Listener 4131 - Carte Blanche en Tore by Ten-Four

[cluelessJoe]

Easiest one of the year for me by a long chalk. Am I getting smarter, or are these Listeners getting simpler?

[bellabee]

mysterons - i've just done a count and think maybe you have been counting the wrong letter altogether [if you have the usual spelling for 25 down then you may indeed be counting 5 of something rather than 7 of something else] hope this makes sense ['reich' has thrown me somewhat!]

[Mysterons]

Well I have 5 Cs, but are you saying that REICH is incorrect ? I can see there are two possible candidates based on 7 appearances.

[bellabee]

yes mysterons reich is wrong and you should only have 4 c's in the grid - look again at 25dn.

[Mysterons]

Thanks bellabee - I now have a nice symmetrical pattern, beloved of bella bees !!

I was hampered in that neither R???? (10d) nor 25d appear in my edition of Chambers, but Wilhelm Reich is in there as the originator of a form of massage !

[bellabee]

yes mysterons, your post led me to the reichian entry in my [latest edition] brb and an interesting fact i hadn't known [filed for further ref.] - now that you have the requisite symmetry i reckon you'll crack in an hour or two what i've struggled with for the best part of 2 weeks!!

[Mysterons]

Once again thank you bellabee - once I had the correct letter it all fell into place very quickly. I do think the clue for 10 down was this puzzle's weakness, as there was no real way the solver could know he had the wrong extra letter. Also very sneaky to have the second letter of 25d unchecked, but I should have checked NAR? more carefully - thank you for spotting my error !

[bellabee]

brilliant finish mysterons.