Friday, 18 July 2014

No.11140, Friday 18 Jul 2014, Klue Klux Klan

Instead of the garden path, KKK takes us amongst the brushes, needles, nagamis,...  I am stumped by 28a, which  might also be a shrub ...

ACROSS
1 Clergyman, faithful, loses a source of comfort (6) CURATE (acCURATE)
4 Tease, label as being common,… (6) RAGTAG (RAG TAG)
9 …celebrity’s passionate return (4) DIVA (AVID<)
10 Dispirited capture of the working class … (4-6) BLUE COLLAR (BLUE COLLAR)

11 ... by Spanish man without leading scientific device (6) SENSOR (SENOR outside S)
12 Nautical brace in jungle? Yes! (8) FORESTAY (FOREST AY)
13 Vehicle of druggies who love to make merry (9) CAROUSERS (CAR O USERS)
15 The devil is the same when seen from either side (5) SATAN ?
16 Poplar fit to shelter first entrance (5) ABELE (ABLE sheltering E)
18 Aware of son acting demented (9) COGNISANT (SON ACTING)*
22 Cannon causes virulence, not effective at first (8) CULVERIN (VIRULENCe)* New word for me
23 Animals, lacking right instinct, start to make mistakes (6) GAFFES (GirAFFES)
25 Inscription at ranch upset groom (10) CHRONOGRAM (RANCH GROOM) upset is the anagram indicator in the middle of the fodder! Is this K-K-Kosher?
26 Plunder, lose heart, and irritate (4) RILE (RIfLE)
27 Sibling is backing holy man? Perhaps (6) SISTER (IS< ST ER)
28 Shrubs all over the place in South Assam (6) MSASAS {ASSAM}*{S} - See comments

DOWN
1 Sound of Sun God is a figment of the imagination? (7) CHIMERA (CHIME RA)
2 Harvests with bent spear (5) REAPS (SPEAR*)
3 Sat back, concealed poet’s tunics (7) TABARDS (SAT< conceals BARD)
5 Harmonize with part of musical instrument (6) ACCORD (ACCORDion)
6 Taslima’s new fancy trinkets (9) TALISMANS (TASLIMA'S N)
7 Father’s father loses direction, heads for Spanish city (7) GRANADA (GRANdADA)
8 Enthusiast, perhaps, to be important to regular army of neutral state (6,7) BUFFER COUNTRY (BUFF ER COUNT aRmY)
14 Unaware of fifty one in unconcealed surroundings? (9) OBLIVIOUS (LI in OBVIOUS)
17 Sweeps right into the thickets (7) BRUSHES (R in BUSHES)
19 Shrubs bother a girl endlessly (7) NAGAMIS (NAG A MISs)
20 Irritates, in an unnecessary manner, endlessly (7) NEEDLES (NEEDLESs)
          Two consecutive clues ending with endlessly ...
21 Ditch, initially open, in plantation (6) GROOVE (O in GROVE)
24 Card game of ancient Egyptian kings, we hear (5) FAROS (~PHARAOHS) I thought the game was Faro, and the def. is in the singular ...

GRID
 
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54 comments:

  1. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 08:46

    28 Shrubs all over the place in South Assam (6) MSASA* S

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 09:11

      Got that by cheating.

      Amall shrubby African tree (Brachystegia speciformis) having compound leaves and racemes of small fragrant green flowers.


      Delete
    2. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 09:13

      Even cheating couldn't get me that Shrub

      Delete
  2. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 09:14

    Anyone with clues on 'The Devil' ?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Padmanabhan18 July 2014 at 09:22

    21D- Plantation is also highlighted? "ditch' is the def.

    ReplyDelete
  4. C.G. BHARGAV18 July 2014 at 09:23

    S->ata<- N

    I take N and S as sides.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 09:25

    7 Father’s father loses direction, heads for Spanish city (7) GRANADA (GRANdADA)

    Something's not right in the clue. GRANDDAD is father's father.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 09:29

      Actually Dada is father's father in Hindi.

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2014 at 09:59

      From GRANDDAD, I deleted 'N' for 'direction' and was beating around the bush without any success!!

      Delete
    3. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 10:05

      Plenty of those (bushes) for you to do so today.

      Delete
    4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2014 at 10:30

      Yes,...'endless' of them! :)

      Delete
  6. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 09:48

    Couple of other points:

    23 Animals, lacking right instinct, start to make mistakes (6) GAFFES (GirAFFES)
    Does the deletion have to follow the order of the words in the clue?

    20 Irritates, in an unnecessary manner, endlessly (7) NEEDLES (NEEDLESs)

    Is unnecessary manner: Needless or Needlessly?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Padmanabhan18 July 2014 at 09:54

      Just 'Unnecessary' would mean needless?

      Delete
    2. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 09:58

      Yes. In the adverb form it is needlessly.

      Delete
  7. Padmanabhan18 July 2014 at 09:57

    Is end always a single letter?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 10:10

      Your q was not clear. You are asking whether 'end' means to delete only the last letter?

      Ans: yes

      Delete
    2. Padmanabhan18 July 2014 at 12:36

      Exactly what I wanted. Also, wanted to know if there had been any instance of deletion of > 1 letter.

      Delete
  8. Padmanabhan18 July 2014 at 10:03

    Genuine doubt. To be clarified by experts. Just want to know if there had earlier been any such instances?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 10:07

      Yes, there had been plenty of genuine doubts ;-)

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2014 at 10:16

      And here is one. Who is this latest 'Me too!' ?

      Delete
    3. C.G. BHARGAV18 July 2014 at 10:23

      COLOUR BLIND INCOGNITO. ref: COLLAR BLIND

      Delete
    4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2014 at 10:38

      Yes, I think so. :)

      Delete
    5. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 10:51

      Didn't know Phantom was part of the colour blind league

      Delete
    6. Kishore18 July 2014 at 11:20

      The League of the Extraordinarily Colourless Gentlemen

      Delete
    7. Shrikanth18 July 2014 at 18:34

      Count me in also ...

      Delete
  9. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 10:30

    Me ! too is Me ! but Me too ! is not Me !

    ReplyDelete
  10. C.G. BHARGAV18 July 2014 at 10:43

    You may note that colour blind Incognito has deliberately given red colour to a blue collared worker...... From Col.'s comment do we understand that he too is colour blind??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 10:52

      Me ! too comment was not be Me ! but by Me too !. But what Me too ! has said about Me ! is correct

      Delete
  11. Kishore18 July 2014 at 10:59

    It looks like me, Me !, Me too ! and the Phantom have similar problems. That makes the three of us. Luckily cwds are not colour coded like Knight's tour puzzles.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sowmya18 July 2014 at 11:10

    From my latest Brand Crossword 26

    Polish rejection of Russia initially, to dissipate (6)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2014 at 11:17

      VA(-R)NISH

      Delete
    2. Sowmya18 July 2014 at 11:28

      Yes MB:) Well solved:):)

      Delete
    3. Sowmya18 July 2014 at 11:31

      Here's one more Spooner's spoilt spicy dishes with chocolate (8)

      Delete
    4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam18 July 2014 at 11:52

      Well, I could solve half of the Grid only and had to cheat on the above clue! Am not so much familiar with Brand(ed) items, you see! All the same, whenever, given in this blog, I do make an attempt to solve them (sometimes with the help of my daughter). Nice CW. Enjoyed it.

      Delete
    5. Sowmya18 July 2014 at 12:00

      Thanks MB for your kind comments. Glad you enjoyed it:)

      Delete
  13. C.G. BHARGAV18 July 2014 at 11:54

    Spooner's //spoilt (BAD)spicy dishes (CURRIES) with chocolate (8) C AD B URYS (8)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Abhay18 July 2014 at 12:24

    I had a tricky time with this one. Nice surfaces in most cases. I found the clues a mix of simple, tricky, and just plain diabolical! Had to take help from Google to confirm that the wordplay-based NAGAMIS indeed referred to shrubs, and had to cheat to get the anagram of S ASSAM sorted out for 28. Thanks for a good workout, KKK!

    Kishore, hats off to you for getting all but one done in time to post this by 8:30! Your blog helped me parse a word that I had got but didn't know why - CURATE. In retrospect, the parsing seems so obvious. :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore18 July 2014 at 12:28

      An apocryphal story about this World Cups Semi Final match between Germany and Brazil has a Brazilian player claiming that for some 20 continuous minutes in the match, they did not let Germany score. My fate was somewhat similar. For some 30 minutes from 8 to 830, I did not solve a single clue!

      Delete
  15. Padmanabhan18 July 2014 at 12:40

    So, we take it that, but for 28A. you finished the rest before 8 am?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore18 July 2014 at 14:14

      Yes, but don't ask me what time I started, ....

      Delete
  16. Kishore18 July 2014 at 17:41

    Any answers to my question against 25a?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 18:03

    Any answers for 7 d?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore18 July 2014 at 18:22

      Pl ref Raghu's comment at 5:59 pm

      Delete
    2. Raghunath18 July 2014 at 19:24

      :-)

      Delete
    3. Deepak Gopinath18 July 2014 at 19:58

      Granddad and Grandad are both accepted in Chambers. However KKK has missed out on the last 'A' which could be settled by ending the clue with " ... for a Spanish city (7)"

      Delete

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