Guardian Cryptic 28,167 by Qaos

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28167.

It’s Qaos, so there must surely be a theme; I could not spot it without a hint from his website – and it turns out that there is a very good reason that -it went over my head: I have never watched The Wire, and know next to nothing about the TV crime drama. A quick trawl of the Wikipedia article turns up some of the references,but obviously I cannot come up with a definitive list. However, as usual with Qaos themes,the crossword stand up very well without it.

ACROSS
9 MOTORHOME Second room — the travelling sort? (9)
A charade of MO (moment, ‘second’) plus TORHOME, an anagram ( ‘travelling’ – or ‘travelling sort’, as a kind of double indicator, which makes the clue an &lit; otherwise it has just an extended definition) of ‘room the’. The answer is often written as two words.
10 BALTI It’s a bit spicy around plate (5)
An envelope (‘around’) of L (learner driver’s ‘plate’) in BATI, an anagram (‘spicy’) of ‘a bit’. Since the curry is apparently named after the wok-like dish (‘plate’) in which it is cooked and served, the clue is an &lit (although ‘around’ does not fit well).
11 RENEGUE Fail to deliver green recycling by European Union retrospectively (7)
A charade of RENEG, an anagram (‘recycling’) of ‘green’ plus UE (‘European Union retrospectively’).
12 PRODUCE Make food (7)
Double definition.
13 DRUGS These might be smuggled in 500 carpets (5)
A charade of D (Roman numeral, ‘500’) plus RUGS (‘carpets’).
14 LEAFINESS Property of trees in meadows: healthy inside with sun (9)
An envelope (inside’) of FINE (‘healthy’) plus S (‘sun’) in LEAS (‘meadows’).
16 NATIONALISATION Sodium converted into alumin­ium is helping right away with public ownership (15)
A charade of NA (chemical symbol, ‘sodium’); plus TION, an anagram (‘converted’) of ‘into’; plus AL (chemical symbol again, ‘aluminium’); plus ‘is’; plus [r]ATION (‘helping’) minus the R (‘right away’).
19 EDUCATION Teaching English and Latin could flop after lecturers are expelled (9)
A charade of E (‘English’) plus DUCATION, an anagram (‘flop’) of ‘[L]atin’ plus ‘cou[l]d’ minus both Ls (‘after lecturers are expelled’).
21 PEEPS Tweets provide exciting ex­changes, perhaps shocking leaders (5)
First letters (‘leaders’) of ‘Provide Exciting Exchanges Perhaps Shocking’.
22 BUBBLES They’re forever blown at West Ham playing Blues to win two billion (7)
An envelope (‘to win’) of BB (‘two billion’) in BULES, an anagram (‘playing’) of ‘Blues’. The song “I’m forever blowing bubbles” is the anthem of West Ham United Football Club
23 POLITIC It could be expedient if most of 21 down steal one time (7)
An envelope (‘steal’) of I (‘one’) plus T (‘time’) in POLIC[e] (answer to ’21D’) minus the last letter (‘most of’).
24 LEAST Minimum piece, simple as that (5)
A hidden answer (‘piece’) in ‘simpLE AS That’.
25 CORNCRAKE On cracker, cuckoo bird (9)
An anagram (‘cuckoo’) of ‘on cracker’.

A corncrake
DOWN
1 IMPRUDENCE Rascal’s discourteous then nice, not one to show lack of caution (10)
A charade of IMP (‘rascal’) plus RUDE (‘discourteous’) plus ‘n[i]ce’ minus the I (‘not one’).
2 ETON SUIT Earl not about to sit on spades, say, in posh clothes (4,4)
A charade of ETON, an anagram (‘about’) of E (‘earl’) plus ‘not’; plus SUIT (‘spades,say’).
3 GREGGS Old king gets food from bakery (6)
A charade of GR (Georgivs Rex, most recently referring to King George VI, ‘old king’) plus EGGS (‘food’), for the British bakery chain.
4 MORE Extra code missing … (4)
A subtraction: MOR[s]E (‘code’) minus the S (‘missing …’; … is the letter S in Morse code).
5 TEMPTATION Race to arrest corrupt MEP at first on trial (10)
A charade of TEMPT, an envelope (‘to arrest’) of EMP, an anagram (‘corrupt’) of ‘MEP’ in TT (Tourist Trophy, ‘race’, which came up in yesterday’s Quiptic); plus ‘at’ plus I (‘first’) plus ‘on’.
6 ABDOMINA I’m on a break, following bad upset stomachs (8)
A charade of ABD, an anagram (‘upset’) of ‘bad’ plus OMINA, another anagram (‘break’) of ‘I’m on a’. The Latin plural of abdomen is not given in Chambers.
7 CLAUSE Cryptic clues? Answer is found in part of sentence (6)
An anagram (‘cryptic’) of ‘clues’ plus A (‘answer’).
8 WIRE Independent’s right to plug Guardian’s listening device (4)
An envelope (‘to plug’) of I (‘Independent’) plus R (‘right’) in WE (‘Guardian’).
14 LEAF INSECT Page in group that can hide in bushes? (4,6)
A charade of LEAF (‘page’) plus ;in’ plus SECT (‘group’).

A giant leaf insect
15 SANDSUCKER Flounder from beach with con­tents of bucket close to water (10)
A charade of sands (‘beach’) plus UCKE (‘contents of bUCKEt’) plus R (‘close to wateR‘).
17 ON A PLATE Where to find dinner without any effort (2,1,5)
Definition and literal interpretation.
18 INERT GAS Angriest exchange when argon was called this? (5,3)
An anagram (‘exchange’) of ‘angriest’.
20 UPBEAT Cryptically, golf is cheerful (6)
Wordplay in the answer: FLOG (BEAT) reversed (UP in a down light) is ‘golf’.
21 POLICE Force required to cut up diamonds (6)
A charade of POL, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of LOP (‘cut’) plus ICE (‘diamonds’).
22 BELL Inventor is extremely logical (4)
A charade of BE (‘is’, dialect) plus LL (‘extremely LogicaL‘), for Alexander Graham Bell, credited with inventing the first practical telephone.
23 PORT Left harbour bearing drink (4)
Quadruple definition.

 

image of grid

96 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,167 by Qaos”

  1. This was worth the price of admission for MORE alone, easy but still ingenious. I also liked PORT for its triple definition, along with MOTORHOME and IMPRUDENCE. Several clues were Quiptic level, but I didn’t object. Several others went in with a “well, okay, I guess,” e.g., be = is in 22d and ‘piece’ instead of ‘piece of’ as a standalone hidden word indicator in 24a, but it’s the sort of looseness I expect from Qaos, so again no complaints. However, a dnf due to GREGGS, which I thought was a bit unfair to overseas solvers (never heard of the bakery, and there were too many foods and old kings to choose from).

     

    Overall, a pleasant solve, so thanks to Qaos, and to PeterO for the parsing of UPBEAT.

  3. I enjoyed this, despite only getting the theme post hoc.  After the previous Qaos I decided it would be fun to try to predict the next Qaos theme in advance, and guess what, this totally was not it.  Maybe next time.

    I thought the phrasing of 18d was ironic given the revelation the other day that Argon used to have a different chemical symbol.

    And to my fellow NCian Dave@1, I hadn’t heard of Gregg’s either, but it seemed plausible from the wordplay, and a search for “greggs bakery” confirmed it, so I didn’t think it that unfair – although I doubt Qaos in this case or setters in general do this to establish the gettability of their answers.

  4. Can someone explicate The Wire theme?

    I’ve watched it a few times but can’t see how it applies.

  5. As usual, Qaos entertains — IMPRUDENCE, SANDSUCKER, and PORT were favorites. Liked the surface for INERT GAS — over the years I’ve seen many heated exchanges on crossword blogs over the noble gases being called inert. Thanks PeterO for parsing UPBEAT and EDUCATION. Missed GREGGS and BALTI but that didn’t diminish my enjoyment a bit.

  6. For the benefit of Trovatore. The WIRE, set in BALTI MORE, featuring the characters, BELL, BUBBLES and GREGGS. Various seasons centred on DRUGS, POLICE, POLITIC(S), EDUCATION and the PORT.

  7. Tough puzzle. Did not see the theme and never heard of The Wire anyway.

    Failed GREGGS – never heard of it.

    New: SANDSUCKER, RENEGUE (but I knew RENEGE), ABDOMINA, CORNCRAKE.

    Could not parse: UPBEAT.

    Liked the quadruple def PORT.

    Thanks B+S

  8. Enjoyable solve. LOI was 4d MORE which is a lovely clue. I knew the Greggs reference was going to get overseas people agitating! Never watched the wire but that was not a problem. Thanks Qaos. Thanks also to PeterO for parsing UPBEAT.

  9. Loved this, and had parsed all except NATIONALISATION (spotted NA and AL but failed to see the rest) and UPBEAT (could see it would be this kind of clue but not how it worked). I am improving! Thank you PeterO for explaining those. I think the anagram fodder (ROOMTHE) is missing from your explanation of MOTORHOME. Loved a lot, but especially MORE, WIRE, BELL and PORT. GREGGS (“the pie shop”) is very common here in Scotland, and was good to see. It was somehow a pity that LEAFINESS and LEAF INSECT intersected, I thought. And I did not spot the theme not being familiar with The Wire. Many thanks to Qaos.

  10. Have seen only the first two seasons of The Wire, but what a great program. Highly critically acclaimed and I totally see why. So. No surprises, I got the theme (post completion) ,yay. Also, had fun getting there with lots to like. We have GREGGS coffee here rather than a bakery, but I have visited the UK enough to know what it is there. Never seen RENEGUE spelt like that either.

    Fav was MORE.

    Thanks tomQaos for the fun and PeterO for the blog.

  11. Should have remembered Greggs..been in the one on Crouch End Broadway near my sister’s, but no bells rang and George Rex getting eggs was too hard, so dnf but no grumbles. Managed to get the nho balti though. The rest was no prob, though carelessly bunging in educating didn’t help. Yes, the dot dot dot clue was pretty cute, as was up flog. Don’t think I’ve seen the Frenchified renegue before, but there it was in my old Collins. As for The Wire, we didn’t bother, so no idea of theme. I think port might be the first quad def I’ve met. Fun, thanks Qaos, and thanks PeterO for the blog and great pics.

  12. hello CanberraGirl@8
    I am not agitated about GREGGs. I simply never heard of it. It’s no big deal.

    However, one thing that I feel mildly agitated about is product placement and advertising in puzzles (not just today’s). We are bombarded with so much advertising every day on the internet and in real life. Doing a cryptic crossword could and should be a haven from all the incessant commercialisation. I would prefer to have ad-free puzzles.

  14. Excellent puzzle from Qaos, though I had no idea about the theme, having never watched The Wire. I do agree with Michelle @12 about product placement, but that’s a small and personal quibble. I really enjoyed 4d once I twigged the conceit.

  15. Good job you didn’t need to know anything about the theme as I’ve barely heard of it let alone watched it. Pretty run-of-the mill. Personally not fond of brands being used as solutions.

  16. I looked for the theme part way through to help, but this is one I would never get. That TV program is of the sort I would never watch. There’s enough nastiness in the world without looking at it for entertainment, in my view. I loved the MORE clue. I found the N, and particularly the NE hardest – not helped by the unusual spelling of RENEGUE, which I have never seen. I had ‘renege’ in mind for the longest time, but not enough letters! I knew GREGGS from UK visits, but it took a while to arrive, as did BALTI (brought back memories of staying with my wife’s parents in Brum), WIRE and (oh, the shame!) PRODUCE. NATIONALISATION went in very early, fully parsed, which was helpful. I’m embarrassed how long BUBBLES needed to come wiht the ‘forever’ tag – diamonds kept getting in the way. I didn’t parse UPBEAT, even though I can remember seeing the GOLF/FLOG trick before. Lots of good stuff here, though. Thanks, Qaos and PeterO.

  17. Havent been back since 2010. Is Greggs any good?

    There’s a Paul chain in France with delicious pastries and I think I saw one in SW1

    I remember a title with the Wire in it so I’ll check it out.

     

    Thanks all.

  18. If 3a is an advertisement, I guess 16a is a party political broadcast; at least degree of balance is maintained by 4dn & 21dn.

  19. I think the occasional slightly obscure product reference is the price one pays for a themed crossword like this. Qaos wants to include Greggs because of the Wire theme, and a reference to the bakery chain is his only available route. (For anyone interested, Greggs was traditionally known for cheap sausage rolls, but recently added a vegetarian version which was said (by Greggs) to be very popular and got a bit of press interest as showing non-meat options were going more mainstream. Probably why Qaos thought it well enough known for inclusion since he needed the word).

  21. I’d love a Gregg’s sausage roll right now.

    Favourites were BELL, LEAFINESS, and NATIONALISATION.

    Could not parse UPBEAT, thanks PeterO for the explanation, and thanks to Qaos for an enjoyable puzzle.

  22. Did not finish. My last one in would have been Greggs, but I just couldn’t stomach inking in the name of a chain that claimed to make Cornish pasties and included carrots and peas in the recipe. (But apparently their vegetarian sausage rolls are tasty…)

  23. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    Never heard of The Wire, but is was a fairly easy solve. I didn’t parse UPBEAT, and I hadn’t heard of a SANDSUCKER, though that wasreadily solvable.

    I agree with Beobachterin that it was a bit odd to have two crossing LEAFs (coincidentally I’m intending to order one today, to relace my 3-year-old one!)

    LOI and favourite was MORE.

    Greggs vegan suasage rolls are very good – better than the meat ones!

  24. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    I think the first part of 2D is simply E(arl) plus a reversal (about) of NOT.

  25. Copmus@17.  You ask “is Greggs any good?”  It’s become a bit of a Brit institution but people’s views tend to be divided (perhaps on class lines).  Anyway, it’s a bit of a go-to joke if you want to have a go at people who prefer pies to pithiviers (or a carb feast to a wasp waistline)

  26. A very enjoyable crossword.  The fact that I didn’t have an inkling of what the theme was didn’t matter at all.  3d GREGGS brought a smile.  I wondered a bit about “is” for BE in 22d, but remembered this from Blackadder:

    Blackadder: “Tell me, young crone, is this Putney?”

    Crone: “That it be!  That it be!”

    Blackadder: “‘Yes it is’, not ‘That it be’!  And you don’t have to talk in that stupid voice to me, I’m not a tourist.”

    Many thanks Qaos and PeterO.

  27. I’m glad that others really enjoyed this. I often find Qaos a bit of a write-in (he seems to have got easier over time), although I liked MOTORHOME, MORE and ABDOMINA. I noticed repetition of ‘leaf’ and ‘food’. Re BALTI (which was my LOI): I thought it was something to do with the Baltic plate – Balti + c (around). Many thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  28. I do love a Qaos puzzle and I also have seen all of the Wire so the penny dropped about halfway through with BUBBLES and BELL. Not the most helpful theme as it’s so huge it was hard to know what to look out for. Weirdly for the first 5 mins DRUGS and MOTORHOME had me thinking we were headed for another TV related theme; Breaking Bad.

    MORE is brilliant classic Qaos. And in fact the whole thing was full of satisfying “what if I put that there and do that do I get a word that means that?… oh yes!” moments.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO

  29. A lovely tussle this morning and hats off to Qaos for some entertaining clues.  I’d love to be different – but MORE takes the prize for me as well.  With fading eyesight, I had to check that the number of dots was what I thought it was…  Big ticks also for PORT, UPBEAT (I rarely get those “how x might be clued” ones) and BALTI (hailing from the British Midlands, I have a particular affection for the balti: our very own curry).

    I don’t know how long ago Qaos wrote this but I wondered if the argon clue was a cheeky reference to the very recent A/Ar discussion.

    I’m inclined to cut a bit more slack when it comes to occasional appearance of brand names and think ‘product placement’ is a bit harsh.  We’ve had multiple appearances of car brands for example – Ford and Rolls in particular (a whole theme devoted to Fords not that long ago).  Brands are part of our everyday lives and I’m not too upset to find them cropping up occasionally – provided they’re well clued.  I do accept that some might be a tad obscure for an international audience and GREGGS is probably more guilty of that.  It’s comparable, for me, to the occasional appearance of politicians’ names and I certainly don’t view those as party propaganda.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO for a thorough blog and alerting me to a theme I’d never have got without help.

  31. Thanks for the blog, PeterO.

    Well, this was a shining example of ignorance of the theme not spoiling enjoyment of the puzzle one bit. I feel no shame at all at having ‘failed’ this time – I loved the puzzle.

    I have lots of ticks and, for once, I’m going to list them all: 19ac EDUCATION [which  is the story of my life, having been forced into early retirement], 22ac BUBBLES, 4dn MORE, 18dn INERT GAS, 20dn UPBEAT 23dn PORT and 16ac NATIONALISATION [which amused me, because there’s a complementary clue  involving ‘public ownership’ in today’s Indy puzzle by Radian [our Crucible].

    I agree with Mark @29and 30.

    Many thanks, Qaos, for a most enjoyable puzzle.

  32. Nothing too difficult, though I did have to check that the unfamiliar spelling RENEGUE was correct. I liked MORE and PORT. Friends have recommended “The Wire” but I’ve never got round to watching it, so the theme passed me by completely.

    Like Mark@29 I can’t see any objection to the use of brand names in crosswords. Car makes and models appear fairly often and don’t cause much comment. Should words like “Hoover”, “Frisbee”, “Biro” be banned, as they are all brand names?

    There were a couple I didn’t much care for. BUBBLES was too glaringly obvious if you knew what West Ham’s theme song was. And I’m not sure that SANDSUCKER=flounder; it seems that sandsucker is a dialect name for a dab or a lemon sole – these fish are related to flounders but are not the same; but I suppose that with common names for similar creatures, there will be overlap in meanings.

    Thanks PeterO (especially for parsing UPBEAT) and Qaos.

  33. Mark@29 I had the exact same thought about the Argon clue and Brendan’s A/Ar mix up last week. A gentle inter-setter ribbing or just coincidence?

  35. No idea about the theme, but made up for by semi-guessing the correct ‘Old king’ and ‘food’ for the previously never heard of GREGGS. I’m a (SAND)SUCKER for those multidefinition (>2 anyway) clues, so I enjoyed PORT, as well as the old golf/flog UPBEAT.

    Thanks to PeterO (especially for the Morse code lesson) and to Qaos.

  36. Wiggers & Penfold:  🙂

    Re GREGGS, I don’t think CanberraGirl meant to misrepresent anyone’s quibbles, I just took it as a humorous reflection on the kind of discussion that does often happen here when a clue is UK-centric.

    I love the breadth of life experiences contained in a cryptic crossword, all the different corners of one’s brain that might be called upon – from Homeric heroes to noble gases, from ornithology to the shop round the corner.  For me, the occasional brand name is part of the mix.

    Thanks Q & P

  38. Apart from the fact that I rather shot myself in the foot by rushing in Impatience instead of IMPRUDENCE, more true to my actions than the actual answer to the clue, and therefore struggling to shoehorn in the NW corner, the rest of this fell into place very swiftly and pleasingly. Hadn’t come across SANDSUCKER before, but clearly clued. And hadn’t realised that RENEGUE had a U in it, but again the cluing pointed to nothing else.

  40. Enjoyed the references to one the finest, arguably THE finest, TV crime dramas ever made, despite not spotting them as a theme!

  41. Thanks for the helpful blog, particularly for UPBEAT which passed me by, good clue in retrospect.

    I thought that temptation was better parsed as an anagram of mepat, in tt +ion.

  42. I have nothing to add as it’s all been said – not a clue about the theme (sum total of my knowledge of “the wire” is its title. I did not even know it was a cop show) but it didn’t matter. Lots of invention, though mor[s]e was brilliant and loved “upbeat”. I feel I’ve been properly teased and made to think this morning.

    I am only really posting to say thank you to Qaos and to PeterO for the splendid blog, especially for explaining balti.

  44. Thanks Qaos for the steady, quite quick solve, theme missed (as I regularly do) but nonetheless a cracker anyway.
    Lots to like, as per Eileen, especially MORE. Worth the price of entry alone!
    NATIONALISATION went in piece by piece as I read the clue, but still great. A DNF for me, with GREGGS unsolved as I was stuck with beginning it OR for old king. Stupid!
    I don’t object to product placement in a puzzle, as I’m sure that the minority will be racing off for a vegan sausage roll this morning, or that I would immediately grab the vacuum cleaner after inserting HOOVER in a grid!
    Thanks to PeterO for parsing MORE and the simple UPBEAT for me. D’oh!

  45. This was fun despite the unfamiliar UK references to West Ham (22a), ETON SUIT 2d and GREGGS (3d). My favourites (already mentioned above) were 16a NATIONALISATION and 15d SANDSUCKER. Thanks very much to Qaos and PeterO.

  46. [How could I forget to look for a theme? It’s Qaos, and I know the rules: I can only say I got distracted by how long it took me to get my LOI 6d ABDOMINA. But I wouldn’t have known any more about the show other than its title.]

  47. After really struggling with the Quiptic yesterday I needed that! Never been driven to comment before, but 4 was the sort of clue that leaves the solver feeling smarter than they are – especially if you see it straight away. SANDSUCKER was also lovely – a new word to me and relatively obscure, but clued in such a way it’d be hard not to stumble upon it and such an apposite common name for the fish itself that it felt ‘right’ just from the crossers.

    One comment to add on BALTI – the suspected &Lit improves when you realise that a Balti dish might (just) be said to be “a[ ]round plate”…

  48. Steady, entertaining solve; I didn’t see the theme though, but as others have said that didn’t matter.

    If it wasn’t for the theme, Bruges would have fitted in nicely at 3D. The clue for MORE was clever, although I didn’t know my Morse code.

    Lots to like, thanks Qaos and PeterO.

  49. My only complaint about 4d is that the crossers were not helpful, and I didn’t get it immediately. Nice idea, though.

    NATIONALISATION was my favourite – immaculately constructed. Completely failed to parse UPBEAT – don’t like these ‘reverse cryptic’ clues and never have.

    Didn’t know the variant spelling of RENEGUE – I would normally spell it without the U.

  51. grantinfreo @50: I suspect it’s the same for many of us.  If Qaos had utilised the same device for any letters other than S or O, the DNF ratio (should that be the D number?) would have rocketed!

  52. Fun solve as ever with Qaos. Had to go away and come back again before LOI GREGGS dropped into place. I wonder what it’s like to have to solve a clue like that from abroad? In Melbourne a few years ago I tried out a cryptic in their broadsheet – I don’t remember many such clues but I think I considered them fair game.

    And JinA, there are to my certain knowledge many West Ham United chapters over in Oz, if you want to find out more! Be warned from one who knows, following the team is a lesson in dealing with heartbreak (as you will see if you pick up our match tonight). But to join with 60,000 east Londoners in singing BUBBLES is to take part in one of the great communal experiences.

  53. I’ve never seen The Wire either, Peter, so the theme passed me by too.

    My mother had a mental collection of dishes named after what they’re cooked in.  I wish she were here to add BALTI to her collection.  A New England collection entry would be “chowder,” a thick milk-based soup brought over by Breton fishermen, usually featuring corn or seafood, most commonly clams, derived from “chaudière”, or cauldron.

    Thank you Qaos and Peter for a happy evening and morning.

  54. Thanks, PeterO. And thanks Andy @6 for spelling out the references to The Wire. I often forget even to look for a theme, but with Qaos I do look – but sometimes, as today, I don’t find it.

    I just want to add my applause for the “…” in 4d. A clever device which I don’t think I’ve seen before.

    Remember when Nokia phones were all the rage? The default alert sound for incoming SMS messages was dit-dit-dit, dah-dah, dit-dit-dit. I had one for a year, at least, before I realised it was Morse code.

  55. Great fun.  UPBEAT went unparsed, but MORE, also a head-scratcher, was finally parsed, understood and admired.  I also liked IMPRUDENCE and NATIONALISATION.

    For once I actually looked for a theme, but I couldn’t find one.  No wonder: WIRE is an innocent little word, and although I know of The Wire I know nothing at all about it.

    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  56. Simon S@34: Thanks, that’s fair enough. It’s not a word I’ve met before, and, not possessing Chambers, I rely on online dictionaries, which clearly didn’t give full informtion!

  57. I thought 4 came from Morse missing “5”, which is the number of the next clue. Bit of a stretch I suppose, but it worked for me. Didn’t realise how clever it was until I read the blog. Thanks for that

  58. Ben T @47

    Welcome, and congratulations on your first comment.  I had missed the ‘a round plate’, so thanks for that

  59. For once I’m going to give more ticks than Eileen. Practically every clue was a Gem.

    Qaos continues to be my favourite setter by way of ingenuity without taxing my brain too much.

    Bravo Qaos!

     

     

  60. [PS. The Wire has been recommended to me by several people but apparently you have to subscribe to an unethical                                                                                                    service to watch it]

  61. Pedro @60 Or second-hand DVD box set for about £10? I’d certainly recommend gorging on The Wire in preference to Gregg’s. One thing I would say is that if you start watching The Wire, stick with it. Don’t give up after a couple of episodes because there’s a lot of street slang and drug references. You soon get used to it.

  62. Pedro@60 and P@61 and anyone else thinking of watching the Wire. Well worth it, but also worth watching with subtitles 🙂

  66. Delighted to have finished this with just a couple not fully parsed: BALTI and the West Ham reference. I don’t know anything about The Wire but that didn’t matter. First one in was MORE; what’s a mystery to some is obvious to others, and v.v. I suppose. Thanks Qaos and PeterO.

  67. We’re actually working our way through a dvd boxset of The Wire at the moment!! Rewatching it for me (one of the greatest TV series ever) and a first-time viewing for my partner. Needless to say, I missed the theme completely (even though BUBBLES and GREGGS stood out as amusing clues.) BALTI + MORE are even better – with the latter a particularly brilliant creation.
    [And Pedro, I agree with wonderstevie: the subtitles help enormously. I started using them with series 1 because I couldn’t understand the drug-sellers’ slang (neither could some of the listening police investigators btw). Then found them helpful in the dockers’ back-chat – and by series 3 they simply became part of the learning experience. A brilliant, rich, multi-layered exploration of modern urban life. Though not, it has to be admitted, a shining advertisement for a holiday-visit to Baltimore…]
    Speaking of adverts: I’ve no problem with commercial names. Product placement? C’mon, surely nobody seriously thinks businesses pay setters of the Grauniad crossword to include their output?
    My admiration for Qaos increases with each encounter: many thanks to him/her for a glorious crossword, to PeterO for his ever-lucid blog – and to Lord Jim for reminding me of one of Balckadder’s withering put-downs. Which gives me an idea for what to rewatch, when we’ve finished “keeping the devil way down in the hole….”

  68. Thanks PeterO especially for explaining UPBEAT whose parsing eluded me, and for setting out 16A clearly (I bunged it in from parts of the wordplay and crossers and ‘knowing’ it must be right). I remember learning to flash SOS on my torch as a kid thinking one day it would be very important but never thought it would be for solving a crossword. As another Midlander in exile I am now salivating at the thought of a BALTI (in a dish the size of a washing up bowl with half rice/half chips and a family naan, of course). My first two in were CORNCRAKE and DRUGS so I was hoping for a Mighty Boosh theme, then with BUBBLES and PEEPS tried to broaden it to comedy in general, but no dice. Thanks Qaos, another winner as far as I am concerned.

  69. As a relative novice I usually complete Monday’s crossword quickly then struggle to even start Tuesday’s. This week I found the reverse! I thoroughly enjoyed this, so thanks, Qaos, for restoring my self confidence. I particularly liked 4d. Didn’t get the theme though, rarely watch UK TV so never heard of The Wire but that didn’t matter. Thanks also to Peter O and all those who keep this excellent site running, it is so informative.

  71. Crossbencher @70, Collins gives renege as the primary spelling. I would have been more reluctant to enter it with the u if the wordplay had not pointed to it so clearly.

  72. I looked for a theme but in vain. I have seen the WIRE once or twice in the distant past but the only thing I remember is that it was set in BALTIMORE but I’d never have identified the theme. But you didn’t need it to solve the puzzle or to enjoy it. I did wonder about the inclusion of GREGGS but I can see why the setter used it. ABDOMINA was LOI and was plural I didn’t know. Never heard of SANDSUCKER but it was easy to work out.
    All in all,quite a pleasant solve.
    Thanks Qaos.

  73. Thanks PeterO and Qaos.  Well !  Judging purely from the time it took to complete ( @45 minutes )  I’d say that was almost Monday-level, despite the more obscure words, but I’ve found many times before that I appear to be on Qaos’s wavelength in terms of solving his clues.  His themes are a different matter – they have been getting increasingly difficult to spot recently, and having never watched The Wire I’m afraid I couldn’t divine this one even after ten minutes of scanning the completed grid.  Fun to find GREGGS among the solutions, but my favourite like others above definitely has to be MORE; so glad I thought to count the dots !

  74. As an American I’m a bit amused at the weeping and gnashing of teeth over GREGGS and the “product placement” concern. Puzzles in the US are full of such things, so much so that I hardly notice them anymore.

  75. I missed the real theme.  I thought it might be a vaguely musical one with the MOTORs, the TEMPTATIONs and the POLICE in there.  And when I came to 14d’s “Page in group”, I felt sure that would clue “Jimmy”.  Talk about up the garden path!  Still, I enjoyed the walk.  Faves were MORE, BALTI, CORNCRAKE (love the pic) and the chemical pair, NATIONALISATION and INERT GAS.

    Thanks, PeterO and Qaos

  77. Thanks, PeterO and Qaos.

    Even though I saw the blog last night, after solving it, I did not see your comment on Balti.

    First of all, balti in Hindi means bucket, and the “Curry” is served in a small bucket, only by Indian restaurants in UK. There is no such dish called balti in India. Some enterprising restaurateur in UK came up with this by putting together some left-overs, and when it became somewhat popular, they had to remember what went into it, and stuck with it. So, L for plate is just that.

    Wok like utensil in India is usually made of pig iron and called Kadai in Hindi.

  78. Phitonelly @75

    I like your garden path.

    NAT King Cole

    CAT Stevens

    Michael BUB(b)BLÉ

    Scritti POLITIC

    Dear PRUDENCE

    BELLe and the Devotions

    ETON rifles

    REGGae

    FairPORT Convention

    Jumping Jack Flash is an INERT GAS

    In the midnight hour she cried …, …, …

  79. I totally missed the Wire theme – it was one of my favorite shows!  Anyway, mostly a straightforward and enjoyable solve. Loved PORT!  I did not get GREGGS and BALTI (and as someone on the other side of the pond, I would never have been able to, I’m afraid).  And as many have observed most of us know it as RENEGE (a term probably familiar to most Bridge players…); I just assumed this must be the British spelling!
    Thanks Qaos and PeterO…

  81. essexboy @78

    Ha! I forget to mention Dear PRUDENCE.  No other evidence of Dear Siouxsie though.  My BELLe would have been … and Sebastian.  The GUE spelling of renege sent me looking for The POGUES, but it was not to be.   Thanks for the others – more than I’d imagined.  Particularly like the leap to Jumpin’ Jack Flash!

  82. Didn’t see the theme, although I’m a great enthusiast for The Wire. Totally amazed to see so many commenters here saying they’d never heard of it. Never seen it I could understand, but never heard…

    I was convinced that 5d was going to be N_____ATION (race=nation, which is often seen), so the T___T +A+I+ON took me a while. Otherwise everything fell into place very easily, thanks to some unambiguous wordplay even when the answer was previously unknown (SANDSUCKER) or dubious (ABDOMINA). Like others have said, MOR[s]E with … missing was a joyous moment, so thanks to Qaos for that, and thanks to Peter O for the blog.

  83. Very late to this, but:

    Valentine @53 re chowder, which I loved: the Dutch ‘bolwerk’ means rampart; the occupying French heard this as ‘boulevard’ to mean the road on top; the Dutch now have a boulevard on a bolwerk.

    Julia @66: there are no hard or easy questions, just those to which you do or don’t know the answer.

    Crossbencher @70: we were surprised to find that renege has a variant spelling.

    Ilippu @77 and others: when we lived in Staffs in the 80s, there was an Indian restaurant conglomerate that described Balti as ‘a dish like vok’ and we wondered if vok was another meal we hadn’t tried, until we realised they meant ‘a vessel like a wok’.

    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO – another elegant puzzle you can get without finding the theme (which we never do).

  84. To while away some time this evening I went into the Guardian archive and had a go at the first Qaos puzzle (25530 from 2012). Like today’s it had a theme, it wasn’t too difficult, and it was blogged by PeterO!
    Oh, and 15a was “Posh one wearing stone-washed shirt as uniform (4,4)”

    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  86. 4d: could someone please explain why it’s the s that has to be missing. OK, it’s the only letter that works, but is there something in the clue that says the s must be taken out? thx!

  90. Keys@85: probably too late for you to see this. Yes, but not the Hampshire one (it’s the name of my house).

  91. I’ve watched The Wire all the way through twice and will probably do so again. It is a truly great show. (I second the recommendation to use subtitles, by the way.) Part of its greatness is the rich characterization of even the minor characters, such as the unforgettable Bubbles. Despite all this, I still failed to spot the theme, so thanks for the explanation!

    I didn’t get the … trick in 4dn, but now that I understand it I love it. I’m also not 100% sure I understand one of the four definitions in 23dn, namely “bearing”. Is it a second reference to the “left” meaning, or something else? Anyway, even if there were only three definitions, that’s plenty.

     

  92. Ted @91
    ‘port’ meaning ‘bearing’ is like ‘deportment’. It is the 5th of the 8 headwords for ‘port’ in Chambers: ‘bearing; demeanour … deportment’.

  96. For 4d, I had CODE = MORES and then removed the S because of the … And thought that it was such a clever clue. When I then saw from the blog that it was MORSE that is the code, I was even more impressed. Well done Qaos and thank you Peter O.

    NB ginf at 11, I remember there being a quadruple definition for DASH a few years ago but have no idea who the setter was.

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.