Inquisitor 1714: Clouds by Phi

13 comments on “Inquisitor 1714: Clouds by Phi”

1. I had a much more enjoyable time than the blogger, even though I know next to nothing about astronomy. I spotted the nebulae first and then the elements later on. While there are more extra letters in clues than in the names, you’ll see that the duplications occur in checked positions so they occur the right number of times in the grid. Also, are you sure the top and bottom halves don’t correspond to North and South? My working assumption was that this is the case (and that Messier only classified the northern sky). But as I said, I know nothing 🙂

   Thanks to blogger and setter.

2. Thank you P Knight #1 for the explanation of the duplicate letters. Again a failure of the rubric I’m afraid. I am now no longer certain about the north/south divide, but the only way I could find of checking was using the declination, and the Orion nebula has a declination of -5 degrees which puts it south of the astronomical equator.

3. After last week’s offering, I was very glad to be back on ‘familiar ground’ with Phi – long known in the i for both Cryptics and also for a number of Inquisitors, that to my mind, tend to sit at the ‘easier’ end of the spectrum as far as Inquisitor’s go. Despite being on the road for the weekend, and without my trusty copies of Chambers (7th Edition) and Chambers Crossword Dictionary, like Hihoba my first read through was a blank, but with a bit of ‘mental lubrication’ (aka G&T), I made good and steady progress, and found five ‘spare’ letters pretty quickly. Being a chemist by profession, Lawrencium (@37A) jumped out and hit me slap bang in the face, and I assumed atomic number might be involved somehow. Further chemical elements were soon spotted … and other clues answered too … but then I hit a TOTAL brick wall … and I mean TOTAL !!! I was stumped by 20A (OVERNET), as I could only find the OVERN (from a decapitated GOVERN) and so the E and the T were spare. 24A had already been answered and entered (NAGWARE) … and it just sat there, immediately below 20A … saying “Don’t write it in, you’ll be sure to regret it” … nagware if ever there was.

   No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t get any further, and so finally called things off. Another DNF recorded for me I’m afraid.

   So … imagine my disgust when I opened the i three days ago to discover that a word from the clue had been ‘written on the paper but outside of the visible spectral range’ !!! Perhaps it was done deliberately, to add to the ‘galactic effect’ of the whole thing.

   That’s two weeks running now that I’ve had to demand my £1.20 back.

   Lovely Inquisitor, very cleverly done, unusually complex for Phi by my reckoning. Enjoyable, but frustrating (due to the faux pas at 20A) which derailed my effort completely. Or perhaps it was just the lack of my trusty old Chambers. Thanks to Phi and Hihoba.

4. By the way – whilst I’m here … is there also an error in 6A in Inquisitor 1715 (For Her Eyes Only by Artix – 04-05 Sep 2021) ?
   In my copy of the paper, I think that one of the letters is missing, perhaps just a printer’s error … I have :

   6 Unaggressive Italian wine .acking character, largely unchilled (7)

   Should it read backing, hacking, lacking, packing, racking, sacking, tacking etc
   I’ve assumed lacking (as I can successfully parse an answer with that).

   Thanks.

5. We’re not really supposed to comment on future puzzles, but my copy says Lacking.

6. Thanks Hihoba … I obviously have developed a habit of picking up the incorrect copy of the i each week !
   So it is indeed an L that is LACKING in the clue, in my copy (looks more like a full stop).

   Ta.

7. Well, I did get a cosmic vibe, but also the vibe that I would never finish and should quit early, and having read Hihoba’s exhausting blog, I’m glad I did. I also recall friendlier offerings from Phi.

   I missed the correction, but will know to look out for it in future.

8. The preamble was indeed opaque, but once it became clear that the themed entries bore little resemblance to the associated wordplay, and that there were few possibilities for those entries, the penny dropped. With a handy list of Messier and Caldwell objects to hand thanks to Google, and a list of the elements of course, the rest was eminently solvable and thoroughly enjoyable throughout.

9. Strenuous but ultimately enjoyable: all thanks to Phi and Hihoba. The first “elementary” clue to fall here was 3D, closely followed by 18A, and ORION and ANDROMEDA seemed tempting possibilities in the grid — so, knowing Phi to be one of the more science-aware setters, I checked the Messier catalogue and soon sorted out the top half. I didn’t know about the Caldwell list but deduced from the doubled-up clues that something like that must exist.

10. There is, as always, a setter’s blog: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/clouds/

    I’d note that the rubric says to look at the letters in each half of the grid, not specifically the ones omitted in wordplay. It is often the case that attempts to be precise backfire because of alternative expectations.

11. As is often the case with Phi I filled the grid correctly but without ever completely understanding what I was doing. Not really a complaint, more of an observation. The instructions are a little confusing, but then so are the clues. The most obvious reading of the text is probably not going to be the right one. Thanks to all.

12. I have updated the animation with an extra grid in line with comment number 1 from P Knight.

13. Well I thought this was fantastic!
    Really hard, but really enjoyed it.
    I felt the rubric itself became clearer as I progressed, and only completely clear at the endn in retrospect it seemed exact and precise: I assumed this was by design.
    The Clouds cleared 🙂
    And many enjoyable PDMs with nebulae, and elements, and catalogues.
    This was probably my favourite in quite some time.

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