ev 1015 Clash

[D_C_L]

Yet again Chambers 2011 is recommended when unlike the 2008 version it does not have forenames. However a very enjoyable puzzle despite this.

Does anybody know if solutions can be submitted via email? With the new postage rates it would be a sensible saving. If not, perhaps a campaign should be started to accomodate it.

[novalis]

Yes, a fun puzzle which I battled through. I always take my battered 1998 BRB downstairs because the 2011 doesn't have forenames.

I don't know about email submissions but a campaign for it would be a good idea.

[DocHH]

Hellol everyone,
I've not got the 2011 version of BRB, just the 2003 version which has served me adequately since 2005!
I don't submit EV any more, but you could try asking the Puzzles Editor, Phil McNeill, his e-mail address is [email protected], if he would accept the solution by attachment to an e-mail. Alternatively subscibe to the on-line telegraph crossword site. The same situation would appertain to the cryptic and the GK on sunday, and any other prize puzzles that are in the Telegraph.

My first pass through the clues didn't give me too many gifts, but it all sort of came together, despite never having heard where the quotation came from. It was the 7th word of the quote that lead to completion!

Time for a preprandial.

[D_C_L]

I do subscribe to the on-line Telegraph Crosswords but the EV isn't interactive like the other crosswords. I do the Crossword Centre monthly puzzle and that accepts e-mail entries with no problem.

[dr b]

I found this to be quite a workout even after getting the quote and what was to be highlighted - justifying all the extra letters took a while. I definitely over-thought what was to go under the grid!

Time for lunch!

[qwerty99]

Rattled this off fairly quickly, once I had spotted a proper noun forming in the discarded letters. The ODQ took me straight there.

PS It is the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, not the Oxford Dictionary of Quotes. Sorry, "quote" as a noun really irritates me!

[dr b]

^?

From the OED: quote: "2.a. A quoted passage or remark; quotation."

This usage has been annoying people, it seems, since at least 1885.

[qwerty99]

And it continues to annoy. Chambers has it as "inf"; I have it as wrong. Just because the OED picked it up in the 19th century doesn't make it right, Dr B. I'll bet Mr Clemens never used the word thus...

[dr b]

Can't vouch for my avatar, but TS Eliot did:

"1922 T. S. Eliot Let. ?Jan. in E. Pound Lett. (1951) 236 Do you mean not use the Conrad quote or simply not put Conrad's name to it?"

A fairly common usage here in the US; we are, it seems, still divided by our common language!

[dr b]

Interestingly (or not) for us puzzlers, the next OED example comes from The Listener:

"1968 Listener 25 July 108/2 Don't ask me questions, since I have no wish to figure as the father of all the quotes in your stories."

[qwerty99]

We are indeed, Dr B. Be assured I meant no offence (should that be offense?). An admirable riposte...which shows that writers can get it wrong too!

[dr b]

"Offence" is fine, it's all those extraneous "u"s that get to me.... however, since I am on a UK site, I shall endeavo(u)r to conform to the local customs.

[qwerty99]

I have always argued that you guys have it right, and we have it wrong, when it comes to the extraneous "u". But "quote" as a noun? What would Huck say?

[dr b]

He'd say, "What's the use you learning to do right, when it's troublesome to do right and ain't no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?"

[qwerty99]

Yup, that's what he'd a said, I guess. Had the best moustache (mustache?) that ever graced a river-boat, that Mr Twain. Read Tom Sawyer when I was about 12; just read it again recently; SLC is beyond compare

[kayakamina]

I found this EV difficult and even when I got the 7th word of the quotation, unlike DocHH, I was non the wiser.
I am not very familiar with the author's work and when I eventually traced it in ODQ I realised I'd never heard of it.
Shame on me I suppose!

[vetuste_ennemi]

Well, I'm very familiar with the author(as anyone of my age is likely to be), but not with this particular quote. Only difficulty was with the highlighting of the "participants" which I decided (rightly or wrongly) were they main protagonists, but not straight-forwardly so.

[Shoni70]

Yes, a very enjoyable puzzle and although i have completed 99% of it ,
I do not understand how one arrives at the answers to 28ac and 29d in relation to the superfluous letters . An explanation or a hint would be very much appreciated. Many thanks in advance

[DocHH]

Shoni70,
28a, Take the first 2 letters of the grid entry and reverse them, put the extra letter in front of them, that means UNITED, use the middle 2 letters (essentially) of CITY, and insert (accepting) s(econd).
29d, a sort of double definition, the first has happened in the past and includes the extra letter, the second a noun, which is the definition. Have a look in the BRB, the word with the extra letter is in the second entry, and the definition in the first.
Hope you get the last 1% done!

[vetuste_ennemi]

I suddenly realise that I've done the quote as noun thing. Apologies, Qwerty, this wasn't intended as a wind-up. It's obviously a bad habit I've fallen into.

[haggis58]

I have a completed grid, the 'quotation' and highlighted the 10 letter 'clash' that yields 5 discarded letters. However I can't seem to identify those involved nor see an unfinished clash to yield the reference to be written beneath the grid. Any clues out there?