Financial Times 17,808 by BASILISK

20 comments on “Financial Times 17,808 by BASILISK”

1. I liked this crossword a lot.

   I hadn’t noticed the little typo in clue for counter examples but I am sure you are correct. Had never heard BoPeep as a game but clued well enough that answer was clear.

   All mad much more difficult by me mistyping Dedice as answer to 1D – groan.

   Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

2. Many thanks to Oriel for the excellent blog, as always.

   My intention with COUNTEREXAMPLES was that “of noble” would indicate COUNT’S. However I see now that “of” could function as a link word, which does make the intended wordplay difficult to spot.

   I hadn’t thought of the nursery rhyme as a second definition for BO-PEEP. My intended parsing was PEE in BOP.

3. My favourite today, PRISTINE, is an apt way to describe the cluing in today’s puzzle which I thoroughly enjoyed.
   Thanks to both Basilisk and Oriel ( I haven’t spotted any theme but that doesn’t mean there isn’t one!)

4. Ha! I had the same confusion as our blogger re COUNTS but I did parse BO-PEEP as the setter intended. I get why ‘rugby’ fits the surface for PROFUSION since it fits so well with ‘union’ but I had my PRO from ‘Person paid’ or possibly ‘Person paid to play’ so did not think to include ‘rugby’ with that. Which did lead to some confusion as to what to do with the game. And it makes no difference but I had defined APPLE as ‘Developer of computer’ with the WP simply being ‘program failing to terminate’ = APPLE(t). Finally, intrigued by the use of the word ‘unique’ in the cue for EMBLEM, I checked and it does appear to be the only English word with EM at both ends: very neat.

   Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

5. Parsed 6d COUNTEREXAMPLES – COUNT(E+REX+AMPLE)’S, and 9d BO-PEEP – BO(PEE)P, (as intended by Basilisk@2)
   [9d BO-PEEP (also known as PEEP-BO), and not Woody’s girlfriend in Toy Story (1995)]

6. Thanks for the blog, very good puzzle , neat and clever wordplay.
   EMENDS is a very nice idea , just to be awkward I took advice on this, emphysem is a German word and empyem is obsolete English. I still think the clue is fine and very clever.

7. {?typo 1a DIDACTIC – DID ACT (Played a part) + I[n] + C[urriculum] (both originally)}
   Good spot on the “unique” EMBLEM, B. And good spot on its uniqueness PM@4 — Spot on! 😉 [OneLook gives Eminem, too, but he’s a proper noun.]
   Thanks B&O

8. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel. I had 1ac the same way as Frankie@7.

9. Also parsed as Serpent. Typo in blog for 3d. Should say [d]EFERENC[e]. Hope the rap singer Eminem doesn’t take offence to the ‘unique’ in 27a 😀 . Just noticed FrankieG mentioned this @7.

10. Wow! 6D was a new word to me, despite all the cross letters.

    Being a lady, I could not parse 9D. Also I did not know the game.

    27A: isn’t the first “em” a start and not an end?

    15A: isn’t a parable the story and not the bearer of the story?

    Just a few quibbles … maybe I am wrong. Thanks to the setter and all the people who contributed.

11. Sorry, I forgot to comment on 11A. Why is the word “rugby” needed in the clue? Surely “person paid to play” is enough to define “professional” – or “pro” as a short cut.

12. Annabelle @ 10

    Ends can be either front or back.

    ‘rugby’ in 11A helps the surface as rugby union is a specific form of the game.

13. I think 15ac is intended to work on the following lines: SOED 2007 p 2093 gives the first definition of parable as “A saying in which something is expressed in terms of something else”. Thus the parable bears a message other than its literal meaning.

14. I too enjoyed this puzzle for its variety of clues, the originality (EMENDS was a cracker), almost no obscurities and sense of humour. Some of the clues required thought, so my clockwise progress was steady but not necessarily quick. As Annabelle@11 pointed out indirectly, a few clues had a lot of words, but that was limited and they generally made good surfaces.

    I did not think of number one to mean PEE* and did not know “killed by the mob” is ICED until I looked it up. A long list of clues with ticks includes EMENDS, DEVESTATE, PARABLE, SILENCE, DELIVERED and I could go on.

    I also want to express appreciation to Basilisk for popping in – it is always great to hear directly from the setter.

    Thanks Basilisk and Oriel

    * PS my local water and sewerage board put adds on the side of busses with the tag line “your number two is our number one”. No idea why…..

    ,

15. Thanks Basilisk for an outstanding crossword. My favourites included DIDACTIC, CELLO, TIGHT, PARABLE, IMPACTION, DECIDE, DELIVERED, and LICENSE. I never heard of the game BO-PEEP and I failed to parse the clever EMENDS. I did not spot a Nina or any thematic pieces. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

16. We’d not heard of 6dn before, but having worked out COUNTEREX_____ a quick look in the dictionary provided the required answer. Apart from that no problems, just a satisfying solve with the right amount of challenge.
    Thanks, Basilisk and Oriel.

17. [Martyn@14: I cannot vouch for the truth of this story, which was read out on the Radio 4 programme The News Quiz some years ago. Apparently one of the British bus companies was converting the engines of their buses to use fuel made from human waste. The first buses to use the new engines were to run on the Number 2 route.]

18. That would be appropriate, PB@17. It is a good story, so there is need to vouch for the truth

19. Loved the puzzle. I usually don’t like Jack/Basilisk puzzles but this one was wonderful. There were some tricky clues but nothing was a real problem. Thanks Basilisk and Oriel for a great blog.

20. 10a was insanely good 😊.

    Re 11a, I thought of PROFUSION right away but didn’t write it in, because I couldn’t figure out what “rugby” was doing. So thanks Oriel for the parsing help, and thanks Basilisk for the fun puzzle.

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