Comments on: Financial Times 14130 Jason

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 17:47:17 +0000

[[Steve and Ferret, I've added a link beneath the pictures to the answer to pic#3.]]

By: Ferret

Ferret — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:51:44 +0000

…..is Madonna “Like a Virgin” and hence CHASTE?

By: Richard

Richard — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:10:56 +0000

25dn: I have LAMA as the source of illumination (Lam + A)

By: scchua

scchua — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 16:09:18 +0000

Thanks for your comments.
Pelham, you’re right about “repetition”. Mine was a supposition more than anything else – that there would be a source somewhere that gave the abbrev. Should have thought more about it.

[[Steve, well done, including the Madonna links, which I didn't know of. To be honest, I was thinking of something else - hint: why that particular shot of her? and one other clue/answer gives a further hint.]]

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:21:54 +0000

Thanks Jason and scchua.

Patrick Stewart and Scott Bakula were both in ‘Star Trek’: (USS) Enterprise – 11a. Madonna produced a film titled ‘I’m going to tell you a secret’ and also has songs called ‘Secret’ and ‘Secret Garden’ (21a Open Secret). Jane Russell was in ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ (22d Prefer).

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:43:52 +0000

Thanks Jason for the puzzle and scchua for the blog. A lot of good here, but I do not like this grid. After solving 9/11ac and 4/5/6/7dn I only had two letters towards any further answers. Of course, views on this sort of thing will depend on the approach to solving.

19ac: I thought a duck was an unlikely pet, but the explanation using terms of endearment makes perfect sense.

24ac: (Response to scchua’s remark.) In the (British) NHS, there is no charge at the point of use for seeing a GP.

29ac: It did not occur to me that the question mark was meant to be an anagram lead, so I took it as just a cryptic definition whose answer was the anagram of a clue word.

5dn: I have seen the argument made before that a phrase of more than one word takes a plural verb in cryptic grammar, but I am not convinced. Having said that, I cannot think of an easy way of making the cryptic grammar work uncontroversially without ruining the surface of the clue.

14dn: I cannot find r listed as an abbreviation for “repetition” in either Chambers 2008 or Collins 2000. I took the cryptic indication as meaning that only one of the Rs in ARMOUR is to be retained. I would be completely happy with this as removing the second of the two Rs, whether they are together or separated in the word, but am less happy about it for removing the first R.

20dn: Consistent with the cryptic grammar used in 5dn, one could say that the phrase “Are fares” takes a plural verb, so the anagram lead is “are out of order”, but personally I would prefer to drop one or other occurrence of the word “are”. Possibly an editing error? Slightly unsatisfying that “fare” plays such a prominent part in clue and solution.

In relation to the three occurrences of chess notation, I would have thought that B for bishop was more general, but Chambers 2008 gives it specifically as “bishop (in chess)”. Of course, if Jason had managed to get the other three types of chessman in, we would have been congratulating him on a (mini-)theme. I would imagine that “rook” would be the most difficult to work unobtrusively into a clue.