Financial Times 18,076 by ARTEXLEN

15 comments on “Financial Times 18,076 by ARTEXLEN”

1. A very enjoyable puzzle this Monday from Artexlen. I had many ticks including FORSYTHIA (for the ‘frosty’ ground), PLACATE (surface), SPADEFUL, BABYSITS, DAUPHIN and my favourite, AUTOPSY, for its definition.
   I had to check in with Teacow to see the parsing of UNAFRAID. DAUPHIN is French for the eldest son/heir to the throne … and dolphin!
   Thanks very much, both.

2. I don’t seem to come across many puzzles by Artexlen, a shame, because they are always a pleasure – this one, no exception.
   The surfaces are clever and entertaining.
   I echo Diane@1, AUTOPSY, 15(ac), is a little gem. Also a chuckle/groan about 21(ac), “one with large bill”, PELICAN.
   The old ones are the best.
   Two petty quiblets: 19(ac), DEEP RED; feels a bit “green paint/ blue bike”, to me. 14(d), HANDCUFFED: nice idea and wordplay, but opportunities for a craftier definition than “confined”, perhaps? As I say…petty, and no detraction from an excellent puzzle, loved it.
   Thanks and thumbs-up, Art & Teacow

3. Thanks Artexlen and Teacow

   ENB@2: I take your point about DEEP RED as a grid entry. It looks to me as though Artexlen painted himself into a corner with the grid filling here. A quick scan through my copy of Chambers Back-Words for Crosswords did not reveal any seven letter word that would fit D?E?R?D. Of course, I do not claim infallibility and I may have missed one. In any case, that book was based on Chambers 1993, and I do not rule out the possibility that a more up-to-date dictionary may have such a word in it.

4. Thank you Artexlen, this was a great Monday lunchtime puzzle. Specially liked BABYSITS, FORSYTHIA, PLACATE. I too thought DEEP RED was a bit iffy. And thanks TC for the blog.

5. An excellent puzzle, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Fair, clear, no cruel trickery.

   Unafraid was my LOI.

   Thank you for explaining Deflate where I was trying to use E for East…….

   Autopsy was my favourite amongst numerous first-class clues.

6. 15ac (AUTOPSY): The anagram fodder and indicator fit beautifully here to the definition and give an excellent surface. I wonder if anyone has previously managed to think of that wordplay. The definition has certainly been used before: examples on this site range in dates from Everyman 3145 published on 7 January 2007 and blogged 14 January, at a time when blogs did not give clues in full or all of the answers, to Independent 11,913 on 14 December 2024. Of course, the old BBC rule applies: It only counts as a repeat if you saw it on a previous appearance.

   https://www.fifteensquared.net/2007/01/14/everyman-3145jan-7-%e2%80%93-polchard-and-neroli/
   https://www.fifteensquared.net/2024/12/14/independent-11913-by-bluebird/

7. PB@6 This is obscure/ unknown but I have found Djerrid, described as a javelin used in games in Muslim countries. I hope it is never used here.
   I agree about AUTOPSY, a cracking clue.

   Thanks Artexlen and Teacow

8. All solved without help although we took a while to get one or two answers, notably BABY-SITS and FORSYTHIA (despite having the latter in our garden – we didn’t see ‘ground’ as an anagrind).
   We share others’ doubts about DEEP RED and after reading PB@3 we tried D?E?R?D in Onelook, which came up with DJERRID – a traditional North African horseback javelin game; maybe Artexlen thought it too obscure for a weekday blocked puzzle and/or too difficult to clue.
   Thanks, though, to Artexlen, and of course to Teacow.

9. Thanks Artexlen for a great set of clues with my top picks being BABY-SITS, DEFLATE, PELICAN, FORSYTHIA, NEWCASTLE, ENCASED, PORTRAYS, and PLACATE. I like readable surfaces so this was right up my alley. Thanks Teacow for the blog.
   [allan_c @8: I came across another alternative to DEEP RED – – ‘diebrid’, a cross between ‘diesel’ & ‘hybrid’, a type of truck engine. It’s only in the ‘Urban Dictionary’, not exactly a reputable choice.]

10. SM@7 and allan_c@8: Thank you both for that. I have looked for djerrid in my print dictionaries and not found it. Since it does not appear to be a new word, I think that makes it too obscure to use in a puzzle in this series, which I think is agreeing with what you both said. I suppose it is just possible that Artexlen put DJERRID in to his original grid but took it out following comments either from test solvers or the FT crossword editor. I do not think it would be possible to change any of the checked letters in 19ac without substantial further alterations to the gridfill, so DEEP RED may have been the only option at that stage.

    Tony@9: Your comment appeared before I posted this. I checked the print dictionaries for diebrid and none of them had it, as you suggested. This word is presumably a fairly new word, so it could be argued that it has not had time to make it into the dictionaries, but otherwise I think similar remarks apply to DIEBRID as to DJERRID as a possible answer. Still, thank you for drawing attention to that option. I hope you do not mind me dealing with it in a separate paragraph rather than trying to redraft the previous one.

11. As the workers flag is deepest red, and there was a film called Deep Red, I think DEEP RED is enough of a familiar phrase to escape the “green car” quibble. Very nice puzzle.

12. PB@6 , superb background on AUTOPSY, enjoyed the links. I suppose the old saying holds good…..”nothing new under the sun”.
    The BBC adage is extendable, in my case: it’s only a repeat if you’ve seen it before AND you can remember it.
    Thanks also for the response and observations on DEEP RED, @3. There is a possible escape route, DJERRID, a wooden javelin thrown from horseback in a game similar to polo. Frankly, thank the Lord that Artex went for Deep Red! cheers Ian B

13. Pelham Barton @10: More on DEEP RED — from Wikipedia (another questionable source):
    ▸ noun: Deep Red, also known as The Hatchet Murders, is a 1975 Italian giallo film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Bernardino Zapponi.
    ▸ noun: a 1994 American sci-fi thriller television film directed by Craig R. Baxley, written by D. Brent Mote, and starring Michael Biehn and Lindsey Haun.
    I’ve also heard the term DEEP RED to describe the US States that always vote Republican e.g. West Virginia, Alabama, and Idaho to name a few.

14. Thanks Petert@11 and Tony@13. Names of films are usually outside my knowledge zone. I would just observe here that, if Artexlen meant to justify Deep Red as the name of a film, I would expect that to show up in the definition part of the clue. If that were the case, I would be solving from the wordplay and checked letters and taking the definition on trust. In any case, I think we have done enough between us to say that there can be no serious objection to the use of DEEP RED as a grid entry.

15. I enjoyed this. I’ve found the last two or three FT cryptics to be slow but fair solves. Maybe because I do them later in the day after depleting my solving resources on The Guardian. Anyway, this was good. I liked AUTOPSY, BABY SITS and PELICAN. As Diane often says “many ticks.”

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