Friday 4 May 2012

No 10454, Friday 04 May 12, Buzzer

Plenty of words with 'plural' letters.  
ACROSS
8   - Bunch of flowers presented in an Agra cemetery (6) - RACEME [T]
9   - Snare ten wriggly fish (8) - ENTANGLE {NET*}{ANGLE}
10 - Missing the get-together arranged for achiever (2-6) - GO-GETTER GET-TOGEtheR*
11 - State to grade an exam paper again (6) - REMARK RE-MARK
12 - Rebellious red clan makes him their symbolic representative (6,3,6) - HAMMER AND SICKLE*
14 - Meeting place for a compromise? (7) - HALFWAY [CD]
16 - Heard hotness is being comparatively thin (7) - SVELTER (~swelter)
19 - Fire out of the joint? Act instantly (5,4,3,3) - SHOOT FROM THE HIP {SHOOT} {FROM THE} {HIP}
22 - They are no good-lookers (6) - OGLERS [CD]
24 - Assistant accepted crooked deal to make capital (8) - ADELAIDE {A{DEAL*}IDE}
25 - Visionary aids king to leave his son and reflect about enlightenment (5-3) - PINCE-NEZ {PrINCE}-{NEZ<-}
26 - Breathlessness is a handicap no easing can contain (6) - APNOEA [T]
DOWN
1   - Picture of a girl sitting between parents (8) - PANORAMA {PA}{NORA}{MA}
2   - Release in exchange for cash (6) - REDEEM [E]
3   - First among equals? (6,4) - BETTER HALF [CD]
4   - Long to imbibe drug on the 1st of December or 31st (4-3) - YEAR-END {YEAR-{E}N}{D}
5   - Celebrity street artist (4) - STAR {ST}{AR}
6   - Upcoming small state around India is hostile (8) - INIMICAL {INIM<-}{I}{CAL}
7   - Place on top of mountain range for many (6) - PLURAL {PL}{URAL}
13 - Have steady regulation to prevent a disaster (4,3,3) - SAVE THE DAY*
15 - Nightingale in Italy (8) - FLORENCE [DD]
17 - Mary Magdalene before turning Christ's disciple always had another idol (4-4) - EVIL-DOER {EV{IL-DO*}ER}
18 - Nab an Oz criminal by a stroke of luck (7) - BONANZA*
20 - Put together mains bits of Thai veggie dish for a special meal (6) - HAGGIS {tHAi}{veGGie}{dISh}
21 - With 3 soft touches, girl turns into pineapple (6) - ELAINE pINEAppLE*
23 - Bearing with gumption (4) - SAND {S}{AND}




36 comments:

  1. Now, is "Mains bits" a misprint?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mea culpa. My copy shows "mains" too. Must have overlooked it when proofreading

      Delete
  2. 16 - Heard hotness is being comparatively thin (7) - SVELTER (~swelter)

    Same old crass mistake.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. V and W - I think last time I pointed out it was Arden.

      Delete
    2. I do not see anything wrong it its usage in a crossword. I may object to it in an English class but not in a crossword.

      Delete
    3. Suresh, a crossword is just a place where the intricacies of the language are admired and appreciated. There can't be different rules for English and crosswords.

      Certain phonetic problems arise due to regional variations and dialects. This certainly is not one of them. IMO it is a very elementary mistake and has to be avoided.

      Delete
    4. Let us agree to disagree.

      Delete
    5. I feel that a homophone is one which sounds similar to another word and not necessarily exactly. I would like this licence with the setter to give more variety to the crossword.

      Delete
    6. Definition: "A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning."

      Pronunciation is well-defined; at least it is defined in the dictionaries. There is no place for "similar sound" or perceived or subjective similarity in the definition.

      Agree to disagree, we have to - I would say nay to variety using wrong language.

      Delete
    7. I listened to both the words from Chambers a couple of times. Sounded reasonable enough for me to go with it.

      Delete
    8. I attended a communications class a couple of years back in which we speant a full 20 minutes speaking aloud some sentence like 'When Victor went to Venice we waved'. Our trainer started off by pronouncing 'water' as 'vater' and asked us what was wrong. Of our group of 20 in the Bangalore office, only 2 could identify the error.

      Since in languages like Hindi both sounds converge at 'व', we do not notice the difference. But different they are. V is pronounced by touching the upper front teeth with the lower lip; W by rounding the lips as if you're about to whistle.

      For homophones it's safest to double-check with the dictionary pronunciation key written in text. They have to be identical for two words to be considered true homophones. 'svelter' and 'swelter' are not true homophones.

      On second thoughts, if we can have drunken clues and Cockney clues, why not:

      Heard hotness in India is being comparatively thin (7)

      I'll be amused with a clue like that, not sure if everyone will.

      Delete
    9. I am also of the view that svelter and swelter are not true homophones. But they are close enough to be used in a crossword even without a secondary indicator as suggested by Shuchi. After all we are here to solve puzzles and do not require to be spoon-fed.

      I enjoyed the clue and thought it was fair to the solver. I do not like to nitpick. I think it takes the fun out of solving.

      Delete
  3. 6 - Upcoming small state around India is hostile (8) - INIMICAL {INIM<-}{I}{CAL}

    Is CAL a State?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I think it stands for California-'small' state. But the more common abbreviation is 'CA'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 'Cal' is for California, though the state abbreviation is CA.

      Small in the clue is for 'mini' so 'Upcoming small' becomes INIM

      Delete
    2. From Chambers

      Cal.
      abbrev
      California (US state)

      Delete
    3. from US Postal Service,,,,California CA Calif. Calif. Ca. or Cal. or Cali., CFUSCG

      Delete
  5. I think on the whole CW is a few notches higher than yesterday- at least for me, though I could understand and appreciate after reading Col.'s annos.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very nice crossword once again. Great hidden word clues, nice misdirection with dates in 4d, lovely surfaces at 1d, 17d.

    My little niggles/questions, in addition to 16a:

    26a: I loved this clue except that the structure [defn is fodder can contain] makes "is" problematic.

    Breathlessness, a handicap no easing can contain (6) would be better.

    5d: Printer's devil at work again? Can't see how to get AR; artist is RA (Royal Academician).

    21d: The definition seems to be 'pineapple', I'd prefer the clue if it said 'this girl'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree with all you said. Including AR. Not sure why I thought it was OK - can't find my imagined reference to it any more :)

      From what I understand, a compound anagram (like in 21D) is one of the few instances where a definition appears in the middle of a clue. So I thought this will pass muster.

      Delete
  7. Agree with that. 1D is nice but I didn't like it because of using an arbitrary name for 'girl'. For ELAINE at least we have the letters... 2D and 15D are also very weak as cryptic clues.

    Overall it was not very satisfying, as I got more opportunities to nitpick than to appreciate.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree, I didn't think girl = nora was being overly fair to the solver either.

      Re 2D and 15D I certainly hope that they are bad as CDs because both were intended as DDs : )

      Redeem = Release (as in from sins) // exchange for cash (as in encash)
      Florence = Nightingale (as in the English nurse) // in Italy (as in the place)

      Delete
    2. Bhavan, I said cryptic clues, not CDs ;) After your explanation, 2D looks good. The 'in' between definitions s iffy, but that's OK.

      15D is not fine. Florence is one of the many 'Nightingales', so you may need an indicator there. 'in Italy' again is the adjectival definition thing we talked about yesterday.

      Delete
    3. Yes, realized that after I hit the publish button about what you meant with the cryptics

      With 15D I suppose Florence in Italy reads like a complete sentence so went with it. Now that I think about it

      Florence may be is in Italy (8)

      sounds like an improvement over its existing form.

      Not that it will be a magic solution, but if The Hindu had a crossword editor, these kind of things might have been caught before publishing. Then again, may be not.

      Delete
  8. Thanks Suresh, for your comments on the American and his Ego. I could figure it out, though I was not happy.

    As for Pakodas, how can one forget that boy who had that name in the film, Bombay to Goa? His was an unsung and uncelebrated depiction of a cretin.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Schuchi: How and when a .... linking between two clues next to each other justified? many a times, I have found that the the clues and answers were absolutely unrelated to each other. Comments from others are also welcome.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raju, it is generally good only if there is either a surface or wordplay connect. Shuchi has an entire post on this. Click on this link.

      Delete
  10. Forgot to mention, glad that Colonel got his opportunity to put up a picture of you know what : )

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey! if we go on like this he may stop giving us some lovely pictures like Haggis (from the look of it it does not look edible), just like he stopped wearing his red T Shirt.

      Delete
    2. You'll have made me self conscious about my good ole Red T-shirt. The other day I went to Coimbatore and as I was leaving for the station my wife asked me why I wasn't wearing my Red T-shirt :-(

      Delete
    3. The Haggis didn't look very appealing to me as well

      Delete
    4. Haggis may be passable, but one has to watch out for Huevos....

      to ensure the right picture turns up...

      Delete
  11. Calif. for California is also a standard abbreviation.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you Bhavan for two good crossword days . I liked yesterdays more though :-)

    ReplyDelete

deepakgita@gmail.com