Financial Times 17,171 by BRADMAN

17 comments on “Financial Times 17,171 by BRADMAN”

1. I quite enjoyed this, but there were a few that I couldn;t solve till I came here. Why is Ted a fifties-style youth? I hadn’t heard of Jacques Tati, nor isatin. Nor had I heard of the second meaning for “gnome”. Why is a transistor an informal radio?

   No particular favourites today.

2. Thanks for the blog, I think you are right for CODPIECE but the whole clue is a cryptic definition with “once” meaning it is old . I agree for WISEACRES, the entire clue is the definition and the word play so I would call it an &Lit.
   I thought STEMMATA was something totally different so I have learnt a new meaning.
   Hard but fair would sum this up for me.

3. You just beat me Geoff, a few UK things mainly. TEDDY BOYS was a 1950s youth cult in the UK , called TEDs, they would dress up like Edwardian dandies and liked US rock and roll.
   What we call a radio has had many names , radiogram and wireless are old terms. The TRANSISTOR radio came in during the 1960s, mainly from Japan. Much smaller and portable, containing transistors rather than valves. The young liked them as they were portable and called them TRANSISTORS .

4. Thank you, Roz. No wonder I didn’t understand Ted. As far as transistors are concerned, perhaps I’m thick, but I still don’t see why they’re informal.

5. You are welcome Geoff, you can be the expert when we get Australian references.
   Transistors – it is really the name of the component inside, they are called transistor radios, the teenagers shortened this to transistors or trannies , is this informal? I am only musing.
   Radio itself is perhaps an informal name, they are radiowave receivers . When does a name become informal?

6. Yeah, I guess so!

7. I had the same question as Geoff over ‘informal’ as I’ve only ever used ‘radio’. The answer was clear in any case. I also didn’t get ISATIN – so obvious when I saw this blog.
   STEMMATA was a new term for me too but gettable.
   Favourites were SAWS and DESDEMONA.
   Thanks to Bradman, on whom we can depend for a Friday workout, and also to Turbolegs.

8. Clue of the day has to got to be 24A. In fact, probably the clue of the year.

   Stemmata was new to me and I don’t quite know why Liverpool is a “see”. I assume this is in the religious sense of “see”.

   Re 17A, I agree with my countryman Geoff, how does “informal” fit in? Another interpretation could be that “informal” indicates an anagram and “apart” could be that a transistor is “a part” of a radio. Having written that, I’m not convinced of my argument.

   All this talk of Teddy Boys reminds me of the follow-ups: Mods, Rockers, then Hippies and Flower Children… now we only have “snowflakes”.

9. Peter @8 Liverpool is very much a see. It has Anglican and Catholic cathedrals, an Anglican bishop and a Catholic Arch-Bishop.
   It makes a change from Ely .

10. 17A. Roz has it in principal but I think its sequence was slightly different. When they were first produced and marketed they were called a TRANSISTOR RADIO. After a time the name was shortened so “informally” they were called a TRANSISTOR.

    “Informal: denoting the grammatical structures, vocabulary, and idiom suitable to everyday language and conversation rather than to official or formal contexts.”

11. Re 17A: check out Buck Owens “Made in Japan” – opening lyrics “My transistor radio comes from far away”. I accept that this is not a helpful contribution to the conversation but it’s worth a listen. I saw Buck live at the Sydney Entertainment Centre sometime in the last century.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udHeBbv0RcI

    Thanks Roz for your explanation of “see”. I always thought that it meant catholic-related. I agree with your comment about it not being “Ely”.

12. I started off well, but was held up at the end with the barely remembered ISATIN as my final one in. Never heard of STEMMATA but the anagram fodder and crossers made it possible. I agree with Roz and trenodia about the ‘Informal radio’.

    Favourites were the CODPIECE cryptic def and WISEACRES which would do as an &lit for me.

    Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

13. I think BRADMAN is always fair and sticks to the rules. That does not mean the puzzle is easy and I found it strangely easy for the first part and rather difficult for the second.

14. I too was complacent, having written in a scattering of clues, across and down, before shuddering to a temporary halt then grinding to the end. But I feel comfortable with Bradman, and always enjoy his puzzles. One objection. Speaking as an ex-chemist, I’m here to reassure you all that ISATIN is not general knowledge; indeed it wouldn’t be generally known among chemists. Rather like offering the clue ‘author’, and the answer being, say, FENWICK.

15. We didn’t find this too difficult and completed it fairly quickly. One expects the occasional unfamiliar words from Bradman, and STEMMATA was new to us, although easily got from the wordplay and confirmed in Chambers. As another ex-chemist, one of us did know of ISATIN (but couldn’t tell you much about it). As far as informality goes for TRANSISTOR, a lof of younger folk might have been even more informal and referred to one as a ‘tranny’.
    Among others we liked AHEM and PECKISH, as well as CODPIECE. The last-named a cryptic definition? Not very, we thought, but a nice clue nevertheless.
    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

16. Maybe because I’m so into art and art history, codpiece came to me immediately, but much to my surprise!

17. Is 24a an &lit?

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