Guardian Cryptic 27,524 by Qaos

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,524 by Qaos”

1. Great puzzle.

   Saw the theme with the first two in: SNEAKER and SLIPPER.

   But some are a bit obscure.

   Can we include SWAY(back) and SPIRAL.

   I think the latter refers to this sort of thing:

   https://www.shopstyle.com.au/browse?fts=spiral+shoes

2. Missed seeing the theme.

   New word for me was Morgan the British car maker @ 20a (thank you, google). Also SNEAKER = person who tells tales.

   22d reminded me of the worst movie I ever saw at the cinema – I have a feeling we walked out before the movie ended.

   My favourites were 10a CAPE VERDE and 15a MULE.

   Thanks Qaos and Teacow

3. Sometimes age is an advantage…haven’t heard Mary Jane for pot since the ’60s (ditto cross-ply, as against radial, tyres, in a recent puzzle).

   Fun puzzle and succinct blog, thanks Qaos and Teacow.

4. Thanks Teacow, I hadn’t spotted half of those shoes! A soleful prelude to the weekend for me, though I’d have liked to have needed to engage my brain a bit more, but thanks for the thematic ingenuity anyway, Qaos.

5. Like Trovatore @1, my first two in made me suspect a theme. Though that didn’t help much. I didn’t know Mary Jane meant anything other than marijuana, for example – evidence of a misspent youth, perhaps. At the end, I hadn’t identified more than half a dozen answers as part of the theme, so thanks to Teacow for filling me in.

   And thanks to Qaos for the fun, of course.

6. Thanks Qaos and Teacow

   SNEAKER and SLIPPER my first two as well, but the theme didn’t help much with the rest. An odd solve for me – about half of it was a genuine write-in, but the remainder took far longer.

   I would always say “sneak” rather than SNEAKER, but I suppose others wouldn’t. “Coffe” for STAINER was a bit loose. I had DASH at 21d for some time (the other end of the cupboarD, and meaning “put paid to a plan”). I had MULE as the ends of froM subarU stilL, but wasn’t happy about “ends in trouble” to then give the E.

   Favourites were CAPE VERDE and ANTELOPE (I love a surprising “hidden”).

7. I still have mixed feelings about the puzzle but one thing’s for sure. It is a great blog!Ta.

8. 12a ? Shoe CHAIN

9. Good to have you blogging The Guardian puzzle, Teacow. Thanks for an interesting and fun blog.
   The shoe theme was clever, but overall there were a few too many solutions where one letter was employed to make the word (e.g. “”front of shop” for “s” in SLIPPER 8a, “paper finally” for the “r” in STRAINER 18a, and as muffin@6 has already mentioned, the use of the “e” – “ends in trouble”- to get MULE 15a.) In the same vein, the “d” in ALED 23d seemed a bit contrived.
   However, well done to Qaos for “shoehorning” in so many thematic solutions.

10. This was definitely at the easier end of Qaos’s range, but very enjoyable, and a theme that was more obvious than usual, though I didn’t realise just how many there were. STRAINER was last in.

    Thanks Qaos and Teacow (congratulations on joining the Guardian stable)

11. Marijuana should be underlined in 2d.  Entirely agree with Julie in Australia @9 about the single letter “words”.

    Anyhow it was a fun puzzle.  Thanks to Qaos and Teacow.

12. [grantinfreo@3 and Trismegistus@5, “Sweet Mary Jane” was released by Ed Sheeran not so long ago, so the reference is still around – guess he could be channelling Rodriguez’ 1969 song “Sugar Man”. grantinfreo, are you from WA????]

13. Thanks Jam @11 – amended

14. I thought I’d done well until I came here and realised that one of the clues I did late last night (early this morning) was wrong as I had ABER (ABE+ R sort of works and is Welsh) rather than ALED. I did get the theme early on and it helped to confirm COURT which I wasn’t convinced about.
    I had MULE as one of my favourites and think it works perfectly well with trouble as the anagrind as blogged. I also ticked SWAY, CLOG and BEACON which was my loi – how misleading of Qaos to use fire as fire rather than sack! Thanks to him and to Teacow – a fun puzzle for your inaugural G blog.

15. Thanks, Teacow and welcome to this side – great blog! I didn’t find all those shoes but, like others, with SNEAKER and SLIPPER in early, at least I knew what I was looking for.

    WhiteKing @14 ‘… how misleading of Qaos to use fire as fire rather than sack!’ – similarly, I was tickled by COURT, with ‘caught’  as the answer to a homophone clue, rather than the indicator.

    Favourites today were CAPE VERDE and ANTELOPE [like muffin – but I’d have thought yours would be MULE. 😉 ]

    Many thanks to qaos for a fun puzzle.

16. Indeed Eileen!

    WhiteKing @14

    Yes – I’d missed the “engine” bit and was trying to get the letters in order rather than anagrammed.

17. And, indeed, the Beatles recorded a song called ‘What’s The New Mary Jane’ for the 1968 White Album (although it didn’t make the final cut, eventually appearing on their Anthology series). Enjoyable puzzle, thank to Qaos and Teacow.

18. [Thanks to muffin@16 and WhiteKing@14 for inviting a rethink! Appreciate your posts, which made me realise that it was not the “end of trouble” I was looking for – but the anagram (trouble) of the ends of enginE, froM, SuburU and stilL!]

19. [Thanks to Aoxomoxoa@17 for your post. Had never heard “What’s the New Mary Jane”, which I have just googled!!! Such an interesting tangent from the blog. Not relevant of course, according to the thought police on 15squared. Despite the fact that tangential posts regarding music festivals etc. are unwelcome here, I just want to share with you, Aoxomoxoa, that “The Beatles White Album” was the first album I ever bought with my own money, $5 second-hand from a friend when I was 15.]

20. Thanks Teacow & Qaos. I’m a much bigger fan of Qaos’s puzzles than I am of footwear, so it took much longer for the penny to drop than perhaps it should have. I initially dallied with a tennis theme thanks to 7a & 12d, but as it transpired TENNIS is one of the few types of shoes not to be included!

21. COURT and CAUGHT are not homophones where I live, and not just because of rhoticity. The vowel sounds are markedly different.

22. Solved two days running! A first for me. And a lot of fun. Faves include 10a, 15a, 2d, 17d & 19d. I got Mary Jane and sneaker amongst my first few, so spotted the theme early. I still needed the blog to parse a handful though, so still room for improvement.

    Thanks to Qaos & Teacow. Nice work both (all three?).

23. Did this in bits, so missed the theme!

    Most of the HEELs around here today (Ladies’ Day at Epsom) are very high and thin.

    The MULE sees to parse OK, as in the blog; the ‘in trouble’ is the anagrind. I must have led a sheltered life as I hadn’t heard of MARY JANE for marijuana. I see from Chambers it is an assumed translation of MARI JUANA.

    Thanks Qaos and Teacow; good blog.

24. Thanks to Qaos and Teacow.

    Like Hack, I initially thought there might be a tennis theme. With my usual obtuseness for such things, I didn’t notice the actual theme until I’d finished.

    JinA @9: I like the device used in ALED. I think we’ve seen it a couple of times recently.

25. A nice puzzle, though somehow I completely missed the theme. I liked the construction of 15a, when i finally saw it, but wondered a bit about 24a. To me, it feels as if there is too much synonymity (if that’s a word) in the pointedness of sharp and the pointedness of a conclusion. To me, an argument or discussion comes to a point, or conclusion, because it is pointed, or sharp.

26. Thank you Qaos for a fun puzzle and Teacow for a super blog (hope you will be regular soon, not just standing in).

    I initially thought the theme was going to be cricketers, and my heart sank since Worrell and Sobers are the only players I can call to mind.  It was only when I got to the bottom of the puzzle that I realised what the theme must be since CLOG seemed rather a strange answer for its clue, and the clue for BOAT seemed rather recherché.

    I had never heard of HIGHBALL shoes before, but liked the clue, it reminded me of my two year old son in New York  when asked what he thought of the Empire State Building replying  “It so big and I so little”.

27. Julie@19. Strangely enough, the White Album was their first that I didn’t buy straight away, although I picked it up a couple of years later.

    Robi@23. I’d always assumed marijuana was referred to as MARY JANE so that it could be mentioned in open conversation without arousing unwanted attention.

28. Poc@21 – they aren’t where I come from either but as we’re in crosswordland not Lancashire I thought it was ok, and as I said the theme confirmed it.
    JinA – good to see you back on form and thanks to Aetc.@17 for kicking that tangent off. I wonder how many other references there are to marijuana as Mary Jane? I’m another who hadn’t heard of it despite exposure to it whilst at university.

29. I enjoyed this puzzle.  I didn’t get SNEAKER until quite near the end, and that’s when I realized that the grid was littered with shoes.  So it didn’t help any; I only had a couple more shoes to fill in.  I’ve come to enjoy Qaos’s subtle themes.

    [Julie, et al.: maybe it’s because of my age, but to me Mary Jane as marijuana puts in mind the hit by the late great Tom Petty, “Mary Jane’s Last Dance,” which came out in 1993. So it’s not as dated a term as all that.]

30. Hi much later JinA and thanks for asking. Yep, freo as in Fremantle.

31. A warm welcome to Teacow! Like others I thought this was easier than the average Qaos – until I got held up in the SE corner by JELLIES (hadn’t heard of her), BOAT and ALED. Loved CAPE VERDE clue in particular. Many thanks to Q & T.

32. Thanks to Qaos and Teacow (welcome). An enjoyable puzzle for me and even spotted the theme early (that said never heard of half the shoes mentioned). A strange old solve with a lot going in quite readily and when I looked NE and SW were complete but nothing in the other two sections. Eventually it unfolded with the SE yielding last. Last two Aled and boat and I liked Cape Verde and jellies. Thanks again to Qaos and Teacow.

33. Thanks to Qaos and Teacow. I had the same hold-ups as drofle @31, for I did not know the singer Ellie G. or the name ALED, though I did know Borat but took a while getting the connection. I’ve been doing the FT puzzle recently, so I’m happy to see Teacow here.

34. Much of this went in really quickly, Monday-style, but there were hold ups towards the end (which is pretty much Monday-style for me too).

    No Gouldings sprang immediately to mind, but something had to follow a J, and ELLIE(S) rang a vague bell. MARY JANE is a shoe? Well, live and learn. Natch, the theme was missed.

35. This was almost ideal for solving outside away from distractions such as reference aids. I was not certain about MARY JANE or HIGHBALL, but I thought they must be right. CLOG and POINTED remained unsolved at the end, falling foul of my 2-minute/20-minute rule. (There was nothing wrong with those clues – I just couldn’t think of anything to match the whole words or part-words in a reasonable time.)
    I’m with JinA regarding the liberal use of single letters, and particularly about ALED, which I thought was the only weak clue here. I mostly enjoyed this crossword, and I appreciated it even more when I came to this page and discovered the surprise theme. (I really should have seen it with SNEAKER and SLIPPER sitting next to each other across the top.)
    Thanks to Qaos, and to Teacow for a first blog on this thread.

36. Alan B @35

    I rather liked ALE D, as I almost always miss seeing that type of clue (a Qaos speciality?). I’m trying and failing to think of 3 or 4 similar examples that I’ve seen in the last few months.

37. muffin @36
    My mild objection to this wordplay is that it doesn’t have much to do with reality (or, if you like, it is just too whimsical). My first beer is Ale 1 and my fourth is Ale 4 – not very good fodder for wordplay, I’ll admit. The device works better in, for example, ‘fourth line of seats’, because that (realistically) is ROW D – just right, you’ll notice, for a word like ROWDY.

38. I did get the theme but I didn’t know all the shoes- HIGHBALL,MARY JANE who knew? HIGHBALL was a great clue though.
    I liked CAPE VERDE and SENTRIES. LOI was JELLIES. I have heard of Ellie Goulding although I’ve no idea what she sounds like. I learnt that Jack Goulding is a hurler but that obviously didn’t help.
    Thanks Qaos.
    ps The only musical reference to MARY JANE I can think of is ‘Along came Mary’s by the Association.

39. Mmm, Alan

    I would agree with you if all your ales were the same, but suppose you were doing a comparitive tasting? You might well taste Ale A, Ale B etc.!

40. I meant a blind comparitive, tasting, of course…

41. muffin@36: “Eighth vehicle in the outback” = BUSH. (Not saying where it’s from till tomorrow!). Am late today, on account of feeling old and slow, but just wanted to say how much I enjoyed most of this, even if I didn’t spot the theme – do I ever? Many thanks Qaos and Teacow, to whom welcome.

42. Thanks Martin @41. It’s a clue type that has turned up fairly regularly recently.

43. muffin @39,40
    So I suppose the ‘?’ in the clue stands for ‘in a blind comparative tasting’!
    When it comes down to it, we both knew what the setter meant.

44. Alan @43

    I wrote “comparitive” twice, and both times I thought that it didn’t look right! Should have checked…

45. Great puzzle, great blog (and I also enjoyed the “signature photo” (or whatever you call it) that Teacow has provided on the main page of Guardian blogs), and great commentary (INCLUDING the occasional “tangents”!!).  Unfortunately, everything else about my day here at work today is a flaming mess — the latest photos from Kilauea are an apt analogy — but the puzzle and blog brought some welcome smiles.  I love Qaos’s ghost themes, especially when they are not about subjects I am not familiar with, and today’s was every bit as enjoyable as I hoped it would be once I saw Qaos’s name as setter.  My favorites today included ELEVATOR, ALMOND and CAPE VERDE.

    Many thanks to Qaos and Teacow and the other commenters.  Have a nice weekend all.

46. muffin @36 and martin @41 – just a bit naughty according to Site Policy, since the blog is not yet published but the Prize deadline has been passed: from the same puzzle, ‘Fifth primate in the shade (6)’.

     

47. I’ve been doing cryptics for twenty years, and used to teach my students (in A-level biology and physics classes) how to solve them since it seemed a more important skill than anything else I would present. I only recently discovered the Guardian online, and want to thank all of the bloggers on here, fifteen squared has become daily reading for me.  As a Canadian living in the States, I often miss clues involving cricketers or homophones like “caught” … but then, apparently I say aboot and I don’t hear that either.  Thanks again everyone!

48. Hi Paulus

    Welcome – and hurrah!

    The ‘homophone’ debate is long running here. When I first joined in, [amazingly] ten years ago, I used to comment, light-heartedly, on how my late Scottish [rhotic]  husband would, light-heartedly, express exasperation at ‘homophones’ such as today’s caught / court. Over the years, I think this has gradually become generally accepted but, understandably, it still irritates old die-hards and some newer contributors. Several people  have commented that, if the clue is sufficiently clear as to lead to the answer, then it’s acceptable.

    I have several Canadian friends and am constantly fascinated by the subtle differences between the Canadian and US pronunciations.

    Please keep commenting! 😉

49. Apparently many of you thought this puzzle to be on the easier side for a Qaos.  Not sure, not for us anyway.

    On the whole, this was an very enjoyable crossword with a ghost theme that came so late to us that it wasn’t of any help – which is exactly how a ghost theme should be!

    The clues we liked most were MULE (yes, that one, with two devices for the price of one and with ‘in trouble’ being the anagrind as Robi rightly pointed out), CAPE VERDE, COMPRISED and MARY JANE.  In that order, actually.

    As ever, there were some clues where the Ximenean in me thought ‘mmm‘, like 4d (the use of ‘accident’ in the position where it is) – that said, I can see why many solvers found this a really nice clue.

    The definition in 12d (COURT) is rather odd, isn’t it? [if a definition at all]

    I still cannot get used to setters using ‘first’ the way it was used in 6d (HERE).  The clue suggests W for ‘Woman’s first’ and not E for ‘first expensive’.  But after having my weekly dose of it in the FT (Gaff, Gozo) and bloggers like PeeDee and Pierre not objecting at all, I’ll keep shtum.

    Last one in was 3d (BEACON) and having the C in place, it wasn’t immediately clear which vitamin we were talking about.  B, E, A, C ?

    Altogether, despite my critical notes, a lot of fun and exactly the lightness of touch that I like in a crossword .

    Thanks to Qaos & Teacow.

50. Eileen @48 –

    I enjoyed your comments.  I am solidly in the camp that believes, with respect to homophones, that if the clue — and the crossers, and one’s “solution sense” as a solver — leads to the answer, then it’s acceptable.   (I hold the same view with respect to questionable constructions such as the puma “PUP” from Boatman’s puzzle, as discussed on your blog on Wednesday.)  It’s all in good fun.  I usually find that if I “squint my ears” a little bit, I can catch the homophone (and the setter’s playfulness) even if it is not the pronunciation I am most familiar with.  But I appreciate that not every solver shares this opinion of homophone clues.

    I also got a smile at your remark about the “subtle” differences between the Canadian and US pronunciations.  Depending on what parts of Canada and the US you are comparing, those differences could be anything but subtle!  (Not unlike the regional differences in pronunciations across the UK, I’m sure.)  Here in the US, the words “water”, “coffee”, “chocolate”, and “restaurant” have always struck me as telltale words for making an educated guess as to which part of the country the speaker hails from.

51. Sil @49
    In 6d HERE “Woman’s first” does not suggest W – that is a misdirection. “Woman’s” accounts for HER, which means that ‘first expensive’ must account for ‘E’, and that is the kind of ‘loose’ cryptic grammar that is now used more often by some setters and not noted (or even noticed) by some bloggers and solvers.
    I tend to notice these things (I did today), but I find it unremarkable now.

52. The last line of your post, Alan, says it all.

    Purely looking at the clue, Woman’s first does suggest W.  Yes, some may find this indeed a misdirection but in my book of crosswords ‘first expensive’ for E is poor cryptic grammar. But if we do do it over and over again we’ll get used to it. But should we?  The only thing I can say about it nowadays is ‘please don’t let me do it’.

    BTW, it shouldn’t detract from the fact that the crossword as a whole was really nice.

     

     

53. I should think that the Ximenean in people might take issue with  7 13 16 18 20 22 & 25 across, and 1 3 4 5 6 12 16 17 20 & 21 down. Not that that’s (eek) to detract from an otherwise excellent puzzle.

    Thing is, some compilers assume that solvers will know what they mean, whilst others make absolutely sure that their intentions are made clear. 14d here for example: what’s wrong with that, apart from sexism?

54. muffin – I agree; thought ALED was neatly clued and succinct.

    Paulus – good for you, that’s proper education!

    Sil – your 6th paragraph is beautifully paradoxical!

    I found this a typically pleasant solve. Many thanks, Qaos.

    Welcome, Teacow (interesting sobriquet – I wonder at its derivation?!). Good to see that all commenters, irrespective of age or location, knew who Barat and John Snow are – we are an educated lot!

    Many thanks, both and all.

55. Did this one late yesterday. Can anyone explain please why strainer=coffee. I hope it’s not just that coffee is something that can stain your clothes if spilt as that would be ridiculously loose?

56. Sorry meant ? Stainer=coffee

57. Eric @55 / @56 … we agree that it is a bit loose. The “perhaps” is key here, in the sense that coffee is an example of something that can stain, and “coffee stain” is a reasonably common expression. We don’t think there’s anything else going on here.

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