A new setter this week. “Hello, …”
Preamble: The definition parts of thirty-one clues contain a superfluous letter which should be removed before solving. Read in clue order, the three discrete groups of letters will assist the solver in making small adjustments to the completed grid (one subjectively) to reveal three thematically linked items. All entries in the final grid are real words.
“… one subjectively” – hmm. Let’s hope it’s not too subjective.
It didn’t take more than two or three clues to realise there was a particular strand of music running through this stick of rock, and I made what felt like a fast start on this one, solving about 2/3 of both the across and down answers on the first pass – quite possibly because there seemed to be so many anagrams. In passing, I was particularly grateful to the setter for being finally disabused of the notion that JJ Cale was in the Velvet Underground: when checking 7d I googled him & the first line of his wikipedia entry reads “Not to be confused with Welsh musician John Cale of the Velvet Underground.” Before very long I could see that the first group of redundant letters formed THE BEATLES, though I think that the clue for 21a reads better with the E in, rather than out (piranas “might scare people leaving bank”).
I’d started quite late after supper on Saturday, so once again I the puzzle away, and restarted on Sunday morning. PATSY GALLANT appeared shortly; the name wasn’t familiar to me, but three of the first four hits on google were to youtube uploads of From New York to L.A. which was. So, one more to go, surname of MILLER with first name _E_. Well, that turned out to be NED MILLER, who I’d really never heard of, but google & wikipedia helped once again by coming up with his debut hit From a Jack to a King. So, back to The Beatles (with a much larger discography than the other two!) to find a song with the title From _ to _, which was of course From Me to You.
Second layer done: found the artists, found their key songs; now for the small adjustments to the grid. There was only one J for Jack which I happily changed to K for King, 28d becoming KENNET, a river in the south of England. There were two NY‘s but only one change to LA made sense, with 5d & 6d becoming SLIDE and PARE – not rivers & no link to KENNET. Hmph – we can work it out. Suddenly, CILLA BLACK leapt out at me – a-ha! Back to that pesky K, and, if we change it to an R instead, we see DIANA ROSS appear. Scan the grid for another female, and there she’ll be: DONNA SUMMER, when we change the I in 30d (the “one subjectively”, Me) to U. Very neat.
I enjoyed this one; not a walk on the wild side, but nowhere near desolation row – more of a merry romp down electric avenue. Thanks Triton – “…, Goodbye” (for now).
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Removal from definition |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | ASSUMES | A + [MUSE]* after SS (specials) | ||
| 6 | PREFAB | RE (on) in P(opfest) + FAB (excellent) | ||
| 10 | PENCIL | [NICE LP]* | ||
| 12 | LACK | LICK (short instrumental passage) with I replaced by A(bsolute) | ||
| 13 | PRAIRIE DOG | [AIRED PROG]* around I (one) | ||
| 14 | OVERRIDE | T | George needs ·one to be set … | OVER(t) (public) RIDE (sex act) |
| 16 | YOKEL | H | Lout· | [KYLIE]* with I(ndependence) replaced by O (love) |
| 19 | TINNY | E | not· nicely rounded | (Megha)N in TINY (mini) |
| 20 | ITEM | B | couple ·linked romantically | (Fa)ME TI(nselled) < |
| 21 | PIRANAS | E | we might scar· people … | [A(dult) RAP IN]* + (Bri)S(tol) |
| 23 | TOGA | A | classical rag· | [GLASTO − S(abbath) − L(eft)]* |
| 25 | HALLO | T | hi· | HALL + O(ates) |
| 26 | CANT | L | preference for a particular s·ide | [C(l)A(p)T(o)N]* |
| 27 | IRIDIAN | E | on· colourful organ part | I (single) + RID (Free) + IAN (Rush, perhaps {footballer}) |
| 29 | OSSA | S | maybe ·hips | [OASIS]* − I (single) |
| 31 | OPTIC | OPT (choose) I (one) C(hart) | ||
| 33 | LACED | [DEAL + C(hrysalis)]* | ||
| 36 | MISNAMED | [MIND GAMES]* − (editin)G | ||
| 37 | DENOUEMENT | [ENO TUNED + ME]* | ||
| 38 | DAIS | DA IS (Q: What’s needed if band (RING) is to become DARING?) | ||
| 39 | VENEER | [NEVER]* around E(agles) | ||
| 40 | INTEND | TEN (number) in (L)IND(a) (Ms Ronstadt), say {singer}) | ||
| 41 | DOTARDS | P | we’ve confused ·air due to age | [AT ROD]* + D(aughter) + (wive)S |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Answer | Removal from definition |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | APPOSITION | A | settling into p·lace | [O(ld) POP PIANIST − P(iano)]* |
| 2 | SERVITOR | T | assistant helping ·out | [S(elling) T(ickets) O(utside) RIVER]* |
| 3 | SNEEZE | S | expire· suddenly | (Sque)EZE ENS(emble) < |
| 4 | MIRROR | Y | show· | RIM< (Edge) RO (Ferry) (Bon)O |
| 5 | SNIDE | G | I’m prone to sin· | [DENIS]* |
| 6 | PYRE | A | se·t remains here | P(rince) + Y(ell) R(andom) E(xpletives) |
| 7 | ELEGIAC | L | with grave· voice | EG (say) I (one) in CALE< (Velvet Underground founder {John Cale}) |
| 8 | FADO | L | ·Iberian song | FA + DO (two notes) |
| 9 | ACORN | A | some beasts find m·e tasty | [CREMONA]* − (th)EM |
| 11 | BISTRO | N | din·er | O (nothing) after [BRITS]* |
| 15 | BYSTANDERS | T | those in close· | [BENDY STARS]* |
| 17 | KRAAL | A (article) in LARK (singer) | ||
| 18 | LILAC | [I CALL]* | ||
| 22 | ANSWERED | N | hi·t back | [ANDREWS]* around (Georg)E |
| 24 | ADICPOSE | E | like fat· | A (one) + [DOPE IS]* |
| 25 | HICCUP | D | reverse· | HI (welcome) + C(harts) + CUP (dip) |
| 28 | JENNET | M | girl from among the ·asses | JE (I, Fr) N(ote) NET (what Drifters need) |
| 30 | SIMMER | I | to get ma·d | REM (rock band) M(ember) IS all< |
| 32 | PAEAN | L | go·d is evoked by this song | [A (l)A (K)E(m)P(s)]* + N(umber) |
| 34 | AIMED | L | s·ighted | [DAME KIRI − KIR (drink)]* |
| 35 | UNIT | E | maybe r·ad | [PLATINUM − A(&)M LP]* |
| 36 | MEAD | R | booze· | (Osbourn)E in MAD (bats) |
|
|
||||
Good fun . . . and aptly themed blog. Thanks HG.
Still not quite clear about def/answer at 14A. Is it that ‘George’ – as in automatic pilot – needs an override?
Why ‘to be set approproately’?
And, please tell me that there were just one or two other 41A like me that were completely lost by ‘from Triton’.
It was quite a while after finishing the puzzle that I guessed it must be the setter’s name. But I spent ages searching for some obscure themed link between the ‘girls’.
So well done Triton, and welcome.
Yes, we 41A must stick together! Thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Triton. Thanks for the blog HG.
I think that (in response to jonsurdy #1) that George (the automatic pilot) IS an override of the normal steering which needs to be set appropriately.
My difficulties with the extra letters involved the two Es in the BEatlEs and the first letter of Mr Miller’s first name.
Was I the only one to be side-tracked for a while by the letters GIACODA in column 10, and to spend time looking for a way to fit in an extra N as my “small adjustment”? But looking one column to the right I spotted Donna Summer, and so twigged the “subjectively” hint (Me/I/U) first. Finding the the Patsy Gallant and Ned Miller songs – neither of them within my memories of the charts, involved some Googling.
I’ll hope for further offering from Triton in the future.
I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle.
I aslo had difficulties identifying the first group of letters and spent a while scanning the grid in the hope of finding THE BAT. I also spotted DIANA ROSS and CILLA BLACK long before realising the significance of the key groups and spent a frustrating time trying to turn FADONNA into MADONNA before sanity prevailed and a bit of googling sorted things out.
Great stuff.
Many thanks to Triton for the puzzle and to HG for the blog.
Yes, I also found this really good fun, with not too difficult but clever themed clues.
Before I got as far as the From-To song theme, and with some clues still not solved I saw the broken Penny Black in the second row and thought the theme have something to do with objects incorporating girls’ names – Jenny Wren (28D), Daisy Chain (32A…funny how your mind wanders and sees links, however, fanciful, that aren’t there !
Many thanks, Triton, and to HG for the blog.
This musical ignoramus is now humiliated! I did the clues, noticed the rock ambience, finished the grid, read THE BEATLES etc, and with help from Google homed in on the wrong connection — that they’d all had songs with GIRL in the title, leading me to thoughts of female performers. Which is all right as far as it goes, but redundant information in view of the crossword title. Much staring revealed DIANA ROSS and CILLA BLACK, after which I struggled a bit with the false temptation of MADONNA (which couldn’t be right because it generated a non-word), and eventually got to DONNA SUMMER without ever realizing the logic behind the letter substitutions. Oh dear….
David @5
Your post pretty much sums up what I did, too. I knew there had to be a reason for the changes but I needed the blog to explain it so only now can I see how neatly constructed the puzzle was. So thanks to both blogger & setter.
Very similar experience for me: I completed the grid and found the missing letters but really struggled to work out what to do. Felt a bit dim when I had it explained to me, not least because i spotted earlier in the week that cilla black was almost in the grid but then forgot about it! For a while I was trying to find something to do with penny black or perhaps lady Madonna.
Really enjoyed the clues, thanks Triton!
Not too tricky, good fun and a nice PDM, which was precipitated by spotting ‘Diana Joss’ in the grid. I agree with HG about 21a….I didn’t realise there was a letter missing until I tried googling ‘The Batles’ and came up empty handed! Thanks all round
Thank you for the kind comments, and thanks to HG for the apt blog (I must confess that I missed ‘A-ha’ on the first read through). I’m sorry about the confusion caused by the title – I was trying to be too clever with the ‘To/From’ thing, my fault here being compounded by the fact that IQ titles use a single font on a single line.
The idea with 14a (OVERRIDE) was indeed that an autopilot needed an override to be set appropriately (although the one in Airplane most definitely didn’t have such a feature!); delving deeper, it seems that the overriding of a malfunctioning autopilot by the crew is typically achieved by flicking a switch or pulling a circuit breaker, so ‘set’ may be a bit of a stretch…certainly more (loose) ‘indication’ than definition, but hopefully with only two unches and a wordplay that couldn’t reasonably lead to the other alternative, OVERRODE, solvers didn’t have too much trouble with it. Incidentally, OVERRIDE and ACORN were the two words for which I had most difficulty producing ‘definitions’ with a superfluous letter (as you may have noticed!).
Like HG, I also once laboured under the misapprehension that the two J Cales were one and the same. On the Velvet Underground theme, I guess the other founder member could just about be indicated in wordplay as a homophone for ‘toilet paper’. Perhaps.
I realise that themed clues can be a bit tedious for those less than familiar with the chosen theme, but I hope that there were enough ‘household names’ in there to at least partially compensate…