Financial Times 17,380 by PEDROCK

22 comments on “Financial Times 17,380 by PEDROCK”

1. Thanks, Pedrock and Turbolegs!
   Some interesting cryptic defs and a nice blog.

   WATERFALL
   Waterfall force: You take the cards in one hand and dribble them into the other hand (hence the ‘waterfall force’ name), instructing your spectator to tell you ‘stop’ at any time.

   Going by the above definition of ‘waterfall force’, can we take ‘force’ as one def and ‘flower (river) power’ as the second
   def (A DD instead of a cryptic def)?

   SPAGHETTI
   Food-one might wind up
   One might wind up-eating
   Nice cryptic def.

2. ‘Force’ is a synonym for ‘waterfall’-Just learnt. Then ‘force of flower’ could be cryptic enough. ‘Force of flower power’ sounds a bit odd. I must be missing something.

3. A new setter: welcome, Pedrock, to my “good” (i.e. achievable and enjoyable) list.

   I’m pleased that I remembered that you Brits call a nasty smell a hum. I’ve not encountered it here yet, but maybe one day … although most of our imports are from the US. Heath Robinson was new to me, but I enjoyed learning about your cartoonist. I understand the intended misdirection in TAIL WIND, but if I was in a grumpier mood today I’d say it wasn’t really cryptic. ARAMAIC is new to me.

   Plenty of smiles today, and nothing too obscure. Thanks Turbolegs for an unusually early blog. Either you’re up very early or you’re not in the UK? Aha, I see you’re in Singapore …

4. Thanks Pedrock. It’s always an adventure seeing a new setter. There were clues that I liked — NO USE, STASIS, FINITE, and ARAMAIC among them. I did not like the large number of cryptic definitions which hardly seemed cryptic at all. I also wondered about CHERUBIM — if the anagrind is “played” why is “distraught” part of the clue? I hadn’t heard the term HEATH-ROBINSON before; I’m more familiar with Rube Goldberg as a descriptor of “ridiculously complicated” contraptions. It’s good to learn new things. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

   [For those interested in relatively new setters the Indy had its third crossword by Twin yesterday. It’s a real beauty — one of the best this week in my opinion.]

5. Tony Santucci@4
   M A C S-the letters are not leaving (Chamber music) in that order. The ‘distraught’ has a role.

6. WATERFALL – often called a FORCE in the Lake District. FLOWER POWER , the power of a river.

7. Thanks for the blog , Just read the comments, KVa you seem to have sorted waterfall already.
   A new setter for me I think, some very neat and concise clues . CHERUBIM is very precise, often letters being removed need an anagram indicator as well but usually missed out.
   HEATH ROBINSON a very nice clue. ARAMAIC is the original language of the New Testament but I do not think any NT texts still exist in this language , not sure.

8. A pleasant solve for me. No unknowns and finished quite quickly. Liked the clue for SPAGHETTI. A minor quibble in that 13a ought to have a ? at the end.

9. Thanks to others above for clarifying WATERFALL which I only half-parsed. Enjoyed this, though wasn’t helped by initially putting in “down” WIND for 4d and taking ages to get the not very difficult FORMAL. BITUMEN was a new ‘flammable material’, at least in crossword land and SHRIMPER was a new ‘boat’ in the real world too.

   Liked SPAGHETTI and ARAMAIC; I don’t know if any NT texts exist either, but I understand it’s still a living language. .

   I see Pedrock is an experienced setter for the FT Polymath and Telegraph puzzles amongst others. Welcome and thanks to him and to Turbolegs

10. 26d was my LOI as I think of smirk and simper as being rather different kinds of smiles with different intentions. But a quick trawl (uh hm) of online dictionaries suggest they may be used synonymously….
    Thanks setter and blogger as ever.

11. No wonder I got on so well with this crossword. I’ve been solving and blogging his Telegraph crosswords for donkeys years

    Thanks to both setter and blogger

12. I found this a gentle solve, but I know the High Force and Low Force WATERFALLs, which are in Teesdale, between Yorkshire and County Durham, from walking the Pennine Way.

    Thank you to Pedrock and Turbolegs.

13. (The books of the New Testament were written in Koine Greek. not Aramaic.)

14. Enjoyed the puzzle and blog so thanks to both.
    We visited Syria in happier times and went to a village where ARAMAIC is still spoken

15. [ Andrew the earliest survivng texts are in Koine Greek but are second and third century copies and probably translations from earlier Amaraic sources. There are no original texts of the gospels but the language spoken would have been Amaraic. ]

16. A pretty easy solve. I only knew 7D from some Mel Gibson film. Also I had never heard of 1D or 16D.

    Re 13A: isn’t an “ornament” something that is pretty but useless; whereas a “vase” is pretty and useful? I know … it’s probably in Chambers.

17. I think that was the easiest FT crossword i’ve ever seen.
    Probably just to lull me into a false sense of security before the weekend one 😉

18. Two days in a row I finished before 8 a.m. thanks to all involved. Only hold-ups today were seeing B as “second” in 2d and deducing “shrimper” even though we have them here in Naples Florida and that name is used.

19. As others have said, this was an agreeably gentle solve with the added fun of trying a new (for me) setter and getting accustomed to his (thanks Crypticsue) style.
    I liked WATERFALL, SPAGHETTI and STASIS best.
    Thanks and welcome, Pedrock. Cheers also to Turbolegs.

20. PASS WIND stalled me.

21. I don’t do the Telegraph but I’ve encountered (and enjoyed) Pedrock elsewhere. I agree with the consensus that this was fun and not too taxing. Just the ticket, thanks, Pedrock.

    And thanks for the blog, Turbolegs.

22. “… fun and not too taxing” – agreed! HEATH ROBINSON was our favourite. Thanks, Pedrock and Turbolegs.

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