Comments on: Inquisitor 1167 – Film Club by Kea

By: ele

ele — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:52:27 +0000

eelfare etc needs to be pronounced in the original Spanglish to make it really work. A fun puzzle and agree with Gordon about ‘easy inquisitor’, although the last 3 (including this Saturday’s) seem to have been quicker to do than usual. It won’t last.

By: Gordon Fisher

Gordon Fisher — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:03:36 +0000

As far as I am concerned ‘easy inquisitor’ is an oxymoron

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 13:38:41 +0000

Thanks kenmac,for your blog and your own ‘fishy’ puns @2.
There has been a thread of these on the Guardian letters page over the last few months,some very funny.

I love awful puns,so I enjoyed this a lot.
The puzzle turned out easier than I thought after seeing so many unclued entries,but once the penny dropped the ‘end game’ was pretty easy,which would be my only criricism of this puzzle.
ALFREDO GARCIA took a bit of working out though.

By: Colin Blackburn

Colin Blackburn — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:06:15 +0000

Being a big fan of ISIHAC I enjoyed this a lot and knew what was going on straight away. I also guessed the “Bring me the head of…” had to be the multi-fish pun. For non-fans this film title is a running joke with any film club rounds, though even Graeme Garden’s puns are not this bad!

Colin

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 23:00:02 +0000

I have to say that I tend towards Ken's view, though I can't say that it wasn't a mildly enjoyable solve. (But I was expecting more from Kea.) The puzzle was reminiscent of Lato's 1110, with a hotchpotch of "A fez of the heart", "Eyeful tower", etc. – at least this one had a theme. Also, echoes of Samuel's 143 Primary Reference with its nod to ISIHAC, the theme being the Uxbridge English Dictionary. So, Kea's offering sat somewhere between the two, but cleared the bar. Got in via FISHMONGERS, STICKLEBACK and SEA OWL. And, yes, I did find the pun (?) for Alfredo Garcia a bit of a stretch (but was amused by HALIBUT). PS Comment written before Samuel's comment above, but posted later – he gets the reference to two of his puzzles confused: Common Knowledge is his recent puzzle (1163).

By: Samuel

Samuel — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 22:13:29 +0000

Good fun, and I agree wholeheartedly with Mike – awful puns are very welcome.

My only moan was that Kea rather gazumped me on the choice of theme, as my follow up to my own ISIHAC Inquisitor from 2009 (Common Knowledge) was cunningly titled Publicans’ Film Club, and was ready to clue. Oh well.

By: Mike Laws

Mike Laws — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:42:44 +0000

Response via the email address given under the puzzle was excusively approving. I like puns too, the groan-worthier the better!

Re 11 across: Inquisitor doesn’t recommend a particular dictionary, taking it as read that all solvers of barred thematics know, or quickly become aware, that Chambers is the mainstay, so I regarded it as unnecessary to specify that INCANT is in the Concise Oxford. Had it only been in the complete OED, that would have been different. The word is hardly non-deducible, anyway!

By: Ali

Ali — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:39:04 +0000

I got FISHMONGERS pretty early on and, being familiar with most of the titles, realised that it had to be the missing film club link. After that, the rest of it fell quicker than any other Inquisitor I’ve done. All very enjoyable though, and there’s nowt wrong with an easy one every now and then.

Given some of Kea’s frankly astounding grids in the past, I’d put money on the Keira Knightley anagram in the unchecked letters being intentional!

By: kenmac

kenmac — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 08:45:11 +0000

I’ve never heard “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue”, so maybe the subtlety of the fishy puns went over my head, I thought that five fish for Alfredo Garcia was stretching it a bit but if the majority are comfortable with it then that’s fine by me.

I actually like puns so maybe I should start listening to ISIHAC, I’ll tuna to Radio 4 maybe I’ll have a whale of a time and I’ll be able to stop crabbing and not be so shellfish. Thinking of these puns is giving me a haddock so since I’m floundering I’ll stop now.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 07:59:59 +0000

As a fan of “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t a Clue”, I have to say that, in contrast to Kenmac, I enjoyed this hugely. Relatively simple clues and the fishy theme (it came to me via DACE) made for a fun few hours. I thought the Alfredo Garcia reference in five fish was inspired!
The INCANT problem was a bit worrying, and I think a health warning should have been issued about it. Other than that, thanks Kea!