Financial Times 17,274 by PHSSTHPOK

9 comments on “Financial Times 17,274 by PHSSTHPOK”

1. Indeed, we are getting some variety on the weekend. I, too, have never encountered Phssthpok, and wish the setter welcome to the weekend

   I have mixed feelings about this puzzle. There were some great clues, such as CHASTEN, SWORDS and TRICKLES, with CORK’S CREW producing an enjoyable groan. But several of the clues were difficult because the setter used words with different meanings as synonyms. I know we are in crosswordland where many things go, but it makes it difficult for a pendant. I shared Pete’s puzzlement with IN THE SOUP – an editing mistake, perhaps?

   I could not solve 26, but a friend proffered a solution that I believe is correct. It is S C [toppings of Sand and Cement, RE [on] E D [concretE and insulateD floors]. I assume this is & lit. I have a problem with the clue: the key word is either “floors” or “toppings”, which are both plural, whereas SCREED is singular. Oh, and it is almost impossible to solve if, like me, one does not know the word SCREED.

   Thanks for the puzzle Phssthpok and thanks as always for the great explanation Pete.

2. SCREED:
   Martyn@1-I had the same parsing.

   IN THE SOUP:
   I thought of ‘joking, where fly is’ as one def (somewhat cryptic-ok. not quite.) and ‘struggling’ as
   the main def.

   Thanks, P and PM!

3. Generally I have liked previous crosswords by this setter but I found too much of this one impenetrable for me. Favourite clues like FORTUNATE, IN THE SOUP, and NARRATOR were few and far between. Thanks to both.

4. Thanks for the blog, I really enjoyed this , CORKSCREW and TRICKLES my favourites out of many.
   SCREED agree with Martyn @1 and maybe it applies to different sorts of topping, plaster , mortar etc so toppings?
   IN THE SOUP I agree with KVa@2 as two definitions. There were a long series of 1970s jokes starting – Waiter, waiter there is a fly in my soup ….

5. Science quibbles , feel free to ignore.
   10Ac c=as fast as possible , still speculative , only applies to particles with real rest mass created at a speed below c, minor quibble.
   ISOTOPES , major quibble, diamond and graphite are allotropes of carbon. Isotopes have different nuclear properties , for example Carbon-12 and Carbon-14 , or Hydrogen and Deuterium.

6. As we regularly solve the FT puzzle throughout the week we’ve encountered Phssthpok several times and not had much trouble. But we did struggle with this in places and were held up in the SW corner till we suddenly got CORKSCREW, and in the NE corner till we checked in the dictionaryt that the beef is WAGYU, not ‘waygu’ as we had always thought. But we also found this a disappointment with 23ac hardly cryptic – ‘shakes foundations’ could be used to clue ‘rocks’ in any concise or quick crossword. And as for 26ac, one of us, speaking as a concrete technologist, says it’s not cryptic at all (apart from ‘toppings’ being plural and ‘screed’ singular).

7. Thank you Martyn and Roz.. I have changed the explanation of 26 (SCREED) and now see it as a fine clue. I have also come around about 3 (IN THE SOUP).

8. And thank you, Roz, again for telling us about allotropes. I was not aware of the term but I do know what an isotope is and should have recognized that it is misused in 27.

9. Thanks, Phssthpok & Pete M. I’m another who found this one very difficult although I was able to complete it this evening, coming back to it after a few days break. Enjoyed it – a worthy challenge. IN THE SOUP made me laugh. FORTUNATE is very neat. TRICKLES and CORKSCREW also stood out.

   There’s now a note on this puzzle on the FT app owning up to the mistake in 27a. Oops!

Comments are closed.