It’s not that long ago that I blogged a Schadenfreude puzzle – remember Lucy?
Preamble: The four unclued entries are synonymous. Corrections to single-letter misprints in the definition part of each clue define a phrase of 7 words (referred to as W1, W2, … W7), W2 and W5 being the same. Having filled the grid, solvers must replace the unclued entries thematically, thus changing 14 of the clued entries to form new words (including a place name). In the final grid, letters in the silver squares can be arranged to form W1, W2, W4 and W7. The phrase must be written under the grid.
For some reason I started on the down clues, possibly because 2d caught my eye and I solved it in a second or two. In fact quite a lot of the clues were tractable, the misprints often being rather obvious. (But sometimes not.) Once I had about 80% of the grid filled, and thus many of the corrections, I could make a stab at the unclued entries and also the clue to the 7 word thematic phrase. I can’t remember which came first, but soon I could confidently enter TRAP, KISSER, and a likely CAKEHOLE, and see that the phrase was PUT YOUR ONE’S MONEY WHERE YOUR ONE’S MOUTH IS. 
I checked Chambers for the definition of the phrase, and that confirmed that the misprints spelt BACK UP ONE’S STATED OPINION BY BETTING CASH. So, I had three synonyms of MOUTH but not the entry MOUTH itself – that took a while longer as the SW corner had a few holes. And knowing all the misprinted letters helped sort out the remaining clues without too much difficulty. One Sunday afternoon session, and the first part of my task was complete – I’d save the rest for bank holiday Monday. But I couldn’t resist a quick peek before bed … and having put DOSH where TRAP was, I turned in.
The following morning, with a mug of hot black coffee, I picked up the puzzle. MOOLAH for KISSER came quite quickly. And having been slow to enter MOUTH, I was equally slow to replace it with MONEY, once again wrongly looking for a synonym.
One to go, in the bottom right corner, and this is where the shaded letters forming W1, W2, W4 and W7 came to my aid: I had E E E I N R S still to account for, and 5 more clued entries to change (one into a place name). I was pretty sure that HEVEA would become HEVER (a village in Kent), in which case one of the two words ending in E (THROE & SCARFE) had to remain unchanged. The change to HOUDAH could only be to HOUDAN, so I pondered the letter pattern _R_EN___ along with E E I S and ? at the beginning. {This paragraph is taking longer to write than the process it’s describing.} And some magic make me consider GREENIES to replace CAKEHOLE, and I’m done.
Thanks Schadenfreude. (Not much sex this time out, and no references to either toilets or vomit.)
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Correction | Wordplay | |
| 1 | KISSABLE | B | like a billiard ball | [S(quare) IS BLEAK]* |
| 10 | AMORT | A | old sad | MO (doctor) in A R(igh)T |
| 11 | ABORNE | C | carried once | A BOR (neighbour, E Anglia) NE (not, obs) |
| 12 | SMITTING | K | northern marking | SITTING (being examined) around M(eridiem, noon) |
| 15 | TREAD | U | clump | READ(y) after T(ime) |
| 16 | EFFECTIVE | P | possessing power | [FIVE C (hundred) FEET]* |
| 18 | HEEDING | O | counselling of a poet | BREEDING (manners) − B(achelor) |
| 20 | BRAHE | N | stargazing Dane | HE after BRA (support) |
| 24 | ARCHILS | E | they produce red hues | [CHAIRS L(arge)]* |
| 27 | ATHETOSIC | S | … involuntary movement … lesion | [WHITECOATS − W(eight)]* |
| 30 | GEESE | S | sillies | GEE (go faster) + SE(x) (it) |
| 33 | OVERDOES | T | he wears out | PULLOVER − PULL (stretch) + R(uns) after DOE (female) |
| 34 | THIEVE | A | bag | H(orse) IE (that’s) in TV (box) + E(psom) |
| 35 | DO-ALL | T | able to take any job | DOLL (attractive woman) around A(ctive) |
| 36 | YELL | E | eild | double definition |
| Down | ||||
| No. | Answer | Correction | Wordplay | |
| 2 | IAMB | D | part of an odist’s line | I AM (exist) + B(irth) |
| 3 | SMIR | O | drow | SIR (knight) around M(aiden) |
| 4 | SOTTED | P | once pickled | SED (spoken, Milton) around O(rdinary) TT (abstainer) |
| 5 | ARTIC | I | rig | ART (magic influence) + I (one) C(oloured) |
| 6 | LANAI | N | living area … main house | LANA (wood) I (indeed) |
| 7 | TOURER | I | a tripper | TO URE (use, obs) R(iver) |
| 8 | ANEATH | O | down in Gretna Green | A(ccepted) NEAT (dapper) H(usband) |
| 9 | PEDDLE | N | sell e.g. snow | PE (exercises) + D(irected) + ELD< (age, archaic)) |
| 13 | TERAIS | B | wide brimmed headgear | [A(mateur) TRIES]* |
| 14 | ETNA | Y | many … see this … in Sicilian territory | (Sicili)AN TE(rritory) rev. |
| 17 | FEUDED | B | engaged in a long brawling dispute | F(ellow) + [E(nglish) DUDE]* |
| 19 | GREW | E | rose | (futur)E in GR(eek) W(omen) |
| 21 | MIGHTY | T | strong | EIGHTY (cardinal) with M(oney) for E(astern) |
| 22 | OBECHE | T | an African tree | BE (remain) in OCHE (line) |
| 23 | TASSEL | I | kite perhaps | TA (cheers) LESS< (without) |
| 25 | HOUDAH | N | a trumpeter’s spine bears this | HO (moderation) U(nionist) HAD< (knew) |
| 26 | SCARFE | G | Gerald the cartoonist | F(ollowing) E(arl) after SCAR (cliff) |
| 28 | HEVEA | C | this S American native may be cut down | HE V(i)E(s) A(ssociate) |
| 29 | THROE | A | pang | THRO’ (everywhere within) E (base) |
| 31 | SOLO | S | single | SOLON (wiseacre) − N(ew) |
| 32 | PELL | H | old hide | COMPELLING (irresistible) − COM/ING (approach) |
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I enjoyed this one, that I don’t remember causing that many issues (these things are relative, of course, in the IQ world). Got myself in a little tangle at the end getting all the different alternatives for money in the grid, with a couple of false starts, but got there in the end.
I filled the grid and put MONEY where MOUTH was but failed at the final hurdle. I couldn’t find GREENIES, DOSH or MOOALH. I was looking for some more obvious synonyms, though in retrospect I should have got DOSH. I seem to lose a bit of impetus once the grid has been filled. I don’t have quite the same desire to finish tinkering with the grid as I do for solving the clues. Thanks Schadenfreude and HG.
I found CAKEHOLE fairly early after and MOUTH kept insisting it wanted to be MOUSE.
Having found CAKEHOLE the easiest, it turns out that GREENIES was the hardest because I had YOUR instead of ONE’S and steadfastly refused to change it until elmac (ever my saviour) insisted I change it. 🙂
Thanks Schadenfraude for a nice satisfying puzzle and H___G____ for the blog (even though it lacks animation 😉 )
My experience was just the same as Kenmac’s … only after realising that it was “one’s” rather than “your”, thus yielding GREENIES, did I check the phrase in Chamber’s, where it is indeed shown as “one’s”.
Re 1a, I was once told that, if, the earth was reduced to the size of a billiard ball, it would feel completely smooth !
I’m another who got deflected, and briefly frustrated, by the YOUR/ONES issue. In fact, whilst I’d made good progress through, and enjoyed, most of the solve, I see I’ve noted that parsing the last few clues and finding the final synonym felt like a bit of a chore at the time. But oddly I don’t remember it as such now, so presumably the satisfaction of finishing outweighed the effort involved. I’m not a great fan of clues like 36A though, where both parts are obscurities and can only realistically be confidently confirmed by hunting through the dictionary.
I also opted initially for YOUR, and had trouble getting GREENIES, but it was a mistake I should not have made, since dictionary phrases usually use the gender-/number-neutral ‘ones’ in preference to ‘your’. Apart from that hold-up it was a pretty straightforward puzzle. Although it’s pretty clear what was intended, there is an alternative replacement for 7a – POSH, the second meaning of which is defined as money in Chambers. Obsolete slang, but still technically allowable I should have thought.
I found myself entangled in quite a few knots with this one. For me, one of the trickiest of the year. Hand in the air for another who made the your/ones error initially which didn’t help. I spent an age on the end game (which seems to be a recurring theme for me recently). All my own fault of course as I hadn’t read the preamble correctly and misinterpreted it. Eventually got there and I was delighted to cross the line with my last in being GREENIES. Quite a toughie for me, as Schadenfreude generally is. Loved the clue for 25D. Many thanks HG for the always excellent blog.