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]
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
Thanks Qaos and Eileen
Someone has to be pedantic enough to point out that a supercharger and a turbocharger are not the same: the first is driven directly by the engine, the second by the engine’s exhaust gases.
Edit: I see I was beaten to it!
I guessed there was an animated theme, so thanks to those who have bothered to find and list them. I liked the lovely PERFORATE, WATER POLO, DRAGON, WALLED, TRIANGULAR and of course TWEE. Pleasant start to the week.
Ta Qaos & Eileen.
SimoninBxl @34 – a turbocharger is a form of supercharger. I agree that there is a distinction made in common and automotive parlance. Try searching ‘supercharger definition’ and you will see what I mean.
Tekkin t’p*** made me smile! Thanks both.
Trouble at t’mill. For very mysterious reasons my contribution to the debate about TWEE has been held back for moderation or has been deleted. I assure you all I did not say anything obscene or politically controversial! I merely pointed out that the initial T in 27d is not voiced as “tuh” but is a glottal stop. The glottal stop is common in Yorkshire but also widely used in, for eg, “estuary English” pronunciation. There is a very extended explanation of the correct sound at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chcjHwWwVxQ
Couldn’t parse TWEE, UPSET or ODE, but there were some nice friendly clues for the most part, Qaos being more gentle as it’s Monday. Loi was SKEDADDLE as couldn’t see K ED for King Edward. Don’t those red pillar boxes that were put up in his reign have ER on them, rather waylaid by that…
Thanks for that, TerriBlislow @40 – ‘very mysterious reasons’, indeed. I certainly didn’t delete or hold back your comment. 😉
ronald @41- neat misdirection by Qaos: I should have separated K and ED in the blog.
Another who couldn’t parse TWEE, and now I see why.
I only knew CEN (NEC) from having used Brum Airport several times. Wasn’t happy with I=first in 23d until I saw Eileen’s explanation. Other than those quibbles, I enjoyed it.
Layman @ 28 I don’t know if you are missing that t’ is an approximation to the way the is pronounced in Lancashire and Yorkshire, also sometimes as th’.
My grandmother once said, on observing something falling off the table on to the cat: itititonted (it hit it on the head)
Thanks Eileen and Qaos.
Dave Ellison @44 – lovely! 🙂
I don’t think anyone has pointed out that EPIC is part of the theme, as well as being a very good clue.
thanks Eileen and Qaos
Quite apart from automotive expertise about chargers, did anyone wonder about possibly needing to remove the swimmer PERCH from suPERCHarged … a moment’s thought showed that it wasn’t that, but it was a nice garden path to wander up.
TerriBlislow @40. Look again – your comment @32 is exactly as you left it. The deleted tag immediately above @31 is because I self-deleted a comment there during Edit time having seen that Crispy had got in a moment ahead of me with the point I was making.
Muffin@1, I’ll add that 4’33” is only the best known work that uses an absence of music. Blackout by Yann Chateigne Tytelman is a fascinating meditation on voids in music, art and relationships that mentions some of the others.
Balfour@48 – thanks, my incompetence again. Rather relieved though as could not understand how I had broken the rules.
I misread 1d as two contestants, so it had to wait until I had the crossers.
DNF – Outhouse just completely eluded me.
Early in the last century my Great Aunt Wyn went to the outhouse on a stormy night – the candle blew out, and in the dark she sat on the hedgehog that had climbed onto the seat.
Muffin@1 re: 6d, for the surface, “the Sun” is an example of a tabloid newspaper that features celebrities, as well as being an example of a star.
Judge @46. Thanks for that. I did not know that one at all. It may have been the merest smidgen too late to catch the attention of my younger children, with whom I watched all of the others except LABYRINTH and INSIDE OUT. The last one I remember taking them to see was ‘Brave’ in a cinema in Prague, where we then lived. That was a year earlier, 2012.
Showaddydadito @51
Ouch! 🙁
[Showaddydadito @51 There is an Australian song about a similar unfortunate nocturnal with a redback spider in the antipodean version of the OUTHOUSE, the ‘dunnie’. Our Australian correspondents are probably asleep at this hour. but maybe one of them will recollect this if they return later.]
I couldn’t parse ICENI, TWEE or ODE. As an Aussie, I didn’t know Birmingham’s exhibition centre, nor did I ‘get’ t’wee. And I would never have thought of a Codex.
I did guess six of the movies after LABYRINTH and FROZEN set me looking for others.
A lovely, witty puzzle today. My favourites were LABYRINTH, SKEDADDLE, BARNACLE, MEMBRANE, WATER POLO.
Thanks to Eileen for the blog, others for the discussion and Qaos for the puzzle.
Did nobody else wonder at towel being described as a cleaning aid? I use a towel for drying.
Otherwise an OK puzzle, apart from the theme which of course I missed.
Very enjoyable (for me at least) puzzle! BARNACLE is my clue of the day; spent a little while trying to see if TAR or NAKED would work and then got it once all the crossers were in.
I saw TANGLED and FROZEN but couldn’t winkle out any of the other theme entries besides DRAGON, somehow there even missing TRAIN. In the TV show of Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Captain Hook is always exclaiming “Barnacles!”, but that would be stretching the theme to molecular thinness. On the other hand, we do have UP in UPSET.
As someone not familar with the buildings of Birmingham, I said “ah, that’s always ICENI, there must be an NEC in Birmingham,” and then pressed the check button. Can’t speak to the glottal stop controversy, but WATT and WHAT have different vowel sounds for me (and maybe even different voicings on the W?), but I just figure homophones can get kind of loose, at least for my accent. Those two were my LOIs. LOsI?
Re: John Cage, muffin@1 is correct about his intention with 4’33”, which he described as a piece in which the performer makes no intentional sounds; but he did publish a book called “Silence” so it may be correct on those grounds.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen!
Eileen, the puzzle number is 29,872 (not 28)
I agree with Eileen that this one was pitched nicely for a Monday. Except loi 20a ICENI combined two (for me) obscurities, definition (“Ancient Britons” — probably seen before but forgotten) and wordplay (“centre of Birmingham” — National Exhibition Centre, of course). Managed to solve it by multiple guesses into DuckDuckGo — probably doesn’t count, but I wouldn’t have managed it otherwise
The rest was fun, with a few tricky ones in the SE, especially 29a SKEDADDLE. Great surfaces for 13a TANGLED (small insect going around light), 24a WATER POLO (Raleigh left out another explorer), 1d EPIC (suggesting Einstein’s equation), 4d WALLED (Fortified wine), 15d TRIANGULAR (Giant rural building), 25d RIOT (right outside Number 10)
Thanks both
KateE @57. I wondered about that, too, but then thought “I’m a bloke. Works for me”
Not a Yorkshireman and I agree the usual expression for ‘the’ in the county dialect would be a glottal stop not a t. However, if a Yorkshire native says ‘to the’, it would be pronounced “t’t” I think. Or is the second t still a glottal stop?
NW corner beyond me.
Thanks for the hints.
KateE@57 I hesitated a second there too, but then thought that it was fine in the larger context of having a bath/ shower etc.
Dave F @ 62. The second ‘t’ is a glottal stop. Another instance, ‘tintintin’ with a glottal stop before the last ‘t’ is good S Yorks for ‘ it isn’t in the tin’. Without the glottal stop it’s meaningless.
Mig@60 The Iceni are best known as the tribe led by Boudicca (Boedicia) who led them to an uprising against the Romans and burnt down Londonium (London) in around 50CE before being defeated.
I don’t think they’re mentioned in the Asterix books which I have to admit are my main source of “knowledge” of this period.
[Kate E @57, Crispy @61, Paul @64 – It could be argued that the extent to which a TOWEL participates in the cleaning process depends on the degree of punctiliousness with which the preceding stages have been carried out; thus Groucho Marx’s line, “Go, and never darken my towels again!” Perhaps that’s what you meant, Crispy?]
A reasonably straightforward grid fill but needed help to parse one or two & didn’t spot the theme either. Thanks Q & Eileen
Isn’t drying part of the cleaning process? If you put away glassware while it’s still wet, you might wind up with streaks.
Thanks Eoink@66. These Romans are crazy! 🙂
A fifteensquared search shows that the ICENI do show up from time to time, including some puzzles I’ve done, as I suspected. I’ll try to remember them for next time, and will file them under “Iceni Age” as a mnemonic. Now if I can just remember all the cricket terms, rugby positions, football teams, football stadiums, exhibition centres, rivers, islands, politicians, political parties, comedians, Cockney rhyming slang, and Irish police forces, I should be good to go
29872 not 28872, not sure it matters but if you don’t change it now it will never happen
The NEC isn’t in Birmingham, it is in Solihull
Mig@70: also common birds and flowers (real flowers not rivers); short words in French German, Spanish and Latin; the idiosyncracies of the dozen or so major UK accent types,… and the rest!
Apparently even that lot won’t be enough to pass the bizarre UK citizenship test.
My daughter described cryptic crosswords as being “a collection of dad jokes”.
Which, come to think of it, may be some kind of reflection on me… I shall have words.
Chris @71 – apologies (busy day). Amended now.
Missed the theme as ever, though it’s so broad as to be of little help anyway. I thought this had a midweek vibe – not unduly difficult but not Mondayish either. Enjoyably idiosyncratic, my favourites were LENIENT and WATER POLO.
Chris @72, speaking as someone who has lived a short hop from the NEC for many years, the NEC is indeed in Solihull, but calls itself the NEC, Birmingham. I think that gets Qaos off the hook.
Muffin#1 my first thought was that the ‘say ‘ was an allusion to the memorable Sun headline “ Freddie Starr ate my hamster” ( which he always denied, incidentally)
Great crossword and a great write up too, thanks!
Re 1D: “a scientific clue this time, in place of the familiar ‘mathematical’ one”, e = 2.71828… and pi = 3.1415… are certainly mathematical constants, so a scientific and a mathematical clue!
My wife, who spent her teenaged years living in Solihull, used to take me to task for calling it part of Birmingham – but it is completely continuous with Brum, so I never saw the distinction (except, perhaps, as a sign of snobbery). It’s like me saying we don’t live in Hobart because we are in the Kingborough Council area. Nonsense, really.
Has someone mentioned EPIC? Also animated film.
Tristram @80
Please see Judge’s comment @46.
Terri@40 Thanks for the link, I always want to know things like that.
And thanks to Qaos and to Eileen for the joyful accompaniment.
I totally misread 20a (ICENI). I could see the def ok but foxed by the wordplay. I took ‘centre of Birmingham’ to mean the middle letters “in” reversed according to ‘revolting’ to get NI, that left ICE. I also thought 11 referred to 11a WOMEN but of course couldn’t see the connection. Ditto to the number 11. So thanks Eileen for your brilliant parse.
I equally admire your explanation for 19a (ODE). Again the def was straightforward, (easily guessed) but although I could see what ‘unwrapped’ meant I wasn’t familiar with ‘codex’ so couldn’t work it out.
Thanks again Eileen, I think you are a genius, and of course to QAOS for a nice grid.
I think that I’ve said it before, but there’s at least one toilet in the House Of Lords, which has a notice on the door saying “Peers only”.
Cheers one and all.
John Cage’s composition 4 minutes 33′ is also a play on the temperature Absolute Zero which is minus 273 degrees Centigrade.
4m 33s is 273 seconds of “absolutely zero”.
I’m catching up. but kudos to Qaos for a superb composition and thanks to Eileen for a useful blog.