Financial Times 17,659 by ARTEXLEN

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ARTEXLEN kicks off the week…

A very enjoyable solve. Mostly straightforward, but there were a few that were slightly chewier.

Thanks ARTEXLEN!

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Star against energy drink speaks out (5,2)
PIPES UP

PIP (star) against E (energy) + SUP (drink)

5. Turning round the bend, abandon German city (7)
POTSDAM

(MAD (round the bend) + STOP (abandon))< (<turning)

9. Fruit old and turning bad (5)
OLIVE

O (old) and (EVIL)< (bad, <turning)

10. Science degree gained in Open University before others most dim (9)
OBSCUREST

(BSC (science degree) gained in OU (Open University)) before REST (others)

11. Restricted view of Bond on back in sleeping place (9)
BLINKERED

(LINK (bond) + (RE)< (on, <back)) in BED (sleeping place)

12. Vocal group’s call for attention welcomed by councillor (5)
CHOIR

HOI (call for attention) welcomed by CR (councillor)

13. Games demo I sell especially entertains French girls (14)
MESDEMOISELLES

[ga]MES DEMO I SELL ES[pecially] (entertains)

18. Ballad from obvious goddess in part of London (4,3,7)
OVER THE RAINBOW

OVERT (obvious) + HERA (goddess) + IN + BOW (part of London)

20. Thin fleece picked up (5)
SHEER

"shear" = SHEER (fleece, "picked up")

22. Maybe pots using water, meal cooked (9)
METALWARE

(WATER MEAL)* (*cooked)

24. Mass publication in the buff covers — the thing we desire (9)
MAGNITUDE

(MAG (publication) + NUDE (in the buff)) covers IT (the thing we desire)

25. Correspondence from a time being resident in coastal city (5)
RATIO

(A + T (time)) being resident in RIO (coastal city)

26. One once dated large plant covering motorway verge (7)
EXTREME

EX (one once dated) + TREE (large plant) covering M (motorway)

27. Global change in prices besetting hotel (7)
SPHERIC

(PRICES)* (*change in) besetting H (hotel)

DOWN
1. Woman in pub regularly served one’s beer (6)
PHOEBE

PH (pub, Public House) + O[n]E[s] B[e]E[r] (regularly served)

2. Miserable gripe about cruel entitlement (9)
PRIVILEGE

(GRIPE)* (*miserable) about VILE (cruel)

3. Cut post audibly (5)
STEAK

"stake" = STEAK (post, "audibly")

4. Course providing expert tips for grittier Austen work coming up (9)
PROGRAMME

PRO (expert) + G[rittie]R (tips for) + (EMMA)< (Austen work, <coming up)

5. School introducing second English set (5)
POSED

POD (school) introducing (S (second) + E (English))

6. Staff caught feeding criminal on the run (9)
TRUNCHEON

C (caught) feeding (ON THE RUN)* (*criminal)

7. Detective I handle in Spain (5)
DIEGO

DI (detective) + EGO (I)

8. Driver’s to go off northwards in wet (8)
MOTORIST

(ROT)< (to go off, <northwards) in MOIST (wet)

14. Resolve to prevent excavation (9)
DETERMINE

DETER (prevent) + MINE (excavation)

15. Inadequacy of one small launched vessel having overturned (9)
INAPTNESS

I (one) + (S (small) + SENT (launched) + PAN (vessel))< (overturned)

16. Tend to teak floor when damaged (4,5)
LOOK AFTER

(TEAK FLOOR)* (*damaged)

17. Person serving several eating starter of minestrone soup (8)
CONSOMME

CON (person serving) + SOME (several) eating M[inestrone] (starter of)

19. Bold introduction of horns on unfinished Beethoven symphony (6)
HEROIC

H[orns] (introduction of) on EROIC[a] (Beethoven symphony, unfinished)

21. Cube dimension not originally apparent (5)
EIGHT

[h]EIGHT (dimension, not originally apparent)

22. Mother stripped duvet of purple hue (5)
MAUVE

MA (mother) + [d]UVE[t] (stripped)

23. Source of wood and line to go on bow (5)
LARCH

L (line) to go on ARCH (bow)

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,659 by ARTEXLEN”

  1. Why is pip star? Set/posed was another head scratcher. Didn’t know Bow was part of London, nor Hera. What’s with diego/handle? Mass/magnitude I thought was a bit loose. No doubt “ineptness” is a word, but I’m more familiar with “ineptitude”.

  2. Enjoyed this one for a generally quick solve. North-west corner was last to complete, having been slow with the now obvious Phoebe.

    Posed = Set (rather than Sat) confused me for a while. But I see now. The examiner posed a difficult question. The examiner set a difficult question.

    Didn’t know that Pip was a star. Thank you for explaining that mystery.

    Favourites included Over the Rainbow, Magnitude and Extreme

    Nice clear blog

  4. Thanks Artexlen and Teacow

    1ac: Collins 2023 gives pip² n 4 Also called: star informal the emblem worn on the shoulder by junior officers in the British army, indicating their rank.

  6. GDU@5 Bow Church in Bow, the East End of London, is one of the possible locations for the Great Bell of Bow in the song Oranges and Lemons*, or the Bow Bells that someone has to be born within earshot to be a true Cockney. It’s also within the area covered by the midwives in Call the Midwife. That Church is lovely, but sadly located in the middle of a very busy road, close to the Bow flyover, where various 1960s villains offed by the Krays or their rivals may be buried..

    Fun crossword, thank you to Artexlen and Teacow.

  7. ShanneW@6
    OVER THE RAINBOW
    Quite some info. Thanks. Seen ‘Bow’ as an indicator for Cockney now and then. The rest I learnt today.

    MAGNITUDE
    GDU@1
    I see in dictionaries that these two words are synonymous. Wiktionary says under mass:
    Bulk; magnitude; body; size.
    c. 1599-1601, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, act 4, scene 4:
    Witness this army of such mass and charge / Led by a delicate and tender prince,

    It’s still not quite clear how they could be interchangeably used in sentences. Someone may please educate us.

    BLINKERED
    ‘BLINKERED view’ is ‘restricted view’. Can we say that BLINKERED=restricted view?

  8. [Sorry, I meant to follow up the asterisk,
    * The other possible church is St Mary le Bow, near St Paul’s Cathedral in the City of London, but Bow follows Whitechapel and Stepney, as you head east and on the District line tube stops.

    I’m heading out to meet people in Shoreditch later and was geocaching round Whitechapel on Friday, worked all round that area a few years ago.]

  9. me@7 clarification of my question:
    ‘army of such mass’: Is this sentence/usage acceptable in modern English? If this is archaic, how is it used nowadays?

  11. KVa – the only examples I can think of are poetic – hemmed in by a mass/magnitude of people or a murmuration flowing from a mass/magnitude of starlings – or mangling Byron’s Childe Harold:
    “A ruin – yet what ruin! from its mass (magnitude)
    Walls, palaces, half-cities, have been rear’d.”

  13. Parsed BLINKERED with “Restricted (the) view of” as the def.
    ESpecially liked OVERT HERA IN BOW (I was brought up there) and gaMES DEMO I SELL ESpecially – ESpecially well-hidden.
    Thanks A&T

  15. Thanks Artexlen. I found this to be medium difficulty and I was unfamiliar with the spelling of 13a. Had I realised it was a hidden (very impressive) answer I would not have needed to reveal a couple of the letters. All else fell into place with my top choices being OLIVE, PRIVILEGE, POSED, DIEGO (‘handle’ is slang for ‘name’ in the US as well as the UK), DETERMINE, HEROIC, and EIGHT. Thanks Teacow for the blog.

  16. What Roz@14 wrote.

    Additionally, I loved discovering POTSDAM is madstop backwards and realizing MESDEMOISELLES was hidden. I detected a sense of humour behind many clues today, adding a little extra.

    Thanks Artexelen and Teacow

  17. An enjoyable solve but I struggled with the ballad – didn’t think of ‘in’ as part of the answer. Otherwise pretty straightforward.
    Thanks, Artexlen and Teacow.

  19. Just as an aside: Bow Bells are not normally considered to be Bow Church Bells but the bells of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside.

    Bow Church is lovely though – rode past it twice a day for 10 years. A bicycle ride over the famous flyover was thrilling every time

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