Friday 13 December 2013

No 10955, Friday 13 Dec 2013, Sunnet


A pangrammatic trip around our solar system with Sunnet today.



ACROSS
1   Soft noise right outside a mail boat (6) PACKET {P}{rACKET}
4   Melt granites to obtain an element like Radon (5,3) INERT GAS*
10 Father’s clipper used as a fastener (9) PAPERCLIP {PA}{CLIPPER*}
11 Tease unknown person in between (5) TWIXT {TWI{X}T}
12 Stall an assassin (5) BOOTH [DD]
13 Maybe a goal for a gun (9) EQUALIZER [DD]
14 Messenger is closest to our light source (7) MERCURY [DD]
16 Newts in the left side (4) EFTS [T]
19 Corrupts volatile memory counter (4) MARS <=
21 God’s ratio found in fibre’s nerve centre (7) JUPITER {JU{PI}TE}{neRve}
24 Note lawsuits’ responses (9) REACTIONS {RE}{ACTIONS}
25 Leap over an underground burial chamber (5) VAULT [DD]
26 Dinar touched the lowest point (5) NADIR*
27 Environmental group trumpeted a salad ingredient (5,4) GREEN PEAS (~greenpeace)
28 Favoured unlimited fish for a part of a course (4,4) SIDE DISH {SIDE D}{fISH}
29 Fool around vocational college in the present situation (2,2,2,) AS IT IS {AS {IT I}S}

DOWN
1   Explosive spot almost fades away when mantra is introduced (4,4) PIPE BOMB {PIP}{E B{OM}Bs}
2   Cabinet committee has a sweetened beverage as a starter (8) CUPBOARD {CUP}{BOARD}
3   Dirt from fireplace having no roof (5) EARTH hEARTH
5   Write up melody for God (7) NEPTUNE {NEP<=}{TUNE}
6   Bugbane to scare head (6-3) RATTLE-TOP {RATTLE}-{TOP}
7   Flashy make-up, used at first, left ugly zit (6) GLITZY {uGLY+ZIT}*
8   Lead pot rested on top (6) SATURN {SAT}{URN}
9 Drowsy agent is taken around a shelter (6) SLEEPY {S{LEE}PY}
15 Remaining the same in unrelated manoeuvre (9) UNALTERED*
17 Stone Open University exam is the toughest (8) STOUTEST {ST}{OU}{TEST}
18 Decay within, plagues public demonstrations (8) PROTESTS {P{ROT}ESTS}
20 Organises rounds for a bunch of underlings (7) STOOGES ST(-a+oo)OOGES
21 Ridicule surrounding street entertainer (6) JESTER {JE{ST}ER}
22 University managed by us was once named after Herschel (6) URANUS {U}{RAN}{US}
23 Gave a bit of dope swallowed by some Chinese editor (6) HANDED {HAN}{Dope}{ED}
25 Parvenu shockingly exposes a beautiful woman (5) VENUS [T]


29 comments:

  1. Copy of late night post by Bhala last evening

    Congrats to Kishore being the winner of the Ouroboros prize puzzle (www.crossword.org.uk). Sorry to take up Vulcan's page to report this but didn't know a better way to communicate to this group. Fantastic Kishore, a lovely bday gift, and my belated greetings as well

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  2. Liked the cartoon on Mercury.

    27A - No nitpicking, this. Are 'peace' and 'peas' homophonic? The latter ends with 'z' sound, I presume...

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    Replies
    1. My crib is negligible in the backdrop of an excellent trip around the Universe. Congrats Sunnet.

      Delete
    2. To answer your question -

      No homophone dictionary or list on the Internet has peas/peace.

      I have no opinion myself.

      Delete
  3. Copy of Kishore's comment in yesterdays post this morning. Could be of interest to those visiting the UK next weekend

    15^2 is planning a bash for the centenary

    http://www.fifteensquared.net/2013/11/20/sloggers-betters-and-other-cruciverbalists-centenary-convention/

    Whereas their tabs on that page are "Setters" and "Bloggers", this bash is titled Sloggers and Betters. Interesting intersect with Sloggers and Bloggers.

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  4. Sunnet's space odyessey around sun was quite enjoyable ! Thanks for the pleasure trip, Sunnet.

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  5. Enjoyable trip around SUNnet's world. Good one!

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  6. First time sunnet for me - very smooth and enjoyable. The "peas" "peace" debate reminded me of a slogan painted on the bridge by heathrow airport. It says "give peas a chance" and it always makes me smile. BTW to my ear, they do sound the same.

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  7. Joining in belatedly (minus power since morning) to congratulate Kishore for adding one more feather to his cap. At this rate he has to make his cap bigger to accommodate more feathers!!

    Nice trip SUNnet,Thank you.

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    Replies
    1. Difficult to get a large cap to fit my swollen head!

      Delete
  8. Thanks folks for the comments & feedback

    Peace vs peas. They are near homophones and have been used on numerous occasions ( as David pointed above ) as fodder for jokes.
    Should setters be allowed to use near homophones ? I tend to be on the liberal side of this debate & expect to continue using them unless there are very strong objections.

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  9. Enjoyed the IAU-compliant crossword tour of the planets.

    Some of you might remember my complaint from a few months ago about how some themed crosswords tended to give away the theme by re-using definitions and making it too apparent.(It was a comment about one of Sunnet's grid, incidentally.) Today, however, I was happy to note the variety; even though all those names barring Earth have a common source in Roman mythology, we have a peek at how those same/similar (MAR-S) words are used to contexts not immediately connected to it.

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  10. Regarding 1D, I got Mantra = OM, almost fades = EBB. Guessed Pipe from the other clues cracked. But, what gives PIP?
    I also want to thank you all for this blog. I started doing crosswords very recently and stumbled on this blog soon after. With the annotations and references here, I have been able to understand the whole process a lot better and gained quite a lot of confidence too. On bad days, I am able to do 10-12 and on good ones, about 18-20. More than the number of clues cracked, I enjoy the process of learning immensely. There is something new every day. I have a small baby at home and fully tied down tending to him. This provides the much needed intellectual stimulation that is otherwise lacking. Thanks again for this blog.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sujatha. Welcome aboard.

      As for PIP, here's what FreeDictionary says:

      pip
      n.
      1. Games
      a. A dot indicating a unit of numerical value on dice or dominoes.
      b. A mark indicating the suit or numerical value of a playing card.

      Delete
    2. Thanks. So, I could take spot to be pip? Spot = dot or mark?

      Delete
  11. Really enjoyed solving this crossword. Thanks Sunnet.

    ReplyDelete

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