Listener 4167: Lawbreaker by Stick Insect

[midazolam]

I have been staring at a complete grid for half an hour now and I must be missing the obvious. This was an extremely easy grid fill. I was expecting a tougher challenge with double clues and clashes. Time for a break, which may give me that elusive PDM

[abns]

The theme's also new to me - wouldn't have got there without google, but the answer came up pretty quickly from my first search.

[abns]

Also, I liked the four thematic contiguous letters that don't need to be highlighted...

[cluelessJoe]

Sadly not a favourite of mine, the whole thing over far too quickly - even allowing for some flirtation with yet another possible Beatles theme at a very early stage. Probably good going to get all those clashes in the grid, but maybe also quite easy to do given the carnage remaining in the grid.

[word_cross]

Not too painful. Finding the highlighting gave me one of those 'I didn't know I knew that' moments when seeing a certain set of letters triggered the PDM.

[JackDeCrow]

Late start to this one and have made it to the full grid, right number of clashes stage (after a bit of panic thinking my last entry - one of 19d - didn't fit!). Also have a pretty good idea which law we're talking about, but nothing yet leaping out of Wikipedia so could be a lot of staring to go, judging by some earlier posts!

[hypotheses]

Started this tonight and filled grid in an hour and a bit. Another 20 minutes found the Lawbreaker - what did we ever do without Google? Then agonised over the absolutely final decision, which now seems a bit pedestrian, unless I'm missing something. Enjoyed it all thoroughly, till what looks like a bit of an anticlimax at the last gasp.

[JackDeCrow]

Just the day and a half of looking for the lawbreaker then! Having finally realised what was going on, it now seems a much cleverer and more satisfying puzzle than it did yesterday. I wonder, had the clues been harder, whether people would have rated this puzzle extremely highly? And is that preamble cleverly ambiguous or annoyingly misleading? Again, my view has changed since yesterday! Anyway, thanks Stick Insect - you had me going there!

[Cruncher]

Would have had no chance of finishing this without spotting the highights. All new to me

[Philoctetes]

Still looking :( I can guess what is being described in the law, but Gggole aint helping

[BlackHugh]

Yahoo! Finally spotted the answer after nearly a week with a complete grid. I'd even guessed what law was being broken last Friday and was in high hopes of making a rare appearance in the Friday club - but was not to be. I'll plainly have to improve my googling skills.

[magichour]

I have also had the Eureka! moment after several days of almost spotting the answer. Suspected the particular law being broken quite some time ago, but had no previous knowledge of the lawbreaker.

A rather odd Listener, this. Too many abbreviations in the clues, not especially difficult grid fill, but an annoyingly difficult endgame if you have no previous knowledge of the subject. Interesting to ponder where you'd look this information up, sans Google.

[cluelessJoe]

maybe in Chambers, magichour ... actually (and yes, with absolutely no previous knowledge of the subject) I searched for a word on the CD ROM version, but if I'd gone with my early hunch on the name, the hard copy would be just fine.
... and I see that trux mentioned the BRB entry in a very early post on this thread.

[contendo]

Just finished Schadenfreude's CAM submission. My goodness what a magnificent crossword. It keeps developing right up to the end. Even better than his Brief Appearances. A pity the dedicatee didn't live to appreciate it.

[word_cross]

contendo - I have just finished the same. a fine tussle all the way to the end

[contendo]

My mistake! He's still with us.

[Philoctetes]

Finally got there, after slogging my imagination through various linguistic hoops concerning the various elements. This is yet another puzzle where it is assumed that scientific knowledge does not have to be signposted. A couple of weeks back we had a literary Listener where the poem and its author - both so widely known as to be "general knowledge" - were explicitly revealed outside the finished grid. Why the imbalance that disadvantages those who, like me, could not get away from science fast enough? Sure, I found the answer here, but mainly through my knowledge of Greek and railways (work that one out!). Like with the "Mash" mash-up, I feel the C. P. Snow lamentation has too much influence

[IainGrace]

Agreed, Philoctetes. Cleverly constructed but a bit dull and obscure for non-scientists.

[ichkeria]

"I remain of the opinion that, unless you are possessed of Alekhine's background (congratulations, by the way!) it takes something approaching a lucky guess to see what's going on, rather than a process of deduction. "

Absolutely Zabadak. For the third week running I've found myself staring at a completed grid trying to fathom out a step wholly unrelated to what has gone before (that's perhaps a bit unfair in relation to the Nibor puzzle as regards the "what as gone before" bit).
I thought much more could have been done with this.