Listener 3998

[cruciverbali]

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

[midazolam]

that is very obscure magwitch, never even entered my head, and as it has really no true link with the whole fo the quotation i think it is best not to dwell on it

the word i think we all agree is correct is a synonym of the last word. the third from last word - i agree could be an anagrind - and therefore, as i mentioned, the quoatation is clockwise but the word is anticlockwise, but by taking each letter in turn clockwise and arranding them, then you get the theme word.

my feeble brain cannot see any more attractive solution or justification for the preamble

[magwitch]

I'm not saying you're wrong, Midazolam. I'm just speculating. My problem is that I don't feel comfortable with the defined word as the theme word. It seems too obscure, and too otherwise meaningless.

[cruciverbali]

Thanks for all your thoughts on this one - the word required may seem obscure at first sight, but in actual fact is very well known to most solvers of advanced cryptics.

[Mr Crossy]

well, I am with magwitch. I suppose I will wind up putting down the word that defines the objects, but it really is not obvious that that is what the setter expects.

The other, commoner, word has a secondary meaning, which is to use such objects so as to produce their output in a particular way. That, and that it is an anagram of the definition, conserve my doubt.

magwitch probably agrees with me that a "theme word" to be deduced would normally have the same status as a puzzle's title, and so would not usually be as obscure as the one we are contemplating.

And hey I don't mean to be combative, I just want to be comfy with the answer :-)

[failedagain]

There's another arrangement of the same letters, giving the plural of a common abbreviation with thematic relevance to the Worldwide Web. I reckon that's the best answer.

[magwitch]

That's the one I've been referring to as the alternative, commoner word, failedagain!

See my post above for why this might fit with both the title of the puzzle and the possible anagrind in the quotation.