Friday 23 August 2013

No.10859, Fri 23 Aug 2013, Textrous

Keep 'em coming, Textrous !

ACROSS
8 Write home before rough tide (6) INDITE (IN TIDE*)
9 Sailor’s observer captured at a remote place (8) SEAFARER (SEER around AFAR)
10 Set off to cycle around platform (8) PEDESTAL (PEDAL around SET*)
11 Find fault with extremely elegant rug (6) CARPET (CARP EleganT)
12 Twist to turn around in speed (6) ROTATE (TO< in RATE)
13 Retiring cadet, autistic partly, offered a position (8) SITUATED (T<)
14 A glass substitute for every gender having power (7) PERSPEX (PER+ SEX having P)
16 Study nice characters assembling in small church (7) SCIENCE (NICE* in S Church of England)
20 Grapple with a popular word game (8) SCRABBLE (2)
23 Discuss grant (6) CONFER (2)
25 Change direction around north-eastern front (6) VENEER (VEER around NE)
          Yesterday we had Rishi, today we have Veer
26 Again make intense efforts to hold back (8) RESTRAIN (RE STRAIN)
27 Desire head’s image (8) LIKENESS (LIKE NESS)
28 Recover without drug, as a matter of fact (6) REALLY (RALLY without=outside Ecstacy)

DOWN 
1 Beast to canter after tiny creature with energy (8) ANTELOPE (ANT E LOPE)
2 Picture in camera damaged in the absence of artist (6) CINEMA (IN CAMEra)*
3 The tea’s blended by English connoisseur (8) AESTHETE ((THE TEA'S)*E)
4 It’s no good to conserve (7) USELESS (2)
5 Reduction in duty time…chop chop (3,3) TAX CUT (T AX=chop CUT=chop)
          Chop used in two different senses
6 Union’s hurt by one in fury (8) MARRIAGE (MAR+1 in RAGE)
7 Bridge opponents to surrender and withdraw (6) SECEDE (S E CEDE)
15 The basis of altitude measurements (3-5) SEA LEVEL (GK)
17 Bird guaranteed to be brash (8) COCKSURE (COCK SURE)

18 Female wearing cold, short fabric (8) CHENILLE (HEN in C ILLE) Anno not clear ) ('EN in CHILLEd) See comments
19 Cure is to change one’s habit (7) REDRESS (2)
21 Conservative and extraordinarily inert dunce (6) CRETIN (C INERT*)
22 Food brought up hesitation — fast food (6) BURGER (GRUB< ER)
24 Regular girl seen near lake (6) NORMAL (NORMA L)

49 comments:

  1. 18 Female wearing cold, short fabric (8) CHENILLE

    Is female a cockney? CH('EN)ILLE -d

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you got it Raghu.

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    2. Not specified, but possible. I thought on those lines, but was not 17d

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    3. But as Kishore also would thought, there's no Cockney signal?

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    4. Looks like Textrous forgot that the H was already there in either HEN or CHILLED else I am sure 'e would have provided the indicator

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  2. Usual Textrous puzzle. Neat and simple construction of clues.

    5D: Doesn't 'chop' require an American indicator?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean for the axed ax(-e)?

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    2. Chop Chop reminded me of the movie 'The Passage' which starred Anthony Quinn and Malcom McDowell. Saw it way back in the seveties.

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    3. I remember the scene where the chopper is used near the victim's fingers with the words 'chop-chop' being used ...

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    4. Unless CHOP at the bottom is doing double duty (which I'm not a fan of)

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    5. So it's fine I reckon. Ax is not shown as an American variant in freedictionary.com.

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    6. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    7. Here is the scene Deepak mentioned:

      It is very violent. Please do not watch if you are squeamish.

      http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6JZUmG0Ul2Y&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D6JZUmG0Ul2Y

      The actor who is playing the victim is the same who played Lebel in The Day of the Jackal

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  3. Techie question

    I use Windows XP, Chrome browser.

    Suddenly I find that the address in the address field has become magnified. So also all the suggestions in the drop down from there.

    I know how to reduce/enlarge type size on the screen (ctrl + roll button). But this has no effect on the letters in the address field.

    Is there any way I can control the type size in the address field in the browser?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Looks like a chrome issue. They have increased the address bar font in this release. Hopefully they will fix it in the next one. AFAIK there is no option to control the size of address bar font in chrome

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    2. Thanks for the prompt response. I knew I could depend on you to answer these occasional technical queries.

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  4. Raghunath

    Congrats on your anno.

    I went up to 'EN but did not probe further.

    In any case, the clue must have had a Cockney ind, if your anno is what the setter intended.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Re 'cold, short fabric'

    We can speak of 'short fabric'.

    We do speak of warm clothing, warm clothes.

    We speak of cold weather wear.

    Is 'cold wear' or 'cold fabric' in use?

    Wondering.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've never come across "cold fabric."

      And for that matter I ain't never come across no "short fabric" neither.

      Delete
  6. Textrous was not so smooth for me. :-(

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  7. Keep 'em coming, Textrous !

    I doubt it very much since by his own confession elsewhere this is his last puzzle. At least for a couple of years.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is sad news for a couple of years

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    2. Sorry to hear that. Hope is back soon.

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  8. A friend of mine says he is not cocksure if he is an 'and-picked husband. But he swears he is not 'enpecked...

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    Replies
    1. Bangalore is full of cockroachers and 'encroachers

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  9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  10. Ecstatic Textrous, you crowned a D for T today – Dexterous !
    My favourite ones are 28a and 5d and both are topical:
    28a – REALLY – After days of brutal beating, the rupee (RE) recovered with the regulatory pill ( though for a short time) and thus found an ALLY in Reserve Bank of India
    5d – TAX CUT – At first I thought it to be “CUT CUT” on the analogy of CHOP CHOP, but it made no sense. Textrous, you gave away the tax cut which the Finance Minister is reluctant to give to the Super-Rich ( if the new 35% tax bracket is anything to go by)

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  11. Got all except for CHENILLE which was a word I didn't know. Not satisfied with INDITE as dictionaries have marked the word as archaic. Those two aside, the setter has used common words.

    There is a problem with the ellipsis of 5D as I would have expected a single space before and after the dots.

    Madhu

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  12. I see a lot of brouhaha about the use of American spellings. Are we trying to be more English than the English themselves?

    English is an international language and as long as a spelling or usage is recorded in a standard Dictionary of English, I do not see a requirement of qualifying the clue with the word 'American' or 'Indian'.

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  13. @Suresh - I don't think anyone wants to fight a war of dialects on grids. But it would be a good idea if setters add those indicators to aid the solvers. This is what I've seen in many clues ( in The Hindu crosswords and elsewhere). Even standard dictionaries list and label them appropriately. PS: Shuchi's post on Americanism indicators is a good read: http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/08/american.html

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  14. 28d - Can somebody throw more light - I could not cash even though the 'anno' has been provided.
    Thanks

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  15. Please catch in the place of cash in the earlier mail

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  16. and 28a in the place of 28d

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    Replies
    1. 28 Recover without drug, as a matter of fact (6) REALLY (RALLY without=outside Ecstacy)

      Recover: RALLY. without = on the outside (of Drug = E), R(E)ALLY = as a matter of fact.

      Since you referred to Shuchi's site above this one's covered in:
      http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2010/07/ado.html

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    2. Sorry, Ram. I mixed up Ram & Ramanan.

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    3. Ram @ 6:19
      Adding some more info to Raghunath @ 6:28
      Drug = Ecstasy (Abbreviation is E). Hope you are satisfied.

      Delete
  17. As we are following the Br dictionary, what's the problem in having the indicator? As it is you are dealing with so many meanings/ synonyms for the word or answer, having a spelling variant makes it tougher. If in clue sheet of 30 what if we used 15 clues with Am spelling w/o saying so, say from some of these words:
    center, fiber, liter, theater, color, flavor, humor, labor, neighbor, pretense, analog, catalog, dialog etc.

    Sample this one's from the HT CW syndicated from The Times CW:

    One’s looking for workers in an American playhouse — not hard (8)AN (T -H EATER)

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  18. Raghunath, Ramesh et al. I respect your views. But I beg to differ. I believe that we in India are very much used to American spellings with so many of our folk living there. We are not British and I believe that the universality of the language is a reality which we should accept.

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  19. An article by the Guardian crossword editor at this link may be of interest to the purists http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2013/aug/06/1 and also http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2013/jul/03/1

    As I said earlier are we being more British than the British

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There is no question of being more British or American. It's just that things would be much simpler, if one dic was followed.
      Getting used to Am spellings and these being widely used in India are two different things.
      Talking of purists some amongst us say that Am spellings are a no-no

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    2. @ Suresh -

      (1) "Are we being more British than the British? We are not British"

      Your question may invite a counter:" Are we being more American than the Americans?" Let us not get into that . You are right we aren't British - so much as we aren't Americans either.

      (2) "We in India are very much used to American spellings"

      It does not necessarily mean that majority of us use AmE in our daily communication in schools / colleges / offices. Even Indian newspapers including The Hindu do not use AmE.


      (2)

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  20. I am not against AmE. In fact, I do both UK and US puzzles. The point is that you should know your audience. If majority of your audience does not use AmE spellings, you as a setter should aid your solvers with the language indicators in your clues ancastling not take for granted their knowledge of variant spellings / usage . Seasoned setters on both sides of the Atlantic add these indicators - American setters add non-US indicators and their British counterparts add iocal dialect and non-British indicators.

    The message is loud and clear: Know your audience.

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  21. A typo:

    Read *ancastling* as "and should"

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  22. I see that the letter E's placement in the English language is the moot point to distinguish whether the usage is English-English or American-English. We are cryptic puzzle solvers and let's not try to kill an ant with a sledge-hammer !! Figure it for yourself !! Let it fall as it falls in the slot !! and prove to ourselves that we are adept at both Ends.

    These Americans had chosen to be on the opposite sidewalk to the English footpath in everything , including the road usage. We Indians can manipulate in- between the two.So let's all be Indians like 'that' only !!

    Usual signage seen in the NY street corners--'' Left lane must turn Left !! I stand at the crossroads here in amusement. Textrous in his crosswords has chosen to be ambivalent and taught us to be ambi-dextrous like me !!


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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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