Financial Times 16,901 by SLORMGORM

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SLORMGORM kicks things off this Monday morning….

A good solid puzzle with nothing too taxing. Great surfaces and some satisfying anagrams. I did wonder, without the crossers, whether anything else could reasonably fit for 9d, but couldn’t think of anything.

Please note the change to 6d in the parsing. It’s not yet fixed in the grid image.

 

Thanks SLORMGORM!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
7. Two pros in Harlem having a laugh (2-2)
HO-HO

Double definition

“Ho” and “pro” both meaning prostitute.

8. Dealer type playing Time After Time (10)
REPEATEDLY

(DEALER TYPE)* (*playing)

10. Panic about carbon in short supply (6)
SCARCE

SCARE (panic) about C (carbon)

11. English resort hit by small scandal? (8)
RAMSGATE

RAM (hit) by S (small) + GATE (scandal)

12. Jealous note found next to a drink (5,3)
GREEN TEA

GREEN (jealous) + TE (note) found next to A

13. A French father injecting drug like zombie (6)
UNDEAD

UN (a, French) + DAD (father) injecting E (drug)

15. God hates large fools engaged in conflict (2,11)
AT LOGGERHEADS

(GOD HATES LARGE)* (*fools)

18. Son volunteers to meet prisoner here? (6)
STALAG

S (son) + TA (volunteers, Territorial Army) to meet LAG (prisoner)

20. Choke or accelerator (8)
THROTTLE

Double definition

22. Paper backing study by Iowa plant (8)
GARDENIA

(RAG)< (paper, <backing) + DEN (study) by IA (Iowa)

24. Courteous cops making Charlie tense (6)
POLITE

POLICE (cops) making C (Charlie) T (tense)

25. Provoke sore git I’ve upset (4,4,2)
GIVE RISE TO

(SORE GIT IVE)* (*upset)

26. Part of prescription given to sick? (4)
PILL

P[rescription] (part of) given to ILL (sick) &lit

DOWN
1. Agreeable worker found under jet mostly (10)
CONCORDANT

ANT (worker) found under CONCORD[e] (jet, mostly)

2. If pressed, I might ring naughty bordello (8)
DOORBELL

(BORDELLO)* (*naughty)

3. Passionate Dutch nurse into paintings (6)
ARDENT

(D (Dutch) + EN (nurse, Enrolled Nurse)) into ART (paintings)

4. Goes off to Fulham to have a port (8)
FALMOUTH

(TO FULHAM)* (*goes off)

5. Duke and guitarist primarily into pot jammed (6)
WEDGED

(D (duke) and G[uitarist] (primarily)) into WEED (pot)

6. Dope foremost of lawmen found in bed (4)
PLOT

POT (dope), L[awmen] (foremost of) found in

6. Dope foremost of lawmen found in bed (4)
CLOT

L[awmen] (foremost of) found in COT (bed)

(Thanks to Diane@3)

9. Shock treatment? (9,4)
PERMANENT WAVE

Cryptic definition

“Shock” being hair

14. Lout by ales will get drunk of course (10)
ABSOLUTELY

(LOUT BY ALES)* (*drunk)

16. Huge live show with mostly absurd acts (8)
GIGANTIC

GIG (live show) with ANTIC[s] (absurd acts, mostly)

17. Beastly sort of insect? Run away! (8)
ANTELOPE

ANT (insect) + ELOPE (run away)

19. Women with boys, but only one daughter (6)
LADIES

LAD[d]IES (boys, but only one D (daughter))

21. Charge short Tory and high-flyer (6)
RAPTOR

RAP (charge) + TOR[y] (short)

23. A police department finds drug (4)
ACID

A + CID (police department)

19 comments on “Financial Times 16,901 by SLORMGORM”

  1. Good fun and pretty straightforward, which I think is deliberate on the setter’s part for a Monday FT.
    Might just be me but FALMOUTH seemed a bit off – should the indicator have been ‘going off’, and should ‘have’ be ‘get’? Nice anagram though.
    HO-HO might be in questionable taste as the term is deemed offensive by many – and even pro/prostitute is discouraged now, with ‘sex worker’ preferred. (I’m not saying I’m woke, but my first one in was BEAUTIFUL AFRO at 9d.)*
    UNDEAD, GIVE RISE TO, DOORBELL, ABSOLUTELY, all superb, and nice to see the teenager anagram resisted at 12a!

  2. I agree with Nila @1, 7a was rather risqué! It was an enjoyable and gentle easing into the week with lots of good surfaces.
    It’s funny, WEDGED was my instinctive reply for 5d as I was thinking of U2’s guitarist but the second d made me look again!
    Thanks to Slormgorm and Teacow for an early blog.

  6. Another CLOT here – a very appropriate clue. I see the blog has now been changed as I post this. Otherwise everything seemed clear and not too taxing which was not unwelcome after a toughie from Gila in the Indy today.

    Favourites were the &lit PILL and the surface for BORDELLO.

    Thanks to Teacow and Slormgorm

  8. Romped through in record time. I have led a sheltered life as I got 1ac right but had no idea of the racier meanings of HO. Good fun and thanks as always to setter and blogger.

  9. Agree this was a bit of a romp.

    I didn’t know the meaning of HO, so initially entered an unparsed HA-HA, until 1 and 2dn put me right.

    I had ticks for 8ac REPEATEDLY, 10ac SCARCE (a wry smile there), 24ac 18ac STALAG and 16dn GIGANTIC – all great surfaces, as were many others.

    Thanks to Slormgorm for the fun and Teacow for the blog.

  10. I don’t time myself, but this didn’t take long, with a plethora of straightforward anagrams to get going. Pleasant Monday exercise.

  11. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    16dn: I agree with Eileen@9 that this had a great surface. Normally I would think it unsatisfactory to include wordplay that clues a singular noun as a shortened form of its own plural. However, here I think it was fully justified, partly for the surface, but mainly because the word antic is better known in its plural form. Indeed it is marked “usu in pl” in Chambers (2014).

  12. I agree that 6d could be either CLOT or PLOT, but CLOT does seem to fit better.

    That reminds me a little of the puzzle in the New York Times the morning after the 1996 election. One of the clues was something like “winner of yesterday’s election”, and either CLINTON or BOBDOLE would fit with the rest of the puzzle. Since in US crosswords, all the letters are checked, the setter clearly put a lot of effort into that puzzle.

  13. Thanks for the blog, very enjoyable puzzle.
    I went for PLOT continuing the POT theme from the previous clue but I think it reads much better for CLOT.
    HO is a bit dodgy but just about okay when HO-HO is the answer.

  14. Many thanks to Teacow for a great blog and to all who solved and commented.

    Clot was my intended answer for 6d – one of those alt possibility clues that crop up occasionally and are very hard to pick up when setting/editing or at test solve if the solver gets the answer you intended.

    Cheers to everyone and hope to see you all again next time around. 🙂

  15. Thanks Slormgorm for the fun. I got it all except for CLOT — I thought of it but couldn’t see how CLOT = dope (are both synonyms for a dimwit?) so I went with plot instead. Favourites included GREEN TEA, GARDENIA, and POLITE. Thanks Teacow for parsing — I bunged in a mostly unparsed STALAG not remembering TA was volunteers and LAG was prisoner.

  17. No, you’re not alone!
    Probably, even Slormgorm himself will agree that “Goes off” as an anagram indicator doesn’t work when positioned before the fodder.
    Very strange.

  18. Sorry I am late to the party – been a busy day.
    I think 1a has definition “a laugh” as the two pros in Harlem is telling you it is American usage. You would not hyphenate a couple of them! Well, you might but…
    I enjoyed it, but I usually do. Thanks Slormgorm & Teacow.

  19. Thanks Slormgorm and Teacow
    Nila@16, I was another who didn’t see the clever anagram for FALMOUTH – putting in YARMOUTH, hoping that a Fulham person may have pronounced it as YA MOUTH (‘goes off’, a slang term down here). Was so confident as well after getting RAMSGATE (it was in our Australian ‘Sunday Times’ puzzle on the weekend) – thinking that I was across all English resort towns.
    A MER with the Afro -American HO at 7a.
    Finished with GIVE RISE TO and GARDENIA in the SW before messing up with YARMOUTH in the NE.

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