EV 1639 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1639 (Hints)

Switch by Piccadilly

Hints and tips by Phibs

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

In his novel Changing Places, David Lodge describes a parlour game called Humiliation which is introduced to Euphoric State University’s English Department by British exchange professor Philip Swallow. It involves each player naming a book which he hasn’t read but thinks that the others probably have, and scoring a point for every person who has indeed read it.

Professor Ringbaum’s competitive instinct ultimately drives him (against his better judgement) to confess that he has never read Hamlet, giving him a conclusive victory but subsequently costing him his job in the English faculty, for whom the revelation is somewhat embarrassing. I think I could do quite well at that game, but I would fare even better if films were the subject. Why am I telling you this? Because I’m hoping to bag plenty of points from readers of this blog when I say that I haven’t seen the original Star Wars film, nor indeed any others in the series. I wouldn’t say that this has held me back, but it does mean that when I come across a clue like 8d I may need a bit of help from Google. By the way, if Star Wars doesn’t deliver for me, I’ve got plenty of other unseen blockbusters up my sleeve.

Preamble: Eight people have jobs which include their first names. They all SWITCH jobs by exchanging names. Jobs are clued in alphabetical order using wordplay only. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

So the across and down clues are normal, and it’s clear that the eight unclued lights are not simply going to contain the answers to the ‘Jobs’ clues. Whether we choose to tackle those clues sooner or later in the grid filling process would seem to be a matter of personal choice, although the absence of letter counts isn’t going to make them any easier. That said, I decided to begin by having a crack at them to see if I could at least get a few answers, which I thought might prove helpful as the solve progressed. The preamble doesn’t state that all entries in the completed grid are real words – this may, like the dog that didn’t bark in the night, be significant, or it may not.

Jobs

•    Homer expert
Nothing to do with the nodding Greek poet or the Simpson patriarch, the ‘Homer’ here is a Hebrew measure of capacity (11 bushels, give or take a peck), and the three-letter word we seek is another term for the same measure. The ‘expert’ provides the remaining four letters.

•    Cuckoos entering mine
These cuckoos are large black birds of the Americas, popular with setters and, since they are not brood parasites, probably more so with other birds than their British counterparts. The ‘mine’ is the sort that would supply fossil fuel.

•    Old VIP?
If you got this on the first pass through, respect! I certainly didn’t. Once you break the VIP down into two parts, expand these to three and five letters respectively, and then stick them back together, you’re on the home straight. Those whose memories go back past 1971 have something of an advantage.

Across

12a    Work hard with essayist to identify character in Hamlet (7)
A 2+1+4 charade, the essayist being a crossword staple ‘back in the day’, but a relatively rare visitor in modern times. It was the pseudonym used by Charles Lamb for a series of essays published in The London Magazine during the 1820s; Lamb himself appears in the character of the author, while his sister Mary is ‘Cousin Bridget’. The words ‘to identify’ in the clue are simply there to link the wordplay to the definition.

27a    Social worker uncovered oral cavities (5)
The first element of this 3+2 charade is a mildly cryptic indication of a creature described by Chambers as being both ‘social’ and ‘of proverbial industry’. The second part involves letters being selected from a word in plain view.

Down

8d    Spenser’s proceeded east following Jedi leaving area (4)
If you have seen Star Wars, then you probably won’t need any help with this one. An abbreviation is preceded by the name of a particular Jedi from which a different abbreviation has been removed.

19d    Drunken Behan swallowing nut that’s poisonous (7)
There are two units of typographic spacing, one twice the size of the other, which are named after letters of the alphabet. Because the terms sound very similar, the bigger one was on occasion called by printers a ‘mutton’ and the smaller a ‘nut’ (not perhaps the finest choices for clear audible distinction, although I suppose ‘mutt’ and ‘nut’ would have been worse).

Definitions in clues are underlined

Having entered all the answers to the conventional clues, it will become clear what is required as far as the endgame is concerned; if there are Job clues still unsolved, it shouldn’t be too hard to guess the job and reverse engineer the wordplay where necessary. For validation purposes, the unchecked letters in the eight special entries can be rearranged to spell ENROL ROUTER.

The across and down clues were generous almost to a fault, so even if one or two of the job clues proved tricky to solve the finishing line was never too far away.

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

---

Could new readers please read the Welcome post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.

As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT, or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES in your comment.

Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.

---