The World Is Lovely Sporadic trivialities aimed to please

Apis Clue-Writing Competition: VIOLET

An interesting note on the distinction between violet and purple: in the strictest sense, ‘violet’ refers only to the shades we perceive at the short extreme of the visible spectrum, while ‘purple’ refers to shades produced by a mixture of red and blue (or, indeed, red and violet) light. As such, I immediately disqualified all entries which used ‘purple’ as their definition.

That’s a half-truth. I did disqualify all those entries, but only because there was only one of them and it was from the fragile and fictional mind of @ndrew_taylor:

cattle-person bumming trannie turns purple

Spoiler

‘cattle-person’ is ELOI, in an unexpectedly erudite reference to The  Time Machine. It’s in TV (transvestite), and the whole thing is reversed (‘turns’).

Kilbey kept things spectral with his first contribution:

Duck wearing disgusting shirt found at rainbow's end?

Spoiler

‘Duck’ is O, wearing VILE T (‘disgusting shirt’). If you don’t know the definition you haven't been paying attention.

It’s a beautiful image, isn’t it? But apparently the joys of absurdity just don’t do it for Paul, so he settled on this rather elegant number:

A shade agressive, having forgotten name

Spoiler

‘Agressive’ (sic) clues VIOLENT; removing the N for ‘name’ leaves VIOLET, ‘a shade’.

I think this clue stems from the time I called him Vincent and then punched him in the gut.

The most colourful creation was @miche’s:

Olive, the original blended hue

Spoiler

OLIVE anagrammed with T (‘the original’) gives VIOLET, a hue.

I’m not sure Miche’s history of Dulux is strictly accurate, but it certainly makes for a nice, taut clue.

Of course, there are more exciting ways to clue VIOLET as a colour. @frizfrizzle snatched up the one I was hoping someone would go for:

Royalty takes colourful detour through rented house, we hear

Spoiler

VIOLET sounds like ‘via let’, for ‘detour through rented house’. Purples and violets are associated with royalty.

There’s a lot to like about this clue, but it doesn’t follow the rules. The definition part isn’t really a definition: ‘Royalty takes colourful’ gestures towards VIOLET but it isn’t explicit enough to be fair. Essentially, the problem is that Friz hasn’t wasted enough of his life solving cryptic crosswords to internalise the conventions properly. Of course, the ALL-POWERFUL SPREADSHEET will have him in its grasp soon enough, and then he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

@Andrew_Taylor’s definition was a little more obscure. Or, possibly, less obscure but also less well established.

I love T-Mobile for their brand colour

Spoiler

‘I love T’ is ‘mobile’; VIOLET is an anagram of I LOVE T. T-Mobile’s logo is violet – or possibly purple. It’s hard to say.

That’s pretty excellent. But I slightly preferred my other brother’s faintly wistful offering:

Is it vain to remember this girl?

Spoiler

In the classic mnemonic ‘Richard of York gave battle in vain’, ‘vain’ is a reminder of VIOLET, which is also a girl’s name.

I have to admit, I couldn’t work this one out, but that, too, was @apaultaylor’s fault: he long ago replaced that old mnemonic in my head with the far superior ‘Rake out your garden before invading Venus’ – which I genuinely used to recall the order of the spectrum when composing the week’s clues. This is the sort of clue I love – utterly confounding until you solve it, and thereafter fantastically satisfying.

Paul wins a packet of Parma Violets from the very exciting new sweetshop in Cambridge.

This week’s competition word is APOLLO, and I really hope someone I know less well wins because this is starting to look a bit dodgy.