Struck by Lightning for Anno of 9A but enjoyed the CW on the whole.
ACROSS
8 Setter joins gangster for dinner (4) MEAL {ME}{AL}
9 Do as you are told Ethel — don’t start off one ill-conceived endeavour to begin with (3,3,4) TOE THE LINE {ETHEL+dONT+1}*{E} Not sure of anno
10 Accept cosmetics model for magazine’s cover (4-2) TAKE-UP (-m+t}TAKE-UP
11 A sour examination? (4,4) ACID TEST &lit
12 Desperado’s final attempt to enter building near a zone that’s off-limits (2-2,4) NO-GO AREA {N{O}-{GO} ARE*}{A}
14 Finish describing royal artist’s trip (6) ERRAND {E{R}{RA}ND}
16 Noble one from new age (4) NEON {N}{EON}
18 Animosity exhibited by that extremist (4) HATE [T]
19 Not out to assault gutted officer within four walls (6) INDOOR {IN}{DO}{OfficeR}
21 Precisely shaped end tooth (2,3,3) ON THE DOT*
23 Repeatedly complain about alehouse’s essential patron (2,4,2) TO HARP ON {aleHOuse+PATRON}*
26 Rules to follow at home for marital relatives (2-4) IN-LAWS {IN}-{LAWS}
27 What a campanologist does, sounds familiar (5,1,4) RINGS A BELL [DD]
28 Secondary squad (4) SIDE [DD]
DOWN
1 Hurry up to acquire a travel voucher — only last third remaining (3,1,4,2) GET A MOVE ON {GET} {A} {MOVE} {coupON}
2 Depressed doctor working very rarely (4,4) BLUE MOON {BLUE} {MO}{ON}
3 In a state of shock, offers zero resistance (6) STUPOR {PUTS<=}{O}{R} Shock on double duty or is the definition just 'In a state'? (See comments)
4 Deity shown by revolutionary scripture, top to bottom (4) DEVA {(+a)AVED(-a)<=}
5 Most preferred actor-politician in Madras, one that is French (8) CHOICEST {CHO}{1}{CEST}
7 Responsibility of working American (4) ONUS {ON}{US}
15 Plan to let you roam free all over India, perhaps? (10) NATIONWIDE [CD]
17 Pun in a brief remark on the drama (8) WORDPLAY {WORD}{PLAY}
20 Ordinary selection of fruit (6) ORANGE {O}{RANGE}
22 A small amount of dessert (6) TRIFLE [DD]
24 Leave out old American University (4) OMIT {O}{MIT}
25 Requirement study sent back to describe end objective (4) NEED {N{E}ED<=}
9 Do as you are told Ethel — don’t start off one ill-conceived endeavour to begin with (3,3,4) TOE THE LINE {ETHEL+dONT+1}*{E} Not sure of anno
ReplyDeleteYour anno is fine
def=Do as you are told
ETHEL+dONT+1 =fodder
ill conceived=Aind
endeavour to begin with=E
(ETHEL+ONT+I)*+E
ONE
The last line in above is detritus
Delete9A anag of Ethel (-d)ont + I & E
ReplyDeleteIn a state of shock, offers zero resistance (6) STUPOR {PUTS*}{O}{R} Shock on double duty or is the definition just 'In a state'?
ReplyDeleteI took it like this
In a state of shock=def
offers= puts up=STUP<
zero=0
resistance=R
Thanks Kishore
DeleteNice one from Lightning. Seeing CHO make an appearance after a long time.
ReplyDeleteHis reminiscences as told to a reporter are appearing as a serial in a Tamil weekly now.
DeleteCHO chweet?
DeleteComment deleted as I was misled by the pink color in 6d.
ReplyDeleteThe 'a' is to be decolorised.
In any case I had jumped to a wrong conclusion.
Corrected
DeleteNice cartoon for Kishore's pet (!)- 17D
ReplyDeleteTo answer Ram's query late last evening, punctuations are usually ignored in wordplay.
ReplyDeleteE.g., in today's 6d the apostrophe doesn't interefere with our stringing together the required letters for the answer.
However, this Comment doesn't exactly address Ram's query wrt a clue in yesterday's CWD. Will have to look at it. Maybe someone else will!
I need a lesson on apostrophes. Which of these would be correct/incorrect?
DeletePauls terribly maintained overcoat
Pauls' terribly maintained overcoat
Paul's terribly maintained overcoat
The third one, which is a possessive case - meaning the terribly maintained overcoat belonging to Paul.
DeleteI meant to say that the third one is the correct one. The second one may not be wrong if the guy's family name is Pauls.
DeleteDeepak
DeleteIt is not hard.
In the three sentences that you have given the first two are wrong.
The third,
Paul's terribly maintained overcoat
is quite correct.
It refers to the coat owned - possessed - by Paul.
The position of the apostrophe can vary - when the noun is plural.
children's home - OK - the home of/for children
men's room - OK - one that Ajit Pawar won't use
birds' nests - OK - nests of birds (plural) - If the plural has an 's, the apostrophe comes after s
prince's dressing room - OK - the dressing room of the prince - singular
princes' dressing rooms - OK - apo is after s because it is plural
princess' boudoir - OK - as there are two s', the word takes apostrophe after s and avoids 's to not have much hssing noise
princesses' boudoir - apo after s because it is plural - I am putting all of them in a single boudoir !
These are basic rules. Written offhand; I hope there is no error.
men's room - OK - one that Ajit Pawar won't use LOL
DeleteI think he must be quite pawar-ful if he can stand in Mumbai and irrigate the hinterland
DeleteI give up!
DeleteGive up what?
DeleteGive up on the '
Deletebirds' nests - OK - nests of birds (plural) - If the plural has an 's, the apostrophe comes after s
ReplyDeleteIt should be
birds' nests - OK - nests of birds (plural) - If the plural has an -s, the apostrophe comes after s
Where a noun ends in -s and is singular it will take an 's.
ReplyDeleteKeats's poetry
princess' boudoir - OK - as there are two s', the word takes apostrophe after s and avoids 's to not have much hssing noise
ReplyDeleteShould be
princess' boudoir - OK - as there are two s's, the word takes apostrophe after s and avoids 's to not have much hssing noise
CV - Remember reading in a grammar book somewhere.
DeleteIf a noun, a proper noun in particular, is a monosyllabic one ending with 's', the letter has to be repeated after the apostrophe. e.g., St James's Street. Your example of Keats fits in here. Can you throw some light on this?
In phrases such as "mind your p's and q's", it is customary to put the apo to show the plurals clearly. It is not possessive.
ReplyDeleteSome might write "mind your Ps and Qs" - without the apo as the single letters are in caps.
dos and don'ts - here it is not apo.
Some people might write this as DOs and DON'Ts.
"Theirs not to reason why"
ReplyDeleteRama has just started a company. But I don't know its name.
Possessive pronouns don't take an apo. because they already show ownerdship.
"It's his nature to bumble his way through life." Here it is not possessive. It is a contraction; it's expands to it is.
Possessive pronouns don't take an apo. because they already show ownerdship.
ReplyDelete---
For the same reason
Yours sincerely - correct
Your's sincerely - wrong
Some people might write:
ReplyDeleteThe teacher seized Rama and Krishna's mobile phone which they were using in the classroom.
The will argue that it is a single mobile phone that Rama and Krishna possessed jointly.
I am personally uncomfortable with making one apo work for two preceding nouns as in the illus. above. I would rewrite the sentence.
I invite Richard's or anyone else's comment on this aspect.
If it were two phones it should read Rama's and Krishna's
Deleteand phones instead of phone
DeleteGoogle Translate gives me à savoir as a French tranlation of "that is", and c'est for "this is". Any French speakers here who can shed some light on this?
ReplyDeleteReproduced from french.about.com
Delete'The French expressions c'est and il est are extremely important impersonal expressions. They can mean things like this is, that is, it is, they are, and even he / she is.'
Well there's this famous expression that goes like "C'est La Vie," which means "That's life."
DeleteI have a relative called Lavinia. We call her Lavie. When she does not respond to any talk, I keep saying, 'Say, Lavie' - a la the above French expresseion. :-)
DeleteOf Dos and Don'ts: Very educative, i should say. I had posted here some time back on the power of comma, which if misplaced can send you to a coma !! About a teacher asking her class to punctuate:Woman without her man is nothing. Try it on. There are so many variations of putting in the comma and with different meanings altogether !
DeleteIn CBE of course, I find Gent's, Ladie's and childrens' clothing on billboards above the entrances of shops.
I insist that a setter cannot be pardoned if he is not punctilious about punctuations. After all, solving crosswords also educates you subconsciously about syntax and grammar.
Again, only after I started doing the Hindu Crossies I have learnt the Indian compilers' mind- set as to how they can beguile you. They are, of course, a class by themselves !! I also feel, that any clue should have an apparent connection to the solution and one need not have to apply logic to find out why the answer could be justified later by working backwards.Well, that's one way, that we were taught by Doppelganger and NJ !! British compilers also confuse you by their cluing but never confound you !!
I never used to parse or annotate a clue, nor knew anything about surface reading, anagrinds,fodder, homophones, hidden clues,MDs and CDs, and charades etc. Thank you, Col and Shuchi for your blogs. I used to merely solve and be happy, many a times , marvelling at the fact that we solvers are the cat's whiskers and non-solvers are mere mortals to be looked down upon pitifully as to what great fun and intellectual stimulation they are missing in their lives other wise. !!
Nice :)
DeleteLong long ago, when I first came across that expression, I used to pronounce it like Sest la why (i.e. Chest with an S in place of CH and ending it with a strong T). Not sure how many times I've embarrassed myself doing that.
Yesterday I saw a cartoon ( I think it was in DC) A peon (Class IV according to Govt.) pointing to a Men's room ( I checked up and the apostrophe is correct)and saying that it is the Deputy CM's office! Obviously our Govt.offices are running short of space!
ReplyDeleteThis too must be wrt Ajit Pawar's idea. Reminds me of a notice in a restaurant: All the water on the premises has been personally passes by the proprietor
DeleteDamn it! AP believes in pooling resources...
DeleteAs Kishore said, a Pawar-pool politician...
Delete
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle. Setter’s taken care to make all the clues seem plausible. Liked 9 and 12 AC for their construction.
Thank you, Colonel.
ReplyDeleteVJ, thanks for the reply; I'm familiar with that expression. But I wanted to make sure in any case, as foreign words and phrases sometimes tend to take on meanings in another language that may be anywhere from slightly to completely different from the originals.
Ref 26A, seen in todays Guardian cryptic
ReplyDelete'One of the relative gains acquired through union negotiations '
The comment section format has a new look!
ReplyDeleteA further bit on ' - It should not be used with inanimate things - table's legs is not correct
ReplyDelete