Guardian 29,419 – Qaos

by

A fun puzzle from Qaos, with a couple of answers that were unfamiliar, but very helpfully clues. Thanks to Qaos.

I was lucky to spot the (inevitable) theme early enough to get some extra help: it’s the films of Mel BROOKs, with SPACEBALLS, the PRODUCERS, BLAZING SADDLES, HIGH ANXIETY and YOUNG FRANKENSREIN.

This is my 1000th blog for Fifteensquared: my first (of an Azed puzzle) was in June 2008, and received no comments at all. Things have livened up since then, so thanks to all those who have read and commented over the years.

 
Across
1 PEOPLE SKILLS Pope likes teasing liberals with special ability to work with others (6,6)
(POPE LIKES)* + L[iberal] twice + S[pecial]
9 BROOK Stream runs through reserve (5)
R[uns] in BOOK (to reserve)
10 SACRED COW Was troubled to catch Catholic taken in by belief that’s above criticism (6,3)
C[atholic] in CREDO, all in WAS*
11 YOUNGER Not as old as singer-songwriter getting on in retirement (7)
(Neil) YOUNG, singer-songwroter + RE (on) reversed or “in retirement”
12 ANXIETY Number 10 blocking artificial intelligence, yet developing tension (7)
N[umber] X (10) in AI + YET*
13 DIESEL FUEL Will the writer in EU lie about Germany coming first to power? (6,4)
D (Germany + (Will] SELF, novelist, in (EU LIE)*
15 STUD Pin-up or pin down? (4)
Double definition: an attractive man or to pin something down with a stud nail
18 APSE Heads of ambitious private schools excel in recess (4)
First letters of Ambitious Private Schools Excel
19 NETTLE RASH Ant shelter converted into hives (6,4)
(ANT SHELTER)*
22 SADDLES Small drinks mask holy man’s burdens (7)
S + DD (Doctor of Divinity) in ALES
24 BLAZING Very angry extremists wearing jewellery (7)
AZ (the extreme letters of the alphabet) in BLING
25 SPIKE-NAIL With lace, nothing holds a fastener (5-4)
SPIKE (to lace a drink) + A in NIL
26 AGILE Quicksilver mostly lies all over the place? (5)
Lift and separate: AG (silver) + anagram of LIE[s]
27 FRANKENSTEIN Mark’s intense struggle with scientist playing God (12)
FRANK (mark, e.g. a letter) + INTENSE*
Down
1 PRODUCERS They make doctor drop fake cures (9)
DROP* + CURES*
2 OAK EGGER Moth in tree, for example, travelling both ways, right? (3,5)
OAK (tree) + E.G plus its reverse + R[oght]. New to me: it’s “an egger moth whose caterpillars feed on oak”
3 LASER It makes light from sun tangible, reflected around (5)
S[un] in reverse of REAL (tangible)
4 SACRAMENT Working man reacts to ceremony (9)
(MAN REACTS)*
5 ICE AXE Climber’s companion putting cold water on fire (3,3)
ICE (cold water) + AXE (to fire, as in dismiss)
6 LUCRE Temptation to snort cocaine for money (5)
C[ocaine] in LURE
7 OBEYED Followed order to surrender, preserving the odds (6)
OBE (Order, as in the honour) + odd letters of YiElD
8 SWAYED Rocked in leather, say (6)
Homophone of “suede”
14 FREE-SPACE Heading to Fiji concerning foreign escape where there’s no waves (4-5)
F[iji] + RE (concerning) + ESCAPE. Another unfamiliar one: it’s “(of a radio etc) able to operate only … where the radio waves are not affected by surrounding objects..”, which doesn’t sound to me exactly like “where there’s no waves”, but perhaps others could clarify
16 TRADITION Deportation when former partner ignored custom (9)
EXTRADITION less EX (former partner)
17 SEPARATE Group saving soldier on top of Everest alone (8)
PARA (soldier) in SET + E[verest]
18 ASSIST Help musician forget Beethoven’s Overture (6)
BASSIST less B[eethoven]
20 HIGHER Casual greeting delivered louder (6)
Homophone of “hiya” – “louder” = “higher in volume”
21 CLUE IN Inform one entertained by drunk uncle (4,2)
I in UNCLE*
23 DRIER Club expelling 5 being extra boring (5)
DRIVER (golf club) less V
24 BALLS Everything in books gives courage (5)
ALL in BS

95 comments on “Guardian 29,419 – Qaos”

  1. Thank you for the blog Andrew – I also included the BROOK S in the theme along the 3rd line. (I did know the oak egger, but I’ve built a series of caches around the Oak Trail in Epping Forest, so dithered about including some of that information in a crossword puzzle, but couldn’t make it work).

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  2. I twigged to the theme in time for it to help with 27, although I still missed SPACEBALLS among the answers. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

  3. 14d FREE-SPACE was my last one in and I didn’t understand the bit about “no waves”, so Andrew’s radio reference was helpful when I came here. Despite that loose end, I did enjoy this puzzle, especially 1a PEOPLE SKILLS, 10a SACRED COW, 11a (I liked the Neil YOUNG reference – though he’s an “Old Man” now), 15a STUD, 24a BLAZING, 29a FRANKENSTEIN and 16d TRADITION. Once finished, I recited my “Qaos always has a theme” mantra and of course BLAZING SADDLES stood out. I then managed to locate all the other Mel BROOK S film titles, so felt pretty satisfied with my performance overall. Thanks to Qaos for the interesting challenge and to Andrew for the explanatory blog. Congratulations on your 1000th blogging milestone, Andrew. You continue to do a great job and it is very much appreciated.

  4. Knew there would be a theme but was late to spot the helpfully juxtapositioned BLAZING SADDLES which led to recognising YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN and the PRODUCERS and, of course, the director’s name. Two titles not recognised. I suspect Roz may have some comments later on FREE SPACE; I suspect it is a slightly more cosmic thing than Andrew hints at in the blog. A perfect vacuum with no electromagnetic or gravitational fields – which is what I think ‘no waves’ is referring to.

    I see on the G site, several folk confidently claiming that OAK EGGER is misspelt; I’ve never encountered it before today but it is certainly spelled the same in my Chambers. I was very pleased to spot the L&S in QUICKSILVER though did bung in ALIVE at one point – meaning quick and having four of the letters of silver. All in all, very enjoyable with my only raised eyebrow being DIESEL FUEL = power. Again, we’ll need the scientists to confirm but is it not a source of power rather than power itself? Or is that distinction irrelevant?

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew – and congrats on achieving a mighty milestone

  5. As usual with me, clueless about the theme might be. But liked this, especially the clever TRADITION. Wasn’t exactly sure how DIESEL FUEL worked. Loi was AGILE, neatly put together. I was another who wondered about the correct spelling of the moth early on. Many thanks Qaos and Andrew…

  6. …Andrew, you millennium man, so glad you’ve got some comments today, at least six, 16 years on!

  7. Congratulations on 1000 excellent blogs, Andrew. Only looked for a theme after I’d finished and read the Guardian page comments. Saw BLAZING SADDLES and YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, as well as BROOK|S but that was the limit of my knowledge of his oeuvre. The ones new to Andrew were also new to me, I hadn’t come across the OAK-EGGER moth nor heard of FREE-SPACE, but the clues were clear enough. SPIKE-NAIL was another new one. Liked ANXIETY, DIESEL FUEL, SEPARATE and ASSIST. Thanks Qaos and Andrew

  8. Congratulations on your milestone Andrew. OAK EGGER is spelt that way in Chambers but out in the wild Eggar seems to be the more common spelling.

  9. It took me a while to find any references on the internet to OAK EGGER, and when I finally did, I was assured that it’s OAK EGGAR. The wordplay and 13a disabused me.

    I only three-quarters finished, but no excuses — those that I didn’t get I should have.

    Enjoyable, thanks Qaos and Andrew (you must be due for some long service leave!).

  10. Thanks Qaos and Andrew
    Yes, both Google and I thought that it was EGGAR, but Chambers only has the EGGER spelling.
    I eventually saw the theme after being tipped off on the G site.
    How well known is Will Self? “Will the writer” did immediatley suggest SELF to me – I’d be interested to see if there are any other comments.

  11. Congratulations Andrew on your 1000th blog. Huge achievement and phenomenal service to this community.

    Thanks Qaos for the puzzle. Thanks Andrew for the blog!

    FREE SPACE and DIESEL FUEL
    Agree with PM@4

  12. Two errors for me: BRAYING (but where did the B come from?) and ALIVE. I looked for the theme without success – not having blazing didn’t help. Post Mark@4: a perfect vacuum would still have both gravitational and e-m fields in it. I guess you might concoct a perfect e-m shield, but there is no way to cancel gravity (if you find one, your fortune is made!). muffin@10: I know of Will Self well – have several of his books. Thanks, Qaos and kilo-man Andrew.

  13. Only one “M” in the grid: in 4d SACRAMENT, just above the “EL” of 13a DIESEL FUEL — that gives us “MEL“

  14. Your 1000th blog, Andrew! Quite remarkable and much appreciated.

    A dnf here as I couldn’t believe STUD as a verb, and failed to spot the “lift and separate” def in AGILE.

    Spotted the theme fairly early but short of looking up al his films (dull process) it wasn’t much help.

    Enjoyable crossword, though, many thanks, both.

  15. TassieTim @12: I am well outside my comfort zone wrt FREE SPACE and it is not easy to Google as both words appear in many unrelated entries. The best I can come up with is the following from Oxford Reference: A region in which there is no matter and no electromagnetic or gravitational fields. It has a temperature of absolute zero, unit refractive index, and the speed of light is its maximum value. The electric constant (see permittivity) and the magnetic constant (see permeability) are defined for free space. Whether that means it is a theoretical concept rather than an actual area of the universe, I cannot say.

  17. muffin @10: Will Self finally crawled through the grey matter, only having discarded The Bard and William Boyd.

  18. Muffin @ 10 – “Will the writer” suggested the right person, name starting with S? Oh, I can see him! What’s his name?
    Finally light dawned when I had the crossers.

  21. Congrats Andrew on you ten tons! Thank you for your gift to us all.
    I liked the double anagram in PROD UCERS. And the wordplay in PEOPLE SKILLS and AGILE.
    Also the images of Fiji, foreign escape, and no waves in FREE-SPACE, not that I understood the definition, but happy for the solve from wordplay. ‘

    JiA@3. Neil Young, Old Man 🙂

  22. Never saw any of his movies but have heard of Mel Brooks and his films The Producers and Blazing Saddles so I could guess the theme.

    I couldn’t parse 15ac – guessed it is a dd but could not work it out; 26ac, 7d.

    22ac DD = Doctor of Divinity = holy man – isn’t that taking it a bit far? That’s not my idea of a holy man, and I doubt (hope?) that a Doctor of Divinity would not think of himself in that way.

    2d I could only find reference to OAK EGGAR moth which obviously does not parse as well as Oak Egger. I have no access to Chambers dictionary, just the general internet. Seems that it is only Chambers that spells it as Egger Moth.

    New for me: FREE SPACE (in physics) – space unoccupied by matter or, more particularly, containing no electromagnetic or gravitational field and used as a reference; SPIKE NAIL.

    Congrats on 1000 blogs, Andrew!

  24. Missed the theme until alerted by comments, even though I like Mel Brooks’s films. I didn’t bother with all the parsings so I also missed the reference to Will Self, although I know of him through his journalism more than for his novels. Many thanks to Andrew for all his efforts over the years. As I have said before, the crossword community owes a great debt of thanks to all the setters, editors and bloggers for their endeavours: I don’t find all puzzles equally enjoyable, and I’m sometimes critical, but I am always grateful.

  25. Congratulations, Andrew! I remember loving your little boy in the pedal car avatar, when I discovered 15² in the spring of 2008. 😉

    This being Qaos, I was looking for a theme from the outset, of course, and seeing nothing promising until BLAZING SADDLES leapt out about three quarters of the way through. Like Tomsdad @7, I didn’t know what else to look for and there’s not much fun in simply consulting a list. This is in no way a criticism of the puzzle, which I enjoyed a lot, as always with Qaos.

    I confess to using a word search for OAK EGGER – new to me – so wasn’t aware of any spelling issue and was quite happy to trust Qaos re FREE SPACE – this heat makes me very lethargic!

    Some really nice clues, with great surfaces – my ticks were for PEOPLE SKILLS, SACRED COW, DIESEL FUEL (loved Will the writer), AGILE, for the lift and separate (although, like PostMark, I toyed with ALIVE initially), SACRAMENT and ASSIST.

    Many thanks to Qaos and to Andrew – a nice one to land for your milestone!

  26. Many thanks to Thousand Blog Andrew! Congratulations.
    An enjoyable puzzle, with a couple of feeble clues I thought (11a, 3 and7d). Missed the theme, as ever, and never sure if themes are much help but it doesn’t matter.

  27. Congratulations Andrew on 1000 blogs. What a contribution!
    Not knowing Will Self, I engaged in a bit of creative solving for DIESEL FUEL, thinking SELF referred to the setter (as ‘writer’) in the first person. Thanks for the right parsing.
    I liked PEOPLE SKILLS, SACRED COW and the cute anagram of NETTLE RASH.
    I only saw the puzzle theme after I solved it, I guess PRODUCERS and BLAZING SADDLES were the give aways.
    Thanks Qaos for the fun puzzle and Andrew for the clear explanations.

  28. Very entertaining. A little learning is a dangerous thing – as Pope liked teasing. I knew of the moth and its hairy larvae, so I confidently inserted OAK EGGAR without checking the parsing. DIESEL FUEL (power?) showed the error of my ways (yes, muffin @10, Will Self sprang fairly easily to mind).

    SPIKE-NAIL was new to me, but nicely clued. I particularly liked the anagram clues for NETTLE RASH, PRODUCERS and SACRAMENT.

    For once, I remembered to look for a theme – but only after I had completed the puzzle, so it didn’t help, although I did spot it.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew (congrats on the Special K)

  32. I think Chambers has Oak Egger wrong. The definition certainly is – it doesn’t feed on oak; it gets its name from its cocoon, which looks like an acorn, or “oak egg”.

  33. Unusual to have alternate-letters wordplay where the original word is not present in the clue, but I OBEYED the instructions and got there. I missed SPACEBALLS, but the theme proved useful for YOUNGer and PRODUCERS, which were late in. Didn’t know about FREE SPACE and no idea what a SPIKE NAIL is, but I do know the moth, though I thought it was spelt EGGAR.

    Congratulations Andrew, and many thanks.

  34. All I can remember is the supercool Afro-Am sheriff riding into town (well, it’s 50 years!), and that’s the only Brooks I’ve seen. But anyway, a fun puzzle from the themic Q, with no great Anxiety. Will suggested Bard, forgot about Self, so the fuel was a b-and-s. Enjoyed, ta Q and A.

  35. Thanks for the blog a thousand times over , what a wonderful, selfless achievement.
    Good puzzle, some nice subtractions, clever wordplay, neat Playtex for agile. I spent far too long on BLAZING , thinking ring around a three letter term for political extremists.
    There was a theme ?

  37. PostMark @15: Yes, in physics, free space is a theoretical medium. A “perfect vacuum” with no electromagnetic fields and zero temperature. That then allows certain constants, like the speed of light to be defined exactly. The “space” we think of in the universe comes closes but is not completely empty, and has a very small temperature and weak magnetic fields.

  38. Qaos never fails to provide a fun puzzle with a theme, and this was a worthy tribute to a cinema great.
    OAK EGGER was new, but EGGER was fun to parse. Also liked AZ for “extremists”. Shame there was no room to include Mel in the answers.
    Congrats Andrew on the milestone, and thanks to Qaos for the entertainment

  39. [ FREE-SPACE , skip if you are easily bored.
    No real definition apart from perfect vacuum , an old term used in early electromagnetic theory. We have two constants , epsilon and mu that determine the strength of electric and magnetic fields, there value depends on the medium . Epsilon-nought and mu-nought are the smallest possible values and called the permittivity and permeability of free space. These values determine the speed of light in free-space. ( A vacuum ) .
    They come from Maxwell’s time when it was thought that a medium , the ether , was needed to propogate electromagnetic waves. Maxwell’s field equations and the Michelson-Morley experiment show that no ether is needed and light will travel through a vacuum ]

  40. FREE-SPACE certainly carries electromagnetic fields, EM waves ( maximum speed ) and gravitaional waves but it is hard to define for a crossword and the wordplay was clear .

  41. Good entertainment today from Qaos. Favourites: ‘assist’ ‘Frankenstein’ with ‘people skills’. Congratulations Andrew on 1,000 blogs – well done! Thanks very much to Qaos

  42. I liked the double anagrind for PRODUCERS and AGILE was very satisfying. I’ve occasionally spotted Will Self in the woods while I’m walking the hound which may explain why he came to mind so readily. Apparently he once snorted heroin on John Major’s plane

    Cheers A&P

  43. Thank you Andrew for your wonderfully clear blog neatly explaining everything. No wonder you’ve done 1,000 of them! I don’t often comment as life can be too short and sometimes even doing the crossword seems a bit self-indulgent, but I usually read the blogs and yours are always brilliant.
    And thanks to Qaos for a great crossword but as usual I didn’t notice the theme, which of course makes it extra clever.

  44. Thank you to Qaos for fun puzzle, and congratulations to Andrew on your 1000th blog – that’s an amazing achievement!

  45. Muffin @10 – at first ‘Will the writer’ got me thinking about solicitors, probate etc, but the first writer I thought of was, indeed, Self.

  46. Nice crossword, terrific blog. Many thanks and congratulations Andrew on no. 1000! I wasn’t aware of this blog in 2008 and hadn’t attempted a crossword for over 3 decades my early attempts as a student having crashed and burned thanks to the likes of Aracauria! My crossword career would have remained moribund without the help of Andrew and his fellow bloggers, so many thanks once again

  47. Matt @37 & Roz @39/40: thanks for expanding on/correcting my comment of earlier. I may be none the wiser, but I am certainly better informed. 😉

  48. [Not at all bored, Roz@39. I bet you’ll be cussing that pesky auto spell correct…]
    I never look for a theme but I still don’t know how I missed this one.
    Thanks Qaos and Andrew.

  49. [ If anyone wants to be really amazed , the Maxwell field equations lead to a wave equation and predicts waves that propagate at speed 1/ the square root of ( epsilon0 X mu0 ) .
    Look up the values , work out the speed and gaze on the wonders of physics ]

  50. What a great theme for a 1000th blog, Andrew.
    Almost need another puzzle to cover Silent Movie where Marcel Marceau speaks one word!

  51. @22 Michelle. An Oak Egger is the correct spelling. Google it. It lays eggs, so would be an Egger, not an Eggar

  52. It’s Qaos, there must be a theme, yes I’ve seen it but not until nearly the end.

    I liked the wordplays for SACRED COW, SPIKE-NAIL (which I DNK) and AGILE, and the good anagram for SACRAMENT. According to the dictionaries, FREE-SPACE with a hyphen is an adjective with the meaning as given by Andrew in the blog: freeˈ-space adjective
    (of a radio, etc) able to operate only where there is free space, ie where the radio waves are not affected by surrounding objects such as buildings, hills, etc    . Both Chambers and Collins give EGGER as an alternative spelling to eggar, although most of the Google references give OAK EGGAR.

    Thanks Qaos and congratulations to Andrew on his millennium.

  53. Congratulations Andrew on your wonderful contribution over the years – always clear and informative.

  54. E. Foster @51
    Did you actually try Googling? No hits for the insects from Oak Egger in the first 5 pages,
    just various oak veneers.
    Google suggests “Did you mean “Oak Eggar”!

  56. Thanks Qaos for an enjoyable crossword. I spotted the theme and found enough related solutions to be satisfied. My top picks were SACRED COW, BLAZING, FRANKENSTEIN, ICE AXE, SWAYED, TRADITION, and ASSIST. I couldn’t fully parse DIESEL FUEL not knowing Will Self. Thanks Andrew for the help and your long tenure as a blogger.

  57. Congratulations and thanks to Andrew

    I never felt on the same wavelength as the setter and finished with a few answers unparsed. I am not overly familiar with Qaos, so I did not look for nor did I spot the theme. Unlike the majority above, I felt neutral about this puzzle – I neither enjoyed it nor disliked it.

    Thanks Quas and Andrew

  58. Never saw the theme last night, but this morning as I was filling in the gaps BLAZING SADDLES blazed out at me –Oh! it’s Qaos! Mel Brooks must be the theme. I’m not ashamed to say I googled a list of his films. Lots of fun.

    Anyone else get hung up on LOSER containing SOL in 6dn?

    Andrew, 14d includes an anagram (barely) of “escape,” or it would be FREE-SCAPE.

    i know from spikes and I know from nails, but what is a SPIKE-NAIL?

    Never heard of OAK EGGER or Will Self.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew for an evening and a morning of fun.

  59. I put in OAK EGGAR to start with, but it didn’t fit with the wordplay, so I changed it, thinking Chambers is going to have an alternative spelling.
    I knew there would be a theme, then forgot all about it until coing here, I managed without it despite having seen three of the films.
    I too was thinking bard until enough crossers gave me Self as a post solve parse.
    I have to admit that I put in OBEYED from the definition then YOUNGER to confirm it ,without being able to parse either clue, but it gave me a start, along with ICE AXE,and things started to come together after that.
    Thanks both and congratulations Andrew
    I have never done the AZED and was only doing cryptics occasionally when you started blogging, apart from the Farmer’s Guardian, and had not yet found this site. I usually finish the crossword long before the blog appears, geography not skill, and forget to check until it’s too late to make a useful comment, although this feels more like an essay than a comment.

  60. I had never heard of Will Self, so I parsed that one as “the writer” meaning Qaos, with Will just sort of hanging out there unsatisfactorily to make the surface read better. Yes, I know, that would break the rules. Needless to say, that one was my LOI.

    I saw the theme after getting FRANKENSTEIN, which was just in time to make BLAZING and SADDLES immediate write-ins. That’s the pity about themes–sometimes they can make the puzzle too much easier. On the other hand, the help with SADDLES was appreciated–“holy man” is always ST, right?–so I was stuck in that rut.

    And I’ll add my congratulations and thanks to Andrew on his milestone–the bloggers not only elucidate the puzzles but also help foster a community for this hobby, which is always to be appreciated.

  63. Many thanks to you, Andrew, for your sterling efforts in helping to enlighten me about the parsing various obscure cues over the years. Your volunteering – and that of the rest of the team, of course! – are key to maintaining an interest – if not creating an addiction – to cryptics down the generations. Thanks again to all including the pool of respondents who make the gRAUNIAD puzzles the most popular on 15^2.

  64. nicbach @61: I can only point you to Chambers’ second and third definition of ‘rarely’:

    2. Choicely
    3. Remarkably well

    😊

  66. Over the last three days my wife and I watched our four favourite Mel Brooks movies, all appearing in this crossword, so the theme rather jumped out at me. Like Blanchflower@38 I looked for MEL without success, so thanks FrankieG@13 for finding him.

    My earworm today would be Carl Reiner interviewing Mel Brooks as the 2000 year old man – worth looking up.

    Thanks Qaos for the fun and Andrew for the milestone blog.

  67. An observation on 7dn: usually, when the every-other-letter device is used, the fodder is explicitly in the clue, like anagram fodder, isn’t it? This clue had one level more of indirection than usual (surrender = YIELD, then take every other letter, rather than just having “yield” appear directly in the clue). Or am I misremembering?

    If I’m right, it’s analogous to the dreaded indirect anagram, although the reason the latter is generally considered unfair doesn’t really apply here. (To rehearse the standard lore, I understand indirect anagrams to be forbidden because there are so many ways to anagram a given series of letters. Having to guess the word to be anagrammed and then consider all possible anagrams is too open-ended. That’s not true for the every-other-letter device.)

    I’m not objecting to the clue, but just noticing that it seems a bit unusual in this way. But it’s quite possible that it’s common to use this device in this way, and I’m just misremembering.

  68. Me@66, I meant to add that I think 10a SACRED COW is part of the theme, in addition to providing the S for Mel Brooks’ name. Was there a cow too sacred for him to make fun of?

  69. Much fun when a “Help musician” isn`t a Beatle and “Will the writer” isn`t….
    A thousand thanks to Andrew for sorting out the Qaos.

  70. Nicbach @61 all comments are welcome but it is harder to say something new later on . I do not do the puzzle until my journey home and I am late , by blog standards, 3 or 4 days a week so usually it has all been said.
    Ted@67 you are right, it is fairly unusual but just about okay I think , the letters of yield stay in order and it has to be a 5 letter word ending e_d so narrows the choice.
    You have answered your own point for indirect anagrams, they should always earn a severe Paddington stare mainly because the letters to mix up should be present in the clue, but the setters can do anything they like.

  71. Been out all day so late to comment – congrats Andrew on a major millennial masterpiece, and thank you Qaos for the customary conundra.

    Pace Roz’s comments on free space, the clue is hyphenated which means it is not the physics term, so I don’t think it is quite correctly defined. Not that this held me up in solving it at all. Even if it were the physics term, the idea of free space as wave-free is a bit odd as it is the place where the ultimate speed of light is defined, and light is an electromagnetic wave…

    If I wanted to nitpick I’d say that ice is not water for 5d but I accept happily both that the term water is used non-scientifically for all its phases and the “cold water” could be used to refer to what water becomes when it gets cold. So no objection from me there.

    I would, however, nitpick over “diesel fuel” and “power” – I cannot think of a way they could be swapped for each other, even if “power” is used colloquially to mean the same as “energy”.

    Ted @67 I too was struck by “obeyed” and in exactly the same way. Yesterday we had a clue which cycled a synonym, and that seems to be an acceptable level of “removal” and I cannot see a material difference between the two clues. But I do not think I have seen this done before either.

  72. JOFT @71
    Ice, liquid water, and steam are all chemically water, so the term is being used scientifically!
    I do agree about the loose use of “power”, though.
    Thanks for the feedback on Will Self.

  74. Jack@71 in very old papers the term is hyphenated , has probably been lost but unusually leaving two words instead of one , the definition is wrong here because EM waves travel most easily in free space . Also wrong for radio transmission , “no interference” would do , it is hard to define succinctly.

  75. Late to the blog but a thousand thanks to Andrew for his thousandth blog. May he blog a thousand more.

    btw Will Self was my first Will this time. Great fan of his books and whimsy. Thank you Qaos.

  76. Roz @74: Indeed, it is wrong either way. Unfortunately none of the more ancient tomes on my bookshelf refer to the term (I thought my “The Universe Around Us” from 1929 by James Jeans would perhaps, but alas no). I do love the wonderfully archaic expressions “the permittivity/permeability of free space” however, which definitely give physics a more poetic feel than some modern terms such as “gluon”.

    Steffen @73: “doctor” to be read as a verb means “to alter” as in to doctor a photograph or signature. Then “fake” is the anagram indicator for “cures” – not quite sure how to read this except as a verb as well (as in “fake it to make it”). The way the clue is put together it has to be one anagram followed by another, rather than one long anagram, which is a neat spot I think. But it does seem like the range of anagram indicators, like entropy, increases over time…

  77. [ Jack@76 it was very much mid 19th century , has only really survived in the two constants .
    Nobody could accept EM waves in a vacuum , needed a medium to oscillate , the ether was dominant. Even after Maxwell and Michelson-Morley the ether was given more ridiculous propertties.
    I actually love the term gluon and dwarfon , so descriptive. ]

  78. Congratulations on the landmark, Andrew! Always enjoy your blogs.
    Thanks for the puzzle, Qaos. Faves BROOK and NETTLE RASH for their natural surfaces.

  79. Very pleasant solve – I failed to parse OBEYED even though the answer was obvious! Thanks, Qaos and Andrew.

  80. Some lovely clues favourites ice axe, clue in, great theme which I didn’t spot, Thanks and congratulations to Andrew.
    Great puzzle Qaos.

  82. My usual late contribution made even later by having to work from home due to the second enforced office closure this week (happening again tomorrow grrrr) the two worst bits of which are (a) my solving routine is disrupted and (b) avoiding the temptation to play the piano.
    Nothing to add about the puzzle – no offence to Qaos but it’s all been said – but must add my congratulations to Andrew for 1000 blogs helping people like me slowly get their head around this wonderfully frustrating passion that is (not) solving crosswords.

  83. Muffin@54. I googled a bit further than you. I found one reference to ‘egger’ moth. It was to this blog! Every textbook I checked uses the ‘ar’ spelling. I’ve never seen it otherwise. My Chambers even gives the ‘er’ version as first choice. It’s wrong.

  84. Thanks Qaos and Andrew.
    Very enjoyable, missed the theme as normal even knowing that Qaos always has a theme.

  85. Nothing to add to comments above re the clues and answers, but I would like to send my congratulations to Andrew on his milestone blog. Long may he continue!

  86. Congratulations on number 1000 Andrew. I seldom comment these days, mainly due to time zones, but I do read and appreciate them. Just for a change I am reading this one in Melaka or, as some will know, Malacca. My travels continue.
    I thought this a bit more at the gentle end for Qaos but, as always, enjoyed it and appreciated the work that went into it.

  87. Hi Roz@77. I don’t know if you’ll come back to read this, but I’ve never heard the term dwarfon and can’t find a reference online. I’d love to know what it refers to. BTW I really enjoyed the puzzle and only missed the parsing for OBEYED, so thanks to Qaos (and Andrew)

  89. In my defence (for not finishing) DIRER does sort of work at 23d but on reflection DRIER is more apt.

  90. EGGAR MOTH , I agree with Muffin, Zoot and others, Chambers is wrong here. No fault of the setter , they cannot be experts in every area and have to rely on the dictionaries.
    FREE-SPACE and DIESEL FUEL also questionable. Think I am in a minority here , the wordplay is fine for each so I did not really notice the definitions.

  91. Cosmic cowboy@87 dwarfons are sub-structure of quarks and leptons, the next layer of matter , the most consistent model contains 7 dwarfons.
    Less poetic and misguided theorists call them preons. I am very glad that dwarfons cannot be find online.

  92. Missed the theme, but no other issues. Thank you to Qaos and congratulations and thank you to Andrew

  94. [apologies for late appreciation… Busy week and find 15² usually far more time-consuming than puzzles. But flicking through this Sunday morning (and realising, yet again, I’d overlooked a blatant Qaos theme!) I happened upon an amazing fact….

    that this is the 1,000th blog you’ve produced, and you’d already been doing it for four years before I first looked in!!
    Man – Andrew – that is some kind of BIG deal!! Quite apart from the fact it’s a masterly, and exemplary output what pulled me up in my tracks was that number …. One Thousand! I never cease to be amazed by the generosity of all our bloggers but today, for me, my particular gratitude is for you, Andrew, your incredible kindness and wonderful contribution to our cruciverbal world…

    Bless you, Andrew!]

  95. Thanks to Qaos for an entertaining puzzle with a number of tough clues and some helpful anagrams. Didn’t spot the theme in time to be of any help.
    Thx also to Andrew for blog.

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