Financial Times 13,254 / Phssthpok
Posted by Agentzero on December 8th, 2009
Some nicely tricky clues today. I am still unsure about the solution for 10 across, though.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FENCES dd |
| 5 | SIGNPOST SIGN (write name) POST (letters) |
| 9 | PERSONAL hidden in paPERS ON ALexandria |
| 10 | ENNEAD EN NE [directions reversed] AD [modern times]: the nine deities of Egyptian mythology. EONIAN This is my best guess. The ancient gods would then be EO and NAIN, with the latter being reversed. Thanks to Eileen for setting me straight |
| 11 | SPASMS PAs (secretaries) in SMS (text messages) |
| 12 | SUNBATHE UN (a, French) BAT (vampire, for example) in SHE (woman); the definition is “brown” |
| 14 | UNREASONABLE REASON (explanation) in UNABLE (can’t) |
| 18 | CITY OF LONDON *(FIND O[i]L TYCOON) |
| 22 | ELECTRIC ELECT (choose) RICH (wealthy) minus H (hard) |
| 25 | ROUTED There is an implied container indicator here: “owing money” needs to be read as “in the red.” The solution is then OUT (caught, perhaps) in RED |
| 26 | ENERGY *(GREEN) (from 6 down) Y (unknown number) |
| 27 | IDIOCIES I (one) + *(E[p]ISODIC) |
| 28 | VEHICLES VESICLES (blisters) substituting H (hard) for S (soft at first) |
| 29 | SADDLE DD (large bust!) in SALE (disposal) |
| Down | |
| 2 | EXEMPT EX (retired) MP (politician) in ET (alien) |
| 3 | CASE STUDY d&cd. This didn’t quite work for me because a baggage-handler doesn’t “study” suitcases. |
| 4 | SANS SERIF SANS (clinics) + FIRES (discharges) reversed |
| 5 | SILESIA ILES (French islands) I (island) in SA (South Africa). Not sure I would have called it a “country.” |
| 6 | GREEN dd |
| 7 | PANDA P (piano) AND A (top of accordion) |
| 8 | SEASHELL SEA’S HELL (ocean’s awful) |
| 13 | BAN BA (airline) N (north) |
| 15 | ORDERLIES ORDER (law) LIES (is deceptive) |
| 16 | ANNOUNCED NOUN (part of speech) CE (church) in AND |
| 17 | VIOLENCE *(ONCE EVIL) |
| 19 | OPT OP (work) T (time) |
| 20 | ORCHIDS HID in ORCS (monsters) |
| 21 | REPEAL PE (exercise) in REAL (genuine) |
| 23 | CORGI COR (my, as an expostulation) GI (soldier) |
| 24 | ROYAL alternate letters of RoOm YeArLy; the royal flush is the highest-ranking flush in poker |
December 8th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Thanks, Agentzero.
0ac is ENNEAD: EN NE [directions reversed] AD [modern times]: the nine deities of Egyptian mythology.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
Thanks, Eileen!
December 8th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Finished this after today’s Guardian so 29a was easy with mammary-related clues still fresh in the mind!
December 8th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Isn’t SMS (short message service) singular? Why not text message?
December 8th, 2009 at 9:11 pm
Hi 44,
Since SMS refers primarily to the messaging system (although “an SMS” can also refer to an individual message), I thought “text messages” was fair.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:33 am
29ac I think the normal word for horse gear is “tack” not “tackle”.