Listener No. 4343: Bear, Bear, Bearing By Chalicea

[AHearer]

A fairly typical Chalicea puzzle: nice use of theme, clues not too challenging (though I struggled for a while to find the extra letters in some of the mid-range down clues). A very pleasant exercise: thanks to Chalicea.

[UglyUncle]

Borealis, I assume you have identified the extra letter in 40. If so, begin by consulting the second entry in the BRB section dealing with the first letter of the answer; the wordplay's definition of the remainder is loosely equivalent to the BRB's more formal alternative.

Your alias suggests you may have some affinity with the location under advisement. The librarian there was a friend of mine, sadly no longer among us; the museum and county archive are absolutely wonderful.

[borealis]

Thanks, UglyUncle. I'd found that, but wasn't happy with the loose general application, rather than a specific mention. A bit too much like "ysurfed" being described as as Edmund's wave action?
I have a relative there and am likely to visit again aroond simmer dim - I've not seen the new museum and will take a look in.

[the_heisman]

Very nice puzzle. Satisfying end game. Thanks very much
R

[sunny-dave]

A pleasant afternoon's diversion - thanks Chalicea

[Scree]

Not finished many Listeners lately. I tend to do crosswords on the bus to and from work, starting with Azed and moving on to the Listener as the week goes on. Then it depends on whether I reach a tipping point of enough clues solved to spur me on to further study at the weekend.

Some harder puzzles of late...and then I chose Moby-Dick for the book group's next read. I was the only one who finished it! Didn't leave much time for crosswords, though I got most of the grid filled for 4342.

But there were plenty of easy clues, and clearly a lot of emphasis on an endgame I never reached. So it was good to have more time and encounter a Listener I could finish!

Took a while to work my way up from the SE corner, but got there in the end. I share the general view that the clues were about the right level of difficulty, with the extra letter making some quite tricky to solve. Impressed myself by only getting one extra letter wrong! I liked 7D. Enjoyable.

[Ruthrobin]

Chalicea is delighted with that very warm and generous response. Sorry to the highlander and islanders about the point you discussed Ugly Uncle and Borealis. We have a requirement to provide an indicator for certain words in Chambers (Spenserian, archaic, 'foreign' etc.) and my aim was to give a mention to that part of the world - we are 'from there' in a sense, too.

[the_heisman]

And a terrific title!