No 14770, Friday 17 Apr 2026, Karaoke

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS FOR FRIDAY ONLY

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ACROSS

1   Open house, bird-house (6) HONEST {HO}{NEST}

4   Mosquitos vacated, no more suffering in public toilet (4,4) MENS ROOM {Mo...oS+NO+MORE}*

9   A specialty hospital right across minister's original place of seclusion (6) ASHRAM Acrostic

10 Throw away editor misbehaving with girlfriend (3,3,2) GET RID OF {EDITOR+GF}*

12 Greed for wealth from medal by fool leaving nothing at the end of tourney (8) CUPIDITY {CUP}{IDIoT}{t...eY}

13 Rest of money stolen from old women (6)  OTHERS mOTHERS

15 Frisk high priests near bridge (5,6) STRIP SEARCH {PRIESTS}*{ARCH}

18 Drinking heavily, both let off with model in lounge oddly (2,3,6) ON THE BOTTLE {BOTH+LET}*{T} in {lOuNgE}

21 Well-deserved employees always receive net excluding dividends primarily (6) EARNED Acrostic

22 Song by crazy doctor on a lake (8) MADRIGAL {MAD}{RIG}{A}{L}

24 Starter by pirate at sea with wife heartily (8) APERITIF {PIRATE}*{wIFe}

25 Sage consumes basically edible mushroom (6) REISHI {R{Ed...e}ISHI}

26 Sondheim composed "The pursuit of pleasure" (8) HEDONISM*

27 It makes you sleepy when fixed in taste occasionally (6) TSETSE {Ta{SET}StE}

DOWN

1   He'd treat a patient who is mentally unstable (8) HEADCASE {HED+A}*{CASE}

2   Fancy shopowner fired women. They are good-for-nothing (2-6) NO-HOPERS SHOPOwNER*

3   He can add some input funnily (7,8) STANDUP COMEDIAN* &lit 

5   Smooth sailing, maybe curtailed (4) EVEN EVENt

6   Clergy with hot tutoress pants in exercise (7,4,4) STRETCH YOUR LEGS {CLERGY+H+TUTORESS}*

7   Lots of love poems about first love! (6) OODLES {O}{ODES} over {Love}

8   The Lion King, say, horribly famous acting for Oscar (6) MUFASA {FAM(+a-o)AUS}*

11 Bears witness to abstainer participating in destruction of asset (7) ATTESTS {TT} in {ASSET}*

14 Essentially Bharat's army at large weapon factory (7) ARSENAL {bhARat}{SENA}{L}

16 Gates scenery? (5,3) STAGE SET {GATES}* [RA]

17 Spooner says "Cut down rent. It's a punishment place" (8) HELL FIRE (fell hire to hell fire}

19 Cuts up hot angel (6) SERAPH {PARES<=}{H}

20 Companion cooked around noon (6) FRIEND {FRIE{N}D}

23 Searches for accommodation (4) DIGS [DD]

Reference List

House = HO, Girlfriend = GF, Money = M, Model = T, Lake = L, Women = W, Hot = H, Acting = A, Oscar = O, Abstainer = TT, Large = L, Noon = N

No 14769, Thursday 16 Apr 2026, Gussalufz

Solution to 18A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

Open for anyone to answer, if not solved by 1 PM.

HIJKLMNO Pronounced

ACROSS

1   Development environment that boss nearly destroyed to grasp a bit of programming (4,4) STOP BATH {THAT+BOSs}* over {Pr...g}

6   Surprise for woman expecting escort? (6) SHOWER [DD]

9   Setter going for a social media interaction with Victoria, perhaps (4) LAKE L(-i+a)AKE

10 Some elaborate trap to teach obscure grammatical term? (10) TETRAPTOTE [T]

11 Oh, let's go back for a campus gathering (6) HOSTEL {OH<=}{LETS<=} 

12 Gang, in memoir, was regularly retreating for sport (8) SWIMMING {GaNg+In+MeMoIr+WaS}<=

13 Writer got sharply panned (10) STYLOGRAPH*

15 Cocaine, son, right away! (4) SNOW {S}{NOW}

17 Collect fingerprint pattern after returning (4) POOL<= 

18 Old bird circling cloud or a kind of delivery service? (4-2-4) D?O?-T?-D?O? (Addendum DOOR-TO-DOOR {D{OORT}ODO}{OR} - See comments)

20 Set out quinoa around five following chef's first dish (3,2,3) COQ AU VIN {QUINOA}* over {V} after{Chef}

22 "Outcome of naughty pout?" "Keeping quiet" (6) UPSHOT {UP{SH}OT*}

24 Made dry Indian crispy chicken starters, gobbled up with daughter (10) DESICCATED {DESI}{Cr...y}{Ch...n}{ATE}{D}

26 Welcome husband's distress (4) HAIL {H}{AIL}

27 Disentangle gunk and snot after blowing noses (6) UNKNOT {gUNK+sNOT

28 Spooner's young boy, batter with poor judgement (3,5) BAD TASTE (tad baste to bad taste)

DOWN

2   Quite a fort! Wonderfully hosts a small party (3,3,3) TEA FOR TWO [T]

3   Fold coat, bottom to middle (5) PLEAT PL(+e)EAT(-e)

4   Essentially, can't I logically use this operation to convert, say, 1 to 10? (7) ANTILOG [T]

5   How to prune butts, becoming attractive (3) HOT {HOw}{To}

6   Unoriginal southern liberal (7) SLAVISH {S}{LAVISH}

7   Made improvements in newspaper column about model I.I.M.s, with editing (9) OPTIMISED {OP ED} over {T+IIMS}*

8   Scoffed at faceless men on ecstasy (5) EATEN {AT}{mEN}<=>{E}

12 Squabble over private resort area (3,4) SPA TOWN {SPAT}{OWN}

14 All muddled, old language includes old pronunciation of R as L (9) LALLATION {ALL}* {LATIN} over {O}

16 One studying mountains is ordinary for university doctor (9) OROLOGIST (-u+o)OROLOGIST

18 Voted crankily to accommodate company housing for pigeons (7) DOVECOT {DOVE{CO}T*}

19 Lacking advanced auxiliary supports, ramshackle hut collapsed noisily (7) THUDDED {aADDED}<=>{HUT*}

21 Main article chases CEO's replacement (5) OCEAN {AN}<=>{CEO}*

23 Uh, sound missing in a chainsaw's clattering? (5) SCHWA CHAinSaW*

25 Save up for boat (3) TUB<=

Reference List

Son = S, Old bird = DODO, Cloud = OORT, Quiet = SH, Daughter = D, Husband = H, Southern = S, Model = T, Ecstasy = E, Old = O, Ordinary = O, University = U, Advanced = A