“Highlight 20 cells in two straight lines showing WHO SAID IT. Chambers Dictionary (2016) and ODQ are recommended; 17 is in Collins.”
Well, that’s an unassuming preamble, isn’t it? But who said what?
It becomes clear that there are certain clashes, but it took me much longer than it should have to see their common thread, namely that the letters L-E-S-S are being replaced by the letters M-O-R-E.
‘It’ is therefore “LESS IS MORE”, which was said by LUDWIG MIES VAN DER ROHE.
A very pleasant little romp with some nice touches. 27ac was biffable, but tricky to parse.
| Notation | |
|---|---|
| Definition | word |
| Indicator | [word] |
| Anagram | WORD* |
| Reversal | <WORD |
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Without family ELATION (joy) LESS (fewer) [following] R (Queen) (12) | RELATIONLESS |
| 9 | ItEM EUrostar’s [carrying] something that can’t fly (4) | EMEU |
| 11 | [Contents of] |
INRO |
| 13 | V (See) I (one) AND (with) food (5) | VIAND |
| 14 | BASS (Singer)[‘s clutching] R (right) money (5) | BRASS |
| 15 | Swimmer‘s search and rescue (3) | SAR |
| 16 | Guard against B (black) EWE (sheep) [pinching] [uncovered] |
BEWARE |
| 18 | ME (Middle East) [locking up] I (international) CELL (terrorist group) in tiny chains (7) | MICELLE |
| 19 | ROOS (Jumpers) [with pouches full of] D (diamonds) and crosses (5) | ROODS |
| 21 | Blacker EARRING* [lost] (7) | ANGRIER |
| 22 | Striker PLE |
PLESSOR |
| 25 | Be thankful for B |
BLESS |
| 27 | Lark |
ROGUERY |
| 30 | It would make a long M (motorway) ON (acceptable) [across] [contracted] ACR |
MACRON |
| 31 | Maybe Oxford stud [embraced by] gooSE-Girl (3) | SEG |
| 32 | SMI |
SEMIE |
| 34 | [Penniless] OA |
OASIS |
| 36 | [Cut even slices from] W |
WILD |
| 37 | H (Hotel) |
HULL |
| 38 | Come what may, G |
REGARDLESSLY |
| Down | ||
| 1 | < [Raised] VER |
REV |
| 2 | Master L (Lambert) EARN (gross) (5) | LEARN |
| 3 | TIES (Couples) [across] D (Dutch) trends (5) | TIDES |
| 4 | [Immersed in] undrINKable cuttlefish fluid (3) | INK |
| 5 | [Fix] {ROAD IN}* Japan (6) | ORDAIN |
| 6 | LE (The French) SS (ship) E |
LESSER |
| 7 | Ram raiders? (8) | RUSTLERS |
| 8 | E (European) ASTER (flower), EG (say), G |
EASTER EGG |
| 10 | Remove from sack NUMBED* [bats] [with no M (marks)] (5) | UNBED |
| 12 | < {OIL (Fat) LAG (convict)} [upset] someone keeping clear of trouble (6) | GALLIO |
| 15 | One booing [rubbish] SPURS* [hosting] < IR (Ireland) [up] [on] E |
SURPRISER |
| 17 | Someone sharing property has SEE (look) [under] COLES (cabbages) (8) | COLESSEE |
| 20 | Different cells in this union [organised] {GOO |
OOGAMY |
| 23 | RUM (Strange) IN (hot) A (active) stomachs (6) | RUMINA |
| 24 | ORC (Tolkien’s nasty) HID (disguised) flower (6) | ORCHID |
| 26 | Bird is [cuckoo] MANY* [start to] H |
MYNAH |
| 28 | DOG (Harry) [cycled] [around] |
GOOD-O |
| 29 | ISSUE | |
| 33 | [Starts to] E |
ELM |
| 35 | Crafty S (Stokes) L (left) [first of] Y |
SLY |
| R | E | L | A | T | I | O | N | M | O | R | E |
| E | M | E | U | I | N | R | O | O | G | U | A |
| V | I | A | N | D | K | D | B | R | A | S | S |
| S | A | R | B | E | W | A | R | E | L | T | T |
| U | C | N | E | S | M | I | C | E | L | L | E |
| R | O | O | D | S | A | N | G | R | I | E | R |
| P | M | O | R | E | O | R | B | M | O | R | E |
| R | O | G | U | E | R | Y | G | Y | I | S | G |
| I | R | A | M | A | C | R | O | N | S | E | G |
| S | E | M | I | E | H | E | O | A | S | I | S |
| E | E | Y | N | W | I | L | D | H | U | L | L |
| R | E | G | A | R | D | M | O | R | E | L | Y |
I too was slow to untangle ‘LESS IS MORE’ from the clashing letters – should have thought harder about the repetitions of LESS emerging in the grid, including the obscure COLESSEE. But then Ludwig Mies began to shape up as a diagonal, and it was downhill from there. Thanks to Vismut for an engaging and educative puzzle and to Mr S for the usual vivid explanations.
I’ve no issue with the puzzle itself (with thanks to Vismut and Mr S) but was a little surprised that the preamble said nothing about the need to modify some entries (or even “pencil is recommended initially”), if only for practical reasons, orthodox entry being the assumed default. I wonder how many solvers were like me, starting by confidently entering the fairly straightforward answer at 1a and subsequently needing to get out the Tippex?
I start any puzzle expecting to make mistakes I must erase; thus, although the preamble and first set of entries made me think ‘it can’t be this easy, can it?’ in the end I thought it was an interesting deviation from the standard. I first twigged to the idea of clashes and that this would not be so easy when I put ‘regardlessly’ across the bottom and knew ‘elm’ at 33D had to be correct. {I hope this preamble does not persuade Ifor@2 to make his puzzles any trickier.} My thanks to Vismut and Mister Sting.
Thought this was great fun! After last week’s easy-peasy one I was getting concerned that the EV might be being ‘dumbed down’. However, when the first rock solid clash appeared (BEWARE / LESSER for me) I figured something more was afoot.
I was lucky enough to spot LUDWIG fairly quickly, which inexplicably led me to Mies Van Der Rohe – a fascinating character – and “less is more” just seemed too good for a crossword to not be used. The rest took a while to untangle (the PLESSOR/ROGUERY/COLESSEE area being particularly gnarly) but it was a fun device to use, so thank you both.