ACROSS
1 - Leaves from Goa file (7) - FOLIAGE*
5 - Sailor goes after girl — a divine form (6) - AVATAR {AVA}{TAR}
11 - Dom sent away the farthest (7) - ENDMOST*
12 - Relaxed sound that is acceptable in usual place of activity
(7) - PURLIEU (~purr){PUR}{LIEU}
13 - Had a row? (5) - OARED [CD]
14 - Small traders may not have this kind of difference between CP
and SP (3,6) - BIG MARGIN [CD]
16 - Trivia — not for big drinkers! (5,4) - SMALL PEGS [DD] (Addendum - SMALL BEER [DD] - See comments)
19 - Check the French musical instrument (5) - TABLA {TAB}{LA}
23 - Just butcher hurt pig (7) - UPRIGHT*
24 - One should go easy on this if one does not want to become too
tight (4,5) - HARD DRINK [CD]
26 - Secret daughter not doing business (6) - CLOSED {CLOSE}{D}
27 - Settle in narrow street for Italian pasta dish (7) - LASAGNE {LA{SAG}NE}
1 - Growth on man’s upper lip by no means real (5,9) - FALSE MOUSTACHE [CD]
2 - The French subject to wash clothes (7) - LAUNDER {LA}{UNDER}
4 - Let a celeb turn out to be worthy of being picked (9) - ELECTABLE*
6 - A small nation — old kingdom (7) - ASSYRIA {A}{S}{SYRIA}
7 - Liking a party circle (7) - ADORING {A}{DO}{RING}
8 - Thing that is by no means faked (7,7) - GENUINE ARTICLE [CD]
18 - Some spoil our destiny in French city (7) - LOURDES [T]
19 - Austerities from penances undergoing capital alteration (7) - THRIFTS (-s+t)THRIFTS
20 - Gabbing about universal beginning (3,4) - BIG BANG*
People talking without speaking,
ReplyDeletePeople hearing without listening,
Wow, those words remain: planted in my brain, still remains...
One of my all time favs.
Fans of The 20d Theory, please raise you hands.
ReplyDeleteHope Penny drops...
before Amy Farrah Fowler
Raising both hands, one for Simon & 15D and another for The 20D Theory ...
Deleteraising both hands for the Big Bang!!
Delete16A ends with 's' but 15 down has third letter as 'r' garfunkel?? , col please clarify???
ReplyDeleteThink that one should be SMALL BEER, not pegs
DeleteI did the CW without the grid. That's why the error. Small beer I suppose it is.
DeleteWas it HARD, was it EASY,
ReplyDeleteWas it SMALL, was it BIG,
Was it GENUINE, was it FALSE...
And guess what, the opposites seem to be symmetrically opposite, if you get what I mean...
Interesting observation
DeleteAs usual, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.
Delete21A - remembered an old conundrum:
ReplyDeleteDifference between attacking a person and slaughtering an animal -
One is assaulting with intent to kill and another killing with intent to salt. :)
In 3D, how is "study" = "den" ? col help me...
ReplyDeleteMeherish: A brown study- a den where one browses and relaxes with a book, all curled up and with a chota peg nearby withgaram garam pakodas on a rainy day .A personal library or private room where one can meditate.
ReplyDeleteA den also means a lair for animals or for dopeys to dum maaro dum.
May be that's what Col was doing when your query came in and hence I beat him to it.
Thanks Raju.. :)
DeleteLourdes is more like a town, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteFor all I know you may have visited Lourdes and in any case you may have a point, going by the Wikipedia entry that refers to it as a commune or town, but on two occasions the NYT crossword has had clue to the effect that it is a 'city'.
DeleteThough in popular sense a town is considered small and a city 'big', Chambers defines city as (among others) 'an incorporated town that has or had a cathedral'.
Many Internet articles refer to Lourdes as a 'city' (perhaps in the loose sense of 'where citizens live'.
That's a meaning of the word 'city' that I hadn't come across before, so thanks for directing me to it.
DeleteWhile I don't have access to the latest edition of Chambers, their online dictionary restricts this usage to places in the UK, in addition to the condition to they be places with a royal charter.
And no, I haven't visited the place. :-)
Another thought on Lourdes (though I am stretching imagination to some extent):
ReplyDelete18 - Some spoil our destiny in French city (7) - LOURDES [T]
Telescopic is perfectly correct. Changing the clue slightly it can become:
18 - Some spoil our destiny in the French city (7)
city=def (to my knowledge, it is still a small town as Navneeth says)
the French=LES
spoil=anagram/insertion indicator
our=our
destiny=d
L(OUR D)ES or LOURDES*
Gridman's explanation shows what a cathedral can do to promote a place to a city. That was a revelation.
Delete