Monday 6 July 2015

No 11439, Monday 06 Jul 2015, Incognito


Incognito setters.

ACROSS
7   Recruit's camouflaged cloth colour (4) ECRU [T]
8   One time popular screen saver software for use post sunset (5,4) AFTER DARK [DD]
10 Bell for tailless zebra prancing around Uzbekistan (6) BUZZER {ZEBRa}* around UZ
11 Alaskan river may be flowing in a battlefield or a dockyard (8) ELDORADO [T]
12 Sword wound was seen about one minute before first international tour commencement (8) SCIMITAR {SC{1}{M}{In...l}{Tour}AR}
14 Complaint about Greek river (6) GROUSE {GR}{OUSE}
16 Great man carries papers for a person who manages power distribution network (7) GRIDMAN {GR}{ID}{MAN}
18 Top kind of bowler (7) SPINNER [DD]
21 Roman god of fire and I can create vincula (6) VULCAN ViNCULA*
23 Engineer hosts a party and goes back (8) RETREATS {RE}{TREATS}
25 Unbroken pots returned. (4,4) FULL STOP {FULL} {STOP<=}
27 The last item one may kick (6) BUCKET [GK]
29 Illumination around North leads to fast conduction of electricity (9) LIGHTNING {LIGHT{N}ING}
30 Architectural feature at first Roman church (4) ARCH {At}{R}{CH}

DOWN
1   Automobile chasing lookout: a recce vehicle (5,3) SCOUT CAR {SCOUT} {CAR}
2   Policemen's beard (4) FUZZ [DD]
3   Repeat, father, “N'nonsense!” (6) PARROT {PA}{R-ROT}
4   Basically, a theater production without energy (2,5) AT HEART {A}{THEATeR}*
5   Apt grade variation leads to exchange deficit (5,3) TRADE GAP*
6   Indian bison tosses sentry after giving up initial defence (4) GAUR GUARd*
9   Congratulations to a thousand pioneers of universal disk operating system (5) KUDOS {K}{U}{D}{O}{S}
13 Doctor, after loss of a round, remains a doctor (5) MEDIC MEDICo
15 Cat having a little weight? (5) OUNCE [DD]
17 “Explain this clue: 'Ann has nothing on.' Thanks, Lawrence” (8) ANNOTATE {ANN}{NO}{TA}{TE}
19 Wrongly enter with new friend and dig in (8) ENTRENCH {ENTER*}{N}{CH} CH for friend, Does Incognito mean 'Companion of Honour'?
20 Remitted in advance by a communist holding a Mangalorean in custody after first poll (7) PREPAID {Poll}{RE{PAI}D}
22 Normal to turn in America before the first lady (5) USUAL {US{U}A}{Lady}
24 Also, carrying luggage to Caribbean island ... (6) TOBAGO {TO{BAG}O}
26 ... supports the French girl starting studies (4) LEGS {LE}{G}{St...s
28 Talk about Indian street food (4) CHAT [DD]

Reference List

Minute = M, Greek = GR, Great = GR, Papers = ID, Engineer = RE, Roman = R, Energy = E, Thousand = K, Lawrence = TE, New = N, Mangalorean = PAI, Turn = U, Girl = G

GRID

49 comments:

  1. Back to samosa days! And what a way to start the week with as many as six 'setters' featuring in today's puzzle! Truly a delightful crossie. Enjoyed thoroughly. My COD is 3Dn PARROT. Thank you Incognito. :-)))

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  2. You have to 17d to get 8,10,16,18,21 and 29a

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  3. The minute I solved 28D my stomach started rumbling!!

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  4. Crossed banking instrument's right for this setter (8)

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  5. Today I saw two puzzles which I have converted to crossword clues.

    Sweet formed by two letters (5)
    Number part of 5 (4)

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  6. Incognito left out all the full-stops in his clues except in 25A! :)

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    Replies
    1. Nice spotting! Nothing misses your eyes, ma'am!!

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    2. May not be an oversight. Incognito does not do anything without a purpose, without proving a point...

      Pointless, eh?

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    3. Did he pull a fast one there? I don't think so. It was so cunning of him to make this . (Full-stop) as the definition !! Now I change my COD from Parrot to Full-stop!!!

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  7. 21 Roman god of fire and I can create vincula (6) VULCAN ViNCULA*

    What is the deletion indicator here pl?

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  8. Add I to vulcan & rearrange to get vincula

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  9. . is the shortest definition possible.

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    Replies
    1. No. An empty clue for "clueless" is the smallest possible defintion

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    2. :-) Good one. Have I deprived you of a surprise?

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    3. Smart one! Clue or Ramesh? Both !!

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  10. Missed out on Ecru & Fuzz. Toying around with ochre for a long time (Am I a new recruit?)
    Nice meeting great man (read Gridman) here.
    Did not know that 'after Dark' is a screen saver, but the wordplay led me there.Agree with MB that it is a nice start for the week.

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  11. Curiously, the link for 'Chat' gives the spelling as 'Chaat'! Is it an alt. for the samosa I missed? Incognito asked me last time to go on a diet (since I had samosas on 2 consecutive days!)

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    Replies
    1. Since Chat is a Hindi word it can be spelt both ways in English

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    2. Yes, I understand. Just curious, that's all.

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  12. If I remember right, 'Full Stop' has been clued before with just that- a dot. But I am not sure if it was in THC.

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  13. Oh the sheer joy of a samosa day! Thank you Incognito, for a delightful crossword.....
    Richard - good to know I was missed! Had a busy time with kids and grand kid's holidays!
    Vacation over, time to get down to the business of solving crosswords and Sudokus!!
    After many days of very hot and humid weather in Delhi, a beautiful rainy day in Delhi - ideal for samosas and coffee!

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  14. Hi all,

    Thanks for your appreciation... The idea was to wean MB off his samosas and serve him a different junk food .... Chat/chaat.

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  15. A couple of (as Richard calls them, pointless) points...

    i've seen ch used for friend in some British crosswords, possibly as a short form of chum. But I don't find it in Chambers... My apologies.

    Sandy, it's actually the other way round... No, I have not dropped the full stop at the end of the other clues as you say.... period. Almost all setters do not put a fs at the end of their clues, by some unwritten convention I suppose, though they do use ? And ! At the end. To my knowledge, there is only one person I have seen who meticulously uses a fs at the end of ever clue. I am sure you know who that person is ;). Go look in a mirror ...

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  16. Yesterday I became a child.

    Well, I took a 'joy ride' by the just-inaugurated Metrotrain from Alandur to Koyambedu and back.

    Actually I wanted to give my granddaughter an experience.

    Joy ride, did I say? It was anything but!

    On this Sunday many families were out just with the same intention as mine and there were old people milling with young ones.

    On the 'to' journey we had to stand throughout the 20-minute ride with hordes.

    The racks on top were empty. No briefcases, no backpacks, not even gunny sacks.No business travellers.

    My idea was to look at the swank stations and coaches before they were spoilt by what we usually spoil them with.
    Before the escalators became unserviceable.

    It is quite elevated and there are two/three levels at the stations. So without the escalator, it would be really difficult for the aged.

    But the entrance/exit doors of the coaches are level with the platform.

    We are not issued tickets but rather plastic tokens which when inserted in a slot at the gate opens the turnstile that gives access to the ticketed part of the station.

    The coaches are fully airconditioned and annoucements on the PA system mention stations. The exit door opens usually at left but also at right in some stations.

    Did we get a view of the city from the broad windows? Not a chance.

    In any case what you could have seen are all the tops of commercial buildings and signages. Some temple towers rose above these.

    It will be several years before the Metro passes by my neighbourhood - most part of which will be underground.

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  17. Apologies to setters not included.

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  18. The Times crossword persisted with full stop at the end of clues even after most others had discarded the practice. Eventually TT too dropped it.
    THC's first setter, the Admiral, used the full stop. in his work.
    I don't remember when exactly THC dropped the full stop but I, from the start of my setting career, do not use full stop unless it's part of the clue. QMs and EMs will appear as and when needed.

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  19. CV,
    Thanks for the update on Metro. To be precise,you beat me to it. I wanted to have a ride for exactly the same reasons mentioned by you. Ans, as you said, I also wanted to do it before it gets 'Madras'ed, if I may say so. But I certainly was expecting to see Madras from an elevation. Probably, I should use an uncrowded day. Well, let me hope I get one soon.

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  20. Thanks for the samosas K!
    Yesterday I could not participated in the Special because of the power failure here. :((

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  21. Pl delete d in the fifth word - typo

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  22. Enjoyable crossie, Kishore! Thanks a lot :)

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  23. An enjoyable crossword :)
    A doubt-is 6D an indirect anagram?

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    Replies
    1. No indirect. Just a normal anagram of (guard-D)* with 'tosses' being Anind.

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    2. 6d is indeed an indirect anagram as one has to get GUARD from 'sentry' before discarding D and jumbling the word.

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  24. @MB - the answers:
    Sweet formed by two letters (5) C AND Y --- C&Y
    Number part of 5 (4) FOUR -- FIVE has IV as part which is four in roman.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Renga. I could guess the 2nd one FIVE but was not sure!

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    2. On second look I find my guess FIVE too was wrong. It was FOUR (Enu being 4) Clever clues!!

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  25. Its amazing that in a crossie by Incognito , one simple glides from clue to clue like fixing a jigsaw piece ! He has also paid tributes by using some of the compilers , cleverly camouflaged in clues. Thanks, Kishore.
    My empathy for pets ( though I'm not a pet lover as opposed to my wife and daughter, made me to pen the following after witnessing the 4th of July pyro technics near the East river here in Manhattan.


    As much as my heart smouldered at the colossal loss of money literally burnt in the sky, causing( conducted non-stop for forty five minutes) smoke pollution and petrified canines and felines, due to the echoing blasting sounds, I enjoyed the pyrotechnics near the east river coastline in Manhattan for the celebrations of the fourth of July here.

    It was astronomy in reverse,
    instead of falling meteors and asteroids
    from the sky above.

    Rockets fired from the barges
    zoomed up into the clear sky,
    bursting into flames,
    showering down to the earth,
    diamonds , rubies, sapphires
    emeralds and amethysts
    all in parabolic and concentric circles,
    splitting themselves into
    singular stars and dying sown
    into embers in humongous numbers.

    After all this was over,
    the sky stood
    in gloom and clouds of smoke
    a canopy of silent mourning ?

    No doubt, a sight to behold,
    but is there no other way to
    celebrate other than by
    noise and pollution?

    I returned home pensive over this
    to immediately pen this short
    episode of wonder of man's
    ingenuity to seek pleasure out of
    destruction !!!.

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  26. Watched the fireworks from Thousand Oaks near Los Angeles. Same opinion-felt at every Diwali back at home!

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  27. After correcting the typos:
    About the metro train: my second son in Bangalore refused to take me for a ride in the metro citing the same reasons and I am afraid my first son in Chennai also will do the same when I return home!

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