Inquisitor 1922: Stage Presence by Arcadia

7 comments on “Inquisitor 1922: Stage Presence by Arcadia”

1. Definitely a challenge! Strangely enough I had PEPPER’S GHOST as a possibility from the outset thanks to the suggestive title and preamble wording, but owing to inability to cold-solve a useful starter set of entries I got stuck for days. With some harder thinking and stern application of symmetry arguments the grid was eventually filled, and the endgame then seemed reasonably gentle. After a false start looking for a SPECTRE, the PHANTOM came to light and then the ELEPHANT, while HOUDINI had been staring at me for a while. Phew.

   Lots of thanks to Arcadia and Bertandjoyce.

2. I had great fun with this puzzle from the start, when I tried to solve whatever clues I could while simultaneously attempting to draw the grid (in pencil on squared paper), using the declared rule on symmetry – and using bars! My first action in fact was to use the rule of symmetry to draw a definite line between the Across and Down clues.

   Without any further plan of approach I found myself solving clues to entries mainly in the top left and bottom right of the grid, although the bottom left got drawn into that as well. My most useful early discovery was that DINING OUT made it almost impossible to place the Down entries ACHED, LEONE and MOURN anywhere. In fact, those three Down entries could only be placed together to the left of DINING OUT, incidentally revealing the interesting name HOUDINI in that row rather early.

   As I found no efficient way of finding the relevant row for the thematic changes I simply visited each row trying to make new words going down, and the sixth row worked out perfectly.

   The puzzle was reminiscent of two earlier puzzles by the same setter, with quality clues and an interesting and enjoyable endgame that made me think.

   Thanks to Arcadia, and to Bertandjoyce for the blog.

3. An interesting topic and a fun but challenging puzzle.

   For once the ‘Carte Blanche’ approach didn’t make it significantly harder, given how straightforward it was to figure out which Across clues needed to go in which row.

   I did however struggle with the additional letters, especially as some (eg the P from LAHAR) could be applied to multiple columns.

   Luckily I didn’t spend too much time on the endgame, which I found a little random given that I don’t think Houdini used the Pepper’s Ghost technique. But it was certainly ingenious.

   Thank you to setter and blogger.

4. My endgame solving has been on the blink of late, so I was pleased to get all the way through this, making it a bit difficult by solving from the bottom up. I’d heard of the ghost and recognised it less than halfway into the solve, which speeded things up a bit.

5. I thought this was a triumph of construction; it was helpful that the definition I saw of Pepper’s Ghost included the word ‘phantom’, so it wasn’t hard to identify the relevant row. Like the bloggers, I spent a little time wondering if there was a famous Roele Phantom before the penny dropped (I guess there are people who can’t see the word phantom without seeing a potential elephant in the room, and they set crosswords). One of my favourites of the year; thanks to Arcdia and bertandjoyce for explaining remaining mysteries (I never did get ‘unget’).

6. Nimrod kindly forwarded me a copy of the puzzle since I’d been unable to buy the paper, so I felt particularly on my mettle to try and solve it. Initial indications felt very unfavourable, but a bit of focus and applied symmetry produced results eventually. I am not sure why Arcadia didn’t want the bars added, since it was only one row that was messed about and I can’t imagine coping with the puzzle without them. I had never heard of Peppers Ghost, and had no great hopes when I looked it up, but thereafter things were pretty straightforward, since I did remember that Houdini made an elephant disappear. I think Alma-Ata needs the hyphen or it isn’t a 7 letter clue, and was slightly surprised to see ATONY turning up twice (ATONIC and STONY). I never managed to parse Lamar, Urial and Inure, so thanks to bertandjoyce for their help with those, and to Arcadia for broadening my knowledge.

7. This was quite a challenge, but there were enough straightforward clues to help with solving the slightly more arcane ones (I couldn’t parse LAHAR either). Pepper’s Ghost appeared on cue, as did Houdini, but the endgame escaped me, despite completing the grid so only 8/10 this week. Also I had TY for “thanks” so a hybrid ALMAATY – no wonder I didn’t get far with REYRING.

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