Friday 26 December 2014

No.11276, Friday 26 Dec 2014, Aspartame


Nice one ! Stumped for a few annos/answers

Across 6 Muscle pain got by a student in fitness centre around Iowa (7) MYALGIA ((A L GYM)* IA=Iowa) (A L in GYM<, IA) see comments 7 Model mountains around large mountains (3, 4) THE ALPS (T HEAPS around L) 9 Bones that can be denoted by R’s? (5) RADII (CD, in maths radius=r, hence Rs = radii, though I think the apostrophe is not necessary here) 10 Cried out when divorced partner took… (9) EXCLAIMED (EX CLAIMED) 11 … 1500 Lira, ran off behind a high officer (7) ADMIRAL (MD LIRA)* behind A is 'behind' superflous in wordplay since anagrind is required to be applied to MD too... see comments 13 Look into rotten pomade (6) LOTION (LO INTO*) 15 Craft with riches employs royal office of finance (13) TREASURERSHIP (TREASURE SHIP around R) 19 Indian saint hugs old boy at tree (6) BAOBAB (BABA* hugs OB), but how does the baba get contorted? Yoga? Is hugs an anind + containerind? (BABA around O + B) see comments 20 Novel sort of hallows? (7) DEATHLY (CD) Is there a book by that name? I thought the title of the novel was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 
Ichabod! I thought, but that is The Legend of the Sleepy Hollows
23 Work, eat, retire and repeat (9) REITERATE (EAT RETIRE)* 24 Place where charged up union is dispersed (5) IMBED (IMBUED-U) 26 A mutiny is emerging (7) ARISING (A RISING) 27 Facilitates message describing roofless cubicle (7) SMOOTHS (bOOTH in SMS)
Down 1 Assist worker (4) HAND (2)
Have A Nice Day, folks! 2 Goods found in chaotic Erie are richer in yolk (6) EGGIER (GG in ERIE*) 3 Drunk tall rogue (5, 4) LAGER LOUT (TALL ROGUE)* &LIT 4 Muscles pound before climbing road on mountains (8) LEVATORS (L AVE< TORS) 5 Stale Indian flour — not a food item. That’s nice! (3-7) OLD MAIDISH (OLD MAIDa DISH) where does the extra D go? Is the defn. sufficient? 6 Bowl of paste that will explode(6) MORTAR (3) bowl as in mortar and pestle, paste as in the stuff you put between bricks and as an explosive, I think. Military types may disagree: It is the mortar shell that explodes, not the mortar itself, hopefully ... 7 “Think first, then proceed”— essential to tackling problems (4) TACT (Think ACT) 8 Student escapes stealing a short track (6) SIDING (SLIDING SIDLING-L) see comments 12 A micro ring constitutes a sailboat configuration (7, 3) MARCONI RIG (A MICRO RING)* 14 Old US policy loans (4-5) -E-D -E-S- ?? (Addendum - LEND LEASE [CD] - See comments) 16 An accountant aimed to destroy the scientific community (8) ACADEMIA (A CA AIMED*) 17 Liberians found in Western Europe (6) IBERIA (T) 18 Greek god around young nymphs (6) HYADES (HADES around Y) 21 Foundation layer? (6) AMIDOL ? see comments 22 Tribal group’s biting tool (4) FANG (2) 25 Endless debate about test version (4) BETA (dEBATe)*

GRID

27 comments:

  1. That you could get so many answers is a tribute. No clue about many of the clues, but plenty of questions.

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  2. 17 Liberians found in Western Europe (6) IBERIA (T)

    Isn't it the other way round?

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  3. Replies
    1. Lend Lease appears to be correct. Is it a CD? Or is there any wordplay here?

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    2. That's right Raghu it's something like the PL-480 to India. See LEND LEASE

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    3. I think Old US policy is definition and lend, lease ( 2 loans) wordplay

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  4. AMIDOL should be correct as it is a Developer used in photography

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  5. 11 … 1500 Lira, ran off behind A high officer (7) ADMIRAL (MD LIRA)* is 'behind' superflous in wordplay since anagrind is required to be applied to MD too...

    Behind is reqd because of the first A followed by MD+LIRA*

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  6. 6A anno I think is MY(AL)G <-- IA

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    Replies
    1. I'm confused here by the reversal instruction. Do we reverse and then insert AL or insert AL and then reverse? Could we also take it as MY(LA)G IA?

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  7. 19 Indian saint hugs old boy at tree (6) BAOBAB (BABA* hugs OB), but how does the baba get contorted? Yoga? Is hugs an anind + containerind?

    It's not the popular Baba from Haridwar, but IMO it's this:

    BA(O)BA +B

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  8. Aaah, the mist clears. Thanks, folks

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  9. Overall I found it tough. More than 50% left incomplete. I remember the same happening 2 cycles earlier with Aspartame.

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  10. When the stalwarts are struggling, where can we be?

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    Replies
    1. With them, behind them or may be even ahead of them ...

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    2. I was nowhere near them! To tell you the truth, yesterday's euphoria turned into dysphoria today!! Aspartame is really a 'hard nut' to crack!!!

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  11. Thnx for yr encouragement, K.

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  12. There are clues, which give you real pleasure when you have solved them and you feel " How clever!" as, for example " Cannot go outside with the child inside- not I "( 9) . In today's THC, I could barely solve 6 clues, not even 25% and the others just found me in a tangled web and I couldn't come out.I must thank Incognito for yesterday's puzzle, where I scored 100%.

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    Replies
    1. I remember the CON(SON)ANT* clue, but not where I encountered it ...

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  13. Hi all,

    First of all, I was not able to login earlier. My apologies. Secondly, I am quite surprised that nobody noticed the message in the grid. On second thought, looks like the crossword was too hard for people to get the message.
    Till next time then.
    Also foundation layer clue solution is asimov, the author of the foundation series.
    Aspartame

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