Saturday, 11 April 2015

No 11366, Saturday 11 Apr 2015, Aspartame


ACROSS
9, 12 Hate instigated by opposing general norms? (8,7,3,4) SWIMMING AGAINST THE TIDE {HATE+INSTIGATED}*
10 Driving force behind accidents (4,3) ROAD HOG [CD]
13 Abbreviated writing is brief and hard to digest (9) SHORTHAND {SHORT}{H}{AND}
14 Noodle soup with a dash of Imli? Hopeless (5) PIOUS {P{Imli}OUS*}
15 She brewed beer with a small quantity leftover (7) REBECCA {BEER*}{CC}{A} I presume leftover indicates 'moved to the left'
18 Americans seek a New York building (7) YANKEES {SEEK+A+NY}*
21 Brain aptitude somewhat unfit (5) INAPT [T]
23 Help woman buy kitchen appliance that’s made without machinery (4-5) HAND-WOVEN {HAND}-{W}{OVEN} Buy?
25 Secure royal shield (7) BUCKLER {BUCKLE}{R}
26, 29 Heed jowly sophist’s truth about a cognitive bias (3,4,5,10) THE JUST WORLD HYPOTHESIS*

DOWN
1   He was a star, in a way (4) TSAR* Semi&lit
2   Account I am recollecting about shiny substance (4) MICA }M'I}{CA}<=
3   Strong and determined (8) EMPHATIC [E]
4   Solve in-game problem (6) ENIGMA*
5   Typical morning this time (3,2,3) DAY TO DAY {DAY} {TODAY}
6   E-wall? That’s bogus (4,2) MADE UP {MAD E}<=
7   Worker, a bit injured, needs to indulge in medicine (8) ANTIDOTE {ANT}{In...d}{DOTE}
8   Growing small trees aboard ship causes troubles (8) STRESSES {S{S+TREES}*S}
11 Colour roofs of opulent castles housing regal emperors (5) OCHRE [Acrostic
15 What can be seen when shower settles? (8) RAINBOWS {RAIN}{BOWS} &lit
16 Ban crude treatment of tofu (4,4) BEAN CURD*
17 They always receive the fag end (8) ASHTRAYS [CD]
19 I held capital (3,5) NEW DELHI {I+HELD}* Where's the Anind? See comments
20 77 – 7 = 50 - 50 (5) EVENS ?
22 City to announce general pastry ingredient (6) TOLEDO {TO}{(~lee)LE}{DO(~dough)}
24 A fancy image (6) NOTION [DD]
27 Prussia lost one religious doctor to a Marxist state (1,1,1,1) U S S R pRUSSia
28 Without drugs, drunkard will hurl (4) TOSS Anno pending (Addendum - TOSSpot - See comments)

GRID

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45 comments:

  1. Raghunath11 April 2015 at 08:34

    28 Without drugs, drunkard will hurl (4) TOSS

    TOSSPOT = Drunkard. POT = Drugs

    ReplyDelete
  2. Raghunath11 April 2015 at 08:35

    19 I held capital (3,5) NEW DELHI {I+HELD}* Where's the Anind?

    Isn't it a compound anag. with NEW as anind? Or is it reverse anag?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath11 April 2015 at 08:38

      I forgot about thet

      Delete
    2. Nadathur Rajan11 April 2015 at 08:53

      9,12 is a similar clue.
      SWIMMING - AnagrInd
      (AGAINST THE TIDE)* = HATE INSTIGATED

      Delete
  3. Raghunath11 April 2015 at 08:37

    23 Help woman buy kitchen appliance that’s made without machinery (4-5) HAND-WOVEN {HAND}-{W}{OVEN} Buy?

    "Get" for 'buy' might have looked better.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Raghunath11 April 2015 at 08:42

    I didn't notice that Ramesh had not blogged today, till I saw Col's reply above.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Raghunath11 April 2015 at 08:48

    I think Aspartame likes reverse anagrams (seen him/ her use these earlier) and clues like 6 D.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nadathur Rajan11 April 2015 at 08:55

    20 77 – 7 = 50 - 50 (5) EVENS ?
    S{EVEN S}EVEN Remove SEVEN, we get EVENS indicated on RHS

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 09:01

      Wow!

      Delete
    2. Deepak Gopinath11 April 2015 at 09:08

      How is 50 - 50 evens?

      Delete
    3. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 09:08

      +1.

      Delete
    4. Deepak Gopinath11 April 2015 at 09:09

      77 will be read as 'Seventy Seven' and not 'seven seven'

      Delete
    5. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 09:17

      The 'wow' is for reading the setter's mind- even if the clue is right or wrong.
      Any better explanation other than this?
      Is there a typo. Is it 50=50, making it evens? Could it be 77-7-50=50?

      Delete
    6. Abhijit11 April 2015 at 09:47

      I constructed it as 77(sevens) - 7 (s) = 50-50
      As for 50-50, Google shows me that evens is another term for even money, which basically 50-50.

      Delete
  7. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 08:59

    After a long time could fare well in solving an Aspartame puzzle! Just missed out on 14A 'PIOUS' and 6D 'MADE UP'. Thanks Aspartame. Am (still) not getting how Pious = Hopeless!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 09:04

    How 'Pious' is hopeless?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 09:07

    My best show with Aspertame. Happy to have got 9/ 12 A/c.
    I had put down 20 D as 'Error' (since I thought it was obviously an error),but wondering about 26A- Just/ Jury. I could never think of 'Sevens minus seven'!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 09:10

    A news item announcing of Cryptic CW contest' by Vivek Singh appears next to CW in the Chennai edition. I was expecting a mention here.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 09:12

    Oh!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Deepak Gopinath11 April 2015 at 09:22

    Padmanabhan is looking for a partner to team up for the Chennai Crossie open

    ReplyDelete
  13. Shrikanth11 April 2015 at 09:36

    A very interesting puzzle. The two long ones while clued very well, were tough in my opinion. But was solvable. Didnt get 15D as &lit and was dabbling with raindrop. 20D somehow doesn't appear as very fair to me in terms of instructions. Aspartame seems to like such kinds. I remember the 3 blind mice rebus he set once.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Chaturvasi11 April 2015 at 09:53

    I have not solved this but may I make an observation in the light of solutions and comments.

    15 What can be seen when shower settles? (8) RAINBOWS {RAIN}{BOWS} &lit

    My question is: in this kind of clue how do you determine that the answer you're looking for is the plural form of a noun?
    Of course, as the Col's anno indicates, the breakup resolves itself as 'rain' and 'bows' (BTW, is this an apt synonym for 'bows'?) and the solver may ultimately reach the plural form.
    Mark my word, 'ultimately'.
    So back to the question.
    We setters do play around with parts of speech.
    But can we have ambiguity wrt the number (if this is the correct grammatical term) of the word reqd?

    ReplyDelete
  15. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 10:14

    27 Prussia lost one religious doctor to a Marxist state (1,1,1,1) U S S R pRUSSia

    What do "p i a" in the anno stand for pl? 'i' for 'one' is known alright.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shrikanth11 April 2015 at 10:20

      Pi stands for religious. Doctor I suppose is used because the deletion fodder is not in order

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 10:22

      Thank you Shrikanth. :)

      Delete
    3. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 10:34

      Then 'a' stands for 'one', I believe, in this clue.

      Delete
    4. Abhay11 April 2015 at 10:39

      one = a
      religious = pi
      Prussia, after losing these, is "doctored" to produce a Marxist state. I have two niggles about the clue: one, "doctor" as an anind coming after the fodder seems odd; two, should not the clue indicate somewhere that the reference is to a state that doesn't exist any more?

      Delete
  16. Sujatha11 April 2015 at 10:26

    I took pa to be for the religious doctor - spiritual healer, the pope perhaps? I know it is a stretch. But, just trying to fit the clue.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Abhay11 April 2015 at 10:33

    This was a slog! Some excellent clues in there including the two long anagrams. I was totally befuddled by the clue for EVENS and am still a bit hazy about it - Rajan seemed to explain it in a workable manner, but then the setter stopped by to suggest that he had intended the "-7" bit to suggest "s" being removed - not sure how that works!

    Thanks to Aspartame and to Col.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 11:10

    My doubt about how 'Pious' is hopeless is still not cleared.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 11:33

      I too raised that PIOUS doubt @ 8:59 am but remains unanswered! Hope it won't become a HOPELESS case!!

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 11:38

      Typo : Pl read 'uncleared' for 'unanswered'

      Delete
    3. Abhay11 April 2015 at 11:40

      The Oxford Dictionary gives this as the second meaning of pious:

      2. [attributive] (Of a hope) sincere but unlikely to be fulfilled.

      You can find it online here:

      http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/pious

      Delete
    4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 11:55

      Thank you very much, Abhay. :)

      Delete
  19. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 11:53

    One of the meanings given by Chambers is 'Ostentatiously virtuous (dereg.) This is the closest I could get. Is it okay? I am still not comfortable with it somehow. Seems to lead us in a wrong direction.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 11:54

    Also, to call "Unlikely to be fulfilled" as hopeless seems to be a stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 12:05

    6 E-wall? That’s bogus (4,2) MADE UP {MAD E}<=

    Am I to understand that the "? mark" after E-wall to be taken as Reversal Ind pl?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Abhay11 April 2015 at 12:12

      MADE UP (i.e., "made" going up - this is a down clue) would give us EDAM, clued here as E-wall.

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam11 April 2015 at 12:23

      Thanks again, Abhay! Looks a nice clue. (Something new to me) Maybe on the lines of Indirect Anagram where the anind is found not in the clue but seen along with the answer!

      Delete
  22. Padmanabhan11 April 2015 at 13:09

    Thank you Abhay for all the clarifications.

    ReplyDelete
  23. PKPSwami11 April 2015 at 18:52

    Very interesting puzzle. Really a week end bonanza.Esp.the long ones helpedrelish a sort of circumambulation. Thank youAspartame.

    ReplyDelete

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