Guardian Cryptic 26,853 by Qaos

53 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 26,853 by Qaos”

1. Thanks manehi and Qaos.

   I found this easyish again today and enjoyable. I half suspected a theme (Captain America) but wasn’t sufficiently au fait to recognise the others.

   ENID foxed me.

2. Thanks Qaos and manehi

   I usually enjoy the challenge of a Qaos puzzle, but I found this both easy and irritating. I have a list of clues that I thought either didn’t work properly or were to obscure to be fair to anyone unfamiliar with the particular references.

   I may be in a particularly pedantic mood, but:
   5 AMERICA isn’t a country; it’s a continent (or two continents, in fact)
   11 BLACK WIDOWS are not “man-eaters”. They may kill you, but they don’t eat you. The do eat male spiders, but they aren’t “men”.
   14 “races” for an anagram indicator?
   16 obscure definition with obscure island
   26 in what way is a MICROSCOPE an “eye”?
   28 baffling if you haven’t read or seen LOTR
   9 obscure actor from many possible; where does the “s” go?
   20 baffling if not a cricket or tennis follower
   22 baffling if not an ancient cricket follower!

   I did like SCARLET and the simple but appealing hidden THOR.

3. Enjoyed this a lot. Loved Enid. Thanks.

4. Good blog manehi and well pointed out theme which sailed over my head. I liked this but was not mad about Merry being short hobbit although I can see the reasoning.Normal cluing for short hobbit would be Frod(o), Merr(y) or Bilb(o) etc.

5. Thanks manehi and Qaos.

   Enjoyed this a lot, and although as is always the case with Qaos’s ghost themes it wasn’t necessary to know anything about Marvel Comics to solve the clues, familiarity with the Avengers did help me spot a few of the solutions from crossers prior to even seeing the definitions in the clues, never mind the parsing.

   Can understand why some might cry foul regarding “Merry” in 28, but given the definition could the answer really be anything else? And LOTR is one of the most widely known (if not loved by all) books, and since the turn of the century film series as well.

   I was a little surprised by 22. No problem for a cricket nut, but probably obscure for many. Pretty clear from the wordplay.

   I went wrong at 20d (before I saw the theme). I had no crossers, but thought an anagram of “umpire” around a wicket – the shape of a capital M, could give “premium” – something important. Ah, well.

6. Copmus @4. Merry is a short name for the hobbit Meriadoc.

   Thanks to blogger and setter.

7. Thanks, manehi.

   Unusually, I’m glad I wasn’t blogging this puzzle, as the theme entirely passed me by. [For me, The Avengers are John Steed, Cathy Gale and Tara King. And I remember the Bedser twins, too. 😉 ]

   As often, I agree with manehi’s favourites and would add 1 and 23 ac and 2, 7, 15 and 25dn – all great surfaces.

   copmus @4 – I take your point but we use the expression ‘short for’ for any abbreviation, don’t we?

   Many thanks, Qaos – I enjoyed it a lot, too, as usual.

8. I agree that black widows don’t actally eat you, but they do bite. The character Black Widow is also a femme fatale or ‘man-eater’ so I liked this clue.

   I failed on the cricketer too, so ‘obscure’ in my world, but I suspect that the theme, familiar to me, could be considered ‘obscure’ for others-it just depends on your sphere of interest, so no complaints.

   Thanks for a fun puzzle!

9. [Eileen @7 – How can you possibly omit Emma Peel?]

10. muffin – she was there in my original comment, honestly, but I temporarily lost internet connection and rewrote it too hastily. In fact, I nearly said simply ‘John Steed and Emma Peel’. 😉

11. Eileen and muffin – how can you forget Purdy/ie, the absolutely fabulous Avenger?!?

12. I didn’t forget her – she was a New Avenger!

13. Nothing baffling, obscure or disingenuous about this neat little puzzle, Muffin. And, come on! Why would anyone watch those awful films of J R R Tolkein’s LOTR and destroy the imagery of one’s childhood imagination!?!? And ALL sensible well-balanced children will have read LOTR; why would you not have done???

14. The first definition of “America” given on Dictionary.com is “United States,” so I think that makes it a country. But I sympathise with some of the other grumbles, Muffin. Anagram indicators seem to be getting more and more adventurous, and I am not convinced by some of the recent ones. 28 was easy enough to get if you’d forgotten the name of the hobbit, which I had. Similarly I felt that the island in 16A was a reasonable level of obscurity – but I had never heard of the ancient cricketer.

15. I was not completely sure that I had parsed 25d and 8d correctly.

    I thought that Merry (short for Meriadoc) was fine!

    My favourites were ARTWORK, WITCH, HAWKEYE, BEDSER. My father knew the Bedser twins. He told me that they were very close to their mother, so when the English cricket team toured Australia (after they had retired from playing), only one or the other would come to Australia for the Test matches, and the other would stay home to look after their elderly (at the time) mother.

    Thanks manehi and Qaos.

16. Thank you Qaos and manehi.

    A fun solve, even though the only comics that I can remember, apart from those for girls, are The Beano and The Dandy. Being an ancient follower of cricket, the Bedser twins were no strangers to me.

    muffin appears to be growing prickles, and has now progressed to the list stage…

17. Thank you, manehi, I needed you to unravel the ‘succeed’ part of SCARLET.

    Completely failed to spot the theme (as usual) but enjoyed it nonetheless.

    Thank you Eileen for reminding me of The Avengers, which I loved growing up. Talking of newcomers, remember the delicious Linda Thorson?

    I share Muffin’s concerns over man-eater & America, but felt the other references were sufficiently getable to be fine.

    My only real groan was “Cold island imports temperature”. What on earth could that mean? ‘Heat’ possibly but not temperature.

    Favourites included CAPTAIN & HAWKEYE.

    Nice weekend, all.

18. michelle @15 Nice story, thanks for that.

19. For anyone other Avengers nuts wanting a trip down memory lane and with ½ hour to spare, try this.

20. Jason @14
    Telling a Canadian that America is the same as the USA would be rather like telling a Scot that Great Britain is the same as England, I would think!

21. William @17

    Linda Thorson was the afore-mentioned Tara King. Better stop this now. 😉

22. Thanks as always for the parsing. I enjoyed this puzzle, not least as it joins one of a small number of midweek puzzles I can solve in my work breaks!

    Re muffin @ 2 – surely one of the principles of good cluing is solvability – and given that they are solvable, they can’t be too bad. I take the point re LOTR and cricket references, but parsing still leads you to the solution, and I’m not sure I see the difference between that and some of the obscure words that some setters are prone to using (e.g. Pasquale). OK, spiders don’t eat men, but the inference is clear.

23. muffin @20, I think the AMERICA usage persists in comics and books, children’s ones in particular, because the inhabitants of the USA are called Americans, while those of Canada are called Canadians. Also, the country is called America, “The United States of” is just put in front – in the past there were The United States of Brazil, The United States of Colombia and The United States of Venezuela.

24. I think some people need to stop thinking so literally. A black widow is a fairly comon term for a femme fatale, as is man-eater. No-one would suggest a man-eater in the usual sense actually eats men so do try to cut the setter some slack.

    As for saying America is not a country. Well. Have it your way but If you said to most people ‘in which country is Washington DC’, unless they’re particularly annoying, they’d say ‘America’.

25. Enjoyed this one and found it fairly straightforward despite not getting the theme – not surprising given that I know next to nothing though I did think CAPTAIN AMERICA was involved somewhere. MAKE AT was last in – took me a while to convince myself that worked. Favourite was EAT UP.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi

26. Thanks to Qaos and manehi. I found this puzzle relatively easy (I usually have great trouble with this setter) and much enjoyed it. I parsed HAWKEYE and BEDSER but then had to check out the results (again, my limited knowledge of cricket kicked in) and SARK is one of the few Channel Islands I can call to mind (perhaps because of the verbal link to Cutty Sark, both clipper ship and whisky).

27. Regarding the theme, these are specifically the Avengers that assembled for the 2015 Age of Ultron movie, the seventh biggest grossing film of all time. So hardly obscure. I suggest a Fifteensquared group outing to Captain America – Civil War when it comes out later this month so that everyone can catch up.
    But, but, but! Where is Vision? Victory was looking inevitable for Ultron until he showed up.

28. VW @27 – I for one was not complaining – I like themed crosswords as long as solving them does not require specialised knowledge and this one was firmly in that category, unlike Boatman’s recent Bond one, which I thought slightly unfair. I’m well aware that my knowledge of action movies is below average, and I have no intention to rectify that 🙂

29. Thought this was great fun. The theme totally passed me by … except maybe on a subliminal level … it’s weird when answers pop into your mind without you knowing quite why they are right.

    Thanks Qaos and Manehi.

30. I found this rather easy despite not seeing the theme- I got a little glimmer with BLACK WIDOW but didn’t pursue it- anyway, some of these superheroes are more recent than those of my comic reading days. I also got BEDSER despite having even less interest in cricket than I have in football!
    LOI was MAKE AT and, despite the blog, I still don’t see it. Indeed, I thought this spoilt an otherwise good puzzle.
    Anyway,thanks Qaos.

31. Here I am, sitting for a change with my entire family, not just Mrs T but two grown-up boys, one a cricket lover and one with a passing acquaintance to Marvel. So when HAW***E was left over I got some help. Knew BEDSER without aids however.

    Liked this, the odd niggle – MAKE AT was an iffy term, I thought – but nothing like those from yesterday.

32. Well this is not the first time that I’ve finished a crossword without noticing that there is a theme. But in this case I was a big Marvel Comics fan in my childhood in the 60s, so how I could have missed it I don’t know!

    On the question of 5AC, “America” is almost always used to mean the USA, unless it’s qualified by say “North”, “South” or “Central”. So I thought that was fine.

33. Yes. ‘Made at’ is almost Dickensian. But far better than yesterday, all round. Wit. That’s what we want.

34. Another enjoyable crossword.

    I’m not surprised, though, at some of the doubts and queries that have surfaced up to this point.
    As Jason @14 said, anagram indicators are becoming truly adventurous (‘races’ and ‘wave’ today).
    I don’t see how ′I’m′ becomes ′me′ in 4D (EMBARGO).
    I don’t see how ‘AA’ is ’emergency services’ (plural) in 5A (AMERICA). They provide emergency services, but they are an emergency service.

    I was interested in miyake’s comment @22: ‘one of the principles of good cluing is solvability’.
    I agree, but sometimes I solve clues because I knew what the setter was getting at even though the clue didn’t quite work. I appreciate crosswords more when the quality is there. (And I don’t expect perfection.)

    I thought 11A (BLACK WIDOW) was fine. There were other noteworthy clues today, the best of which were 19A (FISHERMAN) and 18D (INVOICE).

    Thanks to both Qaos and manehi.

35. Found this relatively straightforward, despite the theme having passed my by completely. I was stuck on MAKE AT, having never come across the expression before.

    I am unashamed to confess that I have neither read LOR, nor seen the films, being of the school of thought of JRRT’S common room colleague, whose response to their publication was “Not more b….. elves!”

    Cookie @16:- WIZARD and ADVENTURE, published on Tuesday with the DANDY, HOTSPUR and ROVER on Friday with the BEANO?

36. I solved this pretty briskly, except for MICROSCOPE. HAWKEYE I know from tennis, and the long-gone cricketer was plainly enough clued that I had no trouble with it.

    On the issue of America = USA: I’ve met some Latinos and a few Canadians who object, but…um, tough. I know that’s a typically American attitude to take to the question, but hey–words change, and can have more than one meaning. It’s long since–perhaps 200 years–past the point where unmodified “America” primarily meant “the lands of the western hemisphere.” That horse has left the barn. And here in Los Estados Unidos Norteamericanos, we literally have no other word for ourselves, so you’ll have to forgive us. (Efforts to make Usonia stick never got much past Frank Lloyd Wright.)

    [Oh, and hi. I don’t check in here quite as much any more, because I’ve started driving to work instead of taking the train, which means I usually don’t get to these crosswords until too late in the day to have anything to contribute here.]

37. [I wondered where you had been, mrpenney – glad to hear that you’re OK.]

38. Didn’t get the theme (what’s new?!) but it made no difference as I enjoyed the puzzle just the same. BH@28 expressed my feelings exactly! Liked “fisherman” & “rainwater” particularly.

    Thank you Quaos & manehi.

39. [Mac Ruaraidh Ghais @35, I only remember the Beano and the Dandy, this was the 1950s. They were my boy cousins’ comics, so not sure which day they arrived, the elder cousin did a paper round, so perhaps he brought them home.]

40. Liked this a lot….apart from Microscope which was a bit Rufusoid. Made at seems old fashioned but then I am only 67.

41. I failed to spot the theme, as usual, and I see I’m not alone. Having seen all the theme names, though, I’m impressed with the setter’s skill in weaving the theme so smoothly into the puzzle.

42. Muffin@2, Victor Marek@13 et al
    I didn’t like “served” as an anagram indicator at 13. Sideways perhaps but that was the definition. “Work” at 21 is possibly more common but still dodgy to me. I share your views on MICROSCOPE as an eye.
    Some of us ceased to be children, whether sensible and well-balanced or not, before LOTR became popular but read it all the same. More to my taste, I still have my set of all 12 Arthur Ransomes. I remembered that there was a hobbit called MERRY but not that it was short for Meriadoc so was confused by “short”. I thought all hobbits were short.
    HAWKEYE was OONI (only one not in). I spent too long trying to fit “ref” in. In my defence Hawkeye is a technical assistant to umpires, not an umpire itself.
    Thanks to Qaos and manehi.1

43. Pino @32
    I still regularly read through all my Arthur Ransomes over about a two year period.

44. Muffin@43
    I read them all at 40 and again at 60. I’m saving my next go for a couple of years time (if I’m spared).

45. Isn’t the point about the black widow spider the female’s habit of eating its mate – hence the ‘man-eater’?

46. Alan Browne @34, I’ve noticed that in recent days you made some remarks about anagram indicators, some of which have become more ‘adventurous’.
    I think you made an interesting point.

    It looks that ‘nounal indicators’ are on the up.
    Today we had e.g. ‘revolution’ (1ac) and ‘remedy’ (24ac).
    For some reason I wasn’t comfortable with either of them but, yes, I know what the setter means.
    However, is that what is most important?
    Or is it as miyake @22 says: surely one of the principles of good cluing is solvability – and given that they are solvable, they can’t be too bad?
    Now, I didn’t comment on yesterday’s Otterden puzzle but I can tell you now that that crossword was eminently solvable (except for 9ac).
    But good cluing? In that puzzle, too, were some, for purists questionable, nounal anagram indicators (‘production’, ‘review’ – both positioned directly after the fodder).
    However, it was an overdose of iffiness that caught the eye there, especially in some definitions.
    Otterden is an experienced setter, so I’m pretty sure that he finds it more important to offer clues based on ‘association’ (read: you know what I mean) than on ‘precision’.
    That is a choice and one that makes that this setter is not in my top 20.

    Qaos, however, does care about technique and despite the odd thing (I’m upset for EM in 4d) there was not much wrong.
    Some mention (or question) the anagram indicators in 5d and 14ac: ‘wave’ and ‘races’.
    In my opinion, ‘(to) wave’ and ‘(to) race’ are perfectly alright for the occasion, used as a verb but preferably not as a noun.
    ‘Wave’ (as a noun) may be acceptable for the same reason as we accept ‘revolution’.
    But ‘waves’ would have been really much better: the fodder (a singular noun) ‘waves’.
    In 14ac, ‘races’ as a noun is not really acceptable but as a form of the verb ‘(to) race’ it is.
    It’s in the same category as ‘run’, ‘move’ or ‘fly’.
    Unfortunately, in this clue the fodder consists of three words (‘ran to some’) which means that ‘races’ should ideally be ‘race’.
    That doesn’t make sense for the surface, so there we are.
    Quite often the surface wins, like e.g. 29ac in which ‘keeps worrying’ has an anagram indicator that ultimately I wouldn’t use (because it ideally should be ‘worried’).

    Despite missing the theme, I liked this crossword as I always like Qaos with his ghost themes.
    So, a big thank to the setter and to manehi for a fine blog.

47. Pino. In my defence Hawkeye is Alan Alda.

48. Thanks all
    Muffin, Jude Law is very familiar to the younger generation (not you or me!).

49. Morning all! I realise I’m late posting, but work was extremely busy yesterday, so many thanks for all the comments.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

50. Sil @46

    Re anagram indicators.

    Yes, so many anagrinds have been used over the years, and new ones are being invented constantly.

    Today I was echoing what Jason said (@14), and, as you know, I gave the two examples ‘races’ and ‘wave’. I could also have mentioned ‘served’ in 13A (CRABWISE).

    In practice most anagrinds are of course ok, but sometimes I think setters find a particular surface reading so appealing that they hope the verb they have used will be acceptable as an anagrind. Occasionally it doesn’t really work – it’s as if any instruction to do something with something must be taken to mean rearrange the letters!

    To me, ‘served’ means ‘served as is’, not served shaken or stirred. I didn’t complain (I had my chance @34!), and I easily saw what was meant. I also thought 13A was a good clue – partly because of the smooth surface!

51. Re Vic Marek, ‘ALL sensible, well-balanced children will have read LOTR’? Should we apply critical thought to this statement? Would the statement stand? Erm …

    Irrelevant, but I can confirm that at least one completely unbalanced child read LOTR.

52. Thanks Qaos and manehi

    Did this one on the weekend and found it as enjoyable as ever from this fellow. Knowing his liking for a ghost theme, I sort of looked and whilst seeing CAPTAIN AMERICA, I didn’t know the other Marvel superheroes well enough to take it any further.

    A good mix of clues to keep one on one’s toes throughout the solve.

    Finished with HAWKEYE (which certainly didn’t spring out straight away even with all of the crossers and a complex wordplay didn’t really help the cause), CAPTAIN (which was cleverly defined by ‘skip’) and SCARLET (again with a cleverly disguised definition).

53. Thanks manehi and Qaos.

    My cricket knowledge was not good enough to get BEDSER – so one failure.

    Completely missed the theme as usual. But then I’m not a fan of the films. Now if Qaos had based it on CAPTAIN SCARLET, that would have been something else – remember the Angels?

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