Financial Times 16,529 by JULIUS

by

Good fun as always. Thank you Julius.

image of grid

ACROSS
1. My bad, dodgy credit cards not accepting €? (1,5,9)
I STAND CORRECTED

anagram (dodgy) of CREDIT CARDS NOT containing E (Euro symbol)

9. Include at no charge method to restart game? (5-2)
THROW-IN

double definition

10. Introduction of disk (Blu-ray) formatted in a long-lasting way (7)
DURABLY

Disk (first letter, introduction of) then anagram (formatted) of BLU-RAY

11. Job’s predecessor second to leave heaven (5)
ETHER

Just a guess. Something to do with ethereal and Job and Esther in the Bible?

12. Belgian town slum area binning old international food (9)
SPAGHETTI

SPA (Belgian town) GHETTo (slum area) missing (binning) O (old) then I (international)

13. Unseemliness partly behind eco rumours? (9)
INDECORUM

found inside (partly) behIND ECO RUMours

15. Adult party to cause embarrassment (5)
ABASH

A(adult) BASH (party)

16. Keir: coke’s taken regularly for thrills (5)
KICKS

every other letter (taken regularly) of KeIr CoKeS

18. Perhaps Pooh, Rabbit and a close relative, according to Spooner? (5,4)
HONEY BEAR

a Spoonerism of "bunny hare" (rabbit and a close relative)

20. Cycling industry exhibition is ethically sound business (4,5)
FAIR TRADE

TRADE FAIR (industry exhibition) with worlds exchanged (cycling)

23. Guid wee bairn giein’ a bosie tae a bampot (5)
DWEEB

found inside (giein' a bosie tae, cuddling) guiD WEE Bairn – Scots slang

24. Conveys one million components (7)
IMPARTS

I (one) M (million) PARTS (components)

25. House for one retired community? (7)
VILLAGE

VILLA (house) then EG (for example, for one) reversed (retired)

26. Lloyd’s agency: air crash “interruption of normal trade” (5,7,3)
EARLY CLOSING DAY

anagram (crash) of LLOYDS AGENCY AIR

DOWN
1. Banged up frequently, Julius is last to escape (at the eleventh hour) (2,3,4,2,4)
IN THE NICK OF TIME

IN THE NICK (banged up) OFT (frequently) I'M (Julius is) escapE (last letter of)

2. Run into Talbot House base daughter set on fire (7)
TORCHED

R (run) inside TOC H (nickname for Talbot House, Christian movement) then E (base, of the natural logarithm) and D (daughter)

3. Additions to magician’s act beyond the grasp of aged setter? (3,6)
NEW TRICKS

double/cryptic definition

4. Change fragrance from top to bottom (5)
CENTS

SCENT (fragrance) with the top letter moved to the bottom

5. Knight supporting corrupt earldoms; it looks bloody fishy! (3,6)
RED SALMON

N (knight, chess) follows (supporting) anagram (corrupt) of EARLDOMS – something that looks both red (bloody) and like fish (fishy)

6. Soil husband removed from fireplace (5)
EARTH

hEARTH (fireplace) missing H (husband)

7. Girl’s tense, somewhat hot, first hint of anger (7)
TABITHA

T (tense) A BIT (somewhat) H (hot) then Anger (first letter, just a hint of)

8. Wicked “Big Brother” lady with yen for crime? (8,7)
DAYLIGHT ROBBERY

anagram (wicked) of BIG BROTHER LADY with Y (yen)

14. Tries to get in genuine practice (9)
REHEARSAL

HEARS (tries, in court) inside REAL (genuine)

15. Rising Bahraini lad, gym addict, injected with quack cancer remedy (9)
AMYGDALIN

found reversed (rising) inside (…is injected with) baharaNI LAD GYM Addict

17. Hairdresser beginning to cut more mature male’s parting (7)
CRIMPER

Cut (first letter, beginning to) then RIPER (more mature) contains (with…parting) M (male)

19. Stone me! ‘ermes is outside! (7)
EMERALD

ME inside (with…outside) 'ERALD (Hermes was the herald of the gods)

21. Running late? Drat! Upset Yankee (5)
TARDY

DRAT reversed (upset) then Y (Yankee, phonetic alphabet)

22. The King is charmingly mischievous, according to Connery (5)
ELVIS

Sean Connery (actor with a trademark "lisp") might say ELVIS as "elvish" (charmingly mischievous) – Elvis Presley

24 comments on “Financial Times 16,529 by JULIUS”

  1. A Julius puzzle is always a treat and this one was no exception – I didn’t know 15d so it was a good thing it was a clearly clued lurker

    Thanks to Julius and PeeDee

  2. Yes, PeeDee, 11ac is the OT book Esther which precedes Job in that work, with s ‘second’ removed, to leave us ‘Ether’ whcch can mean Heaven.

     

    Enjoyable as always but not quite as witty as some previous efforts from Julius I felt.

  3. A treat indeed. I loved it.

    1ac was a brilliant start and gave lots of initial letters, as did the witty 1dn. I also liked 11ac ETHER, 18ac HONEY BEAR and 19dn EMERALD, which made me smile  – ‘e was ‘ere yesterday, delivering flowers for my birthday!

    Many thanks to Julius and PeeDee.

  4. Yes, I agree with the above comments that a Julius grid is something I eagerly anticipate and this one didn’t disappoint. As soon as I saw 1ac, I knew I was in for some fun. Having nobbled the perimeter clues fairly quickly – thanks to some great anagrams – I thought it might be plain sailing and so it proved. 8d was a particular favourite, along with 12ac and 23ac. 16ac was just cheeky! I spotted eight first names among the answers and between the lines…there may be more?
    I couldn’t parse 12ac at first as I thought it should be ‘slums’ (ghetti) but read it again more closely and the penny dropped. Could ‘Belgian town slums producing food’ have worked?
    Many thanks to Julius and to PeeDee, for clarifying those I guessed but couldn’t parse, especially 22d. I now have 007’s voice and ‘lisp’ in my head, pronouncing 23ac.

  6. Thank you, Diane. 😉

    I meant to include 23ac DWEEB: special thanks, Julius – my Scots husband would have loved it!

  7. A quick solve for a Julius but enjoyed it from start to finish. I’ve seen the same spoonerism as 18a before and 20a is fairly similar to a recent clue but that’s just an observation not a criticism. Thanks, as always, to Julius and  PeeDee.

  8. Hi Steven – @2 where have you seen ETHER meaning heaven?  I looked in Chambers and the OED and it wasn’t there (unless I missed something, which I do regularly).

  9. Thanks Julius and PeeDee

    Finished this in about half the time that it takes to do a puzzle by this setter, so was either on his wavelength today or it was a slightly easier one.  Having said that, there were quite a number of terms that I either didn’t get (the Scottish phrases and words in 23a – found it difficult to even google them afterwards as well) or needed to look up as I was solving the clue (‘banged up’, ‘Talbot House’ / TOC H and AMYGDALIN.

    KICKS jumped off the page with the first look at the puzzle and things moved steadily along after that.  Reckon that I’ve seen the ESTHER / JOB artifice before, but it still took a while to see again – it does seem that you can’t teach an old solver (let alone setter) new clues (and expect them to stick) !!

    Enjoyed untwisting some of the trickier word play – as in SPAGHETTI, IN THE NICK OF TIME, TABITHA and CRIMPER.  Finished in the SE corner with EMERALD, VILLAGE and the unknown AMYGDALIN as the last few in.

  11. PeeDee @8

    In case Steven’s not around – Collins: ETHER ‘Greek myth: the upper atmosphere; clear sky or heaven’.

  13. Very enjoyable. Thanks Pee Dee and Julius. I parsed 5 dn. as an anagram of EARLDOMS with N (knight).

  15. Thought I should add, just in case it isn’t obvious to everyone, that the cryptic definition in 3d is in reference to “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” where “setter” is an example of a dog.

  16. 23 – the Scots thing – was jolly, my Scots partner often saying, “Gie’s a bosie” and the American ‘dweeb’ being a nice synonym for Scots ‘bampot’, which is also my sobriquet in this house though I’d rather be a bampot than a dweeb, not sure why.
    ‘ELVISh’ was sly Scottish fun as well.
    ‘EsTHER’ brought back memories of my old “That’s Life!” boss. To PeeDee@8: Chambers gives ‘ethereal’ as ‘heavenly’, so ‘ether’ must mean something of the sort.
    Fine entertainment. Thanks to both.

  17. PS.  I don’t have any issue with ETHER being heaven, I just looked in the wrong dictionaries.  That, coupled with failing to find any obvious relationship between biblical figures Job and Ester in Wikipedia.  Steven explains that bit.

  18. Thanks for the blog, dear PeeDee – and thanks to those who have commented. This grid with its 4×15 letter perimeters is very solver-friendly so I’m not surprised to read that this puzzle seemed to be on the easy side.

    Warmest regards to all, Rob/Julius

  20. Thanks Julius for the fun — I only wished it lasted longer as I found this to be one of your easier crosswords. ETHER, VILLAGE, and TABITHA were favorites. Thanks PeeDee for the blog.

  21. Didn’t know TOC H, TABITHA, or AMYGDALIN, but they were all gettable from the clues without the need for external help. I’m Scottish, but “gie a bosie tae” isn’t a phrase I’m familiar with.
    Thanks, Rob.

  22. All very enjoyable.  We  found ‘bampot’ for fool or idiot in Chambers, but ‘bosie’ there was only given as an Australian word for a googly in cricket; so DWEEB was our LOI.  We knew AMYGDALIN but had to check that it was once used in cancer therapy.  And we liked the surface of 10ac.

    Thabks, Julius and PeeDee.

  23. Great puzzle. Didn’t help myself by misreading 1a as 1 5 9 rather than 1 9 5 oops. Easy yes but entertainment rather than torture is usually what I’m after. Not everyone wants IO each day.

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