Comments on: Inquisitor 1156 – Touché by Charybdis

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 16:11:36 +0000

Eventually made it to Syria (two days late) and just got back – no water, no heating, waiting for the engineers …

My experience of the puzzle echoes Ken’s – relatively quick to fill the grid, and slept on it before resuming the search for MIDAS. I agree that EL AL at 19d is less than half of the WW2 battle, and I’m not sure why the clue for 10d references Spenser – Chambers gives QUITE merely as archaic, and then adds QUIGHT or QUYTE as Spenserian.

But, as Ken says, well done to Charybdis for both the initial and final enries being words, AND for fitting in six words that could each be prefixed and suffixed by A’s.

Season’s greetings to setters, fellow bloggers and all the commenters and other readers. (Not forgetting, Mike L., of course.)

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:59:36 +0000

And to all IQ bloggers too of course. These are by far the most detailed and prettiest entries on the site!

By: Ali

Ali — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 09:58:26 +0000

Yep, another top class puzzle. ACHARYA was the first one to fall and I initially thought we might be looking for words with A as the middle letter, but ARABICA soon set me straight. Very impressive that the final grid contains real words.

Seasons greeting to Mike and all setters after an excellent year of puzzles

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 06:20:13 +0000

A really good, satisfying puzzle. I thought the main theme (everything he touches turns to gold) was outstanding.
Was I the only one who sat looking at RAB?? thinking “a rabbi isn’t a Hindu teacher!”
I did wonder what “Charibdis sent” in the bottom row, and like kenmac, had to have a pause between the main grid and Mid As!

Thanks to all the other bloggers, and to you Mike, for an outstanding year of Inquisitors!
Merry Christmas.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 01:15:33 +0000

That’s Mike, not Mr Laws – I had enough of that during 20 years as a teacher!

Thanks for your confidence in the setters and the editor.

Don’t forget that the blog for 1157 shouldn’t be appearing until 5 Jan.

Festive greetings to all.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:25:18 +0000

thanks kenmac.
As you say an excellent puzzle.I also prefer puzzles where most,if not all entries are real words.
Re 20 across – I’ve always thought of it as low-kye but there doesn’t seem to be a general consensus,even among scholars,how Latin should be pronounced.As you say there are 3 possibilities for LOCI http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=loci

I got as far as spotting MIDAS and changing the letters to gold but was stuck for some time on the definition clues.
ARABICA was the one that opened that part up for me and it was just a case of checking Chambers for a couple of unfamiliar words after that.

By: twencelas

twencelas — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 00:25:10 +0000

A fine puzzle – some lovely clues and so neat in the end game. Thanks Charybdis, Kenmac for the blog and Mr. Laws for providing so much fun in the series of puzzles this year.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:09:04 +0000

Sorry, “Touche (with the acute accent in place) by ???”.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 02:05:17 +0000

The puzzle was submitted as “… by ???”, but I didn’t think it was fair to expect solvers (especially new ones) to be able to identify the significance of “The setter’s name can be found in the grid” in the original preamble. However, I didn’t want to waste Charybdis’s effort in including his pseudonym, so used it as a bit of help to confirm one of the unclued entries, thus giving a start on that score.