It's Manna from Monday :-(
ACROSS
ACROSS
1 - Podgy, poorly fashioned lady is disheartened (4-4) - {ROLY-PO*}{LadY} ROLY-POLY
5 - Chance to drink after a drunkard's back (4-2) - {TOS<-}{S-UP} TOSS-UP
10 - One to set the pros and cons (7) - DEBATER [CD]
11 - Champion, somewhat taut within, is to set in motion (7) - {AC{TUAT*}E} ACTUATE
12 - Please with blog that is all-crazy? (6) - (blog+ie) OBLIGE*
13 - Nothing left? On the contrary! (3,5) - {ALL} {RIGHT} ALL RIGHT
15 - Miss West, in retreat, taking cross-examination (4) - {E{X}AM<-} EXAM
16 - Where people are relatively in conflict (6,4) - FAMILY FEUD [CD]
18 - Hindi gents all out for a prospective conclusion (3,2,5) - END IN SIGHT*
20 - Signal to leave no good (4) - {GO}{N}{G} GONG
26 - Elderly relative eager for fabric (7) - {NAN}{KEEN} NANKEEN
27 - Routine extremely apparent in Gir, for one (7) - {HABIT}{A)(T} HABITAT
28 - Spiritual head at one leading retreat begins examining Mad speciality (6) - {S}{AT}{I}{R}{E} SATIRE
DOWN
1 - Hot deal pioneers made for walkie-talkies (5,10) - RADIO TELEPHONES*
2 - Plant all I gathered around honour (7) - {L{OBE}LIA*} LOBELIA
4 - Money for one rebel leader in U.S. city (4) - {L{I}{R}A} LIRA
6 - Babu must work if these are to fill up (3-5) - OUT-TRAYS [CD]
7 - Decoration for special fish (7) - {SP}{ANGLE} SPANGLE
8 - He conjures up loan for one unit by American eminence (15) - {PREST}{I}{DIGIT}{A}{TOR} PRESTIDIGITATOR
9 - Shadow, insubstantial, is at the rear end of car (4,5) - {TAIL} {LIGHT} TAIL LIGHT What I desperately need for my 1956 model FIAT. See photo below. Thanks to Gridman for giving me an opportunity to put my WANTED ad here!
17 - Greene in rejigged manoeuvre (8) - ENGINEER*
19 - Daughter's garnet tangled in fishing device (7) - {D}{RAGNET*} DRAGNET
21 - Last longer completely with good man — yes! (7) - {OUT}{ST}{AY} OUTSTAY
22 - Have fun with doctor in prison (6) - {GA{MB}OL} GAMBOL
25 - Unnamed others in fort he manned (4) - THEM [T]
Another nice crossword. Only gripe is examination actually being part of the clue in 15A
ReplyDeleteDavid you caught yesterday's 24A today :-)
ReplyDeleteWeird to see Gridman use an indirect anagram in 12A.
ReplyDelete15A is unusual too in the sense the answer is in the clue but it is neither a hidden nor an acrostic.
Dave
ReplyDeleteA shrewd observation about 15a. Thanks for pointing it out.
Something that G missed in repeated checking.
However, after cross- a synonym for exam won't do. (This must have been G's tacit reasoning.)
And 'cross-examination' has a meaning of its own as against a simple exam that we may take at school.
Re 12a
ReplyDeleteI believe that 'that is' leads inexorably to a common, well-known abbr. and so the anag fodder is not so indirect as one might think.
I spent quite a while with a somewhat rude answer for "chance to drink" but couldn't make the rest of the clue fit with it - until I realised it was only "chance".
ReplyDeleteDeepak
ReplyDeleteIn our apartment building a resident who now owns a swanky car nevertheless still keeps a Fiat, one that he bought in the early part of his career.
Our parking area is crowded but we have not yet brought any restriction/additional fee on an unused second car.
I have to pay rent for the garage of a tenant, who does not possess a car, so that I can park my FIAT there.
ReplyDeleteRepeating the message I had put in day before.
ReplyDeleteIf you want your details to be added in the new THCC Members link on the top of this page, please send me an e-mail with the details. My E-mail is given under Contact Details.
Col
ReplyDeleteI had to get up at the ungodly hour of 6.30 to make sure I paid the guy who delivers the paper otherwise I think my supply would have stopped for want of funds.
G wishes to clarify that this crossword was prepared some six or seven months ago and that he had no hidden agenda in putting in the phrase at 16a, considering the present circumstance in the company that publishes the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, while checking the puz, G thought it was unfortunate, but it was too late to make amends.
Besides, we shouldn't read too much into the words/phrases that a setter enters in their grid, should we?
In my 8:47
ReplyDelete*brought any restriction on/additional fee for ...
CV @ 8:54,
ReplyDeleteI don't think it needed any amendment, it's a general term after all and no parallels have been drawn to link it to the family you are thinking of
On further thoughts, I agree that 15a must have been re-written and concede that my explanation above is unconvincing.
ReplyDeleteNot sure of the wordplay in 3D - a borrowed word having two different but similar spellings.
ReplyDeleteThe multiple breakup at 28A is also redolent of NJ!
Never fathomed the meaning 'set' stands for in 10A.
Not sure about the CD in 16A - 'relatively' has only one meaning AFAIK.
And like Col, struck for anno in RAT-TAT...
Rat tat - deserter = desert RAT, tasteless articles = TAT
ReplyDeleteThanks David! Tasteless as in tawdry and articles as in clothes, very clever!
ReplyDeleteHaven't checked the dictionary definition but TAT usually refers to cheap and nasty (lacking taste or worth) objects. It can be used as a term of abuse for someone's taste in ornaments. "their house was just full of tat"
ReplyDeleteThanks David, never thought of looking up the meaning of TAT.
ReplyDeleteThis is what the Free Online Dictionary says
ReplyDeletetat
n
1. tatty articles or a tatty condition
2. tasteless articles
3. a tangled mass
[back formation from tatty]
The multiple breakup at 28A...
ReplyDeleteYes, very rare in G's clues. I think the clue in question has five components.
But I think one is not lost in the agglomeration!
Hey, 8d too has five components!
ReplyDeleteIs there any rule that a word must not have more than so many components?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, at least 8D is a big word and the components are big enough...
ReplyDelete@Sudalamami
ReplyDeleteRegarding relatively - I really rather like the word play, I think setters should be allowed to spin clever words into contexts which don't always fit with dictionary definitions. But then again I have been known to pun "relatively speaking I'm an only child'
19D: DRAGNET - 'police procedural' might have been more interesting in place of 'fishing net' as definition.
ReplyDeleteVenkatesh 09:37
ReplyDeleteAgreed!
Nice to be reading such perspicacious comments.
Nice puzzle...
ReplyDeleteI thought 13A could have been worded as "None left..." instead of "Nothing left..." "All" seems like a more appropriate antonym for "none" rather than "nothing." Thoughts?
Good CD for FAMILY FEUD.
15A was a bid odd.
VJ
ReplyDeleteRe point no. 1: I don't agree.
2: I have said above that it should not have been allowed as it is. I was too taken in by X and the term 'cross-examination' to see that it was EXAM that was being clued.
Hi CV Sir, you have not said anything with regard to 3D. Isn't it a weak clue?
ReplyDelete3D Both Pottage and potage mean the same thing. Nothing wrong with the clue at all IMO.
ReplyDeleteG's intention sometimes is to let solvers make discoveries in words.
ReplyDeleteAs Suresh has pointed out, 'pottage' and 'potage' mean the same thing as G himself noted while trying to write the clue for the given word.
As one T is in the heart of the longer word, he went for 'loses heart'.
Appa, murugal dosai appadinna naan idhayaththai pari koduppaen
Some could lose their heart for thick soup!
Note the dash in the clue. It's not 'thick soup' that loses heart in surface reading. The subject is implicit in the words after the dash.
ReplyDeleteI asked Shuchi about multiple components in clues.
ReplyDeleteShe wrote to me:
Quote
No such rule that I'm aware of. It just so happens that if the components are too many, the clue becomes clunky. I think that's happening with 28A. "Mad speciality" is an interesting definition, by the way - if you'd found a way to place it at the start of the clue to mask the uppercase it might have been worked even better.
The five components in 8D don't look contrived.
Unquote
(As she has been unable to post her Comment here, I am reproducing it.)
Good to see Alfred E Newman after a long time, Deepak
ReplyDeleteOne extra U in my spelling above by mistake
ReplyDeleteRE : Yesterday's clue-20down:Cut a kind of loan(7)
ReplyDeleteWhilst ABRIDGE is the correct answer,-to cut- I reckon it is never a Bridge loan but a BRIDGING loan. I'm no student of Economics but the annotation is a bit baffling to me.So how does BRIDGE figure? Can some one clarify? Even the OED spells out a BRIDGING loan and the word BRIDGE connotes only to fill up the hiatus or a gap.
I may be wrong and wish to stand corrected.
CV Sir
ReplyDeleteAgree with you that the surface is good. But generally in wordplay one would expect a clue to emerge from a different word, that alone will pave the way for getting the solution. When I saw this I was trying to think of a soup's name which would get me a totally different soup if I were to remove the central letter. So in the end, I was disappointed when the two soups were same, the setter was only exploiting a language feature.
This is subjective given how Suresh is firmly behind you. But generally I'd expect the definition and wordplay to come from different sources.
Raju
ReplyDeleteSee
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridge_loan
Generally G does his homework (and, being retired, he's always at home and always working).
Actually, Sudalmani I do not expect anything when I do a crossword. Just go through it an finish it, without breaking my head over the finer issues.
ReplyDeleteOf course, when the points cease to be fine like when solving NJ, then I try to put my hair in
Being a strong believer of 'neither a lender nor a borrower be', I'm not quite aware of the ways of the banking world; Wikipedia says::Bridging loan: being a phrase used in the UK , I am quite familiar with only that, having lived most part of my life in colonial Bombay and Kenya where British English is in use... Thanks for correcting my understanding. I'm sure, Gridman will have done his homework on this.
ReplyDeleteThe term Bridge Loan is used in India too.
ReplyDeleteGoing through the comments everyday gives me a feeling that some of the analyst commentators are losing the simple pleasure of spontaneous CW solving. Please correct me, If I am wrong in my view.
ReplyDelete