Comments on: Inquisitor 1164: Descent by Raich

By: Raich

Raich — Sat, 05 Mar 2011 11:27:34 +0000

Many thanks, HolyGhost, for the excellent blog and to all for their comments, it was gratifying that Descent was seen as decent…

It was unfortunate about the missing clue. This is referred to in a note by the crossword editor next to today’s Inquisitor in the Indy. Credit is due to the paper for moving quickly to print the clue in the next Saturday edition – this was before the closing date for entries. Also entries with the answer to the missing clue wrong or left blank were allowed, I understand.

The disposition of the letters was a ‘happy accident’, I think. Where the ‘missing letter’ device is used, my first task is to identify answers for them because the relevant letter has to be in the clue answer.

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 11:46:19 +0000

A lovely puzzle. Having got BALTIC via the extra letters, but not getting anywhere with it in my ODQ, I adopted my usual brute force Google method and got there via a search for “famous quotes Baltic.” Had I bothered to look at the grid, I would have seen most of IRON CURTAIN already there! It’s a quote that is perfect for this kind of puzzle, and it was very well executed. Great clues too.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 10:30:15 +0000

Holy Ghost re SM – Apologies,I didn’t check the puzzle for that clue and wrongly assumed the question mark was yours.

By: Hi of Hihoba

Hi of Hihoba — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 07:30:51 +0000

Interesting that finding the theme via the hidden “Iron Curtain” was the way in for both HolyGhost and Hypnos. My way in was via BALTIC and ADRIATIC, and I had to look up FULTON, not having seen that edition of University Challenge!
Though careless, the missing clue did not seem to hold me up at all. Excellent puzzle!

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 21:27:15 +0000

To reiterate: I have no problem with the clue for SMOKO – the “?” in the blog is simply copied from the clue. (Though I admit that I didn’t replicate the “!” after “love”.)

By: Raich

Raich — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 16:22:24 +0000

At this juncture, addressing just the SM in SMOKO point, this was based on Chambers which gives ‘kinky’ as ‘with unusual sexual tastes’ and SM definitely seemed to fit that.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:37:00 +0000

Scarpia: The “?” after “kinky sex” in the wordplay at 3d simply replicates the punctuation in the clue as published – it is not an indication of my view of it being a fair definition of sadomasochism.

By: Hypnos

Hypnos — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:13:32 +0000

Very engaging puzzle and theme and beautifully constructed. TRIESTE emerged fairly quickly but only twigged the theme after seeing IRON CURTAIN in the column. NW corner proved trickiest and STETTIN was the last thematic term solved. Favourite clue SMOKO, hardest ANTIGROPELOES!

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 23:50:50 +0000

Thanks HolyGhost.
Very enjoyable puzzle from Raich.
As you say the IRON CURTAIN descending across the CONTINENT was a very nice touch.
Had to consult a dictionary of quotations to get the significance of FULTON but the quote itself was familiar.
I think ‘kinky sex’ is a fair definition for SM but maybe I’m just old fashioned!
Shame about the missing clue but at least it didn’t interfere with the thematic elelment of the puzzle.