Tuesday, 11 December 2012

No.10641, Tuesday 11 Dec 12, Gridman

Quite an entertaining puzzle with several clues to like - 11A, 13A, 16A, 20A, 2D, 4D, 6D, 17D. Loved the tail deletion in 14D and especially liked 8D for its succinct and excellent wordplay. Thanks to Gridman for all the fun.
ACROSS
1 Rough enough not to do so much after team leader (8) TACTLESS (T + ACT LESS)


5 Small bombing-attack unleashed (6) SPRANG (S + PRANG)
10 Experiencing a bit of tirade with a criticism (7) TASTING (T + A + STING)
11 Lack of benefit in metro transformation (2,5) NO, MERIT (IN METRO)*
12 Spoke without a sound? (6) ELIDED (E)
13 Company has note tucked in setter’s invite (4,4) COME, OVER (CO + E inside MOVER)
15 Tamil leader’s name // in old coin (4) ANNA (DD)
16 Climbed up a building and brought to the knowledge of everyone (4,6) MADE, PUBLIC (CLIMBED UP A)*
18 Army of nudes? Not exactly! (5,5) NAKED, FORCE (CD)
20 Continent has sources of art silk in abundance (4) ASIA (Acrostic)
23 Most malodorous (8) REEKIEST (E)
24 Ramshackle, untried model leaves in a fluster (6) RUINED (UNtRIED)*
26 When I live alone, I am ___ ___ ___ (2,2,3) ON, MY, OWN (E)
27 Picture fit North Indian uncle getting around (7) TABLEAU (ABLE inside TAU)
28 A neat homemaker leaves ___ ___ in the kitchen (2,4) NO, MESS (E)
29 President caught highflyer (8) CHAIRMAN (C + H + AIRMAN)

DOWN
1 If you’re ___ ___ ___, you’ve got it ever since you came into this world (2,3,6,4) TO, THE, MANNER, BORN (E)
2 One may sit on it tom feel bolstered (7) CUSHION (CD)
3 Fail to move on to see novel rite (6) LOITER (LO + RITE*)
4 A lie put up as long narrative (4) SAGA (A + GAS)<=
6 Excited, // wearing a light shoe for dancing? (6,2) PUMPED, UP (DD)
7 Coming of a right competitor (7) ARRIVAL (A + R + RIVAL)
8 Had nothing on shelf with one in drift — perish! (2,2,4,3,4) GO, TO, RACK, AND, RUIN (GOT + 0 + RACK + AND + I inside RUN)
9 Rudeness in single new church (9) INSOLENCE (IN + SOLE + N + CE)
14 See a foot-loose elk in Gujarat’s capital disappearing (9) VAMOOSING (V + A + MOOSe + IN  + G)
17 Commercial peaks for gurus (8) ADVISORS (AD + VISORS)


19 Sh… take care of mother (4,3) KEEP, MUM (KEEP + MUM)
21 A shaft of ray during the day (7) SUNBEAM (E)
22 Mother gets respectful title in Indian city (6) MUMBAI (MUM + BAI)
25 Deeply impress in set character (4) ETCH (T)


24 comments:

  1. hi all,

    vamoosing, to the manner born , go to rack and run were beyond me. otherwise an ok sort of puzzle for me.

    when is the next s&B meet?? scheduled any, yet?

    good day

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I was a boy, elders in the joint family used to refer to women in the household as "Rukmini Bai", "Janaki Bai" or "Ganga Bai", always adding the title 'bai' to the name.

    Whatever happened to this practice? Perhaps it is still used in some other parts of our country but I don't think we hear it anymore in Tamil Nadu, where people are forgetting the "pandaikaala thamizhar panpaadu".

    Nowadays infants call their grandmas by name "Gita", "Susi" or whatever.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nowadays if you say 'Bai' people would think you are referring to the housemaid!!

      Delete
    2. Yes, I think this also is used to give respect to the housemaid- again a Mumbai import.

      Delete
  3. To my knowledge,'bai'was more a North Indian practice ( probably Marati-(eg)Rani Lakshmi Bai) and not much used in Tamilnadu. It was more 'amma' here. In fact Mumbai was one of the last to fall for me due to this. But yes, calling by name has come into practice from the West, I mean U.S. Some still add 'amma'to this also.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think in & around Gujarat also, all women are addressed 'BAI' in respectful manner.

      Delete
  4. 'Bai' in TN may mostly denote a male Muslim.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 14D-
    I did not quite get the 'foot loose' part of moose until I swa the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Lovely one today. Took a long time to pick the well concealed anagram in 16A.

    13A : Is mover= setter ? or is it only because THC has a setter publishing under that pseudonym ?



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 13A is indeed a reference to the in-house setter

      Delete
    2. I was trying to fit in 'me' for setter until I saw the blog.

      Delete
    3. I did not realise it was an anagram until mentioned by you!

      Delete
    4. Was taken by surprise with the mover reference as I could not recall an instance of a setter referencing another setter :) I was trying to fit in 'me' for setter as well and gave up and came here to look at the blog.

      Nice and interesting run by Gridman - started off with some easy ones followed by more challenging ones.

      Delete
    5. The only issue with this clue would be if some one republishes this crossword in a different context ( say as "100 best crosswords from THC" ) then the solver will have no clue about how setter=mover.

      Delete
  7. ABCDE :

    Crown for one trying to knock down pins (6)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ... got to knock something down. Ours were unable to knock down wickets :)

      Delete
    2. :). I think we should demand to aim at ten of them instead of three. Perhaps we can then hope that ours would be able to hit them once in a while.

      Delete
    3. Ah, that's the problem, we already are thinking of 9 but aiming at the first 3 or the last 3 instead of the middle 3

      Delete
  8. Six "E" type clues??? Ain't that a lot?

    ReplyDelete
  9. A slightly modified version of 1D took me to the early 80's BBC sitcom starring the typical British Penelope Keith

    ReplyDelete
  10. An article for the setter's to read
    http://www.theawl.com/2012/12/solving-the-broken-crossword-puzzle-economy

    ReplyDelete
  11. 18 A - I solved as 'NAKED MARCH'.

    ReplyDelete
  12. VJ @12:25, I remember a Spiffytrix puzzle in which a few setters were explicitly referenced in the clues.

    Some very nice clues today; some of which I noticed while solving and some thanks to Bhavan pointing it out. Sometimes if a clue turns out to be easy, one doesn't pay as much attention to the surface as one normally would.
    (And I really wish that I hadn't started each sentence with 'some', but I'm too tired to even think, sadly.)

    Agree with Ramesh's 1:11. That particular clue requires SK (specific knowledge) rather than general knowledge to equate setter with Mover.

    ReplyDelete

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