Enigmatic Variations 1757 (Hints)
RELOCATION RELOCATION by KOLYA
Hints and tips by Gabriel
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Quite a long and involved preamble and a solution requiring multiple steps. You’ll probably need to set aside a chunk of time to crack this – not to mention the entire perimeter is just four clued (12) lights.
We’re told 26 (out of the 40) clues need a letter moved. I find it somewhat helpful when solving to know statistically whether a clue will be funky or not. In this case, more likely than not – at least at first.
The overall difficulty level in this puzzle is due to funky (a technical term) clues being quite hard to identify. That said, figuring out if there’s a relocation when inspecting a clue can be helped if you read a clue that just seems clumsy and wondering if it would read better if you changed a couple of words.
Preamble: In 26 clues a letter must undergo RELOCATION prior to solving. In clue order these letters spell a quotation and the scholar to whom it is attributed. In the initially-filled grid, letters in eight cells must also undergo RELOCATION, each letter travelling the same distance in a symmetrical pattern, replacing the destination letters and leaving real words throughout. Solvers must then illustrate (i) the supposed location of an object prior to the scholar’s thesis and (ii) its path as understood now, by drawing two similar lines, one passing through the blank cells and one passing through the relocated letters. The area surrounded by the shorter line must be coloured appropriately to show whether the thesis was correct. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
Well, well, well. The Usual Suspect (Gemini) actually hit upon an excellent idea once it had consumed the preamble: “think about major scientific shifts—for example, moving from a geocentric (Earth-centered) orbit to a heliocentric (sun-centered) elliptical orbit (e.g., Kepler or Copernicus), or continental drift, or light refraction.”
Clues
Across
1 Saint and peer going back to see chapters stopping over by heart of ancient Bactria (12)
Nothing to do with former parts of Persia and a leading candidate for most clumsy. Wordplay is the usual 2-letter abbreviation, followed by a reversal, a literal two-letter word, a repeated single letter abbreviation containing the usual single letter abbreviation from cricket with the middle letter of a word. Well. A clumsy wordplay description for a clumsy clue.
11 Wader’s in dark river without sun cap (5)
LOI (last one in) – by this time, I knew exactly which letter needed to relocate and I knew what the answer had to be but beyond that I struggled. Some familiarity with Greek mythology will help. The wordplay involves removing a two-letter reversal from a seven-letter synonym. This one’s a bit clumsy but not egregiously so.
13 Maybe Sciver-Brunt and Pop Idol host treading water? (6)
Well, some Brit sports and pop trivia will help you here. I suspect most Brits will easily find the two 3-letter nicknames.
19 Anoint the next one carrying money (5)
This is a context-sensitive clue – solve the next one first.
23 Schooner rows backwards, leader to starboard (5)
Some obscure vocabulary here will have you confirming two terms in Chambers: for the 2nd and 3rd words and for the definition.
28 Once in Cusco, smash members of ruling party hoarding Aztec oil essentially (5)
It’s useful to know where Cusco is and that “smash” has a rhyming synonym.
34 Mistakenly poke nose into tender, entertaining licentiate (6)
The wordplay is just a single letter abbreviation in a synonym. Believe the answer and check Chambers! Well, that’s what I did.
35 Ranunculaceae forum shunned by Capt. Stokes (6)
Another clumsiest candidate. Wordplay involves two single letter abbreviations – one is Latin.
36 Ringo’s into rock music that defines Mod (5)
A 3-word synonym inside a two-letter rock, there aren’t very many – and to be fair a very readable surface.
37 Little pests are caught before starting to revive Ivan’s ague (7)
The wordplay involves 4 single-letters followed by a jumble. Discovering the anagram indicator might surprise you.
38 In the form of projection, neat silicate seals iffy door, stopping leaks (12)
Complex wordplay since we have double containment and an unusual definition. Specifically, two single-letter abbreviations surround a two-letter synonym and 4-letter mineral synonym that itself is around a 4-letter jumble.
Down
4 Signs of petty vexation set about husband on a Sunday (5)
Sometimes a word is only a single letter.
6 Ok to enthral houri with special paper circles? (5)
English has so many words for unlikeable three-letter men. Scores high on the clumsy-scale. If you were politically aware in 2000, this might remind you of something.
9 Distribution of time between overs becoming bad press (12)
I had to stare at this for some time before I realised that I was being asked to relocate a letter to produce a five-letter word that has a single-letter abbreviation that is replaced by a jumble – whew! Got that?
16 Prepare to bin dry flower (4)
It’s well-known that certain words in crosswordland “whimsically” indicate something quite different from their usual meaning (for instance, “supply” often indicates an anagram). The wordplay here removes a two-letter abbreviation from a six-letter synonym.
18 Grout left in cold bruised part of lobe? (8)
This qualifies as a clumsy surface reading. Nothing to do with ears. Think Shakespeare.
20 Home alone, quaffing Frederick’s gins (5)
Needed phone-a-friend… Frederick names a city in the US. Once you’ve relocated, the answer will be in plain sight. That said, you’ll have to consult Chambers to figure out why (the US indicator is no accident).
27 Excluding natural killer, added plot and chink of light (6)
Another clumsy surface. Note the underlining indicates we’re likely looking for an adjective.
29 Leaves sierra: hated anonymous deal (5)
Wordplay is two consecutive single letter abbreviations followed by an anagram.
31 Clapton, Bruce and Baker are unorthodox in small measure (5)
This clue was very easy for me because I remember the 60s – in spite of what they say.
Definitions are underlined.
It won’t come as a surprise to learn that most of the annotations above are for funky, aka clumsy, clues since I spent the most time on them.
OK, now that you’ve solved all the clues, the real challenge remains: namely, figuring out the endgame.
The message (spoiler alert: not in English) and the scholar’s name will lead you to wonder about two very familiar objects to all of us in this world whose names conveniently provide us with eight letters. But that’s too convenient. And I wasted lots of time obsessing about these two words.
What you need to do is wonder about how to get 8 other letters (in English) from the message. Once you’ve done that, scan the (centre of) the grid and things should fall into place (a simple (?) matter of following instructions (i) and (ii)).
I found this very hard: the initial grid fill was challenging (lots of difficult clues) and an endgame that had me consulting phone-a-friend again.
Difficulty: 4.5 / 5
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Well after a slog I’ve got the quote (..although I don’t know where the i comes from) and the name….now for the grid stare. I found this very tough and still have a few unresolved clues. Hats off to Gabriel for blogging this one!
I hope this is not a taste of things to come from our new editor because I don’t have such a “chunk of time” every week for this sort of thing. One can only admire the craft involved in putting these clues together in a way that allows them to be mutilated and still make a kind of sense, but that isn’t much consolation when faced with the task of solving them.
I was off to a good start, getting 1a right away and after 3 clues the message, and hence the theme, was pretty clear, but it only got tougher. With the grid and message eventually completed the end of the endgame was rather obvious from the preamble but the devil lay in the detail of how far out to move the 8 cells. A lot of work with Chambers was needed to check for real words. I’m still not entirely sure of how to interpret i and ii but my completed grid looks pretty satisfactory.
Thanks to Kolya and Gabriel.