Comments on: Guardian Genius 107 / Puck

By: Cosafina

Cosafina — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:47:19 +0000

This was the first (indeed, only!) Genius I have ever managed to complete, so I thoroughly enjoyed it. Hats off to Puck!

By: Mr Beaver

Mr Beaver — Tue, 05 Jun 2012 15:59:57 +0000

Indeed, we had ‘lost in translation’ fairly early on, but it still took a while for the penny to drop. Can’t have been too hard, as we managed to finish it – which doesn’t always happen for the Genius – but a satisfying challenge nonetheless.
Interestingly, it was the British (non-English) ‘lost’ words we had to look up – not the truly foreign ones!

By: sidey

sidey — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 18:35:12 +0000

Just about right.

By: Gordon

Gordon — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 14:04:53 +0000

Strangely it was the Welsh word Gollwyd that led me to the full theme. I knew by then that we had German, Irish, Welsh; etc. as part of the theme, and I had ‘Lost in Translation’ already put in, as well as Perdu and Perdido. You might think it was therefore obvious that I was looking for words that meant ‘Lost’ – not so. Perdido and Perdu are the Spanish and French words for the same mountain in the Pyranees. I was stuck on somehow finding other names for the same mountain. That made it far harder than it should have been. Fortunately as I knew a fair bit of the welsh style of language from having worked there 15 years ago, I decided from the possible letters that only Gollwyd would be a Welsh word. When I looked up the meaning that is when it all dropped into place and I stared at myself in disbelief [metaphorically] that I could have been so blind [can you stare if you are blind?].
My only grouse is that the use of EON as a gas company, which I knew from before I moved to the USA 11 years ago, would make that clue all but impossible for any non-UK resident or recent resident to have completed.
I still enjoyed this puzzle thoroughly.

By: Jan

Jan — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 10:07:53 +0000

Thanks, mhl.

I agree, it was not too difficult once the ‘theme’ appeared. I think I solved ‘Lost in translation’ from ‘seeing’ the word, PERDU, from the crossing letters. The Welsh word proved most elusive – I ended up reading about some Welsh policemen who were lost in London.

By: NeilW

NeilW — Mon, 04 Jun 2012 07:12:44 +0000

Thanks mhl.

Both the words “practising” and “artistes” contain reversals of SIT.