Comments on: Inquisitor 147 – Bear Puzzle – by Raich

By: Andy Stewart

Andy Stewart — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:31:50 +0000

I found this a very enjoyable puzzle, most of the clues were on the easy side so filling the grid was mostly straightforward, but I couldn’t make sense of the message initially, and like the blogger was looking for something involving ENEMY. Once I had the quote all fell into place and I was able to make sense of the message, a neat touch.
To my shame I did not spot RUPERT.

By: Hypnos

Hypnos — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:02:48 +0000

Very enjoyable to solve and the red herring was cunning and
amusing.

By: Raich

Raich — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:39:14 +0000

Thanks very much for the excellent blog and all the comments, which are much appreciated and have been carefully noted.

Re TUCANA and THETIS, Chambers does not includes proper names, apart from first names in an Appendix. Raich uses them if they are in Collins, which does include proper names, including those two.

A v minor point on the blog – in 35 ac “in another way” is the definition with “get involved with” indicating the anagram.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 04:47:16 +0000

Obviously, the Churchill quotation has been used before (how could it not have been?), but Raich’s treatment of it was spot on for an easy-side Inquisitor.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 23:37:12 +0000

Nice crossword (after seeing the blog); it defeated me — Chambers Crossword Dictionary has ‘Tethys’ as a nymph and I couldn’t find ‘Thetis’ anywhere. And I was sure that 31ac (TUCANA) was T{a}u c ana, so the extra letter was an a and this mucked up the very clever ‘riddle inside a mystery etc’.

But now I see it it’s clear enough.

By: Jim T

Jim T — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:04:41 +0000

I really liked this – an ideal theme for a puzzle. Clever red herring with Rupert too.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:17:46 +0000

I thought that this puzzle was just about par for the Inquisitor – I had a bit of a hole in the lower left corner for a while (29a, 31a, 33a, 25d, 22d, 26d) even though I’d guessed CHURCHILL.

I agree with Duncan about 24d (AGE=mature), and I groaned when I finally justified 14d (R or E), but not as much as with 30d (ONE R), which was one of the first answers I got but probably next to last to justify – after all, France and Germany also each have ONE A, ONE E, and ONE N!

By: kenmac

kenmac — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:35:37 +0000

Re: 1a – oops a typo I’ll correct it later.

By: Duncan Shiell

Duncan Shiell — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:51:57 +0000

24d -I think AGE is simply being used as a verb meaning ‘to mature’

1a – I think you need +US after the anagram.

14d – I thought this was ok just reading it as ‘R or E’ – either end of ‘rhyme’, but I can see that ‘conveys’ is an odd word to use in the clue.

I struggled with fitting something to RUPERT for quite a long time. Like you I was also looking for ENEMY at the start of the clue. It was seeing RIDDLE followed by ERY that finally triggered what was going on.

Not too difficult, but good fun.

By: IanN14

IanN14 — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 01:36:42 +0000

30ac. The words “France” and “Germany” each contain One “R”…