Comments on: Financial Times 12991 / Neo

By: Neo

Neo — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:56:59 +0000

Phrasal answers were split to give access to different areas of the grid, hopefully to aid rather than hinder solvers. Whether that was successful or not …

I = ‘institute or institution’ according to Chambers Online (the everyday usage one). I can’t remember exactly where I sourced it, but it was a standard abbrev in either Collins Lite or Chambers fat.

6/14 ac definition as in ‘we are His like’.

10 is AB/ AS/ H (little hashish).

13 (Hitler’s) bodyguard = SS

23 NOW regained as in ‘won back’.

All other queries as parsed by the contributors.

By: C.G. Rishikesh

C.G. Rishikesh — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:07:31 +0000

Thanks, Eileen.

Chambers XWD: A Dictionary of Crossword Abbreviations does not give I = institution.

And I can’t think of an abbreviation where I = institution, while I can think of many where I = institute, such as the famous IITs in my country.

While Chambers Crossword Dictionary gives many abbreviations/acronyms where I = institute, there is none where I = institution.

The setter seems to have used an abbr. for the nonce.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 11:49:38 +0000

Hi Rishi

In 20dn, ‘west’ wouldn’t work to indicate reversal in a down clue. I thought it was I NUT I in MAE [West] but could find ‘I’ as an abbreviation only for ‘institute’, not ‘institution’.

By: Persephone

Persephone — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 08:20:33 +0000

Hello!
For the record:
25a BRIDGET (bridge + t), the lead character in the book/film Bridget Jones Diary;
27a BRITTEN (bitten around r), Benjamin Britten, famous 20th century composer and pianist;
2d KOWALSKI (ok, law reversed over ski), Stanley Kowalski, a character in Tennessee Williams “Streetcar Named Desire”
Like you, overall I thought it was a nice puzzle!

By: smutchin

smutchin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:11:55 +0000

Still not there at 4pm GMT!