I made a flying start to this puzzle, but then crashed and burned a bit…! What sort of CAREER is Ifor referring to?…
The (pretty complex!) preamble states that:
“Solvers must highlight three groups, each of six contiguous cells, showing all but the final stage of a CAREER, completing it by filling the otherwise empty bottom row, so creating new words from crossing entries. One answer must be entered as a jumbled non-word to reveal a location, and a second needs some letters replacing by a representation. Numbers count cells used by answers. In each of four clues, the wordplay fails to give a consecutive pair of letters in its answer; each pair must be removed from one of four other clues before solving. The four pairs may be ordered to identify the adviser who suggested the CAREER. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
Faced with a preamble this convoluted, my usual response is to read it a couple of times and then dive into some solving, in the hope that things might fall out that help to explain more on further re-reading! There are four clues with missing letters from wordplay, four clues that need these pairs removing and two clues that have to be manipulated, so that should leave 28 ‘normal’ clues to solve, and hopefully some of the others will start to become clearer.
On the first pass, 9A looked like it needed ‘ED’ removing from STAINED to give anagram fodder for SATIN. Conversely the wordplay for 1D only gave ‘HL’, but pulse is often DAHL, so it is likely to be one of the clues needing an addition – DA+HL = DAHL.
In the meantime, the grid was gradually filling up with normal clues, and my first PDM came when I had RAISE CAIN for 36A, but a couple of crossers didn’t let that go in. So maybe this is the clue that needs to be jumbled, and after a bit of manipulation, I managed to get ICARIAN SEA (using the A of OSTIA). As any fule no, the Icarian Sea is thus named because that is where Icarus fell to his death – so maybe those six characters below will be ICARUS?
I then spotted ICARUS rising in column 2, with the first S of OSSEIN and the first part of URACI(L). And he also appeared travelling down the right-hand side, in (P)ICA + RUS(TED).
So far so good, and those pairs of letters – DA and ED – could form part of Daedalus – his father and fellow flyer, who advised him not to fly too close to the sun…but who ever listens to their Dad’s advice?…
And at this point things sort of fell apart – a bit like Icarus’ wings?! – as I spent a long time looking for another six characters to make a third ICARUS. There seemed to be lots of little groups of some of these letters, so I wondered if he might be jumbled up, to indicate the wings/feathers falling apart – and the grid became more of a Labyrinth for a while…but that’s another story…(;+>)
Eventually I had most of the grid filled, and it seemed clear that 2A was going to have to be the answer with some letters replaced by a ‘representation’, and after a bit too long for my liking, I finally got to WHITSUNTIDE. This allowed the SUN to appear in the sky, and also helped me find the other ICARUS, as he soars near the sun before CAREERing down that right-hand side to his watery demise…
A little mopping up eventually found the constituents of DA+ED+AL+US scattered around the clues/grid, and I finally had it completed, with five entries changed to new words by the completion of ICARUS in the bottom row:
Wow! The usual high quality and deviousness from Ifor – an incredible feat of grid construction, and of timing – as the definition for WHITSUNTIDE would only really work once a year!
My thanks to Ifor for a pretty tough mental workout, and I trust all is clear below…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Removed Letters | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 2 | WHITSUNTIDE / WHIT(SUN)TIDE | The coming week, with new duties to be arranged (9)
anag, i.e. to be arranged, of WITH + N (new) + DUTIES [This puzzle was published on Whit Sunday – 19 May – and Whitsuntide is the week after Whit Sunday – must have taken some careful negotiation with the Editor to get this puzzle in on the correct date!] |
||
| 9 | ED | SATIN | Badly stained material (5)
anag, i.e. badly, of STAIN |
|
| 10 | AIRSHIP | Perhaps knowing contemporary pop tunes before such as Zeppelin (7)
AIRS (tunes) popped in before HIP (trendy, knowing the contemporary scene) |
||
| 13 | CHANCRE | Swelling fortune, having invested rubles (7)
CHANC_E (fortune) around (invested into by) (rubles) |
||
| 14 | OLM | Amphibian inhabiting cool margins (3)
hidden word in, i.e. inhabiting, ‘coOL Margins’ |
||
| 15 | DA | RIC-RAC | Zigzag interweaving circular moves, having dashed until exhausted (6)
subtractive anag, i.e. moves, of CIRC( |
|
| 16 | OSSEIN | Basis of bone erosions missing or rotated and realigned (6)
subtractive anag, i.e. realigned, of E( |
||
| 19 | SURRA | Blood disorder almost certainly right to bother about (5)
SUR( |
||
| 21 | STUMPIER | Wicketkeeper snaring India’s opener shorter and wider (8)
STUMP_ER (cricket, wicketkeeper) around (snaring) I (opening letter of India) |
||
| 23 | FREEWARE | Reproducible program ready with important date put back (8)
FREE (ready, available) + W (with) + ARE (era, or important date, put back) [‘freeware’ being software, or programs, that can be reproduced without charge] |
||
| 25 | RANDY | Boisterous local sides in replay? (5)
R AND Y are the sides, or outer letters of ReplaY! [the ‘local’ in the definition indicating this is a dialect usage] |
||
| 26 | SISSOOS | Help outside is very good for Indian trees (7)
S_OS (appeal for help) around IS + SO (very good) |
||
| 28 | ACOLD | Poor Tom’s condition in a jest about Lear’s head (5)
A + CO_D (jest, hoax) around L (head, or first letter, of Lear) [‘acold’ being Shakespearean for chilled – I presume Tom is a character suffering from the cold in a play it is used in? **see comment from Phi at #3 – King Lear, as referenced in the clue – my apologies for being lazy and not checking!] |
||
| 30 | ACCURST | Poet’s doomed pretence embracing scoundrels (7)
AC_T (pretence) around (embracing) CURS (scoundrels) |
||
| 33 | QUORATE | Hold forth following question, like an empanelled jury (7)
QU (question) + ORATE (hold forth) |
||
| 34 | CLIN / CLINAL | Specific link to some extent relating to gradation of species (6)
hidden word, i.e. to some extent, in ‘specifiC LINk’ |
||
| 35 | BID | Contract proposal left in between papers (3)
B (leftmost letter of Between) + ID (identity papers) |
||
| 36 | AL | RAISE CAIN / ICARIAN SE | Make a lot of fuss of abandoned canaries hiding alone (9, two words)
RAISE CA_N (anag, i.e. abandoned, of CANARIES) around (hiding) I (one) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Removed Letters | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | HL / DAHL | Pulse of child regularly taken (4)
regular letters from ‘cHiLd’ |
||
| 3 | HINDER / HINDERED | Kept back in the rear (8)
subtractive double definition – HINDERED can be ‘kept back; and HINDER is Scottish for last, at the back |
||
| 4 | INCH | Move slowly around at home, clearing house (4)
IN (at home) + CH (clearing house, financial) |
||
| 5 | TARANTAS | Fanfare sounds with gunners abandoning Russian transport (8)
TARANTA( |
||
| 6 | TRUISM | Most of all this self-evident remark could be selflessness (6)
if you add AL( |
||
| 7 | ISH | Expiry of Banquo happens before end of Macbeth (3)
IS (happens) + H (end letter of macbetH) [‘ish’ being a Scottish legal term for expiry, with Banquo indicating Scottishness!] |
||
| 8 | DHURRIE | Curtain fabric tore back to front (7)
HURRIE( |
||
| 9 | SCOOP | Exclusive position rejected when keeping company (5)
S_OP (pos, or position, rejected) around (keeping) CO (company) |
||
| 11 | IMARET | Hospice in Emirates turning away outsiders in trouble (6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. in trouble, of ( |
||
| 12 | PICA | Irrational about unnatural craving (4)
PI (irrational number) + CA (circa, approximately, or about) |
||
| 17 | STENOTIC | Medically constricted section having heart repeatedly struggling (8)
additive anagram, i.e. struggling, of SEC-TT-ION, repeating its middle letter, or heart! |
||
| 18 | AURICULA / AURICULAR | Flower before university on turning 20 (8)
A (ante, before) + U (university) + RICULA (anag, i.e. turning, of 20D , URACIL) |
||
| 20 | URACIL | Modified content of circular base (6)
subtractive anagram, i.e. modified, of the contents of ( |
||
| 22 | RUSTED | Corroded wiper flipping side to side (6)
( |
||
| 23 | US | FRANC | Elderly cousin abroad caught German that’s gone (5)
homophone, i.e. caught, or heard – FRANK (early German, from 5th century Franconia) can sound like FRANC (pronounced the English way! A coin, abroad, replaced by the Euro in some places, so ‘elderly’, or obsolete) |
|
| 24 | URES / USURES / USURESS | Previous operations lost Interest payments (6)
subtractive obsolete double defn. – URES are obsolete, or previous, operations/usages; and USURES are obsolete, or lost, interest payments, from usury. |
||
| 27 | OSTIA | Mouths wait, sometimes turning up having eaten (5)
reversed hidden word in, i.e. turning up and eaten by, ‘wAIT SOmetimes’ |
||
| 29 | LANA / LANAI | Timber partly analysed in retrospect (4)
reversed, hidden word, i.e. partly and in retrospect, in ‘ANALysed’ |
||
| 31 | CORN / CORNU | Homer’s not at first something old-fashioned (4)
COR (homer, Hebrew measure) + N (first letter of Not) |
||
| 32 | MAR / MARC | Damage sleeve with mark at its top (3)
AR( |
||
An excellent crossword, but I couldn’t quite complete the theme. I got ICARUS, DAEDALUS, the SUN and the ICARIAN SEA, but I failed to find anywhere the information I needed to identify the three ‘stages’ or to know their shape in the grid. I had hoped to find one or more of (for example) prison, escape and flight, but I now see from the blog that it’s just the name ICARUS repeated in different (and of course appropriate) places en route. Still, it was an interesting theme.
Incidentally, I made the valid but (as it turned out) incorrect assumption that ‘ew’ should be removed from ‘new’ in the clue to 2a (WHITSUNTIDE). The clue worked also, of course, as intended, with ‘new’ indicating N as part of the anagram fodder.
Thanks anyway to Ifor, and to mc_rapper for the blog and for revealing what I didn’t see.
A master-class blog as usual mc! Thanks a lot. Reading this is like reading a mini thriller.
ACOLD
Wiki: Poor Tom Is Cold is a 2004 made-for-TV film starring Peter Outerbridge, Colm Meaney, Keeley Hawes and Flora Montgomery.
The clue refers to this (the blog, of course, underscores the idea)?
RANDY
I have seen the word being used in this sense in many places. Didn’t know the ‘local’ aspect of it.
SURRA and BID
The same beautiful trick (may not be the first time) used. Loved the clues.
A couple of minor doubts/observations:
WHITSUNTIDE
Isn’t it just one single anagram of (to be arranged) ‘WITH N DUTIES’? Otherwise, the ‘new’ is used twice.
FRANC
The blog says clearly that it was a coin abroad. The ‘abroad’ needs to be underlined for the record.
INCH
What is the ‘around’ for? Is it to be read as ‘around at home’ in the sense of ‘available at home’?
“Poor Tom’s acold” is a repeated phrase used by Edgar (in disguise, as a beggar in tatters) during the storm scene in King Lear. Quite a good reference to the scene.
AlanB at #1 – very noble of you to come along and give some positive comment on a DNF – in the past I would usually just throw the puzzle in the (recycling) bin and go off on a sulk! You are right about the parsing of WHITSUNTIDE – I have tweaked that, as per your and KVa’s comments – if not about the removal of EW!
Kva at #2 – I have tweaked a few of the parsings and definition underlinings – thanks for your detailed analysis. Not sure about your film though – see Phi at #3…
Phi at #3 – thanks for the Lear reference – laziness on my part as it would have taken a few seconds of Go-ogling to confirm – I have updated the parsing
Just to add that there is a setter’s blog over on the BD site…
(Ifor seems to suggest that the leftmost ICARUS is plunging headfirst towards the sea, whereas I interpreted it as him rising towards the sun…so I will defer to him on that!)
mc@4
Thanks for your response. Saw Phi’s post. My apologies-I should have read the blog more carefully. You were referring to one of Shakespeare’s plays.
An excellent puzzle which I found to be on the easier end of the spectrum, at least compared to other recent offerings.
I solved WHITSUNTIDE first and punted the SUN into the single cell, which quickly turned out to be correct based on crossing entries – though despite extracting DA ED AL in that order (by pure chance) I needed the final US for the penny to drop.
I too assumed the 3 highlighted entries would be different but after spotting two ICARUSes it was obvious enough there had to be a third one.
I did however only get to ICARIA for the bottom entry and despite entering NSE correctly, did not see that ICARIAN SEA had appeared – I did think ICARIA sat a bit oddly so am pleased to see it was me who was mistaken.
Overall a fantastic EV so thank you to setter and blogger.
My thanks to all, especially MC (I do enjoy the detail and artwork in your blogs). Your interpretation of the “career” in a left – right sense certainly hadn’t occurred to me, as I was influenced by Jacob Gowy’s painting of Icarus plunging head-first to his doom, and so intended him to be successively standing, flying, falling and drowning. Of course that doesn’t explain why I chose that direction in building the grid, which must have been at some subconscious level.
Enjoyed this one very much, I like an interesting and varied endgame. Also a rare treat to get a topical clue like 2a. Feels like breaking the fourth wall or something. Many thanks to Ifor and mc_rapper.
Thanks for the further comments – much appreciated as usual – especially Ifor for popping in.
arnold at #7 – interesting that you got WHITSUNTIDE first up, whereas it was nearly my last!
Ifor at #8 – all great works of art are open to interpretation by the viewer (or solver, in this case!)