Comments on: Financial Times 13,611 / Dante

By: John Newman

John Newman — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 10:27:21 +0000

I hope I am not too late to ask a couple of questions.

Why does Shrewd man fly, and espousal mean adoption? Surely you espouse something then either adopt it or not? I put it in because I could see nothing else but with not much conviction.

I liked this puzzle and I like Dante. I was going to ask why ether means number but I fell for the old trick yet again.

cheers

John

By: Agentzero

Agentzero — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:19:49 +0000

Hi Bamberger

If it’s any consolation, it took me quite some time to see that 7 down was a hidden word. Since a number of female names fit the pattern (E-I-A) made by the crossing letters, I wondered for a while whether Eliza Doolittle had some secret anti-American sympathies.

Regarding 8 down: a crowd, for example, is a concentration of people; if the police disperse a crowd, they are moving people in a way that breaks that concentration.

By: bamberger

bamberger — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:13:32 +0000

Got completely becalmed in the North East but only had 14a missing elsewhere. Not for the first time took number as referring to something methematical rather than medical.
Shrew =spitfire was an unknown, horrified to miss a hidden word.
I’d be grateful for further explanation of 8d. Sure if you move something you disperse it -but why are you breaking concentration? Maybe I’m concentrating too hard and can’t see the ood for the trees. Thanks