[New comment layout] - details here
Preamble: Wordplay in each clue, presented in alphabetical order of solutions, yields an extra letter. When clues are arranged in conventional order, the extra letters give a vision of paradise and the name of its creator that should help to identify the 7 unclued entries (a sample of the delights allegedly found there). Additionally, the initial letters of the first 12 reordered clues pose a question, the answer to which (3 words) should be written below the grid.
I think this is the first time I’ve had to blog a crossword whose clues aren’t in the conventional order. When the clues are in answer order like this, once you have some answers then others become easier as you have an idea what their starting letters are. This grid lent itself to an easy start when it came to filling the answers as column g contained a single 13-letter answer, however, this also caused grief as I initially had LETTER MISSIVE (without full justification, of course.) Another thing that made the grid fill difficult was the fact that there were seven unclued answers.
As the grid began to fill, I could see BLUEBELL as a possible candidate for 5a but as that gave me LR__ in 10d it looked unlikely, aha, it’s BLUEBIRD. Then when LEMONADE (21d) started to appear something triggered my memory and I realised that the “vision of paradise” that we were seeking was The Big Rock Candy Mountain – one of my favourite songs from childhood. The lyric can be found here.
Thus the “delights” (all from the second verse) are: BIRDS and BEES (32d, 1a), CIGARETTE TREES (16a, 35a), LEMONADE SPRINGS (21d, 23d) and BLUEBIRD (5a.)
The extra letters once put in conventional order spelled out: BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAINS HARRY MCCLINTOCK. Surely this is a mistake as all references I found have the mountain as singular rather than plural!
The final piece of the puzzle, the initial letters of first 12 reorder clues revealed the question: WHAT DO HENS DO? And the answer, to be written below the grid is: LAY SOFT-BOILED EGGS.
I have one query, I can’t quite see how SAGAS (14a) works. And, surely the word in the last clue should be AUTONOMOUS.
Nice, relatively easy and fun puzzle, thanks Kruger – and, if you’re reading this, perhaps you’ll explain all about Katherine and Lee and their “Special Day.”
| Clue |
Grid position |
Entry |
Extra letter |
Wordplay |
| Startle mailman delivering odd letters to gypsy |
36a | ALARM | O |
mAiLmAn+ROM (gypsy) |
| Warmed cabin sheltering Tom at first – it was fantastic! |
11a | ANTIC | B |
T(om) inside CABIN (anag: warmed) |
| Arabian artist with current weapon put on trial |
37a | ARRAIGN | U |
AR(abian)+RA (artist)+I (current)+GUN (weapon) |
| Left in charge, abuses wobbly seesaws | 1d | BASCULES | I |
L(eft)+IC (in charge)+ABUSES (anag: wobbly) |
| Most vile and brutal person devours wings of albatross |
5d | BASEST | A |
A(lbatros)S (wings of) inside BEAST (brutal person) |
| Girl in Aberdeen wears somewhat low Spanish petticoats |
8d | BASQUINES | Y |
QUINE (Scottish girl) inside BASSY (somewhat low) |
| Dakota’s space makes me cold (American space) | 29a | CELOM | D |
ME COLD (anag: makes) |
| Caught stashing beer in dangerous shepherd’s hut |
29d | CHALET | O |
ALE (beer) inside C(aught)+HOT (dangerous) |
| Eccentric person from the south won raffle | 10d | DRAW | C |
CARD (eccentric person, rev: from the south)+W(on) |
| Enforcers of the law mostly order the French |
22a | EDILES | C |
EDICt (order, mostly)+LES (French “the”) |
| Lamb’s following priest with cut ragwort |
28d | ELIANS | T |
ELI (priest)+TANSy (ragwort, cut short) |
| Refurbish den twice over | 38a | ENDED | N |
DEN DEN (twice, anag: refurbish) |
| Harry, Reg and Angie: one could secure their services (THEIR: his or her; thus singular) |
12a | ENGAGER | I |
REG ANGIE (anag: harry) |
| Half of sirens beside river delta put in pits |
2d | ENSILED | N |
sirENS (half of)+NILE (river)+D(elta) |
| Earl’s sensible domestic slave | 40a | ESNE | A |
E(arl)+SANE (sensible) |
| Floor in European theatre | 3d | ÉTAGE | S |
E(uropean)+STAGE (theatre) |
| Salmon for those in lowest class? | 33d | ETAS | K |
KETAS (salmon) |
| Design car speedo incorporating knots | 13d | GNARS | C |
desiGN CAR Speedo (hidden: incorporating) |
| Disrespectfully, woman revolutionary turned up in school |
27d | HEDER | N |
HEN (woman, disrespectfully)+RED (revolutionary, rev: turned up) |
| Joyous cry when Ben possibly joins motoring organisation |
31d | HURRA | C |
HUR (Ben)+RAC (motoring organisation) |
| Allow mostly brusque author time absorbed in document conferring privilege |
6d | LETTERS PATENT | R |
LET (allow)+TERSe (brusque, mostly) +T(ime) inside PARENT (author) |
| Oldish comedian nearly takes wife in county town |
19a | LEWES | C |
W(ife) inside CLEESe (comedian, nearly) |
| Places to sign engine drivers | 25d | LOCOMEN | I |
LOCI (places)+OMEN (sign) |
| Believe merchant went round engaging chief magistrate |
9d | REEVE | M |
beliEVE MERchant (hidden: engaging, rev: went round) |
| Holding incomplete endorsement for passport, northern holidaymaker returns for newer version |
20a | REVISAL | K |
VISa (endorsement, incomplete) inside LAKER (rev: returns) |
| Crass tits upset church officers | 39a | SACRISTS | T |
CRASS TITS (anag: upset) |
| Ancient narratives : boastful talk about good Norse god |
14a | SAGAS | G |
GAS (boastful talk) G(ood) SAGA (Norse god) somehow they all go together but it beats me 🙁 |
| Public alarms leader of council visiting allotments |
4d | SCARES | H |
Council (leader) inside SHARES (allotments) |
| Stupid person in school initially lost two of encyclopaedia’s pages |
26a | SCHLEPP | N |
SCH(ool)+Lost (initially)+ENcyclopedia+PP (pages) |
| Different size? Ours contains elastic at the front and fits |
18a | SEIZURES | O |
Elastic (at the front) inside SIZE OURS (anag: different) |
| Not married – celebrate with beer! | 24a | SINGLE | A |
SING (celebrate)+ALE (beer) |
| Overstated article on art lay neglected |
30a | THEATRAL | Y |
THE (article)+ART LAY (anag: neglected) |
| Canons in educational establishment have rows |
7d | UNITIES | R |
UNIversity (educational establishment)+TIERS (rows) |
| Tree-moss from America not far away | 15a | USNEA | R |
US (America)+NEAR (not far away) |
| Introduction to viceroy’s announcement yielding name in corruption |
34a | VITIATION | M |
Viceroy (introduction to)+InTIMATION (announcement, without N(ame)) |
| Clearly, road to autonymous region is alas no more |
17d | WELLANEAR | L |
WELL (clearly)+LANE (road)+AR (autonymous region) |
Hi kenmac. I may be able to help on 14a. It is boastful talk GAS about, so reversed = SAG (g)ood Norse God = AS. The extra letter is g (good). Hope this helps Al(ice).
I think your memories are of the version sung by Burl Ives which was the sanitised version with a singular mountain. The original McClintock version included the plural mountainS – as in your own link to the lyrics!
I thought this was a great puzzle. I love alphabetical jigsaws (invented by Araucaria?) and with the extra complexity of extra letters and the exercise of re-arranging these in clue order and then finding the question from the initial clue letters, I found this one of the most enjoyable Inquisitors for a long time. Pity about autonYmous!
I agree with Al about SAGA, though the G logically came from (G)as. It would be “cheating” to clue a letter individually, then remove it.
Hi of hihoba many thanks for your much clearer parsing of “sagas”.
Thanks for your great blog, Kenmac.
To clear up a few points :
1 – The original song refers to mountainS (plural) although the Burl Ives version (which I suspect solvers are more familiar with) does not. In fact it differs in several other ways too.
2 – SAGAS = [G]AS (rev) + G + AS. Retrospectively, I’d have to agree this wasn’t a brilliant clue!
3 – AutonYmous – my submitted (Word document) version had autonOmous, so I don’t know when the error crept in, but I should have spotted it. Apologies.
4 – Dedication – coincidentally, my daughter was married on the day of publication. John and the Indy team kindly allowed me a bit of self-indulgence!!
Most engaging, so thanks, Kruger. (Hope the wedding went well.)
It seems that Ken had an easier time with this than did I. For quite a while I had the long central down entry but little else in the grid – I plodded on. That’s OK, I enjoyed it – thanks for the blog.