KKK presents a thriller with some beheadings (in 4a, 13a), some de-tailing (in 1d), a MALEFIC OCCULTIST and a SHOWER and a bath orgy (in 8d) with a HOURI
DOWN
ACROSS
1 Female protected feline from damage (6) SCATHE (SHE protected CAT)
4 Cause of beheading: betrayal (6) REASON (tREASON)
9 Young salmon for erstwhile English queen (4) PARR (2)
10 Bricklayer traps one character, edges away to apartment (10) MAISONETTE (MASON traps 1, lETTEr)
11 Lavish display, ever hollow (6) SHOWER (SHOW EveR)
12 Is he an insect-giant? (8) BEHEMOTH (BE HE MOTH)
13 Notice ally, beheaded monarch uniting (9) ADJOINING (AD JOIN kING)
15 Tamil Nadu town uncentered by one nymph (5) HOURI (HOsUR 1)
I understand from a cartoon I recently saw that heaven has put up a 'No Stock' board
18 Formerly make amends by association with captured headman (2,3,4) AT ONE TIME (ATONE TIE with captured Man)
22 Equal weapon, so to speak (8) PARLANCE (PAR LANCE)
23 Tough crow, not trim, frail (6) UPHILL (triUmPH ill)
25 Pep her sick, odd-looking dog (10) SCHIPPERKE (PEP HER SICK)*
Schipperke
reminded me of the lisping Kripke from the comedy mentioned in 8d.
“Kids wove me: There's just something about me that makes them waugh
and waugh.”
26 Regularly incur two women’s slang? Enough! (4) NUFF (iNcUr FF, 2 females)
27 Hate of Spanish examination (6) DETEST (DE TEST)
28 Scout confused about one language (6) TSOUIC (SCOUT* about 1)
DOWN
1 Tailless bird, lost, made splashing noise (7) SWASHED (SWAn SHED)
2 Pointer to let directions change (5) ARROW (ALLOW -LL+ RR, lefts changed to rights)
3 Base hit, shattered Rome protected by Attila, for one (4,3) HOME RUN (ROME* protected by HUN)
5 Retrospective coverage captures first human’s times (6) EPOCHS (SCOPE< captures H
6 Side with snake in good man’s vessel (9) STEAMBOAT (TEAM BOA in ST.)
7 Swimmer’s infant regularly loses at dart board? Nothing odd (7) NATATOR (iNfAnT dArTbOaRd)
Natator reminded me of Piscine Molitor, the protagonist of Life of Pi, who was named after a swimming pool
8 Organise bath orgy binge to explain formation of universe (3,4,6) THE BIG BANG THEORY (BATH ORGY BINGE)*
The Big Bang Theory is at the centre of the comedy universe!
14 One who studies the supernatural is bizarre, stoic, shelters cult (9) OCCULTIST (STOIC* shelters CULT)
17 Exalted Celt leader replaced some Englishmen, found… (7) CHANCED (ENHANCED with En replaced by C)
19 …doctors initially needed for head of news agency (7) NEUTERS (N instead of R in REUTERS)
20 Man, first in charge, evil (7) MALEFIC (MALE F IC)
21 Attacks Oriental caught in crops (6) SNIPES (E caught in SNIPS)
24 This paper’s sources have important news delivered upfront (5) HINDU (H I N D U)
Should this have been THE HINDU?
What's happening? Why no comments?
ReplyDeleteMixed bag for me- easy ones with tough nuts to crack with some blanks. I would not have connected Big Bang with a comedy, if I had not noticed it during my recent trip.
Monday morning, bluetiful day ...
DeleteA bit complicatedtoday. Re 24 d and Kishore comment, I think Buzzer too had used the name in similar fashion.
ReplyDeleteI did not acrostic, lest someone thinks I am accusing KKK of copying
DeleteHas casual accusation of copying become rampant ? If not, I did not get what you are saying.
Delete...just go through the comments posted on Saturday :)
DeleteSaw Skull's thread. I now understand your disclaimer :)
Delete...here 'your disclaimer' means 'Raghunath's disclaimer' @9:43
DeleteA slightly tougher one from K3.
ReplyDeleteQ: Is base hit = home run ?
In Baseball, 'hit' also called 'base hit' is equal to 'home run'. So says WIKI
DeleteFrom what little I know, a base hit can result in a home run ( if say the bases were loaded ), but a base hit does not automatically mean a home run
DeleteOn further research, base hit = home run seems fine, as a base hit can be a single, double, tripe, or a home run
Delete...may be ! Any Baseball players in our blog ? Please come forward :)
Delete...now that Ramesh is satisfied, the above posted comment can be ignored :)
DeleteMy comment @10:42 was in response to Ramesh's @10:33 !
DeleteI'm not a baseball player but watch it when it plays on TV.
DeleteHome run is a hit, but not a base hit.
It's considered a base hit when the batter strikes the ball and makes it to first base safely. It's a double and triple when the batter hits the ball and safely reaches 2nd and 3rd base respectively. Home run is when you the hit ball outside the ball park (mostly likely way to make it happen) and reach home safely (home is where you start from after hitting). So ideally, for it to be a home run, you've to cross all 3 bases and reach home safely.
...so that settles the issue ! Thanks, VJ :)
DeleteVJ@11:12, I thought so too. Hence my Q@9:44.
DeleteBut from M-W
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/base%20hit
baseball : a hit that allows a batter to reach a base safely : a single, double, triple, or home run
and hence my comment @10:37
Hindustan Times, which celebrated completion of 90 years yesterday, had also dropped the prefix 'THE' used earlier.
ReplyDeleteThe Hindu has not done so. The setters have.
Deletemixed bag kinda crossword....dont enjoy crossies with words like PARR, ICACO, SCHIPPERKE, TSOUIC AND SWASHED.....some good cluing like 2D 6D.....while some swung from the easy to the elusive.........overall comme ci, comme ca.
ReplyDeleteajay
Hi, Ajay !
DeleteAm fond of learning new words. Could you PS throw some light on "Comme Ci, Comma Ca" ?
I appreciate your sentiment on the words mentioned,other than SWASHED, which I would forget immediately and would have to run to various help forums if they came up again.
DeleteHi Mukund, commce ci comme ca in english would mean so-so...french phrase also kosher in english......yeah i am not against enhancing my vocabulary.......but in crosswords i enjoy an easy word fiendishly clued rather than a didactic obscure one IMHO
DeleteAjay
Sorry Ajay for late response. Was away from home for sometime. Thanks for enlightening me with your foreign words :)
ReplyDeleteNo problem mukund. You are welcome.
ReplyDeleteajay
The other day I said I might want to add something more on the debate that arose from a post by Ramanan.
ReplyDeleteI crave the indulgence of the Col. for space. I want to keep a promise that I made to the member.
My considered opinion is that Skulldugger's clue was similar to someone else's clue that was published earlier. That's all.
For a set word in a current clue-writing competition, I thought of a break up. I wrote a clue but before posting it when I visited the forum I found that there was an entry with the very same components, the very same subsidiary indications. Only, my def. might have been different. So coincidences in crossword clues must be accepted as an aspect.
For the charge of plagiarism to be made (I am not saying Ramanan did that recently but his tome and phraseology was such that he could not accept the coincidence), there must be strong reasons over a period.
Be that as it may, he quoted Azed: "Good setters try to avoid reusing old clues, however proud of them they may be, and they should also not reuse words too often. Guarding against this is not easy and inevitably, there being no copyright on good ideas, similar or identical clues to the same word will recur, but I do make a conscious effort not to repeat myself and think other setters should do likewise".
Here, the writer is not talking of different setters, He is only saying that the same setter should not recycle his clues very frequently.
Speaking for myself, after I have set a bunch of six crosswords, I prepare a list of words and see if there is a repeat in that set of 184 words/phrases. If there is, I change it, whatever the cost - even it means changing all words in one quadrant.
If I compare this set with those used in all of the over 800 puzzles that I have set, there are bound to be repeats. I try to write a clue that is different from the ones used. My readers will remember my citing here of different clues that I wrote for a single word (e.g., INERTIA). The tenth time that may not be possible and if I repeat a clue that I used some ten years ago or even two years ago, solvers must understand. Taking a cue from a reader here, I put SYZYGY in a grid and wrote a clue but I might not use it again as clue-writing possibilities are limited. A clue that I write for INERTIA may be similar to one that was published in another crossword, be it UK or Indian, but see if it word for word the same as the other.
UK manuals and blogs say the presence of just one such clue is not enough for a charge of plagiarism. What I would say is that some clues may be quite personal and individualistic. Take the famous HIJKLMNO for WATER. If I use it, there cannot be any excuse: it is a bloody lift.
Similarities in word breakups, subsidiary indications and phraseology of clues must be seen in proper context.
In the above, read 'tone' for 'tome' - a typo.
ReplyDeleteTHC is set by several setters. One has no means of knowing what lights others are using. So repeats might occur in a month.
ReplyDeleteTake the Guardian straightforward. I understand that though they do appear under a byline, several clues in a crossword are changed by the editor to avoid repeats in definitions as the setters themselves do not know what others are using.
CV,
DeleteThanks for your detailed posts objectively analysing the issue on hand drawing on your vast experience as a setter, a solver and a blogger.
Thanks once again for seeing my side of the story while firmly putting across your point. As you rightly observed, I am not against any particular setter. But some seem to have interpreted it as an insinuation or accusation. Please be aware that while posting my initial comment, I had checked to see if the setters were one and the same, because it was quite possible for a setter to have multiple pseudonyms. (For me, it is okay if the setter reuses his own clues.). But when they were different, I expressed my doubt. This spawned a wave of protests with exchange of arguments and counter-arguments. You stepped in with your analysis of things as they stand today and I should admit I learnt a few more things such as editorial intervention to avoid repetitions in clues. I have heard about such an intervention to guard against publication of clues infringing on the rights of any race, gender and the like.
What ho!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see that the grid was fairly acceptable, even if there were a few issues here and there. I thank you all, once again, for all the feedback.
Re 'base hit', I thought that the definition was acceptable but in light of the arguments in the comments above, I think that I might well have used some other form of definition. Sorry about that.
Re 'obscure' words that appeared and were not to everyone's liking, I can say that I did not really start out with the intention of cluing in those words but sometimes when crossings present themselves such, there are very few alternatives that are possible once words have been arranged into the grid. Hence, a few words are, unfortunately, not those found in common usage. However, I do try and make a clues a bit more accessible. I am not sure if I have entirely succeeded in that particular endeavour but, well, I can only try.
Thank again for all the feedback. Looking forward to more.
Cheers!
Yes, you did try and made a number of clues more accessible. That's the reason I could fare well with your puzzle today(after quite a long time). Keep it coming KKK !
DeleteBTW I'm an average solver.
Kukluxklan flummoxed me with words like ICACO, SCHIPPERKE, TSOUIC AND SWASHED !! I can never conceive of such words. Are these English words or in TSOUIC?
ReplyDeleteRest of the clues were smooth riding to glide through. These are the kind of setters I welcome to break the monotony of regular crossies, that one gets used to . A setter who can keep us guessing as to what other legerdemain he can conjure up with !!
SCHIPPERKE : A German shepherd?
Dogs seem to be multi-racial and interbreed freely to produce more and more hybrids? Thank God, there is no Khap panchayats for them !!
A lesson for human beings to integrate and interbreed inter-racially?