Listener 4863: The Green Grass Don by Smudge

A very warm welcome back to Smudge, who we’ve not seen at the Listener since 4388 and 4503! But we have a confession to make …

We failed to do one of the obvious things to do with any Listener, anagram the title, before launching in. It gives THE GARDENER’S SONG, which would have saved us several hours waiting for the P to D in the endgame if we’d spotted that first. Let us explain:

By any standards the preamble, while entirely fair, was a bit of a challenge – especially trying to understand what “reviewing” some answers to produce a different entry (to which the answer was a partial clue) might mean. But … once again, if only …

So it was straight into the clues, which were a good set, the only real hardship being keeping track of which were the ones for review, which had extra words which defined elements of the replacement words, and which had extra words generating two titles and an author. This week’s blogger just scribbles pencil marks down the side which take as long to decipher as the puzzle: the other half of Dash has a much better method. Ah well. It helped when we spotted that some clues had enumerations that didn’t match their spaces so were good candidates for the “review” clues.

Answers began to fill the grid but we wanted to speed up so it was time to focus on the message. The first four clues gave SYLVIE at which point a long-ago degree in English kicked in to correctly predict AND BRUNO (CONCLUDED) by Lewis Carroll. That allowed the extra words making the message to be identified and so too the ones defining the new entries.

Soon the grid was full – the replacement words guessed accurately – and the final challenge was to cold-solve the clues for review and work out how they related to their replacements (and remember to follow the final instruction.)

So began the head-scratching. When ELEPHANT, KANGAROO and ALBATROSS appeared as answers it looked as if we were on a rather unusual safari, but for reasons deep in the intuitive side of our brain their very oddness triggered the word “nonsense” (another Eng Lit essay long ago) and Googling them with that word led – yes – the Great Reveal – to THE MAD GARDENER’S SONG (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mad_Gardener%27s_Song) which is of course actually part of “Sylvie and Bruno” – possibly the best part. As they say – Doh!

It begins:

He thought he saw an Elephant,
That practised on a fife:
He looked again, and found it was
A letter from his wife.
“At length I realise,” he said,
“The bitterness of Life!”

So that’s what “re-view” meant. It continues with verses about a Buffalo, Rattlesnake, Banker’s Clerk, Kangaroo, Coach-and-For, Albatross, Garden-Door and (the ninth and final one) Argument.

He thought he saw an Argument
That proved he was the Pope
He looked again, and found it was
A Bar of Mottled Soap.
“A fact so dread,” he faintly said,
“Extinguishes all hope!”

 – which gave the endgame in which the letters of HOPE are erased.

For the completists among you:

1. Elephant > A letter from his wife > SOUSE   SPOUSE – P
2. Buffalo > Sister’s Husband’s Niece > DAUGHTER (think about it)
3. Rattlesnake > The Middle of Next Week > EXTWEE  (n)EX)T WEE(k)
4. Banker’s Clerk > Hippopotamus > RIVER HORSE  (all Greek to me)
5. Kangaroo > A Vegetable- Pill > POTATO PEEL  PEEL=pill (Chambers 3)
6. Coach-and-Four > A Bear without a Head > ALOO   [B]ALOO
7. Albatross > A Penny-Postage-Stamp >   (penny) BLACK
8. Garden-Door > A double Rule of Three >   HEXARCHY  (definition!)

Well Smudge, that was worth waiting for! Congratulations on a great puzzle and we hope you didn’t have to spend ALL the time since the last one working on it. Come again soon. We’ll register in the Oenophiles Club as you brought some pale (ale) and red(head) with you – thanks!