Hmm. Quite hard, I thought, Kruger.
Most clues contain a single letter misprint in their definitions. The correct letters, in clue order, give an oft-repeated line of a verse. The preceding line explains how the thematic answers (clued in alphabetical order of their answers and by definition only) must be treated before entry. Numbers in brackets refer to grid entries; unchecked and mutually cross-checking cells of thematic entries could make MACHINE GUN MORATORIUM INSECURE.
The misprinted letters were well hidden, and I only found them after consultation with Ho.
There were a couple of proper nouns – MATSUYAMA and ANITA (the last clue I parsed) and a German river (DONAU), but otherwise the standard clues were quite straightforward.
To cut a long solve short, the misprinted letters spelled THIS OLD MAN CAME ROLLING HOME.
The verses are:
This old man, he played (number)
He played knick-knack on my (rhyme);
And the oft-repeated chorus is
Knick-knack paddywhack,
Give a dog a bone,
This old man came rolling home.
So the previous line is GIVE A DOG A BONE. The thematic clues give words which refer both to the thematic definition and to a version of DOG, and a BONE is inserted to complete the given number of letters. The most direct example is down the middle of the grid, HARRIER (both hawk and dog) round RADIUS (bone) giving a 13 letter entry of HARRADIUSRIER. Definitions of four of the dog words (ANDIRON, COCK, MAN and HOOK) can be found in Chambers under the entry for DOG. The other four are types/breeds of dog.
| Clue | Dog | Bone | Grid Entry |
| Metal Bar | ANDIRON (firedog) | CUBOID | ANDICUBOIDRON |
| Tap | COCK (a gun part) | ULNA | COCULNAK |
| Hawk | HARRIER | RADIUS | HARRADIUSRIER |
| Pirate | HOOK | TALUS | HOTALUSOK |
| Ship | MAN (-of-war & term of contempt) | COSTA | MCOSTAAN |
| Englishman | POM | VOMER | PVOMEROM |
| Footprint | PUG | FEMUR | PFEMURUG |
| Detective | SLEUTH (bloodhound) | STERNUM | SLESTERNUMUTH |
One quibble (there should always be a quibble) 25 clues with misprints, 10 without. 25/35 is not my idea of “most” of the clues.
Welcome back zho/dso/zo/dzho/dzo/zhomo/dsomo/jomo. Is this the word with the most alternative spellings in Chambers? – A question for Suzy Dent.
I was dubious about the M of MAN, so I did check the cross-checking and unchecked letters which made the phrase MACHINE GUN MORATORIUM INSECURE, and confirmed my M.
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) [misprint] correction | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 1 | Use this to to[w]t one unserviceable taxi back inside (6) | ABACUS | A (one) US (unserviceable) round CAB reversed | T |
| 5 | Army cop’s written in most of ideal [t]home for students (6) | CAMPUS | MP (army cop) in most of CAUS(e) (ideal) | H |
| 7 | Sl[o]ips seen here often of no value (4) | OVAL | Cricket ground: O (no) + VAL(ue) | I |
| 8 | Finish taking in several cut cro[p]ss (5) | DSOMO | DO (finish) round SOM(e) (several cut) | S |
| 12 | Rhetorical questions: some are finally left out (8) | EROTEMAS | [SOME ARE (lef)T]* | |
| 14 | Dated dish [c]out from extravagant treat (5) | ARETT | [TREAT]* | O |
| 16 | Strangely, Canada’s PR means to change [v]location of cops (9, 2 words) | PANDA CARS | [CANADAS PR]* | L |
| 19 | [P]Dope’s overcoat (5) | BENNY | Double definition – BENNY = dope (narcotic) and overcoat | D |
| 20 | Attractive woman nearly stabbed by hard ti[n]me that’s not been identified (5) | H-HOUR | HOUR(i) (attractive woman nearly) round H(ard) | M |
| 23 | Sm[e]all things in backward Mombasa toilets (5) | IOTAS | Hidden reversed in MombaSA TOIlets | A |
| 25 | [F]Nancy man’s Inuit escort about to leave with money and gold (8) | ESQUIMAU | Nancy indicates French spelling: ESQUIRE (escort) minus RE (about) + M(oney) + AU (gold) | N |
| 26 | In the lower part, defensive position follows sandbank (8) | DOWNWARD | WARD (defensive position) follows DOWN (= dune, sandbank) | |
| 30 | Fellow heads to always unappealing river in Germany (5) | DONAU | DON (fellow) + A(lways) + U(nappealing) | |
| 31 | Impa[r]ct less striking with it medley on the radio (4) | OLEO | Aircraft shock absorber: sounds like OLIO (medley) | C |
| 32 | Engineer untidy – in a state, having lost gear (6) | NUDITY | [UNTIDY]* | |
| 33 | Gr[u]ab: soup for starters? Of course (6) | SNATCH | S(oup) + NATCH (of course) | A |
Down |
||||
| No. | Clue (definition) [misprint] correction | Answer | Wordplay | X |
| 2 | Scheme of [f]making proposals from person living nearby shortly rejected (4) | ACOL | Bridge bidding system: LOCA(l) reversed | M |
| 3 | Ris[k]e subversive action involving yours truly (6, 2 words) | COME UP | COUP (subversive action) round ME (yours truly) | E |
| 4 | In the end, brainless – yet awfully [w]rise in the past (4) | STYE | (brainles)S + [yet]* | R |
| 5 | T[i]op Mafia man to ignore note from Truman, perhaps … (4) | CAPO | Truman CAPOTE minus TE (note) | O |
| 6 | … [p]lass letters from mob separately sent from part of Canada (5) | ANITA | MANITOBA (part of Canada) minus MOB | L |
| 7 | Nothing, according to alarmist, primarily works (5) | OPERA | O (nothing) + PER (according to) + A(larmist) | |
| 9 | Emergency cover for head shook me badly at start of open day (9) | SMOKEHOOD | [SHOOK ME]* + O(pen) + D(ay) | |
| 10 | With no base, USA team may move around in Japanese city (9) | MATSUYAMA | [USA T(e)AM MAY]* (base e removed) | |
| 11 | Trifle and American [c]lake possibly dried out (5) | PLAYA | PLAY (trifle) + A(merican) | L |
| 13 | B[a]ird cries with son after commencement of killings on 1st of August (4) | KAWS | K(illings) + A(ugust) + W(ith) + S(on) | I |
| 15 | Happily noted Kew [g]not wanted plant (8) | KNOTWEED | [NOTED KEW]* | N |
| 17 | Nothing close to remote, lon[e]g river (4) | NILE | NIL (nothing) + (remot)E | G |
| 18 | Blackmail soft touch (5) | CHOUT | [TOUCH]* | |
| 21 | National Trust obstructs the path to follow – that’s too much! (5) | TANTO | NT (National Trust) in TAO (path to follow) | |
| 22 | With no limit to influence or advertising, initially Ikea damaged your [w]health (6) | KIA-ORA | [IK(e)A]* (IKEA minus (influenc)E) + OR + A(dvertising) | H |
| 24 | Perhaps got rid of so[f]ot furnishings at last – then expressed sadness (5) | SWEPT | (soft furnishing)S = WEPT (expressed sadness) | O |
| 27 | No longer promise to [c]marry duck that hasn’t died (4) | AFFY | DAFFY duck minus D(ied) | M |
| 28 | Enthusiastic about special leve[r]es (4) | DAMS | MAD (enthusiastic) reversed + S(pecial) | E |
| 29 | Old king’s chest rising without beginning to resuscitate (4) | KNUT | T(r)UNK reversed minus R(esuscitate) | |
I managed to solve 28 of the 35 clues before coming to a stop, and at that point I had built up enough of the line of verse to recognise it and complete it. I enjoyed puzzling over the misprinted letters.
Knowing the preceding line of the verse and seeing F-M– invitingly placed in the space where PUG eventually went was enough to lead me to guess FEMUR, at which point I expected to find a bone in every thematic entry. Even knowing that the answers to the thematic clues were all dogs (sort of), they still had to be found, and it helped that they were in alphabetical order. I was finally able to solve the less tractable clues that had flummoxed me earlier.
I use my Chambers a lot for these puzzles, and this may be the first time I have had to look up ‘dog’.
This was a well-crafted puzzle, and the clues were every bit as good as in the only other puzzle by Kruger that I have solved (no. 1551 in July 2018).
Thanks to Kruger and Hihoba.
Very enjoyable and I liked that the dogs and bones were not too obscure, only VOMER was new to me. I saw a possible ROLLING early on, made a lucky guess and pencilled in the rhyme guessing at likely-looking candidates for the misprints. Knowing the misprinted letters in advance made solving the rest of the clues much easier.
I have struggled on a few the previous puzzles that most people found “gentle” but I whizzed though this one. I don’t know what constitutes difficult any more: I think it often just depends on how lucky your are with your first guess.
Thanks to Hihoba and Kruger.
I’m not sure how you can really quibble about ‘most’ describing 25 out of 35 clues?!
Thanks to setter and blogger – I quite enjoyed this, decent enough challenge and a clear preamble.
Bingy
As quibbles go, saying ‘most’ instead of ’25’ can only be a minor one, but, like Hi no doubt, I don’t know why the precise number wasn’t given. In IQ 1587 by Phi we were told ‘a number of’, but to be told the exact number (24 out of 38) would likewise have given so little away.
PeeDee
I don’t comment as a rule on how ‘easy’ or ‘tough’ a puzzle is (I find all of them challenging!), but I can safely say that this was probably the ‘toughest’ this year for me. Luck certainly plays its part, and I can recall a couple of recent puzzles where I was lucky. In this puzzle the only way into the theme was from the quotation, and I probably needed to have solved 26 out of the 35 clues (a strong performance for me) in order to get enough of it to recognise it. In the event, I was on a roll and did exceptionally well to get 28 clues, the phrase CAME ROLLING being almost fully formed by then.
I thought this had a nice level of difficulty, and was fun. Once I got to the dog-bone thing, I assumed it would be quickly over, and I was wrong. I found the bones much easier than the dogs. But then I completely forgot about the alphabetical thematic definitions at the top, which would definitely have helped. Like Bingy, I consider 25 out of 35 to constitute ‘most’. This will run and run…
Thanks Kruger, and Hihoba
A nice concept that made me smile once I worked out the verse and what was going on. Several nicely hidden misprints too. In contrast to PeeDee @2, however, several of the bones and dogs were obscure to me and this made completing things rather a slog.
Many thanks to Kruger and Hihoba. I thought this was a fair, imaginative, challenging and highly enjoyable crossword.
Alan B @4 – I generally find solving the clues the hard so I try and guess themes early to help me solve the clues. It doesn’t always work but there are usually a lot of hints to be found, many of them perceived subconsciously on my part and quite possibly unconsciously left by the setters too. Sometimes the guesses seem to spring form very little obvious evidence. In this case I had something like .OLL…G in a group and a few other scattered letters here and there. I think the word pet in the title must have helped.
Kippax @4 – I knew the bones because we used to have a plastic skeleton in the house named George and I would play games with my children where they had to name as many of his bones as possible. They were very competitive and each would try desperately to name one more bone than her sister. A side-effect of this game was that I ended up knowing the names of a lot of bones.
I liked this one and remember smiling a happy smile when I saw ROLLING HOME and immediately thought of dogs and bones. Past IQs have used this word-stuffed-into-another-word approach, but it always works well with a new thematic twist. (Confession: VOMER was a bone I hadn’t met before.)
Glad that Hihoba quotes what I remember, “Give a dog a bone”. I was shocked, shocked that the official explication in today’s i says “Give the dog a bone”. Away with such heresy!
My thanks to all – especially Hi for his excellent blog. Though I’m not sure how 25 isn’t most of 35!
When setting the puzzle I was unsure whether it was “give a dog” or “give the dog” and I Googled the query which came back with “give the dog”. I’ve just done it again and this time I get “give a dog”. But it wasn’t important to the solve.
Thank you Kruger. Re “most”, perhaps it was just my expectation. “Most” (= the majority of or the bulk of) suggested to me that there were only two or three without misprints, and finding ten was a bit of a surprise. Didn’t really matter though!