Listener 4138: The X-factor by IOA

[midazolam]

I looked down the list of letters thinking: no clue lengths, no clue numbers, no idea which is across or even, 26 numbers to choose from. Aargh! Luckily, once it gets going, things speed up and to a nice aesthetic finish. A debut in the sense that I have not solved either of IOA'a previous two Listeners (last in 2004), but this one I enjoyed - probably because it had a conversion and PDM to look forward to. Thanks IOA

[contendo]

DaveTheHat - Welcome to the asylum. I suggest you start by considering why three of the clue-letters are represented twice.

[DaveTheHat]

ahaaaa! many thanks, contendo. Sorry, I had already noticed that - it was so many days ago that I'd forgotten it again >.<
I also have that the first R clue must be 4 numbers long and the second 3 long.
As someone else mentioned K must be 2 numbers long making Z three numbers long.
I have narrowed the value of X (not clue X) down to three numbers, but no further.

[contendo]

Careful not to be too explicit Dave. On this thread people like to keep comments pretty oblique so as not to give too much away.

[DaveTheHat]

noted contendo, but that does beg the question . . .

Where can I get a start from? I thought that this was a question and answers forum - there's certainly plenty of help for the Times Jumbo cryptics.

[Mysterons]

You should be able to narrow the value of X further Dave by closer inspection of clue W

[JackDeCrow]

Dave, if you post an e-mail address, I'm sure several people including me will be happy to send starting hints.

[sohcahtoa]

Dare I ask, before I spend too long on this crossword, is V=1 ?

[cluelessJoe]

sohcatoa, I think you'll find that JackDeCrow's last message will apply for you too.

[Mysterons]

sohcahtoa - clues U and L should provide the answer to your question

[contendo]

Finally made it to the end. I can't say I particularly enjoyed trying to find my way back along the blind alleys. Nice to finish it though. It'll be a quick one for the Master to check.

[Deviant]

I enjoyed this one - makes a change for the mathematicals. I even made a mistake, but managed to get past it.

Can I just ask one question - does the last line of the instruction mean anything?

[Mysterons]

Yes, it refers to the end result, nothing odd about that surely ?

[perseverer]

Deviant - baffled me for a while, but split the last 5 letters 4 and 1

[Deviant]

Thanks - perhaps a bit of a stretch, but got it now :)

[iamamoose]

greetings fellow solvers ..all done -but I am wondering - should one interpret the first verb of the instruction to mean something slightly different from it's more usual (9 letter) equivalent??

[abns]

Iamammoose, the link below may be useful although I'd be interested to know if you would be marked wrong for a different interpretation of that verb. I suspect he may have actually intended the 10 letter variant but couldn't fit it into the grid.

http://www.listenercr...om/HTML/Notes_SB.html

[iamamoose]

ahhh..i see.. my instinct was that the bolder interpretation was more aesthetically correct..but i see that was probably wrong.. thanks, abns, for the very informative link

[iamamoose]

..although 'preferred' leaves it still slightly ambiguous..

[contendo]

When struggling with numericals in Word I have for years been frustrated by not knowing how to enter the sign for "therefore". The answer is to press the Number Lock key (right-hand key pad) then, holding the Alt key down, type 8756 on the right-hand pad and Bob's your uncle.

[trux]

doesn't do it for me, Contendo - but then I live in Switzerland and maybe they have different key-codes ...