Financial Times 13,027 / Jason
Posted by Agentzero on March 17th, 2009
Two slightly tricky clues exploiting the is=’s=s ambiguity. I am unsure of the parsing of two others–any assistance is welcome! Thanks to Phi and Paul B for their help, noted below
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | LANDLORD L (left) AND (with) LORD (peer) |
| 6 | APACHE A ACHE (a pine) around P (head of Punjabi) |
| 9 | FACILE FILE (catalogue) containing AC (account) |
| 10 | FLAGSHIP FLAGS (gets worn out) before HIP (joint) |
| 11 | DENY DEN (study) Y (yard) |
| 12 | CONCLUSION *(on councils) |
| 14 | PLEASANT L (Liberal) in PEASANT (bumpkin) |
| 16 | ALLY SALLY (go out) without the S (son) |
| 18 | SWAT reversal of TAWS (marbles) |
| 19 | APERITIF A (adult) + *(TRIPE) + IF (“despite being;” as in “the weather was pleasant, if somewhat chilly”) |
| 21 | FORECASTLE *(FLEET plus OSCAR) |
| 22 | GASH dd |
| 24 | MECHANIC ME (Jason) CHAN (Jackie, of Shanghai Noon and many other films) IC (in charge) |
| 26 | VIOLET VIOLENT (rampant) without the N (“end of maturation”) |
| 27 | LYCEUM *(my clue) |
| 28 | ENSEMBLE hidden answer |
| Down | |
| 2 | AGAPE A GAPE (GAPE as a noun, meaning a wide open mouth). Having the initial “a” and the final”e”, I was all ready to write in “adore,” but instead it is the Greek word for spiritual love |
| 3 | DAIRY CATTLE These are certainly “milkers,” but I can’t work out the cryptic part. Is RIAD a Welsh name, such that “Welshman upset over unknown” gives DAIR + Y? And in that case CATTLE = colt? As explained by Phi and Paul B, this is DAI (Welsh diminutive for “Dafydd,” i.e., David) + Y, C in RATTLE (upset). |
| 4 | OVERCOAT OVER (finished) C (cold) OAT (cereal) |
| 5 | DEFINITE ARTICLE dd |
| 6 | ARABLE PARABLE (story) without the P (page) |
| 7 | ASS AS (like) + S (southern) |
| 8 | HOI POLLOI Shouldn’t a dd involve two different senses of the same word? I don’t really think this does |
| 13 | SHAVING FOAM ‘S HAVING FOAM (“is experiencing surf”). |
| 15 | LOW COMEDY W (wife) in LOCO MED (crazy sea) Y (ending in “funny”) |
| 17 | RESERVES RE (on) SERVES (tennis openings) |
| 20 | BARNUM BUM (tramp) around A RN (a fleet). Phineas T. Barnum, who apparently did not say “there’s a sucker born every minute” |
| 23 | SHELL S (‘s) HELL (a terrible place) |
| 25 | HUE I am unsure about this one as well. The definition would be “aspect;” I think in the cryptic part of the clue we are being told to remove (“obscure”) O (old) and S (beginning to story) in HOUSE (college). Confirmed by Paul B in comment #3 below, but as he notes, to make the cryptic grammar work, “obscure” should be read as “hidden” |
March 17th, 2009 at 6:49 am
Not having seen the puzzle I can’t do other than guess 3d’s clue, but if it contains ‘Welshman upset over unknown colt’ then I’d say it was Y (unknown) C (colt) in DAI RATTLE (Welshman upset). I don’t like that use of ‘over’ – ‘about’ would do in the reconstructed version I produced. I cannot see how ‘milkers’ fits in with that version, though, and perhaps knowing that would explain why ‘over’ was chosen.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Phi, it’s ‘Milkers Welshman upset over unknown colt’, and so DAI+R(Y/C)ATTLE as you suggest.
March 17th, 2009 at 9:56 am
‘Obscure old beginning to story in college’s aspect’ = H o U s E, but for the cryptic reading to work, we’d need the adjectival use for ‘obscure’.
Speaking of which, I can only find ‘house’ as part of a college, or the pupils in it, in Collins. Chambers is the same but for Aedes Christi – The House (of Christ). I have to confess I was not aware of that connection.
March 17th, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Phi and Paul B, thanks to you both.