Hello everyone. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been an EV blogger now for two years, after I rashly answered Gaufrid’s call for a volunteer having previously tackled only one EV (managing the gridfill but not the endgame as I recall). It’s been fun, but oh, how time flies. Not that this year can really fly by too quickly of course. Anyway, before turning to the matter at hand, I would like to wish all EV setters, commenters and lurkers a very merry, safe and optimism-filled Christmas and New Year. Here’s to a humungously improved 2021!
When I first saw this puzzle I was very happy to see the name of the setter, and even happier on reading the preamble … which reads:
A famous physicist whose name appears at 9 described, during a lecture, how another distinguished scientist, whose name (nine cells) must be highlighted, made the BRILLIANT comment paraphrased at 1 down, 44, about 19. What was hypothesised must also be highlighted (6,2,8,4,6). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
I had a guess at 9d and went immediately to the intersecting entries. Lo and behold, we have the celebrated physicist Richard FEYNMAN.
The answers continued to tumble steadily, thanks to nice non-outrageous cluing and no missing or inserted letters or other funny business. Bit by bit the quote at 1d 44, about 19 – STARS – revealed itself:
I KNOW WHY THEY SHINE BRIGHTLY
I needed to examine the completed grid carefully to find the scientist Feynman had quoted, and there he was lurking in a diagonal: Arthur EDDINGTON. The quote is illuminated when we learn that he was, in around 1920, the first person to work out how stars generate energy: by FUSION OF HYDROGEN INTO HELIUM – which is also to be highlighted in the grid.
In Feynman’s words (taken from the book “What do you care what other people think?”):
… Arthur Eddington, who had just figured out that the stars get their power from burning hydrogen in a nuclear reaction producing helium. He recounted how, on the night after his discovery, he was sitting on a bench with his girlfriend. She said, “Look how pretty the stars shine!” To which he replied, “Yes, and right now, I’m the only man in the world who knows how they shine.” He was describing a kind of wonderful loneliness you have when you make a discovery.
Many thanks to Chalicea for a puzzle which must surely be described by its title!
| Clue No | ANSWER | Clue with definition underlined |
| Explanation, with quoted indicators in italics and letters appearing in the ANSWER capitalised and emboldened | ||
| Across | ||
| 1a | IRON-CLAD | Press conservative youth resistant to change (8) |
| IRON (press) + C (conservative) + LAD (youth) | ||
| 6a | SPOOF | Parody of initially satirical dismissive exclamation (5) |
| First letter of (initially) Satirical + POOF (dismissive exclamation) | ||
| 10a | KORORA | Penguin troops repeatedly seen in Kamchatka’s borders (6) |
| OR + OR (troops repeatedly) seen in KamchatkA’s outer letters (borders) | ||
| 11a | ENRAGE | Anger rustic, even welcoming scrap (6) |
| ENE (rustic even) containing (welcoming) RAG (scrap) | ||
| 12a | SNAFUS | Foul-ups returning answer with endless hassle (6) |
| The reversal of (returning) ANS (answer) + all but the last letter of (endless) FUSs (hassle) | ||
| 13a | ONLY | Just commonly half-cut (4) |
| CommONLY half-cut | ||
| 14a | OTTO | Too much old essential oil (4) |
| OTT (too much) + O (old) | ||
| 15a | HYDROGEN | Spoilt greyhound lacking socially acceptable element (8) |
| An anagram of (spoilt) GREYHO[u]ND lacking U (socially acceptable) | ||
| 18a | WHISTS | Becomes silent with summons finished (6) |
| W (with) + HISTS (summons finished) | ||
| 21a | WARP | Mental bias of power behind conflict (4) |
| P (power) following (behind) WAR (conflict) | ||
| 22a | CRAGGY | Rough edges of crater ageing gradually (6) |
| Outer letters (edges) of CrateR AgeinG GraduallY | ||
| 24a | ITA | Palm tree with medicinal properties is pollarded (3) |
| dITA (tree with medicinal properties) has the first letter removed (is pollarded) | ||
| 26a | HIP JOINT | Body part in trendy establishment (8, two words) |
| HIP (trendy) + JOINT (establishment) | ||
| 28a | HELIUM | He’s to be busily active around priest (6) |
| HUM (to be busily active) around ELI (priest) | ||
| 30a | ANTRA | Cavities found in distant ravines (5) |
| The answer is found in distANT RAvines | ||
| 32a | THUNDERSTONES | Bard’s shocking surprises in the sonnets – mostly rude – rewritten (13) |
| THE SONNETS and mostly RUDe anagrammed (rewritten) | ||
| 36a | HAM | Coarse meat from the thigh (3) |
| Two definitions | ||
| 39a | SOUR | To such an extent ancient city’s disagreeable (4) |
| SO (to such an extent) + UR (ancient city) | ||
| 40a | MOREL | Blackish edible fungus (5) |
| A double definition | ||
| 41a | ZANTE | Insect getting into heart of hazels’ wood (5) |
| ANT (insect) in (getting into) the middle letters (heart) of haZEls | ||
| 42a | YARE | Troubled year manageable in the regions (4) |
| An anagram of (troubled) YEAR | ||
| 43a | ADDUCES | Quotes public promotions involving Italian dictator (7) |
| ADS (public promotions) containing (involving) DUCE (Italian dictator) | ||
| Down | ||
| 2d | ROOT HAIR | Hot manner after rummage for plant outgrowth (8, two words) |
| H (hot) and AIR (manner) after ROOT (rummage) | ||
| 3d | NO-NOS | Hopeless tasks willingly brought up with an arbitrary number hidden (5) |
| SOON (willingly) reversed (brought up) with N (an arbitrary number) inside (hidden) | ||
| 4d | CRAFT | Cunning about crowd (5) |
| C (about) + RAFT (crowd) | ||
| 5d | AYU | Pay up with no pressure at all for fish (3) |
| [p]AY U[p] with both of the Ps removed (with no pressure at all) | ||
| 6d | SNIRT | Dreadful strain avoiding a smothered giggle in Holyrood (5) |
| An anagram of (dreadful) STR[a]IN without (avoiding) A | ||
| 7d | PROO | Intermittently spur cow on making this call to come near in Glamis (4) |
| Alternate letters of (intermittently) sPuR cOw On | ||
| 8d | OGLES | Lecherously eyes some of Google showcases (5) |
| Some of GoOGLE Showcases | ||
| 12d | STIRP | Sensation over positive pedigree (5) |
| STIR (sensation) above (over) P (positive) | ||
| 16d | YEA | Class of students not complete, surely (3) |
| YEAr (class of students) without the last letter (not complete) | ||
| 17d | GRIST | Grits, cooked ground corn (5) |
| GRITS anagrammed (cooked) | ||
| 20d | AYIN | Paying without restrictions for letter (4) |
| pAYINg without its outer letters (without restrictions) | ||
| 22d | COLD SORE | Viral infection – centre keeping elderly inside (8, two words) |
| CORE (centre) containing (keeping … inside) OLDS (elderly) | ||
| 23d | GOAT | Vigorously attack agile ruminant (4) |
| GO AT (vigorously attack) | ||
| 25d | THREATS | Deals with accepting hard, menacing remarks (7) |
| TREATS (deals with) containing (accepting) H (hard) | ||
| 27d | NURSED | Tried to save shark stranded in the end (6) |
| NURSE (shark) + the last letter of (… in the end) strandeD | ||
| 28d | HUMERI | Bones in thumb were hit unrestrainedly (6) |
| Without the outer letters (… unrestrainedly), tHUMb wERe hIt | ||
| 29d | END MEN | Dispatch leaderless troops; the last in the line (6, two words) |
| sEND (dispatch) without the first letter (leaderless) + MEN (troops) | ||
| 31d | ASHERY | With no limits washes vacated rusty place producing potassium products (6) |
| The inner letters of (with no limits) wASHEs + the outer letters of (vacated) RustY | ||
| 33d | SOLDI | Some coins (old Italian) (5) |
| Some coinS OLD Italian | ||
| 34d | ORACH | Fish lowering head for edible plant (5) |
| ROACH (fish) with its first letter moved downwards (lowering head) | ||
| 35d | NONET | Not any time for composition (5) |
| NONE (not any) + T (time) | ||
| 37d | AYAH | Carer for children regularly skipped baby baths (4) |
| The removal of alternate letters of (regularly skipped) bAbY bAtHs | ||
| 38d | CRAB | Decry sour-tempered person (4) |
| Double definition | ||
An old-school puzzle from one of my favourite setters, in that there were no hints from completing the clues (e.g. a message from extra letters) as to what the theme was about. If I remember rightly this sort of thing used to be quite common in advanced puzzles, but you don’t see it very often now. It took me a while to find Eddington in the grid, even though I should know by now that the diagonals are the first place to look, probably because I didn’t know who I was looking for. It all fell into place nicely after that. Thank you Chalicea.
A fairly quick but enjoyable solve, and nice to learn about the quote, which I hadn’t heard before too. Thanks to Chalicea for the entertainment and to Kitty for the blog.
I was given an unexpected head start with this. The subject of the theme is something I have read a lot about, and on seeing ‘physicist’ and ‘lecture’ in the same sentence I thought FEYNMAN would be a good fit for the thematic entry at 9 down. Those letters enabled me to get going in that corner and, of course, to ink in that name. (And I now see, Kitty, that I was not the only one to get started in this way!)
(Richard Feynman was known for his lectures, collections of which have been published in books such as “QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter”.)
I couldn’t think so quickly of the other scientist, but when …INGTON appeared in the long diagonal I realised who it must be, and in went EDD. The paraphrased comment was easy enough to fill in when most of the letters were there, and the hypothesis also was readily found.
Thanks to Chalicea for an interesting puzzle, which I completed quite quickly after my lucky start, and to Kitty for the blog, and for the quote which I had not seen before.
A quick solve and an enjoyable one too. Loved it.
Very enjoyable as always with Chalicea – and educational for me. I had never heard of Eddington before so it was really interesting to learn about him.
Thanks Chalicea & Kitty.
Echoing others comments. Very enjoyable and good fun. I always admire Chalicea’s puzzles as they always educate in some way. This was no exception, I’d never heard of either of the scientists. Fitting the background / concept into the grid was pretty cool too.
Thanks to Chalicea as ever and happy second anniversary Kitty !
Thank you, indeed Kitty. What a warm and friendly blog and congratulations on two years of blogging. I am really happy that, though gentle, this puzzle was appreciated. Thanks to all.
Really enjoyed this as, with all Chalicea’s puzzles. Had not heard of the scientists or hypothesis but enjoyed researching it. Thanks Chalicea and Kitty