Comments on: Financial Times 13,858 by Cinephile

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 08:33:25 +0000

Thanks Mike, I get it now.

By: mike04

mike04 — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:21:49 +0000

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.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:50:18 +0000

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?

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 20:31:09 +0000

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!

By: Keeper

Keeper — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 11:39:28 +0000

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.)

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:13:31 +0000

Sil, you are right, I hadn’t spotted that two letters have moved.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:29:14 +0000

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.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:06:18 +0000

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.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:03:37 +0000

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.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:59:58 +0000

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.