Great cluing by Vulcan. Specially liked the well hidden lie.
ACROSS
1 Country, one in danger possibly (7) GRENADA {GREN{A}DA*}
5 Sound of sea waves and thunders (7) CRASHES (~sea){C}{RASHES}
9 Lying in pain since recently (9) INSINCERE [T] My COD
11 Played with a kid from Germany and came on top (7) DANGLED {DAN}{G}{LED} (Addendum - DANDLED (DAN}{G}{LED} - See comments)
12 Indulge in cereal — ever — bananas included (7) OVEREAT {O{EVER*}AT}
13 Flew an aircraft and evaluated after end of battle (9) EMIGRATED {battlE}{MIG}{RATED}
15 & 17 dn. Wicked entertainment with crazy hot lady in a room (5,7) ROMAN HOLIDAY {H+LADY+IN+A+ROOM}* One of the greatest movies I've ever seen.
17 Slave of mankind? (5) HELOT [E] (Addendum - {HE}{LOT} - See comments)
19 Pass Section 1 with least fuss (9) LEGISLATE {LEG}{1}{LEAST*}
22 A place to live, fish, eat and ultimately go unwind (7) LODGING {L{anD+GO}*ING}
25 Examine a poem written in Old English (7) OVERSEE {O{VERSE}E}
26 One, a friend, going west to a place in the Middle East (5) DUBAI {DUB}{A}{1}<=
27 Oliver’s primary blog containing directions for making an Italian sauce (9) BOLOGNESE {O+BLOG+NESE}*
28 Cart drawn in the other direction by male farm employee (7) YARDMAN {YARD<=}{MAN}
29 Sounds right one time? Three times! (3-1-3) RAT-A-TAT {R}{AT}-{A-T}{AT}
DOWN
1 What does the cook use to make scones? Grand secret (7) GRIDDLE {G}{RIDDLE}
2 Ultimate condition (9) ESSENTIAL [DD]
3 Revoke a party’s main circular (7) ANNULAR {ANNUL}{A}{paRty}
4 Article located somehow based on recollection (9) ANECDOTAL {AN}{LOCATED*}
5 Formal statement from Sacred Oath (5) CREDO [T]
6 Lay a friend you found in chat room initially! (7) AMATEUR {A}{MATE}{U}{Room}
7 Speed, as seen in the wild (5) HASTE {H{AS}TE*}
8 Infatuated senator embraced Romney (7) SMITTEN {S{MITT}EN}
14 Trouble with necklace — it’s tight fitting (3,6) DOG COLLAR {DOG}{COLLAR} If it's tight it would choke the dog!
16 Investigation of corrupt statesmen (5,4) MEANS TEST*
17 See 15 ac.
20 Trick’s to ignore, say (7) SLEIGHT (~slight)
21 The wildest — no introduction needed for this mountain (7) EVEREST sEVEREST
23 Keep out spoiled bread (5) DEBAR*
24 Goan born in poor African country (5) GABON {GOAN+B}*
17 Slave of mankind? (5) HELOT [E]
ReplyDeleteTook this as
man=HE
kind=lot
11 Played with a kid from Germany and came on top (7) DANGLED {DAN}{G}{LED}
ReplyDeleteTook Germany =D(eutschland) and ended up with DANDLED
MJ had dangled the kid. I hope he had dandled it instead.
DeleteVery nice and challenging one from Vulcan
ReplyDeleteA very good one from Vulcan. Colonel is right. 9A was very well hidden.6D - chat confused me for a while. Could have been plain room also, isn't it? Not so impressed with 16D, is it a reverse anagram? But there is a clear fodder and indicator. Then definition could have better.
ReplyDeleteCould have been plain room, but chat adds to the surface, as you are most likely to find a friend in the chat room, besides being the homophone indicator for U
DeleteI thought the cryptic reference ...you found in chat... was to indicate U which is how it is commonly abbreviated to in chats.
Delete16D is a straightforward (and quite a good) anagram of "statesmen" meaning "investigation" with "corrupt" as a perfectly acceptable anagram indicator. Don't see what the issue is?
No issue at all. I felt that Investigation being the definition, Means Test doesn't seem to be a good answer. So, my question. Investigation = Means test? Unless I am missing something.
DeleteSee the link over the word 'MEANS TEST' in the main post
DeleteHappy Ugadi to all friends whose new year starts today
ReplyDelete'Means test' is obviously something we in India are not aware of. Most of 'aam aadmi' may not pass the test and so we don't do it!
ReplyDeleteThe link explains it.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year to Telugus, Kannadigas, Maharashtians and others who might celebrate it.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading Bhavan's clarification 6D makes sense.
ReplyDeleteA/ friend/ you found in chat/ room initially.
Extremely well done, I would say, but unfortunately only after reading the blog!
16 DN: MEANS TEST
ReplyDeletefrom the freedic: An investigation into the financial well-being of a person to determine the person's eligibility for financial assistance.
Just wonder about fairness of using Mitt Romney in a clue?
Is a = 1 normally used as in 1 AC?
Romney is fairly well known, but what is the indication for taking 'sen' from senator?
ReplyDeleteYes,a=1 is very common and accepted.
Kishore's answer 'Dandled' seems more appropriate than the actual answer.
ReplyDeleteDandled might well be the actual answer. Tomorrow will tell. Or maybe today, if Vulcan pops in.
DeleteInteresting one, nevertheless some surfaces did jar, and not quite convinced with anagrinds such as 'in poor' and 'fuss'
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable crossword from Vulcan, by thunder.
ReplyDeleteHappy UGADI to all!
ReplyDeleteHappy Ugadi to you all.
ReplyDelete9 Lying in pain since recently (9) INSINCERE [T] My COD
ReplyDeleteSentencewise, it has been perfectly clued. But CV could clarify on the following.
"Since" should always be followed by a certain point of time like, since Independence, since 1984 or since January. Not sure if it can be followed by an adverb like 'recently'. We often come across wrong expressions like 'since four years' and 'since a week'. Over to CV-G (ji).
Many times it
'since when?' as a question seems correct. But then what should be the answer for that? I presume it should be 'for the last one week' or 'for a year' etc.
DeletePaddy:
DeleteYou are right. I have not understood,' since last time' being used by many in conversations and letters !
Again, for Vulcan: ANYWAYZ?
This is a common usage in the Hindi TV serials ! What's the origin of it? Either ways,any way but ANYWAYZ? conversational? How democraratic the English language is !
Pls ignore the last line in my 11:57 post.
ReplyDeleteHappy Ugadi.
ReplyDeleteHi Y'all,
ReplyDeleteHappy Ugadi!
Personally, I was not too happy with this submission. Since I was pressed for time, I had to complete the whole puzzle in one fine day and submit in a rush. Later, I'd submitted my revised versions for a couple of clues - for 15A, 14D, 24D etc. but they don't seem to have been accepted. Anywayz, TH had been kind enough to accommodate my revised submissions on previous occasions, so I wouldn't complain.
To clarify a few...
11A is DANDLED
1A, yep, one = A
24D, poor is the AInd and "in" is to indicate insertion of B. Well, I had a different version here.
And I've seen MITT for Romney and SEN for Senator used in some crosswords.
So, Kishore, it is 'Dandled' after all! Straight from the horse's mouth! ( I hope my apostrophe is correct)
ReplyDeleteIf it had turned out to be 'dangled', I would have though Michael Jackson is ghost writing as Vulcan.
DeleteHAPPY UGADI TO ALL. I should thank my parents' for naming me on this years name - VIJAYA.
ReplyDeleteSo doubly happy year for you!
ReplyDelete