Comments on: Financial Times 13,280 – Dante

By: Rufus

Rufus — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:06:34 +0000

Hi Uncle Yap! Thank you for your blog which came out last Thursday just as I went under the knife, after 4 postponements, having my pacemaker fitted.
I must admit I took Ambrosia from Collins where it just gives the definition of “food of the gods”. I dithered between “fare for the Olympics” which would have been more accurate, but finally opted for Jupiter and Mars who, though Roman, were still gods and I hoped would, in a cryptic clue, be acceptable. I shall know better in the future thanks to you!
Cortes has two entries in Collins, first as the Spanish Parliament and the next “Cortés or Cortez” (Thanks to Eileen in the past I could put in the acute accent!) for the “stout” man.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:54:33 +0000

Mike04

And Cicero was a Roman writer!

By: Mike04

Mike04 — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 11:44:34 +0000

Hello again, Uncle Yap

Thank you for your prompt reply. I know of a man who really would have enjoyed our debate. He’s quoted in Cassell’s Latin-English Dictionary under ‘ambrosia, the food of the gods’

orator ambrosia alendus (of a distinguished orator)
Cicero

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:42:18 +0000

When I googled “stout cortes” I got 85,100 hits with a question “Did you mean: stout cortez?” and the first three hits showed the spelling as Cortez.

When I googled “stout cortez”, I got 162,000 hits.

Whereas Cortes and Cortez may well be interchangeable elsewhere, but when used in the context of “Stout somebody” I contend it should be Cortez.

As for Ambrosia, wouldn’t it have made for greater accuracy if the gods cited were from Greek mythology?

I know I am splitting hair but after so much silence here, isn’t it fun to have a debate going on once in a while. Then I won’t feel so lonely

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 10:18:35 +0000

Mike04 is quite right. ‘Greek mythology’ is often used as shorthand for ‘Greek and Roman’ or ‘Classical’ mythology. Indeed, Collins has: ‘ambrosia: classical myth, the food of the gods’.

As for ‘stout Cortes’, I don’t understand your reference to Google, Uncle Yap. In many instances, the conquistador is spelt ‘Cortes’. Spanish is not one of my languages but I always assumed that the two spellings were both correct. Certainly, in his lovely sonnet, from which the quotation comes, Keats had ‘Cortez’, so, strictly speaking, that is the ‘correct’ spelling here but he could only use one of them. I thought this was a great clue, with its possible nod in ‘stout chap’ to the title of the sonnet, ‘On first looking into Chapman’s Homer’.

By: Uncle Yap

Uncle Yap — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:11:32 +0000

Before I wrote my blog, I consulted Chambers (ambrosia noun the food (later, the drink) of the Greek gods, which conferred everlasting youth and beauty) and Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable and Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambrosia and all gave Greek origin to the etymology and/or reference to Greek mythology.

Your parsing of 19Down is right.

By: Mike04

Mike04 — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 08:46:00 +0000

Many thanks for your blog, Uncle Yap

A most enjoyable start to last week with lots of delightful clues.
Here in the UK we’ve had plenty of 5dn in the last month!

27ac AMBROSIA
This word was used by the Romans as well. Their gods could tuck in too!
19dn SIGNALS
I read this as a charade: meaningful + point = SIGNAL + S