Comments on: Financial Times 14010 Jason

By: Agentzero

Agentzero — Tue, 22 May 2012 23:57:21 +0000

Hi Scchua

Thanks for the blog. In the US at least, reading glasses (you know, the ones we all get as we get older) are specifically known as “cheaters.” They are also referred to as “readers.”

I was hoping for a Tampa Bay footballer (US style) as the “buccaneer.”

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 22 May 2012 18:03:58 +0000

Hi, again, scchua. Thank you for those links. I found the middle one to be most useful – the cardshark one. It does seem to be a very obscure definition in what was, otherwise, a very straightforward crossword.

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 22 May 2012 16:07:34 +0000

Hi Jan et al, thanks for your comments.
Re READERS, I got my defn from:
#12 here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Readers?s=t
Under “readers” here: http://cardshark.us/glossary_frs.shtml
Second para here: http://www.life123.com/hobbies/games/card-games/catch-a-card-cheat.shtml
and other gambling sites by googling “readers cards cheaters”.

Whilst “cheaters”=”glasses”, I’m not sure of “readers”=”glasses”. Intuitively, it seems possible, by extension of what glasses are used for, but I can’t find it in the (online) references I have access to.

It could be one of those things where there’s more than what the setter intended, though we don’t know which he/she intended.

By: mike04

mike04 — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:44:57 +0000

Hello Thomas99 and Jan.
This was my speediest Jason yet, so yes, 6dn seemed rather out of place today.
Thanks for the updates. Mike.

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:22:15 +0000

Bless you, Mike.

You made me drag Chambers off the shelf – cheaters = ‘spectacles’ is a bit better than ‘falsies’, another definition, I suppose.

Where did scchua find the bit about marked cards?

Hi, grandpuzzler, @4. Well done for identifying the faces and films. I love Jodie Foster but didn’t recognise her in that photo. I couldn’t bring Bryan Brown’s name to mind.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Tue, 22 May 2012 15:17:08 +0000

mike04-
I was assuming the spectacles connection too for READERS (6d). That was new to me, but seems to be less obscure than the cards connection. An odd clue to find in such an easy puzzle, I thought, but perhaps “cheaters” for glasses is better known than I realised.

By: mike04

mike04 — Tue, 22 May 2012 14:54:47 +0000

Thanks for the blog, scchua, and thanks for the puzzle, Jason.

Jan @ 1
I looked up Chambers and the COD just for you!
Under READERS, I couldn’t find ‘playing cards’, but under CHEATERS, I found ‘spectacles’.

By: grandpuzzler

grandpuzzler — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:46:31 +0000

Thanks Jason for the puzzle and scchua for the blog. Enjoyed this puzzle. Regarding the other pix: Jodie Foster played in the movie Taxi Driver (11ac) and Bryan Brown played a bartender (13d) in the movie Cocktail. I’m glad Jan got the other one; I didn’t have a clue (so to speak).

Cheers…

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:32:11 +0000

Hi Jan, haven’t read a comment from you for quite a while, so thanks for dropping in and sharing. [[And you're right about that fast thing.]]

By: Jan

Jan — Tue, 22 May 2012 12:59:44 +0000

I’m hopeless at putting names to faces but I’ve just checked and that fast thing is a Buccaneer.