I dipped into the Qaos puzzle between banging my head over the DA. When I got stuck on one, I moved to the other and it felt like steady progress until I realised I had about 10-12 clues on each puzzle and two pretty empty grids. At least with the Guardian I can peek - that instant gratification itch appeased. Sure I feel guilty but I do it anyway!
Having the answer doesn't guarantee I'll know what's going on and often times I don't. This puzzle had a few WTF clues where I had no idea what was going on (22D) and a couple treasures (11A) to keep me feeling less hopeless. Themes help too! I like a theme. I prefer them more if I get them before I finish a puzzle but I was happy thinking it was Greek/Shakespeare overlap thing before Fifteen Squared (225) tipped it was about planetary moons. Here's my pic:
1A - Sea snail from Turkey into paddling (6) "Sea snail," is our definition and "Turkey" = TR as its country code and "into paddling " is fodder and anagrind to make TR(ITON) 5A - Cricketer catches hard ball at last, before England's opener can check (8) Just seeing "cricketer" makes me sink - I don't know cricket or cricket history. I'd never known cricket was such a big deal until I moved to Australia. It was easier to ignore in the UK because there it's all soccer. I had top cheat to get THROTTLE. 225 says "H in TROTT + [bal]L + E[ngland]. The cricketer could Jonathan Trott , or Albert from about 100 years earlier. 9A - Peter Pan, ’e carries fairy, regularly seen in orchard? (4-4) I got this straight away, perhaps its the season? "Seen in orchard," is our definition and "Peter pan " is partial fodder and anagrind (some folks groused that's not a proper anagrind but if you review a movie or something and "pan" it you tear it apart because it's rubbish. works fine for me.) The "E carries " isn't hinting to some Cockney shenanigans, it's just saying take the E and put it before the "f A i R y regularly " = AR to make P(E)(AR) TREE. Is that right? Is that how the word "carries" is being used? Or is the E to go at the end where it "carries" the rest of the answer? Maybe that'd be better as a down clue? 10A - Reject the origins of theory of mind? I have a reason (6) "A reason," is our definition and "reject" here is an instruction not to eschew, but to turn away - or around to be more precise the "origins of T heory O f M ind " = TOM reverse to MOT, then "I have" = IVE as we make the contraction to get MOTIVE. 11A - Narnia? Um, is it about Christian doctrine? (12) What a lovely surface for this straightforward anagram clue. " Narnia Um is it about " is our fodder and anagrind - the very versatile "about" - to give us UNITARIANISM as example of "Christian doctrine."13A - Vegetable for royal beer (4) "Vegetable," is our definition and we need the leafy green variety, From "royal" = K(ing) and "beer" = ALE to make KALE. 14A - Bad weather that's most cold, right? (3,5) I got this, but I got it in a weird, convoluted way. "Bad weather," is our definition and at first I thought this was a reverse anagram to get ICE STORM because I could see MOST+R as an anagram for STORM and with cross letters I got the three letter word as ICE and thought that to be an anagrind since the clue doesn't have one...yes, I wasn't thinking clear just snapping up a solution and moving on. I was thinking "ice" being an anagrind in the gangster "ice him/kill him" kind of way. My solution ignored the word "cold" so I had to rethink this and looked at 225's solution "Anagram of I.E (that is) + MOST + C + R " but where's the anagrind? The question mark - that's always a very confusing signpost. It's why I thought it was a reverse anagram. Question marks have too many meanings. 17A - He leaves the Beatles playing around to Hold Me Tight ? (4,4) "Hold me tight," is the definition and " HE leaves T(-he) BEATLES playing " is saying "the beatles" is our fodder but remove the letters for "he" first, then scramble what's left to get SEAT BELT. 18A - Fairy king's vessel capsized (4) I got this from cross letters but didn't understand the parsing. 225 helped me out "Reverse of K CUP capsized " or reversed to PUCK. A K-CUP is not something I'd have thought about and don't know if it's a reference to the coffee pods was intentional - it is a "cap sized vessel" but is that a coincidence? Confessions of a fellow caffeine addict? (I prefer an Aeropress myself.) 20A - How to get over the Beatles breaking up? (5,7) Cryptic definition that I needed many cross letters to get: GROUP THERAPY. 23A - Shakespearean character left Italy with a … (6) "Shakespearean character," is our definition and "left" = PORT as the left side of a boat, "Italy" = I taking the first letter of a proper noun, and "with A" = A to give us PORTIA. 24A - … piece of music, emptied out those diamonds and ran! (8) "Ran," is our definition and "piece of music" = OPERA, "emptied out T hos E " = TE and "diamonds" = D to make OPERATED. I fiddled too long trying to "empty" the word "out" and not understanding why the OT wasn't working for me. 25A - Terry manages the live charity event (8) "Live charity event," is our definition and I got this from the definition. Parsing the clue was another thing. I thought at first "Terry" = TELE was some kind of "engrish" joke but that didn't seem plausible. 225 says "T EL (short for Terry) + THE + ON (live), with surface reference to Terry Wogan’s regular hosting of such events. 26A - Fairy king has special robe on (6) "Fairy king," is our definition and "special robe on " is anagrind and fodder to make OBERON. 2D - Bird found in or near Headingley (4) A hidden word clue with helpful signpost of "found in " so looking at "nea R HEA dingley " we find the RHEA . 3D - Posh French wine tipped over fast, making a mess (9) "Making a mess," is our definition and "posh French wine" = BRUT and that's "tipped over" to make TURB, "fast" = LENT or the time of fasting before Easter. What I don't know is where the middle U comes from to make TURB(U)(LENT) and the only other word available would be "posh" so how does that become U? 4D - Sea nymph: I need to swim around river (6) "Sea nymph," is our definition and "I need to swim " is partial fodder and anagrind leaving us one letter short and one word to play with "around river" = R to make NE(R)EID. 5D - He has a heavenly face (3,3,2,3,4) Cryptic definition that pops out once a few cross letters are in place: THE MAN IN THE MOON. 6D - Band-aid covered knee evenly and lasted (8) "Lasted," is our definition and here the rule of "ignore all punctuation" is imperative because "band" = REM and "aid covered knee evenly " means AID will become the container for "kN eE evenly " to make: REM(AI(NE)D) 7D - Giant bird, one with green tail (5) "Giant," is our definition and "bird" = TIT, "one" = I and "with greeN tail " = N for a TITAN. 8D - Infatuated fool exchanges I for U following scrabble solve (10) "Infatuated," is our definition and to "fool" someone is to TRICK them "exchange I for U" = TRUCK as we swap the I for the U as instructed, then that will be "following" "scrabble solve " is anagrind and fodder to make (LOVES)TRUCK. Awesome clue! I've not seen "scrabble" used as an anagrind before. 12D - Excellent channel for funky music? (4,6) This took some thinking, cross letters and a guess...and a check. "funky music," is our definition and "excellent" = RARE and a "channel" = GROOVE for a RARE GROOVE. 15D - Merry Christmas begins with vigil, not with pudding (5,4) "Pudding," is our definition despite how much the surface of the clue is trying to deny the pudding. I didn't get this and needed to cheat which didn't enlighten me much. 225 says "TIPSY (merry) + C[hristmas] + WAKE less W 16D - Bill overwhelmed by threat to break nail again (8) Nope, had to cheat. I could get "threat to break " was fodder and anagrind but I couldn't find the other two letters to make REATTACH. I think "bill overwhlemed" means "bill" = AC as short for account(?) and "overwhelmed" is a container signpost to make it like: REATT(AC)H. I'm still not sure if that's the right short form of "bill" . 19D - Summerhouse is roughly 83% double-glazed, polished, but not dull (6) "Summerhouse," is our definition and I got this from the definition. I know "double glazed , polished , but not (-dull)" is fodder and "polished" is anagrind then "but not -DULL" means remove the letters of "dull" from the fodder. This still leaves two extra letters so the "roughly 83%" is meaning something I can't figure out. Answer is GAZEBO. With fodder left from removing "dull" the extra letters are ED so how does "roughly 83%" get us ED? Is this a word problem for maths? Does "DOUBLE GLAZ(ed)" become 83% of the fodder? Ah well 225 seems to agree there. Also there was more complaining of "polished" being an anagrind but if you take a rough stone and wear it away until it's smooth - makes "polished" a fair anagrind in my book. 21D - Separate union supported by 1 in 10, maybe? (5) "Separate," is our definition and "union" = U and that's because it has no other use considering the rest of the clue is "1 in 1o maybe?) to be "1" = I and "10 maybe " = TEN spelled out and "maybe" as an anagrind to mix and hold the "I" like this: U(NT(I)E) 22D - Nymph born thus (4) "Nymph," is our definition and I'm confused here over "born" = NE, is it supposed to be a short form of "Nee" to indicate a maiden name? "thus" = SO to make NESO .
There we go. This took longer to type up than I expected - have I over-chatted? Most likely. I get a bit wrapped up. Sorry!
I had a quick, lazy go at the Prize by shed but got one answer for my efforts because the beach was calling and I couldn't resist. I'll try again after the cold change comes through.
Last week of school and then off for the Summer - how will I manage this blog with constant distraction from my delightful children? Well just one will want my attention - the 15 year old will be a cave dweller for the next six weeks, coming out to scavange for food when hungry or the wifi breaks down.
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