Enigmatic Variations No. 1275: Replacements by Artix

I have to admit I found REPLACEMENTS by Artix a pretty tough EV – so much so that I even considered calling for ‘replacements’, from amongst my fellow EV bloggers. But I persevered, accumulating answers and PDMs, more in the style of a Geoffrey Boycott grinding out one of his more turgid centuries than an Ian Botham dispatching clues and anagrams to all corners of the ground. But when I got there I forgot how hard the climb had been and just revelled in the view…

The preamble states that:

“Single-letter REPLACEMENTS to be made in the definition of each clue before solving spell out a location in a book, another book’s title, and its authors initials. After filling the grid, 16 cells (whose letters appear in REPLACEMENTS) must be altered to produce new entries which include four generic theme-words as well as two specific examples of them named in the books. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Interesting grid, with those missing cells NE and SW – will they be significant?…

So we have a two-stage process – solve all the clues to fill the grid and find the replacement letters – then make 16 changes in the completed grid to reveal the hidden/thematic material…although from experience of similar puzzle approaches, the two stages sometimes overlap a bit if you can get enough of a section of the grid complete, or nearly complete.

After a few sessions of straight solving of some fairly tough clues, made harder by having to make educated guesses or wild stabs at some of the ‘single letter replacements’, I started getting a few candidate letters down the side of my working copy…but not enough to make much sense.

So, like Sir Geoffrey, I ground on – through morning sessions (train to work!), afternoon sessions (train back) and often after tea as well, nurdling a single clue here, a streaky boundary there, but more often than not I was rather stumped!

Time passes.

And then a first couple of breakthroughs – the Across letters started forming into what could only be LEVITICUS – which is a book, as per the preamble, and the Downs had what looked like a PRINCE and a PAUPER, with MT (Mark Twain) at the end.

So, we have two books – and in fact the first one should be a ‘location’ in the book – which the extra letters provided: CH SIXTEEN, V TEN.

I also have to admit that I haven’t read either book (let alone the big one that Leviticus is part of!), although I was vaguely familiar with the premise of Mr Twain’s work, so I had to revert to some (e-)research to discover that Leviticus 16:10 refers to a ‘scapegoat’ being cast out into the wilderness, although the verse in question didn’t seem to mention any ‘named example’, as referenced by the preamble…

(At this point I was feeling sorry for myself, as though I was the scapegoat amongst the EV solving team for having got this puzzle in the schedule!).

The Wikipedia plot summary of The Prince and the Pauper gave me Tom Canty, Prince Edward and Miles Hendon as possible names…and CATTY at 28A looked as though it might be altered to make CANTY. So I pencilled that in, and spent some time trying to alter other letters/words around AFLOAN to make a real word…

More time passes!

But Tom Canty isn’t really a scapegoat, if anything he is cast IN from the ‘wilderness’, and it is the Prince who is cast OUT, albeit by accident.

So I gave up on that idea, and spent more time searching for a PRINCE, or a GOAT. I also twigged that I should focus the search by highlighting all the letters in R-E-P-L-A-C-E-M-E-N-T-S in the grid, as the preamble said all alterations must be one of these letters. (Rule 1 – re-read the preamble several times during solving!)

Ping! A lightbulb moment came when I realised that SCALE MOSS could become SCAPEGOAT – this time making real words where the replacements were crossing letters…and a thesaurus check on ‘scapegoat’ suggested PATSY and STOOGE, which could be derived from CATTY and SPONGE, respectively.

The fourth generic word eventually manifested itself as WHIPPING BOY from WHITTINGTON, and I was on a roll, albeit a somewhat Sisyphean one!…

So just the ‘specific example’ names left…and to cut a long story short I eventually found TEAZEL –> AZAZEL (the name of the scapegoat in Leviticus, depending on which version of the Bible you refer to!) and MERLOT –> MARLOW, where Marlow was the prince’s ‘whipping boy’ in TP&TP. (The concept of the prince’s whipping boy is a little bizarre…I wonder if they still have them?!)

 

 

Wow – where to begin with, in summing up?

Some tough clueing – my LOI, just before submitting at the 11th hour,  was REEF – devious use of ‘yard’ in different ways! – and I have only just parsed WHEN PIGS FLY whilst polishing off the blog.

Two different reference works for thematic material.

A tough denouément/end game with those 16 alterations – and the (intentional?) ‘dead herring’ of CATTY/CANTY…

(And it doesn’t seem as though the grid shape was significant, maybe just for the setter’s convenience, once all the relevant thematic stuff had been fitted in?…)

Thanks to Artix for the challenge, and I look forward to hearing below from people who found it a piece of cake, and ‘what was all the drama about from the blogger?’!

 

Across
Clue No	Replacement letter	Solution / Final entry	Clue (definition underlined, altered word in bold) / Logic/Parsing
1	traiL	SPOOR	Train section in sorry state (5) / S (section) + POOR (in sorry state)
6	sEa	ST-MALO	Almost destroyed fort next to Spa (6) / anag, i.e. destroyed, of ALMOST
11	leaVes	CONGEES	Leases not in favour of letters (7) / CON (not in favour of) + GEES (letter G, gee, plural)
12	dIggers	HOBART	Ferret about right place to find daggers? (6) / HOB (ferret) + A (about) + RT (right)
14	noT (now)	WHEN PIGS FLY	Swinish whelping that’s forced inside yard? Now now (and not later) (11, three words) / WHEN PIG_L (anag, i.e. swinish, of whelping, around SF (sforzando, musical, ‘forced’), plus Y (yard, again!)
16	bIt	LIPA / PIPA	Split bet showing nerve by amateur (4) / LIP (nerve, cheek) + A (amateur)
17	Crush	MERLOT / MARLOW	Where continental sea meets oceans, might René brush this with his feet? (6) / MER (sea, French, or continental) + LOT (vast quantity, oceans)
18	tUck	E NUMBER	It’s added to tick menu changes before end of each Autumn month (7, two words) / ENUM (anag, i.e. changes, of MENU) + BER (end of Autumn minths, SeptemBER, OctoBER, etc)
22	prickleS	TEAZEL / AZAZEL	Plant which prickled bird fed last bits of maize (6) / TEA_L (bird) around (fed with) ZE (last letters of maiZE)
24	Cast	ABASE	Last down answer’s standard (5) / A (answer) + BASE (standard)
26	Helping	ORDER	Yankee’s yelping exposed margins (5) / (B)ORDERS(S) – margins, exposed by removing outer letters
28	puSs	CATTY / PATSY	Like pubs that might become slightly crazy after Sabbath (5) / CATTY (like puss) becomes SCATTY (slightly crazy) if put after S (Sabbath)
29	bIrd	STILT / ATILT	Bard’s cheese’s not available (5) / STILT(ON) – cheese, without ON, or ‘available’
31	coX	OARAGE	Con is in charge of this idiot wanting violence (6) / OA(F) (idiot, wnating, or short of a letter0 + RAGE (violence)
34	Tipple	EISWEIN	Cloying ripple from foreign wineries (not principally red)? (7) / anag, i.e. foreign, of WINE(R)IES – without R (the principal letter of Red)
36	trEes	ASPENS	Tries Glaswegian’s hash, saving pound (6) / AS_S (stupid person, or ‘hash’, Scottish usage) around (saving) PEN (enclosure, pound)
38	cEase	HOLD	Chase husband off (4) / H (husband) + OLD (off, past its best)
39	Name	WHITTINGTON / WHIPPING BOY	Fame of Lord Mayor investing tons in fish? Just one (11) / WHIT_ING (fish) around T (tons), plus TON (singular ton)
41	Very	PERRON	Pastor to slip on eery steep steps (6) / P (pastor) + ERR (slip, stray) + ON
42	relaTing	AEOLIAN	Back fix after athletic game is relaxing to Ozzie buster? (7) / A (athletic) + EO (18th century gambling game) + LIAN (nail, or fix, back). (I was initially confused by the reference to Ozzie, as aeolian is a Greek work(?), but ‘Ozzie buster’ is a reference to an Australian slang word, buster, for ‘a strong south wind’…)
43	stEwed	SPONGE / STOOGE	He’s often stowed Sassenach’s guff in case of strike (6) / S_E (outer letters, or case, of StrikE) around (stowing) PONG (stink, guff). (Again, not sure what ‘Sassenach’ is doing here – ‘pong’ is not a Scottish usage, so maybe Artix is Scottish and everything not Scottish is Sassenach?!)
44	Novel	NEWIE	Hovel case occupying every second of underwriter (5) / every second letter of ‘uNdErWrItEr’
Down
Clue No	Replacement letter	Solution / Final entry	Clue (definition underlined, altered word in bold) / Logic/Parsing
1	worT	SCALE MOSS / SCAPEGOAT	Top former F1 driver’s work (9, two words) / SCALE (climb, reach the top of) + MOSS (Stirling Moss, former F1 driver)
2	Hirst	POSING	Located in front of e.g. first Chambers in German (6) / POS (po, chamberpot, plural) + IN + G (German)
3	runEs	OGHAM	Runts casually eat up pig product (5) / OG (go – casually eat, as in ‘I could go a xxx, up) + HAM (pig product)
4	caP	REEF	Cat sail’s surface is one (Scottish) yard by two (nautical) yards (4) / REE (enclosure or yard, Scottish) + F (fathom, two nautical yards)
5	miR	RENDEZVOUSING	Locking onto Mig, say, misaimed new oversized gun (13) / anag, i.e. misaimed, of N (new) + OVERSIZED GUN
7	trIcks	THIMBLERIGGER	He tracks man next to threequarter dropped in début (13) / T_RIGGER (debut, first attempt/beginning?) around HIM (man) + BLE(D) (three quarters of bled – ‘dropped’?)
8	Name	MOG	Mark own goal: game given to Hereford? (3) / M (mark) + OG (own goal)
9	Court	ABS RE	Rattling sabre on charge, but not in yourt (5, two words) / anag, i.e. rattling, of SABRE
10	dEcks	ORLOPS	Ducks or docks (6) / OR + LOPS (docks, cuts off)
13	cAsh	AFLOAT	Reduced mortgage – in arrear once – with cush now? (6) / AF_T (arrear is archaic, i.e. once, for rear/behind) around LOA(N) (mortgage, reduced by one letter)
15	maN	PYRENAEAN	Praise about your covers on European map of mountains (9) / P_AEAN (praise) around YR (your) + EN (covering letters of EuropeaN)
19	meDico	BARTS	Where Mexico’s potentially employed second-class tricks (5) / B (second class) + ARTS (tricks)
20	raTs	PACAS / PAPAS	Raps a song’s intro with cap on head back to front (5) / PAC (cap, back to front) ahead of A + S (introductory letter of Song)
21	Hard	BEYOND ONE	Diva’s tutor to replace college ward for you (9, two words) / BEYON(C)E (pop diva) with DON (tutor) replacing C (college) = BEYOND ONE
23	launcE	EEL / ZEL	Barge’s heading off launch, for one (3) / (K)EEL (barge, keel boat, with head – first letter – off)
25	Pouch	BAG	Touch speaker up (3) / BAG = GAB (mouth, speaker) reversed, or ‘up’
27	AA	DIAPIR	Rent money for poor’s rising, making you fold in LA? (6) / RIP (tear, or rent) + AID (money for poor) – all rising
30	bUns	TUSHES	Contents of nest found beneath rubbish bins (6) / TUSH (contemptuous interjection, pshaw, rubbish) + ES (middle letters, or contents, of nESt)
32	dePression	GILGAI	Can’t this reservoir degression be started by glaciating? (6) / subtractive anagram (and Cryptic Definition?)- anag of GL(AC)IA(T)I(N)G without the letters of CAN’T
33	stylE	RETRO / REPRO	Old-fashioned styli rejected by some reporters (5) / hidden reversed word, i.e. rejected by and some, in ‘repORTERs’
35	entiRe	WHOLE	Entice report out of secret room (5) / homophone, i.e. report out of – WHOLE (entire) sounds like HOLE (secret room)
37	sMart	ETON / EBON	Nut’s about to start school? (4) / E_N (nut, slang for ‘en’ – printing measure) around TO
40	weighT	TON / POO	Weighs friendly islander with no recurrent pain (3) / TON(GAN) – native of Tonga, or the Friendly Isles, without GAN (nag, or pain, reversed, or recurrent)