Comments on: Inquisitor 1258: WETS by Lato

By: Tramp

Tramp — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:29:04 +0000

I thought this was a brilliant puzzle. It’s right at the limit of my solving ability. I had the grid completed but spent three days deducing (D)OXY was ‘tart’ (I’d somehow missed it in the dictionary) and hence, the first D of DEVIE.

Great blog Hihoba

By: Lato

Lato — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 19:04:35 +0000

Many thanks to Hihoba for an excellent blog and to some others for their comments.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Thu, 13 Dec 2012 08:46:46 +0000

I think that’s a bit mean to Lato HG. I was really quite excited by the discovery of the watery letter connection and the multiple layers of the interface. To get all that into a grid, and probably all of the watery letters that exist into two words, was pretty special!

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:49:50 +0000

PS I (nearly) forgot … EROS for “statue” at 21a isn’t that great.

By: HolyGhost

HolyGhost — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 22:44:45 +0000

Almost the first thing I look at with a new puzzle is the setter – sometimes my heart sinks. (Some of these times I’m pleasantly surprised, I’ll admit.)

Last week we had “the LP cover of Abbey Road”, the week before “Clint Eastwood and the Dirty Harry films”. This week: “names/words that can be associated with names/words of things that are in some sense liquid, and also that are (or sound like) letters of the alphabet” (that happen to make up COXY & TIED UP) … so, not much of a theme for a thematic puzzle in my book.

Difficulty: 3 or 4; pleasure: maybe 1(ish).

But thanks to Hihoba – I too had “dies” instead of “does” in the wordplay for 6d for some time.
And with Liz at comment 2, I had TAY pencilled in for quite a bit, it being not only a river but also meaning TEA.

By: Hi of hihoba

Hi of hihoba — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 18:20:58 +0000

How interesting Liz, I never thought of anything other than HAY, but for all the wrong reasons! I linked Hay and Llangollen as festivals in my mind when entering them!

By: Liz Geear

Liz Geear — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 16:15:53 +0000

Phew indeed Hihoba. I struggled with this, and in fact put Tay iso Hay which threw out the rivers tally. I gave up after looking at a full grid for too long. However the clues were perfectly executed – no complaints from me there.
Thanks for the active blog and to Lato for the headache.

By: kenmac

kenmac — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:18:59 +0000

Well done Hihoba. I’m glad it wasn’t my week as I struggled towards the end and gave up :-/