Comments on: Financial Times 13,576 / Flimsy

By: niloci

niloci — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:37:12 +0000

Anyone solving today’s Polymath may wish to note that it has bafflingly been given the wrong puzzle number. It is No 586 and was set by Gozo not Bradman.

By: scarpia

scarpia — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:07:52 +0000

Thanks smiffy.
Nice puzzle from Flimsy,not too taxing but some good clues with nicely misleading surfaces.Particularly liked 1 and 13 across.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 18:14:18 +0000

Hi Eileen
Thanks for the correction. I just goes to show how poor my short term memory now is.

Hi Tony
C as an abbreviation for Canine (dentistry) is in Chambers.

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:30:39 +0000

Thanks, Smiffy.

I note more discussion of the use of the first letter of a word as an abbreviation even when it is not a generally accepted one. C(anine) in 21d is I think another example.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:27:19 +0000

Hi Gaufrid

It was Roger, not Robert.

By: nmsindy

nmsindy — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:12:04 +0000

I think I’ve seen somewhere (maybe Brian Greer’s book) that the Times does not allow ‘one’ = A, it has to be I.

By: Gaufrid

Gaufrid — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:01:48 +0000

bamberger
P as an abbreviation for ‘pastor’ is in Chambers. Normally only abbreviations given in Collins, Chambers or COED are permissible but occasionally setters to not follow this rule.

The phonetic alphabet may also be used to indicate a single letter. For example, yesterday Auster used ‘Robert’ to clue R but this is not in any of the dictionaries I have. If you look at the comments in that post you will see that Robert used to be in the phonetic alphabet but it has been superceded by Romeo.

I don’t know about the Times, but the use of ‘one’ to indicate ‘a’ or ‘i’ is quite widespread elsewhere. In fact yesterday Hamilton used ‘a’ to give ‘i’!

By: Ramasamy

Ramasamy — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:31:59 +0000

Hi smiffy

Nice blog and a neat puzzle. Not sure if I am right, but there is one place where I contradict you. In 2D, I believe ‘reform’ should have been used instead of the plural, given it works as a verbal anagrind.

By: bamberger

bamberger — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 16:18:47 +0000

I got half out but the answers I had very scattered so I didn’t have enough checkers for the unsolved clues.

9a I didn’t know pastor could be simply P. Indeed I sometimes think that if the setter wants ,say the letter M, he can use just about any word that begins with M. Is that really so?

5d This was todays “didn’t get it but I should have done”

7d I thought that in the Times , one could only be the letter I. However it seems that elsewhere one can be a or I. Is that right, please?

Thanks for the blog -it really helps me.