Saturday 14 July 2018

No 12369, Saturday 14 Jul 2018, Gridman

Across

1. Draw near a very soft insect (8) APPROACH {A}{PP}{ROACH}
5. Generates small tools (6) SPAWNS {S}{PAWNS}
9. Group is right out of share (7) FACTION {FrACTION}
10. Upstart with average, limited means (7) PARVENU {PAR}{VENUe}
11. They make many a stiff preservation (9)  EMBALMERS (CD)
12. Where an Eskimo goes into — a police officer's washroom (5) IGLOO {IG}{LOO}
13. Cook some lunch effortlessly (4)  CHEF (T)
14. Official making many an impression authoritatively (5,4) STAMP USER (CD?)
17. Give an exaggerated picture and receive trouble in public (9) OVERPAINT {OVER{PAIN}T}
19. Indian spinach’s over, here’s palm starch (4) SAGO {SAG}{O}
23. Exercise high and get impish (5) PESKY {PE}{SKY}
24. Accept an increase and go away (4,1,4) TAKE A HIKE {TAKE}{A}{HIKE}
25. 1 is gone for pronouncedly rough retort (7) OUTDOOR {OUT}{~DOH} 1 down=Alfresco {OUT}{~RUDE<=} See comments
26. As a result, multi-coloured production ignored lurid Left (7) OUTCOME {MUlTiCOlOurEd}*
27. Plucks idlymust somehow go through some time (6) THRUMS {MUST*} around {HR}
28. Small boy rides happily without Indian haulers (8) SKIDDERS {S}{KID}{RiDES*}

Down

1. A student, almost new, gets company in the cool air (8) ALFRESCO {A}{L}{FRESh}{CO}
2. Father's guy is forgiving (7) PACABLE {PA}{CABLE}
3. Love one in part of colourful flier (6) ORIOLE {O}{R{I}OLE}

4. Can mere contracts get leading member of orchestra? Yes, in a way (13) CONCERTMASTER {MERE+CONTRACTS*}
6. Open-minded, each village officer embraces one university student (8) PERVIOUS {PER}{V{I}{O}{U}{S}
7. We go over the man's 'invention' in bike trick (7) WHEELIE {W{HE}E}{LIE}
8. Puts out nothing to royal in trance (6) STUPOR {PUTS*}{O}{R}
10. Now it's hardly heard when mails arrive (8,5) POSTMAN'S KNOCK (CD)
15. Caterpillar? My marrow's hit (4,4) ARMY WORM {MY+MARROW*}

16. How fish is served by boy — with not all offered (8) BONELESS {B}{ONE LESS}
18. Guest gets rotis served after 6 (7) VISITOR {VI}{ROTIS*}
20. A girl model is fat (7) ADIPOSE {A}[DI}{POSE}
21. French author promotes son: "Begin to blossom!" (6) SPROUT {(+S)PROU(-s)T}
22. Tangled from being crazy about railway official (6) MATTED {MA{TTE}D}

Reference List
Very soft=PP, Small=S, Right=R, Average=Par, Police officer=IG, Over=O, Exercise=PE, Left=L, Indian=I
Student=L, Company=Co, Love=O, One=I, Each=Per, Village Officer=VO, University=U, Student=S, Man=He, Royal=R, Boy=B, 6=VI, Girl=Di, Railway official=TTE


Colour/Font Scheme

DefinitionSolutionComponent lettersEmbedded links, Anagram IndicatorC/C indicatorReversal IndicatorHidden word IndicatorLetter Pick indicatorDeletion IndicatorHomophone IndicatorMovement IndicatorPositional IndicatorSubstitution, IndicatorLink/Connector, Extraneous

GRID
Bhargav's Talepiece

The bouncer and the dancer - Part 88

​All the money made Clement a vain man!

PARVENU Clement soon became IMPERVIOUS to criticism.

When customers were not prepared to TAKE A HIKE he increased the charges arguing that there was no competition.​

Instead of serving Roasted Brussels SPROUT with Pecans  he had his CHEF prepare SAGO soup and it was served with a fancy name: SAI MAI LOU.

He set up an OUTDOOR BBQ which hardly had any takers.

Contract with the Landscape company was not renewed and the lawn and much of the crops was damaged by ARMY WORMS.

A WHEELIE with his frequent APPROACH into the dance area turned out to be PESKY to the VISITORS.

Meanwhile SS strengthened his own FACTION.


What happened next?


20 comments:

  1. 25. 1 is gone for pronouncedly rough retort (7) OUTDOOR
    I read it as OUT + ROOD<< (ROOD = hp RUDE (pronouncedly rough) and "retort" as reversal ind)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. But I guess that could be a bit indirect

      Delete
    2. I saw it as {OUT}{DOOR}(~dour)

      Delete
    3. But dour is not "rough retort" right (adj vs noun). Dour = rough is okay

      Delete
    4. My intended anno is the same as Ramki's. Actually I wanted to rewrite the clue because there is also 1ac in this grid and if we use 1dn it is ugly. But I forgot even in the last-minute pre-publication checking.

      Delete
  2. Apologies to Gridman/Col. for jumping into this CW comment section with response to an older query
    I have responded to Esha_iitm's queries on Wednesday's CW. We can continue the discussion there or with Gridman/Col.'s permission continue to pollute this comment section with that discussion

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I thought your point wise reply to the queries/criticism was quite cogent.

      Delete
    2. tx ramesh for d reply, will post my counter in a while

      Delete
    3. Counter..................

      Delete
  3. Trust Gridman to bring in words like PACABLE & PERVIOUS ! one rarely cpome across these words in this form - more common is Placable and impervious.

    POSTMAN'S KNOCK has been replaced by doorbells at home and pings in computers !

    ReplyDelete
  4. CGB sir takes us for a ride on HONDA!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I searched and found THC 11901 (https://thehinducrosswordcorner.blogspot.com/2017/01/no-11901-wednesday-11-jan-2017.html) has the same theme as yours, with common words like archer, balance, twin, etc.. but I didn’t blame u, impossible to know unless a common the theme database is maintained

    Good surfaces do not need to be explained, they read natural. Since you insist on defending, here is my counter..

    11 Alarming an admin is not the same as alarming “a web”.. Cannot cut a larger sentence arbitrarily and expect to have meaning

    12, 16 East and State are not common last names, their usage is why the clues are weird. None of today’s Gridman clues use arbitrary proper nouns and none are weird.

    5 You can hold a horse’s reins or a horseshoe, but a horse? Unless you are speaking in the idiomatic sense which you are not. And what is exactly “half” normal, “quarter” normal etc? Which scale to measure that?

    7 Cannot find reference for “Simpler is one who gathers medicines.” Simpler as noun is archaic. Even otherwise, a simpler becoming a slave is why the clue is weird. Even for that weird explanation, the clue will have to be ’simpler’s owner’.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i meant thc theme database

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the response
      So the difference essentially is -
      Can a clue be a some part of a sentence or should it be phrase.
      Knowledgeable folks please chime in

      On 12 & 16, just because they are uncommon does not make them weird. That is the reason why East was capitalized

      On whether one can hold a horse or not, quite a few horse books talk about how to hold them. A quick google search should be sufficient to confirm.

      Delete
    3. BTW the theme words for No 11901 were CRABBY, RAMROD, EWER, BULL, SCORPION, CAPRICE, TWIN, BALANCE, LEONINE, VIRGO, ARCHERS

      Quite different from the list above so not sure what the objection is?

      Delete
    4. I think the discussion is not on technicalities. A crossword with a theme and a pangram..how many can create?
      We should appreciate the art of setting and clue writing..perhaps try to emulate. Nitpicking & carping is easy.

      Delete
    5. Another interesting tidbit.
      Several years ago we were regularly solving the ET crosswords in the ORKUT community. Once Ganesh ( Neyartha) finding many clues familiar googled and discovered that a complete set of crosswords were just repeatedly used. Once this was known we gave up..
      This is one downside of using the internet...Crosswords are at best enjoyed with pen and paper and just our brain!!

      Delete
  6. I am not entering into the debate but, for 'simpler', as one familiar with that meaning (I was - and am - a serious student of Eng Lit) let me cite
    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

    Simpler \Sim"pler\, n.
    One who collects simples, or medicinal plants; a herbalist; a
    simplist.
    [1913 Webster]

    ReplyDelete

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