I had decided to have a go at doing my own blog today [renewed thanks to Gaufrid for last week] – broken wrist notwithstanding [it was with falling over, actually 😉 ] knowing that it would take rather longer than usual.
I had mixed feelings when I saw it was Qaos, one of my favourite setters, thinking I was in for a stiff challenge, usually welcomed, and a number of links to supply for the expected ghost theme [spotting which is a challenge in itself]. It turned out to be Qaos in gentler mode – but no less enjoyable – and, although I didn’t see the theme immediately, it was one that was thankfully familiar. There may be more but I spotted VICTORY, CALYPSO, ENDEAVOUR, TITANIC, ARGO, ENTERPRISE, BEAGLE and MARY ROSE.
Many thanks, Qaos, for a fun puzzle. 1dn has put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
Across
9 Check weight everybody to get fit again (9)
REINSTALL
REIN [check] + ST[one] – weight + ALL [everybody]
10 Headless monster a howler (5)
ERROR
[t]ERROR [monster]
11 Conservative backs endless corruption for success (7)
VICTORY
TORY [Conservative] after VIC[e] – endless corruption
12 Ballad plays noisily in Colorado (7)
CALYPSO
Anagram [noisily?] of PLAYS in CO [Colorado]
13 Orbits Earth by mistake (5)
LAPSE
LAPS [orbits] E [Earth]
14 Act of grace? Female expelled after Eden’s criminal trial (9)
ENDEAVOUR
[f]AVOUR] [act of grace minus f – female expelled] after an anagram [criminal] of EDEN
16 Blown away by this film? (4,4,3,4)
GONE WITH THE WIND
Cryptic definition – a nice clue to get me started
19 Doctor begs nurse for classes (9)
SUBGENRES
Anagram [doctor] of BEGS NURSE
21 Golfer’s new iron? (5)
SEVEN
SEVE [Ballesteros, the lovely golfer] + N [new]
22 Catholic moves to centre of God’s source of power (7)
REACTOR
CREATOR [God] with C [Catholic] moved to the middle
23 Large bird I can cook (7)
TITANIC
TIT [bird] + an anagram [cook] of I CAN
24 Crack small pitted fruit (5)
SOLVE
S [small] + OL[i]VE [‘pitted fruit’] – very nice
25 Amazing person serving soup here, all around Reading (9)
SUPERHERO
Anagram [serving?] of SOUP HERE round R[eading] – one of ‘the three Rs’
Down
1 Advantages of outside toilets? Member is concealed (10)
PRIVILEGES
PRIVIES [toilets] round [‘outside’] LEG [member] – a wonderful clue!
2 Piano at home supports 50in key (8)
LINCHPIN
P [piano] + IN [at home] after L [fifty] IN[ches]
3 Wash foot in stormy sea or on land (6)
ASHORE
H [last letter – foot – of wasH] in an anagram [stormy] of SEA OR
4 Girl to wed right away (4)
MARY
MA[r]RY [to wed]
5 Explains cryptic clue first time and succeeded! (10)
ELUCIDATES
Anagram [cryptic] of CLUE + I [first] + DATE [time] + S [succeeded] – a pity about the mixture of tenses
6 Archer gets Troy beer that’s revealing (8)
TELLTALE
[William] TELL [archer] + T [Troy – weight] + ALE [beer]
7 Too much work left about (6)
TROPPO
Reversal [about] of OP [work] + PORT [left]
8 Constellation formed from unlimited gas (4)
ARGO
ARGO[n] – unlimited gas
14 Business is key; spin is ultimately futile (10)
ENTERPRISE
ENTER [key] + PR [spin] + IS + [futil]E
15 It could lead to a strike at Epsom (6,4)
RIDING CROP
Cryptic definition
17 One who fights with others, both hands gripping close to foe (8)
WRESTLER
W [with] + REST [others] + LR [both hands] round [gripping] [fo]E
18 Made up by comic T Vine to cover pun’s finale about Germany (8)
INVENTED
I can’t quite make this work: there’s an anagram [comic] of T VINE round [pu]N, then D [Germany] – but I need another E!
20 Bowled by a leg break E Barker (6)
BEAGLE
B [bowled] + an anagram [break] of A LEG + E
21 Funny, it’s about ridiculing establishment leaders (6)
SATIRE
Anagram [about] of ITS and the first letters [leaders] of About Ridiculing Establishing – I think! [&littish] [Edit: anagram [funny], which I had originally – see comments 20, 25 and 29]
22 Grew flower (4)
ROSE
Double definition
23 Upset father breaks sides of turntable record (4)
TAPE
Reversal [upset] of PA [father] in t[urntabl]E
Thanks Eileen (pleased you’re back in action again) and Qaos.
In 18 I think Germany is “DE” – that’s the internet code anyway.
A lovely puzzle, second last in was ENDEAVOUR and it was only that that led me to spot the theme.
SOLVE was very good.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen (good to have you operational again!)
I enjoyed this, but found it rather easier than the usual Qaos. There are several clues that I want to comment on, so I’ll take them in order.
12 I’ve not seen “noisily” as an anagram indicator before, and I’m not sure it’s a good one.
21 What happens to the s of “Golfer’s”?
24 Loved “pitted fruit” for “OLVE”
6 Though I have found a few counter-examples, I would have described Tell as “crossbowman” rather than “archer” (saving that for upright bowmen)
7 Foreign language indication?
18 I didn’t notice the missing E, but even then I thought “T Vine” was clumsy………….
…but I liked E Barker in 20!
Welcome back, Eileen, heroic to start typing again so soon.
I had the same issue with the missing E in INVENTED. Could Germany be De (Deutschland?)
Failed to parse SATIRE and suspect you are right with &lit-ish. Perfectly get-able so no gripe.
Enjoyed PRIVILEGES (which I can never spell) but found the rest a little on the dry side for me.
Thank you, Qaos, nice week-end, all.
JA @1 Apologies, crossing.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen.
I saw 2 as P (piano) IN (at home) supports 50 (L) in (INCH).
Welcome back, Eileen!
Definitely less Qaotic than usual, i.e. rather easier. I didn’t spot all the boats (silly me). Nice clues include SEVEN, WRESTLER and ELUCIDATES. Many thanks to Qaos and Eileen.
Thanks Qaos and Eileen – glad to hear you’re on the mend – ‘outta traction, back in action’ as Patti Smith said when she restarted work after recovering from falling offstage and fracturing a vertebra.
muffin @ 2: I wondered about the foreign language indication, but concluded that it’s from the musical direction ‘allegro non troppo’, and I don’t think there’s usually an FL indicator for those, is there?
Thanks Eileen.
Nice easy solve today although some parsing eluded me. .. R for the 3R’s didn’t emerge! Got BEAGLE and ARGO in first so the ghost theme became apparent.
Prantles @5 – that’s how I intended the blog to read. I’ll ELUCIDATE the ‘inches’.
Many thanks, Simon S, for your exercise advice last week. I was already doing it, along with the elbow and shoulder ones – I broke the other wrist seven years ago so I had some idea of what to expect! [Rather more tiresome this time, though, since it’s my right hand. 🙁 ]
Like you, I had no problem with TROPPO, as the musical direction.
Thanks Qaos for an entertaining puzzle.
Welcome back Eileen 🙂 , hope the typing wasn’t painful. Nice to see my home town (Epsom) mentioned!
I really don’t understand how ‘noisily’ can be an anagrind, although that seems to be the way the clue is parsed. I think ‘serving’ is OK, and it’s in my Chambers list of anagrinds (at least, serve is.)
I particularly liked SOLVE and PRIVILEGES.
Thanks, Eileen: enterprise and endeavour worthy of a superhero – and thanks to Qaos too.
On 18d INVENTED – I was struck by “finale”- an odd choice? But isn’t it a “lift and separate” job? “Final” gives us [pu]N, and then we’ve got a spare “E”, as it were…
Thanks Qaos and Eileen – glad it was an easy solve so that you did not need to handle books.
I loved the GONE WITH THE WIND theme, the TITANIC is the only one without a tall ship predecessor (I think), but the the Belfast Titanic Maritime Festival will be the Tall Ship event for 2015.
STEVE caught me out yet again. SOLVE, TROPPO and PRIVILEGES were good.
apologies, SEVE, Severiano Ballesteros Sota, also sadly gone with the wind…
Thanks Eileen, welcome back. Nice (1D, 14D) and easy (16A) but I missed the theme. Third ERROR (Shed 6/4, Picaroon 3/2) in ten weeks. Apart from the discussed 18D, SATIRE is wonky, too.
Hi molonglo
More ERRORS than that: see my last blg [Otterden] two weeks ago, where I commented, ‘a real chestnut to end on’. I decided against making a similar comment today!
For once, I spotted the theme. But I did about two-thirds of this last night when I was half-asleep, so I entered almost all of the ships before conking out. This morning, it smacked me over the head when I put in ENDEAVOUR–the British spelling automatically calls the ship to my mind. But by that point, only TITANIC remained of the ships, so the theme was of little help (but plenty of fun anyway).
Didn’t get TROPPO–wasn’t even thinking of music. I guess with a nautical theme I should have been thinking “port” for left.
@JR – #11 Final-e would be a nice construction but that would leave “about” with nothing to do – so DE (internet abbr) for Germany (as given by JA #1) has to be the intention I think.
21d SATIRE is fine as per the blog. Just an anag of ITSARE. “About” initially drew me into trying to resolve it as an inclusion but that doesn’t quite work.
In fact that was my COTD – along with 14d.
Very enjoyable solve. Maybe a shade easier than Qaos’s normal level but more natural I thought – ie not self-consciously packed with science etc – even thought there’s a wee bit there.
Many thanks to S&B both.
Good luck with the wrist Eileen. Hope it’s not bad luck to say that. In the theatre it’s break a leg; so what should it be for bloggers?. Can’t say break a wrist – you’ve already done that. In France it’s “Je te dis merde.” That would cover any occupation.
Maybe people liked this more because it is quite a bit fairer, and better-written than a Qaos puzzle normally is (for me).
12a indicator doesn’t work; 23a I plus CAN ‘cook’? That seems wrong; 25a indicator I don’t like, and the R needs a for example or QM I would say; 3d ‘wash foot’ could work if it were ‘foot to wash’ maybe; 4d I guess either R is game; 18d he means DE; 20d ‘break’ is the wrong tense; 21 is an error I think.
24a is very good.
1d is nice.
17d is nice.
HH
On ERROR: Why is it always a curtailment of TERROR? Can’t we do something else with it?
How about this: German bloke in the East End chasing gold? Bad move (5)
Can anyone else do better?
On SATIRE, isn’t the anagrind “funny,” which makes it a full &lit?
Noisily works well enough for me as an anagrind. Noise can be interference in, for example, a tv signal, which scrambles the picture.
@muffin #2 re 21a
‘s translates to “has” to indicate concatenation.
TERROR is part of the theme. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Terror_%281813%29 for the most famous.
12a, ‘noisily’ as an anagram indicator seems all right to me, with disturbance in the background.
OCED, noisy adj. 3 turbulent, noisily adv.
OCED, turbulent adj. 1 disturbed.
OCED, disturbed v. tr. 3 move form a settled position, disarrange.
@MP #20. Correct. I think that’s just a slip in the blog – I hadn’t noticed that when I said I agreed with the blog – and yes – it’s a fully-fledged copper-bottomed ocean-going &lit – if you want it do be – and a partial or semi if you don’t – so nicely layered.
sorry, MarkN @21, we crossed.
Re noisily.
Noise has a meaning independent of sound – eg white noise (on eg a TV screen) – or noise in an electrical circuit – often equivalent to “disturbance” – so that sense might help it along as an anagrind more than anything to do with sound – and that sort of thing is up Qaos’s street.
Sorry Cookie – that’s more or less what you just indicated.
Mr Penney @20 and JS @25 – I had ‘funny’ as the aagrind when I solved it!
JollySwagman, your ‘picture’, along with MarkN’s, provides a much clearer conception.
Yes, I’m going to add 21d to my ‘very good’ list. You’re quite right, JS.
HH
Gentle stuff, but none the worse for that. Missed the theme, natch.
Welcome back, Eileen, and thanks to the setter.
I missed the theme as usual, and I needed Eileen’s help here to parse REACTOR, but in general it was much easier than I expect on a Friday. I’ve had a stressful few days, so a gentler puzzle was a nice surprise. Even so, I confused myself for a while by putting in SUBGENERA, which leapt out at me when I read the clue, and took me a while to realise the anagram needed an S, not an A.
I had minor reservations about a few clues but not enough to detract from an enjoyable puzzle. I particularly liked 11a, 14a, 1d and 14d.
Thanks, Qaos and Eileen!
Thanks Qaos and Eileen (welcome back: I loved your notwithstanding joke – worthy of a good clue).
Enjoyable solve. Guardian coincidence time: an obituary today of Margaret Rule, who led the team which recovered the “Mary Rose”.
Troppo of itself is not a musical direction: it is always (ma) non troppo after allegro, andante, presto etc.
Welcome back Eileen!
I always enjoy Qaos, this was no exception but I did find it quite tricky in places, with the NW corner taking longest to crack. Last in was SUBGENRES.
Thanks to Qaos and Eileen
Hi Marienkaefer
Yes, how poignant. I hadn’t read my paper when I wrote the blog. I remember the raising of the MARY ROSE so well [I was teaching Tudor istory at the time] – just can’t believe it was so long ago.
East End history, that was!
Thanks, Eileen – good to see you blogging again.
Pleasant pastime, and nothing here to dislike, but I’m afraid I found this a bit vanilla in comparison with the usual Qaotic offerings. Only standout clue for me was the &lit SATIRE (perfectly watertight, with ‘funny’ as an anagrind).
I agree with JollySwagman @27 that ‘noisily’ is fine as an anagrind; the reference is to signal disturbance.
Missed the theme, as per usual, but as it wasn’t a ‘closed set’ it wouldn’t have really helped anyway.
Well, maybe re NOISILY, but it requires to be taken not at face value, an extra interpretation. I like anagrinds that really say ‘broken up’, (and in the right tense, though that is not at issue for this clue). It’s certainly not the best clue on offer today.
I was quite surprised at how easy this was as I usually find Qaos rather challenging. Still, this was enjoyable enough. Rather miffed to have missed the theme. Amazing how it leaps out at you once you’ve been told!
Glad to see you back Eileen.
Thanks Qaos.
Thanks to Qaos and welcome back Eileen (your one-wristed parsing was much appreciated). I usually have difficulty with this setter but not this time (and not because I caught the theme). The “Reading” in SUPERHERO initially threw me off target (I thought I was encountering another component linked to a UK place) but now I know to look for the 3 Rs. Last in for me was CALYPSO for 1) I did not get “noisily” as a signal and 2) did not link “calypso” and “ballad.” See http://the-difference-between.com/calypso/ballad.
HH @39
‘…but it requires to be taken not at face value, an extra interpretation.’ – which is quite often the case in cryptic crosswords!
Haha yes, I know. But I’m not sure it’s really very clever to do it like that. The best ‘misleads’ for me come from wordplay that can be TOTALLY justified.
I hope you are feeling better btw Eileen. 😀
Thanks all.
The NE corner took me as long as all the rest.
Last in was argo but endeavour was my breakthrough.
I saw solve but couldn’t write it in until I had convinced myself that pitted meant remove”I”.
Surprised no-one has mentioned the ninas. Plametta, the partron saint of those who dedicate their lives to finding pangrams in crosswords, Trino, Asgard’s defender of smut, and Osuneir, Greek goddess of definitions by example, all in one grid. Beyond coincidence.
Van Winkle @ 45
🙂
Easy? Vanilla? I missed the theme completely, and even after reading Eileen’s introduction it took me a while to see the significance of ‘Gone with the wind’. A crossword of delightful, gentle wit. Many thanks, Eileen and Qaos.
muffin @ 46
heated agreement 😉
Simon @ 48
We’ll have to stop meeting like this.
muffin @ 49
🙂
😉
🙂
Get a room, you two.
“Troppo” had me fooled as I first thought of the Australian meaning, as in “Barry’s gone troppo!” – i.e. off his rocker in the heat. Still, it was a fair go!
Surprisingly straightforward for Qaos – but very neat.
Welcome back, Eileen. From your comment the other day (you mentioned injury to your “wrong” hand) I had hoped you meant the one less used. So I’m now doubly sympathetic.
No-one else noticed your deliberate mistake. In 1dn (PRIVILEGES) surely the containment indicator is “is concealed” rather than “outside” as you suggest, the latter actually being part of the definition.
Take care.
I always come late to Fridays as I don’t get to do them until a Sunday but I agree with William @53, I got PRIVIES from outside toilets and then LEG concealed inside that (COTD for me – though in my case it means Chuckle of the Day – though to ne more accurate it should probably be GOTD – Groan of the Day).
Nice puzzle all round and impressive one handed blogging from Eileen.