Comments on: Financial Times 13,938 – Crux

By: Ernie

Ernie — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 18:52:24 +0000

Bamberger
An example would be ‘within compass of someone’s voice’ to denote the range of notes or tones within its capacity.
Chambers gives the meaning of compass as:
limit
range of pitch of a voice or (musical) intrument.
Cheers

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 07:26:54 +0000

Ernie at 5 . Sorry I’m struggling here -the building was within cannon range works but the building was within firing compass doesn’t. I’m sure you are right but could you please give an example?

By: Ernie

Ernie — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 22:58:35 +0000

Bamberger

Compass can mean range as well as an instrument.

And range = scope

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 19:32:12 +0000

Well all I can say is that I thought this was the hardest Crux I have ever attempted and even with aids I completed less than half.
Easy? I think John Mcenroe had an expression that covers this. It begins with “You” and ends with “serious”
1a Didn’t help that I was convinced it was over??n? so I thought 2d started with e.
5a I think this was first in and was confidently put in as accent. That somewhat ruined my chances of 6d -or maybe not as I’d never had got polonaise and 8d
10a I don’t think I’ve ever seen the contributes to trick.
23a I think I’ve come across maelstrom but unitl now I didn’t know what it meant.

6d Never heard of this
15d I couldn’t get box= tele and I still don’t see what scope has got to with a direction finder.

Thanks for the blog

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 16:52:28 +0000

Yes, Pandean, that is indeed how we looked at it too.
An orange in Blenheim? Oh, gosh, surprise surprise, it’s not an orange (but an apple).

By: Pandean

Pandean — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 12:55:35 +0000

I think the second part of the clue to 1dn may be based on the Blenheim Orange being a type of apple rather than an orange. I’m not quite convinced the clue really works, though.

By: Rishi

Rishi — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:06:02 +0000

Sil

Thanks for the blog. You’ve done an excellent job.

As for 29ac, it’s not a great clue and I think there’s little to be said.

As you know, a synonym is a word having the same (or very nearly the same) meaning. Again, as you know, we use the phrase “in other words” when having just said something we try to put it in a different way to make ourselves more clear and more precise.

The setter combines these two ideas in the clue.

However, the phrase “in other words” will almost always precede our second way of expressing an idea.