The instructions started out clear, and conventional enough, but became rather more cryptic:
In six of the across and seven of the down clues, a word connected to an unclued entry must be removed. All other clues contain an extra letter; these indicate a framework. Only seven other cells obey the rules of the framework and provide the keys needed for the 15ac 30ac 7d. Thanks for playing.
This was a puzzle in three stages for me: stage 1, solving the clues without worrying too much about identifying the extra words and letters; stage 2, working out the parsing in detail; and stage 3, discovering the SOAP OPERA THEME, as announced in the unclued 15 and 30 across, and 7 down.
Having guessed SOAP and OPERA for the unclued answers, I noticed that the extra words in the acrosses – glass, sugar, saddle, soft, hard and yellow – are all types of SOAP; in the downs, grand, light, space, horse, folk, ballad and comic are type of OPERA.
The extra letters spell out FIRST ROW AND COLUMN. In the first row we see STAVE, and in the first column, reading up, EGBDF, which are the notes on the line of a musical stave (with a treble clef). I learned these from the mnemonic Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, but other versions are available. So the THEME is a musical one. The “seven other cells [that] obey the rules of the framework” are those where the letter matches the note name corresponding to the position on the stave. These are highlighted in pink in the diagram, and they give the beginning of the THEME tune of the SOAP OPERA EastEnders (explaining “thanks for playing”), shown in more conventional notation here:
Remarkably, as well as showing the pitches, Glyph has show their durations, with the initial C D E F being in consecutive columns, and the final G A F spread out to match the rhythm.
In the clues below the extra words/letters are highlighted thus.
| Across | ||||||||
| 6 | ILEUM | Part of system ruining life with little hesitation (5) LIFE* + UM |
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| 7 | THINNER | Glass less sturdy and not all there hotel admitted (7) INN in THER[e] |
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| 9 | FEARSOME | Frightful fellow gets paid in East London (8) F + EARNS + [h]OME (pad) |
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| 11 | DAHLIA | ‘Sugar flower had turned’, Glyph put in note (6) Reverse of HAD + I (Glyph – the setter) in LA |
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| 12 | DOWN‑AT‑HEEL | Shabby looking saddle – he won’t deal with repairs (4-2-4) (HE WON’T DEAL) |
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| 15 | SOAP | (unclued) | ||||||
| 16 | BREAK-UP | End relationship as one spewing about American bastard turning soft (5-2) Reverse of A in PUKER + B (bastard, euphemistically). I would prefer this without a hyphen for the verbal usage |
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| 18 | TOWARDS | Almost falling back, drunk inspiring doodler (7) Reverse of DRAW (doodle) in SOT |
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| 20 | GUSH | Go on! Finish off Magnums, say, with Mum (4) GU[n] (e.g. a Magnum) + SH (quiet, mum). I original had a semi-unparsed MUSH here, as a “go on!” to sledge dogs, which caused me some problems in seeing what was going on in the first column |
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| 22 | AGRONOMICS | Posting amigo’s corn for rural research (10) (AMIGO’S CORN)*, with “posing” as the anagram indicator |
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| 25 | EARNER | Aristocrat and techie both fall short finding source of hard profit (6) EAR[L] + NER[D] |
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| 26 | AGITPROP | For pro-communist publicity, race US soldier first to the pole (8) A (ace) + GI + T[he] + PROP (pole) |
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| 29 | ICE FISH | Island chef is cooking yellow seafood (3,4) I[sland] + (CHEF IS)* |
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| 30 | OPERA | (unclued) | ||||||
| Down | ||||||||
| 1 | SIDE DOOR | Audibly expressed frustration, cross about grand entrance, not so grand (4,4) Homophone of “sighed” + reverse of ROOD (cross) |
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| 2 | TEAR | Drop stage light in delivery (4) Homophone of “tier” (stage) |
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| 3 | AMMO | Shot part of Space Jam movie (4) Hidden in jAM MOvie |
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| 4 | VINDALOO | Meal soon returned, duck overwhelmed by sauce (8) Reverse of LAD (son) + O (duck) in VINO (sauce) |
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| 5 | ENTHUSIASM | Broken horse has minutes to find spirit (10) (HAS MINUTES)* |
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| 7 | THEME | Top two in team bagging wedge for topic (5) HEM (edge) in TE[am] |
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| 8 | RAITA | Dish from Indiana and Arkansas served up containing first-rate bit of tenderloin (5) A1 T[enderloin] in reverse of AR[kansas] |
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| 10 | SPA | Somewhere to relax essential to newspaper folk (3) Hidden in newSPAper |
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| 13 | NEAT-HANDED | Close to salvation, Dante frolicking around edges of hellhole – skillful! (4-6) [salvatio]N + H AND E (the “edges” of hellhole) in DA[N]TE* |
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| 14 | HOP | Endlessly desired spring (3) HOP[e] (desire) |
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| 17 | UNAFRAID | Brave peacekeepers cease supporting half of Africa (8) UN (United Nations, peacekeepers) +AFR + AID (ease) |
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| 18 | TAO | Way out in Asia, stay good at heart (3) [s]TA[y] [g]OO[d] |
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| 19 | DOCTORAL | Partly reduced budget – university cancelled exam relating to certain degrees (8) DO (party) + CUT (budget) less U + ORAL |
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| 21 | UMAMI | Flavour our Gallic friend bolsters using mushrooms initially (5) U[sing] M[ushrooms] + AMI (French “friend”) |
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| 23 | REACH | Get to march for Reform around centre of Bournemouth (5) [Bourn]E[mouth] in MARCH* |
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| 24 | OFT | Ballad poet’s frequently using expression of wonder on paper (3) O! + FT |
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| 27 | ICON | None admired his nude study (4) [h]I[s] + CON (to study) |
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| 28 | PIER | Comic Morgan’s unfinished column (4) PIER[S] (P Morgan, journalist and commentator) |
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Thanks Andrew and Glyph.
I looked for 15a, 30a found them unclued, but 7d was clued – ‘theme’ was the solution, my FOI.
I had the words connected to SOAP, OPERA and, FIRST ROW AND COLUMN by Monday evening, and was stuck.
I realized that it is music related; without subject knowledge could not proceed.
Then an expert solver said that the letters F D B G E are not gibberish, and suggested that I recall a childhood mnemonic which has “fruit” in it. He was referring to normal middle/upper class childhood in UK.
Any way, I found ‘Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit’; ‘All Cows Eat Grass’ etc and delved into Theory of Music….
My 12-year old grandson looked at the completed grid, and saw, C D E F G A F (another expert solver had confirmed 4 and 7 are the same key).
He played it on his piano.
Google AI suggested that it could be Nadia’s Theme in the Young and the Restless. We listened to it, and my grandson disagreed. For some reason he looked at EAST LONDON in 9a asked me about it; I assured him that had nothing to do with what we are trying to do. Then I suddenly remembered EastEnders and we played its theme. My grandson confirmed it – 100%.
Google AI apologized for the error, and offered some explanation, but we were sure it was EastEnders.
I have promised to share the prize with my grandson if we win it.
Great setting. Thanks again.
I thought this was an excellent puzzle. I believe a second appearance for Glyph (Chopin, Bard, Playfair) following a Genius debut in November last year.
Just like Ilippu’s grandson I also took to the piano at a certain point.
Many thanks for a fine blog, Andrew and to Glyph for the entertainment.
We congratulated ourselves for getting as far as ilippu, but like him/her, a lack of musical knowledge prevented us getting any further, although we could see it was headed that way from STAVE. Not having access to a musical grandchild, we couldn’t enter – I would be very interested to know how many correct entries were received for this one. Good luck ilippu and grandson!
Many thanks to Andrew for the blog, but I had to read the explanation for “seven other cells [that] obey the rules of the framework” several times before it made sense, even with the pink cells helpfully highlit.
This definitely called for a wider range of GK than even the usual Genius.
A truly remarkable puzzle, and one where, not for the first time, I was grateful to have married a musical wife. Unfortunately, like you Andrew, I also entered MUSH at 20 across, and in the excitement of successfully identifying the notes comprising the theme tune, I completely forgot about the need to have a theme entry in column 1.
I guessed 30a could be OPERA quite early and saw that the extra words from the down clues were types of opera, but it took me much longer to get SOAP. Like the blogger, I had tried to explain MUSH at 20a, but once I knew the first column was part of the framework I could see that it had to start with G. I’ve never watched an episode of EastEnders but it must have been on before something I was watching back in a time when making sure I saw the start of a programme meant seeing the end of the previous programme, so I recognised the music.
I originally tried to explain 9a with ‘gets’ being EARNS (as in the blog) but this contains an extra N, and I eventually realised that ‘gets’ could be HEARS which has its H dropped along with that of HOME. I also think CUT in 19d should come from ‘reduced budget’.
Thanks, Andrew and Glyph.
I really enjoyed this. As pointed out by Andrew in the blog, it’s incredible that the notes are precisely laid out in the grid, on top of all the other thematic material. (I used an online piano keyboard to check the tune at the end – felt like I was playing the closing credits to the puzzle.)
Huge thanks to Glyph and Andrew
Same as Mr Beaver. I didn’t get the musical reference. Do people think these are getting harder? In the past, I finished most of them each year. I’ve finished two this year so far.
Superb setting – bravo Glyph! I really had the feeling of a “puzzle within a puzzle within a puzzle” here. Once I’d solved the crossword, then worked out what the instructions pointed to, it still took a while for the penny to drop as to what I was meant to do with the grid. An online piano keyboard brought up a familiar tune. I’ve never watched it, but I am of the age to remember its launch and the tune is simple and hard to forget.
Thank you Andrew for all the colourful work on the blog – it is much appreciated.
Thank you Andrew for setting this all out so clearly, I take your point on BREAK-UP which I had not spotted at the time, and had the same near-fault with GUSH/MUSH, though I do agree with Matthew@5 that Gets = (h)EARS. I had to dig into the dusty recesses of my memory to recognise the reference to the musical stave but spotting the notes came fairly soon afterwards and like others I enjoyed finding an online keyboard to test my solution. I hadn’t spotted the subtlety of the spacing for timing, thanks for pointing that out. And thanks Glyph for a puzzle with clever, entertaining clues on top of complex special conditions, that kept me coming back to winkle out every element, thoroughly enjoyable. (Mildly spoiled only by having to think of the Moron for 28A!) BrianG@7 my record this year is somewhat better than last year though I did struggle with the last 2 or 3, so am happy to get back to winning ways this month, and hope you can nail the next few.
I filled the grid and saw the soap opera thingy. I suppose I could have submitted it without getting any further. I didn’t (submit it or get any further).
Brian #7. Not so much harder (the gridfill doesn’t seem to get any more difficult) as having the extra endgame, which is sometimes down to a bit of luck.
Really enjoyed this one – great theme and very ingenious. Probably my quickest ever Genius solve!
Great puzzle, but even with my music knowledge, I couldn’t see how to find the other seven notes. Kicking myself that I didn’t see that the notes in the first column followed Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit. Maybe then I would have seen that the crossword became the treble staff. I knew I was looking for a soap opera theme and just assumed it would be Eastenders for some reason. Just couldn’t find the notes.
Thanks for the blog, Andrew. I had exactly the same experience as Viv from Oz @12: certain it must be Eastenders, but couldn’t see how. All the right notes but not necessarily in the right order. A brilliant crossword!
Thanks for the excellent review Andrew, and thanks indeed to all for solving.
Delighted to read reports of musical grand-children, partners, and online pianos employed for the final endgame – exactly what I’d hoped for!
Chapeau to those who picked up on the timing of the notes. It was a fun challenge to construct the grid around those squares and the first column.