Comments on: Financial Times 13957 Phssthpok

By: Paul B

Paul B — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 00:36:12 +0000

Depends on your cruciverbal geometry really.

If you look at all the clues, across and down, as being written from left to right horizontally in the paper or on a website, then ‘up’ as a reversal ind for a down clue might seem a little odd. Some people think like that, you know! And, of course, in Ruth Crisp’s excellent Teach Yourself Crosswords, the list for reversal inds is in two parts, ‘across and down’ and ‘down only’, so ‘back’ according to Marcy, Crispa etc would be fine in a down clue.

But your assessment happens to be the one I agree with, where words that generally mean ‘backwards’ apply to across entries, and words that generally mean ‘upwards’ apply to downs. Personally, I’d try not to use ‘back’ for a down ind for that reason.

By: pennes

pennes — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:52:01 +0000

Well done with really helpful and thorough blog. This is only the second FT I’ve attempted, and it took me a very long time to do the first half, but the second half with enough crossing letters, went in very quickly. I had to come here as about 6of them needed an explanation. I could choose 6 or 7 really nice solves but really liked “ahem” and “waterloo”. I also think “Ethereal” is one of my favourite words. I don’t really know why we take a particular liking to some words

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 18:19:03 +0000

Thanks Phssthpok and scchua.

I have a very minor quibble on 20d. I thought it was customary for across clues to use devices like ‘held back’ for reversals whereas for down clues it should be something like ‘held up’ (which would make for a perfectly good surface in 20d). Am I correct, or did I just dream up this convention?

By: mike04

mike04 — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:09:16 +0000

Many thanks, scchua.

Your blog was very helpful today – I couldn’t parse either 10ac or 17dn.
I parsed 6ac as a Triple Definition as ‘gross’ and ‘volume’ both mean “bulk”.