After three weeks of relatively gentle Inquisitors, we got a much more challenging one from Shark! (Chambers has challenge as : a task, undertaking, etc to test one’s powers and capabilities to the full.)
Quite complex rubric. We are looking for a tale with four main characters and a line from the story represented by 22 definition misprints. 17 cells to be highlighted to represent the four main characters and some removals from the completed grid, leaving real words (always appreciated by the bloggers!). Two words remain as “protection”.
I found the clues pretty challenging, and at the time of starting this blog was still short of several explanations! There was also a serious amount of dictionary work to be done on some unusual words, and at least one word (COXIB) not in my online chambers, only in the 11th edition.
I started with four unconnected clues and didn’t get any cross-checking until LATAKIA at 45A and SKI at 49D intersected. A slow build up from the bottom right corner really yielded no help in identifying the theme until there seemed to be misprinted letters repeating the word CHIN.
The Three Little Pigs came to mind and the 22 misprinted letters eventually yielded HAIR ON MY CHINNY CHIN CHIN. The repeated refrain
Wolf: “Little pig, little pig, let me come in.”
Pig: “No, no, not by the hair on my chinny chin chin.”
Wolf: “Then I’ll huff, and I’ll puff, and I’ll blow your house in.”
occurs for each of the three pigs, with houses of STRAW, STICK and BRICK but only the brick house survives.
I found WOLF reversed on the top row, and HUFF and PUFF using UFF in common and including the F of WOLF. Between the P of puff and the H of huff was an S which started STRAW (diagonally to the right) and STICK (diagonally to the left). The B at cell 33 starts BRICKS reading down. Inspiration struck! The rubric said the story was represented in the grid. So far we have the wolf huffing and puffing and the shape of the three items found so far represents three parts of a house, so a search for the other “wall” finds MORTAR starting at cell 34. So after removal of STICK and STRAW, BRICKS and MORTAR remain as protection.
When STICK and STRAW are removed (blown in after huffing and puffing), the remaining cells form real words (LARRUP, LEAP, RID, TRON, ROTAL, SUTTLE, ONE UP, RAY, OLE, MORT, PARS, MAY).
The puzzle’s title “Adaptation” pointed me in the direction of the 1933 classic Disney cartoon, including Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf. The names in that version were Fifer, Fiddler and Practical. I also found Browny, Whitey and Blacky in an 1892 version. As there are only 13 characters left after WOLF is removed none of these names would do, and I remain uncertain about the title’s meaning.
After some searching I (Hi) found DOLL (a young pig) at the base of column 7. Ho then recognised SLIP and SHOTE (two more young pigs) at the base of columns 5 and 6, so all the little pigs are safe inside the bricks and mortar. Great stuff Shark!
| Misprint clues | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | ||||
| No. | Clue (corrected definition) (original word) |
Answer | Wordplay | |
| 7 | Aargh! Distress being unclothed (Jock’s sHabby) (5) (scabby) | OWRIE | OW and Aargh are both cries of pain + (g)RIE(F) (distress unclothed) | H |
| 12 | Arbitrator tracks ship’s timber in county pArt (7) (port) | CANTREF | CANT is a ship’s timber + REF (arbitrator) | A |
| 13 | Forth bridIe is perhaps supported by one leg, ending in tragedy (6) (bridge) | ONIONY | A bridie is a Scottish meat and onion turnover: ON (supported by) + I (one) + ON (leg) + (traged)Y | I |
| 15 | Took in aRms locally, in this year, second-hand (6) (alms) | HAUSED | Haused can mean embraced in dialect: HA (hoc anno) + USED (second-hand) | R |
| . | ||||
| 16 | FlOgs limited fear to drive in reverse (7) (flags) | LARRUPS | (a)LAR(m) (limited fear) + SPUR reversed | O |
| 19 | Posh plane returned for Natrons (5) (matrons) | URAOS | U (posh) + SOAR (plane) reversed | N |
| . | ||||
| 23 | Moon goddess is very lost in bed (4) (soon) | DIAN | DIVAN with V(ery) removed | M |
| 26 | Old locations for staYs from Tinseltown (3) (stars) | INS | Hidden in TINSeltown | Y |
| . | ||||
| 28 | Clappers about to become weak wings (7) (flappers) | CROTALA | C (about) + ROT (become weak) + ALA (wings) | C |
| 30 | Two different types of blood clotH (3) (clots) | ABA | AB + A (blood types) | H |
| 39 | SIlly flipped perch , in trough (6) (Sally) | DOTISH | SIT (perch) in HOD (trough) all reversed | I |
| 42 | Nick from thromboses – double oxygen (6) (sick) | CLOOTS | Cloots is the devil (Nick): CLOTS (thromboses) with double O | N |
| 46 | Niven, perhaps, the starting price (5) (given) | THESP | THE + S.P. | N |
| 47 | More warY take after Stevenson’s Lamplighter (7) (wars) | LEERIER | LEERIE (the name of Lamplighter in RLS’s poem) + R (take) | Y |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Cutting out cold and gloomy appearance (ordinary at first) (9) (putting) | OCCLUDING | Cold) + CLOUDING (gloomy appearance) with O advanced to the start | C |
| 3 | Halt whiskey confiscated from Slav (3) (malt) | END | W removed from WEND (a Slav) | H |
| 20 | . . . note following tenor’s third tIne (4) (tune) | TRAY | Tine of an antler: T + RAY (= re) | I |
| 25 | PlaNters maybe rub top off pustules (4) (plasters) | POTS | Top S off (S)POTS | N |
| . | ||||
| 36 | StaCks topless clients of harlot (5) (stalks) | RICKS | Top T off (T)RICKS | C |
| 37 | Hairs dotted about Spain (5) (pairs) | SETAE | SET (dotted) + A(bout) + E (Spain) | H |
| 39 | Ian’s pet is bird on top of tree (4) (man’s) | DAWT | (Scottish pet): DAW (bird) on T(ree) | I |
| 43 | Nearly pass sNow runner (3) (slow) | SKI | Nearly SKI(P) | N |
| Normal clues | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Across | |||
| No. | Clue (definition) | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | I reflexively drink with second brownie? (7) | ONESELF | ONE (drink) + S(econd) + ELF (brownie) |
| 18 | Cut mince restricting hunger for animals (6) | HYENAS | HAS(h) (mince cut) round YEN (hunger) |
| 20 | Pushed back boxing individual to become stronger (6, 2 words) | TONE UP | PUT (pushed) reversed round ONE (individual |
| 25 | Fish copies before departing backwards (5) | PARRS | PARROTS (copies) with TO (before) backwards, removed |
| 33 | Periodically built Action Man, perhaps – 11 left disjointed (5) | BITTY | B |
| 34 | Route to deviate motor-car initially reversing (4) | M-WAY | M(otor-car) + YAW (deviate) reversed |
| 35 | Plants fake dice – now lost (6) | GOURDS | Double definition. |
| 36 | Animal in pen turned over for painkiller (5) | COXIB | OX in BIC (pen) reversed |
| 41 | Secretly vernacular at great cost masking name (7) | DEARNLY | DEARLY (at great cost) round N(ame) |
| 44 | Reduce defence equipment and go on foot (6, 2 words) | WALK IT | WAL(l) (reduced defence) + KIT (equipment |
| 45 | John taking a Korean car for Middle- Eastem tobacco (7) | LATAKIA | LAT(rine = John) + A + KIA (Korean car) |
| Down | |||
| 2 | Stew is rustic nirvana (7) | NAVARIN | [NIRVANA]* |
| 4 | Teenager husband samples musical instruments (5) | ERHUS | Hidden in teenagER HUSband |
| 5 | Ready after short limb sprung forward (5) | LEAPT | APT (ready) after LE(g) |
| 6 | Scottish lord beat first son off (4) | LOSH | (s)LOSH (beat with first S missing) |
| 8 | Let out from judge’s bottomless pit (5) | WIDEN | WI(g) (bottomless judge) + DEN (pit) |
| 9 | Poppy-like plant is not natural any more (7) | ROMNEYA | [ANY MORE]* |
| 10 | Around centre of grounds almost draw in rope (6) | INHAUL | “draw in” serves double purpose, in definition and as definition of INHAL(e) round groUnds |
| 11 | Aims from voters in speech (4) | EYES | Sounds like AYES (voters) |
| 14 | Marketplace gaining hundred dollar tips (5) | TRONC | TRON (marketplace) + C ($100) |
| 17 | Jazz enthusiast in outworn condition, sung gibberish (7) | SCATTED | CAT (jazz enthusiast) in STED (condition in Spenser – outworn) |
| 21 | Border French city? No answer! (4) | ORLE | ORLE(ans) french city minus answer |
| 22 | Dismiss interrupting warden perhaps to extemporise (9, 3 words) | PLAY BY EAR | LAY BY (dismiss) in PEAR (Warden is a type of pear) |
| 24 | Part of water pump in Ireland hooks fish (4) | IRID | I think water (tear) pump as a definition of the eye is quite awful!: IR(ish) + ID (fish) |
| 27 | Travel back and forth using kit-car primarily for hot dash (7) | SKUTTLE | SHUTTLE (travel back and forth) with K(it-car) for H(ot) |
| 29 | Once dispirited from morning scrap (5) | AMORT | AM (morning) + ORT (scrap) |
| 31 | Old magistrate’s barrier to press (7) | BAILLIE | BAIL (barrier) + LIE (press) |
| 32 | Contraption to tidy harem’s room getting hot (6) | DOODAH | DO (tidy) + ODA (room in a harem) + H(ot) |
| 38 | Perhaps Blair snubbed Liberal’s social standing (5) | CASTE | Blair CAST(l)E without L(iberal) |
| 40 | Ed’s mentioned dangerous European (4) | HOTE | Ed = Spenser: HOT (dangerous) + E(uropean) |
What an achievement!
This is what Inquisitors are about in our opinion. There were some tricky words and we couldn’t parse a few. Thanks for explaining 13ac and 33ac. If you are correct about the parsing for 24d then we tend to agree with you. We only had our ipad Chambers and just thought it may be some technical term!
Anyway, that said we would forgive Shark. It was a symmetrical grid and we really felt that we had to look iin the ‘house’ for the three litle pigs. When we found them we both burst out laughing!
Thanks to Hihoba – we really needed you all this week. Congratulations to Shark!
Great blog and great puzzle. You’re right, it was a welcome challenge after a few gentle weeks. It took ages for HAIR ON MY CHINNY CHIN CHIN to become apparent but as soon as it did, the rest fell into place quite easily.
I don’t understand your gripe with 24d – it’s in Chambers:
Water pump (noun)
2 The eye (humorous)
Hi Kenmac. I didn’t know it was in Chambers. I’d heard of “water works” being used as a term for the eye in crying, but not water pump. That transfers the awfulness from Shark to Chambers (like “win upon” in last week’s puzzle and O for 11 in this one!). Who uses, or has ever used, these expressions?
Thanks kenmac – we’d never come across water pump used in that way before and didn’t even bother to look it up to see if it had any other meanings!
Thanks for the blog kenmac, & thanks, too, to Shark for a challenging & beautifully constructed puzzle.
The clueing was tricky but fair throughout & yielded steadily, if rather slowly & it took a while to work out all the parsing. & the endgame was very neatly worked. Was I the only one who noticed that the ‘wind’ was coming from the wrong end of the wolf? 🙂
Failed miserably (I’m citing business…) but on looking over this all I can say is wow!
No, shikasta, you weren’t the only one! That’s three of us at least.
Many thanks for a great blog and for all your kind comments; glad you enjoyed. Water pump was a find in Chambers that I couldnt resist, but agree it was a sneaky clue.
An addition inside the puzzle that wasn’t referred to was the POT sheltering the three pigs. According to some, but not all adaptations, was the wolf came down the chimney of the brick house and landed in a pot of boiling water. I thought it was unfair to include this as a highlighting requirement given there is no definite source for this version.
Of course my version is made up adaptation to a theme that should be well known to us all and therefore research was probably unlikely to be needed (apart from the alternative names of the three little pigs).
Shark
Yes – it was an enjoyable crossword.
In the version that I’m more familiar with, the pigs from the first two houses got eaten so when I spotted SHOTE (remembered from a recent Schadenfreude IQ) I was left wondering were those other two might be; and in this version the wolf does indeed come down the chimney into a pot of boiling water. My partner then told me her version which accords with the tale represented in the grid – all 3 pigs safe inside the house.
And I spent ages looking for a synonym for WOLF rather than the word itself – but there was no LOBO to be found …
Thanks Shark & Hihoba.
Am I the only person who spent ages searching the grid for the characters in The Shining?
A great puzzle, at the very furthest reach of my ability to solve; I almost gave up, but kept being drawn back. I was frustrated by the number of answers I got but couldn’t really explain (1a: drink = one?); and as for 24d, irid, it’s not in my (old) Chambers. I guess I need to splash out and buy a new one. Thanks for the very helpful blog.
Thanks Neil
As cited in Chambers:
ONE: a drink, as in a quick one
IRID: the iris of the eye
They are both in Chambers 2003 onwards, is your copy before then? If so, it might be time to invest.