Guardian 28,127 / Qaos

84 comments on “Guardian 28,127 / Qaos”

1. A very well hidden theme for his century – bravo Qaos and thank you Eileen. Is it just me or is Qaos getting easier? Fewer outre clues and many of these were very straightforward. I had “snakey” at first instead of sneaky, and I think it fits just as well – I know snakes are not slippery to touch (I have a pet python) but their movement is certainly slippery and the term is used as a synonym.

   All good fun – thank you both.

2. There is also an acrostic in the clues!

   Congratulations to Qaos, and thanks to Eileen.

3. Thanks both. Congratulations Eileen on finding a fiendishly difficult theme

4. Thanks Eileen and Qaos

   Straightforward. I didn’t see the theme of course! MOORGATE was favourite.

   18d would be better as “usually comes to 18” as it doesn’t on many courses. The one where I play has 15, for example (as it’s a nine hole course). Many top courses have considerably more than 18 teeing areas.

5. Well spotted, BH!

6. muffin @5 – to be fair I only spotted that because Qaos gave me a big hint in a Tweet.

7. Well done DCI Eileen-or is it Bletchley Hill. Someone on the G thread pointed it out (subtly) but even then I didnt realise it was Q’s century.

   Bravo!

8. Many thanks, beery @2. Aargh – he’s done it again!

9. Well this is quite magnificent, isn’t it? What a tour-de-force of grid-filling.

   Cheers and congratulations to Qaos and Eileen

10. I think the word ERADIATE was new to me

11. I think that this is Qaos’ finest puzzle to date. Congratulations on achieving the century.

12. Accidently stumbled on the theme when I was trying to convince myself that my answer to 15ac was correct. In comparison, today’s Times concise theme is a doddle.

13. It probably took me several years of looking at Fifteensquared before I finally got it into my head that Qaos always has a theme.  However this often doesn’t help with the solving, because I frequently finish the puzzle and am scratching my head as to what the theme might be, and this was the case today.  I even toyed with the idea that maybe all the answers had no connection with each other, and the theme was therefore a tribute to the word disassociation game on I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue.  But very well spotted Eileen and beery hiker – in retrospect it’s an amazing achievement.

    Even without getting the theme I enjoyed this, and particularly liked 5d MOORGATE (I always enjoy a …GATE clue) and the clever 18d TEETOTAL.

    Many thanks and congratulations Qaos, and thanks of course Eileen.

14. Stared at the filled grid but nothing clicked or clanged, then a quick look at the thread in the other place and there was the clue in one of the posts. Then Eileen gave it the occasion. Happy century Qaos!

    No bother with the puzzle, a nice stroll. Nho Sir Trevor, and Moorgate was a guess, but no matter. Thought ‘e+radiate..?.hmm well there’s ir+radiate, so…’ and there it was in the SOED, ever since 1647, who knew? Re 20ac, always a bit sad when poor Di is called on to serve my cw enjoyment..just something I feel. Pertaining needs ‘to’ to equate to concerning, merest quiblet in the centennial circs. Lots of entertainment, thanks Qaos and Eileen.

15. Well totally missed the theme and the acrostic. Well done Eileen and BH! A tour de force – congratulations to Qaos.

    Nevertheless, TheZed@1 I don’t think it is you, I’m also finding Qaos easier.

    Thanks to Qaos for the fun and Eileen for the excellent blog.

16. Could someone point me to the theme? (I get the +C and the acrostic– thanks @2– are they it?)

17. ..and hundreds of missing letters to find..awesome!

18. And there was I thinking the theme had to do with something about emotions, or feelings, or human reactions… there are quite a few in that vague sort of area. When I had three out of the first three acrosses, and five out of seven, I thought I was in for a easy time and, although I slowed (as usual), it wasn’t too hard to finish it eventually. Missed the real theme completely, even though I remember thinking about a couple of the acrosses that there were other words if you added a C (INSOMNIA which I wanted to enter as INSOMNIAC but ran out of room and then realised there was no C in the fodder, ALTERATION, ERADIATE, MEDIATE). Very clever, Qaos, and the usual elegant blog, Eileen – thanks to both.

19. 11 across had me quietly voicing one of my favourite lines in Shakespeare, from Sonnet 116:”Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds”. Enjoyed this, particularly liked the economy of 10ac

20. That is outrageously good setting – and theme and acrostic spotting. Congratulations to Qaos, Eileen and beery! The puzzle itself went in readily enough but I could have stared at it all week and not spotted the hidden gems. ERADIATE was new and worth knowing – although I doubt I’ll ever use it. Thanks to everyone involved.

21. Wonderful. Like a gentle stroll on a spring morning. For some reason, I got it into my head that there might be a Kraftwerk theme – maybe somehow subliminally picked up on the sad news about Florian Schneider. Strangely, when I put in RAFTSMAN I did think hmmm craftsman, covers, covert but thought no more of it. Slippery Harry Kane was definitely my surface of the day. Cheers all

22. I was going to comment on some very good clues that I savoured on the way to completing this, but instead I shall congratulate Qaos on his century and report my total admiration for both the missing Cs and the acrostic, neither of which I would ever have noticed but for coming here. What made it so impressive is that I didn’t sense any ‘strain’ either in the choice of words for the solutions or in the phrasing of any of the clues.
    Bravo Qaos, and many thanks to Eileen for the blog.

23. Qaos always a pleasure….
    I thought INSOMNIA was a stand out clue. “slacker” is as good an anagrind as I’ve seen – and the anagrist wasn’t bad either! For those interested this is a lovely example of a proper “lift and separate” clue; “sleep” is part of the definition, “in” is part of the word play and “sleep in” the natural phrase in the surface that has to be (lifted and) separated to get at the cryptic analysis. I recall reading that some setters like their first clue to be a bit special, as with novelists and opening lines. This was a humdinger.
    Many thanks, both and all.

24. Thanks for pointing out the theme and acrostic. Where themes are concerned my brain ranks alongside that of 24ac.

25. Can anyone explain the acrostic? I have trawled both starts and finishes of across and down clues but am still clueless. Thank goodness Eileen did not initially see it either!

26. @25: the initial letters of the clues read FIND HUNDREDS OF MISSING LETTERS.

27. It spells out FIND HUNDREDS OF MISSING LETTERS. ie add a C (Roman numeral for a hundred) and get another word.

28. Haras K @25 If you read the first letters of each clue.  All the across clues first and then all the down.  The result will leap out.

    Already this morning I feel it’s all been said.  Elegant clueing, some nice devices, a theme that completely passed over my head and an acrostic I never thought to look for.  I am just lost in admiration.

    Thanks for the workout Qaos and Eileen well done for spotting what you did.

29. Sorry John Wells we crossed (slow typing).

30. As anyone who ever tried it knows, making all the words fit a grid is difficult in the first place, then there is the constraint of a theme. To make an acrostic of the clues on top of that is extraordinary!

    Congratulations to Qaos for the ton and for one of the best crafted crosswords in the canon.

    Thanks to Eileen and BH for the illumination.

31. What a brilliant crossword, and there I was, pleased to have finished earlier than usual, and completely missed the ingenuity in the clues and solutions. I would never have spotted all that without Eileen and beery hiker pointing it out, even if I had known the significance of 100 today.
    Many thanks Qaos and congratulations.

32. Many congratulations Qaos. Anyone who has ever compiled a cryptic will know how difficult it is to get an acrostic in the clues – even harder to do so without it standing out like a sore thumb and ruining the individual clue, so much kudos for that.

33. What a week we’re having!

    My heart leaps at Qaos name on a puzzle – probably my favourite current setter in the Graun – and always have my eyes peeled for the theme but missed it all today. And yet it’s somehow even more wonderful to discover his ingenuity after the fact. Talk about hidden in plain sight.

    Thanks Eileen and congrats Qaos on a century, a brilliant celebration puzzle and here’s to many more.

34. Magnificent. How he does it I will never know. And the acrostic as well. Sheer genius. Congrats on a great ton!

35. Yes, as many have said, kudos and congratulations to Qaos for the grid filling, the theme and the acrostic, all of which completely passed me by. Very impressive.

    I was more struck, initially, by how easy most of this was to solve. Only ERADIATE held me up (and, yes, it’s closeness to eradicate did occur to me, but the penny failed to drop), and my brain clogged up when it came to a synonym for dry (doh!), but overall it was probably my quickest ever Guardian cryptic solve, starting with 8a, which I wrote in before even getting to the end of the clue!

36. Great crossword! Hate to spoil the party but Matt Damon has been nominated seven times for an Emmy award

    but never won one.

37. I of course missed the theme. Fortunately I also missed the acrostic. Had I seen it I think I would have found the crossword more difficult. Contrary to most commentators, I find the theme clever but inelegant. Yes, a minority of the across solutions (not all of them Eileen, unless my vocabulary is a good deal more limited than I had thought) can be preceded by a ‘C’, but this has no bearing on the solutions, which are otherwise unrelated. The same thing happens randomly on many crosswords and doesn’t mean anything. It also appears to happen randomly here, as only some of the solutions (6 out of 14 by my count) qualify in this way. Or am I missing something?

    Other than all that, it was a good puzzle. Thanks Qaos and congratulations.

38. I completely missed the theme, like everyone else. But I did spend a couple of minutes wondering why Qaos has clued ERADIATE in a rather convoluted way, rather than ERDI(C)ATE. Doh!

    Enjoyed SNEAKY and TEETOTAL

39. poc @37

    The ones where the C doesn’t fit at the beginning can have a C inserted (or added at the end, as with INSOMNIAC).

40. This is what I love about 225. I really enjoyed this, but then my enjoyment doubled (tripled, nay, googoled) on coming here, and being made aware of the cleverness and sheer fun of the puzzle.
    I was also, of course, very pleased to see 24a.
    Thanks and congratulations to Qaos, and thanks also to Eileen and BH.

41. Great crossword. Great blog. Seems

    Re mij @36 Damon did win an Emmy in 2009,just not Matt Damon.

    https://www.emmys.com/bios/damon-trotta

42. Alan B @22 has said it all for me. As I completed the grid I was thinking that it was right in my Goldilocks zone, with most clues putting up just enough of a fight to keep it interesting. Then on coming her I discovered that there was both a theme (probably a harder than usual theme from a setter’s perspective) and an acrostic with no compromise in the quality of the clues. Calling it impressive is faint praise!

    Congratulations to Qaos on the century, and thanks to Eileen for her usual excellent blog (and to beery for the acrostic spotting).

43. poc @ 37:  I think you’re being a little uncharitable.  If I may suggest, you’re also not quite correct in a couple of points:  Firstly, it’s not just any letter, it’s the letter C, representing 100, of course.  Secondly, it doesn’t have to precede the word, it can be inserted as well; and thirdly, it does apply to all the across answers.

    This achievement, plus the amazing acrostic, is simply superb.  Perhaps you got out of bed on the wrong side today.

44. Apologies, muffin, slow typist.

45. Afternoon all! Many thanks for all the comments and to Eileen for the blog.

    Reaching 100 weekday puzzles for the Guardian is quite a milestone for me, so I decided try something different to my usual ghost themes. It’s not giving much away to say it’ll be business as usual next time. Fitting the “missing C” words into a grid wasn’t too tricky – it was the acrostic that took time. How Araucaria set clues in rhyming couplets is just mind boggling. I’ll be happy sticking with ghost themes.

    Hope you’re all surviving the lockdown and keeping well in these crazy times.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos

46. I thought: “Qaos, there must be a theme” but of course missed it all entirely. What a fabulous piece of compiling; chapeau to Qaos – this one’s very special!

    Like TheZed @1; I thought 3 was ‘snakey’ at first.

    Thanks Qaos, Eileen and beery hiker @2.

47. I looked in vain for the theme before coming here, read down to the quoted hint, and was able to go back and spot what was going on. Many thanks Eileen for writing the introduction to the blog in a way that made that possible.
    Thanks and congratulations to Qaos.

48. Genius.

     

49. muffin@39 and william@43: you’re both right. I misinterpreted Eileen’s explanation. I agree that the result is remarkable in that light.

50. Brilliant! I missed the theme though I searched and searched on completion of the grid – and I certainly would never have seen that acrostic in a million years! All hail Qaos, and congratulations to the many clever solvers on this forum. Thank you to Eileen for explaining your process in finding the “C” key and for your other helpful explanations. Well done beery hiker@2 on spotting the acrostic. Talk about thinking beyond the square/s!

51. It’s all been said – I simply wanted to add my appreciation. The missing “hundreds” are magnificent enough on their own, but to have them plus the acrostic in the clues is quietly brilliant.
    A truly stunning achievement.
    Thank you Eileen for pointing out the theme, thanks also to beery hiker for spotting the acrostic. Congratulations and a standing ovation to Qaos!

52. Well now I know, this one probably tops Brendan’s Year-filled bonanza!

    Utterly oblivious to the theme (despite the obvious clue of it being set by Qaos), I pencilled in a quibble about the first across clue being too easy from the definition – that it had to be INSOMNIA – and that the anagram was correspondingly easy.

    The next few went in as easily, and all was soon done with little consternation.

    Once Eileen pointed out what Qaos has done with the across clues, however, I was blown away.

    With beery hiker spotting the acrostic on top of that, well blimey!

    Favourite was Harry Kane: I’m a Spurs fan plus it’s a clever device.

    Congratulations to Qaos on the milestone and for a superb puzzle. Thanks to Eileen and beery hiker!

53. Thanks and congrats to Qaos and to the perceptive Eileen (and bh@2).

    Gob-smacking stuff, lost in admiration for the theming and the acrostic.  But I also enjoyed the crossword in it’s own right with POOH and TEETOTAL taking gold and silver.

    Non sum dignus from this quarter. (Obsequious bowing while reversing towards door.)

     

54. No need to thank me – it was another Guardian commenter (Ambadorer) that drew my attention to the across clues, and Qaos gave me a hint about the acrostic via Twitter, so I have really just been acting as a messenger.

    I would like to add my praise for the ingenuity of the construction, and thanks to Qaos for popping in.

55. I missed the C theme and also the acrostic in the clues – very clever!

    I failed to solve 24a and 18d.

    DAMSON was new for me as a word, ditto the Trevor person/footballer.
    I had wondered about Matt Damon, and discovered that he has never won an EMMY. He did win an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, but not as an actor. Damon Trotta is not an actor – he is a re-recording mixer. So, the clue is wrongly worded 🙁

    Thanks Qaos and Eileen

56. I think posters are getting a bit carried away in their praise of this puzzle. Yes, it was extremely clever (and the acrostic even more so), but it wasn’t all that good as a puzzle in itself – rather too easy to solve. I think that we can distinguish between the incredible achievement of setting it and the lesser satisfaction in solving it. Yesterday’s was much more fun to solve.

57. Enjoyed this without picking up the theme at all, though we noticed a few oddities such as the Emmy in 21d. It all makes sense now that Eileen and Beery Hiker have alerted us to the theme. Thanks to you both, and also to Qaos, of course.

58. Well done Qaos and congratulations on the impressive milestone.

    RESTING was my last one in, I wasn’t sure it was right, and it didn’t magically unlock a theme that had been eluding me – and continued to do that. Missed completely, acrostic and all, very clever and a lot of fun.

     

    Thanks Eileen & BH

59. muffin @56

    I don’t equate difficulty with fun. I equate fun with fun. Some of my absolute favourite crossword clues are really easy (The classic “I say nothing (3)” for example. They’re elegant, they’re clever, they’re witty, they amused me when I cracked them. Difficulty is neither here nor there when it comes to enjoyment for the most part. Oh – I enjoy finishing off a tough puzzle (I finally finished up the last few clues on Saturday’s prize this morning – and felt good about it) – but it’s not the same feeling I get when I solve a really nice clue – regardless of difficulty. I’ll happily take an easy solve that’s fun than a hard one that’s a grind. I’ll admit that fun and difficulty don’t need to be mutually exclusive – some hard clues can be super-fun to crack. But the opposite is also true – easy can be just as much fun. This was a lovely puzzle – and finding out how cleverly constructed it was afterwards was a bonus.

     

    Many thanks all, and congratulations to Qaos on the century. I look forward to many more…

60. MarkN @59

    That’s my point, really. I didn’t find many of these clues amusing. I did like MOORGATE (as I said earlier), POOH, and OVERT (though that relied on GK from some time ago); not much else. Not to say it was a poor puzzle, but Brendan’s yesterday, for example, was much more fun.

    I mean in no way to detract from the triumph of setting, but to me it seems one of those that is more satisfying to set than solve.

61. muffin @56
    I think you may have let your own solving skill (if I may say so) get in the way of acknowledging other solvers’ genuine experiences of this puzzle. This was for me on a par with yesterday’s and was not what I would call ‘easy’. But it was not that difficult either, again just like yesterday’s.
    I actually had some things to praise in this puzzle before I knew anything about its special features (which were the subject of my fulsome comment @22). I enjoyed, first, the task I set myself of getting the four shortest answers – all of them very good clues. I then noted several other well-crafted clues while solving the rest of the puzzle, and I marked four further favourites: ADDITIVE, INSECURE, CASTLES and MOORGATE.

62. Very impressive crossword — that was my reaction before I knew about the theme and acrostic — a mind-blowing puzzle, now that both have been explained. None of this is diminished by the error in 21d — “Emmy award winning” could be corrected by either “Emmy nominated” or “Oscar winning.” Michelle @55 is correct — Matt Damon has never won an Emmy. Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

63. I agree with William F P that INSOMNIA was the star clue, with slacker fitting perfectly in the surface and every word doing its part.  I also ticked UTMOST for much the same reason.  I’m not so keen on the garbled cryptic grammar in SNEAKY, but if you get past that, it’s a nifty way of using Harry Kane.  Kudos for levering in Trevor from an earlier era too.

    Superbly crafted centenary puzzle.  Congratulations, Q!  Thanks, Eileen and BH, for the heads-up to the theme and the acrostic (sadly overlooked by yours truly 🙁 ).

64. Tony @62 Emmy nominated would work, but Oscar winning would break the acrostic…

65. Congrats to Qaos for reaching a ton!

    Solved it, looked for a theme, didn’t see it – what, a themeless Qaos?

    Only after I came here it became clear what was going on, and, like others, I can only admire the ‘extra bits’.

    The clueing itself was not much different from what we usually see from Qaos, I thought, but yes …. with a really impressive bonus!

    Many thanks to Eileen & Qaos.

66. beery hiker@64 You are correct … and that reminds me again how remarkable this crossword really is.

67. Thank you for explaining, I clearly did not fully understand what an acrostic is, being fairly new to all this. Thanks Qaos I thought it was genius! And I could never solve Auricaria anyway although I always enjoyed looking at (and trying to parse) the solutions (I had not heard of 15 sq in those days!)

68. I agree with Muffin@56,I’m afraid, and was going to make pretty much the same points that he made. I suppose there may be a touch of sour grapes involved because I looked for a theme and didn’t see one. I didn’t look for an acrostic though, and I doubt I’ll make looking for one my practice!
    Quite enjoyed the puzzle while I was doing it though.
    Thanks Qaos.

69. Regarding the comparisons between this puzzle and Brendan’s offering of two days ago, I think most would agree that we have had two exceptional treats this week. Beyond that it’s probably best to recognize that the level of fun is a pretty subjective judgment. For me, Brendan was more fun during the solving process, although as one of the less-skilled solvers here I found Qaos to be engaging as well, and admiring his setting skill afterward added an extra layer of fun.

70. I completely failed to see the theme. I noticed some unusual word choices, especially ERADIATE, which I’d never seen before, but never saw what to do with them. I also found myself wondering what the word “Declared” was doing in the clue for 23ac — just padding, misleadingly suggesting a homophone? But now I see it was necessary for the acrostic. It’s impressive that there weren’t more noticeably odd phrasings required to make the acrostic work.

     

     

71. Really enjoyed this, even more so when I came here and found out what the theme was. In particular I liked 18d because a course that’s dry doesn’t have a 19th hole so the tee total is 18, as opposed to muffin’s 15.

72. Sorry, Eileen, just a small point, but I couldn’t see how to fit a C into 23a to get another word; then I realised you had missed an I out of AMIABiLITY.

    I was in the “looked hard, didn’t see theme, nor nina, nor acrostic” camp.

     

    I found it started quite easy, but unlike everyone else, it seems, I had trouble getting the last few (MOORGATE, RAFTSMAN)

     

    Thanks Eileen  and Qaos – congrats on the first hundred.

     

73. All been said. Lost in admiration for Qaos (congratulations also) and many thanks to Eileen and BH for adding to the pleasure after finishing. Wou!d never have spotted that a hundred years

74. Dave Ellison @72

    My sincere apologies – error fixed now: I really thought I had got away with no typos today! [But, in all fairness, I can’t really see how that stopped you from inserting a C into your own solution: the explanation of the wordplay was correct. 😉 ]

75. It’s all been said above. Absolutely in awe of Qaos’ ingenuity. Thanks also to Eileen for the elegant blog and the detective work on the theme which (as ever) is obvious once explained.

    And as for the acrostic…

76. What a brilliant theme – I would not have spotted it in a million years! Loved the puzzle (with the exception of the rather weak RESTING…).

77. Congrats and thank Qaos. I did spot that several across solutions could be preceded by C, but that was as far as I got, so thanks BH and Eileen.

78. Congratulations, Qaos. Unfortunately I have been too busy this week with covid-19 research to solve crosswords.

79. Awesome theme. However, the plural of señor is actually señores which leaves a pesky e to be got rid of in 19down.

80. Cookie@78, your post worries me. I always love reading what you say. I hope everything is okay for you and that you are well.

81. Lovely theme which true to form I completely missed until I came here to check an answer.  Thank you and congratulations Qaos, and thank you Eileen and Beery Hiker for making this LEAR 😉

82. J-in-A @80, thank you for your enquiry – I am fine, but busy doing research into the high covid-19 death rates of the BAME people in the UK.  I am saving this special crossword to do later when I have time.

83. Didnt see the theme, but wasnt looking for one. On having it explained plus the acrostic am lost in admiration. Brilliant

84. Cookie@82. Glad that you are well and I really admire you for the important research in which you are engaged. I hope you get a little headspace to enjoy this puzzle. You deserve it.

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