Enigmatic Variations 1758 (Hints)
1, 2, 3…Go! by Charybdis
Hints and tips by Phibs
+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +
I gave Claude the entire text of the preamble and asked him, “Do you have any idea what the theme might be?”
Claude thought for a little while, then delivered a confident reply, wherein a detailed analysis was followed by this summary:
“Theme: Pandora’s Box (or jar). The preamble is built entirely around the myth — Pandora as the ‘clueless’ one (24), her tutor/guardian figure as 7 Down, the ‘receptacles’ in the grid as the jars/urns numbered in the myth, and the redundant letters (drawn from ‘a variety of translations’ of the Greek myth) spelling out the evils/consequences that escaped the jar — the thing solvers must highlight as the ‘earliest consequences’ released into the world.”
Sounds reasonable.
Preamble: Some people (2 words) haven’t a clue and should take the advice of the also-clueless 24 (“1, 2, 3 … GO!”), leaving real words in the final grid. 24 attributed this advice (regarding the appropriately numbered receptacles in the grid) to 7 Down’s Greek tutee. Wordplay in most clues leads to a redundant letter revealing unwanted consequences (selected from a variety of translations). Earliest consequences (3 words, 15 cells) must be highlighted. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
A complex preamble and my least favourite gimmick – this doesn’t bode well. However, it appears that phase 1 just involves solving the clues, entering the answers in the grid, and keeping track of the extra letters [it will turn out that there are just three, consecutive clues which are not affected by the gimmick]. These extra letters are generated by the wordplay but not required by the answer, so in the clue “Setter disturbed by his cardy (9)”, the answer is CHARYBDIS and the extra letter is a Y. It is normal for setters using this gimmick to avoid link words such as ‘and’ which suggest that the wordplay and definition lead to the same letter string, because they don’t, but we should not rely on this.
Across
3a Both mope and swear endlessly creating a rift (6)
This clue involves two words losing their last letters – the second of these could be of four letters, with no extra letter being delivered by the wordplay, but in fact it is a five-letter word for ‘swear’ which surrenders both its last letter and an extra letter.
14a Fat running through kilometres, a Siberian river (6)
A four-letter (before deductions) word is contained by an abbreviation and a short word from the clue. My knowledge of world geography is pretty rubbish, and I had never heard of the Siberian river, which apparently spends around two-thirds of the year frozen to a depth of several metres.
27a Observe bending lines have briefly erased line made by rule (5)
If this was your first one in, kudos! A two-letter interjection meaning ‘behold!’ (‘observe[!]’) is followed by a six-letter word for ‘bending lines’ which loses both a shortened form of ‘have’ (‘have briefly erased’) and the bonus letter. The definition works – kind of – based on the third definition of the answer in Chambers.
30a Fillets, a bit of roast spuds, peas etc? Service falling short on Sabbath (7)
A single letter selected from a word in the clue, a three-letter word exemplified by spuds and peas, a tennis term, and a single-letter abbreviation generate eight letters. The bonus letter comes from the second element.
37a Bahamas – little ginger Morag’s lazy (7)
The two-letter international vehicle registration code for Bahamas seems like an unlikely start to the answer, so it’s fair to assume that one of the letters is the extra one. The other letter is followed by two three-letter words, the second of them referring to hair colour.
45a Woe with no heading back – new anime perhaps? (5)
A six-letter word without its ‘heading’ goes backwards ahead of a familiar abbreviation. A look at all Chambers headwords for ‘anime’ is likely to pay dividends.
Down
1d Hound drifts off when there’s no extreme pressure (6)
I would suggest that ‘takes nap’ would better indicate the (3,5) phrase which must lose a two-letter abbreviation.
5d With two taps on outside, evaluate docked short-range missile (8)
The labels that could be applied to a pair of taps (of different length – the labels, that is, not the taps) are on the outside of a six-letter word which suffers two single-letter reductions prior to entry.
6d Completely on time siloed nuclear weapon dispatched (6)
The wordplay has a two-letter adverb and a single-letter abbreviation containing a four-letter (originally) slang term, but the definition is a mystery. The answer means ‘not tended’ or ‘neglected’, which bears no obvious relation to ‘dispatched’.
7d Tutor of big drinker poles apart by some distance (5)
In the wordplay, the two poles are separated by a four-letter word for a specific distance. The answer can be found in Chambers under the entry for a seven-letter word, and it this longer word which is the name of the tutor referred to in the preamble.
8d To net something chaps pressed on me “Be quiet!” (6)
The words ‘something’ and ‘pressed’ should be ignored in this 3 (originally) + 2 +2 charade.
35d Tradename at no time contracted over wooden ware (5)
The ‘at no time contracted’ indicates not a word meaning ‘at no time’ without its last letter, rather a contracted form of a word with this meaning.
Definitions in clues are underlined
Having entered all the clued answers in the grid, you will have identified the clueless people (as a class), and will be only one letter short of the name at 24. Unless you are familiar with the theme, this name is the key to the endgame. A web search on the (4,6) phrase and the name at 24d (even without the missing letter) should supply the breakthrough, at which point the significance of the ‘appropriately numbered receptacles’ will become clear, as will the fact that the words formed by the extra letters approximately represent consequences four to ten, in the order stated by 24. All that remains is to deal appropriately with the (4,6) group and find the first three consequences in the grid, these being the exact words often seen as translations of 24’s advice, again arranged in order. Highlight the 15 cells involved, and it’s job done.
This was a puzzle for those solvers who thrive on all manner of thematic complexities. I felt that Claude had a fair stab at the theme, and I did think in hindsight that in the interests of full disclosure I should have told him the lengths of the entries at 7d and 24a.
Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾🥾 (Suitable for anyone except barred puzzle novices)
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I must admit that at first I thought there was an extra letter in 3a, but eventually worked out that the next six clues’ extra letters produce a required word without any contribution needed from 3a. Puzzles seem to be getting a bit harder in Enigmatist’s reign! I shall have to recalibrate! arcadia
It’s a pity that the very first clue is ambiguous and I beg to differ about the choice of synonym for “swear”. The longer one makes nonsense of the first unwanted consequence. Similarly 1d seems, to me, somewhat slack, in that “drifts off” could just as easily be “takes a nap” thus generating a surplus letter . And 4d seems to me to generate a letter duplicating the follower. I await the solution.
Clues apart [which were generally fun to solve] It may be that I’m not one who thrives on all manner of thematic complexities, particularly in a busy week, but thanks to Charybdis and Phibs nonetheless.
You’re right about that duplicated letter – the seventh consequence spans (just) the three normal clues and concludes at 4d, with the eighth one starting at 5d.
OK. I thought about singular/plural but the latter looked so clunky with the 3 normals in-between. And not “has a sleep” then!
No, although it could perfectly well have been. The seventh consequence usually seems to appear in the plural form, but I see exactly where you’re coming from; the ambiguities in 1d and 3d don’t make things any clearer.