Guardian Prize 28,189 by Puck

39 comments on “Guardian Prize 28,189 by Puck”

1. Thanks PeeDee. I lack your expertise but had much the same experience. The theme emerged almost immediately with 1a but MOULIN ROUGE was the full extent of my subject knowledge so it didn’t help a lot, initially at least.. I don’t want to resurrect last week’s debate but one of the pleasures I get out of these puzzles is the stimulation they provide to further my education and find out about things I didn’t know. So, courtesy of Google, I spent some enjoyable time researching this artwork for answers which I simply could not have entered otherwise. Sometimes a theme can be too dominant but in this case the relationship between clues needed some more careful thought. A few of the answers were pretty obvious but I’m always grateful for crossing letters.

2. I really enjoyed this, despite knowing next to nothing about the subject. His name in 1ac was gettable for me just from the final C, without even attempting the wordplay – who else would fit? You could call it a theme I suppose, but all the linked clues were explicitly indicated so it’s not a theme you have to figure out.

   The different plays on 22, setter and red can contributed to the fun.

3. Well, that was fun. I was lucky to get the artist at 1a early, and even though I don’t know a lot about his work, I was able to get several of the themed entries from the wordplay and use google to confirm. I liked the concise clue for LIMITATIONS and like Dr. W @2, the two occurrences of ‘red can,’ especially in the innovative clue for MOULIN ROUGE. Also had an intense ‘aha’ moment when the light went on for STREET and TWENTY-TWO simultaneously. Thanks to Puck and PeeDee.

4. Thanks to Puck and PeeDee I’m another who latched onto Lautrec early on, but I was slowed down because I had something else for CENSORSHIP. Once I had the crossers I finally pieced out LOFTINESS, my LOI.

5. Thanks PeeDee. Knew enough of the Expressionist to complete this sans assistance though not his long work across the bottom: divining it produced the last letter of the very nice last-in TWENTY-TWO. Thanks Puck.

6. Thanks Puck and PeeDee. I took a while to get the artist, so not an easy one.
   In 22 presumably the first definition is refering to The Streetwalker.

7. Rondure and Hebe were clear although unknown, and the whole thing rattled in pretty quick as I remember, but I’m sure there are themic subtleties I’m ignorant of. The only line I remember from the book Moulin Rouge is him drunkenly saying to the barman (also called Henry) “Henry, un autre absinthe!” Quite fun, thanks both.

8. A DNF for me with _E_E defeating me at 15a. Didn’t look at the indicated solution, just read it. And read it. And read it. You get the idea.
   Eventually gave up to wait until now.
   My forehead has been suitably slapped.
   That besides, the puzzle was very enjoyable, with the diversion of becoming more intimate with the short man’s oeuvre. Exactly what a crossword should do, in the Reithian manner.
   Thanks PeeDee for getting HEBE for me. My misery has been cured.

9. Relatively easy for a Prize puzzle. I was helped by the theme.

   Liked TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, UNSURE, TIGHTROPE DANCER, ECHO, CENSORSHIP (loi)

   New: FASTNET Rock, Bill ODDIE

   Did not parse HE = high explosive (will remember for future).

   Thanks B+S

10. I was impressed by the double enclosure of 15 within 11,25 within 11,25’s fodder. I wasn’t all that familiar with 1ac’s oeuvre, so had to do some research. I also had to come here to get the parsing for 14dn, having not thought to check the appropriate light number.

11. I’m another (like BigglesA@1) who likes it when a crossword encourages me to chase up references and learn something along the way, and I thought I’d end up spending a while looking up Toulouse-Lautrec and his works. Actually though, I finished this unaided, thanks mostly to some very clear clueing, particularly rather a lot of answers embedded in the clues (and one answer) – more than usual, surely? But afterwards I did rather a lot of checking – was rondure really a word; was Hebe really the personification of youth; what do Le Lit and the Tightrope Dancer look like? I did like the interaction between the clues, particularly the fun with 22 and ‘setter’, and the bed, Le lit and Hebe. Thanks, Puck and PeeDee.

12. I made pretty quick work of this, especially once I had figured out TOULOUSE-LAUTREC (having the T, S and C was enough – the definition ‘drawer’ was nice to find, too). After that, it was a little bit of GK about him, and a little bit of research (I wouldn’t have recognised the included LE LIT without it), plus one answer leading to a foothold into the next, and so on. I quite enjoyed this – much more accessible than last week’s. The intertwined answers THE BED and HEBE was entertaining, likewise BONE SETTER, TWENTY TWO and STREET. ECHO was inventive. Thanks, Puck and PeeDee.

13. Memories of a wonderful Toulose-Lautrec exhibition I saw years ago were not sufficient to solve LE LIT or TIGHTROPE DANCER but everything else fell into place in this gem of a crossword. Favourites included ECHO, LIMITATIONS, LOFTINESS, STREET, and HOMBURG. Puck remains one of my favorite setters. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.

14. Thanks PeeDee – one point to note: at 13a the ending anagram is of STREET.

    I also was puzzled by RONDURE, and first went up a blind alley, looking for a literary circle like Bloomsbury.  But I agree (on looking at Chambers) ‘literary’ refers to it being Shakespeare’s version of ’roundure’ in the sense of ‘circle’.  The ‘de’ is there only because ‘rigueur’ exists in English solely in the French phrase ‘de rigueur’ (= obligatory), though any word ending in ‘r’ would have worked to form the hidden answer.

    Great theme, thanks to Puck – top drawer!  It took me a little while to get 1a but then, like others, I had an interesting time reminding myself about Lautrec’s works.  As to 22d, I do not know of a particular painting called ‘streetwalker’, but of course many of his subjects were ‘women of the street’ – does anyone know anything more specific?

    Several clever clues – HEBRAIC, ECHO, MOULIN ROUGE, etc.  I as deceived at first by 26a, entering “Lourdes’ until it clearly did not work. Many thanks.

15. Thanks Puck and PeeDee. This was great fun. Like others I enjoyed the challenge and the opportunity to learn more about an artist I wasnt familiar with. MOULIN ROUGE and CENSORSHIP my favourites for their construction within the theme. Think 16d should be EXPEDITOR with an O?

16. Well spotted Bumbrake!  I’ll fix that asap.

17. Thanks for a great blog, PeeDee.

    The anagram at 1ac leapt out immediately – funny how some do that – and so, like you, I expected an enjoyable tour of some favourite  paintings – but it turned out to be even more fun than that, with all the interplay between clues mentioned already – a gem of a crossword, as Tony @13 said.

    It struck me that the cat in 1ac could have been excited about an OUSEL or a LOUSE – but the decapitated rodent was more amusing. 😉

    All I’d want to say has been said really. Many thanks to Puck for the usual Puckish fun – I thoroughly enjoyed it.

    [sjshart @14 – here’s The Streetwalker.]

     

     

18. Surprisingly I managed to finish this with a little help from google to find T-L’s paintings which I don’t know at all. There were several answers I couldn’t parse even though I managed to get them so thanks to PeeDee for enlightening me. I had never heard of RONDURE before. Thanks also to Puck

19. There’s not much to the theme, it seems to me, and what there is was certainly gettable without looking things up. I did discover post solve that “out of Albi originally” in 20a is a reference to the artist’s birthplace.

20. Well dug out re his birthplace, sheffield hatter; as I said earlier, knew there would be subtleties.

21. Indeed imaginative and enjoyable PeeDee, thanks to you for explanation and to Puck for the challenge.

    Ref 22D I think that T-L may have painted Max Beerbohm-TREE (cannot find any evidence for this now I look!) which would work with S—-T providing ‘in this way.  though I definitely agree ‘street’ (as in the everyday life on) is a topic of T-L’s painting, so works both ways, and I was wasn’t aware of The Streetwalker which definitely add another layer.

    Ref 24D which was my LOI, Bill Oddie is better known to me as a birdwatcher and briefly a ‘celebrity fan’ of Reading FC, my local football team. The fans on discovering his affiliation made this chant :”Bill Oddie, Bill Oddie, rub your beard all over my body” Probably best after 8 or so pints.

    Thanks again Puck, PeeDee and all the learned contributors on here!

     

22. Thanks PD and Puck. A fun solve with a couple of unparsed clues for me.

    Can anybody enlighten me why Uncle and pawnbroker are synonyms please?

23. Hi Graham, uncle is a euphemism for a pawnbroker  You might say you have taken something “to uncle” to avoid the same of admitting that you have no money.

24. Thanks PeeDee. I hadn’t heard this before. Is it an Americanism or uncommon nowadays?

25. Wonderful puzzle, and with the assistance of the theme a much less arduous solve than most Prizes are for me. Even parsed them all, which is a rarity! As for “uncle” I always thought this had a Cockney origin (though not rhyming!) but have no evidence for this beyond literature. Thanks to Puck and PeeDee.

26. Graham @23 – It is certainly British.  I expect the meaning will be uncommon for those whose friends and acquaintances have enough money to get by.

27. A highly enjoyable and very interesting puzzle. I loved the T-L theme and the other very neat interconnections (LE LIT, THE BED and HEBE). I too saw LAUTREC pretty quickly (as did Eileen), with ‘drawer’ at the end of the clue to confirm it – also the possibility of OUSEL instead of L+OUSE – but the clue to 1a was fine as it was.
    Many thanks to Puck and PeeDee.

28. Eileen @17, thanks for pointing out the streetwalker.

29. Enjoyed this. I discovered that I didn’t know as much about Toulouse Lautrec as I thought I did. Quite liked exploring his oeuvre though.
    Thanks Puck.

30. I am one of the people who does not look things up (even if it means not finishing the crossword) so assumed that my total lack of knowledge of T-L (other than shoes on knees) would mean a big DNF. So chapeau to Puck whose excellent cluing led to me getting all answers. Really liked Moulin Rouge for “can repeated here”. Cheers Puck and PeeDee

31. 10a Is a net a place?

    20a PeeDee, i think your underlining should stop after “pencil.”  I think you need “red can” in the blog for TIGHTROPE DANCER.  i think your anagrind for 1d is “cooked,” not “cooled.”

    I loved the surface of 1a — of course you’d rule the cat out, she wouldn’t put the decapitated rodent away in a drawer, she’d leave it out for you to find.

    She’s a most un-floozylike streetwalker.  She’s on her way home and the act is over for the night.

    Thanks, Puck and PeeDee.  Like sugarbuttie above, I finished this in bed last night without any electronic aids.  Unlike sugarbuttie, I’m totally willing to look things up next morning if I have to — or feel like it.

32. People who do not look things up, for Pete’s sake.

33. I’m sure Pete will be grateful. It’s Sugarbutties (with an “s”) and I didn’t finish this in bed last night for Pete’s sake.

34. Re 13a, 14d and 22d and maybe 17d: by coincidence, the other crossword I did yesterday after this one was an FT Wanderer (=Puck) from a couple of weeks ago which featured many clues about setters (and other dogs). Surprisingly I found it more difficult than this one.

    While doing this one, I was mildly disgruntled at having to look up so much SK [I think specialist knowledge is more accurate than general knowledge], but when I read the comments here from Biggles, Dryll, KeithS, et al, I realized that I was missing out on one of the many joys of these puzzles. In hindsight it was a really good crossword, so thanks all for getting me back into the right frame of mind. 

    And thanks Puck and PeeDee for the enjoyment and enlightenment.

35. Sugarbutties with an s (sorry for the misspelling) I didn’t mean to imply that you do the puzzle in bed, just that that’s why I can’t look anything up on first pass.   The “for Pete’s sake,” besides being a note from a recent puzzle, was aimed not at you but at me for the grammatical error in my previous post.

36. Really Valentine ? You never mentioned people who do not look things up in your previous post; I was the only one who said that.

    Obviously I know you weren’t implying I did the puzzle in bed; I was trying to out-pedant you.

37. Lots of fun from Puck and thanks for a very readable and interesting blog, PeeDee and other contributors. Stand-out clues for me were 10a FASTNET, 15a HEBE, 26a LOUDEST and 21d HEBRAIC. I agree with several preceding comments: looking up some of the artworks to check my solutions to the theme-related answers was a fascinating exercise.

38. A very clever, interesting and educational (for me, anyway) puzzle, which I managed to finish, fully parsed.

    In 7d, RONDURE, the indicator is “‘s part”, surely? The “de” doesn’t take part in the hiding but is just part of the phrase ‘de rigueur’, as sjshart mentioned.

    In 22d I realized it was a reference to ‘streetwalker’ but not that it was actually the title of one of T-L’s paintings, so thanks to Gonzo, who I think was first to mention that.

    Regarding RONDURE, Collins has “NOUN literary“, so although I didn’t know the word before, that confirmed my parsing was right.

    I think I have seen ‘uncle’ for pawnbroker before (in another crossword, probably), but had to check it.

    Puck avoided cluing bonesetter by reference to himself (as a setter). I think I might have gone for “Physician who is hard on me?”

39. Hm. I think if you want the letters HE the clue should say ‘high explosive’ not just ‘explosive’.

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