EV 1671 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1671 (Hints)

Good Health by Karla

Hints and tips by Phibs

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I asked ChatGPT, “In a themed crossword, what might a thematic word ‘being an example of good health’ be?”

The answer was as follows:

“In a themed crossword, a phrase like “being an example of good health” might be hinting at words like:

FITNESS – a general term for being in good health.
VITALITY – which conveys energy and robust health.
WELLNESS – a state of being in good health, often used in health and wellness themes.
VIGOR [sic] – meaning strength or good physical health.
SALUBRITY – an uncommon word meaning the quality of being health-giving or healthy.

If the crossword has a specific theme, sometimes the answer might be more playful, like PICTUREOFHEALTH or ROBUST if it fits the grid. Let me know if you have any letter hints!”

I suspect the one thing that we won’t need to do is to take the expression as literally as ChatGPT has done; it may be that as the theme emerges we will have a context in which to interpret it.

Preamble: Answers to seven down and seven across clues have an extra letter given by wordplay, which should be inserted in the top row. Letters from down clues go to the top of the column of the entry, and those from across clues go where they fit to reveal a phenomenon (three words). Corrections to misprints in the wordplay part of all other clues spell a product and an instruction that produces a precursor and helps reveal two hidden thematic words that intersect it (23 cells in total, to be highlighted), one being an example of GOOD HEALTH. The final grid contains all real words and phrases, and Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

This may not bode well – my two least-favourite clueing gimmicks join forces here. In 14 clues, the wordplay delivers an extra letter; it’s not unusual with this sort of clue to get the answer from the definition and crossers before working back to disentangle the wordplay. With down clues, the extra letter should be put into the top row directly above the entry; with across clues, we must keep note of the extra letter. In both instances, I will be putting a dash against the clue number to indicate that it won’t be contributing to the message.

The other 31 clues have a misprint in the wordplay, with the corrections producing the message. There are more than twice as many clues with this gimmick, so the odds suggest exploring that possibility first for each one. In clues of this sort, I’d suggest looking for words which are not commonly found in cryptic clues, in particular ones which fall into either of two categories: (i) those that can be changed to produce a word with a single-letter (or possibly two-letter) abbreviation, eg ‘taught’ as a misprint for ‘caught’, contributing C to the answer; and (ii) those that can be changed to produce a manipulation indicator, eg ‘riling’ as a misprint for ‘rising’, indicating reversal.

We don’t need to think too much about the rest of the preamble until we’ve filled the grid, revealed the message, and put some letters into the top row.

Across

5a  Wheels caught cloth frameworks (9)
Each word in the wordplay (one following modification) contributes an element of the answer to this charade clue, making up a 3+1+5 pattern. The required sense of the word ‘wheels’ is informal.

13a  Tattoo mark king suits at a distance, to some extent (6, three words)
The six-letter word for a tattoo is to be found in Collins but not Chambers, while the word ‘mark’ is redundant. The clue is one of those where the misprint is a type (ii).

14a  Two nursing note exposed back of wide bone (5)
If you work this one out from the wordplay, kudos! A couple of Roman numerals ‘nursing’ a particular note contribute four letters; for my money, an ‘exposed back’ is still a back, but this one contributes just two further letters.

19a  Noodle hacked by the Parisian lump (6)
Note (ii) comes into play again in this clue where a familiarity with Japanese cookery is an advantage.

26a  Goat tense in front of buck? (4)
The first part of this (1+4) charade should give no problems, but the second part involves one of those rather vague indications, along the lines of ‘eater?’ for ‘pear’ – a look in Chambers will be helpful, though.

36a  Invalidate papers backing daft parson given fold (8)
The mutilated word – and the correction – are readily identifiable in a wordplay which begins with the reversal of a two-letter abbreviation and concludes with two three-letter words.

37a  Court recorder’s gun over by motel (9)
You might initially suspect that this 4+1+4 charade is a candidate for the application of note (i), where a change is made to a rare visitor in order to produce a word with a single-letter abbreviation, but in this instance you’d be looking at the right word but the wrong modification.

39a  Welder perhaps regressing among class that’s Welsh (6)
The word that has been misprinted here is the surname of an actor who may be unfamiliar to younger solvers (think Golden Tickets), while the ‘class’ is an abbreviation for a course which all state-funded schools in England are required to offer.

40a  How tsars essentially dismiss reforming Jewish doctrine (9)
There’s a type (i) misprint hiding here, and identifying it should make sorting out the rest of the clue straightforward.

Down

1d  Cummings maybe leaving party with shaman’s ride? (7)
My first thought was that ‘Cummings’ would be ‘ee’, but the reference here is to a member of the clan more recently in the public eye. Note (i) – including the qualification in brackets – is relevant, although the abbreviation is not itself a contraction of the (modified) word in the clue, but the naval equivalent of ‘artist’ = RA.

8d  Jack’s song from sea books the old recalled (7)
The wordplay elements that make up the answer are of 3, 2 and 2 letters respectively.

10d  Some beef about boy almost killed for Byron (5)
‘Some beef’ indicates a four-letter word for a particular cut of beef. Lord Byron appears solely for the purpose of indicating that the answer is shown by Chambers as ‘literary and archaic’, although it will be unfamiliar to no-one.

20d  Single nude asked to adorn rug (7)
Another type (ii) misprint pops up here, but it’s been well disguised by the setter. I’m not sure that I can think of a situation in the real world where ‘adorn’ describes containment, but that is its role here.

34d  Vary two-thirds of doctorate for LA student (4)
The ‘two-thirds of doctorate’ leads to the first two letters of a three-letter abbreviation.

35d  Old man marking twisted gold vessel (4)
The key to cracking this one is resolving the type (ii) misprint. The ‘vessel’ is a Malayan one that, in its various spellings, is frequently seen in cruciverbal waters.

Definitions in clues are underlined

You should emerge into a figurative clearing with a full grid, apart from a few gaps in row one, some extra letters, and a message which consists of a product name followed by an instruction. But you’re not out of the woods yet. Filling in the blanks in that first row shouldn’t prove too challenging – the name of the phenomenon (minus an article) appears in Chambers and can also be readily verified using the Web. The instruction may seem a little vague, but consider how you would interpret its first word if it came at the start of a cryptic wordplay. Remember that all entries in the final grid will be real words. If that doesn’t help, then seek out the two thematic words which intersect the precursor (enough letters of which will be visible to enable their identification), make the necessary changes to complete them, and then establish how the other grid entries that run parallel to these words could be changed. Once the modifications are made, don’t forget to highlight the relevant 23 cells.

The grid fill, gimmicks and all, was far from simple, and the endgame, although (as these things so often are) in hindsight quite straightforward, had the potential to further extend the solve. The rising of the extra letters was a nice touch.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾🥾🥾/🥾🥾🥾🥾🥾 (One of the hardest EVs for which I have provided hints)

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