Inquisitor 1612: High-ups by Gila

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1612: High-ups by Gila”

1. A quality puzzle, and rewarding in the end. (In the only other puzzle by Gila that I have attempted, no. 1580 Blank Face, I completed the grid but had no endgame to enjoy because I knew nothing about the theme and could not see it or guess it.)

   When I had solved all but two clues, I tried to find a name I recognised in either the group of four or the group of seven, but I got absolutely nothing. On picking up the crossword again the next day I at last saw why 33d had to be SELL, and that helped me to visualise a name (SUTHERLAND) along the bottom. A related name (POPP) came to mind immediately, and it was then possible to complete the perimeter because I knew five of those operatic sopranos and got the last two with assistance from the list of unchecked letters.

   The other group had to be the Sopranos, but the only name I knew was the first one, TONY (I actually had TO?Y). My remaining letters, including three question marks, didn’t seem to form any recognisable names, but it was easy enough to look them up.  I didn’t see THE SOPRANOS until the very end.

   The clues were excellent – echoing what I wrote on the blog of Gila’s previous puzzle. Like you, HG, I found 7d ESCAPEE was the hardest to crack. It’s Collins, incidentally, not Chambers, that gives the pronunciation of that word (‘S K P’) as clued – not with a second syllable as in ‘escapade’.

   Many thanks to both Gila and HolyGhost.

2. The diagonal gave me THE SOPRANOS quite early on in the grid fill and I guessed that it was the TV series and it would be singers on the perimeter. It was just a case of thinking of my favourites and the perimeter was done quite quickly. I guessed that the rest of the puzzle would be characters from the tv show and wiki gave me the answers that fitted the bill. The derivation of the letters was too complicated, so I left the puzzle at that point, meaning to go back and reverse engineer it, but didn’t. A nice puzzle apart from that point – Gila’s hard effort with this was wasted on me.

3. Another good one. I struggled similarly over ESCAPEE / ESCAPER, and suspect my solve would have taken considerably longer if I hadn’t spotted the diagonal to highlight, and without Classic FM’s handy list of famous sopranos. 🙂

4. A fairly quick grid fill mostly. Got stuck for a while on 9A, 6D and 7D. Finally got the first two and opted for ESCAPEE for 7D but cannot remember why. Most impressed by the correct parsing now it has been revealed to me – so obvious and yet so easily missed! The misprints meant nothing to me and I was stuck when trying to fill the perimeter. Then, when I belatedly spotted the diagonal, everything fell quickly into place. I have not watched The Sopranos, but the names from the misprints looked highly feasible so I did not bother to check them.

   Thanks to Gila for an enjoyable and not too demanding puzzle and to HG for the blog, especially for putting me straight on 7D.

5. I enjoyed this.  I am very glad that THE SOPRANOS was clearly signposted on the diagonal as I knew only a few of the singers and nothing at all about the TV series.  Thanks to HG and Gila.

6. I’d only ever heard of 3 of the Sopranos around the perimeter, and I’d never heard of the TV series, so I had to Google to get the rest. A fairly straightforward puzzle, I thought.

7. I was a bit short on time so resorted to Google quite early, when I spotted the diagonal (does the title nod at the Sopranos being on a rising diagonal, so going up?) Never quite as satisfying in that case, but I thought there were some excellent clues – little Easter eggs that popped up with the letter changes, like in 6d.

8. Exactly what PeeDee said but change I to We!

9. I’m prompted after reading others’ comments to say that I might have had the most rewarding experience of this puzzle, having had to find the group of seven first and not spotting the theme name in the diagonal until the end.  (I admit I’m not much good at spotting what is obvious to others – this was not just a one-off.)

   Perhaps the setter made this a bit too easy by allowing the theme to be visible too early, leaving the solver just to look up the names.  But of course one still has to solve a lot of clues to get that far, and I’m not seriously taking this argument anywhere.

10. Any puzzle that references the late, great Lucia Popp will find favour with me, whatever other merits it may or may not possess. This puzzle had merits aplenty; some good clues, a clever implementation of the theme and a neat endgame with no frustrating grid-staring. I suspect that for some more research was needed for the singers than the mobsters. For me it was the other way round, but the Wiki article made this pretty much plain sailing even for the uninitiated.

    Great stuff.

11. cruciverbophile @10

    When I had PO?P in the perimeter I never thought of POPP – only POMP and another word. When I had enough of the name SUTHERLAND to guess it, POPP must have come to me in a split second.

    [I echo what you say about Lucia Popp.  I’ve heard five of the sopranos’ voices in recordings, and in the case of Lucia Popp it is on an old CD I have of a symphony, not an opera: Symphony No. 4 by Mahler, who often used voices in his symphonies.]

12. Many thanks to HG for the excellent blog and to everyone who has commented. As always, it’s hugely appreciated.

    Seems like this one was generally easier – and ultimately less convoluted – than some of my previous puzzles, but it gave me the opportunity to try out a couple of new things – using perimeter entries and finding a new (for me) way of generating those pesky extra letters.

    The former was massively helped by QXW’s excellent ‘Free Lights’ functionality. And the Classic FM website. I’m pretty bad on Popp culture.

    The latter was inspired by Chambers, which gives the origin of the word ‘soprano’ as “Ital, from sopra , from L supr? or super above”. Years ago, I remember seeing a forum post from the great Roddy Forman (who also kindly test-solved my first published IQ puzzle) which said words to the effect that, if you need to generate extra letters or whatnot, you should try to do it in some thematic way (albeit fairly obliquely in this case).

    As ever, I hope my randomness has highlighted some new cultural thing among IQ solvers, as it has to me with Popp and co. I binged The Sopranos earlier this year and it’s well worth a watch, though I personally think that it’s edged out by The Wire for that coveted ‘Best Ever’ slot.

    Til the next time

    Ali/Gila

13. Late to this one, but just wanted to say I enjoyed it despite all the counting. That the idea of ‘the one above’ is inspired by the Latin is indeed subtle stuff.

    Put me on the side of people who required google for the singers, but not the mobsters. I concur with Gila’s opinion on the series, and also agree that The Wire is even better.

14. I’m also late. I enjoyed it a lot. I loved the original way of generating letters. I spotted the diagonal quite early in the solve which helped a lot. I’m firmly in the camp of knowing the musical sops, but having to Google the mobsters.

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