It’s always wise to treat Kea puzzles with respect and trepidation. This one seemed to be a combination of a normal EV with a bit of mathematics thrown in as well. It will be interesting to see how this goes down, given the unrest over the recent Oyler puzzle!
Here, four clues had wordplay indicating a letter of the answer in accordance with a quotation by TRRNRUN × VT. I wondered how that would be different from standard wordplay like “head of lettuce”. Four words would appear in the completed grid to form a representation of this quotation. These would need to be converted using a code in which ten letters are transformed into the digits 0–9.
I was actually well over half way through the grid when I could see that 33ac was sure to be WEASELER, but just couldn’t see the wordplay. I thought that the definition was ‘trader who equivocates’ and was trying to see how SELE (or SEEL), meaning happiness or good fortune, could be defined by ‘success in life’. Then it hit me, and I looked it up in my ODQ and was pleasantly surprised to find a quotation by Albert Einstein:
“If A is success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
12ac, 33ac, 10dn and 30dn all finally made sense! It didn’t take me long to identify EFFORT, FUN, RESERVE and FORTUNE once I had completed the grid (x, y, z and A respectively). All that was left was to convert them to four numbers to give an addition sum. This worked out to be:
733521
309
2787267
3521097
Confirmation that everything was spot on was given by the title. TRRNRUN × VT converts to 1229209 × 61 = 74981749 which decodes to EINSTEIN. For a detailed walk-through of the mathematical bit, I have put it after the clue explanations.
A fine puzzle as usual from Kea, and a chance to atone for my failure to solve Oyler’s recent cricket puzzle.
Legend:
Definition in clue
XYZ = Thematic material
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 5 | PHORMIUM | Prize includes house but not European flax-bush (8) PREMIUM (prize) containing HO (house) – E (European) |
|
| 11 | ORGANA | Investigative methods of a majority of anagrams in review (6) O (of) + ANAGR* (most of ANAGRams) |
|
| 12 | ZONAE | Bands keeping your mouth shut just after A&E (5) Z (keeping your mouth shut) + ON (just after) + AE (A and E) |
|
| 14 | PALM CATS | Host attending among friends and meat-eaters from Asia (8, two words) MC (host, emcee) AT (attending) in PALS (friends) |
|
| 15 | THIEF | Foiling of heist could worry me so (5) &lit composite anagram: (OF HEIST)* = (THIEF SO)* |
|
| 16 | ORTEGA | Some damage troubles returning Central American leader (6) reversed in damAGE TROubles; reference to Daniel Ortega, president of Nicaragua |
|
| 18 | UNFUNDED | Without backing from Germany, and inside and outside France’s borders (8) (UND (and in German) inside FE (borders of FrancE)) with UND outside |
|
| 20 | VARESE | Composer averse to change (6) AVERSE*; reference to Edgard Varèse |
|
| 22 | VEERY | Migrant singer touring Spain, awfully (5) E (Spain) with VERY (awfully) going about (touring); reference to a small American migratory bird |
|
| 23 | IN FOR | Doomed to receive dope, pusher’s last (5, two words) INFO (dope, information) + R (last of pusheR) |
|
| 25 | UNEVEN | Divine Venus turned somewhat spotty (6) reversed in diviNE VENUs |
|
| 27 | DIANDRIA | Investigator with watery valley for botany class (8) DI (detective inspector, investigator) + AND (with) + RIA (watery valley) |
|
| 29 | ECBOLE | Parisian school welcoming book’s eloquent digression (6) ECOLE (school in French, ie Parisian) containing B (book) |
|
| 31 | CLOFF | Centilitres deducted as wholesale allowance (5) CL (centilitres) + OFF (deducted) |
|
| 33 | WEASELER | West European success in life left abandoned by trader who equivocates (8) W (west) E (European) + A (success in life) + SELLER (trader) – L (left) |
|
| 34 | CLEEK | Coterie overheard in oldtime club (5) homophone for CLIQUE |
|
| 35 | THRICE | A moment to hug husband a few times (6) TRICE (a moment) containing H (husband) |
|
| 36 | ENDNOTES | After dithering, one’d sent delayed explanations (8) (ONE’D SENT)* |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | COPT | Member of religious minority in care of port (4) CO (care of) + PT (port) |
|
| 2 | BRAHMANICAL | Reports of things to restrict chest and hands of top caste (11) sounds like BRA (what restricts chest) MANICLE (what restricts hands) |
|
| 3 | UGLIER | I’m doubtful, holding grand deception to be more threatening (6) UR (expressing doubt) containing G (grand) LIE (deception) |
|
| 4 | CAMELEON | African lizard advanced round fringes of lake (8) CAME ON (advanced) containing LE (fringes of LakE) |
|
| 6 | HAAFNET | Are fishermen gutted in bit of Kirkcudbright? They use this nearby (7) A (are) FN (FishermeN gutted) in HAET (a bit, Scottish) |
|
| 7 | OUT OF | Born to old money, as classically assumed (5, two words) OOF (old money) containing UT (as, classical) |
|
| 8 | MORT | Parr when older, a fragile creature losing Henry? That’s about right (4) MOTH (fragile creature) – H (Henry) about R (right); a parr is a young salmon, a mort a three-year old one |
|
| 9 | INCEDE | To go with dignity, take little steps, tossing head, and dawdle vacantly (6) [M]INCE (take little steps, without first letter) + DE (DawdlE, vacantly, ie empty) |
|
| 10 | MEGADYNE | Some force in play during tight endgame (8) Y (play) in ENDGAME* |
|
| 13 | AUGER EFFECT | Electronic emission of “fact” refugee misrepresented (11, two words) (FACT REFUGEE)* |
|
| 17 | EVIDENCE | Witness English corruption enveloping its likely location (8) E (English) + VICE (corruption) containing DEN (likely location of vice) |
|
| 19 | NEEDLERS | Unnecessary to have rule for sons who produce spikes in manufacturing? (8) NEEDLESS with R (rule) replacing S (sons) |
|
| 21 | RUINATE | Madam leaves brood once devastated (7) RUMINATE (brood) – M (madam) |
|
| 24 | FABLED | Well-known note ran over edge of page (6) FA (note) + BLED (ran over edge of page) |
|
| 26 | VIOLIN | Scraper of oil mixed in wine (6) OIL* in VIN (wine) |
|
| 28 | REEST | Start off with fewest limitations for Scots’ stubbornness (5) [F]REEST (with fewest limitations minus first letter) |
|
| 30 | OXEN | Steers work into elevation of artificial language (4) X (work) in EON< (artificial language, elevated) |
|
| 32 | FRET | Wear away tracery (4) 2 meanings |
|
DETAILED WALK-THROUGH OF MATHEMATICAL SOLUTION
Solving the mathematical bit of Kea’s puzzle proved reasonably straightforward, so here goes! If there is any quicker way, please let me know. Apologies if I haven’t used the correct terminology for anything.
From column 1 (the units), T + N + E ends in E, so T + N = 10. From column 7, F = R + 1, with a carry from column 6. E must be 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 in order to give the carry into column 7. But, from column 5, F + S ends in R, therefore S = 8 or 9 giving a carry into column 6. But E cannot be 9 with S = 8, otherwise O would be 8 or 9.
Given all this, it was just a question of trying all the values of E in turn (only four of them) and for each one trying values for F and R. I have excluded lines where values of F or R conflict with those of E or O.
| Result | Comment | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| E = 5 O = 1 |
R = 2 F = 3 |
53312T 3UN 25S52V5 312TUN5 |
column 3 is less than 10; column 4, T = 8 ∴ N = 2, which is R |
| E = 5 O = 1 |
R = 6 F = 7 |
57716T 7UN 65S56V5 716TUN5 |
column 5, S = 8; column 7, O = 1; ∴ no discrete values for T and N summing to 10 |
| E = 5 O = 1 |
R = 7 F = 8 |
58817T 8UN 75S57V5 817TUN5 |
column 5, S = 8, which is F |
| E = 6 O = 3 |
R = 1 F = 2 |
62231T 2UN 16S61V6 231TUN6 |
no discrete values for T and N summing to 10 |
| E = 6 O = 3 |
R = 4 F = 5 |
65534T 5UN 46S64V6 534TUN6 |
column 5, S = 8; column 4, T = 2 ∴ N = 2, which is S |
| E = 6 O = 3 |
R = 7 F = 8 |
68837T 8UN 76S67V6 837TUN6 |
column 5, S = 8, which is F |
| E = 6 O = 3 |
R = 8 F = 9 |
69938T 9UN 86S68V6 938TUN6 |
column 5, S = 8, which is R |
| E = 7 O = 5 |
R = 1 F = 2 |
72251T 2UN 17S71V7 251TUN7 |
column 5, S = 9; column 4, T = 0 (no N) or 1, but N cannot be 9, which is S |
| E = 7 O = 5 |
R = 2 F = 3 |
73352T 3UN 27S72V7 352TUN7 |
S = 8, T = 1, N = 9, U = 0, V = 6: CORRECT SOLUTION |
| E = 7 O = 5 |
R = 3 F = 4 |
74453T 4UN 37S73V7 453TUN7 |
column 5, S = 8; T = 2 ∴ N = 8, which is S |
| E = 8 O = 7 |
R = 1 F = 2 |
82271T 2UN 18S81V8 271TUN8 |
column 5, S = 8, which is E |
| E = 8 O = 7 |
R = 2 F = 3 |
83372T 3UN 28S82V8 372TUN8 |
column 5, S = 8, which is E |
| E = 8 O = 7 |
R = 3 F = 4 |
84473T 4UN 38S83V8 473TUN8 |
column 5, S = 8, which is E |
| E = 8 O = 7 |
R = 4 F = 5 |
85574T 5UN 48S84V8 574TUN8 |
column 5, S = 8, which is E | E = 8 O = 7 |
R = 5 F = 6 |
86675T 6UN 58S85V8 675TUN8 |
column 5, S = 8, which is E |
A very clever crossword and a very comprehensive blog, thank you. I didn’t understand how 15A worked until I read this, nor had I come across this quotation before.
Thanks, Tony, glad to be of help. I forgot to mention that the mathematical bit reminded me of the recent Mango Listener (no. 4283 Movements) where SPRING + SUMMER + AUTUMN + WINTER = PRIEST… in base 12!
I don’t know why, but I never really “got” word sums like this. Something like fifteen years ago or more my Dad showed me A+MERRY+XMAS=TURKEY. I still haven’t solved it…
Nice to see it appearing in a crossword, and while the clues were up to Kea’s usual fun standard and I liked the theme I never got around to attempting the endgame. Different from the Listener you mentioned because you actually had to do the number work, or at least have a better go at it. Anyway, thanks Kea.
At the risk of being labelled a cheat and a quacksalver I did find a rather easier way for the numbers bit. There is a thing on the web called an Alphametric Solver where you put the letters in and it gives you the answer as well as confirming its uniqueness. This is a disgraceful approach to an excellent puzzle and worthy of nothing but disapprobation.
Thanks Kea and Dave H. I also “cheated” for the endgame, by writing a bit of Java that cycled through all the possibilities.
On the other hand, Vortigern, you’ve put me out of fifteen years of misery!