Financial Times 17,151 by CHALMIE

21 comments on “Financial Times 17,151 by CHALMIE”

1. Discovering the rhyme theme early on made light work of this enjoyable puzzle, apart from the NE corner which had me in a pickle.
   I was slow to see 25 which in turn delayed 4a’s monkey, the latter then confirming that there was no such word as ‘ganatic’! Not being able to parse 7d meant I laboured with SPACE, initially, but it clearly wouldn’t fit 11a. In the end, I realised the answer and its connection to the theme but still needed the blog to parse it (knew it was something simple).
   Even so, the puzzle was a lot of fun.
   Besides the theme, I liked 6D best.
   Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee.

2. PeeDee,
   There’s a typo in the grid and blog, TOCT (12a) though it’s clearly just a hasty slip since you’ve parsed it as TACT!
   Thanks for clarifying of 1d and 10a, by the way, which I could only half parse.

3. Marmoset always reminds me of that useful English phrase to craunch the marmoset. If you have no idea what I’m talking about this link may help.

4. The link doesn’t seem to work. You can always google the phrase.

5. I did, Hovis, and off down the rabbit hole I went, knocking at doors, waiting hours and hours!

6. I managed to solve this without ever realizing that there was a theme. Was there a hint in the printed version that didn’t make it to the online one? My very last one in was 7D as I did not know the link between 16A and 7D. The rhyme was familiar to me but I had to do an Internet search to turn up its links to the answer. I guess that this numbering rhyme is more politically correct than the old “Eeenie Meanie Mini Moe”.

   My thoughts go out to all of you suffering with the heat in England but I am dismayed by the footage of some of you at the beach or sunbathing. You’ll all suffer from sunburn tomorrow. Go out and buy a sunscreen of SPF30 or higher. There is no such thing as a “healthy tan”.

7. This was hard work. I knew the little John le Carre (or A A Milne) verse, but was unaware of any connection to cherry stones. I was also unfamiliar with some other people involved in this puzzle, along with the film Metropolis. In 10a, is “bringing” supposed to be an inclusion indicator? AGNATIC is new to my lexicon.

8. Thanks Diane, fixed now.

9. Geoff, “Metropolis” is one of the first films ever made; hence its fame. It was a German film directed by Fritz Lang in the mid 1920s.

   I agree with you re 10A – I cannot see where “bringing” means “bring in”.

   Re “agnatic”: this is the adjectival form of “agnate” which is the opposite of “distaff”. Both words refer to the female (distaff) and male (agnate) sides of ancestry.

10. I have to admit to not knowing the link between the rhyme and counting fruit stones either, so CHERRY and STONE were my last two in. To compound my ignorance, the title of the Le Carré novel is so familiar that I thought “spy” was part of the rhyme as well! Anyway, there was a ‘Spy’ related clue, with both MI5 (?6) and the CIA involved.

    V. enjoyable, with a couple of good words in SIMONY and AGNATIC to add to the challenge.

    Peter @9, I’m asking out of ignorance, but isn’t “cognate” also the opposite of “agnate”?

    Thanks to Chalmie and PeeDee

11. Diane @5. Hope you enjoyed the journey. Makes me laugh how ridiculous some phrases became after translating from Portuguese via French. Another favourite is to exculpate thine brother.

12. Thanks all. Perhaps in this weather it was a good thing to have a puzzle which wouldn’t cause too many to break sweat.

    AGNATIC is the one obscure word I allow myself when filling grids which have to have a particular selection of words, and I’m sorry I couldn’t find anything better than an anagram for its clue.

    I think “bring” works as well as “carry” to indicate inclusion, and since the editor didn’t object either, it’s feather-dusters at dawn in Battersea Park (that being the nearest useful duelling venue to Chalmie Towers) if you want to make a thing of it – though preferably when it’s a bit cooler.

13. WP, yes I agree that “cognate” is also the opposite of “agnate” but I was raised with the agnate/distaff relationship. Funny how some things learned in one’s youth stick with one. I still remember learning that “begs the question” means assuming a fact that has not been proven when asking a question. Yet nowadays people commonly use the phrase to mean “suggest a question”.

14. I’ve often heard the rhyme in my past, but never knew it was called cherry stones.

    20D. Thought code for Malta was MT, not M

15. Mark_A @ 14

    It’s been M since 1966, according to wikipedia.

16. Thanks Chalmie for the fun and PeeDee for explaining how CHERRY STONE made any sense vis a vis the words in the rhyme. Favourite was PROMISER.

17. Simon_s

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malta
    &
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes

    both have it as MT

    Hence my query

18. Hi Mark, I think Chamlie is using the current IVR code M for Malta (those stickers on back of cars). IVR codes get used a lot in crosswords because they are listed in Chambers and other dictionaries. There are other equally valid codes but they require a bit wider research so are less favoured by setters and editors.

19. ah ok PeeDee.
    Forgot about those.
    Thanks for clarifying things.

20. Never heard of cherry stones, simony, agnatic, or amnion.
    No pleasure in this for me.
    Complete waste of my time.

21. Hi Fiona, it wasn’t a complete waste; you learned some some things you didn’t know before you started this. Next you come across one of these words you will know what they mean.

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