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Mirror Image V by Serpent
The grid has 90° rotational symmetry but no numbers or additional bars should be added at this stage. Five clues contain an extra word, to be removed before solving. These words, in clue order, spell wordplay for a thematic symbol (15, 2 words). All the letters of the symbol appear in a central region of the completed grid (with 90° rotational symmetry and occupying 64 cells). Solvers must complete the representation of the symbol by adding five shapes to the grid.
I started off wondering why we had the clues presented in the normal order for a carte blanche but I can see that normal gridlines would have just been in the way.
The actual solving process was relatively quick but I was completely stuck on the endgame. I had the grid finished on Sunday afternoon and decided to shelve it till the next day. Unfortunately the next day there were a few domestic upheavals – nothing major, just life paying me back, I guess.
Then came Tuesday and the hot weather and thoughts of crosswords of any sort couldn’t have been further from my mind.
Then, suddenly it was Sunday and I realised that I hadn’t even started this blog and, worse still, I hadn’t actually fnished the crossword.
On Sunday I enlisted some “divine” intervention and I was able to put the puzzle to bed.
So, enough of my troubles, on with the puzzle.
The extra words led to NATION ANGRY ABOUT ITS CHAMPION which parses as SWEDEN (nation) Björn BORG (Sweden’s tennis champion) CROSS (angry) giving us SWEDENBORG CROSS, which I’d never heard of.
Emanuel Swedenborg (born Swedberg) was the founder of The New Church (or Swedenborgianism) and the cross (above) is its symbol.
Serpent has kindly given us a few bars to get us started and the 64 cells form a large plus symbol around the centre, which had me thinking Switzerland and Red Cross for a while. Impressively the 64 cells contain only the letters BCDEGNORSW.
I’m a little confused by the “adding five shapes” bit. As I see it, we have to add six shapes – four green squares, one red circle and one yellow cross.
#/media/File:Swedenborgian_cross.PNG){kind=link}
My biggest gripe with the puzzle is, in my opinion, the generated cryptic clue was a litlle vague. I’d have preferred to see some reference to “tennis” – maybe NATION ANGRY ABOUT ITS TENNIS CHAMPION. But never mind, I found it eventually.
Many thanks to Serpent for yet another masterpiece.
| Across |
||||
| Clue |
Entry |
Extra |
Wordplay |
|
| • Garbled faith talk ignoring leader of anti-British movement (8) | KHILAFAT | FAI[t]H TALK (minus Talk (leader); anag: garbled) | ||
| • How Cassius Clay became known, for instance? (5) | ALIAS | ALI (Clay’s adopted name)+AS (for instance) Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali |
||
| • Medical procedures worried nurses approve retrospectively (7) | ENEMATA | ATE (worried) around AMEN (approve) all rev: retrospectively | ||
| • Tears to pieces gossips taking liberties to begin with (7) | TATTERS | TATT[l]ERS (gossips minus Liberties (first letter)) | ||
| • Plant contributing to Royal Mail’s turnover (4) | AMLA | royAL MAil (hidden: contributing to; rev: turnover) | ||
| • Take off retired ace reporter’s disguise (5) | AVALE | Ace+VALE (sounds like veil: disguise) | ||
| • Isolate supply with no earth connected to openings? (6) | OSTIAL | ISOLAT[e] (minus earth; anag: supply) | ||
| • Sullen crowd abruptly rebelled (6) | MOROSE | I just can’t see how this works while writing this blog though I’m pretty sure I did solve it earlier | ||
| • Good novel about sister of Augustus (4) | GWEN | Good+NEW (rev: about) | ||
| • Term not used by common taxonomic groups (6) | GENERA | GENERA[l] (common minus last letter: term) | ||
| • More concise language inhibited by limitations of Twitter (6) | TERSER | T[witte]R (terminations) around ERSE (language) | ||
| • Island nation divided by King’s measures (4) | CORS | NATION |
COS (island) around Rex (King) | |
| • Where European ship has trouble turning around? (6) | ODESSA | European+SS (ship) inside ADO (trouble; rev: around) | ||
| • Material found in antihistamines (6) | TAMINE | antihisTAMINEs (hidden: found in) | ||
| • Waste material made from nothing useful ultimately (5) | OFFAL | OF (from)+FA (nothing)+[usefu]L (ultimately) | ||
| • How lover may be indicated in Collins? (4) | PHIL | Cryptic indication of PHIL Collins | ||
| • Angry work by artist captures wicked primate (7) | GORILLA | ANGRY |
GO (work)+ILL (wicked)+RA (artist) | |
| • Trouble over lives supported by union (7) | LIAISON | AIL (trouble; rev: over)+IS (lives)+ON (supported by) | ||
| • Vacuous commercial about objective assertion (5) | CLAIM | ABOUT |
C[ommercia]L (vacuous)+AIM (objective) | |
| • China, America and most of Italy actively like magnificent buildings (8) | PALATIAL | PAL (china: china plate: mate)+America+ITAL[y] (most of; anag: actively) | ||
| Down | ||||
| • Woman receiving its thanks finishes off mutant ninja turtle (8) | MATAMATA | ITS |
MAMA (woman) around TA (thanks)+[mutan]T+[ninj]A | |
| • Compound’s female toilet unit (7) | FLAVONE | Female+LAVatory (toilet)+ONE (unit) | ||
| • Deployed core components of WAN and optic fibre (4) | PITA | [w]A[n] [o]PTI[c] (core components; anag: deployed) | ||
| • Sailor’s dull base (6) | MATLOW | MAT (dull)+LOW (base) | ||
| • Coarse material found in woman’s study (6) | HERDEN | HER (woman’s)+DEN (study) | ||
| • I suggest we wait – short of time to get tenant? (6) | LESSEE | LE[t]S SEE (I suggest we wait) minus Time | ||
| • Dismay old associate and partner (5) | AMATE | Associate+MATE (partner) | ||
| • Champion manifesto wanting to broadcast desperate shortages (7) | FAMINES | CHAMPION |
MANIFES[to] (minus TO) anag: broadcast | |
| • Something for every sailor travelling round? (5) | ATLAS | A (for every)+SALT (sailor; rev: travelling round) | ||
| • Lay hands on Grenadier Guards (4) | SONG | handS ON Grenadier (hidden: guards) | ||
| • Light in the afternoon starts to affect likelihood of grandparent retiring (8, 2 words) | LAVA LAMP | PM (in the afternoon)+A[ffect]+L[ikelihood] (starts to)+AVAL (of grandparent) all rev: retiring | ||
| • Protective cloth dispersed grime almost completely (7) | GREMIAL | GRIME (anag: dispersed)+AL[l] (completely; almost) | ||
| • The Spanish melody swaps sides in series of repeated passages (7) | ROSALIA | LOS (the in Spanish)+ARIA (melody) with Left and Right swapped around | ||
| • Male eccentricity encapsulated by surrealist artist (6) | ERNEST | Max ERNST (surrealist artist) around Electricity | ||
| • Nothing stops revolutionary German director (4) | ROEG | GERman (rev: revolutionary) around O (nothing) | ||
| • Cornet performing with alto trumpet (6) | CORONA | CORonet+ON (working)+Alto | ||
| • Official author will generate more content? (6) | REFILL | REFeree (official)+I‘LL (I will) | ||
| • Brazilian state religion promoting newspaper (5) | BAHIA | BAHAI (religion) with I (newspaper) moved up | ||
| • Hair-like structures connected to bone increasing level of carbon (5) | CILIA | ILIAC (connected to bone) with Carbon moved up | ||
| • Dead level (4) | FLAT | (double def) | ||
MOROSE
crowd=MOB, —>abruptly—->MO, rebelled=ROSE
As a crossword this was top-notch. As a themed puzzle it was brilliant – one of the best this year, and I enjoyed it even more than Mirror Images II to IV. (I was not around for the first Mirror Image.)
My five-word clue had six words until I realised that ‘retired’ from the sixth Across clue did not qualify. The clue therefore stood at ‘nation angry about its champion’, which I found difficult to solve, although it later turned out that I had the right idea with CROSS for ‘angry’. Going forward with that idea, I had what I admit was a big dollop of luck. I drew the easiest cross possible with 90-degree symmetry that filled exactly 64 squares, which was one made up of a 4 x 4 centre square and four 4 x 3 rectangles attached to it. I was amazed to find that the contents of that area consisted of only ten different letters, and I guessed then that I was on the right track. The 15-letter phrase would be made using only those ten letters, and that was of great help in working out the solution. From the full set of names of UN member nations, only Sweden and Greece were possible, and I remembered the name Swedenborg, not knowing that he was associated with any cross (but Borg was a champion!). Remarkably, none of those 10 letters are to be found in the rest of the grid – an impressive achievement! The achievement of four-way symmetry with the solutions (and bars, if they were to be drawn) was also to be admired.
For those who may be interested: the remaining 80 cells in the grid (outside the 64 cells) are occupied by a different set of 10 letters, all of which happen to be present in KHILAFAT/LAVALAMP! (The letters in JQUXYZ are not used at all.)
I drew the five additional shapes as shown in the Wiki article on The New Church (Swedenborgian). I did my best with the red ‘ring’. (Ken, I would say the ‘+’ cross in the centre does not have to be added – but of course it can and perhaps should be covered with yellow.)
Many thanks to Serpent, and to kenmac for the clear blog.
You win some, you lose some, but I spent the last week googling symmetrical crosses and never found this one. So ended up very frustrated and would love to know how others managed, given the lack of further hints.
Love Serpent’s puzzles-its one thing to fill the grid-another to find the extraneous words
But another thing entirely to work out the rest so thanks kenmac for blog and to Serpent who sailed over my head
An enjoyable trouncing.
Enjoyed, though it needed some Googling: I’d never heard of this symbol before. All thanks to the devious Serpent and to kenmac. I hoped for CROSS from the outset because we were presented with one in the grid, but it took a long time to take the hint from the restricted letter-set that emerged two deep around it. Only after I’d completed the symbol (with the wrong colours and a slightly oversized circle based on the closest Round Thing to hand, but what the heck, it isn’t going to be sent in) did I notice the further tiny hint of ROOD in the lowest square.
Came to this a little late, and then waited for the non-divine assistance of this blog, as I couldn’t get Khilafat, which seemed crucial – the letters of faith and talk, less an ‘a’, do not seem to me to deliver Khilafat, which has two ‘a’s and one ‘t’. As for the endgame, would never have got it… thanks to setter and kenmac.
NH @6
You’re right. Problem between brain and keyboard. Answer should be KHALIFAT.
I’ve amended the blog and I’ll do the grid soon.
But that still has two ‘A’s and one T. ‘Faith’ and ‘talk’ (minus an ‘A’) has two ‘T’s and one ‘A’. I must be missing something…
An enjoyable outing. I resorted to Quinapaulus to get to Swedenborg…never heard of it in my puff!
A couple of comments about the blog…It’s Khilafat…the leader to be ignored is the “T” of talk (the def is of an anti-Brit movement). Also, I don’t think we needed to use colours: nothing requested in the preamble and it seems from a search of Google images, many different colourings are acceptable (though we may have been expected to draw curved sides to the square).
Thanks to S+B as always
Unfortunately I didn’t pick out Sweden during my lengthy staring at the 10-letter jumble. I ended up generating all the anagrams consisting of the 6 letters of the 10 not counting CROS (ie BDEGNW), plus any 4 of the 10 (including repetitions). That narrowed it down from over 180 possibilities to just six, at which point SWEDEN & BORG leapt out – quite laborious but very pleasing to finish unaided.
Thanks for a great puzzle (Serpent) and blog (Ken + something divine).
The anagram in the first clue is FAITH [T]ALK (‘faith’ + ‘talk ignoring leader’), and the answer has to be KHILAFAT because of the definition.
Sorry, Phil K (@9)- your comment was not there when I typed mine!
Thanks Phil@9 and Alan@11 – I get it now!
Could someone please explain how you knew to choose these specific 4 boxes of 16 letters each, before getting to the answer?
In absence of other hints, I had assumed it would be the central 64 cells (4 up / down / left / right from the centre) which contained a total of 15 unique letters.
Or did you only select those cells after solving the final clue, in which case it wouldn’t help to get to the answer!
Everybody @ everywhere
Apologies for the KHILAFAT mix up.
Hopefully all sorted now.
Arnold @14
I didn’t start with the four intersecting boxes – they appeared only after I had identified the thematic cross. I had to start with the five-word clue, and I latched on to the idea of a cross (definition: ‘symbol’), from ‘angry’ in the clue. I then got lucky with the simplest cross shape that I could draw covering 64 squares and was four-way symmetrical. I thereafter back-solved the clue with the help of ‘nation’, using only the letters in the cross.
There was no simple or direct indication of the theme, as we all noted. I felt I was as likely to find it as not to find it. It was that sort of puzzle.
I’ve literally just finished this one. Solving the generated clue took 2 days on its own (I did do other things during the last 48 hours, I promise, but the clue was nagging all the time – I had quite a lengthy dream the first night in which I solved it brilliantly and creatively). I only got there by trying every nation I could think of on turn – Britain, England, Wales, Namibia, Turkey etc. When I landed on Sweden I realised I had thought of Borg when I was staring at the central letters, but blankly moved on to something else. I only got the shapes after googling “Swedenborg Cross”. Hardest of the year, I would say. Very attractive clueing throughout though, and the “Carte Blanche” (second of the week!) was quite an experience on its own.
Arnold @14: if you mean how did I find the CROSS , the preamble says “The letters [in the name] of the symbol appear in a central region …”, so I highlighted all the occurrences of C R O S in the grid and I saw the shape emerging.
Alternatively, if we assume a simple cross comprising 2 overlapping rectangles each x by y (one horizontal, one vertical) that’s 2xy cells less y^2 for the overlap. That has to =64 …
Thanks HG, that’s useful (and ingenious!)
I had read that part of the preamble the other way around, ie “the letters of the answer are limited to what is in the central region”, as opposed to “the letters of the answer can only be found in the central region”.
I’d got as far as CROSS (for angry) and saw a lot of the patterns mentioned above emerging, just not the right one! Oh well, next time.
I alighted (alit?) on CROSS being part of the anagram due to the bolded cross already in the grid (as well the “angry” hint in the generated clue) — which also explained (at least to me) why only five additional shapes needed to be added (I ignored colours I guess!).
very enjoyable puzzles (as usual, all those I managed to solve are enjoyable by definition 🙂
Arnold @19: I see that the published answer says that that “cross contain[s] (all and only) the letters in SWEDENBORG” — the “all & only” would have certainly helped!
HG @21
It did help! (We were not told ‘all and only’, but I assumed or guessed it as there were only 10 distinct letters in that region.)