Listener 4089 Vive la Difference by Kevin

[starwalker]

A very pleasant and enjoyable debut by Kevin. Some nice clues and a familiar theme which made me realise how quickly time passes. Possibly suitable for newcomers, but personally, I think that 32D is a bit of a beast. (I'm still not 100% convinced I have the correct answer) Interesting to see what others make of it.

[easylistener]

The link was broken but I think I get the point now. And there was me thinking this one was an easy one at last! How wrong I was.

[Mysterons]

My apologies, this one should work:

http://www.listenercr...les/L3/L30/L3089.html

[easylistener]

Ah yes! Thank you Mysterons. That's that all done and dusted now. Ready for 4090!

[BlackHugh]

After a late start due to the camping holiday I have also now completed it. I would say it presented not too many difficulties - I cannot see the problem with 32D. But I completely didn't see the calculation part until I looked here - even though I had the theme. Surely this is a failing of some sort as a correct grid could be submitted without fully understanding everything (as in fact u10 pointed out earlier).

[mullingar]

help please 35 across is still puzzling me. I see from the correspndence that i might be looking at an alternative spelling of 24 down. I have all the crossing letters but I can't parse the clue or find any reasoning in any of the limited number of possibilities that remain

[Ruthrobin]

Mullingar, don't be put off by the italics. The definition has to be at one end of the word and you are going to 'return' the other end of the word and include a couple of letters (conserve) them in it. Look in Chambers to see which of the remaining four words has a single letter abbreviation, then suss out what the remaining three mean (opener, first, last, initial etc usually refer to the first/last letter etc.)
Yes, lots of people have hinted at a different spelling of 24 dn. If you examine the clue and meanings of foolish and brat carefully in Chambers, it will be clear that you need the less usual version. Hope that helps without giving too much away - it is only an explanation of Listener workings that we are all used to.

[mullingar]

aah I have it now.Though I'm puzzled by the letter changes still. Some of the calculations have ambivalent resolutions. Do the final letters spell out something relevant to the symbols. I appreciate your help

[dr b]

mullingar, there should be no ambiguity regarding what replaces the clashes in the grid, (if the clash is, say, A/C, that can only be 3-1 = 2 = B, right? Or do you mean that you are not sure what the clashes are?). You should see some relevant words once the clashes are resolved).

[mullingar]

what then is the middle between B and G for example in 8 down and 19 across? sorry if I'm being dim

[dr b]

G = 7, B = 2, so 7-2 = 5 = E. You're not looking for a number halfway between, you're looking for the difference.

[mullingar]

oh -many many thanks

[JackDeCrow]

I aree with Mullingar that there was some ambiguity. Because of the way it said "the difference between the across and down clue" I felt that in the cases where the across letter was later in the alphabet than the down, it seemed more logical to count round via z than count back. Only writing down all the possibilities and seeing what they were trying to spell resolved it for me.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, Jack de Crow, that was exactly my thinking at first.

[dr b]

Hm, that never even occurred to me. Since the preamble talks about the "difference between" letters using A=1 etc., I didn't see any reasonable interpretation of a negative number. So larger - smaller was the only thing I tried.

[daagg]

I'm with dr b on this. As an aside, I still remember doing maths in primary school and having to find the difference between, say, 7 and 4. Instead of writing "3", I tried to write things like "one has 2 lines and one has 3 lines".

[dr b]

daagg, that was clearly early evidence of an ability to think laterally that serves you so well when working cryptics today.

[daagg]

That's not what my teacher said.

[Clamzy]

I remember teaching a smart little chap called Daniel Arnold Aggers. Couldn't have been you could it? :-)

[daagg]

That's the second time someone has called me Daniel Aggers - apparently he's a Liverpool footballer - but I'm a David. I think my teacher at the time was female - are you Miss Collins?

[appledumplin]

I am very stuck on the top right hand quarter of the grid. Would someone be able to give me some help with 12D please?