Listener 4208 Good to Go by Flying Tortoise

[Ruthrobin]

This was tremendous fun from start to finish - from that hilarious title with all it suggests, right to the pdm and lovely endgame. Sheer magic, Flying Tortoise!

[pushmi-pullyu]

Like Alekhine and IainGrace, it's back to 4207 for me. Mesnilpat, congrats on the new grandson - how lovely!

[aldanna]

Yes, very clever (and I haven't sorted all the subtleties out yet, though I have filled the grid). As people say, not hard but that suits some of us fine. I reckon I could have made the Friday club with this one, but went to a film, opened some wine, cheered myself up with "Parade's End".....

[perseverer]

A number of good points - some witty clues, slightly different way of getting an unclued entry, on the easy side and will encourage newcomers. But if you are not familiar with the musical context (which I am not) then it would be very difficult to verify what it is all about without recourse to the Internet, increasingly the case with the Listener- then again you do not have to know what it is all about to complete the grid and enter, which some might say is another fault.

[IainGrace]

Araucaria jigsaw crossword puzzle in today's Guardian for those with spare solving capacity this weekend.

[Cruncher]

Rather grumpily underwhelmed by this one, although easy enough to finish.

[Philoctetes]

Finished this without recourse to books by Saturday lunch, which suggests it was somewhat straightforward. Took three sessions of about 20 minutes. Didn't know the context, but guessed correctly. Sadly, this means I have no excuse not to uproot those pesky shrubs.

[tilbee]

Pleasant if somewhat brief distraction. Definitely one to encourage newcomers.

[TheBear69]

I'm with Cruncher on this one...underwhelmed...what was the point of the shortened word in the quotation? It would have made more sense to me if the precedin' word had been shortened - but why shorten any word? It's already not a square grid.

[jim360]

@thebear - maybe the grid dimensions were forced by the theme on the top. So either that had to be longer (leaving a blank square, maybe, or a non-thematic entry splitting the two words) or the one on the bottom has to be shorter. Hardly satisfactory, I guess, but never mind.

It did otherwise all fit together nicely. A good entry-level Listener perhaps.

[TheBear69]

I think my dissatisfaction with this one is due to the fact that I deduced 1 across much earlier than Flying Tortoise intended. I suspect FT intended that solvers would fill the grid except for the top row, deducing how to modify the 8 clues, make the cognitive link from the phrase to the musical context and only then have the PDM to complete 1 across. But 1 across is just not that hard to come up with...

[Ruthrobin]

I'm happy with the abbreviation of one word. The original writer of the words in question does frequently abbreviate it that way and I think jim360's explanation of the reason is valid.

[Cruncher]

On a less grumpy note it reminded me to re-acquaint with a very powerful collection of poetry of the same name as 1ac - highly recommended

[tilbee]

Ref 4205 did anyone else come up with the alternative title "Death in Five Boxes" ? This seems to cover all relevant conditions, with justification for reversal due to this genre always containing a twist ?

Times like this, glad I do not bother to submit !

[Ruthrobin]

Tilbee, yes, it has been grumbled about elsewhere - see
http://boards2go.com/...d.cgi?&user=dharrison

[trux]

Grabbed a Sat Times at Barcelona airport and had this largely done well before landing in Geneva - so undoubtedly on the easy side, but it was a neat association that tied it all together, and so many thanks to Flying Tortoise. (Initially had an alternative answer to 15a by stretching the definition to imply something entirely different although wordplay would work perfectly).

[magichour]

As others have said, this was a pleasant and quite gentle puzzle. Allowed me extra time to work out the final stage to 4207, with which I knew what I was aiming for but kept stumbling with getting to look right. Glad of an easy one this week.

Incidentally, rather annoyed at the solution to 'Murder Mystery' as I got the correct novel title but highlighted 'THEOM' as the cryptic representation of 'The Old Man'. I think this was very ambiguous but this seems to be the trend recently.

[teuchter2]

I decided I didn't want to join the Friday club this time, so left some for Saturday morning when it was quite easily finished. I prefer something I can work on for a bit, but it was good fun, as was snatching a draw from the jaws of defeat to the 'league leaders' this afternoon. I don't get the musical connection, but do I need to?

[Cruncher]

teuchter2 - the "musical" connection would help to confirm 1ac. But that may be unnecessary. Certainly I solved 1ac without any knowledge of the connection

[fortyseven]

How pleasant to have an easy and enjoyable Listener puzzle this week, although I would have had no chance of discovering the theme without Google. Now to try to finish the last part of the Magpie E grader, which has come down to trying to put a tricky jigsaw puzzle together!

[TheBear69]

While I'm sure I have the correct answer, 26d is still mysterious to me...