Qaos is this morning’s setter.
The first two across solutions slotted in immediately and gave me no warning of what was to come – a mostly benign puzzle with a couple of twists that take longer to explain than to solve. I don’t remember seeing the device in PEARL before, and it took me ages to understand the (genius) parsing of ASLEEP. The trademark maths were less “mathy” (I know, not a word) than can sometimes be the case with this setter.
Thanks, Qaos.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | PET SHOP |
Those working in very quiet store (3,4)
|
| *(those) [anag:working] in PP (pianissimo, in music notation, so “very quiet”) | ||
| 5 | RELEASE |
Free jumble sale held by Greece occasionally (7)
|
| *(sale) [anag:jumble] held by (g)R(e)E(c)E [occasionally] | ||
| 9 | SUPER |
Great leader (5)
|
| Double definition, the second possibly referring to a superintendent, a leader in the police force. | ||
| 10 | APPOINTEE |
Program rejects Number 10 supporter being given job (9)
|
| APP (“program”) + [rejects] <(N (number) + IO (ten)) + TEE (“supporter”)
The appointee is the (human) being given a job. |
||
| 11 | ROCK SALMON |
‘Fish surprise’ special – nut and originally dairy-free (4,6)
|
| ROCK (“surprise”) + S (special) + ALMON(d) (“nut” free of [originally] D(airy)) | ||
| 12 | TART |
Dessert offered as part of starter? (4)
|
| Hidden in [part of] “sTARTer” | ||
| 14 | MACHIAVELLI |
Scheming politician to claim ‘I have contrived to kidnap Liberal’ (11)
|
| *(claim i have) [anag:contrived] to kidnap L (Liberal) | ||
| 18 | CROWN ANTLER |
Monarch learnt about bony growth (5,6)
|
| CROWN (“monarch”) + *(learnt) [anag:about] | ||
| 21 | EYES |
Looks like they agree with judge’s conclusions (4)
|
| [conclusons (i.e. last letters) of] (lik)E (the)Y (agre)E and (judge)S | ||
| 22 | BROWN-NOSER |
Numbers covered up by one who has followed British sycophant (5-5)
|
| (Nos. (numbers) covered up by OWNER (“one who has”)) followed Br. (British) | ||
| 25 | TWO-FOOTED |
Description of skilled footballers and most people? (3-6)
|
| A skilled footballer can use both feet rather than strongly favouring either, and the vast majority of people have two feet. | ||
| 26 | OPERA |
Oscar and Penny are returning to work (5)
|
| O (Oscar, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + P (penny) + <=ARE [returning] | ||
| 27 | PLEASED |
Happy about 19 + 500? (7)
|
| *(asleep) (the answer to “19” down) + D (500 in Roman numerals) | ||
| 28 | HOTSPOT |
Popular nightclub area with wifi (7)
|
| Double definition | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PASTRY |
Father’s attempt to make small cake (6)
|
| PA’S (“father’s”) + TRY (“attempt”) | ||
| 2 | TOPICS |
Subjects of King leaving degrees of latitude (6)
|
| R (Rex, so king) leaving T(r)OPICS (“degrees of latitude”) | ||
| 3 | HARASSMENT |
Has Starmer mostly dithered over national aggravation? (10)
|
| *(has starme) [anag:dithered] over N (national) where STARME is [mostly] STARME(r) | ||
| 4 | PEARL |
Precious thing given by queen, evenly wrapped by friend (5)
|
| ER (Elizabeth Regina, so “queen”) wrapped by the letter of PAL (“friend”) so that they make up the even letters of P(E)A(R)L | ||
| 5 | RAPTORIAL |
Predatory rodent bites prince first during test (9)
|
| RAT (“rodent”) bites P(rince) + I (one, so “first”) during ORAL (“test”) | ||
| 6 | LAIR |
Woman removing clothing in den (4)
|
| (c)LAIR(e) (“woman”) [removing clothing (i.e outside layers)] | ||
| 7 | ACTUALLY |
Friend supports gold-plated court – really? (8)
|
| ALLY (“friend”) supports CT (court) plated in Au (chemical symbol for “gold”) | ||
| 8 | ELECTRIC |
Thrilling type of car (8)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 13 | OVER AND OUT |
Dismissed off the final ball? We’re done (4,3,3)
|
| The umpire in cricket says “over” at the end of an over (“the final ball”) and “out” if the player is given out (“dismissed”) | ||
| 15 | CONCRETED |
Fish circling new island formed into a solid mass (9)
|
| COD (“fish”) circling N (new) + CRETE (“island”) | ||
| 16 | SCREWTOP |
Ship’s company breaks into capsized vessels – that’s some bottle (8)
|
| CREW (“ship’s company”) breaks into [capsized] <=POTS (“vessels”) | ||
| 17 | DOVECOTE |
Party ballot over European Commission where fliers can be found (8)
|
| DO (“party”) + VOTE (“ballot”) over EC (European Commission) | ||
| 19 | ASLEEP |
1 takes off 13 for the count (6)
|
| A (one) + <=PEELS (“takes off”, OVER) AND “OUT for the count” is the definition.
You need to replace the 13 in the clue with the solution to 13dn (OVER AND OUT) to make this clue make sense. |
||
| 20 | DREAMT |
Imagined rogue trade pocketing millions (6)
|
| *(trade) [anag:rogue] pocketing M (millions) | ||
| 23 | WIDTH |
Arrow I’d thrown some distance (5)
|
| Hidden in [some] “arroW I’D THrown” | ||
| 24 | BOYS |
Young men float soundly on sea’s surface (4)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [soundly] of BUOY (“float”) on S(ea) [‘s surface] |
There will be a theme – is it Petshop Boys?
Thanks both
Dave Ellison @1 – probably although I can’t see one, but I almost always miss themes.
Yes. There are a lot of Pet Shop Boys album titles in the grid.
Dave Elliso@1. Yes it is. Please, Release. Hotspot, Actually are all album titles. There may be more.
I admired 19 ASLEEP eventually, but required a nap between filling in the answer and looking back at it before the penny dropped. Agree with loonapick on his evaluation. Thought RAPTORIAL was well clued as well. I wonder if there’ll be any objection to LAIR? The answer was clear enough with the crossers in place, but without those there are a lot of names to consider.
No idea of a theme, but I wouldn’t know anything about PET-SHOP BOYS anyway.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.
Petert @4 Plus Super, Yes, Electric …
Release
Electric
Super
Hotspot
Please
Yes
Actually
Concrete
All above are albums
Plus Petshop Boys
Ps Tennant and Lowe would not seem hardest names to get into grid but I am not seeing them
Great stuff from Qaos.
The southwest corner causing most the trouble.
I liked TWO-FOOTED and ASLEEP (so many possible misdirections and think I fell for them all).
I can only name one or two Pet Shop Boys songs so the theme went over my head.
Thanks Qaos and Loonapick
Enjoyable, but no chance with the theme. (It’s Qaos, so you look. )
I wonder if EYES can be substituted for looks. Doesn’t the latter need a proposition such as at?
Probably the easiest Qaos, I’ve completed, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks to various for spotting the theme which would not be top of my Spotify list. No clues particularly stand out, just a methodical solve.
Ta Qaos & loonapick.
Tomsdad @5 For me, the number of possible names didn’t matter because it was solvable from the definition and put together there was no doubt it was correct. Others may of course disagree.
I initially thought of Peter the Great. Super is better but works much the same way.
Lots of inventive cluing here which I really enjoyed. I solved 1ac and immediately worked through the 4 letter solutions to find “boys” but the theme helped me no further as I could only name the band and nothing associated with them. At least with Qaos the theme never gets in the way or is required to solve anything.
Weirdly I solved “pleased” before “asleep” but linked clues can work both ways I guess.
Many thanks Qaos and loonapick.
I had put a part-parsed appointed in for 10A which caused some challenges for 8D until the light dawned.
9A had me muttering “Great. Super. Sorry CJ”. to myself. (A reference to a ‘70s sitcom Reggie Perrin for those of a different generation/nationality.)
Favourite: 19d ASLEEP.
.
New for me: CROWN ANTLER
I didn’t parse 21ac correctly (was thinking of something to do with ayes-> eyes.
25ac – the football reference eluded me especially as I often get confused between soccer and Australian football.
I did not see a theme in this puzzle but the answer to 22ac made me think of the current US regime – I thought maybe it was a tie-in with Jeffrey Epstein due to 3d. I know nothing about Petshop Boys. The puzzle was doable without knowing of this group 🙂
Theme bypass despite being familiar with the Petshop Boys many hit singles. JOFT@12 getting linked clues in the “wrong” order is a perverse pleasure of mine 🙂
Top ticks for TROPICS, ASLEEP & BROWN NOSER which I accidentally solved having incorrectly thought the numbers would be NN before the penny dropped
Cheers L&Q
Good fun, but mostly rather gentle for Qaos, except for the 13/19 combination where I didn’t parse the peels / sleep bit of 19. The parsing of PEARL is easier to do than to describe: not sure that “evenly wrapped” quite covers it.
A ROYAL ANTLER is also a thing, and I hadn’t heard of either that or CROWN ANTLER, so my first (equally plausible) guess was wrong. I could name lots of Pet Shop Boys songs, but not their albums, so the theme passed me by.
When I solved the first two – PET SHOP and RELEASE straight off, I knew what the theme would be, but – like JoFT@12 – the only clue it helped with was BOYS, as I am totally ignorant of the band. I did at least resist any temptation to DuckDuckGo the band until I had finished, when it was fun seeing the album names. Lots of great clues, but I have to give special mention to MACHIAVELLI – very TOPICAL in Oz at present. Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.
Thanks Qaos and loonapick
Quick gridfill, though a couple unparsed. I too went with ROYAL ANTLER first, as I hadn’t heard “crown”.
2d reminded me of the story about Ben Jonson (friend of Shakespeare). He claimed to be able to make a pun on any subject. A bystander suggested “the King”. Jonson replied “the King is not a subject!”
Totally oblivious to The Petshop Boys theme, never my kind of band…
Last two in were TOPICS and ROCK SALMON. This last one had me scrambling back in my memory for those awful (for me, anyway) Biology dissections at school of the poor old Dogfish. With the stench in the lab for weeks on end of the formalin – or was it formaldihyde?
Found this much more straightforward than is usually the case with Qaos…
Muffin@18…I’ve only ever heard that one with Oscar Wilde involved, though of course his response to a very similar request was : “The Queen is not a subject…”
No hope of a theme for me, of course.
ronald @19
Both. FormaldEhyde (now methanal) is a gas at room temperature; formalin is a saturated solution of it in water, usually with a bit of methanol included.
ronald @20
To be honest, I couldn’t remember who it was. Google told me it was Jonson.
Steady solve over a late breakfast. Pleasant enough, with no especial stand-outs.
PEARL was clever, though: I actually dozily entered PERAL, for ER within PAL, before 10A alerted me to my being (1) unable to spell and (2) unable to use all the parts of the clue.
A small (and specialist) quibble / point of information, my being a VHF radio licence holder: you say “over” when you’ve said your piece and await a response, and simply “out” when you’ve finished altogether. Never “over and out”, whatever countless films, TV shows, etc. seem to think.
Completely missed the theme, the Pet Shop Boys being a touch recent to be in my life’s playlist – nice to see it all explained, though.
Thanks both.
Just to note the reappearance of my favourite grid, just 5 days after Philistine used it last Thursday, which in turn was only 5 days after Vlad’s Prize the previous Saturday. It seems to have been popular with setters over the past few months.
I got PET SHOP straight away and immediately guessed what the theme would be. This is very rare for me! But it didn’t really help much because the only album title I could think of was ACTUALLY (I seem to remember reading that they called it that because someone had commented on their frequent use of that word in conversation).
An enjoyable solve. My favourite was SCREWTOP for the great surface. I couldn’t fully figure out ASLEEP but now it’s been explained it is fiendishly clever.
I hadn’t heard of a CROWN ANTLER but Chambers tells me it is “the uppermost tine of an antler”.
Many thanks Qaos and loonapick.
Not sure how I feel about 19d, got there in the end.
Never heard of CROWN ANTLER before.
A decent challenge for a Tuesday I thought
Like others, CROWN ANTLER was new to me. Thanks to loonapick for the parsing of 19 down. I figured out the trick of inserting the solution to 13D, but still could not make sense of anything but “out for the count”.
The theme eluded me despite the band being popular during my childhood. I could name a couple of their singles, but none of their albums.
Very nice…19d parsing eluded me, so thanks for that.
No chance with the theme, of course.
9a (GREAT/SUPER) reminded me of the great series of Reggie Perrin.
Thanks both.
Derek@22 I agree with your comments regarding radio protocols but due to the preponderance of the incorrect usage I feel that OVER AND OUT might still have been intended as a double definition.
No hope of getting the theme, thanks to setter and blogger.
Thanks both,
I had ‘Bobs’ instead of ‘boys’. It works except for the homophone indicator. One could argue that a boy is, ipso facto, not any kind of man. (Spare me it’s in Chambers).
Thanks, all.
I’ve learned always to look for a theme in a Qaos puzzle, and puzzles like this one have further taught me not to look very hard. His themes are all too often bands or films I’ve never heard of.
I’ve never heard of a Crown Antler, though various google texts remind me that in a book I read as a child — could it have been Children of the New Forest? — somebody explains that a stag with a certain number of antler tines was a “hart royal.”
Google also tells me that the agglomeration sense of “concreted” is archaic.
I might point out that in Ben Jonson’s day, as in Wilde’s, there wasn’t a king.
Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.
[Doofs@28: yes, of course. I was just having a bit of a nit-pick. Solent coastguard are, in any case, unfailingly gentle and polite over accidental lapses of radio protocol. Even, say, using the priority channel for discussions of pub assignations only shifts that to icy politeness and a suggestion to change channel, “sir” .]
Valentine @30: “I might point out that in Ben Jonson’s day, as in Wilde’s, there wasn’t a king.” Not so. Jonson lived well into the 1630s, and the majority of his best and best-known plays – ‘The Alchemist’, ‘Volpone’, ‘Epicoene’ and ‘Bartholomew Fair’ were produced after James VI and I came to the throne in 1603.
Valentine @30
Both Jonson and Shakespeare lived under James I. Jonson died in 1637, so lived under Charles I as well.
Sorry, but I don’t share everyone’s admiration for 19d since I can’t see how it works.
If I replace the “13” in the clue with what the blog suggests I get:
1 takes off OVER AND OUT
with “1 takes off OVER” being required to get SLEEP from “takes off”/PEELS, as well as needing to be subtracted from clue 13 to provide the definition, but which still leaves AND unaccounted for.
Perhaps I’m misunderstanding something.
Figured out the theme instantly and missed all the references; the album title “actually” rings a bell but I’m another who only knows the song names. Very pleasant solve with a lot of clever cluing though I didn’t get the wordplay for 19d. Thanks Qaos and loonapick!
[Really I’m here for the quote attribution that has come up… the earliest occurrence in the Internet Archive of “the king/queen is not a subject” is from Maunder’s treasury of knowledge and library of reference, 1830, where it is attributed to “the famous punster Daniel Purcell.” But searching “the king is no subject,” we find Joe Miller’s Jests from 1745, where the same joke is attributed to “Purcel” among a few others with that attribution. This book appears to have been published by John Mottley; if the Daniel Purcell in question is the composer who was the brother or cousin of Henry, he died in 1717, making the attribution dubious; so I’m inclined to award the attribution to Mottley, or probably to some anonymous wag of his acquaintance.]
Steady progress over a few visits. Enjoyable puzzle, didn’t spot the theme. Favourites were MACHIAVELLI and HARASSMENT and RAPTORIAL. Didn’t understand how PEARL or ASLEEP worked so thanks to loonapick for clearing those up. And thanks Qaos.
Great to have Qaos back in regular rotation. Loved this puzzle, and agree with loonapick singling out 4d PEARL and 19d ASLEEP
12a TART I was first looking to see if TOFF was a dish of some sort, and 5d RAPTORIAL I was first trying to figure out how TRIAL fit before seeing ORAL
Looked for but couldn’t see the theme
DTS@22 I was waiting for someone to call out 13d OVER AND OUT. Even though it’s technically incorrect, I suppose it can be used colloquially and humorously
jeceris@34 Re 19d ASLEEP, I think AND is just a linking word. 1 (A) takes off (PEELS) 13 (OVER = SLEEP) AND (the result is) OUT for the count
@jeceris I share your confusion re 19d.
Mig@37.
But AND isn’t just a linking word, it’s part of the fodder in 13 down so has to be removed to make 19d work, and it hasn’t been.
For 19d I suppose you could extend the defintion to “and out for the count”, which works I think?
Billy @38 (and jeceris), I hope loonapick and Mig are not offended if I also have a go at spelling out how 19d works. (As I said @24 I didn’t fully understand it but now think it’s very clever.)
The clue is “1 takes off 13 for the count”. “13” refers to 13d which is OVER AND OUT. So you can read the clue as “1 takes off over and out for the count”. The wordplay is “1 takes off over”. This works as: 1 = A; “takes off” = PEELS which is reversed (“over”) to give SLEEP. The “and” is a link word between the definition and the wordplay. The definition is “out for the count” = ASLEEP.
jeceris @34
Sometimes AND just means and.
Lots to enjoy here as always with this setter. I like the Pet Shop Boys, but not sufficiently to know their albums so was at a loss for the theme. Thought MACHIAVELLI was a nice surface and anagram spot.
Matthew @7 Add “And”, of which there has much discussion here, to your list.
Little gripe shouldn’t the Umpire call “Out and Over”?.
Once “over” is called that’s it.
But enjoyed it, anyway😊
Good fun; I saw PETSHOP BOYS early on but that didn’t help my solve. I liked the RELEASE jumble sale, the topical HARASSMENT, and the ship’s company with their SCREWTOP bottle.
Thanks Qaos and loonapick.
Lord Jim @41 – thank you. Finally I can see what was going on with ASLEEP. I’m afraid our blogger’s explanation, unusually for Loonapick, left me none the wiser. I bunged it in working backwards from 27A. A fun solve; thanks to setter and blogger.
Qaos almost always has a theme that means nothing to me, Britpop being beyond my ken, with the exception of the Beatles and Stones. But you don’t need to know the theme subject in order to solve and enjoy his puzzles, thanks to the quality of his cluing. (By contrast, I am reminded of a Paul puzzle from years ago, where you had to know the titles of a whole slew of ABBA songs in order to have any chance of solving it – which I didn’t.)
And thanks to Loonapick and the commenters for helping me to see the cleverness of the thematic grid construction. Did all of Pet Shop Boys’ albums have one-word titles?
I was bothered by the two Tropics (I assume that’s what was being referred to) being described as degrees, rather than lines, of latitude, so I looked them up. Apparently their latitude varies by a number of degrees over a period of time owing to the earth’s axial tilt. No doubt all the scientists on here knew this, but I found it interesting.
Couldn’t parse ASLEEP – I agree it is genius. DOVECOTE was a jorum – didn’t know the word. The rest of the puzzle, gentle; thanks Qaos and loonapick!
I actually got ASLEEP from working backward from 27a, but I think the clue is rather clever.
I had “Left to my own devices” as an earworm throughout this, but still missed the theme, as always! I thought the clue to 8d was a bit weak, 400V 50Hz hurts – not what I would call thrilling (pun intentional). My first comment, by the way, always late to this blog.
Cellomaniac@47: Wikipedia confirms that all their studio albums did indeed have one-word titles. Some compilations and soundtrack albums didn’t.
jeceris@39 At the risk of flogging a dead horse, the beauty of 19d ASLEEP is that the referenced clue at 13d is part wordplay (…takes off OVER), part link (AND (giving)), and part definition (OUT for the count), without a single word out of place. I’m sure if Eileen’s tuned in it’s going into her book of exceptional clues. Lord Jim @41 thank you for explaining it much better than I did! 🙂
Usual fine construction from Qaos. I saw PET SHOP BOYS early, but that was of no help as I never had any interest in their music so I just pressed on and solved without looking for the theme matches Thanks to Qaos and to loonapick !
Missed the theme as always, even though I knew there must be one, but a doable and elegant puzzle nonetheless. I’d noticed the similarities between the diagonally opposite corners being nearly anagrammatic but that particular search for more examples clearly was a wild goose chase. Thanks for the parsing of several clues, my main reason for coming on here generally.
We did get ASLEEP but without full parsing, and likewise with PEARL—both excellent clues. Agree with Tomsdad @5 about the excessive possibilities for 6d, though we got it quickly from the crossers.
We know nothing about the Petshop Boys or their works, but didn’t need to. An enjoyable straightforward solve. Thanks Qaos and loonapick.
I’m normally loath to comment on here, but given all the ‘Pet Shop who?’ type comments I’d like to reassure the setter that there are at least some solvers out there who resonated with the theme. 1ac was our first in and we immediately suspected it, then gladly confirmed it with 7d. Then gradually solving while looking out for a few others we could think of and finally off to wiki for a cheat list which directly helped with 9a and 28a.
Funny how one person’s cultural institution can be another’s NHO!