Financial Times 17,271 by BASILISK

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,271 by BASILISK”

1. Spotted the letter trick. Something this setter used to do quite a lot with his Serpent hat on a while ago. Clever stuff.
   I’m embarrassed to say that I failed to parse LONER – so obvious in retrospect. Great crossword as always.

2. Liked ELISION, GRANOLA and PORCELAIN.

   Thanks, B & O!

3. I struggled a bit with this. Re 26a there are 13 letters in “at the end, aptly”. Perhaps the first part of the clue is telling us to shed one of the “T”s?

4. Thanks, Oriel, for parsing 13A. I had “DON” for the “FELLOW” but could not work out where the “ER” came from. I didn’t twig to “BEING” as a person.

   Re 18D: I am not sure how “BOUT” means “ATTACK” but I’m sure that some dictionary links them, just none of mine.

5. Well, the “letter trick” was wasted on me. Most themes are. This was an enjoyable experience, with plenty of smiles but a few groans, such as “lud” for judge, man for husband, and together for along. ON TRIAL was extremely easy. Never heard of John Stewart Mill. MUNICIPALITY was easily gettable from the definition and a few crossers, so I couldn’t be bothered parsing the convoluted-looking three-line clue. I remember IT for vermouth eliciting a groan when I encountered it a few weeks ago, so I stifled one this time.

6. Spadeworker @3. Yes, I took ‘ultimately what’ to refer to the T that needs removing. Didn’t notice this was missing in the blog though.

7. Ah, apologies – I missed that bit on 26a. I’ll edit the blog for clarity. Thank you for pointing it out Spadeworker @3!

8. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel
   18dn: Chambers 2014 gives us bout n as “a fit or attack (of an illness)”. Other dictionaries are of course available.
   Incidentally, for Geoff@5, John Stuart Mill (not Stewart).

9. Another enjoyable crossword from Basilisk and I’m delighted to report that I too spotted the letter trick

   Thanks very much to him and Oriel

10. Thanks for the , good spot by many people on the letter which I totally missed.
    DEATH PENALTY is pretty spectacular from a very good set of clues .
    Peter@4 , following Pelham Barton @8, a BOUT of flu or hayfever is perhaps appropriate for attack.

11. Thanks Basilisk for an excellent crossword. I looked for a nina but I overlooked the preponderance of the L’s so I missed the trick. I thought there were many great clues including IMPLIES, ENTHRAL (nice use of close/close and entrance/entrance), ESTABLISHING (good anagram), PORCELAIN (great wordplay), and LARCENY (wonderful surface). I had some problem parsing LONER and LARGE both of which are obvious now. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

12. I can only echo everyone else – excellent crossword, thanks, Basilisk.

    And thanks, Oriel (and Spadeworker), for filling in the bits I missed – didn’t notice the letter trick, and didn’t notice there was a letter over in the fodder for DEATH PENALTY – just bunged it in when I spotted the solution and didn’t bother counting, so it’s actually a much better clue than I realised… Sorry, Basilisk!

13. `I couldn’t get passed the belief that 1ac contained AMINed at the end so now feel like an IDIot! The top half of my grid has lots of gaps. Thanks Oriel for sorting me out.

14. Widdersbel: I had the same experience as you with DEATH PENALTY and I can only echo what Roz said —- pretty spectacular. I have a folder where I keep memorable crosswords and this one now resides there.

15. Geoffdownunder@5
    Surely the Monty Python philosophers song is familiar to you?
    https://youtu.be/PtgKkifJ0Pw.
    Or maybe it was banned down under.
    ( May contain racist attitudes)

16. A super puzzle. I failed to twig the letter motif.

17. Not that familiar, Panthes @ 15. I only recall philosophers named Bruce. 😉

18. Many thanks to Oriel for the excellent blog and to everyone who has been kind enough to comment on the puzzle.

19. L of a good puzzle

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