Inkling’s only puzzle for the Inquisitor –
Preamble: In nineteen down clues, wordplay leads to the answer with an extra letter. In clue order, these letters provide definitions to the two unclued across entries (which are not in English) which form part of the title of a work. Solvers should colour in one uniquely identifiable letter in the finished grid to complete the impression.
I made a bright start on this, solving almost all the across clues in the top half … but only one or two in the bottom half. It was a similar story with the down clues – not a complete coincidence, with all those crossing letters already in place.
The extra letters I had read EOTRE ETOI…; now I know that the two unclued across entries are not in English, but it seems neither are the definitions! And in what language is EOTRE a word? Anyway, back to having another look at the bottom half of the puzzle. Things progressed at a slightly more modest pace, but before too long the grid was pretty much filled.
I noted in passing that the setter had been generous with the placing of the 3 ordinary down clues: one separated the two words of the definition of the first unclued across entry, and the other two were consecutive & separated the definition of the second unclued entry from that of the first. Those entries are SOLEIL LEVANT, the definitions being NOTRE ÉTOILE and MONTANTE. (Another nice touch – or a happy accident – is that the É in ÉTOILE comes from the extra letter in the wordplay for 9d: CUR{É}.) A quick trip to Google informs me that Impression, soleil levant is by Monet from 1872, and that the painting is credited with inspiring the name of the Impressionist movement.
Job done apart from the colouring in. But it was late, I was tired, I thought about it for a bit then went to bed. It must have been on my mind because I woke a little after 5 (no joke) realising it had to be S◍LEIL. A quick revisit to the web page to check of an image of the painting: the aspect ratios of the painting and the grid are as close as can be reasonably expected, and the placement of the ◍ is pretty much spot on. Neat.
It took me a while to re-parse the clue for 2d: not AP{E} (copy) around EXES (former partners’) generating the rogue E in EOTRE, but APE (copy) around EX- (former) {N}S (partners’) producing the correct N.
A rather gentle stroll in the company of Inkling, but with a few tasty clues en route.
| No. | Clue | Answer | X | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Exhibit piece if estimate is reduced by one, friend (8) | MANIFEST | MAN (piece) IF ESTIMATE ¬ I MATE (one friend) | |
| 7 | Chainsaw cutting in damaged pumpkin (6) | CASHAW | [CHAINSAW ¬ IN]* | |
| 12 | Skin folds record itch in a wound (9) | EPICANTHI | EP (record) [ITCH IN A]* | |
| 14 | Late God put back in the middle (8) | RECENTRE | RECENT (late) RE (god) | |
| 15 | Weightlifting equipment shortened for swimmer (6) | BARBEL | BARBEL(l) (weightlifting equipment) | |
| 18 | Frame of shale stone in harbour mouth (7, 2 words) | SEA GATE | S(hal)E AGATE (stone) | |
| 19 | Fly from cycling group – twice (6) | TSETSE | SET (group) with letters cycled, ×2 | |
| 20 | Ointment extracted from herbal sample (6) | BALSAM | (her)BAL SAM(ple) | |
| 24 | Ship contract stuffed by limits of knowledge (6) | PACKET | PACT (contract) around K(nowledg)E | |
| 27 | Trick hand with no trumps (7) | CHICANE | double definition | |
| 30 | Written length of story about horse (6) | LINAGE | LIE (story) around NAG (horse) | |
| 31 | Flute players hate jazzed-up times (8) | HETAERAS | [HATE]* ERAS (times) | |
| 32 | Heaven is unchangeable – so be it, it starts tonight (9) | FIRMAMENT | FIRM (unchangeable) AMEN (so be it) T(onight) | |
| 33 | Notice cut going back-and-forth (6) | SEESAW | SEE (notice) SAW (cut) | |
| 34 | Third of synthetic ester compounded in hydrocarbons (8) | STYRENES | [SYN(thetic) ESTER]* | |
| Down | ||||
| 2 | Copy covers former partners’ points (6) | APEXES | N | APE (copy) around EX- (former) {N}S (partners’) |
| 3 | Cold spell that is taking a turn after present times (6, 2 words) | ICE AGE | O | IE (that is) around A G{O} (turn) after CE (Common Era, present times) |
| 4 | Temple devotee leads half of rite (4) | FANE | T | FAN (devotee) (ri){T}E |
| 5 | No good to come from rarer Scottish corn stalks (5) | STRAE | R | STRANGE{R} (rarer) ¬ NG (no good) |
| 6 | Downbeat Greek hero rejecting upper-class for one (6) | THESIS | E | THES{E}US (Greek hero) with U (upper-class) replaced by I (one) |
| 8 | French lawyer has a line relating to grandparent (4) | AVAL | AV (Avocat, French lawyer) A L(line) | |
| 9 | Rock French priest without uniform in diocese (5) | SCREE | É | CUR{É} (French priest) ¬ U(niform) in SEE (diocese) |
| 10 | Usual stop outside a part of key university (8) | HABITUAL | T | HAL{T} (stop) around A BIT (part of key) U(niversity) |
| 11 | Boil wet seed mash for antelope (10) | WILDEBEEST | O | [B{O}IL WET SEED]* |
| 12 | “Skin disease, I say,” replies doctor (10) | ERYSIPELAS | I | [I SAY REPL{I} ES]*S |
| 13 | Mixes old local honeys (4) | MELS | L | MEL{L}S (mixes, archaic) |
| 16 | Lively seance not over once beginning (8) | NASCENCE | E | [SEANC{E}]* ONCE ¬ O(ver) |
| 17 | Rank openings of every theatre and tour (4) | ÉTAT | E(very) T(heatre) A(nd) T(our) | |
| 19 | Himalayan resident a teacher occasionally (4) | TAHR | T(e)A(c)H(e)R | |
| 21 | Clubs beat this (6) | LATHIS | M | LA{M} (beat) THIS |
| 22 | Revolutionary in divers plan (6) | SCHEME | O | CHE (revolutionary) in S{O}ME (divers) |
| 23 | Mad in hospital space (6) | INSANE | N | IN SAN (hospital) E{N} (space) |
| 25 | Landed in a reversed angle (4) | ALIT | T | A TIL{T}< (angle) |
| 26 | Beer in bottomless barrel fuelling rise of southern Jamaican music (5) | KVASS | A | VA(t) (barrel) in S(outhern) SK{A}(Jamaican music) both< |
| 27 | Stone in collapsed trench (5) | CHERT | N | [TRE{N}CH]* |
| 28 | Commander appalled before south lost (4) | AGHA | T | AGHAS{T} (appalled) ¬ S(outh) |
| 29 | Dash around a mist (4) | HAAR | E | HAR{E} (dash) around A |
An excellent puzzle with a simple, well-executed theme, clear instructions and a very good set of normal and special clues.
With ??LEIL in the top unclued entry I guessed SOLEIL, and later, with L??VA?T, I was pretty confident of LEVANT in the other one. Rather than attempt to force out the theme by going online, I continued with the pleasant task of completing the grid. I finished with 19 extra letters reading EOTREETOILEMONTANTE. (As did HG – and there was no conferring!) I understood ÉTOILE MONTANTE and therefore assumed that NOTRE was intended. (Releasing N rather than E was, I admit, a better way to parse 2d.) I found the Sun Rising ‘impression’ by Monet easily enough online.
I didn’t see the significance of the ‘O’ at first and wondered which of the unique letters in the grid (DKOUX) to select. Was it X, as in ‘marks the spot’? I was slow to realise that the O of SOLEIL was perfectly placed as per the original work. A very neat outcome.
Thanks to Inkling and HolyGhost.
I agree; very nice. I don’t really bother with colouring-in, but a look at the painting made me assume it would be the ‘s’ of ‘Soleil’ (for sun)…although I can now see the ‘o’ is properly unique.
thanks to Inkling and HolyGhost.
A really nice puzzle – Did anyone else pretty much guess what it was going to be about from the title and preamble alone?
Anyway, welcome to Inkling – you can come again!
Like Ylo I was pretty sure of the theme from the title and introduction, specifically the reference to foreign-language unclued entries. Once I’d got a few down answers in the grid the higher unclued entry became obvious and confirmed the theme, so there was only possibility for the other unclued one. All downhill after that, without any need to work out the definitions – a shame as it was a nice touch to give these in French. Too much given away IMO, but an excellent debut by Inkling nevertheless.
+1 on EOTRE which threw me off for longer than it should have.
As others have said, a gentle but very pleasant puzzle and I do love a spot of colouring in, so thank you.
I too was an EOTRE type, but I was concerned that the word COPY in the clue could be considered obsolete, so I looked for an alternative parsing, saw partners’ as the usual NS or EW, my schoolboy French took over frome there and led to NOTRE. I also got caught up for a while with 22D where I had a spare E or W (for divers I found SMEE or SMEW – types of ducks), and with 23D that delivered either an extra M or N from the space. Got there in the end though.
A lovely puzzle from start to finish I thought, with some very neat clues.
Sorry, my mistake … @6 above I meant the word COVERS and not COPY.
A subject close to my heart-had to make my mind up whether the letter was I for Impressionist or O as it was the only instance of that letter
in the entire puzzle-and it did look right.Chapeau Claude
A small point: in my book of impressionist paintings, the rising sun is red rather than yellow.
Dave W @ 9 : Come on now, surely you have to name the precise colour of the oil paint that Monet used (e.g. cadmium yellow, titanium white, burnt umber, Prussian blue etc) and not just ‘red’ … 😉
Having outed myself already as an ex-member of the EOTRE club, I must now own up to having been in the same SMEE/SMEW club as Me_Sat… (@6), with reference to 22d SCHEME (where SOME was the intended match for ‘divers’.
Much enjoyed here, although I too fell at first into the EOTRE and SMEE traps and had to rethink. It was a kindness that “French” is mentioned in two successive clues, nudge-nudge, and I liked the solar O being (as noted more than once above) the only one in the puzzle. All thanks to Inkling and HG.
me_etc@10. Sadly, I don’t have any of Monet’s original shades in my pen box, so “red” had to do. I am pretty sure, however, that this was better than any of the shades you mentioned, and certainly better than yellow.?
Another struggler with EOTRE. Until HG’s post I also had a ‘D’ for 13D, thinking it was from MELDS rather than MELLS. But MEL, which I didn’t check but took to be ‘old local’ honey, is rather more pharmaceutical than that. Without getting ‘our rising star’ I was at least pleased to put in a red sun in the ‘O’.