Wednesday 21 January 2015

No 11297, Wednesday 21 Jan 2015, Vulcan


Nice one from Vulcan. 5A was the last to fall. 

ACROSS
1   Asian got mugged in this city (8) SANTIAGO*
5   Fine home in silent neighbourhood (6) MINUTE {M{IN}UTE}
9   Happy about top protection given to first lady! (8) RELIEVED {RE}{LI{EVE}D}
10 Web designer picked primarily into a team leading in research (6) SPIDER {S{Pi...d}IDE}{Re...h}
12 I don't fume at others (9) NONSMOKER [CD]
13 Mountain place sounding like 8 (5) EYRIE ( ¬ eerie)
14 Remains a girl that doesn't keep time (5) LASTS {LAS{T}S}
17 Magazine seller's recently-acquired small place (9) NEWSSTAND {NEW}{S}{STAND} Semi&lit
19 Adding together and recapping (7,2) SUMMING UP [DD]
22 Scheme to avoid (5) DODGE [DD]
23 Clearly admitted, orally (5) ALOUD (¬ allowed)
24 Understanding of war in a sense that is different (9) AWARENESS {A{WAR}ENESS*}
27 Team consumed by anger, upset with a drink (6) ELIXIR {EL{IX}IR}<=
28 Dull edge of player's old hat (8) SOMBRERO {SOMBRE}{p...eR}{O}
29 Spoil lawyer's dirty game (6) DAMAGE {DA}{GAME*}
30 Freezing point begins here (4,4) SNOW LINE [CD]

DOWN
1   Creases removed completely, basically after applying special powders (9) SPRINKLES (-c+sp)SPRINKLES
2   Cloth many Londoners wear (5) NYLON [T]
3   Supporter, one with a broad smile (1-4) I-BEAM {1}-{BEAM}
4   After the end of wedding, girl's family in a pickle (7) GHERKIN {G}{HER}{KIN} Can Gherkin by itself be pickle?
6   “Awed by setter”, reports editor (9) IMPRESSED {I'M}{PRESS}{ED}
7   Uncover Nehru and daughter's top secret (9) UNDERHAND {NEHRU+AND+D}*
8   Mysterious English lake (5) EERIE {E}{ERIE}
11 Design department coming up (4) DRAW <=
15 Movement of my limbs so badly affected (9) SYMBOLISM*
16 Swim and in the end, fish, for long (9) SPINDLING {SPIN}{anD}{LING}
18 In this German town, mostly doctors go around in black tie! (5,4) DRESS CODE  {DRES{S COD<=}En} Where has the second D of DRESDEN gone?
20 Indian godman without a bit of dignity or a hint of morality (4) GOAN GOdmAN
21 Team's project extremely boring (7) PLATOON {PLA{TOO}N}
23 Change seen in guys after a date (5) AMEND {A}{MEN}{D}
25 Bowler has no right to bend this (5) ELBOW BOWLEr* &lit
26 Oily thing resulting from fuel emission (5) ELEMI [T]


47 comments:

  1. My new DELL laptop does not have the symbol which I normally use for a homophone though it is shown as such on the keypad. Any suggestions?

    What it shows up as, when typed is ¬

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1 Press and hold a"Shift" key.
      2 Press the tilde (~) key.
      3 Release the "Shift" key.

      Delete
    2. Please try Alt+0152 which will give you ˜

      Delete
    3. That is the normal procedure, however it shows up as ¬

      Delete
    4. Kishore,
      Why should I do that when the symbol printed on the keyboard is showing correctly

      Delete
    5. Alt+0152 shows up like that? It worked when I typed my 840 comment without using the tilde key. My tilde key gives ~, a more vertically centred tilde, while the Alt+0152 gives ˜ a tilde floating a bit higher

      Delete
    6. Because there appears to be some mapping problem. The key seems to send the wrong code. Long back I had a keyboard which had a similar problem, but that keyboard had a switch on the underside to shift from one mode to another (AT to XT). Now there may be some soft settings to be changed. Till then, the alt method is the easiest.

      Delete
    7. You will have to use the code 0152 (on the numerical keypad) when the Alt key is held down. Since you are ref.ing to a laptop, you might have to use numlock first and then use the numerical keys on the numpad part (and not the top row)

      Delete
    8. Can you check that in Control panel -> Region and Language . Under the Keyboards and Languages Tab ->
      Click on Change Keyboards
      It is set to English (United States) - US and not US International or some other setting.

      If not then you should change it to English (United States) - US

      Delete
  2. Yes, 5a is excellent.
    English, with many synonyms for many words is a highly pliable language for wordplay.
    It is the clever exploitation of it that brings out such good clues.
    And therein lies the individuality of a composer.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Consequently it becomes more difficult to get the answers.

      Delete
    2. A detail that detracts from 5a is that the c/c indicator is the same as the wordplay component IN (home).
      My vote for PLATOON.

      Delete
  3. 20 Indian godman without a bit of dignity or a hint of morality (4) GOAN GOdmAN
    ---
    Should it have been and instead of or ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +1
      The GOAN swallowed the samosaas today :(

      Delete
  4. Good puzzle. Liked PLATOON, ELBOW and GOAN.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 14 Remains a girl that doesn't keep time (5) LASTS {LAS{T}S}

    I didn't get the anno for this.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There seems to be an error in the clue.

      Delete
    2. I too thought similarly. The girl seems to keep time. Malicious to complain about her.

      Delete
    3. If 'that' means remains, when the t goes off, it will give you 'lass' meaning girl, I think.

      Delete
  6. Many brilliant clues for their sheer simplicity. 5A obviously takes the cake. 10A is no less. I see that when setters play around with the definition intelligently, it becomes an whole new game.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A doubt about Platoon: Boring is a containment indicator? 'Too' in 'Plan'?

    ReplyDelete
  8. W.r.to Shuchi's latest post on 'CAN", here is a nice (borrowed) limerick-
    A canner exceedingly canny,
    one morning remarked to his granny
    A canner can can
    Anything that he can
    But a canner can't can a can,can he?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A news reporter visited a US farm and sought information on food production and related matters.

      One of his statements was, 'We eat what we can and what we cannot we can'.

      The reporter wrote it in passive voice, 'He told me that what they ate what they could and what they could not they could.'

      Delete
  9. 2D Cloth many Londoners wear (5) NYLON [T]

    Is it true that the etymology is from the initials of New York and LONdon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had read somewhere that originally NYLON was a trademark that came into common parlance a la Xerox...

      Delete
    2. NYLON got the name as it was simultaneously synthesised both from New York and LONdon

      Delete
    3. Quite a fabric-ated name!

      Delete
    4. Trust either you or Kishore to come up with that!

      Delete
    5. Etymology of NYLON as per Wikipedia

      In 1940, John W. Eckelberry of DuPont stated that the letters "nyl" were arbitrary and the "on" was copied from the suffixes of other fibers such as cotton and rayon. A later publication by DuPont (Context, vol. 7, no. 2, 1978) explained that the name was originally intended to be "No-Run" ("run" meaning "unravel"), but was modified to avoid making such an unjustified claim. Since the products was not really run-proof, the vowels were swapped to produce "nuron", which was changed to "nilon" "to make it sound less like a nerve tonic". For clarity in pronunciation, the "i" was changed to "y".[15]

      Alternative but apocryphal explanations for the naming are:

      - it is a combination of the names of the two cities New York and London: NY-Lon;

      - it is an acronym from WWII, a challenging slogan by the allies to their enemy at that time: Now You Lazy Old Nippon, Nippon being an alternative name for Japan, which is the country known for the traditional culture of making silk from silkworms.

      Delete
  10. 4D After the end of wedding, girl's family in a pickle (7) GHERKIN {G}{HER}{KIN} Can Gherkin by itself be pickle?

    Would this have been better? After the end of wedding, girl's family in a pickle - content?


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Americans use 'pickle' to ref to cucumber/gherkin, as in :"add a pickle to my sub".

      Delete
  11. From thefreedictionary.com;

    gher·kin (gûr′kĭn)
    n.

    b. A pickle made from such a fruit.

    @Richard,

    What's a 'pickle-content'. 'In a pickle' is the standard phrase, about which I'm sure you know. Or is it that after being in a pickle, the family is content?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had not checked the thefreedictionary.com. I stand corrected on that score.

      Since there was a question from the Col against the answer in the blog, I meant 'content' to mean 'Happy?' :-)

      Happy, are you? :-)

      Delete
    2. And I referred to gherkin as a content of pickle.

      Delete
  12. My COD is

    25A Bowler has no right to bend this (5) ELBOW BOWLE(-r)* &lit

    ReplyDelete
  13. Off track:

    For all cricket aficionados feeling crestfallen after the Binny Vs England cricket match:

    A friend, a neophyte in the cricket arena, has made these observations.

    Cricket is absolutely a cheating game

    1. Most of the time, the ball is in the hand. Yet sometimes they declare it a 'No Ball'.

    2. They say there are six balls in an over. Yet the same ball is used again and again.

    3. When they say 'All out', in fact only ten will be out, while the eleventh always remains not out.

    4. If the umpire raises one hand, it means 'Out'. If he raises both hands, it is called 'Six'. Nobody knows who the two persons declared out are nor does anyone ask. Logic seems to be missing here.

    5. A goalkeeper stops a goal being hit. Similarly, a wicketkeeper should see that the wicket is not hit. On the other hand, he is the one who knocks the wicket down. Travesty of justice!

    6. Only a few overs are called 'Power Play'. Do they play the rest of the overs in the dark?

    7. Only one batsman is called a Night Watchman. But after the play is over, he goes back to the dressing room instead of guarding the ground.

    8. They call it a 'Tea Break' but drink only soft drinks.

    9. The entire ground is flood-lit, but only one side is called the 'off' side.

    10. When the game is over, they call only one of the players the 'man' of the match. Then what are the others?

    Any method to 'fix' the game?

    ReplyDelete
  14. For the Col's keyboard problem:

    Can you check that in Control panel -> Region and Language . Under the Keyboards and Languages Tab ->
    Click on Change Keyboards
    It is set to English (United States) - US and not US International or some other setting.

    If not then you should change it to English (United States) - US

    ReplyDelete

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