Guardian Cryptic 28,221 by Picaroon

79 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,221 by Picaroon”

1. Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick (I was going to type pickaloona as they seemed to go together!). I really enjoyed 14a ARMREST, 19a OLD NICK, 1d PERSONA NON GRATA, 5d LOLLOIN (lol!) and 20d INTONED (because of the mention of “our” Ned Kelly – how parochial of me). I must confess I couldn’t see the full parse for 23d CONFESS! so the blog was helpful. A pleasant and likeable puzzle.

2. Meant 5d LOLLING of course!

3. And another confession – just saw I had OPERATE at 11a (thought that tense sounded wonky!) so technically a DNF for me. Now I see it’s about stuffing one’s face – I OVERATE! Eating humble pie here! Also wanted to say it took me forever to get BAIZE, my LOI. Clever Picaroon to come up with another meaning for “pot” here.

4. It’s always a good start to the day when I see that the cryptic has been set by Picaroon, and this puzzle did not disappoint.

   I kept my fingers crossed over 2d as I seem to have a mental block over whether ‘baize’ is spelled with a ‘z’ or an ‘s’: thankfully, I remembered it correctly this time.

   Thanks, as always, to Picaroon, and to loonapick.

5. JinA @ 1,2,3: I see you’ve claimed all the medal spots this morning!  And I love your ‘pickaloona’ (but, then, you are the country that came up with ‘Pooper’ for Pocock and Hooper in your back row so I shouldn’t be surprised).

   What a delightful puzzle this morning. From 1 to 30, (mostly) smooth surfaces, tight clueing – as far as I’m concerned, some nice misdirection and plenty of humour.  I got PERSONA NON GRATA just from the final ‘A’ which was rather fun.  Sent myself on a wild goose chase trying RAISE CAIN for 9 ac before the two excellent down crossers corrected me (I’m not a fan of ‘lol’ but it’s nice to see it worked so smoothly into the clue).  CONSECRATION held out til the end – perhaps because of the mental gymnastics of visualising a word that seemed to be going in virtually every direction!

   Other big ticks go to ARMREST, GRECIAN (though I’m always suspicious, these days, when ‘attic’ appears.  One day it’ll be the top room in a house.  Didn’t bodycheetah make that observation about ‘locks’ recently?), FUNFAIR, ALIEN, OVERATE, BAIZE and the delightful CONFESS.  If I don’t stop now, I’ll end up listing everything!  (All the long ones were pretty good too!)

   Thanks Picaroon for a gem this morning and loonapick for setting the tone with your opening remarks.

6. Yes, a lovely puzzle. Picaroon is always so accurate with his cluing (clueing?), besides being witty and fun, as loonapick says. My LOI was PERSONA NON GRATA, which took forever to see. Many thanks to both.

7. Elegant and fun, as always with Picaroon.  Like JinA I LOL-ed at LOLLING, and at CON-SEC-RAT-ION, and at the over-rated French author lapped up by poseurs (I wonder which one he could have had in mind?)

   [Btw loonapick – Amantine Dupin chose the pseudonym George – without the s.]

   It’s probably foolhardy to challenge a linguist on his home turf, but I did raise an eyebrow at literate = linguistically proficient at 3d.  One can be proficient in one’s own language without having learnt the decoding and encoding skills required for reading and writing – indeed for most of human history since the birth of language, oral proficiency was the only linguistic proficiency.  And when it comes to learning a foreign tongue, being able to read and write, or being well-read, is no guarantee of success (as I’m sure our setter-educator can confirm).

   Thanks P & L

8. Well that was silky smooth from the pirate, only over too quick, quicker than yesterday’s but more fun. I’ve always pronounced baize like bayzje, so not like the trees, but hey ho, it reminded me of that Pot Black commentator feller with the sepulchral voice (about whom Mrs ginf used to say Yes and I’d rather watch a funeral too!).

   Do they call the wine ‘consecration wine’, and if so does the ‘like’ mean there is some kind of double def/double duty thing happening? Quite like that type of nudge wordplay for implies, and gel a tin was cute. 23d evocative…La Stupenda and Callas heading up a metal band? Great entertainment, ta to the Pirate and Loonapick.

9. ginf @8 – Alan Weeks (“for viewers watching in black and white, the blue ball is the one tucked between the green and the brown” – probably apocryphal!)

   Re the wine, I wondered about that too, but it’s usually consecrated rather than consecration wine.  I parsed it slightly differently – SEC (“like some wine”) “drunk by”, i.e. swallowed by/contained in (CON  RATION).

10. Another great puzzle from a master setter. Not his trickiest but as always plenty to savour.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

11. We were thinking GELATIN might be defined as ‘edible substance to take shape’ as in a jelly mould but then how would you get the GEL? Maybe not.
    Found this an enjoyable challenge…took ages to get started. Thanks P and L.

12. A tougher solve than yesterday but not too daunting. A couple of unfamiliar words, antra and attic (at least in the sense of pertaining to Athens) but fairly clued so no problem. Agree that the definition for gelatin was more than a little loose but no complaints other than that. The misdirection in 13ac (drunk masquerading as an anagrind) was positively evil. I like it! All in all a pleasant solve. Thanks to Loonapick and Picaroon.

13. A fun solve, once I got going, starting with FUNFAIR. My first session only provided about a quarter of the answers; second one went smoothly, excepting ANTRA which was new to me, although the clue was great. Finished with ETCHERS. Lots to like, especially this grid!

    Thanks Picaroon and lunapickle.

14. This was the most fun to solve in a quite a long time, though a very rapid one. I’d almost despaired when I read as far down as 30A for a first entry (ANTIDEPRESSANTS), but it was so deliciously clued that I suspected the rest might be as good, and they certainly were. My LOI was BAIZE, and in between almost everything pleased, such as GRECIAN, and including the 13, 16, 18, 24 group around the center … and of course all the outer biggies.

    I raise my glass to Picaroon.

15. Wow! Thought I was going to hate this when the first 5 minutes yielded only the obscure ANTRA, but how wrong I was. It was both FUN and FAIR. Thanks s & b.

16. Maybe it is just early morning sleepiness, but this took a lot of work. It getting any of the four long ones for ages didn’t help. Strangely ANTRA, a word I didn’t know was my foi as I couldn’t see how it could be anything else. It didn’t help that I misread the letters of7 as 2,3,4. So what was fairly easy became impossible until I realised how silly I had been. Some lovely misdirection which certainly caught me out eg spin, standard etc.
    BTW I have always known George Sand as Aurore Dudevant (her married name) famously of course Chopin’s lover on the fateful trip to Majorca which inspired the Raindrop prelude.
    Thanks Loonapick and Picaroon

17. Tough but fair – another one who unlike Mark but like drofle got 1d last of all, with all the crossers and much head scratching. I liked that the big ones did not yield too easily (to me anyway – impressed rodshaw got “antidepressants” with no crossers!) and so the puzzle came together in bits and pieces, with the four corners finally linking up. Many thanks Picaroon, and loonapick. Yes a couple of the definitions were loose but only where the wordplay was tight so I felt that was fair.

18. Thanks Picaroon and loonapick

    I found this very hard, though it’s difficult to see why now it’s finished, as it’s all fairly clued. For some time I had only ANTRA and ETCHERS. (There’s a show cave in Italy called Antro del Corchia; Corchia is the name of the mountain it’s under.)

    Favourites ALIEN and INTONED.

19. Very enjoyable

    New: ANTRA

    Liked: GRECIAN, ANTIDEPRESSANTS, PERSONA NON GRATA, RAISE HELL, LOLLING (loi)

    Thanks Loonapick and Picaroon

20. @15 Yes for me, too,  ANTRA was the *first* one in! Perhaps the benefits of a classical education again.

21. Oh, I see that it was technically a DNF for me as I had forgotten to solve BAIZE. I doubt I would have gotten that as I did not know the word – but I do now!

22. GRECIAN was my favourite too, closely followed by ANTIDEPRESSANTS which was my LOI and last to parse. I also thought GELATIN was too loosely defined but was OK with ARMREST.  I thought 12, (IMPLIES) a bit clumsy but otherwise, a very satisfying solve.

    Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick

23. A delightful puzzle, as always from Picaroon. I had the same favourites as everyone else!

    We had ANTRUM/A (in its anatomical sense, I think) not very long ago. I remember saying I guessed  it from the Latin for cave – but I can’t find it in the archive.

    Many thanks to Picaroon and loonapick.

24. What Eileen said, but I’d add that I didn’t think he was quite so tricky as he can be

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

25. I was discouraged by only getting 19a OLD NICK on a first read through the clues. But on applying myself I enjoyed the solve. DNF as could not see ALIEN. Long clues were hard to see which slowed me down but finally they all fell into place. Lots of lovely clues all mentioned by people above. Special mention for MEDALLIST at 15 d which I had pencilled in then finally parsed as crossers matched up. Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick.

26. TheZed @17: it was a moment of pure inspiration!  (and, by contrast, ENFORCE was one of my last, before the middle block, and took almost as long as the rest of the puzzle.  For no reason that I can see).  For some reason today I found myself working anticlockwise around the grid – which is not my preferred direction.  NE fell first: like oofyprosser and John Wells, ANTRA was an – obscure – first one in. Then the SE, with one exception, and ANTIDEPRESSANTS solved from the back end: ANTS then PRESS and then the rest, giving me that significant ‘A’.  I’d worked out 1d was an anagram but it looked convoluted and I wasn’t even sure of the fodder so I’d planned to leave it until later.  And then the Eureka moment.

27. Lots of the usual Picaroon misdirection, great fun. Last one in was OVERATE which puzzled me for a while until I realised that it of course meant having eaten too much. A bit like putting the emphasis on the first syllable of the word Misled rather than the second syllable, and wondering what on earth that word represents.

28. A gem of a puzzle!  Loved it.

    However, technically a DNF for me by entering TRAIPSE unparsed instead of TRAMPLE.

    Ticks too numerous to mention – ample evidence that a puzzle does not need to be impenetrable to be enjoyable.

    Many thanks, both.

29. Another elegant puzzle from Picaroon. Hard at first, then went rapidly until the last few. LOI was CONFESS, partly because as an erstwhile chemist I don’t regarded iron as a heavy metal.

    Thanks to the not-quite-anagrams Picaroon and loonapick.

30. Lots of lovely clues, but I think my favourite is 28a ALIEN, very clever and neat – it might even make it into my hall of fame.

    My only quibble is that I think “Attic” for GRECIAN at 17a should really have a definition-by-example indicator.  But that’s a minor point in a great puzzle.

    Many thanks Picaroon and loonapick.

31. Very enjoyable to be skating away on the thin ice of the new day without getting trampled under foot.

    Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick.

32. The Zed @17 and self @ 26: of course I wasn’t going anticlockwise!  It just felt like it working backwards through antidepressants.  Which is what I’ll be doing after making such a daft observation.  Must be the whisky (from last night, not this morning :D)

33. What a lovely puzzle this morning!  FOI was RAISE HELL a mantra I like to live by – LOI was ETCHERS not that I didn’t realise what I was looking but just that I couldn’t summon up the word!

    Thanks Picaroon and Loonapick.

34. A couple of new words for me today, ANTRA and BAIZE (cobro knew that one luckily, otherwise I would not have known how to spell it).

    Favourites were ANTIDEPRESSANTS and OVERATE, and solving CONSECRATION was very satisfying.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick

35. That Picaroon, he’s good isn’t he? Last week, we had all the setters who make a point of toughness, and yes we all like a challenge, but there’s as much if not more skill in the deft and accessible clueing on show today. Part of me wants it to go on a little longer, but then it wouldn’t be Picaroon would it?
    The fave has got to be 23d. I really want to be at that gig.

36. A great crossword with accurate and inventive cluing, I thought.

    Took a little while to get started and ANTIDEPRESSANTS didn’t get put in until near the end because I was stuck on pick up as having something to do with hearing. I loved GRECIAN, ETCHERS, ANTIDEPRESSANTS and MEDALLIST among others.

    Thanks Picaroon for the entertainment and loonapick for a good blog.

37. GC@4 I think BAISE might raise an eyebrow with our French solvers 🙂

     

38. Penfold @31 You’ve clearly been queueing in the shade of the average tree

39. Mark@32. Thank you for clarifying that point – I was about to draw to your attention (though, needless to say, in a spirit of perplexed amusement rather than pedantic nitpickery) that you seemed to have been moving in the opposite direction from the one you had imagined. I was going to wonder whether this phenomenon could possibly be a northern/southern hemisphere thing – like the bathwater purportedly going down the plughole the ‘wrong’ way.
    Any road up, an enjoyable puzzle today – and it’s nice to have a day on this site (and the G’s) relatively whinge free for a change. Thanks all round!

40. Gert Bycee @39 : it seemed right when I originally wrote it!  I think my geography was thrown all over the place this morning.  Looking back at the grid, rather than the solutions in the blog above, I’ve concluded that in fact I solved rather a lot backwards or upwards.  As a very conventional solver with a predilection for working right to left and top to bottom, it (inadvertently) added to today’s challenge.

41. ABFAB

42. @Gert Bycee (nice screen name). I find it it interesting that the water going down the plughole in different directions thing has proved so enduring. While it’s true that the Coriolis Affect would cause water in a perfectly symmetrical sink that wasn’t in any way disturbed while pulling the plug out to go down the plughole in different directions in the different hemispheres, in practise the effect on something the size of a sink is virtually non existent. Imperfections in the shape of the sink combined with movement imparted while removing the plug will have a much greater effect.

43. Eileen @23. It was ANTRE in a Qaos puzzle in July. (I found it by searching this site for cave, following your hint!) The vague memory of the Qaos clue helped me to solve this one without too much thought.

    I tend to agree with Auriga @29, but I forgave Picaroon on this occasion, because of the image of a soprano doing heavy metal.

44. bodycheetah @37, yes I’ve always been intrigued by that particular euphemism, given how franc they otherwise are.. mistresses et tout ca..

45. [.. me @43, ca sans cedilla looks so wrong…accents are beyond my old Luddite ken, as are e-links to, eg, fun youtubes, ..no kids or grandkids handy ..probably somewhere in the site QandA, but … lazy!]

46. ginf @45:  ç is ALT 135 if you’re on a laptop (make sure you use the number keypad, not the ones across the top, and of course check num lock is on!)

    There’s a pretty comprehensive list of special characters here – Eileen posted the link once and I bookmarked it as it’s so useful.

47. Such fun! Top of the many ticks was GRECIAN.
    I parsed OVERATE as (L)OVER+ATE (‘goddess of criminal rashness and its punishment’ which at a stretch could mean judge). Obviously Loonapick’s version is the right one.

48. An excellent and satisfying puzzle. I began with the perimeter lights (all splendidly clued) going clockwise and then remembering to collect £200 for passing Go. GRECIAN and CONFESS were other highlights.

    [essexboy @9, I’m pretty sure that snooker Colemanball was by the late Ted Lowe.]

49. Lots to like. Same favs as others. Like Mark@5 had RAISE CAIN at first till realised was wrong and  like William@28 had TRAIPSE unparsed and forgot to go back and think harder before I hit the check button, so a technical DNF.

    I wondered if there aws some political commentary doing on: RE-ELECT, PERSONA NON GRATA,  STARS AND STRIPES, PR,  all perhaps leading to the need for ANTIDEPRESSANTS….

    Thanks to Picaroon for the fun and Loonapick for the blog

50. Sheffield hatter @43 – many thanks for that. I knew it was pretty recent and it was bugging me. Nothing to do with anatomy, then: I’d already completely forgotten the poetic ANTRE  – oh dear.

51. For the longest time, I didn’t think I’d get even one answer! ANTRA was the way in (and I too had to check it in the dictionary). After that, things clicked (perhaps I got on Picaroon’s wavelength) and it steadily unfolded. I have to say, more often that not I bashed in the answer and then parsed it. I love the way Picaroon misdirects with the definition (pot on this, did stuff, collar, etc). As I say, it took time for my pudding of a brain to catch on.

    Hard (for me) but really enjoyable.

    Many thanks to Picaroon for the challenge and to Loonapick for the clear and helpful blog, as ever.

52. [2Scotcheggs @48 – of course, Ted Lowe! Mea culpa.  Alan Weeks presented the show]

53. […and I see from wiki that it was the pink that was next to the green]

54. essexboy @46: I was typing my thanks to you (and Eileen) for the helpful link – and then discovered that, unfortunately, it doesn’t work for a Mac.  For those who want to access unusual symbols on a Mac, this article is useful

55. I’m surprised no one has nitpicked the extra word in the ANTRA clue yet. So, realizing I’m picking a nit, I’ll do it: “Hollow areas in the Appalachian Trail” is the clue, with “hollow areas” as the definition, “in” telling you it’s hidden, and “Appalachian Trail” where you’ll find it. Therefore the word “the” is superfluous, serving only to make the surface read correctly.

    I don’t actually care–I think the rule that you can’t have extra words in a hidden-answer clue is a stupid rule–but it IS the rule. I delayed entering ANTRA for exactly that reason.

    Otherwise, this was quite enjoyable. Thanks, Picaroon.

    Amazingly, my second entry (with no crossing letters) was PUBLIC RELATIONS.

56. Lovely puzzle. On first pass I thought I might struggle (I’m another with Antra as my FOI), but it yielded nicely once I’d got started.

     

    When trying to solve “gelatin” I thought “edible substance” was a bit vague, but with the answer in place it feels about right. You’re not going to eat the stuff for nutrition or flavour – it’s only ever an added ingredient used to do a job. “Edible substance” then seems like a pointer toward something you can eat that isn’t actually a foodstuff.

57. Thanks Picaroon for an excellent crossword. I was helped by my FOI, PERSONA NON GRATA and I methodically solved the rest over dinner last evening. BAIZE was the only one I could not get — the word is new to me and the use of “pot” in the snooker sense was also unfamiliar. Favourites were many and included OVERATE and CONFESS. Great surfaces all the way around. Thanks Loonapick for the blog.

58. For some reason, the four long clues were write-ins leaving me with lots of key starting/finishing letters which helped greatly.  Loved the crossword as always from Picaroon so, thanks to him and, of course, Loonapick for his succinct blog.

59. An excellent puzzle – but I cannot figure out how W=weak.

60. tuliporturnip @59: I suspected the W was physics-based, and my Chambers confirms it. In particle physics a W particle is theoretically responsible for weak interactions.

61. @mrpenney (55): I was also briefly thrown by that surplus “the” in 10a.  “Hollow A(rea)S in THE” sent me searching for Tashe and Thase, in case they were locations on said Trail, before trying the equally unfamiliar (to me) correct answer.

62. Great fun, thanks Picaroon.  Thanks for the explanations, loonapick.  I liked everybody’s favorites.

63. Many, many outstanding clues today. I had a soft spot for BAIZE, but ANTIDEPRESSANTS was cleverly put together, and INTONED made me chuckle.

    I wish we could go a week without a reference to George Sand, though. Has anyone ever read any of his books?

64. HER! I meant ‘her’….

65. Another excellent puzzle: not at all tough but elegant and entertaining.
    I haven’t read all the comments yet, so apologies if this point has been made already, but the grid seemed unusually symmetrical to me (obviously they always are, but I am not sure they always stay the same if tilted 90 degrees, if I am making myself clear).
    And I don’t recall seeing a completely white border before: Fifteensquared, so to speak. The four maximum length answers were of course balanced by the four minimum length words in the centre, and what ingenuity to synthesise a twelve letter word out of those. Too much to ask for a sixty letter answer combining the four outside solutions!
    Other than all that, I loved the GRECIAN attic, the Italian sopranos, and ‘did stuff’ for OVERATE.
    Thanks to Picaloon and Loonarick!

66. After correcting “raise Cain”, a quick solve.

67. @Boffo above:
    Sand? Good beach reading.

68. Fantastic. With Arachne not seen all year (I hope all’s well) I think Picaroon is the setter I’m most pleased to see appear and this lived up to expectations. Humour, creativity, variety and just the right level of challenge for me

    essexboy- yes agreed Ted Lowe for the snooker commentary and black and white tv ‘gaffe’ – an undeniably hilarious comment, although on closer inspection I always think it probably does stand up: presumably the green was on it’s spot, so the location of both balls would have been clear to watching snooker fans

69. Is there perhaps a Republican Convention theme?

    REELECT, STARS AND STRIPES, PERSONA NON GRATA, PUBLIC RELATIONS  add more according to your political persuasion…

70. Very enjoyable puzzle – just the right level of challenge and some great clues! Thanks Picaroon.

71. MarkN @60 is correct that the W particle is (partly) responsible for weak interactions. (And not just theoretically! Experiments at accelerators confirm this all the time.) But that isn’t sufficient in itself to justify the abbreviation W = weak. (For one thing, the Z particle also mediates weak interactions.)

    I’m pretty sure we’ve seen W = weak in past puzzles. The justification almost certainly comes from particle physics. I don’t think that anything like such an abbreviation exists in physics today, but it may have in the past, and so I can easily believe that there might be dictionary support for such an abbreviation out there.

    (Disclaimer: I am a physicist, but not a specialist in elementary particle physics. I do know the subject well enough to be pretty confident in what I say here.)

72. “Has anybody here seen Kelly, Kelly from the Isle of Man?” set me off on the wrong track at 20d and may have created an unwelcome earworm but, apart from having the right number of letters, MANXMAN wouldn’t fit in any other way.

    I have always used “rise” for an increase in salary and thought of “raise” as an Americanism but I’m probably out of date.

    Thanks to Picaroon and loonapick.

73. A joy as ever from Picaroon; favourites were IMPLIES and FUNFAIR but so many gems…

74. Many thanks to Picaroon and loonapick. Just as an irrelevant aside, I was more pleased than necessary to notice that PUBLIC RELATIONS, as at 1 across, is also an anagram of Police Tribunal and Social Blueprint. I’m sure these must have been used in other crosswords at some time.

75. *Tribunals, rather!

76. Ted @71 and others
    Chambers is, I believe, the authority for these puzzles, and W = weak is therefore allowed. But you have explained very well what I understand, as a keen student of Physics, as being the correct names and terminology involved here. The W and Z particles are of a similar kind, the Z particle having a zero charge and W a negative or positive charge. But W and Z are not abbreviations – they were so named from ‘weak’ and ‘zero respectively, but this is merely their etymology. W particle and Z particle are their full names and are not abbreviated.
    If only Chambers had followed the example of the Z particle and defined the W particle in the same way (with of course a small change to the words), everything would have been ok! My Collins dictionary, incidentally, does not have W = weak, and their definitions of the two particles are a matching pair.

77. Bullhassocks @74 and others:  Is a social blueprint a thing?  I googled it and found this: ” Based on research, audits and the results of a collaborative working session, the Social Blueprint generates a “placemat” that keeps teams on task, provides a sense of shared progress and establishes post-session deliverables.”  I’m none the wiser.

78. Regarding the looseness of the definition of gelatin: I had parsed the whole clue as a cryptic definition, or possibly &lit (gelatin being an edible substance that can take shape – in a jelly mould – and which may be used to preserve food). Taken as such, the definition is quite unambiguous.

79. I agree with everything Alan B @76 says about W and “weak”. In particular, if Chambers says it, then it’s legitimate as far as I’m concerned. (I didn’t happen to have Chambers nearby when I wrote my comment, which is why I phrased things in the vague way I did.)

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