Guardian 26,462 by Picaroon

by

Sorry for the later than usual posting, busy morning at work. Picaroon entertains us today.

Well, this appears to be a normal puzzle but I can’t really see what the 24/06/2000 clue is about.

Can’t see any theme in the grid but will gladly be set right on that.

completed grid

Across

1 Journalists eating Japanese bread that’s turning stale (9)
HACKNEYED
2 journalists HACK & EDitor with YEN japanese bread -money reversed turning inserted
6 Have no misgivings, exhibiting malice (5)
VENOM
Hidden answer
9 It’s cool, cold and dry outside in the shade (5)
TINCT
IN (popular, cool) & C(old) in TT dry
10 Roast chicken eaten by agent with beetroot (9)
REPREHEND
HEN chicken in REP(resentative, agent) & RED beetroot
11 Expert buggy racer takes to person with 20 (10)
PROCREATOR
See 20, someone who’s had children. PRO expert & RACER* buggy with TO inserted
12 Informally, the two of us have options here (4)
MENU
ME AND YOU informally
14 Liberal’s new, dotty messages? (7)
BRAILLE
LIBERAL* new
15 Model during extra pirouettes showing sexy quality (7)
EROTISM
SIT model in MORE extra reversed pirouettes
17 Performer of Mozart is terrible! (7)
ARTISTE
Another hidden answer
19 Officer right to grab pork pie — he’s digging into mine! (7)
COLLIER
COLonel & R(ight) with LIE (porky pie) inserted
20 Heartless sorts making jokes (4)
KIDS
KI(n)DS sorts heartless
22 Polish politicians backing small blackmail schemes (10)
HONEYTRAPS

HONE polish &  PARTY reversed & S(mall)

25 Slack rope — it’s by Golden Hind (9)
POSTERIOR
[ROPE ITS]* slack & OR (gold). Are “OR” gold and and golden the same thing? Not convinced
26 Cockney’s leather or water, say (5)
OXIDE
Well water is DiHydrogen MonOxide but …  OX (h)IDE with the Londoner’s ‘abit of dropping haitches
27 Lover swears it‘s red hot (5)
TROTH
TROT red. communist & H(ot)
28 New Age leader abandons steps for illumination (4,5)
NEON LIGHT
N(ew) * EON age & (f)LIGHT abandon step, disembark   steps with first letter removed

Down

1 Male sheep producing cross (3,2)
HET UP
HE male TUP sheep
2 Politician and worker taking issue in letter (9)
CONSONANT
CON(servative) & SON issue & ANT worker
3 Movement of wild animals around mating period, heading north (10)
NATURALISM
RUT mating period in ANIMALS* wild all reversed -  heading north in a down clue
4 Length of, say, a vehicle reversing (7)
YARDAGE
E.G. say & A & DRAY all reversed
5 Rue de Paris’s capital traditions (7)
DEPLORE
DE & P(aris, just the capital letter) & LORE tradition
6 Conviction that is for breaking into car (4)
VIEW
I.E. in VolksWagon
7 Polite about end of tale one’s related (5)
NIECE
(tal)E in NICE
8 Perhaps 24/06/2000 is seen here? (9)
MIDSUMMER
Hmmm what’s going on here then? Midsummer is normally 21/06 but in 2000 it was actually a few days later due to lack of leap day.  MM is 2000 and hence mid suMMer. Any better ideas out there?
13 Undesirable poster under cloth and paper in can (6,4)
TOILET ROLL
TOILE cloth & TROLL. We never get people trolling here do we?
14 Britain is short of funds — there are problems here (5,4)
BLACK SPOT
B(ritain) LACKS POT
16 Rubbish I put into one sort of porcelain that’s taking off (9)
IMITATING
(TAT rubbish & I) in 1 & MING
18 Wearing nothing, in love and hot (7)
EROSION
0 nothing in EROS (god of love) & ON hot, sort of perhaps – not really convinced ON = HOT  Going blind today it seems.
IN not ON, IN, the IN thing – something hot. Ho hum not my best day.
19 I’m off to celebrate a narrow football victory? (7)
CHEERIO
CHEER celebrate & one-nil - a narrow victory
21 Scoff at officer’s club (5)
DISCO
DIS scoff & C.O.
23 Baker may use this pinch of salt and pepper (5)
SPELT
S(alt) & PELT pepper as in gunshot. SPELT is a type of wheat
24 The 5th person in the 8th group (4)
SETH
See the bible, he’s the 5th person, one of Adam & Eve’s sons. SET H (the eighth letter of the alphabet).
*anagram

57 comments on “Guardian 26,462 by Picaroon”

  1. Thanks for the puzzle and the blog which I needed for the parsing of a couple.

    Re 28a, I took it to be “leader abandons steps” = [F]LIGHT

  2. Thanks Picaroon and flashling
    Midsummer’s Day is 24/6 (21/6 is the longest day in the northern hemisphere); MM is 2000, as you say.
    I found the bottom difficult, with the crossers at 27a/24d and 26a/23d staying empty for ages. In particular I missed the TROT in 27, and was trying to work an anagram of HOT + …..?
    I don’t think that RUE and DEPLORE are synonyms – RUE is “regret”, while the closest match I’ve found is “deplorable” = “regrettable”.

  4. Also, for 18d, I think it’s ‘IN’ – ‘hot’ ie. the current fashion…..it’s the ‘in’ thing.

  7. Thanks flashling – and Picaroon for another great puzzle.

    As ever, it’s really hard to pick out favourites but I especially liked 1ac and 5dn.

    I parsed 8dn as you did, flashling – June 24 is usually reckoned to be Midsummer’s Day – and 28 as Aoxomoxoa did.

    And if my iron’s on, it’s hot! šŸ˜‰

  9. Hi Aoxomoxoa

    I don’t understand your 18dn parsing @4 – and I think it would be rather odd to use ‘in’ for both cool and hot in the same puzzle.

  13. Re Eileen @ 9

    In 18d, it can’t be ‘ON’ as the ‘O’ would be doing double-duty (as ‘nothing’ and as part of ‘on’). So I think it’s go to be ‘IN’ with the rationale as per 4 above.

    ‘in’ could mean ‘cool’ but it could also mean ‘hot’ as in ‘this week’s hot potato’ meaning the current burning issue.

  18. molonglo @11
    SETH was the fifth person in Genesis (after Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel), and SET H would be the eight set.

  19. I get the mid suMMer now, the year 2000 is the only time this will ever happen. It is special, like birthdays, the last possible one where all the figures were the same was the 12/12/2012.

    Sorry for the repetition, captcha ? – 9 = 0!

  20. Cor – this was tough for me. Pretty foxed by SE corner. But enjoyed it a lot. Thanks to Picaroon and flashling.

  21. Thanks Picaroon and flashling.

    I enjoyed this puzzle, but found it a real challenge. Extra thanks, flashling, for the explanations.

    I have never seen TINCT before except as an abbreviation for tincture. I take it that ‘pork pie’ is LIE in Cockney rhyming slang.

    Liked COLLIER, HONEYTRAPS (needless to say the Polish fooled me), NEON LIGHT and YARDAGE.

  22. Thanks flashling and Picaroon. Only SETH and TROTH beat me.

    I parsed MIDSUMMER as flashling has, though contary to his blog, I recall that 2000 did have a leap day – century years usually don’t, but those divisible by 400 do. Not that this makes any difference. I’d always assumed Midsummer to be 21/06, but clearly am wrong there.

    Enjoyable if tricky.

  26. John Appleton @22, 21/06 was the summer solstice in the year 2000, and is also called Midsummer Day. However, the official Midsummer Day in England is the 24/06, being one of the quarter days. On these days servants were hired, school terms started and rents due. The significance of quarter days is now limited, although leasehold payments and rents for land and premises are often still due on these days.

  27. Thanks Picaroon, a slow but satisfying solve.

    Thanks flashling, I missed the SET H.

    As well as Eileen @7’s favourites, I particularly enjoyed HONEYTRAPS (I’m still waiting for one to happen!) MENU & OXIDE.

  29. Thanks Picaroon and flashing

    I failed to solve 9a TINCT, and needed help to parse 8d, 24d (“in the 8th group”?) & 18d (anagram EROS IN O? – too confusing!).

    My favourites were BRAILLE, MENU & HONEYTRAPS.

  31. Thanks all
    Very enjoyable and challenging. I failed to get Seth, bible not my forte. Really admired1,9 across and 13,18 down { wearing excellent misdirection). Last in yardage, was obsessed from the start with mileage from limo!

  32. I do love Picaroon, and today had some lovely moments – eg dotty letters…and the coaldust-blackened pork pie stealer was a nice image.

    The SE was tough for me though, and I had to actually ‘cheat’ for HONEYTRAPS despite having all the letters. ::SHAME::  (I know Polish=Hone is a standard device, but I always seem to forget it).

  33. Found this the hardest one of the year so far (mind you a sample of 6 isn’t very significant), but very enjoyable. TINCT was unfamiliar to me but in retrospect very fairly clued. Last in was SETH after TROTH. Liked PROCREATOR, POSTERIOR, OXIDE and TOILE TROLL (and I’d better not say who the latter made me think of).

    Thanks to Picaroon and flashling

  35. Thanks, flashling.

    Excellent puzzle from Picaroon: a slow but satisfying solve, as Robi said @27. My LOI was SETH (great clue, but I had to leave the crossword and come back to it for that one to pop up at last. I have to say that I associate Seth more strongly with ‘Cold Comfort Farm’ than Genesis).

    Not much left to say; I concur with the amended parsings from contributors. Lots of good clues with smooth and plausible surface readings. Favourites (a lot): 9a, 22a, 8d, 13d, 18d, 19d – but there isn’t a ‘bad’ clue in the set. Bravo, Mr Pirate.

  36. SETH was my LOI and I have to admit this was a hunch rather than anything resembling parsing and I’m not sure of my reasoning re:MIDSUMMER. Thanks for the parsing on both of them. The rest I thought were both straightforward and enjoyable. I loved TROTH for example

  37. I am sorry to be the odd one out but I only managed half of this. That is not my problem, though.

    My gripe is that I still don’t understand many of the answers, even with the explanations. E.g. 3d and 24d and many others.

    As for 26a; as a chemical engineer I have never heard of water defined as an oxide. Why not a hydride or a hydroxide? What was wrong with “rust, say”.

  38. Normally I adore Picaroon, but today I’ve had many quibbles. There were still many nice clues, but some for me tried too hard, or had questionable construction.

    I will now not go through them, for fear of irking ‘Tim Phillips’.

    šŸ˜€

  39. Hi JohnM @ 37

    I also found this quite tough today. Re the two that you’ve singled out, I hope the following helps:-

    3d – is an anagram (‘wild’) of “animals” which then contains the word “rut” (‘mating period’) going upwards (ie. ‘heading north’), the whole being a movement (naturalism).

    24d – Seth was the 5th person in the Biblical account of creation (ie. the 3rd child of Adam & Eve), and “SET H” might refer to the 8th group of something (Set A, Set B, etc)

  42. Dihydrogen mon-oxide maybe.

    That was one of the clues I didn’t like, due to the difficulty of the ‘soundalike’ plus weird def.

  45. btw, on the principle that the more electropositive element comes first in the name (cf. sodium chloride), water is “hydrogen oxide” rather than “oxygen hydride”.

  46. Just seen yours @43, Cookie – “peroxides” are different from “oxides” as the former include the weak oxygen-oxygen single bond, and are thus very reactive; no oxygen-oxygen bonds in simple oxides.

  47. Having skipped through the Prize, Rufus and Imogen this week (and felt very smug about that too!), this one defeated me šŸ™

    Just not on the right wavelength today, but really enjoyed reading all your comments. Thank you Picaroon et al.

  48. muffin @46, agreed, but what common name, or term, with OXIDE in it do we use? I can only think of Hydrogen peroxide. I suppose the clue is fair enough, it is just ‘saying’ that water is an OXIDE.

  49. Cookie @ 48
    I suppose that if we didn’t call it “water”, its name would be “hydrogen oxide” (probably not “dihydrogen monoxide”, though – oxide formulae are determined from the valencies, so sodium oxide is Na2O – compare H2O)

  50. David Mop @30 – I’ve never heard of a “troth” being “sworn”. One’s “troth” is one’s promise, only used to my knowledge in terms of a marriage proposal, in which case it is always plighted, not sworn.

  51. Plight and swear/oath seem the same to me. Still, thanks I suspect Picaroon will clue oxide rather differently in future.
    Thanks for the corrections, wasn’t easy today.

  52. Good crosswords are challenging but all the more enjoyable because of that, with the delight of cracking a difficult clue or corner. They leave you with a feeling of excitement, satisfaction and time well spent. Others, like this, tip over too often into being obtuse and fussy and are ultimately more irritating than satisfying even if you see them through to the end.

  53. I really enjoyed this. It was difficult but all clues were fair and gettable. (Must have been because I got and parsed them all)

    Many were clever and well constructed with great misdirection but none were obtuse, fussy or “trying too hard”.

    A great crossword from “The Pirate”. (He just gets better)

    Thanks to flashling and Picaroon

  54. Thanks Picaroon and flashling

    Found this one tough as well … only getting the last couple (HONEYTRAPS and SPELT) well after midnight.

    A lot of wonderful clues with many of them requiring as much work on the parsing as it did for getting the actual word – EROTISM and DISCO especially. Wasn’t able to parse MIDSUMMER so thanks for that – with new learning on the date of it !

  56. I think people are confusing the summer solstice and midsummer day, which is one of the four quarter days for payment of rent and other periodic payments. The others are Lady Day (25 March), Michaelmas day (29 September) and Christmas. The way to remember the dates is to add twenty to the number of letters in the month – ie five in M a r c h, four in J u n e and nine in S e p t e m b e r. Christmas is the exception. The tax year in Britain originally ended on Lady Day and it changed to the fifth of April when the chance of calendar took place. Not many people know that.

  57. D & L @56 – that is very interesting – presumably the tax year was in line with the calendar year until 1752 – dates before then can be a great source of confusion…

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