Comments on: Financial Times 13,052/Aardvark

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:16:50 +0000

John
Smiffy did cover that in his blog, it’s just that he missed out the answer to 18d (mastiff) and the following four answers shifted up so that they were next to the preceding clue number.

By: John in USA

John in USA — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:05:37 +0000

But now I get it: (m)ANNE(r)

By: John in USA

John in USA — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:03:59 +0000

So nobody got 24D? The only common words that fit are ANTE, KNEE and ONCE. Morewords.com also offers SNYE, UNBE and UNDE. And wouldn’t you know it, I’ve thrown away Friday’s FT with the solution!

By: Agentzero

Agentzero — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:43:26 +0000

Of course! Thanks Geoff.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:25:06 +0000

Agentzero
Roman numerals. IM is one less than M (1000) so 999.

By: Geoff Moss

Geoff Moss — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:21:51 +0000

Rene
You are indeed correct which makes this clue even worse than I thought originally.

By: Agentzero

Agentzero — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:21:17 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Smiffy. (Looks like 18 dn, MASTIFF, accidentally got left out of your posting.)

Rene, I had the same question as you. I don’t see FARENHEIT as an alternative spelling in Chambers or any other dictionary.

Can anyone help me with the connection between 999 (the emergency number, I assume) and IM (instant messaging?)

By: Rene Pogel

Rene Pogel — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:58:43 +0000

I’m a Celsius man, but it’s Fahrenheit, isn’t it?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:07:43 +0000

Hi Smiffy

Thanks for clearing up most of my queries. I won’t even start on ‘wim’ sounds like whim’. And if satellite can be / is a transitive verb, or, if it can, means to transmit rather than ‘to revolve around’, well…

However, thanks a million for the Dennis Moore – just as hilarious now as 30+ years ago. Do watch it, folks, if you haven’t already!

By: smiffy

smiffy — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:07:35 +0000

Hi Geoff.

I held fire on 28A, as it seems to have been mangled slightly by some typos in my copy. But it did feel clumsy to me.

Thanks for confirming satellite(vb). I suspected that it was allowable, even though I don’t care for it much. It’s akin to one of my pet peeves – namely the phrase “I’ll pdf it over to you” in lieu of “I’ll email/send you the docs”. The meaning is clear, but it’s still an ugly usage of a noun as a verb.