Is Charybdis trying to LULL-ABY us into a false sense of security, by making us think this is a nice gentle puzzle to fall asleep with?…
The preamble states that: “Six clues contain an extra letter that must be removed before solving. These letters provide the location of a message that doubles as an instruction and a literary allusion. A representation of the first (or only) alternative in a related LULLABY must be highlighted (eight contiguous cells). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
‘Just’ six extra letters, everything else normal…or as normal as an EV can be…
On with the solving, to see what comes out of the woodwork with those extra letters, and/or anything else that manifests. Some reasonable progress was made, and the extra letters eventually looked like ROW TEN…the said ‘location’. Unfortunately row 10 was not yet full, but it gradually seemed to say:
‘RUB OUT A MIMUS’
At which point I wondered if I had 21D wrong and that should be A MINUS? A negative of some sort?
Once I’d exhausted that idea, I had the sense to check what a MIMUS is…and it turns out to be the genus of the MOCKING BIRD. So to ‘rub out’ a mimus, one might ‘kill’ a mocking bird – which explains the ‘literary allusion’ in the preamble.
How do you kill a mocking bird? First find your MOCKING BIRD! And it hove into view in the diagonal down from the leading one. Having rubbed it out – or e-rubbed it out, as I was solving on an iPad – it became clear that this still left real words – a nice touch!
On to the ‘related lullaby’ – this twanged a couple of memory chords, but needed a little Wiki-oogling to confirm…there is a traditional lullaby, which has been recorded as a song by various artists, including Joan Baez, the Weavers, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and a rather darker version by Eminem. The lyrics go something like this:
“Hush, little baby, don’t say a word,
Mama’s gonna buy you a mockingbird.
If that mockingbird don’t sing,
Mama’s gonna buy you a diamond ring.
etc.”
(I am assuming these lyrics are out of copyright and it is OK to use them here)
So, it would seem the ‘first alternative’ referred to in the preamble is ‘a diamond ring’.
I then spent quite a lot of time looking for eight contiguous cells containing ‘A DIAMOND’ in the shape of a ring! Given that most of the bottom left of the grid involved the deleted MOCKING BIRD, it was likely to be in the top right half, or maybe it crossed the divide. Anyway, there were a lot of false leads and combinations of D_I_A, as well as OND along the bottom row.
After two or three days of occasionally picking this up to stare at the grid, I finally realised that there were eight Ds in the top right quadrant, forming a D(iamond) ring! Cue a resounding facepalm, and a sigh of relief that I would be able to complete the blog after all!
A quite wonderful EV – educational (for me – I will never forget what a mimus is!), bringing in multiple layers around the theme of a lullaby and a classic book, and a clever grid construction. I only noticed while creating the grid that symmetricality had been sacrificed on the altar of fitting in so much…not a criticism, but an observation, as a non-symmetrical EV is fairly rare.
My thanks to Charybdis for the challenge and the education – I was not so much lulled to sleep as caused to spend a few sleepless nights wondering where I could find that blasted diamond ring!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing (extra letter bold and in (b)rackets) |
|
| 1 | ABBASID | An attempt to capture most of HQ for caliph (7)
A B_ID (an attempt) around (capturing) BAS( |
||
| 6 | SLOTH | Don’t talk about fate in idleness (5)
S_H (sh, interjection, silence!) around LOT (fate) |
||
| 11 | R | MOUSE / OUSE | Peripheral part of enormous reel (5)
hidden word in, i.e. part of, ‘enorMOUS (R)Eel’ [computer peripheral – mouse, keyboard, etc. |
|
| 12 | HETAIRA | That woman’s eating bream, a loose fish (7)
HE_R (that woman) around (eating) TAI (Japanese sea bream), plus A [‘loose fish’ being slang for a prostitute, or hetaira] |
||
| 13 | IOTA / ITA | Bit of audiotape (4)
hidden word in, i.e. of, ‘audIOTApe’ |
||
| 15 | GLADDEN | Cheer up good boy with study (7)
G (good) + LAD (boy) + DEN (study) |
||
| 16 | SKIDLIDS | Declined to shield child with son’s safety headgear (8)
S_LID (declined) around (shielding) KID (child) + S (son) [skidlid being slang for a safety helmet – skateboarding, BMXing, etc.] |
||
| 17 | SLAKES / SLAES | Adds water to southern everglades? (6)
S (southern) + LAKES (everglades) |
||
| 19 | WERE | Used to be front half of monster (4)
front half of WERE( |
||
| 20 | STADDLE | Spared tree set far apart with rook flying out (7)
ST( [a staddle being a small tree left unfelled] |
||
| 23 | TOWNS / TOWS | Shopping centres, great many filled with women (5)
TO_NS (a great many) around (filled with ) W (women) |
||
| 25 | CREEP | Steal pancake, moving quietly eastwards (5)
CRE(P)E (pancake) moving P (piano, quiet, music) eastwards (to the right) = CREEP |
||
| 26 | GECKO | Show disdain for Hamish’s love? Is he climbing up the wall? (5)
GECK (Scottish, i.e. Hamish’s, for to show disdain) + ) (zero, love) |
||
| 28 | GARISH / ARISH | Glaring heartless bony pike (6)
GAR( |
||
| 30 | EAUS | Making regular withdrawals devalues country’s liquidity management systems (4)
regular withdrawals from ‘dEvAlUeS’ leaves EAUS, variant of ea, dialect, or country, for drainage channel, or ‘liquidity management system’! |
||
| 31 | O | ORB / OR | Eyeball drunken boor (3)
anag, i.e. drunken, of BO(O)R |
|
| 32 | ASCI | Large cells within fascia (4)
hidden word in, i.e. within, ‘fASCIa’ |
||
| 34 | BOUT | More or less without a fight (4)
( |
||
| 35 | AMI / AM | ls Charybdis a friend of Nancy? (3)
AM I (the setter, Charybdis) = AMI, French, i.e. from Nancy, for friend! |
||
| 36 | EMIGRE | Royalist fleeing corrupt regime (6)
anag, i.e. corrupt, of REGIME [nowadays any political emigrant, but originally a Royalist fleeing France during the Revolution] |
||
| 37 | TRET / TET | Bit of stretch to make allowance for the aged (4)
hidden word in, i.e. bit of, ‘sTRETch’ [tret being an archaic allowance of 4lb on every 104lb, to allow for spillage/wastage] |
||
| 38 | RECONDENSED / RECONDENSE | Broadcast new seed corn – East Germany turned wet again (11)
anag, i.e. broadcast, of N (new) + SEED + CORN + E (East) + D (Deutsche, Germany) |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Extra Letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined)
Logic/Parsing (extra letter bold in (b)rackets) |
|
| 1 | AMIRS / AIRS | Islamic princes disarm all but leader in riot (5)
subtractive anag, i.e. in riot, of all but the leading letter of (D)ISARM |
||
| 2 | BOODLE / BODLE | Thick graft (6)
double defn. – a BOODLE can be slang for a stupid person, so a ‘thicky’; and BOODLE can be money obtained from corruption, so graft |
||
| 3 | ASAR | Gravel ridges are both sides of Songhua River (4)
A (are, metric measure) + SA (both sides of SonghuA) + R (river) |
||
| 4 | W | SENSEI / SENSE | Fighting teacher, I won hearing for instance (6)
SENSE (hearing, for instance) + I (with I (w)on) [Japanese – martial arts instructor] |
|
| 5 | DELICTS | Portrays, with origin of lust for power, Macbeth’s misdeeds (7)
DE( |
||
| 6 | STADDA | Dad sat up and saw (6)
anag, i.e. up, of DAD SAT [a combmaker’s double-sided handsaw] |
||
| 7 | LADLED | Youth was in first place to be bailed (6)
LAD (youth) + LED (was in first place) |
||
| 8 | OIDIA | Spores ingested by cycloidians (5)
hidden word in, i.e. ingested by, ‘cyclOIDIAns’ |
||
| 9 | TREDDLE | Foot pedal is tested and not working, with no sign of current (7)
TR( |
||
| 10 | T | HANS | Dutch boy owns captivating newt (4)
HA_S (owns) around (captivating) N (new(t)) |
|
| 14 | T-CART / TART | Carriage and farm vehicle turning up after dropping off soldiers (5)
TRACT( |
||
| 18 | MEPHISTO | Ancient Egyptian capital Moses initially leaves to the devil (8)
ME( |
||
| 19 | E | WAGERER | Better galleons earlier in hostilities (7)
WA_R (hostilities) around G (gall(e)ons) + ERE (before) [someone who bets!] |
|
| 20 | SNOOTED / SOOTED | Looked down on animal lodges including as well when climbing (7)
DE_NS (animal lodges) around (including0 TOO (as well) = DETOONS, or SNOOTED, when reversed, or climbing |
||
| 21 | DEISM | Delete manuscript that is about belief in God (5)
D (delete) + EISM (MS, manuscript, plus IE, that is, all around, or about) |
||
| 22 | HEAUME | Reportedly base for ancient helmet (6)
homophone, i.e. reportedly – HEAUME (ancient helmet) can sound like HOME (base) |
||
| 24 | WOBURN | Endless misfortune – evidence of fire – in site of abbey (6)
WO( |
||
| 25 | CABMAN / CAMAN | Taxi driver is able to collect group of doctors (6)
CA_N (is able) around (collecting) BMA (British Medical Association, group of doctors) |
||
| 27 | CUBIC | Solid cell from which the Parisian escapes (5)
CUBIC( |
||
| 28 | N | GRACE / RACE | Superannuated office-holder seen in storming rage (5)
GRA_E (anag, i.e. storming, of RAGE) around C (see(n), phonetic representation of C) [‘your grace’ being a term of address for a bishop, or holder of holy office – not sure why it is superannuated, or retired?] |
|
| 29 | RAITS / RATS | Soaks head when putting it in (5)
RA_S (cape, headland) around (having put in) IT |
||
| 33 | CUED / CUE | Waited in line when told and prompted (4)
homophone, i.e. when told – CUED, prompted, can sound like QUEUED, waited in line |
||
I enjoyed and admired this (as I did your typically excellent blog, MC) but didn’t submit my usual entry because by the time I came to “rub out” everything was in ink. My fault, of course. However, sometimes one reads “a pencil is recommended”. I’m torn between disapproving of this on the grounds that it gives unnecessary information and favouring it because the revealed instruction could equally be “use a red pen” or “use lower case” or whatever. I wonder how others see this.
A fair point, Ifor (and thanks for your kind words).
In the days when the PDF of the puzzle was available on the website, I would print off a working copy and solve in pencil, before transcribing to a neat copy for submission. (Nowadays I do most of my non-interactive solving on screenshots or PDFs of puzzles on an iPad with an iPencil – other tablets and writing devices are available – so this isn’t an issue.)
I admire your confidence in solving directly on your master copy in ink! All I can say is I always used to carry around a Pentel MicroCorrect ‘Tippex’ pen for situations such as you describe above. (Other correcting fluids and pen-type applicators are available (;+>)
Hi ifor, tipp-ex, rather than any additional information in the preamble?
Hi mc_rapper67, due to the site issues it took me several attempts to post and your comments weren’t there when I first tried.
No problems, ginge – I’ll just tippex your comments out!
Maybe the prize on offer could be changed, to comprise a fountain pen and a tippex pen?…
From ROW TEN (the six letters) I got RUB OUT A MIMUS and duly erased MOCKINGBIRD in the grid, but I did not know, and could not easily find, the lullaby the setter had in mind. I enjoyed the well-clued crossword nevertheless and was happy to come here to see the secret revealed.
Thanks to Charybdis, and to mc_rapper for his customary entertaining blog.
In reply to comments above: MC, I’m far less rigorous than you, submitting an entry with a view to boosting numbers rather than with any further ambition. So filling the grid directly is inertia rather than confidence in my solving skills. Ginge, point taken, of course. But previous EVs of mine that come to mind have had revealed instructions that require the solver to use lower case throughout; and to submit a blank grid, among other changes.
There was a cricket themed EV years back where the revealed instruction was “Burn the grid and send the ashes”
Coming VERY late to this! Thanks MC for the blog and the beautiful series of grid stages, and thanks for all the comments too.
Personally I’d never solve a Thematic using ink but I can’t comment on this new-fangled electronic tippex. What new devilry is this? Slate and a damp cloth was good enough in my day.
I was hoping that solvers unfamiliar with this particular lullaby, which has been recorded many times, would think to google ‘mockingbird lullaby’ and perhaps many did.