Not so much ‘CIAO’ as nearly ‘Goodnight from me…’, Two Ronnies-style…
…,after my recent DNF with EV1374 from Ranunculus, and several failures-to-finish recent IQs and Listeners…maybe my superpowers are on the wane…
The preamble states that:
“In CIAO, solvers must highlight an author who appears in the grid following a treatment suggested by the title of one of his works, which must be written in full beneath the grid. All clue answers are to be similarly treated prior to entry. Numbers in brackets refer to grid entries and Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
I spent 10 (ten!) days working (and failing) on this, coming back to it, solving the odd clue, putting it down, re-reading the preamble, repeat… Every answer has to be treated before entry, and then an author has to be found. So this is in the realms of a Carte Blanche/jigsaw puzzle, with a lot of cold solving before any chance of some grid filling.
The submission deadline came and went, tumbleweed blew down the street, Brexit deadlines came and went, and I still had a blank grid, maybe half the clues solved, and no idea how to fit them in…
It was clear that many solutions were too long for their slots/enumeration, so the ‘treatment’ was going to involve either losing some letters or having multiple letters in cells – but the preambles usually mention multiple letters/clashes, so it seemed a better idea to focus on losing letters.
I tried losing vowels, losing first and last letter(s), losing repeated letters, after first occurrence, and losing middle letter(s)…to no avail. I felt a bit like Theresa May trying to get her withdrawal agreement sorted, and I very nearly called on the ‘backstop’ of my fellow EV bloggers, to ask if one of them could take up the baton.
With no option of an extension from the EV Council, I decided to have one last putsch, with a freshly printed copy, and somehow dragged myself kicking and screaming (and Go-ogling and e-Chambers-ing) across the line. Not sure exactly where the PDM came, but I think it was down in the bottom right corner with JARGON, BANJOES, CAN OF WORMS and BALLAST all jostling for position, and the only way to squeeze them in seemed to be to drop the As, Rs and Ss.
Applying this theory to the top left I managed to get MEANDROUS, NANNIED, UNISONOUS and UNEASE in, and given that there were Es elsewhere, the top left corner had to be E rather than M – so we are losing A, R, M and S – and sometime around that realisation I found E(R)NE(S)T HE(M)INGW(A)Y in the leading diagonal, losing one of each of those four letters – A FAREWELL TO ARMS!
Ouch! If it hadn’t been my turn to blog, I fear this would have been ‘filed under WPB’, or rather PRB – paper recycling bin – much earlier in the process.
Having said that, the monastic (or masochistic?!) perseverance and eventual satisfaction of completion encapsulated my love of the EV, and I’m glad I kept at it…although no chance of that elusive prize pen this week, again!
Thanks (through gritted teeth) to Eclogue, and I hope your solve wasn’t as tortuous/torturous as mine…
(I couldn’t fully parse 17A – I assume it is MIRITIS – IT IS after MIR, but the definition seems to be ‘palm tree’, singular – grateful for any assistance here, or maybe a lesser-spotted EV gremlin?)
Explained in comments below…
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Entry (no ARMS) | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | MEANDROUS | ENDOU | Circuitous or winding round same? (5) / anag, i.e. winding, of ROUND SAME |
| 6 | CAB-DRIVER | CB-DIVE | One for hire, perhaps, initially does a runner after about three pints (6) / CAB (ancient Hebrew measure of about 3 pints) + D (Does, initially) + RIVER (a runner) |
| 11 | UNISONOUS | UNIONOU | University, with very good sense, is in full agreement (7) / UNI (university) + SO (very) + NOUS (good sense) |
| 12 | MINERAL | INEL | Railmen moving to get potential pay dirt (4) / anag, i.e. moving, of RAILMEN |
| 15 | NEAFES | NEFE | Shakespeare’s dukes seen coming round to accept Anglo-French (4) / NE_ES (seen, coming round) around (accepting) AF (Anglo-French) |
| 17 | MIRITI | IITI | Palm tree behind commune, indeed (4) / MIR (Russian community) + I (aye, indeed) + TI (type of tree) |
| 18 | SLITTER | LITTE | One making long cuts in small bed (5) / S (small) + LITTER (bed) |
| 19 | UNLADEN | UNLDEN | Unloaded rifle, say, not good before stampeding eland (6) / ( |
| 20 | REREDOS | EEDO | Inside small residence, once more clean back of fireplace, long forgotten (4) / RE_S (residence, abbreviated, or small), around RE (once more) + DO (clean) |
| 22 | GAME BAG | GE BG | Prepared to claim hunter’s pouch (4, two words) / GAME (prepared, ready) BAG (claim, catch) |
| 23 | ENNEADIC | ENNEDIC | About nine, Kennedy’s heading off and being tailed with CIA in disarray (7) / ( |
| 25 | LAGGER | LGGE | Arrester gear battling with gravity after landing initially (4) / L (initial letter of Landing) + AGGER (anag, i.e. battling, of GEAR + G – gravity) |
| 28 | RAGING | GING | Argue in group of passion (4) / RAG (argue) + IN + G (Group of, as in G20, Group of 20 nations) |
| 29 | INNUITS | INNUIT | Indigenous Canadians, say, having night in Paris in untrammelled sin (6) / IN_S (anag, i.e. untrammelled, of SIN) around NUIT (French, i.e. in Paris, for night) |
| 31 | BANJOES | BNJOE | They twang bars detaining GI? (5) / BAN_S (bars, prohibits) around (detaining) JOE (US slang for soldier, or GI) |
| 33 | TORRET | TOET | Tack ring to slip back cutting mount up (4) / TO_T (mount up, add up) around (cut by) RRE (err, or slip, back) |
| 34 | DELTAS | DELT | River mouths that could become salted? (4) / anag, i.e. could become, of SALTED |
| 35 | SERIATE | EITE | In rows I scoffed after reserve goes west (4) / SER (res, or reserve, going west, or backwards) + I + ATE (scoffed) |
| 36 | EAGLE-OWL | EGLE-OWL | Bubo involved low standard in van (7) / EAGLE (military standard) ahead of (in van) OWL (anag, i.e. involved, of LOW) |
| 37 | GRATULANT | GTULNT | Extending felicitations to Russian city in accord (6) / GRA_NT (accord, permit) around TULA (Russian city) |
| 38 | TANNOYS | TNNOY | Taskmaster at first irritates PAs, for instance (5) / T (first letter of Taskmaster) + ANNOYS (irritates) |
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Solution | Entry (no ARMS) | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 2 | NANNIED | NNNIED | Nursed little orphan in Sioux State (6) / N_D (North Dakota, state where the Sioux live?) around ANNIE (Orphan Annie, from the musical?) |
| 3 | DIMMEST | DIET | Most obscure Frenchwomen in poem of old (4) / DI_T (poem, archais, i.e. of old) around MMES (madame, Frenchwoman, plural) |
| 4 | MOONSTONE | OONTONE | Displays seat with the one obscure spar (7) / MOONS (displays seat, or backside) + T (contraction of ‘the’) + ONE |
| 5 | UNEASE | UNEE | Usnea growing wild on tree’s extremity gives discomfort (4) / UNEAS (anag, I,.e, growing wild, of USNEA) + E (extreme letter of treE) |
| 7 | BUENOS DIAS | BUENO DI | Ideas bosun floated for a good day in Ibiza (7, two words) / anag, i.e. floated, of IDEAS BOSUN |
| 8 | DIARIAL | DIIL | In Glasgow, mud attached to relief rebounds on Daily Record (4) / LAIR (Scottish, i.e. in Glasgow, mud) + AID (relief, assictance), all rebounding to give DIARIAL |
| 9 | MINIDRESS | INIDE | Mrs inside tight short frock (5) / anag, i.e. tight, or drunk, of MRS INSIDE |
| 10 | VERTEBRA | VETEB | Green brae disposed in atlas, for instance (5) / VERT (green, French, or heraldry) + EBRA (anag, i.e. disposed, of BRAE |
| 13 | LINGOA GERAL | LINGO GEL | Realign goal incorrectly in Rio’s commercial language (8, two words) / anag, i.e. incorrectly, of REALIGN GOAL |
| 14 | ELAEOLITES | ELEOLITE | Oily-looking minerals? Note spangle amid pick and spades (8) / ELA (musical high note) + E_LITE (pick) around O (disc, or spangle), plus S (spades) |
| 16 | FAUVETTES | FUVETTE | Matisse, for instance, giving rise to time in nest for warblers (7) / FAUVE (Mattisse was a Fauvist, or Fauve) + TTES (TE_S, set, or nest?, around T – time, all rising) |
| 21 | HANDMAIDEN | HNDIDEN | Aged female servant to pass first (7) / HAND (pass) + MAIDEN (first, as in Maiden Stakes, first race for a horse) |
| 22 | GIGANTEAN | GIGNTEN | Huge soldier once started on ancient Ionian (7) / GI (American soldier) + GAN (archaic past participle of gin, or begin) + TEAN (inhabitant of Teos, ancient Ionian city) |
| 24 | CAN OF WORMS | CN OF WO | Woman’s frock nearly disintegrating – an awkward situation (6, three words) / anag, i.e. disintegrating, of WOMANS FROC( |
| 26 | GNOMIST | GNOIT | Saw writer rearing simpleton, perhaps, having taken a drop of medicine? Quite the reverse (5) / G_T (Gin & Tonic, ‘medicinal’ drink?!) around NOMIS (Simon, as in the children’s rhyme Simple Simon, rearing up) |
| 27 | GNETUM | GNETU | Eucalyptus takes up a large number of woody plants (5) / G_UM (Eucalyptus tree) around (taking) NET (TEN, large number, reversed, or up) |
| 30 | MUSTELA | UTEL | Weasel’s group having compulsion to knock back ale (4) / MUST (having compulsion) + ELA (ale, knocked back!) |
| 31 | BALLAST | BLLT | Stabiliser requiring aluminium in detonation (4) / B_LAST (detonation) around AL (Aluminium) |
| 32 | JARGON | JGON | Specialised terminology, slang almost, within the confines of Japan (4) / J_N (confining letters of JapaN) around ARGO( |
17a: The answer is MIRITI, the definition is PALM and the wordplay is analysed as follows: TI after MIR + I
Re : Eclipse @1
If that is “indeed” what was intended, I don’t think it is a sound clue.
There’s been a few mistakes and/or debatable clues in EV recently which is a pity.
I agree with Eclipse on MIRITI.
I as an alternative to AY meaning indeed
I had about a third of the answers with different numbers of letters to be deleted before entry.
I considered that I might need to delete all instances of a set of letters and I approached that as a logic puzzle.
Realising that deleting A,M,R,S would allow me to fit all the answers I had at that point was my PDM.
Chesley @2
The clue is sound. The parsing is TI (tree) after (behind) MIR (commune) I (indeed {see Chambers. I=aye=indeed}).
Thanks, Eclipse, Cap’n and Gaufrid – I had also checked this out after Eclipse’s comment and realised that I could be AYE (from Chambers) and so INDEED…with TI as the tree…
I take back my quibble…but it doesn’t make the puzzle any less torturous!…
Thanks for the explanation [@4], Gaufrid.