Comments on: Financial Times 13,842 / Hamilton

By: Neo

Neo — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:19:12 +0000

Very many happy returns to you, m’colleague – tip-top puzz too!

By: Hamilton

Hamilton — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 17:23:33 +0000

Thanks for the blog shuchi, and thanks to all correspondents, but especially Pelham Barton – I began to think the nina was going unnoticed! Despite the fact that I qualified for my bus pass last Sunday, I shall raise a glass to you all tonight.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 16:43:05 +0000

shuchi @15: So in fact there was a bit of coincidence in what I had spotted. I was using the “[si]XTY IS” to get the SIXTY. Thanks for drawing attention to the rest of it.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:43:32 +0000

Thanks for all your comments and clarifications. Even if I had more time for the puzzle I probably wouldn’t have got LEETS.

Thanks especially to Pelham Barton @ #9 – I had missed the Nina completely!

“I SAY SIXTY IS THE NEW FORTY”

25A: NUDISM was my initial answer in the grid which I corrected to NUDITY when BRENT would not fit. Missed changing it in the blog, sorry about that.

Blog updated.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:08:15 +0000

Pelham

Thanks for your clarification on [j]UDDERS. Yes, it’s perfect. The fault was in me as I was looking at it from a different perspective.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 14:05:43 +0000

Shuchi

I share your reservations about the word order in the container/content clues 13a (which I got) and 23a FOLKIES (unsolved by me, though I was aware of the term itself). I was thinking of KIN before I went away.

I am aware of the kind of trick employed here (where the c/c ind. is placed not quite in its place) but I feel that somehow that ploy doesn’t come out quite well in the present instances. It would be interesting to know what others think. BTW, you didn’t record the false (but legit.) capitalisation in 13a.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:58:28 +0000

Rishi @10: I manage to print out the crossword to fill an A4 sheet – my version of IE gives the option “Fit to Printable Area”. Not sure if that will be of any help to you.

8ac: Deciding how to split the clue into its components seems part of the normal solving process to me.

26ac: This seems fair to me. It is “the shakes” (JUDDERS) “before Jack goes” (remove the J).

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:52:16 +0000

Pelham

Than you for the clarification on 21a BOTTICELLI. I must say I didn’t notice it. Often I can solve an anagram by just staring at the letters but the type size here being so small I wrote the letters ITLL BE OCT on paper when the artist’s name flashed in my mind. So didn’t bother about the final I. The clue could do without the exclamation mark, I think.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:42:36 +0000

I got the bottom right first and then the top left. I must confess that I did not go on to complete the puzzle as I had to go out of home. (So the difficult clues remained unsolved.) The small type used for clues and the hazy clue numbers in the grid are not too user-friendly for sustained solving, else I might have taken the printout with me.

Now that I have read your blog and the Comments, it might be interesting to note that the first clue that I solved was 25a NUDITY, even before solving 24 (which was my second and where I did not miss ‘clothespress’ that scchua notes above). The mere definition was enough for UDDERS, the word ‘judders’ coming to my mind an instant later. Qn: Is the wordplay – that ‘udders’ becomes ‘judders’ when J is added at the front – properly indicated in the clue?

We do get 8ac YOGHURT. But how can we know where the ‘initial letters’ stop before the next component (HURT) in the charade comes?

Re 11a TENANTLESS: I too had the same doubt that you had but ‘rental’ can mean ‘something rented or hired’ (Chambers).

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 13:21:23 +0000

I have just had another look at the grid, and note that the unchecked letters in the left and right hand columns are respectively anagrams of FORTY and SIXTY. That cannot be a coincidence.

Incidentally, I think 21ac is (ITLL BE OCT)* + I, with the final I not part of the anagram.