Comments on: Financial Times 14,206 by Cinephile

By: Keeper

Keeper — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 18:30:23 +0000

Just wanted to say that my COD was 15d — loved it!

By: fearsome

fearsome — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 14:37:42 +0000

thanks Pee Dee and Cinephile
Enjoyable puzzle, echates eluded me.

By: ernie

ernie — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 20:35:28 +0000

re 5D I went for aware. I wonder whether Cinephile was aware of the two possibilites when formulating the clue. Probably not, as he could have used either ‘king’ for K or ‘rex’for R to avoid any ambiguity.

Like Scchua I have a quibble about 12A. As the first ‘B’ stands for the letter bee, ‘B’ does not have same meaning throughout as per the preamble.

Thanks, PeeDee

By: scchua

scchua — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:46:34 +0000

Thanks PeeDee and Cinephile for an enjoyable puzzle.
Re 12a Payment that’s torn B from B (4)
I had the answer, but couldn’t parse it, as I compliantly took both capital Bs to mean (the names of) birds, exactly as the instruction said! Though using a lower case b might not have worked understandably?

By: smiffy

smiffy — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 16:54:15 +0000

Not often that the Rev’s themes become as readily apparent as today’s (1a was a bit of a giveaway I thought). Still, the theme was deftly handled – just a pity that we couldn’t see a “full house” of across clues (could’ve had AT IT for 20a, with RETAKEN at 17d, but that still leaves 26a).

As long as we’re conducting a consumer focus group on 3d, then count me as a buyer.

Thanks PeeDee!

By: PeeDee

PeeDee — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:16:23 +0000

I had not thought of AWAKE. It seems to be a more literal meaning of “eyes open” then AWARE which is more metephorical. I’ll go with AWAKE instead. We will see tomorrow which Cinephile had in mind.

Just for the record I don’t suggest that 3dn is an invalid clue, just that its is not to my personal taste when the line between the definition and constructions gets blurred but falls short of an &lit.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:08:06 +0000

My monarch in 5d was A K (King) rather than A R (Rex), giving me AWAKE rather than AWARE. Both seem permissible for ‘with one’s eyes open’.

I read 3d as Thomas99 did, and thought it a great clue.

Having only recently completed Gozo’s marvellous FT Christmas alphabetical special, I know many more bird’s names than I did a couple of weeks ago.

Thanks Cinephile and PeeDee.

By: Lynette

Lynette — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:46:15 +0000

My first attempt at a weekday FT this year, and what a nightmare! Achates, Halidon. Yuk.

By: Thomas99

Thomas99 — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:14:07 +0000

Thanks for the blog – an entertaining and rather challenging puzzle. I must say I disagree with you about 3d though – the “which” indicates clearly that the “wagon” from the definition is also being alluded to for the wordplay, making for a very elegantly constructed clue, probably my favourite.