A 10×15 grid for this week’s offering from Gila. (So the two side by side grids with the solution to #1390 fitted neatly underneath.)
Preamble: Mistakes appear in twenty-three clues in the form of either a single definitional misprint, or a single extra letter generated by wordplay. In order the correct/extra letters provide a written response to the mistakes (Across) and a thematic source (Down). After identifying a relevant name, solvers must highlight all occurrences of its constituent letters in the final grid, so providing a further illustration of the response. 1dn may be verified by Collins.
Finishing off the blog in my conference accommodation opposite the schloss in a small village in the Swiss alps, with fine views of the Jungfrau as a backdrop. (Didn’t bring the crossword with me & I’d omitted the preamble; Dave Hennings’ Crossword Database came to my rescue at the 11th hour, literally, & I patched it in from there – big thanks.)
Not much doing on the first run through, 3 or 4 answers maybe, but enough to open up the bottom half. With a bit of effort, and to my surprise, the said half became pretty much done, but the top half was looking fairly barren. But, after toying with a variety of possibilities, the front runner for the thematic source was THE SIMPSONS (which I’ve never seen, but which is so much a part of the cultural milieu that I didn’t feel particularly disadvantaged).
Plugging away (doggedly, but not unenjoyably – some of the misprints/extra letters were well disguised), I had enough of the top half to verify that the written response [to the mistakes] was ANNOYED GRUNT, which helped a lot with the remaining corrections & wordplay excess. The relevant name had to be HOMER, the paterfamilias, and highlighting all occurrences of H-O-M-E-R in the final grid revealed that the response was indeed D’OH!.
A highly admirable grid construction, albeit with the endgame being more of a confirmation than a revelation. So, thanks go to Gila – the last time we had to highlight all the letters of a word to illustrate the theme in the final grid (#44 from Oct 2007) produced a massive failure!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Correction/ extra letter |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | CAPTAIN’S BISCUIT | CAP [ISN’T A]* BISCUIT (brown colour) | ||
| 11 | CARDINAL | A | cloak | double definition |
| 13 | TANNA | N | nick | (benefi)T ANNA (coin: bit, once there (i.e. India)) |
| 14 | ROIL | N | nettle | RO (Romania) + IL (Israel) |
| 15 | YURT | O | OUR (stuff belonging to you and me) in YT (that, obs) | |
| 17 | OPRAH | Y | HARPY< after O(ld) | |
| 18 | MURLIN | NIL (nothing: nowt) RUM (strange) all< | ||
| 20 | EPHA | E | [HEAPE(d)]* | |
| 22 | ELOISA | D | lady | ELO (rock group) + ASI(a)< |
| 24 | DENE-HOLE | DEN (study) E(xcavates) (w)HOLE (all) | ||
| 25 | HARASSED | HAD (kept) around RASSE (small civet) | ||
| 28 | ARIOSO | G | IRA< (elder Gershwin) GO (harmonise) SO (very good) | |
| 33 | TRUE | R | right | T(ense) RUE (street, Fr) |
| 35 | LOG-MAN | L(eft) O (nothing) + G-MAN (FBI agent) | ||
| 37 | REDAN | RED ANT (e.g. Pharaoh) − (Egyp)T | ||
| 38 | NOIL | U | UNCOIL (straighten out) − C(oloured) | |
| 39 | LOPE | N | run | LOP (cut) (sugarcan)E |
| 40 | SLAIN | T | SLÀINT(e) (good health, Gaelic) | |
| 41 | DIALYTIC | CITY (e.g. London) + LA (Los Angeles) + I (one) D(egree) all< | ||
| 42 | YADDA YADDA YADDA | A D-DAY (a landing time) all<, repeated twice | ||
| Down | ||||
| No. | Answer | Correction/ extra letter |
Wordplay | |
| 1 | CARME | CARMINE (bright red) − IN | ||
| 2 | AFOUL | A FOU (drunk, Scot) L(ecturer) | ||
| 3 | TALL | T | towering | T(emperature) ALL (on each side) |
| 4 | ARRIS | R(ight) in ARIS (arse, Cockney sl: backside) | ||
| 5 | NIUE | H | HUE around N(ational) I(ndependence) | |
| 6 | BATHER | E | BAT (club) HERE (in this place) | |
| 7 | STORE | S | shop | S(u)E(y) around ROT< (baloney) |
| 8 | CAPI | CAP (top) (Mafios)I {Mafiosi part of &Lit} | ||
| 9 | IN ALL | (crim)INAL L(awyers) | ||
| 10 | TAHOE | T(histle) + HOE (weed) after A | ||
| 12 | DYNASTY | I | line | D(irt)Y NASTY (dirty) |
| 16 | BANALLY | B(ore) A N(ew) ALLY (friend) | ||
| 19 | RO-RO | homophone: OR< (oar) repeated | ||
| 21 | ROOM | MOO (low) R(oom) all< | ||
| 23 | HERNIA | M | HER (a woman’s) MAIN< (extensive) | |
| 25 | HORSY | HO (prostitute, US sl) R(ight) + S(ociet)Y | ||
| 26 | AKELA | P | pack | ALE (beer) KA (spirit) all< |
| 27 | SUNNA | ANUS< (opening) around N(ew) | ||
| 29 | ROOTY | S | ROOTSY (like traditional folk) | |
| 30 | SAPID | O | (avoca)DO I PAS(s) < | |
| 31 | ONEGA | N | NONE (by no means) GA (Georgia) | |
| 32 | LAID | S | set | DIAL< (call) |
| 34 | EILD | (b)E (m)I(s)L(e)D | ||
| 36 | GLIA | GILA (setter) with central letters (my insides) reversed | ||
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Pure perfection in a crossword. My favourite theme, brilliantly engineered, great clues which kept me entertained until Friday, when I had a sublime PDM in the pub! This one distilled all the best things about the inquisitor crossword. Best of the year for me.
I’ve entered as ‘Krusty the Klown’ (surely one of comedy’s finest creations) numerous times, but never won with it…I really think fate should give me the prosecco this week!
Thanks to Gila (I’ll be waiting for your next won with baited breath), and HG.
This one made me happy too. THE SIMPSONS had this non-tv-watcher worried for a few minutes, but like HG I got there via sheer cultural osmosis. Loved the inclusion of the apostrophe and exclamation mark. You don’t get a lot of those in crosswords. (Although I expect someone will now point out a long-ago example where secret thematic instructions required solvers to replace all vowels with ‘ and all consonants with ! in the final grid….)
*one* ….I’m getting ahead of myself!
Let me rephrase that; *one*….D’oh!
I had a real d’oh! moment myself when I realised what the theme was, all the more galling as I am a Simpsons fan, although somewhat lapsed in the last five years or so. My favourite episode: The Monorail one- a modern classic.
I liked most of the clues and parsing but had just a couple of grumbles with some of the extra letter clues e.g. “HEAPED” in 20A: I guess the clue wordingy “NEARLY ALL” could refer to the first four or five letters so I didn’t recognise which was the extra letter until I had nearly all the other extra/correct across letters. Likewise “SLAINTE” in 40A.
Otherwise, this was great fun so many thanks Gila and HG
‘What about us braindead slobs?’
‘You’ll be given cushy jobs!’
‘The ring came off my pudding can’
‘Use my penknife my good man!’
It still makes me laugh out loud! I’m also a bit lapsed…I don’t watch it these days, but the episodes around that time were the funniest things I’ve ever seen.
Anyway, I’ll shut up now….
Enjoyed this a lot. I came to the answer via a Google of “annoyed grunt”, finding an episode of The Simpsons called “G.I. (Annoyed Grunt)” (sic) i.e. G.I.D’Oh! – a spoof on G.I.Joe.
Great crossword.
Dan @1: with what did you bait your breath?
Very enjoyable puzzle although I have just realised that I forgot to highlight the exclamation mark.
D’oh! indeed.
Thanks to setter and blogger.
*bated*…… double d’oh!
Thanks, Gila, for another terrific puzzle, which kept us amused on a tedious motorway journey. It’s quite a feat to keep the letters e and o out of two thirds of the grid. We particularly enjoyed 42a.
Thanks to Gila and HG. A very entertaining puzzle with a big smile the end.