Comments on: Financial Times 13,752 / Loroso

By: flashling

flashling — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 06:05:26 +0000

Failed on three damn it, spent ages on henpecked so obviously right yet wrong…
Glad I was blogging Phi not you. Cheers for the fun Loroso

By: Alberich

Alberich — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 22:11:34 +0000

Thanks for the explanation, Anax. I’m glad it wasn’t just me being stupid. The original version is excellent, but if not quite suitable for FT it would go down well at Private Eye. Worth keeping in storage anyway.

By: anax

anax — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:28:23 +0000

Hi Sil

Thank you!!! Another admirer eh? Tell you what, there’s going to be one hell of a party when I reach double figures

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:20:53 +0000

Today we left Bonxie on the shelf, and instead tackled this Loroso.
I gave my PinC the choice, and she was clear enough.
Dear Loroso, you have won a new admirer today !

This was a cracking solve with some clues cleverly interwoven.
Of course, we didn’t understand HENPECKED (25ac) – and yes, we made one mistake: CAXTON (14ac). We saw it as “Roman (R?) (that a) statesman (CATO) has restricted by (‘next to’) new (N)”, which led us to CARTON. That’s not a printer, I know (would be Canon ), but you’ll never know with Loroso when there is a paper connection.

Clues we liked a lot were the concise, very precisely formulated and sometimes nicely misdirecting 1ac (DOWNPLAY), 20ac (MOD CON), 2d (WITHSTAND) and 4d (ARRAIGN) [in which has/heard had to be unlinked].

Thank you shuchi for today’s effort.
I tend to agree that it probably was ‘a shade easier than usual’, but that didn’t affect the quality at all.
Sometimes I ask myself why I find Loroso (even) better than Anax. Maybe because it’s the FT, he eases a bit down.
The fact that Lorosos are in general slightly more accessible makes them for me all the more appealing.

And appealing it was!

By: Richard C

Richard C — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:37:03 +0000

anax. Thanks for sharing the story! How amusing. I think it is quite funny that you got “Property is theft” into the FT of all places, by the way.

By: anax

anax — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:32:56 +0000

Good evening all, thanks to you and to the lovely Shuchi for a super blog.

Ah, 25a; ultimately my fault although I didn’t know. The error (for that is what it is) derives from the fact that my original clue was rather naughty: Bullied man kissed tip of private parts (9) – there we have ‘tip of private’ and ‘parts’ for the inserticator. It’s been edited to just ‘proboscis’ and as a result the insertion has hit the studio floor – sadly I didn’t know about the change to the clue.

That’ll learn me. Mouth/soap interface beckons.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:58:55 +0000

crptic sue’s comment echoed my thoughts exactly!

But it’s reassuring to know that even Alberich is perplexed re 25ac. I only got as far as kissed’ = ‘pecked’ with n[ose] as ‘tip of proboscis’ but that wouldn’t be fair and it doesn’r work, anyway. At least Loroso is one of those setters who do drop by to enlighten ue – please!

Many thanks, shuchi, for an excellent blog, and Loroso for yet another strenuous workout.

By: Alberich

Alberich — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 17:45:25 +0000

Excellent puzzle as always from Loroso. I can’t see either how the P gets inside in 25. Loroso is always fair so either I’m missing something obvious or a word got omitted at the printing stage. I particularly liked the clues for WITHSTAND and MUSHROOM.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 13:55:22 +0000

Richard C (7)-
Up = at university is archaic?? Not round my way it isn’t. And I’m a relatively young solver/commenter, I think. I’m pretty sure students still use it, along with “sent down” and other related phrases.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 12:53:48 +0000

@Emma:

1) I rechecked Oz – Chambers lists it as ‘also adj.’, so perhaps Oz = ‘from Australia’. I don’t think it’s commonly used in that sense though. Ozzie is the term I’ve heard more. I had difficulty with this clue too.

2) I’ve seen AV = bible before, but AVISO was new to me.

3) UP = at university. I read it the way Jezza explains lucidly at comment#4.

@Anon: Welcome here, and you’re right about 3d. Will correct the annotation.