Guardian Cryptic 27,692 by Qaos

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A fun solve and a quick finish…

…with a few clues clicking a bit more quickly thanks to the theme of Monty PYTHON‘s “DEAD PARROT” sketch [link to an online transcript], where a COMPLAINT is made about a NORWEGIAN BLUE that has been nailed to its PERCH and is supposedly PINING for the FJORDS.

Favourite clues were 13ac, 15ac, and 21ac. Thanks to Qaos.

Across
1 PINING Deep desire to pinch back gin cocktail (6)
NIP=”pinch” reversed/”back” + (gin)*
4 ADMITS Confesses to trashing stadium after United’s lost (6)
(stadium)* minus the u for United
9 DEAD Very late (4)
double definition: as in ‘dead silent’=completely=”Very”; and =deceased=”late”
10 MAINSTREAM Standard electricity supplier: a meter’s faulty without energy (10)
MAINS=”electricity supplier” + (a meter)* minus one e for energy
11 PARROT Queen to back bird (6)
Catherine PARR [wiki] was the last of Henry VIII’s Queens + TO reversed/”back”
12 REGISTER Record R Steiger play (8)
(R Steiger)*
13 NORWEGIAN European trade warning holds nothing over English (9)
(warning)* around O=”nothing” and E for English
15 BLUE Adult butterfly‘s sad and cold (4)
quadruple definition: =”Adult” as in ‘blue movie’; =name of several butterfly species; =melancholy; as in turning blue from cold
16 LOIN Meat cut from armadillo? I never! (4)
hidden in armadilLO I Never
17 COMPLAINT Politician rested in bed with illness (9)
MP=”Politician”+ LAIN=”rested” inside COT=”bed”
21 ON THE AIR Worn by Prince Charles, say, when live! (2,3,3)
sounds like ‘on the heir’=”Worn by Prince Charles”
22 TYPING Clerical work drawing over page (6)
TYING=”drawing” e.g. a football match, around P for page
24 SOMNOLENCE New moon interrupts quiet — one’s left with sleepiness (10)
(moon)* inside SILENCE=”quiet” with I=”one” leaving
25 RAGE Pointless, seething anger? (4)
(anger)* less the N for North, a compass point
26 FJORDS Jack breaks into cars (common in Norway) (6)
J for Jack in FORDS=”cars”
27 PYTHON Programming language that’s good at compression? (6)
double definition
Down
1 PEEKABO It’s child’s play to bake epic turnover slice (7)
hidden/”slice” reversed/”turnover” inside tO BAKE EPic
2 NADIR Former CEO of Polly Peck‘s lowest point (5)
Asil NADIR was CEO of Polly Peck [wiki]
3 NAME TAG Identity badge of Spooner’s gentle horse (4,3)
Spoonerism of ‘tame nag’=”gentle horse”
5 DESIGN Plan to put side spin on both sides of green (6)
(side)* + both sides of GreeN
6 IDRIS ELBA Actor first to blow up 50 air beds? (5,4)
I=”first” plus (L air beds)*, where L=Roman numeral for “50”
7 SIAMESE Tripping? As I seem to be a cat (7)
(As I seem)*
8 GIORDANO BRUNO Italian philosopher squanders 10 grand on old boxer … (8,5)
(IO grand)* where IO=”10″; plus O for old and Frank BRUNO=”boxer”
14 WEIGH INTO … who does this before a fight to attack (5,4)
a boxer would WEIGH IN before a fight; plus TO
16 LONG OFF Tall aristocrat has no time for man in the field (4,3)
=fielding position in cricket
LONG=”Tall” plus TOFF=”aristocrat” minus T for time
18 POTTERY Wizard’s unknown craft (7)
Harry POTTER=”Wizard” + Y=mathematical “unknown”
19 NONAGON 12 dresses last of women with a good figure (7)
NOON=”12″, around/”dresses”: N=”last of women” + A +  Good
20 CALLED Rang about rising IT company (6)
CA=circa=”about” + DELL=”IT company” reversed/”rising”
23 PERCH Fish’s resting place (5)
double definition

39 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 27,692 by Qaos”

  3. Thans Qaos and manehi

    I spotted the theme quite early, but it was more of a drawback than a help, as i looked for places I could fit BEAUTIFUL PLUMAGE.

    A bit GK heavy, I thought – Asil NADIR, IDRIS ELBA, GIORDANO BRUNO, Catherine PARR. I did know them all, though – S.J.Parris has written a set of fictional stories with Bruno as the central character.

    ON AIR is surely commoner than ON THE AIR for “live”? I didn’t understand “tying” for “drawing”, and still don’t – if a drawn match is a “tie”, shouldn’t “drawing” be “tieing”?

    Favourites were COMPLAINT and DESIGN.

  4. Enjoyed this but held up a little by Mr H thinking PASCAL for PYTHON. Pascal as in pressure expert and also a programming language.
    Memories of the Python sketch came back once we had also dismissed NORWEGIAN BLUE as one of the Harry Potter dragons… Ridgeback?

    Didn’t have all the GK that Muffin mentions @3 but they were gettable from the clues which I quite like.
    Thanks Qaos and Manehi.

  5. Managed to finish except for PEEKABO (for which I would prefer a second O). But completely failed to spot the obvious theme until it was pointed out on here. Enjoyed the dressed heir. Thank you Manehi and Qaos.

  6. Thanks for the blog, entertaining puzzle if a bit too quick in parts. Chambers gives peekabo as an alternative spelling and (Muffin@3) tying as the spelling for the participle of tie.

  7. ^  And <i>Bo</i>-peep is the same game.

    I wonder if Qaos wanted NONAGON to be POLYGON at a much earlier stage – a dead parrot pun.

  8. A bit of a Monty Python week with ‘Heidegger’ appearing elsewhere only a day or so ago. I didn’t know the businessman referred to in 2d or the ‘Italian philosopher’ and the ‘Actor’ in 6d wasn’t immediately apparent, but all were gettable. Otherwise not too many hold ups.

    Pleasant solve with a not too obscure theme. I particularly liked the BLUE quad. def., REGISTER and the surface for PEEKABO.

    Thank you to Qaos and manehi

  9. Very enjoyable puzzle if over too quickly. (For once, I finished before the blog appeared.

    Norwegian is an absolutely superb clue, not only central to the theme but also very topical, and very cleverly disguised.

  10. Missed the theme of course, even though it was impossible to miss. Qaos has definitely got easier recently – I think I prefer his more tortuous past incarnation, but there was lots to like here especially GIORDANO BRUNO. Many thanks to Q & m.

  11. Thanks to Qaos for choosing my favourite Monty Python sketch as the theme for this puzzle. Most enjoyable. Once I saw 26a FJORDS and 27a PYTHON side by side, the theme became clear.

    I agree that 13a NORWEGIAN was just great, and as for the non-themed clues I also ticked the aforementioned “heir to the throne” clue: ON THE AIR at 21a. 15a BLUE was pretty clever too, I thought, with those four layers of meaning underlying the simple surface of the clue.

    I needed help to parse 2d, as I had not heard of Asil NADIR, so thanks to manehi for this and other explanations and links.

  12. Has the week gone backwards? Friday’s was maybe the easiest of the lot though great fun. I only got the theme about 3/4 of the way through but by then had all the thematic clues solved and was casting round to see where “monty” might fit, perhaps as a politician. As ever Qaos uses numbers to throw us out – 12 noon not 12 the clue, but sometimes 10 is “io” and sometimes a hundred is c and sometimes not. He does keep us guessing but things click into place in such a satisfying way. Luckily I was ok with the GK though Nadir came back to me only after the solution.

    Thanks Manehi with the parsing of typing – I was another one who did not make the link to a tie in sport because of the spelling. I loved the hidden reversal in peekabo which threw me totally, and a quadruple definition is a first, albeit easy. And thanks Qaos

  13. BTW, I actually thought the clue for 9a DEAD was a bit weak when I got it on the first pass, but once I saw the theme I really liked it – all those synonyms for “dead” in the skit came flooding back…And I did like the way “queen” was used as fodder for the key word, PARROT, at 11a!

  14. My favourites were ONE THE AIR & PEEKABO which I have usually seen with two Os.

    I could not parse 25a (but had a feeling it was something like that), 2d (never would have known that, having never heard of Polly Peck), 15a (could not parse the adult butterfly bits), and 13a (not sure why I could not parse this but the word ‘trade’ probably threw me).

    Thank you manehi and Qaos.

  15. muffin @3:  I too queried tying but found that Chambers spells the present participle of tie that way.  (Curiously, the spell checker here underlines both words and when I click on tying it takes me to a Google page which says its the present participle of to tie!)

    I also had to check PEEKABO and found both spellings.

    Stared at WEIGH IN for ages until the penny dropped and, to my disgust, missed the theme – again.  Must have the wrong sort of brain as appear to be a serial theme-misser.

    Didn’t mind the GK here as the cluing was so fair.

    Good fun to end a good week, many thanks, Qaos.

    Nice weekend, all.

  17. With PEEKABO basically you see the embed(rev) or deduce from crossers and if still not happy check with Chambers, google or your grandchild.

    I dont have to do this job

  19. A very entertaining puzzle, mostly fairly straightforward though I needed all of the crossers to guess GIORDANO BRUNI, and the spelling PEEKABO was new to me too. Spotted the theme pretty early, but I’m not sure it helped much.

    Thanks to Qaos and manehi

  20. Thanks to Qaos and manehi. As others have said a very enjoyable solve with some nice clues. I started off very quickly and even spotted the theme. However the last few took longer for me than the rest of the puzzle, perhaps because of some lack of gk. Last in for me was the Italian philosopher which I did not know. I worked out the Bruno bit which enabled me to get the other bit. I liked weigh into and Norwegian and thanks again to Qaos and manehi. Great wheel all round and wonder what tomorrow has for us.

  22. Thanks to Qaos and manehi. Great fun. Like William I classify myself as a serial theme-misser (and I did know the skit) but, as noted above, that did not get in the way. As to GK, I knew three of the items but not NADIR (so went with the definition) and for once got a cricket term (LONG OFF) but had to look up PYTHON as a programming language.

  23. Thank you Qaos and manehi.

    I enjoyed the crossword even though not familiar with the theme.

    I wonder if PEEKABO made its way into Chambers through Ogden Nash’s poem “Peekabo, I Almost See You”, unreliable sites spell it ‘Peekaboo’, but that would miss the drollness of the title.

  24. What a great puzzle which once again proves they don’t have to be very difficult to be very enjoyable. Delighted to spot the theme before coming here – although not before finishing it. Loi was the very well disguised PEEKABOO. Lots of ticks which have all been mentioned. Many thanks To Qaos and manehi

  26. Perhaps the clue and solution for 13a also has a reference which is contemporary. The NorwayPlus solution to Bexit is also in the heir right now

  27. Qaos rounds out a great week of puzzles.  I was hoping to spot a ghost theme while solving, but got all the way through the puzzle without doing so.  It was only as I stared at the completed grid that the lightbulb finally went on — more a TTM than a PDM — but chasing down the themed entries at that point added, as usual, an extra layer of enjoyment to what was already a pleasurable solve in its own right.  [Blorenge @7 and Cormac @16, thanks for your great comments on the theme!]

    I did not know the story of Polly Peck or the name of its CEO until a post-solve Googlecheck, but 2d was easily gettable from the definition portion and the crossers.  But at the time I wondered why Qaos did not put more “play” (as opposed to GK) into the wordplay … but once I finally caught on to the theme, I concluded that Qaos structured the clue as he did in order to get “Polly” into this puzzle, if not in a solution, then at least in a clue.   My favorite clues today were ADMITS for its nice surface, BLUE for pulling off a “quad”, and CotD for me, NORWEGIAN, which I thought “had it all”.  And I noticed that Polly the dead Norwegian Blue was pining for fjords with a “j”, not the fiord that made its appearance in the GC a week or two ago.

    Many thanks to Qaos and manehi and the other commenters.  Wishing a happy weekend to all.

  28. Parsed 11a as R-EGRET so could not get PEEKABO. Apart from those two, got the rest correct. FOI RAGE. COD 4a.

  30. Well, I didn’t find this easy and, despite the positioning of(say) DEAD and PARROT, I didn’t see the theme. I remember going on holiday to the Canary islands and coming upon a bar which had a large TV on which the PARROT sketch was playing,and those watching joined in with every word. It was grisly. I have never watched the sketch since, nor have I set foot on the Canary islands.
    Thanks,I think,Qaos.

  31. Thanks to Manehi and Qaos. Excellent puzzle – as someone said just above, they don’t have to be hard to be fun. Had to solve a good few clues before the theme became apparent, but had a good giggle when it did. Glad to see we here are almost unanimous in our appreciation of PYTHON !

  32. Sadly this was the only crossword I had time for this week, but what a pleasant mental exercise this was.  I found it entertaining despite not noticing a theme that I know pretty well.  I didn’t know the phrase ‘pining for the fjords’ from the sketch, but I can vouch for ‘register a complaint’ and all the other references.

    I was sure ‘tieing’ would be correct in the sense of ‘drawing’, but as others have said there is support from both Chambers and Collins for the more standard spelling of that word (‘tying’) in this sense.

    As @gsolphotog @9 and Julie @11 said, NORWEGIAN was a great clue.  I didn’t know BRUNO the Italian philosopher or the shorter spelling of ‘peekaboo’, but the clueing ensured they had to be right.

    Thanks to Qaos and Manehi.

  35. All done, bar the actor and the Italian philosopher – I had “Giordano” but couldn’t remember the surname.
    So, I gave up and wandered down to my baker/grocer at 7.50PM muttering “Giordano”. (It’s wonderful to live in a country where it’s possible to buy bread in the evening) He immediately
    said “Bruno”. On the way home I stopped at the cheapest bar in town, still muttering “Giordano”.
    The shaven-headed, clumsy, part-time barman, who cooks his brains with hash, asked me if I was talking about the 16th century Dominican friar of that name. I clearly am living in a civilised nation.

  37. I absolutely agree with WhiteKing @24 except that I’m still kicking myself for not even looking for a theme.

    Unlike il p dell o, I had the BRUNO but not the first name.

  38. Must have been more straightforward than usual as we completed it quite quickly ( late post due to festive Friday evening). We were looking for the theme as it’s Qaos and delighted to spot it relatively early on. Liked Norwegian a lot and enjoyed learning about Bruno (il principe @35 – do you live in Italy?). Thanks Manehi & Qaos. Only issue is that the team lost again….

  39. Wombles, I live in a conglomeration of utterly different regions that seems to have muddled along moderately happily since 1861. They seem to believe that if they can do the seemingly impossible, so can Europe.  They may be dreamers, but I’m beginning to admire them for that. They don’t THINK about Europe, they BELIEVE in it. I’m not a believer, I’m a thinker, but I am beginning  to respect their faith.

    The bit I live in is Sardegna (Sardinia)  – I’d better stop – DH Lawrence didn’t even scratch the surface.

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