Liststener No. 4349: Black Or White By Pilcrow

[AHearer]

Goof fun, with a groan when I saw where the end-game was going. Enough tricky clues to slow the solution process down to a normal Listener pace. Many thanks, Pilcrow.

[AHearer]

Sorry, my excuse is that my computer was close to hanging and backspaces were taking ages to register.

[starwalker]

Have got to the end, but still have one two minor niggles. I'm convinced that I have everything - but then I've felt that before. Thanks Pilcrow, for a puzzle that had me lost almost until the end.

[tilbee]

Some pretty tough clueing I thought given the different clue types and unclued entries. The end game remained hidden for quite some time, but a satisfying conclusion.

[tilbee]

I have had similar issues to AHearer with this site where the speed of entering keystrokes comes to a standstill. I think my McAfee security is not a big fan so maybe this is the reason, since I often get security warnings.

[upsetter]

Consistently tricky clues made this a reasonably challenging puzzle.

[perseverer]

All finished, but haven't yet seen the significance of the title. Seems not so much a single theme, but several threads linked together.

[jim360]

Staring now only at the five unclued entries. Thus far they mean little to me. Ho hum.

[upsetter]

Come on Jim360 - pull yourself together.

[jim360]

Hmm?

[upsetter]

You'll kick yourself when you do see it.

[jim360]

No kicking here. I'd in fact already had the idea earlier it seems but was put off because of the entry in the bottom left that didn't seem to work entirely (still doesn't). Anyway, all done now. Thanks Pilcrow, an intriguing mixture of themes. I can't see the point of the quote though

[upsetter]

Bottom left does work, perhaps a pronunciation issue - but we agree that the quote was not needed.

[s_pugh]

Well I was going to say the endgame was so ambiguous that I couldn’t be certain I’d got it right and then it hit me. Must learn to read the preamble more carefully, especially with the significance of six words. Some very tough clueing I thought. I’m guessing that the title is a tenuous link to ….. anyway all there now so thanks Pilcrow.

[s_pugh]

PS Jim I think the quote does have a purpose as it nominally ties two of the protagonists together

[icynorth]

It was always going to be difficult following Shark's masterpiece. Some delicious clues here, and a couple of traps, but the parallel long words made it fairly easy to complete in the end. Thanks, Pilcrow!

[jim360]

I suppose it adds a nice extra touch, but since the speaker is neither among the predecessors of the "thematic person", nor was he ever one of the "hidden thematic nine-letter word", it seems like something added to make the puzzle more difficult. Not that this is too much of a problem, and the misprints were in general well-hidden and well-executed. I would have liked, perhaps, something from the quote to be more directly applicable to the unclued entries rather than tied into the person revealed by the omitted letters in wordplay.

For whatever reason I was slower on the uptake than I might have been, though. I think I was just expecting more "two missing letters" clues than was the case so didn't bother to check what they were spelling out.

Possibly I'm heading close to Z Cup contention by now. Having checked the bottom-left corner more thoroughly I can see it's totally justified by Chambers. Perhaps a surprise that the word (a variant spelling) doesn't come with a different pronunciation. Since that's hardly Pilcrow's fault I'll withdraw that particular gripe! The unclued entries do raise a smile now.

[UglyUncle]

Yes, a good Listener which had me scratching my head over some of the clues (e.g. 15, 16, 38) until the logic finally became clear. Some very amusing ones as well: 20 raised a broad smile and reminded me of Tim Moorey's recent clue in The Week, using 'two of us in EastEnders...' as part of a clue to a word meaning 'to wander about'.

I didn't suffer any of the dissatisfaction or partial mystification felt by others.

[Scorpius]

I'm not sure that I've got the right solution. It didn't take long to come up with an idea that works, and is consistent with something in the preamble, but I'm not 100% convinced. To make it work consistently I've had to enter a word for which I can find no support, so presumably that is the OED spelling. I don't have the full OED, don't have access to an English library, so basically I'm stuck with no way of confirming my solution. Seems a touch unfair to me.

I did think the clues were very good, but agree with perseverer that there's not a single theme, but several linked threads.

[Scorpius]

Ok, I think I've managed to confirm it. Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, which I have on my computer, has got the variant spelling. What a wonderful resource that dictionary is, with basic and advanced search facilities, and a host of other goodies. Highly recommended.

[Cruncher]

Groan at the end after some tough cluing and found the quotation a red herring until the nominal relevance on me. Struck me that the thematic location was not a bad place to be stuck for a few days