Enigmatic Variations No. 1324: Media Culpa by Wickball

I was half expecting an April Fools’ Day theme today. (If you’re reading this blog some way in the future, this puzzle was published on 1st April.) I wasn’t 100% sure that it would be, but the title seemed to point that way, being a take on Mea Culpa. The preamble read:

In MEDIA CULPA, ten clues lead to the answer minus one letter, and 27 clues lead to the answer and an additional letter. In clue order, the missing letters, then the extra letters, give three messages about each of seven thematic clues. Solvers must highlight the thematic entries, plus 11 other cells. The next two words, minus one letter, of a quotation (10 letters) must be written beneath the grid. Unchecked and mutually checking letters in the theme words may spell SHEER FINESSE IN MARGIN.

Although a lot of the clues were reasonably straightforward, some were a total mystery. I won’t go into all the ins and outs of my solve, but the right-hand side of the grid took a long time to come together… almost as long as the left-hand side. I think the way to solve this puzzle is something like this:

1. Solve what clues you can and stick them in the grid
2. Twig one of the thematic groups of entries
3. Discover the message spelt out by the extra letters in wordplay
4. Realise that a lot in the thematic clues (those without extra or missing wordplay letters) is superfluous
5. Try and match a misplaced definition with its owner in the thematic clues
6. Discover the message spelt out by the missing letters in wordplay
7. Realise that the first words of the thematic clues are what’s important
8. Put the required two words under the grid
9. Work out how I’m going to write this blog!

For me, getting SPAGHETTI HARVEST with only the …GH… at 1ac was the give-away and really it was then a case of putting off googling for other April Fool jokes in the media for as long as possible. In fact, both of the others, GUINNESS MEAN TIME and SAN SERRIFFE, were completely new to me (I don’t think I actually read The Guardian back then). The real problem for me was that one of the groups had only 4 checked entries out of 8, the other 6 out of 16. Google had to come to the rescue for both.

Of course, if I’d remembered that the preamble gave all the missing letters, my life would have been so much simpler! I also think that GUARDIAN GOGGLES would have been a nice alternative to SS.

The messages revealed by the extra wordplay letters were SOD COD WORDPLAY. ERRANT DEFINITION. Yes, I originally misparsed 7ac, but I actually think that SOD WORDPLAY was more appropriate. In the puzzle, COD is used in its adjectival sense of ‘sham’. (Thanks to a third party for that.) The definitions for each of the thematic entries were with one of the other thematic ‘clues’. Now, did the wordplays have any meaning at all? If so that passed me by.

Finally, we had the message from the missing wordplay letters. Read opener pointed to the initial words of those clues, “Oh to be in England, now that…” with APRIL’S [T]HERE going under the grid (but without the [T]).

Oh yes, and leading SW–NE diagonal.

I’m not too sure how to rate this puzzle. It did take me a long time all told (and, between you and me, I had a problem with some of the clues). Certainly a clever idea, and it was April 1st. Thanks, Wickball.

Legend:
Definition in clue
errant = Misplaced definition
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden