The preamble stated “Each of 22 clues contains one word superfluous to the solving. The initial letters of these words form, in clue order, part of a quotation and its author. The other 21 clues lead to words that must be treated accordingly before entry in the grid.”
This meant that 22 answers could be entered directly into the grid, but 21 needed the quotation (or at least its essence) before they could be entered.
It helps if you read the preamble fully, as on an initial reading I did not notice the “and its author” bit, so wasted some time searching for words in the quote which turned out to be names.
The first two intersecting clues of type 2 (to be altered) that I got were GITE at 3D and PASTRAMI at 15A. In 15A I already had ????I?AM so the T of GITE had to be at the end, as it is the only common letter left. This was my only lead for a long time! Eventually FLUX and ALMOND became clear at 7A&D. so both had to start with L. 7A was LF?? and the only thing I could think of for 9D was BUSS – so 7A must be LFXU. By this time the extra letters from the type 1 clues had indicated ?XTREME? MEE? and I went back to PASTRAMI and found that if I put the first and last letters (the extremes) to the middle it fitted the grid as ASTPIRAM – LFXU followed the same pattern as could LMADON at 7D. So GITE went in as IGET, and BUSS as UBSS.
Here’s where Google fails! I looked up EXTREMES MEET and only got references to “The Legend of Korra” – some American soap or other.
Eventually reading the preamble again, I realised that the extra letters spelled EXTREMES MEET THOMAS HOOD. Googling “Thomas Hood quotes” now led me to this page and now the full quote “‘Extremes meet’, as the whiting said with its tail in its mouth.” led me to WHITING for 1A and thence to a pretty rapid completion of the grid.
The Wikipedia article on Thomas Hood reminded me of a couple of poems of his that were often quoted by my parents and others of their vintage, including “No!” (No sun – no moon! . . . November.) and “I remember, I remember”.
Thanks to Wiglaf for an excellent Inquisitor debut which gave puzzlement and enjoyment in equal quantities. It also contained some cracking clues, of which 20A and 31 and 32D were my favourites.
| Extra word clues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | ||||
| No. | Clue (definition) {extra word} | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 10 | Cereal – it’s {enriched} with energy (4) | SAGO | S(ex) A(ppeal) (“it”) + GO (energy) | E |
| 12 | “Headless Human” flicks in Berlin, with {X-rated} release (7) | MANUMIT | [(h)UMAN]* + MIT (with in German) | X |
| 14 | Painter of animals always ignored {tropical} plants (5) | LANDS | LANDSEER (painter of animals) with EER (always) ignored | T |
| 16 | A stand taken by {radical} Dadaists (4) | DAIS | Hidden in DaDAISts | R |
| 17 | The weather’s about to shine in {East} Scotland (5) | SKYRE | SKY (weather) + RE (about) | E |
| 24 | A vintage {monkey} puzzle? Not quite (3) | CRU | Almost CRU(x) (puzzle) | M |
| 25 | A big awkward girl {eating} humus (3) | MOR | Double definition | E |
| 29 | The Northern Irish {song}, in brief (5) | TERSE | T (the Northern) + ERSE (Irish) | S |
| . | ||||
| 32 | Woodpecker quietly {migrated} like the son of Daedalus (8) | PICARIAN | P (quietly) + ICARIAN (like Icarus, the son of Daedalus) | M |
| 36 | {English} crown competed in Kansas (5) | KRANS | RAN (competed) in KS (Kansas) | E |
| 37 | Singers composed {Eurovision} entry (7) | INGRESS | [SINGERS]* | E |
| 38 | Non-European {translates} passage for supporter (4) | ALLY | ALL(e)Y (passage) without E(uropean) | T |
| . | . | |||
| 40 | Refined chap {tasting} fish (7) | GENTEEL | GENT (chap) + EEL (fish) | T |
| Down | ||||
| 4 | African warriors {hacked} politician in two (4) | IMPI | MP (politician) in II (two) | H |
| 6 | Coal dust and carbon {obscuring} German city (4) | CULM | C(arbon) + ULM (German city) | O |
| 8 | Maybe Eric has got {money} in can — counterfeit money (7) | FINANCE | [CAN]* counterfeit in FINE (eric = blood fine) | M |
| 13 | I’ve a scanty {accessory} that’s fantastic — it has cosmetics in it (10, 2 words) | VANITY CASE | [IVE A SCANTY]* | A |
| 19 | {Student} prince accepted court agreement (4) | PACT | P(rince) + A(ccepted) + CT (court) | S |
| . | ||||
| 21 | Laser beam mostly fixed rewritable {hardware} (8) | ERASABLE | [LASER BEA(m)]* I don’t think that erasable and rewritable are the same thing | H |
| 23 | Herb loves embraces {of} Lear’s daughter (7) | OREGANO | OO (loves) round REGAN (Lear’s daughter) | O |
| 26 | Mean singer with Yankee {orchestra} (6) | STINGY | STING (singer) + Y(ankee) | O |
| 34 | Without outer covering, Bette {Davis} perhaps is disinclined to work (4) | IDLE | Bette MIDLER with M and R (outer covering) removed (nice misdirection in the names) | D |
| Extremes meet clues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | ||||
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Entry | Wordplay |
| 7 | Matter discharged from chimney endless times (4) | FLUX | LFXU | FLU(e) (chimney endless) + X (times) |
| 15 | Smoked beef and butter brought in by one (8) | PASTRAMI | ASTPIRAM | PAST (by) + I (one) round RAM (butter) |
| 20 | F? (4) | NOTE | ONET | Great clue!! F is NOT “E” and is also a NOTE |
| 22 | Be good enough to assume I’ll be taking a name of a Greek oracle (8) | DODONIAN | ODODNNIA | DO (be good enough) + I + A + N(ame) round DON (assume) |
| 27 | Gas and running water united ten houses (8) | CHATEAUX | HATCXEAU | CHAT (gas) + EA (running water) + U(nited) + X (ten) |
| 28 | The old pass by shelter for animals (4) | COTE | OCET | Double definition |
| 31 | Composer lacking energy for local cricket (4) | GRIG | RGGI | GRI(e)G (composer without E) |
| 39 | Ian’s grandchild repeatedly rejected toy (4) | YO-YO | OYOY | OY (Scottish grandchild) reversed and repeated |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Skin disease rising in preponderance (4) | SWAY | WSYA | YAWS (skin desease) reversed |
| 2 | Fruit or fish basin (8) | SHADDOCK | HADSKDOC | SHAD (fish) + DOCK (basin) |
| 3 | Bringing up some claret I guzzled in the cottage (4) | GITE | IGET | Hidden reversed in clarET I Guzzled |
| 5 | Spain came undone over helping old account (10) | ENARRATION | NARRENATIO | E (Spain) + RAN (came undone, as in stockings) reversed + RATION (helping) |
| 7 | Medical social worker with little hesitation removed dead tonsil (6) | ALMOND | LMADON | ALMONER (medical social worker) remove ER (hesitation) + D(ead) |
| 9 | Nun leaves the stage, perhaps, for a kiss (4) | BUSS | UBSS | BUS-STOP (a stage) minus TOP (nun definition 2 in Chambers) |
| 11 | Job comes up in provincial town (4) | DORP | ODPR | PROD (job – definition 2 in Chambers) reversed |
| 18 | Tender nurse set up hospital (4) | NESH | ENHS | SEN (nurse) reversed + H(ospital) |
| 30 | Study the abomasum (4) | READ | ERDA | Double definition |
| 31 | West African has Dickensian blazer cut (4) | KROO | RKOO | KROOK cut – Krook was the man who died by “spontaneous combustion” in Bleak House (Dickensian blazer) – brilliant!! |
| 32 | Dispute succeeded at a premium (4) | SPAR | PSRA | S(ucceeded) above PAR (above par means “at a premium”) – another excellent clue! |
| 33 | Bits of cable around new stereophonic headsets (4) | CANS | ACSN | First letters of Cable Around New Stereophonic |
| 35 | Odd characters leaving John Lloyd alone (4) | ONLY | NOYL | Odd characters omitted from |
Lovely puzzle – but PAR is specifically NOT at a premium (or a discount) (32D).
No, Jockie (#1), but “above par” means at a premium (see the entry in Chambers). That’s what makes it such a great clue in my opinion!
Very thorough blog for an excellent puzzle. So many unusual words. It does indeed help to read the preamble properly. I spent a long time trying to do various things to the answers to the clues with extra words instead of the others.
OK. Failure on my part to spot hidden excellence.
I can’t say I enjoyed this as much as others – not sure why. I deduced the method of thematic entry quite a bit before finding the author & then resolving the quotation – so I was left with a fair amount of finishing off to do after all the pennies had dropped.
Regarding 32d, as with Jockie @1 I didn’t like the wordplay for PAR at the time, and I don’t think much more of it now, after Hihoba’s explanation @2 – the wordplay leading to “above par”, itself giving more wordplay. What next? Maybe “confidant” leading to “alter ego” indicating an anagram of EGO …
Solving this one involved quite a bit of rubbing out until we realised that it was only the first and last letters that moved to the middle. The first themed entries we deduced happened to be 4-letter words which meant that when we solved a longer word we tried reversing both halves!
It was good fun despite the rather obscure theme which needed an electronic search to find the connection.
Thanks Hihoba and congratulations to Wiglaf on your debut puzzle. We look forward to the next one.
I loved this – perhaps because there was something about it of a throwback to the pre-IQ Independent Magazine puzzles of wasted University weekends; thematic treatment based solely on the meaning of the thematic phrase. Thoroughly enjoyable, and I admit to having assumed the treatment was ‘split in half and then reverse’ until shortly before the end. That’ll teach me not to use a pencil. Cue Tippex.
I keep forgetting that this blog is posted on a Wednesday so I’m a bit late joining the discussion. So if anyone’s still out there…..
Many years ago pre-Google I invested in a copy of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and still find it invaluable for puzzles such as this. Once I identified “extremes” emerging from the initial letters of the superfluous words I soon found the relevant quote and completed the puzzle relatively quickly (for me). It helped by identifying that all entries with an odd number of letters could only be entered normally and that most with an even number were treated before entry.
The only entry I couldn’t parse was 20a and I have to say I can’t share Hihoba’s enthusiasm for it as any other note except E would have done. On the other hand 32d was a great clue, partly because I too questioned the “at a premium” until the penny dropped.
Great crossword and blog – I look forward to more offerings from Wiglaf.
I am still here Howard L! I agree with you that any other note would have done, but ABCDFG? might have given the game away rather too easily. It was one of those clues where you could only parse if after getting the answer – not perfect, but entertaining!
I did realise that only even-lettered clues could be “treated” but only after completing the grid, so it was no help to me in the solving.
I am glad to see you share my enthusiasm for 32D – which can only work as a Down clue!