Financial Times 17,687 MUDD

27 comments on “Financial Times 17,687 MUDD”

1. I thought FINN is fin (director as in fin on a fish) and n for northern. Not very satisfactory, and I am sure someone will improve in this

2. FINN
   Martyn@1
   Had the same parsing as you. Also, thought of fins on aircraft (maybe the origin is ‘fish fins’)
   Satisfactory. A fin directs!
   ANATOLIAN
   A nice extended def.
   OVERTONE
   Def: Implicit meaning
   WP: unmistakable=OVERT +ONE
   Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs!

3. Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs.
   With Martyn@1 on FINN,
   That, and MAN TO MAN are my two favs.

4. FINN
   Turbolegs! Your parsing works fine, I think. We can say there are two plausible explanations in this case.
   A couple of minor points:
   CONCURRENT
   Shouldn’t the def be ‘in agreement’?
   BATHTUB
   I took the def as ‘one plugged?‘

5. Turbolegs, youre bright and breezy today, like this solve!
   I agree with you re GISMO which is why that and ASKING took me almost as long as the rest of the puzzle!
   I liked the misleading use of ‘foreign’ in ANATOLIAN and ALIEN, the definition of VATICAN, the ‘for me’ part of FORMERLY and the smooth surface of GENERALISE.
   I had FINN as per Martyn, and for the same reason, though perhaps a double definition here isn’t far-fetched.
   Agree with KVa re OVERTONE. Didn’t pause over the definition for BATHTUB; both solutions from Turbolegs and KVa work. Question mark perhaps because modern bathtubs often usually have a metal gismo (ha ha!) in lieu of a rubber plug. Only ‘thing’ cluing ‘bag’ seemed a tad loose (BRAG) but it did nothing to spoil the puzzle.
   Thanks to Mudd and Turbolegs.

6. I meant bathtubs usually, not often usually!

7. 4D – Parker Finn? Director of “Smile”.

8. Diane@5
   BRAG
   Did Mudd mean thing=BAG as in ‘It isn’t my thing/bag’?
   Michael@7
   FINN
   That works! There could be other directors with this surname/name.

9. Thanks for the blog, some very concise clues here , perhaps the setter aiming for as few words as possible, It adds to the variety of the puzzles throughout the week.
   KVa@8 yes you are right for bag – That’s my BAG/thing – it does sound a little old-fashioned now but is still in use, a bit like the bathplug.
   Martyn@1 your FINN is fine, a fin is used for steering, Michael@7 has the alternative idea, we will probably never know the intent.

10. Yes, I think it’s probably ‘not my bag/thing’. Thanks, KVa.

11. I preferred this to yesterday’s G puzzle by the same setter. Some more coherent surfaces, though I was surprised to see ‘Curious’ pop up twice as a definition. I parsed FINN as FIN+N and BAG as particular interest or ‘thing’ (two of those as well. And two Europeans and two foreigns. Almost a mini-theme). I share Diane’s appreciation for ANATOLIAN, FORMERLY and GENERALISE and the underplayed definition for VATICAN. I’d add INFIDEL to that – it’s an idea that’s been used before but Mudd has done it very well here with the use of the first person. Made me laugh.

    Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs

12. Never heard of thing/bag, and I too have always spelt it GIZMO.

    All else was hunky dory.

13. GDU@12
    I have one question (not related to Gismo/Gizmo or bag).
    Do you follow American spellings like color, realize etc., or colour, realise etc?
    Do the kids use American spellings in general?

14. I generally avoid American spellings, with one or two exceptions. For example, I always remove “me” from “program”. No idea what the kids do — I’ve been retired for four lustra.

    Many kids aren’t literate enough to know what they’re doing. When I asked a class once what should Australia be doing about its poor literacy levels, one kid said “Put more bins around the place?”

    [Actually this isn’t true, but it’s a good yarn.]

15. All pretty straightforward although like others I hadn’t seen GIZMO spelt with an S before. And I am getting a little tired of “SOCIAL WORKER” =ANT but enjoyable overall

16. Breezy and enjoyable indeed. My last two in were Asking and Gis/zmo not helped by the strange spelling of the latter.

    Thanks

17. Enjoyed this one very much, but was held up a bit by entering a cook, OKRA (green=OK, ready to go) +A(nd) + R(ed). If you’ve ever cooked with okra, you will know its slimy gelatinous texture that I find revolting.

    I don’t have the BRB to hand, but online the Cambridge Dictionary just lists GISMO and an alternative spelling of GIZMO, with no indication of UK/US use.

    KVa @13, GDU@14: in a UK publication’s crossword I would expect UK spellings, with Americanisms indicated in clues. Program(me) is an exception: both versions are current UK use, as computers run programs, while managers and TV channels organise programmes. A useful distinction that enriches the language.

    In one of the Inspector Morse TV programmes the cantankerous detective sounds off against the use of -ise on the grounds that the OED prefers -ize, therefore it’s illiterate. In this I think Colin Dexter, if he actually wrote that bit, was simply wrong. Personally, I find the versions using the “whoreson Zed, (the) unnecessary letter” jarring.

    I used to edit the crosswords in Significance and set some of them. When I started it was the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society, and I applied the usual UK rules about Americanisms. After some years the American Statistical Association adopted Significance as their in-house magazine, and I took the decision that henceforth there was no need to indicate UK/US usage.

18. Diane @5 summed it up nicely for me.

    Similar to his last outing, this was a pleasant solve with plenty of great surfaces, but it was different to the Mudd of old.

    Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs

19. Late to the party, but I think “dipped” is part of the definition in 23a. Sheep are dipped and only “in” is needed to indicate the hidden answer.

20. Thanks Mudd and Turbolegs

    10ac: Further to Goujeers@17, ODE 2010 has gismo as a headword, given as alternative spelling for gizmo, which is also given as a headword with origin as “1940s (originally US): of unknown origin”. Chambers 2016 gives “gismo or gizmo” as a single headword, with no separate entry for gizmo. Collins 2023 gives “gizmo or gismo” with no separate entry for gismo.

    4dn: I had the same parsing given initially by Martyn@1 and attracting strong support from others.

    15dn: Note the way that the anagram enforces the S spelling for generalise. My understanding is that the -ise or -ize suffix in the sense used here is ultimately derived from the Ancient Greek -izein, so the Z spelling is etymologically correct. It appears that the Z spelling was standard UK English when the suffix is used in that sense until about the middle of the 20th century, but has been supplanted by the S spelling. Note that for words such as enterprise and analyse, there is no etymological justification for using a Z.

21. I forgot to mention I had never heard of the card game BRAG, nor did I know bag for thing (as Diane @10 mentioned, “not my bag/thing”). All of which caused me a lot of googling to get the 4-letter answer

    Thanks PB@20 for the ise / ize overview. I found it interesting and read more. It appears one needs to know the derivation of the word to use the correct suffix, so no wonder people land on one or the other for everything.

22. Goujeers@17
    American/UK spellings in Oz
    I am in India. GDU is in Oz. I was curious to know if GDU personally used American spellings (also, wanted to know what the younger lot practise there). I should have preferably taken it up in the General Discussion section.
    That said, thanks for all the useful and interesting info you have shared in your post.
    Pelham@20
    GENERALISE
    Thanks. Learnt something.

23. Thanks Mudd for the fun. I missed BRAG, not knowing the card game but all else made sense with my favourites being ANATOLIAN, GISMO, INFIDEL, STAGNANCY, and GENERALISE. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

24. As PB says, the spelling of GENERALISE is dictated by the anagram. Similarly, the spelling of GISMO is dictated by the wordplay. This is why cryptic crosswords are superior to quicks – you get two bites of the cherry.

    Occam’s razor suggests FIN+N was the intention at 4d rather than one of a choice of not so famous film directors, but if you arrive at the correct solution by a parsing that stands up to scrutiny, does it really matter either way?

    Very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks, Mudd and Turbolegs.

25. Goujeers – I recall the episode quite vividly as I thought at the time ..ize was definitely American.

26. Inspector Morse – Series 3, Episide 1 – Ghost in the Machine (4 January 1989) – Written by Julian Mitchell, not Colin Dexter – He’d never have dubbed it “illiterate”.

27. Good crossword.. nice discussion points..
    Thanks Mudd n Turbolegs

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