Kruger – a week late for kenmac to add to his duels with the setter.
Preamble: In twenty clues, some or all of the definition has been jumbled with an extra letter. In clue order, these extra letters give the start of a quotation which, in its entirety, explains how some answers are to be treated before entry. The originator of the quotation must be highlighted in the completed grid. Letter-counts refer to the number of cells available for each entry.
Hmm, “some answers are to be treated before entry” – rather typical of Kruger not to tell us how many, but at least we know the number of letters in the fragment of the quotation. And I haven’t seen this way of generating the extra letters before. The first clue I solved was one of those: in 14a we remove an E from “veneers” and unscramble to reveal Severn, a RIVER. And the answer to the next one had to be treated before entry: 16a OVERLOOKED is 4 letters too long. A quick look at the clues for the intersecting down entries (4d TORREON & 7d SADHE) suggested that the “treatment” was to remove LOOK.
Things trundled along – a smattering of extra letters, just over half, but too many holes to make a stab at the quotation; and a few more treated answers: 1a CON[FRONT]ATION, 43a NU[TRIM]ENT, 27d RE[SIDE]NTIAL, 33d D[ANGER]OUSLY, but I couldn’t see what connected the removals. (And I’m still not sure about SIDE.) {PS: I guess SIDE=FACE e.g. in a six-sided die.} I briefly scanned the grid in the hope of alighting on a likely originator of the quotation, but again too many holes.
So I plugged away, and with 15 of the 20 extra letters I could see that I NEVER FORGET A FACE, BUT … was going to emerge. I actually remember this from a Marx Brothers film I must have watched over 50 years ago, but I couldn’t remember which one. It continues … in your case I’ll be glad to make an exception. (I had to check the exact wording.) The remark was made by GROUCHO MARX, and it seems likely to have been addressed to a character played by Margaret Dumont, described in Wikipedia as “the comic foil … in seven of their films”.
Nearly done, but I needed two more answers that had to be de[face]d: 1d C?R?TY & 30d S?LER. The former came later in the evening when I’d finished the rest: COR[DIAL]ITY, whereas the latter waited until the following morning to be dug out: S[MUG]GLER – that damn Harry Potter again!
Thanks Kruger – quite an enjoyable challenge, satisfying to complete, but digging out the last two or three faces was a bit of a chore.
| No. | Clue [jumble with X] | X | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Barring absurd war, narrow faction not involved in hostilities (8) | CON[FRONT]ATION | [NARROW FACTION NOT]* ¬ [WAR]* | |
| 7 | Women described by letter and book [folio]* fool (5) | I | DWEEB | W(omen) in DEE (letter) B(ook) |
| 11 | Black skinned capuchin in small tree (6) | BONSAI | (e)BON(y) SAI (capuchin) | |
| 13 | Lack of food regularly drained [angler]* large (4) | N | HUGE | HU(n)GE(r) (lack of food) |
| 14 | Perhaps [veneers]* Severn I’ve found in centre of Jarrow (5) | E | RIVER | IVE in (Ja)RR(ow) |
| 15 | Reduces airborne services (7) | ABSORBS | AB (airborne) SORBS (services) | |
| 16 | Didn’t spot maiden potentially meeting Kelvin in Cornish town on date (6) | OVER[LOOK]ED | OVER (maiden potentially) K(elvin) in LOOE (Cornish town) D(ate) | |
| 18 | French community starts to train animals in zoo’s enclosure (5) | TAIZÉ | T(rain) A(nimals) I(n) Z(oo’s) E(nclosure) | |
| 20 | Clubs excited salesman over wine server (6) | CUPPER | C(lubs) UP (excited) REP< (salesman) | |
| 21 | Shackles old-fashioned no good artist Klein (4) | YVES | GYVES (shackles, archaic) ¬ G(ood) | |
| 22 | Maybe [cultivar]* curtail from Parisian about to be put in box (8) | V | DECREASE | DE (from, Fr) RE (about) in CASE (box) |
| 24 | In contact with playwright reportedly not at [ease]* sea (7) | E | ONSHORE | ON (in contact with) SHORE (homophone Shaw, playwright) |
| 28 | Retired judge, visiting aristocratic beak, waving occasionally (8) | UNDULOSE | LUD< (judge) in U (aristocratic) NOSE (beak) | |
| 32 | Some [erred]* deer – sheep local farm lost (4) | R | HERD | HERDWICK (sheep) ¬ WICK (farm, dialect) |
| 34 | Lesotho must supply drainage facilities (6) | STULMS | [LS (Lesotho) MUST]* | |
| 35 | Scout of [felon]* lone ranger from the east content to shoot no tigers (5) | F | TONTO | (sho)OT NO T(igers) rev. |
| 37 | Master largely worried – like [pastor]* strap (6) | O | LORATE | LOR(d) (master) ATE (worried) |
| 39 | With no explanation up front, poker prizes oddly abandoned in Melton [terminal]* aliment? (7, 2 words) | R | PORK PIE | [POKER ¬ E(xplanation) P(r)I(z)E(s)]* |
| 40 | [Sedgy]* Dyes pool receding in extremes of aridness (5) | G | ANILS | LIN< (pool) A(ridnes)S |
| 41 | Iris’s team welcomed by Iowa (4) | IXIA | XI (11, team) in IA (Iowa) | |
| 42 | Nice Royal Highness about to get more [yeomen]* money (6) | E | ENRICH | [NICE RH (Royal Highness)]* |
| 43 | Food fanatic has dubious merit, note (5) | NU[TRIM]ENT | NUT (fanatic) [MERIT N(ote)]* | |
| 44 | Competitive style makes my pal age unduly (8) | GAMEPLAY | [MY PAL AGE]* | |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Friendliness is rudimentary but not punctilious in Leeds, say (6) | COR[DIAL]ITY | PRIMORDIAL (rudimentary) ¬ PRIM (punctilious) in CITY (Leeds, say) | |
| 2 | [Attest]* State Henry to deputize for Lambert in variety entertainment (4) | T | OHIO | H(enry) for L(ambert) in OLIO (variety entertainment) |
| 3 | Laboured sailors almost struggled (7) | NAVVIED | NAV(y) (sailors) VIED (struggled) | |
| 4 | Mexican city engineers engaged in Troon? Ridiculous! (7) | TORREON | RE (engineers) in [TROON]* | |
| 5 | Mountain tending to be partially [andesite] destine (6) | A | INTEND | (mounta)IN TEND(ing) |
| 6 | Man from Havana possibly set up company opera (7) | NABUCCO | CUBAN< (… from Havana …) CO(mpany) | |
| 7 | Finding out about record left at New York hostel (4) | DIS[COVER]Y | DISC (record) OVER (left) Y (YMCA hostel, N Am inf) | |
| 8 | Organized how to go without second helping of food. That’s great! (7) | WHOOPEE | [WHO]* PEE (go) around (f)O(od) | |
| 9 | UAE pro circulating [e-fits]* site of union members online (6) | F | EUROPA | [UAE PRO]* |
| 10 | Loosely, [parades]* spread on East Street blocking alcohol (7) | A | BESTREW | E(ast) ST(reet) in BREW (alcohol) |
| 12 | Israeli character unhappy with base husband interrupting (5) | SADHE | SAD (unhappy) E (base) around H(usband) | |
| 17 | Abandon [metric]* merit (6) | C | DESERT | double definition |
| 19 | Forward opposed to tackling Virginia (6) | AVANTI | ANTI (opposed to) around VA (Virginia) | |
| 23 | Poet’s beginning to pray for end of quick game for kids (7) | PUSHPIN | PUSHKIN (poet) with P(ray) for (quic)K | |
| 24 | American breaking week in Glasgow contacting a new source of candles (7) | OULAKAN | A(merican) in OULK (week, Scot) A N(ew) | |
| 25 | Ian’s making [oilseed]* soiled very special to farmers eventually in Gabon (7) | E | SOSSING | SO (very) S(pecial) (farmer)S IN G(abon) |
| 26 | Cooking caterer to detect [baaing]* again (7) | B | RETRACE | [CATERER]* |
| 27 | Cleveland’s authority was thus powerless concerning place to live (7) | RE[SIDE]NTIAL | PRESIDENTIAL (Cleveland’s authority was thus) ¬ P(ower) {not a fan of this sort of wordplay} |
|
| 29 | To continue no more around Rhode Island, means to make [capture]* carpet (6) | U | DURRIE | DURE (continue, obs) around RI (Rhode Island) |
| 30 | Sister takes on someone who is not magical runner (5) | S[MUG]GLER | SR (sister) around MUGGLE (someone who is not magical) | |
| 31 | Father renovated Illinois home (6) | ELOHIM | [IL(linois) HOME]* | |
| 33 | In an unsafe way, shot grouse (and luckily) in the borders (6) | D[ANGER]OUSLY | [GROUSE AND L(uckil)Y]* | |
| 36 | Violently eject old, determined, grasping leader of pickpockets (4) | SPET | SET (determined) around P(ickpockets) | |
| 38 | Having enough strength, climbing [stile]* isle (4) | T | ABLE | ELBA< (isle) |
A really fun Inquisitor … I noted several answers that would not fit, unravelled the quote relatively quickly, and wrked out what to remove. I thought that I knew who was the originator of the quote … and there he was … very easy to locate, since in his case, ‘the X Marx the spot’ … (did you see what I did there)? Sadly, I couldn’t parse 39A to my satisfaction, and never completed 30D (although I felt it might have to be another ‘face removal’ one) … so ended up with all complete except for just the one barred off cell in 39D remaining. S another DNF for me … so close, but so oh so very far! Thanks to both setter and blogger, I enjoyed this one a lot.
Really hard work this one but got there eventually – thank you. I thought “some or all of the definition has been jumbled” was unnecessarily confusing as I think it was just one word in every case, so it might have been nice to say that.
Also, why is ANGER a face? I can see how you can make an angry face, but that doesn’t really fit with the rest of the clues which are synonyms of face.
the 19th def. for FACE in Chambers is “Anger or favour (Bible)”
The two faces that almost eluded HolyGhost entirely eluded me. Beyond that, a really tricky, enjoyable puzzle, where the quote was required to work out the common element.
Thanks to Kruger and HG.
The grid entries that weren’t real words exposed my solving skills (or lack thereof) quite badly, but this was a fun solve so the extra time taken was no bind. The quote was duly spotted, all the letters for once present and correct here, and after a tricky solve it was nice to be faced then with a straightforward endgame.
Tricky indeed but lots of fun. Many thanks to Kruger and HG. For some reason the diagonal with the key name stayed mostly blank for a long time, with only the R and X in place when the magic name came to mind. But as noted at @1 above, that was enough for strong confirmation and general happiness.
Two of the first three faces that, er, fell here were LOOK and ANGER, which sent me on a long diversion among possible John Osborne quotes. I didn’t have any trouble with SIDE (thinking of dice) but ANGER seemed to be the odd one out until I finally slogged through all those Chambers “face” definitions.
I enjoyed this. In a moment of inspiration I guessed faces were being removed. My immediate idea was expressions of anger but soon realised that any sort of face would do. This helped to construct the quote and was a big help in solving the clues. Sometimes just looking an then letting my subconscious take over works better than any amount of hard logical thinking. If only this were a consistently repeatable skill! Thanks to HG and Kruger.
Like @6, I got LOOK and ANGER and thought of the Osborne connection, but I then got no further. I got halfway through and finally admitted defeat yesterday. Several of the clues turned out to be quite doable (which was a nice surprise!) but too many relied in the wordplay on knowledge I don’t have – Y for New York hotel, wick for farm, etc. (“lud” for judge would def not have occurred to me) – so outside my range really. I liked “Tonto”! which was nostalgic fun, and several clues were a satisfying solve, so well worth the effort. Thanks to Kruger and to HolyGhost.