Financial Times 17,919 by SOLOMON

30 comments on “Financial Times 17,919 by SOLOMON”

1. I parsed 23a as SCRAM = “on your bike”, and BLED = “exhausted”. But I wasn’t sure how SCRAMBLED could mean “climbed”. I suppose it does — sort of.

   I don’t much like rhyming slang, but when an unknown town is the pointer it’s doubly annoying.

   I’ve never heard of cut/drunk, and I’m not a fan of “of” as an inclusion indicator. “Escaping from trap” was an interesting homophone indicator.

2. I had SCRAMBLED as “Scram” = on your bike plus “Bled” = exhausted

3. GDU @1, I have a book called “Scrambles in the English Lake District” describing easy rock climbs there so I didn’t have a problem with scrambles=climbs.

4. I also took NO SWEAT as a simple cryptic definition given the television interview where Prince Andrew claimed that he didn’t sweat.

5. Tim C @ 4, yes, I also thought of that infamous interview. And thanks for the enlightenment re scrambled.

6. Here’s an article by the BBC about it.

7. REFRESHMENT
   I think the ‘Mobile’ refers to the US city Mobile, Alabama and is used to indicate Americanism.

8. GDU@1
   Rhyming slang is an inherent part of many crosswords but I can understand the irritation it can cause to non- residents in the UK. To be pedantic, Spitalfields is not a town but a district in the City of London.
   Great puzzle and blog so thanks to Turbolegs and Solomon.

9. Interesting point KVa @7, although Chambers doesn’t have fresher or freshman as particularly American.

10. TimC@9
    REFRESHMENT
    Chambers doesn’t seem to list this particular meaning under freshman.
    Collins says
    In America, a freshman is a student who is in his or her first year at university or college.

11. [13a FETES: Units = FEET; Tesla shifted = with T ( moving up ); at small = S; festivals (def)]

12. KVa @10… C2016

    freshˈman
    noun
    A newcomer
    A fresher

    freshˈer
    noun
    A university or college student in his or her first year, a freshman

13. 4a CUT – more familiar as half-cut [or three parts (3/4) cut]. [28a usually spelt titfer]

14. Tim C@12
    Thanks

15. A good puzzle and well parsed. I still struggle to understand 13ac and spent a long time on EXIST but cracked it in the end. I definitely agree with Tim on Prince Andrew

16. I understood Mobile in the same way as KVa. In my day at college, new students were referred to as ‘freshers’ rather than ‘freshmen/women’ so I was ready to accept that ‘freshman’ might be more common on the other side of the Pond. As Tim C observes, Chambers sees no difference. Wikipedia, however, whilst not an infallible source, does note a difference:

    Freshman is commonly in use as a US English idiomatic term to describe a beginner or novice, someone who is naive, a first effort, instance, or a student in the first year of study (generally referring to high school or university study).

    Students at the beginning of their first year of university are often known in England and Wales as freshers; however, the term ‘first years’ is also used. The first week of term before lessons is widely known as freshers’ week

    Lots to like here, which is just what I have come to expect of a Solomon. Faves inc CUT THROAT, WHISTLE, REHEARSAL, EXIST, HOME, ARISTOTLE, HIBERNATE, ORBIT, RAREBIT and MIGHT.

    Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs

17. I thought the gender-neutral “fresher” was a relatively recent coinage – we were definitely freshmen when I was a new undergraduate at male-dominated Cambridge in 1972 – but the OED’s earliest citation is from 1875, with several others from the 19th century.

18. GDU @1 & Tim C @3; ref SCRAMBLED, I believe the distinction is between ‘climbs’ that really should be performed using rock climbing gear and appropriate protection in the form of wedges, chocks etc and ‘scrambles’ which frankly just require a decent pair of boots and a degree of common sense. Scrambling is certainly a step up from hiking/mountain-walking, though. You would almost certainly need to use both hands and feet to ascend a scramble. The North Ridge of Tryfan in Snowdonia and Striding Edge on Helvellyn in the Lake District are two of the UK’s best known scrambles.

19. Thanks Turbolegs

    4ac: Collins 2023 p 495 gives cut adj 51 Brit a slang word for drunk. The meanings as an adjective start at number 45.

    13ac: Expanding on Frankie@11, we need the plural of “units” to get FEET, so the S in the answer must come from “small” in the clue.

    21ac: I am not happy with “Radiohead” = “first letter of the broken clue word Radio”, although I know a lot of people positively like this device. Thanks Solomon for the rest of the puzzle.

    28ac: I hope Martyn will be pleased to see a Cockney indicator given here, although he may not like the actual choice. Further to Frankie@13, Chambers 2016 p 1637 gives tit for tat as “a hat, usu shortened to titfer (Cockney rhyming slang)”.

    18dn: I agree with Tim C@4.

    I have commented in the past about the idea that a daily crossword should be capable of solution on the train into work, an idea that seems to have died some time ago. In fact, today I solved this on a local train on the way to do some shopping. I will not say where I got on, as that would give an absolute solving time, but I finished just in time to hear the announcement that we were arriving at Birmingham New Street.

20. Re 28(ac), I can see how “dummy” = TIT, i.e. an idiot; “supporting” = FOR; “rubbish” = TAT.
    So that’s the origin of the rhyming slang TITFER…… a hat in Spitalfields, ( Cockney ).
    But where’s the definition of the actual solution, “tit-for-tat”, as such, i.e. to retaliate in equal measure?
    Or…am I the dummy?

21. ENB re 28ac: Possibly the enumeration would have been better as (3,3,3), that is separate words not hyphenated. As well as Chambers cited in comment 19, SOED 2007 p 3276 gives “hat” as a meaning for the unabbreviated expression tit for tat.

22. Thanks Solomon for a thoroughly enjoyable crossword. My top picks were CUT-THROAT, WHISTLE, HOMER, ORBIT, and STILL LIFE. I had no idea how to parse NO SWEAT but the crossers and definition made that the obvious answer. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

23. Pelham@21
    Thanks, but I still don’t see how that clue works, on any level. It’s a mess.
    There’s no definition.

24. ENB @23: there is a definition. The definition is Hat in Spitalfields. As PB has said, TIT FOR TAT is the original Cockney rhyming slang for hat and Spitalfields is serving as the Cockney indicator. With only three other words in the clue, each of which you have correctly parsed, I fail to see how the clue fails to work, let alone on any level. It is far from being a mess.

25. I thought very fun and fair. Except my own mistake where I put in straddled to get on a bike thinking that was some British thing meaning exhausted as a double def (as an American I’m always guessing what British slang could be). And then couldn’t get 24d as MIGHT with a d starting letter.

26. Thanks PostMark@24. I hope it will help if I point out that not all rhyming slang is used in the abbreviated form. We had Brahms and Liszt two days ago, which I can only remember hearing in the full form. While I would usually expect to hear titfer, I accept that, like everyone else on this forum, my own experience of the English language does not cover every word or phrase in every possible meaning. I can readily accept that tit for tat in full is actually used by at least some Cockneys. This is supported by Chambers and SOED, and therefore “hat in Spitalfields” is a valid definition for the answer.

27. I am pretty aligned with what Tony S@22 wrote. I went with cryptic as the parsing for 22 but, like Tony, I had to rely on the crossers to get the answer in the first place.

    Thanks for the mention PB@19. I would have been happy to see a cockney indicator in 28ac had I understood it. I do not know that area of London very well, but I have been to Spitalfields at least once. I must admit, I thought it was part of the city rather than the east end (mistakenly I am sure), and I remember the area being full of people a crossword setter would describe as “U”, with cockneys very thin on the ground. Another clue solved from the crossers alone!

    Thanks Solomon for a very solid puzzle and thanks Turbolegs for an excellent blog

28. I found this hard though did manage to finish successfully. Too much puzzling parsing for my liking.

    Congratulations to all those who completed on a short train journey

29. Late night solve, no trains involved.. needed the blog for parsing of EXIST, and the DAD to DDA trick, pop certainly fooled me… whereas Prince Andrews’ comeuppance was , I felt, plain enough…
    I’d add that Spitalfields was 1 of the great markets of London, for meat, back in the days before clingfilm, and as such was crammed full of workers using all the rhyming slang you’d ever need and a few extra… I put TIT-FER to begin with until SUPERHERO asserted itself… certainly tit-FOR-tat sounds all wrong, but accept those are the actual words… I’ve definitely heard Brahms used on its own to signify a good night out, usually prefaced with ‘well’ or ‘proper’..
    Thanks Solomon n turbolegs

30. Undrell@29: Thank you for the information about Spitalfields and the use of Brahms on its own. I am usually ready to take statements along the lines “I have heard” as worthwhile evidence, whereas, to me, a statement “I have never heard” is merely absence of evidence, not evidence that the word or phrase is never used. I hope it was sufficiently clear that I was applying that standard to my own experience.

    Edit: I meant to add that I have checked my solving time from the previous Solomon three weeks before this one, which I solved at home, and it was less than the duration of my train journey yesterday.

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