Enigmatic Variations No. 1480: Spoiler Alert by Kcit

7 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No. 1480: Spoiler Alert by Kcit”

1. I though this was the toughest EV for a good while but an enjoyable challenge. My solve mirrored yours in that I ended up reverse engineering the last few of the separated clues. I was dimly familiar with the phrase and its more familiarly known origins but not much more.

2. This was quite a three-pipe problem, or in less literary terms a mind-stretching puzzle over three sessions. What made it tough was not having word-lengths for the first set of fourteen clues, and for much of the time I had only seven of them solved. The most productive final session was the most enjoyable of all, when the grid, the ‘letter’ calculations and the rest of the clues combined to leave no problem unsolved and thus enable me to complete the grid and the endgame.
   I liked the way that the elements of the thematic design, including the three types of clue, worked together. There were a few times when I thought something must be wrong, but everything fitted. Towards the end I balked at filling in ILLTH and NARTJIE, until I looked them up to confirm them. (ILLTH was a great clue. I knew NAARTJE, but that other spelling looked wrong.)
   On a point of accuracy concerning 30a SLUR: it is legato that is indicated by a slur (in musical notation), not the other way round. (But perhaps the legato way of playing might indicate that a slur would have been used in the musical score to indicate it!)
   Many thanks to Kcit and Kitty.

3. An enjoyably challenging puzzle, with lots of elements to work out: it was a harder puzzle than the same setter’s Listener that appeared the same weekend. As others above, I made more progress with the non-separated clues initially. I admired the construction – it must have been difficult to accommodate the fourteen thematic words. The final phrase was an amusing finale too. The clueing was (unsurprisingly) good, with some neatly misleading misprints, eg 36 and 40. Thanks Kcit and Kitty.

4. Thanks to Kcit for one of the best EVs of the year to date. My solving experience was similar to Kitty’s and those of other commenters. I took KILLJOY WAS HERE as a take-off on KILROY WAS HERE, the meme-like inscription made famous by American troops in WWII. I did not know about the Air Force connection.

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here

5. There’s a blog on the puzzle at http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/spoiler-alert/

6. I haven’t done the EV since I won the Telegraph pen from winning sometime in the late 1990’s but reading here – some more information about ‘Kilroy’ that I learnt may years ago (may be a myth, or some sort of truth in a myth, Chinese whispers, I don’t know).

   In 1976 I started my apprenticeship in Portsmouth Dockyard as a welder.

   The story of Mr. Kilroy was he was a welding inspector during the war in the USA yards when the effort was made to knock out the liberty ships:

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_ship

   to aid the UK and the other allies in shipping vital supplies etc. across the Atlantic

   Now, when building a large fabrication with a production rate as fast as this with all the riveters, welders, burners and what not, everything had to be be inspected – and in such confusion, after each inspector passed whatever they was tasked to do signed it of on the deck heads, bulkheads and what not with their name in chalk so another inspector later knew it had been checked (this was still the practice when I worked there).

   Apparently Mr. Kilroy was quiet good, and done a lot of work.

   So, when the welders were queried on what they done, what was completed etc. the usual reply was; “Well, Kilroy’s been here!” meaning all was well and good and passed inspection.

   I have never been able to prove this story, but as a lot of came from 60 year old Pompey dockies I worked with from 1976, I expect there is a lot of truth in it.

   Nick

7. I finally cracked and coughed-up for a Telegraph puzzles subscription so I could have something else to do when I finished the IQ. I thought this was tough going! I didn’t bother with calculating the letter numberings etc, it didn’t seem necessary to finish the puzzle. So far so good…
   Thanks All.

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