Guardian Cryptic 27345 Qaos

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An enjoyable, but definitely not a walkover – at least not when parsing – puzzle from Qaos, to whom thanks. Definitions are underlined in the clues.  Again, apologies for the late blog, but a visit to the quack took longer than expected.

A number of precious things in the grid, but don’t know if that’s significant.

Across

7 Offer to tour elven ruins (9)

VOLUNTEER : Anagram of(… ruins) TOUR ELVEN.

8 Canoe might capsize here? (5)

OCEAN : Anagram of(… might capsize) CANOE.

Defn: Where a canoe might very well capsize. A WIWD (wordplay intertwined with definition) clue.

9 At twilight in EU, Norway thanks Finland’s parliament (9)

EDUSKUNTA : DUSK(at twilight) contained in(in) EU + N(International Vehicle Registration code for Norway) + TA(short for “thanks”;thank you).

10 Prepare bread (5)

READY : Double defn: 1st: As in “to ready a ship for its maiden voyage”; and 2nd: An informal term for ready cash;money, another informal term for the latter being “bread”.

12 When outside, they’re never homeless (6)

SNAILS : Cryptic defn: Reference to those molluscs who, whether they’re inside or outside, carry their homes with them.

13 Flaming double gin mixed with vermouth (8)

IGNITING : Anagram of(… mixed …) [ twice(double) GIN plus(with) IT(Italian vermouth) ].

You could, if you wanted to, flame a gin and it.

16 Inner nature throughout Asian city (not just including capitals) (7)

INBEING : IN(throughout, as in “Mandarin is spoken in Beijing”) + “Beijing”(Asian city, capital of China) minus(not) the 1st letters, respectively, of(… capitals) “just including“.

19 Country against having it’s (sic) name changed hasn’t succeeded (7)

VIETNAM : V(abbrev. for “versus”;competing against) plus(having) anagram of(… changed) “its name” minus(hasn’t) “s”(abbrev. for “succeeded”).

22 It’s essential to follow clues by directions (8)

KEYSTONE : TO placed after(follow) KEYS(clues;things that helps to one to understand something, eg. the legend in a map) plus(by) N,E(abbrev. for “north” and “east”;directions).

One might argue it should be “follows” in this instance, but that would make the surface ungrammatical.

It didn’t help that “key” also means “essential”.

25 Unwilling to serve out after ace (6)

AVERSE : Anagram of(… out) SERVE placed after(after) A(abbrev. for “ace”, in card games, say).

27 Ghost upset king – I’m so sorry! (5)

SPOOK : Reversal of(upset) [ K(abbrev. for “king”) + OOPS!(an exclamation to indicate that “I’m so sorry – I made a booboo”) ].

28 Pit in Wales demolished completely (9)

WHOLESALE : HOLE(in the ground;a pit) contained in(in) anagram of(… demolished) WALES.

29 Short, strong cheese as starter (5)

BRIEF : F(abbrev. for “forte”, musical direction to play loudly;strongly) placed after(… as starter) BRIE(a soft cheese).

30 Cluedo character goes topless endlessly, like Holly? (9)

EVERGREEN : “[Reverend Green]”(character in the board game Cluedo) minus its 1st letter(goes topless) minus(…-lessly) “end”.

Defn: …, the tree or shrub.

Down

1 Bright? Try Latin study (6)

GOLDEN : GO(a try;an attempt) + L(abbrev. for “Latin”) + DEN(a study;a room for privacy and peace).

2 Cheer as doctor in NHS impregnates girl (8)

SUNSHINE : Anagram of(doctor) IN NHS contained in(impregnates) SUE(a girl’s name).

3 Beers to sell on board? (6)

STOUTS : TOUT(to sell;to hawk) contained in(on board …) SS(abbrev. for “steamship”, in a, well, steamship’s name).

4 Nuclear researchers keep time with artificial intelligence, for sure (7)

CERTAIN : CERN(abbrev. for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, or the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) containing (keep) [ T(abbrev. for “time”) plus(with) AI(abbrev. for “artificial intelligence”) ].

5 Grasp back muscle during performance (6)

ACCEPT : Reversal of(back) PEC(short for the pectoral muscle) contained in(during) ACT(a performance, on stage, say).

6 Perhaps Eden Hazard’s foot is within shot range (6)

GARDEN : The last letter of(…’s foot, in a down clue) “Hazard” contained in(within) anagram of(shot) RANGE.

And Eden Hazard is a footballer too.

Defn: An example of which is;perhaps the biblical Eden.

11 Opposed to local migrant integration (4)

ANTI : Hidden in(local;native;inhabiting) “migrant integration“.

14 Travel north or south in Winnipeg to find hotel (3)

INN : [Reversal of and hidden in]( Travel north … in, in a down clue) or hidden in(Travel … south in, in a down clue) “Winnipeg“.

15 For example, over 1,000 stone (3)

GEM : Reversal of(…, over, in a down clue) EG(abbrev. for “exempli gratia”;for example) + M(Roman numeral for 1,000).

16 Type of drink with cap removed (3)

ILK : “milk”(a dairy drink) minus its 1st letter(with cap removed).

17 Always chasing black horse (3)

BAY : AY(ever;always) placed below(chasing, in a down clue) B(abbrev. for “black”).

18 Ohio doubly in the news at 12 (4)

NOON : Twice(… doubly) O(abbrev. for Ohio) contained in(in) N,N(2 x abbrev. for “new”).

Defn: … o’clock.

20 Tears flow on getting flower as prize (8)

TREASURE : Anagram of(… flow on) TEARS plus(getting) URE(English river;flow-er).

21 Extremely blonde, what I have is a 1960s’ hairstyle (7)

BEEHIVE : The 1st and last letters of(Extremely) “blonde” + EH?(expression meaning “What?” or “What did you say?”) + I’VE(contraction of “I have”).

23 European politician’s anger with group of states … (6)

EMPIRE : E(abbrev. for “European”) + MP(abbrev. for “Member of Parliament”;a politician) plus(…’s;has) IRE(anger).

24 … preferably in case one’s heading for referendum (6)

SOONER : SO(in case;if, as in “so that happens, in that case you do this”) + ONE plus(…’s;has) the 1st letter of(heading for) “referendum“.

Answer: As in “I’d sooner die than do that!”

25 Temptation of a solution when 100 is divided by 2? (6)

ALLURE : A + “cure”(a solution that relieves anything troublesome) with “C”(Roman numeral for 100) replaced by L,L(Roman numerals for, separately, two 50s, that which is obtained when 100 is divided by 2).

26 Metal, a thin piece with lithium twisted inside (6)

SILVER : “sliver”(a thin piece) with “Li”(chemical symbol for the element, lithium) reversed(twisted inside).

65 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27345 Qaos”

  1. Thanks Qaos and scchua

    An odd one from Qaos, and not up to his usual standard, I thought. Some chestnuts – OCEAN and BRIEF, some obscurities (I had to Google Finnish parliament), and some odd ones – I was sure that there had to be more to SNAIL than the obvious, but…? I didn’t see how ALLURE (is 100 divided by 2 two fifties? It’s a odd way of looking at it, but valid, I suppose) or EVERGREEN (apart from the Cluedo character) worked. Even when I saw on the Guardian site that an expected theme was there, I couldn’t see it, of course!

    Favourite was GARDEN, though I have seen the footballer used similarly before – for example, Vlad 2016: Hazard playing in garden (4). SPOOK was another I liked.

    I’m struggling to match parts of speech in SUNSHINE – “cheer”. I couldn’t find OHIO for O anywhere, and Oscar would have made a better clue anyway.

  2. thanks for blog, Sschua and Xword Qaos. Is there a US state nickname theme going on, Empire State, Garden State etc?

    Sorry if this has already been mentioned, showing as no comments up as of 1142.

    thanks once again.

  3. Easier than Qaos usually is, but all quite enjoyable. The theme is American state nicknames – there are more than you might think!

    Thanks to Qaos and scchua

  6. US states in grid-

    Bay (state)- Massachusetts
    Beehive – Utah
    Ocean – Rhode Island
    Keystone- Pennsylvania
    Volunteer- Tennessee
    Evergreen- Washington State
    Sunshine- South Dakota or Cal
    Silver- Nevada
    Golden- Cal
    Treasure- Montana
    Garden- NJ
    Gem- Idaho
    Empire- NY
    Sooner- Oklahoma

    all taken from Brewer’s Millennium Ed.

  7. I always get excited to see that Qaos is the setter, and this one did not disappoint. This was one of the rare instances in which being a US solver was an advantage. I counted 14 US State nicknames in the completed grid: VOLUNTEER (Tennessee), OCEAN (Rhode Island), KEYSTONE (Pennsylvania), EVERGREEN (Washington), GOLDEN (California), SUNSHINE (Florida), GARDEN (New Jersey), GEM (Idaho), BAY (Massachusetts, where I was born and raised), TREASURE (Montana), BEEHIVE (Utah), EMPIRE (New York), SOONER (Oklahoma), and SILVER (Nevada). Pretty impressive to get all of those into one grid. My favorite today was BEEHIVE.

    muffin @1, “O.” was one way (the other being “Oh.”) to abbreviate Ohio back in the days preceding the institution of capitalized two-letter state abbreviations for postal addresses (when one would say “Miami, Fla.” or “Boston, Mass.” or “Cleveland, O.” — those states are now abbreviated as FL, MA, and OH). Also, a famous railroad in the US (which is part of the game Monopoly if I recall correctly) is the B&O Railroad (short for Baltimore and Ohio). HTH.

    Many thanks to Qaos and scchua. Happy Friday everyone!

  8. Apologies to muffin @4, Shirl @5 and RonMiller @6 — your posts were not up when I (as slow typist) began typing my post @7.

  12. Thanks to Qaos (even if I thought that this puzzle was not up to his best) and scchua

    muffin @1

    I agree about ALLURE: surely it would have been better as ‘divided IN two’. “You bring a little sunshine into my life”. Unquote.

  14. RonMiller @6
    I believe Brewer’s Millennium Ed. got it wrong if it lists SUNSHINE as the nickname for “South Dakota or California”. I think The Sunshine State is, first and foremost, the official nickname for Florida. It is an unofficial nickname for South Dakota also, but that state (which was once known as The Coyote State) has an official nickname of The Mount Rushmore State.

    Not to bore everybody but a fun (?) fact is that Rhode Island (The Ocean State) is by far the smallest U.S. state in area, but it has the longest official state name (State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations).

  16. I’m tired of seeing “girl” instead of “woman.” Makes the surface in 2 down sound a bit pervy.

    Also, I don’t understand (24 down) “so” being equivalent to “in case of.” You’d say “I’ll bring an umbrella in case it rains” but not “I’ll bring and umbrella so it rains.” Is there another context where they are more interchangeable?

    Thanks Qaos and Scchua.

  18. Missed the theme entirely, so undervalued the cleverness of the puzzle (apologies to Qaos).

    Thanks to RonMiller@6 and DaveMc@7 for the definitive list of the nicknames for US States.

    Now that I am revisiting the puzzle, I see that the theme was also highlighted in the clue at 23d “group of states”, but I still missed it.

    I saw a lot of Florida numberplates on my recent trip to in the States, DaveMc@14, and felt connected. In Queensland, Australia, where I live, we also have “The Sunshine State” on our rego plates.

    And DaveMc@14, I think you may have been so caught up in the theme that you missed including a comment on URE in 20a TREASURE – yet another of “The Most Important ‘Flowers’ in Crosswordland”. (Apologies if ypu have mentioned this one in previous dispatches that I have missed).

    With thanks to Qaos and scchua.

  20. Julie in Australia @18
    Haha, yes, I noticed the Ure as the “flower” in TREASURE, but failed to remark upon it. In my opinion, the Ure might be one notch slightly lower than the three that top the list of The Most Important etc., in terms of frequency, and also because I believe (unless I am really losing my mind — I shouldn’t rule that out) that I have seen the “Midge” angle, rather than the “flower” angle, used by setters to work those three letters into the cryptic wordplay.

  22. Sorry for the repeated posts today. Julie @18, I also meant to thank you for the fun fact about the Queensland number plates!

  23. Whether or not the apostrophe in 21d is ugly, it is at least grammatically correct. There would be far more comments on it if it were not there, MrSmeam @19!

    But I am glad Kristi @16 noted the unpleasant surface in 2d. Very un-Qaoslike.

    It’s good that so many clues were easily gettable, for it’s an unforgiving grid to a solver. It tended to work out in four quadrants for me, starting NE and moving clockwise. I made a special effort to look for a theme today – didn’t get anywhere close.

  24. Kristi@16
    I think ‘girl’ indicates the short version of a female name (I.e. SUE), SUSAN would be a woman.

  25. Good crossword. A bit easy, but I didn’t have much time today so that was alright. If I’d wanted to sit down to a good long challenge I would have been disappointed.

  26. Kristi @16, it seems to me that male names are usually clued with “boy” rather than “man”, so clueing female names with “girl” ought to be OK.

    I suppose it’s “boy/girl” because in lists of given names they will usually be specified as boys’ names and girls’ names, because people typically look at such lists in connection with naming a baby.

    Missed the theme even though I’m American. There is no theme I cannot miss.

  27. Oops! I see I misattributed some of the themers, and put in an extra one. I thought there was a Ready State, possible New Hampshire.

  28. Thanks both,

    There were some deceptively easy clues (eg 8a) and some pretty obscure or incomplete ones (24d 12a). The end was a struggle and the only inkling I had of a theme was the faint whooshing noise it made as it flew right over my head.

  29. Thanks to Qaos and scchua. I agree that this puzzle was easier than usual for this setter but I much enjoyed it. I had trouble with EVERGREEN (I don’t know Cluedo) and INBEING (a word new to me).

    As an increasingly erratic typist, I have come to depend on my spell-checker though I am well aware of its limitations. A few days ago I came across what is now my all time favorite example: “the clam before the storm.” Can you picture that one?

  30. Seeing the theme on coming here makes the puzzle even better. Amazing, well done Qaos, many thanks.

    I had to google eduskanta, but the rest went in smoothly thought was stuck on SNAILS for ages at the end! Duh. Couldn’t get INUITS out of my head (even though there is no such plural, the plural is just Inuit, like Dutch)

    I particularly liked 1d, 2d, 3d (making for a great start), also 28a and 26d.

    Thanks very much scchua for explaining 25d. I was trying to understand why lure=solution.

    Great stuff, and not too taxing

  31. Maybe for the first time, I spotted the theme in a Qaos puzzle. However, I didn’t appreciate just how many US states had been fitted in – clever stuff! I agree with PeterO @15, though: what, no Nutmeg? (Connecticut). That’s the state I know best.

    Thanks to Qaos and scchua.

  32. Thanks to Qaos and scchua for an engaging puzzle.

    I now have Eduskunta to add to my only other significant fact about Finland which is that it was the first state to hold elections on a universal suffrage basis, back in 1906. Admirable stuff.

    I didn’t like SNAILS – I felt there wasn’t enough in the wordplay to point one in the right direction especially when it hardly qualifies as a cryptic definition; more a riddle perhaps. I’m another who doesn’t buy the equation of “so” with “in case”.

    Too many nice surfaces to enumerate, although I found 16a a bit clunky, what with the coincidence of “inner” and “in”. But I quibble and for once the overlay of a theme did not render the entire thing impenetrable, so of course I didn’t spot it.

  33. Part of my degree was Scandinavian politics and, as Finland is next door to Scandinavia, I did know EDUSKUNTA. I knew it would come in handy someday! I never thought of state nicknames and I wouldn’t have known most of them without consulting Mr Google. I suppose the theme makes it a better puzzle than I first thought but it still seems a bit below par. I did like INBEING and ILK though
    Thanks QAOS.

  34. Thank you Qaos and scchua.

    I knew a theme would be there, but failed to spot it – well done Qaos to get so many US states in.

    EDUSKUNTA was new to me, but gettable from the clue – incidentally, Finland was the first country to elect women to parliament, 1907, not the first to hold elections on a universal suffrage basis as Alphalpha mentions @32, that was New Zealand in 1893 (apart form a short-lived 18th century Corsican Republic).

  36. Somewhat Qaotic, this one – with a few niggles over grammar which others have already highlighted. For EDUSKUNTA, I’d imagine very few would know that word! Nevertheless, a rather weak clue – you can easily cheat by googling “Finnish parliament”. At least, cross my heart, I didn’t cheat: I filled in the word from crossers and wordplay, and only then did I look it up!

    As to SNAILS being “never homeless” – I guess that, strictly, this does applies to outdoors only. Indoors, once they’re on the plate, served with garlic and butter, they soon leave their ‘homes’ behind! Have to admit, true escargots are not my favourite, but I did enjoy a plate of whelks the other day (OK: “sea snails”). Very tasty once I’d extracted them from their shells!

    Theme? Unless GOLDEN, SILVER, SUNSHINE and TREASURE are meant to be part of it, I don’t see one.

    Thanks Qaos but not your best! And thanks Scchua for the workthrough.

  39. Now it has worked so here is what I wanted to say:
    Many thanks Qaos and Scchua. I finished this by semi-cheating on roughly a quarter of it, as I often do, i.e. filling in possible letters online and then using the “check this” button to see how many are right… Only desperation leads me to use the “reveal this” button. I don’t worry about parsing every clue, knowing all will be revealed in the blog.
    Of course I missed the theme but I hardly ever spot it. Thanks too, and praise, to those who did and for all the enlightening comments. A great weekend to all.

  40. Martin @38
    For some unknown reason your comment was intercepted by the spam filter. I had marked it as ‘not spam’ and was just about to make it appear when your second attempt was posted.

  43. Apologies if this is an ignorant question but can I plead for insight into how vermouth becomes ‘It’? Many thanks for sharing.

  44. Thanks muffin@37 – missed that. I’ve now seen Ronmiller’s crib and I have to admit, I’d never heard of any of those nicknames – except SUNSHINE which I thought pertains to Florida. But I may be wrong! When I filled in SUNSHINE I began to wonder if there’d be a Morecambe and Wise theme, but that wasn’t it.

  45. @43 Baby Steps

    scchua explains : IT (Italian vermouth).
    It is just a known abbreviation, I think.
    Gin and it, is often used for Martini recipe.

  47. @41 Martin
    Nice to see another Ubuntu user. I see in 14.04 Firefox often packs up these days! I am afraid of upgrading to 16.04 as another system itself packed up during upgrade.

  48. muffin @43: is it pronounced just “it” or “eye-tee”? That’s a new one to me as well. I could order that at a bar and be understood?
    And I also looked askance at O for Ohio at first but then I thought of the B&O Railroad and Ohio State University – OSU.

    I enjoyed this puzzle although, as usual, I didn’t spot the theme. I can reconfirm what has already been said – Florida reigns as the Sunshine State (obvs). I believe South Dakota is the Frozen Wasteland State or the Fracking State, something like that.

  49. Pedant’s corner: when 100 is divided BY 2, it’s surely 50? When 100 is divided IN 2, you get 2 50s. Is that right?

    BTW I missed the theme but thought the crossword was great, apart from the rather weak clue for SNAIL.

  52. Pleased to discover EDUSKUNTA lurking in some recess at the back of my mind. I did study Finnish for three years back in the 1990s, but have forgotten almost all of it since. (Sigh!)

  53. Just a quick addition to the “it” discussion if anyone is still reading:

    In my mother’s youth there was a choice of “Italian” or “French” vermouth. One would order either a “Gin and French” or a “Gin and It”.

    Perhaps nowadays the French version is more often referred to my brand name, e.g. “Gin and Dubonnet”?

  54. ilippu@47:
    a bit late but just to say I managed to upgrade to 16.04 LTS some time ago and it all works fine. I would recommend exporting your bookmarks to somewhere safe first. There are also helpful tips online here and there if things go wrong…

  55. I did see the theme, but only at the very end when the only remaining unsolved clue wasn’t a themer, so although I’m pleased with myself it didn’t help at all.

  56. hi DaveMc,

    Ah, I did miss that Brewer’s gives Sunshine as a Floridian nickname, my oversight, and does give South Dakota as Artesian, Coyote, Mt Rushmore and Sunshine 4th perhaps as an unofficial nickname, so the error is mine. Sunshine is given in the book as a nickname of New Mexico as well as Florida and the two listed above, but maybe they have dropped out of or never had much currency.

    The nicknames are a great idea though, evocative and conjuring up images of their development and identity, like in Sooner, or the doubting citizens of Missouri demanding Show-me. I think my favourite is Minnesota’s Gopher.

    All the best

  59. Muffin@46 and others
    I’ve arrived very late at this but I believe that a dry martini is gin and French vermouth, usually Noilly Prat, and gin and it is a sweet martini. I don’t think that gin and Dubonnet is ever described as anything other than that. It was the Queen Mother’s favourite tipple but she’s not around to ask.
    I’ve only ever tasted the dry version and that must have been 50 years ago.

  60. Still here, pino
    Yes, the best dry martini is gin and Noilly Prat; however gin and dry Italian vermouth could also be regarded as a dry martini (is it irrelevant that a brand of Italian vermouths is “Martini”?)

  61. I was another for ‘inuits’. Head stuck in the icy clouds, with EDUSKUNTA above, but I knew the Finnns were sami. Very fair cluing.
    Have learned IT from British crosswords so didn’t fall down there. Completely missed the theme, but enjoyed the crossword anyway.

  62. As with muffin, the only abbreviation I’ve ever seen for Ohio is “OH”. I have never, outside a crossword, encountered “s” as an abbreviation for “succeeded”. I know this is customary, but I still think it’s sloppy clueing for a setter to just invent abbreviations out of thin air using the first letter of a word and suggest that they form a real part of the solution.

  64. I’m awfully late getting here, but here’s one thought which I don’t think has been raised. 13a seems to me to be an instance of the famously-forbidden indirect anagram — you have to substitute vermouth = it within the anagram fodder.

  65. Ted @ 64

    The IT remains itself, between two GINs anagramised, so is not part of any anagram fodder. IGN-IT-ING = two gins mixed, with vermouth [added].

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