Financial Times 17,022 by REDSHANK

34 comments on “Financial Times 17,022 by REDSHANK”

1. Thanks, turbolegs, but you have, I feel certain, mis-parsed EYEBROW. The definition is ‘feature raised in query’ with the wordplay being a ‘London’ pronunciation of ‘highbrow’ = ‘posh’, with the ‘h’ dropped. This is more often clued as ‘Cockney’ or ‘EastEnder’.

2. I agree with Spooner’s catflap @1 on EYEBROW.

3. Yes, I go along with the above comments and think in 14a, our blogger no doubt meant ASCEND not ASCENT.
   Finished this fairly quickly for a Friday but certainly needed Turbolegs to parse a good handful including SPLIT and PEAHEN. Ms Quant made a recent appearance here so with ‘q’ and ‘n’ already in place, it slipped in nicely.
   My last in, in spite of the wordplay being clear, was ‘afferent’ which was new to me also – needed all crossers to be sure.
   Lots to enjoy, as ever with Redshank, such as APERCU, MILLINER (liked the definition), the ‘female examiners’ and TOECAP.
   Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs.

4. Thanks Spooner’s Catflap@1. I forgot to come back to this clue which I had kinda put in as a placeholder. I couldnt find the cockney reference in the clue having considered ‘highbrow’ and so had let that slide. Your comment / correction is much appreciated.

   Regards,
   TL

5. Lovely puzzle as usual but agree with others about parts of London (mind you there are probably old Etonians still trying to effect an “estuary accent)

   Maybe Bowman and let the solver sort it out-but who am I to advise Crucible!
   Thanks

6. You’re welcome, Turbolegs @ 4. I don’t often do the FT, but on nights where sleep has fled even more irretrievably than usual, I can find myself having addressed the G, the Indy and the FT all by 6 o’clock.

7. Hello all – first time post

   Started doing the FT cryptic at start of lockdown and have for the first time finished the weekend and every daily without any blatant cheating.

   Wouldn’t have been able get here without what I’ve learnt from the blog so thanks to you all.

8. Well done Rattles, first of many.
   Thanks for the blog, I agree with all the praise.
   Like Diane I did not know AFFERENT but it was very fairly clued.
   I have a lot of vintage Mary Quant so that was easy.
   9D is a beautiful clue.

9. Alerted to this from the Guardian blog; very enjoyable solve.

   I loved the one shining at Sandhurst and the tile supplier, amongst others.

   Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs.

10. It’s always good to see Redshank’s name on an FT puzzle – a special treat this week, after Crucible on Wednesday.

    As copmus says, ‘lovely puzzle, as usual’. I was momentarily beguiled by 11ac: ‘Leo strays’ … Christmas’ would surely lead to NOEL? – it got a tick when the penny dropped!

    Other ticks were for TRANSCENDENT – I enjoyed the construction – EASTER EGG (for the clever repetition of EG), ASIMOV, TOECAP and APERCU, because they made me smile, and SPLIT – because I liked it. I managed to make up AFFERENT from the wordplay and was pleased to find it existed. Great surfaces throughout, as usual.

    Welcome, Rattles @7 – how have you managed to resist commenting for so long? Looking forward to hearing more from you.

    Thanks, as ever, to Redshank for the fun and Turbolegs for the blog.

11. Welcome Rattles and well done. I’m another who turned to cryptic puzzles during lockdown, well the FT’s anyway.
    Think I should have lurked a little longer before firing off my comments so you are wise. I’m still happily learning…
    Roz,
    Lucky you possessing vintage Mary Quant!

12. Well, I didn’t come down on this one like a wolf on the fold. I found it hard but very enjoyable with FAITH HEALING the one I had most trouble with. I remember now we’ve had it before, but I’d also forgotten SP for “sine prole”, so missed the parsing of SPLIT.

    Highlights were both the def and wordplay for EYEBROW, the ‘One shining at Sandhurst’ and AFFERENT. You never know, Redshank might be very nice and give us “efferent” sometime soon.

    Thanks to Redshank and Turbolegs, and welcome to Rattles

13. [ Very lucky Diane, my mother kept everything for me and she really looked after clothes, well before “vintage” was a thing. ]

14. I found this a bit of a struggle but got there in the end. Some lovely clues and I struggled with the parsing on about half a dozen, so thanks so much for solving my puzzles.

    I quickly got Apercu from the wordplay but didn’t enter it because the definition didn’t work for me as a “witty remark”. It was my LOI for this reason. I recognised the word, but had no idea what it meant. Chambers gives no mention of “witty remark“. Am I missing something?

15. Moly @12. I got APERÇU purely from the wordplay but wasn’t aware of “witty remark” being a meaning either. Neither Chambers or Collins gave this. Maybe the OED?

16. Eileen @10 thought it wise to not embarrass myself too early – there’s plenty of time to do that yet

17. I think you have to be a neurologist to be familiar with “afferent”. Thanks Turbolegs, for the “sp” explanation – SPLIT was the only “Dalmation port”I knew. I also couldn’t parse “noise”. FAITH HEALING I got with only the first H in – divine intervention! Thanks too to Redshank for a taxing but fair puzzle.

18. Moly,
    My Shorter Harraps gives much the same definition as English dictionaries I checked: ‘outline’ or ‘an insight/perceptive remark’. As Hovis says, maybe the OED?

19. Hovis@15 My rather aged Shorter OED (2 large volumes) does give APERCU -sorry, can’t do the cedilla – but meaning “a summary exposition, a conspectus” rather than a pleasantry.

20. Thank you all Apercu commenters.

    Doing a bit of searching on the Internet (Using my preferred engine duck duck go) I found:

    https://www.lexico.com/definition/apercu

    Which defines the word as “A comment or brief reference that makes an illuminating or entertaining point.
    ‘the narrative is enlivened by aperçus of Butler, Kennedy, and other contemporaries’”

    This dictionary is apparently “powered by Oxford “

21. Rattles @16 – I admire your self-control (and wisdom, as Diane put it). I was just thinking back to my introduction to 15²: I was so chuffed to have found this great site that I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. I still remember my nervousness, when, after about three months, I first clicked ‘Post comment’. I’ve embarrassed myself countless times since then. 🙁

22. Preplexux@19 I have the same edition of the Shorter OED as you. Going to the origin of the word my Petit Robert gives : “premiere idee qui l’on peut avoir d’une chose vue rapidement”( no accents, sorry) This is the same as the OED and no mention of witty remark.

23. Perplexus @19 and SM @22 – see here: https://slcr.wsu.edu/help-pages/microsoft-keyboards-standard-english-us-101/

24. Eileen @21 was “overchuffed” when I discovered the blog it’s been a massive help – today I would not have known the reasoning behind the SP in split or Quant in quadrant. I’m sure I will soon catch you up in the embarrassment stakes once I get going.

25. Thanks do much Eileen @23. Can I use this on my iPhone ? It would be very useful if I could from my aperçu of the issue.

26. SM On an iPhone you can press and hold the ‘c’ and then slide to the relevant accented form before releasing (this is what I did on my iPad @15).

27. Hi SM @25 – I’m sorry, I don’t know anything about iPhones. 🙁 I’m sure someone else will be able to tell you.

28. And they were!

29. When I google APERCU, the first def is “a COMMENT or brief reference THAT MAKES an illuminating or ENTERTAINING POINT”. I think that covers “a witty remark”.

30. Hovis

    Thank you do much . I think it was you who kindly told me this before but I failed . I have just done it ,après a brief aperçu of the technique I have now got it. Thanks again.

31. Thanks Redshank for a solid challenge. I missed SPLIT and failed to parse NOISE and PEAHEN among others so thanks Turbolegs for the blog. My favourite was the &lit COASTLINE.

32. [Eileen @27 – thank Heavens there is someone else on the planet surface who knows nothing about iPhones. I refuse to have one, having seen people collide with immovable objects while walking without seeing where they are going because they are glued to their phone, and seen also couples dining together in restaurants exchanging not a word of conversation because each is scrolling on their phone.]

33. Great fun even if not precisely 14. Like John @17 I needed help with the parsing of 6 SPLIT (my LOI) and 22 NOISE, which I entered based on the definitions without understanding the wordplay. So thanks, Turbolegs.

    COD for me was 10 EYEBROW, which had me stuck even with all the crossers and made me laugh when the penny dropped.

    [I’ve been doing the FT Xword for decades, as the Times of India used to carry it. I found 15^2 some years ago when I couldn’t see how a particular solution worked; thanks to this site, I began doing the various Guardian cryptics as well. Welcome, Rattler!]

34. Thanks Redshank and Turbolegs
    Another oldie finally put to bed. Very enjoyable puzzle with lots to work through – I think that there were three or four that were left to the final checkover to work out the word play of them, but did manage them all in the end. Also had a little problem trying to equate APERCU to a ‘witty remark’ but am sure that it exists somewhere.
    Started with YULE LOG and finished after a number of sessions with MILLINER (quaint definition), FAITH HEALING and the new to me too AFFERENT.

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