EV1643
Career by Ifor
Setter’s Blog
Removed/added letter pairs give DAEDALUS. A representation of the sun appears in WHITSUNTIDE; ICARUS is entered below the ICARIAN SEA and three further instances of ICARUS represent his flight.
There’s not a great deal to be said about this construction. I’m sure the theme has appeared before, but I don’t regard that as an issue (no-one ever said to Raphael “we’ve got quite enough Madonnas, thank you”). So just a few highlights in no particular order – those moments that gladden a setter’s heart.
The kindness of the editor in scheduling the puzzle so that Whitsuntide could be clued as “the coming week”.
The discovery of uracil as a word that permitted Icarus to plunge head-first into and under the Icarian Sea. And the fact that the latter is almost completely anagrammed by “raise Cain”.
The realisation that not only could Daedalus be spilt into four workable letter-pairs, but that three of them fortuitously were already present in one of my draft grids; and that a simple adaptation allowed the fourth to be incorporated.
And finally the idea that the double meaning of career ( job/adviser connection, plus that of an unstructured journey) could run through the preamble.
I hope solvers’ hearts were similarly gladdened at one point or another.
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A full review of this puzzle can be seen over on fifteensquared.