A revolutionary theme for this month’s Genius from Picaroon.
The special instructions said that half the solutions were to be entered in a 10 across (“revolutionary”) manner, which proved to mean backwards (or upside down). Ambiguities about some entries would be resolved by four names with something in common appearing in the completed grid. In the event, 10 across yielded very quickly, but it was not until I had some clashing crossers that I could begin to deduce which clues needed to be reversed. The second instruction proved helpful with clues such as 5 down, which could be entered in either direction. Guevara suggested himself early on, followed by Lenin, and then Trotsky. Coincidentally, Picaroon used Lenin in a clue in his Guardian prize puzzle no 26, 926 on 2 July, which I also blogged. Of course, the four names highlighted in red are also all revolutionaries.
The Guardian continues to be unable to provide an interactive grid for Genius puzzles, and gave no instructions as to how to enter the clues that were the subject of the “revolutionary” treatment. I entered them in reverse, but who knows which is right? And there was an additional 26 across, presumably left over from the previous month.
Anyway, thanks to Picaroon for his usual challenge; I thought this puzzle was at exactly the right level for a Genius.
| Across | ||
| 8 | LUBNATSI | Extremely insalubrious brown animal not back in city (8) |
| (ISTANBUL) – I(nsalubriou)S TAN BUL(l). The first one in for me, but initially I put it in the grid the right way round, only realising my mistake later. | ||
| 9 | ODAKIM | Novel about trouble for Eastern leader (6) |
| (MIKADO) KIM (rev) ADO. | ||
| 10 | REVOLUTIONARY | Voyeur on trial, criminal in novel (13) |
| *(VOYEUR ON TRIAL). |
||
| 11 | ESIRAENIL | Story about neighbouring lives to set straight in a series (9) |
| (LINEARISE) NEAR IS in LIE. | ||
| 12 | VESPA | Vehicle in recess reversing with velocity (5) |
| APSE V (all rev). | ||
| 14 | NAMETAG | Return of one of the 1 having ID (7) |
| GATEMAN (rev) – a guard. | ||
| 16 | WAGE WAR | Shake with unease, ultimately retreating untrained for combat (4,3) |
| WAG (uneas)E RAW (rev). | ||
| 19 | IANAL | Island country hasn’t deserted capital (5) |
| (LANAI) LAN(d) A1. My last one; took me a while to parse it. Lanai is an Hawaiian island. | ||
| 21 | DETLUASSA | When travelling, atlas gets used and abused (9) |
| (ASSAULTED) *(ATLAS USED). | ||
| 24 | INTROSPECTION | Brooding opening piece, involving piano (13) |
| INTRO, P in SECTION. | ||
| 25 | NIGIRO | Start with surprised expression to fix home (6) |
| (ORIGIN) O RIG IN. | ||
| 26 | ERUSAERT | Start of trumpeting to encourage half-hearted angel (8) |
| (TREASURE) T(rumpeting) REAS(s)URE. | ||
| Down | ||
| 1 | GUARDS | French department’s holding posh shields (6) |
| U in GARD’S. | ||
| 2 | UNIVERSE | Place to learn language, including verb and everything (8) |
| UNI V ERSE. | ||
| 3 | ETILLETAS | Follower of Attlee is left-leaning (9) |
| (SATELLITE) *(ATTLEE IS L). | ||
| 4 | VICTRIX | Winner almost failing with stratagems, it’s said (7) |
| VIC(e), sounds like “tricks”. | ||
| 5 | AOCOC | Businesses are providing drink (5) |
| (COCOA) CO CO A(re). Here “are” is the metric measure of land, for which the abbreviation is “a”. | ||
| 6 | RAVAGE | Destroy scripture that’s in fashion (6) |
| AV in RAGE. | ||
| 7 | AIXYHPSA | Killer with hard axes, one leader in army — it could be lethal (8) |
| (ASPHYXIA) ASP H Y,X (axes on a graph) 1 A(rmy). | ||
| 13 | RALLECBUS | Journo and merchant speaking in underground room (9) |
| (SUBCELLAR) SUB (short for sub-editor), sounds like “seller”. | ||
| 15 | ACACITIT | Monkey around repeatedly in lake (8) |
| TITI CA CA. | ||
| 17 | EZAKIMAK | Self-destructive person back from brink — risk regularly accepted in shock (8) |
| (KAMIKAZE) (brin)K, (r)I(s)K in AMAZE. | ||
| 18 | DEEP SET | Eyes may be tense, two drugs getting knocked back (4-3) |
| T(ense) E SPEED (all rev). | ||
| 20 | ALTAIR | Heavenly object I put in place of worship (6) |
| I in ALTAR. | ||
| 22 | SENTRY | Did forward line watch? (6) |
| SENT RY (railway, or line). | ||
| 23 | POTOO | Bird loves to be by grass (5) |
| POT 00. | ||
*anagram
Thanks Picaron and bridgesong. 19a my last as well – probably wouldn’t have got it without the helpful “I” from Lenin.
“Novel” in 10a is an adjective – as in a novel/revolutionary idea.
Thank you Picaroon and brigdgesong.
I enjoyed attempting this puzzle, but did not quite finish.
There seems to be a theme on the month of July and revolutionaries, Marat and the July Revolution, Che Guevara and the 26th of July Movement, Lenin and Trotsky and the July Days – then, by chance, ISTANBUL and the failed military revolution.
PS, note, Marat was at the time of the French Revolution with the storming if the Bastille on the 14th of July,
the July Revolution was in 1830.
Cookie, thanks for pointing out the significance of the month, which I hadn’t spotted.
Finished it all, except for 19a due to our lamentable ignorance of Hawaiian islands !
Actually, I am now licking myself as I find that Lanai is in our ‘Bradford’ so I’ve no excuse – for some reason I thought it must be a capital.
Anyway, it was all fair play, and thanks for the explanations!
Hmm… have I accidentally stumbled on fifteensquared.xxx?
@5: BEAVER and “licking” in the same post! 😉
As to the puzzle itself the theme came early and 19a took ages as others have said but I too didn’t bother entering as there’s absolutely no indication as to how to enter “dodgy” answers.
Thanks very much to S&B.
I think the fact that some clues can be entered either way clears up how to submit them, eg if you submit LANAI rather than IANAL then you`re wrong, and may have missed the theme.
I also worried about how to enter the revolutionary solutions but, as John @7 did, I opted to enter them backwards to show that I knew the theme.
My team (yet another John and I) use the term Bladderpudlian for puzzles in which the entries might not be real words. This dates from the first one that we encountered which had Bladderpudlian as an answer.
I fear that I have been entering the answers wrongly for ages now and I blame this for never having won.
Like most of you, we had an easy start with 10A and a slow end with 19A.