Guardian Cryptic 27,282 by Qaos

by

Lots to like – 25ac was a favourite

…and tipped me off to the theme around William Wordsworth – as well as his famous POEM, DAFFODILS [or I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud] there is the collection LYRICAL BALLADS [wiki] that contained the LUCY poems [wiki]; and there are other poems: RESOLUTION and INDEPENDENCE; TINTERN [Abbey]; ADMONITION; The EXCURSION; and The PRELUDE[S].

As often with Qaos, I had to look up quite a few of the thematic solutions after the fact, but this was no barrier to solving or enjoying the puzzle. I also had to google-check 18ac and the unexpected spelling of 5dn, but both were clear enough from wordplay. Many thanks to Qaos.

Across
1, 5 LYRICAL BALLADS All I cry about? Topless dads completing dance work (7,7)
=a collection of poems, hence “work” in the singular
(All I cry)* gives LYRICAL; plus [d]ADS after BALL=”dance”
5   See 1
9 ZEBRA Wild bear chases unknown animal (5)
(bear)* after Z=”unknown” in maths
10 MONOCULAR New moon? On reflection, you see Altair regularly with one eye (9)
(moon)*; plus a reversal of UC=”you see” in text-speak; plus regular letters of [A]L[t]A[i]R
11 RESOLUTION Before answer, note the verdict (10)
SOLUTION=”answer”, after RE=musical “note” as in do-RE-mi
12 POEM Writer’s masterwork? (4)
[Edgar Allen] POE=”Writer”, plus M[aster]
14 INDEPENDENCE Freedom to swim in deep end, hence he sunk (12)
(in deep end)*; plus [he]NCE minus he
18 RACHEL CARSON Biologist who reversed hot car by railway, getting caught by crime (6,6)
=American marine biologist [wiki]
reversal of H[ot] CAR; plus EL=elevated railway such as in Chicago; plus C[aught]; plus ARSON=”crime”
21 LOUD F–flamboyant? (4)
double definition; the first being F for F[orte]
22 IRRATIONAL Mathematically, like two pieces of pie? Not sensible (10)
Edit thanks to ChrisJ – two pieces of “pi/e” gives pi and e, both irrational numbers
the first two pieces/letters of “pie” gives PI, an irrational number
25 DAFFODILS Partly taken aback, rogue slid off a damsel’s bloomers (9)
hidden reversed in SLID OFF A D[amsel’s]
26 ICING Hear me celebrate sugar coating (5)
sounds like ‘I sing’=”hear me celebrate”
27 SANDMAN S&M article, one putting the young to sleep (7)
S AND M; plus AN=indefinite “article”
28 TINTERN Can 10 run inside this abbey? (7)
TIN=”Can” as in a small metal container; plus TEN with R[un] inside it
Down
1 LIZARD Cold blooded sort of woman, difficult husband’s out (6)
LIZ=”woman”; plus [h]ARD=”dificult” minus h[usband]
2 ROBUST Sturdy old banger’s bonnet covered in iron oxide (6)
O[ld]; plus B[anger]; both inside RUST=”iron oxide”
3 CHALLENGER Many lobby dotty Green opponent (10)
C=100 in Roman numerals=”Many”; plus HALL=”lobby”; plus (Green)*
4 LIMIT 51 + 1,001? Time to check (5)
=”check” as in restrain or hinder
51 and 1,001 give LI and MI in Roman numerals; plus T[ime]
5 BANDOLEER Oscar learned to wrestle wearing black belt (9)
(O[scar] learned)* after B[lack]
6 LUCY Girl charmed knight away (4)
LUC[k]Y=”charmed”, minus K[night]
7 ALL-ROUND Versatile like ball-bearings? (3-5)
double definition
8 STRUMPET Disreputable woman‘s group welcomes Donald (8)
SET=”group” around TRUMP=”Donald”
13 ADMONITION Warning to Indian: curry gobbled in very short time (10)
(to Indian)*, with “curry” the anagrind; around MO[ment]=”very short time”
15 EXCURSION Sally‘s old dog is lifting leg (9)
EX=”old”; plus CUR=”dog”; plus reversal of IS; plus ON=”leg” side in cricket
16 PRELUDES Republican escapes, following quiet introductions (8)
R[epublican] plus ELUDES=”escapes”; after P[iano]=”quiet”
17 MCGUFFIN Plot device has wooden mule masking initially most of the computer-generated imagery (8)
MUFFIN=”wooden mule”, a TV puppet [wiki]; around C[omputer] G[enerated Imagery]
19 ENTICE Draw ten sparkling diamonds (6)
(ten)* plus ICE=”diamonds”
20 SLOGAN S-superhero Wolverine’s catchphrase? (6)
S; plus LOGAN=”Wolverine” the X-Men superhero
23 ASSET Help dog remove lead (5)
[b]ASSET=”dog” without its leading letter
24 FORM Class information? (4)
Hidden in/form[ation]

57 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,282 by Qaos”

  1. Missed the theme of course. I found this mostly pretty easy for a Qaos puzzle. Favourites were STRUMPET, DAFFODILS and RACHEL CARSON (couldn’t parse the EL part). Thanks to Q & m.

  2. Thanks Qaos and manehi

    Tricky but satisfying. I didn’t get all the thematic references or parse ADMONITION (a new anagram indicator for me!) Favourites were DAFFODILS and MCGUFFIN (naturally!)

    I had to Google Wolverine and found, confusingly, that he does have a catchphrase “I’m the best there is at what I do, but what I do best isn’t very nice.”

    Minor question mark: is “text speak” so prevalent that it doesn’t need to be indicated (in MONOCULAR)?

  3. Sadly I had never heard of a MCGUFFIN (or Muffin the Mule), so missed out on solving 17d. I have just looked it up; what a great word for a fascinating concept!

    I really relished the Wordsworth theme, having been tipped off early by 28a TINTERN.

    INDEPENDENCE at 14a took a while until I rechecked the anagram for “bandolier” at 5d and saw that it should have been BANDOLEER!

    Like you, manehi, I really like DAFFODILS 25a, but other favourites were 12a POEM, 27a SANDMAN and 7d ALL-ROUND.

    I am withdrawing unequivocally my objection to Rufus’ use of “but” in a clue yesterday, as I would feel hypocritical saying I liked the way Qaos used “car” cleverly today to clue RACHEL CARSON 18a.

    Many thanks to Qaos and manehi.

  4. Sorry crossed against drofle@1 and muffin@2 or I would have acknowledged your comments.

  5. Thanks for a great blog, manehi and Qaos for a lovely puzzle ,with a theme right up my street.

    Once again, too many good clues to mention – I thoroughly enjoyed it all.

    [manehi, you have a small typo in 17dn: it’s CG[i].]

  6. This was a real treat to solve. My favourite was LIMIT – a type of clue that seems to be becoming a Qaos trademark. I missed the ghost theme despite knowing that with Qaos there would be one. If I’ve ever read any of Wordsworth’s poems, I certainly don’t remember them – I’m holding out for an 80s/90s pop music theme!

  7. Very enjoyable. Thanks Qaos and manehi.

    For 22A I took the two pieces of pie to be PI and E (the base of natural logarithms), which are both irrational numbers.

  8. As for Eileen @5, the theme was in my comfort zone. On the other hand, I parsed 22a the same way as manehi did initially, missing the full sublety of Qaos’ clue. I admit also to ignorance of Rachel Carson, but the clue was fair enough to allow the solution to be deduced despite my lack of scientific knowledge.
    Another superb puzzle from the setter.

  10. Like one or two others I managed to miss the theme completely, and like JiA @3 I failed to solve MCGUFFIN. However neither of those shortcomings on my part spoiled my enjoyment of a well-crafted puzzle. My only slight quibble was the definition of ASSET as “help”. Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  12. (Re 17d: once you understand the concept of a McGuffin, you realise how formulaic a lot of suspense films are!)

  13. Thanks Qaos, not as difficult as some of his creations, although I didn’t see many of the themed words.

    Thanks manehi; I didn’t see the two pieces of pie either.

    I thought the ‘masking initially most of the computer-generated imagery’ was somewhat clumsy; maybe using computer games would have been easier.

    Shirl @11; I think sparkling has been used before. Synonyms are bubbly or flashing, both of which are on the Chambers list of anagrinds.

  14. Thank you Qaos and manehi.

    A most enjoyable puzzle, but I missed the theme, even though DAFFODILS brought Wordsworth’s poem to my mind – I was distracted by RACHEL CARSON. I am surprised that some people have not heard of her, her book Silent Spring led to a nationwide ban on DDT and some other synthetic pesticides in the USA.

    Incidentally, we have not heard from mrpenney of Chicago lately, I do hope that he is all right.

  15. Well, that was good fun. I also had not heard of Rachel Carson, but it was nice to be able to conjure up her name nonetheless, though it took me a while to correct my initial “maguffin”, which is the alternate spelling that first sprang to my mind, and get the first “C” in place!

    I had heard a little bit about DDT at some point in my life, but that’s about it; I suppose this gap in my knowledge stems from being born about a decade after she died. So, I learned something today, which is always nice.

  17. An alternative and perhaps more attractive parsing of 24a is as a double definition, the second one being racing information.

  18. I’m not too well-versed on Wordsworth, but as soon as I saw DAFFODILS and TINTERN I knew he’d be somewhere around (though I had to check that LYRICAL BALLADS were his!) I was fishing around for a WESTMINSTER (or maybe, a BRIDGE) – that being the only other of his poems I know 🙂 – but it wasn’t there. All the others fell into place nicely, though my LOI after a lot of struggling, was POEM – as it happens (did Poe and Wordsworth know each other?).

    Thanks to Qaos and Manehi.

  20. Excellent crossword. A theme was obvious after 1,5 and 25 went in, though most of the titles were unknown to me. Also new for me were RACHEL CARSON and BANDOLEER, but the clueing perfectly fair.

  21. An excellent puzzle. I delayed myself (as I too often do) by dashing in an answer without properly checking, this time BANDOLERO, but then I remembered Silent Spring on my dad’s bookshelf all those years ago.

    Missed the theme but Wordsworth is not a strong point so it didn’t matter. LOUD was a favourite, not least because the other stutter device (in 20d) is used entirely differently.

  23. I guessed the theme would be what it was fairly early thanks to TINTERN and DAFFODILS, but my ignorance of poetry is such that it didn’t help at all with the rest. Quite an entertaining solve. MCGUFFIN was the only unfamiliar solution and that was clued fairly so no complaints.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  24. A most enjoyable crossword, made so partly by the fact that I managed to solve from the clues all the answers I have never heard of: LYRICAL BALLADS, RACHEL CARSON, MCGUFFIN and BANDOLEER. (I didn’t know Silent Spring was by Rachel Carson – that’s the kind of educational bonus I get from doing these crosswords.)

    Naturally, I didn’t spot the theme, even though I thought of Wordsworth when filling in DAFFODILS.

    Two new anagrinds for me too: sparkling and curry.

    I didn’t bother with 12a POEM – on my own 20sec/20min rule (!). I guessed the use of the so-called Playtex device, but I didn’t twig the answer.

    I was surprised at the use of ‘sunk’ rather than ‘sank’ in the clue to 14a INDEPENDENCE.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi.

  25. Robi – CGI is a common abbreviation (at least in my experience) for computer generated imagery (so much so that “initially” is possibly redundant in the clue).
    CG for computer games is much less prevalent.

  26. Not only do I remember Muffin the Mule but I was the proud possessor of a wooden puppet of the beast,with which I used to terrorise our cat! Don’t remember the Muffin Club though!
    Quite a nice puzzle even if I didn’t get the theme- DAFFODILS was my second to last in! Still, LYRICAL BALLADS should have given the game away.
    I liked MCGUFFIN and LOUD.

  27. Enjoyed this but I failed to get the two parts of pie reference in 22ac though the rest clearly led to irrational.

    Also I wonder if the word rogue in 25 ac clue is redundant?

  28. Thanks to Qaos and manehi. I needed help parsing IRRATIONAL and MCGUFFIN and, like others, had trouble spelling BANDOLEER, but I did remember RACHEL CARSON-Silent Spring and much enjoyed the Wordsworth material.

  29. Good puzzle.
    Had to make a number of guesses due to lack of GK (e.g. RACHEL CARSON, SLOGAN). I had FORM as a double definition (school FORM and e.g. racing FORM). Is K an accepted abbreviation for knight? I can’t think where. I liked IRRATIONAL very much.
    Thanks, manehi and Qaos.

  30. I have only just started tacklng the Guardian puzzles again. The last few I’ve done seem a lot easier than in the past. This was particularly easy, but the clues had some very varied and engaging surfaces that grabbed the attention, so there was plenty to savour. Definitely not run-of-the-mill.

    The only negatives for me were a definition that’s not separated from the subsidiary indication in 12 (I cold-solved the answer quickly but didn’t write it in, thinking, ‘surely not’) and the pretty clunky cryptic syntax of the anagram/container clue for ADMONITION.

    Little to complain about really, and lots to applaud.

  31. Afternoon all! Many thanks for all the comments and to manehi for the blog – always appreciated.

    You have my brother to thank for today’s literary ghost theme, which hopefully balances the requirement for knowing that both pi and e are irrational (see proof for ? and proof for e). Every lonely cloud has a silver lining, as they say.

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

  34. AD@32. I knew someone was going to make that joke and I manfully restrained myself from doing so. The version I knew was that MM was illegal in the Isle of Man!

  35. Simon S @33
    Yes, I thought of honours too, but I couldn’t find where Knight = K is used on its own, as opposed to being part of another abbreviation e.g. KBE. I’m not comfortable with cherry-picking from longer abbreviations, if that’s what’s happening here.
    Thanks for the input though.

  36. phitonelly@35: In my Chambers (12th ed.), the 8th entry under K is “Knight”, although there’s no indication as to the source – unlike the 9th entry “Köchel” (catalogue of Mozart’s works).

  37. Collins does not have K = Knight, but I think K is used informally for Knight in the sort of circles I don’t move in. The ‘Yes, Minister’ stories spring to mind: “He has his ‘K’ now”, meaning KBE, no doubt.

  38. Thanks, Qaos. If it’s in Chambers, that’s fine. Chambers free online version has K = knight (chess), which I find very hard to believe!
    PS thanks for stopping by and posting the links to the Pi and e proofs.

  39. Never heard of Rachel Carson although I did manage to generate the name from the wordplay and then checked her credentials.

    Also never heard of McMuffin but unable to guess this answer as although I had the CG and other crossers I couldn’t generate “MUFFIN” from “wooden mule”. This character had ceased to be on the telly 6 years before our family got one!!!

    Of course I didn’t see the theme of England’s most overrated poet.

  41. This was very much a puzzle of two halves for me – about 50% of the clues went in very easily last night and I thought “I’ll bash the rest off in the morning” – but I’ve only just finished it now! I didn’t see any theme only knowing the one line of Wordsworth and 25a was a great clue. As was 22a now I see the full parsing. I’d never heard of a McGuffin or Rachel Carson and only got them with Google’s help.
    Great stuff now I see all the cleverness of it. Thanks Qaos and manehi.

  45. I finished this quite quickly, enjoying clues such as 18a and 17d. Not so happy with LIZ clued by “woman” and LYRICAL BALLADS defined as “work” or ASSET defined as “help”. I couldn’t parse 22a, having reluctantly given up Maths at 15, but it seemed fair enough, given the none too difficult crossers and that I had somewhere heard of irrational numbers without knowing what they were
    Thanks to manehi and Qaos.

  47. I’m fairly new to (modern-day) Guardian crosswords and had difficulty finding Qaos’s wavelength, mainly because he sometimes departs farther from Ximenes’s rules than I’m uesd to (though that isn’t necessarily a bad thing).

  48. This was, indeed, as ever an enjoyable crossword from Qaos.
    I am (nearly) always on the setter’s side, however somewhat surprised by the many wow-ish comments above.
    That’s very nice for Qaos who deserves this praise.

    We missed the theme, although my solving partner suggested it at one point.
    So the definition (‘work’) in 1,5 is clear now.
    Less clear though is the use of ‘completing’, in my opinion.

    I particularly liked 22ac but wasn’t very taken by 25ac (DAFFODILS).
    What part is ‘rogue’ playing in this clue, other than making it a real hidden?
    And talking about hiddens, ‘form’ is indeed part of ‘formation’ (24d) and perhaps ‘in’ it but is it?
    It’s one of these things I would refuse to write if I were the setter.
    And to be picky again, ‘swim’ before the fodder in 14ac, is that really a good anagrind?
    18ac, that biologist, is spoilt by the double use of ‘car, as we see it.
    Just like 7d’s ‘all-round’ (‘all’ is in ‘ball’), for us the weakest of the set.

    Believe it or not, the simple (perhaps, Rufus-like) 9ac (ZEBRA) was my highlight [together with 22ac].

    Good puzzle, enjoyable as I said before.

  49. I suppose with all cryptics, there are going to be gaps in one’s GK. I knew what a McGuffin was – partly thanks to Harry Potter! (can anyone else explain the allusion?) So that one went in easily, even though Muffin the Mule was before my time (Bill and Ben, and Andy Pandy, weren’t – worse luck! 🙁 )

    But for those who were flummoxed – is it legit to browse Wikipedia looking for explanations? 50 years ago, when I first started doing the crosswords, there wasn’t that option. And my completion rate was poorer.

    The other one which I found, perhaps too quickly, was the “mathematical pie” one – I didn’t spot that ‘e’ was represented too, but didn’t need to. Perhaps the clue would have been more tricky without the inadvertant homonym. How about: Mathematically, like a bottomless pit? Not sensible (10)? OK that loses the ‘e’ reference – but the word ‘pit’ doesn’t instantly suggest ‘pi’.

  50. Once I got LUCY (easy, my daughter’s name)and TINTERN I twigged the theme but am ashamed to realise how little I know about Wordsworth (my excuse is I did Latin instead of English A Level!)

    On the other hand because of my great age I certainly knew Muffin (was it Annette Mills?) and was very struck by Silent Spring when I read it years ago – the eco-movement owe a lot to Rachel Carson.

  51. Re the previous comment on ‘swim’ as an anagrind, I don’t see a problem since the word implies movement, and the Chambers definer, ‘to be dizzy’ makes it eminently suitable. Perhaps the objection is to do with the position of the anagrind, but it’s a standard infinitive construction, admittedly with a slightly Germanic word order, coming before the anagram fodder.

    However, I do agree that ‘car’ and ‘ball-‘ in 18a and 7d are weaknesses.

  52. Indeed, Andy @51, that’s it.
    It’s about the position of ‘swim’, not about whether ‘swim’ is an anagrind or not – it is.
    ‘Swim’ being placed before the fodder is really different from ‘swim’ being placed after the fodder.

  53. Tony @47
    I was interested in your comment about Guardian crosswords generally and the comparison with what you are ‘used to’, which I take it is The Times.
    I have a ‘holiday’ from the Guardian when I go to Australia (for a few weeks every year) and do the Times crossword instead, as it is syndicated there in The Australian, appearing 4 weeks later than in the UK.
    Quite apart from preferring to read the Guardian as a newspaper, I also happen to prefer its crosswords as well, as I think there is more variety, and I like themes when they are well implemented. I agree with what you say too about departing more from Ximenes’s rules!

  54. Abashed to admit that I have actually met Muffin the Mule in person. He made no mention of his club.

  55. It’s not so much about modernity, as Times puzzles these days are right up to the mark in that respect, but rather about the quality of the writing of the clues.

    In The Times (since it has been mentioned), the sort of grammatical problems, or — shall we politely say — leniencies, that Tony Sever hints at, and which appear in this puzzle at 12, 14, 18, 21, 22, 25, 26 & 28A, and at 1, 5, 6, 8, 13, 17, 20, 23 & 24D, would probably not be tolerated, especially since they’re all so easy to correct, while the several nice ideas would.

    And that’s what’s so annoying about Guardian puzzles: they’re dreadfully inconsistent.

  56. crimper@55 Very late but can’t help adding my opinion, if only for archive solvers of the future. To wit, what would poetry be without poetic licence.?

  57. William @ 56 – well said. To those of us brought up on Guardian-style puzzles The Times always seems very dry, stuffy and formal. Vive la difference!

Comments are closed.