A small grid (only 11×11) and few clues (13 across and 12 down). The preamble was more lengthy:
Seven unclued answers (six words and a proper name) have the same two opposing things in common; an eighth example – a non-word – is unclued in the middle row, but plays no further part in the puzzle. Seven clues each contain a superfluous word or words: each superfluity is a definition that determines which of the two opposing things applies for one of the unclued answers. If the motion was passed, solvers should shade the square containing Y; if not, they must shade the square containing the letter N.
The initial worry when the first across clue yielded immediately (rarely a good sign!) was not compounded as all the clues seemed pretty straightforward to me, though finding all the extra words was a little less so.
The unclued answers also seemed pretty easy, with only a few ambiguities, and were:
FUSE, TEST and FESS across, and TEND, FOUND, VINCE (the proper noun) and DUCT down.
A couple of days in bed feeling unwell did not seem to enhance my brain’s ability to free-associate, but Tuesday morning yielded the thought that all of these words could be preceded by CON. So CONFUSE, CONTEST, CONFESS, CONTEND, CONFOUND, CONVINCE and CONDUCT.
A bit more thought, and they could also be preceded by PRO, giving PROFUSE, PROTEST, PROFESS, PROTEND (had to look that one up to check) PROFOUND, PROVINCE and PRODUCT.
The central non-word was STITUTION giving CONSTITUTION and PROSTITUTION.
The rubric suggested that the extra words should tell us how to choose between the two, and the title indicated that a debate was taking place, so we had to count the PROs and CONs. {I guess, from the number of US references (e.g. gas for petrol, smolder in Salem) in the clues, that it is an American debate, maybe in Congress?}
My choices are:
| Clue number | Extra word | PRO/CON version |
| 19A | extravagant | PROFUSE |
| 17A | object | PROTEST |
| 11A | admit | CONFESS |
| 8D | no longer hold out | PROTEND |
| 18D | intense | PROFOUND |
| 3D | to persuade | CONVINCE |
| 10A | direct | CONDUCT |
Four PROs to three CONs, so the AYES have it! Shade in the Y.
Across |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Clue (definition) (extra word(s)) | Answer | Wordplay |
| 4 | Fun talk reinterpreted as quantity of gas (7) | TANKFUL | [FUN TALK]* |
| 9 | Meat product? Go on with one after little hesitation (8) | PEPERONI | PEP (go) + ER (little hesitation) + ON + I (one) |
| 10 | Direct light sources up, we hear (4) | RAYS | Not quite sure that rays are light sources: Sounds like RAISE (see Chambers definition of UP (v)) |
| 11 | Admit Terence, heartlessly, into unhappy place (5) | STEAD | T(erenc)E in SAD (unhappy) |
| 12 | One contracting translation of most of Genesis (6) | SIGNEE | [GENESI(s)]* |
| 13 | Outskirts of Salem, more antiquated, start to burn there (7) | SMOLDER | American (i.e. in Salem) spelling of smoulder: S(ale)M + OLDER (more antiquated) |
| 17 | Cut almost everything? A few object (7) | SEVERAL | SEVER (cut) + AL(l) |
| 19 | Christmas verse omitted from extravagant story (4) | NOEL | NOVEL (story) minus V(erse) |
| 21 | SF creature (not so much F, perhaps) presented as trilogy? (6) | TRIFID | TRIFFID (ref “The Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham) minus F |
| 22 | Choreographer to finish including repeated character in ballet (5) | DOLIN | Sir Anton Dolin: DO IN (to finish) round L (repeated letter in baLLet) |
| 23 | One who supports scheme to move final article forward (4) | AIDE | IDEA (scheme) with A (final article) moved to front |
| 24 | Correctly mark symbol for time – or its passing? (8) | TICK-TOCK | Not entirely sure about this. The definition may be the whole clue: TICK (correctly mark) + TOCK (normally toc – see Chambers) – old phonetic alphabet for T the symbol for time |
| 25 | Constituent tense after three consecutive letters? (7) | ELEMENT | LMN (el, em, en) + T(ense) |
Down |
|||
| 1 | Examination probing trees worried church leaders (11, 2 words) | FIRST ESTATE | TEST (examination) in FIRS (trees) + ATE (worried) |
| 2 | Assess supporting University producing waste derivative (5) | URATE | RATE (assess) under U(niversity) |
| 3 | Supremely cunning to persuade saint about ultimate in evil, surely (6) | SLYEST | ST (saint) round (evi)L + YES (surely) |
| 5 | Impressionist’s skill is interrupting a senior politician (5) | APISM | IS in A PM (a senior politician) |
| 6 | Malayan home in which island love resides (6) | NESIOT | NEST (home) round I(sland) + O (love) |
| 7 | Bridge team put in high card, not initially without being observed (6) | UNSEEN | NS (North/South – bridge team) in (Q)UEEN (high card, not initially) |
| 8 | Slain rebels no longer hold out in revolution for freedom (11) | LIBERALNESS | [SLAIN REBELS]* |
| 14 | Picked up stories about Arab harem (6) | SERAIL | LIES round AR (Arab) all reversed |
| 15 | No longer unhappy – supplier initially brought in stock (6) | TRISTE | No longer = archaic indication: S(upplier) in TRITE (stock – defined as trite in Chambers) |
| 16 | Surveying tool overlooking article and missing depth in limestone (6) | OOLITE | THEODOLITE (surveying tool) minus THE (article) and D(epth) |
| 18 | Notice academic’s extra intense (5) | ADD-ON | AD (notice) + DON (academic) |
| 20 | Thus end up exhibiting group characteristic (5) | EIDOS | The definition is only in the ODE, not in Chambers or Collins, but the wordplay is simple enough: SO (this) + DIE (end) reversed (up) |
Hihoba, thanks for your blog. I agree with you all on 10A. I wasn’t happy that RAYS are a source of light; more what comes from a source of light? On the other hand, the ray of light from a torch, say, is a source of light in a dark room. Ray/beam?
I also got EIDOS from the wordplay, but I don’t have ODE.
In these situations I just google ‘define (word)’ As is often the case, this worked.
I found most of the answers came fairly easily – as did the extra words, and the probable entries for the unclued entries.
But as you rightly said, this is often a worrying sign.
I stared and stared and stared at the extra words but couldn’t see what to do.
I considered looking for or adding various forms of ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Ayes or noes, for or against, content or not content (as in House of Lords voting)Even just Y or N.
So, a very long time before the P eventually D.
I was a little sidetracked by getting FESS early on, and linking this to the modern usage meaning to confess or admit – and thinking that might be the case in all the unclued entries.
Which, obviously, was a completely bonkers idea given the theme and preamble.
I was interested in your thought about the American spellings possibly being an indicator of ‘pro’ or ‘con’ being used in voting in US debates.
Anyone know if this is the case?
Enjoyable puzzle, thank you Phi.
I’ve just put up a blog on this at: Inquisitor 1386: This House Believes
Nothing specifically American about the puzzle, despite deductions! RAYS: ‘the sun’s rays illuminated the trees on the horizon’ – how’s that for a source of light?
A rare foray into IQ solving for me and it was a very pleasant detour, I thought. Didn’t keep me struggling for too long but a nice idea well-worked, so thanks Phi!
For the second time in a month I solved all the clues, but totally failed to work out what to do next. (As opposed to what usually happens – getting only a handful of clues.)
Thanks for the blog and puzzle. I made a flying start on the right hand side but then ground to a halt on the left and failed to return to it in time to try and finish. Wish I’d persevered!
Ah, OK. I had “contest” for “object”, somewhat altering the outcome. Surely it could actually be either. If you contest a will you’re objecting to it, aren’t you?
Not at all too hard a grid-fill, then I became a little side-tracked with DEDUCT, DEFUSE, DETEST, and even DESTITUTION – but that last one rang a ‘PRO & CON’ bell from Lato’s Swingers early last year.
Just had to dig out the last few superfluous words, always a bit tricky when they’re not obvious, as quite a few clues (here and elsewhere) have some redundancy. In 11a, the clue works just as well with and without “admit”, and “start” in the clue for 13a SMOLDER (“Start to burn”) seems unnecessary at best; in the clue for 10a RAYS I thought that the extra word could be either “direct” or “source” – neither seems to go that well to “light” as a definition of “rays”. (In Phi’s “the sun’s rays …” @2, I would say that the sun is the source, not the ray.)
And I thought that CONTEST/PROTEST would have some solvers wavering, so I sympathise with Simon @6, but for me “object” is more closely tied to the latter.
So, thanks to blogger & setter for a few hours diversion. I don’t know if Phi will pop back now that he’s advertised his setter’s blog.
The first IQ I’ve tackled for a few weeks and luckily it was a fairly gentle stroll.
The endgame held me up for a while as I was conVINCEd that VINCE led to CABLE (Vince Cable) as did DUCT and FUSE and TEST but I conFESS that though I was conFUSEd and conFOUNDed for a while I finally won the conTEST.
Thanks Phi, great fun and thanks HI for the blog.
Nothing to add really.
Many thanks to phi for a straightforward, fun puzzle and to Hi for the blog.
An enjoyable solve with an ingenious theme which thankfully didn’t take too long as we were busy walking part of the Coast to Coast.
We must have had the same query about RAYS as our copy has a question mark against the clue.
Thanks Phi and Hihoba.
“‘the sun’s rays illuminated the trees on the horizon’ – how’s that for a source of light?”. Isn’t the question whether that sentence would still be correct without the source ‘sun’ in the sentence?
I like the way you think, Nick! Rays are the RESULT of light emanating from a source, not the source itself. But let’s not get bogged down in another long and ultimately futile controversy, like the shading one a couple of weeks ago!!
Sorry Hi, I agree, and probably wouldn’t have queried RAYS but the justification intrigued me.
Kenmac, your talents are clearly wasted as a blogger!
Had a genuine, hitting the forehead PDM with this, so thoroughly enjoyable. The second Phi offering in a row that has hit the spot for me. I came to the conclusion that I was pro the constitution and con prostitution.
Thanks to Phi and Hihoba
Many thanks to Phi for a fun and not too difficult puzzle this week, my second after my sojourn in the US. It took me a little while to work out the pro/con dichotomy – my head was full of “ayes” and “nays”. Don’t think there’s anything peculiarly American about this, although a “tankful of gas” (4A) most certainly is !
Thanks too to Hihoba
A spell abroad meant I came back to this and the recent Pennine Way Inquisitor in the same week – and I was grateful for the, shall we say, more generous cluing of This House Believes. In fact, for a while, it seemed rather too easy. But I didn’t quite finish it, for some reason convincing myself that it had to be all pros or all cons, and getting myself confused as a result. And isn’t a product an object (no, maybe not…)? Thanks for a nice puzzle, and a very clear blog
Excellent puzzle and blog. I almost completed it, having worked out the theme, but I was unsure about a couple of the extra words so I didn’t know whether the result was Y or N. I also struggled with 22AC, having never heard of Sir Anton Dolin- I had D_LIN, but still didn’t manage to fill in the blank!
I was somewhat taken aback about how quickly this one got solved, done in a single sitting without even needing to consult a dictionary. Very unusual indeed! I must have got lucky this time as usually I don’t manage an unaided finish even after a few days struggle. Thanks Hihoba and Phi.