Enigmatic Variations No. 1323: Capital Letters by Stick Insect

Stick Insect seems to have averaged one or two EVs a year since 2013-or so, and I think I have attempted/solved most of them, but this is the first of his I have had to blog – and what a delightful puzzle it was…

The preamble states that:

“Some cells contain two letters, either because entries are too long for the allowed space, or because of clashes with other entries. Clashes must be correctly arranged to represent CAPITAL LETTERS; cells containing clashes, along with those containing other CAPITAL LETTERS to be deduced, must be highlighted in thematic colours. Clues to entries that do not contribute to any coloured cells contain one or more words which must be removed before solving: these words provide thematic hints. Numbers in brackets refer to the number of cells used for the entry.”

Given that crosswording convention is usually to work in upper case rather than lower case, what could the significance of CAPITAL LETTERS be? Maybe the clashes would reveal capital cities, or airport abbreviations, like LHR and JFK? Or TXT SPK abbreviations – LOL, BFF? Or maybe it means ‘capital’ in a financial sense – so currency abbreviations like GBP and ZMK  – Zambian Kwacha! (Actually, thinking about that – it would be hard to get JFK or ZMK as clashes of two words, but there must be some easier examples…)

Only one way to find out – dive in, with pencil and eraser in hand, to cope with those potential clashes…although, it turned out that I should have read the preamble more closely, and maybe searched through the clues more forensically for those ‘hints’ first?…

After my first pass through, my notes show that I had seven Across answers, ten-or-so Downs, and just the one clash – E/R or R/E at 25D/35A. After the second pass, 1D was looking like AVM_B, so some potential for clashes there, if a real word is to be found.

The next time I returned to this, on my daily commute on the Tuesday morning, I had a light-bulb/penny-drop moment (PDM) when I realised that 29D must be an ‘initial letters’ clue. There were too many words to give four sensible initial letters – S T G T J A W – but with the crossing letters and definition it looked like STAW – so ‘go to jail’ must be the extra words…and all of a sudden I could see ‘community chest’, ‘chance’, ‘just visiting’, electric company’ and ‘water works’ scattered amongst the clues…how could I have missed them in two or three passes through the clues? Well, probably because most of them were pretty well disguised/woven into their clues…

We are in the world of the Monopoly board, and those clashes must be properties – with TAI and OKR as the only ones requiring more than two letters. Given its relative position, and my sole experience of the ‘classic’ UK version, E/R becomes Euston Road.

From then on it all became a bit easier, although not necessarily plain sailing – I couldn’t quite remember all the names off the top of my head, and I resolved not to just look them up, so this prolonged the end game a bit. Last to fall, in no particular order, were TATS, SOL and CAPA. For some reason I was convinced it was Piccadilly Circus, so I had put P/C in that slot, and I was trying to find a four letter word beginning CAC?, and coming up with all sorts of sh1t answers (sorry…!)

To summarise – the clashes are all coloured properties (on which subject, as a colour-blind, or colour-ignorant person, I feel I am being discriminated against when you setters/editors require things to be coloured in for submission), and the hints are the other squares – Go, Income Tax, Station(s), Electric Company, Water Works, Go To Jail, Free Parking, Just Visiting.

If I was going to nit-pick, which would be a tad churlish when faced with such a feat of grid construction, there is no ‘Super Tax’, and it should really have been ‘Free Parking’, but maybe those were just too fiddly to weave into the clues? (Or they are there and I missed them…)

There were some new/obscure (to me) words – EPISTILBITE, OUSTITI, LENOS, ENWOMB, but these were all gettable from their wordplay/crossers, and verifiable in Chambers.

A lovely nostalgic trip down memory lane for me – a game I played in the late 70s/early 80s as a kid with my siblings, and have enjoyed again in the last 5-or-so years with my kids. And I’m sure most (UK?) solvers will have similar memories…

I have rather less pleasant memories of a couple of occasions in the intervening period when I attempted the Monopoly board pub crawl – visit as many locations as possible in one evening and have a drink at each one. At least that wasn’t as messy as the ‘Circle Line Rush’ crawl – you guessed it – all 26-or so stations on the Circle Line tube, with a half or a short at each one…do the maths!

Thanks to Stick Insect – a pleasure to solve and to blog. I hope you collected £200 from the Sunday Telegraph’s banker when you passed Go?!

 

Across
Clue No	Hints	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
1		AS IF	Rowing federation’s backward, says you (4, two words) / FISA (Fédération Internationale des Sociétées dAviron, International Rowing Federation, backwards!)
4		SOL	Alchemist’s gold in suspension (3) / double defn. SOL can be a colloidal suspension in a liquid; or SOL can be an alchemical term for gold
7		CAPA	Let him take a cloak (4) / CAP (cap., abbrev. For capiat, let him take – Latin) + A
11		VOTER	Elector’s result of overt manipulation (5) / anag, i.e. manipulation, of OVERT
12		ETNAS	Get nasty content in vessels (5) / hidden word, i.e. content, in ‘gET NASty’
13		MUDDIER	More stupid one enters cow’s organ chasing marks (7) / M (marks) + UDD_ER (cow’s organ) around (entered by) I (one)
14		ONUS	Burden assigned to you and me (4) / if something has been assigned to you and me, it could be ON US
15	GO	EPIGON	Successor’s grumble about lacking queen? Go on! (6) / EPI(R)G (gripe, or grumble, about, or backwards, less R – regina, queen) + ON
16	COMMUNITY CHEST	PULU	Fibre rewound in bountiful community chest upturned (4) / reversed hidden word, i.e. rewound in, in ‘bountifUL UPturned’
17		BUYER	Ian’s cowhouse reportedly gets purchaser (5) / homophone – BUYER sounds like BYRE, mainly Scottish, i.e. Ian’s, cowhouse
18		AD-LIB	Laid about bishop freely (5) / AD-LI (anag, i.e. about, of LAID) + b (bishop)
19	INCOME TAX	EPISTILBITE	See, I built it badly, acquiring power for universal compound income tax (11) / E_ISTILBITE (anag, i.e. badly, of SEE I BUILT IT) around (acquiring) P (power)
23		APPUI	Approved university institute provides support for military (5) / APP (approved, abbreviation) + U (university) + I (institute)
26	STATION	LENOS	Fabrics not found in the French station (5) / LE_S (the, plural, French) around NO (not)
28		WOOS	Solicits wife, succeeded capturing two ducks (4) / W (wife) + S (succeeded), around (capturing) OO (two 0s, or ducks, in cricket)
30		CASH UP	Vessel holds a quiet total for the day (6, two words) / C_UP (vessel) around (holding) A + SH (quiet)
31	CHANCE	OUST	Books holding queen’s one chance to dismiss (4) / O_T (Old Testament, books) around (holding) US (how the Queen might refer to herself – one, we us)
32	JUST VISITING	OUSTITI	Tool for opening door I note after just visiting number 31 (7) / OUST (the answer at number 31) + I + TI (note, in the sol-fa scale)
33		PLEAS	Nearly satisfy claims (5) / PLEAS(E) – nearly please, or satisfy
34		TOTEM	Emblem for the heartless male (5) / TO (for) + T(H)E (the, heartless – either missing the middle letter, H, or missing H – heart?) + M (male)
35		BREW	Contrive bridge with two players (4) / BR (bridge) + EW (East and West, players in bridge)
36		TATS	Ponies immediately turned back (3) / TATS = STAT (statim, Latin, immediately), turned back
37		ROOKY	Card-sharp’s pursuing unknown beginner (4) / ROOK (card sharp) + y (unknown, e.g. in maths/algebra)
Down
Clue No	Hints	Solution	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
1		ASSES	Tax approximately 83% for idiots (5) / ASSES(S) – 5/6ths, or approximately 83%, of assess, or tax
2		SOUP UP	Increase the power of standing order, getting out of bed twice (6, two words) / SO (Standing Order) + UP + UP (out of bed, twice)
3		SEDGES	Plants, dead good in offices (6) / SE_ES (see, bishop’s office, hence holy office, plural), around D (dead) + G (good)
4		TRIOR	After terrible riot, rule of law finds peer on jury (5) / TRIO (anag, i.e. terrible, of RIOT) + R (rule, legal abbreviation)
5	ELECTRIC COMPANY	OPEN CIRCUIT	Old electric company author has way round broken path (11, two words) / O (old) + PEN (author) + CIRCUIT (way round)
6		SERVAL	Decide to hold up Queen Victoria’s cat (6) / SE_AL (decide) around (holding) RV (VR, Victoria Regina, up)
7		STOP	Prevent pans overturning (4) / STOP = POTS (pans) overturned
8	(FREE?) PARKING	ANNUL	Cancel parking every year – no second starter for automobile (5) / ANNU(A)L (every year, without the second A – first letter, or starter, of Automobile)
9		PAULI	Nobel physicist left after angstrom unit found in irrational number (5) / P_I (irrational number), around AU (Angstrom unit) + L (left)
10		AROUSE	Stir up Arkansas river (6) / AR (Arkansas) + OUSE (river(s) – in UK, not in Arkansas!)
19		ENWOMB	Bowmen contrived to make pregnant in poem (6) / anag, i.e. contrived, of BOWMEN
20		TIFOSI	Fans in Italian international, so attractive when heading north (6) / I (international) + SO + FIT (attractive, slang/informal) – all heading north
21		BESTOW	Grant’s most excellent over wicket (6) / BEST (most excellent) + O (over) + W (wicket) (both cricketing abbreviations)
22		TOUTER	Solicitor is debarred in territory (6) / T_ER (abbreviation for territory) around OUT (debarred)
24		POULP	Nonsense overwhelms old octopus (5) / P_ULP (nonsense) around (overwhelming) O (old)
25		POSER	Expo served partly for one wanting to be noticed (5) / hidden word, i.e. partly, in ‘exPO SERved’
26	WATER WORKS	LASTS	Salt up water works with special models (5) / LAST (anag, i.e. up, of SALT) + S (special)
27		SLIMY	Disgusting section’s sticky in places (5) / S (section) + LIMY (sticky, dialect, i.e. in places)
29	GO TO JAIL!	STAW	Initially sentenced tolerantly, go to jail after we’ve thieved in Perth (4) / initial letters of ‘Sentenced Tolerantly After We’ve’