Comments on: Inquisitor 1191: A Dream Holiday by Kruger

By: Kruger

Kruger — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 11:59:01 +0000

Thank you kenmac for your excellent review – and in “Glorious Technicolor” too! I’m afraid I cannot claim credit for the colour of the grid and indeed it hadn’t registered until you pointed it out.

Like nmsindy, I think the film is not given the credit it deserves, probably due to too many festive repeats. In fact, like kenmac, I probably haven’t ever watched it from start to finish but seen so many 30-minute exerpts that I’m sure I must have seen it all.

Thanks also to those who commented on the puzzle.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:04:06 +0000

I really enjoyed this one, like Tramp. Dorothy’s way back from Oz is to repeat (3 times I think) “There’s no Place Like Home” which, as a statement, cryptically describes the lack of the bottom row perfectly, and I can’t see Kenmac’s objection to YAW! “Somwhere, over the rainbow, way up high” perfectly and cryptically describes the placement of the words in the diagram. I would have preferred “some” and “where” to be connected, but otherwise I found it an excellent offering! The “way up high” bit kept me guessing for a while!

By: kenmac

kenmac — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:22:52 +0000

Oops!

The HTML editor I use (Kompozer) tries to be too clever sometimes. It had added in explicit column widths for some columns. All sorted now – thanks HG.

Ken

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:47:53 +0000

I’m not a techie, but I’ve no problem reading all the explanations. BTW, my browser is Firefox. Maybe this is a problem only on laptops – mine is a desk computer.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:17:54 +0000

Ken – truncated wordplay explanation.

On my monitor (1280 pixels wide), I’m missing the end of some of the longer wordplay explanations (21a, 6d, 9d, 10d) – this seems to be independent of browser. On my laptop (1366 pixels), it’s only the really wide ones that get chopped. It’s not a big deal, and I guess this might not happen on wider screens; but maybe one could get the entry to wrap automatically?

By: Tramp

Tramp — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 07:07:20 +0000

I really enjoyed this. It’s only the third Inquisitor I’ve done but I’m a big fan.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:56:43 +0000

I found the clues either fairly easy or fairly hard, with not much in between. And having the wordplay with missing or extra letters made the puzzle more difficult, as Ken said. However, with the grid complete, and having sorted out DOROTHY, TOTO, etc., it was easy to locate the bottom row as the one to blank out. Quite quickly found the RAINBOW arc and soon after saw SOME WHERE … but then ground to a halt. It wasn’t till a day later (and with a friendly hint) that I spotted the disconnected blocks containing WAY (up) HIGH.

A bit of a toughie from Kruger, and the end not quite as satisfying as some of his others.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:14:21 +0000

Many thanks for the very comprehensive “multi-coloured” blog, Kenmac, and for explaining this puzzle.

I did not find the clues esp difficult, and filled the grid reasonably quickly.

I also saw the bottom line which looked like what should be deleted. However, unlike you and mc_rapper67, I was not able to find the names and route from the extra/missing letters so needless to say I did not find the 23 squares to highlight having no idea of the theme. Also was a little distracted by STILL EATS OUT in the penultimate line which I thought might have some connection with PLACE LIKE HOME. Looking again at those extra letters now I think I should have seen the names etc, but I think I’d still not have found the rest but you never know. Researching the film, The Wizard of Oz, once I’d identified it, might have given it all. BTW I’d recommend you watch that film in full – one of best films ever made IMHO.

And, while I ultimately failed pretty badly, I enjoyed the challenge and thought the clues were excellent, thanks Kruger.

By: mc_rapper67

mc_rapper67 — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 11:59:43 +0000

Wow – thanks, Kenmac, for your multi-coloured explanation – I had all the answers, the deleted bottom line, the characters and their route – just couldn’t see the ’23 squares’. I even tried enlisting the help of a colleague who, I am told, is a ‘friend of Dorothy’! (;+>)

I guess it didn’t help that I was looking for something in contiguous squares – although having endured, sorry, enjoyed, an amateur school production of TWOO last year, I should have at least made the ‘rainbow’ connection, and been looking for that word and/or shape…

Definitely at the harder end of the scale – of clueing, and thematic difficulty – for me, at least.