Guardian 28,203 / Picaroon

93 comments on “Guardian 28,203 / Picaroon”

1. Absolutely brilliant from Picaroon, as usual. Also as usual, at first it looked impenetrable, but the clues gradually and satisfyingly unfolded.

   Great start to the day.

2. Thanks both. Surely the composer Carl is the Great Dane Nielsen

3. Yes, Shirl; the ref is to Carl Nielsen.  I thought I was seeing a theme with refs to theatre and film (weepies, leading light, the e-role; Holy Grail, u-rating etc) but there is not enough to back the hunch.  Didn’t need a theme anyway – it was fab.

4. That’s the one I would have chosen, Shirl. 😉

5. …but I always think of Victor Borge as The Great Dane.

6. A slow, steady, and very enjoyable puzzle. We successfully parsed everything except for ON THE GO – must try and remember H for rugby goal!

   Favourites were ASININE and LUSTILY.

   Thanks Eileen and Picaroon!

7. Sorry, forgot the link @5!

8. thank you Eileen and a huge thank you to Picaroon for a superb puzzle. I hope P pops in to identify the Great Dane, but my money would be on the pulchritudinous Birgitte, supermodel, actress and former partner of Sylvester Stalline

9. Stallone, even

10. Thanks Picaroon and Eileen

    A very slow start. For ages I had only INSIPID, an example of my favourite type of clue, built up from its parts to give an answer – too few of those in this puzzle for it to be a favourite for me.

    The middle went OK, but I also had a very slow finish, being totally misled by “Asian bread” (DONAN, anyone?) and never having heard of PISTOLE, though that was another I built up from its parts.

    Favourite was HOLY GRAIL.

11. Felt very fortunate to be on Picaroon’s wavelength today, otherwise might not have seen MISDO, UNSAY, ROASTER, WEEPIES or even PISTOLE. The SE corner yielded up its secrets at the very last, particularly liked GLORIFY there. 60 years ago since I was devouring those William books, William’s Happy Days my favourite one, because ultimately he wasn’t getting into so much trouble…

12. Shirl @2: Brigitte Nielsen might be described as great – she’s 6′ 1″.  Carl Nielsen was certainly the one that came to my mind.  As Eileen says, there are many to choose from.  Cue a catholic range of other suggestions, given the broad interests of the community on here.

    Eileen, you continue to land some plum gigs.  Another Picaroon and just as good as those that came before.  I failed to parse some, although the solutions went in.  I missed the rugby goal posts, and kicked myself when I read the blog as I’ve certainly met that one before.  I also failed to spot ‘a irish’ in MAHARISHI.  Thanks for the explanations.  From a load of ticked solutions, I’d select START UP for the clever definition, ASININE and LEADING LIGHT for misdirecting me to look for references to other solutions, HOLY GRAIL for the delightful surface and the image it conjured up, APPLIED for its clever construction and LUSTILY similarly, although a slightly clumsier surface than the others.  COTD, though, is a tie between WITNESS where the red/white had me musing for far longer than it should and the excellent INAGURATING.  I love the ability of setters to split words into component parts that I just haven’t ever thought of before.

    Thanks both Picaroon and Eileen

13. baerchen @8: we crossed.  Lovely word, pulchritudinous!  I’d initially put down statuesque but edited myself in case that’s now a politically incorrect term!

14. Thanks Eileen and Picaroon. Lots of ingenious clues, well blogged. I enjoyed this very much, though I didn’t fully get 26a. Maybe the best of the bunch?

15. Well that was tough! I got there in the end with a little googling. I didn’t know Just William was William BROWN having missed out on these in my youth but the clue made it clear. My loi was DOYEN as I didn’t clock the Asian bread having googled it and not found anything likely.
    I think the Great Dane is definitely Carl the composer with a nod to Eileen as I appreciate Victor Borge too. The inflationary language and phonetic punctuation always make me laugh.
    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen whose blog helped me understand several answers including ON THE GO and WITNESS.

16. My first thought for a Great Dane was Harry Nielsen but (1) he’s American and (2) his name is spelt Nilsson. Really missed The Point…

17. 8ac: the Wik gives 40 “famous” Danes called Nielsen.

    But I agree, it has to be Carl.

    25ac: is the “down” needed as there’s no 3 across?

18. I found this tough to get into (with an empty grid after two passes). Eventually, I landed HOLY GRAIL and managed to complete the south except for 10d.

    Eileen: could the definition in 23ac be ‘repressive force’?

    North was a complete  non-starter, never having read the Just William books for example. But I clambered my way over from START-UP in the NE (which also gave 10d PROFITEROLES).  A fair number I could not parse, but definitions, crossers and imagination served.

    Overall verdict: phew.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

19. Wonderful wit and misdirection throughout thanks Picaroon. But is asinine a synonym for lustily?

20. Trovatore @17

    This was discussed fairly recently. Apparently the convention is to omit “across” or “down” if the clue is in the same direction as the one referred to, but to include them if the direction is different.

21. No of course not but it is like an ignoramus, Doh!

     

22. bagel @19

    3d, not 2d

23. Hmmm in Oz @18  Of course – I’ll amend the blog now. ( I thought I’d got away with no careless errors today.)

24. (We crossed, bagel!)

25. Trovatore @17: I think the “down” in 25a is necessary for the misdirection, leading us to think that “1” and “9” refer to solutions.

26. Thanks, Eileen, for helping me to understand the background to 1a WILLIAM BROWN, as I am unfamiliar with those stories. I was misled thinking that 26a referred to this 1a, so your explanation for LEADING LIGHT was also very welcome. And I didn’t fully get WEEPIES at 1d either. Aside from the fact that I didn’t appreciate those clues properly, I still have to say that I liked this offering from Picaroon. Favourites were 14a MAHARISHI, 323a GESTAPO, 18d APPLIED and 19d LESSING. I appreciate the efforts of both Picaroon as setter and Eileen as blogger today. And thanks to muffin@10 and Mark@12 too, I like the ways you both commented on the concept of “word play”: “built up from its parts” (muffin), and “I love the ability of setters to split words into component parts that I just haven’t ever thought of before”(Mark).

27. Unsay, misdo, bit confected?..hmmm. Didn’t have the books as a kid, so needed all crossers just to bung 1ac. As for Nielsen, it’s like Smith, and not Neils Bohr. Seen H for rugby goal before, but it’s been a while. That show was a gas/riot..hmmm again. A doyen is a leading light, so has to have been around a while, but veteran?.. another hmmm. Still and all, pottered tbrough, but needed a bit of check-buttoning, which I normally resist. Missed the neat 1-26 connection (never really took on board what a cw ‘light’ is). Enjoyed the work, sort of, thanks P and E.

28. I got William Brown from the clueing (I do know the Just William stories, but didn’t click with the surname). No doubt it is reference to the Richmal Crompton character, but I came across this interesting story of a ‘naughty boy’ too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brown_(sailor)

29. George Clements @1 said it all. Thanks all.

30. Picaroon setting and Eileen blogging.

    Perfection

31. Some really nice clues with clever surfaces.  I particularly liked 19a LOCKE (though ironically as a philosopher he’s much easier to get into than many!).

    I’m not sure I’ve come across the term ROASTER (5d) – they’re more commonly called roasties around here.  Another great surface though.

    Re LIGHT in 26a.  Don Manley says in the Chambers Crossword Manual: “… you may come across a word that denotes the answers as they appear on the diagram.  That words is lights.  Unfortunately this term is also used to refer to individual letters within words… I now avoid using ‘lights’ wherever possible.”

    Many thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

32. Thanks, Eileen.

    Good fun. I liked the meta quality of LEADING LIGHT, and the substitution of King Edward for the present queen in 5d.

    A quibble on 7d: U certification doesn’t necessarily mean kids’ film, or vice versa. Toy Story and Paddington 2 are rated PG. Casablanca and Citizen Kane are rated U.

    [I don’t think William Brown would be happy about being called a naughty boy. He is a helpful child who is frequently misunderstood.]

33. On the across pass, I landed only ON THE GO. Now, if this was Vlad, I would immediately have started panicking, but with Picaroon it’s sensible to take a deep breath and wait for matters to resolve themselves. The downs were better, but I really shouldn’t have bunged in ‘inauguration’ at 7d, for it only gave me nonsense at 24a, until I realised of course.

    How current are the Just William stories these days? I envisage many of our, er, younger solvers rushing to Wikipedia to find out whether the solution makes any sense.

    Loved the WEEPIES.

34. blaise @16, my first thought was a soprano but she’s Swedish, as well as being spelled differently. And yes, I remember being amused by Harry’s The Point.

35. As (lucky) Eileen says, what can you say about another splendid Picaroon crossword.

    Thanks to both blogger and setter

36. No nitpicking from me, I’m happy to say. I thought this one was ace. The days of me shuddering when seeing Picaroon’s name are over. Hopefully.
    LOI was INAUGURATING. Lovely feeling when I clocked it, after trying to get a synonym for ‘curse’ shoehorned in somewhere.
    Thanks for parsing ON THE GO for me, Eileen. I’ll try and remember the H for goalpost the next time it comes up.
    And thanks to the pirate for the work out. Lovely.

37. It is excellent to see William Brown recognised in a Guardian crossword, but “naughty boy” is a wholly inadequate definition for one of the great characters of children’s literature. Irrepressible, resourceful, indifferent to authority and often oblivious to consequences, a scourge of the pompous, the pretentious and the phoney – William is all these, but never simply “naughty”.  The books can be read with pleasure at any age, and Picaroon should be congratulated for reminding us of them.

38. As usual with Picaroon, I found this difficult, but satisfying to finish eventually.

    I, of course, knew Just William but I’d forgotten he was a Brown. Lots of fine clues and good linking of the two long ‘uns at top and bottom.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen, especially for the parsing of ON THE GO.

39. ‘Just’ brilliant. Ta E & P and Lord Jim@31 for the meaning of Light – was baffled by that.

40. A tough grid with few connections between the four quadrants. 1A was a guess from crossers and 26A likewise as this was unknown territory. I needed crossers to narrow down the possibilities for 1A,19,26,8
    Lots of clever clues with clever misdirection to like, e.g. 17, 18, 23.
    Misleadingly, no punctuation for “e.g.” in a couple of clues which suggests “eg” is included in the answer. Only 11 as far as I can see, has my bete noire in the word play and I didn’t like 13A.
    An enjoyable work out for a rainy day with one remaining to be parsed.

    Couldn’t parse 12 with its fairly vague associations.

    Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

41. Well said, Sagittarius. Also well said Eileen (comment 5). His material he may have repeated rather a lot, but has there ever been anyone to match his comic timing? Nearest I can find is Eric Morecambe – who also depended on delivery rather than material, though E Braben was a great scriptwriter. Picaroon on top of his Bradman-like game here.

42. I really struggled with this after getting William Brown almost immediately. After spending sometime trying to fit Violet Elizabeth in to 26a I gave up and went for testing letters to find solutions and then trying to parse them. Pleased to say that I did spot quitea lot, including A IRISH, but very much needed the blog for LEADING LIGHT, WITNESS and others. Many thanks to Eileen for the explanations and to Picaroon for an elegant puzzle (and I do like this grid).

43. Re comment 31: amazing how quickly the word “light” has fallen into desuetude in this context. “Entry”, “solution”, just don’t quite mean the same thing and can be ambiguous. Maybe only butchers and greenhouse-makers now have non-luminescent lights?

44. A brilliant crossword for me would be one where you could get the answers from the cryptic part alone. There were too many in this case where I believe that that was not possible.

45. Penman @40, Guardian style is that eg always appears without points, so if we saw e.g., then we would know that something was up!

46. Could somebody explain why weepies are confections full of corn, please?

47. Howard March @46

    I took as a reference to “corny” movies reducing viewers to tears.

48. Weird one today!  Started very slowly with FOI NEISLEN (which can only be the composer in my view!) and then sat there for ages before anything else dropped, so to speak, but very slowly.  Just not on the right wavelength today.

    Nevertheless, a hugely enjoyable sovle with substantial help and some excellent clues.  Thank you Picaroon and Eileen!

49. Howard March @46

    Collins – ‘weepy: a sentimental film or book’; ‘corny: sentimental or mawkish’.

50. A great puzzle.  Speaking of which, I rather think Picaroon is toying with us in 8a.  Great is there for the surface, to make us think of dogs, and kind of doesn’t help and doesn’t hurt the definition, because at least one Dane (human) will fit.  Eileen pointed out the indefinite article.   I’d bet (a very small amount) he has no particular one in mind, and is employing a cryptic Rorschach test, and maybe laughing a bit.

51. A dnf for me, as 5 clues on the E side were unsolved. I liked LEADING LIGHT, INAUGURATING and WILLIAM BROWN.

    Different folk are irritated by different things. Unlike many, I had no objection to yesterday’s “odd hats = HT”,  but I strongly disliked today’s “hyacinth, say = lily” (2d). The two plants are not even closely related, being in different orders.

    Thanks Eileen, and Picaroon for a generally very good puzzle.

52. beaulieu @ 51 – I’m afraid I relied on Chambers (hyacinth: a bulbous genus (Hyacinthus) of the lily family) when I wrote the blog and didn’t research further.

53. Maybe it’s a sort of association by resonance, beaulieu, as in water lily/water hyacinth..just musing…

54. I suspect Picaroon had either the mathematician or the theoretical physicist in mind – but whoever it was, I didn’t get it.
    Thanks Eileen for parsing ON THE GO. As a Twickenham resident I should have got that! I enjoyed the cross references that were nothing of the kind. I was surprised to find how many people didn’t know WILLIAM BROWN: the stories are even funnier as an adult than they were as a child.

55. I found this tough but satisfying in the end. I liked the ‘confession after tanning’ at 1a (didn’t know of the books, so thanks for the explanation, Eileen) and liked the clever misdirections of the numbers in LEADING LIGHT and ASININE. Perhaps the best of the bunch was INAUGURATING – what a creative way to deconstruct that word! Thanks to Picaroon for the entertaining challenge and to Eileen also for the parsing of ON THE GO.

56. Eileen@52 – if it’s in Chambers, I can’t really complain I suppose. (Botany is an interest of mine, though I don’t claim any great expertise.)

57. beaulieu @56

    Hyacinths used to be considered part of the family Liliaceae; I understand however that recent genetic studies have revealed they are more closely related to the elk.

58. Looked in vain for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXiZHXkG-ac

    Polish POWs in Colditz might have something to say about 19ac.

59. Didn’t start until lunch-time, so it’s all been said.

    I have always detested the Just William stories; even the otherwise estimable Martin Jarvis cannot convert me.

    Gladys @ 54: the only physicist Nielsen (Michael) I can think of is Australian.

    CHARIOT was POI (penultimate…), which, given my handle, I should have seen earlier.

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

     

60. Yes, you should, Auriga – but I think I remember you saying that before!

    Whenever I see your ‘handle’, I think of this, which I’m lucky enough to have seen in situ.

61. essexboy @57: splendid!  You’ll find many of them growing along the banks of the Ouse, I suspect.  And in Essen!

62. [Mark @61 – along with a few sealions!]

63. Nice conventional crossword with nothing to irk the purists and even a nod to HMHB’s “doyen of topiary”

    As Great Dane owner I’m doubly delighted when they show up in the crossword

    Favourites were IGNORAMUS & APPRAISAL for avoiding the almost obligatory shock/hair synonym

    Cheers all

64. Auriga (Sorry, this phone doesn’t do post numbers): Wikipedia assures me there is a “Holger Bech Nielsen (b.1941) Danish theoretical physicist”. My knowledge of scientists could be written on the back of a postcard in very big letters, but Guardian crosswords are drifting ever science-ward so I guessed it might be him.

65. [essexboy @62: Harrumph!]

66. Thanks for the link @60, Eileen. I think my introverted expression tends more toward the archaic smile, these days.

67. Thanks Gladys@64, I’ll look him up. I look forward to a themed Danish scientists puzzle!

68. Thanks Picaroon and the ever-welcoming Eileen.  I had a very good time.

    I think there’s a subset of GK that I’ll call BK — it’s general knowledge if you’re British and otherwise take your chances.  For me it’s often British television, especially children’s television, less often British colloquialisms, which I often know from detective stories so can supply.  And of course there’s cricket …

    I got stuck at 8a with ALSO for “additionally.”  Are there Danes named Nialson?  and is the corn in 1d EAR and than what about the rest of it?  I needed Eileen this morning to straighten me out.

    12a Is my impression correct about “side,” that it’s usually used in the negative?  You might say, “There’s no side to him,” but not, “He’s got a lot of side.”

    I haven’t seen MISDO before, but how else can you perform a misdeed?

    Crosbie@28 — thank you for the link to William Brown, the Black woman who served as a man in the Royal Navy.  She fits right in with the women in traditional songs who sign on in disguise as sailors, all of whom are spectacularly good at the job.  This in the era of “frail womanhood”!

    essexboy@51 I laughed out loud!

69. Valentine @68 – I thought I’d only met ‘side’ in that sense in the negative, too. This morning, I only looked in Chambers, which gives ‘a pretentious air, arrogance (inf)’, with no comment on usage. I’ve just been to Collins, which has ‘Brit sl insolence or pretentiousness: to put on side‘, which I realise I have heard of.

70. bodycheetah@63 Yes to the doyen,but Maharishi Navratilova was just a Scouser in a big pullover.

71. [Off topic but potentially of interest/fun to some here.  Many will be aware of Cracking the Cryptic, the ‘lockdown surprise hit’ YouTube channel featuring two mild mannered semi-geniuses talking their way through the solving of difficult Sudoku puzzles.  As the name suggests, they started off by doing the same with cryptic crosswords and, today, they’ve posted a solve of an enjoyable crossword with some absolutely delightful clues – and a nod to this very website.  Or, at least its name.  The link is here .PS. For any who wanted to try the crossword before watching it being solved, there is a link in the wee blurb beneath the video]

72. As Robi @38 said, “difficult but satisfying.” My GK did not extend to WILLIAM BROWN so I needed a look-up for that and LEADING LIGHT was too far-fetched for my brain so I succumbed to the reveal button yet again. Everything in between was rewarding with ASININE, IGNORAMUS, and APPLIED being favorites. I got MAHARISHI from the definition and crossings but I wished I had gotten it from the brilliant wordplay. Thanks to Picaroon and to Eileen for the write-up and attention to the resulting comments.

73. AFter getting IGNORAMUS and MAHARISHI at the start I struggled for fluency with this puzzle, and I admit to not making much of an effort in the top left corner, which I left partly blank at the end.  The clues I solved were in retrospect very good.

    I guessed Carl Nielsen was the subject of the Great Dane clue, but it seems a strange way to define it.  I was slow to get William Brown: despite having those stories read to me (and then progressing to reading them myself), I could not remember his surname!  (He was Just William to me.)

    Thanks to Picaroon and Eileen.

74. Is a typical reaction to trying to finish a crossword from Picaroon “I screamed and I screamed. I was thick…”?

75. blaise @74 – I like it!

    Trust you have seen Octopus @58 [many thanks, Octopus 😉 ]

76. This is one of my favourites of the year so far. So much clever stuff going on, and just transparent enough to make me feel smart for working it out. INAUGURATING is an absolute gem of clue-writing, but I loved GESTAPO and MAHARISHI and ROASTER was quite fun. LOI was WEEPIES, which was wickedly misleading.

    Not really convinced by the clue (or the interpretation) for LEADING LIGHT though.

77. Quite liked this. Delayed for ages over MISDO. As usual really obvious after the event. I read the WILLIAM books when I was a child. One I particularly remember was to do with the Outlaws having an election and they chose political parties and gave speeches about why each should be elected.Mostly these related to what these parties would do for their voters. When it came to William’s turn, He said He was a Conservative and he wasn’t going to do anything for anyone- “I’m going to rule that’s all!”
    Can’t fault that!
    Thanks Picaroon.

78. Thanks to Eileen and Picaroon

    1a I can’t see why being brown warrants a confession

    Leave profession …

    19a Unless you have a key, or a sledgehammer

    … seen naked

    25a I don’t always approve of defs that borrow meaning from the wordplay but here,

    Like 1, 9 and 3

    I think I would

    7d I don’t really like “summer” = “aug” – “summer period” perhaps?

    22d I’m sure

    26 cook Asian bread

    was considered

    Very good crossword

79. Delighted to get WEETIES as my LOI only to come here and find that it is of course WEEPIES.Just Me? Ah well.Still a great workout.Thanks Picaroon and Eileen.

80. Dansar @ 78

    There’s a wood as well as all the trees, you know.

81. Came to this quite late after being out for a walk in the Peak District, so apologies if these points have been covered:

    Re misleading references to other clues in 26a. Picaroon was being very fair here: he clued the reference to IGNORAMUS as 3d (despite their being only one 3 clue – Trovatore @17) in order to distinguish it from “1 and 9” (pace kamintone @25), only one of which (Mark @12) could possibly be clue references as there were two clues numbered 1 (a & d). I noticed the second of these hints pretty quickly, but only noticed the other (very subtle as well as very fair) after reading Trovatore’s comment.

    I agree with Hmmm in Oz’s assessment: phew! But despite sharing his very slow start, I had almost all the top half before anything appeared below the equator, with my foi being WILLIAM BROWN (my given name was William, soon shortened, so despite not being at all naughty I had a bit of an affinity for the character when I was about his age).

    Tough, tough, tough. And a dnf for me, as I had put ALSO rather than ELSE in 8a, for the very un-Danish NIALSON. Glad I’m not the only one (thank you, Valentine @68 ), though I excuse myself by saying that also is a much closer synonym for additionally than else. Putting the correct and Inextinguishable Nielsen in enabled me to also get WEEPIES.

    Thanks Picaroon, and to Eileen for the hint in her blog at 1a that sent me to have another look at 8a & 1d.

    (Tickled by the idea of hyacinths being more closely related to elk than lilies; or is it antelopes in general?)

82. The news that hyacinths are more closely related to elk than lilies was gnus to me 🙂

83. sheffield hatter @81

    Many thanks for your contribution, for several reasons.

    I envy you your Peak District walk – I’ve had many of them but nowadays I’m taking vicarious pleasure in others’ outings, like my daughter’s yesterday to Stratford, one of my favourite haunts.

    I was feeling really happy with today’s appreciative and non-controversial blog and feeling that I’d like to comment on that, but a bit tired, after being up in the early hours over this – and then you virtually did it for me. Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment so carefully on others’ contributions! – at this late stage.

    And finally for the link, which has accompanied the writing of this comment and now, just I finish, has morphed into the Rachmaninov (thank you) which means I can’t possibly go to bed just yet!

     

84. Eileen @83. Thanks for your warm words.

    The Inextinguishable (or Det Uudslukkelige in Danish) is one of my favourite symphonies. I watched that performance from 2016 on youtube after posting the link here. Some of the drumming in the last five minutes was outstanding – the best and most joyful drumming since Keith Moon. Made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!

    Hope you’re enjoying the Rachmaninov too.

85. Oh yes – one of  my top favourites.

    What an extraordinary community we have here! [I knew that.]

    I really am going to bed now.

86. Thanks Eileen. and Picaroon for a toughie. Nearly gave up with the intersecting WEEPIES/NIELSEN, going through Nandsen/Nialson for one and hung up on ‘lies’ for ‘confections’ in the other.

87. But of course, Eileen has failed to acknowledge that Nielsen wrote Maskarade — and I will return later this month with another Jumbo challenge!

88. Apologies to Eileen for failing to comment again – I have been solving the Guardian crossword first thing in the morning since lockdown started, because I no longer have a commute or a proper lunch break, but I should have added to the chorus of praise for another fine puzzle.

89. Came to this very late in the day and thoroughly enjoyed it. As seems to have been the case with many of you, at first it looked really tough and then I got onto Picaroon’s wavelength. One quibble/confusion. 15d HOLY GRAIL. Is it fair to use ‘behind’ in this way in a down clue? Wouldn’t it be fairer to use ‘below’? Yours pedantically…

90. nick stevens @87. Someone answered a similar query from me recently with the suggestion that it’s like being behind in a league table.

91. PS It just occurred to me that ‘behind’ is often used to mean ‘coming after’ – in which case – obviously – the usage in 15d is fair…

92. Am I missing something but there does not yet seem to be a post for today’s Shed puzzle.

93. ‘Misdo’ is a word I’ve never used, heard or seen, except in a couple of crosswords.

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