EV 925 Gwent's Tall Yew by Kruger

[dr b]

Good afternoon Mr. and Mrs. UK and all ships at sea....

I thought this was a perfectly fine puzzle, not an earth-shattering PDM but solidly constructed nonetheless. And and am I wrong in seeing an extra letter in the wordplay of 42a, that does not in fact appear in the quote?

I somehow stumbled upon how to treat the 8 answers before having the quote, so I did not fully appreciate the nature of those 8 answers until that point.

[DocHH]

Ahoy there, Drb,
No the extra letter in 42a is actually in the quote, well according to my version of ODQ! I had the PDM after I found the quote, until then I was struggling with the way the 8 obvious grid entries were going to be treated. Enjoyable all the same.

[copelander]

Yes, my ODQ has the extra letter in the quote, too. I enjoyed this one by Kruger, but haven't worked out how the title is relevant.

[dr b]

Well, I'll be hornswoggled. That has to be one of the most misquoted quotes on the internet. If I Google the first 5 words, with the 5th word sans that letter, I get 2000 or so hits. If I Google them with that last letter in, I get 6 hits.

[devadolly]

Hello Doc's and All, not looked yet, am a bit fearful as have been so braindead over the past few weeks, beginning to feel it's all in vain.....catching up on deadlines before we trail off on Weds.

PS what's PDM? In my world it's product data management!

[Warden]

Penny drop moment

[devadolly]

Oh Lord! I said I was braindead didn't I, definately won't even open paper today!

[copelander]

Hornswoggled, Dr b ????? What a splendid word.

[dr b]

It is an excellent, Mark Twainy sort of word. I found this:

We do not know the origin of hornswoggle. We do know that it belongs to a group of "fancified" words that were particularly popular in the American West in the 19th century. Hornswoggle is one of the earliest, first appearing around 1829. It is possible that these words were invented to poke fun at the more "sophisticated" East. Some other words of this ilk are absquatulate, also first appearing in the 1820s, skedaddle, first attested in 1861 in Missouri, and discombobulate, first recorded in 1916.

Now I can't decide if I am going to skedaddle or absquatulate.

[DocHH]

Copelander,
Perhaps the title is thematic of the first part of the quotation! I can justify some of it. I wouldn't want to obfuscate anyone however.

[Jogler]

We tend to agree with you Copelander - have been searching for a justification but I think we must have come to the same conclusions you have.

Have found out so much about an entirely new subject - well, not so much new, just not attributed in the past! All very fascinating, and a thank you to Kruger for making me do some interesting research. If Auntie isn't on strike in September I might even recall some of it.

[turnerjmw]

Evening all. I think the title is thematic of both parts of the quotation, in reverse order. I too assumed that 42ac had an extra letter, not having ODQ. I'm as hornswoggled as the rest of you

[DocHH]

Turnerjmw, that certainly works if we assume an abbreviation, and a European spelling, in respect of the second half of the quotation. For me H would be missing!

[DocHH]

Jogler(s), have read your post a few times, and you have confused me. What is the entirely new subject? And why has Kruger lead you to so much research? Is our dear BBC actually going on strike? But then I am just a simple soul!

[dr b]

Apropos of nothing, I will be off for the next two EVs (annual hiking trip awaits) so I will next be joining the fray for EV 928, assuming I don't fall into a crevasse. I will absquatulate, or possibly skedaddle, or perhaps just shove off, in a few days.

Enjoy the EVing, Ning and Cing in the meantime.

[turnerjmw]

Doc HH, that's exactly what I was assuming. Let's go Dutch, in keeping with the theme

[DocHH]

Happy hiking Dr b, hope no-one needs to excrevasseate you!

[Jogler]

Not meaning to obfuscate and confuse, DocHH. I was just researching the author of the quotation (in the interests of tieing the title to the theme) - not someone I knew about previously, so a completely new subject to me. However, I had come across some of his work but not realised it was him - if you see what I mean. Rumour has it that the BBC is going on strike towards the end of the summer.

Happy hiking, dr b - we are not jealous....

[copelander]

Thanks Turnerjmw, it (the title ) now makes sense, with the caveat from DocHH.

[midazolam]

So does Kruger have anything to do with Enigmatist/Nimrod? The theme continues...

[tweaker]

A-Z of crosswords Kruger - Tom Reynolds