Financial Times 17,245 by JASON

by

JASON provides the fun today….

Apologies for the lateness of this blog. My day job has required a load of overtime recently, so I’ve dashed this off during my lunch hour. I’m not sure about the parsing of 27a (now resolved thanks to Hovis@2), and, frankly, there may be other errors. I trust that the excellent commentators on this blog will quickly resolve them!

 

Thanks JASON!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Enterprise possibly begins knowing time will run out (8)
STARSHIP

(STAR[t]S (begins) + HIP (knowing)) (T (time) will run out)

5. Plaster is mostly fixed firm (6)
STUCCO

STUC[k] (fixed, mostly) + CO (firm)

10. Boost obtained from a ground nutmeg (7)
AUGMENT

A + (NUTMEG)* (*ground)

11. Reserve, having been given the nod, is saved (7)
RESCUED

RES (reserve) + CUED (having been given the nod)

12. Chaps getting into editor’s change (5)
EMEND

MEN (chaps) getting in to ED (editor)

13. Learn glib labours — sound somewhat familiar? (4,1,4)
RING A BELL

(LEARN GLIB)* (*labours)

14. Sailor chap I’m winding up in an act of pettiness? (12)
PAROCHIALISM

(SAILOR CHAP IM)* (*winding up)

18. Perhaps Cornish treat twerp carelessly cremated (7,5)
CLOTTED CREAM

CLOT (twerp) + (CREMATED)* (*carelessly)

21. Series of six shots? This is too many (9)
OVERDOSES

OVER (series of six) + DOSES (shots)

23. Earl went on a bike to eat away (5)
ERODE

E (Earl) + RODE (went on a bike)

24. What could be flimsy in no good zip? (7)
NOTHING

THIN (what could be flimsy) in (NO + G (good))

25. I am in front of independent gallery’s mirror (7)
IMITATE

IM (I am) in front of I (independent) + TATE (gallery)

26. Repeat ceremony outside English college (6)
RECITE

RITE (ceremony) outside (E (English) + C (college))

27. Fragile container? Mine’s below (8)
EGGSHELL

EGGS (mine’s, in the slang sense of bomb or mine) + HELL (below)

I’m not really sure about this (thanks to Hovis@2 for clarifying this)

DOWN
1. Son worried being on edge (6)
SCARED

S (son) + CARED (worried)

2. Eg, JR Hartley, who we hope would promote a particular POV (6)
ANGLER

Double definition

Referring to “Fly Fishing – by JR Hartley” – from the old Yellow Pages advert

3. Flexible dates by express firm (9)
STEADFAST

(DATES)* (*flexible) by FAST (express)

4. Inventively signorine tried home building? (8,6)
INTERIOR DESIGN

(SIGNORINE TRIED)* (*inventively)

6. Company set up near Los Angeles (5)
TESLA

(SET)< (<up) near LA (Los Angeles) &lit

7. Hydrocarbon which becomes cloudier when processed (5,3)
CRUDE OIL

(CLOUDIER)* (*processed)

8. Aged female unable to get along with ex (3,5)
OLD FLAME

OLD (aged) + F (female) + LAME (unable to get along with)

9. Le sparadrap ou Band-Aid? It gives life to Caesar, say (6,8)
FRENCH DRESSING

Double (cryptic) definition

15. Fellows who are up working a dice scam (9)
ACADEMICS

(A DICE SCAM)* (*working)

16. Glass vessel (8)
SCHOONER

Double definition

17. Heads twitch daily (8)
DOMESTIC

DOMES (heads) + TIC (twitch)

19. Deer displaying natural gift (6)
DONATE

DOE (deer) displaying NAT (natural)

20. Show concerning flesh as food (6)
REVEAL

RE (concerning) + VEAL (flesh as food)

22. Tendency to split after beginning to dry (5)
DRIFT

RIFT (split) after D[ry] (beginning to)

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,245 by JASON”

  1. Feared I might be a little rusty after a few weeks away but, happily, this grid from Jason provided a gentle path back into the swing of things.
    Favourites were 1a, 14, 18 and the cute 9d.
    Thanks to Jason and Teacow for the blog, which I needed to confirm 22d and 27a.

  2. No problem with your parsing for 27a. Egg is slang for a bomb or a mine, so it all works. Missed DONATE. Wasn’t aware that ‘nat’ could be short for ‘natural’.

  3. Thanks Hovis@2 – I had a vague idea about the egg=mine definition, but I checked my Chambers Thesaurus and it wasn’t there, but I see now it is in the dictionary!

  4. Thanks Jason , I liked this a lot. I didn’t know JR Hartley so I needed a word finder for ANGLER and I wasn’t certain about EGGS being mines but all else made sense. My top choices included STARSHIP, CLOTTED CREAM, CRUDE OIL, OLD FLAME (great surface), and DOMESTIC. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  6. An excellent puzzle and blog to start the week. Thank you to Jason and Teacow.
    Not knowing that EGG and “mine” could be synonymous, my parsing for 27a had been: EGGSHELL (‘fragile’) = EGG (‘container’) with SHELL (‘mine’, as in bomb) following (‘(i)s below’).
    However, in seeing Teacow’s parsing for 27a and thinking further about my parsing, I realised that my parsing would work only for a down clue, where SHELL would be ‘below’ EGG.
    Thanks again.

  7. Thanks Teacow. Often I’ll get a DD on the strength of one of the definitions but an “angler” as someone who promtes a POV wasn’t familiar to me as well.

  8. Thanks for the blog , a good set of clues. STARSHIP was a great first clue and I will stick with that as my favourite.

  9. Nothing too taxing, quite enjoyable. I hastily put in AMEND for 12a which meant I was totally stuck for 1d. I thought the definition for ACADEMICS was a trifle odd. I’ve never known eggs to be bombs or mines, nor hip as knowing. And it took me a while to unearth J R Hartley. “Nat” for “natural” elicited a groan.

  10. ACADEMICS is a little odd, we are all known as Fellows regardless of gender and UP in this sense means at university although a fairly old term that I never here anybody use these days.
    HIP is more like trendy or with it or we used to say groovy.

  11. Thanks setter and blogger. Enjoyed this a lot. Put in EGGSHELL with a shrug – what else could it be?
    Tripped up on JR Hartley clue. Tried Ewing/Dallas references and maybe something about jam! Finally decided on ARGUER but wide off the mark. Never mind.

  15. Anil: A Caesar salad by definition has its own dressing i.e. oil, lemon juice, anchovies, and garlic. I think Jason meant salad in general by “Caesar, say”

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