I was double-Serpented on the weekend of the York get-together, with his Indy puzzle to blog on the Saturday, and then this EV on the Sunday…if I had a BELIEF SYSTEM that included previous lives, I would suspect I had done something wrong in one of them!
[Whilst he is a prolific Indy setter, and fairly regular in the IQ series, I can only see three other EVs from Serpent on this site, from 2016 and 2017, one of which I also blogged – so the odds of a double Serpent Indy/EV weekend must be fairly slim!]
The preamble states that:
“14 clues are normal. 14 across clues contain an extra letter that must be removed before solving; these letters spell out a book title. The wordplay in 14 down clues generates an extra letter. In his introduction to a second book, the author discussed two contrasting BELIEF SYSTEMS. The extra letters generated by wordplay can be rearranged to summarise the author’s preferred belief system (9,5), which solvers must use to replace the one summarised in the central row of the completed grid (5,9), thereby creating new words. The unchecked letters in the two BELIEF SYSTEMS could be seen as POIGNANT. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
So, all Across clues can be normal (4 of 18) or the first type (14); and Downs normal (10) or the second type (14). And that central row will be key…
Headfirst into solving, to see what transpired…and a gradual steady grid-fill ensued, with a smattering of extra letters, and eventually some crossers on the central row.
From the Across clues, the extra letters started to make out ‘THE ELE….’ with an M near the end, which made me think of THE ELEPHANT MAN. But I only knew that as a film. And the Downs seemed to start with FICTION…
Not a huge amount to go on, and the central row started looking like BI_O_ and maybe CERTAINTY. With some more extra letters, the DOWNS seemed to end with something like POSTERS, so I tried to work out what alternative letters in the central row might make real words in the crossing Downs – REVERS, EXTRACT, HEREIN all fitted, and started to make out SCIENTIST, with BARLEY and FIELDS suggesting PROOF – which matched FICTION POSTERS.
And at some point I gave in and starting go-ogling, discovering that the Elephant Man was a book by Ashley Montagu and, with a little deeper digging, I came up with the following quote:
“The scientist believes in proof without certainty, the bigot in certainty without proof.” Ashley Montagu, Science and Creationism.
All very educational, and a bit of a relief that the ‘belief systems’ weren’t going to go down a religious direction, which never ends well on the Innernet – always someone to offend and someone to counter-offend…
Once I had my head around the preamble and the different devices going on, the actual clueing was reasonably gentle – for Serpent – and there weren’t (m)any obscure words amongst the entries…maybe the French EXTRAIT, but I was familiar with that one. I didn’t think to use the POIGNANT assistance from the end of the preamble, but I did check it out after the event, just to make sure. A nice touch was that THE ELEPHANT MAN in the Across clues was neatly punctuated by the four normal clues.
By the way, Serpent was at the York do, so it was nice to meet him, and what a nice guy he seemed – nothing like the devious maniacal sadistic setter I had imagined him to be (;+>)
My thanks to him for the challenge, and I hope all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing (extra letters bold and in brackets) |
|
| 1 | REPORT | Heartless American policeman lying about account of events (6)
TRO( |
||
| 6 | T | COMICAL | Amusing company starts to make initially cheerless task light-hearted (7)
CO (company) + MICAL (initial letters, or starts, of ‘Make Initially Cheerless (T)Ask Light-hearted’) |
|
| 11 | H | EXECUTION | Former partner carved out niche in administration (9)
EX (former partner) + ECUTION (anag, i.e. carved, of OUT NIC(H)E) |
|
| 12 | E | IMAGE | Corporate identity backed game for clubs in reserve (5)
I( |
|
| 13 | OHM | I’m surprised mass resistance is associated with this (3)
OH (I’m surprised!) + M (mass) |
||
| 15 | E | GENERATED | Created rule to stop teenage daughter sneaking about (9)
GENE_ATED (anag, i.e. sn(e)aking about, of TEENAGE + D – daughter) around (stopped by) R (rule) |
|
| 16 | L | ERNE | Vessel caught apex predator superior to seal (4)
homophone, i.e. caught, or heard – URN (vessel) can sound like ERNE (sea eagle, predator above, or superior to, the sea(l)) |
|
| 17 | E | BLUFF | Outspoken expert accepts rationale’s conclusion (5)
B_UFF (expert) around (accepting0 L (concluding letter of rationaL(e)) |
|
| 21 | P | SPARSE | Disorganised press PA providing poor coverage (6)
anag, i.e. disorganised, of PRESS (P)A |
|
| 24 | H | STRIDE | Players chasing title initially take big step forward (6)
S_IDE (team, players) around (c(h)asing) T (title, initially) + R (Latin, recipe, take) |
|
| 30 | A | STAGE | Prisoner requires this amount to be added to stop (5)
If you add STAGE ((a)mount) to HO (interjection, stop!) you get HOSTAGE (prisoner!) [unconventional, in that the definition is not at the start or the end?…] |
|
| 32 | N | EURE | Regret over closure of men’s department (4)
EUR (rue, regret, over) + E (closing letter of mE(n)) [Eure being un département de la belle France] |
|
| 33 | T | EASTER EGG | Sought-after present of flower for one included in stay (9, two words)
E_G (for example, s(t)ay) around ASTER (flower) + EG (for one, for example, again!) [An easter egg can be given as a gift, or may be sought after in a hunt!] |
|
| 34 | EYE | First person featured in podcast for The Observer (3)
homophone, i.e. featured in podcast – I (first person) can sound like EYE (observer) |
||
| 35 | M | ELECT | Suspect maid avoiding delicate ground is chosen (5)
subtractive anagram, i.e. ground, of ( |
|
| 36 | A | TRANSCEND | Surpass raise with new investment introduced by trustee (9)
TR (trustee) before (introducing) + A_SCEND (r(a)ise) around (invested into by) N (new) |
|
| 37 | N | POSSESS | Forces controlling entrance to safe haven (7)
POSSE_S (forces, or bodies of constables) around (controlling) S (first letter, or entrance, of Safe), giving POSSESS, or have(n) |
|
| 38 | BEINGS | Asks for money having made such people homeless (6)
BEINGS (people) without IN (home, so homeless!) = BEGS (asks for money) [unconventional, again…] |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing (extra letters bold) |
|
| 1 | F | REVERB / REVERS | Reference part of speech that has a resounding effect (6)
REF (reference) + VERB (part of speech) [a reverb being an electrical device creating a reverberation effect, e.g. in an amplifier] |
|
| 2 | EXTRAIT / EXTRACT | Added je ne sais quoi is the essence of Paris (7)
EXTRA (added) + IT (special quality, je ne sais quoi!) [extrait being French for extract, or essence] |
||
| 3 | I | PEONY | Plant that is eaten by horse (5)
P_ONY (horse) around (eating) IE (id est, that is) |
|
| 4 | C | RUMBA | Adult takes son’s place in my dance (5)
CRUMBS (my!, interjection) with A (adult) replacing S (son) = RUMBA! |
|
| 5 | T | LIEU | English university dons shed light on place (4)
LI_T (shed light on) around (donned by) E (English) + U (university) |
|
| 6 | I | CONFERS / CONFESS | Evergreen singer almost entirely ignored in awards (7)
CONIFER (evergreen) + S (Singer, almost entirely ignored) |
|
| 7 | MIRE | I’m upset about sticky situation (4)
MI (I’M, upset) + RE (regarding, about) |
||
| 8 | O | CATER | Member entering railway carriage to produce fare? (5)
CA_R (railway carriage) around (entered by) TOE (member, bodily appendage) |
|
| 9 | N | AGED | Old unfinished items of business (4)
AGEND( |
|
| 10 | LEDGE | Length to move along carefully? (5)
&lit – L (length) + EDGE (move along carefully) |
||
| 14 | HEROIN / HEREIN | Start of Irish National led by champion horse (6)
HERO (champion) + I (start of Irish) + N (national) [horse being slang for heroin, m’lud] |
||
| 18 | P | LACE / LATE | Record really good material (4)
LP (Long Playing record) + ACE (really good) |
|
| 19 | BAILEY / BARLEY | Former governor has trouble in court (6)
B_EY (Turkish governor, historical) around (having in) AIL (trouble) |
||
| 20 | LETTERS / LITTERS | Historical figures who hindered literary culture (7)
double defn. – LET is archaic for to hinder, so LETTERS might have been people who hindered; and LETTERS can refer to literary culture in general) |
||
| 21 | O | STAG | Male goats running rampant (4)
anag, i.e. running rampant, of GOATS |
|
| 22 | S | STARING / SOARING | Backing singers and what they do is all too obvious (7)
STAR (rats, or traitors – singers, backing) + SING (what traitors do!) |
|
| 23 | YIELDS / FIELDS | Gives way to bears (6)
double defn. – to YIELD can be to give way to; and to YIELD can be to bear fruit, produce |
||
| 24 | T | SHEEP | Members of congregation come down heavily on priest (5)
SHEET (rain heavily) + P (priest) |
|
| 25 | E | RISES | Notice gentleman making a comeback is excited (5)
SEE (notice) + SIR (gentleman), all making a comeback = RISES |
|
| 26 | R | GEESE | Oxbridge research involves people with very little sense (5)
hidden word in, i.e. involved in, ‘oxbridGE RESEarch’ |
|
| 27 | S | QUEEN | Powerful piece from Cats (5)
subtractive double defn. – the QUEEN is a poweful piece on a chess board; and QUEENS can be adult female cats |
|
| 28 | HALO | Surrounding light is produced by 50% of elements (4)
HALO( |
||
| 29 | FETE | Measures delaying opening of Edinburgh Festival (4)
FEET (measures) with E (opening letter of Edinburgh) delayed, or pushed back = FETE |
||
| 31 | AGAR | Many cultures are based on this revolutionary form of music (4)
RAGA (Hindu musical form) revolutionary = AGAR (jelly used in bacteria cultures) |
||