Guardian Cryptic 28,825 by Qaos

105 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,825 by Qaos”

1. I also found OUTRUN and GAUNTLET as arcade games, although they’re not my thing these days.
   I also wonder about PAPERS. Given that Standard and Sun are are also papers it makes it almost &lit (apart from ‘cover training’).
   I liked ISOTOPES despite the horrible idea of inhaling deuterium and tritium (I think that’s called drowning) and OUTRUN.

2. I saw the theme quite early after PONG and INVADERS, though it helped only a little. I thought it was a fairly easy QAOS today.

   [Wordiness: I hadn’t really noticed, but I guess “charade” and “envelope”could be dropped, though it doesn’t bother me in the least – just keep up the fine blogs, PeterO]

   Thanks, Qaos, also – and so to bed.

3. Noticed space invader as our kids (now mid 40s to 50s) played the local arcade, and around the house was the odd pacman thingy, but I know none of these game names. And I’m sure the little grey cells are fading … stared dumbly at the crossers of the last two, remark and arcade, before finally registering that the latter was simply a + (raced)* and writing them both straight in, kicking self while swearing profusely. Hey ho, say lar vee, ta PnQ.

4. I don’t think TSUNAMI has much to do with the theme as it goes. are you thinking of Taito?
   OUT RUN and GAUNTLET are classics as Tim points out, and I fancied that STREET LAMP might be a swing-and-a-miss for Street Fighter, while PAPERS may have stood in for Paper Boy.
   I feel like REFUNDS, as in “No ~”, and PAY OFF may have had something to do with the theme, but who can say?
   Cracking puzzle anyway.

5. …after a bit more digging, there was a company called Tsunami Motion who made seats for arcade games that moved as you played. Bit niche, but still… 🙂

6. They also produced games ozofriendly @5. I’d never heard of them.

7. PeterO, I think your explanation of 5 down is a little TOO brief! Overall, I think not too wordy,

8. Yeah I saw that too, Tim @6, but that’s a different mob and they made PC games, not arcade games. 🙂

9. Thank you for the blog PeterO. I don’t think you’re too wordy. It helps solvers, not only when stuck, but also to learn the language of clue types, which, by being accessible, encourages the growth of the solving community and benefits us all.
   Just a couple of comments about the blog. POSITION wordplay is unfinished. ‘charming’ is anagrind?
   Divorcée (feminine) has to be the then soon to be former Mrs Kramer.

   I found the position of the reversal indicator (going up) in AUTEUR confusing, thinking the car had to go inside RUE/EUR

   Liked the subtraction of disco in VERY, a nice misdirection of the usual club deletion.
   Having encountered CENTIPEDES in my room and in my tent, I had a pretty good idea that they have a lot more than 6 legs, and I tend to give them a very wide berth.

   Favourite were STUNTWOMAN, GAUNTLET, and ASTEROID

10. Some tricksy but fun clues.
    As Tim C@1 alluded to PAPERS and also ENROLLED seemed to be clued deliberately to make the definition easy, but the parsing difficult. Took me a while to figure EN wasn’t “nurse”, but “nurse extremely upset”. Is this a Qaos thing?
    PeterO, I think your style is fine and appreciate the fact each blogger has their own. Thanks also to Qaos for another enjoyable challenge.

11. Re CENTIPEDES, Chambers has a much looser definition for insect, but I can’t say I like it.
    As for the theme, I was always a fan of Marble Madness, pity it wasn’t there!

12. No less an authority than the OED says of insect: ” A small invertebrate animal, usually having a body divided into segments, and several pairs of legs, and often winged; in popular use comprising, besides the animals scientifically so called, many other arthropods, as spiders, mites, centipedes, woodlice, etc., and other invertebrates”

13. I know throwing down the gauntlet is to issue a challenge, but is the gauntlet the actual challenge?
    As for your style, Peter, I like it for the same reason as paddymelon.

14. I guessed 10 might be very because nothing else fitted the crossers but couldn’t see the definition or wordplay. The latter makes sense now, but I still don’t get how real=very. Like “the very thing” perhaps, but I would have thought real=exact in that phrase. Nobody else has commented so it must be missing something.

15. @14 it’s just a lazy contraction of “really”

16. ‘Very as in ‘very God of very God” in the Nicene Creed

17. Thanks, PeterO. Paddymelon expressed my thoughts perfectly, don’t change, please.

    Ginf and Rob T:- failed to say ‘thanks’ yesterday, work intruded. So thanks.

    Found this on the easier side of this setter’s arc. Was still searching for a theme when the final ARCADE dropped in and was no help.

    Pleasant solve, thanks Qaos.

18. PS: I still enjoy the simplistic fun of ASTEROIDS!

19. Andrew @12: that looks suspiciously like the quote that kicked off a long running argument about spiders being called insects a while ago … It’s a shame the OED didn’t pick a phrase like ‘… inaccurately used to describe, in addition to …’ but, with any luck, the debate may be less protracted this time. And no jokes about either position not having a leg to stand on …

    Like William @17, I found this more approachable than Qaos can be but it made for a pleasing romp, ADJUDGE, IMPORT DUTY and the nice hidden clue for TSUNAMI were my favourites today. Most of the arcade games mentioned thus far have passed me by though I certainly remember SPACE INVADERS. How easily we were pleased back then. [I’d recommend the book, Ready Player One, to those who haven’t read it. Not so much for the plot – though it’s a fun feelgood storyline – but for the 70’s/80’s pop culture references that litter the novel and which ring all sorts of bells for those who lived through those days.]

    PeterO – as one who is rarely described as laconic, you wouldn’t expect me to say anything other than that I really enjoy your style as it is. I do not consider ‘A charade of …’ to be filler in the slightest!

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO

20. Thanks Qaos and PeterO
    Lyssian @11 and Andrew @12 notwithstanding, the “respected dictionaries” are talking nonsense. Qaos could have used “arthropods” without affecting the clue.
    No theme for me, of course, though I wouldn’t have seen it even if I had been told what it was in advance.

21. I semi-guessed the theme with SPACES, INVADER and ARCADE, but wasn’t confident. I also had a query about the part of speech for VERY, Ravenrider @14, but this has now seems to have been answered, either as an adjective or adverb.

    Favourites were the OUTRUN reverse anagram and the surface for ASTEROID.

    Thanks to Qaos and to PeterO – no problems with wordiness for me

22. Please keep your blogs as they currently are, PeterO. Extremely helpful and I appreciate the style. Missed the theme, but then I know nothing at all about video games except for having heard of SPACE INVADERS, so that isn’t surprising. I did spot that there would be objections to the definition for CENTIPEDES, but I’m happy with common parlance. I thought the definition for DEFENDER as ‘footballer’ should have had a question mark. Not all defenders are footballers, but that’s a very minor quibble.. I was happy to finish this after an uncertain start, and it was satisfying as everything fell into place. 10a was my LOI and it took a while to parse it as I was fixated on C for club. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

23. Top half was more difficult for me. Failed 2d and 10ac.

    I did not parse 15ac (A D + G in JUDE? oh I see now, it’s the actor); 5d P + isnot* around 10? Is something missing in the blog?

    Liked INVADER, REMARK, OUTRUNS.

    I did not see the theme – I know zilch about video games.

    Thanks, both. I do not find your blogs unnecessarily wordy, PeterO. I always enjoy them.

24. Would those here who don’t object to centipedes being referred to as insects be equally relaxed with whales being called fish? It’s pretty much the same degree of error.

25. Don’t ever change, Peter O or Qaos! Thanks both

26. muffin@24. if I get your drift, whales are not fish!!

27. muffin@24 That was one of my many problems with Moby Dick
    A wee bit more serious than all the crit of centipedes

28. That was enjoyable, and even I spotted the theme but I did play a few of them.

    PeterO your style is your style and it’s helpful to have the extra information in clues I’ve solved but can’t parse. Thank you, and to Qaos.

29. Creep-crawlies are defined in Chambers as Insects and centipedes are definitely creep-crawlies ergo … 🙂

30. muffin@25 many words have precise meanings in science and wider meanings in popular usage; the popular use of energy in a mystical sense makes me cringe for example. I don’t know whether fish or whale have a scientific definition at all. Dolphins and “whales” are both cetaceans and are much more closely related than bony fish and cartilaginous fish. Most would probably agree that a starfish is not actually a fish. In the nineteenth century the popular definition of fish was based mainly on shape so included whales, now it excludes air breathers. Given all that, I don’t have a problem with insect being different in popular use to the scientific meaning, though I can see why it would irritate a biologist.

31. I always look forward to your blogs PeterO – nuff said. Like michelle @23, I found the top half much trickier. Saw the theme but apart from SPACE INVADERS, CENTIPEDES and ARCADE, not a scooby. Very satisfying solve though.

    Ta Qaos & PeterO

32. Many thanks to Qaos for a fun solve – I even picked up on the theme – and to PeterO for the, as always, helpful and instructive blog. Not too wordy at *all* 🙂

33. Checked for a theme but still failed to spot it. No excuse really – I recognise most of the ones mentioned!
    One of our five cats is called Ermintrude ?
    I don’t find your blogs too wordy either, PeterO. Thanks for the blog and thanks Qaos for the enjoyable puzzle.

34. @13: There is the term ‘to run the gauntlet’ so I guess it’s acceptable.

35. P.S. The stray question mark is an unsuccessful attempt at an emoji!

36. very good explanations PeterO and, as a new blogger, I shall strive to arrive at more of your descriptive terms – especially envelope, charade, subtraction. Some bloggers just use an asterisk for anagram fodder but each to his own – that’s part of the idiosyncrasy of the site …

37. POSITION:

    If someone has already pointed this out, I am sorry for repeating it.

    P+’IS NOT’ (jumbled-charming is the anagrind here) around ‘I O’ (10).

38. As others have hinted, 5d is P (Prince) + anagram (Charming) of ISNOT around IO (number 10).

39. Just pipped me KVa.

40. Recently PostMark asked about indicators of “hidden” answers. For me “throughout” doesn’t quite work in 4d. I liked VERY when the penny finally dropped. Real is the original meaning of the word as in French vrai . I learnt terms like charade and envelope from your blogs PeterO, so I appreciate your style.

41. Well, the only game I knew was SPACE INVADERS, which I enjoyed playing with the children in the seventies! – but, once again, it didn’t stop me enjoying the puzzle.

    I particularly liked OUTRUN, PROTRUDE (for the sake of Ermintrude), IMPORT DUTY, DEFENDER, the well-hidden TSUNAMI, for its appropriate surface, AUTEUR and ENROLLED.

    Wot, no mathematical clue?

    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

42. Favourites were ASTEROID, very neat and simple, and ADJUDGE for the nice use of “Law”, cleverly at the start of the clue so that we don’t have to argue about decapitalisation.

    Tomsdad @22: I suppose this is a matter of opinion, but I didn’t think “footballer” needed a question mark in 26a. A DEFENDER is an example of a footballer. OK, I see your point that footballers (or some of them) are also examples of DEFENDERs, but by that token we’d have question marks all over the place. “Law” would need one in 15a because there are other Laws apart from Jude (Denis for example).

    Many thanks to Qaos for a great puzzle (I spotted the theme just as I finished) and to PeterO for a great blog – please don’t change your real (=very) helpful style.

43. Just like the compilers, the bloggers have their distinctive styles – and all the more interesting (and helpful!) for that, so no objections from me PeterO.
    No idea about the puzzle theme but a fun solve.

44. (Me @42… I think I should have said that “Law” would need one in 15a because there are other Judes apart from Jude Law. That is, Jude is an example of a Law and Law is an example of a Jude. Phew.)

45. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    Re 26, my view is that ‘footballer’ > ‘defender’ is OK without a question mark, but ‘defender’ > ‘footballer’ would need one.

46. Like many others, I enjoyed Qaos’ puzzle, your as-ever helpful blog PeterO and the various contributions to the comments section.

    I suppose newbie solvers should comment whether blogs are too wordy or not as they are the prime audience for the blogs. I occasionally used to find some setters’ blogs not wordy enough as they assumed too much. The more help that can be given, the more the blog is fulfilling its function in explaining to those who need the explanation. Probably those who said they found your style too wordy, PeterO, didn’t need the blog in the first place.

47. I despair with the “is a centipede an insect” argument. There is common usage and there is more exact scientific usage. Qaos is a crossword compiler dealing in the vernacular. Nuff said.
    Oh, and I forgot to say…. PeterO, your blogs are fine as they are.

48. Thanks both.

    I think you should use as many words as it takes to say what you mean. And I mean what I say….

49. Not too wordy at all. Just right and many thanks for all your work in solving our frequent problems like : I know the answer but why is it the answer!

50. I would vote for keeping your style as it is. As an intermittent and fairly new solver (or would be solver!) I can do with all the help I can get. The language of crossword solving is complex enough without the explanations being too scant as well. Thank you for your work.

51. Left with loi VERY, but had no idea of its provenance, so had to see what PeterO had to say. Would never have realised why otherwise. The wording of 26ac had me thinking, I’ll never get this, until all the crossers were in place. Again, had to refer to PeterO for elucidation. Must say that I didn’t get as much pleasure out of this as I normally do with a Qaos puzzle. Space Invaders never been my thing, didn’t spot theme, not my bag this morning, I’m afraid…

52. Your blogs, PeterO, are excellent just the way they are — for the reasons set out by paddymelon@9. And I agree entirely with Larry@49’s comment: “The more help that can be given, the more the blog is fulfilling its function in explaining to those who need the explanation.”
    This was a jolly good solve, I thought. None too easy and quite carefully constructed wordplay. As an example, the anagram for STUNTWOMAN was clever since a) the anagrist appears to offer a paucity of vowels for a 10-letter solution and b) our (my?) gender-stereotyped brains light more readily on the male than the female among stuntpeople.

53. I think it’s time for someone to act as a contrarian, so here goes. I find your blogging style rather difficult to read, PeterO. I think it’s the non-words, for example in your explanation of 25a, “RCADE”. I prefer (raced)* as it matches the way I think rather better. But your explanations are always clear once I’ve got over my difficulty in reading them!

    As for the puzzle, I enjoyed this one; a fast start and a slow finish in the SE corner. 13d was nice – a not-too-obvious anagram indicator, a not-too-obvious definition, and a not-too-obvious anagram.

54. I always appreciate the clarity of explanations in your blogs, PeterO, so I echo others above in saying please keep on keeping on. Thank you for your fidelity to helpful explanations of the solutions, as you displayed today. I re-examined this puzzle three times on completion looking for the theme but still didn’t see it – I must have led a sheltered life! Thanks to Qaos though for some great clues like 13d STUNTWOMAN and 21d REMARK. It was still a likeable crossword, theme or no theme.

55. [Obviously I crossed with a couple of other posts.]

56. Finished it and liked it. However for those of an age the only games we played were marbles in the gutter, hopscotch,tag etc. Too old for modern gizmos. Also no problems at all with your blog

57. Hi JinA, I think this theme is a matter of how old your kids are and what they were into. [PS have you been sailing?]

58. I wasn’t sure if PeterO was asking whether the wordy phrase should be replaced by something more terse, like a plus sign, or dropped altogether. But I see no need for a change; indeed I always like the blogs and mostly always find the commentary says exactly what I would have said.

59. Another DNF by just 10a. Struggling to see how VERY = REAL, but I’m sure it’s in the dictionary.
    I don’t know what an ISOTOPE is, I vaguely recall it from Chemistry lessons, of which I was particularly useless.
    I’m glad the issue of CENTIPEDE has been discussed, I didn’t think it was an insect either.
    7d was new to me.
    Thanks both.

60. I very much appreciate the explanations you provide in parsing, and reading the extra words, such as they are, has yet to make me late for appointments, so long may they continue!

61. You get a thumbs up from me PeterO.

62. Russtoo @7 etc.
    Yes, 5D did come out a little – shall we say, abrupt. I write the blog entries as I solve, and held up on this one in case I could come up with a more active function for ‘No.’ in the wordplay, and then failed to come back to complete the entry. I think ‘No.’ is there primarily for the surface. Anyway, the entry is now completed (in my usual style).

63. HIYD @ 59 How about “He’s real stupid”?

64. Looked in vain for theme. Only recently heard PONG was the early table tennis game. Had Tetris been in it ….maybe ..?

    Thanks PeterO for being receptive about my remark about your blog style … I was tickled pink just by that…but obviously I’m in a minority.
    For those who missed my comment: “charade” and “envelope” can go for me and anagram fodder needn’t be repeated when a letter or two are added.
    Thanks for the continuing efforts – much appreciated.

65. PeterO I like a chatty blogger myself, it feels like having a friend where I need one, so don’t change anything for me.

    I looked for a theme, honest I did, but I never would have found this one in a million years. Good going, Peter. And thanks for untangling POSITION. I put it in but gave up on the parsing.

    paddymelon@9 I see your point about divorcee needing to be feminine, but in this case I’m not sure. We use the -ee suffix in English to mean a person receiving the action, like payee or employee of either sex. And since most keyboards in English don’t have acute accents, the masculine “divorce,” doesn’t work as a divorced man.

    A good puzzle. I especially liked OUTRUN and STUNTWOMAN. And thanks for the blog, Peter, it was nice to have company.

66. “A charade of J (IVR, ‘Japan’)”. What’s IVR?

67. Thanks to Quos for an enjoyable puzzle, which we managed to solve without recognising the theme.
    COTD was definitely OUTRUN, with it’s clever surface and ingenious wordplay. Thanks also to PeterO for the blog, which was as helpful as ever.
    As you have asked for comments I would advise keeping things as they are. It’s a very informative blog, and we have to remember that new solvers are joining all the time; so, explaining the process of parsing is a valuable part of any blog.

68. Not sure where I stand on insects, though I rather like fish for whales etc. I think I have more of a problem with the appropriation by taxonomists of previously general terms for specific groups.

69. Geoff Down Under @66
    International Vehicle Registration – the sticker such as J in an oval which identifies the country of origin of a car when driven abroad.

70. GDU @66: it’s the indicator of which country a vehicle comes from – usually on a car that is going to be driven in other countries. We don’t see them a lot in Australia for some obscure reason 😉 .

71. I’m with Tim C @47 – why can’t we have both technically precise and common usage? Why would anyone object to the latter? Despite my many terms of taxonomy during my degree, I have no problem with insects = caterpillars, or other strictly incorrect equivalences. This applies to all those who insist on only their technical usage, when others are well known.

    Also agree that the whole issue could be sidestepped by using “creepy crawlies”.

    Now, to the puzzle – I was rather underwhelmed and thought it easier than yesterday’s. Oh and do we expect younger solvers to know the film Kramer v Kramer. That’s almost as old as the last time the England football men won anything!

    Now, to the blogging style – I would say keep it as it is. Those who are learning their way need the fullest explanation possible.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO

72. Thanks for the blog and I really like your style Peter , I find it very hard to explain clues briefly.
    I thought the clues were good today , totally missed the theme, PACMAN might have given me a nudge. I put in TRUE for 10AC , a TRU(c)E sort of being a breakthrough , ASTEROID put me right. OUTRUN was very neat.
    HYD@59 , ISOTOPES have the same proton number but a different baryon number, simple really.

73. I rarely post, but always read the blogs. For me, the more detail in explaining clues the better. Please stay as you are! And thanks to you and all the bloggers for your work.

74. GDU @66 as TassieTiim @70 said, it’s the plate or sticker which says where your vehicle is registered – International Vehicle Registration Code.
    @PeterO – I echo all the positive comments above about your blogging style. Nothing needs changing.
    Thanks Qaos and PeterO for an enjoyable puzzle.

75. Ark Lark @71 Upset to find I may not be able to consider myself a younger solver!!!!

76. Despite being in the right age range for the games in question, and having played most of them many years ago, the theme passed me by! Some days I just can’t see the wood for trees, I guess.

    I nearly had a quibble on PAY OFF being barely cryptic, but I just hadn’t spotted it was a double definition so quibble retracted. I should give the setters the benefit of the doubt more often. The parsing of POSITION was like a mathematical equation and would have taken me just as long to decipher, so I’m glad someone else did it. VERY = ‘real’ is a bit American English to my ears; I got it but do understand the queries above.

    @ PeterO, let me join the “don’t go changing” chorus; for relative newbies the more explanatory the parsing, the better. Other bloggers may be more succinct, but sometimes to the point of inscrutability.

77. Simon S @63 – Thanks…Its a ‘hmmm’ from me, a bit ‘wooly’ for my taste, but I will take the 5th on it as I’m sure it’s a perfectly cosher use.
    I would never use such a construct, a bit ‘un-King’s English’ for me.
    Thanks again.

78. Nark @34

    “gantlet” is a flogging ordeal, literally or figuratively. A person may run a gantlet. A “gauntlet” is a glove.

79. Re 10ac – back in the 60s when I used to go to discos, I thought of them more as dances than clubs. I went to a youth club every week and occasionally we’d have a disco at the club! Very minor difference, I suppose.
    I agree with all the above comments appreciating your blog style, PeterO – not too wordy for me either. And maybe *one* day I’ll remember that Qaos always has a theme!!
    Thanks Q & PO

80. One of the problems with 11a is dictionaries’ inexplicable reluctance to be prescriptive instead of descriptive. The more frequent use of “incorrect” would be welcomed!
    As I said earlier, using “arthropods” instead of “insects would have avoided the problem altogether, but the later suggestion of “creepy-crawlies” would have been even better.

81. Minibeasts is the primary school term covering insects, spiders and many more.

82. Yes, Roz, lots of times I’ve taken a class out pooting for minibeasts!

83. I agree with TimC@47 and ArkLark@71 and anyone else who pleads for acceptance of both technical and vernacular uses of terms. It’s not so different from real=?=VERY here – it’s not always so, but there are some occasions where many people use them interchangeably.

84. Missed the theme (as always…), but I loved this puzzle.

85. muffin @ 80

    If dictionaries were prescriptive, would there have been, 40-odd years ago, a committee of some sort holding discussions about what to call a newly-invented means of near-instant pan global communication?

    Indeed, before dictionaries were a thing the word wouldn’t have been necessary, so presumably the term’s existence stems from its usage becoming widespread.

86. Simon S @85
    OK, but why are they so reluctant to say “this usage is incorrect”? As an ex-teacher, including some Biology, I am not going to let pass people calling centipedes insects; it’s just wrong!

87. PeterO – your blogs are fine – certainly not wordy

88. Roz @72 – thanks for the heads up on ISOTOPES. Chemistry and I were never good bedfellows.

89. PeterO – don’t change a thing!!

90. Enjoyed the puzzle, although I tried to make 5d (op)POSITION not in No 10 — of course it wouldn’t parse. 🙂 Also spent some time playing with *whitsun = (St) Swithun before spotting the hidden word.

    peterO — as others have said, the variety of parsing styles is very helpful.

91. You could use the standard notation (I think there is one, kind of), PeterO, which would be brief indeed, then people could bombard you with questions as to what the hell you mean. MOISTURE would be something like

    MO(I)ST/ URE

    or MO(I)ST+URE, if you’re me, to which you could then append remarks (I won’t suggest any). But OTOH you might choose not to worry about it.

92. As to the insect/myriapod argument, to me “insect” sounds scientific (maybe because it’s from Latin), so should be used more rigorously. But biologists are often just as adamant about not calling them all “bugs”, which is what Americans call creepy-crawlies in common speech.

    [I once overheard a docent asking some kids if a “sea star” looked more like a star or a fish. To me it looks a lot more like an animal that lives in the sea than a giant ball of burning gas. (And why one could call a whale a fish.)]

93. muffin@82 — your video shows someone catching “an insect” that is actually a spider!

    I had a roommate taking an entomology class — she had us catching insects all spring and putting them in her killing box (made from a shoe box) for later identification. I think we used glass jars to collect our victims, but a pooter would have been helpful.

94. Calgal @93
    I confess that I didn’t actually watch it – I was just concerned that “pooting” might have been misinterpreted!

95. muffin @ 86

    Because it’s usage – people use and understand it in those ways.

    So dictionaries use it as such

    Academically I was a linguist, with linguistics as one of my areas of study. Language is what people use, like it or not. And language evolves, like it or not.

96. Thanks Qaos and PeterO. I spotted the theme very quickly today and it was right up my street – a sign of my misspent youth that I recognised all the theme words easily. How much of my pocket money did I waste on those machines… theme aside, it was the usual fun romp from Qaos – always enjoyable.

    PeterO, re your blogging style, I find it very precise and detailed (and accurate), which is a good thing, given that the whole point is to explain the construction of clues. If your explanations are sometimes wordy, it’s because clues are sometimes complex (more complex than necessary?), eg by nesting an anagram within a charade and then reversing it. Or whatever.

97. paul b @91 – “you could choose not to worry about it” – quite!

98. SimonS @95
    I’ve said before that I don’t mind words taking on new meanings. What I abhor is words with different meanings coming to be used interchangeably – for instance, irritate/aggravate, or, in this case, insect/creepy-crawley

99. I meant to say that if someone thinks that a centipede is an insect, then it is my duty to make the correction.

100. Thanks Qaos for many great clues including OUTRUN, MOISTURE, ADJUDGE ( nice “Law” misdirection), INVADER, IMPORT DUTY, and ENROLLED. I could not parse PROTRUDE. Like Eileen @41 I missed the mathematical clues and once said an entire crossword of those might be fun. Thanks PeterO for the blog; I prefer bloggers who say “too much” to those who say too little.

101. If you delve further into the OED, it does appear that science itself has been responsible for shifting the definitional goalposts. Originally the references are to insect creatures – ie, those that are divided into segments. So the purists must insist that per the original usage centipedes are most certainly insects.

102. Thank you all for your explanation of IVR — you were more help than Google!

103. Thanks Qaos and Peter, VERY was the only one I couldn’t parse

     Completely missed the theme

     OUTRUN is another arcade video game

104. Just finished by parsing VERY. I wasn’t going to bother posting so late, but I wanted to say to PeterO to just carry on blogging in your own style. The setters come in for criticism here, but (I hope) they realise more of us really appreciate their work than dislike it (otherwise why solve it?) And the same ought to apply to the bloggers. I for one am really grateful for your efforts.

     Now to read all the other comments – I’m expecting to see a lot of agreement!

105. No time to read comments so this may have been said.
     Peter O – what you do is altruistic and brilliant. In the same way that the best societies are supposed to treat their weakest members well, so should a crossword blog be aimed at the most confused and least experienced. I’d err on the side of prolix (but then I usually do!)

Comments are closed.