Friday, 14 July 2023

No 13917, Friday 14 Jul 2023, Afterdark

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ACROSS
1   Look, when training cat, keep it hungry (6) ASPECT {AS}{PE}{CaT}
5   Sober single man disheartened (6) SOLEMN {SOLE}{MaN}
10 Supported a party, chose to ignore the leader (7) ADOPTED {A}{DO}{oPTED}
11 Concentrate on selection (7) EXTRACT [DD]
12 Contradict female's opinion (6) BELIEF {BELIE}{F}
15 Son advances 3 places with passion to get a garment (1-5) T-SHIRT {T(+s)SHIR(-s)T}
16 Flight for asylum... (7) RETREAT [DD]
17 ...has no return, flying over west and south (4) OWNS {O{W}N<=}{S}
18 A good journo is old (4) AGED {A}{G}{ED}
19 Fearlessly support Victor, bank on to dethrone leader (7) BRAVELY {BRA}{V}{rELY}
20 Bones are edible, tasty in the centre (4) RIBS {aRe}{edIBle}{taSty}
22 Can a boy take first lesson on second week (4) ABLE {A}{B}{Le...n}{wEek}
25 Decorate and shine removing the top with some fancywork (7) FURNISH (-b+f)FURNISH
27 Man dwells in the middle of the building of worship (6) CHAPEL {CHAP}{dwELls}
28 Propose dating app, primarily erotic removing one (6) TENDER T(-i+e)ENDER
31 Annoying work at a district (7) AWKWARD {WK} in {A}{WARD}
32 More irritated with earring breaking (7) ANGRIER*
33 Rest for mummies? Not one minute (6) OTHERS mOTHERS
34 Say, Sachin about to be replaced by one that's hostile (6) BITTER B(-a+i)ITTER 

DOWN
2   Inflamed quarter, forgotten with change of heart (7) SWOLLEN {SW}{OL(-d+l)LEN}
3   English to replace director? Indecision with choice, say (6) EITHER (-d+e)EITHER
4   Cutback is the trend (4) TIDE<=
5   Noticed in case English kept (4) SEEN [T]
6   Dined in house with tea according to report that is most recent (6) LATEST {L{ATE}S}{(~tea)T}
7   Purpose of renaming? Dropping republican in a shuffle (7) MEANING rENAMING*
8   Around morning, British baron procures eggs and a plant (6) BAMBOO {B}{AM}{B}{OO}
9   Announced cost at Edinburgh's hidden (6) STATED [T]
13 Afraid it's farfuel is leaking... (7) FEARFUL*
14 ...riding with medico on IV, ingood to begin with (7) DRIVING {DR}{IV}{Is}{No}{Good}
15 Everyone in trial is the most unbelievable (7) TALLEST {T{ALL}EST}
20 National in Carolina? No on moving (6) RACIAL CARoLInA*
21 Cover is empty, extremely emptiest (7) BLANKET {BLANK}{Em...sT}
23 Boy, somehow meet Di at 10 pm, perhaps (7) BEDTIME {B}{MEET+DI}*
24 Herr Orson hides mistakes (6) ERRORS [T]
25 Ironman has beer, becomes ladylike (6) FEMALE {FE}{M}{ALE}
26 Force gender change at the top in summit (6) HEIGHT (-f+he}HEIGHT 
29 Calculates when receiving demand draft (4) ADDS {A{DD}S}
30 Young animal to escape on top of boat (4) LAMB {LAM}{Boat}

Reference List
Training = PE, Party = DO, Female = F, Son = S, West = W, South = S, Good = G, Journo = ED, Support = BRA, Victor = V, Boy = B, Work = WK, Minute = M, About = A, Quarter = SW, English = E, Director = D, House = LS(Lok Sabha), Republican = R, British = B, Baron = B, Man = M, Demand draft = DD


61 comments:

  1. 5D. SEEN - telescopic ca(seEn)glish
    32A. ANGRIER - anagram of earring
    24D. ERRORS - telescopic H(err Or)son
    14D. DRIVING - DR (medico) on IV is NG (no good)

    ReplyDelete
  2. 9d- stated- announced, hidden in ( coST AT EDinburg)
    18a- aged- old ,A Good,journo is ED
    25d- female- Iron is FE,Man is MALE,also Ale is beer. (Iron man- FEM,beer - ALE)
    21d- blanket- cover ,empty- BLANK,,ET(extremely EmptiesT)
    20a-ribs-bones,(aRe edIBle,taSty) in the centre

    ReplyDelete
  3. 5a solemn single - SOLE and MAN- A
    27A CHAPEL from man - chap with el middle of dwell
    22a can -able from A Boy Lesson wEek
    12a Belief from contradict is belie with f of female

    ReplyDelete
  4. Three B's off to a flying start!

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  5. 5a solemn (Single sole, mn- man -disgeartened)

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  6. 27a chapel ( chap - man, el - middle of dwells)

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  7. 30d lamb ( lam - escape, b - top of boat)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "lam" - a new obscurity I learned today. Will keep it in my back pocket, for when I need to lam out of jail!

      Delete
    2. Or perhaps lam out of Bedlam

      Delete
    3. A slang from NAM, def needs an indication!

      Delete
  8. 20d racial ( Carolina, no 'on')

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Racial" and "national" don't necessarily mean the same thing. Two people of the same race can have different nationalities and vice versa.

      Delete
    2. As pong as a good english dictionary (British OED was considered bible and any other colloq needed an indication. But thats also being given up these days in fav of online sources from America).
      In this case OED gives nation as synonym fot race. So.....

      Delete
  9. 19A. BRAVELY - BRA(support) + V(victor) + ELY (bank on = RELY - R leader)

    ReplyDelete
  10. 3Dn EITHER - {(-d)(+E)ITHER}

    ReplyDelete
  11. 10a ADOPTED: supported
    A(a)DO(party)PTED(opted: chose -o) leader ignored

    ReplyDelete
  12. 34.a Sachin....batter
    A replaced by i
    Bitter...hostile

    ReplyDelete
  13. 15a T-SHIRT - garment
    passion - thirst
    's' (for son) moving 3 places left in thirst
    {t(+s)hir(-s)t}

    ReplyDelete
  14. 12a BELIEF: opinion
    BELIE(contradict)F(female)

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  16. 8D British(b) baron(b) around morning(am) procures eggs(oo)
    B(am)b(oo) - a plant

    ReplyDelete
  17. 15d, most unbelievable = tallest
    Everyone = all
    Trial = test
    Everyone in trial =
    [T (all) EST]

    34a, hostile = bitter
    Say, Sachin = hitter
    (H)ostile replaced with Be (b)

    11a, concentrate on selection = extract, DD

    29a, calculates = adds
    When receiving Demand draft is
    [A (DD) S ]

    31 a, annoying = awkward
    Annoying WorK = A wk
    District = ward

    ReplyDelete
  18. 34a hostile = bitter
    Day, Sachin = batter
    About = a
    One = I
    About to be replace with one

    ReplyDelete
  19. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 1ac aspect .
    when-as pe c(-a)t

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Missing in anno: PE is training ("Physical Education")

      Delete
  21. 6D dined(ate) in house(ls- lok sabha) with tea(t) that is most recent
    - Latest

    ReplyDelete
  22. 23d BEDTIME. (B)(MEET DI)*
    Boy:B. Somehow(anind) (MEET DI)*
    Definition : At 10 p.m. perhaps

    ReplyDelete
  23. 17A has : owns
    No return :on
    Over (w)est and (s)outh
    on+w+s:owns.
    33A rest:others
    Mummies :mothers
    Not one (m)inute
    Mothers-m:others
    7D purpise:meaning
    Renaming minus (r)epublican:meaning
    13D afraid: fearful
    Anagram of far and fuel

    ReplyDelete
  24. 25A decorate:furnish
    Shine:Burnish
    Replace top (B) with (F)ancywork.
    becomes furnish.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yet to be solved
    Across - 28
    Down - 2, 4, 26

    ReplyDelete
  26. 28a TENDER: propose
    T(-I+E)NDER
    Tinder is online dating app
    This is a replacement for 12a done at 8:04

    ReplyDelete
  27. 2d SWOLLEN = Inflamed
    SW = quarter
    Olden = forgotten, with change of d by l = OLLEN

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Did not understand how d is changed to l

      Delete
  28. 4D TIDE = trend; cut = edit, back is reversal indicator; so EDIT<==.

    ReplyDelete
  29. 26A summit:height
    My anno
    Force is weight
    Gender change at top: (W)oman changed to (h)e

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope. Bit more cryptic there.

      Delete
    2. Force - fight
      Gender change f to he?
      Height meaning summit🤔

      Delete
    3. Dr. ENT's solution seems to have more weight though.

      Delete
    4. Force is might.
      {(-m)(+he)height} ???

      Delete
    5. Dont think its that.

      I took it as weight->height. Wife to husband, gender change of the spouse.

      Delete
    6. @Sree Sree +1, this parsing that you have given does make sense. Although in my opinion the clue ought be more specific that it is a spouse that is changing gender.

      Delete
  30. Can someone kindly clarify anno for 2d, as explained by HR at 1213. How does d change to L and relevance to change of heart?

    ReplyDelete
  31. Coincidentally, 2d and 26d have 'change'

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  32. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  33. Overall better fare than usual from AD. Most interestingly, there was an unusual grid having 38 clues, 4 adjacent unchecks in 4 places, and many a 4-letter word. There were several well-worded clues (such as 5A, 12A, 18A, 29D), and certainly fewer "obscure" usages than in yesterday's grid.

    Perhaps it is a matter of aesthetic preference or taste, but the surface reading on some of the clues beg for improvements. In my opinion, the setter should take trouble to make the clues read as much as possible like English that is naturally used outside of cryptic crosswords. This adds another layer to the cryptic element of the puzzle, which is to spot which words have a double-meaning within the crossword context. I find that Dr. X regularly produces such clues that on their own hint at various suggestive happenings (usually involving husbands, wives and drugs) and may misdirect the solver's attention.

    For example, in 8D ("Around morning, British Baron procures eggs and a plant"), outside CW nobody would say they do something "around morning" (morning being a general time of day). Rather, we would use "around" to indicate a specific time, eg. "around 8AM in the morning". Similarly in 21D ("Cover is empty, extremely emptiest"), outside a CW it is grammatically redundant to say "extremely emptiest" as "emptiest" already implies a superlative or extreme quality. Similarly, there are numerous places where link-words are liberally used (eg. "of the" in 27A) which don't add any information related to the parsing, and in fact serve to obfuscate the solver's understanding of the intended parse. In 15A ("son advances 3 places with passion to get a garment"), passion is "Thirst" and the intended parse is for the S to move up front to make "t-shirt". It is more natural to say "son advances 3 places IN passion" for such a parsing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That wasn't quite economic. Very nice analysis. While some idiosyncrasies may seem symptomatic, they define THC. Some discrepancies have been appearing more often than desired as economizer pointed out. Just my two cents.

      Delete
    2. Good to see a detailed and logical (from your point) presentation.
      I just have two obs
      1. Unchecks? Can you point where specifically.
      2. The def of 27a
      Should be "of the building...."
      because chapel is a place of worship in a building and not the building per se.

      I agree on "around morning", " Extremely emptiest" . Even with (it is being used unchecked)..

      Delete
    3. @Sree Sree,
      1. My mistake. I meant "4 adjacent checks in 4 positions". I am referring specifically to the areas around 13/16, 15, 25, and 26/28. Having 4 checks in such a configuration is quite uncommon in cryptics, although frequently seen in American-style crosswords like NYT.
      2. If a chapel is not the building itself, but rather a part of a building of worship, then shouldn't the definition be something like "room of worship" rather than "of the building of worship"?

      Delete
    4. 1. Totally agree that its not a typical THC grid.
      Technically correct grid but just so avoiding islands. (Just 2 gat's)
      2. Again area/room of worship is always better but "of the..." Is not incorrect.

      Delete
    5. How is "of the" useful in differentiating between a building of worship and a room within a building of worship?

      Delete
  34. Nice grid with some nice clues.
    My fav - SOLEMN, AWKWARD, EITHER.
    Thanx AD

    ReplyDelete

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