Will this be O-MISSION Impossible from Chalicea? I am on a mission to find out…
The (nicely succinct) preamble states that:
“Eight undefined answers are of a kind (one is a variant of the more common spelling) and have a significant OMISSION from their wordplay. Solvers must highlight a description of that OMISSION in the completed grid (13 letters). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
Seems relatively straightforward – eight thematics out of 48 leaves a large proportion of ‘normal’ clues; there don’t seem to be any other fiddly devices; and this is a Chalicea, so it should be fairly gentle, right?!
And so it seemed, after 30 minutes, when I had pretty much all of the top half done, with ROMEO, LANCELOT, VICTORIA, ORPHEUS and ELOISE all undefined and missing O from their wordplay – the ‘o’mission of the title?…
But then things ground to a bit of a snail’s pace as the bottom half turned out to be much less tractable… It took me at least another hour or so, over several visits, to complete things, and my solving notes show a lengthy list of unfamiliar (to me) words and/or obscure definitions, including:
- SCUNGED at 22D
- the TID of TIDY at 34D
- ULTION and USTION at 14A
- LOURE at 5D
- SPULYIE at 24D
- NOTA at 6D
- LENG at 8D
- SUBITANEOUS at 31A
- POME at 35D
- PEDS at 28A
- SWEIRT at 30D
All of them gettable/guessable from their wordplay/crossers, but needing some e-leafing through the BRB to check they were correct.
Along the way CASANOVA, ODYSSEUS and PENELOPE also turned up, leading me to thoughts of love –
- Romeo (and Juliet)
- Lancelot (and Guinevere)
- Victoria (and Albert)
- Orpheus (and Eurydice)
- (H)eloise (and Abelard)
- Odysseus and Penelope (both appearing here)
- Casanova (and Henrietta, and just about anyone else, by all accounts!)
And finally, that 13-letter phrase is most likely to be a diagonal, and there it is, rather unconventionally reading backwards and up the SE/NW diagonal – THE LOVE LETTER, where O is often clued cryptically as zero or love, as in the tennis scoring system…and presumably all the star-crossed lovers mentioned above would have had to correspond by love letter, as they didn’t have Ye SnappeChatte, Faycebooke, FayceTyme or Ynstagramme in their day… ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?…Nah, I’ll just send you a TickeTocke video of my cat doing cute things…’
A charming and ‘lovely’ puzzle – a shame it didn’t appear closer to Valentine’s Day, but I guess we can all do with a bit of love these days…
Many thanks to Chalicea for an enjoyable solve, and also for teaching me all those new words … I can’t wait to use SCUNGE or SUBITANEOUS when the occasion arises…
As ever, hope you are all keeping safe, mostly indoors, and well – you can stockpile as many online crosswords as you like, to keep you going!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solutions suffering ‘o’mission | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (or ‘transferred’ definition) |
|
| 1 | R_ME_ | ROMEO | Solver ultimately and setter (5) / (thematic – undefined) R (ultimate letter of solveR) + ME (the setter, Chalicea!) |
|
| 5 | LANCEL_T | LANCELOT | Luminance in slender pointed arched window (8) / (thematic – undefined) LANCE_T (slender pointed/arched window) around L (luminance, physics) |
|
| 11 | EARCON | Audible indication of perverse reaction rejecting recurrent sexual activity (6) / anag, i.e. perverse, of REAC( |
||
| 12 | OILERS | Topless workers’ waterproof garments (6) / ( |
||
| 13 | ACTA | Official proceedings of court in Australian Army (4) / A_A (Australian Army) around CT (court) |
||
| 14 | USTION | Antiquated revenge: society going in for terminally cruel historical burning (6) / U( |
||
| 15 | VICT_RIA | VICTORIA | Ludicrous trivia surrounding college (8) / (thematic – undefined) VIT_RIA (anag, i.e. ludicrous, of TRIVIA) around (surrounding) C (college) |
|
| 16 | LIGHT | Unimportant knowledge (5) / double defn. LIGHT can mean trivial or unimportant; and LIGHT can mean understanding, knowledge |
||
| 17 | SHEEPWASHES | Intricate phases ewes handle primarily in troughs for disinfecting them (11) / anag, i.e. intricate, of PHASES EWES + H (Handle, primarily) |
||
| 19 | STIE | Regularly set time for rise, in the past (4) / regular letters from ‘SeT tImE’ |
||
| 20 | FLAMBEAU | Burning light of passion mostly with lover (8) / FLAM( |
||
| 21 | DSO | Despot periodically cross (3) / periodic letters from ‘DeSpOt’ |
||
| 23 | METEORS | Extraterrestrial bodies’ limit or strangeness (7) / METE (boundary, or limit) + OR + S (strangeness, physics) |
||
| 25 | ASS | Fool of girl losing direction (3) / ( |
||
| 26 | CASAN_VA | CASANOVA | South African bushmen imbibing Spanish white? On the contrary (8) / (thematic – undefined) CA_VA (Spanish white) around (imbibing) SAN (South African bushmen) – not the other way around |
|
| 28 | PEDS | Country hampers’ masses of soil (4) / double defn. a PED can be dialect, i.e. country, for a hamper, or pannier; and a PED can be a mass of soil |
||
| 31 | SUBITANEOUS | Rarely hastily made mismanaged USA bounties (11) / anag, i.e. mismanaged, of USA BOUNTIES |
||
| 33 | ANTES | Advance payments secured by American test-drivers (5) / hidden word in, i.e. secured by, ‘americAN TESt-drivers’ |
||
| 35 | PENEL_PE | PENELOPE | Unreliable sleeping partner not starring inordinately (8) / (thematic – undefined) subtractive anagram, i.e. unreliably, of ( |
|
| 36 | IGNORE | Disregard troubled region (6) / anag, i.e. troubled, of REGION |
||
| 38 | YETI | Still one abominable character (4) / YET (still) + I (one) |
||
| 39 | TE DEUM | Thanksgiving hymn’s monotony, needing energy for start of it (6, two words) / TED( |
||
| 40 | AWEIGH | Dread international gutless gibberish being raised (6) / AWE (dread) + I (international) + GH (G |
||
| 41 | _DYSSEUS | ODYSSEUS | God protecting close to fifty saints (8) / (thematic – undefined) D_EUS (god) around (protecting) YSS (closing letter of fiftY + SS – saints) |
|
| 42 | YEAST | Affirmative votes on introduction of this food supplement (5) / YEAS (affirmative votes) + T (first letter, or introduction, of This) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solutions suffering ‘o’mission | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing (or ‘transferred’ definition) |
|
| 1 | REAVES | Rants about eastern pillages in the past (6) / R_AVES (rants) around E (Eastern) |
||
| 2 | OECIST | Old English tomb for ancient founder of colony (6) / OE (Old English) + CISt (tomb) |
||
| 3 | ERATHEM | Geological period; the mass stratum of rock corresponding to it (7) / ERA (geological period) + THE + M (mass) |
||
| 4 | OCH | Expression of dismissal in Lochaber (3) / hidden word in ‘lOCHaber’ |
||
| 5 | LOURE | The French adopting our old dance (5) / L_E (the, in French) around (adopting) OUR |
||
| 6 | NOTA | Backs no team originally accepted (4) / NO + T (first, or original, letter of Team) + A (accepted) |
||
| 7 | EL_ISE | ELOISE | Spain supporting the Spanish island (6) / (thematic – undefined) EL (the, in Spanish) + IS (island) on (supported by) E (Espana, Spain) |
|
| 8 | LENG | Delay once setting up part of Champagne lunch (4) / reversed hidden word, i.e. setting up part of, in ‘champaGNE Lunch’ |
||
| 9 | _RPHEUS | ORPHEUS | Pusher running wild (7) / (thematic – undefined) anag, i.e. running wild, of PUSHER |
|
| 10 | TSOTSIS | Young thugs principally tippling with drunk little sibling (7) / T (first, or principal, letter of Tippling) + SOT (drunkard) + SIS (abbrev. of sister, sibling) |
||
| 16 | LABRA | Beetle escaping from dog’s lips (5) / LABRA( |
||
| 18 | PAEON | Dad wandering heartily on foot (5) / PA (Dad) + E (middle letter, or heart, of wandEring, i.e. heartily!) + ON |
||
| 20 | FEATS | Notable exploits following upsets (5) / F (following) + EATS (upsets, as in eats away at) |
||
| 21 | DI SALTO | Defence Intelligence sadly lost heart of debacle at a leap (7, two words) / DI (Defence Intelligence) + SALTO (anag, i.e. sadly, of LOST + A (middle letter, or heart, again, of debAcle) |
||
| 22 | SCUNGED | Slunk about locally with state of undress in Perth welcoming snigger occasionally (7) / SCU_D (obscure Scottish for state of nudity) around NGE (occasional letters of ‘sNiGgEr’) |
||
| 24 | SPULYIE | Surprisingly piteously not to plunder at Culloden (7) / subtractive anag, i.e. surprisingly, of PI( |
||
| 27 | SIEGES | Persistent attempts to gain control; raised shoe-studs tackling extremes of ice (6) / S_GES (segs, or shoe studs, raised) around IE (extreme letters of IcE) |
||
| 29 | DEPTHS | Obscurities thrown up about physical therapy (6) / DE_HS (shed, or thrown, up) around PT (physical therapy) |
||
| 30 | SWEIRT | In Barlinnie reluctant special Glaswegian guard quit in the end (6) / S (special) + WEIR (Scottish for guard, or ward off) + T (end of quiT) |
||
| 32 | ENEWS | Fencer we push in prime positions dives (5) / prime number (2, 3, 5, 7, 11) positioned letters from ‘fENcEr We puSh’ |
||
| 34 | TIDY | Ian’s fit condition, finally unusually trim (4) / TID (Scottish, i.e. Ian’s, for fit time, or condition) + Y (final letter of unusuallY) |
||
| 35 | POME | With energy mop up priest’s ball of hot water (4) / E (energy) + MOP – all up |
||
| 37 | KEY | Vital landing-place once (3) / double defn. KEY can mean vital; and is also an obsolete, i.e. once, spelling of quay, or landing place) |
||
I have tackled four of Chalicea’s puzzles in the Inquisitor series and enjoyed them all. I find all barred-grid puzzles ‘tough’, but some are less tough, and the first of Chalicea’s that I attempted could have almost been described as gentle – the others less so.
I enjoyed this very much. Although SHEEPWASHES was my first solution, I had to then proceed from the bottom up. My first three ‘O’ answers were the three in the bottom half. The top left corner was the last to fall, ROMEO (the only ‘double ‘O’) being the last name to find.
I too found that there were a lot of obscure words and definitions at play here, but the overall quality and pitch of the clues made up for what might otherwise have taken the shine off this puzzle: the fact that four clues had ‘obscurities’ in both the wordplay and the solution (USTION, OECIST, SCUNGED and SWEIRT).
I liked the original theme, which was neatly executed in both the grid and the clues.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
Dear Alan – how good to see comments on the Fifteen Squared EV blog. Of course, I have seen you in the IQ blogs but we feel rather neglected here as mc_rapper67 and the team write delightful blogs (I can’t wait for the TickeTocke video of the cat doing cute things – our Boris is very old, fat and almost totally blind and not cute at all) but rarely attract comments. Thanks to both (you and mc_rapper67, I mean – not the cats) and apologies for the obscure words – they were forced on me by the grid (and were actually obscure to me too).
Alan B – thanks for your comments…your contributions on this site are always very detailed and comprehensive, we should be signing you up as a blogger (if you aren’t already?!)
Chalicea – thanks for popping in – no need to apologise for obscure words – we need to be educated!… I am grappling with your Listener 4601 at the moment…
Even if I don’t comment on each puzzle, I do read other blogs for puzzles that I haven’t tried. The explanations are incredibly useful as they enrich my vocabulary and make me aware of some of the devices that setters use, so please don’t think that your work falls on deaf ears, Mc. Stay safe, everyone!
Thanks, Ylo – your ‘lurking’ is appreciated!…