Financial Times 17,986 by JASON

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,986 by JASON”

1. Just the right level of challenge from Jason today.
   Likes included MEMO, IN USE, TOME, SQUIB and, most of all NUTMEG (something I also enjoy on the pitch).
   I know what Loonapick means about 8a and was unsure myself. I also wondered at ‘pepper’ ‘causing sparkle’ but the blog cleared that one up nicely (which should read MINT for ‘coin’, by the way).
   Thanks for the entertainment, Jason, and Loonapick for the blog.

2. I liked it. Most clues went pretty quickly but a few required some pondering. I agree with Loonapick on Carafe. I think of a cafe having a buffet, but not being a buffet. That said, it appears that they both mean a snack bar. Thanks Jason and great job by Loonapick!

3. Speedily completed this morning on the Laotian border, Northern Thailand. I too was unconvinced by Carafe, my LOI. But enjoyable and quick (by my standards).

4. CARAFE was one of my last in, too, but otherwise very enjoyable, thank you.

   Thank you to Jason and loonapick.

5. [Intriguing Moly, would that be Nong Khai? Must be hotting up!]

6. TBH, I did not think too hard re buffet/cafe: a station buffet is a cafe of sorts. It wouldn’t have been difficult to select another word, given the surface.

   Diane @1: I think the issue with PEPPERMINT is the link word, ‘causing’. I’m of the school that believes wordplay might ’cause’ a definition but definition does not ’cause’ wordplay. The directionality is important. Same thing with linkers like ‘for’, ‘from’ and ‘of’. However, there are plenty of folk who don’t see any issue with directionality and are happy for the solution to cause the wordplay which is what is happening here. It did take me a while to get my head around it; it’s that sneaky use of ‘a’= PER.

   OPENWORK, RESTRAINED and RACECOURSE my faves.

   Thanks Jason and loonapick

7. I agree that this was over too quickly, but I do always prefer elegant to difficult if choice there must be. The four-letter words on the leriphery were mostly straightforward, which sped things along.

   And yes, CARAFE was my last in, and I’m glad that I’m not the only one with quibbles. Note that if we’re using US English to justify CAFE = BUFFET, then it’s still iffy. While you do sometimes see a snack bar being called a cafe, a buffet here is by definition self-service: food is laid out for you to put on your plate as you please (in restaurant settings, usually you’re charged a lump sum in advance). By contrast, the “cafe” snack bar will always be a staffed counter at which to order individual items.

8. 30A was new to me. It may be my dirty mind but using the word “nut” for the target of a kick between a man’s legs sounds awfully painful to me.

9. Yes, Postmark@6, sneaky ‘a’ as you say. It catches me out often as not.

10. Hi Diane @ 5
    I’m in Chiang Khong and cross the border tomorrow morning for a leisurely trip down the Mekong.

    It’s mid 30s centigrade and humid.

    49 years since I was last in Thailand.😳.

    Will download my crossword before leaving.

    I take a screenshot, save as a photo and then edit to write in the answers . Much better than the app.

11. I started like a hare, finished like a tortoise, having run into a few ?s.
    CARAFE is not great, and “exploit” would have suited me better than “manipulate” for MILK, 23(ac).
    PostMark@6 is bang on the mark, for me, about directionality in the clue syntax. When I started as a solver, not long ago, this “inaccuracy” often flummoxed me; but it seems to be common practice. It obviously makes the setter’s job less taxing. I’ve come to expect it.
    I maintain, that 24(ac) is much more pleasing than 3(d).

    NUTMEG ( in the football sense) is a queer one, with some dubious suggested origins; ( e.g. rhyming slang).
    Based on the history of the nutmeg trade [“Nathaniel’s Nutmeg” ( Giles Milton) is a recommended read], there were so many frauds perpetrated by suppliers, that “being nutmegged” meant ” being suckered and made to look an ass”; nutmeg being incredibly expensive to import.
    Sort of sounds like that fits the bill.

    Lots of good stuff in this puzzle, particularly “one of a random trio” = TOM.

    Cheers, Jason & loonapick

12. [Ah, you must find it very changed, Moly! If it’s that hot and humid with it, you’re very wise to take the slow boat option down the Mekong. Enjoy and good luck with tomorrow’s puzzle!]

13. I did pause briefly over cafe = buffet, but justified it like Postmark@6 as a buffet on a train or station where you are served food and drink by someone behind the counter.
    What I can’t quite see is mere = nothing better. Could someone explain please?
    Thanks, Jason and loonapick.

14. I also started off at a great pace and finished slowly. There were three or four clues that I guessed from the crossers that completely flummoxed me otherwise due to a lack of the needed GK and some tricky parsing.

    I am with everyone above on CARAFE

    All in all, enjoyable if slightly unusual. Thanks Jason and loonapick

15. Thanks Jason and Loonapick

    10ac: Chambers 2016 p 956 gives us mere¹ adj “only what is said and nothing else, nothing more, nothing better”. Perhaps something like “that essay is worth a mere grade C” rather than a better grade.

16. Thanks, Pelham Barton, I can see that better now. I still can’t think of an example where they can be directly substituted for one another.

17. I suppose if you change the order in your example (…worth a mere grade C / worth a grade C, nothing better) it just about works.

18. Same quibbles as everyone else with CARAFE, and agree that exploit would have been better than manipulate.

    Also dubious about Pretty = Clever.

    M favourite today IN USE

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