Song 2 by eXtent
Answers to the 18 down clues for entries in the middle nine columns must have all occurrences of a letter omitted before entry: wordplay in these clues indicates the grid entry; definition and enumeration refer to the unmutilated answer. Omitted letters from upper entries must be entered in the silvered cell above the column; those from lower entries must be entered in the cell below. The cells containing omitted letters spell a group and a song, which provide a hint to the theme. Solvers must replace the contents of these cells with a second song and two entries in the grid with the singers. All entries in the final grid are real words or proper names.
I came to this puzzle (on the Saturday before Christmas) expecting the annual tough puzzle and I was pleasantly surprised. It looks like HolyGhost may have to contend with this year’s challenge.
eXtent very nicely gives us the lengths of the down answers so you can work out how many extra letters have to be dropped. Even though, in most cases, it’s only one. I hadn’t actually appreciated that until I came to justifying 6d COCOTTES as I had trouble understanding OOTTES.
I started working on the across clues as this seemed to make the most sense. I probably managed to solve about half of them on my first pass so I rolled up my sleeves and got on with tackling the downs. I found them, for the most part, quite gentle and I eventually had CHOIR across the top and what looked like it wanted to be xxxWAY BOY across the bottom. It wasn’t until I solved 19d and found the G that GALWAY BAY jumped out. I still had only CHOIR across the top but quickly realised we needed NYPD.
NYPD CHOIR and GALWAY BAY are referenced in the festive favourite Fairy Tale of New York (as seen in this YouTube video: https://youtu.be/j9jbdgZidu8?si=wNRfG8JzVyLCD9dO). The song is credited to The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl though the front man of The Pogues is Shane MacGowan. Sadly Shane MacGowan left us just over a year ago in November 2023. But much more tragically, the great Kirsty MacColl left us 24 years ago, in December 2000, in Mexico in a boating “incident” after saving the lives of her two children: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirsty_MacColl#Death.
I bet eXtent was overjoyed when he realised that “Kirsty MacColl” and “Shane MacGowan” were the same number of letters as were “NYPD Choir” and “Galway Bay” and “Fairytale” and “Of New York”.
So that’s it, we have to change the top silver row from “NYPD CHOIR” to “FAIRYTALE”, bottom silver row from “GALWAY BAY” to “OF NEW YORK”. And the top row of the crossword proper is changed to “KIRSTY MACCOLL” and the bottom row becomes “SHANE MACGOWAN”. All while leaving real words in the grid.
Excellent stuff from eXtent. Thanks for the challenge and the fun.
| Across | Entry | Wordplay | |
| 1 Ignores complaints about bear (13) | COLD-SHOULDERS | COLDS (complaints) around SHOULDER (bear) | |
| 11 Dull adult replaced by parent during day (6) | DREARY | D[a]Y with Adult replaced by REAR (parent) | |
| 12 Run half-heartedly to collect recipe for food store (6) | LARDER | LAD[d]ER (run; half-hearted) around Recipe | |
| 14 Part of plant cultivated in sand regularly (6) | STAMEN | TAME (cultivated) inside S[a]N[d] (regularly) | |
| 16 Appeal to trustee assumes absolute discretion (7) | ATTRACT | TRustee inside Absolute TACT (discretion) | |
| 17 Approached soldiers about call for shields (6) | NEARED | NEED (call for) around RA soldiers (rev: about) | |
| 18 Bank very much wants standing order (4) | RELY | [so]RELY (very much) minus SO (standing order) | |
| 20 Disheartened exclusive group of followers (4) | SECT | SE[le]CT (disheartened) | |
| 23 Passage from last piece of modernist composer (6) | TRAVEL | [modernis]T (last piece)+RAVEL (composer) Joseph Maurice Ravel |
|
| 24 Fools say engaging witness must come back (5) | GEESE | EG (say) around SEE all rev: must come back | |
| 25 Original sin that fundamentally does not exist (4) | ISN’T | SIN (anag: original)+T[hat] (fundementally) (I didn’t know that fundamentally meant “primarily”) |
|
| 27 Finish off patrol in the neighbourhood (5) | ROUND | (double def) | |
| 29 Watercourse not initially wet (4) | RAIN | [d]RAIN (watercourse; not initially) | |
| 30 Can it pass westerly Scottish waters? (5) | LOCHS | SH (can it)+COL (pass) all rev: westerly | |
| 33 Start Oxford University exam backwards (6) | OUTSET | OU (Oxford University)+TEST (exam; rev: backwards) | |
| 34 Low wailing (4) | KEEN | (double def) | |
| 35 House cruise missile cases (4) | SEMI | cruiSE MIssiles (hidden: cases) | |
| 37 So, a hollow log rolled over gentle slope (6) | GLACIS | SIC (so)+A+L[o]G (hollow) | |
| 39 Rags covering extremely beaten signals (7) | TATTOOS | TATS (rags) around TOO (extremely) | |
| 41 Certainly simian, tailless African beasts (6) | OKAPIS | OK (certainly)+APIS[h] (simian; tailless) | |
| 44 Berserk Asian elephant Nepalis sacrificed for deity (6) | ATHENA | [asi]AN E[lep]HA[n]T anag: berserk; minus NEPALIS | |
| 45 A French function declared open (6) | UNROLL | UN (A in French)+ROLL (sounds like ROLE (function)) | |
| 46 Top Nazi guards unaffected by extremes of native cruelty (13) | HEARTLESSENESS | ARTLESS (unaffected)+N[ativ]E (extremes) inside HESS (top Nazi) Rudolf Hess |
|
| Down | Entry | Extra | Wordplay |
| 2 Men had to make a speech (5) | ORATE | OR (men) ATE (had) | |
| 3 English lord hedges loan (4) | LEND | N |
LorD around English |
| 4 Type of food delicatessen’s beginning to display (5) | DAIRY | Y |
D[elicatessen] (beginning)+AIR (display) |
| 5 Broadcaster succeeded academic (8) | SPREADER | P |
Succeeded+READER (academic) |
| 6 Loose women love putting up fight (8) | COCOTTES | C |
O (love)+SET TO (fight; rev: putting up) |
| 7 Cavalryman left article under uniform (5) | UHLAN | H |
Uniform+Left+AN (article) |
| 8 Earth mother close to radical revolutionary (4) | LOAM | O |
MA (mother)+[radica]L (closing letter) rev: revolutionary |
| 9 English-American holding up driver more likely to be distracted (8) | DREAMIER | I |
DRiver+English+AMERican |
| 10 Reportedly show great respect for part of outfit? (6) | REVERS | Sounds like REVERES (shows respect) | |
| 13 Garlic tea affected vital part of development (9) | CARTILAGE | GARLIC TEA (anag: affected) | |
| 15 Reformed deviant, good person who expects Christ to appear (9) | ADVENTIST | DEVIANT (anag: reformed)+ST (saint: good person) | |
| 19 Catch sight of canine in passage (6) | GLANCE | G |
LANE (passage) around Canine |
| 20 Had an inclination to run after son (6) | SLOPED | D |
Son+LOPE (run) |
| 21 Gorge on served up preserve sandwiches (6) | CANYON | Y |
CAN (preserve) around ON (rev: served up) |
| 22 Moderate supports Conservative line produced by press? (6) | CREASE | R |
Conservative+EASE (moderate) |
| 26 Sore listener as philosopher has switched sides in conversation (8, 2 words) | THICK EAR | A |
THI[n]KER (philosopher) with N of ConversatioN replaced by C |
| 28 Nudists ordered receptacles for discarded items (8) | DUSTBINS | B |
NUDISTS (anag: ordered) |
| 31 Nothing refined, dismissing soft rock (6) | OOLITE | O (nothing)+[p]OLITE (refined; minus P (soft)) | |
| 32 Tissues in balls having concerning colour, not good (7) | RETINAE | A |
RE (concerning)+TIN[g]E (colour; minus Good) |
| 36 Figure leading puppets doubled gang associates (5) | MOLLS | [d]OLLS (puppets; with D (500) doubled to M (1000)) | |
| 38 Drinks raised for ancient slaver (5) | SPAWL | W |
LAPS (drinks; rev: raised) |
| 40 Rubles included in money providing capital (6) | TIRANA | A |
TIN (money) around Roubles Capital of Albania |
| 42 Old wee insect (4) | LANT | L |
ANT (insect) |
| 43 Young bouncer’s kid throwing out drunk, at last (4) | JOEY | Y |
JO[k]E (kid; minus [drun]K) |
A good one as usual from the dynamic duo. I made steady progress through the very sound clues, helped significantly after I had solved 1A and 46A. I struggled with 6D, trying unsuccessfully to fit alternative spellings of COQUETTE until eventually finding and parsing COCOTTE, a word I had not encountered before (a sheltered life!). Having completed the two shaded entries, I searched GALWAY BAY. There was more than one version but no mention of NYPD. So, I included this in my search and Bingo!, there was the seasonally appropriate song. Although it was a track I liked, I was not sufficiently familiar with all the words to have spotted the link earlier. It was then a perfunctory job to amend the shaded entries to the singers. Very handy that all four thematic entries were had 9 letters.
I am amazed and full of admiration for the grid construction in which the multiple changes to the 2 top and 2 bottom rows produced a final grid with all real words.
Many thanks to eXternal and Serpent for an entertaining and timely puzzle. Also, of course, to Ken for the blog.
A Happy New Year to all the setters, bloggers, organisers and solvers.
I also wonder at the kind of mind that notices these matching name and word lengths. A brilliant construction, I thought, and a very entertaining idea (thanks to my partner, who immediately got the reference). Thanks to eXternal and Serpent and kenmac for the three or four I didn’t get. And happy new year to all.
A magnificent construction and a fittingly festive theme made this one of my favourite puzzles of the year. The thematic song jumped out well before the end once GALWAY BAY looked likely across the bottom. Fabulous work.
Many thanks to eXtent and kenmac. Happy New Year all!
Nothing significant to add because it was indeed very enjoyable and seasonal. In 25A, I took “fundamentally” as indicating the last letter of “that”, since the fundament is the bottom, but I see Chambers lists “primary” as a definition, so I suppose it could refer to either end and we would never know the difference. In 8D parsing, I think you have written a Y where you meant an L. Happy New Year to all and thanks to kenmac and eXtent.
Particularly good for me as I was able to do it!
Thanks
Sag @4
Oops! Fixed now.
Our experience was very similar to kenmac’s in that Bert recognised ‘Galway Bay’ as featuring in ‘The Fairytale of New York’. We weren’t aware of the NYPD choir song though. A quick google revealed all. Joyce would have been totally lost without google if she had been solving alone.
All very satisfying to solve – a neat final denouement.
It’s a shame we won’t be seeing any more of Serpent in the IQ but once again, we wish him well in his new role.
Thanks to both Extent and kenmac. HNY to all.
Much enjoyed — lots of fun — festive in a nice offbeat way. My wife named Song 2 within seconds of my saying it looked as though the bottom line was going to read GALWAY BAY. Happy New Year all round!
I finally found the time to attempt this and am very glad that I did. The way that the thematic items were made to occupy the six symmetric 9-letter and 13-letter entries was admirable, and the clues were excellent, as I expected from this formidable pair.
Thanks to eXtent and kenmac.
Not at all difficult but very enjoyable for all that.
Slightly put off by there being no solid bar between the upper block of 9 cells and the main body of the puzzle (unlike the lower block), but as real words failed to emerge I decided that it was simply a typesetting oversight.
Thanks to all involved.