Inquisitor 1738: Cover Story by Ifor

16 comments on “Inquisitor 1738: Cover Story by Ifor”

1. Reading the preamble, everything seemed clear but complicated, except the last sentence and I hoped this would not be a DFN. I started off by making steady progress with the lower half of the grid. The clues were very solid and allowed me to find many of the unusual answers without too much difficulty and confirm them in Chambers. I was a little concerned that the extra words were dropping out rather slowly but, of course, the top half was to make up for this. There were some ingeniously quirky definitions – I particularly liked those for 1D CLUBHOUSES and 32D CATKIN. On completing the grid, I found I had 27, not 25, extra words but correct parsing of 9D & 38D allowed me to reject essentially & digital. Then came the hard bit! I had taken the precaution of using pen and pencil, so that in the initial filled grid all the cells available for vacation were in pencil. Then, as the shorter words emerged, I was able to ink in more cells. Many of these shorter words were unknown to me and I was most grateful for Bradford’s help. Clearly, there were a number of “little” synonyms, which made the searching easier. I was relieved to see that the “emptied” cells (still in pencil) were in blocks.
   I was not looking forward to the final stage and wondered how much web searching would be required before I gave up. Then, I took a step back, & saw YEL LOW in the top row of “vacant” cells. Within seconds, it was game,set and match and I was grinning from ear to ear! No internet needed as I am am old enough to remember BH’s hit – not sure it would be “woke” these days.
   Thank you Ifor for an entertaining and slightly bumpy ride with a terrific finish. I am in awe as to how you managed to construct the grid. And thanks of course to Hihoba for the comprehensive blog.

2. This was great fun: all thanks to Ifor and Hihoba. I didn’t know the song but saw the key phrase and asked my wife whether it meant anything to her: she immediately sang it.

   I too worried about how to enter the polka dots, but argued to myself that the only colour mentioned in the lyric is yellow, therefore the appropriate shading for the emptied cells; while the dots could be black or any other contrasting colour. If this had been a prize IQ I hope the Management would have allowed either of the animation choices. But then, if this had been a prize IQ I’d have disgraced myself by assuming I knew how to spell TEENY WEENY and writing that instead of the canonical version. At least it wasn’t ITSIE BITSIE …

3. Ah, I’d assumed we were looking for 8 synonyms to write under the grid, and couldn’t work out why I couldn’t get them all. I therefore entered the full song title under rhe grid on a bit of a wing (and it appears hopeless) prayer. Enjoyed the solve though, and the colouring as always.

4. Another tough challenge, with some tricky clues, a number of which proved particularly stubborn – but all were cracked in the end. SMALL in Chambers lists ignoble, so I personally had no issue with that synonym. I really liked the endgame, it was obvious as to what exactly was required once the twenty cells had been located and the cell contents examined – thankfully, given that the grid itself showed no symmetry, I kept an open mind as to whether the symmetry of the important cells was rotational or planar in nature. I have to say that I was grateful to be filling this all in on my iPad* as it allowed me to colour or wipe cells clean again at will; obtaining the puzzle via the online edition using the inews app is a total godsend on such occasions and is highly recommended by me.

   Many thanks to Ifor (for a tough but enjoyable puzzle), to Hihoba (for the blog) and to those that have commented (for sharing their thoughts and experiences).

   * Other brands of tablet are also available

5. For me, an enjoyable puzzle, very impressively constructed, but slightly spoiled by a poorly worded endgame.

   The instruction solvers must do this, appropriately shading the vacant cells seemed to clearly indicate that letters should be removed, so I shaded the cells without looking at them – and then scratched my head as to where I should find a clue for which symbol to insert.

   Eventually I did look at the shaded letters, and then it was of course obvious.

   Arguably I should have figured it out sooner, but I feel some reference to using the letters in the shaded cells (or at least not talking about ‘removal’) would have saved some unnecessary frustration.

   It was however a beautiful endgame once discovered!

6. Blowed if I could get the endgame. Even when explained to me I couldn’t really see something so itsy bitsy. It didn’t help that I confidently deleted BE from Bedye to get DYE = Madder and R from MACRON to get Mâcon = TENTS (it’s Ifor, after all), so I was going nowhere fast.

7. David @2 Isn’t teeny-weeny the canonical version, of the word at least? Bombularina’s cover in 1990 used that rather than teenie weenie so you shouldn’t have dropped any points.

8. @6 — Yes, I confidently reduced TITBIT to TIT as an obvious Layer, and later had to backtrack! And had the exact same guess about MACRON but thought better of it.

9. I deleted the shaded letters without paying attention to them, which meant I was stymied for ages. Although I had “small” as the common synonym, I’d decided this was an uncharacteristic GWIT puzzle from Ifor before it finally occurred to me to look at the deleted letters and all became clear. Note to self: always trust Ifor as he always plays fair. I don’t submit solutions so wasn’t too worried about the exact nature of the representation, especially as there is no definitive picture of the bikini in question. Finished with a big smile on my face. Another corker from this exceptional setter.

10. As others have said, a very impressive grid and a very enjoyable challenge. Also, another puzzle that might feature in my submission to the end of year review. Great stuff, Ifor – thanks.
    On the decoration, we are told “appropriately shading …“ so if it weren’t yellow, then there’s no indication of what it might be; and I agree that the polka-dots could then be any contrasting colour.
    Regarding TEENY-WEENY, the rubric says “further synonyms – as they appeared in any version of the theme”, so, as James @7 notes, that version should be OK. I felt that the eight synonyms added little, or even detracted somewhat, and feel that some other indication of what to write under the grid would’ve been an improvement – but hey, what do I know, just a humble solver not a super setter.
    I failed to parse 40d, MEL = MEAL (tea) minus A(bsent) so thanks to Hihoba for that, and the rest of the blog.

11. I really enjoyed this. I was doubly fortunate in that I was initially entering some of the letters that were supposed to be removed, so I could see there was a message developing, and the fact that it’s my normal practice to put a dot in the grid whenever there’s a clash or the cell is to be ‘empty’. Pity I didn’t have a yellow highlighter. Not that it matters when we’re still not vying for a selection of chocolate nibs

12. Strange how such an awful record can generate such a fun puzzle.I needed quite a bit of help with it.
    Thanks

13. Interesting to read (on Wikipedia) that
    “At a time when bikini bathing suits were still seen as too risqué to be mainstream, the song prompted a sudden take-off in bikini sales. It is credited as being one of the earliest contributors to the acceptance of the bikini in society.”

14. Rather belated thanks to all who commented, and of course for the exhaustive and entertaining blog. One very minor correction – in 36a “fell” isn’t a reversal indicator (even if it worked, cryptically it would have to be “falling”) but an anagrind using fell = dire. HG@10 – I do like symmetry and regularity in clue gimmicks, and having eight synonyms allowed half to be thus treated. As I recall “ignoble” was originally “minor”, which itself was moved elsewhere to meet an editorial objection in another clue. And I’d always visualised black spots on a yellow background; maybe there’s an image somewhere, but (like the precise spellings of IBTW) it’s not critical and to repeat a phrase already used, other colourings are available and acceptable.

15. Ifor @ 14 : Many thanks for reaching out to us all, and congratulations once again on setting such a truly wonderful puzzle. I personally parsed 36A exactly as per your good self, as I wasn’t happy with fell indicating a reversal (I even double checked in Chambers and went with definition 3). Fell as a reversal indicator would have worked superbly were it in a down clue, but not nearly so well in an across clue.

    Sigh, gravity, eh !?! … it’s the master / mistress of us all. 😉

16. Fabulous! I’ve had this one sat unfinished for a couple of weeks and after a further hour on it this evening, all fell into place.

    I agree with the comment about the lack of guidance around symmetry – my first attempts were based on rotational. And I was also fortunate enough to have left the crucial letters in place rather than removed them entirely; without seeing YELLOW appear I suspect I’d have been here for at least another fortnight.

    Many thanks to Ifor, definitely one of the best PDMs I’ve had in a long time.

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