A long & seemingly complicated preamble for this puzzle from Phi, his second of the year. (No offence was intended when I omitted to count the ones he set prior to the renaming of the Independent weekend puzzles as the Inquisitor at the end of 2007. Shortly before he died, Mike Laws the former editor forwarded me some incomplete stats of puzzles & setters prior to the renaming: it does indeed include “Phi 8/10/88 105 [up to #1100]” – way out in front.)
Preamble: Six across clues fall into two groups of three. Each member of a group has an associated 3-letter keyword (e.g. CALL/FLAP/MINT for CAT): definitions, wordplay and indications such as “2 words” in these clues refer to the compound formed by the addition of the keyword (e.g. CATCALL), not to the grid element (CALL) itself. The grid entry is misprinted in a checked square on entry to form another word, the original letters confirming the keyword (TALL/FLOP/MINE). Definitions of each misprinted word entered appear as a redundant word/words in six down clues. Finally, solvers should highlight 15 cells to demonstrate that they have deduced the two keywords correctly.
I feel the preamble could have been phrased better; but let’s move on. The first pass yielded NUT-WRENCH for 28a, to be entered as WRETCH (probably). Some of the down clues gave up their redundant word(s): “Bay” in 9d, “of one with lumps” in 21d, and others that proved not redundant after all.
The grid was slowly becoming quite well filled, and after a fair amount of time I had identified a few more of the redundancies, but no more of the across specials. The entry for 12a was going to be BURRY but I couldn’t dig out the answer to the clue, and I found myself with only about half a dozen across clues to crack, most of them having to be in the two groups of three specials. NUTHOUSE entered as HORSE at 36a tumbled out, soon followed by NUT CUTLET leading to CULLET at 38a. Breakthrough occurred with the ‘ping’ of PEA GRAVEL and GROVEL at 17a, and, of course, BURRY at 12a from PEABERRY.
Matching up the misprinted entries with the redundant words fed back into each other, culminating with 6a PEA-SOUPER & SOUTER, and “knave” as redundant in the clue for 4d, and I was pretty much done. (SOUTER = “Scottish cobbler” in 4d, BURRY = “of one with lumps” in 21d, GROVEL =”creep” in 31d, WRETCH = “knave” in 4d, HORSE = “Bay” in 9d, CULLET = “waste glass” in 29d – a couple of these definitions seem a touch iffy: “creep” & “knave”, but OK.)
I couldn’t immediately see the 15 cells I had to highlight to show I’d deduced PEANUT correctly (and I wandered a short way down a Charles M. Schulz dead end) before spotting ARACHIS – that’s 7. Where’s the other 8? Should I seek out my copy of “The Pip Book” or succumb to the wiles of Wikipedia? The former cannot be found, and the latter is just a few keystrokes away … up pops HYPOGAEA. And now I am done.
Much respect for the setter: a group of 3 compounds where the second part of each (SOUPER) has a letter (P) in common with the keyword (PEA) that can be changed to form a real word (SOUTER); and a second such group whose keyword is related to the first; and fit it all in a grid; AND with the changed letters not only in the right order, but also (almost) symmetrically disposed. Impressive (from him), quite hard (for me).
Title? PEA can be used adjectivally to mean “small” (as in pea-brain) and indeed Chambers gives “pea (n) very small pieces of coal”; and NUT is also in Chambers as “a small lump of coal”.
| Across | ||
|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer/Entry | Wordplay |
| 1 | BLASTS | B(aron) LASTS (survives) |
| 6 | PEA-SOUPER SOUTER |
AS + OUP (publisher) in PEER (nobleman) |
| 11 | STERNEST | ERNE (flier) in STS (stones) |
| 12 | PEABERRY BURRY |
ABE (president, ref: A.Lincoln) in PERRY (juice) |
| 14 | AREA CODE | CO(mpany) in AREAD (explain, archaic) E(nglish) |
| 15 | HEIR | IE (that is) in RH (Royal Highness) all< |
| 16 | RELIC | RIC(h) (wealthy people) around EL (the, Sp) |
| 17 | PEA GRAVEL GROVEL |
PEAG (Native American shell money) RAVEL (interlace) |
| 18 | GLITCHY | ITCHY (irritating) after G(o)L(f) |
| 20 | GESSO | (breaka)GES SO(metimes) |
| 22 | AGAST | AT around GAS (empty words) |
| 25 | EINKORN | (unprofitabl)E INN (tavern) around KOR(ean) |
| 28 | NUT-WRENCH WRETCH |
[CHURN WENT]* |
| 30 | SALET | SET (prepared) around AL(uminium) |
| 32 | PURR | UP< + RR (Rolls Royce, car) |
| 34 | HYPOGAEA | HYPO (one injecting) GAEA (Earth) |
| 36 | NUTHOUSE HORSE |
NE (not, obs) around THOU (you, archaic) in US (America) |
| 37 | GREEN TEA | [TEENAGER]* |
| 38 | NUT CUTLET CULLET |
UT (note, do) CUT (trim) L(ine) in NET (angling gear) |
| 39 | SPLAYS | PLAY (drama) in SS (on board) |
| Down | ||
| No. | Answer | Wordplay |
| 1 | BABAR | BAR (rod) around B(lack) A(frican) |
| 2 | LAUREL | LL (Low Latin) around AURE(i) (Roman coins) |
| 3 | AURELIA | [AS A RULE − S(ection)]* around I(sland) |
| 4 | STRAIT | TARTS< (knave's loot, ref: Alice … Wonderland) around I (one) |
| 5 | STROPHE | PORT< (bearing) in SHE (female) |
| 6 | SEED | SEED (dialect past tense of see, learned) |
| 7 | ORDER | BORDER (list) − B(ook) |
| 8 | UNSHOE | [NO USE]* around H(eroin, horse) |
| 9 | TEME | (pira)TE ME(eting) |
| 10 | ESKIES | E (repeated in “beer”) + SKIES (top rows) |
| 13 | ORLON | OR (golden) LON(g) (extended) |
| 18 | GAWPS | W(oman) in GAPS (passages) |
| 19 | YIPPEES | YES (certainly) around (k)IPPE(r) |
| 21 | SOLARIA | SOLA (alone) AIR<(bearing) |
| 23 | GRU-GRU | RUG RUG (mats) cycling |
| 24 | STREEL | STEEL (form of iron) around R(iver) |
| 26 | KAGOUL | KAGO (Japanese … palanquin) U(niversity) L(ecturer) |
| 27 | REESTY | E(nglish) in RESTY (inclined to move) |
| 29 | CHINE | (mu)CH IN E(vidence) |
| 31 | TAELS | SEAT< (constituency) around L(iberal) |
| 33 | REEL | REVEL (party) − V(olume) |
| 35 | YETT | YET (still present) + T(ime) |
|
|
||
I’m going to be honest – this really annoyed me. Not the solve itself, which was quite fun and I rather liked the thematic elements. My problem was with the final highlighting required.
After the first few clues fell quickly I made the decision to tackle this without a dictionary or any other aids and indeed I managed to fill the grid correctly, albeit with a few uncertainties and I couldn’t sort out the definitions of the misprinted words. However, I then spent far longer searching for the 15 cells to highlight than I’d taken to solve the rest of the puzzle put together, and in the end I was defeated and had to resort to a dictionary. I don’t know if the Latin nomenclature for peanut is a surprising omission in my knowledge, but I had no flicker of recognition at ARACHIS so, without any other indication of what I was looking, for searched on for a long time to try and find some clever endgame. I feel some resentment that there was no extra hint from the editor for how to find the final 15 cells.
No offence taken, HG.
As usual there’s a behind-the-scenes blog: http://phionline.net.nz/setters-blogs/inquisitor-1428-small-coal/
Like HolyGhost, I enjoyed this – and like OPatrick above, Arachis was new to me. However the golden rule when looking for something to highlight – look first in the two leading diagonals – meant that I spotted the likely looking Arachis in a few seconds, and confirmed it in the BRB.
There having been so many Phi Inquisitors and Indy Weekend puzzles, do we assume that this is the last? With only ten days until the last print edition of the Independent, then unless I have missed it there has been no news on whether the series is carrying on into the new digital age. It seems very strange that there has been no announcement (unless I’ve missed it). You’d have thought that if the answer was “yes, it’s carrying on”, the editor would be shouting it from the rooftops.
I tend to agree that the preamble could have been phrased better. It actually made it seem far more complicated than it was. I also tend to agree that the highlighting hint could have been better – fair enough that we have to highlight the nomenclature for peanut, but my Chambers simply has it as ‘Arachis’. No mention of hypogaea. I suppose if I was desperate for a bottle of prosecco (whither olive oil?) I’d care a bit more…
All of that said, it was a fun solve, so thanks to setter and blogger.
At the moment I’m pretending the end of the Inquisitor isn’t happening. The reality is too grim to contemplate.
I wonder if anyone did as I did, and wasted time by trying to demonstrate our understanding of what was going on by finding additional words to tag on to PEA and NUT … Phi had obligingly left them in the grid, although in his blog he doesn’t admit to it !
I quickly got (PEA)GREEN and (PEA)COD plus (NUT)TREE and (NUT)LETS for the required 15 cells, with a contiguous (NUT)OILS in the top r.h quadrant, in case crossing a bar with LETS was unacceptable. But surely a Phi preamble wouldn’t be this vague ? A further scan of the diagonals, plus HYPOGAEA, then resolved the problem, to my great relief.
Many years ago, one of my advertising clients was Coalite smokeless coal … part of my education was to crawl to a coalface deep below the M1 motorway, on my hands and knees, in the Bolsover Colliery mine … so I knew my peas and nuts. It also gave me huge respect for miners and what they did.
Did anyone see the media coverage of why you should give peanut products to babies under the age of 11 months, while their immune system is still developing ? Apparently the huge increase in peanut allergy in young adults is down to careful mothers avoiding giving peanuts to them as young babies, and thus preventing them from developing a natural immunity. Makes sense ?
Sympathy to Phi on his arachid feline loss. Makes the tribute puzzle moving, as well as impressive.
Finally,and likewise, any news on IQ future gratefully received.
Murray Glover – yes, I toyed with lots of possible combinations of pea… and nut… in the grid, but as you say, all were too vague to suggest these were the ones to highlight.
My son has a very severe peanut allergy. So, many years of routinely scanning the ingredients listed on products(in the days before allergy warning labels) means that I can spot the word ‘arachis’ from miles off.
And it’s in things like toothpaste and soap – not just food and drink.
Plenty of fun sorting out the NUTs, beginning with WRENCH, and then the PEAs. Trying to crack the endgame involved much futile search for synonyms at unlikely angles in the grid (ground? monkey? small change? chicken feed?) until a little voice said “What is the species name anyway?” After the highlighting, my wife pointed out that the angled-down ARACHIS impinging on HYPOGAEA did sort of suggest a peanut “peg” growing into the soil for the nut to ripen. Thanks to Phi and HolyGhost.
I completed the grid, having really enjoyed solving it, but got stuck on the final highlighting. As I was using Chambers rather than Wikipedia, I found arachis easily when I looked up peanut, but there was no mention of hypogaea, so I failed to work out what else to highlight. Doh!
Sorry if I am breaching etiquette for this forum, but if anyone is interested or possibly affected by nut allergies please visit:
http://www.anaphylaxis.org.uk
We are hoping that this is not one of the last IQs that we comment on.
Joyce was really disappointed by this one …….. at the end. One of her favourite cartoons was Peanuts and she really wanted one of the possibly last IQs to be based around the various characters.
Having said that, we both thought it was an amazing construction and at times a difficult solve.
The highlighting took some searching. We looked along the diagonals as usual but nothing leapt out at us and eventually we ended up having to cheat!
Thanks Phi and HolyGhost. Let’s hope there are plenty more IQs and posts to look forward to.
Only just got round to finishing this one, after helping to run a beer festival and then spending far too long trying to crack IQ1427, which eventually defeated me. This one was much more friendly: a highly enjoyable mix of some easier clues with some more demanding and a nice PDM. Also, I can now bore others with the botanical name of the humble peanut. Thanks to Phi and HG.
John H has been very quiet regarding the future of Inquisitor. I am hoping this means that some frantic behind-closed-doors negotiations are in progress. I really do not wish to subscribe to Magpie instead for my weekly fix.
PS to DW@12
Also, I would greatly miss the weekly blogs and treasure chest of responses for Inquisitor on fifteensquared.
@DW; as well as the Magpie, there’s (obviously) The Listener, the EV in the Sunday Telegraph (you can subscribe to the Telegraph online puzzles website for £34 per year), and even The Spectator, which also publishes barred thematics. It would be a great loss if the IQ ceases, but there are alternatives. For now…
BW@14: Thanks for that, Brian