Inquisitor 1967 No Reason by Chalicea
The wordplay in each across clue leads to the answer with an extra letter not entered in the grid. These letters, read in clue order, will guide solvers concerning the unclued lights
My first Inquisitor blog was this one for the puzzle on July 4th 2009. That time I was expecting an American theme but it was not. This time it being the SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL Independence Day, I was sure that it was going to be a stinker. However…
It’s always nice to see a Chalicea Inquisitor – especially when it’s my turn to blog. Her puzzles are usually (not always) at the gentler end of the Inquisitor spectrum. If anyone was looking for a gentle introduction to barred, themed puzzles then this is a great example.
As usual, I wrote the extra letters next to the clues and, as usual, I made a couple of errors but they were quickly resolved to give: FIFTH CHARACTERS IN ALL CLUES, clearly indicating that we should read the fifth letter (not character) of each clue in order. I feel that the unclear “guide” was slightly misleading but no big deal.
Reading the fifth letter in each clue gives us: A D A P T T W O U N C L U E D L I G H T S T O G I V E T I T L E O F T H I R D’ S H I T (*not* THIRD ****). I really had to do a triple-take given the last four letters. My initial reaction being, “really, Chalicea”. Anyway I soon sorted myself out.
Now, what to do with that information? The three unclued lights now read:
AT FIR_T
J_ST_H_STLY
P_OCOL_AR_M
The third entry desperately wants to be PROCOL HARUM. Procol Harum were an English Rock Band best known for their 1968 hit A Whiter Shade of Pale. So, we have to change the first two unclued entries to read A WHITER SHADE OF PALE.
But wait, I feel that I must have missed something and it wasn’t until writing this blog that I tried to make sense of the first two unclued. The first one desperately wants to be AT FIRST but as for the second, (shrug). Wait a minute, it looks like it might be two words: JUST _H_STLY. A quick trip to my Chambers app show me that the second word could be GHASTLY or GHOSTLY or WHISTLY. WHISTLY seems unlikely. Is Chalicea trying to tell us that she thinks A Whiter Shade of Pale is “just ghastly” – surely not. No, Chalicea’s of the hook, I searched the web for the song’s lyrics and I found them at: https://genius.com/Procol-harum-a-whiter-shade-of-pale-lyrics. The chorus includes these two lines:
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale
Brilliant finish, which I nearly missed. Many, many thanks Chalicea.
As for the title, the first line of the second verse is:
She said, there is no reason
[I won’t be available for most of Tuesday as I go to our local hospital’s Day Unit for a “procedure”. I’ll catch up once I’m over the sedation.]
| Across | ||||
| Clue | Extra | Entry | 5th | Wordplay |
| 1. Runs after quick opening snog with me or impassioned epicures (12) | F |
GASTRONOMERS | A |
SNOG ME OR (anag: impassioned) around Fast (quick)+Runs |
| 10. Found out latrine not in order (6) | I |
LEARNT | D |
LATRINE (anag: not in order) |
| 11. China‘s instrument sadly furnished ignoring horrible dins (4) | F |
ERHU | A |
FUR[nis]HE[d] (minus D,I,N,S; anag: sadly) |
| 13. Tot’s psychological stage of development partly tantalises (4) | T |
ANAL | P |
tANTALises (hidden: partly) |
| 14. Country judge has incomplete power with American felon ultimately (5) | H |
JAPAN | T |
Judge+HA[s] (incomplete)+Power+American+[felo]N (ultimately) |
| 15. Yucatán inhabitants blossom with éclat from time to time (4) | C |
MAYA | T |
MAY (blossom)+[é]C[l]A (alternate letters) |
| 17. Screwed old Scottish joint in a higher place (5, 2 words) | H |
LIT UP | W |
LITH (old Scottish joint)+UP (in a higher place) |
| 18. Performs quiet song last with no limits (5) | A |
PLAYS | O |
P (quiet)+LAY (song)+[l]AS[t] (minus first and last letters) |
| 19. In a turmoil prodigal son (not paid, sadly) gets access to computer (6, 2 words) | R |
LOGS ON | U |
[p]RO[di]G[a]L SON (minus P,A,I,D; anag: sadly) |
| 20. Vietnamese holiday treat; labour finally abandoned (3) | A |
TET | N |
T[r]EAT minus [labou]R (finally) |
| 22. Basic members of their plant order; oddly cocky about dull shapes originally (6) | C |
CYCADS | C |
C[o]C[k]Y (anag: oddly)+D[ull] S[hapes] (originally) |
| 23. Not allowed as food, singular whistle-blowers who watch for rule breakers (4) | T |
REFS | L |
TREF (not kosher)+Singular |
| 24. Presumptive early tools, curiously those regularly wielded (7) | E |
EOLITHS | U |
THOSE+[w]I[e]L[d]E[d] anag: curiously) |
| 28. Shoreline indentation shining (5) | R |
BIGHT | E |
BRIGHT (shining) |
| 29. Unit deployed in split Ireland (5) | I |
LITRE | D |
spLIT IREland (hidden: in) |
| 31. Excellent! Was in charge of Royal Engineers (4) | N |
RARE | L |
RAN (was in charge of)+RE (Royal Engineers) |
| 33. Caution! Military conflict article (4) | A |
WARN | I |
WAR (military conflict)+AN (article) |
| 34. Wrongly install new government having a bias (8) | L |
SLANTING | G |
INSTALL (anag: wrongly)+New+Government |
| 36. Tenth month briefly allowed composition for largish group (5) | L |
OCTET | H |
OCTober (briefly)+LET (allow) |
| 37. Monetary unit historically concealed (4) | C |
RIAL | T |
histoRICALly (hidden: concealed) |
| 38. Anaesthetics left over – gives someone a ring (6) | L |
LOCALS | S |
Left Over+CALLS (gives someone a ring) |
| 39. In Sutra yawning drift from the right way (5) | U |
STRAY | T |
SUTRA Yawning (hidden: in) |
| 40. Epitome of Concorde, for French one abominable monster gone west (5) | E |
UNITY | O |
UN (one in French)+YETI (abominable snowman; rev: gone west) |
| 41. Clangorous riots, cliques returning chasing flightless bird (7) | S |
EMEUTES | G |
EMEU (flightless bird)+SETS (cliques; rev: returning) |
| DOWN: | ||||
| 1. One GI abandons miserable pilgrimage, becoming a happy camper? (7) | GLAMPER | I |
P[i]L[g]R[i]MAGE (minus I,G,I) anag: miserable) | |
| 2. The events of successive years recorded in these yearbooks (leaving out trouble essentially) (6) | ANNALS | V |
ANN[u]ALS (yearbooks) minus [tro]U[ble] (essentially) | |
| 3. Murder, for example, about fifty (4) | SLAY | E |
SAY (for example) around L (fifty: Roman) | |
| 4. Hill that’s centrally spotted on middle of foreland (3) | TEL | T |
[spo]T[ted] (centrally)+[for]EL[and] (middle of) | |
| 5. Examination type gives limitless levels of optimism! (4) | ORAL | I |
[m]ORAL[e] (levels of optimism; minus first and last) | |
| 6. Gloat! You initially resolved ear pain (6) | OTALGY | T |
GLOAT Y[ou] (initially) anag: resolved | |
| 7. Such lenticular shapes fellows at intervals dissect with hint of interest (7) | MENISCI | L |
MENS (fellows)+[d]I[s]S[e]C[t] (at intervals)+I[nterest] (hint of) | |
| 8. Co-operators embracing muse (5) | ERATO | E |
co-opERATOrs (hidden: embracing) | |
| 9. To an outstanding degree violently raps ugly sins (12) | SURPASSINGLY | O |
RAPS UGLY SINS anag: violently | |
| 12. Dog of breed used for hunting some macho underdog (5) | HOUND | F |
macHO UNDerdog (hidden: some) | |
| 16. Scottish always second those who vote in the affirmative (4) | AYES | T |
AYE (always: Scottish)+Second | |
| 21. Somehow see louts becoming bristly (8) | SETULOSE | H |
SEE LOUTS (anag: somehow) | |
| 25. Glorify piece of fiction about fluctuating ions (7) | LIONISE | I |
LIE (piece of fiction) around IONS (anag: fluctuating) | |
| 26. Inhere dreadfully encircling advanced protrusions (7) | HERNIAE | R |
INHERE (anag: dreadfully) around Advanced | |
| 27. Added gold, molybdenum and lutetium in an alloy for gilding (6) | ORMOLU | D |
OR (gold)+MOlybdenum+LUtetium | |
| 28. Almost complete platform for Ealing Studios’ producer (6) | BALCON | S |
BALCON[y] (platform; almost complete) Michael Balcon |
|
| 30. One who fibs about bird (4) | RAIL | H |
LIAR (one who fibs; rev: about) | |
| 32. Permission for temporary absence of former partner to worry (5) | EXEAT | I |
EX (former partner)+EAT (worry) | |
| 35. Craft at university includes skin design (4) | TATU | T |
crafT AT University (hidden: includes) |
At least a triple take 🙂
A quality puzzle, and, as Ken says, not a difficult one. PROCOL HARUM was easy to spot, and for me it was easy to see that their (big) hit would fit in the spaces of the other unclued lights as it is the only title I knew from that band! It’s a shame that, having seeing how AT FIRST would initially fit in those spaces, I did not see anything significant (just two obvious possibilities) in the middle of the three columns before making the change. The theme and its implementation were brilliant.
Many thanks to both Chalicea and kenmac.
This stimulated me to listen for the first time to this legendary song. I was aware of the title A Whiter Shade of Pale, (though I thought it was just a typical late Sixties album title like Surrealistic Pillow), and the band (though I’d always assumed they came from America rather than Southend on Sea), and had on occasion heard the Bach-inspired opening chords of a ballad-like song whose lyrics I’d never tried to decipher. Having now done so, I am not much wiser about what was going on, but that’s also very Sixties, and I’m glad to have listened to it properly. I found the crossword pretty straightforward, after the triple take mentioned by others, and was impressed by the way that real words were there at all stages in the grid changes. Thanks to Ken (I hope your “procedure” goes smoothly) and to Chalicea for filling a gap in my musical education.
Yes I did a triple take too! Very much enjoyed this as the song is a huge favourite of mine and of my dad (who sadly died last month, so the timing was very apt).
I also spotted that the song came out in 1967, and this is IQ 1967. Coincidence, I think not!
Many thanks to Chalicea for a wonderful puzzle and to kenmac for the blog.