A new IQ setter this week? Or is it one or more regular setters in disguise? Whoever it is – it is an extraordinarily daunting grid!
The preamble: “Each answer begins in the appropriately lettered/numbered cell. Answers to Region clues must be entered in an 8-cell path from cell to neighbouring cell, and a boundary must be drawn around each region: all regions are just the same, perhaps after reflecting or rotating. Hexagon clues have 6-letter answers which must be entered clockwise. One letter has been put in the wrong place in each hexagon clue and must be fitted elsewhere in the clue before solving: the phrase spelt by the misplaced letters suggests two possible names for the region shape. Letters not in any hexagon can spell SUE PLAYS THE BAND SET and letters not in any region can spell DR POTT. Two answers to Region clues are thematic.
As usual with IQs we decide that we have to solve some clues to get started. The preamble tells us that when we have solved a ‘Hexagon’ clue we can confidently enter the answer as we know the start point and that the answer is entered clockwise – but we have to identify the misplaced letter in order to solve the clue. While the ‘Region’ clues are ‘normal’, we can only enter the first letter of the answer with confidence until we have solved some nearby ‘hexagon’ clues to enable us to start to sort out the shape of the ‘regions’.
Our first hexagon answer was A, which gave us some help with region clues 1 and 3. We couldn’t get anywhere with 1 but solved 3 fairly quickly – the first two letters were already in the A hexagon, and it seemed obvious that the rest of the answer would have to go in the E hexagon. We then solved E, enabling us to enter the rest of the 3 region, and establishing the shape of the region. Looking at the shape, it became apparent that there is only one sequence of cells for the 8 letters to follow from the numbered cell. After solving a few more clues we decided to draw the outline of the region shape on tracing paper so that we could lay it over the grid in various orientations to help determine the outline of any one region once we had solved the relevant clue.
Having discovered the shape of the ‘region’, we were quite surprised at how quickly we managed to fill most of the grid. The number of ‘crossing’ letters from the hexagon answers obviously helped. However, we struggled with the region clues 1, 5 and 8, and hexagon clues B and J. We decided that region clue 5 must be EINSTEIN, but we couldn’t believe that the definition would be ‘German’. We then checked ROTATE for hexagon J and found that it can be an adjective which fits the definition and confirmed EINSTEIN. We had MONOTI– for region clue 8, but only MONOTINT appears in Chambers with no suitable definition. We finally tumbled to CHATLINE for region 1 and RELENT for hexagon B (and couldn’t understand why we hadn’t solved it earlier!) which led to MONOTILE for region 8. We checked this online and found a connection to EINSTEIN and the theme!
Apparently, in plain discrete geometry, the ‘Einstein problem’ asks about the existence of a single ‘prototile’ – a shape that can tessellate space, but only in a ‘nonperiodic’ way – it is called an EINSTEIN (German for ‘one stone’) and has nothing to do with the famous physicist. The MONOTILE was discovered in 2023 by David Smith, an amateur mathematician and retired print technician from Yorkshire. It is a 13-sided polygon that fits the criteria for an EINSTEIN and is made up of 8 ‘kite’ shaped cells just as they appear in the grid. Due to its shape, it is described as a HAT. Once we had discovered this, we realised that the clues for regions 5 and 8 are very crafty cryptic definitions.
In the end, we found that we really didn’t need the anagrams of the cells that are not in any region or hexagon – but we checked them just in case!
The displaced letters in the hexagon clues spell: WHERE DID YOU GET THAT….. these are the opening words of a comic vaudeville song – the next word is of course HAT and the second line is ‘Where did you get that TILE’. As indicated in the preamble, HAT and TILE are ‘possible names for the region shape’.
You will see from Region 1 that we were fortunate that our son was able to help with the parsing which had us completely stumped. He found the connection using the definition for tray in the OED. He was also fortunate that THIS came up on his YouTube algorithm earlier in the week. It’s really worth watching!
‘Hats’ off to Nathan Panning for an extraordinary feat in fitting together the hexagons and hats with no really unusual words.
In the parsing below, the original hexagon clues are struck through, followed by the amended version with the misplaced letter in bold. Definitions are underlined.
| HEXAGON CLUES (all 6-letter) | |||
| No. | Entry | Misplaced letter | |
| A | ATTACH | W |
Join on centre for strategy and teach down English
|
| AT (middle or ‘central’ letters of strategy) + T |
|||
| B | RELENT | H |
Soften heart in area fast
|
| RE (middle letters or ‘heart’ of area) LENT (fast) | |||
| C | ARCTIC | E |
Lorry carries corps in area known for its bears
|
| ARTIC (lorry) round (‘carrying’) C (corps) | |||
| D | ASLANT | R |
Talking lion troy for leaning
|
| ASLAN (‘talking lion’ – from the CS Lewis story) T (troy) | |||
| E | CHOPIN | E |
Composer‘s meat serving at home
|
| CHOP (meat serving) IN (at home) | |||
| F | LIE-INS | D |
Right binds one before Sabbath, rests in the morning
|
| LIEN (right) round or ‘binding’ I (one) + S (Sabbath) | |||
| G | KIMONO | I |
Nose of machine’s wearing ion cracking stunner in dressing gown
|
| M (first letter or ‘nose’ of machine) in (‘wearing’) ION in (‘cracking’) KO (knock-out – ‘stunner’) | |||
| H | TEAPOT | D |
A poet beginning to traverse weird in vessel for Cha
|
| An anagram (‘weird’) of A POET and T (first letter or ‘beginning’ of traverse) | |||
| I | CASTER | Y |
It could be tiny wheel company will face earl resistance
|
| CAST (company – as in the theatre) E (earl) R (resistance) | |||
| J | ROTATE | O |
Like a wheel of flowers, roster and Alsatian about
|
| ROTA (roster) + a reversal (about) of ET (‘and’ in Alsace) | |||
| K | IRENIC | U |
Duo leading rioters turn, rot nice calm?
|
| A reversal (‘turn’) of RI (first two letters or ‘duo’ of rioters) + an anagram (‘rot’) of NICE | |||
| L | STANCH | G |
Stay school gloves to be exposed in the Sun
|
| SCH (school) round (‘gloving’) TAN (to be exposed to the sun) | |||
| M | LISTEN | E |
Lets in wild hear
|
| An anagram (wild) of LETS IN | |||
| N | TRACED | T |
Did plan‘s technical drawing put across stock?
|
| TD (technical drawing) round (‘put across’) RACE (stock) | |||
| O | CAMERA | T |
Beer lovers consuming east and snapper
|
| CAMRA (beer lovers) round (‘consuming’) E (east) | |||
| P | ANIMAL | H |
Cat (or yak) recalling thin plate
|
| A reversal (‘recalling’) of LAMINA (thin plate) | |||
| Q | SAILOR | A |
Tar pained endlessly, accepting trouble
|
| SOR |
|||
| R | ISOMER | T |
Part from Lewis, om, Erica showing radical form?
|
| Hidden in (‘part from’) LewIS OM ERica | |||
| REGION CLUES (all 8-letter) | |||
| 1 | CHATLINE |
Communications technology left in tea tray?
|
|
| We really couldn’t parse this one: it seemed to be: L (left) in CHA (tea) TINE – but we couldn’t find any connection between ‘tine’ and ‘tray’. Thankfully our son was able to eventually sort this out for us – tine and tray both refer to antlers. | |||
| 2 | LANTERNS |
Glowers when page missing from map and fliers
|
|
| 3 | AT A PINCH |
In the last resort, smashed hard pinata with clubs
|
|
| An anagram (‘smashed’) of H (hard), PINATA and C (clubs) | |||
| 4 | CARCASES |
Many a stiff box filling vehicles
|
|
| CASE (box) in (‘filling’) CARS (vehicles) | |||
| 5 | EINSTEIN |
German word for one repeated element of pattern, one filling space
|
|
| A cryptic definition: EINS (more than one ‘ein’ -‘German word for one repeated’) + T (middle letter or ‘element’ of pattern) + I (one) in (‘filling’) EN (space – in printing) – one of the thematic answers | |||
| 6 | PAKISTAN |
Hispanic country’s taking second in skateboarding, with bronze for Asian country
|
|
| PAIS (Spanish – ‘Hispanic’ – for ‘country’) round (‘taking’) K (second letter in skateboarding) + TAN (bronze) | |||
| 7 | CABLE-CAR |
Taxi Clare ordered to get a lift
|
|
| CAB (taxi) + an anagram (‘ordered’) of CLARE | |||
| 8 | MONOTILE |
Second term for polygon at centre of discovery – what you might call hat?
|
|
| A cryptic definition: MO (second) N (last letter or ‘term’ of polygon) O (middle letter or ‘centre’ of discovery) TILE (a sort of hat) – the other thematic answer | |||
| 9 | STILETTO |
Dagger still bared in fight
|
|
| 10 | CHOLERIC |
Bad-tempered, funny role in ‘Chicago’, previously unseen
|
|
| An anagram (‘funny’) of ROLE in CHIC |
|||
| 11 | MALAYSIA |
Country songs replacing Nirvana’s No.1 in craze
|
|
| LAYS (songs) replacing the ‘n’ (first letter or ‘no.1’ of Nirvana) in MA |
|||
| 12 | ACTUATOR |
One making things happen, cooler teacher collects top grade
|
|
| AC (air conditioning – ‘cooler’) TUTOR (teacher) round (‘collecting’) A (top grade) | |||
| 13 | REMAINED |
Emin worked with a red and followed Manet
|
|
| An anagram (‘worked’) of EMIN and A RED – we had to check the definition – ‘manet’ is a stage direction for ‘remains’ on stage | |||
| 14 | SOMERSET |
Holiday time announced: go down somewhere in the SW
|
|
| A homophone (‘announced’) of SUMMER (holiday time) + SET (go down) | |||
| 15 | HAIRNETS |
Kells has to feature in RTE broadcast
|
|
| HAS round or ‘featuring’ an anagram (‘broadcast’) of IN RTE – a new word for us |
Thanks NP (and I think this is at least their 3rd IQ in the last couple of years?). A daunting puzzle but things began to fall into place once a few clues could be entered. Good idea about the tracing paper… wish I’d thought of that rather than trying to do some mental rotation!
I found this article an interesting read about the discovery: https://www.maths.cam.ac.uk/features/tip-hat-celebrating-aperiodic-monotile-discovery
Well, I filled the grid and got the message… and got no further. ‘WHERE DID YOU GET THAT’ didn’t suggest much to me (I was entirely unaware of it being a line from a vaudeville song so would never have made the necessary connection). All I could think was that the two thematic clues might thus be Pakistan and Malaysia, both being a ‘Where’, but unsurprisingly that got me nowhere.
Might well have spotted the connection to monotile (and perhaps Einstein too), but I was away for the second half of the week and only finished the grid the day before I left so I didn’t have a lot time to sort it out.
Nevertheless, thanks to NP (who yes has set at least 2 previous IQs) and to B&J for the blog.
As Yogdaws suggests, one can solve this puzzle completely without ever getting the actual theme, although in a sense the completed grid is itself the theme. I am sure I would not have got there if Monotile had been in the dictionary, but since I had to Google it the link with Einstein immediately showed up. Thanks to Bertandjoyce for the parsing of CHATLINE and EINSTEIN and thanks to Nathan Panning for leading me into a world where I don’t normally venture.
Utterly terrifying at first sight, but filling the grid was relatively straightforward. I too had trouble justifying CHATLINE and also managed to sabotage myself for a while by carelessly entering LIES IN for LIE-INS. But squinting at the first region (CARCASES for me) triggered a memory of news stories about a very special tile made from eight kites. Aha! With no tracing paper to hand, I scanned the completed grid and used a graphics program to fudge up a monotile outline that could be copied, rotated, reflected, etc. Which took a while but was very satisfying.
Hearty thanks to Nathan Panning, and just the same to Bertandjoyce.