Easter Sunday is here and a puzzle from Deuce. There are a number of clues with no definition – these have extra letters that spell out characters central to a theme. There are two missing members that need to be illustrated by modifying the final grid in two different ways.
As always start with the clues and the first thematic one I got was LOCUSTS – got me thinking immediately of the plagues of biblical times afflicting the Egyptians. Could it be that – it proved to be the case. The other thematic answers were DARK – HAIL – FROGS – LICE – BOILS – MURRAIN – FLIES. Leaving the two missing ones as: The river of blood and the death of the first borns.
The extra letters spelled out MY PEOPLE which really gave very little clue as to what the theme really was – unless I’m missing something (it has been known). I don’t know DEUCE – are they Egyptian or are they Jewish or have I missed the direction of the extra letters. Arguably it was not important but I suspect the latter as the passover spanned Easter this year. Seemed a very odd theme for an Easter Sunday to highlight the unreconstructed venegeful God of old testament days rather than the more benign depiction of the resurrection, but maybe in the current bullyboy wars a more apt view of the world. I was put off religion many years ago by a reverend with a predeliction for young boys – a veritable 4dn of a classroom for that matter. Having said that I recall discussions with him vividly on this theme as to whether God was good or evil. That’s two blogs in a row where the theme has rather irritated me, I must be getting old or is the world getting worse.
How to highlight the missing duo in the final grid – change 26 across river to BLOOD and remove BORN from 1 across leaving the abbreviation SU in 1ac.
I think the imagery of 43ac is an apt description of the current members of the answer and hope this was the setter’s intent. Was my favourite clue certainly.
After my previous blog that was Donald Trump themed, I do seem to be getting the ones with political messages – maybe asian rivers next or some prog rock please?. Thanks for some good clues Deuce
Key * anagram; Rev reversed; DD double defintion; underline definition
ACROSS
1 Orb flickering in warm square (6)
(orb)* in sun (warm) = SUBORN
5 Great Lakes surrounding short isthmus for New Yorkers (7)
neck (isthmus) – k in seas (Great lakes) = SENECAS
10 Place tramps select vacated (7)
M 10 Place traps select vacated (7)
locus (place) around st (select vacated) = LOCUSTS
13 Chesty after end of cold (4)
Y 13 Chest after end of cold (4)
ark(chest) after d (end of cold) = DARK
14 Opening of phone line interrupted by ChatGPT? (4)
P 14 Opening of hone line interrupted by ChatGPT? (4)
hl (opening of hone line) around ai (ChatGPT?) = HAIL
15 Edgar Allan’s endeavour? (6)
Poe (edgar Allan) + try (endeavour) = POETRY
16 Sign up to attend cycling (6)
listen (attend) cycling = ENLIST
18 Maybe lofty note of melody man heard (7)
air(melody) + mail (man – male heard) = AIRMAIL
19 Windows comes back to life after switching binary digit (5)
rises(comes back to life) switching I for 0 (binary digits) = ROSES
22 Ship getting cold rain in storm (8)
(cold rain)* = IRONCLAD
24 Earl acting as liberal peer (5)
e(earl) + qua(acting as) + l (liberal)n = EQUAL
26 Fifth card of clubs uncovered (5)
drivers(clubs) – ds (uncovered) = RIVER
29 Car with old sound system? (5)
audi(car) + o (old) = AUDIO
30 Errs having wrong sedative (8)
(sedative)* = DEVIATES
34 Feather deployed for date in boxers? (5)
E 34 Father deployed for date in boxers? (5)
dogs(boxers) swapping fr (father) for d(date) = FROGS
36 Plainer nuts making nutty confection (7)
(plainer) = PRALINE
37 Deity in extremes of fear ignoring Gaea (6)
fr + ig + ga (extremes of fear ignoring Gaea) = FRIGGA
39 Joker pocketing playing card, mostly getting smaller (6)
wag(joker) around nine (playing card) – e = WANING
40 Leader trying to take Egyptian body of water promised land (4)
DD EDEN
41 Piece of cake, but not soon (4)
O 41 Piece of cake, but not son (4)
slice(piece of cake) – s (son) = LICE
42 Hero’s lover Helen finally embraced by principal (7)
n(Helen finally) in leader = LEANDER
43 Diet in Scottish monster’s home: carrion sandwiches (7)
ness (Scottish monster) in ket (carrion) = KNESSET
44 Sustained ordinary island (6)
borne (sustained) + o (ordinary) = BORNEO
Down
1 Turning ship clear round (9)
(ship clear)* = SPHERICAL
2 Bump up around current (5)
P 2 Bum up around current (5)
Rev slob (bum) around I(current) = BOIL
3 Third of fighters involved in sport on special floor-mats (4)
g(third of fighters) in ru (sport) + s (special) = RUGS
4 First person comprised by New Street’s touchy one in Hackney? (4)
n(new) + st(street) around I(first person) = NSIT
5 Topsy-turvy, like eating pastry in tiers (6)
Rev. as (like) around tart (pastry) = STRATA
6 Inside of mesh on multicoloured saw (6)
es (inside of mesh) + pied(multicoloured) = ESPIED
7 Partly impede marina’s accumulation of fluid (5)
Hidden impEDE MArina = EDEMA
8 Throw up a throw involving boulder, essentially? (8)
cat(throw up) + a put (a throw) around l (boulder essentially) = CATAPULT
9 Pair evenly to match entry (7)
ar (pair evenly) + rival (match) = ARRIVAL
11 Buyer has court taking on property claim (6)
lien(property) claim in ct(court) = CLIENT
12 Judicial official losing heart in tight spot (6)
coroner (judicial official) – o (heart) = CORNER
17 North on Gold Gate (3)
n (north) + or (gold) = NOR
20 Clay figure entering rabbit hole, not having common entrance (3)
alice (figure entering rabbit hole) – ce (common entrance) = ALI
21 Musical effect when loads sing awfully (9)
(loads sing)* = GLISSANDO
23 Planning to release Italy’s artillery (8)
ordinance (planning) – I (Italy) = ORDNANCE
25 Original rule bound by seal (7)
L 25 Original rue bound by sea (7)
ur(original) + r (rule) in main (sea) = MURRAIN
26 Furious debating in which Oxford and Cambridge compete (6)
DD ROWING
27 Have beaten, without the last of Butch Cassidy? (3)
(have)* – h (last of Butch) = EVA
28 Mixed earth in very dry surroundings (6)
v(very) + arid (dry) around e(earth) = VARIED
30 Tantalisingly, offer 500 + 12(6)
d(500) + angle (12?) = DANGLE
31 Mounted support keeping line in small hole (6)
Rev tee (support) around ley (line) = EYELET
32 Urge is mine (3)
DD EGG
33 Bee seen in empty flowers (5)
E 33 Be seen in empty flowers (5)
lie (be) in fs (empty flowers) = FLIES
35 Day gone badly for one in Rovers Return? (5)
(d + gone)* = OGDEN
37 Spare tyre flourished on German motorway (4)
fl(flourished) + ab (autobahn) = FLAB
38 Ace flipped over in gambling hotspot (4)
Rev. oner (ace) = RENO
‘Let My People Go’, per the Exodus story and the American spiritual ‘Go Down Moses’, made famous by Louis Armstrong among others. Always nice to have a topical EV, what with it having been Passover. 30d was a headscratcher, although looking at it now, ‘angle’ refers to the answer ‘corner’ at 12d.
Many thanks to Deuce and to twencelas for the blog.
and “born” in 1A is indeed the FIRST born, with the second being symmetrical
very clever indeed
Enjoyed this a lot, nice PDM from spotting LICE and then FROGS. I thought that removing BORN from the first answer was a bit underwhelming until I noticed the word’s second appearance in the bottom row (as per Graham @2). Thanks Deuce.