Financial Times 17,993 by XELA

A breezy challenge from XELA this Friday.

FF:8 DD: 5

ACROSS
1	CORPUS	Body of work produced by company (American) (6)
		CORP ( company ) US ( american )
5	ADHERING	Remaining faithful is a horrible grind, eh? (8)
		A [ GRIND EH ]*
9	DEBONAIR	Elegant young socialite currently doing a radio show? (8)
		DEB ( young socialite ) ON AIR ( doing a radio show )
10	TO DATE	Why people use Tinder up until now? (2,4)
		double def
11	BORNEO	2 travelling somewhere in Asia (6)
		[ OBERON (2d) ]*
12	VALLETTA	Personal attendant with time to take in Lima, a capital city (8)
		[ VALET ( personal attendant ) T ( time ) containing L ( lima ) ] A
14	SHETLAND PONY	Creature close to death in nasty old pen, possibly (8,4)
		[ H ( deatH, last letter ) NASTY OLD PEN ]*
18	MANSLAUGHTER	Bloke’s amused reaction creates serious offence (12)
		MAN'S ( bloke's ) LAUGHTER ( amused reaction )
22	NO MATTER	Gossip about award that’s not important (2,6)
		NATTER ( gossip ) around OM ( award )
25	RIYADH	City periodically rainy and periodically hot (6)
		RIYAD ( alternate letters of "..RaInY AnD.." ) H ( hot )
26	REMAIN	Extremely reasonable, principal alternative to Brexit (6)
		RE ( ReasonablE, end letters ) MAIN ( principal )
27	FALLIBLE	Weak story in which evil is overturned (8)
		FABLE ( story ) containing reverse of ILL ( evil )
28	AS IT WERE	Kind of oddly sweet air (2,2,4)
		[ SWEET AIR ]*
29	YIELDS	Yen slide ruined financial returns (6)
		Y ( yen ) [ SLIDE ]*
DOWN
2	OBERON	King is regularly sombre and not uplifted (6)
		OBE ( sOmBrE, regularly ) RON ( and not = NOR, reversed )
3	PROGNOSIS	Poor signs misinterpreted as indicator of things to come (9)
		[ POOR SIGNS ]*
4	SOAP OPERA	TV programme thus introducing a poet and artist (4,5)
		SO ( thus ) A POPE ( poet, alexander ) RA ( artist )
5	ARRIVAL	Emergence of a Republican challenger (7)
		A R ( republican ) RIVAL ( challenger )
6	HOTEL	Type of accommodation all the rage with the Spanish (5)
		HOT ( all the rage ) EL ( the, spanish )
7	RIDGE	Journey on horseback around grand hill- range (5)
		RIDE ( journey on horseback ) around G ( grand )
8	NOTATING	Absence of bad material in good composing work (8)
		NO TAT ( absence of bad material ) IN G ( good )
13	LAD	Boy beginning to loathe going on a date (3)
		L ( Loathe, first letter ) A D ( date )
15	NATURALLY	Nobody’s initially attending university gathering, of course (9)
		N ( Nobody, first letter ) AT ( attending ) U ( university ) RALLY ( gathering )
16	PARTY LINE	‘Do some cocaine’ is the policy of many politicians (5,4)
		cryptic def
17	BARONESS	Entitled person of a certain sort primarily seen in pubs (8)
		[ ONE ( of a certain sort ) S ( Seen, primarily ) ] in BARS ( pubs )
19	LIT	Excellent, short printed works (3)
		double def
20	GIRAFFE	Animal’s mistake crossing one river (7)
		GAFFE ( mistake ) containing [ I ( one ) R ( river ) ]
21	ADDLED	After a couple of days, was the manager flustered? (6)
		A DD ( days, couple of ) LED ( was the manager )
23	ADAPT	Modify plug fitting (5)
		AD ( plug ) APT ( fitting )
24	TENSE	Present, say, ultimately won’t make even kids smile (5)
		last letters of "..won'T makE eveN kidS smilE"

16 comments on “Financial Times 17,993 by XELA”

Martyn

#1 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 03:54

It was pretty easy, particularly in the top half, but what a wonderful set of clues. There were too many great surfaces to mention.

One question: in 12ac, how does Lima become L?

Thanks Xela and Turbolegs

Electric Insect

#2 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 04:00

Lima is L in the NATO alphabet.

Martyn

#3 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 04:05

Ah! Thank you

KVa

#4 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 04:34

PARTY LINE
Do=PARTY
some cocaine=LINE

Jay

#5 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 06:02

KVa just beat me to the PARTY LINE explanation. Looks we are the ones with the checquered pasts. 🤣

Roz

#6 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 06:33

Thanks for the blog , good set of neat and concise clues . A lot of variety in the FT this week , something for everyone .

Geoff Down Under

#7 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 10:35

Very likeable. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed one this much since Picaroon left the Guardian. Perhaps Xela will become my new favourite.

Pelham Barton

#8 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 11:09

Thanks Xela and Turbolegs

25ac: This needs to be alternate letters in RaInY + alternate letters in AnD + H, hence the two occurrences of “periodically”.

FrankieG

#9 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 11:53

Parsed 25a RIYADH as Pelham Barton@8; 16d PARTY LINE as KVa@4. — [Didn’t like being reminded of Gove.]

allan_c

#10 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 16:43

What Martyn@1 said (except that we knew Lima for L).
Thanks, Xela and Turbolegs.

Simon S

#11 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 17:58

Thanks Xela and Turbolegs

I saw 19 D as LIT (printed works) from eLITe (excellent) ‘short’

I can’t see how ‘excellent’ per se = LIT

Pelham Barton

#12 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 18:31

19dn: Collins 2023 p 1145 has lit adj informal with the definition “excellent; marvellous”. This is now answering Hovis@13.

Hovis

#13 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 18:31

Simon @11. According to the Urban Dictionary, LIT can mean ‘excellent’. Don’t know if this particular slang has made any of the main dictionaries but it’s not in the Chambers app.
Ah, Pelham posted at the same time with an answer.

mrpenney

#14 - Fri 7th Mar 25, 19:06

LIT for “excellent” is something I’m pretty sure I didn’t start seeing until maybe ten years ago, which probably means both (a) that it’s actually more like 25 years old, and (b) that the youth are no longer using it. Once 50-year-olds learn the slang, 20-year-olds know it’s time for new slang.

#15 - Sat 8th Mar 25, 15:23

Maybe we should no longer parse “and lit”?

FrankieG

#16 - Mon 10th Mar 25, 06:46

oed.com: “LIT … 4. 2009– colloquial (originally U.S.). Amazing, impressive; fun, exciting.
2009 The party is lit… Someone started howling when the DJ played Thriller… I’m ready to bust a move. @MidnightPR 11 July in twitter.com …
2018 The music is lit. New Musical Express (Nexis) 22 January”
[What’s twitter?]

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