Financial Times 17,335 by BRADMAN

13 comments on “Financial Times 17,335 by BRADMAN”

1. Quite a few occasions when my knowledge wasn’t up to it — DIVALI, ICTUS, LOLLARD, Andre Breton. IOM for Isle of Man and Ewell were a hard ask for us Antipodeans, I thought. And I was unaware that Buffalo Bill was Cody. 12a was I thought a double definition, and I don’t see anything more devious than described in 19a/21a. Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique has a classic example of an idee fixe.

2. Liked MADE CHANGES, LEADING LADY (seen one or two clues like this somewhere else before. I think your parsing is all right, Turbolegs!) and PEERLESS.

   DRESSED UP
   I think in the first half the person is dressed up
   and in the second half the clothes are dressed up (embroidered).

   Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs!

3. I read DRESSED UP as a double definition. I could not quite parse AXIOMATIC. I figured “Isle of Man” was involved somehow, but I have never seen IOM as an abbreviation. I agree with your guess about LEADING LADY, but, if so, that is a weird clue. Thanks.

4. Thanks for the blog, I think the truth may be dressed-up or embroidered as a euphemism for lying . Pat may be a lady (or man ) and is leading in pathology , nice clue with a central definition.
   A good set of clues and I thought any obscurities were clued very fairly. I knew Bill Cody from “Annie Get Your Gun” at school. IOM is used quite a lot in North West England, the ferry company and airport for example.

5. Thanks, Bradman & Turbolegs. A very tidy set of clues, all precise enough that even the slightly obscure words (ICTUS!) were very gettable.

   LEADING LADY is certainly an unusual clue construction but perfectly fair in my book – “such…” tells you this is the definition.

   I had the same parsing as Roz for DRESSED UP – embroidered in the sense of not entirely true.

   Fans of Asterix might know that Asterix’s dog, Dogmatix, is known as Idéfix in the original French.

6. 20D was unknown to me. As was “ane” for “one” in 26D.

   I always thought that 22D had a “W” instead of a “V”

   I solved 21D by assuming that a “lollard” is someone who lolls around; I didn’t get the “religious” connection.

   In 2D I cannot find any reference to “A” representing “Austria”. “AT” is all that I can find. It should really be something like “OS”. As some newspapers are renaming Turkey as Turkiye, and Kiev as Kyiv, why don’t we go the whole way and call Munich as Munchen, pronounce Paris as Paree; Cologne as Koln; Germany as Deutschland. I could go on but the list is long. Sorry: a slight diversion but this is a pet peeve of mine.

7. Wasnt bonkers about LOI ANDRE
   Otherwise fun.

8. Peter@6: A is the international vehicle registration mark for Austria – it’s in Chambers.

9. Bradman back to his once customary Friday spot and all is right with the world.

   Free from too many obscure words thank goodness. I knew DIVALI (and its variant spellings, Peter @6) and LOLLARD from previous crosswords. Never heard of ANDRÉ ‘Breton’, thinking this might just be an example of a name for any Breton man. ‘Pat’ the LEADING LADY certainly gave pause for thought with the unconventional placement of the def.

   Thanks to Bradman and Turbolegs

10. Peter @6 – I would usually write it DIWALI but pronounce it DIVALI, as my Hindu friends do. Chambers gives DIVALI and DEWALI as variant spellings. Since it’s a transliteration from Sanskrit, it’s hard to be definitive.

11. I assumed Pat referred to Pat Nixon as an example of a leading or First Lady.

    Thanks B and T.

12. This all flowed in quite easily in a couple of passes, with a few answers we didn’t bother to parse as they were obvious from definition and crossing letters – such as AXIOMATIC. Most enjoyable.
    Thanks, Bradman and Turbolegs.

13. I’m new to cryptics so forgive me if I am displaying my ignorance. Could leading lady parse as follows: Pat could be such = Lady (male or female name), an important person = Leading, in pathology= order reversed?

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