This was a bit of a slog. Thanks (I think) to Boatman. Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
1 Boatman catches a crab — strangely shocking (7)
MACABRE : ME(Boatman, the setter, using the self-referential pronoun) containing(catches) anagram of(… — strangely) A CRAB.
5 Saucy postcard, not right to publish to online audience (7)
PODCAST : Anagram of(Saucy) [“postcard” minus(not) “r”(abbrev. for “right”)].
10 Sauce from the heart of Czechoslovakia’s capital (4)
RAGU : 4 middle letters of(the heart of) “Prague”(capital city of the then Czechoslovakia).
11 First to try lead part with singers in audition: they get a good reception (2,8)
TV ANTENNAS : 1st letter of(First to) “try” + VAN(the lead part/the forefront/the spearhead) plus(with) homophone of(… in audition) “tenors”(singers with voices of the highest of the ordinary adult male range).
Defn: … of TV broadcasts.
12 Cyclisme à vélo? (4)
LOVE : Anagram of(Cyclisme/cycling in English) VÉLO.
Answer: As in “a love triangle”, a romantic relationship involving 3 people.
13 Motley beast or bad boy once (8)
ASSORTED : ASS(a donkey, an example of a beast) + OR + TED(short for “teddy boy”, formerly/once a lad in the 1950s who dressed in a certain style, and was often regarded as bad).
14 Pole loses ice, melting first (9)
ISOSCELES : S(abbrev. for “south”, one of the geographical poles) placed after(… first) anagram of(…, melting) LOSES ICE.
Answer: As in an “isosceles triangle”, one with 2 sides of equal length.
16, 26 Cleaner to hearten lady? Quite the opposite (9)
DETERGENT : DETER(to discourage/ Quite the opposite of “to hearten”) + GENT(a gentleman/ Quite the opposite of “a lady”).
17 Boatman — to relish, ultimately, or detest (5)
ABHOR : AB(abbrev. for “able-bodied seaman”/a boatman/one who works on a boat) plus(to) last letter of(…, ultimately) “relish” + OR.
19 ‘Cheap digs’, opined resentful Spooner (9)
BEDSITTER : Spoonerism of [“said”(opined/gave one’s view) + “bitter”(resentful)].
23 Cruets of liquid sugar (8)
FRUCTOSE : Anagram of(… liquid) CRUETS OF.
24 Herbs: bases for sauces, say (4)
RUES : Homophone of(…, say) [plural of “roux”(a mixture of fat or butter and flour as a base for making sauces)].
25 Game animal, endangered (about the last in Punjab) in organised slaughter (3-3-4)
CUP-AND-BALL : [PANDA(an endangered animal species) containing(about) last letter of(the last in) “Punjab“] contained in(in) CULL(organised, selective slaughter of animals to reduce its population).
Defn: … for children … and adults.
26 See 16
27 Rising at first, but getting smaller overall (7)
WARNING : 1st letter of(… at first) “Rising” contained in(… overall) WANING(getting smaller/diminishing).
Answer: As in a “warning triangle”.
28 UK citizen stands by Labour leader boxed in by Trotskyite extremes, likely to snap (7)
BRITTLE : BRIT(a British/UK citizen) plus(stands by) [1st letter of(… leader) “Labour” contained in(boxed in by) 1st and last letters of(… extremes) “Trotskyite“].
Down
2 Baffled by sensational wordplay with nine letters missing (2,1,4)
AT A LOSS : Anagram of(… wordplay …) [“sensational” minus(with … letters missing) “nine“].
3 Initially, Alexander’s charming (5)
ACUTE : 1st letter of(Initially) “Alexander” + CUTE(charming/endearingly attractive).
Answer: As in an “acute-angled triangle”, one with 3 acute angles.
4 Lower part of rigging cut from triangle, part of a ladder (7)
RATLINE : Anagram of(?) [last letter of(Lower part of, in a down clue) “rigging” deleted from(cut from) “triangle“].
A missing anagram indicator?
Defn: …, ie. a rope tied between a ship’s rigging.
6 Love, dropping its first subtle shimmering (6)
OBTUSE : O(letter representing 0/”love” in tennis scores) + anagram of(… shimmering) [1st letter of(… its first) “Love” deleted from(dropping …) “subtle“].
Answer: As in an “obtuse-angled triangle”, one with an obtuse angle.
7 Trick to snort some drug in (9)
CONGRUENT : CON(to trick/to cheat) plus(to) GRUNT(to snort, like, say, a pig) containing(some … in) E(abbrev. for “Ecstasy”, the drug).
Answer: As in “congruent triangles”, ones which have the same 3 sides and the same 3 angles as one another.
8 Get to the top on Tyneside? (7)
SCALENE : SCALE(to get to/to climb up to the top) placed above(on, in a down clue) NE(abbrev. for the North-east region of England/Tyneside).
Answer: As in a “scalene triangle”, one with 3 unequal sides.
9 Evergreen version of pea, encased in pot (8,5)
JAPANESE CEDAR : Anagram of(version of) PEA, ENCASED contained in(in) JAR(a pot).
15 Initially sleepy, got up, then tea: in winter you many need more than one of these (4,5)
SNOW CHAIN : 1st letter of(Initially) “sleepy” + reversal of(… up, in a down clue) WON(got/acquired as a result of a contest) plus(then) CHA(tea) + IN.
“in” doing double duty?
18 Permit one to move after damaging allegations (7)
BERMUDA : BEAR(to permit/to tolerate/to allow to happen) + MUD(damaging allegations) with “A”(the grammatical article for one in number) moved to the end of(to move after, in a down clue) MUD.
Answer: As in the “Bermuda Triangle”, the area in the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and ships are said to have disappeared mysteriously.
20 Two left arms waving? (7)
SIMILAR : Anagram of(… waving) [II(Roman numeral for “two”) + L(abbrev. for “left”) + ARMS].
Answer: As in “similar triangles”, two or more triangles with the same shape but of different sizes.
21 Set the trend, able to ignore the odds (7)
ETERNAL : “Set the trend, able” minus(to ignore) its 1st, 3rd, 5th, etc. letters(the odds).
Answer: As in the “eternal triangle”, an emotional relationship involving a couple and a third person with whom one of the couple is also involved.
22 Little information about vintage (6)
GOLDEN : GEN(information) containing(about) OLD(vintage, as in “vintage cars”).
Answer: As in a “golden triangle”, an isosceles triangle whose sides are in the golden ratio. Other alternatives include the geographical area in S.E. Asia infamous for opium-production.
24 Change of direction in match (5)
RIGHT : “r”(abbrev. for the direction “right”) replacing(Change of direction …) “l”(abbrev. for the direction “left”) in “light”( a device to produce a flame/a match) .
Answer: As in a “right-angled triangle”, one with an angle of 90 degrees.
Thanks schuaa and Boatman – the preamble indicated a theme of triangles.
I rather enjoyed this – possibly because I saw the theme early on. There was a moment of confusion as I had “love” and then “isosceles” and was wondering about geometry before the triangular theme hit me square between the eyes. I then went searching for Bermuda, failed to spot it and then promptly forgot about it even when “b_r_u__” was staring me in the face!
15dn has a typo (“many” for “may”), and as well as “in” doing double duty there, so does “love” in 6dn and a scchua comments, there is no anagrind in “ratline” so a bit of editing would’ve been helpful here. Other than the (fairly obvious) errors, this flowed well and the theme did not get in the way, though it did make a couple of the answers giveaways. “Bedsitter” was neat and I enjoyed Boatman’s customary Hitchcockian cameos. Thank you Boatman, though this was plainer sailing than it might’ve been, and thank you scchua for the lovely colourful blog.
In addition to the 12 more obvious ones (in the theme) I would argue you could possibly add 11ac and 4d:
v v old fashioned interior TV antennas could be triangles (anyone as old as I am will recall sometimes using a wire coat hanger…) and ratlines are triangular in structure. Thanks for the blog and thanks for the work out, Boatman. I did not find it a “slog” as some have said. I enjoyed the creative thinking.
As I got ACUTE early on, and armed with a list of triangles, it proved more straightforward than I first imagined.
TheZed @2; I can’t see why ‘love’ is doing double duty in 6D. I did notice what appears to be the lack of an anagrind in the clue for RATLINE.
I’m surprised that the Guardian has a grid with three consecutive unchies ( 4D & 20D)
I enjoyed the clues for MACABRE and the undefined ‘two left arms waving.’
Thanks Boatman and scchua.
Re 24ac: I think it’s a case of ‘rues’ sounding like an anglicised pronunciation of ‘rouxs’ rather than ‘roux’.
Thanks to Boatman and Scchua.
I twigged the theme early on so it was more general knowledge than solving, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I liked 25ac especially as I am in the Punjab. A bit endangered too as I’m in a car on the way to Amritsar.
epolater @5; I think that is what scchua said in the blog, although Collins says the plural of roux is ‘roux.’
Bravely blogged, scchua.
Not only a missing anagrind indicator on RATLINE but also a telltale of theme in TRIANGLE. Deliberate?
Very glad Czechoslovakia no longer exists but if it did the clue would be a perfect example of misdirection -[yes Prague was its capital then too-and BAKU is a capital of somewhere Ive never been.
Boatie is quite different to most setters but I would say this was one of his better voyages.
Ahoy!
TerriBislow@3-my ex-wife who lives in NZ told me there is an old word for antenna there called Kotanga.
Robi @4 “love” has both to stand for “o” and also be the object of “dropping its first” which I perceived as doing double duty.
Theme easily spotted after LOVE and ISOSCELES. LOI for me JAPANESE CEDAR. I’m weak on plants.
A double “Ouch!” for 11ac: one for the homophone and one for the horrible plural.
Thanks to scchua for the parsing, which was more difficult than the solutions and thanks to Boatman for the puzzle.
TheZed @10; sorry, you’re right; I lazily got my anagram wrong (thought it was the ‘S’ missing, doh!)
By sheer coincidence, I’m in the middle of putting together a lecture on automated geometry theorem proving (early AI), so the theme jumped out in no time.
I had noticed myself all the problems/errors so far mentioned, plus possibly one more, but I’m not 100% convinced of this. In 15d SNOWCHAIN, despite the clue telling you you’d need more than one, the way it is expressed is using “these” to indicate the answer, so shouldn’t the answer be plural?
Good to hear you’re enjoying this – a mystery theme is always a bit of a risk from the setter’s point of view, as those who spot it early on will find the puzzle much easier than those who don’t.
TheZed @2 – That was exactly the sort of thought process that I hoped you’d go through! And, yes, that was a late typesetting error at 15 Dn – reported to Hugh for correction in the archive. As for the double-duty, a small amount of this sort of thing doesn’t bother me too much, but it wasn’t intentional – my first draft had “Initially sleepy, got up, then tea: in winter, may call for this to get you moving”, in which the definition starts “winter may call for …”, but that struck Hugh as a bit unfair, especially as snow chains are always used in sets – what do you think?
Robi @4 – I’m inclined to agree with you about the anagrind in 4 Dn. My first draft of the clue had “Lower part of rigging cut from triangle, formed into steps” but Hugh edited it to make the definition more helpful, and I didn’t notice that he’d removed “formed into” at the same time. I’ll reintroduce it if I get round to writing a sequel to The First 50 with this puzzle in it.
Epeolater @5 – Definitely intended to be a homophone for the English speaker’s pronunciation of ROUX – Chambers gives both French “roo” and English “rooz”.
Cop @8/9 – Hah! That’s very funny. And I think you already know whether the RATLINE clue was deliberate … Actually, I’m more surprised that no-one has admitted to being distracted by all the references to sauces, which I’d hoped might send a few of you up the wrong garden path, theme-wise.
Weak clues throughout, and little fun in solving
Just because I raised it with Tramp’s puzzle earlier in the week I think I ought to note that “similar” falls into a very similar form of indirect anagram, where first “two” has to be replaced by “II” (and “left” by “l”) and then that serves as fodder. As we discussed then, single-letter replacements like this have been around a while both because they are usually unambiguous and because they are not necessarily part of an anagram – they can be used “inside” an anagram. With two letter replacements (as with Tramps “ie”) then it is clear they are anagrammed and this has happened twice now this week, by coincidence.
As last time, the question in making it soluble is whether the anagram fodder is suitably obvious for it not to be too much of a stretch to make both steps (replacement and anagram). We know synonyms are pretty much ruled out but “two” for “II” is not quite in the same bracket of “cannot be anything else” as, say, “left” is for “l” (when looking for a single letter). Obviously it was not impossible, but it does seem to be a bit of a new mechanism or a slight change to an older mechanism which I for one am being slow to adapt to.
Sorry not to be misled by the secondary theme – perhaps only fools and sauces went down that rouxte? Sorry.
TheZed, I think Lévi-Strauss did in The Culinary Triangle…
Cookie @18 Chapeau!
I find it hard enough solving the clue’s without people solving the preamble! Triangles, really?
A DNF on this one, since I gave up on my LOI, RATLINES, after wrangling for at least 10 minutes over it. I blame Hugh.
The whole puzzle was most enjoyable, I thought. The theme came to me fairly early on after I’d put in ETERNAL and GOLDEN without finding a def in the clue. The clueing was rather more lax than I have been used to in The Times. Times solvers are always moaning about dodgy homophones, but I like ’em and — although I’m not sure that ‘rue’ can be a countable noun and pluralize — ‘rooz’ was fine with me. Like TheZed @2, I worked hard to see BERMUDA in ‘B_R_U_ _’: doh! Well witty surfaces for DETERGENT, LOVE, BEDSITTER (I always enjoy a Spoonerism), AT A LOSS, PODCAST.
The accusation of “indirect anagram” doesn’t, I think, apply in the case of SIMILAR. TheZed @17: if the anagrist is provided by abbreviation (e.g. II = two, L=left, HO=house, C=cape, and suchlike) then it is hardly indirect, whereas a different synonymous word (e.g. WENT=left) would certainly be unfair.
ACUTE and OBTUSE went in on the first pass, making the theme obvious, and I enjoyed looking for ten other likely suspects. I noticed a few of the flaws mentioned above, but as they didn’t get in my way, I was happy to overlook them. The experience was marred only by the unfriendly grid, as noted by Robi @4. Thanks to Boatman and scchua.
I found this slow going, but generally the clueing was fair which enabled me to get there in the end. Last ones for me were Bermuda and warning. I think that was because I got into the mind set of mathematical triangles, and could not see beyond them. My favourites were cup-and-ball and bedsitter. Thanks to Boatman for an enjoyable solve and scchua for the blog.
Cookie @18 – Oh, that’s very good … you may have booked yourself a mention in the sequel, should such a thing happen.
Apologies for referring to yesterday’s Imogen but there were several comments about clueing TONY as US smart from those who probably didn’t see my late comment @60 to which I would add that the use I cited appeared in a book published in England in 1929.
Thanks Boatman, scchua
Some odd things: I don’t understand why anyone would use a grid with triple unchecked letters. Even if it’s in the Guardian library it just looks like at some point the setter said oh dear, I can’t fit them all in, this’ll have to do. In the Spoonerism ‘opined resentful’ is the thing that Spooner might have said but there’s no indication to say that. You always get at least a ‘Spooner’s’, if not actually ‘as Spooner might have said’. Just sticking Spooner on the end is a bit like one of those concise crossword clues like 5 Polyps (anag) (6). It’s a dog whistle, as Tony described it recently.
pserve_p2 @21 It may be arguable whether an anagram with an abbreviation is indirect if the letter is actually there in the clue, but this one is certainly indirect. II is not an abbreviation for 2. It is a numeric 2 in Latin. The question isn’t whether it’s indirect, it’s whether it’s fair.
I’m curious as to whether anyone complaining about SIMILAR didn’t get it anyway? 5 items or less / fewer doesn’t stop me finding the right queue in Tesco. Personally I love the guardian cryptics because the boundaries are frequently stretched and often exceeded
Didn’t enjoy this, and a DNF. Even got distracted by capital city OSLO appearing bang in the middle of CZECHOSLOVAKIA. Not my day today with the solving…
Liked this despite opting for CUE instead of CUP in 25ac. First in was GOLDEN followed by SCALENE so I was on to the theme fairly quickly. WARNING is a triangle too isn’t it?
Took me a while to see BEDSITTER and couldn’t parse BERMUDA but this was fun!
Thanks Boatman.
Dreadful. Utterly awful. Too clever by half.
The Guardian desperately needs a new crosswords editor.
Hear hear Gonzo: I’ve argued this previously, but have been told that there is an active editor who is on top of the job. It’s hard to believe after letting through such as this. I also find it hard to believe how lenient the regular bloggers are when these clunkers occur such as today. I tackle several other cryptic series elsewhere, and the quality control shines through.
Spent too long trying to justify put-and-take for 25A. And I’m sure I’m not alone in lauding the way Boatman contributes to the post-mortems, not only on 225 but also on the Graun. A real joy!
This seemed to me to be an ideal prize puzzle, not too difficult to solve (once the helpful theme was uncovered), if perhaps a little tricky to fully parse.
Like Ronald @28, I also confidently wrote in OSLO before ACUTE put me on to RAGU. Surely the use of the outdated Czechoslovakia was an intentional misdirection. I’m not convinced the wordplay in 18 is fair, and I also didn’t like the use of the single word “Spooner” to indicate the Spoonerism, although it’s hard to get around this with the surface used. I enjoyed the rest a great deal, and liked the theme immensely, particularly with the expansion out of the purely mathematical meaning. Hugh’s edits, as described by Boatman, actually made both clues harder, imho, contrary to the intended effect. Faves were ISOSCELES and JAPANESE CEDAR.
There is a slight error in the blog for 21, I think. The fodder for the deletion device should be “set the trend, able”.
Thanks, Boatman and scchua, particularly for the accompanying pics.
I really enjoyed this and the theme helped with BERMUDA and WARNING. It was a dnf though as I gave up on BEDSITTER which in hindsight was perfectly gettable. The glitches didn’t bother me whilst solving and Boatman must be a bit miffed that edits resulted in incomplete clues. I’m sure we all make mistakes in our jobs, but they’re not usually made evident to a wide audience of people we have no direct relationship with and who have a penchant for precision! I’m with Bodycheetah in appreciating The G for letting its setters push the boundaries of convention.
As for triangles there is also the Karpman Drama triangle as a model of how people can interact – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karpman_drama_triangle.
My favourite clue today wasn’t one of the triangles but the neatly split DETERGENT.
Many thanks to Boatman for the inventive puzzle and to scchua for the illustrated blog.
A dog of a puzzle. I agree, Gonzo @30, that it was too clever by half.
Yes blaise – thanks to Boatman for engaging with contributors.
Marmite!!
For me this was an extremely enjoyable battle from beginning to end. I’d venture to suggest that Boatman could have sailed across an ocean in the time it must have taken to compile this. The supreme irony for me was that, despite spotting the theme early, SIMILAR held out almost to the end. Ironic for me because I’ve been working for three years on a geometric proof that has at its centre similar triangles.
Robi, your comment on the grid is interesting. I cannot recall seeing this one before, but it is very close to that of No. 27,332, Paul, 19 Oct, 2017. I’ve had a crack at compiling four themed crosswords and for three of them I used that grid. Perhaps Boatman could enlighten us.
Many thanks for a wonderful puzzle Boatman and to Scchua for a blog to do it justice.
Being blinkered by the triangles, I didn’t, thank goodness, go down the Fools and Sauces cul-de-sac, but was I alone in nearly bunging in Lebanese cedar unparsed?
Thanks to Boatman and to sschua for the usual technicolo(u)r blog.
Not a lot to add, other than to say that as themed puzzles go this was more to my liking than many.
I think I’m with Sean@20 in wondering what copmus@8 is indicating with ” a telltale of theme in TRIANGLE”. (I feel a brow-slap coming on….)
I enjoyed this.
It’s a shame about RATLINE. The answer was clear, but the glaring omission of an anagrind spoiled it. (But of course I’ve read all about it in comments above.)
I got LOVE by cycling VELO, not making an anagram of it. I thought that was what the clue indicated. (I often see ‘recycled’ to indicate an anagram, but not ‘cycled’.)
I counted only 11 triangles when I finished, forgetting the love triangle (indicating either inexperience or a forgettable experience, I imagine)!
I very much liked the clue to JAPANESE CEDAR.
Thanks to Boatman for the puzzle and the added explanations, and to scchua for the blog and illustrations.
il principe @39
I almost did the same (Lebanese cedar)!
il principe dell’oscurità@29: I spent some time trying to justify Lebanese on the basis of “leb” being a synonym for “pot” in a certain context….
Dr. WhatsOn: Your comment @ 13 makes me wonder if you might be able to help me. I constructed a sundial using a method from a 300 year old book my uncle unearthed and have spent three years trying to find a proof of its validity.
I’m sorry this is not crossword related but after all this time I’m getting a little desperate.
Alphaalpha: were I not so naive as to have not known that, I’d probably have put it in.
RATLINE and BEDSITTER (and Ted) were new to me and I failed to get the very clever DETERGENT, but I enjoyed this puzzle a lot as well. It’s so nice to have a theme about triangles rather than yet more cricket, although I’m embarrassed about how long it took for Bermuda to come to mind.
Got the theme but DNF because of similar and right triangles being too much of a stretch, meaning I lost patience and got annoyed when I found the answers. Frustrating.
Loved this despite the errors, thanks Boatman and scchua.
It’s a game of two Gonzos, Gary
@49 You beat me to it, baerchen. Are there two Gonzos or does he/she have a split personality? I don’t do this setter’s puzzles so I can’t say which Gonzo I agree with…
Brilliant, loved this. Thanks Boatman and scchua.
Anyone can impersonate anyone, it seems – the alternative is having to log in with a password, which Gaufrid does not wish to implement for fear of discouraging comment.
Having to log in with a password may discourage casual bona fide commenters but would also deter the impersonators and trolls. It’s a tough decision and I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make it 🙂
Ingenious of Boatman to find 12 triangles of all shapes and sizes, and to fit them all in, along with the usual cameo appearances.
I was another who went to Oslo with very little justification. Tricky to answer AT A LOSS with S as the second word.
I didn’t think love performed double duty in 6D: it supplies the O obviously; then after the comma is a sentence with ‘subtle’ as subject ‘dropping’ the L (i.e. love’s first) before being shimmered.
The herbs were new to me, but quite fair. Last in was BERMUDA once I’d realised not all the triangles were particularly mathematical.
Many thanks to Scchua, and to Boatman for cruising by. Some rather uncalled for criticism in posts above; I hope they don’t discourage.
My view on this crossword is a combination of many views expressed by others yesterday.
We thought it was fun but, at the same time, somewhat unrefined.
For example, the theme was not really ‘a kind of triangle’.
There are no acute or obtuse triangles.
And for ‘similar’ and ‘congruent’ you need at least two to tango.
My main gripe, however, is the grid.
Robi (@4) was the first to say something about it.
I think, no setter should accept a grid that has entries with three unches (unchecked letters in a row).
It was made worse by the fact that the two (4d and 20d) were less than 50% checked.
Actually, 11 (!!) entries were less than 50% checked.
I have seen double unches in The Times but they do not accept less than 50% checking.
Last year, on August 19, a similar thing occurred in a Matilda’s Quiptic – apart from two lights an identical grid.
I know, Boatman’s hands were probably tied by his theme words but he should not have accepted it.
Nor should the editor.
On top of all this, one of the debatable ones (4d) contained a mistake (for which Boatman, it seems, shouldn’t be blamed).
Our last guess in, therefore.
This crossword was generally fun to solve (and not really hard) but somewhat spoilt too.
Many thanks to scchua for a spot-on blog & Boatman.
I was greatly assisted by the theme plus a bit of googling for various triangle names.
My favourite was JAPANESE CEDAR.
I failed to solve RATLINE and was unable to parse BERMUDA.
Thanks B+S
Revisiting after a night’s sleep… have rectified omission in 21d (thanks phitonelly@33), and modified 24d parsing.
I don’t know if others have the same response, but I tend to dislike puzzles that I don’t complete. Today I failed on five clues, and yet, especially after reading the engaging blog, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. We don’t have warning triangles in Canada, and I’m not familiar with either rues or roux, or cup-and-ball, but they’re all reasonable GK, so the fault and learning experience are mine.
Thanks to all the bloggers, and especially to Boatman (as both setter and blogger) for the fun experience.
went to bed before blog was out last night and only just now (late in my day) reading this. Thanks Scchua for your usual colourful and helpful blog and thanks also to Boatman for both the crossword and commenting. I did enjoy this, spotted the theme relatively early, made up a tree (pasadena pecan) only to find that it didn’t exist nor work but eventually finished. Thanks to all the bloggers esp for other triangle examples.
Congratulations to Boatman for brilliantly anticipating the diversity of the comments in his clue for 17a: Boatman — to relish, ultimately, or detest (5)
I’m inclined to agree with Gonzo 2. Enjoyable despite the ‘errors’
Thank you Boatman for all the fun and scchua for a super blog.
I parsed LOVE as Alan B @41 did by cycling ‘vélo’, not as an anagram.
A DNF for me as I didn’t get SIMILAR. Had three triangles (acute, eternal and love), before I then got isosceles and the theme. I always think acute-angled triangle. I thought congruent triangles just had to be the same shape.
Just the job for a cold Saturday! Glad I wasn’t tempted to look earlier. Mrs L and I did this old school – no use of devices, until we had to check 20d. Thanks to Boatman – very interactive – and scchua.
Sil@55 “There are no acute or obtuse triangles”
I thought this, too, but checked before making my comment @1: wikipedia seems to think otherwise
Dave Ellison @1 ‘The preamble indicates a theme’, but of triangles?
I loved this and found it easier than usual. (I didn’t start it till midday today). I got ISOSCELES early on and admit to thinking up types of triangle and looking for clues that led to suitable answers. No doubt some clever blogger will have a name for this reverse procedure.
Many thanks to Boatman. Ignore all the criticism and pedantry that goes on in this blog.
Well, Dave @65, as a former maths teacher (>35 years) I am rather surprised by this.
It’s a bit like Brexit. While a lot of people think it’s right, it doesn’t have to be right, does it?
How many possibilities does an indirect anagram have to generate before it becomes dreary?
Answers on a Vatican State Catholic run conspiracy
Like coat of arms with the first of lions jolly and the second rampant
For what it’s worth, I am in favour of login passwords here. I use them for many different sites and with a good password manager, should such be required, it is not onerous. And I have a feeling that the debate about editorial standards will resurface quite soon when the blog for No 28,033 appears.
Dave @65, Sil @67
I have heard and seen the shortened versions of ‘acute-angled triangle’ and ‘obtuse-angled triangle’. I wouldn’t use them, or teach them if I was a teacher, but ‘acute’ and ‘obtuse’ are defined in Collins as applicable to both angles and triangles (and precise definitions are given). I accept these now as alternatives.
It was interesting to read the discussion about the nature of Boatman’s ‘theme’, of which ‘acute’, ‘isosceles’, ‘congruent’ and ‘love’ are all instances.
The setter only said “Twelve solutions have something in common, not further defined”, not claiming there was a homogeneous theme. I think the word ‘triangles’, and not an attempt at a phrase like ‘types of triangle’, can be applied to all twelve undefined entries, albeit not in the same way.
Very late to the party having only finished this at the 4th attempt, but I think it was a brilliant combination of theme and “normal” clueing leading to perfectly defined answers. Even the slight ambiguity of the theme (triangle or maybe triangle/angle?) was delightfully cryptic. Loi SIMILAR and then BEDSITTER.
I thought this was great, and I liked the grid too. On the blog: you cannot have a triangle with three acure angles: the most acute angles a triangle can have is two with a right angle. This is because the sum of the angles of a triangle is 180 degrees and an acure angle is by definition less than 90 degrees. An obtuse-angled triangle is by definition therefore also an acute-angled triangle.
[Beobachterin@73 Rubbish! An equilateral triangle has three angles, each of 60°. There are an infinite number of distinct triangles with three acute angles. Or perhaps you’re joshing? Surely you weren’t being serious…?]
You are of course quite right, and the really worrying thing is that when I write that rubbish it made perfect sense to me: my brain had somehow convinced itself that 3 x 90 = 180. I hope this was a momentary If I show further signs of such numerical dyslexia please pint the out to me and I shall go and have a brain scan. I am really sorry!