Inquisitor 1556: Pause for Thought by The Ace of Hearts

13 comments on “Inquisitor 1556: Pause for Thought by The Ace of Hearts”

1. For some reason, 27d was the first clue I looked at and I solved it straight away – never a good sign.
   26d CRATUR and 32a FERMIUM were my last two entries and I didn’t really understand FERMIUM until now – so thanks for that.

   I had a turbulent week, with real life insisting on taking priority, so I solved this over a few mini sessions over four or five days.

   Nice level of puzzle – not too hard and not too easy. Thanks to setter and blogger.

2. This is my 15th Inquisitor, and perhaps one day, if not one day soon, I might cease to be amazed at the originality of these puzzles – referring mainly to the ideas behind the themes and the things the solver must do to unravel them. What has become familiar, though, is the sort of manipulation of the clues like we find here: deleting or adding letters and forming a message that is vital to or helps with the solution.

   The theme revealed itself to me from ESCUDOS, CUDDY and CUDGEL, which all had to be ‘normal’ clues as they would not go into the grid as spelt. I think the title helped me to think of the phrase ‘chew the cud’. At any rate, the theme was at that point well and truly sussed. Completing the message and using it to help with some of the less tractable clues was an enjoyable further exercise of the brain.

   I thought I had seen everything, but then along came “Bill’s camel” in 21a. I guessed TAWNY from ‘camel’, but I made no sense of ‘Bill’ until I looked up my best guess for a word that would fit (ORANGE-CAMEL) and saw the indication ‘Shak’ in the dictionary. I don’t think I would have dared clue that using ‘Bill’! ORANGE-TAWNY and HEALTH RESORT were my last two answers.

   Strangely (with reference to kenmac’s comment), SCUD was my also my first solution (pencilled in, of course) and FERMIUM my last.  I have read a lot about Fermi and other illustrious physicists but had not heard of that element before.

   Many thanks to The Ace of Hearts for an excellent puzzle, and to HolyGhost for the blog.

3. Me @2

   A correction: I had forgotten that FERMIUM was not actually my last answer to go in.  It was the last before I started work on unravelling those two obstinate answers ORANGE-TAWNY and HEALTH RESORT, which (as stated) were the last two to go in.

4. Nice idea for a theme, well implemented. Nice to have a relatively gentle one after last week’s brain-basher.

   Alan’s post gives me pause for thought: was Shakespeare ever actually known as Bill in his lifetime?

5. Enjoyed a relatively gentle but neatly contrived challenge — the usual thanks to the setter and HG. I was lucky enough to guess what was going on from the title and my first two “normal” answers (ESCUDOS and CUD). Felt a bid ashamed that FERMIUM took this physics graduate so long: the two missing Ms in a shortish answer kept eluding me. As did HEALTH RESORT for some time, because I’d convinced myself that the answer as a whole would be some dreadful Australian term for “attractive woman” … in search of which I very nearly resorted to the Barry McKenzie cartoon books.

6. I can’t recall an Inquisitor where I got the theme so quickly. What else can one do with a cud other than chew it? Because I’d arrived at the theme, the rest felt a bit of a slog – there isn’t the normal incentive. But some cunning clues all the same, and surprisingly difficult to complete. Thanks to Ace of H, and HolyGhost.

7. Enjoyable, and fairly straightforward as noted above. When did I spot what was going on? Only after I’d got the phrase in question, guessed the two-part definition, and completed the grid. Let’s just say I wasn’t on particularly good form.

8. A slow but steady solve for most of the grid. SW quadrant caused some problems with (to me) unusual words but, when solved, the wordplay was very sound. Got ESCUDOS & SCUD early on so, given the title, guessed the theme very quickly. This helped no end with the deleted letters but, even so, some challenging clues. LOI was ORANG(E)TAWNY. Very enjoyable and just hard enough to be satisfying.

   Thanks to A of H and to HG.

9. A similar solving route for me as with many other solvers it would seem. The top row coins and the bottom row missile lended themselves to a quicker than normal penny drop.

   I had trouble parsing fermium and excudit so thanks to Holy Ghost for the explanations. Incede was my LOI, for which I kicked myself. And scrump was a new word for me in that definition. Thanks to HG and The Ace of Hearts for the blog and the fun puzzle.

10. I guessed the theme very early on with only a few clues solved.  After that I found it a long and hard struggle to fill the grid, finally failing on INCEDE.  It amazes me that some found this a gentle puzzle, I really struggled all the way to the end.

    Thanks to all.

11. I agree with Pee Dee, this was a struggle! – I finished about a third of the clues, and figured out there might be a link between escudos/scudi/scud, but there I stopped. I was unable to get a lot of obscure words (retorsely? – not in my Chambers) and the shifting sands of not knowing if clues were put in the grid in the right way eventually daunted me. I liked “cratur”, though I didn’t solve it! An interesting effort for me, though once I see the direction about entering clues thematically that’s an “uh oh” moment for me from the start!

12. Amateur @11: the answer is RETRORSELY – obscure yes, but it is in Chambers.

13. Ah, thank you HolyGhost -I should have read the grid more closely. Yes, it is indeed in Chambers, and my faith that setters aren’t just making words up is restored! Not a word that slips easily off the tongue though, I’m not surprised it doesn’t get aired much!

Comments are closed.