EV 939: An Impassable Door by Shark

[kayakamina]

Phew!

I found this one a brute after a run of fairly easy EVs.

Had to stretch the mind back half a century to my classics days and I hope it came easier for other EVers.

[turnerjmw]

Agreed, K, some very tough clueing here for an EV!

[copelander]

Enjoyable nonetheless.

[turnerjmw]

Quite so, copelander, a very good workout

[tweaker]

I missed Church today, and thought never mind, who'll know, so I strolled in the front room to print off the EV, to relax and solve and AGGHH It's Shark. Some moral's in some story's are true! I won't be missing next Sunday's meeting.....

[AndrewG-S]

I picked a bad weekend to be busy, have the grid filled at last, still need to find the quotation. A step up in level of difficulty here

[dr b]

I thought this was well done; some of the misprints were cleverly concealed. I do have a quibble with the quotation, however. If I google the words as they appear in the corrected letters (putting them in quotes, so I'm looking for the exact match), I get no hits. However, when I reverse the last and next-to-last words I get plenty of hits. Is there a reference book out there that has the quotation with the words in the order presented by the corrected letters?

[contendo]

Thought I'd give the EV a try this week as the Listener was over fairly quickly. Not exactly a cake-walk. Filled the grid, got the quote and highlighted the author but I've yet to find the continuous cells that need highlighting.

[Speravi]

Yes, dr b, I believe that the final two words in the quotation have been transposed.

I have the position of the author's name, but what to search for to highlight is eluding me at the moment.

[turnerjmw]

dr b, it's true that you get no hits if you google the quotation as it appears in the corrected letters. However, the preamble is careful to state that Chambers 2008 is the only reference, and it does appear in exactly that form in the Big Red Book appendix. I imagine that's why that form of words was used.

[dr b]

Could this be - dare I say it - an error in the BRB?

[bellabee]

fancy that.

[Christiana]

Hello everyone, didn't miss church but did feel able to give some time to EV this week after a couple of weeks' rest - a small holiday to Cornwall and, yes, Doc HH, the apples are STILL coming, though only two of the four trees are still producing.) And like tweaker felt dismayed to find myself faced with a tough one. At the moment it's very slow progress, but will persist.

[DocHH]

Hello everyone,
I struggled with this EV, eventually populating the grid working from North to South! 1ac took far longer than it should. As a humble scientist I took a while to spot the author. The last word of the corrected letters lead me to the appropriate part of the BRB!

Dr B, heaven forfend that the BRB is in error! Regretably my greek is limited to a few greetings, and asking about how you are feeling, and am therefore unable to comment on if the order of the last two words and their grammatic precision! Not even sure if that is correct, but who cares, time for another Tempranillo, 25% discount on all wines bought at Sainsburys in batches of over 6 bottles till tomorrow night!

Christiana, good luck with the apple crop, and I hope you get the boiler sorted soon!

[slaney]

Hornswoggling hegemony, dr b!

The most difficult EV for some time, but well worth persevering.

[zita-green]

I had a lot of help and, boy, did I need it. I have little Greek and was stymied by the combination of abbreviations/non-abbreviations and letters used once or twice in what seemed quite a random manner. The idea was brilliant but too much room for confusion. Time for a nice glass of Pinot Noir.

[dr b]

One element to be highlighted fairly leaps off the completed grid, so once you get what the quote is telling you to do, there is really only one way to go from there. The title also helps sort things out. All in all I found it to be like Dinsdale Piranha - cruel, but fair. Time for Monday Night Football!

[novalis]

A most enjoyable puzzle.

[Christiana]

Hi Doc H H. You noticed the posting! Still struggling with the boiler. Will leave it until later to turn it on next year. Our home is like a Kew hot house. Have read all the installation instructions now (with difficulty) but can't find anything obviously wrong.
Hello to everyone else, too. Is Devadolly still about? Still plodding along with the EV in between times, but getting there, I think

[contendo]

Still stuck at the final hurdle. I presume continuous cells means contiguous cells and that we are looking for an anagram of the title, but with only 2 "B"s in the grid the possibilities are limited. Dr b's element doesn't leap out at me.

[novalis]

Hi Contendo!

You are on the right lines. The translation of the quotation given in Chambers - should get you there. Also, the compilers often look for symmetry as far as possible for things to be highlighted.