Paul’s back, just a week after his last appearance.
We have some well-constructed, witty clues (especially the definitions in 18ac SEISMOGRAPH, 22ac FISHMONGER and 19dn AGREED, which make for really good surfaces), one or two expressions I’ve managed thus far without knowing or using, along with some of Paul’s schoolboy humour. One bit of parsing (23dn) was beyond me, so the usual thanks in advance for your help.
Thanks to Paul for the puzzle.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Disappearance of Ganymede, say, short time before dawn (7)
MOONSET
MO (short time) + ONSET (dawn)
5 Lighter article from France entered into poetry competition by Penny (3-4)
SUN-LAMP
UN (article from France) in SLAM (poetry competition) + P (penny)
9 Colour I observed in ring given a twirl (5)
LILAC
I in a reversal (given a twirl) of CALL (ring)
10 Black then beat blue fluid for drink (6,3)
BUBBLE TEA
B (black) + an anagram (fluid) of BEAT BLUE
11 Wow, the snuff taker has snuffed it! (10)
RIPSNORTER
RIP (requiescat in pace – rest in peace, i.e. has snuffed it) + SNORTER (snuff taker)
12 Musical symbol split, briefly (4)
CLEF
CLEF[t] (split, briefly)
14 Anything but a high-flier for the guillotine, did you say? (11)
HEDGEHOPPER
‘Head chopper’ (guillotine), did you say? – one of Paul’s less outrageous sound-alikes: I rather liked it
18 First of musicians in parish goes crazy, shaking recorder (11)
SEISMOGRAPH
M[usicians] in an anagram (crazy) of PARISH GOES – a neat definition and amusing surface
21 Turning left, notices a superstore (4)
ASDA
A reversal (turning left) of ADS (notices) + A
22 Obscene gesture keeps quiet doctor in the gutter? (10)
FISHMONGER
FINGER (obscene gesture) round SH (quiet) MO (doctor) – an ingenious definition, one who guts fish
25 Bother, it having impeded vehicle – search for diversion? (9)
GALLIVANT
GALL (bother, as a verb) + IT in VAN (vehicle) – lovely word
Correction: IT round VAN – thanks beaulieu @19
27 Red, pace ahead of blue (7)
TROTSKY
TROT (horse’s pace) + SKY (blue)
28 Case on driveway packed into car, end of holiday celebration in March (4,3)
LADY DAY
D[rivewa]Y in LADA (car) + [holida]Y – March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation
Down
1 Beer swilling if not noble (6)
MILORD
MILD (beer) round (swilling) OR (if not)
2 Plants kiss where kiss planted, love coming first (6)
OXLIPS
O (love) + X (kiss) + LIPS (where kiss planted)
3 Diabolical demon chose the other place? (6,4)
SECOND HOME
An anagram (diabolical) of DEMON CHOSE
4 Italian flower again chewed up? (5)
TIBER
A reversal (up, in a down clue) of RE-BIT (again chewed)
5 A grub seen wriggling in biology classes (9)
SUBGENERA
An anagram (wriggling) of A GRUB SEEN
6 Empty pan? You fill vessel, finally (4)
NULL
Last letters of paN yoU filL vesseL
7 Resident of nest, fly off graceful animal (8)
ANTELOPE
ANT (resident of nest) + ELOPE (fly off)
8, 26 Villains waiting to board train, perhaps, in ‘70s attire (8,5)
PLATFORM HEELS
HEELS (villains) on the PLATFORM – waiting to board train perhaps
13 Big jobs for a reporter journalist sniffed at (4-6)
POOH-POOHED
POOH + POOH (big jobs) + ED (journalist)
Edit: sounds like (for a reporter) POO POO (big jobs) – thank, Jack Of Few Trades @11
15 Big noise as good egg splits log (9)
DIGNITARY
G (good) + NIT (egg) in DIARY (log)
16 Slow mover races off before caught (8)
ESCARGOT
An anagram (off) of RACES + GOT (caught)
17 Lentils and duck in red or white dish that’s hot (8)
VINDALOO
DAL (lentils) + O (duck) in VINO (red or white)
19 You’re on peak of Annapurna, asking for a lot (6)
AGREED
A[nnapurna] + GREED (asking for a lot) – again, I liked the definition
20 Worthless wood fills crack (6)
TRASHY
ASH (wood) in TRY (crack)
23 Accommodation in which weed and grass picked up? (5)
HOTEL
Over to you – I suspect it must be to do with some of the plentiful slang for drugs
Edit:Please see first three comments – thanks to Andrew, KVa and Crispy
24 Beer bringing hiccup from below (4)
PILS
A reversal (from below, in a down clue) of SLIP (hiccup)
23d is “hoe” (to weed) + “tell” (to grass)
HOTEL
hoe (to weed) and tell (grass) —soundalike
HOTEL – “Picked up” Hoe (weed) and Tell (grass)
Many thanks, all – blog amended!
This must have been tamer than usual for Paul as I woke up in a sweat at 3am and managed to solve all but 3 before managing to get back to sleep.
Quickly rattled through the remaining clues this morning.
Liked ESCARGOT and TROTSKY.
Thanks Paul and Eileen
Quite a tough challenge, mainly because I am rarely on this setter’s wavelength.
New for me: SLAM = poetry competition (for 5ac); LADY DAY, RIPSNORTER.
Favourites: FISHMONGER, ESCARGOT, DIGNITARY, HEDGE-HOPPER, LILAC.
I could not parse 1d.
All solved except 11a. ‘Wow’ is a strange definition for RIPSNORTER but I should have been able to achieve the solution through parsing.
Thanks Paul and Eileen
Several things I had never heard of, including a poetry SLAM and BUBBLE TEA. I didn’t parse FISHMONGER and don’t like it much. HEELS for villains is also rather weak – I toyed with SHOES first.
We had “garden” as a verb for HOE yesterday.
Favourite SEISMOGRAPH.
Must be the heat dulling the brain, but what does a SUN-LAMP have to do with lighter?
I would add SUBGENERA to the favourites already mentioned. I agree with William that “Lighter” is a bit loose for SUN LAMP. It’s a shame that Penny Tanner isn’t famous enough to make “Tanner” the definition.
Last one in was “pooh-poohed” and I thought “There’s the schoolboy humour we know and love/hate”. I had it as a homophone (“for reporter”) of “poo poo” however.
Very witty, clever definitions and one of those where half the clues left me thinking “no idea…I’ll come back to that” before moving to “is it possibly..?” followed by “Well that’s obvious now”.
Many thanks Paul and Eileen
I failed on the intersecting MILORD and RIPSNORTER but I don’t feel too bad about that, given that neither has a very obvious definition. I did like the wordplay in the latter (which I don’t think needs separating; it’s just “RIP, snorter” as a unit). I guess I also like the wordplay in the former, but goodness does the term “mild” for beer still exist? I haven’t heard it for donkey’s years!
It took me an age to think of the finger for the FISHMONGER and I confess to Checking my SHMO when I was running out of steam with it. Happily that unlocked the rather good AGREED and DIGNITARY, which at least saved some blushes by leaving me at only two unfinished.
Personally I rather liked PLATFORM HEELS and HOTEL (tho indeed yesterday’s hoe helped). But I’m another who doesn’t quite see that a sun-lamp is a lighter; that’s not quite its purpose – although that didn’t impede me.
Some surfaces could have been a bit smoother, but overall good fun and a good workout. Thanks both!
AP @12
After a round of golf, two of my playing partners always drink mild at the nineteenth. I stick to bitter, though.
I enjoyed this very much, especially the wonderful RIPSNORTER, POOH-POOHED, GALLIVANT and HEDGEHOPPER. I remember serving MILD (in halves usually) to elderly gents in the 80s, but wonder if it’s still available in pubs these days?
Ah, my question answered!
Jack Of Few Trades @11 – you’re right, of course: it is a homophone. I’d overlooked the reporter. I’ll amend the blog.
AP @12 – re RIPSNORTER (a new word for me): I didn’t make a very good job of that parsing – I was trying too hard to make the explanation clear. I agree that RIP SNORTER is a unit.
I think, with others, that 5ac is just a rather loose / weak clue – but there was nothing else for the definition.
AP@12…exactly my experience at the very end today, MILORD and RIPSNORTER taking an age to solve. That last one almost sounds like a word Roald Dahl might have used in his books. Good to see some of Paul’s groanworthy schoolboy humour and not quite Spoonerisms back in the same puzzle. I thought FISHMONGER for a Gutter a great misdirection, took me a while to see that too. Enjoyed the fun and games greatly this morning…
…and on the subject of Mild, years ago when I was a student in Norwich there used to be an old boy supping pint after pint of this in my local pub in the Earlham Road. His excuse was, “but it do feed yer…” Some said that his daily diet was as many as fourteen pints some evenings…
Not one of Paul’s best, but some neat clues as noted by Eileen.
Small error in blog parsing of GALLIVANT – it’s VAN in IT, not vice versa.
muffin@8 – surprised you’ve not come across BUBBLE TEA. Here in W Berkshire there are almost as many bubble tea shops as vape shops, “Turkish” barbers and other somewhat dubious businesses. It seems the stuff is basically tapioca pudding diluted with tea, which sounds unpleasant to me.
AP@12, mild is still fairly easy to find if you know where to look, though not as popular as it once was.
Thanks Eileen and Paul.
beaulieu @19
Sounds awful! Not reached East Lancs yet.
ronald @18
I did my teaching practice at Earlham School, next door to the university. The science department all decamped to the pub at lunchtime to play darts – would be frowned on now!
Loi was vindaloo, and I love a good hot vindaloo! Forgot that dahl could be dal until all crossers were in. Good puzzle, ta PnE.
I enjoyed this more than most offerings from Paul – less cross-linking and fewer clunky clues. Like several others, I failed on the intersecting MILORD and RIPSNORTER. Thanks, Eileen for explaining MILORD, but I guess I’m being thick about RIPSNORTER. I know the word and can understand RIP + SNORTER (like it!). But ‘wow’ as a definition? Is anyone else able to help?
HEDGEHOPPER indeed! I hope no-one is going to complain about that sort-of homophone, as some are prone to do: it made me laugh, anyway.
Beaulieu@19 : thanks for the explanation of what bubble tea is – I’ve seen it on sale around here recently. Now I know to give it a shuddering miss.
The parsing of HOTEL completely escaped me-thanks to commenters 1-3 for that. Clear enough when you see it, a brick wall when you don’t.
Mild was the first sort of beer I drank… Somewhat underage, my friend and I nervously sloped into the Shoulder of Mutton, and trying not to flap, asked for the only beer we could see a pump for, Shipstone’s mild ale. We got quite a taste for it. Both the pub and the brewery are long gone now. Sic transit, etc…
Thanks Paul and Eileen!
I fondly remember Rip Snorter, the ugliest pig in the world, from The Dandy, way back in the fifties.
I am beginning to think Roz is right re the similar level of difficulty of the Guardian crosswords recently. This was a mild Paul compared to some of his previous offerings and it is the 3rd time this week that I managed to finish in less than 45 minutes.
Median @22 – online Collins has : slang,
a person or thing noted for intensity or excellence – as the definition of Ripsnorter – so it sort of means Wow ?
Thanks to Eileen for the excellent blog.
Another where MILORD and RIPSNORTER were last to fall. I parsed wow as a noun rather than as an exclamation, as in her show was a real wow/striking success, for example. I thought HEDGEHOPPER, SEISMOGRAPH, FISHMONGER and GALLIVANT were excellent and I parsed POOH-POOHED as JOFT @11.
I first tried a pint of mild in Kings Lynn when I was 17 and I never tried it again.
Ta Paul & Eileen.
Hi Median @22
As I said @16, RIPSNORTER was new to me (I don’t remember the pig, Blaise @24!) but I found plenty of explanations online for something / someone extraordinary or marvellous, including this https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ripsnorter
Collins has ‘slang, a person or thing noted for intensity or excellence’.
Thanks, SimoninBxL @25 and Eileen @27, for pointing me to sources explaining RIPSNORTER. That’s fine.
The fewer question marks in a Paul puzzle the simpler it will be. And that was the case today. Ticks for oxlips and fishmonger.
Briefly had the equally valid MOTEL at 23d, until disabused by the crosser. SEISMOGRAPH rather unfortunate given today’s news from Venezuela, where I used to live, but not anyone’s fault of course.
I also entered RIPSNORTER and MILORD last.
I liked FISHMONGER, TROTSKY, ESCARGOT and (the unfortunately topical) SEISMOGRAPH.
Thanks, Paul and Eileen.
Redrodney @14. As I remember from my West Midlands days, men drank pints of mild. Bitter there was considered a woman’s drink and usually served to them in half pints. Straight glasses of course! Mitchell & Butlers and Banks’s produced excellent beers of both types.
Managed to complete a Paul in a couple of hours! Which I assume means it was a gentle one as I usually struggle with his obscurities. Quite a lot I found easy (for a change), but other bits not so much. Wasn’t sure HEDGEHOPPER really worked as a sound-alike a bit too loose for my liking. Liked SEISMOGRAPH best. Thanks Paul for being a bit gentler than usual, and to Eileen and the commenters for clearing up some parsing questions I had.
Lots to enjoy here: I especially liked FISHMONGER. Found head chopper/HEDGEHOPPER a bit of a stretch.
No problem for me with “lighter” at 5a: sun lamps emit light (UV and visible).
I’ve always found Paul irritating but struggle through without much pleasure. I know he has his fans but I find his vague definitions and overwrought wordplay annoying. Of course, I don’t have to do the crossword – should I check who the setter is before buying the paper?
As an alternative to 5ac, how about “Article from France entered into poetry completion by Penny for a Tanner”?
Miche@34: your explanation of lighter for sunlamp makes sense. Thanks for the explanation. Like others, I did not know ripsnorter, but guessed snorter after I had all the crossers (and my husband guessed rip). I was puzzled by the “reporter journalist” rather than just “journalist” in 23d. Thanks for Jack Of Few Trades @11 and Eileen for explaining this. I guessed the hedgehopper, but the homophone does not work for me; I pronounce it as hedge-hopper. I failed to parse 9A as I did not see that twirl is a reversal indicator. Thanks, PAul and Eileen
Maybe it is too obvious, but it seems to me that the missing link in 11A RIPSNORTER that no-one has mentioned is e.g. Chambers:
wow n (sl) anything thrillingly good, successful or according to one’s wishes
Always tricky, always clever, always cheeky.
Always happy to see Paul is setter for the day.
Big thanks to Paul for the challenge and the giggles, and to Eileen for the – as always – clear and helpful blog.
As one who routinely struggles with Paul, I found this a mixture of gentler-than-usual and bafflingly unparsable. FISHMONGER was clever, HEDGEHOPPER a groaner, and TROTSKY a favourite.
It might be time though to give “flower” a holiday – I feel like it’s come up often enough lately to have lost its effectiveness at misdirection. Unless some setter uses it in other pronunciation, of course, just to mis-misdirect.
FISHMONGER. I like the bit in George Mikes’ “How to be an Alien” (from the days when the UK generally liked and welcomed immigrants): “A fishmonger is the man who mongs fish; the ironmonger and the warmonger do the same with iron and war. They just mong them.”
Also whoremongers, costermongers and (rarely) leathermongers and peacemongers. I may have missed a few. An odd collection of things to mong. Does it mean to sell, to make or both? Why not goldmongers or tinmongers, equally ancient trades?
A real RIPSNORTER of a puzzle today, and no mistake. FISHMONGER and TROTSKY were good, and VINDALOO was also a treat. Thanks Paul for your charming wordplay.
Jacob @40 – yes, “flower” is a bit of a cliché. But at least this time the “Italian flower” wasn’t the Po.
A relatively straightforward offering from Paul for a pleasant change.
Not so easy for me but I got there in the end but I couldn’t parse HOTEL and MILORD. I liked the RIP SNORTER, the pun-y HEDGEHOPPER, the FISHMONGER gutter, the good anagram for SECOND HOME, and AGREED you’re on. DTS @41, from Google AI: The term [monger] has a history stretching back over 1,000 years, tracing back to the Old English word mangere and the Latin mango (meaning dealer or trader). Over time, early traveling peddlers and “hustlers” gave the term a negative reputation, which explains why it often implies deceptive or discreditable behavior in modern language
Thanks Paul and Eileen.