Stumped by 18A and 17D.
ACROSS
1 City of New Orleans? (7) SALERNO*
8 An opportunist’s holdings in North Africa (5) TUNIS [T]
9 The doctor — corrupt one — charged — in the end ousted (9) DETHRONED {THE+DR}*{ONE}{D}
11 Place in Tanzania — greenest and first of its kind (9) SERENGETI {GREENEST*}{1}
12 Undergo home treatment for the most part (5) INCUR {IN}{CURe}
13 Nevertheless one creature, or so believed (4) YETI {YET}{1}
18 Mark’s string of poor grades followed by distinction (6) ?E?O?? (Addendum - DENOTE {D}{E}{NOTE} - See comments)
19 Tend to make an impression (4) DENT*
23 Perfect one to handle (5) IDEAL {1}{DEAL}
24 Current election in Ohio bringing out the masses (3,6) HOI POLLOI {HO{I} {POLL}OI*}
27 Erupt near ground’s entrance (9) ENRAPTURE*
28 Cheer up, bad season’s ending — over (5) LIVEN {LIVE}{N}<=
29 Unit spoiled without limits (6) AMPERE hAMPEREd
30 English politician’s mistake disheartened the king (7) EMPEROR {E}{MP}{ERrOR}
DOWN
1 It’s a female secretary extremely struggling to please (7) SATISFY {ITS+A+F+SecretarY}
2 Man with no friends or valentine loses heart. Depression finally
sneaks in (5) LONER {LO(-v+n)NER}
3 Right directions to store iodine compound (5) RESIN {R}{E}{S}{I}{N}
4 Plenty of food with no starter (6) OODLES nOODLES
5 Raining start to finish — causing holes (8) PITTINGS (-s)PITTING(+s)S
10 Shy swimmer (4) DART [DD]
14 Thence an article with reference to a kind of memory (9) THEREFROM {THE}{REF}{ROM}
16 Colonel’s error leading to downfall (8) COLLAPSE {COL}{LAPSE}
17 Restaurant to wind up — early closing hour introduced (8) TEAHOUSE {TEA{HOUr}SE} Anno not clear (See comments)
20 A can containing hydrogen, neon and a bit of radon in liquid
form (7) THINNER {T{H}IN}{NE}{R}
21 Shoot a film (4) FIRE [DD]
22 An invitation to cause pain? (4,2) BITE ME ?? (See comments)
25 In a ship or dock (5) ORLOP {OR}{LOP}
18 Mark’s string of poor grades followed by distinction (6) ?E?O??
ReplyDeleteD E NOTE
The Col must have always got A's!
DeleteIs D a poor grade? I thought 'D' stood for distinction!
DeleteIn army courses 'D' stands for Distinction and by the way I did manage to get it on one of my courses. No 16D there ;-)
DeleteDon't ever tell the Yankees that you got a D. In their parlance it stands for Dunce, Duffer, Dumb or what not
DeleteHow about: Dude, don't ever tell...........
Delete'D'-grading?
DeleteD, in their parlance, stands for Dunce, Duffer, Dumb or what not
DeleteDullard, dimwit, dolt, dope, dunderhead, dipstick, dork?
17 Restaurant to wind up — early closing hour introduced (8) TEAHOUSE TEA{HOUr}SE Anno not clear
ReplyDeleteYour anno is fine. to wind up is to tease
Thanks Kishore
ReplyDeleteI interpreted 6d as under:
ReplyDeleteand liked the reference to Arvind Adiga in
6D NE(aRVINd)ES<
though this might not have been the setter's intention
22 An invitation to cause pain? (4,2) BITE ME ??
ReplyDeleteBite me, if taken literally, will cause pain
If it is a nibble?
DeleteThen it is enjoyable;-)
DeleteThe phrase does seem to have a colourful history ...
DeleteJust shudder to think of mega-bites...
Delete6D I had NERGILEH
ReplyDeleteobviously wrong
DeleteUrban dictionary defines that as a 'Smoking contraption' like 'Hookah'
DeleteThe writer of the column Know Your English in the paper mentioned the Urban Dictionary quite recently.
DeleteI wrote the following mail to him but I am yet to get any response.
Quote
Dear Mr Upendran,
I am a reader of the column KYE from the very beginning.
I attended the local event at the British Council in which the first vol. of KYE was launched.
In the latest instalment, you've cited the meaning to a word from the Urban Dictionary.
This surprises me because I have found that that online dictionary is notorious for smut. It seems that anyone can just write/suggest a meaning to a word.
I am wondering whether you and I are talking about the same source.
Thank you.
Unquote
Can anyone here comment?
CV, Which is the word that was being referred to? Some of the words in the online urban dictionary are legitimate slang though I would certainly would not regard Urban Dictionary as an authoritative source.
DeleteI don't remember now
DeleteIn any case my mail to KYE was not wrt the word discussed there but only the mention of the urban dictionary.
What I have noticed is that while the UD may in one instance give the correct meaning of the word we look up, there might be others below that correct meaning where it would seem some hazards are made or some smutty, nonsensical meaning is suggested. Does anyone of you have the same experience?
17 Restaurant to wind up — early closing hour introduced (8) TEAHOUSE {TEA{HOUr}SE}
ReplyDeleteNovel way to show deletion!
Good puzzle with a smooth reading of clues.
A doubt:
11 Place in Tanzania — greenest and first of its kind (9) SERENGETI *
How is 'kind' an anagram Ind? Is it because KIND: SORT: CLASS? But all these are nouns?
Or do we consider KIND as a verb?
DeleteI suppose we're expected to interpret 'X kind' as 'kind of X'. Yes, a nounal anagrind.
DeleteNice puzzle, liked the smooth surfaces (except a couple - 1D is a bit off!)
16D raised a smile, thinking of our blogger.
I wrote the following elsewhere. I am reproducing it here with some additions for the benfit of setters visiting here and generally:
ReplyDeleteWhile it's a great help that CC automatically provides us with enumeration in the clue editor, it gives only the total letter count of a phrase if it cannot recognise it from its inbuilt dictionary or word list. In these cases we have to change the enu in the 'edit clue' pop-up box or later in Word doc when we revise the clues.
Even while writing the clues we would know how the enu is going to appear by looking at the phrase in the area at right against the clue and remedy matters at the clue writing/editing stage itself.
Talking of CC, I have sometimes noticed that a phrase with (say) 4,3 letter-count may appear as a single word against the clue writing space but in the word format in the pop-up box it may be 4,3 though the word in the grey area on top is still a single seven-letter word. In such a case if we erase the (correct) figures in the word format box and re-enter it as 4,3, the word at top as well as in the entry against the clue writing area get altered and the enu will be OK subsequently.
The above is what I wrote somewhere on the Internet.
In the final check if we spot the phrasal entries in the grid and check if it is indicated properly in the clue list we should be able to eliminate them.
I put two phrases in a blank grid in CC and went to the clue editor. In both instances CC did not show them as phrases.
In the Review/Edit clue list or in (individual) Edit Clue pop-up box they were not phrases. In the word format box in the pop-up box, if we change it to 6,7 and 5,9 (or whatever) the word in the grey area will change to phrase and subsequently the reqd format will show up. If you go back to the Review/Edit clue list, you will find that they are phrases now. The word format will be correct when you export the clues.
I trust you have noticed that if we double-click in the white space against any clue in Review/Edit box, the pop-up box for individual clue that I am talking about appears.
Hope this helps.
Smooth one as usual from Vulcan.
ReplyDeleteHad no clue about 6D until I saw the blog.
I was not sure about the clueing in 28A: Over as a reversal indicator, being specified at the end, I felt it can't just apply to "evil" resulting in: "n live" & not "liven"
Some very interesting ones today. Yes, 16D did raise a smile. Couldn't get 6D without cheating, and I have a beef about using given names in the clue and then to delete as well. I think surnames are accepted, so if it had been with some reference to Wallace, would have gone down better I feel.
ReplyDeleteRe 29A, I think spoiled might have referred to 'PAMPERED'
28 Cheer up, bad season’s ending — over (5)
ReplyDeleteSuppose you take up as rev ind in thiis across clue, then you get LIVE (bad reversed) and adding seansoN's ending, you get LIVEN, leaving 'cheer' as the def.
Punctuations can be ignored in a clue. So the presence of comma after up does not matter.
In that case, there would be no need for "over" in the clue. "Cheer up, bad season's ending" would work very well by itself.
DeleteHi All,
ReplyDeleteOh boy, looks like there are quite a few question marks today. Sorry for any ambiguities. Would try to clarify a few
11A: (kind as Anagram indicator) It was supposed to be as explained by Shuchi. BTW, I should take this opportunity to thank her and her blog. If not for crosswordunclued, there'd be a lot more dubious clues :) And she called this puzzle "nice" and coming up her I take it as a huge compliment.
28A: (reversal of EVIL + N) Oh my, this is a pretty bad goof up and I'm sorry. I wanted "over" to be the reversal indicator and looks like it hasn't worked. I never use paper and pen while writing my clues and it's proving to be a bad habit. I thank Chaturvasi for trying to save this clue. :) If "up" is taken as the reversal indicator "over" becomes superfluous, unless it's meant like in military-speak where they end every message with an Over. But that's stretching it too far.
6D (RVIN) Well I meant it to be (-i)RVIN(-g). My bad, I somehow thought Irving was a surname. Another lesson learned - never use an author's name about whom you know nothing about.
16D: (COL + LAPSE): My eyes lit up when I saw the word breakup and badly felt the need to use it :P
Hi Vulcan... Your cluing is generally tight, making for nice puzzles :) Liked many clues: 1A, 12A, 18A, 4D, etc. I thought there are some more issues.
Delete1) Fire in 21D, grease in 15A - these are rather unfair: movie names span so many words in English, so such definitions do not help the solver in any way.
2)In 6D, is 'around' doing double duty? You have a covering+reversal? Bad clue, if so.
3) "in North Africa" (8A) or "in Europe" (15A) do not define these places. This falls under part-of-speech mismatch.
4) The &-lit idea in 5A is very good, but needs some more work, I think. 'Shows' is quite weak for anagrams.
Hi Shyam
DeleteThanks for your comments and your feedback
1. Point noted with reference to Fire and Grease. I thought these were quite popular movies and so would be easy to find. Probably would look to clue these movie names with wordplays instead of DDs or Homophones.
2. It's not a double duty. Around is for reversal and "carrying" for covering.
3. I see this happening pretty often in crosswords and so thought it was acceptable. And some time back there was this exact same discussion on this blog and I was made to understand that it was acceptable.
4. The clue for PANAMA went through so many changes before I went ahead with the one in its present shape. Agree that "shows" is a weak anagram indicator, but was forced to get the clue for this word done with. Had ones with better anagram indicators but they didn't read all that well.
Thanks again for your feedback :)
I don't think the use of movie names is unfair and that they do not help the solver anyway. In a country like ours which makes so many movies in a year it should be no problem as long as it's not an obscure C grade movie.
ReplyDelete