Wednesday 4 August 2010

No 9912, Wednesday 04 Aug 10, M Manna

ACROSS
1   - Kind of tea crate, broken (9) - {CHA}{R}{ACTER*} There's an extra R around
6   - Sails around with Paul as missionary leader (5) - SILAS*
9   - Same as warehouse (5) - DEPOT [CD]
10 - Don't worry and don't at any time lose your nerve (5,4) - NEVER FEAR [CD]
11 - Leaders who may turn out to be real idiots (10) - EDITORIALS*
12 - Sort of gas one mixes with nitrogen (4) - {N}{EON*} Why sort of ?
14 - Hit the ball, the dog catches it and there's an outcry (7) - {C{LAM}{O}UR}
15 - Words with Ted made one heavy with sleep (7) - {DROWS*}{ED}
17 - Animal going round wild tree has to go back (7) - {R{ETRE*}AT}
19 - Stamp to arouse admiration? (7) - IMPRESS [DD]
20 - Sure he turns it to some purpose (4) - USER*
22 - Executive recruitment agent seeking a school principal? (4,6) - HEAD HUNTER [CD]


25 - A USA lad in trouble on the Mediterranean (9) - ANDALUSIA*
26 - Time to do it in same manner as before (5) - {DI{T}TO*}
27 - From which one seeks shelter in a street (5) - {S{LEE}T} &lit
28 - Flags sticklers for propriety don't want to see lowered (9) - STANDARDS [DD]
DOWN
1   - Cared to arrange nucleus of key personnel around (5) - CADRE*
2   - Job seeker put in charge in a phosphorus factory (9) - {A}{P}{PL{IC}ANT}
3   - A heavenly fortune hunter! (10) - ASTROLOGER [CD] Hunter or teller ?
4   - It was not Regan who landed at this Morocco port city (7) - TANGIER*
5   - Possibly the devil made soldier use abusive language (7) - {RE}{VILED*}
6   - Nimble society peer (4) - {S}{PRY} Nice clue
7   - Eli, for example, may possibly be under a feudal tenure (5) - {LI{EG}E*}
8   - Says how much one loves singing (9) - SERENADES [CD]
13 - Commander got beaten up, but agreed not to prosecute (10) - {COM}{POUNDED}
14 - The rounds of the advertising agencies (9) - CAROUSALS [CD] Should have been CAROUSELS
16 - Looks on at the step actor takes (9) - SPECTATOR*
18 - Locks having tensions reduced at outset (7) - sTRESSES
19 - A native American, one, who settled in this State (7) - {INDIAN}{A}
21 - He possibly died in the East (5) - {E}{DDIE*}
23 - Public acts of violence (5) - RIOTS [CD]
24 - A second rate bunch under a strain (4) - {B}{LOT} Isn't that supposed to be stain ?

37 comments:

  1. Good morning everyone

    Ironically, only three short (all four-letter) words - 27A, 6D and 24D - eluded me. I have the guesses in mind, but am not sure of them.

    CHARACTER, SILAS, DEPOT, NEVER FEAR, EDITORIALS (funny one!), NEON, CLAMOUR, DROWSED, RETREAT, IMPRESS, USER, HEAD HUNTER, ANDALUSIA, DITTO, STANDARDS, CADRE, APPLICANT, ASTROLOGER, TANGIER, REVILED, LIEGE, SERENADES, COMPOUNDED (?), CIRCULARS, SPECTATOR, TRESSES, INDIANA, EDDIE, RIOTS - were manageable.

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  2. Hi
    Nice one. Learnt Tangiers is also called TANGIER, ASTRONOMER looks for his fortune in the heavens, EDITORIALS are real idiots@#,DROWSED exists as a transitive verb, . HEAD HUNTER, S(LEE)T, C(LAM)(O=ball)UR, COM-POUNDED, SERENADES, LIE*-GE*, CHAR-ACTER*, RE-VILED*, CIRCULARS, SPECTATOR* were IMPRESS-ive. ANDALUSIA*, TANGIER, INDIANA, Mediterranean, Morocco, American, USA contributed to the geography lesson. SILAS* reminded of the albino in Dan Brown’s ‘The Da Vinci Code’. Seems to have an extra r in the last word.

    @after those idiots in the Colonel’s illustration to 18a Traffic Jam yesterday where they were in the middle of it, we find that they are in the middle of the newspaper too. The Col., of course, has confessed to replacing the pejorative with some variety of Kazhudai.

    # I had to use @ instead of * since * represents anagram in these posts.

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  3. I was wrong at 14D. But guesses - SLEET and BLOT appear to be correct.

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  4. 1a British slang does use char for tea
    12a sort may refer to 'type' of gas, or be an AnInd.
    14d CIRCULARS

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  5. Good morning Colonel and others

    Clue 1A looks good - CHAR is slang for tea.

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  6. No, Richard, IMO Circulars is correct.

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  7. Kishore @ 08:36 - So you think I am correct with CIRCULARS, after all?

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  8. By the time we st'r'ain the CHAR, we could have a Tea stain on our hands. All the perfumes of Arabia....

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  9. Our messages crossed each other. I mentioned CIRCULARS in my post 08:30, but the anno is not clear. Any idea about the advertising connection?

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  10. Richard 837: Yes, I do. Circulars=rounds, ad agencies send them

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  11. 14D should be Circulars (DD)

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  12. Thanks, Kishore. So you remembered Shakespeare while having tea, eh?

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  13. Circular - (Communication Arts / Printing, Lithography & Bookbinding) a printed or duplicated advertisement or notice for mass distribution

    The above meaning is from thefreedictionary.com

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  14. Richard 842, the stains will just not get washed off. What a strain on resources !

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  15. From OED "A letter or advertisement that is distributed to a large number of people"

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  16. I plump for CAROUSAL.

    Different from 'carousel' on its merry-go-rounds.

    If you carouse, you order rounds after rounds, you drink merrily. The noun form is spelt carousal, with an 'a'. So 'rounds' will give CAROUSALS.

    Why 'advertising agencies'? Ask Manna.

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  17. Richard 842: Maka baath kartan vai Shakespeare udgas yetta. I once wrote an article on names where I intentionally attributed a quote from the B(e)ard of Avon to Francis Bacon. On being pointed out this, I said 'What is in a name ? A Shakespeare by any other name ....'.

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  18. CV I still say CIRCULARS. It is plural, is round and has something to do with advertising as well.
    Carousal is only round, nothing else

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  19. Is, looks on = spectator, correct definition?

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  20. Suresh
    Of course, you're absolutely right! And CIRCULARS may well be the solution to be out tomorrow.
    However, I am merely conjecturing on CAROUSALS following the Col's suggestion of CAROUSELS.
    The Bard:
    "He calls for wine: a health, quoth he' as if
    He'd been aboard carousing to his mates
    After a storm."
    ***
    "Now my fick fool, Rodriego,
    Whom love hath turn'd almost the wrong side out,
    To Desdemona hath tonight carous'd
    Potations pottle deep."
    Probably the executives of the ad agencies have a lot of these drinking parties with winsome models and their prying photographers.

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  21. In the first quote above, read
    quoth he,
    not quoth he'
    Thanks.

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  22. Looks on at the step actor takes (9)

    Following VJ's query, I would be interested to know what others think.

    Can we take the subject (say, He or She or One) as being implicit.

    Or should we say that the def is in a wrong part of speech?

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  23. @CV, The usage of ellipsis in some crossword clues comes to mind. That might not have saved this clue, but might have made it less awkward to read.

    In its present form, the clue makes no sense trying to map a verb to a noun

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  24. CV:900: What does your little bird say?

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  25. Kishore
    The little bird came and perched on my shoulders but refused to open its beak.

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  26. A native American, one, who settled in this State (7)

    Why the comma after one?

    So many pointers to the lack of a crossword editor in the true sense of the term!

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  27. I think "who" isn't necessary either. And even "settled" is a bit winded. Could be a misleading connector IMO.

    In 25A, "in" is part of the anagram fodder. Is this all right? "in trouble" seems okay as an anagram indicator. Not sure about "trouble" though (especially considering the way clue's been written)

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  28. A USA lad in trouble on the Mediterranean (9)

    VJ,
    You've made a very good point.
    For years my aim has been for solvers to have a critical approach like this and first in the (now-defunct) Yahoogroups: The Hindu Crossword and subsequently in the Orkut community of which I am a co-owner and moderator my aim was to foster exactly such an appreciation of clues and a connoisseurhip of the hobby as a whole.

    Yes, 'in trouble' after X, noun-subject, will correctly be an AInd. 'trouble' after the anag fodder 'A USA lad in' cannot be taken as AInd because the grammar doesn't gel. As 'in trouble' is intended as AInd, 'in' becomes part of anag fodder and part of AInd.

    I don't say this is wrong but it something to be kept in mind.

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  29. Thanks for the clarification on RAM=Butter yesterday. Funnily, yesterday I had Master Dish for Butter Dish that messed up my grid. Today, I chose Head Master over Head Hunter and was left handicapped for a long time.

    I got miles to go before I master this Master I guess..

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  30. Pappu @ 14.19

    Don't lose heart.I am giving you company.

    I did exactly what you did on these 2 clues and
    today got stuck on 13 D.

    Nevertheless enjoyed Yesterday's and today's clues. Quite to my liking.

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  31. Being a medical man I am inundated with CIRCULARS from drug companies every day.

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  32. Fine as long as it's not from drug dealers....

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  33. Thanks Chaturvasi...

    I don't know, these days, the first thing I look for in clues is errors. This is completely the opposite of what I used to be doing a month or so back. I was like defending even the bad clues trying to read them from setter's perspective. Now, I'm just quite happy picking holes.

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  34. Vj at 19:09. I hope that is a passing phase. I am still happy completing the CWs without nitpicking.

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  35. Suresh@21.30

    I fully endorse your view.Even if I can't solve all the words, a few words solved and one or two new words learnt in the process is quite satisfying. like a lot of words today.

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  36. I think it's just a matter of perspective - a matter of choice too. Since I've become more curious, I tend to look into the details a bit more what I used to. I think this is fun too.

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