Friday 9 January 2015

No.11288, Friday 09 Jan 2015, Buzzer


Delightful! It got all the wheels whirring and synapses Buzzing with activity! Pleasantly surprised to see one of 19d's books in the clue itself. Are there others hiding?

Across
9 Way around India to get an MO (7) ROUTINE (ROUTE around IN) MO=Modus Operandi=routine
10 In a way heroism is appealing (7) MOREISH (HEROISM*)
11 Famous uncle out of old western suburb in Mumbai (5) POWAI (PAI outside O W) Uncle Pai of Amar Chitra Katha fame
12 Sherlock leaving female in buggy for short time (9) DETECTIVE (DEFECTIVE (replacing F with T)
13 Freezing cold year in polar region at the far end of Antarctic (9) CRYOGENIC (Cold, Y in REGION* ant..C)
14 Jam // roll (5) PRESS (2)
15 Marine creature featuring in play regularly is a big draw (7) LOTTERY (OTTER in pLaY)
17 Relatively stupid rebus to put together (7) OBTUSER (REBUS TO)*
19 One following golf on the radio (5) HOTEL (CD) Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, ...., Zulu
20 Spaced-out formation is key to secure ring road (4,5) OPEN ORDER (OPENER around O RD)
22 Best to admit headless antic is indistinguishable (9) IDENTICAL (IDEAL admits aNTIC)
24 Generous to let artist escape for defamation (5) LIBEL (LIBEraL)
25 Constant velocity somehow is relevant (7) ETERNAL (+v*=relevant)
26 Express left a transport station (7) AIRPORT (AIR PORT)

Down
1 Hot river current is overpowering (8) TROPICAL (R overpowered by TOPICAL)
2 Strip of land essentially set aside to take flight (6) RUNWAY (CD)  (RUNaWAY See comments) 08/26 of course
3 Showing anger mostly no good greeting endless adversity (6,4)  LIVING HELL (LIVId No Good HELLo)
4 10 refuse to accept conservative attitude (8) TENDENCY (TEN DENY around Conservative)
5 Strong medicine getting through extreme ticklishness (6) EMETIC (T)
          This sort of thing makes you throw up ...
6 Animal dwelling inside volcanic rock (4) CROC (T)
7 Insisted on making no mess (8) TIDINESS (INSISTED*)
8 Wide parts of boot in a car (6) WHEELS (W HEELS) Synecdoche
14 Damn it, bloopers in popular books (10) POTBOILERS (IT BLOOPERS)*
16 Confined but oddly trendy, captivating in that place (8) TETHERED (THERE in TrEnDy)
17 Edges away from love — terrible ordeal and burden (8) OVERLOAD (lOVe ORDEAL*)
18 Fresh air, truly a characteristic of the countryside (8) RURALITY (AIR TRULY)*
19 Acclaimed for the most part, unknown author (6) HAILEY (HAILEd Y)
          The guy who is the theme of this crossie ...
20 Top to bottom fraud everyone is standing by (2,4) ON CALL (CON with C shifted from top to bottom + ALL)
21 A claim to second tender rejected over name (4,2) DIBS ON ((S BID)< O N)
23 Bomb an armoured car (4) TANK (2)

GRID

24 comments:

  1. 2 Strip of land essentially set aside to take flight (6) RUNWAY (CD)

    I took this as: RUN(-a)WAY

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. -a from? Nice twist here, with flight having two connotations- being airborne and scarpering.

      Delete
    2. A is from essentially RUNAWAY

      Delete
  2. Found it slightly tougher today. Couple of definitions also IMO could have been better. For e.g. No Mess as a sub to tidiness. Also Sherlock standing by itself for detective. Won't call them unfair. But surely more than just misdirection.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/sherlock

      Delete
    2. Agreed. Add LIVING HELL to that list (But in fairness it might not have been easy to define it) . POWAI was a tough one. Difficult to imagine PAI as famous uncle.

      Delete
    3. Readers of comics would get PAI from Uncle.
      For 'uncle' should we only think of Sam?
      Let's be nationalistic!

      Delete
    4. Uncle Pai's run in the community (when they are not walking). In fact, I have interacted with one of them in his 3 avatars, as a bank officer, a stock broker and now a vendor of goodies

      Delete
    5. What, Kishore? Has the apo dread caught you?
      I would think that the apo in Pai's is unnecessary. But I do understand why you have placed it - to avoid the uncles being considered to belong to a set of ace servers.
      I know that you mind your p's and q's to a T.

      Delete
    6. It is my error - been hobnobbing with someone who does that in often ;-) i did not, as you have gracefully mentioned, intend to differentiate from the surname Pais, which incidentally is also a Mangalorean surname

      Delete
    7. By the way, the quoth server about whom you took pains to sing paens about is Paes, not Pais

      Delete
  3. Airport and Wheels...also Hailey novels...about the air industry and detroit cars..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Any other themed words in addition to the ones highlighted in yellow?

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    2. Strong Medicine in the clue :)

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    3. Been mentioned in the topline too ;-)

      Delete
  4. Tank is not bomb. Today's puzzle , a forgettable one, certainly not my cup of tea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tank = fail completely especially at great financial cost.= bomb , seems fine. What is your objection ?

      Delete
    2. I suppose he is thinking of tharmoured vehicle = Tank

      Delete
  5. Wow... what a Xie!! Absolutely delightful!! Took me a good night's sleep to really get the critical ones. But what a satisfying finish...!! Thank you very much Buzzer!!

    ReplyDelete

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