Nasty Surprise? … a setter’s tale by Ploy
In early April 2011, the idea occurred to me that it would be fun to set a Magpie puzzle that would appear to have The Beatles as its theme, but that would actually be about spoof band The Rutles. Almost immediately, the possibility of exploiting “All You Need Is Love/Cash” suggested itself, and I’d decided to have the snare hinge on the slightly differing numbers of letters in the group members’ names. One of these would be the “Wrong Number”, as would All You Need Is Love.
Getting all eight names into the grid, with those of The Rutles symmetrically placed, took a while, but soon the puzzle was complete and ready for test solving. Appended to my test solver’s ever-helpful comments (thank you!) was a recommendation to have a go at Mash’s “May Fool” puzzle in the recently published May Magpie. This brought to light the bizarre coincidence that two “not The Beatles” puzzles were around at the same time! I’d no idea what the Magpie editors would make of it, but submitted my puzzle anyway, with a suggestion that early vetting might be helpful. Not only were they happy to publish it hot on the heels of Mash’s excellent puzzle, but also arranged to feature a genuine AYNIL puzzle in the same issue.
Comments from solvers show that some didn’t spot the numerical discrepancy, or proposed another justification for it, and so never found the true theme. Those who did clearly enjoyed the attempted misdirection. I think my favourite of the descriptions used was “mischievous”. Anyone minded to comment “Oh no, not another Beatles puzzle” in future, might consider keeping “Oh no, not another not The Beatles puzzle” in reserve, just in case!
A few years ago I met Neil Innes, the creative force behind The Rutles’ music, and he kindly autographed the cover of my Rutles vinyl album – twice. First as himself, and then as his alter ego Ron Nasty, with the message “Sod Off”. Thanks to his collaboration with Eric Idle, the “Prefab Four” have an extensive back catalogue, a feature-length video, and have toured as a live band.
My thanks to the solvers who took time to comment, and to the Magpie editorial team for accepting and publishing this puzzle so readily. For more on The Rutles, http://www.rutles.org/ is worth a visit, and there’s also a good Wikipedia entry.
September 26th, 2011 at 10:38 am
Great puzzle, many thanks.
Only those who lived through it can truly appreciate the mould-breaking impact of Rutlemania on our mores and culture. But let’s not forget that the Rutles concept was in part scooped many years earlier by FZ&MOI’s “We’re Only in It For the Money”.
September 26th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
I really enjoyed this … and construction was very elegant. A Rutles fan, so not hard to spot them (and perhaps it was true that Mash’s deception was fresh in the mind – too clever for me – or, at least, I was unaware of the fact that Brian May’s guitars had names). Many thanks, Ploy !