Slow going at first, trying to solve unthemed clues to get enough checks to start to try to work the theme. I found my way in in an odd way as did another – STEPHEN was my first one, from checks and the typical lovely Rev. A. “aha”. But what, then, was the theme? Luckily now that Wikipedia’s search box autofills a dozen possibilities, there was an interesting looking “Stephen” – one Mr. Potter. Who turned out to be a British writer, so I thought I was on the right track. My first thoughts went to dear Beatrix, and I managed to beat down a few of her themed clues, when the light bulb went off. Pure genius, a theme mixing up two of the most successful childrens’ book writers, with the added caveat that the * might just be a last name, or a profession. I was only sad, in the end, that the use of * as a synonym to “putter (around)” was not used somewhere.

This took me hours and hours, but every five to fifteen minutes or so another penny would drop (I think my gas meter is full now!) and never once did I feel cheated by the Reverend’s cluing.

I got lucky on the 18s in that I have slowly developed a magic anagram generator in my brain, and had just enough awareness of Rowling’s work that DH popped into my mind. Had to double check, but it was right. Which leads me to what I did not get done – the 24s (and a parsing for the other interlocked clue pair). What could one expect from the libertarian master but a slight “cheat” on the rules? And done sublimely, indeed. The punctuation in 24 was perfect, once I saw how to solve them here.

I really enjoyed how the two grids do interact, in the sense that a properly parsed answer in one yields the exact remains to be used for the other. Well, except for those two or three “special” clues.

Of course, I had to do huge amounts of research while solving, but I think that’s part of the fun nowadays (using WP and google etc. as well as an atlas, dictionary, Bible, etc.) There were very few clues that I had to resort to brute force to solve – like 22B, where at least I picked the right option first out of the short list onelook gave me. At one point I think I had a dozen tabs open with various WP lists and articles to help with the two main theme subjects (not knowing HP very well and having forgotten everything I knew about BP’s works.

PeeDee, thanks for the parsing of the dozen or so answers I was vague to clueless on yet still got, and the lovely pair that never yielded.

Araucaria, I bow down to you. Not one clue left me feeling anything but pure joy as I solved them. I think you used every trick in the book, and about six new ones, on this true beauty of a puzzle. Thanks seem so black and white in contrast with the vividly colored universe that was this offering.

http://fifteensquared.net/2010/05/08/guardian-24999-sat-1-maycrucible-potty/

I always enjoy the double grids though. Thanks Araucaria, and to PeeDee for the blog.

It made it much more enjoyable for me at least.

This was a tough puzzle – which is OK as it was for a Bank Holiday weekend. I would expect it to be harder than, say, the usual Saturday prize puzzle. In fact I was not able to finish it.

I still rate Araucaria as the best compiler and will cheerfully tackle his next one. I am also looking forward, with some misgivings, to what he will produce at Christmas!