Financial Times 16,269 by JULIUS

23 comments on “Financial Times 16,269 by JULIUS”

1. Pretty easy for a Julius although I didn’t bother with 1d. Don’t know the author and too many possibilities for the anagram.

   A few errors at the early part of blog. In 1a, private is PTE. In 8a, P is for “power”.

   In 5a, I wondered whether “reviewing” was suggesting seeing an extra B? Just an idea.

   I also wonder if there is any reason for the strange overlaps with today’s Imogen in the Guardian.

   Thanks to Julius and PeeDee.

2. This was a breeze because I’d already done the Graun’s puzzle. One of those very strange coincidences.

3. I haven’t done the Guardian yet, so I do not like the above comments very much.

   This was puzzle that was a lot easier than yesterday’s Knut. That said, I had to check my last one in (15ac), a ‘word’ totally unknown to me.

   As to 5ac, it seems like a ‘mistake’ to me (but I cannot read Julius’ mind).

   Altogether, enjoyable stuff for which thanks to our setter.

   Of course, thanks too to PeeDee for blogging.

   ps, ‘European Union’ = ‘Our neighbours’?? (10d) The UK is still in it, innit?

    

4. Hi Sil, the same thought about “our neighbours” occurred to me re 10dn.  I could say my neighbours are the people in my village (even though I am one of them). So I decided that the UK’s neighbours can be the member states of the EU, even though it is one of them.

5. Thanks Julius and PeeDee

   Re 5A, if, say a book or CD is released, you could say it is reviewed/covered in some publication or other.

   I made a similar comment to Sil’s first line over on the graun page on here.

6. Yes, fairly “solver friendly” and a good way to wind down after today’s Imogen. Still, something new, as I’ve learnt that EPHEMERA is singular rather than plural as I’d always thought.

   Best bit was the association of a CHATEAUBRIAND steak with ‘a Thai bean curd’.

   Thanks to Julius and PeeDee

7. Sil, Simon. Fair point. I did try to be sufficiently vague but, in hindsight, it could be seen as a spoiler. Although I might have welcomed such before doing the Guardian that’s beside the point. Having said that, I think doing the Guardian after this you would pick up the overlaps regardless of knowing they exist beforehand. The only reason I brought it up was wondering if there was some explanation. Apologies in any case.

8. Why does pub = ph?

9. marcy, ph = public house (= pub)

10. Ahhh, thanks Sil.

11. Thanks to PeeDee for the, er, review and to those who have commented. There’s absolutely no reason other than coincidence for any similarities with another puzzle elsewhere. Regular readers of the Guardian comment threads will have seen numerous posts from my colleague Uncle Yap pointing out many instances of same-day duplication, so I don’t think it’s all that rare.

    “Reviewing” seemed OK to me at the time in the sense of “looking over” but yeah it might be a bit iffy. It’s definitely a good thing that you can’t read my mind Sil; I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

    warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius

12. Thanks to both. I spent a while trying to parse “flacid” for 5 ac. but finally settled for flabby (also unparsed).

13. As to ‘reviewing’ and how it’s meant to be seen (see comments 5 and 11), for me it feels a bit like A = B and B = C, therefore A = C.

    Totally true in mathematics but not always in crosswordland.

    But I cannot be bothered too much, I’ve seen worse kinds of indicators and as long as solvers accept them, well, then it’s fine I guess.

14. @12 john
    How could you try FLACID at 5ac when the word is FLACCID (7)

15. A little easier than yesterday’s Knut. The coincidence definitely helped me – not sure I’d seen that one before today.

    Thanks to Julius and PeeDee

16. Thanks Julius and PeeDee. I agree, this was generally easy for a Julius crossword but I was still not able to complete it because I wasn’t familiar with SITREP or CHAPTER for “some monks.” Liked the apt anagram for AMERICANO. One of my favorite “apt anagrams” is the Cox/Rathvon one for Leonard Nimoy, “I’m only a drone.”

17. I’ve probably said this before, apologies if you have seen this before, but what I like about Julius is that you can solve the entire puzzle without recourse to Google or a word wizard.

18. Now that I have done the Guardian crossword, I see what Hovis and Chalmie (and beeryhiker) meant.

    My last one in (as mentioned @3) was, of course, very helpful in that crossword (as was Julius’ 7d).

    But there the similarities stop – for me, Julius’ crossword was far more enjoyable than Imogen’s.

19. Ephemeron is the singular and rarely used.  Yes, people do also use Trivia and Phenomena as singular nouns but we don’t have to encourage them.

20. enjoyed and ice to complete effortlessly. 12a was 5 years of skiing when a student. 22a is nice, surprised I haven’t seen that anagram before. Happy to remember chateaubriand (and I remember the steak, usually for 2 – I was always delighted to find a dining companion with a preference for medium rare. Harder to find either these days)

    Many thanks julius and peedee

21. Thanks Julius and PeeDee
    This didn’t feel like I was solving a Julius puzzle for most part for some reason. Seemed much less difficult than usual and some clues that didn’t seem to have the usual depth to them – 23a, 3d, 4d, 14d. Looking back though, tge surface readung more than made up for that simplicity. Talking of surfaces – 22a was sublime.
    Finished with BOWYER (where I was initially looking for a person or company) and CHATEAUBRIAND.

22. How does fashion define ton?

23. Hi grumpy, ton is fashion in the sense of couture. It comes from the French Le Bon Ton meaning something like good form, the fashionable way.

Comments are closed.