Guardian Cryptic 28,281 by Qaos

96 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,281 by Qaos”

1. I thought APOSTILLE was especially cunning  having  P as well as STILL

   Nice  puzzle and blog

   Thanks

2. A tricky but enjoyable puzzle for us today. Sadly a DNF because we didn’t get APOSTILLE.

   I was happy to spot the theme and it helped with a couple of answers.

   Favourites were SPHEROIDS and CARRIED.

   Thanks Qaos and loonapick!

3. I couldn’t parse 1d because I got Cilla but was looking for Black! Enjoyable stuff from Qaos, particularly SARDINIAN, DEAD and SEALING WAX (unlike some, I’m very fond of Spoonerisms). Many thanks to Q & l.

4. Yes, the same as copmus @1 I liked APOSTILLE, the “quiet” bit not being P.

   For some reason SOVIET really appealed; I think the combination of a clue which reads completely naturally and a neat misdirection, the answer having nothing to do with Nutkin and his pals.

   I did wonder whether the big swings of 1dn and the criminal activity near the White House of 13ac were the start of a theme referencing something terrifying going on thousands of miles away, but it’s just as well they weren’t.

   Thanks to Qaos and loonapick

5. Woke up very early couldn’t get back to sleep so started the crossword. Got TO THE MANNER BORN quickly and managed to make good progress on the top half. Then ground to a halt. After a brief look at the news (depressing) came back and with help from the crossword dictionaries and the check button managed to finish. Couldn’t parse APOSTILLE until someone on the Guardian blog suggested I look for another way of doing quiet – and I got it.

   Liked  CARRIED, SOVIET, EARLIEST, LEERY.

   Thanks to Qaos and Loonapick (there were a few others I was unsure of so the blog was very helpful.)

6. I rather thought ‘IT’ would appear as a bonus theme constituent hidden in a solution, possibly just by chance, and it doesn’t!  Three times in reverse but not once the right way round.  Horror is not my thing but I recognised the author and five of the themed answers. APOSTILLE was a dnk.

   If Qaos had clued MILES as ‘Last bit from jazz musician to go far’, it would have worked with ‘to go’ being part of the instructions, ‘far’ being the definition and the same device being employed.!

   I liked LEERY and SALEM, SOVIET and HANDLE.  CINEMAGOERS jumped out from several crossers but was nice to parse with hindsight.  I wouldn’t have got OSCILLATES if the singer in question hadn’t featured in ‘scintilla’ in a recent puzzle and I still spent more time than I should looking at ‘Black’ with puzzlement before the penny dropped.  OILFIELD was nicely hidden and resisted longer than it should because I was thinking ‘Alfie” ended with a ‘y’ for a while.

   Thanks Qaos and loonapick (your usual summary was missed this morning when I first opened the site – glad I refreshed before hitting Post)

7. I liked the Spoonerism and DEAD. The theme flew over my head, partly because I’ve never read King, but also I was thinking that any theme would tie in with the central long answer TO THE MANNER BORN. Then, SEALING WAX didn’t lead us to The Walrus and the Carpenter or to pink string.

8. Thanks loonapick.

   APOSTILLE at 25a was unfamiliar to me as well as to others above – for me, it was a guess from the crossers. I liked the Hamlet quote at 16a TO THE MANNER BORN. But SARDINIAN at 9a as already mentioned was my top favourite today.

   Thanks to Qaos for a good puzzle. The GREEN MILE (in 2d and 24a) would have to be one of my top Stephen King films.

9. Not a horror or SF fan, so no idea of theme but enjoyed anyway. Liked symbiotic (great fan of Lynn Margulis), and the plummy echo of Penelope Keith in To The Man[or]ner.. Apostille, otoh, was a dnk plug-and-play. Fun to see more mentions of Cilla, and ‘dead’ for ‘very’ (do Scousers say it, like my Lancs cousins do?). The wheeling sax and big screen viewer were cute too. Terribly ignorant of the seven deadlies, though guilty of most of them, so slot was one of my LOsI, d’oh. All in all a nice bit of eescapism, ta Q and L.

10. Thanks both.
    I wonder if Qaos ever regrets making themed puzzles his/her norm?

11. Could someone explain acting =A to me please? Thanks

12. I suppose I should have added “What’s it all about…”.
    Coincidence that Cilla sang Alphie!

13. Or even Alfie! Sorry.

14. Thank you loonapick. I haven’t read Stephen King at all, though obviously I know the name and have seen the titles on the book spines and heard of the film adaptations. Haven’t needed an APOSTILLE yet, and hope I never shall, especially in present conditions. Criticising two non-homophones in 20 and 14 is flogging a dead horse. Just didn’t enjoy this one.

15. Thanks Qaos and loonapick

    First 2 were SLOT and SALEM so, for once, I saw the theme, though I’m not familiar with his work, so It didn’t help much. (After getting KING I “checked” a completely unparsed STEPHEN in 21a as it was the only place I could fit it!)

    I needed a wordsearch for APOSTILLE, and was unable to parse it. Didn’t parse LEERY either.

    Eric @10

    I wondered about that. I suppose it might be used in “Acting Commanding Officer” for instance?

16. Like drofle @ 3 I also like Spoonerisms but didn’t think this was a terribly good one.

    Only got APOSTILLE from the crossers.

    Nice little puzzle to start the day.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

17. Eric @11/12/13: I think Alphie was a song from Xanadu…

    As for acting/a, I wonder if it’s another of those ‘take any word and abbreviate it to its initial letter’ situations.  The internet suggests there is, apparently, an ‘acting pilot officer’ or similar in the RAF where acting is, in fact, abbreviated to ‘A’. Otherwise it seems to be ‘act’ or ‘ag’.

18. Clever as ever, but dnf as APOSTILLE defeated me as did the theme, although I’ve seen all the films mentioned. OILFIELD and OSCILLATES were excellent. Ta Qaos and loonapick.

19. [JinA @8, Mrs ginf is with you, she loved The Green Mile. I’m more skeptical re healing powers etc, tho I did like the big guy’s character and the way he was ‘dog tired’ after his healings]

20. Looked at DEAD for a while before I convinced myself that it could mean “very”. Loi was the Spoonerism, setting the seal on an enjoyable if tricky at times solve. Never read any of Stephen King’s stuff so didn’t get the theme, even though there had to be one with Qaos on the scene.

21. Jolly quick solve from the Master Themer this morning.  Spotted it very early with MISERY but not being a fan, was unhelped by it.

    A ? at the otherwise excellent OILFIELD over the A = acting that others have mentioned, but Chambers does have it under the third def for ‘a’.

    Felt figure = SPHEROID was a little loose but perfectly getable.

    Really enjoy this setter’s work these days, many thanks to both.

22. I use illiterate sounding clues as a trigger to look for tripe (the rubbish in Port Erin) style clues.

    Unfortunately most of QAOS’s clues give me that feeling.

     

    Thank you for your blog loonapick, it was very helpful today.

    I had to reveal LEERY having got EE (checked) from White House – annoying that I never looked further for the LRY – and I missed a few other bits of “tripe”!  And, shame on me , I did not see the embedded KING , and therefore had to check it was the ruler! I’m still using check too often but getting better on easier puzzles.

     

    I think I need to record which puzzlers use a lot of tripe in their cooking.But just one reveal on a QAOS puzzles is not too bad for a beginner?

     

    Enjoyed it corner by corner today.

23. Loonapick – I’m surprised you’ve been given grief over using s and m as abbreviations for small and medium (19 and 21 A).  I meet them in crosswords all the time and have assumed they were generally recognised parts of cruciverbal grammar, especially the s.   Since I usually do the Guardian, that may just mean Hugh is a more indulgent editor than some others, but there are a wide range of setters in the paper.  Incidentally, whatever an editor may tell you, m is in Chambers as an abbreviation for medium – I have just checked it!  But I couldn’t see l or s, which just shows that lexicographers can be as arbitrary as crossword editors.  (If I had to criticise 21A, it would on the grounds that it’s odd to define Salem as a town in the Bible – it’s the Heavenly City, and there’s only one of them.  The town is in Massachusetts).  Thanks for the blog, and to Qaos for the puzzle.

24. Good, well-clued puzzle. I saw KING and MISERY but it was no help in solving for me.

    S for small is in Collins and Oxford, so it shouldn’t be a problem for bloggers or editors.

    I liked LEERY, OILFIELD and SPHEROIDS. I do quite like Spoonerisms, but prefer ones where it results in a known phrase (sometimes difficult to do).

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

25. Like Komornik @14, I’ve not read any of the books nor seen any of the films but I’m familiar with some titles, so guessed the theme once I got to SHINING and remembered I’d entered CARRIED and SALEM. I chuckled when I reached SLOT – very neat.

    I then resorted to Google for more titles – I had no idea he had written so many – and enjoyed discovering how Qaos had cleverly  hidden the rest. (loonapick, your missing MAN is in MANNER.)

    I didn’t know APOSTILLE, either and like others, admired the misdirection of ‘quiet’.

    Thanks to Qaos for the fun and loonapick for a fine blog.

     

26. Sagittarius @24; for SALEM in the Bible, see here.

27. .. . or even @23.

28. I completely missed the Stephen King theme, but thought I’d found a different one. OZONE ICEBERG GREENEST OILFIELD. A mini theme possibly? Thanks for an enjoyable solve Qaos and help with some of the parsing loonapick.

29. Robi@26 and 27 – thanks for enlightening my ignorance of Salem!

30. Thanks for the blog. A DNF for me – hung up on apostille etc – Eileen, I am amazed that this was also new to you.

    Not very happy with the Spooner – I have an expectation in Spoonerisms is that the spoonerism is a well known phrase, not a charade. “Wheeling Sax”? really?

    But otherwise I liked the puzzle, TVM Qaos (and no, of course, missed the theme).

31. Don’t understand the criticism of SALEM!

    It is a town, whichever one you pick, and it is mentioned in the Bible – blimey, that is one of QAOS’s easiest clues!

    I got ALE as soon as beer showed up , and the S & M , soon after.

    While s for son is acceptable, along with any other word starting or ending or having a middle letter s because of first,last and middle hints (extremely obscure hints at times), objecting to S,M,L and even XL etc etc which we see every time we change our pants is being so pedantic imho.

     

    That reminds of the unrepeatable C&A (rip) joke.

32. This video has had 50k views worldwide in 8 years, how many do the Guardian crossword :O)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTjI6EWIrRI

     

    It was news to me too Eileen, and a few others?

33. I recognised APOSTILLE when I saw (revealed) it – I work in a solicitor’s office and its legal incarnation (a kind of international version of a certified document) is something we are occasionally asked for, but don’t do as it is a job for a specialist. Didn’t know the marginal note meaning.
    A definite DNF today, but I did like CARRIED, the well disguised SOVIET and the two-stage LEERY. Qaos is an ingenious setter, but too ingenious for me today.

34. APOSTILLE is the only word that OneLook and Chambers Word Wizard find that matches the crossers.

35. Could the jazz musician be Ron Miles? So first bit to go and you’re left with MILES = far.

36. Qaos being the setter, I looked repeatedly for a theme, but still didn’t find it. But then, I have studiously avoided reading Stephen King (or watching that sort of movie). I thought SHINING very weak. It might just be a synonym for ‘distinguished’ (though I’m not convinced), but it is certainly not one for ‘knight’s armour’, or even an example of ‘knight’s armour’. EARLIEST was good – had me looking for a word starting ‘ear’, like say eardrum, for a while. ICEBERG, SOVIET and DEAD were pleasing too. Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.

37. Many commenters appear to be missing out on Stephen King.

    I don’t read horror very often, but I do read Stephen King, who in the 80s and 90s was my favourite contemporary author.

    Although some of his later stuff is disappointing, books such as The Green Mile, The Stand, It, Misery and The Shining are fantastic reads.  I would add to that his novellas and short stories that were filmed as The Shawshank Redemption (the best movie ever made according to IMdB reviewers), Stand By Me (short story: The Body) and Apt Pupil, and the seven-volume fantasy series The Dark Tower.

    Many of the movies made from his stories were terrible, but as is almost always the case, the books are better, so if you saw Christine or Cujo, for example, you may think he’s a hack, but actually Christine is a study in teenage angst and I know of no other modern author who could create a page turner that includes around 200 pages where the action revolves simply around a mother and son trapped in a car by a rabid dog.

    He also wrote a couple of non-fiction books that are worth a read – Danse Macabre (which explores his influences and our infatuation with fear) and On Writing (which is a recommended book for anyone who wants to write).

38. With OZONE, SYMBIOTIC and SEALING WAX among the first in, I was assuming a pan(demic)gram was on its way. Ironic, then, that (as far as I can see) the only letter missing is Q. Funnier still that our setter’s name starts with it and doesn’t even need the ‘U’!

    As an accountant I occasionally come across apostille, required by some countries to verify an HMRC Certificate of Residence.

    Funnily enough I got ALE as soon as beer showed up, but that was nothing to do with the crossword!

39. Sorry, forgot to add that he is also an avid promoter of literature. Through a foundation he runs with his wife, he donates millions of dollars a year to worthy causes, including libraries in Maine.

40. Tough but very enjoyable solve. TILT: Apostille. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

    [King is often dismissed as simply a horror writer but he has a knack for effectively evoking the 50s America of Schwinn bikes and Lucky Strikes.  His book “On Writing” reveals that he is a great deal more of a craftsman than he is given credit for]

41. Sorry loonapick@37, we crossed.

42. How is the entire clue of 3d a definition of MISERY?

43. Slightly off topic, but does anyone know if there is a list of Araucaria’s jigsaw alphabeticals by number anywhere, please?

    I’ve been tackling one of his bank holiday specials a week since the start of CV-19 but am now in danger of running out!

    Thanks in anticipation.

44. I sometimes think that hunting for a theme can be counter-productive. Like Penfold at 7, once I had SEALING WAX and KING, I delightedly started scouting about for other Walrus & Carpenter connections, or maybe simply general Lewis Carroll ones. Then, like Eric at 10, knowing that Cilla Black sang the theme song to “Alfie”, I set off on a wild Michael Caine chase (figuring The Man Who Would Be King might be included). Needless to say, the actual theme flew right over my head, even though I’ve seen many of the film versions of King’s writings….
    But nevertheless I had a whale of a time solving this one. I was dead chuffed with 8D, charmed with CARRIED; OZONE, SOVIET and HANDLE were also pleasing. Many thanks to Loonapick for help with various semi-parsed ones and thank you Qaos for yet another delightful crossword.

45. [akaRebornBeginner @22 Looking for a place to record examples of puzzlers using tripe in their cooking? Can I suggest the 2021 Diary from the Tripe Marketing Board.

    Their website has lots of useful information, a shop for tripe related gifts (Christmas is coming) and their TripeAdviser to help you discover local stockists. ]

46. Missed the theme as usual but enjoyed at least most of it. My favorite was the trademark Qaos clue for CARRIED. A few Quiptic-ish clues (e.g., ICEBERG), but enough chewier ones to make it last a while. The clue for MISERY didn’t really have a definition (as noted by John Wells @42), but Qaos often strays a bit outside the lines, so I entered it with confidence.

    Thanks also to loonapick for explaining APOSTILLE. I was focused on P for ‘quiet’ and couldn’t think what to make of OSTILLE.

47. [loonapick @37 & 39 (& Martin Scribbler @40): thanks for popping back in with such a thoughtful defence of Stephen King.  You have prompted me to give him a try.  I will confess to – quite literally – judging a book by its cover.  I really am no fan of the horror genre and am guilty of making assumptions that his work would be largely around inventive ways of producing gore.  If you were to recommend a starter for 10, which would it be?]

48. Thanks loonapick, I have come across APOSTILLE before and got it from the crossers but couldn’t parse it having being successfully misdirected by the non-quiet P. [And I need to try some of King’s books, despite being a big horror/fantasy sf fan, especially as a teenager, I never got into him – possibly because his books always looked 4 x longer than anyone else’s.]

    I was helped by some devices having accidentally appeared elsewhere recently as noted above by PostMark and grantinfreo – I liked both those clues and several more but the winner was SOVIET which misled me in a different way to NeilH: I smugly identified “squirrels” as an inclusion indicator and of course failed miserably to fit a word meaning “often” inside a word meaning “red” to give something found up a tree [Reds always used to be under the bed didn’t they?].

    I always grumble about Chambers being considered the law, usually because I don’t have a copy, but if it includes A for Actor but not S for Small and L for Large then I feel finally justified.

    Thanks Qaos, another stiff challenge but very welcome.

49. [Penfold @45: where do you find these things???  The web-site is just brilliant.  I am still trying to work out whether all of it, any of it or none of it is serious – or whether it is simply  – tripe.  The biographies of the board, the statement from the chair, the small ads… I know we have some seriously capable computer technologists within this community: please don’t tell me this is something you knocked up in 10 minutes just to spoof akaNB?]

50. Postmark

    I’d recommend Different Seasons, a collection of four novellas which include The Body (Filmed as Stand By Me) and Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption. If you like long reads, It and The Stand – if you prefer shorter, try Misery or Thinner (writing as Richard Bachman)

51. Some easy clues and some not so straightforward clues in an enjoyable puzzle.  I liked the clever dummy of Black in 1D but didn’t appreciate A = acting in 18D.  I enjoy Spoonerisms but SEALING WAX results in WEALING SAX so I wasn’t impressed by that in an otherwise admirable set of clues.  The Spoonerism doesn’t relate to my normal pronunciation so it took a While/Wile as it only works in some English dialects but I guess it is how the Prince of Wales/Whales might pronounce it.

    I didn’t think 16 was much of a double definition but more a GK clue hinting at the expression which was coined, presumably, by Shakespeare in Hamlet.

52. Very much a crossword of two halves: raced through the top, stalled and struggled with the lower half. The theme passed me by entirely. Loved the surface of 9ac but clue of the day was 22ac.

     

    Thanks Qaos (does it rhyme with chaos or Laos?) and loonapick

53. [loonapick @50: many thanks 😀  ]

54. A rare DNF today thanks to SEALING WAX – I was sure it must be a SAW as that’s a horror film too, though not I’ve since found out derived from Stephen King. For yes, I got the theme, and quite early too! Not that it helped as I know little of his work, indeed the saw diversion ended up a hindrance.
    I’d started so well too, SARDINIAN and all its crossers written straight in. SPHEROIDS didn’t feel right as it’s a 3D shape rather than an implicitly 2D figure, but from the lack of comment above, William @21 excepted, that’s just me.

55. Like Trailman @54 I couldn’t get the Spoonerism – my reaction to seeing it in the blog was closer to Andy Smith’s @30 than grantinfreo’s @9. Not impressed. And now even less of a fan of Spoonerisms than previously.

    And I had COE instead of POE as the author in 25a, so had a non-existent ACOSTILLE (no, I didn’t think it looked much like a real word either).

    Just for once I saw the obvious theme and fairly skated through the rest of the clues, so not so much a game of two halves as beaten in the penalty shoot out. Thanks to Qaos for a (mostly) enjoyable solve.

56. TassieTim @36 – re SHINING: it immediately made me think of John Betjeman’s ‘Christmas’

    And Christmas-morning bells say “Come!'”
    Even to shining ones who dwell
    Safe in the Dorchester Hotel.

    I’ve just looked in Chambers, which gives ‘excellent or distinguished’ – and I’ve just thought of ‘shining example’.

57. I agree about the Spoonerism. The only thing that redeems these clues for me is if it’s a genuine expression both ways round.

58. I spotted the theme, and for once it helped (I was drawing a blank on MISERY until I found the theme).  DNF for me because I didn’t know the word APOSTILLE.

    [I would add to Loonapik’s list @50 of recommended Stephen King books The Shining (which is brilliantly crafted: you’re never entirely sure whether the horror isn’t entirely inside the man’s head–are we watching a man being haunted by demons or going insane?) and, among the non-horror stuff, the first book of the Dark Tower series, The Gunslinger, which is a genre-bending cross between a fantasy and a Western.  (The next four Dark Tower books are also great, but they kind of go downhill from there.  Stephen King is bad at endings.)  The Gunslinger has one of those memorable first sentences:  “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.”]

59. Too many approximations in the clues for this to be enjoyable.  Blogger mentions 10ac and 24ac, but 23ac is not a double definition as I read it as “knight’s armour” is a noun and the solution is an adjective.  There’s also nothing at 11ac to indicate the need for a homophone.  Not up to standard for The Guardian, frankly.

60. John Wells @42 – re MISERY: yes, it’s another lousy clue which I saw but failed to mention above.

61. BigNorm @59; you might not like it but Chambers gives see = C, so no need for a homophone indicator, I think.

62. BigNorm @59. I think we’ve had see=C (and you=U, and possibly are=R for that matter) without homophone indicators. They are text speak.

    And I think the question mark after ‘knight’s armour’ is an indication that it is an allusion rather than a definition. As an allusion, it seems to work perfectly.

63. Mick @43 – I may not be able to look today because I will be away from the computer for most of the day, but I could probably extract a list from my clues spreadsheet by foltering on clues labelled A. There must be many more from before 1999 that are only accessible by subscribing to newspaper archives (unless you are lucky enough to find the books).

64. sheffield hatter @62, personally, I don’t like the use of text speak without an indicator. The spelling of R is ar and for U it’s u! C seems to be spelled cee and see – and if it’s in Chambers, it’s OK with me.

65. BigNorm @60 & John Wells @42. Tend to agree that MISERY is not an &lit. Is it meant to be something that might be said by “a person who is constantly miserable or discontented”? It only really works as a clue in the context of the theme, which makes it unfair, I think.

66. [Sorry forgot to put brackets round my last comment].
    I found this one a little trickier than most recent Qaos puzzles – spotted some of the theme but I am not an expert and he has written a lot of books.

67. Thanks Qaos — I got the theme late in the puzzle — for some reason Stephen King’s quite familiar to me even though I’ve never read his books and I’ve only seen The Shining. Favourite clues were LEERY (hope the surface’s not a prophecy), DEAD, and SOVIET. Overall I found the surfaces smooth which always adds to my enjoyment. Thanks Loonapick for parsing — could not figure out OSCILLATES.

68. I did 28/29ths of this early this morning, but I’ve only just got APOSTILLE !

    Feeling rather smug at having narrowly avoided a DNF, so I’m prepared to forgive the MILES Davies clue.  PostMark @6’s suggestion would improve the cryptic grammar but would spoil the surface, as it’s generally a musician’s early work which promises that he/she will ‘go far’.  I like trishincharente @35’s solution, but the problem there is that I don’t think Ron Miles is well-known enough to be fair to most solvers.

    Unlike many commenters I take a perverse delight in spoonerisms which result in surreal juxtapositions.  The WHEELING SAX conjured up an exhilarating image… there I am, freewheeling gloriously downhill, wind in my hair, on my saxophone-cum-bicycle… rather in the manner of 007 and my favourite Bond girl escaping Czechoslovakia on their cello-mobile.

    Many thanks to Qaos (who thanks to yesyes @52 will now forever be ‘Cow’ in my head) and to loonapick.

69. Alas, a couple too many quibbles/grouses for me to fully enjoy this time. To each there own, as they say… if all the puzzles were just to one person’s taste it’d get boring right quick!

    Personally, don’t care for C/see, sans indicator, whatever Chambers/texters might say.

    Wasted minutes trying to extract a MISERY defn from the clue; seems it’s just allusive wordplay (unless we’re all missing something), so fails as a cryptic clue in my book. If only it’d been “second of wretchedness” not “bit of recreation”… but it wasn’t.

    Also wasted minutes on MILES, which seems a broken clue where defn should be “far” and the rest all wordplay but it didn’t pan out. PostMark’s first/last swap would be better, though it’d still be an odd construct.

    Initially wasn’t thrilled by CARRIED/passed, which don’t seem equivalent to me… but ages later thought of the procedural motion context, so maybe it’s ok. But still wonder if, in a strict technical sense the terms might not truly be equivalent there either?

    The rest seemed okay. Not a King fan (aside from a couple films), so the theme didn’t do anything for me… but seems many enjoyed it so that’s cool 🙂

    Tip of the hat to setter/blogger/commenters…

70. If you read MISERY as a person, as the clue suggests, I think the clue as definition just about works. If someone describes me as a bit of an old misery, it’s because of my fun-dampening qualities rather than my general unhappiness. [ Strange how some devices and words, like DEAD = very, appear twice in the same week. If I understood statistics, I might know what the odds were.]

71. I really don’t get some of the objections to Spoonerisms like this (if you just don’t like them, that’s fair enough). A Spoonerism is the transposition of sounds at the beginning of two words. They don’t have to form a well known phrase. So a clue based around two words and woo turds is perfectly acceptable even if I have little wish to see the latter attempted in a crossword….

72. Deegee @71. Your example is just as good as the original “shoving leopard” (whether or not it’s apocryphal), or today’s “wheeling sax”; perhaps Paul will pick it up. 😉

    My reason for disliking this sort of clue is that there is no wordplay to give a hint or a way in – as a solver I am totally reliant on being on the setter’s wavelength. (Tim Phillips @38 says it was among his first ones in; others, like me, couldn’t solve it at all.) Cryptic definitions are even worse, from my point of view, because the surface will try to look like it involves some sort of wordplay; at least with Spooner we know where we stand (usually).

73. I think some of the objections to the Spoonerism are down to the Auld Enemy, aka the regional pronunciation difference: as Pentman has explained earlier, a Spoonerism of WHEELING SAX just doesn’t result in SEALING WAX where he comes from. One of these days a Scot may set a crossword full of homophones that set all the Londoners’ teeth on edge…

74. Petert, thx re misery. That spurred me to consult Chambers/lexico, there finding the “miserable person” defn of misery… a Britishism quite lost on me (and no doubt some others) here in the US, thus explaining the various head scratching re both clue and lack of concern about it among others.

    With that defn I agree, the clue is much more reasonable (even if a challenge for us non-Brits). Now if only there were a comparable explication of MILES… Hmmm? Anyone?

75. Late to the party today due to having a not cancelled recording gig.  Whoo-hoo.  Shame the rest for the next four weeks are… cancelled.

    This was tough but good fun.  As ever, enjoyed the Spoonerism because I like Spoonerisms [1].   Technically a DNF as APOSTILLE left me behind.

    Missed the theme – I have a friend who insisted I watched “Misery” what feels like a dozen times over but never read any King.

    Thanks to Qaos and loonapick for the mental workout.

    [1 – for lovers of the art of Spoonerisms, R4 is repeating all of Count Arthur Strong’s Seasonal Specials every Friday at 11.30 am and a new 2020 special on the 25/12]

76. Re Spoonerisms, triggered by Deegee @ 71, 20-odd years ago, when my Finance Director, in the presence of our female external auditor, asked me if I could recommend somewhere to take her for a pub lunch, I unfortunately spoonerised the second phonemes of the Slurping Toad…

77. DeeGee @71

    You’re right, I don’t like Spooner clues in general. However if they do make sense both ways round, they can be quite funny. I don’t think “wheeling sax” quite makes it.

78. Thanks loonapick and Qaos.
    Missed the theme, enjoyable nevertheless.

    The puzzle itself has vanished from Gdn site as I post this!?!

79. I enjoyed the puzzle and spotted the theme this time, though I only recognised the SHINING, the RUNNING MAN and SALEM”S LOT as KING works.  Thanks, loonapick, for filling in the rest and for the recommendations from this author.  I will certainly try some of them.

    Not sure why MISERY is not too popular.  It works in my book, with the “I” in the clue referring to the misery (often called a misery guts when I was a kid) and the whole describing his attitude quite well.  I do tend to agree with the criticism of “to go” in the MILES clue.  How about “First bit from jazz musician – far out!”?  I also like trishincharente @35’s clever get out of jail card, although I haven’t personally heard of Ron Miles.

    Good fun.  Thanks, Qaos and loonapick, and all commenters for a lively discussion as usual.

80. Glad I finished it earlier because upon returning to read the comments section it (along with Friday’s) seems to have vanished.

81. I should learn to have patience, it’s back.

82. Sorry, trishincharente, missed your comment re MILES (was late to the party, and guess I scanned prior comments too quickly 🙁 ). Had not heard of Ron Miles (though there’s a Wikipedia page and everything), and like that parsing MUCH better, with the fact that everyone thinks of Mr. Davis just being misdirection. Searching on “jazz miles” yields practically all Davis links, but “jazz miles -davis” cuts the noise and Ron comes through… as does Jason Miles, a grammy winning musician/producer with a long career and many collaborations including… Miles Davis 🙂 .

    Ok, feeling far more equable re this puzzle now… sorry for seeing chaos amid the order, Qaos.

83. No problem OddOtter. It made sense of the parsing for me but then essexboy had a very good point in that Ron Miles is not well known. No one remarked on my other theme. Probably a non starter!

84. trishincharente: Certainly wouldn’t be the first time a more obscure person/word/fact turned out to be the right answer here! And the “official” parsing seems so problematic/inferior, I’m inclined to think yours (whether Ron or Jason) must be correct… it’s exactly the parsing I was trying to make work myself, but just couldn’t get there.

    Also, did like your mini theme re environment and climate change. If stretched a bit, it might even also include OSCILLATES, SHIFTS, SHINING, SYMBIOTIC, and (borrowing fr/the main theme) DEAD ZONE 🙂

85. OddOtter @74. Can I point out that ‘non-Brits’ includes a lot of people who are not Americans? Calling a person a misery, for example, is perfectly well known in Australia.

86. Since the theme answers are all adaptations of King novels/stories, does this count re 16ac?:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mangler_Reborn

87. [TassieTim: Sure… totally fair. Can be a challenge, finding proper terms, in fewest letters yet not over-/under-inclusive. Apologies if I offended; will aim for greater care, but also ask for understanding as I’m sure to miss the mark on occasion. Matters aren’t helped by blunt terms like Americanism/Britishism, nor by Chambers being presumedly British and Lexico splitting by US/UK (though was encouraged at its description of prorated as simply North American). No doubt places like Australia or New Zealand can easily feel marginalized. In this instance would non-UKers have been better? Or simply USers?]

88. Thanks to Loonapick and to Qaos. Having read Qaos’ blog today I was expecting a horror theme, and rapidly discovered the theme was my favourite author (and Loonapick’s too, it seems – neat!) I’d like to second The Stand as a suggestion for a lead-in to King’s writing, particularly in view of the current pandemic. I also thought The DEAD ZONE particularly apposite on US Election day – we can but hope Greg Stillson loses out !!

89. essexboy@68, thank you for the cello-mobile link. I keep track of movies with cellos in them*, but somehow missed that one. The scene is a hoot.

    I missed the theme of course, not being a Stephen King fan, but the puzzle was so well-constructed that finding the theme was not critical. Thanks to Qaos for the fun and loonapick for putting me out of my MISERY over APOSTILLE, my dnf.

    [ * some of the best include Truly Madly Deeply, Love in the Afternoon, Kolya, and Departures. And if you like the “big cello”, the classic is Some Like it Hot. ]

90. [for Mick Norman @43 – this list should include all of the alphabetical jigsaws that are still visible on the Guardian archive – obviously excluding all the ones before June 1999 so it is probably less than half of the total!:

    Araucaria jigsaws (all crosswords with a clue A):
    21825, 21903, 21963, 22225, 22273, 22387, 22529, 22601, 22845, 22929, 23053, 23269, 23370, 23598, 23681, 23717, 23789, 23897, 23945, 24141, 24201, 24243, 24307, 24331, 24433, 24475, 24505, 24695, 24725, 24933, 24975, 25071, 25125, 25262, 25484, 25580, 25748, 26047

    Araucaria with clue 1 but not across or down (some/all of these were jigsaws with more than 26 lights):
    21999, 22297, 22399, 22809, 22917, 23466, 23646, 24577

    Since Araucaria’s death, we have also seen these:

    Maskarade jigsaws:
    26035, 26346, 26537, 26759, 26914, 27076, 27172, 27286, 27471, 27800

    Jigsaws by other setters:
    Imogen: 26330
    Paul: 26495, 27226, 27346, 27866
    Philistine 27136, 27669
    Puck 26627

    There have also been some in the FT (for example Julius but almost certainly going back to Araucaria/Cinephile’s heyday), but their archive is less open]

91. [sorry – the list should also include Puck 27034]

92. [Beery Hiker @90 etc – thank you so much for taking the trouble to do this.  I’ll keep an eye out for the pre-1999 books as well.  Should keep me out of mischief for a while.  Not to mention the decorating!

    Your name suggests you’re missing those warming-down pints as much as I am!  Thanks again.]

93. [beery hiker – thanks for those crossword numbers. I’ve been having a go at 21999. Please see General Discussion for discussion.]

94. Late to the party as usual. Araucaria always a favourite, especially the jigsaws, so many thanks to Beery Hiker @90. Thanks also to qaos and loonapick for the crossword and blog. Also to various posters for Stephen king recommendations – read my first one earlier this year (the shining).

95. See #90 above for list of alphabeticals found by beery hiker.

    I have looked at these:

    Araucaria with clue 1 but not across or down (some/all of these were jigsaws with more than 26 lights):
    21999, 22297, 22399, 22809, 22917, 23466, 23646, 24577

    Only the two I have highlighted in bold have interactive grids (but the clues are not on the same page so may be easier to handle if printed). The others will require use of a printer, or some nifty work with graph paper and a crayon.

96. Yes, scousers do use “dead” for “very” and A for acting is common usage in the police forces I deal with, eg Acting Police Sergeant is A/PS

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