Hi everybody. Stick Insect has given us a game of consequences – the main consequence being some good old groanworthy word-based fun. Thanks Stick Insect!
The preamble reads:
Entries to six normal clues must be modified to show the CONSEQUENCES of a quotation. All other clues contain a word to be removed before solving. The words appearing in clues of entry length 7,8 and 9 provide the beginning of the quotation: the remaining additional words can be paired up to provide further thematic examples. Numbers in brackets refer to grid entries, and number of words to clue answers. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is the primary reference; 22 is in ODE.
The early part of solving I spent, as is usual and expected, solving the clues.
When I came across the “normal” clues (the type which are really the exception in these puzzles) I coloured their positions in the grid; this helped when those positions turned out to be symmetrical as it meant I could identify some in advance.
Of the extra words from the clues, I noticed that many of them were of the form “de{word}ed” or “dis{word}ed” and that others were kinds of people. Perhaps if I were clever I would have deciphered what was happening, but I just waited until I had most of the quote and then typed it into my favourite search engine to find the rest:
IF LAWYERS ARE DISBARRED AND CLERGYMEN DEFROCKED, DOESN’T IT FOLLOW that ELECTRICIANS can be DELIGHTED, MUSICIANS DENOTED, COWBOYS DERANGED, MODELS DEPOSED, TREE SURGEONS DEBARKED, and DRY CLEANERS DEPRESSED?
I couldn’t find a definitive source for this quote, which seems most commonly to be attributed to George Carlin, but the various versions online were consistent so that wasn’t a problem.
It was now clear which six substitutions needed to be made in the grid, as ELECTRICIANS became DELIGHTED, etc.
All that remained was to fill in a few remaining gaps and pair everything up to complete the bonus thematic examples:
| … doesn’t it follow that | … | can be | … | ? |
| conmen | deployed | |||
| pamphleteers | distracted | |||
| guides | detoured | |||
| butchers | delivered | |||
| mathematicians | discounted | |||
| cultists | dissected | |||
| cricketers | detested | |||
| astrologers | designed | |||
| burglars | disrobed | |||
| shopkeepers | deregistered | |||
| elites | deselected | |||
| linesmen | defaulted | |||
| magicians | disillusioned |
With this puzzle I am one of the banned electricians, and I will be expelled from the magic circle if none of you have any examples of your own you would like to share in the comments.
| Clue No | ANSWER
(ENTRY) |
Clue with definition underlined | |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and ANSWER letters in bold caps | |||
| Across | |||
| 1a | COWBOYS DERANGED |
Company with young men producing shoddy workers (8) | |
| CO (company) + W (with) + BOYS (young men) | |||
| 7a | GENAL | A student goes after knowledge of [detested] cheek (5) | detested |
| A plus L (student) goes after GEN (knowledge) | |||
| 11a | EXONS | Commanders [dissected] bits of DNA (5) | dissected |
| Two definitions | |||
| 13a | EIDOLA | [Conmen] lied about obtaining old American images (6) | conmen |
| LIED anagrammed (about) with the insertion of (obtaining) O (old) + A (American) | |||
| 14a | LINTELS | Supporting beams immersed in islet [if] Nile going west (7) | IF |
| The answer is contained (immersed) in iSLET NILe reversed (going west) | |||
| 15a | BINGS | Reject [discounted] garrets on vacation in local piles (5) | discounted |
| BIN (reject) + GarretS without the inner letters (on vacation) | |||
| 17a | APOSTATE | Renegade [lawyers] in chambers within a gallery (8) | LAWYERS |
| POS (chambers) inside (within) A and TATE (gallery) | |||
| 18a | GENII | Sent back two [pamphleteers] with negative spirits (5) | pamphleteers |
| The reversal of (sent back) II (two) with NEG (negative) | |||
| 19a | SOARED | Rose [delivered] shaver initially with blades (6) | delivered |
| Shaver initially + OARED (with blades) | |||
| 22a | HAIRCARE | Aviation clubs in race [are] looking after locks (8) | ARE |
| AIR (aviation) and C (clubs) in HARE (race) | |||
| 23a | NURSE | [Guides] take care of French art trip in return (5) | guides |
| ES (French art) and RUN (trip) reversed (in return) | |||
| 24a | DAD | ID card regularly [designed] for country bash (3) | designed |
| Alternate letters of (… regularly) iD cArD | |||
| 26a | ETHYL | The Spanish [detoured] enclosing your old compound (5) | detoured |
| EL (the, Spanish) around (enclosing) THY (your, old) | |||
| 27a | ENDEAVOR | Upset, Dave [disbarred] Nero in American trial (8) | DISBARRED |
| An anagram of (upset) DAVE NERO | |||
| 29a | DETAIN | [Butchers] keep pit holding fish (6) | butchers |
| DEN (pit) containing (holding) TAI (fish) | |||
| 30a | SCAPE | Bird’s cry [distracted] square cover (5) | distracted |
| S (square) + CAPE (cover) | |||
| 31a | ILLINOIS | Where Chicago is found backing repression [and] illicit houses (8) | AND |
| The reversal of (backing) represSION ILLIcit contains (houses) the answer | |||
| 33a | ON END | Upright [mathematicians], cycling academic space (5, two words) | mathematicians |
| With the letters “cycling” round, DON (academic) + EN (space) | |||
| 34a | AORISTS | Academician is in bits, forms ‘[clergymen]’ grammatically (7) | CLERGYMEN |
| A (academician) + IS in ORTS (bits) | |||
| 35a | TESTEE | Returning group [deployed] support for triallist (6) | deployed |
| The reversal of (returning) SET (group) + TEE (support) | |||
| 36a | TESTE | Witness [cultists] irritable in audition (5) | cultists |
| TESTY (irritable), sound-alike (in audition) | |||
| 37a | AESIR | Gods and [cricketers] same to Scottish knight (5) | cricketers |
| AE (same to Scottish) + SIR (knight) | |||
| 38a | TREE SURGEONS DEBARKED |
Many around Perth yard rush saviours of large plants (8, two words) | |
| TONS (many) around REES (Perth yard) and URGE (rush) | |||
| Down | |||
| 1d | ELECTRICIANS DELIGHTED |
Science trail’s exploding sparks (9) | |
| SCIENCE TRAIL is anagrammed (exploding) | |||
| 2d | EXIGEANTE | Female challenging [defrocked] German dean, heading off into retirement village finally (9) | DEFROCKED |
| G (German) plus dEAN without the first letter (heading off) is inserted into EXIT (retirement) + the last letter of (… finally) villagE | |||
| 3d | ANTBIRD | Soldier [doesn’t] stir for South American winger (7) | DOESN’T |
| ANT (soldier) + BIRD (stir) | |||
| 4d | GELADA | On coming back, notice a [disillusioned] baboon (6) | disillusioned |
| LEG (on) reversed (coming back) + AD (notice) + A | |||
| 5d | EUSPORANGIATE | Orange Iapetus confused [astrologers] like moonwort perhaps (13) | astrologers |
| ORANGE IAPETUS anagrammed (confused) | |||
| 6d | MODELS DEPOSED |
Types second symbols (7) | |
| MO (second) + DELS (symbols) | |||
| 7d | GIBSON DESERT | Corrupt in greed, boss [deselected] with leader of tribal area in Australia (12, two words) | deselected |
| An anagram of (corrupt) IN GREED BOSS + the first letter of (leader in) Tribal | |||
| 8d | EDIT | [Burglars] assemble, turning up three times a day by end of lane (4) | burglars |
| In reverse (turning up), TID (three times a day) next to (by) the last letter (end) of lanE | |||
| 9d | NON-ARRIVAL | Kept talking about opponent [defaulted] in no-show (10) | defaulted |
| RAN ON (kept talking) reversed (about) + RIVAL (opponent) | |||
| 10d | LASE | [Shopkeepers] produce a kind of light leaf stew occasionally (4) | shopkeepers |
| LeAf StEw, alternate letters (occasionally) | |||
| 12d | SEMICYLINDER | Solid figure of Home Counties bodyguard protecting cold liberal [elites] (12) | elites |
| SE (Home Counties) + MINDER (bodyguard) around (protecting) ICY (cold) and L (liberal) | |||
| 16d | KNIGHTLESS | Ed’s unchivalrous [linesmen] think gels supply society (10) | linesmen |
| THINK GELS anagrammed (supply) + S (society) | |||
| 20d | ESCOPETTE | Setter discovered [it] involves range for American shooter (9) | IT |
| sETTEr without outer letters (discovered) goes around (involves) SCOPE (range) | |||
| 21d | DRY-CLEANERS DEPRESSED |
Washers not requiring water quite surrounded by dehumidifiers (9) | |
| CLEAN (quite) inside (surrounded by) DRYERS (dehumidifiers) | |||
| 24d | MUSICIANS DENOTED |
Aim cuss in swerving buskers perhaps (7) | |
| AIM CUSS IN anagrammed (swerving) | |||
| 25d | TACKIER | More vulgar [follow] course that is rude at first (7) | FOLLOW |
| TACK (course) + IE (that is) + Rude at first | |||
| 28d | DESORB | Perhaps release liquid sphere following some French [magicians] (6) | magicians |
| ORB (sphere) following DES (some, French) | |||
| 31d | IOTA | I [deregistered] Greek scrap (4) | deregistered |
| Two definitions | |||
| 32d | INTI | Daintily [disrobed] clothing for old Peruvian coin (4) | disrobed |
| DaINTIly is around (clothing for) the answer | |||
… crossword bloggers are dissolved …
I recognized the quotation when I had about 2 thirds of it, but I didn’t realise there was a definitive version – I thought I’d heard different versions at different times. That left me unsure what to put at 21D – DEPRESSED, DECREASED and DEGREASED fit with the crossers and (more or less) the sense.
So thanks to Kitty for enlightening me and thanks to Stick Insect for the entertainment.
Dramatists can be displayed. (Terrible – I’m ashamed to share it! Let’s quickly move on.)
The right side of the grid yielded first, and I had an enjoyable time working clockwise round the grid solving the clues, collecting the extra words and identifying the places where the six special entries would go.
I couldn’t fail to notice the two sets of words emerging like ‘lawyers’ and ‘clergymen’ on the one hand and ‘disbarred’ and ‘defrocked’ on the other. When the grid was about 75% complete I had gathered enough of the quotation to look it up. It was good fun and not at all difficult to slot in the six special (symmetrically placed) entries. The quotation was new to me.
It was satisfying to clock another completed puzzle by Stick Insect (my only previous success being no. 1483 Mixed Feelings). It had a good set of clues and an original and entertaining theme.
Thanks to Stick Insect and Kitty.
Loved the puzzle and the symmetry, particularly liked “disrobed”. Underwriters can be discovered.
Thanks Stick Insect and Kitty
3 for 3! Thank you so much, commenters. I salute you all! 🙂
Thanks Kitty for the kind review and to all commenters.