I started off slowly on this one, but things got a bit easier when I’d found the long answer at 11/14/28/27, though it wasn’t completely plain sailing even then. Thanks to Paul.
| Across | ||||||||
| 1 | BITTERN | Bird attacked bird (7) BIT + TERN |
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| 5 | SHRUBBY | Son with right punching old man, naturally prickly? (7) S[on] + R in HUBBY (husband, old man) |
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| 10/17 | DEEP SPACE | Mortgage’s ending, better rate coming back? That’s a long, long way off (4,5) Reverse of [mortgag]E + CAP (to better) + SPEED (rate) |
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| 11/14/28/27 | UNEXPECTED ITEM IN THE BAGGING AREA | An irritation voiced when checking out matinee hit, cryptically? (10,4,2,3,7,4) The phrase could indicate an anagram (unexpected) of ITEM IN THE “bagging” A[rea], giving MATINEE HIT |
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| 12 | TAI CHI | Discipline of the Chinese discussing what they drink in the east with Spooner? (3,3) Spoonerism of “Chai tea” |
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| 13 | PROSECCO | Something flowing in Italy when quaffing wine, case of classic Italian tipple (8) ROSÉ (wine) + C[lassi]C in PO (Italian river, which flows) |
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| 16 | GRIND | Laborious routine in stadium mentioned by royal? (5) “Ground” (stadium) pronounced in a way associated with some members of the Royal Family |
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| 19 | SCORE DRAW | Possible result when charges withdrawn, having saved foundation (5,4) CORE (foundation) in reverse of WARDS (charges, as in Wards of Court) |
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| 23 | PANORAMA | Land covering periphery of our view (8) O[u]R in PANAMA |
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| 24 | MACULA | Chap originally captivated by savage, a bit of a looker (6) C[hap] in MAUL (to savage) + A |
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| 26 | JOLLY ROGER | Sign of criminal activity duly noted by party (5,5) JOLLY (a party) + ROGER (duly noted, in radio communication) |
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| 29 | DENIALS | I didn’t, I didn’t, Stormy Daniels! (7) DANIELS* |
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| Down | ||||||||
| 2 | INEXACT | Account in newspaper subsequently in need of clarification (7) AC in I (the “i” paper) + NEXT |
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| 3 | TOPIC | Issue getting helmet on head of cyclist (5) TOPI (pith helmet) + C[yclist] |
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| 4 | RÉUNION | Concerned with educational institution on French island (7) RE (concerned with) + UNI[versity] + ON |
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| 6 | HIP-HOP | I’m being introduced to contemporary music containing minimum of harmony – this? (3-3) I and H[armony] in H-POP. Traditionalists would maintain the “I’m” is not allowed for the cryptic reading: it should be “I is”. Commenters have suggested another (more plausible?) parsing: HI (I’m being introduced) + H in POP |
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| 7 | UNCLEARED | Still messy, McCarthyite aunt’s grounds for divorce? (9) The aunt might want a divorce if UNCLE is A RED (communist) |
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| 8 | BEER CAN | Native American in nick after capsizing vessel (4,3) Reverse of CREE in NAB (to arrest, nick) |
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| 9 | KEEP THE CHANGE | Kilogramme awfully cheap then, gee: you deserve more! (4,3,6) K (kilogramme – K on its own is often used as as abbreviation of kilometre, but I’m not sure it’s valid for kilogramme) + (CHEAP THEN GEE)* |
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| 15 | MICROBLOG | Girl combo composed series of short messages (9) (GIRL COMBO)* |
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| 18 | PIANOLA | A skirt lifted, inside which an old instrument (7) AN O[ld] in reverse of A LIP (skirt) |
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| 20 | REMORSE | Intense sorrow in Constantine’s Rome revved up (7) Hidden in reverse of constantinE’S ROME Revved |
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| 21 | ALL HEAL | Endless trouble breaking loose around a plant (7) A in ALL HEL[L] (which proverbially breaks loose) |
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| 22 | WARREN | Boy, that’s labyrinthine! (6) Double definition |
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| 25 | COATI | American mammal: film one (5) COAT (film) + I |
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I think that 6d is HI (I’m being introduced) plus H in POP
A very tough Paul but I eventually managed to GRIND it out last night. I thought the aforementioned was hilarious as were DENIALS and UNCLEARED. I was lucky enough to solve UIITBA midway through from the definition, rather than the cryptic content, so bravo Andrew for sorting that one out and what a brilliant clue. Also ticked SHRUBBY, PROSECCO, SCORE DRAW, JOLLY ROGER, BEER CAN and KEEP THE CHANGE.
Ta Paul & Andrew.
It was a sad day for me today with the passing of one of my favourite actors, Patrick Stewart. 😞 Grew up watching him as Captain Picard on Star Trek TNG. I loved that show and it was the utopian future I hoped we would have one day. Stewart as Picard, personified everything good and morale about the show.
Back to the crossword. This was a big DNF. I gave up about half way and revealed the answers. I just wasn’t on Paul’s wavelength today. I could have persisted but my heart wasn’t in it. Nonetheless there were some excellent clues with UNCLEARED bringing a chuckle.
Soldiered on to the end and managed to complete the grid bar WARREN which never came to mind. I spent too long thinking the long ‘un was going to be a reverse clue for ‘matinee hit’ which is a 10 letter grouping and only gave up on that when HIP-HOP came into view. BEER CAN is neat, GRIND made me laugh and, though it has been done a few times before, the Stormy Daniels anagram is fun.
Thanks both
HIP-HOP
I was thinking…
I’m being introduced to contemporary music=HI POP
H in HI POP
However, the blogger’s version could be the intended parse.
I do wonder what ratio of solvers will parse UIITBA – I didn’t; didn’t even try.
I love Paul’s puzzles – especially those with over long clues or lots of cross-reference; so thanks.
My first thought on seeing a 30letter answer was – there’s gonna be a lot of complaints. But I felt this was all very fair if pretty tough
Thanks Setter and Blogger
Rats
If you liked Sir Patrick in Star Trek – check out his role in classic BBC series I Claudius. Completely opposite role but just as captivating
Choosing to give my custom to shops that have humans on the checkouts I was severely hampered by UIITBA, which was my LOI. Compensated for by the delicious “denials”.
Thanks to S&B
Stormy Daniels – twice in two days (some of you will know where she appeared yesterday).
Not as gnarly as Paul can sometimes be with his fun and games, I thought. Though do some members of the present British Royal Family really still pronounce words like Ground as Grind.? ALLHEAL was loi, had to be that, though I then had to go and look it up for confirmation that it was indeed a plant and that therefore I had successfully managed to complete a Paul Puzzle at last…
DadsLad @7 You are bloody lucky if you are able to find one. The food ship I go to most often has retained only two ‘proper’ checkouts and I really cannot remember when either of them was last manned. I’m off on my very occasional visit to Waitrose in half an hour, where of course they do have five or six manned checkouts, but I always get impatient at the length of the queues for them and just take my modest basket of treats to the self-checkouts.
Terrific fare as usual with Paul. nho allheal.
Great stuff from Paul. Which I actually solved in the early hours waiting for my wife to finish a late shift.
I thought the UIITBA clue was great but also helped open up the grid!
Finished on my only unknown ALLHEAL which I was far from confident was correct.
Thanks Paul and Andrew
Do self-service check-outs actually say “in THE bagging area”? I thought it was just “in bagging area”. Will have to listen more carefully next time I’m using one. Brilliant clue though.
Due to years of neglect, my back lawn is more allheal than grass, so that wasn’t an issue for me
Can’t say that the UNEXPECTED phrase sprung to mind – even after I had a rough idea how it was going to parse. I always use the self-checkout here in the Antipodes but am not sure I’ve heard that phrase (with or without the ‘THE’). Got there in the end – after shaking the belief that the answer had something to do with checking out of a hotel – but needed ages for a couple of others, and conceded defeat on WARREN.
I agreed with #5 @KVa’s parsing of HIP-HOP. The pronunciation aspect of GRIND was lost on me, I’m afraid.
Anyway, this was a treat. Absolutely tickled by UNCLEARED. Thanks Paul and Andrew.
(Just musing: is it fair play to describe ‘unexpected item’ etc as an ‘irritation voiced’ at the checkout? Isn’t it a message generated automatically by an apparatus which isn’t emotionally invested in its own processes?)
Matthew Newell @6
I would think a small ratio would parse the clue retrospectively, but a ratio approximating to zero would actually be able to work out the answer from the wordplay.
Menander#15
It’s the customer that’s irritated.
…re the developing conversation about unmanned checkouts at supermarkets, I never mind waiting in the queue in my local Co-op to have my shopping basket checked by a real human being. In the queue are mostly old codgers like me who like the brief human contact and conversation as part of their day. Though I personally do have plenty of other conversations with real people during my own daily journey!
I liked DENIALS and thought “That must have been done before” and it had. UNCLEARED was brilliant. I got myself into a mess with INEXACT by having x and t as Times.
My supermarket’s checkout no longer says “Unexpected item in bagging area” and it never did add THE. I was certainly one who didn’t parse that lot. Not sure if any if the current royals still say “GRIND” either. Never mind: some of the others were very nice (the red uncle and Stormy Daniels made me laugh). I’m not sure exactly what a MICROBLOG is, but here is ALLHEAL – I know it as self-heal but it has lots of names.
Great stuff from Paul! Some tricky parsing, although I did unravel the matinee hit. GRIND was my LOI, with a groan.
DENIALS was brilliant. Loved the surfaces for DEEP SPACE and MACULA.
Thanks Paul and Andrew
That was tough, even for a Friday. [Not helped by my iPhone App having reverted to the old crossword format which just shows if the answer is right or wrong].
Thanks to Andrew for the excellent blog and for parsing the long one.
Simonc@16: Agreed. I don’t really see the point of this sort of clue, which I only solved from crossers and didn’t even attempt to parse, but Paul is inordinately fond of them.
Not in a million years would I have been able to parse GRIND, even after revealing it, and I still can’t persuade my ears to hear it the way it’s meant.
I got there in the end, despite putting BAGGAGE AREA at first. What surprised me most was the slightly old-fashioned Mr Halpern (?) including: MICROBLOG; TAI CHI; PROSECCO; HIP-HOP – down with the young people. And no rudeness, unless I missed it.
Was pleased to see that Shirl @1 confirmed my hesitant parsing of HIP-HOP.
Liked the surfaces of the clues for INEXACT and TOPIC.
Was defeated by ALLHEAL, but Andrew neatly explained what was a perfectly fair clue.
Thanks to Paul and Andrew. And thanks to gladys @20 for the link.
Grind reminded me of Steve Bell’s cartoons, where the royal accents also included trizers (for trousers)… Here’s Prince Philip:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2021/apr/20/steve-bells-if-the-palace-ducks-reveal-prince-philips-fun-side
HIP-HOP
Apologies to Shirl@1.
I hadn’t seen that post before posting my comments
(In fact, I saw that only after reading Clyde225).
I managed to get the long one from the definition and enumeration and then work it out. Great clue.
UNCLE A RED was my favourite and produced a grin.
KVa @27: I think your parsing @5 (I’m being introduced to contemporary music=HI POP) is slightly different to Shirl’s @1. I marginally prefer yours.
Many thanks Paul and Andrew.
Either I’m getting better at this or Paul is growing kinder with age.
Anyway, I’ve actually experienced the old joke of the unexpected item being my bag. Definitely an irritation.
pedrox @26 Yes, when back from my Waitrose excursion I was going to mention Steve Bell’s hilarious representation of royal speech. I seem to remember ‘hice’ and ‘ite and abite’ as well, but I don’t have the cartoons to hand to bear this out.
pedrox at 26, thanks for the link. I had forgotten how great Steve Bell was, much missed.
I managed to finish in one sitting, so thought it must be easier than the usual Paul. Praise for 29a.
Thanks Andrew and Paul
I’ve given up Paul
Not sure I would have got the UNEXPECTED … long one if I didn’t have ITEM in mind from trying to fit it in to 2d I-E—- (with the clue talking about account in newspaper). Great clue retrospectively, and congrats to those who got it from the wordplay.
5a. SHRUBBY doesn’t mean naturally prickly
I had several unparsed — did anybody work out the long one from first principles? — but with the help of the blogger they were all typical of Paul, had I been more on his wavelength.
The intersecting COATI, MACULA, and ALLHEAL were all new to me, which made the SE corner a challenge, to say the least.
Toughest of the week by far but also a lot of chuckles & wry grins.
Got there in the end with a little 🇨🇿 assistance for UNCLEARED & GRIND: I’d put UNCLEANED first & ARENA which got stuck in my brain despite knowing it couldn’t be correct.
Also needed Andrew’s help for parsing: UIITBA, SCORE DRAW, INEXACT & shamefully REMORSE. Despite spotting the obviously reversed ROME 🤦🏻
Those were my last 3 in too Jacob@35
I had Shirl@1’s parsing for HIP-HOP & liked the clue but I think KVa@5’s is neater.
Other favourites were BEER CAN, JOLLY ROGER, KEEP THE CHANGE, DEEP SPACE, DENIALS & UIITBA.
Cheers Paul & Andrew
Paul at his best. Worth doing if only for the hilarious GRIND and DENIALS, but all round a great challenge. I imagine Paul giggling to himself as he submits these funnies! Thanks for a belly laugh as I share these with my brothers as we wait for our plane, and thanks Andrew for the parsings.
Ed#34 I agree that shrubby doesn’t necessarily mean prickly, but after the smiles and laughs today’s crossword gave me I love Paul’s clues more than ever, even when I can’t justify the answers.
Paul on top form! Brilliant
Grind took me back to Spitting Image and Prince Charles 😊.
The recently deceased and much missed Tim Curry aped that royal accent for his part in Rocky Horror — “Let me show you arind, maybe play you a sind…”
Someone has to say that the ‘tea’ in chai tea is redundant. It might as well be me.
I found this on the easier side for a Paul, and very enjoyable. NHO allheal though.
Thanks Andrew and Paul.
I just remembered this:
Mary had a little bear
It followed her arind
And everywhere that Mary went
You’d see her bear behind.
Typical Paul. Had to reveal one or two especially warren. As others have mentioned I hate self service tills . Just like being served by a human being but then I’m a very old fxxt.
I imagine others on here are aware that if you’re really stuck and want to give up on solving a particular clue as a very last resort you can put in the text of the clue on Google and up pops someone called Dan Word with the exact answer. Always, without fail.
However, recently his suggestion has been superseded by AI that often now appears above the Dan Word site. And more often than not is complete gobbledygook.
The slow erosion by and takeover by A1 even here in Crosswordland?
Ronald @45. If you wish to stop ai answering a google query simply prefix your search terms with ‘-ai’.
Many thanks for that advice, SteveThePirate@46…
Another v good crossword from Paul. I started at light speed, then slowed to a crawl! Took me a bit longer than a usual Paul one, but that’s fine.
ronald @45 With weekday puzzles, surely the presence of the Reveal Word button makes resort to Dan Word entirely unnecessary. However, Mr Word’s presence does rather devalue any completion of the Saturday Prize – or, I take it, Everyman, although I have forsworn the latter since its move. I have occasionally consulted him just to check that my solution to a particularly knotty Saturday clue is correct, which it usually is, although he once proved me wrong and I had to fetch the tea tray.
Sadly, the checkout lanes where I live are more prone to ask you to “remove the last item” from the bag if a weight mismatch is detected, so I was roundly defeated by UIITBA, and the rest of my Paulist morning went down, if not in flames than at least in cinders. I still can’t quite sync the boy WARREN as a natural synonym for “labyrinthine,” though it’s obviously right. DENIALS and the RED UNCLE truly fantastic. And Rats@3, I will virtually share with you a cup of Earl Grey tea, hot, for the fond memory.
Thanks to Paul and Andrew.
Zed622 @50 In 22 down the definition is not ‘labyrinthine’, but ‘that’s labyrinthine’, as underlined by Andrew. A WARREN is labyrinthine.
Balfour@49…exactly that. I only sometimes look for confirmation on Dan Word when attempting the Saturday Prize Puzzle…
#42 I always make it a point to order chai tea latte with milk (if I go to Starbucks, rarely) and the irony is often missed. Of course, and naan bread to go with it, all paid by cash taken from the ATM machine.
I enjoyed this. Tough but fair with several clues that made me smile. I did parse UIITBA and in the version I can still hear in my head the “the” is definitely present. I think I generally heard it in Tesco’s. That’s not to say my memory hasn’t added it in though.
Looking back, I parsed Hip-Hop incorrectly but definitely favour the Hi-P[H]op interpretation.
M@53 – and of course you needed your PIN number at the ATM machine
m@53, wonderful.
Since (as far as I know) the UIITBA phrase is not used in any self-checkouts in Canada, I had no hope of solving that clue. And since it was responsible for 14 crossers in all quarters of the grid, it made this puzzle undoable for me. I quit with 10 clues unsolved – all crossing with the unfair (at least to Canucks) 30 letter clue. To add to the unfairness, if you don’t know the phrase the clue is not reasonably gettable from the wordplay.
Still, this is only a problem for some of us non-Brits, so I’m not really complaining. And, there was a lot of Paul’s typical wit in this puzzle. At least I was able to enjoy the blog and comments, so thanks everyone for the fun.
Thanks Paul and Andrew
A good example of why I often don’t like Paul’s puzzles, especially ones with multiple lights solutions. The crossers allowed me to guess UNEXPECTED, the phrase jumped out, and that was about a quarter of the crossword done (I didn’t even bother to look for the pasring, which I never would have got).
I did like UNCLEARED, though.
btw I had never heard of “allheal”, but we have a lot of “selfheal” in our grass.
I love Paul, and unbelievably today I managed all without any OED or thesaurus, only needing some clarification of parsing on two clues just now. Often I’m utterly stumped, but despite that I love his penny-drop moments, even if I’ve not worked them out! I certainly managed Paul better when my mind’s in a more relaxed and expansive state.
Balfour@49 .. re Danword.
If I resort to Danword I find it shows a dozen or so of the day’s clues and a click takes me to a solution and opens doors for this beginner …