Picaroon sets this month’s Genius challenge.
The preamble says:
“In ten clues, wordplay and definition lead to two words or phrases differing by a single letter (e.g. the definition gives GARNISHED while the wordplay gives TARNISHED). Solvers should choose the correct entry by ensuring that the grid displays a principle articulated in 1940 by 22 down – and that these ten solutions adhere to it”.
As usual in these circumstances, we just have to get stuck in with solving a few clues until we come to one that might be one of the ten ‘special’ clues. We also obviously have to solve 22 down to try to figure out how to deal with the alternative entries for the special clues.
As we might expect from Picaroon, the clues were generally straightforward, although we found some new words (for us) at 19c, 25ac, 3d and 4d – all fairly clued but needing some electronic assistance to confirm the answers. Working our way through the grid, we managed to identify the ten thematic answers and although we had solved 22d (fortunately one of the easier clues) we had to do more research to find the ‘principle’ referred to in the preamble. Eventually Joyce came up with “In my beginning is my end” from the second poem in T S Eliot’s “Four Quartets”. We then realised that for each of the ten thematic answers, one of the two options starts and finishes with the same letter, identifying the entry.
In the completed grid below, the correctly identified letters are highlighted in red. Having completed the grid, we realised that Picaroon had very helpfully included the Eliot quotation in the perimeter nina – if we had noticed that sooner, it might have saved a lot of googling!
Normal clues are in red and the ten thematic clues are in green. Definitions are underlined in purple – in the ten thematic clues, we have identified both the definition (def) and the result of the wordplay (wp). The answer to be entered in the grid is in BLUE, the discarded answer is in ORANGE.
BRA (underwear) with UM (‘let me think’) first
An anagram (‘eccentric’) of AIMS round or ‘penning’ TOMe (book) missing the last letter or ‘short’ – we had to check who Democritus was
REF (referee – ‘official’) ERRED (went astray)
EN (French for ‘in’) CASH (Johnny Cash – ‘country singer’)
NIP (small quantity of spirits) IN (cool)
An anagram (‘vagrant’) of IS STRANGE
An anagram (‘trembling’) of ANNE’S + R L (right and left – ‘hands’)
I V (vide – ‘see’) in V (first letter or ‘front’ of vast) ALDI (supermarket)
An anagram (‘spreading’) of ANY IRISES – we had never heard of these bacteria before
NO MEN (‘ladies only’)
MO (modus operandi – ‘method of working’) SIC (thus) round or ‘framing’ A
S (son) in or ‘wearing’ an anagram (‘running’) of NIKE AIR – a new word for us
YON (that) round or ‘restraining’ an anagram (‘dissolute’) of ROUE
OT (Old Testament – ‘books’) round or ‘touring’ CiTiEs (alternate letters – ‘in odd places’)
IE (that is) round or ‘penning’ BS (bullshit – ‘rubbish’) + a reversal (‘revolutionary’) of IN + AN (article)
N (north) A (American) round or ‘welcoming’ AIR (atmosphere)
AH (I see) D (daughter) in MIST (film) – another new word for us
OKED (sanctioned) EVIL (wickedness) after or ‘at the end of’ Y (year) – one of Shakespeare’s words we have never come across before
A reversal (‘coming up’) of TAB (bill) round or ‘defending’ CGI (computer-generated imagery – ‘animation technique’)
Hidden in compUTERIsation
An anagram (‘rickety’) of MADE round or ‘housing’ SON (child)
An anagram (‘badly’) of POLICE RUN
A reversal (‘upset’) of AN + E (English) BOY (lad) round or ‘without’ D (date)
MORE (extra) TT (teetotal – ‘sober’) in or ’embraced by’ AI (first class – ‘great’)
A reversal (‘backing’) of WAG (jester) + KING (monarch)
STATE (say) round or ‘outside’ U (university)
A reversal (‘coming from the south’) of TOILE (material)
X (vote) in or ‘blocking’ DION (Celine Dion – ‘Canadian chanteuse’)
Thanks Bertandjoyce and Picaroon.
Got 22 = Eliot up front and nina as it developed helped with perimeter choices; interior choices became obvious.
UTERI top fav.
Enjoyed this.
A fine puzzle. I enjoyed the poem. According to my online research, the perimeter quote is inscribed on the plaque where Eliot’s ashes are interred, St. Michael and All Angels’ Church, East Coker, which is the title of the poem.
There is also a (possibly unintentional) T S nina in the upper left corner.
Well I completely missed the nina and now feel pretty silly having solved everything else! My take on the Genius is that it sits much closer to the normal cryptic in difficulty than it does to the Listener style puzzles, and perhaps if it were named something friendlier more people would have a go and get the chance to enjoy these rather excellent puzzles.
I love the way there is a new trick every month, something designed to stop you write answers in directly or perhaps to use a word search, so you are left to the bare bones of solving for quite a while. We are privileged to have such excellent setters providing us with these delights (and bloggers – thank you BertandJoyce) and I fear I do not say it often enough and am too ready to nitpick.
So thank you Picaroon – this was a real treat to solve.
Another Genius, another twist in (some of) the clues and another layer in the solving process to resolve the dual answers. I enjoyed working through this puzzle, finding it quite a challenge to work out some of the ten dual solutions. I was slow to find the message round the border, getting nearly all the letters of BEGINNING before finding the quote from T S Eliot.
The design of this puzzle was impressive, including the neat way of resolving the dual solutions.
I echo everything Jack @3 has said about the quality and appeal of this series of puzzles. I would not like to miss one.
Thanks to Picaroon and Bertandjoyce for an excellent puzzle and blog.
I also agree with Jack…@3, but I do think the difficulty level used to be higher. I almost always finish in one sitting now, which wasn’t the case a few years ago, and I really don’t think I’m that much better.
No criticism of this excellent puzzle though. Many thanks to Picaroon and B&J.
A very enjoyable challenge, thanks Picaroon, and B+J. I learned a few things which is always good.
Attempted this just before going away earlier in the month, happy to have got the TS Eliot reference and the nina, but now see we didn’t get 4d. YOKE-DEVIL? Never come across that, and the wordplay was not straightforward.
Just came back and finished this… sort of. I searched to see if “fellow fiend” showed up anywhere in Shakespeare and this entry popped up, with the answer in preview! Might not have got it otherwise., though the wordplay is clear in retrospect. (Just now I was having an awful time finding exactly where Shakespeare uses it–don’t search for “yoke-devil” in quotes because the line is “Treason and murder ever kept together. As two yoke-devils sworn to either’s purpose,” from Henry V! I think it’s perfectly OK to use the singular, it just made it hard to find.)
More to the point, I had DETERRED for 9ac, thinking a “Det[ective]” was a police official. Though I realized this left me one altered clue short and was wondering whether a VET might be some sort of official too, or something. I think I had this before I figured out the theme.
For another ambiguity or two, I think ENSNARL fits the definition as well as ENSNARE–perhaps “in a trap” is meant to direct us specifically to the snare–and think the enumeration for 21ac (LOI, got stuck trying to work something with “hen” or maybe an en dash) should probably be (2, 3) as that’s what winds up entered in the grid, and in a cryptic dd WOMEN could be the wordplay and NO MEN the answer.
Anyway excellent puzzle and a workout for me! For a while I was struggling with the lack of crossers until I realized that “In my beginning is my end” was not only the theme but the nina. Ironically that happened because I looked at the first four of the bottom, said “that looks like SIGNS, there must be a nina!” and then realized that the nina went the other way.
Agreed with Alan B @4 and Jack @3 about the quality, and also with Jack that that this sits closer to the cryptics (or prizes, anyway) than to say the Azeds–and I like it that way, I feel more like my cryptic skills are being stretched and less like I’m being tested on my knowledge of Chambers. (The only improvement I really want is a fillable PDF form!)
Thanks Picaroon and Bertandjoyce, if anyone sees this!