EV1734
Dynamo by Ifor
Solution
MANIC MONDAY
Letters from extra words give THEMATIC PANTHEON; highlighting comprises seven Egyptian deities in a shape representing LIAM STERNBERG’s Walk Like an Egyptian written for the Bangles, who also recorded Manic Monday.
Often I forget what prompted a theme, but in this case I can say that the puzzle started life with the idea that Wilson, Keppel and Betty and their sand-dance might prove fruitful, only to morph into the Bangles hit. It was pleasing to see that if Liam Sternberg could be somehow indicated his online profile presented the title with no digging required; indeed, it seems to be his principal claim to fame. “Manic Monday” derives from the popular quiz question about the only day of the week to have a single-word anagram.
In constructing the grid the main problem was ensuring that the highlighting was as unambiguous as possible; strictly speaking the solver shouldn’t need to know what he/she is representing as a guide to which cells to choose. This I found very difficult, with a change “here” creating a problem “there”, but I think was achieved apart from the impossibility of keeping all Rs and As apart except for where they were required for RA, whence the “central figure in tune…” phrase. Other than that, space considerations necessitated some clue shortening, fortunately not too difficult to achieve. I hope that the outcome proved to be an entertaining challenge.
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A full review of this puzzle can be seen over on fifteensquared.