Financial Times 17,294 by ZAMORCA

23 comments on “Financial Times 17,294 by ZAMORCA”

1. I had “screw top” for 11a, and was pretty sure it was right, so had a great deal of trouble with 4d. I guess, since “top” is in the clue, I should have realised I had it wrong.

   I’ve never seen “rampant” as a reversal indicator before. And I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the clue for BLOCK … “boy hair” would be better, but of course that would ruin the surface.

   Otherwise plain sailing and most enjoyable. I do so enjoy crosswords with no obscurities, that don’t find my less-than-impressive general knowledge wanting.

2. What a pleasant crossword to begin the new year — thanks Zamorca. My top choices were TIPTOP, BECKONED (great surface), TOPIC, EXTREMELY (“very” as a definition was refreshing), JUNK MAIL, ALL AT ONCE, and CUSTOM. Thanks Teacow for the blog. FAZE was my LOI and the missing “Z” tipped me off as well. I couldn’t parse MURDER — “rampant” as a reversal indicator seems like a stretch to me but all else made sense.

3. In common with Teacow and Tony, FAZE was my LOI, and again, the promise of a pangram helped.
   It was an enjoyably smooth crossword which I did on the app in the absence of the print version at the store today.
   Oddly, the app wouldn’t allow me to enter the ‘h’ of ‘anguish’, albeit temporarily. Still I find doing puzzles on paper more rewarding somehow.
   Geoff may have a point about ‘rampant’. It might work better for a down clue since it can mean ‘rearing up’.
   A worthy grid to start the week, in any case. My thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.

4. The as ever enjoyable puzzle from Zamorca, to whom I am EXTREMELY (good clue) grateful for her customary pangram, which saved me from the dreaded _A_E alphabet trawl for FAZE. I liked the idea of a NEWSPAPER being a ‘current affairs site’; a sign of the times I suppose.

   In the language of heraldry, a lion ‘rampant’ is a lion standing up on one or both of its hind legs looking to the left, so I think this is the justification for ‘rampant’ as a reversal indicator at 28a.

   Thanks to Zamorca and Teacow

5. I agree with others that ‘rampant’ as a reversal indicator is best left to down clues. Forgot to look for the pangram so failed to see 13a but the rest was straightforward.

6. I agree that this was on the easy side. One problem with clues like 5D, and other 15 letter answers is that only half of the clue ” I won’t say anything (2,4,3,6)” gives the obvious answer without needing to parse the rest.

   Like others 13A was my last one in as I was expecting “stage” to be theatrical.

7. Thanks, Zamorca & Teacow. A very enjoyable puzzle with a tidy set of clues – but glad to see I’m not the only one who had problems with 13a.

8. A minor quibble with 8D: I don’t believe that “inspector” and “superintendent” have the same meaning. Admittedly, my knowledge of police ranks has been gained from watching “The Sweeney”, “Dalziel and Pascoe” and many other English TV cop shows. Isn’t there an “inspector” who reports to a “chief inspector” who reports to a “superintendent” who reports to a “chief superintendent” who reports to an “assistant chief constable” who reports to a “chief constable”?

   I have often pondered the number of levels of authority in the police force and the armed forces. As a relatively senior administrative executive in the 1970s to the 2000s, I went through several reviews of corporate structures and was converted to the belief that the flatter the structure of positions was the better. The consensus then was that three levels of reporting was the most suitable.

   Disclaimer: I have no knowledge of fighting wars or crime, but I still believe that a flatter organization chart would be more efficient.

9. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow

   Peter @ 8: Inspectors and superintendents aren’t limited to police forces. You can also have them in factories or other manufacturing sites, where the roles would be more or less synonymous in checking or supervising the work of others.

10. Thank you Zamorca & Teacow – good fun this morning.

    I had DAZE for 13a (sounds like ‘dais’, and maybe you can ‘put off’ someone by dazzling them with bright light). I accept that FAZE is a more satisfying fit, but does anyone feel that DAZE is a permissible answer?

11. Thanks Zamorca and Teacow

    13ac: Sorry Phil@10, I cannot find support in Chambers for dais sounding like daze. Personally, I would always pronounce dais with two syllables. Chambers allows a single syllable, but rhyming with face, mace, and race, rather than faze, maze, and raze.

    28ac: I agree with others that “rampant” is not a satisfactory reversal indicator in an across clue.

    22dn: This works perfectly well if you take the wordplay as “boy has hair”.

12. Nice blog, as usual. FAZE was also my LOI, where I relied on the tradition of Zamorca’s pangrams, realizing that I was still short an F and a Z. MURDER reminded me of The Shining, and I did not give “rampant” much thought. “Rampant” can mean “running wild,” but then that would be an indicator more for an anagram than a reversal, I guess. Fine work from Zamorca.

13. [Peter @8: I agree with your view that a “flatter” administrative structure is better but organizations, especially governments, like multiple levels so promotion-driven employees can “get ahead” and not feel unrewarded.]

14. I have always pronounced 13a as “days” so I find Phil’s@10 DAZE quite acceptable since it can also mean daze = phase = stage and dais as in ” I think that it might daze him”. Thank you Teacow for parsing 28a as I felt “murder” was too obvious so did not enter it!. Thanks also Zamorca for the “Z”!

15. John @14: Certainly daze = phase is valid, with phase as an alternative spelling of faze. Also phase = stage is valid in itself, but this is a completely different meaning of “phase”: in fact it is a different headword in Chambers, so I cannot accept the linking together that you are making in your justification of DAZE.

16. Further to 15: There is no problem with “Put off” = DAZE. Chambers 2014 gives us “daze vt to stun; to stupefy; to confuse; to bewilder”, at least the last two of which will fit “put off”. Similarly there is no doubt that “dais” can mean “stage”. This is of course a different meaning of “stage” from the one needed for “phase”, but it is a clue word, so that is not a problem: there is no attempt to build a chain of synonyms through the two different meanings of “stage”. All that is really at issue with the possibility of DAZE as an alternative answer is whether “dais” (in the sense of a raised platform) can be pronounced in the same way. The chain of synonyms claimed by John@14, and which I cannot accept, is not needed.
    For what it is worth, I could pronounce “Dais” the same way as “daze” as a shortened form of the name Daisy, but I would be more likely to spell it “Daise”, and in either spelling it does not help here.

17. Another with Faze as LOI. Except in my case, it was DNF, not spotting the pangram and after a couple of minutes of thinking, giving up. I loved 16 D. Newspaper- very clever. Thanks for helping me with the pass of murder and equipped.

    Otherwise, plain sailing

18. Another with Faze as LOI. Except in my case, it was DNF, not spotting the pangram and after a couple of minutes of thinking, giving up. I loved 16 D. Newspaper- very clever. Thanks for helping me with the pass of murder and equipped.

    Otherwise, plain sailing

19. Happy new year. And thanks to Zamorca and Teacow.

    Really enjoyed this one and have little to complain about but it was fazed by reading of rampant as reversal!

20. I overcame my objection to “rampant” as a reversal indicator only to wonder why Red Rum was on beat.

21. Nice one, Petert@20!

22. With Zamorca being the setter we were on the lookout for a pangram from the outset, ticking the letters off as we got them – and were left with 13ac as LOI, where we also plumped for DAZE as a homophone, more or less, of ‘dais’. We liked EQUIPPED – the abbreviation PPE having come into general use since certain people wasted millions of taxpayers’ money on heaps of the stuff that turned out to be useless.
    We also liked SCREW CAP and BECKONED. Thanks, Zamorca and Teacow.

23. Re 28a MURDER, I am OK with rampant as a reversal indicator in an across clue, since the most famous lion rampant, at least to those of us of Scottish background, faces right to left on the flag. That was one of my favourites, along with 26a TIPTOP (for the deceptive “lean time”) and 3d EXTREMELY (for the good surface and tricky construction).

    I agree with some others that DAZE is a satisfactory solution to 13a; it fits “put off” as well as FAZE, and DAZE is a nice play on the word “dais”, whether you think of it as a homophone or simply a pun.

    I couldn’t parse 14d ALL AT ONCE, as I failed to see Roz’s Playtex device.

    Thanks Zamorca for the fun, and Teacow for putting me out of my misery on 14d.

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