Financial Times 17,693 BOBCAT

by

BOBCAT gives us a fun Friday puzzle.

FF:9 DD:8

I have one clue I am yet to solve but am posting this in the interest of time since I won't be back at a computer later.

ACROSS
1 DROP BY
Call round with recipe for making grubby food? (4,2)

cryptic def; dropping BY from GRUBby gives GRUB = food
4 ADAGIO
A soldier in trouble gets order to proceed slowly (6)

[ A GI ( soldier ) ] in ADO ( trouble )
9 OPEN
Frank Cooper: in essence, marmalade’s ultimate name (4)

OP ( coOPer, in essence ) E ( marmaladE, ultimate letter ) N ( name )
10 UNORTHODOX
Strange player wearing uniform at party in The Bull? (10)

U ( uniform ) NORTH ( player, bridge ) [ DO ( party ) in OX ( bull ) ]
11 BONSAI
Undated securities of the first class showing little growth (6)

BONdS ( securities, undated i.e. without D – date ) AI ( A1, first class )
12 EDGEWISE
Wild geese, leaving Lima, went off towards the border (8)

[ WIlD GEESE ( without L – Lima ) ]* – the 'L' in lowercase looks like an 'I'
13 PARACHUTE
This may get a man down by holding him up (9)

cryptic def
15 PRIM
First, not the last — to be precise (4)

PRIMe ( first, without last letter )
16 OATH
Progressive characters in order take out each solemn vow (4)

progressive characters i.e. first, second, third, fourth respectively of "..Order tAke ouT eacH.."
17 AFORESAID
Previously mentioned ideas for a novel (9)

[ IDEAS FOR A ]*
21 TATTOOER
Needlewoman perhaps overly bedded by King Edward? (8)

TOO ( overly ) in TATER ( king edward , potato ) ; not used to seeing this as opposed to tattooist
22 ILL-USE
Give a hard time to American overwhelmed by European articles (3-3)

IL LE ( european articles ) around US ( american )
24 VINDICATES
Victor Marks makes good a claim to … (10)

V ( victor ) INDICATES ( marks )
25 MAID
… Madame’s principal help? (4)

M ( Madame, principal i.e. first letter ) AID ( help )
26
Woman coming over not half sugary at first? (6)
27 SETTEE
Dog losing right to bag centre of every seat (6)

SETTEr ( without R – right ) E ( evEry, centre of )
DOWN
1 DIPLOMA
Bath City collecting prestigious award and certificate (7)

DIP ( bath ) [ LA ( city ) containing OM ( prestigious award, Order of Merit ) ]
2 OINKS
Sounds of the farmyard in fine society houses (5)

IN in [ OK ( fine ) S ( society ) ]
3 BRUTISH
Coarse bristly thing holds regressive sort of appeal (7)

BRUSH ( bristly thing ) containing reverse of IT ( sort of appeal )
5 DOTAGE
Excessive fondness displayed by former volunteers visiting prominent Venetian (6)

TA ( former volunteers ) in DOGE ( prominent venetian )
6 GLOW-WORMS
Beetles look healthy on plant containing trace of magnesium but no potassium (4-5)

GLOW ( look healthy ) WOR[k]S ( plant, containing M ( magnesium ), without K – potassium )
7 OPOSSUM
A passage from Nostradamus so pointedly upset one possibly feigning death (7)

hidden reversed in "..nostradaMUS SO POintedly.."
8 MOMENT OF TRUTH
Unruly form met to hunt, arriving at crisis point (6,2,5)

[ FORM MET TO HUNT ]*
14 ATTITUDES
Opinions of audit test varied (9)

[ AUDIT TEST ]*
16 OKAYING
Sanctioning smoking after leading couple’s departure, as you initially assumed (7)

smOKING ( leading couple's depature i.e. without SM ) containing AY ( As You, initially )
18 REISSUE
No time to supply sureties for further release (7)

[ SUREtIES ( without T – time ) ]*
19 INSPIRE
Breathe fire (7)

double def
20 TOUCHE
Acknowledgement of riposte that hurt, piercing Terence’s skin (6)

OUCH ( that hurt ) in TE ( TerencE, skin of i.e. end chararcters )
23 LIMIT
Set aside odd bits of Oldie mail to check (5)

even letters of ( setting aside odd letters ) "..oLdIe MaIl To.."

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,693 BOBCAT”

  2. Thanks Bobcat and Turbolegs!

    Liked DROP BY (Out of the grub-by comes the food. Nice trick), BONSAI (for the unDated securities) and GLOW-WORMS (for the Magnesium Potassium exchange offer).
    COTD: OATH (for the progressive idea).

    GUSHER
    WP: The whole clue participates in it.
    Def: Woman coming over? Or a CAD somehow?

    EDGEWISE
    Def: Towards the border, I think.

  4. Thanks Bobcat. I found this on the gentle side for the most part. I couldn’t parse DROP BY and I only guessed with GUSHER (definition?) but all else quickly fell into place. My top picks were ADAGIO, BONSAI, PARACHUTE, PRIM, and TOUCHE. I also liked TOM, the feline nina. I did have a question about setting aside the ‘odd bits’ in LIMIT; the ‘even’ letters of each word spell ‘lialo’; it’s only when you include the spaces do you get LIMIT. I was told in the past that alternate letter tricks do not count the spaces. Was I misinformed? Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

  5. Yes, I had GUSHER too.
    SUG(ary, ‘not half’) reversed (‘over’)
    HER (woman) with the definition being ‘coming over not half sugary’, not half in this case emphasising the ‘sugary.

  8. Tony@4,
    TOM KITTEN to be precise, a nod to Beatrix Potter, maybe.
    I particularly liked OPEN for its surface (my Dad would certainly agree), GUSHER and TOUCHÉ.
    Also like Tony, I came here to see how DROP BY was parsed so thanks to Turbolegs for that and the rest of the blog, along with Bobcat for the purrfect Good Friday entertainment.

  10. Tony Santucci@4
    LIMIT
    Here the odd is not as in odd/even. It’s asking us to take alternating letters from oLdIeMaIlTo.

  11. I looked up GUSHER in Urban dictionary which gives a different take on the definition, (just the first two words) but I think a Cad is what is intended. Apart from that, a great puzzle.

  12. Thanks for the blog, good set of clues , OATH a nice idea and DROP BY is very neat.
    GUSHER can be seen as rather rude.

  13. Thanks Bobcat and Turbolegs

    23dn: I think the odd is as in odd/even: the clue is not just asking us to take one of the two possible sets of alternating letters from O L D I E M A I L T O, it is telling us to leave out the odd numbered ones and keep the even numbered ones.

  15. Pelham@13
    LIMIT
    My mistake (for whatever reason, I ignored the ‘set aside’). I stand corrected.

    GUSHER
    Agree with you Petert@11 on the intended CAD bit. Urban Dictionary: I don’t know if it’s even
    an authentic dictionary (a person who gushes, as in being unusually effusive or sentimental-Collins.
    This sense fits here, I think).
    I have an academic question:
    Is it okay to say
    Woman coming over not half sugary at first?
    Or should it be
    Woman coming over as not half sugary at first?

    Tony Santucci@14
    LIMIT
    My explanation was wrong. Sorry. Pelham’s is correct.

  18. KVa@15 – re GUSHER: oed.com says “come over“ is a phrasal verb
    ‘6.1849– intransitive. colloquial. With adjective complement. Of a person: to experience or express suddenly or unexpectedly a specified feeling. Also with all as intensifier.
    See also to come over all unnecessary at unnecessary adj. & n. Phrases.’
    So this Woman is “coming over sugary”, and the intensifier could have been “a bit” or “all”, but in this case it’s “not half”
    P.2.b. 1901– colloquial (chiefly British). Much more than half; completely, really; prodigiously, copiously; e.g. I don’t half like her ‘I really like her’, he didn’t half swear ‘he swore a lot’. Frequently as an exclamation, expressing enthusiastic agreement: ‘absolutely’, ‘you bet’.’
    In other words, no “as” is needed.

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