A tricky but satisfying solve from Odo, who set last November’s Genius
The instructions told us: Each clue contains an extra word; these words’ middle letters give a hint to the theme. Two unclued entries are thematic. After filling the grid, solvers must change ten letters to make six new entries, providing a symmetrical representation of the theme.
Identifying the superfluous words (in italics below) and taking the middle letters gave CHORUS OF STEALERS XXVI ACROSS VIII. XXVI (or 26) across solves as WHEEL and 8a as DITTY. So the theme was CHORUS OF STEALERS WHEEL DITTY. The most famous Stealers Wheel song is Stuck in the Middle with You, the chorus of which goes:
Clowns to the left of me
Jokers to the right
Here I am
Stuck in the middle with you
The two unclued lights, 4d and 19d, filled in as T?A?P?D and R?A?E?S – presumably indicating TRAPPED READERS, and they read down the centre of the puzzle. So one needed to replace 5 letters in three words to provide “clowns” to the left of the central column and 5 letters to provide three words meaning “jokers” to the right.
For the clowns:
change 10a TUMULT to AUGUST – the English version of Auguste – the traditional bumbling character with exaggerated make-up, a red nose and colourful clothes.
change 13a TOEY to JOEY – the nickname of Joseph Grimaldi
change 27a FUSTIC to RUSTIC – given in Chambers as a peasant or clown
And for the jokers (symmetrically, balancing the 3-letter and 1-letter alterations and changing last or 2/4/6 letters rather than first or 1/3/5 ):
change 5a LEDGES to LEDGER – Heath Ledger played The Joker in The Dark Knight
change 20a LETS to LETO – Jared Leto played The Joker in Suicide Squad
and change 23a REMORA to ROMERO – Cesar Romero played The Joker in Batman
TRAPPED READERS I imagine refers to us (the “you” in the chorus) being stuck in the middle. The song is supposed to have originated from a signing party in which the group were stuck in the middle of undesirable people.
I have to say I would never have solved this without the internet – though my partner who is more knowledgeable about popular music says the group and the song were quite well known in 1972 and the song was revived in Reservoir Dogs in 1992.
A tricky but very satisfying solve, and congratulations to Odo for conserving sense with the superfluous words and creating an ingenious grid.
The finished grid looks like this:
Across
1 Argument with country club having special backing for Go West concert (5,2) C
SNUFF IT
TIFF (argument) + UN (country club) + S (special) all reversed (backing)
5 Projections of other light reflecting for one second(6) H
LEDGES
LED (light) + GE (eg = for one) backwards (reflecting) + S (second)
8 Poem‘s dead funny, apart from prose introduction (5) O
DITTY
D (dead) + ITTY (witty, without first letter – apart from introduction)
9 Worry further, mostly about storage unit (8) R
ANGSTROM
ANGST (worry) + MOR ( most of more = further) reversed (about)
10 Uproar and disapproval expressed about rum smuggler mainly (6) U
TUMULT
TUT (disapproval expressed) around (about) MUL (mule – smuggler mainly)
12 Portugal supporter covering unusual top weakly (8) S
PALLIDLY
P (Portugal) + ALLY (supporter) around (covering) LID (top). I spent some time thinking this might turn into palliaci
13 Sheila’s nervous, still not over accepting love (4) O
TOEY
YET (still) reversed (0ver) outside (accepting) O (love). Definition: Australian (Sheila’s) slang for on edge
15 Ruby, the woman with magnificent jewellery, is a distraction (3,7) F
RED HERRING
RED (ruby) + HER (the woman) + RING (jewelry)
17 Cachet of setter bothered housing councillor and journalist (6,4) S
STREET CRED
Anagram (bothered) of SETTER + CR (councillor) + ED (journalist)
20 Cancelled vital services for fear that society shifts rightwards (4) T
LETS
LEST (for fear that) with S (society) shifted to the right. Definition: services in tennis when the ball hits the top of the net but continues otherwise legitimately
21 Pearl somehow limiting delay in adrenal disease (8) E
PELLAGRA
Anagram (somehow) of PEARL around (limiting) LAG (delay)
23 Rap artist taking in European capital in comeback – sucker! (6) A
REMORA
RA (Royal Academician – artist) around (taking in) EMOR (Rome backwards – comeback). Definition: a sucking-fish, once believed to have the power to stop boats
25 Condemn study after bringing in Welsh university (8) L
DENOUNCE
DEN (study) + ONCE (after, in the sense of once something has happened) outside (bringing in) U (university)
26 Attempt to turn in wife – despicable person (5) E
WHEEL
W (wife) + HEEL) despicable person)
27 Wood cuts weirdly if warped (6) R
FUSTIC
Anagram (if warped) of CUTS IF. Definition: wood of a tropical American tree yielding a yellow dye
28 Meet outside of factory after current issue stops tests (7) S
SATISFY
FY (outside of FactorY) after I (current) inside (stops) SATS (tests)
Down
1 Holy man‘s depressive illness paradoxically starts to help unbelievers (5) X
SADHU
SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder – depressive illness) + opening letters (starts) of Help Unbelievers
2 Rowdy boxer drinking reporter’s tea wrongfully (7) X
UNTRULY
UNRULY (rowdy) around (drinking) T (tea said by a reporter)
3 Knowing lover, move swiftly (3) V
FLY
Double definition, the first in the sense of being aware
5 Allowed to be on upcoming Legislative Assembly committee (5) I
LEGAL
LEG (on, in cricket) + reverse (upcoming, in a down clue) of LA (Legislative Assembly)
6 Less steady ride, struggling over extreme roads (7) A
DOTTIER
D IER – anagram (struggling) of RIDE around (over) OTT (over the top – extreme)
7 Another world record, including 10-0 over City before final matches (9) C
EXOPLANET
EP (record) outside (including) XO (10-0) + (over) LA (city) + NET (final)
11 Coming up against informer’s warrant card (5) R
TAROT
TO – (against) + RAT (informer) reversed (coming up, in a down clue)
14 Mostly getting better for everyone available for impromptu dinner? (2,3,4) O
ON THE MENU
Most of ON THE MEN(D) (getting better) + U (for everyone).
16 On USA vacation earlier eating fish and duck (5) S
EIDER
Outside letters (on vacation) of EarlieR around (eating) IDE (fish)
18 English bosun heading off to provide assistance for swimmer (7) S
EELPOUT
E (English) + ELP OUT – help out (to provide assistance) minus first letter (heading off)
20 Uncovered condition of horses, limping around softly on right side primarily (7) V
LAMPERS
LAME (limping) around P (softly) + first letters (primarily) of Right Side. Definition: a swelling of the roof of the mouth in horses
22 Information on adviser in charge of what’s inherited (5) I
GENIC
GEN (information) + IC (in charge): Definition: adjective of GENE, therefore of what’s inherited
24 Genuinely lacking energy to recover faith (5) I
RALLY
REALLY (genuinely) without (lacking) E (energy)
26 Moderately conservative people in general remaining tense I
WET
WE (people in general) + T (tense)
Thanks Odo and Prospero.
Getting the hidden phrase was not too difficult.
Did not figure out ‘wheel ditty’, but Google got to that song – ‘Stuck in the middle with you’.
Symmetry dictated changing 5 letters on each side, and also the words selected for change are symmetrical, and so are the letters changed.
FUSTIC to RUSTIC was the first change; was surprised to find that LEDGE? (R) is a joker.
JOEY and AUGUST were not difficult, but both LETO and ROMERO were unknowns to me.
TRAPPED READERS became obvious.
Fairly difficult solve; the GK layer was unknown to me and would not have gotten it without Google.
It took me a few sessions to solve all of the clues and I struggled to work out ANGSTROM at the end since I wasn’t sure if ‘Worry’ or ‘storage’ was the extra word and I was distracted by thinking it could be a unit starting with MEGA or GIGA. I thought it was funny having the instruction contain Roman numerals. I needed the internet to find that Stealers Wheel was a band, but then I found I did know the chorus of their most famous song from having seen Reservoir Dogs.
I stared at the grid for a long time trying to work out what to change. I knew RUSTIC being a clown was in Chambers, but I couldn’t think of a joker for 5a, and wasn’t even sure that clowns and jokers were different things. Eventually I looked in Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary and found AUGUST and JOEY could also be clowns, and after looking at LETS for a while I remembered Jared Leto played the Joker and then also remembered Heath Ledger. I was annoyed that I only remembered Cesar Romero after searching online. Unlike prospero and ilippu@1, I can’t see how ‘a symmetrical representation of the theme’ implies any symmetry in the locations of the changed letters.
For 14d, I think ‘available for dinner’ is the definition and ‘impromptu’ is the extra word.
Thanks, prospero and Odo.
Matthew, 5a / 27a, 10a / 23a and 13a / 20a are symmetrical clowns / jokers, as are the changed letters within, for a 180° spin. That’s what I saw, anyway.
Setter dropping in to say many thanks to prospero for an excellent analysis, and of course to any solvers who tried the puzzle. Yes, the READERS refers to solvers, meaning the writer of the puzzle saying “Here I am, TRAPPED/stuck in the middle [of the grid] with READERS/you” 😁
@prospero – note that Matthew @2 is right about the correct parsing for ON THE MENU, and so the extra word is indeed “imprOmptu”
Cheers all!
The hint about symmetry was essential for me. I (eventually) latched on to the Batman link for the jokers, which showed me the letters that needed to be changed to get the clowns.
Very enjoyable. Thanks to Odo and prospero.
Thank you, Matthew and Odo. I did see it was impromptu when solving and then somehow missed it when blogging – senior moment, corrected now. And thanks again, RobT for a fun solve.
I’ve been patting myself on the back since the 17th of May at having got this all out but … now I find I had a clown and a joker incorrect.
I changed 2D to FRY (I thought I’d googled a clown by that surname, can’t find it now) and 26D to WIT (which would have also fitted the theme). These were my only downfall.