Financial Times 17,842 by Rosa Klebb

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,842 by Rosa Klebb”

1. Rosa keeps ’em coming with this fine specimen!
   ‘Barney expectorated’ is as neat a double definition as you could wish to see.
   NUDISM made me chuckle into my flat white.
   Surfaces were, by turns, smooth (HOME TRUTHS), amusing (SNITCH, CHAMPAGNE) or cunning (T-SHIRT for ‘top’ alongside 30).
   Great fun!
   Thanks to Rosa and Pete.

2. I had 18d as per Pete’s blog but with ‘one’ being ‘I’ (homophone for ‘eye’).
   For 29a, this parsing leaves us with an ‘s’ too many though I can see ‘shot’ gives ‘try’. I googled ‘hy’ (there is Hy[‘s] law) but I’m still not sure about this.
   And for 1a, I accept Pete’s version that ‘almost’ is used twice for ‘baby’ and ‘blew’ though in my version I had ‘bab’ (Brummie dialect!) and the rest as per the blog.

3. Indeed, Diane. SPAT was one of my favourites. Also URBAN MYTH, BRUSH OFF, BABOONERY (a new word for me too, but what a great word) MOOSE and CHAMPAGNE

   I agree with Pete that this was on the challenging side. The large number of new words or phrases was the main source of difficulty for me. I wonder whether UK solvers had the same experience. I had a couple of quibbles but nothing serious.

   I agree with Pete and Diane that it was witty and fun. A great blog too

   Thanks Ross Klebb and Pete

4. I’m British but live overseas, Martyn, and on this occasion, I saw things pretty clearly though I often do find Rosa quite tricky.
   The more unusual words and that spelling of ‘hyena’ read clearly enough to me but it was the parsing of those mentioned @2 which gave me most pause for thought.

5. 1a BABBLE
   BLE(w) W(Wife) away. The ‘almost’ doesn’t do double duty.
   29d SHYSTERS
   Island=IS (Is).
   Chambers and Collings give Island(s) or isle(s) under Is.
   18d EYE TOOTH
   I had the same parse as Diane@2 (EYE as a hom of I–
   of course, this is mentioned in the blog as well)

   Thanks Ross Klebb and Pete

6. Thanks, KVa (forgot IS).

7. Thanks Rosa and Pete

   I agree with KVa regarding the BLE part of BABBLE at 1ac and the parsing of SHYSTERS (actually 29ac not 29dn).

8. I parsed SHYSTERS and BABBLE as KVa @5 – and didn’t have a problem with them.

   Nor did I find OCHROUS as unfamiliar as others seem to have, I’ve come across it in some poetry of purple prose somewhere and it surfaced from the depths, ditto BABOONERY. I have also seen HYAENA spelt that way before, but my childhood reading included the H Rider Haggard oeuvre (really not recommended nowadays), and all of those words are the sort of vocabulary I encountered there.

   My last one in was RECOILLESS – which I built from the clue and FLEXION was unfamiliar.

   CHAP + MANGE for champagne (there’s a typo in the blog)

   Thank you to Pete McLean and Rosa Klebb for the amazing surfaces and smooth cluing.

9. Last Saturday was my birthday so a Rosa Klebb puzzle was an extra present. I spent an enjoyable time in the morning with the puzzle but still had six I couldn’t get even after staring at them for ages

   The next morning took me just 10 minutes to get them. Weird how that happens.

   As always a lovely puzzle. Loved SHUCKS – one of my last six and helped me get the rest.

   Thanks for my birthday present Rosa Klebb and to Pete Maclean for the blog

10. Thanks for the blog , very enjoyable puzzle, neat and clever clues throughout .
    I wonder if HYAENA is the old spelling ? Hyaenidae is the family. Aardwolf the answer to a common pub quiz question – The second animal in the dictionary .

    Belated Happy Birthday Fiona , and you confirm the value of taking a break .

11. Thanks Rosa for another gem. The word BABOONERY alone made this worthwhile. Thanks Pete for the blog.

12. I have not been closely following the FT for a week or so and was unaware I’d missed a Rosa Klebb. Having seen there was a blog, I just nipped back to last Saturday’s puzzles and happily filled in this delightful crossword. One of my favourite setters, her ability to find the right indicator for her surfaces is uncanny. AVOID and the brilliant MONEY are brilliant examples. I’m with KVa on both BABBLE and SHYSTERS.

    Thanks Rosa and Pete Maclean

13. I agree with Tony Santucci @11 – the use of YOBBO for BABOONERY was sublime.

    Lots more chortles at the brilliant surfaces, especially for URBAN MYTH, SHYSTERS, MOOSE, CHAMPAGNE and DERRING-DO, which I enjoyed teasing out.

    Many thanks to Rosa for lots of fun and to Pete for the blog.

14. I have cleaned up a few errors in the blog. Thanks to all who pointed them out.

15. A bit more challenging than some of Rosa’s puzzles but nothing that wasn’t gettable. We did need to check a couple of spellings (HYAENA and OCHROUS – we would normally spell the former without the firsr A and the latter with an E after the R) and that BABOONERY was in the dictionary. Lots to enjoy, including FLEXION, DERRING-DO and SHUCKS.
    Thanks, Rosa and Pete.

16. Rosa’s sense of humour permeates this puzzle. She is living proof that clever constructions and superb surfaces can (and should) go hand in hand. Her crosswords are good for the soul.

    Most of my favourites have been mentioned already, but I will add 6d SMALL TIMER to the list.

    Thanks, Rosa for the therapeutic puzzle and Pete for the babbleless blog.

17. I’ve finally cracked how to remember puzzles from the week before! Delay doing them for a week.. then the blog makes sense! Only problem was resisting doing a Rosa for a week! Well worth it though, usual excellence… I became overexcited n filled in NUDITY before spotting the reversed inclusion… Doh! if BABOONERY hadn’t been a word, it would get my vote for immediate inclusion… the parsing for the canine was a bit confusing for me, but “ExtremelY gutless” gave me EY- in the wrong place for the clue but the right place for the solve… although I had guessed as soon as I read “canine”… similarly HOUSEMAN was a write in, being of that era… such a shame junior medical staff are now referred to as categories of robots (F1,F2, HST1 etc)… I blame Star Wars. SW corner was slow for me, with the Yank expression being confounded in my head with something from Suomi… loved the surface of ASUNDER, 1 of my favourite words…
    Echoing the universal thanks to Rosa Klebb n Pete Maclean (I guess you solve n blog contemporaneously, and just delay posting?)

18. [19a HYÆNA comes from Ancient Greek ὕαινα (huaina) via Latin hyæna.]

19. [… I like ligatures – œuvre contains another one. And a belated Happy Birthday to Fiona@9🎂]
    A very nice puzzle. Thanks RK&PM

Comments are closed.