ACROSS
1 - Damage drum on the lawn with beach plants (6,5) - {MAR}{RAM} {GRASS}
10 - Recognises goodwill in conversation on the bridge (9) - (~knows){NOSE}{PIECE}(~peace)
11 - Against the removal of the 101 outdated… (5) - AN
12 - … snack recipes detailed imperfectly in an industrial research centre (7,4) - SCIENCE PARK
13 - Flip light in front of the quarter and slip away (6) - {ELAP<-}{SE}
14 - Power to exile Democrat in an American state to a Brazilian city (7) - FLORI(
18 - Feel better about the commanding officer with the priest in retreat (7) - {RE}{CO}{VER<-}
20 - View facing the box office pavilion (6) - {GAZE}{BO}
24 - The French smuggling example is critical (in retrospective) for lawmaking (11) - {L{EG}{IS}{LATIV<-}E}
26 - Egyptian deity's internal turmoil about prescribed times for doing business (5) - HORUS to H{OUR*}S
27 - Somehow ruin peace of the gourmet (9) - EPICUREAN*
28 - Garden nuisance contributing to malaise (5) - ENNUI [T]
29 - Thrower sent out in the wind (11) - NORTHWESTER*
DOWN
1 - Cater to the curate (8) - MINISTER [DD]
2 - Banish external plan that suggested looking back (9) - {RUS{TICAT<-}E}
3 - Wild spaniel found in the ornamental mountain plants (7) - ALPINES*
5 - Cooperative can be improved, if heartless (8) - AMEN
6 - Page taking out new canvas shoe for the orator (7) - S(
7 - Auditor's footwear on the church plate (5) - PATEN Anno pending (Addendum - See comments for annotation)
15 - The chairman is Pondicherry's leading citizen (9) - {P}{RESIDENT}
16 - Feudal lord's badge protects Oriental on the northbound French street (8) - {S{E}IGN}{EUR<-}
17 - Grove Ron maintained for the superintendent (8) - GOVERNOR*
19 - Stains not initially present on the family's waterproof cloth (7) - {
21 - Beer bottled in Saudi Arabia and Russia, generally (2,1,4) - {A{S A}{ RU}LE}
22 - Headmaster? (5) - CHIEF [E]
23 - Tendering such money may put one behind bars (5) - FUNNY [CD]
25 - Transmit holograph partially to the metal worker (5) - SMITH [T]
Sorry for the 4 min delay. I forgot to click on the 'Publish' button!!
ReplyDeleteHi all
ReplyDeleteGot MARRAM GRASS, SCIENCE PARK (an extra 's'?), RECOVER, GAZEBO, LEGISLATIVE, EPICUREAN, ENNUI (it means boredom or monotony, doesn't it?), NORTHWESTER, MINISTER, ALPINES, GEESE, MEATY, PRESIDENT, SEIGNEUR, GOVERNOR, OILSKIN, AS A RULE, SMITH were OK.
Hi
ReplyDeleteFLORI(-d+P)A was new. As was MAR-RAM GRASS. I was a silly goose not to figure out the GEESE in the first pass, hence you people should probably RUS(TICAT<-)E me, however I RE-CO-VER<-ed the lapse with an OILSKIN. GOVERNOR*, S(+P-n)EAKER, CHIEF, MINISTER, L(EG)(IS)(LATIV<-)E and P-RESIDENT follow a theme, to which HOURS could also be possibly added especially since it comes immediately after LEGISLATIVE forming LEGISLATIVE HOURS as also AS A RULE. Having the same fare regularly makes way for EPICUREAN ENNUI (again two consecutive words). Don’t think it is FUNNY, but I had to adjust my spectacle NOSEPIECE, while time ELAPSEd (probably unusually slower in Munnar ! ).
Col,
ReplyDeleteIt so happened that I clicked exactly at 8:30 AM IST and refreshed a few times, and I was wondering whether there was a problem :-)
21 - Beer bottled in Saudi Arabia and Russia, generally (2,1,4) - {A{S A}{ RU}LE}
ReplyDeleteFor the former case, one could get publicly stoned or executed!
7d PA of PATEN is probably Public Accountant as in CPA...
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteNo extra S here since recipes are detailed
Auditor's footwear on the church plate (5) - PATEN Anno pending
ReplyDelete{~patent}, perhaps? An incorrect homophone, if so - in PATENT, the final 't' is not silent.
Patten refers to a wooden shoe... Homophone of Paten
ReplyDelete7d I think has a homophone which I have not been able to hear!!
ReplyDeleteThat's right, a person hearing (auditor) of Patten would hear paten, the plate
ReplyDeleteRichard 839: They could also get 'stoned' drinking too much of it
ReplyDeleteShyam nailed the shoe. See PATTEN
ReplyDelete@shyam: Oh yes. PATTEN fits perfectly. My previous comment withdrawn :)
ReplyDelete"Secure a job, almost (5)"
ReplyDeleteThe above is a clue from today's Guardian cryptic crossword.
AN CHOR[e]
No harm in divulging the answer as I need to comment on it.
I am a little uncomfortable in having to get AN from A. What do other think about this?
I am raising this question here because if I remember right NJ has used similar device in the past.
For me "one" might yield A or AN but 'a' can be expected to yield only 'a' and 'an', only 'an'.
I cannot explain the rationale for this expectation.
Why, I think I don't like it because of a stretch involved.
ReplyDeleteone = A or AN (straight)
Similarly, no stretch is involved in a = A or an = AN.
But in the case of a = an, I think it's a = one = AN.
Agree? What is your opinion on this needless jump?
CV You have a point and I have seen a few other NJisms in Guardian; though I cannot recollect them offhand.
ReplyDeleteBut if you treat 'a' like any other word like 'job' then it may be okay. A can mean an or one. Job can mean op, task, chore etc. Viewed separately it would seem okay. It is a setter's style and not absolutely wrong
Chaturvasi, I think I agree with you. It'd have been all right had CHORE been replaced by a word beginning with a vowel like say AFFAIR or ERRAND to make it AN ACTIVITY or AN ERRAND. AN CHORE doesn't have that continuity and hence doesn't sound right to me.
ReplyDeleteThough NJ often uses "one" to clue AN or A, I've not seen her use "a" to clue AN (perhaps I might not have solved them)Personally, I'm not okay with "one" yielding AN either unless continuity (as cited above) is maintained.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Suresh and VJ.
ReplyDeleteFor me 'one' means 'a' or 'an'.
But 'a' is only 'a' and 'an' only 'an'.
Having to get 'an' from 'a' is a setter's style - a style that I don't like, wherever it is.
PS: If NJ has indeed used it, I cannot quote the clue as I don't have the dB of her clues. Anyone know?
Just referred wikipedia's page on crossword abbreviations. Following is what I found
ReplyDelete"One - i (I is the roman numeral for 1) or rarely a, an (not normally used in British crosswords)"
Have hardly solved any British crosswords outside Hindu Sunday crossword. Could you confirm on this?
NJism seems to be becoming the 'xerox' of the crossword world!
ReplyDeleteVJ
ReplyDeleteYou quote: "One - i (I is the roman numeral for 1) or rarely a, an (not normally used in British crosswords)"
I think what this means is that one usually yields I.
ICON can be clued with 'one' and 'study'.
ACORN can't be clued with 'one' and 'grain' but can be clued with 'a' and 'grain'.
BTW, I take what is written in parantheses in the quote above to apply only to an. In other words, 'one' cannot be expected to yield 'an'. This seems to reinforce the point I was trying to make.
Friends
ReplyDeleteTerminal of a poem (6)
Would you accept the wordplay in the above clue written offhand for illustraive purpose.
ANODAL?
ReplyDeleteIf it's NJ it can be any of the following:
averse
stanza
odious
epopee
rondel (see how there's END in the letters?)
passus (end us?)
ballad (because you said 'friends' and there's 'all' in it)
ending (because poems have endings, you know)
TNagar (bus station)
lethal (disease can be terminal?)
Next few passionate responses from VJ?
ReplyDeleteGita, OMFG!!! T Nagar??? Atrocious!!! For the next S&B, don't come without a helmet.
ReplyDelete@ CV No It is not right. Not so much because of a becoming an, which I am willing to accept, but because there is no such word as odal
ReplyDeleteIf the answer was 5 letters it would be ANODE, which is acceptable for me. I do not like the surface reading much, in any case
ReplyDeleteOh no! There was a mistake in the clue.
ReplyDeleteI am cringing. Abject apologies.
The enu must have been 5.
The clue was supposed to lead to AN ODE.
Terminal of a poem.
Terminal being def, of - conenctor, a - AN, poem -ODE.
The idea was to ask whether VJ and others would accept 'a' leading to AN because 'poem' yields ODE and AN ODE has what VJ calls "continuity" ( a beautiful term).
Suresh
ReplyDeleteYou're right.
The surface reading is not that great.
But it was written offhand for illustrative purposes only.
However, 'terminal' does mean 'end' or 'ending' (not just final stop as in bus terminal) and we can think of the ending of a poem.
Of course, CV, the point you were making was whether a can be used as a clue for an. I feel it can. But then maybe it is because I do not like to be bound by convention. One may like or dislike a clue for various reasons. But technically I think it is okay, since I view 'a' the same as any other word.
ReplyDelete@Gita: Your comments crack me up!
ReplyDeleteThis must be a first, but here I agree with VJ. "A poem" can be treated as one unit, giving AN ODE - perfectly acceptable to me on the same lines as a phrase in the clue leading to another in the answer.
I don't like A = AN when the following word does not start with a vowel, as in the quoted Guardian clue. But if it produces an exceptionally good surface I won't call it too great a crime.
@Shuchi. That was my comment. Still waiting to read VJ's views on this one
ReplyDeleteThanks. Suresh, Shuchi and others
ReplyDeleteMy view on the topic has become clearer!
Shuchi put it well: " 'A poem' can be treated as one unit, giving AN ODE - perfectly acceptable to me on the same lines as a phrase in the clue leading to another in the answer."
Even though I wrote that illustrative clue, I was still opposed to 'a' yielding AN.
Now the resistance may be crumbling!
@Suresh: I guess we all agree more or less. I was referring to VJ's "It'd have been all right had CHORE been replaced by a word beginning with a vowel like say AFFAIR or ERRAND to make it AN ACTIVITY or AN ERRAND. AN CHORE doesn't have that continuity and hence doesn't sound right to me."
ReplyDeleteWhere I differ with you is in the full green signal for A = AN. The words aren't direct synonyms, only via the meaning of "one". So, in a word-to-word substitution like in the ANCHOR example, I don't like it much.
Sure Shuchi, I personally like ANODE better than ANCHOR. I am only saying that it is acceptable
ReplyDelete"The words aren't direct synonyms, only via the meaning of "one".
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what I have been meaning from the very beginning.
'a' is not equal to 'an'
'a' is 'a' but it becomes 'an' when the word following it starts with a vowel.
CV
ReplyDeleteGoing back to your post that started this interesting discussion:
"Secure a job, almost (5)"
The above is a clue from today's Guardian cryptic crossword.
AN CHOR[e]
I wonder whether there is an error in the clue as given. The expected solution is given as five-lettered and the answer proposed is of six letters.
A means AN, only usage may vary. But the that is the same with job and chore also in a way.
ReplyDeleteVenkatesh
ReplyDeleteThe enu is 6.
It is just that I am having a bad day.
One can't copy-paste a clue from the inter-active version of a crossword. I had mistyped the number.
5+6=6+5
ReplyDeleteWhat we lose on the carousel we gain on the swings.
So all is well with the world as Bertie Wooster would say after quoting:
"
The snail is on the wing
The lark is on the thorn
or rather the other way round"
Chaturvasi, nice illustration. A POEM yielding AN ODE is fine by me and this is exactly what I was trying to convey. Shuchi has explained it pretty well in her comment.
ReplyDeleteBTW, nice to see people agreeing with me (for a change). Oh no, not really. I kinda like being a contrarian. That's exactly why I started defending NJ. Well whether I was convinced or not, it's a different thing altogether. I know, I'm weird.
ReplyDeleteMost of us are from outer space anyway...
ReplyDelete