed (bottoms up) in “IT’S A”.
14,21 EYE CONTACT
“It’s important to maintain trust“, Eisenhower said on diplomacy (3,7)

Sounds like “Ike on tact”.  Dwight D Eisenhower (1953 – 1961) was generally known as Ike.
15,17 TENANT
One in temporary accommodation (6)

AN in TENT.  Our first & lit; shame the grid meant it had to be split in two parts.
16 FAL
Flower seen in autumn in US, with leaf’s first drop (3)

FAL(l); the river gives its name to the Cornish town of Falmouth.
17  
See 15
18 FORD
President might introduce ads to create trends or reach family men? (4)

I think that this clue refers also to Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World and to Henry Ford and Ford cars generally.  The explanation by Biggles A @3 is one that I missed.
20 GARFIELD
Unexpectedly agile FDR becomes president (8)

*(AGILE FDR).  James Garfield (March – September 1881) was the 20th President.
21  
See 14
23 OBI MAN
President, one in role of a nation’s leader: he does magic? (3,3)

OBAMA, with I for A, plus N(ation).  An obi-man (Chambers has it hyphenised), is one who practises witchcraft in the West Indies.
24 HOOVER
Not wholly macho, overworked president (6)

Hidden in “MACHO OVERWORKED”.  Herbert Hoover (1929 – 1933) was the 31st President.
25 CARBOY
Perhaps Lincoln led servant from the bottle (6)

CAR BOY.  The Lincoln Motor Company makes luxury cars, some of which have been used by US Presidents.
26 OXHEAD
Fool, foolishly hoaxed (6)

*HOAXED.
*anagram

36 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,615 by Boatman”

  1. Thanks bridgesong, and to Boatman for an enjoyable solve. I did find FLAT AFT online, but no reference anywhere to OBI MAN, so that was the one hiccup for me, though I assumed that had to be the answer.

  2. I enjoyed this, but it played to one of my strengths – an interest in US presidents. I got a lot of the answers quite quickly (by my rather plodding standards) and then took a while on a few at the end, although I was slowed down by leaping at IN LOCO for 6d – and was disappointed to find it was wrong, it seemed so neat. 14d didn’t click for ages, because I always have trouble with ‘sounds like’ clues, but I liked it when I got it. And eventually I realised 23d was not OBI WAN, when I discovered that OBI was actually a word (funny I never knew that) and I realised how the clue actually worked! So a lot of fun, for which thanks Boatman, and thanks, bridgesong.

  3. Thanks bridgesong. Clever construction but as with many themed puzzles it was a case of finding where a limited number of possible answers could be fitted in and once this is done the rest follows easily enough.

    In 18 I thought the answer could be written either F or D. Then f+ads is fads=trends and d+ads is dads= family men. Or is that too obscure?

  4. Loved the puzzle and the theme!
    18d – Introduce ADS twice in FORD –>FADS OR DADS
    27a – NIX ON–>Nothing on, or bare! I thought it was very clever.
    12a – I think the clue was referring to speculation about Reagan, who succumbed to Alzheimer’s which was diagnosed well after he left office, that there might have been signs of the disease in his later years in office.
    7a was my favo(u)rite!
    Thanks Boatman, and bridgesong for the blog.

  5. An entertaining challenge that took longer than it should have. Most of the presidents were familiar but HAYES took longer, as did SCROLL BAR and CARBOY (my last in).

    Thanks to Boatman and bridgesong

  6. The cafes round here offer a scroll as a bun with cinnamon filling and coffee icing. This confused me on 30 as I could not see the need for salivate and about inthe clue. Google shows the same but online Chambers doesn’t so I guess I can’t complain too loudly.

    Enjoyed the puzzle so thanks to Boatman and Bridgesong

  7. We had SCHOOL CAT for 30a. S from start of salivate then an anagram of chocolat (as in pain au chocolat). A cat in the window of a school was a sign (in days of less religious freedom) that there was a catholic priest there secretly celebrating mass. Sadly, I think scroll bar works rather better.
    Thanks to Boatman for a delightful puzzle and Bridgesong for the blog.

  8. A triple whammy.

    Worst prize ever, worst Boatman ever and worst decision/non-appearance by our illustrious ed.

    Once you’d seen this was going to lead to US Presidents (about a nanosecond) there wasn’t much else to do. I found this a little one-dimensional. I’m not a great admirer of our “friends” across the pond and am even less interested in their rich presidents

    Dull, dull, dull , dull ……

    Thanks to bridgesong and Boatman (if it was he?)

    Did I mention this was dull?

  9. Thanks for the comments so far. The wordplay for FORD had eluded me; it’s a device often used by Azed (and it usually fools me when he uses it, as well!).

  10. I got most of the presidents quickly with the exception of HAYES which came very late and I needed bridgesong’s parsing to understand OBI MAN and SKILL SET (and FLAT AFT was new to me until I finally saw the TAFT). Still, I fared better than I normally do with this setter. Thanks to Boatman and bridgesong.

  11. Enjoyable enough but perhaps a little straightforward for a prize. I’m always nonplussed when the prize puzzle is one of the easiest of the week. I think Brendan goes a little too far but I confess to feeling a tad shortchanged.
    Still, thanks Boatman.

  12. I know after last week that reference to the current prize is discouraged but I can’t help but echo Bnto’s concern that our illustrious ed is missing in action.

  13. Thanks all. I read 18 as adding ADS to FORD to give FOR DADS, which fits well with “reach family men”. Wasn’t so sure about the “trends” though.

  14. I was afraid that my lack of knowledge of US presidents would hinder my enjoyment of this puzzle but it was so well clued that I had less difficulty than I had anticipated. I failed to solve 29a, and I incorrectly entered OBI WAN @ 23d even though I could not parse it.

    New words for me were FLAT AFT, WIDGEON & OXHEAD.

    I liked JACK FROST, IN TURN, EYE CONTACT AND MT OLYMPUS and my favourites were LOTHARIO & NIXON.

    I parsed 18 in the same way as Biggles @3.

    Thanks Boatman and birdsong

  15. I tried to parse FORD as a hybrid between GN @4 and DuncT @13. FORD twice, with “ads” added twice gives “Fads OR(D)FOR Dads”, but it leaves the D in the first FORD, so I was hoping for a satisfactory explanation here. The annotated solution on the Guardian site says “F OR D [Fads/Dads]”, so I think Biggles @3 has it right, though that seems to leave “reach” in the clue just to give a smoother surface.

    OBI MAN was my LOI, after being side-tracked by Obi-Wan Kenobi. I knew about Obeah, but I didn’t know the alternative spelling.

    Favourites: MT OLYMPUS for the almost poetic clue, WIDGEON for the nice surface, STARLIGHT for the “Boatman” misdirection, IN TURN for the unusual construction and EYE CONTACT for the surface again.

    Thanks to Boatman and bridgesong.

  16. Thanks Boatman and bridgesong.

    I think a president might have been missed, FDR at 20d was used to refer to Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 32nd President (1933 – 1945), and to distinguish him from Theodore Roosevelt.

    I found this crossword great fun, but got tied up for a while at 25a, trying to put CARTER on the box seat of his cart, and at 4d with USGRANT having a rant. SCROLL BAR and IN TURN were beyond me.

    There were so many good clues, JACK FROST, WIDGEON, EYE CONTACT, LOTHARIO, ESTUARY, STARLIGHT, CARBOY…

  17. Thanks a lot for the blog, bridgesong.

    I’ve often found Boatman’s puzzles frustrating and hard to get into, but this puzzle I really enjoyed once I got into it.

    However, 23d has been driving me mad all week! I considered OBI MAN (among other combinations) as it had some of the letters of Obama, but I didn’t see the I for A substitution in the wordplay so couldn’ settle on it. And I was perhaps led astray by the fact that I know the Caribbean witchcraft as obeah, not obi. In the end I entered OBI WAN in hope, as he did a sort of magic in Star Wars! Good to know the proper answer, and the wordplay.

    One very minor gripe: I’m not keen on abbreviations being entered as solutions: in this case, MT (for Mount) Olympus. But that’s just me.

    Some excellent clues, and I was impressed by how many contained reference to ‘president’, and in so many different ways.

  18. Thanks to all – glad (most of) you enjoyed it. It’s always a pleasure to hear the strange resonances that occur to you, most of which were intended in the setting, but not all. SCHOOL CAT is one I’ll have to remember for another occasion …

  20. Boatman, thanks for dropping in. Good to know that we haven’t completely misunderstood what you were trying to convey.

    Biggles @12, I see what you mean. Perhaps there will be another one next week as well?

    Cookie @16, I didn’t bother to flag up FDR as a Presidential reference, because I thought even British solvers were likely to recognise it.

  21. Thanks boatman,

    Enjoyed this a lot and the theme was fun, especially TAFT who seems to be a forgotten one. With it being a week ago with many crosswords in the interim, it’s always hard to remember details – but I remember obi man gave me no issues having come across him recently, and I remember simply enjoying it.

    Well there’s more today.

    Thank you bridgesong – I think the prize puzzle bloggers deserve extra mention since the response tends to be muted after a week – so thank you.

  22. I thought that might be the reason, but wondered if some younger solvers might not be familiar with the initials.
    Thanks again for the blog, I really needed it.

  23. Cookie@19 – I’m sure you’re much too nice a person to be thinking of the same “taking care of” as I am. It reminds me of the classic scene in the Father Ted episode “The Plague” in which Ted asks the resident island psycho, Tom, to take care of the rabbits he is trying to hide from Bishop Brennan.

    I always try to solve without aids so I found this as challenging as most Boatman puzzles. I needed aids to get HAYES at the end; the ?A?E? checkers weren’t exactly helpful but I’m usually quite good on US history so I’m quite annoyed with myself.

  27. Thanks to Boatman and bridgesong. No word from Mr Penny yet so I will contibute as an American
    of long standing but now mostly sitting. I enjoyed the puzzle very much. Regarding 10across:
    SHRUB was the title of a very uncomplimentary biography of George Bush by Molly Ivins.

    Cheers…

  28. Thanks for the blog (and the shout-out at the top). I enjoyed this puzzle; it’s amazing how many presidential references could be crammed in here. Notice, by the way, that (if both Bushes are counted at 10) there’s a reference–in a clue, in wordplay, or in an answer–to every president between 1923 and the present with the sole exception of Lyndon Johnson. (Meanwhile, earlier eras are represented by the Adamses, Lincoln, Grant, Hayes, Garfield (that’s four in a row!), and Taft.

    Some trivia on the more obscure folks here:

    Ford was appointed Vice President in 1974 by the Senate after Spiro Agnew resigned (due to a corruption scandal unrelated to Watergate). Then when Nixon resigned, Ford became President. Ford lost his 1976 election bid (to Carter). This means that Ford is the only person in history to become President without ever winning a national election.

    After Taft’s presidency, he became Chief Justice—he’s the only person in history to have held both offices. Also, in a country noted for obesity, he’s the last president to have been obese (also the last with facial hair–he had a walrus mustache). Okay, so Clinton was a bit soft around the edges, but not really obese.

    Garfield was shot a few months after taking office—the shooter was a disgruntled office-seeker who had been refused a sinecure post that he thought he was entitled to. Garfield was the second of the four presidents to have been assassinated (the others being Lincoln, McKinley (1897-1901), and JFK).

    Calvin Coolidge, known as “Silent Cal,” did less than any other President. We know this because his workdays started the latest and ended the soonest. The entire content of his public address after he decided not to run for re-election was, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928.” Armchair psychologists have sometimes suggested that he was suffering from clinical depression.

    He was succeeded by Herbert Hoover, who had the misfortune to become president in 1929.

    Ulysses S. Grant was better known as being the victorious general in the Civil War. The Credit Mobilier corruption scandal erupted during his presidency, but he was never directly tied to it. Historians disagree sharply about whether he was a good president or not.

    Lastly, Rutherford B. Hayes, most famous for how he was elected. He lost the popular vote to Samuel Tilden. But there was a dispute over the electoral votes from several southern states. (If you recall the U.S. election of 2000, this will sound familiar). An electoral commission was appointed to sort out the mess. They eventually awarded the election to Hayes, apparently based on an understanding that he would withdraw Union troops from the southern states (effectively leaving those states free to begin oppressing their black populations). This event, mockingly referred to as the Compromise of 1876, counts as one of the darker moments in U.S. history—one we sadly still haven’t lived down.

    ~~~~~

    Brendan @8: I’ve suffered through puzzles with themes like Shadow Cabinet members, British seaside resorts, brands of candy that for some reason are not exported from Britain, and various British television shows. In each case, I’ve either Googled and learned, or shrugged and moved on. At least in this case, the U.S. has been (for good or ill) a superpower since at least the 1940s, so over half of these names belong properly to world history and are people you probably remember for that reason. In any case, I’m sorry you dislike Americans so much.

  29. Thanks mrpenney – you might be needed again next week.

    Don’t know if it’s true, but someone is reputed to have bet that they could get more than two words out of Calvin Coolidge, to which he replied “you lose”.

  30. Thanks mrpenny, for the trivia. The story that fascinates me is the deep personal friendship that formed between former rivals Carter and Ford, and Clinton and George HW Bush, in spite of often acrimonious campaigns. So looking forward to seeing Carter for the first time at his book-signing in Atlanta on Wednesday!

  31. Thanks mrpenney @28 for your interesting and informative comment. I wouldn’t worry about Brendan’s comments as anyone who has a blanket dislike of another nation is clearly not worth taking seriously. It’s like these people who say things like “I hate country music” or “I hate jazz”. If you question them, you soon find out that they know nothing whatsoever about the object of their hatred.

    I think that Brendan owes you an apology for his unpleasant views.

  32. Just to put the record straight I didn’t actually say that I disliked America or its citizens.

    My actual words were that I wasn’t “a great admirer”. I don’t believe that this would be held as a defamatory remark even in a court of law.

    I have visited the States on business so my remarks are not blind prejudice just an opinion formed from experience. i.e. I didn’t think what a wonderful place this is. Neither did I think this is an awful place. To be honest I found the states a very “different” culture than that in England.

    As GBS said “Two peoples separated by a common language.” (or something close to that.)

  33. Brendan (NTO)

    I agree. I have spent some years working and living in present or ex-British colonies and recognised the lingering and justified hatred (or similar) of Britain.
    And now I see the same cultural, financial and military excessive influence of the USA over us.

  34. As a British expat living in the US since 1972, I appreciate this combined reflection of the two cultures (and am greatly looking forward to next week’s blog). I have also come to rely on Guardian crosswords to keep me up to date with my country of birth, as in contemporary politicians, sportsmen, and popular music stars.

  35. Somebody on the radio this morning pointed out that Brits abroad are “expats”; foreigners in UK are immigrants!

  36. Thanks Boatman and bridgesong

    An entertaining puzzle from Boatman here and a great effort to fit that many Presidents into the grid. It took an elapsed day to complete but less than an hour of solving time – making it very much on the easier side for me with this setter.

    Interesting variety of clue devices and particularly liked the way that he was able to weave so many fitting surface readings into the clued presidents.

    Finished in the SW corner with Tricky Dicky, the unusual OBI MAN and the only other president (HAYES) that I had to work out from the word play and then Google check off. (GARFIELD was the other)

Comments are closed.