My first puzzle by Ifor to blog since April Fool’s Day, though there were three others later in 2017.
Preamble: Eight across clues include an extra word containing only one letter not in that clue’s answer. These letters make up a relevant name. Solvers must highlight groups of letters in their answers to show a statement attributed to the person named. Remaining across clues (which can be considered as seven pairs) each contain a word to be modified before solving, half in one way and half in another, as suggested by the statement. Down clues and entries are normal.
Last week, a short fat grid; this week, a tall thin one. The across clues were ‘special’, so I started on the downs, with some modest success, and as this was mainly in the lower half of the grid, I embarked on the acrosses from the bottom up. The first crack appeared with 28a, where “dr” had to be removed from the clue before solving, quickly followed by 26a and the removal of “st” – both abbreviations in street names. I restarted at the bottom and, at 35a, I saw that “ter” had to be added to the clue before solving. So that was (at least a bit of) it: insert or delete abbreviations used in street names from 14 clues, 7 of each. (The other 8 have a redundant word.)
I can’t say that progress was fast, but it was both steady and enjoyable. Each new deletion meant that the same had to be inserted in a partner clue, and vice versa, which helped as I found the insertions harder to detect. Also, I detected that adulterated words remained dictionary entries – nice touch. The redundant words were causing me more of a problem, as I (foolishly) assumed that the “relevant name” formed from their initial letters would be read in clue order.
Forgive (or be thankful for?) any brevity in the blog, as I’m currently suffering from a mild version of whatever’s going around. {But I am buoyed up by Liverpool’s stunning victory this afternoon.}
Anyway, the name unravelled to HANNIBAL, which, after I’d given up on a couple of editions of the ODQ, the www insisted that I was interested in the main character of The Silence of the Lambs, and not the Carthaginian general. For whatever reason I decided that the quote would be in Latin (which I took for only two years in secondary school), and finally (finally!) struck lucky when I entered HANNIBAL AUT VIA into a search engine of choice (the last word being kindly corrected to VIAM). And the answer it spat out was AUT VIAM INVENIAM AUT FACIAM, rendered as “I will find a way or make one“. Spotting that the highlighting of blocks of 3 cells in the grid moved down 2 rows and across 1 column, one could not but admire. And then noticing that those 3-cell blocks were in the answers to the 8 clues with a redundant word … well, what more can I say? {See comments 3 & 4.}
Thanks Ifor – very impressive.
I’m assuming that the title refers to Hannibal making his way Across the Alps then Down through Italy towards Rome. Not sure what else it might be …
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue {delete} [insert] |
Extra word |
Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Do nothing |
aBout | AUTO | UT (do, first note of the scale) O (nothing) after A |
| 4 | Publish previously {clo}sed returns missing section out of office (6) | DELATE | SED< − S(ection) LATE (out of office) | |
| 8 | Elderly pe[st]er leaves unoccupied zone (5) | TEAZE | TEA (leaves) Z(on)E | |
| 10 | Br{av}o for Jacob, whose heart abandons lost cause (4) | ESAU | [CAUSE]* − (Ja)C(ob) | |
| 11 | She flies through in a very special |
Haste | AVIATRESS | VIA (through) in A TRÈS (very) S(pecial) |
| 13 | Strangely evil eye, [dr]aping one held in both hands (6) | EERILY | [EYE]* around I (one) in RL (both hands) | |
| 14 | Prompt care following on |
demAnd | REMIND | MIND (care) after RE (on) |
| 16 | Do[ct]or opening to throw abuse gutted menial worker (3) | ETA | [T(hrow) A(bus)E]* | |
| 17 | O{rd}er case of Glenlivet to shift disease (5) | ERGOT | [OER G(lenlive)T]* | |
| 18 | leAve | VENNEL | [(u)NEVENL(y)]* | |
| 19 | Acting arranged regularly in disco[rd] venue (5) | ARENA | A + [A(r)R(a)N(g)E(d)]* | |
| 21 | Dire{ct} trip to capture a mammal (5) | TAPIR | [TRIP]* around A | |
| 23 | maiN | LARIAM | I(nstitute) in [ALARM]* | |
| 26 | Runs over {st}aging since preparation for scraping and bowing? (5) | ROSIN | R(uns) O(ver) SIN (since, archaic) | |
| 28 | Relative, casually independent, {dr}esses outside (3) | SIS | SS (esses) around I(ndependent) | |
| 30 | Atlantic swimmer’s first across, within limits of timing |
It | TAUTOG | AUTO {answer to 1 across} in T(imin)G |
| 31 | Casual [clo]thing translator returned after African speech (6) | T-SHIRT | TR(anslator)< after TSHI (dialect/language of Ghana) | |
| 33 | Grimace as a fake |
Name | MAKE A FACE | [A FAKE CAME]* |
| 34 | Meal with s[av]our alcohol lately bottled (4) | OLLA | (alcoh)OL LA(tely) | |
| 35 | Look around set[ter] strewn with small devices (5) | SEMÉE | SEE (look) around ME (setter) | |
| 36 | In{ter}vention of each small turn in the course of life (6) | NATURE | [EA(ch) TURN]* | |
| 37 | smaLl | SIAM | SIAMANG (gibbon) − ANG (in English) | |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Clue | Answer | Wordplay | |
| 1 | Palm in sling without very fashionable bandaging (4) | ATAP | CATAPULT (sling) − CULT (very fashionable) | |
| 2 | Tax barring mother passing on all wealth to sons? (8, 2 words) | TAIL MALE | TAILLE (tax) around MA (mother) | |
| 3 | Little weight for volume in sound reproduction (6) | OZALID | VALID (sound) with OZ (ounce, lttle weight) for V(olume) | |
| 4 | Sides in dispute frame heart of new relaxed relationship (7) | DÉTENTE | D(isput)E TENT (frame) (n)E(w) | |
| 5 | Cunning shelter over tracks (5) | LEERY | LEE (shelter) RY (railway, tracks) | |
| 6 | Invest in verse while seeing novel without name (7) | ASSIEGE | AS (while) [SEEING]* − N(ame) | |
| 7 | Class of fossils of right type sure to stagger university dons (10) | EURYPTERUS | [R(ight) TYPE SURE]* around U(niversity) | |
| 9 | Continued with redundant advice for nothing remotely believable (7) | CREDENT | CONT(inued) with REDE (advice) for O (nothing) | |
| 12 | Ladies supporting safe demonstration once in Manchester (8) | PETERLOO | LOO (ladies’) after PETER (safe) | |
| 15 | Unwillingness of lion forced into performing (8) | NOLITION | [LION]* + [INTO]* | |
| 16 | Exposition once close to name-dropping over allowance (10) | ENARRATION | NEAR (close) with N(ame) later + RATION (allowance) | |
| 20 | Course messy eater gobbles on the spot (7) | AINTREE | [EATER]* around IN (on the spot) | |
| 22 | Bum trip as amateur briefly smoked joint (8) | PASTRAMI | [TRIP AS AM(ateur)]* | |
| 24 | For instance, spread either side of level path? (7) | ASPHALT | AS (for instance) + [L (either side of LeveL) PATH]* &lit | |
| 25 | Mineral when buried in sand and later uncovered (7) | ANATASE | AS (when) in (s)AN(d) + (l)ATE(r) | |
| 27 | Heights of joy before they made it consumed by regrets (6) | RUFFES | FF (fecerunt, they made it) in RUES (regrets) | |
| 29 | Tree of nature going skywards for everyone to see (5) | NIKAU | AKIN< (of nature) U (for everyone to see) | |
| 32 | Suitable turns to be in the club for older people (4) | TEEM | MEET< (suitable) | |
|
|
||||
After coming to believe “I FOR IMPOSSIBLE” my heart sank again when I saw his name at the top of this one. But this was one of the rare occasions when the Victorian-type classical education that was thrust upon me, from primary to tertiary, actually paid off. No probs, at any stage. A lovely transalpine “Jumbo Crossword”. Thanks, Ifor and HG
A thoroughly enjoyable, if disconcerting solving experience. The across clues went in on a bit of a wing and a prayer, as it took a while to work out what was going on with those modifications. I assumed as well that the letters from the extra words would be in order, and spent far too long trying to work out what this obscure name might be. Google helped as ever with the quote. 🙂
Thanks for the blog, hope you’re feeling better soon!
I too tremble at the name of Ifor, but eventually managed to cross the custom-built Alps. Thanks as always to Ifor and (with get-well-soon wishes) HG.
Trying to read the bonus letters in clue order gave me a headache too — it wasn’t until I had seven of them that HANNIBAL came to mind. Very neat arrangement of the quote (er, due credit here to Google). This cast a useful light on the across-clue modifications: finding (and removing) a “way” or making (and inserting) one. It seemed unsurprising that the highlighted groups of letters were in the extra-word clues, since it says so in the preamble.
David Langford @3: Unsurprising indeed! (I humbly submit the oversight as evidence of ‘under-the-weatherness’ when writing the blog.)
Really enjoyable workout and a fantastic gridfill from Ifor
I was convinced, after finding the quote, that ELEPHANTS was appearing somewhere in the third column
One of those puzzles that’s slightly too difficult (for me), but won’t let you abandon it. I kept thinking it would unlock itself, but even after I noticed the migrating pairs and trios of letters, even after suspecting Hannibal was involved (I too was thinking clue order, so stymied), it remained very tough for me. Entering Entente for ‘detente’ didn’t help. I never did notice they were all road abbreviations.
I don’t remember this method of generating letters before, so congrats for originality. A really intriguing puzzle, many thanks to Ifor and HolyGhost.
An enjoyable solve. The theme only revealed itself at the end and after we realised we had one of the HANNIBAL letters wrong, We had the correct answer for 37ac but had the letter we needed as I not L. Lots of head scratching and then googling!
All worth it so thanks to Ifor and HolyGhost.
As always, my thanks to blogger and commenters. Murray – I’m especially pleased to see that you’d not given up on me and that you enjoyed this one. And I loved “jumbo crossword” – had I thought of it I’m sure that would have been the title.
Ifor
Filled the grid, got Hannibal, got “I will find a way or make one” and then fell at the last hurdle. Damn! Knowing no Latin whatsoever I was well and truly out of my depth – no chance. Thanks to Ifor for a nice puzzle and I hope HG is back on his feet again. I liked Jumbo Crossword too!