Financial Times 17,792 by JULIUS

37 comments on “Financial Times 17,792 by JULIUS”

1. I am unable to edit. 23d is EVEN ( still ) T ( time ) . I forgot to edit the parse at the end of the solve.

   Regards,
   TL

2. It is nice to see Julius. I agree it was on the difficult side but I made steady progress. I also found it fun. I loved his wonderful anagrams and smooth surfaces, although the surface of a few clues did not seem to be up to his usual high standard.

   There were a few new words, but the number was manageable. I did not parse 9d. I was close and even said to myself “how does driver filmed become MINNIE?”, but I only made the connection after reading the blog.

   I alway find it difficult to whittle down the long list of favourites with Julius. I will name the two that made me smile most: THE VATICAN and the outrageous Van Gogh reference in TEARAWAY. I could easily name others.

   Thanks Julius and Turbolegs

3. Thanks Julius for another excellent crossword. I found this gentler than usual for Julius/Knut but even so I had to reveal MOANING MINNIE, an unfamiliar expression to me. My list of likes includes PETTIFOGGERY, IMPASTO, REFERENDUM, CAPON, END ZONE, FAKE, and EXPOS. In OLIVE OYL, I questioned ‘serve’ as an anagram indicator but I’m sure someone will have a rationale. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

4. [Yesterday’s typo was contagious: “FinaNcial Times 17,792 by JULIUS”]
   10a SAD SACK derives from this 1942 comic strip character. — [22a OLIVE OYL dates from 1919, and dates Popeye (aka “He wrote the Ancient Mariner (6)”)]

5. Thanks for the blog , Julius on the beach in the sunshine , what could be better?
   PETTIFOGGERY is a great word and to bring in the FO and TIGGER is brilliant .
   MOANING MINNIEs a phrase used by Thatcher if someone mentioned 20% unemployment.
   So many nice touches here.

6. Great crossword today, quite doable, COTD :
   Serve volley: 1-0 That’ll get girl animated.
   Thanks Julius and Turbolegs.

7. 2d END ZONE – To “touch down” is what jet planes hope to do. What the New York Jets are trying to achieve is a “touchdown”. Is this a Gossard? (© Roz MMXX!).

8. OLIVE OYL was my LOI – I knew I was looking for a cartoon female – not my strong point if it was going to be, say, later Disney/Pixar stuff – but was not sure of the parse and came back to it with crossers – most helpfully, the Y. Preceded by ESPRIT DE CORPS which I thought might have included BOARD for ‘Directors’ – a neatly constructed anagram. Unlike others here, I found everything else flowed very smoothly and the two I’ve highlighted were the only ones needing a second period of study. Lovely constructions throughout and no quibbles at all. The pair of grumps – MOANING MINNIE and MISERY GUTS – made me smile, along with the delightful PETTIFOGGERY, the freshly clued RIOJA, the murderous WELSHMAN and the equally murderous poacher bagging the CAPON, the ashy YASHMAK and the globe-trotting ALI BABA.

   Thanks Julius and Turbolegs (as Frankie G has noted, the CIA is probing the FINAL version of your headline)

9. Enjoying solving a Julius crossword is always a treat but this one was even more splendid than usual. I knew when I wrote in pettifoggery that there was bound to be more fun to come and I wasn’t disappointed

   Very many thanks to Julius and Turbolegs

10. Frankie G @7: we posted at the same time so I’ve only just noticed your query. I think Julius gets away with this one: ‘touchdown’ does not seem to have a verbal def – even the OED and Merriam-Webster only have the compound word as a noun. It’s not clear whether there is a specific verb attached to ‘scoring a touchdown’ so I’d be inclined to give Julius a pass …

11. Your sentiments were much the same as mine, Roz @5 in your choice of PETTIFOGGERY and MOANING MINNIE (though against a backdrop of tropical downpours in my case) and, like Postmark, MISERY GUTS. I also liked TEARAWAY, SAD SACK and IMPASTO. The inclusion of these colloqiualisms definitely enhanced the fun factor.
    Thanks Julius for bringing sunshine today and to Turbolegs, as always on a Friday.

12. I absolutely agree with crypticsue’s first paragraph. This puzzle was fun from beginning to end.

    I especially enjoyed PETTIFOGGERY, OLIVE OYL, TEARAWAY, ESPRIT DE CORPS (splendid anagram), MOANING MINNIE and MISERY GUTS and smiled wryly at GRIPE WATER, which helped to preserve my sanity when rearing four children in the ’60s ( haven’t heard of it for years).

    I also had ticks for WELSHMAN, REFERENDUM, PLATEAU, COLOSSI and MEA CULPA.

    Huge thanks to Julius for a delightful end to the week and to Turbolegs for the blog.

13. Thanks Julius and Turbolegs

    2dn: touch down with the American Football meaning is given explicitly as a phrasal verb of two words in ODE 2010.

14. Well done, PB @13. Foolishly, I only verified that the single word, touchdown, does not have a verbal form. You did the sensible bit of additional research. I use the online access to OED where the header for the two word definitions referenced Rugby and, indeed, on expanding that, I see American football mentioned. The citations are all fairly dated; I wonder if the phrase is still current in the game.

15. Really? Has anyone here actually heard of “MOANING MINNIE”?

    And really? Has anyone actually heard of “PETTIFOGGERY”. ?

    I think that I have stumbled into “the twilight zone”.

    I thank you all for explaining these obscure definitions. Maybe it’s time for this old lady to go to bed.

16. PM@14: I used to access oed.com through my work, but have lost that route following my retirement. One of these years (sic), I may get round to reviving my membership of the Public Library, which (I think) would give me access. Meanwhile I just use the printed volumes, the two volume SOED, and the single volume ODE, Chambers, and Collins. Collins is the only one of these that seems to be still updating, and it may gain ascendancy over the others for that reason.
    Unless words or phrases are actually marked obsolete or archaic, I would not worry about the lack of recent citations. All I would read into that is that there is no recent change in the meaning.

17. [PB @16: it is much easier than I thought it was going to be. The OED web-site offers the opportunity to sign in with my library card and you have to select your library/local authority (in my case, Worcester County Council) and then enter your library card number – importantly preceded by a code. That is the one tricky bit: in my case, it is the three letters WOR. Whether it is always three letters and whether those are always the first three of the library/LA, I do not know. But a quick call/visit to your local library would answer that and you’re gonna have to do that to renew. It is worth it: a fabulous free resource. IF one decides to research the right thing, of course!]

18. Annabelle @15: I’m not sure if you’ll be pleased or annoyed to hear this but MOANING MINNIE is certainly part of my vocabulary – and with two just-out-of-teenage sons – one oft used in the PM household. And PETTIFOGGING was used the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court on day one of Trump’s impeachment trial in 2020. The twilight zone (as opposed to the END ZONE) is bigger than you thought …

19. I enjoyed this but wondered if Julius was having a go at someone/some people? Sad sack, pettifoggery, Moaning Minnie, misery guts, gripe??? Surely no one on fifteensquared.

20. Petert @19 – I had the same thought!

    I’d always thought that Pettifogger(y) was probably derived from the name of a lawyer in a book by Dickens that I hadn’t read but my SOED tells me that it goes back to 1564 – and I read on the internet that it was used by Milton but I can’t find a quotation.

21. Thanks for the blog, dear Turbolegs, and thanks to those who have commented.
    @Petert & Eileen…
    Ha! I can confirm that there is no specific reason why I grouped a few similar entries in the grid and am in fact in a rare (for me) oasis of zen-like peace and calm these days!
    best wishes to all, Rob/Julius

22. PETTIFOGGERY was new to me, but gettable as the first 3 and last 1 letter clear and it had to have FO in it.
    Otherwise a fun lunchtime.
    A generous sprinkling of foreign words today. Favourite WELSHMAN.
    Thanks to setter and blogger!

23. Glad to hear it, Rob!

24. Dear Eileen. Milton is a favourite author for his prose as well as his verse. You will find the quotation you seek in his Eikonoklastes and this link I hope takes you there.

    https://milton.host.dartmouth.edu/reading_room/eikonoklastes/text.shtml

25. Trenodia @24

    I’ve only just seen your comment: I’ve been out in the garden reading, as it happens, ‘The dictionary of lost words'(!), which I’ve been meaning to make a start on for some time.

    Many thanks for the link. I read Milton (several poems) for A Level English and ‘did’ the Stuarts for A Level history, so it’s interesting on two counts. I knew of Eikonoklastes (and Eikon Basilike) but we never got around to studying them. I’d like to think I might do so now!

26. Eileen @35

    When you’ve finished the Dictionary of Lost Words, the author’s next book: The Bookbinders of Jericho is also well worth a read

27. Now that Annabelle @15 has raised it, I view the obscure words in this puzzle a bit differently to most. I dislike a run of obscure words to fill in the blanks of a themed grid, or obscure words used to clue an obscurely worded answer. In this case, Julius has chosen his obscurities with humour. And while I would never use many of them. and I am not sure I have even heard a couple, I agree with others that they were fun.

28. Many thanks, crypticsue @26 – it’s on the list. 😉

29. [Eileen – probably not quite so literary but another enjoyable read that interweaves fact and fiction in a book-related context is The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods which I recently finished. There is quite a sub-genre of magical-realist writing based around vanishing/lost libraries, bookshops and books. ]

30. Another who is well acquainted with both MOANING MINNIE & PETTIFOGGERY. Admittedly, the latter came about from reading the Wizard of Id cartoon strip which has a character called Pettifogger.

31. [PostMark @29 – after time-out for our long-standing Friday family post-work soirée …

    What a truly wonderful community we have here! – maybe we should start a Book Club? 😉 ]

32. Eileen@29 – I fully intend to look for the two books mentioned

33. Martyn @ 32 – great!

34. [Apologies to Julius and Turbolegs 😉 ]

35. [@Eileen…not at all; these exchanges are what make this site a safe haven in the turbulent cybersphere}

36. Exactly what I meant @31 – but thanks again for the puzzle, Julius!

37. Got to this at the weekend and loved it. Surprisingly quick solve by my standards.

    Thanks to all.

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