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
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