Comments on: Financial Times 14,095 by Monk

By: logistes athens

logistes athens — Fri, 31 Aug 2012 07:04:18 +0000

I do accept as true with all of the ideas you’ve offered for your post. They are really convincing and will certainly work. Nonetheless, the posts are too short for beginners. May you please prolong them a little from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.

By: Molly

Molly — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 21:19:33 +0000

This one floored me good and proper, though some now seem obvious, others not.

5 words I’d never heard of; a mistake at 19A (FORTH). Bah.

The Chunnel is for people who might to cross the channel quickly.

Keep persevering. Can’t be alone.

By: MikeC

MikeC — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:16:24 +0000

Thanks PeeDee and Monk. I was less happy with this than I usually am with Monk’s puzzles. Some of the reasons have already been elaborated. It was also a long time before I was prepared to enter HOTHEADED, because HOT was in the clue. Anybody else have BEND for 7d? (BEND = knot, BLEND = mix). Some nice stuff elsewhere, though.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 17:00:11 +0000

You are right Thomas99, I can’t argue with your reasoning. It just does not sit quite happlily in my imagination for some reason.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:07:57 +0000

PeeDee (10)-
Yes – the people on the train in the tunnel are all going quickly. They are all “fleet”, regardless of their speed before they got on the train. I think that is the intended meaning (although the others given above are possible too). The subtlety or obscurity, which is not excessive, is that they don’t become “fleet” until they get on the train. I took that to be the reason for the question mark, but there’s nothing actually wrong with the clue or the usage. Compare “A tournament is designed to reward only the winning side” – the side is not “winning” at the time of the designing. Another way of looking at it is that people who habitually travel quickly could be called “the fleet”, and they of course benefit from anything that goes fast.

By: Norman L in France

Norman L in France — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 15:01:16 +0000

I recall my Meccano sets having both trunnions and bent trunnions. It was always a mystery, and I’m not sure they really fit with the definition in Chambers.

By: jmac

jmac — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 14:06:26 +0000

Thanks for the blog PeeDee,and to Monk for the puzzle. I found this far from easy, but fair as ever from Monk. 2 small typos in the blog; 6 down, the girl is ANN; and in 29 across, the article is THE.

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:37:31 +0000

The channel tunnel benefits anyone who needs to cross the channel quickly. Whether those people are themselves fleet or not is irrelevant. It benefits all equally, a granny in a hurry gets across at exactly the same speed as Mo Farah (both sit on the same train).

By: Andyb

Andyb — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:14:14 +0000

I found much to dislike about this. So much seemed overly contrived and lacked elegance.

Being a Baby Boomer myself, I was surprised to it referenced to the 1950s, as the ‘Boom’ was immediately Post-WW2 (starting, I am led to believe, 9 months after VE night!).

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:08:23 +0000

…and it makes people who use it the “fleet”…

Not sure where you were heading with the relative speed of people, PeeDee. It doesn’t seem to be relevant. And (not that it’s particularly important to the clue), the tunnel presumably does benefit the fleet (of ships) as it reduces the congestion in a famously busy shipping lane.