Financial Times 17,748 by IO

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,748 by IO”

1. Loved the Foghorn Leghorn (chicken) and Humpty Dumpty (egg) juxtaposition in connection with 13/3

2. Agree with Challers. I wondered if the ‘fail to resolve’ part of 13/3 referred to the fact that these two (Foghorn Leghorn & Humpty Dumpty) have the chicken first at the top but the egg first at the bottom. Took a while to see ‘post’ = ‘after’ in 7d. I took Hollywood in 6d just to reference the American spelling of lustre. Didn’t parse BURRITO so thanks for that.

3. Thanks Io and Oriel!
   Extraordinary puzzle and a superb blog!

   Liked many. HUMPTY-DUMPTY, SO-TO-SPEAK, SHIV, PERSEVERE,
   LOWER CASE, PEEVISH, BURRITO and VINGT ET UN

   THE CHICKEN OR THE EGG
   some other Across answers fail to resolve
   Thought the same as Challers@1
   Hovis@2 sees another dimension, which I didn’t see.

4. T C O T EGG
   I think without what Hovis@2 ‘wondered about’, the clue is not fully parsed.

   LUSTER
   Agree with Hovis@2. Probably, Oriel meant the same but didn’t elaborate on it.

5. Thanks for a great blog, the top and bottom rows make this quite special.
   Very good set of clever clues full of imagination, I will not start a list.
   Two minor quibbles, ELIAS is pretty weak and BURRITO goes too far , it is a sort of failed compound anagram.
   Overall it is brilliant and I am so glad the FT has IO every month.

6. SHIV I had slightly different . curiously vanished = SHIVdean , as has dean meaning it has curiuously vanished.

7. For once, I managed to complete and fully parse an Io, and even got the theme (per Hovis@2). This one was much more accessible than usual.

8. After being mauled by this setter in yesterday’s Indy, I was pleased to make far better progress in this one – though my hopes of completing the solve were dashed at the end with the nho drink – HUMPTY DUMPTY refusing to come to mind along with a couple of intersecting solutions – THREAT, ULSTER and ELIAS (the last of which was my only real ‘meh’ moment). All fair, otherwise, though pretty demanding for this solver. I particularly enjoyed LEGHORN, SO TO SPEAK, SHIV, GRENDEL, JIFFY BAG and the unsolved THREAT. Nice play with the long question and, as Hovis observed, the ordering of the chicken (which I did spot) and the egg (which, of course, I didn’t).

   Thanks Io and Oriel

9. Two consecutive appearances: was Henderson ever really excluded from the squad?

10. 16a has one anagram indicator – “curiously” – to be applied to both parts: (VANISHED)* minus (DEAN)* gives SHIV.
    22d appears to have two – “Variety” and “bursting” – although the first isn’t really needed:
    (FLOUR TORTILLA) minus (A LOT FULL TO)* gives RRI. So maybe “Variety” is just part of the definition of a BU(RRI)T+O, and not an anagrind at all.
    LOi 14a – Usually the sign of a good clue – ELIAS – 😐

11. What Challers said
    Great puzzle and blog

12. FG: I think Roz is closer, as VANISHED* can give shivdean. The dean element therefore doesn’t have to be anagrammed again to vanish from the resulting sequence.

    The BURRITO one looks like something from Azed’s Slip competition, but the variety of part seems to me to be redundant for &lit purposes, as it doesn’t need to be an anagrind where R-R-I is already present in the correct order after alotfullto* (which clearly uses bursting as its anagrind) has been removed. I am sure the pedants will be debating this one for years to come.

13. A pedant writes: but if OTOH bursting is not intended as an anagrind, but as part of the subtraction, then we’d have to say that the result of the anagram is alotfulltorri, where the already-present sequence RRI is ignored in favour of the ‘whole clue’ sense.

    There. I feel better now.

14. Great crossword and blog. Lovely spottable theme too

    Many thanks to Io and Oriel

15. You could translate ‘Variety of flour tortilla (a lot full to bursting from it)’ as ‘the version of flour tortilla you get when you remove an anagram of alotfullto from it’. That would be RRI. You don’t have to take ‘variety of’ as imposing an extra requirement to mix up what’s left, though we are conditioned to understand it that way.
    Cracking idea and considerably easier than yesterday’s, though not over easy.

16. Roz @6 & paul B @12: I’d agree re SHIVdean. I think, unless the subtracted letters happen to be in the right order, the extraction does need to be anagrammed if it is being subtracted from the fodder prior to the remainder being anagrammed to get the solution. But, if it’s coming out afterwards then, yes, the anagram can result in the solution followed by the subtraction.

    With regard to subtraction, I have no issue with the word being subtracted appearing in split elements throughout the fodder, provided it’s in the right order. I know there are some who feel that should be additionally indicated.

17. PostMark@16
    SHIV
    I have seen setters using two separate anagram indicators (I think even Io) in similar clues.
    I have understood when two separate anagrinds are essential and when the second one looks redundant.

    My parsing is the same as Oriel’s and FrankieG’s @10.

18. MrPostMark@16 it is slightly more complex, it depends on the order of the words.
    For example , and ignoring the sentence being nonsense , just the principle.
    Dean removed from disturbed vanished – is fine .
    Dean removed from vanished disturbed – not so good.
    Dean removed before vanished disturbed – no good.

19. Way out of my league.

    I’ve solved Io in the past, but I could make no headway with this one. I found it much harder than his usual fare

    Congratulations to those who managed

20. Living a lot closer to Hollywood than to London JIFFY BAG and WHEELIE BIN were new terms for me. Thank you to IO for a challenging puzzle and for teaching me some new terms.

21. Brilliant puzzle much enjoyed! BURRITO one of the favourites.
    Many thanks Io and Oriel,

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