The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30119.
Paul gives us a delightful crossword with a theme of childish practical jokes. I almost completed the bottom half before making any headway in the top. It is remrkable that 2D HENDRIX should have appeared so recently in an Everyman, with a clue using almost identical parsing. The resemblance is so close that there must be a story behind it.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1, 5 | WHOOPEE CUSHION |
Terrific temper in children’s ‘entertainer’? (7,7)
|
| A charadec of WHOOPEE (‘terrific’ as an exclamation) plus CUSHION (‘temper’ in the sense of ameliorate). | ||
| 5 |
See 1
|
|
| 10 | SNOG |
Somewhat passionless, no great show of affection (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘somewhat’) in ‘passionlesS NO Great’. | ||
| 11 | PATRIARCHY |
Right manner the wrong way in incoherent arrangement favouring men (10)
|
| An envelope (‘in’) of RIAR, a reversal (‘the wrong way’) of R (‘right’) plus AIR (‘manner’) in PATCHY (‘incoherent’). | ||
| 12 | URANUS |
God you are, but according to rumour? (6)
|
| A charade of UR (‘you are’, textspeak) plus ANUS (butt, ‘but according to rumour’). | ||
| 13 | HOOLIGAN |
Tough with bug, I can hope initially to recover (8)
|
| A reversal (‘to recover’) of NAG (‘bug’, verb) plus ‘I’ plus LOO (WC, ‘can’) plus H (‘Hope initially’). | ||
| 14, 16 | EXPLODING CIGAR |
Smoke bomb has old, old pig racing around (9,5)
|
| A charade of EX (‘old’, the first one) plus PLODINGCIGAR, an anagram (‘around’) of ‘old pig racing’. | ||
| 16 |
See 14
|
|
| 17 |
See 25 Down
|
|
| 19 | APPENDAGE |
Program termination, time for add-on (9)
|
| A charade of APP (‘program’) plus END (‘termination’) plus AGE (‘time’). | ||
| 23 | FEVERFEW |
Temperature only two or three in herb (8)
|
| A charade of FEVER (‘temperature’) plus FEW (‘only two or three’). | ||
| 24 | TEFLON |
Film panned by liberal left, now showing (6)
|
| A charade of TEFL, an anagram (‘liberal’) of ‘left’; plus ON (‘now showing’). ‘Panned’ from the use of TEFLON in non-stick pans. | ||
| 26 | UNFORESEEN |
Fun breaking rocks, even surprising (10)
|
| A charade of UNF, an anagram (‘breaking’) of ‘fun’; plus ORES (‘rocks’) plus EEN (poetic or dialect, ‘even’). | ||
| 27 | LICK |
Wet bit (4)
|
| Double definition – both of which took me a lick to get. | ||
| 28 |
See 21 Down
|
|
| 29 | FAKE POO |
Children’s ‘entertainer’ given a poke, for not entirely crappy? (4,3)
|
| An anagram (‘crappy’) of ‘a poke fo[r]’ minus the last letter (‘not entirely’). Like some other clues here, there is a suggestion of an extended definition (but it would probably not be wise to act on the suggestion). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 2 | HENDRIX |
Musician, ‘experienced’ performer ultimately, one inspired by voodoo? (7)
|
| An envelope (‘inspired by’) of NDR (‘musiciaN experienceD performeR ultimately’) plus I (‘one’) in HEX (‘voodoo’), with an &lit definition. The same answer, with a clue using nearly identical devices, appeared in the Everyman 4169 of September 13. However, Everyman did manage to make more direct reference to the song Voodoo Child (or Chile) written by Jimi Hendrix. | ||
| 3 | ORGAN |
One’s stopped primate achieving good promotion (5)
|
| ORANG (‘primate’) with the G moved up (‘achieving good promotion’). | ||
| 4 | EXPOSED |
Open wound so deep, ten cuts (7)
|
| An envelope (‘cuts’) of X (Roman numeral, ‘ten’) in EPOSED, an anagram (‘wound’) of ‘so deep’. | ||
| 6 | UNISON |
Only good uniform required to turn up for concert (6)
|
| A reversal (‘to turn up’ in a down light) of NO SIN (‘only good’) plus U (‘uniform’). | ||
| 7 | HORRIFIED |
In shock, if I’d run off with hero (9)
|
| An anagram (‘off’) of ‘if I’d’ plus R (‘run’) plus ‘hero’. | ||
| 8 | OOH LA LA |
Short catchy phrase arising, singing well! (3,2,2)
|
| A charade of OOH, a reversal (‘arising’ in a down light) of HOO[k] (‘catchy phrase’) minus its last letter (‘short’); plus LA-LA (‘singing’), with perhaps a hint of an extended definition. | ||
| 9 | ITCHING POWDER |
Keen, with crush on children’s ‘entertainer’? (7,6)
|
| A charade of ITCHING (‘keen’) plus POWDER (‘crush’, verb). | ||
| 15 | LARCENOUS |
Crooked, skewed clear sense (9)
|
| A charade of LARCE, an anagram (‘skewed’) of ‘clear’; plus NOUS (common ‘sense’). | ||
| 18 | ETERNAL |
Constant protection of one aquatic bird by another, the first flying away (7)
|
| An envelope (‘protection … by’) of TERN (‘one aquatic bird’) in [t]EAL (‘another’ – i.e. another aquatic bird, one of various kinds of duck) minus its fist letter (‘the first flying away’). | ||
| 20 | ESTONIA |
Sea, in waves, within which to land (7)
|
| An envelope (‘within which’) of ‘to’ in ESNIA, an anagram (‘waves’) of ‘sea in’. | ||
| 21, 28 | GROUCHO GLASSES |
Children’s entertainer faced misery, advance rebuffed by young ladies (7,7)
|
| A charade of GROUCH (‘misery’) plus OG, a reversal (‘rebuffed’) of GO (‘advance’) plus LASSES (‘young girls’). ‘Faced’ might be regarded as a link word, or as part of the definition. | ||
| 22 | EFFETE |
Feeble grade in the end, fail with honour (6)
|
| A charade of E (‘gradE in the end’) plus F (‘fail’) plus FETE (‘honour’, verb). | ||
| 25, 17 | FALSE BEARD |
Dubious hair faced, safe balder anyhow (5,5)
|
| An anagram (‘anyhow’) of ‘safe balder’. |
I keep telling myself not to take Paul on at 3 in the morning and I keep on doing it anyway. I clawed my way through this, helped a bit by getting the first themed answer early with EXPLODING CIGAR. This irresistibly brought to mind the old song, ‘Mention My Name in Sheboygan’, which I first heard one Sunday morning many years ago while driving up Highway 11 in Virginia with ‘The Prairie Home Companion’ on the radio. Now my earworm of the day.
Mention my name in Elmira.
It’s the greatest little town in the world.
I told the mayor there that he would go far,
I even gave the sheriff an exploding cigar.
Thanks, PeterO, for a few parsings that I just could not be bothered to work out.
Whereas, I saw it was Paul at 2am and decided to leave it until I’d had more sleep. I’m glad I did, as not the easiest Paul.
I wonder if Paul’s remembering one of those old joke sets, boxed sets for Christmas, or cracker prizes?
Thank you to PeterO and Paul
I found this slightly gentler from Paul but then when I spotted the theme I expected both WHOOPEE CUSHION and ITCHING POWDER to make an appearance which gave a lot of useful letters.
A struggle over the line with FEVERFEW and EFETTE but an enjoyable Paul puzzle.
Liked HENDRIX and FALSE BEARD
Thanks Paul and PeterO
Great fun! Thanks Paul and PeterO
A lot easier once the meaning of ‘entertainer’ became clear, but that was after a long slog. The usual tough but fair from Paul. Not entirely crappy!!! Thanks both.
I thought this fitted Paul’s often childish humour perfectly and luckily I got WHOOPEE CUSHION reasonably early, so I stopped looking for entertainers like Rod Hull, Magpie or Crackerjack. I presumed that Crappy was implying that it was similar to real poo, a typical Paul device of adding a ‘y’ to describe something seeming dissociated.
I thought HENDRIX was a great clue (I don’t solve Everyman) and OOH LA LA reminded me of the contemporary Faces https://youtu.be/1_xwnb3cymc?si=T7gj5vCBpBng0JM5.
Great entertainment all round.
Ta Paul & PeterO.
Probably worth mentioning that ‘experienced’ is referring to his band The Jimi HENDRIX Experience.
Did anyone else have SNOG as FOI?
AlanC @7 – Yep!
Fiendishly clever crossword but zero fun factor for me I‘m sorry to say.
AlanC @7 – yes, me
Thoroughly entertaining – just the right balance of humour and difficulty. Yet another high quality crossword from Paul.
Having had a pretty rotten night I was in the mood to be amused by Pauline smut, and he didn’t disappoint. FOI was “your anus”, and so on in similar vein.
A couple I couldn’t parse, so thank you PeterO as well
September 18th was the anniversary of Jimi Hendrix’s death (d. 18/9/1970).
Which country is an anagram of the 7 most used letters in the English language? It seems hard at first, but then most people work it out. I wouldn’t suggest Paul’s crosswords are that easy, but even the most daunting starts can be overcome.
My first in was APPENDAGE, which reflects my sometimes peripatetic approach. The theme helped a lot here; my first themed answer was GROUCHO GLASSES. Once EXPLODING CIGAR went in, I was actively seeking WHOOPPEE CUSHION and ITCHING POWDER. We were only missing pepper sweets and stink bombs. I’m pretty sure Worthing had a joke shop. I bought all that nonsense from somewhere anyway. My dad is not a dog fan, so an April Fool phoney poo on the patio was a real showstopper.
I jumped straight from the song title to Hendrix but parsed it fully, along with the rest, before coming here.
Thanks Peter and Paul.
Re Me@8. I think the main reason that SNOG was first in was because I work down from the beginning, and I couldn’t get WHOOPEE CUSHION.
I was another for whom SNOG was the first step to further enjoyment. For me it was one of those puzzles you look back on and wonder why you made such heavy weather of.
AlanC @7 Also, ‘Are You Experienced?’ was the title track of his first album.
Comment #18
I also started with SNOG (mostly due to a habit of starting with shortish entries in the NW).
Noticed that one of the ‘entertainers’ (21d) was not clued in quotation marks, but nothing seems to have turned on this – unless, perhaps, P feels that GROUCHO GLASSES do not merit the same disapprobation as the other gags.
Didn’t like the pattern ‘film panned’ / ‘hair faced’ used in several definitions; for mine, these phrases certainly do not mean ‘applied to a pan’ or ‘applied to the face’. But otherwise, this was very satisfying.
Came here to learn how TEF = liberal in 24ac, learned a new anagrind instead.
Nevertheless, a puzzle like a stray cat, full of ticks. One of the rare instances I spotted the theme early on thanks to a quickly parsed EXPLODING CIGAR and WHOOPEE CUSHION. Thanks to Paul for a challenging but very rewarding puzzle and to Peter for the excellent blog!
Fought.my way enjoyabley enough through this (with a few “helps”) but never in a month of proverbial Sundays would I have parsed hooligan, so many many thanks for the devious unravelling PeterO
And with you and others AlanC@7 in starting with snog
Thanks also to Paul, of course, as the instigator
Lots of word searches for me to ‘solve’ this, which is par for the course for Paul, I find. And, I revealed FAKE POO, which of course is not in the usual dictionaries. I couldn’t parse HOOLIGAN, probably because I found it difficult to see how ‘recover’ was a reversal indicator (maybe get over?). I did like the URANUS butt, the TEFLON panned film, the &lit HENDRIX, and the UNISON concert.
Thanks Paul and PeterO.