Financial Times 18176 by STEERPIKE

13 comments on “Financial Times 18176 by STEERPIKE”

1. 

   grantinfreo

   #1 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 02:21

   
   

   From hairy little thing to lens cover, the eyelid is very useful. You could also have passage to the unconscious, aisle id, or ego cover, or even ego deal (a lid = a deal of dope — Tracy Ullman did a great skit about it). Dont mind me, just riffing. Found this went down pretty quick, smooth and digestible, thanks Steerpike and loona.

2. 

   Geoff Down Under

   #2 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 02:31

   
   

   A rare occasion when I have no “Huh?” list and no quibbles. And furthermore, no NHOs. I’d even heard of FACTOTUM, a word that I occasionally throw into conversations.

   Good fun today.

3. 

   grantinfreo

   #3 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 03:04

   
   

   … or was it an eyebrow, the hairy little thing the other day …? Can’t remember now …

4. 

   Tony Santucci

   #4 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 04:19

   
   

   Thanks Steerpike for a very good crossword. I enjoyed many of the clues including EYELID, COPYCAT, PROTOCOL, AFLOAT, EMPEROR, BURNT OFFERING, and OVERALL. I couldn’t parse OPTICIAN, thanks loonapick for the help.

5. 

   Jay

   #5 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 04:49

   
   

   Enjoyed the puzzle—thanks Steerpike! My favorites were PERPETUATE (nice to see the inclusion of our South American neighbor) and LIKEN (Lichens do not get enough love). Great blog by Loonapick too!

6. 

   Geoff Down Under

   #6 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 05:07

   
   

   I always pronounced it “liken” and assumed that when anyone rhymed it with “kitchen” they were wrong. But I heard Sir David Attenborough say it this way once, so I assumed it was a lesser-used alternative. I just checked it in Collins on-line and they do have the alternative some way down the page in phonetics. But click on the accompanying audio icon and you still hear “liken” — apparently an error with their site.

7. 

   grantinfreo

   #7 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 05:14

   
   

   Liken was my loi; stared at its crossers dumbly then groaned aloud when it finally emerged from the primeval neural swamp.

8. 

   James P

   #8 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 06:30

   
   

   Clever stuff well elucidated by the blog.

9. 

   PostMark

   #9 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 07:57

   
   

   FREELANCER, as highlighted by our blogger, was the one that gave me problems at the end. Although I had all the crossers, without that first letter and with the possibility the setter was trying to cryptically define a muscle or similar as ‘contractor’, I could not assemble the various moving parts. COPYCAT, SENTIMENTS, TABLEAU, EMPEROR, OPTICIAN and BURNT OFFERING were my faves in a nicely constructed puzzle.

   Thanks Steerpike and loonapick

10. 

    Martyn

    #10 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 08:40

    
    

    What PM@8 wrote. I also agree with loonapick – several of these were tough to parse

    Thanks Steerpike and loonapick

11. 

    Jack Of Few Trades

    #11 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 11:11

    
    

    Good, honest fun. When thinking (incorrectly) about countries bordering Spain I realised that, apart from the obvious Portugal and France, there are also Andorra and Morocco, courtesy of the little exclaves it maintains there (quietly, whenever it complains about the British exclave of Gibralter…).

    Several neatly formed anagrams by including/excluding one letter led to very smooth surfaces.

    Thanks Steerpike and loonapick.

12. 

    Funsize

    #12 - Thu 2nd Oct 25, 12:53

    
    

    Delighted to finish this is two sittings (morning coffee and lunchtime distraction). Loved the BURNT OFFERING and it really opened up the right hand side for me.

    I hadn’t noticed before that Rome backwards bookends the word EMPEROR. Must be a good clue in there somewhere.

    Like others, LIKEN was my last one in. Don’t know where the answer came from because the crossers were no help.

13. 

    Layman

    #13 - Fri 3rd Oct 25, 08:11

    
    

    A great puzzle, favourites OGRESS and AFLOAT. I didn’t at first realise that Steerpike is the setter (doing his/her puzzle for the first time) and started to look it up in the dictionary… Thanks Steerpike, and loonapick for the parsings!

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