Paul often lets his quirkiness run free when he is let loose in the (almost-)anything-goes Wild-Wild West frontier of the Genius…
…and he doesn’t disappoint here! The preamble states that:
“2 11 by 21 down 8, 19 across by 24, 16 by 7 and 6 26 by 9 17 20 are entirely fictional works, not further defined.”
On first reading, I assumed we would just get some regular works of fiction – after all, isn’t all fiction ‘entirely fictional’, otherwise it would be non-fiction?… But this is Paul, so maybe that ‘entirely’ is pointing us to another level – perhaps imaginary works of fiction, like ‘Fly Fishing’ by J R Hartley, from the old BT(?) advert? Or some ‘punny’ names, like ‘I P Freely’ and ‘Amanda Hugankiss’ from a by-gone Simpsons episode(?)
My first step was to pencil in ‘lozenges’ around all the thematic entries on my working copy of the grid, and around their clues in the list, to focus the mind on ‘normal’ clues/entries and also to show where these cross with the thematic material. 9, 17,20 looked like a long anagram, but nothing jumped out at me in terms of authors’ names matching the enumeration.
So, on with solving the normal clues first, and a gradual grid-fill, while hoping for some moment of inspiration. Which arrived with 6, 26 looking like D_V_R something, with D_AIL and OVERT from the wordplay this eventually became DOVER TAILBACK. Certainly not a work I am familiar with! Around the same time I connected the ‘Solo’ in 7D to Han Solo from Star Wars – leading to that well known German author HANS OFF, whose classic contribution to the #MeToo genre, ‘NO GROPING’, will sell literally tens of copies.
The long anagram turned out to be DOLORES R GOING-NOWHERE, causing that DOVER TAILBACK. And with a bit of legwork and some wild stretches of the imagination I eventually tracked them all down:
- DOVER TAILBACK by DOLORES R GOING-NOWHERE
- NO GROPING by HANS OFF
- BADINAGE by JO KING
- HOOVERING NEEDED by FLORA STATE
To wrap up – it is a Genius puzzle – it took a while to solve…especially as it is ‘a Paul’… it does what it says on the tin….just about!
Hopefully all is dealt with below…
| ACROSS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution/Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | SHADOW | trace | Trace fish, bass missing head (6) / SHAD (fish) + ( |
|
| 5 | BUDDHIST | prayer (someone who prays) | Unfortunate tripper this lost in prayer (8) / BUDD (Zola Budd, athlete who famously tripped!) + HIST (anag, i.e. lost, of THIS) |
|
| 9,17,20 | DOLORES R | thematic – no definition | Red herring with owl and goose, no cuckoo (7,1,5-7) / anag, i.e. cuckoo, of RED HERRING + OWL + GOOSE + NO |
|
| 10 | VANDAL | destroyer | Destroyer Boy Blue almost knocked over (6) / LAD (boy) + NAV( |
|
| 11 | NEEDED | see 2D | See 2 (6) / see 2D |
|
| 12 | AIR | double defn. | Feeling the strain (3) / an AIR can be the bearing/aura, or ‘feeling’, given off by someone; and it can also be a musical AIR, or strain/tune |
|
| 13 | ONE | very small figure (number) | Very small figure saved by pensioner (3) / hideen word, i.e. saved by, in ‘pensiONEr’ |
|
| 14 | FIRESIDE | warm place | Warm place to stay by, if reclining (8) / FI (if, beackwards, or reclining) + RESIDE (stay) |
|
| 15 | ELFIN | playful | Scottish town centre moving back a little, being playful (5) / If the Scottis town of ELGIN moves its central letter, G back by one letter alphabetically to F, you get ELFIN! |
|
| 17 | GOING | see 9A | See 9 (5) / see 9A |
|
| 19 | BADINAGE | thematic – no definition | Good in the early years but ___ (8) / If one was good in one’s younger years, one might become BAD IN (old) AGE |
|
| 21 | FAL | river (Fal, in Cornwall) | Brief drop for river (3) / FAL( |
|
| 22 | MAR | ruin | Ruin stuff on the turn (3) / RAM, or stuff, ‘on the turn’ |
|
| 23 | COWBOY | rogue (trader – e.g. cowboy builder) | Rogue playfully provocative about bearing a stinker (6) / CO_Y (playfully provocative) around W (West, direction, or bearing) + BO (body odour, or stink) |
|
| 24 | JOKING | thematic – no definition | Authoress penning short novel (6) / JO_NG (Erica Jong, author(ess) – hasn’t the ‘ess’ been dropped these days?) around KI( |
|
| 25 | EPIDEMIC | rampant | Rampant actor Moore involved in long and arduous activity (8) / EPI_C (long and ardous activity) around DEMI (actor – not actress! – Demi Moore) |
|
| 26 | TAILBACK | See 6D | See 6 (8) / See 6D |
|
| 27 | ENERGY | life | Green organic industry’s back for life (6) / ENERG (anag, i.e. organic, of GREEN) + Y (last letter, or back, of industrY) |
|
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution/Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 2,11 | HOOVERING | thematic – no definition | Old gang entering very warm place paid attention to hosts (9,6) / H_EEDED (paid attention to) around (hosting) O (old) + OVE_N (very warm place) entered by RING (gang) |
|
| 3 | DO OR DIE | a huge effort | Make a huge effort linking Muslim feast and Christian symbol up (2,2,3) / EID (Muslim festival) + RO_OD (cross,, or Christian symbol), all put up = DO OR DIE |
|
| 4 | WHEEDLING | blandishment | Dealing partner outstanding diamonds as blandishment (9) / WHEE_LING (word often associated with dealing, as in ‘wheeling and dealing’) around (outstanding of) D (diamonds) |
|
| 5 | BARRAGE | heavy bombardment | Heavy bombardment lighter, perhaps, artillery having gone in (7) / BAR_GE (lighter, or river vessel) around RA (Royal Artillery) |
|
| 6,26 | DOVER | thematic – no definition | Irish house welcoming public support (5,8) / D_AIL (house of Irish parliament) around (welcoming) OVERT (public), plus BACK (support |
|
| 7 | HANS OFF | thematic – no definition | Solo very, very loud (4,3) / HAN (Han Solo, Star Wars character) + SO (very) + FF (fortissimo, very loud) |
|
| 8 | STATE | see 22D | See 22 (5) / see 22D |
|
| 15 | ENDOCRINE | of glandular secretion | Nice or nasty after finish of glandular secretion? (9) / END (finish) + OCRINE (anag, nasty, of NICE OR) |
|
| 16 | NO GROPING | thematic – no definition | Leg bitten by rearing monster (2,7) / NO GRO_G (Gorgon, or monster, rearing upwards) around PIN (leg) |
|
| 18 | ILL-WILL | dislike | Dislike six speaking, possibly, about wife? (3-4) / ILL + ILL (homophone – six sounds like ‘sicks’, or ‘ills’, plurally) around W (wife) |
|
| 19 | BERSERK | wild | Wild flower, nothing less, picked by fool (7) / BE_RK (fool) around (picking) R( |
|
| 20 | NOWHERE | see 9A | See 9 (7) / see 9A |
|
| 22,8 | FLORA | thematic – no definition | Turkey endlessly dreads owner targeting European leaders (5,5) / FLO( |
|
| 22 | MAGMA | (something) that’s very hot | Two degrees around top of glacier — that’s very hot! (5) / MA + MA (Master of Arts, degree, twice) around G (first letter, or top, of Glacier) |
|
HANS OFF was my way in too. As a kid I loved all the punny titles but these were all new to me. Perhaps specially conceived for this puzzle.
I must admit that I don’t understand the BADINAGE one – I must be reading it wrongly.
(btw, there’s a minor typo in your explanation for 19a)
Enjoyable stuff and thanks to S & B.
Good in early years but BAD IN AGE makes perfect sense to me, in fact I think this was our way in to the fictional fiction.
It took us a long time to get going because, although we suspected ‘entirely fictional’ meant joke book titles (this being Paul, after all), I thought they would be the schoolboy classics like ‘A long way down’ by ‘Eileen Dover’, ‘Yellow River’ by ‘I.P.Daley’ etc (there were many more, which I’ve forgotten) but I’m pretty sure these are all freshly minted.
So it was hard work, with the groans at the terrible puns so much louder as a result, but we got there in the end.
I think Dolores R Going Nowhere was the best/worst! Perhaps a little Brexit prediction?
PS – forgot to say: I love the animated solution!
kenmac at #1 – typo sorted…I forgot to mention in the blog that JO KING should really have been enumerated as (2, 4), given that HANS and DOLORES had their names broken down in the enumeration,,,
Mrt Beaver at # 2&3 – yes, the DOVER TAILBACK could be a warning of things to come! All credit to kenmac for sharing the knowledge of how to create animated grids several years ago…
Like last month, almost but no cigar. This time by my own carelessness with anagram fodder, Delores instead Dolores, so couldn’t do the last, i.e. hoovering needed. (And I don’t get how it relates to its ‘author’, Flora State, tho by the time I’ve pecked this, someone might have said).
Otherwise, sussed the game early (as in I. P. Daly/Freely, Kilmore Lyons, etc), with real-word albeit fictional titles by fun/homophonic authors (Hansoff first in).
The non-themers weren’t giveaways either; I have ‘slow!’ next to cowboy, and dnk next to ‘tailback’ [no land borders in Oz, so we only know ‘traffic jam’]. Wondered about Jong as legit gk for ‘authoress’ (only know FoF, 1973, but yes she has published lots since). And ill-will was obvious but a biff nonetheless, homophone six very clever. Hey ho. Lots of slog, lots of fun.
Great setting, Paul, and thanks Mc_rapper67 for the explications.
PS Mr Beaver and Mc_rapper67, yes border ‘tailback’ definitely a ref to Brexit fallout; I now remember reading about it, along with other consequences, in the LRB.
I guess it’s ‘floor[‘s in] a state’
Mr Beaver @2
I meant that I didn’t understand the “joke”. BADINAGE by JO KING. I’m sure that it’ll be dead obvious when someone explains it but for the moment it ain’t coming to me.
Chambers has ‘badinage’ as ‘light playful talk; banter’…hence ‘joking’…
I did not really like this crossword, but felt a sense of achievement when I finished it. A bit like eating healthy food that you don’t particularly like.
For a while I thought that the authors were real and the books fictional as a contrast to a real book, such as Big Men by Louisa May Alcott.
The reason I thought this was that after I had done a few clues I had – – – O – – – R – – – – – _ – – – – E – – for 9,17,20. Based on this and my thinking about authors I decided the answer was probably ANTOINE R SAINT-EXUPERY. I checked that one of his names was Roger, so the R seemed OK even though I had never seen his name written that way before. Maybe the book was SMALL PRINCESS? OK ridiculous, I know and I soon discovered my stupidity!
Satisfying in the end – sort of; but not one of my favourite Genius puzzles.
Extremely silly and good fun. I rather liked “de lorries are going nowhere”
Thanks Paul, and mc.
We enjoyed this one, as others have said, once we had got beyond EIleen Dover and the rest. One of my first contributions on this site was on a similar theme… I mentioned the Usborne Book of What People Do at the time.
Thanks Paul and mc.
Looking forward to this week’s challenge.
Phew! Quite a struggle. Held up for days at a time (just like the post-Brexit lorries Paul was obviously(?) alluding to), even though I guessed very early on what the device was, “entirely” being the giveaway. That was confirmed by FLORA STATE, although I didn’t get HOOVERING NEEDED till much later.
I correctly guessed the structure of DOLORES R GOING-NOWHERE, but a long anagram of a non-existent author with an improbable name is no picnic. Once I had the central O of DOLORES, though, I searched name lists and that was the only hit. I already had R, so I knew I was getting somewhere (unlike the lorries), but thought it was a homonym of “The law is” for a while, till I twigged “Irish house” meant DAIL, suggesting Dover, and I was soon home and dry (unlike the lorry-drivers) with that one, the first complete book/author combo in. I agree JO KING should have been 2,4. I guessed JOKING straight away, having crossers, but it took me a while to suss out the wordplay.
ELFIN was another one I worked out the wordplay for post hoc. Also BUDDHIST, where I ended up googling BUDD before I remembered the unfortunate trip. Did wonder if it was something to do with drugs for a long time.
I did spend rather a long time trying to get Roger, or even Kenneth into 25a before I cottoned on. Another reason why actresses should be so described!
@Hedgehog, is that it, or is there an author that’s supposed to be obvious? Of the classics in the genre, the one I always remember is Twenty Years in the Saddle by Major Bumsaw.
Tony @13 : the book is full of people doing jobs like Mike Atsill, the vet, Les Chatter, the teacher, and Honor Toze, the ballet dancer. And of course the Usborne yellow duck to spot on every page.
I’m half surprised Paul did not include Ivor Biggan
Do you mean him?: https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/ivor_biggun (apologies for being grossly off-topic – and off-topically gross!)
Welcome to the club!
Where are you in USA Mr. Beaver [which in itself could be a bit you know what]?
I am an ex-pat Brit in Connecticut for 18 years so far. I still sound as if I am in Stockport [near Manchester] though.
Hedgehog@14
Oh, ok. (Just tried and failed to think of one for “crossword setter”). Still don’t get the ducks …
Thanks for all the comments, feedback – and tangents…Ivor Biggun certainly bring back some ?80s/90s? memories!…
Sounds like this was pretty well received, from Australia to the USA, even if Gordon found it a bit like having to eat up your greens because they are good for you!
Tony at #18 – from memory, Usborne is a children’s book publisher, and one of their themes (memes?) is to hide a cartoon duck somewhere in each page, to add a level of interest on the 20th, 30th re-reading…
Cheers, MC.
It occurs to me now that Major Bumsaw may have written some books more likely to appear in a Cyclops or Viz puzzle …