Financial Times 17,296 by AARDVARK

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,296 by AARDVARK”

1. I enjoyed this, but there were a few doozies. Gan a NE dialect? Yeah, right. Why is “qua” “as”? Why is Nana Charlie? Never heard of Etruria. I certainly don’t pronounce “paltry” and “poultry” the same. And I’m still coming to terms with “up” for “at college”.

   But at least I completed it. The last Aardvark I didn’t. And as I said, most of it I enjoyed.

2. Along with Oriel, I enjoy Aardvark’s puzzles and his predilection for double letters which helped with a few clues like ROCOCO and RHUBARB.
   Interesting comment about that missing ‘V’ which escaped me. AVIAN FLU, my FOI, was my first thought too but it clearly, ‘Sian’ was what was required here.
   And the PAT of ‘patronage’ in 24a makes a reappearance in ‘Postman Pat’. Curious!
   Of the number clues I liked, 5D and 10D were favourites.
   Thanks to Aardvark and Oriel for a much-cribbed blog!

3. Thanks for the blog , really enjoyed this , great variety of clues. JOURNO has a neat use of The Ashes , I like the TBA in TOP BANANA , between one and two for FLAIR is original, many more……

4. Geoff,
   Qua is Latin.
   Nana/Charlie can be an ‘idiot’ as in ‘I felt a proper nana/Charlie when I walked into the door’.
   Etruria gives us the ancient people from near to Florence and its famous pottery.
   For me, paltry/poultry are pronounced more or less the same but then we get into the accent/dialect discussion which, I guess, covers ‘gan’ as well. ‘Up’ seems quite old-fashioned these days bit it survives here, at least.

5. Well done for picking up the pangram minus V which I think can properly be described as a V lipogram, with the V deliberately left out as suggested by the wordplay for 13a; again a good spot.

   I liked working out the parsing of RHUBARB, ARROGANT and TOP BANANA. Favourites were the ‘Australian’ MOZART at 28a and the surface and ‘Movement on deck’ def for SKATEBOARDING.

   Thanks to Aardvark and Oriel

6. Geoff @1 gan=go and gannin=going is very much NE dialect , see “The Blaydon Races” . QUA comes from the Latin , a legal term , in the capacity of , or simply AS . ETRURIA a region in Italy but more importantly in the Potteries , developed by Josiah Wedgwood for his third factory. A right NANA is a foolish person also called a right Charlie.
   UP for at college only seems to appear in crosswords, I have never heard anyone actually say it.

7. Sorry Diane , we think alike but you type faster than me.

8. Thank you, Roz & Diane. So much to learn, so little time …

9. Ha ha, indeed Roz! Though you’re more thorough.

10. Thanks for the parsing of ARROGANT – never would have got GAN. Otherwise an enjoyable puzzle.

    I think “up to college” is a hangover from Oxbridge – “down” being going back to London, and still “down” even if you go home up north. Still in use in those places.

11. Thanks Aardvark and Oriel

    With regard to the apparent V-lipogram, I distinguish three possibilities:
    1. It was all deliberate
    2. Aardvark constructed the grid without any deliberate intention, but, having spotted the pattern, wrote 13ac deliberately to highlight it.
    3. The whole thing is coincidence.

    In principle, I would back number 2 given 2-1 against each option. In practice, if anyone offered me any odds at all, I would assume they had inside knowledge, and politely decline.

    While I am in, we certainly used “up” (and “down”) when I was at Oxford about 45 years ago, but mainly in contexts such as “When did you come up?” just after the start of a term, and “When are you going down?” just before the end. Incidentally, if you go down by train from Oxford or Cambridge to London, you will travel on an up train. Isn’t it fun when different jargons clash?

12. Re 18D: “paltry” is surely pronounced as paul- tree. Whereas the bird in question is “pole- tree”

    I was born and raised in the north-east of England so know that “gannan yam” means “going home”. Thankfully I no longer talk like that.

    All of us gentlemen thank the setter for the mental image of 25A.

13. Of course, Peter, we Aussies are more likely to put thongs on our feet. Flip flops to Brits, I believe.

14. Aardvark always welcome round here.
    2d was great rather than fat.
    Two musicians (Max) Roach and Mozart
    And bedtime music is Dialogue by Bobby Hutcherson -strongly recommended

15. Peter @12 re 18dn: I pronounce the two words paltry and poultry in the same way that you do. However, when this has come up for discussion on at least two previous occasions on this website, there was enough support for the pronunciation with a short O in the first syllable to suggest that Chambers may well be more up to date than other dictionaries in allowing that as the first pronunciation for both words.

16. I could not parse TOP BANANA, being unfamiliar with the elements, except for the OP part. In the US, “TBA” means “to be announced”–close, but the similarity did not register with me. I also did not know either “Charlie” or “nana” in that sense, but I see that there is an entry in Chambers for both of those, plus “tba,” so a mindful dictionary-bash might have turned those up.

17. Cineraria@16: If you had asked me, I would have said that TBA stood for “to be arranged”, but I see Chambers 2014 gives “to be advised (or announced)”. As you imply, these expressions are more or less synonyms of each other.

    While I am back in, I have thought of a further possibility about the V-lipogram. Possibly Aardvark noticed part way through the grid construction that he was well on the way to a pangram. He may then have tried to complete the pangram without tearing up everything he already had, but could not quite get there. He could then have clued 13ac as the best he could do under the circumstances. I stress that this is all speculation on my part.

18. Thanks, Aardvark & Oriel. Not sure I’ve ever solved an Aardvark before but I completely agree with the opening line of the preamble: “A witty challenge – most enjoyable with a great mix of clue types.”

    Oriel – I also wrote in AVIAN FLU for 4a initially, though it did leave me thinking my knowledge of Welsh names was perhaps not what it ought to be, until 5d disabused me. On a pedantic technical point, Cockneys don’t come from Hackney, but from the City of London – although the Borough of Hackney does stretch down far enough that you could conceivably be born inside the borough boundaries and still be within earshot of Bow Bells. But to be fair, the clue doesn’t specify Cockney, just uses Hackney qua generic East London.

    Re 15 – I think nana in this sense is just short for banana anyway – at least, that’s how I understood it when my mum called me a “big nana” as a kid when I’d done something daft (often).

    PB @17 – you’re probably right, but I admire the inventiveness of making it look deliberate with the DO[v]ER clue. In fact, this is more impressive to me than a pangram – any decent grid-filling software can give you a pangram, but there’s no software that will come up with such clever wordplay. Bravo, Aardvark!

19. Not being familiar with UK dialects, I actually did 14 as GAN – for Go Around North-east without introduction, along with cARROT

20. Thank you Aardvark for the fun and especially Oriel for the parsing help. I couldn’t parse 14a ARROGANT (not knowing GAN), and 15d TOP BANANA (to me NANA means grandmother, and mine were not right Charlies). Favourites were 2d CORPULENT, a nice charade, and 24a IRON AGE.

    [ copmus@14, I had the pleasure of hearing Max Roach live at the Montreal Jazz Festival when I was 13 years old, and I have been a fan ever since. Also, I second your recommendation for Bobby Hutcherson, a great musician and a great CD. And Mozart of course will be with us to the end of time. ]

21. Thanks Aardvark for many great clues including DIPHTHONG, TAPEWORM, and SOMEWHAT. As it was getting late I revealed several letters to complete 5d, 21d, and 28a. Thanks Oriel for parsing and explaining the bits I missed.

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