I have a rendezvous with Playfair next week… but for now, something completely different

Welcome back to George vs the Listener Crossword – a little late in posting this week, ended up having a surprise guest over so my “usual” routine was thrown off.  Plus the increasing amount of time I have to devote to Pokemon Go is eating into crossword blogging.

Tangram! This is the third Tangram puzzle, and all three have been Letters Latent (I wonder if that means tangram is a Letters Latent pseudonym, maybe for Stan Grasms?  Anyhoo, the Latent Lettters are pointing us at a poem, and there’s one row that is both Letters Latent and modified.  That’s a new one! Let’s get solving!

There is a 1 across and I’ve been doing Listeners long enough to think OS when I see “opening” so ST,CH,OS is there for STICHOS missing I and we are away – big pass on the 1 across test.

This was a pretty smooth solve – the clues were fun and concise (I was rather taken by “Changes sign” for VARIES with a latent V.  I was having less luck with the message, certainly got the I HAVE and THAT SOME, which doesn’t eliminate a lot of poems.  It was the end of the message – SEEGER to me only means the crooner Bob, but a check of poets named SEEGER brings up ALAN SEEGER, and I HAVE A (rendezvous) WITH DEATH AT SOME DISPUTED (barricade), and the anagram of SHADOW(shade) and the reversed BRINE-PIT(spring) fill up one row.

That was short and sweet!  I did not know the poet nor the poem, and it is rather a nice one (apparently JFK was a fan), so thanks for alerting me to it, Tangram.

So sorry for the late post, and I think I can call this one a Victory to George.  2016 tally 23-2-2

Feel free to tell me that Alan Seeger should have been on the citizenship test, and see you next week when. Shakespeare gets to roll over in his 400-year old grave by being commemorated by two playfairs.