Financial Times 17,079 by AARDVARK

15 comments on “Financial Times 17,079 by AARDVARK”

1. Hard work from Aardvark yet again. All the more enjoyable to complete though. I felt that some of the anagram indicators (brandish, section) made this more difficult than it should be. I admit that I had “cut” as a dubious indicator as well but now see it’s a very clever one. Don’t recall ever seeing the phrase LOSE CASTE before but easy to guess.

   A couple of errors in the blog. In 15a, flight = STAIRS and in 25d want C (cold).

2. I agree with Hovis @1. Hard work, but satisfying to get out at the end. The ones I found difficult to either see the def or to parse were AMPERSAND, STOOL PIGEON, CAFETIERE and my last two in AMPHETAMINE and SQUALID. Having ‘See’ as part of the wordplay and in a different sense as part of the answer for the uncommon term at 14d was also “interesting”, ie took me ages to work out.

   Yes, ‘brandished’ at 2d and ‘section’ at 4d were original anagram indicators. Favourite bits were the reminder of ALASTAIR SIM and seeing the pangram once all was in.

   Thanks to Aardvark and to PeeDee

3. I started out well, and was finding it enjoyable, but only got about half or two thirds out. After coming here no real smiles, and plenty of groans.

   I’ve never heard “bones” for “doctor”. I can never remember the various UK initialisms for soldiers, and had forgotten “OR”. And I trust I can be forgiven for never having heard of Usk? In 4d, is “section” an anagrind?! I’d never heard of “lost caste”. Why are methods lines? And why is “PH” a pub? Don’t tell me … “public hotel”? At least I’d heard of Alastair Sim, even though he hasn’t been around for a while.

   I won’t write off Aardvark. Perhaps I just wasn’t on the right wavelength today, and will get a few smiles from his/her next one.

4. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
   6ac: line = method in the sense of approaches to solution of a problem
   2dn: “pub” is short for “public house”.

   Small error in the parsing of 28ac: there is a superfluous A before TILE.

5. Geoff @3. PH is Public House (used a lot in cryptics, so worth remembering); I took ‘lines’ as ‘methods’ as in ‘investigate a new line/method of study’. I can’t see “section” as an anagrind either. It can mean to break into sections but no suggestion of then recombining in a different order. “Bones” to mean “doctor” was used a lot for Doctor McCoy in Star Trek.

6. Geoff,
   PH is Public House. I only know Usk as it’s near my mother’s home.
   I never find Aardvark easy but was still gratified to complete all with the exception of STRONGMAN where I had been stuck at STRINGENT using ‘singer’ and t…r. This was why the actor was my LOI, a guess, as I’m afraid I don’t know him.
   The pangram helped with ELTON JOHN. Favourites were CARMELITE, AMPERSAND, AMPHETAMINE and TAUREAN.
   Thanks to Aardvark and PeeDee.

7. Pelham and Hovis clearly have fingers of fury. Sorry for the repetition.

8. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee

   It’s possibly worth adding that PH = Public House is a standard cartographic abbreviation.

9. Pianist?Could be anything from Dinu Lipatti to Jerry Lee Lewis
   EJ-pretty OK on the 88s but I think he does a bit more than that.
   He’s also very funny

   Dont see enough of Aadvark -he gives good pangram which I saw approaching

   Thanks Peedee and Scorpion?(I can spell that)

10. For 6d I had PIN {secure, as a notice to a board} beneath L {Lake} U {Superior}. One of those days when I saw hardly anything first run through {D’Oh} but persevered and got there in the end, taking a while, after first writing in STRINGENT for 8d like Diane, but then seeing 19a and then STRONGMAN. A very good Xword, AMPERSAND my favourite.

11. BeelzeBob. So did I. Didn’t notice blog was different.

12. I never realise that puzzles are pangrams, until I come here. As far as I’m concerned, a bit of a wasted effort.

13. Finally got round to checking things. Certainly harder fun, but fun nevertheless.
    I agree with Beelzebob, re LUPIN.
    Thanks to both.

14. Thanks for the corrections everyone, and I prefer Beezebob’s parsing for LUPIN too. I am on a boat at the moment but will update the blog when I can get a better internet connection.

15. Thanks Aardvark and PeeDee
    There was certainly some grist in this and in all of the excitement of the solve, I missed the pangram. Some new learning with actor, ALASTAIR SIM, the name of the coffee pot at 20a and the LOSE CASTE term.
    Enjoyed working out ZAMBEZI and INNER TUBE. For some reason, I always think of Corsica belonging to Italy instead of France, even though knowing that Napoleon was exiled there.
    Finished in the SW corner with OFF DUTY, SQUALID and LOSE CASTE the last few in.

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