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It’s my six-monthly delve into the Guardian Genius with a puzzle from Pangukupu that I know better as Phi in the Independent series.,
The preamble was fairly succinct and understandable, telling us that "Wordplay in each Across clue contains a superfluous letter. In clue order, these letters spell out an instruction to be applied to two additional words in the grid, creating 12 new words, for the final solution to be submitted as your entry."
I saw BOTTOM appearing in the top row of unchecked letters fairly early on which gave a hint as to what the message might instruct us to do. It seemed likely that BOTTOM would be moved to the unchecked letters in the final row to replace something indicating ‘top’ that would itself move to replace BOTTOM.
The final part of the message started to look like WORDS with the first bit looking like SWAP. The middle word took a bit longer to fall, but eventually I had enough extra letters to realise that the middle word would be ERRANT. The full message therefore was SWAP ERRANT WORDS. That helped identify the location of the final extra letters I hadn’t yet found.
So there we have it – BOTTOM and SUMMIT are SWAPped round to end up in positions relating to their meaning and 12 new words were created as shown below
| Original entry | Amended entry |
| Top row | |
| BEATINGS | SEATINGS |
| ON TO | UNTO |
| TAKEOVER | MAKEOVER |
| TILLER | MILLER |
| OBIS | IBIS |
| MIMING | TIMING |
| Bottom row | |
| SUPERS | SUPERB |
| THRU | THRO |
| AUTISM | AUTIST |
| CLUBROOM | CLUBROOT |
| LOBI | LOBO |
| CHARTIST | CHARTISM |
There were slightly more obscure words resulting in the lower half of the grid, but they are all in the dictionary.
I started by solving as many down clues as I could on the grounds that these clues were normal. That helped with the acrosses where the definitions were originally more helpful than the wordplay
The grids before and after the SWAP are shown below. The detailed table shows the parsing of the clues and where the extra letters were located in the wordplay
Thanks to Pangakupu for the challenge.
| No | Detail | Letter |
| Across | Letters in the wordplay omitted from the Across entries are shown in fuchsia |
|
| 7 |
A canoe is at sea in largely marine area (7) OCEANIA (according to Wikipedia, OCEANIA is a geographical region that is described as a continent in various parts of the world. It includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. The majority of OCEANIA is sea, a large marine area) Anagram of (at sea) A CANOE IS OCEANIA* |
S |
| 8 |
Gain cheese with tip of fork, saying little? (2,5) IN BRIEF (a few words; saying little) WIN (gain) + BRIE (cheese) + F (first letter of [tip of] FORK) IN BRIE F |
W |
| 10 |
Gambling game has a great many on the way (5) LOTTO (gambling game) A + LOT (great many) + TO (all the way in the direction of; on the way) LOT TO |
A |
| 11 |
Writer, with a tilt, is getting on board? (9) ENLISTING (enrolling; getting on board) PEN (writer) + LISTING (with a tilt) EN LISTING |
P |
| 12 |
Kitchen minion, as it were, from all over Eastern Europe (3-4) PAN-SLAV (across all the SLAVic regions, primarily Eastern Europe) PAN SLAVE (a low level worker in the kitchen; kitchen minion) PAN SLAV |
E |
| 14 |
Relative taking correct Kindle again (7) RELIGHT (kindle again) REL (relative) + RIGHT (correct) REL IGHT |
R |
| 16 |
Lawn trimmed? An exciting event (3) GAS (an exciting event) GRASS (lawn) excluding the final letter (trimmed) S GAS |
R |
| 17 |
Heading for lead in contest, end back in front? It’s a marvel (7) MIRACLE (marvel) AIM (goal; end) reversed (back) + (L [first letter of [heading for] LEAD contained in [in] RACE [contest]) MI< RAC (L) E |
A |
| 19 |
Vehicle is able to run (3) CAR (vehicle) CAN (is able to) + R (run) CAR |
N |
| 20 |
Trade unions blocking entrance halls in European country (7) AUSTRIA (A European country) TUS (Trade Unions) contained in (blocking) ATRIA (entrance halls) A (US) TRIA |
T |
| 23 |
Hospital blocking a French treatment centre passing without notice (7) UNHEARD (passing without notice) H (hospital) contained in (blocking) (UNE [one of the French forms of ‘the’] + WARD [treatment centre]) UN (H) E ARD |
W |
| 25 |
Nasty op trauma that’s admitted to surgeon at times (9) AMPUTATOR (at times, a surgeon acts an AMPUTATOR when cutting off limbs) Anagram of (nasty) OP TRAUMA containing (that’s admitted) TO AMPUTA (TO) R* |
O |
| 27 |
Dismiss backing organisation after poor service (3,2) LET GO (dismiss) LET (faulty service in tennis) + ORG (organisation) reversed (backing) LET GO< |
R |
| 28 |
A university will need ways to restrain right atmospheric illumination (7) AURORAS (luminous atmospheric phenomena) A + U (university) + ROADS (ways) containing (to restrain) R (right) A U RO (R) AS |
D |
| 29 |
Former pop singer snipping tail from irritated ruminant (7) ORBISON (reference Roy ORBISON [1936 – 1988], American pop singer) SORE (irritated) excluding the final letter (snipping tail) E + BISON (example of a ruminant) OR BISON |
S |
| Down | ||
| 1 |
Nonsense about taking in food strikes (8) BEATINGS (strikes) BS (bullshit; nonsense) containing (about) EATING (taking in food) B (EATING) S |
|
| 2 |
Aware of Ranger’s companion? Not initially (2,2) ON TO (aware of) TONTO (the Lone Ranger’s companion in the television series of the same name) excluding (not) the first letter (initially) T ON TO |
|
| 3 |
New management offer to provide next deliveries? (8) TAKEOVER (new management is installed following a TAKEOVER of a company) TAKE (offer to provide as in ‘I’ll TAKE some food to the picnic’) + OVER (set of deliveries of balls in cricket) TAKE OVER |
|
| 4 |
Former choreographer and director? (6) TILLER (reference the TILLER girls who were among the most popular dance troupes of the 1890s, first formed by John TILLER [1854 – 1925] in Manchester, England, in 1889) TILLER (handle or lever for turning a rudder thereby changing the direction of travel; director) double definition TILLER |
|
| 5 |
Nothing black is seen in Japanese accessories (4) OBIS (broad sashes worn with a Japanese kimono; Japanese accessories) O (character representing zero or nothing) + B (black) + IS O B IS |
|
| 6 |
Operatic character? No good performing silently (6) MIMING (performing silently) MIMI (reference the character MIMI in Puccini’s opera La Boheme) + NG (no good) MIMI NG |
|
| 7 |
Game picked up, with joker finally appearing in deck (5) ORLOP (the lowest deck in a ship) R (last letter of [finally] JOKER) contained in (appearing in) POLO (sport; game) reversed (picked up; down entry) O (R) LOP< |
|
| 9 |
Warplane about to leave ship (7) FIGHTER (warplane) FREIGHTER (ship) excluding (to leave) RE (concerning; about) FIGHTER |
|
| 13 |
Forest dweller catching bird in both hands (5) LEMUR (long-tailed mammals related to the monkeys, forest dwellers) (L [left hand] + R [right hand]) containing (catching) EMU (bird) L (EMU) R |
|
| 15 |
Parasite with shelter on top of chestnut (5) LEECH (example of a parasite) LEE (shelter) + CH (chestnut) – this being a down entry the letters LEE are positioned on top of CH in the grid LEE CH |
|
| 16 |
Broadcast commercial in Georgia and part of Spain (7) GRANADA (city and province in Spain) (RAN AD [broadcast a commercial]) contained in (in) GA (abbreviation for the US State of Georgia) G (RAN AD) A |
|
| 18 |
Curtailed suggestion over cleaner for society venue (8) CLUBROOM (society venue) CLUE (suggestion) excluding the final letter (curtailed) E + BROOM (cleaner) – as with LEECH, CLU is positioned over BROOM in the grid CLU BROOM |
|
| 19 |
Church performer: a supporter of the workers (8) CHARTIST (supporter of the campaign for the extension of political power to the working classes in the 1830s) CH (church) + ARTIST (performer) CH ARTIST |
|
| 21 |
Person engaged in dodgy behaviour? Police officers should appear (6) SUPERS (SUPERintendents; police officers) PER (person) contained in (engaged in) SUS (suspicious or dodgy behaviour) SU (PER) S |
|
| 22 |
I must get treated following a developmental disorder (6) AUTISM (development disorder) A + an anagram of (get treated) I MUST A UTISM* |
|
| 24 |
River entering low swamp (5) DROWN (flood; swamp) R (river) contained in (entering) DOWN (low) D (R) OWN |
|
| 26 |
American’s over most of the rugby (4) THRU (American word for THROUGH [over]) THE excluding the final letter (most of) + RU (Rugby [Union]) TH RU |
|
| 27 |
Rounded shapes I toss overhead? (4) LOBI (plural of LOBUS [lobe; rounded segmented division]; rounded shapes) LOB (toss) + I – another entry using the vertical nature of the entry to indicate positioning of the letters LOB I |
Thanks duncanshiell and Pangakupu.
Liked this puzzle.
SWAP ERRANT WORDS – BOTTOM & SUMMIT, good device.
As you say, as superfluous letters emerged, the instruction was guessable.
What’s more grid entries are real words, as well.
Well done
Thanks duncanshiell as your colourful style is a real help in following the steps here, and for the thorough explanations as I now realise I forgot to look up the operatic MIMI. Agree with ilippu and would add that there were enough cold-solvable clues to give less experienced “special instruction” solvers like me a good way in, but enough relative obscurity (eg my favourite, ORLOP) that it was never a walkover, so for me it was a very well-judged difficulty level. Thanks Pangakupu.
My notes say: “Easiest Genius in months. Theme apparent very early on”. My only query is AUTIST, which isn’t in Chambers, but I expect that it can be found in other dictionaries.
Thanks D & P.
bridgesong @ 3
AUTIST is in Collins and the Oxford Dictionary of English, defined as a person with AUTISM
This was, conceptually, one of the simplest puzzles in this series, but that did not dampen my enthusiasm for it. As a crossword it was quite challenging to solve, the Across clues (naturally) taking rather more brainpower and time to solve than the Downs. When the message SWAP ERRANT WORDS revealed itself I found the final solution in minutes – not the seconds that I suspect most solvers took. (It’s fairly obvious when you look for it.)
A pleasant experience, completed on the day I started it. Thanks to setter and blogger.
Learning experience for me. I thought I’d filled the grid and found the hidden instructions but I failed to spot the swapping device. Note to self- always look around the edge.
If I had looked at edge letters I hope I’d have seen the MAKEOVER and MILLER needed more work as BOMMOM would be meaningless!
4d TILLER – Remembered the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiller_Girls from https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Sunday_Night_at_the_London_Palladium&redirect=no
1955-1966 – Sadly only a redirect page now…
…4d MILLER – The MAKEOVER changed the “Former choreographer” to a different kind of “director”: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Miller_(filmmaker)
The man behind the Mad Max, Babe and Happy Feet movies. ‘Not to be confused with‘ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_T._Miller
who ‘directed the 1992 film Frozen Assets, widely considered by critics and audiences alike to be one of the worst films in the history of cinema.’
‘Roger Ebert awarded the film a rare zero-stars rating, writing: “I felt like I was an eyewitness to a disaster. If I had been an actor in the film, I would have wondered why all the characters in this movie seem dumber than the average roadkill. What puzzles me is this film’s tone. It’s essentially a children’s film with a dirty mind. This is a movie to watch in appalled silence. To call it the year’s worst would be a kindness.” Frozen Assets holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on nine reviews.’
Great puzzle, thanks Phi. And a very comprehensive blog, thanks Duncanshiel.
I loved 12A with the image of a pan slave. Didn’t think much of 21D, who would ever use Supers in this context?
I spent a long time puzzling over the instructions but finally twigged what had to be swapped. No cigar again.
OT: Genius 244 by Claw.
We have 28 lights. One 10,9 solution, is deliberately unclued, which will take 2 lights. So, we need 26 clues.
We have only 20 clues.
2 8-letter, 1 7-letter and 3 6-letter clues are missing.
There were several I couldn’t parse, and I had Miller at 4. I found several choreographers and directors with that name, but it wasn’t satisfying.
I nearly got there but shot myself in the foot by the above mistake, makeover instead of takeover (also kind of works) and in on instead of on to.
ilippu @10 the Guardian has now amended the puzzle to include the six missing clues.
brian-with-an-eye@12 – Thanks
An admirably thorough blog, Mr Shiell – thank you!
I think we deciphered the message with quite a bit of white space still on the grid, but it took hours, rather than minutes or seconds, before the penny finally dropped as to its meaning. Still, got there in the end…
A record for me. Had it completed by September the 7th. I must admit that I only had the answer to 4D by using the crossers and the fact that the first letter had to be T. I had not heard of the choreographer. I’m so glad I came here to brag, as otherwise I would not have seen the above advice about Genius 244 by Claw. I kept counting and re-counting the clues and could not work out how these could possibly give all the solutions. I’ll go back now and get the amended version.
Um, “une” means “a/an/one” not “the”. Just saying but thanks for everything otherwise. Fiendish. My first Genius.