Comments on: Financial Times 14,153 – Crux

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:33:41 +0000

I had 19a as carboys simply because I couldn’t think of any other glass bottles that would fit in.
That made gift impossible in 16d and not having 26a, I only had h???e for the second word of 16d.
Even with ?a?e, I couldn’t get case in 2d. Very obvious now.

Thanks for the blog.

By: Radler

Radler — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:24:32 +0000

Sil – regarding the “gift horse”, I vaguely recall a similar phrase from the little Dutch I learned many years ago – or is my memory playing tricks?
Een gegeben paard moet man niet in de bek zien
(or in German – Einem geschenkten Gaul schaut man nicht ins Maul)

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 10:24:11 +0000

Thanks you, Eileen.
Now you mention it, that’s how I parsed it ten days ago (after some research, I must admit, as I didn’t know the expression).
But I had completely forgotten about it when I wrote the blog yesterday evening (under time pressure).
Now tweaked.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 08:24:13 +0000

Thanks for the blog, Sil, and Crux for the puzzle.

16dn is a reference to the saying, ‘Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth’, explained here:

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/dont-look-a-gift-horse-in-the-mouth.html