Enigmatic Variations No. 1515: Disguise by Jaques

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Most EV puzzles involve some sort of DISGUISE, or subterfuge, in the solving process or the end-game…so what is Jaques trying to disguise from us here?…

The (relatively short and sweet) preamble states that:

“Half the clues are normal but their entries must be entered with DISGUISE, producing a real word for entry. Each of the remaining clues has a misprint in its definition; in clue order the correct letters offer some advice. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

So, a 50:50 chance of each clue having a misprint or the answer needing something doing before entry. My first thought was that maybe each solution would be anagrammed – a form of disguise – to make the grid entry, but that theory went out of the window fairly early on, when 14A looked like DANT but its crossers suggested the entry would be ?ANT. So the only option there seemed to be a change of the first – unchecked letter.

Then DRUMLIN looked like it should become ?REMLI? – so KREMLIN or GREMLIN – but again the first letter is unchecked.

After about an hour, I had most of the top half entered, hardly any of the bottom half, and the words READ and CORRECT coming out of the corrected letters. And UNSNARL being turned into ENSNARL by OMISCIENT along the top. Not a lot to go on, so I put the puzzle down and picked it up the next day.

After making a bit more progress in solving and grid-filling the bottom half, I also found TITLE in the extra letters, which turned out to be ‘READ TITLE CORRECTLY’. With this and somewhere along the mix of possible substitute letters and crossers, I slowly came to realise that DISGUISE could be read, maybe more ‘cryptically’ than ‘correctly’, as ‘D is G, U is E’. Applying this substitution, those unchecked Ds and Us could be resolved definitively, and I was able to mop up any last corners of resistance, as the rest fell into place fairly quickly:

A nuance of the preamble that escaped me originally is that we are told these entries must be made ‘with’ d-is-g-u-is-e, rather than ‘in’ disguise.

I might have made fairly heavy going of the ‘disguise’ – I’m sure many of you will have got there earlier, maybe right at the start, by focussing on the title and picking it apart before you even got the ‘advice’?

A very enjoyable solve, maybe a little towards the easier end of the EV scale, but an interesting and novel device, and I learned some new words along the way – GUMMA, HOOROO, KRENG, DUANS all spring to mind.

Many thanks to Jaques for the challenge, and I hope all is clear above and below…

Across
Clue No Solution / DisGUisE-d Entry Correct letter Clue (definition underlined, misprint in bold) /
Logic/Parsing
1 OMNISCIENT

awaRe

 Notice ghastly bearing is not of the departed after medium is completely awake (10) /
O_CIENT (anag, i.e. ghastly, of NOTICE0 around (bearing) M (medium) + NIS (obsolete, i.e. departed, contraction of ‘ne is’, is not)
10 GUMMA / GEMMA Money found on tree advanced growth (5) /
GUM (tree) + M (money) + A (advanced)
12 HANDS ON / HANGS ON Manual distinguished new substitutes for me (7) /
HANDSO(ME) (distinguished) with N (new) substituted for ME = HANDS ON
13 DRUMLIN / GREMLIN Departs peculiar ravine’s ridge (7) /
D (departs) + RUM (peculiar) + LIN (ravine)
14 DANT / GANT Once discourage from using dragnets on and off (4) /
alternate, or on-and-off, letters from DrAgNeTs
16 ANOMIE

mEaning

 State without moaning girlfriend embraces drama (6) /
A_MIE (girlfriend) around (embracing) NO (or noh, Japanese drama)
17 HOOROO

vAle

 Almost catch marsupial, loosely Australian vole (6) /
HOO(K) (almost catch) + ROO (kangaroo, marsupial. loosely)
19 AMBER

reD

 Carbon emission from bend in the road, should driver see it after rev? (5) /
(C)AMBER (bend – or tilt? – in the road, emitting C – carbon)
20 ILLAPSE

smooTh

 To commence with smooch pass lip seal around (7) /
anag, i.e. around, of LIP SEAL
25 ALLUDES / ALLEGES Obtuse, dull and backward grasping hints (7) /
reversed hidden word, i.e. backwards and grasping, in ‘obtuSE DULL And’
27 KRENG

seI

 What remains of set maybe after flinching group’s first idiot turns tail (5) /
G (first letter of Group) + NERK (idiot), all turning tail
28 OGRESS

eaTer

 Eager of men to push on ahead with price cut (6) /
(PR)OGRESS – to push on ahead, cutting PR – price
30 PARADE / PARAGE Focus of cadets is following soldier for inspection (6) /
PARA (soldier) + DE (middle, or focus, of ‘caDEts’)
32 ENDS / ENGS Is inclined to lose head in extreme places (4) /
(T)ENDS – is inclined, losing head, or first letter
33 BIMANAL

oLd

 Essentially noble wild animal is odd description of mankind (7) /
B (middle letter, or essence, of noBle) + IMANAL (anag, i.e. is odd, of ANIMAL)
34 AGEINGS

stEps

 Further, dropping second afternoon for English, Grammar School stops getting on (7) /
AG(A)IN (further, dropping the second A – afternoon – for E – English = AGEIN) + GS (Grammar School)
35 MISDO / MISGO Act awry in operetta, soul’s gone for soprano (5) /
MI(KA)DO – operetta, by G&S – losing KA (soul) for S (soprano)
36 RUDIMENTAL / REGIMENTAL Ridiculous after Kingston’s youth mostly arrested lacking maturity (10) /
RUDI(E) (most of rudie, or rude boy, Jamaican, i.e. Kingston’s youth) + MENTAL (ridiculous)
Down
Clue No Solution / DisGUisE-d Entry Correct letter Clue (definition underlined, misprint in bold) /
Logic/Parsing
2 MURL / MERL Nicola finally to leave rising ancient danger warning for Holyrood to crumble (4) /
LARUM (archaic, i.e. ancient, danger warning) losing A (final letter of nicolA), and rising = MURL
3 IMMORAL

wiCked

 Outrageous liar, taking in mark within moment, winked (7) /
I_RAL (anag, i.e. outrageous, of LIAR) around (taking in) MMO (M – mark – within MO – moment)
4 SALVO

vOlley

 Valley participates in universal vote (5) /
hidden word, i.e. participating in, in ‘univerSAL Vote’
5 CHITOSAN

Reduced

 Changing cash into pounds could be seduced by this? (8) /
anag, i.e. changing, of INTO CASH
6 UNSNARL / ENSNARL To sort out local one speak with menace (7) /
UN (dialect, or local, for one) + SNARL (speak with menace)
7 TSAMBA

devouR

 Tibetans make this to devout Buddhist’s ultimate style of music (6) /
T (ultimate letter of buddhisT) + SAMBA (style of music)
8 BONIER

slEnder

 Insult’s beginning cutting joke in regularly used barb – slander? Even more so (6) /
B_R (regular letters of BaRb) around ONIE (ON_E – joke – cut into by I – beginning letter of Insult))
9 INTERESSE

Cause

 Elderly pause to have concern seen with tiers adjusted (9) /
anag, i.e. adjusted, of SEEN + TIERS
11 METOL

shoTs

 Lily no longer mobile, having relapsed, it could be useful to develop old shops (5) /
LOTE (archaic, i.e. no longer, for lotus, or lily) + M (mobile) – all relapsing = METOL
15 CHICKPEAS

puLses

 Children putting shell money endlessly in purses (9) /
CHICK_S (children) around (putting in) PEA(G) (shell money, endlessly)
18 PELORISM

tYpical

 Implores broadcast for consistency that’s not topical (8) /
anag, i.e. broadcast, of IMPLORES
21 PUDDING / PEGGING Sergei’s weight with McDonald’s to exceed roly-poly, maybe (7) /
PUD (pood, Russian, i.e. Sergei’s, weight) + DING (Scottish, i.e. McDonald’s, for beat, or surpass)
22 CURTAIN / CERTAIN Concise acting during end of scene (7) /
CURT (concise) + A (acting) + IN (during)
23 GRANGE / GRANGE Michelle’s great danger dissipated (6) /
anag, i.e. dissipated, of DANGER
24 MURDER / MERGER Produce terrible rendition of Queen following rejection of beat (6) /
MURD (drum, or beat, rejected) + ER (Elizabeth Regina, queen)
26 DUANS / GEANS Fits university inside levels of expertise (5) /
D_ANS (levels of expertise, in martial arts) around U (university)
29 DAMME / GAMME Blockade Middle East and I’ll be jiggered (5) /
DAM (blockage) + ME (Middle East)
31 DADA / GAGA Deserted academy and artistic diploma, they weren’t wanted for this (4) /
D (deserted) + A (academy) + DA

5 comments on “Enigmatic Variations No. 1515: Disguise by Jaques”

  1. A nice simple idea, fully exploited to provide a fun puzzle. I spotted that Ds seemed to be becoming Gs and Us Es, but didn’t realise why until I’d got most of the message, which then produced a nice PDM. Thanks Jaques and mc-rapper.

  2. This was not my cup of tea. I reached a point where I needed to know what the disguise was in order to get any further, but I couldn’t work it out.

  3. We, the Numpties, didn’t find this easy at all when we solved it to write the hints. We had an almost full grid before the penny dropped so it was certainly not amng the easier ones for us – but a very clever idea. Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Jaques.

  4. I disagree with our esteemed blogger about the grid/clues ranking on the easier end of EVs. I found a couple of the misprints especially hard to see, with SEI being the last one to fall. I needed almost all of the misprints to get the instruction because I miscounted what constituted half the clues at the start, so I wasted time wondering what T_L_ could be about. Once I did see my error I didn’t feel like it took me long to read the title correctly, so I was fortunate in that regard. But without knowing what the disguise was on half the clues, I made too-slow progress on the grid. But it was a fun idea for a puzzle and fairly constructed; many thanks to Jaques.

  5. Thanks for the various comments and feedback so far – much appreciated, as ever.

    Sorry to hear that this didn’t hit the spot with Alan B, and that the Numpties and ub disagree with my assessment of the difficulty level of the puzzle – I must have just got on Jaques’ wavelength here – and maybe my ‘D is G, U is E’ PDM came sooner than for others…

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