Guardian Cryptic 28,156 by Picaroon

96 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,156 by Picaroon”

1. A brilliant puzzle – perhaps a little wasier than some Picaroons because there were a few easy starters and generous crossers. Loved the ingenious uses of CAPITAL – my route into that was seeing SQUARE MILE, which led to SADIQ KHAN.

   Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

2. Thanks for the explanation for the second half of 11, Manehi. Had me banging my head against a well, but it is, of course, perfectly legitimate. A very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks, Picaroon.

3. Interesting puzzle with its capital  theme.

   Could not parse 11a SIGMA (loi)

    

   Thanks to Picaroon and manehi

4. Couldn’t parse 11ac or 14ac but the explanations are entirely convincing. A neat and enjoyable puzzle (and a bit of a relief from yesterday’s, which I finished just before midnight).

   Thanks to Picaroon and (early bird) manehi.

5. I really enjoyed this, despite needing help with some answers. Thank you Picaroon for an excellent crossword and Manehi for parsings I couldn’t work out for myself (which in hindsight all seem so clear).

   For a long time, despite having USSR based on wordplay and the crosser from ADAM SMITH, I couldn’t for the life of me work out 22A and thus much of the rest. The lightbulb moment for me was when (thanks to the S crosser from ASKS) SADIQ leapt out at me. Then KHAN, 22A and all the answers related to 22A fell into place.

6. Sorry, couldn’t enjoy this. All the things that irritate in cluing; ‘girl’ to define a name, USSR as a four-letter word, April as a period, and a Spoonerism to top it all off. Sigma is nice though. Thanks.

7. Chapeaux to all setters lately, they have been fab, this one too, greatly enjoyed. Only got capital after Bonn, about a dozen in, but was having a leisurely time unpicking. Getting Sadiq earlyish helped towards the idea. So did brokers, earlier still, but unentered beacause 13d besot had me stumped, indeed was my loi, with a feeling of ‘Ah, got the little bugger!’ Love ‘conceptual leap’ clues like 7d, so much more ‘aha’ than Lego-slog clues (find a synonym for this, reverse and insert into that-minus-its-end/s, then put all that inside..blah..).

   So, many tas to Pickers and Manehi, and keep ’em coming.

8. Yes, Oofy, an eyebrow flickered at April, and at Adagio, but my Collins verifies it as 1) instruction and 2) piece or movement (of course, as in ‘The Adagio from the whatever makes a great theme for the…’).

   Yes, both AA (Carmen) and G-man (fed) took a bit, but they’re pretty standard.

9. Once again, a superb puzzle from Picaroon: one of the very best compilers in my opinion.

   I have only one gripe, and that is the enumeration of USSR. I know that it is the Grauniad’s policy to allow acronyms that cannot be pronounced to be enumerated as words, but that does not mean that it’s a good decision. I wish the editor would change it.

10. This was great though I needed a lot of help with the parsing. I got THE SQUARE MILE early from the anagram, and then SADIQ KHAN and then BONN which gave me 22a. I too enjoyed the current uses of it: geographic, financial, orthographic. Many thanks to Picaroon and Manehi.

11. I found it a good crossword generally, though it is not ideal when a crossword relies on one clue too much – if you get that clue it can become too easy, if you don’t get it it’s almost impossible. In this case, “the square mile” was an easy solve for me and gave me the way in.

    Several I couldn’t parse, such as sigma. G-man is one of those phrases that only exist in crosswords as far as I am concerned, and I haven’t seen it for a long time. Also “fed” – only in American crime novels and TV dramas? Sigma for Sparta’s starter is nice though.

    I would quibble that “carmen” is not the same as “car men”.

12. Elegant, erudite, entertaining. Witty too.

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi

13. Loved it – especially when I caught myself grumbling “that’s not how you spell Marx …” and then spotted the vocally 🙂

    Like many others my way in was THE SQUARE MILE & SUSHI which coincidentally is where I first had SUSHI

    Also chuckled at the spooner

14. 26a reminded me of the joke about 2 nudists sat down talking. One says “Have you read Marx?”. The other replies “Yes, it’s these wicker chairs.”.

15. I was off to a bad start when I thought OVERALL fitted the 22a clue. I still think it is reasonable, but had enough nagging doubt to keep an open mind. Eventually CAPITAL came to me. I must say it is a relief to solve one, after ignominious failures the past two days. I could not parse APRIL, SIGMA or AMERICA, and I’m not surprised that USSR has sparkeld the enumeration debate again. Thanks, Picaroon and manehi.

16. What copmus said. BONN was my way in to 22ac. Stared at SIGMA for a long time before succumbing to looking in chambers for gma…, feeling follish when I saw g-man. Favs were CLEVER and INUNDATE, the latter in particular made me chuckle.
    Thanks to Picaroon and to Manehu.

17. Tassie Tim, I too oriiginally thought OVERALL but it didn’t really parse for me so left 22ac blank till the better and correct answer came courtesy of other ckues,

18. What cppmus said – one of those puzzles that are much more than the sum of their parts.

19. Great fun.

    Thanks P&M.

20. A lot of this was almost a write-in, which was surprising for a Picaroon puzzle, but I enjoyed it greatly. Couldn’t parse SIGMA – thanks to manehi, and to Picaroon as ever.

21. That’s the first time ever I’ve found Picaroon on the easy side.  (Probably a result of the intensive workout yesterday, so thanks Imogen.)

    Anyway lots to like here.  Favourite UPPER CASE, BESOT was last in as for ginf.  I’m sure we’ve had ESCAPEMENT quite recently.

    Whether intentional or not, the ‘hot band’ in 27d was a nice reminder for fans of Emmylou.

    Thank you Picaroon and manehi.

22. A 22d 22as puzzle! Good fun!

23. An excellent crossword with various clever uses of CAPITAL.  The key for me was getting 24d USSR which was fairly straightforward, which then helped get 24a UPPER CASE, and the two together effectively revealed the answer to 22a.

    I did notice reading through the clues that sometimes the reference is to “22 across” and sometimes just “22”, and I wondered for a while if some of the latter might refer to 22d (or even some other meaning of “22”), but it was not to be.  I wonder if this was deliberate misdirection?

    Many thanks Picaroon and manehi.

24. Great crossword; I was another tripped up by G-MA(n).

    I got into the theme early via BONN, so enjoyed the thematic clues with the different meanings.

    Not the enumeration discussion again! It’s not written as U.S.S.R by many (if any) so if it’s written USSR and it’s got four letters, it’s a 4 for me. Let’s hope no one raises this again!

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

25. Bravo Pickers. All too often with a theme once spotted solving become a bit of a procession – but not here with Capital 4 or 5 ways most still took some teasing out with clever cluing and bags of humour into the bargain (Carmen!)

26. Another one with OVERALL at first.

    I would agree with Howard (@11) about being dependent on getting one clue, but in this case it was reasonably gettable, so OK.

27. Much enjoyed this 22d crossword. I too took a while to get 22ac despite already having solved many other clues. I was trying to get Ulan Batar into 24 before the groan as I saw the proper answer. With sigma it was the only possible answer but I certainly couldn’t parse it. Thanks for also parsing Carmen which once seen elicited another groan. Before getting adagio (which as a musician I should have seen earlier than I did) I was trying to get bankers into 13ac. This became my loi.
    Thanks Manehi and Picaroon.

28. Lord Jim (@23). I deliberated on the same thing then recalled the apparent convention that if an across clue refers to another across clue, the a or d is not mentioned. Similarly with down referring to a down clue.

     

29. Thanks Pedro.  Yes it’s obvious now you point it out that “22 across” appears in the down clues and only “22” in the across clues.

30. A fun puzzle for me. I particularly appreciated the MARKS/Marx clue. After the “1/100” trick recently, I doubted that “22” actually referred to the answer to clue 22a or 22d, so I didn’t bother about that (crucial) clue — which slowed me down considerably!

    I concur entirely with George Clements @9 regarding USSR.

    Thank you, manehi, for your clear explication.

31. essexboy @21 – ESCAPEMENT appeared in this Brummie puzzle, with a theme of timepieces.

    I concur entirely with Robi @24 regarding USSR.

32. Belter.  Failed to parse SIGMA and didn’t care for APRIL = period.  But other than that, loved it.

    grantinfreo @7:  Your “got the little bugger!” made me chuckle.  Now I’m sure where you’re from!

    Many thanks to The Pirate.

33. Robi @24:  Absolutely.  Nuff sed.

34. Struggled with both BESOT and SIGMA, and was I the only solver to dash in APPENINES instead of the correct APENNINES, therefore holding up the SE corner? Lots to like as usual with Picaroon

35. I too was confused by the mix of “22ac” and “22” which I ended up ignoring. Some neat trickery here though I am another who did not feel “period” for “April” was very helpful. Good and mostly unstrained use of the theme though – woven in neatly and enough easy starters fro all the cross-referencing not to make it too prize-like. Many thanks Picaroon and thank you Manehi for the comprehensive explanations.

    Re USSR – it won’t ever drop because you say so Robi @24 and while I agree it is written USSR not U.S.S.R. it would be so much more acceptable if it were a word. As in a thing you put in cross*words*. USSR is an initialism not an acronym and that kills it for me. When will we see “AFK”, “BRB”, “IMHO” and other such initialisms appearing?

    CotD for me was the capital anagram of Hamlet Queries.

36. Well, that’s a relief after the last two days. Clocked the theme early after BONN and Picaroon certainly milked it for all that it was worth. UPPER CASE my fave usage.

    Enumeration. I think I’m on the Guardian’s side. 1,1,1,1 would hardly be a challenge for USSR would it? Though at one stage today I was tempted by the archaic RUSS, which would have done my SW corner no good at all.

37. An exceedingly classy crossword. So gloriously classy, in fact, that I completely forgive Picaroon for including my two bêtes noires: “girl” as definition of a name, and a soi-disant “Spoonerism” which – as always – required most crossers, a wild guess, a switched beginning, and a “huh??”. (I’ve never, ever, heard anyone speaking of a Deep Ship. Now, had the last letter been a T…..)
    However all these pale into quibblets beside the beauty of 22A, 6D, 9A, 26A and 2D. And some brilliant misdirection: along with half the planet I couldn’t finish the parsing of SIGMA, having the wrong idea of “fed”, ditto AMERICA as I was trying to figure why Bizet’s heroine was involved.
    Many thanks to Manehi for extricating me from the mess – and to Picaroon for the ingenuity of its creation.

38. What Eileen and Copmus said.   You can always rely on Picaroon for just the correct amount of brain stretching.

    Thanks to him and Manehi

39. Ta for that link, essexboy@21; too old and stiff to know why ‘hot band’ links to Emmylou, but esp enjoyed Springsteen’s version in the following clip. Again, too old to know, but wasn’t sure whether The Boss’s was accolade or send-up…?

40. What others have said copmus said (@12): “Elegant, erudite, entertaining. Witty too.”

    My way in was the same as beery hiker’s (@1): THE SQUARE MILE and SADIQ KHAN, with CAPITAL either in between those or just after.  The exploitation of the CAPITAL theme was nicely done and not too heavy.

    Thanks Picaroon and manehi.

41. As for deep shi., Welbeck@37-ish, there’s an Oz series of vehicle insurance ads based on that trope, where a holidaying family has broken down near a road sign that reads Ship Creek….lots of giggling from the kids while Dad phones for help…

42. …and as for enumeration, icba…

43. This was right in the Goldilocks zone for me.  No more to be said.

44. Unlike most others here, I got CAPITAL before any of the clues that referred to it, but that didn’t make the rest a write-in. Much cleverness and wit, with UPPER CASE being my COD. Thanks to Picaroon for an absolute delight to make me forget about yesterday’s nightmare (Imogen, it’s not you, it’s me).

    I came here thinking that ‘work journalist pens’ in 7d was OP-ED, forcing ‘pens’ to do double duty. Should have known better with Picaroon, and thanks to manehi for putting me straight.

45. As a follow-up to my comment above, is OP-ED solely an Americanism?

46. Thanks to manehi and Picaroon

    Very good as always but:

    Not identifying 22 as 22a is something I’ve not seen before, except in error or the absence of a 22d

    Entering “opt” into Chambers online thesaurus yields “select”, entering “select” yields “opt for”. The latter is clearly correct but does the former nevertheless justify the “it’s in Chambers” defence?

47. DaveinNCarolina @45
    I have seen op-ed used quite a lot over here in recent years (and it’s in Chambers – not as an Americanism). But I can’t say where this short form originated.

48. It\’s always embarrassing to see an Americanism and not recognize it, but I can\’t recall hearing anyone in America actually use the expression G-MAN since I was in short pants, watching old gangster flicks on television.  But very satisfying puzzle with a well-developed theme.  Many moments of sudden delight at the clues, as I finally parsed each one correctly.  Except G-MAN!

49. Dansar @46
    It seems that the setter knows of a convention whereby you can say 22 in an across clue, when it would mean 22 across, but not in a down clue because it would mean 22 down – unless indicated otherwise as in this puzzle. I’ve done a quick check, and it seems that this convention, which I was not aware of until now, has been used consistently.

50. Ronald@34 you may well have been alone in that error but I managed to plumb the depths of idiocy with PENNNINES momentarily before the lightbulb came on. TheZed @35 makes what I think is the key distinction between acronyms (I would be happy with standard enumeration for eg UNESCO (6)) and initialisms (I prefer 1.1.1.1 for USSR) – even if the latter makes some clues more straightforward than otherwise. I self-awarded a house point for getting and fully understanding 11A (even though it took a long time) but couldn’t parse 14A and 16D so thanks very much manehi. My own specific whinge is that I never think of 13A as working with capital (my experience is of them being middlemen in dealmaking) but it is such a general term that I can believe it applies in other cases.  Thanks Picaroon for setting this up, my favourite among many good ones may well be 22A which took me far too long but led to an audible gasp of relief on solving!

51. Alan B @49 Thank you for that research – a convention I was not aware of but now you say it, it makes a certain amount of sense to retain it.

52. I’m always genuinely puzzled when there’s an objection to a proper name being defined by ‘girl’ or ‘boy’. What is proposed as a better alternative?

53. Gazzh@50, as a matter of fact I was toying with using the word missspelt for a while, to describe my mistaken effort with APPENINES before I gave up and used another phrase in its place. Three identical consonants consecutively is not exactly the norm, is it?

54. Bingybing@52 to me the girl/boy thing just feels like lazy setting

55. I loved it today. Only SIGMA beat me, I wrote it in but didn’t know why it was right.
    I enjoyed CARMEN being CAR MEN very much. No, they’re not the same, but that’s the point.
    I’m more than happy with USSR being (4) It’s not strictly correct, but that’s surely the fun? (1,1,1,1) would have been too easy.
    And UPPER CASE was another spin on the theme which I hadn’t expected. It caused me to laugh out loud in the operating theatre.

56. Ronald I can’t think of any in English but occasionally I do come across them in German thanks to their compound words eg Schifffahrt. I am sure there is one involving a “scharf s” – which is effectively replaced by ss in Switzerland and maybe elsewhere- followed by an S as well. I am pretty sure the long Welsh village Llanfairpwllgwyngyll… has a run of 4 “l”s somewhere in it too although I am relying on distant memories of Little Chef placemats there.

57. …and a platform ticket or postcard of the place I no longer possess. Someone will put us right, no doubt.

58. @bodycheetah

    You haven’t answered the question. What is proposed as a feasible alternative?

59. Gazzh @56: Litfaßsäule?

60. What a super puzzle! Too many good clues to mention, but I did love Inundate.

     

    To anyone who thinks the phrase G-Man is only used in crosswords, I’d point out there are generations of videogamers across the world who are perfectly aware of it. G-Man is a key character in the legendary game series Half Life. So I did manage to parse Sigma (admittedly after much head-scratching). And people say videogames aren’t educational…

61. I got all the way to TIRANA before finally figuring out CAPITAL.  I even tried to squeeze London into 22d!  Good fun puzzle, with many fine clues.  Ronald @34, you’re not alone.  I misspelled APENNINES before checking the parsing.  I also misspelled STERLING as STIRLING at first.  Maybe a further homophonic bit to the clue could have been added, since Stirling was once CAPITAL of Scotland (according to Wiki).

    Thanks, P and m.

62. I’m another who couldn’t parse SIGMA (plus a few others I should have managed). I didn’t know UPPER for drug ( will I ever learn all its pseudonyms?). Although I could see the general environment of 22a, it took far too long for the penny to drop. I always love Spoonerisms especially when the word lengths change. So, an enjoyable experience. Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

63. Bingybing@ so instead of girl = theresa you could. for example, have used a reference to our erstwhile prime minister. It’s not about finding a different way to clue girl – it’s about finding a different way to clue theresa

64. Seeing the responses to Ronald @34, I should confess that I started to enter APENNINES with a double P, but I did remember that it had a double N, so when I ran out of squares I had to rethink!

65. essexboy @ 59

    That’s szs, so doesn’t qualify.

66. Simon S @66

    Orthographically, yes – that was the origin of the ß – but see Gazzh’s point re replacement of ß by double s in Switzerland.

67. DaveNCarolina – I spelled APENNINES exactly like that two, before the parsing forced me to fix it. 🙂

    I took an irrational dislike to this when I caught 22a early on, because I always, always forget that capital=money and it felt like Picaroon was just rubbing it in. But it’s a marvellous puzzle, really – hugely enjoyed it.

68. P.S.  Following the spelling reform, a final ß after a short vowel was replaced by ss, hence the modern German spelling of Faß (barrel) is Fass.  Litfaß only escaped because it’s a name, as referred to in this thread on Leo.

    P.P.S. As an alternative, how about Flußsäure – modern spelling Flusssäure (hydrofluoric acid)?

69. @bodycheetah

    I’m well aware of the point you’re making but you’re still unable to give me an example! Using ‘May’ for example is fine. But in most cases it will be too blindingly obvious, which is why boy and girl are used. You wouldn’t, for example, use ‘Beckham, perhaps….’ to define Davis or you may as well come round to the solver’s house and write the answer in for them

70. Bingy @69: May break up two articles with a Latin object? (7)

    Btw thanks Eileen @31, I’ve just followed your link to the Brummie puzzle.  I think ESCAPEMENT stuck in my mind, as (a) shamefully I’d never heard of it before; and (b) I remembered Simon S’s comments @52/66 about (go)ogling the chronophage in Cambridge.

    Looking through the comments I realise we haven’t heard from il principe for a while, or JinA or Cookie.  Hope they’re all OK.

    [ginf@39:  apparently Emmylou was told by Warner Bros. they would record her if she could put together ‘a hot band’, upon which she formed The Hot Band. It eventually included  the superb but under-rated Albert Lee on lead guitar, as in the clip.  They did a set for The Old Grey Whistle Test in ’77 – you can find the whole thing here, introduced by Whispering Bob.

    Re The Boss, was it the live version in Leipzig that came up on YouTube?  My take is that it’s full-on tribute – he’s enjoying it too much!  The ‘help me out here, I can’t find the key’ thing is a bit of showmanship, but we won’t begrudge him that   ;)   ]

71. I think I first encountered the CARMEN device in a FT puzzle, so it was my first one in. Thanks P and blogger.

72. Great puzzle as always from Picaroon – and like many I needed manehi’s help to parse SIGMA part2 and the AA part of Carmen – I’d not seen it before (or at least not remembered seeing it) and think it is a brilliant misdirection. Most enjoyable all round. Many thanks to both Picaroon and maheni.

73. Fortunately, USSR and UPPER CASE were my first two in (I usually start at the bottom) and the latter made CAPITAL obvious, making further progress smoother.

    Having compiled crosswords myself (but rarely cryptics, just GK puzzles for a local paper) I know how much effort it takes – at least for me – to compile a decent one, even without a theme. So I admire the skill and diligence of those who create themed crosswords such as today’s, even if some of the clueing takes liberties (‘Car men’!)

74. Bingybing @69

    Your objection is one that could be made about literally any clue. Crossword setters have developed thousands of ways to clue tens (hundreds?) of thousands of words without the choice of defining word making the answer blindingly obvious. In those circumstances, I hardly think it incumbent on bodycheetah or anyone else to attempt to satisfy your objection by creating hypothetical ways of defining female forenames in crossword clues. The choices are legion. If I can reverse the question – why do you believe that it would it be beyond setters to clue something that happens to be a female forename by some other method than the hackneyed, and very unhelpful (as it does little to narrow down the potential solutions) and, I have to say, rather patronizing – as if women who have these names never reach adulthood – “girl”?

    But, for the sake of argument, and taking your example of DAVID – instead of “Beckham, perhaps”, why couldn’t a setter define the answer by means of a suitably cunning reference to the Biblical king and psalmist? Or the Michelangelo work. Or the patron saint of Wales. Or the French artist (Death of Marat, Oath of the Horatii, Napoleon Crossing the Alps etc). Or the Scottish king(s). Or the commonly used appellation of the prince who went on to become (the very short-lived) Edward VIII. Or the titular hero of Dicken’s Copperfield. Or Gervais’s Mr Brent from The Office. Or the comedian and writer Larry David, of Curb Your Enthusiasm and Seinfeld fame. In short, there is surely extraordinary scope for inventive definitions which, depending on the angle from which they are considered, can be both devious and helpful in narrowing down the scope of possible solutions. Rather than just defining the solution with the unhelpful and uninspiring “boy” or “man”.

    I hadn’t intended to stick my oar in, given that I really enjoyed this particular crossword (as I explained in an earlier post above). But bodycheetah is not alone in objecting to this particular convention. And the criticism has more merit to it that you give him or her credit for.

75. I’ve seen the ‘Carmen’ device several times before, so I wasn’t fazed by it – but I think in all [most of?] the previous examples it was used to clue RAC.

76. So much more enjoyable than yesterday’s. Absolutely no complaints. That may be that I didn’t spend 3 hours failing to finish this one.

77. A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle. I got it all but couldn’t really parse AMERICA and SIGMA until I saw the explanation from manehi. AA for Carmen is very neat, but new to me and I was racking my brain to see how GMA related to fed, but never thought of Fed – clever!

    Just one quibble.  Count me among the (minority of?) people who doesn’t really like a generic “girl” or “boy” as a clue for a proper noun.    I was going to suggest “…unsettled mother” in place of “…unsettled girl” in the clue before I realized that it’s THERESA and not TERESA.  But I agree – I prefer some more clever way of doing it!  To take it to an extreme, what’s to stop one from coming up with a really obscure name and just cluing it with “boy” or girl”?

    Thanks, Picaroon and manehi…

78. Alan B @49

    Thank you, I’m surprised I’d not noticed that before.

79. Jay in Pittsburgh @77

     

    re: “To take it to an extreme, what’s to stop one from coming up with a really obscure name and just cluing it with “boy” or girl”?”

     

    Common sense, mainly. That, and a sense of fairness. (It seems another one of those where everyone got the answer, so clearly the setter has used both of these.)

    Do you folks who object to “boy” and “girl” also object to “film”, “musical”, “poet”, “author”, “wine” etc. when the answer is just the name of an example of one of them?

80. Thanks Picaroon and manehi

    I solved this late, so I wasn’t going to post. However I would like to say that I agree with the USSR complaints, and also the disdain for the Spooner – the only justification for one of these is if it makes sense both ways round, and this one didn’t.

    Apart from those, a very enjoyable crossword.

81. Ironically my first two in were Sadiq Khan (entered Sad and the rest just popped out) followed by The Square Mile (used the anagram helper and just enough letters fell in to see it). Still took me far too long to get 22a. As an American I am ok with fed = g-man. A little annoyed with Upper Case as it seems just the other day we had that as one word (or is it oneword?)

    Thanks to Picaroon and Manehi.

82. [essexboy@70, ta for the Hot Band background; can’t tell re venue, as every time I play the link someone else follows the edible Emmylou. But yes, from memory I think you’re right, it was pure enjoyment, with The Boss having a whale of a time].

    And yes Eileen, AA is usually about (not) drinking, not driving ?

83. That ? was meant to be a smiley..?

84. Odd…they usually come out..mysteries of the digiverse..?

85. Jay @77 – same for me re the parsing of America and Sigma.  This was more my level after failing to crack Imogen’s puzzle yesterday.
    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

86. David @74 I salute both your eloquence & patience 🙂

87. Loved this,possibly because patient enough for 22 to drop.Like others got from Bonn.A rare completion for me.Thank you Picaroon.

88. David@74 and others.
    I don’t object to clues like 21a where “girl” or boy or pet or whatever is the definition. I do object when it is part of the wordplay. I would accept “Act confused, pet?(3) but object to “It has pet making sense as Paul may be”(11). There are other objections to this! Like rubbish surface, dated slang cliches (IT = SA) and cliqueyness, if that’s a word.
    Thanks to Picaroon and manehi.

89. PS to me @15. When I could see that OVERALL was not quite great as an answer to 22a, I briefly had another thought. Already having S—-/-H-N at 9a, and –P—- at 22a, I suddenly thought SHERE KHAN therefore KIPLING! Convoluted or what!!! But I could get nowhere near parsing Kipling. [Do you like Kipling? Don’t know – I’ve never Kippled.]

90. Me@88
    Not worth anyone bothering to work out the above. The answer is SCATALOGICAL

91. And it has 12 letters.

92. I thought 16d, APRIL, rather pleasing in that it made me think of T S Eliot’s Waste Land where “April is the cruelest month” – thus a period of trouble.

93. @ David – for an oar you didn’t want to stick in, it’s quite a long one

    Your post basically says: I agree with bodycheetah and so should you

    It wasn’t me that was ‘objecting’ to anything – I was asking why bodycheetah and others object to a very common device. It’s surely for you to make the case. Mark has in any event summarised it more neatly than I possibly could.

    @bodycheetah

    As patronising comments go, that has to be up there, even for this site

94. 2 shy of a finish sadly (11a & 13d) & needed the review for a couple of parsings but enjoyed the challenge. Fortunately got 22a first which made matters easier but still found it tough.

    Thanks to all.

95. I thought the spoonerism was great. As a lad growing up in rural NSW, every second ad on TV was for sheep dip at certain times of the year.

96. MarkN @79:  I think “object” is too strong a word.  But yes, I don’t particularly like those types of clues because they seem rather weak! Just my humble opinion…

     

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