Minimalist by Nathan Panning
All answers are entered normally; necessary bars and blocks must be added.
First thoughts – aaargh, it’s a carte blanche!
Second thought – call in the cavalry in the shape of elmac.
I managed to solve about half-a-dozen clues on my first pass, which I found encouraging but I was still too scared to attempt a grid fill on my own. With elmac’s help we made pretty short work of filling the grid.
The one clue that held us up for the longest was 16a as we couldn’t find a two word answer in three letters – at least, not one that fitted the clue.
It quckly became apparent that the bulk of the centre of the grid had to be left empty although the significance of this eluded us. This was largely due to the fact that we still had 16a left to solve.
We had tentatively entered RILEY as the composer in 1a but having never heard of him, we didn’t know if we were looking for Dennis Riley or Terry Riley. A squiz through both articles unearthed In C from Terry
In C is often cited as the first minimalist composition to make a significant impact on the public consciousness – whatever that means.
So, that’s it. The puzzle itself is minimalist, it makes a C shape, which represents the musical piece.
Many thanks to Nathan Panning for a puzzle which looked near impossible at the outset but proved to be less hard and therefore very enjoyable.
I can’t help feeling I’ve missed something and I wonder what the significance, if any, is of the extra panel below the grid.
| Across |
||
| Clue |
Entry |
|
| 1 Annoy Yankee composer (5) | RILEY | RILE (annoy)+Yankee Terry Riley |
| 5 Administers old-fashioned households (7) | MÉNAGES | MENAGES (old word for MANAGES (administers)) |
| 7 Isolate misshapen Easter egg (9) | SEGREGATE | EASTER EGG (anag: misshapen) |
| 9 Officers touring cosmodrome (10) | COMMODORES | COSMODROME (anag: touring) |
| 10 Assassinate acting king (4) | OFFA | OFF (assassinate)+Acting |
| 12 Reportedly, one fleeced solvers (3) | YOU | YOU (plural) (solvers) sounds like EWE (one fleeced) |
| 13 Attempt 5 from 15 (3) | TRY | Reference: 5 points for a TRY in Rugby Union (a team of 15) |
| 14 Block of butter? (3) | RAM | RAM (male sheep) could be a “butter” |
| 16 Work incorporated here (3, 2 words) | IN C | INCorporated In C is work by the aforementioned Terry Riley |
| 19 Lettuce hearts for function (4) | COSH | COS (lettuce)+Hearts |
| 22 Artistically hung ribbons irritated (10) | TAPESTRIED | TAPES (ribbons)+TRIED (irritated) |
| 24 Tasmania stops passing cup (9) | DEMITASSE | DEMISE (passing) around TASmania |
| 25 Swimmer to appear cycling (7) | MANATEE | EMANATE (appear; with first letter cycled to the back) |
| 26 Number backsliding in snowfields (5) | NEVES | SEVEN (number; rev: backsliding) |
| Down | ||
| 1 Number Mum’s fruit (5) | REGMA | REGistration number+MA (mother) |
| 2 Wrought iron pillbox (4) | INRO | IRON (anag: wrought) |
| 3 Encourage what soldiers get (5, 2 words) | EGG ON | Reference: toast “soldiers” which are often dipped in boiled eggs therefore having EGG ON |
| 4 Thorn replacement, budding annual (6) | YEARLY | Thorn sylised as “Y“+EARLY (budding) Thorn image |
| 6 Shorthand wasting one’s time (5) | STENO | ONE’S Time (anag: wasting) |
| 7 Till now, Seat runs (5, 2 words) | SO FAR | SOFA (seat)+Runs |
| 8 Thesaurus describes hairy man (4) | ESAU | thESAUrus (hidden: describes) |
| 9 Shrink to catch Bond (8) | CONTRACT | Triple definition |
| 11 Gardeners’ tools zap ticks (6) | FLYMOS | FLY (zap)+MOmentS (ticks) I can’t actually see how zap means fly Flymo hover mower is a gardener’s tool |
| 15 British abandoning overseas route (5) | A-ROAD | A[b]ROAD (oversees) minus British |
| 16 The setter grows flowers (6) | IRISES | I (the setter)+RISES (grows) |
| 17 Expulsion from several quarters (5) | NEESE | North+East+East+South+East (several compass quarters) |
| 18 Rebel, rascal and earl (4) | CADE | CAD (rascal)+Earl Jack Cade – English rebel |
| 20 Border with one stud (5) | HE-MAN | HEM (border)+AN (one) |
| 21 Furious buccaneer losing head (5) | IRATE | [p]IRATE (buccaneer; minus first letter) |
| 23 Wrong energy ratio (4) | SINE | SIN (wrong)+Energy |
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This was a rare type of puzzle – a carte blanche without rotational symmetry. I actually assumed at the outset there would be rotational symmetry, having noted the symmetry of the word-lengths of the Across clues. However, several clues later, I had to abandon my reckless assumption when I had to adjust the placement of some of my answers because the grid had mirror symmetry.
It was great fun going through the rest of the clues and placing their answers in the grid together with their clue numbers. FLYMOS was my last clue to solve – made somewhat more difficult by having to work out exactly where it went in the grid.
The result was a revelation. I too didn’t understand 16a, whose answer I forced out from its crossers, until I looked up ‘In C’, and then everything clicked: Terry RILEY, the minimalist work with a minimalist title, and the C-shaped white grid inside the given rectangle.
(Ken, I didn’t see how ‘zap’ is ‘fly’ either.)
Thanks to Nathan Panning and kenmac.
FLYMOS
I found two senses in which zap could mean fly.
1. to attack
2. to move quickly
For a while, having solved RILEY immediately, I thought we were in the realms of Bridget Riley and specifically Movement in Squares. ‘Ambitious’, I thought. And I was right. Nonetheless, I’m also a fan of Mr Riley so this was right up my street.
Great fun — lots of thanks to Nathan Panning and kenmac. At the outset my mind was (appropriately) a blank, except that answer lengths suggested a fair amount of unfilled space in the completed grid. Once I’d got started with COMMODORES and SEGREGATE this went pretty well; as at @1 above it helped to enter clue numbers for reference. Having RILEY at the top was a useful nudge (I was another who thought of Bridget first), and the answers IN C and the emerging shape came clear at about the same time.
Afterwards, a naughty thought: since the C shape is visible enough without shading blocks, and the required bars don’t seem essential, this could have been made even more minimalist by reducing the preamble to its first five words.
Thanks for the kind comments!
@David – that would have been a good idea to make it more minimalist (in fact my original preamble didn’t include the instruction that answers are entered normally, but a tester found a solution where the answers wrapped around the edge).
This was fun to construct; my clues tend to be very wordy so forcing myself to write minimalist clues was a good challenge! (No-one’s commented on the clues yet so I’ll take it that they work smoothly despite the constraints)
I’ve just realised that I didn’t enter the bars. I completely overlooked that bit. And, anyway, I think it looks better without.
A very satisfying solve, helped by familiarity with the music… and now I look at the clues, yes, they are minimal. I too thought we were going for a painting, seeing frames at top and bottom for a central art piece which confusingly morphed into a lateral cross. So I knew I was missing something (never did see the C)….
I don’t normally attempt the Inquisitor but the line “All answers are entered normally” persuaded me to give it a go! I found it considerably easier than I was expecting; I didn’t have too much difficulty fitting the words in the right places and there were relatively few obscure words. It helped that I’d heard of Terry Riley and “In C” but it still took a little while for the penny to drop with 16a; once it did, it didn’t take too long to finish the rest of the puzzle.
If there were more puzzles like this, I might attempt the Inquisitor more often.
Nathan Panning@5
Thanks for dropping by.
Clues: Yes. They work smoothly! Quite enjoyable.
Kenmac @6 – The preamble does say “necessary bars” – so just the edging of the C?
kenmac
In your diagram, FLYMOS appears as FLYMDS. I think you need to ‘zap’ the D…
Nathan Panning
The clues, as far as I was concerned, were up to the high standard of Inquisitor clues, and I enjoyed them. If you were under any constraints, I never noticed.
Okay, I’ll be explicit – every clue is 4 words or fewer.
Nathan
I did notice they were short but was blind to that astonishing constraint you voluntarily placed on them. Well done!
All the solutions found and all the redundant blocks shaded in ……….. we then sat and looked for inspiration ……. and sat ……….. and sat. Our eyes were both fixated on the shapes created by the empty cells.
Bert then went out for a walk. As soon as he returned we sat down again and looked at the completed grid. It’s a C! – he said.
Joyce had been googling different combinations of answers in the grid and we had both been wondering why INC was two words.
Everything suddenly fell into place and a search for IN C and RILEY revealed it all.
Thanks Nathan Panning – an ingenious idea and pleased to read your comments. Thanks to kenmac for the blog.
A delightful pairing of form and content! I initially tried to write out the top and bottom halves assuming normal symmetry and then the penny slowly dropped when I started rubbing letters out and relocating them. We learned about Riley’s In C at school so I actually got 16a from the enumeration and had Riley on my mind quite a while before twigging he must be 1a. Riley is the musical inspiration of The Who’s Baba O Riley, Meher Baba being the spiritual one. Thanks NP and our blogger.
Alan B @11
Oops! Looks like a transposition error. I’ll fix it in a while
I think I’ll stick to “Wont Get fooled again”
The space looked like a poor excuse for a keyboard
Bit it was different and fun to some extent
Quirky, fun and educational.
Thanks, blogger and setter.
Tricky, this minimalist approach.
I must admit I thought zap in 11D was a misprint for zip. Geddit?
not hard, but enjoyable
First time I’ve done a carte blanche puzzle – and it was actually easier than I expected, helped by some nicely accessible clueing in enough places to give me the necessary foothold. The significance of the C shape eluded me until I got here and now I think it’s rather clever!
Thanks Nathan and kenmac.