39 of you solved the April Cocktail puzzle, Disco Sour, with 30 solving the original puzzle within two weeks without any help. Congratulations to all! Below is the solved grid and an explanation of the final answer. A full solution, including cryptic solutions to every clue, is available for download on my Patreon page. If you haven't joined, sign up at https://www.patreon.com/negronis_cocktails, which will also give you access to future puzzles. The next Cocktail will launch on Saturday, August 8, at 4pm Eastern.
Cheers!
Negroni
33 Clues need to have one of the seven solfege syllables replaced by a single letter before solving. The DO, RE, and MI replacements all make messages in clue order (HIGHLIGHT NM, RIGHTSIDE P, and CIRCLE O). These tell you what to do with cells in the grid referred to by letters in parentheses after some clues. The rest of the replacements (FA, SOL, LA, TI) are all the letter M. Since the first message is HIGHLIGHT NM, you have to find a way to "highlight M" in addition to N, and that is to highlight the entire entry from these clues (darker in grid). Doing all this gives a visual musical representation of the classic start of the answer, BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH:
My name is Martin Reinfried, and in some circles, I
am known as Negroni. I have been writing puzzles for a long time, both
for work and for fun, and I have always been enamored of cryptic
crosswords, especially variety cryptics. I have written several
variety cryptics, some for fun, some appearing in the MIT Mystery
Hunt, and some published in the National Puzzlers League's Enigma
magazine. Most of the variety cryptics I have written can be accessed
at negroni.fun/puzzles. I am
a software engineer, and I have been a co-founder of a couple of
companies, including Shinteki, where I wrote a mobile app to run
puzzle-based events. I live in Telluride, CO with my wife Dennise and
son Max, and I look forward to providing you with a steady stream of
variety cryptic puzzles.
| Name | Solve Time | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golem | 06-13 18:28 | ||||
| 2 | JanglerNPL | 06-13 18:34 | ||||
| 3 | Tc | 06-13 18:41 | ||||
| 4 | LL | 06-13 19:56 | ||||
| 5 | Eckless | 06-13 23:24 | ||||
| 6 | DIS | 06-14 11:12 | ||||
| 7 | Dannyvee | 06-14 16:13 | ||||
| 8 | thanman2 | 06-14 18:33 | ||||
| 9 | jus10 | 06-14 20:16 | ||||
| 10 | Todd Etter | 06-14 22:37 | ||||
| 11 | JeffH | 06-15 08:56 | ||||
| 12 | Raygirl | 06-15 19:48 | ||||
| 13 | TP | 06-15 21:39 | ||||
| 14 | DJB | 06-15 22:21 | ||||
| 15 | NYWanderer | 06-15 22:31 | ||||
| 16 | Link | 06-16 01:13 | ||||
| 17 | Danny K Bernstein | 06-16 21:34 | ||||
| 18 | Donimo | 06-17 03:40 | ||||
| 19 | itaipines | 06-17 18:05 | ||||
| 20 | bosco | 06-17 18:14 | ||||
| 21 | phykos | 06-17 19:23 | ||||
| 22 | Shaggy | 06-18 10:43 | ||||
| 23 | Codiak | 06-19 00:23 | ||||
| 24 | azmat | 06-19 13:02 | ||||
| 25 | Gutman | 06-20 11:01 | ||||
| 26 | RPardoe | 06-20 15:37 | ||||
| 27 | AdamSimonLevine | 06-20 15:43 | ||||
| 28 | nilradical | 06-21 11:30 | ||||
| 29 | jyu | 06-26 00:14 | ||||
| 30 | Veep | 06-27 12:14 |
| Name | Solo? | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abide | no | ||||
| AdamSimonLevine | yes | ||||
| Al | yes | ||||
| azmat | yes | ||||
| bosco | yes | ||||
| Codiak | yes | ||||
| Danny K Bernstein | yes | ||||
| Dannyvee | yes | ||||
| DIS | yes | ||||
| DJB | yes | ||||
| Donimo | yes | ||||
| Dukael | yes | ||||
| Eckless | yes | ||||
| Golem | yes | ||||
| Gutman | yes | ||||
| Gwinns | yes | ||||
| I. K. Snamhcok | no | ||||
| itaipines | yes | ||||
| JanglerNPL | yes | ||||
| JeffH | yes | ||||
| jus10 | yes | ||||
| jyu | yes | ||||
| ladida | no | ||||
| Link | yes | ||||
| LL | yes | ||||
| LouisD | no | ||||
| Naptown Kid | no | ||||
| nilradical | yes | ||||
| NYWanderer | yes | ||||
| phykos | yes | ||||
| Raygirl | yes | ||||
| RPardoe | yes | ||||
| Shaggy | yes | ||||
| SirrahC | yes | ||||
| Tc | yes | ||||
| thanman2 | yes | ||||
| Todd Etter | yes | ||||
| TP | yes | ||||
| Veep | yes |
| Name | Streak | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LL | 16 | ||||
| Shaggy | 16 | ||||
| JanglerNPL | 12 | ||||
| jus10 | 12 | ||||
| Tc | 10 | ||||
| Link | 10 | ||||
| Codiak | 10 | ||||
| Veep | 9 | ||||
| phykos | 8 | ||||
| Dannyvee | 7 | ||||
| thanman2 | 7 | ||||
| Donimo | 7 | ||||
| jyu | 7 | ||||
| Golem | 6 | ||||
| Danny K Bernstein | 6 | ||||
| bosco | 6 | ||||
| Eckless | 5 | ||||
| Raygirl | 5 | ||||
| AdamSimonLevine | 5 | ||||
| nilradical | 5 | ||||
| DIS | 4 | ||||
| JeffH | 4 | ||||
| NYWanderer | 4 | ||||
| RPardoe | 4 | ||||
| Todd Etter | 3 | ||||
| DJB | 3 | ||||
| itaipines | 3 | ||||
| azmat | 3 | ||||
| Gutman | 3 | ||||
| TP | 1 |
| Name | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Golem | 6 | ||||
| JanglerNPL | 6 | ||||
| Tc | 6 | ||||
| LL | 6 | ||||
| Eckless | 6 | ||||
| DIS | 6 | ||||
| Dannyvee | 6 | ||||
| thanman2 | 6 | ||||
| jus10 | 6 | ||||
| Todd Etter | 6 | ||||
| JeffH | 6 | ||||
| Raygirl | 6 | ||||
| Link | 6 | ||||
| Danny K Bernstein | 6 | ||||
| Donimo | 6 | ||||
| itaipines | 6 | ||||
| bosco | 6 | ||||
| phykos | 6 | ||||
| Shaggy | 6 | ||||
| Codiak | 6 | ||||
| azmat | 6 | ||||
| Gutman | 6 | ||||
| nilradical | 6 | ||||
| jyu | 6 | ||||
| Veep | 6 | ||||
| Abide | 5 | ||||
| DJB | 5 | ||||
| NYWanderer | 5 | ||||
| RPardoe | 5 | ||||
| SirrahC | 5 | ||||
| Gwinns | 5 | ||||
| AdamSimonLevine | 4 | ||||
| Dukael | 4 | ||||
| Al | 4 | ||||
| ladida | 4 | ||||
| LouisD | 4 | ||||
| Jigsaw | 4 | ||||
| Rincon | 4 | ||||
| Eduardo | 4 | ||||
| tabascq | 4 | ||||
| Ed | 4 | ||||
| bng17 | 4 | ||||
| John Ananny | 4 | ||||
| jbird | 4 | ||||
| AaronT | 4 | ||||
| xhixen | 4 | ||||
| I. K. Snamhcok | 3 | ||||
| Naptown Kid | 3 | ||||
| ryoustra | 3 | ||||
| Millwood | 3 | ||||
| TP | 2 | ||||
| jowens | 2 | ||||
| hashbrown | 2 | ||||
| Joe | 2 | ||||
| gnod | 2 | ||||
| Bennett Washburn | 2 | ||||
| derekallen7 | 2 | ||||
| adamsimonlevine | 2 | ||||
| Fasolamatt | 1 | ||||
| Spongeamy | 1 | ||||
| Xor | 1 | ||||
| fasolamatt | 1 | ||||
| Josephwnelson | 1 |