Financial Times 17,483 by GOLIATH

by

Today’s Goliath puzzle provides some interesting curveballs.

I am not entirely satisfied with either parsing that I have provided for 1A, so other suggestions are welcome.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 STICKLER
Pedant needs adhesive label edge hidden (8)
I think this parses as: L (edge, i.e., an L-square) inside (hidden [in]) STICKER (adhesive label); or possibly: first letter of (“edge” [of]) L[ABEL] (hidden [in]) STICKER (adhesive).  See comments.  I still think that I do not quite understand the construction of this clue.
6 UPSETS
Troubles the Financial Times to take a wrong step (6)
US (the Financial Times) around (to take) anagram of (wrong) STEP
9 DISMAL
Laid back about S&M being horrible (6)
LAID reversed (back) around (about) S + M
10 SOCRATES
Society values philosopher (8)
SOC. (society) + RATES (values)
11 CAVA
In Paris, it’s OK to be bubbly (4)
ÇA VA (“It’s OK” in Paris, i.e., in French, literally “that goes”).  A Spanish sparkling wine similar to champagne, with a little cryptic orthography
12 IMPLICATED
Meant to conceal criminal act and got involved (10)
IMPLIED (meant) around (to conceal) anagram of (criminal) ACT
14 PLETHORA
Too much God in prayer (8)
THOR (god) inside (in) PLEA (prayer)
16 CHEF
He’s into cooking fancy starters (4)
[semi-?]&lit and HE inside ([i]s into) first letters of (“starters”) C[OOKING] + F[ANCY]
18 FTSE
Flirtation on the phone is an indicator (4)
Homophone of (on the phone) FOOTSIE (flirtation), i.e., Financial Times Stock Exchange, also pronounced “footsie”
19 OVATIONS
Many an egg is not scrambled — cheers! (8)
OVA (many an egg, i.e., plural) + anagram of (scrambled) IS NOT
21 LAST MINUTE
Ultimate solution on vacation to change at the end of the eleventh hour? (4,6)
Anagram of (to change) {ULTIMATE + outside letters of (“on vacation”) S[OLUTIO]N}. Slightly cryptic clue.  See comments.
22/25 EVEN OUT
Function about university level (4,3)
EVENT (function) around (about) OU ([Oxford or Open, see comments] University)
24 IGNORANT
Not aware of Signor Antonio (8)
Hidden in (of) [S]IGNOR ANT[ONIO]
26 THEIST
Believer is first to follow article (6)
THE (article) + IST (first, i.e., “1st”)
27 SCOTCH
Put an end to drink (6)
Double definition
28 RECENTLY
Little money in bank of late (8)
CENT (little money) inside (in) RELY (bank)
DOWN
2 TAIGA
Wild animal heard in forest (5)
Homophone of (heard) TIGER (wild animal)
3 COMPARTMENT
Say something about role division (11)
COMMENT (say something) around (about) PART (role)
4 LOLLIPOP
Sweet medicine swallowed up in some water (8)
PILL (medicine) inside (swallowed . . . in) POOL (some water) all inverted (up)
5 RES IPSA LOQUITUR
Lose Iraq pursuit badly and it speaks for itself (3,4,8)
Anagram of (badly) LOSE IRAQ PURSUIT, i.e., “the thing speaks for itself” in Latin
6
See 7
7/6 SEA URCHIN
Marine creature lookin’ to eat you ultimately (3,6)
SEARCHIN’ (lookin’) around (to eat) last letter of (“ultimately”) [YO]U
8 THE AEGEAN
Name of 7 where Athene, age questionable, originated (3,6)
semi-&lit and anagram of (questionable) ATHENE AGE, with reference to solution to 7D “SEA”
13 ARCHIMEDEAN
Read an edition about sound of mathematician (11)
Anagram of (edition) READ AN around (about) CHIME (sound)
15 LETHARGIC
Lacking energy having crushed the garlic (9)
Anagram of (crushed) THE GARLIC
17 MAJESTIC
Grandma joke is crude to begin with (8)
A “lift and separate” clue: MA + JEST (joke) + {first letters of (“to begin with”) I[S] + C[RUDE]}  See comments.
20 RIYADH
Capital of Kashmir regularly dry perhaps (6)
Anagram of (perhaps) {every other letter of (regularly) [K]A[S]H[M]I[R] + DRY}
23 EASEL
Stand inside to take a selfie (5)
Hidden in (inside) [TAK]E A SEL[FIE]
25
See 22 Across

32 comments on “Financial Times 17,483 by GOLIATH”

  1. STICKLER – I parsed it as option 2 ” first letter of (“edge” [of]) L[ABEL] (hidden [in]) STICKER (adhesive)”

  2. STICKLER:
    I am with your Option 2 Cineraria!
    CHEF
    I think we can upgrade it to an &lit as this CHEF is into cooking (goes without saying) & his specialities are fancy starters!

  4. LAST MINUTE
    Cineraria!
    I have come across the idiom ‘the eleventh hour’ or ‘at the eleventh hour’ (in the sense of the last moment or minute).
    ‘At the end of the eleventh hour’ -I am missing the significance of the ‘end o the’ bit.
    Is it an additional wordplay? LAST MINUT-E is E and ‘end of the’ is also E.
    You have mentioned that it’s slightly cryptic. For the same reason or…?

  5. There seem to be two different versions of ““lift and separate” going the rounds.
    I would call the “adhesive label” in 1a a lift-and-separate – where two words that often go together in a phrase have to be split apart before parsing.
    Grandma to Grand MA is something else – I wouldn’t know what to call it.

  6. LAST MINUTE is an extended definition as well as a plug for the dot com as well as the time when the clock changes – 23:59 to 00:00

  7. FrankieG@6
    Agree fully.
    Nothing to do with the idiom ‘the eleventh hour’, which means ‘the last minute’? Or is it there only to mislead?

  9. me@7
    Continued…
    One last thing on LAST MINUTE
    ‘at the end’ can stand alone as a def.
    ‘the eleventh hour’ can also stand alone as a def.
    And add all that FrankieG said.
    Multi-layer fun, whatever Goliath had in mind! 🙂

  10. KVa@2: I said “semi-&lit” solely because of the “‘s.” A close call either way, I guess, and a good clue.

    KVa@ 4, 7, 9: I read: LAST MINUTE = eleventh hour. I took the joke (and thus the “?”) to include the “at the end of,” indicating the 60th, or last, minute of the hour.

    FrankieG@5: You might be right about “lift-and-separate.” This is a recurrent cryptic cluing technique, whatever it is called, one that often trips me up when I encounter it.

  11. Thanks, Cineraria for your response.
    A very enjoyable puzzle from Goliath and a fitting blog from you.
    Thanks both.

  12. Enjoyable. Cunning ploy to have to split a word for definition and wordplay (MAJESTIC). Wasn’t sure what the O was before UNIVERSITY. I thought maybe “open”? I’m afraid my French wasn’t up to solving CAVA.

  14. Another witty and highly enjoyable puzzle from Goliath.

    I smiled at 11ac CAVA, 18ac FTSE, 19ac OVATIONS, and, as a (great) grandma, 17dn MAJESTIC.
    Other favourites were SOCRATES, RES IPSA LOQUITUR, THE AEGEAN, ARCHIMEDEAN (all right up my street), and the little gem CHEF.

    Many thanks to Goliath for starting my day off well (I woke early and couldn’t get back to sleep) and to Cineraria for the blog.

  15. Eileen@13: I had earlier read the comments at the site that you provided. I fail to see how “lift and separate” describes anything different or interesting at work in any of the examples given there. But if that usage of “lift and separate” is already part of cryptic folklore, so be it. I guess 17D is something like an “antiportmanteau” clue, then.

  16. Thanks for the blog, no swim until the rain stops so I did this early, really good puzzle, clever clues and imagination all over the place.
    I agree with KVa @ 2 for CHEF being an &Lit and I am very strict on these, the “s” is fine for wordplay and definition.
    I agree with Frankie@5 for “adhesive label” but also your opinion @15, if two words are separate already , what is the point? GRAND/MA is called Playtex, the opposite rarer process when we need to push two words together is called Gossard.
    LAST MINUTE is clever and unusual, normal wordplay but extra layers in the definition.

  17. Very minor point, I agree with Geoff@12 , OU = Open University.
    I was at Oxford for 7 years and never heard it called OU once.
    I was a voluntary tutor for the Open University for about 10 years before it all went online, all the students called it the OU , they were also the best students you could ever have.

  19. Roz@16: Is there a glossary of these terms/techniques published somewhere? Playtex I could perhaps see the origin of, but Gossard does not evoke anything for me?

    Roz@17, Hovis@18: Chambers gives both Open University and Oxford University for “OU,” so I think either would work. And I feel as though I have seen “OUP” used more than once in cryptics . . . .

  20. OU yes Chambers does give both but this is a rare case where something is in widespread use , Open University students always call it the OU, also nice to give the OU a plug. OUP is certainly common usage and is from Oxford.
    I cannot help you with a glossary sorry , I never look at anything online except this site, the BBC , and JWST. Three pictures on my Chromebook. Gossard, probably beat not to think about it.

  21. Cineraria @19. Thanks for the Chambers info. I guess my point is that if anybody said “I studied at the OU”, I think almost everyone, if not everyone, would take that as the Open University. (Admittedly, nobody puts “the” before Oxford University.) That OUP is Oxford University Press adds to the confusion. As you say, if it’s in Chambers …

  22. Thanks Goliath (except for 17dn) and Cineraria

    1ac: I would suggest that “label edge” refers to the fact that the L could be first or last letter of “label”.

    17dn: Whatever shorthand name you give for the unsignalled requirement to split a clue word, and however many times it appears, and however many people show approval of it, I hate that device, always have, and always will.

  23. Thanks Eileen@13 for repeating the link.
    Cineraria@15 – You ‘…fail to see how “lift and separate” describes anything different or interesting at work in any of the examples given there.’?
    “Welsh rabbit” “treasure chest” “Santa Maria” – you don’t agree that they mean something as phrases, a meaning that needs to be disregarded to solve the clue?
    Liked, as Eileen, all the Classical clues – SOCRATES, RES IPSA LOQUITUR, THE AEGEAN, ARCHIMEDEAN (all right up my street, too)
    Found another one PLETHORA – with Chris Hemsworth hiding in it. Liked the bilingual CAVA/ÇA VA.
    And I really liked MAJESTIC, and having slept on it, I’d call it repunctuation. loi FTSE – Vey gnice.
    Thanks G&C

  24. Thanks Goliath for a top notch crossword. I echo what Eileen @14 said, “witty and highly enjoyable” and what Roz @16 said, “imagination all over the place”. I had many favourites including UPSETS, CAVA, CHEF, OVATIONS, LAST MINUTE, SCOTCH SEA URCHIN, and RIYADH. I missed FTSE and the clever MAJESTIC. Thanks Cineraria for the blog.

  26. Would have preferred to see FTSE as 1,1,1,1 rather than 4 letters. That’s the effect that working there for 23 years has on you.

  28. I thought that FTSE was very clever. However, the clue in brackets as published “(4)”, sic, is wrong and misleading, indicating a four-letter word. No, it should have been described as (1,1,1,).

  32. …Stuart Maconie’s verdict – an “embarrassing novelty” and “execrable”. High praise indeed.

Comments are closed.