Inquisitor 1541: Shift by Gila

14 comments on “Inquisitor 1541: Shift by Gila”

1. Another enjoyable and not too taxing IQ. The usual thanks to Gila and duncanshiell …

   I saw DOLLY quite early but somehow got the idea that the name appeared in contiguous cells with a right-angle bend, which placed the P where the K of DASHEKI had to go and delayed the solve of 12D. Googling the name and song line sorted me out. If only 9A (not then solved) could be BACK, and by gosh it could. Nice.

2. Enjoyable and not overly difficult, at least once I’d worked out how to shift those answers. Spotting the beginning of the lyrics fairly early also helped with the remainder of the misprints. From then on I was looking for where POLLY and PARTON might fit into the grid. 🙂

3. I felt like an average jogger trying to run a marathon.Thanks for blog.

4. A very nice workout which, once the penny dropped, didn’t take too much of my weekend up for once. The SE corner was first to fall and with arret and dangle being in that cluster, I was on my way.

   Many thanks to setter and blogger as always.

   Now if I can only get that song out of my brain..

5. Really enjoyed this. Very good cluing, nice devices and Dolly Parton – what’s not to like?

6. After a run of rather tough puzzles, and then a rather easy one, this was just right for me. Definitely challenging, but definitely doable. How have I lived so long without knowing Sondheim was an anagram of hedonism?

   I normally give up quickly when it comes to the wordsearch element, unless it’s obvious. And then it struck me that the bothersomely missing ‘g’ at the end was a clue. Hello google; hello Dolly.

    

7. I agree with most of the above – not too difficult and with a few nice PDMs. My only quibble is that, in my book and in Chambers, a shift involves doing your stint at varying times of the day and not working a regular “9 to 5”. Perhaps the Americans define it differently.

8. DaveW, I don’t see anything like that in my Chambers (Revised 13th ed). The definition says ‘a group of people who work for a specific period within a working day, alternating with other groups; the time  worked by such a group.’   The title seems fine to me.   I thought this was an excellent puzzle, very well crafted and good fun.

9. I was initially misled by two clues I had solved early: 30a RENO entered as ONER, and 6d: ONER entered as RENO – so I thought that the theme was simply reversals. Later, of course, I discovered the actual theme, but persisting with RENO at 6d left me struggling for ages with the intersecting 10a as I had the checking letter wrong.

   Earlier, when I solved 23d: TYLER (never heard of Liv T.) I thought “Either that ‘Y’ is perverse, or it’s there for a special reason”. It was of course the latter, which made DOLLY extremely easy to find.

   As others have commented, not too difficult a puzzle (I did most of it whilst we drove home from Cornwall on Bank Holiday Monday), some very nice touches, and rather enjoyable. Thanks Gila & Duncan – I had the split at 7-5, so thanks for pointing out that AVAL -> LAVA could work either way; 6-6 is much better.

10. Many thanks to Gila for a fun puzzle. By midweek I had ground to a halt with about 2/3 entered and was struggling for a breakthrough. I switched to looking for a possible name and DOLLY stood out immediately. From there everything fell rapidly into place: ‘Shift’ made me think 9-5, I had ‘ART’ where PARTON might fit, the 10 misprints I had identified at that stage would fit with ‘What a way to make a livin’. Lovely stuff!

11. I seem to have found this a bit harder and less engaging than many above. I do like Dolly Parton, but I’m not familiar enough with her songs for the lyric to have jumped out at me, so once I’d worked out the likely ‘information’, it needed a google to get me on the right track. Like HG I had RENO rather than RONE entered at 6d, but unlike him I never actually got round to sorting this out, which left 10a blank, though it seems obvious now what it should have been. Still, there were plenty of pleasurable moments, not least the Sondheim anagram mentioned by Neil Hunter above – enhanced by the clever use of the misprint in the clue.

12. Caran @8. Firstly, I agree entirely with your assessment of the puzzle. Thanks to Gila and Duncan.

    Regarding “shift”, my 2006 Chambers has identical wording to yours: “‘a group of people who work for a specific period within a working day, alternating with other groups; the time worked by such a group.” To me, “alternating” means that each group alternates the times with the other groups. Working 9 to 5, is the fairly standard working day and those who do it would not regard it as working a shift. Where working anti-social hours is necessary, such as in hospitals and some factories, the shift times are rotated for each group or individual. No doubt there are some exceptions but this is the general rule.

    Sorry to go on about this triviality, but I thought your response deserved another. The most important part of this message is the two opening sentences.

13. bingybing@5 takes the words right out of my mouth – what a lovely lady and what is there not to like?  I didn’t catch on right until the end which increased the PDM value for me. I was distracted by first remembering and getting confused by Sheena Easton’s  song “9 to 5” that was a hit in the UK (about the same time as Dolly Parton’s song of the same name was a hit in the US).

    Thanks to all for a super puzzle and blog.

14. Very belated thanks to Duncan for the blog and to everyone who commented. I’m glad it was fun to solve, as it certainly was to set. And seems this one was less controversial than the Seinfeld/ERM puzzle. Which was probably understandable. I mean, who doesn’t love a bit of Dolly?!

    Just a couple of bits to add from me:

    –       If you were initially confused by the lack of final G, spare a thought for the setter, who had to re-do the grid and a lot of the clues upon realising it didn’t need to be there!

    –       There’s some good 9-to-5 stuff here, including Azed admitting he’d never heard of the song, and a brilliant winner which is easily one of the best clues I’ve ever seen

    Cheers to all

    Ali/Gila

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