Financial Times 17,901 by SOLOMON

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A fun puzzle from SOLOMON this Friday

FF: 8 DD: 6

ACROSS
1 COMIC
Fellow with microphone who’s funny on stage (5)

CO ( ~ fellow ) MIC ( microphone )
4 NOSE FLUTE
English boy put back glass instrument (4,5)

[ reverse of E ( english ) SON ( boy ) ] FLUTE ( glass )
9 BIG DIPPER
Stars made out of large piece of carrot? (3,6)

BIG ( large ) DIPPER ( piece of carrot possibly )
10 ATTIC
Old Greek at the front of Taverna’s in charge (5)

AT T ( Taverna, first letter ) IC ( in charge ) – learnt something new today, that this was a form of the language spoken in greece back in the day
11 ENEMA
Blokes in A&E turned around for uncomfortable procedure (5)

MEN ( blokes ) in AE , all reversed
12 MERRIMENT
Fishy fellows taking naked trip close to Stockport ‘for fun’ (9)

[ MERMEN ( fishy fellows ) containing RI ( tRIp, naked i.e. without end characters ) ] T ( stockporT, last letter )
13 SIRENS
Rock singers — Elton John and Paul McCartney? — dash inside (6)

SIRS ( elton john and paul mccartney ) containing EN ( – dash ) ; witty clue
14 SWEEPER
‘Special One’ upset defender (7)

S ( special ) WEEPER ( one upset )
17 CAMPARI
A politician on cocaine with unfinished dry aperitif (7)

C ( cocaine ) A MP ( politician ) ARId ( dry, unfinished i.e. without the last letter )
19 DYEING
The old ring boxes changing colour (6)

YE ( the, old ) in DING ( ring )
22 SERIOUSLY
Sombrely and unsteadily rise alongside lousy drunk (9)

[ RISE ]* [ LOUSY ]*
24 PRIME
Such characters from 5th Feb are the best (5)

cryptic def; prime positions ( 2,3,5 ) of " 5th Feb" gives THE
25 ONSET
Start working with firm (5)

ON ( working ) SET ( firm )
26 PEPPERONI
Scatter on one’s pizza topping (9)

PEPPER ( scatter ) ON I ( one )
28 SWADDLING
Wrapping a baby in sister’s top and rocking while walking (9)

S ( Sister, first letter ) WADDLING ( rocking while walking )
29 SHELF
Where toys may be displayed by quiet toymaker (5)

SH ( quiet ) ELF ( toymaker )
DOWN
1 COBWEB
You and I beginning to busk behind horse and trap? (6)

COB ( horse ) WE ( you and i ) B ( Busk, first letter )
2 MAGNESIUM
Mg of drugs I found within gun (9)

[ ( ES ( drugs, E – ecstasy as singular ) I ] in MAGNUM ( gun )
3 CLIMATE
Claim to be energised by extremities of the weather over time (7)

[ CLAIM ]* TE ( ThE, end characters )
4 NAP
Go to sleep in an applecart (3)

hidden in "..aN APplecart"
5 SURPRISEDLY
Without expecting it, Grumpy’s forced inside (11)

PRISED ( forced ) in SURLY ( grumpy )
6 FRAGILE
Weak and delicate base broken by dog’s bottom (7)

[ FRAIL ( delicate ) E ( base ) ] containing G ( doG, bottom i.e. last letter )
7 UNTIE
Bring together, then turn it loose (5)

UNitE ( bring together, with IT exchanging positions ) ; i am iffy about the equivalence, wouldn't loosen be the right tense?
8 ET CETERA
Onstage cast finally create plays and the like (2,6)

ET ( onstagE casT, final letters of ) [ CREATE ]*
12 MISSISSIPPI
River Island, in front of which young woman is reflecting very quietly (11)

MISS ( young woman ) IS SI ( reflecting implies reversal ) PP ( very quiet ) I ( island )
15 PANTIHOSE
Inspiring old thespian performs in tights (9)

O ( old ) in [ THESPIAN ]*
16 SCISSORS
Is cross section, initially, roughly cut with them? (8)

[ IS CROSS S ( Section, first letter ) ]*
18 ADOPTED
Dope discovered to be held by Bill & Ted in custody (7)

OP ( dOPe, discovered i.e. without end letters ) in [ AD ( bill ) ED ( ted ) ]
20 EXPRESS
Old newspapers in train (7)

double def
21 RELIEF
Artwork prompting one to feel reassurance (6)

double def
23 RASTA
Piece from opera starring Bob Marley? (5)

hidden in "..opeRA STArring.."
27 PIG
Creature that’s just over 3 grams (3)

cryptic clue; read as PI ( 3.14159… ) G ( gram )

22 comments on “Financial Times 17,901 by SOLOMON”

  1. I agree with Turbolegs that SIRENS is cute. I also loved the surface for SWEEPER and had ticks for PIG and SCISSORS.
    I’m more accustomed to ‘pantyhose’ (horrible word either way!) but the answer was clear.
    Re LOOSE, if ‘turn it loose’ is not doing double duty, then one ‘looses’ an arrow (though perhaps that’s more in the sense of unleash than untie). Does ‘loose’ as a verb exist in archaic texts?
    Anyway, it was a quick and enjoyable solve for me.
    Thank to Solomon and to Turbolegs for a fine blog.

  2. Chambers has “loose v.t. to make loose; to set free; to unfasten; to untie…..” and also loosen as a transitive verb with the same meaning, neither marked as archaic. I suspect loosen would be a lot more common.

  3. RELIEF
    I think
    Def: Artwork prompting one to feel
    SCISSORS
    Liked it. Nice CAD (that’s what the blog says, I guess).
    Also liked SIRENS and PIG.

    Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs.

  5. I take my hat off to anyone who solved PRIME. I tried for a very long time. I do recall use of a similar device in previous puzzles some time ago though.

    All else was achieved and enjoyable, and I’ve just transferred Solomon from my “bad” to my “good” list.

  6. The usual high-quality puzzle with humour from Solomon

    I liked COBWEB, NAP, UNTIE, SWADDLING, SHELF, ADOPTED, and groaned at SIRENS (sirs and rock singers)

    NE corner was tough for me, combining obscure words as crossers. With apologies to Diane@1, I thought SWEEPER weak.

    I did not get PRIME and I still do not. I also thought NOSE FLUTE a bit weak and ET CETERA a bit iffy

    To summarise: a nicely-constructed puzzle with a lot to entertain. Thanks Solomon and turbolegs

  8. Martyn, I had a bad experience with one of his a while ago. Perhaps I just got out of the wrong side of the bed that morning.

  9. No apologies necessary, Martyn! I liked the sporty-sounding surface for referencing Jose Mourinho, aka the ‘special one’ (in his own mind, at least), former manager of Chelsea FC.

  10. And a second PS. I just noticed our esteemed blogger rated this DD:6. I found parts of it approachable, with some difficult clues, and I would have rated it higher.

    I am sure I am not nearly as skilled as Turbolegs. Nevertheless I do find it interesting how different people react differently to the same puzzle.

  11. Martyn, ah so that’s what the DD:6 is. Why 2 Ds and what is FF:8?

    For PRIME, if you take the prime number positions in 5thfeb which are at 2,3 and 5 that gives .TH.E. then such characters from 5thfeb give THE so “such characters” are ‘prime’ and prime=best.

    I didn’t parse it apart from 5 being prime and wondering what ‘th feb’ was doing in the clue. Doh! A clever clue and kudos to Turbolegs for getting to the correct parsing.

  12. Aha! I now understand PRIME. Clever indeed. Thanks Tim C (and Turbolegs)

    If I understand it correctly, Turbolegs uses DD for degree of difficulty an FF for fun factor.

  15. Folks – Thanks for stopping by. Good to see the many familiar fellow conspirators enjoy this morning’s offering.

    Martyn@10 – Its a typical case of YMMV. Often times, I have struggled, really struggled with puzzles that others would have found a breeze. I was held up by 13a for a bit but otherwise was able to make steady progress on this.

    Regards,
    TL

  16. I’ve been a fan of Solomon from the off; fresh and inventive cluing and plenty of smiles. Somewhat like Pavlov’s dog, I am now conditioned to be on the alert whenever I see the word ‘prime’ and, whilst the figure ‘5’ was momentarily disconcerting, it was a pleasure to see what the setter had done with that innocuous word, ‘the’. Plenty of faves for me today so, restricting it to a sensible number for the comment, I’ll highlight BIG DIPPER, SWEEPER, SIRENS, PRIME, SWADDLING, SHELF, SURPRISEDLY, SCISSORS, PANTIHOSE and SHELF.

    Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs

  17. Thanks Solomon and Turbolegs

    20dn: I think the first part of this must be EX (old) + PRESS (newspapers collectively). The Daily Express (usually known as The Express for short) is a current newspaper in the UK.

  18. Incidentally, for 7dn, loose as a transitive verb is also defined as “to unfasten or untie” in Collins 2023 pp 1158-9 and “untie or undo” in ODE 2010 p 1044, with the usage example the ropes were loosed.

  19. YMMV was a new acronym so thanks Turbolegs for this and for your very clear blog. 13a also held me up which is why I agree with Martyn ;this puzzle has a higher DD for me.
    Very inventive clues so thanks to the wise one too.

  21. I agree with Petert that SIRENS was brilliant – it was certainly too brilliant for me. Similarly with PRIME – and I am a maths student! But 22ac there was much 12ac to be had and it blew away the mental 1dns. Well done Solomon and Turbolegs!

  22. Thanks Solomon for an inventive crossword. I found this a bit more difficult than Turbolegs whose ratings are generally in sync with mine. I revealed SURPRISEDLY — ‘prised’ = ‘forced’ is new to me. I guessed PRIME but couldn’t begin to unravel it. All else eventually came to light with CAMPARI, CLIMATE, ET CETERA, PANTIHOSE, EXPRESS, and SCISSORS being favourites. Thanks Turbolegs for the blog.

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