EV 1039 - Pictures by Shark

[Twit-Who]

An excellent puzzle. Although I had the grid filled fairly quickly it took quite a while before I made any sense of the preamble.

A delight - thanks Shark.

[devadolly]

Hello Twit-Who, I still haven't made any sense of the pre-amble! Have managed most of the grid but not all.......................do you think Eureka will strike anyway?

[Twit-Who]

Hi Devadolly,

There are lots of clues but I never noticed any of them until I had the theme and looked it up on the internet. Sometimes we absorb these subconsciously so you may be lucky if you know the picture well.

[devadolly]

Er, you won't believe this................................have just looked at the answers and winner to 1036.........................................
.....it's
me! Well, a pseudonym for me......the work dog actually, I get fed up of putting my name so use the dog, Himself and Ginger Mog periodically.............it's years since I won before...........so exciting..........made my day! Sorry folks, I lead a sad life!

[AndrewG-S]

Well done devadolly, I still await my first win....I have had a full grid for a while and see the thematics apart from the two words. Hoping that a post here will achieve the usual effect of me spotting in the next 10 mins.

[devadolly]

Thank you Andrew G-S, also, in my excitement, forgot to say thank you to all the EV'ers who drag me screaming through the mud to get to the final solution! Many thanks.
Still haven't made any sense of the preamble despite now having all but completed the grid.

[kayakamina]

Congrats DD and well done to your work dog!

It's always great to see Abers being successful.

I've a virtually full grid and came on here looking for a bit of inspiration.

[copelander]

Well done Devadolly. I have a full grid and have at least seven thematic entries, but cannot see the contiguous words, unless they are actually contiguous letters. Anyone, any thoughts?

[Twit-Who]

Congratulations Devadolly. It's years since I've won too but for some unknown reason I doggedly still submit and what a difference it makes to be able to do so by email now.

As a hint 22d helped me.

[AndrewG-S]

I am confident that there are at least 8 thematic entries and think that there are in fact 8. Good construction to include all of these. Getting the thematic letter was key to tracking all of these down. The letter change is then fairly obvious to reveal the protagonists. But then I still do not know what to highlight unless I am supposed to highlight one of the protagonists but this seems to have been covered already by the preamble and does not seem to fit well with the final preamble instruction. Perhaps I need to switch to Martinis to see if they help with a final Pdm.

[devadolly]

Help! Please Help! I am going cross-eyed, standing on my head (metaphorically of course - far too idle to try the physical version), muttering in my sleep and generally going doo-lally trying to finish this thing. Soooo annoying when one has finished the grid and is still swimming in mud. I have the letter from the down clue that is referenced but am completely at sea re the rest of the preamble...................Help!

[AndrewG-S]

If you have the clue where one letter needs to be changed then you should have the theme. The clue then needs one letter added at the beginning of an unusual word to provide the correct definition. Working through all clues with this letter in th definition will yield a number of clue entries and while I have not tried it I expect googling these will yield the specific theme. My prior entry did contain a hint for the general theme if you do not yet have it in the last sentence.

[devadolly]

Thank you Andrew G-S, I think I'm there.............am I looking at 2 x across clues + changing the last letter in the aforesaid down clue? Do I have to highlight just 2 clues or the changed letter/word too? Still confused!

[x_word_fan]

In case andrew does not see your post - look down (2.2) from and including the last letter of the altered clue

[copelander]

Yes, x-word-fan, that surely gives the protagonists, but not the theme which has to be highlighted ( and is still eluding me ).

[devadolly]

Oh dear! I really should use my eyes, thank you x word fan. Now we have 3 protagonists and the 2.2, do we high-light 1 or 4, as I read it, it would seem to be just x word fan's contibution??? Discuss!

[kayakamina]

Hi DD

The preamble calls two 'contiguous' words to be highlighted confirming the theme. Even accepting that contiguous can mean 'adjoining' 'near' & 'next to',
I opted to highlight 2.2.

[devadolly]

Thank you K, that's rather what I thought.

[logophile]

The theme (highlighted) has to be (2,2) - the others are all characters from the novel which was first at the pictures 50 years ago.