Guardian 26,644 by Paul

by

[If you’re attending York S&B please see comments 32&33] - here

Great fun from Paul, without being too difficult. Hard to pick favourites, but 21ac got the biggest smile. Thanks Paul.

Across
1 BOGART
Actor‘s pictures in the mire?

Humphrey Bogart the actor. BOG ART=”pictures in the mire”
4 DECAMP
Leave wet clothes outside with mac, both at the back (6)

DAMP=”wet”, clothing [outsid]E with [ma]C
9 YOU NEVER CAN TELL
Who knows? Take that secret to your grave! (3,5,3,4)

Two defs
10 PHRASE
Passage of music from composition in E sharp (6)

(E sharp)*
11 MOSQUITO
Insect in diminutive temple, might you say? (8)

mosque=”temple”, so a MOSQU-ITO might be its dimunitive
12,22 BLOCK AND TACKLE
Kit designed to lift the responsibilities of a defender? (5,3,6)

=a lifting device; to BLOCK and TACKLE also are “the responsibilities of a defender”
14 DRIVER
Duck gathering first of rotten wood (6)

=type of golf club. DIVER=a kind of “Duck”, around R[otten]
15 MOUSSE
Furry thing biting second fluffy thing (6)

MOUSE=”Furry thing” biting S[econd]
18 SAPONIFY
Make something for washing ass’s rear and a pony, if messy (8)

To turn into soap. [as]S, plus (a pony if)*
21 DERRIERE
Behind — behind London it’s sung out loud? (8)

if DERRIERE is put “behind London”, we get London DERRIERE, which sounds (“out loud”) like “Londonderry Air”, a song (i.e. “it’s sung”)
22 BLOCK AND TACKLE
See 12
24 NOTTING HILL GATE
Somewhere in London, a scandal featuring Hugh Grant? (7,4,4)

Hugh Grant was famously in the film NOTTING HILL, and the -GATE suffix is associated with scandals
25 SOD ALL
Nothing left, lake beyond a splash of water (3,3)

L[eft] and L[ake], after SODA=”splash of water”
26 LARRUP
Beat Olivier up? Why not! (6)

LARRY or Laurence Olivier, plus UP, minus Y=”Why”
Down
1 BROTHEL
Where relations paid for hotel bar to remove a drunk (7)

(hotel bar)*, minus a
2 GANJA
Grass where a car’s drawn up, covering lawn finally (5)

=marijuana. A JAG=”a car”, reversed (“drawn up”), around [law]N
3 RIVIERA
Where I arrive, when after a resort? (7)

(I arrive)*
5 ELAPSED
Upstanding banker accepting drinks ran out (7)

DEE=”banker”, as a river has banks, reversed (“Upstanding”) and around LAPS=”drinks”
6 ARTHURIAN
Legendary day in describing a spring birth (9)

THUR[sday]=”day” in ARIAN=”describing a spring birth” under the sign of Aries
7 PALETTE
Diminutive friend in range? (7)

PAL=”friend”, plus -ETTE a dimunitive suffix
8 PRIMED
1, 2 or 3, perhaps, and 500 ready (6)

1=PRIME as in the first; 2 or 3=PRIME in the mathematical sense; plus D=”500″ in Roman numerals
13 CASTRATED
Actors awarded stars? Done! (9)

CAST=”Actors”, plus RATED=”awarded stars”
16 ONEROUS
Difficult individual to wake up, finally gone (7)

ONE=”individual”, plus ROUS[e]=”wake up” without its final letter
17 ETERNAL
Undying love from one later breaking up (7)

(one later)*, minus the O=”love”
18 SEETHE
Date on the boil (6)

SEE=”Date”=’go out with’; plus THE
19 PATELLA
One on a bender, diminutive Irishman? (7)

with “bender”=>knee. PAT=”Irishman”, with -ELLA as a diminutive suffix
20 FELT TIP
Writer was emotionally affected by clue (4,3)

FELT=”was emotionally affected by”, plus TIP=”clue”
23 CIGAR
Smoke provoking tears, though not beginning to rise (5)

[t]RAGIC=”provoking tears”, though without its beginning letter, and reversed (to rise)

47 comments on “Guardian 26,644 by Paul”

  1. Thanks Paul and manehi

    Paul isn’t my favourite setter, but I did like DERRIERE (very old joke, but amusing to find it in a crossword), ETERNAL and FELT TIP.

    I missed the ARIAN part of 6d – are people born under this sign actually called “arians”?

    I wasn’t convinced about the diminutives “ito” and “ella” either, though “ette” in 7d is fine, of course.

    Although 24a was also amusing, I thought it was unsatisfactory as a clue, as it required three pieces of general knowledge (there’s an area of London called that, Hugh Grant was in a film called the first part, “gate” indicates a scandal – though this is indeed well-known), and it also doesn’t make sense in its own right, as the character Hugh Grant played in the film wasn’t called “Hugh Grant” (though it could be argued that Hugh Grant plays “Hugh Grant” in every film he is in!).

    I didn’t like “duck” = “diver”. Yes, some ducks do dive – they are known as “diving ducks” – but the divers are quite a different family of birds.

    I was going to point out that 1 is no longer a prime number, but I see that manehi has found a way around that one.

  3. Thanks Paul and manehi.

    Solving this crossword was enjoyable, but I needed help to parse CIGAR. I especially liked DERRIERE, the old joke being new to me.

    muffin @1, think of Cinderella, ‘little ashes’, and Evita, ‘little Eva’.

  4. Cookie @ 3
    I think that Cinderella was actually called “Ella”; the “Cinder” bit came from where she worked.

  6. muffin @4, the name Cinderella is from the French fairy tale ‘Cendrillon’ by Charles Perrault, Cendrillon meaning ‘little ashes’, cinders = ashes; yes, she worked ‘in’ the cinders keeping the fire going etc. (in German the name is Aschenbrödel).

  7. Thanks manehi. Great fun,notably the three diminutives and the Hugh Grant clue, but all the answers came flashing out into the open too readily. 1A was typical Paul, but he had it in mid-May

  10. It seems that the main source for Cinderella being called “Ella” is Walt Disney. However I can assure you all that that isn’t where I heard it! (Can’t remember where, though.)

  11. I found this very enjoyable, although it took me a while to make inroads into the NE where DRIVER was eventually my LOI after ELAPSED. The clue for DERRIERE raised a smile when the penny dropped, and I don’t have a problem with any of the diminutive suffixes.

  12. muffin @4, agreed, but most of the fairy tales of the Grimm brothers and Perrault are retold, having their origins way back in time and mostly unwritten in the first place (those of Hans Christian Andersen are original I believe). The version of Cinderella we know is that of Perrault who added the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and introduced glass slippers.

  14. Thanks Paul and manehi. All good Friday fun. I recall an earlier Fifteensquared discussion about the key of E sharp which musically is F. And nice to see a new clue for “patella”.

  15. Thanks manehi.

    I often think, “Good-oh, it’s Friday and Paul’s in the Graun”, and this was no exception.

    Failed on ARTHURIAN and couldn’t parse DECAMP but otherwise top fun from Mr Halpern.

    Many thanks, Paul, nice weekend.

  16. [muffin @13, there is another meaning to all that which Paul would like if he searched the Wiki ‘Cinderella’ article under ‘The identifying item’…]

  18. 8d infuriated the mathematician in me, even if I will concede reluctantly that it is a valid clue. I liked the symmetry of PALETTE and PATELLA, although I’m struggling to think of any uses of -ella in English (novella?). Thanks for the blog, Manehi!

  19. Yes, re-use of BOG-ART I noticed too. Also as Muffin I didn’t really like the GATE or the DIVER clues, rather weak. There was that terrible Guardianism/ compileritic ‘why’ = Y without proper indication, which I really abhor. However, and like the Picaroon puzzle, the technique is generally good in Paul puzzles, which is refreshing in the ‘mire’ of the Guardianists.

    hh

  23. Wikipedia suggests all these as diminutives of an -ella type. Isn’t the English language fascinating?

    -eau/-el/-ella/-elle/-ello/-il/-illa/-ille/-illo/-le (F-S-I-L bidim.; E -kin): armadillo, bordello, bureau, castle (OE castel, <1000), codicil, espadrille, flotilla, limoncello, mantle, Monticello, morsel, organelle, pastel, pencil, pestle, quadrille, quarrel, rowel (1344), scintilla, vanilla, violoncello

  24. Verlaine @22
    🙂

    (P.S. as I’m sure you know, the Genus was named after a pathologist called, Salmon, and doesn’t have anything to do with the fish.)

  25. Thanks to Paul and manehi. I had trouble parsing ARTHURIAN (I missed “arian”) and CIGAR (I did not see [t]ragic reversed) and took some time juggling letters to come up with SAPONIFY (new to me) and GANJA, but did manage to muddle through.

  26. This was one of Paul’s best, with plenty of cheek and invention. Not too difficult, but challenging in places. Last in was SEETHE, ticked MOSQUITO, DERRIERE, LARRUP, GANJA, RIVIERA, CASTRATED and CIGAR.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi

  27. Kept me away from front seat driving while Mrs T puts in a homeward-bound stint from holiday. If I bothered about horoscopes I would be an arian, which helped with 6d (eventually); DERRIERE last in, my amusement at which was not alas shared by the 14a.

    Nice to see Paul living up to his reputation, with the likes of BOGART.

  28. michelle @20 – that article has provoked a lot of debate on the Guardian site, not all of it complimentary and not all of it from old men…

  29. It took me a while to get started but I did enjoy myself especially when I ‘got’ 21a. Unlike the serial complainer, I saw the ‘why not’ straight away.

    Thks to Paul and manehi

  30. Like crypticsue I took some time in starting this but I think this is more to do with the pollen which has descended on my part of Bishops Tawton and reduce me to a hay fever ridden wreck. However,once started,this yielded in a satisfactory manner. SAPONIFY was new to me but easy enough to get from the clue- and isn’t it a lovely word? LOI MOUSSE.
    Good fun as usual.
    Thanks Paul.

  32. Crypticsue I did NOT say that I hadn’t seen it: I just said I disliked it as an unindicated ploy.

    Even Guardianisms, unfair though they are, can be seen or deduced, but in terms of style they are a blot.

  33. hh @32 – to paraphrase Voltaire, if Guardianisms did not exist it would be necessary to invent them. Some of us are happy to wallow in the mire…

  34. Paul always brings a smile to my face so thanks to him and also Manehi. I was quite insulted by that article Michelle what about old women like me.!!!! My favourites were block and tackle felt tip sod all. Enjoy weekend everyone

  36. Michelle, see just above the box where you type your comment where it says “XHTML: You can use these tags”? The first one there, a, is the one you use for links.

    I don’t know how to make HTML tags appear as text, so I’m going to replace the angle brackets with square brackets to show you how it works. What you should do is the reverse, just replacing “[” and “]” with less-than and greater-than signs, respectively. Got it?

    So if I take this:

    [a href=”www.theguardian.com”]The Guardian[/a]

    and type it again with the angle brackets, I get this:

    The Guardian

    While we’re here, note that the other HTML tags listed there are also usable. For example, b is bold. So if you type this, with angle brackets instead of square:

    [b]Big black letters![/b]

    you get this:

    Big black letters!

    Note that [i]I is for italic.[/i] So typing that with angle brackets, I is for italic.

    Always remember that you need a tag at the end, which includes that slash.

  37. Of course, I should have included the whole URL there, to make the link work:

    [a href=”http://www.theguardian.com”]The Guardian[/a]

    Retype that with angle brackets to get The Guardian.

  38. I found the NE corner quite tough, and I couldn’t parse “arian”, but elsewhere there were a lot of enjoyable moments. Favourites are BLOCK AND TACKLE, MOUSSE, SAPONIFY, DERRIERE, LARRUP, PRIMED and FELT TIP.

    Thanks to Paul and manehi.

  39. ezzie @34, I wonder if it is mainly men who are ‘impolite’ on Twitter etc., perhaps the article just mentioned men for some reason like that? I don’t go on those sites, but someone might have an idea.

  40. 1 no longer a prime number? Is nothing sacred? This was definitely Paul in his most jaunty mode, playing with words in Carrollian fashion and cocking a snook at the pedant. PATELLA is frankly ridiculous but ‘one on a bender’ makes up for the diminutive discontinuity. As CS Lewis used to say, you overlook faults in writers you love, and I for one never tire of JHa.

  41. Re the Independent ‘article’ on Guardian crossword commenters, hats off to the hack, one Adam Withnall, for getting paid for cobbling together other people’s writing. For the record, I have never clicked on the comments – a situation which this ‘piece’ is unlikely to change.

  42. If one were any kind of number, never mind prime, then we wouldn’t have singular and plural instances in grammar, would we, perhaps?

    Many thanks one and all.

  43. ulaca @41 – you are missing a lot of entertainment, not that I would defend everything I have posted there – it is generally more informal that this one and to some extent serves a different purpose. The article also mixes posts from the Quick and Cryptic pages – very few people contribute to both.

  44. Only just got to this! (Busy, busy…)

    Only commenting to express my thanks to Paul for an excellent crossword.

    Thanks to manehi and Paul

    I know the comments about primes and number one may be tongue in cheek but just for the record.

    1 is definitely a number, an integer in fact.

    1 is not a prime number by definition. (i.e the definition of prime numbers says that 1 ISN’T a prime. ( My late visit to this puzzle ebabled me to see that the Guardain actully renoved 1 from the clue the day after!)

  46. What an absolute delight.

    Paul through and through.

    I loved 1dn, 25ac, 21ac (hadn’t heard that joke before), 19dn and – of course – 13dn.

    And always good to learn a new word – Saponify in this case.

  47. Thanks Paul and manehi

    Enjoyed this one a lot – and most has been said. Liked the ‘mini-theme’ of diminutive suffixes.

    Finished in the NE corner with ARTHURIAN, ELAPSED and DECAMP the last few in.

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