Inquisitor 1393: Who Are You? by Lato

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Lato is one of the most prolific setters in the Inquisitor stable so it is no surprise to see his name against today’s puzzle.  There was quite a long preamble.

 

 

 

The preamble read "The 4-word name of a literary character is indicated by eight unclued entries (one of two words).  Each of these four words is suggested by:

(a) two definitions;

(b) two words which when associated give two other (eponymous) literary characters;

(c) two associated words which may be synonyms of each other; and

(d) two other associated words which are of a kind.

A normal answer (appropriately positioned) and two words spelt out by single letters ignored in wordplay to eleven clues may help with identification.  Solvers must write the final word of the character’s name below the grid.

I’m not sure I really understood all that on the first read through so I just barrelled in to the clues. 8 across MAGICAL was first to fall.  I was convinced that OWNERS was the answer to 18 down but it took a while for the penny to drop that there was genuinely a letter missing from the wordplay. I then got TESS at 10 down.  It was here I made my first mistake as I assumed the first S had been ignored in the wordplay.  I realised much later that it hadn’t as the possessive came in to play with TE’S.  

Eventually I got a bit of traction in the NW and SE corners and I built up the gridfill from there.

It became clear that IMPORTANT was going to be unclued word at 1 down.  Towards the end CANIS and URSA looked to be a likely pair, each associated with MAJOR.  I wasn’t clever enough at this point to think that MAJOR was each of the four words in the character’s name as I assumed that all four names would be different.  It was thinking about JOHN and OLD WIG or OLD PIG together with a definition of IMPORTANT that led to the lightbulb moment that MAJOR was common to all four pairs and the character came from the novel CATCH-22 by Joseph Heller.  This revelation also sorted out my concerns about my entry at 22 down where I had BATCH for a while.

Looking at all the thematic material we have four pairs as follows:

IMPORTANT and OLD WIG – both can be defined by the word MAJOR

URSA and CANIS – both can prefix MAJOR when describing constellations

JOHN and CAN are two synonymous words meaning toilet and each can be associated with MAJOR as JOHN MAJOR (former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom) and MAJORCAN (an inhabitant of the island of MAJORca)

TRUMPET and BARBARA can be associated to form eponymous literary characters – MAJOR BARBARA (title character of play by George Bernard Shaw) and TRUMPET MAJOR (novel by Thomas Hardy)

The character’s name in full is MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR and this is the title of CHAPTER NINE of Catch 22.  The missing letters from the wordplay in eleven clues spell out CHAPTER NINE

Finally the word MAJOR should be written under the grid.

I am well acquainted with extra letters in wordplay, but it made a pleasant change to have to deal with letters omitted from wordplay.  Fortunately, the definitions helped once a number of the crossing letters were in place.  There was an interesting bit of research at the end trying to establish the exact form of the eight unclued entries.  Once I realised that all the words related to MAJOR is some way it all became a bit easier.  Often, setters give an anagram of all the unchecked letters in unclued theme words but we weren’t given such help this time.

Overall, the puzzle was good fun.  I certainly didn’t solve it all in one sitting.  

The final grid looks like this.  

Inquisitor 1393

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                            MAJOR

The title Who Are You? is fairly self explanatory given that we were trying to identify a character.

Across

 

      
No Clue Wordplay

Missing Letter

 Entry

1

 

What he did was absurd but that is soon remedied (7)

 

Anagram of  (remedied) (I.E. [id est; that is] and SOON)

IONESO*

C

 

IONESCO (reference Eugene IONESCO [1909-1994], playwright associated with the Theatre of the Absurd)

 

4

 

Red one?  Different colour’s not ultimately available (6)

 

A (one) + BLUE (colour) excluding the last letter [not ultimately available] E + ‘S

A BLU S

H

 

ABLUSH (with a red glow

 

8

 

New claim’s over a grand – marvellous! (7)

 

Anagram of (new) CLAIM containing (over) (A + G [grand])

M (A G) ICAL*

 

 

MAGICAL (marvellous)

 

9

 

Favourite fuel (4)

 

PET (favourite)

 

A

 

PEAT (fuel)  double definition

 

11

 

Stick around (one goes through the motions) (3)

 

ROD (stick) reversed (around)

DOR<

 

DOR (a kind of dung beetle; one that goes through excrement; one that goes through the motions [faeces]

 

12

 

Scots pant, ‘What about a drop of Glenfiddich?’ (4)

 

EH (what!) containing (around) G (first letter of [a drop of] GLENFIDDICH)

E (G) H

P

 

PEGH (Scottish word meaning ‘pant’)

 

13

 

Pearl bumped into Rex unendingly (6)

 

Anagram of (bumped) INTO REX excluding the last letter (unendingly) X

ORIENT*

 

ORIENT (reference an ORIENTal pearl)

 

14

 

Tree‘s no resistance to deadly disease (5)

 

RABIES (deadly disease) excluding (there’s no) R ([electrical] resistance)

 

 

 

ABIES (a fir tree)

 

17

 

Bounders mentioned cunning plan (4)

 

ROOS (sounds like [mentioned] RUSE [cunning plan])

 

 

 

ROOS (kangaROOS; bounders)

 

20

 

Chromosome – one with damaged DNA (5)

 

I (one) + an anagram of (damaged) DNA

I DAN*

T

 

IDANT (aggregation of IDs [elements in the chromosome carrying all the hereditary characters)

 

23

 

Dramatist reported to write poetry (5)

 

SYNGE (sounds like [reported] SING [write poetry])

 

 

 

SYNGE (reference J M SYNGE [1871 – 1909], Irish playwright; dramatist)

 
25

Repaired site path long ago (4)

 

Anagram of (repaired) SITE

STIE*

 

 

STIE (obsolete [long ago] word for path)

 

26

 

A criminal starting to acquire a lot of capital – as is crossword setter (13)

A + (an anagram of [criminal] STARTING containing [to acquire] AMMAN [capital city of Jordan] all but the last letter [a lot of] N)

A NAGR (AMMA) TIST*

 

 

ANAGRAMMATIST ( a crossword setter compiles a lot of ANAGRAMs)

 

28

 

Final score announced (4)

 

NETT (sounds like [announced] NET [score a goal])

 

 

 

NETT (final)

 

29

 

Broadcast irritates old W Europeans (5)

 

GAULS (sounds like [broadcast] GALLS [irritates])

 

 

 

GAULS (inhabitants of ancient France)

 

34

 

English composer got wings clipped (4)

 

EARNED (gained; got) excluding (clipped) the first and last letters (wings) E and D

 

 

 

ARNE (reference Thomas ARNE [1710 – 1778], English composer best known for Rule, Britannia)

 

36

 

Falls off – say nothing to copper! (5)

 

SH (be quiet!; say nothing) + DS (Detective Sergeant; policeman; copper)

 

E

 

SHEDS (drops off; falls off)

 

38

 

Left estate in part of Warwickshire previously – most convenient (6)

 

EFTEST (hidden word (part of) in LEFT ESTATE)

 

 

EFTEST (dialect word from Warwickshire,and Worcestershire meaning most convenient)

 

39

 

Nothing joyless about rooms in harem (4)

 

O (zero) + SAD (joyless) reversed (about)

O DAS<

 

 

ODAS (rooms in a harem)

 

41

 

Brood formerly round window (3)

 

EYE (obsolete [formerly] word for a brood of pheasants)

 

 

 

EYE (round hole or window)  double definition

 

43

 

See wearing spotted cape (4)

 

C (see) contained in (wearing) SAW (spotted)

S (C) AW

 

 

SCAW (variant spelling of SKAW [low cape or headland])

 

44

 

Doctor forsaking money back gets reputation for goodness (4)

 

(MOOLAH [money] excluding [forsaking] MO [Medical Officer; doctor]) reversed (back)

HALO<

 

 

HALO (representation of an ideal glory or reputation)

 

45

 

Landholding system in one local valley (7)

 

UN (dialect [local] word for one) + DALE (valley)

 

R

 

RUNDALE (a system of holding land in single holdings made up of detached pieces)

 

46

 

River goes round very quiet part of Bristol (6)

 

NILE (river NILE) containing (goes round) PP (pianissimo; very quiet)

NI (PP) LE

 

 

 NIPPLE (part of a breast [bristols] is a slang word for breasts])
Down    

 

  
No Clue Wordplay

Missing Letter

 Entry

2

 

Try to keep sloth in tree (5)

 

GO (try) containing (to keep) AI (three toed sloth)

G (AI) O

N

 

NGAIO (New Zealand tree with white wood)

 

3

 

Make out that previous rises inadequate (6)

 

SCAN (make out) + (YT [obsolete [previous] word for that] reversed [rises; down clue])

SCAN TY<

 

 

SCANTY (inadequate)

 

4

 

Talk about old buffalo (4)

 

ANA (gossip; talk) containing (about) O (old)

AN (O) A

 

ANOA (the sapiutan, or wild ox of Sulawesi in Indonesia, like a small buffalo)

 

5

 

Dislike spending money at plant (5)

 

LUMP (dislike) excluding (spending) M (money) + IN (at)

 

 

 

LUPIN (plant)

 

6

 

No longer use ox (3)

 

URE (obsolete [no longer] word for use)

 

 

 

URE (extinct [no longer]wild ox)  ‘no longer’ can therefore qualify both ‘use’ and ‘ox’ in this double definition

 

7

 

Dance out of college and around garden feature (4)

 

CHA-CHA (dance) excluding (out of) both occurrences of C (college)

 

 

 

HA-HA (a ditch or vertical drop often containing a fence, eg between a garden and surrounding parkland, forming a barrier without interrupting the view)

 

10

 

Lawrence’s second literary heroine (4)

 

TE’S (reference T E LAWRENCE [1888 – 1935] archaeologist, military officer and diplomat) + S (second)

 

 

 

TESS (reference TESS of the d’Urbervilles, literary heroine)

 

15

 

 Disused giant tent collapses (5)

Anagram of (collapses) TENT

ETTN*

I

 

ETTIN (archaic [disused] word for giant)

 

16

 

Freehold possession in area of London is popular (6)

 

SE (South East; London is situated in SE England) + IS + IN (popular)

 

 

 

SEISIN (originally feudal possession, now possession in freehold)

 

18

 

Landlords maybe could be worse (6)

 

Anagram of (could be) WORSE

OWERS*

N

 

OWNERS (landlords)

 

19

 

Horse succeeded overcoming obstacle (4)

 

S (succeeded) + NAG (horse)  overcoming is used in this down clue to indicate that S is placed over the letters NAG

 

 

SNAG (obstacle)

 

21

 

Sound excites musicians (9,  3 words)

 

WET WET WET (sounds like [sound] WHET [excite] WHET [excite] WHET [excite] giving excites)

 

 

 

WET WET WET (Scottish soft rock band; musicians)

 

22

 

Hit man (surgeon once) (5)

 

CAT (chap; man) + CH  (chirurgeon [obsolete [once] form of surgeon])

 

 

 

CATCH (hit)

 

24

 

Birds total about 250 initially (4)

 

E (medieval Roman numeral for 250) + (SUM [total] reversed [about])

E MUS<

 

 

EMUS (flightless Australian birds)

 

27

 

Give almost two pounds to crime author (7)

 

RENDER (give) excluding the final letter [almost] + (L [pound sterling] + L [pound sterling] giving two pounds)

 

 

 

RENDELL (reference Ruth RENDELL [1930 – 2015], English author of thrillers and psychological murder mysteries; crime author)

 

30

 

Insist upon idiot getting point right (6)

 

ASS (idiot) + E (East; point [of the compass]) + RT (right)

 

 

 

ASSERT (insist upon)

 

31

 

Ghost writer‘s funeral abandoned – no rector (6, 2 words)

 

Anagram of (abandoned) FUNERAL excluding (no) R (rector)

LE FANU*

 

 

LE FANU (reference Sheridan LE FANU [1814 – 1873], Irish writer and leading ghost story author of the 19th century)

 

32

 

Tests for young Military elite – about time (4)

 

SAS (Special Air Service; military elite) containing (about) T (time)

SA (T) S

 

SATS (Standard Assessment Tasks; tests for young schoolchildren in England)

33

 

He told stories when at work (5)

 

AS (when) + OP (opus; work)

 

E

 

AESOP (reference AESOP‘s fables; stories told by AESOP a slave in Ancient Greece)

 

35

 

Mounted racehorse for repeat (5)

 

PACER ( a horse whose usual gait is a PACE) reversed (mounted; down clue)

RECAP<

 

 

RECAP (repeat)

 

37

 

Groom‘s heartless remark at church (4)

 

SAY (remark) excluding the middle letter (heartless) A + CE (Church [of England])

 

 

 

SYCE (groom, mounted attendant)

 

40

 

High point of general practice (3)

 

ALP (hidden word in [of] GENERAL PRACTICE)

 

 

 

ALP (high mountain; high point)

 

42

 

Coat number two finally discarded (3)

 

FOUR (number) excluding (discarded) O (last letter of [finally] TWO)

 

 

 

FUR (coat)

 

 

18 comments on “Inquisitor 1393: Who Are You? by Lato”

  1. Duncan’s solving process sounds much more straightforward than my own.
    Not having read Catch-22 this one caused me problems. It also didn’t help that I had SLOP in 43A from a first run through(laziness on my part, assuming ‘SPOTTED’ could be abbreviated to SP.) I eventually got WET WET WET, although my doubt of the definition of them as ‘musicians’ almost stopped me even then ! (Sorry….)
    I was then faced with what seemed to me to be three potential candidates for the literary characters: TRUMPET, BARBARA and OLD PIG i.e. Old Major from Animal Farm (I have never come across OLD WIG, meaning IMPORTANT and I couldn’t find a reference to it in my admittedly rather old version of Chambers) so it was only after carefully re-reading the preamble that I realised that the reference to “eponymous” meant the pairing could only be BARBARA and TRUMPET (both I which I am familiar with, thankfully).

    Even after working out that all four pairings had the word MAJOR in common I still hadn’t spotted 22D so I thought these must be allusions to some other connections that gave the game away.
    It was only when I got the missing letters and googled MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR and CHAPTER NINE that it all fell into place.

    Now I must get round to reading some of these modern classics…..many thanks Lato and Duncan.

  3. Thanks, Duncan, and Lato. The CATCH entry being “appropriately positioned” is because it’s at 22 (down) though I think you may not have needed that hint!

  4. Thanks for the blog. All the lights were filled in, but I failed miserably on the rest, too obsessed by Animal Farm to get any further, although I doubt I’d have cracked it in a month of Sundays, despite having read Catch 22, albeit many moons ago.

  5. Made me smile.

    Thanks to Lato and to Duncan for the blog (especially the parsing of HALO, the definition for DOR and the link between MAJOR and CAN.)

  6. Many thanks Duncan!

    I got it eventually, several days after completing the grid but I was hung up for ages on OLD WIG as some sort of term received from the arcane world of m’learned friends, maybe a predecessor of BIGWIG…which I thought might of itself be a reference to Watership Down and another literary character to go with OLD PIG….I think I was doing this puzzle in some sort of imaginary alternative crossword universe at one point !

  7. I enjoyed this a lot.

    Reading comments on barred-grid puzzles it seems to me that the clues are of often of secondary concern to solvers. As with all Lato/Tyrus puzzles, the clueing here was superb. I particulary liked:

    Stick around (one goes through the motions) (3)

    and the “part of Bristol”.

    Thanks Lato and Duncan

  8. Well done Duncan! I really enjoyed this puzzle though I failed to explain how all the associations to Major worked. There seemed to be endless ways one could come up with possible pairs of associations.

    In the end I lost interest as the grid was filled, MAJOR written underneath and it wasn’t going to be any help anyway.

  9. I meant to add that the Inquisitor is now my favourite of all the puzzles on this site. Well done to the editor and all the setters too.

  10. D’oh! I didn’t finish this one despite Catch-22 being one of my favourite books.

    For some inexplicable reason (maybe I was in Rob H’s alternate universe @6), I got hung up on ANAGRAMMATIST being the appropriately positioned word. I kept repeating [canis] MAJOR and [ursa] MAJOR to myself but the penny never dropped.

    I feel like the (appropriately named) Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Colonel, Lieutenant General in the book.

  11. Tramp @ 7, I also liked part of Bristol. I was totally bemused with ..PPLE in the grid and had just asked my Bristol-born wife for help on areas of Bristol as the penny dropped when I remembered the rhyming slang. As for the book, I got to about chapter 3 before casting it aside in boredom, so never got to the thematic section. Great puzzle, though, as always from Lato.

  12. Great fun, this one. It’s a long long time since I read Catch-22, and for some reason I remembered the character as MAJOR x 3, not MAJOR x 4, so although that solution started to nag at me I kept rejecting it. But when CHAPTER NINE emerged it seemed worth digging out the book and, as it turned out, uttering a loud “Bloody hell!” Which was repeated when I went back to the grid and saw the location of CATCH, my last-completed clued light.

    Did anyone else have the false PDM of a Thomas Hardy theme, based on TRUMPET IMPORTANT and TESS?

  13. I often don’t get along with Lato’s puzzles as much as others, but this one made me smile. URSA M, CANIS M, and John M and … M BARBARA … seem to be a lot of MAJORS … aah! MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR – what a tease! (Plus the little bonus of CATCH at 22d.)

    Seldom have I “seen the film” then later “read the book” – the former was really, really good, but the latter was superb.

    Thanks Duncan & Lato – a nod of approval from this quarter. (Last one in was DOR – I knew what I was looking for, but grubbed around for the word for quite a while. And I now know how to pronounce SYNGE correctly.)

  15. Lovely puzzle and pitched just right for an inquisitor. I have to admit that Mrs BF worked it out, so a failure for me.

  16. This was a long slog for me, requiring Google for the Catch 22 connection. My final 2 unclueds were CA? and OLD ?IG. I finally got CAN as the synonym for JOHN, which left OLD ?IG as a definition paired with IMPORTANT. OLD WIG never occurred to me, but OLD PIG seemed to be a perfect definition of MAJOR, the oldest of the pigs in Animal Farm. Did anyone else opt for that on the same grounds ?
    If this had been a Listener I would have proposed that OLD PIG was an acceptable alternative as a correct answer … albeit in the expectation that JG would turn it down on his usual grounds that “the great and the good” had all plumped for OLD WIG.

    Another alternative for CA? I considered was CAY, having discovered that MAJOR CAY was another name for PIG ISLAND in the Bahamas !

  17. Many thanks to Duncan for his comprehensive blog and to others for their comments.

    HA-HA and WET WET WET were also intended as pointers to the character’s identity.

  18. Belated thanks from me to Lato for reminding me of the funniest part of a book I enjoyed many years ago. As with the previous one, we did much of this in the car (old editions of Chambers and Bradfords live in there), not on a journey this time but sitting in a car park waiting for the rain to stop. A delightful PDM when “major” came up for the third time as an association. Thanks to Duncan for clearing up CAN – an obvious synonym for JOHN, but the association with “major” stumped us. WET WET WET reminded us of YADDA YADDA YADDA a couple of weeks ago.

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