Thursday 5 April 2012

No 10429, Thursday 05 Apr 12, Arden

ACROSS
1   - A kind of music revival place which cannot survive on its own (8) - PARASITE {PAR}{A}<-{SITE}
5   - Way to change is mostly inside the flower (6) - STAMEN {ST}{AMENd}
10 - It is fashionable to be seen on one (7) - CATWALK [CD]
11 - Perhaps try it with uniform mass of an element (7) - YTTRIUM {TRY+IT}*{U}{M}
12 - Hesitant and embarrassed having slipped up (5) - ERRED {ER}{RED}
13 - Android may be evenly valuing the fruit inside (9) - AUTOMATON {vAlU{TOMATO}iNg}
14 - In other words, he beat me upI'l have to admit it's my fault (3,6,3) - EAT HUMBLE PIE*
18 - New Delhi gets the moolah and you get taxed for it (7,5) - CAPITAL GAINS {CAPITAL} {GAINS}
21 - Such secret writings could make Cora happy (9) - APOCRYPHA*
23 - A dish of fish and rice for his wanderings around America (5) - SUSHI {S{US}HI*}
24 - Exist now and existed before — back to puzzle (7) - BEDEVIL {BE}{DEVIL<-}
25 - Pulling any other chess piece? (7) - YANKING {ANY*}{KING}
26 - It is the wrong list (6) - ERRATA [CD]
27 - Heavenly intervention while the reality show is on (8) - ETHEREAL [T]
DOWN
1   - Look out for a stake (6) - PICKET [DD]
2   - Comeback still (6) - RETURN Anno pending (Addendum - RETORT [DD] - See comments)
3   - Stick to the position taken before lent (5,4) - STAND FAST {STAND} {FAST}
4   - Catch a cold? With medicine relax (4,1,5,4) - TAKE A CHILL PILL {TAKE} {A} {CHILL} {PILL}
6   - An emblem that goes into temple walls (5) - TOTEM [T]
7   - Platforms to look up over the sea (8) - MAINTOPS [E]
8   - Some nine turned out and were proposed as candidates (8) - NOMINEES*
9   - As a modern-day professional, the man sayslet's stay without a break-up” (7,7) - SYSTEMS ANALYST {MAN+SAYS+LET'S+STaY}*
15 - Enclosing alternative of the distant past (4,5) - LONG SINCE*
16 - It lets you grope for a word, playfully (8) - SCRABBLE [CD] Used to be my favourite game till all those 2 letter words were invented.
17 - He maintains an exceptionally pure inner grip (8) - UPHOLDER {UP{HOLD}ER*}
19 - Aim to get the snake angry (6) - ASPIRE {ASP}{IRE}
20 - Bard who kept watch right inside (6) - VIRGIL {VI{R}GIL}
22 - To join or split at the junction? (5) - RIVET {RIVE}{T}


28 comments:

  1. 2 - Comeback still (6) - RETURN Anno pending

    RETORT 2

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nitpicking, maybe, but I loved the 1a cartoon

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In fact, it is tick-picking...

      Delete
    2. If the ticks and louses have not yet hatched, they would still be nits...

      Lousy food, indeed.

      Delete
  3. 18A. Bluntly and aptly put by Arden

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good news, the delete button has been restored so also the quick-edit button.

    That only leaves the comments timestamp to be brought back 'on time'!

    ReplyDelete
  5. A couple of clues still "bedevil" me (I really liked the clue for 24A), though I went through Col.'s annotations.
    2D) Why is it "Retort"? It is a comeback - but "Still"?
    16D) I had it as "SCRAMBLE" as I saw a hazy co-relation between scrambling and groping as in "I am scrambling to find a solution". SCRABBLE seems equally or more apt, but how to be sure?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 2D, need to look at 'still' as a verb.
      From the Oxford Dictionary of English
      Retort
      ▶ verb make or become still; quieten: [with obj.] she raised her hand, stilling Erica's protests | [no obj.] the din in the hall stilled.

      16D It lets you grope for a word, playfully (8)
      I thought it was clear enough with the allusion to picking new tiles without seeing them (agreed you aren't groping for a word, but letters)

      Delete
    2. Retort is a
      're·tort 2 (r-tôrt, rtôrt)
      n.
      A closed laboratory vessel with an outlet tube, used for distillation, sublimation, or decomposition by heat.'

      That is a still.

      Delete
  6. An interesting Cryptic in the Financial Times today themes on The Master's Golf Tournament in progress now (2-8 April, 2012) at the Augusta National Golf Club, Augusta, Georgia, USA.
    All the holes here are named after flowering and/or aromatic trees or shrubs: 1 - Tea Olive; 2 - Pink Dogwood; 3 - Flowering Peach; 4 - Flowering Crab Apple; 5 - Magnolia; 6 - Juniper; 7 - Pampas; 8 - Yellow Jasmine; 9 - Carolina Cherry; 10 - Camellia; 11 - White Dogwood; 12 - Golden Bell; 13 - Azalea; 14 - Chinese Fir; 15 - Firethorn; 16 - Redbud; 17 - Nandina; and 18 - Holly.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A clue that took took me time to solve:

    Spooner instructed a spirit to be unbreakable (10)

    ReplyDelete
  8. 2D Still (noun) is an apparatus used in distilling. It comprises a vessel in which a liquid is heated and vaporized and a cooling device or coil for condensing the vapor. RETORT is a synonym.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Arden,
    In an otherwise flawless composition, a single discordant note (abaswaram) stands out all the more.
    In this near perfect Cryptic CW, it is the use of I'l in 4 Across.
    The standard contraction for 'I will' and 'I shall' is 'I'll'.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Col: SCRABBLE is also a favourite game, an interest shared by me and Sapna, during our leisure hours or in train journeys. It is a very cleverly crafted game by its inventor. It gets to be so frustrating at times when your 'chips are really down' Nothing to beat the cryptic puzzles which are versatile and innovative, limited by only the compiler's wit, imagination and resources of words and phrases and to be matched equally by the solvers, as opposed to the limited squares, chips, points and bonus scores, not to speak of one's own luck, In Scrabble, the maximum letters in a word is only 7 and it is very vexatious to one's patience. Against this, a cryptic crossword can be as large as one's imagination. When one's luck is down, one can get into a murderous rage !! No fair game at all !!

    ReplyDelete
  11. WATERTIGHT spoonerism of 'taught-a-wight' (instructed a spirit)

    Wight is a ghost or other supernatural entity.

    From William Blake's 'A Dream':
    But I saw a glow-worm near,
    Who replied: ‘What wailing wight
    Calls the watchman of the night?

    ReplyDelete
  12. 21 - Such secret writings could make Cora happy (9)

    Clue from today's Guardian cryptic crossword

    Naughty Cora happy having religious books (9)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Naughty Cora happy having religious books (9) Clue in today's Guardian.

    Both talking of happy cora. Is Arden doubling up as Chifonie?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Cora' has gone much above my cranium. 'Cora' kaagaz tha yeh sar mera....

      Delete
  14. I found out while solving today's grid, that 'to scrabble' also means 'to scrape' or 'to grope' (Free Dictionary). So, technically, I think 16D should be a DD or, perhaps, a CDD.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Sorry for not elaborating on the still in the a.m.

    I still remember the stills used by hillbillies in comics/stories for making hooch/moonshine from corn mash or potatoes.

    ReplyDelete
  16. And mash got me remembering M*A*S*H..

    ReplyDelete
  17. Richard,

    Your photo does not show any 'kora' on your sar(sir?)!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. !!Oh, the satisfaction that comes once you are done with Arden's puzzle !! non-pareil.So exhilarating.One goes 27 Across. Quite 15 Down that I get this kind of 32 Across.

    Now I go to bed after taking a 4 Down.

    Go ardently arduous, ARDEN!! keep us happy !!

    ReplyDelete
  19. sorry, 27 Across istead of 32 Across

    ReplyDelete

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