Guardian 28,035 – Qaos

59 comments on “Guardian 28,035 – Qaos”

1. All very straightforward but nonetheless fun. Only one trademark mathematical clue with the hidden definition. I had to go book to look for the theme but it was obvious once I bothered searching for it. Didn’t we have “waldorf salad” only last week? An unfortunate coincidence which made this one much easier to spot.

   Thanks Andrew for the informative blog, and Qaos for the fun puzzle.

2. Great grid fill and blog. Ta muchly.

3. Loved it – thanks Andrew. Unfortunately though, Tramp had “Waldorf Salad” as a solution in his crossword just a week ago, and that was still in my mind. So once I had BASIL at 9a, HOTEL at 26a and WALDORF SALADS at 22a7d here, the theme became apparent. This occurred much earlier than I usually see it in a Qaos puzzle.

   (Someone else who commented on the Tramp recalled the sign in the title credits that said “Warty Towels”, while I recalled “Flowery Twats”. Today I also remembered “Flayed Otters”! I can’t think of Fawlty Towers without remembering all those LOL moments.)

   I did enjoy the “Herb Albert” part of 9a BASIL – a lovely surface! My other favourites were 17a LADIES MAN (which due to his lack of self-reflection, Basil Fawlty often thought he was!), and 3d PLUS. I also was pleased to be reminded of how hard it must be for actors in comedies to prevent “an attack of the giggles” (fodder for CORPSED at 15a – a lovely word!). I wonder how many out-takes there were in the making of Fawlty Towers. How could the actors not have cracked up at the German goose-step scene, or the berating of the invisible chef in the Waldorf Salad episode?

   Many thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

4. [Sorry, due to my verbal diarrhoea we crossed, The Zed@1 and copmus@2.]

5. Theme-blind as usual but enjoyable nonetheless.

   Many thanks, both.

6. Thanks for the blog, Andrew.

   Like you, I was alerted to the theme by the first clue but couldn’t really believe it, after the reference in Tramp’s puzzle last week.

   Favourite clues: BASIL, TRANSIENT, CORPSED [that word always makes me giggle] and LADIES’ MAN.

   Well done, Qaos, for including so many titles – and many thanks for the fun and happy memories.

7. Missed the theme despite looking for it – and what a neat one it was which very much put the cherry on a fun puzzle for me. I didn’t get where the AT in 30a came from or the KIPPER and this was definitely at the more accessible end of Qaos’ range. No excuse for not getting on with the decorating now. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

8. [P.S. I meant to thank Andrew for explaining the parse of 13a SKIPPER, against which I had a question mark.]

9. [We also crossed I think, Eileen@6 – often our thoughts are in synch! (BTW – IN SYNCH was my first thought for 25a IN TOUCH – though I couldn’t parse it!)]

10. Missed seeing the theme as usual. My favourites were LADIES MAN, PLUS, TACTIC, IN TOUCH, BUILDERS.

    I could not quite parse 30a (the AT bit) or 20a – was thinking of ‘weighty’ but that did not parse properly…

    New for me was CORPSED = attack of giggles.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

11. Enjoyed this (and, as ever, failed to spot that there was a theme until I’d finished). Still can’t parse 31A though – what is the anag indicator? Model? If so I struggle to see why.

12. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

    Yes, straightforward but enjoyable. Lots to like, of which just favourite was LADIES MAN (for the “maidens”).

    I forgot to look for a theme, unfortunately, as I might have seen this one.

13. Lovely crossword with super clues; I liked the SA LADS and the clue for FILETS – hopefully, very prescient!

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

14. After confidently entering LUSH as a perfectly plausible answer to 3d, I was held up in the NE corner. Never saw the theme until I came here, but able to finish anyway. My favourite was the Springbok lads from SA (although their cricketers might be feeling the pain this morning) and I thought BUILDERS was rather neat too. Thank you for the puzzle and blog.

15. Nice to have CORPSED as a new word for my lexicon now, just need to know when to slip it quietly into the conversation. And never quite know when “one” can be represented by “i” or “a” in puzzles, as in 27 ac. Enjoyed this, though…

16. [Ronald @15

    “Corpse” is generally applied to actors. Watch the “outtake” part of this for a classic example of “corpsing.]

17. Thanks both,

    Over all too quickly. Double ticked 19. Spotted a Qaos theme for the first time, I think.

18. One more connection to note…PUT TO S.L.E.E.P, a famous line from Basil The Rat (Sybil’s suggestion for Manuel’s “hamster”). Terrific theme, which I spotted earlier than usual in a Qaos puzzle, although not quite as ubiquitous as Tramp’s first effort referenced by Eileen last week.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

19. NB LUSH being 80% of FLUSH, but I admit to missing the +.

20. Thanks Andrew for explaining parsing of (22,7) and 30A – I got the former from a few crossers and having spotted Basil, Rat and a couple more plus recalling its appearance elsewhere recently as others have noted – the latter only from definition and crossers – now amused by the oxymoronic appearance of “trendy” with the need to think of the Spectator.  I got momentarily confused by the Cockney wife and currency at 16/19d, trying to get somewhere with Trouble/Rouble, but with the crossers guessed Dutch which was confirmed by 19 – thanks for the explanation of 16D and link. Thanks Qaos for a very enjoyable diversion this morning. My favourite probably 11A but lots to choose from.

21. Perhaps time to comment on “TUB” and “capsize” as Andrew mentioned – reflecting on it (sorry…) I think this is as problematic as “mounting” and so on yesterday. “capsize” can really only mean “upside-down” so unless you believe there is no sense of direction in a grid (in which case I suggest you change “across” to “one way” and “down” to “the other way” and ignore about 100 years of convention) it is a bit of an issue.

    Still, it wouldn’t be a Grauniad puzzle if we didn’t have something to moan about…

22. Romped through this over brekkie then out all day. Our boys could just about recite all FT scripts, but theme-blind nonetheless, and forgot the Ukippers, so a dnp. Fun though, ta both. Oh and nho corpsed.

23. Another classic example of corpsing!

24. [muffin @16

    i loved that video of corpsing – it really made me laugh]

25. A swift but very enjoyable romp. I did raise a Roger Moore style eyebrow at sexy as an anagrind – is this something we have Alastair Campbell and his dodgy dossiers to thank for?

26. Re capsize, the picture I had in my mind was a yacht heading left to right hitting a wave heading right to left and ending up not only upside down but also back to front.

    Loved this but missed the put to sleep (well spotted Nefyn Rich); many thanks Qaos and Andrew.

27. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

    An enjoyable romp although I needed help with a few bifds – INSPECTOR and IN TOUCH (one of those Russian doll clues) among them.  ALTER was another although now I can’t see why – moving too fast perhaps.

    It’s Qaos so there must be a theme.  Scan, scan – nothing. (I’m scanning the completed grid here you understand). Still nothing.  I think Qaos had a non-themed offering recently so perhaps this is another and off to 15×15.  What a twonk I am.  Glad to see that other esteemed contributors are also theme-blind (and are not twonks let me quickly add – its always wise to be first in the queue for self-criticism, but I don’t form queues of my own elsewhere).

    Thanks again to both and to muffin for the corpsing links.  What is it about inappropriate laughter that is so funny?

28. I live flowery twats but still missed the theme. Big thanks to Qaos-my first unassisted finish! 2nd last in was ‘corpsed’though never heard of it before. Oddly, last in was ‘alert’. I knew it had to be right but i couldn’t parse it. I felt great when the anagrind finally occured to me.

29. Thanks Andrew for parsing salads. Big rugby fan but missed it.

30. In common with many, BASIL was an early entry for me, and I loved its surface – but even though I was watching for a theme, I didn’t spot this one. Am now kicking myself for I, too, can recite whole screeds of dialogue from that show. Hey ho.
    Like Gazzh, I initially was trying to connect trouble-&-strife (cockney rhyming slang for wife) with 16D and only arrived at the correct answer after having gleaned BUILDERS – this being, clearly, one of the few occasions where the dots between two clues actually do signify a connection…
    One small quibblet: my partner, a professional scientist, insists I mention that “air”, strictly speaking, is not a gas but a mixture of gasses – but he stresses that he appreciates looseness of definition is part of a crossword’s charm and he doesn’t want to make a big deal about this. Thanks to Andrew for the helpful blog and to Qaos for the fun.

31. TheZed @21 – it is not at all problematic if you only think about the solution to the clue, rather than how the clue is to be entered into the grid. It is not particularly any part of my solving experience to consider across clues and down clues differently. Were there any chin strokers who refused to enter TUB in 18a because it would mean breaking a 100 year old convention? Or did most solvers just straightforwardly equate “capsize” with “flipping over” and pass on?

    And if down means down, then what do you do about 5d “from behind”, which presumably means entering the solution so that only the last letter can be seen? Or 28d, where ELAN is hidden horizontally in DIXIELAND wheras we are looking for a vertical solution?

32. Lots of fun. Thanks to Q&A. Wasn’t Ladies Man whilst not a title a reference to the Nicky Henson character (in leather trousers?) who Basil was convinced had a woman in his room – much jollity ensued. We had tears of laughter recalling the episodes last night.

33. Great grid.  I particularly enjoyed the theme, and I though 26 across was a great clue.  Thanks Qaos and Andrew

34. I finished this quickly but didn’t find it especially enjoyable. Not sure why, as Qaos is one of my favourite setters, and most other commenters have had high praise for it. Perhaps missing the theme had something to do with it. Anyway, thanks to him and to Andrew.

35. Van Winkle @31: You say it is not part of your solving experience to consider across and down clues differently – I’d hesitate to speak for others but I suspect that is highly unusual given the significant number of indicators setters use which specifically only refer to particular directions of clue, all part of that wonderful game setters and solvers play. To ignore the direction completely would be both to throw away information and to miss out on some of the fun.

    You ask if anyone did not solve “tub” because of the way it was clued – well I nearly did not and put it in hesitantly until the down crosser (“builders”) pretty much confirmed not that it was right but that it was more likely the clue was flawed than any other solution fitting. If a clue isn’t clear even once you’ve solved and parsed it, then that is a weak clue. Solving it in spite of such difficulties does not mean the mechanism was not wrong – it required the solver to ignore something, like having an extraneous “a” or “‘s” in a clue, as is also oft complained about here.

    Your point about 5d is fair – it should really be an across clue. Well spotted! But the one about “Elan” is not a fair criticism – the word is hidden within “dixieland” and then entered into the grid. You may as well argue that the fodder of a down clue’s anagram is not stacked vertically. The convention we are dealing with is that wordplay applying to words in the clue itself works differently from wordplay applying to the solution, which is part of the grid.

36. Hi, could someone explain 13a SKIPPER please? I got the KIPPER bit but still don’t see the S from Leader’s – how is that indicated?

37. I could not finish this as I was fresh out of waldorfs.

38. I’m fine with indirect anagrams but puzzled as to why they are frowned upon when indirect reversals like “merely capsized” escape censure?

39. Bodycheetah @38 Ultimately it is to do with solvability and that comes down to permutations. If we have to think of a synonym then there’s not much more of a step to, say, reverse it or cycle it (or, as has recently been done a lot, move one letter along). It’s not too hard to run through the possibilities completely, similar to when we are asked to insert a key (ABCDEFG usually) or a note (n if it’s not do-re-mi etc). It’s also not far removed from the standard charade where synonyms might be strung together with abbreviations etc. Coming up with a synonym and then running through anagrams is a bit of a problem squared and deemed too much to ask, at least in these puzzles.

    In the last few puzzles we have seen that rule stretched by the use of an anagram including two-letter abbreviations (ii for 2, ie for “that is”) which also are part of the fodder and are not totally unambiguous. Given the discussion that followed most people seemed to feel they were fair and solvable, which is (I guess) the acid test.

    I am not sure an indirect anagram is necessarily too difficult – my problem with both the anagrams I mentioned and today’s “capsize” was more that, once solved, I was not convinced I’d done the right thing because it seemed to break the rules. Would these two be any harder to solve than each other, once the right synonym were found?

    Almond biscuit not posh? My hat! (4) (T[u]ile)

    Broken almond biscuit was handy (5) (tuile)* = utile (definition indicating historic use of the word)

     

40. Matematico@36: The definition is “Leader”. The “s” would be redundant (and lead to criticism here) if it were not part of the wordplay – which indeed it is. It simply means the letter “s”, but made slightly cryptic by making it part of “Leader’s”. The apostrophe is ignored, but redundant punctuation, unlike redundant letters or words, is considered acceptable. (Apologies if I have over-explained.)

41. Beaulieu @ 36, thank you very much, not over explained at all.  I just of thouht of [i]’s as a link word so not redundant. Anyway, nice puzzle which I enjoyed even though these things will never be as much of a doddle for me as they seem to be for many on here! Thanks to both setter and blogger.

42. Very easy but fun, so an ideal introduction to the Guardian crossword for any beginners out there. Had I known that Qaos puzzles always have a theme I might have spotted it. I’ve never come across KIPPER for a member of UKIP, and I still don’t quite understand how Leader’s becomes S. (I see that S is the leading letter in the answer, of course, but still…) Would prefer “dancing” to “sexy” in 27a.

43. This was fun, and none too taxing.  I figured there was a Fawlty Towers theme as soon as I saw BASIL, but I don’t know the show thoroughly enough for it to add anything for me.  (I think I’ve maybe seen two episodes total, and I was too young at the time to appreciate them anyway.)

44. Re my comment about SKIPPER – not thinking straight. Leader = definition, S =  first letter of answer. Rather unorthodox though?

45. I enjoyed this all the way through.  I failed to spot the theme, but I wasn’t really surprised about that because I cannot remember much about the comedy series, which I saw just once a long time ago.

    I knew CORPSING but not KIPPER.  I failed to parse LADIES MAN properly and thought the clue pointed us wrongly to LIDIES MAN.  Thanks to Andrew for the clear blog.

    Of several good clues I liked PLUS and the deceptively simple HOTEL the best.

    Thanks also to Qaos for the entertainment.

46. I assumed TUB was an anagram. Capsize means turn over, a common indicator of an anagram; this seems forgivable for a 3-letter word!

47. I didn’t get BASIL until quite late in the proceedings so the theme didn’t occur to me. I did watch Fawlty Towers of course but I don’t think I’d remember the episode titles. All this is a long way of saying that I didn’t get the theme- whinge,grizzle!
    Quite a nice puzzle though!
    Thanks Qaos.

48. Sorry meant to thank beaulieu@ 40 not myself @36! 🙂

49. Not much to add.  I also spotted the theme early, having got BASIL straight off.  This helped a lot.  CORPSED was new to me, but well clued, so not an issue.  I thought the “for” in 22/7 was a bit suspect – would have preferred “with”.  I justified EIGHT as half of wEIGHTiest, but Andrew’s parse is clearly better.  I would quibble with Wellbeck’ @30’s partner’s quibblet:  air is still a gas, even though it’s a mixture of other gases.

    Favourite today was TRANSIENT.  Thanks, Q and A.

50. @ Altreus – it can’t be an a anagram if the letters aren’t there in the first place!?

    I honestly can’t believe the number of solvers who must be so lacking in confidence that they will bend over backwards to seek to defend weak or patently wrong clues

51. Bingybing  @50 – what’s confidence got to do with it? In what sort of life is it a virtue to occupy oneself to the point of perfection with the weakness or patent wrongness of crossword clues? Savour it, solve it, move on.

52. My favourite example of corpsing is the Penrith tearooms sketch in Withnail & I – it never fails to raise a smile, and I occasionally look it up if I’m in need of cheering up!

    Apparently Richard E Grant tried about 20 takes and could never stop laughing when it got to the bit about the jukebox (about 1:23 into the clip), so in the end they gave up and decided they had to leave it in. As he was meant to be a raving drunk, they felt they could get away with it because people would just assume it was an eccentricity of his character.

53. Thanks both. In the late 1970’s I was working in the VT basement in TV Centre. Walking past one of the edit suites, I saw on the monitor John Cleese (as Basil) corpsing after a mistake. He was bending in half with laughter. In the suite, watching, was the real Cleese, bending in half with laughter. Happy days!!

54. TheZed@39: Post-prandial now and replete with self-congratulation (it’s good to eat) I feel obliged to offer that your examples (“TILE” and “UTILE”) are just the clues to subject me to an unwanted if notional nasal endoscopy.  If I knew there were only one almond biscuit (the tuile) I could cope, but the GK requirement is too much – if I’ve never heard of a tuile (and I haven’t) (My spell-check is annoyingly sympathetic.) I have no hope.

    And I should have hope.  So these Russian dolls where “I am thinking of a word, it could be one of many words but I am only thinking of one, not overly defined and now I want you to guess what to do with it to arrive at the solution”, in other words a puzzle within a puzzle, neither please, entertain nor impress this (and I am quoting here from a leaked draft obituary) lowly heap of urea.

55. 24 down is also a Fawlty Towers reference – Mr Hamilton says ‘I want a Waldorf salad. And to follow, 2 filets mignons’

56. An enjoyable solve with quite a lot of ticks. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.
    I didn’t spot the theme, though I was looking for one, probably because I don’t like Fawlty Towers. There, I’ve said it.

57. I said in the Guardian comments that I never got the themes and 225 never mentioned the theme but this time you did. Thanks.

58. Thank you for the blog which explained a few things for me, especially the source of AT taken out of spectator and the parsing if ALERT (I had thought the T in ALERT was the model so could not find the anagrams). On capsize: if you are in a boat when if goes over you definitely feel your self going over sideways, so this seemed OK to me in an across clue.

59. *of* and *anagrind* (alas, auto correct…) And I did not spot the theme, but then I never do.

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