Guardian 28,102 – Qaos

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Qaos has a tendency to be somewhat “liberal” with his cryptic grammar at times. I don’t usually complain about this, but there seems to be rather more of it than usual here, with some examples noted below. That aside, this was good entertainment, so thanks to Qaos.

It took me a while to find the inevitable theme in this one: I found FISTFUL early on, which make me think of SPAGHETTI westerns, but it’s actually about the work of Simon Pegg, who wrote and acted in SPACED (directed by Edgar WRIGHT), SHAUN of the DEAD, Three Flavours CORNETTO, Hot FUZZ, The WORLD’s END and perhaps more. Not quite: see correction from Scutter in the first comment.

 
 
Across
9. TAILPLANE Hear simple story swapped on an aircraft (9)
Homophone of “plain tail” with the elements interchanged. I don’t like “on an aircraft” for “part of an aircraft”: it’s like my bugbear of “in France” for “a place in France”
10. SHAUN Man has trip, one in France (5)
HAS* + UN (French for “one”)
11. CHANCEY Saint even broke into two churches? Yes, that’s risky (7)
Even letters of sAiNt in CH + CE, plus Y. A rather odd-looking spelling, but it’s in the dictionaries
12. FINGERS Touches margins, moving right towards the end (7)
FRINGES with the R moved almost to the end
13. WORLD Welsh party rejected holding hands with everyone (5)
R[ight] and L[eft] in W + reverse of DO
14. PLAYROOMS Children’s workspaces? Just the opposite (9)
The best way I can find to parse this is that PLAY is “Children’s work”, plus ROOMS for “spaces”, but it seems rather weak; maybe I’m missing something
16. ELECTROCHEMICAL Around court, Michael Corleone’s worried, giving away no type of reaction (15)
CT in anagram of MICHAEL CORLEONE, less NO
19. SQUEAKIER More clean than a mouse? (9)
double/cryptic definition, alluding to the expression “squeaky clean”
21. WORSE Not better with sore bum (5)
W[ith] + SORE*
22. FISTFUL Amount of fancy stiff upper lip, for starters (7)
STIFF* + U[pper] L[ip]
23. DRIVERS Clubs and diamonds: bridge often going over these (7)
D[iamonds] + RIVERS (what some bridges go over)
24. ZOOMS Menageries house mass of flies (5)
M in ZOOS
25. SPAGHETTI Touring Panama, cooks get this food (9)
PA in (GET THIS)*
Down
1. STICKWEEDS Small parasite sits on small bark of deciduous plants (10)
S + TICK (parasite) + WEE (small) + D[eciduou]S
2. DISAGREE Compile grid with ease? No way! (8)
(GRID EASE)*. The definition seems to be the wrong part of speech, but I suppose you could consider the answer as an exclamation, like “no way!”
3. SPACED Arranged walk round Scotland’s borders? On the contrary (6)
PACE in S[cotlan]D
4. BABY Young horse born inside (4)
B in BAY
5. PEN-FEATHER Training note after he translated for old writer (3-7)
PE (training) + N + (AFTER HE)*
6. ISENGRIM Reynard’s enemy is initially enjoying music over Ring cycle (8)
IS + NGRI (“cycled” RING) in E[njoying] M[usic]. Isengrim is Reynard the Fox’s uncle and enemy in the old fables
7. GAZEBO Greta trades her soul for unknown European summer house (6)
[Greta] GARBO with the middle letter or “soul” replaced by Z (unknown) E[uropean]. The surface is presumably referring to Greta Thunberg
8. ENDS Finishes post from top to bottom (4)
SEND (post) with the S moved to the end, though “from to to bottom” doesn’t really indicate this
14. PROFITLESS Expert is left gambling on dollar with no gain (10)
PRO + (IS LEFT)* + S (from the dollar sign, $)
15. SILVERSKIN Argentine’s family has type of small white onion (10)
SILVER’S KIN – Argentine literally means “silver”
17. TOADFISH Marine creature reportedly towed fellow by his pants (8)
“Towed” + F + HIS* – an aptly named sea creature: also the nickname of a character in Neighbours
18. CORNETTO Instrument, somewhat forgotten, rockets to the sky (8)
Hidden in reverse of forgOTTEN ROCkets. As well as being a type of ice cream, the cornett or cornetto is an old musical instrument, not to be confused with the modern trumpet-like cornet
20. UPSHOT Result involved in hitting a six? (6)
A batsman might score a six as a result of a SHOT that goes UPwards
21. WRIGHT First flyer bearing straight (6)
W[est] (compass bearing) + RIGHT (straight); referring tp Wilbur Wright, though his was of course only the first powered flight
22. FUZZ The Boys in Blue, or Blur? (4)
Double definition, “the fuzz” being slang (of uncertain origin – possibly from either “fuss” or “force”) for the police (aka the boys in blue)
23. DEAD After injecting drug, parent is numb (4)
E[cstasy] in DAD

65 comments on “Guardian 28,102 – Qaos”

  1. It’s an Edgar WRIGHT theme, rather than a Pegg one, though there is inevitably a lot of overlap.  There are references to the writer/director’s films FISTFUL of FINGERS (a SPAGHETTI Western tribute/spoof) and BABY DRIVER, as well as the CORNETTO trilogy of SHAUN of the DEAD, Hot FUZZ, and The WORLD’s END, and of course his seminal comedy series, SPACED (whose first series finished with the episode “ENDS”)

  2. Thanks Scutter, I bow to your superior knowledge of the subject. Glad to see I wasn’t totally off track with FISTFUL and SPAGHETTI. It also makes more sense of the hint in Qaos’s tweet: “Ready for action?”

  3. I enjoyed this a lot (but couldn’t get 21d). Didn’t recognise the theme, and am none the wiser now it has been pointed out. Favourites were SQUEAKIER, SPAGHETTI and GAZEBO. Many thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  4. Am I the only person to have initially put ULSTER for 20d? (Anagram of RESULT, alluding to the Six Counties.)

  5. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

    For once I saw some of the theme, but of the TV and films mentioned I’ve only seen Hot Fuzz.

    I didn’t know STICKWEEDS or ISENGRIM, but both were accessible from the clues.

    As well as your reservations, Andrew, I think the clue for SILVERSKIN (which otherwise I like) either puts the second S in the wrong place or has a superfluous, for wordplay,  “has”. Also I don’t think SQUEAKIER works – it should be “More clean, more like a mouse”.

    DRIVERS was favoruite.

  6. I somehow thought that the dead end that SPAGHETTI and FISTFUL was yet another misdirect.

    I’ve heard of Dave Pegg and his son Matt(both bass players) but Simon[-nay.If it was Shaum and Shem…..

    Lovely puzzle though.

  7. Surprisingly for me, my FOI was the long anagram(ish).  I could just see it.  I struggled with the parsing on one or two, notably Gazebo.  I mean,the answer was clearly going to be gazebo, but I couldn’t get the BO bit as I didn’t make the jump to Garbo.  I had the theme before the halfway mark (after also leaning towards spaghetti westerns), which is always a help. Thanks to Andrew for the parsing, and to Qaos for knocking the sleep out of my system.

    Be safe everyone.

  8. I wondered if “pen feather” and hence “pen” derives from getting feathers from “pens” or female swans. A quick Google failed to confirm this – does anyone here know?

  9. muffin @8, the Latin penna = feather, and I believe that’s where we get our writing pen from, though I’m not sure if the female swan has the same source

  10. Saw the spaghetti fistful bit, then thought Wright bros tailplane, but nup the actual theme is totally beyond my ken. Enjoyed the puzzle though. Bark of, as denoter, was clever, as was argentine for silver which needed all crossers to drop. As for 6d, my only known associate of Reynard is Chanticleer so, having nutted out the bits, the Ring cycle had to be engri or ingre and my ear preferred the former but sometimes it’e just luck. Headscratched over world for a bit as there are two possible sources of the w, and world means everyone but not ‘with everyone’. Quibletino, hey ho. Good fun, thanks Q&A.

  11. When I had a few answers I used my should-have-been-patented theme-detector method which I described here a few weeks ago. I did a Google search with “shaun fuzz baby” and the page that came back contained DEAD, WRIGHT, CORNETTO, WORLD and END. Try it yourself. I’ll grant that it is a bit of a black art guessing which answers are likely themed before you spot the theme, but if you’re even half right it usually works.

  13. offspinner@4 No, ULSTER for me too.

     

    Thanks Andrew, in particular for CORNETTO, and Qaos – didn’t know the theme today.

  14. Thanks for a great blog, Andrew. [Still enjoying your music. 😉 ]

    This crossword is a perfect example of a puzzle that can be enjoyed without having a clue as to the theme [apart from the frustration of knowing that there must be one, since it’s Qaos – I thought it might be something to do with SPAGHETTI Westerns, too]. I was relieved to find that it wasn’t something I’m supposed to know about – and that I wasn’t blogging it.

    My favourites were ZOOMS, SPAGHETTI and ISENGRIM. I was amazed to find CHANCEY in both Collins and Chambers.

    offspinner @4 [and, since I started typing, Dave Ellison]  no – but I’m glad it was wrong because it would only have caused an argument!

    Many thanks to Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle.

  15. I found this trickier than Qaos usually is, but quite entertaining. Saw the Pegg parts of the theme about two thirds of the way through, but it didn’t help much as I wouldn’t claim any great expertise, and I didn’t know enough to see that there was more of Edgar Wright in there.

    This was Qaos’s 98th Guardian puzzle (Cryptic and Prize, excluding Genius) – I wonder if he has anything special planned for the 100th.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

     

  16. Agree this was very easy even by Qaos’ standards. Less familiar words (ISENGRIM, STICKWEED) precisely clued. But finding the theme….just couldn’t get past SPAGHETTI and FISTFUL but no “dollar”, “Clint”, “good”, “bad” or “ugly”….which is one reason 15² invaluable. Many thanks, both and all.

  18. Another ULSTER confidently written in which meant ZOOMS took MrsW’s help and then a rethink. The real theme eluded me, and thanks to Scutter@1 for spelling it out. WRIGHT and DRIVERS were last in having tried to parse WORTHY and WEIGHT! The long anagram was fun and needed several crossers before the light dawned and I ticked the simple WORSE – concise and elegant. ISENGRIM was a tilt. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  19. Pleasant enough struggle but it had that uncomfortable “shoe-horned” feeling which often results from forcing things into the straight-jacket of a theme.

    Took ages to see WORLD and SHAUN but would have got there a lot earlier if I’d teased out the theme.

    offspinner @4:  Yes, considered both ULSTER and LUSTRE but ZOOMS came to the rescue.

    Thought spaced = arranged a tad loose in SPACED.

    Many thanks for the well-researched blog, Andrew.

    Stay safe, everyone.

  21. I was sure it was CORNETTO but the line break between forgotten and rockets in the PDF blinded me to the obvious. Well, that’s my excuse! Coincidence that upsHOT is next to FUZZ in the grid? I totally missed the theme as I was busy looking for tenuous HMHB links and on that note, the crossing of WRIGHT and DRIVERS brought to mind the mysterious lyric “There’s people who can’t spell ‘weird’ right driving round with thousands in the bank” from the song “Turned Up. Clocked On. Laid Off” on the ever-popular “This Leaden Pall” LP. It’s sung with a degree of venom that suggests they may have someone specific in mind. But who?

    Thanks to Q&A for an entertaining start to the day

  22. Stared at WORLD at 13ac for some time before deciding that it deserved to remain there. Then things surprisingly slipped quite quickly into place. Of course needed to reference ISENGRIM as not part of my GK. Last one in, the not much of a looker TOADFISH…

  23. I solved 10 clues and then gave up. Real life is too stressful at the moment, so it was hard for me to focus on a crossword puzzle.

    Anyhow, it was interesting to read the blog.

  24. Thank you Andrew (and Scutter). I know some of the names, but not what it’s about. I’d like to go to the cinema more often, but the one near us is a really horrible Cineworld with endless self-boosting advertisements and people who talk. Get more and more impatient with cliché dialogue, music and camerawork too. Last film I really enjoyed was Saving Mr Banks (on telly). Grumpy Old Man retreats to hole in woodwork…

  27. Good fun but demanded much googling in the marsh to check the fish, fox instrument and plant. There were a few reallys? like WORLD PLAYROOMS and CHANCEY but all fair game. No particular favourites though – hmmm.

    Didn’t realise baby driver was one of his – great soundtrack!

    Thanks to both once more.

    [keep it up bodycheetah maybe fame is beckoning at last. Sorry missed yours yesterday – alas the moniker is much more prosaic]

  29. Thanks poc. It doesn’t explain the swan derivation, though. A site found through Google rather unhelpfully informs that a female swan ia callled a pen as it holds its wings back in a “penned manner”…

  30. To be clear, if anyone can show me a legit meaning of Gambling for it to be used as an anagrind I’ll be happy. Until then, I still think it ought to be Gambolling.

  31. Once again the theme eluded me, though for once I probably should have known about it–I can’t blame jt all on being too British this time. But as Eileen pointed out, the nice thing about Qaos is that you don’t have to know the theme to enjoy the puzzle.

    I generally don’t find Qaos’s looseness in his clues at all off-putting, though I understand the point of view of those who do. If it makes the surface read better or the whole thing funnier, and if it is ultimately gettable, it’s all good.

  32. I’m a gardener, but STICKWEEDS are new to me, though it turns out I’ve been growing one of the family for years. Is it more an American term? Like Andrew, I thought the theme was the CORNETTO trilogy and didn’t see the WRIGHT bit because I don’t know about him or the rest of his work. Oh well, at least it helped me to get WORLD.

  33. Couldn’t really get onto Qaos’ wavelength today. I’m another who had ULSTER, as well as PEA-FEATHER, and had PLAYTIMES at 14a (play = not work, times = not spaces, seemed to me to fit better). Tripped up too much to enjoy it, but glad to see that others did. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  34. bodycheetah @21, my little HMHB smile for the day came courtesy of 7d, but I don’t like to talk about it.

  35. I very nearly put ULSTER but given that I live in Ulster – one of nine counties (not six) I managed to restrain myself, hoping that Qaos was equally aware.

  37. Well, I got there in the end, although I had to look up Isengrim. I agree with NormanJL about gambling as an anagrind, and I thought trip and worried weren’t much better. But the puzzle fulfilled its purpose of using up a lot of the morning in between separating my Christies into Poirot, Marple and other, and shelving them in date order.

  38. Captain slow got there in the end, although I missed the theme.

    I didn’t know Reynard’s enemy but Google assisted on that. CHANCEY, eh?? That’s very chancy!

    Nice clues for WORSE and DISAGREE – I sympathise.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

  39. muffin@29: Chambers says of pen (as a female swan): ‘origin unknown’, which surprises me. I too had always thought it connected to the feather derivation.

  40. Thanks, Andrew.

    I take your point on the “liberal” cryptic grammar. I wondered about gambling as an anagrind, thought SQUEAKIER a bit loosely clued …

    … but I’ve been whiling away some sleepless hours lately with a book of Araucaria crosswords, and it struck me today that Qaos has a lot in common with the dear old monkey puzzler. Neither can be called Ximenean, but every puzzle has enough invention and playfulness to make it a fun challenge, and there’s always at least one “aha!” moment when you twig what the setter was getting at.

     

  42. NormanJL @30 (I think – no numbers on mobile version):

    How about gambling with dice or the reels on a slots machine (aka one armed bandit)? Lots of rearranging going on there.

  43. I’m still getting to grips with the different setters’ styles, but I have at least taken on board that Qaos likes themes. Like others today, I hared off in the wrong direction initially with WRIGHT and TAILPLANE, then swerved back with SPAGHETTI and FISTFUL…..and never saw the real theme at all. Despite my being a huge fan of Wright’s works. Being cooped up is clearly denting my brainpower.
    But missing the theme, as has been pointed out, doesn’t detract from the fun of this one. Some very clever stuff here, with FINGERS, CORNETTO, GAZEBO and BABY being particularly classy.
    There were several I guessed and could only semi-parse – so thank you Andrew for bailing me out. And thanks to Qaos, of course!

  44. Liberal use of the crowbar? And Isingrem works just as well if you don’t have the GK.

    Some nice clues though.

  45. sheffield hatter@30 I did think about stuff like that and it still doesn’t work for me. I reckon Qaos just used a homophone and it didn’t get picked up by the editor, or noticed by a lot of solvers.

  46. You have to wonder sometimes if there’s a competition between setters to see how far they can push the anagrind envelope 🙂

  47. Thanks Qaos and Andrew. Hadn’t heard of STICKWEEDS or ISENGRIM and missed those; they were indeed gettable by the parsing but apparently not by me. Really liked the use of bark in #1. Favorites included CHANCEY, GAZEBO, and CORNETTO. It seemed to me that “somewhat forgotten” in the CORNETTO clue could be part of the definition as well as the parsing. A partial &lit maybe?

  48. Cornettos (cornetti?) are popular in early music groups. They are made of wood (or leather), but have a brass-type mouthpiece. They make a lovely sound! See here.

  49. I had a lot of trouble with this.  Agree with Andrew about Qaos’ somewhat loose style and this was partly why I felt on a different wavelength today.  E.g. for SPAGHETTI, I had trouble seeing the clue construction because “cooks” as an anagrind doesn’t work for me.  Cook (as a command), cooking or cooked, yes, but not cooks.  Funnily, the “gambling” one that Norman pointed out didn’t faze me (possibly because I’m a terrible speller :o) )  That one I can see (sort of) as a synonym of uncertain or doubtful.  (E.g gambling on/ uncertain/doubtful about an outcome).

    ELECTROCHEMICAL and SILVERSKIN were both good.  I can’t see anything better for PLAYROOMS than Andrew’s version, which I missed, but it seems a bit weak.  I looked for the theme, but got no further than things to eat – FISH FINGERS, SPAGHETTI, SILVERSKIN, CORNETTO maybe, but I knew that that wasn’t it.  Thanks, Scutter, for the enlightenment.

    And thanks, Andrew and Qaos for the workout.

  50. I got CORNETTO and ZOOMS early on and perhaps influenced by the weather thought it was going to be an ice cream/lolly theme! More or less got there with the Simon Pegg connection which helped me get SHAUN.

    Oleg – it’s Garbo for the wordplay but think Thunberg when reading the surface – excellent I thought. Also liked SILVERSKIN

  51. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

    I’ve been doing well with Qaos recently in spite of my antipathy to themed crosswords in general – the word “shoe-horning” has already been used – but I was never going to get SHAUN or ISENGRIM.  I did enjoy most of the rest.  DRIVERS was a cruel inclusion for those of us who suffer from golf.  As it is the clubs sit idly with the grass growing up around them.  (If only there were some way I could practice my swing while cutting the grass….. No, I got nothing.)

    I don’t see the problem with taking “send” and sending the “top to bottom” in a down clue to get ENDS.  But that’s just me….

     

  54. [Yes, it’s astonishing how dry everywhere is compared with a few weeks ago. My walks have suddenly gone from wellies to trainers.]

  55. Thanks to both for an enjoyable lockdown filler. When I looked at 14a and saw “children” and “opposite” I entered PLAYHOUSE as that is where adults perform plays. It eventually became clear the answer was PLAYROOMS, which I seem to remember is another term meaning the same. Or is it where plays are rehearsed? Whichever, I think there is a link to adults doing things.

  56. Came to this very late as a result of abandoning yesterday’s Vlad until this afternoon- not nearly so difficult at the second go! As for today’s Qaos I struggled. I expected a theme but couldn’t see it and I’m not much the wiser now it’s been pointed out. I’ve heard of Simon Pegg but I’ve never seen anything he’s been in. I’ve no idea who Edgar Wright is. I don’t think I’ve missed much from what I can gather from the posts. IISENGRIM was new to me.
    Thanks Qaos.

  57. Saint even broke into two churches? Yes, that’s risky (7)
    So reads 11a. Now, does ‘even’ sit well here? Wouldn’t we expect ‘evenly’ for the cryptic grammar to work? Of course, in that case, the clue has to be rewritten.

  59. I found this moderately difficult, and agree with many of the comments about the rather loose cluing style. I don’t see anything wrong with “More clean than a mouse?” though; it’s a straightforward cryptic definition and there’s no need to separate it into two parts. I don’t remember seeing “bark of ” before to indicate the first last letters of a word (1 down) and I don’t much like it.

  60. Thanks Andrew and Qaos.

    I had to check CHANCEY was a valid spelling. Looked up Reynard the Fox in Wikipedia to get ISENGRIM (also spelt YSENGRIM). STICKWEEDS and WORLD were last ones in and needed a wordsearch for the former as I had completely misparsed both clues.

  61. It may say something about British selfishness that the existence of adult playrooms in 14a seems so unknown!

  62. Somehow in my previous comment my spell check put ‘selfishness ‘ when I meant ‘prudishness’.

  63. Hi, I’m only just learning to solve cryptics. This blog is a huge help. Thanks to all bloggers and those commenting! I’ll get there eventually but currently I’m still chuffed when I understand the solutions ex post. 😉 On that note, can anybody here help me understand 13ac? Is the W coming from ‘Welsh’ or ‘with’ and why not ‘parties’ for right and left? and why only the initials. Thanks and greetings from Vienna!

  64. viennabeo @63

    To expand Andrew’s parsing, it’s:

    W (Welsh) DO (party) reversed (rejected) around (holding) R L (hands). The definition is ‘everyone’ and the ‘with’ is just a link word to provide a meaningful surface.

  65. Gaufrid @63 Thanks so much for the quick answer – I just did not see DO as party! My brain stuck to political parties. Have a nice day.

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