Some weeks you've got it, some weeks you don't...
Last year there was this really fun Listener by Zero that had the shape of a space invader. Before that was a map of Italy that I couldn't make head or tail of. Now we've got to divide clues up into three groups - 21 leading to wordplay with one letter omitted, 16 clues with extra words, and 17 normal clues. Sounds tricky to begin with, because there's nothing to rely on. Each clue had to have a correct definition, so that was foremost in my mind. There's also to be some highlighting in the end, so following what we've seen from Zero, there's probably something amusing to the highlighting finale.
But this was just one I could not get into. Time has not been in plentiful supply, and being able to snatch a few furtive minutes at a time just was not going to cut it for this. To make matters worse, I lost my original grid while I was travelling (I found it yesterday when I was cleaning out some folders - that's the one I have at the top), and had to start again - at least I remembered that I had to figure out how to spell BODHISATTVA. Here's as far as I got with Grid #2.
I didn't get close enough to start guessing at the theme... all the missing letters I found were Rs and Es, not sure if that was significant, and the extra words were LOVER, FLASH, FLAKE, INITIATE, and ELECTRICIAN. Nothing came to mind, and I ran out of time with one of the emptiest grids in a while.
I'm sure I was missing something simple (or just needed more time - or brain cells, or both), but I feel bad about this paltry effort. Victory to Zero and the Listener Crossword!
2009 tally: Listener 2, George 10. Current streak: Listener 1
Since it's Easter and Passover, let's have some religious music (to go with Corn Mo from last week). Here's the updated version of "Jesus was Way Cool" by King Missile III, from the excellent and overlooked CD "The Psychopathology of Everyday Life"
7 comments:
Unlucky George...this crossword turned into my Arch Enemy, and for a very long time I hated it! I had a few days in NY and without Chambers available I couldn't even make a start, just had no affinity with the clues at all.
Slowly, but slowly it started to build up. As with you lots of R's and E's were omitted from the clues....hmmm a 21 letter phrase?!
It then became clear that down and across clues were sharing the same "omitted" letter....so the 21 clues yielded a phrase of less than 21 letters due to the sharing.
This fact helped me by guessing where omitted letters were shared.
The extra words were coming out bit by bit, but had no connection as far as I could see.
What a challenge, I sat down suffering with Jetlag and grinded the rest out and was rewarded.
The omitted letters were distributed one to a column.....and spelt in column order "Creme De La Creme"....so how to redistribute....no other choice than to let the cream rise to the top!
In rewriting the grid "MISS JEAN BRODIE" was spelt out in the middle of the grid...several lines above "THE PRIME OF" to complete the title of the book that coined the phrase "Creme De La Creme"
Interesting...but what of this second four word phrase...the grid yielded "BRIGHT AS THE SEA", hmmm, what the hell does that mean.
Chambers in the back (second recent appearance) confirmed that the Authors first name Muriel meant "Bright as the sea", and as for the extra words, they were all Sparks (her surname).
Very clever and well worth
battling through! Was convinced I would never complete it, and that it would be the hardest of the year (hahahahaha Mr E was soon to prove me wrong!)
See you all Next Week :)
Apache4D 12 Listener 0
Complete empathy George, and well done Apache. I had a complete grid, but was completely confused by the extra letters which made no sense in clue order. I did get "spark" however, although sadly it did not "spark" the answer for me!
Hi, George. I wanted to comment on 'Command Performance', but John the Baptist seems to have lost his feet as well as his head - I couldn't see a 'comments' section at the bottom of that entry. Hope it's okay to comment here instead.
Much as I got a sense of achievement in completing this crossword, I do get mildly annoyed if I've put in all the correct letters without necessarily knowing how I got there. So I have no idea what the unjumbled answers are to a couple of the across clues, nor can I fathom how the subsidiary indications lead to CONNIPTION. I know it doesn't matter in the great scheme of things, but it is somehow less satisfying to complete a crossword by default.
I am too easily irritated....
I struggled with that one Pauline, but if you wade through all the definitions of "con" in Chambers, you find "show", then "nip" = smart and "ton" = fashion, with an I in for good measure.
PS I now tell my 11 year old daughter to Cease Her Conniption!
The conniption continues here - I didn't see the wordplay until after coming up with conniption from the definition and knowing four of the checking letters (but not the order).
Can't agree with Apache4D that Mr E's is the hardest of the year so far - that "honour" surely goes to Sabre followed by Salamanca for their two earlier offerings. I have now finshed the Mr E puzzle which would have been considerably easier without the 3 mistakes in it!
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