Guardian 28,247 / Qaos

97 comments on “Guardian 28,247 / Qaos”

1. Thanks Qaos and Eileen

   Saw the theme for once! Don’t forget the song when identifying the references.

   Favourites were ACROSS, for the misdirection and unexpected anagram, and JOEY.

   Some quibbles: if “strain” in 21 is a verb (and I don’t see it could be anything else), the equivalent is FILTER; FILTRATE is the liquid that had passed through the filter paper. The other is the “with” in 2d (though I raised an eyebrow at the “I” in10a too).

2. It all went in fairly quickly, as I often find with Qaos. Missed the theme, of course, but I wasn’t looking for one. No stand-out clues, but I enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks to Q and Eileen.

3. Pretty straightforward this morning. Even Joey would have been able to finish. Unlike me he probably would have spotted the theme!!

4. Found this quite difficult, esp NW and SE, but enjoyed the challenge. Did not see a theme when solving. Was it the TV show, Friends? I am not very famiiar with that show, but the names Joey, Rachel, Chandler, and Phoebe seem familiar.

   I did not parse the MEL in S/MEL/LY. Never heard of Mel honey, but miele is honey in Italian so maybe I should have guessed this.

   Thanks, Qaos and Eileen

5. A real pleasure to solve this morning as I’m one who thoroughly enjoyed the series that forms the theme today.  We all know to look for a theme in Qaos and PHOEBE dropped early enough to make me suspect she would be significant – but not in what way.  When CHANDLER arrived soon after, we were off.  I spent too long trying to work out how 25 ac, the only remaining four letter answer, could be ROSS before spotting that he’d already appeared in ACROSS.  And did the same trying to force MONICA into 22 ac before solving HARMONICA with a huge grin on my face!  Over and above the six characters, I see four other references but suspect the community here will find others.

   I thought there were some splendid clues today with, overall, pretty smooth surfaces and a few enjoyably quirky definitions. I made SITCOM to be an &lit unless the ‘a’ is considered superfluous, PRIVATE EYE was nicely constructed and FILTRATE had me misdirected for a while as I sought the wrong kind of strain – though I suspected, and muffin has confirmed, the verb is ‘filter’.  PERK was a clever use of chess notation and PETROL lurked brilliantly.  CRAVAT was nicely defined and I enjoyed ORPHEUS because I actually have LP’s by Rush.  I don’t think they ever made an EP unfortunately.

   Lovely puzzle today Qaos and many thanks to Eileen (I needed you for the Spoonerism as I kept coming up with a second half sounding like ‘cue’ rather than ‘coup’)

6. Actually saw the theme, though I missed SMELLY CAT.

   Now if only Qaos had been able to smuggle in OVERRATED, UNFUNNY and IMPORT…

   I hadn’t encountered FILTRATE as a verb. You learn something every day, as they say. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

7. I’ve never watched FRIENDS, but somehow the basics of their names and their coffeehouse have percolated through. Having CENTRAL allowed me to bung in PERK without parsing, which was just as well, as I didn’tspot the chessmen.

   Although Central Perk is a coffeehouse, a Nina suggests that it also ‘does tea’. Is that anything to do with the show?
   Thanks Qaos and Eileen

8. michelle @4: MEL is a fairly pure honey which can be found in healthfood shops and the like.  I think it comes direct from the Latin so you’d be right with your Italian reference.  I first came across mel as the suffix in melomel which is fruit flavoured mead fermented, of course, from honey.  (Not actually that nice, I’m afraid!  Very sweet, as you’d expect, but rather medicinal too.)

9. Mark @5

   Hmm, I thought there might be quibbles re coup = uprising.

10. PS: yes, MEL is Latin for honey.

11. I saw the “theme” early on after getting CHANDLER and PRIVATE EYE, but then couldn’t make anything else fit. Saw the theme only when I had finished!

     

    Thanks Eileen (couldn’t understand the PRK in PERK) and Qaos.

12. Thanks Eileen, shame about your holiday especially as N Europe seems to have taken a turn for the autumnal this week, but Majorca will be there next year for you to enjoy (I hope!). Thanks for the link to PHOEBE which was a confident guess from theme and wordplay. And I think the FRIENDS construction is new to me and gave me a smile so you are right about that one.

    Muffin@2 I had reservations about Filtrate too, which was my LOI and got there only through wordplay (and I don’t like the “to” before lift) but my usual online resource dictionary.com has filtrate = to filter as a verb (other meaning as noun exactly as you state above) – maybe it’s an Americanism? Apologies if this crosses with other such posts.

    Overall this seemed to fly in quite smoothly once i got started, no great lover of the theme but CENTRAL and PERK crossing was neat, that latter being a nice clue but my favourite is HARMONICA, thanks QAOS.

13. For once I saw the theme in time for it to be of some help.  I hope someone is going to list all the FRIENDS connections because I’ve probably missed some of them.  (I think 23d might be one – wasn’t the building superintendent referred to as the SUPER?)

    My favourite was a non-themer, 3d ORPHEUS, which was great.

    Many thanks Qaos and Eileen.

14. I really enjoyed today’s puzzle. Finished more quickly than usual and with only a little help from the dictionary but still needed a little help with parsing a couple (and hit myself when I read the blog).

    Once I got PHOEBE, I got the theme and started searching for the others. Like Mark @5 I had across but went searching for Ross ….

    For second day running I managed to solve a clue with cricket references.

    Favourites were CRAVAT, SHYNESS, HARMONICA, FILTRATE, MACHETE

    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

15. A quick solve today. Even looking for a theme I couldn’t see one. PHOEBE and ORPHEUS had me looking for something classical or mythological. I have heard of Friends but didn’t know it was a sitcom. I have the same quibble as muffin@1 about filtrate/filter.

    Missed the three men in PERK so thanks to Eileen for the parsing and to Qaos for the puzzle.

16. I hardly know the show in question, but, like others, was hardly slowed down by this ignorance. Was more interested in the appearance in the grid of a J (9 across) – the first J (I think) in 18 weekday crosswords since Philistine on August 28th, other than in Imogen’s pangram last week. I’ve been noticing Js, in their presence and absence, ever since the amazing Picaroon construction of July 2018, an unforgotten highlight.

    https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27560

    Conversely, reverting to Qaos today, the absence of a G in the grid is a comparable rarity. Again, I think you have to go back to Philistine on August 28th for the previous weekday instance. Yes, I should get out more, as far as it’s possible these days for the officially Vulnerable.

17. Never saw an ep of the soap, so was thinking Raymond Chandler refs, but no prob, nice easy potter from the Q man. Took a while, though, to subtract urn from journey, loi, d’oh. Cat, either hep or cool, always gives a nostalgic glow. Filtrate as verb is a bit ‘whatever’. Not strong on mythology, Greek or otherwise, but both Phoebe and Orpheus had to be. All good fun. Thanks as ever for your erudition Eileen, and thanks to Qaos (whose moniker always reminds me of the movie, of the same name, of 4 delightful Pirandello stories).

18. [I was reminded of the story of a mouse going in to a music shop and asking for a mouse organ.

    “That’s funny” said the proprietor “you’re the second mouse today asking for a mouse organ”

    “Ah, that must have been our Monica”

     

     

    Boom boom!]

19. Mark and Eileen

    thanks for explaining about the honey.

20. Similar to michelle, guessed the mel bit of smelly from French miel.

21. Another example of it doesn’t have to be hard to be enjoyable.

22. …and it’s meli in Greek.

    I didn’t think to look up FILTRATE – it sounded right to this non-scientist – but I have now. Chambers has ‘to filter, percolate’ and Collins ”to filter [c17 from Mediaeval Latin filtrare to filter’.

23. Well done Eileen, PRK had me fooled completely. Even after I finished, and saw the most obvious theme possible, I was still fooled into thinking along the line of R for Ross. P? K?

    I also thought the first two answers were pertinent to the theme which applied to across clues only :O)

    Then I spotted 16d, 19d and 20d!   20d RACHEL should have triggered the idea of a theme and I got that one early doors.

    On reflection this was a brilliant piece of work , I thought that about QAOS when I revealed Joey! I’d been through the alphabet twice on the J and E , and only thought of Kate Hoey when I reached E!

    After reveal I thought QAOS should have used “ride” instead of “trip” (joyride) and couldn’t see where the E came from :O(

    Well done Eileen you put me out of my misery on that one too.

    I’m getting better at these, using less checks, which makes sinking into revealing Joey hurt even more.

     

24. Mark@5 Apparently Rush released two EPs; Feedback in 2004 and Cygnus X-1 in 2017.

25. Some Symph Orch musos I used to hang with called the harmonica the mouse’s organ (re, eg, Larry Adler). By the time I discovered Sonny Boy Williamson, et al, the purists had moved on to overseas orchs. But they probably still wouldn’t have got it.

26. Why didn’t I enter and check HOEY?  I’d have spared myself the anguish of reveal – I’d have gotten Joey from there surely? On yesterdays puzzle that is exactly what I was doing because I tried anything that fitted the grid, boo!

27. I always hesitate to post when I am kicking myself over a mistake. In this case I had CASINO for 22a. A sin(e) in CO and there seemed to be some vague idea of casino being related to noise. But your explanation EIleen, is much better. Sigh.

    But otherwise enjoyable. Spotted the theme but only knew the characters names. Thanks Eileen and Qaos.

28. Eileen et al

    “Filtrate” as a verb might be in dictionaries, but it is surely a mistake. Why use a word with a precise (different) meaning incorrectly for something else when there is a more correct (and simpler) word available? It reminds me of the dreaded “epicentre”.

29. Got the theme early on, so that helped with quite a few answers. Like Mark @5, it took me a while to spot Ross hiding in ACROSS.

    Favourites were PRECISELY and FRIENDS.

    Thanks Eileen and Qaos!

30. Penfold @24: didn’t know that – but then my Rush collection mainly dates from the 70’s!  In fact, most of my music collection seems to date from the 70’s 😀

31. muffin @28

    Re FILTRATE – reminded me of burgle/burglarize and oblige/obligate.

    Thanks Qaos and Eileen, lots to enjoy as you say.  As well as the themers mentioned, I wondered if PRIVATE EYE was a nod to Magnum P.I., who played Monica’s pre-Chandler love interest?

32. Got the marsupial from wordplay. Not euro this time, the only other 4 letter one I could think of. But PERK. Hate chess references, although I’ve got used to them in cryptics. Know a bit  more about cricket fortunately. Sorry if that’s a bit touchy right now. But hope we’ll be forgiven as I understand that  Aussie baristas are valued all over the world. 🙂

33. Like Dave Ellison @11, I picked this theme early: CHANDLER, PRIVATE EYE – it’s got to be the works of Raymond Chandler. So, where is ‘sleep’, ‘farewell’ ‘lovely’ ‘ Phillip’, ‘Marlowe’ and so on? Only it wasn’t. Not until I was contemplating my last one – 21a – did I stumble on the idea that it might be the SITCOM FRIENDS. Not having ever watched it, I had to Wiki it, and sure enough, there they were. But no help with 21a, which took me as long as the rest of the puzzle put together. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

34. I have heard of FRIENDS but dont remember watching it-I knew it was a SITCOM but I’d  never heard of CHANDLER as a first name

    So I was thinking COSINE RACHEL, CENTRAL PERK, PAL JOEY.

    No prob with FILTRATE having studied chemistry in a past life.

    Then PRK suggested CHESS which went with CATS and from then on I gave up looking for a theme and just filled the grid

    I’ve never heard RUSH but  friend engineered some of their stuff and i am lead to believe they :”shifted Units”

    I liked the Spooner too.Mo problem with the puzzle-just complete ignorance of theme which i googled.

    Tanks Qaos and Eileen

35. I couldn’t solve 21a, failing to spot the anagram of lift because the clue doesn’t say ‘lift off’ it says ‘to lift off’.  I don’t understand why Qaos is happy to bung in random words that are so misleading and have no function.  My best guess is that he doesn’t actually solve crosswords.

    Thanks, Qaos, Eileen

36. I got about halfway through, then thought “This is a Qaos puzzle, there’s a theme”, looked properly at the grid and the theme words smacked me in the eye! Thanks Qaos and Eileen as always.

37. A very Monday-ish crossword from Qaos today but enjoyable nonetheless.  I didn’t see a theme which might have helped with JOEY one of the few characters I recognised and my LOI.

    I had a few quibbles though.

    1A doesn’t read well as I see it.  “…millions seen on TV” Doesn’t sound correct.  It would be better as “millions enjoyed” with the definition being “…enjoyed on TV?”

    Not that it made the clue difficult but the “definition” for CRAVAT is just a vague hint. “It’s worn out.” works to make a cogent surface but it is simply WORN, in or out, as can any number of accessories.

    muffin @1

    I agree that FILTRATE is rarely used as a verb and is mostly used in the imperative. e.g. Filtrate the mixture through activated charcoal. As you say, FILTER is the most common form for the verb.

    I used to have a colleague who had a bee in his bonnet (correctly so) about the difference between PRECISION and ACCURACY which was along the lines of, “My Rolex is very precise but, as I haven’t set it correctly, it is not accurate.” i.e. Precision is about measuring exactly to the smallest tolerances whereas accuracy is about giving the correct measurement.

     

38. If I was to look hard for a criticism, it would reflect on Filtrate too.

    21 Strain to lift off with about a ton inside (8)

    I dislike using any word under the sun to represent it’s initial letter unless there is a hint to help.

    Was “lift off” also meant to suggest the a and t from “a ton”?

    I see t is a recognised abbreviation for t from this google reply to “ton” …

    Unit of: Mass
    In SI base units: 1 t = 1000 kg = 1 Mg

    so all is forgiven.

39. Having never watched FRIENDS, even when I spotted the theme about half way through it didn’t really help. Still I managed to get there without too much angst. Like Canberragirl I toyed with casino for 22, but once I realised the definition was function rather than noise it became clear. I was pleased to be able to parse PERK as I had been stumped by a chess reference in a previous puzzle. Thank you Eileen for parsing SMOTHER as I didn’t see this having got hung up on “her” for maiden!
    Thanks also to Qaos for the fun puzzle.

40. Cravat was brilliant didn’t spot theme so might have got Joey then! Thanks to Qaos and Eileen

41. Morning all. Many thanks for the comments and to Eileen for the detailed blog – always appreciated.

    I won’t wade into “the dictionary is wrong” debate, but will say that it’s our “agreed” common frame of reference. I know some people rail against scientific terms being used inaccurately (and I certainly sympathize, as there are no end of examples) but what’s in Chambers is fair game for Guardian crosswords. At least Chambers is regularly updated. I’m still waiting for my main programming language to stop using “atomic” to mean “indivisible”. I mean, it’s only been 100+ years since we’ve known otherwise!

    Best wishes,

    Qaos.

42. Thank you Qaos and Eileen. Nobody seems to have listed the theme words; may I?
    SITCOM, (AC)ROSS, JOEY, PHOEBE, CHANDLER, (HAR)MONICA, SMELLY CAT(S), CENTRAL PERK, FRIENDS, RACHEL. Also, maybe coffee related: ON THE HOUSE, (dare I say) FILTRATE. Have I missed any?

43. I seemed to be on Qaos’s wavelength today with the exception of FILTRATE (LOI). It is a dictionary word, so fair enough although I don’t think anyone would use it today instead of the simpler ‘filter’.

    There has been an interesting discussion in 1Across Magazine this month where Qaos gives the following discussion with respect to using ‘first X’:

     For me ‘first lady’ to mean ‘L’ is fair, because ‘first XXX’ translates into ‘array[0]’ or ‘letter at first position.’ Grammatically correct, no. Translatable into wordplay operation, yes.

    It is of course allowed in The Guardian, although personally I don’t think it follows the rule of ‘say what you mean’. Other setters, like Tramp do not use ‘first X’ in this way.

    Good entertaining crossword; I did notice SITCOM and FRIENDS but didn’t follow through with all the characters.

    Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

44. James @35; you may not like this but there is a list of linking words and phrases between definition and wordplay on the Web where ‘to’ is given as one possible linker.

45. PS, the list of some connectors can be found here.

46. @35 (James)
    You have a good point. I think this problem is getting worse, possibly (I hesitate to say…) because of the way clues now get analysed in forums like this. We can easily point to the anagram fodder “lift” and the anagram indicator “off”, ticking off the expected elements of a sound clue. It’s harder to point out that there is no normal way in which the clue can be read as telling you to use those two elements together in the intended way.

    Once you realise setters might do this kind of thing it isn’t much of an obstacle, but it’s not fair to new solvers, or solvers who aren’t part of these online communities. I find it also makes for boring clues.

    I think in fact it’s possible that the more setters pay attention to online solver communities (who have usually got used to the setters’ “conventions” – see Robi’s comment above) the less they will think about new solvers, and the more clues like this we’ll see. This kind of forum seems a bad fit for dealing with this kind of issue – it’s probably only the setters and editors who can help.

47. I didn’t follow the (1a) SITCOM (16d) “FRIENDS” when it screened, as I think it was pitched at a slightly younger age-group than mine, but I still very much enjoyed solving Qaos’ offering today. Actually, and referencing grantinfreo@17 and TassieTim@33, I would have preferred a Raymond CHANDLER (12a) theme after I got that one and PRIVATE EYE (10a) early, but it was not to be. It was good to be able to spot the characters’ names from “FRIENDS” when I read the Wikipedia entry about the show after I had completed my solve. I had ticks for the clues at 13a PRECISELY (for its precision! and economy), 14d COURT SHOE (maybe a slight reference to COURTENEY Cox in the series? I can remember wearing these shoes to church as a child) and 16d, the theme word FRIENDS for its clever wordplay. All in all, a very likeable exercise. Did anyone else try DORY for vessel at 9a before saying as I did “It can’t be that, because where does the marsupial come into it?”

    Thanks very much to Qaos and Eileen. [Sad for you, Eileen, that in these strange times, your Mallorca walk was something else that couldn’t happen.]

48. Puzzle of two-halves today – NW and SW went in fine, but NE was slow and SE positively pedestrian.   For once I got the theme and the Spoonerism!

    Thanks Qaos and Eileen!

49. From the comments posted thus far, there would appear to be only the tiniest of intersections on the Venn diagram illustrating, on the one hand, the set {Posters on Fifteensquared} and, on the other, the nested sets {Heard of Friends, {Watched Friends, {Enjoyed Friends and {Enjoyed Friends And Willing To Admit It In Print}}}}.

    No idea whether my mathematical notation is anywhere near correct.  Despite having a teenager studying Further Maths A Level, I have only the haziest of recollections.

50. Mark @49

    I only saw about half-a-dozen episodes, but they did include the one in which Phoebe taught her Smelly Cat song to Chrissie Hynde (of The Pretenders). I also saw the “giant poking device” one!

51. Posting solely so that I can join the tiny intersection in the Venn diagram identified by Mark @49 !

    But despite being a Friends devotee (being roughly the right age when it first aired) I totally missed the theme!

52. I know nothing about Friends the sitcom except that it is one, and it was one of the good things about this puzzle that I didn’t need to know.
    The NE and SW quadrants went in smoothly and quickly, but the other two were more chewy, as michelle (@4) also found.
    JOEY was one of my favourites today, this being a type of clue (a subtraction) that has become rather fashionable.
    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

53. Got the theme for a change, and in time for it to help with JOEY. I never watched the show, but my daughter was a fan, so I heard the characters’ names in passing. Once I solved FILTRATE, I never thought about whether the answer actually fit the definition, though I understand the annoyance of those who noticed the mismatch. Anyway, all solved and parsed with no outside help, so I’m happy. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

54. The theme was a quick enough spot for me; I was still at school in the 90s when the show seemed to be all anyone talked about, and I’d remembered “What happens before weekend begins in sitcom” from earlier (Picaroon, 28135).  The bottom-right would have taken much longer without that.

    I didn’t parse “MACHETE”, though.  I’d found “A CHE”, and was looking for how China = “MTE”.  So the cockney rhyme, had I even thought of it, would have left a surplus “A”.

55. BiglyNifty @54

    My apologies: I wrote ‘A CHE (a revolutionary)’ in the blog and didn’t notice the extra ‘a’. Very unusual for it not to have been picked up by now! (I’ve amended it – many thanks.)

56. I never think of a machete as a weapon. In my time in Papua New Guinea, they were called ‘busnaip’ in Tok Pisin (Melanesian Pidgin) – you can see the derivation from the English ‘bush knife’, and that’s what they were – a tool for use in the bush. Everybody had one (including me).

57. Took me too long to get the theme, despite having seen Friends a billion times. Had RACHEL, JOEY and PHOEBE all filled in before it belatedly clicked with CHANDLER.

    FRIENDS was clued in similar fashion not that long ago, which is a shame. MACHETE has been a very common word this year. PRECISELY wasn’t brilliant.

    But I did unexpectedly enjoy PETROL – if you’re going to do a hidden word, why not have fun with it. COURT SHOE and ON THE HOUSE were also fun

58. Those puzzles that feature very localized and maybe short-lived British cultural trivia can be a challenge to those of us living abroad, whether expats like me or “furriners”.  This one, though, was payback time.  I don’t think its untrue to say that Friends had a bigger cultural impact in the US than anywhere, and maybe even more so in the NYC region where I was living when the show aired.  So whether you watched the show or not (not!), it and the characters were impossible to escape, like the theme today.

59. FILTRATE did for me; had to cheat, having been stuck on an internal anagram of ‘a ton’. If the word is a verb, it’s a superfluous one, unless there’s a context where filter won’t do.
    Theme-wise, I too was misled for a moment by the PRIVATE EYE / CHANDLER combo, but when PHOEBE soon settled in beside the latter I switched track.

60. Mel is in Chambers as honey, but all the Germanic languages (English, German, Swedish, Finish, Icelandic…) have variants of Honig; the rest have mel (Latin and British, ie Welsh) or miel (French and Spanish). This was good fun. But the clue to FRI ENDS should have been before SAT begins, not Saturday. Minor gripe.

61. [Dr. WhatsOn @58 – I think the problem with themed puzzles list this one is that no one told me life was gonna be this way…]

62. [s/list/like/]

63. I wonder if I’ll ever spot the theme *before* I finish. Seems incredibly obvious now. Really enjoyed this, short and sweet. I’d like MACHETE to be left alone for a bit, though I enjoyed its cluing.

    Initially(!) was trying to make ELP work as the three men. H for the drug, though injecting didn’t quite work.

    Thanks Qaos!

64. As I’ve only heard of, but never considered watching, FRIENDS didn’t get Qaos’ theme – 10a + 12a didn’t get me anywhere,

    so thought there might be other ones unknown to me – e.g. 11a, 24a, 20d etc.

    At 13a ‘accurately’ does not mean PRECISELY – if I said Edinburgh was 401.23 miles from London by road,I would be very precise,

    but not particularly accurate.

65. I enjoyed this, though I couldn’t find any theme even though I knew to search for one.  I’ve heard of the sitcom, thought it was set in a bar, never seen it or heard anybody talk about it.  Still, the puzzle was fun.

    Is “mel” really fair to use without some indication that it’s a foreign word?

    I did spot the extra A in the MACHETE clue, but was interrupted in posting, so didn’t get it in in time.

    Thank you for the puzzle, Qaos, and for the blog, Eileen.

66. Having seen some episodes, including the smelly cat – Chissie Hynde one, I can increase the numbers in the intersecting Venn diagram. Spotted the the theme early and it helped to hasten the solve, eg PERK, which I stared at, thinking why three men till chess notation dawned on me.  straightforward and fast solve but still enjoyable.

    Thanks to Muffin@18 for the joke, I love a terrible pun. Thanks also to Muffin and others for the discussion re filter vs filtrate, which distinction bypassed me.

    Thanks to Qaos for the fun and to Eileen for the blog

     

67. Thank you whoever pointed out the theme – I knew there would be one, and with hindsight it was possibly gettable given the limited knowledge of Friends I’ve assimilated by osmosis (mainly watching quiz shows I think – it’s where most of my (tiny amount of) pop culture knowledge comes from). Other than very brief clips I think I’ve seen about 10 minutes in total of Friends. Coincidentally the same 5 minutes twice, several years apart.

68. SITCOM and FRIENDS unveiled the theme for me but never having seen a single episode I didn’t recognize all the characters’ names. The crossword was fun nonetheless with favourite clues being ON THE HOUSE, FRIENDS ( groan-worthy), and CENTRAL. Thanks to both.

69. Well I’ll confess to being a big fan of the show… so I’m in that tiny segment of the Venn diagram described by Mark @49 🙂   Even so, had almost finished before I spotted the theme!

70. Mark @49  My A ? B where:

    A = {Posters on Fifteensquared}

    B = {People who watched Friends the first time round because at that point they were in their late 20s and it seemed very apt but now that they are over 50 find it all a bit self-indulgent}

    Still didn’t help me spot the theme though…

    BTW, I struggled for ages with HARMONICA but reading Eileen’s parsing it should have been uttlerly obvious.  I think the surface reading with the comma threw me and I must try and overcome that problem.

71. [Grr – the ? should have been an upsidedown U]

72. PeterM @ 64 “At 13a ‘accurately’ does not mean PRECISELY – if I said Edinburgh was 401.23 miles from London by road,I would be very precise, but not particularly accurate.”

    Imho, not at all precise.  You don’t mention one road or motorway number or which stations (railroads)  or whereabouts in London or Edinburg :O)

73. I’m used to missing themes, but I really should have spotted it this time since I’m familiar enough with Friends to get all the references. Mind you, I’ve always regarded it as second-rate fare compared with the great Frasier.

    Like Mark @5 I couldn’t get the parsing of the COURT SHOE Spoonerism – cue? queue? Coup didn’t occur to me. Is shoe pronounced the same as shoo? I’m a bit surprised that this hasn’t sparked one of our frequent debates about which is the true homophone.

    Many thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

74. Robi @44, that list is not compiled a priori but from examples.  You can’t justify an example of something objectionable by showing that there’s an example of it.  Anyway, for most of those examples it is clear that what they do is explain the link between the wordplay and definition: for, leading to, coming from, yielding, etc.  Even if ‘to’ works one way round, and I don’t think it does particularly well, it doesn’t work both ways.

    I was amused by the ‘array[0]’ justification you quoted @43. I take it as an admission that he’s not writing in English.

75. I don’t think anyone else has mentioned this, so I shall wade in. 17ac is cleverer than it might, at first, appear: ‘HARMONICA’ is Monica’s parents’ pet name for her.

76. First ones in were ORPHEUS & PHOEBE so I felt sure it was going to be a mythology theme. I’ve never watched an episode of the SITCOM but I should still have got the actual theme, as the character names and the coffee shop were known to me. I enjoyed the puzzle regardless.

    Many congratulations to Muffin @1 for spotting it!

    Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

77. [Many thanks, keyser soze! Do you have the “forget the answer” problem that I mentioned yesterday as well?]

78. Finished very quickly but could not parse Joey until coming to this forum.

79. For once, the theme actually helped me–when I figured it out (from RACHEL, the only one of the characters who’s clued as simply a name for a woman, which made it obvious), I immediately got HARMONICA and FRIENDS.  Nice to have an American show be the theme for a change.  I was never really into it, but I certainly have seen my share of episodes.  It was positively ubiquitous here during its run and for the first couple years thereafter, and even now you can find it in syndication.  Before I got married, I had a roommate (a.k.a. flatmate, to use the more accurate Britishism) who had a second-shift job for a while, and he’d turn on the TV when he got home.  He often turned on a station that ran Friends reruns all night.  I could hear it from my bedroom, so unfortunately I had more exposure to the show than I really cared to!  (That roommate mercifully quit that job after only a couple months.)

    Great crossword.

80. Muffin @77:  I have that problem too.  But with Qaos, I’ve trained myself to look for a theme when I’m about 2/3 done, because there invariably is one.  (I’m pretty sure he’s the only setter in the Guardian stable who *always* rather than merely usually has a hidden theme.)

81. muffin @77: My problem with your posts is that after I have read one I promptly forget it!  (And you posted that on Monday, not yesterday, so either you’ve forgotten it too or you are toying with us)

82. Self @81: actually he posted it on Tuesday.  I’ve just checked.

83. Not being a TV buff, I of course, missed the theme altogether. And I missed the FILTRATE / COURT SHOE crossing.  But lots of fun nonetheless! Thanks Qaos and Eileen.

84. 5th armadillo= d. Don’t think so. Have discussed this issue – politely – with Q and will never, ever be able to understand why the editor accepts it.

85. An enjoyable if brief solve. Didn’t spot the theme which was probably just as well as l had no time for the intelligence-insulting rubbish. Thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

86. I’m usually stumped by late week puzzles but this one went in extraordinarily quickly (even without noticing the vapid theme.)  My only issue was 6d.  Seems a bit imprecise.  I started with overspent (could be a result of over pulling) then shifted to overdraft (if you draft someone you pull them to your side) due to crossing ‘d.’  Finally with the crossing ‘n‘ I was able to come to the correct solution.

87. A late post, so probably won’t be read. How do you  all manage to get round to the crossword so

    early?! I’m getting better at crosswords reading Eilein and co and becoming familiar with your names and personalities.  Thanks! Today I finished with minimal use of the check button. I saw sitcom and Phoebe and thought of Phoebe Waller – Bridge and Fleabag but searched in vain. The names of Friends characters completely unknown to me. Tassie Tim @56 I was in PNG for a while too, as a doctor and saw machetes, bush knives, often used as weapons with disastous results.

88. Welcome TFR @87.  I think some start at midnight as soon as the puzzle is available online (and yes, that includes me on a couple of occasions, when insomnia strikes!)

    @Mark, you can add me to your zone of intersection (although I agree with g larsen @73 that Frasier was better, at least until the last season).  It’s getting to be a fairly crowded space; does your Venn diagram allow for the building of an extension?  Or maybe we could just all move in with Rachel and Monica?

89. A really clever and classy crossword! Not just working in so many themed words, but also the concise wit of so many of the clues. Thank you Qaos – and thanks also to Eileen for an enjoyable blog

90. essexboy  @88: not sure we need an extension yet.  By my rough reckoning, we’re still a relatively small group (I was going to say select but some august posters have firmly declared for the other side so I’m not going to risk it).  Having lived with two fairly OCD sons, I’m not sure I could cope with cohabiting with Monica!

    TFR @87: welcome also. The more, the merrier.  Personally, for me the Guardian crossword is the second cup of coffee in bed before attacking the day.  I suspect, for many posters, they have windows in which posting is likely and it’s complicated by the global nature of the community – including the main bloggers.  If there’s an early (from the UK perspective) post, there can be a dozen or more comments by the time I’m awake!  I feel for our US contributors who may come to this later and generate a tad less response as a result.  Sometimes I’ve thought it would be nice if the thread somehow flipped into the next day enabling, as it were, Australians to respond to  Americans.

91. Stop. Stop right there.

    You must all – I mean ALL – stop what you are doing and watch Friends in its entirety starting with boxset 1. It’s just not acceptable not to have a familiarity with this sitcom. It’s a fascinating social document.

    Except for Mark.

    As a crossword this was quite enjoyable and I enjoyed it so thanks to Qaos and Eileen.

     

     

92. I’ve seen the show so spotted the theme for once, which helped with JOEY.  I stupidly bunged in RUFF for 16a, but the homophone’s the wrong way round.  FRIENDS at 16d put me right.  Liked JOEY and ORPHEUS most.

    Fun puzzle, not too tricky today.  Which was lucky, as my iPad was down to 2% when I got the last (FILTRATE)!  Thanks, Q&E.

93. But surely THYME is strangely weak?

94. Friends as the Guardian cryptic theme and a full page discussion on Friends in The Australian today. Weird co-incidence? Maybe not since apparently the first episode aired on 22nd September 1994 so roughly an anniversary.

95. Muffin @77: I do indeed!

96. Just getting up to date with the crosswords I was unable to do while away on holiday in Scotland. (I got the paper ok, but between the midgies, the rain, the short days and the poor lighting in my tent, I didn’t start on this week until I got home.) Feeling pleased with myself for getting the Spoonerism, but missed the theme (my daughters used to watch Friends – where does that come on the Venn diagram?). FILTRATE was too much for my rather frazzled brain (got stuck on lift and strain and ton, so never thought of coffee, and not sure I’d have got this strange alternative to filter anyway), and I also missed out on JOEY.

    Thanks for the fun, Qaos, and the thanks too to Eileen for the blog.

97. Eileen, ‘mel’ is indeed Latin for ‘honey’ and the dictionaries give that derivation but since ‘meli’ is Greek for ‘honey’ I’d imagine it was stolen from the Greeks.

    Also, re. 14d.  No doubt Rev. Spooner had a plummy RP accent so ‘court’ and ‘short’ would have been perfect rhymes to him, though not most native speakers of English.  And not for me, which always makes some spoonerisms like this a bit awkward.

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