Financial Times 17,637 by BASILISK

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,637 by BASILISK”

1. “Of” is certainly an “economical” inclusion indicator. (16a)

2. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel!
   A gentle puzzle and a neat blog!
   Top fave PRONOUN CEMENT (us and them in one nice setting for a better world!)

3. Peter@3
   PRONOUNCEMENT
   I took it as PRONOUN CEMENT (just like Oriel) which can be a cement, binding many pronouns.

4. Thanks for the blog , good set of neat clues , I thought PRONOUNCEMENT was clever and I agree with the blog.
   Possible quibble for CIABATTA , I think BATTAlion has a single L but will check later for other spellings.

5. CIABATTA
   Should it be BATTA(lions)/2?
   “forces”

6. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

   17dn: I had this the same way as KVa@6.

7. Of course thank you , problem solved.

8. The NW held me up somewhat at the end but a very nice puzzle with PRONOUNCEMENT being worth the entrance money on its own. Delightfully witty. ELECTOR, TREFOIL and MENU my other faves.

   Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

9. Parsed CIA BATTA[lions] with the more up-to-date and plural spelling.
   battallion ‘(plural battallions) Archaic form of battalion.
   1768-1777, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued Your skirmishing parties, call them cohorts or cow-hearts, shall never drive my statarianly disciplined battallion from its ground.’
   statarianly ‘(obsolete) fixedly; steadily
   1768, Abraham Tucker, The Light of Nature Pursued: Your skirmishing parties, call them cohorts or cow-hearts, shall never drive my statarianly disciplined battallion from its ground.

10. Like others I liked the PRONOUN CEMENT. I thought HEDONISTIC was good, too. I tried to find an anagram of “pronouncement” which meant to deteriorate proverbially, but alas no. Thanks both.

11. Always a treat to solve a puzzle from this setter

    Thanks to Basilisk and Oriel

12. Liked this. Unusually I did not find the long ones helpful and needed crosses to get all of them. Usually it’s the other way round with the long outer ones falling first and helping me to a good start.

    Liked: TREFOIL, HEDONISTIC, DETERIORATION, TRUNCATE

    Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

13. … battallion – No other dictionaries seem to allow this spelling, and Wikipedia redirects it as if misspelt.
    So I checked in Google books – on page 176 it’s “battalion” – it’s just a misspelling in wiktionary.

14. Lovely stuff, and on the gentle side for this setter I thought. PRONOUNCEMENT was a fine spin on an old favourite, with HEDONISTIC another lovely clue.

    Thanks Basilisk and Oriel.

15. Thanks Basilisk. I found this on the difficult end of the spectrum for this setter especially when compared to his latest offerings as Jack and Serpent. It’s funny how one person’s “gentle” is another’s struggle. In any event I got there in the end with INDELICATE, HEDONISTIC, PROVERBIALLY, EJECTED, and EXPLORE being favourites. I was disappointed in the apparent lack of a nina. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

16. Same as GDU, Tony and Fiona (except I did not care for the Nina – I never spot them anyway)

    I am surprised no-one has noticed that Cameron is no longer PM.

    Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

17. For 2dn, I had [w]retched, which sort of worked, except that it didn’t. 12ac put me right.

18. Another lovely puzzle from JC.
    I solved 5 down very early on and with only the E in place at the start of 10 across, I convinced myself that the creator of X would be ELON and left the clue alone until very near the end when the penny drop moment added to the pleasure and admiration for the setter.
    Thanks all

19. Many thanks to Oriel for the excellent blog and to everyone who has taken the time to leave a comment.

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