The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28390.
Another Qaos falls my way, happily enough. As usual, there is a theme, although this one a little outside my normal range, of X-Men (27A). I have highlighted some that I can identify in the grid (along with ‘Toad’ in the clue to 22A, and possibly Jean (Grey) in 19A). I suspect aficionados may be able to add a few more. Again, as general with Qaos’ themes, the puzzle stands up well even is the theme means nothing to you.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | BRATWURST |
Sausage and mash — was butter right substitute for energy? (9)
|
| An anagram (‘mash’) of ‘was butter’ with the E replaced by R (”right substitute for energy’). | ||
| 6 | PYROS |
Allegedly, food banks produce little fire starters (5)
|
| Sounds like (‘allegedly’) PIE (‘food’) ROWS (‘banks’). | ||
| 9 | AGGRO |
Bother with a horse, say, otherwise go back (5)
|
| A charade og A GG (‘a horse, say’) plus RO, a reversal (‘go back’) of OR (‘otherwise’). | ||
| 10 | STAPLE GUN |
Basic gluing regularly for a DIY tool? (6,3)
|
| A charade of STAPLE (‘basic’) plus GUN (‘GlUiNg’ regularly’). | ||
| 11 | TELEGRAPHS |
Sends reports of plot discovered in steelworks? (10)
|
| An envelope (‘discovered in’) of GRAPH (‘plot’) in TELES, an anagram (-‘works’) of ‘steel’-. | ||
| 12 | SERB |
Leaders suggest England’s ruled by a European (4)
|
| First letters (‘leaders’) of ‘Suggest England’s Ruled By’. | ||
| 14 | CYCLOPS |
Giant bikes require work to replace a bearing (7)
|
| CYCLES (‘bikes’) with E (‘a bearing’) removed for (‘to replace’) OP (‘work’). | ||
| 15 | PHOENIX |
Before first kiss, nervously phone fabulous bird (7)
|
| A charade of PHOEN, an anagram (‘nervously’) of ‘phone’ plus I (‘first’) plus X (‘kiss’). | ||
| 17 | COLONIC |
Type of irrigation: 99? (7)
|
| A charade of COLON (‘:’) plus IC (variant Roman numeral, ’99’; one of the more common non-canonical forms). | ||
| 19 | REVISES |
Jeans exchange hands — initially, elongated stripes become checks (7)
|
| A charade of REVIS, which is LEVIS (‘jeans’) with the L replaced by R (‘exchanging hands’); plus ES (‘initially Elongated Stripes‘). | ||
| 20 | TOSS |
Drunk knocked back small drink (4)
|
| A charade of TOS, a reversal (‘knocked back’) of SOT (‘drunk’) plus S (‘small’). | ||
| 22 | NATTERJACK |
Toad, rabbit and sea dog (10)
|
| A charade of NATTER (‘rabbit’) plus JACK (‘sea dog’). | ||
| 25 | PROPELLER |
For Penn and Teller, according to Carroll, it’s a driving mechanism (9)
|
| A charade of PRO (‘for’) plus PELLER, a portmanteau word, a construct ‘according to Carroll’ put in the mouth of Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking Glass, blending ‘Penn’ and ‘Teller’. | ||
| 26 | NIGHT |
Film-maker Shyamalan wants opening of movie to be darkness (5)
|
| Manoj Nelliyetty Shyamalan, generally known as M Night Shyamalan (‘film-maker’ best known for The Sixth Sense); M is ‘opening of Movie’) and NIGHT is the remainder. | ||
| 27 | AXMEN |
American guitarists have the last word over vote (5)
|
| An envelope (‘over’) of X (‘vote’) in AMEN (‘the last word’). | ||
| 28 | RHEOSTATS |
Electrical devices grill her toast on Sunday (9)
|
| An anagram (‘grill’) of ‘her toast’ plus S (‘Sunday’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BEAST |
Pound locks up special animal (5)
|
| An envelope (‘locks up’) of S (‘special’) in BEAT (‘pound’). | ||
| 2 | ANGELICAL |
A new setter, I state, is heavenly (9)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus N (‘new’) plus GEL (‘setter’ – not the dog, nor the crossword writer, but something which assumes a jelly-like consistency) plus ‘I’ plus CAL (California, ‘state’). | ||
| 3 | WRONGDOING |
Cryptically, God in sin? (10)
|
| Wordplay in the answer (‘cryptically’): ‘God in’ is an anagram (WRONG) of DOING. | ||
| 4 | RASCALS |
Racing cars like to carry 50 7s (7)
|
| A charade of RASC, an anagram (‘racing’?) of ‘cars’ plus ALS, an envelope (‘to carry’) of L (Roman numeral, ’50’) in AS (‘like’). | ||
| 5 | TEA SHOP |
Restaurant where Spooner’s woman to come first (3,4)
|
| A Spoonerism of SHE TOP (‘woman to come first’). | ||
| 6 | PALE |
Light beer after a drop of pilsner (4)
|
| A charade of P (‘a drop of Pilsner’) plus ALE (‘beer’). | ||
| 7 | ROGUE |
Scoundrel to attempt return, hiding in Paris street (5)
|
| An envelope (‘hiding in’) of OG, a reversal (‘return’) of GO (‘attempt’) in RUE (‘Paris street’). | ||
| 8 | SANDBOXES |
Rock bands love sex from behind in isolated environments (9)
|
| A charade of SANDB, an anagram (‘rock’) of ‘bands’ plus O (‘love’) plus XES (‘sex from behind’). | ||
| 13 | WOLVERINES |
I never slow cook animals (10)
|
| An anagram (‘cook’) of ‘I never slow’. | ||
| 14 | CACOTOPIA |
Approximately 1000 top best in revolt — it’s a really nasty place to be (9)
|
| A charade of CA (circa, ‘approximately’) plus C (Roman numeral, ‘100’-) plus O (-‘0’) plus ‘top’ plus IA, a reversal (‘in revolt’) of AI (A-1, ‘best’). | ||
| 16 | NOSTALGIA |
Longing for battle, lost again (9)
|
| An anagram (‘battle’) of ‘lost again’. | ||
| 18 | CRAWLER |
Sycophant in slow-moving vehicle (7)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 19 | RETIREE |
Umpire trading iron for titanium — now he no longer works (7)
|
| REFEREE (‘umpire’) with FE (chemical symbol, ‘iron’) replaced by (‘trading … for’) TI (‘titanium’). | ||
| 21 | STORM |
Most annoyed about a little bit of rainy weather (5)
|
| An envelope (‘about’) of R (‘a little bit of Rainy’) in STOM, an anagram (‘annoyed’) of ‘most’. | ||
| 23 | KITES |
Football clothing starts to excite strikers and wingers (5)
|
| A charade of KIT (‘football clothing’) lus ES (‘starts to Excite Strikers’), for the birds. | ||
| 24 | BERN |
Capital to be seen during October/November (4)
|
| A hidden answer (‘to be seen during’) in ‘OctoBER/November’. |
Fun puzzle. Did not spot the theme (I know zilch about X-Men).
Favourites: RETIREE, WRONGDOING, RASCALS, CACOTOPIA (new word for me).
* COLONIC is very clever – I see now that I had not parsed it apart from the IC bit.
Did not parse: PROPELLER apart from PRO = for.
Can someone explain 20ac to me. I had parsed it correctly (rev of S SOT) but did not understand why TOSS = drink.
Thank you, Q+P
The right hand side went in quickly but the left was a struggle for me — I had to reveal several clues — CACOTOPIA, TOSS, and WRONGDOING (great clue) just wouldn’t drop for me. I liked the surfaces for SANDBOXES and WOLVERINES and I thought COLONIC was clever in using punctuation as part of the wordplay. I also enjoyed PALE and RETIREE. ANGELIC was demonic in its twists. Thanks Qaos and to PeterO for the blog.
Michelle @1: To “toss one back” means to take a drink.
Tony @3
thanks
I never herd that phrase before.
whoops – I meant HEARD not herd
Like others before me, loved COLONIC.
To those who think you didn’t know CACOTOPIA – you did, or at least your subconscious did. You knew euphony and cacophony, so you knew eu- and caco- were Greek prefixes for good and bad, and you knew utopia (eutopia) meant a really nice place, so QED – or whatever that is in Greek.
Wondered vaguely about a theme (band called Pale Wolverines, maybe?), but nup, no idea about X-men. Good puzzle tho, with a couple of unknowns…cacotopia, wot?.. and natterjack the cool-sounding toad, and had no idea about parsing propeller. As I remember, the US musos I met in the ’60s were apt to call their instrument an ax[e], whatever it was (well, maybe not the drums). All good fun, ta P and Q.
I meant to add that there is a mini-theme, probably unintended, of clues where A is replaced by B. 4 of them in fact, and I find that seeing one helps me see others so the puzzle ended up being done quite quickly, despite not seeing the major theme. Well I saw a few of the theme words that looked related, but I don’t follow that genre.
…oh and the film-maker too was a nho…
For once, I spotted the theme right away. A combination of “Qaos always has a theme” and, first one in, “Rogue–X-men, maybe?”
I’m pretty sure the guy with wings is called ANGEL (2D). That’s the only other one I can spot, but then I never read the comic books, and I gave up on the movies several entries ago (not so much X-Men specifically but comic-book movies more generally–I outgrew them, I guess).
CACOTOPIA was a new word for me–it’s a sign of a good clue that I could work it out anyway.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
Whilst familiar with “toss one back”, I struggle with equating toss and drink directly. Also was unfamiliar with CACOTOPIA, these two were my LOIs. Spotted the theme post solve and do wonder if cacotopia could be included as the xmen world is dystopian. COLONIC and WRONGDOING my favs. Ta to Q and P
Certainly the quickest Qaos I’ve ever completed (even managed to post first on the G thread). I got the theme about halfway through with, BEAST, STORM and WOLVERINE giving me the lightbulb moment, along with a nice glass of Paddy whiskey 🙂 I’m not big on the Marvel comics so google helped me turn up BRAT (dark satire on Superhero sidekicks apparently), ANGEL, PYRO, KITE(MAN) and JACK JACK.
This was great fun with some fabulous clues. Favourites were BRATWURST, NIGHT, COLONIC and the ‘marvellous’ SANDBOXES, which was a new word for me. I thought this was a real triumph
Ta Qaos & PeterO
It seems that Pyro and Box are also X-men.
I guessed what the theme must be from WOLVERINE, but beyond that my knowledge of the theme was non-existent, but tgat was no obstacle to solving. Did struggle a little with PYROS which was last in. Pleased to deduce the existence of CACOTOPIA but I have never heard the word used. A little trickier than Qaos normally is.
Thanks to Q & PO
I had PARKS originally for 6a (something to do with taking the S off SPARKS which start fires…) Wrong, anyway, and rows=banks doesn’t work for me. I did eventually spot PYRO (actually a villain rather than an X-man, but in the right lot of comics).
Liked COLONIC, NATTERJACK, REVISES, WRONGDOING. I worked out that 14d was something-TOPIA but never met that one before.
I think I have seen the “Carroll” thing described once before and knew it was some device like a Spoonerism, but couldn’t remember exactly what.
PS: did not know SANDBOXES were ‘isolated environments’.
Penny didn’t drop on theme until AXMEN but then it helped with PYROS and BEAST which I was making stupidly heavy weather of. Not a theme I know well so I figured a bit of xmen googling was allowed. Thanks PeterO for parsing of PROPELLER. Liked WRONgDOING which was LOi and CACOTOPIA which I now plan to never forget! Thanks Qaos.
Gladys @17. Isolated in that there is a boundary. Firstly in the playground version where sandboxes have edges but also in the programming sense of a place to try out new programs separate from existing programs and/or actual users.
gladys, maybe this helps
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/row
Like michelle @1, the X-Men flew straight over my head. I wasn’t keen on AXMEN either, but I did like COLONIC, WRONGDOING and SANDBOXES.
My reaction to CACOTOPIA, like gif @7, was wot! I looked it up. It seems to be another name for Mansfield. Anyway, like mrpenney @10, I’d worked it out, so fair enough.
I would have said that a TEA SHOP sells loose tea and tea bags, whereas tea rooms or teahouses serve grub, but I dare say the dictionary would prove me wrong.
I think I’ll listen to PHOENIX, a classic tune from Wishbone Ash and their twin axemen.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
Am I the only one who saw PHOENIX and NIGHT and went looking for a Peter Kay theme? 🙂
Theme notwithstanding, I thought this was a strong puzzle from Qaos, with BRATWURST, COLONIC and ANGELIC particular favourites. Nice to see the Carrollism get a run-out after it was discussed by AOC in the Guardian blog a few months ago.
Thanks Peter and Qaos.
Thanks PeterO and Qaos.
Managed to complete, but no theme for me, either. Is PELLER a word, or just a construct of a few letters for the clue?
[Dr Whatson@6 ?????????????. I am sure Eileen will correct me, and it’s probably not ancient]
oops ????????????? apodeiknýetai – couldn’t manage the Greek letters
I was on Qaos’s wavelength this morning and it was a bit of a write-in, but some good clues as others have observed. Hadn’t clocked portmanteau words so PROPELLER was a bit of a mystery. I liked BRATWURST, PYROS and CACOTOPIA. Many thanks to Q & P.
Got through this without finding the theme – being Qaos, I was regularly looking form the start to finish. Managed to parse it all too. Thanks, Qaos and PeterO.
Dr Whatson @6 Thanks for the explanation of CACOTOPIA. Works perfectly for me, for a word I thought I didn’t know!
As an aside, I wonder why we dropped the E from utopia, but not euphony. Is it Thomas More’s fault?
[Dr W/ Dave E: according to this it’s ΟΕΔ]
Boffo @21: yes I was looking for Peter Kay as well 🙂
I thought this was a real mixture. Some of the clues were straightforward while others included things or meanings or descriptions I hadn’t heard of – so I *got* quite a few from crossers/guesses without knowing why.
On that, could someone please explain why E = a bearing
Favourites include: RASCALS, ANGELICAL. Also like the word CACOTOPIA (new word for me which I will try to use at some point)
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
Boffo@21 – you weren’t alone. I was wondering how “garlic bread” could be fitted into the grid.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
Fiona Anne @29: I took it to mean east
Missed (and did not know) the theme – still none-the-wiser quite honestly after extensive Google trawl – but completed this rather quickly this morning.
Usually I love a good Spoonerism but this one? Hmm – no quite.
For those not inovlved in the bizarre and constantly-word-misappropriating world of software development, just last night I was discussing how we were going to “Stand up a sandbox;” in English, build a an isolated system purely for test and development such that changes we make remain within that system rather than polluting the real thing although my mind had gone to tipping a child’s plaything up and watching the sand dribble out… There is an entire lexicon of gobbledygook out there, my current favourites being the use of the software systems, git (because I am old one) and Subversion (because I have a dirty mind).
Thanks to Qaos for a super-speedy but fun puzzle and PeterO for the blog!
A little bit grumpy this morning after a bright start. Zipped through it pleasingly and came to a grinding halt on pyros, toss and cacotopia.
I may have got the last if I had got toss. But I don’t think it is a synonym for drink so I would never have chosen it. You toss back a drink, you don’t toss it. However I now can get on with my day.
This was fun, except that I know nothing about X-men, so the theme was way over my head.
I failed only on ‘cacotopia’ – which is new to me – guessing “cacktopia’ on the basis that ‘k’ can represent a thousand. When I think about it, I do think that ‘cacktopia’ ought to be a word, – perhaps to describe society in long term lockdown.
The computer jargon meaning of ‘sandboxes’ was another unknown to me, and if I ever knew ‘peller’ from Lewis Carroll, I had forgotten it.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
TC@33; yes – to toss can be to drink – though it is usually to toss off (now, now – don’t go there) and drunks can get called tosspots…
I also found this a relatively rapid solve and didn’t spot the theme. My favourites have been mentioned by most people already and I failed to parse PYROS (I should have said it out loud), PROPELLER (I’ve never come across this device before) and the CO part of CACOTOPIA (which I should have seen). Thanks to Qaos for a fun puzzle (with a contemporary theme as a bonus) and PeterO for the blog and parsing help.
A lovely start to the day. Thanks Qaos and PeterO for explaining a few. 8d could only be Sandboxes but I had never heard of it as an IT term.
Think I’ll toss another coffee before getting down to work. (Nope, it doesn’t work does it!)
Like AlanC @12 this was my fastest Qaos. I always love clues that use punctuation like COLONIC. Didn’t know AXMEN or CACOTOPIA but they came from the wordplay. Loved the surface for SANDBOXES.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
Relieved to find that my initial guess for 20 ac which involved S (small) and SIP (drink) was wrong.
I believe that the u in utopia is not the Greek eu (as in euphony) meaning good but the Greek ou meaning not: so the imagined state was not ideal but non-existent. So both dystopia and cacotopia (should be kakotopia?) are misconceived.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
The NW was much slower than the rest, though PYROS was LOI. The theme means nothing to me even now.
Several quibbles. You can check something without revising it, if it doesn’t need revising. IC isn’t, and never has been, 99 (except in crosswords the rule in these subtractive Roman numerals is that the subtractor must be at least 1/10 of the number it’s subtracted from, hence 99 is XCIX). “Battle” is a loose anagram indicator.
DNKs as well – the film producer, CACOTOPIA,
Favourite RETIREE.
George Clements @34 – “Kakistocracy” (whether you transliterate from Greek with a c or a k is pretty much a matter of chance) is defined, according to Wikipedia, as “a system of government that is run by the worst, least qualified, and/or most unscrupulous citizens”. I shall refrain from the obvious comment.
Not convinced by TOSS.
Mildly annoyed with myself for not getting PYROS.
Couldn’t parse PROPELLER, and missed the theme entirely. But there was some nice stuff in here, starting with the very neatly constructed 1A.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
As others have said, a strong puzzle with our without the theme which went, and continues to go over my head.
TOSS has crept into our language with tosspot, a habitual drinker, but which has morphed somewhat into a more general term for a pillock.
Needed your excellent blog to understand PROPELLER Peter O.
Many thanks, both.
TC @33 TOSS=DRINK is in Chambers (14)
[MB @32 that stand up in a sandbox could confuse the scrum teams!]
I’m surprised at how many people enjoyed COLONIC IRRIGATION – each to their own 🙂
pnin @39 – you are right that ‘utopia’ means no-place or nowhere (cf Samuel Butler’s Erewhon), rather than good place.
Neil @41: Love your kakistocracy… such a useful word for the times in which we live.
I was hoping that by now someone would have said how a TEA SHOP is a restaurant. But, almost total acceptance of it.
i guess anything passes as a restaurant these days, including pubs selling food.
CynicCure @ 26 yes, Thomas More is responsible for the lack an an E at the start of utopia. It was a deliberate and playful ambiguity on his part. He wanted to coin a word that to English ears sounded like “eu-topia” (which would have effectively meant good place) but which actually connoted “ou-topia” (no place, a fictitious realm).
Pnin @39 –
Irrelevant piece of information for the day – There is an unpleasant chemical compound called cacodyl. Bunsen, he of the Burner, did research into the chemistry of cacodyl. Among its many other unpleasant characteristics, it is spontaneously explosive. He lost the sight in his right eye as a result. Wikipedia states that Bunsen originally used the spelling kakodyl – whether the transliteration from the Greek is cac- or kak- seems to be pretty much a matter of chance.
Well done Peter, cleared up a few mysteries for me.
I never new spoonerisms switched more that one letter until now. SH and T in She Top.
20a had me going for ages becaise I was sure it was SIP (not sot) but was dubious of it being allowed.
Many thanks, I found this one hard, but at least I had no reveals which amazes me tbh.
[TB @35, he meets her on narrow bridge…whether to block blank blank or toss dash dash]
Thank you PeterO: Xmen are beyond my ken. I like the new layout of the page: much clearer and more inviting. And thank you AlanC for sandbox reference.
Grantinfreo@50. Eeeh! That naughty Max Miller. Pedro@46 – I agree, a tea-shop is hardly a restaurant but this is not a hill to die on. I found today’s crossword relatively easy but took a while to get 6c having struggled for too long to explain and shoehorn in “pyres”. I think “peller” at 25c is an example of a portmanteau word and not directly attributable to Lewis Carroll. X-men mean nothing to me (vaguely heard of the movie – is it?) so although I knew there had to be a theme I could not spot it. Thanks PeterO for illustrating that and to the setter, of course.
Thank you PeterO, I couldn’t parse PYROS and had not appreciated the full subtlety of WRONGDOING, and thanks for the elaboration on Cacotopia everyone (took me a long time but agree well clued in the Qaotic manner).
Aligned with mutterings on Tea Shop, Toss and IC=99 (shame as otherwise very neat clue) but all fairly minor.
The Carrollian portmanteau is discussed in this Guardian column:
https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2020/feb/24/crossword-blog-crossword-council-1-the-carrollism
(apologies if link fails as it did yesterday) and nicely done here I think, but my favourite (a staple part of our family diet) is the humble BRATWURST, thanks Qaos.
[bodycheetah @43: Oh – you’re going all Agile on me now, are you?! We stick to the whole “methodology” with Agile Dojos. But then again, we’ve also done Kanban and Waterfall in the past.
I used to work for NatWest IT “back-in-the-day” (mostly trading systems at CountyNatWest and high value Central Banking) and we were heavily influenced by the late-80s IBM project methods. One thing we set up was called JAD – Joint Application Developement; two-days off-site with a neutral moderator where anyone who was “interested” in the project would come to try to make sure that all aspects were covered. Loads of whiteboards, pieces of paper stuck on the walls, very 80s free/open/speak-your-mind. Much swearing.
JADs were good events to go to – we held them in the residential training centre, a listed pile somewhere near Oxford with excellent food and plenty of wine.
JADs became universally known as “Just Another Day-out.”]
I wasn’t sure whether to replace E with R or vice versa for 1a, and ended up with WASTETUBE as a parsable option!
Found this hard with many reveals. Theme wouldn’t have helped even if I’d seen it! Some of the devices etc. we’re new to me as a new solver, e.g. Carroll thingie.
I just wanted to say how much I appreciate the chat and illuminating comments that occur in here. It’s rapidly becoming my go to place to learn stuff of relevance, and irrelevance. Thank you all.
I don’t understand the qualms about TEA SHOP. In the UK, it’s a restaurant that serves teas. Almost every time we have ‘the old’ as wordplay for YE in a crossword, someone cites the ubiquitous Ye Olde Tea Shoppe.
Many thanks to Qaos (not least for proving again that it’s possible to enjoy a puzzle without having a clue about its theme) and to Duncan for the blog.
I had PHOENIX and CYCLOPS and then went searching for more mythical animals, but this proved to be a chimera. I then assumed that the theme involved American sporting teams. I lied WRONGDOING but I find this kind of clue very hard to solve from the wordplay.
And, following Eileen @57, Chambers has for ‘tea shop’: 2. A restaurant in which teas are served.
Good crossword, although I didn’t spot the theme, even though it did have WOLVERINE. I saw CYCLOPS and PHOENIX and assumed it was a classical thingy. LOI was PYROS, where I should have noticed the ‘allegedly’ as a homophone indicator – I think maybe I did but it still took a while for the PDM. As it was Qaos, I was alert to the 100 0 trick but I thought at the beginning it was the start of the word, doh!
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
Found this tricky in places, needed Peter O’s help with explaining COLONIC, SANDBOXES, and especially PYROS. Always glad of my dimly remembered General Science O Level days for words like RHEOSTATS. KITES flew in last of all. When I visited Devil’s Bridge, Wales in the mid 1970’s I believe there were only 14 pairs left then, they’ve since recovered in numbers…
Petert @58; you lied, and that indeed was a WRONGDOING.
PS, I thought the SANDBOX was a place where you put explosives to isolate them; I have never heard of the IT connotation.
…the Red Kite, I should add…
[Ronald @60: Always glad of my dimly remembered General Science O Level days for words like RHEOSTATS.
I knew that pun had the potentiometer to come up…]
muffin@40: I, too, bridled somewhat at REVISE=’check’ — but then the semantics of ‘re-‘ (again) and ‘-vise’ (look at, vision) led me to accept that to revise something has a core meaning of “looking again” at it. The notion that revision entails making changes is perhaps just a recent drift in meaning.
Plenty of Qaotic amusement to be had here. WOLVERINE alerted me to the theme, but as I’m not au fait with X-Men it didn’t help me, thoughthat didn’t matter.
Qaos’s alphanumeric and orthographic clues are always fun – I enjoyed COLONIC and CACOTOPIA (which I’ve never come across, but I have enough Greek to realise what it had to be).
SANDBOXES held out a long time – I didn’t know the IT usage.
I’m surprised there’s so much muttering about TEASHOP, which is an expression I thought was very familiar. Perhaps it’s rather old fashioned? Certainly establishments so named pop up regularly in such things as Golden Age detective novels. If I had a microquibble it would be the description of a café as a restaurant!
IC=99: doesn’t the setter’s addition of the question mark absolve them of any requirement to be technically correct here?
[Robi@61 Under our current kakistocracy a lie is only a peccadillo]
Gervase @66: The only concern I had about TEA SHOP was cream first or jam first… Plenty of Sussex Cream Tea Shops round these parts and most of them will quite happily substitute a glass of bubbly for the tea…
Eileen @57 – Ye Olde Cake Shoppe is all very well, but in Wymondham, Norfolk, there is an establishment selling electronic cigarettes called, and I kid you not, Ye Olde Vape Shoppe.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
To add to the check/revise debate, in a pre-examination context, revising is checking the work you’ve done to ensure that you’ve retained it, with no suggestion of alteration.
Simon S @71
Yes, that is the sense of “looking at it again”. I don’t know why I thought that revising work always meant changing it.
Thanks, NeilH @70. 😉
Canberra Girl @18: Thanks for the explanation of SANDBOXES: I thought there must be another meaning apart from the playground one, but despite spending twenty years writing and testing programs I have never met that word as shorthand for a familiar idea.
Tea shops: not sure I would describe them as restaurants exactly, but a rather old fashioned establishment serving cakes, snacks and sandwiches rather than full cooked meals (and tea, of course). In my youth every High Street had its branch of Lyons or the ABC, and they were certainly known as teashops.
Interesting views on TEA SHOP (including the bizarre dictionary definitions offered)
So, is a coffee shop also a restaurant?
I think my lady would be somewhat miffed if i promised to take her to a restaurant for her birthday and then took her to a tea shop or even a cafe.
Beat me to it, gladys @75, remembering Lyons – though I’d forgotten ABC. So no pause for thought for me at 5d.
Not so with PYROS. Had to get Mrs T to check, again, it just about worked as a def (but did it need ‘little?) but the wordplay passed me by. As did the theme. After a couple of Xs, a J and a V, I did start wondering about a pangram though.
Given the eclectic tastes of Qaos, I wonder if this started by going in different direction; PROPELLER and SANDBOX are albums by a band from Ohio, Guided by Voices, who have links to the film industry, but I couldn’t get any further with this.
Well done and thank you Qaos and Peter O.
Power-grabbing Irish PM (allegedly) leaves church for drinking den? (3, 4)
Nice to see il principe back @78.
Many thanks Q & P
Komornik @51
Your points are related: before the new site layout was released, Gaufrid put it up in a sandbox (a usage I had not come across before) for bloggers’ comments.
muffin @40
Re subtractive Roman numerals: the very least you could do would be to quote your rule in Latin (with attribution, of course).
:PeterO @80
It’s here – sorry, not in Latin!
Maybe the sandbox is a recent bit of jargon: I tested my last program in the early 1990s.
[glayds @82: First time I heard the term was about 2010 when I was in Silicon Valley so I suspect it is last 20 years? Before that we had “Live,” “Dev” and “Dev Test” systems…]
muffin @81
What a fascinating site! Why, it even includes a page on Droids from a Galaxy Far Far Away.
The clue for SANDBOXES works fine without knowing the IT use of the term. And I solved NIGHT entirely from the crossers and definition – everyone else seems to be totally familiar with Shyamalan.
I thought very briefly of X-Men after solving WOLVERINES, but I’ve only vaguely heard of a couple of the others, and so failed to solve PYROS. Highlight for me was solving COLONIC and thinking “muffin will be blowing his top about this one”, and so it came to pass.
Interesting to see Lewis Carroll making an appearance. Thanks to Gazzh @53 for the link to the discussion on the use of portmanteau words in clues. Just for once I solved the Spoonerism without any tearing of hair or gnashing of teeth, so congratulations to Qaos for a well written clue.
muffin@80: plenty Latin there though in fairness….
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
I guess it’s just a style thing, but I didn’t enjoy trudging through this puzzle – too many shortcuts (“a drop of pilsner”=”p”, “a little bit of rainy”=”r”, “special”=”s” (anybody?)), watery anagrinds (“battle”, “nervously”, “grill”) and double-phase clues where we are required to solve one clue and then modify it to get the answer (CYCLOPS, RETIREE). But I got there in the end.
I’m no prude but I thought the graphic surface for SANDBOXES was near the knuckle for polite company.
Alphalpha @ 86
S = Special occurs in eg Special Branch being abbreviated to SB.
To add extra fun, I’ve been imagining what the new X-Men Qaos has invented could be like:
– RETIREE – a grouchy old man with a flaming walking stick?
– BRATWURST – shoots sausages and mustard out of his fingers
Cormac @88. Good idea! STAPLEGUN and RHEOSTATS would have some interesting superpowers, and NOSTALGIA would render enemies helpless with never-ending tales of what things were like when he was a lad.
Another fun puzzle from Qaos, and I’m finally remembering to look out for themes. Good to have another contemporary one. I was defeated by Cacotopia, as it seems many were. I’m only aware of dystopia. And the Euphony/Cacophany parallel mentioned early on was lost on me because I don’t seem to have Euphony in my lexicon either (although thinking about it I do know Euphonium, but then that sets up the idea of a Cacophonium, which I rather like – and a quick google reveals that unsurprisingly it seems to exist (most commonly as an item in a Minecraft mod, which pleases me further – videogamers tend to have huge reserves of obscure knowledge)). Regardless, I’d still have “dys” as the opposite of “eu” (I tend to use quite a lot of dysphemism when I communicate – a lovely word I had to look up when I became aware I was doing it).
Alphalpha @86 S is also special in SAS, which I’m pretty sure everyone is familiar with.
SH @89: given that the main X-men villain is Magneto, RHEOSTAT’S special skills might come in terribly handy.
(By the way–to whoever it is who said they think they’ve heard of the movie: there have been about a dozen.)
Simon S @87: ah the NOSTALGIA for this RETIREE for my old firm…
SH@89 I fear NOSTALGIA has already gone over to the dark side and is working for the Tories
Excellent puzzle with a lot of very clever surfaces and some nice wordplay; it was great to see CACOTOPIA fall into place bit by bit. DNF because of natterjack (never heard of that). Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
A quibble, though: This is the second puzzle where I’ve seen “axman/axmen” defined as “American guitarist/s” and it’s not especially American! I usually see people call a guitar an “axe” and the only “axman” I can find that has to do with guitars is a UK company.
matt w @95: I think it’s the American spelling of AX that is referenced in this clue. In British English it would be AXE, hence AXEMAN. (Though the UK company you link to seems to be an exception that proves the rule! Perhaps an example of reverse colonisation.)
matt w @95. American because of the spelling of ax – no final e.
This was an X-Word hahahahahaha
How does “a horse, say” = A GG? What is a GG?
Daniel @99: Very common nickname for horses:
“Henry Gee died in 1545, but his name is remembered in the running of the Henry Gee Stakes for three-year-old maidens at the July meeting, and possibly also in the old, but still commonly-used, English nickname for racehorses: Gee-Gees. This definition of gee-gee says it is a UK child’s word for horse.”
Young children are taught that horse are gee-gees , no idea why.
Afternoon all! Many thanks for all the comments and to PeterO for the detailed blog.
I have Alan Connor and Peter Moore Fuller to thank for the “Carrollism” in 25 ac (see here). It’s always nice to include a new wordplay device and I wasn’t sure how this one would go down (especially since here it’s a partial device and not for the full word). I don’t think it lends itself to the same level of humour that Spoonerisms can produce, but I’ll definitely try it again sometime.
Best wishes,
Qaos.
Thank you Qaos, lovely crossword even though I missed the theme completely . I did wonder why you used a word like pyros and now I know.
You kept me up way beyond my bedtime but I’ve already been effusive enough! Thanks again Qaos for the fun
You should be more patient AlanC. I get the paper on my way out in the morning and do not look at the crossword until I am on my way home.
[I haven’t read a paper in about 5 years Roz]
Just ran aground in the SW corner, mainly because I missed the ‘bearing’ in 14a ,14d was a new word for me which I could not parse and I did not understand 25a.
Apart from that, very enjoyable.
Thanks both.
This time I don’t reproach myself at all for not spotting the theme, which I did look for. My ignorance of the x-men is encyclopedic. Come to think of it, Qaos’s themes are often things I’ve never heard of.
PELLER as a portmanteau is bit stretched. I did figure it out, but really … For Dave @22 and George @34, it’s an example of a portmanteau, or combination of two words, named as such by Humpty Dumpty in Alice’s Adventures through the Looking Glass. Modern examples are brunch and blog. Carroll couldn’t have coined this particular portmanteau since neither Penn nor Teller had been born in his time.
2d Something that sets becomes solid, but not necessarily jelly-like — concrete sets too.
Eileen@57 Who’s Duncan?
SH@ 96 and Roman @97. Ax is not the spelling of axe for this American. I rarely see it.
Thanks, Qaos and Peter O.
Valentine@108 Thanks for the explanation, but I am already very familiar with portmanteau words and I did see what Qaos was doing as I solved the clue; however, I was querying the word bit: I don’t think PELLER is a word, just a collection of letters. I am delighted to see Qaos introducing a new idea into the armament of crossword setters, but I do think it ought to make a word (just as spoonerisms should really yield a meaningful phrase: Butterflies flutter by if fine, but not moths clump by).
[do we no longer have a preview facility for checking our contributions before submitting them?]
In the course of googling cacophony I found this little fella:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cacomistle
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO. Guessed the theme when I entered WOLVERINE, and a quick Google confirmed PYRO was one of the X-Men too. My son is a fan of the X-Men films, so the other themed answers soon came along. Had to look up CACOTOPIA, never heard of that before although I did manage to work out TOSS.
MaidenBartok@54 – “A listed pile somewhere near Oxford” – Heythrop Park ? Never actually got to go therein my NatWest days, sadly !
Valentine @108 – I got confused with the Indy puzzle, where the blogger was Duncan.
My apologies to him, PeterO and you.
Dave @109 Surely most portmanteau words aren’t words until somebody combines them — mimsy and brunch f’rinstance?
Good point, Valentine@113. But I don’t think PELLER is a word, nor ever likely to be, unless we prolong this discussion and OED feel obliged to enter it as one; what would it mean, any way?
Dave E @114: it would be a ‘supercouple’ descriptor (see here) like Bennifer and Brangelina, or Desilu if we go back a few generations. There was also Thanksgivukkah (when Thanksgiving and Hannukah coincided). I like the NY Times crossword quote: ‘How I wish Natalie Portman dated Jacques Cousteau, so I could call them Portmanteau’.
Apologies, Hanukkah
[John B @43: I was struggling to remember the name of the place but yes, Heythrop Park which I see is now a luxury hotel. It was quite an experience – how on earth we got anything done I shall never know; because it was a private venue, the bar was open 24/7 which meant that when we were chucked out of the pubs in the nearby villages we could just carry on. Did 5 JADS there over my 5 years.
Some bright spark decided that as we were based in the City, we should really have a centre closer so they found a decidedly nasty office on one of the then-being-converted docks near what was to become Canary Wharf. It was a building site, the food sarnies from the local Co-op and we were expected to work. JADs fell quickly out of fashion…]
Dave Ellison @109
I think that the criticism that PELLER is no a recognized word is misplaced. The particles which make up an answer may be words in their own right (eg NATTER, JACK in 22A) but very often are not (PHOEN in 15A, REVIS in 19A and so on);; it is sufficient that they be produced by manipulation well-defined in the clue, which I think is the case here.
I didn’t do this puzzle, but came to see the reaction to the so-called ‘Carrollism’ in “Penn and Teller, according to Carroll”, the use of which here I was tipped off about. I didn’t like this when it was first proposed by Peter Moore Fuller in a cluing competition entry on the Guardian crossword blog (see my comments on the blog linked by Qaos) and I think the example in this puzzle is particularly bad for the reason mentioned by Qaos himself. Comparisons to Spoonerism clues are spurious in my opinion. A lot of people here seem to have limply accepted it as ‘something which can be used in cryptic crosswords’, without giving a thought to the actual meanings of the words in the clue. Let’s hope no other setter is prepared to accept this new dog whistle is ‘a thing’. It’s not, and I seriously doubt anyone would have worked out that the letter sequence PELLER was being indicated if they hadn’t previously read about ‘Carrollisms’ on the Guardian or been told about them. (Peter O?). Reading the (admirable) Guardian crossword blog should not be a necessary condition for being able to solve crosswords, even the Guardian’s.
SImon S @87 and Mark N @91
It’s not generally considered fair to extract single words from commonly abbreviated phrases. Otherwise, using your own examples, we would also have to be alive to the possibility of branch = B, air = A and service =S as well as hundreds , if not thousands of other words which are part of abbreviations for various organisations. The standard abbreviation for special is ‘sp.’ and you can find special for SP in many crosswords, I think.
Tony Collman @119: I hadn’t heard about Carollisms before, but realised what was intended. And I also enjoyed the device (probably precisely because I figured it out). I certainly didn’t “limply accept it” (and I’d appreciate not being told what or how I think in future, thanks).
MarkN @120. I’m with you on this one. It was clear to me what the setter was getting at and it helped me to solve the clue. What is wrong with that. I see there’s another unusual indicator in today’s (“says Violet Elizabeth” in 6d) so I’m looking forward to seeing what people have made of that. I enjoyed reading the discussion on Carrollisms linked to in earlier comments @53 and again @102, and saw quite a few comments from Tony Collman, as well as the setter Boatman. I think Qaos has introduced this in a way that should be acceptable; maybe Boatman will be pushing the boat out too?
Where else would you go to eat your tea? (Lights blue touch paper and stands back from a north-south divide….)
I’ve just dropped back in. I’m surprised by the objections to “Peller”. How is it different from “Brangelina”, for example?
Tony Collman @119
I had neither seen nor heard about the Guardian piece on Carrollisms; however, I did know enough of Through the looking glass to recognize the use of a portmanteau word in this clue.
I congratulate those who worked out the “Carrollism” without having had them explained as I had. I don’t know that I would have worked it out. I still don’t think it’s good, even though I was clearly wrong to suggest people wouldn’t have been able to work it out without prior knowledge.
There are other devices used by Qaos (and some others) I similarly disapprove. E.g , in 12ac, SERB, just saying “leaders” before a string of words doesn’t, to my mind, constitute an instruction to take the leading letters of those words in the way that ‘leaders of’ would. That doesn’t mean I’m not able to guess that that’s what the setter wants, in the same way that a dog knows that whistle means ‘come’, even though there is no such semantic element to the piping.
I haven’t told MarkN@20 what he, or anybody else thinks, only what I think. I have inferred acceptance from non-objection, although “limply” was a bit judgemental and probably a bit impolite, for which I apologise.
SH@121 I think that’s the sort of reference to an embargoed puzzle which the rules were made to prevent, so I won’t comment.
muffin@123, there is a clear difference between PELLER and Brangelina. The latter is a known term, popularised by newspapers for that couple. If the papers had started referring to Penn and Teller as Peller, it would be more acceptable.
Sh@121, I may have misunderstood what you were talking about with Violet Elizabeth as I see no such reference in 6d of today’s Prize, set by Paul (Sat 13 Mar 2021 00.00 GMT). Maybe a different paper?
Tony Collman @126
Take another look at sheffield hatter @121; you might see that it was dated March 12, and referred to the Guardian Nutmeg of that day.
Peter, yes, I see. I read it the next day though, and didn’t notice the date or think about the fact it could have been written the previous day. For me “today” was Sat 13th and I hadn’t seen either Friday’s or Saturday’s puzzle. I only do the Saturday puzzle, so I still haven’t seen Nutmeg’s Violet Elizabeth clue, but I assume it plays on the lisp of the Just William character, something which is not really different from regional homophones, like Tramp’s suggestion once that when Noddy Holder says “cup of tea”, it sounds like ‘kipper tie’. That’s very different, in my view, to suggesting that Lewis Carroll would write ‘peller’ for ‘Penn and Teller’.
@128 Why can’t you show any respect to House rules? I haven’t yet attempted that puzzle. Very bad form of you.
Peter O – PENNER was possibly my favourite precisely because I, like you, derived it from first principles without prior notification. First class blog btw (exactly as I’d have blogged it) for an enjoyable – though straightforward – puzzle with PYROS the only one to give pause. I’m not fond of the ‘pick any word from a well-known abbreviation and I’ll justify my initial clueing thus’ as it generates silly possibilities, like C for corporation (BBC)!
A ten minute solve but an hour to savour 15² – so much more of a commitment than previous years and I fear my visits here may soon evaporate. I find it so difficult to visit unless I read all the comments in case of some uplifting nugget but I’m not sure whether the time involved necessarily justifies the reward. However, as soon as I’ve read through one turgid stream of more than a hundred mostly awful disappointingly repetitive, and vacuous, comments than the next puzzle’s stream is alive with wit and interesting relevancies!
Moan over. I’ve a dozen or so Guardians saved for weekend enjoyment (more than usual) and perhaps I should try a little 15² cold turkey – if only to avoid thoughtless spoilers!
Thanks, PeterO, for allowing me the space to offload. I doubt anyone will read this (save you, Gaufrid and Qaos; though I would like Mr Collman to see it!) but I feel better for it.
And Qaos – many thanks. Yet another joyful solve – I’m always genuinely pleased to see your name.
William @129, rejoice! I’ve seen your comment! Presumably, though, it’s sheffield hatter@121, writing ‘I see there’s another unusual indicator in today’s (“says Violet Elizabeth” in 6d)‘ whom you really want to admonish for referring to a different puzzle? I myself mistakenly chastised him @122, thinking he was spilling the beans about the Prize puzzle from the next day, but PeterO@127 pointed out that he was referring to the puzzle from the day before my comment, for which the solution and blog were already published, even though I hadn’t seen them. Site policy is “3. Comments added to posts about a specific puzzle should, for the most part, be relevant to the puzzle under discussion.” (My emphasis). Why don’t you do the puzzles and then read the blog for them in the order they come?
William @129, btw, looking more carefully, I see I wrote @125 “SH@121 I think that’s the sort of reference to an embargoed puzzle which the rules were made to prevent, so I won’t comment.” That was before I had seen the day’s Prize puzzle and realized my mistake and was a reference not to point 3, of the Site Policy, but point 4:
“Prize puzzles should not be discussed, or commented on in detail, until the appropriate post has been published after the closing date for entries.”
Of course, your (unjustified) complaints about my comments are also potentially in breach of point 3. and should probably have been made at General Discussion.
Alphalpha @86 – “Special” = “s” (anybody?)
I suppose Chambers counts as anybody.
S or S. abbrev
1. Sabbath 2. Saint 3. Schilling 4. Society 5 Soprano (music) 6. South 7. Southern 8. Spades (cards) 9. Special
I don’t think Chambers backs up A = Air or B = branch or S = service in the same way, Tony @119.
It is certainly creeping into use in crosswords – I’ve used it – and seems to me to be every bit as fair as, say, sailor = ab. In that it is equally as explicable to a novice.
RebornBeginner @49 – one of the Spoonerisms attributed to Spooner himself – although probably apocryphal – is “The Lord is a shoving leopard.” It’s the swapping of the opening sounds rather than letters.
PS: I came to read what people had made of the Carrollism – a debate I’ve enjoyed. When one is aware of it from the original crossword blog it is, I think, impossible to know what one would have made of it without that prior knowledge. But the fact that people who were unaware of that discussion were able to intuit its meaning seems to me to speak strongly in its favour.
Bluth@132, thanks for the up-to-date info on abbreviations in Chambers. I checked there myself, but unfortunately it was a paper copy from the eighties that I consulted, where it doesn’t appear. (Note to self: shell out for the app, Tightarse!). I’m surprised no-one else appears to have found it. I wonder where it is used for Chambers to include it? I feel sure they haven’t done so on the basis of its figuring in multi-letter abbreviations.
Further to your remarks about Spoonerisms, they are also not restricted to the consonant sounds at the beginning of words, but can consist of a transposition of internal vowel sounds in two words, too. I think the essence of them is the transposition of sounds (not, as you correctly point out, written characters) between two consecutive words. I recall confirming this when Pasquale wrote a Spooner clue where lintels became lentils. (Can’t remember the other word involved, but I think it was the first clue in the set in a puzzle with a pulse-based theme.)
I agree with what you say about the difficulty, as someone who saw the ‘Carrollism’ debated at its inception in the Guardian blog, of assessing the difficulty in solving for someone coming to them here for the first time. I was clearly precipitate in my confident assertion that they would cause difficulties. I am in the process of reassessing what I think of the device in the light of the evidence presented here, but haven’t come to a firm conclusion yet. One point worth bearing in mind is that while Spoonerisms and the speech habits of Violet Elizabeth Bott (pace William F P) have been presented as equivalent devices, those persons, real and imaginary, are essentially known for the single characteristic (Spoonerising and lisping, respectively), while Carroll was by no means only known for his postmanteaux (and invention of the term to describe them). This is, however, perhaps a debate for General Discussion, particularly if we want more commenters to be aware of it.