March’s Genius challenge is provided by Soup. I note that Soup has been the December Genius compiler in 2016, 2017 and 2018 but I’ve never solved any of his puzzles myself, so I wasn’t sure what to expect
The preamble was fairly short and stated: This puzzle salutes the 150th anniversary this month of the publication of a major work. Solutions contain elements from the latest version of the work. (Letter counts after the clues are correct.)
Hindsight is a wonderful thing so I’ll admit I didn’t really notice the word ‘elements’ in the preamble until well after I had realised what was going on in the puzzle. I might have made the connection a lot earlier if I’d studied the preamble properly.
It was very clear that the length of clue answers was usually longer than the space available, possibly implying, at least initially, that letters were to be omitted on entry. Early on it seemed to me that Rs were being omitted, but that theory did last very long. It took quite a long time though before I realised that there were both single cells and intersecting cells with double letters. It was the intersection of FRESCO (1 down), 9 across that obviously began RE and COVERTLY (13 across) that finally gave me a flash of the periodic table. That thought helped sort many of the other entries into cells with single or double letters.
March 2019 is the 150th anniversary of the month in 1869 when Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev [1834 – 1907] presented his initial work on the development of the periodic table to the Russian Chemical Society. Mendeleev arranged chemical elements by atomic mass. He also predicted the discovery of other elements, and left spaces open in his periodic table for them.
The pièce de résistance of this puzzle for me was the realisation that every single letter cell in the grid was also a symbol from the periodic table, with the result that every cell in the grid was filled with a chemical symbol or a black square.
In all, Soup has used 36 elements from the 118 that currently comprise the periodic table. The four most recent additions Tennessine (Ts), Nihonium (Nh) and Moscovium (Mc) and
Oganessian (Og) were verified in December 2015 and officially named in 2016. Unfortunately, Soup has been unable to incorporate any of them into the puzzle, but I expect he tried. In any event, the grid construction is very impressive and probably took a good deal of time to finalise.
The 36 elements involved are shown below
| Al | Aluminum |
| Ar | Argon |
| At | Astatine |
| B | Boron |
| Bi | Bismuth |
| C | Carbon |
| Co | Cobalt |
| Cr | Chromium |
| Dy | Dysprosium |
| Er | Erbium |
| F | Fluorine |
| H | Hydrogen |
| Ho | Holmium |
| I | Iodine |
| K | Potassium |
| La | Lanthanum |
| Lu | Lutetium |
| N | Nitrogen |
| Ne | Neon |
| No | Nobelium |
| O | Oxygen |
| P | Phosphorus |
| Pa | Protactinium |
| Ra | Radium |
| Re | Rhenium |
| S | Sulphur |
| Sc | Scandium |
| Se | Selenium |
| Ta | Tantalum |
| Th | Thorium |
| Ti | Titanium |
| Tl | Thallium |
| U | Uranium |
| V | Vanadium |
| W | Tungsten |
| Y | Yttrium |
In addition to the grid construction I was impressed with clues. There were some well masked definitions. Ones that stood out for me were, ‘They have’, ‘Perhaps America’, ‘seeing problem and ‘Foot (the leader)’. I also thought there was some excellent wordplay constructions and here I include Prada’s outlet for USCITA, the two singers involved in BARONESSES and the heads full of inaccuracy in SNOBBISHNESS.
I’m not sure of all my parsing of PARISHIONER, especially the reference to 11, but I think I have come up with something that makes senses.  : I’m also a little unsure of the reference to 20 in the clue at 14 down SNOBBISHNESS, but again I’ve made a suggestion
The filled grid looked like this:
I thought this was a really good fun puzzle – thanks to Soup.
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Clue | Wordplay | Entry |
| 9 | Restoration of Prada’s outlet stops in-store chaos (13) |
USCITA (Italian for exit [outlet]; Prada is an Italian luxury fashion house) contained in (stops) an anagram of (chaos) IN STORE RES (USCITA) TION* |
ReSUScITaTiON (restoration) |
| 10 | Flowers in old French duchy having an inverted centre (6) |
VALOIS (old French Duchy) with the middle letters (centre) ALOI reversed (inverted) V IOLA< S |
VIOLaS (flowers of the violet and pansy genus) |
| 11 | Chap, tense, infiltrating lines in secret (8) |
COVE (man, chap) + (T [tense] contained in [infiltrating] RLY [railway lines]) COVE R (T) LY |
CoVErTlY (in secret) |
| 12 | Complicated grammatical constructions is accepting noun and verb and removing section the answer? (11) |
IS containing (accepting) (N [noun] + V [verb] + SOLUTION [answer] excluding [removing] S section) I (N V OLUTION) S |
INVOLuTiONS (complicated grammatical constructions) |
| 13 | Singers entertaining another making a comeback, having no time for nobility (10) |
BASSES (singers with low voices) containing (entertaining) (TENOR [singer with a voice between baritone and alto] excluding [having no] T [time] reversed [making a comeback]) BA (RONE<) SSES |
BArONeSSeS (noble ladies) |
| 15 | Who’s clue? That’s a poser! (4-3) |
WHO’S is an anagram of [OFF] SHOW so a clue for WHO’S could be SHOW OFF SHOW OFF |
SHOWOFF (person who behaves in an ostentatious manner in an effort to win admiration or public attention; poser) |
| 17 | That woman’s taken in by cheeky youngster – one with an angelic face 6) |
HER (that woman) contained in (taken in by) CUB (cheeky youngster) C (HER) UB |
CHErUB (a sweet innocent-looking chubby-faced person, especially a child; one [youngster] with an angelic face) |
| 18 | Cars going around bends (4) |
Anagram of (going round) CARS ARCS* |
ArCS (bends) |
| 19 | Cover home, then make application claiming minimum of repayment (6) |
IN (home) + (SUE [make an application] containing [claiming] R [first letter of {minimum of} REPAYMENT]) IN SU (R) E |
INSURe (cover) |
| 21 | Salty, rather like Irish bread? (8) |
BRACK is a variant of BARMBRACK, an Irish cake, loaf or bun containing dried fruit so BRACKISH could be defined as rather like Irish bread BRACKISH |
BRaCKISH (salty) |
| 23 | Perhaps it’s used to dispatch Spooner’s bully bird? (8) |
CROSSBOW is a Spoonersim of BOSS (bully) CROW (type of bird) CROSSBOW |
CrOSSBOW (weapon for shooting [to dispatch] bolts) |
| 24 | Brainy problem in astrophysics work; shooting star burst hitting sun (9) |
Anagram of (work) ASTR*OPHYSICS excluding (shooting) an anagram of (burst) STAR + S (sun) PSYCHOSI* S |
PSYCHOSIS (serious mental disorder characterized by e.g. illusions, delusions, hallucinations; brainy problem) |
| 25 | Wearing spectacles on the nose, consider tackling a very small book (6) |
CTAV (first letters of [on the nose] each of CONSIDER, TACKLING, A and VERY) contained in (wearing) OO (image of a pair of spectacles) O (CTAV) O |
OCTaVO (book or pamphlet made up of one or more full sheets of |
| 27 | They have now melted down sovereigns (6) |
Anagram of (melted down) NOW + ERS (Elizabeth Reginas; monarchs) OWN* ERS |
OWNErS (people who have) |
| 28 | Local churchgoer Norm is heartily empathising with rector about 11 (11) |
PAR (norm or standard) + IS + ([H central letter {heartily} of EMPATHISING] + R {rector}] containing [about] [11 {eleven} formed by I {Roman numeral for one} + ONE]) I may not have got this right, as I am still a bit unsure about the 11 bit. PAR IS H (I ONE) R |
PArISHIONEr (one who worships at a PARISH church; local churhgoer) |
| Down | |||
| 1 | Traces of filth removed, exposing Sistine Chapel’s original artwork (6) |
FRESCO (first letters of each of [traces of] FILTH, REMOVED, EXPOSING, SISTINE, CHAPEL’S and ORIGINAL) FRESCO |
FReSCo (mode of painting on walls covered with damp freshly-laid plaster [true FRESCO], or partly-dried plaster [dry FRESCO or FRESCO secco]; a picture painted in this way; artwork) |
| 2 | Perhaps America, aggrieved with Europe, regularly disregarded Paris (10) |
Anagram of (aggrieved) W [with] and EUROPE and PRS (PARIS excluding [disregarded] letters 2 and 4 [regularly] A and I) SUPERPOWER* |
SUPErPOWEr (very powerful state, America is regarded as a SUPERPOWER) |
| 3 | Rowdy singles from Sydney Youngblood following Top of the Pops (5) |
NO I (Number 1; [in the charts] Top of the Pops) + SY (first letters of each of [singles from] SYDNEY and YOUNGBLOOD) NO I SY |
NoISY (rowdy) |
| 4 | Concerned with what one might do with a chair, with hindsight seeing problem (9) |
RE (concerned with) + SIT IN IT (what one might do with a chair) reversed (with hindsight) RE (TI NI TIS)< |
ReTiNITiS (inflammation of the retina; eyesight [seeing] problem) |
| 5 | Movie company’s general terms (10) |
UNIVERSAL’S (reference UNIVERSAL pictures, an American film studio; movie company) UNIVERSALS |
UNIVErSAlS (general terms) |
| 6 | Makes big changes to our television’s setup (14) |
Anagram of (setup) OUR TELEVISION’S REVOLUTIONISES |
ReVOLuTiONISeS (causes radical change to) |
| 7 | Primate (bishop) runs rings round man who’s made money (6) |
B (bishop) + (OO [two ring shaped letters; ring] containing [round] NOB [person of wealth]) B O (NOB) O |
BONOBO (species of chimpanzee (Pan paniscus) found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, considered to be Man’s closest animal relative) |
| 8 | How Osiris might be heard to agree with his wife? (4) |
I (sounds like [might be heard] AY [yes, I agree]) + SIS (sister) I SIS |
ISIS (In Egyptian mythology, Osiris married his sister ISIS) |
| 13 | White powder I found on top of vehicle parked in temporary accommodation? (6) |
(I + CAR [vehicle]) contained in (parked in) B & B (bed & breakfast; temporary accommodation) B (I CAR) B |
BICArB (BICARBonate of soda, example of a white powder) |
| 14 | Looking down on those 20 sons, heads full of inaccuracy (12) |
S (sons) + ([NOB {head} + NESS {headland or head}] containing [full of] BISH (mistake; inaccuracy] ) S NOB (BISH) NESS |
SNoBBISHNeSS (looking down on ‘inferior’ people) I think ‘those 20’ relates to the entry SUBSTATION at 20 down which could be split into SUB STATION to indicate an lower or inferior position, but I’m not certain. |
| 16 | Foot (the leader) below par in speech, following warning (7) |
FORE (warning shout in golf to indicate the ball might hit someone) + PAW (sounds like [in speech] POOR) I think the PAW / POOR homophone depends on your own accent. I pronounce the two words significantly differently, but I’ve met people who would say the words the same way. FORE PAW |
FORePaW (front [leader] foot of an animal) |
| 18 | Those in charge of church’s architectural feature twice put vaults underneath (11) |
ARCH (architectural feature) + BIS (twice) + HOPS (leaps; vaults) ARCH BIS HOPS |
ArCHBiSHoPS (Church leaders) |
| 20 | Where Transformers could have been set? (10) |
TRANSFORMERS is a 2007 American science fiction action film based on the toy line of the same name. A film requires a film set. Perhaps a SUBSTATION would be an appropriate set for a film of this name? SUBSTATION |
SUBSTaTiON (SUBordinate STATION, especially a switching, transforming, or converting electrical station intermediate between the generating station and the low-tension distribution network) |
| 22 | Wax sticks gecko centrally on small beam, being concealed (7) |
(C [middle letter of [centrally] GECKO + ON + S [small]) containing (being concealed) RAY (beam) C (RAY) ON S |
CRaYONS (colouring pencils sometimes supplied as wax sticks) |
| 23 | Embracing change that makes Harry happy, rice pops becoming more crunchy (8) |
Anagram of (pops) RICE containing (embracing) R IS P (if R is P then HARRY becomes HAPPY) C (RISP) IER* |
CrISPIEr (more crunchy) |
| 24 | Take the mickey out of Pole getting wages? On the contrary! (6) |
PAY (wages) containing (getting) ROD (pole) i.e. the opposite [on the contrary] of the statement in the clue PA (ROD) Y |
PArODy (make a deliberate mockery of) |
| 25 | Curses – there’s a bit of hair in the cereal (5) |
H (first letter of [bit of] HAIR) contained in (in) OATS (cereal crop) OAT (H) S |
OAtHS (curses) |
| 26 | Going topless annoys more people (6) |
BOTHERS (annoys) excluding the first letter (going topless) B OTHERS |
OThErS (additional people) |
We understood the elements connection early on, but it took ages for the penny to drop as to how to fill them in. But what a joy once we realised! This was a very satisfying solve indeed. Thank you Soup and duncanshiell
The choice of words in the grid was mostly determined by a preamble which was removed at a late stage for being too complicated, which is a shame, but I can at least reveal it now:
In x,y coordinates (where the top left square is 1,1 and the top right is 15,1), some information (maybe provided by TL, and including one superfluous letter) is encoded at
5,1 / 5,13 / 15,10 / 15,15 / 11,3 / 14,6 / 10,10 / 15,13 / 3,8 / 5,15 / 11,13 / 10,6 / 1,9 / 11,2 / 7,8 / 1,15 (2,4,2,6,2,7+1).
I’ll come back here at some point later to say hello to people; for now thanks very much to Duncan!
H/S
(Oh, and you have got what I was aiming for in the two you were unsure of!)
Like Bayleaf, we took ages to work out how the answers were to be entered and suddenly all became clear. We enjoyed the challenge very much and I don’t think that the removed preamble would have helped! Did not spot the additional accomplishment of all other letters being elements too. Brilliant!
Thanks, Hamish and Duncan.
I’m afraid I was completely put off attempting this one by Mr. Crossbar, who rather gave the game away when I read out the preamble to him. “Oh, yes” he said, “That’s the Periodic Table. There was a crossword about it in New Scientist the other day.” Half the fun is figuring out what it’s all about.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Genius is the word for this alright. I immediately twigged the periodic table as the reference work from the well-advertised 150th anniversary (at least, it is in the things I read and listen to!). However, getting the grid fill took me way longer than it should, even with the few normal length clues in and an number of others solved. When it hit, it was made even more fun by the ambiguity of how to slot in some of the answers – baronesses especially, but also cherub (He or Er?). Only after completion did I spot the fact that all single letters were also elements.
I cannot imagine the pain of the number of gridfills that almost worked for this so thank you Soup for an excellent puzzle and Duncan for the super blog. I concur that, unlike many themed or clever puzzles, this also had many super clues. Made for a lovely long solve.
What thezed @6 said in all respects. To my shame I didn’t notice that the single letters were all elements, and was only alerted to the fact when I read an online discussion about the puzzle after finishing. And I did A-level chemistry – though back then there weren’t so many elements in the Periodic Table!
The extra bit of preamble would have been an unnecessary complication, I feel.
Soup’s Genius puzzles have all been top-notch. Any chance of him getting a regular slot for the daily puzzle, please?
Hello,
Well, thanks for the lovely comments! Glad you liked it.
I feel strongly that Genius puzzles should be a window into a weird world. It’s easy to make a puzzle which is sort of odd – fourteen solutions of a kind, say – but I reckon they need to be all the way through the looking glass. Hence making all the letters elemental symbols, or December’s puzzle, which was one of the hardest fills I have had to do. In this case it makes it a bit more difficult not being allowed T or D or E singly, but that just puts the hard work on me 🙂
The words in the grid were constrained by wanting to have the letters for that other preamble. I did try to get a few scientists’ names in there but most of the obvious ones can’t be made with elemental symbols. The one exception is the bottom right: Prof. WOTHERS was my chemistry teacher at university.
I’ll let you in on the fill. There’s no way I could have done this by hand. I used the marvellous Crossword Compiler along with some programs I wrote. First I wrote one to take a word list and split it out by all possible elemental symbols. So CHERUB could be C He Ru B or C H Er U B and so on. Now, Crossword Compiler will do automatic grid fills, but it won’t work with two letters in one square. However, it will treat accents as different characters. So I then created a map from all elemental symbols to a single letter in English, French, German, Greek and Russian (eg He became Ï) and translated my word list. Then I used *that* in the grid fill (having populated some letters I wanted for that preamble), then translated it back again. I rejected dozens of grids which had too obscure words or too many similar words. As it was it was a pig to clue because there are too many long words to make it tidy – a sprinkling of four or five letter words really helps things roll along for the solver.
Already working on my next Genius, which has needed another couple of programs to put together. Simple concept, hard to execute and I think (hope) it will gently infuriate solvers. And Cruciverbophile, thanks for the encouragement; I will look at putting one together and emailing Hugh and asking very very nicely.
I twigged the Periodic Table straight away by checking for 150th anniversaries, but thought the trick was to leave out some elemental chemical symbols to make the answers fit. I managed to solve quite a few of the clues cold but, with not much idea of how to fit any into the grid except those that went in complete, struggled. I decided to make a last push on Wednesday, cracking a couple more clues and was going to take the puzzle away with me on a trip but mislaid it. Printing it out again Saturday, I couldn’t even remember some of the answers I’d already got, so had to give up. The echo of Soup’s last Genius in “R is P” for CRISPIER helped; I don’t think I would have got that one otherwise. I also couldn’t work out the parsing for PARISHIONER, though it had to be.
Another fine example of Soup’s grid-filling SUPERPOWER. Mighty impressive to see the whole thing elucidated. Thanks Duncan, and thanks Hamish, even though you had me this time!
Great puzzle, Soup. Fortunately your initial preamble was rejected, otherwise it would have put me right off. I may be back when I’ve understood your post here at §8. Captain Oates said it for me..
In agreement with others, I also twigged the theme straight away having seen the anniversary celebrated in New Scientist a couple of weeks earlier. But it was still plenty challenging enough to solve – and to enter as thezed says, though having the periodic table to hand from the magazine helped.
My only (very slight) grumble was that the preamble said “elements from the latest version of this work”, meaning – so I thought – we could expect to see at least one of the new 4 elements represented. So I looked for words with Og or Ts in vain, but never mind!
Nkrman@10 – that would have been an addition to the preamble, not a replacement!
Although it is close to ten years since I last taught a chemistry class, I was delighted to find I still speak some chemistry. Once I twigged how to fill the grid it became easier. Funny, that last word is relative as these are always more difficult than the daily. But BARONESSES was my downfall, or at least how to split it and that meant SNOBBISHNESS took a month to fill!
Many thanks to Soup and Duncanshiell for the entertainment and elucidation. I did enjoy this.
I did my chemistry degree in 1966 when Tom Lehr’s song covered the elements.
This was too much monkey business for me so I binned it
Bravo to the blogger-rather him than me.
It helped having done the New Scientist puzzle, which used the same grid-fill principle, a few days before tackling this one. That was a concise crossword, not a cryptic, but had the list of elements used to help you.
I wonder if there was any connection between the two puzzles, or did two setters independently come up with the same idea?
No connection! I set this one in late January, so no chance of seeing the NS one. I got the idea from Chemistry World last year sometime…
It’s quite an achievement to compile such a grid. Bayleaf@1 and I took about a week and a half over several sessions before it all fell together. Lots of clues were great – I especially liked the 13a reverse clue (SHOW-OFF) and 23d (CRISPIER) for its surface and ingenious wordplay. We’re gradually catching up on the back catalogue of Genius puzzles and loving them. Thanks to Soup and Duncanshiell