A double themed puzzle by Qaos this week: one theme apparent, the other hidden.
The apparent theme was 29 down (KING) which was cross-referenced in a few other clues but it also featured in the hidden theme. This eluded us when solving and only occurred to me when preparing this blog. I knew of course that there is always a theme in a Qaos crossword. Eventually I looked up Howlin’ Wolf and realised that there were several other blues musicians concealed in the grid. I have identified Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, (BB) King, and T-Bone Walker, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that there are more. In fact Timon points out that Taj Mahal is also a blues musician: it’s too late now to update the highlighting in the grid. The word “blues” also occurs in the grid. No knowledge of blues of course was required to solve the puzzle.
There is also a characteristic “number” clue at 18 across, a type of which Qaos is particularly fond. There are two in his Genius puzzle this month, for which there is still plenty of time in which to submit your entry. My blog of that puzzle will appear at the end of the month.
I shall be away on holiday when this blog appears and have no idea of whether I shall have internet access, so I will leave it to my solving companion Timon to respond to any comments. Thanks as ever to Qaos for the entertaining challenge.
| ACROSS | ||
| 9 | T-BONE |
Cut disease with unlimited money (1-4)
|
| TB (disease) (m)ONE(y). | ||
| 10 | ALL-FATHER |
Odin‘s hall after being renovated (3-6)
|
| *(HALL AFTER). I wasn’t familiar with this term, which can apparently refer to Woden (or Odin) or Zeus. | ||
| 11 | GRAND JETÉ |
Jump from £1,000 plane close to France (5,4)
|
| GRAND (£1,000) JET (plane) (franc)E. I wouldn’t have got this without Timon’s help: the parsing is straightforward, but although I was familiar with jeté, I’d not come across this phrase (it’s not in Chambers, but presumably it just means a big leap in ballet). | ||
| 12 | BELLY |
British Jack leaves pudding in stomach (5)
|
| B(ritish) (j)ELLY. | ||
| 13 | CHARLES |
Church has real trouble with saint 29 (7)
|
| CH(urch) *REAL, S(aint). | ||
| 15 | THEOREM |
Proposition me with other design (7)
|
| *(ME OTHER). | ||
| 17 | OMEGA |
Ball game’s chaotic conclusion (5)
|
| O (ball) *GAME. Omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet, and so is often used to designate a conclusion. | ||
| 18 | ILL | ( -1 + 50) ÷ 50? That’s difficult (3) |
| I (the square root of minus one is shown as i in mathematics, but here of course it is capitalised), L = 50, divided (i.e. separated) by another L. | ||
| 20 | OPTED |
Decided to put page in dictionary? About time (5)
|
| P(age) T(ime) in OED (dictionary). | ||
| 22 | HOWLING |
Who’s moved by Heather crying? (7)
|
| *WHO, LING (heather). | ||
| 25 | KILLJOY |
Woman completes 29 + 18, the spoilsport (7)
|
| K(ing) ILL (18 across), JOY (a woman’s name). | ||
| 26 | WOLFS |
Quickly eats starter of fish during unhurried retreat (5)
|
| F(ish) in SLOW (unhurried, rev). | ||
| 27 | BENCHMARK |
Standard book on furniture (9)
|
| BENCH (item of furniture) MARK (book in the Bible). | ||
| 30 | PREACHERS |
Child’s hero in Paris on vacation with clergy (9)
|
| REACHER (the hero of the thrillers by Lee Child) inside P(ari)S. Putting Child at the beginning cleverly disguises the fact that it is a proper name. | ||
| 31 | TWAIN |
Ashley Olsen, say, bored by American writer (5)
|
| A(merican) in TWIN; the Olsen twins (Ashley and Mary-Kate) were child actresses, now successful businesswomen. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | STAG |
Male model to talk about mirror (4)
|
| GAS (talk, rev) around T(Model T, early Ford car). “Mirror” here is the reversal indicator. | ||
| 2 | ROTAVATE |
Schedule tax on electronic till (8)
|
| ROTA (schedule) VAT, E(lectronic). | ||
| 3 | LEAD |
Conduct metal (4)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 4 | WATER-SKI |
Was Keir wrong to steal Tory leader’s sports equipment? (5-3)
|
| T(ory) in *(WAS KEIR). | ||
| 5 | BLUEST |
Most unhappy footballer drilled by head of Leeds United (6)
|
| L(eeds) U(nited) in (George) BEST (the footballer). | ||
| 6 | BARBIE DOLL |
Bride’s excited by ring during dance with attractive young lady (6,4)
|
| *(BRIDE, O (ring)) inside BALL (dance). | ||
| 7 | WHALER |
Perhaps Ahab‘s wife is more healthy (6)
|
| W(ife) HALER (more healthy). We’re talking Moby-Dick here, not Ahab and Jezebel. | ||
| 8 | X-RAY |
Photograph of gunners surrounded by axes (1-3)
|
| RA (Royal Artillery or gunners) inside X and Y (axes on a graph). | ||
| 13 | CLOTH |
Ministerial material? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition, referring to the phrase “a man of the cloth”. | ||
| 14 | LEAF INSECT |
Creature can feel it’s evolving (4,6)
|
| *(CAN FEEL ITS). | ||
| 16 | MUDDY |
Setter’s covering three quarks in a neutron – confused? (5)
|
| UDD in MY (setter). U and D stand for Up and Down, which are two of the six kinds of quark; they are the fundamental particles making up hadrons, which include neutrons. If I have got this wrong, no doubt Roz or Timon will correct me! | ||
| 19 | LIKENESS |
Portrait to hang over 29’s head (8)
|
| I’m having trouble parsing this one. NESS can mean head, but if so, what is “LIKE” doing? K could be “King’s head) but that doesn’t explain the other 7 letters. Perhaps it’s K inside LIE, followed by NESS, where LIE is equated to “hang”. But I’m not wholly convinced. | ||
| 21 | TAJ MAHAL |
Wonder that not even Juliet married a prince (3,5)
|
| T(h)A(t) J(uliet) M(arried) A HAL (Prince Hal). | ||
| 23 | WALKER |
Former F1 commentator, one not going by car? (6)
|
| Double definition, referring to the former Formula 1 racing commentator Murray Walker. | ||
| 24 | GOBLET |
Large cup for a small mouth? (6)
|
| Cryptic definition: a small mouth might be a gob-let. | ||
| 26 | WEPT |
Cried over exercise, putting on weight (4)
|
| PE (exercise, rev) inside W(eigh)T. | ||
| 28 | HUTS |
Son goes to the basement in closed buildings (4)
|
| SHUT (closed) with the S moved to the end (the basement, as it’s a down clue). | ||
| 29 | KING |
Royal family’s supported by government (4)
|
| KIN (family) G(overnment). |
Yes I had Taj Mahal as well as (x)Ray Charles
LOI “PREACHER”, and as you say a cleverly hidden Child as author at the start of the clue!
I agree with LIE (hang) around K followed by NESS (head), cleverly misleading with the KIng’s Head.
Also, discovered the blues theme only on completion, knowing there would one, and I actually knew most of them, being a bit of a fan. I also spotted Ray Charles.
My wife has a ballet school, so GRAND JETE is a term I hear mentioned around the house!
GOBLET was cute too.
The justification for lie = hang in LIKENESS I assumed to be in the sense of “I have some loose change lying/hanging around” but it’s a stretch and they’re not listed as synonyms in CCD.
GOBLET was good Antonknee @2. Just a pity we had the similar clue 3 days earlier by Paul in 29,269 with
“Vessel‘s tiny mouth? (6)”
Didn’t notice the theme and didn’t think to look for one. Annoying, because I’m familiar with all those artists and might have got T-BONE earlier if I had.
7dn, WHALER: “is” seems to be surplus verbiage, only introduced to avoid ‘headlinese’.
16dn, MUDDY: had to look up the quarks
Thanks bridgesong. An enjoyable test with clever clues but I never did divine the theme, I’m not up with blues singers. I had to make recourse to Google a few times for confirmation (I’m not a ballet dancer or a physicist either) but didn’t mind that in the interests of furthering my education. 29 emerged quite early and that helped while I was disappointed not to be able to fit Jezebel into 7d. The NW corner held me up and LOI was 2d which I’m still not very happy about. Should trade names be included?
Thanks Qaos, I enjoyed this from start to finish. I did not look for the “hidden” theme because I thought the overt one would suffice. I wish I had looked further because all the blues singers are familiar to me. Anyhow I had many favourite clues, ALL-FATHER, OMEGA, WHALER, and TAJ MAHAL among them. Thanks bridgesong for the blog.
So is MUDDY WATERSKI Muddy Waters’s Russian cousin?
I didn’t spot the theme, despite remembering to look, but a fellow solver did point it out for me when I was done. Qaos is one of my favorite setters, and this did not disappoint.
Nice bit of puzzling from Qaos.
MUDDY was one of my FOsI. Some clues reveal that I know more than I realise, but equally often others show I know less – I suppose it all evens out in the end.
Thanks Q&B
Biggles@6, I’m not keen on brand names in grids, either, but I didn’t realise Rotavator was one. Isn’t it a bit like hoover, which has passed into the language as another word for vacuum cleaner? ‘Rotavate’ may be formed from Rotavator, but isn’t a brand name in itself, anyway.
BB (from row 1) King.
Thanks to Qaos and bridgesong.
Having seen the theme early (Howling Wolf one above the other was a bit of a giveaway), I was sure that 12a and 25a would give BILLY HOLIDAY, which fitted with the crossers I had at the time. You missed a trick there, Qaos! I really enjoyed this. Thanks, Qaos and bridgesong.
Loved the blues theme and had lots of fun last week listening to TAJ MAHAL. Only just now did I see MARK TWAIN in the south east, thought that must be significant, and looked it up. He wrote a short story “A Cure for the Blues”.
Great to have themed blues musos, thanks Qaos, and BnT. Taj’s The Natch’ll Blues was a fave back then (some purists thought he was a bit poppy and derivative, but our sharehouse loved him).
The theme was a bonus, lots of great clues, many for their surfaces, and solvability. TAJ MAHAL, LEAF INSECT, WHALER, WATER-SKI, HOWLING, OPTED, CHARLES, T-BONE, GRAND JETÉ
(I’ve left out the other mathematical ones for those more qualified to comment. It never occurred to me to look up the square root of minus one.)
6d – BARBIE DOLL – BA((BRIDE*)+O)LL – the ring doesn’t need to be”excited” with the “Bride”
Pleasing crossword, I knew all the Bluesmen, but never thought about themes. It might have saved time on TAJ MAHAL, but he- ho, it didn’t matter. My favourites have all been mentioned, so I’ll just say thankyou.
“a momentous occasion in crossword history” – MUDDY?
Me @12. Can I point out it is BILLIE Holiday before anyone else does?
…or ILL with its https://www.fifteensquared.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/sqrt.png -1?
ILL
The square root of -1 is i as mentioned in the blog. It is represented by j in electrical engineering.
So i=j in some context. js jt not jnterestjng?
LIKENESS
Has to be K in LIE +NESS. How is hang=LIE? Though it’s a stretch, I will go with Tim C’s explanation at 3.
Another similar example: Time hangs/LIEs heavy on my hands.
Great fun to find this theme as I love the Blues. 21d TAJ MAHAL was my favourite answer (possibly for reasons similar to grantinfreo@14). Other than the themed solutions, I ticked 25a KILLJOY, 30a PREACHERS and 19d LIKENESS (the quibbles about the latter notwithstanding; it must have made sense to me at the time). Thanks to Qaos, bridgesong and Timon. And thanks also to fellow contributors for the posts, which made for interesting reading.
Thanks for the blog, for once I saw the theme early, HOWLIN(G )and then WOLF(S) were very close together . Child’s hero to give (p)REACHERS was in the FT last week and as noted by TimC , GOBLET was used by Paul, these things are bound to happen.
Double praise for ILL , clever use of i and satisfies Bodmas the bear , Qaos was not so accurate recently.
Triple praise for MUDDY, not just quarks but the actual three quarks in a neutron and the order they are usually written ( although the order does not matter ) .
The OMEGA is also the conclusion to the original three quark model , predicted by Gell-Mann and soon discovered with expected properties.
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Think Qaos is becoming one of my favourite setters and always like looking for the mathematical clue.
CLOTH was my favourite – others I liked were: T-BONE, ILL (neat), HOWLING, WOLFS, PREACHER (loved the Lee Child reference – and the books), TWAIN, BLUEST
Thanks Qaos and bridgesong
i as the square root of -1 is familiar for me paddymelon @15. My son complains about complex numbers (what use are they), but they are very useful in engineering in solutions in dynamic analysis especially where the inclusion of damping/friction requires the solution of a complex eigenvalue problem. I’ve done a few of them in my time.
I didn’t see the cross-references to 29 as a theme per se but did spot the blues men. As TassieTim and Roz have separately identified, HOWLING and WOLF nigh juxtaposed was going to spark some recognition and, with MUDDY in the grid, the theme had to be. I must have noticed the GOBLET coincidence but was more struck by the (p)REACHER repetition with Child being hidden at the front.
ALL-FATHER, OMEGA, BENCHMARK, TWAIN, X-RAY and MUDDY were my favourites in a lovely puzzle.
Thanks Qaos and bridgesong
As a relative cryptic newbie, I was pleased to see a slightly different range of GK than usual.
EG nuclear physics, complex numbers and contemporary twins – rather than the usual muses, Shakespearean characters and cricket references.
Hoping for more like this.
Thanks B@Q ;0)
After comments yesterday as to whether it was fair on younger solvers to reference LADYBIRD Johnson, I was wondering whether it was fair on old fogeys like me to reference modern GK, i.e. Ashley Olsen. Just asking.
Thanks to Qaos, bridgesong and Timon
I really enjoyed this despite not recognising (or even knowing!) the main theme. As has been said already, everything was possible, theme or not. I especially liked ILL and MUDDY.
Thanks Qaos and bridgesong.
Thanks to TimC@1 and others who spotted more musicians in the theme. Having spotted the theme Bridgesong (and I ) felt that, rather than doing an exhaustive search, he would leave it to commentators to point out those he had missed. One of the joys of fifteensquared!
Thanks to Qaos for an intriguing and diverse puzzle. Also to Bridgesong for his customary excellent blog.
Tough and enjoyable. I saw the BLUES theme after I completed the puzzle.
New for me: Murray Walker, F1 commentator; ROTAVATE.
Favourites: GOBLET, TAJ MAHAL, HUTS, T-BONE.
18ac – I liked the clue a lot even though I did not know that the “tick” symbol means square root of. I used to draw that symbol with a horizontal line along the top.
I could not parse 19d apart from NESS=head
New for me: 16d Each proton is made of three quarks, with two called up quarks and one called a down quark -> UDD.
It took me a while to realise that MARK=book in 27ac ie bible book.
Thanks, both.
A bit tenuous, but HUTS could refer to Chicago bluesman J.B. Hutto. As another solver keen on the blues I really enjoyed this, though I was sorry that no blueswomen made it into the crossword – that indeed the only woman in the solutions was BARBIE DOLL (about whose reinvention as a feminist icon I remain unconvinced). A shame that Ma Rainey didn’t make it in.
There is another link to the theme, in that Jack Reacher in the books is a blues aficionado. He visits Margrave in search of the origins of the fictitious Blind Blake, a blues musician.
Tony Colman@3, your first sentence summed up what I felt when I saw the blog. I know all these people, how could I have missed them? But then I often do miss themes. Otherwise not too hard, but with some interesting clues in places. I liked the way ILL worked, and remembered just enough of my particle physics to see how MUDDY worked (though I had to Google to confirm the neutron was actually one up and two down). But I still remember hearing Muddy Waters playing the Capital Jazz festival – how could I not have seen the theme? Oh, and I couldn’t parse LIKENESS. Enjoyable, nonetheless. Thanks Qaos, thanks bridgesong.
We loved this fun test – Qaos has become a favourite – and spotted the theme post solve triggered by HOWLIN(G) WOLF(S). Perhaps should have seen it a bit earlier given that my ringtone is HW’s wonderful Smokestack Lightnin’, which was released in my birth year.
Particularly liked the quarks In MUDDY, and good to have Roz’s confirmation that Qaos got this just so for a neutron – and so won’t need to be sent to do colouring in with the Life Scientists. Phew!
Very enjoyable, especially the various bluesmen (though I didn’t spot them until completing the grid). I needed to check on quarks to confirm the central UDD of MUDDY, and Ashley Olsen to find that she was a TW(A)IN (for once a proper name didn’t require lifting and separating), but I did remember the number i. Favourites WATER SKI, ALL-FATHER and WHALER (for not having anything to do with Jezebel).
[KVa@21: a favourjte trjck of my clumsy fjngers on my tjny phone keyboard js the j-for-i substjtutjon. Nice to know jt js mathematically justifed!]
I really loved this puzzle. In addition to comments made already about Blues musicians, I think BB King was also referred to as the BLUES KING.
So many great clues, MUDDY, ILL, OPTED, GRAND JETE, TAJ MAHAL, BLUEST, HOWLING among them. MUDDY needed an internet lesson on quarks, but then I thought it was a brilliant clue. Last in was ROTAVATE, I hadn’t heard of this.
Thanks Qaos and bridgesong.
Thanks for the blog! Really enjoyed this and managed to get all but three answers, which is a personal best for me on the Prize! Was just missing some key knowledge on OMEGA, HOWLING (ling for heather?) and PREACHERS (wasn’t aware of the novelist Child)
Loved the theme, stand-out clues for me were WATER SKI and T-BONE, the latter of which also had an appearance in the same weekend’s Everyman!
I am sitting outside a bar in Hoi An and was going to write a further comment, but I looked up at the new moon, visible despite light pollution, it’s just the bottom and will hold water so no rain tomorrow.I can’t remember what I was going to say, but the moon is beautiful.
I enjoyed this puzzle, like many earlier posters. I even found the hidden blues theme last night. I was pleased this morning to find no errors in my solution. Good mix of themes and nicely devious in places. My favourite clues were 2d and 18ac. It took me a while to stop searching for obscure adding devices for 2d, and instead detach ‘electronic’ from ’till’. The apparently algebraic equation in 18ac was cleverly constructed. I was doubtful about its logical validity until Bridgesong explained the non-algebraic nature of the division. The complex number i would be a problem for solvers with limited maths knowledge, but I had never heard of a ‘GRAND JETÉ’, or of Lee Child until I googled ‘Reacher’. A good week’s amusement. Well done!
Fun puzzle. Unusually for me I spotted the theme while solving (HOWLINg WOLFs did it for me as well) though I only found all the bluesmen at the end.
I liked ‘Child’s hero’ (I don’t tackle the FT crossword, so it was new to me), the anagram for LEAF INSECT and especially the clue for MUDDY (‘three quarks for Muster Mark’ – Finnegan’s Wake).
Thanks to Qaos and bridgesong
Thanks Qaos and bridgesong. I am another one who didn’t spot the theme until after solving. I decided that, if you highlight all the themed words, there is room for some more. Father Ben Blet and the Preachers, anyone?
[Ooh! New edit comment facility!]
Looked for and found the theme after solving. LEADBELLY was my way in. NHO of the blues singer TAJ MAHAL and didn’t think to look. Not sure that RAY CHARLES should be described as a blues singer though he was influenced by them – he was the pioneer of ‘”soul”.
Manic Street PREACHERS, The PREACHERS (short-lived ’60s US rock band), KING CHARLES (UK singer b1983) , and Bob Marley and the WHALERs certainly don’t qualify.
Pleased to drag up that the square root of -1 is 1 but had to look up UDD as quarks. Also DK Ashley Olsen who appeared pretty obscure when I looked her up to
confirm that she had a twin.
Thanks to Qaos and bridgesong.
PS. I couldn’t see any KING-related answers apart from CHARLES.
A lovely puzzle that was within my ambit. Many thanks, Qaos.
[Pete Broadbent @33–I don’t know whether the Blind Blake Reacher is looking for is fictitious, but there was a real blues musician with obscure origins named Blind Blake, as well as a Bahamian Calypso musician of that name: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_Blake ]
I spotted the Blues theme just over halfway through and so for once it helped with a few specific clues (like MUDDY) as I was on the lookout for certain names that could also be words.
Good puzzle, thanks both.
Knowing that there would be a theme, as ever with Qaos, I did spot it, but only after completion.
I liked the wordplay for WOLFS, the Child’s hero in PREACHERS, the good misdirection of Ahab’s wife in WHALER, the quarks in MUDDY, and the nice charade for TAJ MAHAL.
Thanks Qaos and bridgesong.
One of my most successful prize puzzles — got them all, but couldn’t parse a couple. BELLY was one, oddly enough — in translating from UK to US I remembered that “pudding” means any dessert, but forgot that “jelly” means gelatin and is thus potentially a pudding. Had to look up the author of the Jack Reacher books to confirm.
…and totally missed the blues theme, despite it being blindingly obvious in hindsight. Sigh.
I sort of think I have heard of a rotavator, but I also sort of think it’s what we call a roto-tiller in the US.
Pino@44 Several clues refer to 29d (KING).
I never got the theme, though I did look for one.
Thanks to Qaos, bridgesong and Timon.
Throughly enjoyed this puzzle from start to finish. Having celebrated my 65th birthday yesterday I feel that I’m happily nestled in the sweet spot between having heard of both Ladybird Johnson and the Olsen twins. Thanks to Birdsong for the entertaining blog and Qaos for the wonderfully themed clues.
Of course, there was also Albert and Freddie KING, known collectively with B.B. as ‘the Kings of the blues’.
Sorry to be so late to the discussion. We had a question mark against 27a because there didn’t seem to be an indication that the book (MARK) came after the furniture (BENCH).
Sorry to be picky on an enjoyable puzzle. Thanks to Qaos and bridgesong
Correction to my comment 40 even though no-one seems bothered about my error. I meant the apparently mathematical (rather than algebraic) equation and the cleverly devious non-mathematical nature of the division.
A fine entertainment so thanks both.
I really would have to phone a friend on this but it occurs to me that several blues musicians (not just singers – p(ul)lease) were also PREACHERS (Rev Gary Davis springs to mind – fairly certain there were others).
Thanks, Matt @46. My mistake re Blind Blake.
VT @ 53 In crossword convention ‘on’ is a standard indicator in across clues that A follows B.
So it’s ‘mark’ ‘on’ ‘bench’ = ‘benchmark’. Completely legit.
Happy Birthday Princess V @51. I too was disappointed that Billie Holiday didn’t make the cut. To me she was the apotheosis of the blues. Nevertheless, an excellent theme in an excellent puzzle, so thanks, Qaos, bridgesong and Timon for the fun and parsing help.
[ Irishman@35 my students are sent to do colouring-in for minor offences , such as quoting wikipedia at me. Getting quark structure wrong is far more serious, they are sent to the English faculty to write a story . ]
Thank you SimonS @57.
Curious – in a down clue it would have indicated the opposite..?
Learn something at every visit here.
As a long time lurker, I had to say how thoroughly I enjoyed this. Am I correct in believing the Blues musicians noted are known for their guitar playing apart from Ray Charles? Many thanks Qaos and bridgesong.
VicTim @60: “On” can indicate before or after in either across or down clues. It’s used very frequently in cryptic clues as you may know.
Deliquium@61: I think so. And I wouldn’t really think of Ray Charles as a specifically blues guy so go figure – perhaps that was why he makes a ‘cameo’ appearance (along with Mark Twain).
Tony@62, I think that in a down clue, ‘on’ always means ‘before’, but either ‘before’ or ‘after’ in across clues (although I think the latter may not be true for all crosswords).
Tony @64: What you say makes sense to me; I was restating what I read in clueclinic.com, a source that many setters use.
Alphalpha@63 – agree, and yes your suggestion that Ray Charles only has a ‘cameo’ rôle is indeed clear by bridgesong not highlighting it in the first place! Which escaped me – duh! And so, the enjoyment of this crossword has gone up yet another notch.
Thought of Tina CHARLES and Shania TWAIN, but they didn’t really fit…
…wrong gender, wrong genres.
Never normally motivated to add anything to the excellent blogs and comments here, and as a sporadic half-weight tend to catch up with the next in a bedside pile of pending puzzles some considerable time after the shouting has died down (sometimes years!). On this occasion though – apart from declaring this the most enjoyable and satisfying cryptic I’ve yet stumbled on – I’d like to add an alternative answer to 4d: “wears kit”. Thinking this an excellent answer it of course blocked progress on all intersecting clues for quite some time, until I remembered the hyphen! Anyway, what a corker.