Financial Times 13,858 by Cinephile
Posted by PeeDee on November 23rd, 2011
A relatively straightforward puzzle from Cinephile, and nothing contentious that I can see. Thank you Cinephile for an enjoyable puzzle.
Hold mouse over clue number to see clue.
| Across | ||
| 1 | LEBANESE | BANES (troubles) in LEE (shelter) |
| 5 | ADJUST | AD (publicity) JUST (only) |
| 10 | CLOWN | LOW (base) in CN (unofficial IVR code for China) |
| 11 | STOP SHORT | PS (addition to letter) HO (house) inside S (south) TORT (wrong) – definition is “don’t go as far as” |
| 12 | SIDEBOARD | SIDE (team) BOARD (directors) |
| 13 | ROTOR | ROT (nonesense) OR (gold) – the rotor of a helicopter |
| 14 | BATTEN | Definition and cryptic definition – batten is to fatten and ‘batten down the hatches!’ |
| 15 | CHELSEA | ELSE (if not) in CHA-cha (part of dance) – the Chelsea Flower Show (somewhere that shows flowers) |
| 18 | OLD CHAP | OLD (familiar) CHAP (area of sore skin) |
| 20 | MOTHER | MO (modus operandi, how to do it) in front of (first) THE R (river) – definition is ‘dam’ |
| 22 | SCRUB | Double definition |
| 24 | SACRED COW | SCARED* COW (frighten, cause to be scared) – definition is ‘shibboleth’. I’m not quite sure how shibboleth is the same as sacred cow, but the meanings are along the same lines, could be that a ‘sacred cow’ is a belief by which one could recognise one from another culture? Perhaps someone can help out with a clearer explanation. See comments #2 and #4 for more info on this. |
| 25 | MANGANESE | MAN AG (silver) reversed and SEEN* |
| 26 | ARMED | Double definition |
| 27 | ROLLER | Cryptic definition |
| 28 | TERRAPIN | P (quiet) in TERRAIN |
| Down | ||
| 1 | LOCUST | CU (copper) in LOST (lost souls, the damned) |
| 2 | BROADBAND | Spoonerism of “bored brand” – not interested (bored) and type (brand), definition is ‘connection’ |
| 3, 6 | NONE BUT THE BRAVE DESERVES THE FAIR | ONE BUTT (barrel) HEBRew (largely Jewish) in NAVE (part of church) and (THIS RED SEA FEVER)*- lines from the poem Alexander’s Feast by John Dryden |
| 4 | SUSTAIN | Double definition |
| 6 | See 3 | |
| 7 | U-BOAT | ABOUT* |
| 8 | TUTORIAL | I (1 Roman numeral) inside ORAL (exam) following TUT (disapproving comment) |
| 9 | NORDIC | miNOR DICkens (some characters from) |
| 16 | SKETCH MAP | KETCHup (some tomato sauce) M (monsieur) inside SAP (juice) |
| 17 | GOSSAMER | MASS (large amount) reversed inside GOER (active person) |
| 19 | POSTER | POST ER (Elizabeth Regina) – Her Majesty’s mail, definition is ‘bill’, advertisement stuck to a wall |
| 20 | MACHETE | M (monsieur, gentleman) and ACHETÉ(bought) written in French |
| 21 | SWEDEN | WEDNESday (most of day) with the S and E moved (a little change) – definition is ‘land’ |
| 23 | RENAL | New (start of) in REAL (a coin) – definition is ‘connected with organ’, of the kidney |
*anagram
November 23rd, 2011 at 1:07 pm
Thanks for the blog PeeDee and Cinephile for an enjoyable puzzle.
Minor correction at 6d – should be ‘deserves’ rather than ‘deserve’.
November 23rd, 2011 at 3:02 pm
Thanks PeeDee
This was very enjoyable and fairly easy, but I managed to make a couple of
silly mistakes and I couldn’t see the abbreviation used in 20ac or unravel the
spoonerism in 2dn. Thanks for your clear explanations.
Cherry-picking from different reference books:
SACRED COW
idea unreasonably held to be immune from criticism (Concise Oxford).
SHIBBOLETH
a worn-out or discredited doctrine (Brewer).
That’s as close as I can get. It is, however, a Cinephile clue with a question mark!
Some lists give .cn as an abbreviation for CHINA on the internet.
November 23rd, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the thoughts on cow/shibboleth, that is the closest definition found so far I think.
For China .cn was my first thought too, I actually got as far as writing it into the first draft of the blog but on reflection (and a little Wikipedia) I changed it to the IVR, since this is a well established crossowrd convention, and also the unofficial nature works well with the question mark in the clue.
November 23rd, 2011 at 4:03 pm
I didn’t have a problem with 24 but found it quite hard to explain when I started thinking about it! The way I see it is:
In the bible shibboleth is the password they have to know to get into (wherever it is), so it’s come to mean (sometimes) something like a talisman, an opinion or saying that people hold onto as if it’s essential/good for them. Say voting reform for the Lib Dems – it’s a shibboleth because bringing it up always makes you fit in, gets other Lib Dems to agree with you etc. And that’s also what people sometimes mean by sacred cow – an idea you can be sure your party/faction/group will always accept and agree with. I think there’s also often a sense for both words that there’s something a bit insubstantial about the idea/opinion described.
November 23rd, 2011 at 4:06 pm
PS.
mike04′s explanation seems persuasive to me too – and unlike mine it’s backed up by references! Those definitions are both more pejorative than the ones I was imagining.
November 23rd, 2011 at 10:29 pm
Thanks PeeDee – as you said, relatively straightforward but enjoyable.
Not happy, though, with SWEDEN (21d).
“Only the S moved”? Don’t think so.
A little change? Don’t think so.
November 23rd, 2011 at 11:13 pm
Sil, you are right, I hadn’t spotted that two letters have moved.
November 24th, 2011 at 11:39 am
I was going to ask how “bored brand” is a Spoonerism for “broad band” in 2d, but I finally figured it out after affecting a British accent. (On my side of the pond, this Spoonerism wouldn’t have worked.)
November 24th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Hi Keeper
The Spoonerism doesn’t work in many parts of Britain either.
You must have put on one of the English accents, I think. You did better than me.
I live in Scotland, and without PeeDee’s fine blog, I would never have got it!
November 24th, 2011 at 8:50 pm
Hi mike04 and keeper, I can’t figure out how this won’t work in the US/Scotland.
b+ord br+and = br+ord b+and
by swapping over the begging sounds (b and br) from each word. What am I missing here?
November 25th, 2011 at 12:21 am
Hello again, PeeDee
I read the Spoonerism change as: B+OAD/BR+AND = BR+OAD/B+AND
and the first half of the left side to be read as the word ‘bored’(not interested).
I pronounce the R in BORED. There isn’t an R in BOAD so the two sounds in my accent are completely different.
November 25th, 2011 at 8:33 am
Thanks Mike, I get it now.