27898 Thursday, 11 February 2021 The Rivals

I wonder if the setter knew it was my turn, and deliberately included Arsenal and Chelsea, Spurs’ London rivals, and Everton who beat us by the odd goal in nine last night to dump us out of the FA Cup. At least the location of our state of the art training facility, Enfield, also gets a mention. Otherwise, this occupied me for 16.53, which makes it the trickiest of the week so far, but not by much. I rather liked the style of cluing, with many devices represented, sometime two or three of the set in a single clue. I think the “piece of verse” was a lesser-known last time I logged it, but apart from a couple of bits of general (but not necessarily that general) knowledge the words to be entered are of the common variety and shouldn’t tax you too much. The great majority of the definitions are single words, which may be distinctive.
I have transcribed for you the clues, underlined the definitions and put the SOLUTIONS in bold capitals.

Across
1 Great bit of coiffure with king leaving church (3-5)
TOP-NOTCH The bit of coiffure is a TOP KNOT, as sported by Gareth Bale currently. Remove (leaving) the K(ing) and add the conventional CH(urch)
5 Pass on name taken from dancing wenches (6)
ESCHEW Pass on as in “I’ll pass on that” and not the more usual die. Take N(ame) out of WENCHES and make the remainder dance until they end up in the desired formation
10 Wheels secured by new tool men pick up in race (5,5,5)
MONTE CARLO RALLY Start by deciding the wheels are a CAR. Then assume “new” indicates an anagram and surround (secure) the CAR with the letters of TOOL MEN tastefully arranged. Add RALLY for pick up, as in the sick man rallied. Or just bung the whole thing in without too much thinking.
11 Coming out of their shells, Brad and Lucy not just loud (7)
RAUCOUS Four words contribute their internal letters, as indicated by “coming out of their shells”. So bRAd, lUCy nOt jUSt.
12 Proof one’s passed hummus, say, all of meal regularly put away (7)
DIPLOMA The surface suggested a rather unsavoury examination of one’s poo, but break the definition as indicated, and hummus is then an example of DIP to which you add the odd/even letters of aLl Of MeAl.
13 Irritation overwhelming terribly shy figure (8)
PHYSIQUE Irritation equals PIQUE, which “overwhelms” an anagram (terribly) of SHY
15 Governess protecting current brood here (5)
EYRIE It helps if you know the sometime profession of Jane EYRE, and that I is the conventional symbol for electric current. “Protect” one with the other for the brood location.
18 Ex-PM who will be given a hand at the table (5)
NORTH Prime Minister of the UK 1770-1783, so responsible for ridding the country of the burden of running America. Also a position at a bridge table.
20 Declare a cat can be heard (8)
ANNOUNCE Sounds like AN OUNCE, being (according to Chambers) an epithet given to various types of large wild cat.
23 Everton vacated ground somewhere in London (7)
ENFIELD Likes to describe itself as London’s top borough, which is at least geographically true. Vacate EvertoN, leaving just the EN, add FIELD for ground.
25 Defence in Arsenal’s opening games in division (7)
PARAPET A***nal’s opening is A, games are what we used to call PE at school. Stick those into PART for division.
26 Be the lead in Hamlet, say, taking king in hand with piece of deception (4,5,6)
PLAY FIRST FIDDLE The lead both literally as first violin in an orchestra and in figurative senses. Hamlet is a PLAY, put R for king into FIST for hand and complete with FIDDLE for piece of deception.
27 Place promoting weight-loss tablet (6)
LOCALE Promoting weight loss is LO-CAL and the tablet of choice E(cstacy), but don’t say I said so.
28 Very green, dewy ground around island and river (4-4)
WIDE-EYED Chambers allows naïve as one meaning. The letters of DEWY are spread randomly (ground) round I(sland) and the randomly-selected river DEE.

Down

1 Sentence about revolutionary R&B sound (6)
TIMBRE Sentence is (prison) TIME placed around the letters R and B in reverse order.
2 Clerk in high spirits, entertaining new escort (9)
PENPUSHER Lat in, as I was looking for an escort. High spirits is/are PEP (“full of”), N(ew) is inserted and USHER for escort completes
3 Heavy figure to excite briefly (7)
ONEROUS  Today’s second figure, here wordplay indicating ONE. Excite briefly gives ROUSe
4 Order from Cheltenham’s Head Girl (5)
CLASS Cheltenham’s Head is C, and girl is the generic LASS
6 What wine’s knocked back in some verse? (7)
STROPHE A reverse (knocked back) of EH for what and PORT’S for wine’s
7 Terrible experience with love? I’m surprised (5)
HELLO Terrible experience is HELL (though CS Lewis opined that a hell for men and a heaven for mosquitoes could easily be combined). Add the O/0 for love.
8 Traveller, much prettier, getting picked up (8)
WAYFARER Well, yes, does sound like (picked up) WAY FAIRER, a lot prettier.
9 Move to invest pounds, running club (8)
BLUDGEON Last in, looking for a running club like Harriers or somesuch. However, move is BUDGE, with an L for pound “invested”, and running is ON.
14 Jam accompanying a track started by Queen (8)
QUANDARY Accompanying gives AND (easy to miss), a track gives A R(ailwa)Y, and QU(een) starts
16 Cost dropping right down, lend yen for Asian growth area (4,5)
RICE PADDY I’m not sure of this, and I suspect an error. Cost is PRICE, but you don’t drop the R(ight) down, you drop the P. Lend is ADD, and Y(en) completes. Cute definition.
17 Let rip on spreading force globally (8)
INTERPOL A straight anagram (spreading) of LET RIP ON
19 Attentive husband required to go topless (7)
HEEDFUL You need H(usband) before making required, NEEDFUL lose its top.
21 Elevate the core of sun worship (7)
UPRAISE The core of sun (another middle) is U, and worship PRAISE.
22 Go to the races after a knock on the head (6)
ATTEND I’ve only just worked this out. The races are TT, placed after A, and knock on the head produces END
24 Currency smuggled into Chelsea, say (5)
FRANC Smuggled is RAN, and Chelsea is (allegedly) a F(ootball) C(lub). Insert one into the other
25 In art, children phrase it the wrong way (5)
PUTTI  Simple enough, once you split definition from wordplay. Phrase is PUT (that’s one way to phrase/put it) and IT the wrong way is TI. Putti are chubby, usually quasi angelic small nude male children, the depiction of which might well draw the attention of the authorities, possibly even Interpol, in today’s moral climate.

68 comments on “27898 Thursday, 11 February 2021 The Rivals”

  1. Following Z’s advice, I bunged in MONTE CARLO RALLY without too much thinking, with the A and L in; got around to parsing it a lot later. The N led to bunging in PENPUSHER, also parsed later. I’ve never come across a FIDDLE other than second. Somehow RICE PADDY seemed fine at the time; but it isn’t, is it? FOI ESCHEW, POI ATTEND, LOI WIDE-EYED.
  2. Like our blogger, I really enjoyed the clueing of this, great puzzle. Unlike our blogger my first thought for 10ac from the enumeration was Paris Dakar Rally (even having da kar included), but needed to parse the clue when it didn’t fit the cryptic. Another holdup at the end needing to correct needing to needful.
    I did notice the P not the R was dropped – a rare mistake?
  3. Thanks for explaining PENPUSHER, LOCALE and PARAPET, Z. I was going very well until the SE corner where PUTTI, PARAPET and ATTEND held me up for quite a while. No problems with the MONTE CARLO RALLY as I just bunged it in as was required.
    A Mövenpick (i.e. Swiss run) hotel I stayed at in Doha once had on a currency board on the reception desk a rate for the Swiss FRANK!
    Lastly, mention of PUTTI puts me in mind of the Camera degli Sposi in Mantua. I’ve never been but I’ve seen plenty of images of some putti getting up to naughtiness in an oculus in the ceiling.
  4. I couldn’t make sense of RICE PADDY either and unusual though it is for The Times, I think it must be a boo-boo. STROPHE was the only new one, with PUTTI another cryptic crossword land word from the past. I enjoyed working out the parsing of PENPUSHER, PARAPET and ATTEND.

    Finished in 33 minutes. Not last on the Club table anyway.

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

  5. 47 minutes. After a racing start I ground to a halt with barely half the grid completed and took ages to get going again having been very nearly on the point of giving up for the night.

    I spotted the error in the RICE PADDY clue which is sadly no longer as rare an occurrence at The Times as others have been generous enough to suggest. Between the QC and the 15×15 it’s starting to feel like we get at least one error most weeks.

    Like others, I queried the existence of PLAY FIRST FIDDLE as an expression. It’s not in any of my dictionaries nor in Brewer’s, but it’s easy to find in other on-line resources e.g. Wiktionary, where it has its own entry and is defined as ‘To play a leading role’.

    Edited at 2021-02-11 05:33 am (UTC)

    1. Both Lexico and Collins have “To play second fiddle,” but not first. The full OED, a bit much as a source for the daily cryptic of course, has no less then three fiddles: “to play first (or second) fiddle: to take a leading (or subordinate) position. to play third fiddle, to be the third party”
      1. My 2003 electric Chambers has under fiddle:
        “play first fiddle or second fiddle: to act as a first violin or a second violin player in an orchestra; to take a leading, or (esp unwillingly) a subordinate, part in anything.”
        Perhaps it has dropped out of common usage since then – enough to see it dropped from the sources?
  6. For some reason this didn’t feel as quick as it was — there were a few clues that gave me pause for thought. I guess none can actually have held me up for that long. Like Z I finished with BLUDGEON though I did spot ON for “running” early which helped a lot.
    Like Z I also noticed the slight football theme in the clues. I woke this morning thinking about Tottenham’s loss last night and didn’t welcome being reminded of it by the appearance of Everton here!
  7. M’Dear Zed, I do believe that is the case, Why ever not!?
    I just hope in tonight’s draw we don’t get the noisy neighbours again! Barnsley away would suit so we can buy a decent young defender. What’s with Spurs all of a sudden!? The manager I suppose.

    Time 32 mins with shrapnel; but I found this puzzle rather unexciting and unrewarding.

    I struggled to find a COD but settled on 24dn FRANC

    FOI 5ac ESCHEW -an old friend

    SOI 10ac MONTE CARLO RALLY used to be a thing.

    LOI 22dn ATTEND – knock it on the head!

    WOD 2dn the pejorative PEN PUSHER

    16dn RICE PADDY parseth all understanding!? (P)RICE-ADD-Y – wrong instructions from IKEA Shanghai?

    Edited at 2021-02-11 07:47 am (UTC)

  8. 29 minutes, shaking my head about a biffed RICE PADDY. On PARAPET, PE and Games were scheduled as two different things on our school timetable. the first lasting 40 minutes in the gym, the second 80 minutes on the rugby or cricket ground. COD to TOP-NOTCH even if WAYFARER was way fairer. Being a wide-eyed innocent, and not overweight, I took a while to parse LOCALE. A good puzzle and a shame about the mistake. Thank you Z and setter.

    Edited at 2021-02-11 08:24 am (UTC)

  9. …The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
    The aspiration of my youth, to build
    Some tower of song with lofty Parapet.

    35 mins pre-brekker having struggled on Penpusher, Physique, Quandary.
    And spent a while trying in vain to parse the dreadful Rice Paddy.
    Thanks setter and Z.

  10. 16:50 Bemused by RICE PADDY. LOI TOP NOTCH took longer than it should have. Otherwise neat and cheerful. I enjoyed RAUCOUS best.
  11. I was certainly looking to drop the R down the grid as soon as I read that clue. It was only as checkers went in that I realised it must be an error. As jackkt says, these do seem to be becoming slightly more common. I don’t know if there are any official stats? But it goes along with a noticeable slide in subediting standards generally. You see basic schoolchild errors all over the place in (for instance) Times journalism these days whereas you used to be able to rely on it for correct usage. I have recently seen CENSOR used for CENSURE, APPRAISE for APPRISE and of course the usual chestnut of “which one is right? PRINCIPLE or PRINCIPAL? Oh my brain hurts too much and I can’t be bothered to look it up and I’ve got a 50% chance of being right and nobody will notice anyway so just bung one in and hope for the best.” Maybe they are on their way to becoming alternative spellings used interchangeably for either meaning. Has that happened with other words?

    PLAY FIRST FIDDLE seems to work as a neologism but in that case it should perhaps have a question mark. Still, if it is beginning to show up in online dictionaries it must be gaining traction and therefore be counted fair game I guess. I haven’t checked myself but I suppose it doesn’t pass the Chambers test? I remember when you could only be overwhelmed, not underwhelmed, and the first time underwhelmed was used publicly it caused a bit of a stir as a witty comment whereas now it has become commonplace and is now actually a ‘word’. Same thing with ‘gobsmacked’. Was it Michael Heseltine who first used it publicly and caused much merriment?

    1. It isn’t a neologism .. the OED has it (see my reply to Jackkt above) and the first illustrative quote is from 1778..
      I agree with you about errors, especially subediting errors, which are pandemic in The Times. I blame my own generation for allowing our childrens’ standards to drop .. no teaching of grammar or syntax any more .. aided and abetted by textspeak etc.
      1. Fair enough. Sorry, I didn’t read the comments closely enough and didn’t check myself. In fact perhaps the idea of playing second fiddle was originally derived from playing first fiddle and it is the second fiddle that has better survived natural selection to be more prominent now.
      2. It isn’t we who are to blame about spelling etc. In my day they used to drop a few marks off ones O or A level for misspelling or picking wrong principle(al), but as they don’t the teachers think they have better things to do than correct these things.
        I’m not sure if it matters, but if it doesn’t then we might as well go phonetic?
        Andyf
        1. Well I agree about this aspect of the cause; but I think we do have to accept some personal responsibility for not kicking up a fuss but instead letting teachers get away with it .. and for not stepping in ourselves to correct our children, if that is what we did
          1. Grammar teaching is in many ways much better these days than it used to be. In the old days kids were often taught awful nonsense about split infinitives and dangling participles, whereas today they learn useful things like what fronted adverbials are and how using or not using them helps convey meaning.
            I can’t really comment on spelling: standards vary significantly between my children so I can’t blame the school.

            Edited at 2021-02-11 11:34 am (UTC)

      1. I’m glad you spotted that, and am pleased to announce that you have passed the TftT observation test, which I am pleased to set periodically as part of my remit. Bet you don’t get to the next one first!
        1. And I am sure we’ll be in to ending a sentence with a proposition next, when I will always call to mind the child who was promised a bedtime story if she brushed her teeth and complained to her father: “Daddy, why did you bring the book that I didn’t want to be read to up for?”
    2. The company my wife works for recently had a job application from someone who had an excellent CV. Unfortunately his email sign-off was “Joe Bloggs, Principle Training Consultant” or something like that and the MD rejected him out of hand for incorrect usage of ‘Principle’. I said that was a bit harsh, everybody makes those mistakes nowadays, just read through today’s Times and count the errors, and she said “OK, but it WAS in his sign-off.” Point taken. I’d have thought it would be important at least to get that right.

      But then again, my sons went to the same school as I did which is generally recognised as academically one of the best in the country. A group of my son’s alumni were responsible for the funeral arrangements of another Old Boy who died recently and I happened to see the Order of Service which had the local vicar on the front as ‘Principle Celebrant”. So my wife’s MD would presumably have rejected all these otherwise highly capable people for the sake of an error that is now so commonplace that it is only people like us that notice.

      And then again, when I worked in advertising we were presenting concepts to a new Product Manager at the client company, one of the major pharmaceutical giants. We had two campaigns that we were very proud of on both copy and imagery and another ‘makeweight’ concept that depended on little more than an image. The Product Manager surprised us all by going for this last concept. We later learned that he was dyslexic and tended to latch onto an image and not process copy. And in the end who can say? He was probably right and we were probably wrong.

      And then you have my brother who was just never any good at anything at school except Music. I once saw one of his exercise books and it was riddled with incorrect spellings with angry red marks all over them (one that stands out in my memory was ‘igzosted’ for ‘exhausted’). I am afraid I looked at it and just laughed and teased him about it for ages afterwards. Such is the cruelty of children. And I didn’t even think I was being cruel, it was just that you had to be good at this sort of thing and if you weren’t you got laughed at. As an adult he has since claimed that he was dyslexic (although I think he has largely overcome it and forged himself a good career in Education) and I do believe that the more enlightened modern approach would have served him well.

      And then my younger son when he was at primary school had a teacher that he absolutely idolised. He thought the world of this teacher and looked up to him and I thought he was a very positive influence so I was very pleased with the relationship. Then I was looking for something in one of his school bags one day and accidentally found a spelling test that Rob had done. And this teacher had gone through it marking quite a few incorrect spellings correct and vice versa so I imagine he was dyslexic as well. I didn’t have the heart to go through the corrections and tell Rob that a lot of them were wrong. I thought it better not to undermine the relationship, and after all if I had not chanced upon the test I would not have known. And Rob has turned out to be a very pedantic reader himself so no harm done. I don’t know if he was involved in proofing than Order of Service though!

      So I don’t know what conclusions I draw from all this, but it all seems interesting to me in the context.

      1. A teacher in a top academic prep school in London asked pupils to put sentences from the present into the past tense. The pupil changed “I am sitting” to “I was sitting” and this was corrected to “I am sat”. A pet hate of mine.
  12. In a QUANDARY, I struģgled again
    Why it’s ONEROUS, I can’t explain
    Wavelength is a must
    Thursdays are a bust
    As ever they BLUDGEON my brain
  13. Enjoyed this one, not too hard, not too easy. Nho playing first fiddle but had heard of doing it second so not much of a stretch.
    Failed as usual to spot the rice paddy error. I agree they are more common than once they were, but hey, it all adds to life’s rich pattern.
  14. I thought this was easy for a Friday, before realising it’s Thursday. I think we could be a little more gentle on The Times, who like everyone must be suffering from pandemic and lockdown.

    ESCHEW FOI, liked that.

    (I thought the Lord NORTH must be Viscount Melbourne, who was Queen Victoria’s first PM, but this was completely wrong.)

    ATTEND LOI, as noted it took some parsing.

    13′ 17″, thanks z and setter.

    Edited at 2021-02-11 09:43 am (UTC)

  15. A nice challenge with lots to enjoy throughout. Slightly surprised by First Fiddle, and Rice Paddy certainly looks odd.

    Pythagoras advised us to eschew (rather than chew) beans though there is some debate as to why.

    Thank you setter and blogger

  16. 10:37. Steady. I’m not sure if I’ve come across playing first fiddle before, but as Jerry says it was easy to deduce. Thinking the last word was going to be RELAY stopped me from seeing 10ac for a while.
    I did spot the problem with RICE PADDY – in fact it slowed me down because I couldn’t work out the parsing so I didn’t put it in until I had all the checkers.

    Edited at 2021-02-11 11:21 am (UTC)

  17. Same query with RICE PADDY as others, though I agree with the blogger that it’s a nice definition. Happy that I figured out PUTTI, not having heard of them, and that I parsed ATTEND.

    An enjoyable crossword, above query aside.

    FOI Interpol
    LOI Putti
    COD Attend

  18. 10 Across. The MC Rally is a competition, certainly — but is it a race?
    Anyway, an enjoyable puzzle, under 19 mins.
  19. RICE PADDY. Do you drop the P down, P being an abbreviation for price i.e. cost? Just a thought.
    1. You might have something on the intention of the clue — perhaps “dropping right down” was meant to indicate the P dropping all the way to the end. However P is not a recognised abbreviation for price so the clue doesn’t quite work as it is.
      1. It occurred to me that since currency is mentioned in the clue it might have started ‘Cost dropping penny…”

        Edited at 2021-02-11 05:29 pm (UTC)

  20. Some cute clues, and neat wordplay (knock on head for END perhaps the prime example); few biffs. Odd RICE PADDY (not in Chambers) reminds me of surprisingly delicious dish of treacle-covered deep-fried ricebirds (Java sparrows) at lunch at the China Club in Hong Kong many years ago … my wanderlust grows daily.
  21. I was ok with the FIRST FIDDLE as just being another way of referring to the violinist who comes onstage right before the conductor and gets a round of applause to him/herself. 15.53
    1. In that sense it isn’t really a recognisable idiom though, so I don’t think I’d expect to see it as a crossword answer, just as I wouldn’t expect to see PLAY SECOND TROMBONE. Still, whatever gets you to the right answer!

      Edited at 2021-02-11 11:28 am (UTC)

  22. Thanks for explaining ATTEND, it was my LOI after 8m 26s and I didn’t have a clue what was going on, other than the definition.

    The error in RICE PADDY hasn’t yet been corrected online…

    I wonder if I was the only one who entered ERNES for 15a? Hidden in govERNESs but doesn’t really work.

  23. Pretty straightforward. Just held up at the end not knowing Ms Eyre’s profession. STROPHE and PUTTI both newish words for me.
  24. 16.00. Was saved by remembering strophe from a puzzle a few weeks back. Otherwise reasonably straightforward. FOI eschew, LOI wide eyed. NHO play first fiddle but if there’s a second I suppose it has to be a recognised term.

    Liked diploma, wayfarer and heedful but my COD was physique.

  25. Not much to say about this Goldilocks zone crossword. Tricky enough to be satisfying and polite enough not to outstay its welcome. 22 m.
  26. CLASS and RAUCOUS got me off to a quick start, and the rest of the NW followed, apart from the MONTE CARLO RALLY which arrived later, and helped with the completion of the NE quadrant. I noticed the error in the RICE PADDY clue, but shrugged and moved on. I was pleased to remember STROPHE and PUTTI, both only known from crossword land. Was familiar with First Violin as the leader of the Orchestra, so happily extrapolated to First Fiddle. ATTEND brought up the rear. my 29:32 put me outside of the top 100, so no entry in the SNITCH for me today. Thanks setter and Z.
  27. About 45m here with too long on TOP NOTCH as I had in my head seen it as 5-3 and was leaning towards TOPPO ACE which was fine but for a) not existing and b) didn’t parse. ‘Keep thinking, Butch, it’s what you’re good at’!
    I did notice the apparent error in RICE PADDY but can’t claim it held me up for long. However TIMBRE did as I couldn’t really equate time and sentence, but probably just me. Many thanks, Z, for the characteristically entertaining blog and also setter for the workout.
  28. All correct makes a nice change especially after an abominable momble in yesterday’s effort (happy to reveal by special request )

    Greek O-Level helped with STROPHE (and 1d from yesterday). and no other unknowns.

    Stared at M_N_E for longer than I should have. The error in RICE PADDY went over my head but not the nice (as already mentioned) definition.

    Not sure the clue for DIPLOMA was the smoothest ever but as I had the wrong end of the stick on the type of pass the PDM made me smile so that’s my COD

    Thanks all

  29. A late entry today, but all done in 41mins. I did not notice the error at 16d so clearly unparsed! Sad, after said note to self some days ago. Liked TIMBRE and WAYFARER. Interesting discussion re grammar earlier on. Are we any the wiser? Thanks z and setter.
  30. ….and for all I knew she could have been a harlot. Didn’t bother parsing the obvious RICE PADDY until afterwards — only then did the faulty clue become apparent. Aside from my COD, I also liked LOCALE and BLUDGEON.

    FOI ESCHEW
    LOI EYRIE
    COD QUANDARY
    TIME 8:16

  31. Another PARIS DAKAR RALLY here which I couldn’t parse, until the obvious answer appeared. Second half completed in record time just now after a very slow early effort.
  32. Quite quick with a long pause at the end. I needed time to see BLUDGEON. Then I considered all the options for 25d and went with PITTI (Tip reversed). PUTTI new to me and I won’t forget it.
    My favourite was TOP NOTCH.
    David
  33. Off wavelength today – ground to a halt with about a third remaining. Every clue after that was a struggle but got there in the end with LOI ATTEND.
  34. 46 minutes today, with a number of clues parsed correctly but, shall we say, haltingly. For 28 across I nearly put in BLUE-EYED (the problem with speaking another language much of the time: in German it would be blauäugig, or blue-eyed, but that didn’t quite fit the wordplay so I corrected it). Also put off by the wrong “right” in the clue for RICE PADDY, but what else could it be? COD to PLAY FIRST FIDDLE, which gave me no problems (you can’t play second fiddle if there is no one playing first fiddle, can you?)
  35. I took my time today simply because I didn’t have the time to spare, so I dipped in and out and left the clock running. I was and remain puzzled over the wordplay of RICE PADDY and had never heard of PUTTI although it seemed the best candidate for a guess. Of course, if I had paid more attention I would not have entered ADTEND stupidly for ATTEND, I might have biffed PARAPET – and I’d have been home and dry.
  36. There are a few, probably those I never spelled correctly in the past, that just jump out. I am reminded of that Reader”s Digest chestnut: “ Outside a cemetery sat a harassed cobbler and an embarrassed peddler, gnawing on a desiccated potato and gazing on the symmetry of a lady’s ankle with unparalleled ecstasy.” But I can never spell gauge!

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