A nice surprise to find a Qaos puzzle to blog on a Monday, so soon after his recent return.
The only drawback is that we know that Qaos puzzles always have a theme – the problem is finding them and they do, quite often, involve things beyond my ken. I solved the puzzle in the early hours but nothing by way of a theme leaped out at me, so I went back for a bit more sleep, hoping that my subconscious would work on it and all would be clear when I woke up. No such luck this time and so, rather than hold up the blog any longer, I’ll simply wait for the chorus of comments to enlighten me. As usual, my thanks in advance for your help – please resist simply repeating others if you can!
(Please see comment 3.)
Theme aside, I thought this was a perfect Monday puzzle: elegant, accurate cluing, with some neat constructions and a generous sprinkling of wit. I particularly liked 12ac LABYRINTH, 21ac LENIENT, 24ac WATER POLO, 2dn DRAGON, 5dn MEMBRANE, 7dn BARNACLE, 16dn SMART, 19dn OUTHOUSE and 27dn TWEE – the list could have been longer.
Many thanks to Qaos – you’ve beaten me again but I enjoyed it.
Definitions are underlined in the clues.
Across
9 During supper, for a terrible bore (9)
PERFORATE
Hidden in supPER FOR A TErrible
10 Coach artists with metal plating (5)
TRAIN
RA (Royal Academy – artists) in TIN (metal)
11 Composer of silence’s leading drummer shut up (5)
CAGED
(John) CAGE (composer of 4’33” – silence) + D[rummer]
12 Los Angeles Times reading in the endless place of intricate passages (9)
LABYRINTH
LA (Los Angeles) + BY (times) + R (reading, as in ‘The three Rs’) + IN + TH[e]
13 Small insect going around light becomes confused (7)
TANGLED
A reversal (going round) of GNAT (small insect) + LED (light)
14 Charges a levy, reportedly (7)
ATTACKS
Sounds like (reportedly) ‘a tax’ (a levy)
17 Females with ordinary males (5)
WOMEN
W (with) + O (ordinary) + MEN (males)
19 Unwrapped manuscript volume reveals poem (3)
ODE
[c]ODE[x] (manuscript volume)
20 Ancient Britons, 11 admit centre of Birmingham ‘revolting’ (5)
ICENI
II (eleven) round a reversal (revolting) of NEC (Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre)
21 Permitted no German retreating to be captured? That’s merciful (7)
LENIENT
LET (permitted) round a reversal (retreating) of NEIN (‘no’ in German)
22 Discovery of former chess champion: French opening popular at the start (7)
FINDING
F (French) + IN (popular) + DING (Liren – former chess champion)
24 Raleigh left out another explorer for sport (5,4)
WATER POLO
WA[l]TER (Raleigh, explorer, minus l – left) + (Marco) POLO (another explorer)
26 Dismayed by arrangement when parts swapped (5)
UPSET
SET-UP (arrangement) with the parts swapped
28 Supercharged swimmer missing tail (5)
TURBO
TURBO[t] (swimmer)
29 King Edward assumes burden to take off (9)
SKEDADDLE
K ED (King Edward) in SADDLE (burden) – lovely word
Down
1 Two constants combined with speed of light – impressive (4)
EPIC
E + PI (two constants) + C (speed of light) – a scientific clue this time, in place of the familiar ‘mathematical’ one
2 Fabulous being doctor taking edge off extreme pain (6)
DRAGON
DR (doctor) + AGON[y] (extreme pain)
3 Corruption of D.C. once Elon gets sympathy (10)
CONDOLENCE
An anagram (corruption) of D C ONCE ELON
4 Fortified wine after conflict exchanging hands (6)
WALLED
WAr (conflict) + rED (wine) with the r (right hand) exchanged for L (left)
5 Film’s viral content: eating fibre (8)
MEMBRANE
MEME (viral content) round BRAN (fibre)
6 Celebrity seen in the Sun, say (4)
STAR
Double definition
7 Salt taken aboard without clothing – one stuck on vessel? (8)
BARNACLE
NACL (strictly NaCL – sodium chloride, salt) in BARE (without clothing)
8 Crawl a short distance (4)
INCH
Double definition
13 Cleaning assistant backing great deal to buy the Guardian (5)
TOWEL
A reversal (backing) of LOT (a great deal) round WE (the Guardian
15 Giant rural building with three sides (10)
TRIANGULAR
An anagram (building) of GIANT RURAL
16 On reflection, it’s no good being smart (5)
STING
A reversal (on reflection) of ITS + NG (no good)
18 Fervent sermons involving cross demons, perhaps (8)
MONSTERS
An anagram (fervent) of SERMONS round T (cross – a Volkswagen car?)
a senior moment: it’s T = tau – thanks, Tim C @10 )
19 Dismissed union leader wearing wrong shoe in toilet (8)
OUTHOUSE
OUT (dismissed, in cricket) + U[nion] in an anagram (wrong) of SHOE – those were the days!
22 Stiff, old Buddhist supports Father? (6)
FROZEN
O ZEN (old Buddhist) after (supporting, in a down clue) FR (Father)
23 Doing porridge first then dines out (6)
INSIDE
I (first, as in regnal numbers) + an anagram (out) of DINES – porridge being time in prison
24 Delivered pardon to unit (4)
WATT
Sounds something like (delivered) ‘What?’ (Pardon?)
25 Public disturbance right outside Number 10 (4)
RIOT
RT (right) round IO (Number 10)
27 Dainty issue of Yorkshire peer? (4)
TWEE
Whimsically, T’ WEE, issue of a ‘peer’ for a Yorkshireman
Thanks Qaos and Eileen
I didn’t parse ODE – codex never would have occurred to me.
The wording of 6d is odd – why “in the Sun, say”?
Cage’s 4’33” has been misunderstood again. His point was the audience listened to the ambient noise, so not silence.
Favourite TRIANGULAR.
Thanks for the parsing of 19, Eileen. The answer was obvious but I couldn’t get further than ‘folio’ for a MS volume. No idea of a theme either, but I admired the surfaces in so many of the clues. Thanks again to Eileen and thanks to Qaos.
I think there is some sort of cartoon film theme (how to) train (your) dragon, Frozen, Wall-E(d), Labyrinth (live action with puppets though), Monsters (Inc), Inside Out(house), Tangled – mainly Pixar except for Labyrinth.
All good fun – thanks Qaos and Eileen.
I don’t find myself quite in agreement with Eileen for once, as I found this to be a somewhat quirky puzzle with quite a few strange surfaces; but there were also some nice touches such as T instead of X for cross in MONSTER (I took it to be its similarity with the Christian cross) and the headline-like second half of the clue for ICENI. I also enjoyed DRAGON for the neat split in “Fabulous being doctor….”, although “leading drummer” for D (initial letter indicator) wasn’t much to my taste.
I couldn’t parse TWEE (other than the inevitable initial T) nor TOWEL (“to buy” as an insertion indicator?) and I failed on SKEDADDLE; it’s not a word I use, I was fooled by the existence of the other D checker, and I didn’t think of that interpretation of “take off”.
Well done to JoFT for the theme spot!
Thanks both
[I’ve done a couple of cycling holidays where a firm moves your main luggage from one place to the next one where you are staying. They were called “Saddle Skedaddle”!]
Many thanks, JOFT @3 – What a relief to find that I wouldn’t have discerned the theme after a few more hours! 😉
T in MONSTERS is probably for Tau, a cross.
Favourite was TWEE (well I laughed). 🙂
I thought the theme was animated movies LABYRINTH, MONSTERS inc, how to train your DRAGON, FROZEN, TANGLED I am sure there one or two more as well.
Enjoyed this although I was expecting a sum to solve.
Once again fooled by ‘centre of Birmingham’ it must be the 3rd or 4th time that’s hampered me in a crossword.
Favourite today SKEDADDLE
Thanks Eileen and Qaos
Edit: Mars ATTACKS and WALL-Ed (sorry just realised cross posted with someone else pointing this out)
There seem to be several animated or fantasy films in there: FROZEN, TANGLED, How to TRAIN your DRAGON, TURBO, MONSTERS (Inc), possibly LABYRINTH? – but if there are more I can’t see them.
Anyway, a lot of fun today, though I missed the “centre of Birmingham” and codexes are perhaps a bit obscure for a Monday. T’WEE made me laugh.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen.
Further to me @7… BigC has…
tau
noun
1. The nineteenth letter (Τ, τ) of the Greek alphabet, corresponding to T
2. A tau cross
3. As a numeral τˈ = 300, ˌτ = 300000
4. A tau particle
ORIGIN: Gr tau, of Semitic origin
tau cross noun
A T-shaped cross, St Anthony’s cross
I also couldn’t parse twee even though I’ve lived in Bradford for more than 50 years. Thanks for the explanation and the puzzle.
I think FINDING NEMO is there, with Nemo backwards in wOMEN.
I’m with AP @4 on this one, having found some of the surfaces clunky. It really didn’t flow for me. And, as a Yorkshireman, I found TWEE infuriating. The ‘T’ is not voiced, it’s a glottal stop – how many times does this need to be said?!
FINDING nemo as well
Thanks, Tim C @ 10 – that one escaped me this morning!
Hello! Newbie here.
My newness is shown by 23d stumping me. I had the F of First, then DINES anagramed for FIENDS…. who would be doing time inside. That slowed me down a touch.
Enjoyed 11 and 20a, nice wording.
I liked the centre of Birmingham, though there may be some muttering from those not UK based. No number clue, so was this set with Monday in mind?
MONSTERS INC(h) is there, along with FINDING (Nemo/Dory – although I can’t see the second part), TURBO is another animation about a snail, ICENI an animation company. The SKEDDADLE is an episode from the Goodbye Family.
I enjoyed this and only got as far as animated films too. But slow checking films so crossed with the world.
Thank you to Qaos and Eileen.
@several – FINDING NEMO, with the second word cunningly reversed in 17 across, WOMEN.
PeterT @17. Yes indeed, as someone born and bred in the UK, but who’s been in Australia for the last 35 years there’s no way I could parse that one, so borderline unfair for mine.
Otherwise I thought this was a perfectly pitched Monday puzzle.
Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.
Pendants corner; @Eileen , surely 29 is burden around King Ed, not vice versa?
Somewhat shamefaced, as a Brummie (though I left there 50 years ago), not parsing ICENI.
Like several others (I am relieved to find) I was amused by T’WEE.
Pleasant start to a Monday morning. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen
Thanks to all those who pointed out the theme, which totally escaped me; well, they usually do!
All nice stuff, good Monday fare – apart from T for “cross” in MONSTER. The answer went in because of the definition and the crosses, leaving T as the extra from the anagram fodder. OK, so I know there is such a thing as a tau cross, but TBH it’s not the first or even the second thing that springs to mind for “cross”. So it jarred a bit as a component of a puzzle at this sort of level.
TWEE was last one in and raised a smile.
I liked the use of NaCl in BARNACLE, too.
(I am just about to go and try to scrape the bloody things off the underside of our boat where they have been having a happy barnacle time all summer.)
Thanks Q & E.
Thank you, fellow-pendant, Graham @21 – I’ll amend the blog now.
You seem to have fallen victim to Muphry’s Law – see here:
https://conversableeconomist.com/2024/07/19/muphrys-law-of-editing-and-proofreading/ 😉
Tough puzzle. I didn’t think to look for a theme, and even after reading the btl comments at the Guardian, I failed to see what the theme is.
Favourites: DRAGON, TANGLED.
I could not parse 19ac; 20ac apart from CEN = ? in II = eleven/11 (never heard of NEC – Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre; 2d apart from PI which I guessed was a constant and I had a feeling C had something to do with speed of light; 18d I did not remember why T = cross (have come across that in previous puzzles).
New for me: DING Liren = chess champion.
Eileen @24, yes, I am interacting on my phone today, rather than PC as usual, and touchscreens and I don’t get on with each other… I’ve proof read this comment twice but have zero confidence there are no typos. 🥺
Rest assured, GrahamInSydney @26. 🙂
Didn’t get TWEE – sorry still didn’t understand it even from the blog; would appreciate it if someone could explain it for one not acquainted with the local lingo…
Liked MEMBRANE, WATT, ATTACKS, FINDING (forgot so soon about this world champ 🙁 ). Thanks Qaos and Eileen
Layman @28
Read “peer” as “pee-er”
Layman @28 – The issue of a peer, i.e. one who pees, is the wee. For a comedic Yorkshireman, this might be voiced as T’ WEE.
[ARhymerOinks @13. As another Yorkshireman, it doesn’t bother me. On ISIHAC this device was used regularly by Barry Cryer – a Yorkshireman]
Comment #31
Layman@28. The T in front of WEE represents a glottal stop sound. NOT pronounced “tuh” as most non Northern people think. The word “the” is kind of swallowed to the back of the throat. I cannot find a way of expressing this so I’m hoping someone will come up with a link to some comedy sketch or similar so you can hear the correct sound.
Thank you all – clear now, much appreciated! (very complicated for this one)
Great Monday crossword although 28a is a bit iffy as a Turbo is not the same as a Supercharger.
Thanks to Q and E
I might be reaching a bit, but other recent animated films include RIO-t, ICE-ni cAGEd, UPset