Back home and ready for the torture of the next 7 days. 24D takes the cake today.
ACROSS
ACROSS
2 - Eye doctor and I will be able to drink (6) - IMBIBE {I}{MB}{I}{BE}
7 - Report the noise (4) - BANG [DD?]
9 - Unusual painter is an engineer (4) - RARE {RA}{RE}
10 - Distracted a manic dreamer of good life (8,5) - AMERICAN DREAM*
13 - Second part of spirits (7) - ALCOHOL What is the first part!!!
15 - Opportunity for a drunken host (4) - SHOT*
17 - Hand in the pump at the beach spot (5) - SHORE {SHO{R}E}
18 - Home paper from the French editor (4) - DEED {DE}{ED} What is home paper?
19 - Caught cutting the big glaciers at an ancient port (7) - ALGIERS GLAcIERS* Why ancient? It's no longer a port is it?
21 - Portion of the church is inclined towards the rear evenly (7) - CHAPTER {CH}{APT}{rEaR}
23 - Troubled them in an outhouse for pets straying and agitated (7-6) - TEMPEST-TOSSED {ThEM}{PEST*}-{TOSSED}
27 - Warning sign about me inside (4) - OMEN {O{ME}N}
28 - Headless men look at your foremost feeling (4) - ENVY {mEN}V{Y} What kind of a look is 'V' !!
29 - Wild cat devours an arab pitch maker (6) - LARYNX {L{AR}YNX}
DOWN
1 - An artist has to back into an African desert (6) - SAHARA {SAH<-}{A}{RA}
2 - Correctly use if giant has delusions (5,5) - IGNES FATUI*
3 - Block the primary imports in an Italian port (4) - BARI {BAR}{I}
4 - Cord left in the large snake (4) - BOLA {BO{L}A}
5 - Loyal Turk leader will regret (4) - TRUE {T}{RUE}
6 - Robot men play this musical instrument (8) - TROMBONE*
8 - Say, sell this piano part (5) - PEDAL (~peddle)
11 - Trains the commander, an expert on horse selection initially (7) - COACHES {CO}{AC{H}E}{S}
13 - Fruit with a pit (7) - APRICOT [CD]
14 - Sophocles tragedy (7,3) - OEDIPUS REX [E]
16 - Compose the ‘A' film during this short rest period (4,4) - HALF TIME*
20 - Chaucer pilgrim (5) - REEVE [E]
24 - Simon kisses the disguised monk (4) - MONK Mother of all clues!!
25 - A seed is served up in this kind of steak (4) - TUNA {TUN}{A}<-
26 - Missing lead for stolen valuables is in the hill station (4) - OOTY bOOTY
I struggled with all combinations for 2D and gave up.
ReplyDeleteI have no delusions of learning words like ignes futui
Back home and ready for the torture of the next 7 days. 24D takes the cake today.
ReplyDeleteI only hope that monk is not under some fasting oath. Then he would not be able to take the cake.
NJ back in full form.
28 - Headless men look at your foremost feeling (4) - ENVY {mEN}V{Y} What kind of a look is 'V' !!
ReplyDeletev = Vide (Latin), see.
Now taking that see to look and expecting people to get V is ...
13 - Second part of spirits (7) - ALCOHOL What is the first part!!!
ReplyDeleteMay be spirits are meant to be taken as (m)ethyl alcohol and so second part?
This is the fun bit with these puzzles. You can let your imagination run riot without other bloggers thinking you are nuts.
18 - Home paper from the French editor (4) - DEED {DE}{ED} What is home paper?
ReplyDeleteProbably refers to title DEED as a 'Home paper'
7 - Report the noise (4) - BANG [DD?]
I suppose so: report (of a gun) and noise
19 - Caught cutting the big glaciers at an ancient port (7) - ALGIERS GLAcIERS* Why ancient? It's no longer a port is it?
13 - Second part of spirits (7) - ALCOHOL What is the first part!!!
The first part is the port from clue 19 which is probably drunk with it.
C'mon, we are chasing will o' wisps here, or if you like to put it that way, IGNES FATUI.
The one who comes up with the best 'First part' of spirits, is welcome to join me at home for the second part!!!
ReplyDeleteTo put 18 into more perspective, in Hindi, Home paper would 'ghar ke kagzaat'
ReplyDeleteKishore @ 8:40,
ReplyDeleteSo that's where the 'Home paper' came from
Probably looked up dictionary/thesaurus for alternate meaning/synonym of spirits and found the second entry as 'alcohol'
ReplyDeleteDG843
ReplyDeleteMain 4d:
Now you need to know Hindi to solve English crossies and to read above comment.
The first part is the port from clue 19 which is probably drunk with it.
ReplyDeleteHence, no longer port, export.
My feeling is that the VY in ENVY is from vying. Something like loaves
ReplyDeleteDEED is title deed. Which is the paper to establish ownership of your house. Little weird.
ReplyDeleteDeed, title deed, home paper...
ReplyDeleteAre we to presume someone bought a new home recently?
1D An artist has to back into an African desert (6) - SAHARA {SAH<-}{A}{RA}
ReplyDelete(SAH)(AR)(A) <-
17 - Hand in the pump at the beach spot (5) - SHORE {SHO{R}E}
ReplyDeletehand - R(ight)
in
pump- HOSE
Defn: beach spot - SHO(R)E*
Where is the AnagrInd?
SR @ 9.22 A pump is a kind of shoe. So no AInd needed.
ReplyDelete17 - Hand in the pump at the beach spot (5) - SHORE {SHO{R}E}
ReplyDeleteI just lost a key...
NJ,as usual,is among 'odds' & 'evens'! Has there been a NJ crossword without it?
ReplyDeleteHome papers?-home is different from a house,isn't it? Assuming that there should be some logic.
Returning to THC after quite a while. NJ at her inimitable best! Yet to see any other setter give the def. as the answer (DG's Mother of all clues -24d).
ReplyDeleteLooking at 11, if expert is 'ace' and horse selection initially is 'hs', does NJ spell the answer as 'Coacehs'. Nothing to indicate that 'h' should go inside 'ace'
Vikram,
ReplyDeleteWhat a day to get back to the THC!
Vikram @ 11:32. If you read 'on' in the clue 11D as astride then it would be fine. We are talking of horses in any case.
ReplyDeleteNJ at her inimitable best!
ReplyDeleteQuite a loaded statement, that.
Moving away from this rot, I remember someone here (Suresh or CV?) saying that double duties are okay in cryptic clues. Incidentally I came across this yesterday:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptic_crossword#History_and_development
See the example: Hat could be dry (5)
ReplyDeleteSuresh @ 11:40,
ReplyDeleteFrom Bryan Adams song 'If wishes were horses'
If wishes were horses
Beggars would ride
All dreams and desires would ride along side
Worries and troubles would fall off behind
If wishes were horses, beggars would ride
Does the Editor check the Crosswords before publishing?
ReplyDeleteDG,we need to take solace in poetry, when NJ wreaks her usual havoc on THC. No scope to discuss CW nuances.
ReplyDeleteVijay, I wrote to the editor (TH) asking them to review the quality of CW from the setters and then decide those worth keeping, but no response. I had also referred them to this blog to get a feel of the solvers' responses to the fares of various setters.
It may help if the blog participants also write directly to the editor on the issue.
Well it's after 1pm and I persevered and actually completed Ms Jaggi's offering with much muttering and exclamations of disbelief.
ReplyDeletePerhaps in the future she could give all the answers as the definitions as in 24D and save us all a lot of time and wasted energy!
PS is it wrong to have this weird feeling of elation?
Regarding my yesterday's observation that the quick CW was a pangram, I further realised that the corner slots as you read them from left to right are occupied by W, X, Y and Z, in that correct order.
ReplyDeleteThe one who comes up with the best 'First part' of spirits, is welcome to join me at home for the second part!!!
ReplyDeleteThe first part is the crossword. The second part is the spirits to come back to normal
Did I write once here that abetment to suicide is a crime in India and NJ can be alleged to be a party to this,if any one of us choose to put an end to our frustrations by jumping to 'conclusions'?
ReplyDeleteI'm still sorting out the answers for yesterday's clues and my co-pilot is still gathering all the stuffings out of the pillows that I've been throwing at the ceiling fan !! No Jokes-once you get the answers right, isn't there a rationale or method in her madness?
Once in a month, she does manage to set the cat amongst the pigeons.
NJ compiles,DG blogs, CV covers up,SD gets sewed up , DJD jolts his disc, MK asks 'emkay'? in Gujerati, Pd asks appidiya? MYS gets mystified. Still time for all others.
RU with all of you in your agonies.CIO