The Monthly Digest

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 39

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/5405667c-a9a5-4173-a86a-5408f2d7ee92/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.5 based on 35 votes (voting is now closed)

You rated Gemelo 38 as being close to average difficulty at 2.7 (based on 37 votes), putting it well below G37 (3.6) and a little above G36 (2.4) – very similar to my own assessment of those three puzzles.

This puzzle was quite entertaining, although some of the surface readings seemed rather strained (eg 31a) and there were one or two indicators that I wasn’t particularly keen on (eg ‘barely’ in 8d, although I know that Gemelo is happy to use obsolete senses of words in this way).

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 9d, “Force unit to eat in earshot (4)”. The answer, the CGS unit of force, is a homophone (‘in earshot’) for a word meaning ‘to eat’. I’m all in favour of interesting ways of indicating homophones in advanced cryptics, with several indicators having been added to the Clinical Data list in recent times and a couple more waiting for the next update. However, I feel that there has to be some suggestion that the sound of a word or phrase is the key to the clue, either with reference to the speaker (eg ‘uttered’), the medium (eg ‘broadcast’), or the hearer (‘picked up’). The word ‘earshot’ means ‘the distance within which a sound can be heard’, and to be ‘in earshot’ means that you are within that distance; it seems to me significantly different from (say) ‘in audition’, which can describe an act of hearing. I think the indicator here really needs to be along the lines of ‘for those in earshot’.

Across

1a Short story ending happily, sealing deal if one’s squeezed (12)
A six-letter ‘story ending happily’ (hopefully with plenty of laughs along the way) missing its last letter (‘short’) contains (‘sealing’) a four-letter word for a deal or agreement, the letters IF (from the clue), and the Roman numeral representing ‘one’.

12a Play with a quill (5)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[to] play’ is followed by the letter A (from the clue). The ‘play’ word originally referred to playing gramophone records, though I remember that when software installation packages started coming on CDs that you simply had to insert into your computer’s drive in order to initiate the set-up process, the term ‘plug and play’ was (albeit briefly) supplemented by ‘???? and grin’.

18a Amateur record going back as far as ancient thinker (5)
The usual abbreviations for ‘amateur’ and a particular type of gramophone record are reversed (‘going back’) ahead of a preposition meaning ‘as far as’.

22a Rare Chinese style of print mostly used by college (5)
A five-letter ‘style of print’ (the contrasting style being described as ‘sans ?????’) deprived of its last letter (‘mostly’) is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘college’.

24a Part of Iron Man originally taken from book (3)
The readers’ poll in the June Digest (coming out on Tuesday) concerns the false capitalization of words in clues. Here the noun ‘iron’ is given an unnecessary capital to make it look like part of the title of a book by Ted Hughes (or a song by Black Sabbath, if that’s more your kind of thing). The first letter (‘originally’) of ‘Man’ is removed from a four-letter word for a book, particularly a big ‘un.

27a Small window can jam (9)
A charade of a word used by ‘U’ speakers for what the non-U call the toilet (ie ‘can’) and a six-letter word for the sort of jam that one might find oneself in produces the (4-5) answer.

30a Odd highland lizard shedding skin (4)
The six-letter lizard which sheds its ‘skin’ (outermost letters) might put more mature solvers in mind of WE Johns’ WAAF Flight Officer, along with her trusty sidekick Betty ‘Frecks’ Lovell; her admirer and Spitfire pilot Bill Ashton, whose attentions were rejected on the grounds that there was a war to be won; and superiors like Squadron Leader McNavish, who were not kindly disposed towards free spirits such as Joan.

32a Cover for member‘s blunder over Solicitor at Law wearing incense (12, 2 words)
A four-letter piece of schoolboy slang for a blunder is followed by the usual abbreviation at Lord’s and elsewhere for ‘over’, together with the abbreviation for ‘Solicitor at Law’ contained by (‘wearing’) a word meaning ‘incense’, or at least ‘annoy’. The answer is (6,6).

Down

1d Bloodhound biting before (not after) rolling domestic animal that’s been chipped? (8)
A three-letter informal shortening of the nine-letter term for the sort of person who might also be described as a ‘bloodhound’ or a ‘gumshoe’, containing (‘biting’) an informal preposition meaning ‘before’ and a regular preposition meaning ‘not after’,  the whole lot being reversed (‘rolling’).

7d Quarter using e.g. ChatGPT instead of our trust (5)
A six-letter word for one quarter of something has a two-letter abbreviation answering to ‘e.g. ChatGPT’ replacing (‘instead of’) the consecutive letters OUR. I’m not convinced that ChatGPT is artificial intelligence, rather it is a product that is underpinned by or demonstrates it.

12d Restricting gear broke this government somehow (10)
A five-letter word meaning ‘broke’ (in the impecunious sense) is followed by an anagram (‘somehow’) of THIS and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘Government’.

14d Where pupils learn on snow is cold – stop in hail! (9, 2 words)
The letters IS (from the clue), the usual abbreviation for ‘cold’, and a two-letter interjection meaning ‘stop!’ are contained by a four-letter salutation of Nordic origin, often used interchangeably with ‘bottoms up!’. The answer is (3,6).

20d I don’t like this unfinished shower in remote part of New Zealand (6)
Just as “I’m in pain” can lead to OW, so “I don’t like this” yields a three-letter interjection expressing disapproval (repeatedly used by Yogi Bear’s small ursine chum). This precedes a four-letter word for a shower (of arrows, for instance) lacking its last letter (‘unfinished’).

23d 6 in King Lear perhaps warn about acting without a plan (6)
The answer to 6d is followed by a reversal (‘about’) of a word found in King Lear which probably means ‘warn’. It is used by Edgar in his peasant guise when speaking to Oswald (and immediately prior to smiting him). He says in his assumed south-western accent, “An chud ha’ bin zwagger’d out of my life, ‘twould not ha’ bin zo long as ’tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th’ old man. Keep out, che ??? ye, or Ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the harder.” As a regular correspondent points out, the OED doesn’t include the word here, although Collins has it has a dialect word for ‘to warn’; anyway, it’s in Chambers, whether it deserves to be or not, so it’s ok.

25d Priest’s covering up husband’s age (5)
A reversal (‘up’) of a four-letter ‘vestment worn over the alb or surplice by priests at certain Christian ceremonies’ is followed by the usual abbreviation for ‘husband’.

29d Siemens once deposing leader, briefly for me (3)
The four-letter abbreviation (‘briefly’) for ‘In my humble opinion’ (ie ‘for me’), used in electronic communications to suggest that your opinion is anything but humble, loses its first letter (‘deposing leader’). The answer is the word for a unit superseded by the the siemens (ie ‘siemens once’); here we have an example of a capital letter being deceptively included in a way that will satisfy the purists.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 38

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/4dcaac9a-2e93-4f12-b8eb-4813b85d9313/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.7 based on 37 votes (voting is now closed)

I wasn’t surprised that your average difficulty rating for Gemelo 37 (3.6 based on 30 votes) was over a point up on its predecessor, reflecting the fact that despite not reaching the acme of gnarliness it was still pretty tricky.

As far as this puzzle was concerned, I suspect that other solvers were, like me, grateful for the three long anagrams which provided a foothold in each corner of the grid. Some of the wordplays were distinctly tricky and on more than one occasion I found myself working back from the answer to fully unravel the cryptic reading. It was an enjoyable solve, and I will be interested to see how you rate it in terms of overall difficulty.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 20a, “Florida resort carrying almost no weight (7)”. The wordplay here has the American (‘Florida’) spelling of a six-letter word for a resort containing (‘carrying’) the word NO (from the clue) without its last letter (‘almost’), the result being a unit of weight in various European countries. The point of interest is whether the first-letter of a two-letter word can reasonably be described as being ‘almost’ that word. I suppose it all depends if you are a word-half-full or a word-half-empty sort of person; if you start from NO, you only have to remove one letter to get N, but if you start with N you have to add as many letters again (one) to get NO. Were the ‘not quite complete’ word to be indicated indirectly, the construction would surely be unacceptable, eg in ‘almost like’ for A (‘as’ without its last letter), but since the target is in plain sight, I think it’s just about ok. The alternative ‘Florida resort carrying no little weight’ would be appealing, with ‘no little’ indicating an abbreviation of ‘no’, were it not that (for reasons best known to the editors) Chambers does not give Y and N for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ any more than it gives S and L for ‘small’ and ‘large’, despite the fact that understanding them is a necessity of everyday life.

Across

1a Worn, say, after opening an American saloon (5)
A four-letter word meaning ‘[previously] worn’ missing its first letter (‘after opening’) is followed by the letters AN (from the clue). I don’t think many, if any, solvers would have batted an eyelid if Gemelo has left out the ‘say’ (I certainly wouldn’t), but since the word indicated could also describe something that had been played with, driven around etc then strictly speaking the indication is by example and the qualification should probably should be included.

12a Inferior veneration to confer at first upon princess far, far away (7)
One day perhaps I’ll watch one of the Star Wars films. Until then, I will remain at a disadvantage with clues such as this, where a two-letter verb meaning ‘to confer’ is followed by the first letter (‘at first’) of ‘upon’ and the name of a princess from that very franchise.

15a Idle lump not starting on Latin (6)
A six-letter word for a lump or small shapeless mass, deprived of its first letter (‘not starting’), follows (‘on’) the usual abbreviation for ‘Latin’. In my youth, my mother would on occasion serve up a pudding made from jelly (usually orange or raspberry) whipped up with cream. I think the ‘proper’ name for this sort of thing might be ‘flummery’, but in our family it was always known as d????? (the lump word here), and my father still used to serve it up to guests when he was in his 80s.

16a Extremely sensual daughter visiting county town ahead of time (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘daughter’ contained by (‘visiting’ – I’m not keen on this, but I’m getting used to it now) the county town of East Sussex is followed by (‘ahead of’) the usual abbreviation for ‘time’. My parenthesized comment puts me in mind of a classic sketch from At Last the 1948 Show.

23a Short skirt with ebbing appeal when everyone has notes (5)
The sort of skirt worn by ballerinas, without its last letter (‘short’), precedes a reversal (‘ebbing’) of the sort of appeal particularly associated with Clara Bow. The definition is rather neat.

27a What Buddhist students might use to take on language (6)
A four-letter word from Zen Buddhism for ‘a nonsensical, logically unanswerable question given to students as a subject for meditation’ contains (‘to take’) that cruciverbally ubiquitous piece of commercial jargon meaning ‘concerning’ or ‘about’.

28a Whales’ food caught by possible pollutant from the east (4)
The usual abbreviation for ‘caught’ is followed by a reversal (‘from the east’) of a ‘possible pollutant’ which has proved over the years to be sadly adept in that role, the wreck of the Torrey Canyon in 1967 being just one of several memorable examples.

32a Scotsman’s wary about leaving small amount of money in bond (6)
The single-letter abbreviation of the Latin for ‘about’ is lost by (‘leaving’) a four-letter word for a small amount of money contained by a three-letter word for a bond.

Down

3d Ship with a period under extreme pressure in valley (12)
The usual abbreviation for ‘with’, the letter A (from the clue) and a four-letter word for a period, all following the abbreviation for ‘extreme pressure’, are contained by a word for a small valley.

7d Fame immediately following group of 11 men, not including me (6)
A three-letter word meaning ‘immediately’ follows the two-letter abbreviation for the corps to which the answer to 11 belongs (ie ‘group of 11’) and precedes the word ‘men’ from which the letters ME have been removed (‘not including me’).

11d Private secretary wearing corded cloth in retirement (6)
A reversal (‘in retirement’) of a two-letter abbreviation for someone who performs a secretarial function (although in their presence it would probably be unwise to refer to them as a secretary) contained by (‘wearing’) a four-letter word for a corded cloth.

17d Tool didn’t prove to be holding anybody up (8, 2 words)
A five-letter word roughly equating to “didn’t prove to be”, containing (‘holding’) a word for ‘anybody’ or ‘somebody’, is reversed (‘up’).

19d Sanction worst competitor at East London racecourse? (7)
The wordplay yields a (3,4) phrase, complete with Cockney aitch-dropping in the second word, that might refer to the ‘competitor’ bringing up the rear in a racecourse event.

21d Sideways, philosophically? (6)
Here we have a (2,4) phrase which might mean ‘in the manner of a [specific] philosopher’ and thus (in a whimsical way) ‘philosophically’. Continuing the Pythonesque theme from 16a, according to the three sophisticates who comprise the philosophy department at the University of Woolloomooloo, the gentleman in question was ‘a real piss-ant who was very rarely stable’; however, as with (inter alios) the ‘boozy beggar’ Heidegger and the ‘beery swine’ Wittgenstein, little corroborating evidence seems to be available.

25d Games affected by short winger (5)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘games’ (or perhaps ‘gym’) at school is followed by a preposition meaning ‘affected by’ shorn of its last letter (‘short’, uncharacteristically repeated from 23a)

29d Belgian reporter uncovered former capital of Peru (4)
The six-letter name of an intrepid young Belgian reporter, friend of the wonderful but ill-starred Captain Haddock (‘Blistering barnacles! Graduated gherkin!’), loses its first and last letters (‘uncovered’).

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 37 Plain

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/7c169426-1fa0-4715-8bfe-239d89f704ea/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

3.6 based on 30 votes (voting is now closed)

 Gemelo 36 received an average rating of 2.4, based on 33 votes, just a fraction below the halfway mark – I felt that it was towards the less challenging end of the Gemelo spectrum and would also have put it closer to 2 than 3.

I’ll be interested to hear what you made of this puzzle, and very surprised if the average difficulty rating is not significantly up from G36. As we’ve come to expect from Gemelo, there were generous dollops of innovation and intricate wordplay, along with a couple of references to the silver screen. I was a little disappointed by the use of words which seem to be closely related as the answer and main wordplay element in 29a, but overall the quality of the clueing seemed very high.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 23d, “Bottom might get this from palm in stormy affair! (6)”. The answer is an anagram (‘stormy’) of AFFAIR, but the question raised by this clue is how far a setter can stretch a definition in order to produce the surface meaning that they are aiming for. There is no doubt that the material here is used for weaving, and no doubt that “Weaver might get this from palm” would be a perfectly good definition. There is no doubt, either, that Nick Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream was a weaver by trade, ‘cos Shakespeare tells us so. What is in doubt, though, is whether Nick B would have had knowledge of, or experience with, the material here; wool, linen and silk may have fallen within his areas of expertise, but this is something totally different. In order for the definition to work, therefore, the solver must first pre-process ‘Bottom’ into ‘Weaver [but not one such as Bottom]’, which cannot reasonably be expected. This is akin to using “Grace’s shortened game” for ODI – since WG Grace predated one-day cricket internationals by some 60 years, ‘Grace’ here would have to be translated to ‘Cricketer [though not WG Grace]’. I think the clue here represents a stretch too far; I also think that the link word ‘in’ is incompatible with the wording of the definition, and that the exclamation mark is unnecessary (it serves no purpose in either surface or cryptic reading).

Across

1a Overly romantic plant coming with Polish blessing (12)
Those who voted in this month’s poll for a change in the enumeration of hyphenated answers will I suspect have felt vindicated by this one (and those who haven’t yet voted may be moved to do so!). Four-letter words for ‘plant’ in the sense of a factory, ‘polish’ in the sense of ‘rub down with abrasive material’, and ‘blessing’ in the sense of ‘something to be thankful for’ combine to produce the (5-3-4) answer.

12a Sons memorably finish visit (7)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘sons’ is followed by a (3,3) expression meaning ‘to finish decoratively or memorably’, as you might do to a pecan pie with whipped cream (just saying).

17a Prudent to start late on ring of limestone (7)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘prudent’ deprived of its first letter (‘starting late’) follows (‘on’) the letter of the alphabet which is shaped like a ring.

18a Diver from end of Titanic putting off leading couple when upset (5)
I found this one rather unconvincing. The term for the sort of thing that brought an end to the Titanic’s brief period of service (‘end of Titanic‘) without (‘putting off’) its first two letters (‘leading couple’) is reversed (‘upset’). There is no meaning given by Chambers for ‘end’ which seems to justify ‘end of Titanic‘ (something like ‘Titanic‘s undoing’ would be more appropriate), while ‘upset’ seems wrong to me for reversal in an across clue.

19a No longer help on board engaging S&P (7)
The two-letter abbreviation for ‘board’ contains (‘engaging’) the names of the letters S and P.

21a Vertebrae finally reduced, with less on the inside (7)
A (2,4) phrase meaning ‘finally’, missing its last letter (‘reduced’), precedes the word ‘less’ stripped of its outer letters (ie ‘less on the inside’).

25a Sycophant‘s previous answer confused queen (7)
The answer to 22a (‘previous answer’) is rearranged (‘confused’) ahead of the cipher of Queen Elizabeth (I or II).

32a Mahwa tree stimulated to shed bark (6)
You may be more familiar with the six-letter noun meaning ‘boost’ than the corresponding verb, but it is the past tense of the latter which must lose its first and last letters (‘to shed bark’).

Down

1d US court organisation featured in publication where personal items may be placed (6)
The ‘court’ in question is the basketball court, and the organisation’s three-letter acronym is contained by (‘featured in’) the short form of an eight-letter word for a periodical publication. The answer is a relatively new addition to Chambers.

2d Stone from Bible story surrounding Asian tent (6)
I’m not keen on clues like this – if you don’t know the ‘unknown precious stone, jacinth or amber according to the Revised Version (the New English Bible says turquoise)’ or the Mongolian tent, you’re basically stuffed.  A three-letter word for a story of the tall variety contains (‘surrounding’) the three-letter tent, which could also be indicated by ‘floor covering taken up’.

3d Germanic tribesman‘s vowel sound used in Globe by Shakespeare? (9)
A (4,1) expression which describes the central vowel in the word ‘Globe’ from a pronunciation perspective is followed by the four-letter epithet often applied to Shakespeare.

11d Theatrical contrivance regularly seen at show, in exciting draw? (10, 2 words)
Three letters selected at regular intervals from ‘at show’ are contained by a (4,3) phrase giving the score of a game in which a bumper crop of goals has been equally shared by the two teams (the last such draw in the Premier League being Man U v Bournemouth on 15 December 2025). The answer is (6,4).

16d Retrograde way to include yellow bit of lemon, say, in perfume (9)
A reversal (‘retrograde’) of a word for a ‘way’ or ‘narrow passage’ containing (‘to include’) that familiar two-letter gold or yellow tincture, along with a three-letter word for a bit of a lemon (or an apple, an orange, or a playing card).

21d 60% German immigrant such as Eric Bana (6)
Kudos if you got this from the wordplay, although like me you will probably have worked out that you were looking for the first six letters of a ten-letter German word for an immigrant. The definition is the giveaway, Eric Bana being an example of the answer and (with due respect to some of our regular readers) more famous than most of the 28,500,000 others that Gemelo could have chosen.

24d Fairly upsetting joke that’s disgusting (6)
A reversal (‘upsetting’, used in an appropriate setting this time) of the word for a joke, as in ‘Have you heard the ??? about…”, is followed by a three-letter interjection meaning “That’s disgusting[!]”.

31d Chase dryness, leaving Manchester? (3)
A seven-letter word for ‘dryness’ loses (‘leaving’) the four-letter word for the sort of conurbation exemplified by Manchester.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 36

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/fb83a2e6-54b8-491d-bca5-4f7578b19277/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.4 based on 33 votes (voting is now closed)

Last week’s ‘Bonus Shares’ puzzle racked up an impressive 4.4 on the difficulty meter, every individual rating being 4 or 5. On the basis that an ‘average’ Gemelo plain would score 2.5, this seemed about right for a puzzle which was quite demanding.

Today’s puzzle wasn’t without its own challenges, but as with most of the recent Gemelo ‘plains’ there were several relatively straightforward starters to get the solve under way. That said, the four quarters of the puzzle were less well connected than usual (the longest entries were nine letters), so I can imagine that many solvers will have ended up cracking the puzzle one quadrant at a time (which is pretty much what I did).

A bit of self-promotion to finish with. For anyone who fancies tackling a themed puzzle with clues which shouldn’t prove too taxing for Gemelo solvers, you might enjoy today’s Enigmatic Variations crossword, Connection. For the benefit of those who don’t have access to the Sunday Telegraph, a kind person publishes a scan of the EV online every week – this one can be found at https://postimg.cc/0MtfQtxM .

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 12a, “Narrative from which Napoleon escaped, to strike back (7)”. The wordplay involves a reversal (‘back’) of the name of the island from which Napoleon escaped in 1815 and a three-letter word meaning ‘to strike’. The point of interest here is is the use of the expression ‘from which Napoleon escaped’ to indicate a place name, equivalent to, say, ‘from which Viv Richards hails’ for ANTIGUA. This requires the solver to infer a noun such as ‘place’ or ‘island’ to which the relative pronoun ‘which’ refers. This seems very different to me from something like ‘where Viv Richards comes from’ or ‘what lies directly south of Barbuda’ for ANTIGUA which in modern English requires no such inference to be drawn. I don’t think that I would accept ‘from which cheese is made’ for MILK, and this seems to me one of those instances where the setter has stretched the cryptic sense of the clue too far in order to produce a good surface reading.

Across

10a Ladies maybe travel by boat for WI celebrations (9, 2 words)
A four-letter ‘informal, especially US’ word for an amenity exemplified by ‘ladies’ (or ‘gents’) is followed by a word meaning ‘[to] travel by a light, narrow, flat-bottomed boat’. Earlier editions of Chambers have ‘ladies’ in this sense with an apostrophe on the end, but the current edition shows it as unadorned.

15a Backtracking, don’t tell the truth about pig meat commonly in Spam? (5)
A reversal of a three-letter word meaning “don’t tell the truth” containing (‘about’) a three-letter word for ‘pig meat’ from which the initial aitch has been dropped (‘commonly’, ie as in vulgar speech). It immediately made me think of this classic Two Ronnies sketch.

20a So far as love goes in court (5)
The usual single-letter representation of ‘love’ for Andy Murray is contained by (‘goes in’) the four-letter shortened form of a ten-letter word for a court, particularly one enclosed by college buildings.

22a Pick healthy alternative to drug? (5)
The wordplay gives a (1,4) expression which might whimsically describe a healthier form of the single-letter drug frequently found in crosswords, this version perhaps being lower in carbohydrates or some other ingredient which could be damaging to health.

28a Peculiar characters regularly dropped graduate off (5)
A slightly cumbersome wordplay has every third letter (starting with the first) being removed (ie ‘regularly dropped’) from GRADUATE, with the residue being rearranged (‘off’).

29a Home support that will do stirring (6)
This is a charade of a two-letter word meaning (among many other things) ‘that will do’ and a four-letter word meaning ‘active’ or ‘stirring’. The support isn’t necessarily found within a home, but it certainly could be.

30a Marks found in straight, gold pillar between openings (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘marks’ from the pre-euro days is contained by (‘found in’) a four-letter word meaning ‘straight’, as one’s aim might be (and Elvis Costello’s definitely was), and the chemical symbol for gold.

31a Feature of costume drama that’s eliminated extremes of poem (4)
The sort of thing that might get ripped in a steamy historical romance is deprived of its first and last letters (ie “that’s eliminated extremes”).

32a What makes acid drop bright green? (9)
A five-letter word meaning ‘bright’ in the sense of ‘smart’ or ‘intelligent’ combines with a fruity kind of yellowish green to produce the name of a chemical compound, the addition of which would almost certainly result in a drop in acidity of the substrate; whether ‘what makes acid drop’ adequately expresses this concept is open to question.

33a Rational number with irrational number following it (4)
The single-letter abbreviation for ‘number’ and the symbol for the irrational number which forms the basis of natural logarithms follow the two-letter abbreviation for the kind of ‘it’ that was exuded by Clara Bow in the film of that name, the Cinderella-like story of plucky shop assistant Betty Lou Spence which led to Clara being dubbed “The ‘It’ Girl”.

Down

1d Old man goes off nurse after getting up (6)
A four-letter word meaning ‘goes off’, as food past its use-by date might do, and the two-letter abbreviation for ‘Enrolled Nurse’, are reversed (‘after getting up’). The answer is the name of a Homeric hero famous for his age and wisdom, which can be applied allusively to an old man, but I think that in this sense it too is well past its use-by date.

3d Marvel at first mostly happy in overturning take showing Thor prop (8)
The first letter of ‘Marvel’ is followed by a five-letter word meaning ‘happy’, from which the last letter is missing (‘mostly’), a reversal (‘overturning’) of IN (from the clue), and the single-letter abbreviation for ‘take’ used in medical prescriptions.

7d Poor fliers in South America lend millions to come back (7)
A three-letter informal word meaning ‘lend’ (usually in the sense of giving a payment to someone as an advance on wages etc) and a four-letter word meaning ‘a great number’ (‘millions’) are reversed. (‘to come back’). The creatures in question evolved from prehistoric flying birds and, unlike their other close relatives, taking to the air is an option for them, albeit it’s not one of their core strengths.

14d Compose short taunt with a spit? (9)
A three-letter word meaning ‘compose’, as one might compose a hand-written letter, a six-letter taunt without its last letter (‘short’), and the letter A (from the clue) combine to produce the answer.

22d Clergymen sending out press release – cheers! (6)
An eight-letter word for churchmen of high rank, or clergymen in general, loses the usual abbreviation for ‘press release’.

27d Superhuman losing top of foot (5)
The first letter is removed from (ie ‘losing top’) a six-letter adjective meaning ‘superhuman’ which entered public consciousness in 1973 when following a nasty accident USAF Colonel Steve Austin was ‘rebuilt’ at a cost to the American taxpayer of $6m. Truth be told, it seemed like money well spent, given that following the procedure he could run at speeds of over 60 mph, his new eye gave him a 20:1 zoom lens with infrared capabilities, and his replacement limbs all had the equivalent power of a bulldozer. Makes Google Glass look a bit pants.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 35 ‘Bonus Shares’

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/75daa67a-c6ec-4356-bc5f-99ab59de5e7a/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

4.4 based on 29 votes (voting is now closed)

Last week’s plain puzzle scored an average rating of 3.0, roughly half a point up on its immediate predecessor; that seemed to me a very good assessment of its difficulty.

I feel confident that regular correspondent RJHe, having expressed a degree of disappointment that last week’s puzzle was not a ‘special’, will have enjoyed this one. I’m not sure that the names which Gemelo comes up with for his novelties are the snappiest, but the concept here is simple – the clues for pairs of entries (in either order) are run together, with a word on the boundary between them being shared. This made for an entertaining challenge, and I will be interested to see how you rate it difficulty-wise. Following the notes on a few clues I have included a checklist of the shared words and order in which the answers are produced. When solving the puzzle, it’s fair to assume that most of the clues will have a definition at either end and that few, if any, will have both definitions in the middle spanning the join. The two words revealed by the initial letters of the shared words should send you straight to the Big Red Book in one of its forms.

Incidentally, I don’t think I was aware that Gemelo had been an actuary. I had quite a few actuaries for colleagues some years ago in a financial services business, and apart from their client work they were also responsible for the actuarial processes surrounding the company’s own pension scheme; around revaluation time, I always felt that they looked at the staff in a slightly different way from usual, rather as an undertaker might seem to be taking a particular (and perhaps slightly  unwelcome) intertest in one’s height and girth.

Setters’ Corner: This week’s point of interest concerns the clue for 8/21d, specifically the use of ‘irritated’ for ATE. I must confess that I had never seen a problem with ‘irritated’ or ‘worried’ for ATE until I had a clue containing the latter rejected by an editor. His point was that the ‘worry’ sense of ‘eat’ when applied to the past was only valid in the past continuous – so, as well as “I wonder what’s eating him” (in the present), we could say “I thought something was eating her” (in the past), but “I wonder what ate her” has a very different meaning, such that any worry would have been distinctly transient. After the usual brief bout of righteous indignation (“How dare anyone challenge one of my clues?”), I understood what he was saying, and I couldn’t disagree. So ‘worried’ for ATE has been deleted from my mental list of valid synonyms.

Across

12/32 Masses ejected rams, reversing uncovered van of conservationists following recurrent sheep infection (5/5)
A reversal of a four letter word for ‘rams’ in the ovine sense is followed by the word ‘van’ missing its outer letters (‘uncovered’); a two-letter abbreviation for Europe’s largest conservation charity (‘conservationists’) follows a reversal (‘recurrent’) of a three-letter word for a viral infection of sheep also known as ‘scabby mouth’ (yeuch!)

15/26a Female reveller rejected European, old woman leading pained cry for accord (6/6)
A four-letter native of a particular Northern European country is reversed (‘rejected’) after the two-letter term applied colloquially to a middle-aged or elderly woman, or to ‘the old woman’ herself;  a four-letter word answering to ‘leading’ is followed by a two-letter exclamation often indicated in cryptics by ‘that hurts’.

18/23a Tongue scrape saving American seed, initially not appearing wise to (4/4, 2 words)
A five-letter word meaning ‘to scrape’ or rub out is missing (‘saving’) the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘American’; a five-letter US word for an edible pine seed (complete with tilde on its middle letter) is deprived of its first letter (‘initially not appearing’), the answer being (2,2).

19/20a Colder, damper male engaged in sport, with current breaking salt water of Paris – I’ll move gate down under (8)
A two-letter word for a male contained by (‘engaged in’) the two-letter abbreviation for the 15-man rugby code precedes the usual symbol representing electric current contained by (‘breaking’) a three-letter French (‘of Paris’) word for a [large body of] salt water; the letters of PARIS ILL are rearranged (‘move’).

Down

1/9d Russian heir sadly reaches wits’ end in discomfort, ousting leader after Macedonia weighed up tyrant (12/12)
An anagram (‘sadly’) of REACHES WITS and the last letter of (‘end in’) ‘discomfort’ produces one of eight alternative spellings offered by Chambers; an eight-letter word for ‘discomfort’ or (more often) extreme suffering, without its first letter (‘ousting leader’), follows a reversal (‘up’) of the IVR code for Macedonia and a three-letter word meaning ‘weighed’, as in “The burden of responsibility weighed uncomfortably on his shoulders”.

2/24d Composition from native national, extremely expert about Chinese Twist? (6/6)
A three-letter word for a native (such as could be ‘of the soil’) combines with the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘National’ in multi-letter acronyms and the first and last letters of ‘expert’ (‘extremely’, which I’m starting to feel Gemelo keeps including just to wind me up!); a three-letter word for an expert is reversed (‘about’) ahead of a word for a member of the native Chinese people, ‘Twist?’ being a literary definition by example.

3/17d Mixed up, lie cod and fish south, and drive naked to north stars (8/8)
An anagram (‘mixed’) of UP LIE COD; the words ‘fish’, ‘south’  and ‘drive’ without their outer letters (‘naked’) are reversed (‘to north’).

7/25d Ed’s gloomy, likewise grievous, when switching base to take up defensive position, perhaps one nearly new (5/5, 2 words)
A Spenserian word for ‘grievous’ (‘likewise grievous’ ie “Ed’s grievous”) has the single letter symbol for the base of natural logarithms replaced by (‘switching to’) the single-letter abbreviation of the Latin word for ‘take’, used on medical prescriptions; the five-letter word for something exemplified by ‘one’ (or any other Arabic numeral between 0 and 9) lacking its last letter (‘nearly’) precedes the usual abbreviation for ‘new’, the answer being (3,2).

(definitions are underlined)

Shared letters:

33a precedes 10a, the shared word being ‘Oscar’; 12/32 – van; 13/31 – European; 14/28 – round; 15/26 – leading; 23/18 – American; 19/20 – Paris.

9d precedes 1d, the shared word being ‘discomfort’; 24/2 – expert; 3/17 – fish; 27/4 – inmate; 30/5 – nerve; 6/22 – inclined; 7/25 – take; 8/21 irritated; 29/11 – obscure; 14/16 – nuclear.

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 34

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/029a8e14-43f3-40bd-990b-ae67b53b5036/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

3.0 based on 33 votes (voting is now closed)

Last week’s puzzle set an excellent benchmark for an ‘average’ Gemelo, scoring 2.6 based on a near-equal mix of 2’s and 3’s. I wonder if this suggests that his plain puzzles are going to settle into a narrower range of chewiness, or whether that one just happened to land in the middle ground.

I didn’t find today’s puzzle quite as enjoyable as last week’s, although that may have been because Gemelo trod on a few of my cruciverbal ‘corns’ (eg ‘endless’ at 11a). But there was plenty of invention on display, and while I don’t think those solvers who enjoy a reasonably stern challenge will have been disappointed, there were several accessible clues to provide a ‘way in’. I’ll be interested to see how you rate it difficulty-wise in relation to its immediate predecessor.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 20a, “This is covering one in white powder (7)”. The wordplay has  the letters IS (from the clue) containing (‘covering’) a four-letter ‘white powder’ into which the Roman numeral representing one has been inserted; the answer is exemplified by T, h, i and s. From time to time an opportunity for a slightly unusual ‘definition’ of an answer will come along, for instance where the entry is the name of a typographical symbol (eg ‘ellipsis’, indicated by ‘…’) or a chemical element (eg ‘astatine’, indicated by ‘At’). It is a device which is almost impossible to overuse, given the relatively few answers which lend themselves to its deployment, and it can present the solver with a challenge which is fair but demands a bit of thought. If the chance comes up, I would always recommend at least trying to take advantage of it. Coming back to today’s clue, I used the word ‘exemplified’, because this is indeed a definition by example, and really ought to have some suitable qualification such as ‘perhaps’ or the question mark which would be required in “LONDON AND PARIS? (8)”.

Across

2a Dishonest Indian rejected fish dish, based on what comes next? (7)
I liked this clue, though unsurprisingly it wasn’t my first one in. A reversal (‘rejected’) of a three-letter flatfish of modest proportions is followed by a ‘dish’ which could be made from the entry at 7a after a deal of pummelling. My thanks to correspondent Kate for pointing out that in the printed and online-readable versions of the Observer the definition is ‘Poorly behaved Indian’.

10a Trifles, each piece on the counter (5)
The combination of the two-letter abbreviation for ‘each’ and a three-letter ‘piece’ of the sort that might be packed by a G-man is reversed (‘on the counter’). I’ve seen ‘on the counter’ used for reversal quite a lot recently, hence it is included in the list of reversal indicators on this site, although I can’t say that I’m entirely convinced by it – a football team which is ‘on the counter’ would be going forwards rather than backwards.

11a Social function sounded endless (6)
An eight-letter word meaning ‘sounded’ (ie ‘measured the depth of’) is deprived of both its first and last letters (‘endless’, though this is surely a fanciful interpretation of the word) to produce an answer which is hyphenated, 2-4.

18a Casually making foul Japanese wine (5)
Azed always signposted wordplays of this kind by analogy, as with “dressin'” for ROBIN, but Gemelo here uses the less specific ‘casually’ to indicate the G-dropping that affects a six-letter word meaning ‘making foul’ or ‘soiling with mud’.

23a Gull, probing bottom of lake, tried to catch fish (6)
A three-letter fool (‘gull’) is contained by (‘probing’) a three-letter word for the bottom of a lake, river or sea. The answer relates to a particular type of fish.

25a Con man‘s less blatant when leaving subway without marijuana (8)
A seven-letter word meaning ‘less blatant’, lacking (‘when leaving’) a three-letter informal contraction of ‘subway’, contains (‘without’) a four-letter term for marijuana. The Chambers definition of the answer shows ‘con man’ as two words, which is why Gemelo has presented it in this way, although the relevant subhead is conman.

29a More than one king said to peel food for Wellington (6)
The combination of the single-letter abbreviation for the sort of king that Magnus Carlsson might manoeuvre and the word SAID (from the clue) missing its first and last letters (‘to peel’) is repeated to produce the solution. Wellington is neither the Iron Duke nor the Womble, rather the city in New Zealand from which the latter got his name.

30a Tracts I forgot to mention about Abraham’s nephew (5)
The abbreviation used at the end of letters to the effect of ‘I forgot to mention’ contains the three-letter name of the nephew of Abraham whose wife is identified by rabbinic tradition as Idit. While fleeing the destruction of Sodom, she unwisely paused to look wistfully back at the city, whereupon she was turned into a pillar of salt.

Down

2d Who loves poetry from www.kindle.com, say? (8)
The ‘say?’ here is well deserved, the answer being a (4,4) description of how ‘www.kindle.com’ might be classified if its theme were the kindling of fires. The definition has an implied ‘One’ at the start.

3d One unwillingly kept apart from host for a long time (3)
A seven-letter word for someone who is held against their will is shorn of (‘apart from’) the consecutive letters HOST.

13d Possibly decisive, so drinking bitter up, say (9)
A three-letter Latin word meaning ‘so’ or “yes, that’s really what they said”, almost invariably – like the Irish in 1066 and All That – seen living in brackets, contains (‘drinking’) a reversal of a four-letter word meaning ‘bitter’ which is followed by the two-letter abbreviation typically indicated by ‘say’ or ‘for example’. The definition here seems a little on the loose side, although there’s no doubting that the adjective implies the taking of a decision.

14d Almost shut up dead wolf? (5)
A (3,2) informal expression meaning ‘shut up’ (often heard in the Heinz factory) missing its last letter (‘almost’) precedes the usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘dead’.

17d Calm couple injecting another shot in retirement (8)
A four-letter word (another one from the Magnus Carlsson lexicon) meaning ‘[to] couple’ contains (‘injecting’) the reversal (‘in retirement’) of a rather unattractive word (well, it’s nothing special, is it?) for a further attempt.

19d Politically correct movement that’s not planned to support the Spanish language (7)
The usual abbreviation for ‘politically correct’ is followed by a three-letter word for an involuntary movement preceded by the Spanish word for ‘the’ which is used with words of the masculine gender.

22d In general, people lengthen middle of candle for Ed (5)
A charade of a two-letter word for people in general and a three-letter word meaning ‘lengthen’, normally seen these days in combination with ‘out’.

24d What raises the pace of special pitch? (5)
The usual single-letter abbreviation for ‘special’ is followed by a word meaning ‘pitch’, as a ship might do in rough seas. The definition is mildly oblique, and I wonder if ‘increases’ would have been more accurate than ‘raises’, although the latter does suggest the key feature of the answer.

(definitions are underlined)

There are usually one or two points of interest in an Observer barred puzzle, and here we pick them out for comment. Please feel free to add your own questions or observations on any aspect of the puzzle (including clues not listed below) either by using the comment form at the bottom of the page or, if would prefer that your question/comment is not publicly visible, by email.

Gemelo 33

This puzzle is available at https://content-api.slowdownwiseup.co.uk/api/mobile/v1/puzzle-data/7b3d245b-44b6-4bba-8ba6-cc540efac214/file/puzzle.pdf.

Solver difficulty rating

2.6 based on 31 votes (voting is now closed)

I thought that today’s puzzle was nicely pitched and very enjoyable. It featured a good mix of clues, with a decent helping of straightforward ones to get the solver started, and some clever but fair misdirection, particularly of the Ernie Wise variety, where you can’t see the join between definition and wordplay.

Setters’ Corner: This week I’m going to look at clue 26a, “Kinks, Clash and Pixies releasing content (5)”. A three-letter word for a clash or conflict is followed by the word ‘Pixies’ missing all but the first and last letters. Humpty Dumpty said, “When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean”; I don’t think that any crossword setter would presume to have so blanche a carte, but there is a tendency to interpret the often brief definitions given by Chambers in a way that suits the setter’s particular purposes without looking too deeply at them. To my way of thinking, the noun ‘content’ is a common example: Chambers gives the singular as ‘that which is contained’ and the plural as ‘the things contained’. Ostensibly, those are pretty much the same. But the actual meanings (since the sixteenth century or thereabouts, at least) are significantly different. The ‘contents’ of a box or a barrel are indeed the totality of everything contained within it, while ‘content’ refers to the amount of a specific substance contained, such as alcohol or sugar; it can also refer to a quality which forms part of a concept, as in the ‘intellectual content’ of a work, but it is never used to describe everything that is within. Will ‘Pixies releasing content’ have discomfited any solvers? I very much doubt it, but ‘content’ remains an indicator which I would never use myself.

Across

1a Little flower’s losing head over alcohol (6)
The sort of little flower that might also be part of a head of broccoli, complete with its apostrophe-s but deprived of its first letter (‘losing head’), is reversed (‘over’).

6a Japanese writing absorbing German native doctor (6)
My first though was that the ‘Japanese writing’ which contains (‘absorbing’) the single-letter abbreviation for ‘German’ was going to be ‘kanji’. I should have realized thar Gemelo, hip sort that he is, would be referring to something more up-to-date, specifically the generic term for a type of Japanese comic book usually printed in black and white, and intended to be read from right to left. Although it has a long history, the medium experienced a boom in popularity during the latter half of the twentieth century, with the books often being adapted into animated films, known as ‘anime’. Together they are often termed ‘ani?????’; the equivalent media group in China is known as ‘dongman’ (who knew?).

11a Ringtail lemur initially following source of chocolate, except a Hobnob (8)
The first letter (‘initially’) of ‘lemur’ follows the five-letter name of the seeds from which chocolate is made, lacking one instance of the letter A (‘except a’), and a three-letter word meaning ‘[to] hobnob’ or ‘mingle’. 

12a Fresh pair of horses once went round bridge (4)
Successfully combining individual definitions of all four headwords listed by Chambers for the entry here and produce a convincing surface without the use of ‘fillers’ is no mean feat.

13a Shake up someone doing well with other half of EU (7)
A seven-letter word for ‘someone doing well’ has the first half of ‘EU’ replaced with the other half.

24a Cast off broadcast having stopped working for host (8)
A crafty construction, where a four-letter word for ‘broadcast’ or ‘disseminated’ is contained by a word meaning ‘stopped working’ (‘having stopped working for host’, ie contained by ‘stopped working’)

29a Italian woman against wearing make-up? (5)
A two-letter preposition meaning (among many other things) ‘against’ is contained by (‘wearing’) three capital letters representing something which is intrinsically linked to the ‘make-up’ of all organisms.

30a Bones continue to swell (7)
A (5,2) phrase which could mean ‘continue to swell’ delivers an answer which, despite what the surface reading might suggest, is singular. Some readers may associate the term with Leonard McCoy, born in Georgia in 2227. He never actually said, “It’s worse than that, he’s dead Jim” or “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it” (both inventions of The Firm in Star Trekkin’), though he employed many variations on the theme of “I’m a doctor, not a …” (coal miner, mechanic, engineer, physicist, torpedo technician, escalator (!), bricklayer), and he did say, “I don’t need a doctor, damn it, I am a doctor!”

31a Lifting tool that’s not used for mushrooms (4)
A seven-letter tool ‘with two blades, for holding, lifting or removing’ loses the consecutive letters FOR (‘that has not used for’). 

Down

2d Stylish institute covering up Asian condiment (6)
A two-letter word meaning ‘stylish’ or ‘fashionable’, the single-letter abbreviation for ‘institute, and a three-letter covering for the head are reversed (‘up’)

3d Pass over main points after latest from little green men? (10)
The three-letter ‘pass’ or ‘depression’ much favoured by crossword setters, the cricketing abbreviation for ‘over’, and a five-letter word for ‘main points’ (a plural form which is more theoretical than practical) follow (‘after’) the last letter (‘latest’) from ‘little’.

4d Was upwardly-mobile comrade a memorable feature of Citizen Kane? (7)
A charade of a four-letter word meaning ‘was upwardly mobile’ and a three-letter informal term of address for a friend or comrade produces the last word spoken by Charles Foster Kane, which launches reporter Jerry Thompson on a quest to discover the significance of the word by interviewing the people who knew him best. As Welles himself wrote, “None had ever heard of ‘???????.’ Actually, as it turns out, ‘???????’ is the trade name of a cheap little sled on which Kane was playing on the day he was taken away from his home and his mother. In his subconscious it represented the simplicity, the comfort, above all the lack of responsibility in his home, and also it stood for his mother’s love which Kane never lost.” Three of the ‘cheap little sleds’ from the film are known to have survived – a pine version, saved from destruction by Joe Dante in 1984, was sold for $14.75m in 2025.

5d Financial burden of old movie not opening ahead of Penelope (9)
A five-letter informal term for a cinema film, missing its first letter (‘not opening’), precedes a familiar five-letter diminutive form of the name ‘Penelope’.

8d Good dog doesn’t need lead (5)
The six-letter name for the sort of dog which was the subject of a long-running (and most entertaining) Daily Mail cartoon strip by Alex Graham loses its first letter (“doesn’t need lead”). The cunningly-disguised definition is a noun.

11d Get irritated with annual return for hot water bottle (6)
A five-letter word meaning ‘get irritated’ or ‘irritate by rubbing’ has the two-letter abbreviation for ‘annual return’ replacing the single-letter abbreviation for ‘hot’.

16d Programmes including Descartes, say, upset audience (9)
A five-letter word for ‘programmes’ or ‘catalogues’ contains (‘including’) a reversal (‘upset’) of the first name of the French polymath and of Monsieur Artois, the café owner in ‘Allo ‘Allo.

21d Scotsman’s prepared stones around entrance by breaking prominent upright (6)
The word ‘by’ (from the clue) is contained by (‘breaking’) a word meaning ‘prominent’ that might be applied to a leading light in a film, and the whole lot is reversed (‘upright’)

(definitions are underlined)