Listen With Others

Whatsername was for me a bit of a curate’s egg. I enjoyed finding the extra letters & words, even the elusive DOCK.

One triple – GUMMY – stood out, but it wasn’t until I got BOB from shilling that the penny dropped and THIN quickly followed. Luckily Google recognised THINGUMMYBOB as a Gracie Fields song, and it was an easy step to find GRACE STANSFIELD and solve the mystery of so many plurals: GRACES – TANS – FIELD.

So far, so good. But then the problem: I have only 3 altered clues, and 37 cells to highlight. I reluctantly opt to add CUP to OIL, but where are the other 4 alterations? Eventually I realise that reversing CRANK also gives real words (not how I would have interpreted “moves” but I guess cranks do turn). I would rather CRANK had been treated in the same way as KNOB.

That leaves the message “What can her generation make”. Given the title of the puzzle, the obvious answer is THINGUMMYBOB. Or taking the song literally, THE THING. But I suspect the question has a cryptic interpretation and when I posted it I was not at all happy that I’d answered it correctly – and of course I hadn’t, having missed the anagram that gave “THE ENGINE ROAR”.

Oh well, it brought back memories of my (very) early childhood in the 1950s. And 39ac (C/KARSEYS) made me smile for its cheekiness!