Inquisitor 1926: Encyclopaedia by Kirsanov

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Kirsanov provides us with this week’s Inquisitor puzzle.

The preamble:

Seven across clues contain a consecutive pair of extra letters to be removed before solving. In clue order these letters spell two words that can be seen on the theme. Five down clues contain an extra letter to be removed before solving. These letters, in clue order, spell the surname of one contributor to the theme. Two other down clues contain a consecutive string of three or more superfluous letters which must be removed before solving. These letters, in clue order, spell the surname of the other contributor. Solvers must highlight the name of the theme (5 cells).

Adopting our usual way of solving an IQ, we quickly read the preamble and got stuck in. Our FOI was 6d, followed by 18ac and 11ac. It wasn’t long before we guessed 7d from the definition but the parsing wasn’t sorted until a lot later.

Needless to say some of the extra letters took a certain amount of teasing out and there were a number of definitions we needed to check – ‘aq’ for water was one of them.

Once we had the extra letters – GO DI and the possibility of VA together with AL CA and AZ, Bert thought we may have GODIVA and ALCATRAZ which didn’t really mean anything at all. Once we had most of the grid filled but were stuck, a quick search revealed ‘LYDIA THE TATTOOED LADY’ written by Yip HARBURG and Harold ARLEN. It first appeared in the Marx Brothers film – ‘At the Circus’ but also featured on The Muppet Show in 1977.

It has some ridiculous rhymes – Lydia/Encyclopaedia (hence the title of the puzzle) and Amazon/Pyjamas on. Godiva and Alcatraz feature in the lyrics.

If you fancy listening to the song click here – Lydia the tattooed Lady

Thanks Kirsanov.

ACROSS
No. Entry
1 EFFEMINATE
Weak bird unable to reproduce any more swallows (10)
MINA (bird) ‘swallowed by’ EFFETE (unable to reproduce any more)
10 CARAMEL
Take a boring light brown sweet (7)
R (take) + A inside or ‘boring’ CAMEL (light brown)
11 ALLYL
Radical to unite with Liberal (5)
ALLY (to unite with) L (Liberal)
12 HANDS
Measures of the last couple of months (5)
H AND S (last two letters or ‘couple’ in months)
13 SACCADE
Jerky movement of barrel on sawn-off rifle (7)
CADE (barrel) after SACk (rifle) missing last letter or ‘sawn off’
14 PERT GO
It was objectionable according to Ta[go]re (4)
PER (according to) T (Tare – as in the weight of a vessel)
16 IRIS
Asian natives wanting water plant (4)
IRaqIS (Asian natives) without or ‘wanting’ ‘aq’ (water)
17 BRAG DI
Speak confidently about piece of music by Boro[di]n (4)
RAG (piece of music) after B (boron)
18 HOFFMAN
Chinese people staying away from master graduate in film (7)
HAN (chinese people) around or ‘staying’ OFF (away) and M (master) – The answer refers to Dustin Hoffman who starred in ‘The Graduate’
19 INSERT VA
[Va]let in Sweden still around (6)
S (Sweden) with INERT (still) around
24 TRIED
Heard gossip about Spain in revolution (5)
A reversal (‘in revolution’) of DIRT (gossip) round E (Spain)
26 PEE AL
Fellow drops the fourth go[al ](3)
PEEr (fellow) without or ‘dropping’ fourth letter
27 LEGAL CA
The French intention to abandon [Ca]nada is valid (5)
LE (French for ‘the’) GoAL (intention) without or ‘abandoning’ ‘o’ (nada – nothing)
29 PINNAE
Small boat delivers Conservative leaflets (6)
PINNAcE (small boat) missing or ‘delivering’ C (Conservative)
31 NEEDLED
Irritated learner wanted hugs (7)
L (learner) being ‘hugged’ by NEEDED (wanted)
34 TUNE TR
S[tr]ong cask ale’s back (4)
TUN (cask) with E (last letter or ‘back’ of ale)
35 CALL AZ
Cr[az]y name (4)
Double definition
36 SABA
Old people of Yemen down in France, retiring (4)
A reversal (‘retiring’) of A BAS (‘down’ on French)
37 ALBUMIN
A pool of water containing worthless protein (7)
A LIN (pool of water) around or ‘containing’ BUM (worthless). This one puzzled us for too long before we realised we had the wrong spelling (‘albumen’).
38 INDUE
Supply Italy with nuclear charge (5)
I (Italy) N (nuclear) DUE (charge)
39 STORM
Provided room to hold opening of The Tempest (5)
SO (provided) RM (room) around or ‘holding’ T (first letter or ‘opening’ to The)
40 CHARNEL
Central heating left on near Byzantine burial-place no longer in use (7)
CH (central heating) + L (left) after an anagram (‘byzantine’ – as in intricate, tortuous) of NEAR. Thankfully we had come across the use of byzantine as an anagram indicator before.
41 NATURALIST
Maybe Darwin, Australia doesn’t end up in Northern Territory (10)
An anagram (‘up’) of AUSTRALIa missing the last letter or ‘doesn’t end’ in NT (Northern Territory)
DOWN
No. Entry
1 EXHIBITS
Executive investing a little in his shows (8)
EX (executive) + BIT (a little) inside or ‘investing in’ HIS
2 FANTASIA
Article in newspaper is coming up plugging rock music (8)
AN (article) in FT (newspaper – Financial Times) + IS reversed or ‘coming up’ in AA (volcanic rock)
3 MASER
It amplifies the signal of mobile when turned on (5)
M (mobile) AS (when) + a reversal (‘turned’) of RE (on)
4 IMARET
Young child having horrible experience in Turkish hospice (6)
IT (young child) around or ‘having’ MARE (horrible experience – as in nightmare)
5 ALAMODE
Aged frames of a house erected according to fashion (7)
AE (aetatis – ‘aged’) round or ‘framing’ a reversal (‘erected’) of DOMAL (of a house)
6 TACTFUL
Diplomatic performance in Thailand almost perfect (7)
ACT (performance) in T (Thailand) and FULl (perfect) missing last letter or ‘almost’
7 ALARM A
Fear of [a]lien’s leader cutting atomic power (5)
L (first letter or ‘leader’ in lien) inside or ‘cutting’ A (atomic) ARM (power)
8 LYDIAN
Whitman’s short pictorial poem taken up by one connected with ancient kingdom (6)
A reversal (‘taken up’) of IDYLl (‘Whitman’s pictorial poem’) missing last letter or ‘short’ + AN (one)
9 ULES
Presents finally placed under trimmed Christmas trees (4)
S (last or ‘final’ letter of presents) after yULE (Christmas) missing first letter or ‘trimmed’
10 CAIRN
Man about town in the Highlands has no first name (5)
C (about) nAIRN (town in the Highlands) missing the first ‘n’ (name)
15 THREADS R
This has one covered by stu[r]dy fibres (7)
THiS with ‘i’ (one) replaced our ‘covered by’ READ (study)
20 EEN
Elizabeth I was one, without question, in John Knox’s eyes (3)
quEEN (Elizabeth was one) missing of ‘without’ ‘qu’ (question)
21 WEN HAR
Great c[har]ity left short (3)
WENt (left) missing last letter or ‘short’
22 AGNUS DEI
Adjective wrongly used in German prayer (8, 2 words)
A (adjective) + an anagram (‘wrongly’) of USED IN G (German)
23 SLEEKEST
Most glossy magazines ultimately allow supplements to be inserted (8)
S (last or ‘ultimate’ letter in magazines) LET (allow) with EKES (supplements) ‘inserted’
25 DILEMMA
Problem getting up in the morning with cover wrapped around me (7)
A reversal (‘getting up’) of AM (morning) and LID (cover) around ME
26 PREDICT L
Priest saying no more about finishing off Bible be[l]t (7)
PR (priest) DICT (‘saying’ – obsolete or ‘no more’) around E (last letter or ‘finish’ to bible)
28 WEALTH
People in general stop cycling for money (6)
WE (people in general) and HALT (stop) with the first letter moved to the end or ‘cycling’
29 PLANAR BURG
[Burg]lar under pressure to take in a new flat (6)
LAR under P (pressure) around or ‘taking in’ A N (new)
30 ANNUL
Cashier living for a year without advance (5)
ANNUaL (living for year) without ‘a’ (advance)
32 ELBOW
Push rock uphill scratching end of thumb (5)
A reversal (‘uphill) of WObBLE (rock) without or ‘scratching’ ‘b’ (last letter or ‘end’ of thumb)
33 MBIRA E
Mother c[e]ases to make fun of upside-down musical instrument (5)
MA (mother) around or ‘casing’ a reversal (‘upside down’) of RIB (make fun of)
35 CAST N
Heave[n]’s gate falling from bright star (4)
CASTor (bright star) missing ‘or’ (gate). Boolean algebra gates or ‘logic gates’ include AND, OR and NOT which are used in digital circuits. We sat and mulled over the parsing for quite a while until Joyce remembered some maths she studied for her degree!

4 comments on “Inquisitor 1926: Encyclopaedia by Kirsanov”

  1. Great fun. I hope I wasn’t the only one to see ALCATRAZ first and spend some time looking for a plausible first-volume-of-encyclopedia spine legend like AARDWOLF (no, too long) to ALCATRAZ. The actual revelation — with Google’s help — was a laugh-out-loud moment, which is always welcome.

    All thanks to Kirsanov and Bertandjoyce!

  2. This was a very enjoyable puzzle with an original theme and a rather unusual set of clue manipulations affecting 14 clues altogether. My first successes were in the bottom right of the grid, and when the grid was about one-third full I was able to put ‘har’ and ‘burg’ together, after which Harburg’s collaborator Arlen formed itself from RLEN plus an A from my next clue to be solved. ALCATRAZ came quite easily after that, but Godiva had to wait until I found the source of the theme.

    Thanks to Kirsanov and Bertandjoyce.

  3. Thoroughly enjoyed this – challenging without being frustrating, just gnarly enough for an IQ I thought. The penny-drop on the theme made me smile. I love doing barred puzzles, it’s so educational!

    Many thanks to Kirsanov and Bertandjoyce.

  4. A pleasantly straightforward preamble and an enjoyable hunt for the thematic words. Like David I thought I was onto an encyclopaedia related theme with the A to Z of ALCATRAZ but I should really have known better. Finding a link to GODIVA required a bit of help from Google – I knew of the song from my Muppet-watching childhood but had long forgotten any of the lyrics. As I missed one of the short answers, only 9/10 this week, but it was fun even if I didn’t get full Marx. Thanks to B and J for the blog and Kirsanov for setting the challenge.

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