Comments on: Financial Times 13,626 / Hamilton

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 23:08:40 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
Nice puzzle from Hamilton,using what I assume is the FT’s style for themed puzzles(undefined asterisked solutions,a la Cinephile).This is o.k. by me as long as,like here,the theme is wide ranging enough.
1 across seemed fine to me,using’The dashing’instead of just’dashing’ removed any ambiguity as to which sense of ‘dashing’ the solver was looking for.
Not keen on’diagnosis’ as an anagram indicator but reading Hamilton’s justification I wouldn’t say it was wrong..and it did make a nice surface!
Two mates/mutates is fine by me,I am always happy to give leeway to a setter for amusing Spoonerisms or homophones.As I’ve said before,I love corny puns!
In fact I would nominate that clue(16 across) and 8 down as my favourites.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 19:59:27 +0000

An enjoyable crossword and an excellent blog. I am still not sure why was 21a a definition. Spoonerisms are always fun but in 16a “Two Mates” should really give us “Mootates”.

I too was hoping for a tighter common theme so it was fun imagining a film featuring all these performers!

By: Tony Welsh

Tony Welsh — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:45:05 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid and Hamilton. If I understand it correctly, the objection on 1a is to the word “the” at the start. I think it reads fine without it, but I don’t see any reason to change “dashing” to “elegant.”

For some reason my eye fell on 24d first and solved it instantly. Thereafter I was sure we had a set of Civil War generals! Then I got REMAINDER and then BRANDO and I was back on track for a fairly easy solve.

Did not know Colman. Living in Texas, I was trying to work the wordplay based upon “oilman.” The coalman is a dim and distant memory even to this 66-year-old!

Favourite clue 16a.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 13:33:15 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid for stepping in and Hamilton for dropping by.

A pleasant crossword, although I share your reservations about 1ac and 12ac. Moreover, I do think that ‘is’ in 28ac (EXTORT) should perhaps not be there. I think “Former lover’s wrong …” is much better.
I am also a bit puzzled by the use of ‘pens’ which normally indicates an insertion. Even if it is meant to be taken as ‘writes’ it still doesn’t feel comfortable to me.
I took 19ac the same way as Hamilton did.
And finally, is MUTATES (16ac) really a Spoonerism of ‘two mates’? I thought ‘mutates’ should be pronounced as ‘myooteyts’.

Even so, an enjoyable crossword.
Favourites perhaps 13ac, 4d, 18d and 25d.
Of the actors only COLMAN was unknown to me, and if we’re unlucky someone will stand up again to tell us that Ulster isn’t the same as Northern Ireland ….

Thanks again Hamilton.

By: Hamilton

Hamilton — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 12:23:14 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid for a splendid blog, as ever. I’m sorry I had to burden you with more film-related trivia, but I don’t see Indy crosswords very often and of course I have no say on the FT publishing schedule!

The theme is simply that they are all dead actors/actresses.

21d – you must forgive me, but as a member of the Inland Revenue for 38 years, old habits die hard! I have used it once before though, so now I shall put it to rest.

19a – Chambers describes rheumed as “of or like rheum” which, without going into all the messy details, gave me “cold-like symptoms”. My trusty Chambers Thesaurus suggested “diagnosis” had a valid alternative in “interpretation”. Not perfect, I know, but it wasn’t the best of words to be left with when the grid was filled!