Listener 3998

[cruciverbali]

Another rainy Friday, another Listener puzzle - Squaring the Circle by Centigram

[cluelessJoe]

Thank you C ... hope you are not camping this weekend!

[midazolam]

thanks c

lets see if we end up having square eyes tonight

i see that it is a 16 year wait since centigram's last appearance

[mad max]

many thanks for link

[midazolam]

this did not run me round in circles - in fact one of the easiest listeners in a long while due to the multiple cross checking and stand out quotation

saying that - an interesting grid design and a nice theme

[Rapparee]

Once more, belated thanks for the link, Cruciverbalist.
Re the rain, weeks after I used the word Pluvi�se in the thread to Listener 3991 it still pertains today!

As to the current puzzle I can only say that the latter part of the quotation might be construed as encouragement to boast!

Cheers!

[Scorpius]

Certainly very easy.
I don't understand the phrase "are to be arranged to" in the preamble. No arrangement is necessary to get the relevant theme word. There is a group of letters that could be arranged to get a loosely related thematic word, but these letters are not indicated by the quotation.

[cluelessJoe]

I get to two possible theme words ... and I think either could be correct, depending on how you interpret the third-last word of the quotation (is it an anagrind?). Anyone else have a view on which option might be correct?

As for Pluvi�se Rapparee, it was only meant to last for thirty days, not thirty sopping weeks - what went wrong?

[Rapparee]

Sorry about the rain, cluelessJoe - it must be my bath-time singing wot's causing it!

As for the themeword, I can only see one obvious one, so I'm going with that.
I guess it depends how you read it off the grid that makes you decide whether it reads directly or needs 'to be arranged'.

[midazolam]

i think they have added "arranged" as the theme word is anticlockwise not clockwise like the rest of the quotation

and yes that word is an anagrind and the last is crucial

therefore there must be only one correct solution

[Cruncher]

I don't think it's that sophisticated. The rest of the puzzle isn't. There are two words that can be formed from the indicated letters. One is a generic technical term that could apply to a number of members of the thematic group, and suggests a technique that would be unlikely to be used in the context of the quotation which is strikingly emphatic. The other word is a straight synonym of the last word of the quotation and therefore gets my vote.

[cluelessJoe]

On reflection Cruncher, I reckon that the unsophisticated nature of the rest of the puzzle, as you point out, swings it. I think I was dragging unnecessary complication into this, and maybe I should stick with my first gut instinct.

[jamesah]

I agree, mostly easy but I'm not convinced about the theme word. I've got one which is a synonym for the last word of the quotation but I don't understand the earlier references to anagrinds and it doesn't really follow from the preamble. I think I must be missing something!

[Cruncher]

Again I don't think it is that complicated - the first part of the quotation defines the letters to be used; the third word from the end can be construed as an anagrind, or just a little general encouragement; and the last two words define the theme word.

I think us Listenerites have such a rarefied diet of abstruseness and double bluff that the straightforward grids become a source of uncertainty and worry!

[jamesah]

Thanks, Cruncher. Now I see.

[Mr Crossy]

My colleagues, having read all your posts carefully, I am still unsure which word to write beneath the grid, and I feel that Centigram has rather left us in the churl. If I don't opt for the word that defines the final noun in the quotation, then I am not demonstrating that I have understood. The other, commoner word (its anagram) has nothing else to do with the puzzle, and were I to use it, I might be judged simply to have read the letters off from their advertised location. So I suppose I will choose the obscure word that defines the noun, but I am not quite convinced. Can there be some as yet unseen subtlety that would clinch it?

[Mysterons]

No, I would definitely go with the obvious example Mr Crossy

[Mr Crossy]

"Obvious" as in "commoner word", or as in "defining word", Mysterons???

[Mysterons]

I think the final noun defines the word required, rather than the other way around, but otherwise, yes.

[midazolam]

haven't you just answered your own question mr crossy

the commoner word has nothing to do with the puzzle - therefore don't use it

the unusual word - given that it is a direct synonym of that word in the quotation - is the word to write under the grid

i dont see why there is a confusion

[magwitch]

Surely there is at least some uncertainty here, Midazolam.

The puzzle's title is Squaring the Circle. Is it not possible that the "circle" means the Earth and that "squaring" means making things uniform?

That way the alternative, commoner word would have some relation to the puzzle. And the third-last word of the quotation would then be an anagrind indicating that you were to jumble the letters which are defined by the last word.