Friday, 16 August 2013

No.10853, Fri 16 Aug 2013, Arden

Nice one, Arden !

ACROSS
1 & 12 ac. A thing doctor gave for care is a worry (1,6,2,5,7) A MATTER OF GRAVE CONCERN (A MATTER+(GAVE FOR)*+CONCERN)
10 Rough one in Paris gets censored (5) UNCUT (UN CUT)
11 Against flowing but coming together (9) CONFLUENT (CON FLUENT)
12 See 1 ac.
13 Up in the sky it follows the sailor (3,4) DOG STAR (DOGS TAR)
14 Unit in retreat left holding nothing (5) TROOP (PORT< holding O)
16 Salesman is on edge and dressing-down (9) REPRIMAND (REP RIM AND)

19 Round becomes special around the hour (9) SPHERICAL (SPECIAL around HR)
20 Follow directions before you approach courts (5) ENSUE (E N SUE)
22 Extremely familiar, can it become violent? (7) FRANTIC (FR+(CAN IT)*)
25 Plead for one more place inside (7) IMPLORE (1+MORE with PL inside)
27 In Greece society makes rules (9) REGENCIES (IN GREECE S)*
28 A river in spate leaves behind usual flotsam (5) INDUS (T)
29 Need one control mix-up to claim no contest (4,10) NOLO CONTENDeRE (NEED ONE CONTROL)*
          Reminded me of "Nolle Prosequi" sometimes issued by Bertie Wooster, when he is worried about being
          "Preux Chevalier" or otherwise.

DOWN
2 Man of wild actions — Henry gets some protection (9) MACINTOSH (M+ACTIONS* protecting H)
          Reminded me of the book The Freedom Trap by Desmond Bagley which was made into the movie The 
          Mackintosh Man
3 Tax on ownership changed from low to high (5) TITHE (TITLE-L+H)
          And like the B. Bengaluru Municipal Corporation, take only Garbage Cess and not garbage
4 Rum fruit cake (9) ECCENTRIC (2)
          I remain, Yours truly
5 Had drunk the top off (5) OWNED (dOWNED)
6 Get a leg up and set off the explosive (9) GELIGNITE (LEG< IGNITE)
7 Watch out, the drink comes right after (5) ALERT (ALE RT)
8 Came in as a wild teen all angry (7) ENTERED (TEEN* RED)
9 Country should allow a conservative to return (6) MUSCAT (MUST outside (A C)< )
           Man O Man ! Richard, and I, who have been there will confirm it is a city and not a country
15 Fear gripped the old city, it being morally very strict (9) PURITANIC (PANIC grips (UR IT))
17 Mattress specially made as replacement for chilly extremes (9) PALLIASSE (SPECIALLY+AS-ChillY)* New word more me
18 He is missing the second bar somehow (9) ABSCONDER (SECOND BAR)*
19 Congress gets affronted by its inclusion…. (7) SAFFRON (T, CD)
           But they were the ones who put it in our flag ;-)
21 ....nonetheless, poor son follows first lady (4,2) EVEN SO (EVE SON*)
23 A good investor, perhaps (5) ANGEL (CD)
          I am looking for one ...
24 Stones the dog (5) CAIRN (2)
26 Gave no drink and ran (5) PLIED (supPLIED)

56 comments:

  1. 9D-Is MUSCAT a country
    or is it is the capital city of OMAN?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That apart, a minor grammar issue with this clue also.

      A really nice CW. Was gently led up the garden path, struggling with 'lone contender' for quite some time in 29A and scratching my head since there was one letter short.

      Delete
  2. 4 Rum fruit cake (9) ECCENTRIC (2)

    How?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Even though the Cat is away, the mice are not playing ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Col.Saheb,
      I think I'm the only mouse playing around here, whether the cat is there or not !! Who could that cat be ?

      Delete
  4. 17 Mattress specially made as replacement for chilly extremes (9) PALLIASE

    But PALLIASE has only 8 letters.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 17D : Correction in Anno needed as pointed out by Meenakshi @ 10:17 and Suresh @ 10:25

    ReplyDelete
  6. 4 Rum fruit cake (9) ECCENTRIC (2)
    It should be fruitcake and not fruit cake.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Welcome to Vikram, Sivaram and Lavanya, new bloggers on this site. They have mentioned in their first post yeserday that they have been regular visitors. With their avid interest, I am sure they will enrich the discussions.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 23D : A good investor, perhaps. (5) ANGEL
    Ref. Kishore's comment. "I am looking for one..." On Earth!? I think you need wings....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The meaning of my comment was that I am looking for an angel investor.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. O.K. Forgive my inquisitiveness ! BTW you were looking quite young yesterday and within 24 hours you seem to have grown older
      by at least 10 more years !! May I know the mystery behind it please ? May be you have seven more Avatars in store to surprise
      us from time to time in future !!! :)

      Delete
    4. Yesterday I logged in through an id where my afternoon photo was uploaded, whereas today I logged in through another id where my evening photo was uploaded.

      Delete
    5. Kishore,
      In this Avatar you look quite youngish and handsome too ! You look like a college boy !! That's the reason I mistook you for somebody else yesterday !!! BTW when was this photo taken ?

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    6. Maybe 5 years back, (when I used to dye, I think) !

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    7. ...hmm that's the mystery behind your youngish look ! Thanks for answering all my questions patiently ! :)

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    8. Hi MB,

      Are you by any chance Iyer?

      Delete
    9. Nice one...
      But I am fairly convinced you must be very fond of Iyers ...... get what I mean ! ! ! :-)

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    10. Well, I'm fond of everyone, no caste, no creed and no religion ! Good-night my friend, I'm an early to bed and early to rise type !! :-)

      Delete
  9. The error in 9D is regrettable. Hope there is an apology in the paper tomorrow. The clue for INDUS was poor with too many redundant words. Why are four dots present in the ellipsis in 19D and 21D? Since approach courts is the same as SUE, I was confused by the you in 20A. Otherwise the crossword was good.

    To the poster: should there be a space between n and ! in Nice one, Arden !?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There should be no space, but I like it that way !

      Delete
    2. Kishore is our poster boy !

      Delete
    3. Only for two days a week. Tomorrow the regular poster boy takes over.

      Delete
    4. Usually Mon and Fri. But I swap days when my crossword appears. Won't be kosher to blog my own.

      Delete
  10. To answer madhu-gopaal, the newcomer:

    I have seen old books in which the exclamation mark and the question mark were printed with one space at the end as Kishore does sometimes here.

    I would think that that was the practice in early centuries.

    I would think that that makes sense as the ? or ! applies to the entire sentence and not just the preceding word.

    But if his were true, even the full stop must be preceded by space.

    The practice of using space before ? or ! must have been given up because that would have meant having sufficient number of these types in the case to be inserted wherever needed in the compositor's stick (in older methods of printing).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am not sure which of the two practices were taught as correct in our typing institutes of yore. One of the reasons I preferred to keep the ! a space away was that in some situations, especially, where the previous letter is an l or a vowel, it can be mistaken for an l. This habit must have spread to the use of ? too.

      Delete
    2. Yes, I too follow your method of leaving a space btn the last word and ! or ?

      Delete
    3. Thanks Chaturbasi. Since this is a language site frequented by language enthusiasts and learners. it will be good if posters (and setters) adhere to practices advocated by standard manuals of style for English language. Ofc, it is my kind suggestion and 10 paise (though the latter's value is going down even as I type this).

      This should apply more to setters as they are publishing in the newspaper. I do not think it is correct to have four dots in an ellipsis (19D & 21D).

      Madhu

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    4. CV, have you changed your name ?

      The mind boggles as to how a person, who objects to an extra space, can start a sentence in the the lower case.

      Delete
    5. A caveat is also issued to all those posters hereinabove who did not end their sentence with a period otherwise known as full stop, in the absence of one or more of other accepted closing punctuation marks.

      Delete
    6. And pray, is the space to be eschewed when using an emoticon or smiley. I ask this, since one person has used one above.

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    7. By the way, as I am a space cadet, I am still learning how to use space. I remember in the era of non-proportional fonts (eg. in the typewriter), a sentence was followed by a double space. I don't think anyone uses that any more.

      Delete
    8. When we used to type ex-tempore, as it were, culmination of a sentence was followed by a double thump on the space bar.

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    9. How does it matter whether there is a space or no space?

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    10. Space is nothing and nothing matters !

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    11. How does it matter whether there is a space or no space?

      It matters to MS Word! Place a space before ? or ! and grammar check will place a squiggly green line underneath.


      And pray, is the space to be eschewed when using an emoticon or smiley.

      Earlier I preferred typing no space between an emoticon and punctuation, then found that some platforms would gobble up the punctuation mark and transform my ":-)!" or ":-)!" to convey emotions I had not intended. Thus caution trumped preference and I began to make sure every emoticon I typed had spaces around it.

      Today I'm for stylistic minimalism in casual chat. I use the emoticon in lieu of punctuation ;-)

      Delete
    12. Agreed it happens in MS Word. What could be the logic for this? To my mind it makes no difference if there is or isn't a space before the ! or the ?

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    13. I feel the genesis of the issue may lie in the way MS Word code is written. Probably the period+space combo is used as a marker. For example, in the iPad, after that combo, the next letter is automatically in the upper case.

      Delete
  11. I remember sometime back Raju Umamaheswar raised a point, saying, we have 474 members(now 478)and how many are actively participating and how to attract them. Lo, there were Vikram,Sivaram,Lavanya and (which)Gita, all regular visitors but commenting for the first time yesterday. What could be the reason ? Simple, it was the puzzle set by Incognito. Let there be more puzzles on the lines of Sankalak,Gridman,Incognito,After Dark etc, limited to 18 CWs or so in a month. This could definitely encourage beginners and average solvers to gain more experience and have confidence later to solve other setters offerings of medium to hard range puzzles.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. To gain confidence you need to comment and get your doubts cleared

      Delete
    2. Yes, Col.Saheb, that is the most important point. Hope beginners/average solvers will take note of it.

      Delete
    3. Arden turned to be arduous what with NOLO CONTENDERE AND REGENCIES.

      Clever construction of REPRIMAND as one would naturally flow to assume that the word also be ending in ING !! Aren't DRESS DOWN and DRESSING DOWN two different words? Yeah ! To dress down is to strip oneself to smart casual over the weekends whereas DRESSING DOWN means to reprimand or to scold , chide etc. as we all are so used to be with our respective wives !. This is wonky English language for us !!

      Where does the word Congress relate to their bette -noire, SAFFRON? A dig at Diggie Singh !

      Delete
  12. Black Friday at "D" Lal Street!

    ReplyDelete

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