EV 1711 (Hints)

Enigmatic Variations 1711 (Hints)
Lullaby by Charybdis
Hints and tips by Gabriel / Jpeg

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I hope you are wide awake for this puzzle, because Charybdis challenges us by wanting us to sleep dreamily. At first glance the grid’s asymmetry is interesting – I wonder if column four will give us any nightmares with all those unchecked letters. Gemini was being very pessimistic about this one, saying that “the theme of this cryptic crossword is a specific, well-known lullaby that contains a threat or a negative consequence.” I disagree.

Preamble: Six clues contain an extra letter that must be removed before solving. These letters provide the  location of a message that doubles as an instruction and a literary allusion. A representation of the first (or only) alternative in a related LULLABY must be highlighted (eight contiguous cells). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended. 

The literary allusion hints at a book and/or an author. In this case an authoress of the American ilk with a first name that wouldn’t pass muster in England summed up by this sentiment: “In America, you can use an English last name as a first name”.

Clues:
Across
12 That woman’s eating bream, a loose fish (7)
The definition refers to a purveyor of an ancient Greek occupation. Wordplay is a three-letter fish inside of another three-letter word, followed by a one -etter word.

20 Spared tree set far apart with rook flying out (7)
The definition here is a little unusual in that it refers to a small tree left unfelled. The wordplay requires subtracting a letter from a verb.

30 Making regular withdrawals devalues country’s liquidity management systems (4)
The definition here is an entertaining way to refer to a foreign word for a specific very common liquid. And the wordplay requires removing alternating letters, thus ending up with alternating letters.

35 Is Charybdis a friend of Nancy? (3)
Another amusing foreign word definition! Recall that Charybdis is the setter.

Down
9 Foot pedal is tested and not working, with no sign of current (7)
Wordplay is a five-letter word followed by a four-letter word, both with the same one-letter abbreviation removed. The spelling might surprise you.

22 Reportedly base for ancient helmet (6)
A pretty clear homophone indicator in the wordplay combined with a synonym for base that sounds like the helmet in question.

25 Taxi driver is able to collect group of doctors (6)
The definition is straightforward. The wordplay involves containment of a three-letter abbreviation (more familiar to Brits though there is an American analog) inside of another common three-letter word.

28 Superannuated office-holder seen in storming rage (5)
A rare choice among possible definitions for this word, the wordplay requires some work to get a one-letter foreign abbreviation inside an anagram.

29 Soaks head when putting it in (5)
A variation on a recurring word from cryptics, the wordplay consists of including a word inside a short word for something like a nag’s head.

Definitions in clues are underlined

Well that wasn’t bad at all! By now you should have your six letters, which directs you to the instruction, and hopefully that, plus the title, will trigger some ideas for alternatives.

Don’t be like me and get stuck on the very last step of the endgame, trying to find that alternative. That last step bumped the difficulty level up slightly. A very enjoyable solution. Pleasant dreams!

Toughness: 2.5 out of 5 on the difficulty scale. We’ve shifted to a 5-point scale which affords finer grained calibration.

 

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