Comments on: Financial Times 14,068 by Cincinnus

By: john newman

john newman — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 12:59:31 +0000

Pete/Mike04

Another reason for forgetting Chambers. What nonsense!

I missed the pups reasoning – thanks Pete

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:48:33 +0000

Mike04, Thanks for your input. As I said, I studied maths to a post-grad level and yet do not recall ever hearing the word ordinate. I also studied astronomy and do not remember ever hearing it used there either. And now I look it up, I find an ever expanding mess of meanings!

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 11:38:36 +0000

Sil, Ah, my bad for not knowing how to properly spell Sir Michael’s surname. Thank you for setting me straight. And I completely missed BOMBER HARRIS (whom I have heard of). Thank you again. I did think it slyly clever that ‘aircraft’ clues a singular word in one clue and a plural in the other.

I totally agree that it’s amazing how Cincinnus can set smooth puzzles like this time and again. I did not mean to imply otherwise by my remark.

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 09 Aug 2012 09:46:55 +0000

Thank you for the blog, Pete.

The word ORDINATE seems to have different uses in Mathematics:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/y-Axis.html

For ABSCISSA, Chambers gives ‘the intercept between a fixed point and the foot
of an ordinate: the x-coordinate in analytical geometry’.

I’m wondering about the general equation of an ordinate.
Should it not be something like “part of x=c (where c is a constant)”?

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 23:28:24 +0000

Thanks Pete.
“Fine if perhaps undistinguished Cincinnus”?
I think it’s amazing how one can set smooth puzzles like this time after time after time (Dac in the Independent is another example).

Just a couple of remarks.
In 1ac the composer is Sir Michael TIPPETT (with double-T).
So ‘Composer’s short’ is the construction, while the definition is just ‘cape’.
The ellipsis in 21/22d makes perfect sense because, together, it gives us BOMBER HARRIS (Sir Arthur Travers Harris (1892-1984), Marshal of the RAF, responsible for bombing raids against German towns during WWII).