Financial Times 17,922 by SLORMGORM

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,922 by SLORMGORM”

1. I had a blind spot and didn’t register “flying” as an anagram indicator so SHOPPING CENTRE was the only one I didn’t parse. Otherwise a steady solve.

2. I also like Slormgorm’s puzzles for their great surfaces. I found this an enjoyable crossword with a few challenging clues. And a great blog

   1ac was a cracker of an anagram, and I also ticked ALTER, ELBOW, LIMBO, RELEASE

   26 – I am always misled by “without” to mean outside. Nice clue. INAMORATA was a jorum.

   Thanks Cineraria for explaining why Troy = T. Todd or Tod remains a mystery to me and I am not sure how SHOPPING CENTRE is “one with many branches”. Is OVERSUP a word outside crossword land, and in ERATO is a spy is a rat now?

   Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria

3. Martyn @2, Chambers has Tod originating in rhyming slang as in Tod Sloan = Own. I’d say it’s fairly commonly understood. I originated in the north of England and can remember using the phrase “on one’s tod” a lot. I’ve never seen it spelled as Todd which seems to be an alternative spelling for tod = fox rather than the meaning in this clue.

4. Martyn@2: The tenants of a SHOPPING CENTRE are usually the many branch outlets of chain stores.
   OVERSUP was new to me (and probably a UK-only usage?). Likewise “on one’s tod.”
   I suppose a spy could be a clandestine informant, thus plausibly within the “rat” category.

5. Very enjoyable and, yes, with some lovely surfaces. OVERSUP was LOI and entered somewhat tentatively. I’m certainly familiar with ‘on one’s tod’ but have never heard of the rhyming slang or seen it spelled with a double D. The two long anagrams for BANANA REPUBLIC and SHOPPING CENTRE share top marks for me today with the lovely CARDSHARP making up the podium although I was mildly surprised to find it’s one word.

   Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria

6. [28a ATTIC also with italic misdirections to the two movies: Troy (2004, no longer a teenager), and Room at the Top (1959, of pensionable age).]

7. A very fine puzzle, which I enjoyed immensely.

   I’m not so keen on OVERSUP, or WARDOGS, sort of “strained” words, ‘though legitimate.
   No problem with TROY=T, as in the measure of weight, used mainly these days by the gold markets, I think. If you invest in gold, be careful whether you’re buying in “normal” ounces, or Troy ounces ( oz t ); as I once found to my cost.

   TODD or TOD? Sorry, Slormgorm, not a double-D in sight.
   Tod Sloan, a celebrated American jockey in the late 1800s, was the Lester Piggott of his day. Very similar riding styles actually….”monkey up a stick”.
   Equally famous in England as the US. Some say, Mr. Sloan was a solitary soul, hence the rhyming slang, but not so…he was a bit of a womaniser in fact.
   My theory is that the Cockneys found a humorous take on his autobiography, “TOD SLOAN by Himself”.

   In 8(down), CANASTA, I didn’t know the use of CAN for behind, so assumed it was …..Ameri [CAN], viz, the backside of the word. My bad.

   All-in-all, an accomplished puzzle, lots to like, and a nice difficulty level.
   cheers, Slormgorm & Cineraria

8. E.N.Boll&@7: I think your parsing for CANASTA is also plausible, but the one in the blog is more conventional.
   Thanks for the background on “tod.”

9. Thanks Slormgorm and Cineraria

   13ac: I thought the duplication of “war” in the definition and answer was unfortunate.
   22ac: oversup is in Collins 2023 (p 1425), defined as “to eat or drink too much”. I could not find it in either Chambers 2016, ODE 2010, or SOED 2007. If I missed it in any of the printed volumes, I will be glad to be put right.

10. I echo the views that this was a pleasant and entertaining puzzle, without any serious difficulties.
    The only thing which gave me pause was whether 6d should be “undertone” or “undernote”, both of which fit, obviously. I decided that undertone was preferable, though I wasn’t helped by the fact that Chambers gives a meaning of undernote as “undertone”(!), so I guess either would be defensible.

11. Thanks to Slormgorm and Cineraria for an enjoyable solve. Lots to like, though I have never heard of CAN as US slang for “behind” before, despite living in the States for 39 years, though it does appear in the dictionary. That said, I really like the alternative parsing offered by ENBoll&.

    What’s a Jorum and its origin ? I’ve seen it before but not familiar with the term.

12. Despite Chambers, I think that “garage” as a music genre probably refers to electronic dance music (cf. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garage_house) rather than rock – especially in a UK crossword.

13. 14ac further to SetSquare@12: Chambers 2016 gives the following:
    p 627 garage a type of unsophisticated rock music; a form of house music (qv)
    p 739 house music a type of electronically produced dance music with a strong 4-4 beat, often incorporating edited fragments of other recordings.

    PM@5 while I am back in: I suspect on your tod is one of those phrases that has become widespread in the language, and in the process its origins in rhyming slang have been lost. I was naturally inclined to spell it with a double D at the end until a previous occasion on which it appeared on this site, when I learned the correct spelling of Tod Sloan’s name.

    JKtiffin@11: for Jorum, see the FAQs page on this website. This can be found through the menu at the top of the page.

14. Aha! On your tod is rhyming slang (without an indicator again). No wonder I was flummoxed. I will endeavour to remember it.

    I guess whether a SHOPPING CENTRE is full of branches depends on how you see a shopping centre. I imagine the term as describing what the Americans call a strip mall. Sounds like others think of it as what the Americans call a shopping mall. I am not claiming it is wrong, just mentioning that I interpreted the expression differently the setter. Thank you for the steer.

    And, now you mention it, I think CAN to mean behind is new to me too.

    Thanks again everyone

15. I enjoyed this one which I completed fairly quickly other than my last four clues, which took pretty much as long as the rest of the puzzle. I felt oversup and wardogs were both a bit strained and wasted my time; the former doesn’t appear in my dictionary. And the automatic spellcheck as I type in this comment marks both with red underlinings as if they are non-words.

    Thanks to all.

16. JKtiffin@11: answer to your question is in FAQ

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