Comments on: Guardian Genius 83 / Araucaria

By: sidey

sidey — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:46:46 +0000

In case anyone’s interested, the following is the official explanation of THAT clue:

The theme, obviously, is Shakespeare characters and Valeria appears in Coriolanus. “ria leaving?” gets you via the question mark to “Vale Ria!) But that is not the solution, so it is not the 21st of the themed solutions. Valerie is a girl’s name and it is close to valeria.

This is obviously one of Arauracia’s non-Ximenean clues. But a large number of people were, I am happy to say, able to make the journey with him. It is not a clue that should (or would) have appeared except in a Genius puzzle.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:38:14 +0000

Well done, mhl, an excellent blog.

I’m yet another who was defeated by the SE corner. I confidently entered Valeria and didn’t find Tyrrell with two ls. I spent a long time trying to justify ‘Thryeus’ at 33. ‘Power one abandons …’ = thr(one). Yes?

After wasting time, fruitlessly, on 28, 33 and 36, I was b******d if I was going to search a map of London for 27!

By: Gail

Gail — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:47:42 +0000

Finished the crossword quite quicklly apart from that damned corner! In my Shakespeare Tyrell is also spelt with one l, never heard of that rhyme and living up here in the N.East an obscure place in S.London is not part of my geographical repertoire! Did however get Valerie and the Taliban/Caliban answer gave me no ethical concerns!

By: mhl

mhl — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:46:11 +0000

It’s look like all the Valeries were indeed right then :) I’ve updated the post.

By: liz

liz — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 12:12:40 +0000

Thanks for the great blog, mhl, and for explaining the wordplay I didn’t understand at 2dn and 15ac. It took me a while to get the theme and then I had to rely on a list of Shakespearean characters I found on the web to get some of the answers. Even so, the SE corner had me stuck for a while, until a more experienced solver confirmed that what I had put at 33ac was right. I had VALERIA at 26dn initially, then changed it to VALERIE when I got SLENDER.

By: Pandean

Pandean — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:36:31 +0000

I think the VALERIE/VALARIE ambiguity at 26dn is an example of the occasional unfairness brought about by Araucaria’s creative, libertarian approach, which sometimes ends up as purely loose clueing. The VALARIE answer might seem OK enough by the fact that A, unlike more Ximenean setters, is happy to use ‘from’ as an anagram indicator, thus suggesting an anagram of VALE/RIA. But A may well not have realised that VALARIE is a name, so could have thought he was giving enough info for what he saw as the only possible fair answer from his clue. I’m a great admirer of A, so am generally happy enough to live with his ambiguities, even when they drive me mad at times. The rewards of his creativity are greater than the drawbacks, in my book. However, in this case, I think he needed to have been a bit tighter in his clueing, to indicate the change in ending from VALERIA to VALERIE. He could’ve had something like ‘Girl coming to different ending than possible 21st (19 leaving?)’. A bit wordy, but it says what it means and removes the ambiguity.

By: sidey

sidey — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:18:23 +0000

According to the annotations it’s “A dilly, a dollar/a ten o’clock scholar.”.

By: jrnl

jrnl — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:06:15 +0000

There is a rhyme (which I didn’t previously know) by Christina Rosetti

Lie a-bed,
Sleepy head,
Shut up eyes, bo-peep;
Till daybreak
Never wake: –
Baby, sleep.

This would make the reasoning behind 28d slightly different: “Sleepy Head” is S which is the abbreviation for (a) dollar…

By: sidey

sidey — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 11:05:33 +0000

So, 26 Valerie VALERI(a/E)

What the **** is that supposed to mean?

By: IanN14

IanN14 — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:28:38 +0000

Well, the annotated solutions are up….

…and, as you say, sidey, we’re none the wiser.
Oh well.