Comments on: Financial Times 14,232 by Flimsy

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 23:31:04 +0000

We haven’t seen Flimsy for a long long while (and his Indy alter ego Nitsy even longer).

The puzzle was enjoyable enough, yet there was a mismatch between the time we had to wait for Flimsy and the quality of this crossword. In my opinion, that is.

I am not against easy crosswords but I expected a bit more after seeing the name of the setter today, as I really liked most of his previous puzzles.
Blame it on me.

Nothing wrong with the clueing as such, but it was over all too soon – even for an average solver like me.

Despite all this, many thanks to Flimsy – and Jed, of course.
CoD: SOMBRERO.

By: mike04

mike04 — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 20:25:17 +0000

Ferret @5
I had similar thoughts about the Ounce when solving. Here’s what the BRB has to say:

n. originally, and still sometimes, a lynx: now generally the snow leopard: the jaguar: the cheetah: sometimes vaguely any moderate-sized wild beast of the cat tribe.

So it’s an Ounce that’s frightening all the birds away from my garden!
Thanks Flimsy and Jed.

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 18:05:55 +0000

Pelham @ 3, and maybe off the subject.

My publishing company was called Tadley Ewing Publications, after Tadley Ewing Dameron, a jazz composer and pianist. He was always called Tadd, but with a double d.

I expect the little lad thing is short for tadpole.

By: Ferret

Ferret — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 17:48:59 +0000

A little quibble with 25a or perhaps it is my lack of feline knowledge. I’ve always known the ounce as the snow leopard with a jaguar being a totally different variety of big cat?

Thanks to setter and blogger.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:39:56 +0000

Conrad @2 re 9ac: I too should have looked in Chambers before commenting. For anyone bemused by these remarks, Chambers defines tad as "a little lad". P.S. For the first time since it was introduced, I managed to get the Captcha calculation wrong. Fortunately the system allowed me to try again without having to reconstruct my comment.

By: Pelham Barton

Pelham Barton — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:36:30 +0000

Thanks Flimsy for an enjoyable and straightforward puzzle and Jed for the blog.

Conrad @1 re 9ac: Tad can be a male forename and is possibly a diminutive, hence “little lad”, which is how I read it. I think is the same as Jed is saying.

1ac: Always nice to have an easy first clue, but I thought the anagram “those US” becoming THOUSES was somewhat feeble.

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:36:11 +0000

Have now looked in Chambers and understand. Memo to self, always check with the BRB just in case it has the answer.

By: Conrad Cork

Conrad Cork — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 15:12:09 +0000

Soory Jed, don’t get 9. I thought it had to be data, but couldn’t explain.