ACROSS
1 - 30 days made popular in old movie theme song (9) - SEPTEMBER [CD]
5 - It covers the body with nicks, including the base of the instep (5) - CUTIS {CUT{I}S}
8 - Scared? Get a French person who helps (6) - AFRAID {A}{FR}{AID}
9 - One fuel that may burn another (8) - CHARCOAL {CHAR}{COAL}
11 - Look at home for a cut of meat (4) - LOIN {LO}{IN}
12 - A French notice about a card game not shortened (10) - UNABRIDGED {UN}{A{BRIDGE}D}
14 - Cut into bits the rodents swallowing Nitrogen (5) - MINCE {MI{N}CE}
15 - The French barriers to ambassadors (7) - LEGATES {LE}{GATES}
16 - Garment that is unique, beginning to tear (7) - SINGLET {SINGLE}{T}
17 - One is excluded from a harangue in business (5) - TRADE T
19 - Shaw and Rattigan, say (10) - DRAMATISTS [E]
20 - One who takes drugs may refuse relief in part (4) - USER [T]
22 - What a take off artist did (8) - IMITATED [CD]
23 - In which proceedings are not open to the public (6) - CAMERA [E]
24 - Animal - but a cultured man around the east! (5) - GENET {GEN{E}T
DOWN
1 - Important food that is musty, containing protein (6) - STAPLE {STA{P}LE}
2 - Would an irate airman plan to turn into a lawmaker? (15) - PARLIAMENTARIAN*
3 - "Hypocrisy", the only ____ that walks invisible" (Paradise Lost!) (4) - EVIL [E]
4 - Help one to regain normal life - by giving up an addiction maybe (12) - REHABILITATE [E]
5 - It shows a ticker at work (10) - CARDIOGRAM [CD]
6 - Lack of consideration for others, the result of a vacant mind? (15) - THOUGHTLESSNESS [DD]
7 - Mark made by a sound American (7) - SOLIDUS {SOLID}{US}
10 - Players who amuse (12) - ENTERTAINERS [E]
13 - A French farmer, imbibing a drop of liquor, is disagreeable (10) - UNPLEASANT {UN}{P{L}EASANT}
16 - Disparaging term for a theologian, one immersed in a bit of music (7) - SODDING {SO{DD}{I}NG}
18 - Chances got from interruptions (6) - BREAKS [DD]
21 - German snake makes one struggle for breath (4) - GASP {G}{ASP}
Photographs of my granddaughter are at the THCC Families link
@navneethc
ReplyDelete'commenter' is a valid word. Recorded in Chambers. The spelling 'commentor' is also allowed.
I was wondering how the Col. was going to react to the CD, DD and easy clue heavy puzzle today! Also, a lot of long words - I don't usually keep track, but it seems not normal for S'lak..
ReplyDeleteVeer,
ReplyDeleteMost probably S'lak had more pressing things to do on the day he set this one as such he must have taken the easier route out
22 What a take off artist did (8)
ReplyDeleteThis was the first clue that caught my eye. And given the bent of my mind,I entered STRIPPED and, for that reason, could make little progress with the crossword.
Most probably S'lak had more pressing things to do on the day he set this one
ReplyDeleteMaybe he had too many saris to iron...
CV @ 8:56,
ReplyDeleteYes I too had STRIPPED initially, don't take it literally though!!
Hi Col
ReplyDeleteMissed the proceedings yesterday, so hearty wishes from my side as well :) Enjoy your new responsibility!
Thanks Sudalamani
ReplyDeleteMy granddaughter and grandson are on a visit from CA and so I too am basking in the sunshine that they, along with a much younger local granddaughter, spread.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I was playing Scrabble on the computer with the first two (who are to enter Grade 4 and Grade 3).
Here's a mail I got from my granddaughter Shasha (nickname for Sharanya) some months ago. Needless to say I was stunned:
Quote
Here's a poem written by me 4 days ago.
Water
I sit here dipping my feet in the water
inspired by its tender touch
wondering how it transforms in so many ways.
The small drops from a dripping tap
the big gush from a waterfall
and still peace of a pond.
Why can't I play with water?
Maybe one day I will dance with water
and water will dance with me!
It covers the body with nicks, including the base of the instep (5)
ReplyDeleteDoes 'base of the instep' indicate the letter i?
If so, what do we say to indicate the letter p in the word 'instep'?
Comments welcome.
UN+UN=DEUX
ReplyDeleteA French appears twice in above CW.
Deepak, a small typo in the line after 21d, you seem to have robbed the kiddo of a rightful d. ;-)
CV, nice poem from the little one.
Thanks Kishore,
ReplyDeleteTypo since corrected
Haven't had a chance to solve the puzzle today, so can't comment on the overall satisfaction rating.
ReplyDeleteDoes 'base of the instep' indicate the letter i?
ReplyDeleteIt might if it were a down clue. In which case P can be referred to as top.
But this is an across clue, so base in the sense of first/foundation/primary might work?
Base of instep would be P in a down clue whereas in an Across clue I think it would work well as it is, though at first look I also thought of P
ReplyDeleteI had similar problems with Instep and then took it as the base or foundation or start of the word.
ReplyDeleteWrt Bhavan's comment above
ReplyDeleteThe clue is not one where a letter is shifted from one position to another (e.g., RISHI becoming IRISH) to become the solution in the slot but only an indication of the position of a letter in a certain word to be inserted in another to form the answer.
So, on second thoughts, though 'the bease' may not be the most appropriate position indicator, we might perhaps have had an unambiguous indicator.
CV Sir
ReplyDeleteI have a doubt: doesn't "base of the instep = P" ignore the presence of "the"? I thought a clever setter is one who clues an 'E' using 'base of THE'. Please correct me if I am mistaken.
Well, there may be different opinions.
ReplyDeleteIn the clue
It covers the body with nicks, including the base of the instep
it seems that the first 'the' is very necessary but the second 'the' might perhaps be done way with, to make the wordplay most accurate.
However, some might argue that the second 'the' also is necessary for smooth surface reading.
In which case, supply some words mentally: including the base of the word'instep'
I too saw the letter P as the base of the instep.
ReplyDeleteChaturvasi, re: commenter, yes I knew that was a valid word. I'm wondering why its plural isn't.
Who says the plural form of 'commenter' is not valid?
ReplyDeleteI would think 'commenters' is OK.
As I noted yesterday, it was the British English dictionary offered by Mozilla (for their Firefox browser).
ReplyDeleteAh! and there I thought I did a great job in solving most(except 2) of today's puzzle... here I find out today's was a sitter crossword! :-)
ReplyDeleteManju
Manju, as crossworders know, sitters can sometimes be posers.
ReplyDeleteI knew it Kishore, you could not resist it, could you? I was going to post that a sitter does not mean that it is not stand up, but thought that you will of course do better and decided to wait. True to form, an excellent pun..
ReplyDelete@Sudalamani, thanks for the incisive comments that you are making regularly. Makes it fun. On the intervening article, it is a debated topic I think (as CVasi sir indicates) - some like Peter Biddlecombe, one of the London Times XWD Editors, have said that the solver should be trusted to intelligently parse when one should imagine an article in the clue and one when should drop an article from the clue etc. The argument he was making had something to do with interpreting Ximenean rules stricly can sometimes take the fun out of the crossword and so some leeway must be present. I tend to agree though I prefer Ximenean cluing to any other form because then I can trust the clue formulation to the hilt.
ReplyDeleteKishore@20:25: HA!
ReplyDeleteKishore,
ReplyDeletegood one at 20:25.
Manju
Kishore- great p(f)un!
ReplyDeleteHow come Kishore did not mention that little Ms.Gopinath's DOB is a palindrome of numbers? (of course if July is written 7 and not 07)-11711
ReplyDeleteI noticed that Paddy, typed almost your words, in abbreviation, "LMG dob palindrome". Then, I did not like my selection of words, as LMG stands for something my Bren associates with, and which I did not want to associate with a kid, and somehow moved on without posting it. Senility is the last resort of a (I forget what ...)
ReplyDeleteVeer, your lines stand up to scrutiny too. How words change their meanings over years. Best example of course is the use of the word gay. Here is a line from Michael Crichton's The Terminal Man (1972):
ReplyDelete"Ellis had been doing three monkeys a week for the past month,just to keep himself and his staff ready."
It is a simple line describing a neurosurgeons experiments with monkeys, but in today's world with two words going in for different interpretations, it can really change the meaning.