Guardian 28,785 / Crucible

70 comments on “Guardian 28,785 / Crucible”

1. Thanks Eileen, a treat from beginning to end, as you say.

   (Never mind Roz, you’ve had a few days now without themes. It was good while it lasted. 😉 )

   HEADLIGHTS was kind of thematic-by-antonymy.

   Gervase / Tassie Tim @somewhere-or-other on the last Qaos blog. Bachelor = BA!

   Many thanks C & E.

2. Most enjoyable, with plenty of smiles. Not being a thespian, I was unaware of the alternative meaning of CORPSES, which had me scratching my head for a while. I struggled with 8d, having assumed that the last word was MACHINE, unable to work out the remainder of the anagram. I hadn’t heard of Ionesco. Why is AT atmosphere? And “scilicet” is a new one for me.

3. What a lovely puzzle! Everything Eileen says… I especially enjoyed the surface of 26a – OK, it’s an easy anagram, but a great clue.

   Thanks to Crucible and Eileen

4. I meant 9d, of course.

5. Thanks Eileen – needed for a few explanations, now so obvious.

   A very enjoyable crossword, though a DNF because I had to reveal HENNA as I was fooled by Staine’s

   Thanks Crucible ( a theatre, too)

6. Enjoyed this. Is this a kind of self-referential theme, Crucible being a well-known theatre?
   Liked the misdirections, eg old western playwright in NOEL COWARD.
   CORPSES is a great example of black humour in the theatre.
   The anagram and the surface in DEUS EX MACHINA was a wonderful discovery.
   The surface of ORTHODOXY made me laugh.

7. Enjoyable puzzle.

   I did not parse 6d or 18d (THE + AT + RE?). Did not know that AT = atmosphere.

   Thanks, both.

8. Thanks Crucible and Eileen
   Even I saw the theme today. Lots to enjoy; perhaps the worst thing about the puzzle was the grid – it seemed almost like four separate puzzles.
   Not keen on “getting” in 12a.
   (Trivial misprint in 21d, Eileen.)

9. I didn’t parse ESCHEW correctly, so many thanks, Eileen. By the way you have OPERS for OPERA in your explanation of OPERATE.

10. @2 Geoff Down Under, at is the symbol for a technical atmosphere (a unit of pressure).
    Scilicet was new to me too.

11. Thanks, muffin and Blaise – fixed now.

12. Failed to parse SHERIDAN because I had HER ID for the woman and the documents and couldn’t sort out the rest. Missed SC(ilicet) as usual, and didn’t know AT=atmosphere.
    Isn’t ATLAS a triple def: the book of maps and the Atlas mountain range+the AT LAS(t) bit?

13. A mixture of easy and tough but pleased to finish after yesterday’s failure. Theme became clear early on but didn’t really help. I liked NOEL COWARD, ATLAS, MAGIC SHOW, STAGEHANDS, the nice surface for NEATEN and the amusing CORPSES.

    Ta Crucible & Eileen

14. Really enjoyed this playful romp – I looked for Arthur Miller or maybe a reference to Sheffield.
    Very pleasing anagrams for 9d and 26a, and more mortification at 4d.

    Thanks Crucible & Eileen

15. Delightful, and even I spotted the theme, though I did fail to parse ENTER, being misled by “canal = ER[IE]” and unable to see why ENT would be “trouble”.

    Wasn’t sure about AT (it isn’t in my copy of Chambers) but I accept GillGamesh@10’s ruling.

16. Loved this all the way.

    I parsed ESCHEW as E’s (drug that is) + CHEW (cut) which I now see as clunky Eileen has right (of course).

    She also mentions copses which made me chuckle thinking that would be how Gollum would described the police!

    Thanks both.

17. …oh dear…Eileen has it right!

18. Thanks, essexboy @1 – you beat me to it. One counter-example, Gervase…

19. poc @15 – I meant to mention that AT is in Collins, though not in Chambers.

20. gladys@12

    ATLAS: 2 def + one wordplay.

21. gladys@12. I also thought that ATLAS was a triple def. Eileen’s underlining I believe should be ‘Book’ only.

22. ATLAS On second thoughts agree with KVa@20. I can see now why Eileen underlined both book and range.
    I haven’t seen one like that before.

23. I enjoyed that, much more my cup of tea than yesterday’s. Some lovely clues that made me smile (NOEL COWARD, ORTHODOXY, BAWDINESS). I had heard of most of the playwrights referenced but resorted to Google to confirm IONESCO.

    I had to reveal ATLAS (kicked myself, really should have seen that) and HENNA (which I wouldn’t have got, to be fair).

    New to me: SC for that is; AT for atmosphere.

    Thanks both!

24. Even I couldn’t fail to spot the theme today. I thought EXIT and the crossing ENTER was a reference to the Bard “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances….”
    Geoff Down Under @2 and Michelle @7, I don’t think AT = atmosphere. Chambers 2014 has “atm”, not “at” as the abbreviation and that tallies with my memory, the Wiki article and a host of other sources.

25. TimC@ 24. Good spot. EXIT and ENTER. How could we have a theme like this without Shakespeare?

26. Tim C@24 – under pressure I’d say AT is ‘technical’ as opposed to ‘standard’ atmosphere (atm) but I’ve no idea what that means 🙂

27. paddymelon @25 – particularly from Crucible. 😉 Well spotted, TimC!

28. wynsum @24 when people use “atmosphere” in reference to a pressure unit they mean “standard atmosphere” which is the SI.

29. I thought this was more straightforward than some of Crucible’s, and enjoyable.

    The standard abbreviation for atmosphere is usually atm with Collins being the exception. However, even the Wiki source quoted by Tim C@24 has 1 AT (? 1 kgf/cm2) in the table, so I guess it’s OK.

    I liked the surface for ATTENDS, the tricky device for MAGIC SHOW, and the great anagram for DEUS EX MACHINA. I’m ashamed to say that I missed the ENTER(itis), thinking it was something to do with ENT and ears, doh!

    Thanks Crucible and Eileen.

30. The ? above should be an equivalence sign or could be replaced with =.

31. Great puzzle, I spotted the theme for the first time ever and it did help although most clues were pretty straightforward. Did not get HENNA, never heard of SC or AT so thanks for parsing Eileen, and the giggling clips
    Thank you Crucible.

32. Last two in were ATLAS and the, I thought, rather unconvincing HEADLIGHT. I wonder whether Crucible might have wanted Limelight or Spotlight there to fit the theme if he hadn’t inserted ORTHODOXY and ATLAS already as the crossers. Wasn’t quite as impressed with this as with the general plaudits above, found this a bit flat. Thought HENNA a bit clunky. Probably just me this morning. Had FirM in instead of TEAM for a while, but not long before I realised the imprecision of my ways…
    Thanks Crucible and Eileen.

33. Three enjoyable puzzles on the trot (don’t do Monday’s ones – – so no slight to that day’s setters). Good variety of words and a non-intrusive theme. Generous (and well constructed) central anagram helped. IONESCO was a jorum for me. Interestingly, he/she is listed as a dramatist but not a playwright in Bradford’s; vice-versa for SHERIDAN. Maybe there’s a technical difference although the two entries cross-reference each other.

    We had Shakespeare yesterday to warm us up 😉

    Thanks Crucible and Eileen.

34. Nicely clued puzzle. The theme helped of course.

    ORTHODOXY was my fave.

    Thanks Crucible and Eileen

35. To be pedantic, an atmosphere isn’t an SI unit. The SI unit of pressure is the Pascal (1 Newton per square metre). There are 101325 Pascals in 1 atmosphere.

36. Nice spot Tim C @24

37. You are correct muffin @35.

38. Eileen — thanks for explaining ESCHEW. I forgot about sc=scilicet, which is not part of my active vocabulary.

    [What did Macbeth say when he saw Birnam Wood heading for Dunsinane? Cheeze it, the copse!”]

    Eileen — why is Crucible particularly likely to include references to Shakespeare?

    Thanks, Crucible and Eileen.

39. Thanks Crucible for a thoroughly enjoyable crossword. I particularly liked STAGEHANDS, ENTER, DENUDED, IONESCO, and my top pick DEUS EX MACHINA. [As an aside I highly recommend Alex Garland’s film, Ex Machina, a captivating and chilling thriller.] I didn’t get the AT in THEATRE and I ended up revealing ATLAS but otherwise it was smooth sailing. Thanks Eileen for the blog.

40. We did have Romeo and Juliet so Shakespeare was included!
    After the controversy over ? a few weeks ago, I see no one has queried the absence of Ë in Noël!
    A lovely crossword, and I soon spotted the theme, which is unusual for me!

41. Don’t know what happened there. Should have been ?

42. I give up. N with a tilda!

43. Clean bowled on HENNA but didnt stand a chance on CORPSES

44. Lovely Goldilocks crossword for me.
    Thanks/congrats TimC for spotting EXIT/ENTER.
    I thought HENNA was rather good, with the apparent musical theme an excellent bit of misdirection.

45. Ditto copmus @43, never come across copsing, although got in trouble from several episodes thereof at school. Nothing quite like the delicious fizz of repressed hilarity.

46. Yes, even I spotted the theme today. I agree with the largely universal view that this was a great crossword. Thanks to Crucible and Eileen.

47. {Another classic example of corpsing.]

48. … corpsing …

49. Valentine @38 – if you’re still there ….

    I should have said ‘Crucible as Radian’ (in the Indy). I was going to say ‘a few months ago’ – but it turns out, as so often, to be three or four years ago! – Radian treated us to a series of puzzles based on Shakespearean speeches – from at least June 2018 to August 2019. (I have been researching these ever since I saw your comment but I kept getting side-tracked, delving into the puzzles, and lost count.)

    I can’t give you links to a sample of them, because I believe that including too many links turns the comments into spam but, if you search the 15² archive for Radian, you’ll be able to find them, if you’re interested. I, of course, absolutely loved them!

50. Yes, nice puzzle especially the theme (though it didn’t help me much!)

    Spotted the theme but also noted that “crucible” is not only the name of a theatre, but the name of a play (by Arthur Miller)…

    DNF as I had to reveal 19ac. Not sure if I would ever have unravelled that one on my own… So, many thanks to Eileen for the usual excellent blog, and Crucible for the crushed brain abs.

51. I was able to get a handle on quite a few by following the wordplay, which makes a nice change after Imogen yesterday. Misled myself into thinking that HIGHLIGHT was the answer to 15d – and if Crucible had used that, he could have had STAGE at 17a! But I suppose with STAGEHANDS at 26a this would have been a bit of a blot.

    Thanks to Crucible and Eileen.

    …and thanks to paddymelon @6 for the reference to one of my local theatres!

52. For HEADLIGHT, I hadn’t thought of miners, but of racing cars in the pits. At least I got it, despite now realising that very few racing cars have headlights.

    I also didn’t know AT, SC, IONESCO or even NORMA, but worked them out. I’m not a theatrophile. Even SHERIDAN was a scratch around in the back of my mind, and I had to rule out Sheraton first, once I remembered it was a hotel 🙂

53. PhilJ @52 – and I never thought of racing cars!
    NORMA (= opera), along with SC[ilicet] is well worth filing away. Practically the only thing I know about this opera is that it crops up a lot in crosswords. 😉

54. Is that in the MAJOR(ity) of crosswords Eileen?

55. AlanC 😉

56. That was the hardest for me for months. Much harder than yesterday.
    I know very few playwrights and could parse very little having revealed most of it.
    I need a theme like the recent Magic Roundabout theme, that’s about my level.
    Thanks both.

57. Thanks Eileen and Crucible. I managed this better than most of late, and got the theme too, although I was thrown for a bit thinking that 16 was referring to John Stainer (given the theme).

58. Thanks Eileen and having failed again to spot scilicet lurking I will add Norma to my mental list as you also suggest! Agree with you assessment in the preamble too, thanks Crucible. PS philJ@52, I tried Sheraton first too as there was a street of that name on the estate of my youth where everything was named after writers. No Ionesco though!

59. Pat Morrissey @57 – yes, a lovely clue: we were obviously meant to be led up the garden by Sir John (not exactly thematic, though?).

    Having sung ‘The Crucifixion’ several times but not knowing much else about him, I must thank you for prompting me to look him up. His Wikipedia entry reveals a quite remarkable career,
    

60. I hate to name drop but I did once, long ago, attend a dinner at the Maison Française in Oxford at which Ionesco and his wife were guests of honour. It was a dramatic evening for all sorts of reasons!

61. I bet! – thanks for that!

62. Not really into this today so went out for a walk around Biarritz and Mrs CinF points out the answer to 9d, a shop selling motor bikes, surf boards and cycles. Spoiler?

63. Not really – unless you give us a clue?

64. Eileen thank you for the Stainer link, I had never heard of him and find it remarkable that probably his biggest impact on many of us comes from his support for the introduction of the Tonic solfa scale that we encounter so often!

65. Hi Gazzh – this is the best-known piece from the work I referred to earlier

66. Eileen @63. There is a sporting goods shop in Biarritz whose name is the answer to 9d. I think Clive is pointing out the unlikelihood of being able to buy a spoiler there, as it’s a specialised part for a sports car. Or possibly the unfairness of his wife spotting the solution to a clue that had stumped him?

67. Corpsing on stage is an excruciating feeling because there’s nothing you can do about it. When I was a luvvie, though, I was always amazed at how much you could get away with without the audience actually noticing.

68. Held up a bit by HENNA and also SC which I am hoping to remember next time.
    Thanks both

69. Confused by 24 – what’s the purpose of “what’s choking it?”

70. tuliporturnip @69 – ‘what’s choking it’ is the containment indicator, inviting us to remove the outside letters in the clue: jasmiNE AT ENtrance.

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