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I consider myself virtually spanked for bumping a thread with the same title as this to page 1 :)

According to the annotated solutions FRISBEE is Fri's (Friday is) Bee (busy)! I thought FR as an abbrev of Friday was a bit lame.

They also confirmed TWIRLY as expected, they didn't say whether SWIRLY would also be acceptable, so the green tick mystery is unsolved.

And they say PUPPET is a software tool? I've not heard of that and I am a programmer ;) Maybe some of the animators use one of those, but I would call it a marionette instead?



Typical Graun though, they got the number of the puzzle wrong in the page title https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/2021/nov/07/annotated-solutions-for-prize-28584

Also a marionette is definitely not software, they are made of wood, so I don't understand that at all in the annotated solution.

Ok, so you learn something new every day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppet_(software)

I think the glove version fits the clue better to be honest. I've never used that software tool and I've been a programmer for nearly 30 years.

As someone who works in the cloud from time to time, I had heard of Puppet as a software tool but I wouldn't expect the vast majority of solvers to know that. I made the generic equivalence between puppet and tool as metaphors, as in "He's just a puppet of the government" = "they use him as a tool to further their own ends".

I've looked at the annotated solutions. Could someone please explain why:

"swim on vacation" is "sw" (21a), i.e. why "on vacation" means dropping "im". I get the rest of it.

Why the "ch" of each is dropped in "Pain hard in each competition" (4d). Again, I get the rest of it.

Thanks.

21 On vacation the WI (ie the centre is dropped) leaving SM after a synonym for agent.
Fit is the definition.

Thanks but my question is why "on vacation" means "drop the centre of the word". I just don't get it. As mentioned, I get everything else about the clue.

Vacation as in emptying, so on vacation = after emptying

4d ea is an accepted abbreviation for each.

Thanks @rossim and @paradigmshifter. It's all so obvious once you know .