14 comments on “Inquisitor 1647: Unlike the Rest by Panther”

1. Thanks to Panther and Kenmac. A very nice crossword except – in my view – at the end. In what sense is a hazard an accident rather than something which might cause an accident?Seems like a category error

2. Hm. I finished this, though, like Kenmac, it took me some time. I found it strangely unsatisfying, like many crosswords where the answers are not real words. I am unable to grasp your statement “very cleverly, the words are split by the unclued clues” Ken. Stumpet and ymbolic don’t seem to be. Could you explain a bit further?

3. Wow! This one was tough! It also took me a long time to get my head around how the clues worked. Like kenmac, I also made a note of the omitted letters…just in case they did come in handy whist wondering what we would need to do with the unclued entries.

   The omitted “S” three times near the start stumped me until I hit on OMISSIONS – then, I was expecting it to read an instruction after this but I was shocked when it turned out to be a quote just before going to bed – the unclued clues separating each word was very neat! The next day was just a case of reverse engineering the unsolved clues and working out that the unclued ones would be different types of accidents.

   All in all, a tough but gradual solve for me. Definitely the toughest that I done so far – if it wasn’t for lockdown I guess I wouldn’t have spent as much time on it. Thanks to both  kenmac and Panther.

   Some excellent clues as well – I especially liked the literature themed ones.

   Am I the only one to notice a lot of animal themed setters this year…. Skylark, Hedge Sparrow, Ferret, Shark and now Panther?

4. Quite difficult overall, and enjoyable, though with the doubt expressed above about a hazard being an accident.

5. Hi @2

   if you read the generated letters, OMISSIONS is terminated at 20 and ARE starts at 24. 23 is unclued.

   Does that make more sense?

6. Indeed it does Ken. Thank you!

7. It wasn’t enormously helpful to have enumerations which told us the length of the entry rather than the length of the unamended word, although it was helpful to have those 2 word answers identified.  Like you Ken, I thought the omitted letters would prove significant.

   18 down seemed a weak clue, with “rightly” appearing in the clue when many other words beginning with R would have done equally well.  But I liked 9 down, and was misled into researching Harry Lauder before the penny dropped.

8. I also found this tough going, but it kept me persevering. ‘Moore’ seemed to be emerging at the end (it’s odd the preamble didn’t invite us to collect the omitted letters…) – and I was thinking of famous Moores like Henry, Roger and… Patrick? (or is it ‘moons’, not ‘Moore’)?

   I had ‘stunt’ as my 8d accident. Isn’t it odd that Panther’s omissions are indeed accidents, when Marianne M says that they aren’t?

9. This was yet another Inquisitor whose endgame tasks (discovering the message and filling in the unclued lights) coud be worked on before all the clues were solved, and indeed those themed items were of material help in solving the few remaining clues, resulting in a highly satisfying finish. The theme, a delightfully simple one in concept, was well-executed with just one exception – the choice of HAZARD as an ‘accident’, as others have noted.

   I would have preferred the word-length information to be relevant to the clues’ solutions rather than just telling us what the entry lengths were (a point also made by bridgesong @7). The lack of that information added more time than fun to the solving process, but I felt compensated at the end by a good set of otherwise well-pitched clues.

   Thanks to Panther and kenmac.

10. In my Chambers Thesaurus app and my Oxford Thesaurus app (both on my iPhone), entering HAZARD gives ACCIDENT as a synonym.

11. Quickly: completed it and liked it despite the mild irritation of entering so many non-words. (Maybe too pampered by recent “all real words” IQs, but all’s fair etc.) Marianne Moore was not a problem — I don’t know her work very well but remember Auden was a strong enthusiast. The MM quotation was unfamiliar but easily checked; HAZARD did not bother me.

    IQ has been a lifeline in difficult times. Thanks to all.

12. Welcome Panther, thank you for an enjoyable debut. It is always interesting to tackle the first puzzle of a new IQ setter. I enjoyed this one and the PDM as ACCIDENT emerged and it became apparent what the greyed squares were going to be. As for non words it doesn’t really matter to me as long as determining them is fair. Thank you also to Kenmac.

13. Didn’t get close to 34d V(e)D(e)TT(e) and struggled with the wordplay for 33d STA(r)T – I’m not a fan of misleading capitalisation. I thought this was very hard, so my second unfinished effort this year, after a clear run through 2019.

14. This is actually half an IQ debut: Panther is part-Serpent and part-Harold.

    Many thanks to kenmac for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to comment.

    Apologies to those who prefer real words in the grid, but the quotation really did cry out for a letters latent treatment.

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