Don’t Trust the Picture by Phi
Preamble: A number of answers are entered jumbled, and even then won’t fill the associated entries, leaving unchecked spaces blank. The complete versions of these entries are all real words, defined by definitions given by a redundant word or words in a number of other clues. The letters completing these entries, read in a logical order and to be written under the grid, explain what is happening.
6d – a simple anagram – was first to fall followed by 24a quickly followed by my first thematic, 15a then 27a – though I couldn’t fully justify its original answer straight away.
For no other reason than “it fits” I pencilled in EVEREST for 15a across and TEL AVIV for 27a and set my subconscious the task of finding a connection.
In the meantime, I noticed that one thing these entries had in common was that their first and last cells were completely barred off from other words. further inspection showed that there were nine such across entries, all seven letters long: 1, 13, 15, 19, 27, 35, 42, 44 and 47. So, clearly, we’re looking for an 18-letter phrase. All went fairly swimmingly until I tried to shoehorn the answers to 15 and 44 into five sevenths of their spaces. And then it struck me that 44a was a straightforward anagram therefore not thematic and neither was 13a. OK, so we’re looking for a 14-letter phrase instead.
By this time, it became clear that EVEREST was wrong and I wasn’t doing that well at identifying the extra words. Truth is, I hadn’t really put in much effort, so it was time to put that to rights and to sort out the thematic answers.
Some of the answers had multiple possibilities but mostly there seemed to be only one, so we end up with:
| Number | Answer | Def | From |
| 1 | CRETISM | lie | 11d |
| 15 | OVERSEA |
foreign | 32a |
| 19 | NASTILY |
disagreeably | 4d |
| 27 | TELAVIV |
Israeli city | 21d |
| 35 | ENCOMIA |
praises | 12a |
| 42 | NORTHER |
wind | 29d |
| 47 | TENSELY |
showing stress | 41d |
Which gives us the phrase CONTENT MAY VARY. This is, presumably, a reference to the title, Don’t Trust the Picture, when applied to a box of assortments where the picture on the box may not exactly match the contents.
I usually enjoy Phi’s puzzles and this was no exception but it left me feeling a little flat as though I’d missed some other connection. But, hey, let’s have no negativity this week, eh?
| Across | Extra |
|||
| Clue |
Entry |
first |
last |
Wordplay |
| 1 Goes round to leave political party (7) |
[TRIES] CRETISM |
C |
M |
ToRIES (political party) minus O (round) |
| 9 Put forward eliminating noisy bird and part of its call (4) |
NOTE | This one has me stumped, I’m afraid 🙁
Thanks to Caran @1 NOminaTE (put forward) minus MINA (noisy bird) |
||
| 12 [Praises] scholar, the foremost in educational assessment (6) (35 across) |
SAVANT | VANguard (foremost) inside SAT (educational assessment) | ||
| 13 Mate going to a support talk (7) |
PALABRA | PAL (mate)+A+BRA (support) | ||
| 14 Fancy women seen with that guy (4) |
WHIM | Woman+HIM (that guy) | ||
| 15 Separate volume penned by prophet (7) |
[SEVER] OVERSEA |
O |
A |
Volume inside SEER (prophet) |
| 16 Clay consisting of yellow material (6) |
LUTEIN | LUTE (clay)+IN (consisting of) | ||
| 18 Do better than Times, about to invest in mid-week edition (6) |
EXCEED | X (times)+Circa (about) inside wEEk (mid)+EDition | ||
| 19 Cut back to limit a nuclear by product (7) |
[TAILS] NASTILY |
N |
Y |
SLIT (cut; rev: back) containing A |
| 20 Carnal deity having right to conceal love boobs (4) |
ERRS | ERoS minus O (love) containing Right | ||
| 22 Ceremonial figure leading Earth (5) |
STATE | STATistic (figure)+Earth | ||
| 24 I rule after revolution in Middle East? (4) |
EMIR | &lit ME (Middle East; rev: after revolution)+I+Rule |
||
| 25 Against investing in invention rejected as harmful (4) |
EVIL | LIE (invention) containing Versus (against) rev: rejected | ||
| 27 Quick with answer, having recalled last one (7) |
[ALIVE] TEL AVIV |
T |
V |
Answer+EVIL (answer to previous clue; rev: recalled) |
| 30 Call forth no fine work in design (4) |
ETCH | fETCH (call forth) minus Fine | ||
| 31 Heard up in Auckland initially – though not now (4) |
HUIA (extinct NZ bird) |
&lit Heard+Up+In+Auckland (initially) |
||
| 32 Top [foreign] Government splitting time up (5) (15 across) |
RIDGE | RIDE (time up [on horseback]) containing Government | ||
| 34 Cooler ace bailing from flight (4) |
STIR | STaIR (flight) minus Ace | ||
| 35 Conventional problem for stand-up? (7) |
[NOMIC] ENCOMIA |
E |
A |
NO MICrophone (problem for stand-up [comic]) |
| 37 Hanging old activist besetting prominent scientists (6) |
DORSER | |||
| 40 Removes harm from most of single manuscript (6) |
UNARMS | UNARy (single; most of)+MS (manuscript) | ||
| 42 Fit soldiers held back by those people finally escaping (7) |
[THROE] NORTHER |
N |
R |
OR (soldiers: Other Ranks; rev: held back) inside THEm (those people; minus final letter) |
| 43 Recalled someone telling stories in bar (4) |
RAIL | LIAR (someone telling stories; rev: recalled) | ||
| 44 These are mostly suppurating boils again? (7) |
REHEATS | THESE ARe (mostly; anag: suppurating) | ||
| 45 The French, without much point, becoming hideous to Scots (6) |
LAIDLY | LA (the French)+IDLY (without much point) | ||
| 46 Black dirt, no end to it (4) | GRIM | GRIMe (dirt; no end) | ||
| 47 Gentleness conceals easily articulated sounds (7) |
LENES TENSELY |
T |
Y |
gentLENESs (hidden: conceals) |
| Down |
||
| Clue |
Entry |
Wordplay |
| 2 Hindu gutted after sun is captured by me? (4) |
RAHU | &lit RA (sun god)+HindU (gutted) |
| 3 Original resident upset, dismissing new South American icon (5) |
EVITA | nATIVE (original resident; rev: upset; minus New) |
| 4 Easiest exam occupying morning? [Disagreeably], on the contrary (6) (19 across) |
TAMEST | AM (morning) occupying TEST (exam) |
| 5 Guest Debussy’s quickly brought into line, having missed overture (7) |
INVITEE | lINE (missing first letter) containing VITE (quickly in French, Debussy being a French composer) |
| 6 Bird of prey flying at lines (7) |
STANIEL | AT LINES (anag: flying) |
| 7 Daring to go topless in party (4) |
RAVE | bRAVE (daring; minus first letter) |
| 8 Photo reflex jerking? That requires hefting of the ______ (6) |
PLEXOR | PhotO RefLEX (minus OF THE; anag: jerking) (a funny ol’ clue, in my opinion) |
| 9 North American Catholic, one engaged in war on drugs there? (4) |
NARC | &lit North American+RC ([Roman] Catholic) |
| 10 Keep self-possession, heading off after sailor holding British (7) |
OBSERVE | Ordinary Seaman containing British+nERVE (self possession; minus first letter) |
| 11 Republican engaged in spreading [lie] in measurement of environmental history (8. 2 words) (1 across) |
TREE RING | TEERING (spreading) containing Republican |
| 16 Reduction in desire observed around female drunks (6) |
LUSHES | LUSt (desire; minus last letter) containing SHE (female) |
| 17 Old woman filling a job in the old country (7) |
ALMAINE | A+LINE (job) containing MA (old woman) |
| 21 Stays out late at first, probing [Israeli city] drains (6) (27 across) |
SLEEPS | SEEPS (drains) containing Late (at first) |
| 23 Rotate awkwardly, about to hide marker (8) |
TATTOOER | ROTATE (anag: awkwardly) containing TO |
| 26 Runs hospital in Rhode Island supporting science in hard tumours (7) |
SCIRRHI | Runs+Hospital inside RI (Rhode Island) after SCIence |
| 28 Copper, over in glen cavity (7) |
VACUOLE | CU (copper; rev: over) inside VALE (glen) |
| 29 Athletic challenge in absorbing most of normal [wind] swirling (7) (42 across) |
IRON-MAN | IN containing NORMAl (most of; anag: swirling) |
| 31 Animal noise cut after receiving enquiring comment by Australian (6) |
HEE-HAW | HEW (cut) containing EH (enquiring comment)+Australian |
| 33 Lots of Japanese porcelain is cracked by husband in Paris (6) |
IMARIS | IS containing MARI (husband in French) |
| 36 Historic decree that is restricting champion? (5) |
IRADE | IE (that is) containing RAD (champion) (not too sure about RAD being champion, TBH) |
| 38 Stop picking up matches, striking one third of them (4) |
STEM | I can’t figure this one out. Clearly the letters of STEM are contained in MaTchES but other than that, (shrug) |
| 39 Investment in obscure television network (4) |
RETE | obscuRE TElevision (hidden: investment in) |
| 41 English philosopher, [showing stress] married badly (47 across) |
MILL | Married+ILL (badly) |
9 Across is Nominate, put forward, with the mina (‘noisy bird’) removed.
My reasoning for 38…
Matches = Meets,
Picking up = reverse it, so Steem
Striking one third of them = remove the ‘e’ that is the third letter in ‘them’…
Stem.
I found this very enjoyable. I feel that I tend to struggle with Phi’s Inquisitors (I suppose I ought to check back to see if this is actually the case) so was relieved to crack this one in reasonable time. I made an error with one of the definitions: I thought that HIDE in 23d was superfluous and that meant that I struggled to fill 15a (oversea) as I couldn’t find a word that worked. However, once I had figured out what the message was going to be I was able to add the necessary O and A and complete the grid.
Thanks to Phi and kenmac for the blog.
Definitely on the easier side for Phi’s Inquisitors, and sorting the jumbled words wasn’t as scary as it first appeared. I got myself into a bit of a muddle at 15ac, where for some reason I thought OVERSEE might be an appropriate answer – heaven knows why looking back – but when I finally sorted out what to do with the pairs of extra letters, there was no doubt that was wrong, not that there should have been anyway. An enjoyable diversion for a typically damp, over-cast Saturday.
Jon_S @4:
Modesty becomes you. I was recently alerted to your “I do the i” Inquisitor blog. I was aware of the site but I didn’t know that you included IQ – well done you.
For everyone else, here’s a link: https://idothei.wordpress.com/2017/05/31/inquisitor-1491-dont-trust-the-picture-by-phi/
Many thanks Kenmac. ?
That should have been a 🙂 rather than a ?…
I enjoyed this, though there were a few clues I couldn’t understand after solving. Understood the principle fairly soon; was held up by assuming it held also for similarly bracketed 7 letter answers when in fact they turned out to be normal. Unfortunately I never found the logical way to read the letters…
There is a brief setter’s blog t http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/inquisitor-1491-dont-trust-the-picture/, though it has been slightly expanded since I wrote it a few days ago by my stumbling on some sketches I made for the grid!
For 37a I had def as ‘hanging old’, with DOER the activist around RS Royal Society.
First attempt at an inquisitor and solved most of the normal clues. Some of my guesses for the themed answers were very wrong and so I didn’t get the themed message. Pleased with getting as far as I did. Thanks to Phi and Kenmac
I enjoyed this and got it all except for 38dn which I could not explain. Fortunately it was made up entirely of crossers so there was actually no need to solve this clue at all, let alone explain it. I flirted with the same explanation as Caran @2 but rejected it as being too weak. I liked the content may vary idea.
Unlike Jon_S I did not find this easy at all, damn hard work in fact.
Thanks Phi and kenmac.