Appropriate for our 2016 April Fool's Day offering, JW gives us the letters of the word ENIGMA scrambled and hidden in known phrases. He accomplishes this with a 15x16 grid to allow for three (3) grid spanning 16 letter theme answers. He finishes with a sophisticated reveal, 60A. Sir Edward Elgar composition whose title has never been solved ... and a hint to this puzzle's circles : ENIGMA VARIATIONS (16). The renowned British COMPOSER based his variations on his family and friends.
The bigger grid allows for some nice non-theme long fill like GO CARTS, TREKKIE, TRADED AT, THIS IS HE, HORN SOLO, HAM ON RYE, GET A CASE, PRETENSE, WAR GAMES, and STAY HERE. I guess I am getting used to his puzzles because this took me about 4 minutes to solve, I hope you had fun. Let's look it over....
17A. Reprimand to one not picking up : YOU'RE MAKING A MESS (16). Straight cluing for the phrases hiding the ENIGMA.
22A. Rail transport landmark : STEAM ENGINE (11). Fulton?
39A. Minuteman, e.g. : LONG RANGE MISSILE (16).
49A. "How surprising!" : IMAGINE THAT (11).
and the aforementioned reveal:
60A. Sir Edward Elgar composition whose title has never been solved ... and a hint to this puzzle's circles : ENIGMA VARIATIONS (16).
Across:
1. Pâtisserie cake : GATEAU. A term used in Britain for cake as well.
7. Sold for, as a stock : TRADED AT. Each stock transaction has a buyer and a seller, hence the concept of trade - money for shares.
15. Derby racers : GO CARTS. Well nit parade ahead...I think this refers to the soapbox derby, but the TERM is spelled wrong, sort of.
16. Taps, essentially : HORN SOLO. Man, I see a crossword theme here...HORN/HAN; JW?
19. Pound denizen : MUTT.
20. Biblical birthright seller : ESAU. Poor man was tricked.
21. Oldest of the gods, in Plato's "Symposium" : EROS. This is said by Phaedrus; not my area of expertise but this SUMMARY might help.
26. At a minimum : NO LESS. You will give me your attention, I will accept no less.
27. Swimmer's option : CRAWL. Also known as freestyle. Other choices are back stroke, breast stroke and butterfly.
35. Game winner : OOO. If you are playing tic-tac-toe.
36. Lunch order : HAM ON RYE. JW really loves multi-word fill.
42. Smoke and mirrors : PRETENSE. make believe.
43. "The Soul of a Butterfly" memoirist : ALI. Laila's daddy.
44. Essen article : DER.
45. Concluded, with "up" : SEWED.
46. First 12 children of Gaia and Uranus : TITANS. Can you name them?
58. Chanel No. 1? : COCO. Cute TV misdirection.
59. Columnist Barrett : RONA. See RONAN below.
65. Exercises displaying great strength : WAR GAMES.
66. Conventioneer with antennae, perhaps : TREKKIE.
67. "Don't budge!" : STAY HERE. Stay put sounds more familiar, but this works.
68. "Honor Thy Father" author : TALESE. I have had this GUY before on Friday.
Down:
1. Exit : GO OUT.
2. Intense : ACUTE. Compared to chronic.
3. Design for some MacDonalds : TARTAN. Much more complicated than I knew. LINK.
4. Poetic "previous to" : ERE.
5. Its slot always pays : ATM. They have lots of them in the casino so you can feed the other machines.
6. Winner of all three tug-of-war medals in the 1904 Olympics: Abbr. : USA. Easy guess.
7. Formal phone call response : THIS IS HE.
8. Journalist son of Mia Farrow : RONAN. An interesting young MAN with uncertainty in his life.
9. Debate : ARGUE.
10. Some evidence : DNA. No DNA tests for Ronan and Woody.
11. Carlisle Cullen's wife in the "Twilight" series : ESME. This CHARACTER.
13. And : ALSO.
14. Word with coin or ring : TOSS.
15. Places to clean and press : GYMS. Nice misdirection but I go to the Gym.
23. Tied up : MOORED.
24. Online finance company : E-LOAN. Never heard of this COMPANY.
25. Hard-to-miss signs : NEONS. They even have a Museum in Las Vegas.
27. Trig function : COSINE.
28. Hosp. personnel : RNS.
29. Like much of Australia's interior : ARID.
30. Noah of "The Librarian" TV films : WYLE. I really enjoy the show and FLYNN.
31. Look wrong? : LEER. Wrong look perhaps...
32. Reichenbach Falls setting : ALPS. Famous for a FALL.
33. Teed off : SORE. Not golf this time, anger.
34. "I __ it!" : KNEW. No you did not!
37. Stradivari's tutor : AMATI. MAYBE or MAYBE NOT.
38. Lombardy's capital : MILAN.
40. Co. merged into Verizon : GTE. 64D. Part of 40-Down: Abbr. : TELephone.
41. Start one's law practice : GET A CASE. (Get and GTE) only if you are a litigator.
47. Composer Stravinsky : IGOR.
48. Hit : STRIKE.
49. Caesarean section? : I CAME. Really fun clue, I came, I saw I conquered. Veni, vidi, vici.
50. Mayflower figure : MOVER. The company. LINK.
51. Errant golf shots : HOOKS. Sometimes you need to hook the ball.
52. Musical with "jr." and "KIDS" versions for young performers : ANNIE. I had no idea of the existence of these variations.
53. Shock, in a way : TASE.
54. Church lineups : PEWS. Cute.
55. Gross subj.? : ANATomy.
56. Capital of Turkey : LIRA. The old money misdirect.
57. Like French toast : EGGY.
61. __-jongg : MAH.
62. Addams family member : ITT. Cousin.
63. Altar constellation : ARA.
Well did you find this to be a puzzling puzzle? The theme is a variation of a quotation from Winston Churchill in a 1939 radio broadcast "I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key. That key is Russian national interest." Still a factor in the world...I hope you enjoyed the return of JW and spring. Lemonade out.
BTW I did not finish in 4 minutes, but it is April 1st.
