Financial Times 17,365 by GOLIATH

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,365 by GOLIATH”

1. Reliably entertaining grid from Goliath.
   Liked BRASS, SHREDDER (cue the debate for the best face-melting guitar solo), ANAGRAMS, surface of 21 and ‘was enough’ cluing ‘did’ in 6d. Probably more besides.
   Thanks to Goliath and Loonapick (particularly for explaining REASSERTIONS which I got from the definition).

2. There were a few in the SW corner that were beyond me, but all in all good fun with nothing too obscure. I didn’t know guitarists were shredders, but I do now. Never hears the brass/muck saying, so couldn’t parse.

   I never think to look for pangrams, so a missing ‘z’ was unnoticed.

   Thanks Goliath & loonapick.

3. Heard.

4. Thanks, Goliath & Loonapick. I agree with Diane – very entertaining. I particularly liked the “pre-mums” and “tools of my trade”.

   Had the same quibble over “converter” but it didn’t prevent me spotting the solution pretty quickly so not going to lose any sleep over it. You expect that kind of thing from this setter.

5. That was enjoyable, and as smooth as I’ve come to expect from Goliath. I wondered about a pangram too, but was left as the two long ones as my last two in.

   Thank you to loonapick and Goliath.

6. Good work, loonapick.

   At 3D, you have “APEENINES” : methinks you need another “n” and one less “e”.

   Re 8D: I am a guitarist and think that “shredder” is a derogatory term for a heavy metal player, rather than “highly skilled”.

   12A was new to me but obvious from the clue.

   Accepting Diane’s challenge for “the best face-melting guitar solo”. Is there any worthy challenger for Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free as a Bird”?

7. Thanks Goliath & loonapick

   Peter @ 6 I think you mean ‘Freebid’ – ‘Free As A Bird’ was a John Lennon demo that was overdubbed by the surviving Beatles in the 90s.

   For a genuinely/shredding guitar solo, try ‘I Heard Her Call My Name’ by the Velvet Underground (not for the faint-hearted!).

8. Ha, so it begins.
   Good call, Peter @6
   Simon S @7, I’ll give yours a listen before committing myself.
   Well, my taste is poised between Jimmy Page (Stairway to Heaven) and Prince (Purple Rain) but honourable mention goes to Eddie Hazel for Maggot Brain.

9. Normally I would think of SHREDDER as a highly tasteless guitarist but as Simon @7 notes-it can mean something in the right hands
   And would Neil Young’s build-up in Day in the Life count as shredding?

10. I had all the crossers but just couldn’t see BEAUTIFICATION, for which I put in some nonsense word, at the very end. Frustrating, but I enjoyed the rest, especially the surface for PREMIUMS and the ‘tools of my trade’ def for ANAGRAMS.

    As for Diane’s challenge for “the best face-melting guitar solo”, I’ll go the route of the 4d surface and nominate “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”, something which I realise is probably the antithesis of what was intended and “face-melting” in a different way.

    Thanks to Goliath and loonapick

11. I did not understand the clue for BRASS, but assumed it was some folklore. A search “brass near muck” will bring it up.

    I like Zakk Wilde on No More Tears.

12. Also, for CAPITA, I think “head” (singular) in Latin is “caput,” right? “Capita” is plural.–JMc

13. Cineraria – the saying is “Where there’s muck, there’s brass”, with brass meaning money.

14. (As explained by Loonapick in the blog already, it means if you’re prepared to do the dirty jobs no one else wants to do, you will get rich.)

15. I’m enjoying reading through this eclectic list of gifted guitarists, not least Wordplodder’s choice, which I’m intrigued to hear, having thrilled to some flamenco guitarists a while back.

16. Thanks Goliath and Loonapick

    Cineraria@12: You are quite right. The fact that the phrase “per capita” is usually translated as “per head” shows the danger of taking single words out of phrases when translating between different languages.

    While I am in, can I point out that today is the second time this week that we have been only a Z short of a pangram?

    [The Polish-French composer Frédéric Chopin is credited with the quotation “Nothing is more beautiful than a guitar, except, possibly two.” I have a double CD of Julian Bream and John Williams playing two guitars, presumably with the sort of sound that Chopin would have heard. I suspect it is very different from the sound made by the various guitarists named in earlier comments.]

17. Thanks Goliath. I enjoyed this despite a few initial stumbles — misspelling APENNINES (which held up NEW TERM) and having “reeds” before I had BRASS. In any event I liked INNUNDATED, UPRIVER, ANAGRAMS, and TOM, DICK, OR HARRY. Thanks loonapick for the blog.

18. An enjoyable solve without any real problems although we did raise our eyebrows over CAPITA rather than ‘caput’, and we’d never heard of shredder meaning a guitarist. We liked the clue for BRASS but wondered if ‘muck’ ought to have had a capital M (to misdirect solvers towards the Scottish island of Muck))
    Thanks, Goliath and loonapick.
    (For anyone still in the dark about shredders it’s all here – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_guitar)

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