Guardian 28,611 – Qaos

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Not too much trouble for me from Qaos today, though my lack of sporting knowledge makes me uncertain of one parsing.

Today’s theme is of things found in a bathroom, with the impressively long list of RADIATOR, TILE, SCALES, TOILET ROLL, SINK, CURTAINS (to go round the SHOWER), PIPE, BATH, BASIN, MIRROR, TUB and SOAP. Thanks to Qaos.

 
Across
8 RADIATOR Wireless picks up origins of alien transmission — reading it could heat things up (8)
A[lien] T[ransmission] in RADIO + R (reading, as in the Three Rs)
9 ALIBI Breaking bail — one’s excuse? (5)
BAIL* + I
10 TILE Recall 20% off cream hat (4)
Reverse of ELIT[e] – tile is slang for a hat, as in the music hall song: “Where did you get that hat?/Where did you get that tile?”
11 TOOTH FAIRY Overly tense and risky to catch female mythical figure (5,5)
TOO (overly) + T (tense) + F[emale] in HAIRY (risky)
12 SCALES Series of notes in small capitals on drinks (6)
SC + ALES
14 HABSBURG European royal family has swamped Britain with revolting food (8)
B in (swamped by) HAS + reverse of GRUB
16 SPEAK TO Address thus includes mountain time (5,2)
PEAK T in SO (thus)
18 BRUSHED Hurry to climb into bed that’s cleaned (7)
RUSH in BED
21 ASSEMBLE Graduate stands outside canteen over by the French group (8)
Reverse of (MESS in BA) + LE
23 CANOPY Ape eats second and third banana on top of the forest (6)
Second and third letters of bANana in COPY (to ape)
24 TOILET ROLL Work by English rector in charge of sheets? (6,4)
TOIL + E + R[ector] in TOLL (charge)
26 SINK Evil king to fall (4)
SIN + K
27 ERNIE Wise Sanders has blown his top (5)
[B]ERNIE [Sanders] (US politician), giving British entertainer Ernie WISE
28 CURTAINS The end of acts in play touring old city (8)
UR (old city) in (ACTS IN)* – “the end” as in “it’s curtains for you”
Down
1 DAVIS CUP Snooker player shortens his equipment to gain power in competition (5,3)
DAVIS (snooker player – take your pick Steve or Joe, and no doubt others) + CU[e]+ P[ower]
2 PIPE One wearing protective gear in conduit (4)
I in PPE (Personal Protective Equipment – an abbreviation that has become much more familiar since the pandemic)
3 STATES 40% of numerical facts, 50% lies in America? (6)
40% of STAT[istics] + 50% of [li]ES
4 BRIOCHE At Wimbledon bagel order covered by cheese roll (7)
Not sure about this: in tennis (I learn), a bagel is a set with a score of 6-0, can bagel also mean just the zero, so O (which is shaped like a bagel)? Then we have CH (Companion of Honour), which is an order, and it’s all in BRIE
5 BATH City hit hard (4)
BAT + H
6 TIDAL BASIN ‘I’d stab criminal’, admits gangster in dock (5,5)
AL (Capone, gangster) in (I’D STAB)* + IN
7 MIRROR Note expensive car with gold and red top (6)
MI (note, as in do-re-mi) + R[olls] R[oyce] + OR (gold); the Daily MIRROR is a British tabloid newspaper or “red top”
13 LEAVE ALONE Refrain from taking holiday without other people? (5,5)
A holiday without other people is LEAVE, ALONE
15 BAR Sailor upset royal court … (3)
Reverse of AB + R[oyal]
17 TUB … boat‘s just capsized! (3)
Reverse of BUT (just, as in “ I have but one life to lose for my country”)
19 EXPONENT Finally, the Times replaces work from rival advocate (8)
OPPONENT with OP (work) replaced by the final letter of thE + X (multiplication sign, times)
20 REJOICE On Irish author said to be merry (7)
RE + homophone of (James) JOYCE
22 SHOWER Rabble who are rioting, not acting to support society (6)
S[ociety] “supported by” (WHO ARE)* less A[cting]
23 CELERY Star bit off vegetable (6)
CELEBRITY minus the letters B I T
25 TWEE Quaint boiled sweets unwrapped (4)
Anagram of [s]WEET[s]
26 SOAP Pensioners back to front in TV programme (4)
OAPS with the last letter moved to the front

85 comments on “Guardian 28,611 – Qaos”

  1. Odd mix of some complete write-in like soap and rejoice, and then some very convoluted charades like exponent, and toilet roll being somewhat Pauline, but fun.

    I picked Steve Davis for 1D (Andrew you missed out the short CUe plus Power for CUP)

    Hadn’t come across bagel in tennis or red top for a paper before but google obligingly provided what I needed to parse.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew

  2. TOOTH and BRUSH, along with CUP and BAR (of soap) could also be included? Very nice creation by Qaos with trademark percentage/maths clue and a theme I spotted early enough to help. BRIOCHE was LOI and went in unparsed. Probably spent more time on that than the rest of the puzzle!

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew

  3. Yes, straightforward enough. Is an ALIBI an excuse? Surely it means “I wasn’t there at all”, so no excuse is necessary? HABSBURG held me up briefly, as I’d have spelt it with a P instead of the first B (apparently these are valid alternatives. Liked RADIATOR and TOOTH FAIRY.
    Thanks both.

  4. I’ve come across bagel in other crosswords to mean ‘O’ but I haven’t seen it with the Wimbledon qualifier before. I guess you could say that a Wimbledon bagel is a “Set to 0”.

  5. Very generous clues today with the theme coming in early with RADIATOR, PIPE, SCALES and MIRROR being first in. Certainly helped me with other solutions such as SHOWER. I had to google Wimbledon Bagel but I think your explanation, Andrew, is as good as it gets. My favourite was DAVIS CUP (I couldn’t name one snooker player these days) and always nice to see either Eric or Ernie pop up now and again. Good fun

    Ta Qaos & Andrew

  6. Like beaulieu @3 I have always misspelled Hapsburg which definitely held me up a bit. Also my LOI which was SHOWER only came to me after seeing the theme. It’s interesting how hard a theme can be to spot but once it’s spotted it seems so obvious.

    Thanks for the bagel tennis explanation which I didn’t know. I needed to google snooker players to figure out the CUP in 1d. But overall very enjoyable.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew

  7. Did this at 1.30am so, despite a quick start, it was a DNF with some tired groans when I realised some I should have got. For BRIOCHE, I got that ‘bagel’ was O without needing the ‘At Wimbledon’, so that confused me as I was looking for an extra part of the puzzle. Wasn’t convinced about ‘but’ and ‘just’ as synonyms, but Andrew’s explanation does make sense. I thought TOOTH FAIRY, HABSBURG and LEAVE ALONE were neat.

    beaulieu @3 I thought ALIBI was fine – not sure about the exact semantic differences, but in common parlance I feel like they are used interchangeably. “What’s your excuse?”/”What’s your alibi?”

    As always, I missed the theme. Did the setter prepare this in the bath?

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew!

  8. Thanks Qaos and Andrew. Completely missed the theme.

    I was confused by the Wimbledon reference – I’m sure I’ve seen ‘bagel’ to mean O by itself before, without the Wimbledon link, so I didn’t connect those two elements. Thanks for clarifying!

    beaulieu @3 – same here, had to pause before writing in HAPSBURG and double check the clue… didn’t look it up though – just took it on trust that the B spelling would be an acceptable variant.

  9. Like Blah @1 I found this to be a curate’s egg, with a mix of write-ins and tortuous clues. Liked CANOPY, TOOTH FAIRY, HABSBURG and CURTAINS. Didn’t really think about the obvious theme, as always. Many thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  10. AlanC @5 – worth learning a few names of current players – Ding and Trump are gifts to setters, and I’ve seen both references in clues…

  11. Widdersbel @6: now that you mention it I have seen the alternative Trump used before. Thanks, I will add those to the memory bank. beaulieu @3: I take your point about ALIBI.
    I know some solvers do not particularly like themes, but I look for one as early as possible, when Qaos is the setter, as it’s always a given.

  12. I’d have thought an excuse was a good reason for doing something which normally you shouldn’t, but an ALIBI is proof you didn’t do it.

  13. Fun puzzle, with a theme that stuck out even for me. Some nice constructions here: I enjoyed TOOTH FAIRY, TIDAL BASIN, EXPONENT and SHOWER.

    Fortunately for me, tennis is the one sport which I enjoy watching, so the Wimbledon reference in the clue for BRIOCHE was the first element I grasped; ‘bagel’ is used as a verb – a player who loses a set 6-0 is said to have been ‘bageled’ (one L or two?).

    thanks to Qaos and Andrew

  14. beaulieu@3, AlanC @11,

    I had the same thought about alibi so checked and the Chambers app has (3) An excuse for failure (informal).

  15. Oxford online adds a usage note to its definition of alibi: “The weakened nonlegal use of alibi to mean simply ‘an excuse’ is a fairly common and natural extension of the core meaning. It is acceptable in standard English, although regarded as incorrect by some traditionalists”
    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew

  16. I’m another who found it a mixture of straightforward and convoluted clues. The theme, once I saw it, helped (as AlanC @11 says, Qaos = theme). I bunged BRIOCHE (the brie was enough for me to be sure it was right, so I just shrugged at the OCH). My last were DAVIS CUP (like CanberraGirl @6, I needed help – went to Pot Black on Wikipedia for a list of winners) and TILE, which emerged into the light somehow – previous crossie, I am sure. Thanks for some explanations, Andrew, and to Qaos for another diverting theme search.

  17. Another here used to p not b for the European royals. Tidal basin for dock was a newy, and I cheated for Davis, but then did remember seeing Steve on Pot Black [jaw-cracking yawns from Mrs ginf along with sarky comments about the compere with the ‘undertaker’s’ voice]. Shower as mob I learnt working with poms, not much used here. All quite fun, ta Q and A.

  18. Thanks Qaos and Andrew (for blog & parsing of BRIOCHE), that was a nice potpourri.
    I can not believe the theme washed over me.
    Liked CURTAINS for its surface, not quite &lit.

  19. Thanks Andrew as I am another with no idea what was going on inside the cheesy extremities of BRIOCHE – if a doughnut can be a zero then why not a bagel, the Wimbledon reference confused me but makes sense given the origin of the phrase, fair enough.
    As well as the fixtures and fittings might we also consider tWEE as a bathroom-related term perhaps? (Theme came quite early thanks to intersecting SOAP and SINK, helped me with SHOWER too and wondered if I might find a Towel or perhaps even a Bidet, fortunatately no inspection shelf!)
    Agree with Blah@1 and TassieTim@16 ie Plenty of headscratching (eg TILE – think of a synonym, reduce it by a fifth, reverse it, for a word dimly remembered from other crosswords) and smiles, not necessarily mutually exclusive (TILE again!), thanks Qaos.

  20. Thanks, Andrew, but could you possible explain how “court” = BAR and “rabble” = SHOWER?

    All else pretty much crystal clear. Bagel is a common expression in tennis (and no other sport I am aware of) to mean a love set, which involves a 0 (6-0), but they’re not exactly interchangeable.

    Thanks, Qaos and Andrew

  22. Actually, come to think of it, a bagel does not mean the love set itself. Rather, the loser of a love set is said to have a bagel, so in that sense it is interchangeable with 0.

  23. I spotted the theme, but it didn’t help much. Was held up by entering ENSEMBLE.
    [I detest the word “overly”. “Over” already does the job.]
    Thanks to Qaos and to Andrew for parsing the obscurities. Still not sure about the bagel, though.

  24. Ian SW3:

    Chambers gives for “bar”: “a rail … at which prisoners are arraigned in court” (as in “prisoner at the bar”), and by extension the court itself .

    For SHOWER, I refer you to the late Terry-Thomas

  25. Not my cup of tea I’m afraid, and not my finest hour. I have enjoyed Qaos’ recent puzzles, but this one seemed to me to revert to overstrained constructions and nonsensical surfaces. Personal opinion of course.

  26. Rumpole often referred to being “called to the bar”. It’s where the word barrister comes from – nothing to do with making your flat whites.

  27. Another who was scratching his head about the ingredients of BRIOCHE, and also the parsing of SHOWER. I wonder how many wouldn’t have known Steve or Joe DAVIS as a snooker player or (b)ERNIE Sanders. As Blah@1 initially commented, an odd mix of almost write ins, and then being tangled up in Qaotic knots this morning. CURTAINS clue of the day for me…

  29. Thanks. I’m called to the bar myself, but I still fail to see how BAR = court. There are uses of “bar” that are relevant to courts, just as there are uses of “sink” that are relevant to kitchens, but they are not synonyms.

  30. Bagel was one of the easier references for me (the dreaded “double bagel” is the score you don’t want to lose by: 6-0, 6-0). Personally I found this pretty well perfect clueing… when you got the answer you knew it was right.

  31. As sometimes happens in thematic puzzles, the best clues, for me, were non-thematic. ERNIE and CANOPY, but it is remarkable how many bathroom-related words, have an alternative meaning. (though we know from experience of Paul that many other words include a bathroom-related element). Only PIPE, RADIATOR and TOILET ROLL were defined in their thematic sense.

  33. Ian SW3 @29 – I can’t argue with your personal experience, but for us non-legally trained folk, “bar” has long been used metonymously for “court”.

    Since you mention kitchen sinks, I might add that kitchen sink dramas aren’t literally based around the kitchen sink. Language can be funny like that.

  34. Thanks. Never heard the latter expression before, but googling illuminated me. “At the bar” and “in court” may then be interchangeable, but not “bar” and “court” by themselves.

  35. I know it’s a Qaos trademark, but I really wish he wouldn’t use phrases like ‘second and third banana’ to indicate ‘second and third letters of banana’. They don’t mean the same thing in any English sentence I can think of.

    HABSBURG is the German spelling, but they say the B like a P (as in gelb (yellow), pronounced ‘gelp’, because it’s at the end of a word or word segment).

    ginf @17: I can remember Steve and Fred DAVIS going head-to-head once on Pot Black (just 44 years’ age difference).

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew (I think you need a homophone indication for Joyce). ERNIE always makes me think of the driver of the fastest milk cart in the West (sorry, everyone).

  37. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

    Re Wimbledon I wondered if it might be a bit of Qaotic thematic misdirection, given that 1D is Davis Cup.

  38. I must be half-asleep this morning because I forgot with Qaos to look for a theme and just ploughed on blissfully. An entertaining solve; good setting to get all the themed entries in.

    For bagel, Chambers gives: 2.A score of zero games in a set of tennis (informal); I knew it anyway. Apparently, winning or losing 6-1 is called a breadstick, which I didn’t know. I liked RADIATOR, TOOTH FAIRY, STATES and TIDAL BASIN. LOI was SHOWER, where recognition of the theme would have helped (and I got caught again by A=acting).

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

  39. Further to previous commenters equating bar and court, Chambers has a somewhat voluminous entry for bar, including (17) A court.

    Think we have to let Qaos have that one 🙂

  40. [Just to add to your tennis vocabulary: The tweener or between-the-legs shot is a difficult tennis shot where a player hits the ball between his or her legs. Players who famously executed the backward shot include the pioneer Guillermo Vilas (whose version was called the “Gran Willy”), and Argentine Gabriela Sabatini, whose version became known as “the Sabatweenie”.]

  41. Ian SW3@29 It’s a metonym, isn’t it? A part standing in for or representing the whole – so synonymish…

    Like many others above, I found a dizzying range of difficulty levels. Many thanks to Andrew for the usual clarificatory blog and Qaos for most of the puzzle…

  42. Blah @39 – I’m genuinely surprised to learn that bar=court is at all contentious, but I can’t really argue with someone who is an actual barrister! I suppose Ian SW3’s view on this one is similar to when scientific types complain about loose usage of scientific terms.

    Being someone who has a little knowledge of a lot of subjects but expertise in nothing, I generally remain blithely unaware of these nuances. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.

  44. Simon S@37 – Yes, good thought. Also, definitions for 6d, 15d, 19d (dock, court & advocate) suggest more thematic misdirection.
    All this BAR talk is making me thirsty.

  45. Indeed Widdersbel, as a legal layman myself, I bunged it in without blinking an eye.

    EB, thanks for the reminder of Ernie, re the homophone indicator doesn’t the clue read author said?

  46. [essexboy @35 That’s always the first Ernie that springs to my mind too, and his arch rival, Two Ton Ted from Teddington, probably because I used to live near Teddington Lock. ;-). ]

  47. Cb@46 I hate to think what the homophone police you’d make of “past your eyes” and “pasteurise” 🙂

    I completely missed the theme which I half thought may be something to do with comic actors; Prunella Scales, Greg Davis and Ernie Wise in a play what he wrote

  48. It’s quite astonishing how theme-blind I can be. I began this with “Ah, right, it’s Qaos, therefore there’s a theme”. And then bashed through the whole thing without the least notion of one.

    Really enjoyed this nonetheless and felt TOOTH FAIRY the pick of the crop.

    A bit disappointed to see A & N in CANOPY clue as “…second and third banana”. Surely they are second and third of banana. I’m sure The Don would wince at this.

    This minor quibble side, a thoroughly enjoyable solve. Many thanks, both.

  49. Thanks for the blog, missed the theme for once. Did not think it was easy, took nearly all my journey home.
    Really liked TOOTH FAIRY, TIDAL BASIN and EXPONENT.
    Minor quibbles for 18Ac using BED in the clue and 23D is a bit naughty ( no pun ) removing the BIT.
    If Sheffield Hatter sees 28Ac he will just have to pull himself together.

  50. A good smattering of Chambers single-letter indication here (i.e. from a list as long as you like) plus some very average cluing otherwise (in 14 of the clues), making this very tough indeed. There were one or two clues I enjoyed.

    Regarding HABSBURG, as far as I know that’s the German spelling (in English it’s HAPSBURG). Perhaps if the compiler had used ‘German’ rather than ‘European’ it would have been better, but there was no good reason to have BAR (the ellipses not really justifying it for me) at 15 down in any case. PAR would have done surely.

  51. [Bodycheetah @47 Benny Hill falls foul of all sorts of police, and with some justification, but I think I’ll forgive him “pasteurise” 😀 ]

  53. I think Hapsburg is very old-fashioned (like using Bombay for Mumbai) My English language history of the family is called “The Habsburgs”

  54. Tough puzzle. Solved SW corner last.

    Failed 22d – it never would have occurred to me that A = acting.

    Forgot to look for a theme.

    I liked BRUSHED, EXPONENT, CELERY, TOILET ROLL.
    I loved TOOTH FAIRY – but that is a real figure not mythical! (just kidding)

    I did not parse 4d (only got as far as OCH in BRIE)

    New for me: snooker player Steve DAVIS (for 1d); ERNIE Wise (for 27ac – thanks google).

    Thanks, both.

  55. HABSBURG threw me temporarily for a different reason than it threw others. I knew from O-level German that the B in certain parts of the verb haben (habt, gehabt) was pronounced more like a P, so I guessed there might be two spellings of the word for the German family. I went off the rails a bit since I had heard that Marie Antoinette’s famous “Let them eat cake” was in fact a reference to BRIOCHE, and I had these two early on so I thought a theme of European royalty might be in play. Obviously not, it turned out.

  56. Enjoyable mix of the straight forward and not so.
    Good to know, BAGEL also refers to 6.0 score in tennis and TILE refers to a hat.
    Thanks to Qaos for puzzle and Andrew for his blog and list of clues from theme. Stretching it a bit you might add (T)WEE. : )

  58. Took all day and DNF thanks to Tile. Never heard it used to mean hat. The clue required a lot of work to get a music hall/slang word!! Can’t believe I completely failed to see the theme!!

  59. BAR can be a metonym for a collection of lawyers, but I still fail to equate it in any sense with “court,” nor can I think of an instance where one word may be substituted for the other. I’ll let it rest now, though, since, as observed by Blah @39, it’s the 17th(!) sense of BAR in Chambers. The fault is not the setter’s but the lexicographers’.

  60. I haven’t read all the posts, but beaulieu @3 has said it for me – when the first one I solved defined ALIBI as “excuse”, I decided not to bother with any more.

  61. I find Qaos’ style a bit loose these days, as illustrated with some of the quibbles covered above. One particular point though – when is “A” used as a standalone indicator for “acting”?
    Paul B @50, I think BAR was intentionally used because it’s another thematic entry, to go along with SOAP. And I’m guessing it’s a deliberate allusion to Rufus’s (?) famous clue – Bar of soap (6,6).
    Thanks, Q and A.

  62. I see that some dictionary support for alibi=excuse has been found. I can’t accept it. I can accept that words can take on new meanings, but it’s a sin to use words with different meanings interchangeably; it degrades the language.
    The makers of Legally blonde got the meaning right!

  63. Ian SW3@59,

    As Widdersbel@33 observed I wouldn’t try to argue with a barrister (after all arguing is your profession, and at best I’m a gifted amateur). However I’m reminded of the howls of outrage by chemists when compound is equated with mixture, which to me is fine with some experience of compound adhesives and sealants from construction, which are all mixtures. On the other hand my hackles rise when IT terminology is abused by setters (with support from Chambers) so I’m just as guilty as the chemists.

    To summarise I think your placing of the blame is inspired.

    Lastly I noted your use of ‘!’ after 17th, and thought it might interest you to know that there are 27 entries just for the first entry for bar, of which there are 4 with a grand total of 37 entries.

  64. muffin @60; you may not like the usage but all the main dictionaries give alibi=excuse as informal: Chambers: 3.An excuse for failure (informal); ODE: an excuse or pretext: a catch-all alibi for failure and inadequacy; Collins: informal An excuse.

  66. I now know that all my life I have been using the wrong word in the song ‘Where did you get that hat’. I have always thought it was ‘Where did you get that STYLE’.
    I am using that as my excuse for not solving that particular clue!

  67. muffin @64 – my impression is that dictionaries nowadays generally reflect how language is used by people not just how it was used at one point in time. If enough people decide that “bad” = “good” or “sick” = “excellent” then dictionaries will reflect that. Initially, they’ll designate those meanings “slang” or “informal” but if there’s widespread usage, they will become “normal” meanings. There are probably words we all use now and deem “correct” that were objected to at one time by some people for “degrading” the language. Change is a constant 😉

  69. pdp11 @67
    Change I can accept; it’s the degradation that really “aggravates” me 🙂 If two words that had different meanings are used interchangeably, then a meaning has been lost. All of us who care about language should fight against this!

  70. muffin @69
    In the fight, the two sides are not evenly matched. I fear there is only one winner 🙂
    That said, although alibi = excuse, Chambers doesn’t say excuse = alibi (in it’s “original” meaning). So you still have the ability to use “alibi” in the non-excuse sense.

  71. Thanks Qaos and Andrew. I missed the theme although I had a good look around for one.

    On “bar”+”court and “alibi”=”excuse” I think we all have our sticking points. With me it’s “presently”, a lovely little word with a useful meaning that saves the ink wasted on alternatives – but it’s sinking into the abyss of ignorant mis-usage.

    Blah@45: I think eb@35 is suggesting that “…homophone (said)…” might be included in the blog.

    Sorry to be so late to the fray – my alibi is that I have builders in (well, on the roof so hopefully not “in”). (I don’t suppose that helps muffin@)

  73. #61 phitonelly fair enough, though he already has SOAP in there. Still, perhaps Qaos is wealthy and can afford more that one bar of soap at a time.

    Re ‘acting’ = A I refer you back to my comment about using anything in Chambers (for example) for the purposes of indicating a single letter: compilers allowing themselves such licence can thumb through the tome until they find something that fits the surface, and bingo! There we are, regardless of whether or not any solvers know it.

  74. The distinction between a defense and an excuse is the sort of thing that is interesting and meaningful only to lawyers, but it is easy to see that and how the distinction is often lost (and not just by lawyers). The distinction between bar and court, though, is entirely different. I just do not see any equivalence, nor am I aware of any widespread (if erroneous) confusion between the two.

    I thoroughly concur with Muffin on lexical laxity. Yes, language changes, just as houses deteriorate and sometimes fall down if not repaired. That does not mean we should just stand by and let it happen. The deterioration of language is accelerating since the arrival of the Internet and social media, and the vast majority of written communication (which represents a greater proportion of total communication than ever) is not made by people inclined to be careful in their use of language, let alone run by an editor. The need for vigilance and resistance is needed more than ever in times of rapid change. If a dictionary claims it describes only how words are used rather than how they should be used, I will put it back on the bookshop (if they still exist) shelf.

  75. Many thanks, Ian SW3 @74! As a scientist, I like words to be used with precise meanings, hence my recurrent problem with metonyms. You might well question why I enjoy crosswords, though!

  76. Blah @63 and muffin passim: I can be as pernickety as the next poster (disinterested for uninterested – aaargh!) but despite my PhD in chemistry I had no problem with mixture = compound. And court = BAR or excuse = ALIBI didn’t ruffle my feathers! More pernicious are expressions where a word with several meanings can result in a dangerous ambiguity. A good example is ‘in the public interest’, which does NOT mean ‘the public is fascinated by this’.

  78. My SOED has bar III The barrier or wooden rail at which prisoners are stationed for arraignment, trial or sentence. 2 Hence a) Court b a ( particular)court of law Middle English, thus hardly an instance of modern laxity.

  79. Came very late to this today: missed the theme completely and no, I’ve never met the tennis bagel either.
    Does anyone know of a use of tile=hat that isn’t that music hall song? It looks to me like obsolete slang that has accidentally survived thanks to one well known reference.

  80. If anyone is still interested at this late hour, the full OED has this:
    22. a. The barrier or wooden rail marking off the immediate precinct of the judge’s seat, at which prisoners are stationed for arraignment, trial, or sentence.
    b. figurative. A tribunal, e.g. that of reason, public opinion, conscience.

    23. a. This barrier, as the place at which all the business of the court was transacted, soon became synonymous with: Court; esp. in at (the) bar: in court, in open court. trial at bar: a trial before the full court in which the action or indictment is brought; in England, the Queen’s Bench Division.

    Plenty of citations, going all the way back to the 14th century – so well established, with strong evidence that it’s in common use.

    Turns out ‘called to the bar’ has a slightly different origin though:

    24. A barrier or partition separating the seats of the benchers or readers from the rest of the hall, to which students, after they had attained a certain standing, were ‘called’ from the body of the hall, for the purpose of taking a principal part in the mootings or exercises of the house. Obsolete. See barrister n. Hence the phrases:— to be called to the bar: to be admitted a barrister. to cast (also throw) over the bar: to deprive of the status of a barrister, to disbar; gen. to reject. After 1600, when utter-barristers, as well as sergeants and apprentices-at-law were allowed to plead in the law-courts, bar in these phrases seems to have been popularly assumed to mean the bar in a court of justice, outside of which ordinary barristers appear to plead, while King’s Counsel and Sergeants-at-Law have places within it. Hence the modern phrase to be called within the bar: to be appointed King’s (or Queen’s) Counsel.

  82. As we are all aware, people at large are lazy and have their own priorities. I would forgive all the uses of are for our, let alone alibi for excuse, if they would only drive more considerately!
    You can either have usage, or disappearance into obscurity (like this rather late post).

  85. Rather late to this. I had HAPSBURG and convinced myself it was BRUSHED that was wrong as “Hurry to climb into bed…” makes no use of the “climb” indicator.

    Then reread the HABSBURG clue, doh!

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