Wordplay in 13 clues leads to the answer minus one letter (unchecked). Wordplay for the others leads to the entry plus one letter – these give part of a quotation. The full quotation explains the ambiguities, and one speaker to whom the quotation is sometimes attributed indicates how to resolve them in an orderly fashion.
Another asymmetric grid; and another Samuel puzzle for me to blog. (BTW I’ll be on holiday when this comes out – see you all later in August.)
Went for a walk on Saturday (exercise rather than scenery) and took the puzzle. Solved a few clues and had ideas for a few more to check when I got back home. One of those was GREY/GRAY, and I thought that the quotation might be the one about the United States and Great Britain being two countries separated by a common language; however, COLLECTABLE/COLLECTIBLE soon disabused me of that notion. I made measured progress, and, as is the way with this sort of puzzle, when you have only about 5 or 6 left to solve, you are pretty sure whether the remaining clues are the ‘extra letter’ or ‘omitted letter’ type, and if the former then also what that extra letter is.
At some stage, dinner was cooked and eaten alone – I’m a WOMAD widower this weekend – then I returned to the crossword and polished off those 5 or 6 clues. I had the 13 ambiguities (one per column as I noted later) and the partial quotation “… A DAMN POOR MIND THAT CAN ONLY THINK OF ONE WAY …“. My copy of the ODQ didn’t help, so it was off to Google + Wikipedia which came up with “IT’S A DAMN POOR MIND THAT CAN ONLY THINK OF ONE WAY TO SPELL A WORD”, by ANDREW JACKSON, the 7th president of the USA – so that “explains the ambiguities“.
As there are 13 letters in ANDREW JACKSON, I figured that they had to “resolve the ambiguities“. But, of the two C/K ambiguities, one had to become C and one K … glancing back to the rubric, it says “in an orderly fashion“, and when we read left to right, column by column, we can spell out his name by making the appropriate choices.
Not as fierce as I first thought it might be – but rather satisfying; thanks Samuel.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Answer | Extra letter/ Ambiguity |
Wordplay |
| 1 | GRAB | A | BARGAIN< (contract) − IN |
| 5 | F?ORD | J/I | FORD (cross … water) |
| 9 | OBO | D | (n)OBOD(y) (unimportant person) |
| 11 | ROMAN | A | AROMA (smell) N(ew) |
| 12 | TRAINER | M | T(rust) R(usty) A(ustralian) MINER (digger) |
| 13 | WA?RED | R/U | E(nglish) in WARD (body of guards) |
| 15 | SW?P | A/O | SUP (drink) with W(ife) for (r)U(mpy-pumpy) |
| 16 | YELLOWING | N | YELL (shout) NOW (w)ING (part of party) |
| 19 | RA?N | W/U | RAN (fled) |
| 20 | TEHRAN | P | EH (I didn’t hear that) RAP (crime) in TS (Tunisia) |
| 22 | PLAUDITS | O | [SIT + UPLOADS]* |
| 23 | ?ADIS | C/K | [SAID]* |
| 24 | E?MESH | N/M | ME (Samuel) in (s)ESH (session) |
| 25 | CNIDAE | O | CON(servative) [IDEA]* |
| 30 | ?NQUIRE | I/E | N(orthern) SQUIRE (escort) − S(outhern) |
| 33 | AITU | R | AIRT (direct, Scot) U(niversal) |
| 35 | CORFAM | M | COM(mune) [FARM]* |
| 36 | COLLECT?BLE | A/I | CO(mpany) + [BELT]* after CELL< (storage unit) |
| 37 | GLOGG | I | GLO(w) (warm feeling) + GIG (carriage) |
| 39 | KATAS | N | [A(mateur) STANK]* |
| 41 | NEW | D | NED (hooligan) W(on, Korean currency) |
| 42 | HA?JI | D/J | JAH< (god) I (one) |
| 43 | ERATO | T | O(ver) TART (biting) (tongu)E all< |
| 44 | ISSUER | H | HI (hello) [SUES]* R(ector) |
| 45 | OREWEED | A | [ADORE]* around WEE (urine, stale) |
| Down | |||
| No. | Answer | Extra letter/ Ambiguity |
Wordplay |
| 1 | GR?Y | E/A | GR(eek) Y(awns) |
| 2 | ROWER | T | (Poi)RO T WE R(ealised) |
| 3 | AMALGAMS | C | A CLAM< (scallop) + GAMS (legs) |
| 4 | INROADS | A | [RAID ON AS (Anglo-Saxon)]* |
| 5 | FEE | N | E(uropean) in FEN (Chinese money) |
| 6 | ORANTS | O | OONTS (camels) around R(un) A(bout) |
| 7 | RAGG | N | NAG (horse) in RG (Republic of Guinea) |
| 8 | DIS? | C/K | DIS (hell) |
| 9 | ONWARD | L | [NOW]* LARD (load) |
| 10 | ORPINS | Y | OR (other ranks, men) PIN (enclose) SY (Seychelles) |
| 14 | DINTS | T | [DISTANT]* − A(merican) |
| 17 | NAIADACEAE | H | [ACE HAD AN IDEA]* − D(ead) |
| 18 | IPECAC | I | [DISCREPANCIES]* − R(ationalise) END SS (two squares) |
| 19 | RUEFUL | N | RUNE (letter) FUL(l) (complete) |
| 21 | HAIR | K | HA (hoc anno, in this year) IRK (annoy) |
| 26 | NIOBATE | O | TABOO (forbidden) in EIN (a, German) all< |
| 27 | DEFEN?E | C/S | [FEED]* + (Joh)N (Torrod)E |
| 28 | E?MEWED | M/N | EM (space) [WEED]* |
| 29 | VIOLAS | F | V (five) [SAIL]* around OF (Old French) |
| 31 | NICKER | O | [COINER + (in)K]* |
| 32 | QATAR | N | QANTA(s) (airline) R(unway) |
| 34 | VEGIE | E | [GIVE]* (b)EE(f) |
| 37 | GHI | W | WIG< (judge) around H(ospital) |
| 38 | GJU | A | (citin)G JAU(ndiced) |
| 40 | TAR | Y | [ARTY]* |
|
|
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Well, this is a turn-up. I actually solved every clue in an Inquisitor for the first time in weeks. I even managed to find the quotation and who said it. Just couldn’t work out how to sort out the ambiguities. Thanks for explaining that bit. My guess was you were supposed to put both letters in, but that doesn’t make sense, now I think about it. And I’d even noticed that there were thirteen letters in Jackson’s name.
Another satisfied customer here. My own deviation from the straight and narrow was first ascribing the quotation to Mark Twain and wondering whether because Twain means 2 the orderly solution would be to take the second (alphabetically) letter of each ambiguous pair. But that didn’t feel like the right key clicking in the lock. A Google check* led me to Jackson and — with J and K alternatives fresh in my mind — all was clear.
* “Never trust any attribution found on the Internet.” — Abraham Lincoln.
The quotation has sometimes been attributed to Andrew Johnson, another president – but his surname wouldn’t work with the ambiguities. I thought this was a very clever touch.
Ah, now I think back it was Andrew Johnson’s name I found and that was why the alternative letters didn’t work for my.
I think I didn’t get to the final step of this in the end either. Got all the clues though, some clever ones in there although I think I couldn’t parse all of them.
This one was a bit of a toughie for me, taking me well into the week before I had a completed grid. My early progress was on the LHS, with 22a and 37a my first couple in. Slow but steady progress. 36A I entered but couldn’t parse (thanks HG for that explanation). Like David L @2, once I had the quotation, I was waylaid by Mark Twain before discounting for Jackson.
Many thanks to HolyGhost for the blog and Samuel for the entertainment.
An old school Independent Weekend magazine puzzle, I thought. Straightforward enough solve (compared to some recent IQs), lovely penny drop and fun endgame. In terms of sheer fun, one of the best of the year. Thanks for the blog.
We needed a google search to sort out the quotation. Once we had sorted out the author it took a little head-scratching to sort out the ambiguities. All good fun, although neither of us would agree with Ross that it was one of the best of the year!
Thanks to S&B.
I thought this a really good solve. I guessed there was somehing fishy going on around alternative word spellings before I got anywhere near the quote as I had F(I/J)ORD and DIS(C/K) and HA(D/J)JI. The quote fell into place eventually but it stil took quite a time and staring at the grid before I saw the missing letter per column and made the connection to the letters in ANDREW JACKSON, so a genuine PDM there.
Still not sure why it’as titled “IQ Test” though ?
Another puzzle that we enjoyed a great deal so thanks to Samuel and also to HolyGhost for the blog.
Rob H@9
I assumed that the “IQ Test” title was a (tongue-in-cheek ?) reference to the ‘damn poor mind’ part of the Jackson quote. i.e. if you can’t think of more than one way to spell several words then you won’t be able to solve the puzzle.
Thanks for the positive comments on the puzzle. The title was indeed referring to the “damn poor mind” part of the quotation. Once the phrase “IQ Test” came to mind, it seemed the perfect title for an Inquisitor.
If anybody is interested, I first had the idea for the puzzle about eight years ago. For a long time I thought the idea may not be useable given the small number of words that have two equally valid spellings whilst retaining a common definition. Every time I found one or thought of one, I added it to a written list in my “puzzle ideas” notebook; it took over six years from starting the list to trying to fill a grid. Some puzzles have longer gestation periods than do elephants!
Thanks BF for the explanation.
Thanks of course to Samuel for the confirmation of the gestation of the title and the puzzle itself, hopefully it wasn’t too painful a birth! I’m sure all solvers appreciate the effort that goes into the setting of puzzles.
A very nice puzzle – and my pleasure at completing it was overwhelmed by my admiration for its construction when I saw the ANDREW JACKSON appearing in order with one letter in each column. Astonishing. It comes as no surprise to hear that it took 8 years to compose!