Comments on: Financial Times no.14,207 by Gurney

By: fearsome

fearsome — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:17:24 +0000

thanks Gurney and Ringo
Enter defeated me and I hadn’t parsed Forester completely

By: Gurney

Gurney — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 19:03:48 +0000

Many thanks for the blog, Ringo, and to those who commented. Yes, I can confirm that a homophone of ‘male’ was what was intended but, if two experienced solvers independently arrived at the answer the other way, it probably works just fine! Liam is the Irish version of William and I must admit I’d not have used it as not being familiar enough. Re LOOTS (also a homophone issue!), I approach homophones with great caution as the same words are pronounced so differently in different places. So I’d looked in Collins which gives exactly the same pronunciation for both words and I took it from there.

By: mike04

mike04 — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:55:31 +0000

Thanks, Gurney and Ringo.

I was interested in your comment about the vowel sound in the word ‘LUTE’, Eileen.
Here, north of Hadrian’s Wall, I think I’m right in saying that the word is normally pronounced so as to rhyme with the word ‘BOOT’. So local dialect must play a part.
The pronunciation must also depend on other factors though; a diphthong would be difficult to insert in, say, RUDE, but unavoidable in, say, JUTE.

There’s an interesting article about the letter U here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/6411/when-and-why-did-the-letter-u-begin-being-called-ju
Mike

By: Eileen

Eileen — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:31:39 +0000

Thanks, Ringo.

I, too, went for Liam, without thinking – Gurney is Irish! – but, Wanderer’s right, ‘picked up’ usually indicates a homophone.

Talking of which, I had to question LOOTS / lutes [which I would pronounce as 'lewts'] but was amazed to see that Chambers gives ‘loot’ as the first of the alternative pronunciations – so, apologies, Gurney, and many thanks for a quick but very enjoyable solve.

By: Ringo

Ringo — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:03:27 +0000

@ Wanderer: Yes, that’s much more straightforward – I’d imagine your version is what the setter had in mind. Thanks.

By: Wanderer

Wanderer — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 10:59:37 +0000

Thanks Gurney and Ringo.

In 26d, MAIL, I read ‘man picked up’ as ‘sounds like male’, although your ‘man’s name reversed’ works just as well.

I agree that this was not the hardest, but a very enjoyable solve.