Listen With Others

We were delighted to find such a short preamble with no mention of jumbles. Nineteen clues with misprints whose correct letters spell out a hint – and some clashes where we have to select the correct letters that will reveal what escapes from a boundary. We wonder about Devil’s Island or Alcatraz then set to work.

I don’t have to read far to confirm that Verbascum has his right of entry to the Listener Oenophile Outfit when his clue 14 reads ‘Not waving arms about, I’m fuddled with ale (6)’. A(bout) + I’M + ALE (fuddled) gives us AMELIA so we decide that there is a misprint there for not Having arms. Fuddled with ale! Oh dear, but ‘Cheers, anyway, Verbascum.

Those corrected misprints were really helpful and the other Numpty was very much on home ground so that when we had realized that ‘Pitched ocean around Greece, from the east win in lilt of Milton’s (8)’ gave us ARGESTES and an S corrected misprint (liLt to liSt) and he saw SCHWARZSCHILD, all was clear. ‘Schwarzschild radius’ he announced.

He traced out the EVENT HORIZON and that told us that HAWKING RADIATION had to be escaping. Those words not only neatly circled the EVENT HORIZON but they also conveniently resolved our remaining doubts about words and completed our grid. We were left wondering why Queen Victoria’s hoRse would be called REPROVE since we needed an R corrected misprint there but Chambers tells us that ‘rouse on’ means REPROVE for a different Victoria.

Most enjoyable, thank you, Verbascum.