Financial Times 17,952 by Julius

by

Puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 18, 2025

Once again Julius gives us a masterpiece of a crossword puzzle with half the grid holding terms related to Donald Trump and his second inauguration as POTUS.

picture of the completed grid

Some answers blast it out, notably 6 – 23 (CONVICTED FELON) while others may relate loosely or perhaps even coincidentally such as 17 (ICICLE) given that the ceremony was originally to be held outdoors and has now been moved indoors thanks to bad weather.  I have coloured all the answers that I can spot doing their part.  And I would not be suprised if I have missed one or two.

My first-in was 12 (EGG TIMERS) and 5a (ONCOST) my last.  My favourite clue is 21 (HARRIS) and I also applaud 1d (VICE PRESIDENT), 10 (MISMANAGEMENT) and 22 (EASY CHAIR),

Congratulations and many thanks to Julius.

ACROSS
1 VILLAIN
Sick, boring, conceited malevolent guy (7)
ILL (sick) in (boring) VAIN (conceited)
5 ONCOST
Firms sadly not covering overhead expense (6)
COS (firms) in (covering) anagram (sadly) of NOT. ‘Oncost’ is a new word to me.
8 COMPENDIA
Digests clinic’s last dopamine shot (9)
[clini]C + anagram (shot) of DOPAMINE
9 NAHUM
Visiting John, a humble prophet (5)
Hidden word (visiting). Nahum is a minor prophet in the Bible.
11 PLEAT
Nice not having hospital fold (5)
PLEA[san]T (nice not having hospital)
12 EGG TIMERS
Kitchen helpers with hourglass figures? (3,6)
Cryptic definition
13 ENTIRELY
Hospital department on which I depend wholly (8)
ENT (hospital department, i,e. Ear, Nose and Throat) + I (I) + RELY (depend)
15 UTOPIA
First-class President of the United States to retire down south, in an ideal world (6)
AI (first-class) + POTUS (President of the United States) to retire (backwards) with the ‘S’ (south) removed (down)
17 ICICLE
Here in Paris occasionally called ‘stalactite’ (6)
ICI (here in Paris) + C[a]L[l]E[d]
19 VENDETTA
Very last letter from Greece describing tense blood-feud (8)
V (very) + END (last) + T (tense) in (describing) ETA (letter from Greece)
22 EASY CHAIR
Piece of furniture having hackneyed appearance, according to Spooner (4,5)
Spoonerism of “Cheesey Air” (hackneyed appearance)
23 FENCE
Build a barrier around marshland church (5)
FEN (marshland) + CE (church)
24 TIARA
Soup from Romanian city that’s fit for a princess? (5)
TI[miso]ARA. I got seriously side-tracked on this clue as a result of googling to find that Romania has a tradition soup called tiara. I figured that this had to be the soup in question. But that left ‘city’ dangling so it could hardly be right. Thankfully, my solving buddy BC started by looking in an atlas instead to find the Romainian city of Timisoara (which I had actually heard of) and spotted the miso in hiding.
25 REPULSIVE
Horrible, evil, super disgusting (9)
Anagram (horrible) of EVIL SUPER. Conceivably it could be that ‘horrible’ is the definition and ‘disgusting’ the anagram indicator.
26 STATES
Affirms second art gallery close to Thames (6)
S (second) + TATE (art gallery) + [Thame]S
27 TONIGHT
Later this evening, little ‘un nearly tucked in (7)
NIGH (nearly) in (tucked in) TOT (little ‘un’).  This was how I saw the clue originally but now that someone had offered a difference parsing  (see comment 15) I am wondering if I have it right.  The word order suggest that whatever “little ‘un” clues is what should be “tucked in”.
DOWN
1 VICE PRESIDENT
Politician isn’t perceived badly (4,9)
Anagram (badly) of ISNT PERCEIVED
2 LAMBENT
Lady Caroline went topless, looking radiant (7)
LAMB (Lady Caroline) + [w]ENT
3 AGENT
Spy on chap last seen in Russia (5)
[Russi]A + GENT (chap)
4 NED KELLY
Notorious criminal, leading member of Bush family? (3,5)
Cryptic definition.  (Do I have this right?)
5 ORANGE
Royal family’s gold coach seen in north London (6)
OR (gold) + ANGE (coach seen in north London, referring to Ange Postecoglou, the manager of Tottenham Hotspur)
6 CONVICTED
Tory struggled to accept court reached guilty verdict (9)
CON (Tory) + CT (court) in (to accept) VIED (struggled)
7 SCHLEPP
Drag school the French quietly pressure (7)
SCH (school) + LE (the French) + P (quietly) + P (pressure)
10 MISMANAGEMENT
MAGA meme isn’t working, Bannon finally admitted incompetence (13)
[Banno]N in (admitted) anagram (working) of MAGA MEME ISNT
14 RELUCTANT
Cut antler off? Not keen! (9)
Anagram (off) of CUT ANTLER
16 DECREPIT
Worn out TV presenter broadcasting tripe (8)
DEC (TV presenter, of Ant and Dec) + anagram (broadcasting) of TRIPE
18 INSTANT
Social medium not censoring content for the moment (7)
INSTA (social medium) + N[o]T (not censoring content). “Insta” is a nickname for Instagram.
20 TANKING
Beat man having spectacular failure (7)
TAN (beat) + KING (man)
21 HARRIS
Sirrah! Get thee north to the source of the Tweed! (6)
SIRRAH backwards (get thee north)
23 FELON
Criminal following tech gazillionaire (5)
F (following) + ELON (gazillionaire, i.e. Musk)

23 comments on “Financial Times 17,952 by Julius”

  1. A lovely puzzle and a good way to spend Saturday afternoon.

    Favourites included: VILLAIN, PLEAT, ENTIRELY, LAMBENT, SCHLEPP, DECREPIT (because Ant and Dec do broadcast tripe) FELON (just because he should be)

    Thanks Julius and Pete Maclean

  2. Agree this was a gem, with the raw invective of 1 and 25 my favourites.

    Away from the politics, I loved the gold coach seen in north London.

    Thanks Julius and Pete.

    PS I do welcome the switch to end of weekend blogs.

  3. I suspect that NAHUM is deliberate too – it’s a book that writes of the fall of an empire (Assyria, the city of Nineveh) in fairly scathing terms. It’s either a book of prophecy – he’s a minor prophet – or history. (Yes, I’ve read it)

    Thank you to Pete MacLean and Julius.

  4. ‘A masterpiece of a crossword puzzle’, indeed. Julius must have felt satisfied to get that off his chest.

    Apart from the theme, my favourites were COMPENDIA, EGG TIMERS, UTOPIA, VICE PRESIDENT,LAMBENT, DECREPIT and FELON. ORANGE would have been another if I’d been able to parse it – but I didn’t know the coach.

    Many thanks to Julius and to Pete.

  5. I hope Julius does not lose any fans by going political. I am happy to say I enjoyed the puzzle and remain a fan.

    Thanks for the help parsing ORANGE. I am afraid UK soccer managers are not my strong point – indeed I was convinced manager and coach are different roles. Not so, it seems.

    I do not have much to add to comments from Pete and the other contributors, beyond nominating MISMANAGEMENT as the best clue of many beauties

    Thanks Julius and Pete

  7. Quite a lot of GK needed for this one, some of which I didn’t know (Timisoara and Ange) and the politics passed me by with a loud whooshing sound. But HARRIS made me laugh, forsooth!

  8. Martin@5 when I were a lad football clubs had managers. Coaches were either junior members of staff who might look after, say, the youth team; or vehicles to get the team to the game.

    That’s softened a bit, so that while Ange would be the Spurs manager, he might also be called the head coach. Spurs would also employ a whole host of other coaches, rather more than was the case before football got rich.

    Perhaps fair to say that all managers are (head) coaches but not all coaches are managers.

  9. [9a: Trump tweeting on the John. 22a: CHEESY AIR – today in the White House, if he serves guests his favourite Big Macs.
    23a FENCE – to keep out Mexicans. 4d: A 6d/23d among fellow Republican Presidents.]
    L2i: 24a TI[miso]ARA, then 5d (AGENT) ORANGE. [I’m a Gooner] Great fun! 😀

  10. Glad we didn’t spot the theme; we hear enough of you know who without him cropping up in crosswords. This was just a straightforward solve as far as we were concerned.
    Thanks, Julius and Pete M.

  11. I thought there was a rule of no politics!!!!!!!!! it’s broken down and I don’t appreciate the deprivation of our elected people especially with the glee exhibited by some commenters above. We keep out of therir underwear.

  12. I often see setters making fun of uk politicians with surface that has made fun of Norris Johnson or Teresa may or Tories or labour. I see politics quite often usually handed out to whomever is in power. A general send up of politicians of all stripes is good fun to me

  13. My first FT puzzle, I have been trying to learn the art in other newspapers’.
    I found this easier than the fare served up in the Guardian and Times.
    Is this because:
    1. The FT is easier than the Guardian and the Times?
    2. The Saturday FT is a deliberately easy one every week?
    3. This was unusually easy for an FT?
    4. I got lucky

    Thanks to Pete and Julius

  15. Many thanks for the explanations — the first ever grid I solved fully by myself. Alternate parsing for TONIGHT:

    Later this evening, little ‘un nearly tucked in (7)
    ONE (nearly “one”/“‘un”) in (tucked in) TIGHT (little)

  17. Brian L, Thank you for commenting. Looking back at this clue now leads me to think that I may have it wrong. Ned Kelly was a bushranger and one of eight children in what might be called a “bush family” but I do not see how he could be called a leading member of it. The clue does not seem to work convincingly. Why the capital ‘B’ in bush?

    Can anyone see something in this clue that I have missed?

  19. Thank you Pete Maclean@17. I see that Ned was the eldest son of the family and also became the leader of the criminal gang, so that might be it.

  20. Pete @17 I took “family” as the criminal gang like the mafia, and Bush for the outback . Maybe the capital B was just to mislead us with reference to the Bush family of presidents.

  21. Thanks for your blog, dear Pete, and thanks to those who have left a comment.
    My intended parsing for NED KELLY is precisely as Roz @20 has it. Fair to say that the reference to the Bush family is shoe-horned in for thematic padding and I wouldn’t have written the clue that way without that set of circumstances. It’s not a classic.
    best wishes to all, Rob /Julius.

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