Financial Times 17,807 by AARDVARK

35 comments on “Financial Times 17,807 by AARDVARK”

1. Thanks Cineraria.

   I had the same thoughts as you about 1a and 23a

   I found this a struggle. I had one clue that I liked – VAMOOSE. Aside from that I agree that a fair amount of GK was needed, some of it obscure. As a result I still do not fully understand a couple of clues. Most of the clues were similar in style, and I found it monotonous. I bunged in my last answer, JUNKET not really caring whether it was correct, just relieved I was at the end. It was not my favourite puzzle.

   It was quite a brilliant blog. Well done.

   Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria

2. Thanks for a great blog, I think this will divide opinion, I loved it, neat and clever wordplay throughout . PONTIFEX is new to me but sounded reasonable and the wordplay was clear .
   My only quibble for QUICKSILVER , clear wordplay but as you note , the definition seems more than a stretch.
   PHONE and THREE I think you have it spot on.

3. Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria!
   Good puzzle. Excellent blog. No idea about the butterfly bit (QUICKSILVER).
   PHONE: Some may find the def a bit loose. I liked it.
   Liked SPITZ & more.

4. This was tough indeed so like everyone else, I applaud Cineraria’s blog.
   Those I particularly liked were QUISLING, SAMARITAN, INDIA INK and KETTERING (paid a recent visit to its namesake Down Under which is by far the prettier of the two!)
   I knew neither PONTIFLEX nor GUANACO but could parse these after a careful re-reading of the clues.
   However, I got in a right pickle in the SW corner. Kicking myself now that I didn’t remember Mark Spitz – only Phelps – which might well have got me over the finish line.
   Thanks Aardvark!

5. 21d SPRITZ – A reMARKable coincidence – 21a ‘Where players sit close to Alcaraz after intro from Sue Barker (5)’ — (and elsewhere, today, too.)

6. I came to the same conclusion as our blogger re QUICKSILVER. I read the def as an adjective – having a butterfly mind. I vaguely recall the ROTARY club having an upper age limit – which I thought might account for the ‘Particular’ in the clue – but can find no reference to that on the Web. I guess it would be an illegal discrimination these days but am I right in thinking such a constraint used to apply? Or have I imagined it?

   Thanks Aardvark and Cineraria

7. 17d PONTIFEX – Latin for “bridge-builder”…

8. I am getting used to Aardvark’s trademark of a near pangram which is actually a byproduct of putting the letters JQXZ in a square pattern, in this case in the four corners, but previously they have been in the centre. Once I had located the J in the top right, the expectation of Q in top left and X and Z in the bottom corners definitely helped, so thanks Aardvark and Cineraria.

9. 20a GUAN(AC)O could’ve been a jorum, except I tried GU(AC)ANO first. D’oh!
   Here’s a picture (with penguins) to help us remember him for next time. He’s like a llama — ¿Cómo se llama? — Guanaco.

10. [Further to comment 8, actually last time the JQXZ made a nearly central oblong, not a square, but the previous few Aardvark puzzles had variously placed squares, at least one of them with V instead of J. Of course, there is no guarantee that this pattern will be continued.]

11. Didn’t notice the JQXZ trick, so was held up for a while in the NE by my L2i, 7a RAJ and 8d JUNKET. Loved the puzzle – very chewy. 😀
    Thanks C&A

12. MrPostMark@6 most Rotary Clubs are still quite fussy about membership but there is a wide range of eligibility ( not linked to age ) . Most members are by invitation . I have been asked twice but I refuse to join any club that will have me. ( see 29AC ) .

13. Roz@12 😀

14. Oh My. Does 21D “spritz” really mean “squirt”?

    Re 20D: Is “gastric” really a type of balloon?

15. 21dn: ODE 2010 p 1728 gives the first definition of spritz (verb with object) “squirt or spray a liquid at or on to (something) in quick short bursts”.
    20dn: Chambers 2016 p 630 gives gastric balloon n as a balloon “which, when inflated, reduces the capacity of the stomach for food”.

16. PB@8&10: Reviewing recent Aardvark puzzles, I see that we have commented before on the pattern of pangram or near-pangram, as well as some deliberate arrangement of JQXZ. Something for future solvers (and bloggers) to bear in mind, perhaps. 17,609 was a near-double pangram, which was so hard that it was a DNF for me.

17. My second Mike Warburton puzzle in a day after his alter ego Breadman’s Times QC offering which also had a little something extra in the grid.

    This was tough for me. Thank goodness I cottoned on to the placement of the Q, J, Z and X which was a real help in solving the answers leading to and from the corners, including the unknown PONTIFEX and QUICKSILVER. I couldn’t parse CASANOVA. I wonder if the lack of a W was deliberate, in which case it’s a super-exciting W lipogram.

    FrankieG@9 – thanks for the pic of the GUANACO and Magellanic penguins which brought back happy memories of having seen both creatures on a visit to Punta Tombo in Patagonia 40+ years ago. As for the joke, no comment!

    Thanks to Haardvark and to Cineraria for a great job in sorting this all out

18. Pedantically, I believe it should be Juliett.

19. Peter T@18: Chambers lists “Juliet.”

20. It is Juliett (two Ts), as some nationalities would pronounce Juliet as Ju-lee-A. Thanks.

21. Further to 18 to 20, Collins 2023 p. 1058 also gives “Juliet (with one T) as n communications a code word for the letter J”: similarly ODE 2010 p 949. I think we can distinguish between the “official” NATO codes (which changed to Juliett for the benefit of French speakers) and widely understood radio communication codes. I also believe as a practical rule that setters should not be expected to overrule standard dictionaries.
    We could also apply some counter pedantry and say that India comes before Juliet in an older version of the phonetic alphabet.

22. I agree with PB@21 and indeed would prefer it if reference were generally made to “radio code” rather than “NATO code”, as it existed long before NATO came into being, used for example by WW2 aircrew.

23. Perplexus @ 22 Radio codes have indeed been around for decades, but the current one, or a version of it, only came into use when the USA entered WW2.

    Prior to that the RAF system started Able Baker Charlie Dog Easy.

    Technically, the current version, which has Juliett, starts with Alfa (presumably for a similar reason).

24. What an absolute disaster this was!
    I’ve never heard of a Lhasa Apso, I’ve never heard of a Quicksilver butterfly, I’ve never heard of a rotary club, and I’ve never heard of a keema, i’ve never heard a moose being described as a browser, i’ve never heard of a ria being a coastal inlet and I’ve never heard of an Erne being a bird of prey.
    I gave up after having to look so much up to complete the top half. I usually finish FT crosswords, but this was awful, utterly unforgivably awful.
    Did Aardvark deliberately set out to piss off all the solvers today?

25. Simon S@23 Thanks for the clarification.

26. And, I have a late question for anyone still reading. The clue for NON-SKID refers to “sons” in the plural. Is that still “s”, or is it “ss” or in this case “s kid” by itself? The dictionary I have on me at present does not help.

27. Martyn@26 re 13ac: For the abbreviation s, Chambers 2016 p 1368 and ODE 2010 p 1562 give “son(s)”; Collins 2023 p 1747 and SOED 2007 p 2640 only give “son”. My memory of reference books is that someone may be said to have (for example) 2 s 3 d, meaning 2 sons and 3 daughters. I would accept s as singular or plural. I like the idea of the second son in the clue giving the KID, and maybe a setter reading this may “borrow” the idea, but here we have to account for the words “lead up the garden path”.

28. Martyn@26: I stand by the parsing in the blog.

29. This is another dreadful puzzle.

    I ran of time with Five to go. When your first one in is Lhasa Apso you know you’re in for a fight. My second was Quisling and third Guanaco.

    Truly.

    Far far too much working out the words from the crossers and then trying to solve impenetrable parsing.

    Quite a few I had no idea why they were the answers but put them in and happy discover they are correct.

    Quicksilver still makes no sense

    Aardvark produces abominable puzzles.

    What is the point of a clue which is quite impossible to solve if one was only given the cryptic bit? Then combined with a with a definition which is so obscure us to be perverse.

    Solving crosswords from the crossers isn’t solving crosswords. It’s finding words which fit and then trying to work out why they’re the answer.

    Hmmm

30. Hated it. Aardvarks are ugly animals and this was an ugly puzzle.

31. Thanks PB@27, and Cineraria@27. Thanks, as always, for your guidance.

    I agree that KID is the only way to explain “leading up the garden path”. I was genuinely asking whether “s” is the correct abbreviation of “sons” as I am sure it will come up again. Sorry if it looked like I was challenging the parsing in the blog, as that was not my intention. It was a genuine question, and I happily accept your answer.

    Regards

32. Moly @ 29

    Are you sure you have the right hobby?

33. PS, if you are still reading, thanks for pointing out the “near pangram” PB@8. I will keep that in mind too

34. I think s = son(s), d = daughter(s) comes from genealogy lists.

35. Late to post but wanted to express huge appreciation of a chewy puzzle!
    It took us s lot longer than usual, sure, and we complained quite a lot, but felt a sense of achievement at the end, unlike the easy puzzles this week which didn’t give much satisfaction.
    Thanks aardvark and cineraria

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