Does Stick Insect have some sort of cautionary TALE to tell this week?…
The preamble states that:
“In two thirds of clues, a letter must be evicted before solving. In clue order, these letters give three extracts of dialogue from a MORAL TALE. In line with one character’s actions, two items in the grid must be scattered into cells which are blank in the initially filled grid, creating all real words when blank cells are ignored. The surviving third item must be highlighted. Lengths in brackets show the space available in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 36 Across and 44 are in ODE.”
Fairly complex, and worth a re-read or two after a couple of cold scans of the clues…with the first two looking like they were a cell short, with RED in a 4 and SAPPER in a 7. Multiple options for RED to be made a 4, but SAPPER probably had to be S_APPER – snapper?…
And so it continued – with a few likely one-short entries – PAR, RAM, NYE – and a few interesting/new (to me) words, like EXCORTICATING, CHARK, RUDERAL and CHESSEL. Luckily I knew GHERAO, from time spent travelling around India in the early 90s and reading the news – GHERAO, CRORE, LAKH, LATHI and many more all embedded in my lexicon.
The grid filled up, gradually, and the ‘evicted’ letters started to coalesce into phrases, although the ‘two thirds’ restriction made it hard to work out what might be words.
My first PDM was when I had most of the middle phrase – NOT BY THE HAIR – and subconsciously added ‘…on my chinny chin chin…’. So it looks like we are in ‘THREE LITTLE PIGS’ territory, confirmed by the third phrase including ‘…HUFF…’, and the first involving letting ‘me’ come in.
“Little pig, little pig, let me come in.
No, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.
Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in.”
So, with three ‘items’ to find, it was likely that they would be houses made from straw, sticks and bricks – but it took an inordinately long time grid-staring to realise they weren’t linear, but they were arranged around the leading diagonal – with STRAW, STICK and BRICK in regularly placed house-like shapes down that line. The ten blanks then needed to be replaced with the ‘scattered’ letters of STRAW and STICK, leaving their shapes blank AND leaving real words. (Meanwhile, the BRICK house remained standing.)
Again, this took a while and some whittling down of permutations, and I am still not completely sure I have them all right, but I had to get the puzzle submitted within the deadline, so this is what I ended up with:
So the MORAL of the TALE is to build your house from bricks, and/or not to let any wolves near the premises!
Many thanks, and a ‘chapeau’, to Stick Insect, for a tough challenge and a pretty impressive piece of grid construction, keeping symmetry and real words – the highlight probably being EXCORTICATING reduced to EXCORIATING!
| Clue No | Evicted letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, evicted letter in bold))
Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | RED / REDS | Are dachas housing communist? (4)
hidden word in, i.e. housed by, ‘aRE Dachas’ |
||
| 4 | SAPPER / SWAPPER | Vital juice for each soldier (7)
SAP (vital juice) + PER (for each) |
||
| 11 | EARTH / EATH | Abode lacks initial electrical connection 5)
( |
||
| 13 | L | NAGS / KNAGS | Badgers slang is terrible (5)
anag, i.e. terrible, of S(L)ANG |
|
| 14 | E | ERE | Ahead of here, get in prime positions (3)
prime numbered letters (2, 3, 5) of ‘hER(E) gEts’ |
|
| 15 | STEARIN / SERIN | Retains unusually solid part of fat (7)
anag, i.e. unusually, of RETAINS |
||
| 16 | T | ATTAR | Rose oil in church tablet getting left for Eucharist’s finale (5)
A( |
|
| 17 | M | LUSTRUM | Odd to pursue Mitch for five years (7)
LUST ((m)itch) plus (pursued by) RUM (odd) |
|
| 18 | RUDERAL | Not decent river, not acceptable growing in rubbish (7)
RUDE (not decent) + ( |
||
| 20 | E | GHERAO | Goddess in quiet Indian industrial action (6)
G_O (qui(e)t, leave) around HERA (goddess) [a GHERAO being the surrounding/trapping of an employer in a building until they acquiesce to their workers’ demands!] |
|
| 21 | C | GRADIN | Almost cranking raised step (6)
almost all of GRADIN( [a GRADIN being a raised step or ledge behind an altar] |
|
| 25 | ANON | Article working immediately for literati (4)
AN (indefinite article) + ON (working) |
||
| 26 | O | EXCORTICATING / EXCORIATING | Removing bark from barking corgi, I next must tackle coat (13)
EXCORTI_ING (anag, i.e. barking, of CORGI I NEXT) around (tackling) C(O)AT |
|
| 29 | M | CLOG | Block cheat acquiring last of realm (4)
C_OG (cheat, deceive, manipulate dice) around (acquiring) L (last of reaL(m)) |
|
| 31 | KICKER / ICKER | Trump’s unexpected discovery: PM changes heart about void check (6)
KI_ER (Keir Starmer, UK PM at the time of blogging(!), changing middle two letters, or heart, around) around CK (ChecK, voided of inner letters) [a KICKER being North American, so Trump’s, for an unexpected turn of events] |
||
| 33 | E | HOURLY | Dine around Ohio frequently (6)
H_URLY (din(e), kerfuffle) around O (Ohio) |
|
| 34 | I | COROLLA | Part of flower company acreage includes ruin (7)
CO (company) + A (acreage), around (including) ROLL (ru(i)n) |
|
| 36 | N | PSEUDOS | Wickedly, send up so pretentious people (7)
anag, i.e. wickedly, of SE(N)D UP SO |
|
| 40 | RATIO | Proportion, if found in admin, produces wonder (5)
adding RATIO (proportion) to ADMI_N would produice ADMIRATION, or wonder! |
||
| 41 | RE-ERECT | Ruff return over clubs and raise again (7)
RE-E (reeve, female of ruff, bird) + RE_T (return) around (over) C (clubs, cards notation) |
||
| 42 | KRI | Rabbi’s conclusion following 2 Kings marginal reading (3)
K + R (k, king; r, rex, king, so 2 Kings) + I (conclusion of rabbI) [k’ri – a marginal reading in a Hebrew bible] |
||
| 43 | N | SWEE / SWEET | Children’s swing in Glasgow is tinny (5)
S (contraction of is) + WEE (tin(n)y |
|
| 44 | O | E-BIKE | Toad mostly covered by supplement for assisted transport (5)
E-_KE (supplement) around (covering) BI(T) (t(o)ad, small amount, mostly) |
|
| 45 | T | CHESSEL | Caught troll seizing ship mould (7)
C (caught, cricket notation) + HE_EL ((t)roll, nautical) around (seizing) SS (steamship) [a CHESSEL being a cheese mould] |
|
| 46 | B | NYE / SNYE | Bold brood in city with English (4)
NY (New York, city) + E (English) [variant of nid/nide – a pheasant’s brood (not sure why ‘old’, as Chambers doesn’t indicate obsolescence or archaism for nye, nid or nide…)] |
|
| Clue No | Evicted letter | Solution / Entry | Clue (definition underlined, evicted letter in bold))
Logic/Parsing (extra letter bold in brackets) |
|
| 1 | Y | RESURGE | Mounty again, though not often, half shares desire (7)
RES (half of ( [to rise, or mount(y) again – not sure why ‘though not often’, as again there is no indication of it being rare or archaic] |
|
| 2 | T | EATS / EA | Upset chest at emporium containing food (4)
reversed hidden word, i.e. upset and containing, in ‘cheST A(T) Emporium’ |
|
| 3 | H | DREAD / DEAD | Fear father cashing note before me (5)
D_AD (father) around (cas(h)ing) RE (note before ME in sol-fa notation – DO, RE, ME) |
|
| 4 | E | SHRI | Across Hungary, sire is misused title of respect (4)
S_RI (agag, i.e. misused, of SIR(E)) around H (Hungary) |
|
| 5 | ANNULI | Bird consuming three quarters of worthless doughnuts, perhaps (6)
AN_I (cuckoo, bird) around (consuming) NUL( |
||
| 6 | PAS / PAIS | Student that’s plodding over French steps (4)
SAP, plodding student, over = PAS (French dance, steps) |
||
| 7 | H | ESTREAT | Electronic highway has announced true copy for lawyers (7)
E (electronic) + STREAT (homophone, i.e. (h)as announced – STREAT can sound like STREET, or highway) |
|
| 8 | RETURNIK | With respect to crisis, I start to kidnap one coming back home (8)
RE (with respect to) + TURN (crisis) + I + K (start to Kidnap) [an Eastern European exile returning to their country after a change in the poilitical situation] |
||
| 9 | A | RAM / CRAM | Striking ahead, taking share of smaller amounts (4)
hidden word in, i.e. share of, ‘smalleR AMounts’ |
|
| 10 | I | PERON / PERRON | ISA leader once disposed to promote eccentricity (6)
PRON( |
|
| 12 | R | TAWED / TED | You shouldn’t have espouser flogged dead (5)
TA (thank, you shouldn’t have!) + WED (espouse(r)) |
|
| 19 | ANTS / ANY | Nervous worker ends in safety (5)
ANT (worker) + SY (end letters of SafetY) |
||
| 20 | T | GECKO / GEO | Northern dupe told lizard (5)
GECK (Northern dialect for dupe, object of scorn) + O ((t)old) |
|
| 22 | H | ACOUSTIC | 60 per cent of court annoyed with his act related to hearing (8)
anag, i.e. annoyed, of COU(RT) (60% of court) + (H)IS ACT |
|
| 23 | E | IRK | Drive made Perth church short of one thousand (3)
( |
|
| 24 | RAI | African music invasion cut short (3)
RAI( |
||
| 27 | N | OGREISH | Sigh o’er band that’s ugly (7)
anag, i.e. ba(n)d, of SIGH OER |
|
| 28 | I | GRANTEE | Magi‘s ending hurried support for recipient (7)
G (maG(i)’s ending) + RAN (hurried) + TEE (support, for golf ball) |
|
| 29 | CHARK / CHARKA | Coke and tea rook emptied (6)
CHA (tea) + RK (RooK, emptied of middle letters) [chark being a variation of charcoal, or fuel coke] |
||
| 30 | L | SCORES | Musical items for film cults (6)
double defn. – a SCORE can be a musical sountrack for a film; and to SCORE can be to cu(l)t |
|
| 32 | L | COURB | Seek British for tense bowl once (5)
COUR( [courb being archaic, i.e. once, for to bend, or bow(l), in supplication] |
|
| 35 | H | LIE-IN | Getting up lather, shaving right popular (5)
LIE( |
|
| 36 | U | PAR / PART | Statue of Equality found in department (4)
hidden word in, i.e. found in, ‘dePARtment’ |
|
| 37 | F | DUES | Subs used flawlessly (4)
anag, i.e. (f)lawlessly, of USED |
|
| 38 | F | REEL | Dance frock (4)
double defn. – a REEL can be a dance; and to REEL can be to totter, of (f)rock unsteadily on ones feet) |
|
| 39 | ICKY | Little Victoria not very repulsive (4)
( |
||
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