Comments on: Financial Times No. 13,787 by ALBERICH

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 14:52:20 +0000

Sil @8 re 10ac: virtu and virtue both come ulimately from the Latin virtus. However, the first has come into English through Italian and the second through French and they are given as different headwords in Chambers (1998, p.1859). It would be more satisfying if they had come from completely different roots, but one cannot always have everything in a crossword. See also my views on double definitions in comment 5 on today’s FT crossword at this link:
http://fifteensquared.net/2011/09/02/financial-times-13788-redshank/

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 21:51:24 +0000

Thank you, Ringo, for the blog which made clear that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t understand ASTI (11d).
The problem with the final explanation is, that PASTIS is also unknown to me (and probably to a few other people elsewhere).

Also many thanks for enlightening me about VIRTUE (10ac).
Although the clue reads very well, I think there is a chance that VIRTU and VIRTUE are words that have something in common, more than just five letters – so, not my Clue of the Day.

27ac, however, came very close.
And while I liked the quadruple definition of 28ac, my Award of the Day goes to 8d (TRENDIER), a clue in which everything’s not what it seems to be but falls into the right place, eventually.

Haven’t done the Klingsor yet – time wasn’t on my side – but tomorrow’s another day.

By: jmac

jmac — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:43:30 +0000

Thanks for the blor Ringo. Re 1 down, I think “my” is equivalent to “lord” in the sense of “oh my” or “or lord”. Great puzzle. Thanks Alberich.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:20:53 +0000

Thomas99 @3: Thanks for getting in first with this. I spent so long typing my message I should have checked that nothing new had appeared before posting. I should exempt your answer from the unconvincing “previous explanations”.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:18:10 +0000

Thanks Ringo for this blog.

Some very nice clues here. My favourites were 14ac and 8dn.

I think Yank@1 has sorfted 11dn for us.

19dn: I was just writing a long message about how unconvincing I found the previous explanations when the answer jumped into my head: It is GOER swapping sides.

By: Alberich

Alberich — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:13:22 +0000

A double dose of me today – what have you all done wrong to deserve that! I can confirm the PASTIS minus PS interpretation, though it is somewhat strange that this clue appeared as I was asked to provide a simpler one and did so. As always, thanks to the bloggers and commenters for this and the Klingsor puzzle.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 13:05:38 +0000

I agree with Yank for Pastis/asti in 11d – my last in.

For 19d I had GOER (promiscuous sort) with the two halves (sides) swapped – ERGO.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 12:14:39 +0000

I think I enjoyed this one, but there were a lot to think about.

19d If you change the R in ERGO for an L (swapping sides) this would be a reversal of OGLE which would, of course, be related to promiscuity.

By: Yank

Yank — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 11:16:37 +0000

I think on 11d the “drink” is “pastis” minus second thoughts (“p.s.”) leaves “asti”. Somewhat obscure…Also perhaps “ogre” swapping sides (reversing?) yields “ergo”, although I wasn’t aware of an ogre being called a promiscuous sort.