Enigmatic Variations No. 1271: When One Becomes Two by Harribobs

I believe there was a book (and a film?) titled ‘The Men Who Stare At Goats’…and, for a while, I thought I was auditioning for the sequel – the solver who stares at Harribobs’ puzzles… Having blogged the amazing EV1248 – Snowball by this setter, where about 40% of the cells were thematically adjusted, I feared that maybe something similar was going to happen, with lots of cells changing from one letter to two… In the end, my fears weren’t realised and, after a couple of small footholds and a lucky leap, this turned out to be a theme on something even more ephemeral than a snowball…

The preamble states that:

“In WHEN ONE BECOMES TWO, the wordplay leads to the grid entry or, in 31 cases, the grid entry plus an additional letter. In clue order, the additional letters give a two-part  message. The first part gives an instruction to be applied to two thematic items (a total of 17 cells) in the completed grid; the second part describes how every answer must be modified on entry. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended, and the final grid contains two empty cells..”

This played with my head for a while – an extra letter in the wordplay, but that only led to the grid entry, so presumably the definition is to something else.

Stare. Stare. Stare…

And a foothold…11D looked like HARDENED as the definition, and I knew ARD was a plough, so ARD + ENED would mean S as the extra letter from NEEDS – but where is the H?

Stare. Stare. Stare…

1A looked like MACHO – manly – with Occam’s razor reversed as part of it – but again no H…and what does the ‘friar’ have to do with things?

So the lucky guess – 37D looked like SOUTY  – OU in STY – but again needs an H for SHOUTY to match the definition – so it looks like there is a common theme of missing Hs.

This assumption helped me work my way through a few more entries – RIVER (H)OGS, TONIS(H)LY, to confirm the anti-H theme…and, very slowly, the extra letters started to yield ‘CLOCKS GO FORWARD’ and ‘WE ALL LOSE ONE HOUR’ – which gives me an excuse – I was tired from lack of sleep due to having to get up an hour earlier to change all my clocks (well, those that don’t do it themselves, these days…), whereas I should have had a ‘SPRING’ in my step…

So that explained the H missing from all entries – wow, not just some, but ALL of them – but what about the clocks?…much staring ensued until I spotted REPEATER(S)? in the sixth row – well, it says clocks, so is it REPEATER or REPEATERS? Moving that forward/across left a space. And even more staring (and e-dictionary browsing) later, given that it must be another row, as moving a column ‘across’ would leave lots of gaps, and moving a column ‘down’ wouldn’t make sense…I eventually found CLEPSYDRA along the bottom row.

Moving these two ‘forward’ a cell – with a single REPEATER, as there were now two clocks and 17 cells were affected (not counting the two left blank) – left the required two blanks and also, impressively, left real words in the down entries, including all the original Hs:

 

Ephemeral – in as much as the moment when ONE (o’clock) becomes TWO (o’clock) lasts for an atomic micro-millisecond each year…

Impressive – maybe not quite 40% of cells, but every answer (and eventual answer, where there were adjustments) had an H that was disregarded in the eventual grid.

Tough! – some tough clueing, with those additions and subtractions – hopefully I have most of it covered off below (except that first ‘friar’?…) (Update – explanation in the comments below and parsing updated…)

(H)ats off to (H)arribobs for this – I’m sure you lost more than one hour’s sleep over this puzzle!? – and I look forward to the next time our sc(h)edules meet…

 

Across
Clue No	Additional letter	Solution / Final entry	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (Hs not featured in wordplay)
3	C	MAC(H)O	Manly friar with razor in principle returns (5) / MAC(C)O = O(C)CAM’s razor, returned. (William of Ockham (c. 1287–1347), to whom the principle of Occam’s Razor is attributed, was an English Franciscan friar.)
7	–	CAMP(H)AC	Sacred tree affected a conservative (7) / CAMP (affected0 + A + C (Conservative)
12	L	(H)OOKS	Beauty attracts (5) / thematic double defn – beauty = (L)OOKS, attracts = (H)OOKS
13	–	SEA ANC(H)OR	Canoes in trouble crossing American river – floating brake needed (9, two words) / SEA_NCO (anag, i.e. in trouble, of OCEANS) around (crossing) A (American), plus R (river)
14	O	CAPTC(H)A	Anti-fraud system likely to occupy company accountant (7) / C_(O) (company) around (occupied by) APT, plus CA (Chartered Accountant)
15	C	AS(H)STAND	Holder of cigarette remains, and casts about (8) / anag, i.e. about, of AND (C)ASTS
18	K	ICE YAC(H)T	Vehicle on runners in collision at the outset – major operation ensues (8, two words) / IC (first letters of In Collision) + (K)EY (major) + ACT (operation)
20	S	(H)EEL IN	Cover the roots of edelweiss regularly with drop of water (6, two words) / EE(S) (regulaar letters of ‘edElwEisS’ + LIN (waterfall, ‘drop’ of water!)
21	G	S(H)ORESMAN	Spun gossamer on North American fisheries worker (9) / SORESMA (anag, i.e. spun, of (G)OSSAMER) + N (North)
23	–	(H)EATERS / PEATER	Consumer society inflamers (7) / EATER (consumer) + S (society)
24	O	S(H)OTE	Little piggy, very good little piggy? (5) / SO (very good) + T(O)E (little piggy!)
25	–	CASBA(H)S	Run away from scarabs scrambling around citadels (7) / anag, i.e. scrambling, of SCA(R)ABS – minus R – run ‘away’
29	–	SLAS(H)ED	Cut while aboard winter vehicle (7) / SL_ED (winter vehicle) around (boarded by) AS (while)
31	F	(H)ALER	More robust friar drinks beer (5) / (F)_R (friar) around (drinking) ALE (beer)
32	O	ET(H)NICS	Section abandoned elderly gentiles (7) / anag, i.e. abandoned, of SECTI(O)N
36	–	RIVER (H)OGS	Losing both daughters, motorist hounds capybaras (9) / (D)RIVER (motorist) + (D)OGS (hounds), both losing D – daughter
38	R	(H)AVE TO	Must ward off hullabaloo finally (6, two words) / AVE(R)T (ward off) + O (final letter of hullabaloO)
40	W	TONIS(H)LY	One following Grimsby, say, smart in a fashionable way (8) / TO(W)N (Grimsby, say) + I (one) + SLY (smart)
42	A	ET(H)ICISE	Environment Agency goes round polluted cities to moralise (8) / E_(A) (Environment Agency) around TICISE (anag, i.e. polluted, of CITIES)
43	R	(H)UCKLES	Rear end becomes wrinkled (7) / thematic double defn – rear end = (H)UCKLES; becomes wrinkled = (R)UCKLES
44	–	MIT(H)RAIST	Worshipper is embraced by sailor with religious book from the east (9) / T_AR (sailor) around (embracing) IS, plus TIM (Tim, Timothy, New Testament? Book) – all reversted, ‘from the East)
45	D	(H)EW TO	In LA, conform to expectations with test drive offroad initially (5, two words) / initial letters of ‘Expectations With Test (Drive) Offroad’
46	–	SC(H)LEPS / S_CLEP	Fools lecturer wearing glasses backwards (7) / SPE_CS (glasses) around (worn by) L (lecturer) – all backwards
47	–	(H)YDRA	Who, for instance, gets into yoga on vacation? A monster! (5) / Y_A (YogA, emptied, or vacated), around DR (Doctor Who, for instance)
Down
Clue No	Additional letter	Solution / Final entry	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (Hs not featured in wordplay)
1	W	MOC(H)IER / MOC(H)IE_	Cut rotten rice – it’s damper on Skye (7) / MO(W) (cut) + CIER (anag, i.e. rotten, of RICE)
2	E	COAC(H)EE / COAC(H)ER	Drink’s fantastic for very loud bus driver (7) / CO(FF)EE (drink) with AC(E) (fantastic) for FF (very loud) = COACEE
4	A	(H)ASTY	Rapid as a river (5) / AS + T(A)Y (a river)
5	L	C(H)ICANA / CICANE	Mexican American caught in channel (7) / C (caught) + I (in?) + CANA(L) (channel)
6	–	OS(H)ACS	Second in command bags ammoniac plants (6) / O (second letter in cOmmand) + SACS (bags)
7	L	C(H)EAT	Chancellor presides over key fraud (5) / CE (Chancellor of the Exchequer) ‘presiding’ over A(L)T (key on computer keyboard)
8	L	MAS(H)IES / MAS(H)IER	Old golf clubs are still in service (7) / MAS_S (service) around (L)IE (are still)
9	–	AC(H)AR	Relish American Mustang, perhaps (5) / A (American) + CAR (Mustang, perhaps – a type of car)
10	O	CONC(H)ATE	Cover in fruit of tamarack, say, shaped like a shell (8) / CON_E (fruit of tamarack, a conifer) around C(O)AT (cover
11	S	(H)ARDENED	Annealed plough needs to be reassembled (8) / ARD (plough) + ENED (anag, i.e. reassembled, of NEED(S))
16	–	S(H)IRRS / S(H)IRES	Gentleman leads extremely riotous gatherings (6) / SIR (gentleman) + RS (extreme letters of RiotouS)
17	E	TUSSA(H)	Girl seizes posh silk dress (6) / T(E)_SSA (girl) around (siezing) U (posh, ‘upper class’, as opposed to non-U)
19	O	(H)ELPS / (H)ELES	Earl prunes domestic staff (5) / E (earl) + L(O)PS (prunes)
22	N	(H)OEING / (H)OTING	A person in garden’s border, weeding (6) / O(N)E (a person) + IN + G(N) (bordering letters of GardeN)
25	E	CARL(H)EMP	Caution Liberal minister in possession of European cannabis (8) / CAR(E) (caution) + L (Liberal) + E (European) + MP (minister, not all MPs are ministers, but most ministers are MPs)
26	H	(H)ALIOTIS	A cat with no tail stands on this gastropod (8) / A + LIO(N) (cat, with no tail) + T(H)IS (the H here is an extra letter, not the thematic H!)
27	O	BREAC(H)	Falling out, vexed Serbo-Croat abandons drunken sort (6) / subtractive double anagram – anag, i.e. vexed, of (S)E(R)B(O)-CR(O)A(T), minus the ‘drunken’ letters of SORT (the other O is an extra letter)
28	–	STOUS(H)	Keel over leaving stupendous brawl in Sydney (6) / ST(UPEND)OUS with UP-END (keel over) leaving
30	–	S(H)OES	Downpipe parts in showers on a regular basis (5) / regular letters of ‘ShOwErS’
32	–	(H)ERNIAE / (H)ERNIAL	Eric’s friend sustains anterior ruptures (7) / ERNI_E (Ernie Wise, friend and comedic partner of Eric Morecambe) arouns (sustaining) A (anterior)
33	–	C(H)ANCED / C(H)ANCEY	Duke usurping king in house took a risk (7) / CANCER (Zodiacal house) with D (duke) replacing R (rex, king) = CANCED
34	–	AT(H)LETE / AT(H)LETA	Former PM, one time demoted, a sporty type (7) / (Clement) ATTLEE (former PM) with one T (time) ‘demoted’ towards the end of the word = ATLETE
35	U	TOYS(H)OP	Children’s emporium flirts with publisher (7) / TOYS (flirts) with O(U)P (publisher)
37	–	S(H)OUTY / S(H)OUTS	Loud man in South Africa in den of debauchery (6) / S_TY (den of debauchery) around OU (man, in South Africa)
39	–	WITC(H) / WIT_(H)	In Stirling, weird ladies drinking vermouth (5) / W_C (ladies, toilet) around IT (Italian Vermouth)
40	R	T(H)ESS. / T(H)ESP.	Colette’s very special book (5) / T(R)ES (very, in French, i.e. for Colette) + S (special). (NB. Both THESS. and THESP. are abbreviations – nice touch!
41	–	(H)IKER / (H)IKED	Ex-president has sniff of rose – a rambler (5) / IKE (nickname of Dwight Eisenhower, former US president) + R (first letter, or sniff, of Rose)