In PORTMANTEAU, Ifor suggests that ‘some’ solvers might be inclined to ask for help from others – who might respond in a way suggested by ‘three phrases with similar meanings’, which in turn had three different effects on some clues, some entries and the title. Well, your blogger turned out to be among those ‘some’ solvers – I couldn’t work out the phrases or the meanings, and nearly gave in and went asking for help. But, in the end, I managed to (all but) fill the grid and work out two of the effects, so I decided I had enough to present a blog and then wait for enlightenment from you, dear readers…and as Mr M. Loaf once sang: ‘two out of three ain’t bad’!…
The full preamble states:
“Some solvers have an inclination to ask for help from others, who may respond in a way suggested by three phrases with similar meanings. The first explains how six normally-clued answers are to be entered; the second how one word in each of another six clues must be modified to a new word before solving. Solvers must apply the third to the title, PORTMANTEAU, by removing a set of three consecutive letters that form a real word informally synonymous with one in the third phrase, and writing the remaining letters in their original order in the eight barred-off cells.”
So, we have: some, or rather six, clues with answers needing adjustment before entry – implying likely clashes and pencil working, as there is no mention of different lengths being involved; six further (and hopefully separate to the first six!) clues needing modification of a word; and an adjustment to the title before entering it in a barred off area under the grid.
Some cold solving and attempted grid-filling later, I first of all came across what looked to be some superfluous card games in some clues – CHEAT (my kind of level!); BRIDGE (a whole other level!); LOO, NAP…so one of the phrases probably involves card games. A slight diversion with SNAP-PER didn’t help – I know that is an answer, not a clue, but the card game link seemed worth following – but when I had GO and TAG I had to revise this to games in general, as I’m not sure the latter two are card games. These seemed to be all in across clues – which was mentally noted as possibly significant.
In parallel with these discoveries, some clashes started to appear – but nothing seemed to jump out at me for a while. I think the PDM was probably when I found MUNGOOSE as a variation of MONGOOSE, which I knew as a snake (cobra) killer, and had been trying in vain to get from the anagram/wordplay. From the clashes in that area, it just looked like MUNG had to be at the bottom, and then the other beans gradually jumped out at me – geddit? jumping beans? heh heh – SOY, LIMA, URD and, with a bit of reference work, GOA and SNAP. These were all in symmetrical) down clues, and seemed to involve the bean ‘dropping’ down to the bottom of the available space:
So far, so good in terms of grid near-completion, but I was nowhere nearer deducing the phrases or meanings – or how the third step with the title and the barred off entry came into things.
If I asked a fellow solver to help, he or she could come back with a phrase involving (card) games, or something about beans dropping, or being ‘planted’?, or they could say something related to a three letter word within PORTMANTEAU – which I reckoned could be ORT, MAN, ANT, TEA or EAU. None of which seem to link to games or beans…
I also couldn’t make any connection with the concept of a ‘portmanteau’ word – none of the modified clue word or adjusted answers looked or sounded like a portmanteau word. And the barred-off cells where the adjusted title should go didn’t help ether – if it hadn’t been fully barred off it might have been possible to get some sort of help from crossing letters…
At this point, I will stop waffling and wait for some explication. Thanks for the challenge, Ifor, and apologies that I wasn’t quite up to the job (;+<)
** Update: Thanks to Brian W in the comments below. So it seems the phrases are:
- spill the ‘beans’ – hence the beans dropping to the bottom
- give the ‘game’ away – hence the games removed from clues
- let the cat (man) out of the bag (portmanteau) – leaving PORTTEAU to be entered under the grid.
He also spotted the phrase ANSWER BANK in the NW-SE diagonal – this being a website where the above effects can be observed…although other sites, and indeed other non-electronic collaboration methods, are also available!
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Modification | Solution | Clue (definition underlined, modified word in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 3 | PROTECT | Guard for New Year celebration caught hiding inside (7) / PRO (for) + TE_T (Vietnamese Lunar New Year festival) around (hiding) C (caught) |
||
| 9 | a(BRIDGE)s | CASE | Church that abridges interrupted lawsuit (4) / C_E (Church of England) around (interrupted by) AS |
|
| 10 | ELECTRET | Select unlimited allowance once used for doubly-charged material (8) / (S)ELEC(T) (select, without limiting letters) + TRET (allowance, to purchasers, to allow for wastage) |
||
| 11 | URN | One of several popes surrendering soul to pot (3) / UR(BA)N (several popes took the name Urban) without (surrendering) BA (soul) |
||
| 12 | MARIAN | Hood’s moll? (6) / &lit-ish/CD – Robin Hood’s lady friend (moll) was Marian |
||
| 14 | PRESET | Introduce, leaving name already in place (6) / PRESE(N)T (introduce) leaving (out) N (name) |
||
| 15 | es(CHEAT)s | SUE | Escheats put forward in use to make legal claim (3) / USE with the S (ess) brought ‘forward’ becomes SUE |
|
| 16 | SOW | Onset of spurning that hurt Napoleon’s partner, maybe? (3) / S (first letter, onset, of Spurning) + OW (interjection, that hurt!) |
||
| 19 | ENLARD | Adjust relation and apply grease once in play (6) / anag (i.e. adjust) of REL (relation) + AND |
||
| 20 | kid(NAP) | SPOOFERS | Those who kidnap angrily profess to have nothing to hide (8) / SPO_FERS (anag, i.e. angrily, of PROFESS) around (hiding) O (zero, nothing) |
|
| 23 | embar(GO) | PARAMENT | Embargo last word in concern for hanging (8) / PAR_T (concern, interest) around (embarring) AMEN (the last word) |
|
| 25 | RIVETS | Contrives to lose against dodgy fixers (6) / anag (i.e. dodgy) of (CON)TRIVES, losing CON – against |
||
| 26 | (LOO)king | BAR | Bowled before looking secure (3) / B (bowled, cricket) + A (Latin, ante, before) + R (rex, king) |
|
| 27 | EEL | Superficially elusive liar, primarily (3) / &lit-ish/CD – E+E (superficial, outer, letters of ElusivE) + L (primary letter of Liar) |
||
| 29 | FIASCO | Bottle means of shifting cost into fist (6) / to turn, or shift, ‘cost’ to ‘fist’, one needs ‘FI’ AS ‘CO’ |
||
| 31 | GOURAS | Pigeons and grouse shot, avoiding cruel end (6) / anag, i.e. shot, of A(ND) + GROUS(E), avoiding the letters ND and E – a sub-anagram, i.e. cruel, of END |
||
| 32 | NAN | Bread vans in neighbourhood are nuisances (3) / first letters (vanguards) of ‘Neighbourhood Are Nuisances’ |
||
| 33 | s(TAG)ed | DOWNSIDE | Unpleasant aspect of the same thing – fraudulently staged win (8) / DO (ditto, the same thing) + WNSIDE (anag, i.e. fraudulently, of SED WIN) |
|
| 34 | MAKE | Start equal, once … (4) / double defn – MAKE can mean to start, and (archaically) a peer, or equal |
||
| 35 | EGALITY | … treating everyone the same topped knowledge of the law (7) / (L)EGALITY – knowledge of the law, ;topped’, i.e. top letter removed |
||
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Entry | Clue (definition underlined) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | LARRUP | Arrived (having left earlier attending college thrash… (6) / L (left) ‘earlier (or before) ARR (arrived) + UP (attending college/university) |
||
| 2 | ES(SOY)NE | ESNE + SOY | …explanation for absence? Less money, no openings, drunk (7) / anag (i.e. drunk) of (L)ESS (M)ONEY – both missing their opening letters |
|
| 3 | PEGS | All content to leave private games as small stakes (4) / Outer letters (all content leavong) of ‘P(rivat)E G(ame)S’ |
||
| 4 | RENEW | Run, then plunge into water to refresh (5) / R (run) + ENEW (plunge into water) |
||
| 5 | TEABERRY | Try and beware scrubbing with liquid wintergreen (8) / anad (i.e. liquid) of TRY + BE(W)ARE without (scrubbing) W (with) |
||
| 6 | ECRU | Pale brown bits of piecrust (4) / hidden word, i.e. bits of, in ‘piECRUst’ |
||
| 7 | C(LIMA)TIC | CTIC + LIMA | Go towards the top of tastefully pure broadcast about weather (8) / CLIMATIC = homophone, i.e. broadcast, of CLIMB (go towards the top) + ATTIC (Greek – tastefully pure) |
|
| 8 | B(URD)EN | BEN + URD | Refrain from cake, eating contents of fridge every now and again (6) / BU_N (cake) around (eating) RDE (alternate letters, ‘every now and then’, of ‘fRiDgE’) |
|
| 11 | UPAS-TREE | Toxic plant having difficulty retaining head of staff (8) / UP A TREE (having difficulty) around S (first letter, or head, of staff) |
||
| 13 | SEDATION | What keeps you calm, instead of short hurly-burly (8) / anag, i.e. hurly burly, of INSTEAD O(F) – one letter short |
||
| 17 | (MUNG)OOSE | OOSE + MUNG | Cobra-killer good for five venomous snakes (8) / anag, i.e. snakes, of (V = G)ENOMOUS – with G (good) for V (five, Roman numerals) |
|
| 18 | SEA SNAIL | Oily fish in season, but not on plate at your fingertips (8, two words) / SEA S (season, without ON) + NAIL (‘plate’ at the end of your fingertips) |
||
| 21 | (SNAP)PER | PER + SNAP | He’ll take you informally (shilling a head) (7) / S (shilling) + NAPPER (slang, the head) |
|
| 22 | (GOA)LIE | LIE + GOA | Banks perhaps to give access to foreigner with no name (6) / GO (give access to) + ALIE(N) (foreigner with no N – name) |
|
| 24 | NOCAKE | Powdered grain’s refusal to stick together (6) / NO (refusal) + CAKE (to stick together) |
||
| 26 | BIDET | Draftee on vacation staying a little cleaner for privates (5) / BI_T (a little) around (‘stayed’ by) DE (DrafteE vacated, or emptied) |
||
| 28 | URSA | Stars making picture favour salad sandwiches (4) / hidden word, i.e. sandwiched by, ‘favoUR SAlad’ |
||
| 30 | ARMY | Host mayor withholding nothing after assembly (4) / anag, i.e. assembly, of MAY(O)R – withholding O – nothing |
||
I’m hoping that the third phrase was “letting the cat out of the bag”, “cat” being another word for “man”. This means that PORTTEAU was to be entered beneath the grid.
Fair enough, I suppose, but a bit of an unsignalled leap.
Sorry, I should have added that the first two phrases were “giving the game away” and “spilling the beans”.
And that there is a rather interesting hidden word in the grid!
Thanks, Brian W – did you hear the ‘doh!’ and face-palm emanating from mid-Hampshire when I read your comments?!
Letting the cat out of the bag would work – as a portmanteau can also be a sort of bag…nice misdirection.
And, in a schoolboy error, I forgot one of the cardinal rules of blogging: check all perimeters and diagonals for useful/thematic content.
So, if a solver asks other solvers for help – perhaps at the place mentioned in the diagonal, or perhaps on other websites/discussion boards; by e-mail; at work; or just down the pub with mates – then those solvers might: give the ‘game’ away, spill the ‘beans’, or let the ‘cat’ out of the bag.
Simples, as the meerkats would say!…
I wouldn’t worry. It took me 48 hours from filing the grid to working out the three phrases. Needless to say I didn’t cheat by asking somebody to spill the beans (or by looking at one of the “helpful” places online). It’s a continual mystery to me how with almost three weeks to solve the puzzles and send in an entry, people start asking for help online within a few hours.
I didn’t identify the response – I did find the games and the beans and Answerbank.
I decided that if I asked for help online I might be told me to p*** off, so I entered portmanteau without EAU.
It seems I owe the good people of AnswerBank an apology!
Joe