Comments on: Financial Times 13,251 / Adamant

By: Richard

Richard — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 21:31:39 +0000

Shuchi, I agree that there were some less than satisfying surfaces including 21d not being a dd for RESERVE.

8d seems to imply that THYROID is a disease rather than a gland that may be diseased. It is like saying that heart and kidney are diseases.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:35:04 +0000

Hi, Typo at 8d fixed. Thanks.

@Rishi: Thanks for explaining CITING. *sigh* All my Googling about Jersey cows gone waste.

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:58:04 +0000

I agree with Octofem; 5d is “hook”. I think people are over-analysing 15a. “Sats” are Saturdays which occur at weekends. Living in Houston, I was doubtful about this one simply because I thought SATS were tests in the US only.

btw, nobody mentioned the typo in clue to 18d. Following the recent mess-up in the grid and some clue-numbering problems in a recent Saturday prize puzzle, one wonders about FT’s QA.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:18:17 +0000

Hi shuchi
I agree with your various reservations.

I think there is another way of looking at 15a besides the SATS = educational assessments and Saturdays. If we turn around ‘taken at the weekend’ (with a pause between ‘at’ and ‘the’) we could get ‘the weekend taking at’ giving AT in S (Saturday) S (Sunday). I doubt that this is what was intended, I’m just throwing it in as a possibility.

By: Octofem

Octofem — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:02:38 +0000

Hi, Shuchi. Is there a typo at 5 down? Surely ‘hook’ as in ‘hook and eye’?

By: C. G. Rishikesh

C. G. Rishikesh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:24:14 +0000

Sorry. In the above, it should read AT HYDRO (7 letters).

Just as the letter count in HYDRO IT is 7.

By: C. G. Rishikesh

C. G. Rishikesh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:20:10 +0000

29ac: We say “a spot of rain”.

As ‘spot’ means ‘a small quantity of anything’, I think the definition is sufficient, especially with the string of wellknown abbreviations forming part of the charade.

Congrats on an insightful blog.

By: C. G. Rishikesh

C. G. Rishikesh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:11:46 +0000

In 8d, the clue-writer probably wants to mislead us momentarily when we count letters for the anagram. If we jumble AT HYDRO (8 letters), we won’t get the required answer.

By: C. G. Rishikesh

C. G. Rishikesh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:06:46 +0000

In 25a the anagrind appears to be missing, as you say. Besides, ‘not heroin’ is, IMHO, misplaced in the surface reading.

By: C. G. Rishikesh

C. G. Rishikesh — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:01:42 +0000

I think 15ac is SATs (in the exam sense) and Sat(urday)s (from weekend). But how ‘weekend’ can give the plural form, I am not sure. No, no, it is not a DD; it’s a charade. SAT (educational assessments) + S (Saturday, some calendars have S for Saturday as well as Sunday). But is “edcational assessments” OK for the seemingly singular SAT? No, the clue is a CD. But are all SATs held only during weekend? I am confused. Let’s see what others say!

I agree with your comment at 19a.

As for 23a, it is CI TIN G
CI – Channel Islands of which Jersey is one
TIN – can
G – good