Comments on: FINANCIAL TIMES 12,858 by MONK

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:04:49 +0000

Smiffy

I agree with your interpretation of 5a. My immediate reaction was Hardy’s Tess then I forgot to remove the comma from the clue and associate the ‘a’. A case of tunnel vision I’m afraid.

I hadn’t noticed the right hand unches, but not being an Indie solver I don’t tend to look for Ninas.

By: smiffy

smiffy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:44:48 +0000

5A needs to be read as; wordplay = ” teach literary heroine, a”, def’n = simply “lady”
(It’s referencing to Tess of the Durbevilles)

What a humdinger of a puzzle! I noticed that the unchecked squares running down the right flank spell ABCDEFGH, but have no idea s to the significance (the left flank contains FT, but may just be coincidental).

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:36:23 +0000

Testy

Thanks for your comment and I accept everything you say. It has been a long time since I bought a suit (and I have never bought a pair of jeans) so I had forgotten the 34L type reference to ‘long’.

However, even in this electronic era, I’m not sure that dictionary.com can be classed as a standard reference for crossword setters and solvers.

By: Testy

Testy — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:26:17 +0000

I think that if a label said 34W 32L the L here does not mean Long but in fact Leg. But often trousers or jeans do not give specific leg measurements and instead have sizes like 32L, 32R or 32S meaning that the waist size is 32 inches and that the leg is either long, regular or short. Similarly jacket sizes are often given as 40L, 40R and 40S and I think that there can be no doubt that the L in such circumstances definitely means Long.

Dictionary.com gives it as an abbreviation for long too.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:27:16 +0000

Rishi

In garment sizing, so far as I am aware, L has always meant length or large, at least here in the UK. If L=long has been accepted as an abbreviation I would have expected it to be in one of the recognised dictionaries but it is not listed in Chambers (2008), COED (2008) or the latest Collins (at least I assume the on-line version to which I have access is a replica of the latest edition).

Octofem

The second definition for ‘job’ in Chambers is ‘n, a sudden thrust with anything pointed, such as a beak’ and ‘v, to prod or peck suddenly’

Thanks for pointing out the typo which has now been corrected. No matter how many times I read the blog before making it public I sometimes do not see the obvious mistakes.

And yes, it was quite hard today but that’s Monk for you!

By: Octofem

Octofem — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:08:17 +0000

Thought this was a difficult puzzle – thank you for explanations.
Still trying to understand ‘job’ for ‘prod’ unless it is meant as abbreviation of production?
Small typo in 4 across : ‘entirely’ for ‘entirety’?

By: C G Rishikesh

C G Rishikesh — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:02:54 +0000

It was suggested recently in some other forum that L (for ‘long’) is from real life. It is used in clothes tags (e.g. 32W,32L).

I did notice it when I went shopping in California, but I read it as 32 width and 32 length, not 32 wide and 32 long.