Comments on: Inquisitor 137 – No Yens by Schadenfreude

By: erwinh

erwinh — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:20:44 +0000

Another late comment but another cracking addition to the IQ series. However, I did have some reservations. While it was certainly a challenge to complete, I did not find it difficult in the usual sense of the word. The quotation and source were readily found so the required thematic entry of the poets posed few problems. The difficulty came in finding some of those poets. Despite discovering that they were all appearing in my copy of Chambers Biographical Dictionary (7th ed) and completing the puzzle correctly, I never found Delvig (16ac), Wergeland (1dn) or Mendes (9dn). Schadenfreude may well have a profound knowledge of poetry, I would not put it past him, but if he really does shun the Internet then my inference is that he trawled through CBD from cover to cover picking out all the poets. Some, such as Nerval and Mendes, were better known as writers so the full entry needed to be read. It must have been a heroic if laborious business. The trouble is that we as solvers had to go through much the same process. I especially liked the four incidences of multiple clues although before I twigged the theme I had the wrong answer for the second 2dn: Serious second wine (6) morose - MO + ROSE should have been Graves - GRAVE + S Not so likeable were the two cases of grid entries that were also found in clues: evil (16ac) and seen (22dn). This is normally seen as anathema in crosswords so time was wasted on trying to fit alternatives. However, forget the quibbles, this was a puzzle that I doubt I shall ever forget.

By: Peter Mabey

Peter Mabey — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:48:59 +0000

I did eventually fill the grid (not before deadline, though) having identified all the poets but Delvig and Bernia. The latter was particularly obscure, as almost everyone gives his name as Berni.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 19:09:47 +0000

What a stinker!
I had the second poet at 25d as Samuel Rogers (1763-1855), English poet – according to Wikipedia.
And I failed to find a reference for Duncan’s suggestion of BERNIA at 7d, although agreeing that the entry must be REIN.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 09:45:15 +0000

Re #7. I agree that Bradford’s isn’t, and shouldn’t be, a primary source. However, when solving a puzzle like this one having a list (whether Bradford’s, Chambers Lists, Newnes,…) is more useful than guessing 10 letter anagrams and searching through a biographical dictionary.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:39:54 +0000

Re comments 3 and 4, Bradford’s is an excellent book, well-thumbed by yours truly as needed. But I’d always have regarded it as a secondary source, with info needing to be verified elsewhere if necessary.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:28:41 +0000

Re comment 1, that poet ARAGON is the pseudonym of a distinguished Listener setter, who also sets 15X15 puzzles for the Times and Indy (as Bannsider).

By: Dave Hennings

Dave Hennings — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:13:59 +0000

I agree pretty much 100% with Colin, including the “not my blog, thank god”! I gave up with four answers unsolved, including WERGELAND, despite considering WERG and ELAND but not believing the two would go together! In the end I spent far too long on it and ran out of posting time. I’m very glad it wasn’t a Listener.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:53:52 +0000

All the poets are in the current edition of Chambers Biographical Dictionary – I can always be sure that Schadenfreude puzzles can be checked by reference to books, because he doesn’t have (and doesn’t want) an internet connection, not even for email. He sends his submissions on CDs by post.

In case anyone’s wondering why there have been two of his puzzles in such quick succession, it was the 200th anniversary of Tennyson’s birth on 6th August, two days before the puzzle appeared.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:46:34 +0000

I’d concur on the difficulty. I found the quote, cracked the theme and then after failing to work out a couple more poets I decided to move on leaving it unfinished. I’m certainly glad I didn’t have to blog this one.
I felt the wholly anagrammed poets were unfair since letters in the grid provided little help to the actual poet. Had all the poets been in, say, Bradford’s or had all the wordplays been more charade-like the puzzle might have been fairer. I suppose the bottom line is that you didn’t need to find the poets to complete the puzzle but that reduced parts of the puzzle to simply pattern-matching with TEA.
I agree the grid construction was masterful.

By: kenmac

kenmac — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 07:39:04 +0000

Thanks Duncan,

I was kicking myself that I forgot to post my entry but since finding out that I had 48a) wrong, I’m glad I saved myself the cost of a stamp.