Listener Crossword 4056

[starwalker]

This weeks offering is ROC by Loda.

Thanks to my scattergun approach to clue solving, I spoiled this puzzle for myself by getting the theme after only three clues, and the nature of the curved lines followed straight after. Still, there were one or two tricky clues and a couple that would not be out of place in Private Eye. All in all I felt that this was a typical Listener and enjoyable for that very reason.

[midazolam]

turnerjmw - Listener expert? Why thank you, but I think I have a long way to go to reach that echelon after only 2 years

7lattens - if you are struggling with the wordplay as I was, try using a program that might help you along the way. Try this one:
<a href="http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chamber
s/puzzles/word_wizards/wwizards.py/main/">Cha
mbers
word wizard</a>
You know the total length of the word (9). Therefore the thematic part must be 5 letters and you know the other 3 letters. possibilities are: ?????zz?z or z?????z?z or zz??????z or zz?z????? where z is the letters you have from the crossing entries

[Clamzy]

This was my experience exactly jackdecrow. I completed the grid on Saturday and spent most of Sunday looking for the "m" shape and could find nothing down the centre where it had to be. It was a chance gander in the SW quadrant which gave the pdm.
7lattens - In the definition you are looking for a source of vegetable rather than mineral oil.

[robinruth]

Yes X_word_fan.

[midazolam]

lets try again

<a href="http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chamber
s/puzzles/word_wizards/wwizards.py/main">Cham
bers</a>

[midazolam]

i give up

[Scorpius]

7lattens, think what sort of thing the definition might refer to in the light of letters you have in the grid.

A good puzzle with some very tricky clues but some of the surfaces really creaked. 39ac was horrible. It's a pity that a whole thematic group remains in the grid and stares one in the face. This seems a major flaw that could have been avoided.

[x_word_fan]

Thanks for the amusing SW hint Clamzy - all found at last - fortunately for me I had to erase a mistaken entry in 17a.
Re. 37a - as a resident of that place it's nice to get a mention in the Listener however, I would point out that we don't all speak in the manner of Coronation Street.

[Deviant]

Doh. Finally got it - I was looking for something flatter than the actuality. It was very like "getting" a Magic Eye puzzle - just not quite looking it and, suddenly, there it was :)

[Sarrie]

Scorpius - 39 Across is my last clue. It is horrible - any pointers please.

[turnerjmw]

Hi Sarrie, the ninth, tenth and eleventh words of the clue contribute the last four letters of the answer, as modified by the previous four words.

[Mysterons]

Here is midazolam's link to Chambers Word Wizard:

http://www.chambersha...ards/wwizards.py/main

[midazolam]

thank you Mysterons I will get the hang of hyperlinks one day

[Sarrie]

Thank you turnerjmw. I have got it I think but i don't like it either literally or metaphorically.

[x_word_fan]

As some helpful sites are being given two that I use regularly are

http://www.wordfun.ca

http://www.oneacross.com

[Cruncher]

Found some of the wordplay pretty tricky too. Even when I was clear about the answer I was still unconvinced about the clues. 17dn and 30dn were particularly loose I thought.
I'm still working on the theme. I've found five escapees and note that that number is significant to the original story and thus assume that there an historical reference both to the final design and the title which must, I guess, mean more than literal reference to a magical animal. Wondered whether it was intended to suggest R vs OC?

[7lattens]

This one went in the postbox yesterday - perhaps my solution was too simplistic but I took the title as just one example of the 5 thematical deletions from the grid which are replaced by 5 equally thematic albeit childlike insertions.

[robinruth]

Cruncher, is it possible to clarify without giving too much away? Is there a related \'story\' connected to these \'escapee\' thematic items? I invariably smile naively when my grid is complete and I have done the final jump through the hoop, and clearly I have missed the added significance of the title (in addition to the one 7lattens refers to).

[cluelessJoe]

robinruth - unless I am very much mistaken, the 'story' to which Cruncher refers is actually HI-story viz the episode which prompted the quotation used in the puzzle. Cruncher - I too was a little disappointed that the quote seemed only to have been used literally to allude to missing entities in the puzzle, and whether or not it's anywhere near the intended, I think that your leap to R vs OC for the title is a stroke of genius!

[jamesah]

RvsOC!! Brillliant, I do hope that it's true.

[turnerjmw]

Wonderful stuff, Cruncher. Went completely over my head!