Listener 4092 Misprinted Auditions by Bufo

[turnerjmw]

An entertaining puzzle, much less difficult than it might appear at first glance. Thanks, Bufo

[starwalker]

Agreed it's quite easier than one might first suspect. Have a complete grid and not even bothered yet to "confirm what's going on".
Favourite clue - 32 across.

[dr b]

It's deja vu all over again.....

[turnerjmw]

Indeed. Apologies for the double vision. Was in the pub, and posted on my phone. It clearly has a mind of its own. Shall we stick to this thread?

[AHearer]

Yes, another reasonably straightforward one. I half-expected the correct letters to spell out some sort of sting in the tail, so I was left feeling a little disappointed.

[Ruthrobin]

not as difficult as I feared at first, but I am still trying to ´confirm what´s going on´too.

[perseverer]

Yes - grid filled and I haven't started to work out the correct letters.

[daagg]

A painfully slow start and a very fast finish. The "what's going on" is completely incidental to the grid fill, but is very satisfying and slightly makes my head spin.

[midazolam]

Bitty solving this week due to other commitments. A situation that does not suit a puzzle like this. Once the first answer is entered the theme is got and there is nothing else to look forward to. Seems like we have had a few of these lately. I have to admire the construction, however, and thematically it all tied together nicely. On the whole very neat but I prefer ones that give you something extra at the end.

[daagg]

Midazolam, I don't entirely agree with you. I accept that the method of entry becomes clear very quickly, but I didn't see the full theme until I had completed the whole grid and started to work out the wrong letters. I suppose I could have started this sooner, but I would have needed a lot of entries before I would have got very far.

[dr b]

I also got the big picture almost right away. My first reading through the preamble had me thinking, you must be kidding. E.g., take the extra word in 2d; there must be a dozen possible misprints in that word. Even for the Listener, it would be too much to have to consider all of them (now multiply that x 36 clues!). So, there had to be some logical way to narrow down what the misprint could be. Perhaps more out of luck than anything else, a couple of my early cold-solves led to what the method was. From there it was just plug away to the finish.

[dr b]

Actually according to Chambers Word Wizard, there are 18 possible misprints in 2d!

[midazolam]

Exactly dr b, so daagg, unless i am missing something, the misprints were confirmation and superfluous to finishing the grid. There is no other theme that I can see.

[daagg]

Maybe I was just being slow(er than usual) today.

[cluelessJoe]

Having filled the grid quite quickly, I was trying to decide whether to bother with confirming what's going on, and have concluded, (having read the above,) that I really can't be bothered. I unearthed about half a message but then began to think that it did not really matter anyway. Sorry Bufo, but for me this fell a bit flat - and the forlorn attempt to be a bit different by adding an extra word, then making it a misprint, just seemed over-contrived. Think I'm becoming more difficult to please, but this one sadly fell short.

[turnerjmw]

daagg, if it's any consolation, even though I started the thread my sequence of events was very similar to yours. The pdm, such as it was, didn't occur to me till I'd filled the grid. And at the risk of being trite, I do think one's enjoyment of a puzzle is correlated in part with how late the pdm arrives. So early discovery is one of the crosses that geniuses like midazolam and dr b must bear.

As for clueless joe, I am amazed that on the strength of some comments on here you would not bother to resolve the puzzle completely, content, presumably, that it won't alter the end result.

[Zabadak]

I came to this late, returning from a short break in Austria and finishing off in a second spell while not sleeping through the night. I quite like it, and didn't get the PDM until I'd completed the grid. I agree with tjmw that a late PDM makes the whole thing more satisfying and perhaps less of a technical exercise (not using the corrected letters to divine some of the more obstinate clues, for example). I also thought the construction was impressive: cheers Bufo, and I like the title. Even if you think you've got it right, work out the misprints just for the satisfaction of it and out of respect for the constructor.

[AndrewG-S]

Go the grid filled reasonably quickly after a slow start, like others. Am still working on the misprints...

[perseverer]

It took me 24 hours after filling the grid to figure out what was going on with the misprints but, reiterating what others have said, it is worth, it not only for personal satisfaction, but also to better appreciate the construction of the puzzle.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, I totally agree with Perseverer - more than 24 hours in my case but well worth going the extra distance for that pleasing pdm, and the final stage cleared up a little bit of confusion about word play, too.

[Clamzy]

Back in 2004 there was a puzzle by Bufo-Viridis, which I believe to be a collaboration between this setter and the chap at number 63. They very craftily spotted that there were half a dozen spelling mistakes in the edition of Bradford's at that time(since corrected). They included all of them in the puzzle and devastated many all corrects.
Therefore, although my sympathies are with cJ and the pre-amble mentions "confirmation", I shall soldier on with the misprints before posting my entry.