EV 1651 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1651 (Hints)

Upwardly Mobile by Luxor

Hints and tips by Phibs

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Following ChatGPT’s signal success in identifying Hercule Poirot as a suspect for 1649, this week my question was, “A themed crossword puzzle entitled ‘Upwardly Mobile’ asks us to identify the name of some ‘extraordinary phenomena’. What might these be?”

The response was extensive, a considerably abridged version being:

“Given the theme ‘Upwardly Mobile’, it suggests phenomena that involve upward movement or elevation. Here are some possible answers that fit the theme:

Aurora Borealis – A natural light display in the Earth’s sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions around the Arctic and Antarctic.

Levitation – The phenomenon of an object rising into the air by means other than mechanical force, often considered magical or supernatural.

Space Elevator – A theoretical mode of transportation that involves traveling up a structure into space.

These phenomena are characterized by their remarkable nature and their association with upward movement, fitting the theme of being ‘Upwardly Mobile’.”

We shall look forward to finding out how well it (ChatGPT is comfortable with this pronoun) has done.

Preamble: In clues 2 – 10 down, two consecutive letters of each answer are UPWARDLY MOBILE and must be relocated to the top two rows of the grid on entry, resulting in non-words. Unclued entries provide the name of some extraordinary phenomena. Solvers must replace one clued entry, always making new words, to reveal where these wonders might be found. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

All the clues are normal, and it’s just the entry method for the nine down clues numbered 2-10 that is special; if we can solve any of these clues, we will need to park the answers until we can establish how to enter them. We can assume that the relocated letters keep their order, so if the answer is GYRATE and we have ??GYTE, we can confidently enter RAGYTE (not ARGYTE). Since consecutive letters move, even if we only have ??GYT? we can enter RAGYTE, and with ??G?T? we can put in the closing E, although the entry could be either RAGYTE or YRGATE.

There are only two unclued entries, and apart from the NW and NE corner cells they are made up entirely of the rising letters. Consideration of which clued entry might need to be replaced will surely need to wait until we’ve filled the grid.

Across

18a    Revelry sometimes aboard ship for those looking (5)
I’m not sure that ‘sometimes’ carries any sense of periodicity, but if you mentally replace it with ‘every so often’ all will become clear.

20a    State of equal tension is too volatile in backward urban area (11)
The answer is produced by stitching together wordplay elements of 5, 2 and 4 letters respectively – one involves an anagram, while another entails a reversal.

24a    Liberal holds advanced capital in elevated position (5)
The verb ‘hold’ often indicates containment in cryptics, but this clue is a 1+3+1 charade.

28a    Locate short instruction for setter perhaps (3)
The ‘short’ here tells us that the last letter must be removed from a word meaning ‘locate’.

34a    In past age not bearing young Glaswegian (4)
A double-definition clue where the first word is shown by Chambers as ‘archaic’ (hence the ‘In past’) and the second as ‘Scot’ (hence the ‘Glaswegian’). This sort of clue isn’t solvable using brain alone unless you know at least one of the words, but an alternative clue would be ‘Lied about age once’.

39a    Fish caught registered with base OK (7)
Here the word ‘caught’ introduces a homophone which forms the first element of the 3+1+3 wordplay.

Down

1d    Abandoned snap decision over reptiles (9)
The ‘over’ applies to the combination of wordplay elements, the first of which is an obsolete sense of a familiar word (with a similar spelling), while the second is something that might be carried out by a gendarme.

2d    Measures of resistance succeeded after my game disrupted (7)
It is only the game which is ‘disrupted’, the ‘my’ leading to another two-letter exclamation of surprise.

5d    United team dismissing first woman’s skiing style (6)
The wordplay works out as 3 + (6-3), and the answer is a word which might look rather unlikely to all except skiers and dachshunds (who were doing it long before the downhillers started).

21d    Improve on theatrical dated look (7)
A 3+4 charade, each element being indicated by a single word in the wordplay.

22d    Auxiliary put up in hotels for Delhi residents (7)
The ‘auxiliary’ here is a person who renders assistance. Strictly speaking, I suppose the definition ought perhaps to be ‘natives’ rather than ‘residents’ and, since it is a definition by example, it could be qualified with a ‘maybe’ or the like.

25d    Displaced notice supressing alternative vote (6)
The ‘notice’ here is the sort that one might take.

Definitions in clues are underlined

Once most of the clues to the crossing entries are solved, it becomes possible to determine which pairs of letters need to be ‘promoted’. The unclued entries will then start to emerge, and even if you’re missing a couple of the 2-10 answers you should be able to guess the two across entries and thus the ‘upwardly mobile’ letters. The theme may leap out at you from those ‘extraordinary phenomena’, but if (like me) you remain in the dark, any search engine worth its salt should tell you all you need to know, including the necessary location. It’s then a matter of identifying grid entries of the right length (there aren’t many) and checking each to see whether a swap results in all the new crossing entries being real words – I started with the obvious one and got lucky. Make the necessary changes to the entry, and it’s job done.

Although there were a few slightly tricky clues, most were very straightforward. Having worked out the two unclued entries and filled in any blanks in the modified down entries, the final replacement wasn’t too difficult. I initially failed to spot that the solver had provided a grid with a vertical line of symmetry, thus accommodating the thematic elements without sacrificing the symmetry which I always like to see in puzzles – full marks for that. And as for ChatGPT? Well, the beginner’s luck may be starting to run out, although it wasn’t too far away from the right track.

Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾 (Suitable for all)

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