A Seasoned Performer by Charybdis: An exhausting Setter’s Blog
Who was it apologized for a letter being inordinately long “because I haven’t time to write a shorter one”?
I feel the same sentiments about this blog which I’ve quickly cobbled together from the Charybdis side of E-mails between Ploy and myself, ‘A Seasoned Performer’ being originally conceived as a joint Harpy puzzle between the two of us. My apologies in advance for boring the pants off anyone who bothers to struggle all the way through it! Just stop NOW!
As it turned out, the period of cooking up this puzzle coincided with an unusually busy non-cruciverbal period for Ploy and 3 glorious weeks off school following an operation (all OK thanks) for me so that I suddenly had way too much time on my hands!
Nonetheless, without Ploy’s suggestions in the pre-gridfill stages and as a sounding board for a series of increasingly febrile e-mails from myself, this puzzle would not have seen the light of day. I am hugely indebted to him, not least for generously giving his blessing that the puzzle continue as a Charybdis rather than a Harpy.
I’m equally indebted to Elint who later acted as an exceptional test solver and whose spot-on suggestions ironed out some remaining flaws in the puzzle.
My heartfelt thanks to them both – any remaining shortcomings in the puzzle are completely their fault J
I usually have few forensic traces left on how a puzzle came to be. In this case, thanks to the e-mail trail, it’s all there in far too much detail. A decent puzzle hopefully gives the illusion of being the product of smooth, orderly, rational thought processes. On the contrary, what follows [actually much edited down!] mainly goes to illustrate what a messy, incoherent, rambling and non-linear manner of thinking I have. Still, never mind.
The ghost of an idea
| 03 April 2010 18:18:54 | |
… I wonder if something could be done with Pepper’s Ghost?…
I’ve a couple of lines of thought (well, 3):
One is that PEPPER (in capitals) is almost (apart from the diagonal of the R) a reflection of either 939939 (for a side stage) or 636636 (for an understage) [note: this is incorrect, as many other things will be!] – (or d3dd3d for both!).
A second is to go with a theatre theme: Pepper’s ghost & (the ghost walks (theatre sl.) : money is available, the wages can be paid.) and Spirit gum (theatre) …
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10 April 2010 15:45:45 |
… On reflection (ahem) I think the mechanics of Pepper as a cruciverbal gimmick might be beyond us (he might still get a ‘walk-on’ part somehow, though?)
What DOES seem pretty possible is for e.g. BANQUO to move across the grid creating new words (and leaving real words behind). …
I’m also wondering [about] ANGELS, in the theatrical sense of people who ensure that ‘the ghost walks’. I feel this is beginning to shape into something that might make a workable puzzle even if at present it lacks that wow factor that a Pepper transformation would give it.
Just a recap of other theatrical ghosts: Ibsen’s Ghosts, Wilde’s The Canterville Ghost, Phantom Of The Opera, Banquo, Hamlet senior , Coward’s Blithe Spirit … there must be loads more…
| 13 April 2010 07:47:04 | ||
… [Back to Pepper . At this stage, I was still assuming normal square grid.] : What letters can be inverted? BCDEH etc look the same so little disguise involved in inverting them. But a sideways reflection (AHIM…) has the nice property of making something become apparent after reflection. I thought, wouldn’t it be nice if some theatrical ghost-name could be reversed in this way. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t find one amongst the MOUTH-TO-MOUTHs, TIMOTHY’s (allowing Y) and so on. But there IS the theatrical TUO YAW of course … even if [not] ghostly.
…
So, this is still a bit out of focus, but … a strong theatrical theme with THEGHOSTWALKS, one or more theatrical ghosts moving across the grid, TUO YAW as a possible nod to Pepper’s ghost, possibly ANGELS (as theatrical backers allowing the ghost to walk), to CORPSE, possible Shakespeare quotes ( “moves like a ghost” and ” ghosts, wandering here and there”.), the word SHADE as an instruction…So lots of material. [It’s not] QUITE gelled yet but not far off perhaps…
Further ghostly musings
| 20 April 2010 11:18:11 | |
… I’m finding I’m sleeping very lightly, with the tender neck and all, but it means the charybdis part of my brain was fairly active in the wee small hours while I was trying to get some sound kip. Accordingly when I woke up properly this morning I’d got an unresolved web of thoughts that unfortunately won’t gel. This revolved around
Pepper – ghost – MOTH [MOTH being reflectable, and ‘ghost moth’ existing as a phrase] (moth being one of TITAnIA’s fairies)
MUsTArdseed (another fairy) – pepper. ‘season’ed professionals???
[but VInegAr and sAlT lead nowhere much and what happened to the ghost anyway?]
Anyway that all led nowhere.
There might be something in this though (also sleepy musings):
If ‘the ghost walks’, I still like the idea of a reflection, à la Pepper, in the grid involving reflectable letters and the ghost being the wrong way round and therefore not obvious in the grid until reflected.
But the words THEgHOsT are themselves mostly amenable to this reflection. [I had a total mental block about seeing E has no left/right symmetry throughout this period and beyond!] And what letters are left? G&S.
And is there a ghost in G&S? Yep. In Ruddigore. In Act 2 the ghost does indeed walk.
…
The (main) ghost’s name is not alas very conducive [to reflection]: sIr rOderIc MUrgATrOYd
… I’m imagining an L-shaped grid … Central to the top-left area a vertical row of mainly empty cells: _ _ _ G _ _ S _. Central to the bottom-right area a ‘matching’ horizontal row of cells: T_OH_EHT (which looks suitably innocent). In the bottom-left area, on the rising diagonal, perhaps PEPPER … or MIRROR. And the solver’s task would be to transfer the T_OH_EHT to the vertical so that THEGHOST appears vertically.
I think there is the germ of something workable here, even though … my layout would give the transferred letters lying on their sides, if you see what I mean. On the other hand the L arrangement … somewhat resembles the Pepper’s ghost mechanics. Perhaps solvers can be told that all final letters should be considered to be in normal orientation? Clunky, and also, in that case, why bother with reflectable letters in the first place? Hmm… Maybe I haven’t quite thought this through…. Is something possible with actually folding the L-grid along the mirror line into a 3-d model? I can’t quite get my head around it. …
One further thought (or two)
| 20 April 2010 12:22:33 | |
… which is that the L-grid … could be rotated to a V-grid … [with a] vertical mirrorline. Cells would be diamonds but letters would be entered on a slope towards the centre. Reflections would then be correctly oriented.
… Aaarghh! No. [The order of the letters] was supposed to be reversed so [‘THE GHOST’] emerges only in the dénouement.
No, hang on. All right. NOT a V-grid but a 90 degree rotation (getting back to an understage). Oh, spit. [!] That doesn’t work either does it? No. Starting to think about this a bit more logically, for a change, the letters have a vertical line of symmetry. Therefore the mirrorline has to be vertical. Therefore, if we have optically ‘correct’ reflections you can’t reverse the sequence. Oh,well. Still not the end of the world, nor of the puzzle.
STOP PRESS! an improbable anagram – almost
| 20 April 2010 16:25:53 |
…[Focussing on] the (otherwise unspecified) ghost that moves [being specifically] SIR RODERIC MURGATROYD, … [I considered] maybe a ‘hidden’ anagram of SIR RODERIC (RECORD IRIS is ok but not that promising) swapping with MURGATROYD (YOGURT DRAM at least matches 6,4) the results also getting rearranged (in other words ‘the ghost walks’) to form SIR RODERIC MURGATROYD en clair in the grid while hopefully still ending up with real words after the transformations.
HOWEVER, we’ve already got ‘THE GHOST’ reflecting so maybe this was redundant anyway. I then wondered about an anagram of the full 20 letters and after considering extracting the theatrically thematic DIRECTOR I had a little frisson when I realised I could actually extract RUDDIGORE!!! I could hardly believe it. Furthermore you can get RUDDIGORE + MIRROR + CAST with a leftover Y.
That is ALMOST spooky!
MIRROR, of course, we might have wanted in the grid anyway and CAST is a pretty theatrical word but what about the leftover Y?
OK. So how about the V-grid becoming a Y-grid! :-) (I’m thinking of an asymmetric capital Y y only with a right-angle between the two arms)
Although this is a pretty unusual grid-shape, it fits really really well with the Pepper’s ghost idea. If the tail of the y is the auditorium this gives the most accurate diagram yet. It defines the G&S being on the right arm of what was the V with extra letters of THE_HO_T being initially on the left arm and ready to reflect into position.
I don’t know what you feel but I suddenly feel rather excited by this! RUDDIGORE+MIRROR+CAST+Y! … I suppose we must have MIRROR on a vertical ‘diagonal’, ruddigore unclued in the grid (perhaps hidden?) and cast ditto, and the writing of the ghost’s full name (to be confirmed by the anagram) to be written beneath the grid?…
| 21 April 2010 06:00:09 |
… Charybdis has been nagging me again all night [just a manner of speaking: I’m not that deranged] and for a bit of peace and quiet I eventually got up to tinker with that first draft of the grid.
In the course of doing this I stumbled onto what I think … has to be the correct (i.e. necessary) grid dimensions. Branches have to be exactly 6-wide for MIRROR to work, and top branches have to be at least 8-long for THEGHOST to be hidden in the wings …. More than 8-long makes the grid unnecessarily large … The audience area COULD be longer to emphasise the now-necessary Y-ness of it but any smaller would make it less Y-like …
In this attached grid (05) I’ve added TUO YAW in an appropriate place, and also GODS and ANGELS because it amused me. [They didn’t survive the gridfill, alas.] … GODS are correctly positioned to indicate the back of the audience area, and CAST to indicate the stage area (and of course, the MIRROR in between).
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I’ve gone for a clash of PEPPER/MIRROR, to be resolved by the solver by discovering the anagram … Not necessarily the right way to go…
One thing that concerns me is … giving the whole reflection game away too easily. … It would be very easy to blow it by getting the solving requirements wrong. I feel it has three ‘special’ features which make it potentially good 1) the grid layout, a Y being just what’s needed for Pepper 2) the reflection of symmetrical letters that makes the ghost appear accurately (i.e. optically) and 3) the anagram. It’s 2) & 3) I’m worried about ‘giving away’ too easily. Perhaps it’s time to consider if clueing might include some extra message …
Oops! a slight hiccup
| 21 April 2010 20:31:17 |
Oh blow. I’ve only just realised [at long long last!] that the E of ‘THE GHOST’ has the wrong symmetry to reflect across. It’s not the end of the puzzle … but … I’m not yet sure how to get round it. Maybe my brain got a little addled!
An unsatisfactory but possible option is for solvers to deduce the E. Not very convincing.
Or to have the E, along with G&S already in situ, which spoils the G&S nudge towards RUDDIGORE.
Or to drop the THE bit and just have GHOST, which is a bit lame and misses the start of the thematic phrase THE GHOST WALKS – though I suppose THE could appear elsewhere in the grid.
OR – ah, this might be better! – to have _ _ E (to become THE) as three unched cells, two of which are blank, and G_ _S_ as an unclued light so we can retain the G&S hint referenced to this particular light. I think that’ll do it.
Which reminds me, I now think solvers should have to work to find RUDDIGORE (and perhaps CAST too) in the grid. The attached grid (06) shows what I mean …
| 21 April 2010 21:11:36 |
… Just occurred to me that we must drop the E in (e.g.) THe wHO, now. [Correlate of THegHOsT]… The onus is now firmly on solver to go from G&S to finding RUDDIGORE and thence to SIR RODERIC MURGATROYD and, after MIRROR and Y finding and highlighting CAST as the final element to complete the anagram.
Up with the lark
| 22 April 2010 06:45:32 |
… I’ve tinkered a little more [with the grid] and … included a second draft of the preamble…
The top rectangle will be trickiest as I think new words appearing WOULD be appropriate …as a confirmation that THE GHOST is right.
… I’ve referenced CAST up-front now (rather than hidden on diagonal in grid version 07) as that’s the least exciting bit of the anagram – like introducing the butler quietly in a whodunnit.
Conversely… MIRROR doesn’t appear at all (rather appropriately for a Pepper’s ghost!) until solvers get an ‘extra letters’ message. Instead, we have PEPPER, to be discovered by the solver and sufficient for them, given Chambers and the by-now established theatrical context to do the reflecting. …
By the way, I’m not convinced I’ve done the right thing having TUOYAW there, much as I like it. I suppose there’s always the option of keeping it, entirely unched, as a sort of Nina in-joke…
A mini-thoughtlet about clueing
| 23 April 2010 11:55:21 |
… that it might be nice to generate extra letters from clues by solvers having to ADD a letter to the clue to make it work. This might nicely accord with the ghost’s appearance.
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30 April 2010 12:31:32 |
… I’m not 100% convinced I’ve gone the right way suggesting erasing PEPPER and replacing with MIRROR, but I’m 90% there. It is a good way of drawing attention to the position of Pepper so solvers can ‘reflect’ on its significance there while leaving the word MIRROR as a (hopefully) satisfying dénouement. …
Phantom of the Opera
| 02 May 2010 09:58:45 |
Only just realised (D’oh!) that this Ruddigore stuff takes us back full circle to Phantom of the Opera, which we were considering ages ago, weren’t we? I’m not actually sure there’s a good way of working this back into the puzzle … (I see from Googling that the phantom of the opera’s name was Erik).
Ploy generously agreed to my carrying on with the puzzle as a solo project from this point on, i.e. the gridfill and clueing. We have every intention of Harpy reappearing in the future though!
Following Elint’s extremely helpful observations on the puzzle, I made various amendments the most obvious of which was the curved adjustment to the base of the grid so that TUO YAW accurately reflected horizontally to WAY OUT (rather than the original inaccurate reflection of TUO YAW on the down-sloping diagonal). A very useful WAY OUT of a remaining difficulty this was too!