Guardian 28,013 / Qaos

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For one reason or another the scheduled blogger has not turned up today so I am a last minute stand-in.

Qaos always has a theme and today it is 10ac plus the first two letters of 11ac, someone renowned for 21ac 15dn, often using a 18ac. His works include 4dn/26ac, 16ac/20dn, 9ac/2dn, 26dn/22dn, 28ac/25dn (minus the final ‘S’) and 1ac. There may be others that I have missed.

Across
8 Painting by eccentric Somalian (4,4)
MONA LISA – an anagram (eccentric) of SOMALIAN

9 Imagine dense carbon transmuted into nitrogen (5)
THINK – THIcK (dense) with the C (carbon) change to (transmuted into) N (nitrogen)

10 Tip from financial institution (4)
BANK – double def.

11 Student gets top grade, enrolling in less busy cooking courses (10)
SYLLABUSES – L (student) A (top grade) in (enrolling in) an anagram (cooking) of LESS BUSY

12 The Spanish wait is over — it’s safe to eat (6)
EDIBLE – EL (the Spanish) BIDE (wait) reversed (is over)

14 Like the colour of an ape? (8)
ORANGISH – a ‘punning’ def.

16 Delicate newspaper has smooth cover (7)
FRAGILE – RAG (newspaper) in (has … cover) FILE (smooth)

18 10 + 100 + 1 + 50 follows special pattern (7)
STENCIL – TEN (10) C (100) I (1) L (50) after (follows) S (special)

21 Government service ready with independence in writing (8)
GRAFFITI – G (government) RAF (service) FIT (ready) I (independence)

23 Doctors injecting drug, a thousand get hallucinations (6)
DREAMS – DRS (doctors) around (injecting) E (drug) A M (thousand)

24 Theresa’s annoyed about revised version 22s (10)
HARVESTERS – an anagram (annoyed) of THERESA’S around (about) RV (revised version)

26 Female soldier’s extremely regimental (4)
GIRL – GI (soldier) R[egimenta]L (extremely regimental)

27 The soul of Great North Run returns to Bury (5)
ENURN – [gr]E[at] (the soul of great) plus N (north) RUN reversed (returns)

28 One / bishop, perhaps (8)
CARDINAL – double def.

Down
1 ‘It smells nice in Sydney’ (Englishman and his queen) (8)
POMANDER – POM (in Sydney Englishman) AND ER (his queen)

2 Vehicle honked after bonnet’s lifted (4)
TANK – [s]TANK (honked after bonnet’s lifted)

3 Used, it’s blown and finally discarded (6)
TISSUE – an anagram (blown) of USE[d] IT’S with the ‘and finally discarded’ indicating the removal of [an]D from the fodder and the whole clue as a cryptic definition.

4 Liberal and Labour upset over working party item (7)
BALLOON – L (liberal) LAB (Labout) reversed (upset) O (over) ON (working)

5 Advance up a mountain (4)
ETNA – ANTE (advance) reversed (up)

6 Down clue given cryptic revelation (10)
DIVULGENCE – D (down) plus an anagram (cryptic) of CLUE GIVEN

7 They take risks travelling outside end of slope (6)
SKIERS – an anagram (travelling) of RISKS around (outside) [slop]E (end of slope) with the whole clue providing the definition

13 Ask for help second time around: 1 + 5 divides 4? (3,1,6)
BEG A FAVOUR – B (second) AGE (time) reversed (around) plus A (1) V (5) in (divides) FOUR (4)

15 Garfunkel‘s method (3)
ART – double def.

17 Garland wrote in invisible ink (3)
LEI – contained in (wrote in) ‘invisibLE Ink’

19 Famous person playing god? (8)
IMMORTAL – def. plus a cryptic indicator

20 License produced peace (7)
SILENCE – an anagram (produced) of LICENSE

22 Rare accident involving exercise, one gathers (6)
REAPER – an anagram (accident) of RARE around (involving) PE (exercise)

23 Leave pudding? Gutted! (6)
DESERT – DES[s]ERT (pudding gutted)

25 Secret police admit fashionable offences (4)
SINS – SS (secret police) around (admit) IN (fashionable)

26 Expression of annoyance when there’s no tea (4)
GRIN – [cha]GRIN (annoyance when there’s no tea)

33 comments on “Guardian 28,013 / Qaos”

  1. Thank you Gaufrid.  I was hoping something would appear as i couldn’t parse GRIN.

    Didn’t get the theme, either.

    Thanks to Qaos, too.

  3. Thanks Qaos and Gaufrid

    I didn’t see the theme, of course – even if I had spotted bANKSY I wouldn’t have known any of his works.

    I didn’t parse TANK or the BEG A bit of 13d.

    Favourite was ENURN – I like clues where I follow the instructions to create a word I’ve never heard!

  4. Suspected this would be easy when I glanced at clue 8A while printing out, and by and large it was. Enjoyed most of the large across clues, however, and got stuck for the last five minutes on TANK and BANK  … it always seems that these embarrassing little ones trip me up at the finish line.

  5. Thanks for standing in again, Gaufrid. Like Anna, I was waiting for help with GRIN.

    I’m glad to see I wasn’t alone in not seeing the theme – much to my chaGRIN, as, interestingly, THINK TANK was one of the theme answers in Qaos’ last weekday puzzle, which I blogged. The theme was Blur albums – Banksy stencilled the cover for that one – and I didn’t see the theme then, either!

    My favourites today were THINK, SYLLABUSES and POMANDER.

    Many thanks, Qaos. I don’t mind being beaten when I’ve had fun along the way.

     

  6. I forgot to look for a theme and just as well, as I never would have found it. All easy enough except for GRIN, which I had to reveal, although after much head-scratching I did manage to parse it.

    Frankie @2, neither 7d nor 3d is a genuine &lit, since only part of the clue is involved in the wordplay, but I did like both of them. I generally enjoy clues that step a bit outside convention as long as the intent is clear and the answer unambiguous.

    Thanks to Qaos and to gaufrid for the emergency blog.

  7. I didn’t see the theme and,like Muffin, it wouldn’t have helped if I’d seen that it was BANK SY. Gave up on GRIN so a failure for me. Turns out it was a good clue..Oh dear!!
    Thanks Qaos.

  8. My word this was a cleverly-assembled crossword! Like others, I didn’t spot the theme – and am now kicking myself, for it’s a beauty and I have a great fondness for Banksy’s work. Gee, perhaps the christmas alcohol has dulled my wits? Thanks to Gaufrid for stepping in and elucidating: I’m another who needed help parsing GRIN, and could only part-parse BEG A FAVOUR, and a huge thanks to Qaos for a masterly work of 15A.

  10. Thank you Gaufrid – I was at a loss parsing “beg a”, “grin” and “tank” so needed help there. Some great clues (“cardinal” and I liked both the almost-&lits) but did not reckon much to “enurn” – why is “run” inside “EN”, unless Bury is doing double duty? Also the “SS” were hardly secret police. “orangish” rather weak too I felt, but very clever to get so much thematic material in and I do enjoy the library of mathematical trickery Qaos is creating.

    As a former teacher I used to get very annoyed when people said “syllabi” as it is not a Latin noun to start with. I think that’s why people changed to “specifications”…

  11. Pleased to say I did get CHAGRIN after a lot of thought, but completely missed the impressive theme.

    I didn’t known ENURN, and I see it’s an archaic form of the modern INURN (which I didn’t know either!). Entirely forgiveable, given the constraints imposed by the remarkable number of theme words.

    In 17d “wrote” is unorthodox in the cryptic meaning, presumably so “Garland” can seem to refer to, eg, the actress Judy?

    Favourites were ORANGISH, POMANDER, MONA LISA, TANK

    @DaveinNCarolina, 3d is a full &lit, with every word taking part in the wordplay. Otoh, it’s the nose that’s blown, rather than the tissue, isn’t it? Too good a clue to complain though.

  12. Fun stuff. Thanks Qaos & Gaufrid. I didn’t get TANK either. I liked GRAFFITI & SYLLABUSES.
    Doesn’t 27 clue ENNUR? Where’s the indicator to put the backwards RUN between the E and the N?

  13. Thanks Qaos and Gaufrid

    TheZed @ 10 / TVTLMB @ 12

    27: as per the blog, ‘The soul of great’ = E, then N(orth) RUN is reversed, ie NUR N. There is no containment, so no indicator needed.

  14. Tony @12, of course you’re right about 3d being a full &lit. I was in too much of a hurry to post.

    TheZed @10 and TheVoid @12, I don’t see the problem with 27a. It’s E (the soul of great) followed by a reversal of NRUN (North Run returns).

  15. I think 3d is clever, but it doesn’t quite qualify as a full &lit. because the definition is a little off: it is the nose that is blown, and the tissue is blown into, surely?

  17. Whilst knowing next to nothing about prog. rock or contemporary art, I’ve decided that, when a theme seems likely, it’s quite fun to try and find likely pairings.

    So, having finally found Banksy through bloodymindedness, I  was chuffed to pair up GRIN REAPER, but I gave myself no prizes for THINK TANK and CARDINAL SINS [sic].    (IMMORTAL DREAMS ??)

    Very well done Qaos, thank you Gaufrid (and Eileen, I left you my gratitude on the 24th).

  18. I felt a bit miffed about 5. It felt like a toss up between ETNA and ANTE. Do others think it was a clear case of the mountain being the definition, rather than the advance? I thought you could derive ‘ante’ from thinking of a mountain and spelling it upwards just as easily as you could derive ‘etna’ from thinking of an advance and spelling it upwards. Am I missing something (besides the crossers).

  19. The theme was rather wasted on me, but simply whizzed through this before being brought to a grinding halt by ENURN (never heard of the word before), and GRIN, which I don’t naturally associate with annoyance. Played around with GRIM and GRIMACE, and gave up. Too much turkey and Christmas pud to blame perhaps…

  20. A lovely puzzle and once I saw 15d ART and BANK -SY (linking 10a and 11a), I also twigged to the theme. I knew a couple of his most famous works 8a “MONA LISA”, 9a/2d “THINK TANK” and 26d/22d “GRIN REAPER”, but my “Spot the art works” was much more part of an endgame for me after the grid was compete rather than providing any assistance in solving individual clues. Many thanks to Gaufrid for standing in and of course to Qaos. I was amazed that I managed to solve this given that I was all Christmassed out by last night Aussie time.

  21. P.S. Oh and 4d/26a BALLOON GIRL was one I put together early – possibly my first encounter with Banksy. Did anyone else see a news item about his very topical Christmas work this year entitled “The Scar of Bethlehem”? Very different installation from much of his street art. I like the way he continues to startle and provoke.

  22. [I have seen the one in Dover with a workman up a ladder taking a hammer and chisel to a star on the EU flag. Brilliant! I’ve heard that it’s has since been covered up, and there is some doubt about whether it’s still there.]

  23. Like any regular reader of this site I saw “Qaos” and looked for a theme when part way through. Like most of today’s contributors I didn’t find it.
    My ancient Chambers defines honk as make a noise like a goose or a horn, vomit. It doesn’t give “stink”. This held me up for a while.
    Thanks to Qaos and Gaufrid.

  24. Mark @18, I thought it wasn’t clear at first, but in fact it only really works in the way intended. ‘Up ETNA’ doesn’t mean ETNA written upwards, or if it does, in no way as surely as ‘ANTE, up’ means ANTE written upwards, surely?

    Ronald @19, the definition for GRIN was just “expression”. ‘Annoyance’ was used as a synonym of ‘chagrin’, from which you had to remove (“where there’s no”) a synonym for ‘tea’. You were deliberately misled.

    [Julie @21, thanks for the tip about Banksy’s latest work, which I hadn’t heard about I found a photo of it on Instagram. It’s brilliant, like all his work.]

     

  25. Just back from a lovely evening out. I didn’t say earlier that in my search for a theme, I did visit Qaos’ website, where he usually leaves a wee hint. Today it was ‘My latest crossword for the Guardian – don’t forget to shred it afterwards’ – and I still didn’t see it! See here

    il principe dell’oscurità @17, if you’re still there, I did see it, thank you. 😉

  26. thanks Gaufrid, I looked late last night (my time) for the blog, but then went to bed. Didn’t manage to parse grin and despite thinking it must be an art theme, I did not find it, so thanks for the helpful blog. thanks to Qaos for the fun.

  27. [Thank you, Tony and Eileen, for those later additions to the blog – that photo from Instagram was much clearer and more striking than the one I saw in the news feed, Tony, and the “shredding” reference you found was an unexpected bonus and much appreciated, Eileen. Best wishes to you both.]

  30. Didn’t get ENURN and put CHESSMAN in for CARDINAL – even crossed it with DESEET (sic). So went GASPing for a cuppa.

  31. I didn’t see the blog in time yesterday so coming late to this just to say thanks to Gaufrid as I couldn’t parse GRIN (easy when you see it of course…) and missed the theme. Thanks to Qaos.

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