This was another Serpentine puzzle. I had the pleasure of sorting out and blogging “Mirror Image” in June. This one was less artistic, but equally devious. A carte blanche with blanks in it indeed! The rubric read:
Clues are presented in the usual order. The grid has mirror symmetry through a vertical axis and contains 35 blank cells when complete. Letter counts indicate the lengths of answers. Answers to sixteen clues are entered in the usual way. Of these, eight across clues contain a word that must be deleted before solving, while eight down clues must have all occurrences of a letter deleted before solving. The remaining clues are normal but their corresponding entries include at least one blank cell. Solvers must draw a thematic shape through the blank cells and highlight a thematic name comprising an initial and surname. Finally, solvers must deduce a thematic slogan (10, 3 words) and a thematic phrase (18, 2 words) associated with the clue modifications. and write them below the grid.
To fill a carte blanche, you have to have a significant number of “cold-solved” clues, so I started my read-through. I got UNBAR, CAREERED, GALL, PUMA and VAINLY from the across clues and STEAL, CARET, EASED and UPSET from the down clues quite quickly, but I needed the first and last across clues to be able to start the grid fill. PSYCHED UP yielded to careful reading of the wordplay, and DISOBEYED was its counterpart. Both had an extra word, so could be entered normally. The mirror symmetry meant that both entries started in the third cell of the respective rows, and the S,C,E and U located the down entries for STEAL, CARET, EASED and UPSET.
There had to be three clues before STEAL, so I entered numbers (1 to 10) in the top row and found that the 7 letter 1D matched the 7 letter 10D. The next breakthrough was to spot that the penultimate down clue could have many Ns deleted. N was also able to be removed from 2D (divided from divideNd). Were all 8 deletions letter Ns? They were indeed!
After sharing results with Ho, I was able to enter ATTUNED and EYESORE in 1D and 10D respectively. This located TAUT, ?A?A? and PRAY in row 2 – and all three must have an extra word, as they were entered normally. 2D MAIN and 3D PURBLIND gave TIRE at the beginning of row 3 and TAME gave ME at the end, so could “boring” at the 5th across clue be TIRESOME with a big gap in the middle? And could PURBLIND have a similar gap at column 3? Yes. So it was beginning to look as though there was an octagon of blank squares in the middle of the grid. This would use up 24 of the 35 blanks mentioned in the rubric. A blank line down the middle seemed likely, using up another 7 blanks. Only 4 to go.
If the octagon theory was right, then the outer two columns, left and right, contained all the N-less clue answers and the outer two rows, top and bottom, contained all the extra word clue answers. All other answers must have blanks in their entries. Once LEGUME and DEADLY were entered, LOCO, ABED, GALL and PUMA could be located and another blank in PxARABOxLxA between the O of locO and the L of galL, and a similar one in WxIRETAxPxS also alowed the positioning of VxAxIxNxLxY. That was 2 of the 4 missing blanks, and the last two were between the end of LOxCO and the start of ABxED.
So the grid looked like this.
I joined the centres of the blank squares, and arrived at this:
Aha! a CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) sign. So the octagon should be a circle:
So the slogan (10 letters 3 words) must be BAN THE BOMB (consistent with the puzzle title) and the deleted words must all be bomb-related.
I looked up BOMB in Chambers and the definitions refer to FIASCO (of a play), SKIER (a ball that travels high in the air), RACE (to move very quickly, especially in a vehicle), MALWARE (a piece of programming, inserted into software, that can be activated to sabotage the system) and to ATTACK (injure or destroy with bombs). The other three extra words were more straightforwardly words for bombs – PINEAPPLE, SHELL and BANGER.
N. stands for Nuclear. Thus the deleted Ns in the down clues reference the phrase (18 letters, 2 words) NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT.
CND was launched with a massive public meeting in London in February 1958, 60 years ago this weekend.
A small extra “bomb” in the grid was to find the name to highlight, and BRUSSELL (Bertrand Russell – one of the prime movers of the movement) was on the next to the bottom row.
When I first started I thought this was going to be a one-weeker, but I finished the bulk of it in a couple of sessions, so it wasn’t as difficult as I first feared. Nice grid, Serpent, and an excellent topical theme.
That was it, except to write this blog. To make referencing the clues easier, I constructed a more conventional grid, with clue numbers (used in the tables below), bars (though I’m not sure all of them are in the right place!) and the slogan, phrase and highlighting to complete the puzzle.
Across |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) [Extra word] | Answer | Wordplay |
| 3 | [Fiasco] stimulated by Prince Harry finally caught entering outbuilding on horseback (9. 2 words) | PSYCHED UP | P(rince) + SHED (outbuilding) round (Harr)Y C(aught) + UP (on horseback) |
| 11 | Professor’s imparted wisdom to tense [skier] (4) | TAUT | Sounds like (professor’s) TAUGHT (imparted wisdom) |
| 12 | Tropical fruit touch [pineapple] rings apparently (5) | PAPAW | PAW (touch) round (rings) AP(parently) |
| 14 | May I ask Head of [Race] Relations to contribute to salary (4) | PRAY | R(elations) in PAY (salary) |
| 15 | Remote island could become boring (8) | TIRESOME | [REMOTE IS(land)]* – I spent a lot of time trying to fit TIREE into this! |
| 16 | Perhaps shoot bolt from gun barrel (5) | UNBAR | Hidden in gUN BARrel |
| 17 | Those at the margins about to abandon lives (5) | SIDES | RE (about) removed from RESIDES (lives) |
| 18 | Galloped final stages of horse race in Redcar in a frenzy (8) | CAREERED | [REDCAR]* round (hors)E (rac)E |
| 19 | Drug powder brought about dazzling effect (5) | ECLAT | E (drug) + TALC (powder) reversed |
| 20 | Put off by disembarking on the right-hand side (5) | DETER | DEXTER (on the right-hand side) minus X (times or by) |
| 21 | Close-fitting garment makes removing jacket a delayed reaction (10, 2 words) | DOUBLE TAKE | DOUBLET (close-fitting garment) + (m)AKE(s) |
| 24 | Crazy about chocolate bars (4) | LOCO | Hidden reversed in (ch)OCOL(ate). I’m not quite sure about “bars” as an indicator of “hidden in”, though it can mean to “obstruct”? |
| 26 | Lying about murder victim getting left for dead? Quite the opposite (4) | ABED | ABEL (murder victim) with D(ead) for L(eft) |
| 29 | Refurbish inlay with piece of veneer to no good effect (6) | VAINLY | V(eneer) + [INLAY]* |
| 30 | Noble ignoring soldier’s rancour (4) | GALL | GALLANT (noble) minus ANT (soldier) |
| 32 | Old lady pursuing vain youth endlessly is a “cougar” (4) | PUMA | MA (old lady) after PU(p) (vain youth) |
| 34 | One passes this Swiss city. bypassing the outskirts, with trip’s agent (8, 2 words) | URIC ACID | (Z)URIC(h) (Swiss city minus outskirts) + ACID – refers to LSD, the agent of a psychedelic “trip” |
| 35 | Brand-new [malware] that should generate money (4) | MINT | Double definition |
| 36 | Group of plants stocking anonymous [shell] business with source of rubber (5) | ABRUS | A(nonymous) + BUS(iness) round R(ubber) |
| 37 | Promote [attack] in terrorist groups broadcast (4) | SELL | Sounds like (broadcast) CELL (terrorist group) |
| 38 | Ignored instructions when boy dies and ends of defective [banger] explode (9) | DISOBEYED | [BOY DIES D(efectiv)E]* |
Down |
|||
| No. | Clue (definition) [Extra letter] | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | Acclimatised at the outset, to air a[n]d houses (7) | ATTUNED | T(he outset) + TUNE (air) in AD |
| 2 | Key worker gets divide[n]d by 4th of April (4) | MAIN | MAN (worker) round (Apr)I(l) |
| 3 | Dim-witted purser gets very drunk after being half-cut (8) | PURBLIND | PUR(ser half cut) + BLIND (very drunk) |
| 4 | Way power is relinquished in changing plea bargain (5) | STEAL | ST(reet, way) + [(p)LEA]* (PLEA minus P(ower)) |
| 5 | Auditor’s bribe is a sign of omission (5) | CARET | Sounds like (auditor’s) CARROT (bribe) |
| 6 | Exams need to be taken regularly and made less difficult (5) | EASED | Alternate letters of E(x)A(m)S (n)E(e)D |
| 7 | Spill contents of mug having broken step (5) | UPSET | (m)U(g) + [STEP]* |
| 8 | Extended end of field to raise crops (8) | PRODUCED | PRODUCE (raise crops) + (fiel)D |
| 9 | Frie[n]d mea[n]t to become domesticated (4) | TAME | [MEAT]* |
| 10 | Ghastly sight is quoted i[n] proverb (7) | EYESORE | Sounds like (quoted) I + SAW (proverb) |
| 12 | Acceleration turned rod in truncated axial curve (8) | PARABOLA | A(cceleration) + BAR reversed in POLA(r) (axial truncated) |
| 13 | Bugs about to hide in eviscerated insect eaten by cuckoo wasp (8) | WIRETAPS | [WASP]* round RE (about) in I(nsec)T |
| 22 | Uncertain state left dimwit scratching head (5) | LIMBO | L(eft) + either HIMBO or BIMBO beheaded |
| 23 | Guarantee right to be forgotten and succeed (5) | ENSUE | ENSURE (guarantee) minus R(ight) |
| 24 | Me[n] glue split pea? (6) | LEGUME | [ME GLUE]* |
| 25 | Prickly customers start to complain at the beginning of play (5) | CACTI | C(omplain) + ACT I (start of play) |
| 27 | Nonchalant libertine losing almost everything in corrupt surroundings (5) | BLASÉ | L(ibertine) in BASE (corrupt) |
| 28 | De[n]y la[n]d may be highly toxic (6) | DEADLY | [DEY LAD]* |
| 31 | Like[n] are[n]a that’s ba[n]ked with are[n]a that’s free (4) | ARID | A(rea) + RID (free) |
| 33 | Measure washroom’s basi[n]s with dashed li[n]e (4) | MILE | (washroo)M (‘s basis) + [LIE]* |
Carte Blanche puzzles I always struggle with, and wasn’t sure with this really how to begin filling the grid, especially with those blank cells. But in the end I just started lobbing answers in, starting with the first across, and got there in the end. And found, much to my surprise, that I enjoyed doing so. Once the shape began to appear, obviously being some sort of curve, everything fell into place quite quickly, as did the slogan and phrase. Not as scary then as it first seemed…
Nice one, as I can now see. Despite pencilling in the first two rows and most of the associated down answers, with CAREERED, DOUBLETAKE and (of course) DISOBEYED at least in the right rows, I failed to cold-solve enough of the other clues to complete the jigsaw. Must try harder!
I enjoyed this. I was a little apprehensive on reading the instructions: blank grid, modified clues, blanks cells in grid… it looked like it was going to be a stinker. In the end it all went in fairly quickly, not exactly easy but not nearly as difficult as it looked.
I was initially sceptical about some of the synonyms for bomb, but Chambers lists them all right there in black and white so fair enough I think.
Thank you Hihoba and Serpent.
Not so much a DNF for me, as a DNS, as I simply didn’t understand how to get started, despite having solved carte blanche puzzles by Azed before. It was the 35 empty cells that threw me, along with my failure to understand the significance of “mirror symmetry”. So many congratulations to all those who persevered and completed it.
Can I suggest, however, that the diagram needs a couple more bars; one under the second P in PAPAW, and one above the R in ABRUS.
I thought this was a terrific puzzle. I find a puzzle a slog when it’s like peeling off a stubborn sticky label – you can only proceed in frustratingly tiny steps right to the end. This puzzle was quite the opposite of that. It was hard to get started, but solving gathered momentum as the grid started to take shape. This meant that it was anything but a slog, rather a very enjoyable solve.
Another big plus point was that we had a tidy final step which didn’t take 10 times as long as the grid fill. It was clearly necessary to have some sort of highlighting to show we’d understood the theme, and once I’d potted the Y-fronts logo it was quite straightforward to look up the founders of the movement, choose the most likely candidate and look for him in the grid. That’s the sort of endgame I like!
So bravo Serpent. I look forward to your next offering.
Enjoyed this immensely. It was slow going at first, particularly as I was working on the assumption that the Y at the end of DEADLY would intersect with the one in DISOBEYED for quite a while, but as cruciverbophile says, everything came together satisfyingly quickly at the end.
A puzzle that had everything I like most about the IQ, with hints and aids coming from different places whenever you most needed them. I particularly enjoyed the often cleverly disguised Ns in the down clues – it took me a while to convince myself that there were in fact 8 clues that an N could validly be removed from.
bridgesong #4, I have added the bars you suggested and a couple more that I had missed, and corrected one error on the next to the last row. Hope it is OK now.
Hihoba @7: one more bar needed to separate ABLASE. Thanks for the blog & to Serpent for the puzzle – I hadn’t realised it was an anniversary.
Didn’t start at the weekend, so the solve was very piecemeal during the week, finished off in a big ‘whoosh’ during a skipped lunch on Friday. (Had overlooked the fact that there were 35 blanks, but I’m not sure that hindered me much.)
As others have said, it looked daunting, wasn’t easy, but not as difficult as it first appeared. Thanks again.
Thanks HG. One more bar added.
My experience was the same as cruciverbophile; I also made O’Patrick’s deadly mis-step.
I couldn’t understand the significance of the omitted words, presumably because the slogan I offered (and I’m sure I remember shouting this in the ’80s) was ‘no nukes now’.
Many thanks to Serpent for a great puzzle, and Hihoba for clarifying.
This was my type of puzzle. A daunting start with, as cruciverbophile said, increasing momentum as things fell into place. When the top few rows eventually gave some blanks that looked like part of a circle, I looked at the title and the lightbulb flashed. A quick count showed that the CND badge would take 35 cells so I took a punt and drew it in, which helped greatly with the rest of the fill. And no needless hours spent trawling the internet! Many thanks to Serpent and to HIhoba.
Something I meant to ask: the preamble specifically says ‘the grid has mirror symmetry’, which seems to leave open the possibility that the pattern of blank cells might not itself be symmetric. It would have been significantly easier to complete had I known for sure that the pattern was also symmetric, so was this ambiguity deliberate? Did others make the assumption that the blank cells would be symmetric?
O’Patrick #12, Mirror symmetry about a vertical axis, now I think about it, implies that some of the blanks must be on the centre line – otherwise there would have to be an even number. I did assume, as I’m sure we were meant to, that the blanks were symmetrically placed as well.
I’m another who enjoyed this a lot for all the reasons given above. I rather relish a carte blanche grid for the added satisfaction it gives in solving and this one was particularly helpful with its mirror symmetry and the letter counts helping to identify the number of spaces (or not). As DaveW@11 noted, it was a pleasant and welcome change to be able to complete the puzzle without having to trawl the internet for a theme.
Many thanks to Serpent and Hihoba
OPatrick @12 – I assumed that the blanks are part of the solution, not part of the grid, so there was no requirement for them to be symmetrically placed.
I must echo the many positive comments about this challenging puzzle. We were beginning to think in midweek that it would be a DNF, as we just could not find a way in until we had cold solved a very high proportion of the clues. We eventually got a toehold in the NW corner by entering a few crossing answers and after that it all fell into place remarkably quickly, as is often the case with jigsaws. We would have got moving much earlier if we had realised that the first and last across answers were to be centrally placed and if we had managed to solve the first of these at an early stage, but it was one of the last to go in. We never twigged the significance of the shape until we’d drawn it in, but after that the final stages were obvious and unambiguous.
Quite a slog, but well worth persevering and so much more satisfying than spending ages searching for obscure bits of ships after fairly quickly identifying the theme last week. Another triumph for Serpent.
Many thanks to Hihoba for the excellent blog and to everyone who has been kind enough to comment. Thanks also to John H for allowing me to take the 17 February slot at relatively short notice.
I’m delighted the puzzle didn’t prove too difficult, carte blanche, blank cells and clue gimmicks notwithstanding. I deliberately tried to keep the grid entries fairly straightforward to compensate for the complexities elsewhere in the puzzle.
Agree this was a great puzzle and the fitting together of the clues actually came together quite quickly, nicely giving crossing letters for still unsolved clues to confirm the configuration was plausible. Also add me to the list of people who had Deadly in from the start. Similarly assumed the A of Steal and Unbar would be the same cell, both costing a reasonable amount of time! Great stuff so thanks very much.