Financial Times 17,840 by AARDVARK

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,840 by AARDVARK”

1. Liked SQUID (nice extended def), HEATHER (For the ‘British governors’), STRETCHER (nice def), WHEELIE (esp for the second def) and COMMA (MMMMMM).

   Thanks Aardvark and loonapick.

2. Good workout from Aardvark with some smooth surfaces and a pangram which helped to confirm OLD FRENCH (otherwise, it could just as easily have been [High] GERMAN though I’ve studied the former and their mustard tastes better, in my view!).
   Favourites were OUIJA, YODEL (for Mr Trotter) and AXMINSTER while admitting the last two may be obscure for solvers overseas.
   Found this trickier to parse than solve, however, with a few answers needing confirmation/explanation here – COMMA was one if them, and for the same reason as our blogger. The distinct parts of TREADLE too had me beat!
   Thanks to Aardvark and Loonapick.

3. Can 8d WHEELIE mean WHEELIE BIN without the BIN? — Not weally.

4. Chambers (mobile app)
   wheelie noun (informal)
   3.A wheelie bin (informal)
   Must be very informal!?

5. Re 5D: isn’t a “carol” a tuneful song, whereas “chant” is more – may I say – “militant” or “angry”? This seems to me to be along the lines of saying that “rap” or hip-hop” are music, which they are not.

   Anyway, I’m a professional musician, so what would I know?

   Re 1D: I have never heard of “session” in relation to “boozing”. It must be an English term.

   Thanks loonapick and the other contributors.

6. [5d CHANT = “Carol” — taking both as verbs meaning sing]

7. 1d SESSION: ‘A period devoted to heavy drinking; a drinking-bout. colloquial (chiefly Australian).’
   It’s dated 1943–, but only in the OED since 1993, as an ‘Additional sense’ — It took them 50 years to notice … (a Silver anniversary)
   Thanks A&L

8. Way beyond my pay grade.

   Thanks for the blog. This is definitely one for the elite, not the hoi polloi.

   Let’s hope for something more appetising tomorrow

9. Looking in out of interest, as I am away from home at the moment. Interesting to see that Aardvark has stopped teasing us (at least for this puzzle) and given us a full pangram.

   8dn: Of course wheelie can mean “wheelie bin”, in just the same way that laptop can and does mean a type of computer. Whether this sense of wheelie is sufficiently common to be regarded as standard usage is something on which I will trust professional lexicographers rather than the unsupported word of commenters on this site. Note that I am not claiming that lexicographers are infallible, just that the balance of probabilities is on their side.

   Annabelle@5: Of course rap and hip-hop are kinds of music, as that term is used within the general population. It really irritates me when members of professions claim ownership of words, which they have no right to do.

10. A bit chewy in places but all solved without help, although having worked out BEL ESPRIT we needed to check it in the dictionary. When SQUID and SEA BREEZE emerged early on we guessed it might be a pangram (or nearly one) and were not disappointed when we got SHELDRAKE and AXMINSTER to complete it. LOI, though, was COMMA, shortly after BITER.
    Thanks, Aardvark and loonapick.

11. Kevin @8 ✔️

12. PB@9, I rarely disagree with you but I think you are being unfair to Annabelle@5. I am not a professional musician, and I also don’t think rap and hip-hop are music. In my view they are forms of contemporary poetry, not music. For one thing, the performers are reciting, not singing. The entire emphasis is on spoken word, not music. Of course, it’s a definitional thing; some might argue that the sound of Dylan Thomas reciting A Child’s Christmas in Wales is music – to me it is beautiful, but it isn’t music.

    Incidentally, like Frankie@6 I disagree with Annabelle on the chant/song question. Gregorian chant is anything but militant or angry.

13. Cellomaniac@12: Unless anyone beats me to it, I will give the relevant dictionary definitions for rap and hip-hop when I get home later today, but really it is the same point of principle as I made about the meaning of liner in June
    https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/06/06/financial-times-17755-jason/

14. Further to 13, here are the relevant definitions from the (two volume) Shorter OED (2007)

    p 2463 rap noun 4 c “A style of popular music developed by black New Yorkers…” dated to Late 20th century;
    p 1253 hip hop noun “A style of popular music of US black and Hispanic origin, …”, also Late 20th century.

15. Oh dear me, Pelham Barton (obviously not a real name) does have a real temper as well as lacking an ear for music. I’d hate to meet him (her) in real life.

16. Now, now, ladies and gentlemen.

    Back to your corners and come out not fighting.

17. I am sorry, Admin. I will not react like this again. I shall just ignore his posts in the future. Please forgive me. Please don’t lock me out.

18. I finally came back to finish this one. Very hard for a daily, IMHO. I could not see how to parse STRETCHER, so thanks for the clarification.

19. I agree with Cineraria @18. Just catching up with this in the pub on a Sunday night expecting a nice gentle solve, but this was not enjoyable at all…
    …and I certainly agree with Annabelle that Carol and Chant are not synonymous.

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