Listener 4199 Scattered by Kea

[Ruthrobin]

What a pleasure to see a Kea puzzle but what a tough solve. No, not really opening the Friday club as I still have to produce my final grid and there is some demanding word play to sort out but many thanks to Kea for an astonishingly challenging puzzle!

[Philoctetes]

Jim (hijacking thread again),
As a classicist from t'other place I also enjoyed your essay into Herodotus. But as I am sure you know from your Physics reply, there comes a time when you have too much specialist knowledge, and it leaves you tongue-tied. And I can understand what you were going through, having muffed a number of questions in the bottom right seat some 36 years ago.

[jim360]

Heh well, at least you appeared on it too. PS if You sent me an email then I might let you in on a little secret...

[email protected]

[BlackHugh]

Ohh - let's have a guess. Mr. Paxman drinks a pint of human blood before each performance?

[upsetter]

Finished thanks to Black Hugh's gentle help.
Awarding ourselves Alpha double minus, if he agrees

[BlackHugh]

I'll agree to at least that upsetter - very little help given indeed. Well done!

[teuchter2]

Have now got the elusive 11a, and then realised that I had one wrong. I now have a possible solution which involves changing 7 more letters, but I'm not sure about the meaning of the three words, as to my mind it is impossible to take it literally as there only seems to be one possible alternative word for one of the clashes and that involves letters other than I would expect if I was taking it literally. I'll give my brain a rest and pick some more blackcurrants. I could do with some help with those as well!

[Coalminers]

Well Jim, being a physicist, I thought you did well to restrain yourself from saying "Thermopile".

[Mesnilpat]

I'm almost finished, though the last clue is proving elusive. Thank goodness for Quinapalus. I would never have got a couple of the words without him - just not in my lexicon at all! I think I would be more adept with blackcurrants than this particular Listener.

[growf]

I'm baffled. Grid fill done, description found, even got a set (or two) of seven cell changes that makes the grid all real words after resolving clashes...but I have no idea what the description is supposed to mean.

[trux]

For those still struggling, do persevere. Message is precise - and of multiple possible interpretations - let your mind go and think of the highly improbable. There are, after all, only three words to consider.....

[upsetter]

We are just lighting some old stogies that we have found - anyone else?
Very green this week.

[Mesnilpat]

I'm with growf here, grid filled in but baffled by the seven unchecked cells. I'll take your advice trux - I just hope I've got the right three words........

[Staurologist]

What a stunning de tour force. I believe that there are three completely novel ideas here:

1. The source. I don't recall this having been done before.
2. The grid construction. To have transformed the source in this way is impressive enough, but to have done so constrained by the 16-letter description and to have piled on 90 degree symmetry uses up all superlatives.
3. The clues. I don't remember having seen definitions constructed in this way before.

Can anyone recall precedents for any of this?

PS: Could it be that Kea and Prunella modularis are birds of the same feather? :>)

[olichant]

I'm still struggling at the back of the class and am unable even to come up with an intelligent stab at the phrase constituted by the hidden letters, despite having 80% of them and some intriguing words emerging. Ah well, I shall be reading the solution with interest. A shame I've floundered at such an early stage because the clues so far have been a joy to solve.

[jim360]

In some sense you could argue that the final word of the message is misleading and that another, similar (shorter, 6 letters) word would have made more sense. It just may not have been possible to have followed through that way.

[teuchter2]

I'm still baffled too. I have a possible solution, but as it doesn't do what I suspect it should, it's probably wrong. However, I can't do it the way I think I should. Still more blackcurrants to pick, but raining tonight.

[Mesnilpat]

Another case of falling at the final hurdle for me I think. Like teuchter2, I have a solution that does not do what I suspect it should. I have rooted out one incorrect grid-fill but cannnot for the life of me see anything wrong with the rest. Hey ho.

[tnap]

Wow! I came to the Listener late this week and have just finished. I felt I had to join you guys at TAB simply to express my admiration for Kea's work. Awesome all round.

[tenflags]

wow

[midazolam]

Staurologist I would agree entirely with your first two points. The first two rely on the setter having...I cant really write want I want to write as it will be giving too much away. To pull it off is purely astonishing. Your third point I am sure it has been done before, although I will have to rack my memory to find them. I created a puzzle using just one-word definitions in this way about four years ago. I believe the two birds have no connection (only the fact of adding an I into genus).