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Rightly or wrongly I've started trying to decipher Genius, but have only got 5 ideas so far, and wonder whether you could confirm them or otherwise (without betraying any secrets of course). They are:
12a a common form of punct.
16a an adv. not in Ch. for how a p. imitates
19a s'thing you shed? (v. doubtful, above all conn. w. Tennyson as ind. on forum)
17d adj. relating to loss of mem.
and above all if it's right
1d title of a rev. bk. by Prof.B.I think in '60s?
It wd be of some moral value if you cd reply, believe me: never done anything like this unless while sleepwalking, as far as I know. Have a nice Sunday! gk

Good morning gk. Well done for your first foray into the Genius. If I have deciphered your code correctly then yes, all your answers match mine. As you will see from 1a, your 12a is part of a mini theme. I think the "words" after some of the letter counts is a mis-print, but extremely surprised it hasn't been amended on the site by now. Certainly can't see any relevance to it. Hope you enjoy the rest of the Genius and continue with them monthly - they vary greatly in difficulty (this is an easy - middling one)and some are more fun than others. Are you watching the tennis later?

How's North Wales Mrs Trellis?

Many thanks, Mrs T. If this is easy, I shall never try another one. When my hair starts falling out en masse, I might in desperation watch Wimbledon, tho' it doesn't really interest me (I am one of those going on 70 who don't even u'stand the rules of football).Weather poor here today, flea market produced nothing, but I could stilll read 4 old Guardians, not JUST doing the puzzles, if the worst comes to the worst. Was quite chuffed to finish Spec alone quite quickly . So in fact all is STILL quiet on the Southern Front.Till my standard help returns (Friday) you remain my lifeline!

The Genius style differs so much that I'm sure you would enjoy it more on other occasions. I'm no genius myself but usually complete it, often with a bit of help from here. If you can do the Speccie you're definitely up to it!

Hi BOB1957, thanks for your interest. I'm in my holiday home in SE England just now (convenient for today's big event). I hope the only thing that's flooding in N Wales is my letter to ISIHAC!

I don't believe it, but after 90 mins' concentrated thinking I've got only 2 left, and since you're probably all keyed up for W'don (don't even know who's playing) can I ask you now for a couple of hints?
For 23a I have L?I?I?S ---not just an anag. of milkise, surely, def. peoples?
And for that much-discussed mag. in 5d I have E?O ?C?L? & can't see it in any lists I've googled. Thought the GM was Emms but obviously not; the "prize" minus "r" in the middle also eludes me.Is it SO obscure?
Otherwise I'm amazed: assume all is correct:the theme once recognized suddenly produced easy examples, that's true.
If I can get these last 2 I think I'll send it in after all!

23a - think of the language where you are now
5d - for GM think chess, and use http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/puzzles/word_wizards/wwizards.py/main if necessary - it's where I found the answer!
Well done for getting so far alone.

"Alles klar", Mrs T, as they say in Germany:never heard of 5d---reminds me fatally of how we struggled over CAM 65 this year till Aristo, who knows s'thing about that game, suddenly recognized (in a moment of epiphany, as he put it) the pattern that anyone ignorant of the game could never have recognized!And now enjoy the game: I don't think I'd've tried this if it hadn't been dear old Araucaria's product!