Inquisitor 1673 - Jacks by Radler

Published in the i newspaper on 14 November 2020.

 

It's fair to say that I didn't enjoy this one too much.  I needed rather more hints than usual, and I found the endgame rather underwhelming, based as it was on a Latin phrase I'd never heard of.  I did, however, learn a bit of etymology.

The theme was nothing - or, rather, the theme was "nothing".  The main phrase to be discovered was NULLAM REM NATAM, literally meaning "no thing born", from which the French word RIEN and the Spanish word NADA are said to derive.  The Latin phrase was drawn in a rough circle shape in the top half of the grid, and the words RIEN and NADA were in a smaller circle in the bottom half - both presumably representing the digit 0.  "Jacks", the title, seems to be a reference to the American slang phrase "jack shit" for "nothing at all", which is often euphemistically abbreviated to "jack", as in "you don't know jack".  (Not sure about the pluralization though.)

These are the positions of the letters in each row:

Main phrase - 

Row 2: 4,5,6.  Row 3: 3,7.  Row 4: 2,8.  Row 5: 2,8.  Row 6: 3,7.  Row 7: 4,5,6.

Derived words - 

Row 8: 9,10.  Row 9: 8,11.  Row 10: 8,11.  Row 11: 9,10.

In what follows, the letters omitted from wordplay are underlined.  (Sometimes a letter will appear in both an Across and a Down answer, so some letters appear twice.)  Wordplay in 21dn is unclear.

Across

2.  MISMEASURE -= "judge incorrectly"; M + anag. of (EMAILS - L) + SURE

11. CORNU = "horn"; anag. of ORC

12. CRAVE = "beg"; CRAVEN - N

13. ARMADILLO = "mailed digger"; A + L in anag. of RADIO

14.  RAKSHASA = "demon"; (IRKS + HAS) - I

16.  DONE = "had" (as in "you've been had"); D ONE

17.  SOMEHOW = "one way or another"; O[n]E in SHOW

18.  STAINERS = "they mark"; anag. of IN SETS

21.  AUK = "diver"; change middle letter in AOK

22.  CON; triple (or even quadruple?) definition

23.  METCASTS = "elemental estimates"; first letters of T[oo] C[rude] A[nd], followed by second letters of [a]S[sumed] [s]T[andard] [i]S[sue]

26.  ROQUETS = "drives on lawn"; QUE in ROTS

29.  ET AL = "with others"; ETA + L

Note: Shouldn't this be "former nationalists"?  ETA was dissolved in 2018.

30.  CHIAUSES = "cheats"; anag. of I USE CASH

33.  AMENDMENT = "editing"; A.M. END (="noon") + homophone of MEANT

34.  LEASH = "threesome"; LEAS[t] + H

35.  LANCE = "pink"; N in LACE

36.  DRESS SENSE = "[in]vestment-savvy"; DR + rev. of (NESS in ESSE)

Note: I presume this is a cheeky use of the syllable "in" as a link word.

Down

1.  SCARES = "causes alarm"; cycle of CARESS

2.  MORAT = "honey product" (a type of mead); rev. of ROM

3.  SNASH = "impudent language of Glaswegian"; SASH (="band")

4.  MUD HEN = "marsh dweller"; MD + (WHEN - W)

5.  ELIA = (pen-name of Charles) "Lamb"; hidden in [tagin]E I A[vidly]

6.  ALLSORTS = "variety"; anag. of AT LOSS

7.  URODELA = "animals"; rev. of (DO + RU) + rev. of ALE

8.  RAM = "beak"; rev. of MAR[e]

9.  EVEN OUT = "balance"; EVE + NOUT

10.  RENEW = "regenerate"; random letters from [ca]R[el]E[ssly] N[o] [ey]E[bro]W[s]

Note: I originally thought it might be every fourth letter, but it isn't.  Is this type of clue really permissible?

15.  KOAN = "irrational question"; rev. of ([questio]N + OK)

17. SEETHERS = "boilers"; SET + HERS

19.  TOOTHED = "engaged"; O in (TO + THE + D)

20.  INULASE = "carb converter"; anag. of (LIES + A + U)

21.  AS IS = "unaltered"; ?

Note: At first I thought the wordplay might be half of ASSETS, with the I omitted because it's in RIEN; but none of the other letters of RIEN/NADA are omitted from wordplay, so that can't be it.

24.  CRADLE = "support for early retirement"; C + RADLE[r] (=name of setter)

25.  SYSTEM = "network"; S[ubwa]Y + STEM

26.  REALM = "orbit"; REAL + M

27.  RUMAN = "European"; R for first letter of HUMAN

28.  FENCE = "barrier"; NC in FEE

31.  INKS = "prepares to print"; LINKS - L

32.  JAR = "clash"; rev. of RAJ

Inquisitor 1672 - Shattered by Chalicea

Published in the i newspaper on 7 November 2020.

Inquisitors do seem to vary wildly in difficulty.  The last one had a double unnumbered grid that was so forbidding I didn't dare attempt it.  This one, on the other hand, was scarcely any harder than a conventional daily puzzle, albeit with a few more obscure words, and a theme that probably couldn't be guessed without a bit of lateral thinking.  For once, there was no tortuous introduction requiring solvers to ignore letters in clues, or add extra ones, or anything like that.  We just had to highlight nine of the answers and make one of them disappear.

The theme was the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, which happened on 7 November 1940, eighty years to the day before publication of the puzzle.  ("Look for an anniversary" was the only hint I needed.)  The bridge spanned PUGET SOUND [12ac, 13ac], connecting the KITSAP [1d] peninsula with TACOMA [11d], and was nicknamed GALLOPING GERTIE [28ac, 41ac, 42ac, 33ac].  When the grid was completed, these answers provided a depiction of the bridge in the aftermath of the disaster, with the middle section of the bridge (LOPING GER) apparently lying at the bottom of the water!  The only fatality of the disaster was a cocker spaniel named TUBBY [27ac], who remained apparently suspended in mid-air, but could be removed to leave four actual words (NOES, AGE, CUES, STRING) running downwards.

Detailed solutions follow.  I couldn't parse 1ac and so the second letter is uncertain.  25ac looks like a possible misinterpretation of a definition in Chambers.

Across

1.  KARENIA/KYRENIA?  Not sure about this.

6.  BODYSUIT = "close-fitting garment"; (D in BOY) + SUIT

12. PUGET = "French sculptor"; (rev. of UP) + GET

13. SOUND = "healthy" or "hearing" (double def.)

15. TAPA = "snack"; TA + PA

16. TAUTOMERIC = "readily mutually convertible"; anag. of (AMORETTI + C + U)

17. SLIDE = "to fall out of use"; L in SIDE

18. NARCS = "lawmen dealing with drugs"; rev. of SCRAN

22.  PROVO = "member of militant group"; PRO + V + O

23.  FROGS = "amphibians"; R in FOGS

25.  PLONG = "poet's reckless gamble"; L in PONG

Note: The most obscure word in the puzzle, being a Spenserian variant of "plunge"; although the OED Online only lists it under "plunge, v.", and it was several centuries before "plunge" acquired the meaning of "reckless gamble". 

27.  TUBBY = "round and squat"; TUB + BY

28.  LYSSA = "acute viral disease"; anag. of SLAYS

29.  GAL = "local lass"; GAL[a]

30.  CREEPERED = "surrounded by climbers"; PERE in CREED

32.  TIE = "match"; [s]T[r]I[k]E

34.  CLIPES = "tells tales in Glasgow"; E in CLIPS

37.  SIGNIOR = "Italian form of address"; anag. of ORIGINS

Note: Apparently a variant spelling of the more familiar SIGNOR.

38.  PINEBARREN = "sandy wooded tract"; PINE + BARREN

39.  GONNA = "going to"; GOANNA (="predatory lizard") - [cl]A[ws]

40.  SAE = "likewise in the Highlands"; rev. of EAS[y]

41.  LOPING = "running easily"; LO + PING

42.  GER = "tent"; GEAR - A

Down

1.  KITSAP = "Washington county"; KIT + SAP

2.  RUPICOLINE = "rock-dwelling"; anag. of PERTINACIOUSLY - anag. of STAY

3.  EGAD = "old-timer's oath"; rev. of DAGE ( = AGED, "circling")

4.  NEVER = "at no time past in future"; hidden in rev. of [p]REVEN[table]

5.  AVA = "palm tree" (or "tonic bark"?); [k]AVA

Note: It seems that both AVA and KAVA can refer to either the tree or its bark, so the clue can perhaps be read either way round.  "Pollarding" means taking the top off a tree.

6.  BAURS = "Scottish jokes"; A in BURS ( = whirring sounds, so "murmurs")

7.  OUT = "not in good condition"; [y]O[g]U[r]T

8.  YOMP = "laborious trek"; YO[u] + [stor]M + cam[P]

9.  SUERS = "they apply"; homophone of SEWERS

10.  UNROOSTING = "disturbing rest of brood"; anag. of NOT USING OR

Note: "In Stratford, maybe" seems redundant - does Chambers mark it as Shakespearian?

11.  TACOMA = "port across the pond"; TACO + MA

12.  PALILALIA = "speech abnormality"; PA + (L in rev. of (AIL x 2))

14.  DIVERSIONS = "differences of opinion"; DI + VERSIONS

18.  NOTES = "jottings"; rev. of SET ON

19.  AGUE = "fever"; forms FATIGUE when anagrammed with FIT

20.  CUBES = "8 or 27, for example"; CU + BES[t]

21.  STYRING = "poet's moving" ("styre" is poetic word for "move"); STY + RING

24.  ALEGGE = "Spenser's to make light"; EGG in ALE

Note: Spenserian word for "allay" or "alleviate", hence "make light".  I initially thought this might be another misreading since "make light of" means "treat without due seriousness" (a different thing entirely), but I'll grudgingly accept "of" as a link word with no significance.

26.  GREBO =  "devotee of heavy metal"; GR + E + BO (= "US guy")

31.  PERN = "type of hawk"; [o]PE[n] + R[u]N

33.  ERAS = "vast periods of time"; ERAS[e]

35.  PEL = "what was a pixel" (i.e. old word for it); PE + L[ocated]

36.  SRI = "Indian title of respect"; anag. of SIR