Hmmm…a ‘burnt offering’…not quite the 5th of November, so unlikely to be Guy Fawkes…the (reasonably brief) preamble tells us that in ‘most’ clues the wordplay will lead to an extra letter, which will spell out an instruction to the solver.
A combination of having three blogs to publish this weekend, in my usual last-minute style, as well as the nearly three week lead time on EV blogs, means I don’t have many brain cells available to recall the solving process in much detail.
It certainly took a few return sessions to get even near to finishing the grid off – and not being sure what proportion ‘most’ would mean didn’t help too much with the extra letters.
There were some interesting/new (to me) words like NIT at 26A for a unit of luminance; SCUL at 38A (a variation on ‘school’); MEREL as a counter in a board game; and the demise of Sir Richard Grenville at the battle of FLO(R)ES was educational. Some excellent surface readings – especially the ‘whisking’ of OIL and AI into AIOLI at 12A, and the ‘small pig’s noise’ at 23A…
I had the grid pretty much full – admittedly with some recourse to electronic aids – well before I had worked out all those pesky extra letters. Then application of the EV axiom: ‘check diagonals first, then central row/column’, helped to find ‘GIOVANNA D’ARCO’ in the NW/SE diagonal.
My limited Italian and operatic knowledge then required another e-nudge – said Giovanna tranlates to ‘Joan of Arc’ (who did end up a little the other side of medium-rare) and an operatic treatment of her story was produced by GIUSEPPE VERDI. So those extra letters tell us to ‘CHANGE TEN LETTERS TO TURN CREATION TO CREATOR’. Putting Signor Verdi down that diagonal involves ten letter changes and still leaves everything all present and correct in terms of real words…genius!
There were a few apt musical references which only really became clear to me while blogging – OPERA, SESTETT, GUE and ARIOSO (which became ARIOSI). I also enjoyed the way GALILEO became GALILEI, to get his full name in…
I’m not sure if there was a significant date/anniversary to commemorate here, but it was an enjoyable EV and a clever grid construction to boot. Thank-you, Mynot.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Extra letter | Original Solution (where changed) |
Final Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1A | GOBANG | What guns do for game (6) / double defn-ish – GOBANG is a board game, guns GO ‘BANG’! |
||
| 6A | C | AMASSES | Gathers large quantities of North American hyacinths (7) / double defn-ish – AMASS is to gather (large) quantities; Camassia is a genus of North American flowers, including (C)AMASS and Wild Hyacinth. |
|
| 12A | AIOLI | First class oil is whisked into this sauce (5) / anag (i.e. whisked) of AI (first class) and OIL |
||
| 14A | H | REAR LAMP | Listen to lecturer in swindle getting red light (8, two words) / RAMP (swindle) around (H)EAR – listen – plus L (lecturer) |
|
| 15A | FLOES | FLUES | Masses of ice where Sir Richard Grenville lay? Not right (5) / Sir Richard Grenville died (lay down) at the Battle of Flo(r)es |
|
| 16A | A | AWL | Instrument’s gone missing, absent for end of largo (3) / AWOL (absent) with O (end of largo) missing |
|
| 17A | ANIL | Black bird left indigo plant (4) / ANI (black cuckoo) + L (left) |
||
| 19A | LIMELIT | Region occupied by the Spanish is in the glare of publicity (7) / LIMIT (region) around EL (‘the’, in Spanish) |
||
| 21A | N | ESSE | Actual existence in city (4) / double defn-ish – ESSE(N) is a German city, ESSE is existence |
|
| 22A | PALMARY | Pre-eminent partner’s girl (7) / PAL (partner) + MARY (girl) |
||
| 23A | G | RUNT | Small pig’s noise (4) / another double defn-ish – both (G)RUNT and RUNT with ovine connections |
|
| 26A | E | NIT | PIT | Is measure of screen’s brightness infinite? Not half! (3) / NIT(E) (half of infinite) |
| 27A | T | STATUS | French laws have importance (6) / STATU(T)S – French laws |
|
| 29A | E | ERRING | Pistol’s endlessly inaccurate (6) / (D)ERRING(E)(R) – pistol, with no end letters |
|
| 33A | N | LEA | LEE | Unproductive pasture (3) / double defn-ish – LEA(N) (unproductive) and LEA (pasture/meadow) |
| 34A | ENSA | Forerunner of CSE was extraordinarily sane (4) / anagram (extraordinarily) of SANE |
||
| 35A | L | CORNFED | Well-nourished officer, not an alien, ran away (7) / CORN(ET) – officer, without ET – alien – + F(L)ED – ran away |
|
| 38A | E | SCUL | Clues must be arranged for elderly troop (4) / anag (i.e.must be arranged) of CLU(E)S – obsolete spelling of ‘school’ or troop (especially of birds) |
|
| 40A | AGRIPPA | Absolute hold on father for Mark Antony’s nemesis (7) / A (absolute) + GRIP (hold) + PA (father) |
||
| 42A | T | EASY | Stop rowing, Scud, and start to yaw (4) / EAS(T)? – scud? – + Y (start to Yaw) |
|
| 43A | T | GUE | Canal’s electronic instrument (3) / GU(T) (alimentary canal) + E (electronic) |
|
| 44A | E | MEREL | Counter of note at dance (5) / ME (note) + RE(E)L (dance) |
|
| 46A | SLEIGHER | Winter sportsman’s heard to be killer (8) / homonym – SLEIGHER (winter sportsman) / SLAYER (killer) |
||
| 47A | R | PRICE | PRIDE | Offered amount for power kitchen utensil (5) / P (power) + RICE(R) (kitchen utensil) |
| 48A | S | SESTETT | Let it stand in film locations for performance by six players (7) / SET(S) (film locations) around STET (let it stand) |
|
| 49A | T | ARIOSO | ARIOSI | A great success provided in a melodious manner (6) / A RIOT (great success) + SO (provided) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Extra letter | Original Solution (where changed) |
Final Entry | Clue (definition in bold) / Logic/Parsing |
| 1D | O | GAFFERS | Managers rarely mistake asteroid (7) / GAFF (mistake, rare form of gaffe) + ER(O)S – asteroid |
|
| 2D | T | OILY | Trap at end of day must be lubricated (4) / (T)OIL (snare, or trap) + Y (last letter of day) |
|
| 3D | BOOTS | BOUTS | Advantages for chemists? (5) / double defn – to BOOT can be to give someone an advantage or profit, and BOOTS is a well known chain of chemist in the UK – other chains are available! |
|
| 4D | U | ALE | Drink made from potato and essence of tea (3) / AL(U) – potato, Indian cookery – plus E (middle letter, essence, of TEA) |
|
| 5D | GRAIN | Good weather for farmers to produce this (5) / G (good) + RAIN (weather) |
||
| 7D | R | MALEATE | Man to value salt (7) / MALE (man) + (R)ATE (to value) |
|
| 8D | N | ARILLARY | A trench in America not having a covering (8) / A + RILL (trench) + (N)ARY (Amercian dialect for not, never) |
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| 9D | C | SANTALIN | Can Stalin set red colouring matter? (8) / anag (i.e. set) of (C)AN + STALIN |
|
| 10D | R | ÉMIGRÉ | One who left ruler with Greek base (6) / EMI(R) (ruler) + GR (Greek) + E (logarithmic base, mathematics) |
|
| 11D | E | SPLAYS | Spreads around mountains certainly (6) / SPLA (Alps, around) + Y(E)S – certainly |
|
| 13D | A | ISLA | ISLE | This girl’s alias changed (4) / anag (i.e. changed) of ALI(A)S |
| 18D | T | VETTING | SETTING | Checking vegetables keeping dry in tin (7) / VEG (vegetables) around TIN, itself around T(T) – teetotal, dry |
| 20D | I | IMPRESA | IMPRESE | One master examines with curiosity Academy’s old motto (7) / I (one) + M (master) + PR(I)ES (examines) + A (Academy) |
| 22D | O | PINED | PIPED | Supposed to be consumed (5) / double defn-ish – (O)PINED – supposed – and PINED (consumed, tormented, ate away at) |
| 24D | N | NARRASES | Personal trainers could have been somehow politer with these thorny ones (8) / ‘subtraction’ anag (i.e. could have been) of PERSONAL TRAI(N)ERS less POLITER |
|
| 25D | T | SUFFRAGE | Lacking energy, allow adult to get right (8) / SUFF(E)R (allow, without E – energy) + A (adult) + GE(T) |
|
| 28D | O | SLEIGHT | Trick oarsmen after gold? (7) / S(O)L – gold – + EIGHT (oarsmen, crew) |
|
| 30D | C | GALILEO | GALILEI | Scientist, one in state of irritation with Italian author (7) / GALL (state of irritation) around I (one), plus E(C)O (Italian author, Umberto Eco) |
| 31D | ACCESS | Locate account with tax once (6) / AC (account) + CESS (tax, obsolete) |
||
| 32D | R | LOCALE | Scene where Spanish poet takes precedence over the French (6) / LO(R)CA – Spanish poet – plus LE (the, in French) |
|
| 36D | E | OPERA | American poet returns with age to compose this (5) / (E)OP (American poet, E A Poe, returning) + ERA (age) |
|
| 37D | A | DAMP | VAMP | Gloom shown by prosecutor over chart (4) / DA (prosecutor, District Attorney) + M(A)P (chart) |
| 39D | T | CURIO | Short heifer is something rare and strange (5) / CUR(T) (short) + IO (mythology, nymph, changed into a heifer) |
|
| 41D | O | TECS | TEDS | Investigators upset Tesco (4) / anag (i.e. upset) of TESC(O) |
| 45D | R | ERI | Son of Gad to make a mistake before front of idol (3) / ER(R) – to make a mistake) + I (first letter of idol) |
|
This appeared around his 200th which was on 10 October (b. 10 October 1813).
Aha – that would be a good enough reason! Thanks, Raich…