EV 851 Man of Mystery

[DocHH]

Relatively straightforward again, but took a while to spot the elegance/relevance of the letters bracketting 36a. But it would have been even smarter if 36a had been a down entry.

[Christiana]

Hello everyone. Haven't checked for a thread before because I was going great guns, I thought. Now I have finished them all except 11a - can't make sense of what appears to be the definition but assume ie is at the end of the answer. Have been gazing at it for some time. I have 30d but really not sure whether word 2, 4 or 5 is the 'spare'. Also, so far, can't make sense of the letters I have for the down clues, so no idea as yet as to who the man of mystery is or how to enter his name in the grid.

[Christiana]

Oh and also thought in clue 11 it was probably de-tailed, so to speak.

[DocHH]

Sorry Physicsgirl for being impolite and ignoring your post, but am pleased if this thread has encouraged you to persevere this week. We recently started to have a weekly EV thread, even for what Devadolly calls nattering and chattering, now abbreviated to N&C! Hope you are finding the hints helpful. I hope mini-Pg is allowing you plenty of thinking time.

[Christiana]

Ditto, good to hear from you again Physics Girl. Light has now dawned to some extent - i.e I know the Man of Mystery and believe I know how to enter him in the grid. Can't say I fully understand the two letter down clues apart possibly from the ones at 31 and still haven't solved 11a.

[DocHH]

Hello Christiana,
Yes,de-tailed as in docked. What do you use for a hanging and what does fruit need to be before you eat it?
30d 2nd word is superfluous.
Now that you have the superfluous word of 30, look at the letters that bracket 36! The red herring is 21
The letters from the superfluous words are read in clue order 2 at a time, rather than as 2 columns.

[Christiana]

Thanks for help, DocHH. By the time I returned here I had 'googled' the mystery man and made sense of a lot of the two letter down clues, discounting the rest as red herrings.

Will now try to apply your hints for 11a. Cheers.

[Christiana]

Thanks again. All complete, now. I've never come across that expression before!

[devadolly]

Thank you all for the help, it all looks much healthier now but still feel as though I am swimming in mud - thick mud. Haven't a clue about the man of mystery and will just have to hope that by filing 'IT' under the cat's cushion for a couple of days, time will bring enlightenment.

Have to 'leave well alone' for the next couple of days as I cannot skive any longer, first up there have to be pancakes for supper, and then those deadlines are about to choke me, so in the words of the song.....................I will return...

Regards

[novalis]

Hi everybody!

Physicsgirl - glad to hear Junior PG is thriving.
Devadolly - I like my pancakes folded round a rich apricot or strawberry jam! ( A taste i acquired more years ago than I care to remember in Germany and Austria! ) As to the "man of mystery" think of your dwelling place and what it would have been constructed from in days of yore. DocHH's hint about Reginald Perrin should point you in the right direction.

[novalis]

Right - I'll make this a separate post and would like to know if you think my reaction was right or not.
As always I did the two back page Telegraph crosswords before I read the paper then I did the Toughie. I had a 25 minute train journey so took the paper with me to do the sudokus. Sitting across the aisle from me were a couple, the man doing the Telegraph crosswords. He looked across at me and then commented loudly to his wife "I suppose sudoku is all right for people who haven't the patience for crosswords." to which she added "Or the intelligence". Further comments of this nature were made throughout the journey with the woman saying "Well done!" whenever he got an answer. I could see that he had not finished either the quick or the cryptic. Just as the train was about to pull into the station I ripped out the Toughie and the other two, gave them to the man and suggested that he check the solutions tomorrow and attempt the E.V.on Sunday. He was speechless but she said "How rude!" I merely asked her if she knew the meaning of the word "irony".
What you all have done?

[Christiana]

It's strange how rudeness only applies to other people, isn't it. I would certainly have been tempted to do as you did, in the circumstances.

[DocHH]

Novalis, I'm not sure how I would have reacted, possibly not as calmly as you. I might have made a more vocal comment to the carriage about their competence!
On one occasion we were in a cinema, there were 4 teenagers behind us using disgusting/industrial language. I turned round and said "If that is the extent of your vocabulary, I'd rather not hear it". They did go quiet, but other adults round me glared at me as if I had been the perpetrator of offending everyone!

[Physicsgirl]

good reaction, very constrained - well done. Don't know whether I would have been as polite! Beats me how people think they can judge a person's IQ just by sitting in the same carriage as someone for a few minutes. Nice to hear from you again

[copelander]

Novalis, I think you were just as quick witted as you usually are on this site to think of responding as you did on the train. I would probably have smiled inwardly and thought of something to say about 10 mins too late. Well done!

[devadolly]

1 deadline done so risking a peek!

See, I knew we had a superior set of people N & C'ing on this site! Well done N & D for 'hitting' back. What appallingly awful people on your train N! You were very restrained, I would have gone straight for the nasty sarcasm (always assuming I could have stopped myself from beating them to a bloody pulp!) I would have smiled sweetly at them, then said "As you are obviously members of Mensa, perhaps you could help me with 23a on the Toughie, it is so annoying as it is my last one. Oh, and how did you get on with the EV? In the post by Sunday afternoon was it?"

Judging by my efforts this week I should confine myself to the Sudoku - shall have another look tomorrow. Novalis, my house was built in days of yore -14 something and it is constructed of boulders and sand off the beach which makes a damp course a no-no and putting up a curtain rail a major building project!! So, I am not quite there with that clue...............................................

[DocHH]

Devadolly, what do you call a small boulder? Or, what is a boulder made of? (5 letters)

[novalis]

Hi everybody!

Thanks for your support of how I reacted. I've mellowed with age because I used to have a really quick temper. The "old" me would have been much more vehement.

Doc HH!
The use of "industrial" language as a matter of course in everyday conversation is becoming worse and worse and I'm glad you took a stand. I have my faith restored in the language skills of ( some ) young people each year when I mark my own allocation of German scripts and check those marked by members of my team and see the good standard produced.

Devadolly!

Have you "cobbled" together the Man of Mystery's surname yet? ( And don't think shoes! )

[devadolly]

Hello there!
You can all relax now...........have tracked down the Politician even if I have still about 7 to do. I was musing over the now quite ragged crossword page at breakfast time when it all suddenly clicked and my (as usual) yell of triumph nearly caused Himself to deposit his forkful of egg up his nose instead of into his mouth! As I say, he is well used to my outbursts.
Sorry Novalis, the pancakes didn't get done, went down the lazy route and made sweet toad-in-the-Hole then dumped lemon and sugar on them, much quicker than standing over the frying pan for an hour.

Regards to all