Guardian Cryptic 28,669 by Qaos

109 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,669 by Qaos”

1. Isn’t APOLLO a theme related word too?

2. I’d agree with Jeremy @1 that APOLLO is themed and, in the interests of gender balance, would add ANNA Fisher who, whilst she hasn’t moonwalked, became the first mother in space in 1984.

   Having just had a go at compiling for the first time, I realise how remarkable it is just to get all those names into a grid with only one word, AVIFAUNAL, that looks to have been shoehorned into an available space (and is horribly clued!). NEIL YOUNG is a lovely clue by contrast.

   Thanks Qaos and loonapick

3. You beat me to it Jeremy @1

4. This seemed a bit easier than most Qaos crosswords. MOONWALK was my second to LOI which was a PDM since I had managed to see the theme by then. I liked the clues 26 and 27a. The ellipses seemed justified today.

   I worried about ANNA but on checking Chambers I found bandanna was allowed as well as bandana which seemed more familiar. All good fun.

   Thanks Qaos and loonapick for a timely and thorough blog.

5. Good to have the theme without obvious “signposting” in the clues or a multiply cross-referenced gateway answer. I managed to pick up all the MOONWALK references except HARRISON.

   Of the non-thematic clues, I’d forgotten about CONRAD ‘Black’ and I couldn’t parse ANNA (interesting to hear about the female astronaut), thinking ‘wants belt’ meant missing the first and last letters. I liked BIDEN, with the ‘Delaware’ reference.

   Thanks to Qaos and loonapick

6. Most enjoyable, a bit tricky in places but with a theme even I spotted easily for once.

   Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

7. My quickest Qaos and the inevitable theme clicked eventually after the familiar ALDRIN and NEIL ARM/STRONG plus others like IRWIN, BEAN, CONRAD and HARRISON, who I didn’t know. I also looked up ANNA for Fisher in the interest of gender balance as PostMark stated. MOONWALK and APOLLO also themed. I liked OPUS DEI and the new AVIFAUNAL.

   Ta Qaos & loonapick

8. Ta.
   What everyone else said. Gave up on AVIFAUNAL …

9. There is also an ERASMUS Centre in the European Space Agency in the Netherlands and WING(s) on the Space Shuttle.

10. I think HYPERBOLE and Space may be linked as well, but I’ll leave that one to Roz, if she appears today

11. I got Neil Young quite earlier so started to think he and Spotify might provide a theme. Wrong! Still this was a lot of fun and only Avifaunal was a bit obscure. Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

12. Lots of fun finding all the MOONWALKers. As well as the extra themers identified by AlanC, Joe BIDEN and Jeremy IRONS are reportedly in line for the next lunar mission.

    I’d agree with PM @2 about the clue for AVIFAUNAL – and it was all going so well up to ‘aliens’. Maybe it would read better if the def were ‘of local flying objects’?

    I’m sure someone will provide a NEIL YOUNG link, but having requested Janis Joplin last week, today I got my dirty red bandANNA 🙂

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

13. I agree with loonapick’s assessment, except that I find the surface of 30a pretty awful.

14. On theme, eb @12 (love Janis) has prompted me to post one of my all time Neil Young favourites https://youtu.be/n2MtEsrcTTs

15. Thanks lonapick. Sounds like you were chosen for the theme too. It was entirely over my head, but very clever. Cheers Qaos.

16. thanks Q and L! enjoyable indeed and a fine blog. Is it too much of stretch to claim ERASMUS thematic as well: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Erasmus_Innovation_Centre

17. Forgot about Qaos and themes, but yes it’s glaring, and well done eb@12 for the in-depth not-so-gk re Biden and Irons. Took longer than I should, given nothing too devious, tho I’d forgotten about the black Conrad so that had me fooled. Quite fun, thanks QnL.

18. Very clever, though I was defeated by AVIFAUNAL (I missed the lift-and-separate in 51) and STRONG (loonapick’s parsing is probably right, and if so, it’s not the most wonderful clue IMHO).
    The first words on the Moon, which Armstrong slightly mangled, are well known. But I like the unofficial but pretty well attested last words spoken on the Moon, by Jack Schmitt, the lunar module pilot of Apollo 17: “Let’s get this mother****** out of here”.
    Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

19. Ilan Caron @16 – Oh yes, Erasmus. Which as one of the Benefits of Brexit (10a alert), we’re no longer part of…

20. I did wonder why the Swing as a piece of playground equipment needed more than one character removing, but maybe I had a deprived childhood.
    I’ve also never got used to R as an abbreviation for writing because it’s not in Chambers.
    Your take on STRONG is fine loonapick.
    Didn’t notice the theme (shock horror especially as I’ve designed something that flew on the Space Shuttle) and even initially spelled NEIL incorrectly which didn’t help with IRONS.
    Some nice entertainment and thanks all for the enlightenment.

21. Isn’t 24D actually a double definition? F=STRONG musicaly (as shown in parsing), but also FIT=STRONG (as in the “fit and well” sense).

22. Thanks so much for that link AlanC@14, that is indeed a charming video [and the gorgeous chick wearing shorts looks uncannily like an old girlfriend…]

23. Great puzzle. I really liked the clues for NEIL YOUNG at 28d 17a, and (George) HARRISON at 21d, referencing two of my favourite artists of all time. [In one of the usual coincidences that occur for me, I was actually listening to Neil Young and Crazy Horse’s latest CDs “Barn” when I was solving this. Thanks for the link to “Harvest Moon”, AlanC@12. And of course I liked the reminder of Janis too in relation to 3d ANNA, essexboy@12.] I also had ticks for the parochial Steve IRWIN clue at 9a (we live just up the road from Australia Zoo which he founded), 10a HYPERBOLE and 26a BIDEN. Warm thanks to Vlad for a clever offering and a well-executed theme, and to loonapick for helping to explain a few things I couldn’t understand fully.

24. Didn’t someone play a golf shot on the moon once? If so that would bring IRONS into the theme for another reason. As loonapick said, a puzzle which demonstrated the pluses and minuses of a themed crossword.

25. Sorry sorry sorry – I know it wasn’t a Vlad puzzle – clearly – there is the signature mathematical clue at 15a, as well as the cleverly-wrought theme!!! (Vlad of course has his own gifts and interesting twists and turns in the challenges he sets us). Warm thanks to Qaos …

26. Petert @24: It was Alan Shepard using a makeshift six IRON. He claimed to have hit the ball for ‘miles and miles and miles’, but that was HYPERBOLE.

27. Like others, we found AVIFAUNAL a stretch. We picked the theme – sort of – thought it was more to do with Apollo flights than the giant steps [which] are what you take, walking on the moon. Didn’t know all the moonwalkers, but as for loonapick, ARM led to STRONG. Thanks, Qaos and loonapick.

28. Theme passed me by, as usual (as I started the puzzle I told myself to look out for one and then promptly forgot to). That’s probably why I didn’t enjoy this as much as most Qaos puzzles – some awkward constructions and bizarre surfaces, AVIFAUNAL being the most egregious, as others have noted (actually it was a write-in for me with just the initial A – several other clues gave me much more trouble).

    I didn’t like ‘messenger’ for GENE which is a repository of information, from which the real messenger (mRNA) is transcribed.

    Apologies to Qaos for being so grumpy today – I usually like his puzzles a lot. Thanks anyway for a cleverly constructed grid, and to loonapick for the exegesis.

29. Though the musical allusion to 24D may be correct, I read it as F = force (STRONG, not WEAK (and so fit?), EM or gravitational forces), and sort of in keeping with the “astronomical” theme.

30. Maybe I’m thick, but what is the significance of “gene” = messenger?

31. Thanks Qaos and loonapick
    Do I win a prize for completely missing the theme? Not one spotted!
    “Messenger” is an odd definition for GENE. The “in” in IRONS doesn’t make sense.
    I was short of the R for “writing” in HARRISON. I did parse AVIFAUNAL, but thought it a poor clue.
    Favourite OBSERVE.

32. muffin @31: we’ll have to share that prize!

33. Thanks for a clever puzzle and great blog, especially the musical links to JJ (thanks EB) and NY (AlanC). It was a DNF for me as avifaunal totally defeated me and so did gene where I agree with Gervase @28.
    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

34. Solved about half and enjoyed reading the blog for the other half.

    [Will blame my lack of concentration on puzzles at the moment on the beauty of the Lake District. My first time here – it is more beautiful than I had imagined.]

    Thanks, both.

35. [grantinfreo @22: my pleasure and personally I would have claimed that she WAS an old girlfriend]

36. Simply put, a gene is a carrier of information, and a carrier of information is a messenger

37. As it was Qaos, I was looking for a theme but couldn’t see it. I did notice the Nina NINA, though.
    Thanks Q and L.

38. And there’s a LION as well.

39. [michelle @34: if it’s your first visit then you have every excuse to be distracted. The Lake District was my stamping ground through my late teens and twenties and, given that there are only four summits that creep into the minimum definition of mountain, it’s nonetheless full of grandeur. (Which does bring to mind the, no doubt apocryphal, tale of the over-enthusiastic tour guide who, with some HYPERBOLE, pointed out “…Helvellyn, Queen of Mountains…” to be met with the response from her American flock, “Gee, I wonder if the Rockies know?”)]

40. [PM @ 39
    Only 4 Munros, perhaps, but lots of mountains.
    I’ve told this before, but some may not have heard it. Years ago my mother-in-law was telling me about a friend of hers who had climbed all the Lakeland 2000 footers. I asked if it had taken him a long time. She replied, quite innocently “no, he did them in one fell swoop”
    Where are you based, michelle?]

41. 😀

42. HR2Res @36: Faulty syllogism, I’m afraid. ‘Carry’ can mean either ‘store’ or ‘transport’. Genes do the former and messengers do the latter. By your logic, dictionaries and libraries are messengers…

43. [Don’t forget to look out for the lovely fell ponies, michelle @34. Much wilder looking than the New Forest we have round here. And the Herdwick sheep, and red squirrels.]

44. New Forest ponies

45. Apart from being rather irritated by the clueing for AVIFAUNAL and as I simply didn’t know the word, and therefore strictly a DNF today, thought the theme was remarkably obvious – for me, at least, who never manages to see the wood for the trees – with the two first in the hidden words IRWIN and ALDRIN. Couldn’t be anything other than astronauts after those two popped in. Couldn’t parse the fiddly ANNA, either. Fairly enjoyable today, on reflection…

46. muffin @31, surely the “in” at the beginning of the clue for IRONS is to indicate that the answer is in the following words?

    Super puzzle, but depressing to think that we are now ruining “space” as well as the earth…

47. (Very jealous, Michelle@34. Hopefully you will get a chance to visit 2 of my favourite eating/drinking places, Chesters at Skelwith Bridge and The Golden Rule in Ambleside.)

48. Good grid-filling to get in 11 themers for an enjoyable solve.

    I started to think of the MOONWALKers after getting ALDRIN but forgot to check them all out at the end. I solved ANNA but couldn’t parse because I was looking for ?ANNA?. Lots of good clues. As a biochemist/molecular biologist I wouldn’t particularly object to the use of ‘messenger’ for GENE in a crossword. A messenger carries a message, which can be a piece of information. I don’t think we need to emphasise the difference between DNA and (messenger)mRNA.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick.

49. For once I saw the theme and enjoyed it.
    The ‘messenger’ chat reminds me that the Apollo programme’s success owed a huge debt to both projects Gemini & Mercury. Of the Mercury Seven, only Alan Shepard walked on the moon.
    Thanks Qaos and luna-pick

50. Ever on the alert for a theme from Qaos I spotted HARRISON, ANNA (Go with Him) and WING early on – clearly something to do with the Beatles. So much for that theory. Is there a prize for missing a theme even when you are looking for one? (I’d like to thank my parents without whom I wouldn’t be here – but maybe it’s time I kicked the pram habit….).

    Something of a labour of work for me but no complaints. Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

    [And a namecheck for Anna. How nice.]

51. Gervase @42

    Faulty syllogism? No!

    With respect, there is nothing incorrect about my statement, and the clueing is spot on.

    I suggest you look up the definition of “messenger”. My preferred source is the SOED, which defines it thus: “Biology. A molecule or substance that carries (esp. genetic) information.”

    A gene (a section of DNA) is essentially a message-carrier (i.e. a messenger) of genetic info. It transmits (transports) heredity information from parent to offspring.

52. Gervase and HR2Res
    I think the problem is that you are meaning different things by “carrying”. Gervase means “transporting”, in which case a gene isn’t a messenger. HR2Res means “bearing”, in which case it is.

53. HR2Res @51: The SOED definition is not incorrect but fails to point out that ‘messenger’ in a biological context has a specific significance. In this case it is ‘messenger RNA’, the molecule which carries the information encoded by the gene to the apparatus which assembles a protein from those instructions. The genes form an instruction manual for the organism. As I said before, calling them messengers is like calling a library a messenger. Pace Robi, I am not comfortable with this 🙂

54. I like muffin’s post @52, the frozen wooly mammoth is a messenger from the past bearing genes to create an Arctic Elephant from the Asian Elephant – hopefully to help preserve the permafrost…

55. Thank you loonapick, I didn’t understand the CH in ACHES although have probably seen it before. I couldn’t decide between an unparsed but well-known ANNA and an obscure (Spanish apparently) but parsable sANDAl so am not too happy with that one – I have never spelled “Bandanna” that way but apparently it used to be common a while back, would be interested in seeing one of those usage over time plots like we had for pestle and mortar recently. Enjoyed the rest, even the AVIFAUNA once I had unravelled it, but top marks to the excellent OPUS DEI, thanks Qaos.

56. Thx to Qaos for a tough but fair mental workout. Nothing too obscure with lots of clever clues used to make up an interesting theme which crept up on me. My ticks for the day go to APOLLO, SAFARIS, OPUS-DEI.
    AVIFAUNAL is a new word for me but gettable from the word play.
    Thx to loonapick for blog and help in parsing ACHES

57. For a wonderful moment I thought the singer songwriter was going to be my granddaughter, Lola Young. (Look her up if you haven’t heard of her yet.)

58. Good grief! How many angels are populating the pinhead?

    The clue is absolutely fine.

59. I’m enjoying the discussion about GENEs being (or not being) messengers; it didn’t bother me during the solve, since I’d identified the theme (yippee!) and remembered GENE Cernan. Like others I’d been tripped up by AVIFAUNAL, having failed on the lift-and-separate in ’51’ (“tough but fair”, ShropshireLass @56? Just tough, I would say). I got as far as a hypothetical ALIFAUNAL (by analogy with “aliform”???) and called it a day. I would hope for a friendlier clue for an obscurity like this, whereas the difficult ‘F-fit?’ was justifiably so, given the signposting of NEIL and ARM.

    Thanks to Qaos and loonapick.

    [And thanks to essexboy for implanting the image of Jeremy Irons playing golf on the moon with Joe Biden. Something to look forward to.]

60. Quite poor, this one for me I’m afraid. Did anyone else find it redolent of the current Everyman style? Perhaps this one is too much even for that! There were eleven anagrams here I think, which seems excessive to me, a couple of questionable entries (GUN BARREL and AVIFAUNAL), and a few peculiar link words thrown in. The saving grace if any was the theme not being overt, for which I thank the maker. Sorry to be negative, but with honesty being in short supply around UK currently, I thought I might own up!

    Anyway perhaps GENE Vincent used to be a postman.

61. Gervase @53; a gene just carries information, which might be for a protein (via messenger RNA) but could also be, for example, for ribosomal RNA. I wouldn’t define a gene as a messenger outside of crosswordland, but if you think of a messenger as ‘one that carries information (a message)’ it seems fine as a cryptic description. 😉

62. By the way, actually I thought the 51 used to give VI to be okay. Now that was a nice sequence for AVI, but then we were given the rest of the clue 🙁

63. [The current locations of Shepard’s 2 golf balls has recently been identified. One shot went 40 yards, the other 24 yards. I suppose the spacesuit did restrict his swing, though.]

64. [have, not has – I changed location to locations and forgot about the verb!]

65. Pedantic, moi? 🙂 I shall retire at this point, but eppur si muove as Galileo (probably never) said!

66. PS:

    ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

    ’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

    ’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.

67. It is always a source of regret to me that Michael Jackson never made it to the moon. Especially as now there are so many rich fellows with the financial clout to be able to project their all-conquering snouts out into the cosmos.

    Fair-to-middling puzzle for me today. I’ll say the Indy was better, as there’s currently no blog here for it.

68. Yes pretty easy one today though I suspected, after NEIL YOUNG and HARRISON, a pop music related theme. ALDRIN last one in and had to guess it.
    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

69. I spotted the probable theme fairly early and googled ALDRIN IRWIN and YOUNG to confirm – which of course resulted in a useful list (cheating, probably, but I doubt if I’d have got CONRAD otherwise as I’ve nho Mr. Black). Once I had NEIL and ARM it was obvious that there had to be a STRONG somewhere. We’ve argued about F=strong before: F may stand for forte (strong) in Italian, but does it therefore stand for strong (rather than loud) in English?

    I’m useless at clues requiring you to think of an unknown word and subtract another unknown word from it, so I didn’t parse ANNA. I liked the start of AVIFAUNAL – pity the rest didn’t live up to it.

    Being no scientist, I shall stay out of the GENE debate: I got it from Gene Cernan.

70. All good fun. Favourites were OBSERVE and CONRAD.

    Figured out ALDRIN but even as a keen gardener I’ve never heard of the insecticide

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

71. gladys @69. “F may stand for forte (strong) in Italian, but does it therefore stand for strong (rather than loud) in English?” Perhaps the setter has covered his back by putting a query at the end of the clue? I like it for its succinctness, so would have given it some latitude even without.

    Like you, I am “useless at clues requiring you to think of an unknown word and subtract another unknown word from it, so I didn’t parse ANNA.” 🙂

72. gladys @69, F=strong is in the Chambers Crossword Dictionary and Bradford’s, so I guess that makes it OK.

73. Didn’t know most of the theme examples and couldn’t parse ANNA.

    I banged in STRING at the end then worked it out after checking the grid. I think F for strong is OK – P can be quiet or soft.

    Thanks Qaos and loonapick

74. muffin @31 and Gervase @32 – another contender here for the prize, I’m afraid. One day I’ll remember to look for a theme …
    essexboy @12 thanks for the great link!

75. Easy crossword, easy theme but I liked it nonetheless due to clues like OPUS DEI and ORANG-UTANS as well as finding all the astronauts. Several are still alive but it won’t be long before there will be no one left on earth who’s walked on the moon. I could not parse ANNA, OBSERVE, and STRONG so thanks loonapick (or “lunapick” today) for the help. Thanks Qaos for the fun.

76. Thanks for the blog, saw the theme for once after I got Aldrin, some good clues , ANNA was poor and I never like first names in a puzzle. As Gladys says the F= STRONG ( not loud ) was in fairly recently, the musicians that day did explain that it was perfectly fine.
    EuGENE Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon and there is a story concerning his last words which I will not repeat.
    AlanC @ 10 we do have hyperbolic space, a form of non-Euclidean geometry which replaces the parallel lines postulate, of course you knew that.

77. I was just teasing Roz 🙂

78. AlanC you were right about ERASMUS as well although it is not available to British students anymore , a lot of my students will no longer get placements at CERN and other centres.

79. Gazzh @55: Ngram here. Unlike P&M/M&P there’s not much difference between British and American usage. The big post-1980 ‘bandanna’ surge seems to have been driven largely by its use in fiction, but ‘bandana’ has now caught up and is currently on top.

80. [Mary Moore @57: I thought your granddaughter’s name rang a bell, then googled and realised why – she sang ‘Together in Electric Dreams’ in the John Lewis Christmas ad. Good luck to her – one day she’ll make it into the Guardian crossword 🙂 ]

81. The clue for ANNA is appalling.
    Much better to be a coin.

82. Thanks loonapick and Qaos. Late to the party today so will try not to be too irritatingly repetitious of what has already been said… The parsing of ARM, ANNA and HARRISON eluded me, but AVIFAUNAL on the other hand came easily, even though I don’t know the word – sheffield hatter @59, I did briefly toy with ALIFAUNAL but it didn’t seem a likely word, then I remembered that birds are avian and the penny dropped… Way it goes sometimes.

    The theme also eluded me, as usual – can I have a share of the prize, please? – even though I did raise an eyebrow at the choice of definition for ALDRIN, wondering why Qaos didn’t go for the more obvious one… doh!

    [PM @2 – saw you’d posted one but have only had a cursory look so far – will give it a proper go soon!]

83. “I” before “E” except after “C” … or Neil…. so 31a didn’t fit…

84. [Smot @83
    That’s wierd!]

85. #81 it has a cryptic grammar problem too.

86. [essexboy@79 thank you, that surprised me greatly (but no more than when people said they only knew M&p i suppose) – I remembered to bookmark it this time so I won’t have to ask again and can play around with other pairings]

87. Eleven is a very large number of anagrams on a single grid, including two puny three-letter puzzles: IST for “it’s” and NRA for “ran”

88. A clever use of theme which I managed to spot just before finishing.

    Like Julie in Australia I enjoyed seeing George HARRISON and NEIL YOUNG in the same crossword. Interesting that no one seems to have commented on the partially indirect anagram for the latter (Norway for N). I thought it was fine because I have no problem with this sort of clue but I know some people don’t like it.

    Many thanks Qaos and loonapick.

89. muffin@40 There may be 4 mountains in the Lake District higher than 3,000 feet but there are no Munros! If there were, several thousand saddos like myself would have climbed them.

90. Auriga @37 prompted me to look for more ninas. Amusing that Qaos put the nina NINA in there. Had to be a signpost.

    Found LEM (there may be more)
    LEM from Wiki: The Apollo Lunar Module, or simply Lunar Module (LM /?l?m/), originally designated the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM), was the Lunar lander spacecraft that was flown between lunar orbit and the Moon’s surface during the United States’ Apollo program. It was the first crewed spacecraft to operate exclusively in the airless vacuum of space, and remains the only crewed vehicle to land anywhere beyond Earth.
    Wiki:

    And while en route I remembered another space reference in MESSENGER.

    Sure enough:
    MESSENGER (Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochemistry and Ranging) was the seventh Discovery-class mission, and the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury.

    Maybe that’s why Qaos did so many single letter clues today.

91. [muffin@40
    I am staying in Troutbeck, north of Windermere for one week.

    JerryG@47
    I walked from Troutbeck to Ambleside this afternon. If I had read your post before then, I would have dropped in to The Golden Rule. I might walk there again… ]

92. jellyroll @89
    Are you saying you haven’t done them? They’re not in my favourite Lakeland mountains, though – just as only one Munro (An Teallach) features in my top five Scottish mountains.

93. [michelle
    You could also do a circular walk to Grasmere?]

94. muffin@92 Sadly I have not climbed them but not because they are not Munros. My fixation with climbing Munros was one reason why.

95. [jellyroll @94
    An Teallach would come 3rd in my list, but do not exclude non-Munros; Suilven and Quinag would be 1 and 2; Ben Loyal and Stac Pollaidh 4 and 5.]

96. Didn’t know ALDRIN as an insecticide:
    Britannica: aldrin (C12H8Cl6), one of the several isomers (compounds with the same composition but different structures) of hexachlorohexahydrodimethanonaphthalene. Glad Qaos didn’t try to clue that with single letters!

    And another thing that tickled me was the clue for IRWIN. The last place I could picture (Steve) Irwin is in a Mayfair window. 🙂

97. muffin@95 Don’t forget The Cobbler!

98. paddymelon @96
    That I did know ALDRIN as an insecticide is probably why I didn;t see the theme….

99. [One I’ve missed, jellyroll, though it looks quite special!]

100. LJ @88: I knew Roz would be OK with Norway = N (in anagram fodder) because N is the first letter. So that would leave me as possibly the sole complainant – and, as I too have been known to stray, I decided not to expose myself to further (entirely justified) charges of hypocrisy. 😉

     [We used to have a regular contributor here called Munromad. Hope he’s keeping well.]

101. My apologies for my protocol breach @87: I should have noticed that The Last Plantagenet made the same observation @60 and should have tipped my hat to the Old Norman. Richard II, was it not? Let’s “tell sad stories of the death of kings…”

102. PDM @ 90 good spot with LEM ans MESSENGER , Bepi-Colombo is on the way to Mercury but complicated journey, will orbit in 2025.
     Lord Jim @ 88 I did not need to frown because the N is in the clue, MrEssexboy let this one go. My latest bugbear is just random first names in the puzzle unless absolutely necessary from the grid .

103. Roz@102. Glad you noticed. I think Qaos put so much more in this, especially a nina NINA pointing to a nina LEM.
     I was thinking of you, but it was late, didn’t know that anyone else would still be around. By that time others were more grounded in the Lakes District. 🙂

     My thoughts are that Qaos clued some words that weren’t initialisms to point us to the ones that were.

104. A nice touch would have been to include a reference to Katherine Johnson, the mathematician whose brilliance was critical to the success of the Apollo 11 mission (and more) and who negotiated some massive steps for ‘woman’ kind herself. There must be many clueing opportunities to work Johnson into the grid right now 🙂

105. jcl@104. Agree. Hidden Figures. We’ve talked about that here before.

106. Taking up your challenge, jcl. @ 104.
     Out there trailblazer of orbital mischance?
     (I’ll stick to my day job.)

107. [muffin@93
     thanks for the suggestion]

108. Late, I know, but I thought I should drop in… I don’t recall Cernan but Gene Krantz, Apollo flight controller, came to mind straight away.
     A

109. The postal service in Alice Springs operates weakly, so my Guardian doesn’t come Weekly, and any comments I make here are sadly belated. Last night I watched the final two eps of For All Mankind, a silly (good SFX though) teledrama all about… you guessed it… Men (and Women) On The Moon. So today’s theme was a dead giveaway – except that I utterly missed it! But I did finish, so all good. Thx Qaos, and lunatic.

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