The preamble to Genius 154 tells us: “Solutions to the clues are to be entered in one of two ways to be determined by the solver, which are confirmed by a message that appears in the correctly completed grid. ” Short and sweet, compared to some preambles!
And so it proved with the puzzle, compared to some recent Geniuses (or Genii?) – to a sigh of relief from your blogger…a rare beast of a Genius in that I had almost all of it complete in a single sitting (albeit a fairly long sitting!)
It was immediately clear that there were some clashes – EXCEL and TEMPLATE, OVERHAUL and ULNAE – and the simplest way to resolve them seemed to be to reverse one of the words…which fits with the preamble: ‘…one of two ways…’. I did this, and carried on doing so…and that was about it until I remembered I had to look for a message. Around the perimeter I gradually made out ‘BACK-TO-FRONT AND NORMAL’, which confirmed things, and helped get the last few entries sorted in terms of orientation:
All in all, I feel this was definitely at the easier end of the Genius spectrum – a relatively simple device/denouement, and some nice gentle clueing – but nothing wrong with that, especially on my shift (;+>), and still an enjoyable solve…so thanks to Monk.
I guess that once a setter has a blocked puzzle with a twist like this, then there aren’t too many outlets for ‘mainstream’ publication? The Grauniad does sometimes have slight variations in its Saturday Prize puzzles – e.g. undefined thematic linked clues – but I think this would have gone beyond the usual Saturday parameters. I did wonder if it would have been more challenging as an unnumbered jigsaw, but the two long central entries, and the rotational symmetry, would have meant there were multiple possible fills, and some extra direction would have been needed in the preamble, or within the puzzle, to indicate the correct orientation.
One last quibble – not specifically on this puzzle – is that there still doesn’t seem to be any prospect of having a fillable grid for submitting the Genius, as there was a couple of years ago, before the ‘upgrade’ of the Grauniad site. (I have ranted on this subject before, and been told off for complaining about a free service…but here goes…)
So we are stuck with typing entries separately on a simple form. But there is no clear instruction on how to fill in the form when alterations and reversals occur. Should I type ‘OVERHAUL’ in the space for 1A, as that is the answer to the clue, or should I type ‘LUAHREVO’, as that is how it would be entered in a grid?
In the end, I typed ‘OVERHAUL (reversed)’ – which might be OK if there is a human reading these submissions, but if there is some sort of software reading the form entries and comparing them against a set of ‘correct’ answers, then maybe this will come up as a wrong answer? In which case, I have wasted my time solving and submitting the puzzle in the hope of a prize… Equally, if it is expecting ‘OVERHAUL’, then anyone who entered ‘LUAHREVO’ is wrong, and vice versa. Which could mean a 50:50 chance of everyone having wasted their time and effort…not good odds!
Just because it is free, doesn’t mean it has to be ambiguous…
Ho hum…bah humbug…I expect that in 6 months’ time, for my next Genius blog, it will be a case of ‘plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose…’
(I am posting this in advance of a long Bank Holiday weekend away, to somewhere with minimal internet/data coverage, so I may be a little tardy in replies to any comments/corrections/omissions…but keep ’em coming!)
| ACROSS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution (rev = reversed) |
Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 6 | OVERHAUL (rev) | pass (by) | Pass across tug (8) / OVER (across) + HAUL (tug) |
|
| 9 | EXCEL (rev) | double defn | Better office software (5) / EXCEL can mean to outdo, or better, somone; and Excel ™ is a Microsoft Office software product (other spreadsheet packages are also available!) |
|
| 10 | ANOINT | smear | Smear worker that’s pinching best seller (6) / A_NT (worker insect) around (pinching) NO I (number one, best seller) |
|
| 11 | OPENCAST (rev) | as (coal) mine could be | Frank getting project as mine could be (8) / OPEN (frank) + CAST (project, e.g. one’s voice) |
|
| 12 | MEDDLESOME | meddlesome | Nosey twin daughters in scuffle stopped a good deal more (10) / ME_LE(E) (scuffle, stopped one letter short) around DD (two Ds, or daughters) + SOME (a good deal more) |
|
| 14 | FAZE (rev) | rattle (upset, disconcert) | Rattle found by stage after announcement (4) / homophone, i.e. after announcement: FAZE sounds like PHASE, or stage |
|
| 15 | EMBARRASSMENT (rev) | financial difficulty | Financial difficulty of two million in base rates Rachman heartlessly fixed (13) / anag, i.e. fixed, of MM (two Ms, or millions) + BASE RATES + RM (RachmaN, heartlessly) |
|
| 17 | STIR (rev) | double defn | Move jug (4) / STIR can mean to move or, as a noun, is slang for jail, or the jug. |
|
| 18 | SWEETBRIER | rose | Small book held by judge, possibly after jurors finally rose (10) / S (final letters of jurorS) + WEE (small) + T_RIER (judge, possibly) around (holding) B (book) |
|
| 20 | OINTMENT | preparation | Preparation by old trendy people in races (8) / O (old) + IN (trendy) + T_T (races, on the Isle of Man) around MEN (people) |
|
| 21 | BOOBOO | slip (error) | Slip rings on end of thumb, repeatedly (6) / B (last letter of thumB) + OO (rings), repeatedly |
|
| 23 | OBELI (rev) | daggers (printing sign) | Daggers one left lying around by gong (5) / OBE (gong, medal) + LI (I – one – and L – left, lying around) |
|
| 24 | ANGLICAN | American-English | American-English is no good in Spanish port – take note (8) / A_LICAN(TE) (Spanish port, taking away TE, or note) around NG (no good) |
|
| DOWN | ||||
| Clue No | Solution (rev = reversed) |
Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | B’HAI | (form of address for) brother, in India | Bachelor runs away from Barnet to find brother in India (4) / B (Bachelor) + HAI(R) (barnet, with R – runs – taken away) |
|
| 2 | SWEETPEA (rev) | climber (climbing plant) | Climber’s kit finally found in search by running water (8) / SWEE_P (search) around T (kiT, finally), plus EA (running water, stream, dialect) |
|
| 3 | CLEAVE | stick (adhere) | About to drop stick (6) / C (circa, about) + LEAVE (to drop) |
|
| 4 | RUBBERNECK (rev) | goggle (stare at) | Narrow connector under protective goggle (10) / RUBBER (protective, US for condom) + NECK (narrow connector) |
|
| 5 | TEMPLATE | guide | Guide agency worker out of office (8) / TEMP (agency worker) + LATE (out of office) |
|
| 7 | ULNAE | bones | Jean-Luc holds back Bones (5) / reversed hidden word, i.e. holds back, in ‘jEAN-LUc’ |
|
| 8 | OPTIONAL EXTRA | one might choose it | One might choose it to explain rota changes (8,5) / anag, i.e. changes, of TO EXPLAIN ROTA |
|
| 13 | DEATH’S-HEAD (rev) | a bad sign | Dicky has the brown bread sandwiches – a bad sign? (6-4) / D_EAD (Cockney rhyming slang, brown bread = dead) around EATH’S-H (anag, i.e. dicky, of HAS THE) |
|
| 15 | NIHILIST (rev) | cryptic definition | What exposed Philistine could become? (8) / anag, i.e. could become, of (P)HILIISTIN(E) (philistine ‘exposed’ by removing end letters) |
|
| 16 | RUTABAGA | swede (root vegetable) | Swede to make love with offensive woman in a van, oddly enough (8) / RUT (to make love) + A_A (odd letters of ‘A vAn’) around BAG (offensive term for woman) |
|
| 18 | NO LESS (rev) | ironic expression of admiration | Clipped high-ranking sorts born to drop ironic expression of admiration (2,4) / NO(B)LESS(E) (high ranking sorts, with E clipped off the end and B – born – dropped) |
|
| 19 | ABOVE (rev) | not condescending to | Almost from the start, English not condescending to … (5) / AB OV(O) (Latin, from the beginning, almost, i.e. missing last letter) + E (English) |
|
| 22 | OMIT | skip | … skip over Cambridge University (4) / O (over, cricket) + MIT (Massachussetts Institute of Technology, university in Cambridge, Mass) |
|
Thanks MC Rapper – the blog was wonderful, the animated grid really shows off the answers beautifully.
We didn’t quite manage this in one sitting, but I think it was done over a weekend which is a records for a Genius! The preamble made it pretty obvious what was required, and we quite soon had 15d and 15a which both ended in T so could be written in immediately.
As you say, possibly not really qualifying as ‘Genius’ level, but I’m not complaining 🙂
I assumed the online form had to be completed with the letters to be placed in the grid (eg LUAHREVO), but who know which of us right?
Thanks MC Rapper – excellent blog and very impressive grid.
Certainly not the hardest Genius, which was just as well for me as I only got round to looking at it seriously yesterday, and just managed to meet the deadline for submission. No complaints about the quality though – top class – many thanks to Monk.
I filled the online form in the same way as Mr Beaver. I’ve never been sure whether to put spaces in multi-word answers either, and what are you supposed to do with solutions that take up more than one grid entry? Do you put the full solution in the box that has the clue, or put each word in separately? I’ve assumed that the lack of technology on the web page is matched in the checking department, so there has to be a human element involved and it doesn’t really matter.
Yet more appreciation of an excellent blog, thank you McRapper. [Thanks too for highlighting the difficulties in entering the answers – do hope someone takes note.]
Enjoyed the puzzle very much, so many thanks to Monk. Have found recent ones to be much harder than usual so it was a relief to find that they weren’t necessarily a sign of things to come.
Thanks for the various comments and feedback above – sounds like my experience and enjoyment of this puzzle (and the online form!) were pretty much replicated for you guys…
Thanks for an excellent blog. Agreed on the ambiguity around how to enter these clues in the form, but like DuncT (@2) I would imagine that they randomly select an answer and then have a human check it.
I found the definition for 24a a bit confusing- how is American English a definition for ANGLICAN?
James @5
One of the definitions in Chambers under ANGLICAN (adjective) is “English (esp US)”.
Thanks Gaufrid!