Comments on: Guardian Genius / 89

By: Huw Powell

Huw Powell — Tue, 03 May 2011 20:07:37 +0000

I agree with jvh at 8 – surely 24 could have built in a definition for NICKEL, especially given that he had two routes to go by (the coin and the metal).

The lack of a definition for NICKEL really slowed me down when I was about 3/4 finished. All the Master had to type was “Peace in a handful of pennies” or some such. Oh well… as said above, if I have A’s faculties _tomorrow_ I’d be thrilled!

No one will ever read this, of course, I’ve been slowly printing out old Genius puzzles to try my hand at them, and this one was a real delight (meaning: I finished it somehow). Not thrilled with LATIN TAG, but I guess it is a common label on clocks.

Thanks for the wonderful little trip, Reverend, and mhl for the blog!

By: jvh

jvh — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 17:21:59 +0000

Thanks Dave H. This seems much more satisfactory, although I have some reservations about the clue.

By: Dave H

Dave H — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 15:37:19 +0000

Thanks to MHL for the blog

I read 21d and 24a as follows.

21d Water spirit = kelpie, and charged a penny to relate to pieman.

24a Peace = irenic, with depart in to mean to reverse in to gine ni or Ni = nickel.(it is Araucaria after all). I heve seen depart used as a reversal indicator before. This will clue all the parts and link through to 11a as blogged.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 14:07:23 +0000

The annotated solutions give ‘valentine’ for the hidden part of 22, not the dubious ‘valent’. I suspect a cover-up.

I forgot to mention that my edition of Chambers has double S in guesstimate: the OED gives one S.

By: Robbie Merrick

Robbie Merrick — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:50:36 +0000

Re 15d:

I took it as a reference to the Leonard Cheshire Homes (retirement homes for ex-service personnel?)

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 12:44:39 +0000

Thank you and well done, mhl. As you say, it was not difficult but it twinkled.

I was thrown, momentarily, when I had ireNIC KERnel and found …

nicker, n. A supernatural being supposed to live in the sea or other waters; a water-demon, a kelpie. (OED)

… which fit the clue for 21 rather than their own clues.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:24:44 +0000

Bridgesong – quite right! I’d forgotten that, in the intervening month. [If I'm going to continue with Genius - this is only my third completed one - I must learn to keep more detailed notes.]

As a classicist. as opposed to a scientist, knowing vaguely of ‘valency’, I was surprised to find that the associated -valent was listed only as a suffix in Chambers and not at all in my other dictionaries

By: bridgesong

bridgesong — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 21:04:35 +0000

I enjoyed this puzzle, although it took me far too long to work out what was clearly stated in the preamble, namely that the solutions were ALTERNATE solutions in the chain. My only quibble is that VALENT isn’t actually a word, according to Chambers, although I’m fairly sure it cropped up in a Guardian puzzle recently.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:36:44 +0000

Thanks, tom, for the nudge.

I also meant to mention Cheshire Homes, and of course, thank mhl for an excellent blog – not an easy one to set out!

[I still think that the 'either' suggests that each hidden word is clued.]

By: tom

tom — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 17:21:51 +0000

Brilliant explanations, thanks.

15D: a threeway clue Cheshire Homes/Cat/cheese