Times 27,923: Say Hello, Wavelength Goodbye

Author   VerlainePosted on Categories Daily Cryptic
A tough wavelength to get on for me, with many definitions being obfuscated or somewhat lateral, meaning that I quite often had to solve via the process of wondering “could the answer possibly be this?” and then squinting at the clue until the pieces started to feel like they could make sense. Some unusual abbreviations, multiple instances of cryptically relevant possessive ‘Ses and a rather odd (I though) spelling of elbowroom meant this had an air of intransigence that it was delightful to finally surmount. Well done setter on supplying a properly beastly Friday puzzle!

ACROSS
1 Leaves a tip — which they all have each in their own way (8)
ICEBERGS – Iceberg lettuces are salad leaves, and all icebergs have a tip

6 Ornament to raise to one’s ear (6)
BROOCH – homophone of BROACH [to raise]

9 Respected source, all the same to female (4-7-2)
WELL-THOUGHT-OF – WELL, THOUGH TO F. FOI, largely from enumeration

10 Like the beach? Go out on it maybe in journey regularly (6)
PEBBLY – EBB [go out, on the beach] in PLY [journey regularly]

11 Check on spare glove (8)
GAUNTLET – LET [check, as in hindrance] on GAUNT [spare, as in thin]

13 Watch actor in church: good on-line clip! (7,3)
CLOTHES-PEG – LO! THESP in CE + G. A clip found on a washing line

15 One prepared for posting to West Country, ultimately amenable (4)
EASY – S.A.E. [one prepared for posting] (written from east to) west, + {countr}Y

16 Top police officers advancing caught mobster (4)
CAPO – take the A.C.P.O. [Association of Chief Police Officers] and move C(aught) to the start. LOI

18 Curse founder’s lack of vision with these (10)
BLINDFOLDS – BLIND [curse, as in “eff and blind”] + FOLD [founder, as in go out of business] ‘S

21 Looks on in wonderment, as kids in playground did? (8)
SEESAWED – SEES [looks on] + AWED [in wonderment]

22 Row of motorists following as escorts (6)
FRACAS – the R.A.C., “escorted” by F(ollowing) AS

23 Tea, then bed: that would have done for James (9,4)
GUNPOWDER PLOT – GUNPOWDER [tea] + PLOT [bed]. That’s James VI

25 Corruption in Strasbourg politician reversed for now (3,3)
PRO TEM – ROT in reversed M.E.P.

26 With abandoning dubious ideals, war not waged? (8)
SALARIED – (IDEALS {w}AR*). Not that I really know the difference between
“salaried” and “waged”

DOWN
2 Jelly maker to go round with others? (7)
COWHEEL – or CO-WHEEL. I hope people don’t still make jelly for e.g. children’s parties by boiling up an actual ox’s foot

3 Measure of cloth weaver’s placed under black bags (4-7)
BELL-BOTTOMS – ELL [measure of cloth] + BOTTOM’S [(Shakespearean) weaver’s], under B(lack). Bags as in trousers

4 Hint: about 12 short (5)
RATTY – RAY [hint] about T(ee)T(otaller). Short as in short-tempered

5 Substitute having lifted silver trophy’s heading for pub (7)
STOPGAP – reverse AG POT’S [silver | trophy’s] + P{ub}

6 Resented, but moved to accept as right (9)
BEGRUDGED – BUDGED [moved] “accepting” E.G. R [as | right]

7 Ring daily? That would be …? (3)
OFT – O [ring] + FT [daily paper The Financial Times]. If you are ringing someone daily, you are doing it oft(en)

8 Charlie holds out for funds (7)
COFFERS – C(harlie) OFFERS

12 Kind of cross summer’s a dry one (11)
TEETOTALLER – a TEE or T is a kind of cross, a TOTALLER is one who sums or a summer

14 Barge to tie up, finding space to move in (9)
ELBOWROOM – ELBOW [barge] + reversed MOOR [tie]. Not even a hyphenated enumeration, really?

17 One getting back around half five seeing red (7)
AVENGER – ANGER [seeing red] “around” {fi}VE

19 Salts appearing in ten days — March 15th? (7)
IODIDES – 10 D(ays) + (the) IDES (of March)

20 Conscript close to firefight feared being shot (7)
DRAFTEE – ({firefigh}T FEARED*)

22 Savage bits of detail are flagged up (5)
FERAL – hidden reversed in {detai}L ARE F{lagged}

24 Egg noodle (3)
NIT – double def, as in headlice and twit respectively

81 comments on “Times 27,923: Say Hello, Wavelength Goodbye”

  1. Too hard for me. Beaten on unknown COWHEEL even after considering wheel for go round. Also WEE for go, by itself. Always thought boiling cows’ feet made wood glue? Ratty pencilled in, unconvinced ray meant hint. Icebergs empty – missed the leaves, and the rest of the clue has way too many words to make sense of. Also CAPO wrong – considered, but unparseable. Thought the mobster might be AL in the middle of Ho! or Go! There’s an emergency government thingy in UK called Cobra? Maybe the police have one too that I’ve never heard of, called HALO? No.
    Some great clues and definitions, but a few that produced a meh rather than the pleasing penny-drop moment.
      1. I’m on your wavelength here. Often when I’m beaten by a puzzle I see what I missed and feel a bit awed and chastened. Here the puzzle as a whole was rather straightforward and I feel very “meh” about the four I couldn’t get.
  2. DNF. Pretty much a combination of what Isla and Jeremy have said already. I resorted to aids for the final four answers after much deliberation, but even then I was unable to complete three of the four correctly.

    The one success was RATTY where I knew I was looking for TT inside a word meaning ‘hint’ (–Y) and from the list of hits I chose RATTY because it fitted ‘short’ as a definition, but I have to say I think RAY for ‘hint’ is a bit of a stretch. ‘Ray of hope’ I suppose, but even so…

    1ac, as mentioned by Isla, has too many words to make sense of, most of which turned out to be irrelevant. I assume that was a ploy by the setter to make complicated a clue that could simply have been ‘Leaves with tips’.

    I had considered COWHEEL at 2dn at one point but I didn’t see the ‘jelly’ reference. I got as far as WHEEL by thinking EEL for ‘jelly maker’ and W = with and then selected ENWHEEL from my list of hits, thinking ‘go round’ perhaps as definition despite being in the middle of the clue. My knowledge of COWHEEL is limited to the pie with horns coming out of its crust as consumed with relish by Desperate Dan.

    Failed on 15ac too. EAST? EASY? I had no idea.

    Got CAPO from ‘Da capo’ in music which means back to the top. I then remembered the mobster reference which I learned here recently. I had no idea about the police chief thing.

    It’s a shame about the last three or four as I had been enjoying the puzzle up to then despite many other tricky clues.

    Collins has ELBOWROOM in addition to ‘elbow room’. The Oxfords favour two words. Chamber likes a hyphen. It never occurred to me as a problem.

    Edited at 2021-03-12 06:32 am (UTC)

    1. MER at 2d cowheel as co-wheel is not a verb. MER at 1a ICEBERG as far, far too vague to be gettable, and needing a check from one to the other is bad. 16a ACPO known, but missed it. Went for HALO as Al Capone, in Home Office, I/C the police, all of them. Unparsed 18a, BLINDFOLDS as missed FOLD=FOUNDER.
      COD 26a SALARIED as although agree with blogger sal app = wage it was clever but still gettable.
      Andyf
      1. The ? at the end of the clue suggests that the co-wheel will be a jokey rather than a real word, I wasn’t unhappy with that. I’m sure “salaried” and “waged” must be different in some technical way, I just don’t know what it is!
  3. I was surprised to be all correct. I put in ICEBERG purely on the basis of “leaves” since the rest of the clue didn’t seem to make much sense. Lots of things have tips. That left RATTY, but I don’t really see how RAY is “hint”. Earlier, I was keener on CATTY, since CA is about, but I couldn’t see how to get the Y. It took a long time to get COWHEEL too, since I’d never heard of it (I have heard of Neat’s Foot Oil, but that’s not jelly).
  4. Feeling quite chuffed to have finished without errors, despite not parsing CAPO ( NHO the association of CPOs ) and being uncertain last one in ICEBERGS was correct – I just couldn’t think of any other word to fit *C*B*R*S and trusted that iceberg lettuce and tips of icebergs would have something to do with it. Last 5 mins or so spent in the NW.
    28’34”
    1. I wasn’t convinced about RATTY so I was trying to justify SCABROUS instead of icebergs, which I thought just meant rough, but looking it up now it can mean “rough with projecting points” which is not that far from all having a tip. But ICEBERGS and RATTY are just not well-clued imho
  5. It was the NW corner that gave me all the problems as it did others. My LOI were ICEBERGS, RATTY and COWHEEL. Eventually managed everything w/o aids but only just. Like paulmcl I thought of SCABROUS for 1ac but it just didn’t look right.
    Thanks, verlaine, for explaining EASY and CAPO.
  6. Tough crossword which I was enjoying until the ICEBERGS hit. Thought of SCABARDS and much other rubbish but never saw the correct answer. I keep thinking that I am missing something as the rest was tightly clued. ‘a tip — which they all have each in their own way’ just doesn’t give me ICEBERGS.
  7. …Hardly involves the eye, until
    It meets his left-hand Gauntlet, still
    Clasped empty in the other; and
    One sees, with a sharp tender shock,
    His hand withdrawn, holding her hand.

    How lovely.
    20 mins to leave the, for me undoable, Icebergs/Cowheel.
    Thanks setter and V.

    1. Yesterday’s puzzle was bad
      The setters are driving me mad
      I you like crosswords
      That are littered with birds
      You’re in heaven….but i am just sad

      Today was a crawl not a zoom
      MER for the word(?) ELBOWROOM
      But i won in the end
      And I’ve found a new friend
      Who quotes from “An Arundel Tomb”

  8. FOI PRO TEM, which suggests the slowth of my progress. I’d pretty much given up on the NW after 30′, but when I came home and saw that V had posted, I took one last look and got the remaining 5 clues in a couple of minutes. I’d toyed with PEBBLY earlier but stuck on ‘regularly’ as meaning every other letter; finally saw how it worked. ‘bags’=trousers? I thought, and that did it; never recalled Bottom. I thought of neat’s-foot jelly–DNK cow heel–and the C gave me, with ‘tips’, ICEBERGS; never thought of the lettuce. So not too impressed with my solving, but no pink squares. I agree with everyone above on ICEBERGS & RATTY.

    Edited at 2021-03-12 07:51 am (UTC)

  9. Thinking about frequency of calls to my sister in lockdown I put in OTT for 7d, meaning to come back and do it properly later. The rest of it took so long I’d forgotten by the time I’d finished. Oh, and of course I put NUT instead of NIT as I always do. Got all the rest though.
  10. …to see the Burnden Aces. 23 minutes, all present and correct. I was remarkably on wavelength on this. LOI was ICEBERGS, seen once I had COWHEEL. I sometimes used to have that delicacy at the art deco UCP shop and restaurant in Bradshawgate before a Wanderers game. SALARIED reminded me of the distinction drawn with wage earning on What’s my Line. Bring back Gilbert Harding. COD to IODIDES. I enjoyed this greatly. Thank you V and setter.
  11. With too many unparsed or half parsed my lack of confidence on submitting was well placed. I had OTT, thinking that ringing daily could be considered over the top. I hadn’t thought of newspaper for daily but it’s common enough so I have no excuse for that one. I also went for COWBELL. I thought the “jelly maker” bit was something to do with the verb cow, as in subdue. And once I’d thought the answer was “cow something” it was very hard to see cowheel. Elsewhere I wasn’t keen on CAPO — is APCO a common abbreviation?

    Yesterday I came across a clue in last week’s Listener which I thought delightful — “TV presenters unusually ordered to relocate (6)”. I’m not sure of the etiquette of giving the answer here so I’ll leave people to work it out for themselves.

    1. I liked that clue in that particularly brutal Listener, which I won’t be recommending to those wishing to dip their toe in the water. More often than not, one marvels at the construction of Listeners, but this time, I felt the setter had it relatively easy and us solvers had the really tricky job.
      1. I found it very difficult to get started but once I got the top row in it wasn’t so bad, albeit I relied heavily on the Chambers app. Do you assume most people use aids for most of the Listeners?
        1. If they don’t they’re crazy! I enjoyed that Listener, albeit I’d worked out the endgame before I’d even finished reading the rubric.
        2. I can’t see another way of doing the Listener than with any aids you can find! Very (very) occasionally you can breeze through with near-normal clues, but how (even then) you solve Listeners without Google I have no idea. Mind you, I can remember going to the library in pre-internet days to look up some abstruse connection, which took awhile!.
    2. In our household we liked the clue that began “what be that at rear of guardhouse?” very much.
      1. That was also very good. It’s fast approaching that time on a Friday when beer and Listener beckon again. Not sure life gets much better.
  13. Highly satisfactory puzzle, but put ‘cowmeal’ for LOI, with come=go and al for others, oh well.

    Particularly liked SEESAWED.

    Thanks verlaine and setter.

  14. Anyone else not convinced by the apostrophe in FOUNDER’S?

    Edit: on reflection, it could just about work, as in ‘Founder’s a verb,’ but to me that’s really stretching it.

    Compare and contrast ‘weaver’s’ in 3d.

    Edited at 2021-03-12 09:51 am (UTC)

    1. I lift and separate: not founder’s, but founder + ‘s, giving fold and the literal ‘s. It turns up occasionally, so I’m guessing it’s within the rules.
  15. DNF. Defeated by the NW corner. Hadn’t a clue what was going on with 1A… “which they all had each in their own way” was no help. Also DNK COWHEEL, although I did think that maybe it ended in WHEEL. Shame. I enjoyed the rest of it. I liked EASE most.
  16. Salaried staff work reasonable hours with a monthly stipend. Their pay relates to the work as directed and is not time-constricted. Waged staff are paid by the hour usually to a fixed number of hours per week.
    NP
    1. I like the sound of what you say, but it ain’t necessarily so. I was salaried as a customs officer, but until I went onto shifts I was required to attend set hours.
      Working later for a sales outfit hours were very flexible, as long as you did a lot more than was in the contract.
      I suggest that in both cases I was “salaried” rather than “waged”.
      Andyf
    2. Is this why you can be a wage slave but not a salary slave? :thinkingfaceemoji:
      1. I’ve always taken the view that WAGED = artisan / blue-collar = working class, whereas SALARIED = white collar = lower middle class (cf middle class = professional).

        And of course we have the Japanese salarymen who are white collar slaves working all hours.

        I just couldn’t get on the wavelength today and gave up in despair with a little over half of it correctly completed. Thanks V for illuminating my darkness.

        Edited at 2021-03-12 10:14 pm (UTC)

  17. 41.50 but a DNF. Had everything but icebergs sorted in under 40 minutes but just could not see it- think the captain of the Titanic probably said the same.

    Frustrating as I was well chuffed to work out the rest of what was a tough but fair effort. The NW corner was particularly tricky I thought with cowheel, pebbly and ratty all taking a while but being well clued. Biffed blindfolds and easy. COD seesawed.

    Thanks setter and blogger.

  18. That was hard work but eventually everything went in more or less parsed. Knew ACPO and saw EASY quickly which helped but then held up for a long time in NW corner with ICEBERGS and RATTY last two in after I eventually worked out COWHEEL.
  19. So my 23.11 looks pretty good, then. Obviously the N(o) W(ay!) corner was my last in: I can’t see any way of getting into 1a until you have the crossers and can make a wild guess. I suppose both those lettuces and Titanic breakers have tips, but so does asparagus and Local Amenity Sites “in their own way”.
    Only GUNPOWDER PLOT raised a flicker of a smile, the rest a kind of determined grimace. And I very nearly put the A in BROOCH, because after all my years of spelling things, it still doesn’t look right.

    Edited at 2021-03-12 10:45 am (UTC)

      1. Except of course ASPARAGUS and the other thing hardly fit 🙂
        And “each” demands a plural
  20. Knocked out by desperately sticking in Halo for Capo which
    I really should have got. By then I was punch-drunk anyway.

    Not overly keen on Ratty or Easy, but more than enough excellent clues elsewhere to make it an enjoyable Friday set-to.

    Thanks to setter and blogger

  21. Failed in 86 minutes with ICEBERGS looked up and BEDECK for BROOCH and DOT for OFT. Did not like 1a. I was looking for plant leaves, but “which they all have in their own way” struck me as gibberish. Spent ages trying to find something better for HINT than RAY. that’s an hour and a half I won’t get back. Thanks V.
  22. Well, when even Verlaine experiences a few uncomfortable moments in solving, then you know it is well and truly one for the criciverbalist cognoscenti!

    I was determined to finish this correctly when I realised it was going to be a real toughie.

    Ninety minutes later I crossed the line successfully without recourse to aids.

    For me, timings are inconsequential. The challenge is the thing!

    Thanks again to all bloggers who give up their invaluable time to encourage and enlighten us!

    For newbies, do not be put off! Hang on in there and persevere. Each daily challenge varies in complexity as we all know by now.

    Thanks again. Jovan.

    1. Hi, Jovan, might I suggest you sign up for a free Live Journal id? Then amongst other things you will have the facility to correct errors after posting. Also you will be notified by email if anyone replies specifically to one of your comments. It’s dead easy: go to this link https://www.livejournal.com/create choose a username and fill in your details. You don’t actually have to post anything on your blog. If you log in you can post comments here and they will be tagged with your username.

      Edited at 2021-03-12 11:44 am (UTC)

    2. I thought it quite appropriate with the cruciverbal crisis many of us experienced today.
  24. Started slowly with 9a and 11a, realised this was going to be a proper Friday job, then began to feel it wasn’t that hard after all, in 30 minutes had it all done except for 1a and 2d. Eventually put in RHUBARBS for 1a, as it fits and something to do with leaves; now I see it’s ICEBERGS I don’t think “which they all have each in their own way” makes a lot of sense and it’s a terrible clue. All the same, I’d never have got COWHEEL, I know about calf’s foot jelly and pigs trotters but never heard of a cohweel as one word. And CO-WHEEL for go round with others? Go round together, would be better. For me those two spoilt a fine crossword. Thanks for explaining 18a as well, Verlaine, the answer was clear but I didn’t see the apostrophe-dropping for founder’s = folds.
    1. I’ve got my personal best Nitch today and I put it all down to eating at the UCP in Bolton as per my post. United Cattle Products, that is. We never had it at home but we would have Honeycomb tripe with vinegar and pepper. Both were delicious. I hadn’t realised how niche it was.

      Edited at 2021-03-13 11:58 am (UTC)

  25. FOI 26A: PRO TEM

    Struggled to start, and had to work hard with a very doubtful ICEBERGS as LOI before conceding after 1 hour with 2 left unsolved: COWHEEL (NHO) and CLOTHES PEG (I was fixated on JPEG for online clip – COD although I enjoyed BELL BOTTOMS, GUNPOWDER PLOT and others.

    Thank you to verlaine and the setter

  26. I spent much longer than I should have trying to make “scabious” work for 1a – I mean it’s a plant so it has leaves. But that left 4d O*T*Y hanging out to dry. Like various others I knew of “neat’s foot jelly” as an invalid food – probably a bit like consomme – and that did help in that corner, in the end. By way of picking a NIT V, the GUNPOWDER PLOT was directed at James in his role as James I of England rather than James VI of Scotland. A hard-fought 24.08
    1. Oh yes, he was the king of that grim barbarous satellite land out beyond the Southern Wall too wasn’t he! I forgot.
  27. Hard work but very fair. Plenty of well-hidden definitions to trip over, and over most them I duly tripped. ICEBERG (LOI) not helped by having PITHY for RATTY until I remembered to recheck 12d once I had filled it in. 63m
  29. Utterly floored by 1ac and 3dn. Eventually I put in ‘scabious’ for 1ac — it’s certainly leaves (as in ‘devil’s-bit scabious’ etc. And a scab is a sort of tip, but I couldn’t work out ‘ious’ of course. This left me with ‘outby’, no …

    For CAPO I had ACPO topped (ie with the top cut off) and A caught. But advancing doesn’t give A, so a vain hope.

    Apart from these clues the rest of it wasn’t desperately difficult.

  30. Never posted before and am amazed at some finishing times. Did compleye this one, though. Didn’t Desperate Dan eat cow-heel pie?
      1. I think it was cow pie but no doubt cowheels and a few udder extremities also featured.
  32. Too hard and not much fun for me.

    What is the point of a crossword that only half a dozen people are going to be able to solve without resorting to aids (which I did)?

    Life is too short.

    1. I feel like an occasional difficulty-stinker is A Good Thing and is certainly always welcome on a Friday.
    2. Careful with that sort of inflammatory comment on here. They don’t like it. I’ve been saying the same thing for years. But hey-ho, there are none so blind as those who will not see. Mr Grumpy
  33. I may be in a minority but I rather liked this puzzle. Yes, some very tricksy wordplay, one dodgy enumeration, and a wickedly hard 1a/1d pairing but plenty to admire and the odd smile, especially with James nearly being blown up. Never ever heard of ACPO but the mobster def was enough … thanks to blogger and setter.
  34. Far too tough for me. Gave up after 90 mins with the usual suspects all unanswered. Mood: miserable. Thanks V.
  35. Well I enjoy a Friday challenge as much as the next man (or woman) unless that man is V. However this completely defeated me today. FOI salaried which gives some indication of my struggles.

    I had the same MERs at ratty / iceberg even after I’d got them. Could not though see Capo Easy or Cowheel.

    54 minutes with aids for those 3.

    Thanks V and setter.

  36. Had to work hard on this. No acrosses on first pass, usually a portent for surrender. Only 2 downs as well. Then slowly, slowly a few began to crystallise. FOI Feral. Thought the egg noodle was nit, but we have had this recently so I didn’t put it in straight away. Biffed away like mad again which got me so far, then resorted to aids, but did finally crawl over the finish line after a bit of a marathon and two sessions with a break for lunch. A sense of achievement for me today, and an excellent workout. LOI clothes peg, completely unparsed, it just had to be. COD fracas.
    Thanks, V, and setter for a good puzzle. GW.
  37. Failed on “Icebergs” and “Ratty” which many of us have each in our own way.
    No — it makes no sense whatsoever!

    Edited at 2021-03-12 05:39 pm (UTC)

  38. A great puzzle – and it defeated me. After 15 minutes I admitted defeat and looked up a few NW corner answers (COWHEEL, ICEBERGS, RATTY)… and I couldn’t spell BROOCH anyway. Never can.

    The choice between NIT and NUT was tough, but at least I plumped for the right one there.

    1. You’ve probably made a lot of us average solvers a bit happier with your honest DNF — especially me as I had the same o/s 3 (4 times slower obvs..) 🙂 Thanks 👍
  39. I’m one who still does it in the paper so just look at the blog sometimes to get an explanation when it doesn’t come to mind. I bunged in capo and begrudged confidently but without fully parsing. I was looking for something inside “begged” rather than “budged” for move, rather stupidly and like many others, failed to come up with the association of senior bill. So thank you very much Verlaine and to you regulars generally for providing such an enlightening and entertaining blog. I don’t time myself but was fairly quick for me today. Thanks again, I would have a nagging alleged brain for hours with out you! Tony D
  40. Like Jovan earlier it is the taking part for me rather than the time, although I sometimes think that I am transgressing some unwritten rule whereby you’re supposed to call it a day after an hour and it’s a DNF if it’s not complete by then!
    Like last Friday I found this difficult – read through virtually all the clues with nothing until I came to 25ac, then gradually, very gradually compared to most, I worked my way to the top NW. it’s fascinating how It seems so often to be the first across and down clues that really give me grief.
    Like others I understood ICEBERGS as leaves, and that they had tips, but the rest of the clue seemed to be superfluous, but I put it in and was pleased to be all correct. Loved the “groan moment” when CLOTHES PEG clicked, finally. Like Verlaine (don’t say that very often) there were a number of clues where I thought of a word and then tried to work out why it might be right – SCABARDS for 1ac I fortunately rejected.
  41. 28:50, with a good two-thirds of that spent on two clues in the NW corner. So a rather unbalanced solving experience and I think COWHEEL and ICEBERGS are pretty poor clues, for reasons others have touched on, but I was determined not to be beaten. I did nearly give up at about 20 minutes but then I cracked COWHEEL and ICEBERGS followed about 10 minutes later.
    I’ve never come across COWHEEL before, and am curious what part of the leg it actually is. Anatomically the ‘heel’ of a cow is the reverse-knee bit halfway up what looks like their leg, but I suspect the term refers to the bit below this, which is (by anatomical analogy with humans) their foot. This would be consistent with meat cuts that I am more familiar with: shin of beef, or stinco di agnello.
  42. A 44 minute DNF. Oddly it wasn’t the very tough NW corner where I failed but the rather innocuous nit where I had entered nut. That aside I spent a long time staring at 1ac, eventually got pebbly, then ratty, then cowheel, then finally checkers, leaves and tip got me to icebergs. A titanic struggle.
  44. An excellent puzzle for testing the veracity of those who claim to have finished it. A disaster for those looking for a sense of achievement.

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