Financial Times 17,507 by JASON

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JASON starts off the week…

Sorry for the lateness of this blog… The bank holiday Monday rather confused me.

A solid and fun puzzle I thought, with some slightly tricksy parsing.

Thanks JASON!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. So, do for corpse’s false teeth? (4,10)
FOOD PROCESSORS

(SO DO FOR CORPSES)* (*false)

10. Is cracking booze the way for intended union members? (5)
AISLE

IS cracking ALE (booze)

11. Illusionist’s revealing shriek he’s dressed with poetry (3,6)
HEY PRESTO

(HES POETRY)* (*dressed)

12. Cap for service leader? Black one given to retired volunteers? (7)
BIRETTA

B (black) + I (one) given to RET (retired) + TA (volunteers)

13. Triumph in trial turned over gear that comes as a pair (7)
TWINSET

WIN (triumph) in (TEST)< (trial, <turned over)

14. Keen son gets mouth organ (5)
SHARP

S (son) gets HARP (mouth organ)

16. Reliable child, I look after chargers and such like (9)
STABLEBOY

STABLE (reliable) + BOY (child)

19. Kitty, tough old bird, producer of pulp fiction, say (9)
POTBOILER

POT (kitty) + BOILER (tough old bird)

20. Fifty inside plane? It’s do with the sun (5)
SOLAR

L (fifty) inside SOAR (plane)

22. What needs doing at this university? (7)
READING

Double (cryptic) definition

25. Famous hospital dept absorbing damaging charge (7)
EMINENT

ENT (hospital department) absorbing MINE (damaging charge)

27. A stern and mean business (9)
PERSEVERE

PER (a) + SEVERE (stern)

28. What’s central to Detective Frost? (5)
CRIME

[dete]C[tive] (central to) + RIME (frost) &lit

29. Father of the House perhaps lets trade names slip (5,9)
ELDER STATESMAN

(LETS TRADE NAMES)* (*slip)

DOWN
2. Old boy with valet, or similar, taking notice (9)
OBSERVANT

OB (old boy) with SERVANT (valet or similar)

3. Stayed in deserted European’s world (5)
DWELT

D (deserted) + WELT (European's world, German)

4. Gets in honest practice (9)
REHEARSAL

HEARS (gets) in REAL (honest)

5. Weep over personal trainer’s vault (5)
CRYPT

CRY (weep) over PT (personal trainter)

6. Mostly agreed terms for cribs in the theatre (9)
SURTITLES

SUR[e] (agreed, mostly) + TITLES (terms)

7. Rejecting odd spots woman spies a haven of calm? (5)
OASIS

[w]O[m]A[n] S[p]I[e]S (rejecting odd spots)

8. Fiercely foxy about hype (7)
STOUTLY

SLY (foxy) about TOUT (hype)

9. Community leaders being lousy golfers taking time off (6)
RABBIS

RABBI[t]S (lousy golfers, taking T (time) off)

15. Fleece is for, well, always (9)
PROFITEER

PRO (for) + FIT (well) + EER (always, ever)

17. Meet anger anew in consensus (9)
AGREEMENT

(MEET ANGER)* (*anew)

18. With dance I earn fantastically (9)
BALLERINA

BALL (dance) + (I EARN)* (*fantastically) &lit

19. Butcher sells this dressing for crown (4,3)
PORK PIE

Double definition

Referring to a pork pie hat

21. Shop that girl more readily (6)
RATHER

RAT (shop) + HER (that girl)

23. Tart is caught in flat (5)
ACRID

C (caught) in ARID (flat)

24. Visitor thought out loud (5)
GUEST

"guessed" (thought, "out load")

26. Early Americans during lawsuit stopped before finishing (5)
INCAS

IN CAS[e] (during lawsuit, stopped before finishing)

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,507 by JASON”

  1. BALLERINAS threw me as I am unconvinced by their fantastic earnings – unless unbelievably small is what is meant? PORK PIE is fun.

    Thank you to Teacow and Jason.

  2. 23D – how does “arid” mean “flat”?

    9D: how are “rabbits” the same as “lousy golfers”?

    18D: I agree with Shanne. How many ballerinas are wealthy?

    22D: I used to live at Henley-on-Thames and cycled to the the library at Reading. I don’t think that they had a university back in the sixties.

  3. Peter@2
    ACRID

    ‘arid’ has this meaning: not interesting and showing no imagination.
    In this sense, flat=arid, I think.

    RABBIS

    A rabbit is an inferior player at golf, cricket etc.,
    A lousy golfer seems to fit all right.

  4. I didn’t interpret ‘fantatically’ in 18d to mean that ballerinas earn a lot, just that they earn in an amazing way through their dancing.

  5. Peter, Reading has been a university since the 1920s. I think it was the only university given that status between the wars. I went there in 1967 when they had a new campus on Whiteknights Park. Prior to that it was largely an agricultural college. In the 1960s there was a fascinating mix of weedy lefty social science students and hefty sons of farmers!

  6. Some head scratches that still didn’t make sense after coming here. But don’t worry — I’ve since discovered after some googling why TA are volunteers. We don’t have them here, as far as I know. I’d forgotten that for some reason rabbits are lousy golfers. But I did remember rat/shop, which I only know from Crossword Land. And despite reading comments above, I can’t see how “arid” is “flat”.

    From several intersecting clues I entered WORD PROCESSORS for 1a initially, and it was a while before I thoroughly parsed it and realised it was wrong.

  7. I was only aware of ‘arid’ meaning ‘dry/parched’. As KVa mentions, it can also mean ‘dull/flat’ and, indeed, ‘flat’ is one of the synonyms in Chambers thesaurus.

  8. Thanks Jason. I solved and parsed most of this but I didn’t know BIRETTA or “rabbits” as lousy golfers, and I just couldn’t get SURTITLES even with all the crossers. I did enjoy PERSEVERE, CRIME, and BALLERINA. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  9. [Shane @1, Peter @2: Perhaps “ridiculously” or “poorly” would have been a better choice for the BALLERINA clue instead of “fantastically”. The average dancer in the NYC Ballet barely makes $80K per year despite enormous talent and grueling work. Compare that to the average professional athlete in New York … you get the picture.]

  12. MA @ 11 It’s military terminology for the way someone leaves the service: D = Deserted, KIA = Killed In Action, MIA = Missing in Action etc.

  13. cheers Simon.
    I’m going to have to find myself a book with all these obscure abbreviations in one of these days

  14. I found this tough and missed Surtitles

    Some clues were excellent but others I didn’t like it all. Dislikes included Surtitle, Dwelt and Acrid. Enjoyed Hey presto, and Aisle

    So a curates egg for me.

    Thanks for helping with some of the obscure parsing.

  15. Since when has D been an abbreviation of desserted?
    Never heard of Rabbits being lousy golfers, either.
    Rubbish clues!

  16. Biretta = cap for service leader? I’ve never heard cardinals described as such.
    I’m sorry I wasted the final hours of a lovely Bank Holiday Monday trying to solve this. It was rather too frustrating in parts.

  17. Fred @ 15 D has never been an abbreviation for desserted. But for a century or so it has been an abbreviation for deserted – see my post @ 12.

  18. As Mark A@11 & Fred@15 – I didn’t like D for deserted in DWELT. “It’s in Chambers” is the only reason it’s been used.
    Also 15d jarred because fleece is transitive and PROFITEER is intransitive.

  19. Bob @ 5 Thanks for correcting Peter @ 2. Since I received my Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Reading in 1960. Incidentally, it was handed to me by the Duke of Edinburgh who was Chancellor then. However,, Bob, I must take issue with your description of the students at that time! I was President of the Student’s Union in 1958-9 and my fellow students were not as you described.

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