Thursday 9 August 2018

No 12391, Thursday 09 Aug 2018, Aspartame


ACROSS
6   A girl takes man to country (7) AMERICA {A}{M}{ERICA}
7   6 hearts individual pulls out is deciphered by seers (7) CAMERAS {AMERiCA}*{S} Where does 'S' come from? Hearts as AInd?
9   Stir-fry made, sold outside railway — that's never seen before (5) FIRST {STIR+Fry}*
10 Neither graduate managed to sleep (9) HIBERNATE {NEITHER+BA}*
11 No getting in between police officer and comrade — will get snubbed (7) IGNORED {IG}{NO}{RED}
13 Left in war? This becomes an option (6) FLIGHT {F{L}IGHT} Semi&lit
15 Car, at midnight, departed supernaturally to roam around junction without human intervention (13) AUTOMATICALLY {AUTO}{MAg{T}ICALLY}
19 The in-fighting is caused primarily by racial matters (6) ETHNIC {THE+IN}*{Ca...d}
20 Moving closer to drunkard from behind to protect minor (7) TOWARDS {TO{WARD}S<=}
23 Important to have sex appeal and at heart, being very simple (9) PRIMITIVE {PRIM{IT}{beIng}{V}E}
24 On it, atma can be taken to South Korean capital (5) R?D?O (Addendum - RADIO (atma = soul ~ seoul) - See comments)
26 Princess's act is reportedly absent (7) DISTANT {DI}{STANT}(~ stint ?) Anno pending
27 Warning to move right to the end of extremely erotic scene (7) THEATRE {TH(-r)EAT(+r)R}{Er...c}

DOWN
1   Body parts said to be adjacent (4) NEAR (~ knee ear)
2   West Indian tern migrates around Christmas (6) WINTER {WI}{TERN*}
3   The duke entered vehicle beside a large church (9) CATHEDRAL {CA{THE}{D}R}{A}{L}
4   Dark area gets the Spanish lights primarily for protection (8) UMBRELLA {UMBR{EL}{Li...s}A}
5   Same as trigonal (10) TRIANGULAR [E]
 A beautiful female is in a relationship (6) AFFAIR {A}{F{F}AIR}
7   Accountants to buy big cars (4) CABS {CA{B}S}
8   Ship loads little model chocolates (6) SWEETS {S{WEE}{T}S}
12 Most arrogant leader gets ousted by knight whose antics are second to none (10) NAUGHTIEST (-h+n)NAUGHTIEST
14 Breaking into soldiers’ toilets to empty out contents of medicines (9) OINTMENTS {INTO*}{MEN}{To...tS}
16 Master is eccentric (8) ORIGINAL [DD]
17 Negotiated complicated Private Equity deal (6) LEAPED {PE+DEAL}*
18 A woman picked up gold on dry land (6) ASHORE {A}{SH{OR}E}
21 Informed study on intelligence agency gets pulled up (6) WARNED {DEN}{RAW}<=
22 Cant run? (4) TILT [DD]
25 Starts designing one turquoise salwar with speckles (4) DOTS Acrostic

GRID

17 comments:

  1. 26AC ACT=stunt reportedly in DI stant

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. STUNT and STANT are not homophones

      Delete
    2. American way of pronouncing
      https://dictionary.cambridge.org/pronunciation/english/stunt

      Delete
    3. Might have relied on Wordweb dict. It says distant as distunt

      Delete
  2. 26A) anno: {DI+STUNT~}; act=STUNT

    ReplyDelete
  3. 7A) anind is deciphered; S from last letter of hearts; presume last letter indicator is missing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hearts as in suit(match/change) is anind. Is deciphered 's. My understanding.

      Delete
  4. 24AC Guessed it to be radio with the available letters.
    But I thought the answer should be S[E]OUL. Atma is there to support the idea. Someone should enlighten me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Guess compiler had SEOUL in mind for the solution but it is not fitting the grid

      Delete
    2. 'On the radio' is the homophone indicator. Hence on the radio, (~soul) takes to 'seoul'

      Delete
    3. Fantastic Venkatesan. I am delighted to be enlightened

      Delete

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