Monday 27 October 2014

No.11224, Monday 27 Oct 2014, Buzzer


The Buzz is that surfaces are real smooth Down Under. Awesome anagram in 15 lettered 15a in this theatrical one
Stumped in a few places ...

Across
6 Cool road trips into Rocky Mountains location (8) COLORADO (COOL ROAD)*
9 Appropriate to drink an instant coffee. It is quick (6) ABRUPT (BRU in APT)
10 Baked dish in a bar (4) CAKE (2)
11 Place to look up anagram indicator? Yes (10) DICTIONARY (INDICATOR Y)*
12 Expert going over estate quickly (6) PRESTO (PRO over EST)
14 Empty old house in Berlin gets tenant finally (7) EXHAUST (EX HAUS T)
15 Small amount of change given in cheaper donation (1,4,2,3,5)  A DROP IN THE OCEAN (CHEAPER DONATION)*
18 Wistful as calamity engulfs an ancient opera house (2,5) LA SCALA (T)
20 Make certain date is in for special experience (6) ENDURE (EN(-s+d)DURE)
22 Feeling bad about taking without right (10) REGRETTING (RE GETTING around R)
23 A curse of frequent cruises (4) CUSS (CrUiSeS)
24 Man, one managed retreats in a hill station (6) MUNNAR (M UN RAN<)
25 Nobody express disappointment (8) NONEVENT (NONE VENT)

Down
1 Essential piece of work, but not hard (4) CORE (CHORE - H)
2 Style of cooking soft roti infused with egg (8) TANDOORI (ROTI*  with AND O) with on double duty? Part of 'infused with' and with=and?
3 A local group in French capital for those into drinking (6) PARISH (PARIS as pronounced by a drunk)
4 Sounded // positive (10) PRONOUNCED (2)
5 A treetop set for a drama (8) OPERETTA (A TREETOP)*
7 Rejected part of caesarian operation being broadcast (2-3) ON AIR (T<)
8 Theatre part including a box for management (13) ORCHESTRATION (ORATION including CHEST) I am unable to explain an R (CHEST in OR RATION) See comments
13 Small amount of money set apart in providing support (10) SHOESTRING (CD,DD) (SET* in SHORING)See comments
16 Act pulled off wearing fancy clothing (6,2) DOLLED UP (DO PULLED*)
17 Upcoming hospital department nurses to unite (8) EMERGENT (ENT nurses MERGE)
19 Sweet place for tea say? (6) AFTERS (Sweets come after the meal?) (AFTER S) See comments
21 It might get sticky to commit a second crime (5) RESIN (RE SIN)
23 Rodent seen in a central government school reportedly (4) CAVY (~KV=Kendriya Vidyalaya)


34 comments:

  1. 6a reminded me of Mackenna's Gold where Omar Sharif (no relation to Nawaz and Raheel, I think) plays Colorado

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    Replies
    1. Colorado, Hatcheta, Monkey and Ole man Adam etc

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    2. How could you forget Hesh-ke's swim in the mountain pool ...?

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    3. No I did not forget the scene but the girl's name.

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    4. The Phantom hath selective memory, eh? What would DP say, methinks ...

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    5. Artist's name I meant. Not the character's

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    6. OK just checked. I am wrong. It is Julie Newmar

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    7. You mean Julie Newmar was the Indian girl?

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    8. The one in that famous swim :)

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  2. Is BRU as instant coffee fair considering that it's a Brand name?

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    Replies
    1. Though TH specs advise that brand names are 'to be eschewed', many setters have used brand names here...

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  3. I think it is fair. Bru is the first name that comes to mind for instant coffee. We have seen RR,Audi, Merc etc before as well

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  4. 2 Style of cooking soft roti infused with egg (8) TANDOORI (ROTI* with AND O) with on double duty? Part of 'infused with' and with=and?

    Infuse itself means 'to put into', so I think there's no double duty involved.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree that infuse=put into. But infused has no existence without the with, I think.

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    2. That is for the surface, but for the anno what's wrong with that?

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  5. 19 Sweet place for tea say? (6) AFTERS (Sweets come after the meal?)

    Did he mean T coming 'after S' in the alphabet?

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    Replies
    1. Somehow the surface does not seem alright.

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  6. 8 Theatre part including a box for management (13) ORCHESTRATION

    OR CHEST RATION

    OR: Operating Room, RATION = Part.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think this was the setter's intention. Might be an inadvertent error.
      ORCHESTRATION
      This kind of mistake I have made too.
      When there are same two letters in parts when a disjunction is made, we are liable to make this error.
      The mind sees CHEST and ORATION but when proceeding to treat them, one R (at either end) is just missed out.
      Such errors can be/are caught only by repeated checking.

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    2. I think Buzzer meant exactly what I had annotated.

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  7. 13 Small amount of money set apart in providing support (10) (CD,DD)

    Sho(est*)ring

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  8. Un is one in English too. For ex : He is a good 'un

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    Replies
    1. "Wrong 'un" for wrong one = googly

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    2. The opening apostrophe makes all the difference, doesn't it? Is "un" ever used in English without that apostrophe?

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    3. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/un uses it without the opening '.

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  9. Brilliant work, Buzzer - thank you for a great time! Struggled a bit in the NE corner but it was a satisfying tussle. Great surfaces overall and some entertaining wordplay. 15a, 8d, 4d, 17d, and (especially) 19d were wow-inducing!

    My only reservation is with the use of "one" for "un" in 24a, without any indication of the language shift.

    Thanks to Kishore for the blog.

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  10. Buzzer normally drops in with his side of comments.

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  11. PRESTO
    OPERETTA
    ORCHESTRATION
    LA SCALA

    A mini-theme?

    Not a fan of the anno. for AFTERS, as it's stated in the blog. I find the extra step after "Tea, say" ~ T unfair.

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    Replies
    1. Oh, and I'm not so sure that I would call La Scala 'ancient'. It's hardly two hundred and fifty years old and still going strong.

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    2. Those words and the use of 'theatre' in the clues (more than once) prompted the use of the word 'theatrical' in the opening lines of the blog

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