Great fun from Philistine today. I really have nothing to add to that, so thanks to him for the puzzle.
| Across | ||||||||
| 8,9 | MISSPENT YOUTH | Long for captive juvenile’s frivolous past (8,5) MISS (long for) + PENT (captive) + YOUTH (juvenile) |
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| 10 | MERE | Just water (4) Double definition |
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| 11 | YOURSELVES | Solvers being solvers with every other beauty product (10) Anagram of SOLVERS + alternate letters of bEaUtY |
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| 12 | KERNEL | Officer sounding a bit of a nut (6) Sounds like “colonel” |
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| 14 | CLOBBERS | Last users promoting the ultimate in rock’n’roll hits (8) COBBLERS (people who use a last) with the L (last letter rock’n’roll) moved nearer the front |
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| 16 | FLAT CAP | Tom’s entry for Spooner’s headgear (4,3) Spoonerism of CAT FLAP |
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| 18 | STALKER | Skinhead speaker’s undesirable presence (7) S[kin] + TALKER |
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| 21 | MASTODON | Big beast that was unsettling to nomads (8) (TO NOMADS)* |
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| 23 | BLOTTO | Bravo, gambling drunk (6) B[ravo] + LOTTO |
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| 24 | BRUSCHETTA | Toast giving thanks to Schubert composition (10) SCHUBERT* + TA (thanks) |
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| 26 | HEAR HEAR | They care when warm clothing not provided and we fully support that (4,4) Remove the “clothing” from tHEy cARe wHEn wARm |
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| 27 | FOUND | Discovered love in money (5) O (zero, love) in FUND |
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| 28 | OLIGARCH | Crude oil charge mostly makes wealthy and powerful individual (8) Anagram of OIL CHARG[e] |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SIDEREAL | Stellar team, one from Spain (8) SIDE (team) + REAL (Real Madrid, a team from Spain) |
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| 2 | ISLE | Man possibly barring a passage (4) AISLE (passage) less A, the definition referring to the Isle of Man |
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| 3 | JEKYLL AND HYDE | Different types of KY jelly handed out (6,3,4) (KY JELLY HANDED)* |
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| 4 | STAUNCH | Firm stem (7) Double definition |
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| 5 | AYES | One expression of approval or several (4) A YES – the definition is implicity “several expressions of approval” |
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| 6 | HULLABALOO | Commotion when a bear seen near city (10) HULL (city) + A BALOO (bear in The Jungle Book) |
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| 7 | OH DEAR | We’re disappointed when ostrich skin gets expensive (2,4) The “skin” of OstricH + DEAR (expensive) |
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| 13 | NOT AT ISSUE | Perhaps silk handkerchief is irrelevant (3,2,5) A silk hanky is NOT A TISSUE |
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| 15 | OPT | Choose Pinot? (3) Pinot can be split as P IN OT, which could be a clue to OPT |
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| 19 | ENTRANCE | Cast a spell on the way in (8) Double definition |
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| 20 | UNCTION | Juliet exits crossing to get ointment (7) JUNCTION less J, with the usual cavil that it should be Juliett |
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| 22 | ADRIFT | Commercial division is off course (6) AD (commercial) + RIFT (division) |
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| 23 | BEAT IT | Dine in part and leave (4,2) EAT (dine) in BIT (a part) |
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Good fun, and I learnt a bit about Jungle Book.
My favourite was FLAT CAP and like Geoff@1, I also learnt about Baloo being a fictional bear.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
I failed to parse OPT and HEAR HEAR – both very clever!
Favourite BRUSCHETTA.
HULLABALOOS reminded me of the baddies in Arthur Ransome’s Coot Club. I’m listening to Radio3 from Norfolk at the moment, though they haven’t got to the Broads yet.
Not hard but witty and satisfying. I smiled at the ky jelly and at “Not a tissue”. Many thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
A fun start to the week. Mostly quite straightforward with a couple of brief hold ups at the end. I always find something! My last ones in were SIDEREAL and HEAR HEAR.
I liked CLOBBERS, FLAT CAP and HULLABALOO.
Smooth and witty stuff. Thanks Philistine and Andrew
Liked CLOBBERS, HEAR HEAR, HULLABALOO and NOT AT ISSUE.
I think I have seen the OPT trick before. Still a good one.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
A succinct and accurate summary, Andrew! – a brilliant start to the week.
Some lovely clues – top favourites were the amusing JEKYLL AND HYDE and the wonderful BRUSCHETTA.
Other ticks were for MISSPENT YOUTH, CLOBBERS, MASTODON, HEAR HEAR, SIDEREAL, and HULLABALOO.
Thanks to Philistine for a lot of fun and to Andrew for a great blog.
The last time the CATFLAP / FLAT CAP Spoonerism was deployed in a G cryptic was on 8th January 2024 by Paul (on a Monday!) Prior to that, 3rd September 2021 by Nutmeg. My old friend, Spooner’s catflap, who no longer visits here, used to take a particular interest in this, as may be imagined.
An excellent set of clues. Spooner’s Catflap was once a frequent and erudite poster here. I used to enjoy his contributions.
Balfour@8 We crossed and I hope you were pleased to be alluded to in 8,9ac
Thanks Andrew – all very agreeable. As a resident of that often overlooked city, may I put in a mention for the HULL part of HULLABALOO as well.
I did this while blearily watching Ivory Coast against Ecuador. Nothing tricky but very enjoyable, the puzzle that is. Eileen @7 has covered all of my favourites and I thought OPT was neat.
Ta Philistine & Andrew.
I’m another who failed to parse OPT and loi HEAR HEAR. The usual excellent, entertaining fare from this setter. Philip Larkin certainly made HULL his home for the greater part of his life, and inspired some of his poetry. Plus The Tigers are in the Premiership next season, of course, having beaten the Lions of Millwall in the play off of the big CATs…
Fun stuff with favourites HULLABALOO and CLOBBERS (I didn’t know that meaning of last).
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
Great stuff. Chef’s kiss for HEAR HEAR and OPT. A mild tut at Juliet for J (again). I do realise that spelling it properly would give the game away, but there are other ways to clue J.
As Andrew says, great fun. Lots of clever and entertaining clues with great surfaces. OPT was classic Philistine. Other favourites included JEKYLL AND HYDE and MASTODON, the latter with a nice suggestion of an extended definition. (I was expecting AlanC to have been reminded of John STALKER.)
Many thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Lord Jim @16: indeed he was an ‘undesirable presence’ for MI5, the SAS and the RUC. He must have wondered what he’d done wrong to be handed that poisoned chalice.
Perfect Monday puzzle. Slightly easier but a feast of ingenuity. Congratulations Philistine and thanks Andrew.
Very good, though one eyebrow slightly raised at REAL standing in for Real Madrid. I’m noot sure that anyone in Spain would ever do that, though recently I heard La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona being referred to as La Sagrada (though not of course by Spanish speakers), which is rather like saying Notre instead of Notre Dame.
[Further to me @3, a Mastodon (real name just Don) appears in Ransome’s Secret Water.]
I’m another who needed Andrew’s help to parse OPT and HEAR HEAR. As Muffin@3 says, both very clever.
Loved the surfaces of the clues for MASTODON and HULLABALOO.
And always loved Baloo’s singing of The Bare Necessities.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Beautiful puzzle. I’ll echo Lord Jim’s description @16 and Eileen’s list of favourites.
Pity about Juliet(t), but this now seems entrenched. On the other hand I don’t share poc’s quibble @19 about REAL, which is a very common abbreviation for English speakers, though not the Spanish (just as the team known to Italians as Internazionale, or just Inter, is never called by them ‘Inter Milan’, its common name in English).
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew
Nice start to the week. I particularly enjoyed OPT, MASTODON, BRUSCHETTA, YOURSELVES and J&H. I was sad that the silk handkerchief turned out not to be a no-tat something.
Embarrassingly I now see I didn’t parse the lovely HEAR HEAR correctly, having only accounted for one HEAR without its coat (warm clothes).
Nice to see the Last again. I doubt it’s the last time we’ll see Juliet though.
poc@19, “Real” is OK in Spain, obviously colloquially, albeit that it’s not the most common reference. (While there are other Real teams in Spain the shortening could only apply to Madrid I feel sure.) Also Atlético for the other Madrid. The latter is more common than the former, but the former is used.
This was delightful, and perfect for a hot Monday morning. Lots of happy ticks, with rosettes for NOT A TISSUE, J&H (I think we’ll just have to accept the double-t thing is beyond saving) and OPT – one where the parsing was beyond me but, now that Andrew’s explained it, I really like.
I had a quibblette regarding LOTTO being called gambling (in this part of rural SW France, it’s basically bingo and the domain of determined matriarchs with the ability to keep track of 20 or so cards simultaneously. Prizes are things like 10kg bags of flour, or soap powder, or multipacks of mop-heads – and each woman arrives with a brace of grandsons to carry her winnings home). However, my partner has just laboriously explained that bingo is still gambling. Hey ho. There’s a world of difference between Las Vegas and our scout-hut sized Salle des Fêtes…)
Thanks Philistine and Andrew
A feast of ingenuity, as Oofyprosser@18 says. So many clues involved deceptive word order or punctuation. Like “leave” for BEAT IT, which is an imperative but disguised as something else by leaving out the exclamation mark. And “Tom’s entry for Spooner”, or is it “Spooner’s headgear”? – only the enumeration tells us the right interpretation. Another, though simpler one, was “barring a passage” meaning “it would be AISLE but there’s no A in the answer”. Phew!
The crossers that I had in 24a were temptingly appropriate for PROSTHETIC, but that solution was clearly not defined in the clue; (schubert)* +TA was a brilliant spot by the setter. (Someone will no doubt tell me it’s been done before!)
Thanks to Philistine for the fun, and Andrew for explaining the wordplay for HEAR HEAR, which I must admit I didn’t even read.
That was a lovely start to Monday, so many great surfaces and clues, I have a real fondness for 26a/d.
Also a fan, like Wellbeck@24, of NOT AT ISSUE. (And for the charming (B)LOTTO digression.)
All went in fairly easily until the last few, where my inability to “see” YOURSELVES held me up, as I needed its crossers for some other sticky clues. It eventually went in unparsed, as did OPT and HEAR-HEAR. Thanks, Andrew, for clearing those up: I looked at those three all ways up and still couldn’t work them out.
I think we’ll just have to learn to live with Juliet, whatever my VHF course teacher might say about it.
Nice puzzle! Thanks to Philistine (& Andrew, as above).
A lot of fun indeed. I always groan when I see self-crossing clues like 26a/d but had to laugh when the penny dropped. CLOBBERS was a favourite, too many other fine clues to mention. OPT set me on the right wavelength for STALKER, LOI. Many thanks Philistine and Andrew
[Stretching it a bit (OK, quite a lot), Swallows and Amazons was set on (Winder)MERE, where they camped on an ISLE (island, in fact). They were ADRIFT in We didn’t mean to go to sea. “AYE AYE Sir” is used quite often.]
A lovely puzzle, thank you to Philistine and Andrew.
Lots to love, but OPT was a clue for the books!
As a Spanish born and raised, I don’t think I’ve ever heard “Real” for Real Madrid at home. It’s either the full name, or just “Madrid” (to the displeasure, I’m sure, of Atlético fans). I can’t speak for the common usage in the UK of course!
Good fun, thanks Philistine
[muffin@29: The S&A adventures, though , are the very opposite of a MISSPENT YOUTH! In the last few weeks, I’ve reread (again) some of my favourites: Picts & Martyrs, Swallowdale and Winter Holiday. S&A itself and We Didn’t Mean To Go To Sea are too familiar to re-read right away. “You’ll be a seaman yet, my son” makes me tear up every time.]
Lots of clever devices, I particularly liked OPT. I found this a little chewier than the usual Monday, and enjoyed it for that.
Brilliant. Lots of lovely clues and nothing that wasn’t obvious after the penny dropped. Couldn’t parse OPT but then I’m not alone in that. I was pleased to figure out for myself the parsing of HEAR HEAR. Loi ISLE forgetting yet again the IOM.
Favourites HULLABALOO, CLOBBERS, KERNEL and NOT AT ISSUE.
Thanks to Philistine and Andrew.
This wasn’t easy, but very enjoyable. My favourite is OPT, and I think the question mark is redundant. Also liked HULLABALOO, COBBLERS, OH DEAR, MISSPENT YOUTH, SIDEREAL, MERE. Thanks a lot Philistine and Andrew!
I skimmed through the above, looking to see if anyone else put in BEADLE (betel) for 12a, as I did pretty confidently. I saw the gist of OPT, but didn’t get it precisely. Really nice puzzle.
Classy puzzle, as we’ve come to expect from Philistine. I particularly liked HEAR HEAR for the well-crafted surface. OPT was also beautifully succinct.
The REAL discussion above seemed a bit off-piste since the clue itself doesn’t say Real Madrid, but simply points out that a number of sides in Spain are Real Something or other, three being in the top division right now (Real Betis, Real Madrid and Real Sociedad),
Thanks, Phil and Andrew.
Lovely Monday puzzle – thanks Philistine – plenty of smiles. My favourite (among many contenders mostly mentioned above) was actually HEAR HEAR – even though I object stylistically to the use of short crossing clues with initial letters in common. Thanks also Andrew, of course. On this rare occasion I managed to parse it all by myself.
I really think it is unfair to criticise setters for using terms as used in English rather than a native language usage! Philosophically – I’m also on the setters’ side of allowing Juliet for J. As Juliet(t) – for J is only used orally for phonetic use, can it really be said to have a spelling? I’d certainly posit that when it is used at least 80% of people are thinking “Juliet” (I certainly am)!
Thanks for the blog , brilliant puzzle and glad to see the split clues in order .
CLOBBERS is very neat and a rare double fission for OPT . Balfour gets a mention 16Ac , would be nice if Surreal Madrid popped up now and then .
No problem for me with Juliet , in Chambers93 as an alternative , it is a UK crossword and Juliett would ruin any attempt at deception .
The one thing I miss from my MISPENT YOUTH is tombstoning .
[ AlanC @12 , you must be very proud that the Irish teams have chosen to boycott the summer diving championships on moral grounds . ]
Fun puzzle. Got almost all of it last night.
I didn’t do myself any favors by misspelling the good doctor’s name as JECKYL, leaving 11ac having to start with K. Check button needed.
I’ve read a couple of the Ransome books, notably We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea while anchored at Pin Mill, the starting point of that voyage. I’m here to tell you that getting ashore while anchored at Pin Mill is no mean feat. When the tide’s out rowing ashore gets you to a wide mud flat you can’t row across with nothing to tie to, as I recall from some thirty years ago. I don’t remember how we managed.
Thanks Philistine and Andrew.
Real Sociedad, who play in Saint Sebastien are actually known locally as La Real
Thanks Philistine and Andrew. A lovely puzzle. I struggled with a few, the ones that some others struggled with too!
posterntoo@36, yes, I put in BEADLE with the same logic. It fitted momentarily…
[DerekTheSheep @32
I re-read Winter Holiday every time the first snow of winter arrives.]
Lovely puzzle. BTW baloo in Hindi means bear.
Thanks both
That was the hardest puzzle I’ve done in weeks. Fed’s prize was an absolute doddle compared to this.
Thanks for the hints, miles above my level.
Thanks both…
Thank you, Srivats @45! I didn’t know that and now I do.
A real gem from Philistine. Enjoyable variety of devices, with readable surfaces. A masterclass in how to make an accessible puzzle…but…I was defeated by 20d UNCTION, which I should have had, so dnf
Favourites 10a MERE (concise), 21a MASTODON (anagram with a plausible surface), 26/26 HEAR HEAR (clever device), 3d JEKYLL AND HYDE (very misleading surface), 6d HULLABALOO (surface not uncommon in northern cities in Canada), 15 OPT (Triple threat: meaningful surface, concise, clever fission device), 22d ADRIFT (plausible corporate surface)
My MISSPENT YOUTH was memorizing Monty Python dialogue. A bad influence on me as my creative writing tended to drift into nonsense
Thanks both
Of course@39 I meant my misspelt youth .
For those who like Philistine you could try Goliath in the FT , appears fairly often .
Philistine’s brilliance as a setter is on full display here. He is always a desirable presence in the Guardian and FT. Hear hear, and thank you P&A for the delightful diversion.
The complaints about REAL not standing for Real Madrid illustrate the Straw Man syndrome – Philistine made no mention of Madrid in the clue, and Madrid is not necessary for the parsing. Some people chose to insert Madrid into the clue, and then objected to it.
Can we please put the Juliet(t) complaints to rest? For those of you who cannot accept the dictionaries’ acceptance of Juliet as an alternative English spelling of the NATO alphabet “J”, can you consider a non-NATO parsing: Shakespeare’s play is often referred to as “R&J”, and the J stands for Juliet with only one “t”. Furthermore, in working scripts, Juliet is often referred to as J, as Romeo as R. So NATO need have nothing to do with it.
I love clever concise clues, and so my favourites today, among many gems, are 1d SIDEREAL and 15d OPT.
Presumably it’s Juliett in the NATO alphabet as the French would pronounce Juliet as “Juleeay”?
(Reminds me of the story of a Dane called HØST trying to check in to a French hotel. After he had signed the register, the concierge said “Welcome Monsieur….” then was stuck – he didn’t pronounce the initial H or the trailing ST, which only left the O, and that was crossed out….]
Well said, Cello. Agree with you about Philistine’s excellence, Juliet(t) and Real. For the latter, it’s like using ‘side’ or ‘team’ to define CITY without saying Manchester, Leicester or Exeter. Totally legit.
And thanks to Roz for the “double fission” – that’s why the question mark at the end of the clue is necessary, Layman@35.
Good to see some appreciation for the almost-theme of Arthur Ransome. The (accidental) voyage in We Didn’t Mean… actually starts at Felixstowe dock, but the book itself begins at Pin Mill.
Flawless. A copy of this puzzle should be provided to all aspirant setters as an example of how to set a perfect weekday crossword. Favourites OPT (which I’ve never seen before) and FLAT CAP (which I certainly have seen before), but really I could have picked a dozen top ticks.
I hadn’t come across the Pinot clue before. Very neat. Smart puzzle.
sorry sheffield hatter@52 – I don’t understand what a double fission is… I’m sure I must be wrong but I don’t see how – it seems to me that Pinot = P in OT, which is simply lift&separate + an envelope; why the question mark?
What a brilliant start to the week! Thanks so much P&A.
I don’t often comment here, but the Swallows and Amazons theme in this thread has inspired me. I don’t consider my own Youth at all Misspent since I spent most of it profitably immersed in the company of all the classic children’s books, and out of them all Arthur Ransome’s collection remain my top favourites. Pick of the bunch for me is We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea, which I didn’t discover until I was an adult, when the sheer drama of it had me completely gripped, and is the book I’ve re-read most times. Like DerekTheSheep@32, “You’ll be a seaman yet, my son” makes me tear up every time, although I’m in tears through most of the final chapters: all that understated British pluck just sets me off. Thanks for the memories Muffin@3 et al.
Layman @55 ‘Fission’ is a term from Physics (as in nuclear …) which Roz pioneered when a storm in a teacup broke out last year about her previous term, which you use, ‘lift and separate’ – as if any allusion to the properties of a brassiere were inherently sexist or lubricious. (I shan’t reopen that argument, having made my views clear at the time.) PINOT is subject to two fissions because the atom has to be split after P and again after IN to open up the wordplay. I leave the matter of the question mark to those who better understand its function in clues of this sort.
[Roz @49: misspelt youth 😊.
Mig @48: I’m presuming Triple Threat is misspelt as well, although it made me chuckle.]
I agree Balfour @58 , no need to reopen the argument but in fact I never used L & S but the even worse Playtex . Had used it for at least 15 years in my crossword diaries . I like to annotate with as few words as possible so fission ( and the opposite fusion ) do the job . I have several other single words for various processes that will not see the light of day on here
AlanC @59 , I missed a trick , should have put MISSPELT YUOTH . .
[AllyGally@56. We Didn’t Mean… is considered his masterpiece, and a tear-jerker I agree, but I think Swallowdale is almost as good – the way the author’s alter ego shows his youthful central character (alter alter ego?) how to deal with disaster has helped me more than once – and the subtle/dramatic change in the relationship between the teenage Nancy and her 60ish Great Aunt in P&M is beautifully done.
Roz@60. YUOTH deserves to become a clue, as it (unfortunately) can’t be a solution.]
Balfour@58. I agree the question mark for PINOT is debatable. My starting point was that it is not, as Layman@35 had it, “redundant”. On a Monday, in particular, it is welcome.
Cellomaniac@50, sheffield hatter@52: only one commenter raised the most minor of quibbles about REAL for team, and in any case their argument wasn’t whether or not it’s a valid equivalence in English but rather whether it is a valid shorthand in Spain. Which I regard as being rather beside the point given that for the majority audience of a British crossword, Real really does refer to Real Madrid and is therefore a valid solution. The follow-up conversation was nothing but an aside, so no straw men or anything similar. I comment only really to reply to sh’s comment about CITY for side; does anyone fancy taking bets on whether that would elicit some grumbling on here? 😉
[SH et al
There isn’t a bad one, but the original Swallows and Amazons is perfect, and I have a soft spot for Secret Water because of the mapping.]
MASTODON got me all Swallows and Amazons alert.
The HULLABALOOS were the evil boat renters in Coot Club who moored their boat over a coot’s nest. Their boat was cast ADRIFT. (“I did tell them they’d moored there but they didn’t pay any attention,” said Tom (16A?) “so what else could I do?”)
Yes, Goblin dragged her anchor in WDMTGTS but I don’t think she was ever adrift as the Walkers were always in control of her and I think adrift requires a lack of controller? You can by the way hire Goblin (called Nancy Blackett) on the Broads; Ransome sailed her from Shotley to Flushing. https://nancyblackett.org/
And in Pigeon Post when the moor was alight they had to BEAT IT.
S&A was a seventh birthday present and the first proper book I read on my own. (Couldn’t wait for a parent to read the next chapter the following evening.) I’m currently reading S&A in German. This is no humblebrag as it’s about my German reading age, 7. Hindered slightly that the copy that turned up from eBay last week (very hard to get hold of) is printed in Fraktur (so predates 1941). I spent ages on the second line trying to work out how the ligatures could possibly configure a German Bridget. Eventually… AI… which can read it beautifully… pointed out she was referred to as Vicky. Anyway being better at reading Fraktur is good for one’s German isn’t it?
Ah. What I really came to post about. Skinhead. A word that is its own indicator. When I first came across a similar example on Minute Cryptic I recall that certain sections of the cruciverbal world were rather sniffy saying that such things would never appear in a proper London broadsheet. Yet here we are. Is the Guardian out of kilter? Or is that a pure Times thing? Thanks!
JaMaNn
S&A was the first “grown up” book I read too.
Bridget was referred to as Vicky in S&A due to her similarity to Queen Victora. She was recognised as Bridget in later books.
[various@various: I especially like in WDMTGTS the way lots of little bits from earlier in the book snick into place later on, often to critical effect. As well as being – and principally being – a cracking yarn (the best, I think – by a narrow and arguable margin – of the top three or four in the S&A collection) it’s a finely meshed, tight, piece of plotting. In their own way, Back to The Future I and II have that same satisfying sense of an intricate, revealed-bit-by-bit, mechanism. ]
[JaMaNn @65, muffin @57. Swallows and Amazons a present on your 7th birthday? On my 7th I received a copy of David Copperfield (I still have it inscribed with the date). And I read it. Maybe this says much about my subsequent reading trajectory. I’m afraid I bypassed Ransome entirely as I was dragged from Biggles straight to Dickens.]
Balfour @69
I sympathise. Dickens is what you get when you pay an author by the word – why use one word when ten will do?
AlanC@59 No misprint. I know the term “triple threat” from theatre circles, referring to a performer who is good at acting, singing, and dancing. Now that I look it up, I see it can also refer to other areas, such as athletics. Admittedly, I was using the term somewhat ironically for 15d OPT, highlighting three aspects of the clue that I admired (surface, brevity, wordplay), which is rare. I guess you could also say it was a triple treat! 🙂
btw JaMnNn
I think the Goblin was definitely adrift until it passed the second light ship and they raised the sails. They certainly weren’t in control when they fended off the buoy with the broom!
JaMaNn@66 , just remind solvers of the Times crossword that Torquemada invented the cryptic and he broke all the “rules” . You could also ask if they have written a letter to Milly Dowler’s parents explaining why they support Murdoch .
Just catching up with the comments and I’m pleasantly surprised that there’s been no argument about the KERNEL / colonel soundalike. (Unless of course I’m belatedly starting one.)
JaMaNn @66: I think the sniffiness about the skinhead = S device comes from Ximenes who, if I remember rightly, declared that redhead could not = R. The Times is pretty Ximenean but the Guardian is a much broader church, with Philistine being one of the setters least likely to be bound by those “rules”.
I liked 15 down so much I wrote a short philosophical essay about it. Thanks Philistine and Andrew!
Lord Jim @74. An anecdote. Fifty years ago, my Scottish parents came to visit me in my new location in the south of England. I was then living in an sort-of annex to an oast house in the middle of the countryside. My neighbours and the owners of the property had an Airedale dog called KERNEL, because, allegedly, he was a bit of a nut as a puppy, although he seemed by then to have settled into sedate middle age. My father addressed him as ‘Colonel’ until corrected. ‘Oh, you mean KERRNEL not KURRNEL,’ he said. Maybe my fellow-Scots have been sufficiently sedated by victory over Haiti to let that one pass.
Mig @71: thanks a TILT.
Muffin@72… and they’d lost the anchor cable, which would be my definition of being adrift. 😳
Muffin@72… and they’d lost the anchor cable, which would be my definition of being adrift. 😳
So do we agree there’s a theme, then?
SH
I’d like to think that’s it’s a theme, but I still think it’s a bit of a stretch! I hope that Philistine might confirm/deny, but I don’t think with his background he would have been familiar with Ransome.
Ta both.
I’ve never read those books but will keep them in mind for the alcoholidays.
PINOT reminded me of the (very antique) Crosaire (very non-Ximenean (if that’s how it’s spelt)) clue:
Toment (8)
Nice to get namechecks for contributors here at 16a FLAT CAP and 11a YOURSELVES
muffin@51: that raised a chortle.
matt w@75: Gosh. Impressive. I would never have thought such thoughts could be thought.
Thanks to Matt W@75 for sharing your philosophical essay. An interesting read. You’ve touched on the solver’s joy of finding the solutions and why it can’t be unique.
Can a solver’s frustration be unique (and therefore possibly a work of art, if I have followed your argument)?
What if the solver has set some barriers, such as not using the check button, not looking things up in search engines, not using a dictionary or an online tool to fit the crossers? Could each individual solver in those combinations of situations be setting themselves up to be uniquely happy to have finished, or uniquely frustrated to have failed?
Asking for a friend, obviously. 😁
matt w @75 That’s a beautiful essay. OPT a worthy clue to prompt such musings. Thanks for sharing
I read all 12 S&As again when I reached 40 then again at 60 and 80. I’ve still a while to go to reach 100. I’ve still got my original copies.
My favourites are probably Coot Club and The Big Six because I spent many holidays on the Broads.
Okay, that does it. I’ve reserved S&A at the library…
@various One might argue that the mate fending off with a mop is an element of control. The Hullabaloos’ Margoletta was a stage beyond that. Let me defend Captain Walker here please! Well I remember learning to tie a bowline, just in case…
There’s definitely a theme. And what joy it has given us!
Mig @85 I wonder how the books will feel coming to them as a grown up but for the first time. Will you feel the charm the way that those of us who were there at the beginning did? When I re-read I am transported back to childhood in the happiest way. During lockdown I watched (for the first time) the 1974 film starring Virginia McKenna and was deeply moved for lost childhood (not that I was a child in the 1930s nor anything like!)
Muffin @67. Thank you but indeed. All babies look like either Queen Victoria or Winston Churchill. My point was that it was my unfamiliarity with Fraktur where a capital V looks remarkably like a B, no really it does, and the ck ligature like a d, and the y literally like an eta, and who knew what the translator might have done! Thus apparently Bidη but with a funny squiggle on the top of the d maybe suggesting a dg ligature.
Roz @73 I don’t think I understand a word of your post, sorry. Or at least not when you put all the words together like that! But thank you anyway. And thanks all for Ximean comments.
I agree with pretty well all of the positive comments about this puzzle.
I don’t apply SH’s @ 82 (or other) self-flagellatory constraints consciously, but I now realise that I solved this puzzle according to those strictures anyway, as I quite often do.
Have a fine day all.
Very enjoyable.
On a small point, for 21 across I think the definition is ‘big beast that was’ rather than just ‘big beast’. If not, the ‘that was’ would be redundant.
Ditto-ish Balfour @69. Laid up with something or other at 8, I read Oliver Twist, dictionary at hand. I now sometimes enjoy soaps, to make up for it 🙂
Agree re beast, BL @88
Can someone explain the apparently very clever OPT? I still don’t get how you know to use the O, P, and T from PINOT in that order (other than CHOOSE being the definition).
Fabius@92. In my opinion, this sort of clue isn’t at all clever. It relies on a gimmicky sort of indirect wordplay Philistine/Goliath uses sometimes when he finds a word in which “IN” appears. The form of the wordplay is not indicated anywhere. The only sound bit here is the definition “Choose”. If there were an instruction to deconstruct the word “pinot”, so as to form “P in OT”, and treat the outcome as a cryptic instruction, the clue would be fair.
Fabius@92 PINOT = P IN OT , so you put the P inside OT to make O P T . I always like it when setters use their imagination and make us think .
Try this one – Cox at me (6,3,6)
Thanks both. “P in OT” made a bit more sense than “P IN OT” as an explanation. Still a bit obscure for my taste.
@Roz, I’ve no idea about that one.
Fabius@95 There is a clue for LINEAGE in today’s Times crossword which uses the construction “L in EAGE” by reference to EAGLE but, unlike the unindicated construction employed in the Philistine clue, the wordplay is presented fairly. It is “What could indicate eagle making descent? (7)”
Roz@94: returning here to see if anyone offered in response to myclue@80 I see you@94 have offered a little beauty – also lacking a definition. Just to say that it took a while but I got the clever (spoiler alert) ‘income tax return’. My clue remains unfathomed.
Alphalpha@97 That clue for INCOME TAX RETURN doesn’t work fairly at any level. Apart from the lack of definition and the absence of any indication as to the form of wordplay, “tax return” does not provide a meaningful instruction to reverse the letters in TAX, as it is illiterate – it would need to be “tax returns”. I’m afraid I don’t see anything clever about setting clues which rely on gimmicks that are inherently faulty and/or unfair.
Bagpuss@98: To each their own. For my own part the measure of a clue is whether or not it can be solved. I liked your ‘lineage’ and would be prepared to acknowledge that it has a cleverer and stauncher construction. But I also like to be asked to think around corners occasionally – especially if I get a solve.
Alphalpha @99 my clue from the great Araucaria , it was exactly as written but the puzzle also contained another clue for the answer – Self Assessment – which contained a reference to the – Cox at me – clue . Brilliant imagination and the added bonus of annoying the mansplainers .
Your clue also a pleasant balm .
Roz@100 Your reference to “mansplainers” is both offensive and irrelevant. This site is supposed to provide a forum for rational discussion. We don’t necessarily have to agree with conclusions that other people reach, but we do need to treat those who express their views cogently in polite terms with some respect. As it happens, I disagree fundamentally with the claim that Araucaria was a great setter of clues, and always have done. In fact, I believe he did a good deal of lasting damage to the art of crossword setting, but I am not going to insult you for holding the opposite view.
Bagpuss@: ‘Choose Pinot?’: – the definition is ‘choose’; the rest must therefore be wordplay: – ‘Pinot?’. There is more than sufficient there, taking the question mark into account, to generate OPT to those familiar with cryptics. I couldn’t agree that the clue is deficient in any way.
Perhaps a treatment of the legacy of Araucaria would be more appropriate to ‘General Discussion‘. I never did any of his crosswords.
Alphalpha@102 The reason I consider the Philistine OPT clue to be unfair is that the wordplay is indirect, one has to infer that it takes the form of an instruction provided by a deconstruction of PINOT, and a question mark without more is merely an indication that something is not as it seems. Before I say more about fairness, the conclusion that “Pinot?” must necessarily be wordplay isn’t valid. You have made the assumption that the clue takes the form of definition plus wordplay, but it could equally well be a double definition, a cryptic definition or an & Lit.
To be fair, wordplay in a clue should mean what it says, and lead directly to the answer when read as intended. A clue such as “Somehow choose to kill (3)” for TOP is unfair because it requires the solver to form an anagram of a synonym of “choose”. In general, anything which requires a two-stage deductive process is unfair. For example, using “monarch” to indicate R is indirect because R is an abbreviation for “king” or “queen”, not “monarch”.
Clues such as the Araucaria one which Roz quoted are, despite what Roz says, very easy to construct, as, in effect, they are the stuff of the sort of party games which require people to construct a word from a string of letters. I don’t see anything brilliant about, say, clueing WINTER as ” ’twere endless?”, to give an off-the-cuff example.
I’ve no wish to initiate a general discussion about Araucaria’s legacy. For many of the Guardian crossword solvers who frequent this site he walked on water. There is no denying the fact that he was innovative. In particular, we can be grateful to him for introducing jigsaw crosswords, and it is a matter of much regret that we hardly ever see them these days following the introduction of crossword apps. But regarded as a clue-setter, he was very hit and miss, and paid scant regard to precision.
Bagpuss@103: “You have made the assumption…” – no I haven’t. I’ve merely pointed to the mechanics of the clue.
You’re entitled to your opinion. I don’t share it but I’ve pointed @80 to that the device, for good or ill, is not new in my experience.