Financial Times 18,073 by NEO

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A head-scratcher from NEO this morning.

In order to complete the puzzle, one has to know a fair amount of general knowledge, how to spell BODHISATTVA, and that "reverence"can be a verb. That apart, it wasn't an overly difficult puzzle to solve, but a challenge to parse. It took me ages to parse FOE, for example, and I'd never come across DUN as a debt collector. I also had to check that I had Arachne's story right, as I get her mixed up with Ariadne.

A fun solve, all in all, so thanks to Neo.

ACROSS
9 DUNGEON
Debt collector gone bananas in dark prison (7)

DUN ("debt collector") + *(gone) [anag:bananas]
10 ADULATE
Flatter area mature relative at last tours (7)

ADULT ("mature") + (relativ)E [at last] tours A (area)
11 DOT
Mark time following celebration (3)

T (time) after DO ("celebration")
12 LESOTHO
Country drunk inside The French House (7)

SOT ("drunk") inside LE ("the" in "french") + Ho. (house)
13 USHER
Guide Penny away from drug dealer (5)

P (penny) away from (p)USHER ("drug dealer")
14 NERVE
Sauce bottle (5)

Double definition
15 SO THERE
Sensitive about article’s defiant words? (2,5)

SORE ("sensitive") about THE ("article")
16 NYALA
Man from East lassoing unknown beast (5)

<=ALAN ("man", from east (i.e. from right to left) lassoing Y (unknown, in mathematics)
19 BODHISATTVA
Person greeting met cross-dresser, a future Buddha (11)

BOD ("person") + HI ("greeting") + SAT ("met") + TV (transvestite, so "cross-dresser") + A

In Buddhism, a bodhisattva is a person seeking perfect knowledge.
23 ANDES
Advisers must have name for island chain (5)

A(i)DES ("advisers") must have N (name) for (instead of) I (island), becoming A(N)DES
24 YOKO ONO
Artist so-so in NY spoilt with three Oscars (4,3)

OK ("so-so") in *(nyooo) where OOO is 3 x O (Oscar, in the NATO phonetic alphabet)
26 ARRAS
Hanging around in disarray (5)

Hidden backwards [around in] "siSARRAy"
28 PERIL
After two school lessons 50 in danger (5)

L (50, in Roman numerals) after PE (physical education) and RI (religious instruction)
30 HANDLER
Name right for dogged copper? (7)

HANDLE ("name") + R (right)
31 FOE
No friend is false did you say? (3)

Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [did you say] of FAUX ("false")
32 RAGDOLL
Dog dancing in short demonstration for cat (7)

*(dog) [anag:dancing] in [short] RALL(y) ("demonstration")
33 ARACHNE
Weaver a Romeo spots astride husband (7)

A + R (Romeo, in the NATO phonetic alphabet) + ACNE ("spots") astride H (husband)

In Greek mythology, Arachne was a mortal who dared challenge Athena to a weaving contest.
DOWN
1 IDOLISE
Reverence vain lookers delivered? (7)

Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [delivered] of IDLE EYES ("vain lookers")

I had to check that "reverence" can also be a verb.
2 AND SO TO BED
Unfortunately absent dodo’s famous last words (3,2,2,3)

*(absent dodos) [anag:unfortunately]

Samuel Pepys used to sign off his diary entries with the words, "and so to bed".
3/18 WET THE BABY’S HEAD
Hey Debs! With 7 5 endlessly foul, celebrate birth? (3,3,5,4)

*(hey debs bath wate) [anag:foul] where 7 5 is the solution to 7dn and 5dn with WATE being [endlessly] WATE(r)

4 INDONESIA
Singles in Modi’s land or Subianto’s? (9)

ONES ("singles") in INDIA ("Modi's land")

Narendra Modi is the prime mInister of India, while Prabowo Subianto is president of Indonesia.
6 HUGUENOT
Sir with this Protestant potentially unrighteous? (8)

*(unrightoeus) is [potentially] an anagram of SIR HUGUENOT
7/5 BATH WATER
Is it 21 31 keeping wife in tub content? (9)

BAT ("vampire", the solution to 21dn) + HATER ("foe", the solution to 31ac) keeping W (wife)
8 HEARSAY
Gossip from listeners in dried grass (7)

EARS ("listeners") in HAY ("dried grass")
17 AYATOLLAHS
Indeed first-rate, onion upset Muslim leaders (10)

AY ("indeed") + A ("first-rate") + <=SHALLOT ("onion", upset)
20 DISALLOW
Cancel princess totally devoured by pig (8)

(Princess) DI + ALL ("totally") devoured by SOW ("pig")
21 VAMPIRE
Creature in burning heap we hear after 5 am? (7)

Homophone/pun/aural wordplay [we hear] of PYRE ("burning heap") after V (five, in Roman numerals) + a.m.
22 LOURDES
Scowl from French where miracles occur? (7)

LOUR ("scowl") + DES ("from" in "French")
25 KANSAS
Kelvin joining an elite army unit in state (6)

K (Kelvin) joining AN + SAS (Special Air Service, so "elite army unit")
27 RIFLE
Headless toy in sack (5)

(headless) (t)RIFLE ("toy")
29 RIGA
Adult female almost raised capital (4)

[raised] <=(A (adult) + GIR(l) ("female", almost))

31 comments on “Financial Times 18,073 by NEO”

  1. Fill in first, understand why later, esp 3/18 and 5/7 which are both vg. Also lower not lour in my world but not 22d: and are we really expected to know 19 a? Entertaining stuff though!

  2. Good puzzle and congrats to the blogger on working it all out. I knew dun as a verb but had to check the spelling of BODHISATTVA with my wife . It has slightly different meanings in different Buddhist schools, but describes beings who have resolved to/will become Buddhas but not yet achieved enlightenment , hence future Buddhas. They remain in this world to help others.
    Thanks Neo and loonapick

  3. Could 7/5 be BAT HATER as being a VAMPIRE FOE?
    Great puzzle and very thorough blog.
    Thank you!

  4. Ah! loonapick….” not an overly difficult puzzle to solve”.
    Reminds me of that Monty Python sketch, “What have the Romans ever done for us?”
    Apart from: Dun = debt collector, man = Alan, Lour = scowl, reverence = verb, vain = idle, ARRAS, HUGUENOT, Modi’s land/ Subianto’s, and BODHISATTVA…….”what has Neo done to make this difficult for us?”
    A very tough challenge, but also a very smart crossword. If they get any harder, I’ll be going even greyer.
    Lovely stuff + thanks, Neo & loonapick.

  5. I needed help to get the unknown BUDHISATTVA. Although all gettable, I wasn’t keen on having 3/18 depending on 7/5 which depended on 21/31. I had a question mark against the definition in 1d so thanks for the clarification loonapick.
    If you mix up Ariadne and Arachne, don’t forget the latter gave rise to the Greek for ‘spider’ which also gives rise to ‘arachnid’ and other such related words.

  6. I really enjoyed this even though there were tricky moments and yes, some GK was helpful.
    Living in Asia, I had no problem with BODHISVATTVA (though I’ve seen it spelt with one ‘t’ too) or 4d. I knew the fluffy RAGDOLL and have seen NYALA here before. I didn’t know that sense of ‘dun’ though for me, it is ‘lour’ and many here will be familiar with ARACHNE as Rosa Klebb’s other alias. Anyway, I always welcome the chance to learn new vocabulary, particularly when the parsing is as fair as it is here.
    My favourites were INDONESIA, YOKO ONO, AYATOLLAHS and SO THERE.
    Thanks to Neo for a great puzzle and to Loonapick for an equally fine blog.

  9. Thanks Neo and Loonapick

    9ac: I knew the relevant meaning of dun² – as it is marked in Chambers 2016 p 477 – as a verb. I was willing to trust Neo that the related noun was also acceptable (as it is).

    19ac: I remembered enough of the word BODHISATTVA to be able to reconstruct it with confidence from the clear wordplay.

    7dn/5dn: I took BAT HATER together as diagacht@3

    22dn: Chambers p 905 gives lour or lower in that order. Neo is clearly entitled to use either.

  10. Enjoyable and I got most of this although for 5d /7d I had HOLY Water as featured in many a Vampire movie.

    Still thanks for this it was fun, tricky to tune into at first, but fun.

  11. Missed Huguenot as I misspelled Bodhsattva with 2V rather than 2T. An easy mistake to make…… 😆

    I wonder if Dun is also gave the name to Dun & Bradstreet – a famous firm of debt collectors?

    I generally enjoyed this except for getting stuck on those last two….

  12. Thanks Neo. Except for revealing BODHISATTVA, I managed to solve this crossword although I couldn’t parse everything, not unusual for me. Favourites included DOT, SO THERE, and RIFLE. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

  13. Much fun! Some time spent unravelling the anagram chains without use of pen n paper, but happy for the mental gymnastics. Had to check the Buddhist, and the weaver, and the Indonesian, but Lourdes n foe made me smile..
    Thanks Neo n loonapick

  14. Very chewy today but we got it all in the end, with patient unpicking of the clues for HUGUENOT, AYATOLLAHS and BUDHISATTVA. Actually with the last-named we got ‘person greeting’ as bod + hi and thought ‘there can’t be many words beginning that way’ and dived into the dictionary; we saw the parsing once we had the answer. Lots more to like, with HANDLER for ‘dogged copper’ raising a smile and similarly ‘dog dancing … for cat’.
    Thanks, Neo and loonapick.

  16. This was a tough one for me with much use of chambers. But I am proud of myself and credit to neo for fair cluing that I got nearly the whole puzzle on a long train ride from New York to Boston today! Thank you all

  17. I agree with Loonapick. This puzzle had some great clues, like 10A (ADULATE) and a few that should have been taken out back and shot, like 16A (NYALA). If you start with the premise that you should be able to find the answer via the wordplay, rather than justifying an answer from the wordplay, then any clue using a man or woman’s name is a bad clue. All in all –eh!

  18. 16ac: I disagree with Jay@17 on this one. I built up the answer from the wordplay, with the two As in place and the knowledge that the first letter had to fit the anagram structure in 6dn, so the name really could only be ALAN and not ADAM.

  19. This was a hard one. I didn’t know about the cat, let alone the future Buddha. Not sure what ARRAS means, although I went to the French one. Thanks all.

  20. Oh well now you know a bit more. Thanks for popping in.

    BIFD is an acronym for ‘bunged in from definition’, coined elsewhere. From that pp, the also pseudo-verb BIFF emerged, meaning ‘to bung in from definition’. I’m sure that quite a few of my clues can be biffed, but hopefully not all of them.

    Controversial though it may seem to some, I like solvers (the clue so to speak being in the name) to do a bit of work and actually crack the clues. Not sure how biffers can truly enjoy a puzzle. It must be SO boring not bothering to engage with the compiler(s).

    I’m not necessarily suggesting that anyone here is a biffer, but I am suggesting that solving clues is more fun than biffing.

  21. Thanks for the blog , I agree with Jay @17 but only for the one clue , the rest were great . Using letters in the grid is no defence , every clue should be cold-solvable by wordplay only so names are always a pain .

  22. Yes, I’m not a biffer. (for arras, I was the opposite). I’m also not a complainer, am always grateful and was only joining in and saying how far off some of the GK I was. I’m not sure what substandard search I did last night but I now do know what an arras is. It’s nice when setters drop by. After the unreasonable comments on the Guardian thread yesterday, I wouldn’t blame you for not doing.

  24. To take Roz’s comment that every clue should be cold-solvable by wordplay only to its logical conclusion, what is the point of a crossword? One might just as well have a list of clues and write the answers on a sheet of plain paper.

  25. Neo @23 ah, yes. Very different characters from what I’ve seen! I look forward to your next challenge.

  26. Thanks for popping in, Neo. Great that you do.

    The only clues which really annoy me are those which are pretty-much totally insoluble from their word-play. And some of the setters in the FT and elsewhere seem to enjoy including those types of clues. Answers which are almost only possible to get from the definition / crossers and then you spend ages trying to understand some Byzantine wordplay.

    To my mind, that is the setter playing with the solver. “Look how clever I am with my incredibly obscure wordplay.”

  27. And thank you too, Moly, for popping in. You jumped up and bit me there, didn’t you, like an excitable little Bichon Frisé! I don’t mind really.

    For seemingly intractable wordplay encounters there’s always biffing.

    Sorry Martin btw.

  28. Roz@21: You are of course entitled to hold and express your opinions, but please do not confuse opinion with fact.

    Here is my opinion. When I solve a crossword, I do not regard it as a list of unconnected clues whose answers happen to fit together into a grid. I regard the activity as solving a connected puzzle. My idea of a perfect solve is to solve just one clue from scratch, and then work outwards using the checked letters I have already obtained to help with the clues to surrounding answers. Ideally, I will finish with a single clue where I already had all the checked letters in place: very occasionally, I do not even read this last clue until I have solved all of the others.

    It would be a very different matter if 16ac had more than one possible answer without the checked letters, and I will support the objection to the clue if anyone can demonstrate such a possible alternative.

  29. I’m with PB@28 on this. The whole point of a crossword is it’s interconnectivity. If all clues could be solved without crossing letters there would be no point to the grid.

  30. Late to the party – this was a multi-day effort for me – but had to record a comment as I only knew BODHISATTVA from the Steely Dan song so was quite delighted that Neo linked to it here. I got there in the end and enjoyed the journey hugely

  31. I only got there in the end with the FT app’s reveal capability, but looking back there’s none I think unreasonable. I particularly enjoyed the surface reading of YOKO ONO.

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