Financial Times Jumbo 17,505 by Leonidas (Saturday 26 August)

13 comments on “Financial Times Jumbo 17,505 by Leonidas (Saturday 26 August)”

1. A splendid jumbo puzzle from Leonidas: something to really get your teeth into, starting with those pizza ingredients!
   It was the toppings that led me to 49, 21, followed by the seasons and then Vivaldi! Obviously more of a gourmand than a classical music buff but at least those concertos are not obscure!
   The sole answer I ould not parse, SCORNED, turned out to be a simple one, after all.
   I didn’t know but could parse TRITURATED.
   Well said, Pete, regarding tea – TEA-STRAINERS – which was among my favourites.
   And as you say, not horribly difficult, just a wealth of entertaining clues to keep one out of mischief!
   Very well done, Leonidas, and thanks, Pete, for a full accounting!

2. Thanks Leonidas for a delectable crossword. I enjoyed this but despite my Italian heritage I had to use an outside source for the spelling of QUATTRO STAGIONI and I never knew a pizza with the same name existed. I did notice all the culinary references — BON APPETIT, BASIL, ARTICHOKE, MUSHROOM, OLIVE, SQUASH, PROSCIUTTO, and BEEFSTAKE TOMATO but I never connected them to the theme. In any event, my top picks were EPIGRAPHS, CORONARIES, TEA-STRAINER, NUCLEAR, and SUMMER. I failed with TRITURATED and I couldn’t parse a few but overall this was a good use of my time. Thanks Widdersbel for the blog.

3. Oh dear, I slipped up by thanking Pete rather than Widdersbel for the stellar blog. My apologies, Widdersbel, for reading your worthy blog a tad too hastily!

4. Not a holiday where I am, and I found this too difficult to finish properly in the time allocated. I managed to fill in all but the ‘mystery clues’ correctly, but was forced to finish with several clues unparsed. There were far too many remote words for my liking and I was disappointed to see that 49, 21 were not English with no guidance to that effect. I finished what must be over the 60 clues with only two ticks as a reward.

   This is pure speculation, but I feel the editor may have lost a sense of proportion on this one.

   Thanks Widdersbel for unravelling several mysteries and a clear explanation. And thanks Leonidas for the puzzle

5. A marvelous blog. Quite detailed and neat. Very informative. Thanks, Widdersbel!

   Sharing something I found online on VIVALDI and ROSSINI:
   Vivaldi’s distinctive reddish hair would later earn him the soubriquet Il Prete Rosso (“The Red Priest”).
   The name Rossini is derived from the Italian word “Rosso,” which comes from the Latin words “Rubius and Rossius,” which mean “red.” As a surname, Rossini was originally a nickname for a person with red hair or a reddish complexion. 🙂

6. I have only recently started trying some FT puzzles and a couple of weeks ago I did my first Leonidas puzzle which I really enjoyed. Someone (sorry I forget who) told me in the comments below that puzzle on this site to look out for the jumbo puzzle on the weekend of 26/27 so thanks to them.

   I really enjoyed doing this. It took me several goes and I finished on Wednesday with a few unparsed.

   I think my favourite was CORONARIES as it made me laugh but there were lots to like.

   I shall continue to look out for Leonidas puzzles.

   Thanks Leonidas and Widdersbel

7. Well, my solving experience was practically the exact opposite of Diane’s – down to blind ignorance on my part.

   I spotted the four seasons about half way through and had already registered VIVALDI, so when what had to be QUATTRO emerged next to him, I thought I was there. It just remained to look up what the Italian for Four Seasons was and then I was able to enter 21dn. Job done!
   But no, of course: Leonidas is much cleverer than that. I was aware of Quattro Formaggio pizza but had never heard of STAGIONI, let alone known its ingredients, so the rest was lost on me. But what a feat! I feel I must try it now.

   I found plenty to enjoy apart from the theme. I had lots of ticks but will just mention 16ac EMMET, 22ac CORONARIES, 50ac VIVALDI, 13dn TOOTHPASTE, 36dn BLIND ALLEYS, 41dn INTERDICT and 46dn ROSSINI.

   Many thanks to Leonidas for an absorbing and highly enjoyable puzzle and to Widdersbel for a customarily entertaining blog. I enjoyed Frankie Valli – thanks for that – but, as explained above, the earworm which accompanied my solve was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pc0rt2wi2ng

   [Fiona @6 – you may like to know that Leonidas appears regularly in the Indy as Wire.]

8. Thanks to all who have commented and to Widdersbel for the thorough blog.

   Well done Tony@2 for spotting BEEFSTEAK TOMATO & BASIL as well as BON APPETIT. The tricky bit was getting the seasons and toppings (more or less) in the same quadrants: the chefs at Wiki are quite specific about this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizza_quattro_stagioni

   I approached the thematic material with a degree of trepidation having been roasted recently on this site for suggesting in one of my clues that gouda might make a suitable pizza topping. But let’s not bring that up again, eh.

   Have great weekend, everyone.

9. Leonidas,
   You’re on safer ground with these toppings -delizioso!

10. I had missed this but when I saw the blog was up I dived into it and have just finished with the two theme words the last to go in. I did not make the connection with the pizza though and have to admire that extra layer (extra topping) which made for a very tasty puzzle. Nicely seasoned by the excellent blog.

    This was a nice approachable puzzle, plenty of different devices but nothing too taxing. Only TRITURATED was an unknown – decidedly a Jorum moment. Same faves as Eileen and I’d add RETENTION, APPROACHING and TEA STRAINER to the list.

    Thanks Leonidas and Widdersbel

11. Thanks for the further info, Leonidas. I did wonder if the tomato and basil were also pizza ingredients but admit I didn’t get as far as checking. It also didn’t occur to me that the placement of the ingredients in the grid was significant but it’s obvious now you mention it. I’d completely forgotten Goudagate too!

    Diane @3 – it would normally have been Pete blogging this one, I was a late call-up from the subs bench.

12. Tasty, tasty, very very tasty, it’s very tasty.

    Great stuff from Leonidas, and cheers to Widders for a fine blog.

    Almost inexplicably, I managed to solve and parse all the clues ‘in the time allocated’, whatever the hell that is on a lazy Saturday in August.

13. Widdersbel, the super-sub!

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