A first solo Inquisitor offering from Ilver, but already known to us as one of the triumvirate Rasputin.
Wordplay in twenty-seven clues gives rise to single extra letters, in order giving an abbreviated quotation missing a thematic word. The word can be linked to answers to three normal clues. Remaining clues have a “latent letter” omitted wherever it appears in the answer; wordplay in these clues gives the grid entry. Following the instruction given by the latent letters in clue order should allow solvers to choose between two classic variations of the missing thematic word and to resolve three clashes involving four adjacent squares in one row of the completed grid.
I expected this to be hard, as we’ve had a relatively easy ride of late. So, we had a mix of clue types: three normal, 27 with excess wordplay, and the rest having answers with “latent letters” & deficient wordplay. Oh, and three clashes.
One of the first clues I solved was 16a, LUCID with a latent C, and I realised that the lengths indicated in the clues referred to answers, not entries; this made the “latent letter” clues readily identifiable, and thus simplified matters quite a lot. That having been said, this was not an easy solve (at all). I found the ‘excess wordplay’ clues easier to solve than the others, and little by little the (abbreviated) quotation emerged: (The rule is) … TOMORROW (and) … YESTERDAY (– but) NEVER … TODAY, the missing thematic word being JAM. (Ref. the title of the puzzle.) The three normal answers that can be linked are 15a LOG JAM, 24a JAM SESSION, and 29d TRAFFIC JAM.
The clashes I had were in columns 6 & 7 of the bottom row, and the rather puzzling “three clashes involving four adjacent squares” suggested that the third clash would be in column 8 & that the fourth adjacent square would be the preceding N (unchecked in column 5). But I still had a handful of clues to solve – last couple in were 31d STAG and 46a MEATY, though by then I knew which letters were latent, having found the instruction: CONSTRUE QUOTE IN GRID. My completed grid is on the right, and shows the locations of the latent letters.
One resolution of the clashes (involving the fourth cell) is NUNC, and the alternative is IAM. What remains of my Latin is worse than rusty, but a little digging tells me that NUNC and JAM are both translations of “now”, and that IAM and JAM are variant spelling of the same Latin word. So which to choose? And what to make of COGITO ERGO SUM on the main diagonal? Further research tells me that IAM/JAM means “now”, but only in the past or future tense (e.g. “Now when you get home, you should look for …”) but that NUNC means “now” in the present tense, i.e. “today”. My initial reading of the instruction was: CONSTRUE the QUOTE from the latent letters, interpreting it IN the GRID, and that led me to disfavour IAM (“never jam”) and prefer NUNC (“today”). That used all four adjacent cells, which made some sense, but implied that COGITO ERGO SUM was something of a red herring.
But a day or so later, I find that, although JAM TOMORROW etc. is used by Latin teachers as a mnemonic for the correct use of IAM/NUNC, it’s not a hard and fast rule – IAM can be used in the present, but not NUNC for the past or future. (So more accurately: The rule is nunc today – but never nunc tomorrow or nunc yesterday, which the White Queen would simply never say!) So my alternative reading of the instruction became: CONSTRUE the QUOTE that is IN the GRID, namely COGITO ERGO SUM, giving “I think therefore I am” and leading to my favouring a clash-resolution of IAM over NUNC. (At least that’s symmetrically placed … but means we’ve used the N in the fourth cell to generate one “classic variation”, then translated the quote from the diagonal, and used the second part of that to disregard the N & opt for the other “classic variation”.)
Hmph. Nevertheless, thanks to Ilver for a testing time. Quite likely someone (who made the correct decision straight away) will declare that what we had to do was utterly clear and unambiguous.
Just so I’m not thought to be still sitting on the fence: I didn’t have IAM yesterday, and I may well not have IAM tomorrow, but today I’m plumping for IAM.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Extra letter/ Latent letter |
Wordplay |
| 3 | MEUS | T | UTE< (native American) in MS (Mississippi) |
| 7 | IBIDEM | O | IBI(s) (bird) DEMO (recording) |
| 12 | AORTAE | M | AOR(ist) (tense) + TAME (flat) |
| 13 | NICE AND | O | [I DANCE ON]* |
| 15 | LOG | FLOG (strike) − F(ollowing) | |
| 16 | LUCID | C | LID (cover) around U(rn) |
| 17 | MINOR | O | R(epublican) after MIN(ister) |
| 18 | OMNIBUS | R | [IRONS BUM]* |
| 20 | EMUNCTORIES | N | C(onvince) TORIES (politicians) after EMU (bird) |
| 24 | SESSION | homophone: CESSION (giving way) | |
| 27 | SERGE | S | (subm)ERGE (put under water) |
| 28 | ARITHMETICIAN | R | [CAN IRRITATE HIM]* |
| 30 | ICON | O | I (one) COON (sly thief) |
| 32 | ARNOTTO | W | WAR (long struggle) TON< (fashionable people) TO |
| 34 | SATYAGRAHA | Y | [A HASTY]* around A GRAY(dismal, American) |
| 36 | DATAGRAM | T | DAA(l) (pulse) + GRAM (village) |
| 38 | FEOD | E | FEED (leased, Scot) around O(hio) |
| 40 | RANCOR | R | (Troj)AN CO(mmander) |
| 42 | SRI | S | (a)S (a)R(m)I(e)S |
| 43 | MUTINEER | U | MEER (ruler) around TIN (money) |
| 44 | IODOUS | T | [O(ld) STUDIO]* |
| 45 | SIGN IN | E | SIG (special interest group) NINE (three hours before noon) |
| 46 | MEATY | E | MATY (friendly greeting) |
| Down | |||
| No. | Answer | Extra letter/ Latent letter |
Wordplay |
| 1 | CALCES | R | [SCARCELY]* − Y (unknown) |
| 2 | DOOM-MERCHANTS | D | [COMMANDED SHORT]* |
| 4 | ÉTUI | A | TAU (letter) in EI (East Indian) |
| 5 | QUAINT | Q | AI (sloth) in UN (a, Fr) (s)T(y) |
| 6 | SEA ROOM | Y | [EASY]* + ROOM< (heath) |
| 7 | INWORN | N | INN (tavern) WORN (showing effects of age) |
| 8 | BUIK | U | BI(sexual) + K(inky) |
| 9 | DELI | E | [EDIBLE]* − B(eef) |
| 10 | OMNIUM-GATHERUM | O | [MENU MIGHT A(dvance)]* RUM (strange) |
| 11 | ODDSMEN | V | ODDS (gods, archaic) V(ersus) MEN (people) |
| 14 | CINERIN | E | (nia)CIN ERE (previously) IN |
| 19 | MID | R | D(utch) RIM (band) all< |
| 21 | USTION | T | (f)USION (melting) |
| 22 | SECO | T | SE(a) COT (bed) |
| 23 | NERITA | E | [TRAIN]* |
| 25 | SIT-INS | I | ST (saint) N(ichola)S |
| 26 | INHEARSE | N | [HERE IS A]* |
| 28 | AIR DAMS | O | ROD (stick) A(mateur) in AIMS (designs) |
| 29 | TRAFFIC | T(he) RAFF (pile, archaic) I C (see) | |
| 31 | STAG | G | STA(tion) (London Bridge perhaps) |
| 32 | AYMARA | D | DAY (time) MARA (cavy) |
| 33 | ORALISM | R | [SOMALI]* |
| 35 | GENOA | A | AGEN (again, poetic) O(ver) + (b)A(y) |
| 37 | GONG | Y | GOY (gentile) + G(u)N< (rifle) |
| 39 | ON-DIT | I | ON (about) D(eserted) T(emple) |
| 41 | DIEU | D | IE (that is) U (acceptable) |
|
|
|||
Really enjoyed this. Some of the clues took a bit of parsing (e. 31D, STA for Station) and it didn’t help coming up with ZOLAISM for 33D to start with but I persevered and got there in tbe end.
I too read the quote as “I think therefore IAM”.
Although I did Latin to O-Level (shows how long that was !) I remembered NUNC, meaning Now but couldn’t recall IAM or the linguistic rule.
Great fun though so many thanks to Ilver and,of course, to HG for the blog.
I thought it definitely had to be IAM, but my Latin is essentially confined to a handful of phrases so it took a note from the setter to explain the full significance of what was going on. Never mind. The grid fill was pleasant enough, manageable despite all that was going on, so thank you to Ilver for this one.
I enjoyed this a great deal but also found it tough – particularly the letters latent clues. I spotted ‘nunc’ immediately but ‘iam’ was a puzzler until the quote revealed itself although I needed google to find the significance of it. For a while I sorta-kinda felt like highlighting ‘nunc’ on the tenuous grounds that, whatever day it was, I finished the puzzle ‘today’. Finally saw the diagonal and plumped for ‘iam’ but I’m still not 100% sure … Many thanks to Ilver for the workout and to hg for the blog.
Back to normal this week, after three weeks in a row of nearly finishing. Got just four answers.
I thought the whole puzzle rather a joyless grind I’m sorry to say
Like others, we found this a bit tricky. The bottom half took a while to sort out with the clashing letters. We couldn’t sort out the parsing for 29d but on the other hand we don’t remember looking up RAFF in Chambers.
We decided on I AM given the quotation on the diagonal.
Thanks Ilver and HolyGhost.
I’m towards starburst’s end of the spectrum on this – not really sure why, though having never done any Latin the PDM didn’t really happen, so I was left deflated. Maybe it was just this lack of a moment to wipe away the pain that made the difference. I did think 46A was a bit of a dubious clue given that it involved a clashing letter. It also didn’t help that for far too long I was assuming that 45A was SIGN UP, in spite of the clue clearly not working and knowing there was a clash with the final letter (so no reason not to think there would be a clash with the penultimate one too).
Struggled at the last hurdle. I knew I was looking for IAM (5 years of O level Latin), but couldn’t fathom the clue at 46 across. MATY is NOT a “friendly greeting”, Chambers has it as meaning friendly, or a friendly form of address, which in my understanding of the language is not the same as a greeting. You would never (or I would never) go up to someone and say “Maty” as a greeting. You might say “Hello maty”, but hello is the greeting! It was also confusing to find ULLO (Hullo with a missing H) hidden (content) in fULL Of useful. So I never got the PDM, and missed the NUNC reference altogether.
So my thanks to HG for the blog and his explanation of 46A, but only a qualified thumbs up for the whole crossword and a definite thumbs down for 46A!
I got all the clues save M(E)ATY, and the key word, but couldn’t finally crack the three/four clashes. I was up the wrong tree and spent ages looking for STRAWBERRY, RASPBERRY, APRICOT etc hidden in the grid. And I never worked out what COGITO ERGO SUM was doing there either, failing to find DESCARTES or similar. So very well done to all those who completed it all.
Reminds me of this in my Latin textbook many years ago:
Caesar adsum iam forte,
Pompey aderat.
Caesar sic in omnibus,
Pompey sic in ‘at.
I fared exactly the same as Dormouse – only solved four clues. Normal service definitely resumed after the past couple of “gentler” puzzles 🙂
This one was very difficult for those of us who started school after latin had disappeared from the curriculum, but I got there with a bit of help from the internet. Like many others I found 46A to be a major hurdle, and I can’t help but agree with Hi@8 re. ‘greeting’. It was worth the effort though, as I’ve got another bottle of Prosecco on the way, the fourth in just over a year. I’m definitely having a run of good luck!
I’m grinning like a Cheshire Cat!
Horrible puzzle – managed two thirds of it, but frankly despaired at some of the ad hoc abbreviations used e.g. ‘k’ for “kinky” in 8D; and decided that with word clashes it was no longer worth bothering with.
muchpuzzled @13
“… but frankly despaired at some of the ad hoc abbreviations used e.g. ‘k’ for “kinky” in 8D …”
But it wasn’t an ad hoc abbreviation, as you put it. The K was clued by ‘tip for kinky’, ie indicating the initial letter, so perfectly valid.
I think the ‘k’ for kinky is fair at 8d, given the clue read ‘tip for kinky’.
Harder, yes, and like Geoff Dennis I was searching for all kinds of classic jams, like raspberry. This despite a Latin O’level (and the use of the word classic in the rubric). For some reason I failed to see the Cogito on the diagonal, but I am not sure it would have helped on the bottom row. I too could not get to ‘meaty’.
Enjoyed the puzzle up to the last hurdle when I too could not fathom 46A. I thought it was a bit mean to have such an UNfriendly clue in such a crucial position. So I got nowhere with sorting the clashes. Plenty of other nice clues though.
I did recognise jam as a possible latin connection but I did my O-level so long ago (I believe latin was still being widely spoken)that I had totally forgotten the iam/nunc link.
I too, like NormanLinFrance, remembered the schoolboy lines, but with JAM rather than IAM, thus…”Caesar ‘ad some jam for tea, Pompey ‘ad a rat etc.”
I thus came to the conclusion that the theme might have been a comment on the Victorian pronunciation of Latin, which was still being used at my prep school in the 1940s. In other words “JAM yesterday”. Never “JAM today” … but, in its place, the new-fangled IAM, as hinted at by the Cartesian quote.
The same type of changes were applied to the pronunciation of classical Greek around the same time … I was taught the Victorian way, my younger wife learned the later version, by then taught in schools, which was more influenced by how modern Greek is pronounced.
I was doubtless reading too much into it, and will kick myself when I see the solution notes.
But I did enjoy the puzzle.