Comments on: Financial Times 14,189 – Crux

By: Musca

Musca — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 11:58:52 +0000

Much belated comments on this puzzle.
First, the only change needed in 1 ac. is to leave the final ‘S’ off Prisoners!
21d Death, personified, is always portrayed carrying a scythe; it’s his ‘instrument’ i.e. “tool’, as it were. Crux carefully indicates the idea with a capital ‘D’ for Death.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 16:57:46 +0000

Oops, please (John and perhaps others), forget about what I said re ‘tangled’ @5. There is of course no anagram going on – looks like I wrote something using the automatic pilot. Having said that, I do think ‘tangled’ is a valid indicator here. One of the meanings of ‘to tangle’ is ‘to entangle’ which can mean ‘to ensnare’. For me, an OK container indicator. Moreover Chambers gives as definition no 3: ‘to trap’ (informal).

And now, let’s see whether my autmatic pilot can deal with a basic calculation ….

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 13:41:31 +0000

In 20d, SAW is a noun (meaning “a saying”). Chambers gives us as the second definition “A proverb” as does the Oxford Dictionary of English. I think that ‘tangled’ is OK as an anagram indicator. It can be similar to words like entangled, knotted, twisted, confused, mixed up, complex (to cite dicitonaries and the Chambers Thesuarus).

And John, I have already posted the blog for 14,195 which wasn’t that bad after all but only because …..

All the best for 2013.

By: John Newman

John Newman — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 06:48:24 +0000

Many thanks for this Sil. I failed to get 14A which is very bad because I have life insurance with a company called Friend’s Provident which used to be a Quaker company. Could you explain 20D to me a bit more. PROVERB was the only answer which fitted my letters but I didn’t see ROVER, and I still can’t see why “saw” = “proverb”. I would quibble about “tangled”. Rover is in fact untangled.

I agree with you about 1D. I kept thinking there must be something else, like the Chance cards in Monopoly. Wondered whether there is a game called Fortune with the same cards.

I loved 1A. And related it to others. But then when I was doing that one time I suddently realised that the clue is faulty. Seeing the answer requires “prisoners” to be the word and not the people, the verb should be third person singular. i.e. “needs”. Crux should have written “Needed by prisoners when starting sentence.”

I had the same thought as Bamberger when I saw 14194 and 14195. After Gozo’s very faulty Bastille day puzzle I decided immediately that I wasn’t going to try. Felt the same way about 14195 and emailed to Pete “oh no! Dante is at it now”. But with nothing else offering I started to have a go and it turned out to be fairly gentle. There is an oversight on the page which dissapointingly no doubt for Dante kept grabbing one’s attention.

Happy New year to you!

By: fearsome

fearsome — Mon, 31 Dec 2012 04:13:54 +0000

thanks Crux and Sil
I struggled to get Fiends to finish this crossword, and was unsure of chance but what else?

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:05:05 +0000

Interesting thought about what ‘hidden’ means or perhaps should mean, Bamberger.
I can’t remember having come across a thing like 1d before.
Maybe, we should read “Chancellor’s fortune” as “Fortune from Chancellor”, then taking just a part of that word.

“I took a look and thought no way”?
Well, that’s what I would have thought if I weren’t to blog this ‘puzzle’ (14195). Lucky me …..

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Sat, 29 Dec 2012 08:34:17 +0000

I didn’t get 1d.I thought a hidden word had to be embedded in the clue and not at the start.
Also didn’t get 2d & 12a though looking at the answers I don’t know why.
Thanks for the blog over the year and good luck to all with 14195 (and 14194). I took one look and thought no way.