'Times change and we change with them.' Once upon a time a crossword editor might well have written that in Latin without feeling that Guardian solvers might like a translation of the aphorism 'Tempora mutantur et nos mutamur in illis'. No more. Our solvers have very little tolerance these days for any Latin much more recherché than 'Veni, vidi, vici' or 'Per Ardua Ad Astra'. And none at all for Greek, beyond 'hoi polloi' (incidentally, the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Guardian style book both say that 'the' before hoi polloi is now entirely acceptable).

But how does a crossword editor decide that once comfortable old friends must be put out to grass and what new words or phrases can be accepted, even before they have appeared in standard dictionaries? When I started editing these puzzles towards the end of the last century TREE used to appear quite regular in crosswords, standing for ACTOR and vice versa. This was, of course, a useful convention for setters wanting something to produce the letters TREE in a solution, for Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, half-sibling to Max Beerbohm (the author of the novel Zuleika Dobson) and illegitimate father of a number of people, including the film director Carol Reed, was perhaps the leading actor-manager of the late Victorian and Edwardian era. But he did die in 1917 and I would guess that not a lot of people today have heard of him.

So, greatly daring, so far as Guardian crosswords were concerned I ruled that an actor was no longer a tree. At about the same time I also removed the hyphen from 'e-mail' (those were heady days).

But what about the convention that 'revolutionary' = CHE (executed 1967) or 'chairman' = MAO (died 1976) or 'golfer = COTTON (died 1987)? And, in sport, what golfer under the age of 50 has the slightest idea what a mashie, niblick, spoon or stymie is? Or, with football and its modern 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 formations, who remembers where a left-winger stood (other than politically)?

Against all this, you won't find that the police tactic of 'kettling', or the American practice of 'extraordinary rendition', or the modern obsession with 'twerking' have yet made it into any printed dictionary. But my instinct is that more Guardian solvers know about all three of these than know about Sir Henry Cotton.

The memory of Araucaria will for ever be part of the Guardian crossword world. The Quiptic setter Moley has drawn my attention to a poem written by his remarkable sister, Mary Holtby, who also wrote the poem about Araucaria that I quoted last month. Mary is the widow of a former Dean of Chichester. John loved Jane Austen, whose novels and their characters regularly appeared in his puzzles as a result. This poem by his sister about Pride and Prejudice was published (together with many others of hers) in a 1985 'collection of literary encapsulations', compiled by the late, great E.O. Parrott, entitled How to Become Ridiculously Well-Read in One Evening.

'Marry well' is Bennet tenet: Bingley singly must remain

Since classy Darcy (Lizzy-dizzy) thinks he's far too good for Jane.

Rummy mummy, jaunty aunty, those would drag both gallants down –

Plus the younger siblings' dribblings over officers in town.

See the specious Wickham trick 'em with his tales of birthright gloom,

See how hideous Lydia's ruin looms before she gets her groom;

Glassy Darcy saves the bacon, shaken out of former pride:

Is he Lizzy's destined love, to shove her prejudice aside?

Has she clout to flout that matron, patroness of priestly coz

(He whose ludicrous proposing Rosings rules – like all he does)?

Darcy oughter court her daughter, destined his through two decades …

'Mulish, foolish girl, remember Pemberly's polluted shades!'

Dare she share his great estate, or can't Aunt Catherine be defied?

Yes! and ere the bells ring jingly, Bingley too shall claim his bride.

I continue to get complaints from those tackling (or wanting to tackle) the monthly Genius puzzle, who are getting error messages such as 'puzzle not available' or 'application blocked by security settings'. Last month I said that the problem lay more often than not with the latest upgraded, security-enhanced version(s) of the Java plug-in that you need to have on your computers for the Guardian's Genius and the Observer's Azed puzzles. I suggested that you should open Java via your program control panel and add www.theguardian.com to the 'exceptions' list in the Java security settings box. I should have said add http://www.theguardian.com, as the exception is not recognised without the http:// bit.

If that doesn't do the trick, please ask for further and better advice from the User Help desk, not from me, for I am now well past the limits of my comfort zone on this matter.

The January Genius (No 128 by Boatman) produced only 11 correct entries on the first day. Indeed, it is surprising that there were so many in view of the fact that the 'special instructions' did not appear with the puzzle until the middle of the first day (for which many apologies). In fact there were no less than eight correct entries submitted before there was any indication as to how this particularly difficult puzzle was supposed to work. Genius solvers are amazing. Of these, Dave H was first in, followed by Tony of Demon. There were 233 entries in total.Congratulations to Aini Zvirgzdins from Duncan, British Columbia, Canada, who is the winner of the February Genius puzzle.

We hope you enjoy our crossword service. If you have any technical problems with it, please email userhelp@theguardian.com . If you have any comments or queries about the crosswords, please email crossword.editor@guardianunlimited.co.uk . For Observer crosswords please crossword.editor@observer.co.uk .