Financial Times 17,660 by AARDVARK

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I am four days in to a lingering cold, so unfortunately, I found today’s Aardvark a bit of a slog.

I cannot really fault the clues, and I hope that my parsing helps explain the more difficult ones.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1 RUBBER SOUL
Johnny discussed fish platter from the 1960s (6,4)
RUBBER (johnny, i.e., condom) + homophone of (discussed) SOLE (fish), referring to the Beatles album
7 FETE
Do outside portrait finally when in charge (4)
Last letter of (finally) [PORTRAI]T inside (when in) FEE (charge)
9 CUBA
Country’s graduate element switching sides (4)
BA (graduate) + CU (element), with the order of the pieces reversed (“switching sides”)
10 EVERGLADES
Always pleased to vacate enormous habitat of alligators (10)
EVER (always) + GLAD (pleased) + outer letters of (to vacate) E[NORMOU]S
11 WARHOL
Factory worker battles house rules, essentially (6)
WAR (battles) + HO. (house) + middle letter of (essentially) [RU]L[ES], referring to artist Andy Warhol’s New York studio, The Factory
12 NO OBJECT
Beginner finding speed of light in plane doable? (2,6)
NOOB (beginner) + C (speed of light) inside (in) JET (plane)
13 DENOUNCE
Slate fragment on shelter (8)
DEN (shelter) + OUNCE (fragment, in the sense of “a minute quantity”)
15 CHEW
Champ, taking lead in cross-country, fell (4)
First letter of (lead in) C[ROSS-COUNTRY] + HEW (fell)
17 OCHE
Arrows fired here resound, having swapped tips (4)
ECHO (resound) switching the O and the E (having swapped tips)
19 ARTISTIC
Stylish lorry crosses first (8)
ARTIC (lorry) around (crosses) IST (first, i.e., 1st)
22 CADILLAC
US road user from California leaves state then returns (8)
CA (California) + DILL (leaves) + CA (state) reversed (then returns)
23 CHEAPO
Criminal boss claiming that chap’s item of junk? (6)
CAPO (criminal boss) around (claiming) HE (that chap)
25 PIANO STOOL
Liberace settled on this soft pair of slippers when entertaining excessively (5,5)
PIANO (soft in music) + first two letters of (pair of) SL[IPPERS] around (when entertaining) TOO (excessively)
26 OR SO
Academic study held in circles roughly (2,2)
R’S (academic study, I assume in reference to the expression “the three R’s”) inside (held in) {O + O} (circles)
27 HEBE
The bed’s displaying shrubby plant (4)
Hidden in ([is] displaying) [T]HE BE[D]
28 ROY ORBISON
Rovers footballer with rotund shape is performing singer (3,7)
ROY (Rovers footballer, referring to the comic strip Roy of the Rovers) + ORB (rotund shape) + IS + ON (performing)
DOWN
2 ULULATE
When making arrival, Scottish songstress worked up screech (7)
ETA ([time] when making arrival) + LULU (Scottish singer) all inverted (worked up)
3 BRASH
Showy bee hives? (5)
B (bee) + RASH (hives?)
4 RIESLING
Dieter’s drink, with calories halved, Heather wanted (8)
With [CALO]RIES halved + LING (heather), with “Dieter” being a German man’s name and Riesling being a German wine
5 ODE ON MELANCHOLY
Some poetry concert hall presented with humour once? (3,2,10)
ODEON (concert hall) + MELANCHOLY (humour once, i.e., in ancient medical theory, one of the four humours, also known as “black bile”), referring to the poem by John Keats
6 LAGOON
Olympic venue to continue constructing pool (6)
LA (Olympics venue, i.e., Los Angeles) + GO ON (to continue)
7 FLAPJACKS
Shake salt over small snacks? (9)
FLAP (shake) + JACK (salt) + S (small)
8 TREACLE
Hazel perhaps embracing Malcolm regularly avoided sentimentality (7)
TREE (hazel perhaps) around (embracing) every other letter of (regularly avoided) [M]A[L]C[O]L[M]
14 OBEDIENCE
Submission one’s honoured to pass on by November (extremely close) (9)
OBE (one’s honoured) + DIE (to pass on) + N (November) + outside letters of (“extremely”) C[LOS]E
16 STICKLER
Martinet succeeded overseeing trout fisherman? (8)
S (succeeded) + TICKLER (trout fisherman?, apparently referring to an angling technique)
18 CHALICE
Vessel for drinking tea shared with dreamy girl (7)
CHA (tea) + ALICE (dreamy girl, i.e., Alice in Wonderland), with the A’s overlapping (shared with)
20 IMPASTO
I reckon keeping step on Tango is an artform (7)
IMO (I reckon, i.e., texter’s “in my opinion”) around (keeping) {PAS (step) + T (Tango)}
21 CLOSER
Swansong less aloof (6)
Double definition, with the S pronounced voiced and unvoiced
24 E. COLI
Pass through outskirts of Eswatini, a source of disease? (1,4)
COL (pass) inside (through) outside letters of (outskirts of) E[SWATIN]I

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,660 by AARDVARK”

  1. Not just you, I found this a slog too. I am beginning to suspect Aardvark revels in the types of clue I do not really like – wordy with the straight bit also cryptic. This is not to say others should not enjoy the puzzle – I am just expressing my personal preference.

    He used a few words to breaking point, but I will let other bloggers take that up. I bunged a few answers in without caring about the parsing – and it turned out my lack of comprehension was due to words & expressions I did not know. CHALICE and CADILLAC were my favourites.

    Nice blog, Cineraria. I hope you get over your cold soon.

    Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria

  2. Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria for the great puzzle and the neat & detailed blog (resp).
    My top faves:
    RUBBER SOUL (A delicious platter), NO OBJECT (Yes. Doable. The ? seems to be a demand of the (lovely, fictional) surface), CADILLAC (Interesting surface given California’s history), BRASH (went down the ‘hair-style’ route before syncing with the setter. Didn’t do anything RASH), STICKLER (Tickling has such an angle. Nice to recall this sense of the word (learnt and forgot a few times)) and CHALICE (A-common story?).

    OR SO
    Could RS be Religious Studies?
    (Religious Studies, also known as the study of religion, is the scientific study of religion: Wiki)

  3. I took RS as religious studies as KVa@2 did in 26; I have seen it before and found it in Collins. I also concur with his favourites. I salute Aardvark for making me work — and yet with this setter I always seem to wonder why it felt hard when the clues stand up to scrutiny later on. Good work from Cineraria to untangle it all.

  4. KVa@2, ub@3: I do not see how RS can be “religious studies” when “study” is already in the clue. I would consider that sort of repetition to be an outright mistake. I considered “Royal Society,” but that does not really work–“academics,” maybe, but I do not see “academic study” there.

  5. Thanks for the blog, hope it made your cold feel better. I thought this was brilliant, nearly every clue had a clever little idea and something original , no point me having a list . I will just pick STICKLER for the trout. Ub@3 makes a similar point, the clues really make you think but are totally clear once you have got it.

    RS I am inclined to go with the blog and the 3 Rs . RS is religious studies , still used in education with the more common RE but I think the clue would have said academic subject .
    IMPASTO – IMO is new to me , I was trying to get I and MO to work without success.

  6. I was doing pretty well with this for a start, much against expectation as I’ve found the last few Aardvark puzzles v. difficult. Then I hit the almost inevitable roadblock with NOOB for ‘beginner’ at 12a, MELANCHOLY for ‘humour once?’ at 5d and all of 7d holding me up. I missed a bit of parsing here and there, including the RS in OR SO which I thought might be “religious studies”, though that would mean repetition of ‘study’ as pointed out by our blogger @4.

    Favourite was the ‘US road user’ for CADILLAC at 22a.

    Thanks to Cineraria (hope the cold stops lingering soon) and Aardvark

  7. Not his easiest but worth the effort
    RUBBER SOUL , PIANO STOOL and ROY ORBISON-great combination
    Got stuck as I had ODE TO MELANCHOLY=google to the rescue

  8. I don’t think you need to have a cold to find this is hard work . . . (Get well soon). Plus, try telling a darts player he’s using arrows . . .

  9. ERic @8 playing darts in the pub I have heard the remark ” good arrers” or even just “arrers” which I think is even higher praise. Not when I have just thrown I hasten to add.

  11. 12ac: Chambers 2016 and Collins 2023 both give noob as short for newbie. Collins says that newbie is “possibly from new boy“.

  12. 8dn: The figurative meaning of treacle is indeed in Chambers, given as “blandishments, esp when suggestive of the cloying and nauseating taste and thickness of treacle; intolerable sentimentality”. SOED 2007 gives “Cloying sentimentality or flattery” dated from the late 18th century, with supportive quotations from Vladimir Nabokov and Simon Brett.

  13. I too found this a struggle. And also a DNF, as Impasto beat me.

    Martyn @ 1 sums up my feelings.

    I thought some of the clues were brilliant, and I had lots of ticks for Rubber Soul, Cadillac, Roy Orbison, and Ululate, among others. But I also had plenty of Hmmms. For example, Cu as an element. Well there are c. 100 of them so “element” seems far too vague to point the solver to Cu.

    Also Warhol being defined as a factory worker. I get the reason and the answer is easy to get from the cryptic bit, but I would never of thought of Warhol as such. Also didn’t like cheapo and denounce

    So all in all, a curate’s egg of a crossword. Some true excellence, but too much ordinariness or obscurity to make this a great puzzle.

    Thanks for the blog

  14. I thought the WARHOL clue was clever , the Factory needs a capital and the setter hides it at the front making us think of a normal factory.
    It changed location a few times and there were a lot of parties but Warhol did his most important work there.

  15. 18 @ Roz. On reflection, I agree with you about Warhol.

    I don’t much like clues where the definition is so obscure it is almost cryptic in itself. This one was near that line but it was also also very clever. This is the same point I think Martyn @1 was making.

    I’m obviously a bit confused in my thinking, because I enjoyed Rubber Soul, despite its fairly cryptic definition. But I got that one immediately, not least because I knew a condom was a rubber. And it was fairly obvious (at least to me) that a 60s platter was probably a record. Whereas factory worker certainly did not make me think of Andy Warhol.

  16. Academic study clearly involves knowing your R’s from your elbow. I agree with Roz about Warhol. I liked PIANO STOOL and tied myself in knots with this crossword favourites Mali and Lima before getting CUBA.

  17. Rubber is interesting , I believe this term is used in the US , in old literature of the UK it is rubber johnny , in the 70s / early 80s it was just johnny in the UK. After the first AIDS health campaign it became condom . I think some people , me included , say Durex . A brand name substitute , a bit like Hoover.

  19. 1ac made me chuckle. I remember in the 60s we used to sing The Clapping Song, by Shirley Ellis, but with the corruption of one word!

    My mother told me
    If I was goody
    That she would buy me
    A rubber dolly
    My aunty told her
    I kissed a soldier
    Now she won’t buy me
    A rubber dolly

    2dn I didn’t know the word ‘ulultate’, but when I saw ‘screech’ and ‘Scottish songstress’ I guessed Lulu must be in there somewhere!

  20. I too got to 26a ORSO via Religious Study, but I agree that Cineraria’s parsing is better. It doesn’t matter how you get there as long as you arrive at the right place.

    Thanks Aardvark for the chewy challenge and chuckles (loved the Factory worker), and Cineraria for the bedridden (?) but beneficent blog. I hope you are feeling better.

  21. Cellomaniac@24 and others relating to 26ac: Unless Aardvark posts a verifiable statement of what was intended, I think we will always remain in doubt. I can readily accept that “academic study” is clumsy in crossword terms as a definition for “religious studies”, but that does not make it invalid, any more than it is wrong to have “is” in the clue for 28ac as the indication for “IS” in the answer, which of course it is not. RS for “the three R’s” seems even more awkward to me. In my considered opinion, I am more comfortable with religious studies than with the three R’s. I am completely happy to agree to differ with anyone whose tastes incline them the opposite way.

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