Comments on: Financial Times 13,243 / Cinephile

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 00:19:47 +0000

Re (my own comment) #3:
1,23ac refers to BOOKER (T.) WASHINGTON, leader of the African-American community in the USA in the nineteenth century.

By: Sil van den Hoek

Sil van den Hoek — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 22:43:52 +0000

We don’t have the time to do two crosswords a day, and therefore Cinephile had to take a seat in the waiting room.
But it was worthwhile.
What a very very clever crossword.
(even given the fact that The Rev more or less recently produced one or two capital crosswords , as Eileen made clear)

I must admit that I only came fully aware of the brilliance of this crossword after reading the excellent blog by Gaufrid. (Thx)

However, I am still left with some unanswered questions.

I agree with Richard (#2, gee, #2, where are all these Araucarians??) that in 31ac GEORGE refers to Washington (although I thought of Georgetown as well).

In 1,23 ac: why is the BOOKER PRIZE defined as a ‘capital’ award?
Finally, I am still a bit puzzled by “(a third one)” in 4ac.
Perhaps, it is like Richard says: the C of Washington DC, but to be honest, there’s no real reference to 13ac and/or 18d.
And calling COLUMBIA the “third one” (after Washington and Berlin) is also a bit strange, since COLUMBIA is the first of these capitals to be mentioned (in clue #2).

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:43:14 +0000

Gaufrid,
As usual a frustrating but very satisfying Cinephile puzzle. I thought 31a was just a reference to “George” Washington; there seems to be nothing to link it to Georgetown. 22d works fine for Isaiah Berlin but there is no actor reference.

In 4a I assumed the “third one” meant the third part of Washington DC (18d being the second part). I did not see a third capital in the puzzle.

By: Eileen

Eileen — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:04:51 +0000

Thanks, Gaufrid.

This was clever stuff, I thought.

I had the same explanation as you for 22dn – except that I’m afraid I hadn’t heard of the actor, so just took it that it was a reference to Berlin. [The clue has 'capital' - but, of course, the singular is needed for the surface. I'm sure you're right!]

[Cinephile / Araucaria does seem fond of his capitals! Not long ago he set puzzles on this theme under each pseudonym and he used the Washinton / Irving / Berlin ['live at home holding hands with Isaiah'] connection in a Guardian alphabetical in May.]