Guardian 27,973 / Qaos

62 comments on “Guardian 27,973 / Qaos”

1. This was surprisingly quick and easy for Qaos, though nonetheless delightful. The theme is, I think, the modern popular music ensemble “Blur” whose songs include “parklife”, “thirteen”, “think tank” and others that others will list. I got no help from it, and after staring at the grid I thought “blur” was worth a try. A quick google suggested about 10 themed answers, often linked across clues.

2. Absolutely flew through this for some reason this morning. Not even spelunkered by 19 across…

3. what’s happened to 10a Eileen?

4. Classic case of follow the instructions and insert answer. I do wonder if Qaos got hemmed in on SPELUNKER and thought bugger. Apparently it is a cave (space) explorer not sure why American though.
   Thanks to both.

5. Thanks Qaos and Eileen

   I found this quite easy, but a DNF as I had ESCALE at 7d. I assumed it was a French word (as we had an unindicated Italian one at 6d) for a small staircase, related to escalier. (It is a French word in fact, but it means a stopover.)

   Favourite was MODERNISE. I don’t see a theme either.

   SPELUNKER is an American term for a caver, or “space explorer”.

6. Spelunker=cave (space) explorer – don’t know where US fits in

7. Some super clues I thought, with great surfaces.

   Baffled by The Birds though.

8. Sorry BlueCanary and muffin – we crossed

9. Spelunker may be an American term more than British, I found one ref saying that. Pretty familiar term here in NZ.
   Thanks Eileen, I had several unparsed.
   Thanks to Qaos also

10. apologies Muffin, you got there first.

11. SPELUNKER is American parlance for a speleologist. who explores caves, which are spaces.

    No idea about the theme!

12. Lots of crossing! Not a problem 🙂

13. Thanks both.

    I didn’t quite parse STRETCHIER never having come across the cat before, but mostly a pleasant and not-too-difficult solve. While I have heard of Blur, I wouldn’t recognise any of their songs (they have this in common with pretty much any “popular music ensemble” formed after about 1980).

    Eileen, SPELUNKER is an American term for what we’d call a potholer – someone who explores (underground) spaces.

14. I hope I don’t in any way divert this morning from the usual healthy exchange of comments on here, and I imagine my question has been asked and answered in the past. But how is it decided who will supply the wonderful and illuminating explanation/solution of this crossword daily. So, is it – and if so, how is it? – decided in advance whether Eileen, or Scchua, or Peter O, et al produce the goods for us that particular day. Surely they’re not scrambling amongst themselves to post first. Apologies for the intrusion, ignorance being bliss in my case…

15. 19A is spot-on as in the UK we refer to “cavers” and “caving” as a hobby and “speliologist” when it’s more serious or feeling posh. “Spelunker” is definitely a US-based term and not one we use here ever. As such Qaos has perfectly fairly told us he is using an American term, and I enjoyed the misdirected definition.

    I would guess that “fenestra” is, rather than an unindicated foreign term, the biological term for a pore or opening. “window” then is being used slightly more metaphorically than literally. I don’t think we should be surprised to see Qaos misleading us slightly with definitions!

    “The Birds” was my CoD – alas guessable from the enumeration, but such a neat construction.

16. Ronald @14: Brief answer is that they have a rota from what I gather.

17. Yes – we occasionally get Gaufrid stepping in at the last minute, with an explanation such as “the designated blogger is unable to do today’s puzzle”.

18. Thanks, all. I feel no shame at not spotting the theme.

    Re SPELUNKER: I should have been more specific: I know that it’s a caver or speleologist [or spelaeologist 😉 ] but neither Collins nor Chambers specifies it as American.

    I’ve no idea how 10ac dropped out. My apologies – it’s there now.

19. Ronald @14 – as Pedro says, we have a rota and therefore no choice as to whose puzzles we blog – and we don’t know what’s coming, anyway. [I’ve met people who think we get the puzzles in advance – I wish!]

    Keen-eyed solvers who take an interest in such things  may have noticed that on Wednesday I didn’t follow manehi, as usual, as I was away for the day and today I’m standing in for scchua.

20. The full (I think) list of BLUR albums mentioned is

    LEISURE

    MODERN(ise) LIFE is RUBBISH

    PARKLIFE

    the GREAT ESCAPE

    BLUR

    THIRTEEN

    THINK TANK

    I think they are all albums though some are songs as well.

    Quite a straightforward crosswors, and I only spotted most of the theme after completion.

    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen

21. I had always thought SPELUNKER was a British term since I first heard it in around 1967 (I had caving friends in those days). However, according to Wiktionary its origin is American being “Coined by New England cave explorer Roger Charles Johnson in the 1930s”, borrowed from from Latin spelunca, apparently.

     

    Thanks, Qaos and Eileen I looked hard for a theme but couldn’t find it. I did see OPEN AIR LEISURE PARK and found one ride called THIRTEEN, but nothing else.

22. Thanks Qaos and Eileen

    beery @ 20: I saw that as MODERN-{LIFE}-IS[e] RUBBISH. Wouldn’t put something like that past Qaos!

23. Many thanks Qaos, this was a fairly easy but very enjoyable puzzle.  I looked for a theme and did not find one, well I have heard of Blur but would not have been able to name any of their works.  There were a few I could not fully parse so thank you to Eileen as ever.  Favourites were SPELUNKER – such a lovely word, ROOM and AMPLIFIERS.

24. Many thanks for that, Pedro@16, Muffin@17 and finally Eileen herself, not a mystery any more!

25. Simon @22 – you may be right!

26. Thank you Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle and Eileen for a helpful blog.

    The theme passed me by, never heard of BLUR – well spotted TheZed @1.

    The COED gives SPELUNKER as being North American, I managed to get it from the clue with the crossers in place, but ‘spellcheck’ does not recognize it.

     

27. Surprisingly straightforward for Qaos, although I missed the theme.

    WordWeb and Wiktionary give SPELUNKER as American, viz: ‘spelunker (plural spelunkers)

    (Canada, US) One who explores caves; one who spelunks, caver; British English: potholer’

    I didn’t know the cat, which sounds a bit disgusting.

    Nicely hidden KNOWLEDGE; I also liked the Hitchcock film and the male pole dancing. Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

28. Easier to solve than parse I thought. I remembered to look for a theme and thought I’d found it in the first few clues I solved: LIFE, EASEL, OPEN-AIR and MODERN[ISE]. It’s obviously ART isn’t it? Which was no help from then on LOL.

    I knew spelunker from an episode of The Simpsons (see here: https://frinkiac.com/caption/S15E14/722138 ).

    Thanks to both Qaos and Eileen.

29. I came across spelunker circa 1981 in the original (I think) text based computer game “Dungeon”. Not sure I’ve ever seen it anywhere else.

30. I started out with RINK (Rook+kNight+King round 1) for the chess one – well, it is an open space of sorts.  I hadn’t seen the theme at that stage or I’d have known better.

    I do know SPELUNKER from somewhere – but not as specifically American.  And as for 15d – well, anybody who lives with one knows that nothing can retch like a cat!

31. When I got there clearly clued LOI, I did a google search which yielded another misdirection giving SPELUNKER Wikipedia entry as a board game so I assumed that was the theme, knowing that with Qaos there always is one. I assumed that the remainder were similarly obscure board games. Thanks to all for the enlightenment which had actually sprung to mind as a possibility when entering BLUR. Not sure how others feel about themes but I don’t personally feel defeated if I don’t get the theme.

    Good puzzle that, like others, I was on the same wavelength as our setter today: thanks Qaos.

    I never thought you bloggers got advance notice of the crosswords and am always super impressed at you taking on the pressure task of getting the parsing done. Thanks as ever to Eileen for her part today in being there to unravel the clues

32. According to masslive news the word SPELUNKER was coined by the New Englander Roger Johnson who “did not like being called a caveman so he coined a new word – “spelunker.” Derived from the Latin word for cave, a spelunker is “one who explores caves for the fun of it.” The word first appeared in area newspapers in the 1930s, then in a book by Perry in 1939, and by 1946 in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary”.

33. Dave Ellison (21) if you’re still around: I had similar thoughts looking for a theme.

    As well as your OPEN AIR and LEISURE PARK, I had GROUND, GREAT ESCAPE and LIFE. When the electric toaster popped up I decided no theme after all.

    As for the actual theme, although I know BLUR as a very good band with some great songs, you would have to be pretty dedicated to know their albums. So hat off to TheZed.

     

     

34. There is a technique that I’ve used on the last two Qaotic puzzles to find the theme when you know there is one but you don’t have a clue, so to speak, what it is, and it involves some understanding of Google’s ranking formula, which we won’t go into here. You guess which answers in the filled or nearly filled grid look like they’re there to fulfill a theme. You ignore those which if wrong are likely to throw the search off too much. Then you make a query of them (this time I used 6, not all of which were correct), and, if you’ve chosen well, the answer pops out like magic.

35. I’m glad I wasn’t quite the only one. At least Qaos’ ‘can clearly be read’ makes sense now.

36. Can’t believe I missed the theme, even knowing Qaos always does them – for some reason I’ve been listening to Blur for weeks and they keep cropping up in unrelated conversations as these things do. Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

37. A good crossword – not taxing, but very enjoyable. I liked SPELUNKER and the discussion of the origins and usage of this quite strange-looking word.
    At least I knew Blur (believing them to be famous), but I never thought of the band while solving and hadn’t a clue what to look for anyway!
    Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

38. Agreed that this was one of Qaos’ easier puzzles, but none the worse for that. I failed to see the theme, never having heard of the band. In fact there have been a few other recent puzzles with themes built around bands that I never heard of. I’m not as conversant with popular music as I once was, but it seems that a lot of your well known bands are much less well known over here.

    On another topic, I’m now convinced that any word can serve as an anagrind. I’m sure I’ve seen ‘wild’ (which makes sense to me) in the past, and now we have ‘tamed’ in 5d. Luckily, I’ve learned to look for possible anagrams whenever the letter count seems right.

    Thanks to Qaos, and to Eileen for the parsing of a few.

39. Where’s The Magic Whip? As the first of the LPs used in the theme was released 28 years ago and 5 of them were Number 1s, I don’t think anyone can complain that the theme was too obscure or contemporary. Perhaps I had it easy, as I started on the short clues, and my first three in were BLUR, PARK and LIFE.

40. Similar to Van Winkle @39 my first four in were BLUR, PARK, LIFE and THIRTEENS, so for once I spotted the theme which helped with the rest.
    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen .

41. Hi.

    What does RETCH have to do with CAT?

    Thanks.

42. AngryDad @41 – tucked away in Chambers under “cat” is “to vomit”.

43. Nice crossword, not too difficult to complete although some of the parsing was a bit of a mystery! Spotted the theme after completion when I dug out “Modern Life Is Rubbish” from the grid. Thanks to Eileen, and thanks to Qaos for the entertainment!

44. Thanks for the cat= retch. I’d never heard of it so STRETCHIER went in largely from the crossers. I didn’t get the theme although I spotted BLUR and I have heard of PARKLIFE and MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH- indeed I had tapes of both of them. Missed the rest though. Did like LEISURE and ROOM.
    Thanks Qaos.

45. Thanks Eileen.
    I also had no idea about cat/retch and spent far too long trying (and of course failing) to work out some complicated compound anagram.
    There’s a gorge in Corsica called Spelunca – now I know where the name comes from.
    Thanks to Qaos

46. Nice easy one for a relaxing Friday afternoon. Have filed “retch” in my cat words memory bank. Loved the clue for MODERNISE. Not convinced that “wanting” (1down) can be used it mean “without”. I’m sure I’ve seen clues where it’s used in precisely the opposite way. But I’m open to persuasion.

47. RJS @46 think of the expression “to be left wanting” and perhaps you’ll agree that “wanting” = “without” is fair. “The pasta was tasty, but it wants salt” for example is not anthropomorphising the pasta and its desire to be more salty!

48. Thanks to both for their work. As always I appreciate the mental work out the crossword involves and am impressed by the ability of the blogger to explain things which often seem impenetrable.

    Kepler is, apart from his space theory work, an American space telescope which explains the explore bit. If you want an even more distant use, the Kepler track in NZ can be used as an entry point to a largely unexplored cave system.

49. Thank you Eileen and Qaos – but today perhaps especially TheZed, who caused me to spew my tea over “anthropomorphizing pasta” and reminded me of a great New Yorker Cartoon.  As a Canadian, I appreciate also your name (TheZed) and resent my computer’s auto-correct of anthropomorphizing!

50. Seeing a lot of people saying they didn’t spot the theme, which is fair enough. Just wanted to say as a (relatively!) young solver, it’s really refreshing to see cultural references from my lifetime in crosswords, with today’s offering following the excellent Prodigy-themed crossword from last week. I think it was Qaos who made a reference to Stringer Bell from the Wire in a campanology-themed crossword a while back too. More of the same for me please Qaos!

51. Well said, TheJungleVIP !

52. Qaos is younger than most of us..m

53. That m should have been a third . to complete the ellipsis…

54. Despite being of the wrong generation, I had in fact heard of Blur (and the Blur/Oasis rivalry) and even Parklife. But then again, I so rarely see themes…

55. Paulus :49 Salve! thank you for the cartoon…it has been too long since I was a regular consumer of The New Yorker!

56. LEISURE is a great album of it’s time, includes the excellent She’s So High and Sing.

     

    Liked this puzzle very much, thanks to Qaos and Eileen

57. I agree with lots of the commenters, it was a quicker solve than expected. I remembered Qaos is a themist, and reviewing the completed grid did spot the theme.

    Calling all Germanists: Spelunke ( no r ) put me in mind of Goethe’s Faust, but I couldn’t find anything on a quick web scout around. I did see though that Spelunken-Jenny is the original designation for Jenny in Brecht’s Threepenny Opera, Spelunke in this case being a hangout for lowlifes.

58. TheZed – thank you for your reply to my comment – I think I’m persuaded!

59. Lippi @57 (if you’re still reading this)

    I had exactly the same thought re Spelunke, but it was so many years ago and I can’t find my old copy of Faust.  However it was clearly a word Goethe used, as can be seen if you google ‘Folg ihr, wie sie dich lockt, in die Spelunke hinein!’

    Here he’s using at as modern Germans would, in the sense of disreputable drinking establishment.  See also https://dict.leo.org/forum/viewGeneraldiscussion.php?idThread=1240868&idForum=4&lang=en&lp=ende

60. Essexboy @ 59:

    Still here … The quote you’ve found isn’t from Faust, it’s from the Venice Epigrams. And that’s not something I knew before today, all credit due to wikipedia.de. Cheers.

61. Lippi @60

    You’re welcome.  It’s still bugging me as I feel sure it’s there in Faust somewhere, maybe as a heading for a scene like ‘Auerbachs Keller’.  On the other hand I could be thinking of Thomas Mann’s Doktor Faustus, which I remember doing in my final year. In Adrian Leverkühn’s conversation with the Devil, he asks ‘Was wartet derer, die Euch zu Huld genommen, in der Spelunke?’  See https://www.academia.edu/38448490/Innerweltliche_H%C3%B6llen_im_sozialen_Ged%C3%A4chtnis_der_Literatur near bottom of page 8.  But here I think we’re a long way from watering holes…. or potholes, for that matter!

62. Essexboy @61:

    We should stop now, we’re getting too Germanist. I’ll take a look at your links in slow time. It’s a long time since I looked at TM’s Doktor F, but the tone sounds right. Vielen Dank!

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