A smaller than average grid for me this week — just 11×11 and 22 cells to be highlighted. Each across clue contained an extra thematic word, the first letters of which give an incomplete quotation represented cryptically in the grid.The next word, speaker and author would need highlighting.
As usual with a Chalicea puzzle, the clues were fairly straightforward, but it is always the theme and hidden gems that are entertaining. So it was that I finished the grid in about 45 minutes with five unclued entries leading to a cloudy theme: NIMBUS, CIRRUS, STRATUS, CUMULUS and STORM. I also had Read fifth clue letters generated by the first letters of the extra words. These in turn read A lonely impulse of delight drove to this…, and a bit of googling led me to An Irish Airman Forsees His Death by WB YEATS:
I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
A short while later:
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds;
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
And so, IRISH AIRMAN and TUMULT were all to be highlighted, among the clouds above, together with YEATS in row 9. The extra words in the clues all related to flying and/or were words from the poem.
Thanks, Chalicea, for an interesting perspective on the First World War.
[I have it on good authority that the clue to 23ac should have been “…misrepresented as…”. I think we all probably guessed that.]
Solving time: under an hour, including lots of counting up to 5.
Legend:
Definition in clue
5th letter in clue
Extra word in clue
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Initial Letter |
5th Letter |
Clue and Explanation |
| 1 | NOCAKE | R | A | Agitated ocean, OCEAN* around K (end of docK) |
| 5 | SCUPS | E | L | Small vessel CUP (small vessel) inside SS (ship) |
| 7 | IRISH | A | O | Nationality of IRIS (flag) + H (height) |
| 9 | UNIT | D | N | Any ne part of larger group; a French UN (a, French) + I (international) + T (first letter of Troops) |
| 10 | AIRMAN | F | E | Grotesque almost alarming (ALARMIN[G] – L (liberal))* |
| 11 | BORING | I | L | Drilling British band going round old B (British) RING (band) around O (old) |
| 12 | AUGER | F | Y | Madly ARGUE* |
| 13 | TUMULT | T | I | Emotional turmoil of beginnings of turbulent upward movement unsteady first letters of Turbulent Upword Movement Unsteady + Landing Techniques |
| 16 | LOAM | H | M | See American LO (see) + AM (American) |
| 17 | SA SA | C | P | How sportsmen accompany AS AS< (when, twice) |
| 19 | UGLY | L | U | Confused guy embracing essentially aimless GUY* around L (aimLess, essentially) |
| 22 | ARUM | U | L | Recalled trimmed wall-hanging revealing showy MURA[L]< (wall hanging, trimmed) |
| 23 | TASSIE | E | S | Scots small vessel misrepresented as (AS SITE)*; printed puzzle had “…misrepresented by…” |
| 24 | RADAR | L | E | Banner ad arguably revealing in banneR AD Arguably |
| 25 | VERTUS | E | O | Old moral qualities; mixture of true (TRUE VS (extremes of ValueS))* |
| 28 | VOGUEY | T | F | With fashion you’ve circulated incorporating bit of giddy YOUVE* including G (bit of Giddy) |
| 30 | DIEU | T | D | Not oddly adviceful aDvIcEfUl without odd letters |
| 31 | RANEE | E | E | RAN (overflowed) + E (Engineered, principally, ie first letter) + E (English) |
| 32 | DRAYS | R | L | Sideless reversed in goodS YARDs |
| 33 | KAROSS | S | I | S African cover of chopped okra OKRA* + SS (SeedbedS, empty) |
| DOWN | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | 5th Letter |
Clue and Explanation | |
| A | NIMBUS | Unclued | ||
| 2 | ORZO | G | This grain-shaped food‘s regularly seen in sorry zoos (4) regular letters of sOrRy ZoOs |
|
| B | CIRRUS | Unclued | ||
| 3 | ASH | H | Perth‘s trouble; fellow chopped timber (3) FASH (trouble, Scottish) – F (fellow) |
|
| 4 | KHAN | T | Aristocrat or place for him to stay in Asia? (4) 2 meanings; Eastern inn and Asian prince |
|
| C | STRATUS | Unclued | ||
| D | CIRRUS | Unclued | ||
| 6 | PINEAL | D | Dreadfully plain and centrally distended; shaped like fruit of a conifer (6) (PLAIN + E (distEnded, centrally))* |
|
| E | STORM | Unclued | ||
| 8 | FIG LEAVES | R | Rearranged flies gave cover for privates? (9, two words) (FLIES GAVE)* |
|
| 14 | MAMAGUY | O | Try to deceive by flattering mother with a line (7) MAMA (mother) + GUY (a line) |
|
| 15 | UNTRUSS | V | Renovating special u-turns, unfasten ties (7) (S (special) UTURNS)* |
|
| 18 | A RAVIR | E | Gorgeously in Paris, a wild party cut short by Irish (6, two words) A RAV[E] (wild party, cut short) + IR (Irish) |
|
| 20 | GITANO | T | Giant old wandering Spanish gypsy (6) (GIANT + O (old))* |
|
| 21 | YESSES | O | Hollow years bearing pure existence, producing affirmative responses (6) YS (YearS, hollow) holding (bearing) ESSE (pure existence) |
|
| 22 | AREDD | T | Construed in the past a revolutionary department (5) A RED (revolutionary) D (department) |
|
| 26 | EYRA | H | South American creature‘s fabricated aery (4) AERY* |
|
| 27 | UTES | I | Americans in Colorado University rejected form (4) U (university) + SET< (form) |
|
| 29 | EAR | S | Acoustic receptor picks up sounds endlessly (3) [H]EAR[S] (picks up sounds, endlessly) |
|
Thank you Dave
I just checked my paper copy and I’ve written “as” under “by” in 23A.
Chalicea said she had some different style puzzles in the pipeline and guess this is the first.
I still checked all the diagonals for a hidden message just in case.
Another excellent construction from an assured composer.
Many thanks, Dave, for the great blog and Cap’n P’ng’n for your warm appreciation. We have checked through the proofs and don’t know how that ‘as’ changed to ‘by’ – sorry about that but I’m glad it didn’t distress solvers here or on the other threads.