Enigmatic Variations No. 1639: Switch by Piccadilly

Piccadilly is looking to SWITCH jobs this week – hopefully just the ‘day job’, and not the puzzle setting…

The preamble states that:

“Eight people have jobs which include their first names. They all SWITCH jobs by exchanging names. Jobs are clued in alphabetical order using wordplay only. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Short and sweet, and the key will be solving a few of those jobs… There are eight slots in the grid that don’t have normal clues, so presumably the results of the ‘switches’ will go in these.

I was delayed a little by trying to make the first job a BARRISTO, but I did subconsciously know that ‘barista’ only has one R and ends in an A! ARBORIST, BUTCHER, DECORATOR and TRUMPETER all came in to work nice and early. Some of the others took a little longer to work out.

In the meantime, a few trawls through the normal clues started to fill in a few crossers on the job entries.

The preamble didn’t suggest that the results of the switches would be real words – and it soon became apparent that that would have been some feat! – but it also didn’t specify that they weren’t, whereas often a preamble will say something along the lines of ‘…resulting in non-words...’

Once enough crossers were in place, it soon became clear where a few switched jobs might go – e.g. the B and U of HENBANE and AUGER meant that BUT(CHER) must go in the 9th row, with the ERIC from CL-ERIC the only candidate to replace CHER.

And, by a process of elimination, I eventually got them all in, with CO-RON-ER being my last ‘job’ solved, and in fact the last clue solved, with RON replacing the CORA of DE-CORA-TOR.

 

I’m writing this over a week later, but I remember thinking at the time that it was  a fairly bizarre device – I don’t think I’ve seen anything like this used before – and wondering how on earth it occurred to Piccadilly to find a load of job titles with names in them, and then swap them around before building a grid around them! I guess you could say the same about most thematic/barred puzzles… Not being a setter myself, and not having a creative bone in my body, I guess I will never know…

Maybe he was looking at the word AR-BORIS-T and wondering what sort of job Boris might be looking for now that he is no longer ‘world king’…or maybe TRUMP-eter was inspired by all the recent and interminable news coverage of another ex-leader…

Anyway, it was a fun solve – certainly at the easier end of the EV spectrum, once I got my head around the switching and the fitting of the Frankenstein-like jigsaw pieces.

My favourite clue has to be ‘Old VIP’ for TANNER – short and sweet! OERLIKON wasn’t on the tip of my tongue, but I vaguely remembered seeing it before, and luckily my General Knowledge included ELAINE Paige of Lloyd-Webber fame and OPHELIA from Hamlet. The river PENEUS needed a look up to be sure, although it had to be that from the anagram and the crossers, as did YODE – and I also learned that a NAIL is a unit of length: 2 1/4 inches.

My thanks, as ever, to Piccadilly for the challenge, and I hope all is clear below.

 

Jobs
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue Logic/Parsing
*	AR_BORIS_T / AR_ANNE_T	Bar riots erupted anag, i.e. erupted, of BAR RIOTS
*	BUT_CHER / BUT_ERIC	Cut herb in pieces anag, i.e. in pieces, of CUT HERB
*	CL_ERIC / CL_PETER	Hundred pound fine C (100, Roman numeral) + L (libra, pound, LSD) + ERIC (blood fine)
*	CO_RON_ER / CO_IAN_ER	Homer expert COR (homer, Hebrew measure) + ONER (expert)
*	DE_CORA_TOR / DE_RON_TOR	Actor rode out anag, i.e. out, of ACTOR RODE
*	P_IAN_IST / P_CORA_IST	Cuckoos entering mine PI_T (mine) around (entered by) ANIS (cuckoos)
*	T_ANNE_R / T_BORIS_R	Old VIP? CD/&lit-ish? A TANNER is an old sixpence, or VI (Roman numeral, six) + P (pence)!
*	TRUM_PETER / TRUM_CHER	Former president damaged tree TRUMP (former president) + ETER (anag, i.e. damaged, of TREE)
Across
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
1	DALLY	Daughter and Shakespeare’s kinsman exchange caresses once (5) D (daughter) + ALLY (Shakespeare, kinsman)
5	ECSTASY	Drug not hard to find outside clubs on street (7) E_ASY (not hard) around (outside) C (clubs, cards) + ST (street)
9	ELAINE	Ms Paige gives high note in intro to Evita (6) ELA (e-la, high note) + IN + E (first letter, or introduction, of Evita) [Elaine Paige, singer in many Andrew Lloyd-Webber musicals]
10	IGLOO	Some schoolgirls turned over dome-shaped house (5) reversed hidden word , i.e. ‘some’ and ‘turned over’, in ‘schOOLGIrls’
12	OPHELIA	Work hard with essayist to identify character in Hamlet (7) OP (opus, musical work) + H (hard, pencil lead) + ELIA (pen name of essayist Charles Lamb, from the 1800s)
13	TUTEE	One receiving instruction has trade union support (5) TU (Trade Union) + TEE (support, e.g. for ball in golf!)
14	NAIL	2 1/4 inches in a crooked line (4) NAI (anag, i.e. crooked, of IN A) + L (line)
15	PENEUS	Vagrant seen up river in Thessaly (6) anag, i.e. vagrant, of SEEN UP [another name of the Salambria, Greek river in Thessaly]
20	ZETA	Unknown alien, a character from Greece (4) Z (unknown quantity, e.g. in maths) + ET (extraterrestrial, alien) + A
21	OATH	Curse that wagon regularly reversing (4) alternate, reversed letters, i.e. regularly and reversing, from ‘tHaT wAgOn’
22	OERLIKON	General finally interrupting rookie that’s mishandled new cannon (8) OER_IKO (anag, i.e. mishandled, of ROOKIE) around L (final letter of generaL), plus N (new)
23	MORNAY	Romany concocted cheese sauce (6) anag, i.e. concocted, of ROMANY
25	PAPA	Worthless entertainment provided by a follower of Oscar (4) PAP (worthless entertainment) + A [‘papa’ follows ‘oscar’ in the NATO/phonetic alphabet]
27	ANTRA	Social worker uncovered oral cavities (5) ANT (social worker) + RA (oRAl, uncovered)
30	NIAGARA	Turkish commander, during terrible rain, falls here (7) NI_RA (anag, i.e. terrible, of RAIN) around AGA (Turkish commander)
31	STARS	Sailor aboard ship takes leading role (5) S_S (steamship) around (boarded by) TAR (Jolly Jack Tar, sailor)
32	EDIBLE	I bleed, cycling to get such food (6) anag, i.e. cycling, of I BLEED
33	ASSES	Girls ignoring lecturer – they’re stupid (5) (L)ASSES (girls) ignoring L (lecturer)
Down
Clue No	Solution / Entry	Clue (definition underlined) Logic/Parsing
2	ALAP	Initially Asian ladies are playing part of raga (4) first letters, i.e. initially, of ‘Asian Ladies Are Playing’
3	LATHI	Hit Al swinging Indian club (5) anag, i.e. swinging, of HIT AL
4	LIBEL	I’ll be circulating defamatory statement (5) anag, i.e. circulating, of ILL BE
5	EERIE	Headless fellow: that is weird! (5) (P)EER (fellow, equal, headless) + IE (id est, that is)
6	SISTERLY	I try less subtly to become kind (8) anag, i.e. subtly, of I TRY LESS
7	ALIT	Boxer north of Thailand landed (4) ALI (boxer, Muhammad Ali) plus (to the North of, in a Down clue) T (Thailand)
8	YODE	Spenser’s proceeded east following Jedi leaving area (4) YOD(A) (Star Wars, Yoda, Jedi master) plus (followed by) E (East) [‘cryptic that was!’]
11	OVERTOP	Surpass poor vet struggling (7) anag, i.e. struggling, of POOR VET
16	UZI	Ms Quatro loses lead firearm (3) (S)UZI – Suzi Quattro, rock goddess, losing leading letter
17	MANACLES	Man laces tight shackles (8) anag, i.e. tight, or drunk, of MAN LACES
18	MHO	Siemens’ predecessor beginning to move house (3) M (beginning to Move) + HO (house) [unit of electric conductance, superseded by the siemens]
19	HENBANE	Drunken Behan swallowing nut that’s poisonous (7) H_BANE (anag, i.e. drunken, of BEHAN) around (swallowing) EN (nut)
24	AUGER	It could bore a handgun lacking length (5) A + (L)UGER (handgun, lacking L – length)
25	PERIS	Fairies pass away having hearts removed (5) PERIS(H) – pass away, removing H – hearts
26	ARABS	Semitic people are mostly sailors (5) AR(E) (are, mostly) + ABS (Able-Bodied seamen, sailors)
27	AESC	A key rune (4) A + ESC (escape key, computer keyboard)
28	TRAP	Constituent going north shows hidden danger (4) PART (constituent) going north (in a Down clue) = TRAP (hidden danger)
29	IDLE	One with a small portion spends nothing, being unemployed (4) I + D(O)LE (small portion, removing, or spending, O – zero, nothing)