Monday 21 March 2011

No 10107, Monday 21 Mar 11, Spiffytrix

ACROSS
1   - Fool jumped without velocity and attacked (9) - {ASS}{vAULTED}
6   - Referring to a period (5) - {A}{BOUT}
9   - Head off to discover American river (5) - {fIND}{US}
10 - Almost cover male revolutionary (9) - {INSURe}{GENT}
11 - Anti US missile initially got lost in a storm (7) - TSUNA(M)I*
12 - What? He is mad to display godlessness (7) - ATHEISM [T]
13 - Santa's leg? (8,6) - STOCKING FILLER [CD]
17 - Maoist problem could be a reason for divorce? (8,6) - DOMESTIC CRISIS [DD]
21 - It's a bit late in the day for ironing (7) - EVENING [DD]
23 - Meeting opponents beside a tower (7) - {S}{E}{MINAR}
25 - Haul on ice troubled Communist leader (4,2-3) - CHOU EN-LAI*
26 - The old people's country (5) - {YE}{MEN}
27 - Fire on body (5) - SHELL [CD]
28 - After a change of heart sir opens unexpected gifts (9) - {S(-i+u)UR}{PRISES}
DOWN
1   - Tough exam undertaken by a detective? (4,4) - {A}{CID} {TEST}
2   - Saint's upset with shelter lacking finish (5) - {SAD}{HUt}
3   - Release disheartened relative outside hut (9) - {UN{SHACK}cLE}
4   - Unsupported belief's not popular in education (7) - inTUITION
5   - Spiffytrix would turn up with man for women's work (7) - {DI<-}{STAFF}
6   - Disgusted expression starts to annoy and repulse girl's husband (5) - {A}{A}{R}{G}{H}
7   - Jokes about English ships (3-6) - {ON}{E}-{LINERS}
8   - Japanese rush to rag French friend (6) - {TAT}{AMI}
14 - A thing that's maximum over Antarctica? (5,4) - OZONE HOLE [CD]
15 - Madly love and marry old English Magistrate (4,5) - L(O)RD MAYOR*
16 - Old female rulers exploited artisans (8) - TSARINAS*
18 - Changes glasses after changing top (7) - (-g+t)TOGGLES
19 - Charlie's a more timid accountant (7) - CASHIERl* (Correction - {C}{A}{SHIER} - See comments)
20 - Evades bootleggers? (6) - FENCES [DD]
22 - Current business is perfect (5) - {I}{DEAL}
24 - Anaesthetises digits without hesitation (5) - NUMBerS

GRID


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27 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 08:31

    AARGH,

    With TSUNAMI and TATAMI IN 11A and 8D, I got misled inito putting Japan in 26a, changing it to YEMEN only on realising it can’t be Lord Major !
    Though the crossword would have been composed before the recent Tsunami that hit Japan, there seems to be flood of Tsunamis everywhere. Readers Digest of Feb2011 also carried an item on a Tsunami!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Suresh21 March 2011 at 08:32

    Neat and enjoyable crossword.

    I thought a FENCE was one who deals in stolen goods. Can it also refer to a bootlegger?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Chaturvasi21 March 2011 at 08:37

    Suresh
    I don't find any support for that sense of the word 'fence'.
    Not in Chambers. Nor elsewhere like onelook.
    But I might be wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 08:39

    Aaargh, Suresh, specialiation is the bane of these times ;-) Well the boot is on the other leg !

    Well, a bootlegger deals in contraband (banned by the Contras in Nicaragua?) and stolen goods are contraband, since dealing in them ain't legit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Deepak Gopinath21 March 2011 at 08:46

    You'll saw the proof for HUM=TUM which I posted after the match last night?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 08:52

    Engineers ROXX

    After yesterday's discussion on OX tail and OX tongue, I am tempted to ask,

    Do engineers get an OX in prescription?

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 08:52

    Or sisomso kisses?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Meghna Agarwal21 March 2011 at 09:21

    Not convinced with 19D. Can someone explain?

    My COD, 2D

    Problem with 26A: Ye is old The and not The old and hence not convincing as I see it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Suresh21 March 2011 at 09:30

    CASHIER is C (for Charlie)
    A given
    SHIER =More timid

    ReplyDelete
  10. Meghna Agarwal21 March 2011 at 09:36

    Thanks, explanation for that clue in the main post gives it as an anagram. So I had my doubts.

    And didn't know that Charlie is C.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Suresh21 March 2011 at 09:46

    Meghna. Like a radio operator saying C for Charlie.
    Re 'Ye old' it is like 'the French' meaning Le, la or les. Pretty standard in crosswords to write like this. Makes for better surface reading

    ReplyDelete
  12. Prasanna S21 March 2011 at 10:30

    Very enjoyable one today. Domestic crisis is my COD.

    1D is slightly iffy with "tough" and "acid test" being adj. and n. respectively.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Meghna Agarwal21 March 2011 at 10:48

    While I do agree that surface reading is important, logical correctness is equally important to me. A setter's challenge is to keep both these aspects in mind when composing a clue.

    Saying The French to mean Le is gibberish and so is The old to mean Ye. By way of practice, we may learn to accept these as standards in crosswords but strictly speaking, they fall shorty as far as logic and grammar goes. This is what one would otherwise call `Broken English' outside the cryptic world. As I see it, setter and solvers can do without these devices. When perfection is within reach, it's better to opt for it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Suresh21 March 2011 at 11:10

    Actually Prassanna, I think that tough exam is the def for 1D. It is a kind of CD. Don not ignore the
    question mark at the end of the clue.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Bhavan21 March 2011 at 11:36

    Interesting topic Meghna. At least we agree some conventions are,by force of habit acceptable to solvers and setters alike.

    Grammar I agree is non-negotiable, but by logic I'm not sure if we both mean the same thing.

    It is all make believe with surface reading and logic might have to be defied in painting such misleading pictures.

    Outside of the cryptic world, how likely is it to hear sentences like "Fool jumped without velocity and attacked" or "Japanese rush to rag French friend" ?

    Like Sankalak said elsewhere (which I personally agree with): "Crosswords are fun but not literary compositions of lasting importance. For most solvers, each puzzle is of ephemeral interest, maybe a half hour or an hour. Another day, there is another puzzle."

    As long as the surface reading isn't too nonsensical and the cryptic reading leads to an unambiguous answer, I for one wouldn't mind the setter being creative with the components.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Bhavan21 March 2011 at 11:40

    @Colonel, saw the HUM = TUM proof : )

    ReplyDelete
  17. Suresh21 March 2011 at 12:00

    So Hum is equal to tum at midnight. I was on the right track.:))

    ReplyDelete
  18. Meghna Agarwal21 March 2011 at 15:56

    @Bhavan, creativity is nice but not at the expense of syntax. If syntax is incorrect, it can hardly communicate the intended meaning efficiently unless we force ourselves to accept these usages as standards, like in the case of The old or The French. To clarify, the above is what I meant by logical correctness.

    Some of my pet peeves: Nounal anagrinds, adjectival anagrinds that go right after the fodder without a link, abbreviations like The French, The Spanish, abbreviations that are uncommon in daily usage, improper connectors and link words, weak CD's etc to name a few.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 16:56

    Mad magazine advertises its multifarious uses including lining wardrobes, birdcages and wrapping fish.

    Yesterday, cleaning out an cupboard, I came across THC8732/14.10.2006. Two nice ones from it:

    11a Presentation that a journalist gives the steel baron (9)

    13a It is expensive -nothing to New York Times (4)

    Clearly, GM!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 16:57

    The crossie was not carrying a credit line, so clearly BNJ era.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Chaturvasi21 March 2011 at 18:30

    Kishore

    I liked your epochal classification!

    I can confirm from my dB that the above-mentioned crossword was Gridman's.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 19:26

    CV, in that case, you will like my quote from TTOTC, paraphrased for tense:

    It is the best of times, it is worst of times,....

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous21 March 2011 at 20:24

    This 21a when I did the BangEd of ET, I found 21d as:
    Trying to get flat at the end of the day (7)

    ReplyDelete
  24. Venkatesh21 March 2011 at 20:45

    11a Presentation that a journalist gives the steel baron (9) (SUB)(MITTAL) Journalist -SUB (editor); steel baron - MITTAL - did not occur to me on the first read. I am surprised. CV had remarked that Gridman does not use the names of living persons. May be it is one of those exceptions that proves the rule (and the reason Kishore chose to mention it here!).

    13a It is expensive -nothing to New York Times (4)(O)(NY)(X) - an easy clue

    ReplyDelete
  25. Bhavan22 March 2011 at 02:15

    @Meghna : I think I'm beginning to see what you mean. In today's puzzle (10108) there are at least a couple of clues that were OK on the surface, but jarring in cryptic reading.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Bhavan22 March 2011 at 03:03

    Today's HT (which means an old Times crossword) had this clue:

    Entrance hall for bringing in the old (5)

    Spiffytrix is in good company at least with his usage of "the old"

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous22 March 2011 at 06:03

    FO(YE)R

    ReplyDelete

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