A fairly complex preamble for RESURRECTION MAN, with clashing letters in seven cells representing a ‘dissected body’, thirty-six clues containing redundant word whose first letters spell out further useful information and an instruction, and on top of all this, six unclued entries – four thematic and two to be shaded to complete a ‘picture’. Confused yet?!
Maybe easier to just give it in full:
“Folk foretold of a death and the coming of the RESURRECTION MAN. The victim’s dissected
body (represented by seven pairs of clashing letters) must be carried away, leaving empty
cells. To assist with identifying and revealing the victim, 36 clues contain an additional word
that must be removed before solving; the first letters of these words give further
information and an instruction. Four of the six unclued entries are members of a thematic
group; the other two must be shaded to complete the picture. Chambers Dictionary (2011)
is recommended, and also contains the victim.”
After a few sessions of trying to solve and fit as many clues/answers as possible, I started to see a few clashing pairs – J/O near the top left corner and H/N near the middle, and I jumped to the possibility of the theme being something along the lines of the old poem/song ‘John Brown’s body lies a-mouldering in the grave…’
But that fizzled out with the discovery of more pairs C/O…A/B – and some thematic words like BEER, PORTER, WHISKY, MALT…and EARTH?!
So, some other reference point needed. The first letters of extra words seemed to end with ‘DRAW A LOOP AROUND’, which I initially interpreted as trying to link the blank squares, to make some sort of crime-scene body shape as the ‘picture’…but that ended up being another fruitless line of thought.
In the end, I crawled over the line like an exhausted but happy marathon runner…the paired letters spell out another character from popular ‘folk’ mythology: J/O H/N B/A R/L E/Y C/O R/N. An personification of the crop barley, which is reaped (murdered) to make the aforementioned alcoholic products…and then grows again the next year (the resurrection?) to make more.
The letters tell us: ALL PAIRS ARE IN GRID. DRAW A LOOP AROUND EACH’. And there they are – alternating pairs as the spikelets of a stem of barley, above the unclued entries ‘STEM’ and ‘EARTH’, to give the required picture:
Awesome grid construction and thematic denouement from Charybdis, and an informative and educational trip through folk culture as well, for someone who only had a vague awareness of who ‘John Barleycorn’ was.
(NB. The below has been done in a Xmas rush – and I am ‘off-grid’ for the next couple of days, so apologies for any errors/omissions, and I’ll tidy up/respond to comments late Sunday…)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Length | Solution | Extra word | Clue (definitions underlined, extra words in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | (5) | MESIC | Anyone | Beginnings of mild emphysema? Exactly that for anyone liking damp (5) / ME (brginnings of Mild and Emphysema) + SIC (exactly) |
| 9 | (4) | ZEAL | Larva | Pacific country that’s ejected new larva and fire (4) / (NEW) ZEAL(AND) – Pacific country, ejecting NEW and AND |
| 12 | (7) | JUMBLES | Lawsuit | Judge mishandles lawsuit after taking lead and causes disorder (7) / J (judge) + (F)UMBLES (mishandles, taking firsl letter, lead, off) |
| 14 | (4) | NOON | – | A time unchanged in retrospect? (4) / &-lit-ish. A time (of day) that is unchanged if reversed (in retrospect) |
| 15 | (6) | ABHORS | Prime | Can’t bear salt beef substitute (prime cut)? (6) / AB (Able Bodies seaman, old salt) + HORS(E) (beef substitute, cut short) |
| 16 | (6) | SNEESH | Accomplice | Escorted back in silence, Glaswegian snout might draw this accomplice in (6) / S_H (silence!) around NEES (seen, or escorted, back) |
| 17 | (7) | EMBALMS | Irate | 30% of embezzlers seen with charity money makes mummy irate? (7) / EMB (3 tenths of EMBezzlers) + ALMS (charity money) |
| 18 | (4) | SOUR | Rainy | Turned out mostly rainy with shower finally after sun (4) / S (sun) + OU (most of OUt) + R (last letter of shower) |
| 20 | (6) | PORTER | – | Thematic deduction (6) / Thematic deduction |
| 22 | (6) | ASTERN | Soaring | Like seabird soaring aft (6) / AS (like) + TERN (seabird) |
| 24 | (6) | TRY-ONS | – | Attempts to rip off fantastic story about Newton (6) / TRY-O_S (anag, i.e. fantastic, of STORY) around N (Newton) |
| 25 | (6) | SHEARS | Assistants | Assistants try cutting through ends of sheets – with these? (6) / Cryptic definition/&lit? S_S (end letters of SheetS) around HEAR (try, in court of law) |
| 26 | (6) | ARCKED | Receptionist | Discharged receptionist sacked after tip off about rector (6) / (S)A_CKED (sacked, with tip, or top letter off) around R (rector) |
| 29 | (6) | POROSE | Every | I’ll leave every dolphin wanting pee and able to pass water (6) / POR(P)O(I)SE – dolphin, without P (pee) or I |
| 32 | (6) | SCONES | – | Shelters out of cold once to make cakes (6) / SCON(C)ES (shelters) losing C (cold) once (the second C) |
| 33 | (6) | WHISKY | – | Thematic deduction (6) / Thematic deduction |
| 35 | (4) | SLAV | Ill-looking | Endless toil for ill-looking Pole, say (4) / SLAV(e) (toil, endless) |
| 36 | (7) | MOTH-EAT | Notification | Test temperature – predate notification (7) / MOT (test, for cars) + HEAT (temperature) |
| 38 | (6) | SATINY | – | It’s very small and silky (6) / SA (sex appeal, ‘it’) + TINY (small) |
| 41 | (6) | PLIERS | Greedy | No drink for greedy quartermasters – they ought to get a grip (6) / (SUP)PLIERS – quartermasters, without SUP (drink) |
| 42 | (4, two words) | A BIT | Radiation | Rather small amount of info on atomic radiation (4, two words) / A (atomic) + BIT (small amount of information) |
| 43 | (7) | FEWMETS | It | Lots of dung? – not many gathered it with spades (7) / FEW (not many) + MET (gathered) + S (spades) |
| 44 | (4) | MALT | – | Thematic deduction (4) / Thematic deduction |
| 45 | (5) | EARTH | – | Thematic deduction (5) / Thematic deduction |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Length | Solution | Extra word | Clue (definitions underlined, extra words in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | (7) | MOUSSES | Dolmades | Light dishes, Greek lamb ones with a bit of egg substituting also known as dolmades (7) / MOUSS(AKA)S (Greek lamb dishes) with E (a bit of egg) subtituting for AKA (also known as) |
| 2 | (4) | EUAN | – | Terms for me and you, adult name or boy’s name (4) / E and U (terminating letters of mE and yoU) + A (adult) + N (name) |
| 3 | (4) | SMEE | Donald | Mickey’s first in to visit Donald Duck (4) / S_EE (visit) around M (first letter of Mickey) |
| 4 | (7) | CLASPER | Ringing | He holds on with rough breathing after ringing Sri Lanka (7) / CL (Ceylon, Sril Lanka) + ASPER (rough breathing) |
| 5 | (8) | SEAHORSE | Alzheimer’s | So here’s a damaged hippocampus (Alzheimer’s) (8) / anag (i.e. damaged) of SO HERE’S A |
| 6 | (5) | OSIER | Wax | Wax tree is polled more on sunny side (5) / (R)OSIER (on the sunny side, with top letter removed, polled) |
| 7 | (4) | GRAM | – | Old trouble spread round (4) / MARG(erine), or spread, around |
| 8 | (6) | JOBBER | Already | Casual worker, patient man, already on last three of months at end of year (6) / JOB (patient man) + BER (last three letters of several months, towards the end of the year) |
| 9 | (5) | ZOHAR | – | Cross over mostly difficult religious text (5) / ZO (cross, hybrid) + HAR(D) (difficult mostly) |
| 10 | (6) | AIRMAN | Long | Pilot’s objective article about long runs (6) / AI_M (objective) around R (runs), plus AN (article) |
| 11 | (6) | RASSES | Over | Catlike creatures heading off over pastures (6) / (G)RASSES (pastures, with first letter, or heading, off) |
| 13 | (4) | BEER | – | Thematic deduction (4) / Thematic deduction |
| 19 | (5) | USERS | Offensive | Doorkeepers abandoning hotel’s offensive employers (5) / US(H)ERS (doorkeepers, without H – hotel) |
| 21 | (5) | YOKEL | Ploughing | A couple of oxen left for rustic ploughing (5) / YOKE (a pair of oxen) + L (left) |
| 23 | (3) | HAS | – | Keeps laughing? (3) / double def’n – HAS = keeps, owns; ‘HA’S could be HA HA – laughing |
| 24 | (8) | TACKSMEN | Accepting | Auditor’s accepting HMRC letters for the Highlands (8) / homophone – TACKSMEN (Scottish land/property leasers) sounds like TAXMEN (HMRC, UK tax collectors) |
| 27 | (7, two words) | ROYAL WE | Regretful | Horribly low year in ER’s own regretful description (7, two words) / anag (i.e. horribly) of LOW YEAR |
| 28 | (7) | DOVEISH | Ocean | Pacific Ocean currency around Vanuatu that is backed up (7) / DO_SH (money, currency) around V (Vanuatu) + EI (i.e., that is, backed up) |
| 29 | (6) | POMPOM | Unemployed | Unemployed UK couple down under – such gets fired quickly and automatically (6) / Two Brits in Australia might be POM and POM (machine gun) |
| 30 | (6) | CHOLLA | Native | Axe not quite completely round native cactus (6) / CHO(P) (axe, not quite) + LLA (all, completely, around) |
| 31 | (6) | SHERIA | Disciples | His disciples are trained in religious law (6) / anag (i.e. trained) of HIS ARE |
| 33 | (5) | WHEAT | – | Crop needing a bit of wet and warmth (5) / W (a bit of Wet) + HEAT (warmth) |
| 34 | (5) | STAFF | Educating | Teachers maybe educating by South Welsh river (5) / S (South) + TAFF (Welsh river) |
| 35 | (4) | STEM | – | Thematic deduction (4) / Thematic deduction |
| 37 | (4) | ASTI | Aniseed | Italian aniseed tipple that’s essentially Pernod say? (4) / (P)ASTI(S) – the essence, or middle part, of pastis, or Pernod |
| 39 | (4) | ICER | Cereal | Head down for the corn cereal cake specialist (4) / (R)ICE (cereal) with head (first letter) moving down |
| 40 | (4) | NETT | Half | Tense time after individual’s beheaded – not half gross (4) / (O)NE (individual, beheaded) + T (tense) + T (time) |
Excellent crossword by Charybdis, as one would expect from this setter. The amount of thematic material in the grid was very impressive, and I really enjoyed seeing that the letter pairs completed the BARLEYCORN sheaves. One of my favourite EVs of the year (and there have been some good ones).
Could someone explain why the various letters from malt porter etc have to be removed and what they achieve
Thanks, mc_rapper, for a super blog and especially the diagram animation, and thanks Mike for your appreciative comments.
And, Gordon, the letters missing from beer, porter etc in the INITIAL grid are not removed but, on the contrary, need to be deduced and inserted. They are present in the final grid. It is the cells containing clashes that become empty as their contents become recycled to form the ear of the barleycorn. Hope that makes sense.
Thank you-sorry for being dense
No problem, Gordon. These puzzles are designed to spread confusion! 🙂