Inquisitor 1908: Labor Works by Twin

Twin, new to the Inquisitor.

Preamble: The puzzle features a thematic property. The wordplay in each clue leads to the answer plus a letter not entered in the grid. These letters, referring to the clues themselves, lead to a required entry method and the source for a superlative word that must be highlighted in the grid.

It was with some trepidation that I embarked on my first puzzle by Twin. Progress came in fits and starts: a handful of answers coming in quite quick succession then nothing for a while. But even the clues I solved often took some time to fully understand (often the way when it’s my turn to blog).

I seem to remember that after the first lengthy run-through the north-east and south-west quadrants were more densely populated than the other two. It wasn’t until I’d got to grips with about two-thirds of the clues that I could take a stab at some (but definitely not all) of the words in the message from extra letters in the wordplay: INITIALS, WORDS, FOUR, LETTERS, and a few others.

Sooner or later (ie, later) I had a full grid, but with the wordplay for a clutch of answers still unresolved despite knowing which letters were extra: they generated INITIALS OF WORDS OF FOUR OR MORE LETTERS THAT HAVE PROPERTY. However, I glimpsed HONORIFIC in a middling row of the grid almost straight away, with something that began ABILIT… immediately below, and something that ended …IBUS below that. A hint of Latin that rang some distant bell. Chambers soon settled it – honorificabilitudinitatibus, “a superlatively long word in Love’s Labours Lost V.1.37”. But I had absolutely no idea what on earth the PROPERTY was.

After an age of unproductive searching some help was required, and I finally spotted the property: vowels & consonants alternate in every answer. Impressive construction and achievement, with only one word in each clue having the property (and with the required initial letter). But I think it would have been more pleasing for the setter to complete the puzzle than for a solver.

It’s a shame that the rubric didn’t begin “The puzzle features a thematic property that is exhibited by each answer.” – or would that have been too helpful? And I wish I’d googled honorificabilitudinitatibus instead of just checking it in Chambers: the first hit notes that it is the longest word in the English language to strictly alternate between consonants and vowels; that would have saved me hours of fruitless puzzling. Wikipedia also states that it is a hapax legomenon – now there’s an idea for a puzzle. Thanks Twin. A curate’s egg ovum? Not sure.

Required entry method: VOWELS IN A DIFFERENT COLOUR. The title? Labor has the property?

/

No.	Clue	Answer	X	Wordplay
Across
2	Swallow that is resident in the Vatican (4)	POPE	I	POP (swallow) [I]E (that is)
5	Meerkat section to go over credibly at first (8)	SURICATE	N	S(ection) URI[N]ATE (go) around C(redibly)
10	Correct to stop eating wasabi outside of Washington, US (8)	DISABUSE	I	DIE (stop) around WASAB[I] ¬ WA(shington) US
12	Seagull in Aberdeen snatching pet, perhaps exotic bird (5)	MACAW	T	MAW (seagull, Scot) around CA[T] (pet, perhaps)
14	Tiny creatures, two chasing a limo? (5)	ACARI	I	I[I] (two) after A CAR (limo)
15	Rishi Sunak, finally accepting parody, reversed cap (4)	KEPI	A	(Rish)I (Suna)K around [A]PE all<
16	French nut company, increasingly icelike about me (9)	COCO-DE-MER	L	CO(mpany) CO[L]DER (increasingly icelike) around ME
17	On reflection, selection of NASA meds eased unhealthy build-ups (6)	EDEMAS	S	(NA)SA MED[S] E(ased) all<
18	Provided swimming-pool with essentially agile strokes (6)	SOLIDI	O	SO (provided) LID[O] (swimming-pool) (ag)I(le)
19	Companions of honour dominate part of London (4)	SOHO	F	(Companion)S O[F] HO(nour)
20	Neither settled row in Spitting Image at first (3)	NOR	W	[RO[W] IN ¬ I(mage)]*
21	I murmur following feminine sign of contempt on stage (4)	FICO	O	I CO[O] (murmur) after F(eminine)
23	Western Isle to face to west of Kuwait? (4)	ARAB	R	BAR[R]A< (Western Isle)
25	Legless knight exiled from Swiss company (3)	LIT	D	LIN[D]T (Swiss company) ¬ (k)N(ight)
26	Mostly strip refuge (4)	DIVE	S	DIVE[S](t) (strip)
28	In retrospect, plenty of rationing not eliminated (4, 2 words)	IN IT	O	(ra)TI[O]NI(ng)<
30	Typical Shakespearean name wholly omitted from tall story (3)	TIB	F	TALL ¬ ALL (wholly) [F]IB (story)
31	Monarch’s one agent taken advantage of (4)	USED	F	US (one, used by royalty) [F]ED (agent)
32	Hypersensitive academy with extremely cinematic offering (6)	ATOPIC	O	A(cademy) TO[O] (extremely) PIC (cinematic offering)
34	Woolly alien without head operated handily in retreat (6)	LANATE	U	ET (alien) (m)AN[U]AL (operated handily) all<
36	Where to find Lima beans, ultimately in less dubious computer facility (9)	SUPERUSER	R	PERU (where to find Lima) (bean)S in SU[R]ER (less dubious)
37	Original form of noose gags (4)	ONES	O	[NO[O]SE]*
39	Unopened block protecting independent organs (5)	UTERI	R	(h)U[R]TER (block protecting) I(ndependent)
40	Camilla shortly revised colour (5)	LILAC	M	[CA[M]ILL(a)]*
41	Australia willingly backed label all together (8, 3 words)	AS ONE MAN	O	A(ustralia) SO[O]N (willingly) NAME< (label)
42	Nation with regulations to be obeyed covering the Spanish instruments (8)	UKULELES	R	UK (nation) [R]ULES (regulations to be obeyed) around EL (the, Sp)
43	Losing head, I venerated god (4)	ODIN	E	(i)ODIN[E]
Down
1	Presumably execute after broadcast aired (8, 3 words)	I DARE SAY	L	S[L]AY (execute) after [AIRED]*
2	Spoke up in support of saga about bullfighter (7)	PICADOR	E	ROD< (spoke) after [E]PIC (saga) A(bout)
3	O Level language (5)	OSAGE	T	O S[T]AGE (level)
4	Share a way of working, plain to South American (6)	PARAMO	T	PAR[T] (share) A MO (modus operandi, way of working)
5	Bazar to petition king (3)	SUK	E	SU[E] (petition) K(ing)
6	Set apart conclusions of Oliver Stone? Good luck to you! (7)	REPOSIT	R	(Olive)R (Ston)E P[R]OSIT (good luck to you)
7	Lead division got unused llama? (7)	CAMELID	S	CAME (lead division) [S]LID (unused)
8	Maybe obtained rates from gallery, taking ten days (5)	TAXED	T	TA[T]E around X (ten) D(ays)
9	Severer water-carrier? (4)	EWER	H	[H]EWER (severer, as in that which severs)
11	Lunatic sets AI: Cruise turns into Bond (11)	SECURITISES	A	[SETS [A]I CRUISE]*
13	Fail to perform in roughly twice as many operas (5)	COMIC	T	OMI[T] (fail to perform) in C×2 (circa, roughly, twice)
16	Quiet one saved by rhythmic slogan (5, 2 words)	CAN IT	H	I (one) in C[H]ANT (rhythmic slogan)
21	Extremely confused, tired oaf raised obstacle (5)	FUBAR	A	[A]UF< (oaf, obs) BAR (obstacle)
22	Starter of fish veiled in agitated pasta (8)	FEDELINI	V	F(ish) [[V]EILED IN]*
24	Be without small coin and cope with two pins? (7)	BIPEDAL	E	BE around IP (1p, small coin) D[E]AL (cope)
25	Plan a cult, losing time to struggle with gaps (7)	LACUNAL	P	[[P]LAN A CULT ¬ T(ime)]*
27	Old vase, not as worldly (7)	VETERAN	R	VASE ¬ AS TER[R]AN (worldly)
29	Prickly Mesoamerican mounted satire lacking metre (5)	NOPAL	O	LAMPO[O]N< (satire) ¬ M(etre)
31	One ram summoned missing canine (6)	UNITED	P	[P]UN (ram) CITED (summoned) ¬ C(anine)
33	Yorkshireman carrying elated Inuit’s tent (5)	TUPIK	E	TIK[E] (Yorkshireman) around UP (elated)
35	Dream cast initially increased by half in Nimes (5, 2 words)	À DEMI	R	[D[R]EAM]* I(ncreased)
36	Philippine Muslim elevated universal longing (4)	SULU	T	U(niversal) LUS[T] (longing) all<
38	Desperate appeal begins to identify images at last (3)	SOS	Y	(begin)S (t)O (identif)[Y] (image)S