The preamble to Genius 166 by Picaroon states that: “Two across solutions taken together indicate something missing from all the other 14 across clues, either as the definition or as part of their wordplay.”
Short and sweet, and maybe best to start with the down clues, as they should all be ‘normal’?! Well, yes, but I couldn’t resist a quick run-through of the across-es, and I chanced upon 24A as FF (very loudly) looking like FAR OFF (removed) – which suggested that FARO was the missing element. Hmmm…European cities?…with Faro being a fairly regular destination of mine, as a gateway to the golfing and coastal delights of the Algarve.
I then spotted 16A as a similar construction – PY from the wordplay and NAPPY from the definition, so NAP, and we are now into CARD GAMEs – the two indicators, which had to be 10A and 27A. So unfortunately, as I like a bit more of a challenge, but also fortunately, as I have to blog this, I had found the theme/PDM within about 10 minutes.
At this point I resisted the temptation to pull up an e-list of card games, and I pressed on with solving these partial clues – like SNAPdragon, balLOOns, enGINes – and the other set of undefined whole card games – some old favourites like NEWMARKET, OLD MAID, SOLITAIRE. I liked the conflation of IM and PATIENCE in 26A!
My LOI was 5A (A)BRIDGE – should really have spotted that as an obvious card game earlier, but I am not a player – I spent my formative years playing backgammon, rather than bridge or chess….
I hadn’t heard of FAN TAN, which my Chambers defines as a Chinese ‘gambling game’, rather than a card game, per se…but a quick Wiki-oogle threw up many references to a card game (aka ‘Sevens’) of the same name. SKAT and PIT were also unfamiliar, although from its definition PIT sounds like a game we used to play as kids called SPIT – from the loser calling ‘oh spit!’
The down clues were sort of incidental in the end – helping to confirm a few crossing letters and track down a few of the card games. I hadn’t met ‘MOTOSCAFI’ before, but it was gettable from the wordplay, and the surface reading suggests a romantic image of motorised gondolas put-put-ing around Venice to the soundtrack of Tosca!
So, to stay in theme, I was dealt a fortuitously ‘gentle’ hand this time round, in my turn at the Genius blog – very rare for me to have a Genius solved in around an hour – but it was an enjoyable hour, and has been fun to revisit for the blog. Thanks to Picaroon, and see y’all in six Geniuses’ (Genii’s?) time…
| ACROSS | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C,hilue No | Solution | Entry (if amended) | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 1 | OLD MAID | Thematic – undefined | Doctor, look, returns to give succour (3,4) / OLD_M (MD, doctor, plus LO – look, all returned) + AID (to give succour) |
|
| 5 | A | A(BRIDGE) | reduce the size of | Reduce the size of area (7) / a (area) |
| 10 | CARD | knave | Knave maybe is about right (4) / CA_D (knave, maybe) around R (right) |
|
| 11 | DRAGON | (SNAP)DRAGON | a bloomer | Continue boringly, making a bloomer (10) / DRAG ON = continue boringly |
| 12 | FAN TAN | Thematic – undefined | Cooler function (3,3) / FAN (cooler) + TAN (tangent, mathematical function) |
|
| 13 | BAL_NS | BAL(LOO)NS | party gear | Party backs partners in 27 providing party gear (8) / BAL (LAB, Labour, party, backs) + NS (North and South, partners in bridge) |
| 14 | NEWMARKET | Thematic – undefined | Return of city police guarding boat (9) / NEW (WEN, or city, returned) + M_ET (Metropolitan Police) around (guarding) ARK (boat) |
|
| 16 | PY | (NAP)PY | what baby has | What baby has is extremely pretty (5) / extreme letters of PrettY |
| 17 | E | (SKAT)E | runner | Back in Blade Runner (5) / last letter (back) of bladE |
| 19 | SOLITAIRE | Thematic – undefined | Individual performances by dancer, as retiring (9) / SOLI (plural of solo, individual performances) + TAIRE (Fred Astaire, dancer, with ‘as’ retiring) |
|
| 23 | CESS_S | CESS(PIT)S | you’ll find waste here | Tax society? You’ll find waste here (8) / CESS (tax) + S (society) |
| 24 | FF | (FAR-O)FF | removed | Very loudly removed (3-3) / FF (fortissimo, very loudly) |
| 26 | IM | IM(PATIENCE) | shortness | The writer’s shortness (10) / IM (I’m / the writer is…) |
| 27 | GAME | willing | Willing to have internet issue over (4) / an E-MAG(azine) could be an internet issue – turned over |
|
| 28 | EN_ES | EN(GIN)ES | machines | Machines seen malfunctioning (7) / anag, i.e. malfunctioning, of SEEN |
| 29 | ENT | (STUD)ENT | scholar | Scholar’s translated 10 (7) / anag, i.e. translated, of TEN |
| DOWN | ||||
| Clue No | Solution | Entry (if amended) | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 2 | LEAKAGE | discharge | Discharge American general admitting heartless attack on American government (7) / LE_E (American general) around (admitting) AK (AttacK, heartlessly) + A (American) + G (government) |
|
| 3 | MIDST | centre | Centre of Budapest’s dimly recalled? Not entirely (5) / hidden reversed word, i.e. ‘not entorely’ and ‘recalled’, in ‘budapesT’S DIMly’ |
|
| 4 | INSANER | more delirious | Hospitalised monarch is more delirious (7) / IN SAN (in a sanatorium, hospitalised) + ER (monarch, Elizabeth Regina) |
|
| 6 | BODILY | corporal | Raised hat held by junior corporal (6) / BO_Y (junior) holding DIL (lid, or hat, raised) |
|
| 7 | INAMORATA | mistress | Traitor follows shortly with a mistress (9) / IN A MO (shortly) + RAT (traitor) + A |
|
| 8 | GROWN-UP | mature | Mature, berobed queen, not lying down (5-2) / G_OWN (robe) around (worn by) R (regina, queen), plus UP (not ying down) |
|
| 9 | RABBLE-ROUSING | demagogy | Demagogy burgeons with Blair rambling (6-7) / anag, i.e. rambling, of BURGEONS + BLAIR |
|
| 15 | MOTOSCAFI | Italian boats | Second opera provided around Italian boats (9) / MO (second, moment) + TOSCA (opera) + FI (if, provided, around) |
|
| 18 | KEELMAN | bargee | Bargee anxious about liberal arts graduate (7) / KEE_N (anxious) around L (Liberal) + MA (Master of Arts, graduate) |
|
| 20 | INFLECT | crook | Interpol finally stops corrupt crook (7) / INF_ECT (corrupt) around (stopped by) L (final letter of InterpoL) |
|
| 21 | RAFTMAN | sailor | Sailor right towards the back, on isle (7) / R (right) + AFT (towards the back) + MAN (Isle of Man) |
|
| 22 | DIVINE | priest | Priest to stop necking booze abroad (6) / DI_E (to stop) around (necking) VIN (wine, French – or booze, abroad) |
|
| 25 | RIGID | set | Set free, after capturing soldier (5) / RI_D (free) around (capturing) GI (soldier) |
|
Hi mc_rapper67
Thanks for the colourful dynamic grid. I enjoyed this and got the theme by the first two clues I did, which unlike yours were 10A and 27A, which were the two clues that gave the theme. Unlike you I spent a LOT longer than one hour on this, but like the tortoise I got there after a few attempts. I got misled badly by putting in two incorrect answers. Firstly, DEF(L)ECT at 20D which I think works just as well as INFLECT. Secondly I had [less excuse for this one] IRKSOME at 4D which is an anagram of K [Monarch] IS and MORE. I did not have a dictionary with me and thought IRKSOME must have as one of its more obscure meanings either Hospitalised or Delirious – either of which could act as an anagram indicator. I have to also admit that the correct answer of INSANER was my last one in, even when I had just I-S-N-R. I could see the word INSANER but thought that there was no way that the compiler would use SAN for sanitorium when that is so close to the definition of More Delirious, unless it was supposed to be an &Lit. I thought that was a poor clue in an otherwise very enjoyable crossword from one of my favourite setters.
Thanks to you and Picaroon
HELLO
Is anyone there?
I feel as if I’m in a black hole; perhaps disaster has hit the UK [other than Ms May of course].
GAUFRID – is there still life in the UK?
Hi Gordon – apologies for the slow response – the cadence on a monthly blog is a bit slower, and I usually wait for a few comments to build up before responding…which is sometimes wishful thinking!
Sorry to hear about your two red herrings, which turned out to be dead herrings? I can see how your version of 20D works, less so with 4D!
Also disturbed by the concept of being dictionary-less…a state I try to avoid by having the Chambers app on my Android phone and Ipad (both about a fiver each, and I am sure other dictionaries are also available…but Chambers is the BRB!…)
Hi mc_rapper67
Thanks for your response. It was not you I was prodding, but trying to find other signs of life. I know the Genius blog only gets around 7-15 entries most months, but I cannot recall nobody else responding in the first three days after a blog is posted. I do not have a mobile phone [quirky I know], but have Chambers, Collins, Oxford American, and Merriam Webster American Heritage dictionaries at home. The first two are British of course, the Oxford tends to have both US and UK words and spellings. The M-W is a beautiful dictionary with lovely illustrations. Pity about the spellings! As an ex-Stockport lad in Connecticut I get very weird looks doing the crosswords at the local Starbucks. When I give examples of the clues I have done the looks are even stranger. What Americans call a crossword is of course rarely, if ever, cryptic. One per month in the New York Times and in the New Yorker magazine. That is it. The clues in those are very straightforward as well. Not taxing in the slightest, less hard than a Quiptic. My American wife does them as she is learning, which is nice. In 16 years here I have never seen anyone else doing a cryptic crossword.
Because of the 5 hour time difference I tend to do the daily crosswords a day behind, so I don’t join the blog. I have though contributed to the Genius puzzle blogs a fair amount, particularly a couple of years back when I was the monthly winner! [A Tramp puzzle].
Yes IRKSOME did not fit the 4D definition once I checked my dictionaries, BUT it was a nice anagram and either of the words Hospitalised or Delirious could have been the anagram indicator as mentioned. I still do not like using SAN as part of the definition.
Cheers
Thanks mc_rapper67 and Picaroon.
I commented last month on the low number of responses – it seems a shame given the éffort put in by setter and blogger.
Having KEELMAN and RAFTMAN in the same puzzle seemed a bit odd, and it wasn’t even a Boatman.
This is the first Genius I’ve tried (only just heard about it) and I was surprised it was not more difficult (like this month’s is!). I couldn’t parse NEWMARKET (why is WEN = city?), but as LOI I got it from the crossers, knowing the game.
Skat is a great game from Germany and not as difficult as it sounds when you read the rules. I was taught it by visitors on a school German exchange.
I also played PIT as a child. It is a proprietary game with special cards, based on stock market trading, as far as I recall. I think you’d have to be of a certain age to know it. I doubt it sells much now.
McRapper – I also salute your animated grid, very clever!
Gordon – I only just remembered to look at this blog after a busy weekend. I suspect many do the Genius early in the month and have totally forgotten it by the time the blog comes out, hence the low response rate.
Tony – I’ve seen ‘Wen’ for London in crosswords quite often. Apparently it was William Cobbett who first described it as the Great Wen, in the sense of boil or blister. It’s even more inflamed now, of course!
Ah, yes, thanks, Mr Beaver. I have heard the expression “the Great Wen” before and knew “wen” was familiar from somewhere (I thought it might be an Old English word), but didn’t know that was the literal meaning.