Inquisitor 1670 - Hot and Cold? by Hedge-sparrow

Published in the i newspaper on 24 October 2020.

Having wisely decided to avoid the last two Inquisitors, I was pleased to find one that I could complete without too much difficulty.  There was a slight ambiguity in the preamble but fortunately I guessed the correct interpretation and didn't need too many outside hints.  I was bit late cottoning on to the theme, though - about halfway through I had __OV_L_ES_ALE in the right-hand extra column, and could only think of TWO-VALUE SCALE (corresponding with the "hot and cold" of the title).  I was looking for similar pairs of opposites in the grid and couldn't see any!  Once I got the correct answer, most of the puzzle fell into place.

The preamble said "one letter per grid row is not indicated by the wordplay of the clues".  It was  important to realize that the restriction could affect Down as well as Across clues; for instance, the E at row 13, column 9 is part of 54 across but also part of 43 down, so it was omitted from the wordplay for both clues.  This wasn't made explicit but I think careful reading of the preamble made it clear.  The Down clues affected were 8 down (V in row 4), 2 down (I in row 5), 11 down (L in row 6), 35 down (E in row 8), 9 down (S in row 9), 48 down (L in row 12) and 43 down (E in row 13).

However, what wasn't completely clear from the wording above was whether all occurrences of a given letter in each row were to be treated similarly.  For instance, were the E's at row 13, columns 5 and 12 also omitted from the wordplay of the clues?  It turned out that they weren't, but I think the wording could have been made less ambiguous.

The right-hand "thematic entity" was in fact SCOVILLE SCALE - the scale traditionally used to measure the hotness of chili peppers.  This led almost immediately to the "general" term CAPSAICIN in the top row - the substance that gives chili peppers their hotness - and then to seven specific types of pepper: CAROLINA REAPER in row 2, NAGA VIPER in row 4, SCOTCH BONNET in row 6, JALAPENO in row 8, ANAHEIM in row 10, PIMENTO in row 12 and BELL PEPPER in row 13.  They were arranged in descending order of hotness, down the grid; very neat!

Detailed solutions follow, with letters omitted from wordplay indicated by underlining.  There were quite a few clues I couldn't parse.

Across

1.  ICECAPS = "frozen mountain peaks"; I + (C in rev. of PACE)

7.  ICING = "coating"; ?

12.  CAROLINA = "former British colony", etc.; A + ROL[e] + IN + A

13.  REAPER = "death"; [e]PE[e] in REAR

14.  IN HOLES = "full of cavities"; INHALES - A  (A is the former chemical symbol for argon)

16.  MRSA = "highly resistant bacterium"; MRS + A

19.  TUTENAG = "zinc"; (TE in TUN) + AG

20.  VIPER = "snake"; ?

21.  OINK = "noise made by sucker, perhaps"; [conma]N in OK ("sucker" ref. to pigs?)

23.  MHO = "former unit of resistance"; hidden in [hel]MHO[ltz]

25.  MATE = "ship's officer"; ?

26.  SCOTCH = "put an end to"; SCOT + CH

29.  BONNE = "French maid"; [apro]N in BONE (="bobbin", why?)

32.  TEL = "hill in Arabia"; T[roglodyt]E

33. TOIL = "great difficulty"; TO + I

34. CERISE = "purplish-red"; C + [ros]E + RISE (C = "see", homophone)

37.  JALAP = "purgative root"; A in (J + LAP) (J = "joint"?)

39.  NOTE = "set to music"; N + OT

40.  CRED = "ability to inspire belief"; CREE - E + D (why D = "God's"?)

42.  CIMAR = "shift"; (rev. of M1) in CAR, with I = 1

45.  SEAS = "great waves"; EAS[e]

46.  RACE = "stock"; RAGE - G

47.  ANAHEIM = "where one might see Pluto"; AN + (HE in AIM)  (AIM = "place"?)

Note: Anaheim, Florida is the location of Disneyland. 

49.  BENNUT = "oil-producing seed"; B + rev. of TUNNE[l]

50.  ANOESIS = "sensation that's not understood"; anag. of NOISES

51.  PIMENT = "vintage spiced wine"; anag. of PITMEN

52.  OVERFLEW = "soared higher"; (HOVER - H) + FEW

53.  NOBEL = "Swedish chemist"; OBE in NL ( = non licet, "it is not permitted")

54.  PEPPERY = "irritable"; (rev. of EPP) in PRY ( = "peer")

Down

2.  CANTICO = "dancing-match"; CANT + CO

3.  ERHU = "Chinese instrument that's bowed"; middle of [ov]ERHU[ng]

4.  ALLEY = "back lane"; rev. of (YELL + A) (is a YELL "something very funny"?)

5.  PIEND = "outward-pointing angle"; PI + END (PI = "confusion"?)

6.  AARGH = "cry of anguish"; AAR + GH

7.  IRMA = "German girl"; IR + MA ("Irma" is originally a German name)

8.  CERVINE = "fawn-coloured"; anag. of (CATHERINE - HAT)

Note: Def. is "relating to deer", and a fawn is a young deer - part-cryptic definition?

9.  IASI = "Romanian city"; I + AS + I (Swedish ås = "ridge of gravel"?)

10.  GENET = "fur"(?); ?

 Note: A genet is a slender cat-like animal.  I don't understand this clue at all.

11.  PRERELEASES = "previews"; anag. of (SEES + REAPER)  (solution to 13ac)

15.  SAMBA = "syncopated dance"; S (="past"??) + (rev. of MA) + BA (="Highland ball"??)

Note: Very unsure about this.

17.  APATITE = "calcium-based mineral"; (A TIT) in APE

18.  POSTSCRIPT = "supplementary"; P + anag. of SCOTS + RIPT ("previously" = archaic?)

22.  NOISE = "sound"; homophone of "noys" (dialect word for "annoys")

24.  ONCE = "former"; C in ONE (= "drink", as in "do you want one?")

27.  CHACONNE = "old Spanish dance"; anag. of NO CHANCE

28.  HALIBUT = "fish"; BUT ( = "barrel"?) beneath ( = "propping up") HAL I 

Note: Either BUT is an alternative spelling of "butt", or it's a reversal of TUB with "up" as the reversal indicator somehow detached, in which case beneath = "propping".

30.  OUPA = "old man in Cape Town"; O + UP + A

Note: South African term of address for a grandfather or elderly man.

31.  EROS = "asteroid"; rev. of ORE (="mineral source")

35.  SEAMIER = "more disreputable"; anag. of ARMIES

36.  ARABIN = "source of gum"; RABI (="Indian grain harvest") in AN

38.  AMATOL = "high explosive"; (AMATI - I) + O + L

41.  DENEB = "star"; D + EN + rev. of (PROBE - PRO)  (PRO = "for".  Tricky!)

43.  RANEE = "Indian queen"; RAN + E

44.  THORP = "hamlet"; first letters of T[ragedy], H[...], O[...], R[...], P[rince]

48.  ISLE = "key"; E below IS

 

 

 

Inquisitor 1667 - Follow the Leader by Serpent

Published in the i newspaper on 3 October 2020.

Quite a clever theme this week, although it took me a while to cotton on - after getting ARTFUL and DODGE fairly early on I jumped to the mistaken conclusion that it must be Oliver Twist!  Don't know if this was a deliberate attempt to throw solvers off the scent.

The message spelled out by the letters removed from most of the clues was SP AND IN DID COME THE STRANGEST FIGURE.  I'm glad I had a hint about the significance of the first two letters, which I would never have guessed: they stand for the Latin phrase sine prole (without issue, i.e. childless).  The rest is an easily identifiable quotation from The Pied Piper of Hamelin by Robert Browning, which provides the theme.

The extra phrase to be added at 24 across is BOYS AND GIRLS - presumably referring to another quote from the poem: "All the little boys and girls, With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls".  Thus the above message can be taken as an instruction to remove BOYS AND GIRLS from the grid and replace it with THE PIED PIPER.  This creates a number of new words and proper nouns which form part of the final solution, listed at the end.

The theme also gives an indication of how to modify the twelve "straight" clues; the Pied Piper drove out the rats from the town, so the word RAT has to be removed from each of the twelve answers before entry, in each case creating a new word (though this wasn't specified in the preamble).  It was slightly annoying that the enumerations in brackets referred to grid entries - in other puzzles of this type, where some entries have to be modified, the enumerations have referred to solutions before modification, and in one case (15 across) the enumeration was positively misleading.  I presume this was done deliberately to make it harder to identify the twelve clues, but it struck me as non-standard.

One curious thing: the word PIED appears running downwards from the second cell in column 2, and I initially assumed that PIPER would turn up somewhere else, but it doesn't.

Most of the clues seemed fair although I had issues with a number of them, included in the comments below.  In the detailed solutions, I've identified the letter to be removed from the clue by picking out the relevant word, adding it after the clue number and underlining the letter.  Grid entries for the twelve "straight" clues are given in italics.

Across

1 - answers.  ASTHMA = "inspiring problem"; anag. of (MATHS + A) 

"Applied" is the anagram indicator; A = "answer"

5 - top.  BUKSHI = "paymaster"; homophone of "buck she"

"To auditor" is the homophone indicator, but can "buck she" really be taken as a phrase meaning "resist female"?  There are two separate homophones here, not one.

9 - aid.  PAROTIDITIS = "disease"; IT in (PA + ROT + ID + IS)

PA as in "per annum".  A less common variant of parotitis, an inflammation of the salivary (parotid) glands on the side of the face.

10. CIRE/CIRRATE = "cloudy" (?); IR in CRATE

IR is the former Inland Revenue, but I couldn't find CIRRATE meaning "cloudy" - only "equipped with a cirrus" (a structure similar to a tentacle).  There are cirrus clouds though, so I suppose the formation is logical.

11 - on.  ORTOLAN = "frequent flier"; hidden in [airp]ORT O LAN[ding]

The ORTOLAN is a bird of the bunting family.

13 - housed.  HETERO = "straight"; (E + TER) in HO

15.  PROA/PRO RATA = "in proportion"; ?

I couldn't work out the wordplay on this one, and I thought the enumeration was misleading; although PRO RATA is a two-word phrase, the grid entry PROA was a single word (a type of sailing vessel).  I spent some time looking for a two-word phrase with four letters before I realized it didn't exist.

17.  STUPED/STUPRATED = "ravaged" (?); (P + RATE) in STUD

This looks like an error.  The only definition of STUPRATE that I can find is "to ravish or rape; to have sexual intercourse with".  "Ravage" means "to cause severe and extensive damage to" and is not synonymous with "ravish", even though people occasionally confuse them.

19 - Paris.  SCRAP = "waste material"; C in anag. of PARS

22 - demon.  ARTFUL = "cunning"; makes FORMULATED when anagrammed with DEMO

This is not what I would consider a standard cryptic clue, with the definition in the middle.  I don't know if they're common in this type of puzzle but I would have appreciated an indication.

24 - BOYS AND GIRLS (as per preamble)

27 - issued.  PARENT = "person that has issue"; PA + RENT

28 - said.  SCALD = "poet" (?); C and L spaced regularly in SAD

A skald is an ancient Scandinavian poet, but I struggled to find this alternative spelling.

30.  LUSTED/LUSTRATED = "purged ritually"; LUST + RATED

34.  IONS/RATIONS = "restricted fare"; anag. of (S[ervice] + O[n] + TRAIN)

37 - bard.  GOBLIN = "nasty little man"; anag. of (IN GLOBE - E)

I.e. "bar close to Shakespeare" (without the final letter of "Shakespeare")

38 - cur.  VAURIEN = "good-for-nothing"; (UR + IE) in VAN

It doesn't actually specify in the preamble that the modified clues have to contain actual words, but all the others do, so this is a little odd.  I'm not aware that "ur" is a word without an initial capital letter (ancient city of Ur), though it can be a prefix.

39.  PING/PRATING = "talking nonsense"; PRAT + IN + G

40 - poet.  TRUMPET TREE = "what's naturally instrumental"; (anag. of TERM PET) in TRUE

Hadn't heard of a TRUMPET TREE before but a neat cryptic definition within the clue.

41 - him.  HISSES = "expresses disapproval"; HI + rev. of SESS

SESS is an alternative spelling of cess, an impost or tax (hence "duty").

42 - care.  HEARSE = "terminal car"; EAR in HSE

Down

1 - tends.  ARCHES = "vaults"; [w]AR CHES[t]

2.  SPIED/SPIRATED = "in ever decreasing circles"; anag. of TRAIPSED

SPIRATED is an adjective meaning "twisted like a spiral", although curiously there seems to be no corresponding verb "spirate".

3 - hold.  TARTARY = "place that was vaguely defined"; TA in TARRY

A blanket term once used by Europeans for unknown areas of Asia.  TA = "old volunteers" (i.e. the Territorial Army, the old name for the Army Reserve).

4.  MOORY/MORATORY = "delaying"; ORATOR in MY

 A legal term meaning "authorizing delay of payment".  MY = "writer's".

5.  BITE/BITRATE = "measure of transmission speed"; (rev. of TAR) in BITE

Although there's nothing wrong with the clue, there was something odd about having to put RAT into BITE for the solution and then having to take it straight out again!

6 - peat.  KILP = "this seaweed"; forms LIKE PAT when anagrammed with TEA

KILP appears to be a dialect form of the more common "kelp".  This is my least favourite clue for two reasons; it uses an unfamiliar device similar to the one in 22ac (though with the definition at the start this time), and it's ambiguous.  It would be quite consistent for the extra letter to be I rather than E, and for the answer to be KELP rather than KILP.  Admittedly this would leave the nonsensical LKE PEAT as the anagram fodder, but it's not entirely certain whether modified clues have to consist of actual words (see comments on 38ac).

7 - goggles.  STARE = "goggle"; TAR in [the]SE

8 - atlas.  ISRAEL = "country"; anag. of (REALISE - E)

Only works if you take "alas" as anagram indicator - a bit cheeky?

12 - borne.  ROSIN = "what causes", etc.; R + OS + [viol]IN[ists]

I presume this is intended as an "&lit" clue. 

14 - awaiting.  BURGS = "US towns"; ?

Can't parse this one.  I took the first A out of "awaiting" because nothing else makes sense.

16 - nearly.  CASE = "patient"; (CASH - H) + E[arly]

Don't quite get this.  "Cash" = "ready" and "H" = "hospital, but wouldn't that give you "hospital to leave ready" rather than "ready to leave hospital"?  I can just about accept "forgetting almost everything" as an indication to just keep the first letter, but it's not very elegant.

18 - Gin.  DULL = "insensible"; L in [a]DUL[t]

20 - creating.  COAL = "fuel"; A in COL

"Crating" seems to be the inclusion indicator here.

21 - son.  PANTO = "production"; NT in rev. of OAP

23 - taxing.  TICK = "beat"; STICK - S[tate]

25 - fending.  DODGE = "gas guzzler"; DODGE[m]

26 - Turin.  RALLIER = "driver"; rev. of (ILL in REAR)

27 - Gout.  PLINTH = "supporter"; (PLAINT + H[appens]) - A[cute]

29 - forum.  DONGLE = "tool to clone mobile phones" (?); anag. of LONGED

"Form" is the anagram indicator, but I don't recognize the definition.  A DONGLE is
a small USB device that allows you to access the internet - it doesn't "clone" anything as far as I know.

31 - spurn.  UNAUS = "laid-back individuals"; hidden in [sp]UN AU[sterity]

Mildly cryptic definition - a UNAU is a two-toed sloth.

32.  CONTE/CONTRATE = "related to orientation of teeth"; anag. of (A ROTTEN C)

This is the second time I've seen "canine" for C, and I'm not sure where it comes from.  The definition part is nicely misleading, as CONTRATE refers to gears with teeth set at right angles to the wheel.

33.  LINES/RATLINES = "they are involved in rigging"; LINE in rev. of STAR (?)

Not sure about the parsing here - if STAR = "network configuration" then "up" can be taken as the reversal indicator, but I'm not convinced.

35 - use.  SUMS = "results"; anag. of (US + S[how] + M[isleading])

36.  PIES/PIRATES = "bad guys in the main"; rev. of (SET + A + RIP) 

Final modifications to grid

I recognized all the amended words except CHAL, which turns out to be a beverage of fermented camel's milk!  The initial B and final S are in cells which don't intersect with Down clues, and two other substitutions make no difference to the grid.

	B -> T
COAL	O -> H	CHAL
TARTARY	Y -> E	TARTARE
CASE	S -> P	CAPE
PANTO	A -> I	PINTO
ROSIN	N -> E	ROSIE
DODGE	D -> D	unchanged
BURGS	G -> P	BURPS
TICK	I  -> I	unchanged
RALLIER	R -> P	PALLIER
DULL	L -> E	DUEL
	S -> R

As with other similar endgames, no clues were given to the amended words. This seems like an omission to me - it would be nice to be able to check one's final answer. However, it seems to be standard practice.

Inquisitor 1666 - It's an Ill Wind by Harpy

Published in the i newspaper on 26 September 2020.

For the second time in the short period that I've been doing these puzzles, I managed to guess the theme before looking at the puzzle!  I can't say that it made solving it any easier though, and in fact even after solving the whole thing I still have a strange niggling feeling that I've missed something somewhere. 

The puzzle number was 1666, which instantly made me think of The Great Fire of London, which famously took place in that year.  (Puzzle 1660, which I didn't attempt, related to the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, so I was on the lookout for that sort of device.)  The references to "a dated map",  "progress across the thematic part of the map" and "start and end locations" fitted in with that idea, as did the puzzle's title, although it took me a while to work out exactly what the various parts of the map represented.

I was a little confused by the instruction that "in 13 down clues, a letter must be moved left, creating new word(s) before solving".  I wasn't sure whether "moved left" meant "moved one place to the left" or "moved an arbitrary distance to the left"; as it turned out, it was the latter.  There was also no indication that these were the first thirteen down clues, which would have been slightly clearer; whether this was left out deliberately I'm not sure, but it did seem to make things unnecessarily difficult.

More worryingly, there was no indication that a space needed to be inserted before the last letter of five Down clues (19, 28, 30, 33, 35), in order to create the "line of 7 empty cells" specified in the preamble.  This looks like an error, as I can't see any way in which solvers might be expected to deduce this; I only found out about it after getting a hint from elsewhere.

My completed grid looked like this:

R

I

B

B

O

N

B

U

I

L

D

I

N

G

I

F

R

U

R

U

R

D

N

O

I

N

L

U

N

I

O

P

G

N

O

O

R

D

K

B

I

N

G

N

O

R

Y

B

W

W

O

R

K

O

N

D

L

N

O

I

N

O

N

I

N

L

O

R

L

O

U

I

L

G

Y

X

I

N

D

I

P

N

I

G

S

S

T

H

E

M

E

T

E

M

M

E

T

S

T

H

E

T

A

A

T

E

A

S

E

S

H

E

F

I

N

I

R

R

O

R

U

N

R

I

G

D

U

W

D

N

M

D

C

L

X

V

I

I

N

G

L

I

N

G

Y

Y

O

Y

O

B

L

O

W

Y

The area in red is presumably intended to be an outline map of the City of London, with the two italicized P's indicating Pudding Lane and Pye Corner, the start and end points of the Great Fire.  The two lines in blue represent the River Thames (containing only the letters T, H, A, M, E and S).  

The seven empty cells in the next-to-last line of the grid are filled with the letters MDCLXVI (in bold above), the Roman representation of the date 1666, notable for containing each numeral once and only once in descending order.  This gives the six extra unclued words ARMY, MARDY, TOCO, WINTERLY, RONDEAUX and MERIL (the V doesn't contribute to a word).

The moved letters in the thirteen Down clues spell out GEORGIE PORGIE, a 19th-century children's rhyme with no obvious connection to the Great Fire of London beyond the line "pudding and pie" (suggesting Pudding Lane and Pye Corner).  I'd been given the hint to look for a children's rhyme and was expecting "London's Burning"!

The instruction "answers to some across clues must be modified before entry" appeared to mean that within the red area (where the fire took hold), solutions should be entered right to left; for example NINGPO (14 across) appears as NIOPGN because the first two letters (NI) are outside the red area and the rest (NGPO) is inside.  I presume this is meant to symbolize the fire's progress across the City from east to west, helped by a strong East wind (hence the puzzle's title).

The distribution of letters across the grid is somewhat strange, with a preponderance of particular letters in certain rows (e.g. N in row 5).  It may be significant that, apart from the unavoidable M at the start of the date, none of the letters of THAMES appear anywhere outside the two rows representing the river, although there's no reason given in the preamble why this should be so.  

The absence of some of the commonest letters in English from the rest of the grid may have restricted the choice of words somewhat.  Combined with the partial reversal of words and the lack of bars, the result is that much of the completed grid ended up looking like gibberish, intentionally or otherwise.  There may be some other significance to the arrangement of letters that I haven't grasped; hints of WIND and WOODWORK in the red area perhaps?

Solutions to clues follow, with the modified versions of Across solutions in italics.  For the thirteen special Down clues, I've rewritten the clue with the moved letter in bold, and a # symbol where the letter was moved from.  The abbreviation is at 12ac (United Nations Disaster Relief Organization).

Queries and comments

1ac: I can't find any references to RIBBON BUILDING but took it as a synonym for the usual term  "ribbon development".

26ac: is "gone" the anagram indicator?  I assume so.

37ac: clearly clued but the solution is in French - is this legitimate? 

40ac: what's the significance of "for year"?

2dn: can't work out why "Skye's appearance" = BROO.  "Broo" is a Scottish word, for either "broth" or "brow" or "the dole", but I wouldn't say the Isle of Skye looked like any of those.  I tried to put the migrant E somewhere else but nothing seemed to fit.

5dn: Am I right here?  UDO is an edible Japanese plant, and a "kin" is a Japanese unit of weight (about 600g).  I can't see any other justification for the definition.

6dn: can't parse unless DOL = "sweet", which I can't find anywhere.

7dn: modified clue would suggest KOP = "Cape's dun" (or "Cap's dune").  KOP is a South African word meaning "hill", so "Cape's dune" might work, but then where does the E move from?

Across

1.  RIBBON BUILDING = "unplanned growth"; anag. of (IN + O + BUBBL[e]) in RIDING

12.  URDNO/UNDRO = "former relief body"; anag. of ROUND

14.  NIOPGN/NINGPO = "battle in China"; hidden in [clea]NING PO[lluted]

15.  OORDK/DROOK = "Glaswegian soak"; DR + O[rders] + OK

17.  BIN = "where rubbish is put"; BINGO - GO

18.  GNORY/GYRON = [heraldic] "charge"; anag. of GRY[ph]ON[s]

20.  ORKON/KROON = "sent 100 times" (Estonian currency): KROO + N

21.  LNOI/LION = "this brave one"; makes GANGLION after GANG

22.  NONIN/NINON = "flimsy material"; N + IN ON

23.  LORLO/ROLLO = "first Duke of Normandy"; ROLL + O

24.  UILG/UGLI = "hybrid"; G + L in U[n]I[t]

26.  IP NIG/IN PIG = "what a pregnant sow is"; anag. of [gras]PING + I

27.  THEME = "what Inquisitor features"; THE + ME

29.  EMMETS = "SW tourists"; rev. of STEMME[d]

32.  THETA = "letter"; anag. of [m]ATTHE[w]

34.  AT EASE = "free from anxiety"; hidden in [celebr]AT E AS E[veryone]

36.  SHE = "novel queen"; H (hearts) between S and E (South and East)

37.  FINI = "over in France"; FIN + I

39.  RUNRIG = "system of tenure at St Andrews"; R + UNRIG

40.  JOG = "stimulate"; JO (delight) + G (good)

41.  LINGY = "like [h]eather"; CLINGY - C

42.  YOYO = "fool"; YO[u] x 2

43.  BLOWY = "with the wind up"; LOW in B[o]Y

Down

1.  Make a ding in a #round 

RING = "make a ding"; also = "in a round" (double def.)

2.  Skye's appearance has brother getting blotto at l#ast

BROO = "Skye's appearance" (?) ; BRO + [blott]O

3.  Loose party of soldiers with Germany's central unit c#asting away

ORGY = "loose party"; OR + G[erman]Y

4.  Victorian brea#d O'Brien soused with whiskey

BROWNIE = "Victorian bread"; anag. of (OBRIEN + W)

5.  Our king's house once stripped - it might be bought by the kin#

UDO = "it might be bought by the kin"; [t]UDO[r]

6.  Retir#ed sweet statistical measure

LOD = "statistical measure" (logarithm of odds); rev. of DOL (?)

7.  With little one climbing the Cape's dun# to stone curlew

DIKKOP = "stone curlew"; (rev. of KID) + KOP (= Cape's dun?)

8.  Pluck getting #up in hotel - it's natural

INBORN = "natural"; rev. of ROB in INN

9.  Pointer perhaps going at boundaries?  To# open in that cover

GUN DOG = "pointer perhaps"; UNDO in G[oin]G

10.  Forssa's tongue is perfect to the #ear

FINNISH = "Forssa's tongue" (town in Finland); homophone of FINISH

11.  Switch sides in making ceiling glow, getting #rid of tilted parts

UPRIGHTING = "getting rid of tilted parts"; R for L in UPLIGHTING

12.  Extract from crate's unit#ed atop new wood

UNBOX = "extract from crate"; U + N + BOX

13.  Gael#'s close by lough - go with cycles in this toun

LINLITHGOW = "this toun"; [gae]L + IN + L + permutation of GO WITH

16.  RONDEAU = "poem"; R[ave] + O + anag. of AUDEN

19.  WINTERY = "of the season"; WIN + TE[r]RY

21.  LUSTFUL = "longing for it"; anag. of (TRUSTFULLY - TRY)

27.  TEND = "take care of"; T + END

28.  MARY = "Shelley possibly"; MARRY - R

30.  MERL = "Rabbie's blackbird"; MERLIN - IN

31.  SEDGY = "not like grass but similar"; S[kunk] + EDGY

33.  ARY = "one unspecified"; PRIMARY - PRIM

35.  TOO = "in addition"; homophone of TWO (a number)

36.  SIJO = "Korean poetry"; (rev. of EMOJIS) - ME

38.  IWI = "his [i.e. New Zealand] tribe"; [k]IWI