EV 1577 Hints

Enigmatic Variations 1577 (Hints)

Reality Check by Opsimath

Hints and tips by Phibs

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In the setter’s blog for Listener puzzle 4600, Opsimath wrote “This was one of the very first puzzles I attempted to set. I know, because I only stumbled on my pseudonym while looking for suitable words to use for the grid. Putting *psi* into TEA produces loads of words like campsite and lop-sided, but oΨmath caught my eye and seemed appropriate, since I was already well into my 60’s when I even started to think about setting. Plus, I was always a Math teacher. To save you rushing to Chambers, an opsimath is someone who learns late in life. I’ll admit to having been offered the very best schooling from an early age, but I only started to learn quite recently.”

Preamble: Ten answers must undergo a REALITY CHECK before entry in the grid. Numbers in brackets show entry lengths. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

A beautifully brief preamble from which we learn that all clues are normal but ten answers have to be modified in some way prior to entry. The bit about numbers in brackets showing entry lengths tells us that for at least some of those ten the answer to the clue and the entry in the grid have different lengths. When I tackled the puzzle, I decided that I would enter any answers that matched the stated length, at the same time bearing in mind that I might have to rub one or two out if clashes occurred, since I had no way of knowing whether all of the ten were going to change their lengths.

Across

6a    Plain woman in Dallas? Not in Paris (6)
One for the more mature solver. The first element of the wordplay is the diminutive forename of Mrs Bobby Ewing, who was memorably revealed to have dreamed series 9 in its entirety, thus allowing her late husband to turn up rather unexpectedly in the shower, alive and soapy, at the start of series 10. The second element is the French word for ‘not’.

11a    Prickly thing you told Luthor, perhaps (4)
A single letter indicated by a homophone is followed by the first name of an evil genius who will be familiar to DC Comics aficionados.

13a    Training of dog letter untrue, ridiculous (7)
I maintain a database of single letter indicators, among which is one that I have never been able to work into a clue, namely ‘dog letter’ for R (from its growling sound), the term canina litera having originally been used by the Roman poet Persius. It’s part of an anagram, indicated by ‘ridiculous’.

23a    Scots knew this was used for leaping ditches in Ayr (6)
A double definition clue – if you focus on the first of the definitions, and don’t assume that the answer length is six letters, you should be in a position to check that second meaning in Chambers. The implement is known as a ‘quant’ in more southerly parts of Britain.

35      Jazz violinist upset apple girl (9)
A straightforward wordplay, and a wonderful violinist who in 1934 co-founded the Quintette du Hot Club de France with the equally wonderful Django Reinhardt.

38a    Poirot, perhaps, looking back after losing case and wealth (5)
It is the first name of Agatha Christie’s Belgian sleuth which must undergo two manipulations in order to produce the answer.

Down

2d    Guiding thread here! (4)
The exclamation mark suggests that the second definition is unconventional, and it proves to be self-referencing. The first definition suggests the sort of thing that Ariadne gave to Theseus before he entered the labyrinth for his showdown with the Minotaur, and which turned out to be surprisingly useful.

6d    Female railway unit (6)
A word for the female of many birds as well as certain fishes (who knew?) is followed by a two-letter abbreviation.

7d    Ester set up two Greek characters, one half-cut (6)
The three-letter name of one Greek letter. and the six-letter name of another from which half has been cut. are involved here.

9d    Skunk found in first eleven (4)
If you add ‘letters’ onto the end of this clue you should quickly identify the malodorous member of the Mephitidae, a frequent visitor to the barred cryptic.

21d    Fertile spots French settlers start to exit South (5)
A three-letter abbreviation for a far-right organization of French colonists determined to use all means necessary to prevent the government of President Charles de Gaulle from granting Algeria independence precedes two separately indicated single letters.

37d    Dangle puppet initially reduced by 90%? (4)
When you see something like ‘initially increased fivefold’ or ‘finally doubled’ in a clue, it’s likely to mean that the letter at the start or end of a word is to be interpreted as a Roman numeral and then changed to the numeral having the required value, so “Study quantity of paper finally reduced by half” gives READ [REAM with D for M]. Here, ‘initially reduced by 90%’ should be interpreted along similar lines.

Definitions in clues are underlined

The good news was that, whether by happy accident or obliging design, every modification involved a length change, so no rubbing out was required. Having got most of the grid filled, I had a look at the ‘wrong length’ answers, and combining the first of the across ones with the first of the down ones served to power up the mental light bulb that used to appear above the heads of Beano characters. I needed Google to help me with a few of the modifications, in particular the last of the down ones, for which I had to work back from the presumed grid entry (kudos to anyone who managed all ten unaided).

As someone steeped in non-themed barred puzzles requiring a fair degree of general knowledge, this was my sort of crossword. It might not have pleased those who like really chewy puzzles or spectacular endgames, but I enjoyed it.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾/🥾🥾 (Suitable for all)

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