Financial Times 17,312 by GAFF

11 comments on “Financial Times 17,312 by GAFF”

1. For some bizarre reason, I landed the four central across clues first so the theme was easy enough, though the parsing of some needed more thought.
   I would certainly include PORTRAIT in the theme and agree about that interminable theme tune!
   Thanks to GAFF for the fun and Teacow, as ever, for the blog.

2. I saw TITANIC once and was impressed by the special effects and the trouble taken to get all the details correct. As I remember it was quite moving at the end but even so the film related to the Titanic disaster which I still think of is “A Night to Remember” starring Kenneth More, made 40 years before. I didn’t pick up all the thematic references but was particularly disappointed that Céline Dion didn’t crack a mention, even if EARACHE did.

   Of the non-thematic clues, I always thought BATIK was a textile or a garment and didn’t know it referred to colouring or dyeing. I also didn’t know the story behind the term JACOB’s ladder, so a couple of things learnt as well.

   Thanks to Gaff and Teacow

3. I saw this back in the day and was chuffed when Mrs Cameron got a gong for Hurt Locker
   I think ICEBERG appeared in another puzzle as “salad ingredient”
   First theme clue I got was FROZEN Wasnt that a film or something
   Then I saw the title-nice puzzle from Gaff
   Relevance of WHITE STAR needs a mention

   Thanks Teacow.

4. Forgot to say-this may have been the first time I saw Leo
   I thought he made a GREAT Gatsby

5. Copmus @3
   Yes, that was some opening sequence in The Hurt Locker!
   Until “Gatesby”, “Wolf” and Tarantino’s last film, I felt much of Leo’s best work had already happened by then.

6. I don’t think I would have finished this without the hint of the theme–really a struggle, for some reason. I remember finding the movie kind of disappointing, occasionally soaring, but mostly looking as flat as a storyboard and overwhelmed by the effort to get the effects just so. DiCaprio should have won the Oscar for his role in What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, a weird and wonderful film.

   OVERCOAT, PORTRAIT, and especially BACK SEAT (lest we forget) are definitely theme answers, and I would throw in OVERLARGE (iceberg) and AWAKEN (passengers).

7. Yes, Cineraria. I agree on “Grape” and (ha ha) BACK SEAT.

8. Copmus@3 The White Star Line was the owner of Titanic.

9. WHITE STAR was the one that gave away the theme for me – after dismissing FROZEN as being both too recent and too unlikely to be the film we were looking for.

   Like Cineraria, I found this a bit of a struggle, but I would highlight BACK SEAT as a lovely clue.

   Thanks, Gaff & Teacow.

10. Thanks Gaff. I caught the theme but I didn’t fully realize its extent because I never saw the film. [DiCaprio’s best work, in my opinion, is The Revenant.] In any event I was unable to solve AWAKEN (a wake as a “party” would never occur to me) and LEAKAGE (“issue” is too broad a definition outside the theme, of course.) I thought there were some good clues like OSCARS, WHITE STAR, and KINGPIN. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

11. I much preferred the movie to this crossword.

    I generally find Gaff puzzles contain too many clues which are either very simple or impossible to parse. I had six which I couldn’t figure out; far far more than usual. I found myself solving the puzzle as if it were a Concise, and then trying to solve a parsing separately.

    To be fair, once the parsing was explained, (thank you so much) it was fairly straightforward, but for some reason I can never quite get the wavelength of this setter.

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