Guardian Cryptic 28,197 by Qaos

by

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28197.

A not too difficult offering from Qaos, with, as usual, a theme: musical instruments. There are a few borderline cases – SIREN (yes, there are various compositions which include a siren – several by Varèse, and even Arseny Avraamov’s Symphony of Factory Sirens), the  hidden HARP, and SNARE (drum), along with various related items lightly highlighted in the grid. I did not notice it in time, but (organ or otherwise) STOP might also be included.

ACROSS
1 WINDS Snakes will increase, not decrease, say leaders (5)
First letters (‘leaders’) of ‘Will Increase Not Decrease Say’.
4 BACK DOOR Support doctor inhaling O2 as a way out (4,4)
A charade of BACK (‘support’) plus DOOR, an envelope (‘inhaling’) of OO (‘O2’) in DR (‘doctor’).
8 INTERIOR DESIGN The art of home improvement? Si! (8,6)
Wordplay-in-the-answer: ‘si’ is the INTERIOR of DESIGN.
10 TRIANGLE Shape of unloaded trailer, one thrown into fire (8)
A charade of TR (‘unloaded TraileR‘) plus IANGLE, an envelope (‘thrown into’) of A (‘one’) in INGLE (‘fire’).
11 CORNET 100 + 0 over 10, right? I’m licked (6)
A charaade of C (‘100’) plus O (‘0’) plus RNET, a reversal (‘over’) of TEN (’10’) plus R (‘right’).
12 EXERCISER One working out cries uncontrol­lably after river run (9)
A charade of EXE (‘river’) plus R (‘run’) plus CISER, an anagram (‘uncontrollably’) of ‘cries’. ‘After’ indicates the order of the particles.
15 ANTRE Old cave unearthed by instant replay (5)
A hiddden answer (‘unearthed by’) in ‘instANT REplay’.
17 TUTOR Teacher to express displeasure with men (5)
A charade of TUT (‘express displeasure’) plus OR (military, ‘men’).
18 SAFETY PIN It joins any pets, if playful (6,3)
An anagram (‘playful’) of ‘any pets if’.
19 PARISH District gets hard capital upfront (6)
A charade of PARIS ( ‘capital’) plus H (‘hard’), with ‘upfront’ indicating the order of the particles.
21 KEYBOARD Console warrior online using this? (8)
Cryptic definition. ‘Console’ with the stress on the first syllable.
24 MIKADO PHEASANT After comic opera, villager embraces hot bird (6,8)
A charade of MIKADO (The, ‘comic opera’ by Gilbert and Sullivan) plus PHEASANT, an envelope (’embraces’) of H (‘hot’) in PEASANT (‘villager’).

A Mikado Pheasant
25 SERPENTS Reptiles get bad press biting man’s head off (8)
An envelope (‘biting’) of [g]ENT (‘man’) minus the first letter (‘head off’) in SERPS, an anagram (‘bad’) of ‘press’.
26 SNARE Criminal nears noose (5)
An anagram (‘criminal’) of ‘nears’.
DOWN
1 WHISTLE-STOPS Card game the French see making a comeback in campaigning politician’s itinerary (7-5)
A charade of WHIST (‘card game’) plus LES (‘the French’ – plural, for a change) plus TOPS, a reversal (‘making a comeback’) of SPOT (‘see’)..
2 NUTRIMENT Food fan: I’m tucking into split (9)
A charade of NUT (‘fan’) plus RIMENT, an envelope (‘tucking into’) of ‘I’m’ in RENT (‘split’).
3 SIREN Femme fatale keeps heads of idiotic rich earls in tin (5)
An envelope (‘keeps’) of I R E (‘heads of Idiotic Rich Earls’) in SN (chemical symbol, ‘tin’).
4 BIOPLASMS Injured boss I’m carrying up mountain as living material (9)
An envelope (‘carrying’) of PLA, a reversal (‘up’ in a down light) of ALP (‘mountain’) in BIOSMS, an anagram (‘injured’) of ‘boss I’m’. Another word for protoplasm.
5 CODA Finale where nothing divides 100,500 by 1 (4)
An envelope (‘divides’) of O (‘nothing’) in C (‘100’, Roman numeral) plus D (‘500′ – need I say that the punctuation is misleading?) plus A *’1’).
6 DISSONANT Clashing and not crashing around space station (9)
An envelope (‘around’) of ISS (International ‘Space Station’) in DONANT, an anagram (‘crashing’) of ‘and not’.
7 ORGAN Newspaper boy from Wales is unmarried (5)
A subtraction: [m]ORGAN (‘boy from Wales’ – a common Welsh name) minus the M (‘unmarried’, M being an abbreviation for married).
9 ST BERNADETTE Holy lady gets rescue dog right away — better when undressed? (2,10)
A charade of ST BERNA[r]D *’rescue dog’ – then there was the one that had to be rescued of Scafell Pike) minus an R (‘right away’) plus ETTE (‘bETTEr undressed’).
13 CARD-SHARP Vehicle has trouble in road revers­ing and parking? Cheat! (4-5)
A charade of CAR (‘vehicle’) plus DSHARP, an envelope (‘in’) of SHA, an anagram (‘trouble’) of ‘has’ in DR, a reversal (‘reversing’) of RD (‘road’) plus P (‘parking’).
14 REFRESHES Royal breaking free — she initially sprints, then jogs (9)
A charade of R (‘royal’) plus EFRE, an anagram (‘breaking’) of ‘free’ plus ‘she’ plus S (‘initially Sprints’). The definition refers to a memory.
16 TOP BANANA Star who’s the pick of the bunch? (3,6)
Definition and literal interpretation.
20 RAISE Lift beams, say (5)
Sounds like (‘say’) RAYS (‘beams’).
22 BRASS Britain’s behind in US money (5)
A charade of BR (‘Britain’) plus ASS (‘behind in US’).
23 HORN Hard growth is essentially difficult (4)
[t]HORN[y] (‘difficult’) minus its outer letters (‘essentially’).

 

image of grid

101 comments on “Guardian Cryptic 28,197 by Qaos”

  1. Enjoyable, and for once a theme that I should have seen but somehow didn’t. Faves included INTERIOR DESIGN and the trademark Qaos math clue for CORNET, even with the Yoda-ish construction of its wordplay. Didn’t understand the definition for REFRESHES, so thanks to PeterO for making the connection, and thanks to Qaos for his usual entertaining offering.

  2. A pleasant and steady solve (I’m tempted to say a peach as compared with yesterday’s lemon), with little trouble parsing.  Two unfamiliar-to-me solutions (BIOPLASMS & MIKADO PHEASANT) were obtainable from their precise clues, and confirmed later. Very much up to Tuesday-puzzle standards.  I never look for themes, and thus never find them, so no problem there.

  3. Looked up the cave and the bird post gridfill to make sure they were a thing, and bioplasms felt a bit odd, otherwise pretty much clear as a bell, a pleasant divertimento. Someone on the G thread said “I see a theme!” Oh yes of course, it’s Qaos, and there they all were, tho I missed the [s]harp. A bottom and an undressed lady to add a bit of titillation, fun entertainment, thanks both.

  4. For once, hoping for something a little chewier to help with the insomnia – but that’s the perverse world of Crosswordland.

    Even knowing this setter’s propensity for a theme, still managed to let this one evade me.  Thanks, PeterO, for teasing them out.

    Interesting link between ANTRE and ST BERNADETTE here.

    Nice week, all.

  5. Fun puzzle, and I only managed to spot the theme of musical instruments once I had finished.
    Liked: INTERIOR DESIGN, CODA, BACK DOOR, ORGAN

    New: MIKADO PHEASANT, BIOPLASMS, ANTRE. The wordplay in the clues was very helpful but 24a was a bit dicey because both Figaro and Mikado are comic operas. This being a British crossword, I opted for MIKADO.

    Failed to solve HORN – but should have gotten this!

    Thanks B+S

  6. Generally entertaining with the surface for SIREN giving me much amusement — thanks Qaos for a well- clued crossword. I hadn’t heard of BRASS as money and I found KEYBOARD a stretch given its clue but overall I liked this themed offering. Thanks PeterO for parsing.

  7. I was expecting something more difficult, but nice for a newbie to finish a Qaos puzzle earlier than expected. ANTRE my last held me up for a while till I spotted the hidden bit. I also checked MIKADO (emperor in Japanese) PHEASANT in Google. Didn’t know BIOPLASM either. A pleasant divertimento.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO for several parses which escaped me.

     

  8. Got the theme when we were about 85% finished, and this helped us to get HORN, although we could not parse it. Very exciting because I usually miss the theme.

    A DNF today due to our lack of knowledge of operas, comic or otherwise!

    Favourites were CORNET and ST BERNADETTE.

    INTERIOR DESIGN is great, unfortunately we failed to parse.

    Thanks PeterO and Qaos!

     

  9. Rodshaw@2 – I completely agree with your fruity comparisons

    grantinfreo@3 – I had the same two post-solve verifications

    brojo@6 – the theme helped me with loi HORN too which I similarly didn’t properly parse (I knew it would be a 6 letter word for difficult with horn at it’s centre but my brain didn’t see thorny).

    Thanks Qaos for the customarily entertaining and smile-raising offering and PeterO for the blog.

  10. Thanks to PeterO for the early bird blog. Similarly to brojo’s report @8, I was helped by the theme towards the end which helped my solve in getting my last clues – HORN at 23d and BRASS at 22d. The latter made me laugh out loud (cf. gif@3). Others I liked included 4a BACK DOOR (a reminder of a much discussed clue in yesterday’s Vulcan), 21a KEYBOARD and 1d WHISTLE STOPS. However I am with brojo again in highlighting ST BERNADETTE at 9d as my favourite. Fortunately I saw the hidden for ANTRE at 15a as I was unfamiliar with the word, as Hmmm in Oz@7 also said. I liked that neat link between the word for a cave and the story of the “grotto” visited by St Bernadette, as pointed out by William@4, which took my back to a visit to Lourdes in 2010 (oh, how we took overseas travel for granted back then!). [However, note to self – yet again – don’t click on a link while posting your comment or you lose everything and have to remember what you have already said once! Sigh!]

    [My fellow music lovers on this site might agree that it was a pity Qaos would not have been clairvoyant enough to include GUITAR as one of the music-themed answers, which would have marked the death of Peter Green – a true guitar genius whose troubled life could never overshadow the sublime enjoyment given by such classics as “Oh Well” and “Albatross”. RIP Peter Green.]

    Many thanks to Qaos, PeterO and all contributors so far and to come.

  12. Oh and minor quibble with 25ac where “man’s head off” surely really gives (g)ENTS rather than (g)ENT which would lead to SERPENTSS. Not that it held me up, but I’m not sure Ximenes would approve.

  13. There is a link between St Bernadette and Languedoc of yesterday’s puzzle. She spoke Occitan=Langue d’oc (oc=yes) and learnt French (Langue d’oui) in her teens at school. For music lovers, the Songs of the Auvergne by Canteloube are sung in Occitan.

  14. Knowing nothing about ST BERNADETTE except her name I assumed she was Irish. With SERPENTS coming next I confidently assumed the theme would be related to the emerald isle. Need less to say …

  15. Today’s grid is full of music, but I’ll pick out Howlin’ Wolf’s Back Door Man and Bernadette by The Four Tops.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO

  16. rodshaw@2 and AC87@12 – your taking offence that Monday’s puzzles are somehow too Mondayish is tiresome enough in a Monday blog. Do we have to keep on about it in a Tuesday blog?

  17. Each to their own. Mostly quite enjoyable and not too difficult (including wordplay which was clear enough to point to ANTRE, a word with which I was not familiar. However.

    I wasn’t aware of the Mikado Pheasant, and was trying to make FIGARO work (probably a defence mechanism against having to call to mind any of G&S’s tedious efforts).

    PeterO’s explanation makes complete sense of 23dn and explains why I couldn’t parse CORN, which would also have been a hard growth which fitted the crossers.

    A slightly annoying DNF. But thanks to Qaos (except for reminding me of G&S) and PeterO.

  18. VW @16 I don’t think it’s unreasonable to compare & contrast consecutive crosswords. If you’re not interested then I’m sure you know what to do …

  20. Thanks Qaos and PeterO

    SERPENTS reminded me of Hoffnung’s drawing, found on this page.

    Fairly straightforward. I was held up by having a careless INTERNAL at 8a, but 4d obviously had to start BIO…

    The bird was clearly a PHEASANT, but I’ve not come across this one. Fairly easy guess from the crossers.

    Not too keen on “find a synonym, then do something to it” clues, exemplified here by HORN.

  21. Thanks PeterO for blog and especially parsing of ORGAN and HORN which I put in without a full explanation. Please could someone explain OR as men in TUTOR?
    Thanks Qaos for an enjoyable solve.
    New words for me ANTRE and BIOPLASM.

  22. CanberraGirl @21

    It’s a common trick in crosswords. OR stands for “other ranks” – i.e. the “men” rather than the officers and NCOs.

  23. Thanks muffin. That’s an aaarrgh moment for me. But I just couldn’t see it. Brain kept saying operational research!

    Question on post numbers. Do people count them? Or do the posts appear numbered on some devices?

  25. After quickly scanning the replies am I the first to note SNARE (drum) as another instrument here? I was another who missed a relatively obvious (for Qos) theme.

  26. CanberraGirl @23: they’re numbered if you do it on a laptop but not on a mobile.  Well, that’s my experience anyway.

    michelle @5 and Alien @24: I’m afraid I bunged in Figaro and didn’t Google before hitting Check All so this was a DNF for me.

    For once, I got the theme but only at the end when it served no purpose other than satisfaction.  Didn’t help with HORN which I entered as CORN – unparsed – and then came back to as LOI.  Most of my favourites have already been highlighted.  Did anyone else wonder if ‘polish’ was about to turn up again at 19ac?  Until I got RAISE, I was wondering how to reconcile polish with district.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO for explaining the excellent INTERIOR DESIGN.  It had to be, given the crossers, and I knew it would be something clever but couldn’t, for the life of me, spot it.  Seems obvious now.

  28. A slight discussion on the Graun thread re 24-which I cannot join without spoiling.

    Someone mentioned (in not so many words) that there is also a FIGARO PHEASANT too

    My point if that it is The Marriage of Figaro which I’ve never heard of as a Comic Opera.

    But I cant say that there.

    And yes, I am a double agent

    Thanks Peter and Qaos.

  29. Thanks for the blog, PeterO and for the picture of the splendid unlikely-sounding bird.

    A lovely evocative theme, which I spotted early on, enhanced by the comments which followed, including a reminder of the Songs of the Auvergne – thanks for that, Hmmm in Oz. Sorry about your G and S aversion, Neil H. 😉

    My favourites today were INTERIOR DESIGN and ST BERNADETTE and I smiled at the unmarried newspaper boy from Wales.

    [Philip Kerridge @25 – PeterO mentioned SNARE in his preamble and ‘lightly highlighted’ it in the grid.]

    Many thanks for the fun puzzle, Qaos.

     

  30. William @27. Yes, thanks. I read the Wiki article and then added a bit about Occitan and some famous snogs.

  32. Perfect crossword for me – slap-bang in the middle of my Goldilocks zone. And, for once, I spotted the theme.

    I was really pleased to get 1a straight away because initial-letters clues are usually my blindspot.

    I had never heard of a MIKADO PHEASANT, so I confidently entered FIGARO – making this a DNF for me.

  33. Hmmm @30 & 31: what a pity to see your instant correction.  I’d read your earlier comment @13 but was about to return to it to find out how I’d overlooked St Bernadette’s amorous side

  34. I liked 15a ANTRE  – it’s always good to get an answer you’ve never heard of – and (like Eileen) the unmarried paper boy in 7d (are many paper boys married?).

    One of my first ones in was 12a, and the “river run” briefly made me wonder if there was going to be a Finnegans Wake theme (that would be an interesting puzzle).  Hmmm in Oz @ 30: famous snogs!  Another good idea for a theme?

    [JinA @10: last night we were listening to A Hard Road, Peter Green’s album with John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.  Apparently when Eric Clapton (at the time revered as “god” by his fans) left the group, Mayall said to the others, “Well the bad news is that Eric’s left, but the good news is that we’ve got a new guitarist and he’s better than Eric”.  RIP indeed.]

  35. I put Figaro, not really thinking too much about the lack of full title. It’s pretty comic, isn’t it, copmus? Wiki agrees, anyway.
    Van Winkle, the remarks about yesterday’s weren’t to do with it being Mondayish, but a lemon, which it would have been on any day.
    Thanks Qaos, PeterO

  36. Canberragirl @23 if you’re using Chrome on mobile there’s an option to view the desktop site which gives you the post numbers. It’s on the menu at the top right

  37. I did a quick run through which yielded a satisfying number of answers before other duties called me away. I did have time to look for the theme (being Qaos), and found it. Unfortunately, I had forgotten all about it by the time I got back to the crossie. A pity, really, as it would have helped a lot with my last few: KEYBOARD, BRASS, SNARE, HORN. As I spent a good deal of my youth caving, I was dumbfounded to find a word for ‘cave’ I didn’t know – ANTRE – didn’t even ring any bells when I spotted the inclusion. I also looked for a FIGARO before finding the MIKADO. But there was a lot of fun elsewhere in the puzzle. Thanks, Qaos and PeterO.

  38. Agree with Muffin about synonyms etc re Corn/Horn. Missed the theme as ever even though i am a musician so put the wrong one in. If we are being thorough there is also RIM in 2d which is part of a drum esp. a 26ac.

  40. There’s a famous cave in Tuscany called Antro del Corchia – presumably related to ANTRE?

    I tried to post a link, but Wiki only has it in Italian.

    btw do look at the Hoffnung cartoon I linked to earlier!

  41. Very enjoyable, but one of those where you breeze through and then get stuck on the last few. I am another who had corn for horn. I like the doubly themed dsharp and harp in 13d. Thanks to Qaos and PeterO

  42. Much enjoyed, also the interesting sidelines like the figaro pheasant, Occitan, Hoffnung’s serpent and the missing guitar (and guitarist). I too wondered if STOPS (in WHISTLE-STOPS), to go with ORGAN, was intentional – I suspect it was.
    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  43. bodycheetah@18 – it’s not unreasonable to compare and contrast consecutive crosswords, provided there are no spoilers for those who haven’t been able to find time for the preceding crossword. What is tiresome is that, if on Monday the complaint is about commissioning standards, then clearly on a Tuesday when commissioning standards are different then there is no basis for comparison. Apart from to highlight the Monday “problem” again. Which on yesterday’s evidence is not the smallest problem for many. James@35 – some people prefer lemons to peaches.

    And I do not know what to do. Do you mean that I should follow the example of the Anti-Monday Club and carry on moaning endlessly? Or await a spoof posting accusing me of having an untreated mental illness?

  45. I too had FIGARO at 24a. It’s described an opera buffa. Rather surprisingly, so is Don Giovanni. I’ve never heard of that pheasant.

  48. Yes muffin@40, Hoffnung is brilliant…sort of Thurber meets Escher meets Mad magazine. Someone here, not that long ago, linked to his one of full orchestra..was that you, too?

  49. If we keep on typing FIGARO PHEASANT on this blog, do you think it will be picked up by Google’s search engine and thence become a legitimate bird? We can but hope.

    It would still be a DNF for me, as I had an unparsed CORN, like several others, I see. It’s good to have company!

  51. GinF

    Yes, it was me. I have a couple of his books about the place, and have loved them since I was quite small!

  53. Sheffield Hatter@49 and poc@45 Would Opera buffa be the Latin name of the Figaro pheasant?

    Bodycheetah@36 Top tip about viewing the desktop site. I hadn’t thought of that.

  55. bodycheetah@36, ta muchly for that desktop tip, I got your number via it, easier than counting in a populated blog! Then switched back to type, as the characters in desktop are minute.

  56. David T @ 44. It’s even more confusing than that. If you google Figaro Pheasant, which I did, it takes you to a comic YouTube video of Figaro Pheasant from 6 or 7 years ago. I assumed this was someone’s name for a pet pheasant and that did seem too obscure even for a Guardian Cryptic. So I checked the answer before writing it in. A DNF for me, I’m afraid. Didn’t twig the right meaning of console in addition to the pheasant. And like someone else I thought of “corn” as the hard growth without being able to think of a word meaning difficult which had those letters at its core.

    May I also join the people getting a bit tired of the criticisms of Vulcan. Yes, for people with years of experience of solving cryptic crosswords it may not have been rewardingly challenging. But there does need to be an entry point for newer solvers. I didn’t find it a write-in and there were some nice, witty elements to yesterday’s clues/answers in several places.

  57. This went in very steadily with 1a 4a and 1d going in straight away with much to enjoy along the way. We tossed up between HORN and CORN and got lucky – thanks for the parsing PeterO. I was pleased to discover the Mikado pheasant and didn’t dally with the Figaro version and ANTRE was new as for many here. Thanks for the puzzle Qaos and the blog PeterO; to JinA and others for the Peter Green thread (the early F Mac albums are well worth revisiting) and to other contributors for St Bernadette stories.

  58. ..yes, and I went on to his (Decca) recording of touring negotiations, eg There is a French widow in every bedroom, ensuring delightful prospects.

  59. Pleased with myself for getting both the unfamiliar pheasant and the old cave without too much hassle. Emboldened, I went theme-hunting, and never found it. Must try harder.

  60. Like many others I had corn for horn not being able to parse why. I also had Figaro pheasant and didn’t bother to look it up. As always the theme didn’t register with me even being a musician though my taste are very much Mozart rather than Mikado being another rather averse to G and S.
    By the way poc@45 Mozart called Don Giovanni a Drama giocosa rather than an opera buffa.
    Love all the Hoffnung references and agree that the bricklayer is one of the funniest things ever.
    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO

  61. [muffin @54: when I was a nipper, my parents had two spoken word records that we delighted in listening to.  One was the Hoffnung bricklayers to which you refer.  The other was Bob Newhart’s The Driving Instructor to which I add a link here.  Certainly worth a listen for anyone who hasn’t come across it before]

  62. I don’t really get the ‘Console warrior’ in 21; presumably, this is a reference to gamers (?) I was another trying corn for HORN although it didn’t parse.

    I didn’t know the old cave or the comic bird. I also hadn’t heard of BIOPLASMS, which is given as ‘rare’ by Collins and ‘now historical’ by the OED, although without qualification in Chambers. I liked the simple TUTOR, largely for the surface.

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO.

     

  63. So how does one decide between HORN and CORN?  This is indeed essentially difficult.  What are those pointy things a dilemma has …?

  65. Robi @62: frequent posters of contentious subjects to online fora are often referred to as “keyboard warriors”

  67. Robi @62 “Console” is area that keyboards are housed in in a pipe organ.

    Lovely bit of Qaos for me today – possibly a record solve for me.  FOI was WHISTLE-STOPS swiftly followed by ST BERNADETTE.  LOI was CARD-SHARP a new one on me as was the MIKADO PHEASANT which I put down to a good guess.

  68. Eileen@66, my parents came to our school production of T by J, under loyalty sufferance (I sang the Judge…it was fun). Otherwise, anything other than Wagner, and maybe at a pinch Don Giovanni and Fidelio, was pop music! Sigh. No wonder I took to The Cream and Deep Purple!

  69. Well, I liked it.  Thanks to Qaos, whose theme I remembered to look for and didn’t find, and to PeterO for elucidating that and plenty else.

    To repeat a point made a few puzzles ago, the operetta is called THE MIKADO, not MIKADO.

    I winced at such a word as BIOPLASM.  It means (if it means anything) “the organic makeup of organic stuff,” which is also what “protoplasm” means.  i once read a comment that saying a cell is filled with protoplasm is about as informative as saying that a radio is made up of radioplasm.

    Julie @10  I always Ctrl-C copy comments as I write them, the whole contents of the box, so that then I can follow links as I like and Ctrl-V back when I return.  That also works when I refresh the site just before posting to see who else has posted since I last looked.

    Thanks for the link, muffin@20.  I enjoyed the reminder of “Let’s Fake an Opera” (there is a real “Let’s Make an Opera” by Benjamin Britten), creating a mishmash of several various operas.  I read an account of it; the only character I remember now is “Azucena, the sex kitten of the tobacco girls.”  At one point a performer suddenly notices the conductor, Norman  Del Mar, and sings the aria (almost) from La Gioconda — “Cielo! Del Mar!”

    Also thanks for the link @ 54 to the recital of “The Bricklayer’s Accident.”  I know the story as a comic song, “Why Paddy’s Not at Work Today.”

  70. A very enjoyable partial solve – never heard of bioplasms or antre. Never heard of Mikado Pheasant if it comes to that but I’m a G&S fan so it wasn’t too difficult. Had a good go at Vulcan too, yesterday. Those that don’t enjoy Mondayish puzzles – have pity on us poor tyros. You have 4 or 5 days of solving puzzles of varying degrees of impossibility to us!

  71. I have now returned to the gym for the first time since the lockdown and,suitably rejuvenated, I sailed through most of this quite quickly and saw the theme. I didn’t know the MIKADO PHEASANT, ANTRE or BIOPLASMS. The latter two I got from the wordplay but I had to look up the gamebird. Most enjoyable!
    Thanks Qaos.

  73. That went in very, very quickly and yet it was still a satisfying solve. But why do I never see the themes?

    Thanks Qaos and PeterO.

  74. keyser soze @73

    My problem with themes is that once I’ve written in an answer, I promptly forget it. Ring any bells?

  76. glenn @75

    I’m not an expert on this, but I don’t think there’s much of a distinction between opera buffa and operetta. Grand opera should be different, as there shouldn’t be any spoken dialogue.

  77. Glenn @75 a “Keyboard Warrior” is someone who argues – sometmes spitefully -  with others online from behind the safety of his/her keyboard.  Twitter is replete with them, and even this group is not immune as I have occasionally noticed !   Thanks to PeterO and to Qaos.

     

  78. Not quite as much fun as Qaos usually is. I saw HORN but not ANTRE, which seems a bit outre. The MIKADO PHEASANT is certainly a cutie.
    Possible unintended Nina in column 4? Seems to be the introduction on a form letter from the PM 🙂 .
    Thanks Q and P.

  79. Eileen @66 I am sure you may be right that it is possible to Like both Mozart and G and S; just not in my case! Having conducted The Mikado back in the 1990s, which was fun for the pupils I am glad we didn’t perform any more G and S especially as I was added in to the ‘little list’. I found My fair lady our next venture much more satisfying.

  80. @78  Shame AMEN isn’t in a corner  (though it’s not too far away from the CORNET)  😉

    @79  I’m curious as to which number you were incorporated into in the following year.  Just you wait?

  81. Totally baffled by 21ac KEYBOARD. Gamers (‘warriors online’) use controllers not keyboards. And a ‘console’ is also not a synonym for a controller…

  82. Nice puzzle – not too difficult but definitely satisfying!

    Cornet was the obvious answer, but I don’t get it – why is a cornet licked???

  85. Thanks NeilH

    I thought of including that reference for Jay, but feared that it might confuse him even further 🙂

  86. I had to read through 70+ comments to get an explanation for KEYBOARD so, thankfully, I’m not the only one who’s never heard the expression before.

  87. I parsed 21ac as a double definition: “console” as a synonym for keyboard, and the second half referring to “keyboard warriors” (a person who makes abusive or aggressive posts on the Internet, typically one who conceals their true identity.)

  88. Muffin @74. Exactly that! I don’t have enough mental processing power to take on the next clue and still retain the previous answers. I need a storage upgrade for the brain.

  89. Initially thought -with joy and surprise – this was Quiptic level. Swiftly got disabused of that notion!

    Enjoyed it, but got stuffed over by BIOPLASMS (and this despite having an ecology degree!) and MIKADO PHEASANT – got the second half but guessed at Figaro. ANTRE also a new one on me. As a tyro solver there was plenty here to offer encouragement even though others were either hard to parse or completely new to me, so thanks to both PeterO and Qaos.

  90. Modern technology could possibly identify my laughter in the audience for Hoffnung’s Bricklayer speech. Identifying my clapping in the recording of Gerald Moore’s farewell concert might be more difficult. As far as I know these are my only recordings.
    I was another who put in an unparsed CORN and agree with Muffin’s comment @20
    Thanks to Qaos and PeterO.

  91. Thanks for the passing of TRIANGLE, I got hung up on the near anagram of trailer but couldn’t see where the NG came from.  Bunged it in anyway because by then I had spotted the theme.

  92. keyser soze @88 and muffin @74. I agree. Because we subscribe to the Guardian Weekly, we get a weekly crossie some time after it appeared in the daily. Occasionally, since I started doing these daily online, I will  have a go at one. It is embarrassing how often I read the clue and draw a blank (though I do end up completing it faster than the first time). Funnily, the ones I solve the quickest are often the ones I struggled with most the first time – or which were most controversial on 15^2.

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