ACROSS
1 Indication of cost of power, grain and gun withdrawn (5,3) PRICE TAG {P}{RICE} {GAT<=}
6 Puts a limit on headgear (4) CAPS [DD]
9 Sailor goes after woman — a divine form (6) AVATAR {AVA}{TAR}
10 Aglow, that man takes turn for drug (7) LITHIUM {LIT}{HI{U}M}
13 Advice to loiterers summons Golan (4,5) MOVE ALONG {GOLAN}* [RA]
14 Having toiled, make use of its heart (5) AVAIL
15 Yet no time for what's outside the window (4) SILL S
16 Urge in favour of old fellow's copy for print run (5,5) PRESS PROOF {PRESS} {PRO}{O}{F}
19 Spry line-up — an arrangement that's not likely to skid (10) UNSLIPPERY*
21 Western wing's sympathetic (4) WARM {W}{ARM}
24 Boy — one boy — one in need of legal defence (5) ALIBI {ALI}{1}{B}{1}
25 Partial or total transformation of birds of prey (9) RAPTORIAL*
26 Hint kin's crazy for fish (7) INKLING {KIN*}{LING}
27 Not that they act more and more in films (6) EXTRAS [CD]
28 Are excited about zoophilist's first book (4) EZRA {E{Z
29 Broadcast, passed on around, is rejected (8) DISOWNED {DI{SOWN}ED}
DOWN
2 Comeback on test beginning to lag (7) REVIVAL {RE}{VIVA}{L
3 Farm labourer's vehicle contains books about origin of tillage (6) COTTAR {C{OT}{T
4 Engine trouble having worsened, the French withdraw support (9) TURBOPROP {TROUB
5 Girl, primarily upright, meets another girl rising in prison (5) GULAG {G}{U
7 Activist run out — played restlessly (7) AGITATO AGITATO
8 One that is relatively uncomplicated (6,6) SIMPLE FAMILY [CD]
11 Mother in unfamiliar parts takes a hike (6) TRAMPS {TRA{M}PS*}
12 Deprived of strength, copper's relative not on — same degeneration ahead (12) EMASCULATIVE {SAME*}{CU}{
17 Parts falling off lowlier sort of beachwear (9) STRAPLESS {PARTS*}{LESS}
18 Short piece, variety falling short — one beachwear (6) BIKINI {BI
20 With small heart, he's a persistent person (7) STICKER {S}{TICKER}
22 Put life into main tea break (7) ANIMATE*
23 Savvy town's new leaders fall down to act the toady (6) KOWTOW {K
25 Cool, no female is steely (5) RIGID
GRID
Bhargav's Talepiece
The bouncer and the dancer - Part 99
Gombu as we know was a man who wore many CAPS and residents got an INKLING of this as he was all set in his new AVATAR as a businessman to MOVE ALONG opening a swimming pool with WARM water and UNSLIPPERY tiles all around. It was an indoor pool and housed it in was a shop selling STRAPLESS BIKINIS and other swimwear accessories.
Residents were happy to see the low PRICE TAGS and that they could AVAIL some EXTRAS and a
10% discount in the opening week of the facility.
What happened next?
14a IMU, make use is the def. Make use of travailed heart.
ReplyDeletedoesn't the "definition" generally appear in the beginning or end of the clue?
DeleteYES, GENERALLY. but the comma and "its" makes it necessary to reread by adjusting the sentence as a whole.
Delete24a typo in anno!
ReplyDeleteCorrected
DeleteCV Sir,
ReplyDeleteAgitato and agitator share the same root, I think
17a lowlier (hollower, hollow out) is part of def, in my understanding
ReplyDelete17A) IMHO
DeleteDef: sort of beachwear;
LESS from lowlier
reversal indicator = falling off;
anno: {PARTS<=}{LESS}
LOWLY->LOWLIER?
DeletePresume lowlier is used for better surface reading.
DeleteIf lowlier is a part of the definition, then we will not get LESS from the WP.
off is less
DeleteThanks, CA. Will study it.
ReplyDeleteRoot problem-Can someone explain? Also throw some light on how not use it in clueing?
ReplyDelete+1;
DeleteAgitato(answer) and agitator(fodder-from which we get the answer) both share the same root(italian & Latin agitare). It is considered not very stylish(though not wrong) to use such words sharing same roots. If the clue were to use A+GI+TA+TO or any other wp it would have been fine.
DeleteThanks Vasant for enlightenment on cluing norms.
DeleteA very interesting article in Crossword Unclued on this subject:
Deletehttp://www.crosswordunclued.com/2016/04/definition-wordplay-etymology-crossover.html%3Fm%3D1&lc=en-IN&s=1&m=926&ts=1534135499&sig=AIvIYWKLZmF9Z0xyaeLaKJSZi8OyHrQDng
Today's tale piece question: What happened next?
ReplyDelete100th episode!A landmark undoubtedly!
Now and then discussion takes place here on the roots issue in crossword clues. Let me raise another issue. Suppose we have to write a clue for TEST MATCH, is it OK to search for synonyms for each of these words and write a clue, say, "Try striker in Chepauk international (4,5)"? Shouldn't we get a word breakup like T est Ma T ch or something like that and write a clue? With unwieldy breakups we may not be able to write an elegant clue. Yet the test + match breakup and handling it seems not quite satisfactory. Yet we see that kind of clues in published UK and Indian crosswords.
ReplyDeleteSir, the article quoted above gives a lot of food for thought. One of the comments in the article by Shyam would perhaps answer your questions. I quote
DeleteI think a key point in this discussion relates to how the wordplay components are defined. A clue for SPACESHIP can be a charade of SPACE and SHIP, but both SPACE and SHIP must be defined differently from 'outer space' and 'vehicle' respectively ('blank', and 'despatch' might do). Another example is that of TORCHLIGHT which can be effectively clued as TORCH+LIGHT, as the two words have other meanings not related to a torchlight.
My second point is that to judge a clue, we need the bigger picture on what the overall surface story is. LAMELY clued as "Def 1 of LAME; Def 2 of LAME; lazy, exhausted" is a (er) lame clue; however if the non-intersecting word can be worked well to make an (semi)&-lit (eg BABY in LULLABY), then the clue may not turn out to be so bad after all.
tl,dr: Don't judge a clue merely by its etymological cleavage!
Unquote.
i go by cccf. (conceptual clarity and contextual familiarity). considering we are discussing "Cryptic" crosswords, we are looking at a main line an a loop line (so to speak in railway terminology). let us say ABCD is main station and AEFD is loop line. ABCD is definition and AEFD is wp. no fun really if WP is also AB-BD or AC-C or ab-bc-cd, unless there is a loop line between atleast one of them.My view.
Deletesree_sree: How do you CCCF your hyphenated or is it under_scored name ? New concepts need to be clarified in terms of context to get familiarized by all !
Deleteor am I using a sledge-hammer to crack the cryptic ?
i am "sree ram" and the better half is "rupa sree", and my fav telugu poet is "sree sree"(aka sreerangam srinivasarao).
Deletehe was sledge hammer guy.
DeleteGridman is my favourite. However today I felt his clueing a bit of a disappointment. Tomorrow is another day.
ReplyDeleteMaradnusro: Har din nahin ek samaan !! so is the case for GRIDman !
DeleteIt seems 'root' has deep roots!
ReplyDeleteBest Wishes to CGK to complete his century in style and tomorrow itself (if time permits)
Paddy: You need to have deep roots for a firm torso !
Delete