I regret to announce that a handy sense-check tool is now no longer available. I was recently checking a clue (“Leftmost colour on the French flag”) in our addictive new Mini series. (There’s a new one every day: tell your cryptic-sceptical friends; it might bring them our way.) I typed “french flag” into Google.
In, say, 2020, it was possible to type “spotted hyena diet” and clock where the Featured Snippet was taken from. I was initially sceptical but if it was from, say, Britannica, one more click would confirm that the luckless gazelles had been clued accurately. More often than not, it was indeed from a reputable source and the rest of the time, the information was usually correct, just requiring a further bit of searching to find a Britannica, a Collins, or, best of all, a Guardian.
Now, it behaves differently. Rather than sending you toward a likely helpful resource, it attempts to synthesise a bunch of them and it’s much harder to tell where the components come from. There used to be no images at all; now there are images but the one for “french flag” includes the French flag in the reverse order.
Back to paper reference books, then. Or, for the French flag, perhaps a trip across the Channel to see one in action.
In terms of puzzling elsewhere, I recommend a profile each of a pair of very long-serving setters: Richard E Maltby Jr in Harper’s (50 years) and, formerly of this parish, Azed (54).
When editing January’s Genius, I noticed the perimeter message before the other hidden thematic material. DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE? I concluded immediately that we were celebrating Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.
Genius puzzle 271.
But that was surely longer ago than the 20 years indicated in Claw’s rubric? Yes, Alan: it was almost double that number. The theme is musical, though: Arctic Monkeys. Among other thematic fun, the first and last letters of superfluous words spell “Perhaps Vampires Is a Bit Strong But” and “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor”, and how considerate it was of Alex Turner to give the songs the same number of letters for crosswording purposes. The last stage is submitting the name of the album: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
Thanks for your cluing conference contributions for CODE. Shorter words often prompt elegance, so this race was closely run and the audacity award is SwamiPete’s for “Dah dit dah dit – dah dah dah – dah dit dit – dit”.
The runners-up are Dunnart’s techie “Python bit crocodile’s midsection and tail” and Croquem’s intriguing “Secret message opening chapter and verse?”; the winner is the all-too-plausible “In the dock, lying about regulations”.
Kludos to Newlaplandes. Please leave entries for SLOP below, along with any favourite clues or puzzles you have spotted.
188 Words for Rain by Alan Connor is published by Ebury (£16.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
