A classic – and classical – EV from Artix…
…with a lot of preamble, and a lot of white space between the clues.
The preamble states that:
“In THEY ARE WHAT THEY ARE, three locations associated with the theme are clued without definition; a fourth must be revealed by filling the isolated cell. The perimeter answers must be deduced: two are thematic examples, two features positioned appropriately. The four locations and two features must be shaded in a similar grey to the two cells in the grid, together with three other clued answers which can also be associated with the theme. To complete the picture, the cells contained within the outline must also be shaded. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; one answer is a prefix.”
My first thoughts were a) not an ‘extra letter in wordplay’ in sight – hurrah! – and b) so much thematic stuff going on that there are hardly any clues – hence the spacing. My solving notes start off with a scrawled ‘WTF!’, and then not a lot for a while, until the SLUICEGATES opened.
After a couple of days of picking up and putting down, I had a hint of a PDM when the bottom of the left-hand column looked like, well, COLUMN…and the top of the right-hand one looked like, well, NELSON’S. So I took a chance on the right being NELSON’S COLUMN, and had a trawl for other columns in the 3A CAPITAL (i.e. London), until I hit upon TRAJAN’S, which is in Rome – another CAPITAL?
26D had been bugging me for a while – it looked like it should be PETRA, but I had forgotten about the three undefined locations, so kept trying to link it back to the ‘city’ in 25D. And then the main PDM came when I got CORINTH, PETRA and STYLOBATE to almost form the base of another column.
I knew of Doric columns, but didn’t realise they came from a place called DORIS until Professor Wiki-Oogle enlightened me. And then I kicked myself a bit when I realised that GOSSIP, SPINAL and AGONY are all other types of column, with PERSEPOLIS having to complete what looked like a set of cricket stumps! (I was finishing this off during the final Ashes test, after all…)
So, the pieces all came together, with the CAPITAL being the top of our shaded-in column:
I can’t remember my LOI, but the LOP (last one parsed) was PERSEPOLIS, whilst writing up the clues, and the title only came to me now as I am finishing this off – they (the 3 thematic shaded and 2 perimeter columns) are what they are – COLUMNS!
Thanks to Artix for a classic, classical and educational puzzle – with some interesting clueing – the ‘1963 motor’ and ‘1468 Burgundians’ being my favourites, while 25A, well, what can I say?! – and some obscure words – THROPPLE, TITUPY, FRAIM, POSNET, to name a few. No idea when I would ever use some of those in a sentence…
Hopefully all is clear below…one minor editing quibble – events obviously overtook 32A, as Mrs MAY must have been PM while this was being set, until that MEANY ‘petulant imp’ Boris THROPPLED her and took her job…I’m a-FRAIM that he is making a bit of a TITUPY of it so far…
NB. I have just seen that the printed solution has the 5 central columns shaded as one, whereas I have only filled in the base, leaving three separate columns…I obviously still had my mind on those cricket stumps!…So no prize pen this week (;+<)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
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| 3 | CAPITAL | Unclued (7) / Thematic deduction – the top of the column |
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| 9 | RHODO | Red types of deer picked up (5) / homophone, i.e. picked up – RHODO might sound like ROE (a type of deer) + DOE (a deer, a female deer…) |
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| 10 | ISERE | No tricks when Frenchman’s offloaded one of his bankers (5) / ( |
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| 11 | AREG | They shift 1963 motor, perhaps (4) / Double defn(ish) An A-REG might be a car registered (in the UK) in 1963; An AREG is an area of shifting sand dunes. |
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| 14 | SEEL | Make fortune in the shires by backing the pits (4) / SEEL (Scottish dialect – good fortune) could be made by backing LEES (dregs, the pits) |
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| 15 | ONE UP | Thematic example’s antithesis in lead (5, 2 words) / The entry at 1D (one down) is a thematic example (Trajan’s Column) – and ONE UP could be the opposite, or antithesis, of ONE DOWN) |
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| 16 | APES | Takes off a foot (4) / A + PES (Latin – the human foot) |
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| 17 | INTO | Intrigued by string found in late presenter’s guts (4) / INTO is a string of letters found within (Dale) W-INTO-N, a recently deceased TV presenter. (There may be other ex-presenters with surnames containing ‘–INTO–‘ as well?) |
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| 18 | POST-SYNCH | Addition of FX we’re told to drop on Facebook item (9) / POST (a Facebook item) + SYNCH (homophone, i.e. we’re told – SYNCH sounds like SINK, to drop) |
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| 19 | SLUICEGATES | Dams trade union’s legacies at work (11) / anag, i.e. at work, of TU’S (Trade Union’s) + LEGACIES |
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| 21 | PUPIL | Rounded edge on high part of organ (5) / LIP (edge) + UP (high), all ’rounded’ to give PUPIL |
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| 23 | OCH | Old chestnut gets tut from Alec (3) / O (old) + CH (chestnut) |
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| 25 | APOOP | Behind, and what emanates from it? (5) / double defn(ish!) – APOOP is a nautical term for behind; and A POOP might emanate from a behind! |
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| 27 | LEO | Napoleon’s summer baby (3) / hidden word (that possessive ‘s) in ‘napoLEOn’ |
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| 29 | LIEGE | In 1468 the Burgundians _aid s____ to here (5) / A history lesson – in 1468 the Burgundians L-aid s-IEGE to LIEGE! |
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| 30 | BEDEL | Officer helping VC add line to old prayer (5) / BEDE (archaic for bead, or prayer) with L (line) added |
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| 31 | CORINTH | No-good dog’s latest in a long line (7) / (thematic/undefined) COR( |
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| 32 | MEANY | Nut troubling PM regularly is petulant imp (5) / M_A_Y (former! PM) alternated with (troubled regularly by) E_N (nut) |
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| 33 | FRAIM | Brother, I’m cold in Plockton! (5)) / FRA (brother, or friar) + IM (I’m) |
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| 34 | STYLOBATE | Unclued (9) / Thematic deduction – the base of the column |
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| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
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| 1 | TRAJAN’S COLUMN | Unclued (7, 6) / Thematic deduction – a column! |
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| 2 | THROPPLE | Choke Croatia in upset (8) / T_OPPLE (upset) around HR (Hrvatska, Croatia) |
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| 3 | COED | Student’s succinct address for letter to Telegraph? (4) / A letter to the editor of a newspaper, e.g. the Telegraph, might be addressed succinctly as ‘C/O ED’) |
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| 4 | POSNET | Butler perhaps holding cardplaying pair’s pot (6) / PO_ET (e.g. William Butler) around (holding) NS (North and South in bridge – card-playing pair) |
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| 5 | TITUPY | Lively end of January set it up (6) / Y (end letter of January) + PUT (set) + IT, all ‘up’, or reversed) |
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| 6 | LEEK | Staffs place King under shelter (4) / LEE (shelter) over K (king) |
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| 7 | BREATHER | Swimmer boxing on break from routine (8) / B_ATHER (swimmer) around (boxing) RE (on, regarding) |
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| 8 | NELSON’S COLUMN | Unclued (7, 6) / Thematic deduction – another column! |
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| 12 | GOSSIP | Crack heard when someone like Katarina Witt breaks bones? (6) / G_P (general practitioner, doctor, or ‘bones’) around (broken by) OSSI (East German, such as ice skater Katerina Witt) |
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| 13 | PERSEPOLIS | Rewrite 100 poison pen letters after editing racy content (10) / (thematic/undefined) subtractive anagram, i.e. rewrite, of – ( |
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| 14 | SPINAL | Dorsal fin’s no force in South China (6) / S (south) + P_AL (rhyming slang – china plate = mate, pal) around ( |
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| 20 | SHE-CAT | Queen’s cold in short closefitting dress (6) / SHE_AT( |
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| 22 | OLD-HAT | No longer in Balmoral, say (6) / double defn. something that is no longer ‘in’ could be OLD HAT. And a Balmoral is an old-fashined hat(?) (Or is it an &lit-ish CD?) |
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| 24 | CIVES | Herbs folk used in Rome (5) / classical double definition – CIVES is a variation of chives, so herbs; and CIVES is Latin for citizens, or folk; |
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| 25 | AGONY | City, after key game, struggle (5) / A (musical key) + GO (game) + NY (city) |
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| 26 | PETRA | One’s favourite artist (5) / (thematic/undefined) PET (one’s favourite) + RA (Royal Academician, artist) |
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| 28 | EERIE | Weird meteor miner oddly overlooked (5) / even letters (i.e. odd ones overlooked) of ‘mEtEoR mInEr’ |
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