Listener 4096: Some Assembly Required by Mr E

[midazolam]

After part of the theme dawned on me half way through filling in the grid, i was thinking we were in for another stale ending. Luckily the ending took a fair amount of decoding, and it was very enjoyable too. Everything fitted together and, with a bit of searching, an entry that I thought was not in Chambers, is in fact in the big red book. Thanks Mr E (although "Indication of Height" will still take a lot of beating)

[dr b]

The across answer is definitely "stoney", so you seem to be on the right track.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Thank you Dr B

[Clamzy]

The next Listener number puzzle will be on the last Saturday in August, so you can relax for a few weeks s- matrix:-)

[teuchter2]

Thank you Dr b. That makes me more confident to proceed.

[dr b]

S-matrix, I could not agree more, though your final reference to Native American magazines is somewhat enigmatic..

[dr b]

S-matrix, I try to go light but not ultralight (no sawed off toothbrushes to save an extra ounce). The pack will be < 40 lbs, most of it food and water. And I need a tent to be able to sleep well (as it's well known that bears cannot penetrate nylon); however, some of our group do just go with the flysheet.

[Cruncher]

Lovely piece of work. Very enjoyable

[starwalker]

Came to this quite late and now find myself with all clues answered and staring at the preamble.
I think that a little light is beginning to dawn, but am puzzled that two entries are not words (how to decide the unchecked letters ?) when all entries could be real words. Hmmm. Oh well, plenty of time yet.
But I agree with most that this is a much more challenging item than some recently.

[tweaker]

I thought the same Starwalker. Thats were I got held up until a small PDM came, now I'm pretty much on the end game and finding it tough, I can know whats needed, it's just sorting it out!

Good luck anyhow.

[AndrewG-S]

Had the major PDM last night, but it still took a while to tie up all the loose ends and I am not totally confident on all the word plays and unclued answers. Great puzzle though and well constructed - thanks Mystery

[JackDeCrow]

That was certainly quite a treat - kept me up much too late on Saturday night when I finally realised what was going on!

[tristram37]

I'm working my way with some difficulty through the final stages but am quite baffled about how to place the unchecked letters in the non-word entries. I thought the final stages would reveal something to help, but nothing so far. Am I missing something obvious?

[JackDeCrow]

Tristram37 - consider the instructions re the three normally unclued entries and the two unclued ones . If you've done the right thing with the former, then it should become clear what to do with the latter.

[contendo]

Is it just me or is the preamble unnecessarily obscure? I've almost completed the grid and note that there are two irregularities to each clue, the number of affected clues obviously being significant, but the door to further progress remains obstinately shut. If I sleep on it again maybe the PDM will some at 3 a.m.

[contendo]

That should have been "come", not "some".

[Cruncher]

Contendo - I think the preamble is just about right. As is the way it will seem absurdly obscure until you tumble to what's going on. Good luck!

[jamesah]

Another ingenious effort by Mr E! I'm just stuck on the last bit. I have the 4 unchecked letters to fit into the two non-words but where exactly to put them? Presumably there is only one correct solution but I can't see any indication from the preamble which helps.