Comments on: Financial Times 13,738 / Monk

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:21:46 +0000

“Join all the Ls and you get a £ sign” (#6)

I wonder how many solvers spotted this very well hidden ‘nina’ – I certainly did not.
[but then I do not even see the most obvious ones .... ]

Very clever, Monk!

By: Monk

Monk — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:43:57 +0000

To Keeper @7; Chambers has the entry [Emmy, n., (pl. Emmys or Emmies)]. I don't think that non-words get past the crossword editor!

By: Keeper

Keeper — Sat, 09 Jul 2011 07:18:17 +0000

Thanks for an enlightening blog.

I just have a minor quibble with 5ac. While I was able to solve it, I wasn’t pleased with “EMMIES” as a plural for Emmy. As far as I can tell, the plural of Emmy (when not using the more formal “Emmy Awards”) should be “Emmys”. Indeed, the official website is http://www.emmys.tv. (The same would apply to Tony/Tonys.)

And I agree with Sil that boat crew = ISIS is rather obscure, especially given the FT’s international readership.

By: Allan Scott

Allan Scott — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:48:50 +0000

Join all the Ls and you get a £ sign.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:41:02 +0000

Thank you, Scarpia, for answering my Questions.
BASSWOOD “is renowned as a particularly good medium for carving”, but does that justify “you might make something of it”. I think that’s rather vague.
One might call EMMA a heroine, but I think that is a bit of a stretch in a crossword puzzle (EMMA = heroine).
ISIS “is the second crew of Oxford University”. Should I have known this? And the rest of the FT solvers? Only the second?
‘Football’ doesn’t make the clue (27ac) wrong, indeed. Not very right either. A ‘booklet’ is a football programme? Perhaps, people call it like that – then I surrender.
WHALE – ok.
“24D ‘rolling up’ I thought was very fair and,again made for a great surface” – I still don’t get this, it’s IMO misleading (which I find negative as being opposed to misdirecting).
Sorry, Scarpia, I do not agree about 18d and 24d with you. The surface of a clue is important to me too, but not at the expense of precision (and the length of a word is not an issue either).

Glad you liked this puzzle, huge credits to Gaufrid, but I fear I am going to drop Monk out of my Top 10 again.
Reason? Lack of sparkle.

By: Scarpia

Scarpia — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Thanks Gaufrid.
Like you,I found this one of the hardest FT puzzles that I’ve attempted.Like Thomas99,I’m glad I stuck with it.A very satisfying solve!
Sil,in reply to some of the points you raised -
BASSWOOD is renowned as a particularly good medium for carving.
EMMA was the heroine of a very well known novel by Jane Austen.
ISIS is the second crew of Oxford University.
I agree ‘football’is perhaps unnecessary in 27 across,but it doesn’t make the clue wrong(IMO).
WHALE – definition from Chamber’s ‘person with a large appetite’.
18D ‘Firsts’ would undoubtedly be clearer,but would ruin the surface.
24D ‘rolling up’ I thought was very fair and,again made for a great surface.
26D ‘Number 4′ for more than one number 4,seemed fine to me,especially for a three letter answer.

I thought it was a super puzzle.Thanks Monk!

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 21:19:21 +0000

Phew, Gaufrid, very impressive from you.

Two Monks ago I said in this place that I couldn’t get anywhere, and that I therefore ‘read’ the solutions to understand the setter’s way of thinking (something that Conrad Cork applauded – btw, nice to see someone else using his real name here).
The previous Monk I enjoyed enormously and – somewhat OTT – I allowed him to go straight into my Top 10 of favourite setters.
After today’s offering I am not so sure any more.
Although I like the cleverness of construction, there were also too many unusual words today.

Logodaedalus (in the Guardian) was not very satisfying today, and this one, well …
[glad there was the simple but splendid Orlando (Guardian Quiptic) to save my day]

A few question marks that need an exclamation mark:
- “you might make something of it” as a definition of BASSWOOD?
- EMMA was a “heroine”?
- ISIS = “boat crew”? [I know, the Isis is part of the Thames]
- why is “football” part of the clue in 27ac?
- in 3d: WHALE = “big eater” [I think, a bit of a stretch]
- just “first” for three first letters in 18d?
- I can’t see why Monk uses (the, IMO, misleading) “rolling up” in 24d
- “Number 4 in …” for more than one Number 4? Not sure.

As I said, Gaufrid, you really did a Great Job.
I couldn’t have done this.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 19:05:27 +0000

This was very impressive from Monk – and sensationally difficult! I’m glad I stayed with it. I thought he judged it very well to make it very difficult but not impossible, and not unfair – e.g. words like “beta test” which we would probably all recognise but don’t use ourselves and in my case took absolutely ages to dredge up.

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:14:27 +0000

Chapeau, Monk and Gaufrid!