Financial Times 15,760 by REDSHANK

9 comments on “Financial Times 15,760 by REDSHANK”

1. 

   Hovis

   #1 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 11:05

   
   

   Another excellent Redshank. Failed to get EOHIPPUS without help, even though I have met it before. Didn’t know the pianist at 28a. 20d reminds me of when Charles and Diana Visited the US and it was joked that people shouted “Up Chuck and Di”.

   Thanks to S&B.

2. 

   Eileen

   #2 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 11:20

   
   

   Thanks, Turbolegs – as you say, another excellent challenge from Redshank.

   I can’t see anything wrong with the grammar of 3dn: in fact, it was one of my favourites, along with LARYNGITIS, JERRY CAN, TIRE, PORTMANTEAU WORD and SHOULDER – to name but a few. 😉

   Many thanks to Redshank – most enjoyable.

3. 

   copmus

   #3 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 12:27

   
   

   Lovely puzzle and full strength too. I didnt mind gammon for pork but some might.Dunno how I got the old horse, probably some word search.I think the pianist was a politician too. Never eard of im but very fairly clued.
   Thanks turbolegs and Crucible

4. 

   crypticsue

   #4 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 14:26

   
   

   What Eileen said @2

   Thanks to both Redshanks and Turbolegs from me too

5. 

   Tom_I

   #5 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 17:06

   
   

   Brilliant hidden answer at 28 across. As well as being a pianist, Paderewski was Prime Minister of Poland for about 10 months in 1919.

6. 

   Chris Rushlau

   #6 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 17:28

   
   

   I last looked at a FT crossword perhaps twenty years ago, and it struck me as fair.  Now it reminds me of the Socratic method used in US law school: the professor walks into class and says, “I am thinking of three words,” and the students begin flipping through their copies of class notes from the last twenty years of the professor’s class lectures, their study-group analyses of the course trajectory, all set against model answers for the final exam of previous years, on reserve in the library.  In short, sycophancy.  I had already associated being a suck-up with being a back-stabber, but now I add a third criterion: extreme self-abuse.  “Is there anything I could drag myself through the mud of self-abasement to get you, as long as I’m down?”

   So I wonder if this has to do with Rupert Murdoch buying the FT a few years ago.  He calls in a senior editor, says, “What’s this about a crossword?”, then contents himself by occasionally glancing at it to make sure it makes no sense to him.

   This has nothing to do with English foreign policy, I’m sure.  Quite sure.

7. 

   ACD

   #7 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 18:00

   
   

   Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs. It took a while, but I got to the finish line except for QUICKSTEP – and that was because I spelled MEERKATS with a C, not a K. I did remember EOHIPPUS and admired the hidden and reversed PADEREWSKI. Very enjoyable..

8. 

   Simon S

   #8 - Fri 19th Jan 18, 22:47

   
   

   Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs

   An excellent puzzle I thought, though I needed external help for EOHIPPUS.

   Within the last couple of years I remember JERRY CAN being clued simillarly, but can’t locate it. Not suggesting plagiarism or anything like that, just that it’s interesting how setters’ minds work in a similar fashion.

   CR @ 6: the Dirty Digger has never owned the FT. Are you mixing it up with the WSJ?

9. 

   brucew@aus

   #9 - Thu 1st Feb 18, 04:51

   
   

   Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
   An entertaining puzzle that took a couple of sessions to get out. Some really interesting charades used and a blinder of a reverse hidden clue at 28a which I had to cheat with a word finder to find the pianist and still couldn’t see how he was derived!
   SCAG was new … and had no idea that it was related to the heroin ‘horse’.
   The last couple in were the clever double definition with CORRESPOND and CALL OUT (which I didn’t really understand till reading it here.

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