23 comments on “Inquisitor 1707: Passing Thought by Nutmeg”

1. This one was a lot of fun. All thanks to Nutmeg and kenmac. The grid fill was slow — with many initially inscrutable clues — but steady and enjoyable apart from some stickiness following my carelessly pencilled CHAR at 17D (thinking “charcoal=grey” with the dubious assumption that there could be a short form),

   What the title suggested here was a thought on passing, in the euphemistic sense of passing away, though strictly it would be a thought very shortly before passing; yes, I was trying hard not to think “digestive system”. I seem to remember a past barred crossword themed for the same song, though not whether it was an Inquisitor.

2. Answering myself: Yes, it was an Inquisitor of long ago that previously used the theme: Progressive Consumption by the late great Schadenfreude.

3. An exemplary puzzle with a very well-executed theme and a great variety of well-pitched clues.

   I particularly liked the incorporation of the extra, highly appropriate phrase ‘I could eat a horse’.

   I also appreciated the fact that half (not all) the clues had single-letter clue manipulations and that we knew which clues they were. When that kind of device is implemented as well as this the extra time taken to solve such clues is extra time enjoyed.

   Thanks to Nutmeg, and to kenmac for an interesting blog.

4. Lovely puzzle. I also remembered a previous one based on this theme, and thought it was a Listener. Thanks to David for tracking it down. I also took the title to mean passing as a euphemism for dying, though couldn’t see where “thought” fitted in.

5. Cruciverbophile, your memory hasn’t played you false. There was indeed a Listener on this theme, in which the clues generated the letters of fly, spider and so on appropriately nested. I recall this nugget of information as it prompted an idea that I’ve since developed (but which in the end went off in a different direction)

   I won’t comment on the puzzle, as I didn’t attempt it. But a glance at the clues confirms Nutmeg’s skill in providing smooth and coherent surfaces.

6. To David L
   There was a Listener a few years ago, entitled “Hellside”, perhaps you
   remember it. It has a great title which I am sure you can work out.

7. Great puzzle with a fun theme. Similarly here, once a number of the misprints fell it was clear what the rest would be, which made the rest of the grid fill a lot easier. I even spotted the highlighting for once pretty quickly, even with the added complication of the reversals.

8. I had a similar experience to kenmac, except his SKENE-DHU diversion but including misspelling 38A – I should check the anagrams more carefully! A slow start but good fun. Most enjoyable.
   Thanks to Nutmeg and Kenmac.

9. Tony @6 — No, I wouldn’t remember a Listener puzzle because I don’t think I’ve ever tackled one!

10. Excellent puzzle Nutmeg. I particularly enjoyed “I could eat a horse”.
    Kenmac, I also have fond memories of Burl Ives singing this song on Children’s Favourites almost every week – also his “Big Rock Candy Mountain”. You also cleared up some parsing which I had missed – hadn’t thought of Meccano as a modelling agency!

11. Lovely blog kenmac. But I had the corrected word at 16a as ‘coin’.

12. js @ 11 – oops! Fixed

13. Enjoyable puzzle with a clear and fair endgame. What’s not to like?

14. Totally agree, very enjoyable. Although ever since ‘Sold down the river’, I’ve given up trying to use puzzle titles to help solve – more often than not, they really don’t help.

15. Great fun and I’m another who can’t spell 38a, creating all sorts of problems for 21d. What a plonker.

    I absolutely loved 25a, one of my favourite clues of the year.

    To Tony@6, that is indeed a great title!

    Many thanks to kenmac and Nutmeg for the blog and entertainment.

16. Thanks Ifor @5. I’ve found the puzzle (4279 Hellside by eXternal, as Tony @6 correctly points out) and I do remember it now – as much as one can remember a puzzle completed over seven years ago. This is clearly an evergreen theme and I look forward to the next puzzle that uses it!

17. Very very silly but not too silly
    I loved it,

18. Not my favourite, but at a tough enough level to keep me well satisfied for a few days. I felt that a number of the clues were a little clumsy, and were not clued particularly effectively, and relied upon some synonyms that stretched things a little bit too much for my liking … e.g. in 17 down: grey = OAP!

    That said, it was the Inquisitor, so I can’t be too harsh. Keep up the good work setters and bloggers.

19. Me_at_home @18
    Chambers gives grey as a noun: a middle-aged or old person.
    I think that makes Nutmeg’s definition perfectly acceptable.

20. A rare finish for me and a very enjoyable puzzle

21. nice puzzle & nice blog.
    I was hoping for some resolution to 28d but still don’t get RE (touching);
    and minor point: D is an abbreviation for “day” but not “days” (plural) in Chambers, so wordplay for 8d doesn’t quite work.

22. HG @21
    Chambers has ‘touching’ as ‘(prep.) concerning’, and that’s the meaning of RE I thought was used here.

23. kenmac#19: You are correct, indeed it does. I stand (or rather sit, here, at home) corrected. 🙂

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