Financial Times 17,977 by PETO

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,977 by PETO”

1. FANCY-FREE (my take)
   Def 1: Not emotionally involved with anyone
   WP: (to) like=FANCY
   Frank=FREE

2. KVa@1, yeah, I agree with that.

3. So loo is a game of cards? Who’d’ve thunk it? Never heard of PADELLA, and couldn’t parse it.

   Everything else fell into place and engendered enjoyment.

4. 24a: The funny thing is this could also resolve as TAKE FLOOR, which is what a speaker does when in charge.

   20a: Not sure about “using” as an anagrind.

   But a good puzzle and a bit harder tham normal PETO. Thanks both!

5. PADELLA was a bit of a guess and Chambers has it as a type of candle but other dictionaries note the frying pan for which the word is the Italian translation. Thanks to KVa for FANCY FREE which makes sense. I thought ‘letter’ = MU without any reference to Greek, ancient or even foreign was a bit tough and I’d have liked a qualifier for ‘gin’ which is an example of a trap. SEEDY, RESERVE and CARRIAGE my podium today.

   Thanks PETO and Teacow

6. I’d parsed FANCY FREE as KVa, I also only found the candle definition of PADELLA but it parsed, I didn’t, but should have, parsed PROTEAN.

   I’d agree with tougher than expected for Monday.

   Thank you to Peto and Teacow

7. LOi and NHO 20a PADELLA – Etymology: < Italian padella < Latin patella flat pan or dish (aka “Two girls, one on each knee (7)” – Rufus@29).
   [Cf. PAELLA – Etymology: < Spanish paella < Catalan paella pan] — TiLTs.

8. Thanks Peto and Teacow

   20ac: When solving on the bus, I took “frying” as the anagram lead and took it on trust that “pan” would be a valid definition. Having read the blog and comments, I am happy about the definition: I call this type of clue a definition with helpful wordplay, but I think it is the same thing as others call an extended definition. There is perhaps some redundancy in “using lead frying” for the anagram, but there is also redundancy in the phrase “mythical god” in 16dn, so my parsing may have been Peto’s intention.

9. I thought FANCY-FREE might be a double/cryptic definition, taking “frank” in the sense of “direct” or “without illusion,” but KVa@1 is plausible and probably the intended parsing.

10. Like Cineraria@9 (I think) I parsed FANCY FREE as definition ‘not emotionally involved with anyone’ and ‘like frank’ = ‘honest / straightforward / free from fancy’, but I think KVa@1’s take on it is better.
    Thanks Peto and Teacow.

11. I parsed 11a, FANCY-FREE, as Cineraria@9 did, but KVa@1’s explanation makes good sense.

    Thanks to Peto for an excellent and reasonably challenging puzzle and to Teacow for an excellent blog.

12. I found this tricky for Monday, not least because of a several unknown / unsure words (eg Padella, Protean Strophe). Like Lynx@4, I also had an Hold Floor in 24 across after my first pass. until the Down clues ruled it out.

    Agree with KVa on Fancy Free.

    Didn’t much like Padella clue

    Thanks

13. Thanks Teacow

    I agree it was not easy, and getting to the limit of unusual words. No favourites today. PADELLA is new to me too, and I feel it needs a foreign word indicator.

    Thanks Peto and Teacow

14. Quite a challenge but we got it all in the end; not helped, though by the unfriendly grid, virtually four mini-puzzles. As for 20ac, Chambers 13th edition does have the frying pan definition, but almost as an afterthought following the candle – we had to check it after working it out from the wordplay and crossing letters.
    We parsed 4dn as in the blog, but thought afterwards that it might almost be a triple definition; as well as ‘keep’, soldiers could constitute a reserve but it’s stretching things a bit to see ‘reserve’ as ‘present’ (verb), so we’ll stick with Teacow’s parsing.
    Thanks, Peto and Teacow.

15. 20ac: Omitting the pronunciation guide, the entry on p 1105 of Chambers (either 13th or Revised 13th edition) reads in my copy:
    padella n a shallow dish of fat with a wick used in illuminations. [Ital, a frying-pan, from L. patella]
    As explained on page xv in the introductory section of the dictionary, the part in square brackets is the etymology, so the only definition given for the English word is the “candle” meaning; Chambers only gives the “frying-pan” meaning to the Italian word from which the English word is derived.
    However, Collins 2023 p 1432 gives us
    padella n 1 a type of candle 2 a frying pan or earthenware dish
    Thus the word can be used as an English word with the meaning “frying pan”, but the authority is Collins as noted by PM@5.

16. Got there OK but didn’t care much for PADELLA, FANCY-FREE, and AROMA.

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