15 comments on “Inquisitor 1675: Queen of the North by Phi”

1. Yep, pretty tough, one of my slowest solves in a while. I didn’t see the significance of the missing W’s with anagram either, though it was a sort of clue as to what was required. I managed to end up with too many clashes at first, following a pretty desperate MCCARTHY to the SW and AGLEAM for 27d, which led to a futile search for extra stars in the constellation until I came to my senses and sorted out my parsing instead. Satisfying to finish, though, I must say.

2. An incorrect finish for me as I failed to read the preamble properly and entered the Greek letters in the clashing cells. I saw the W-less anagrams as just a confirmatory hint referencing the shape of the constellation, if a rather complicated one for the information it offered. “A good workout” is a good way of putting it, but unlike physical workouts this was also extremely enjoyable! Phi never fails to deliver.

3. Not my cup of tea at all, sorry

4. Got my pinny off and sat down with the Inquisitor after Mr Mop had finished reading the paper. Got as far as 28d “domestic help”=”woman”. The torn paper has made a bit of a mess, so I’ll just get my dustpan and brush and sweep it up before I get Mr Mop’s tea cooking.

    

   Sigh!

5. ….drat that should have read Ironingdon. I’m such a daft old domestic help!

6. Very good, Mrs Mop. It took me back to my (rural, farming) childhood 40 years ago when my mother would talk about getting ‘a woman’ in. Obviously, she had noted that it was in Chambers.

   I know I have a chance with Phi, so I persevered on a difficult solve and more or less got there and felt pleased with myself. But I couldn’t make sense of the multiple letters – when I looked up Cassiopeia, I only saw the Greek letters. And, yes, the W is a bit random – I was imagining the word ‘now’ – no ‘w’ – would come into it somehow.

   Thanks to Phi, as ever, and kenmac.

    

7. Definitely a workout rather than a slog. Thanks to Phi and kenmac.

   A bit of good luck here: the first clash I was sure about gave SCHEDAR, vaguely remembered from I don’t know where. Less luckily, the only other relevant star I could think of was RUKBAT. leading to a long fruitless hunt until I resorted to Wikipedia and found that in the New World Order of astronomy they’d changed the spelling, chiz chiz chiz.

8. In support of Mrs Mop, (who sounds a bit overworked to me), I didn’t like that definition either! In fact I went “Ouch” on solving 28d. I know there is a general push to get more women doing these puzzles and, with other less controversial definitions available in Chambers, that ain’t going to do it.

    

   I had a bit of a sigh too and (after he’d done the washing) my husband had to get me a cup of tea and cook the dinner 🙂

9. I failed to solve 14a, although I did enter OBLONGS into the grid. Never thought of trying adding a W.

   I also entered the first 5 letters of the Greek alphabet into the grid where the clashes occurred.

10. I got the C & A in the keyword fairly quickly and guessed Cassiopeia from the title. Then found a redundant W or two which confirmed it. NAVI/VINA was the first clash to fall but I had to look hard on the internet for the star names as the first Wiki page just gave the Greek letters. I suppose that the removal of the extra Ws is so that there is only one Cassy in the completed grid. Yes, a good workout sums this up well. Tough but I was pleased with myself for finishing.

    Regarding 28D, in our house, I do most of the dishes and my better half does most of the laundry. And with the cooking, I do all the peeling and chopping and leave the creative bit to the expert. We are quite modern, despite our advanced years!

    Thanks to Phi and to Kenmac (hope you are feeling better)

11. Well. what a little storm in a tea-cup that stirred up.  I should perhaps have turned to the OED or Collins to avoid that definition – except of course that they both contain it, which suggests there’s still a need (at least the OED doesn’t have Mrs Mop) .  Chambers at least acknowledges that WOMAN = female attendant is now historic.  Not so for MAN.

    Anyway, I’m about to put up the setter’s blog at http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/queen-of-the-north/

12. Kenmac – many thanks for the Ext Ref column. Great idea.

    Great puzzle, too.

13. I found some of the clues unnecessarily difficult – not sure how to explain what I mean by that, but it’s one of my categories. The enjoyable moment came when I saw that the ***** formed a well-oriented W-shape. And I didn’t see what those nose-wriggling W-removed anagrams added – apart from complexity.

    Anyway, thanks Ken for the blog & Phi for the grid.

14. Phi has given us a couple of toughies recently with this (and the even more tricky [for me] EV1463 – which I needed a stiff drink and a lie down after completing).

    1a was not too difficult and immediately suggested something was a rabbit away in that corner, so I focused there and that was my platform. Cassiopeia (think there may be a typo [R for P] in the published grid kenmac) in the central column appeared fairly soon in the solve, but the other clashes were not easy to determine. Lots of new words for me, klatsches being my favourite.

    Thanks as ever to kenmac for the cracking blog – it must take a lot of time and effort to write and construct these. And thanks again to Phi for the devilish fun.

     

     

15. Thanks Phil @14

    Fixed now.

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