Financial Times 13,527 / Cinephile

17 comments on “Financial Times 13,527 / Cinephile”

1. I’m denied the pleasure of solving this one as my printer cartridge has just given up the ghost, but at 15d FP is how ‘footpath’ would typically be shown on some maps (including OS? Not sure) so I’m guessing it shouldn’t cause too many problems. Wonder how long it will be before we’re allowed to use FB (Facebook) as a crossword abbreviation – or would solvers already regard it as acceptable?

2. Thanks for the blog, Gaufrid.

   Very straightforward for Cinephile, I thought, but pleasant, as you say.

   As a short-distance rambler, I have no problem at all with FP = ‘footpath’. It is commonly seen on fingerposts and Google gives numerous references. Here’s one of the prettiest:

   http://www.oliverscornwall.co.uk/thelandsendtrailhomepage.htm

   I can’t see the significance of ‘to or from work, say’ in 12ac.

3. Sorry, Anax – crossed in the post!

4. Hi Anax
   I checked a couple of my OS maps before writing the post but could not find FP in the key, nor is it an abbreviation in Chambers, Collins or COED.

   As for FB, if/when it appears in one of the usual references then fine but until then I, for one, would not be too happy.

5. Hi Eileen
   “I can’t see the significance of ‘to or from work, say’ in 12ac.”

   I assumed this was a reference to the rush hour as a further hint towards the word forming the homophone.

6. Thanks, Gaufrid.

   Apologies for the dud link. This is better:

   http://www.oliverscornwall.co.uk/thelandsendtrailhomepage.html

7. FP is referenced on the Ordnance Survey website under Geofacts, as follows:

   http://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/freefun/geofacts/geo0505.html

8. A pleasant start of a sunny Wednesday morning.

   I found the 4 (relatively) long ones in the middle rightaway, only to find out that I was now left with 4 mini-crosswords.
   Initially considered E to be England/English, then in a moment of weirdness Emma, but eventually after finding FRANCE (20d) the penny dropped.
   From there onwards it was not really hard to fill the grid with all these country names.

   I didn’t have problems with FP for ‘footpath’, even though I haven’t seen it on OS maps [where one can find however FB for ‘footbridge’].

   I am not sure whether the identity FP=footpath is the real problem here.
   If FP indeed is a legitimate abbreviation for ‘footpath’, then clueing it with “footpath initially” is not right, is it?

   Cinephile can only have meant “foot path initially”, so – as you said, Gauufrid – splitting it up first and then taking the starting letters.
   Isn’t this just part of a new trend that we saw of late in various Guardian puzzles?
   And is Loroso’s “underpants” not something in the same category?
   Whether I always like it, is a different matter.

9. Great fun sorting out all the parts of E in this very nice crossword.

10. I got FP for footpath but I don’t think it’s legitimate. If FP is an accepted abbreviation for footpath then the word “initially” is redundant and misleading. By the same token could “misleading initially” be interpreted as “ML”? Maybe it would have been better if the clue had said “foot path initially”?

    Though the answer was obvious I had not heard of a scarf pin, nor is in my dictionary.

11. Hi Tony
    Scarf pin is not in Collins or COED but Chambers does have it (hyphenated) with the definition “an ornamental pin worn in a scarf; a tie-pin”.

12. Thanks, Gaufrid. I looked again and yes it is indeed in my Chambers, which incidentally was given to me as a school prize in 1962!

13. The first one I “solved” was 10a I thought ah yes Lubricant =grease which sounds like Greece so E must be Europe -but do I put “grease” or “greece” . How should I have known, without 7d, as to what was required, please?
    Got about half out thought would never have got 8d eye candy as I didn’t know Kandy.
    Venial also a new word for me.

14. Hi bamberger
    Determining which of a pair of homophones is to be entered in the grid is often problematic, unless the setter has been very careful when composing the clue, and I cannot offer you any hard and fast rules. Sometimes it is obvious, sometimes not.

    In this instance the selection was made a little easier due to theme and because of the obvious anagram in 7dn. Even if one hadn’t worked out the anagram, it was clear that the intersection of 10ac and 7dn couldn’t be an ‘A’.

15. I’d like to say that Tony Welsh @#10 hits exactly the nail on its head re FP.
    He seems to be the only one so far to understand what’s going on here – it’s not about OS maps, but about cryptic devices and how to formulate them.

16. Hi Sil

    I take your point entirely – and agree with it.

    My reply this morning [very hasty because [ironically] I was rushing out for a ramble!] was responding only to FP being an abbreviation for footpath, which it undoubtedly is, and not the formulation of the clue.

    AS you said earlier, Gaufrid had already addressed the issue of having to split the word before taking the initial letters.

    If I’d been writing this clue, I think I’d have played safe and done as Tony Welsh suggests, and written it as ‘foot path’.

17. Or writing it as ‘footpath’, and being part of that new kind of (Guardianesque) clueing which apparently doesn’t look that much at which point to split words [either in clues or solutions].
    I think this new ‘trend’ is one of the things I am going to address on Nov 30th in that Paul-meeting in London [if I’d been given the chance, of course].

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