Hello all. This was a Vismutastic weekend for me as I also picked up Vismut’s Listener puzzle from the weekend before. I won’t say anything about that puzzle now of course, but here are my ramblings about this one. Thanks to Vismut for the splendid entertainment.
The preamble reads:
Two across clues have an extra word that will give two colours when jumbled together. One colour must be used to shade the cells of two unclued crossing entries which should be filled with the rank (entered cyclically), title, name and regnal number of the theme; the second colour must be used to shade a further 78 cells to complete a display of his allegiance. Eleven down clues have an extra word; first letters of these in clue order followed by the last letters in clue order show his breeding; the English version of this completes two more unclued entries. To PICK UP a view of him you must visit the remaining unclued entry, which is his residence. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
20a came to me fairly late on; the extra word, together with that from 17a, gave me the required colours: red and blue. The top right across entry was looking certain to be EDINBURGH _ _ _, but I didn’t delve further at that stage.
Shortly afterwards, though, I paid attention to the little voice which had been telling me to put PENGUIN into the grid when I saw that KING PENGUIN fit neatly into the two shorter crossing entries. Then I noticed the title of the puzzle which made me laugh. [It brings me joy anyway to see “pengwings” (an internet search for “Benedict Cumberbatch pengwings” will explain why I call them that). There was also a pleasing echo of another fairly recent puzzle elsewhere.]
This gave away in a stroke what must come in the three spaces after EDINBURGH (very handy as 10d/11d/15a had hitherto held out): our KING PENGUIN must surely live in EDINBURGH ZOO.
I was having no joy at all with making sense of the extra letters, even with nearly all of them in place. I became convinced I had made some terrible mistake (in fact I had made one error: I’d seen 11d hidden in Oslo needs, making “cash” the extra word). Instead I took the backwards route, having turned to the internet to look up the animal, the binomial name of which is APTENODYTES PATAGONICUS. Oh, and I now note that the extra words are not just in a random selection of down clues, but in alternate ones, which is a little bit of neatness that shouldn’t go unappreciated.
It was easy enough to find on Edinburgh Zoo’s website or Wikipedia the story of BRIGADIER SIR NILS OLAV the THIRD, who slotted into the remaining unclued entries (with BRIGADIER “cycled” as we are told in the preamble). He is the mascot of the Norwegian Guard, who has risen up the ranks since his original adoption, passing on name and titles to two successors. Being Norwegian, it seemed likely that his allegiance would be displayed in a flag, and a count of the cells verified that it all fits together as below.
As Brigadier Sir Nils Olav III himself might say if he could talk: so long, and thanks for all the fish!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined | ||
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold capitals | ||||
| Across | ||||
| 1a | SCRY | Now and then looking back along my tracks to see what’s coming (4) | ||
| Alternate letters (now and then) in the reversal of (looking back along) mY tRaCkS | ||||
| 12a | WAUL | Cry like a baby once Scots roll their eyes (4) | ||
| Two definitions | ||||
| 13a | RANGOLI | Managed good mixture of oil in floor decoration (7) | ||
| RAN (managed) + G (good) + an anagram (mixture) of OIL | ||||
| 15a | AIRN | Caught off man’s iron from St Andrews (4) | ||
| C (caught) removed from (off) cAIRN (man) | ||||
| 17a | JAGUAR | Joint a short keeper for big cat [lure] (6) | lure | |
| J (joint) + A + all but the last letter of (short) GUARd (keeper) | ||||
| 19a | NATURAL | Genuine, native gathering unpopular on vacation (7) | ||
| NATAL (native) with the insertion of (gathering) UnpopulaR with the middle letters removed (on vacation) | ||||
| 20a | GLAD | Endless open space in [bed] giving pleasure (4) | bed | |
| Without the last letter (endless), GLADe (open space) | ||||
| 24a | BEEF | Could be bully in Labour Party following (4) | ||
| BEE (labour party) + F (following) | ||||
| 26a | WAITERS | Wariest crafty setters? (7) | ||
| WARIEST anagrammed (crafty) | ||||
| 31a | AILING | Bad casual catching dropping opener (6) | ||
| nAILING (casual catching) without the first letter (dropping opener) | ||||
| 32a | URUS | Sign “No Volunteers” for wild ox (4) | ||
| [ta]URUS (sign) with no TA (volunteers) | ||||
| 33a | SNEB | Cut short old tropical trees to the west (4) | ||
| BENS (tropical trees) reversed (to the west) | ||||
| 34a | PYTHIAN GAMES | Briefly use keys coming back to hotel one carelessly manages for festival (12, two words) | ||
| All but the last letter of (briefly) TYPe (use keys) reversed (coming back) + H (hotel) + I (one) + an anagram of (carelessly) MANAGES | ||||
| 35a | ZERO | Zulu emperor scratching head and bottom (4) | ||
| Z (Zulu) + nERO (emperor) without the first letter (scratching head) | ||||
| Down | ||||
| 1d | SWAN | Bird was [asleep] around noon (4) | A | P |
| WAS anagrammed (around) + N (noon) | ||||
| 2d | CAMAÏEU | Boring work issued across first class university (7) | ||
| CAME (issued) around (across) AI (A1, first class) + U (university) | ||||
| 3d | RUSTRE | [Papaya] lozenge with hole is part of fruitier US treaty (6) | P | A |
| The answer is part of fruitieR US TREaty | ||||
| 4d | DATA | Agreement in Moscow? Thanks for the info (4) | ||
| DA (agreement in Moscow) + TA (thanks) | ||||
| 5d | NGAIO | 13 taking off right and left hit [tallest] tree (5) | T | T |
| [r]ANGO[l]I (13: 13a) without (taking off) R (right) and L (left), anagrammed (hit) | ||||
| 6d | BOGS | Get to minus one without first and last hints of early sun in swamps (4) | ||
| BOG[ey] (get to minus* one) without the first and last letters in (hints of) EarlY + S (sun). *This should read plus one | ||||
| 7d | RIAL | Set up [echidna] retreat for former royal (4) | E | A |
| Reverse (set up) LAIR (retreat) | ||||
| 8d | GYRATIONS | Gary is not dancing more than one twist (9) | ||
| GARY IS NOT anagrammed (dancing) | ||||
| 9d | HAUGHTY | Contemptuous of hard, wicked, lacking [nothing] knight (7) | N | G |
| H (hard) + [n]AUGHTY (wicked) without (lacking) N (knight) | ||||
| 10d | ZIP | American’s love sound of bullet (3) | ||
| Two definitions | ||||
| 11d | ONE | Only [Oslo] needs limitless cash (3) | O | O |
| Without the outer letters (limitless), mONEy (cash) | ||||
| 14d | LUNA | First 50% of ferns to get moth (4) | ||
| The first 50% of LUNAries (ferns) | ||||
| 16d | SUNFISH | Section incomplete without Northern Ireland and final two [Dublin] swimmers (7) | D | N |
| S (SECTION) + UNFI[ni]Shed (incomplete) without NI (Northern Ireland) and the last two letters (final two) | ||||
| 18d | HARRIER | One that runs cross country flyer (7) | ||
| A double definition | ||||
| 21d | LIERNE | Chinese measure [Yemini] eagle as architectural feature (6) | Y | I |
| LI (Chinese measure) + ERNE (eagle) | ||||
| 22d | SOLE | Bottom swimmer alone (4) | ||
| A triple definition | ||||
| 23d | LONGA | Lengthy note from [Titanic] orchestra by the side of American going down (5) | T | C |
| ALONG (by the side of) with A (American) moved to the bottom (going down) | ||||
| 25d | PIPA | She might carry her offspring as well as lute (4) | ||
| Two definitions | ||||
| 27d | AMIE | Regular letters from [Esau] calm wife and French mistress (4) | E | U |
| Regular letters from cAlM wIfE | ||||
| 28d | SYBO | Busy boys boxing Scottish spring onion (4) | ||
| Here, buSY BOys is enveloping (boxing) the answer | ||||
| 29d | PUP | Perhaps young setter’s [senseless] nonsense excluding Latin (3) | S | S |
| PU[l]P (nonsense) without (excluding) L (Latin) | ||||
| 30d | NUT | Stuntman holding up ginger biscuit (3) | ||
| We have sTUNtman containing (holding) in reverse (up) our answer | ||||
thanks kitty! Like many I’m sure, I was mystified by 6d (plus/minus) — I was certain the answer had to be BOGS but wasn’t sure how to get there.
Thematically, I was helped mightily by google/autocorrect suggesting PATAGONICUS when I only had something like PATAONUS – ah! technology!
I can only apologise for 6d, but I am really hoping that this didn’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the puzzle. All I wanted to do was cheer some folk up. Perhaps this video of this magnificent penguin inspecting the troops will do it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq-6wUWffkA
🙂
The wide rectangular shape of the grid was quite striking – it’s the same size as a 12 x 12 square grid, just a different shape, the significance of which came to me after discovering the theme.
Solving clues where I could, I managed to get all the crossers for the unclued entry along the top [including 6d, which I ‘worked out’ much later!], and from that I confidently entered EDINBURGH ZOO. I was fortunate then to remember what is special about that zoo: it is home to a King Penguin that is revered and honoured in Norway. I coudn’t remember its name, but it was easy to find, and the other unclued entries all fell into place. I failed to pick up the hint from PICK UP, but fortunately I did not need to.
I got the regal bird’s name wrong at first, entering SIR NILS OLAV THREE instead of …THIRD. Solving my last corner (the bottom right) forced me to make the change.
I had collected only six or seven of the 11 pairs of letters before I twigged the theme, but the complete scientific name of the creature then helped me to solve the remaining clues. A very satisfying finish. and I too noticed and appreciated how the extra letters came from alternate clues.
Thanks to Vismut and Kitty.
Good fun – an excellently entertaining choice of theme, which of course I knew nothing about and which I was delighted to encounter. A nice denouement too. Thanks Vismut and Kitty.
Might be worth pointing out to anyone under 40 who solved this that ‘Pick up a penguin’ was the ad slogan for Penguin biscuits for several years, hence the title. I enjoyed the puzzle a lot, thanks.
@Bingy – I’m under 40 (not by a lot, it’s true) and I remember the slogan. Thanks for mentioning it though – always good to be complete. Is there anyone reading this who is too young for the reference? I’d be interested to hear from you if so.
@ Vismut, #2 – 6d didn’t spoil anything for me at all. Thanks for the video link. 🙂
Vismut – no it didnt spoil it for me. Thanks for another brilliant puzzle. Thanks also to KItty.
I’m very late to 15squared on this occasion. I’d just like to add to the comments. A really lovely puzzle by Vismut and who could not enjoy the video and associated story. Beautifully highlighted by the puzzle, thanks Vismut for another delightful crossword and Kitty for the great blog, as always