11 comments on “Inquisitor 1918: Taken for a Ride by Vismut”

1. This Inquisitor had everything: excellent clues, an interesting subject for the theme, a thematic design involving two types of clue manipulation and a set of thematic items to be found in the completed grid.

   For me, the most rewarding part of the puzzle was in identifying all the misprints and all the extra words. I found all nine of the extra words before realising that they made a ‘set’: mark, Twain, Louisa, May, Alcott, recipes, quilts, Jack and London, all hinting at books and other items carried on the packhorses, as explained above. I enjoyed finding the items in the grid that were not already highlighted. I also found TEXTS, which is a likely item for this true story, albeit not needed here.

   The error in the clue to 12a POLSKA was surprising. If I’d been a bit sharper I might have corrected the clue without waiting for the formal correction!

   Thanks to Vismut for this educational, well-designed puzzle, and to Bertandjoyce for the excellent blog. (I too wondered about ‘sews’ as an inclusion indicator in the clue to HILLOS – in which ‘His’, incidentally, echoes a fairly recent occurrence of this tricky plural!)

2. Here is the original clue for 12 across

   12 Ignoring Twain characters of NI, Polanski sets back Academy for his country (6)

   It was changed in the final edit because

   12ac: change ‘Polanski’ to ‘Kieślowski’ ((i) ‘Polanski’ and POLSKA v similar; (ii) Polanski might have been born in Poland but you’d say “his country” was France);

   Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, I didn’t spot that this spoils the clue in the final proof and neither did the editing team.

   My bad, but there you go. Hopefully it didn’t spoil anyone’s enjoyment of the rest of the puzzle.

   These women were quite incredibly brave, but maybe these rides were a bit of freedom for them also.

   Vismut

3. I made steady progress with a mix of fairly obvious and quite chewy wordplay. 8D and 20D fell out early on and soon after I had enough cross checks to guess PACKHORSE. Producing the nickname was challenging, especially since a 2-stage process was required for each letter. I found 7 which looked as if they might produce BOOKWOMAN if only I could find 2 more Os. A quick look at Wiki-p confirmed the theme and, too late, I spotted the nudges which Vismut had kindly provided with 9A and the two writers’ surnames waiting to generate the missing Os! Shamefully, I missed the MARK LOUISA MAY links though. I thought the instruction generated by the other clues was somewhat misleading and I spent too long on Wiki trying to find a reported incident where an item had fallen by accident. But then I spotted the title in the SW corner and all was complete.
   Finally I had another look at 12A, the only one I had not parsed, and the unwelcome penny dropped – the correct director was POLANSKI, which parsed very easily.
   So thanks to Vismut for an entertaining and educational puzzle – hooray for those women – and commiserations for an error which was not entirely her fault. And thanks, of course, to B&J for their usual thorough and good humoured job.

4. Vismut @2
   Many thanks for your comment.
   I will remember a puzzle like this more for its interesting and thrilling theme, the like of which I last saw in February (no. 1893), whose theme was the 1925 serum run to Nome.

5. As the theme began to emerge I thought we might be playing a game of Buckaroo, until the more erudite details manifested themselves. Thanks to S+B.

6. All eventually solved and shaded, and most of it parsed. I share the bloggers’ doubts about the definition in ONS and the use of “sew” as an inclusion indicator in HILLOS. On the other hand, I feel well used to “cover” as an inclusion indicator, and now it’s turning up as a substitution indicator in CRUORES. Fair enough- one is always stretching one’s imagination in these puzzles. Once I reached the right Wikipedia page, all the links and allusions very quickly became clear, including references to quilts, recipes, Bibles and Robinson Crusoe, whose situation must have felt all too familiar to these citizens of Kentucky. Thanks to Vismut for the puzzle and for the explanation above, and to bertandjoyce for sorting out the odd parsing for me, including the blindingly-obvious-in-retrospect fact that Island may simply be rendered as Island, rather than abbreviated to I; I never understood the Lander bit of 38A.

7. A fascinating story and a great puzzle with multiple layers, which is always appreciated.

   Personally I thought the BOOKWOMAN highlight might almost be detracting from the puzzle, reusing as it does a lot of the letters already highlighted. But I suppose it adds an extra element of complexity.

   The twist of QUILTS and RECIPES was particularly fun, and it’s nice to know I wasn’t the only one who searched in vain for a fourth author.

   I agree on the dodgy definition of ONS (which I still don’t understand) but “sew” seems perfectly legitimately used to me, even if it’s unusual.

   Thank you as always to S+B

8. There is a novel about horseback librarians in Kentucky , which I have read. It is called The Giver of Stars by JoJo Moyes

9. Great puzzle, thanks to Vismut. I got a bit sidetracked by jumping to RACEHORSE (and trying to find jockeys) before reining in my enthusiasm and spotting that Packhorse was the right call. A bit of help from Wiki sped me on my way, and like all the best IQs taught me about a fascinating historical niche that I’d never encountered before. I enjoyed the ride and the company of B&J in the round-up. A rare 10/10 this week.

10. A delightful puzzle Vismut, for which many thanks. A lovely delve into the recesses of Wikipedia provided much joy in learning about this history. This will almost certainly feature in my end-of-year standings.

    Super blog from Bert and Joyce. Great stuff.

11. Very enjoyable; found everything except ‘books’ and ‘Bible’ (I didn’t search too hard). Thanks to blogger and Vismut – especially for the explanation for the Polish switch.

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