Friday, May 9, 2008

Big M!

listener3978

First off, I'm sorry about the yellowness of the image. I print my crosswords on the back of recycled paper and sometimes a non-white sheet creeps in. I'll make sure it's white (or at least not such a garish colour) paper that is used for the rest of the blog.

Another titanic struggle here - I remember trying one other Wasp puzzle that worked out to be a game of Cluedo. I found most of the thematic parts, but didn't get the complete grid.

Given my recent failure and chastisement on 3973: Collusion, first thing I saw was that there are two unclued vertical entries. Note this down and don't be caught later on.

Some across answers entered modified, some have extra words, downs have wordplay leading to extra letters. I'll take extra letters for a start, and see how many downs I can jot in, and maybe get the message. That worked out OK, 2d is pretty straightforward, LAVE being (NAVEL)* + N, 4 is STEE(L)+R, 5 is CALENDS+E, 6 is AC(T)HIEVE. Lots of nice dangly words to get me going. Then a huge run of drawing a blank until a few near the bottom, 26 is HYDRO(T) and 30 is DORY(D).

Thanks Wasp for lots of juicy anagrams to get me started!

I don't usually talk about where I solve, but it's generally either late at night at home or in bars, or during random breaks. My first stab at the across clues was the first time I tried crosswording at Waffle House. I got a lot of curious looks, and my coffee cup was filled up a number of times. More waffle house solves will be forthcoming!

To the across clues. Another juicy anagram to start, and we have an extra SCANTILY. And in keeping with a recent discussion on the crossword centre, the clue has the proper surface even if SCANTILY is removed. 10 looks like it should be MAGENTA and all the checking letters fit, so it should go in as normal - I'm still stuck on whether MEETS or ESCAPING is the extraneous word. 11 is CARTA (extra barely, and again the surface works... so it's a safe bet removed words don't leave a clue with a poor surface), and 12 is DELHI (extra LODGINGS). I'm going to kick ass on this one! Found a few that are going to need modification, 21 is ISSUE, 22 is SEWERS, 29 is LADEN, and then two more that will go in unaltered, 32 is ISLAM (I was just in Louisiana) and 34 is NEONATOLOGY which is a magnificent construction!

Came back a day or two latter to attack the rest of the downs with Chambers and Bradfords. I have most of the right hand side (though I originally had REINED - REIN+(R)ED) for 23. My extra letters in the down make -N-LET-ER--LORT-D. ONE LETTER somethinged. Whatted? Whered? --LORT-D doesn't give anything in Word Wizards. Aaaargh...

A few days later, I'm determined to finish this beastie. Calm down, relax, breathe...

Penny-drop moment #1: none of my "entered as normal" answers cross those unclued down entries. Could it be that all of the altered answers intersect them? Looks likely... I enter in IRON ORE at 33 and DIODE at 31 (and unfortunately MISHIMA at 18). The checking N gives me TAINO at 27.

Sooo... presming one letter has been altered (and it looks like moved, not substituted) in those across answers, the unclued entry on the right is -H-(U or V)(S or W)-(L, E or N)-. Not many words fit those (particularly looking at the first five), but THOUSAND peeks out at me. Thousand can be written as a symbol, M (Roman) or k (kilo-). Entering THOUSAND gives me a complete right hand side of the grid, and I smack myself for not getting (C)REELED for 23 earlier. That clears up the message as ONE LETTER RELOCATED. Unfortunately I have a myriad of possibilities for the left hand unclued entry.

And I'm stuck again.

This is so annoying. Think, George. Don't let this beat you. Thematic words complete the missing element. If two of those words are the thematic ones, then maybe they're joined by something. Is it going to be a big H? No... a big U? DIODEI. No... would you believe it took another full day before thinking it could be an M? And there is MAIDEN, sitting right in front of me... THOUSAND is M, MAIDEN is M. Let's go to chambers and find 8-letter words that can be abbreviated M. MONSIEUR!!!! Could it be? Yes, move the O in LEMON, the N in UNLEARN, the I in ISSUE and we have MONSIEUR, MAIDEN and THOUSAND making the big M in the middle.

And Big M was my favorite milk drink when I lived in Australia!



I still have a little solving to go - final head-smacking moment - the letters relocated are relocated to the unclued verticals. 3d is NEU(E)ME, 18 is TIL,LIM(E),A, and I don't know why it eluded me so long, but 16 was MANTIS.

I felt an overwhelming relief that I got through this, I thought it was going to be a canter, and maybe it was for some of the regulars, but I feel like I stumbled through via some extreme guesswork. The clues were great - there was enough here to get me going, and eventually they all made sense, and I liked the across clues still making sense with the removed words. Wasp, if you're reading this, well played, you kept me guessing for weeks (I finished this near midnight last night).

And a victory for George, and a huge personal milestone of 10 solved. Current tally: George 10, Listener 6. Current streak, George 1.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done George. I was looking at the possible symbol you could get from the unclued words; having had a mathematical sojourn last week I was thinking it might be pi for a while.

With a more positive attitude than I had with the recent puzzle where the T had to move (and with the anagram solver of Chambers) I got through this one quite quickly. Just as well as the wife is likely to start divorce proceedings soon, as my head is buried in these things for most of the week!

George the Bastard said...

pi would have been a good one. And I can't imagine having the Listener crossword and a family (widower myself)

Anonymous said...

Useful at times - Mrs B said to me the other week "Oh look, it says Shelley at the bottom", having stared blankly at the thing for hours!