The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28989.
I found this on the easier side for a Qaos, with a theme (of course) of Tom Hanks films (he makes a personal appearance at 1D). What’s with 23D?
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TABLING |
Proposing one time over jewellery (7)
|
| A charade of TA, a reversal (‘over’) of A (‘one’) plus T (‘time’); plus BLING (‘jewellery’). | ||
| 5 | SEATTLE |
America to colonise outside here? (7)
|
| An envelope (‘outside’) of A (‘America’) in SETTLE (‘colonise’), with an extended definition. | ||
| 9 | ANGER |
Fury as bonnet falls off old car (5)
|
| A subtraction: [b]ANGER (‘old car’) minus the first letter (‘as bonnet falls off’). | ||
| 10 | E-COMMERCE |
Online drug trade? (1-8)
|
| A charade of E (‘drug’) plus COMMERCE (‘trade’) with an extended definition. | ||
| 11 | KRYPTONITE |
Fictional material kept in Tory organisation (10)
|
| An anagram (‘organisation’) of ‘kept in Tory’, for Superman’s problem. | ||
| 12 | MILE |
Unit in preliminary retreat (4)
|
| A hidden (‘in’) reversed (‘retreat’) answer in ‘prELIMinary’. | ||
| 14 | COAST-TO-COAST |
Freewheel from 18 to 5 across? (5-2-5)
|
| A pun on ‘coast’; of course, neither PHILADELPHIA (’18’) nor SEATTLE (‘5 across’) is actually on the coast, but near enough – on the Delaware River and Puget Sound respectively. | ||
| 18 | PHILADELPHIA |
Foreign character left theatre with a drop of Amarone and cheese (12)
|
| A charade of PHI (Greek ‘foreign character’) plus L (‘left’) plus ADELPHI (London ‘theatre’) plus A (‘drop of Amarone’), for a proprietary cream cheese. | ||
| 21 | AWAY |
A course on holiday (4)
|
| A charade of ‘a’ plus WAY (‘course’). | ||
| 22 | APPRENTICE |
Smartphone program starting to really tempt novice (10)
|
| A charade of APP (‘smartphone program’) plus R (‘starting to Really’) plus ENTICE (‘tempt’). | ||
| 25 | HAYMAKERS |
Farmers maybe produce strong punch with last of apples (9)
|
| A charade of HAYMAKER (‘strong punch’) plus S (‘last of appleS‘). | ||
| 26 | LOCKS |
Bachelor, evicted from bars, bolts (5)
|
| A subtraction: [b]LOCKS (‘bars’) minus the B (‘bachelor evicted’). | ||
| 27 | SHEATHS |
Former prime minister’s on board with cases (7)
|
| An implied envelope of HEATH (Ted, ‘former prime minister’) in SS (‘on board’). | ||
| 28 | SINGERS |
In the ’60s, partygoers sacked women entertainers (7)
|
| A subtraction; S[w]INGERS (‘in the ’60s, partygoers’) minus the W (‘sacked women’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | THANKS |
Vessels filled with last of Scotch — cheers! (6)
|
| An envelope (‘filled with’) of H (‘last of ScotcH‘) in TANKS (‘vessels’). | ||
| 2 | BIGEYE |
Might Sasquatch have one for looking at a tropical fish? (6)
|
| Evidently, Sasquatch has not only a big foot. | ||
| 3 | IRRATIONAL |
Helping stop rail strike? That’s foolish (10)
|
| An envelope (‘stop’) of RATION (‘helping’) in IRAL, an anagram (‘strike’) of ‘rail’. | ||
| 4 | GREEN |
Recycling unlimited energy is environmentally friendly (5)
|
| An anagram (‘recycling’) of ‘energ[y]’ minus its last letter (‘unlimited’). | ||
| 5 | SHORTSTOP |
Baseball player‘s clothing covers up grass (9)
|
| A charade of SHORTS (‘clothing’) plus (‘covers’ – suitable in a down light) TOP, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of POT (marijuana, ‘grass’). | ||
| 6 | ARMY |
Forces woman to shelter Romeo (4)
|
| An envelope (‘to shelter’) of R (‘Romeo’, Nato alphabet) in AMY (‘woman’). | ||
| 7 | TERMINAL |
Final computer workstation (8)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 8 | ELEMENTS |
Pieces of gold and silver, perhaps (8)
|
| Double definition. | ||
| 13 | ACTION PLAN |
No capital? Broke, getting new to-do list (6,4)
|
| An anagram (‘broke’) of ‘no capital’ plus N (‘new’; the clue suggests that this is not part of the anagram). | ||
| 15 | SLEEPLESS |
Sweden’s PM once recalled the French head of state without rest (9)
|
| A charade of S (‘Sweden’, IVR) plus LEEP, a reversal (‘recalled’) of PEEL (British ‘PM once’) plus LES (‘the French’) plus S (‘head of State’). | ||
| 16 | SPLASHES |
Climbing mountains, she’s making lead stories (8)
|
| A charade of SPLA, a reversal (‘climbing’ in a down light) of ALPS (‘mountains’); plus ‘she’s’. | ||
| 17 | GIGABYTE |
Soldier to talk, yet shaking to bits (8)
|
| A charade of GI (‘soldier’) plus GAB (‘talk’) plus YTE, an anagram (‘shaking’) of ‘yet’. Bits, lots of them | ||
| 19 | CIRCLE |
101 reading about Latin and English group (6)
|
| A charade of CI (Roman numeral ‘101’) plus R (‘reading’, one of the three Rs) plus C (‘about’) plus L (‘Latin’) plus E (‘english’). | ||
| 20 | FEASTS |
Around beginning of Easter, goes without food and large meals (6)
|
| An envelope (‘around’) of E (‘beginning of Easter’) in FASTS (‘goes without food’). | ||
| 23 | RESTS |
Opposing abolishing small lunchtime breaks (5)
|
| This looks to me like a subtraction: RE[si]STS (‘opposing’ – but why not opposes?) minus (‘abolishing’) S (‘small’) plus I (one o’clock, ‘lunchtime’). | ||
| 24 | CAST |
Get rid of actors (4)
|
| Double definition. |
8
Missed the T.Hanks and a couple of the films and I had the same reservation as you PeterO about RESTS. Otherwise a pleasant solve.
Thanks Qaos. The theme was familiar and it helped me with a number of clues. I found the films highlighted by PeterO and I spotted another — Bachelor Party — that emerged from the clues at 26a and 28a. There may be others but I haven’t found them. I liked many clues including SHEATHS, SLEEPLESS, SPLASHES, GIGABYTE, and SHORTSTOP. (Cricket has been the cause of many DNF’s for me so I was happy to see a baseball reference.) Thanks PeterO for the blog.
Only seen a couple, Philadelphia, quite out there in its time, and Green Mile which was a fave of mrs ginf. The tropical fish was a bung and pray, but otherwise a nice potter, thanks PnQ.
Missed the theme completely as usual but enjoyed this, apart from 23D. Thanks P for the help with that, and Q for a nice puzzle.
Quite liked the “bonnet” falling off as indication of first letter deletion of banger in ANGER.
Struggled with ACTION PLAN. Fooled into thinking there was another first letter deletion, “no capital” for a synonym of ‘broke’. Missed that it was an anagrind. Then there were the multiple connotations of ”new”, ”to-do” and ”list’.
One of the best clues I thought, with the surface, misdirections and answer.
Big chuckle for SINGERS. Had to think twice. What did “swingers” mean in the 60s? Fantastic clue: In the ’60s, partygoers sacked women entertainers (7) Every word loaded with meaning from that era.
Am not usually up with sporting clues but chuffed to see a softball clue in SHORTSTOP, or baseball as Qaos says. KRYPTONITE also very funny, surface and definition.
Re the theme. Saw SLEEPLESS and SEATTLE, but didn’t think to look any further, despite having seen T.HANKS clued similarly before.
The thematic penny dropped with SLEEPLESS which yielded SEATTLE and we were off to the races
He also ran COAST TO COAST IN Forrest Gump
Cheers P&Q
Liked ANGER, SINGER and RESTS (despite the part of speech issue).
paddymelon@5
Probably, this is that clue (T HANKS):
You shouldn’t have filled vessels with gas (6)
Thanks, Qaos and PeterO!
Only spotted the theme (and then only partly, not being much of a film buff) once I’d finished, but needed 14 to get 18 and 5a. I join with others and PeterO in not being sure about 23d. A sense of deja vu with 27. Needed Google to identify baseball positions, but since US solvers probably have the same problem with cricket, I can’t complain. 17d took me far to long. Didn’t find this as easy as the blogger. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
It’s reasonably rare for PM to spot a theme, let alone to do so early enough for it to be of help. Not so, today. Just like bodycheetah, when SLEEPLESS went in fairly early on, I realised what SEATTLE had to be and, with THANKS already in place, I knew what I was looking for. All very nice.
SEATTLE, APPRENTICE, HAYMAKERS, SINGERS and GIGABYTE were favourites. Apart from RESTS, my only tiny – but rather similar – query is why is ‘stop’ singular in IRRATIONAL? It feels it should be ‘stops’ or ‘stopping’ if it is an insertion indicator.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
Good fun, even if I am unconvinced by 23. Also, I entered RACES first for 26, which seems like a legitimate solution ( a brace = rod = bar in construction/carpentry). Thank you setter and blogger.
PM@9. Get what you mean about ‘stops’ in the surface structure/wordplay in IRRATIONAL. But every time I come up with a reason in defence of that, I come up with another case, grammatical or philosophical, ( which I cannot define), to support Qaos’s case. Help? Beddie bedtimes down here for those of us who can remember (or not) the swinging 60s..
Thanks for the memory Bodycheetah@6. Forrest Gump. For me, one of the greatest movies ever. Nearly 30 years ago?!
Like others, it was SLEEPLESS/SEATTLE that told me there was a film theme, but I had to Google to find what they had in common (THANKS was one of my last in) and I missed a couple even so.
Don’t know why Bigfoot should have a BIGEYE and nho the fish. Liked GIGABYTE which took some working out, HAYMAKERS, ANGER for the bonnet falling off the old banger, and KRYPTONITE (last in) for its surface and a nice penny-drop moment to finish with.
So he did, Bodycheetah @6. Great film.
Best of the bunch by a long way (npi) though, was GREEN MILE. Superb.
Lovely smooth cluing everywhere except still don’t see how RESTS works.
Many thanks both.
Hard even for a habitual theme-misser to miss this theme, with SEATTLE and SLEEPLESS appearing early. And incidentally, it is rare indeed for any of AEIOU to be missing from the grid, as U is today.
A nice solve even though, as usual, I completely missed the theme. (I even set off with the thought that it’s Qaos so there’s almost certainly a theme.) I think I was too pleased with myself for getting 14ac and the 2 cities to stop and think about it. I only pencilled in 23 dn at first as I wasn’t completely sure.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.
Messed up because I put ‘arms’ for 6d. In my defence, I think that ‘A Ms’ for woman is slightly better than a random name, though I accept that ‘army’ is a better synonym for ‘force’ than ‘srms’.
I don’t know whether to admire or bewail a clue like CIRCLE with four elements in a charade for a five-letter word, I enjoyed this, but, once I had solved SLEEPLESS, SEATTLE, PHILADELPHIA and COAST-TO-COAST, were all a tad straightforward.
William@14: opposing =RESISTS, without S (small) and without I (I = 1 [o’clock/ lunchtime) gives RESTS.
An easy ride from Qaos today, and thanks to PeterO
IRRATIONAL
Does ‘helping to stop rail strike’ work better (RATION to stop IRAL)?
Didn’t get theme till l read the Guardian blog.
Liked COAST TO COAST, KRYPTONITE, SINGERS and SPLASHES.
Thanks to Qaos and PeterO
nametab @19, the trouble I think William @14 was referring to is that opposing doesn’t equal resists. One is an adjective and one is a verb. “is opposing” = “resists” or “opposes” = “resists”. PeterO made this point in the blog.
Got theme from GREEN MILE (agree William @14), CASTAWAY and the done before T.HANKS. After that it was easily my quickest Qaos solve by a long way. I recommend his new film ´A Man Called Otto’ if you haven’t seen it yet.
Ta Qaos & PeterO.
Thanks PeterO as I was another puzzled by 23d, nor could I fathom 26A, subtractions always my problem it seems, and while I got the theme from 5a leading to 15d i missed the man himself. Petert@18 go ahead and bewail, I liked it a lot so between us the cosmic balance is maintained. KVa@20 yes that does the job for me, nice one. And well observed quenbarrow@15! Thanks Qaos.
Wonder if Qaos will come on here and explain 23d or whether it’s another Grauniad special? Enjoyed apart from RESTS.
A satisfying solve, although we completely missed the theme this week. T.Hanks Qaos!
nametab @19: Yes, I parsed it that way, too, but, as our blogger mentions, shouldn’t it be opposes?
Apologies, TimC, missed your comment before replying to nametab.
Mini theme at the top? GREEN MILE/ARMY/KRYPTONITE.
Are ARMY and SHORTSTOP references to Saving Private Ryan, and A League of Their Own?
As usual I didn’t spot the theme. Took a while to solve and therefore pair up SEATTLE with the nicely clued PHILADELPHIA, to complete the COAST TO COAST journey. Therefore the NE corner yielded last but satisfyingly quickly once I had made the breach. Wasn’t at all sure about the provenance of RESTS, though it simply had to be that. And not too certain, either, whether 2d should be Bugeye or Bigeye, so needed to look that one up. Many thanks Qaos and PeterO this morning…
Of course I didn’t spot the theme, thicko that I am, but still enjoyed completing it with only one reveal. Many thanks Qaos and PeterO.
13D makes sense if the final N comes from New and the remainder is the anagram.
For the first time in my life I found the theme early enough for it to help me get both 5A and 18A.
I enjoyed that, and was on the wavelength throughout – despite missing the theme as ever. Like The Other Mark @10 I had RACES before LOCKS. Like gladys @13 I’m somewhat bemused at the assumption that Bigfoot would necessarily have a BIGEYE.
I actually parsed SHORTSTOP without needing the ‘covers up grass’ part as I interpreted ‘clothing’ as SHORTS and TOP, so a shorter version of that clue would have worked logically too.
Thanks both.
Cormac@30 You beat me to it. There were at least two SHORTSTOPs in A League of Their Own. I was analysing this as coincidence versus Qaos guile. So I considered what might be going through Qaos’ mind while setting and pondered on RESTS = much park bench sitting by Forrest Gump and ACTION PLAN to accompany ARMY in Saving Private Ryan. Others and probably total coincidences were KRYPTONITE : T H was considered for Lex Luthor in Batman v Superman and the appearance of his son Colin in “The Mentalist’s APPRENTICE”.
One form of SWINGING ( on the way to solving 28 ac ) had a risqué connotation in Ihe 60’s but I’ll say no more as Qaos is a church setter !
Being an ex I.T.-er, I loved GIGABYTE.
Thank you Qaos and PeterO.
Started this last night, and made surprisingly little headway–it was like I had forgotten how to do cryptics. Then this morning it all fell into place so quickly it made me wonder what my problem was. Didn’t see the theme until very near the end–too late to help.
I’m in that minority camp that thinks Cast Away is a brilliant film. I’d never heard of The Circle, but that’s not surprising since it’s from 2017, and I’d basically stopped paying attention to cinema by then. [I see about one movie a year at the theater these days.]
Like Tony Santucci above, nice to see baseball instead of cricket or rugby for a change. I’ve learned a lot about cricket over the years of doing these puzzles, so it’s no longer a foreign language, but even so.
Well dang–I missed the opportunity @36 to say the problem was I was sleepless in Chicago!
Fun, but very brief. Almost a write-in. Saw the theme once I had the US cities. I can see the quibble re 23d but the answer was clear.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO
I saw SLEEPLESS in SEATTLE at the end but failed to connect with T.HANKS, doh! I was looking for Batman things after KRYPTONITE went in.
I guess for IRRATIONAL, helping to stop rail strike would have fixed the problem. Anyway, I enjoyed the topicality of the clue. I also appreciated HAYMAKERS with the farmers’ strong punch, and GIGABYTE with the good play on ‘bits’.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
All good fun. It was SPLASH and PHILADELPHIA that gave away the theme for me. Pleased to see my all-time favourite, BIG, get a mention. T.Hanks to Qaos & PeterO.
KVa @7 – I think there have been other examples in recent memory. It’s too tempting an opportunity for setters to pass up.
Oh yes, coast-to-coast, forgot about Forrest Gump, about which/whom I remember being a bit ho hum at the time. Interesting re your love of him, pdm @12.
Like several other of our illustrious colleagues I entered PHILADELPHIA and then SLEEPLESS and recognised the theme (mirabile dictu). Thence a search for SEATTLE, which might have taken longer otherwise – but I didn’t bother to look for the rest of the thematic entries.
I agree with KVa @20 that ‘Helping TO stop rail strike?…’ would be better for IRRATIONAL – the wordplay grammar doesn’t work as the clue stands.
I really liked GIGABYTE.
Thanks to S&B
Missed the theme as per, but only the odd construction of RESTS held me up (1pm is far too late for my lunch in any case…). I agree with PM @9 about IRRATIONAL – ‘to stop’ would be fine! – but didn’t notice while solving.
Thanks Qaos and PeterO.
A first (proper) finish of the year for me, so it must have been on the easy side!
Like others, 23d had me scratching my head.
The Tom Hanks theme jumped out at me after PHILADELPHIA and SLEEPLESS. I wonder if the IN in TABLING, goes with SLEEPLESS and SEATTLE.
17d was LOI, misled by BITS, one to remember.
Thanks both.
I wouldn’t spot a theme if it stated in block capitals there was one above the clues, so I didn’t.
Unit as a definition of mile in12a very vague. A mile is a unit, but going the other way to say a unit is a mile doesn’t work for me. I could list tens of things that are units of the top of my head. Not even a get-out-of-jail question mark to plead mitigation.
And as for lunchtime = 1 = I in 23d??? Either equivalence on its own is debatable, but stringed together is beyond acceptable.
Thanks to Q & PeterO
RESTS – Opposing abolishing small lunchtime breaks (5)
I wasn’t sure if this meant
“resisting”, abolish “ing”, “s”, “i” but I can’t get the final “s” out if so.
mp @45; the usual convention is that if something is an example of a category then a QM or probably etc is added. Categories don’t need such justification. There are quite a few units but there are even more rivers, birds etc.
I searched for a theme, really I did, but I never would have got this one.
I think 10a E-COMMERCE is pretty feeble.
It’s probably good we have a US-based blogger for this one, with clarifying of the two “coast” cities and recognizing the cream cheese brand, It seems a little unfair to expect non-US solvers to know about that or the baseball position. Just torture the rest of us with cricket, that’s fair.
Mark@10 I had RACES too. GC@17 I had ARMS too. Ronald@31 I had BUGEYE too, couldn’t look it up because I do the puzzle in bed. (Could have this morning, of course, but by then I’d forgotten the question.)
cwf@46 You don’t have to get the last S out, it stays there in RE(si)STS.
Pleasant puzzle but with a bit too many gimmes. Thanks tho to Qaos and PeterO.
Valentine @45: Philadelphia cream cheese is sold in more than half the countries of the world – hardly parochial.
Softball is also popular worldwide – it too has a shortstop. Again, hardly parochial.
Open your mind, rather than your disgruntlement.
Forgot to mention the well-known but still fun fact that TABLING means just about exactly the opposite thing in American English (viz., to indefinitely shelve a proposal). We’re so contrary over here.
mrpenney@50 – I think that it’s a contranym in British and US English.
RobT@34: Anto clued SHORTSTOP as “Baseball player’s casual clothing combination” last year. Which is where I learned about shortstops, to be remembered today.
gladys @52 – aha, maybe that’s where I got it from 🙂 Thanks
Liked SLEEPLESS, SHORTSTOP.
I could not parse 25ac, 4d, 23d.
Thanks, both.
* I forgot to look for a theme and probably wouldn’t have gotten it anyway as I am not familiar with movies starring Tom Hanks – I have heard of Sleepless in Seattle but no others.
Picaroon clued SHORTSTOP as “American sports player is best to put on sports clothing (9)” in 28794 on June 27 last year.
Anto’s “Baseball player‘s casual clothing combination” was in 28070 on March 2 2020.
Prior to that it has also been clued by Nutmeg and Paul.
Thanks for the blog , we seem to have had a lot of problematic clues this week.
i think the swingers for 28Ac is very innocent from the Swinging Sixties.
England swings like a pendulum do – and up to the 80s with – Oldest Swinger in Town. Not sure when it acquired a dodgy meaning.
Great theme. I did manage to twig it after the solve. Slightly disappointed that the puzzle didn’t contain either of my favorite THanks movies, Catch Me if You Can and Apollo 13, but you can have everything (where would you put it? 🙂 )
Loved the surface of KRYPTONITE and wondered at the time if we were in for a Spin Doctors theme.
I agree with the parsing disquiets. Recognising Qaos’s quite liberal parsing style certainly helps during the solving.
Thanks Q and P
… can’t have everything…
Roz@56 I’m not sure I can help you date the meaning of swinger but I think it was about the same time my mother stopped telling us she was walking the pooch as “I’m off dogging”.
Philadelphia isn’t actually “on” the coast.
JCW @ 60
See PeterO’s comment on the clue:
“A pun on ‘coast’; of course, neither PHILADELPHIA (’18’) nor SEATTLE (‘5 across’) is actually on the coast, but near enough – on the Delaware River and Puget Sound respectively.”
14a I’m familiar with COAST = “freewheel” but to Chambers and me COAST-TO-COAST only = “covering the whole country, nationwide” or am I missing something?
Contranyms again – was just reading a wonderful story by James Hogg (the Brownie of the Black Haggs) and here is the definition of ‘hagg’: 1. a firm spot in a bog. 2. a soft place in a moor. I guess you can reconcile these, but not really really.
Loved the theme. Cast Away is indeed a masterpiece I have watched several times and it gets better on every viewing. Like others I totally missed the significance of 1 down until checking here.
Am I alone in being slightly puzzled by 18a’s inclusion of “drop of Amarone and…”
Clue seems much more elegant ending with just “…left theatre with a cheese”
But maybe thats just me.
17d was particularly clever. Some very clever surfaces with ingenious misdirection.
Was on lookout for theme and GREEN MILE and TERMINAL confirmed it. Didn’t we have same theme and THANKS recently? It helped me but I still missed lots of the references.
Thanks both
I agree with Pino@62 , we have (less than) half an answer plus a second part full answer. Plus 3D and 23D , multiple problems in each puzzle this week.
Matt@59 it was wife-swapping in the 70s , do not know when it was first called swinging. Dogging I think is a more modern activity and term maybe, I am no expert.
Several commenters have suggested ‘helping *to* stop’ would be an improvement, but isn’t “helping +verb” quite a common construction, without making it an infinitive? Imagine a child saying “I’m helping lay the table”, for example. So the surface reading looks fine to me. Then ‘stop’ acts as an instruction to the solver to insert the ‘helping’ into a supposed gap in the anagram of ‘rail’.