Enigmatic Variations 1740 (Hints)
Gentle Observations by Luxor
Hints and tips by Phibs
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Having got clearance through from the Pentagon, I asked Claude, “In a themed crossword puzzle, we are asked to identify a work and its creator (not ‘author’) and then position three words appropriately in the grid, each one representing a ‘gentle observation’. Have you any idea what the theme might be?”
Claude responded with something of a ‘stream of consciousness’, edited highlights being:
“What a delightful puzzle! The clues stack up rather neatly. The theme is almost certainly Comet by Caspar David Friedrich — or more likely, the theme is Watership Down by Richard Adams…
Actually, let me think more carefully, because the specific phrase “gentle observation” is the real key here.
A “gentle observation” = a SOFT COMMENT… or wait: “Gentle” = MILD, “Observation” = NOTE / REMARK / SEE
But three words, each a “gentle observation”… What if “gentle observation” is a cryptic definition of a single word type? A gentle sound an animal makes while observing? No…
The breakthrough: “gentle” in the animal sense means a DOVE, LAMB, or… and “observation” = EWE? No.
The most elegant reading: a gentle observation = a SOFT LOOK = a KIND NOTICE…
Or — “tender note” — ENDEARMENT?
Wait. Three words, each a “gentle observation”: could these be COOES (coos)? A coo is literally a gentle sound associated with gentle creatures…
I suspect the work is The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith (note: not “author” — perhaps “illustrator” or “diarist”), and the three gentle observations are POOTERS — no…”
Get a grip, Claude, I’m starting to worry about you. Are you getting enough sleep?
Preamble: Unclued entries give the title of a work BY its creator (six words). In three clues a sequence of four, five or six letters must be removed to enable solving, sometimes disregarding spaces. Each sequence can be rearranged to form a GENTLE OBSERVATION concealed in the grid and solvers must draw a line through the consecutive cells of each. Letters in two other cells must be changed (making new words) and the theme highlighted (11 cells, two words). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.
All clues are normal except three, their identities unspecified. In order that these can be properly solved, one of them must have a group of four consecutive letters removed, another must have five letters removed, and a third must have six removed. Spaces may need to be closed up – so if a clue were “Setter under arrest denied following men (5)”, the consecutive letters DERAR must be removed, leaving (after the gap has been closed up) “Setter unrest denied following men”, which gives FLUX – F + OR = LUXOR. The letters extracted could be rearranged to form DREAR.
There are just two unclued entries (top and bottom), and it appears that we will need to fill them with six words including BY, which will appear between the title and the author. It’s worth looking at those entries from time to time during the solve as we may be able to guess at least one or two of the words to help us with the remaining clued answers.
Across
11a Unopened chest holding primitive creature with keel-less breastbone (6)
The five-letter ‘chest’ missing its opening letter is the sort often preceded by ‘packing’ (the term might also describe a decrepit aeroplane); the ‘primitive creature’ is not a specific animal but a two-letter generic pronoun.
19a Very large horse cropped ammoniac plant (5)
Two letters seen on the labels of exceptionally large items of clothing are followed by a ‘cropped’ word for an ordinary riding horse or a low-grade journalist.
23a Make settled argument once case of burglary accepted in advance (3)
There’s an ‘invisicomma’ between ‘burglary’ and ‘accepted’, since a two-letter selection is preceded by a single-letter abbreviation. No, there hasn’t been a technical failure affecting the underlining of the definition…
29a Maybe, Mac’s best mate coming round earlier (6)
You might be fooled into thinking that ‘Mac’ was that ubiquitous Scotsman who owns all the Scots words in Chambers, but here the word is part of a definition by example. Again, a comma (or the word ‘with’) must be inferred, this time between ‘best’ and ‘mate’ (each of which yields a three-letter word).
32a Pike challenge small fry north of the border (6)
One of those tricky clues with a Scots (‘north of the border’, which really should be ‘north of the Border’, otherwise it could be referring to any border) word as the answer and a relatively uncommon word providing the first three letters of the charade. ‘Returned tattered cloth’ would be an alternative way of indicating those letters.
39a Renounce disused tracks taking space (4)
Here ‘tracks’ yields the abbreviation for ‘railway’, while ‘space’ leads to a two-letter unit of measurement (not actually a space) used in printing, half of an ’em’. Because the two words sound very similar and could easily have been misheard in a noisy print shop, the unit here was often referred to as ‘nut’ and the em as ‘mutton’.
44a Farm cat perhaps – one replacing acceptable ratter? (6)
The ‘farm cat perhaps’ indicates a term for a cat whose prey is a little smaller than a rat, wherein the Roman numeral representing ‘one’ replaces the single letter used to denote something which is considered socially acceptable.
Down
1d Ben possibly sporting golf anorak over climbing jumper (12, two words)
A four-letter generic term (you may need to look up ben3 in Chambers) is followed by an anagram of seven letters (including one from the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet) and a single-letter abbreviation, the answer being (4,8).
3d Messy type mixed honey discarding cold oily extract (7, two words)
The two-letter spelling of another word from the world of printing, this one describing ‘type confusedly mixed’, is followed by a six-letter word for honey prior to its processing by bees, from which a single-letter abbreviation has been lost.
8d Given time such foreign characters might generate estimate (4)
A composite anagram, where a word in the clue plus the answer (ie ‘such foreign characters’) can be rearranged to produce ESTIMATE.
25d Wrap up and deliver antipodean flower (7)
A reversal of a four-letter ‘wrap’ precedes a verb often indicated in cryptics by ‘free’.
27d Stinging needing prompt attention – not good (5)
A six-letter word is deprived of a single-letter abbreviation.
30d Too good and fast – this car every user is taking illegally (6)
In my youth, the two-letter ‘informal’ word that starts the charade here was almost invariably indicated in crosswords by ‘sanctimonious’; ‘risqué’ would be an alternative for the second part. The setter had their work cut out to accommodate the necessary jumble here, and you may feel that the actual definition is something of a stretch.
Definitions in clues are underlined
By the time you have entered all the clued answers, both the work and the surname used by its creator should have become clear. Having rearranged each group of extra letters to form a word, it will become clear that the three are connected, and a look at the ‘work’ should reveal both the synonym which links them together and roughly where to look for them in the grid – seeking out the fourth and sixth letters of the longest word is a good way to start. Joining the consecutive letters of each word should produce patterns roughly matching expectations. All that remains is to find the two parts of the (4,7) phrase describing the theme (an alternative name often given to the work), each word requiring a change to the contents of one cell – the words are separate, but the cells in each instance are in a straight line (note that the work itself won’t help you find them in the grid). Highlight the two words, and it’s job done.
A reasonably accessible set of clues, where finding the extra strings was perhaps the hardest part of phase 1. From there, the approximate location of the three words in the grid was neatly mapped out, but a short grid stare was involved in the final stage.
Phibs Toughness Rating : 🥾🥾🥾 (Suitable for intermediate and advanced solvers)
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I found one of the mutilated clues quite easily but with the grid full had 3 candidates for the remaining 2. The red herring’s definition didn’t quite match what Chambers gave and the hints were a dead giveaway. The lines to be drawn in the grid match the work really nicely. I found the longer of the 2 theme words quite easily but there are several maybes for the other that don’t produce real words and these had to be discounted before the right one was identified.
Good fun. Thanks to Luxor and Phibs.
Enough easy clues on the first pass through them to fill all parts of the grid. Then just the matter of solving the trickier ones. Nice that the hidden anagrams matched the work, as it helped me to find the third clue to have letters removed. I always have a problem on these word search end games, but suddenly both were rather obvious.
Thx to Luxor and Phibs