Comments on: Inquisitor 1150 – Dry by Phi

By: scarpia

scarpia — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 00:43:52 +0000

Thanks Pete.
My quickest Inquistor solve ever – not surprised to read the opening words of your blog!
Good fun though,and I knew of Slim Dusty (through my job in a record shop) but my knowledge of him must pale into insignificance alongside Duncan – a triple CD!
I guess he was more popular in Australia than the U.K.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:50:23 +0000

Re Hi’s query at 6, I’ve found Guinness Books of Hit Singles v useful for dealing with pop songs of the past. V well indexed too.

By: Duncan Shiell

Duncan Shiell — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 12:20:50 +0000

This was an Inquisitor I didn’t do because of pressure of other things.

However, I have to admit I have a Slim Dusty triple album entitled ‘Pubs, Trucks and Plains’ which I picked up when visiting Alice Springs a few years ago.

The first CD – ‘Pubs’ has two versions of ‘A Pub With No Beer’ – Track 1 is the 1979 version and Track 20 is the original 1957 version. I am sure there are some pourists who could debate the merits of each he two versions, but they both sound fine to me.

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 09:27:49 +0000

I was held up by omitting the Z from BOOZER instead of the E, and trying to find ZERO related adjectives until the penny dropped.
How did we manage before Google? How else could we have found Slim Dusty?

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 22:01:01 +0000

Something of a stroll in the park (but not as short as Pete B’s).

With all the normal clues done, I turned to the ‘specials’: TAVERN suggested itself, closely followed by HOSTELRY. The song “A pub with no beer” came to mind, and soon I had all the unclued adjectives – but not the singer (eschewing Google, for the moment …)

SLIM Whitman recorded “A LONESOME Heart”, as did Memphis SLIM with “LONESOME”, but neither fitted the rubric – eventually I resorted to Google, which delivered DUSTY SLIM.

By: John H

John H — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 15:21:21 +0000

Coincidentally (maybe not, knowing the editor…) this appeared on the day of the quarterly Listener crossword gathering at PARSONS Green, where the only thing that was DRY was the humour. 8 ales and 4 ciders to choose from!!

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:56:23 +0000

This was a great fun puzzle, thanks, Phi.

Brought back very precise memories of the song and where I was then, tho I did not know who the singer was.

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 13:24:06 +0000

This was one of those solve-nearly-everything-and-then-worry-about-the-theme puzzles for me. I got a bit held up by guessing that HOSTEL[R]Y was actually one of the adjectives (as HOSTILE), but eventually got there in a slightly different way by Googling ‘stage name slim’. The name is familiar, as in a fuzzy way is the song. I’m sure I heard it while backpacking around Australia!

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 10:17:45 +0000

In 22A there is an error – confirmed by Mike Laws. STATELINESS is not an anagram of assets round lines – too many Ss and not enough Ts!

Phi submitted a corrected clue (below) which failed to find its way into the final version.

“Impressive stuff, products accommodating various tastes? On the contrary”