Enigmatic Variations No. 1591: Split Personality by Check

I think this is Check’s third EV (plus a couple of Inquisitors, that I can see on this site), but only the second I’ve managed to complete, and the first I have had the pleasure to blog…

…with a DNF on EV 1484…’Herculean Task’, which turned out to be just that! Anyway, back to the matter in hand…

The preamble states that:

“All across entries share a common feature which cryptically suggests the name of a thematic setting (11 letters) to be written below the grid. Each clue contains an extra word to be removed before solving. Selecting either the first or last letters of these words in an equal amount spells an instruction for solvers to resolve the SPLIT PERSONALITY. In the final grid, four cells are empty but all entries (ignoring gaps) are real words or phrases; Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Hoping that the ‘common feature’ would become apparent, and clinging on to the extra word per clue, I dived in to some solving…and made reasonably sedate progress.

After my first session, maybe an hour or so, I had maybe a third of the grid filled, but spread all over the place, rather than having particular success in one quadrant or half…The only thing I could see in common was that they all seemed to contain the letter E – there was no obvious other link, e.g. maybe in terms of similarity of definitions…and, looking back, it would have been impressive to get 22 synonyms into one grid!

When I picked it up again, I had the first PDM – not just the letter E, but it seemed to always be the middle letter – and a quick check of the rest showed they all had odd number enumerations…and from this I made a subconscious leap that ‘E’ can be an abbreviation for ‘earth’, so maybe the thematic location is MIDDLE ‘E’ARTH…

Trusting that I was on the right lines, I filled in all of the remaining Across middle letters as E, and that helped significantly with crossing letters and polishing off a few more of the remaining entries.

Now, I’m not a particularly avid LOTR fan, or a Tolkien-ista in general, although I must have read them all in my voracious-reading early-teens phase, but I do know the first rule of EV club is to look to the diagonals, and even I couldn’t miss ‘GOLLUM’ taking shape down the leading one. I was less sure of the other half of the ‘split personality’ – SMEAGOL – who needed a bit of e-research to confirm.

And that just left the matter of the extra words, which I had rather neglected towards the end, in my excitement at all the other progress. After some double-checking that I had the right words, I transcribed their first and last letters into an Excel spreadsheet and did some staring at the screen as I tried to winkle out a message…which gradually revealed itself as ‘CAST ASIDE FORGOTTEN IDENTITY, HIGHLIGHT SUCCESSOR’, with 22 first and 22 last letters used:

C	A	P	M	A	S	I	D	W	F	O	H	I	A	F	T	J	N	I	L	E	E		C	I	S	B	H	I	W	H	M	I	H	H	D	F	U	M	C	L	R	S	O	S
S	X	S	T	G	L	N	Y	E	S	Y	R	G	O	T	N	E	P	N	D	G	N		T	S	T	Y	N	T	G	D	L	E	G	D	T	S	G	C	Y	E	S	G	N	R
C	A	S	T	A	S	I	D	E	F	O	R	G	O	T	T	E	N	I	D	E	N		T	I	T	Y	H	I	G	H	L	I	G	H	T	S	U	C	C	E	S	S	O	R
1	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0		0	1	0	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	1	1	0	22
0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	1	1	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	1		1	0	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	0	1	22

So, after another check on my e-research, I (re-)discovered that GOLLUM had originally been called SMEAGOL…hence the SPLIT PERSONALITY of the title, and casting aside, or deleting, the first four letters, SMEA seemed to leave real words in the grid, and allowed the GOL to be highlighted with the LUM:

 

All in all, I’d rate this a pretty tough EV – quite a solving challenge, with quite a few obscure/new (to me) words – CREEING, ISOETES, LIEVE, PALETOT, HOPDOG, LOSTE – and some fairly tough clueing, especially with having to work out the missing word in EVERY clue! Looking back, most of the extra words seem to fit nicely into the surface reading – ‘wearing thin’; ‘main meal’; ‘stray hound’; ‘Marine corps’ – hard to see too many that stood out as obviously contrived to meet the setting requirements…

It was an impressive achievement of construction to get all the Acrosses having a middle E. Fortunately symmetry was maintained, and the use of the leading diagonal helped with the end game.

Many thanks to Check for the challenge, and I hope all is clear above and below.

 

Across
Clue No	Extra Word	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined, extra word in bold) Logic/Parsing
1	CORPS	SEA	Marine corps regularly see war (3) regular letters of ‘SeE wAr’
3	APPENDIX	STAKE-OUTS	Extract appendix during second entry to surgical periods of observation (9) S (second) + TAKE-OUT (extract) + S (first letter, or entry, of Surgical)
11	PATROLS	CREEING	Soaking concierge patrols ground without company (7) subtractive anag., i.e. ground, of (CO)NCIERGE minus CO (Company) [cree – of grain, to soften by soaking or boiling]
12	MERLOT	DEW	Historic tribute from French source of well-known Merlot (3) DE (from, in French) + W (first letter, or source, of Well-known) [dew being an obsolete, i.e. historic, spelling of due – fee, toll or tribute]
13	ANGERING	NEMESES / NEESES	Tyneside seems redeveloped, angering rivals (7) NE (North-East, Tyneside) + MESES (anag, i.e. redeveloped, of SEEMS)
14	SPECIAL	REP	Inexperience holds back special agent (3) reversed hidden word, i.e. ‘holds’ and ‘back’, in ‘inexPERience’
15	ITALIAN	FREET / FRET	Celtic sign nimble Italian with recipe to overcome league (5) F(L)EET (nimble) with R (recipe, take, Latin) replacing, or overcoming, L (league) = FREET [freet being Scottish, or Celtic, for an omen, or sign]
17	DIRTY	ISOETES	Plant sometimes overlooking dirty money Mark circulated (7) subtractive anagram, i.e. circulated, of SO(M)ETI(M)ES, overlooking M (money) and M (mark)
19	WAGE	AVERT / VERT	Block right to pursue average wage (5) AVE (average) before (pursued by) RT (right)
21	FEELS	LIEVE	Old dear feels bad about taking Ecstasy (5) LI_VE (evil, bad, about) around (taking in) E (ecstasy tablet) [lieve being an obsolete word for beloved, or dear]
22	OBSERVATORY	GREENLY	Dull observatory retains space lecturer naively (7) GRE_Y (dull) around (retaining) EN (space, printing) + l (lecturer)
24	HEALER	HAVE A GO	Healer to try concoction of agave in moderation (7, three words) H_O (noun, moderation) around AVE A G (anag, i.e. concoction, of AGAVE)
27	IDLING	OX-EYE	I caught worker idling behind window (5) OX (working animal) before, or behind, EYE (homophone, i.e. caught, of I)
30	AGO	STEAL	Take bit of lan’s tea long ago (5) hidden word in, i.e. ‘a bit of’, ‘ianS TEA Long’
32	FORGOT	PALETOT	Top table forgot to veto bachelor’s awful jacket (7) subtractive anagram, i.e. awful, of TOP TA(B)LE, vetoing B – bachelor
34	THIN	OLEIN	Fat Spaniard’s approval wearing thin (5) OLE (shout of approval in Spanish) + IN (wearing)
36	JUDGE	REG	German judge recalled identification number (3) REG (identification number, e.g. for a car) = GER (German), reversed, or recalled
37	NON-STOP	DISEUSE	French performer‘s hell? Non- stop English employment! (7) DIS (hell, Hades) + E (English) + USE (employment)
38	INCARCERATION	OER	Freedom incrementally overturned during incarceration in Barlinnie (3) reversed, or overturned, regular letters, i.e. incrementally, of ‘fReEdOm’ [o’er being poetic Scottish, i.e. in Barlinnie, for over, as in over a period of time, so during]
39	LIED	GREETER	One welcoming feminist lied about empty tribute (7) GREE_R (Germaine Greer, feminist) around TE (empty TributE)
40	ENTERING	GOOSESTEP	March stooges out, entering European Parliament (9) GOOSEST (anag, i.e. out, of STOOGES) + EP (European Parliament)
41	ENGLISHMAN	EEN	Scotland’s aims occasionally angered retired Englishman (3) another reversed occasional letter clue, like 38A, this time in ‘aNgErEd’ [een being Scottish for eye, which in turn can ferer to aim, as in aiming a weapon]
Down
Clue No	Extra Word	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined, extra word in bold) Logic/Parsing
1	CONTRACT	SINFUL	Assassin fulfils somewhat evil contract (6) hidden word in, i.e. somewhat, ‘assasSIN FULfils’
2	INNOVATIONS	ACME / ACE	Top expert adopts medical innovations from the outset (4) AC_E (expert) around (adopting) M (outset of Medical)
4	SUPPORT	TESTA / TEST	Shell express support for cycling (5) STATE (express) cycling round by three letters gives TESTA
5	BUTTERFLY	KISSER	Butterfly trap risks falling apart without engineer’s head (6) KISS_R (anag, i.e. falling apart, of RISKS) around (without, or outwith) E (head, or first letter, of Engineer) [kisser/trap being slang for the mouth]
6	HENMAN	ENCORE	Replay match Henman initially lost to furious McEnroe (6) subtractive anag., i.e. furious, of (M)CENROE, losing M – initial letter of Match
7	ISNT	OGRE	Perhaps Shrek appearing in cameo isn’t great (4) hidden word in, i.e. appearing in, ‘cameO GREat’
8	WRONG	TEPEE	Home support wrong to limit physical activity (5) TE_E (support, e.g. for a golf ball) around (limiting) PE (Physical Education, school lesson)
9	HOUND	SWASHY	Muddy stray hound gutted over bath (6) S_Y (StraY, gutted) around WASH (bath)
10	MEAL	SERBIA / ERBIA	Country’s main meal comprising odd bits of rabbit (6) SE_A (the main) around (comprising) RBI (odd letters of RaBbIt)
12	IDLE	DETUNED	Reduced power of upsetting act to imprison idle teachers (7) DE_ED (act) around (imprisoning) NUT (National Union of Teachers) = DENUTED, all upset, or reversed, to give DETUNED [detuned being the opposite of tuning up a car, so reducing power]
16	HIDING	EAVES / AVES	Go topless slowly at first, hiding edge (5) (L)EAVE (go, topless) + S (Slowly, at first)
18	HAD	REVILER	One abusing irrelevant supply worker had to quit (7) subtractive anag., i.e. supply, of IRRELEV(ANT), losing ANT, or worker)
20	DIFFICULT	TEXEL	Content to abandon difficult travel astride river animals (5) T_L (TraveL, with the content, or inner letters, abandoned) around EXE (West Country river)
23	FANS	LYRISM	Slim Shady keeps younger fans singing (6) L_ISM (anag, i.e. shady, of SLIM) around (keeping) YR (younger)
24	USING	HOPDOG	Work day constrained by selfish person using tool (6) H_OG (selfish person) around (constraining) OP (opus, musical work) + D (day) [hopdog being a tool for pulling out hop-poles]
25	MUSIC	ATTIRE	Ensemble broadcast music to frame race entrant’s debut (6) A_IR (broadcast) around TT (Isle of Man ‘Tourist Trophy’ motorbike race) plus E (first, or debut, letter of Entrant)
26	COLDPLAY	GEODES	Coldplay rocks example of retro lyrics (6) GE (e.g., example of, retro) + ODES (lyrics)
28	LOVE	ETNEAN	Volcanic outburst of athletic teen shown love at last (6) anag, i.e. outburst, of A (athletic) + TEEN + N (last letter of showN)
29	RULES	PAREO	Skirt normal rules on limits of embargo (5) PAR (normal, par for the course) + EO (limits, or outer letters, of EmbargO)
31	SHUNNING	LOSTE	Ed’s relaxed in pool, shunning osteopath (5) hidden word in ‘pooL OSTEopath’ [Ed being Edmund Spenser, with ‘los’te’ being a Spenserian past participle for loose, or relax]
33	OMBUDSMAN	EGGS	Ombudsman urges bakery to forfeit investment by Greece (4) (GR)EGGS (bakery company in UK) forfeiting GR (Greece)
35	SNEER	EURE	Sneer before touring upper-class French department (4) E_RE (before) around (touring) U (upper class, not non-U)