Guardian 28,204 / Shed

56 comments on “Guardian 28,204 / Shed”

1. Thanks for standing in Gaufrid.
   It seems that there is an error in 24a

2. Thanks Gaudfrid and Shed.

    

   A little difficult to get started, but, once going, it flowed fairly steadily. A couple of unknown words today: COPROLALIAC and RITORNELLO. I was thrown by not trying TOR for ages, as I couldn’t see that as a big hill.

   Took me a while to see it wasn’t DAD’S MARY – doh!

3. Thanks, Gaufrid for stepping in.  I didn’t see any typos and many thanks to Shed for a pleasant solve.

4. Thank you, Gaufrid, for stepping into the breach – much appreciated, especially for the parsing of ALPACA, which defeated me (I was hoping it might be CLOACA, which would give a pleasing CRC along the top, echoing the RCR along the bottom).

   Best wishes to the scheduled blogger; I hope your absense isn’t for a serious reason.  And thanks to Shed for a good variety of difficulty – I particularly enjoyed ASYMPTOTIC

5. Thanks for stepping into the breach, Gaufrid.

   I agree, there seems to be a T too many in 24. Otherwise a perfectly straightforward, enjoyable solve.

   Thanks also to Shed.

6. Gaufrid, sorry

7. No posts when I sent the above!

8. A gem of a puzzle, and a woerhty challenge. Many excellent clues, producing wide smiles on solving. Favorites included MINORCAN and DEAD AGAINST. I had never heard of RITORNELLO or COPRORALIAC, but both were solvable from the clue and checked later (although I somehow suspect I shan’t be using them too much  in the future).

9. Thanks Shed and Gaufrid (best wishes for return of vision!)

   Straightforward. I didn’t notice the error in BALLETIC. Favourite ASYMPTOTIC.

   I would have omitted “big” in 2d.

10. Oops … sorry for spelling error …  for ‘woerhty’ please read ‘worthy’.

11. btw my favourite wordsearches didn’t know COPROLALIAC. Luckily it wasn’t too hard to work out.

12. Thanks Gaudfrid and Shed!  Lovely solve today – FOI was CORNETTO with a nice smile.  LOI was COPROLALIAC which was a new one on me.

13. Guardian solvers might be interested that Sphinx AKA Steve Pemberton of “League of Gentlemen”, “Inside Number 9” etc. has set a new puzzle and put it out on his twitter here: https://twitter.com/SP1nightonly/status/1289927484054605825

    A few years ago a puzzle by Sphinx featured in an “Inside Number 9” episode, and it got published in the Guardian. Then we discovered who Sphinx was
    http://www.fifteensquared.net/2017/02/28/guardian-cryptic-27132-by-sphinx-tv-spoilers/

    When I noticed this I thought the most likely people who might be interested would be readers of the G’s crossword blog.
    I solved it easy enough. If you do too, I hope you agree with me that 1D/16D makes it worthy of a mention.

    Sorry if it is a bit off-topic for this crossword

14. 22A

    >I think the ‘poles’ should be singular otherwise you end up with the non-word ‘isventor’

    I agree.

    Thank you for parsing, and at short notice.

15. Whem I saw FIDDLE as the first clue it seemed like a write-in, but this wasn’t the case. I thought OUTLOOK would have been more appropriate as a prospect than LOOKOUT, but never mind. Like Rodshaw@8, got RITORNELLO  and COPROLALIAC in the end. Favourites were ASYMPTOTIC and ALPACA. Many thanks to Shed and Gaufrid.

16. I don’t keep records so can’t be sure but I feel it’s some time since we’ve seen Shed and I wasn’t sure what to expect.  The answer was a blend ranging from the Monday-quality STICKLER and FIDDLE/violin combo, via some nicely constructed clues like MORIBUND, DEAD AGAINST, SOMEDAY and my COTD, LOOKOUT (which I loved) to the, for me, impossible.

    I had to Reveal three: I didn’t connect AVATAR with manifestation (though I knew I was putting TA into a French region but my geography failed me); COPROLALIAC is a dnk  (I knew it was an anagram and the fodder for it but had no idea what I was working toward); and RITORNELLO, another dnk.  I knew it would be a musical term containing TOR and a Dickens character but it doesn’t help that I guessed the river to be our old friend, the Po (as it had to end in ‘o’).

    If I was to take issue with Shed, I’m not so sure about NELL being a ‘little Dickensian’.  The mind first alighted on Dorrit and Tiny Tim and then moved to child characters like Pip, Oliver and David C.  I’m not sure why Nell is little.  She’s already known by the diminutive in the novel which means little doesn’t imply shortening the name, she’s very rather than a bit Dickensian and I don’t recall any particular suggestion of smallness of stature so I’m not sure why it’s there.

    Thanks Shed, for the puzzle, and Gaufrid for the blog.

17. The trickiest of today’s lovely selection of cryptic crosswords but a very enjoyable battle. Mr CS and I were amazed to find that the word he thought I’d made up from the available letters in 18a was a real thing

    Thanks to Shed and Gaufrid. Speaking from personal experience, once your eyes settle down, cataract removal is life transforming

18. best wishes for an uncomplicated recovery, dear Gaufrid

19. beermagnet @15: thanks for highlighting that.  I also mentioned this in my post of yesterday: it happened to be the crossword highlighted and solved on the Cracking the Cryptic YouTube channel and I, too, commended it to this community. Some very nice clues in there and, yes, the combination you mention is a nice nod – though not sure if intended or not.

20. Enjoyed that and with the help (a lot) of the dictionaries managed to complete it before this post appeared. This lock-down newbie is getting there slowly (very) – but having fun. I do admire the ingenuity of the setters. Didn’t managed to parse a few even after I got them – so thanks to Gaufrid and to Shed – and some new words for me too.

21. Ugh! Horrible grid, with its vast expanses of stygian blackness and a mere 26 lights, but I presume each compiler has to work with whatever standard grid he or she is given.

    It’s good for the first clue to be an easy starter, but there are limits. 4Ac sounds as if Shed let his 5-year-old grandson write the clue. Thankfully, matters improved quickly, although several clues are clever without being especially elegant, e.g. MINORCAN, ALPACA, DECANTER and ASYMPTOTIC. Maybe Shed, usually an admirable setter, was having an off day or rushing to meet a tight deadline, as shown by 24Ac. “Permitted to” could be replaced by “the French”.

    [After finishing the puzzle I went for a shave, feeling the need to be shorn of the dead hot fuzz on my face. On returning I thought: is this the world’s end? No 225 blog! Don’t panic, it’s back now. Thanks Gaufrid.]

22. Reference COPROLALIAC, I had come across the unpleasant word, coprophilia, which I knew to be an unhealthy interest in certain material.  On looking up the solution in today’s puzzle, I’m rather delighted to find the greek origin.  kopros, indeed, means dung and lalia is speech so we get ‘dung speech’ which is certainly foulmouthed.  Lovely how these words derived from classical languages come together.

23. I really liked the “minor can” at 6a and the saint who was dead again at 11a.

    I was hoping someone on here would come up with an ingenious explanation of how 24a does actually work – maybe a northern European called Balic? – (the only ones I can find are Croatian) – but unfortunately it does just seem to be an error.

    (Mark @16: “I’m not sure why Nell is little”? – she’s called Little Nell!  What more do you need? 🙂 )

    Many thanks Shed and Gaufrid.

24. Thanks Shed for a crossword I began last evening and finished over coffee this morning. FOI was CHEF, LOI was ENDEAR. Favourites were many including INVENTOR, ALPACA, and DECANTER. Thanks Gaufrid for coming to the rescue — the wordplay for CORNETTO was a mystery to me — “cor” being “blimey” and “netto” as “supermarket no longer selling” were beyond my scope.

25. At first go with FIDDLE I thought this was going to be straightforward but I soon got very stuck this morning. Now having returned from a good walk I have finally managed to complete it.
    At one point with the letters I had the only answer I could think of which would fit for 18ac was dipsomaniac which, from the clear anagram, couldn’t possibly be the answer. Perhaps I have been drinking too much in lockdown!
    I agree there is a mistake in 24ac.
    I should have seen RITORNELLO much sooner than I did as I was pretty sure Nell was in there, but despite my musical knowledge, I was thinking more of physical passages. Loi was AVATAR after I finally managed to reorganise the letters for 18ac into the correct configuration. A new word for me there.
    Thanks Gaufrid and Shed for a good workout

26. Liked: INVENTOR, ALPHA
    New: coprolaliac, asymptotic, and Var = a department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of Southeastern France.
    Failed MINORCAN.
    Did not parse COR/NETTO apart from COR. Never heard of NETTO = supermarket no longer selling.

    * I noticed the error in 24a – LET in BALTIC

    Thanks B+S

27. Lord Jim @23: many thanks for that.  Makes total sense then and criticism withdrawn.  A very long time since I read the book and clearly didn’t recall that.

28. 2Scotcheggs @21; as far as I am aware, setters choose the grid they want to use from the Guardian grid library.

    As noted by others, a bit of a mixed bag of clues, with some very straightforward and others challenging. I managed to put together COPROLALIAC from the fodder once I had most of the crossers in place. Some of the surfaces seemed a bit odd e.g. 9 & 23.

    Thanks Shed and Gaufrid.

29. Sorry, rattled this off but too many nonsensical surfaces for me to enjoy.

    Must be an off day either for me or the setter.

30. As an example, “Passage for big hill and little Dickensian in river”

    Wot?

31. ‘re BALLETIC, I wondered if it might refer to the Croatian (northern European) footballer Andrija Balic with LET inserted.

32. I liked this very much despite BALLETIC at 24ac which I suppose was an error. Must admit to bungling it in anyway. I did look up COPROLALIAC and RITORNELLO but only to confirm them because both could be got once the crossers were in. FIDDLE and DADS ARMY seemed to be from a different crossword as they were write ins.
    I think this is my favourite puzzle of the week so far!
    Thanks Shed- and Gaufrid for stepping up to the plate.

33. I enjoyed this. I seem to remember we had asymptomatic with a similar clue only the other way round quite recently? Moribund reminded me of B.S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates which has a character called Maurie Bunde. I only got the joke about two thirds of the way into the novel. I was trying to work round using LETT for the North European for 24 ac. Thanks Gaufrid and Shed

34. 2Scotcheggs@21 I agree about the ugly grid, but it feels like you’ve just been seen by your mates coming with a Styx adjective.

35. Oops – coming out with a Styx adjective.

36. William @31 – Croatia is surely South East Central Europe. I think it is an oversight and one the editor should have spotted. Always good to see Shed’s increasingly rare appearances.

    Thanks to Gaufrid and Shed

37. There is no shame in committing typos or similar errors such as in 24a – this one can be particularly difficult to spot.  The only real problem I see (and I’ll grant that in the scheme of things this is as minor an issue as you can get) is that plenty of people continue to be led astray, long after the mistake has been identified.  A very simple remedy would be a small extension to the code that manages the G. comments which monitors for the words “typo”, “error”, “mistake” etc. and when a threshold has been reached, emails the editor.

38. Thanks for stepping in Gaufrid. All this is wildly off-topic… For my first cataract replacement, several years ago, my ophthalmologist realised during the post-op checks that it had brought on Irvine-Gass syndrome, which required several weeks of multiple eyedrops and repeated visits for OCT scans of the retina. The technician who performed these tests was by far the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life (in real life or on TV or in films…). So when my other cataract got replaced last year I was quite disappointed that everything went well…
    No, sorry, I didn’t get her phone number in case you have the same problem.

39. PS. There’s a blatantly obvious symptom of cataract problems. If you see rainbow-like halos around streetlamps, your cataract probably needs attention.

40. [Nice one, Penfold @34/35. You win today’s Battle of the Biscuit References.]

41. Lord Jim @23: it’s worse than I thought!  Not only a long time since I read it but I’ve never read it.  I realised I was thinking of Nancy in Oliver Twist all along!  I’ve never come across the Old Curiosity Shop other than by its often abbreviated title.  If I’d done my research, I’d have come across Little Nell in the full title, let alone throughout the book.  It must be the masochist in me but there’s a cathartic release in admitting to one’s idiocy in public!

42. Not being from the UK, I couldn’t parse CORNETTO even though the answer was obvious.  And BALLETIC threw me off – are we all missing something obvious? But very enjoyable puzzle all the same – thanks Shed and Gaufrid.

43. Good to see Shed again.  An unusually wide variation in difficulty in this puzzle.  Some very easy ones – CHEF, FIDDLE, NUTS – and some rather tricky ones needing a fair smattering of GK – RITORNELLO and CORNETTO.  I tried out RIBENNELLO for the former as I also see TOR as a small rather than big hill.  COPROLALIAC was gettable from the fodder but it only rang very faint bells.

    Shame about BALLETIC.  Echoing Petert @33’s idea, perhaps “Northern European drinks another short – no time for dancing (8)”

    Thanks, Shed and Gaufrid.  Hope you’re well on the mend.

44. Beery @36: Agreed, I meant to add a ? after “northern European”. I believe it’s a straightforward slip.

45. You’ve been (for the most part) very kind to me. I can’t  imagine how 24ac got past both me and the editor. It’s a complete c*ckup. And 22ac doesn’t really work either, for the reasons Gaudfrid states.

46. Despite the problems, it’s good to see you back, Shed. Not such a long interval before your next, I hope?

47. Did this early this morning before the blog was up and only now checking in. It was fun despite the 24ac error and the pole(s), which did not put me off.  I thought FIENDISH was END in FIISH for a while but then figured out it must be I END. My favourite was ASYMPTO(MA)TIC.  Many thanks to Shed and Gaufrid, and get well soon, Gaufrid.

48. Worth mentioning (as not mentioned here so far) that some of your active or retired (like me) medical colleagues might have managed COPROLALIAC rather more easily as coprolalia is one of the symptoms of Gilles de la Tourette’s syndrome. I’m not sure why some people object to the occasional “write in”, FIDDLE for instance, it was a nice gesture, and I initially got quite stuck on DADS ARMY (!!) There’s nothing more dispiriting than gazing at a crossword for half an hour and not getting a single clue. I really enjoyed Shed’s effort, some clever clueing, and although solved ALPACA, I couldn’t quite parse it- the first letter for me meant just the “A”. FRANKLIN was a hard one as there’s a lot of famous Franklins, and the one referred to was much more than an inventor.  And beeryhiker, this remark “Always good to see Shed’s increasingly rare appearances” could easily be taken two ways!! Cheers.

49. Thanks for standing in Gaufrid, and thanks to Shed – whilst COPROLALIAC looks like it could be a noun, I can only find it as an adjective.

50. I too found this a good mixture of the simple and the less so. I knew ritornello as a musical term though not what it meant and coprolalia as a symptom of Tourette’s, not as a medic, but because I read somewhere that Mozart indulged in it. My TIL was asymptotic which I doubt I would have solved so readily before March this year.
    LOI was 22a. I tried to fit in Benjamin and Rosalind and F.D.Roosevelt, and the bird (like a partridge) before the crossers made it inevitable that Benjamin was the one.
    Thanks to Shed and Gaufrid.

51. Mark @41. There’s nothing wrong with admitting to not having read a work by Charles Dickens. More like a badge of honour. Though I have to admit to having read A Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and Great Expectations. My school made me do it. I have read all of Nicolas Freeling, and he – or his characters – quote Dickens, Kipling and Conrad lavishly, which has saved me a lot of hard slog when it comes to GK.

    I hope Shed’s confession (@45) was equally as cathartic as yours, Mark. I enjoyed COPROLALIAC, ASYMPTO(MA)TIC and RITORNELLO: clear instructions for words that I either don’t know or only vaguely recognise must be my kind of clue. ALPACA was last one in, after a bit of a struggle due to brain fade; the instructions on the tin could not have been any clearer.

    Thanks Shed (you are forgiven) and big thanks to Gaufrid.

52. Gonzo @49. I agree that COPROLALIAC only appears as an adjective in my two decades old Chambers, but I have found it as a noun online. Then again, the rather more common haemophiliac only appears as a noun in Chambers; surely these words can be used as both noun and adjective? A person with haemophilia is haemophiliac/is a haemophiliac, and likewise for 18a. It feels right to me, but the more I try to support it, the less convinced I become.

53. Invented a few new départements of my own (Notard, Otaise, Etaure), broken furniture everywhere, thanks for the tussle, Shed and Gaufrid for the blog.

54. I had to turn in last night before the blog appeared and so I typed up my thoughts or I would have forgotten by this morning. I really appreciate you standing in for the blogger, Gaufrid, and wish you rapid and uncomplicated healing from your eye surgery, with good outcomes.

    I do apologise for repetition here of what some others have said already, but I don’t have time to do my usual acknowledgements of other bloggers’ thoughts. I am just going to paste verbatim what I said last night.

    And just to say I didn’t notice that problem with BALLETIC at 24a.

    I seemed to take a while to get on Shed’s wavelength and was stumped by several unfamiliar words. These were bunged in via wordplay and crossers and I had to look them up to confirm them: 2d RITORNELLO, 3d NETTO the supermarket in CORNETTO, and VAR, a French department, which helped form AVATAR at 19d. I also did a trawl of Chambers after having all the crossers for 18a COPROLALIAC but being unsure of how to arrange the anagram fodder. I also had trouble with the parsing of 11a DEAD AGAINST and 2d FIENDISH, though I saw the definitions and one component part in each. So not very happy with my performance today. and sadly I had no ticks or sudden PDMs. Nevertheless, thanks to Shed and also to Gaufrid (name inserted today) for the blog/explanations.

    [Felt rather sad for our esteemed blogger Eileen when I solved 6a MINORCANS, as I know she had to cancel her trip to that great holiday destination this year due to COVID.]

55. 18 AC was a complete dnk except I was vaguely aware that copr- had something to do with filth. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park when FIDDLE went in then sat looking an otherwise blank grid for a long time.

56. 22a works for me. The poles could refer to the N and S being swapped and not the 2 Ns. BTW Gaufrid, if you reverse the poles, you get isvestor not isventor. A bit ambiguous, I agree.

    #31 William. I think having Croatian for N. European is bad enough. Croatia is more Southern than Northern Europe but worse why a footballer and a proper noun? Too vague. Besides comrade Shed admitted it was c*up.

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