Thanks Pangakupu for the puzzle, I especially liked 1ac, 16ac, 23ac, and 16dn.
As usual for Pangakupu, some Maori words are hidden in the grid: KAITIAKI means “guardian” and HOIHO=”horse”. Edit thanks to Mitz in the comments – hoiho more likely refers to the yellow-eyed penguin
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | INCLUSIVENESS |
Senses uncivil rioting – the participation of everybody? (13)
|
| anagram/”rioting” of (Senses uncivil)* | ||
| 10 | NATASHA |
Exclamation of success after recalling devil woman? (7)
|
| HA=”Exclamation of success”, after SATAN=”devil” reversed/”recalling” | ||
| 11 | CAMBIUM |
Tramp beside Cambridge river taking in one feature of arboreal growth (7)
|
| BUM=vagrant=”Tramp”, after CAM=river in Cambridge; and taking in I=”one” | ||
| 12 | GET AT |
Mean for one to return rubbish (3,2)
|
| definition: ‘to get at X’ = ‘to mean X’, as in e.g. ‘what are you getting at, with that message?’
E.G.=for example=”for one” reversed/”to return”; plus TAT=”rubbish” |
||
| 13 | HARD CIDER |
Woman’s concealing a way with detectives and juice (4,5)
|
| HER=”Woman’s” around/concealing: A (from surface) + RD (road, “way”) + CID (Criminal Investigations Department, “detectives”) | ||
| 14 | TORCH |
Light bit of rest in hospital bed rejected (5)
|
| a letter/bit of R-[est], in reversal/”rejected” of: H (hospital) + COT=”bed” | ||
| 16 | GOOSE STEP |
Fascist movement? Sees to changes among Republicans (5,4)
|
| definition: a military step associated with Nazi Germany
anagram/”changes” of (Sees to)*, inside/”among” GOP (Grand Old Party, “Republicans” in US politics) |
||
| 18 | E-PAYMENTS |
Mean types ruined online transactions (1-8)
|
| anagram/”ruined” of (Mean types)* | ||
| 19 | KHAKI |
Book launch finally having a lot of similar military material (5)
|
| final letters of [Boo]-K [launc]-H; plus “a lot of” the letters from AKI-[n]=”similar” | ||
| 20 | REASSURED |
Relieved apprehension in various readers about The Guardian‘s volte-face (9)
|
| anagram/”various” of (readers)*, around reversal/”volte-face” of US=”The Guardian” | ||
| 23 | INSET |
Where many maps show Alaska and Hawaii? This month around Spain (5)
|
| definition: an inset section of a map may be used to show Alaska and Hawaii within a larger map, if they would not otherwise fit neatly into the layout
INST (short for instante mense, “This month” in Latin); around E (España, “Spain”) |
||
| 24 | NAIVIST |
Note excellent view, largely ingenuous (7)
|
| N (Note) + AI=grade A1=”excellent” + VIST-[a]=”view, largely” | ||
| 25 | NOISOME |
Offensive is torpedoing rotating satellite close to home (7)
|
| IS (from surface), torpedoing into MOON=”satellite” reversed /”rotating”; plus the end/”close” to [hom]-E | ||
| 26 | PINE TREE STATE |
Maine – Eastern and petite, possibly (4,4,5)
|
| anagram/”possibly” of (Eastern |
||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | NATATORIA |
North American cheers most of experiment involving old swimming pools (9)
|
| definition: a natatorium is a swimming pool
NA (North American), plus TA=thank you=”cheers”, plus TRIA-[L]=”most of experiment” around O (old) |
||
| 3 | LISZT |
Composer’s inclination for radio broadcast? (5)
|
| sounds like (“for radio broadcast”): ‘list’=leaning=”inclination” | ||
| 4 | STASH |
Hidden material – timber under stone (5)
|
| ASH=”timber” after ST (short for “stone” the unit of mass) | ||
| 5 | VICARIOUS |
Malevolent, grabbing a lot of power at second hand (9)
|
| VICIOUS=”Malevolent”, around/”grabbing” a lot of AR-[m]=reach, influence=”power” (as in e.g. ‘long arm of the law’) | ||
| 6 | NAME CHECK |
Mention Australian mechanics – something audacious about that (9)
|
| A (Australian) + MECH (mechanics e.g. in the context of fields of engineering); with NECK=impudence=”something audacious” about it | ||
| 7 | SKIED |
Travelled in winter, perhaps raised aloft (5)
|
| double definition: to use skis to travel on snow; or past tense of ‘to sky’, to raise aloft | ||
| 8 | KNIGHTS ERRANT |
Adventurous types in middle of Hawkins – broadcast of Stranger Things two-thirds complete (7,6)
|
| middle letter of [Haw]-K-[ins], plus anagram of (Stranger Thin)*, with Thin from “Things two-thirds complete” | ||
| 9 | IMPROPRIETIES |
The writer’s supporting Minister (mostly) about relationship and scandalous behaviours (13)
|
| I’M=the writer is=”The writer’s” + PRO=in favour of=”supporting” + PRIES-[t]=”Minister (mostly)” around TIE=”relationship” | ||
| 15 | HAMPSHIRE |
Source of heavy band equipment on charter in southern county (9)
|
| first letter/”Source” of H-[eavy] + AMPS=amplifiers for sound/music=”band equipment” + HIRE=”charter” | ||
| 16 | GENERATOR |
Something that makes classes rushed? Not entirely (9)
|
| GENERA=plural of genus=”classes” + most letters (Not entirely) from TOR-[e]=moved quickly=”rushed” | ||
| 17 | TRANSPORT |
Coaches? Coaches left after I disembarked (9)
|
| TRA-[I]-NS=”Coaches” + PORT=”left” (e.g. on a ship); with I removed/”disembarked” | ||
| 21 | ALIBI |
Excuse a sexual impulse, but not act (5)
|
| A (from surface) + LIBI-[do]=”sexual impulse” without do=”act” | ||
| 22 | DANTE |
Italian writer not ultimately hosted by another European (5)
|
| last/ultimate letter of [no]-T; inside DANE=”another [aside from Italian] European” | ||
| 23 | IDIOT |
One heartless sod is stupid (5)
|
| I=”One” + DI-[v]-OT=”sod” without its heart or central letter |
Well I learned a few new words this morning. I liked INCLUSIVENESS, GOOSE STEP, E-PAYMENTS, KHAKI and KNIGHTS ERRANT.
As for 51 I think it may relate to the 50 states in the US, where Alaska and Hawaii were the last to be added in 1959.
I also noticed KAITIAKI meaning guardian.
Ta Pangakupu & manehi
Pretty sure the Maori Nina today is more likely to be a translation of “Save the Yellow-Eyed Penguin”, which is increasingly rare.
Thanks manehi – needed this today.
PINE TREE STATE is an anagram of EASTERN PETITE – the “and” isn’t included
Thanks Pangakupu and manehi
Several quibbles. Including Cambridge in 11a made it really obvious, and CAMBIUM tissue is found in all vascular plants, not just trees. I’ve never heard of HARD CIDER, and Google tells me it’s an exclusively US term for the alcoholic form that we just call cider, to distinguish it from apple juice, which they call cider. KHAKI was obvious, but where the AKI came from wasn’t. ALIBI means “elsewhere” rather than excuse. Stupid is an adjective, whereas IDIOT is a noun.
I can never remember which way round the S and Z are in LISZT!
Muffin @4 – Chambers also gives IDIOT as an adjective.
It also gives STUPID as a noun.
New for me: Maine = PINE TREE STATE; CAMBIUM, HARD CIDER, NATATORIA.
Crispy @5
I suppose I have heard “you idiot boy”, though the adjective is idiotic; I don’t see how stupid could be used as a noun, though.
Muffin@4 here in Australia alcoholic apple juice is also referred to as hard cider, or simply alcoholic cider, so not just US usage
Cider can often mean just apple juice
Lots of new words for me today. AlanC @1. agree with your list of likes esp’ the errant knights and would add the PINE TREE STATE.
The Nina(s) as always eluded me even though I am aware that it’s a trade mark for this setter.
As always thanks to P and M
HOIHO can have a macron, which changes its meaning. I can’t remember which way round it is but one is the penguin and one the horse. You need the horse – a ‘horse guardian’ is about as close as I can get to ‘Groom’, while ROTO (lurking in row 14} gives you Lake. And Groom Lake is better known as Area 51, for puzzle 51. (52 is easier.)
I argued for the restoration of Cambridge as CAMBIUM was a less common word. But I suppose Cambridge is up there with Po, Dee and Exe and can just be referred to as ‘river’.
Muffin @7 – Chambers does give the noun version of stupid as colloquial. Never thought what “IDIOT” in IDIOT BOX (television) referred to, i.e. is it the person watching (noun) or description (adj) of the box itself.
Thanks for the blog , I like long anagrams so this suited me . GOOSE STEP was very neat . Misprint in the paper for 20AC – Guardian s – no apostrophe and quite a large gap . INSET , many maps of the USA show these extra states as an inset .
Muffin@4 , T-shirts saying – I’m with stupid – are not too rare .
A good grid with two big pluses .
[ AlanC at number 1 yet again , like KPR for the final time this season , I am sure you will get promotion from magenta quite soon . ]
muffin @7 see also Bob Dylan’s Idiot Wind
Pangakapu’s never been the most succinct of setters and this felt like a step back to his early verbosity in places
I thought there were too many subtractions but with hindsight there were only 11 – is that too many? Maybe the heat is making me cranky?
Bouquet for GOOSE STEP
Brickbat for INSET – Inst. just makes me cringe in this day and age
Cheers P&M
Muffin@7 As in “come here stupid!”?
NAIVIST is a noun, whereas INGENUOUS is an adjective.
Agree with bodycheetah about verbosity
KateE@16
Both Naivist and ingenuous are adjectives. Correct me
if wrong.
KateE@16
Naivist is an adjective, describing a style esp in art.
KVA has beaten me to it.
muffin @7 ‘The Idiot Boy’ is a poem by Wordsworth published.in Lyrical Ballads in 1798, although there it is used, in a way that would now be unacceptable, to mean suffering from a congenital mental impairment.
Quite hard for Pangakupu whom I usually find fairly easy. Had to have a little assistance though I did not have to resort to Reveal Word.
Nho CAMBIUM, NATATORIA (though it had to be from the Latin) or NAIVIST.
Agree with Muffin@4 that in the US, as I remember, cider is juice and hard cider has alcohol. Big disappointment when I asked for cider and got juice. I can see that the setter couldn’t say cider in the clue as it’s in the solution.
The battle for the correct use of alibi is lost, I see.
Favourites already liked by others.
Thanks Pangakupu and manehi.
NAIVIST and NATATORIA were new: in both cases the first four letters came quickly but the rest took its time. I liked the Fascist movement for GOOSE STEP and the military material for KHAKI – but KHAKI was one of the subtractions where as usual I had trouble identifying the synonym for the subtractee word: AKI(n), VIST(a), PRIES(t), AR(m), TOR(e), DI(v)OT. Never my favourite clue type, and today there were a lot of them, and some quite stretchy. But I enjoyed the big anagrams .
In spite of the variations in local usage, HARD CIDER is not mere “juice” anywhere. And our (Baptist) minister would be theologically opposed to being called a priest: outside of crosswordland, the various terms for clergy are not freely interchangeable.
I leave Maori to the people who know about these things: thanks Pangakupu for the explanation and manehi for the blog.
Natate meaning swim somehow survives in the lexicon, along with osculate and micturate.
Nearly finished my second crossword of the year.
Beaten by the NHO’s.
Thanks both.
H. P. Lovecraft wrote of Azathoth, the ‘Blind Idiot God’. ‘Kiss Me, Stupid’ was a 1964 Billy Wilder film.
15d – Genus and class are wide apart in the classification of living things. Certainly not synonymous. Otherwise excellent.
Smoke On The Water by Deep Purple gives us:
‘Some stupid with a flare gun’
GOOSE STEP was a definite favorite with a lovely misdirection.
CAMBIUM was new to me, I have no idea how well known to those of you who actually know something about botany.
I failed to parse INSET, having forgotten instante mense, although we’ve had it here in the not-too-distant past. Next time, perhaps.
And as for several others NATATORIA was also new, and my LOI. I recalled natation as a rarely-seen word for swimming and the rest fell into place.
#4 MUFFIN – Unlike me, you clearly escaped being admonished as an “IDIOT CHILD”!
Thanks Pangakupu – nice solvable puzzle with some smiles. Of course, don’t get any of the MAORI references, but admire your ingenuity in adding this complexity to the already mind-numbing skill of crossword writing.
Muffin@4: I agree with you about Cambridge, my first reaction was “it can’t be that obvious, surely — what’s the river in the other Cambridge?” (Charles, for those who care to know.)
However, I disagree about ALIBI — although you are technically correct (and, I suspect, lawyers still use it in its original sense), in general use it has been used as a synonym for “excuse” for something over a century. Language changes, not always for the better…
A tale of 2 sittings as it took me a while to crack 8d and 9d. Couple of new words but all fairly clued. In the App, 20A has The Guardians also like Roz@12’s paper version it’s missing the ‘.
Finished it completely last night. Rare for me.
In the US, or at least in New England, I think, “cider” ,means the unfiltered brownish delicious fresh drink we can only get in apple season. The tea-colored sugary corporate stuff that’s around the rest of the year is “apple juice.” The alcoholic kind, as others have said, is “hard cider.”
I’m surprised that Pangakapu expects UK solvers to know Maine’s nickname. Every state has an official one, but most of us know only a few. My state, Connecticut, has “Constitution State” as its official nickname, and nobody ever uses it. Our unofficial nickname is “Nutmeg state,” coming from the probably apocryphal tale that after the Civil War carpetbaggers from here conned the ignorant southerners by selling them wooden nutmegs. I would think that creating a wooden nutmeg would be so labor intensive as not to be worth it, and more likely the idea came (if it came at all) from the fact that you have to grate nutmegs to use them, creating something that looks like sawdust. Any number of businesses call themselves the Nutmeg something.
I don’t know a word of Maori, but I can usually pick out Pangakapu’s ninas because most of the possible candidates have unpronounceable clusters of consonants or implausible strings of vowels.
Thanks, Pagakapu and manehi.
I found this a bit of a struggle but I did like the GOOSE STEP fascist movement, the NOISOME satellite, and the Australian mechanics’ NAMECHECK.
Thanks Pangakupu and manehi.
US states have official state flags, mottoes, plants, birds, food, animals, insects… and nicknames. You can find lists of all of them, official and unofficial, but the PINE TREE STATE isn’t one of the better known ones, like the Empire State (New York) from which the building was named. I certainly had to look it up.
I have always liked that Missouri is the Show Me state.
Hawkeye, in the Marvel comics, used to say ‘Well I’m from Missouri” in answer to a boast.
Rather than misuse ALIBI, there’s a perfectly good word for “excuse” – it’s – mmm – excuse!
Another who’s unhappy with ALIBI and GENERA. Also, I can only find NAIVIST relating to artists without formal training, ingenuous or otherwise.
muffin @4 Re LISZT, it’s alphabetical order.
We enjoyed that. A Nice way to finish the week. Thank you to all.
PINE TREE STATE was a write-in for me.
I grew up in Indiana (the Hoosier State, btw), and was a (not very) competitive swimmer. The state high-school swimming championships were held every year at Indiana University’s aquatics complex, which was simply called The Natatorium. So that one was not a new word for me.
And yes, in America, unless context clarifies otherwise, unmodified “cider” means fresh, unfiltered apple juice. But context does matter: if you go to a bar and order a cider, you will be understood to mean a Magner’s or whatever they have on tap.
[Illinois (where I’ve lived for the last 25-plus years) is the Prairie State, officially, but no one calls it that. Especially since there are a lot of states farther west that did a lot more to earn that nickname.]
When I were a lad, HARD CIDER meant still, (quite) alcoholic apple ‘juice’. The sort with bubbles and (less) alcohol was just cider, and the non-alcoholic version could also be cider (if it contained bubbles – you had to be careful) or apple juice (if not). And we are talking about the Apple Isle, so we ought to know.
Thanks for the excellent crossie, Pamgakupu, and manehi for the blog.
Another unimpressed by the Cambridge clue. Of course the Cambridge river ought to be the Granta. The Normans couldn’t cope with the Gr sound and Grantabridge became Cantabridge – hence MA Cantab. In due course the town’s name was simplified further to Cambridge. The name of the river became the Cam, by a process known as back formation, rather like the small river Pinn running through Pinner near where I live.
RA@25 et al – Chambers – GENUS: “A class of objects comprehending several subordinate species (logic)”
I absolutely loved it.
Yeah, I raised an eyebrow a few times at some of the same things that there are grumbles about. But I didn’t care …
… It was just enchanting to keep working at the clues until an answer evolved. Loved the images invoked by the surfaces. And loved having to google those little oddities that were new to me – PINE TREE STATE, you must be right but never heard of you – HARD CIDER, er, what’s the difference from just cider?
8 across (the Stranger Things one) made me laugh.
Re: ALIBI:
I’ve no idea how helpful this will, or will not be, but …
My Chambers, (10th Edition) gives: ‘
‘An excuse for failure’
as a definition of ‘Alibi’, and my ‘Oxford’ gives ‘
‘An excuse of any kind’
Been around a while … the Oxford is dated 1991 and the Chambers 2006.
Andrew @26, reminiscent of Child in Time:
See the blind man
Shooting ….
[As for cider: in the orchard, apples that fall but don’t rupture naturally ferment. Delicious, and get you tipsy. Shown this by Simon, hitchhiking son of Sidney, a big London fruit importer]
Bobandcogs @44
Chambers gives the correct definition first, then adds “an excuse for failure (colloq.)”; colloq(uial) is just about as close as it ever gets to saying “wrong”!
I didn’t know that Maine was the PINE TREE STATE, but is was pretty clear from the anagram fodder, and no less obscure for a UK solver than cricket arcana would be for one of our North American friends. And it’s (generally) always a pleasure to learn something new.
Thanks for the various discussions above about HARD CIDER. In my early (student) caving years, we often visited the Mendips, and the club’s senior member would go shopping on our behalf for local Cheddar cheese and cider. The cheese, from Chewton Mendip, was excellent. The cider, from lord knows where, came in half gallon plastic containers; it looked like, smelled like, and tasted like vinegar with a strong admixture of horse pee (not that I’ve ever actually tasted the latter).
I was baffled by why AR in VICARIOUS could be an abridged word for “power”, and having seen the blog I’m still not that keen on it. But that is a minor niggle in what was a fun puzzle with lots of interesting constructions.
Thanks, Pangakupu & manehi!
Enjoyable puzzle. I’ll second AlanC’s choice @1. I did give a sigh at ALIBI (though that horse has bolted) and wondered why ‘Cambridge river’ was necessary. I didn’t recall the alias for Maine, but the solution seemed to end in STATE, so it had to be a nickname, which wasn’t too difficult to disentangle.
I was familiar with HARD CIDER as an Americanism for what we Brits just call cider. It’s strange that ‘cider’ should have become non-alcoholic in parts of the Anglosphere outside the UK. The cognates in all European languages (cidre, sidra, sidro etc) are all definitely alcoholic, and the word seems to have come, via Greek then Latin, from a Hebrew word for ‘alcoholic drink’.
Thanks to S&B
I believe the Nazis copied the Italian fascists’ ludicrous ‘goose-step’ march, and it’s still in use in some countries today (mainly South America)
bodycheetah@42 I believe that Chambers is wrong in using the title of one taxonomic division to describe another. It might been better to have used a different word, perhaps group.
Genus is an example of a “class”. It’s unfortunate that Class is another level of classification.
Thanks a lot Pangakupu and manehi! An enjoyable puzzle as always, although I agree with some criticisms e.g. CAM, AR. Some words were jorums (NATATORIA, HARD CIDER), some I couldn’t fully parse. My favourites are GOOSE STEP, TRANSPORT and NAME CHECK.
But one question still remains, how does preservation of the hoiho relate to the number 51?
muffin @51 That’s why I think a different collective noun would have been better.
The clue does not mention taxonomy , GENERA for classes in logic is far earlier , right back to Aristotle .
Derek@47 , have you or colleagues ever found anything remotely linked to cave art ?
Layman@52 see the setter @10 , very tenuous but I think 51 was a hard one .
52 is going to be playing cards .
[Apologies if this is slightly off-topic but has anyone tried the new iPhone Guardian App yet? They have seriously changed the crossword part and for the worse. It now shows the incorrect letters and it randomly selects the next clue inside of the next across clue. It is horrible].
zoot@50/53: I think you should actually read Chambers, rather than copying from Bodycheetah’s rather abbreviated account. My copy (1990 ed) gives two definitions, firstly ‘a taxonomic group of lower rank than a family (biol)’ and then the logicians definition as given by Bodycheetah. That biological definition does not repeat any collective noun.
Pangakupu@10 explains his rationale for specifying Cambridge river (plainer wordplay for more uncommon solution), which I think answers the critics of this clue.
Layman@52 (you just missed the magic 51), P@10 also explains the 51 connection to the Māori nina-words, although it is pretty far-fetched, as he himself acknowledges. (Roz@54 said this while I was typing.)
Re everyone who complained about HARD CIDER, I would respectfully submit that whether cider is alcoholic (UK) or nonalcoholic (Canada and elsewhere), it is still a form of (usually but not always) apple juice.
I too didn’t see a couple of the subtractions (19a AKI(n) and 5d AR(m), so thanks manehi for the parsing help.
And thanks Pangakupu for the excellent puzzle, almost but not quite free of improprieties.
No one — not even a denizen of southern Nevada — could make the ’51’ connection in a million years. wāhi huna and wāhi ngaro both mean “secret place” in Maori. I would think one of these would be easy to nina-ize.
[SimoninBxl @55 I know there are some dead tree solvers in this zone who find the idea of solving online unimaginable. As an online solver, I have to say I find the idea of solving a G cryptic on a small phone screen just bizarre. Don’t you have a laptop or something, on which you would encounter none of these problems, or does your phone run your life?]
Coloradan@58 perhaps the whole thing is a reference to the secrecy and lack of public access for Area 51 .
Roz@54, thanks a lot! I overlooked it
Balfour @ 59 – Why so snotty? A phone fits comfortably in a pocket and so is easy to carry around
Roz@60. Yes, that’s certainly the intent. I’m just saying: give us a reasonably gettable route to it. Area 51 resonates with many folks as a “secret place”, but “horse guardian lake?”
Maybe just mocking the “official” name of Groom Lake with a ridiculous coded reference ? I do not really know .
It is like the last time tachyons were in and there was a reference to the Cuban missile crisis tachyon code and only I noticed but I am sworn to secrecy .
[Aha, the Illuminati (CERN chapter)]
[ Sorry Coloradan , I do not know that reference . It was nothing to do with Cern or whoever the Illuminati are , it was Los Alamos . Time for bed , I am meteored out this week . ]
[Crispy @62 The same could be said of a packet of cigarettes or a hip flask. Last Friday I was in my doctors’ surgery for a dressing to be changed. At the reception desk was a prominent notice asking patients not to use their phones in the waiting area. This was reiterated by on-screen health information shown on both sides of the room. I was one of four people in the waiting area, the other three of whom were glued to their smartphones. When a doctor appeared to call one of them through, she at first got no response, then had to raise her voice until her patient looked up and responded. These people were not phone-addicted teenagers; none was under 65. Yes, I have a phone, but it is used just as a phone.]
[Roz @13: maybe I’ve been twinned with another NI person from the KPR Horror Pitch on Show].
I most be getting better at this. Relatively quick solve today, with the same NHOs that others have mentioned. I do like finding new (to me) words like NATATORIA, particularly when the Latin origins are easily identifiable.
Balfour@67
Although you’re obviously correct about the people ignoring the No Phones signs, there’s no particular virtue in deciding not to use most of a tool’s features.
My wife was recently reading a book on her phone in our local surgery (where you are allowed to use them). A trio of women were not very subtly going on about ‘these people always on their phones.’ My wife told them she was reading a book, which she thought good use of her time. The women then wittered on along the lines of ‘A book, fancy that! I don’t even know what half the buttons on my phone do…” I wonder who came out of that exchange looking silly.
This went smoother than I expected for a Friday, with only a few lacunae in the parsings.
IME here (Canada) the difference between apple juice and CIDER is that the latter is fizzy. One of the first times I ever got drunk—well, tipsy anyway—was at age 14, on a trip to Scotland when I had a can of Woodpecker, quite unsuspecting that it would be HARD.
I don’t think I’d seen NATATORIA (or its singular) before, but got there via “natant” (alternatively “naiant”), a term of blazon often applied to fish, dolphins &c., there meaning basically ‘horizontal’. I don’t know many US state epithets, but PINE TREE seemed plausible because one appears on the Maine flag (and others from revolutionary-era New England).
NOISOME reminds me of one of my pet peeves, misuse of “fulsome” (very commonly heard recently for ‘thorough’) and “toothsome” (on cooking shows, for ‘chewy’ or ‘al dente’). I expect it’s only a matter of time until it starts being used to mean ‘loud’.
No problem with the non-Linnaean GENERA or the broadened (or transferred?) sense of ALIBI. I confess to having occasionally used “inst.” and “ult.” in formal e-mails.
Enjoyable puzzle. I’m with those who didn’t have the slightest clue how to connect the guardian of the yellow-eyed penguin to 51. But for once spotting the nina did help a bit with the solve in the NE. I did miss roto I admit, but I can’t see that it would have helped.
I used to really enjoy trying to find the link (I remember the 39 steps very fondly). But recently they seem to be impenetrable to all of the commenters except those who happen to be the setter.
[ AlanC@68 , you do not seem to have your usual pre-season optimism ? Perhaps you are ready to put away childish things . Focus on something important like the colour of your square , you cannnot stay magenta for ever , eventually you might reach bright yellow . ]
Balfour – Your comment about cigarettes / hip flask is ridiculous. I possess a desktop, not a laptop. I do the crossword on my phone for convenience as it means I can do the puzzle around the house rather than have to be on one room. If I’m sat in a waiting room, neither my doctors nor my dentist say I can’t, I’m stressed, so doing a crossword helps take my mind off things.
Crispy@74 👍
[Crispy@74 👍. I am happily sitting in the sun drinking coffee and trying to solve the Prize on my iPhone. Don’t want to haul a laptop out to do that and can’t easily get a paper version here in Belgium.]
[Simon @76 – I started this morning’s prize in bed with a cuppa, continued it at the table over breakfast, finished it (hopefully!) in the living room while drinking a second cuppa. All on a phone.]