Phi now tops the count of Inquisitor puzzles, and seems destined to extend his lead in the coming months and years. (And yes, I know there were puzzles of his & others before the name change around the beginning of 2007.)
Preamble: The puzzle celebrates a creator of multiple alphabet books, covering three such titles.
Eleven answers from the most famous alphabet, sharing a common (omitted) definition, are clued separately in an order spelling a word in that first title, and are to be fitted in where they will go.
A redundant word in each of these clues is drawn from one or other of two further alphabets, in order spelling the creator’s name.
The wordplay of almost every numbered clue leads to the answer plus an extra letter not entered in the grid; one clue indicates two consecutive extra letters. In order these letters spell the titles of the other two alphabets.
All titles omit definite articles.
Commonly with puzzles such as this – a clutch of clues without definition with answers to go where they fit, followed by the more regular across & down clues – I start with the latter sort. For some reason, this time I tackled the non-standard clues first. I rattled through them: AMY, SUSAN, HECTOR, CLARA, UNA, … and Google led me straight to an author and an alphabet book.
The author, whose name is spelt by the first letters of the redundant words, is EDWARD GOREY, born in Chicago on 22-Feb-1925, a hundred years before this puzzle was published. The book in question is The GASHLYCRUMB Tinies, from the initial letters of the children’s names. Knowing those initial letters made it simpler to solve the remaining handful, and I could turn to the grid. The only 4-letter name, MAUD, went straight in, quickly followed by the intersecting YORICK and LEO; HAMULAR at 1d enabled me to place HECTOR, UNA & RHODA, and hence GEORGE & AMY by elimination. I left the other three for later.
Considering the redundant words, I had noted that four of them were adverbs so I Googled a small selection of the other seven and hit upon The CHINESE OBELISKS, then the adverbs led me to The GLORIOUS NOSEBLEED. It soon became apparent that the former title comprised the extra letters in the wordplay for the across answers, and the latter came from the same for the down answers. And that meant that I hurtled through the numbered clues, barely looking more than once at any of them. Hmm.
I don’t recall an easier Phi puzzle, and it was all over very quickly. A gentle puzzle is generally welcome for the blogger, but this was undemanding to say the least. Thanks anyway.
| Definition omitted | ||||
| Clue [redundant word] | X | Answer | Wordplay | |
| • | Valley visited by Eastern [Egyptian] (6) | E | GEORGE | GORGE (valley) around E(astern) |
| • | Morning journey’s ending [distractedly] (3) | D | AMY | AM (morning) (journe)Y |
| • | It [wilfully] blocks source of light (5) | W | SUSAN | SA (sex appeal, it) in SUN (source of light) |
| • | Court, old, captured by that female [author] (6) | A | HECTOR | CT (court) O(ld) in HER (that female) |
| • | Toy company having no good [reply] (3) | R | LEO | LEGO (toy company) ¬ G(ood) |
| • | Encourage [dog] hunters – that’s about right (6) | D | YORICK | YOICK (encourage hunters) around R(ight) |
| • | [Glove?] Caught with a couple of articles encasing both hands separately (5) | G | CLARA | C(aught) A+A (a couple of articles) around L(eft)+R(ight) (both hands) |
| • | Business with Personnel set back [opening] (5) | O | RHODA | ADO (business) HR (personnel) all< |
| • | [Repressively] holding back some Russian University (3) | R | UNA | (Russi)AN U(niversity) rev. |
| • | Article [endlessly] found in internet games (4) | E | MAUD | A (article) in MUD (internet games) |
| • | Small bit of wood containing second [yew] (5) | Y | BASIL | BAIL (small bit of wood) around S(econd) |
| No. | Clue | Answer | X | Wordplay |
| Across | ||||
| 6 | British Columbia sadly restricting southern woods (6) | BALSAS | C | B[C] (British Columbia) ALAS (sadly) around S(outhern) |
| 9 | Poet’s declaration for us during experience (6) | AVOURE | H | OUR (for us) in [H]AVE (experience) |
| 10 | New Zealand tree: I’m found amidst endless devastation (4) | RIMU | I | I’M in RU[I](n) (devastation) |
| 11 | Criticises ship about crucial means of access (8) | PASSKEYS | N | PA[N]S (criticises) SS (ship) around KEY (crucial) |
| 12 | Contradict Judge, dismissing verdict initially (5) | BELIE | E | BELIEV[E] (judge) ¬ V(erdict) |
| 15 | Large ledge providing opening for Scottish piper (4) | LILL | S | L(arge) [S]ILL (ledge) |
| 16 | Former Indonesian island – no libel to be broadcast about it (8) | BILLITON | E | [NO LIB[E]L]* around IT |
| 17 | Got one’s eight hours? Only part (5) | SLEPT | O | S[O]LE (only) PT (part) |
| 21 | Touch of hubris sinful holy man possessed in the King James Version? (5) | HADST | B | H(ubris) [B]AD (sinful) ST (holy man) |
| 22 | Dreadful recession: expiration of some components? (8) | NECROSIS | E | [R[E]CESSION]* |
| 24 | Witch seizing new things like cauls? (5) | AMNIA | L | [L]AMIA (witch) around N(ew) |
| 25 | European ready to forgo power before (3) | ERE | I | E(uropean) R[I]PE (ready) ¬ P(ower) |
| 26 | Tainted fighter plane, secretive before calamity, last in contention (8) | FLYBLOWN | S | F (fighter plane) [S]LY (secretive) BLOW (calamity) (contentio)N |
| 27 | Tense, encountering reverse of docile bear (4) | TEEM | K | T(ense) MEE[K]< (docile) |
| 28 | Old silver skill enthralling people in France (6) | ARGENT | S | ART (skill) around GEN[S] (people, Fr) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | Flashy – brought in unusual haul on river displaying a little hook? (7) | HAMULAR | GL | [GL]AM (flashy) in [HAUL]* R(iver) |
| 2 | Fades away? Is in heaven so transfigured (9) | EVANISHES | O | IS in [HEAVEN S[O]]* |
| 3 | Hip account about circuit picked up (4) | COXA | R | AC (account) around XO[R] (circuit) all< |
| 4 | Extract water from dirty blue mittens, initially after a spin (9) | TUMBLE-DRY | I | [D[I]RTY BLUE M(ittens)]* |
| 5 | Mineral material landed on bottom of valley, in fact (7) | REALITY | O | [O]RE (mineral material) ALIT (landed) (valle)Y |
| 7 | Orbital point’s apparent functionality (4) | APSE | U | AP(parent) [U]SE (functionality) |
| 8 | American girl bagging varied seats for naps (7) | SIESTAS | S | SIS (American girl) around [[S]EATS]* |
| 13 | Mowing land, possibly for African tree (9, 2 words) | WILD MANGO | N | [MOWING LA[N]D]* |
| 14 | Agonising origin upset computer pioneer (9) | TORTURING | O | RO[O]T< (origin) TURING (computer pioneer) |
| 18 | Strand certainly beginning to register for Victorian scientist (7) | LOCKYER | S | LOCK (strand) YE[S] (certainly) R(egister) |
| 19 | Gossip involving Welsh in another country, say (7) | CHINWAG | E | W(elsh) in CHINA (another country) [E]G (say) |
| 20 | Firm impression pushed into bundle of cotton (7, 2 words) | AL DENTE | B | DENT (impression) in [B]ALE (bundle of cotton) |
| 22 | Smart elevator in US city (5) | NIFTY | L | [L]IFT (elevator, N Am) in NY (New York, US city) |
| 23 | Carbon in vapour prompting protective clothing (5) | SMOCK | E | C(arbon) in SMOK[E] (vapour) |
| 24 | Evil possibly linked to Conservative smart guy (4) | ALEC | E | [E]ALE (evil possibly) C(onservative) |
| 25 | Vessel supplied with sailors not initially capsizing (4) | EWER | D | (c)REWE[D]< (supplied with sailors) |
I felt very lucky indeed after guessing Gorey and his centenary from the first paragraph of the preamble. The rest suggested the pattern of the special clues, confirmed by counting them and recognizing extra words from The Chinese Obelisks and “the one with the adverbs”. With the specials completed, the normal clues still provided a reasonable work-out before completion. It certainly helped to know two of the alphabets by heart!
Many thanks indeed to Phi and HolyGhost.
Yes, one of those puzzles where once you get the Theme, so many other things fall into place that you’re basically done. Which is what happened to me when LEO HECTOR SUSAN + Alphabet got me to Edward Gorey. As HG says, this then allowed me to i) identify all redundant words in the Clues; ii) get all the answers to said Clues via GASHLYCRUMB and quite soon after iii) all other surplus letters by seeing which additional alphabet titles contained the few letters I already had. And I didn’t even realise that the redundant words were drawn from those alphabets!
A fun Theme that I had not come across before and an impressive feat of clueing, but indeed it was all over a bit to quickly. Thank you nonetheless!
It’s always nice to be introduced to something new and I had never come across Edward Gorey nor his works before. The poor Tinies 🙁
I had more success on the right side of the grid early on, and it was possible to guess the names AMY, SUSAN, MAUD and GEORGE. I could easily imagine a book with “A for Amy”, “S for Susan”, etc, in it, but I didn’t know any. I had an enjoyable time getting further with both sets of clues, and I remember getting OBELISKS and the unlikely word NOSEBLEED before getting EDWARD GOREY, but all of these together made the theme easy to resolve and complete. It was all new to me: the only such alphabet I have ever memorised is the NATO one.
Thanks to Phi and HolyGhost.
I like an Inquisitor to last five lunchtimes, so I’ll refrain from search engines if I suspect I can get there without. So no short cuts, and an enjoyable challenge – Gorey also news to me. Thanks to Phi and HolyGhost
I thought Phi was extremely generous to tell us up-front that this was all about Alphabet books, and it seems that other solvers needed no further hints. I sidetracked for a bit onto thinking about Edward Lear, who did a lot of nonsense alphabets, but eventually solved the numbered clues in a perfectly orthodox way and was duly led to Mr Gorey. It certainly wasn’t the hardest Inquisitor I’ve tackled, though not a pushover either. Thanks to Arnold for pointing out that the redundant words came from the ‘other’ alphabets; once again, how clever these compilers are! Thanks also to Phi and HolyGhost
There’s a setter’s blog at: https://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/alphabets/.
A bit crap. Deduced Edward first. Got half in just kinda like minutes. Now obvious pattern quickly resolved. Sped through ultimately. Very weak. Xylophone yeti zebra.