Wednesday, 13 May 2015

No 11393, Wednesday 13 May 2015, Aspartame


Found wanting again.

ACROSS
1   Appealing starters — calamari and tuna croquettes. How yummy! (6) CATCHY Acrostic
4   Constrains armies (6) FORCES [DD]
9   Go through Nathula, for example (4) PASS [DD]
10 Close to hundred devastated nannies try wine after losing wars (6,4) NINETY NINE {NaNNIEs+TrY+wINE}*
11 Two pecs flexed to show muscles (6) BICEPS {BI}{PECS*}
12 Flexible relatives being flexible (8) D?A?O?I? DIALOGIC ? [CD]
13 Endowed with many skills (9) VERSATILE [E]
15 Cover is important, by the sound of it (4) (Addendum MANE (~main) - See comments)
16 Move in mysterious ways (4) SWAY*
17 Suspension of tax movement about to go away (9) CESSATION {CESS}{AcTION}
21 Mr India needs network of thousand chief advisors to end up in neighbouring country (3,5) SRI LANKA {SRI} {LAN}{K}{Ad...s}
22 Plain auditor cried out (6) BAWLED (~bald)
24 Raceme tips used to make wax (10) SPERMACETI*
25 Precipitation is somewhat less nowadays (4) SNOW [T]
26 Doubts regarding alphabet lacking ‘o’ are false (6) ERSATZ {ERS}ATZ Anno not clear (Addendum (ERS}{A To Z} - See comments)
27 Losing best returns during depression caused suspension from work (6) RECESS Anno pending (Addendum - RECESS1on - See comments)

DOWN
1   Holder of tea, port on the rocks (7) CHALICE {CHA}{L}{ICE}
2   Sample tea and Italian wine finally procured by Asian (5) TASTE {T}{AST(-i+e)E}
3   Give team a telephone (7) HANDSET {HAND}{SET} This is only part of a telephone
5   Cost of driving large auto is unknown (6) O?T??? (Addendum - OUTLAY {L+AUTO}*{Y} - See comments)
6   A constituent of rhythm (9) CONSONANT [CD]
7   Dawn in Singaporean university? (7) SUNRISE ? Anno pending (Addendum - NUS<= - See comments)
8   One French man had pot valued to be pure (13) UNADULTERATED {UN}{ADULT}{E}{RATED} E and pot? See comments
14 Weapons that babies have (5,4) SMALL ARMS [DD]
16 Hesitate to crush burning piece of manuscript (7) S?R?P?E (Addendum SCRUPLE {SCRUmPLE - See comments)
18 Editor is aboard vehicle going back to settle down (7) SUBSIDE {SUB}{SI}{DE}<=
19 Our son buying ecstasy is becoming stressful (7) ONEROUS {OUR+SON}* around E
20 Kid in pain? Fantastic! (6) INFANT [T]
23 Misuse junk (5) WASTE [DD]

GRID

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27 comments:

  1. Raghunath13 May 2015 at 08:33

    15 MANE ~ Main

    26a: ERS + A T(-o) Z (Doubts = ERs. Don't agree)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath13 May 2015 at 08:35

      That should have been Alphabets then

      Delete
    2. Raghunath13 May 2015 at 08:38

      Yes. There are too many assumptions today. L= Port in 1d?

      Delete
    3. SandhyaP13 May 2015 at 08:42

      Yes

      Delete
    4. SandhyaP13 May 2015 at 08:43

      26 AALPHABET is fine - we say the English alphabet, or the letters of the alphabet.

      Delete
    5. SandhyaP13 May 2015 at 08:44

      Typo - ALPHABET

      Delete
    6. Nadathur Rajan13 May 2015 at 08:44

      Alphabet has the letters of a language arranged in the customary order.
      The usage here is fine.
      What Col probably means is the letters of the alphabet.

      Delete
  2. SandhyaP13 May 2015 at 08:33

    8 One French man had pot valued to be pure (13) UNADULTERATED {UN}{ADULT}{E}{RATED} E and pot?

    E=DRUG=POT

    ReplyDelete
  3. Raghunath13 May 2015 at 08:35

    5 Cost of driving large auto is unknown (6) O?T??? (OUTLA*) + Y

    ReplyDelete
  4. SandhyaP13 May 2015 at 08:35

    27 Losing best returns during depression caused suspension from work (6) RECESS

    RECESS(- 1 ON<-)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Raghunath13 May 2015 at 08:36

    16 Hesitate to crush burning piece of manuscript (7) SCRUPLE

    ReplyDelete
  6. Deepak Gopinath13 May 2015 at 08:39

    Thanks Sandhya and Raghu

    ReplyDelete
  7. SandhyaP13 May 2015 at 08:39

    7 Dawn in Singaporean university? (7) SUNRISE

    National University of Singapore = NUS<-

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Raghunath13 May 2015 at 08:44

      Grammatically it should be rises/ raised/ has risen for the clue to work, I think. That's if 'SUN' is singular. It works if SUN is considered as a group of letters

      Delete
    2. Nadathur Rajan13 May 2015 at 09:15

      Dawn=Sunrise
      SUNrise = SUN<-=NUS (Singaporean University)
      The clue works OK.
      'Rise' is there in the solution and cannot be given away in the clue.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous13 May 2015 at 09:37

      I feel this is somewhat indirect .. A substitution and reverse anagram (not exactly anagram, yet indicator is the input of the solver )

      Delete
    4. Raghunath13 May 2015 at 09:40

      @NR, What I meant was the answer should be SUNRISEN or SUNRAISED and not SUNRISE.

      Delete
  8. Padmanabhan13 May 2015 at 09:57

    Like you said, SUN to be considered as an acronym or group of letters.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Padmanabhan13 May 2015 at 09:59

    Too many gaps to enjoy. Doubts even in the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  10. mohsin13 May 2015 at 13:11

    Some good clues here. Quite enjoyable. A few holes, though.

    1A: should be { ...starters OF ...}

    12A/13A: There seems to be some sort of a mix-up. While VERSATILE for 'endowed with many skills' might work, it definitely works as an answer for 'flexible relatives being flexible' (anag of relatives, def = versatile).

    21A: again, should be { ... chief OF advisors ...}

    7D: I think it works, with 'rise' as a noun. Although, not particularly fond of a reverse clue, where the fodder isn't explicitly given.

    8D: E is for ecstasy, which isn't the same as pot. "E = drug = pot" logic doesn't work. That's like cluing 'N' as 'south', because "N = direction = south"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. mohsin13 May 2015 at 13:13

      And 5D: The "is" is quite intrusive.

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam13 May 2015 at 13:27

      Points to ponder over!

      Delete
    3. Abhay13 May 2015 at 15:55

      Great points all, Mohsin! I really like the analogy for explaining why E=pot doesn't work. And great work spotting the fact that the clue for 12a actually works to give the answer for 13a - my guess is that the setter wanted to replace the clue for 13a and ended up replacing the clue for 12a instead, which has left D?A?O?I? without a proper clue!

      Sadly, the mix-ups draw attention away from what *are* very good clues: e.g., 4a, 9a, 16a, 25a, and (the seemingly sadistic!) 20d!

      Thanks to Aspartame and DG.

      Delete
  11. PKPSwami13 May 2015 at 15:58

    Good puzzle.4A & 14D Excellent wordplay.17A thoughtprovoking.26A &27A Though I could crack I could not do proper parsing.Anyway anice puzzle overall. Thanks Aspartame.

    ReplyDelete

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