Cool Dude by Nimrod
Twelve clues each contain an extra word to be removed before solving. The answers to these clues may be sorted into three thematic groups of four; the extra words (in order within each thematic group) produce four further hints. Solvers must change a single unchecked letter in each of three normal clue answers to confirm the three themes and highlight the resulting 15 letter cool dude.
Returning to blogging duties having had three months off after breaking my ankle in mid December and spending approximately 10 weeks in hospital. Many thanks to duncanshiell and BertandJoyce for standing in for me.
I was hoping for a nice gentle puzzle as my reintroduction but boy, was I in for a shock. You look at the puzzle, you look at the title then you see the setter – NIMROD – time to run for the hills.
I found the puzzle quite difficult. I had real trouble with the extra words so I pretty much gave up looking for them. I had particular trouble with 2d. I entered OISE, fully justified and it held me up in the NW quadrant for quite a while. I also had trouble with 37a and 38d. I was sure I had the right answers (and I did) but I couldn’t justify either. Many thanks to the other IQ bloggers for helping me out.
I eventually managed to ferret out all the extra words and they lead to:
CHUNKY MONKEY
STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE
CHOCOLATE CHIP
COOKIE DOUGH
HALF BAKED
All of which are flavours of ice cream produced by Ben & Jerry’s. The Vermont based ice cream company founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield in 1987. The answers to those clues led to the following three groups:
Jerrys: GARCIA, LEWIS, MOUSE, SPRINGER
Greens: BOTTLE, LINCOLN, NILE, SAGE
Fields: ELECTRIC, FORCE, PADDY, PLAYING
Which, of course, give us Jerry Greenfield. Changing the P of PERRY (17a) to a J gives us JERRY. Changing the T of GREET to an N gives us GREEN (27a) and changing the Y of YIELD (30a) to F gives us FIELD. Jerry Greenfield – a COOL DUDE indeed.
That looks like it then. There are still a couple of queries in the table below, which I’m sure someone will be able to help with.
Finally, thanks to our esteemed editor for a fun puzzle to complete even if it was a bumpy ride.
| ACROSS | Extra | Entry | Wordplay | |
| 1 Individual said to upset native Americans (7) | ONEIDAS | ONE+SAID (anag: upset) | ||
| 7 One’s probes counter extensive discrimination (6) | AGEISM | MEGA (extensive; rev: counter) around IS (one’s) | ||
| 12 City hotel welcomes chunky officer after a drop of Laphroaig (7) | CHUNKY | LINCOLN | L[aphroaig (drop of)+INN (hotel) around COLonel (officer) | |
| 13 In retreat, guy with razor gets hold of a primate (6) | MACACO | OCCAM (guy with razor; rev: in retreat) around A | ||
| 15 Tense end for Haye in ring after setback: grabs at straw finally (8) | STRAW | ELECTRIC | CIRCLE (ring; rev: after setback) around [hay]E (end for) and [a]T (finally) | |
| 16 Vintage French company in recital (3) | CRU | Sounds like (in recital) CREW | ||
| 17 One of the alcoholic drinks in a line (5) | PERRY | PER (a)+RailwaY (line | ||
| 19 Silent partner has relocated his brother centrally (5) | TACIT | ? | ||
| 20 A few days before backing, really just taking the odds (7) | SEVERAL | EVES (days before; rev: backing)+R[e]A[l]L[y] (odd letters) | ||
| 22 Actor on the quiet invests in wee double (6) | MINI-ME | MIME (actor on the quiet) around IN Refers to a character in the Austin Powers franchise and that’s the extent of my knowledge |
||
| 23 Still not up – day’s struck 12? (3) | ABE | ABEd (still not up) 12 refers to the answer to 12a |
||
| 25 Man heading off was anxious about climbers (6) | HEDERA | HE (man)+[c]ARED (was anxious; minus first letter; rev: about) | ||
| 27 Formally acknowledge time of lamentation (5) | GREET | (double def) | ||
| 30 Exuding unnatural calm, medically treated bear (5) | YIELD | mEDIcalLY (minus CALM (anag; unnatural)) itself anagrammised: treated | ||
| 31 Preserved heart of native exported? (6) | BRINED | ? | ||
| 32 Late singer-songwriter back on radio (3) | REA | Supposedly sounds like REAR (back) but not the way I say it | ||
| 33 Corrupt user of more than one constitution (6) | FUEROS | USER OF (anag: corrupt) | ||
| 34 New riches finally making Glaswegian cry (7) | SCREIGH | RICHES+[makin]G (finally) anag: new | ||
| 35 Explosive sort intending to return rounds (5) | NITRO | Reversed and hidden in sORT INtending | ||
| 37 Wobbly Father Jack’s negative to Chuck Berry (5) | BERRY | PADDY | PA (father)+[no]DDY (jack) minus NO (negative) | |
| 39 Character runs pub? Useless! (3) | RHO | Runs+HOuse (pub minus USE) | ||
| 40 Dog having no issue with double chocolate (8) | CHOCOLATE | SPRINGER | SP (no issue)+RINGER (double) | |
| 41 Dispute in the Sheep Heid about someone who settled in Northumbria? (6) | CANGLE | C (about)+ANGLE (Northumbria settler) I think SHEEP HEID refers to this pub in Edinburgh to indicate Scottish |
||
| 42 Poignantly redistributes this, not as cheese (7) | CHEESE | PLAYING | P[o]IGNA[nt]LY same idea as 30a | |
| 43 Such acts from indulging in extreme session? (6) | EMESES | I think this is &lit. hidden in extrEME SESsion | ||
| 44 Recall of sets provided growth (7) | OSSELET | TELES (sets)+SO (provided) rev: recall | ||
| DOWN | ||||
| 2 Nothing is superior to monkey puzzle’s last flower (4) | MONKEY | NILE | I originally had O (nothing)+IS+[puzzl]E. OISE is a river in Belgium and France. This held me up for quite a while. NIL (nothing)+[puzzl]E (last letter) |
|
| 3 Severe north winds down south: the elderly physically weaken (6) | ENERVE | I’m not entirely sure how to express this. We have [s]EVERE with South replaced by North and an anagram going on. | ||
| 4 Rotten local function terribly short on content (4) | DOTY | DO (function)+T[erribl]Y (contents removed) | ||
| 5 A mistress is holding on thus far (7) | ALREADY | A LADY (a mistress) around RE (on) | ||
| 6 Trump’s temper a part of rising discontent in Senate (4) | SNIT | reversed and hidden: discontenT IN Senate | ||
| 8 Actor Andy‘s one fish and one chip about to consume it (6) | CHIP | GARCIA | GAR (fish)+I (one)+CA about | |
| 9 Sea-dwellers IT expert unveiled haven’t the foggiest (10) | ECHINOIDEA | [t]ECHI[e] (IT expert; minus first and last)+NO IDEA (haven’t the foggiest | ||
| 10 Mass protest involves crush (8) | SCRUMPLE | It wants to be Mass inside SCRUPLE but I can’t make scruple mean protest | ||
| 11 Particular way to employ one very shy cookie (5) | COOKIE | MOUSE | MO (modus operandi: particular way)+USE (employ) | |
| 14 Nimble adult African carnivore that’s swallowed its tail (6) | ACTIVE | Adult+CIVET (African carnivore) with last letter moved forward | ||
| 18 New trials succeeded when dropped in training (10) | REHEARINGS | REHEAR[s]INGS (training) minus Succeeded | ||
| 20 Discreet treatment’s not half posh! (4) | HALF | SAGE | [u]SAGE (minus U: posh) | |
| 21 Not entirely wisely, broke builder might use it for raising dough (5) | DOUGH | LEWIS | WISEL[y] (not entirely; anag: broke) | |
| 24 Batman’s hit hooligan on board carriage (8) | BROUGHAM | BAM (batsman’s hit) around ROUGH (hooligan) | ||
| 26 Wife of Esau was dead in seconds, husband concludes (4) | ADAH | [w]A[s] D[e]A[d] (every second letter)+Husband | ||
| 28 Out of London one ventures northbound without breaking north of the border (6, 2 words) | EVEN ON | reverse hidden: LondoN ONE VEntures | ||
| 29 Straightens out sides caught by hook (7) | UNCURLS | UNCUS (hook) containg RL (both sides: Right and Left) | ||
| 31 Dry red baked clay surrounds glass vessel (6) | BAKED | BOTTLE | BOLE (dry red clay) around TT (dry) | |
| 32 Cryptorchid kid uninitiated girl’s in a panic about (6) | RIDGIL | [k]ID (unititiated) inside GIRL (anag: panic) | ||
| 33 Violently take cake to give to the Establishment (5) | CAKE | FORCE | FOR (to give to)+CE (Church of England; aka the Establishment) | |
| 36 Pages are stuck together in middle of book, mate (4) | OPPO | [b]OO[k] (middle of) around PP (pages) | ||
| 37 Assistant in office continues to interweave plants (4) | PIAS | PA (assistant in office) interweaved with IS (continues to) |
19a TACIT = central letters of parTner hAs reloCated hIs broTher
That one took me a while. I don’t understand 31a either.
3d I worked out as an anagram of SEVEREN after the removal of S (“down South”) with “the elderly” presumably being part of the definition
Yes, this was a tough one. I eventually got there via the ice-cream flavours and memories of a New Yorker profile (by Calvin Trillin) of the B&J founders, though I’d forgotten their surnames.
TACIT took me a long time too. I eventually decided BRINED was an anagram (“exported”) of INBRED = “native”, but that seemed to give HEART as a surplus word, so I’m not sure I was right there.
All thanks to Nimrod and kenmac. Both cool dudes.
@3
Awww…!
It was Jerry Greenfield’s birthday – day of publication.
Comment #6
I thoroughly enjoyed solving the clues and completing the grid of this puzzle, although I did have a couple of queries with the clues. (By the way, I understood TACIT – see #1 above – but not BRINED.) I enjoyed the endgame too, although I had to leave it incomplete as I did not identify the Jerry group, being unfamiliar with the name Jerry Greenfield. Also, I did not match NILE with GREEN, and I matched MOUSE instead of PLAYING with FIELD. Ah well, as a crossword this was brilliant, but as a themed puzzle it was inevitably a bit beyond me.
Thanks to both Nimrod and kenmac
@3
BRINED
I was thinking the heart of INBRED BR is exported/brought outside.
@David Langford : could it be that the “heart” (centre) of INBRED has been switched (“exported”) to give BRINED?
David @3
Thanks to your comment I now remember that I did see that anagram of INBRED and thought then that BR, the ‘heart’ of INBRED, is simply taken out and moved to the front, but I did not understand ‘exported’. (Edit: just seen KVa’s and Kippax’s comments above!)
@8, @9, @10 — Thanks! I didn’t see that. Much better than the anagram theory.
Several potential wrong turns over extra words, with ‘Sheep’, Batman’ and ‘Pub’ all going on the list and ultimately being superseded. I went down the OISE rabbit hole and never parsed BRINED, having not thought of Inbred, (and the clue feels a bit of a stretch, even for an Inquisitor). It also took a while to stop scanning the grid for the 15 letters of JEFFREY LEBOWSKI, the ultra Dude. But I eventually completed the puzzle and highlighted Jerry Greenfield without ever identifying the three thematic groups; they feel elegant but unnecessary, since the ice cream flavours lead pretty clearly to Ben & Jerry. On SCRUMPLE, Chambers lists ‘protest’ as one of the possible definitions of ‘scruple’. Thanks to Nimrod for a demanding puzzle, and welcome back to kenmac, who may have an easier ride next time.