Comments on: Financial Times 13,276 / Cinephile

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:55:04 +0000

I know you meant “ONE’S” and not “ONE” for 2dn.

Like you I found 7dn the key to this fun puzzle.

By: Mike04

Mike04 — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:06:11 +0000

Hello again, Gaufrid.

Thank you for your reply. I’ve just noticed that Chambers defines the word ‘somewhat’ as ‘something’. I can’t think of any common usage myself. However, I’m now wondering if ‘somewhat wobbly’ is the same as ‘something wobbly’ = GEL!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:28:49 +0000

Hi Mike04
Initially I thought that, in typical Cinephile style, ‘somewhat’ indicated the first part of a word meaning ‘wobbly’, but I couldn’t find one other than gelly (a variant spelling of jelly) which, though ‘wobbly’, doesn’t mean ‘wobbly’.

In the end I decided that ‘somewhat wobbly’ was similar to ‘slightly wobbly’ which would describe a gel.

By: Mike04

Mike04 — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 16:16:32 +0000

Thanks very much for the blog, Gaufrid.

This puzzle was enjoyable and not too E-pE!
The word ‘somewhat’ in 5ac held me back a bit though. From your parsing of the clue, am I right in assuming that the word is being used here as a noun?

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:30:17 +0000

Hi Eileen
I don’t know why I typed ‘tongue’ in 15dn as I interpreted the clue in the same way as you. Must have been another of those senior moments

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 11:22:07 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid.

I did finish this but took rather longer than I should have, as I made several mistakes along the way.

The first answer I put in, with complete confidence [and justification, I think] was 10ac: BOTTLE – easy! That was that corner off to a bad start.

The bottom half was delayed by the insertion of DOORMAT at 19ac – not quite so plausible but possible, I think.

And then I’d pencilled in LIST [incline] as the ending of 17dn – not really justifiable at all, as it ignores ‘one way’.

However, one by one the pennies dropped.

[In 15dn, I read 'Oriental tongue' as the definition: 'tongue sounds' doesn't really mean anything to me.]