Comments on: Inquisitor 1158 Middlemen by Lato

By: Lato

Lato — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 20:24:39 +0000

Thanks to Hihoba for the excellent blog and to everyone else who commented.

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 08:20:32 +0000

Thank you for your comments everyone. It’s nice to know that I wasn’t the only one to find this one difficult!
Hats off to Lato, though. How our setters come up with such amazingly tortuous and entertaining ideas is a source of continuous wonder to me.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 23:54:00 +0000

Thanks Hihoba.
I take my hat off to you for blogging this one,I didn’t even manage to complete the puzzle.As usual the rubric didn’t make any sense at first but unfortunately even after solving the normal clues no penny dropped for me.
Thanks to your blog,I can now see how clever the puzzle was,but I think there were just too many elements for my poor old brain to cope with!

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 21:51:42 +0000

A rubric that could’ve been tighter, but all clear by the end.

I got the entry CYCLIST fairly early, coming from “psychiatrist”, but didn’t know what to do with TRICK. Some time later, with most of the non-thematic clues solved, I simultaneously noted the “otherwise redundant” “play question” and saw that “one’s expecting” was MOTHER-TO-BE, entered as MOTHER. So that had come from TO BE OR NOT TO BE – and BOTTONE emerged as the “operatic tenor” and anagram of NOT TO BE.

So the theme was unveiled, and the rest was rather a doddle, apart from “game show” (should I stay in more? no!), never having come across DEALBATE.

And, yes Hihoba, a tricky one to blog. Well done.

By: kenmac

kenmac — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 18:04:38 +0000

Well done Hi, I didn’t finish this one I was just glad it wasn’t my week to blog. I discovered OTHER RANKS reasonably early but had no idea what to do with it

By: REGALIZE

REGALIZE — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:58:36 +0000

Thanks Hihoba for a very good blog. I usually finish 1Qs, although sometimes its a skin of the teeth job with me running to the pillarbox late on a Tuesday. This one defeated me however, and your blog has shown me why I missed out on rhyme or reason and so could not complete the grid.

By: Dave Hennings

Dave Hennings — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 10:38:23 +0000

Yes, another fine, fun and fair puzzle from Lato. I also found it pretty tough, although I suspect it took you longer to blog the puzzle, Hi, than it took me to solve! It was interesting to see how the preamble progressed from utter gobbledygook on first reading through to total clarity by the end … I think! And I too had HALSERS at 1dn to start with, which stymied me in that corner for far too long.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 09:36:24 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Hihoba. I agree this was an ingenious puzzle, and also that it was extremely hard but totally fair, with excellent clues.