Saturday 5 August 2023

No 13936, Saturday 05 Aug 2023, Arden

ACROSS
1   Pageantries, made up or make up? (6,5) GREASEPAINT*
7   Bag of starch picked regularly (3) SAC StArCh
9   Live in the valley, drinking whiskey (5) DWELL {D{W}ELL}
10 Have a blast with a party, it's a matter of taste (9) GUSTATORY {GUST}{A}{TORY}
11 Picks up money outside practice (9) REHEARSAL {RE{HEARS}AL}
12 Sharp turnover of public transport (5) SMART<=
13 Partners adopt orphan girl as caretakers (7) NANNIES {N}{ANNIE}{S}
15 Nobody for the opponents to take on (4) NONE {N}{ON}{E}
18 Only discharge work (4) OPUS {O}{PUS}
20 Go for recognised player, they say (7) PROCEED {PRO}{(~seed)CEED)
23 Boxing team- our display of love (5) AMOUR [T]
24 Misplaced glory etched in stone of sorts, it's much sought after (4,5) HOLY GRAIL {GLORY}* in {HAIL}
26 Man and wife, one from the Northern islands (9) HEBRIDEAN {HE}{BRIDE}{AN}
27 Global Times featuring mountain people (5) BALTI [T]
28 Chennai once was half crazy (3) MAD MADras
29 Long comical soap opera, finally medic comes in with one of his instruments (11) LAPAROSCOPE  {L}{SOAP+OPERA}* over {m..iC}

DOWN
1   Correct, and agree it's something to do with headlong rush (8) GADARENE*
2   Neat arrangement, getting help perhaps from a Jumbo (8) ELEPHANT {NEAT}* over {HELP*}
3   Twice as large in the middle to set up a dance... (5) SALSA {AS}{L}{AS}<=
4   ...as we support stake for a horse (7) PEGASUS {AS}{US}<=>{PEG}
5   Slight shortage in vital hormone (7) INSULIN {INSULt}{IN}
6   Money to procure organs, to come under attacks (5,4) TEARS INTO {T{EARS}IN}{TO}
7   "End of dynasties" - people in India with a new battle cry (6) SLOGAN {d...eS}{LOG}{A}{N}
8   Animal quiet with broken toe (6) COYOTE {COY}{TOE*}
14 Just ties in to become anti-imperialist (9) IMPARTIAL {Anti+iMPeRIALIsT}* [CA]
16 Built so large, one enters the harem (8) SERAGLIO {SO+LARGE}* over {1}
17 Ventured into a river in Australia (8) ADELAIDE {A}{DE{LAID}E}
19 Leaders say can provide help shift inside, so haul it (7) SCHLEPP  {Say}{Can}{Pr...e} over {HELP}*
20 Give rise to mistake, beer taken regularly is still a beer (7) PILSNER {SLIP<=}N{bEeR} N from?
21 Comprehend a well upholstered home, in short (6) FATHOM {FAT}{HOMe}
22 Supporting an offer? Deny (6) FORBID {FOR}{BID}
25 Taunts as soldiers get to live (5) GIBES {GI{BE}S}

Reference List
Whiskey = W, Partners = N,S, Opponets = N,E, Only = O, Long = L, Large = L, New = N

36 comments:

  1. 20d guessing its....
    Beer regularly taken......

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can't understand what you're saying

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    2. Prasad, although your guess is innovative, I am afraid its location, particularly before "regularly" is not very logical. I prefer to wait for Arden's thoughts.

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    3. Thats why i put (rewrote) regular before. The clue as it is not in correct order.

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    4. Even that is wrong. It has to go after slip<=

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    5. After taking a few PILSNERS and making one or two SLIPs and ERs, perhaps the uninvited N, having crashed the party, will seem like it is a lifelong friend.

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    6. @kkr (pils, er ) take n.

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    7. I think the best solution is given by @sree sree at 8:43 although with a change of order. 👍

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  2. Replies
    1. As a concatenator of words he might say "taken separately abridge player" 😂

      Sadly there was no such clue in his puzzle today. "Taken separately amount" for {A}{HORSE} from yesterday continues to haunt me.

      Delete
  3. To PROCEED with the story should one exclaim 'God FORBID'?
    No need. A person on the steamer had applied GREASEPAINT on his face and
    it was NONE else but our Vladimir. SMART? Well, not really. Maybe providential.
    And we know too that Vladimir is half MAD.
    To top it all, the drone was on a REHEARSAL.
    Difficult to FATHOM what happened next?

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  4. Of late we have seen a lot of new commenters and budding setters. I hope all the newcomers will register and participate in IXL-23 (Indian Crossword League). Registration for which will commence by the end of this month. Details and schedules will be put up here once it is announced

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  5. Ventured means 'laid into'. I am not sure if the given clue is technically correct.

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  6. Looks like it, but I cant also understand how.

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  7. How about:
    17D 17 Ventured not into, but into a river in Australia (8)🤔

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  8. Down 20, 17 remaining it seems😅

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  9. So.laid is into the river Dee.

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  10. Lay: stake (an amount of money) in a bet.
    "she suspected he was pulling her leg, but she wouldn't have laid money on it"
    Similar:
    bet
    wager
    gamble
    stake
    hazard
    risk
    chance
    venture

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  11. Thank you, but a little difficult to get.

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  12. Good, but still similar doesn't amount to a synonym.

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  13. Fortunately Arden has given us a somewhat easier grid before we bid him adieu for another month. Looking forward to Incognito.

    Whiskey from the NATO alphabets was seen in 9A, while PILSNER with an undefined N was found to “give rise to mistake” in 20D. A discharge of PUS was to be found in 18A, perhaps related to the SAC in 7A. It was nice to find Chennai mentioned in 28A. Bridge players returned to the grid in 13A, and this time the “partners” adopting ANNIE were unopposed, however 15A had “opponents” taking “on” {N}{ON}{E}.

    I found and solved the Compound Anagram in 14A without a problem, though it feels like a foreign concept and has made me question whether even Reverse Anagrams should be tolerated.

    12A Sharp turnover of public transport SMART {TRAMS<=} was enjoyable. Other fine clues were 3D {SA}{L}{SA} (“twice as large in the middle”), 4D {PEG}{AS}{US} (“as we support stake”), 5D {INSUL(-t)}{IN} (“slight shortage in”), 7D having “people in India” as LOG, 8D {COY}{OTE} being “quiet with a broken toe”, 21D {FAT}{HOM(-e)} and 22D {FOR}{BID}.

    The cluing for 19D {SC{HLEP*}P} was technically right but felt grammatically incorrect on the surface. 10A GUSTATORY (“have a blast with a party”) was an interesting word, with {A}{TORY} being the party following the “blast”. The word “have” seems to be redundant except in the surface reading. Similarly in 20A {PRO}{CEED (~seed HP)} - the word “go” felt redundant in this clue (“Go for recognized player, they say”).

    1D GADARENE could have been defined more precisely than “something to do with a headlong rush”. Though 17D ADELAIDE is quite well-known, surely a better way to describe it would be something more specific than “in Australia”, as the list of things that are “in Australia” must be as large as the continent itself. I had heard of JIBES but not of GIBES, which apparently means the same thing and has the same pronunciation!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My mistake, "Go" is the definition for 20A and is not redundant.

      Delete
  14. 17d river on double duty?
    Adelaide river!!!

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  15. https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/lay

    Pls look under def 8.

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  16. First of all 'ventured' is the word in the clue. 8th definition of lay has venture as a synonym because it is very specific and contextual.
    Still ventured is the word used in the clue.

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  17. Easy Grid by Arden standards.
    Really liked SALSA, PEGASUS, INSULIN & ADELAIDE.
    Thanx & Bye Arden. C u next month!

    ReplyDelete

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