Gozo is this morning’s setter in the FT.
Gozo puzzles are often pangrams, but this one fell three letters short of that, so there may be a theme that I’m missing instead (my apologies if that’s the case because I can’t see one unless it’s the police – FLIC, SCOTLAND YARD, PANDA CARS, FORCE and SERPICO eg). I wasn’t keen on “pupils” for LL as L is specifically a learner driver, rather than a pupil, but this has become commonplace in the crossword universe. Speaking of universes, it is my understanding that Darkforce in the Marvel Universe is all one word, but Gozo has enumerated it as two. I liked CREPITUS as it came immediately to mind as my 62-year old arthritic knees are creaking this morning after my exertions on the five-a-side pitch last night.
Thanks, Gozo.
| ACROSS | ||
| 1 | TOPOLOGY |
Study of sets for game on borders of Germany (8)
|
| TO (“for”) + POLO (“game”) on [borders of] G(erman)Y | ||
| 5 | CONSUL |
Briefly ask advice of diplomat (6)
|
| [briefly] CONSUL(t) (“ask advice of”) | ||
| 9 | MINISTER |
Cabinet member, one entering church (8)
|
| I (one) entering MINSTER (“church”) | ||
| 10 | JAGUAR |
Cat from jungle originally — one keeping watch endlessly (6)
|
| J(ungle) [originally] + A GUAR(d) (“one keeping watch”, endlessly) | ||
| 12 | STAGE |
Possibly gets a coach (5)
|
| *(gets a) [anag:possibly] | ||
| 13 | FILMGOERS |
1001 golfers turned round for cineastes (9)
|
| *(MI golfers) [anag:turned round] where MI = 1001 in Roman numerals | ||
| 14 | DAFTER |
It’s not so sensible to read FT out of order (6)
|
| *(read ft) [anag:out of order] | ||
| 16 | CLAUDIA |
Female spies accepting praise (7)
|
| CIA (Central Intelligence Agency, so “spies”) accepting LAUD (“praise”) | ||
| 19 | ROSEATE |
In the pink, having got up and tucked in (7)
|
| ROSE (“got up”) and ATE (“tucked in”) | ||
| 21 | SIERRA |
Chain letter read out (6)
|
| SIERRA is the NATO phonetic alphabet equivalent of S, so the letter S read out. | ||
| 23 | PROPELLER |
English pupils seen during fitting part of a ship (9)
|
| E (English) + LL (learners, so “pupils”) seen during PROPER (“fitting”) | ||
| 25 | ELFIN |
Dainty, but somewhat self-indulgent (5)
|
| Hidden in [somewhat] “sELF-INdulgent” | ||
| 26 | TALBOT |
Old hound — little fellow — about a pound (6)
|
| TOT (“little fellow”) about A + Lb (pound)
Talbot was a now extinct breed of large-eared dog. |
||
| 27 | SIM CARDS |
Carry On star Joan takes in eccentric mobile phone hardware (3,5)
|
| (Carry On star Joan) SIMS takes in CARD (“eccentric”) | ||
| 28 | SPRITE |
Like 25A’s special ceremony (6)
|
| Sp. (special) + RITE (“ceremony”)
The 25A refers to 25 across (elfin). |
||
| 29 | LOVE SEAT |
Be fond of serving teas on armchair for two (4,4)
|
| LOVE (“be fond of”) + *(teas) [anag:serving] | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | TAMEST |
Least exciting exam takes a minute (6)
|
| TEST (“exam”) takes (A + M (minute)) | ||
| 2 | PANDA CARS |
Paramedics and ambulancemen first at appalling crash — hospital not admitted police vehicles (5,4)
|
| P(aramedics) AND A(mbulencemen) [first] at *(cras) [anag:appalling] where CRAS is CRAS(h) with H (hospital) not admitted. | ||
| 3 | LISLE |
Cotton thread one’s placed in heart of galleon (5)
|
| I’S (“one’s”) placed in [heart of] (ga)LLE(on) | ||
| 4 | GOES FAR |
Succeeds in one’s career and travels a good distance (4,3)
|
| Double definition | ||
| 6 | ORANGEADE |
Agreed on a review of drink (9)
|
| *(agreed on a) [anag:review] | ||
| 7 | SHUTE |
Novelist suggests photographic session (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [suggestes] of SHOOT (“photographic session”)
Nevil Shute was an English novelist, most famous for his 1950 novel A Town Called Alice. |
||
| 8 | LORD’S DAY |
Scotland Yard can’t be missing out the Sabbath! (5,3)
|
| *(solad yrd) [anag:out] where SOLAD YRD is S(c)O(t)LA(n)D Y(a)RD with CAN’T missing | ||
| 11 | FLIC |
French busy in off-licence (4)
|
| Hidden [in] “ofF-LICence”
Flic in French and busy in Englishmen are both slang words for “policeman”. |
||
| 15 | THAWED OUT |
Now melted — due to what boiling? (6,3)
|
| *(due to what) [anag:boiling] | ||
| 17 | DARK FORCE |
Night-time beneficial to church as energy source in the Marvel universe (4,5)
|
| DARK (“night-time”) + FOR (“beneficial to”) + CE (“Church” of England)
In the Marvel comics, darkforce (all one word, not 4,5) is en extradimensional power that absorbs heat, light and energy. |
||
| 18 | CREPITUS |
Moving pictures detected creaking in the knees (8)
|
| *(pictures) [anag:moving] | ||
| 20 | EELS |
Swimmers sleep over endlessly (4)
|
| <=(SLEE(p)) [over, endlessly] | ||
| 21 | SERPICO |
1973 Pacino film role representing one corpse (7)
|
| *(I corpse) [anag:representing] where I = one | ||
| 22 | UNDSET |
Nobel prize-winning Norwegian novelist and German group (6)
|
| UND (“German and”) + SET (“group”)
Sigrid Undset was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1928. |
||
| 24 | OILER |
Fuel vessel having head of heater out of commission (5)
|
| [head of] (b)OILER (“heater”) out of commission | ||
| 25 | EMCEE |
Michael Caine, initially, heard as presenter (5)
|
| Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [heard] of MC (Michael Caine, initially) |
Another helping of Gozo after his alter ego’s appearance in The Guardian yesterday – good stuff!
There was much to like in this grid – PANDA CARS and FLIC (for the definition) – both of which appear to point to twin themes, possibly interconnected (cars used by cops)
Very enjoyable indeed!
Thanks for raising a laugh, Gozo! And cheers, Loonapick, for the blog.
No set theory in matric maths in my day, and topology evokes those twisty tauri etc, but I’m sure they’re related. The novelist and the Marvel stuff were also unknowns, but no great bother, ta Gozo and loona.
And to add to the comment about the TALBOT, the reason we have so many pubs called The Talbot or The Talbot Arms is the Earls of Shrewsbury and Malahide have Talbot as their family name, plus other landed gentry have the dog on their coat of arms.
Entertaining puzzle – thank you to Gozo and loonapick.
Got TALBOT from wordplay and had to cheat to get UNDSET. I still read the occasional Marvel comic and am working through the Marvel programs on Disney+ but don’t recall DARKFORCE.
Didn’t like the definition in 1a. Ok, topology can be the study of topological spaces, which are sets, but so are most things in Pure Mathematics (groups, vector spaces etc) and topology is not set theory. That gripe aside, an entertaining puzzle.
Although I knew the two more famous Nevil Shute novels , I knew nothing of his life. I can recommend the Wikipedia article , quite interesting.
Enjoyed this . Thanks Gozo and loonapick.
I found this rather hit and miss. I thought “Undset” very fairly clued for something rather obscure (to me). On the other hand, not having heard of the Al Pacino character I was left with 4 letters to put in some order around the crossers, which is pretty unsatisfactory. I assume “dark force” was the setter painting themselves into a corner. Whilst the Marvel cinematic universe must be considered mainstream given the number of films and viewers, this has only been vaguely referenced in some of the (less popular) TV series so is rather niche. Fairly clued – what else could it be? But niche.
I’m another who did not like the “topology” definition and cannot find justification in my Chambers or the online version. My paper copy has something about the study of “sets of points which are invariant under transformation” but that is not the “study of sets”.
Still, much else to enjoy – “flic”, “roseate”, Lord’s Day” and some inventive cluing which successfully misled me on a number of occasions. Thanks Gozo and loonapick.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
1ac: Chambers 2016 p 1646 has definitions of the noun topology which include “the study of those properties of sets of points (eg geometrical figures) that are invariant under one-to-one continuous transformations (maths)”. As a mathematician myself I agree that this is a fair definition, but in any case Gozo is entitled to use it. Then the study of some of the properties of certain types of sets can reasonably be included within, and hence described as, “study of sets”.
Good puzzle and blog, thx x2
Not sure about TOPOLOGY or SIERRA (can we leave off the NATO alphabet for a while?), found UNDSET too obscure and DARKFORCE too modern but I am waiting for a plane at Gatwick airport so am bound to be grumpy. Actually I enjoyed the puzzle
Btw Morse drove a Jag so perhaps another for the theme.
Pelham Barton@7: Respectfully I disagree with you. That is pretty much the definition in my ancient Chambers an I did not think it sufficient for the use of “study of sets” for two reasons. One is that “sets” is a very generic word (I believe “set” has more entries in the OED than any other word) and not key to the definition. (As you know, being a mathematician) what follows is what distinguishes topology from other “ologies” and I feel some reference to the bit beyond “sets of” is needed. In fact, having realised the word ended in “logy” I discarded topology as the answer because the definition did not fit, which I think makes it a poor clue.
My second reason is that (as you will also know), the study of sets means something else in maths (i.e. set theory) so the term cannot be used in a technical sense (as it is here) to define a different area of maths. If the clue were something like “Shakesperean set theory” for “stagecraft” I’d accept the cryptic definition but here the definition is not cryptic, just wrong as it stands.
I am sure we shall end up disagreeing but I did just want to make clear why I did not think the clue worked (for me at least).
I have to agree with Jack here. Sorry Pelham Barton. As I mentioned, Groups are sets that satisfy certain properties but Group theory is certainly not Set theory. Set theory is so basic it underpins Logic, Group theory, Ring Theory, Linear algebra, Topology and the list goes on. To say topology is the study of sets period just doesn’t work for me, not even as an example of such a study.
Pretty easy clues, with the only difficulties from excessive GK.
No ticks today. I was not sure how FLIC works (unknown slang in both languages), and I am surprised no-one has commented on female = CLAUDIA.
Thanks Gozo and loonapick
Martyn @13: at least he didn’t clue it as “girl”! But yes, I am one of those who object in general to things like “female” to mean “any of the thousands of traditionally female given names.” American puzzle editors don’t let you get away with that, as I’ve said before; you have to come up with a famous person, real or fictional, that has the name. I admit that would be hard for CLAUDIA, as the only one I can think of off the top of my head is Claudia Schiffer, who would make for awkward cluing.
Enjoyable and not too difficult although we weren’t sure of the definition for TOPOLOGY and we needed a wordfinder to suggest SIERRA – d’oh!
A small correction to the blog for 7dn: the title of the Nevil Shute novel is A Town Like Alice – one we’ve not read although we’ve read many of his other novels.
Thanks, Gozo and loonapick.
So we have Consul, Sierra, Jaguar, Talbot, Sprite. Have they all been Panda Cars? Are there any more?
1ac revisited in reply to Jack@11, Hovis@12: I have repeatedly in the past objected when people in walks of life other than my own have tried to impose their technical language on crossword setters. I am not going to attempt to impose the technical language of my own walk of life on them. I stand by the final statement of comment 7.
PB @17 The usual criticism of people with technical knowledge is their objection to words with narrow technical meanings being used out of that context in a more general or ‘inaccurate’ way. Topology has wider meanings than its use in mathematics, but that isn’t what is given here. The setter is giving the narrow mathematical definition, so it’s reasonable for him to be criticised for having botched that definition. He’s just taken two words from the Chambers definition that seem like they might do.
Thanks for the blog , pretty good overall .
Hovis@12 are you seriously saying that set theory underpins logic ? The most widely used axioms are ZFC , you can only prove they are consistent if they are inconsistent – hmmm .
Roz @19. I admit I never studied logic but was aware that you cannot prove or disprove the continuum hypothesis (hence a logic issue) using ZFC (a form of set theory) so I extrapolated from there.
Those of you arguing about topology, do please keep it going. I have only the vaguest idea what you are talking about but it’s fascinating and agreeably entertaining!
Petert@ #16: All the Panda Cars I remember seeing were Morris Minors – yes, it was that long ago!
So the British had black police cars with white panels? The useless, but interesting things I learn here
Actually, as I remember them Panda cars were pale blue and white, which made a bit of a nonsense of the name. I see from Wikipedia that they were originally black and white but I don’t recall any painted like that.
Now that 24 hours have elapsed since my puzzle was published, I am happy to claim another minor victory, as no commentator has pointed out the puzzle’s theme in full. Each Across solution includes either the name of car (or in one case, lorry or bus) manufacturer or else is the name of a specific model. Any other intended theme was purely co-incidental, despite what has been discussed above yesterday
Gozo@26: I do not accept your claim of another minor victory, and I do not thank you for undermining my satisfaction in completing the published puzzle. Fewer than 20 people have commented on this blog. One would hope that many more people than that have solved the puzzle. For anything you or I know, there could be hundreds of people out there who solved the puzzle in full and spotted your ghost theme, but did not feel the need to tell anyone about it.
PB #27. I think that’s a bit ungracious. Gozo is only claiming a minor victory, not a rout, and I for one am impressed with how cleverly he has contrived that all the car names be so well hidden. It must be slightly galling to put so much effort (albeit perhaps pointless effort) into the cluing and not have anyone on the blog notice it.
Chapeau, Gozo!
Thank you, Babbler and Diane. You have both said it all!
From the wordplay I arrived at TO + POLO + GY, producing a word that sounded like it would have something to do with mathematics. Sets have something to do with mathematics, and so Hey Presto, that’s the solution. Clearly a case where a tiny amount of mathematical GK was helpful, whereas more GK would not have been.
I’m with Babbler#22, finding the debate over topology more interesting than the topic itself. Thanks Loonapick for the very useful blog, and Gozo for the fun puzzle, and for inspiring the engaging comments.
respect for Gozo !