Despite the designation “by Schadenfreude” in the title, the puzzle element of this turned out to be quite straightforward. The preamble was mercifully brief, telling us that a title would appear in the top and bottom rows and this would indicate what to remove from 23 answers before entry into the grid.
I first ringed the clue numbers (20 in all) of all those with white squares in them. This left 23 where the given length was longer than the space in the grid. This gave a starting point.
The first across clue gave a hidden FAVELA, so I was off to a flying start! Soon the top line read ??E?EH?V. . . This looked like THERE or WHERE for the first word, so I tried 1D and a simple anagram led to WASTERFULNESS. So WHERE H?V. . . then. After finding EMBALMERS at 13A, PEANUT OIL at 19A and a few others, it became clear that we had to remove plants from the 23 green squared answers. So ASTER, BALM and PEA came out of the three examples above.
So WHERE HAVE quickly led to WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?, and the theme was established. The song has an interesting history which you can read here.
All that remained (Ha!) was to fill in the rest of the blanks.
I found a number of the flowers unfamiliar and difficult to find, so the table below contains a very brief indication of what the least familiar ones are.
There is one word where Chambers did not lead to Schadenfreude’s answer. This was ETHERIALISE whose spelling is not in Chambers, Collins, the Oxford D & T, on-line Merriam-Webster, or the Shorter OED. EtherEalise is the only form of the verb in any dictionary that I possess. ETHERIAL is in Chambers and the SOED but not the other three which only have etherEal. A simple adjustment of the clue to eliminate an I instead of an E would not have impacted on the diagram as the letter in question is unchecked. Ba thinks I (Hi) am being too pedantic, but Ho agrees with me!
A couple of definitions raised a grin (ANURIA and LESBIANS).
A nice puzzle from Schadenfreude, solved without too much trauma! A 2 on the Henderson scale? A completed grid can be found at the bottom.
Normal Clues |
|||
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Definition | Wordplay |
| 10 | FAVELA | Shanty town | Hidden in “grieF A VELAsquez” |
| 20 | THESIS | Downbeat (musical) | THE IS (article is) about S (entropy) |
| 23 | TITHING | Payment | GIT reversed (backward person) round THIN (meagre) |
| 29 | BRASERO | Tray containing hot coals | [BEARS]* + R(un) + O(ver) |
| 31 | STAITH | Wharf up north | TA (Terriers) in [THIS]* (this derelict) |
| 34 | STEEVE | Stiff (Scottish) and incline | Double meaning |
| 36 | ESNE | Slave | ENS (being) + E(arl) all reversed |
| 38 | ABOUT | In the opposite direction | A (an) BOUT (attack) |
| 41 | GLOMMED | Texan’s eyed (US slang) | MME (French woman) in [GOLD]* |
| 42 | ANURIA | No relief (inhibition of urine formation!!!) | AA (fragmented rock) round [RUIN]* |
| Down | |||
| 3 | EVENTER | Competitive rider | E (close to surrogatE) + VENTER (mother) |
| 4 | ELEGIT | A formal document (abolished in 1956!) | E(cstasy) + LEGIT |
| 5 | HARELIPS | Facial abnormalities | ARE in H(ot) LIPS (kisses) |
| 6 | VAULT | Dome (of the head) and achieve great fame | Double meaning |
| 9 | LESBIANS | They’re not straight (!!!) | [BAS(e) LINES]* |
| 14 | SLATTERNS | Sluts | [FIRE SLATTERNS]* = self-restraint |
| 17 | SOUARI | This has its roots in Guiana (you can find this reference under BUTTERNUT in Chambers) | SOU (change in France) over IRA (terrorists) reversed |
| 24 | HORSECAR | Vehicle | [MUST HORSECAR]* = chorusmaster |
| 28 | ELECTRO | Facsimile (Electro is an abbreviation for electrotype, a facsimile coin) | ELECT (choose) + R (king) + O(ld) |
| 32 | ALOOF | Distant | A + LO (look) + OF (specified as) |
Flower Clues |
||||
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue solu(flower)tion | Flower | Definition | Wordplay |
| 11 | (SEDGE) WARBLER | SEDGE | A songbird | [W(ith) LARGE BREEDS]* |
| 13 | EM(BALM)ERS | BALM | They preserve | AL (almost all) in [MEMBERS]* |
| 15 | B(RUTA)LISE | RUTA (Rue) | Degrade | BRUT (dry) + A(merican) + [LIES]* |
| 16 | LIN(STOCK)S | STOCK | These hold burning matches | L(eft) + IN + STOCKS (boxes) |
| 18 | (FLAG)ELLA | FLAG | Punishing equipment | FELLA (chap) round LAG (falling behind) |
| 19 | (PEA)NUT OIL | PEA | Greasy stuff | [UP TOE-NAIL]* |
| 26 | SCRAW(LING) | LING | Illegible writing | S(on) + CRAWLING (lousy) |
| 27 | HE(AVEN-S)ENT | AVENS | Very timely | [AN EVENT SHE]* |
| 37 | SCOR(DATURA) | DATURA (thorn apple) | Alteration of normal tuning | [RADAR SCOUT]* |
| 39 | SCOOT(ERS) | ERS (bitter vetch) | Motor boats | SCOTERS (ducks) round O(ld) |
| Down | ||||
| 1 | W(ASTER)FULNESS | ASTER | Macbeth’s (Scottish) extravagance | [SWAN’S TRUE SELF]* |
| 2 | HAR(BORAGE) | BORAGE | Shelter in Seattle (American spelling) | Remove C ($100) from (c)HARGE and insert BORA (strong wind) |
| 7 | (WELD)ABLE | WELD (mignonette) | That can be joined | DAB (fish) in WELL (spring + E(stuary) |
| 8 | (DISA)LLIES | DISA (orchid) | Separates (according to John Milton) | DI (detective) + SALLIES (rushes out) |
| 12 | REC(REATE)S | REATE (water crowfoot) | Sports | [CARS E (base) TREE]* |
| 21 | (GOLD)EN-EYES | GOLD (marigold) | Ducks | GO (turn) + L(eft) + DEN (retreat) + EYES (nests? Chambers has “a brood, esp of pheasants”) |
| 22 | P(ROSE)CUTABLE | ROSE | Can be pursued by law | PROSE (plain) + CU (copper) + TABLE (committee) |
| 25 | ETHERIA(LIS)E | (fleur-de-)LIS | Render spirit-like | Remove E(ccentricity) from [HIS (e)ERIE TALE]* |
| 30 | O(SCILLA)TIONS | SCILLA | Rocks | [LACS SOIL INTO]* |
| 31 | S(CALLA)WAG | CALLA (arum) | Ne’er-do-well | S (Roman numeral for 7) + CALL (telephone) + A + WAG (truant) |
| 33 | (IRIS)H STEW | IRIS | Food | [WRITES]* round I’S (one’s) H(ospital) |
| 35 | NUM(ERICA)L | ERICA | Could be expressed digitally | [(co)UN(t)ERCLAIM(s)]* (counterclaims minus cost) |
| 40 | (CANNA)BIN | CANNA (tropical) | Narcotic substance | CAN(adian) + NAB (seize) + IN (popular) |
Thanks to Hihoba for the blog and particularly for the link in to what is a very interesting history of
the song. My favourite version was Johnny Rivers folkrock 1965 US TOP 40 hit. Very nostalgic Hihoba, thanks
for the good start to my day.
This was one of the first Inquisitors that we haven’t finished.
12d, 40d, 18ac, 21d eluded us. Normally we would keep on hunting and searching during the week but this one just didn’t seem to inspire us. Maybe it was because we had returned from Greece and had a backlog of Inquisitors to catch up on! The difficulty seemed to be that with so many flowers to choose from, if you couldn’t get ‘into’ a clue there was little hope, especially in short entries like 40d.
Still, it woke up the brain cells and the Inquisitor is still up there among the best.
Sorry Schadenfreude, we really enjoy your puzzles normally so please don’t take offence. Thanks Hihoba for the blog – we really needed you this time. Three heads worked better than two for this one – or did one of you complete it on your own?
Thank you Bertandjoyce for the comment. I managed to solve the whole thing on my own (by Tuesday) except for 12D where I had to refer to Ho and Ba. Odd that, as REATE was one of the answers in the previous week’s Inquisitor by Ploy. I think the problem was with the pronunciation of “recreates” (wreck-reates!). My last success was with 40D CANNABIN; this was difficult due to the removed letters being at the start of the word, and I was not familiar with either the flower or the narcotic!
Getting the theme very early and then having to fill in the blanks is not the way my Inquisitor solving normally goes.
Well, we are VERY impressed! We both knew canna as a plant as we saw many of them in South Africa where my (Joyce’s) parents lived for a while. I loved them so much that i grew some of them in pots as they don’t overwinter very well. We’d not heard of cannabin though – more familiar with cannabis – although not ‘intimately’ so to speak!
However long we’d looked at the clues we don’t think we would have managed to finish. Some of our friends think we are so strange, saving crosswords while we are away and then as soon as you finish one it goes into the bin without even entering it for a prize.
We often wonder if they will ever publish some of the best ones. Although they may get thrown away, the themes live on in our memories!
A late addition to this thread of comments – in a hotel in Hanoi, having recently arrived from the backwaters of Laos.
As with the blogger, the theme came easily – rather too easily I fancy – and then there was the ‘trek’ to find the the final 2 or 3 flowers to finish off (linSTOCKs and CANNAbin from memory) – sympathies to Bertandjoyce.
I agree with Hi that the puzzle was probably a grade 2, and with him (& Ho) about ETHERI/EALISE – the it’s not too predantic to grumble.
Re 21d, EYES, nests, pheasants, etc. – I think that ‘nests’ can have a broader usage than that which is common, to mean ‘brood’, or some such.
So … cheerio from Vietnam. Thanks to all.