Comments on: Inquisitor 1224: I’m Back! by Augeas

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 11:04:32 +0000

Very enjoyable puzzle – not too difficult. While I got all the answers, some of the wordplay references escaped me till I came here.
MONEY SUPPLY gave the idea and LONDON LEEDS came soon after that. The rest was a little trickier. BTW, the Ulster Unionist Party is very much still around tho it’s played second fiddle to the DUP in more recent times. Many thanks, Augeas, and Holy Ghost for the excellent blog.

By: Speo

Speo — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 18:21:49 +0000

Many thanks to Augeas for a very enjoyable Inquisitor puzzle.
I note that this was only your second Inquisitor but hope that there are many more still to come
and in the not too distant future.

By: Augeas

Augeas — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 17:32:51 +0000

Thanks to those who have said they enjoyed this – it was fun to compose too. For a while it laboured under the title “Argand Rifle” which I had intended to be interpreted as rifle (ie fiddle about with) ARGAND – generating Garand, but then where does Garand’s rifle appear from? I’M BACK (caps essential, and happily in conformance with House Style) was an almost-last-minute bit of serendipity.
As far as I’m concerned since no-one knows what a pulsar (or neutron star) actually looks like the 5-pointed thing was what was in my mind. But as any astonomic fule kno the surface gravitational force on a pulsar is so powerful that it must be about as perfect a sphere as it’s possible to conceive. Still, a representation of a star is required and spheres (or circles) don’t cut the mustard symbol-wise. Happily I don’t have the task of marking the thing!

By: regalize

regalize — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 14:30:19 +0000

MammaMIa – what a brilliant puzzle, thanks to HG and AUGEAS.
Has anyone confirmed exactly what that central cell should contain? The alternative was a veritable plague of tiny rodents. An eight-pointed star would be the obvious answer – alas, I have only just realised this. Oh, well, all part of the fun.

By: Speo

Speo — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:57:24 +0000

Many thanks HolyGhost, your taking time to reply was very much appreciated.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:37:01 +0000

wrt Hi’s PS (at 2): para.4 includes the sentence “The answer, M1, came readily, confirmed by the cryptic indication given by the title.” – insufficiently explicit?

and to Speo (at 3): NASA’s website contains the statement “this information [about star masses] helps distinguish whether the object is a neutron star or a black hole, since black holes are more massive than neutron stars.” This implies that the object at the centre of the Crab Nebula is not a black hole …

By: Speo

Speo — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 07:27:10 +0000

Thanks HolyGhost for the excellent blog.

I too thought about the asterisk at the centre of the Crab Nebula until I googled Garand Rifle.

There is a reference attributed to General Patton who called the Garand ‘The greatest battle
implement ever devised’. A ‘shooting star’ possibly?

I eventually settled on shading the centre of the Nebula black to represent a shot star,a
‘black hole’ possibly? Just a theory.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:47:41 +0000

P.S. I don’t think your text includes the title fact that “I’M back” is MI (or M1)!

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 06:30:57 +0000

Thanks HG and Augeas. I had it all except for the explanation of the O missing from SAURON. Very ingenious!!