A typically brief preamble from Chalicea.
Preamble: 36 form 10 35, which accumulate to create primitive structures. Single extra letters produced by the wordplay in each clue give, in clue order, an instruction referring to those structures.
1776. Hmm. Declaration of Independence by 13 American colonies. But that was July, so put that out of my mind. On balance, puzzles from Chalicea tend to be on the easy side, at least as far as the grid-fill is concerned. So, for no particularly good reason I made a start with the second half of the across clues, then the downs, and circled back to reconsider the rest of the acrosses.
Things moved along pretty steadily, and I was probably 3/4 done after the first pass. Even so, the extra letters from the wordplay of each clue weren’t revealing very much. After a single session (probably with a short ‘half-time’ break for a bite to eat), and with just a few answers left to parse, the grid was complete. Replacing 36, 10 & 35 from the preamble, we read CYANOBACTERIA form MICROBIAL MATS (not MASS: see the first couple of comments), and we are instructed to SHADE THE RESULTING LIFE FORM THIRTEEN LETTERS. Thirteen letters, 13 rows & 13 columns … very suggestive. But the grid-search is for another day.
I scanned the diagonals: NW-SE, SE-NW, NE-SW, SW-NE, including wrap-arounds but nothing struck me. So I copied the spreadsheet grid, offsetting each row first one column to the right then one column to the left – that way the diagonals become vertical – and at last I can read STROMATOLITES; I don’t know how I missed it earlier as it forms the principal diagonal running SE-NW. These are the structures resulting from the blue-green algae.
I had some trouble parsing 13a ANTIPSYCHOTIC (with an extra E). I could see ANTIC from “frolic”, but split the entry as ANTI-PSYCHO-TI-C; I didn’t think that PSYCHO = “canned” was very good and had no idea how the “E, we hear” might deliver the rest. Then I got the suggestion to split ANTIC not as ANTI/C but as AN/TIC – and the matter was soon resolved.
Thanks Chalicea – nothing to get me excited, but an acceptable puzzle with no quirks or wrinkles.
| No. | Clue | Answer | X | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Partly mashes peas, naturally, to accustom Morag’s baby to solid food (5) | SPEAN | S | (mashe)S PEA{S} N(aturally) |
| 5 | Habituate prolonged dull pain mostly accompanying trade (8) | ACCUSTOM | H | AC{H}(e) (prolonged dull pain) CUSTOM (trade) |
| 11 | Parasite seen regularly at ordinary animal park (principally noxious) (8) | ENTOZOON | A | (s)E(e)N {A}T O(rdinary) ZOO (animal park) N(oxious) |
| 12 | Dishonourable fellow; private investigator for Mafia leaders (4) | CAPI | D | CA{D} (dishonourable fellow) PI (private investigator) |
| 13 | Drug caper has canned E, we hear (13) | ANTIPSYCHOTIC | E | ANTIC (frolic) around TIPSY (canned) {E}CHO (E, we hear) |
| 14 | Orders treatises in confusion (8) | SERIATES | T | [TREA{T}ISES]* |
| 15 | Senior magistrate, a male with power in the past to halt resistance (5) | EPHOR | H | {H}E (a male) P(ower) HO (halt, obs) R(esistance) |
| 17 | What might rouse a mad king, with buckled arm and unrestrained idiot (10, 2 words) | ALARM RADIO | E | A L{E}AR (mad king) [ARM]* (i)DIO(t) |
| 20 | Run source of security for farm (6) | RANCHO | R | R(un) ANCHO{R} (source of security) |
| 22 | Expired forecast of advanced buyers’ option act (6) | ABODED | E | A(dvanced) BO (buyers’ option) DE{E}D (act) |
| 24 | Some Romans celebrated once when north of Hadrian’s Wall (4) | ANCE | S | (Rom)AN{S} CE(lebrated) |
| 25 | Unlimited cuisine making a comeback, only effective when conditions are unmet (4) | NISI | U | (c){U}ISIN(e)< |
| 27 | Soak device for coiling slightly damaged paper (6) | RETREE | L | RET (soak) REE{L} (device for coiling) |
| 28 | Outstanding old poem about sloth (6) | ACEDIA | T | ACE (outstanding) DI{T} (poem, archaic) A(bout) |
| 29 | Dismiss foolish ill-use involving mile markers for Romans (10) | CASTELLUMS | I | CAST (dismiss) [{I}LL-USE]* around M(ile) |
| 33 | Concerning conspicuous object of interest – returning tanker (5) | OILER | N | RE (concerning) LIO{N} (conspicuous object of interest) all< |
| 34 | Radical independent ancient alphabet for wireless amateur (8, 2 words) | RADIO HAM | G | RAD(ical) I(ndependent) O{G}HAM (ancient alphabet) |
| 36 | See preamble | |||
| 37 | Acquire skill to make money (4) | EARN | L | {L}EARN (acquire skill) |
| 38 | Administrative official in charge, feeding kangaroo rat (8) | EUROCRAT | I | {I}C (in charge) in EURO (kangaroo) RAT |
| 39 | Pays the bill retrospectively with beginnings of serious hesitation in exotic Balmoral frolic (8) | STOOSHIE | F | {F}OOTS< (pays the bill) S(erious) H(esitation) I(n) E(xotic) |
| 40 | Method to make sure of having wheeled barrows locally (5) | HOWES | E | HOW (method) SE{E}< (make sure) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Red flag intermittently on board for great waves (4) | SEAS | F | (r)E(d) {F}(l)A(g) in SS (on board) |
| 2 | Softly circling east-north-east of Thessaly’s river (7) | PENEIAN | O | PIAN{O} around ENE (east-north-east) |
| 3 | Ways of access to lease cattle farms – wealth ultimately not needed (9) | ENTRANCES | R | {R}ENT (lease) RANCHES (cattle farms) ¬ (wealt)H |
| 4 | No prize for cactus (5) | NOPAL | M | NO PAL{M} (cactus) |
| 6 | More reluctant to give details of plaything in climbing sports area (5) | COYER | T | {T}OY (plaything) in REC< (sports area) |
| 7 | Not very impressive barbaric type, male in command supporting first pair of rogues (8) | UNHEROIC | H | {H}UN (barbaric type) HE (male) IC (in command) before RO(gues) |
| 8 | Tuft of hairs thus essentially favours personal appearance (5) | SCOPA | I | S{I}C (thus) (fav)O(urs) PA (personal appearance) |
| 9 | Addictive narcotic in medical procedure international fashion designer set up (6) | OPIOID | R | OP (medical procedure) I(nternational) DIO{R}< (fashion designer) |
| 10 | See preamble | |||
| 16 | Old birds flying nest cope with traces all tangled up (9) | PRAECOCES | T | [COPE {T}RACES]* |
| 18 | Remarkable person – major, needed occasionally (4, 2 words) | A ONE | E | (m)A(j)O(r) N(e)E(d){E}(d) |
| 19 | With heads unprotected writhed desperately in death throe at Culloden (9) | DEID-THRAW | E | [(h)EAD(s) WRITH{E}D]* |
| 21 | In this place Spanish gentleman upset Bantu people (8) | HEREROES | N | HERE (in this place) SE{N}OR (Spanish gentleman) |
| 22 | Dined after the usual hour (3) | ATE | L | {L}ATE (after the usual hour) |
| 23 | Fop’s feeble value from time to time (4) | BEAU | E | (f){E}(e)B(l)E (v)A(l)U(e) |
| 26 | Foully vitiates a worshipper of Shiva (7) | SIVAITE | T | [VITIA{T}ES]* |
| 27 | Indian farmer’s indeed elevated penetrating touch (6) | RAIYAT | T | AY< (indeed) in {T}RAIT (touch) |
| 30 | Not supporting adolescent for Japanese emperor (5) | TENNO | E | NO (not) after TE{E}N (adolescent) |
| 31 | Monetary unit’s unstable arrival with no value at first (5) | LAARI | R | [AR{R}IVAL ¬ V(alue)]* |
| 32 | Metal worker locking up about to skive off to local (5) | MITCH | S | {S}MITH (metal worker) around C (circa, about) |
| 35 | See preamble | |||
I went for MICROBIAL MATS rather than MASS, based on this Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbial_mat, where stromatolites are described as being the best known physical form. That, together with Chalicea’s penchant for hiding things in diagonals, opened up the highlighting at the close.
Overall slightly tougher than Chalicea often is, perhaps because of the wordplay gimmick, but still on the easy side for the Inquisitor, and thoroughly enjoyable.
I too went for MATS
Me too.
Not much to add – not a classic, but enjoyable enough and pleased to be done by Saturday lunchtime for a change. So thank you to Chalicea and to HG for clearing up the parsing of ANTIPSYCHOTIC.
Well, we failed too as we had MATS – like Jon_S after having checked on wiki.
Thanks to S&B.
MATS is clearly the correct entry – a bit casual of me, sorry. (I guess something like “Unchecked letters could spell ABC TABLE” would have put me right.)
And I’ll amend the grid later.
I made good and steady progress with the top half of the grid. which gave me two parts of the message formed from the extra letters: SHADE THE RESULT… and FORM THIRTEEN… The bottom half, by contrast, seemed to have a higher proportion of unfamiliar words and sticky clues, and it took rather longer. The device used in the clues (an extra letter produced by the wordplay) was a familiar one – which either spiced up or slowed down the solving, depending on how well I was doing!
With only a few clues left to solve, the message became clear, and I found the 13-letter word in the second place I looked. It was an interesting subject – you live and learn! (I knew none of the shaded words.)
I thought ANTIPSYCHOTIC was a super clue, the setter taking full advantage of having an extra E to force into the wordplay (to make ECHO).
Thanks to Chalicea and HolyGhost.
I am with Alan B@7 regarding the tougher clues in the lower half, but no complaints. I think Chalicea must be sick of hearing about her “gentler clues” and decided to get her own back!
I opted for MASS and carelessly missed the correction on Wiki. Having seen the Stromatolites at Shark Bay, W.A., I don’t think MATS is a particularly good description: the little darlings had amassed as individual towers separated by clear water, whereas most mats I have encountered are continuous, unless they are well past their best.
Thanks to Chalicea for an enjoyable puzzle with an unusual theme and to HG for the usual solid job
Too much for me this week, sadly I was pushed for time at the weekend and only managed to get about 80% of the way through this one, although I could see where it was heading once I had deduced 36, 10 and 35. So another DNF for me this week. It was nice to have a really short preamble for a change though!
Yes indeed, I do grow tired of hearing what a gentle setter I am and another pseudonym (Curmudgeon) grew out of that, but the potential mats/ mass ambiguity was not a deliberate response to that – I don’t believe in difficulty for its own sake. Bill Bryson’s delightful book about his visits to Australia talks about these little primitive microbial masses – the long journey north from Perth to see them and the disillusioned ladies’ “Is that all?” reactions. Many thanks to Holy Ghost. I’m glad that there was some challenge and something to chew over.
So it was MASS after all? 🙂
@11 You’re probably joking I know, but mats/mass does seem to have been left hanging a bit. I usually have no problem with two solutions being correct, even if the setter only intended one, but surely the preamble here clearly indicates a plural noun for 35d? (“…mats which accumulate…” makes sense, “….mass which accumulate…” doesn’t.)
I remembered the description of stromatolites from Bill Bryson’s Australia book, which added to the enjoyment. Thanks all round!
The solution grid I sent had MATS which seems to be technically justified and Herb makes the grammatical point that confirms that, but I, too, could see that those blackish-grey mushroomy things are masses and can understand solvers’ doubts. MATS it was. Sorry!