Enigmatic Variations No. 1635: Tom’s Problem by Kcit

Not sure who TOM is, but he has a PROBLEM! Can we fix it? Yes we can!…

The preamble states that:

“1 Across followed by 31-34 reading anticlockwise (six words in total) is a quotation minus its definite article and verb. It outlines TOM’S PROBLEM, with a fictional solution as the unclued entry. Two clues are double clues: separate clues for two words run together. Their associated entries are anagrams of the two answers, offering real solutions to TOM’S PROBLEM (though one has since been adopted elsewhere). In each of six down clues, three consecutive letters should be removed, always leaving real words, although the sense of the clue may suffer. In clue order these spell two more fictional solutions. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

A fairly complex preamble, requiring a few re-reads at the start and during the solve!

There are plenty of crossers for the unclued perimeter and 5th row material, so best to get on with some solving to see what transpires, and whether those two special double clues will make themselves known.

(Unfortunately for me, I seem to have mislaid my solving/working copy with my notes on it, and many puzzles and clues have flowed between my ears since this one, so I will have to dig deep in the memory banks to remember the solving process.)

From short-ish-term memory, the grid filled up slowly and steadily, and once I had a few crossers it seemed that the unclued 5th row would contain MACAVITY, which immediately pointed me at TS Eliot and ‘Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats‘. Also, from longer-term memory, Kcit/Phi is known for cat-themed puzzles, many of them based on/dedicated to cats that he has been lucky enough to be owned by over the years.

I also found PIPE/WATTS at 30A, so that had to be one of the two special clues, and a little anagramming came up with PETTIPAWS, another character from the book.

As this was happening, the perimeter quotation gradually revealed ‘(THE) NAMING OF CATS (IS) A DIFFICULT MATTER’ – also from the book. So ‘TOM’S PROBLEM’ could be seen from two angles – the difficulty of naming cats (toms) generally; or Tom’s (Thomas Stearns Eliot’s) problem in coming up with names for the book’s characters?!

I eventually found ATOM/INLET -> TANTOMILE at 16A (approximately symmetrical to 30A) as the other special, and then the last piece of the jigsaw was those extra triplets, which gave another two characters – ASP+ARA+GUS and CAT+MOR+GAN:

I have to say I am not particularly acquainted with the book – not sure I have ever read it in its entirety – but I have learned a lot more about it in the process of solving and blogging this puzzle!

One point I couldn’t quite square off, although I don’t think it makes any difference for completion/submission of the puzzle, is this part of the preamble – ‘though one has since been adopted elsewhere‘. The only thing I can think of, after a bit of Wiki-oogling, is that Tantomile also appears in the musical ‘Cats!‘, whereas Pettipaws doesn’t(?). I’m sure Kcit or someone else will enlighten me below…

My thanks to Kcit for the challenge – hopefully this is a ‘generic’ cat-themed puzzle, and not another dedication – and I trust all is clear below.

(NB. I had to add a few extra bars to the thematic/unclued material in the grid above, to stop the PD blogging utility from numbering them automatically. Hopefully this doesn’t detract too much…)