C'est La Vie

Submitted to Crossword Club in the wake of our début, Middle Classes, C'est La Vie draws its inspiration from the literary world. This time it is Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr, a novel which constantly repeats 'so it goes' throughout, a phrase which lends itself to the title of this puzzle.

The task for the solver, then, is to omit every instance of SO and IT wherever they occur in clue answers prior to entry into the grid. One such omission inadvertently leaves the letters IT closed up together at 26 down. In order to maintain consistency, solvers were required to omit these two letters also, leaving their squares blank.

Misprints in clue definitions spell out

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE KURT VONNEGUT SO IT GOES

Slaughterhouse 5  regularly appears in ‘must read’ lists on both sides of the Atlantic and in 2013, one half of this setting duo did just that.  As the book begins, “All this happened, more or less”.    Our two publications in Crossword to date have both (inadvertently) been arguably our toughest two puzzles so far.  This may be considered to be thematically consistent with the book in this instance, which could equally be described as a difficult read.  While essentially sci-fi in nature, it dwells on difficult issues in our past, not least the Dresden bombings and the treatment of prisoners of war in the eponymous building.  The “So it goes” motif is used wherever death, dying and mortality occur as both a subject change and light relief, apparently 179 times (we haven't counted them!).

We are grateful to the 36 solvers who provided comments, bemoaning or lauding the difficulty.  The final step was correctly identified by most as a final (exhausted) “So, IT goes” and removing the first two characters from 26 down, although no-one commented upon our tongue-in-cheek “IMPREGNABLY” that appears as a result.

The puzzle was of course, made all the more tricky by the incorrect misprint indicator at 2d (which fortunately was otherwise a simple ‘hidden’ clue), that survived pretty much unscathed from first draft to final publication.  As Mr Vonnegut appositely puts it, "There is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre."  We can only apologise for this aberration.  So it goes!

And those comments:

I cannot see how 2dn can give a correct letter of T for KURT. 21 across is hardly fair.  Much harder than the other “C’est La Vie”

Unusual words, tricky misprints and unexpected theme made it difficult to get started (and to finish)

Very difficult for second puzzle. Excellent

Required sustained painstaking effort, but well worth it. Not sure about some of the correct versions – 2D and 21D for example.  And in 17D, Quito is a place near a great ring??

Can’t parse 2D.  Where is the T of KURT?  Nor can I see what extra letters at 14D & 17D between title and what he wrote.  Still managed to complete it OK.

Fiendishly difficult.  Possibly more so than the No.1.  Is 2 down accurate?  KURW??? ‘So it goes’ – not strictly accurate so or it …  Bit stretched therefore and I’ve obviously missed the point of the final sentence of the preamble.

Very tough but satisfying to end.  Thrown by the difficulty at 2Dn.  Surely TICAL is a weight and ‘Kurt’ requires a ‘t’.

Certainly the puzzles this month had things in common.  Dispiritingly, one key similarity was that once you’d worked out the gimmick (or been told it) you knew that the last few were likely to take almost as long as the rest of the puzzle.  It rather went that way here.  I had –AUGHT- and –ONNE- quite early, and managed to connect them.  Some nice words and clues, but a slog at the end always lowers the rating.  I can’t see how 2D provides a T, - a W, yes, but not a T.

None can say the second puzzle is easier!  Lots of PDMs like the lone B in 5 down.  I am still confused about 2 down.

Don’t understand 2 d’s misprint – indicates W instead of T?  Minor quibble – 16a – a fungus is not a plant – FUNGI have a kingdom all to themselves.  Otherwise – very nice.

Excellent, even though I am uncertain about 2 down!

I don’t normally make any comments about 1s and 2s, but surely this was not a number two.  2 down is presumably wrong (WEIGHS not HEIGHT?).  1ac & 5ac were the last clues to be solved (Z not O in 5ac).  17 down is QUITO, but I don’t know why (great ring?)  Many thanks

I couldn’t find misprints for 14d and 17d

That must be the most difficult puzzle I have succeeded in solving.  Obscure clues, obscure words as solutions, an obscure author of a book I do not fancy reading.  Took sheer grit to keep on trying…

Thematic survivor?  No idea.  Didn’t understand 2 down

What a relief after MynoT’s offering!  But once again, there seems to be an error in one of the down clues – 2Dn surely leads to ‘correct’ letter W, whereas a T is required if the author’s name is to be correctly spelt.  But at least everything is complete and explained when the theme is finally discovered.

I admire the construction, but the final step, if I’ve got it right, seems a bit contrived and anti-climactic.  Not certain of a few of the misprints:  I originally had K in 21ac, noting a battle at Brecknock, but it seems to be a polling station, and my SF associates assure me the author is KURT VON…  but I can only get a W from 2 dn, not the required T.  Never heard of the work, the author, or the phrase in context.  I don’t think I’ve missed anything thereby.

What is the misprint in 2D?

I enjoyed grappling with this but now I have an uneasy feeling that I must be missing something.  I hope my answers are right even when I haven’t understood the clues.  I’ve omitted the letters IT which appear in order once in the grid (rather than OR which appear twice) but what is the point of asking us to do that?  Thanks anyway

This was mega-difficult, even for a ‘first’ – far trickier than the actual ‘first’.  I was on the point of giving up several times and then the odd penny dropped.  Last entry PERLITE.

I haven’t read the book, but had heard of it’s use of the phrase, fortunately.  Doesn’t 2Dn give W not T?

I found this much harder than MynoT’s puzzle, particularly in the early stages.  It was a long but satisfying tussle to finish it.  I must admit I am not familiar with Slaughterhouse Five.  The misprints for 14d and 17d elude me, so I am one word short of what must be the phrase.  ‘Or’ seems the obvious word, but I cannot make it fit the misprints or gain any confirmation for it on the internet.  The final erasure took a little time to understand – for which I kick myself.  One can only admire the grid composition.

Took ages to get started, but had a lot of fun.  I can’t quite get the right misprint in 2 down.  I make the right letter ‘W’ which then gives the poor chap ‘KURW’ for a name. (I thought ‘WEIGHS’ instead of ‘Height’ would so, making the ‘S’ (misprint) into a T, but I expect I’m wrong).  Super puzzle anyway, & kept me amused for ages!  Not sure if I’ve erased the right thing, that’s life isn’t it?

Tres bien! Re 2D: KURW? TEIGHT?

An interesting puzzle on a theme that’s completely new to me.  I know that traditionally the second puzzle is meant to be easier but for me this was as tough if not tougher than MynoT’s offering.  The final stage especially had me scratching my head trying to find a character from the book in the grid.  Hopefully I got there in the end, but I’m not at all sure.

There seems to be an error in the clue to 2D – the correct letter for the misprinted definition is surely W, but this gives KURW as the author’s first name.  Didn’t understand the wordplay at 17D and 23D.

I came belatedly to Slaughterhouse Five just a few years ago when I went to Dresden for a conference and thought that I ought to catch up with it.  Had I not read it I am not sure that I would have tumbled to the theme here so easily, but it took only two thematic lights to show the way, after which if fell out relatively easily.  Interesting how many SOs and Its remained in the grid in reverse after solving.  I count two SOs and four ITs.

This was tricky – not knowing which f the 25 needed amendment and whether it would be SO, IT or both omitted added to the task.  It needed t’internet to get the quote, thought he novel & author appeared fairly early on.  What happens @ 2D?  I wanted ‘T’ as the correct letter.  I don’t understand 1D.  Quite a slog!

I can’t see the misprint in 2 down – it ought to be a ‘t’ (to give KURT) but only’w’ (‘weight’ needed for definition).  Also, after repeated examination of the grid I can’t see any survivor who needs to be erased as stated in the preamble.

Found this hard work and a while to recognise the book (which I know).  Lord knows whether or not I have erased the right item.  2D should produce a K but I can’t see how.

I tackled this before Mynot’s puzzle and never having read Slaughterhouse Fice, found it quite a struggle, though an enjoyable one.  Any crossword which includes the wonderful BRECKNOCK scores high marks from me.  I presume the thematic survivor to be erased is the IT at the beginning of 26 down (Ed – it is) and found this a bit unsatisfactory until reaching the, possibly entirely erroneous conclusion that RON and the S_MEN appear in the book.  I’m almost ashamed to admit my ignorance, but we all have our blind spots, and mine are bigger and more numerous than yours, so there.

We have found this very difficult indeed.  Early solves showed us (because of long anagrams) that solutions were being cut short and it was eventually clear that SO was going (IT came later) but the very obscure early clues means that SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE appeared very late in our solve.  There were some pretty convoluated clues and very odd surface readings.  To say that this was tough is an understatement, but thanks to Eclogue for keeping us busy!  PS Is there an error in 2Dn>  We can only find Weight – no T.

Despite spotting the thematic requirements early, the work & author were unfamiliar, so not so easy to anticipate misprints.  Very enjoyable.  This was probably my favourite of the pair this month.

I nearly gave up, as the hardest ;’second’ ever – but I just had enough to suggest ‘SLAUGHTER’ in the title and then Google gave it all away!  Event hen it was far from easy.  Misprint in 2Down seems wrong?

Couldn’t identify the thematic survivor, although 26 became one…  Wikipedia was vague about the ‘phrase’.  Couldn’t fina  T in 2, or an O in 14.  The answer for the latter is an adjective, but the clue defintes a noun.  Didn’t ‘note a certain similarity’ either…

Having solved these puzzles in a French Pyrenean mountain village, with no access to the iNterney, and having no knowledge of the work, we do not see the significance of ‘C’est La Vie!’ at the ned of the preamble.  Also we have KURW rather thant he required KURT, since we rejected HEIGHT in favour of WEIGHT – couldn’t fit a T anywhere.

Nightmare

For Eclogue's second outing in the Sunday Telegraph Enigmatic Variations series, we have a puzzle entitled "Nightmare".   It's probably too early to tell, but with two puzzles both having 'difficulty'-type titles, the other being "Taxing", there may be something of a theme developing here.

The fodder for this particular puzzle is a slim volume that has sat invitingly on Logogriph's book-shelf for quite some time, so it is perfect for the occasional London commute.  The tale is unlike the Father Brown stories, which GK Chesterton wrote later in his career, centring on a 'reds in the bed' type precept whereby the protagonist, GABRIEL SYME, infiltrates a secret organisation who allegedly plan anarchic destruction of all that is right and proper in the world.  The top-level committee of this shady outfit use days of the week as pseudonyms and our hero (if that is indeed the right word) manages to win a vote to become the new 'Thursday'.

The book was criticised after publication for the 'it was all a dream' style of ending, but the writer responded that by subtitling it "A Nightmare" this was very clearly the intention and that readers obviously forgot this fact by the time they reached the end of the volume.

Now, Eclogue like lateral links and while Solomon Grundy would appear the obvious suggestion, there is now a latter-day, far more appealing connection in the shape of Chief Inspector Fred Thursday in the superb ITV Morse prequel 'Endeavour', splendidly played by ROGER ALLAM.  It may be possible to take these parallels further in that both are bastions of the right and good order of things, in a world pervading with corruption and deceit, and so both have had to occasionally resort to more under-hand tactics in order to create a more level playing field.

The nightmare itself enabled the potential for a different approach to the letter-generating gimmick.  This time one or more consecutive words in each clue were to be anagrammed to provide one word as part of the clue before solving.  The initial letter of this word would provide the required letter contributing to a message for the solver leading to the 'actor who played Chief Inspector Fred (Thursday) Endeavour' omitting the themeword Thursday.  ROGER (E) ALLAM would originally appear at 6 down and cut across by the unclued GK CHESTERTON.  This name and the themeword should lead solvers to 'The Man Who Was Thursday' and therefore the replacement of the actor with the literary lead in the grid.  The subtitle of this work is 'A Nightmare'.

The elegance of some of the anagrams used was much appreciated by solvers and were ingeniously compiled by Eclipse (SATURNALIA for AUSTRALIAN, EGLANTINE for INELEGANT, DOVETAIL for VIOLATED, being among the highlights).

We received some very positive feedback for this puzzle, both on sites such as Answerbank as well as directly through the kind forwarding of the EV editor, Chris Lancaster.  We were particularly keen on the additional link identified by Crossword Centre stalwart, Trevor Crowther, who spotted that treating the title thematically would yield RIGHT NAME - a fact that had rather passed us by in construction, but is an all the more welcome discovery in hindsight.

What particularly appeals to Eclogue about puzzles like this, and judging from feedback, solvers too, is the use of real words in the final grid following substitution and this is a trend we very much hope to perpetuate.

Logogriph went through a bit of a Chesterton phase in 2013 (Napoleon of Notting Hill, The Man Who Was Thursday and some Father Brown stories) and potentially has other ideas from Chesterton's works in the 'potential' pile, but even if these don't come to fruition, the books themselves (once you get used to the style) are a very interesting read.

Emails and comments received:-

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Eclogue are masters at clever themes, and this one had me wandering around Morse etc but was very neat and delightfully executed in the end.  NIGHTMARES - you have to get RIGHT NAMES.  Ha ha.  The top half of the grid was quite straight through, so I got to Chesterton but then had a right battle with the bottom half.  It gave way in the end, but my particular nightmares were finding 30D as VARE and if I read it correctly the rather unfair use of 'a' to generate ARE in 29A.

There was a nice mixture of some easy-to-spot and some very elusive anagrams like 'development' in 25D.

I certainly had to websearch the last step, but I do hope that people don't witter on again and learn to like finding things out.  These guys' effort for the Crossword Centre certainly gave me more knowledge than I had thought plausible about Brussels sprouts.

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We don't always get round to solving the EV, though we should, and I originally downloaded this from the Telegraph site as the solution to my 'Hard Graft' was on the page and I wondered who had won, and what it looked like and so on.

The Eclogue preamble caught my attention and was clearly referring to what seemed to me to be a new device and I was hooked. A quick read through revealed some lovely anagrams (SATURNALIA for AUSTRALIAN, CARTIER for ERRATIC, MUTILATE for ULTIMATE, DOVETAIL for VIOLATED) and some clues led to immediate solves. As Chris knows, I very strongly believe that there should be a few very easy clues to hold out the bait to solvers - the clue to PANSPERMIST was one of those and so beautifully placed that it helped with the solve and encouraged us to continue in what was a fairly difficult set of clues.

It was the anagrams that were magic with some like EGLANTINE (INELEGANT) leading to the ROSE/ROES homophone producing a broad smile. There were clearly a couple of very imaginative and astute setters at work here. I work in three cruciverbalist teams and know how fraught the experience can be so a big bravo for the team work.

We were probably half way through our solve when we teased out the message that we were looking for ACTOR WHO PLAYED CHIEF INSPECTOR (Thursday?) FROM ENDEAVOUR. I might have got that wrong as we couldn't sort out the wordplay to produce an O in clue 17down. However, it was enough to send us to the Internet to find ROGER ALLAM.

'GK? ' I said to Charles. 'Nothing begins with that!' 'G.K.Chesterton does!' He replied and when we looked up 'The Man Who was Thursday', we got a lovely picture of the original text with 'Nightmare' on the cover. so we were almost home. Of course, we needed the Internet to find GABRIEL SYME and there was that very satisfactory final move when all the words were still real.

Great stuff, thanks to both.

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Nice puzzle with a new gimmick in the clues BUT I had to do a lot of research on the internet.  GKC’s Man Who Was Thursday I knew but the actors and the character involved I had never heard of, and took some finding.  Without the internet I would never have solved it, which I think is a pity.

 

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22 1D 1As?

There has been something of a break in both crossword compilation and publication for Eclogue and then all of a sudden, three come along in quick succession (22 1D 1As in 1 Across, C'est La Vie! in the Crossword Club and Nightmare in the Sunday Telegraph Enigmatic Variations series).

It was probably inevitable that a football themed crossword would roll out of the Eclogue stable at some point.  For the record, Logogriph is a Southampton supporter, so are noted as one of only eight teams ever to have won the FA Cup from a division below the top flight;  Eclipse is a Birmingham fan, so can't lay claim to the same feat, so for the sake of balance, his true alter ego made it into the grid also.

This puzzle represents something of a departure for Eclogue in the shape of a blocked grid  (the only other one to date being 'Henpecked' in the Magpie) and also in the use of 'normal' cryptic clues for the most part. No message was to be produced, so no misprints or any other such device was needed.

Instead, the nicknames of the eight teams were undefined and the theme loosely defined elsewhere in the answers indicated in the title, namely that these teams were, FA CUP(22) B(E)LEAGUER(1D) BEATER(1A)S!

The FA Cup

In the solution notes, Eclogue helpfully provided the full list of the official names (and a little more information besides).

At the time of going to press, Eclogue has yet to receive any feedback for this puzzle, but would be delighted to receive all and any comments from 1 Across subscribers who joined in our (hopefully) beautiful game.

Who's The Daddy?

In a previous blog posting, we suggested that if you ever saw a bespectacled commuter travelling on the 8.56am train between Winchester and London Waterloo reading a slim volume of a seemingly obscure work, it could well be Logogriph researching the next Eclogue project.  The advice would've been well-heeded as, in the search for something light-weight for the journey, "Burning Bright", a play-novelette by John Steinbeck came to hand.  (Yes, Logogriph has yet to join the Kindle revolution, preferring the physical exertion of turning pages to looking at a screen, which forms far too much of his existence already). 

Although it is nowhere near as famous as "The Grapes of Wrath" or the more size-wise similar "Of Mice and Men", it does possess the same flow and dialogue style of those works for which John Steinbeck is better recognised.  It seems only fair to warn our solver in Skelmersdale, that Logogriph has several similar volumes, but no plans yet with respect to Sweet Thursday, Tortilla Flat or similar, but who knows?

The main characters in the book are Joe Saul and Mordeen, a married couple, Friend Ed, their long-time friend and Victor, Joe's assistant. The ageing Saul is desperate for a child and Mordeen, suspecting he is infertile and in order to fulfil his wish, becomes pregnant by Victor. When Joe later discovers he is indeed infertile and the child cannot be his, he is helped through the crisis by Friend Ed.

The introduction page cites the William Blake poem "The Tyger" and there's nothing that Eclogue like more than two potentially inter-connected themes.

The book's title is taken from William Blake's poem The Tyger and misprints in the clues spell out the second and fourth lines of the poem. In the initial grid WILLIA_MBLAKE appears at 25 across and this must be replaced by JOHNSTEINBECK in the final grid. Lastly, three of Steinbeck's main characters (JOE SAUL, MORDEEN and FRIEND ED) were to be highlighted in the grid and below the grid must be written the answer to the question 'Who's The Daddy?' - VICTOR, an apt description for the successful solver.

It has been interesting to read comments from solvers who struggle to Google an appropriate title or author.  Many were seemingly held up by trying for TIGER rather than Blake's spelling of TYGER, which would have eliminated a lot of possibilities, or by some rather more recent incarnations of the "Burning Bright" title by among others TRACY CHEVALIER, but these were either too long, too short or didn't allow for real words to appear in the final grid.  Indeed, JOHN STEINBECK provided two of the letters of the characters to be highlighted specifically to confirm the correctness of that outcome.

Eclogue much prefer puzzles that have some degree of ingenuity that indicates that the setter has had to go to some efforts to produce the challenge before the solver, and particularly enjoys those that have some form of grid manipulation as an outcome, especially when the result still yields dictionary-found solutions.  With electronic aids, it is becoming too easy to churn out vanilla puzzles, which while nice enough, don't quite have that sparkle to be memorable.  We're not saying that ours necessarily achieve this, but that is what we aspire to.

The other aspect for us is to provide something that a solver doesn't know.  Our crosswords aren't designed to be an exam or a pub-quiz where knowledge can be repeated by rote, but to allow solvers to explore something hopefully new and enjoy the discovery that may result.  It was a Listener many years ago, based on the Five Tailors by Dorothy L Sayers, for example that introduced Logogriph to a queen of crime-writing and similar nuggets have been acquired over the years since.  The inquisitive mind will always read around the subject, explore new avenues and who knows, share that knowledge with others.  All very Fahrenheit 451 (which we've already done as a puzzle in the Magpie!) but you get the idea.

Not that nearly forgotten literature is our only source of inspiration, as hopefully you will soon discover.  Logogriph also does a lot of work with LOCO, the London Comedy Film Festival, through which there is a veritable gold mine of potential material, but maybe some of that is just a little too obscure.  It is however a great way to brighten up what is described as the most depressing week of the year at the end of January (2014 festival just finished, but they hold events throughout the year)- http://locofilmfestival.com/

Published on 18th January 2014 in the Independent as Inquisitor 1317, Who's The Daddy? is our third submission to this series.

Seasons Greetings V

Continuing Eclogue's almost traditional Christmas contribution to Derek Harrison's Crossword Centre, Seasons Greetings V is perhaps somewhat tamer than its immediate predecessor in this Yuletide roll.

It's that time of the year again, although by the time this reaches the cyber-inter-thingy it'll actually be a long-distant memory, stirred only by the ghost-of-credit-card-bills-to-come.  As the less-than-inspirational title confirms, this is the fifth year that Eclogue has provided seasonal fodder for the Crossword Centre.  We've Walked backwards for Christmas, completed a Christmas Card, dabbled our toes on Christmas Island and had more than our fill of Brussels Sprouts.  So where do we head this year?   Enter stage left, Messrs Skellington and the Boogie Man, to provide the pantomime backdrop to connect the similarities between Frankincense and the Mary Shelley classic.

In constructing the grid, this time Eclogue went for the Left-Right double-clue technique, another first for them.   Although, we can't remember who the puzzle was by, the inspiration came from a Left-Right puzzle that used TITTLE-TATTLE as 1 across, which we think appeared in the Crossword Club, many years ago.

With reference to Tim Burton's film The Nightmare Before Christmas, misprints in clues spelt out NIGHTMARE BEFORE XMAS - the nightmare here being FRANKENSTEIN therefore apearing in the left-hand side of the grid before FRANKINCENSE (representing Christmas) appearing in the right-hand side.  What made this idea more effective was having a high-degree of similarity between the lights on each side, particularly as FIDDLE-FADDLE, differing by only 1 letter, provides little in the way of help.

It is probably the film that most people remember, but we can heartily recommend the original poem whose YouTube link was kindly provided in the comments (number 4 below).

One correspondent had previously expressed concern at the possible glut of traditional fare in crosswords appearing around Christmas, so a nod in that direction was included in the clue at 20ac:

"Nasal glow eccentric's seen reflected being almost certainly a trial once (5,5)"

which was an attempt to conjure up an image of some hackneyed red-nosed creature but no-one seems to have latched on to this.

There were 52 correct entries (54 if you include the compilers) and just 7 wrong, albeit these look like post-prandial typos rather than anything more serious, with only one entrant opting to put the apparent 'horrors' of Christmas in the left hand side, preferring to side with the Mary Shelley creation for their festive repast.

 We received 33 comments for SG5 and really are rather pleased by the reaction to this one, maybe the season of goodwill did indeed encompass all cruciverbalists in 2013!

So will Eclogue squeeze out an SG6 in 2014 - only time will tell, but even if we can't, through Noel Fatigue (a pathological desire never to have to sit through an episode of "Deal, or No Deal" ever again!) or whatever, then we're delighted you enjoyed the journey.  Yo Ho Ho!

Comments:-

1          Thanks to Eclogue for an amusing puzzle.

2          Thematic 1D's highlighted in festive  seasonal colours, just because. Also, I object to referring to Frankenstein as a nightmare, when he was mostly just misunderstood.

3          A bit of festive fun, though we might have left it till Xmas.

4          Please pass on my thanks to Eclogue for a very enjoyable Christmas puzzle.  If you are not familiar with the theme you might enjoy this version of Tim Burton’s original poem read by Christopher Lee.  It is only lasts about 10 minutes and is fun to watch:

The Nightmare Before Christmas

5          Very enjoyable. I really liked the theme of the two Franks.  Thank you.

6          I enjoyed your Christmas Special. Thanks for the entertainment.

7          Good stuff!

8          Another really enjoyable puzzle from Eclogue thanks. Sod's law of course I guessed and got it the wrong way around first time!  I would say that I look forward to next year but they are coming around too fast as it is.

9          We enjoyed this entertaining puzzle by Eclogue. Frankenstein appeared very early in our solve but we couldn't believe our eyes, as he hadn't much to do with Christmas, so we kept on puzzling until the penny dropped and Frankincense appeared. Of course we had the two sets of words (or at least, the second half of the sets) on the wrong sides of the grid. It was amusing the way [they] deliberately confused us with similar words in the two sets. Nice one, thanks to Eclogue.

10        A very clever piece of work.

11         Thoroughly enjoyable seasonal puzzle; thanks to Eclogue.

12        I liked this one very much, especially the very original grid… I always enjoy Eclogue's solid clueing and original grids. Some of the misprinting in this one were extremely clever and well-disguised.  My only concern is the phrase in the preamble "When viewing the grid in conventional order," which I understood to mean that the misprints would produce the title in the order of clue entry, rather than the order listed, ie that a misprint in clue 2 might be after 3,4 or 5, if said misprinted definition was the right-hand 2. In the event, this was not the case. What was this phrase intended to add?

13        This puzzle from Eclogue was a lot of fun, much helped by guessing Frankenstein quite early, which in turn led to the misprint message. Many thanks to the setter.

14        Finding NIGHTMARE BEFORE XMAS is not quite necessary for solution; it would have been if he'd made 10A be ITCHES rather than ITCHED, since then the bottom 7 rows could be swapped independently of the top 5.  A nice Christmas offering…  (Frankenstein was the mad scientist, not the monster, but perhaps that is more nightmarish.)

15        A gentle introduction to the festive season and none the worse for that!

16        I enjoyed it - much as I tend to with offerings from these chaps. I seem to recall that it was a fair challenge with a nice set of clues which yielded gently ... but as a long-time supporter, it was painful to be reminded of the 'shambolic Leeds side' (of which we have seen quite a few in recent years). Of course I guessed at how the grid needed to be filled, and guessed incorrectly, so a bit of shuffling was required in the closing stage.  My thanks to Eclogue.

17        A lot easier than last year's!  I was pleased to note that FIDDLEFADDLE continues a fine tradition for these L&R things.

18        Fell into place very quickly after I realised the similarity of several paired answers implied the ricochet nature of 1 across.

19        Good fun, this.  A nicely constructed grid with a clever amount of duplication between the two halves to keep me guessing where entries had to go, and an entertaining representation of the Nightmare before Xmas theme.  Thanks to Eclogue for the fun.

20       This was a nice puzzle for the occasion - simple idea that worked well and fun to solve.

21        Very entertaining.

22        Another fine and very clever grid from Eclogue, and fun to solve with just the right level of challenge.

23        Not too much of a challenge. Fortunately for me, my initial guess at what to put on each side worked out to be correct.  Thanks to Eclogue.

24        Many thanks, very entertaining.

25        A considerably easier Eclogue than last year's brassicanerie… a lot of fun to be had anyway, notwithstanding an early strike on the 1 downs which, when coupled with mis-spelling FRANKINCENSE made for some confusion on my part.

26        I found Seasons Greetings by Eclogue to be thoroughly engrossing and what we have come to expect from this setter.

27        Having failed miserably on previous Eclogue Xmas offerings, hopefully I have managed to solve one correctly!  Nice theme, well worked with some fine clues.

28       Thanks to Eclogue for Christmas fun.  I imagine writing double clues must be difficult, especially in the design of good surfaces.  10a Acted to turn tide ..., 18a Counted votes ... and 17d Senior at old tavern were excellent, but my favourite was 5d Conducted measure on top player ....  Some of the corrected letters were wonderful; mug providing feed and Clever's flip were a delight.

29           Many thanks to Eclogue for another enjoyable festive challenge. I've never attempted a 'right and left' style puzzle, let alone one with misprints, but I found the level of difficulty to be well-judged. It took a while for me to get going due to the similarity between the two halves, though I suspect this was the intention all along. I was slightly disappointed that for a 'Seasons Greetings' puzzle there was only a little Christmassy content, though this really is nit-picking in what was a fine puzzle.

 30      Seasons Greetings indeed, cottoned onto the "Nightmare before Xmas" pretty quickly, and with the Tim Burton classic being a big favourite in our house this time of year was looking for some 12 letter characters to fit the bill. No such luck, anyway, it all fell into place in the end, (after a second grid was printed out and refilled correctly).  Thanks to Eclogue for the challenge.

31        Tricky, but clever, and the film title held the two theme words together nicely.

32        When I found the two answers at 15a, 9d and 11d, I thought that fitting the answers into the grid would be more difficult than in turned out to be. I was expecting that the conventional order of the grid would give the corrections in a different order from that in which the clues were presented, and that title would be required to determine that FRANKENSTEIN should come before FRANKINCENSE.  I found the misprint in 14d the hardest to spot, since I had been satisfied with 'provide, perhaps' as the definition and so thought the misprint must be in the second clue.  I quite enjoyed the novelty of having a left-and-right grid where both sides had quite a bit in common and an unusual Christmas theme.  Thanks.

33        I can hardly believe 4 years have passed since the first of Eclogue's seasonal specials - please convey thanks to him once again for a great 'Left and Right' puzzle. The misprints in each clue spell out the title of one of my favourite Tim Burton films, the musical 'Nightmare Before Christmas', abbreviated to Xmas, suggesting that FRANKENSTEIN at 1d (left) should come before FRANKINCENSE at 1d (right). This in turn determined the correct positioning of the across clues from 10 onwards, thence all the down clues and the remaining acrosses.  Even the entries at 2 down and 9d were thematically placed to provide further confirmation of correct entries - in the end, not such a FIDDLE-FADDLE !