Guardian 27,886 – Qaos

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Good Qaotic fun today: not too hard, with only one clue giving me a bit of trouble in the parsing.

The puzzle celebrates the satirical magazine PRIVATE EYE, which recently published its 1500th issue. It often describes itself as the ORGAN of its proprietor Lord GNOME; an actual proprietor was Peter COOK, and other early contributors included John WELLS, Christopher BOOKER (also the first editor), Danae BROOKs (a new name to me) and the investigative journalist Paul FOOT. I may well have missed some other references. Thanks to Qaos.

 
 
 
 
 
 
Across
9. WELLS Healthy society shapes futurist (5)
WELL + S – refence to H G Wells
10. AMERICANO Reading two articles about crime problem over coffee (9)
CRIME* in A A, + O[ver]
11. GAMMA RAYS Radiation in school’s not right, doctors say (5,4)
GRAMMAR [school] less the first R + SAY*
12. BROOK Bear or blackbird? (5)
B[lack] + ROOK (bird)
13. PRIVATE Secret soldier (7)
Double definition – I think I’ve seen this a few times
15. DARLING Dear, dear! Tablet dropped by Heather (7)
DEAR less E (Ecstasy tablet) + LING (heather genus)
17. UPSET Angry over spill (5)
Three definitions
18. EYE Look both ways (3)
EYE is a palindrome
20. INTRO Prelude to main trombone part (5)
Hidden in maIN TROmbone
22. BULRUSH Water plant or shrub vigorously about mid-July (7)
[j]UL[y] in SHRUB*
25. TONNAGE Weight of silver in 1,000kg (7)
AG in TONNE – not impressed by this clue, as the word comes directly from ton/tonne
26. FRIED Cooked food really is excellent, deserves tips (5)
Initial letters of Food Really Is Excellent Deserves
27. MAN BOOKER Might they reserve fellow’s prize? (3,6)
Someone who reserves a fellow might be a “man-booker”; not sure why the clue has “they”, unless it refers to those running the famous literary prize, which I see is going to revert to being called the Booker Prize from next year
30. ORDINANCE Tory disrobed in and around church ceremony (9)
[t]OR[y] + (IN AND)* + CE. I didn’t know the “ceremony” meaning: “a religious practice or ritual prescribed by the church”
31. ORGAN Newspaper roaming all over the place? I’m lost (5)
ROAMING* less I’M
Down
1. TWIG The Yorkshire hairpiece? Get it! (4)
T’WIG – supposed Yorkshire pronunciation of “the wig”, with definite article reduction
2. OLYMPICS Simply awful catching cold after 29 competition (8)
O (ring) + C in SIMPLY*
3. ASIA China is ascending here? (4)
Hidden in reverse of chinA IS Ascending &lit
4. JAPANESE Secretary in ripped jeans grasps English language (8)
PA in JEANS* + E; or for “grasps” to make more sense, E in (PA in JEANS*)
5. CEASED Stopped being quiet to break record (6)
EASE (quiet, as a noun) in CD (compact disc)
6. GILBERTIAN Liberating, free and paradoxically humorous (10)
(LIBERATING)* referring to W S Gilbert
7. SATORI Special artificial intelligence takes in hill for enlightenment (6)
S + TOR in AI. Satori is a form of enlightenment in Buddhism. It was also the pseudonym used in the FT by the late Albie Fiore, who set in the Guardian as Taupi, though in his case it was from a Basque word for “mole”
8. COOK Prepare carbon monoxide at absolute zero (4)
CO + 0 K (absolute zero is 0 on the Kelvin scale)
13. PLUMB Fruit bat home? Not in, definitely out (5)
The fruit is a PLUM, then we have to read “bat home” as “b at home”, and remove “at home” (“in”) to be left with just the B. Hard work for single letter! The definition refers to an LBW decision in cricket where the balls hits the batsman’s legs in front of the middle stump. It’s from the sense of “vertical”, as in a plumb line
14. ASTOUNDING A trap to steal pound loses penny? That’s surprising (10)
[p]OUND in A STING (trap)
16. GNOME Dwarf, for example, acquires second name after retiring (5)
MO (moment, second) N in EG (for example), all reversed
19. EXTENDED Old girlfriend inclined to be stretched (8)
EX + TENDED
21. TRACKAGE Follow progress of time by lines (8)
TRACK + AGE – this has rather the same fault as 25a, I think, though to a lesser degree
23. LAIRDS Scottish nobles retreat down south (6)
LAIR (a retreat) + D + S
24. HUMANE Kind of piece, decorated with colour (6)
MAN (piece, in chess etc) in HUE
26. FOOT Limit of returned books (4)
Reverse of OF + O[ld] T[estament]
28. OXON By wearing glasses, start to notice county briefly (4)
X (by, as in multiplied by) in O O (pair of glasses) + N[otice]. Oxon is the standard abbreviation of Oxfordshire, from the Latin Oxonium
29. RING Call round (4)
Another familiar double definition

67 comments on “Guardian 27,886 – Qaos”

  1. Very nice puzzle. Qaos’s surfaces have become more clever and much less convoluted recently, which is great. Favourites were JAPANESE, OXON and GNOME. Many thanks to Q & A (!).

  2. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

    For once I saw the theme, though not all of the components. I didn’t know that meaning of ORDINANCE either, or know SATORI, but both were clearly clued.

    Pleasant, though fairly easy. I thought the surface for BULRUSH didn’t make much sense.

  4. Apart from the weaknesses noted by Andrew this was a fun puzzle and, as drofle says @1, the surfaces were excellent. I thought “asia” a very neat &lit, “gamma rays” very smooth and the “gilbertian” anagram a good spot. Lacking his usual numeric wordplay, and I am scratching round for more theme-related clues as there don’t seem to be enough. I can find “Ian” in 6dn, but no “hislop”. 22,25ac hides “Rushton” (Willie, founder and cartoonist) though.

  5. It is a good puzzle but with the theme it becomes a very good puzzle

    BROOK leads to Rebeka as well as the Eye contriibutor

    A good cue to re visit some old covers( Verwoerd  A nation mourns with Zulus dancing)

  6. Willie RUSHTON is trapped by BULRUSH and TONNAGE but I can’t find Richard Ingrams. Thanks S&B

  7. Maybe the ‘they’ in 27ac might be meant to be the colloquial gender-neutral version of ‘him’ or ‘her’ perhaps?

  8. Just the level I needed this morning. All very enjoyable (excepting 13d). Thanks Qaos and Andrew, and TheZed for spotting Rushton.

  9. Thanks both. Great puzzle. I spotted the theme (for once) and was hoping for UGANDAN RELATIONS. No such luck. As usual

  10. Straightforward but enjoyable, didn’t know Satori but it was obvious from the wordplay as was ‘plumb’ (which I thought I knew so spent an age trying to find in 13D before giving up – cricketing reference was new to me so thanks Andrew).

    I don’t understand why 27 is causing concern; if someone is a ‘man booker’ then they book men, surely? Seems fine to me.

    Didn’t see the theme, ‘Twig’ tickled me.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  11. Like baerchen @6 I was hoping to find INGRAMS somewhere,half-hidden likE RUSHTON. It could have worked if the ING of 15a DARLING had intersected with 16d GRAMS rather than GNOME, but that would have been a sacrifice. As usual it was a pleasure to find that Qaos has come again. I’ve only recently discovered his well-organised site, which is sure to be familiar to many, and which reveals the regular themes as well as solutions: http://www.qaos-crosswords.com/solutions.htm. For today we are still told hint coming soon. Many thanks to Qaos and to Andrew.

  12. I totally missed the theme as I am not familiar with Private Eye.

    My favourite was ASTOUNDING.
    New word today was SATORI.

    Thanks Andrew and Qaos.

  13. For 13ac I thought that the b referred to ‘bowled by’ which is also defintely out in cricket, as in AC Hudson b Prasad 146.

    Can someone explain to me why it refers to LBW (leg before wicket)? b = bowled seems so much simpler.

  15. michelle @13. I think Andrew is right to invoke LBW for the definition in 13d, the b in the wordplay not being a factor here. Commentators frequently, when the ball hits the pad, announce ‘that is absolutely plumb’ (lbw), definitely out. But never ‘plumb bowled’.

  17. Good crossword, although I missed the theme. Alistair DARLING was apparently on the cover of PE in 2008.

    I liked GAMMA RAYS and HUMANE. Like Andrew, I thought the ‘bat home? Not in’ was a bit convoluted. I think in 22A there is a missing word, like vigorously shaken/blown etc.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

     

  18. Robi@17 – I see what you mean about 22a, but you need to see “water” as a verb in the surface reading, so “vigorously” qualifies that, as well as being an anagram indicator in the cryptic reading.

  20. Thanks for the blog, Andrew. I had to go out early this morning, so that’s my flimsy excuse for missing the theme.

    I did manage to work out the wordplay of PLUMB but, since I didn’t know the cricket definition, it was still left unparsed.

    I can forgive the duplicate ‘ton’, since it accommodated the late lamented Willie Rushton.

    SATORI immediately reminded me of of the much loved and respected Taupi, one of my favourite setters. I looked him up http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/07/29/albie-fiore/ and found that it was, unbelievably, ten years ago yesterday that he died.

    Lovely puzzle – many thanks, Qaos.

  22. Not even the presence of PRIVATE and EYE in close proximity to each other tipped me off to the theme. I wasn’t even tired and emotional following an exotic cheroot, and its examples were so plentiful and well signed that even Knacker of the Yard could have spotted it. I walk the street of shame, all the way to Neasden.
    Good puzzle anyway; TWIG and GILBERTIAN probably my favourites.
    I wanted to subtract both Rs from grammar, which would have left me one R short with regard to this one.
    Nice one Qaos. Thanks to Andrew.

  23. Not quite up to what I expect from one of my favorite setters, but still pretty good. BROOK, UPSET, ORGAN, GILBERTIAN, BROOK, and OXON were among my favorites. In addition to the flaws noted by Andrew, the ‘s in 11a seems unnecessary and misleading, not in a good way.

    A dnf for me, as my final “check all” revealed that 19d was not EXTENDER (ex-tender for old girlfriend, with “inclined to be stretched” as the definition – I thought it sort of worked, d’oh.)

    Thanks to Qaos and to Andrew, particularly for the parsing of PLUMB, which I never would have seen.

  24. Thanks Qaos for such a fun crossword, and thanks Andrew for the blog.

    I really needed the blog to parse PLUMB, as, although I live with a cricket fanatic, the plumb / lbw link had passed me by.

    Also I missed the theme, as usual.

    Too many favourites to list them all, but particularly liked TWIG, GNOME and OXON.

  25. Robi @17-19: Not sure I get the problem with the water plant (definition). “vigorously” tells us to shake up “shrub” and put it about “ul” from “mid-July”.

  27. 3d was clearly ASIA, but isn’t it one of those that looks like an &lit but isn’t when you really think about it? For the wordplay, you need one part of the clue to contain the letters, and the remainder must be an instruction to tell you it is both hidden and reversed. Ascending is doing double duty, which is what happens at the clue level with an &lit, but not at the word level, surely?

  28. Really enjoyed this, despite missing the theme. I guess the surface and definition of 6 dn pulls it all together. Good week so far…thanks Qaos and Andrew

  29. Clever and fun. And completed reasonably quickly. I missed the theme though, despite looking for it (and it being blindingly obvious now!).

  30. Was this the Monday puzzle coming in a day late? I fairly breezed through this -unlike the actual Monday crossword which I found rather difficult. That said, I didn’t see the theme even though it positively screams out now that I know what it is! Mind you, I haven’t read Private Eye for years. I thought TWIG owed a great deal to Barry Cryer but none the worse for that. I liked MAN BOOKER!
    Thanks Qaos.

  32. I saw PRIVATE EYE in there fairly early on, and was hoping it would be about actual detectives, because the magazine doesn’t propagate over here very well–ok, at all, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen a single issue. No such luck. But thanks to the way Qaos does themes, it didn’t matter. It was still enjoyable and fully solvable. Thanks to both blogger and setter (which last word I just misspelled and Autocorrect wanted to make d’etre, which was too funny not to mention).

  33. Enjoyed this one – spotted part of the theme, but didn’t know all of them and it wasn’t much help.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew

  34. Thanks Chaos and Andrew

    A few minor quibbles:

    I think there is a mistake in the parsing of 10a AMERICANO – the second of the two articles is AN.

    Also I parsed 5d as CEASED = ‘Stopped being’, which then allows quiet=ease as blogged.  Otherwise being is superfluous.

    Muffin@26 and others, I don’t see the problem with 22a.  The surface says ‘Water plant or shrub vigorously…’  so in the surface vigorously qualifies the verb to water.  The Definition is ‘Water plant’ – and for this reading water is no longer a verb.  In the cryptic part of the clue we must read vigorously as the anagram indicator.  The words do different duties in the surface reading to the fully-parsed reading, but that seems quite reasonable to me.

    Moreover, in the Latin translation, (Continued on p.94)

     

  37. I also missed the theme but found this an enjoyable experience. In 10A, I understand that the word ‘Reading’ gives a better flow to the surface of the clue (as well as being the name of my football club!) but its existence confused me. I was looking for some example of the ‘sounds like …’ clues. Am I the only one worried by that?

  38. Incidentally, the Booker prize has already reverted – this year’s prize is “The 2019 Booker Prize” and the old manbooker website is now being redirected automatically to thebookerprizes.com

  39. Just a thought…
    All of these characters had nicknames and maybe
    R. Ing (rams) was one?
    Peter @ 30: Spot on re Barry Cryer; I can hear him
    saying it. It might make a nice exercise to trawl through
    the I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue archives and set a crossword
    entirely composed of Uxbridge Enlish Dictionary entries.
    However, it could be the most groan-worthy ever.
    Super crossword Qaos.
    Many thanks to you and Andrew.

  40. Hi il principe dell’oscurità

    What a brilliant idea! There’s a challenge – but it might well be a case of ‘Be careful what you wish for’. 😉

  41. Additional Quibbles (1) Did not like the close proximity of huMANe and MAN Booker (2) The same 27a seems to be a very clumsy clue….even when it was glaringly obvious l didn’t want to write it in…

    But there were some nice clues here at the same time…GNOME and ORGAN stood out.
    Didn’t spot the theme, haven’t read PE for forty odd years now.

    Thanks S & B.

  42. Eileen,
    Come to think of it, an archive trawl might be unnecessary;
    wasn’t there a stocking-filler, paper edition of the UED a few
    years back?

  44. How about this for a topical UED clue:
    UK transport privatisation (6)
    I’ll get my coat…

  45. I noticed a Blackadder theme but not sure if intentional. I can See Private Darling Upset Eye Intro in the answers which reminded me of the Blackadder Goes Forth opening credits where Private Darling (Tim McInnerny) seems to have a problem with his eye.

    Apologies if mentioned above – could only see Private Eye references.

  47. And I wondered if any HG Wells pieces were ever published in Astounding magazine but that mini-theme stuttered to a halt pretty quickly!

  48. I presumed Qaos had cleverly chosen his wording for 9ac to deliberately reference H G Wells’ “The Shape of Things to Come”.
    (It is worth remembering that some setters regard the first across clue as a novelist may view her first sentence, and deliberately make it a good’un.)

    I cannot accept the quibble over BULRUSH. Sure, “water” is doing double duty – but this is the Guardian so no complaints from me.

    The clue I ticked – PLUM – as I enjoyed the jiggery-pokery once I spotted it!

    I agree with those who found this rather Mondayish but other than that…..

    Many thanks to Qaos and Andrew

  50. There is no “double duty” in 22a. People are mixing up the surface and cryptic readings. Water is a verb in the former and part of the definition in the latter.

    Thanks to Andrew and Qaos

  51. You are defining “double duty”, DuncT. “Water” is part of the definition for “water plant”, and also the verb for “watering” the plant and shrub. You may not be bothered by double duty (as William F P seems not to be), but it seems incontrovertible that double duty is happening here.

  52. No more than “bear” does in 12a.

    “Water plant” is the definition. Wordplay is anagram (vigorously) of shrub around UL (mid July). The vigorous watering of plants and shrubs only exists in the surface.

  53. DuncT @52

    “Bear” isn’t doing double duty in 12a. “Bear” is the definition; the wordplay is B ROOK (Black bird).

    I see that we are likely to disagree about what “double duty” is 🙂

  54. Gentlemen, gentlemen! Just to say Yorkshire Lass loved TWIG: made ‘er feel reet at ‘ome. Thanks to setter and blogger: nice puzzle well explained.

  56. I’m with DuncT. The structure of the clue is or , with definition = “Water plant”, and wordplay = “shrub vigorously about mid-July”.

    Surely “double duty” means that a word is apart of both the definition and wordplay, no?

  57. Bah! Chevrons don’t come out. What I tried to say was:

    I’m with DuncT. The structure of the clue is (definition) or (wordplay), with definition = “Water plant”, and wordplay = “shrub vigorously about mid-July”.

    Surely “double duty” means that a word is apart of both the definition and wordplay, no?

  58. missed the theme.

    I don’t understand the debate about double duty in 22a. Water plant = definition, vigorously is the anagram indicator for shrub (albeit one some might not like). how is water doing double duty? From where I sit, it is not part of the wordplay. To me, double duty involves a word having two cryptic functions (which i think is not kosher), e.g. part of both definition and also part of wordplay, or indicator and also part of fodder, etc. Surface doesn’t come into it.

    ‘ascending’ in 3d I think has double duty as both reversal indicator and part of hidden fodder

  59. Spike @57

    “shrub vigorously” doesn’t make sense. The only way it works is “Water shrub vigorously”, in which case the “water” is doing the contentious double duty.

  60. …by that, I mean “vigorously” is an adverb, so must qualify a verb. “Shrub” isn’t a verb (as far as I know), so the only verb available is the problematic “water”.

    I hope that makes my quiblle clearer.

  61. Muffin @60

    Aha. Now I understand your objection. I still don’t really see it as double duty; more that an implied verb is missing. Similar to shouting “Quickly!” at someone. The verb is missing but the meaning is clear.

    Cheers!

  62. Yes, spike. I think that Robi had earlier suggested that there was a word missing from the clue (intentionally or otherwise!)

  63. Possibly too late for anyone to read, which is my fault for doing the crossword in the evening in bed, instead of the crack of dawn like many here (apparently). Just wanted to say re the “double duty” brouhaha: surely there are three elements to a clue – the surface, the cryptic part and the definition. The surface uses the whole clue and is only required to be grammatical, but if it makes plausible sense then so much the better. The definition and the cryptic part should be non-overlapping (except in the case of an &lit, when they should both contain the whole clue). And finally there should be as few words as possible (or none) separating cryptic part and definition. By this measure 22a is a good clue.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew!

  64. Some kind of discussion going on here!

    Like dutch (and others) I really don’t see what’s wrong with 22ac.
    When it comes to 3d (ASIA), it’s a different matter.
    dutch is right when he says that ‘ascending’ is both part of the fodder and the reversal indicator.
    However, there’s should also be a hidden indicator which only can be ‘here?’.
    And if that’s what it is, it might indeed be an &lit [if one accepts the surface as a good definition].

    I liked this puzzle very much, also found it quite easy but missed the theme!!
    There are often people who complain about superfluous words.
    What about ‘Reading’ in 10ac?
    No problem with T = ‘The Yorkshire’ apart from how ‘Yorkshire’ was used. Adjectival?
    In 23d we had D for ‘down’ again. Not my cup of tea but I know where it comes from.
    And in 11ac I do not like ‘doctors’ (with the ‘s’ at the end).
    But, as I said, I liked this puzzle.
    And 15ac (DARLING) in particular.

    Many thanks to Andrew & Qaos.

  65. Another one here who thought 22a BULRUSH was fine – no “double duty” going on. Vigorously is in Don Manley’s list of anagram indicators in the Chambers Crossword Companion.

  67. So sorry, folks, to have inadvertently helped to start a pointless discussion. Of course, “water” is NOT doing double duty – I’ve no idea why I wrote that @48. I can only assume I’d read muffin’s earlier complaints about the clue (a perfectly good clue) and made a mental note to slap down yet another vacuous quibble, mainly to defend Qaos’ virtue – not that he needs any help from me I’m sure! I guess I didn’t look back at the clue, accepted his premise and corrected a baseless criticism if you see what I mean.

    And I only commented here to bring an aspect of the clueing for WELLS to light that others failed to mention!!
    Yet I foolishly find myself succoured in by a baseless quibble so much so that I end up stating, like some tyro, the very nonsense that I was seeking to correct. I think this is my final muffin straw and this camel will have to remove his broken back from fifteensquared.

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