We are present once more at the scene of a misdemeanour.
After completion of the grid, a crime takes place. Solvers must remove the content of nine cells, leaving relevant words behind, to illustrate what the culprit (two words) did. He is then to be taken away, and the purloined letters displayed in the resulting space. A symmetrically placed adjective completes a suitable message, to be highlighted in the culprit’s personal colour. The final grid contains all real words and phrases.
It’s that time of the year again. A festive feeling in the air, general jollity, and, oh… the plague-bomb that is Covid, Cold, Flu and Strep. We have been, and are still being visited by the above, so it was more with an air of optimism regarding good things to come than festive-feeling that I approached the puzzle.
Thankfully, there was enough magic still in the air that, in common with many solvers I expect, the theme would jump out from the preamble. Seasonal crimes being few and far between, and THE GRINCH and CHRISTMAS both handily, for the setter(s), occupying nine cells. The pleasure would come from seeing the theme unfold as expected through to a satisfying conclusion, as The Grinch (indeed) stole Christmas.
This appears to be the first PLoy, ENigmatist and CHarybdis outing for several years, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this turned out to be a fun, light-weight grid-fill that didn’t take up too much time. Thankfully, as much of my day was occupied with returning my son and all his paraphernalia from university, his absence for three months thanks to a social life far more interesting than my own having been noted.
Last in would be TRIM, which I was pretty sure of, but for a long time was unable to parse, that last, unchecked letter leaving too much room for doubt. Especially when you’re on blogging duty.
Picking the appropriate letters to remove from the grid gave a little pause for thought too, the below being my take on what was removed, what remains, and why.
| Original Entry | Letter Removed | Resultant (Festive) Entry |
|---|---|---|
| CHAPPY | C | HAPPY |
| CHARD | H | CARD |
GRIFT |
R | GIFT |
| PARITY | I | PARTY |
| SICE | S | ICE |
| SLEIGHT | T | SLEIGH |
| FIRM | M | FIR (the Nordmann fir I presume) |
| MANAGER | A | MANGER |
| SELF | S | ELF |
The highlighting below is for information only…
Was I alone in only spotting THE GRINCH on completion of the grid, despite being sure of his presence throughout? I thought so. The end result, though, was the theft not only of CHRISTMAS from the grid by the dastardly fiend, but also his removal, and replacement with the purloined letters, presumably following a change of heart, leaving us to colour in a very-Grinch green:
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
All of which was quite lovely, actually. I have one or two queries about the clues below, but quibbling aside this was the perfect puzzle to publish this week, leading me to wonder what festive fun we have in store for Christmas Eve.
I will just finish then by wishing you, again, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. May 2023 be a more peaceful one.
| Clue | Answer | Wordplay | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Across | |||
| 1 | Established a partnership in business (4) | FIRM | Double definition |
| 7 | For some marine life, West Coast city’s backward step (6) | SALPAS | LAS reversed + PAS (step) to give a form of sea life |
| 12 | Rolls might include this and a chauffeur (4) | SICE | Double definition – the number six in a roll of dice, or a chauffeur |
| 13 | Make announcement as Edmund’s queen, wife with crude Latin (5) | WRAWL | W + RAW + L |
| 14 | Mum’s wild ass with no love for husband (7) | MANAGER | MA + oNAGER without the O. What happened to the S though, from “Mum’s”? |
| 15 | Dish served by waiter so some say (6) | ENTREE | Sounds like “on tray” |
| 16 | Fish heading off in ebb and flow (3) | IDE | tIDE without the T |
| 17 | Cracking chief item written in code that’s unknown (6) | CHAPPY | CH + APP + Y |
| 19 | I’m a strangely snubbed leading man playing British part (7) | ENGLAND | “I’m a” removed from an anagram of LEADING MAN |
| 22 | Atlantic swimmer’s tense attempt from the east (6) | TAUTOG | TAUT + a reversal of GO to give a North American fish |
| 23 | Was he a fool pinching papers? (5) | SHEAF | Hidden in WaS HE A Fool |
| 25 | Girl you briefly fancy gets in the bloody way! (6) | GORILY | An anagram of GIRL YOu, without the U |
| 27 | Live to an old age, did you say? Swell (6) | DILATE | Sounds like “die late” |
| 28 | Desire nunnery that’s deserted by nuns, oddly (5) | COVET | COnVEnT without the odd letters from “nuns” |
| 30 | A tiny quantity of light noodle soup at noon (6) | PHOTON | PHO (a Vietnamese noodle soup) + TO + N |
| 31 | Untold principles, rarely weird, on display round boozer (7) | ESOTERY | One odd term – EERY about SOT – to give another |
| 34 | Content to write at home? It’s easy for poets (4) | EATH | Hidden in writE AT Home |
| 35 | She’ll do fish tea (4) | CHAR | A triple definition |
| 37 | Europeans shifted along departure flights to the country (6) | GRESES | EGRESS with the first E shifted along |
| 40 | Alas this orderly exhibits a poxydisease (4) | TRIM | AlasTRIM, a mild form of smallpox, without the first bit. My LOI and one of the hardest to parse |
| 41 | Couple on at La Scala as a result of impressing tenor (6) | DUETTO | DUE TO about the T from Tenor |
| 42 | Tangle with the French here, getting their key cut (6) | ICICLE | ICI + CLEf without the F – a tangle is an icicle |
| 43 | Disclose what’s in gun’s case? (6) | EVOLVE | rEVOLVEr – hands up if you knew EVOLVE can mean disclose |
| 44 | Rugged piece of limestone in rocky garden (7) | GNARLED | An anagram of GARDEN with the L from “limestone” |
| 45 | American Hustle: glowing reviews, at first, by two newspapers (5) | GRIFT | G R + I + FT |
| 46 | They stick gruel in pie with spades (6) | GLUERS | An anagram of GRUEL and S (spades) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Most smoky fuse with short time to run (7) | FUMIEST | An anagram of FUSE and TIME without the E |
| 2 | My old-time big band appearing only in prime locations (4) | IGAD | Prime number locations from BIG BAND |
| 3 | No longer worried, corrupt insurgent went back (7) | RENEGED | DEGENERATE, without ATE (“worried”), rising (“insurgent”). The parsing of this one worried me for too long. |
| 4 | Chariot traversing hot area of Indian territory (5) | BIGHA | BIGA (a two horse chariot) about H to give the name for an area of Indian territory |
| 5 | Canoe in trouble here! (5) | OCEAN | An anagram of CANOE |
| 6 | Bound to have recipe for a waxy, edible secretion (4) | LERP | LEaP with an R replacing the A |
| 7 | Saint Peter agitated about leader of celestial staff (7) | SCEPTRE | An anagram of S (“Saint”) and PETER with the first letter from “celestial” |
| 8 | Bearded women – there’s some around (4) | AWNY | ANY about W (“women”) |
| 9 | Fair rewards for all? I do without (6) | PARITY | PARTY (“do”) about I |
| 10 | Distraught over waste sources of pigment (6) | AWETOS | An anagram of O (“over”) and WASTE, to give the name of a caterpillar that is used in pigment production |
| 11 | Little talked about dexterity (7) | SLEIGHT | Sounds like “slight” |
| 18 | Comedic holidaymaker left nothing in chalet (5) | HULOT | L + O surrounded by HUT to give a character from a very old film |
| 20 | Cameron’s reluctant when admitting Australian into his derelict joint (5) | LAITH | Not one but two Scottish terms here – LITH about A (“Australian”) |
| 21 | He’ll act the old fool, and periodically drop the urn (5) | DOTER | Odd letters from DrOp ThE uRn |
| 24 | Report of smooth glide in expanse of sea ice (4) | FLOE | Sounds like “flow” |
| 25 | Dread covering one’s head in Dynamo’s hood (8) | GANGSTER | ANGST (“dread”) inside GOER (“dynamo”) without the O (“one’s head”). |
| 26 | Leaf beet overcooked by the sound of it (5) | CHARD | Sounds like “charred” |
| 28 | Volcanic erupting blowing cap for instance (7) | CONICAL | An anagram of VOLCANIC without the V |
| 29 | Poetic veil drawn over this Roman carriage? (7) | VEHICLE | VELE about HIC |
| 30 | Prosthesis user laundered sleeping-bag, ignoring cracked basin (6, 2 words) | PEG LEG | An anagram of SLEEPING–BAG without the letters from “basin” for a term I suspect some prosthetic users will find offensive |
| 32 | Son’s one symbol of marriage, becoming a father (6) | SIRING | S I RING |
| 33 | Worked up about source of pork pies one scoffs (6) | RAILER | RE + LIAR, all reversed |
| 36 | Thatching square stalls for Highland cattle (5) | REEDS | A double definition |
| 38 | Faces of elders upholding outdated ideas show a frenzied expression (4) | EUOI | Initial letters from “elders upholding outdated ideas” |
| 39 | One’s family all but boosted one’s ego (4) | SELF | FLESh without the H, reversed |
| 40 | Initially Ancient Greeks or Trojans turned up in classical gear (4) | TOGA | Initial letters from “Ancient Greeks or Trojans”, all reversed |
I had the R in GRIFT as the one being removed, leaving GIFT…
However I think I got everything else right (am currently away so can’t fully check) — even TRIM, which was a guess, and which I would never have parsed in decades — so that’s that’s (probably) only the third time I’ve completed an Inquisitor since I restarted doing them weekly back in July. Hurrah!!
StephenB @1 That looks far more likely than my slightly weak explanation.
….and thanks to Jon_S and to Plench for their festive pick-me-up — muchly appreciated!
I have to admit ti never having heard of the critter-neat puzzle!
Yes – on the light side this week, but enjoyable for all that. I was one (of the few?) for whom the Grinch did not leap out until very late, but apart from digging out TRIM no real problems at all, most of it solved on the first pass.
I too had G(R)IFT but agonised for ages about C(H)ARD because that left P(H)OTON – and POTON is not a real word … but, aha, POT ON is a real phrase. All done.
Thanks to Jon_S and the trio of setters. Now to make a start on Ploy’s hexagons …
(PS There’s a bar missing in the grid: see CWRAWL. And you have ‘a mile form …’ in the wordplay for 40a.)
Thanks, HolyGhost @6, now updated.
All thanks and seasonal joy to Plench and Jon_S! Just from the preamble I hoped that The Grinch might be involved, but didn’t really believe it until I saw him taking shape along the relevant row.
Very enjoyable but the bigha/sice combination took ages! I hadn’t heard of any of the four definitions (sice=6, sice=chauffeur, biga=chariot, bigha= area of land) and without first letters dictionaries weren’t much use. I only got there via the missing “s” of Christmas and the uncertain guess that Ice could be part of Xmas. It didn’t help that I wasn’t sure removing the c from chappy was right either so I thought I might need a c too. Very tricky.
Very fun indeed, although the perfectionist in me was mildly disappointed that the purloining of letters resulted in a few ordinary words (eg GREES, COVE) in addition to festive ones – but really that’s just being mean as it was a lovely puzzle. Thank you all.
A clever idea and good fun to solve. The only clue I could not parse was 12A: I knew it had to be SICE but I was looking for a bread roll sandwich filler from these letters plus an A. Ah well!
I found the culprit easily but knew nothing except that he was a green cartoon monster. A very brief on-line search told me all I needed
Another impressive grid construction.
Thanks to the talented trio and to Jon S, who I hope has a healthier New Year.
A lovely puzzele for Christmas, but as I too struggled on the parsing of several of the aforementioned answers, then according to my own way of thinking, I have to go down as recording yet another DNF! I hope that ‘Inquisitor 2023’ treats me kindly. Happy New Year to all.