Financial Times 15,225 by HAMILTON

14 comments on “Financial Times 15,225 by HAMILTON”

1. I think 2d may be A CROS(sword) TIC(kle).and 7d is ‘caring’ (bothering) with C (cold) replaced by H (hot) to give HARING

2. Thank you PeeDee. On 2 down, I thought it was “this puzzle” = “a crossword”, half of which is “acros”.

3. Years ago, in a Pan book of crosswords, I came across a clue that went something like this: Has he then heard of defalcation? for AUDITOR. 20d above seems to be too cryptic and I too miss any beauty that may be hidden there.

4. Well done to passerby and David A. I will update the blog.

5. Thanks Hamilton and PeeDee

   I thought this was quite tough, and had ground to a halt until I worked out the anagram at 1, 13 from the firsty and last Is and the D, after which things flowed again.

   For 22 I had CORPSE, as in what one does on stage when you forget your lines or get distracted (cf Dudley Moore when Peter Cook went off on one), constructed from CORPS (miltary company) plus cuE.

   Plausible?

6. Sorry, me again, forget to say that for 22 my definition was FALL ABOUT.

7. According to Chambers CORPSE can be to be unable to speak ones lines due to hysterical laughter, which could be to fall about with laughter.

   This is certainly better than TOPPLE.

8. Many thanks for the blog PeeDee
   There are two clues remaining for which I can offer explanations:
   6d – Doodlebug – modern day graffiti to me is doodling on a massive scale, and is a nuisance (bug) – our council has spent quite a lot trying to obliterate it. Per contra, some people have made a bomb out of it!
   20d – I was attempting a cryptic definition, using capitals to denote the late lamented magazine, whose crossword lives on in a new home.
   Thanks too to passerby for ACROSTIC and Simon S for CORPSE

9. I think the V1 bombs from the war were called doodlebugs

10. Thanks for explaining the remaining clues Hamilton. I did’t think of graffiti* for street artists at the time, only scriveners, who are not generally regarded as pests.

    *PS what is the noun for people who produce graffiti – graffitiers? graffitieri? graffitioso?

11. For 2d I had “half this puzzle” being “across” (as opposed to “down”) and “stroke” being “tick”, the “describing” meaning it’s a homophone: “across tick” -> “acrostic”. (Although I now see that Hamilton has endorsed the other explanation.)

    Thanks to Hamilton and PeeDee.

12. PeeDee @10 – Chambers suggests graffitist or graffiti artist (I prefer the former!)

    Steve @ 11 – that’s just as good, it works either way

13. Thanks Hamilton and PeeDee

    This was tough which lasted most of today to get filled out … and came here before I had fully parsed TOPPLE to find that I never would have – got as far as justifying PPL as people or loosely company but was missing the TO part !!! Not sure that I would ever have got CORPSE from that definition and dunno whether I would have been able to construct it from the rest of the word play.

    I went down the path of the ACROSS clues represented half of the crossword similar to Steve. Had also tried to convert HATING to HARING rather than the neater CARING.

    There was plenty to do with the rest of it … coming across the Cotswold sheep for the first time and taking a while to decipher others around the grid. Finally got to the NW corner where ACROSTIC, POSTERIOR and CHAMPERS were the last few in.

14. Thanks PeeDee and Hamilton and to other contributors for sorting out the parsing of ACROSTIC and HARING which both defeated me.

    Interesting to see two unusual anagrinds at 14 & 16dn – “not relevant” and “slammed”.

    Overall I found the style very unusual – which was refreshing if tough.

    So thanks again.

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