Comments on: Financial Times 12985 / Adamant

By: cossacks

cossacks — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:43:14 +0000

Fifteensquared » Blog Archive » Financial Times 12985 / Adamant great article thank you.

By: smutchin

smutchin — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 13:44:37 +0000

44 – my own comment about how quickly I solved this was more an expression of surprise than an attempt to belittle anyone else’s efforts. It’s always satisfying to finish the crossword, but perhaps less so when you complete it because it’s a particularly easy one.

CGR’s correct that the issue here is not so much that the clues were easy but that they just weren’t all that interesting (compare this with a typical Monday puzzle by Rufus in the Guardian). And that isn’t to belittle the efforts of the setter either! Having tried my own amateurish hand at setting crosswords, I know how bloody difficult it is – and it must be especially so when you have the pressure of publishing deadlines.

One of the things I like about fifteensquared is that the bloggers and commenters beetween them cover a wide range of ability and experience, and although one or two do post solving times, there is no bragging or oneupmanship – just healthy debate about the relative merits of some clues! (It’s the fifteensquared-reading setters I feel sorry for.)

By: C.G. Rishikesh

C.G. Rishikesh — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 02:02:00 +0000

I don’t think any disparaging statements have been made in the blog itself or in the postings that follow.

I believe comment has been fair – that the puzzle is on the easy side and it has a preponderance of anagrams. I didn’t say in the blog but let me add now: a good principle to follow for a compiler is not to have two anagrams next to each other. I am not going back to recheck but I think this puzzle has two instances of contiguous anagram clues.

I do grant that a paper might like to use easy puzzles along with hard ones to serve the needs of solvers of different levels of cexperience and in this particular puzzle the compiler might have used the anagram clue as a theme.

Coming back to the point with which I started writing this comment, I have not said anything in underestimation of the efforts of the compiler or of the beginning solvers.

By: 44

44 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 21:05:50 +0000

easy-peasy – I agree, as this is the first FT crossword in 9 months that I’ve completed without calling upon a dictionary, wikipedia or this blog (nearly managed it last week, but Foggy Bottom sounded more like a place in Devon than Washington DC – I didn’t believe it)!

I’m indebted to the contributors for their time, and they’re certainly helping me comprehend the incomprehensible. But please don’t belittle the efforts of those of us on the learning curve. Too much. But even I must agree there were too many anagrams.

By: C.G. Rishikesh

C.G. Rishikesh — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:34:56 +0000

You might come across a clue like this:
See cat jump off piano (5)
Rufus, I think.
Or
Lightweight cat (5)
My own.

By: smutchin

smutchin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:14:58 +0000

Aha! Thanks. I can see that’s one I’ll have to remember for future reference.

By: C.G. Rishikesh

C.G. Rishikesh — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:10:43 +0000

Smutchin,

In 1d, ‘ounce’ is not a unit of weight but “a large feline of upland central Asia having long thick whitish fur”.

By: smutchin

smutchin — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 10:01:23 +0000

Thanks for the blog, CG. I rattled through this in double quick time, leaving the rest of my commute free to concentrate on the rather more taxing Paul puzzle in the Guardian. The only clues that troubled me here were 19d (because the poor print quality of the pdf meant I initially read the final word of the clue as “last” rather than “fast”) and 1d, which I solved correctly but don’t fully understand – how does “ounce” mean “cat”?

In 16d, “of” seems to be doing double duty as part of the anagram fodder and part of the anagram indicator (“of changeable habit”) which is a bit sloppy. And the initial “The” in 4d is strictly superfluous.