Kruger, an extremely prolific setter of Inquisitor puzzles.
Preamble: Each clue contains a single letter misprint that needs to be rectified before solving; half of these occur in the definition and half in the wordplay. These incorrect letters, in clue order, give the start of an entry in ODQ which explains how some answers should to be treated before entry. Completing the barred-off cells show what could be an equally valid conclusion to the quote, after changing an article. The treated unchecked letters of affected answers could make OCTET: GET BABY OFF IT.
Small typo in the preamble? … should to be treated …
Well …
did I finish? Yes
was it hard? Yes
did I enjoy it? not that much
Goodness me, this was slow going up to a point. Answers were dotted about, mainly in the upper half, mainly leftish. 1a GARDENIA obviously required some sort of treatment. But before too long I had the start of the quotation from the incorrect letters as E_G_A_DA… which was enough to lead me to full version England and America are two countries divided by a {common language}. And a few answers later I could fill in the barred-off cells to reveal {the} ATLANTIC OCEAN in the central column. Yet still so much more to do …
After what seemed like ages I had another two answers that required treatment (21d HOODLUMSOO, 9d IN THE PINK) and several other clues still unsolved. Late in the evening I launched an assault on 24d looking for anagrams of MAL?UNAU that could mean ‘withered’. And bingo, got the answer (AUTUMNAL) + treatment (English/American) + entry (FALLAL). {Unfortunately, as it turned out, FALLAL is a real word, unlike other thematic entries.} 1a GARDEN/YARD, 21d HOOD/BONNET, and 9d PIN/BROOCH quickly followed; and I went to bed.
A train journey to London and an afternoon at the flat gave me just enough time to grind out the rest of the puzzle before leaving to join old friends for dinner. After I got back I reviewed the grid and confirmed that entries to the West of the ‘Long Division’ (?) were American versions of English terms, and vice versa for those to the East – very neat.
So …
was there a great reveal? No
did I learn anything? No
was it quite a clever grid? I guess so
Still, thanks Kruger, have a nice day, so long …
PS As for
… could make OCTET: GET BABY OFF IT. No, not I.
| No. | Clue ✓[✗] | ✗ | Answer | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 1 | Irish cop covering head of extremist on province’s plant[e](6) | E | GARDENIA | GARDA (Irish cop) around E(xtremist) NI (province) |
| 6 | Church consultants invested in Haiti Republic bac[n]k (6) | N | PERITI | (Ha)ITI REP(ublic) rev. |
| 10 | Overheard opportunity for c[g]old forgotten (5) | G | RHEUM | homophone ROOM (opportunity) |
| 11 | A thing frozen finally p[l]icked (8) | L | CHOSEN | CHOSE (thing) (froze)N |
| 12 | Poet’s ho[a]t remains last in catalogue at dodgy sale (5) | A | EASLE | (catalogu)E [SALE]* |
| 14 | One leaves tie[n]s used to colour this fabric (4) | N | IKAT | I (one) KAT (leaves) |
| 15 | Following lag[d] running to front of sexpot’s big jugs (7) | D | FLAGONS | F(ollowing) LAG ON (running) S(expot) |
| 16 | Pe[a]rson with bad temper therefore retired (4) | A | OGRE | ERGO< (therefore) |
| 17 | EU b[n]ut loosening pipe (6) | N | U-TUBE | [EU BUT]* |
| 19 | B[D]read trapping bird in slimy liquid (7) | D | PITUITA | PITA (bread) around TUI (bird) |
| 22 | A spell in charge of ti[a]le for future telling (5) | A | RUNIC | RUN (spell) IC (in charge) |
| 23 | It scores a couple t[m]ore with wife involved (5) | M | TWOER | [TORE W(ife)]* |
| 25 | Conceals American c[e]lan and nerve initially aboard ship (7) | E | SCREENS | CREE (American clan) N(erve) in SS (ship) |
| 27 | Learn about n[r]ational governing body (6) | R | SENATE | SEE (learn) around NAT(ional) |
| 29 | Do[i]ver’s con not believed from the outset? That’s news to Jock (4) | I | UNCO | BUNCO (con, US) ¬ B(elieved) |
| 31 | Intensive care unit is beginning to lance a fak[c]e muscle (7) | C | ILIACUS | [ICU (Intensive care unit) IS L(ance) A]* |
| 33 | The o[a]bject will mess up – still ignoring society (4) | A | IT’LL | [STILL ¬ S(ociety)]* |
| 34 | Lu[a]st obstruction before clubhouse (5) | A | LETCH | LET (obstruction) CH (clubhouse) |
| 35 | From one who took notes of others’ ac[r]ts and drama, thanks to former royal (8) | R | NOTARIAL | NO (drama) TA (thanks) RIAL (royal, obs) |
| 36 | Fish sen[e] OK when disoriented (5) | E | SNOEK | [SEN OK]* |
| 37 | Nog[t] reversing without the whole amount of fuel (6) | T | GALLON | NOG< around ALL (whole) |
| 38 | T[W]hat man is taken in by Conservative speculation? (6) | W | THEORY | HE (that man) in TORY (Conservative) |
| Down | ||||
| 2 | I see sailor, le[o]ader of vessel (4) | O | AHAB | AH (I see) AB (sailor) |
| 3 | Put new g[c]ut in part of breastplate and some chain mail (8) | C | RESTRING | REST (part of breastplate) RING (some chain mail) |
| 4 | Sof[o]t led cut to fester (6) | O | DULCET | [LED CUT]* |
| 5 | Welcomes accompanied leader of investigation into awful sla[u]m (8) | U | ACCLAIMS | ACC(ompanied) I(nvestigation) in [SLAM]* |
| 6 | Chopin g[n]ut, to some degree, an animated character (5) | N | PINGU | (Cho)PIN GU(t) |
| 7 | Concerning nos[t]e adult left under 80% of money (6) | T | RHINAL | A(dult) L(eft) after RHIN(o) (money) |
| 8 | Despot starts to t[r]ide roughshod over Nazi militia (4) | R | TSAR | T(ide) R(oughshod) around SA (Nazi militia) |
| 9 | Thin broken record with dark liquid we[i]ll (12, 3 words) | I | IN THE PINK | [THIN]* EP (record) INK (dark liquid) |
| 10 | Experience of Joy[e]’s European lover in preparation of soft food (12) | E | REJOICING | E(uropean) JO (lover, Scot) in RICING (preparation of soft food) |
| 13 | More than one hoodlum m[s]obs getting time (at first without term) (8) | S | MOBSTERS | MOBS T(time) ERS(t) (at first) |
| 15 | Animal having large n[d]ose of trial opioid drug regularly (8) | D | TAPIR | T(ri)A(l o)P(io)I(d d)R(ug) |
| 18 | Picked up cuts from sword – perhaps dy[i]es (4) | I | HUES | homophone HEWS (cuts from sword) |
| 19 | Clear of all undesirables except group of fin[v]e no longer active (4) | V | PURE | PURGE (clear of all undesirables) ¬ G(roup) |
| 20 | Lair I constructed with bu[i]t having no solid foundation (8) | I | AIR-BUILT | [LAIR I BUT]* |
| 21 | Will’s expression of emotion overwhelms duk[d]e. Bad luck! (8) | D | HOODOO | HOO-OO (expression of emotion, Shakesp) around D(uke) |
| 24 | Sadly, malt[e] unau withered (6) | E | AUTUMNAL | [MALT UNAU]* |
| 26 | Brussels information essentially deleted. Man[d]! (6) | D | EUGENE | EU (Brussels) GEN (information) (del)E(ted) |
| 28 | Don’t scoff o[b]ut remove jacket in heating (5, 2 words) | B | EAT IN | (h)EATIN(g) |
| 30 | A sot[y] fermented in public space (4) | Y | STOA | [A SOT]* |
| 32 | Ru[a]n beneath great tree (4) | A | ACER | R(un) after ACE (great) |
Many thanks to Kruger and HolyGhost. Tastes obviously vary: I liked this one well enough and didn’t feel the vague disappointment suggested by the blog. The typos made it hardish going but the realization of what had to happen to CHOSEN was a happy moment. Enjoyed.
Slip of the fingers in the blog post (text not answer table): 21d HOODLUMS. Influenced no doubt by those MOBSTERS!
@1: thanks, now corrected – influenced indeed by the clue at 13d.
The instructions indicate an alternative conclusion after changing an article.Surely AN OCEAN would fit the bill
Two countries separated by AN OCEAN although ATLANTIC OCEAN does fit
Thats my dime’s worth!
I enjoyed this and completed it after a few visits. ATLANTIC OCEAN fell quite early, certainly before any of the modified words. The errant ‘I’ in the preamble is unfortunate but didn’t really hold me up.
But one observation: some setters make their preambles a little more ambiguous than others! In this instance we had “some” answers needing modification where other setters would have told us how many; and there was no indication that final grid entries included non-words, again something that other preambles would mention.
But very satisfying to finish so thanks both.
I didn’t get far with this. Too much time was spent unravelling the clues (i.e. determining which were of which type), and the only complete words in my message were TWO COUNTRIES. I simply could not work out what was going on with answers such as IN THE PINK.
This was not for me, I’m afraid.
It didn’t take too long to guess the familiar quote – and ocean. But that’s where it got difficult. The only treated answer I had solved was ‘gardenia’, and that made me think that ‘Arden’ – surely very English? – was in play. Staring at the clues and letters got me nowhere… until, away from the puzzle, I attended to the quote and guessed what needed to happen – including ignoring all crossing letters.
I found it a positive, bracing challenge (though I failed with ‘rejoicing’ and ‘tube’). Thanks to Kruger and HolyGhost
Well that’s annoying…
Last one in is 18d. Only one letter to fill and there’s a missing “I” from the unchecked letters phrase. So that’s it finished without needing to parse the answer. Maybe “dies” should be “does” and there’s some weird deer that fits with “hi” being an Americanism for ???. Oh well, no need to worry too much as everything else works.
@4 I eventually read OCTET in the “could make” phrase as a hint at 8 treated words, but wasn’t sure until I’d finished.
Apart from the mistake in the preamble (the errant “I”), I thought this was superb. Quite tough but with several rewarding (and amusing) penny-drops. The theme took some working out (not all the amarican-/anglicisms are all that familiar) but didn’t rely on googling. I did waste some time afterwards on that “I” though. The problem is you can only ever be 99% sure it’s the setter’s mistake, and in this case I could see if it was my mistake, it was probably going to involve misunderstanding a big chunk of the puzzle as I couldn’t even see what I might have got wrong.
I’m among those who failed to make much headway on this, despite getting enough answers to identify the main quote. I simply couldn’t work what was going on, nor what the barred cells were doing, and agree with Rob T@4 that this particular preamble was less informative than they sometimes are, especially on the “not making real words” point. So congratulations to all who solved it, and thanks to HolyGhost for the much-needed blog
I really enjoyed this. Took a while for the penny to drop with hood/bonnet then fall/autumn. I did need to access an online British v American English resource to get the last couple.
A rather lovely idea. On the tricky side, but that’s how I like ’em.
Nice touch with the American terms on the west of the Atlantic, and the Brits on the other. I didn’t pick that up when completing. Nice !
Thanks as ever to blogger and setter.
I thought this was an excellently constructed crossword, even though I couldn’t quite complete the left (American) side of the grid, chiefly through not seeing “rejofrosting”. Despite that I much enjoyed unmasking the quotation, the central column, the bilateral setting, and most of the treatments. Congratulations to Kruger and thanks to HolyGhost.