This is the third Ploy puzzle I've tried - I got about a half-filled grid on "Travelling Light" and absolutely nowhere on "Pater and Son" (from a time where I'd print out the puzzle and be too bogged down in preambles to get started anywhere). Five elements have associated points, each has to be set appropriately, four thematic words (are they also the elements?), two names, two topics.
After my last few failures, a big sigh of relief that clues are normal! Not only that, but my "please make the first across clue an starter clue so I can get into it" plea has been heard, so we have a straightforward alphabetisation in 1A - So That Electric Points Use Power.
I enjoued the clueuing - Ploy seems to have gone for long surfaces here, which I think is my style of clue (apologies to Pieman, and also to Charybdis from last week). Theres some juicy substitution clues - DELAWARE becoming DE LA MARE at 13 is very nice.
First hint of something up comes with 2D and 17AC. 17 has to be VIOL, and 2 has to be TABOO. Combine that with a memory from earlier this year that a SIRI is a betel and we have clashing Is and Os... which would go with the theme - it's ON(1) or OFF(0) if I'm not mistaken.
I was giving a friend a ride home and talking about my exploits with the crossword when it clicked... I told him about the 1/0 thing and said "I bet those two right next to each other have a B and an LE in them to make BOOLE". After dropping him off, I couldn't wait, I grabbed the crossword and saw it... TABOO|LEAFFALL and there's my fellow George! And looky - two columns along has PUTLOG|I|C and there's Boole's logic. I have an almost full grid, but working from the other end, there's CERCI|R|CUITTLE (I learned along the way from Chambers that those crazy Italians decided NOON should be at 3pm). So there's CIRCUIT, and two more columns in there's PASHA|N|NONIRON (thanks for throwing a chemist a bone by putting LIGNIN at 34). A bit of googling tells me there is such a thing as a SHANNON CIRCUIT. Thematic words done.
But there's still some clashes, and they're in the middle... hmmm....
It took me another two days to see what was going on... the clashes were every second column, and what twigged it for me was seeing NAND in the middle of SYNANDRIUM. And things fell into place... OR, NOT, AND, NAND and NOR are in between the clashing Os and Is. The whole thing is a logic puzzle! Here's how it works...
the 0 from BOOLE is operated on by OR to give 0, making the PUTLOG/SIRI clash 0.
That 0 and the 1 underneath (from CIAO) are operated on by NOT to give 1, setting the PEREIA/OATY (great clue there by the way)
Had to look forward here... there's an AND and a NAND coming up to give me the O in SHANNON. The only way to get 0 in NAND is to give it 1 and 1, so my AND has to be 1 and 1, setting the CIAO/ILIA clash as I, also setting the CAPITOL/INNERS and BLINI/OCREA clash as I.
The NOR has to give the 1 in CIRCUIT making the RORTY/NON-IRON clash 0.
Brings back memories of Mathematics I from University, and a great "ending" to the puzzle... I still had two to fill after all of this, I couldn't quite verify 45, my guess was from the wordplay and it was being used as a screen name so I guess it's right. I'm still calling this one a very fun victory. Good stuff, Ploy - this was well put-together and a lot of fun at the end.
Current tally: George 22, Listener 20 (still tight), Current streak: George 1.
Nothing to do with circuits, but I'm quite excited that Danielson are doing another show in Asheville. They're either the most Christian rock band ever or they're making fun of it all, but no matter what, their shows are hysterically good fun. If you want to know more, check out this clip, and yes, all those people are in the band and they do use acoustic instruments.
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