Solution to 12A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular / novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.
Open for anyone to answer, if not solved by 1 PM.
ACROSS
1 Woman yearning to welcome love with firm, tight hug that's contagious (8,5) WHOOPING COUGH {W}{HO{O}PING}{CO}{HUG*}
8 Penniless family in street (5) SKINT {S{KIN}T}
9 Unpleasant member beginning to lose in board game (9) CHARMLESS {CH{ARM}{Lose}ESS}
11 Change criminal record (10) CONVERSION {CON}{VERSION}
14 Party wanting grants for states (7) NATIONS doNATIONS
17 Drunk woman beginning to entice? Told you! (2,5) SO THERE {SOT}{HER}{En...e}
22 Tumult across border with extremely close conflict (10) DIVERGENCE {DI{VERGE}N}{ClosE}
25 Aiming at great night out when husband's away (9) TARGETING {GREAT+NIGhT}*
26 Golf clubs kept by sir on sideboard (5) IRONS [T]
27 College girl stumped by tenet covering extremely gruelling concept in Marxist ideology (5,8) CLASS STRUGGLE {C}{LASS}{ST}{RU{Gr...nG}LE}
DOWN
2 It's worn on the head by one in Tehran perhaps (7) HAIRNET {HA{1}RNET*}
3 Where mountain climbers might be desperate (2,3,5) ON THE ROPES [DD]
4 Popular performers, mostly South American Indians (5) INCAS {IN}{CASt}
5 Good knock by member in county cricket club (9) GLAMORGAN {G}{LAM}{ORGAN}
6 Unit of electrical resistance close to ninety? Good heavens! (2,2) OH MY {OHM}{n...tY}
10 Complaint in the main is about kiss scenes, revolting (11) SEASICKNESS {A+KISS+SCENES}*
13 Urging to recruit RAW perhaps to find one listening secretly (10) EARWIGGING {E{RAW*}{1}GGING}
15 Names category without hesitation (9) SPECIFIES {SPEC{IF}IES}
Reference List
Woman = W, Afternoon = A, Party = DO, Yankee = Y, Leg = GAM, Husband = H, College = C, Stumped = ST, Popular = IN, Good = G, About = A, Black = B
I believe 12A Sunny (gay) afternoon in Indian city (4) {GAY}{A}
ReplyDeleteA for about, A for afternoon... I suppose I'll accept it.
Really enjoyed the solves on CHARMLESS, CONVERSION, and DIVERGENCE. Never heard of "Earwigging" but it was solvable anyway. Very fun puzzle, thanks Dr X
A doubt whats the role of "in"
DeleteA connector is needed for surface reading. Would you prefer "of"?
DeleteLinkword?
DeleteHow does it Link!
DeleteWithout the in it is incomplete
DeleteThats agreed Col but it should have some directional property to be a link word.
DeleteSince its a Doc x-y, i am searching for such meaning.
I could only find containers.
I took it as the WP is in the fodder( preceding words) to get the answer ( Indian City)
Deletewe used to annote PM for afternoon. but WP could not get.
DeleteI just got the anno. as 'Gay' for sunny. Hence, the afternoon may substitute as ;A'.
Delete(GAY)(A)
@vasant def in wp vs wp in def?
DeleteI am in agreement with Sree Sree regarding the use of "in" as linkword. As it is on the cusp of definition and wordplay, linkword should be fine here, but "in" has a directional meaning, specifically a unidirectional meaning, which cannot be reversed if the fodder is found to be on the wrong side of it.
DeleteWe find "Sunny afternoon" - Gay a- in Indian city.
DeleteI understand that sunny afternoons can be found in Gaya, but I also understand that a good cryptic clue (in the tradition of Azed and Ximines) contains 3 elements:
Delete1. a precise definition
2. a fair subsidiary indication
3. nothing else
This clue contains a precise definition, a fair subsidiary indication (if you accept that A = Afternoon), but also contains this stray "in" linkword that seems to obfuscate the intended parsing.
I'm surprised by the debate here. Filler words (linkwords) are pretty common in the cryptics I've solved, and "in" is absolutely one of them. I don't think it has much, if any meaning in the clue (though Padmanabhan's glib justification above is 100% good enough for me), but I also don't think it makes the clue parse any less cleanly. I read solutions like this as "Gaya in Gaya" which still has charm, feels tight, evokes a smile.
DeleteBut I'm a simple soul. I'm here to solve fun puzzles, not for traditional rules. I applaud any innovation and license on the part of setters, provided the clues are still solvable.
Chiming in on the directionality of "in" as a link word.
DeleteBut first, this: many a word and essay has been written about link words. People should read (the late and great) Alberich on the topic (https://web.archive.org/web/20220507234018/http://www.alberichcrosswords.com/pages/linkwds.html). If feeling indulgent, please also read my own write-up on cryptic grammar, which includes some notes about link words (https://gussalufz.com/writings/2023/cryptic-grammar-04-2023.html).
So, Alberich came around to the pov that "in" can only work in this direction: "[SOLUTION] in [WORDPLAY]" with the implicit sense of "in" being taken as "found in."
I have come to accept "in" going both ways, after interactions with lots of setters as well as editors at 1 Across (UK) and The Browser. THC editors have also never complained.
I think the other direction works by taking "in" in the sense of "seen/visible/observable in": "[WORDPLAY] (seen) in [SOLUTION]."
Note that the tense in the wordplay has to agree grammatically with the link word, in the cryptic reading (see my write-up for details).
Thats motherhood POV if we have to add verbs before and after to figure out direction.
DeleteAs cryptic as a charade of a fodder.
Link words better be not morphing into another "nothing else to work on so this...."
@Gussalufz I am in agreement with Alberich that directionality matters with "in" as a linkword. One of the problems any solver is trying to get at is, for any given clue, to find the precise boundary between definition and wordplay (or conclude that there is no boundary in the case of &lit clues).
DeleteWhat is a crossword clue if not a precise instruction for parsing wordplay to arrive at a definition, well-disguised as an ordinary English statement?
Given that "in" has special meaning in parsing wordplay, using it as a linkword in the "[WORDPLAY] in [DEFINITION]" direction should not be acceptable. This is because the wordplay is not necessarily seen in the definition. In this example, perhaps sunny afternoons are in fact seen "in" Gaya. In many other cases, wordplay is heavily obfuscated and may have nothing to do with the definition. In such cases, "in" cannot be accepted. In the general case, without knowing where the definition and wordplay intersect, a solver must assume that "in" is a parsing instruction as opposed to a linkword. Given this, a setter must assume that "in", while grammatically correct and even semantically correct on the surface, is likely to obfuscate their parsing instructions.
However, "[DEFINITION] in [WORDPLAY]" should be fine in all cases. This is because in all cases we are solving for the definition and we expect to find it in the wordplay.
A link word, if not providing any parsing value, should at least indicate equivalence of wordplay and definition, or directionality of the solution (eg. "for", "from", etc.). Otherwise it is unfairly ambiguous.
The linkword should not obfuscate the parsing of the clue by adding semantic meaning simply to make a grammatically correct surface reading.
DeleteDr.X is attracting new commenters with his enjoyable wordplay.
ReplyDeleteThe more the merrier!!
12A- I was struggling with AN for Afternoon š
ReplyDeleteI was trying with PM for afternoon. one of the challenging puzzle
DeleteChess comes in twice today- one moving and the other stationery!
ReplyDeleteSurely you mean stationAry paddy sir! Spotting typos must be my SECOND SIGHT.
DeleteNot mine obviously!!
DeleteCol, I missing in "species" in 15Dn
ReplyDeleteThanks, corrected
Delete23D. Eggar is a large brown moth but not a black moth (a large brownish moth which is often active during the day...Oxford Dictionary). Ofcourse, no nitpicking
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle today, again with the same grid and typically cheeky clues (eg. 10D). The biting iguana rears its head again, this time leaving the GUANACO alone and going after the GUARANI. The Doc makes good us of idioms in his puzzles (eg. 17A and 8D).
ReplyDeleteNumerous unusual words today, including EGGAR, EARWIGGING, SKINT and GAM as leg in 21A - however all had fair wordplay making them relatively straightforward to deduce.
@Sree Sree - regarding the clue you had posted last week, what is the solution? Some type of ship, presumably.
ReplyDeleteHulk's Hulk's Hulk! (7)
Wasnt it (5)?
DeleteThen my bad. Enu is 5
Titan ?
ReplyDeleteIt was 7. I thought TITANIC - though not sure about parsing.
ReplyDeleteTitan & titanic - hulk.
Where is the 3rd one?
From Marvel comics
DeleteHulk"s father is known as both Titan and hulk's hulk.
Thanx. The enu was also confusing. Since shown as 7.
DeleteNice grid. Didn't know GAM is leg.
ReplyDeleteLoved DIVERGENCE, GLAMORGAN & CLASS STRUGGLE.
Thanx Doc!