Financial Times 17,309 by JULIUS

by

Julius is the setter of today's FT puzzle.

This is my 400th FT blog in Fifteensquared, and I got an interesting puzzle to blog. It was a fairly straightforward one in the end, assisted by three hidden clues and a fair number of long entries where I was able to put in the solution and work out the parsing afterwards (AIDE-DE-CAMP, GROUNDHOG DAY, DILAPIDATE come to mind). I hesitated over the first M of MARTINMAS, as M is the initial letter (intro) of MY, so I wasn't sure that you could extend it to MY WAY, but decided that the intro to MY WAY is M, so thought it was probably OK.

Thanks, Julius

ACROSS
1 POWDER PUFF
Compact pad ready for a make-over? (6,4)

Cryptic definition
6 TALC
Mineral found in neat alcohol (4)

Hidden [found] in "neaT ALCohol"
9 PANATELLAS
All peasant cooking whiffs! (10)

*(all peasant) [anag:cooking]

Panetella and whiff are both words for a thin cigar.
10 IDEA
Thought of middle ear every now and again (4)

(m)I(d)D(l)E (e)A(r) [every now and again]
12 GROUNDHOG DAY
Minced pork, Doris? It’ll repeat on you ad nauseam (9,3)

GROUND ("minced") + HOG ("pork") + (Doris) DAY
15 DRAMATIST
Doctors tense nursing famous Cremonese playwright (9)

Drs. (doctors) + T (tense) nursing (Nicola) AMATI ("famous Cremonese" violin-maker)
17 GECKO
Fine, for example, in retirement to house Charlie’s lizard (5)

<=(OK ("fine") + e.g. (for example), in retirement) to house C (Charlie, in the NATO phonetic alphabet)
18 ALIGN
Order the greatest skirts from Gabon (5)

(Muhammed) ALI ("The Greatest") + [skirts from] G(abo)N
19 MARTINMAS
Nov 11: after intro to My Way, Sinatra excitedly introduces Miles (9)

[after intro to] M(y Way), *(Sinatra) [anag:excitedly] introduces M (miles)
20 BEYOND REPAIR
Over there, in the sack, note couple past redemption (6,6)

YON ("over there") in BED ("the sack") + RE (musical "note") + PAIR ("couple")
24 IRAN
Julius Caesar finally advanced, annexing northern country (4)

I ("Julius") + (Caesa)R [finally] + A (advanced), annexing N (northern)
25 DILAPIDATE
Senior detective — one in West Coast force — had lunch run down (10)

DI (Detective Inspector, so "senior detective") + I (one) in LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department, so "West Coast force") + ATE ("lunch")
26 NERD
Wonk rejecting study Republican penned (4)

[rejecting] <=DEN ("study") with R (Republican) [penned]
27 UNDERNEATH
Found erne at Hawick, nestling down below (10)

Hidden [nestling] in "foUND ERNE AT Hawick"
DOWN
1 POPE
Holy man exercises underwater in Turin (4)

PE (physical "exercises") under (River) PO ("water in Turin")
2 WINE
You and I guzzling case of Italian plonk (4)

WE ("you and I") guzzling [case of] I(talia)N
3 ENTERTAINING
Nigerian tent used for throwing a party (12)

*(nigerian tent) [anag:used]
4 PILAU
Dua Lipa turned up bearing a rice dish (5)

Hidden backwards in [turned up bearing] "dUA LIPa"
5 FRAUDSTER
Criminal German woman and daughter rest uneasy (9)

FRAU ("German woman") and D (daughter) + *(rest) [anag:uneasily]
7 AIDE-DE-CAMP
Military officer first class departs base on leave (4-2-4)

A1 ("first class") + D (departs) + E (logarithmic "base" in mathematics) + DECAMP ("leave")
8 CRAZY HORSE
Paris saloon car runs over unknown Yankee on heroin (5,5)

*(car) [anag:runs} over Z (unknown, in mathematics) + Y (Yankee) on HORSE ("heroin")

Le Crazy Horse Saloon is a renowned entertainment venue in Paris where nude dancers alternate with variety performers, especially magicians.
11 LONG DIVISION
Solving no.1, I’d failed…it’s tricky to work out (4,8)

*(solving no i id) [failed]
13 EDNA O”BRIEN
Danone manufactured French cheese filling Irish writer (4,6)

BRIE ("French cheese") filling *(Danone) [anag:manufactured]
14 VANITY FAIR
Sharp character of this work? (6,4)

Cryptic definition, Becky Sharp being the protagonist of Thackeray's "Vanity Fair".
16 IMMERSION
Soaking miner: ‘I’m so upset’ (9)

*(miner im so) [anag:upset]
21 PLANE
Smooth surface (5)

Double definition
22 DADA
Pop artists’ leader or another movement? (4)

DAD ("pop") + A(rtist) ['s leader]
23 YEAH
Sure, Behan regularly visited Youth Hostel (4)

(b)E(h)A(n) [regularly] visited YH (Youth Hostel)

24 comments on “Financial Times 17,309 by JULIUS”

  2. Pretty easy apart from 24A which was my last one in. I struggled to work out how “Julius Caesar” was an anagram of “AIR” until I finally twigged that Julius was the setter!

    Re 13D, I knew Danone as a manufacturer of yoghurt – which is not too far removed from cheese as both are made from milk.

    27A was very clever. I’ve been to Hawick and know that it is pronounced “hoyk”. Just a bit of trivia to round out the evening…

  3. Quite entertaining, but quite a few sticky moments. I was perplexed as to why panatellas were whiffs, but having read this blog I eventually found it in Encyclopaedia Britannica, shown as British usage, which excuses my lack of familiarity. Never heard of Crazy Horse, nor Martinmas. I eventually found the Irish writer, having tried Dane, Dean and finally Edna. Couldn’t work out why Julius was I, but, like Peter, the penny eventually dropped.

  4. All fairly straightforward, though a number done in reverse. I’d see the long answer, now try and work out the parsing.

    I’d forgotten that Amati was the violin maker.

    Managed to finish four out of four this week. Fingers crossed for Friday.

    I pray not Io 🙂 :).

    Strange coincidence that we have Sinatra “my way” appearing in the FT two days running.

    Congratulations on the 400th blog. A magnificent achievement.

  5. Thanks and well done on the 400th, Loonapick – not to mention the many others you’ve blogged over the years. Your efforts are always appreciated.

    Not that much was needed today in the way of assistance – found this a very tractable puzzle. Very enjoyable too, as Julius always is. Particularly enjoyed PILAU – great find to use Dua Lipa. Also GROUNDHOG DAY – not least because Doris is a character in the film. And the neat use of Julius Caesar – which I had no trouble with, being alert to who today’s setter was.

    Thanks for the fun, Julius.

  7. Congratulations Loonapick on reaching this impressive milestone. This was a very quick solve but your blog was indispensable for explaining a few clues.
    Always a fun solve from Julius. I care not how long it takes, rather, how much enjoyment is to be had so this puzzle ticks all the boxes.
    Great hidden answer in 27a, loved GROUNDHOG DAY and EDNA O’BRIEN and the use of Julius Caesar.
    Thanks to both.

  10. Congrats on your four hundredth loonapick. I needed your blog to explain CRAZY HORSE and MARTINMAS, both of which were new to me. Favourites in a very entertaining puzzle were as mentioned by others, especially GROUNDHOG DAY and VANITY FAIR. The only clue with which I would take issue is LONG DIVISION; not just ‘tricky’, more like impossible for this aged brain!

    Thanks to Julius and again to loonapick

  11. I am not sure I understand what is “cryptic” about 1A? I know that POWDER-PUFF can be used pejoratively to mean something like “weak,” but I do not see how that quite arises to “ready for a make-over”? Or does it mean “[get] ready for a make-over” by “[using a] powder puff”? But that hardly seem “cryptic.” I feel as though I am still missing the point.

    Congratulations on your 225 tenure and on yet another fine blog.

  12. Cineraria@11 – I think Julius was trying to make us thing of a small flat in need of renovation. I did consider prefixing “cryptic” with “barely” but decided there was just enough in the clue.

  13. Thanks for the blog, dear loonapick (400 not out, plucky effort, well done) and thanks to those who have commented. Re POWDER PUFF (prob not one for my highlights reel) the idea was to suggest some kind of small apartment in need of renovation while referring to the kind of compact one might find in a make-up kit but yeah…
    best wishes to all, Rob/Julius

  14. Thanks for the blog once again , you are the Brian Lara of blogging.
    Great set of clues, Julius Caesar is brilliant but will only work for this setter.

  16. Thanks Julius. I too liked the ‘Julius Caesar’ trick. ‘Beyond repair’ and ‘immersion’ made me smile too. I totally got the ‘pad’ ambiguity.

  17. Thanks Julius and congratulations loonapick. I didn’t know MARTINMAS and I didn’t understand VANITY FAIR but all else made sense with GROUNDHOG DAY, GECKO, the cleverly hidden UNDERNEATH, POPE, WINE, and FRAUDSTER being my top picks.

  18. An enjoyable and (to us at any rate) fairly easy solve. Favourites were LONG DIVISION and EDNA O’BRIEN. Interestingly there’s been no comment about apostrophes not being indicated in enumeration – there was comment about that elsewhere today, but maybe with O’Brien being fairly obvious no-one here gave it a thought.
    Thanks, Julius, and thanks and congratulations to loonapick.

  19. allan_c – Suspect it’s because the usual complainants aren’t FT solvers. As far as I’m concerned, it’s simply a long-standing crossword convention, so no problem for me.

  21. Re 15d DRAMATIST, I am of course biased, but I have always regarded Nicola Amati as a great cello maker, first and foremost. A great clue nonetheless.

    Thanks Julius and the prolific loonapick for the fun.

  22. Hi Cellomaniac
    Indeed. Amati in this clue is simply described as a “famous Cremonese”…playwright is the definition

  23. Absolutely, Julius, and thanks for your comment, confirming the “correctness” of my understanding. It was loonapick who (unnecessarily) steered the parsing towards that other instrument.

  24. Cellomaniac@23

    In my defence:

    I suspect that your comment was influenced by your “mania for cello”, but according to all sources I have found on the internet, the Amati family were most famous for violins, although they also designed viols, cellos and double basses.

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