Listener 4579 - Skywriting

[sunny-dave]

Now that was great - a splendid challenge which yielded its secrets in tantalisingly small packets as it was prised open.

Even after spotting and completing the quotation, it was far from a doddle to finish the grid and find the examples.

Thanks Donarino - an excellent puzzle

[Hagen]

My reaction to reading "All answers are entered jumbled" is unprintable; but the combination of Donarino's generosity in giving us the positions of some letters, and potential thematic material peeping through early on, meant that it wasn't too hard to find and fill in the quotation, source and second title. That was an enormous help so that entering the jumbles wasn't too much like peeling off a stubborn sticky label, like it usually is. An interesting theme and a decent implementation that for once justifies jumbled entries. I think this is a debut and if so, it's an auspicious one. As so often I don't understand the title though.

[Flocker14]

Finally crawled over the line after a marathon that at times I didn't think I was going to finish as I inched forwards. There were moments when I couldn't help feeling this was too tortuous to be much fun. But all that's forgotten when you get there and find the last bits work. Fiendish clues in some cases. Some of the final elements helped sort them out though. Certainly given the grey cells a workout. Agree with Hagen about the endgame - the last item to be found held me up for ages. Congratulations to the setter though - you certainly kept me guessing and for longer than I care to admit!

[upsetter]

The PDM pushed things along nicely but it was a struggle even at the end.
Is this the first submission from this setter?

Thanks Donarino.

[Scorpius]

I'm pretty sure this is a Listener debut for this setter. An impressive puzzle in all respects.

Despite many generous clues my progress in building the grid was pitifully slow. Had I been a bit more observant I might have noticed some likely thematic material well before the end. For once the quotation was familiar, though I couldn't have identified its source.

[IainGrace]

Excellent debut, if that is what it is. We somewhat smugly rattled off about 2/3 of the across answers in no time but then struggled when the battle with the compiler really commenced.

[perseverer]

Quite an achievement to get so much thematic material into a grid.
I wonder how much more difficult it would have been if we had not been told which letters stayed in their correct position.
The title is presumably a reference to the writer's two occupations.

[emcee]

Tough challenge and well done to the early finishers.

I still have one clue to parse properly. The last dozen or so clues were tortuous.

Thanks to Donarino for some fiendish clueing.

[Pivert]

I cannot understand Question 2 Down. Is the answer a bird or som ?ething heavy and flat?