Wednesday, 22 January 2020

No 12838, Wednesday 22 Jan 2020, Skulldugger


ACROSS
1   Patience for American hard rock (9) SOLITAIRE [DD]
6   Image shared on the internet by two setters (4) MEME {ME}{ME}
8   Ruins buckets (8) SCUTTLES [DD]
9   Improve heartless children with therapy (6) ENRICH CHIldREN*
10 Explosive TV comic took a lot out of context (7,8) MOLOTOV COCKTAIL*
11 Exhausted priest dispatched boxes (5) SPENT {S{P}ENT}
13 Poems by Southern woman’s prefaced by scribble on the margins (8) S?S?I?A? (Addendum - SESTINAS {Sc...lE}{S}{TINA'S} - See comments)
15 Toothsome animal cooked, too damn tasteless in the end! (8) MASTODON {TOO+DAMN+t...eS}
18 Associates uncovered evidence of a fire (5) EMBER mEMBERs
20 On cloud nine? On the contrary! (5,3,7) UNDER THE WEATHER [CD]
23 After vacation, Malawi king has a party for old Japanese chief (6) MIKADO {Ma..wI}{K}{A}{DO}
24 Dandy’s flamboyance is showcased in headlights (8) FOGLAMPS {FO{GLAM}PS}
25 Murders posh folk with decapitation (4) OFFS tOFFS
26 Damask hem blotted out in silk-screen process for American mufflers (9) SILENCERS {SILk+SCREEN}*

DOWN
1   Oddball so normal in retrospect (5) SICKO {SIC}{OK<=}
2   Enable depressing anticlimax (7) LETDOWN {LET}{DOWN}
3   Idea, for example, held by hotel concierge (5) TELCO [T]
4   Creatures surrounded by wings (7) INSECTS Anno pending (Addendum - {IN}{SECTS} - See comments)
5   Drill duty binds regent (8) EXERCISE {EX{ER}CISE}
6   Red Cross censored matriarch’s new language (7) MARATHI MATRIArcH*
7   The maniac’s deranged scheme (9) MACHINATE*
12 Party in a suit! (9) PLAINTIFF [CD]
14 Insurrection leader’s underlying issues! (8) EDITIONS (-s)EDITION(+s)S
16 So great tampering with despicable people (7) TOERAGS*
17 Necessary to be vigilant for hospital close to prison (7) NEEDFUL (-h+n)NEEDFUL
19 Made up the name for a gas (7) METHANE*
21 Urge to get radically snogged without restraint (3,2) EGG ON sNOGGEd*
22 Shows screened by multiplex possibly (5) EXPOS [T]

Reference List
Priest = P, King = K, Party = DO, Dandy = FOP, So = SIC, Regent = R, Red Cross = RC, Hospital = H


30 comments:

  1. An engaging mental EXERCISE in this EDITION from SKULLDUGGER. SPENT 50 minutes and EGGed myself ON in spite of being UNDER THE WEATHER to do the NEEDFUL to complete the solving. Crossword solving is much like SOLITAIRE, you play solo but the difference is there is an invisible opponent; the setter's vile MACHINATions. Anyway,could ENRICH the vocabulary with rare words like SESTINAS and TOERAGS. MOLOTOV COCKTAIL was one bombshell of an anagram!

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  2. No clue to the parsing of 13A SESTINAS. It is a type of poem

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  3. 4d surrounded:inside:in, wings:sects

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  4. Ok got it. Thanks sree sree

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  5. Glad to have got the 2 long ones fast. Made the job much easier- not under the weather.

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  6. 4Dn IN SECTS
    Surrounded by=IN
    Wings=SECTS

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  7. Col, small correction in 5DN EX[ER]CISE

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  8. 24a def:showcased in headlights. Foglamos are not headlights perse.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed on the pr se part,but they are,if one may call so, used as headlamps in foggy weather- in other words part time headlamps!

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    2. Complementary usage. Not instead of!

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    3. Showcased is the cc indicator

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    4. 'S as has, IMU is the cc indicator.

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    5. Yes Col. I did not notice that.

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    6. Prasad,
      Dandy's = FOPS
      Col is correct about cc ind.

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  9. Struggled with this one. It was a bottom to top solve. Had to get all the crossings for Solitaire to fall. Struggled with Enrich and Machinate and cheated on Sestinas. Thanks to the blog and commenters for getting the parsings of many clues.

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  10. Why 'American' in 1A? As far as I know neither the card game nor the diamond have nothing American about them. The word is spelt the same way on both sides of the pond

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    Replies
    1. Probably we have to read "patience for American" as it is North American name for card game solitaire

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    2. Patience is the European name of the game known as solitaire in america/Canada.

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    3. Thanks KKR and sree sree

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  11. Excellent compiling.Enjoyed every bit. TOERAGS slotted in by inference.Thanks cranium cracker !

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  12. TV comic took a lot does not yield Molotov cocktail. There is an additional T instead of L. Kindly explain

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    Replies
    1. Yes - seems to be a problem of extra T and missing L in the fodder.

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    2. Appreciable observation Gowri!
      With the crossings, it was easy to spot the deadly molotov cocktail!
      I guess we were all lazy enough to verify the characters

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  13. Slow going today but happy to crack it fully without googling :) Got many through crossing letters. INSECTS, PLAINTIFF were favourites. Thanks Skulldugger!

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