Financial Times 14,737 by ALBERICH

23 comments on “Financial Times 14,737 by ALBERICH”

1. I thought 6 dn was sugar cubes and 22 down was balaam. (lab reversed plus aam). Quite a tricky one! Thanks Turbo and Alberich.

2. 6d SUGAR CUBES (dies as in (moulds)

3. Thanks, Turbolegs.

   What a super puzzle, loaded with brilliant clues – far too many to pick favourites, really, but HECATE did tickle my fancy.

   I had SUGAR CUBES and BALAAM, too.

   Many thanks to Alberich for a lot of fun.

4. Thanks Turbolegs, and Alberich for a satisfying puzzle.
   The left-hand side went it very quickly but the other half was a lot trickier.

   LOI was LARDER (8d), even if I wasn’t completely sure.
   I don’t think there double duty here, looks more like another &lit attempt.

   In 11ac (REGULAR) we have to remove I L.
   However, the dictionaries that I have do not give L for ‘learning’. Now I know Alberich is a very precise setter, so there is probably some justification somewhere (but Chambers for one doesn’t cooperate).

   In 3d you entered EDIT, I entered EMIT.
   I think your option (a hidden) is not adequately indicated with ‘most of’ (because it is not most of what follows).
   My option is based upon taking the most of an anagram (‘misprinted’) of ITEMS, possibly leading to EMIT.
   This solution is also not 100% satisfying as it would be better to first apply ‘most of’ (giving us ITEM) and then take the anagram. Also, in that case, the clue could have been “Get rid of misprinted item”, although perhaps too easy then.
   So, actually, I don’t know.
   I find both options not ideal.

   That said, a clever crossword.
   No doubt about that.

   ps, just a little ‘typo’ in 1d: SAP (word) should be SAP (fool).

5. Re Sil @ 4, I also went for EMIT, for the same reason.

6. Re Sil@4: Leanring and skills council – LSC. Terrific mind-boggler. Thanks, Alberich and well done Turbolegs.

7. PS 22 dn BALAAM — a LAB is a Labrador

8. Balaam for me too, as explained by jmac. I saw 3D as edit. If you get rid of most of (the letters of) “misprinted items” you’re left with edit and the whole clue is a reasonable definition of what edit means.

   Nice but hard! Thanks all.

9. Thanks all for the very helpful comments. This really was an excellent puzzle from Alberich. I hope to be better prepared for him next time! 🙂

   Cheers
   TL

10. I had EDIT, too, with the same reasoning as Cruciverbophile – and, for me, EMIT doesn’t mean ‘get rid of’.

    I had the same solving experience as Sil. It really was like two separate puzzles, with barely any entry into the right hand side from the left. Thank goodness for the cruciverbalist’s old friend ABALONE to provide a toehold. 🙂

11. I’m with Cruciverbophile now (and so with Eileen too) on 3d.
    It’s the best explanation so far, &littish once more.
    This is surely it.
    So, you can take my name of the list again, Turbolegs.

    As to Hornbeam’s LSC giving L=learning, I think this is dangerous territory. In my view, abbreviations used should ideally be ones that can be applied in a stand-alone form.
    SA = Salvation Army, but S = Salvation? Not really.
    B & B = Bed & Breakfast, but B = Bed (or Breakfast)? Don’t think so.
    The confusing thing in this clue is also that “one learning” could be “a learner”= L ….

12. Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs

    8dn: This works for me as a complete “& lit” clue: the “‘s” of “cook’s” reads as “is” in the literal meaning and “has” in the cryptic meaning.

13. I have had a more thorough read of the comments on 3dn. I took it as EDIT, a complete “& lit” as explained by Cruciverbophile@8. Without the question mark on the end, I think it could work as EMIT as a standard definition “Get rid of” (which works for me – sorry Eileen @10) and wordplay “most of misprinted items”, without overlap. I can overcome Sil’s qualms @4, because “misprinted items” can give the word EMITS, to which “most of” can be applied. However, I cannot justify the question mark if EMIT is the solution, so I will go for EDIT. We will find out tomorrow (unless Alberich or his editor pops in earlier to put us out of our misery).

14. Pelham Barton @13

    EMIT = get rid of? I stick to my guns.

15. I entered EDIT at 3d, but now I’m inclined to favour EMIT.

    I don’t have any problem with “get rid of” as the definition for EMIT. Chambers has “to send out; to throw or give out”, and OED has “discharge, send forth or give out”. To edit is to correct and improve text, not just to delete it.

16. Tom_I, the definition may perhaps work, the construction, however, is not precise enough (in the world of Alberich, that is) to give EMIT.
    In the case of EMIT, the clue tells us to first make an anagram of ‘items’ and then cut it off.
    There are loads of anagrams of ‘items’ (120, actually) but only 24 of them have an ‘s’ at the end.
    This was my objection against my own entry (EMIT).
    Knowing what I know about Alberich, this was surely not what he meant.
    Therefore, I think Cruciverbophile is right.
    Even if editing is indeed, as you say, not just getting rid of things.
    And Pelham Barton has a clear point in his interpretation of the question mark.

    Meanwhile, Turbolegs, you seem to be the man (or woman) in the middle after all this confusion.
    EDIT in the parsing, EMIT in the solution …. 🙂

17. You could read “most of misprinted items” as “most of the word ‘items’, which has been misprinted”, which would give EMIT, and fit with the definition.

18. 3dn: Published solution is EDIT, as (I think) most of us expected.

19. Yes, EDIT it is. Perhaps it says something about the precision of the clue in this case that there seemed to be two feasible answers, and we had to wait for the published solution to find which one was intended.

20. @19
    I disagree. It is an excellent and precise & lit for EDIT. With Pelham B’s parsing it does work for EMIT, though in an uncharacteristic way for Alberich (he’s one of the stricter setters). It isn’t all that uncommon for two answers to fit a clue, especially when you start to allow slightly improbable alternative parsings. It’s very hard to avoid completely in short clues. Some of those commenting above have not understood the EDIT parsing, and the blog, which doesn’t indicate the & lit, is a bit confusing. EMIT is not an equally good answer and I certainly didn’t need to wait for the published solution.

21. Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs

    Actually did this one last Monday and only checked it off here this morning – afraid that I went the EMIT way, but see now that EDIT is a much better solution.

    Notwithstanding, I thought that this was an excellent puzzle as are most by this setter. Finished in the SE corner with SPINET, VEAL and TAMP (probably the three best clues) as my last ones in.

    Thought that HECATE was quite amusing and although ALLITERATE was one of my first ones in, it was only after closely looking up its definition did I truly understand what it meant – and another excellent clue when I understood!

22. Inter-setter luvvie alert.

    I came very late to this as there is a good reason that today’s usual Times challenge is not on the cards 🙂 , and this was in my backlog. Although setters normally contribute to blogs only to answer queries, on this occasion I thought that this puzzle was such a brilliant offering that it seems only right to praise it openly. It was wonderfully misleading yet devoid of complexity, it was inventive, original and fresh, and it used some great alternative definitions (collect, Oxford, Barney perhaps).

    I too entered 3d EDIT, assuming that the device was a novel hidden indicator. As discussed above, “most of misprinted items” does not give the fodder {item[s]*} required for EMIT, but rather {any 4-letter truncation of items*}, so the ambiguity in this case forces the hidden-clue parsing. So many clues were marvellously orchestrated (e.g. 1ac, 21ac, 24ac, 29ac, 14dn, 19dn, 23dn), but my stand-out favourite — which has to be one of the most inventive clues in any organ in many years — was for 26ac VEAL; what an utterly ingenious and marvellous idea.

    I think that 8dn LARDER may be a semi &Lit, because a full &Lit. would require the whole clue to define LARDER, whereas only the “here” implicitly does so in the given clue, and this definition dominates the subservient explicit definition “something used by cook” — which may or may not be a larder!

    Finally, I too have never seen L=learning, but it’s only in recent years that O=over emerged “naturally” from (M)O=(maiden) over, so rules of engagement do evolve.

    All in all, very many thanks Alberich for a cruciverbal masterclass.

23. Oops! How did I forget? I’m sure that all would agree that everything I mentioned at #22 has moreover been achieved within the constraint of superb surface readings throughout. A real coup de grid.

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