Guardian Genius 178 by Enigmatist

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First thought – oh dear, it’s Enigmatist this month…oh, well, at least I have 4-5 weeks to solve and blog it…

A strange looking grid, with two large areas of black squares – still, fewer cells to fill, must be easier, right?…as Eric Idle once wrote…’always look on the bright side of life’…

My notes show that 1A was a gentle write-in, but then…tumbleweed accumulated…until 25A looked like CROTCHET, with no definition, so it must be a thematic to enter elsewhere. And, at a guess, we are looking at some sort of musical theme.

This was followed shortly by BREVE and SEMI-QUAVER, so more specifically musical notes? And as other, normal, clues started to provide crossers, I managed to place CROTCHET and SEMI-QUAVER. At this point I wasn’t sure whether there would be a straight swap of positions, so if 25A CROTCHET fitted at 9A, then would the solution to 9A go in at 25A, etc., or maybe it was a merry-go-round/free-for-all?

Next significant moment was BALTHAZAR at 21A – either a biblical king/wise man, or a wine bottle size?! This wasn’t helped by METHUSELAH, another biblical character/wine bottle size, but MAGNUM helped tip the balance towards wine bottles.

So, after an hour or so of solving spread over 2-3 days, I had a theme of sorts (musical notes and wine bottles), half-or-so of the thematic answers, and quite a lot of the grid filled in, except for almost the whole of the south-west quadrant. My working copy was a bit of a mess of scribbles, and I wasn’t really tracking the movement of extra letters from thematic clues, along with their moving answers.

A fair amount of grid/clue staring and puzzle-putting-down followed, and it wasn’t until the 18th or so that I got VAMP and ASIDE (I had been convincing myself it was ARIES – zodiacal house – and there must be a five-letter word including RIES and meaning malicious). And then gradually, but only with a bit more hard graft, those last few fell and I ended up with six musical notes, and six wine bottle sizes:

Notes (in no particular order):

  • CROTCHET
  • QUAVER
  • SEMI-QUAVER
  • BREVE
  • SEMI BREVE
  • MINIM

Wine bottles (not necessarily in ascending size order)

  • BOTTLE
  • DEMI
  • MAGNUM
  • METHUSELAH
  • JEROBOAM
  • BALTHAZAR

I didn’t actually work out the extra-letter message until right at the end:

“A RECIPROCAL ARRANGEMENT – WINE OF NOTE”

And they were all swaps, and all WINE for NOTE, or vice-versa:

 

 

Wow – tough but fair – thanks Enigmatist – and I would put it as a ‘medium to high’ on the Genius level of difficulty. I’m sure there will be those who solved and submitted within the first hour – my entry went in at 23.50-ish, before the 23.59 deadline on 5-May, whilst finishing off the blog at the last minute as well…

Last two parsed properly for the blog were QUAVER and SEMI-BREVE – having entered them on spec, as that was what they had to be. It had to be QUAFFER, but I couldn’t see a way of getting rid of both Fs – easy when you work it out – one is dropped for V in the wordplay, and the other is an extra letter. And the ‘back bar swinging’ for SEMI-BREVE took a bit of chewing over.

‘Enigmatist’s Enigmatist’s’ for MINIM was ‘clever clever’.

KLOOTCH and MUMPSIMUS were new to me, as was ‘hunks’ as a definition of SCROOGE – all verifiable in Chambers…

I trust I haven’t missed anything more subtle in the preamble/puzzle/end game, or in the explanations below, but please comment if you think I have…

ACROSS
Clue No Extra Letter Solution/Entry Definition (with occasional embellishments) Clue /
Logic/Parsing
1 A MATE friend Friend’s mother – and what she may pour (4) /
MA (mother) + TE(A) (if one is ‘being mother’, one might be pouring the tea from the pot)
3 R KRONOS being, divine Being divine, Mork’s no way of working Orson out (6) /
anag, i.e. out, of (MO)RK (removing MO, modus operandi) + O(R)SON
7 W –> E MAGNUM / MINIM thematic – undefined Old cart unloads in silence (5) /
M_UM (silence, being mum, again!) around (W)AG(O)N (cart, unloading O – old)
9 R –> C JEROBOAM / CROTCHET thematic – undefined Task is to bag King Edward range (8) /
J_OB (task) around (bagging) ER (Edward Rex, King Edward) + (R)OAM (range)
10 I STUNG wounded Wounded antelope – it’s keeled over (5) /
GNU (antelope) + (I)TS = GNUTS, keeled over = STUNG
11 A –> P SEMI-QUAVER / BALTHAZAR thematic – undefined Virginia’s turned over in central area of Times Square, unusually (9) /
SEMI-QU_ER anag, i.e. unusually, of (T)IMES SQU(A)R(E) (central letters of tIMES SQUARe), around AV (Va, Virginia, turned over)
12 F –> R QUAVER / METHUSELAH thematic – undefined Very drunk, hearty drinker is one farthing short (10) /
QUA_(F)(F)ER (heavy drinker, sort of one F – farthing) around (drinking) V (very)
14 I –> O BREVE / DEMI thematic – undefined Series of nightclub reviews (4) /
hidden word, i.e. series of, in ‘nightcluB REV(I)Ews’
18 C STEP phase Detective positive after second phase (4) /
S (second) + TE(C) (detective) + P (positive)
21 P –> A BALTHAZAR / SEMI-QUAVER thematic – undefined Baronet reduced risk with mountain crossing (10) /
B_T (baronet) around (crossing) AL(P) (mountain), plus HAZAR(D) (reduced risk)
22 A –> L BOTTLE / SEMI-BREVE thematic – undefined Ring reinforces engagement (9) /
B(A)(O)TTLE (engagement, battle, ‘reinforced’ with O – ring)
24 A VISIT officially inspect Officially inspect force on small island (5) /
VIS (force, Latin) + (A)IT (small island)
25 C –> R CROTCHET / JEROBOAM thematic – undefined Large reptile tailed by Troy Baker with a trumpet (8) /
CRO(C) (large reptile) + T (Troy) + CHET (Chet Baker, jazz trumpeter)
26 R RERUN another showing Another showing buttocks but hiding a pot (5) /
RE(A)R (buttocks, hiding A) + U(R)N (pot)
27 L –> A SEMI-BREVE / BOTTLE thematic – undefined Having got rid of Eastern look, back bar swinging (6) /
SE(E)M (look, getting rid of E – Eastern) + I-BREVE ((L)EVER – bar – + BI – swinging, bisexual – all back)
28 N OPUS (musical) work Work on discharging matter (4) /
O(N) + PUS (discharging matter)
Down
Clue No Extra Letter Solution/Entry Definition (with occasional embellishments) Clue /
Logic/Parsing
1 G MUMPSIMUS stubborn traditionalist Stubborn traditionalist parent attacks from behind, grabbing letter (9) /
MUM (parent, Mum again!) + MU(G)S (attacks from behind), around PSI (Greek letter)
2 E TONGUE TIE vocal abnormality Vocal abnormality Eugene and Tito corrected (6,3) /
anag, i.e. corrected, of EUGEN(E) + TITO
3 M KLOOTCH Native American woman Mark Lake’s about to upset a Native American woman (7) /
(M)K (mark) + LO_CH (lake) around OT (to, upset)
4 E ORCHARD source of fruit College tried to track alternative source of fruit (7) /
OR (alternative) + C (college) + H(E)ARD (tried)
5 N OVERARM sort of service (in tennis) Forces’ Sweetheart engaged in standard sort of service (7) /
(N)O_RM (standard) around (engaging) VERA (Vera Lynn, wartime forces’ sweetheart)
6 T ACTA meeting’s minutes Skill of diplomat overlooking a meeting’s minutes (4) /
(T)ACT (skill of diplomat) + A
8 E –> W MINIM / MAGNUM thematic – undefined Enigmatist’s/Enigmatist’s (6) /
MIN(E) (Enigmatist’s – possessive ‘s’) + I’M (Enigmatist is …)
11 O –> I DEMI / BREVE thematic – undefined I must get behind public show of feeling (5) /
DEM(O) (demonstration, public show of feeling) + I
13 N ASIDE words (on stage) to the house (audience) Attlee’s initial malicious words to the House (5) /
A (initial letter of Attlee) + S(N)IDE (malicious)
15 E EAVESDROP try to overhear Try to overhear and oversee pad being wrecked (9) /
anag, i.e. wrecked, of OVERSE(E) PAD
16 O IRRITANTS they provoke One shouts angrily about disturbance of the peace they provoke (9) /
I (one) + RANTS (shouts angrily), around RI(O)T (disturbance of the peace)
17 R –> F METHUSELAH / QUAVER thematic – undefined The person writing this way’s healthier when rising (6) /
ME (the person writing) + THUS (this way) + (R)ELAH (haler, or healthier, rising)
19 N THERETO to it What tenant pays, with nothing to it (7) /
THE RE(N)T (what tenant pays) + O (nothing, zero)
20 O PAID OUT spent Spent penny [one fare in US car] (4,3) /
P (penny) + A_UT(O) (US, car), around I (one) + DO (fare)
21 T SCROOGE hunks Topless escort busy, I picked up hunks (7) /
SCRO (anag, i.e. busy, of (E)SCOR(T) – topless) plus OGE (EGO, or I, picked up)
23 E VAMP femme fatale May wants a Victory in Europe to lift femme fatale (4) /
PM (Prime Minister, Theresa May) + A + V(E) (Victory in Europe) – all lifted to give VAMP

20 comments on “Guardian Genius 178 by Enigmatist”

  1. Thanks for the blog, mc_rapper67.

    I’m not sure you’ve appreciated why it is a reciprocal arrangement. A semibreve is also called a whole note, and the bottle n times the size of a standard bottle swaps with the note that is 1/n whole notes.

  2. Thanks for the blog mc_rapper67.

    We took a while to get started too but overall a tough but enjoyable challenge. Quite a few ‘Enigmatist’ moments as in 8d.

    We hadn’t fully appreciated the significance of the reciprocal arrangement that Matthew@1 describes but John hinted at this during a conversation at Derby S&B yesterday.

    Thanks Enigmatist – good to see you yesterday.

  3. I thought that this was the toughest Genius that I can remember, and I was grateful that I wasn’t down to blog it!  It’s also the first that I have completed that required the solver to enter extra information.  Presumably what was required was the wording “A reciprocal arrangement wine of note”, “wine” and “note” being the labels in question.  What made it particularly difficult was that the answers that had to be exchanged were not of the same length.

  5. We meant to add that the crossword ended up being the messiest piece of paper ever. Worse than any other Inquisitor or Guardian Genius we have solved. Arrows everywhere! Very clever though as PeeDee says.

  6. Just last month I was thinking that either the Genius crossword was getting easier or I was getting surprisingly good at it. This one put me straight. Got there eventually, but spent a long time assuming that the swapped clues would be of equal lengths. It probably would have helped to have spotted the pairings of the sizes – quite a feat of grid construction (which presumably explains the unusual form).
    Many thanks to all.

  7. This is the 3rd Genius puzzle I’ve attempted. The previous two months went in fairly quickly, but this one defeated me, and I was left with ASIDE and SCROOGE unsolved, and VISIT unparsed (and possibly others). KLOOTCH and MUMPSIMUS were new words for me, but gettable. Nor did I realise that the note and bottle sizes corresponded (thanks Matthew @1).

    I knew I’d struggle because I find Enigmatist’s ordinary cryptics the hardest of the Guardian fare. Like DuncT @6 I assumed that the swapped solutions would have equal lengths, which really held me up. After about 2 weeks of it all mulling around in background  I had a light bulb moment.

    However having read the blog and comments, I’m not too disappointed with the DNF. So I’m looking forward to the next one.

    Thank you Enigmatist for the challenge, which I enjoyed, and mc_rapper67 for explaining it all.

  8. Having overheard a conversation in Derby, am going to reverse engineer how these work. Have always thought well beyond me.. will persevere and they might still be beyond me but going to keep having a go. Thanks to mc_rapper67 and Enigmatist

  9. Thanks for the blog mc, where I learnt much, including the words ‘hunks’, ‘mumpsimus’ and ‘klootch’. “A hunks”? Strange word. Not sure when I might use it. In a crossword maybe.

    I only got five answers in, none themed. Six if I count STEP, but I don’t know why P=positive? Whis is C=college and Troy=T, come to that?

    I also wrongly assumed the switched themers would be of equal length which didn’t help, but that’s a detail in a desert of clue-solving.

    “Enigmatis’s/Enigmatist’s” was brilliant and I feel I should have got it. Mostly too tough for me, though. I need to work out more.

  11. Enigmatist has really put us through the wringer this month. I have to admit I nearly ‘bottled’ out on this one, as it was a week of tinkering till CROTCHET appeared and another age before the bottles surfaced. I had to kick myself all around the town as BOTTLE was one of my last – the basic unit !
    A bit of music, a bit of booze and a wonderful mathematical symmetry, this was a real masterpiece, immaculately clued. Bravissimo Enigmatist and many thanks McRapper for the impressive explanation.

  12. Gave up on this one after several days of bewildered frustration, having entered exactly 5 answers.  Bah!

  13. Tony @9 – T is the Troy ounce, for weighing gold.  P = positive is an abbreviation form electrical circuits etc and C is an abbreviation for college as used in UCL (University College London) for example. All listed in Chambers dictionary.

  15. Peedee@13

    All listed in Chambers dictionary

    Not in my (7th) edition, unfortunately, nor Chambers online, save for T=Troy.I take it C=college is listed independently, as extracting the C from UCL, say would not normally be acceptable?

    I’ve never seen P for positive; it’s usually ‘+’.

    Looks like I need a new dictionary (/app).

  16. A colleague and I have been attempting the Genius each month for a long time.  I am not sure when we started, maybe 10 years ago.  This is certainly one of the hardest.  We nearly admitted defeat but, in the last week, we made one more attempt.  We managed to guess Methuselah and Balthazar which led to one theme.  Next we guessed minim but did not immediately think of musical notes as they seemed too distant from wine bottles.  When we spotted crotchet, we realized that the second theme was musical notes.  It was downhill from there but still not rapid.  We spent a while debating whether the hidden message ended wine or note or wine of note.  The former seemed to read better but the latter fitted the material.  I think that this was our latest entry but that does not qualify it as the hardest as once we failed to complete.  That was a long time ago: it was by Araucaria.

    Conversely, this month is at the other end of the spectrum.  We completed it in a single, short session.  I am not when, or even whether, we have done that before.

  17. I see that we did not win, despite entering for so long, we never have.  I was hoping to see the number of correct answers but I did not see that.  My memory of the times that we have been told is that it varies from about 200 to 400 correct answers.

  18. Hi Tony @15 – I found them listed in the Chambers dictionary app I have on my Android phone.  For comparison I looked up c=college in my three paper copies of Chambers:

    6th Edition (1983) – missing

    11th edition (2008) – present

    13th edition (2014) – present

    As to the question is an abbreviation acceptable stand-alone: I take the view that if the abbreviation gets used often enough in enough different contexts then then yes, the abbreviation takes on a meaning of its own.  If there are dozens of different abbreviations containing c for college it seems that c comes to mean college in its own right.  This begs the question who decides what constitutes “enough”?  My view is that this is the fundamental purpose of a dictionary is as an arbiter to chose and record those usages that appear commonly enough to be classed as a word or abbreviation in the language.

    Actually most unabbreviated words never appear in the language on their own, only used as part of a sentence with other words.  They still have an independent meaning regardless.

    PS here is an example circuit using P and N for + and –

  19. PeeDee,

    Thanks for the reply. Not totally convinced by the ‘unabbreviated words’ argument, but interesting nonetheless. Maybe I will invest in the Chambers app.

  20. Thanks for the various comments/feedback – especially Matthew at #1 for the explanation of the ‘reciprocality’ – very clever from Enigmatist, and well done to those who spotted it…and apologies from YT for missing it!

    (Apologies also for the late update/comeback from me – I went on my annual golfing/drinking weekend around the time this was published, and it kind of slipped off my radar once I refocussed when I got back…)

    Several people were knocked a little off kilter by the swapped answers not being of the same lengths – there probably are more examples of this being the case than not, but unless it is explicitly stated in the preamble then one cannot assume it is so…

    Some comment also around abbreviations – I did find all those (P, C, T) in my Android copy of Chambers (no official version number, but I seems pretty comprehensive, and I’m sure other apps are available…). However, I have just been having a similar discussion on ‘S = sex’ in my latest Cyclops blog (625), so I’m sure there will always be wiggle-room and debate around whether abbreviations are based on Chambers (which moves on, but obviously takes time to absorb things) or popular parlance/TXT-SPK, etc…

     

     

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