Friday 3 December 2021

No 13418, Friday 03 Dec 2021, WrdPlougher

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS ONLY

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PLEASE NOTE, SOLUTIONS WITHOUT ATTEMPTING THE ANNOTATIONS WILL BE DELETED

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Thanks for the response, here's the regular blog.

ACROSS
1   For some time, unminded child is wonderstruck (6) AWHILE {cHILd} {in AWE} 
4   Look after toilet — needed extremely to complete unfinished business (5,3) LOOSE END {SEE}<=>{LOO} and {Ne..eD}
9   Lucy not posh, enjoys period western tradition (6) LEGACY {Lu{AGE<=}CY}
10 Versatile band without frontman touring globe limitlessly, returning to join large university (3-5) ALL-ROUND {bA{L}{wORLd<=}{U}ND}
12 FiancĂŠe too cool to care about heartless cheat (8) INTENDED {IN}{TEN{DupE}D}
13 Idea’s to step out of street quietly on this (6) TIPTOE {TIP}{TO+stEp} Semi&lit
15 In a safe place, just one final stretch (4,8) HOME STRAIGHT {HOME}{STRAIGHT}
18 A rascal steals luxury car, beaming idiotically, checking out car’s interior all over — disgraceful (12) EMBARRASSING {BEaMING}* over {A}{RR}{ASS}
21 Sick of leaving essential members out (6) AILING bAILING
22 More than a major fuss over having no extrinsic value, getting in a state (8) COLORADO {COL}{OveR}{ADO}
24 Duty to exchange farewells around 10, best to return (8) TAXATION {TA{X}<=>AT}{NO1<=}
25 Classes conducted in return at arts school (6) STRATA [T<=] 
26 Dominates run at first, on the heels of Usain Bolt, trails coming in, loses heat (8) CONTROLS {CO{u..iN}{bolT}{Run}OLS}
27 Eastern position (6) ORIENT [DD]

DOWN
1   Nothing left in Bizarro World, OK? (3,5) ALL RIGHT [C&DD]
2   Almost too late to strike? Good heavens! Commencing in one minute, exclusively (4,4) HIGH TIME {HI{G}{He...s}T}{1}{Mi...tE}
3   Few more unwisely ingesting drug, leaving den, wandering around, on about Church spawning spineless demon? (4,4,7) LOCH NESS MONSTER  {L{O{CH}N}ESS}{MO{NeST}ER*}
5   Stare at one girl, starting to gaze lasciviously without hesitation (4) OGLE {One}{Girl}{LEer}
6   Sophisticated theorists hog art, getting to honest person (8,7) STRAIGHT SHOOTER*
7   Compare quarterly runs — railway disregarded digital advancement (6) EQUATE {QUArTErly}*<=>{E}
8   Actor overpowering two directors, holding sway (6) DODDER {DO{D}{D}ER}
11 Riot control agent curbing a great disorderly situation at the outset (4,3) TEAR GAS {A+GREAT}*{Si...n}
14 Love returned briefly, having sex; rift ensues halfway, leading to bitterness (7) VITRIOL {eV{IT}{RIft}OL<=}
16 Stray pooch lapped up Oreos initially; is driven out — wagging tail, keen to go back inside (8) DIVAGATE {D{AVId<=}oG}{ATE} 
17 No rating, stupid, for the uneducated (8) IGNORANT*
19 Briefly taste, sipping creamy starter inside tiny vat of milk (6) LACTIC {L{vA{Cr...y}T}ICk}
20 Oddly, felon to bury the hatchet, to be fair (6) FLAXEN {FeL{AXE}oN}
23 Clipped folder contains zip sheet (4) FOIL {F{O}ILe}

Reference List
Posh = U, Large = L, University = U, Quietly = P, Luxury car = RR, Good = G, Drug = E, Church = CH, Girl = G, Raiway = RLY, Digital = E,  Director = D, Sex = IT 


TalePiece
By Dr RKE

“ALL RIGHT, boys, we are on the HOME STRAIGHT now. It is HIGH TIME we tied up all the LOOSE ENDs and delivered this TAXATION software on the INTENDED date” said Jackie Davies, the Project Manager. She was giving a pep talk to her underlings from her 36th floor office in 17th Street District of Denver, COLORADO. Brushing her FLAXEN hair from her forehead, she declared “we cannot face another EMBARRASSING fiasco, as happened the last time. You mess this up and HR will be handing you the pink slips”. Wasn’t she a STRAIGHT SHOOTER?

At this moment Pankaj Gupta TIPTOED into the office. People in the room braced themselves for the VITRIOL Jackie was going to pour on him for being late to her scrum, but he held his left thumb up and clutched an open laptop in his left hand like a FOIL suggesting that he had something up his sleeve. He started off with a long-winded intro, as ORIENTals were wont to do, but the impatient Jackie snapped “Don’t you DIVAGATE, Gupta. No one here is IGNORANT of the bug in our software. Come to the point, have you caught the LOCH NESS MONSTER?” PMs are least bit interested in how things are done- they only want results. Gupta plugged his laptop to the LCD projector, as he made a mental note to look up what a Loch Ness monster was. You know these Indian computer brains are brimming with software and stuff that there is hardly any space for trivia like these.

As he ran through his presentation, in the next 3 minutes, everyone in the room knew that he had aced it, living up to the LEGACY of his training at IIT, Bombay. An ALL-ROUND applause followed. This was the best time to get what Gupta wanted most, a 3 week-off to visit his AILING, DODDERing grandmother in Jaipur. After all, wasn’t she the only one who had reposed faith in her Pankaj, when his own parents had given up on him? She had spurred him to rise above the STRATA of the society they belonged to and go to “Amreeka”. Jackie, who knew the ins and outs of her team, announced “Gupta is going to India tomorrow”. Gupta’s face lit up. But then the wily Jackie added “make no mistake, he still CONTROLS the further development of this project from his home there”.  The deflated Gupta knew this EQUATEd to working all night from India to keep up with the time difference. PMs everywhere are known to take more than what they give and Jackie was a master at this.

116 comments:

  1. Kindly read my tale piece from last night.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 1dn ALL RIGHT. [CD and DD]
    4ac LOOSE END. {LOO}{SEE}{NeedeD}
    6dn STRAIGHT SHOOTER. {THEORIES HOG ART}*
    27ac ORIENT [DD]
    17dn IGNORANT. {NO RATING}*

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1dn nothing left on its own cryptically mean all right but i think "bizarro world" makes it charade.

      Delete
  3. 22A: COLORADO - a state
    Color - having no intrinsic value🤔
    Ado - fuss
    {color}{ado}
    25A: STRATA - classes [RT]
    6D: STRAIGHT SHOOTER - honest person
    {theorists hog art}
    17D: IGNORANT - uneducated
    {no rating}*
    20D: FLAXEN - fair
    Oddly felon - f,l,n
    hatchet - axe
    {fl(axe)n}

    ReplyDelete
  4. 11A: TEAR GAS - riot control agent
    {a great*}{s}

    ReplyDelete
  5. 5D: OGLE - stare at
    One girl starting - o,g
    gaze without hesitation: leer - er
    {o g le}

    ReplyDelete
  6. 14 d vitriol lov(e)<<<^, sex =it ri(ft) half way

    ReplyDelete
  7. 27 a Orient
    Orient is to position and Eastern as well

    ReplyDelete
  8. The clues, particularly because of their length, looked daunting. Could complete the puzzle, however, in my standard time going more by the definition than after parsing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks to the blog could somewhat annotate the clues. This setter has a different style of setting got to get used to it.

      Delete
    2. You are being polite and diplomatic.Most are contrived and clumsy and lacks any intellectual heft and many can be,solved by definitions.Probably wrdplougher has to work harder.

      Delete
  9. 22A COLORADO

    More than a Major = (COL)onel, over having no extrinsic value (over - ve) = OR, fuss = ADO

    ReplyDelete
  10. Replies
    1. Correct. But needs elaboration.

      Delete
    2. unminded Child= (-c)HIL(-d) in Awe.
      Wonderstruck=in awe.

      Delete
    3. @JB unminded is unescorted .
      So c and d go. Gil remains

      Delete
    4. @JB unminded is unescorted. So c and d go.
      HIL remains

      Delete
    5. Only the setter can tell :-)

      Delete
    6. looks like for the removal of both ends. Unminded= open,free,not covered?

      Delete
  11. 12A INTENDED; fiancee; {IN}{TEN{DeceivE}D}

    ReplyDelete
  12. 15a HOME STRAIGHT : a final stretch in race course
    In: home, a safe place
    Just : straight

    ReplyDelete
  13. 9A - LEGACY - LUCY not posh = LCY (LUCY -U) period = AGE, western = reversal indicator, tradition=meaning
    8D - DODDER - Actor = DOER, two directors = DD, sway = meaning
    26A - CONTROLS - run at first = R, heels of Usain Bolt = NT, loses heat = COOLS, dominates=meaning

    ReplyDelete
  14. 8D – (DO(DD)ER)
    Actor – Doer ; Two Directors - DD
    Sway – walk unsteadily

    ReplyDelete
  15. 18a: EMBARRASSING: disgraceful
    Beaming idiotically is beaming*
    Emba ing
    Luxury car: RR
    Rascal ASS
    EMBA(RR)(ASS)ING

    ReplyDelete
  16. Replies
    1. Not sure about anno!
      Happy if someone can enlighten me!

      Delete
    2. Is exclusively supposed to be the containment indicator? Then how do we take M.&E from minute?

      Delete
    3. That's the problem. Hence the doubt!!

      Delete
    4. Could it it be ME from moMEnt = Minute

      Delete
    5. Exclusively for the setter denotes (Like one across, unminded) to take the first and last letters.

      Delete
    6. exclusively:not including others would work with moment.
      unminded:ungaurded

      Delete
  17. 24A: TAXATION:TA(X)<>AT+(NO I<)
    Exchange Farewells=TATA put as TA AT?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good one Vasant.
      I had it as FF for farewells,No.1 as AI,but could not proceed further.

      Delete
    2. Yep excellent Annotation. But is duty = tax or taxation?

      Delete
    3. Taxation also defined as An assessed amount of tax.

      Delete
  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 3d loch nose(?) monster is incorrect

      Delete
    2. Deleted as no annotation given. Name also not mentioned

      Delete
  19. 7d - EQUATE - (e)qua(-r)te(-rly) runs (r) — railway - (rly) disregarded
    E- digital advancement.

    I have a bit down in anno.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 10A. Versatile =ALL ROUND. BAND-B. ORB-B<=.Large.University. A(L)(L)(RO)(U)ND.
    21A. Sick = AILING. Leaving - bailing - b, mem B ers.

    ReplyDelete
  21. 7dn equate compar equarterly minus r rly for railway

    ReplyDelete
  22. 16d DIVAGATE; Stray=def. Pooch-Dog, Oreos initially is O and it is driven out; D(-o)G; keen - AVID wagging tail keen is AVI to go back inside D(IVA<-)G, lapped up - ATE, D(IVA)G ATE

    ReplyDelete
  23. To be solved
    Across - 10, 13
    Down - 3, 19, 23

    ReplyDelete
  24. 23Dn. Foil = defn. Sheet. Anno. Clipped folder File minus e. Containing, 0 (zero for zip as in nada)
    19Dn. Lactic = defn. Of milk. Anno Briefly taste = Lick minus k. Containing c (creamy starter) inside At (tiny - vat minus v)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 13Ac Tiptoe - idea is tip plus to and e (step minus street and quiet)

      Delete
    2. Missed definition. It is 'on this' as 'on tiptoe' as in quietly stepping out

      Delete
    3. W.r.t 19dn, iam not 100% sure about At being tiny Vat but couldn't think of anything more appropriate

      Delete
    4. Ok..when put this way..since it's a 3 letter word, this vat, it's tricky

      Delete
    5. Nice one. but clue is bit complicated. lot of permutations and combination shall required.

      Delete
  25. 10Ac - ALL ROUND - versatile
    ((B)AND +(W) ORL(D) +L U)*
    Globe - World

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok And around L U with anagram of ORL
      A+ L (ORL)*U + ND

      Delete
    2. A + L (ORL 《)U + ND
      reverse. I meant that. But by mistake wrote anagram.

      Delete
  26. 13D

    LOCH NESS MONSTER def: demon

    L (O (CH) N) ESS MO (NEST-E) ER*

    Few = LESS

    ON around CH church

    MORE unwisely = MOER

    around NEST den - E drug

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Very nice. Must have been a chore to annotate this, if u were on mobile :-)

      Delete
    3. that seems to be in style. plough rather than solve!

      Delete
  27. The match began after AWHILE. Both teams made changes as some key players were AILING. India began very well and grasped the CONTROLS. It was HIGH TIME an Indian opening pair scored a 100 for no loss, an event now as rare as sighting the LOCH NESS MONSTER, but it was not to be! Ajax Patel proved the ideal FOIL as he from the LOOSE END dislodged the well set opener and hapless Pujara who walked back like a DODDER. His 3rd wicket was EMBARRASSING to the host captain making his comeback. The close decision given by the field umpire a STRAIGHT SHOOTER stirred a bit of TEAR GAS too. The skip seemed to OGLE at the umpire but it did look ALL RIGHT in the replayed footage. Hopefully will not be VITRIOLic. Shreyas on his HOME STRAIGHT was next he walking in TIPTOE smoothly EQUATEd the balance. The players are now off for tea and LACTIC restoratives with a STRATA of ORIENTal snacks INTENDED to provide nourishment and energy for the expected TAXATION in the rest of the day's play. We are going to see stirring action ALL ROUND.

    My attempt at a tale piece nowhere close to Gowri and Dr RKE. Waiting for their combo tale tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 👋👋You are giving CGB, Gowri and me a tough competition

      Delete
    2. 🙏

      No such intent, a one off ocassion when I solved in the day. Thanks

      Delete
    3. Wow! That too from today's test match!

      Delete
  28. Your tale is just off the press- breaking news,as they call it. Most topical.
    As I said earlier- more the merrier. We are happy.

    ReplyDelete
  29. So all of us put together ploughed through today's CW. We seem to need a power till.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. The day's work of collective comes to an end finally.

      Delete
    2. This is cruel. Really!! For a Friday, this setter is not the one. I miss the old days.

      Delete
  30. Compared to this setter, X Chequer’s must look like a walk in the park! Congrats to the solvers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Comparing XChequer to this setter is not fair..XC's puzzles are fair, clues taut, surfaces impeccable ...not something you would associate with this setter

      Delete
  31. Poof. That was tough. I got many words- but couldnt parse them. I feel like such a NOVICE all over again. ☹️

    ReplyDelete
  32. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  33. A HARD LESSON!

    Bill Harvey was at a LOOSE END this weekend. With FLAXEN hair, blue eyes & looks to kill for, he was American Society's latest play boy. Inheriting a LEGACY, that could last for a couple of generations more & a temperament akin to a LOCH NESS MONSTER, work was the last thought to enter his mind, ever.

    He just wanted a different experience, every day. So he decided to gate crash the Opening day party of the latest Broadway play, somewhat strangely called 'The TEAR GAS affair'.

    No sooner had he crossed the threshold, the OGLING female population DIVAGATED towards him. STRAIGHT SHOOTER that he was, he shamelessly flirted with half a dozen gals at a time. But it was the ORIENTal beauty, who captured his attention. Pity, she was wearing glasses, thus effectively avoiding eye contact with him. Else he would have shot his HOME STRAIGHT long back.

    No one bothered to introduce them. He was completely IGNORANT of her identity. She had an air of authority & looked different in her casual arty clothes. She was also, obviously, from a completely different STRATA of society.

    After AWHILE, thinking it was HIGH TIME, he marched up to her & announced - 'ALL RIGHT! I bet you know who I am. Just tell me who you are? Then I shall get you a drink. Or are you going to stick to that LACTIC stuff all evening?' She gave him a VITRIOLIC blank stare.

    Enraged he barked - 'Let us cut the chase & take to the floor.' So saying, he grabbed her hand & pulled her towards himself, in an attempt to start a dance.

    Pulling her hand away, she said - 'Sure you know who I am. I prosecuted you for your TAXATION violations 5 years back, when you seemed to have no CONTROL over your spendings. I worked for the IRS then. I work for the Government now. I happen to be the Vice President of USA.'

    Her cutting remarks had their INTENDED effect. Oh My God! He had not recognised her. He couldn't believe himself.

    With his AILING ego EMBARRASSED, beyond belief, he looked ALL ROUND, as the bevy of hanging females DODDERED back a step or two. For good measure, she added - You may have the perfect FOIL of great looks & stinking riches. But never make the mistake of EQUATING all women with the same scales.

    So saying, she TIP TOED, as far away as possible from him to continue the party with her circle of trusted friends.

    ReplyDelete
  34. 👋👋 shows you can't mess
    With a woman like Harris

    ReplyDelete
  35. Doctor - i will wait for Part 1 of the tale tomorrow. 🤞

    ReplyDelete
  36. Just one question - OVER without extrinsic value should be OVER -OR?
    OVER - VE should be without intrinsic value? Kindly clarify.

    ReplyDelete

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