Financial Times 17,342 by Julius

19 comments on “Financial Times 17,342 by Julius”

1. A treat, as always, from Julius. I don’t know how I missed the bold instructions for this grid but it’s a good thing I did otherwise I would have been tempted to write in Colin Inman’s name top and bottom to start me off instead of watching it emerge!
   I suspected, like Pete, that the grid would be full of references to the editor though these would be unknown to me as a relatively new solver.
   I particularly liked the use of my favourite ‘philosophe’, Diderot, in 15, along with the two classic novels and the old entertainer in 4d.
   Needed an online check to see if ‘skirl’ existed.
   Thanks to Julius and Pete.

2. Thanks Julius and Pete

   13ac: I am fairly sure I put this in unparsed. I cannot see an anagram lead, and would now parse it as hidden in GelsenkirchEN GELSenkirchen.

3. Thanks Pete

   I hope Julius joins us and explains some of the references.

   Plenty of favourites this week and I add CLUELESS and IN UNISON for its surface.

   I confess there are still a few things I do not understand
   Is “the recipient of a long distance trunk call” in the song? Could not find reference to it online
   In 10ac, I understand “heading into the wind at sea” but what does “still” mean?
   And I am familiar with several meanings of NOODLE, but not “goes over my head”. Would someone explain please?

   Thanks Pete and thanks Julius

4. Thanks Julius. As usual there was much to like such as TRAIN SET, STEM, PAGE VIEW, and IN DRAG. There were a few I had no hope of parsing e.g. THE MERRY WIDOW, LEO, and ENGELS. I used a reference for WADHURST and quickly saw that I could have solved that clue had I been more patient. Thanks Pete for explaining things.

5. I confess, Martyn, that I thought the definition here was just ‘head’ for which NOODLE is one of many informal synonyms.(nut, bonce , loaf, noggin etc).

6. Thanks for a great blog and grid and all the extra information , makes the puzzle even better. I loved this, all my favourites mentioned above.
   I had CROSSWORD EDITOR as CROSS WOR (argument about) then the anagram of DIDEROT .
   Your TRAIN SET needs alittle more underpinning for the tracks.

7. Martyn@3 I am no sailor but I suspect LIE TO means be still at sea when heading into the wind.
   NOODLE anagram of DOONE goes over L(orna) , definition is my head.
   NELLIE the elephant song – The head of the herd was calling , far, far away ….
   She gets a long-distance trunk call .

8. Lovely, fun puzzle, and lovely tribute. Thanks, Julius & Pete, and here’s to a long and happy retirement for Colin Inman.

   Although Colin retired last year, the timing of the puzzle is probably to coincide with his official retirement party, which I believe was last week, judging by reports on social media.

9. Thanks for the blog Pete and thanks to those who have commented. I flew to London last week to attend Colin’s retirement party at the FT offices where I’m pleased to say 20+ of the compiling team was present – a strong turnout and obviously a clear indication of the high regard in which he’s held by all of us.
   When filling this grid, I tried to avoid using too many insider references because they can be a bit of a chore for the wider solving community and I know Colin wouldn’t have thanked me for it. Roger wrote a piece for the paper last weekend which also featured personal messages from many compilers and this puzzle.
   Warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius

10. Thanks to Julius for another great crossword and a fine tribute to Colin who I had the pleasure of meeting last year – enjoy your retirement Colin

    As a ‘child’ of a certain age, there was only one clue that deserved favourite status – 19a – I’ve been singing the song on and off all week

11. It seems that we have two workable parsings of 29 (NOODLE). Mine has “goes above my head” as the definition with ‘noodle’ in the sense of a person who lacks intelligence or judgment. Roz’s has “my head” as definition and uses “goes over” as an insertion indicator. Maybe Julius will tell us which he intended. For now I am sticking with mine.

12. Thanks Julius and Roz for the explanations.

13. Most enjoyable. Thanks, Julius and Pete.

14. Great blog as usual Pete. Thanks. And also to Julius for the fun.
    Of its worth anything, I agree with the Roz interpretation for NOODLE.

15. Thanks Mystogre but I think I agree with Pete now, I like the simpleton idea, the anagram still works without “goes over” and it works better with the word “my”.
    I will stick to my CROSSWORD EDITOR though , Pete’s version needs “about” twice really, to reverse the ROW and put it around the anagram.

16. Roz@15: Thanks for that. I was struggling to account for the word “my” in your alternative parsing for NOODLE. I parsed CROSSWORD EDITOR the same way as you explained in comment 6.

17. Thank you, Roz. I have come around to your way of seeing CROSSWORD EDITOR.

18. I don’t know any other way to air this thought, which is at least indirectly pertinent. Isn’t PHSSTHPOK another way of spelling “fishhook,” viz., ph as in philosophy, as as in fission, t as in whistle, h as in hook, p as in ptomaine, o as in woman, k as in kilogram?

19. I am chuckling. That is so clever. Thank you.

Comments are closed.