Comments on: Financial Times 13,916 by Cinephile

By: MikeC

MikeC — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:30:21 +0000

Thanks PeeDee and A. Enjoyable this, and not too hard. Fairly raced through it but was then totally stumped by 10, QUICHE. It is a tricky clue (nice) but I can’t think why I didn’t see it. Must be the cold weather . . . !

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:17:57 +0000

Tom_I – Reading the blog again I realise I have written the “sounds like” in the wrong place. Fixed now.

Not my best day’s blogging I’m afraid.

By: Tom_I

Tom_I — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:17:26 +0000

I see what you mean. It really needs the word “the”, not just “gibbet”, but I suppose we can take that as understood.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:58:37 +0000

Tom_I
You said not to go into it, but… I think gibbet would mean suspension if you referred to someone being punished with/condemned to/deterred by “the gibbet”, by which people presumably meant being suspended from the gibbet, not just the wooden thing itself.

I think your parsing of 2d is right.

By: Tom_I

Tom_I — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 15:35:05 +0000

2d: “Flibbertigibbet” is the spelling given by Chambers and OED, so shouldn’t the wordplay be (EATS OUT)* + FLIBERTY (one B) which sounds like (reportedly) “flibberti”, which leads to “gibbet”?

I’m not quite sure how you equate “gibbet” with “suspension”. A gibbet is something you suspend things from, and to gibbet is to suspend, but hey, this is Cinephile/Araucaria, so we don’t go into these things too closely, do we?

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:31:43 +0000

Thank you Eileen. I think I must have had my mind on other things while writing this blog.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:19:05 +0000

Thanks for the blog, PeeDee. I agree with all of your preamble.

I’m afraid you have another weird slip [I know how easy it is!] in 10ac: it’s K[ing] that’s missing.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 12:12:33 +0000

Thanks Thomas99, I’ve no idea what I was thinking there.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:59:00 +0000

Thanks PeeDee and Cinephile.

My highlights were the two long down clues — concise and similar defs (‘fit representation’ and ‘free representation’) leading to solutions of the same format, ie ‘something of something’. I thought this a neat touch.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:51:21 +0000

Thanks for the blog. I particularly liked the flibberty/liberty 2d today.

22a – you’ve got a weird slip there. On just means on; CADE isn’t inside AMBUS!