Financial Times 17,241 by GOZO

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,241 by GOZO”

1. We had a cocktails themed puzzle a few weeks back — I don’t recall whose it was. More generic drinks this time, including one or two with which I was unfamiliar: NEAR BEER, SOAVE & CASSIS. And I was unaware that sack is a wine. I thought that 11d referred to onions (a bulb), but then the penny dropped. I thought 24d a bit untidy.

   But overall very enjoyable, with no sticky moments. Thanks Gozo & Oriel.

   (Oh, and I don’t regard rappers as musicians, but that’s another story.)

2. Thanks Gozo and Oriel
   24dn: It is likely that Gozo will let us know his intentions in due course, but another possibility that occurred to me after reading the blog is that “Well” (defined as “rightly”) could be the anagram lead. This leaves “over half” as a sufficient indicator for five out of seven letters.

3. For 18D: The anagram was clear enough, but I did not understand the reference. I do not think I have ever seen or heard that expression. In the US, we would most commonly say “swear like a sailor,” and even that is a little old-fashioned. (Where I come from, we would say “cussin’ up a storm.”) A “trooper” would usually mean a state highway patrolman, and not a soldier. Is “swear like a trooper” still current in the UK?
   Fun puzzle–quick once the theme became clear. Thanks to Oriel and Gozo.

4. RE 24D, the thought occurred to me that the “English characters” could be Anglefolc.
   Leading compiler=c.
   Hmmmm.

5. Good fun. I parsed 10a as a triple definition (including the themed one) – sort of egg = Scotch / dish = spoil (one’s hopes or chances) / Scotch = the drink.
   Thanks Gozo and Oriel

6. For 3d, I considered the unfinished sail boat to be GALLE(ON). I think of a “GALLEY” as propelled by oars. The only one I missed on was the non-alcholic beef tea! Enjoyed the solve.

7. Thanks for the blog, a lot of variety in the theme, I have learnt something new with NEAR BEER.
   I liked SWING DOOR and MEDOC was very neat.

8. Thanks Gozo, I always enjoy your themed crosswords. I thought there were many good clues including GRAPPA, SNOWBALL, and NEAR BEER, the latter well known to Americans who can be a bit puritanical about alcohol. I failed with the clever MEDOC as well as OCULAR and I couldn’t parse CASSIS, forgetting my high school French. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

9. I cannot see how 24D works and look forward to enlightenment from Gozo if he drops in. I agree with Oriel that as “could be” forms part of the definition it cannot also act as an anagram indicator, but I don’t agree that “characters” is acting as an anagram indicator – I think it means nothing other than “letters” or “constituents”. Although Pelham’s suggestion @ 2 has its attractions, I don’t find it convincing. Neither “well” nor “rightly” appear in the lists of anagram indicators in Chambers XWD Dictionary or the online Clue Clinic (see http://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/anagram-indicators/), and I think “well” is serving the purpose here of saying that of the 7 characters of ENGLAND we need to use more than “just” over half: that has the effect of targeting at least E,N,G,L and A and at most E,N,G,L,A and N.

10. In 24D I saw “could be” as doing double duty as Oriel suggested. Is that against “the rules” or is it considered bad form in some way? I personally don’t see the problem.

11. Tony@10 there is only one rule, the setter sets and we try to solve, but we are allowed to grumble. Personally I never like to see double duty, solving a clue is all about choices, make the right choices and you should succeed. Double duty allows you two choices for the role of a word/phrase .
    I agree with Rudolf@9 , “Well over” means more than 4 letters from England (but not all) so 5 or 6. This means we can take E N G L A but we are not told to mix them up.

12. Tony@10 At the risk of opening a can of worms, I’ll offer the view that the majority of professional crosswords setters would agree that it is bad form in most types of clue that involve wordplay for the wordplay element to have any intersection with the definition. An exception is the & Lit construction where the entire clue gives both a definition of the answer and wordplay which leads to it. It’s not the only exception, because there are various types of hybrid clue, such as ones where the whole clue is wordplay and part of it is definition, or vice versa (sometimes called semi & Lit). But in the clue we have here at 24D, the clue read as a whole provides neither definition nor wordplay. There are, of course, setters who belong to the “anything goes” school of thought. Personally, I don’t think a clue which mixes up wordplay with definition is fair to the setter.

13. Sorry Roz @ 10 – saw your entry only after submitting mine @ 12. I’m not the quickest of typists.

14. 1ac: Using “leading compiler” to clue the letter C is a serious stretch of the language, but it does seem to have become accepted by many crossword setters.
    24dn: Whether or not it was Gozo’s intention, the more I think about “well” as an anagram lead, the more I like it. To me, it is much less of a stretch than the device used in 1ac which I have just mentioned. I agree with others that “well over half” of a seven letter word means five or six letters and not four. However, as the answer has five letters, we should be able to get the right number of letters of “England” from “over half” alone.

15. Thanks Roz & Rudolf for your detailed responses.

16. Rudolf @ 12

    Your phrase “the majority of professional crosswords setters” contains something of an assumption.

    I’ve met quite a lot of them, and there are very few who could be described as “professional” (ie it’s their main source of income).

    To my knowledge, most of them set puzzles as an adjunct to their daily life, be they in employment or retired. With some exceptions, setting puzzles isn’t their primary means of earning a living.

17. Pelham@14 I entirely agree with you about “leading compiler” – in my view there is no way that this can properly be understood to mean “the leading letter of compiler”, and the clue is, therefore, unfair because it does not say what it means to say. It is certainly true that constructions such as “Labour leader” for L have been permitted in the Times (which used to be more strictly Ximenean than it is now) for quite a few years now, but that can be justified to some extent by the argument that “Labour leader” is commonly used in speech to mean “leader of Labour” (I’m not in favour of it myself).

18. This post is probably too late to be seen by anyone but, at 5A, I cannot equate “rapper” with anything to do with music. Yes, I am a musician and I can sing; something that “rappers” are not, and cannot.

19. 5ac: Of course rappers are musicians. Would anyone seriously argue that playing a tuned percussion instrument – such as timpani, xylophone, or even piano – makes one a musician, but playing a side drum does not?

20. Chipping in very late, but 24D I took as England’s characters = England’s people = Angles, and take well over half (so not just one letter more than half, to be well over) gives ANGLE

21. George@20: An interesting idea, but “Well over half of” seems unnecessarily elaborate machinery for converting a plural noun into its own singular, even if the definition is for a different meaning of the singular noun.

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