Inquisitor 1439: Evolution by Kruger

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1439: Evolution by Kruger”

1. DOH!

   Another enjoyable IQ but we failed at the last hurdle. We’d like to blame it on lack of time following our return home but actually we missed the very clear instructions generated to replace SYD. An amazing construction from Kruger based on one of our favourite goups.

   Thanks to Kruger and also kenmac for another animated grid.

2. I would have said this was a fairly straightforward solve, but another one who failed to replace Syd. Remind me to take more care at the last next time.

3. I thought this was superb. Lovely idea, great construction and very neat clueing. The replacing of BARRETT with GILMOUR was very clever.

   I would love to win the chocolates for the wife.

   Great puzzle and blog

4. I really enjoyed this one too, great clues and fun to solve.
   I thought for a while, having more or less guessed ARKWRIGHT at 11A, that it was going to be something to do with some aspect of the industrial (r)evolution, couldn’t recall if Arkwright was a ‘Lunar Man’ or not ?, then got the Pink Floyd connection quite quickly. Seems not long ago that we were coluring in the grid for the Dark Side of the Moon album cover ? Many thanks Kruger and kenmac !

5. I found this very enjoyable – praise indeed, coming from an old curmudgeon like me.

   Got REPLACING SYD quite early, so I could tell it was Pink Floyd once more. The grid was filling but I had a bit of a hole in the NW corner; however, when I’d found BARRET, MASON, & WATERS but no WRIGHT it was obvious where to look.

   Kruger had an earlier Tribute to Syd B. (IQ 1169), and Jambazi did the Cover Version late in 2012 (IQ 1257). So, Tramp @3: you could always buy her some chocolates (maybe from a setter’s fee).

   Thanks ken. I make it 13; I’ve blogged only 2 of Kruger’s … whom I also thank.

6. HolyGhost@5 I could buy her some chocolates; I just thought winning some might go some way to justify me sitting on the couch for many hours in a world of my own.

7. Like others I thought this was a super construction. As with a few other recent puzzles for me, the grid-fill went reasonably swimmingly but the clever end-game took a while before the penny dropped. I had the instruction spot on but for reasons now unknown, I spent an age looking for a cryptic reference to GILMOUR in the grid, despite knowing (through wiki-oogling) that he had replaced BARRETT (my knowledge of Pink Floyd being negligible). It wasn’t until 24-hours later that the ‘Oh, hang on’ moment struck. A kick in the shins for that, but a smile on the face when the changing letters revealed real words. How clever

   Thanks to Kruger for the lovely puzzle and of course kenmac for another great blog.

   I’m not unhappy to see chocolate replace prosecco for the prize, should I ever win it of course !

8. Another terrific puzzle, which occupied us for rather longer than it should have as we were very slow to spot the Pink Floyd theme, even when we had most of the grid completed and all the shaded squares filled! The three types of clue had made it difficult to identify all the letters in the message, so once the grid was full we had to work through the clues systematically to find out what was going on and once we had “founder members” it seemed likely a band was involved. The anagram was then obvious (D’oh!) and Barrett and Waters were quickly spotted, but we had to look up the other two. We really struggled with the letters immediately preceding “Syd” in the message and even when we had got “replacing” we spent some time looking for “Gilmour” or just “David”, or some sort of cryptic reference to him, in the grid, before realising that his surname has the same number of letters as Syd’s. How very convenient and, yes Kenmac, real words are always preferable in the final grid. One of the best of the year so far, but I may have said that last week too!

   Pink Floyd are clearly a favourite of setters. As well as the previous ones in this series referred to above, like Rob H I recall looking for enough crayons to colour in a prism for a “Dark Side of the Moon” themed puzzle in the Listener a couple of years ago.

9. The pop scene is a huge blind spot here, but Google helped me to Pink Floyd and I too spent some time looking for a cunningly concealed GILMOUR somewhere in the grid until I realized that REPLACING SYD meant what it said. Very neat all-real-words finale: thumbs-up to Kruger.

   But I didn’t even think of searching out a pink highlighter and just used the one nearest to hand (yellow), so will be joining the kicking-ourselves brigade if getting the right shade was indeed essential. Argh! Never mind, it’s only chocolate now.

10. I had to wait until today, when the solution of Listener 4398 was published, to comment on the strange coincidence that linked it with this “Evolution” IQ, which followed a week later.

    In both, the central section of the central row had to be thematically replaced, leaving real words. And in both, three other thematic words had to be highlighted in the grid. The Listener theme was real tennis, where REALTENNIS had to replace JEUDEPAUME … with PENTHOUSE, TAMBOUR and DEDANS to be highlighted in their appropriate positions in the grid.

    Another weird coincidence for me was that a real tennis mate of mine, who I played a lot with in the 60s, sold his beautiful 16c house in Pyrford, before moving to Australia with his family. When I asked who had bought it, he said it was a member of Pink Floyd … which meant absolutely nothing to me at the time ! I’m afraid to confess that I still don’t think I have ever heard one of their songs.

    Re chocolate v. prosecco, at £20, Rabot 1745 is theoretically more valuable, if worse for teeth and waistline. it certainly puts to shame my current favourite Tesco Everyday Value 100g. bars (in white, dark and milk versions) at only 30p each… although guests, to whom I give anonymous rectangles of the dark with their after-dinner coffee, all rave about it. A rose by any other name, etc.

    I don’t have a pink highlighter either, but resorted to hatching the cells with a red biro, which gives a pink effect at a distance.

    Baie dankie en totsiens, Kruger, and as always great blog, Kenmac.

11. Add me to the list of people who kicked themselves at the end game. I spent nearly as long trying to complete the final shading as I did on solving the clues. I was convinced that shading all the letters of GILMOUR or somesuch would reveal a Pink Floyd album cover or something.

    In retrospect the instructions to replace Syd are so obvious it is hard to understand how I overlooked them for so long.

    Thanks to kenmac and Kruger for a super puzzle and blog.

12. Murray at #10 “I still don’t think I have ever heard one of their songs”.

    I’d say that, maybe without recognising it as such, you’d have probably heard “Another Brick in the Wall” sometime or other over the decades.

13. nms@12 Have just listened to “Another brick in the Wall” on YouTube, and can honestly say I have NEVER heard it before … although it did sound a bit like a Stones song, which went something like “I don’t need no satisfaction” ! But I do remember Manfred Mann, Herman and the Hermits and of course the Beatles and Stones, so I’m not a totally hopeless case.

14. My thanks to Kenmac, as always, for an excellent blog and to those who have taken the trouble to post comments. I’m pleased that feedback has been positive.

    I’m pretty sure that the colour used for the shadings will be (and should be) immaterial.

    This puzzle is, as already noted, my 2nd using Pink Floyd as a theme. As I’ve also used The Beatles, Dire Straits and Emerson Lake & Palmer for previous puzzles, that obviously makes a statement as to my musical preferences and favourite eras.

    Now have to think of other musicians that I like …

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