Monday 29 September 2014

No.11202, Monday 29 Sep 2014, Lightning


Was expecting KKK. Solved at lightning speed and wondered whether KKK had become a little easier to solve ? Then the paper came and I saw it was indeed a Lightning puzzle.
This  nice puzzle has a mathematician, a psychologist, a General, some lawyers, men of religion (bishop, priest, theologian), an editor (in the singular and the plural) and newsmen,a saint, a politician and party spokesperson, a criminal and a couple of engineers

Across
1 Twisted laps, one racer initially negotiated (6) SPIRAL (LAPS I R)*
4 Old letter, lacking in detail (8) OMISSIVE (O MISSIVE)
10 Rebel to damage a road (9) BREAKAWAY (BREAK A WAY)
11 Mathematician to exchange diamonds with rookie psychologist (5) ADLER (AD(-d + L)ER) had to Google to confirm.
          Psychologists are funny people: They think they think about things other people think, at least that's what I think
12 Absolute sum (5) TOTAL (2)
13 Engineer certain to take a northern state to reach a high standard (7,2) MEASURE UP (ME (A) SURE UP)
         Just realised that ME stands for Military Engineer. In other words, our own "Me !"
14 Old lady gives up knight for a royal storehouse (7) GRANARY (GRAN(-n + A R)Y )
16 Penned without memorisation (4) ROTE (WROTE - W) nice use of with-out
19 Infection in a filthy place, essentially dangerous (4) STYE (STY E)
21 General drawback in the direction of the wind (7) LEEWARD (LEE DRAW<)
24 Misses tip about cynic (9) PESSIMIST (MISSES TIP)*
25 Stroll to bet, lose a grand (5) AMBLE (GAMBLE - G)
26 Lawyers sent back bishop with one priest (5) RABBI (BAR< B 1)
          Reminded me of the Sikh Rabbi who sings Bulleh Shah's compositions
27 Free at last, editor becomes unrestricted (4-5) OPEN ENDED (OPEN END ED)
28 One serene saint plagued by a disturbing feeling (8) EERINESS (1 SERENE S)*
29 Smart, distinguished engineer leaves carriage (6) HANSOM (HANDSOME - D - E) Is an initial indicator required for d and e. Are these standard abbreviations?

Down
1 A software program employed by learned man to cause destruction (8) SABOTAGE (A BOT in SAGE)
2 Nitrogen, perhaps damaged granites (5,3) INERT GAS (GRANITES)*
3 Everything about key electron missing in alkane without a hydrogen atom (5) ALKYL (ALL around KeY)
5 Summer month carnival in a part of London (7) MAYFAIR (MAY FAIR)
6 Regulation about alien figurine (9) STATUETTE (STATUTE about ET)
7 University to follow current fabrication instead (2,4) IN LIEU (IN LIE U)
8 Regret going back to work at Eastern continent (6) EUROPE (RUE< OP E)
9 Muddy politician in control (6) SWAMPY (MP in SWAY)
          Believe it or not, I typed SWAMY by mistake!
15 Wearing down a primarily tough criminal lacking remorse (9) ATTRITION (A T CONTRITION - CON)
17 Cutting remark made by party spokesperson at first in a Caribbean state (8)  BARBADOS (BARD A DO S)
18 Post-script, a theologian mostly completes with hesitation (8) ADDENDUM (A DD ENDs UM)
20 Newsmen represent Dorset institution (7) EDITORS (DORSET I)*
21 Dump a bunch of kittens (6) LITTER (2)
22 Scattered reserve housing society (6) SPARSE (S in SPARE)
23 Alviso barometer revealing line with uniform pressure (6) ISOBAR (T)
25 Near a demolished stadium (5) ARENA (NEAR A)*

GRID

40 comments:

  1. 9 Muddy politician in control (6) SWAMPY (MP in SWAY)
    Believe it or not, I typed SWAMY by mistake!

    :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. K,
      How can you miss out Parliament? Of course some swami's may be muddy!

      Delete
    2. And boy! was he in control this time!

      Delete
  2. Reference the opening remarks only an Auditor is missing!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. He is away fitting in the last few words in Chalicea's Military Clobber. Delightful embeddings there.

    ReplyDelete
  4. 13A- ME is also Masters in Engineering.

    ReplyDelete
  5. A doubt about 2D- Can Nitrogen be classified as an 'inert gas'? Inert by defn. means it does not easily combine with other elements. Nitrogen is abundant in air, but it took a while to separate it as pure Nitrogen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Means it does not react with the food in the pack. For learning proper meaning of inert one needs to go to

      "Yes Minister: The Greasy Pole (#2.4)" (1981)
      Joan Littler: What does "inert" mean?
      Sir Humphrey Appleby: Eh, it means it's not... ert.
      Bernard Woolley: Wouldn't 'urt a fly.

      Delete
    2. In a chemical plant there are pipe lines which carry N and the nomenclature used is inert gas.

      Delete
  6. Col. said auditor is missing, but probably that is why he blogged today!

    ReplyDelete
  7. A racer, rebel, lady, cynic and a sage also participated in this smooth and easy puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There are even timid persons - kittens.

      Delete
    2. Yes though in an oblique manner.

      Is it unusual to find so many characters in a puz not related to any theme as it seems? Usual suspects like king and queen have kept away.

      Delete
    3. If it were not unusual, our blogger would not have put it down in his preamble.
      Did the setter decide in the first place to bring in these people or did it just happen as he went along.
      I think the latter is the case as the surface reading of these clues is not contrived.

      Delete
  8. This crossword has many excellent clues.
    Succinct, neat with smooth surface reading.
    Many of the present crop of clue-writers are quite skilled unlike some in the early years of THC. These are people with a strong command over the language and I am sure they must have been interested in crosswords and must have been solving puzzles for quite sometime before deciding they could try their hand at setting. And most of them came here to this blog as solvers in their continued interest in the pastime and surveying the scene.
    I believe that in the past decades some setters were there only because they happen to be there. A skilled setter, when unable to continue supplies, asking a friend to step in. But then in those days communication facilities were not so advanced as they are now and the circle from which talent could be tapped must have been very limited. Today the scene is different. Blogs and message boards such as these are a happy hunting ground for talent-scouters as well as aspirants.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I believe 1ac could do without the comma. Anyone agree?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Re D= Distinguished could not find any reference. E = Engineer and Engineering in Chambers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Should have checked the dict. before using DE for Distinguished Engineer. Its non-standard and hence incorrect. Let me blame the many years at Cisco (and perhaps other IT companies) where this term is commonplace :)

      Delete
  11. CWE

    Write a clue for any word of your choice with 'solver' as part of the clue.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mariner, solver and Padre (8)

      Delete
    2. Solver, puzzled finding Romeo and Juliet, for example (6)

      Delete
    3. Exceptional solver garnering admirers (6)

      Victory eluded this solver, sadly (5)

      Delete
    4. Solver with a bit of enthusiasm has a purpose,though mixed up (7)

      Delete
    5. VJ,

      Nice &lit in the second clue!

      Delete
  12. 1A- The absence of a comma is not going to alter the meaning of the sentence in any way nor its presence make it easier to understand the meaning. So why have it- to confuse issues?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Happy to score the first centum in a Lightning crossie. Thanks Lightning!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very happy.Today I could make it w/o reference thanks to lightning clues.Of course I had to bring out the ans. for 29 a from passivity.11a- should it not be'mathematician to exchange diamond(instead of diamonds as given)with rookie?Any way we thoroughly enjoyed the xie.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In cards, the suit is called diamonds. We may say "four diamond" but as the suit itself is diamonds, diamonds = D is ok.

      Delete
  15. Firm determination turned English solver (7)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Many good attempts in the CWE. I like VJ's for LOSER.

    ReplyDelete
  17. For the CWE:

    Some lovers exchange a piece of poetry (5)

    ReplyDelete

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