Inquisitor 1791: Seesaw by Kruger

11 comments on “Inquisitor 1791: Seesaw by Kruger”

1. When I had just three or four ‘normal’ clues left to solve, and after I had spent some time trying to work out the clues to the five modified entries, I was inclined to give up. I knew the Latin phrase but could not make use of it. Luckily, on returning to the puzzle the next day, I solved ABYSMALLY and DESCANTS, and saw how two ‘multum’ words (LOTS and OFTEN) would fit inside them. The other three modified entries followed (SCADS being as new to me as it was for you, kenmac). Last of all, the ‘in parvo’ pieces magically revealed themselves in those entries – very neat.

   The meaning of the final instruction was not clear. ‘Where’ did not necessarily mean a placename, and ‘these words’ did not not refer back to any ‘words’ mentioned previously. (Words formed by the ‘letters’? Words in the thematic entries?). I didn’t have to ponder for long, fortunately, because I happened to see RUTLAND sitting there in the grid (prominently in the centre).

   I enjoyed solving this puzzle, in which there were many excellent clues.

   This puzzle reminded me of one nearly four years ago (no. 1590) by Kruger in which the thematic entries had bones inside dogs (the key phrase, in English, being ‘Give a dog a bone’). It’s good to have ‘technical’ or ‘language play’ themes like these from time to time as a change from external (real-world or fictional) themes that come with most of these puzzles.

   Thanks to Kruger and kenmac. (I too have left ‘Seesaw’ for others to work out!)

2. A lovely puzzle Apologies if I’ve missed it in the blog, but the “large” entries are all inside “small” words: abySMALLy, SHORTen, deSCANT and muTINY. (As for title – not sure, perhaps you need to “see” the “saw”/motto?) Thanks kenmac & Kruger!

3. (and WEEd, too sorry!)

4. CB @2

   Gosh! I didn’t spot that at all and I did wonder. I’ll add something to the blog in a while.

5. When i were lad I remember I was at Leicester Uni and the bar sold Ruddles County which I believe was in Rutland
   I believe the county was abolished after that only to be reinstated
   I saw RUTLAND in the grid and looked up its motto which saved a certain amount of trouble but the bottom line needed me to get my hands dirty

   I’m still a rookie to these but there’s nothing like a decent ale to inspire
   I once rang the brewery and a voice answered “Tony Ruddle here”
   Dont qute know what happened to it but Rutland lived on in Rutland Weekend Television not to mention The Ruttles
   Fun puzzle

6. An odd solve in that I had a finished grid, spotted what we needed to do to amend the entries, completed a likely looking bit of highlighting, but as I was struggling to get all the letters for the Latin phrase, didn’t have the foggiest what it all meant. I would still have been up for a prize in the good old days, which is what counts. 😉

7. I earned my ticket to the endgame, got all the framing words, but simply couldn’t see how to fill them. Partly because an error in my extra letters meant I failed to see the Latin; partly because I didn’t keep my mind open enough as to how exactly the framing words should be entered. So even though I spotted Rutland, I was completely lost. So many thanks to kenmac for the blog; and to Kruger for the defeat.

8. A well constructed grid I thought, I particularly liked the large words inside the small. Very neat. I also couldn’t understand the title, so I didn’t really get the ‘titular experience’ that is referred to in the rubric, which spoilt my enjoyment of this one a little bit.

   copmus @ 5 : I had some Ruddles Best today … at a mere £1.82 per pint at a well know chain of ‘cheap boozers’. A few weeks ago they had it on special offer, at only 99p per pint … took me right back to my student days too! 😉

9. Finished the puzzle but found it mildly unsatisfying, though I can’t quite explain why. Perhaps because I hadn’t heard of Rutland’s motto (and needed my wife’s help to point it out), or because it took a long time to do.

   Nonetheless beautifully constructed so thank you!

10. Much enjoyed here; all thanks to Kruger and kenmac.

    I finished (eventually) with no problem but failed to see the full cunning of the multum-in-parvo packaging, because I remained stuck on the full-length surrounding words. Well, abysmally is pretty low; shorten is to make small; a weed is a runt; and mu-tiny — where I came close — is the Greek character used for “micro” plus a more obviously small thing. Surely there must be some special meaning of descants, lower pitch or something, that could be squared with the rest? Oh well…. (Dons dunce cap, retires to corner.)

11. I’d love to get Kruger’s take on it, as I thought only the straightforward ‘little’ words were thematic ie small, tiny, scant, short and wee [not weeD].

    And then ‘mutiny’ (et al.) was just a way of getting ‘tiny’ into the grid, rather than an elaborate double-theme on the letter ‘mu’.

    But maybe I’m underselling Kruger here!

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