Welcome Scintillator, great entry, bit on the tougher side though. Nursery rhyme day today.
ACROSS
ACROSS
1 - Ram's wife nearly beginning to explode and boil over (6) - {SEETHa}{E}
4 - Expulsion from building after losing right to justice (8) - E(-r+j)JECTION
9 - Vegetable, for example, eaten by dirty mule (6) - {L{EG}UME*}
12 - Details one answer in sixty seconds (8) - {MINUT{I}{A}E}
13 - Preached, while sounding tense (6) - TAUGHT(~taut)
15 - Of course not the Spanish festival (4) - {NO}{EL}
16 - Reprobate boycotts drug in familiar circumstances (5,5) - {BLACK S}{H{E}EP}
19 - Took apart — lit demands violently (10) - DISMANTLED*
20 - A fraction of Russia is found here! (4) - ASIA [CD] (Addendum - {A}{rusSIA} &lit - See comments)
23 - See 1 Down
25 - I use cans to manage provisions (8) - ISSUANCE*
27 - Gnaws at to sate, perhaps (4,4) - {EATS*} {A}WAY}
28 - Dash that we find in misprints (6) - SPRINT [T]
29 - In one way, it was a case of sick symbol (8) - S{WASTI*}KA Anno pending (Addendum - SWASTIKA* (it+was+a+sick) - See comments)
30 - Cores of oocyte nuclei sticky like benzene (6) - {CY}{CL}{IC}
DOWN
1,23 - Superman's enemy is a wise one manufacturing dry gun (7,6) - {SOLOMON} {GRUNDY*}
2 - Fathers send green signal (9) - ENGENDERS*
3,22 - But he did not enjoy the autumn! (6,6) - HUMPTY DUMPTY [CD]
6 - Split Conservative serve as jockeys (8) - {C}{REVASSE*}
7 - Frost vocally claims that he writes poems (5) - {I}{CING}(~sing)
8 - Engineer spot-on about Newton's constant (3-4) - {NO{N}-STOP*}
11 - Permits found under label in certain medicines (7) - {TAB}{LETS}
14 - Russian poet somehow came first (7) - {ACME*}{IST}(~1st)
17 - Perhaps as Nile's to Egyptians, originally (9) - ESS(E)N(T)IAL* &lit
18 - Provide help to drag barrow (8) - {HAND}{CART}
19 - Is independence measured in these? (7) - DEGREES [CD]
21 - Without drinking a drop of coffee, a cynic becomes sterile (7) - {A}{ScEPTIC}
22 - See 3
24 - Ultimately, king's a radical (5) - {ULT}{R}{A}
Here is Kishore's limerick (Quoted from the Orkut group) about our new setter
ReplyDeleteQuote
"As I have to go out early today, I put my welcome to Scintillator here instead of the Colonel's blog:
In the eyes of the Inquisitor,
Or the casual commentator,
I think you pass,
My dear lass,
As a successful Scintillator.
Methinks, this is a lady. If wrong, kindly substitute ‘lass’ with ‘baas’ , a word I picked from Ajith’s dictionary. ;-)"
End quote
29 - In one way, it was a case of sick symbol (8) - S{WASTI*}KA Anno pending
ReplyDeletein one way - AnagrInd
IT+WAS+A+SK (case of SicK)
Defn: symbol SWASTIKA*
As Kishore is out of home at this time, he posted the following lines in my Orkut community:
ReplyDeleteIn the eyes of the Inquisitor,
Or the casual commentator,
I think you pass,
My dear lass,
As a successful Scintillator.
I was going to write that going by his theory that a setter chooses his/her pseudonym by using the initial letter of his/her name, I am wondering if the present setter is Sandhya or Sivagnanam.
Or the redoubtable Shuchi for that matter!
ReplyDeleteKudos to Gridman for nurturing and mentoring a young and enthusiastic group of new setters.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to feel left out from the guess the setter game -) !! Maybe pseudonym choosers pick the last letter of the pseudonym to match with the last letter of their first name or user name??
ReplyDeleteveer
ReplyDeleteLOL
@Chaturvasi: Thank you for giving me so much credit :P
ReplyDeleteLike SR has said, you are a great mentor for setters as well as solvers.
20 - A fraction of Russia is found here! (4) - ASIA [CD]
ReplyDelete---
Deepak
I would classify this as &lit (all in one) with charade wordplay A(a) + SIA (fraction of Russia).
In the above clue was the exclamation mark really necessary?
ReplyDeleteI don't think so because nothing unusual is going on here.
It looks more like a self-congratulatory pat by the setter.
@Veer: Ha-ha!
ReplyDeleteActually, since morning I was wondering if tomorrow's crossword setter's name would be a four letter word ending with R :)
Commenting on the clue quality of the new setter - the clues were refreshing and Scint'or seems dexterous in his use of the setter toolkit with nouns masquerading as verbs and vice versa, enough lift and separate clues for the solver to muse over etc.
ReplyDeleteOther than the overly obvious anagram for Dismantled, one clue that for me feels like a blemish is 3,22 - But he did not enjoy the autumn! (6,6) - HUMPTY DUMPTY [CD]. It seems like the setter tried to overly complicate the CD with a wordplay element and then tried to indicate the obfuscation with a somewhat liberal use of the "!" similar to what CVasi sir noted in his 8:58.
Scintillating puzzle from scintillator
ReplyDeleteThanks, Deepak & CV for posting my lines.
ReplyDeleteVeer, that is self reference !
Gosh, Solomon Grundy used to be a bit hit in preschool days, with his internship on Sunday.
Guess the Scintillator-
ReplyDelete1.setter?
2.Hindu-for introducing new refreshing setters
3.CV-for mentoring the"S"(setter&solver)
I was voting for Sandhya until I saw her entry.Maybe it is Suchi? Now guessing continues!(exclamation allowed?)
27 - Gnaws at to sate, perhaps (4,4) - {EATS*} {A}WAY}
ReplyDeleteUnable to figure out the anno for AWAY.
Could this be a DD?
Sandhya, if you look at AWAY as an anagram indicator, then EATS becomes SATE, so SATE = EATS AWAY and Gnaws is the def.
ReplyDeleteI think this is reverse anagram.
ReplyDeleteEATS (anag fodder) AWAY (anagrind) would give SATE, 'gnaws at' being the def.
@Padmanabhan: Thanks for thinking I was the setter :)
ReplyDeleteAt most, I can frame one clue, never a whole crossword!
@Bhavan & Chaturvasi: Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThat's what I meant by by my Anno EATS* A WAY
ReplyDelete@Colonel: Got it now.
ReplyDeleteThanks all for the nice words :) Some clarifications from my end:
ReplyDeleteVeer says I was somewhat naughty, but honestly, these set of words did not allow me to be so ;) Except for 26D perhaps. Also to tell you the truth, I voluntarily restrained myself while cluing 4A.
Curses to the typo at 19A, I had '&-lit' when I sent it and wanted to follow it up with an &-lit.
20A is an &-lit, but I had an exclamation mark because (IMHO) the entire clue acting as wordplay is not quite obvious. The wordplay conveys that "A {-RUS}SIA" is found in the corresponding place in the answer grid. To have the last word from Cunclued, "An exclamation mark at the end is a good sign that the clue in question is of &lit type".
The usage of ! in 3D, err... I concede, is a bit superfluous and meant for fun - but surely it was not 'self-congratulatory'. Duh! :X :P
29A, I reckoned, was somewhat of a semi-&lit. Swastika, being associated with Nazism, was sick in a way. But in another way, it was not, being a religious symbol.
27A was a reverse anagram, though a touch let down by the use of 'to'.
Thanks again and hoping to entertain you people everytime
Scintillator
Scintillator
ReplyDeleteThanks for calling. Never mind about our guesses as to who you are. Whoever you are, man or woman, we like your work. Keep it up!
I did see your intention in 29a but I did not dwell on it. Now I remember suddenly that my grandfather's palatial building had on its facade at first floor level a swastika moulded in cement.
I learn from wikipedia that the word 'swastika' came from the Sanskrit word 'svastika', meaning any lucky or auspicious object, and in particular a mark made on persons and things to denote good luck.
BTW, we moved to the now-developed flat complex in 1993 but many dreams of mine have been set in that old building - the kitchen, the verandhah, the outhouse and so on.
Scintillator,
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by and keep up the good work.
Thanks, and all the best, S.
ReplyDeleteBTW, there is a Bengali version of the swastika which is more like a stick man.
@Scintillator: Thanks for a super crossword. Awaiting for many more from you.
ReplyDeleteHi Scintillator, Very nice of you to stop by and chat.
ReplyDeleteYour clues were deceptive with the def and word play elements nicely intertwined though the solutions themselves were common enough words. Also, the surfaces were nice - so it had all the ingredients of a challenge that makes one smile when done. I called it naughty because I appreciated this little dance I had to do with the words, though I understand the other interpretation as well.
What is the present scene wrt THC setters?
ReplyDeleteWe have
(in A-Z order)
Buzzer (latest addition)
Cryptonyte (recent addition)
Gridman (old hand)
M. Manna (hand older than Gridman)
Neyartha (older than the recent)
Nita Jaggi (-do-)
Sankalak (hand older than Gridman)
Scintillator (latest addition)
Spiffytrix (recent addition)
I wonder if we are getting back to the regular rota with Spiffytrix from tomorrow or are we in for more surprises?
ReplyDeleteWelcome aboard, Scintillator! Nice crossie today... enjoyed it. I only left out ACMEIST despite figuring out the first part -- the literal first part, not the second part which refers to 'first'. (And I was too lazy to Google!) Anyway, I couldn't believe that any "serious" word could begin with ACME, because the A-word constantly brought to mind Wile E. Coyote and his rather dangerous antics. Oh, and as soon I got 29 A, it appeared to me as an &-lit.
ReplyDeleteAlso, curious minds (okay, mind) wants to know: any reason why you have chosen Orion's belt as your avatar over some other set of scintillating objects?
Being Cryptic Puzzle solvers, why is it not possible for any one of you to decode as to who indeed is Scintillator?
ReplyDeleteMethinks-- SC is she in till later?
Raju Umamaheswar