Financial Times 16,722 by PHSSTHPOK

18 comments on “Financial Times 16,722 by PHSSTHPOK”

1. An ok solve for me but a few niggles. The homophone indicator in 20d is poorly placed so the answer could be “cellars” or “sellers” until the crossers settle the issue. In 4d, can D mean “death” as opposed to “dead”? Is a hoe really a spade? Does a flight go to a stairwell?

2. I found this un-Monday like and the hardest of today’s puzzles, with 3 or 4 I couldn’t parse, including MAYONNAISE. Maybe ‘Where flights may go…’ would have been better for 7d but it was still a very clever clue, as was EVEN which had me stumped until I had both crossers.

   The ‘Oxford tie’ def. was my favourite bit, although I take your point about a ‘hoe’ and a ‘spade’, Hovis @1. My only other slight quibble was with HECTIC for ‘Delirious’ at 11a. Undoubtedly someone will find a dictionary entry which confirms the sense, but the two words don’t mean quite the same thing for me.

   Thanks to Phssthpok (and welcome back after a gap of very close to 18 months by my records) and to Teacow

3. I’ve never personally encountered Phssthpok before but I rather liked the experience. I agree with Hovis re 20d but it didn’t take long before SHOELACE came along to clinch it.
   SCAREDY CAT were favourites MAYONNAISE and 5d was a great anagram.
   Had more difficulty parsing than solving but on the whole, I found this fun and light on its toes. Thanks to the setter and Teacow for explanations.

4. Hovis @1, D can indeed stand for Death as in “BMD” which stands for “Births, Marriages & Deaths”.

5. I enjoyed this. 7d didn’t worry me. A flight may not go to a stairwell, but it does go in one.

6. Thanks Phssthpok and Teacow

   Hovis @ 1: “The stairwell is where the flight goes” seems OK to me.

7. Tom_1 @5. Agreed. Needed to add the “in” to definition.

8. What a pleasant start to the week — I particularly liked the apt anagram for 5d. Other favourites included SAN DIEGO, ETNA, and SHOELACE. Thanks Phssthpok, and Teacow for the blog.

9. 16dn had me stumped.. was working on concept of ..S-IN for way too long..
   26ac immediately confirmed the 20d cellars/sellers conundrum… which was just as well as SHOELACE had me tied up for a long long time..
   Great puzzle ..
   Thanks PHSSTHOK n Teacow…

10. A newcomer to FT and it shows. Started the solve this morning, LOI 21.30! Thoroughly enjoyed it and favourite had to be 14dn
    Thanks to PHSSTHOK and Teacow

11. Left-hand side went in fairly quickly but struggled with elements of the right until Sloe found and then the rest fell prompt into place, other than Third Party which I missed! I thought of Third but couldn’t think what to go with it! Gave up too easily.

    No idea why Napalm needed the vegetation qualification. Surely cause a fire anywhere?

    Never heard of Oxford tie as a shoelace. I know the word Chimera, I didn’t realise it was a nightmare.

    Thanks

12. This took some cracking but we got there in the end with the NE corner holding out longest. We didn’t like the ambiguity in 20dn either, although in this case the C in SHOELACE settled the argument. No problems, though, with STAIRWELL which was our favourite once we got it.
    Moly@11. ‘Oxford tie’ isn’t a general term for a shoelace – ‘Oxford’ is a style of shoe so ‘Oxford tie’ is simply a cryptic definition, albeit a definition by example.
    Thanks to Phssthpok and Teacow.

13. Moly @ 11

    NAPALM possibly has the vegetation qualification because its best known use is the Vietnam war – see the opening sequence of Apocalypse Now for an example.

14. Thanks Phssthpok and Teacow
    A pleasant start to the week with a challenging in places puzzle. Had a couple of false starts with unparsed STAIRCASE (7d) and CIRCUS (21d) but both quickly rectified. Had the A already in place at 20d, so it was never a problem – generally don’t have an issue with an ambiguous either/or answer if crossers confirm one or the other.
    Had to go looking to confirm a couple of the definitions – TROUNCE / flog (didn’t realise that trounce actually meant to physically beat with a whip) and THIRD PARTY / stranger.
    Finished down the bottom with MAYONNAISE (tricky construction), which set me right with SITCOM and GOINGS-ON the last one in.
    PS Welcome ScottieJan

15. Hovis@1 and alan_c@12, I don’t understand the complaint about the CELLAR/SELLER clue @20d. The structure of the clue is A=B; the solution is either A or B, and the correct answer is determined by 2 of the crossers. It seems to me perfectly legitimate for a setter to draw on a crosser to complete a clue – it is, after all, a crossword puzzle. (And I’m not sure where else you would place the homophone indicator to improve the clue while preserving the nice surface.)

    This was also my first PHSSTHPOK (I wonder what that stands for), and I quite enjoyed it, so thanks P and T.

16. Allan @ 13 – thanks for explaining Oxford tie! I thought it must have been some unusually public school shoelace which this grammar school boy had never encountered! ??

    Simon @ 13 – thanks for the thought on Napalm, which had also occurred to me. But I’m not convinced. Per Wiki “Napalm, invented by Fieser in 1942, is an incendiary substance made by the simple procedure of adding a “gelling” powder, composed of naphthalene and palmitate (hence “napalm”), to gasoline in varying concentrations to form a sticky, combustible substance”. Horrible horrible stuff. Sticks to anything – animal, vegetable or mineral.

17. Although I understand your viewpoint, cellomaniac, I still feel that a solver shouldn’t need to wait for crossers to determine which is the correct solution. I admit that “Where wine might be kept, vendors heard” may not be as good a surface, I still think this is preferable. Just an opinion, of course.

18. cellomaniac@15 and Hovis@17: Speaking as a setter (under a different pseudonym) I think it’s important not to be ambiguous. In this case there wasn’t much doubt but in a recent puzzle of mine I originally clued ‘greys’ as ‘Horses heard to crop grass in field?’. My test solver took ‘graze’ as the answer and was unable to finish as it left him looking for a crosser ending in Z. I’m not sure why ‘greys’ didn’t occur to him as a definition by example, but at least it highlighted the ambiguity and the puzzle was published with ‘Horses crop grass in field, it’s reported’.

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