Crossword editor’s desk: when you can’t just Google it

Theguardian reports that a handy sense-check tool is no longer available. The writer says they were checking a clue (“Leftmost colour on the French flag”) and typed “french flag” into Google, and found the search engine now attempts to synthesise multiple sources rather than pointing to the original Featured Snippet, making it harder to tell where components come from; images now appear and the image 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. The piece also recommends a profile each of two 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, the writer noticed the perimeter message before the other hidden thematic material: “DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE?” They first thought of Public Enemy’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, but the theme is musical: Arctic Monkeys.