Wednesday, 27 August 2014

No 11174, Wednesday 27 Aug 2014, Vulcan


Vulcan has me all knotted up in the SE corner.

ACROSS
6   The fire gets bigger (7) HEFTIER*
7   Incredible large scale project, high-rise tower (7) STEEPLE Anno pending (Addendum - {STEEP}{L}{scalE} - See comments}
9   Gas of oxygen filling up this place? (5) OZONE {O}{ZONE}
10 I contend with mass produced sauce (9) CONDIMENT {I+CONTEND+M}*
11 As a consequence, press gets support (7) ANDIRON {AND}{IRON}
13 Crash left nothing, in a race (6) SLALOM {SLA{L}{O}M}
15 Bold and audacious — a very tremendous performance in the end (13) ADVENTURESOME {A+V+TREMENDOUS+thE}*
19 If in fast surroundings, calm down (6) PACIFY {PAC{IF}Y}
20 What it wouldn't be if the clue was just not straight! (7) CRYPTIC [CD]
23 Repeat with nothing new in entertainer's sloppy show (9) REITERATE EnTERTAInER*
24 It's nothing new, money lost, $1000 to be precise (5) OLDIE Anno pending (Addendum - {gOLD}{IE} - See comments)
26 An oil used in lotion, extremely fatty substance (7) LANOLIN {Lot{AN+OIL}*ioN}
27 Afternoon's feature release: A Spielberg film coming back (7) T?A?I?T (Addendum - TEATIME {TE}{A}{TIME}<= - See comments)

DOWN
1   Word for a curly style (4) AFRO* &lit
2   Relating to length of a ship, and area inside (6) LINEAR {LINE{A}R}
3   Musical signal to play once in good speed (5,4) GRACE NOTE {G}{RA{CE NO*}TE} Thanks to Google
4   Old politician's dodgy replies about corrupt leader (8) PERICLES{PERI{Corrupt}LES*}
5   Need a ticket? Go beyond this (5,5) SPEED LIMIT [CD]
6   Pipe to blow and get a high (6) HOOKAH {HOOK}{A}{H}
7   Second to courage (4) S?N? (Addendum - SAND {S}{AND} - See comments)
8   Lay to rest? Hospital ward has mob riled up (6) ENTOMB {ENT}{MOB*}
12 Special discounted offers (10) DEDUCTIONS* &lit
14 Father's professional approach starting to get recognition in the Island (9) PROCREATE {PRO}{CRE{A}TE}
16 In a vessel beef needs to flip and drain (8) ENFEEBLE [T<=]
17 Circular wind (6) SPIRAL [DD]
18 Agree to assume office (6) ACCEPT [DD] (Correction - ACCEDE [DD] - See comments)
21 Official in the old country (6) YEOMEN {YE{O}MEN} Official or Officials? (Addendum - YEOMAN {YE}{OMAN} - See comments)
22 Building for new court coming up (4) BARN {BAR}{N}<=  Something wrong here. The court is not coming up.
25 Pussycat died. May it rest in peace (4) DRIP {D}{RIP} Why 'may it'?

GRID

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31 comments:

  1. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 08:33

    ADVISORY

    In view of the IXL-2014 online rounds coming up on every Sunday at 11 AM, the Sunday specials of this blog will be suspended from 14 Sep till 14 Nov when the 10 online rounds take place. Those interested can register with IXL to get their daily Sunday fix as well as take a shot at winning IXL 2014.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 09:15

      Contributions for the Sunday specials though, may still be sent. They will be kept in reserve for use from 23 Nov onwards.

      Delete
  2. Chaturvasi27 August 2014 at 08:34

    25 Pussycat died. May it rest in peace (4)

    It is d (died) + RIP, with the whole of the second sentence yielding RIP, whose expansion, when translated, means that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi27 August 2014 at 08:38

      Having said that, I must add:

      RIP is an abbreviation for the Latin words 'requiescat in pace'. Its English equivalent is "May (s/he) rest in peace". Wonder whether it can mean 'May it..."

      Don't know Latin to speak authoritatively.

      Delete
    2. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 08:39

      "Pussycat died. Rest in peace (4)." Is good enough

      Delete
  3. Mukundala Balasubramanyam27 August 2014 at 08:41

    I too am scratching my head for answers 27 Across and 7 Down! On the whole a nice puzzle. :-) Thank you Vulcan.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 08:45

    27 Afternoon's feature release: A Spielberg film coming back (7) T?A?I?T

    TE A TIME <=

    ReplyDelete
  5. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 08:48

    7 Incredible large scale project, high-rise tower (7) STEEPLE Anno pending

    I think: STEEP= Incredible. L(arge scal)E Project probably taking the ends.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 08:53

      Or: L= Large. scalE project = E?

      Delete
    2. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 08:55

      'Steep' from Chambers:

      3 colloq said of a story or someone's version of events: hard to believe

      Delete
    3. Chaturvasi27 August 2014 at 08:55

      I too thought on the same lines but I am afraid it is not quite convincing.
      And, shouldn't large-scale be hyphenated?

      Delete
    4. Gita SB27 August 2014 at 08:58

      Is high-rise required?

      Delete
  6. Gita SB27 August 2014 at 08:52

    18D ACCEDE (DD)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 09:00

    7 Second to courage (4) S?N?

    I think it is S AND. Sand = grit = courage (stretching it a bit). But is the clue grammatically correct? Should it be: Second (with) courage or Son with courage?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bhavan27 August 2014 at 09:05

      Too = and? But the surface makes no sense then.

      Delete
  8. Bhavan27 August 2014 at 09:03

    Definitely one of the trickier puzzles from Vulcan.

    This is my take on 24a

    money = gold
    $1000 = g
    to be precise = i.e = that is

    ReplyDelete
  9. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 09:31

    9 Gas of oxygen filling up this place? (5) OZONE {O}{ZONE}

    "Filling up" is misleading.


    1 Official in the old country (6) YEOMEN {YE{O}MEN} Official or Officials?

    Even if it is 'officials' how does O enter YEMEN?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 09:33

      Or is it:
      1 Officials in the old country? On the contrary! (6) YEOMEN

      Delete
    2. Bhavan27 August 2014 at 09:41

      the old = ye
      country = oman
      official = yeoman

      Delete
    3. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 09:45

      Thanks Bhavan

      Delete
    4. Raghunath27 August 2014 at 09:53

      Seems so obvious!

      Delete
    5. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 10:10

      Result of a one track mind. Yemen came into my mind on seeing the Y and then I looked no further even though I realised that 'old' had no role to play in my annotation.

      Delete
  10. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 10:11

    Is the statement in 20A correct?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 10:37

      CV,
      I deleted the first duplicate and you deleted the second simultaneously as a result both have gone. I will copy paste it from the mail

      Delete
    2. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2014 at 10:38

      Contents of the post which was deleted

      I have just looked at it.

      20 What it wouldn't be if the clue was just not straight! (7) CRYPTIC [CD]

      Shouldn't it be



      20 What it would be if the clue was just not straight! (7) CRYPTIC [CD]
      or
      20 What it wouldn't be if the clue was just straight! (7) CRYPTIC [CD]

      Wonder if the paper used an earlier version ignoring a later revised version or the setter sent an unrevised version. Also, the lack of a proper 'crossword editor' on the paper seems to be showing up of late. The onus on setters is tremendous.

      Delete
    3. Suresh27 August 2014 at 11:39

      Precisely why even though I thought of CRYPTIC I did not put it down

      Delete
  11. Suresh27 August 2014 at 11:37

    22 Building for new court coming up (4) BARN {BAR}{N}<= Something wrong here. The court is not coming up

    Nothing wrong here. BAR is coming above N. That is how it is coming up

    Overall toughie.
    could not complete the se corner

    ReplyDelete
  12. Balaji27 August 2014 at 17:46

    Good tough technical grid with interesting words - managed to finish all but DRIP (why is pussycat DRIP?). The anagram clues were very good (CONDIMENT, ADVENTURESOME, REITERATE). LANOLIN, HOOKAH, AFRO etc are brilliant (semi)&lits. Still some questions on STEEPLE (incredible~steep? e from?), SAND (to~and?), OZONE and CRYPTIC (all discussed above). Overall very enjoyable and good learning... Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Vulcan27 August 2014 at 19:10

    Hi All,

    Sorry that so many questions have been raised today...Probably should have taken a little more care. Convincing or not, thought I'd clarify on a couple.

    * STEEPLE: I'm seriously clueless.. Sorry, I think I've gotten it down wrong somewhere... And as for Incredible = STEEP, in some of the dictionaries I referred, I came across this connection that was pretty close to "exaggerated," "incredible" etc - like a claim or statement that's not so easily believable. And for LE, "extremely large-scale," "extremely large" or something on those lines may have saved the clue i.e. if the word association for STEEP is excused.

    * OZONE: I've added a question mark to indicate that there's something different there. The idea was that, O ZONE was supposed to be something like ZONE of O as in, a place filled with Oxygen and hence OZONE. LOL, maybe it didn't come out right.

    * CRYPTIC: Come to think of it, it goes a bit circular and perhaps could've been clearer. Maybe I shouldn't have tried too hard. If the clue was just "not straight" (in the cryptic clue, it's without the quotes), and the answer/ synonym was CRYPTIC, the clue wouldn't be cryptic. I thought Col's options were nicer - more clear i.e. if the clue were to written using this general idea.

    SAND: Sometimes we say "I'll try and do it" instead of "I'll try to do it." I used this word association in the clue. Maybe this definition is too informal.

    DRIP: I saw a word association that went like PUSSYCAY = DRIP = Weak, ineffectual person. - again informal.

    ReplyDelete

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