Financial Times 17,021 by JULIUS

14 comments on “Financial Times 17,021 by JULIUS”

1. The smart surface of 1a alone made this puzzle worthwhile. And Rebus has an appetite for IPA that perhaps rivals Morse’s preference.
   27a was another gem, along with others (24) that chipped away at a rich theme for satire.
   Got caught out on that BILGE though. I was still think of Boris (leading letter) and ‘rubbish’ as definition for which I had BELIE instead of the correct BILGE. Still, it was very entertaining. Thanks to Julius and Loonapick.

2. Still thinking, sorry.

3. Always a pleasure to find that we have a Julius to solve and this one was another great crossword

   Too many great clues to list them all so I’ll just say thank you very much to Julius and Loonapick

4. I agree with above comments .Thought I would struggle but 1ac and 27ac just fell into place and it was more straight forward than expected thereafter. However,I do not see why haircut means No2. Full of excellent clues so many thanks to both.

5. Men’s hair it’s are often described by the setting on the barber’s hair trimmers with a No 1 being the closest to the skin. A No 2 would be very short.

6. That should have read “men’s haircuts are”

7. Essentially, what crypticsue said but I also enjoyed noting the extra titbits in 1ac and 1dn: Morse had a penchant for crosswords, as well as real ale and George Best was, of course, a Belfast lad.

8. Thanks for that Loonapick. One always learns something from a good crossword puzzle.

9. Thanks Julius and Loonapick

   23dn: I think this parses more smoothly if you take the first “Run over” as the definition, and then the wordplay can be PACE + R all reversed.

10. Thanks for the blog, I am always pleased to see it is Julius, so many fine clues , too many to list.
    CHIANG MAI is new to me but very fairly clued.

    Number 2 haircuts are for women as well. I have one first week of June every year, although I do go the barbers, saves me so much time after swimming.

11. Thanks Julius. Much of this went in with just partial parsing so I’m grateful that loonapick filled in the gaps. Favourites included PARENTING, BELFAST, and the amusing BILGE, with a surface that can apply to multiple leaders of multiple nations over multiple time periods. Nicely done.

12. Steady solve with a bit of a hold up in bottom right corner, mainly because I mistakenly thought Feng Shui was a Japanese practice and therefore dismissed this as the answer, and I tried to conjure up a solution containing GP.

    I saw a connection between Buyers Remorse and our current Prime Minister?? The Speaker and Her Majesty also get a mention as well as “Rubbish leader of Government”. , There is also “PM is hapless” and “Conservative corrupt politics”.

    Julius’ political colours showing?

13. I thought there was enough to qualify for a Boris theme, including HAIRCUT – not exactly a ‘no 2’ though!

    BELFAST was a great clue, with the misdirection of ‘Manchester City’ and the inclusion of the ‘icon’ as part of his home town.

    Thanks to Julius and loonapick

14. Thanks Julius and loonapick
    A slightly easier assignment than is normal from this setter with some interesting words, some tricky word play to negotiate and an insight to the current political dissatisfaction of the incumbent government – sadly it mirrors the situation down here as well.
    ENCOMIA was the only new word. Had visited CHIANG MAI during a honeymoon holiday in Thailand in the 1990’s and was pleasantly surprised to see it surface here – was a place renowned for the most beautiful young ladies in the country. Was introduced to BLINI by a Russian friend who always added a touch of caviar to them.
    Nice touch with the BELFAST footballer who played for the other ‘Manchester’.
    Finished in the SW corner with PRIME MIINISTER waiting until near the end, RECAP (neat but confusing piecing of it together) and TIRADE as a nice homophone to bring it to an end.

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