Listener Crossword 4080

[AHearer]

This week we have Hexes by Stick Insect. Very straighforward compared with last week's gem. I thought there was a little ambiguity with shading, which I took to be resolved by requiring symmetry in a representation of a character. Has this theme been used before?

[Roundhillbob]

Scree. Nice comment from you (and others) about daughter or other spotting what you have missed. Interesting issue on collaboration - is it ok if within the family, but less so if via e- means? In our house I can manage to solve most, if not all clues, while my wife, who is, by her own assessment, hopeless at cryptic clues often spots the theme or the way to it - e.g. the morse code in 4079 ( I think I can safely say that now the deadline is passed) just before I looked up Iggy Umpty. She is also a whizz at the number ones, which I never attempted. Hence our entries are always as a pair.
Looking forward to the next Listener.

[Zabadak]

danbpearl: are you just being provocative? I for one, though a relatively recent arrival here, do not conform to what you think, even in my heart of hearts. I see these threads as enhancing the experience of the Listener, miles away from "spoiling something very special". It gives contributors a chance to share appreciation of something very special, almost always with every effort made not to give the game away. Don't find it so yourself? Why visit at all, then?

[Archie1962]

I tend to agree with Zabadak, I got a sort of hint here two weeks ago which helped me to finish. But it didn't give me the answer or even really help with the answer. It was just encouragement to keep looking, and the knowledge that I was in the right area and wasn't wasting hours barking up the wrong tree.

I think that's acceptable, and I enjoy reading others' comments on what they think of this week's crossword.

[Clamzy]

Heart of hearts. Something very special. Hmmm.
It's a crossword puzzle published in a national newspaper. Apart from the dificulty level what's special? I would suggest statistics, silver salvers and annual dinners come into this somewhere. But that only affects a tiny minority of the 500 or so weekly solvers who actually submit entries. The prizes are nothing special.
I believe that as cluelessJoe said earlier the advent of electronic dictionary searching and, above all Google, has skewed the results much more than anything hinted at on here.
Do you really want to wait three weeks to discuss a puzzle we've all frogotten?

[Clamzy]

Sorry about the typos. That's why I'm not an all correct?

[catstail]

I would only look at the Listener mathematical puzzles if it were not for this site. I may only occasionally finish, but I look forward to the new challenge every Saturday, and the enjoyment is greatly enhanced by this site. It is sites like these which will encourage more people to attempt the Listener.

[segue]

You're probably all on to the new one by now but can anyone enlighten me as to why there aren't 35 cells to shade and not 34? Given name 5's end, shouldn't it also require 7 letters shaded, as in the misprinted letters?

[segue]

Ignore that! I have looked again and seen the error of my ways...