Listen With Others

I’m not sure I can follow Dave Hennings’ blog on Back to the Future, not having the time or skills to undertake research into little-known 15thC manuscripts, but this was my take on the puzzle at the time of submitting it. I observed that Back to the Future was a delightfully balmy breeze after the stormy offerings we’ve weathered recently, and very welcome. It was a joy to fill the grid without constant recourse to Quinapalus, Qat, Bradford’s and my searchable Chambers CD, valuable as those are. I love the variety of Shirley’s subjects and I thought the way she used the “turn” idea in both the extra words and the hidden words in the grid was a nice touch.

I’m glad I spotted the 3 AGAINs, since “the first word of a traditional verse” left rather a large field to explore! At first a snatch of a song came to mind (but not the rest of it unfortunately or perhaps fortunately) before I clocked three times as Dick Whittington.

I see PERNOD makes an appearance – very appropriate given Shirley’s location. Clever title too!

I then went on to say “I hope next week’s is equally accessible – I’m walking Hadrian’s Wall for 8 days which won’t leave much time for solving.” What a hostage to fortune that was! How unfulfilled was my hope. If the early 4670s included some stormy offerings, then Variety Show was a veritable tempest! But enough of that until next week. Thanks Shirley for another enjoyable solve.