Comments on: Financial Times 13,857 / Armonie

By: ChrisChunders

ChrisChunders — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 19:40:26 +0000

A good puzzle. I was in search of some light relief after having a last stab at the Azed, and found a gamer bird than I might have imagined. Knot is the current crossword wader of choice, though rhea and emu are present in puzzles today and seem to be increasing generally, their future safer in crosswords than perhaps the wild. I had to look up Chambertin, and thought tin an obscure synonym for money. Couple of downer-beat solutions, ‘dispirited’ and ‘lose heart’, perhaps to recognize those who feel too much of their day is being consumed at the grid. But an enjoyable puzzle overall. Thanks for the blog and the opportunity to respond to the puzzle, and puzzling generally.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:27:40 +0000

Neb @5 re 2dn: I raised an eyebrow at "Quack", but Chambers 1998 gives quack² vt "to treat in the manner of a quack", which comes close enough for me.

By: Neb

Neb — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 16:49:31 +0000

18dn was my starter, so personally I thought feature was fair as an indicator. I struggled with 20dn thanks to the spelling – I thought it was archaic (pre-Islamic republic) but a search seems to show it’s still accepted as an alternate. I wasn’t all that happy with quack as an indicator of an anagram (2dn), although I solved it readily enough.

By: mike04

mike04 — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:35:05 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid.

In 18dn, I took ‘feature’ to mean ‘display or present prominently’.
As the maps in question are in the form of an atlas, the NTI would almost
certainly be found inside the book.
In this particular clue, therefore, I think ‘feature’ is a fair Inclusion Indicator.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:13:56 +0000

Hi PB – we crossed.

By: Paul B

Paul B — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:13:04 +0000

Maps feature National Trust Island – land that was lost (8)

With feature read as a noun, the indication could be taken to mean ‘NT/ I as a feature of ATLAS’. This, admittedly in its own sweet way (although you could certainly argue for it), can lead more fairly to the required word.

Feature as a verb would give more of a problem in that ‘maps’, being a synonym for ATLAS, in SI can’t be considered either as a plural per se, or indeed as a string of letters: it’s just one unit. That would cause a fault in any ideas about plural usage for the verb.

Anyway, 1A I thought brilliant, and a really professional job with plenty of good stuff.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:10:18 +0000

Thanks Armonie for a pleasantly straightforward puzzle and Gaufrid for the blog. 18dn: Using Chambers 1998, the best I can find is feature vt to have as a feature, and then n an element or prominent trait of anything. I am still not sure whether that is enough. One can also question the plural verb. As usual I would favour the use of "Maps'll feature ...". Actually, that construction did not bother me at all while I was solving, but I wondered about the definition, which suggests that Atlantis was lost as a matter of fact rather than legend. Am I being too picky on that aspect of the clue? 24dn: I guessed wrongly here, and am not happy with the grammar of "can get into knots". I could accept "get into knots" as a defintion, but that leaves "can" as an unsatisfactory link. 23ac: The construction of this one also bothered me at the time, but on reflection I think one can take "gives one" as a perfectly good link between wordplay and definition, with "the shakes later" as a grammatically correct definition.