Saturday 14 July 2012

No 10515, Saturday 14 Jul 12, Textrous

Sorry for the incomplete crossword, It's difficult to handle the laptop and a wriggling grand-daughter at the same time. I'm on grandfather duty you see !!!!!!!!!
ACROSS
1   - After fall, look to get an academic qualification (7) - DIPLOMA {DIP}{LO}{MA}
5   - Make fun of an aquatic bird’s short chirp (7) - TWITTER Anno pending (Addendum - {TWIT}{TERn} - See comments)
9   - A sound farewell to Jack while returning (3-1-3) - RAT-A-TAT {RA{T-A-TA}T<-} (Addendum - {RAT}-{A-TAT} <- - See comments)
10 - It’s unpleasant, certainly, entering Euro deposit (7) - EYESORE E{YES}ORE Anno pending (Addendeum - {E}{YES}{ORE} - See comments)
11 - Beneath fashionable fellow to meet artist (5) - INFRA {IN}{F}{RA}
12 - University of Minnesota is being covered by rookie writer (9) - COLUMNIST {COL{U}{MN}{IS}T}
13 - Heart disease, I admitted, is a Himalayan condition (9) - HILLINESS {H}{ILL{I}NESS}
15 - Object to having reservations slashed (5) - DEMUR Anno pending (Addendum - DEMURe - See comments)
16 - Clearing sale organised around lunchtime (5) - AISLE {A{1}SLE*}
18 - Be glad to reassemble initially broken bike accessory (9) - SADDLEBAG {SAD}{BE+GLAD*}
21 - Fabric etc., knit so loosely (9) - STOCKINET*
24 - Abolish yearly publication, abolish an article (5) - ANNUL ANNUaL
25 - Fleece one for some money (7) - AFGHANI {AFGHAN}{I}
26 - Endeavour to wear torn clothing (7) - RAIMENT {R{AIM}ENT}
27 - Back brilliant wordplay involving the first letter of marriage (7) - NUPTIAL {NUP<-}{TI{A}L<-}
28 - Bishop disturbed in one’s closing prayer (7) - BENISON{B}{IN+ONE'S*}
DOWN
1   - The German force and Hitler’s first man in denial? (7) - DERVISH {DER}{VIS}{H} ? (See comments)
2   - Poor gift to waiter rejected, one gets fed inadequately (7) - PITIFUL {PIT<-}{I}{FULl}
3   - Large art retrospective is included in church ban (9) - OSTRACISE {OS}{TRA<-}{C{IS}E}
4   - Father does a vanishing act in crazy caper (5) - ANTIC Anno pending (Addendum - frANTIC - See comments)
5   - Turn up sick in extremely arid region, grilled maybe (9) - TRELLISED {TRE{LLI<-}SED<-}
6   - Muesli infected no small part of the intestine (5) - ILEUM MUEsLI*
7   - Unusually hot current passes through strange radioactive material (7) - THORIUM {HOT*}{R{I}UM}
8   - Come again, run in green terraces (7) - REENTER [T]
14 - Chief transported through renovated aisle (9) - ESSENTIAL {ES{SENT}IAL*}
15 - So this may be a ‘dots’ animal? (9) - DALMATIAN {ANIMAL+TAD}* ?
16 - Sailors can go around a curb (7) - ABSTAIN {ABS}{T{A}IN}
17 - New post — opening for caretaker (7) - STOPGAP {POST*}{GAP}
19 - Crazy capitalists traded article for nothing (7) - BONKERS {B(-a+o)ONKERS}
20 - Left a stuffing to penetrate jelly (7) - GELATIN {GE{L}{A}TIN}
22 - A military habit? (5) - KHAKI [CD]
23 - Arrows essentially kept in the small black quiver (5) - THROB ? Anno pending (Addendum - {THe}{arROws}{B} - See comments)

31 comments:

  1. 5 - Make fun of an aquatic bird’s short chirp (7) - TWITTER Anno pending
    Make fun of - Twit
    an aquatic bird's short- Ter (Tern is short)
    TWITTER

    ReplyDelete
  2. 10 - It’s unpleasant, certainly, entering Euro deposit (7) - EYESORE E{YES}ORE Anno pending
    Euro = E
    Deposit = ORE
    Certainly = YES
    YES entering E ORE, EYESORE which is unpleasant.
    You have already indicated the Anno in your answer which is evident.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 15 - Object to having reservations slashed (5) - DEMUR Anno pending
    DEMURE is coy, reserved. DEMURE slashed is DEMUR or DEMURENESS is reservation which is slashed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. having reservations = DEMURE (adj.)
      DEMURE slashed = DEMUR

      Delete
    2. I am going to Madras next week. I am demure for the train journeys. ;-)

      Delete
  4. Father does a vanishing act in crazy caper (5) - ANTIC Anno pending
    It seems as if its the anagram of 'act in'
    Yet can it be:
    Father= Fr
    Crazy= Frantic
    Caper= def ?

    ReplyDelete
  5. 23 - Arrows essentially kept in the small black quiver (5) - THROB ? Anno pending

    Arrows essentially [-ar]RO[-ws]
    in
    the small TH[-e] + black B
    Defn: Quiver THROB

    ReplyDelete
  6. Father does a vanishing act in crazy caper (5) - ANTIC Anno pending

    Defn: caper [-fr]ANTIC

    ReplyDelete
  7. Col.,

    Granddaughter trying to take over from you so soon?!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That would be a puoc de etat, with the military being unseated by a civilian.

      BTW, congrats are due to the Colonel for managing all those females in the family, wriggling or otherwise, including the latest MU.

      Delete
  8. 9 - A sound farewell to Jack while returning (3-1-3) - RAT-A-TAT {RA{T-A-TA}T<-}

    There is no Container indicator.

    Can it be
    {farewell(TATA)+ jack(TAR)} returning <-
    = {(RAT)-(A-TAT)} <- a sound

    ReplyDelete
  9. 15 - So this may be a ‘dots’ animal? (9) - DALMATIAN {ANIMAL+TAD}* ?

    a dots animal*= so dalmatian*

    'this' is the def

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. For def, we have to reread the whole clue. It is an &lit.

      Delete
  10. Deepak, you know why they call it Jodhpur.

    B'cos woh dilon ko joDta hai

    ReplyDelete
  11. Answering Padmanabhan's query of yesterday the fear of long words is

    hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

    Presumably it includes the fear of spelling and pronunciation.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. This word just proves of one of the greatest axioms of set theory: That a set is a subset of itself.
      Delete

      Delete
  12. That was a nice, tough one today.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Tough and interesting puzzle, 15A is especially good.

    Two nits: 1) AFGHAN+I is a weak wordplay in 25A 2) In 23D, 'small' for end removal is a bit ambiguous, 'short' works fine though.

    In 13A, H=hearts is the Chambers entry but I think the singular is also common in crosswords.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And also in cards. You could play a heart.

      Delete
  14. The German force and Hitler’s first man in denial? (7)

    Anno: {DER}{VIS}{H} (force=VIS)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hearing about the Colonel's troubles with his grand daughter I am reminded of one of P.G.Wodehouse's books where he dedicated his book to his daughter ' Without whose co-operaton this book would have been finished much earlier'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for posting this. Gave me a good laugh :)

      Delete
  16. Very enjoyable crossword. Some tricky wordplay, all fair when worked out. 13a, 15a, 27a, 2d, 15d are really neat, 15d especially.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you Suresh. Obviously the word seems to be a monster as well as a hippo!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Just looked up- sesquipedalian is a long word to which phobia is added to indicate fear. But I am not able to understand the need to prefix 'hippopotomonstro' except for the purpose of making it more sesquipedalian!!

    ReplyDelete
  19. If The Hindu were to publish a book of the best crosswords from the paper, this will definitely find a place in it.

    The wordplay in many clues is excellent. The handling of the English language is impeccable. Sreelakshmi, Shyam and others have enthusiastically provided annos for some clues. Others have answered queries on components in clues. When a crossword withstands such intense scrutiny, it must be good!

    OTOH, many clues in crosswords published here or elsewhere don't pass even a cursory reading, leave alone post-solving analysis.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Extremely good wordplay. Personally I liked it as it had only one CD and answers where a dic or google were not needed. A containment clue would have made it the perfect crossword, but for me it's still A 1.

    ReplyDelete

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