Comments on: Financial Times 13,462 – Alberich

By: Ali

Ali — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:20:52 +0000

Thanks for the recommendation. I thought this was one of the best puzzles I’ve solved in a long time. A collection of brilliantly neat clues.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 23:09:12 +0000

Thanks smiffy.
I can only echo the above comments,an excellent puzzle from Alberich.
Quite a few homophones,so I was a bit surprised to look here and see no complaints.
I love homophones(the cornier the better in my book).I suppose 30 across would have been a bit obvious for that type of clue.
Like Sil I tried to fit bravery to the wordplay in 1 down – nice misdirection I thought.
Top clues for me 16 across,22 down and the very funny 1 across.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 16:24:45 +0000

Thanks for the link, mike04.

It’s amazing what you can find in Wikipedia – I’d never have thought of looking for such a list.

[I nearly did give the Casablanca misquotation as the example!]

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:56:41 +0000

Hi Eileen

Yes, I was surprised. And after your comment, I couldn’t get “Play it again, Sam”
out of my mind! This place helped a little:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_misquotations

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:12:00 +0000

Some crosswords are better than others, and this was not one of the others.

Between the first word I entered [BOGART – remembered this from a couple of years ago in probably a Paul or an Araucaria] and the last one [DENIER – took me ages, being not very ‘biblical’, not being a tailor either] we were presented a whole scala of clever and even cleverer clues.

Solving didn’t even take that much time [although I'm no rightback ], maybe because I know this magician’s tricks a bit by now.
What he showed us in 7d (SWAMI) has become one of his major attractions, but is phenomenal as ever.
Another great clue was 1d (BREWERY) with its misdirecting surface – for a while I had here ‘bravery’, thinking that a ‘raver’ might be a boat, but then 9ac caused trouble.
This clue (9ac – ENTICE) being the next highlight.

Both sport clues were my least favourite ones.
I found MARKSMAN a bit tame compared to the rest – nothing wrong with it, true, nice surface, yet the two parts of the clue are too close, to my taste that is.
And that I didn’t like CUSP (20d) very much is mainly because I don’t like ‘cup’ for ‘competition’, even though it is in Chambers. Again, nothing wrong with the clue itself.

I thought this was a treat that went extremely well with my Morning Coffee.
Thank you both, Smiffy [for your blog ánd the admiration] and Alberich [hope you’re settling down well at the moment in that beautiful country].

By: Lopakhin

Lopakhin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:02:13 +0000

Strongly endorse Smiffy’s recommendation of FT puzzles in general and this one in particular. On those days when I’ve skipped through the Grauniad (Rufus et al) or been floored by them (be honest: quite a few of them, especially today…) I print off the day’s FT – and always have fun.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:00:56 +0000

PS How could I have forgotten to say what a super puzzle this was? I could be even more sycophantic, smiffy – thanks for the blog and many thanks to Alberich for a most enjoyable work-out.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:57:19 +0000

Hi mike04

And you were probably surprised, as I was, to find that that well-known phrase, ‘a mess of pottage’, does not actually appear in Genesis: shades of ‘Elementary, dear Watson’!

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mess_of_pottage

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:25:13 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid. I found the phrase you quoted in the OED.
But I enjoyed dipping into Genesis again!

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:09:35 +0000

Hi mike04
Not in its generally accepted usage. The on-line Oxford Dictionary (I don’t have access to the full OED) has the phrase “sell something for a mess of pottage” interpreted as “sell something for a ridiculously small amount”.