Warden 28,947 – Paul – Fifteen Square (2023)

107 comments on “Guardian 28,947 – Paul”

1. I parsed 13d while I was around "DO LATER".

2. Much better, thanks Mike.

3. Andrew, I think 6d is a hindrance as it's windy for the server. Therefore, Bar + (as it)* and 7d are carried by as attracted.

4. Valentino:
   VINO is worn by ALENT (ie VINO clothing by ALENT). seem right

5. What a fun riddle. Andrew, I don't share your concern for VALENTINO. (t)ALENT is carried by VINO as covered by.

6. [Email protected]
   I'm going with Andrews Parsing from 6D

7. kVa@6. Andrew's analysis gives BARISTAS, not BARISTA.

8. IDOLATERS analyzed as Mike @1. Like you Andrew, I thought they were going to be old footballers (Gordon BANKS entered), which I would have liked, but old actors were also my thing. I saw Chump in Oxford yesterday with Laurel & Hardy so I was looking for at least one of them. I had to fight my way with TSAR and SULTANATE foi. Absolutely superb puzzle with way too many ticks and very happy to have finished what at first seemed like an impossible task.

   Ta Paul & Andrew.

9. BARISTA does not need the "S" in the anagrist.
   I don't think the inclusion in VALENTINO is wrong. I read that the uncapped genius used "red", therefore "red" (wine) was used.
   I analyzed IDOLATERS a little differently. IS (Ones) on DO LATER (postpone) but I think I prefer your version Andrew. He was asking me about the equivalence of Pagan and Idolater there. Are Gentiles Necessarily Worshipping Idols?
   My favorite was the ROSELLA, a beautiful bird that I see sometimes, surpassed in spectacularity by the rainbow parrot, which I used to spoon feed. His aggressiveness is a disadvantage.

10. [Email protected]
    I lost the point. I thought Flinthead would suggest a different definition.
    I'm sorry, Flintstone. Thanks Crispy.

11. I forgot to say that I liked BUSTER KEATON even though I remembered himAzed 2551 (A Spoonerisms Competition Puzzle) last Maywith the note "Famous result for Sitting Bull aka Old Stone Face"

12. I think SWAN SONG has been drawing attention ever since SWANSON performed on "Sunset Boulevard".

13. I'm usually so slow I don't comment, but I finished a Paul at 8:30 today - share my joy!

14. Elenem @13: Of course you do, congratulations.

15. I scored a 10 almost immediately, but my smug confidence quickly evaporated. Paul is often intimidating in the woods, but as soon as a few crosses come in, everything starts to flow.

    Top marks for REHEARSAL, MEDUSAE and the pithy BEVY

    Prost P&A

    [ps: where are the killer sudoku puzzles!?]

16. forest=first!!

17. [Email protected]
    Interesting. Thank you.

18. Wow, as Andrew said, hard work. Lots of stares in the first ten minutes. I didn't understand PLAYER until the end, but I saw BUSTER KEATON, so I knew what was going on. The favorites were GOLDFISH, KIND OF, SWAN SONG and IDOLATERS. Thank you dad.

19. I struggled on my first go, but fought halfway, then on the second seat the rest fell into place. I couldn't parse the crucial 10a and only solved it after finding the issue the hard way. My entry was Hardy and Chaplin, so I thought about comedians before dawn. Most of the players looked familiar to me after I found them, but it's not a topic I think about much, so I got them mostly from the pun and then recognized the name.

    In hindsight it all seemed obvious (the sign of a good clue in my opinion) except that I couldn't decide between Bevs (drinks) or Bevy for 6a. Both still look just as good to me.

20. I agree that it was difficult to get into even with PLAYER resolved. Musicians, actors, and athletes all seemed possible, and Paul has a way of using keywords that can have multiple response categories. I was somewhat relieved to realize that they all seemed to be movie stars, even though the Golden Age isn't one I'm particularly familiar with. It's funny that Andrew fell into the exact same hole I did with MEDUSA/E.

    Today's favorites include HARDLY, KIND OF, ECSTATIC, LARDON, HANNIBAL, the aforementioned MEDUSAE, BARISTA, IDOLATORS (analyzed as Mike) and HELICAL. COTD because I love spoon art is BUSTER KEATON. I suspect it's been done before, but it's a nice place.

    thanks pablo and andres

21. Just a plugin for the poor goldfish, I'm sure I heard somewhere that there is evidence that they can learn and retain what they learn for the long term.

22. [AlanC @12: There is a setter in MyC who will be very happy when he sees this thread, as he informed SWAN SONG in the same way and uses this exact match. Having the same idea as Paul and then seeing it praised in the comments will be very rewarding. Even better, if a bit over the top, I see on Wiki that it was pretty much her own swan song: she only made three movies after that and they were very low key.]

23. [gif @21: indeed. We teach our goldfish to say the words "deja vu" 😉]

24. Andrew, thanks for 21 - shows how Westcentric I must be for not getting it. [To respond to Grantinfreo #21, I put four goldfish in my new pond in May and I'm sure (once they stop hiding andgot used to us) expect food to be placed on a specific area of ​​the surface. Put it somewhere else and you'll find it much slower.] I complimented Mr. Halpern on this G-side puzzle, but I repeat here that I found it very entertaining and clever, especially the little extras he managed to tackle: General, Sunset, and probably others.

    See Also

    LA Times Crossword Aug 9 22, Tuesday - LAXCrossword.comAnagram Solver - Decipher and find all solutionsMonday June 30, 2014 |

25. […are you sure it wasn't you? 🙂]

26. As is often the case, I reverse-engineered PLAYER from other tracks, with HARDLY and VALENTINO being my first pair. Yes, SWAN SONG's suggestion that it refers to “Sunset Boulevard” (brilliant movie) as pointed out by AlanC @12 was very clever. I'm glad there aren't more themed entries as I had just exhausted my list of silent movie stars.

    Along with Tim C @9, ROSELLA was my favourite. Whichever species you choose, they are all beautiful birds and we are very lucky to have them here.

    Thanks to Pablo and Andrés.

27. Well, sometimes solving Paul's puzzles is like trying to lip read a goldfish, but this one hits Paul's sweet spot that you think you'll never get anywhere, but eventually it all comes together. I think it's a special achievement when some of the theme tracks like SWAN SONG and BUSTER KEATON are among the best.

28. I just found out that one of Keaton's best movies was The General

29. Great puzzle, my experience is similar to previous ones.
    [The Guardian and other newspapers have suffered a major hacking attack they suspect is from criminals looking for money. The back is affected. Let's hope other smart people manage to catch them. I got hacked once at Christmas and the wonderful computer science at the university traced it to two teenagers in Paris, delighted to have hacked in Cambridge!]

30. A, no a Cambridge

31. Postmark @20…. yes Buster has been done before. See me @11. It's still cool.

32. Other: Actor incarnate resulting from Little Bighorn, according to Spooner (6.6)

33. Another find is difficult but ultimately satisfying. I started and then had to figure it out with just a few clues at the end (TSAR and SULTANATE were first) but once I was back with the metro everything was much easier.

    Thank you Andres and Pablo.

34. found that difficult. I couldn't resolve 10ac on the first pass of the tracks so I had to skip all related tracks for a while. I finally found a way with 22ac BUSTER KEATON.

    I couldn't parse 10ac PLAYER; 7d; BANKS in 14d but he guessed he was an old footballer.

    Mochte IDOLATERS, CANTO DEL CISNE, GOLDFISH, ART OF (loi).

    Thanks to both of you

    I parsed 6d as BAR + AS IT* (Andrew's version has an extra S which is not taken into account)

35. I knew the names, but aside from some of Chaplin's work, the only real visual memory is of Keaton eating lunch in that little flatcar. So many crossers are needed for the solution.

36. I always love a Paul crossword puzzle.

    I really liked it

    The swan song appears quite frequently on Kryptik and here, of course, it has the connotation of actor. Picaroon noted it in 2017 as "The new guy dips into illicit money, the moment of the end of his career."

    I once had the good fortune to meet Gordon Banks and his wife. You were so charming and captivating.

    Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

37. [Tim C @31: apols: I skimmed through the previous posts, but I think I missed Azed's name, so I didn't include it. It's just asking, right? ]

38. I did a challenge to try to complete a puzzle of Paul completely without outside help. Haven't done it yet though I came close twice 🙂

    Very kind as always, thanks Pablo!

    In 16A, to me, "same" should refer to GISH, not OLD. I can't see exactly how this works.

39. Alas, 75 minutes, but I'm glad I only had to dig up a few of the old ones to confirm the pun.

    I think Paul is at his best when he contrasts the scrupulously fair with the utterly ridiculous. Scroll through the impenetrable wall of "old 10" before finding things like TSAR and SULTANATE at the bottom to find some relief. I liked ELITE for the clever reversal indicator, ROSELLA for the rather confusing interface, and IDOLATERS for the big bad joke.

    I'm not sure I like it when Paul blurs the lines: when both thematic nonsense and awful puns are making the rounds, are the slightly questionable gizmos in REHEARSAL and HELICAL really needed? I think "Manx Cat" must be old hat to many, but separating it from "Ingenuine" borders on unreasonable to me.

    However, I am always a Paulologist and I really enjoyed the puzzle. Thank you dad

40. Thanks for the blog, very traditional topic, I like SWAN SONG even more now after Alan C but sorry I've seen the BUSTER KEATON trick too many times, the problem of not being a GOLDFISH.
    REHEARSAL was a great Playtex and MEDUSAE was very smart.
    The only actor unknown to me was GISH.
    I even met Gordon Banks, I often saw him shopping in Longton, he was very tall, although I was very small at the time.

41. [For the Arachne fans, have a Rosa Klebb puzzle on the FT today, I'm told the FT is much easier to find and use now]
    [AlanC, I commend your moderation and discretion in not mentioning the subject of Monday's riddle]

42. [One more thing after a GOLDFISH moment, AlanC, did you see a very young Peter Cushing in the L+H movie? ]

43. Good puzzle, good blog.

    I think Andrew is technically right about VALENTINO, but I'm seeing more and more binary infix operators, like "carried by" here, used both ways, despite the clear sense on the surface. It used to bother me a bit, but now I just accept it.

44. Sorry to be a killjoy, but I'm guessing the issue was chestnuts (or retreads).
    Custer Beaton and Swanson(g) have been around the block several times.
    It was still a fun puzzle (I liked seeing Lilian in it)

    But I tend to snore when people praise these good oldies like they're freshly picked.

45. "the last (sic) Prince Philip: I doubt a little anyone called him Phil"
    Maybe not to the face, but commonly (one way or another) nicknamed Phil the Greek.

46. Like others, they found this quite high on the stamina meter, but the answers slowly revealed themselves after prolonged application of Paddington's hard glare. Great puzzle and too many favorites to list. Many thanks to Paul and Andrew.

47. For fish taxpayers with no memory, I can assure you that mine hear me rattle my shed door and come to the same spot to feed them each time.

48. [Roz @42: no, so I'll be back at some point. Maybe the wrong Dean? My brother and sister are big fans, so they only do it when I ask them to. I once shook hands with Pat Jennings, the great NI goalie, and I felt so small too, he had hands like shovels].

49. I forgot to thank the setter and the blogger. Forgiveness.

50. Copmus chestnuts or retreads were fairly recent in my experience, so I found the puzzle very entertaining. I too settled 10a early, worried that my lousy knowledge of athletes (especially footballers) was going to be a real struggle. But hey! It has improved a lot for me. All of these actors were ahead of my time and I have never seen performances by Gish, Fairbanks, Swanson, Pickford or Valentino, but I am of an age when those names were legendary and well known. Oh! Well, when I was a kid I certainly saw Keaton, Chaplin and Hardy.

51. I parsed 1d when P HAL [Prince Hal] drinks the letter I for the digit 1 of A, which is certainly a common crossword convention. It is a pity that Prince Philip already considers himself old in the historical sense, as is the case with the actors!

52. According to Andrew's summary: it seemed impenetrable, such a slow start but finished at a gallop. Some nice finishing from Paul, who obviously had a lot of fun building today's puzzle. Favorites:
    1ac, 7dn, 13dn, 20dn

53. Unlike others, I unexpectedly found this to be a no-brainer. Despite Copmus @44's greed, I did enjoy BUSTER KEATON and SWAN SONG, which I don't remember seeing before, but my memory for crosswords is very short, unlike traditional GOLDFISH.

    Many other favourites. I parsed "airborne" as E, which I thought was pretty clever, but Andrew's parsing is clearly more likely! IDOLATERS Analyzed as Mike @1 - I'm sure this has been done before but it's a big hint so heck 🙁

    Lilian GISH had an exceptionally long film career, from a child in the early silent films to a grande dame decades later. She once said:

    "You know, when I first went to the movies, Lionel Barrymore played my grandfather. Then he played my father and finally he played my husband. If he had lived, he would have played his mother for sure. That's the way it is in Hollywood. Men they are getting younger and the women are getting older”.

    MAC089 @45: Araucaria once has the good clue: the royal couple is flirting (8).

    thanks s&b

54. Gervase @53: Maybe nine letters?

55. [ AlanC @48 plays one of the young students who pull pranks at L+H, easy to spot if you're really looking for him.
    Definitely (9) ]

56. AlanC @54: Of course you're right! 🙂

57. Hastily posted this morning with no review. sorry for the mistakes

58. Another non-starter Paul not being able to get 10a means half the tracks are inaccessible and I'm not smart enough to get enough tracks not bound to 10a to start with.
    Well, let's hope Paul isn't on call this week.
    Thanks to both

59. [Email protected]Came here to say the same thing and was pleased that you were taken care of. By far my favorite track.

60. 10a was LOI for me but I got itthe morethe rest without cheques/trucos.
    I still needed the blog to discuss 10a and 7d, so thanks Andrew.

61. I'm so glad I put up with it. At first I thought the PLAYER keyword would be too broad. But in the end it was all about the old screen stars. I especially liked the rather cheeky but nice and ecstatic way. However, I was unable to parse IDOLATERS and GOLDFISH. Had Medusae in place of MEDUSAE for a while, unnecessarily stalling things in the final corner to make way, the NE. Last to enter and therefore possibly dead to me, SWAN SONG. Thanks Paul as always for the fun and games and Andrew for clearing up the doubts...

62. Having gone through all the posts now, I'm surprised no one has commented on the two goalies, Jordan PICKFORD, now Keeper of the Onion Sack, and the late great Gordon BANKS. Having my sights set on both early on, I began to wonder if the PLAYER keyword could have a broader context...

63. Well seen Ronald gets even better.

64. ….and Benjamin LARDON is a French goalkeeper!

65. Young Man U star HANNIBAL Mejbri was on Tunisia's World Cup squad. I'm going to stop now, luckily you're crying.

66. I'm always particularly happy when I manage to solve a Paul puzzle. PLAYER got in pretty early, but like others, he knew he would likely lead different types of artists, or former sports stars, or even vintage equipment (phonographs, records, player pianos). Then CHAPLAIN and HARDY came in quick succession and got me out of a mess. I don't usually care for quasi-spooner references, they're usually lame at best and sometimes downright nonsensical, but this one worked fine, fit the theme, and even contained a reference to one of my favorites! Keaton's masterpieces!
    Thanks Paul, and thanks also to Andrew for the blog.

67. I'm sure it's obvious, but could someone explain why PER = through. Thank you

68. AlanC, so you can't stop halfway. ROSELLA Ayane plays for Spurs, Aguinaldo BRAGA was born in Brazil but played for North Macedonia. (Moi, athletically challenged?)

    Fiona Anne @67 how about null by os = null through/through the mouth?

    Thanks P&A, my LOI and favorite was the Non-Themer REKEYED.

69. HYD @58 Fairly safe from Paul, this Saturday there will be a special masquerade featuring a double feature from the Millwall/KPR goalkeeper and Schopenhauer. Two separate grids with linked tracks.

70. OK - ROSELLA Ayane represented England at U19 and now Morocco at international level.

71. Fiona Anne – Per ardua ad astra

72. Oh he beat me to it 🙂

73. Unlike others, I found this quite easy for Paul. I understood the unresolved issue of 10 and was wondering if 10 would end up having multiple meanings. I didn't use any players until I had all the crosses. This shows that if you only solve from the cryptic, you can solve a puzzle like this without first getting the key answer.

74. You could probably hear me purring as I licked up this delicious offering. Really nice, thank you both.

    I parsed PHIAL like this[Email protected]—It never occurred to me to think of the late duke. REKEYED also got the pollex increase from me ([Email protected]).

75. Roz @69: double :-)

76. [ AlanC I really hope it doesn't come true or I'll get in big trouble for spoilers. Surely it was about time Maskarade gave us a theme song. ]

77. thanks pablo and andres
    I don't like those things, and it didn't help that the suggestion for 10a was so bad: "Cover" for LAYER is very loose and "Person" for P is naughty unless "van" is pulling double duty, in which case follow being naughty He had guessed some of the derivations before he had the slightest idea of ​​10a. GOLDFISH was the first tentative entry and I agree that its short memory span was debunked.
    "o pig" seems completely unnecessary in 19a.
    I liked IDOLATERS.

78. Snow cover/cover, surprised by your answer muffin?

79. 2 sessions are required for today's deal (lunch and tea), but it's worth it for the laughs and groans...and that's just the blog comments.

    Wonderful puzzle, thanks P and A.

80. in 19a, he got DON, but couldn't imagine "Lark" as "Caper". So upset about LARDON without knowing why. He was hung up on the 1d for years trying to work on 'Hal' the usual prince. This one is not that old, although I think he has lived to a much greater age.

    Thanks to Pablo and Andrés.

81. @78
    "Loose" instead of bad. For me, "cape" is way down on the list of synonyms for "coverage." And how can you justify the P?

82. Person in van = Person in front = P

83. Yes, but double duty, Roz. "In the van£ it tells you to put the P first.

84. Happy to end without a reveal, but it's been an incredible fight and certainly not without help. I parsed 10a correctly, even though I didn't know what it meant in the van. I loved the theme that was right up my alley - BUSTER KEATEN, GOLDFISH & SWANSONG my top 3. Mr. G hit an affirmative prop (jellyfish, parrot and propeller) and used the 'check this' button multiple times to correct a route. He couldn't analyze VALENTINO because he had missed unlimited genius and didn't know Schar = women.
    Thanks to both

85. It's already the first of the clue, - van player = P, then we start reading the rest of the clue.

86. He was late today, but Mr. Halpern has maintained his usual high standards. Connecting Buster Keaton to General was brilliant. In my opinion, The General is one of the most beautiful and fun silent movies ever. Thanks for the fun and the blog.

87. What does BEVY have to do with women?

88. Thanks Paul for the challenge. I ended up revealing PICKFORD and MEDUSE, but worked out the rest slowly. I thought SWAN SONG was great, but after Alan C @12's comment, I think it's brilliant. Count me among those who enjoyed BUSTER KEATON; As an avid student of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, I never tire of having "Beat Custer." I also liked REHEARSAL for his frugality and the sneaky detachment from his naiveté. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

89. Great riddle. Thank you Pablo and Andres.

    Oldmucker @ 87, from Collins online:-
    crowd… 2. a group, especially of girls

90. Falling in love with beauties was a saying from the 70s.

91. I'm late to the party again today and not much has been said about the West, but I have to say a big thank you to Paul and Andrew. Excellent puzzle, top blog. I had a very similar resolution experience as you did, Andrew, and the same reservations about VALENTINO, but there's probably a reason it works the way it does: I just have to think more about CBA.

    @various - surely "in the van" only indicates the first letter of the person? It doesn't have to do double duty as a position indicator, since it still comes first in the note.

92. For VALENTINO, I imagine red = wine as a coat worn by (t)alent.
    Things are carried out.

93. Disgusting surprise. I found it awful.

94. The responses absolutely flew by, which is rare for me and I see unusual for most nowadays. I got an instant 10 (agreeing with earlier comments that P is fine and no double feature for "Van") and the subject was right up my alley. ROSELLA was new to me. The favorite was HELICAL for the tailless cat. Thank you Pablo and Andres.

95. Roz @85 - I see I just repeated what you already said. Accidental explanation, sorry.

    Muffin @77 - P is not an accepted stand-alone abbreviation for person (only as part of phrases like VIP), so "in the van" is needed to indicate letter choice.

96. No problem Widdersbel, I'm often late on the blog, there are a lot of comments, I try to read everything, but it's easy to miss things.

97. I first saw BUSTER KEATON's Spoonerism must have been in an Araucaria puzzle some twenty-five years ago, and I'd like to believe he was the creator. I've always remembered it, but never seen a hint of it since, until Barry Cryer attributed it, no doubt wrongly, to one of his fellow screenwriters in a retrospective interview earlier this year.
    Great riddle. I loved

98. Welcome back to TC. We miss your insightful posts.

99. Roz: Always the problem with Guardian blogs, too many comments to read carefully (and apologies to Andrew for increasing traffic to your inbox).

    By the way, you are absolutely right about VALENTINO. Makes a lot of sense to me now, not sure why I asked.

100. Pablo is just amazing. I didn't get anything for a while, but they did fly. Very funny. thanks p and a

     Regarding the topic "person" discussed above: Latin "person" is abbreviated as "p" in pp (= per person).

101. [Email protected]
     pedants corner. According to Chambers, the expression is "per procurationem" - "through the intermediary of". That way, if he were to sign for you, he would write "pp Pino, CalMac." If it were "per persona" - "on behalf of the person" - it would be "Pino pp CalMac". People were saying "pp" = "pro pro" and mistranslating it as "for and on behalf of", resulting in the wrong "Pino, pp CalMac".

102. Pine: Great! I had no idea (and misinformed others) after all these years. I like to be corrected.

103. [Email protected]When I'm at work, I always do The Guardian on the train home, so I'm always late for the blog. I enjoy reading the comments, but I guess we all tend to jump and scan a bit.
     When used, I think it only makes sense on the outside, but I think it's more often used backwards.

     [Email protected]I don't have any real evidence, but Torquemada is said to have first used it in the 1930s.

104. Schön!
     As follows? And he (almost) always satisfies this solver...
     thank you both and everyone

105. Gentiles are not usually idolaters. nature worshiper; Followers of ancient religions (polytheists)... But not idolaters.

106. Rose @76. Your fears are unfounded! While I was groaning today when I saw the name Maskarade and again when I read the instructions, it turned out to be pretty easy until the last few incomplete answers, which then caused several dohs! !! Moments when the light dawned. What do I do now to get through the rest of this long weekend?

107. Matasellos @22 – 841? 😉

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