A reasonably straightforward Genius this month.
The preamble read: Answers to down clues must be modified before entry in a consistent manner suggested by 24. Entries are all real words, including one hyphenated. It didn’t take long to solve 24: ALL ENDS UP, so it seemed clear that we were to move the last letter of each down entry up within the word. This proved to be the case, although the number of spaces varied according to the word. I am assuming that CARBON-DATE is the hyphenated term, since it doesn’t appear in Chambers as a verb at all. There were some proper names in the “real words” so some general knowledge was required, but nothing too obscure. Thanks to Picaroon.
| ACROSS | ||
| 8 | DOROTHEA |
Eliot heroine gathering inspiring gold articles(8)
|
| OR (gold) inside DO (a party, or gathering), THE A (articles). Dorothea is the heroine of Middlemarch. | ||
| 9 | USHERS |
Poe characters, maybe people on horse straddling horse(6)
|
| H(eroin or horse) inside USERS (people on horse!). The Fall of the House of Usher is one of Edgar Allen Poe’s best known works. | ||
| 10 | TURKISTAN |
Go around Cambodia first, then a part of Asia (9)
|
| K (International Vehicle Registration code for Cambodia) IST (first) A all inside TURN (go). | ||
| 11 | LUTZ |
Clue Schlemiel losing face in manoeuvre on ice (4)
|
| (k)LUTZ. | ||
| 12 | TOUCHE |
Nothing received by trade union leftist as acknowledgement of strike (6)
|
| O (nothing) in TU (trade union), CHE (Guevara, leftist). It’s said by one fencer to another when hit. | ||
| 14 | RETYPING |
Rewriting Peer Gynt, one overwrites English in translation (8)
|
| *(PEER GYNT with I (one) for E). | ||
| 15 | HERRICK |
English linesman‘s slip caught by American rustic (7)
|
| ERR (slip) inside HICK (American rustic). This will be Robert Herrick, the poet. | ||
| 17 | USTINOV |
Viscount dropping cocaine off for actor (7)
|
| *VIS(c)OUNT. | ||
| 20 | REFORMAT |
Official coat for officer with dull design again (8)
|
| REF (official) OR ( |
||
| 22 | HEARTY |
Try and try again after draining cordial (6)
|
| HEAR (try, as by a judge) T(r)Y. | ||
| 23 | FEED |
Hoover perhaps filled with energy and fuel (4)
|
| E(nergy) inside FED; the reference is to John Edgar Hoover, legendary director of the FBI. | ||
| 24 | ALL ENDS UP |
Makes advances, you heard, breaking a record? Totally! (3,4,2)
|
| LENDS U (sounds like “you”) inside A LP (record). | ||
| 26 | ELATER |
Beetle on yarn from the east (6)
|
| RE TALE (all rev). | ||
| 27 | EVERMORE |
Always returning, European cleric enters capital city (8)
|
| E(uropean) REV inside ROME, all rev. | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | PORTHOLE |
Underground explorer‘s difficulty cutting grass by river (8)
|
| POTHOLER: POT (grass) HOLE (difficulty) R(iver). | ||
| 2 | HOER |
Greek priestess‘s husband, with a lot of love for the Greeks (4)
|
| HERO: H(usband) ERO(s). | ||
| 3 | SHRINE |
Bruise part of body on American casualty (6)
|
| SHINER: SHIN (part of body) ER (Emergency Room). | ||
| 4 | SALTIRE |
Starter of lamb? Row after it’s more highly seasoned (7)
|
| SALTIER: SA (sex appeal or “it”), L(amb) TIER (row). | ||
| 5 | SUNNITES |
Brightest group of students upset one occupies treehouse? (8)
|
| SUNNIEST: NUS (group of students, rev) I (one) in NEST (treehouse). | ||
| 6 | PHILIPPINA |
Recipient of epistle and letter from abroad, an entertaining Renaissance painter (10)
|
| PHILIPPIAN: PHI (letter from abroad) around LIPPI (Renaissance painter), AN. A philippina is a game involving the eating of a nut. | ||
| 7 | GRATIN |
Maybe a number of stars preserve cheap paper bags (6)
|
| RATING: TIN (preserve) in RAG (cheap paper). | ||
| 13 | CARBON-DATE |
Effervescent comedian swallowing one tab, partying (10)
|
| CARBONATED: *(ONE TAB) inside CARD (comedian). | ||
| 16 | COMPADRE |
Firm representative and a socialist put side by side (8)
|
| COMPARED: CO (firm) MP (representative) A RED (socialist). | ||
| 18 | OUTSPORT |
Exposes packaging left on board a ship in remote harbours (8)
|
| OUTPORTS: OUTS (exposes) PORT (left) S(hip). | ||
| 19 | STILLER |
Workers in the field left boring decorators of walls (7)
|
| TILLERS: L(eft) inside TILERS. | ||
| 21 | EVENLY |
Outline of lullaby carried by steady old English recorder (6)
|
| EVELYN: L(ullab)Y inside EVEN (steady). The recorder is the 17th century diarist, John Evelyn. | ||
| 22 | HANDEL |
Manage well, protecting location of Bismarck (6)
|
| HANDLE: ND (North Dakota, state capital being Bismarck) inside HALE (well). | ||
| 25 | SAMI |
English novelist wrongly cut short (4)
|
| AMIS: AMIS(s); the novelist could be either Kingsley or Martin. |
At first I was struggling until I hit on the idea that all downs were anagrams. I’d forgotten the bit about 24a by that point. In fact I struggled to solve it. But all came good in the end. I think 6d caused me the most trouble as I had several attempts at deciding what the eventual entry should be.
Thanks to Picaroon and Bridgesong
My entry point was RATING/GRATIN, so at first I thought that the last letter had to move to the first position, but pretty quickly it became clear that it merely had to move “up” somewhere. I really enjoy Picaroon’s style, I will say. The clues seem kind of weird at first, but they do parse.
Thanks Picaroon and bridgesong.
Enjoyed this – got ALL ENDS UP early on and started working on it. Quite a few tricky ones.
Liked TOUCHE, HERRICK, RATING/GRATIN
I recall aiming directly for 24 and then wondering how it was going to apply. As usual with Genius puzzles, I just went at it solving what I could of the normal clues, writing answers to the down clues next to the clue rather than in the grid and wondering how they were meant to fit. Enlightenment dawned marginally faster than it did across Western Europe in the 17th century!
Many thanks Picaroon and bridgesong – good fun and again a clever twist, without being too clever.
It occurs to me now that the preamble was slightly misleading in its reference to modification “in a consistent manner” of the down entries. Unless I’m missing something, the number of places in which it was necessary to move the final letter was not consistent with anything, except of course that every new entry was a real word – which was spelled out by the preamble in any case!
Thanks for the blog, and I agree that this was reasonably straightforward – for a Genius.
I think the preamble was entirely fair – the down entries consistently had the last letter moved higher up – which ALL ENDS UP suggests but does not spell out precisely. I’d hardly expect the wrinkle to be spelled out completely, and this one was far less ambiguous than some other Geniuses.
I enjoyed 1d, being one myself (potholer, not porthole)
bridgesong@5
SHINER yields both SHRINE & RHINES while moving R up.
Of course, RHINES would clash with crossers, but SHRINE leaves all the other letters in place, just moving up the end letter.
Same is true with SALTIER/SALTIRE though in REALIST and RETAILS the end is up, the other letters are messed up.
‘Don’t do anything else, just move the end letter up’ – that, I thought was the meaning of ‘in a consistent manner’.
Well, it is Picaroon, so…
20a REFORMAT “coat for officer” = O[ffice]R | 23a FEED: def is “fuel”
[typo 22d ‘…ND (North Dakota)’
Frankie G: thanks for spotting the typos. I will correct them.
Not sure where else to post this question, but if the Genius requires you to amend the answer before inserting it into the grid, on the website do you enter the answer prior to making the change, or enter what you would write in the grid?
PJ: My view is that you should enter what you would write in the grid. Originally, the Genius puzzle was interactive, so your completed grid was the entry.