Guardian 28,797 – Qaos

74 comments on “Guardian 28,797 – Qaos”

1. Funny week at the Grauniad. Pretty chewy on Monday and Tuesday. Straightforward Wednesday. Today… well, good while it lasted. Maybe I was just on the setter’s wavelength today, but I’m going to have to go find another puzzle now!

   Completely missed the theme I’m afraid. Thanks for the blog and puzzle.

2. Thanks Andrew, not too challenging but lots of enjoyable clues.
   I liked Qaos’s economy, interesting surfaces and indicators in HUSTLER, DREW, INDIGO BLUE, and INERT.
   Interesting that he didn’t indicate Spooner in WINDMILL, but an anagram, and don’t know yet why it’s defined as ‘toy’.

   Qaos said on his own website: Can you uncover the mysteries in my latest Guardian crossword?
   Not familiar with Nancy Drew, so I drew a blank on the theme.

3. Re 12 across, and apologies if the topic has been discussed before, but steel is not an example of a metal.

4. Another one drawing a blank on the theme, and I did remember Qaos usually has a theme and look, but my daughter found the Nancy Drew books from the library so I didn’t pay a lot of attention. There is another young adult title in INDIGO BLUE, but nothing else that linked.

5. Thanks for explaining the theme, Andrew. I looked hard throughout but failed as I am completely unfamiliar with this one. I thought it might be Adrian Mole (SECRET DIARY), or something to do with HIDDEN WINDMILLs or ELECTRIC CLOCKS.

   How does “reaching for the stars” indicate a reversal, in 23d?

6. @5 David Ellison, it’s presumably a reversal of a vertical clue, the letters going from low to high.

7. Oh dear, another one where the theme was wasted on me! Oh, well. Quite enjoyable; nothing too taxing. I suppose windmills can be toys, but rather an odd definition for 16d, I thought. And I couldn’t equate spots with clocks, although I see OED lists it as “British informal”. In 18a, I’m more used to “department” being shortened to “dept” than “dep”, but no matter.

8. Stumbled on the theme after thinking of the Siouxsie and the Banshees song “The Staircase (Mystery)”. With Hustler and Electric Blue appearing in the answers, I at first considered an entirely different genre of teenage reading matter.

9. Not really Thursday fare (more Monday lite?)
   But very pleasant
   Many thanks both

10. Not too taxing this morning but I enjoyed it. I’ve heard of Nancy Drew but never read them and nor did my kids so the theme passed me by. I like the idea of a Siouxsie theme, perhaps another time!
    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

11. Paddymelon @ 2. I don’t think windmill could be a Spoonerism of “mind will” as “mind” and “wind” (aa in “windmill”) don’t rhyme.

12. A rich language like English can afford both DEPRAVATION (the act of depraving) and DEPRAVITY (the state of being depraved), but I haven’t met the former before.

    Found this easier than the usual Qaos. Liked HUSTLER for the Clouseau/Pink Panther allusions, and totally failed to find the theme as I barely know that the Nancy Drew mysteries exist and have certainly never read any.

13. Can someone/thing be depravated?
    Anyway, often don’t worry too much about themes but knowing he has them I searched hidden + staircase and there they all were, 50-odd preg-Nancy Drew adventures, what fun! All good, ta QnA.

14. (Andy Doyle @8: you can add the WINDMILL to your “blue” list – the theatre that famously never clothed).

15. I rattled through nearly all this quickly (for me) and after a slight pause came back and the rest clicked into place. Felt almost Quiptic to this beginner. I didn’t spot the theme at all. Nice to finish one so quickly so I’m not complaining.

    WINDMILL as ‘toy’ is odd though.

16. I’d guess the WINDMILL is one of these – but they do have other names.

17. Well there had to be a theme because it’s Qaos, but I couldn’t see it despite looking for one. I have actually heard of the Nancy Drew mysteries via the take-offs of them by the brilliant cartoonist Kate Beaton, but I wouldn’t have remembered any of the titles.

    Still you can enjoy Qaos’s puzzles perfectly well without bothering about the theme. Many thanks both.

18. Re windmill as a toy. I vauely remember as a child going to the seaside and getting a windmill. Basically a thing that can be blown round on a stick – the seaside was usually pretty windy. On reflection not much of a toy, but it was a toy.

19. That was a bit of a breeze but fun while it lasted. When HUSTLER went in first, I too had that fleeting thought Andy Doyle @8. I guessed the theme towards the end but having no knowledge, it was of no help whatsoever. Quickest Qaos by a stretch.

    Ta Qaos & Andrew

20. A fairly quick one and got the theme post solve and had heard of Nancy but had to look up the books. I liked INSOLENCE for the substitution and CLUE for the self referential definition.
    Crispy @3, if “metal” can be used for the stones used as roadbase, I’m sure it can be stretched to the common usage of describing alloys of metal.
    Here is a Windmill Toy for those who’ve never seen one.

21. Tim C @20. Hmm. Just looked at Chambers, and it actually gives alloy as one of the definitions of metal, which I find incredible. I’m sure my old chemistry teacher will be turning in his grave (assuming he’s dead, of course!)

22. Nancy who?
    Crispy@3. I have a lot of metal in my worshop; much of it is steel.
    Easy for Qaos, I thought.
    Thanks Q@A

23. Andy @8/Alan @19 – um, me too…

    Thanks, Qaos – lovely puzzle, and no less enjoyable for being towards the easier end of the spectrum – lots of very nice clues. DIARY, DEPRAVATION, CLOCKS, INERT among my favourites.

    I had no hope with the theme – heard of it, but don’t think I’ve ever read any of the books or seen the TV series. But as always with Qaos, not knowing the theme doesn’t get in the way of the solving experience, which is good.

24. Of course Geoff Down Under@11. WINDMILL Fraine bayed.
    I do remember the windmill toys at fairs (shows in Oz).
    WINDMILLs of your mind?
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEhS9Y9HYjU

25. Thanks Qaos and Andrew
    No chance of the theme for me. I did like STAIRCASE, and FAST BOWLER for the misleading “lent”.
    I raised an eyebrow at PR for “present” too.
    I don’t think the seaside toys could be called “windmills”, as in order to be a mill, the wind power must be harnessed to do something – grind grain or pump water, perhaps.

26. I think the PR is public relations as in an ad campaign?

27. Didn’t get DEPRAVATION, but enjoyed the rest of it. INERT featured a clever way of signalling a reversal, I thought.
    Thanks, both.

28. I never thought I’d ever be saying this with a Qaos puzzle – and the words do sound rather smug and arrogant – but found this a very swift write in. Though there were some lovely clues along the way…

29. Anyone else remember the old old joke about the farmer’s boy who grew into a man who could clear the air because he was an ex-tractor fan?

30. … not 50-odd books but175 of the buggers, 80 million copies sold, who knew!

31. What a lovely puzzle. It had a Monday feel to it, but I have no complaints about that!

    Thanks Q&A

32. Very enjoyable puzzle even though I did not see the theme. Nancy Drew is not an author I am familiar with.

    Liked FAST BOWLER, TURNS IN, INERT, LAY HANDS ON, EXTRACTORS, SMARTS, CLUE, ELECTRIC (loi).

    Thanks, both.

33. Like khayyam @1 I found this and yesterday’s easier than Monday and Tuesdays – and as Andrew said the anagrams helped a lot.

    Favourites included FAST BOWLER, CLUE, CLOCKS

    Didn’t get the theme – never read any of the books.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew

34. I’ve never heard of Nancy Drew – solving 9ac immediately after 5ac, I rather hoped for teenage Adrian – but I enjoyed the puzzle.

    Lots of lovely clues. I particularly liked HUSTLER, SECRETS, INDIGO BLUE, INSOLENCE, LARCENY, LAY HANDS ON and INERT.

    Those toys have always been WINDMILLS for me.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

35. Thanks Andrew, a similar experience to you down to the query on PR: bodycheetah@26 if PR is the campaign then where does the movement come from and what is the present? Perhaps “publicity” would have worked better than “present”? Hopefully Qaos will clarify. Crispy@ 3+21 I had never considered that an alloy of metals is not itself a metal – steel was used elsewhere recently in the same way and i don’t recall a similar query – but I am amenable to the idea that classic album “British Steel” is more in the hard rock camp than heavy metal! Agree with David Ellison@5 that nothing is reaching for the stars in a clue written horizontally, I had promised myself not to complain about that again but never mind. Anyway after all that I got a lot of fun from these especially 3d, thanks Qaos.

36. Steel does contain some carbon, though generally less than 1%; usually all the rest is metal of one sort or another. I wonder if Crispy is confusing “metal” with “element” – steel is the former but not the latter.

37. Gazzh @35 you’re right – btw Chambers has Pr. for PRESENT

38. So we’ve had Monday on Wednesday and Thursday this week!

    No idea about the theme – it passed me by.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew

39. Managed to finish over a cup of coffee – never happened before. Never heard of Nancy Drew but, as has already been mentioned, it wasn’t necessary for a successful completion of the crossword. Thanks Qaos (and Andrew, though the blog not needed today, except as a useful starter for discussions).

40. Dictionaries are there for a reason….

    “PR abbrev. : press release; prize ring; proportional representation; public relations; Puerto Rico.”
    “Pr (chem) symbol : praseodymium.”
    “Pr. abbrev. : priest; Prince; Provencal.”
    “pr abbrev. : pair; per; per rectum (L; med), through the rectum.”
    “pr. abbrev. : present; price.”

41. Michelle @32 ND is not an author, which is about all I knew about her. This from Mr. Google “Nancy Drew is a fictional character who appears in several mystery book series as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene.”

42. Re dictionaries. Chambers:
    Eclair – n. a cake, long in shape but short in duration.

43. In the Seventies The Hardy Boys & Nancy Drew Mysteries was required UK TV viewing for children (& students viewing ‘ironically’). Wikipedia will remind you if you are of a certain age. I see production didn’t actually last that long but the repeats must have rumbled on and on.

44. I didn’t parse 18a when doing the puzzle, but as I was reading the blog here it seemed clear to me;

    I (independence) + MOVEMENT ( campaign, as in “the Labour Movement”) with PR (present) inserted into it.

    Thanks to Qaos for a puzzle and Andrew for parsing some of the others I didn’t

45. Well, a DNF as I dismissed DEPRAVATION because I thought the word that looks like that is actually DEPRIVATION. I guess I should check before dismissing weird looking words. I did pick the theme as being some sort of sleuth mystery, and assumed it was one I didn’t know – almost right, though I have heard of Nancy Drew. A pleasant solve, nevertheless. Thanks, Qaos and Andrew.

46. Good, interesting crossword – I looked for the theme and didn’t find it, although I did think maybe DREW was important but didn’t look her up.

    I liked LAY HANDS ON because of the surface, DIARY for the use of ‘regularly covering’ (I’ve always wondered how to do that), and INERT for the unusual Down reverser. As others have pointed out pr. = present and metal = alloy are both in Chambers.

    Thanks Qaos

47. I liked TURNS IN for the double Italian reference, and like others this was a quick solve, although I couldn’t parse all of them. so thanks Qaos and Andrew.

48. This was a pleasant outing, didn’t take long.

    Never spotted “day” in the DIARY clue.

    This may be the first time I’ve spotted a Qaos theme. At least I’ve learned always to look for one! HIDDEN STAIRCASE sounded dimly familiar to me, brought NANCY DREW to mind, so I looked up all the books. I did read a few of them many years ago. The original books would be very dated now –Nancy is a privileged white girl who dashes around the country in a “roadster,” as I recall — but they got rewritten in 1959, after I’d read my few.

    I’m surprised to see Nancy in a British puzzle — I thought the series would be obscure even to American readers. But I found it went on producing books even to 1987! The “author,” Carolyn Keene, was a pen name used by a series of writers, who were paid $125 per book and had to give up all claim to the royalties.

    I would have thought that “corruption” would be less DEPRAVATION than “Depravity.” (Macavity, Macavity, there’s no one like Macavity…)

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

49. Eventually got the theme after ‘drew’. On looking up the Nancy Drew mysteries in Wikipedia, I was amused to see one of the titles was ‘The Clue in the Crossword Cipher’!

50. Thanks Qaos. There were many clues I enjoyed including DREW, INSOLENCE, LARCENY, HUSTLER, LAY HANDS ON, and CLUE. This was a quick solve and I knew there would be a theme. When I saw CLOCKS I thought of Agatha Christie but Nancy Drew emerged. I have only a superficial knowledge of the character but Wikipedia filled in the rest. Thanks Andrew for the blog.

51. It appears @5 Dave Ellison and I are in the minority concerning 23D. Not only does @6 Maarvarq understand it, but @27 Neil H and @46 Robi go so far as to praise it. Myself, I remain unconvinced that “…reaching for the stars…” is a reversal indicator.

    All it does for me is remind me of Bette Davis sharing a couple of fags with Paul Henreid in Now, Voyager.

52. Andrew Tyndall @51: “Reaching for the stars” might be stretching it as a reversal indicator but it contributed immensely to the surface reading. That alone is enough for me though strict purists might disagree.

53. Andrew Tyndall@51 “Reaching for the stars” means “upward,” and therefore in a vertical clue is a reversal. It wouldn’t be in a horizontal one.

54. Never heard of Nancy Drew. Still one is always learning
    (Sad to see the sudden death of John Young one of the four Biggles known as Shed along with Graham Halpern and Henderson )

55. muffin @25: I work in a supermarket as a shopper, and I’m pretty sure those toys are called windmills there. The thing with words is that it doesn’t matter what you think they should mean, it’s how most people actually use them. We also sell “bubble lawnmower toys”. They absolutely do not mow lawns. I’m pretty sure most folk who just read “bubble lawnmower” don’t expect them to though.

    Good puzzle, despite having no chance at the theme. Aware of the name being old enough, complete ignorance of the body of work though.

56. @52 Tony Santucci & @53 Valentine: point taken, but I suppose it is the “reaching” that I object to since there is no upward movement involved, merely aspiration. By contrast, for example, keeping the theatrical reference, “heading for the balcony” would have been all right by me.

57. AndrewTyndall @56. In my job I reach for stuff all the time. Shorter customers ask me to get stuff from the top shelves because I’m fairly tall. I cannot do that without reaching for it. I would absolutely say I reach upward, and I’m just going for a bottle of cola, not the stars.

58. MarkN @55 A bubble lawn mower! I didn’t know such things existed. That’s brilliant. 😀 I might be too old for one though.

59. Late to the pass today. Pleasant enough puzzle, much less challenging than Qaos usually provides us with, but nine the worse for that.

    Theme escapes me completely; I have heard of Nancy Drew and I knew that she was the protagonist of a series of children’s novels written by multiple authors, but I have never registered any of the titles.

    Crispy @3: steel is strictly not ‘a metal’, which would imply an element, but it is certainly ‘metal’, without the indefinite article – and Qaos doesn’t include ‘a’.

    Thanks to S&B

60. Correction: none the worse 🙂

61. Well it didn’t fly in for me. Had to have a break then finished. PR for present – I bristle at these mini abbreviations – at first I thought it was just so for present!
    Theme searched for several times but didnt read any.
    Thanks both.

62. ..just P for present

63. A rare finish for me, so it must have been easy!
    I have never heard of Nancy Drew either.
    EXTRACTOR was a bit of an old chestnut, I enjoyed FAST BOWLER.
    A few parsings to sort out.
    Thanks Q and P

64. I spent as long looking for a theme post-finish as in doing the puzzle, and actually got it, despite never reading any of the books, so I went away happy. Could not come up with a satisfactory parse of IMPROVEMENT, though.

    As for steel being a metal, my initial thought was NO!!!, but I’ve been surprised so much before by this kind of thing that I did some checking and found that alloys, amalgams, some mixtures all qualify. So it would seem a metal is anything which is metallic!

65. I’m baffled by posts that doubt that steel is a metal. What is it if it isn’t one? Metals don’t have to be elements, as I suggested earlier.

66. Surprised that some of you in Britain have never heard of Nancy Drew. She and the Hardy Boys were common books for kids here in Kenya in the seventies. A rather Mondayish Qaos for me.

67. Muffin@65 you nailed it there. Some chemistry teachers teach that metals are elements, hence the problem.

68. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew. A quite straightforward puzzle as it sometimes the case with Qaos – fine by me because I have a stack of books waiting to be read ! I also looked at Qaos’s website as mentioned by paddymelon@2 , but apart from making solutions like SECRET and HIDDEN stand out a little more his hint didn’t help. As I said last week or the week before, I know fine well that Qaos always has a theme but I find his themes becoming ever more abstruse and I can’t remember the last time the theme was any help in solving the puzzle. NEver heard of NAncy Drew or her mysteries, I’m afraid !

69. My slight objection with 23d is that the clue indicates that INERT is reaching for the stars during “theatre night”, which doesn’t make sense for a phrase written horizontally on the page.

    This is different from the more familiar situation where part of the wordplay is indicated to be written upwards in the grid, helping to form a down answer.

    I loved the crossword, but I think this clue doesn’t quite work.

70. My favorite clue by far was 6D!

    Many, many years ago I read Nancy Drew mysteries. The only reference I’ve seen in the last few years is a series of computer games.

71. I share the bafflement of Muffin , steel is about as “metal” as you can get in all its properties , along with brass, bronze, all the precious metal alloys used for jewellery, aluminium alloys for aircraft…
    Maybe the problem is the Periodic Table being split into metals and non-metals leading to the metal=element issue.
    To add to the confusion, stars have the property of “metallicity ” linked to the proportion of elements with proton number above hydrogen and helium , this is closely linked to their age.

72. For 17D should it be tips of “some expert” for the SE or is expert part of the definition.?

73. Woody I had the same idea – Some Expert. If we take SomE then expert is redundant. After the 1930s I do not think APPEASER = expert peacemaker.

74. There seems to be another Julia commenting @18, not me. Should the system detect this? I’ve not noticed previously as I don’t always read all the comments.

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