Genius 171 / Qaos

10 comments on “Genius 171 / Qaos”

1. 

   Gordon

   #1 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 01:58

   
   

   Hi Duncan

   I presume you must be in the USA, like I am, or you are a light sleeper. Either way I am so impressed at the grids you have provided and the explanations. I too followed very similar lines of reasoning as you did. I got the letter substitution method after getting two of the crossed clues. After I had four I guessed that we were dealing with planets. That actually made it a fair bit simpler to get other clues as I could work backwards from target letters to identify what the clashing letter of an across or down clue was likely to be. I did not, though, note that the location of the letter for the planets [and I was very surprised to see Pluto there at all] was in respect of their relative distance from the sun. Very well spotted. I also agree with your comments about Carbon Monoxide. I am sure that must have been an error in the clue setting. It was actually my least favourite clue as it seemed a little clunky despite the lovely surface.

   I was stuck on Calmstone/Caumstone for a long time. It was not in Collins, nor could I find it anywhere online, nor in Chambers until I eventually looked under Camstone. I am amazed that Chambers does not provide better cross-referencing.

   You noted the possible hint to the theme from clue 12A. I also noted 16D where “To finish puzzle…” and the answer eventually becomes REVOLVE. Too neat to be just a coincidence. I did not, though, understand the logic between 16D and the run-on clue 18D. What am I missing?

   A great blog and hats off to you. Also thanks to QAOS for an extremely entertaining and very clever puzzle.

2. 

   copmus

   #2 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 05:59

   
   

   Was it OK just to fill in the centre square with a yellow/orange crayon?

   Amazing piece of setting-for once Chambers didnt fix it!

   Thanks for time taken on blog duncanshiell and thanks Qaos.

3. 

   Qaos

   #3 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 09:36

   
   

   Thanks Duncan – that’s a wonderfully detailed blog.

   24dn was changed from “He lied about …” and I didn’t spot that this removed the reversal indicator during my proof reading, so my bad. I probably spent more time checking for alternative clash fixes/rules that would ruin the sequence of planets (dwarf or otherwise :-)).

   Speaking of dwarf planets, I used THIS Solar System Simulator, which includes Pluto. I initially tried to use the current position of the planets, but found the letter clashes were too unevenly distributed around the grid. In the end, I went with rough distance from the Sun, together with a letter clash in every other row/column. Only the position of Mars proved extremely difficult to shift (ideally, to the middle of 23ac).

   Best wishes,

   Qaos.

4. 

   Tony

   #4 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 12:10

   
   

   I got completely stuck after filling about 1/3-1/2 of this and failed to get any more despite looking at it several times. Then, on Thursday morning, I picked it up again and polished it off in a sitting. I think I got back in via EPISODE, and wondered why that had seemed so difficult before. I was a bit thrown by the misedit in PINCH, but decided it must be right.

   It wasn’t until I’d solved all the clues that I worked out what the rule was, but that gave me the N (not B or H) at 12, and I finally twigged they were the planets.

   What an amazing construction this was (and beautifully blogged, btw, Duncan). I can’t imagine how one would go about creating this. I noticed, too, that the planets were (very nearly?*) correctly placed with respect to their relative distances from the Sun, but not those two lttle hints in the clues.

   Btw, Duncan, there was no correct version of the grid to send in, because entry was by filling in a form with the original answer (I hope!) to each clue and specifying the central letter. Also M as a size stands, as I’m sure you know really, for ‘Medium’, not ‘Middle’ as stated (REALMS).

   *Is Earth in fact sometimes closer to the Sun than Venus?

5. 

   Gordon

   #5 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 13:59

   
   

   Hi Tony @4

   As far as I know the Earth is never closer to the sun than Venus, and never has been. But Neptune is occasionally further away than Pluto. I recall this happening about a couple of decades ago, but have not looked it up to check exactly when.
   I meant to add to my initial comment last night that I found entering the solution online at the Guardian almost as taxing as doing the puzzle. I had to check twice I had the correctly changed letters and that the letter count was accurate. I almost entered CAULMSTONE, which would have scuppered me. It is incredible the site still cannot go back to the full interactive grid, and that the crossword editor, yet again, failed to spot an error. Surely he could and should have helped QAOS notice the boob with 24D. What exactly does he do? As I mentioned earlier this clue was not my favourite. In retrospect part of the problem was me trying to remove NOX [as Number 10] from Monoxide, for far too long. It is incredible how you cannot shake off bad ideas more easily.
   Well I’m off to the Bronx Botanical gardens in about an hour to see the Dale Chihuly exhibition. Anyone living anywhere near NYC [I am in Connecticut] should definitely go.

6. 

   DuncT

   #6 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 15:56

   
   

   Many thanks to Qaos and Duncan for the superb puzzle and blog.

   The SE corner held me up for a while with the difficulty of checking 29a, but knowing that the resolving letter had to be a U got me there eventually.

   We really shouldn’t call Pluto a planet now, but it is a hard habit to break. It was in 1978 that things started to go wrong when its large moon (Charon) was discovered, meaning that Pluto itself was much smaller than previously thought.

7. 

   Tony

   #7 - Sun 1st Oct 17, 23:24

   
   

   Cheers for the info, Gordon. You do have to be careful filling in the online form. It would be nice to get an email back showing the contents of ones’s entry, just in case. I only started attempting the Genius a few months ago, so have never known a time when it used an interactive grid. Yes, a shame Hugh missed the CO reversal. I think it’s often late changes that allow things like this to slip through.

8. 

   Uncleskinny

   #8 - Mon 2nd Oct 17, 05:14

   
   

   This was terrific stuff. A slog at times, but when I wrote out the letters, I said to my son “there’s two ‘M’s, and he got the reason why. Then looking at the relative positions – this is a mighty achievement. Thanks to Duncan and Qaos.

9. 

   beery hiker

   #9 - Mon 2nd Oct 17, 07:01

   
   

   I enjoyed this. Worked out how the letter substitution worked pretty early and was fairly sure we were looking at planets about halfway through but still found the rest pretty tough with CAUMSTONE last in.
   The grid construction is very impressive.

   Thanks to Qaos and Duncan

10. 

    Boatman

    #10 - Tue 3rd Oct 17, 07:46

    
    

    Now, that’s clever. The position of the planets AND a satisfying formula for the clashes – there’s a lot to resolve there. Big Qudos.

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