Comments on: Financial Times 14.215 by Cincinnus

By: Pete Maclean

Pete Maclean — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 15:04:48 +0000

John, You make a good point about stoa. My dictionary defines it as a portico or roofed colonnade. But I vaguely remember seeing it clued as columns before so that is something we may have to live with. The clue is a tough one with no specific hint for someone who has not seen one of the type before.

Wil, Ah, yes. I think it is “A to S” backwards but, true, not in the sense that one usually means that in a crossword.

By: Wil Ransome

Wil Ransome — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 22:53:03 +0000

Pedantic point, Pete: I don’t think 12ac is A to S backwards, because that would give SOTA. It’s just S to A.

By: Bamberger

Bamberger — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 18:40:43 +0000

For 12a I had ?t?a and no idea waht was going on either. I’ll remember that.

By: John Newman

John Newman — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 09:27:35 +0000

Thanks Pete.

I couldn’t get 12A. So pleased to see your explanation. I am not over happy with the clue though. When I look up the internet now it says that a Stoa as a covered walkway, normally with columns on one side. It doesn’t say that it is the name of “some columns”.

I tried very hard to think outside the box on this one. I looked at 19A and 19D but couldn’t see their relevance. I also noticed that the phrase “In Athens some columns” has 19 characters. But the verb conjugation for this is “has” and not “have” as in the clue. And Cincinnus doesn’t make that sort of fudge. I looked to see what the 19th letter of the Greek alphabet was. All to no avail.