Listener 4350 - Revelation Of John By Elfman

[TheBear69]

Wow! After staring at the full grid for hours off and on, I finally saw one of the words...then another..and then I was done. Thanks, Elfman, for a first-rate Listener!

[AHearer]

Indeed, this was a good one. I was lulled into a false sense of security by a reasonably straightforward grid fill. Knowing badly I usually fare in that quaint little village of Much Staring at the Grid I went straight to decoding the instruction in the hope that there would be a hint there -- you can imagine how that left me feeling! On the plus side, it did lead me to correct my entry for 1 down, where I had plumped for a solution that fitted the definition without checking the wordplay. Many thanks, Elfman.

[AndrewG-S]

I fear that this is not going to be one of my favourites. No problems with the grid fill which was pretty quick, but it seems I now have potentially hours of grid staring to try to spot a word...

[jim360]

Ain't the only one Andrew, although I liked the message-hiding technique so far. Where this is going I have no idea though, but to be fair to Elfman I've so far spent not quite five minutes staring. Have enjoyed the gridfill.

[lyrabelacqua]

Very chewy, but now resolved. Not altogether sure it hangs together thematically in a satisfying way, but maybe I'm carping. Incredibly complex setting, I'll grant, but yet...

[Scorpius]

My least favourite type of puzzle, ie a very easy grid fill followed by frustrating hours of staring at the grid, which I'm not prepared to do - life's too short. I've got no help from the hidden message which seems an incoherent jumble of letters. It doesn't help not knowing how broad is the definition "of character" is, whether it includes spaces, all forms of punctuation, ellipses, etc.

Think I'll give this a miss.

[Cruncher]

Have reached grid-staring stage with hidden message of course no use at all. Can console myself with expected arrival of new edition of Brewer's. Having won no prizes for many years I pick up a prize in a numerical. Funny old world

[upsetter]

Even the negative associations of the thematic title could not spoil this excellent puzzle.
Hopefully no more letter counting next week.

[upsetter]

Cheer up, Scorpius.
Try the first few clues and the correct approach will emerge fairly quickly

[aldanna]

Quick gridfill, extracted message at second try (I tried first, then Himself). And no further. Can't find anything. Tired of grid-staring, I have pretty well abandoned this.

[Cruncher]

Trying to parse the grammar of the preamble... Does the shared axis of symmetry apply to highlighted entry and the the other 39 cells or just the 39 cells? If that's too explicit a request then don't worry about replying and I'll keep staring

[aldanna]

We can't fathom this either, Cruncher. However, as we can't find any words we can't evaluate any symmetry.

[upsetter]

Aldanna , Cruncher.
For ages we were convinced that the preamble is ambiguous.
Now we think that there is only one legitimate reading. Another trap we made for ourselves was to import something into the preamble that is not there.

[trux]

Excellent grid construction, with grid-staring for hours for me like others, until the little wee moneypiece does indeed drop ... if I can be bold, and not give things away, the symmetry bit is the most important element ... there can only be limited candidates ... and then ... apply same logic until you strike it lucky .... (hopefully) ... and then it all falls into place. Thanks, Elfman.

[Ruthrobin]

We spent about five times as long grid-staring as we did filling the grid. Rather frustrating, I think but thanks, anyway, Elfman.

[AndrewG-S]

Clever grid and nice way to hide message in clues, but the word search with no real hint as to what to look for or where to look was unfair and rather took the shine off what might have been a first class puzzle.

[upsetter]

Positively curmudgeonly by your standards, RR.
Welcome back

[tilbee]

A night's sleep and fresh eyes this morning meant that the hidden words quickly revealed themselves. My original word search had revealed another hidden word (not required for highlighting) which I was sure was relevant, and indeed proved to be, but did not particularly assist in the resolution.

[olichant]

Well, I'll probably have the grid at the side of my desk at work for the next week in case inspiration strikes when I'm not focusing on it, but absent that, I fear I have stared at it for longer than is healthy. First Listener I've given up on in a while. I did enjoy many of the clues.

[icynorth]

Well, I stared at that one far too long, but eventually spotted a couple of the hidden words, which made the others easy to find. The clues were high quality and I enjoyed the grid-filling, but the final theme was a bit weak, I thought.

[Ruthrobin]

Wrote a curmudgeonly blog too, Upsetter!