Comments on: Financial Times 13821 Neo

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:40:02 +0000

Hi all, in particular Pelham and Thomas99. The picture connections:
19A HABIB. In addition to being a male name, I deliberately omitted to mention that it’s also a surname. In the BBC TV comedy series “The Thin Blue Line” (cast shown), the female Police Constable character’s name was Maggie Habib. She was played by Mina Anwar, who also had a recurring, not so prominent part (Dr. Sandra Malik) in the 2003 season of “The Bill”, a not so comedic police series.

1D TESSERA. Film adaptations of Thomas Hardy novels have featured, as “Hardy girls”:

Nastassja Kinski – Tess in the Roman Polanski movie “Tess” based on “Tess of the d’Urbervilles”
Julie Christie – Bathsheba in the John Schlesinger movie “Far from the Madding Crowd”
Kate Winslet – Sue Bridehead in the Michael Winterbottom movie “Jude” based on “Jude the Obscure”.

Nice to have you dropping by, Neo.

By: Neo

Neo — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 21:23:44 +0000

Many thanks to scchua for his entertaining blog, and to all who gave opinions. All angles covered with aplomb, so cheers!

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:54:26 +0000

Hi Pelham and Thomas99, re 19A: there is a not so obvious link (following from the link between crossword answer and the first picture) between the first and second pictures, other than the generic link that Pelham mentioned. I hope to be back later tonight to reveal all And yes, the 14D pictures are different views of the future “newsprint”.

Hi Joe, S=salt is from the salt and pepper shakers where holes forming the letters S and P distinguish one from the other.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 14:53:12 +0000

Joe @4: As suggested by scchua in the blog, some salt and pepper pots are distinguished by the labels S and P.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:44:39 +0000

Hi, could someone please explain 19A? ‘Unsalted’ to remove S? Any reason why S=salt, if at all?

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 13:11:33 +0000

I also recognise the connected constable in the first of the 19a pictures but like Pelham I’m not sure about the other one; and the hardy girls in 1d were easy of course… Presumably 14d is the pair that doesn’t have a hidden link?

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:27:00 +0000

Thanks Neo for a pleasant crossword and scchua for the blog. I had to guess both 23s, so thank you for the explanations. 27ac: Chambers (1998) suggested a less colourful derivation for shyster as "Appar from shy[1] in sense of 'of doubtful repute'". Collins (2000) has "probably based on Scheuster, name of a disreputable 19th-century New York lawyer". I had never really thought about this before, but had vaguely assumed it was linked to shy[2] from Chambers, in the sense of a fraudulent coconut shy stall at a fair. My general view on this sort of thing is that the very fact that multiple origins are possible contributes to the likelihood of a term gaining popularity. Picture quiz at 19ac: I can see the link from the first picture to the answer and the generic link between the two pictures. Is the second picture specifically linked to the clue, or have I got the full answer intended?

By: Eileen

Eileen — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:15:00 +0000

Thanks for the blog, scchua.

Like you, I didn’t get into this immediately but, after the dependable Hardy girl rode to the rescue, things started to fall steadily and it became an enjoyable solve.

Having said that, I didn’t quite finish, as I foolishly had DELIA at 26ac [don't ask - it made sense at the time!] which gave me G?D?I for 24, which meant I missed ‘leads’ – annoying, because I thought I’d become wise to that type of clue.

I thought 25ac was clever, when I discovered that Sean Astin is a real actor [should I be ashamed for not knowing?] and I really liked the misdirection and the surface in 4dn. 18ac made me smile.

I thought the surface in 15ac was rather odd, until I discovered this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_guitar

[not in Collins or Chambers] and realised it’s another clever one.

Many thanks, Neo, for the entertainment and enlightenment.