Guardian 28,074 / Qaos

57 comments on “Guardian 28,074 / Qaos”

1. Thanks Qaos and Eileen

   A theme that even I saw!

   I was puzzled by LIES too – I wondered about LI(n)ES (of descent). I was also going to mention the apparent tense clash in FILTERED. Otherwise pretty much Monday standard.

   Favourite was EYELASH. On reading the clue I guessed it was a “backwards hidden”, but I still couldn’t see it until I got the first E.

2. Friday much easier than Monday for me.

   Some elegant clues.

   Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

3. Happy to have solved this before the blog came up. But even I have to admit this was very gentle, and I was on my second coffee of the morning. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen. I was puzzled by 16dn, but I am happy to accept your theory that is 2 + d for down.

4. Thanks to Qaos & Eileen. Fwiw, I assumed it was LI(N)ES. I’m one of the usual grumbleguts about the abuse of LATTE in cryptic crosswords, and this definition is spot on. I vaguely remember discussing this topic over something slightly stronger with Q in Manchester last year…

   Nice weekend everyone

5. I didn’t know NINON, but it couldn’t be anything else.

6. Without doing the proper parsing wrote  in “in full fig” for 5d as first entry.. Wrongly

7. I also went for LINES and was happy with d for DOWN and a for ACROSS.

8. Many thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

   12 Ac I thought it worked as ‘lives’ = ‘people’, eg ‘No lives were lost in the fire.’

9. wrt 16dn – it could be FILED from 2 dn (as in ‘on record’)?

10. The theme was hard to miss, even for me, and I was impressed with how much thematic material was included.

    There was a lot to like in the clues, which in general showed a light touch. My favourite was FACED, which I got only when the F was there. I noted the use of ‘1 across’ in 19d and ‘2 down’ in 16d and, like others, assumed they indicated A and D.  I assumed also that LIES came from ‘lives’.

    DISCORPORATE was new to me: the cryptic definition for it (‘immaterial’) was rather neat.

    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

11. I also assumed a and d stood for across and down. They may not be officially recognised abbreviations but they are seen on this very blog many times every day. I don’t know if this was easy by Qaos’ standards, but I spotted the theme almost immediately, and completed the grid while my first themed drink of the day was still warm. Still much pleasure to be had.

    Thanks Qaos, and Eileen

12. Thanks Qaos and Eileen

    I’m fine with A=ACROSS and D=DOWN, due to custom & use here and elsewhere. And I think Qaos makes it clear they’re being used as standalones by having a space after the preceding numeral.

    I’m another with LIVES in 12, which I saw as a semi-&lit in one possible interpretation.

13. 12 (ac) may be Li(k)es, people of their like.

    like used as a noun is used as a person or thing as the same kind as another.

    (Chambers online and google dictionary)

14. PS re A=ACROSS and D=DOWN: when there are references to other clues in crosswords, normal style is not to specify across/down after the numeral unless it could refer to both across and down clues. So ‘across’ and ‘down’ would not normally be specified here (because there’s only one clue at 2 and 19), which tells me that they’re included for the word play. If you see what I mean 😉

     

15. Convincing, judygs @14!

16. I’m with muffin at both 1 and 5 on this one. I liked CAFETIERE and IMMUNOLGIST for the surfaces. A and D seem like perfectly acceptable innovations for abbreviations in the context of a crossword, especially as they are both used in this one puzzle. I went with LI(V)ES as well. Thanks for the blog Eileen and for the puzzle Qaos.

17. Ditto muffin – again!

18. Judygs. @14 – thanks for that. Yes, I do see what you mean: that’s what I meant by ‘since there isn’t a 2ac’ but you’ve explained it better.

19. Goodness!  Is it Monday already?  The only thing that gave me pause was the D in 2, but now I see and like the trick (in 19 as well).  Thanks, Eileen.  Qaos, I would rather have been kept up late.  I suppose it was Hugh’s choice to slot this in on a Friday, not yours, though.  It was a perfectly sound and enjoyable crossword, just not what I expect on a Friday.

20. judygs @ 14

    That’s the point I was trying to get across by referring to the dissociation from the preceding number.

21. A pleasant ramble with a few uphills and only one tricky section. Did anybody actually know Ninon was a fabric?

    Does anybody else find they sometimes have to see a letter written down before the answer jumps out? I could see what 26 had to be but with such a strange word I didn’t want to write it in, and I only saw Vienna once I had all three crossers written in front of me. (Only Boole came to mind as a logician.)

22. I decided to award myself a biscuit for every “Monday” comment so keep them coming 🙂

23. Thanks for the helpful comments.

    I think we’ve settled the across and down issue, unless Qaos tells us something different.

    We’ve now had three possibilities for LIES. I’m sticking with LI[v]ES: like Simon S @12. I took it as a semi &lit.

24. For me, this wasn’t even a “biscuit” puzzle (bodycheetah@22) since I managed almost the entire grid first time through without even looking at the crossers. Must have been on Qaos’ wavelength. Agree with everyone regarding A and D – maybe Qaos was on our wavelength too!

    I thought 9a was remarkable because not only is it a phrase that COULD be found in the wild, but I’m sure it has been, many times.

25. Thank you very much Qaos, I thought this was gentle but enjoyable.  I got the theme after I had finished, so it was no help in solving but this was never going to be tough so it did not matter.  Like others I could not parse LIES but like the LInES suggestion.  So thanks to Eileen as ever.

    Oleg @ 6 I also wrote “in full fig” a phrase I learned from many enjoyable hours reading Flashman novels back in the day.  Obviously it did not parse and I soon wrote in the correct answer.

    Favourites were CAFETIERE and EYELASH which was well hidden as mentioned by muffin.

26. SPanza @25 – did you misread my comment 23? – your ‘so’ doesn’t follow. [Don’t worry about it: I’m going out now. 😉

27. No-one else seems to have said, howard@21, but at Nixon with n instead of x I went No shurely not, but yes there it was in my old Collins…who’d have thought.

    First thought that medium, discorporate and ritualist might be themic, but soon swamped by the coffees. 23d was cute. Thanks both.

28. For once I not only remembered (after finishing the puzzle this morning) to look for a theme because it was Qaos but found it!  I’ll award myself a biscuit for that!  It was a delightful puzzle and as ever a super blog.  Thanks, Qaos and Eileen.

    For years I thought that cafetiere was one of those tall slender china coffee pots that I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen, till I looked it up and found it was what we call (I think) a “coffee maker,” or as often as not a “Mr Coffee,” one of the earliest brands of electric coffee pot.

    Since the theme answered aren’t marked, I’m not sure — are VIENNA, FRENCH and DARK coffee answers?

    Oleg and Spanza — I thought of “in full fig” too, but it wouldn’t parse (DISCOFPORATE isn’t a word).

    baerchen, who is Q?  I assume it isn’t James Bond’s technical wizard or Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch — one of them’s dead and the other’s imaginary.

    Okay, now I have to proofread a newsletter  I’ll be back.

29. Probably the easiest puzzle of the week to finish – but a very good one. Shamefully I didn’t spot the theme until after, having not had my requisite 7O before completion.

    I don’t think I would have got RITUALIST from the definition if the wordplay hadn’t been so straightforward. I liked DECAF, IMMUNOLOGIST, RECORD. Cheers.

30. No Eileen @ 26 your comment wasn’t there when I wrote mine but there were other areas where you assisted.  I always have a list of uncertainties with parsing, since I, unlike muffin for instance, tend to go mainly with definitions and crossers rather than wordplay.  So you and all your blogging colleagues are essential to my enjoyment.  I well remember the times when I would finish a crossword and then have to wait until next day for the answers, and then sometimes have no real idea why I had got it wrong or right.  Fifteensquared has done away with the uncertainty and upped the solving enjoyment enormously and I for one am very very grateful to all the bloggers and other commentators!!

31. In 5d I took independent to be the anagrind, and over (as in going over) as includer, hence fungirl* around L.

32. Didn’t know NINON, and the only version of the ceremonial clothes I know is IN FULL FIG – never seen the actual answer as a phrase. Loved the clue for EYELASH.

33. @Valentine 28

    I meant Qaos…we see each other every once in a while; in fact, I’d hoped to see him again – along with a good few others in the crossword community – in London early next month (see the announcement at the top of the page) but I’ve taken the decision, very reluctantly, not to fly to the UK just now given the uncertainty around air travel round these parts of Europe. Pity.

34. grantinfreo @ 31: that leaves you an I short.

35. Oh yes quite right Simon S, silly me, which leaves us with Eileen’s ‘indicator?’ question.

36. Re the indicator in 5d – ‘wearing’ can mean ‘undergoing damage, erosion, or destruction by friction or use’, but then it’s doing double duty … .

37. Not quite Mondayish for me (sorry to deny you a biscuit, bodycheetah @22), but completed and mostly parsed. For once I saw the theme, and it actually helped with LATTE and DARK (suspected that the latter was right, but reluctant to enter it until the theme materialized for me). Thanks to Qaos, and to Eileen for her informative blog and her willingness to respond to comments as always.

38. Couldn’t agree more with SPanza above regards the pleasure this blog provides.
    I always look for answers hidden in the clues. Today i saw eyelash quickly but missed ritualist!

39. I’m such a klutz I clean forgot to look for a theme until I’d finished – and lord knows I was downing enough of the stuff whilst working on it!
    Like Oleg and SPanza and Valentine, I originally thought of IN FULL FIG (big Flashman fan as a child) and tbh RIG feels more like a ship than an outfit…
    There were quite a few I couldn’t completely parse, and I’m afraid I still don’t understand why “dis” = hell in 14A.
    I really enjoyed DRINK IN and EYELASH, and I grinned at MEDIUM and UNREADABLE.
    One last thing: Eileen, I share SPanza’s appreciation of the sterling work from this site’s bloggers. Before I discovered the joys of FS, I also had to wait till the following day, then miserably try and figure out what on earth was the parsing for those that had eluded me. Keep up the good work!!!
    Big thanks too to Qaos, for another cracker.

40. Wellbeck @39

    DIS is the name for the inner circles of hell in Dante’s Divine Comedy. It comes up fairly often in crosswords.

41. We’ve settled on people being LI(BERTIN)ES for 12a. They’re people who probably enjoy an espresso or two

42. some nice stuff here

    for example, ‘single file’ is for me an excellent double definition, with two reasonably independent meanings and “single file’ being a thing. And the inelegance of a link word in a double definition is avoided. I wish more double definitions were like this.

    plenty more i liked (and a few i liked less)

43. bodycheetah @41

    If you allow a ‘heart’ of any size there are of course many kinds of heartless people who make LIES: LICKSPITTLES and LIABILITIES came to mind after watching some TV news.

44. Enjoyed this very much and even got the theme- not until I’d filled the grid in though! I couldn’t parse VIENNA until coming here but the answer couldn’t have been anything else. I parsed LIES the way Eileen did but I agree there were other possibilities.
    A warm bath of a puzzle unlike yesterday’s Imogen which I gave up on.
    Thanks Qaos.

45. I will say this:  contrary to the clue at 10 across, you can, in fact, brew tea in a cafetiere.  It works rather well, actually, assuming appropriately high quality of both tea and cafetiere.

     

46. I didn’t think this was Qaos at his best, to be honest. A few too many groan-worthy clues like SETS, FRENCH and DARK. I didn’t think to look for a theme until after finishing. Might have helped with DECAF, where I tried CAMEO before I had any crossers (CAME + O, a brief appearance aka a cup of coffee). I assumed “wearing” was the anagrind in 5d (see what I did there) doing double duty, but it’s not placed correctly really, so possibly an oversight on the part of the setter.
    I liked THE ASHES very much.
    Thanks, Q & E.

47. I like to think that the d in 16 down comes from double use of oddly and strained. So FILE grasps ThEoRy odDly strained.

48. PS Collins online has:
    Life – a living person or being

49. I too wasn’t sure about the parsing of 12ac, but I thought it was probably LI[V]ES.

     

    I couldn’t figure out where the D in 16dn came from, but now that I see it I like it. (I think I remember seeing that trick before, but I can’t put my finger on when.) I didn’t even think to be bothered by the abbreviation A for across, and I wouldn’t have been bothered by D for down if I’d figured it out. I  assumed without looking it up that they had dictionary support.

    In 5ac, I’d assumed that “international” was INT and couldn’t work out what “books” was doing in the clue. Thanks for straightening me out on that.

50. I’m not with 5a either. I very much doubt the setter would miss the anagram indicator, so my best guess would be:

    Independent fun girl, over 50, wearing ceremonial clothes (2,4,3)

    An anagram [Independent] of FUN GIRL + LI [over 50; 51 in roman numerals?]

    I’m not entirely happy with it, but I think it’s more plausible than missing the indicator entirely.

51. I, of course, did NOT spot the theme but stumbling around obliviously is kinda my shtick.

    I seem to be the only one who tried to force TSAR into 21A (using A notwithstanding the incisive discussions above).  I figured that enough of the Syrian Arab Republic poked up into Anatolia for it to count but of course that solution didn’t account for the “over” hanging there in front of me.

52. Goodness I spotted the theme – how unusual! Hmmm I went for LI(V)ES as parsing for 12A – re 5D is “over” the anagram indicator, and then “50 ” wears it – that leaves the definition as “ceremonial clothes” – hmmm still doesn’t quite work – I did wonder whether it is an “& lit” – anyway, I enjoyed a reasonably gentle challenge for a Friday night – FOI 5A LOI 19D…

53. If country = UK, then perhaps people = LI[mi]ES..?

54. For once, I magaed to spot the theme! My favourites were LATTE,VIENNA, NINON.

    I was fine with a =across, and d = down. That is how I describe clues on this blog.

    Thanks, Q & E.

55. *managed

56. I’m another with IN FULL FIG, which led me to put DISAFFILIATE at 14 (14a!). The wordplay worked splendidly, but unfortunately not the definition. So, despite this being on the easy side for a QAOS, a dnf for me.

57. Surely the “X”in one across is from strike in ten pin bowling?

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