Listener 4165, Variation on a Theme by Nibor

[dr b]

Not much here to cause any grief this week, I think. Not too high on the difficulty scale, but enjoyable anyway.

Now I have no excuses for the afternoon and will be forced to finally clean out my gutters. 65 degrees today - 40 on Sunday. I guess I'll get busy.

[Walterloo]

Hey, thought I'd check in and say I've done the highlighting on this one after realising (eventually) what the preamble was hinting at. That took me much longer than necessary but thoroughly enjoyable. Thanks Nibor.

[Vagans]

Just to add my voice that this puzzle played out very well, and the final highlighting though it took far longer to "drop" than it should have was fully fair and unambiguous. Very Nibor too: thanks to him.

[IainGrace]

Floaker, as to PDMs I think that the point to bear in mind is that immutable Listener rule - "Never neglect the title".

[haggis58]

Can anyone give us a clue to the highlighting, e.g. is it symmetrical?

[jim360]

I can't give too many clues, over than - no, it's not.

[Scree]

I finally plodded my way through this, and see some sort of logic in the highlighting.

But I have one slight problem. I can't work out the wordplay to 2D, so I'm unsure of the unchecked letter. What I take to be the definition could be an active or a passive past tense, creating different vowels. I've checked the definitions of mucker and Morocco in the BRB without light dawning. Any hints?

[rabet]

Scree ~ look at Philoctetes' reply to my query earlier in the thread.

[Scree]

rabet

Thanks, I'd missed that.

Must read threads properly.

Must also check IVR abbreviations properly!

[IainGrace]

Scree, the logic is crystal clear once you get it, so maybe not quite there yet?

[floaker]

IainGrace. In full, "Never neglect the title but always, always remember that your initial interpretation may be way off the mark." To say what eventually made me realise what the correct interpetation must be would be to give too much away.

[ichkeria]

A few years ago I might have thought this denouement was quite clever but older and frankly busier than I used to be I'm afraid I just found it irritating. The actual puzzle was lovely, especially the clues, but as far as I'm concerned the last step seemed deliberately perverse.
Like someone else who has posted much earlierI couldn't see the point of the gris clashes, and I remain baffled by the choice of the "sporty" representation.
One thing I would defend the last step on: there is, surely, absolutely no ambiguity about it, is there?

[inanna]

got it !!

[perseverer]

Surely the clashes are needed to allow an oringinal answer to the across word affected by the clashes?

[ichkeria]

"Surely the clashes are needed to allow an oringinal answer to the across word affected by the clashes?"

Yes, but I wondered there was anything else to it other than "I couldn't get the words to fit so I used the 'clashes' device". Not necessarily a criticism, more an inquiry.