Listener 4212: Resolution by Raich

[TheBear69]

I found this relatively easy with steady progress right through to the end. Nevertheless I think it's an excellent Listener, completely sound throughout. Thanks, Raich.

[trux]

Had really busy weekend in London so couldn't devote much time to this until tonight when returning to Geneva ... one had to be careful not to confuse the two clue types and one of the messages was not what I thought it was going to be initially ...nice aesthetic finish and overall very satisfying. Many thanks, Raich

[borealis]

Very good indeed -- classic Listener. I couldn't quite believe that having solved 16a, a word previously unknown to me, late on Friday, I came across it in use on a course I attended on Saturday!

Thank you very much, Raich.

[IainGrace]

We managed to complete DUO while in car (with BRB app on iPhone) but let's not start another club..... Credit, though, to G of IG, who solved about half the clues without seeing either the clues or the grid.

[ArchieLeach]

You all seem to have found that straightforward and so did I, some of it. Still waiting for the penny to drop on the last step, the relocation of cells. No doubt it will be obvious once I see it.

[crosswhit99]

A little underwhelmed by the relocation, perhaps it would have been neater if new words were created ? Nethertheless a nice variation on the theme !

[JackDeCrow]

I know what you mean, crosswhit99 - the relocated cells did rather seem to go from the middle of nowhere to the middle of nowhere! AL - if you've got the right drama (and I was thinking of the wrong one for a while thinking it was the same thing!), then the clue is rather in the name!

[em_and_em]

A slow start and I got myself a bit muddled between the missing/extra letters which delayed me in spotting the characters / potential outcome. Once spotted however, it was a quick run to the end. Nice crossword - can we have some lighter subject matter for next week though?!

[dr b]

It seems to me that the "relocation" is very much in keeping with the theme.

[tenflags]

I concur with Dr B.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, I have to agree with DrB. Consider your grid carefully crosswhit99 and JackDe Crow and you should see how totally appropriate the relocation is (think about the position of what you are highlighting in relation to one other long solution!) This was, I feel, neat and elegant and a polished piece of setting.

[IainGrace]

Agree re the relocation. PS thanks for encouragement to persevere with 4211. Finished. A delight.

[Philoctetes]

Just for em_and_em, a list of potential themes for October 27th!
312 – Constantine the Great is said to have received his famous Vision of the Cross.
710 – Saracen invasion of Sardinia.
939 – Edmund I succeeds Athelstan as King of England.
1275 – Traditional founding of the city of Amsterdam.
1644 – Second Battle of Newbury in the English Civil War.
1682 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is founded.
1827 – Bellini's third opera Il pirata is premiered at Teatro alla Scala di Milano
1838 – Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issues the Extermination Order, which orders all Mormons to leave the state or be exterminated.
1904 – The first underground New York City Subway line opens;
1936 – Mrs Wallis Simpson files for divorce
1948 – Léopold Sédar Senghor founds the Senegalese Democratic Bloc.
1954 – Benjamin O. Davis Jr. becomes the first African-American general in the United States Air Force.
1961 – NASA launches the first Saturn I rocket in Mission Saturn-Apollo 1.
1971 – The Democratic Republic of the Congo is renamed Zaire.
1973 – The Cañon City meteorite, a 1.4 kg chondrite type meteorite, strikes in Fremont County, Colorado.
A nice mixture of harsh and uplifting. Countless birthdays, too

[Ruthrobin]

... and there is some sort of anniversary of the Bond films. I am still expecting one on that (though it has already appeared in another publication). There's some good crossword potential in that list - could we have a list every week? (smile!)

[ArchieLeach]

Ah, I had one answer which I wasn't sure of and never went back to check. The correct answer makes the final resolutuion obvious enough.

[Staurologist]

A good puzzle has an entertaining, preferably novel, theme, well realised (a vague term that encompasses other features, such as, for aesthetic reasons, a symmetrical grid and a short straightforward preamble), with sound, preferably amusing, clues. [Others may disagree or have additional criteria.] But for me a really good puzzle has something extra. It is one that perhaps reminds me of something important or introduces me to something that I didn't know or a book/film etc that I haven't read/seen or would enjoy experiencing again. This puzzle made the grade for me. I was therefore disappointed at jim360's insouciant remark that he felt "very underwhelmed" when he first heard the story. Those of us who watched the drama unfold felt as if we were about to be distinctly overwhelmed. What other stories are underwhelming? The Great War? The Holocaust? Hiroshima and Nagasaki? It is important to be reminded from time to time, even (or perhaps especially) through such a trivial medium, of such dramas. And yes, em_and_em, one wouldn't want this sort of reminder too often.

Apologies for sounding off like that. On a necessary lighter note, anyone for a puzzle celebrating the Second Vatican Council (October 1962)? Something about converting from Latin to the vernacular. There is still plenty of time: Vatican II didn't close until December 1965.

[sunny-dave]

Fairly gentle solve for a quiet afternoon - enjoyable and nicely precise clues though.

And I've actually caught up with the backlog caused by my hols by doing 4209-4212 this week. Never did finish 4207 though - very hard I thought.

[jim360]

To understand my comment Staurologist, it's important to look at the textbooks I had and how they presented the story. Can hardly go into much detail here but it was basically along the lines of:

day 1: drama begins.
day 2: character 3 asks character 1 if drama could end soon, thanks.
day 3: drama ends.

With such a presentation I think I can be excused for wondering what the fuss was about. At the time, of course, people sitting on day 2 might have wondered if day 3 would ever come, but with hindsight and presented so poorly, it just looked like the biggest non-story in history.

Since then I've done more reading and have a greater appreciation of the event, but I still remain of the opinion that there was never any real situation in which what was feared would have happened. Call it hindsight - I just think people underestimated the good sense of the key players in the drama.

[Ruthrobin]

Indeed Jim360, I was then exactly the age you are now and perhaps rather less able and knowledgeable than you (no, not perhaps, definitely, in view of what we have already seen on the box of your knowledge and quick thinking!) We were absolutely terrified and it wasn't evident - though perhaps it is in hindsight - that the participants in the drama might be persuaded to end it.

[Philoctetes]

I was 9 at the time and still aware of something awful - I seem to remember being briefed by the school headmistress (an odd eccentric!). Perhaps, Jim, though the possibilities seem so unlikely now, remember that people like my parents had recently lived through a time when equally unthinkable outcomes had been their reality day by day. They COULD believe it could happen

[contendo]

Didn't get down to this until yesterday as I've been languishing in sunny Tuscany for the last week. So here we are with 10 minutes to go before the launch of 4213 and I've got everything except the 11 cells to be highlighted, so maybe I'll take that 10 minute break.