Guardian Cryptic 28,515 by Qaos

by

A fun puzzle – had a quick start, then slowed down with a few bits of unfamiliar general knowledge that needed checking at the end. Favourites were 1ac, 15ac, 19ac, 6dn, and 21dn. Thanks to Qaos.

…there is a theme around DANCES e.g. CONTEMPORARY, COUNTRY, TAP-s, FOLK, LOCKING, TRANCE-s, LIMBO, safe as HOUSE-s, POLKA dots, MORRIS, DISCO-s, CONGA, TANGO

ACROSS
1 CONTEMPORARY
After endless disdain by men, old queen divorces male of the same age (12)
CONTEMP-t=”endless disdain” + OR (Other Ranks in the military, “men”) + M-ARY=”old queen” getting rid of M (male)
9 ALLOT
Assign voting to oust leader (5)
b-ALLOT=”voting” minus the leading letter
10 POLITBURO
One-time back massage received by game committee (9)
I=”One” + T=”time” + reversal/”back” of RUB=”massage”; all inside POLO=”game”
11 COUNTRY
State modest about turnout? (7)
COY=”modest” around “turn / out” as in anagram/”out” of (turn)*
12 ANOTHER
On Earth evolution is different (7)
anagram/”evolution” of (On Earth)*
13 SOFT OPTION
Easy alternative might be a strawberry cream? (4,6)
could also describe a strawberry flavour option for “soft” serve ice cream
Edit – Auriga in the comments points out this this is more likely to refer to soft-centred strawberry cream chocolates
15 TAPS
Perhaps they’re hot and cold Spanish dishes an adult leaves (4)
TAP-A-S=”Spanish dishes” with one of the A (adult) letters leaving
18 FOLK
People from town in Kent evict established one (4)
FOLK-EST-ONE=”town in Kent”, minus EST (established) and ONE
19 CLASSIFIED
Confidential Catholic girl provided current education (10)
C (Catholic) + LASS=”girl” + IF=”provided” + I=symbol for electric “current” + ED (education)
22 LOCKING
Jamming with Lennon or Clapton, initially the greatest (7)
initials of L-ennon O-r C-lapton, plus KING=”the greatest”
24 TRANCES
Sections want heroin to provide dazed conditions (7)
TRANC-H-ES=”Sections”, with a lack/”want” of H (heroin)
25 SAND GRAIN
Piece of seaside rock? (4,5)
cryptic definition – surface referring to seaside rock sweets [wiki]
26 LIMBO
Ball’s on the end of leg, perhaps in suspension (5)
O=round shape=”ball”, after the end of LIMB=”leg, perhaps”
27 SAFE AS HOUSES
Peter has developed zero applications that are very secure (4,2,6)
“Peter” is slang for a money box or SAFE; plus anagram/”developed” of (has)* + O=”zero” + USES=”applications”
DOWN
1 COLOURFUL
Firm ground flour a little unevenly and left rich (9)
definition: “rich” as in vivid, vibrant

CO (company, “Firm”) + anagram/”ground” of (flour)* + “a little” of U-nevenly + L (left)
2 NOTATION
Nothing square divides 11 in symbols (8)
O=”Nothing” + T (a T “square” is a type of ruler); both inside NATION=”11″=11ac solution COUNTRY
3 EMPTY
Vain politician yet to be ruffled outside (5)
MP (Member of Parliament, “politician”), with anagram/”ruffled” of (yet)* outside
4 POLKA DOTS
Use soap, OK? Told to remove love spots (5,4)
anagram/”use” of (soap OK Told)*, removing one of the O=”love” letters
5 RATION
Helping short famous person to leave festival (6)
CELEB-RATION=”festival”, minus CELEB, short for celebrity=”short famous person”
6 ROUGH
Allegedly, Trump’s vulgar (5)
homophone/”Allegedly” of ‘ruff’ – to play a trump card in a game such as bridge or whist
7 DANCES
Plays down article on consumer electronics trade show (6)
D (down) + AN=indefinite “article” + CES (Consumer Electronics Show) [wiki]
8 MORRIS
Animal Magic presenter seen in most of supermarkets (6)
Animal Magic was a TV show [wiki] presented by Johnny Morris

most of the letters from MORRIS-ONS, a UK supermarket chain
14 TELEGRAMS
Messages Terry in London, for example, over hits (9)
TEL=short form of the name “Terry” used in London + E.G.=”for example” + RAMS=”hits”
16 AS IT COMES
Friends say water’s rising all around in the usual way (2,2,5)
SITCOM=”Friends say” as in the comedy TV show, with SEA=”water” reversed/”rising” and going around
17 MIRACLES
Doctor claims taking both Rennie and Elocon leads to wonders (8)
anagram/”Doctor” of (claims)* around both the first letters/”leads” of R-ennie and E-locon
18 FILOSE
Threadlike pastry’s extremely seductive (6)
FILO=type of “pastry” + extreme letters of S-eductiv-E
20 DISCOS
Round, round small crisps (6)
definition: a brand of disc-shaped crisps

DISC=”Round” + O=”round” + S (small)
21 SINGLE
Measure of malts in Glenfiddich? (6)
hidden in / a “Measure of”: malt-S IN GLE-nfiddich
23 CONGA
Eel caught in drum (5)
homophone (“caught” as in ‘heard’) of a ‘conger’ eel
24 TANGO
Pop tarts and nuggets — going off starters? (5)
definition: a brand of soft drink or “Pop”

starting letters from T-arts A-nd N-uggets G-oing O-ff

87 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,515 by Qaos”

  1. Hadn’t heard of the brand of crisps for 20d, so took me a while to complete the SE corner. 25a took me a long time as well; though SAND jumped out from the crossers, I had to solve 24d to see what it had to be and I’d forgotten about the brand of drink for 24d as well. But I agree with manehi, it was a fun and inventive crossword. Thanks to manehi and Qaos.

  2. My theme-blindness is not improving! Fairly quick solve for a Qaos. In 13a I was thinking of soft-centred chocolates rather than ice-cream.
    Thanks to Qaos and to manehi for a couple of tricky parsings.

  3. Like Auriga @2, I took ‘strawberry cream’ as a chocolate SOFT OPTION; a hazelnut whirl might be a HARD OPTION.

    Re DANCES: there’s also RAIN dance and SAND dance.

    Great fun, thanks Q & m

  4. Yes, Auriga @2. I suspect that chocolate cream as a SOFT OPTION may be a specific allusion to a soft-centred chocolate of that name that featured (and possibly still features?) in the Cadbury ‘Roses’ selection box. It is more years than I care to count since I sampled it, but perhaps others here who still have a chocolate habit will confirm or rebut.

  8. Very enjoyable as this was, I didn’t exactly trip the light fantastic here. Anyway, ended up filling the grid by using two left feet. The theme helped with MORRIS, which I otherwise had no idea about. I didn’t recognise the product placement in TANGO and DISCOS and not knowing the association between “ruff” and ‘Trump’, ROUGH remained unparsed. I thought that ‘strawberry cream?’ in 13a might just be another menu OPTION but a different chocolate variety sounds more plausible.

    Lots to choose from but the surface for SAFE AS HOUSES gets my vote as clue of the day.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  10. I stared at 7D while my coffee went cold. It’s the only one I didn’t get so the theme didn’t pop out either. In fact I’d let myself stray into an historical political labyrinth, theme-wise. Liked 27A, perhaps because such a Peter popped up recently (I raid the Guardian vaults). Ah, Johnny, teaching us all to anthropomorphise, bless him. And who remembers the awful You’ve Been Tango’ed ads?! I still don’t understand the parsing of 16D; maybe I should stay in more, watching repeats. Thanks both.

  12. Qaos tripping the light fantastic this morning with a full dance card. Friends would say, given my performance on the dance floor, that I perfected the SINGLE dance as a matter of necessity. This is the kind of background theme – there to be seen but not intrusive – that I really enjoy.

    I had big ticks for the aforementioned SINGLE, for the neat little TAPS, for the construction of TELEGRAMS and the surface/construction of POLKA DOTS and the delightful cd for SAND GRAIN. All very enjoyable.

    Thanks Qaos and manehi

  13. [WP @8: you trumped me with your light fantastic reference, even though we disagree. I was probably still replying to your comments over on the Indy!]

  15. I am amazed that I completed this without spotting the theme. At the start I said “it’s Qaos, there will be a theme” but succeeded in forgetting that almost instantly. Maybe if DAD had been an answer I would have realised.

  16. Thought this was going to be a slow, tough solve. But then things fell satisfyingly into place. There were several clues that demanded removing of letters to arrive at the solution, FOLK from Folkestone, TRANCES from Tranches, RATION from Celebration, that took a little while to whittle away at. Left staring at – A – C – S for the LOI, but wasn’t very confident that DANCES fitted the bill. So came on here to check with Manehi. FILOSE new to me…

  17. Well, I gave it a whirl, as Qaos suggested on his website and thoroughly enjoyed it.

    I had ticks for CONTEMPORARY, TAPS, FOLK, SAND GRAIN, NOTATION, AS IT COMES, SINGLE, which my husband would have loved and MIRACLES (although I’m rather concerned at the idea of ‘taking’ ELOCON, which I’ve been applying to my eczema for decades).

    Thanks for the memories, Qaos – and for the earworm, MB. And thanks to manehi for the blog.

  18. I enjoyed most of this but I needed help from google for the GK. It was difficult for me as I did not know the brands mentioned, and I am also not a big fan of product placement in puzzles.

    Liked FOLK, FILOSE, POLITBURO.

    Could not parse RATION (= helping); or the TEL (= terry?) bit of TEL/EG/RAMS.

    New words for me: ruff = trump (in cards) for 6d clue; TANGO = pop / brand of soft drink in the UK; DISCOS crisps (German-owned British brand); FILOSE; Animal Magic TV show 1962-1983; Morrisons = supermarket chain in UK (for 8d clue).

    Thanks, both.

    * I did not spot the theme

  19. Ironically, having identified ‘types of music’ as the theme reasonably early, my LOI was DANCES. So was the theme music or dance types? I counted 13 types of Dances: Contemporary, Country, Tap, Folk, Trance, Limbo, House, Polka, Morris, Disco, Conga, Tango – and the Rain dance. If the theme was music, you can add in Soft [rock], the Single, Telegram S[am] and [Smoky Robinson and the] Miracles. Can anybody spot Another? Thanks to Qaos and manehi.

  20. Fun despite containing quite a few things that various people won’t have heard of – in my case Elocon (an ointment, apparently), the CES trade show and DISCOS crisps. I don’t get on well with the vague “a little of” meaning the first one (or two, or three, or however many the setter fancies) letters – so did not fully parse COLOURFUL. I had an unparsed SAFE rather than SOFT OPTION, and I’m still nor really sure how SAND GRAIN works. (Yes, essexboy, it reminded me of Wilson, Keppel and Betty too).

    [You used to be able to buy chocolate selection boxes that were either all soft or all hard centres: the hard ones were “Spartan” but I can’t remember the name of the soft option.]

  21. Some neat stuff here – POLITBURO, ANOTHER, SAND GRAIN (though is that really an expression? don’t we say “grain of sand”?), SINGLE and many others.
    I certainly wasn’t familiar with CES as a thing, and I did wonder whether someone less ancient than myself and/or not British would remember (or have heard of) Johnny Morris and Animal Magic. And clues which assume you are familiar with a decent Brit supermarket which is about to be swallowed up by hedgies, and a downmarket brand of Brit potato snacks, seem a bit parochial; though of course we can all be assumed to be familiar with an implausible American sitcom.
    But enjoyable overall. Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  22. A case of slow, slow, quick, quick slow for me. I enjoyed the way CLASSIFIED gradually assembled itself in my mind. I thought the theme was unhealthy snacks before finally seeing the dances

  23. [Until fairly recently, most of us soft southerners wouldn’t have known Morrisons either. When my local Safeway suddenly became a Morrisons in 2004, their bargain shelf was full for a while of “posh London stuff” that Morrisons, as a down to earth Northern firm, had decided they didn’t want to sell any more.]

  24. Animal Magic last aired six years before I was born, so consider me a little disgruntled about that.

    Generally enjoyable though – thanks manehi and Qaos.

  25. For once, I spotted the terpsichorean theme, and it helped with a few clues (Shirl @15 – that is my usual experience: I say to myself “don’t forget to look for a theme” and then immediately forget to do so).

    I’m old enough to remember Johnny Morris, and aware of Morrison’s supermarkets through occasional visits to England, but I did wonder how many younger solvers – especially non-UK ones – would make sense of 8d. Discos and Tango also, as NeilH says @21, “a bit parochial.”

    I suppose you could add NOTATION to the list of dance-related terms: I recall learning a little about Rudolf Laban’s dance notation when I was in youth theatre. The SAND in 25a did indeed make me think of Wilson, Keppel and Betty, and also of Morecambe, Wise and Glenda.

    All in all, it was an enjoyable mental workout, as ever with Qaos.

  26. Thanks for the blog , missed the theme as usual. 15AC would be better with SECOND adult leaves.
    For a theme of dances 7D is a very poor clue.

  27. Lovely crossword from Qaos, of course. I differ with a couple of parsings:

    Sand Grain is something of the seaside, but is also, as per wiki, “Sand is a naturally occurring, finely divided rock, comprising particles or granules ranging in size from 0.0625 (or 1?16) to 2 millimeters. An individual particle in this range size is termed a sand grain. “. So no need for the seaside stick of rock, which, to be fair, we have all enjoyed at one time or another in our childhood!

    Measure (SINGLE) appears in (“of”) malts in Glenfiddich. Talking of enjoying, difficult to come across here in Cambodia, so even the thought brings back lovely memories.

    Therefore, no need for an &lit in either case, so I am slightly confused by the question marks. Perhaps I am reading too much into Qaos’s mind – he’s clearly fixated on the Terpsichorean Muse…

    Thanks, Manehi and Qaos.

  28. I expect that someone else has pointed out that, as well as SINGLE being included in “malts in Glenfiddich”, the whisky named is a single malt. Other single malts are available.

  31. Same process as Petert @22.

    Some enjoyable ones like AS IT COMES, CONTEMPORARY, COUNTRY and COLOURFUL. Others that I didn’t like, such as MORRIS (fairly obscure GK and dodgy use of ‘most of’) and DISCOS and TANGO (product placement not necessary in these, surely?)

    Thanks Qaos and manehi.

  32. [gladys @20: Were they ‘Neopolitans?’ Terry’s used to sell an ultra-posh box of chocs called ‘1767’ – quite often under the main packaging you’d find a few solid lumps of dark chocolate makeweights… ]

  33. [MB@11, my memory lane came from 4d and amazingly bubbled up all the way from infancy… the man with the polka dot tie in a story about a toy tugboat…]

    Fun puzzle, dances seen only post solve. Dnk the tv show or the supermaket for 8d, so looked up a list of the latter (thought the answer might’ve been one of those French blokes, like Mesmer, hey ho). Only ever seen conger written, so now I know that it’s got a hard g. All part of the fun, thank Q and m.

  34. Gladys@20 and MB @ 32, it was definitely Terry’s who made Spartan , all dark chocolate and hard centres. Also made Neopolitans, individually wrapped tiny bars of dark and milk in the same sort of box as Roses.
    I do not recall 1767.

  35. Stuttered my way through this due to the I put the equally valid “RINGOS” in for “DISCOS” at 20D, the latter of which I’ve never heard. Only corrected when the crossers precluded it. RINGOS doesn’t fit the theme either.

  38. Interesting contrast to Nutmeg – I pencilled in about a third of these whereas yesterday it was biro all the way

  39. I enjoyed this, mainly because I spotted the theme, AND I completed the puzzle with very little ‘extra’ assistance. I did have RINGOS at 20d for a while, having convinced myself that they were a brand of crisps – and vaguely wondering why Qaos had not made use of the drummer of the same name.
    Thanks Qaos and manehi.

  41. Not a hope of getting the theme this time, though I did look for one.
    I’ve never heard of some of these dances. Locking? Trance? House? And anything can be contemporary, is that a particular kind of dance?

    CLASSIFIED, DISCOS and TELEGRAMS (who knew that Terry is Tel in London?) were unusual charades where the bits just followed each other one by one in the clue.

    Mohammed Ali was “the Greatest.” Elvis was “the King.”

    Thanks, manehi, for parsing NOTATION.

    As others have said, there seems to be an unusually large number of UK GK, as well as CES (US GK I’d never heard of). I hadn’t heard of DISCO crisps, TANGO soda, Morrisons grocery stores or Morris on Animal Magic. To my surprise, though, I got the town in Kent once I had the F. Animals and Morris sent me after Desmond Morris, who wrote (I reminded myself this morning) The Naked Ape.

    Pleasant puzzle, thanks Qaos and manehi.

  42. [Pentman @35, Christa @39 – I was going to say that Ringos wouldn’t work for 20d as they aren’t crisps. Then I thought I’d check before posting, and looked up the ingredients.

    Ringos:

    Potato Starch, Sunflower Oil, Wheat Flour, Salt & Vinegar Flavour Seasoning [Salt, Acidity Regulator: Sodium Diacetate; Wheat Flour (Wheat Flour, Calcium Carbonate, Iron, Niacin, Thiamin), Lactose (Milk), Dextrose, Whey Powder (Milk), Flavour Enhancer: Monosodium Glutamate; Acid: Citric Acid], Potato Flour, Rye Flour, Salt, Colour: Turmeric

    Discos:

    Wheat Starch, Dried Potato, Sunflower Oil (25%), Wheat Flour, Salt & Vinegar Flavour [Natural Flavouring, Rice Flour, Salt, Citric Acid, Dried Barley Malt Vinegar Extract, Dried Yeast Extract, Malic Acid], Emulsifier: E471

    So neither of them qualify as crisps in my opinion. What rubbish we allow children to eat.]

  43. I spent too long messing about with Maidstone before the coastal option smacked me across the head. I couldn’t parse RATION, but then “celebs” are a strange breed of people with whom I have as little truck as possible. I actually spotted the theme quite early on, but I doubt it will become a habit !

  44. Valentine @41 – If you had ever watched the great Pommy TV show Minder, you would know Terry = Tel in London. But I did need to search for Animal Magic, which I had never heard of.

  45. Valentine @41: in case it helps in the future, Terry is Tel and Derek is Del.

    The most famous Tel is Terry Venables, a football manager who, upon moving to a Spanish club, was christened El Tel.

    The most famous Del is Del Boy.

  46. Much as I hate to disagree with the esteemed MrEssexboy @45 , the most famous Tel is Terry McCann , Minder to the great Arfur Daley.
    I used to like Ringos when I was young, not surprised to see they have no potato content really, Miche@42

  47. Thanks Qaos, that was fun! And thanks for the blog, manehi.

    gladys @23 – as a southerner, I first discovered Morrisons as a student in Leeds in the early 90s, along with Asda, which I don’t recall having much of a presence in the south in those days either.

    Jimmy @24 – I’m old enough to remember Animal Magic but even I felt that was a bit rich. “One for the teenagers” as Steve Lamacq would say. Initially, I did wonder why Qaos couldn’t have come up with a more CONTEMPORARY reference (eg Chris Morris of The Day Today/Brass Eye fame, or politician Estelle/Baroness Morris), but then ANOTHER and COUNTRY fell into place and I started to wonder if there was a secondary time-related theme (as in the past being another country) as well as the dances, and if the outdated references were deliberate to tie in with that – I mean, I haven’t seen DISCOS in the shops since I was a kid either. But then I got POLITBURO and wondered if there was going to be a Russian spy link… (with Another Country also being the name of the play/film about Guy Burgess)

    Really, I think Qaos is just messing with my head.

  51. Miche @42 – you can add Pringles to the list of non-crisps. It is my firm and long-held belief that Pringles are made from the leftovers swept up from the floor of the crisp factory.

  52. Valentine @41: As someone on t’other side of pond, I would have thought that House would be a dance/music style you were familiar with given that it was invented in the mid-1980s primarily in Chicago and to a lesser-extent, New York and grew out of Funk and Soul which themselves trace routes back to Jazz.

    Frankie Knuckles was probably the originator of the term – https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/apr/01/frankie-knuckles-house-music-dj-producer-nightclubs

    Have a listen – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOLE1YE_oFQ It really isn’t a million miles away from the world of Terry Riley, Philip Glass or Steve Reich!

    Trance has really grown out of House and is much more drug-centric (MDMA being the narco of choice given that it has the ability to keep you dancing all night without too much of a downer after). Locking is that wonderful break-dancing style you see kids who are far more supple than me doing on the street to hip-hop…

  54. Many thanks for the blog. Today is about my level.
    I have never heard of DISCOS as crisps and I though MORRIS was unfair to anyone under 50. Incidentally, as a child I had the full set of Thomas The Tank Engine EP’s (extended play records to the under 40’s) narrated by Johnny Morris. Would be worth a bit of money today if I still had them. Lost many years ago.
    Even I could spot the theme, so it must have been obvious.
    I enjoyed working out 18d from the wordplay, a new word for me.
    Thanks both.

  56. Even though I could never get MORRIS or DISCOS I found this crossword fun as Qaos usually is. I saw theme after the grid was complete because I knew to look for one. Favourites were CONTEMPORARY and CONGA. Thanks to both.

  59. Caroline @57

    Qaos used a similar clue for DANCE two weeks ago:

    ‘Play, perhaps, Hamlet, involving Claudius’s crown (5)’

    I blogged the puzzle and suggested the image of sunlight playing / dancing on water

  61. I found DANCES very strange in the word play, a four word phrase to give a three letter acronym that is itself very obscure ? Time to think again.

  64. Roz @61 – I almost never comment on an individual clue unless I feel I can add something useful or contextual to the parsing of it, but I must say I share your sense of the oddness of CES in DANCES. Given that CES is also an acronym for Clean Energy Standards, this would have produced, in my view, a better surface narrative.

  67. I would have gone for sec upwards in some form or probably start from scratch.
    I just find the four words for three letters very strange, and three of those words are in the acronym ??

  68. A pleasant enough and fairly simple puzzle today.

    But oh dear! MORRIS to my mind is poorly clued, relying on knowing a UK supermarket chain and an ancient UK TV programme.

    I’m with @18 michelle in my dislike of product/brand names (DISCOS, TANGO) and with @21 NeilH, @24 Jimmy and @25 Miche (and others) re parochialism. My biggest bugbear in crosswords is reference to non CONTEMPORARY popular culture from the 50s, 60s, 70s, etc which give younger (under 40) solvers little chance.

    Thanks both

  69. ArkLark @68: I don’t want to cause offence, but I think your comment about ‘non-CONTEMPORARY’ cultural references is predicated on a rather patronising generalisation concerning what a ‘younger solver’ might know about popular culture prior to around the mid-nineties. By that same measure, it would be unfair to expect me and the many older solvers who populate this site, to know anything about popular culture of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Yet, strangely we do, because we have a cultural and historical curiosity that extends beyond the events and fads of our own lifetimes. A young person who would conform to your stereotype would be unlikely, I think, to be presenting him or herself as a solver of the G cryptic crossword.

  71. @69 Spooner’s catflap we obviously have different ideas of what counts as a cultural reference. Anyway, I’m not alone as the earlier comments show.

    I’m in my 60s so I have the misfortune to remember Animal Magic. My children are in their 30s and like to try crosswords but it’s just this sort of ancient pop culture reference that puts them off. Sometimes it seems puzzles are written by 60 year old men for other 60 year old men

  72. SC @69 – you only know the bits of 20s/30s/40s culture that have endured… (And several complained about the reference to Marty [1954] the other day.)

  74. 7 down DANCES for PLAYS? I don’t think so. The fact that both can be used of light on water does not make them synonyms. Following that logic, dances would also be a synonym for GLISTENS or just MOVES. In a restaurant you can both EAT and DRINK but they are not synonyms. A poor, clunky clue, as others have pointed out.

  76. Solved DISCOS/MORRIS early on. I thought both clues unfair for younger solvers particularly those who did not spot the theme.

  77. Thanks, MB. Actually, there are many styles of dance on both sides ‘t pond that I know nothing about, particularly ones involving electric instruments. Now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard of House music, but had no idea who played it or what it was like.

  78. Crossbencher@74: OED has
    Play
    7 b. intransitive. Of a thing: to move briskly or lightly, esp. with alternating or irregular motion; to change or alternate rapidly, to flicker; to strike lightly on a surface, dance, flutter. Also figurative.

    Thanks Qaos and manehi.
    [found my Placebo cd after much searching, thanks for the prompting yesterday Nutmeg]

  79. Crossbencher @74: Of course one synonym is good enough rationale for it being used in a crossword. Light playing/dancing across the water is far closer than saying that the sun and concrete both set.

  80. Hi Gonzo @78

    Many thanks for the confirmation. It certainly works for me. (See me @59: I didn’t look it up in my old SOED at the time – just went by intuition.)

    And thanks, too, to MarkN @79 for support.

  81. Had I spotted the theme (how could you not you might say) 7d may not have been 1 of my 3 reveals. Learnt a new word in FILOSE though.
    Enjoyable enough without being one of my favourite of late.
    Thanks all

  82. We did not have a television signal whe n Animal Magic was on. I remember Johnny Morris in The Home Service’s Morriss’s Travels or something like that.

  83. [muffin, and possibly others, might be interested in my very late post (82) on the Nutmeg blog re his Bill Tidy cartoon concerning the polar bear, the iceberg and the Titanic]

  85. I had FARCES, which are indisputably ‘plays’ even though the wordplay escaped me. Roz is right about the four word event with the three letter acronym – most unfair.

    Thanks essexboy @30 for the link to Eric Morecambe. Always a treat.

  87. Well after the fact but thanks manehi, I came here to see what I was missing with CES but I can see not much and general digruntlement. I humbly offer up “Plays down article on origins of consumer electronics show” as an alternative. Always worth a perusal of the blog, especially today for Tel on TotP! Thanks to Qaos especially for friendly clueing of new word FILOSE and the wonderful SINGLE, also am giving myself a pat on the back for knowing Johnny Morris despite being (just) under 50.

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