EV 1667 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1667 (Hints)

Negatives by Stick Insect

Hints and tips by The Numpties

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

We know that we can rely on Stick Insect for a generous set of clues and a solve that we will enjoy, leading to a p.d.m. that will produce a smile. This is Stick Insect’s 19th Enigmatic Variations crossword and was as enjoyable as expected.

Preamble: The majority of clues contain an extra word which must be removed before solving. These words give all the NEGATIVES in a poem. Solvers must delete six cells to thematically represent the poem’s title and final word, leaving all real words in the grid (ignoring gaps). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; 23 is in Shorter OED.

With 46 clues, where the majority contained an extra word, we conjectured that there must be a considerable number of negatives in the thematic poem. At first we wondered whether, in the conventional crossword way, it was going to be the initial letters of those words that gave us negatives, but we trusted Stick Insect to give us an accurate instruction and soon realized that we were, indeed, extracting and using whole words.

Across

11a          Unpleasant job cleaning out enormous feet (7)
These were not feet that would fit into enormous shoes. To the word for a tedious or laborious task, we added the ‘enormous’, cleaned out – to get the feet.

16a        Confused lover embraces suitor’s second opening (6)
‘Confused’ told us what to do, with an extra letter added to produce the ‘opening’.

17a        About noon the old lie for great one, perhaps (6)
A tough clue, especially as the ‘perhaps’ sheds some doubt on the ‘great one’ definition. It’s a Shakespearian word that might well be a mis-reading. Solvers have to put together two clue elements (‘lie’ and ‘the old’) but are helped  in that there are no unches in this answer so it is spelled out in the grid.

20a        Dawn creates bizarre card games (7)
We remembered that the ‘majority’ of clues contained an extra word. Removing one word, here, left us with a clear hint about how to get those card games.

30a         Have lull, almost loose in very informal time (7)
Again, the clue instructed us how to get the answer. The ‘almost’ told us what to do with the ‘lull’ and ‘loose’ said the rest.

34a         For Iain, taste overflowed when knocking back fruit (6)
An unusual fruit appeared when we ‘knocked back’ that short Scottish word for ‘taste’ and a short one for ‘overflowed’.

39a         One Scottish fabric cutter, formerly (7)
We needed a Scottish ‘one’ and a fine fabric to produce this historical cutter.

Down

1d            Weigh up involving Bill in breaching of walls (7)
A short word for ‘bill’ goes into a longer word for ‘weigh up’ giving a fairly unusual word for the breaching of walls.

4d           Ed’s equal portion of hope in a reprieve (5)
Remember those extra words. One is used subtly here to ‘conceal’ the answer – an antiquated (evidently Spenserian) word for an equal.

6d          English member rebuffed taxes and swords (6)
Again, remember those extra words. ‘Rebuffed’ tells us what to do with the taxes (another old word).

13d          Philosopher, not quiet about yen to bring vessel to rest (5, two words)
An amusing clue. Of course, we needed to use the abbreviations for ‘quiet’ and ‘yen’ to adapt a famous philosopher’s name, producing a simple pair of words.

19d           No good ultimately, strange butterflies and rhino in Bhutan (8)
A thoroughly deceptive and amusing clue that has nothing to do with Bhutan’s wild life. We put together clue elements for ‘no good’, ‘ultimately’ and ‘strange’ to get that ‘rhino’.

24d          Parliament being for old bees in difficulty (7)
The parliament here is a middle-eastern one. The ‘being’ has to replace the ‘old’ in a word for a difficult problem.

30d          Why cast less heartless divine inspirations (5)
The inspirations here are Welsh. ‘Why’ has to be ‘cast’ and ‘less’ needs to be ‘heartless’.

33d          Hawk’s beginning, loudly and clearly, to sound like owl (4)
After ‘hawk’s beginning, we used a short word for ‘loudly and clearly’ to produce an unusual ‘owl sound’.

That final word of the very evocative poem spelled it all out for us and we realized what six letters we were looking for. It was a fine touch by Stick Insect to leave both across and down ‘real words’. Of course, we would expect nothing less of him.

Do remember to erase those letters and do please send in your entry and add your comments here and to the setters’ blogs that are appearing on Big Dave’s site on Thursdays and to the detailed blogs that also appear on Thursdays on  fifteensquared.

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