I found this HARD! I only managed to finish it after a four-day period staring at a half-filled grid. I eventually Googled 1D and a guess for 20D as a last throw of the dice, which gave me the required PDM! Here are Phi’s instructions:
Clues are split into the upper and lower halves of the grid, identified by thematic unclued entries. In the top half, nine entries are formed by dropping a pair of consecutive letters from the clue answers – in clue order, these spell three thematic names. The nine pairs reappear (in some disarray) added to nine clue answers to form entries in the lower half. In these eighteen clues, definitions and details such as ‘(2 words)’ refer to the unmutilated answers while wordplay and lengths refer to the entries. Two answers with normal clues are entered in a specific way to enable 20ac to provide thematic confirmation. In all other clues one letter must be omitted before solving. These letters, in clue order, spell a motto.
Five different types of entry, then.
Three unclued.
9 with two letters omitted from the answer.
9 with two letters added to the answer.
2 “normal” clues but entries treated in a specific way.
16 normal entries, but clues contain an extra letter.
We are looking for three names and a motto.
Half of the answers to clues – 18 of 36 – were non-words. This made for major problems, as it so often does in my experience! A first read-through yielded precisely two answers, one of each type in the top half. DRI(VE)R for 7A and SALAAM for 13A with an extra X. Not an auspicious start.
I soldiered on, quickly realising that the top half would have to be solved first, (or all the names revealed) to get the letters to transfer to the bottom half. After four days of slowly gaining more answers, my “letters dropped” from the top half were LO (or OL), VE, IG, ER, and AI, and in the bottom half 23D seemed to require TH to be added. These letters gave me no clues at all.
I had 1D as ODY?SE? and 20D as ??U?R???. 1D had to be ODYSSEY. I looked up ??U?R??? in my trusty Chambers phone App and of the 76 possibilities one of the first was AQUARIUS – at least it was a name – and it looked as though that made sense as the clue to 33A indicated it might start with a letter U and similarly 22A might well start with Q.
Was this to be the week when I failed to solve an Inquisitor that I was blogging? In desperation I Googled Odyssey Aquarius and that was it! The PDM to end all PDMs. Odyssey and Aquarius were the names of the Command Module and the Lunar Module of Apollo 13, launched on April 11th 1970, exactly 50 years before the publication date for this puzzle. Apollo 13 was the one which gave us the famous quote “Houston, we have a problem” (actually it was “Okay, Houston, we’ve had a problem here”). The stirring of an oxygen tank in the Service Module caused an explosion, and the Command Module lost power, so the crew had to transfer to the Lunar Module in order to return to Earth. The title “Transfer of Power” refers to this.
After filling in 1D ODYSSEY, 20D AQUARIUS and 20A APOLLO13, the two clues to be entered in a “specific way” became clear – 19D and 6D must contain the letters ONE and THREE to be replaced by the corresponding numbers. This led to TONEME and SEVENTY-THREE, and solutions to the remaining clues were found using the crew names Jim LOVELL, Jack SWIGERT and Fred HAISE, and the mission motto EX LUNA SCIENTIA (from the moon, knowledge).
The final grid fill was still far from easy, but I eventually had the grid below, in which I have indicated the omission points in the top half by a red bar and the extra letters in the bottom half in red.
On re-reading the rubric I find that the protagonists (in the form of their 2 letter sections) transferred from ODYSSEY, the Command Module, identified by 1D, to AQUARIUS, the Lunar Module, identified by 20D.
I thought this was one of the most remarkable grid constructions we have had for a long time, and the planning by Phi and the Editor to get it published on the 50th anniversary was equally remarkable! All in all a brilliant puzzle.
To quote Hyman Kaplan (in two wonderful comic novels by Leo Rosten about an English language class for immigrants to America) “Hod but Good”. So thank you Phi for an excellent workout during lockdown.
UPPER |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Across | |||||
| No. | Clue (definition) [extra letter] | GRID definition includes [XX] | Wordplay ignores [XX] | XX | Y |
| 1 | The basis of much art, the Muse returned for us (8, 2 words) | OIL CO[LO]URS | CLIO (Muse) reversed + OURS (for us) | LO | |
| 7 | Doctor accepting Royal Institution as a type of club (4) | DRI[VE]R | DR (doctor) round R(oyal) I(nstitution) | VE | |
| 8 | Counter culture remorselessly holds this back (4) | MERE[LL] | Hidden reversed in culturE REMorselessly | LL | |
| 9 | American gossip [e]yes taking in odd bits of note (5) | YENTA | YEA (yes) round N(o)T(e) | E | |
| 12 | Farm animal belonging to European (3) | [SW]INE | IN (belonging to) + E(uropean) | SW | |
| 13 | South African la[x] with a masculine Islamic greeting (6) | SALAAM | SA (South African) + LA (no x) + A + M(asculine) | X | |
| 14 | Crews returned small article (4) | E[IG]HTS | S(mall) + THE (article) all reversed | IG | |
| 16 | Provoke son engaging in paddy (4) | PEST[ER] | S(on) in PET (paddy) | ER | |
| 18 | Very keen leader losing lead by yard (5) | [TH]IRSTY | (F)IRST (leader losing head) + Y(ard) | T H | |
| Down | |||||
| 1 | Unclued (7) | ODYSSEY | |||
| 2 | Ang[l]er upset a new girl from Russia (5) | IRENA | IRE (anger) + A N (a new) reversed | L | |
| 3 | Liberal in Government doing badly (4) | [AI]LING | L(iberal) + IN + G(overnment) | AI | |
| 4 | Love how b[u]oy ends up in Arab state (4) | OMAN | O (love) + MAN (how boy ends up!) | U | |
| 5 | Fish hurried into endless rapid (6) | [SE]RRANUS | RAN (hurried) in RUS(h) (endless rapid) | SE | |
| 6 | Certainly upset about opening there, sadly a few years after the crisis here? (8) | SEVENTY3 (three) | YES (certainly) reversed round VENT (opening) + [THERE]*: 1973 was three years after the Apollo 13 crisis and was the year of the oil crisis. | ||
| 10 | Confusion about money given to la[n]d source of force (7) | PI-MESON | PIE (confusion) round M(oney) + SON (lad) | N | |
| 11 | Se[a]t free to accommodate second Russian church leader (5) | BASIL | BAIL (set free) round S(econd). I could find no reference to Saint Basil being a Russian church leader, though the cathedral in Red Square is dedicated to him and he was honoured by both the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. | A | |
| 15 | Social group [s]top climbing after surprised response (4) | HAPU | UP (top) reversed (climbing) after HA (surprised response) | S | |
LOWER |
|||||
| Across | |||||
| No. | Clue (definition) [extra letters] | GRID – definition ignores XX | Wordplay includes XX | XX | Y |
| 22 | Acting as Queen, getting throne cut down (5) | QUSEA | QU(een) + SEA(t) (throne cut down) | ||
| 24 | [C]old? Melted without source of fire (4) | USED | (F)USED (melted) minus F(ire) | C | |
| 26 | Volume filled by a lot of inert gas? On the contrary, definitely not (4) | NVEO | V in NEO(n) (inert gas) | ||
| 27 | Asian tree in general knowledge primarily as source of wood (6) | TEAIGK | TEA (Asian tree) + IGK ( In General Knowledge primarily) | ||
| 29 | Despicable person returned cheers after ru[i]n (3) | RAT | TA (cheers) reversed after R(un) | I | |
| 32 | God backed additional Catholic dignitary (5) | DEROM | MORE (additional) + D (God) all reversed | ||
| 33 | Ay[e]r’s odd, never accommodating college, getting behind University (4) | UNCO | U(niversity) + NO (never) round C(ollege) | E | |
| 34 | Tense expression of impatience about are[n]a (4) | TAUT | TUT (expression of impatience) round A (area) | N | |
| 35 | Stop redevelopment of most of this Northern wharf (8) | STALLITH | STALL (stop) + [THI(s)]* | ||
| Down | |||||
| 17 | Something like a flower’s s[t]ink held in the memory (7 | ROSETTE | SET (sink) in ROTE (memory) | T | |
| 19 | Sound in linguistics not once observed in book (4) | T1(one)ME | TOME (book) round NE (not – obs.) | ||
| 20 | Unclued (8) | AQUARIUS | |||
| 21 | Part of Pacific house ra[i]d overseen by network (5) | LANAI | LAN (Local Area Network) + A1 (rad – excellent/impressive – in ODE, not Chambers) | I | |
| 23 | Hard to sanction month supporting United? Nonsense (7) | HOKUMTH | H(ard) + OK (sanction) + U(nited) + MTH (month) | ||
| 25 | Scottish holy man accepting Welsh gossip from long ago (6) | SWAUNT | SAUNT (Scottish holy man) round W(elsh) | ||
| 28 | Channel bringing nothing into gorge (5) | GLOUT | O (nothing) in GLUT (gorge) | ||
| 30 | Go[a]d one to assault lecturer (4) | IDOL | I (one) + DO (assault) + L(ecturer) | A | |
| 31 | Alternative openings for anatomist at top of Institute (4) | ORAI | ORA (anatomical openings – pl. of OS) + I(nstitute) | ||
Page 1 of 8
I too struggled badly at the start, though did manage to get enough letters in the top half of the grid to make a punt at ODYSSEY. Things going as badly as they were, I decided to have a look at the motto, and struck gold straight away, perhaps because I’d been reading about the fateful mission that morning. In went AQUARIUS, APOLLO 13, and the rest of the top half pretty rapidly, with a handy list of letters to move to hand. The bottom half took a little longer, just because I wasn’t sure at first where the letters were supposed to move to.
Would I have finished without recourse to Google? Probably not. But it was still lots of fun sorting out the parsing of non-real words, and a generally satisfying solve overall.
The red bars showing where the pairs of letters were excised are a nice touch.
Setter’s blog for the puzzle at: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/inquisitor-1642-transfer-of-power/
I didn’t get on well with this, I’m sorry to say. The fact that all but two of the clues had to be interpreted in one of two special and (very) different ways meant that from the start I was held up having to ‘work out’ each clue while trying to solve it. After one moderately successful session in which I mostly filled the upper half and made a start on the lower half I had had enough.
I enjoyed solving some of the clues, when I discovered what they were, but getting past the disguise (of a kind that I have not come across before) was mostly no fun at all. I got ODYSSEY but no other thematic items.
I found that most of the top half filled in reasonably well and picked up ODESSEY early on. I also got the astronauts and therefore APOLLO13 without too much trouble. The bottom half proved a stinker. I eventually solved HOKUM but couldn’t see how to fill the 7 squares of 23 down. In the end I solved most of the normal clues in the bottom half together with AQUARIUS before realising how to transfer the letters from the top half. The motto came right at the end. A good tough work out. Thank you PHI and Hihoba
My solve gave me the letters for Lovell fairly quickly, and the penny dropped that we were looking at NASA stuff, so – with google help – the other names were easy enough to get from the remaining clues to the top half. The bottom half was a different kettle of fish; finding where to put those letters took quite a while, and I had to come back a day or so later after thinking I wouldn’t bother. I like a challenge, obviously we all do or we wouldn’t do them, but I generally find non-word puzzles a disappointment, and this was no exception, despite appreciating the skill at setting.
Certainly on the tricky side of tricky, as it usually is when two different types of distortion are in play. But I kept at it, nibbling away each day, slowed down by the conviction that ‘ancient’ would be part of the motto, and some very obscure non-Chambers words (‘hapu’, ‘lanai’?). Even when I had Odyssey and Aquarius, I couldn’t see the connection, nor did Lovell Swig help (others may be better at googling. But finally 20a wanted to be Apollo, and all became clear.
As noted, a brilliant and witty construction, and notable for an extremely delayed (in my case) PDM. Many thanks to Phi and Hihoba.
My experience was similar to NormanJL @5: by luck or good judgment I tackled the top half first and once the name Lovell was revealed, a quick google search disclosed the theme. Considerably easier than Phi’s current puzzle in the Magpie, which looks likely to defeat me.
I’m with Norman. I can admire the conceit and the grid is very clever but as a solver I found the bottom half more irritating than satisfying, largely I think because of the non-word solutions
This was certainly hard. More than once I was on the point of giving up but saw something just in time. Like others I did most of the top half before much of the bottom, which enabled me to be confident about ODYSSEY, and then Lovell, Swig….was enough to unlock the theme via Google (fortunately I didn’t spot the OL possibility). There was a PDM when the solution to the mysterious 6 down emerged. The bottom half was then a matter of slowly chipping away, the second part of the 21 down charade being the most troublesome. Many thanks to Phi for a formidable but fair and ingenious puzzle.
Incidentally, what with this and Bridge of Spies, Inquisitor has become something of a Tom Hanks film club.
Too tough for me, but I appreciate the theme. Thanks to Phi and Hihoba for their hard work.
I thought this was excellent. The various types of thematic clues offered just enough information to hint at what we needed to look for to get the theme, so that we could then enjoy Phi’s neat implementation of it. I didn’t have a problem with the non-words in the lower half as the clueing was precise, though I can understand why some were put off by it.
Recently I commented that I am pleased to have puzzles which are fun rather than frustratingly difficult in these dispiriting times, and this fitted the bill admirably. Phi is such a fine and reliable setter that it is all too easy to take him for granted!
A tricky but very satisfying solve. We had to resort to Google to help open up the grid using Odyssey and Lovell. The motto at the end took a bit of finding too.
Thankfully we guessed the way that APOLLO 13 was to be entered fairly quickly.
Thanks Phi for the puzzle. Thanks Hihoba – another great blog.
I had a late start on this one and finally completed it last night. Definitely a slog. Eventually, all the clues proved to be sound and solvable but only with the help of electronic aids. Like most, I found the bottom half was the most challenging. Also I spent far too long trying to ascertain whether Haise was nick-named Hosse, since I had wrongly parsed 3D as LosING. Not sure how to rate this puzzle – a very ingenious construction but rather too demanding on my time and I was very close to throwing in the towel.
Thanks to Phi for the brain exercise and to Hi for successfully persevering with the blog.
thanks for the exhaustive and clear blog! We got lucky with the latin motto revealing itself quickly, though as Phi notes in his blog, there was an ambiguity wrt the removal of OL or LO in OILCOLOURS — of course, we were wrong at first.
Ilan Caron at #15 I was also wrong with the OL problem at first and wasted some time trying to figure out how OLIVER had lost an I!
Just popping in very late to add that I enjoyed this one — as expected from a Phi puzzle — and loved the theme. Although like others I found parts of the bottom half tough going, this didn’t spoil the ultimate satisfaction of successful touchdown.