Comments on: Financial Times 13,570 / Falcon

By: scarpia

scarpia — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:31:31 +0000

Sil,as I said your late father obviously had very good taste,IMO that version has never been bettered.
Happy memories!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:10:20 +0000

Scarpia, this is quite unbelievable.
It is the version with Jussi Björling (and Robert Merrill) he liked most.
And after all these years (50 or so), and when I think about them now, I can still hear their voices …. Oh, those were the days of 78′s and 45′s.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 23:46:52 +0000

Thanks smiffy.
Nice puzzle from Falcon with a good mix of clues.Like you,it’s not usually the back of the neck I refer to when rubbish is being talked.
Steve @5 I think you’re right,I would say FBI is an initialism rather than an acronym,but it seems some dictionaries differ on this.
Sil – You’re late father had very good taste,“Au fond du temple saint” is a beautiful duet.This version(featuring the wonderful Jussi Bjorling) is widely acknowledged as setting the benchmark for all performances http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PYt2HlBuyI

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:37:58 +0000

Thanks smiffy. Regarding 11A, I thought an acronym was an abbreviation that made a pronounceable word. If so, FBI is an example of an abbreviation but not an acronym.

By: smiffy

smiffy — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:44:31 +0000

Thanks folks – spelling goof at 15D now amended. I’d like to pretend it was a typo but, in all honesty, I see that I did likewise in my completed grid too. Mrs Smiffy will be pleased to learn that my spelling skills do not match up to my vocab ones!

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:35:40 +0000

I agree with Sil re. 7d. Had not heard the word seneschal before. (And nor has this site’s spell-checker!) I have a bit of a problem with their being nothing qualifying FBI to suggest that it is an example, but I have no problem with the apostrophe in 12a. I would read it as “greed” belongs to “pedigree dog”.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:35:26 +0000

Thanks smiffy. As you say, this was a mixture of the very easy with some trickier moments. I was unhappy with 4/9: I’d worked out it was a cryptic definition, but I think it needs more wordplay to make the answer unique. I wasn’t familiar with the phrase and guessed HEAD for NECK at first.

In 15dn I believe the spelling is SENESCHAL.

The only clothing-related knock-knock joke I know is actually crossword-related too. it comes from a famous puzzle by (I think) Torquemada where some of the answers were the “names” in knock-knock jokes. This one was something like:

Knock knock.
Who’s there?
Euripides.
Euripides who?
Euripides pants and I make you buy me another pair!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 15:08:54 +0000

Thanks, smiffy, for your explanations.
I needed them for SKULLCAP.

The word in 15d was new to me: SENESCHAL (you swapped two vowels ).
MINSTREL (7d) I read as M + IN + ST + RE (on) + L.

11ac’s ACRONYM took me a while to get due to FBI.
Its is indeed a definition by example, though that isn’t indicated. Normally setters add “say” or “perhaps”.

Yesterday I found Cinephile’s hidden-answer-indicator in EDWARD somewhat minimalistic. Today Falcon’s “apostrophe s” in GREED is even less obvious. When reading it as “has” it is OK, I guess.

Good puzzle with lots of playful clues.
BTW, I knew Bizet’s “Pearl Fishers” : my late father was very keen on ‘the’ duet “Au fond du temple saint”.