Thursday, 27 August 2015

No 11484, Thursday 27 Aug 2015, Mac


I'll say it again. Sankalak reborn.

ACROSS
6   Burette’s starting to drip ethanol (5) BOOZE {Bu...e}{OOZE}
7   Paternal worry during pregnancy (8) PRENATAL*
10 Country established on 4th of April, before midday (7) ESTONIA {EST}{ON}{aprIl}{dAy}
11 Looking back, Los Angeles, USA captivated us, like one would have expected (2,5) AS USUAL {AS {US}U}AL} <=
12 Hamburger served up without sides lead to resentment (7) UMBRAGE hAMBURGEr*
13 Inexpert team at Euros owned (7) AMATEUR [T]
14 Siren for one not secured by shackle lock (11) ENCHANTRESS {ENCHAiN}{TRESS}
19 Setter’s innate simplicity (7) NAIVETE Anno left for any solver (Addendum - {NA{I'VE}TE} - See comments)
21 Case involving Islamic leader losing an eye, reportedly to cataract (7) CASCADE {CAS{CADi(~eye)}E}
23 Mostly large ice formation (7) GLACIER {LARGe+ICE}* &lit
25 Person’s half female (or male)? Operate! (7) PERFORM {PERson}{F}{OR}{M}
26 Confine wild critters (8) RESTRICT*
27 Open on time (5) OVERT {OVER}{T}

DOWN
1   Mobile, laptop or tablet features (8) PORTABLE [T]
2   Pain rehabilitation helping to counter agonising medical condition (6) HERNIA [T<=]
3   Be mortified as the place is in shambles (10) SPHACELATE* New word for me
4   That woman’s a goddess! (4) HERA {HER}{A}
5   Fertilizer made from initially melted and then processed urea infused with Nitrogen (6) MANURE {Me...d}{A{N}URE*}
6   Strengthen by overturning charge to enter pub (4,2) BEEF UP {B{EEF} UP} <=
8   Excessively praise / perversely laud / frequently and inordinately exalt (7) ADULATE {LAUD*}{ExAlT}*
9   Territorial army filled with dread (5) ALARM [T]
13 Expect a patient involved in an accident to get intensive care, to begin with (10) ANTICIPATE {A+PATIENT+In...e+Care}*
15 Male involved in breach of ethics is a drug dealer (7) CHEMIST {M} in {ETHICS}* They'll be up in arms with this definition!
16 Mature sperm carries a potential offspring (8) SEASONED {SE{A}{SON}ED}
17 A lake on east Georgia’s borders (5) ONEGA {ON}{E}{Ge...iA}
18 Agent backed to get prestigious university grant (6) PERMIT {PER<=}{MIT}
20 Hospice for travellers — one with free meat having partridge stuffing! (6) IMARET {1}{MA{partRidge}ET*}
22 Lecture son about sex, with hesitation at first (6) SERMON {S{ER}{M}ON} Nice one
24 Dishonest person upset by censure (4) RAIL <=

GRID

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56 comments:

  1. Chaturvasi27 August 2015 at 08:35

    19 Setter’s innate simplicity (7) NAIVETE Anno left for any solver
    Setter’s - setter has - I've - IVE
    innate - taking this as in nate - insertion ind to put IN in NATE
    simplicity - def
    Note: 's is possessive in surface reading as well as wordplay.
    Qn: Similar to indeed/in deed. Deed is a word in itself. But 'nate' does not seem to mean anything. Or does it? Nate is a surname. Also, there is the slang term 'the nate' (see wikipedia)

    ReplyDelete
  2. RameshJ27 August 2015 at 08:35

    19a : NA(I'VE)TE

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  3. Vasant27 August 2015 at 08:38

    Totally agree with Col's comment...loved solving the puzzle
    Could solve in 15 min all clues except 3 d which took 30 minutes more..
    How do others solve the clue for which you have all the letters..u know the def..but the word is new...i am consciously trying avoid using the net

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi27 August 2015 at 08:45

      Suppose you don't want to use an anagram solver but try and find the unknown word by jumbling the letters yourself...
      Write all consonants in one line.
      All vowels in another line.
      S TH PL C (hyphens denote space)
      A E A E

      Look for possible vowel/combination

      SP should suggest itself. After this you can expect a vowel.
      Try SPA or SPE
      Look for letters in position as crossers.
      This way it shouldn't take too long.

      Delete
    2. Vasant27 August 2015 at 08:49

      Thanks CV sir..this is how it was done..instead of writing vowels & consonants..i write the letters in a circle...the subsequent process is very much the same as u described...

      Delete
    3. Abhay27 August 2015 at 09:00

      Silly as it may sound, this is what I do: if a known word doesn't emerge from the fodder and the crossing letters, I try to come up with words that sound like they may be real words, and then check them to see if they are actually words in the dictionary. That's what I did today with SPHACELATE - once the checked letters were in place (P,A,E,A,E), there were no vowels remaining; of the consonants that remained, only S could come before P; after P, it could only be H or L (neither C nor T would fit). That left me with SPHACELATE, SPHACETALE and SPLACEHATE as plausible-sounding words, and the dictionary did the rest!

      Delete
    4. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2015 at 09:01

      That's not silly, it's what I do as well

      Delete
    5. RameshJ27 August 2015 at 09:11

      Did the same as Abhay. I would think it is a standard way of getting to unknown words

      Delete
    6. Mukundala Balasubramanyam27 August 2015 at 10:03

      Whatever it is. Come IXL, not resorting to 'net' in such cases will land one in.....!?

      Delete
    7. Vasant27 August 2015 at 10:32

      Thanks Abhay..Ramesh..Col..tips from ace solvers are what accelerate one's solving ability
      MB: I find that not using net actually increases my solving abilities
      Anyway will IXL have such words

      Delete
    8. Mukundala Balasubramanyam27 August 2015 at 10:54

      I fully agree with you, Vasanth. Of course, no such words are to be found in IXL.

      Delete
    9. RameshJ27 August 2015 at 13:56

      Second Vasant's point. Not using the net as a crutch seems to speed up solving abilities in the long run.Treat the minutes & hours spent on cracking a clue as an investment for the future. Even when you resort to the net, use it for say for one clue & try and solve the rest without the net

      Delete
    10. Mukundala Balasubramanyam27 August 2015 at 15:30

      Point noted, Ramesh. Thank you. :)

      Delete
  4. SandhyaP27 August 2015 at 08:42

    Simple, neat clues. +1 to Col's comment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Abhay27 August 2015 at 08:45

    Thank you for a brilliant puzzle, Mac! That was a great set of clues. I loved the clues for NAIVETE and GLACIER especially.

    Shouldn't HERA be marked as &lit? The whole clue can be taken as the definition too.

    Thanks to DG for the blog.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 08:53

    Lovely set of clues. Most enjoyable. Keep up the good work.
    I messed up by putting in 'parental' 7 'Eritrea'. And of course did not have the patience to get the new word 'Sphecelate'. I agree with Vasanth in not using the net. I am amzed he tried for 30 minutes. Hats off!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi27 August 2015 at 09:00

      Do setters compose puzzles just out of their head?
      I daresay they use the Internet and computer aids in setting crosswords.
      That being the case, when a solver has just one word to go, why should they not use resort to the same devices?
      Put the letters in a prog and get the answer. Look up the dict to get to the root of the word, the precise meaning, synonyms, antonyms and so on.
      You've spent 29 minutes in a useful way instead of frittering them away in writing, scratching, rewriting.

      Delete
    2. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 09:05

      Fully agree. But 8.30 is too tempting to resist! Reading the comments is icing on the cake.

      Delete
    3. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2015 at 09:06

      I personally feel Sanakalak's CWs were just out of his head. As far as I remember he never or very rarely used a word which was uncommon and almost all of them were words of day to day usage

      Delete
    4. Vasant27 August 2015 at 10:46

      CV Sir:it is the use of one's time..i used to take net aid often...i found that it simply stops me from thinking...
      The ace solvers here would have invested a fair amount of time to make them ace solvers

      Delete
    5. Aakash Sridhar27 August 2015 at 15:38

      Uncommon words are subjective . What uncommon words are to Colonel uncle might not be uncommon words to me and vice-versa. If a solver in 10th standard says he hasn't heard of the word 'quintessence', the setter can't take blame for not using 'common' words, though I agree that the wordplay must allow for the clue to be revealed with more ease.

      Delete
  7. Mukundala Balasubramanyam27 August 2015 at 08:56

    Nice one. Missed out just two...21Ac CASCADE and 16Dn SEASONED. Thanks Mac for an enjoyable puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 09:02

    Better placement of CW in TH continues today. Has spinner got it?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Abhay27 August 2015 at 09:05

    I meant to add: I spent a few minutes struggling to fit MAM (iMAM) into 21a, before asking myself what other 4-letter "Islamic leader" might have an "eye" to give up and not finding one. The definition, the checked letters, and CASE provided the answer, and I then had to work backwards to figure out whether the Islamic leader was CAID for CADI - again, choosing the most likely words and then referring to the dictionary!

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  10. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 09:06

    Glacier is so simple and neat. I wonder if this is the root of the word.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi27 August 2015 at 09:22

      Sorry, it can't be the root of the word. I don't think words were created that way..
      Anyway, Spinner quite recent had
      Endlessly large ice formation (7)

      Delete
  11. Kishore27 August 2015 at 09:39

    Super one, Mac! Gave up on 3d and peeked here

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh27 August 2015 at 15:47

      Yes. It is also a word I cannot pronounce and will not remember

      Delete
  12. Anonymous27 August 2015 at 11:07

    Brilliant set of clues. I remember reading Mac's interview where he said that he would prioritize cryptic grammar over surface (rightly so), but when both of them fall in place, it makes a wonderful puzzle.. BTW, what's the role of Potential in 16D ? It makes better surface and of course can be read along with offspring, yet..

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    Replies
    1. Abhay27 August 2015 at 11:30

      I think it adds to the surface reading, since a son is a potential result from a sperm! Also, just "offspring" would require to be preceded by "AN" rather than "A"; putting in "potential" allows use of the "A" that is required for the wordplay. Indeed, I think this illustrates perfectly your take on the ideal marriage of cryptic grammar and surface!

      Delete
    2. Srividya27 August 2015 at 11:38

      Hi... enjoyed the puzzle today. Had to recourse to tech for sphecelate and double check on imaret .tks mac for nee words. However a q on 12a... is served up an agi? More like a reversal indicator to me.. esp for a solid thing like a burger

      Delete
    3. Aakash Sridhar27 August 2015 at 15:15

      @abhay
      'An offspring' can be substituted with 'a son' . So 'potential' is not necessary for having 'a' as you pointed out. It just adds to the surface and not the wordplay, which is the case here.

      Delete
    4. Abhay27 August 2015 at 15:56

      Making it "a son" means giving away half the word!

      Delete
    5. Aakash Sridhar27 August 2015 at 16:04

      I think you misunderstood me. I meant the 'potential' isn't there for the sake of fitting 'a' like you pointed out and that the clue would very well work if it were 'an offspring' instead of 'a potential offspring'. As 'an offspring' can equally lead to 'a son' too

      Delete
    6. Abhay27 August 2015 at 18:49

      Ah well, let's see if Mac chimes in to clarify his intention.

      Delete
    7. mohsin27 August 2015 at 22:02

      Aakash is right in that I didn't add "potential" to accommodate the 'a'. It is for the surface.
      While it is redundant, the question is not whether the wordplay could do without 'potential', but whether 'potential offspring' reasonably points to son. I feel that it does. Others may not agree.

      Delete
  13. Richard27 August 2015 at 11:44

    If fairy joins the goddess in 4D, what would it add up to?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Lakshmi Vaidyanathan27 August 2015 at 11:53

    Nice CW Mac :) Didn't get 3D - New word for me !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi27 August 2015 at 12:10

      LV
      Now that you have come to know a new word, you must use it in conversation with anyone within the next 12 hours. You may, if you like, do it here in a Comment.

      Delete
  15. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 11:54

    It has to cross the language barrier too!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 11:55

    My11.54 was in response to Richard's 11.44. Beech me thoda hera fairy ho gaya.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 12:53

    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  18. Ramki Krishnan27 August 2015 at 13:23

    Lovely crossword, Mohsin! Liked 16D the best :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Aakash Sridhar27 August 2015 at 13:37

    Great puzzle Mac. :)

    ReplyDelete
  20. C.G. BHARGAV27 August 2015 at 15:56

    I made a resolution that I will use "sphacelate" in a sentence today. (Oh, didn't realise that I already used it in one!!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2015 at 16:06

      I'm sphacelated to know that you used sphacelate in a sentence!!!

      Delete
  21. Deepak Gopinath27 August 2015 at 16:04

    Reference my nephew Aakash's comment at 3:38 above regarding uncommon words. Let's take a poll.

    How many here have heard of SPHACELATE before?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Padmanabhan27 August 2015 at 16:40

    Not me.

    ReplyDelete
  23. jaggu27 August 2015 at 18:29

    I found SPHACELATE in Roget,s Thesaurus.Never heard the term before.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Suresh Panje, New Delhi27 August 2015 at 18:39

    Your comment on 15D about was truly witty...

    ReplyDelete
  25. raju umamaheswar27 August 2015 at 20:17

    I found SPHACELATE as a very rare word and Mac has dived deep into the ocean to cull this pearl !!

    I have no shame in confessing that I have never come across this word in any crossword before nor while searching for words in the dictionary or Thesaurus ever !! I was quite sphacelated !!

    ReplyDelete

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