Enigmatic Variations 1637 (Hints)
Question by Stick Insect
Hints and tips by Phibs
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It seemed unfair to get Gemini to guess at the theme given the paucity of help on offer, so I asked him “If you were to set a themed crossword puzzle, what subject would you choose?”.
He wasn’t short of ideas:
“As a large language model, I have access to information on a vast range of subjects. To make the puzzle most engaging, it would be ideal to pick a theme that’s both interesting and rich with words. Here are a few options:
Mythology: This theme offers a variety of words from different cultures and pantheons, with a mix of well-known gods and more obscure creatures.
Etymology: This theme would focus on the origins of words, with clues that test your knowledge of languages and historical connections.
Fictional Worlds: Pick a popular book series or fantasy world and create clues based on characters, locations, and magical items.
Technological Innovations: This theme could explore recent advancements and historical breakthroughs in science and technology.
Art History: Clues could focus on famous paintings, sculptures, artistic movements, and influential artists.
I’d choose the theme based on the difficulty level you’re looking for and the target audience. No matter what theme you pick, a good crossword puzzle should have a healthy mix of easy and challenging clues to keep things interesting!”
Wise words indeed, but will today’s puzzle fit into any of those categories?
Preamble: Each clue contains a misprint in the definition. In clue order, the correct letters give three characters, the subject of a QUESTION in a work. In accordance with the work’s title, ten cells must be emptied, leaving real words or phrases (ignoring gaps). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
A nice simple preamble – every definition contains a misprint, and we need to keep track of the correct (ie replacement) letters. Otherwise it’s a normal grid fill, and we can assume that the three characters identified will guide us towards the cells to be emptied. As always with misprint clues, we are looking for unexpected words which could have a single letter changed to produce a common word; because the misprints are confined to the definition, this new word will often form part of a familiar phrase, as a convenient single-word definition which can accommodate the required misprint will not always be available to the setter. And be on the alert for ‘hiddens’ (lurkers), which setters will include to counterbalance the added difficulty of the misprints.
Across
1a Joy mostly follows sugar making sound like train (6)
The four-letter word for ‘joy’ which must lose its last letter will be familiar to everyone, but the unrefined cane sugar may not be.
6a Garth prepared to make brick house with retro interior (5)
I immediately spotted the misprint along with the two words involved, each of which can be formed by reversing the ‘interior’ of the other, but it took me a minute to work out where the definition ended and the wordplay began.
13a Blanch pollack as above (5)
There aren’t too many possible misprints, but that may not make the charade of a three-letter word for a pollack (as well as a tennis shot) and a Latin abbreviation much easier.
15a US fuel rich, incorporating oxygen (8)
The misprint is used cunningly here to support the rest of the surface reading, but the correct word has nothing to do with gasolene and everything to do with being three sheets to the wind.
23a Elisha, for ode, is coming after books (4)
It’s not hard to spot the misprint, and the ‘2 after 2’ wordplay is straightforward, but although you will have seen the man’s surname many times, usually accompanied by a statement of capacity, like me you may be unaware of his forename – this is no cause for regret.
24a Charge old currency (4)
The term ‘wordplay’ is used in themed puzzles to describe any subsidiary indication of an answer. As here, this can be a second definition (not featuring a misprint), with ‘currency’ referring not to cash but to acceptance.
28a Pal’s previous prices for murder in Spain: heaps (6)
A rich seam for setters of misprint clues is offered by definitions which require qualification (eg words which Chambers ascribes to a particular region). Instead of “Ian’s hand” to indicate a Scots word for a labourer, we can write “Man’s hand” (I misprinted as M). The convention of underlining the definition should make the wordplay in this clue easier to decode.
Down
7d Sew Mexican trinket in harem room, impressed by local cut (6)
This is quite a tricky one, and although the definition might not look very promising, you will probably be familiar with the answer, or at least a version of it. As in 28a, the definition includes a qualifier, but rather than using a stereotypical name, the setter has taken the alternative approach of referring to a place (eg “Wellington’s drunk” for a word meaning ‘drunk’ in New Zealand). The three-letter harem room appears quite frequently in cryptics, if nowhere else, and it is contained (‘impressed’) by a dialect word meaning ‘to clip’.
18d They can handle more than one look and amorous advance on islands (8)
The second element of this 4+4 charade may be more familiar to Floridans than Scillonians.
19d Pitch up with especially ordinary treat (7)
The charade here delivers elements in a 3-1-3 formation.
22d One giving the slim earl notice receives termination (7)
Having separated the definition from the wordplay, all that remains here is to follow a familiar abbreviation with one three-letter word inside another.
27d Gina’s temple might feature this, partly empty and almost uninhabited (5)
The qualification in this definition is not used in quite the same way as that in 7d. Here it is not the word itself which belongs to a particular locality, but the object defined.
Definitions in clues are underlined
Some of the misprints were quite tricky, but the low proportion of unchecked letters (the ‘unching’ being non-Ximenean in places) made things easier. I suspect that many solvers will need outside assistance, but googling either the first or the second ‘character’ will get you straight to the theme. From there, it’s just a matter of finding the linear arrangement of the required ten letters in the grid and erasing them, in the process producing 16 new words (some of them variations on their predecessors). No highlighting required, so that’s job done.
A puzzle where everything was well signposted and there was no room for doubt about whether the endgame had been correctly completed.
Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾/🥾🥾🥾 (Suitable for all solvers comfortable with misprinted clues)
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Super fun and congrats to Stick Insect for his choice of theme. It should be easier for those of us with a copy of the work in question, but only if we have paid attention over these last 50-odd years. I spent a good while trying to reconcile the corrected misprints of the last 2 letters of the first character with my memory of the work. I stand corrected.
The clues, including the task of solving the definition, spanned the range from giveaway to impenetrable. Though clear enough in retrospect it took longer to identify the misprint in 31a than to complete the endgame. 9d is a top clue.
Thanks to SI and to Phibs.
For the benefit of anyone struggling to identify the misprint in 31a, neither the element containing the misprint nor the corrected version are words.
Excellent! Not heard of the title nor the reference in 32A… and, as usual, EV answers have 10 to 20 percent of words that are new to me! Thoroughly enjoyable! :)