Comments on: Financial Times 13,552 / Mudd

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 22:17:53 +0000

I’m in an agree-mood today, so I agree on ‘young’ being superfluous and on this puzzle being slightly harder and/or more ingenious than the average Mudd [like in the clever constructions of the Down Triple 7, 8, 11].

NOEL was my last one to go in, and I think the definition is rather nice (‘the present time’), or is it an old chestnut?

I especially liked the fine anagram of SIAMESE TWINS (15ac).
Never heard of MEGAPARSEC, but quite nice that ‘space age’ was part of it.

The explanation for the ‘upside-down’ device is – I think – indeed that the “upper side” goes “down”. Fine by me, and let us, please, not accuse Mr Halpern of another mistake (after the two in today’s Paul).

Finally, according to Chambers RIVER MOUTH consists of two words, so not (10) – but maybe other dictionaries think differently.

All in all, I enjoyed this puzzle, never as witty as a Paul but always well-constructed and satisfying.

By: Lenny

Lenny — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 16:25:39 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid. There was the usual ingenious and entertaining wordplay from Mudd today. I found this moderately difficult and it took me a long time to get Dinosaur from the anagram at the end even though I knew I was looking for a synonym for an old-fashioned person. Some of the surfaces were not very smooth, notably 4A and 5D. I agree with Gaufred about the superfluous Young in 9A and I also cannot see the point of Old in 5D.
I had no problems with Ottawa though, it is clued in a similar way in today’s Times, also using a reversal of the Scottish engineer.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:15:27 +0000

Hi deke
Thanks. How did I miss that? A case of seeing what you expect to see, perhaps.

As this is a down clue the ‘upside-down’ must mean that the first letter of ELK is moved to the bottom to give LKE rather than it indicating a reversal.

By: deke

deke — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:01:51 +0000

Fine puzzle, but in 5D, “LKE” is neither upside-down nor reversed “ELK”.