Schadenfreude for me again … and another highly asymmetric grid (with a large number of clues).
“18 misprinted definitions give what must appear in the completed grid; one character in each of 7 columns has to be changed. Single letter removals from remaining clues give thematic information plus a title. All real words etc.” Also noted are 7 completely barred off cells – so they’ll be in the 7 columns then.
Our kitchen is being gutted at the moment so time on the puzzle (& the blog) is sporadic – please forgive any brevity.
Solving proceeded in fits and starts – some misprints were very obvious, others took ages to dig out, and the last few emerged only after I’d figured out what the corrections were. Also, I foolishly assumed that the letters to be removed were from the wordplay until I realised that they might instead affect the definition. Particularly troublesome were WIRE at 13a (I didn’t know it meant “pickpocket”), GAM at 16a (I’d never come across “crus” meaning “leg”), and DIMES at 43a (“kale” = US slang for “money” was beyond me until the very end), not to mention the wordplay for MAI TAI at 6a, and definition of CHARTA at 26a. Anyway, at long last all the clues were solved, resulting in the grid to the right.
The thematic information & title are birthday centenary, The Little Sweep, and what must appear in the completed grid are SEVEN WORKS, COMPOSER. Despite the much-heralded centenary of the composer’s birth, I didn’t reach the conclusion unaided and chased up The Little Sweep instead. Feeling annoyed with myself for not making more of an effort, I quickly slotted in BILLY BUDD, PETER GRIMES, ALBERT HERRING, but had to search to find GLORIANA, OWEN WINGRAVE, NOCTURNE, and SERENADE. Even then, I was dull-witted enough to only slowly see that the barred off cells read (Benjamin) BRITTEN, who was born on 22-Nov-1913.
A Schadenfreude trademark at 17d: IT (sex appeal) … still no CAT = “vomit”. But quite a magnificent grid and puzzle (quite hard going), and as I said in the blog for #1300: “How does he do it?”
As to the title … my best guess (with help) is that his Opus 27 is Hymn to St. Cecilia, and St. Cecilia’s day is 22-Nov, Britten’s birthday.
Added after publication of the solution: The title refers to 27 = HERRING = BRIT and X = TEN.
| Across | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Correction to/ removal from definition |
Wordplay removed letter |
||
| 1 | BLAZON | S | coat of arms | L(ecturer) in BA (airline) ZONE (area) − E(ast) | |
| 6 | MAI TAI | … … … | b | [A TIA MARIA − A(merican) bAR]* | |
| 11 | EAN | … … … | i | BEAN (head) − B(asis) | |
| 13 | WIRE | driver | r | W(ith) + IRE (rage) | |
| 14 | MASS | E | herd | double definition: MASS (service) | |
| 15 | LEGLEN | … … … | t | LEG (pint) + LEN(gth) | |
| 16 | GAM | … … … | h | double definition: GAM (leg, crush) | |
| 18 | POE | V | verser | POE(m) (ballad) | |
| 20 | LILO | E | bed | OIL< (news, Aust) around L (railroad) | |
| 21 | NOSER | N | wind | [ROSE]* after N(orth) | |
| 22 | NORWICH | … … … | d | [CROWd IN H(otel)]* | |
| 23 | RETIE | … … … | a | RET (rota) IE (that is) | |
| 24 | UNDOES | … … … | y | UN (a, Fr) DO (party) yES | |
| 26 | CHARTA | … … … | c | CHAR (cleaner) + AcT< {not sure that CHARTA = “alliance”} |
|
| 28 | SAT GURU | … … … | e | GUR (tenet) in SAT (seated) U(niversal) | |
| 31 | EGGER | W | insect with wings | G(reen) in EGER (river surge) | |
| 34 | DENDRON | … … … | n | D(ead) END (fragment) R (recipe, taken) ON (in addition to) | |
| 36 | RORIE | O | too bright Scots | OR (soldiers) in RIE(n) (nothing, Fr) | |
| 38 | HEBRAISE | … … … | t | RAISE (weight) after HE (male) B(ishop) | |
| 39 | REDIVIDE | severe in a different way |
e | RED (revolutionary) I(independent) VIDEO (recording) − O (nothing) | |
| 41 | EWE-NECK | R | horse’s misshapen feature |
E(arl) [KNEW]* around E(xoti)C | |
| 42 | ANNEAL | … … … | n | ANNE (English monarch) + A(cne) + L(atin) | |
| 43 | DIMES | K | kale | I’M in DES (some, Fr) | |
| 44 | ORGASMS | … … … | a | GAS (something exciting) + M(ember) in OR (mean) S(on) | |
| Down | |||||
| No. | Answer | Correction to/ removal from definition |
Wordplay Removed letter |
||
| 1 | BELLY | port | r | BEY (governor) around L(itre) + L(itre) | |
| 2 | ANGLO | … … … | y | [ANALOGy] − A | |
| 3 | OWEN | … … … | t | tO(ld) WE (you) N(othing) | |
| 4 | NINNIES | cloths | h | [IN NINE]* + SIZES − SIZE (fabric conditioner) | |
| 5 | ARGO | S | ship | A R(upee) + GO (leave) | |
| 7 | ALME | C | dancer | M(oney) in ALE (porter) | |
| 8 | IMPRESA | maxime once | e | [ME + PARIS]* | |
| 9 | TAPET | … … … | l | TAP (blob) + (pr)ET(ty) | |
| 10 | ISÈRE | … … … | i | I SEE (observe) around R(uin) | |
| 12 | FLORIO | … … … | t | RIO (enormous congested city, went) after FLO(rence) | |
| 17 | ASHY | … … … | t | SA< (sex appeal, tit) + H(ighwa)Y | |
| 19 | OPIATE | O | heroin | O (duck) ATE (worried) around PI (confusion) | |
| 22 | NANSEN | … … … | l | NAN (granny) + SEN (colin) | |
| 24 | UDDERED | like cowes | e | [DUDE]* + RED (tidy, Scot) | |
| 25 | URNED | … … … | s | (Bannockb)URN sED(ge) | |
| 26 | CUDBEAR | … … … | w | CUB (apprentice)around (recycle)D + EAR (twill, obsolete) | |
| 27 | HERRING | M | I can swim | (s)HERR(y) (wine) IN G(allons) | |
| 29 | ANADEM | … … … | e | [A DeAN] + EM (mutton) | |
| 30 | GRAVES | P | pits | GRAVE (count) + S(ociety) | |
| 32 | GOANNA | … … … | e | GOAN (one from Indian estate) around N(ame) + A(nonymous) | |
| 33 | REEK | O | honk | E’ER< (always) + K(elvin) | |
| 35 | DWINE | … … … | p | D(eep) WINE (tent) | |
| 37 | RIDES | S | sits on | I(sland) in [RED SEA]* − EA (running water, dialect) | |
| 38 | HICK | E | unintelligent fellow | HIC (this, Latin) K(ing) | |
| 40 | HAM | R | this actor rants | H(ospital) AM (in the morning) | |
|
|
|||||
My sympathies re kitchen – but very clear blog despite this.
I have the same problem with CHARTA definition, and wonder what the X signifies in the title.
My daughter is currently going through a similar trauma with her kitchen – and other building works, so my sympathy, HG.
I got the theme much earlier than you, as my wife had been singing in “St Nicholas” that weekend, so I was very aware of the centenary. My stumbling block was the parsing of MAI TAI, for which I had R as the extra letter instead of B, which made no sense of RIRT?DAY, though written down like that it seems obvious!
What a stunning Britten tribute though. I am always in awe at the invention of our setters, but this was just unbelievable! So thanks to Schadenfreude and to HG.
We (Ho and I) had the same problem with CHARTA as you and jonsurdy (#1) and thanks for your take on 27X, though I also don’t get the X.
Just heard the news of the death of Araucaria, one of my favourite setters. RIP.
I thought this was a great puzzle, with lots of red 27Ds !
Thus, I was doing OK but got stuck at the bottom through inserting HERD at 38D (The unintelligent follow the herd….kine). It took me some time to realise that this couldn’t possibly be right. And then even though the Britten centenary had been all over TV and the papers, it still took me some time to see the works arrayed down every other column.
A really tough but ultimately, really satisying solve. Thanks very much, Schadenfreude and HG.
I too am one who has a problem with the definition of CHARTA, but at least the wordplay was clear enough once the correct letter to be removed had been identified. I had the same difficulty as HG with 13a, compounded by not recognising “diver” as a pickpocket as well. I failed entirely to parse 3d by not equating “you” from the setter’s viewpoint to “we” from the solver’s. I’m not really sure it works anyway as I solved the puzzle unaided so “I” or “me” would have been more appropriate from my viewpoint – or have I misunderstood something?
Could the X in 27X just mean “by” as in Opus 27 by Britten?
I struggled for a long time with the bottom left corner (ewe-neck!!!) and ended up guessing DIMES, so it’s nice to see I guessed right. I also had HERD at 38D with exactly the same reasoning as RobH@3. I wonder if Schadenfreude did that deliberately? If so, I’m seriously impressed!
Very tricky, but great PDM, and fantastic grid.
Thanks to Schadenfreude and HG (and I must say it’s reassuring to see HG struggling a bit…)
Our experiences seem to echo others – apart from the problems in the kitchen!
Thankfully we were aware of the anniversary but with limited musical knowledge we had to search for all but two of the works. As mentioned, there were some unknown definitions so the dictionary took a hammering as well as wiki. We weren’t sure about CHARTA – it wasn’t in Chambers and on-line we could only find that the words were related. However the whole puzzle was a real tour de force – when we found the Works at the end it left us amazed!
Does 27X read as a tribute – To Seven by…….?
Thanks Schadenfreude and thanks also HolyGhost for the blog!
Howard L @4: the entry in Chambers for “we” includes “used when speaking patronizingly, esp to children, to mean ‘you’.” (But it did take me quite a while to sort that one out, even though I’d seen it a number of times before.)
Bertandjoyce @6: look again – Chambers definitely has “charta” (alternatively “carta”) to mean “a charter”.
Kitchen is progressing … s l o w l y. (Still no sink or cooker.)
Thanks HG@7. I should have learnt by now to check all words of a clue in Chambers when completely stuck. In my defence I like to think that I never speak patronizingly to anyone, but I don’t think I’ll check with my children to confirm it!
Thanks HolyGhost – Joyce didn’t make herself clear! We found CHARTA = CARTA but couldn’t link the answer to alliance apart from an on-line dictionary that said the two words (CHARTA and ALLIANCE) were related but not synonyms.
I do love a Schadenfreude, but like HG, TOTALLY ignored/misread the first three words of the preramble. So, three days later I realised that it was me and not the setter. Even so this took me almost to the night-before-closing-date to complete. Lovely stuff though. Thanks to Schadenfreude and Hg.
I got into a bit of a pickle somehow thinking that 1d must have the misprint ‘pork’ to get the K! Seems stupid now but I am quite good as making things seem plausible to myself when stuck. Finally sussed ‘kale’ which I thought was such a good definition for US money that I am surprised that I haven’t come across it used before. Terrific puzzle thanks Schadenfreude.
Just to let people know that I’ve updated the blog to include the correct explanation of the puzzle’s title.