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 |
Just in case comments are a factor
Doogie
Jalfrezi
Roger the Dodger
Minnie the Minx
Lord Snooty
Biffo the Bear
Hi ho Silver
https://google.com
https://imdb.com
https://bing.com
What’s with all the Dandy and Beano characters?
Testing from iPhone.
What an idiot can’t even spell LABOUR!
(test comment for moderation/deletion)
spam spam spam spam spam spam spam
what a silly king Cnut…
What do I have to do to make CoPilot moderate me?…
What the f**k?!…
I think CoPilot is shit!
tit wank dick bum
Yay, I managed to get auto-moderated! Swearing clearly doesn’t cut it, but posting in Russian does…