More on my problems following the appearance of a koala bear in Cryptic puzzle No 26,288 (17 June, 21 down), set by Qaos. The clue was: 'Bear a left, then a right, then reverse (5)', making A/L/A/OK (rev).
The initial attack for having allowed a koala to be referred to as a bear came from someone working for a company with its headquarters in Perth, Western Australia. (My position was already weakened by the discovery that, under K, the Guardian's own style book states, baldly and without qualification: koala not koala bear.) But one Australian correspondent from Victoria pointed out that Perth lies a very long way indeed to the west of of the natural habitat of the koala, while another from Queensland gave it as his opinion that 99% of the Australian population regularly refer to koalas as koala bears.
Perhaps the clincher, though, came in a comment posted under my July blog from Robi23. After pointing out that the Qaos clue is definitely better than 'Marsupial a bear, then a left, then reverse (5)' would have been, we were reminded that in 1983, for the B-side of his better-known number 'Say say say', Paul McCartney recorded, in duet with the late Michael Jackson, a song called 'Ode to a koala bear'. It is not the McCartney endorsement that counts in this context but the fact that the record in question was produced by George Martin, in the eyes of most people the greatest record producer of all time, widely know as 'The Fifth Beatle' and knighted in 1996 for his services to music. Still with us at the age of 88, such a scholar and a gentleman knows full well that a koala is a marsupial, not a bear. But he would never have allowed one to be called a koala bear and to have an ode for which he was responsible dedicated to it unless it was acceptable to do so.
Finally, I was delighted to be sent a copy of a card with a picture on it of a charming koala, nibbling a leaf, bearing the legend:
WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M NOT A BEAR?
I HAVE ALL THE KOALIFICATIONS
PS: Here's Sir Macca and Jacko singing 'Ode to a koala bear' together
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This is advance notice that the Cryptic for the August bank holiday weekend, set by Maskarade, will be published on Saturday 23 August and is a jumbo alphabetical jigsaw puzzle. The solution will be available on Monday 1 September.
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July's Genius (No 133 by the newcomer Vlad) got a high number of entries (18) on the first day but only 221 by the deadline. I have no way of knowing whether you found the puzzle particularly challenging, or whether this wonderful extended summer has had you doing other more pleasurable things outdoors. The first two solvers to send in correct entries have form, Genius-wise: Dave H in this country and PSC in Queensland, Australia. The third to finish correctly was Hook T, a newcomer in the winners' enclosure, I think.
Incidentally, for those still battling with the August Genius by Enigmatist, there was originally a small error in the first line of the specula instructions, which has been corrected.
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Congratulations to John Woodall, who is the winner of the July Genius (No. 133) puzzle.
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