Guardian 26,351 – Qaos

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I didn’t enjoy this as much as some other Qaos puzzles, as I think there are some dodgy constructions, and a couple of rather weak CDs. However, there are are some great clues too, including two nice &lits.

There’s usually a “ghost theme” in Qaos puzzles; I looked for it in vain for quite a while, but it hit me just in time: there are several Beatles albums dotted around the grid. I saw YELLOW SUBMARINE, ABBEY ROAD, SERGEANT PEPPER, RUBBER SOUL and REVOLVER – any others? I also thought I wasn’t going to be able to explain 14d, but again got it just in time.

 
 
 
Across
9. SUBMARINE Stand by, I’m near plastic vessel (9)
SUB (substitute, stand by) + (I’M NEAR)*
10. ELUDE Puzzle introduction needs no PR (5)
PRELUDE less PR
11. UTOPIAN University principal’s first article is ideal (7)
U + TOP (principal) + I (first) + AN (article)
12. ALGEBRA Subject‘s gradable problem? D minus (7)
GRADABLE* less D
13. ABBEY Church and evangelical youth leaders welcome bishops (5)
BB in A[nd] E[vangelical] Y[outh]
14. RED-HAIRED I heard dancing about the finale of Fred and Ginger (3-6)
(I HEARD)* + RE (about) + [Fre]D
16. CURTAIN LECTURES Her rebukes in bed regarding the drapes? (7,8)
Cryptic definition, or sesquidef (def. + hint) – a curtain lecture is “a lecture or reproof given in private, esp in bed by a woman to her husband” I’d never heard of this and would have appreciated some more helpful wordplay
19. SKY PILOTS Clergy with their heads in the clouds? (3,6)
Another sesquidef, though a more familiar expression (to me) this time
21. PAVES With little money, save Scrabble tiles (5)
P (penny, little money) + SAVE*
22. SOLITON Lots? No, one wave (7)
(LOTS NO I)* &lit – rather ingenious, as a soliton is a “solitary wave”
23. REPULSE Back up to enter river, otherwise drive back (7)
UP< in R ELSE
24. UDONS Noodles sound fishy (5)
SOUND* – I’m familiar with the Japanese type of noodle, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this plural form and I’m not sure how acceptable it is
25. STATEMENT Report from small gallery: “Oh no! Monet’s been vandalised” (9)
S + TATE + MONET* less O – homophone of “Oh”, or perhaps just a variant?
Down
1. ASSURANCES Can Russia’s assembly revoke independence to protect energy guarantees? (10)
E in (CAN RUSSIA’S) less I
2. ABSORBER Sponge recipe accepted by sailor, not drunk (8)
R in AB + SOBER
3. SANITY Reason isn’t a substitute to ask “why?” (6)
(ISN’T A)* + Y (homophone of “why” – indicated by “ask”, I suppose)
4. LION Priestess consumed by large, northern animal (4)
IO (a priestess in Greek mythology) in L N
5. REGARDLESS Without consideration, no matter what (10)
Double definition
6. SERGEANT He gets near battle (8)
(HE GETS NEAR)* – another clever &lit
7. RUBBER Ball keeping low loses golf games (6)
GRUBBER (aka “grub kick”, “a kick which sends the ball low along the ground”) less G[olf]. A rubber is a set of Games in Bridge
8. FETA Eat crackers after strong cheese (4)
F (forte, strong) + EAT*
14. RANDOMNESS Actor’s fury? Parts with bad unpredictability (10)
[Marlon] BRANDO + MADNESS (fury), less (“parting with”) B and AD. Very ingenious, but maybe the fact that BAD has to be split before removal needs to be indicated more clearly
15. DUST SHEETS Covers performances about good man and woman (4,6)
ST + SHE in DUETS.
17. ACID TEST Process dictates rigorous appraisal (4,4)
DICTATES*
18. REVOLVER Minister’s mistress raises gun: … (8)
Reverse of the minister’s mistress, who is a REV-LOVER
20. YELLOW … “It’s cowardly to cry over wife” (6)
YELL + O + W
21. PEPPER Look over pressure with power shower (6)
P (pressure) P (power) in PEER. “Shower” as in “shower of bullets” etc
22. SOUL Immortal music? (4)
Double definition
23. ROAD Children’s author’s first to abandon Latin course (4)
ROALD [Dahl], less L

34 comments on “Guardian 26,351 – Qaos”

  1. Thanks Qaos and Andrew
    I enjoyed this, despite a couple of obscurities. I got CURTAIN LECTURES from the crossers, never having heard of (or heard, thankfully!) them, and I had no idea how RANDOMNESS or RUBBER parsed (though, as a rugby follower, I should have seen this one). I also wasted some time trying to fit “sorbo” (as in “sorbo rubber”) into 2d.

    I loved the misdirection in UDONS and the economy of the clue for SOLITON (which, fortunately, I had heard of). ACID TEST was also very nice. (Incidentally, this is often confused with using litmus to identify an acid; the true meaning is to use nitric acid, then a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids (aqua regia) to confirm a metal sample as being gold.)

  2. I’m one of many who couldn’t parse RANDOMNESS, and having seen how it’s done I can’t say I feel particularly stupid for not doing so. Thanks for the enlightenment.

  3. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

    I enjoyed this, without having heard of CURTAIN LECTURES, UDONS or SOLITON. My favourites were PAVES, STATEMENT, and ACID TEST.

    I was thanking my lucky stars that this wasn’t my blog, since I could make nothing at all of RANDOMNESS – and then the penny dropped. I liked it.

    I didn’t spot the theme until I’d completely finished.

    [There’s a small typo in 21dn: PP in PEER.]

    Many thanks to Qaos for another clever puzzle.

  4. Eileen @3
    “I didn’t spot the theme until I’d completely finished.”

    Of course, I didn’t spot the theme until I read the blog (despite there being mention of it on the Guardian site)!

  5. Only failed on SOLITON and SKY PILOTS (which had occurred to me, but I couldn’t see how it’d work). Missed the theme, which I am much ashamed about.

    5d I felt a particularly weak double-definition, with the two part meaning much the same thing.

  6. Can anyone offer an authority for UDONS? Or is “fishy” supposed to signal both the anagram, and that the solution is incorrect because UDON is already a plural noun?

  7. I enjoyed this, even though I failed to see the theme! My favourites were 15d, 8d, 17d, 25a, 23a.

    New words for me were SOLITON, SKY PILOT, CURTAIN LECTURES.

    I was not quite able to parse 7d, 23a, 14d.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

  9. David Mop @6
    Chambers gives UDON as “in Japanese cookery, a thick noodle made from wheat flour” but Collins has it as “noodles”. Oxford on-line categorises it as a mass noun so it would appear that opinion is divided.

  10. Thank you muffin @8. There is also the precedent that in English we do tend to say spaghettis to describe more than one dish containing spaghetti.

    But it still reminds me of the sign I saw in the window of a pretentious cake shop. It boasted that they sold gateaux’s…

  11. A mixed bag for me: I needed a dictionary for 16 and 22a, couldn’t parse 14d, wasn’t greatly impressed with “battle” and “substitute” as anagram indicators, but was thoroughly delighted when I eventually spotted the theme. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  12. Thanks, Andrew. I liked this one, but failed to see the ghost theme, natch. Strangely, I put CURTAIN LECTURES in with only a couple of crossers; but only because it keeps coming up in crosswords and when I first saw it I thought it was an odd expression and have remembered it since.

    SOLITON I put in from the wordplay – nice clue.

    Well done to Qaos.

  13. 12 anagrams and a whole host of grammaticals in the constructions, for me anyway. Clunky is the word.

    Re the &lits, are they? SOLITON is an obscure word anagrammed, which is very unfair to solvers I feel, and only ‘one wave’ in a very glib sense, while ‘he gets near’ is simply wrong – he’s right in it! Whatever, I didn’t think they’d been thought through.

    Thought CURTAIN LECTURES (so obscure despite anything else) and SKY PILOTS particularly weak.

  15. I only remember to look for a theme or nina when there isn’t one! Completely missed – again!

    Started last night and hit a brick wall and then wondered why when the rest went in quite easily this morning except for soliton which I didn’t know. The wonders of sleep!!

  16. Say what you like about Pasquale yesterday but the obscurities were all clearly clued. CURTAIN LECTURES however relies simply on knowing the phrase, which judging from the above few regular solvers do. I’d got the CURTAIN bit from the drapes, but for *E*T*R*S it was just finding a word which fitted the crossers. General knowledge, not cryptic solving.

    The other obscurities, SOLITON and UDONS, were however fairly dealt with. Wish I’d thought to look for a theme, otherwise my last in PEPPER would have come quicker.

  17. David @6 – I’d agree with the UDONS plurality quibble. I don’t think anyone’s ever like to say they’re having udons for tea, any more so than they’d have ramens or spaghettis (would one of those be a spaghetto?) – and as I’m guessing you know, Japanese doesn’t have plurals. I’ve also seen that lovely, yet painful “gateaux’s” at Newcastle United in the prawn sandwich brigade section – one wonders what their plethora of French players though of that.

  18. John Appleton @ 17
    But might they say “I’ll pick one from this selection of udons”? The sushi site I found obviously thinks so!

  19. Another difficult one with several unfamiliar words, mostly enjoyable – I liked RANDOMNESS once I could parse it. Last in was CURTAIN LECTURES which was new to me, as were SOLITON and UDON(S). Spent too long on it to give much thought to the theme, which ELUDEd me but should have been obvious.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew

  20. Hi all,

    Sorry I don’t have much time today for a proper post (work’s busy), but many thanks for the comments and to Andrew for the excellent blog. Always appreciated.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  21. Thanks all
    Although Roald Dhal was my favourite for 23 d from very early I failed to parse it so it remained incomplete. ‘udons’ is entirely new to me.I liked 23ac and 21d,

  22. I enjoyed the puzzle but completely failed to spot the theme, which is very embarrassing. Unlike K’s D@12 I don’t remember having seen CURTAIN LECTURES in another puzzle and it was my LOI. Although it wasn’t the clearest of clues I don’t agree with Trailman@16’s negative comparison with yesterday’s Pasquale puzzle. Pasquale’s 14dn yesterday required the solver to know a person’s surname for the definition and another person’s surname for the inside of the wordplay, and if that isn’t GK then I don’t know what is.

    I managed to parse RANDOMNESS but raised an eyebrow over the splitting of BAD, much as Andrew did. SOLITON was unknown and was my best guess at arranging the vowels from the anagram fodder. I knew UDONS and didn’t think about the correctness or otherwise of the plural.

  23. I found this quite difficult. I didn’t spot the theme; indeed I didn’t even look for it,and I hadn’t heard of UDONS,SOLITON or CURTAIN LECTURES and had to guess the latter and I agree that the including could have been more precise.

  24. Sheesh. After putting in REVOLVER I actually thought “like the Beatles album” . . . then completely missed all the other Beatles albums.

  25. I enjoyed this this though not as much as a normal Qaos puzzle.

    Andrew actually stated my exact thoughts in his blog so I won’t repeat them.

    I’m sure I’ve read or watched something very recently which used the term “CURTAIN LECTURES” but I had to check it in the dictionary when I finally saw it was a possibility. (Poor clue I thought)

    LOI was SANITY

    Thanks to Andrew and Qaos

  26. We thought, a puzzle with some minuses and a lot of pluses.

    Just like others we had trouble to explain 16ac, only getting there by linking CURTAIN to drapers and LECTURES to rebukes.
    We saw the ghost theme after 3/4 of the grid and therefore decided that 7d had to be RUBBER. I suggested that it might be [g]RUBBER but my PinC was of no real help in this.
    So, thanks for explaining Andrew.

    We could parse 14d but long after finishing the crossword.
    I don’t think there has to be an indicator for splitting ‘bad’.
    (a) There’s a lot of splitting going on in the crossword world of the Guradian, (b) “Actor’s fury” = BRANDOMADNESS and it’s fine to delete B,A,D in that particular order.
    Only a matter of deleting the right A and D.

    While 25ac is a clever clue for an ordinary word, we had to think about “Oh” but just like you, Andrew, we tend to give Qaos the benefit of the doubt.

    We agree with some posts above that 5d wasn’t the best today, however 1d, 15d, 21ac, 22ac and 17d were some to cherish.

    We share the doubts that Cyborg @11 had about “substitute” (3d) as an anagram indicator but we think “battle” (6d) is all right.

    While I wasn’t 100% happy with “D minus” for ‘minus D’ (acceptable though it is), my PinC protested against the use of “raises” in 18d’s REVOLVER. In her opinion it should have been either “raised” or “rises”. I tend to agree.

    Overall, I have to say that I like these kinds of crosswords.
    No Shakespeare, no Ur.
    Instead, a minister’s mistress raising a gun saying that it’s cowardly to cry over his wife. 🙂

    Many thanks to Qaos for a fine hour of entertainment.

  27. Thanks, Andrew. I’ve only just had time to do this puzzle. Saw the theme in the middle of solving which helped me with one of my last in – SOUL.

    I’m surprised no one seems to have pointed out that SERGEANT is not really &lit – HE is not part of the fodder!

  28. Oh, BNTO, you’ve done it again. Who are you to talk of a ‘normal’ Qaos puzzle? How come you are the arbiter of puzzle normality?

  31. I know what you mean……………….however the correct one is available online (it’s a Paul, and considerably easier than most this week.)

  32. Not wishing to seem knowledgeable about noodles (I’m not), Kyoto’s Udon Museum (!) website says: “All of the 45 varieties of udon found in Japan can be seen in this museum.” So even if the Japanese don’t have plurals, in English we would have to choose between all of those udons?

  33. Shocked to find this puzzle reprinted as Saturday’s prize! Thought it was strange to have two consecutive Qaos crosswords. AND the week’s list of crosswords persists in starting each week on a Sunday e.g. Rufus, despite previously pointing this out. Sort it out, Guardian!

  34. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

    Completed in a couple of sessions – needing help with CURTAIN LECTURES and SOLIDON.

    Missed the theme, even knowing that there generally is one with this setter. Had no idea on the parsing of RANDOMNESS … so thanks Andrew.

    SOUL and UDONS were last in. Regardless of whether UDONS is technically correct or not, I thought that it was brilliantly disguised. So, almost forgivable.

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