Inquisitor 1779: Dreamworks by Ifor

18 comments on “Inquisitor 1779: Dreamworks by Ifor”

1. Rather a little too much research and too much vagueness in the endgame for my taste too. Rather irritatingly, I thought of the creature in question right at the start, and guessed chemistry based on the repeating letters, but discounted both for reasons that elude me and spent almost as long on the endgame as the pretty tough grid-fill. When it all fell together at the close, though, I felt pretty pleased with myself. 😉

2. Way too much mind-reading required

3. For the first time ever, I solved the endgame before I even looked at a clue! Twelve straight lines; a closed curve depicting a mythical creature; (6,6) — what else could it possibly be? (This is unusual for me — I usually spend ages looking for the endgame words.) A very nice puzzle.

4. Aaaah, benzene, my dear dear old friend. As a chemist, how could I possibly fail to appreciate this beautifully constructed grid. I failed to finish yet again, due to the continued surfeit of free-to-view Association Football on my TV, but I really liked several of the clues. I also appreciated the way the circle of ouroboros was aligned inside the hexagonal array of carbon atoms (benzene is often represented as a regular hexagon with an inner circle to represent the non-localised electronic structure). So sadly, yet another DNF recorded by me … but otherwise … marvellous!

5. I feel I am nit-picking, but the preamble says “one cell contains two letters; these must be shown as the curve suggests”. The curve is the worm Ouroboros, which is traditionally shown with its tail in its mouth, so shouldn’t the S be inside the O?

   I, like Kenmac, have been struggling with finding things in the grid recently: fortunately I managed to find the name this time, having searched for all three names from the corrected letters, together in wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_molecular_theory), and turned up August Kekulé as having the right number of letters in his name.

   Thanks to Ifor and to Kenmac.

6. As soon as I read the rubric I had a feeling my game would be over before the final whistle, and so it proved. Filled the grid, but lacked three or four letters to garner credible names (I was sure it would be Schmidt), and early bath. This heroic blog makes me glad I didn’t try harder… Thanks to Ifor and Kenmac

7. I agree it was a little insane given the obscurity of the topic, but I actually quite enjoyed it and did manage to complete it in the end.

   Gridfill proved tricky, especially given the higher-than-average number of unusual words (NIRAMIAI eluded me for ages despite having the correct letters to anagram), but I got to 90% when I realised that I only had 5 unused letters of which C and H stuck out as the most likely candidates for replacement. I vaguely remembered C6H6 being ‘a thing’ so started googling that in the hope of finding (6,6) scientists – fruitlessly so until I included “dream” in the search and was amazed to find articles referring to August Kekule and the Ouroboros. I couldn’t quite believe my luck.

   It still took a while to locate August himself in the grid but I did so eventually alongside the easier-to-spot Ouroboros, followed by a clean up of the remaining scientists (I’d managed Pauling initially). Felt very chuffed when it was all done, though slightly disappointed the snake was outside the compound rather than inside, as shown in this beautiful illustration.

   @5 I did feel the double letters were correctly shown in the cell, as if you draw a snake starting at the O and finishing at the S, it looks like the O-U section has indeed swallowed the S.

   PS: My initial guess was that the answer might be Harry Potter (and perhaps a Thestral), until I realised that Harry only has 5 letters – oops.

8. Yes, it took a lot of research at the end. Yes, it was to us quite obscure but it was well worth the effort as far as we were concerned. Bert realised that it was probably something to do with chemical bonds, given the letters which did not appear in the grid. This helped to narrow down the research.

   Given that it was Ifor, we knew we would not find things easy but we were fairly sure that it would be worth the effort. When we discovered the theme and Ouroborus we were not disappointed.

   Thanks Ifor and sorry that you didn’t enjoy it so much kenmac. Thanks for the blog.

9. John Lowe @5: I agree that kenmac hasn’t shown the double letters correctly, but I don’t think this platform has the flexibility for that. I expect Nimrod to get it right when Puzzle 1782 appears.

10. I didnt even fill the grid but a co-solver found the three names and having studied chemistry in a former life, I was able to provide an assist as I remembered the Kekule dream (6th form chem) but it wasnt an easy header

11. Yes, tough, and I got hung up on SCHMIDT for ages (rather than LO…). Pleased to have finished, but now disappointed that I didn’t draw the S inside the O – damn! (See #5.)
    (Had the rubric stated that “these must be shown as the mythical creature suggests” rather than the somewhat vague “… as the curve suggests” then I may well have got there.)
    A masterful construction as Ken says, & thanks for the blog. Obviously thanks to Ifor too, but for me not so enjoyable as many of his others. (And why 12 straight lines, not 15, I wonder.)

12. I would have put the S inside the O if I’d thought about it. I might change it but don’t hold your breath.
    And I wondered about the 12 lines vs 15 lines.

13. Well now, Kekulé’s original version did contain 15 lines. But then it was realised that the double bonds oscillated with the single bonds, and so the three internal lines were replaces with six dashed lines. Then it was realised that the bonds existed in a quantum superposition, and so the six dashed lines were replaced with a circle. And so it goes. Twelve lines seems to me like a reasonable approximation in the circumstances. And if you’re not happy with that, you can treat the ouroboros as the circle of quantum superpositions (Schrödinger’s snake).

14. As an ex chemist I loved it, but I can appreciate that the theme would be more than a little obscure.
    I’m frequently astounded by the inventiveness of Inquisitor compilers and this is a prime example. To realise that the letters of August Kekule can be placed in a way to represent the atoms of benzene, and also to place the ouroboros to represent the delocalised electron structure is a superb piece of grid construction.
    I did think early on that there might be some chemistry involved (elemental, alkene …) which kept me going through the stickier bits.
    Thank you Ifor for this superb puzzle (for us chemists) and kenmac for the blog.

15. A real toughie from Ifor. As expected, many of the clues were difficult but, of course, perfectly sound when solved. Like HG, I found three surnames plus an extra L O and it took me a long time to realise that LOSCHMIDT was actually a name. I was getting nowhere with the end game until I sorted the unused letters and found that C and H were the most likely candidates for the replacement. Then came the mega-PDM: in a flash I had got it, drawing on my Chemistry from early days. I had to look up Kekulé’s first name and the snake story. I had wondered at first whether the mythical creature was a Dreamworks creation but this would have been too obvious.
    Three clues, 28A, 9D and 30D had chemical content which may have been a hint of sorts, although I am not sure how many of us would have known that alkenes are unsaturated and Chambers does not mention it.
    Thanks to Ifor for the challenge and (eventually) a terrific finish. Also to Ken, especially for the extra research he had to do.

16. Many thanks, Ken, especially as I think this was written (very thoroughly, as ever) through gritted teeth. Addressing the various points raised:
    The published solution will indeed show S within O. The ouroboros bites or swallows its tail rather than merely chasing it.
    15 lines, as suggested in some quarters, is unarguably wrong. Without going into technical detail, the “inner circle” and “alternating” images are individually acceptable for different purposes (just as, say, a tube map and an A to Z fulfil different functions) but cannot be combined.
    As has been noted, the theme and the story are well known to those with a relevant background (probably most people with a chemistry A-level or higher qualification). What’s important is providing a straightforward online route for those not thus circumstanced. Here, googling the three names (together) leads via Wiki to the theme, wherein a link to Kekule does the rest. I think that’s fair enough; and you wouldn’t expect contiguity in the highlighting given that 12 cells connect with 12 lines in a symmetrical way. Incidentally, the occasional chemical references in the clues were quite accidental; and I would have loved the grid to be fully pangrammatic, but couldn’t manage it against the other restrictions.

17. Coming in late because I’ve been busy and also waiting for a computer repair. All thanks to Ifor for a nifty challenge and kenmac for the unravelling. The breadcrumb trail via Google seemed fair enough; but the indication that the mythic beastie includes the double-letter cell made it not too hard to find. (Also I reread E R Eddison’s fantasy classic The Worm Ouroboros earlier this year.) Which led straight away to memories of A-level chemistry and the Kekule story. So it didn’t seem unreasonably difficult, though NIRAMIAI had me foxed for a very long time.

18. Well… this was hard… and brilliant. And I finished it.
    As for “a subject that I’m probably never going to need again”, one of the joys to me of Inquisitor is finding out new things, and who’s to say if I’ll ever need them again? I’ve certainly found out a lot of Greek mythology, of literature…
    I’d never heard of the “French” nursery rhymes, or the LMNOP, and was pleased to discover them.
    I feel I detect a slight prejudice against science topics among some solvers – am I wrong?
    Whereas I remember a Galaxies/Elements cross-over as a triumph, even though it was hard.

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