Listener 4069: Conversion by Samuel

[midazolam]

I very much enjoyed last years penny dropping moment with playtime, and likewise with this weeks listener, it was very neat how it all came together. No ambiguities although one answer I couldn't find in Chambers but is well known in this modern society.

Thanks Samuel

[Apache4D]

I'm going mad here as the times online isn't letting me log in so I'm sat in front of the boring television and being extremely grumpy!! haha I have only attempted/completed one of Samuel's offerings which I believe was Motion early last year...It was one of my very first listener's and really gave me the bug!!

[midazolam]

[email protected] if you want a copy Apache4D (or anyone else)

[AHearer]

A very pleasing construction. The clues are all very fair, yet I managed to do two things that made life more difficult. First, my wife tells me that I never read instructions, and in this case I stupidly began by trying to find a misprint in EVERY clue. Secondly, I made a false initial guess at what was happening to the down entries. When I'd stopped kicking myself I really enjoyed this one.

[Ruthrobin]

More difficult than last week but I, too, enjoying this now that I have realized what is going on in both directions. However, I too have an answer that I can't find in Chambers - and it is relevant to modern society, Midazolam..

[daagg]

I did the same as AHearer for a short time, but luckily I sorted that out. I guessed the required amendments before I had many of the misprints, then realised what the 18-letter quotation was. After that it was reasonably straightforward, although I thought some of the clues were pretty hard. I like the way the preamble makes more and more sense as you progress - given the title, I suppose you could almost say they were a series of Damascus moments.

[Prescott]

Ruthrobin - see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midazolam

[Ruthrobin]

Just completed with great delight. This will surely be one of this year's favourites. I loved the final stages!

[starwalker]

After the initial spell of cold solving, I felt that this came together quite nicely, so that a previously puzzling preamble progressively made sense.
Nice to see Samuel's evolution as a setter.

[easylistener]

Well I thought I was doing well at first but a whole day later have not solved many clues yet and the ones I have don't seem to intersect even with various conversion attempts. But I will persevere. Can anyone give me subtle hints that won't spoil it for others?

[Ruthrobin]

Easy Listener, it is a difficult one for your second Listener but keep on solving. It is giving no secrets away to say that one letter has to be removed from every down clue - split your lights diagonally and put all the potential letters into those squares.
Write your across solutions in and, when you have enough of them cold-solved, examine it all and you might see how to 'convert' the across clues so that across and down correspond. It is hard work, this time, but worth persevering as the end product is wonderful.

[daagg]

easylistener, if you have some intersecting answers, then I would recommend playing around with them to make them work together - it is definitely possible. I'm sure you will have noticed that all the down lengths are wrong - a good place to start thinking. I was also helped by thinking that 18 letters are only able to detail two relatively short instructions.

[cluelessJoe]

stick with it easylistener ... I luckily spotted (guessed) the instruction for down entries after identifying very few misprints. Once I'd then entered my solved downs, the entry method for intersecting acrosses was quick to spot. Samuel - if you read these threads, congratulations on yet another very fair yet beautifully constructed puzzle.

[easylistener]

Thanks Ruthrobin and Daagg et al. I have solved the instructions for down entries but have not solved enough clues to carry on. I can't use the grid entries to help solve my remaining clues in the normal way can I? Afghan clue kept me awake all night. Any hints? And with the general theme, should I be thinking Biblical, detective, modern day or something else?

[Ruthrobin]

Easylistener, email me at [email protected] and I can give you a few more nudgy prompts without spoiling it for anyone else (and hopefully not for you). If you have solved the instruction for down clues, you are well on the way.

[daagg]

If you have the instructions for the down clues, they should be a ten letter, two word phrase. This is normally followed by another two word phrase, which is the instructions for the across clues. My break was when I had solved 29dn and 30dn, I had a strong hunch about what must have happened to 29ac.

[bobbycollins]

Amazing what a night's sleep can do. Like clulessJoe, I had a hunch about the instruction for down entries after only a couple of letters, but was bemused by what to do with the acrosses. After the merest glance this morning I had yet another huge DOOOH moment. Not finished yet, but it should be downhill.

[x_word_fan]

Happy Birthday to him! Coincidence?

[Ruthrobin]

Almost certainly not, X_word_fan. Clever spotting!

[daagg]

I'm struggling to understand the wordplay for 36dn. The best I can do uses an acronym for the last 4 letters, but I don't think it's a very well known entity. Does anyone have a better explanation?

[Clamzy]

There is no better explanation Daagg - you are spot on.