Thursday 26 September 2013

No.10888, Thu 26 Sep 2013, Mover

 Interestingly, Mover gives us some pairs today: Godesses Athena and Diana, accoutrements of the Civil Service (Toady and Red Carpet), Balladeer with Idyll, Gesso and Madder, ...

ACROSS
1 Strange Stiff alias Dead, couldn’t be better (2,3,2,1,6) AS FIT AS A FIDDLE (STIFF ALIAS DEAD)*
          Especially if you are Nero
10 Amphibious sycophant? (5) TOADY CD
          Yes Sir!
11 Singer read label wrong (9) BALLADEER (READ LABEL)*
12 Coral Sea, perhaps, without a fish (7) ESCOLAR (CORAL SEA-A)*
13 Southern courage, without a whip (7) SCOURGE (S COURaGE)
           Aaah! The consequences of lying, with the Captain's daughter on one's back ...
14 Getting old drink in silver container (5) AGING (GIN in AG) Loved this one
16 Card Peter wrongly laid out for big shots (3,6) RED CARPET (CARD PETER)*
19 Shows fatness I’m developing (9) MANIFESTS (FATNESS I'M)
20 Given, me in Paris, topsy-turvy after a kiss (5) AXIOM (MOI< after A X=kiss)
          Remembered Moi Avenue in Mombasa and the fake tusks ...
22 Jagged spoiled note replaced by bridge player (7) NOTCHED (BOTCHED-B+N)
25 Urge on the main intellectual (7) EGGHEAD (EGG HEAD)
27 Delaying agent’s rant about ill-conceived trade (9) RETARDANT (RANT about TRADE*)
28 Brilliance she takes in (5) SHINE (SHE takes IN)
29 Those forging ahead should be working with these (6,3,5) HAMMER AND TONGS CD
 
DOWN
2 Supporting post to stop flow reaching particle (9) STANCHION (STANCH ION)
3 Uncharacteristically, Dickens pens uplifting romantic ballad (5) IDYLL (T<)
4 I ram bergs to pieces for perfume ingredient (9) AMBERGRIS (I RAM BERGS)*
          Pictured the Titanic
5 Strong man found in a school desk, perhaps (5) ATLAS (CD,DD)
Atlas in a rather unusual position, more like the laughing Buddha. Also, stronger than the usual Atlas, able to lift the earth without resting it on his shoulders. You may also see a Catbert lookalike ...

6 Fragrance in a tin wafted about for a loved woman (9) INAMORATA (AROMA in A TIN)*
7 Miserable raise follows poor grade (5) DREAR (REAR follows D) 
8 Thoughtful attention to refuge (7) EARNEST (EAR NEST)
9 Goddess soon afterwards transported by American Airlines (6) ATHENA (AA carrying THEN)
15 Confused foresight; an oral examination is not advised if one gets it (4,5) GIFT HORSE (FORESIGHT)*
          One must have the foresight to look the gift horse in the mouth and politely refuse it, or pay for the dentures
17 Took exception to insult and dispatched editor (9) DISSENTED (DIS SENT ED)
18 Nothing follows award in boxing venue (5,4) PRIZE RING (RING=0, follows PRIZE)
          Like Madison Square Garden
19 Borderland has acting ruler (7) MONARCH (MARCH has ON)
21 Insane to form paint pigment (6)  MADDER (MAD RED*)
23 Tribal emblem starts to take on torrid erotic meaning (5) TOTEM (T O T E M)
24 Was a person of importance in Canadian arts (5) DIANA (T)
26 Painting surface covered in stages sometimes (5)  GESSO (T)
          Old timers will remember ESSO !

61 comments:

  1. Brilliant as usual, Kishore; both the cartoon and the comments

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  2. Old timers will remember ESSO !

    I guessso

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    Replies
    1. Would those who remember Mobil be still older?

      - Yours, etc.

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    2. Shell, Caltex and Mobil are still around though not all of them as Fuel dispensers

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  3. Some one heard my wail and will to live ? I knew that this crossie is from someone who has compassion for his solvers !!

    Just for a lark , I opened the comp andnorkut and found the crossie and lo & behold, I completed the grid without any grinding or gritting of my feet.

    Move over, toughies,for a change to Mover !! MOver became the 19 Down of the 18 Down !

    More after seeing others' views tomorrow (for me !)

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    Replies
    1. You know there might be some solvers who relished yesterday's puzzle who might think today's was bland/unchallenging right?

      It takes all sorts of solvers as it does with setters. It is your prerogative to choose to do non-toughie puzzles, but stop blaming the setter for reasons like I couldn't crack the puzzle because of my own limitations.

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    2. Tend to agree, there are different levels, and in Guardian/Observer, one might say the Everyman and Rufus puzzles are relatively straightforward, while others are more difficult. I think a good mix helps solvers also to hone their skills, otherwise a mere fill in the blanks exercise can hardly be satisfying over a period of time.

      I also did not expect this sentiment from Raju U, if I recall right you move from one crossie to another with blinding speed.

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  4. of my teeth and not feet which is firmly on the ground ,

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  5. sorry, should be are firmly on the feet and not is. I is (eyes) feeling droopsy. G'night ye-all !!

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  6. 21 Insane to form paint pigment (6) MADDER (MAD RED*)

    Could have written this as: Insane to form red pigment (6) MADDER (MAD RED*), thus avoiding an indirect anag. not sacrificing anything in the clue.

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    Replies
    1. Madder is a DD

      Madder = Comparative of MAD
      Madder = A reddish dye derived from the MADDER plant

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    2. Yeah, I also think it is a DD. Madder used as a verb in the second def. But then the question is: Insane = Mad or Madder?

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    3. I too felt that the comparative deg. of adj. should have been indicated.

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    4. I cannot get any madder :-(

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    5. Like they say 'there's always scope for improvement'

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    6. Balachandra @ 10:21 Nice pun ! And as usual Kishore responds in his inimitable style :-)

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  7. Bingo ! No doubt, it's a Samosa Day today !! Thanks, Mover. You kept things moving at breakneck pace !!!

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  8. Pretty good one, with the high sprinkling of anagrams that one normally expects from Mover. 15D nice and cheeky

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    Replies
    1. Allmost all clues are well written. Liked 1 A, with the 'stiff' and 'dead' conn.

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  9. Contributions invited for the Sunday specials

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  10. Thank God Scintillator yields place to Mover. What a contrast from yesterday. Wish Scintillator takes a few lessons from Sankalak, Gridman, Mover and the like.

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    1. Marad, Scintillator's puzzles may be tougher but his/ her clues are more fair in comparison and follow the rules of cryptic crosswords consistently - as far as I've seen, he/ she doesn't seem to take much liberties there. And this is despite the fact that the puzzles are themed and grids have more uncommon words than usual

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    2. Your inability to solve the puzzle is the setter's fault?

      If you can criticise yesterday's puzzle citing what was wrong with the setter's clues it will carry any weight because airy-fairy statements don't.

      May be you can start by mentioning a few of the 'lessons' you deem fit that other setters need to learn. Incidentally do you also think as a solver you need to learn anything or you think it is the setter's job to choose words, wordplay components, indicators etc from your vocabulary?

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  11. 24A, there seems to be part of speech mismatch

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    1. Must be because there is no 24A ;-)

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    2. Where's the mismatch? Seems ok to me. Diana was a person of importance

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    3. "She was a person of importance" is more appropriate IMO.

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    4. OK, see what you mean. But I somehow feel it is implied. Consider a clue: 'Is something used to clean teeth' = 'Toothbrush'. Just because there is no 'it' in the beginning, does the clue become invalid?

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    5. @Bhala: Yes, the clue becomes invalid. For a clearer example, take 'goes around in cycles'. This can only define ROTATES (and such) and not ITERATION, simply because an iteration goes around in cycles.

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  12. Bhavan, your voice is heard now and then, but why aren't you blogging of late ? Hope to hear a positive reply form you !

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    1. MB, because I'm so irregular with my visits to the site nowadays, I had asked Colonel to excuse me from blogging duties.

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  13. Clever one from Mover, very satisfying, except for the rather excessive anagrams. Keep such puzzles coming. Particularly nice after Scintillator yesterday, where I thought many of the annotations were dubious, to say the least.

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    Replies
    1. Groucho,
      Rather than saying the least, could you specify which annotations were dubious?

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  14. (of one composer) "very satisfying, except for the rather excessive anagrams." -- this is an acceptable criticism in that the preponderance of anagrams has been pointed out.

    (of another) "where I thought many of the annotations were dubious" - The member is quite entitled to his views, but this statement is too vague. If at least one anno is mentioned and the critic gives why he considers that dubious, we can either agree or disagree with him.

    Col. Deepak, do you agree with me on this?

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    1. I agree 100%. If someone is unable to solve the clues whether they are tough or otherwise he/she should say so and make specific comments with ref to specific slues rather than making vague /dubious statements. I have no hesitation in saying that I am inavriably found wanting when I am pitted against Scintillator like I was yesterday and I said so at the beginning of the blog.

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    2. Ok, here goes.
      Across
      4 Tend to get caught on boundary (8) CONVERGE {C}{ON}{VERGE} -- Why is caught 'c'?
      16 “Sunny, possibly, inside moon-core,” observes theorist. Deol, come on?! Where does the gist come from. And okay, Io is a moon, but there are so many of them. But that's okay.
      25 Nuisance of radiation — bothersome trait embodying pain in the backside. Radiation is 'IR'? If you insist.
      29 'N' for 'and'? Once again, if you insist.
      Down
      2 Desperate to survive; dead with thirst. 'D' is dead?
      3 Store in Mali that’s empty in the interior. Aaargh! I thought this was an English crossword. I like Indian stuff a lot when it's woven in well, but Deol and now Mali? Double aargh!
      8 Last cook? Maiden doesn’t. Can one just randomly (seemingly) take letters for the clue. M from Maiden?
      11 … having left hot dog, nuts, sandwiches at home (7) This is simply beyond me, even with Kishore's explanation. The first letter of left and hot and the whole of dog. Why? Wherefore?
      18 Small, fair and estimated to be most chic (8). Again, where's the logic? The first letter of small, the first three letters of estimated, and a synonym for 'mart'. Ok, maybe one can justify, but this is the kind of stuff that makes me grouchy.
      19 Adhesive force cohering on ultra smooth surfaces (7) Okay, here I accept the first letters of cohering, on, ultra and smooth, since it has been indicated with 'surfaces'. But where's the vis from?
      22 Priest is taking part in bachelor party. Come on, again. Why just the b of bachelor? And hop is party? Vaguely so, I suppose.

      Sorry if I'm sounding like my name (Groucho), but Scintillator's effort left me dissatisfied, and Col Gopinath's and Chaturvasi's comments require me to explain what I said. The clues can (maybe) be justified by a variety of obscure crossword conventions, but a crossword should be more than that. The 'Aha' factor as I call it, is rare, but setters like Gridman, Sankalak, Neyartha, and Mover (today) manage it well. To take today's puzzle, look at 'Toady'. Brilliant. And 8 Thoughtful attention to refuge (7) EARNEST. Very clever.

      I have returned to crossword solving after a gap of almost 20 years (living in places where one doesn't get the Hindu) and it's a joy to come back to it. As such, I suppose when one is stretching meanings all over the place, and relying on obscure conventions, the joy is lost.

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    3. Groucho,

      I don't think answering your queries is going to satisfy you. It appears you are not aware of the various conventions on abvns used in CW's. I suggest you brush up your knowledge on abvns, for example C for Caught, L for Left, H for Hot, D for Dead and so on are available in Chambers and most other dictionaries.

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    4. Groucho,

      All the points you raised might have been better off as questions (why or in which context is c=caught or n=and) rather than stating them as reasons for rejecting the puzzle.

      To cite an example, you don't have a problem with a device in 7down today - poor grade = D (where it could equally be C, E or F), but you insist using DEAD=D is unfair? Why do you think DEAD = D or any of the other abbreviations be not allowed?

      I could say the TOADY clue you dubbed as brilliant is silly because I can't understand who or what is 'Amphibious sycophant'. Does this mean I get to dismiss the entire puzzle and call Mover as a dubious cluer?

      It is all right to say a puzzle was too tough for you, but to project your failing to solve or understand parts of the solution as the setter's shortcoming is unfair in my opinion.

      ...I suppose when one is stretching meanings all over the place, and relying on obscure conventions, the joy is lost...

      No, the conventions were all standard. It was your unfamiliarity with them that caused you problems.

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    5. Ok, ok, I will study crossword conventions. As I said, I've been away from it for twenty years, so some study of conventions which I may have lost touch with is nice. And, yes, Scintillator's effort

      Incognito today is nice.

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  15. I have found VJ's criticism of clues sound most of the times.

    Was a person of importance in Canadian arts (5) DIANA (T)

    Here perhaps he thinks that "Was a person of importance" does not lead to a noun. Perhpas he expects the def to be "One who was a person of importance".

    However, I would say that here the answer, a noun, can be said to be in ellipsis and, as Bhala says, there is no mismatch in parts of speech.

    What do others think?

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    Replies
    1. Our replies crossed, and I posted against the original thread. Sorry CV

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    2. What would happen if the clue were written as

      Was a person of importance in Canadian arts?

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    3. Had only the clue started with ellipsis, I feel, the doubt woudn't have arisen at all.

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    4. I think the clue was fine and acceptable.

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  16. IMO the clue seems incomplete. I think adding a 'she' before was is right as said by VJ.

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  17. To Bhavan, Col, CV and others: thanks for standing up for me. I wish to add that there were fewer anagrams than my usual puzzles yesterday and this might have contributed to the perceived difficulty.

    To VJ: ... grids have more uncommon words than usual ...

    I have an eye on the number of unfamiliar words used in a puzzle. By my reckoning, POLLARD is the only word which could possibly contribute to that set. In comparison, today's puzzle has ESCOLAR, AMBERGRIS and GESSO which are out of my scope (but that's only me!).

    Usually difficult words must have easy clues, so the POLLARD clue was a folly in hindsight.

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  18. We were able to complete Mover's CW. But with Scintillator's we are finished.

    No English dictionary has been able to explain the difference between the two words 'Complete' and 'Finished' in a way that's so easy to understand...
    Some people say there is no difference between COMPLETE & FINISHED but there is.
    When you marry the right one, you are COMPLETE...
    When you marry the wrong one, you are FINISHED...
    And when the right one catches you with the wrong one, you are ...
    COMPLETELY FINISHED....

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  19. 21D : While talking about Insane people, here is a joke about "A sensible mad man "

    An officer that works in a psychiatric hospital wanted to know if any of the mad men in his hospital was getting back to normal. So he drew a car on a black board and then asked all the mad men to push the car. The mad men ran toward the board and started pushing the car but one man did not join them. The oficcer thought the man was back to normal, so he asked him why he was not pushing the car with the other men. The mad man told him that the other men were mad, because he was having the key of the car !

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  20. The American Heritage dictionary defines "complete" as having all necessary or normal parts or steps; ended, concluded; brought to a finish.
    It defines "finished" as highly accomplished or skilled; doomed to death or destruction; no longer useful.

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    1. A man is incomplete till he marries a woman. And then he is finished.

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    2. Like the Big B's"' fully final"" -- wed-locked , Roger and over ?

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  21. Oh My !! Bhavan. My comments are always on a lighter vein. I enjoy all sorts of puzzles and I have done the toughest and the easiest with a lot of perseverance and pleasure. To me, a cryptic puzzle is always that-- cryptic and enjoyable. A challenge from the compiler. If I have solved the ones set by Araucania and of his ilk and the toughies from the Daily Telegraph, I reckon, I've done them all ! Yet, there are more of such compilers out there and I look forward to fresh ideas.

    Again, at the risk of repetition, I have found the THCC cryptics very unique, varied and challenging ever despite their being of non-British origin. All ye-compilers here, so pull up your collars and stand in pride !!

    PasuBhala: My speed of solving is directly proportional to the adroitness of the compiler ! What I want to learn is the hair-splitting called annotation and all those crossie jargon and admire Shuchi for her blog for that. She and a few others have the patience of a mountain or shall I say, a teacher dealing with a dunce of a student (like me?) !!

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