Enigmatic Variations No. 1355: The Theme Line by Artix

An interesting looking grid from Artix with the THEME LINE – 13×13, but missing the corners, so only 165 cells to fill! – and some rare-ish mirror symmetry…what ‘line’ will we be taken down?…

The preamble states that:

“The same symbol (to be deduced) must be used in the grid to shorten all but one of the overlong down answers; for the other, two letters must be entered side-by-side in one cell. Numbers in brackets refer to grid spaces. Along THE THEME LINE, its originator appears; however, solvers must modify five of its cells (creating new words) to show a key variation, and then highlight the reinterpreter (14, two words). One answer is an abbreviation; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended, but does not contain 26ac, which can be confirmed in the Oxford Dictionary of English.”

Well, as it turns out, a lot more than 165 letters to find, with all that ‘shortening’ going on!…

A fairly complex preamble, but it seemed that if only Down clues are affected, I should probably start with the ‘normal’ Across clues, to get some crossers to help. Which I did try, to start with, but without much luck. … However, after a few minutes, my eye was drawn to 1D, with a ‘distressed’ MONROE AT T leading to NOTOTREMA. So just one letter too long, and EM might fit in the cell on the central row. EM being  printer’s notation for a hyphen, or dash, which is a ‘symbol’. I carried on scanning the down clues and found 16D with MINERS and TU giving TER + MINUS – another ‘symbol’, similar to an EM and also on that central row.

So fortunately (or unfortunately, given that I still had the rest of the puzzle to solve!) I seemed to have tripped across a PDM almost straight away – the theme seems to be dashes, or minuses/hyphens across the middle row, giving a thematic line? This revelation helped me along with filling the grid, with the symbols/dashes turning out to be alternate, rather than the whole way across, with ELAN, SPRINT, RULE and HARE providing the other items.

At some point I also found LINKS at 31D – nowhere near the central row, and likely to be the odd-one-out amongst the ‘overlong’ answers. With the crossers I eventually got, the NK had to go in the barred off third cell of that entry. But it wasn’t until I got LINEAR at 37A that the final pieces dropped into place.

The original ‘theme line’ contained REDDING, which my mind immediately associated with Otis Redding, 60s-70s-80s soul singer, and the NK of LINKS joins BIAFRA and LINEAR to give FRANKLIN – another 60s-70s-80s-etc. soul singer, and in fact the Queen of Soul, immortalised (or trapped?) in the great ‘Blues Brothers’ film, where she sang one of her most famous songs, RESPECT. (Update: see comment #2 below – she sang ‘Think’ in the BBs, but hopefully you get my drift!)

However, a little e-research was needed to find the link between the two, in this ‘respect’…Otis Redding wrote and recorded a song called ‘Respect’, which Aretha ‘re-interpreted’ to great effect, including the spelling out of the word in the chorus, hence the dashes: R-E-S-P-E-C-T!

(with the five changed letters all making new words – ‘respect’ to Artix!)

Some nice touches in the clueing

• Patti Labelle, amother great soul singer, and peer of Redding/Franklin, makes an appearance at 35A, as a DIVA!
• ‘outstanding songs’ in GOLDEN NUMBERS
• the clue for BIAFRA as a ‘short-lived’ state ‘rocking’ bits of Africa me smile
• CREME BRULÉE as a dessert ‘over la’
• LOI was EDNA – having spent ages trying to work out how EDN? could be a ‘gel’-like substance, rather than a posh ‘gel’!

(One I couldn’t parse satisfactorily was BICHIR – I suspect it is ICH or CHI in BIR(O), but I can’t make ICH or CHI into ‘odd’, unless it is short for CHI-CHI (affected/pretentious?) (Update: parsing provided by ifor, below)

And my various Chambers only seem to give NITROGLYCERINE, with an E at the end, but a minor quibble, given the clever anagram Artix contrived.)

Thanks to Artix for an interesting challenge, and a reminder-to-self to watch the Blues Brothers again soon…my kids must be nearly old enough to appreciate it (have it inflicted upon them?) as well…

 

Across
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
2	AUREATELY	Rhetorically see beyond exposed prize poet (9) / (L)AUREAT(E) (prize poet, exposed by removing outer letters) + ELY (see, bishopric)
8	GOLDEN NUMBERS	Outstanding songs in these positions for years (13, two words) / GOLDEN (outstanding) + NUMBERS (songs)
10	AT OUTS	Solicitor in America succeeded in conflict there (6, two words) / A (America) + T OUT (solicitor) + S (succeeded)
11	AIGRET	Scalped commissaire’s tuft (6) / (M)AIGRET (fictional French policeman, or commissaire, ‘scalped’, by removing top letter)
12	MOON	Second, riding Paddy’s Lantern (4) / MO (second, moment) + ON (riding, e.g. bicycle or horse)
14	LIB	Release Jeremy Thorpe? (3) / double (abbreviative!) defn.LIB can be an abbreviation of to LIBeration, or relase; or of LIBeral, e.g. Jeremy Thorpe, former UK Liberal party leader
16	TDMA	Regularly study graduate’s 2G system (4) / TD (regular letters of sTuDy) + MA (Master of Arts, graduate)
18	PAPUA	Priest crosses united Indonesian province (5) / PAP_A (priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church) around (crossing) U (united)
20	TREW	Ignoring start and finish, covered randomly in tune long ago (4) / (S)TREW(N) – covered randomly, ignoring start and finish letters
21	ROBE	Invest in product from Ikea? (4) / double defn.- to ROBE someone could be to invest them to a high office or rank, e.g. as a bishop; and ROBE can be an abbreviation for wardROBE, something one might buy from IKEA (other flat-pack furniture shops are also available!)
22	R-E-D-D-I-N-G / R-E-S-P-E-C-T	The Theme Line (13) / Thematic – (Otis) REDDING, replaced by RESPECT
24	HAPPY	Pages included in literary festival content (5) / HA_Y (Hay-on-Wye, literary festival) around (including) PP (pages)
26	BOKEH	Blur’s quality’s fine during live hour (5) / B_E (live, exist) around OK (fine), plus H (hour)
27	PARASITISES	As ‘thing’ is infesting cuts, it ____ (11) / PAR_ES (cuts) around (infested by) AS + IT (thing) + IS
29	NITROGLYCERIN	Explosive little man left in inner city rioting (13) / needs E in Chambers? NIT_YCERIN (anag, i.e. rioting, of INNER CITY) around ROG (abbreviation, or little, of ROGer) + L (left)
33	ELBA	The Spanish airline’s island destination (4) / EL (the, definite article, in Spanish) + BA (airline, British Airways)
34	URIAH	Biblical ‘mighty man’ accepted revolutionary Brutus? (5) / U (socially acceptable, not non-U!) + RIAH (Brutus = type of wig, or hair, revolutionary)
35	DIVA	For one, Patti LaBelle won’t reach end of bed (4) / Link to Otis Redding? DIVA(N) – bed, not reaching the end letter
36	BIAFRA	Short-lived state rocking even bits of Africa in support? (6) / B_RA (support) around IAF (anag, i.e. rocking, of the even letters of aFrIcA)
37	LINEAR	Cool audience led by lecturer in a row (6) / L (lecturer) before (leading) IN (gool, hip) + EAR (audience_
38	TASER	Stunner aboard Costa Serena (5) / hidden word, i.e. aboard, in ‘cosTA SERena’
Down
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
1	NOTOTREMA / NOTOTR-A	Toad distressed Monroe at end of night (8) / anag, i.e. distressed, of MONROE + AT + T (end letter of nighT)
2	ALOO	Occupying First Class cabin is King Edward? (4) / SALOON (first class cabin) contains, or is occupied by, ALOO!
3	RETYPED / RETYPES	Reclassified road, allowing in one car! (7) / R_D (road, abbreviation) around (allowing in) E-TYPE (Jaguar, one car)
4	ANTIPODE / ANTIPOPE	Use clue to fill part of cell? Quite the opposite (8) / AN_ODE (part of electrical cell) around (filled by) TIP (clue)
5	EMIRATI / EMIRATE	Arabian’s broadcast airtime (7) / anag, i.e. broadcast, of AIRTIME
6	YERD	At Gleneagles, ground squirrel’s nest up (4) / YERD (Scttish for earth, or ground) = DREY (squirrel’s nest) upwards
7	CRÈME BRULEE / CRÈME B-E	Pie crumble ‘ere (England) … ou dessert là? (8, two words) / anag, i.e. pie, or confusion, of CRUMBLE + ERE + E (England)
8	GAMUT	0-12 in power scale (5) / G_UT (stamina, staying power) around AM (if A = 0 then M = 12, so 0-12 = A to M)
9	STARE	Pastor’s eyeball (5) / double defn. to STARE can mean to eyeball; and a STARE can be a starling, or pastor (bit indirect?!)
13	NEWSPRINT / NEW-	Off spinner must go around wicket before tea, said paper (4) / NE_SPRIN (anag, i.e. off, of SPINNER, around W (wicket), plus T (tea – homophone, i.e. said)
14	LAKELANDS / LAK-DS	Scenic areas where log catches scoutmaster on gumshoe (6) / L_N (logarithm) around (catching) AKELA (scout or cub leader), plus DS (Detective Sergeant, or gumshoe)
15	BUCHAREST / BUC-ST	Odd job in ruined city (6) / BU_ST (ruined) around CHARE (occasional pece of work, or odd job)
16	TERMINUS / TER-	Trade Union and miners renegotiated in the end (4) / anag, i.e. renegotiated, of TU (Trade Union) + MINERS
17	KEEP AT BAY	Badger and horse fight off (9, three words) / KEEP AT (badger, pester) + BAY (horse)
19	MONKERIES / MOCKERIES	Religious groups keeping King and Queen in funds (9) / MON_IES (funds) around (keeping) K (king) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen)
22	RHONE	‘River horse’ by the sound of it (5) / homophone, i.e. by the sound of it – depending on your accent, RHONE (German river) might sound a bit like ROAN (horse)
23	GHANA / THANA	Grand idea at last to subjugate Chinese democracy (5) / G (grand) + A (last letter of ideA), around (subjugating) HAN (native Chinese people)
25	YAOURT	Ski? Unlikely in Torquay, no question! (6) / anag, i.e. unlikely, of TOR(Q)UAY (no Q, or question!)
26	BICHIR	Writer failing to take on odd fish (6) / BI_R or B_IR (BIR(O), pen, or writer, failing to finish) around (taking on) ICH or CHI (odd?) BIC (pen, writer) + HIR(E) (to take on, failing by one letter)
27	PILIS	Nuts I popped into drink (5) / PIL_S (type of beer, drink) around (being popped into by) I
28	SIVAN	Part of calendar is back to front (5) / SI (is, backwards) + VAN (the front, vanguard)
30	RAFF	Force into service quantity of oldsters (4) / RA_F (military service) around F (force)
31	LINKS / LI[NK]S	Venue for golf trips in Scotland (4) / double def’n – a LINKS course can be a venue for golf; and to LINK is to ‘trip along’, Scottish
32	EDNA	Finally remove one’s makeup gel? (4) / E (final letter of remove) + DNA (one’s genetic makeup!)