The preamble stated that ‘before solving, one letter must be changed in the definition part of 25 clues, the new letters all being different. The missing 26th letter is to be revealed as required by the completed grid.”
There were 41 clues, therefore 16 were normal. It was up to the solver to deduce which 16 were normal and which 25 contained misprints.
It took me one evening session to solve the clues. The Across clues contained significantly fewer normal clues than the Down clues. The Acrosses had 4 normal and 16 misprinted, while the Downs had 12 normal and 9 misprinted.
It took me a bit longer to deduce the last step and even now I am not sure that I have got it right.
I didn’t really think about which [particular letters hadnnot been replaced by misprints until only two or three clues remained. In a few cases the misprinted words seemed to leap out of the page – e.g. java, remote, tap and hacks, but generally the majority of the clues read fluently on the first scan through.
The missing letter is M and I can see a number of possible phrases to highlight.
e.g. M is same; Miss a M; Dismiss a M; or Miss M, but I don’t really feel happy with any of them.
‘M is same’ has the attraction of being symmetrically located in its row, but I am not convinced!
I was hoping to highlight something that portrayed the letter M, but have so far failed to locate anything obvious.
Whenever I have done Schadenfreude puzzles before I have found the final step to be very logical, so I guess I have missed something this time.
Where appropriate, the clue explanations below show the new correct letter , the resultant corrected word, and the misprinted word before describing how the answer is derived. I have not understood all the component parts of 32 Across – STORM JIB.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | T / tier / Pier | STOREY – story around e |
| 6 | C / cut / put | RESECT – anagram of secret |
| 11 | Normal | PRE-ECHOES – anagram of speeche(s) and or |
| 13 | L / Lava / Java | PAHOEHOE – pa is a maori settlement; hoe is a projecting ridge |
| 14 | D / wood / wool | NGAIOS – anagram of Saigon |
| 15 | J / jockey / hockey | EDDERY – ed=edited; County Derry less an r |
| 16 | V / remove / remote | DISMISS – d is Miss |
| 17 | E / meson / mason | MESIC – mes=shortened form of Master; ic |
| 19 | N / thin / this | RARE – a r(=queen) reversed; re(=on/concerning) |
| 21 | W / words / lords | PHRASES – anagram of perhaps without p(=entrance to Parliament) plus s(=square) |
| 22 | Normal | PETERED – Peter; Ed |
| 24 | O / top / tap | ACME – anagram of came |
| 25 | F / fan / man | LOVES – l ove(r) s – LS=Lesotho |
| 26 | Normal | DROSERA – anagram of adores and r(=rook in chess) |
| 29 | Z / doze / dome | ASLEEP – a s(=special) lee p(=last letter or ‘close’ of camp) |
| 31 | Normal | ANTLER – anagram of later and n(=first letter or ‘opening’ of night) |
| 32 | S / sail / jail | STORM JIB – or=men/other ranks; m=motorway; jib=face, but I don’t get the reference to ‘blocking quiet’ |
| 33 | B / backs / hacks | RENVERSES – re(note in sol-fa notation); n(=new); verses |
| 34 | X / text / test | RE-EDIT – anagram of tried and e(=first letter or ‘head ‘of economics) |
| 35 | Q / quit / suit | DESIST – anagram of side, then s(=spades) t(=initial letter of tried) |
| Down | ||
| 1 | Normal | SPANDREL – dr(=doctor) within anagram of planes |
| 2 | H / hairs / pairs | TRAGI – r(=run) in tag with i(=one) |
| 3 | Normal | RE-TIME – r(=run, again!); etim(=mite backwards); e(=base of natural logarithms) |
| 4 | P / parrots / carrots | ECHOISES – anagram of ‘I chose’ inside es(=middle two letters of fiesta) |
| 5 | Normal | LOAD SHEDDING – anagram of ‘gods I handled’ |
| 6 | Normal | REHEARD – anagram of ‘her dear’ |
| 7 | R / roots / boots | SWEDES – two definitions |
| 8 | Normal | ETHE – Ethe(l) l(=line) |
| 9 | Normal | CHORISM – anagram of ‘his corm’ |
| 10 | I / tine / tune | TREY – tre(s), Debussy is French and tres is French for very, plus y(=a variable in mathematics) |
| 12 | G / ages / apes | ERAS – are reversed; s |
| 17 | Normal | MASON BEE – mas(=mother’s); on(=drunk); bee(=social…) |
| 18 | Normal | CLEAREST – clea(=anagram of lace); r(=Rex); est(French for is) |
| 20 | U / Jude / Jade | APOSTLE – anagram of set and opal |
| 21 | Normal | PROPJET – prop(=stay); above/ahead of jet(=black) |
| 23 | Normal | TEERED – sounds like(=auditory) tiered |
| 24 | Normal | ASTERS – as(=like) plus anagram of rest |
| 27 | Normal | ELLS – Els(Golfer Ernie Els) around l(=fifty); an Ell is 1.25 yards, hence 4 Ells are 5 yards |
| 28 | Y / sayings / savings | REDES – ed(=editor) in res(=reserve) |
| 29 | K / kames / games | ASAR – sa(=sex appeal=it) in ar(=Arabic) |
| 30 | A / fail / foil | LOSE – (c)lose, close(=finish) without c(=coloured) |
I don’t have the completed grid to hand, but there’s a big M shape in the grid that consists of a message telling the solver to shade it if I recall correctly. The right hand column of the M gives the game away rather nicely.
Ah! – At least see I was right in what I was hoping for, but wasn’t clever enough to detect it! Will try harder next time.
If you start at the third column, second bottom row and follow up the column to the second top row and then continue in the shape of an M, you spell out the phrase:
Solvers are to shade these cells
I did not get the final step here – like the blogger “Missing the M” suggested itself but did not add up. Not got the puzzle now, so looking forward to going back to it to see esp what Quixote refers to. The clues themselves I found quite easy by IQ standards.
32A: ‘quiet’ = ST (defined as “hush” in Chambers); ‘blocking’ refers to ‘OR’ being inserted into ‘ST-M’ if memory serves me well.
I went back to this puzzle to see. It’s a really good finish – and a sign of a top puzzle that the final step is hard to find (I didn’t) but that there’s no doubt about it when you see it or are shown it.