Friday 28 October 2011

No 10294, Friday 28 Oct 11, Arden

Back to business as usual with Arden.
ACROSS
1   - Men have to help her (6) - MAIDEN {M{AID}EN}
5   - Fish below river current — unmentionable, perhaps (8) - CAMISOLE {CAM}{I}{SOLE}
9   - Plant that would cancel my replacement (8) - CYCLAMEN*
10 - In the end, there is never ending scarcity (6) - DEARTH {DEA{R}TH}
11 - They could be cast because people have one (10) - ASPERSIONS {AS}{PERS{I}ONS}
12 - The jar is more recent but has no name (4) - EWER nEWER
13 - Could he aspire to become a self-righteous person? (8) - PHARISEE*
16 - It is either a buy or exchange with these tribesmen (6) - YORUBA*
17 - Was it some accident that Artemis happened to be Greek? (6) - MISHAP [T]
19 - They covered people's heads as the wire went up through the swine (8) - PERIWIGS {P{ERIW<-}IGS}
21 - Inside Africa is another land mass coming up (4) - ASIA [T<-]
22 - Catch some European cosmetic (4,6) - NAIL POLISH {NAIL} {POLISH}
25 - To many, it is stray alarm (6) - TOCSIN {TO}{C}{SIN}
26 - Said to sleep on cashier bag (8) - KNAPSACK (~nap){KNAP}{SACK}
27 - Determined, He will shortly find some grass (4-4) - HELL BENT {HE'LL} {BENT}
28 - It could be breaking news and others are back on the way (6) - LATEST {LA TE<-}{ST}
DOWN
2   - A ship gets by the gulf (5) - ABYSS {A}{BY}{SS}
3   - Develop organisation, drop work and do research (5) - DELVE DEVELop*
4   - Avenger gets two points as one gets into trouble (7) - NEMESIS {N}{E}{MES{I}S}
5   - Overlook a solid figure without dress (7) - CONDONE {CON{DON}E}
6   - Propriety puts fashion before pen (7) - MODESTY {MODE}{STY}
7   - Extremely thin fellow will sound cocky after second treatment (9) - SCARECROW {S}{CARE}{CROW}
8   - When big turtle moves, one cannot keep the place clean (9) - LITTERBUG*


14 - With call on the way, one may yet some fresh ice (9) - HAILSTONE {HAIL}{ST}{ONE}
15 - During practise, treated her as real (9) - REHEARSAL*
18 - Write article on church showing remorse (7) - PENANCE {PEN}{AN}{CE}
19 - Young stag would needle the alien (7) - PRICKET {PRICK}{ET}
20 - An artist gets another to help with a creation (7) - RAPHAEL {RA+HELP+A}*
23 - Composer said to have some inclination (5) - LISZT (~list)
24 - Footwear makes a huge hit (5) - SOCKS [DD]



28 comments:

  1. Oh so smooth. Lovely crossword. I always seem to be in tune with Arden (and another reference to a moderately obscure British river)

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  2. A Beaut.

    One word here, 19d, PRICKET reminded me of a puzzle which I had run many years back. Guess what the above word means in terms of the puzzle! I reproduce the puzzle below:

    Hi folks,

    You have heard of words like ‘kitchenette’ or ‘nymphet’ signifying a small kitchen or a small nymph. But sometimes, remove the ‘et’ sound or letters and the left over does not have a meaning eg.’marmoset’. Plenty of these too, but some in more cases, you may get a valid word but with an unconnected meaning or a meaning not apparently connected. Some clues below will guide you to such words:

    1.A brick structure holding cash
    2. The projectile part of a round hits central circle
    3.Half north African people wearing a soft round woolen cap
    4.Harmless cartridge keeps you warm
    5.Soldiers’ quarter in the US gives you the American check in UK
    6.Scheme goes round the sun
    7.Old European capital is a headgear
    8.Poem written by a male descendant
    9.Principles of the basis of decimal system
    10.An opening pendant secures things
    11.Tutu dances to soccer round
    12.An ungentlemanly military trainee
    13. A young hare uses a jemmy tool

    These clues have reference both to the whole word and the meaningful truncated word.

    For eg: Chinese ship on a trip => junket

    Let see who is lucky in getting all thirteen.

    Kishore

    Answers may be sent to kishoremrao@hotmail.com and not posted here so that all get even chance.
    Results and answers in the evening. Beware of googlies.

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  3. Lots of Dictionary work required with some words I will not remember again

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  4. Every setter of THC has a style of his own (my use of the pronoun 'his' is quite deliberate).

    It will be a nice exercise for us to write what we deem is a distinct quality or characteristic of any of THC setters.

    As for Arden, the following clue

    When big turtle moves, one cannot keep the place clean (9)

    may be taken an example of his style.

    Obviously an anagram, the clue as a whole is not how Gridman or any other setter may perhaps have tackled the same word. The present setter takes the anag fodder, the def and weaves these elements into a sentence making a statement, a plausible one at that, a statement that makes sense as well. Of course, I have not gone on the trail of a turtle, big or small, and seen the litter that it left behind.

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  5. Arden's style seems very British to me, but I don't know why. Perhaps it's because his word play resonates with references and structures I am familiar with. He feels like a Guardian setter really. I have not picked up on anything which would have sounded amiss if I'd seen the crossword in a UK paper

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  6. When big turtle moves, one cannot keep the place clean (9)

    The image it weaves:

    Talking of the 'motion' of the big turtle, if local customs require the owner to clean up the mess (unlike dog owners in India who take their dogs on a walking motion tour, fertilising the local roads and pavements), then he will require a super dooper pooper scooper to comply.

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  7. DD 926, and of course, absence (to my knowledge) of 'India-centric' clues unlike other THC setters.
    Popular words like sari, Agra etc excepted.

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  8. @kishore
    I have one "et" left
    It is going to bug me all day. I also feel I may have fallen for 1 googlie

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  9. This particular setter is very keen on overusing the word some. It's been used more than a couple of times in this crossword and it happens to be case with every one of Arden's puzzle. Just curious.

    And I'd like to know if following sentences convey the same meaning. This is in reference to today's 8D.

    Is

    - one cannot keep the place clean

    same as

    - one who cannot keep the place clean?

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  10. I quickly shot off the 13 though I had reservations about two of the thirteen answers. Even here one has fallen subsequently but the thirteenth (by which I mean one of 13) is proving elusive, though I have some suggestions which don't quite fall in place.

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  11. Sumit

    Not that I don't know grammar, but I think "one cannot keep the place clean" is quite all right in the crossword context.

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  12. Chaturvasi, the question is, can one arrive at the word Litterbug with that particular sentence?

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  13. Less than "House, MD's Olivia Wilde" also welcome.

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  14. A NINA in today's Quick CW 10631.

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  15. Sumit @ 9:42,

    One definitely can, see Kishore's 9:27

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  16. One fully successful bidder.

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  17. While I basket in the glory, I hope that no one makes an asset of themselves in the solutions - but then who am I to carpet? Time to use our headsets. This is only a signet of things to come ...

    As mentioned in 951, under Thirteen also welcome.

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  18. Kishore@10.05-
    I could not get the Nina in the quickie-help needed.

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  19. Paddy, look at the tail of Tolstoy's book. ;-)

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  20. Oh! Got it. I was looking for a REAL Nina. I should have known better!

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  21. Oh, very much real. What if her first name is Annakare?

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  22. Neat one. There is one deliberate trap here too: For 23D, I had put down LISTE (there is a composer called Anton Liste) and would have sworn that is the correct answer. Got stumped with a couple in the SE corner as a consequence. As Suresh says, some referencing would be necessary to validate

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  23. Aha! That's why I get the British vibe from Arden. Our rhyming slang for having drunk too much is "Brahms and Liszt". So Liszt is always a composer that springs a UK educated mind.

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  24. Actually Bhala that is one clue which I did not have to validate. i had problems with cyclamen, yoruba,tocsin, pricket etc.

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  25. In view of good response, the blinds will be opened on the morrow.

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  26. I agree wholeheartedly with DD's 9:26 comment. Arden's puzzles are elegantly done as does the immediate predecessor, Buzzer's. They both give me the impression of a crossword puzzle as a canvas with "some" 30 clues weaved through seamlessly, so that, when the puzzle is done by a solver, it seems to give the satisfaction that one derives from an artistic pursuit.

    We are holding these newer setters to a higher standard here, one that Gridman and Sankalak have been flying the banner for, for what is a long time now - impeccable word play, mostly good surfaces etc. In fact, the only clue that felt a bit jarring to me was

    14D - With call on the way, one may yet some fresh ice (9)

    The sentence did not seem to make a whole lot of sense to me, but I for one, am never going to complain about it.. it is a luxury afforded us to talk about minor quibbles compared to other dear departed setters' major foibles..

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  27. impeccable word play, mostly good surfaces etc. In fact, the only clue that felt a bit jarring to me was...

    Very surprised to hear that comment from you veer. Especially in this puzzle, where we had wires going though swines and plants cancelling replacements.

    Then there are definitions coming in the middle, T indicators being absent, 'practice' becoming 'practise', 'he' becoming 'He', 'would', 'will' and 'to' generously appearing as padding and so
    on...

    On the more technical side, words like 'gets', 'have' are generally acceptable for both charades and containers. But at least within the same puzzle, shouldn't they be consistent ?

    Commenting here after quite sometime I guess. BTW I didn't solve this puzzle: there could be a feel-good factor in spite of all this...

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  28. Nice to hear from you Shyam, and as usual, you make good points. For some reason I was able to look past some of these - maybe because I have not been able to do many puzzles lately and also relief at not having to deal with other poorer setters. I am also not too familiar with the new setters' traits but they seem to be more libertarian than say, S'lak or Gridman - hence closer to Guardian I deemed. B'cos I don't do too many of libertarian puzzles I am not sure if I differentiate well enough between plain errors vs. just a interesting twist to a clue. But mostly, I could stil get the intent of the setter in this case and that was a good feeling.

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