Enigmatic Variations No. 1467: The Flavour of the Month by Gos

And so we come to the last EV of 2020, and good riddance (to 2020, that is!) The flavours assailing my senses on the Sunday this was published were those of gently simmering turkey stock, as the last of the leftovers were put to good use…

The preamble states that:

“The puzzle’s theme is a literary work, considered the first of its kind and which might cryptically be called THE FLAVOUR OF THE MONTH. Four entries are the names of protagonists and are clued only by wordplay. The title of the work must be entered in the grid in the available space as a representation of the eventual outcome. The circled letters in the completed grid may be arranged to form the creator of the work. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

So far, so seemingly gentle – no clue manipulation or extra/missing letters in wordplay, ‘just’ a few thematic items to find, and the setter (and/or editor) has kindly circled a bunch of letters for us…we just need to fill them in! (Which may be easier said than done…)

With hindsight, it would have been possible to glean a bit more information from the preamble and the cryptic representation of the title, but I just got my head down in solving mode to see what might start to appear.

First up was 1A – which looked much like a long anagram without a definition, so most likely a thematic item…but the anagram eluded me and it stayed there unresolved until much later, once I had enough crossers. In fact, the first thematic protagonist I got was RACHEL at 21D.

I made steady enough progress with the ‘normal’ clues, ticking off a few circled letters as I went. The top left quadrant proved trickiest, with WHARFIE being one of my last ones in.

Two further thematic persons – GODFREY and FRANKLIN – had been tracked down along the way, but these three didn’t ring any bells in this bear of little literary brain, and the PDM eventually came when the circled letters seemed to be spelling out WILKIE COLLINS.

I’m afraid I don’t think I have read any of his works, but I am familiar with his more famous titles – THE WOMAN IN WHITE and THE MOONSTONE, the latter of which fitted nicely into the bottom row, and the cryptic title – the flavour (tone) of the month (moon’s).

All that remained was to track down SERGEANT CUFF along the top row, and things seemed to be complete:

My only reservation is the phrase ‘…as a representation of the eventual outcome.‘ My Wiki-Oogling research, to confirm the character list, provided several plot summaries where the stone eventually ends up back in India, in the forehead of the statue it came from – which I can’t reconcile to just putting it at the bottom of the grid. Maybe we were supposed to manipulate the words into another cryptic representation? Time will tell, either in the comments below, or in Sundays published solution.

I also discovered that the book is widely (although not universally) considered the first modern example of the ‘detective novel’, establishing many of the ‘ground rules’ of the genre. This tallies with the first line of the preamble.

My LOP (last one parsed), while doing the blog, was 17A NONAGE(NARIAN), which had me scratching my head long after I had submitted my entry, and elicited a drop of the jaw and a face-palm when I finally twigged it.

Overall the clueing was fairly gentle, and there weren’t too many obscure words in the grid. ERASTIAN, GRIS and SWAD were new to me, EFFEIR and NESH were vaguely familiar, and TROCHAL and TREILLE needed a quick check in Chambers, but all were gettable from their wordplay/crossers.

The thematic protagonists all had a generous proportion of checking letters – the three names were gettable (if not recognised by me in their context), and only SERGEANT CUFF needed a bit of anagram help and online checking.

I found this a very enjoyable – and educational – puzzle. Many thanks to Gos. Maybe I need to add the book to my Lockdown III reading list!

A quick check on this site suggests that this is his(?) fourth EV, and two of the others – EV 1177 and EV 1282 – involved – crime/murder mysteries, so he is sticking true to form here! The other – EV 1370 – involved a long perimetral quote. All worth a visit, if you didn’t solve them first time round…and have access to the Telegraph archives…

Technical note: I am working on getting numbers into my grids! I have tried the Crossword Complier software and Paul Drury’s utility package – both of which will take this kind of grid and include numbers – but they don’t lend themselves very well to the addition of things like circled letters or overlaid shapes, or text boxes below the grid, which I tend to use in my animations. They tend to stick at allowing shading to highlight thematic items. I have worked out how to add superscripts in my favoured medium – Excel – but it is a bit of a PITA to add them manually to 30-35-40+ cells! And it messes with the alignment with non-numbered cells…I will persevere.

In the meantime, here is a static example, from the Paul Drury utility package, with numbers and colouring – hope it helps, if needed?

Across
Clue No	Solution		Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
1	SERGEANT CUFF		Variegated green stuff can, mostly … (12, two words) / Thematic – no definition – anag, i.e. variegated, of GREEN STUFF CA(N) (mostly)
8	WHARFIE		Shore worker in Wellington uncertain husband and wife are docked (7) / anag, i.e. uncertain, of H (husband) + WIFE + AR(E) (docked)
10	MAORI		The first person to wander around in New Zealand? (5) / I (first person) + ROAM (wander), all around gives MAORI
12	FRANKLIN		Western European ravine (8) / Thematic – no definition – FRANK (Western European person) + LIN (ravine)
13	DANSEUR		Parisian in with European ballet member (7) / DANS (‘in’, in French, i.e. Parisian) + EUR (European)
14	ISNT		Proves not to be insanity: just odd characters (4) / odd letters of ‘InSaNiTy’
15	GREW		Became fast runner in Shawfield (4) / double defn. GREW can mean ‘became’; and a GREW is Northern/Scottish dialect for a greyhound – Shawfield being a greyhound race track in Scotland!)
17	NONAGE		Minority which might be construed as 45? (6) / a nonagenarian is someone who is 90, so half of a NONAGE(NARIAN) could be construed as 45!
18	OBSERVER		Supplier of outside broadcast one views (8) / OB (outside broadcast) + SERVER (supplier)
22	RESONATE		Some figures on a teleprinter vibrate (8) / hidden word in, i.e. some of, ‘figuRES ON A TEleprinter’
24	FLORIN		In bygone times, ten pence in one of two States (6) / FL (Florida) + OR + IN (Indiana) – one of two US states!
25	ICER		Baker could be Chicago killer (4) / to ‘ice’ is US slang for to kill, so a Chicago killer could be an ICER
27	REDE		Old tale to expound to auditor (4) / homophone, i.e. to auditor – a REDE (archaic, i.e. old, for tale) sounds like READ (to expound) (?)
29	TROCHAL		As with wheel of car, loth to change (7) / anag, i.e. to change, of CAR LOTH
32	ERASTIAN		Physician’s supporter, a misguided Saint following King Edward (8) / ER (Edward Rex, King Edward) + A + STIAN (anag, i.e. misguided, of SAINT)
33	YOUSE		The second person in certain places to spend after year over (5) / Y (year) + O (over, cricket) + USE (spend)
34	TREILLE		Not very well in plane perhaps, getting means of support (7) / TRE_E (plane, perhaps) around ILL (not very well)
Down
Clue No	Solution		Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing
1	SWAD		Soldier from region is married in Aberdeen (4) / S (‘s, contraction of ‘is’) + WAD (Scottish, i.e. in Aberdeen, for wed, or married)
2	RAWNESS		Wrong answers revealing inexperience (7) / anag, i.e. wrong, of ANSWERS
3	GRIS		Age-worn steps: short supply in old Arizona (4) / GRIS(T) (old US word for supply, short of one letter). (The definition is GRIS, as the plural of GREE, an obsolete, or age-worn, word for step)
4	EFFEIR		Suit of old appearance to Ian (6) / double defn – one obsolete, one Scottish! EFFEIR can mean to suit, or appertain; and in Scottish, i.e. ‘to Ian’, an EFFEIR can be appearance, or show.
5	NEAR		Some of the genuine article is handy (4) / hidden word in, i.e. some of the, ‘genuiNE ARticle’
6	CAKING		Making watertight’s left out – getting harder (6) / CA(L)KING (making watertight, with L – left – out)
7	FRINGE		Outside edge of cooler with note for daughter (6) / FRI(D)GE (cooler) with N – note – replacing D – daughter = FRINGE
9	HOAR		No longer mouldy with age (4) / antiquated/current double defn. HOAR is obsolete for mouldy, and current for age/grey-hairedness, generally.
10	MNA		Weight of money not available (3) / M (money, economic notation, e.g. M1, M2) + NA (not available)
11	INTEGER		A whole equivalent grade covered by Italian soccer club (7) / INT_ER (Inter Milan, Italian soccer club) around (covering) EG (equivalent grade, abbreviation)
15	GODFREY		Wee Fred altered term of duty (7) / Thematic – no definition – GO (wee!) + DFRE (anag, i.e. altered, of FRED) + Y (last, or terminal, letter of dutY)
16	OVEN		Arched cavity of Slovenia (4) / hidden word in, i.e. of, ‘slOVENia’
17	NESH		Hens unusually susceptible to cold in parts (4) / anag, i.e. unusually, of HENS
19	BOLERO		Jacket Hollywood man with unfamiliar role displays (6) / BO (American, i.e. Hollywood, term for ‘man’) + LERO (anag, i.e. unfamiliar, of ROLE)
20	EGRESS		Leave with backward movement, avoiding first sign of resistance (6) / (R)EGRESS – backward movement, ignoring R – first letter, or sign, of Resistance
21	RACHEL		Pain in both sides (6) / Thematic – no definition – R_L (right and left, both sides) around ACHE (pain)
23	OZONE		Fresh air over district (5) / O ( over, cricket) + ZONE (district)
26	EARL		Peer at centre of annual (4) / Centre of (Y)EARL(Y) – annual
28	UTE		Native American truck found in Perth (3) / double defn. – UTE can (when capitalised) be a Native American people; and in Perth, Australia, a UTE is a utility vehicle, or truck
29	TITO		Old dictator making trip to Oz now and again (4) / occasional letters, i.e now and then, of ‘TrIp To Oz’
30	CHIT		Child with constant desire to cycle (4) / if ITCH (constant desire) cycles round by two letters it is CHIT, child, contraction of ‘kitten’ via ‘kit’?!
31	LYE		Solution obtainable from polyester (3) / hidden word in, i.e. obtainable from, ‘poLYEster’