Comments on: Financial Times 13,431 / Cinephile

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 22:32:08 +0000

Nicely put Eileen.The clue works perfectly well as you explain it.I’d not thought deeply enough about “co-operation”,but it does work very well as an anagram indicator in this clue.i should know better than to doubt “The Master”!
Re:26/27(again) – I think Gaufrid’s explanation is more likely to be correct than my hypothesis.I reckon Araucaria is more likely to know of Samuel Smiles than an obscure Asian philosophy.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:05:52 +0000

Re 5dn: I admit to having taken the quick road of INDIA + MATTERS anagram to enter ADMINISTRATE, without thinking too deeply about it, apart from not liking the word, anyway. My [rather elderly] SOED recognises the word only as a past participle of 'administer'. I know that Collins and Chambers have it - but both as an exact synonym of 'administer'. [This is, I admit, rather odd, since the Latin verb is administrare, which would lead to 'administrate' but, interestingly, neither has a seemingly analogous verb 'ministrate' - only minister'.] So, my objections to administrate, as a word, aside, I have no problems with it being equated with 'order': a well-ordered state is a well-administered one. 'Working' is a common anagram indicator and so my considered take on this clue is: definition: order; anagram indicator: co-operation [literally 'working together' {gerund}] 'matters with India'.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 19:11:34 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
I enjoyed this puzzle which had a nice variety of clue devices and some very “allusive” definitions.
Like others here was not quite happy with 5 down but everything else worked fine for me.favourite clues 4,20 and 29 across and 21 down.

Re. 26/27 – I thought it referred to smile therapy http://www.universal-tao.com/article/the_inner_smile.html

By: JamesM

JamesM — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 14:07:23 +0000

Thank you Gaufrid: I thought that this puzzle was a good work-out.

BUT are we really supposed to know that Samuel Smiles wrote SELF-HELP 150 years ago?! I solved the clue by having the checkers but had no idea why!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:32:18 +0000

Hi Sil
Thanks for your comments, particularly the one regarding 5dn. I have to admit that whilst solving I didn’t read this clue beyond the first four words, immediately thinking, like you, ‘order’ anagram indicator, ‘matters India’ fodder.

Later I had difficulty seeing ‘cooperation’ as an anagram indicator or ‘order’ as meaning ‘administrate’, though I suppose that someone who administrates would issue orders.

I therefore decided that ‘to administrate’ could be to undertake a ‘co[mpany] operation’ but then forgot to include this in my analysis. However, if this interpretation of ‘cooperation’ is correct it should really lead to ‘administration’ so I am still not sure as to the correct parsing of this clue (though I still favour ‘order’ as the anagram indicator).

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:46:23 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid.
I have to say I enjoyed this crossword.
Some nice touches as the ‘invite’ trick in VIGNETTE [even if it's well-known, by now], the double use of ‘Jersey’ in CALCIFIC and the ‘snake’ swallowing its tail in 15d.

Like you, I was surprised by the multiple use of BAN (prohibition) – and I didn’t find 20ac a good clue anyway.
And in 2d I wasn’t sure whether ‘by’ should be there or not. I know, it connects the construction part with the definition, but normally Cinephile uses that little word to add something to something else.

On the other hand, I liked LENNON, SELF-HELP and especially 13,14ac (ROUND TRIP) – a simple charade, but an exceptionally fine surface. Clue of the Day.

5d (ADMINISTRATE) did confuse me a bit.
First I thought ‘order’ must be the anagrind with ‘cooperation’ as the definition, but that’s impossible as the solution is a verb. So ‘cooperation’ as the anagrind, and ‘order’ [as that enough?] as the definition?

Even though I liked the crossword as a whole [I am very sensitive to a good spread of devices - which was certainly the case here], I could hardly believe the weakness of 31ac (SPARSE).

Finally, a remark on PASSOVER (12,25ac). I saw the PAS bit, but consequently took the SOVER out of ‘sovereign’ [it is completely in it], looking for the removal of EIGN [thought of a combination of ENG (English) and I (one), then, of course, missing the removal indicator]. I see now that it’s SOV+ER, but find this an ugly construction for the reason mentioned above.

Reading my post, one might think I have a lot of Qualms & Quibbles.
Pro saldo, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 09:39:57 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid.

I read VI as you did.

[I'm afraid 7dn reminded me of the hoary old joke from 'Round the Horne' [I think]:

‘Are you the fish friar?’
‘No, I’m the chipmunk’.]