ACROSS
1 - Under control of popular agency (2,4) - IN HAND {IN} {HAND}
5 - Acquire chain for a lifting device (5) - WINCH {WIN}{CH}
8 - The most outstanding athlete, boy, having drink after game (6,7) - VICTOR LUDORUM {VICTOR} {LUDO}{RUM}
11 - Good luck symbol from Oxford, perhaps, taken by hack (9) - HORSESHOE {HORSE}{SHOE}
12 - Best clobber - one may drive in it (3,4) - TOP GEAR [DD]
13 - Back in a tick (6) - SECOND [DD]
15 - Go away round Italy (4,2) - BEAT IT {BEAT} {IT}
17 - Country girl's study (7) - PERUSAL {PERU}{SAL}
20 - Try game in Jacuzzi (9) - WHIRLPOOL {WHIRL}{POOL}
22 - Adult with endearing French accent (5) - ACUTE {A}{CUTE} Didn't get the french connection?
23 - Important - arm this police unit (7,6) - SPECIAL BRANCH {SPECIAL} {BRANCH}
24 - Composer eats out around one (5) - SATIE {SAT{I}E*}
25 - Sharp reminder (6) - PROMPT [DD]
DOWN
2 - Small number object to decision in boxing match (2,7) - NO CONTEST {NO} {CONTEST}
3 - A further part of Candida? No, The Rivals (7) - ANOTHER [T]
4 - Reads about my girl (7) - DOLORES
5 - The golf club to produce a slice? (5) - WEDGE [CD]
6 - A novel bridge partnership (5,3,5) - NORTH AND SOUTH [DD]
7 - Poor actor allowed in play (6) - HAMLET {HAM}{LET}
8 - Rockefeller, for example, isn't perceived differently (4,9) - VICE PRESIDENT*
9 - Leave out some heirloom I traced (4) - OMIT [T]
14 - Screen, at college, the beginning of a performance (7,2) - CURTAIN UP {CURTAIN} {UP}
16 - Tart novelist snubbed (7) - TROLLOP TROLLOP
17 - Port? Friend's on more rum (7) - PALERMO {PAL}{ERMO*}
18 - Romantic song told a story (4) - LIED [DD]
19 - Cheats fools accepting seconds (6) - TWISTS {TWI{S}TS}
21 - River Indus, originally at heart of traditional teachings (5) - LOIRE {LO{I}RE}
22A. There are four French accents for vowels and one accent for a consonant. The accent aigu ´ (acute accent) can only be on an E. At the beginning of a word, it often indicates that an S used to follow that vowel, e.g., étudiant (student).
ReplyDeleteWhile appreciating what is written above, it gives more info than what was sought, perhaps.
ReplyDeleteThe word play is A (adult) + CUTE (endearing).
'Acute' is one of the accent marks used in French words.
Additionally (to do a Venkatesh), others are 'grave' and 'circumflex' (if I have got the latter right).
Just finished the excellent puzzle from Arden.
ReplyDeleteBack from a road trip this morning, so couldn't comment on Friday.
cv
ReplyDeletePerfecgt. Add to that accent tréma ¨ and cédille ¸ (cedilla).
I had the most wonderful French teacher at school. When we had French dictation for exams, she used to do all the accents with head movements - up to the right for acute, down to the left for grave etc
ReplyDeleteThink the "lor" in Dolores comes from the exclamation " oh lor!" much like " oh my!"
DO{LOR}ES.
ReplyDeleteWhat does DOES mean? Reads?
Think so, as in the educational term for the subject you are studying at university. I am reading biology equates to I am doing biology.
ReplyDeleteThanks David
ReplyDeletePalermo reminded me of Colin Forbes' 'The Palermo Ambush'.
ReplyDeleteGyan of the day:
What type of food packages have two expiry dates?
1a Agency = instrumentality/influence = HAND, e.g., the hand of God
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning of a word, it often indicates that an S used to follow that vowel, e.g., étudiant (student).
ReplyDeleteOne of the best examples of this used in English is
coup d'état
stroke of the (e)state=putsch
Kishore 10:11
ReplyDeleteNon-vegetarian food?
One, expiry of the janthu or praani and, two, of the prepared food's shelf life.
Bingo
ReplyDeleteVenkatesh @ 10:12
ReplyDeleteWhat are you trying to prove? Doesn't the anno that I have provided mean the same? Or is it that the Anno has enlightened you only now!!
Deepak, I think he is trying to say that the def is 'French accent' and not merely 'accent'. Or may be he is trying to give further info on accents.
ReplyDeleteThough, of course, other languages can have the acute accent and in such case your def would be fine, but the word French in the clue would thne be redundant.
I trust you are through with September's ahapuzle, Kishore.
ReplyDeleteKishore @ 11:15,
ReplyDeleteIn his 10:12 comment he is talking of 1A and not 22A.
@Deepak 11:11 re Venkatesh 10:12
ReplyDeleteI think Deepak's anno by itself is clear enough.
Venkatesh's 11:11 seems to suggest that there was something lacking in the original anno.
While any additional note might be given, I think it must be made clear that it is actually a PS and does not point to any deficiency in the painstaking blogger's work.
I would go so far as to say we must provide anno only when the blogger specifically asks for it. We might, of course, point to any error which the blogger might have made unwittingly.
In the case of 1a, the blogger's anno is correct and sufficient enough.
Cv@10.27-
ReplyDeleteAs long as it is not the expiry of the individual taking the non veg.food,it is fine!!
Some clarifications:
ReplyDelete22a DG wanted to know the French connection. This was provided in my post @08:39.
1A An expert may have immediately connected
'agency' with HAND. But, this is not the case with most solvers visiting this blog. Hence, the post @10:12 - an amplification (or a PS as CV puts it). It would be interesting to see how many solvers were able to put in 'HAND' for 'agency', and how many (like me) got the answer from the definition 'under control' and then arrived at the connection with 'agency'.
CV: Request your expert comments on yesterday's DD or S question, more so as this blog is a reference for new solvers.
CV: Appropos your comment: "the blogger's anno is .... sufficient enough", I would humbly seek to recall to your mind the following tentative comment you made elsewhere:
ReplyDelete"Rishi says
July 10th, 2011
1 Ac. Could it be: When we say that so-and-so has a hand in a crime, we mean that he was an agency in it."
This in response to Loraine who said: HAND(agency, but don’t know why as Bradford’s lists this).
So, it is clear that it is not so obvious to the experts also.
@ Suresh: Done. No idols were broken in the completion of that episode.
ReplyDeleteVenkatesh
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing when you search, find and cite a remark that I made somewhere and had in fact forgotten.
For the past ten years and more I (as C. G. Rishikesh, Rishi, Chaturvasi) have made extensive comments in many India-based and international blogs. Sometimes when I stumble upon any of them I am surprised myself.
Thus it was that I explained 'hand/agency' to a blogger when they specifically asked for it.
However, I would say one knows it or doesn't know it. One might be British, American or Indian. One might know it but at the required moment might not remember it. The question of one being an expert or an inexpert doesn't enter at all.
There was no 'tentativeness' in my Comment. In a site peopled by British, American and other international readers, many of them native speakers of the language, my notes would be carefully worded so that there is no authoritativeness, no 'what-I-say-is true' attitude.
Yet, how delighted I was when I recently pointed out a discrepancy on the site of an ace UK setter and he wrote back: "I am quite happy to make an alteration to [snip]... I am aware that you are something of an authority on the subject, so have amended the phrase...[snip]"
But even after this, I would be humble.
Kishor2@15:49. Cool cat that you are, you just hit me for a six. Or am I a donkey?
ReplyDeleteSuresh, your sentence above was www.redeyes.com
ReplyDeleteBut I still haven't figured out where Ganpati Bappa comes in
ReplyDeleteCV @ 15:59,
ReplyDeleteThanks. The last line of your post says it all.
Suresh, a question was altered after I and another gave fairly logical answers which were not the intended ones. So please see after revision.
ReplyDeleteI know. I gave an alternate answer and had a long discussion on it with Lloyd. The anagram was the first that came to mind
ReplyDeleteThe revised clue leads to the better answer.
ReplyDeleteBut what's with the broken idols?
ReplyDeleteI was the VANQUISHED on 8 across.I was in absolute DOLDRUMS figuring it out. What do you expect at45 minutes past midnight when you are DOLOROUS and when the Goddess Lethe is embracing you?
ReplyDeleteRather late comment, and my first one on this blog - I would say that 19D can also be solved as {TWIST}{S} (accepting seconds = Oliver Twist).
ReplyDelete