Guardian 28,259 – Qaos

86 comments on “Guardian 28,259 – Qaos”

1. By his standards, I found this Qaos a bit meh, with lots of glossy-mag cw clues, like those for heart, Shelley, meets, sedated, Mary, stir and modern. Not to worry, I pottered along anyway, unable to see the the theme, as usual. Efflux was new, and Prometheus was nicely hidden. Unless someone says, I’ll have look up what a sky marshal marshals. Thanks Q and A.

2. gif@1. Sky marshals travel incognito on aeroplanes to intervene in on-flight incidents. I think they were introduced on US carriers following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Not much work for them under current circumstances Thanks both, and HB Andrew.

3. I found that fun and not terribly difficult, though there was quite a lot I hadn’t fully parsed, so many thanks to Andrew for various explanations.  I also did not spot the theme, though I was looking for one and Mary Shelley should have jumped out at me. Ah well. Apparently sky marshals have existed since the 1960s, to prevent hijackings. Thaank you also to Qaos, and on into the day…

4. A good steady start to the day. Thanks, Qaos, and Andrew, for pointing out the theme, which as usual I failed completely to spot, and for some parsings (TWEETING and SHELLEY). PROMETHEUS must be one of the longer “it’s in the clue!” answers I’ve seen, and nicely hidden. I liked the piecing together of SPLASHDOWN.

5. Thanks Wiggers, yes I remember the term now. And yes happy birthday Andrew.

6. I worry that Qaos themes are becoming much more obscure than the clues. I did get the Frankenstein link but only after the grid was completed.

   CREATURE was a deft bit of cluing today, I felt, and PROMETHEUS was very well-hidden – certainly overlooked by me until the fourth or fifth reading. Also enjoyed SPIKE HEEL once I realised what Qaos was driving at.

7. Like Troglodyte@4 I particularly liked SPLASHDOWN; also PHANTASM and TWEETING. Never see a theme! Many thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

8. Happy birthday to you, Andrew. I found this enjoyable. Probably an unintentional reference but Eddie Van Halen’s signature guitar was called Frankenstein. RIP Eddie. Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

9. Liked SKY MARSHAL, ENVELOPE, CREATURE, SPLASHDOWN.
   Did not parse the Y in SHELL/E/Y (shell E); or TWEETING (we/e in TTING).

   Did not see theme till I had completed the puzzle – very nice!

   Happy birthday, Andrew.

10. A really enjoyable puzzle today. For once I spotted the theme, but only after I had completed the puzzle (MARY and SHELLEY were my LOIs) so it didn’t help me with any answers.

    Favourites – too many to mention!

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew.

11. Great blog-yep it was the castle that inspired Mary(very sad tale that).

    I missed the theme connection of ELECTROCHEMICAL another good contribution to the blog

    I loved the Mel Brooks Young Frankenstein; What knockers!”  “Sank you doctor”

    Thanks all

12. Much fun this morning – started with the south completely filled in minutes and then it need coffee 2 for the north to yield.  FOI was ANNE FRANK – for me, PROMETHEUS popped in very quickly.  Didn’t spot the theme at all but never do… ho hum.

    Thanks Qaos – happy birthday Andrew!

13. I parsed 2d as O=old inside (ELEVEN P)* with “over” indicating the, er, envelope.

    Not usually a fan of hidden words, but PROMETHEUS was a corker!

    Thanks Q&A

14. …and of course I missed the theme!

15. I’ll echo most of the opinions. I completed it without reveal, but I’m still ‘checking’ my inputs to save going off half cocked.  A half dozen or more did not compute so many thanks Andrew.

    I was most confused by Great Revolt , and, tbh , I dont see how you are supposed to get GT from Great in Andrew’s solution. I got Cheetah immediately after trying to fit that word into 18d as the animal for ages.

    I don’t like sci-fi so wasn’t familiar with Prometheus , and never saw the embedded word either!  Got it quite quickly however because Plessey had a computer project called Prometheus back in the 80’s.

    Sky Marshals feature in a well known Nick Cage film, and a few B movie spoofs.

     

    Thanks QAOS and Andrew , I learned a few things from this one for sure.

     

    As to themes, I saw Soda Stein, Mary Shelley , Shelley Monster and knew she wrote Frankenstein.

    Boscombe is only a few miles away from home – but would not have helped.

16. gif @1 Wiggers @2 etc
    Sky Marshal is probably the latest channel for anyone wanting to watch tales of US federal law enforcement around the clock.

    Thanks to Qaos and birthday boy Andrew.

17. A gentle romp with double ticks for PROMETHEUS, MONSTER. Obviously I was disappointed that there was no “body” to go with the CHEETAH 🙂

    Cheers Q&A et al

18. Thanks Qaos and Happy Birthday Andrew.  STIR is another themer (from Shelley’s introduction, which you quoted: “I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out… STIR with an uneasy, half vital motion”.

    At the end of the novel the CREATURE drifts away on an ICE raft – sadly without anyone offering him a cup of TEA.

    [I couldn’t help giggling at the clue for 23a –“starts to smoke…” – given the context, surely Qaos must have been thinking of Do you mind if I smoke? – from Carry on Screaming]

19. My quickest solve ever. MARY and SHELLEY were write ins first off so I knew what I looking for. My gratitude to Qaos for a puzzle that eased an insomniac episode. It was good to to get back to sleep at 5.30. And to Andrew for the parsing of SPIKE HEEL. The Director’s name is not familiar to me.

20. “Gt” can be an abbreviation for Great in place names like Gt. Yarmouth, so it’s legal, but it isn’t all that common.
    I liked Shell E, and it took a long time to unmask PROMETHEUS ( which helped to identify 21d as MODERN).
    I parsed SPIKE HEEL as Spike Lee with the second element “left” (i.e. backwards) around H(ard). But I think Andrew is right.

21. I think 16A parses more precisely as … (C OR) reversed + anagram of MICHAEL.  Got about half the theme, the author and the monster but without connecting with the castle or Prometheus.

22. An enjoyable puzzle to brighten a miserably wet morning.

    I saw Mary Shelley and Frankenstein quite early and I thought the other elements (especially Prometheus) were neatly clued. (Qaos’ hint on his website today was ‘My latest creation is in today’s Guardian’ – but I didn’t look until I’d finished.)

    I liked the construction of MONSTER and SPIKE HEEL and the ‘once timeless’ precision of PARTAKERS.

    I wondered about ‘worn by’ in 21dn.

    Many thanks, Andrew (have a great day!) and to Qaos for the fun. Now for Redshank (Crucible) in the FT.)

23. Concur w/Auriga re 2d, otherwise “old” is left dangling?

    Not sold on descent=down in 15d… descent’s a noun, and not a match for the few noun defns of down I know of… or perhaps someone can find a Chambers ref?

    Enjoyable over all… w/thx to setter/blogger/commenters…

24. Fun and I saw the theme! Liked the surface to EFFLUX and construction of MONSTER amongst others. Thanks to Qaos and HB to you Andrew.

25. A very nice themed puzzle.  Clue of the day was 14d PROMETHEUS.  Not only is it very clever to “hide” such a word, but the surface, suggesting that it might not be unusual to unearth a (statue of a) Titan in modern-day Rome, was brilliant.

    (I’m probably being rather dense here, but in what context can descent = DOWN (15d), as they seem to be different parts of speech?)

    Many thanks Qaos and Andrew.

26. Lovely puzzle and easier than yesterday – still needed some help from the dictionaries but not too much and top half went in quickly for me. Guessed PROMETHEUS from the clue and the first letter (from the cross), but could not parse it – well hidden. Also could not parse CREATURE and TWEETING. SW was the bit that took the longest. And I got the theme for a change but then I have always loved the book.

    Thanks to Qaos and Andrew and Happy Birthday.

27. Eileen, re 21d, I read “worn by”=on, thus “on top of” in a down clue… or did I misinterpret your comment?

28. OddOtter/Lord Jim @22/25 – ups and downs?

    On the same clue, I thought someone might complain that a SPLASHDOWN is a sea-ing, not a land-ing!

29. I enjoyed this with its concise, logical clues. I didn’t spot a theme, as I always forget to be on the lookout for one, but it was obvious at the end.

    The ‘Saxon chief’ for S irked a bit but I guess it must be a recognised indicator.

    My only quibble would be with “Doubles taken from physicist’s mug (5)”  If you take the doubles from Einstein you surely get “ST”. Perhaps it should have been “A Double taken from…” or “Double’s taken from…”

30. OddOtter @27 – yes, thanks, that works. I was thinking of it as a container indicator.

31. Got there in the end, after an enjoyable struggle, but leaving behind a trail of unparsed solutions, SPIKE HEEL for one, so many thanks Andrew for clearing the morning fog. LOI was UNDERDRAW which I guessed at, but wasn’t confident about. Thought PROMETHEUS was an excellent example of concealment…

32. Was on track to finish this in about fifteen minutes, when I carelessly bunged in AIR instead of SKY for 5D. I think this is known as an unforced error – the upshot of which was that I spent a further thirty minutes unraveling just three clues in the NW corner – not helped by the fact that every time I see diarist in a crossword I can’t get the great Samuel out of my mind. Personally I didn’t care for UNDERDRAW, and ELECTROCHEMICAL was clumsy at best, if not grammatically incorrect, but the parsing-police haven’t picked on it so I’m probably in a minority of one.

33. I parsed SPIKE HEEL like Gladys but I agree that Andrew’s explanation is better. Wish I had spotted the theme. Enjoyed STEIN and CHOUX particularly. LOI was PARTAKeRS which I made strangely heavy weather of. Thanks QAOS for a wonderful puzzle. Lots of fun.

34. Generally do-able but no push-over.

    Some excellent clues here that others have already mentioned, but mixed in with a couple of bonkers ones with nonsensical surfaces.

    Reportedly get lost pastry is an example.  Wot?

    Also, the clue for SPIKE HEEL is cleverly constructed but the sentence ends up meaning very little.

    Enjoyable despite these minor quibbles, many thanks, Qaos and Happy Birthday, Andrew.

35. essexboy @28: thanks for the suggestion.  Yes I can see that “down” can be a noun (as indeed OddOtter said).  You can talk of life’s ups and downs, and I suppose you could use the singular and say, for example, “A major down was my dog dying”.  But I don’t really see how that equals “descent”, so I’m not entirely convinced (so far!).

36. Pentman@29: I agree. The clue as written doesn’t make sense. Most likely a typo for “Double’s”.

37. Thanks, essexboy… but like Lord Jim, still not sold. “Market ups and downs” is ok… downs alone in that context is far less common but does occur… but I’ve not seen down singular used similarly, and have yet to find a good plug&play example for descent/down.

38. Lord Jim @35 – if I think of life’s ups and downs, an up is when things are on the up, not just the summit experience.  Similarly, a down = a period when things are on the way down = a falling portion of the graph (?)

    OddOtter – I’m still working on a plug&play!

39. OddOtter @37 – it’s not exactly Chambers, but from World of Showjumping…

    “ups and downs of showjumping… the biggest up… the next big down”

40. [Happy birthday Andrew]

41. [Eileen, please note that this is a completely different “down” discussion to the one yesterday…]

42. rodshaw @32; perhaps the parsing of ELECTROCHEMICAL could be ELECT plus ROC (being C/OR ‘over’) plus anagram [involving] of MICHAEL, with ‘a branch of science’ being the definition. Otherwise, I don’t really see what the ‘over’ in the clue is doing.

    I thought “this is Qaos, so there must be a theme”. I was thinking that ANNE, FRANK & MARY might have been part of some obscure pop trio. I eventually got it, but only after the event, so no help in the solving.

    I parsed SPIKE HEEL like Gladys @20 but Andrew’s version is better. I thought PROMETHEUS was well hidden.

    Thanks Qaos and Andrew for the blog, elucidating SHELL E, which I really should have seen.

43. One other clue I thought didn’t work too well is 14a “They’re involved in father’s Star Trek battle — once timeless (9)”   where the apostrophe S is redundant.

    Here, father’s suggest “PAS” which put me off for a short while, as I couldn’t accommodate the extra S in the answer.

44. PS I’ve never heard the term ‘SPIKE HEEL’ before [stiletto heel to me]; is it used much over this side of the pond?

    [And Happy Birthday to Andrew.]

45. Robi @42   I agree with you parsing of ELECTROCHEMICAL as that’s how I parsed it. With involving being the anagrind, I though “…involved in a branch of science.” would have sounded better.

     

46. Thx for your efforts, essexboy… do appreciate it 🙂 Still sceptical. Your ref’d article uses down as a noun but re mood or lack of success, which lacks the direction/motion I associate w/descent. One might say “descent into madness” (or maybe depression), but then could not easily replace that w/down. Seems like descent is a state of movement (akin to drop) while down (as a noun) is the state you end up in afterward?

47. Pentman @43: I had similar doubts about the S in “father’s Star Trek battle”, but on reflection I reckon it’s PA has STAR TREK less T for the fodder.

    I agree with auriga @13 re the parsing of 2d, and with OddOtter @27 re “worn” in 21d – it’s like wearing a hat, I suppose.

    Lord Jim @41. I’m not going to be sucked into another ‘down’ debate, thanks very much, having got my wrist well slapped yesterday!

    I got UNDERDRAW because I am “drawing down” from my pension pot! Not taking out too much allows the remainder to go on working for me.

    One of my fastest ever solves, with only (Ein)STEIN holding me up for more than a minute. First one in: ANNE FRANK while eating a mouthful of toast.

    Theme? What theme? (Doh!)

    Clue of the day: a close run thing between the very well concealed Titan at 14d, and the left-shifted director at 19a, both very clever devices, so they’ll have to share the prize.

    Thanks Qaos, and many happy returns of the day to Andrew.

48. Re- the ELECTROCHEMICAL discussion. Since the answer is an adjective, and not a noun, the definition must be ‘involving a branch of science’ (electrochemistry.) This leaves ‘over’ as the anagrind, which incorporates (c or michael)

49. greensward @48; you and Andrew are probably right, but ‘over’ is a somewhat naff anagrind in my opinion. The Chambers list of anagrinds has overthrow and overturn but not over. It’s not an exhaustive list, however.

50. greensward and Robi: I see that the online clue is different from the print version, where I have “Choose over Charlie or Michael about having to deal with a branch of science.” This works better, becasuse ‘over Charlie or’ leads to ROC, and ‘Michael about’ is a clear anagrind and fodder. I wonder why and when it was changed?

51. Only got to this late in the day [assembling Ikea, since you ask], so quite thankful that it was on the easier side for me. Being Qaos, I was on the lookout for the theme, whcih I spotted in time to help with PROMETHEUS (as others say, lovely inclusion) and CREATURE. Thanks for the parsing of a few, BB Andrew, and of course Qaos.

52. I have nothing to add, except to note that this is the earliest I’ve ever spotted a theme. My first three answers were MARY, ANNE FRANK, and SHELLEY, and there it was. At that point I was expecting STEIN to involve Gertrude rather than Albert Ein-, but no complaints.

53. I’ll join in the general praise for this puzzle, but from the comments above I infer that I’m the only one who never heard of CHOUX pastries. Google tells me that there is a pastry called a CROIX de Savoie (baked in the shape of a cross and filled with vanilla custard), so it was a dnf for me (my second in a row – double sigh). Missed the theme as usual, but fun anyway, so thanks to Qaos and thanks and happy birthday to Andrew.

54. greensward @48 I found that unsatisfactory as well. ELECTROCHEMICAL would be the process not the “branch of science.” But this is a minor niggle…

55. Surely something wrong in the clue at 14A?  “They’re involved in FATHER’S …” surely already accounts for PA…S.  The S in Star Trek is therefore surplus to requirement.

56. I can’t believe I was too lazy to identify the correct theme; it’s so obvious now that I look. I thought it was something Sci-fi, but got confused by sky marshal and splashdown. I don’t think anyone has commented that the subtitle of the work is “The Modern Prometheus.”

     

57. Thanks both,
    I enjoyed this and spotted the theme for once, but am grateful for the parsing of TWEETING. It would be perfectly natural for me to say something like, ‘The walk involves a sharp UP followed by a gentle DOWN.’

58. Posterntoo @56 – see Andrew’s introduction to his blog. 😉

59. BigNorm@55. I thought Andrew covered this in the blog, but I also commented (first line of mine @47) why I thought the clue was ok.

60. I could not see a theme, but a thoroughly enjoyable crossword, just beaten by the heel. Annoyingly I knew the director but assumed that the ‘L’ went at the end…
    Some of the parsing needed explanation, for which I am very grateful.

61. Robi @44:  Nah…never heard of SPIKE HEEL this side of the pond or the other.  Chambers has it specifically as a narrow metal heel of a woman’s shoe.  Better not offend any lady wearing those!

62. Robi @49. Agreed, but it’s by no means the worst anagrind I’ve seen in a Guardian puzzle, and I’m sure it’s been used before.
    sheffield hatter @50. Thanks for that, certainly a better clue. No idea why it was changed.
    MaidenBartok @54. My point was that the definition was not ‘a branch of science’, but ‘INVOLVING a branch of science’. The first definition I came across was: ‘Electrochemical – of, or involving, electrochemistry’.

63. @47 and @55: [extraneous S in the anagrist for PARTAKERS] Nah! It’s just sloppiness in the clue. These things bother me, but I find that most Guardian crossworders couldn’t care less and think the clues are all super and wonderful.

     

64. A quick solve or so I thought. Forced to choose between SPIKE HEEL and ‘slide heel’, both of which are apparently things, I plumped for the latter. And I have heard of Spike Lee too. Serves me right for dashing this in.

65. @15 akaRebornBeginner GT is a fairly standard abbreviation for GREAT (see https://writingexplained.org/english-abbreviations/great), then reversed for the revolt bit.

    And happy birthday, Andrew.

66. Quick, neat and fun. Whenever I see the word TITAN, I think PROMETHEUS and then The Modern Prometheus. Which I did, early on and STILL didn’t spot the theme (or even look for one). What a maroon, to quote Bugs Bunny. The hiding of such a long word was clever I thought.

    2d was LOI – the 11p was such a change of style, it threw me and I was looking for LLP.

    Agree the S is sloppy in 14a but rough edges like that don’t worry me too much, if they are the exception.

    Thanks Qaos for the fun and happy b’day to Andrew. But not happy bidet.

67. was convinced for too long that “Charlie or Michael” must have meant SHEEN!

68. essexboy @18 — ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’ reminds me of the G B Shaw story. A strong anti-smoking campaigner, he was travelling on the GWR in its early days, sharing a compartment with two haughty women, when one enquired of him ‘Do you mind if I smoke?’ He replied ‘Madam, if you were to smoke, I should be sick.’ She bridled at this and countered ‘I’ll have you know I am one of the directors’ wives!’ to which Shaw’s riposte was ‘I would not care if you were the director’s only wife, I should still be sick.’

69. davey@67 – me too! took me ages to rid myself of that red herring…
    I enjoyed this puzzle though, and unusually for me I did spot the theme early on, though it didn’t help with STEIN, my last one in.
    Thanks to Qaos, and to Andrew, to whom many happy returns.

70. SPIKE HEEL is common in the US; CHOUX, however, is new to me and I needed to reveal that answer. Liked MARY, SKY MARSHALL, and SPLASHDOWN; all-in-all one of the easier Qaos crosswords but it was worth my time nonetheless. Thanks to both.

71. greensward @62 Understood.  In that case, I’ll let it off 🙂

    Tony Santucci @70 SPIKE HEEL was new for me and I’d spent ~5 years in the Bay Area.  Mind you, I don’t remember having any conversations about footwear whislt there anyway…

72. Sadoldsweat – I’ve always thought that that tale was attributed to Sir Thomas Beecham. Could be wrong.

73. [essexboy@18. The same ‘smoke joke’ was used two years earlier in a 1964 episode of ‘The Addams Family’ (Morticia Addams). Sorry, unable to post the link.]

74. [Dicho @72 – Def. Thomas Beecham https://www.talkclassical.com/29259-wit-humour-musicians.html%5D

     

75. Thanks Qaos, Andrew & happy birthday

    pserve_p2 @63 yes, but now thankfully it’s site policy that one shouldn’t duplicate earlier comments, so it’ll only be the first commenter who says it’s all super and wonderful.  Not today though, interestingly.

    robi @49 the Chamber’s list is neither exhaustive nor authoritative, it’s just a list of examples.  Even if over was in there, it doesn’t mean it’s not a duff indicator.

    I thought the clue for CASTLE was super, wonderful even, and yet no mentions above.

76. [Many thanks greensward @73; I didn’t know it wasn’t original. (I’m hoping ‘Infamy! Infamy! They’ve all got it in for me!’ wasn’t nicked as well).

    This is the 1964 Addams Family clip – but having watched it, I saw from the comments that the joke goes back at least to 1955 – this is Vampira on the George Gobel Show.

    And who knows where they got it from?

    But I have to say that of all the versions, Fenella Fielding is still my ‘smoking hot’ favourite… 😉 ]

77. [Oops! – this is Vampira]

78. [No it’s not – if this doesn’t work I’ll give up!]

79. Pretty easy one by Qaos standards.  Some nice clues, although I did not like 4 dn. In general, I don’t enjoy common nouns defining proper nouns – it’s too generic.  Yes, yes, I know it’s completely kosher; just not to my liking. Would have been nicer to have something more descriptive of some well-known Mary than just plain old “woman.”

80. Jay @59 Bloody woman to wed right away?

81. Re “down”, a late 20th century ed. Chambers lists: “n. – a descent : a low place : a reverse of fortune…”  So I concede… technically valid… though (to me) still quite uncommon usage and a bit tenuous.

    Re PARTAKERS at 14a, I can kinda see it (albeit with gyrations) via battle as anagrind for the whole phrase, not just Star Trek:

    ((in father’s Star Trek)* – T) -> ((in PA is STAR TREK)* – T)” -> ((PSTARTREKA)* – T) -> ((PARTAKERS + T) – T) -> PARTAKERS

    That would address the S, albeit via decidedly convoluted/tenuous construction, including dipping its toes into indirect anagram waters re PA.

    Liked CHOUX… knew the term via The Great British Baking Show 🙂 … but had to guess the spelling!

82. bodycheetah @80 – exactly!

83. … if this wasn’t the Guardian crossword.

84. James@75 – I like your response to pserve_p2@63. I thought of a riposte as well, but then realized that I couldn’t care less.

85. Re 16A, we thought involving was the anagrind, and “branch of” suggested the adjectival meaning as in “The electrochemical branch of engineering”

86. Some wonderful clues and Gt surfaces to brighten up yet another miserable wet morning (Friday).

    Fave was 5d.

    Thanks Qaos, Andrew and contributors (we were able to read most posts in time available)

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