Financial Times 17,915 by GAFF

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,915 by GAFF”

1. Yes, v. enjoyable and not too difficult to spot whose birthday is being celebrated, though with KIRIBATI (I suppose the def may be just ‘nation’) and DAME as two of my first in, I wondered if it might be Kiri Te Kanawa. There’s also JU DI at the end of 4d – start of 15d, which is presumably the reason for including SHIATSU and the never heard of TEJU.

   I’m not too familiar with the TV programmes included in the answers (they were more my parents’ thing) so as you say there may be more references.

   Thanks to Teacow and Gaff

2. Can someone explain 17/27 what is the definition? I get the anagram; I am just lacking the definition.

   Also 22/24: Again I get the anagram but why does “air” mean “As Time Goes By”?

   4D was unknown to me, even though I guessed it when I had two of the letters.

   7D: “in love” means “affected”? I have been “in love” many times (or so I thought) but maybe not “affected”.

   I am not that comfortable with 17D: “abstains” means to refuse to do something (like vote) whereas “goes” means to “leave”. Maybe that is close enough in crossword land.

   Anyway, thank you to Gaff and Teacow.

3. 🎂Liked how the two sitcoms are clued as the songs (refrain and air). Lots of “Lady”s in the clues.
   She played ANNE[x] Hathaway in All Is True, and she must have played a few SUEs in her time. [But I can’t find any.]

4. ABSTAINS is a reverse Playtex: for goes -> forgoes.

5. I…what Roz would have called a Gossard?]

6. Happy birthday, Dame Judi!
   As Wordplodder says, the actor’s identity didn’t stay hidden for long and what a long and storied career with which to conjure (TV, stage and film)! Well played, Gaff.
   I liked A FINE ROMANCE for the ‘refrain’ – I remember the theme tune though I was too young, really, to watch the TV programme.
   Very enjoyable.
   Thanks to Gaff and Teacow.

7. Judi is hidden in teJU DIsappoint. Completed this while doing today’s stint at the local Tree Festival – 20 years since this one started.

   She sang A FINE ROMANCE for the TV show introductory/ending music. I was looking for other roles, but nothing else leapt out at me.

   Thank you to Gaff and Teacow.

8. In 1A, the use “short” to remove the last two letters of a word would be arbitrary and, therefore, unfair: “shortened” and “cut short” are standard indications of last letter deletion. I suspect what might be intended here is that “short man” is to be interpreted as a diminutive form of a man’s name, although it would perhaps have been fairer to use “boy”. In any event, I’m not keen on using names as constituents of wordplay – there are just too many of them.

9. Claudia @2: “air” as in “tune.” (Play it, Sam. Play it for old time’s sake. Play “As Time Goes By.”)

10. Seeing ‘A birthday puzzle’ and having heard Dame Judi’s 90th mentioned on the radio we cottoned on to the theme at once and weren’t disappointed. We still had quite a mental workout, though, to finish. Favourites were 17/27 and 22/24, plus our LOI, the non-themed 20.

11. Thanks Gaff and Teacow

    9ac: If a man is known as Phil, that is usually short for Philip or Phillip. I see nothing wrong with using “short” in that way in a crossword clue.
    2dn: Going beyond WP@1, “nation” is a sufficient definition so no double duty (for “island”) needs to be assumed. My preferred description here is to call it a definition with helpful wordplay.

12. Happy Birthday!

13. @4 FrankieG: Would you mind explaining what a “reverse Playtex” is, please? According to Google, this is the only use of this phrase on the entire internet

14. Josh@13: some commenters on this site use the word Playtex to describe the device of splitting a single word from a clue into two or more words to make it work. This is based on the slogan “lift and separate” associated with a make of bras.
    Personally I dislike both the unsignalled use of this device and the adoption of such an opaque term to describe it.
    The clue for 17dn needs the reverse of this process in that the two clue words “for goes” must be joined together to make the definition of ABSTAINS.

15. @14 Pelham Barton — many thanks — the strategy is clear, if not the nomenclature!

16. [ The references above to Playtex and Goddard, wordplay metaphors coined by Roz, remind me of how much we miss her on this site. ]

Comments are closed.