Enigmatic Variations No. 1088: Aarrgghh by Samuel

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Well, belay there ye landlubbers – Cap’n Samuel has a piratical offering in celebration of ‘International Speak Like A Pirate Day‘ (an event which, I have to admit, had passed me by until I set sail with this puzzle). Ten clues are questions in the form: ‘What’s a pirate’s favourite…<something>?’ – where the answer, if spoken ‘like a pirate’, contains the sound ‘AARRGGHH’! And if that isn’t enough, these ten have to be entered ‘where they will fit’; and fourteen other clues lead to an extra letter which, in clue order, produce a further question – the answer to which is hidden in the grid, to be highlighted. All aboard, me he-aarrrgghh-ties!

Quite a long and complex preamble – which certainly merited a couple of re-readings!

“Why are pirates pirates? Because they AARRGGHH! To celebrate International Speak Like a Pirate Day, ten clues are questions in the form ‘What’s a pirate’s  favourite … ?’ The answer in each case is a word that, when spoken like a pirate, could contain the word AARRGGHH. For example, the clue ‘What’s a pirate’s favourite musical instrument?’ might have the answer GUITAR. Answers to these clues must be entered into the grid where they will fit; their unchecked and mutually checked letters could give A HARD HEART, A BARBARIC TRUTH.

In fourteen normal clues, the wordplay gives the defined answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; in clue order these complete a further question, the answer to which (ten letters) must be highlighted in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2011) is recommended, but does not contain thematic answer (e) or 15, which  are in the Oxford Dictionary of English.”

And where to start?! I had a nibble at the questions – ‘Simpsons character’ must be Bart (B-aarrgghh-t) Simpson?; ‘place to shop’ – MART?; place to relax – SPA-AARGH? These didn’t have enumerations, so a scan of the grid helped to narrow them down – four (4)s, two each of (6), (8) and (9). So BART and MART might be correct, but not SPA!

Then a run through the ‘normal’ clues – as if anything is normal amongst this madness! – to see if I could get some crossing letters to help with the fitting in of the pirate clues. Fortunately the general clueing in these was fairly gentle, and things started slotting in slowly but steadily.

The clues had several nautical references – vice-admiral, (Long John) Silver drinking a drop of rum, a couple of ‘sailors’, ‘pirates’ and a ‘sea-rat’ here and there – threaded into them – which was a nice touch. And, by a strange coincidence, I did the bulk of my solving on the day they were raising, or righting, the Costa Concordia – and there were several clues which had an uncanny ring to them, with references like: 28A – ‘In heat, ship’s beginning to corrode’; 4D ‘showed the way after vessel capsized’; 19D ‘At sea until dark?’, as the salvagers worked through the night.

So, the piratical answers became clear – starting with AARDVARK top left – and almost all had the letters ‘AR’ to turn into AARRGGHH – apart from banana, which just needs a bit of exaggeration in the pronounciation. ARCHOSAUR was flagged as not being in Chambers, but was fairly gettable from crossing letters without too much other reference. Also BAZZA does not appear in the main dictionary, but is included in the list of names at the end.

And the extra letters in wordplay gave: (What’s a pirate’s favourite…) MEL GIBSON MOVIE? – which of course is not ‘Mad M-aarrgghh-x’, but ‘BRAVEHE-AARRGGHH-T’ in the top-left to bottom-right diagonal. 

As Miranda H-aarrggh-t might say: Such Fun! Thanks to Samuel for an entertaining challenge.

I’ll be putting the 19th of September in my di-aarrgghh-y as a repeating event from now on…