The preamble, or ‘Special Instructions’, as the Genius calls them, tell us to resolve one clash in each across solution, working out which of the clashing pair ‘best fits’ the grid. These corrected letters will then spell out part of a book title. But that’s not all: the middle row must then be changed, in a manner suggested by the book. All entries in the final grid are real words. So, plenty to chew on there…and best start with a pencil (I always solve on a printed copy – can’t be doing with online solving - although I am a great fan of online submission of entries!…)
In fact, the pencil was initially put to good use manually filling in the black squares, as the Genius print page seemed to have lost the ability to display them, just putting ‘x’ in them instead!
Knowing there are clashes always introduces an element of uncertainty, and mistrust of crossing letters, especially when it is every across entry, but this was mitigated by a relatively gentle level of clueing difficulty, for a Genius at least, and obviously in my opinion. E.g. of the four short entries – COX, EGG and DUE were quite gettable, although CUE at 27A was interesting…
Several clashes soon became apparent – and the requirement that all final entries should be real words helped several resolutions – such as: the G of EGG vs. the O of ABSCOND had to be O to make EGO cross with ABSCOND – rather than EGG and ‘ABSCGND’. So I soon had ‘THE…’ as the first three letters – always good for a book title! – and then that O. Further down the grid I could see the title ending in CI?S, and it soon clicked that we were looking for ‘THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES’. Part of the title of Charles Darwin’s book ‘On the Origin of Species’.
This helped to polish off a few remaining entries and the grid was complete – apart from that last instruction – to change the middle row, ’as suggested by the book’. The middle row contained the letters M-O-N-K-E-Y and it is possible to change this to P-E-R-S-O-N, as suggested by Darwin, while still using real words:
Obviously that theory may not be everybody’s cup of PG tea, but it leads to a lovely denouement of a cleverly constructed puzzle.
Lots of short, sharp clues – no extraneous verbosity from Picaroon here, unlike yours truly (;+>), and some nice readings: 20A alluding to the theme, and questioning whether we really are the smarter species? 19A and 5D – a bit of toilet humour and/or an arse gag never goes amiss – Ben Elton built much of his early career on these! 10D – slagging off a Tory minister – good Grauniad fodder there…
As mentioned earlier, I thought this was on the gentler end of the Genius spectrum (in my experience at least, and having said that I’ve probably gone and tripped over something schoolboy-error-ish in the analysis below), and I suspect this will be borne out in the usual analysis of numbers (and speed) of entries.
But there is nothing wrong with that – a spectrum isn’t a spectrum without variety and range – and it was an interesting and cleverly executed theme, a pleasure to solve and blog.
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Solution (if changed) | Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 1A | MOTTO | slogan | Race to block low slogan (5) / MOO (low, as in cattle) around (blocked by) TT (motorbike race on the Isle of Man) |
|
| 4A | BEHEADED | topless | Topless English man, notice, between the sheets? (8) / E (English) + HE (man) + AD (notice, advertisement), in BED (between the sheets!) |
|
| 8A | MISDIAL | MISDEAL | get a wrong number | One’s rejected help dividing 1050 – get a wrong number, then? (7) / ML (1050 in Roman numerals) around (divided by) IS (one’s) + DIA (aid, or help, rejected) |
| 9A | ABSCOND | to do a bunk | Seaman’s learnt, it’s said, to do a bunk (7) / ABS (Able Seaman + ‘s) + COND (homophone of CONNED, or learned) |
|
| 11A | DUE | RUE | unsettled (as in payment) | Unsettled nobleman striking king (3) / DU(K)E (nobleman) striking out K – king |
| 12A | SPANS | SPINS | bridges | Slate found in ship’s bridges (5) / SS (steam ship) around PAN (slate) |
| 13A | JAMES | GAMES | novelist (Henry) | Novelist gets stuck taking drug (5) / JAMS (gets stuck) around (taking) E (ecstasy tablet, drug) |
| 15A | FLEXIONS | they’re bent | Team stopping rotten felons – they’re bent (8) / anag (i.e. rotten) of FELONS, around XI (team, eleven) |
|
| 16A | INCA | South American emperor | South American emperor not out and about (4) / IN (not out!) + CA (circa, about) |
|
| 19A | URAL | ORAL | river | Where gents go, not in river (4) / UR(IN)AL – where men ‘go’, without IN |
| 20A | SPIFFIER | smarter | Smarter species? It’s not so certain (8) / SP (species) + IFFIER (not so certain) |
|
| 25A | TATER | TASER | King Edward (potato) | King Edward giving junk to queen? (5) / TAT (junk) + ER (queen) |
| 26A | WRONG | PRONG | immoral | Heartless warmonger running government is immoral (5) / WR (outer letters of WarmongeR) + ON (running) + G (government) |
| 27A | CUE | the seventeenth (letter of the alphabet – Q – phonetically) | What this is, losing its second letter – or the seventeenth? (3) / C(L)UE – what ‘this’ is, losing its second letter |
|
| 28A | LOOKOUT | LOCKOUT | concern | Concern? O yes, there’s a hooligan about (7) / LOUT (hooligan) around O + OK (yes) |
| 30A | EMERGES | EMERIES | surfaces | Last of gouache blends in surfaces (7) / E (last letter of gouache) + MERGES (blends) |
| 31A | EXPANSES | EXPENSES | open spaces | Track cutting Essex’s rolling open spaces (8) / anag (i.e. rolling) of ESSEX, around PAN (track, as in with a camera) |
| 32A | CHARD | SHARD | beet | Beet’s overcooked, we hear (5) / homonym – CHARD (beet, vegetable) sounds like CHARRED (overcooked, burnt) |
| Down | ||||
| Clue No | Solution (if changed) | Entry | Definition (with occasional embellishments) | Clue / Logic/Parsing |
| 1D | MEMORY | lasting impression | Setter’s touring capital city about to make a lasting impression (6) / MY (belonging to the setter of the crossword) around (touring) EMOR (Rome, capital city, about) |
|
| 2D | BASTE | TASTE | administer a thrashing | For Mussolini, not quite enough energy to administer a thrashing (5) / BAST(A) – ‘enough’, Italian or Spanish, missing last letter. i.e. ‘not quite’ + E (energy) |
| 3D | OVERSEEN | OVERSEER | managed | Managed love poem in French (8) / O (love, zero) + VERSE (poem) + EN (‘in’, in French) |
| 4D | BELLING | BELLINI | roaring | Roaring request to keep nothing left over (7) / BEG (request) around (keeping) LLIN – NIL (nothing) + L (left), all over |
| 5D | COARSEN | HOARSEN | add vulgarity | Firm buttocks? Bit of naughtiness to add vulgarity (7) / CO (company, firm) + ARSE (buttocks) + N (first netter of naughtiness) |
| 6D | ASSIGN | (give) credit | When board gives credit (6) / AS (when) + SIGN (board) |
|
| 7D | EGG | EGO | farm produce | European goods, farm produce (3) / E (European) + GG (good, multiple) |
| 10D | DISMAY | DISMAN | disillusionment | Slag off Tory minister, creating disillusionment (6) / DIS (slang – disrepect, slag off) + MAY (Theresa, Tory minister) |
| 14D | MISER | MINOR | one’s tight (with money) | One’s tight – one’s getting into the drink abroad (5) / MER (sea, the drink, in French) around IS (one’s) |
| 15D | FOALS | FEALS | young (e,g, horses) | Young fellow also excited (5) / F (fellow) + OALS (anag, i.e. excited, of ALSO) |
| 17D | MORTAL | PORTAL | deadly | Deadly piece of artillery changing hands, ultimately (6) / MORTA(R) – piece of artillery – changing hands, R to L, at the end |
| 18D | KINGLETS | SINGLETS | birds (golden crested wrens) | Birds allowed to enter Cambridge college (8) / KINGS (Cambridge college) around LET (allowed) |
| 21D | PUPATES | develops in a lousy fashion (as in insect/larvae) | Leader of party, winning seat corruptly, develops in a lousy fashion? (7) / P (first letter of party) + UP (winning) + ATES (anag, i.e. corruptly, of SEAT) |
|
| 22D | GLOWERS | FLOWERS | looks angry | England cricketer’s getting stuck round half-century and looks angry (7) / GOWERS (England cricketer, David’s) around L (50 in Roman numerals, a half-century in cricket) |
| 23D | ORIOLE | winger (as in bird) | Winger’s cry of triumph [outside right, number ten] (6) / OLE (cry of triumph) around (outside) R (right) + IO (number ten, 10) |
|
| 24D | MISSED | MESSED | overlooked | Exploited university’s going to get overlooked (6) / MIS(U)SED – exploited – without U (university) |
| 27D | CHINA | pal (friend, rhyming slang, china plate = mate) | Bit of a jaw with a pal (5) / CHIN (bit of a jaw) + A |
|
| 29D | COX | &lit-ish? | One must provide lead for crew and steer (3) / C (first letter, lead, of crew) + OX (steer) |
|
Thanks McRapper – you’ve solved the problem of displaying the answers and the emendations to this brilliantly! The first animated crossword I can recall ð
Agree with your analysis – it was tricky to keep in mind various possibilities at once, but nearly all of the clashes were unambiguously resolved, and as you say, most of the clues were not too stretching. So in the end, I think we finished it in about 3 days – the Genius often takes us as many weeks!
Good fun.
I absolutely raved about this puzzle at the beginning of last month, exhorting all and sundry to have a go. The grid is filthy and the preamble looks daunting, but I agree that the actual cluing was expertly fair and well pitched and the construction is just breathtakingly good. A few people said to me that they didn’t think at was all that special, but they had missed then final twist in the tail.
Thanks Picaroon – this was special. And thanks too mc_rapper67 – beautifully blogged to do the puzzle justice.
Thanks for a brilliant blog of a very entertaining puzzle, mc_rapper.
I now see why I had a big question mark against my entry [ABUSED] for 24dn, which, of course, I couldn’t fully parse – but it fitted the grid. Doh! ð
I really enjoyed solving this: as has been said, the clues were fair and gettable, as well as witty, and it was fun working out the emendations. Once again, I omitted to make notes at the time and so can’t really remember the process. Many thanks to Picaroon.
[mc_rapper, you seem to have repeated the explanation of 15ac in place of that for 31ac: PAN [track] in anagram [rolling] of ESSEX.]
Thanks to Picaroon and mc_rapper – terrific puzzle and impressive blog.
I nearly came unstuck on 24dn as well, thinking it had to be “unused”. Penny did drop eventually though.
Really enjoyed this one. Filled the grid and resolved all the clashes – final check through, all looks good – submit.
Next day, like Mitz above, keen to share the enjoyment: Showed my print to Sophie who said “What’s this about the middle line” – Gah! I had completely overlooked the last part of the preamble! – I suspect I’m not the only one.
It must’ve been tricky enough to build a grid with clashes spelling out THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES let alone also with Monkey/Person across the middle. So many thanks to Mr P.
Thanks for all the feedback/comments – and to Eileen for spotting my little cut-n-paste error with 15A and 31A. Now sorted.
Looks like a generally well received and enjoyed puzzle.
To Mr Beaver at #1 – I can’t take credit for the animated grids – these were first used by kenmac, who kindly shared the magic around with the other 15×15 bloggers…
Thank you, Picaroon and mc_rapper.
This was the sort of Genius puzzle which I love. I spotted the book title quite quickly and that helped with later clues. However, you wouldn’t believe how long it took me to decide how to change the MONKEY. FEALS was a new word for me and I wasn’t sure about DISMAN.
I’ll hold my hand up to missing the final twist. Very good indeed.
At one point, I thought MONKEY was going to ‘evolve’ into DARWIN (it’s ??R??N, like PERSON) in celebration of his critic Wilberforce asking whether he was descended from apes on his mother’s side or his father’s. Though now I look it up, this was addressed to Huxley, not the man himself.
Wonderful puzzle. And blog. Thanks. One q: is “baste” ok for “administer a thrashing”? I thought it was what you did to turkeys in the oven…
Brilliant that so many of the crossing words could work either way. Just q wonderful puzzle!
Well I thoroughly enjoyed this except for the final twist.
Unfortunately there are several ways to interpret the instructions for the middle row.
My interpretation was to to give it the “Origin of the species”. So the M became S. SORTAL is a valid word so I fulfil the criteria. I’m sure there were other changes which satisfied the criteria as well. So on the whole a little sour taste at the end!
I have just seen Hugh Stephenson’s monthly newsletter.
He mentions the first entry submitted was Tony (of demon.co.uk) at 01:36.
I know that the puzzle didn’t appear until 01:00 (due to BST)
36 minutes to solve and submit!
That’s some speedy wee-small hours solving. Well done that Tony.
To ‘james g’ at #10 – Chambers has three definitions for ‘baste’ – one of which is ‘to beat with a stick’, alongside turkey-basting and ‘to tack’, in needlework.
To beermagnet at #12 – wow, that is some going. Especially for a thematic with a preamble to get your head round and all those substitutions . My assertion that this was an ‘easier’ Genius doesn’t seem to be borne out by the overall numbers – 200-odd entries, similar to Genius 123 – and between recent extremes of 150-odd and 300-plus… Unless Hugh Stephenson’s statistics only refer to correct answers, and maybe there were a significant number who missed, forgot or misinterpreted the last instruction…?
Anyway, correspondence closed, and on to this month’s Genius!…