15 comments on “Inquisitor 1595: Invalid Care by Phi”

1. Yet another interesting and unique design in the Inquisitor series. In this one I liked the way the theme was incorporated in different but complementary ways in the thematic and the normal clues. I also liked the red herring in the middle of the thematic clues.

   I tried to solve the French clue first, but I couldn’t get it and had to wait until the letters of the answer showed up. That was my favourite clue, for its originality, although 25a EGEST ran it close.

   For a while I thought that either NAPPY or NIPPY (making SNAPPY or SNIPPY) could go in the bottom row. It took me longer than it should have to twig that there was a ‘cool’ theme running through the thematic answers going across. I had most of the grid complete when I finally worked out the complete aphorism, followed by the ‘fever’ theme running through the thematic answers going down.

   The clues were of high quality, and I enjoyed solving them as much as unravelling the theme.

   Thanks to Phi and kenmac.

2. I hugely appreciate the level of challenge – I found this really tricky – and as you point out kenmac, there was an immensely satisfying structure to the whole thing, but whilst I wouldn’t describe it as a slog, I did find it more intellectually rather than experientially pleasing. The pennies rarely seemed to fall for me – more they needed to be dug up slowly and painfully – and some clues had to be battered into submission. I also managed to put quite a few additional hurdles in my way. For example, relatively early on I was convinced that 15D was NEWT (=eft) +S with the W replaced by the S from second, which had me thinking there was something more convoluted going on with the letter replacements. This was compounded by having SIPS rather than SUPS at 20A and thinking that ‘prominent’ was likely to clue VIP, with the V needing to be replaced or dropped in some way. I only corrected this very late on in the process. Having SNAPPY rather than SNIPPY also meant it took me longer than it should to recognise the ‘colds’ (and hence ‘fevers’).

   I’m not sure then how much of the difficulty was of my own making, but it was a very satisfying puzzle to complete. An experience quite a lot like last week, but more so. Thanks to Phi for the workout and to kenmac, particularly for the efficiency with which you’ve set out the various complexities of the solution.

3. Ha, good to see that Alan B had almost identical experience (going by choice of phrasing) with the SNIPPY/SNAPPY thing.

4. My approach was similar to yours, kenmac, in that I kept a note of letters omitted or added, and STARVE A FEVER soon became visible. FEED A COLD proved trickier, and I never managed to see the missing E in 9 across, for example, but that didn’t really matter as there was no doubt about the wording of the proverb. I managed then to work out which letters needed to be transferred from each of half the thematic clues, and successfully identified the “French”clue as the red herring. However, I couldn’t solve it, since it didn’t occur to me to use the transferred letters (as I should have done), but again it didn’t matter. Perhaps solvers should have been asked to write BRAINS under the grid? That possible weakness aside, I thought it was an accessible but challenging puzzle.

5. It did occur to me to keep a note of letters omitted / added, but by that point I was quite a way in and my copy was somewhat of a mess, so I didn’t, and so never saw the message. What we had to do with the thematic entries though was clear enough and, once I’d sorted the red herring to my satisfaction, I was happy in the false knowledge I’d spotted everything I needed to spot. Full grid though, which is what counts, though it looks like I did this the hard way.

6. Huge thanks to kenmac for what seems like a master class in solving. As someone who regularly does cryptics and sometimes has a dabble at these,

   this seemed like quantum physics in comparison. And from Phi who gives a gently challengiing Friday puzzle. Full marks to him too as it is all logical

   I reprinted the puzzle and filled with notes for future reference. I dont reckon on ever reaching this level though.

   Truly humbling.

7. As is sometimes the case with Phi I managed to correctly fill the grid without ever completely understanding what was going on.  Does this count as a solve?  I didn’t spot “feed a cold starve a fever” but still managed to fumble my way to a solution anyway.

   Thanks to Phi for bamboozling me and to kenmac for explaining it all so clearly.

8. Same experience as PeeDee@7.

9. Same experience as PeeDee@7and NormanLinFrance@8

10. Same experience here: I thought ‘Brains’ was the thing that verified that the amendments were correct. It never occurred to me to see if the lost and found letters spelled something out, though I did keep a list of them (thinking they would balance out).

    This was one of those puzzles that continued to be tricky after seeing what is going on, and I found it one of the most pleasurable and satisfying for quite a while.

    Thanks to Phi and kenmac.

11. Lots of fun — thanks all round. Nothing to add except that the preamble led me neatly, and I’m sure intentionally, up the garden path by suggesting that the letters that vanished from (as it turned out) down clues would be same letters that needed to be added to across clues. But force of habit — writing down all moving letters with + or – signs as appropriate — eventually brought a revelation. I laughed no end when the “French” clue came clear.

12. As others have already said – an enjoyable solve. Like David@12 we wrote all the letters down with + or – which did help eventually. As kenmac said – a classic IQ which was very satisfying to entangle.

    Thanks Phi and kenmac

13. I have been caught out by the collapse of my hard disk and would not be able to access my setter’s blog, even if I’d written it yet. Will try and get something up over the next couple of hours.

14. OK, ‘tis done: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/

15. I am largely with PeeDee et al. A steady slog, with a penny-drop intererval rather than moment as I spotted the transfer of a letter from one thematic answer to the other. But then, I misunderstood the preamble regarding similar amendments to some of the clues. So I spent ages trying to match each letter deletion from a clue with an addition of the same letter to another clue. I finished up with a prize-winnable grid without a full understanding of what was going on.

    I must try to think more laterally! Thanks to Phi and Kenmac.

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