Thursday, 18 July 2013

No 10828, Thursday 18 Jul 2013, Skuldugger

Stumped as usual in the NE corner.
ACROSS
1   Six of one or half a dozen of another (6) S?N?E? (Addendum - SESTET [CD] - See comments)
4   Rag worker rioted violently (6) EDITOR*
9   His shepherd’s not unsuitable, despite having lost a couple of rams initially (4) DOVE ? DrOVEr (Addendum - POPE PrOPEr - See comments)
10 Cylindrical snack for post-winter revolution? (6,4) SPRING ROLL {SPRING} {ROLL}
11 Plum’s mother’s working (6) DAMSON {DAMS}{ON}
12 Logical bases for empires at sea? By the seashore (8) PREMISES {EMPIRES}*{S}
13 Geez! It’s doubly chancy harbouring an Easterner given the contemporary atmosphere (9)  ZEITGEIST {GEEZ+ITS+IT}* Anno not clear. What's the role of 'Easterner'?
15 An African ape has this on its neck (4) NAPE [T]
16 The man cooks food primarily for outsiders (4) CHEF {C{HE}F} Semi &lit
17 Bread crumbs — what’s left outside for robin (9) REDBREAST {RE{BREAD*}ST}
21 Catastrophic ‘cattle class’ clause partially retracted for being gauche (8) TACTLESS {CATTLE+claSS}*
22 Chicken traumatised after rooster’s tail vanished (6) SCARED {SCARrED}
24 Omnipresent but powerless — in the soup (10) MINESTRONE OMNIpRESENT*
25 Surrounded by military, leader requires outside help (4) AMID {A{M}ID}
26 Behind the queen’s dessert (6) AFTERS {AFT}{ER'S}
27 Time and place of withdrawal? (6) RECESS [DD]

DOWN
1   Mohammed, perhaps, accommodating mountain depository (7) STORAGE {S{TOR}AGE}
2   Cheaters’ requirements, in short (5) NEEDS ? Anno pending (Addendum - SPECS - See comments)
3   Fundamental nature of old Jew to embrace Catholic (7) ESSENCE {ESSEN{C}E}
5   GP cured acne in ballerina (6) DANCER {D{ACNE*}R}
6   End semester in a tree, oddly (9) TERMINATE {TERM}{IN}{A}{TrEe}
7   Substitute to be of the opinion opening batsman should be replaced by end of September (7) RELIEVE (-b+r)RELIEVE
8   Propensity produced by prior proprietorship? (13) PREPOSSESSION [DD]
14 Handling tamer roughly in marquee (9) TREATMENT {T{TAMER*}ENT}
16 Nearly crazy, Nair almost mutilated Russian first lady of old (7) CZARINA {CRAZy+NAIr}*
18 Brown disturbed by bridge player’s assault (7) BESIEGE {BE{S}I{E}GE}
19 Loafers’ misdemeanours: smuggling treasure from the South (4-3) STEP-INS {S{TEP<=}-INS}
20 Serial killer on the right side (6) LECTER ? Anno pending (Addendum - DEXTER [DD] - See comments)
23 A convoluted system to render one speechless (5) AMAZE {A}{MAZE}

LINK TO SOLUTION

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50 comments:

  1. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:32

    20 Serial killer on the right side (6) LECTER ? Anno pending

    DEXTER (DD)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:33

    1 Six of one or half a dozen of another (6) S?N?E?

    I think this is SESTET (CD)

    9 His shepherd’s not unsuitable, despite having lost a couple of rams initially (4) DOVE ? DrOVEr

    POPE (PrOPEr) although I'm not sure why POPE = His shepherd

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18 July 2013 at 08:35

      His with a capital H for God

      God's shepherd

      Delete
    2. jiya18 July 2013 at 17:12

      SESTET is meaningfull its means a poem of 6 lines

      Delete
  3. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:35

    2 Cheaters’ requirements, in short (5) NEEDS ? Anno pending

    If 1A is SESTET, this is SPECS but I don't see the connection between CHEATER and SPEC

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18 July 2013 at 08:39

      Specs matches the second part Requirements=Specificatons, in short. However, is Cheater=speculator? Debatable

      Delete
    2. Venkatesh18 July 2013 at 08:53

      Specs=Spectacles=Eyeglasses=Cheaters

      Delete
    3. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:56

      SR ... well spotted

      http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cheaters

      Delete
    4. SandhyaP18 July 2013 at 08:59

      CHEATERS = SPECS = EYEGLASSES

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18 July 2013 at 09:03

      Good spotting, V and S

      Delete
  4. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:43

    Skulldugger never fails to whip up a frenzy of discussion :) Qs:

    12A, Seashore = S ?
    13A, Can't figure anag fodder. If (Geez + it + it) S is missing. If (Geez + its + its) extra S and no E
    24A, 'in the soup' cannot be both anagram indicator and link word + definition?
    18D, Bridge player = one of N,E,W,S. Bridge players = some combination of two. In either case they need to be inserted at random into BEIGE?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous18 July 2013 at 08:47

      Playing devil's advocate on this one:
      12A S is on one side of the Sea

      Reminds me of an old joke on BEACH:
      Why is called "Beach"?
      Us taraf rasta hai, is taraf samandar hai aur yeh beech main hai.

      Other questions, even the devil's advocate waives...

      Delete
    2. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2013 at 08:48

      I took Seashore as the edge(Shore) of 'Sea'

      Delete
    3. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:49

      I get that was how S meant for us to get S, but a shore is not a side or end or any such right? It just means land.

      Delete
    4. Venkatesh18 July 2013 at 08:52

      Similar to Riverbank = R

      Delete
  5. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2013 at 08:50

    The THCapp has started playing truant on Orkut as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2013 at 08:53

      Facebook says "Please log into Facebook first!" despite being logged in
      Orkut says "Could not connect: Lost connection to MySQL server at 'reading initial communication packet', system error: 111"

      Delete
  6. Venkatesh18 July 2013 at 08:51

    18 Brown disturbed by bridge player’s assault (7) BESIEGE {BE{S}I{E}GE}

    bridge player's = E'S
    B(E'S)IEGE*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bhavan18 July 2013 at 08:54

      I doubt if Skulldugger intended it to be an indirect anagram

      Delete
    2. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2013 at 08:58

      I suppose we need to take it as BEIGE being disturbed by bridge players (not necessarily together)

      Delete
    3. Venkatesh18 July 2013 at 09:00

      As Col suggested, it may be a case of mistaken spelling.
      Sk.. might have intended B(E'S)IEGE

      Delete
    4. SandhyaP18 July 2013 at 09:03

      In that case, it should be bridge players'(plural) assault and not bridge player's (singular) assault.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous18 July 2013 at 09:05

      Yes, if you take it as E and S, two bridge players. But S could mean player's that is belonging to E or E'S

      Delete
  7. Suresh18 July 2013 at 09:57

    Still not clear on SESTET. Why half a dozen of another?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Suresh18 July 2013 at 09:58

    13A ZEITGEIST Should not Easterner be Southerner?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Raghunath18 July 2013 at 09:58

    8 Propensity produced by prior proprietorship? (13) PREPOSSESSION [DD]

    Think this is a charade PRE + POSSESSION. All dics show this meaning as propensity etc. Funnily it does not figure in Chambers.co.uk

    ReplyDelete
  10. Venkatesh18 July 2013 at 10:24

    1A. SESTET:
    In poetry, it stands for six lines (the last six) of a poem (second division of an Petrarchan/Italian sonnet). A sestet is also used to mean six lines of poetry forming a stanza or complete poem.

    In music, it is a piece of music composed for half a dozen voices or instruments ('sextet').

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh18 July 2013 at 10:55

      Thanks Venkatesh. Two subjects where I am very poor at the terminology.

      Delete
    2. SandhyaP18 July 2013 at 12:39


      Six of one, (and) half a dozen of the other - Idiomatic phrase.

      Two things are almost the same or equal.
      Example: I also compared the two stereos, and in most respects it's six of one, half a dozen of the other.
      Etymology: based on the idea that half a dozen ( half of 12) is equal to six. (Freedictionary)

      Delete
    3. Suresh18 July 2013 at 12:48

      Thanks Sandhya. That is more like it. But then how does it lead unambiguously to SESTET.

      Delete
    4. VJ18 July 2013 at 16:07

      I think it ambiguously leads us to SESTET.

      Six of one kind is SESTET. Half a dozen of another also means there's six of different kind. So both the parts mean SESTET

      Delete
  11. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2013 at 10:41

    Sorry for butting in. When all the PROS are digging deep into their skulls to get the right matter, just imagine what an AMATEUR will be doing with this puzzle at this juncture !?

    ReplyDelete
  12. Col_Gopinath18 July 2013 at 12:49

    Does anyone use the 'LINK TO SOLUTION' facility provided at the bottom of each post? If not we will stop providing that link as the image takes up space in Picasa where images embedded in each post is stored.

    ReplyDelete
  13. VMA Nair18 July 2013 at 12:55

    sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Raghunath18 July 2013 at 13:49

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Chaturvasi18 July 2013 at 16:04

    The solution grid is not needed in the normal course - you may perhaps give the link to it when there is a nina - when a reference to the grid becomes necessary.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sreelakshmi18 July 2013 at 16:37

    13A- Anno not clear. What's the role of 'Easterner'?

    So here is a crazy suggestion.
    EASTERNER def- native of eastern part of US
    Eastern part of US= S
    So the Anno becomes (GEEZ+IT+IT=S)*

    ReplyDelete
  17. raju umamaheswar18 July 2013 at 20:53


    I crossed my bones to do this Skull's mine of confusion !! So many beguiling possibilities in the answers !!

    Like SEPTET and ZEITGEIST !

    Clue of my day: PREPOSSESSION-- Possession is nine points of Law. PRE-possession?

    Col: I'd appreciate the grid solution only for the Sunday Specials and where there is a NINA in the grid. I visit the blog only to confirm my presumptions and assumptions and premonitions, especially for toughie-crossies like the ones of Skulldugger and Incognito, after finishing the Orkut version. Then , I sit back and relish the satisfaction, sharing it with others' comments.
    Incidentally, I see that there are 470 members in this blog but how many are active bloggers ! Any figures ? How best to lure all of them to participate daily AND especially on Sundays ?


    ReplyDelete

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