Textrous has stuffed us with drinks and eatables today. Needed to Google some of them though.
ACROSS
1 - Swallow one’s cocktail (7) - MARTINI {MARTIN}{I}
5 - Gentleman rejected a German dish (7) - RISOTTO {RIS<-}{OTTO}
9 - Bread apt to be broken during tea (7) - CHAPATI {CHA{APT*}I}
10 - Pass a chance to eat royal variety of butter (7) - COLBERT {COL}{BE{R}T}
11 - The same party allowed one person who doesn’t drink (5) - DITTO {D{1}{TT}O}
15 - Short feather covering a bird (5) - QUAIL {QU{A}ILl}
16 - Done with a flour preparation (5) - PASTA {PAST}{A}
18 - Made smooth toast served without starter (9) - BURNISHED B{fURNISHED} Toast and B? (Addendum - {BURN}{dISHED} - See comments)
21 - Island cocktail (9) - MANHATTAN [DD]
24 - Spot a low grade wagon on the way back (5) - TRACE {TRAC<-}{E}
25 - It’s bliss taking vehicle through blustery rain (7) - NIRVANA {NIR{VAN}A*}
26 - Cut profit to back game (3-4) - TEN-PINS {TEN}-{PINS}<-
28 - Move cautiously right after doctor’s equipment (7) - DREDGER {DR}{EDGE}{R}
DOWN
1 - Lady going round many a tarred road (7) - MACADAM {MA{C}{A}DAM}
2 - Oven roll had around midday (7) - ROASTER {RO{dAy}STER}
3 - Man to air a composition for ladylove (9) - INAMORATA*
4 - Top stuff from a confectioner? (5) - ICING [CD]
5 - Circuitous car route needs new storyteller (9) - RACONTEUR {CAR+ROUTE+N}*
6 - Dance while repeatedly turning around student (5) - SALSA {SA<-}{L}{SA<-}
8 - Reserve a motel to have a healthy breakfast (7) - OATMEAL {OATME{A}L*}
14 - Judge a regressive female supporter expressing anger about model
(9) - ARBITRATE {ARB<-}{I{T}RATE}
16 - Religious chaps against seasoning (7) - PIMENTO {PI}{MEN}{TO}
17 - Crooned a song about an iced drink (7) - SANGRIA {SANG}{RIA<-}
19 - Making warm lunch coated with our asafoetida (7) - HEATING {H{EAT}ING}
20 - Group of cadres serving the cabinet (7) - DRESSER [T]
22 - Computers 101 follow introductions to all basic algorithms
(5) - ABACI {A}{B}{A}{CI}
23 - Provided a musical score of repute (5) - NOTED [DD]
ReplyDeleteHi everyone
Textrous is indeed dextrous.
Today's puzzle is a gourmet's delight, what with cocktail, dish, bread, tea, butter, party, drink, confection, recipe, jam, flour, toast, starter, savoury, breakfast, seasoning, iced drink, lunch, asafoetida...
Phew! Could be a record collection, this, good enough to take care of the whole day's appetite. Did I hear Deepak exclaim 'Yummy!', excepting for asafoetida, maybe?
Liked MARTINI, RISOTTO, CHAPATI, DITTO, NIRVANA, MARMALADE, BURNISHED, MACADAM (the engineer who macadamized the word 'tar+mac' by lending his short name), ROASTER (really nice one!), INAMORATA, SALSA, OATMEAL, ARBITRATE, ICING, RACONTEUR and others.
The use of 'hing' in the recipe of 19D was tasteful. ABACI - yet another irregular plural. 14A - Setters' favourite 'support' comes 'back' with addition of 'female' and 'er'...
On the whole, a wholesome, fulsome fare!
i disagree Richard; clues were pretty vague. how does MARTIN become "swallow cocktail?" it was only because i found macadam roaster, i assumed it to be martini. computer 101 language could be algol too... ( i got stuck there and lost half hour of my cw solving time) release fruit tree could be date palms too ( dry area... the first thing that comes to mind is desert, isin'it?)25 a too was vague....could have had better clue for NIRVANA.
Deleteoverall, an average fare. what sez ?
Doc
DeleteSwallow = MARTIN
One's = 1 or I
Cocktail = {MARTINI}{I}
I disagree eye surgeon. An excellent CW with tough words. A number of words end in vowels (~10). Gita made my day easier by serving MARTINI with ICING so that I could easily make CHAPATI on ROASTER, MARMALADE for INAMORATA. On the whole I relished the CW with all the food ingredients in it except of course ASAFoetida, which invariably lands only in my mouth when my wife drops a lump of it in the Rasam
Delete@Gayathri, sorry I'm in your anti-camp too. Nothing about the puzzle was vague. Every clue was unambiguously fair with surface readings telling good stories and not resorting to padding with extraneous words.
DeleteAnother nay, Gayathri...I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle. The clues for ABACI and QUITTANCE make the answer amply clear, if you go by the wordplay there is no justification for ALGOL or DATE PALMS. I liked NIRVANA as well.
DeleteI think we need to have a certain humility when we are not able to solve a clue. We cannot term a clue 'vague' just because we could not get the answer.
DeleteIf we are not able to solve a clue, we must wait until the answer becomes available. We can then examine the clue in the light of the answer. We can then try to find out why we did not see light.
Take "Swallow one's cocktail (7)". We have the clue, we have the answer MARTINI. From a little experience we know that 'one' is 1 and so I. Then what else remains of the answer in this charade? MARTIN. Now, how is 'swallow' = MARTIN. Shall we look up 'martin' in a dcitionary?
In the Seventies when we became interested in crosswords we didn't have the sort of aids that are available now. Only by diligent riffling through the pages of a dictionary did we learn the intricacies of the art. Today there are blogs such as the Colonel's. At 8-30 there is the answer and then there is also the annotation: without looking up the word 'martin' we know that 'martin' is a swallow. If we are still thinking of no bird because summer is still a couple of months away, woe unto us.
This breakup MARTIN+I is nothing new. The clue is a chestnut and must have appeared in THC itself a number of times. In fact, it will be a challenge to write a clue for the word without resorting to this wordplay. (Anyone try?)
Textrous is no mean clue-writer. His entries have won acclaim in international crossword competitions and as a THC setter he has been consistently good. So let's drink MARTINI to him - let us not swallow it; let us swirl it around our mouth and relish it.
aghhh... too many foodies here, ganging up. the clues did make me hungry...i agree on that count. :)
DeleteIn other words, we should show
Delete... admiration, not fuss for bubbling drink (7)
@ chaturvasi ji, ever heard of sour grapes?? well, i am the fox... when one cannot solve clues, crying foul is human nature, innit?? i didnt really know martin = swallow. i am sure textrous is a great setter, but my wave length matches better with others, so peace!! :)
Delete@CV Sir: What a wise, well-worded response. Loved it.
Deletecv sir is a genius,shuchi. wondering why he isnt a setter yet.
DeleteI simply salute CV sir for the way he has encouraged solvers to go about in attempting a crossword,exactly what my mentor taught me when I took to crosswords many years ago. I also could not get a lot of answers today but looking at the Orkut and this blog and following the annos, I admit this made an interesting puzzle. Yes, esp MARTINI.
DeleteStill I don't get the anno for COL in COLBERT
Pass a chance to eat royal variety of butter (7) COLBERT
DeleteIn understanding how this clue works, DS, you must forget our friend Deepak for a moment!
Pass - COL
a chance - BET
to eat - (inserticator)
royal - R
variety of butter - - (def)
col - a depression or pass in a mountain range (Chambers)
Pass is a verb in surface reading but a noun as a component in wordplay.
DeleteThanks CV sir. New learning about Col!
DeleteCV Sir @ 10:04
DeleteTaking a quick stab at clueing 1A differently:
Arm twisted one to go after money for a cocktail (7)
But certainly can't of anything as interesting as 1A
Gayatri @10.51 cv sir is a genius, shuchi. wondering why he isnt a setter yet.
DeleteCVji is the leading setter in The Hindu. Look at the LABELS in col. blog and see the man who is leading it. He is hiding behind the mesh. He is CV ji.
oh yes, noticed it now. goes to prove my intuition was correct.
Delete18 - Made smooth toast served without starter (9) - BURNISHED B{fURNISHED} Toast and B?
ReplyDeleteIt is BURN (-D)ISHED
18 - Made smooth toast served without starter (9) - BURNISHED B{fURNISHED} Toast and B?
ReplyDeleteToast = BURN
served without starter = (d-)ISHED
Made smooth = Burnished
I love my Toast at breakfast, I wouldn't ever burn it though!!!
DeleteExcellent puzzle by Textrous
ReplyDeleteWith all the food and drinks around I expected more pictures :)
ReplyDelete19D The word 'our' is probably unnecessary in the clue. Hing is a word in the English Dictionary and I believe it is more commonly used than the more complex asa....a
ReplyDeleteYes, 'hing' is in Chambers. It is not marked as an Indian word, though the Hindi/Sanskrit word origin is given.
DeleteHowever, the clue-writer by including 'our' expects you to look for an Indian word.
I agree that even without 'our' we can get HING from the definition 'asafoetida'. 'Our' may be needed if we have 'additive' isntead of the other 'a' word.
Mention 'hing' and we think of two English letters from a famous brand name.
Not from Korea
DeleteSures
DeleteEnjoyed your cryptic comment!
Life's Good!
Wonder how many people know that it originally stood for 'Lucky Goldstar'
DeleteShuchi, by arrangement with the family of Adm R. D. Katari, has posted an image file of THC 1000 on her blog.
ReplyDeleteI have created an AcrossLite version of the crossword for those who wish to solve it interactively.
The link:
http://icrossword.com/share/?id=31A0_adm_cc_al.puz
(Crossword is by Adm. Katari; originally published by The Hindu; image file reproduced in Shuchi's blog; AcrossLite file created by me.) With thanks to all concerned.
In celebration of memories of the first composer of THC from a devoted solver.)
I found the clues tough and vague in a few places- maybe I must be prepared to bend it a little here and there or go through different alternatives-(eg)colbert.
ReplyDelete28A- "doctor's" leading to only DR?
@padmanabhan, not many agree to our POV.
Delete28A- "doctor's" leading to only DR?
DeleteThis gets parsed as "...doctor is equipment". More such examples here: apostrophe-s in cryptic clues.
Very good puzzle, but western half was quick and easy, eastern part proved very tough! Did not get Quittance, Quail, Colbert and Genoa Cake : (
ReplyDeleteGood morning all! Have a great week end.
A Good Puzzle
ReplyDeleteReally interesting puzzle and a lively discussion on "vague" clues.
ReplyDeleteHave we forgotten the days of NJ where some parts of the clue would be "swallow"ed ? :)
As noted here, I felt all clues were sound and was left rueing my knowledge of food items (or the lack thereof) in not being able to complete this puzzle (solved the cocktail ones easily though :)
Hi every one !!
ReplyDeleteI have been away to the hills in Yercaud( a colonial spelling?) and came back to the plains, with a bout of sniffles and bad throat and to bear the brunt of heat and humidity of CBE, currently ( or uncurrently?) reeling with unscheduled powwer cuts of 18 hours and worse, by the Powers- that- we -wish -were -not- be.
Enjoyed the comments more;without reading the clues and solving the puzzle which can only be at night tonight, if TNEB permits.
The poor Doc seems to be beseiged by counter-comments, by veterans and laypersons alike, on her gripe.
The smorgasbord of food and drinks clues, laid on the table must have caused any starter, a dyspepsia, which can only by a cure of LG brand asafoetida added to one's Chaach or buttermilk of experience from the past solvings. She is doing well as a newbie and haven't we all gone through this before? of finding the grapes bitter because we couldn't reach it?
Please don't look at her as she would look at your eyes.Give her a break !
Ere-long, she will soon in the Big League, thanks to this blog.
@ raju uma maheswar, thanks for the encouragement. loved your start to finish analogies.
DeleteWonderful puzzle. Colbert was the last to be spread on my grid. And didn't even need Google today. Probably the first time that I solved one from Textrous without resorting to the net.
ReplyDeleteDid I eat this today ? :)
Spicy pastry primarily sold within Pacific Island (6)
Enjoy your Samosa ;-)
Deletegood puzzle. but lot of tough words :-(
ReplyDeleteLogging in after a long break since morning -
ReplyDelete@ CV 10-04 am - Re MARTINI - In fact, it will be a challenge to write a clue for the word without resorting to this wordplay. (Anyone try?)
How would you rate these following, humble efforts of mine?
Ruin metal, one to get a drink
Shop in one cocktail
Drink obtained in a trim fashion
Any crossword clue, even one for which a solution has already been provided, must be followed by the enumeration.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, let me proceed to offer comments on each clue.
Ruin metal, one to get a drink (7) MAR TIN I
Neat word breakup; no superfluous word; however surface reading doesn't make good sense.
Shop in one cocktail (7)
Little variation in word from the first clue; neat word breakup; again, surface reading is not plausible.
Drink obtained in a trim fashion (7)
Good surface reading; good anag. fodder and signal; purists may question a nounal anag. signal following the anag. fodder but that is being too persnickety. Full marks from me for this clue.
Thanks, CV. Sorry for not providing the enumeration. Since I was specifically looking at the word MARTINI (clues for which you had sought), I did not deem it necessary.
DeleteI am yet to get into the avatar of a crossword setter. Thanks for the evaluation. I feel honoured.
Been enjoying this blog and commentary. I think it's fair to say that there has been a definite upswing in both the standard of the puzzles and the interest of the readers. And that's a positive for all.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed today's offering even if I struggled with a couple of the more obscure words.
Hi all,
ReplyDeleteHope you'll remember tomorrow is Sunday. Tomorrows special is from a budding setter.
Looking forward to it. Electricity department willing power should be back at 10:00 at my place. Hopefully the denizens of the blog would have left something for forced (habitual?) late comers.
DeleteRJ, We too have occasional power outage. But we have back-up. The UPS takes care of the brief interval until the generator started. I call this generator gap.
Delete*Correction: generator is started...
DeleteI have a UPS in name only. Right now it gives me 5 minutes. Barely enough time to bring the system down gracefully.
DeleteMy attempt at pouring a cup that clears,
ReplyDeleteDrawing in little drink (7)
Imagine having 48 comments on a Kishoreless day...
ReplyDeleteCol:Looking forward to tomorrow's special. Enjoyed last week's too. I had difficulty in printing the blocks, but was able to solve the alphabetical clues without it.
ReplyDeleteCan we have it user friendly or online? Or is it on Orkut too?
PLease let me know.
Thanks
Raju,
ReplyDeleteIt is not on Orkut.
I have not understood by whay you mean by 'user friendly'?
If you download Acrosslite you can solve it interactively. Otherwise it is like the CW on normal days.
If you want you can copy paste the Grid and the clues onto 'Wprd' and then print it.
Thanks, Deepakji. I have managed.
ReplyDeleteHowever, wasn't last Sunday's Acrosslite?
Hello everyone,greetings! I am unable to get the annotation for quittance.
ReplyDeleteRelease a fruit bearing tree around dry area (9) - QUITTANCE {QUI{TT}{A}NCE}
Quince = Fruit bearing tree, a from area, how was TT picked up? I would like to be enlightened on this!
Thanks