Financial Times 16,758 by SLEUTH

13 comments on “Financial Times 16,758 by SLEUTH”

1. Bright and early today, Grant! This was indeed a breezy interlude over breakfast – a write-in until I got to that unknown composer at 25a for which I needed a search.
   I see what you mean about the parsing too, to wit, 27a. I presume you got the second ‘T’ from ‘tenor’?
   Anyway, much to savour in this grid, my favourite being the part of speech at 12a.
   Thanks both to Sleuth and Grant.

2. Apart from 3d, an enjoyable tussle, but who would take “amplifier” to be “speaker”? Heigh ho indeed.

3. To Diane: Oops, 1 a.m.- type slip. Ta.
   To Hovis: Quite. As a roadie might say, ‘Wedges and bins is different from amps and combos’.

4. Very enjoyable puzzle which was a quick solve . Most impressive blog. Eye rhyme was new to me . Wikipedia gives Sean Bean as first example of this.

5. Grant,
   Understable since you were burning the midnight oil!

6. Enjoyable solve with everything understandable except for the ‘facing’ in 23d, which I worked myself up into an unnecessary stew about and the AMPLIFIER / ‘speaker’ difference as others have pointed out.

   Still, good to be reminded of GIMCRACK, a word I haven’t heard used in ages and I also liked the ‘Pal in a stir?’.

   Thanks to Sleuth and Grant

7. Nice to see Sleuth back on a regular basis – an enjoyable solve as usual

   Thanks to him and Grant

8. Enjoyable crossword with DIETER, EATERY, and CLAPTRAP as favourites — thanks Sleuth. I remember EYE RHYME from a previous puzzle but I glazed over Sean Bean as an example. TRAUMA eluded me but I was able to work out the unfamiliar TALLIS. Thanks Grant for parsing.

9. Re 3d, I wouln’t have equated AMPLIFIER and speaker either, but to be fair, Chambers gives “speaker” as “a loudspeaker”, and “loudspeaker” as “an electroacoustic device which amplifies sound”.
   But I don’t agree with that definition, as a loudspeaker is really a transducer which converts an electric current into sound, so it’s heigh ho from me as well.

10. Most of this went in fairly swiftly but we puzzled for a while over parsing RELOAD as we initially thought ‘group falling short’ might be ‘load[s]’. It also took some time to get ARUBA; all we could think of at first was ‘Asuma’ – something quite different.
    But it was an enjoyable solve apart from the AMPLIFIER debâcle. We particularly liked OWL and, for the apt surface, TALLIS.
    Thanks, Sleuth and Grant.

11. Very enjoyable with just the composer needing a check. As WordPlodder said, it was good to be reminded of GIMCRACK but I could well have done without EATERY, most unpleasant word.
    TOUSLE tops my pile just because I like the ‘feel’ of the word.

    Many thanks to Sleuth, to Grant for the review and to crypticsue for pointing me towards this one.

12. Thanks for the entertainment Sleuth and the explanations Grant.
    AMPLIFIER was my last in because of the mentioned problems. I eventually decided “speaker” was referring to an organic, rather than electronic species. So it meant a person who was spreading the word and getting a message across.
    Main point though, it didn’t stop me completing the crossword.

13. Thanks Sleuth and Grant
    Against the trend a bit here, taking the hour to get this one out, which is about a third longer than average. Hadn’t seen that EYE-RHYME before and although knowing of ARUBA, didn’t remember it here and had to go searching the Caribbean for it !
    As stated in the blog, some tricky parsing to be negotiated, especially with THE ALAMO, LIBRETTO and INTELLECT. Along with the heigh-hoers with the AMPLIFIER / speaker discussion.
    Finished in the SE corner with EATERY and DIETER the last couple in.

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