Comments on: Financial Times 13749 PHSSTHPOK

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:48:33 +0000

International crossword, old boy! That *might* be why. Thanks for the correction, you slippery genius.

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 01:26:17 +0000

Re 25D, the AWEs have it! Thanks Thomas99@1 for the explanation.

But the clueing leaves me a bit puzzled, viz. “some English people”. Why “some”, since MOST people surely pronounce “or” the standard way, homophonic with “awe”? Or for that matter why “English” since it doesn’t contribute any fodder to the wordplay – it is an English crossword after all.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:14:17 +0000

Thank you, scchua, for your nice blog of a puzzle that was (so far) the only one I did today.
I didn’t find it easy – perhaps, because I have never done a P-K before but, I fear, more because of the things walruss mentioned in #6.
He is fully right about ‘lacked’ (1ac, should be ‘lacking’), ‘had’ (4d, why not just ‘has’ or, better, ‘gets’?) and the clumsiness of 13d.

However, my biggest complaint is about 24ac.
In Crosswordland “A wears B” means usually means: “B around A”.
Not here though.

On the positive side, I quite liked IMPEDIMENT (21ac), ONLY (22ac), 28ac (FRENETIC) and 5d (THELONGONE).

Agree with all the above on (my last entry) AWE, which is surely a homophone of ‘or’ (otherwise).

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:07:17 +0000

Your point about

In pursuit of unknown amount of liquid crystal (6)

is a good one, in that you don’t see the ‘pursuit’ gag done in this way at all often. But I’ve seen it done the other way (an element B goes after, ie is tagged onto the end of, an element A) often enough.

25 dn looks like a dd to me.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:40:35 +0000

Correction to 8: Of course I meant 25dn not 25ac.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 20:38:54 +0000

Thanks scchua for this blog. There are some very nicely constructed clues, but others which are insufficiently precise for my taste. For example in 26ac, I do not see how the word order in the clue can be twisted to give Z following QUART.

I pondered 25ac for some time before writing in the W without much confidence. Some minutes later I thought of the explanation as given by Thomas99 @1 and decided it must be right. Anyway we shall find out in a few hours.

By: Richard Cleaver

Richard Cleaver — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:03:03 +0000

I agree with your description of ‘awkward’, walruss, and I agree with your comment about cut and paste.

By: walruss

walruss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:48:20 +0000

An awkward puzzle. Why does this compiler have the past tense in his clues so often? ‘Lacked’ in 1 across, ‘had’ in 28 across? It does not work. I didn’t like ‘cut & paste’ for an anagrind much either, in 11 ‘who’ is only there to make the surface work, 13 down uses the past tense for a comtainer indicator in a clumsy clue, and what is ‘to’ doing in 23 down? Not for me at all this one, which was the first I tackled today.

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:28:20 +0000

Thanks Bryan and Richard, the typo corrected. I’ve also edited my preamble, now that even my answer to 25D may be wrong.

By: Bryan

Bryan — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:17:45 +0000

Like Thomas99 @ 1, I also had AWE for 25d.

I justified this to myself with A WE (English people) but, of course, some solvers will be non-English.

We’ll find out for sure tomorrow.