Financial Times 14,998 by Goliath

by

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 1, 2015

I have come, slowly, to like and admire Goliath but this puzzle is the first to really wow me.  Solving it was hard in parts but very enjoyable and impressive. My clue of the week is 26d (PROSE) and I also think very highly of 14a (MAYO), 25a (OENOPHILE) and 6d (STAY SOBER).

Across
1, 5, 9 THOUSAND ISLAND DRESSING
M-Man, perhaps with plaster for 13 (8,6,8)

THOUSAND (M) + ISLAND (Man, perhaps) + DRESSING (plaster)
10, 13 CAESAR SALAD
It’s sad that artist main comeback is in album by Cardini (6,5)

ALAS (it’s sad) + RA (artist) + SEA (main) all together backwards in CD (album).  Caesar Cardini is held to be the inventor of the Caesar Salad.
12 EPAULETTE
Eastern writer unwrapping one of his missives for decoration (9)

E (eastern) + PAUL (writer) + [l]ETTE[r] (unwrapping one of his missives).  I take it that the Paul referred to here is the one whose letters feature in the Bible.
13  
See 10
14 MAYO
Right away, leader of municipality and county clinic is allowed to love 9 (4)

MAYO[r] (right away, leader of municipality) -or- MAY (is allowed) + O (love).  So we have a clue with two distinct sets of wordplay and a stunning triple(!) definition.
16 TIBETAN
I am fairly confident in brown Asian (7)

I (I) + BET (am fairly confident) in TAN (brown)
19 ABOUNDS
Spring in Athens is plentiful (7)

BOUND (spring) in A(then)S
21 VARY
Change for Emma after a bath and deodorant? (4)

[bo]VARY (Emma with BO removed).  BO for body odour.
24 TEENY
Minute from St Leger, only every second counts (5)

[s]T [l]E[g]E[r] [o]N[l]Y.  A catch here is that you must take every second letter from each word, not the phrase as a whole (as is more usual in such clues).
25 OENOPHILE
One might like red mobile phone to be dropped in uncovered toilet (9)

Anagram of PHONE in [t]OILE[t]
27 UPLAND
Finally, you took the fourth option to reach high ground (6)

[yo]U + PLAN D (the fourth option — after PLANS A, B and C that is!)
28 IGNORANT
A bit like Signor Antonio on the cause of depression (8)

Hidden word.  Do I have the definition right?  I don’t quite see how ‘ignorant’ would be a cause of depression.
29 HOWLER
Primate’s big mistake (6)

Double definition with the first pertaining to the Howler Monkey.
30 FRIENDLY
For instance, naked lady – extremely affectionate (8)

F[o]R I[nstanc]E N[ake]D + L[ad]Y
Down
1 TIDIED
It flipped and croaked as ordered (6)

IT (it) backwards + DIED (croaked)
2 ONEDAY
Solver briefly tours port, having got up at an unspecified time (3,3)

ADEN (port) in YO[u] (solver briefly) all backwards
3 SISAL
In psychoanalysis, although made of strong fibre (5)

Hidden word
4, 20 NONE TOO SOON
Piece of music with oboist solo on, even only at the last minute (4,3,4)

NONET (piece of music) + O[b]O[i]S[t] [s]O[l]O [o]N.  There seems to be a problem with this clue as someone has pointed out in comment #13 below.
6 STAY SOBER
Off to bars? Yes and no (4,5)

Anagram of TO BARS YES
7, 11 ABSOLUTE BEST
To be as subtle, perhaps, is truly superlative (8,4)

Anagram of TO BE AS SUBTLE
8 DERIDING
Scoffing riders, essentially doing what they do (8)

[ri]DE[rs] + RIDING (doing what they [riders] do)
11  
See 7
15 ANNOYANCE
It’s doubtful anyone can bother (9)

Anagram of ANYONE CAN
17 FATTOUSH
13 and loveless – big bum (8)

O (love) in FAT (big) + TUSH (bum).  Fattoush is an Egyptian salad and something I like to eat — in spite of which it took me ages to solve this one!
18 COLESLAW
Porter’s rule 13 (8)

COLES (Porter’s) + RULE (law)
20  
See 4
21  
See 22
22, 21 OIL AND VINEGAR
13 9 indecently lead on a virgin (3,3,7)

Anagram of LEAD ON A VIRGIN
23 SENTRY
Sway in to get the guard (6)

S (S…) + ENTRY (..way in)
26 PROSE
Not what comes up in rhymes or poetry (5)

Reverse hidden word

16 comments on “Financial Times 14,998 by Goliath”

  2. Yes – Goliath’s growing on me too.

    I think 28a refers to Antonio from the Merchant of Venice:

    “In sooth, I know not why I am so sad”

    on which basis the whole surface gives a good definition.

    My COTD – but it took a bit of thought to work it out.

    Many thanks to Goliath and PM.

  3. Thanks, Pete. I’m very glad that you’ve been wowed at last! Goliath is one of my top favourites and he’s on top form here.

    My first one in was the beautifully crafted MAYO, which gave me DRESSING, which led immediately to THOUSAND ISLAND, so I was lucky to see the theme from the beginning – but FATTOUSH, which I’d never heard of, was my last one in and then I couldn’t parse it, as I didn’t know TUSH = bum.

    I liked PROSE, OENOPHILE and STAY SOBER, too, and would add VARY and IGNORANT [which I read as JS @2 did], although it’s really invidious to pick out favourites.

    Lovely surfaces throughout, as ever – a delight to solve from start to finish. Huge thanks to Goliath.

  4. Thanks Pete and Goliath.

    TEENY and NONE TOO SOON
    Pete, after your apposite comment on 24ac, I had another look at 4dn.
    NONET + OOSOON is required, the last six letters clued by ‘even only’.
    O+O+S are the odd letters of ‘oboist’. Am I missing something here?

    Eileen, I’d never heard of FATTOUSH either; I had to look it up.
    Later that evening I went out for a meal in a local Lebanese restaurant.
    Front page of the menu … of course!

  5. Thanks Pete and Goliath.

    Enjoyed this. And even more to admire now that you’ve explained my failed parsings – which were (unsurprisingly):
    19 ac – Doh! I really should have spotted A then S;
    21ac – ah! That Emma!;
    28ac – thanks to Jolly Swagman for explaining the cause of depression; and of course
    17dn – I’d been focussing on ‘bum’ meaning ‘touch’ as in ‘cadge’ under ‘fat’ for ‘big’ but couldn’t explain the ‘loveless’ or apparent mid-spelling.

    It’s all clear now so thanks again.

  6. ilippu, Thanks for commenting.

    JollySwagman, Thank you for the Merchant of Venice explanation. I have read the play, long ago, but have no memory of that particular line.

    Eileen, ‘tush’ in this sense is a term I know well although one I would never use. I fancy it is better known in the U.S. than in the U.K. One dictionary suggests that it is a corruption of the Yiddish ‘tokhes’ (which I also hear occasionally, pronounced “tucus”) meaning buttocks.

    mike04, Now I look at 4dn again, it seems that I forced the wordplay to fit when it seems that it really does not. One needs the odd letters of OBOIST and the even letters of SOLO ON. Thank you for pointing this out. Does anyone see this differently?

    Hamish, Please don’t kick yourself for missing the A(then)S business — it took me long enough!

  7. The Emma totally confused me. Fattoush was one of those guesses had fat and then vaguely remembered toush as an American slang for bum. Took me awhile but finished it. Thanks for explanations for some I got without being really sure why!!! Enjoyed it.

  8. Of all the Saturday and Monday FT crosswords I have ever done , this was my least successful. I must admit my heart sank when I saw all the cross references.
    To get (1,5 & 9), 17 & (22,21) it helped to have 10,13.
    10,13 referred to Cardini who I had never heard of and I don’t use Mr Google when doing these. I do think that a key clue should be gettable. Maybe 95% of solvers knew who he was.

    I tried the other clues but with so many potential checkers missing , I gave up.

    Just a few comments

    21a Definitely a John McEnroe moment -you have to equate Emma with Bovary.
    27a The fourth option =plan d -good grief
    4,20 I didn’t know a nonet was a piece of music -just thought it meant 9 people.

    I’m in a minority of one here but I hated it.

  9. Thanks Goliath and Pete

    Another fan of Goliath and this was a good ‘un. Started off with the very clever MAYO – and discovered the Mayo Clinic for the first time. Liked the variety of ways in which he got one to select / delete particular letters from a word or group of words – 24a, 30a, 4d-20d together with 14a and 25a. Thought that the hidden answer clues were very good, especially the reverse one in 26d.

    FATTOUSH was my last one in – was aware of the TUSH term. Wasn’t able to parse a couple – VARY (the Madame Bovary connection slipped over my head) and IGNORANT (with the reference to ‘The Merchant of Venice’ ). Also got UPLAND wrongly parsed (missed the clever PLAN D view – had gone with U (university), P (to be confirmed !!) and LAND as in reach high ground (or any ground))

  10. Many thanks for the blog. An excellent and enjoyable puzzle.

    Sorry, am coming late in the day to this, but am still struggling with the parsing of 17d, FATTOUSH. Why does “loveless” mean adding an O? I would normally interpret is as taking an O away.

    Sorry if I am missing something obvious…!

  11. Giudice, Thanks for commenting.

    “Loveless” in this case does serve as an indication to take an O away, only in the reverse direction so to speak. That is, take the O out of FATTOUSH and you get FAT TUSH. Making a clue work like this — sort of backwards — is unusual but one of the things one comes to expect from Goliath especially.

  13. Am coming even later in the day that Giudice. If anyone is reading this by now, I’d be grateful for explanations of two things: if in 4,20 we have to take the even letters only at the end, but before that the odd ones, where is the instruction to do that? It seems that there is simply the instruction to take the even letters of ‘oboist solo on’, and there is apparently a mistake because this would only work if it were ‘tobois solo on’

    And the clue for MAYO looks to me like four sets of wordplay and a single definition. It seems to be ‘Right away, leader of municipality’ to give mayo{r}; ‘county’ to give Mayo, the Irish county; ‘clinic’ to give Mayo (the clinic of which I’d never heard but discovered via Google); ‘is allowed to love’ to give may 0; and the definition simply ‘9’, which is DRESSING. Haven’t you got to call those single-word definitions bits of wordplay, since otherwise one gets all mixed up between wordplay and definition? It seems odd to have definitions anywhere other than at the beginning or end of the clue.

    Am closer to Bamberger than to you, Pete, and others. Didn’t enjoy this: some of it is very clever, but it seems a bit loose and some of the clues, like the one about Signor Antonio, are at the very limit of general knowledge in a daily cryptic.

  14. Wil, In the case of 4,20, as often happens, you have pointed out an apparent fault with a clue that I wonder how I could have missed. Looking at it now I can see no justification for selecting the odd-numbered letters of OBOIST. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.

    As for the MAYO clue, I do not follow your argument and maintain my view that it contains two sets of wordplay and three definitions.

  15. Pete I think that perhaps you could read the Mayo clue either way; my point was that in my opinion there is only one definition (‘9’) and that all those things that look like definitions are bits of wordplay. If a clue has more than one definition, these definitions should be next to each other I should have thought, not all mixed up with the wordplay.

    Perhaps my reference to the ‘single-word definitions’ made it seem that I was calling them the clue-definitions.

Comments are closed.