First, congratulations to Charybdis, one of my favourite setters, for his prescience in setting a clue concerning K2 which was in the news on the very day that it was published! 8D refers to the peak being UNSCALED in winter but on the 6 o’clock news on Saturday 16 January 2021 it was announced that a team of Nepali Sherpas had climbed the peak, thereby invalidating the clue!! (On a more sombre note, a Spanish climber died on the mountain on the same day.) There is a report with some stunning pictures HERE
Enough of this and back to the crossword proper. The rubric read:
Each across clue contains a word to be split, inserting an extra letter. The result alludes to a line in a song. In particular, four grid entries cannot at any stage be entered correctly. Both the singer and his song must be highlighted. The chorus suggests why, or how, 10 cells must be altered – creating six new words. Numbers in brackets refer to grid lengths.
I cracked it on the day of publication, but had trouble with a number of clues, one of which (42A) I only solved when the singer became clear on the next-to-the-bottom row. It was LEONARD COHEN. I’m not a fan, though I remember watching him on TV singing one very intense song accompanied by his own guitar, with sweat and tears pouring down his face.
Anyway, I started at the top right, worked down, then across and up, but was left with 5D, 9D, 26A and 35A as the four grid entries that would not work. I had also noted that two long answers, 17A and 4D contained the word CRACK in the middle.
Now the letters to be inserted, after a bit of reverse engineering, made up the phrase THIS IS NOT A PERFECT OFFERING. So the various phases of the grid could contain some non-words and 5D, 9D, 26A and 35A all had answers that were one short of their grid entries, so had one “intrusive” letter each.
I was unable to connect the dots until some internet research revealed that the LEONARD COHEN song ANTHEM (30D) has the following chorus:
Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
In two locations in the grid there was a CRACK in EVERY / THING as below.
| C | E | T | |||||||||||||
| R | V | H | |||||||||||||
| E | V | E | A | R | Y | E | I | ||||||||
| C | C | R | A | C | K | ||||||||||
| T | K | H | I | N | G | R | N | ||||||||
| Y | G |
We were instructed that 10 cells must be altered – creating six new words following the chorus. So replace 2 x CRACK with 2 x LIGHT? This gave the required set of 6 new words.
The first set: FIRECRACKERS becomes FIRELIGHTERS, TOGAED becomes TOGGED and UNSCALED becomes UNSHALED.
The second set MICROCRACKING becomes MICROLIGHTING, CHICLY becomes CHILLY and GENRE becomes GENIE.
5D, 9D, 26A and 35A still have intruding letters but THIS IS NOT A PERFECT OFFERING and four grid entries cannot at any stage be entered correctly.
Excellent Charybdis. Thank you.
Across |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue: definition insert | Ins | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Martine’s name after acting that is in a hopeless state (6) | T | ANOMIE | A(cting) + NOM (Martine’s French name) + IE (that is) |
| 6 | Street’s extreme impediment to chats? (7) | H | STUTTER | ST(reet) + UTTER (extreme) |
| 12 | Outstanding works, ruins of virile Italy (7) | I | RILIEVI | [VIRILE I(taly)]* |
| 13 | Let wild rhino east (6, 2 words) | S | ON HIRE | [RHINO E]* |
| 14 | Miami’s black American to move on with much 32 (7) | I | GEECHEE | GEE (move on) + CHEE(k) (much insolence) |
| 17 | Bangers and mash fried endlessly – insane (12) | S | FIRECRACKERS | [FRIE(d)]* + CRACKERS (insane) |
| 18 | Here is Canine near middle of green (4) | N | ECCO | ECO (green) round C(anine) |
| 21 | Roam aimlessly bad-tempered (inflamed back?) (7) | O | MEANDER | MEAN (bad-tempered) + RED (inflamed) reversed |
| 22 | Gum wanting finally, yankee with style (6) | T | CHICLY | CHICL(e) (gum wanting last letter) + Y(ankee) |
| 24 | “Green Bananas” – beat music’s an example of this (5) | A | GENRE | [GREEN]* |
| 25 | Organic compound this man brought round in deadly spun (8) | P | ALDEHYDE | HE reversed in [DEADLY]* |
| 26 | Cleave’s first to go on record (5) | E | EVE[A]R | (s)EVER (cleave, first to go) |
| 27 | Cried as heard’s not providing milk for bairns (4) | R | YELD | Sounds like (heard) YELLED (cried) |
| 29 | True revolutionary ring of Boers defending life? (4) | F | LAER | REAL (true) reversed |
| 31 | Smart to remove packaging? Create damage (3) | E | MAR | (s)MAR(t) |
| 32 | Poles caught up in force when taking lead being offensive (9) | C | INSOLENCE | NS (poles) in (v)IOLENCE (force) |
| 35 | Freely mobile fluid hit neutron (5) | T | T[K]HIN | [HIT]* + N(eutron) |
| 37 | Troy coming after Indian coastal state in attack (4, 2 words) | O | GO AT | GOA (Indian state) + T(roy) |
| 39 | New international hotel on island’s left for 36 (5) | F | NIHIL | 36 is NADA – mutual definitions: N(ew) + I(nternational) + H(otel) + I(sland) + L(eft) |
| 40 | Religious pacifist’s book on sloth perfused with cry of joy? (5) | F | BAHAI | B(ook) + AI (sloth) round HA (cry of joy) |
| 41 | One of the signs of 3 reset (3) | E | LEO | 3 and 41 are mutual anagrams (OLE) |
| 42 | Drunk a bit of rue and a herbalist’s plant (4) | R | NARD | [R(ue) AND]* |
| 43 | A chief figure in synagogue: “Cook’s not OK with disrespectful girl” (5) | I | COHEN | CO(ok) + HEN (disrespectful girl) |
| 44 | Bit of gambling when in the red? Convert try for more points playing this (5) | N | RUGBY | G(ambling) in RUBY (red) |
| 45 | Made up person at table for bridge made us agitated (7) | G | ASSUMED | [S MADE US]* – S(outh) is a bridge player |
Down |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue: definition | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 1 | A herb that’s good planted in row (5) | ARGUE | G(ood) in A RUE (herb) | |
| 2 | Once close at hand – fine old local, the Duke? (4) | NIEF | Duke is an old dialect word for the fist, or nief: NIE (obsolete version of NIGH) + F(ine) | |
| 3 | Encouraging sound when 41’s in trouble (3) | OLE | 41 and 3 are mutual anagrams | |
| 4 | Oven very good for creating fine fissures (13) | MICROCRACKING | MICRO (oven) + CRACKING (very good) | |
| 5 | Earth absolutely is the best possible (6) | EVE[C]RY | E(arth) + VERY (absolutely) | |
| 7 | Confused dotage results in wearing a sort of sheet (6) | TOGAED | [DOTAGE]* | |
| 8 | Anagram and clues like e.g. K2 in winter? (8) | UNSCALED | See preamble above! [AND CLUES]* | |
| 9 | Thailand’s stinky resin, a mild obsession (6) | THI[K]NG | T(hailand) + HING (stinky resin) | |
| 10 | As if worn out by Ed’s train delay on regular basis (7) | TIREDLY | TIRE (Spenser’s train) + D(e)L(a)Y | |
| 11 | Highland enclosures for birds (4) | REES | Double definition | |
| 15 | He tries to cure tanned leather but there’s no time (6) | HEALER | [LEA(t)HER]* | |
| 16 | Imitation gold! More ideas? See inside! (6) | OREIDE | Hidden in mORE IDEas | |
| 19 | Parisian beloved’s captured alive in distress – a knight needed (9) | CHEVALIER | CHER (Parisian beloved) round [ALIVE]* | |
| 20 | Movie-related prophylactic needs short break to be taken (4) | CINE | Topically VACCINE (prophylactic) minus VAC (short break) | |
| 21 | Boring machines rarely raised missing diamonds (5) | MOLES | SELDOM (rarely) reversed minus D(iamonds) | |
| 23 | Job’s initial stupid idea about a god with just a hint of mercy – a sorry tale (8) | JEREMIAD | J(ob) + [IDEA]* round RE (= Ra – god) + M(ercy) | |
| 28 | Insensitive person – I see reason (5) | LOGIC | LOG (insensitive person) + I + C (see) | |
| 29 | Open country beer with no head – amateur! (3) | LEA | (a)LE (beer with no head) + A(mateur) | |
| 30 | A worker on edge – will people stand for this? (6) | ANTHEM | ANT (worker) + HEM (edge) | |
| 31 | Island hopping for most part brave and heroic (5) | MANLY | MAINLY (for the most part) minus I(sland) | |
| 33 | In turns attempt description of air that was stale (5) | NITRY | NI (in turns) + TRY (attempt) | |
| 34 | Loads of fresh herring on last of tide for wading bird (5) | CRANE | CRAN (measure of fresh herring) + (tid)E | |
| 35 | A short distance from my solver in the country (4) | THOU | THOU = you (my solver) in the country | |
| 36 | Pie and a 39 (4) | NADA | 39 is NIHIL, mutual definitions: [AND A]* (pie is anagram indicator) | |
| 38 | Sound of some wind in cargo ships (4) | OBOS | Sounds like OBOES (wind instruments) | |
One of the best, I thought. I didn’t know the song, but followed the instructions and got there with few issues. Top notch stuff.
I got as far as solving, identifying who and what song, but the end game was beyond my brain. Well done on working it out.
I am ashamed of not having any LC in my collection and this puzzle was a reminder to do something about it.Thanks Charybdis and Hihoba.
In an almost completed grid I somehow failed to twig that COHEN was the singer, even though he is one that I know. I had to look up the quotation, and that of course gave me the singer, the song and every thing (so to speak). I admired the way the thematic items in the grid crossed each other and how EVERY and THING were not repeated but were complemented by EVER and THIN with their final letters seen following them.
It was a good set of clues. I got (temporarily) stuck only on the four whose answers would not go in properly and on YELD. Some of the missing letters took a while to find, the R for YELD taking me the longest, purely because “heard’s” is such an unusual formation.
Thanks to Charybdis and Hihoba.
My route was pretty much the same as Hi’s. Some of the insertions were fairly obvious, such as Mami to Miami but others more devious, such as runs to ruins as an anagrind. This is another well-balanced puzzle with most of the work in the clue solving and just a little (for me) digital searching and a neat finish. Most enjoyable.
Thanks to Charybdis and Hihoba.
Alan B @4: I think the parsing is “as heard” to indicate the homophone
Structurally similar to last week’s water-to-wine, except the song gives you the answer directly (I would have found the song quicker if it had been earlier in Cohen’s discography). I was dead set on Hallelujah, whose first four letters temptingly rise up diagonally from the ‘h’ in anthem. I solved everything except the everys and the things – and now I learn they were staring me in the face from the chorus, I admire it even more. Many thanks to Charybdis and Hihoha.
I’d heard of the singer but not the song, so I had to use Google to get the words, then it was fairly evident I had to change CRACK into LIGHT.
Reminded me of changing WATER into wine (PINOT and MEDOC) the week before.
Thoroughly enjoyable, as usual from Charybdis, thanks very much. Pleased I got to see Cohen in Barcelona just a few years before he left us.
Blog looks great!
This is more impressive than I originally realised. I thought Charybdis had done well to find two pairs of words of equal length which included CRACK and LIGHT, but I failed to spot that these crossed EVERY and THING.
Excellent puzzles in successive weeks by setters whose work we don’t see here very often.
Very enjoyable! I nearly got there, but didn’t spot the 4 special entries and EVERY THING part. I guess that on my first session, I got the song and artist and didn’t have time to come back to it until last night.
My only complaint – a Charbydis IQ in January? Will we have to wait until 2022 for another? I hope not!
I enjoyed this. It led me down a quite enjoyable digression reading about and watching Cohen’s Isle of Wight festival appearance…
Like Terrier, I now realise that this puzzle was more impressive than I had realised when solving it. Many thanks for the blog, as otherwise I wouldn’t have appreciated the subtlety of the construction. And I’m a huge Cohen fan, so it was a pleasure to be directed to one of his less well-known songs.
Nice !
My gridfill started at the bottom and worked up. As such, I was lucky to spot the singer songwriter quite early. I like his work but was totally unfamiliar with Anthem and as such needed a Google search to reveal the source. A clever use of the lyrics by Charbydis.
Thanks so much for the blog Hihoba and thanks to Charybdis for the enjoyment.
Did I miss the Puzzle of The Year results, I can’t seem to find them on 15 squared?
Like bridgesong, if it wasn’t for the blog we would have missed the subtlety of the puzzle. We also missed a couple of parsings so thanks are doubly due to Hihoba.
A very enjoyable puzzle to solve – a great way to spend some time on a Saturday. Thanks Charybdis for a well constructed IQ.
Just a notch above average for difficulty, I’d say, and quite enjoyable. Thanks Charybdis (who I’m pretty sure is a he, Chris Poole).
A comment on the blog:
anyone who hadn’t finished the puzzle but had caught site of the opening paragraph (above the ‘Read more >>’) could have seen the spoiler concerning K2 – I’ve said it before, I don’t think we should have anything in the opening paragraph that gives info about particular clues/answers, thematic material, etc. Nevertheless, thanks to Hi for the blog – there were a couple of clues I hadn’t parsed: 20d (vac)CINE and 31d MA(i)NLY.
Phil R @13: John Henderson has assured me that the results will be up later this week.
Also, I took the puzzle title “Switch” to have a double meaning. Firstly as in to CRACK a whip and more obviously the thing that can produce LIGHT when pressed and then they get switched in the end. Nice.
Also re: POTY – we all know who has won the yellow jersey, but I’m always intrigued about which puzzles were voted for!
Phil R @13
bridgesong @16
Ylo @17
At John’s request, the 2019/2020 IQ results will be published shortly after midnight on Saturday morning.
Apologies for the gender mix-up HG (#15). Corrected now!
A point about the K2 reference (HG #15), it had already been mentioned in the editor’s comments in the i of the previous Saturday, so I wasn’t giving anything away!
Hi @20: yes, but the editor wrote “… a news item last Saturday rendered factually incorrect a clue in IQ1682 on its very day of publication. I won’t say which clue in case you’ve not yet tried the puzzle,” whereas the blog not only identifies the clue but also gives the answer.
More than happy for you to include the para in your blog, but after the preamble so readers don’t see in inadvertently.
Hi everyone, and Hi Hihoba!
Thanks for a cracking and enlightening blog, and for all the amazing comments. I can’t remember ever getting such appreciative feedback, and I like it! 🙂
I’ll have to crack open my crossword setting kit and make some more imperfect offerings.
I really enjoyed this, so thank you to Charybdis and to Hihoba for the blog, though I failed to complete the four special answers. I’m puzzled though by “every” as a definition of “best possible’ in 5d, and “thou” as meaning “a short distance” in 35 down – am I mis sing something obvious here?
Amateur @23: under every Chambers has “the best possible (eg every chance of winning).” and thou is “one-thousandth of an inch.”
Ah, I see – many thanks HolyGhost for clarifying that – much appreciated. I could see “every” would fit but couldn’t marry it to the definition and so assumed it was wrong. I didn’t think to look it up in Chambers!