Comments on: Financial Times 14,029 by Loroso

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:42:15 +0000

It was that person from Porlock calling again.

By: anax

anax — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 11:31:11 +0000

Harrrumph! It was what we call in the trade ‘an error’. The HITCHHIKE clue had started with ‘almost’ or ‘mostly’ to remove the H from ITC[h] but the surface became clumsy (also wasn’t keen on H being the next letter in the answer) so I deleted the indicator, then got distracted by something, most likely a phone call. Returning to the clue, some odd bit of my brain said “Right, that one’s done”…

…amazing! I’ve just had the flashback moment. It was a phone call – while talking I was looking at another answer and formulating a clue idea. I shut off the unfinished HITCHHIKE clue and forgot to return to it.

A bit embarrassing.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 07:23:37 +0000

anax, if you are still reading this, what was the intended parsing for 14D?

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:53:04 +0000

I had not thought of ‘travel’ as the definition, that could have possibilities. Your explanation above gives too may H’s in the solution though, it would give HITCHHHIKE.

By: Bhavan

Bhavan — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 20:06:01 +0000

I see 14D as:

Travel = defn
Hours = H H
Outside = c/c indicator
Longing = ITCH
to get = link
lift = HIKE

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:30:30 +0000

Thanks PeeDee (and especially for going to the trouble of doing your blog twice). I agree with your assessment, this was excellent. The south-east held me up for a long time; when I finally got ‘in a mo’ for ‘soon’ in EGOMANIA, and ‘arm on’ for ‘keep supplying weapons’ in DISHARMONY, I thought them both inspired. Also big ticks for STRING BEAN, ARCHAISM and the simple but beautiful EMPEROR.

Many thanks to Anax/Loroso.

By: shuchi

shuchi — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 14:05:25 +0000

Very enjoyable puzzle, loved 25a and 28d. Thanks for the blog PeeDee, I needed your help to understand 23a. ON = ‘being cooked’ is new to me.

I had the same question as you about 14d. H((ITCH)H)IKE was another possibility I considered, that too doesn’t fit 100%.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:25:28 +0000

DOMESTIC wasn’t so bad, IT has SOME (set up=anagram) in DC does give DOMESTIC, and one does talk about a ‘domestic regime’. Using it’s for ‘it has’ would be a bit iffy, though I have seen diliberate misuse of apostrophies in cryptics may times before.

DEMOSTIC was actually my first guess and I got as far as looking it up in the dictionary. I was expecting it to be a variation on DEMOTIC meaning something like ‘of rule by the people’ from the Greek demos.

By: crypticsue

crypticsue — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:11:24 +0000

I knew I was wrong as soon as I pressed ‘post comment’ Memo to self, double check before submitting.

By: anax

anax — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 12:08:15 +0000

Hi both!

Just a note on 10a/4d. No, it couldn’t be DOMESTIC because SOME< would result in DEMOSTIC, which I suppose is beautiful in its own way but, sadly, not real.
The choice for 10a was the one likely to be familiar to most – PICOSECOND perhaps, but the other examples I think would be too far out there for yer average solver. In any case, it's one of those where, if a choice is available, the only attack is to capture the cross-checkers – just part of the wicked game we play.