In ‘DREAMS’ solvers need to turn one man’s dreams ‘into reality’ by single word removals from various clues, and by erasing 51 cells from the completed grid – so pencils and/or correcting fluid at the ready… Lastly, a ‘representation’ of one of the desired effects needs to be highlighted. Will this turn out to be ‘Sweet Dreams’ (c.f. the Eurythmics) or ‘A Nightmare on EV Street’?!…
On the first pass through the clues – which didn’t yield too many answers! – there seemed to be a number of religions dotted around which had no relevance to wordplay of the corresponding clues. By the second or third run through, a number of ‘shortages’ and ‘famines’ also seemed superfluous.
I had got ‘BLUESTONE’ at 16D by now, and I took a wrong turn by thinking this was something biblical – religions, famine, colours…maybe we are looking for Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour DREAMcoat? After whiling away some time researching this and looking for other thematic material, I noticed a number of countries – CHAD, IRAQ, NEPAL…I know Joseph was sent away in exile, but how would he have got as far as CROATIA, let alone CUBA?!
Other possibilities? Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream…’ speech, but nothing obvious in the grid/thematic material.
Moving into the pop arena, m’lud, there are all sorts of possibilities: ABBA’s ‘I have a dream’; Blondie’s ‘Dreaming’; Supertramp’s ‘Dreamer’; (but the preamble specifically say’s ‘one man‘s dreams’), so maybe Roy Orbison’s ‘In Dreams’; or Van Morrison’s ‘These Dreams of You’, or even Billy Joel’s ‘River of Dreams’.
But, as ever, I was drifting and scrabbling around when I should have been applying the EV solver’s maxim: look first at the centre and/or the main diagonals…
And then the penny dropped – there in the centre you have ‘us’, with ‘hell’ below ‘us’, and above us ‘only sky’ – and the rest fell into place, and out of the grid! The theme is John Lennon’s Utopian imagining of a world with no heaven or hell, no posessions, no greed or hunger, no countries, and no religion too…(although I would have thought of ‘voodoo’ and ‘Scientology’ as cults rather than religions, but maybe best not to go there!…)
I did wonder if ‘WAR’ in the fourth row from the bottom could have linked to the ‘nothing to kill or die for’ lyric – but that messes up the numbers. It continues ‘WAR IS O…’, but that is from a different Lennon song!
So, to sum up – thank-you to Rasputin – for a masterpiece of grid construction (or deconstruction, as we had to delete 51 of our hard-earned letters!), a well-worked theme and an enjoyable solve… I couldn’t see any anniversary or specific reason for the puzzle, but it is a timeless song.
I would put the clueing overall at about middle-ish on the EV scale of difficulty, and there were some interesting/new-to-me words, like NASARDS – organ stops; RAIYATWARIS – Indian peasant feudal land tenure; HOUSEL; GYNNY(-hen); TIARE (not in Chambers, but that was flagged); TORSK and TASSA.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra word | Solution | Clue (definition in bold underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1A | MR CHAD | Facetious character rubbished drachma almost up to its end (6, two words) / anag (i.e. rubbished) of DRACHM(A) |
|
| 5A | HOT TAP | I’m found in bathroom: that’s too much in hour before a meal (6, two words) / H (hour) + OTT (over the top, too much) + AP (ante prandium, before a meal) |
|
| 9A | AURORAE | Atmospheric phenomena troubled old area round ancient city (7) / anag (i.e. troubled) of O (old) + AREA, around UR (Ur, ancient city) |
|
| 11A | Scientology | EGO | Self-confidence emanating from the [Scientology] Gospel (3) / hidden word in ‘thE [Scientology] GOspel’ |
| 12A | shortage | IN ON | India’s premier not aware of [shortage] (4, two words) / I (India’s first letter) + NON (prefix denoting ‘not…’) |
| 13A | SNORTS | Forces out types circling north (6) / SORTS (types) around (circling) N (north) |
|
| 14A | SAGEBRUSHES | Uncultivated herbage found across America in desert states? (11) / &lit? S___S (states, ‘deserted’) around anag (i.e. uncultivated) of HERBAGE, itself around US (America) |
|
| 17A | ACTON | First two letters lost in seaside resort! Mail covers it up (5) / (CL)ACTON – seaside resort missing first two letters |
|
| 18A | Rastafarianism | SKYPE | Priest infiltrating island’s [Rastafarianism] network (5) / SKYE (island) infiltrated by P (priest) |
| 20A | voodoo | QUIETUSES | “Pacific” [voodoo] practices leading to deaths (9) / QUIET (pacific, peaceful) + USES (practices, customs) |
| 25A | SHELL-LESS | Lacking outer covering, woman lecturer originally looks inferior (9) / SHE (woman) + L (lecturer) + L (first letter of Looks) + LESS (inferior) |
|
| 26A | GADGE | Poet’s torture instrument, ingenious device chopping bit of toe (5) / GADGE(T) – ingenious device, chopping off T (a bit of ‘T’oe) |
|
| 28A | TUTTI | Former Egyptian ruler overturned it all (5) / TUT (Tutankhamen, former Egyptian leader) + TI (it, overturned) |
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| 30A | RAIYATWARIS | Nepali youngster at first fighting one’s systems of land tenure (11) / RAI (Indigenous Nepali people) + Y (first letter of youngster) + AT WAR (fighting) + IS (‘I’s, one’s) |
|
| 32A | RENVOY | Barring first and last, everyone’s battling relegation (6) / anag (i.e. battling) of (E)VERYON(E) – with first and last letters barred |
|
| 33A | PAIN | Penalty area confined by pitch (4) / PIN (pitch) confining A (area) |
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| 35A | EMU | Bird trimmed ends of bone (3) / (F)EMU(R) – bone, trimmed at the ends |
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| 36A | Starvation | NASARDS | [Starvation] stops brass band performing (except double bass) (7) / anag (i.e. performing) of (B)RASS (B)AND – without two B’s – double bass |
| 37A | Protestantism | DESYNE | [Protestantism] starts to defeat enraged Scots’ next plot in Elizabeth’s time (6) / DE (first letters of Defeat Enraged) + SYNE (Scottish, next) |
| 38A | PALEST | Most unimpressive fence on street (6) / PALE (fence) + ST (street) |
|
| Down | |||
| Clue No | Extra word | Solution | Clue (definition in bold underlined)/ Logic/Parsing |
| 1D | MAIR | French civil servant’s cut more, according to Alex Salmond? (4) / MAIR(E) – French mayor, cut short |
|
| n/a | RUN | Game knight’s career (3) / RU (Rugby Union, game) + N (knight, chess) |
|
| 3D | CROAT | Actor’s foul language (5) / anag (i.e. foul) of ACTOR |
|
| 4D | ARIEN | Australian friend stripped spring baby? (5) / A (Australian) + (F)RIEN(D) – friend, ‘stripped’ |
|
| 5D | Bulimia | HENRY’S LAW | [Bulimia]? Freak learns why scientist discovered this (9, two words) / anag (i.e. freak) of LEARNS WHY |
| 6D | TORSK | Fish’s body section (with no tail) on end of rack (5) / TORS(O) – body section, with no ‘tail’ letter = + K (last letter of racK) |
|
| 7D | TETHYS | TV’s brought up to accommodate your old satellite (6) / TES (set, TV, brought up) around (accomodating) THY (your, old) |
|
| 8D | Deprivation | POSSES | [Deprivation] forces spouses to change after leaving uni (6) / anag (i.e. to change) of SPO(U)SES, without U (uni-versity) |
| 10D | HOUSEL | Hot bird to give out bread and wine (6) / H (hot) + OUSEL (bird) |
|
| 14D | SCUBA | In the main, breath of fresh air is provided by this apprentice in company (5) / SA (Société Anonyme, French equivalent of ‘Limited Company’) around CUB (apprentice, young or inexperienced person)) |
|
| 15D | GOES | Tries more than one gully (4) / double defn. GOES can be more than one ‘try’; GOE = variant of ‘geo’ – gully or creek |
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| 16D | BLUESTONE | Rock’s undivided after subtle working (9) / anag (i.e. working) of SUBTLE, followed by ONE (undivided, whole) |
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| 19D | POSTS | Stakes stakes (5) / double defn. as noun, STAKE = pole, post; as verb, to STAKE can be to supply, furnish – or post? |
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| 21D | Anglicanism | THEAVE | “[Anglicanism] in the Shires”: Lamb’s article on Latin prayer (6) / THE (article) + AVE (Ave Maria, Latin prayer) |
| 22D | SLUR | Cast aspersions on controls set up without enforcement initially (4) / S(E)LUR = RULES, or controls, ‘set up’ without E (first letter of Enforcement) |
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| 23D | AGREED | Okay instrument made of silver, perhaps (6) / AG (Ag, silver) + REED (wind instrument) |
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| 24D | ADIEUS | Legally claim I chucked up after TV promotion for Cheerios (6) / AD (TV promotion) + IEUS (SUE – legally claim, plus I, all ‘chucked’ upwards) |
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| 27D | GYNNY | Bard’s fowl, gray and not half skinny (5) / GY (Gray, SI unit) + (SKI)NNY – not half of skinny |
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| 28D | TASSA | Drum of advanced elite corps in army (5) / T__A (Territorial Army) around A (advanced) + SS (elite German Nazi corps) |
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| 29D | TIARE | Controversially I rate Tahitian gardenia (5) / anag (i.e. controversially) of I RATE – not in Chambers, but stated in preamble as OED |
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| 31D | ONST | Constant bottles at any time for some (4) / hidden word in ‘cONSTant’ |
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| 34D | famine | IDS | Fish [famine] resulting from infectious diseases (3) / ID (infectious diseases) + possessive ‘S’ (resulting from…) |
I think I managed to crack the theme after just two clues, but that was rather lucky and didn’t detract much from the rest of the solve, and it’s certainly a wonderful grid construction to fit in so much thematic material into the grid. So thanks to those three setters who make up Rasputin for another entertaining EV.
Thank you mc_rapper67 for your warm and detailed blog (and for all those great ideas for more ‘Dream’ themes!) Indeed, there was no special occasion prompting us, just a much loved song. We discussed the question of voodoo and Scientology and our editor wondered too, but there was a limit to available words – for hunger as well!