Tuesday, 3 September 2013

No 10868, Tuesday 03 Sep 2013, Aspartame

A decent second effort from Aspartame, but I have 'few' questions.

ACROSS
1   Cutter destroyed relics (6) SLICER*
4   Traitors V Persie finally left in shambles (6) VIPERS {V}{PERSIe}*
9   Some odd accountant involved in scandal (4) SCAM {So{CA}Me}
10 Caught helping heartless pirates pillaging, carrying heavy goods (10) SCHLEPPING {C+HELPING+PirateS}*
11 I had one oak painted as an art form (6) AIKIDO {I'D+1+OAK}*
12 Returning officer beside river carrying one good dress (8) NEGLIGEEE {NEG<=}{L{1}{G}EE}
13 A quick temper hurts foes badly (5,4) SHORT FUSE*
15 Processed raw, low-grade goods (4) WARE {RAW}*}{E} Singular-Plural clash
16 Part of gazebo bought by African people (4) BOBO [T]
17 Doctor and unemployed person promoted one agent (9) MIDDLEMAN {M{(+i)1}D}{(-1)DLE}{MAN}
21 Critical move Bihar makes using money for growth that can fill people’s tummies (8) KOHLRABI {KO}{H{L}RABI*} Not sure of anno See comments
22 Sheepish dish? (6) MUTTON [CD]
24 Losses made from extremely useless workforce in thousand years (10) SHRINKAGES {S}{HR}{IN}{K}{AGES}
25 Tailless animal heading west to promenade (4) MALL LLAMa<=
26 Hired depressed chief overthrown by king (6) RENTED (-d+r)RENTED
27 Maybe Santa Clauses are making mole at North Pole (6) MELONS {MOLE}*{N}{S}


DOWN
1   Beating No. 1 CSK is hard. It’s revolting! (7) SICKISH {1+CSK}*{IS}{H}
2   William “Bill” Gates showcases poetic metres (5) IAMBI [T]
3   A sea to subside? (4,3) EASE OFF {A+SEA}* (See comments)
5   Were diamonds plentiful during this period? (3,3) ICE AGE [CD]
6   Develop river surrounding wildlife sanctuary where few uguisus ran away (9) EXPLICATE {EX{PuLICAT}E} 'Few uguisus' ran away? Only one seems to be running away here!!
7   Honest mistake by engineers (7) SINCERE {SIN}{CE}{RE}
8   Expressing gratitude to engineer saving knights (13) THANKSGIVINGS*
14 Rising rupee is accompanied by large amount of trading between India and England (9) REBELLION {RE}{B(-i+e)ELLION}
16 Fellow is said to show irritation (7) BROTHER [DD]
18 Estate’s river is important, reportedly (7) DEMESNE (~dee main)  With a little help from Google, though I'm not sure if the anno is correct.
19 Jewish saint was worshipped by Greeks and few Sicilians (7) APOLLOS {APOLLO}{S} 'Few Sicilians' for just an 'S'?
20 Endless sizzling sounds are reportedly missing during chatter (6) CACKLE Cr(~are)ACKLEs
23 Time to contain a damaging burst of energy (5) TEMPO {T{EMP}O}

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42 comments:

  1. Kishore3 September 2013 at 08:31

    21a Critical move Bihar makes using money for growth that can fill people’s tummies (8) KOHLRABI {BIHAR+KOL}* Anno for KOL not clear

    Critical move=KO
    Money=L (pound)

    18d Your anno is fine. If nits to be picked it is ~Dee main

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kishore3 September 2013 at 08:33

    @NR: Your yesterday's question has been answered yesterday !

    Rest: Pl. ref yesterday's blog for late night developments

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shrikanth3 September 2013 at 08:39

    Isn't this Aspartame's fourth offering ?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Shrikanth3 September 2013 at 08:43

    21A definition could have been better IMO

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shrikanth3 September 2013 at 08:45

    14D is an excellent clue .

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ramanan3 September 2013 at 08:55

    16. Fellow is said to show irritation

    I don't think Brother and Bother (= for 'irritation') are sound-alike. Why the homophone indicator in the clue?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath3 September 2013 at 09:07

      No homophone here it's a DD

      Fellow = BROTHER
      is said to show irritation = BROTHER (from the expression 'Oh Brother')

      Delete
    2. Ramanan3 September 2013 at 09:49

      Ok.. Thanks

      Delete
  7. Bhavan3 September 2013 at 08:59

    Mixed bag for me.

    3d: 'A sea' does not anagram to EASE. You need 'e sea'
    8d: Expressing gratitude is an adjective. Thanksgiving is a noun.
    18d: Demesne is pronounced as demean. not dee main.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath3 September 2013 at 09:03

      I missed that in 3D.
      The pronunciation is actually (domain) as per 'thefreedictionary'

      Delete
    2. Chaturvasi3 September 2013 at 09:15

      Pronunciation of 'demesne' -

      di- i as in big

      mesne - as in mean or even mane

      Today's discovery from Chambers: the word has a variant sp: 'demain' but in all my readings from college days I have not come across that.

      Delete
    3. Suresh3 September 2013 at 11:04

      My I phone dictionary pronounces it as de main

      Delete
  8. Ramanan3 September 2013 at 09:54

    As CJ replied, 'demesne' is pronounced 'di main' and 'di mean'. The stress is on the second syllable. Ref: OALD and Collins dictionaries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Col_Gopinath3 September 2013 at 09:59

      Check the pronunciation in the link at the main post

      Delete
  9. Chaturvasi3 September 2013 at 10:07

    Just came to record a curiosity.

    'Ominous' is a common word.

    Yet I find that in 839 crossword puzzles set by Gridman that word has escaped the net! It figures only in the 840th puzzle!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Unknown3 September 2013 at 10:16

    22A - technically, sheep would be lamb, goat would be mutton.
    Am I right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Col_Gopinath3 September 2013 at 10:24

      Copy pasted from Wikipedia,

      Lamb, hogget, and mutton (UK, New Zealand and Australia) are the meat of domestic sheep (species Ovis aries). The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than one year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton.

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 10:27

      OED says : Mutton : Meat from a fully grown sheep.

      Delete
    3. maradnusro3 September 2013 at 17:16

      One man's meat is another man's poison

      Delete
  11. Unknown3 September 2013 at 10:29

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 10:54

    It seems THC setters have a knack for innovative XWDs. My suggestion : Why not set a puzzle without mentioning Doctor,Engineer,Accountant,Artist,Saint,King,Queen,German,Scot et al !?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bhavan3 September 2013 at 11:37

      ... because?

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 12:01

      Somehow I come across these words in CWs almost every day !

      Delete
    3. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 12:11

      How about a puzzle without human element in it ?

      Delete
    4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 12:48

      Hi Bhavan,
      An afterthought ! BTW I'm not averse to these words being used in XWDs !! I just felt it would be difficult for the setter not to use at least a single word from the list I mentioned above. Hope you understand an average solver's point view !

      Delete
    5. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 12:50

      TYPO : Point of view.

      Delete
    6. Bhavan4 September 2013 at 06:20

      MB, I get what you were implying.

      Setters don't have a mythical ideal solver based on whose skill/interest/familiarity we create puzzles.

      We have to throw in the odd easy clue, banal wordplay, overused abbreviation etc. Those are inevitable when clueing 30 odd words while striking a balance between clue types, fairness and surface sense.

      Plus what is a known/silly/boring abbreviation to you may not be the same for someone who is seeing it for the first time. So who should we really keep in mind when clueing - the average solver or the advanced one or the newbie?

      Delete
    7. Mukundala Balasubramanyam4 September 2013 at 07:07

      A mixture of puzzles catering to all the three categories that you mentioned above ! My sole intention of raising the issue was to see if
      setters can set a puzzle without resorting to those words that I mentioned. It can become yet one more innovative XWD ! I do realize the troubles that you setters face while setting a clue/puzzle. Thanks for replying. Cheers.

      Delete
  13. Chaturvasi3 September 2013 at 11:29

    MB

    I am sure there must already be THCs without any of these terms used.

    E.g., I did a patient search for these terms in THC 10851. None of the terms mentioned above, including et al., was found in it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 12:03

      A rare occasion I believe ! :-)

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam3 September 2013 at 19:32

      CV Sir,
      I had gone through THC 10851 and yes, you are correct. Had I only included Sailor in my list.....! :-)

      Delete
  14. Venkatesh3 September 2013 at 11:31

    Excellent Cartoon.
    And, topical with L from yesterday's discussion!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Nadathur Rajan3 September 2013 at 11:38

    Kishore,

    Thanks for the Fact Sheet.
    So, what is new for IAF had already been commissioned by USAF in June 1993. We are merely 20 years behind time!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Nadathur Rajan3 September 2013 at 11:52

    14d The clue has BILLION
    This equals 1,000 million.
    While it is the same in UK and USA now, in UK, billion earlier referred to a million millions.
    In South East Asia, this is equal to 100 crore (1 Arab, as they say in the Hindi news).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Richard3 September 2013 at 15:25

      Wonder why 100 crore is called so. For some of the oil producers among them being as rich?

      Delete
    2. Suresh3 September 2013 at 17:45

      And a 100 arab is kharab.

      Delete
    3. Richard3 September 2013 at 18:05

      Good one, Suresh. :-)

      Delete

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