I rather enjoyed this romp.
I am, as I have previously confessed, rather fond of the ways and means used by some EVs (including this one): quotations constructed from excised letters and hidden grid entries which need to be highlighted. That’s why I do ’em.
In this instance, the second and fourth letters of the extraneous words in the down clues spell out “As to the adjective, when in doubt strike it out” and – right enough! – the clashes in the across clues are resolved by ‘striking out’ the ‘A’s (an adequate adjectival abbreviation) in favour of the clashing letter where possible. These ‘favoured’ letters spell out Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the real name of Mark Twain and the source of the quote, who appears in the first and fourth rows.
The three down clues without extraneous words are the surnames of the eponymous heroes of three of Twain’s works, namely (Pudd’nhead) Wilson, (The Adventures of Tom) Sawyer and (Adventures of Huckleberry) Finn.
The provenance of the title, I own, stumped me. Thanks to Gaufrid for steering me hither (and for clearing up 23ac): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sounding_line
(It transpires that Clemens, who worked as a Mississippi river pilot, derived his pen name from a call associated with the process of ‘sounding’ – measuring the water depth. I failed to consult even the wikipedia article on Twain – a schoolboy error.)
There were a couple of interesting arboreal anagram indicators – 2dn’s ‘aspen’ and 22dn’s ‘willowy’. ‘Riley’ in 39ac was well deployed, too. ‘Cwms’ was a bit of a gift, given that the last EV I blogged had ‘cwm’. I suppose it’s unsurprising that it isa popular word for EV setters – Scrabblers, too, for all I know.
So, not overly taxing then – a healthy dose of anagrams to get the grid filled and ‘hand holding’ clues that guided you to the answer. No less enjoyable for any of that, though. As clues like 10 and 11 across show, a light doesn’t have to be tricksy to be pleasing.
XXX* = anagram
{xxx} = anagram indicator
< = reversal
xxx = excised letter(s)
[capsule] = omitted word
letter clashes are highlighted in red
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| S | 1 | NAAM | Seizure of goods from chap backing all Scots inside (4) | seizure of goods: < MAN (chap ‘backing’) including A (Scots “all”) |
| A | 4 | ARK-SHELL | Shark swimming with character’s what provides protection for mollusc (8, hyphenated) | what provides protection for mollusc: SHARK* {swimming} + ELL (character = the letter ‘L’) |
| M | 10 | MUSIC | Unconventional cubism, no black tones? (5) | tones: CUbISM* (no black = no ‘b’) {unconventional} |
| U | 11 | VILLA | Entire quartet flipped for holiday home (5) | holiday home: < ALL IV (entire quartet ‘flipped’) |
| E | 13 | CHASM | Charlie owns first of megastores opening (5) | opening: C (cocaine (‘Charlie’)) + HAS (owns) + M (‘first’ of Megastores) |
| L | 15 | SLOT | Bar’s drunkard imbibing lager initially (4) | bar: SOT (drunkard) including (‘imbibing’) L (Lager ‘initially’) |
| L | 17 | INTACT | Whole turn after tin’s loosened (6) | whole: TIN* + ACT (turn) |
| A | 18 | TRAY | Tine’s from decapitated straggler (4) | tine: sTRAY(‘decapitated’ straggler) |
| N | 19 | AIDER | One supports eccentric inventor’s latest idea (5) | one supports: [R (inventoR’s ‘latest’) + IDEA]* {eccentric} |
| G | 21 | GHOST | German entertainer’s spirit (5) | spirit: G (German) + HOST (entertainer) |
| H | 23 | SHANKS | Mishits … catch taken by second slip? … edge dropped! (6) | mishits: HANK (fasten/catch) in S (second) Slip (slip, lip (‘edge’) dropped) |
| O | 24 | ONE-TWO | Football move’s too new, uncoordinated (6, hyphenated) | football move: TOONEW* {uncoordinated} |
| R | 27 | AGIST | Soldier’s in middle of a bit of a kip, charge with public burden (5) | charge with public burden: GI (soldier) in A reST (bit of a kip) |
| N | 29 | EAGRE | It’s a bore? Agree to differ (5) | bore (drill) : AGREE* {to differ} |
| E | 30 | IDLE | One led astray Eric perhaps (4) | Eric perhaps: [I (one) + LED]* {astray} |
| C | 32 | FACIAL | Fellow amateur spies model’s rear getting beauty treatment (6) | beauty treatment: F (fellow) + A (amateur) + CIA (spies) + L (modeL’s ‘rear’) |
| L | 34 | BOWL | Fan’s second to last, dismiss (4) | dismiss: BLOW (fan), L moved to the end (second (letter) to last) |
| E | 35 | SAVER | One rescues season reportedly … (5) | one rescues: homophone of ‘savour’ = season |
| M | 37 | NEATH | In the country below Welsh town (5) | Welsh town: rural variant (‘in the country’) of ‘beneath’ = below |
| E | 38 | EATEN | … leaderless, thrashed and upset (5) | upset: bEATEN (leaderless ‘thrashed’) |
| N | 39 | NOSEGAYS | ‘Bouquets gone!’ says Riley (8) | bouquets: [INTREPID + O (‘leader’ of Old)]* {Riley} (upset, turbid) |
| S | 40 | MARA | Patagonian hare and a sheep from the east (4) | Patagonian hare: < A RAM (a sheep ‘from the east) |
| Down | ||||
| AS | 1 | NAUSEATE | Sicken us with a [capsule] eaten at sea (8) | sicken: [US + AEATEN]* {at sea} |
| TO | 2 | SUMACH | [Strong] tree, much as aspen (6) | tree: MUCHAS* {aspen} (trembling/quivering, like the leaves of an aspen) |
| TH | 3 | ASCOT | Necktie’s [itchy] like a camp-bed (5) | necktie: AS (like) + COT (camp-bed) |
| EA | 4 | ACE | One [became] a civil engineer (3) | one: A + CE (civil engineer) |
| DJ | 5 | RESAYS | Once more declares [Odd-job] e.g. is in residence (6) | once more declares: SAY (e.g.) in RES (residence) |
| EC | 6 | KAMILA | Kirkpatrick’s raised capital advanced dye [merchanting] (6) | dye: K (Kirkpatrick) + < LIMA (raised capital) + A (advanced) |
| TI | 7 | HINTING | Thin gay’s on good terms with Gauss [stripping] being suggestive (7) | suggestive: THIN* {gay} + IN (on good terms) + G (Gauss = unit of magnetic induction) |
| VE | 8 | ELUL | For a month Israeli [aviette] carrier’s upper class for all (4) | a (Jewish) month: Israeli El Al (Israeli carrier = airline) with U (upper class) for A (all) |
| WH | 9 | LUST | Somewhat illustrious [Swahili’s] strong sexual desire (4) | strong sexual desire: ilLUSTtious (‘somewhat’) |
| EN | 12 | LACES | Beats second Anglo-Latin climbing [Vernon] (5) | beats: < [SEC (second) + AL (Anglo-Latin)] |
| IN | 14 | INNARDS | Entrails [signature] towards the centre, changing direction once (7) | entrails: INwARDS with N (north) for W (west) |
| DO | 16 | WATTEAU | Engineer channel for [idiotic] painter (7) | painter: WATT (engineer) + EAU (channel) |
| UB | 20 | RETRAINS | Once again directs, stupid [husband] is errant (8) | once again directs: ISERRANT* {stupid} |
| TS | 22 | SERIATE | Iowa’s overrun by [etesian] willowy trees in rows (7) | in rows: IA (Iowa) in (‘overrun by’) TREES*{willowy} (flexible, pliant) |
| TR | 24 | ANCLE | Clean out once [attractive] joint (5) | once (= obs.) joint: CLEAN* {out} |
| 25 | WILSON | The Italian’s caught by wife, a native neurologist (6) | neurologist: IL (the Italian) + S (‘s) in (‘caught by’) SON (a native) | |
| IK | 26 | OILERY | Shell e.g. is part of this news [link] about soaring yen (6) | Shell e.g. is part of this (part of Royal Dutch Shell) : OIL (news) + < RE (about ‘soaring’) + Y (yen) |
| 28 | SAWYER | Fish across river in cutter (6) | cutter: SAR (fish) including (‘across’) WYE (river) | |
| EI | 31 | AORTA | Australian reserves surrounding ‘yellow [peril]’ vessel (5) | vessel: A (Australian) + TA (Territorial Army = reserves) including (‘surrounding’) OR (yellow (in heraldry)) |
| 32 | FINN | Fine hotel’s for Sibelius perhaps? (4) | Sibelius perhaps: F (fine) + INN (hotel) | |
| TO | 33 | CWMS | Not even [strolling] cows mess Welsh valley (4) | Welsh valley: odd letters (‘not even’) from CoWsMeSs |
| UT | 36 | VAS | Tube’s very [dusty] all sections (3) | tube: V (very) + AS (all sections) |
Further proof, if any were needed, of how well Loda can judge the difficulty level and enjoyment quotient of a puzzle (next Inquisitor 19 June).
This may have been time to coincide with the centenary of MT’s death. Nimrod had an excellent themed puzzle in the Independent (normal 15X15 cryptic) on the actual day – 21 April.
Ah, drat, yes. Forgot to mention that. Thanks, nmsindy. Twain died 21 April 1910.
2010 is also the 175th anniversary of his death – perhaps rather more cause for celebration.
Mister Sting
I think you meant to say “….. 175th anniversary of his birth …..” 😉
When my copy of ODQ5 arrived I knew instantly what to look for, with the previous week (in the independent) a puzzle set by Nimrod already gave away the months theme of SLC Mark Twain.
I was a bit scared of the clashes but thought I’d print two copies and sort the letter clash out afterwards.
I found this quite an easy puzzle. Solve time about 2-2 1/2 hrs.
Nice one Loda for the puzzle. Great stuff!
Arg.
Birth, yes.
Possible film title suggestion: ‘You Only Die Twice’.
Re comment 3: I’m happy to celebrate an anniversary of someone’s birth, but uncomfortable “celebrating” their death, apart from arch-villains. “Commemorate” perhaps, in spite of Chambers.
Sorry to be picky 🙂
Mike, see comments 4 and 6 – I intended to declare the puzzle a celebration of Twain’s birth.
I find anniversary-of-death ‘commemobrations’, whatever they be, rather morbid.
As the great man himself once said: ‘The report of my death was an exaggeration.’ (New York Journal 2 June 1897)