Financial Times 17,209 by GAFF

27 comments on “Financial Times 17,209 by GAFF”

1. My vague childhood memories of the 1960s film version proved just enough to be able to complete this entertaining grid and will provide a few earworms for the rest of the day!
   Kicking off in the NW corner was a big help in snagging the theme early on.
   Aside from the theme, I liked 24 best.
   Thanks for setting my toes tapping, GAFF, and to Teacow for the blog.

2. Teacow,
   It’s probably the whiskey but 29a’s parsing doesn’t quite work, too many Es. I just subtracted the letters of ‘effigy’ but wasn’t sure about the ‘y’ so my parsing isn’t quite right.

3. Diane, quite right! I have corrected the parsing of 29a.
   Also, thank you for pointing out the theme… If I could go back and colour in the grid I would!

4. The 65th anniversary of the opening night to be precise. Very enjoyable trying to spot all the references, but looking it up later, I see that missed a few.

   I liked working out the parsing of SOMEWHERE and AMERICAN. The SCENE quadruple def was excellent and was my pick of the day. I hope Gaff wasn’t taking a dig at us humble solvers with 2d!

   Thanks to Gaff and Teacow

5. Diane@ 2 it works if you de-tail effigy. Lovely puzzle, thanks S & B

6. Thanks for explaining 29A. I guessed the answer once I had the theme, but I couldn’t manage to parse it. My last one in.

   I’m not sure that I’ve come across 2D before but the clue gave it away once the cross letters were in.

7. Wordplodder @4,
   Thanks for pointing out the anniversary exactly.
   Jmac@5,
   De-tailed, of course! Thanks very much.
   Teacow,
   A good spot for the quadruple def in spite of your delicate disposition today!

8. Yes, very entertaining, but I was held up for a while by having entered SPYRING for 15a (spy = spot: ring = call: and then I shrugged at SPYRING = infiltration – sort of). Should have been more careful.
   Thanks Gaff and Teacow.

9. Did the Guardian’s in very little time, then came here, and got stuck after only about two thirds. Perhaps I didn’t try hard enough. And missed the theme, despite having listened to the double CD of West Side Story just the other night.

10. Hi Diane @2: are you American?

    “It’s probably the whiskey but 29a’s parsing doesn’t quite work, too many Es.” If not, methinks that there is one too many “Es” in your spelling of “whisky”.

    It has always amused me that American spelling usually removes letters: programme to program; labour to labor; travelled to traveled: – but adds an E to whisky. (Yes, I know that the Irish do it too).

    This is not a criticism or a complaint. I have made friends with many Americans but this has always confused and interested me. .

11. Thanks for the blog, Teacow. I got the following WSS theme words: West Side Story (parts of 1a, 11a, 18a), Maria, Tony, Somewhere, Tonight, Chino(s), America(n), and, of course, Bernstein. Any others…?

12. BB@USA @11

    Shark(s) & Jets

13. Jets and Shark(s),tonight,Action. I do not remember Chinos coming into it.

14. I was wrong Chino was Maria’s boyfriend.

15. Add Riff too

16. No, Peter, I’m English. Whisky sans E for me too (a slip on my part) but maybe Teacow’s hangover is contagious!

17. If you’re Irish then whiskey has the correct number of ‘e’s.

18. Not uisce beatha?!

19. An enjoyable solve if somewhat tricky in places. Knowing it was an anniversary puzzle put us on the alert and when SHARK and MARIA appeared we guessed the theme and googling confirmed the anniversary. We needed a bit of delving afterwards to spot all the references. We couldn’t parse BERNSTEIN, but no matter (to us anyway) as it was obvious in view of the theme. The clue for RIGMAROLE seemed familiar – it was clued in a very similar way last week in the Indy, but these coincidences do occur.
    Thanks, Gaff and Teacow.

20. Thanks Gaff. I found this slow going even though I recognised the theme. I particularly found the NE corner difficult and I used a word finder for 9a and 6d. Oddly, my favourite clues came from that quadrant, WRITE and SOMEWHERE. By the way, I spell whisky without the “E” even though I’m American because my go to beverage is Scotch, particularly those from Islay. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
    P.S. I was overjoyed on Saturday to see the return of Rosa Klebb, one of the best in the business in my opinion.

21. Thanks for the blog, enjoyed this, well done Diane for the theme.

22. Forgot to say the Saturday answers now appearing one week later in the paper. It would be nice to have the blog a week later instead of 12 days. I have asked for this on Site Feedback, I think Pete approves of the change . Perhaps others could ask as well ?

23. I loved the theme in this puzzle, very nicely done so it could be solved without knowledge of the play/musical/films.
    For those of you who know Bernstein only through his musicals (and he was the best composer of musicals, in my view) there is another, more “classical” side of his work that is incredibly good. One of the finest examples of this is his “Serenade after Plato’s Symposium” for violin and orchestra. It is well worth a listen.

    [ Tony@20, I, too, take my whisky without an ‘e’, and I share your preference for the Islay malts. I also share your delight in the return of Rosa Klebb, who as RK and Arachne was my favourite setter until she stopped. Let’s hope she returns to the Guardian as well. ]

24. Agree re Rosa Klebb

25. Agree with Roz about bringing forward the Saturday blog.

26. Here here for the Saturday blog.

27. Hear hear, I meant (predictive text!)

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