Financial Times 17,875 by GOLIATH

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Thanks to Goliath for a great puzzle.

Always good to see a Goliath on blog day! I found this very enjoyable, fair, and well-balanced.

picture of the completed grid

ACROSS
1. Pet movie? (6)
BUDGIE

Cryptic definition

If MOVE = BUDGE, then MOVIE = BUDGIE

4. They say you are heading west in swirling mist, and that’s obvious (6)
TRUISM

(U + R)< (“YOU ARE”, “they say”, <heading west) in MIST* (*swirling)

8/9. Investment bloke with old story (7,7)
MANAGED ACCOUNT

MAN (bloke) + AGED (old) + ACCOUNT (story)

11. Stop and use a different term for a twenty-four-hour period (4,2,1,3)
CALL IT A DAY

Double/cryptic definition

12. Crazy about drug and alcohol (4)
MEAD

MAD (crazy) about E (drug)

13. Doctor’s back from suicide mission (5)
MEDIC

[sui]CIDE M[ission]< (<back, from)

14. Eat and think (8)
RUMINATE

Double definition

16. Empty bar, fine in only development that’s south of 7 (8)
BROOKLYN

B[a]R (empty) + (OK (fine) in ONLY* (*development))

18. For a city, top South African one (5)
URBAN

[d]URBAN (South African city, topped)

20. Socialists gone (4)
LEFT

Double definition

21. Openly discuss placing a couple of thousand in tea? Truly innovative! (4,6)
TALK TURKEY

(K+ K (a couple of thousand) in TEA TRULY)* (*innovative)

23. Detectives, back in loop, will change (7)
CODICIL

CID< (detectives, <back) in COIL (loop)

24. Some money for reported suffering sea life (3,4)
SIX QUID

“SICK SQUID” (suffering sea life, “reportedly”)

25. 7-0 with leader demoted, nonetheless (4,2)
EVEN SO

[S]EVEN O with S (leader) demoted

26. Rise of a fragrance (6)
ASCENT

A + SCENT (fragrance)

DOWN
1. Boss with African name and initials? (5)
BWANA

B[oss] W[ith] A[frican] N[ame] A[nd] (initials) – &lit

BWANA is an East African term for BOSS

2. Was first putting on tie and spoke slowly (7)
DRAWLED

LED (was first) putting on DRAW (tie)

3/21. Close couple in beleaguered citadel isn’t securing victory (9,5)
IDENTICAL TWINS

(CITADEL ISN’T)* (*beleaguered) securing WIN (victory)

5/15. No tsunami clue in range (5,9)
ROCKY MOUNTAINS

MOUNTAINS* (*rocky) = NO TSUNAMI

A reverse anagram/CLUE

6. Press staff in tough challenge (4,3)
IRON MAN

IRON (press) + MAN (staff)

7. Island guy, bowler, perhaps brown (9)
MANHATTAN

MAN (guy) + HAT (bowler, perhaps) + TAN (brown)

10. Mostly, you and girl frolicking in a passionate way (9)
ADORINGLY

(YO[u] (mostly) AND GIRL)* (*frolicking)

13. Fashion houses surprisingly score in what makes echo. (5,4)
MORSE CODE

MODE (fashion) houses SCORE* (*surprisingly)

In Morse code, “echo” (the letter E) is a single dot
Never overlook punctuation in a clue!

17. Where to go when it’s awfully tedious indoors? (7)
OUTSIDE

TEDIOUS* (*awfully) – &lit

19. Type of music Quo played while nude (7)
BAROQUE

QUO* (*played) while BARE (nude)
Hm. If I think of ‘while’ as ‘during’ I can just about make this work.

22. Be safe, primarily, during leave (5)

EXIST

S[afe] (primarily) during EXIT (leave)

18 comments on “Financial Times 17,875 by GOLIATH”

  1. Great fun from Goliath today, always a breath of fresh air with his innovative cluing and a generous dose of humour.
    SIX SQUID, OUTSIDE, EVEN SO and ROCKY MOUNTAINS were among my picks.
    Besides 1a, there seemed to be a number of film titles besides.
    Thanks to Goliath and Oriel.

  2. Oriel, your idea is interesting. I saw it as a double definition with the ‘film’ part starring Adam Faith though come to think of it, perhaps it was a series.
    Didn’t mean to write ‘besides’ twice @1

  3. I totally agree with Diane’s first sentence @1 – huge fun from start to finish. I loved it.
    I also agree with her interpretation of 1ac @2.

    I had many ticks but will highlight 13ac MEDIC, 23ac CODICIL, 24ac SIX SQUID, 3/21 IDENTICAL TWINS, 5/15 ROCKY MOUNTAINS and MORSE CODE.

    Many thanks to Goliath and lucky Oriel.

  4. L2i: took a while to see 1d BWANA, then another longer while to twig 1a BUDGIE, parsed as Oriel. [As Diane@2 says it was a series (1971-2), not a movie.]

  7. I think FrankieG is right about Ironman ,which is the competition; the film is two words.

    Even so it was a great crossword and blog . Thanks to both.

  8. Liked BUDGIE, CALL IT A DAY, BWANA, MORSE CODE (seen this trick before…yet it took me a while to see the full stop) and OUTSIDE.
    BAROQUE: Agree with Oriel’s comment in the blog.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel.

  9. I am not sure why I am posting today as the solve was quite easy apart from…

    1A: “Budgie” – as has been pointed out was a TV series not a movie. “What do you want if you don’t want money?” by Adam Faith was a favourite of mine growing up, listening to Radio Luxemburg if I remember correctly.

    13D was obvious from the cross letters but I couldn’t parse it until Oriel’s explanation. I only know SOS as dot dot dot, dash dash dash, dot dot dot. Or as an ABBA song.

    Last one in was the 8A part of the account. It was not known to me but the cross letters allowed me to see the definition.

    Thanks to everyone who contributed. Gute Nacht Alle.

  10. Thanks for the blog , excellent puzzle and I always appreciate the separate entries connecting in the grid .
    BUDGIE I agree with the blog , a whimsical take on movie . The Adam Faith series is showing on Talking Pictures TV .
    IRON MAN definitely one word for this usage. we always go to watch Ironman Bolton .
    MORSE CODE very neat , I am always suspicious of a full stop at the end of a clue, sometimes it is just a misprint.

  11. Thanks Oriel

    If 1ac was meant to refer to the TV series and was a factual error, I can forgive it. If it was the device suggested by Oriel, I cannot regard that as a satisfactory device in a daily cryptic, however many other people may like it. I also felt somewhat uncomfortable with 19dn. Thanks to Goliath for the rest of the puzzle.

  12. 6dn: Collins 2023 p 1029 gives “iron man n 1 a multi-event sporting contest …”, so the enumeration (4,3) is justified.

  15. I echo the generally positive comments. I liked the variety of cluing and some of the interesting devices. I could have named several clues as favourites and my list seems a bit random – MANHATTAN, MEDIC, EVEN SO. Similar to Roz@10, I also appreciated Goliath connecting the separate entries in the grid.

    I had the same reservations as everyone about BUDGIE, but I thought Oriel’s explanation was amusing. I did not like BAROQUE for the reasons mentioned, and I am not enthusiastic about having to learn MORSE CODE now – learning rhyming slang is about my limit.

    Thanks Goliath and Oriel

  16. We agree with our blogger that this was a great puzzle. We particularly liked ROCKY MOUNTAINS and MORSE CODE. According to IMDb there is a movie called BUDGIE – a short film in Hindi from 2021.
    Thanks, Goliath and Oriel.

  17. Thanks Goliath for a super crossword. Clues like MEDIC, LEFT, IDENTICAL TWINS, MORSE CODE, and OUTSIDE will keep Goliath on my must-do list. Thanks Oriel for the blog.

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