Financial Times 15,168 by ALBERICH

18 comments on “Financial Times 15,168 by ALBERICH”

1. Thanks Turbolegs. I parsed 25d as a reversal of M[illions] + E.G. (for one).

2. Thanks Turbolegs,

   I don’t understand SATRY, but your parsing looks promising.

   I had PAPA at 18ac.

3. Oh yes, I had PAPA too.

4. …and I too had papa at 18ac (having previously had soda until ayatollah made me think again….)

5. Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs and Alberich for another super puzzle.

   Lots of great clues, as ever – I think my favourites were LANGUISH, CAMELLIA and STANDOFFISH.

   Put me down for an early SODA, too. 🙁

6. I found this one a killer: thank you, Alberich. I’m sure it’s PAPA, Turbolegs. Thanks for the excellent blog.

7. Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs

   I think 23dn should be taken as a complete “& lit” clue. As a charade, it reads SA (it) has TYR (an ancient god), and literally “it is an ancient god” (SATYR).

8. Since when has hype been an abbreviated form of hypodermic? Ridiculous!

9. Chambers Dictionary;
   HYPE (2) n a hypodermic needle; a drug addict; something that stimulates artificially, esp a drug.

   Always worth checking your facts first…

10. Thanks all for stopping by. The attention this puzzle has garnered (relative to other FT grids) is fantastic and well deserved!!

    18ac was just one of those clues that I didnt have a good feeling about when I solved it – I generally hope that if I have got a clue wrong, maybe nobody will notice and I can get away with it. If I discount 90% of the people who have commented here, I think I have been successful in that! 🙂

    PG@7 – Whats your take on the construction of the clue? Usually, one would find ‘He’ or ‘She’ when referring to gods so I was tripped up with the usage of ‘It’.

    Cheers
    TL

11. Further to earlier comments:

    12ac: Thanks cruciverbophile@9. When solving, I was thinking of a loose link between hype¹ in the sense of “advertise extravagantly” and needle in the sense of “irritate”, which is probably not near enough. Clearly hype² works directly.

    23dn: I have no problem with “it” for a hypothetical being, but you could read the whole clue as “It is (a word for) an ancient god”.

    (Incidentally, I think I can guess why you keep calling me PG, but actually there is no G anywhere in my name.)

12. Apologies Pelham! I think I am hardwired to think of PG when I see Pelham. Wont happen again.

    Cheers
    TL

13. Oh dear, oh dear. It = Sa yet again. Sorry to see such an original setter still using this outdated crossword cliche.

14. Thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.
    I still don’t understand why dug = tit and fist = duke. Please could you explain?
    I also find Thames = runner rather odd. 215 miles is quite a distance for a runner, don’t you think?

15. Hi Yvonne@14,

    Tit is an alternative meaning of Dug (in the context of udders/nipples). Likewise, fist is an alternative meaning of duke. You will find both in Chambers. An alternative meaning for runner is river, and so is a flower (as in something that flows).

    Cheers
    TL

16. Thanks for your rapid reply, TL.
    I’m sorry to see clues like this, which rely on usage unknown outside dictionaries.
    They make it difficult for me to persuade the clever young people in my workplace who are 30 years my junior that cryptic crosswords are a fun way to spend up to an hour a day…

17. Thanks Turbolegs and Alberich.

    I had PAPA but wasn’t very happy with it – too close to the definition for my taste.

    Enjoyed the quadruple SETTLE and pleased to learn DUG for udder.

    If you check in Yvonne, you should keep trying. Just because a word isn’t used commonly is not a reason to reject it. On the contrary I’d say. Puzzles expand or remind me of vocabulary which I then try to use. We are so lucky to share such a rich language and we never stop learning.

    My grandson is becoming interested and I hope that he will continue that interest.

18. Thanks Alberich and Turbolegs

    A backlog puzzle that completed a trio of excellent crosswords over this weekend (along with an Io – 23/3 and an Imogen – 01/04). A common theme across all of them – was the lack of a weak clue and no ambiguities once the solution was found. This one was probably the ‘easiest’ of the three, but no worse for that.

    Went down the SODA path at 18a as well, until the arrival of the AYATOLLAH at 15d, (in fact had made a mess of 3d too initially by writing GO TO THE DOGS – so certainly didn’t make life any easier there).

    Finished in the SW corner with MEG (tried convincing myself with M EG at first), SLUGFEST (a clever anagram) and THAMES (where I went with the wrong drug -E- for a long time. Still interesting tactic making an adverb ‘flat’ behave like a noun with the ‘s).

    By the way, the grid still shows RAGA, which flummoxed me when I checked there first.

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