Comments on: Financial Times 13,548 by Cinephile (in the red!)

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:53:57 +0000

As usual I found this typically dreadful from this in-my-opinion-highly-overpraised setter. Quite apart from the criticisms you make Pete, I was very unhappy with exposed as an a.i. in 4dn and with its general libertarian-ness. At 8dn I wondered whether there was any connection with naming the day, weddings, and marriage as a kind of exchange of stock. Probably no.

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 19:48:32 +0000

Jan, Thanks for your comments. I am not sure now whether I misread 24d or just botched my explanation of the clue, but you are of course correct that it is properly a hidden-word clue. And I have edited the blog accordingly.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:55:22 +0000

BTW – I didn’t get SHANK – (vg) – hence no RAKED.

By: Jan

Jan — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 16:49:58 +0000

Thanks, Pete. I keep thinking I have to wait until Saturday for the Saturday Prize blogs, so all solved prize x-words sit in a drawer for a week or two. I’ll try to remember to look in mid-week.

Ref. the two red stars – thanks to Sil for Design ATING – wonderful! I was trying to make it from Des IGNAT ing or Desi GNATI ng. And in 24d, I think it is worlD WAR Fame.

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:28:15 +0000

I wondered if I was missing something in 23d. Thanks for pointing that out. And, for 3d, where I also missed something — I thought I had heard of the ocean referred to as the “deeps” but that leaves the “of” as extraneous.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 01:01:17 +0000

This was a Cinephile that wasn’t very hard, but one in which The Rev tried some special things which made us smile.

But first a remark on (not sic) that you didn’t like as an anagrind, Pete. Only a few weeks ago, in his (alphabetical-along-the-sides) Saturday crossword Araucaria did the same thing: using “not sic” for “not as such” as the anagrind. Nobody complained about it at that occasion, including me.

In 27ac “unburied” for to delete “bury” is a trick we’ve seen before, but still quite Libertarian.
But there are three situations in which Cinephile was really at his playful best.

11ac:
The clue reads “a casual visit pays”.
A normal person would say “pays a casual visit” which is DROPS IN.
So, Cinephile turns the whole thing around:
“a casual visit pays” = IN DROPS.
Quite amusing, we thought.

3d:
SPEED is the reverse of DEEP’S.
The DEEP is the ocean, so DEEP’S is “of the ocean”.
Something that nobody says like that – quite funny, though.

23d:
Maybe you think that GIANT is a dd – maybe.
But here Cinephile gives us “Designating”, which has to be read as “Design ATING” – which gives GIANT with “Design” as anagrind.
Even my PinC could appreciate this for once.
[there seems to be a (Libertarian) trend especially in Guardian crosswords where words in the clue have to be split at random - remember "winter" for WESTBURY as the ultimate example?]