Monday 7 August 2023

No 13937, Monday 07 Aug 2023, Incognito

Solution to 8A 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
8   Say in a rough voice, "King snake!" (4) ?A?P (Addendum - RASP {R}{ASP} - See comments)
9   Animal I have in court (5) CIVET {C{I'VE}T}
10 Cupid rose awkwardly (4) EROS*
11 Journalist rides out in a strange manner, leaving US (6) EDITOR {RIDEs+OuT}*
12 Perform trial when including titanium? Most crazy! (8) DOTTIEST {DO}{T{TI}EST}
13 Creature's poison spreads around top of calf including end of femur (8) SCORPION {POISON}* over {Calf} and {f..uR}
15 Not odd... starting to soak oats in still (4,2) EVEN SO {EVEN}{Soak}{Oats}
17 Son and little relative in damaged tub stay alive (7) SUBSIST {S}{UB{SIS}T*}
19 Spear animal again. Endlessly... (7) ASSAGAI {ASS}{AGAIn}
22 Fully consumes American einsteinium by using peacefully at first (4,2) USES UP {US}{ES}{Us..g}{Pe...y{
24 Fan consumes salamander food remaining from previous meal (8) LEFTOVER {L{EFT}OVER}
26 Painter showing river surrounded by haze (8) MURALIST {M{URAL}IST}
28 Female warrior's horrible moan about first and last letter (6) AMAZON {AM{A}{Z}ON*}
30 Tangled thread sometimes found in wood? (4) KNOT [DD]
31 Good show! Anchor shows spirit!(5) GHOST {G}{HOST} 
Drawing by Bhargav

32 In America, Flying Officer displays air-crafts yet to be identified (4) UFOS {U{FO}S}

DOWN
1   Fat found in popular desserts (4) LARD [T]
2   Stupas constructed to house religious teachers at first gets cocky and arrogant people (8) UPSTARTS {UPSTA{Re...s}{Te...s}S*}
3   Tax crooked corporations exporting aprons (6) OCTROI CORporaTIOns*
4   Very clear identity document shown in function (7) EVIDENT {EV{ID}ENT}
5   Saint speaks...speaks dis-fluently (8) STUTTERS {ST}{UTTERS}
6   Remove fault from appliance? (6) DEVICE {DE-VICE}
7   Call for help to take in new male off-springs (4) SONS {SO{N}S}
14 Bludgeons groups (5) CLUBS [DD}
16 Express condition (5) STATE [DD]
18 Croons about a place producing little plants (8) SAPLINGS {S{A}{PL}INGS}
20 University in Mombasa designed rennet-bag (8) ABOMASUM {U} IN {MOMBASA}*
21 Chinese army caricature shows small group of soldiers (7) PLATOON {PLA}{TOON}
23 Little tin kept in pig-shed (6) SCANTY {S{CAN}TY}
25 Goes without food around end of June and dines grandly (6) FEASTS {F{junE}ASTS}
27 Vessels carried by auburn ship (4) URNS [T]
29 Instrument in possession of hobo examined (4) OBOE [T]

Reference List
King = R, Court = CT, Son = S, Good = G, Flying Officer = FO, Saint = ST

34 comments:

  1. Walk in the park- as expected.

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  2. Due to some obscure reason I filled in startups (instead of upstarts)- since they are frequently in the news these days? Unusual hiatus in an Incognito puzzle.

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  3. Abomasum was new and needed looking up- may be easy for biologists. Good to read about it and learn.

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  4. As smooth as silk. A good Monday to start. Thanks incognito

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  5. Vladimir seeing the drone was indeed a GHOST of a chance.
    EVEN SO had he seen it, might have thought of it as one of the UFOs much spoken about these days.
    He sipped the LEFTOVER Bloodymary.
    His STATE of mind was like "When am I going to tie the KNOT?"
    EVIDENT he was dreaming of his trip to India...
    What happened next?

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  6. It should be 8 across not 1 across
    Pl correct

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  7. 8 across solved, let others try

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  8. R goes silent when you "say in a rough voice"

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    Replies
    1. Not correct. There is something more in the clue.

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    2. R doesn't go silent. Check the pronunciation in a dictionary

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  9. To "say in a rough voice" is rasp. This'd sound like "asp" - a snake - when it's said in a rough voice

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  10. To talk in a rough voice is "rasp" . This is what the clue is all about . But to add a twist to this, Incognito has smartly set it urging us to say "asp" - a snake . This snake's name- when uttered in a rough voice - sounds like a homonym of "rasp"

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    Replies
    1. What happened to the King?

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    2. Asp is dubbed as Egyptian cobra, and is used as a royal icon / totem . "King" perhaps is from such a lineage

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  11. Still you have not accounted for R
    How do you get R from the clue?

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    Replies
    1. He has accounted for R in his own way which is not correct. He has also wrongly justified King

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    2. R for Rex/Regina King/Queen

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    3. A lengthy (though by no means complete) list of common Crossword abbreviations cann be found on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossword_abbreviations

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  12. It was a fair grid by Incognito. It is identical in grid design to the puzzle I am currently setting (but for 2 tiles). It contains 32 words of length 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, but not more than 8. With half the grid being 4-letter and 6-letter words, it contained numerous easy entry points, particularly the 3 Telescopic down clues and 3 Double-Definitions.

    "Perform trial" for DO TEST was a fine charade in 12A, while 13A SCORPION had me imagining poison spreading along my calf and femur. "Little relative" as SIS in 17A was cute. {M{URAL}IST} as "river surrounded by haze" was enjoyable. Other nice touches were "Chinese army" as PLA in 21D, 23D {S{CAN}TY} ("little tin kept in pig shed") and 25D {F{E}ASTS} being clued with FASTS.

    I got 19A ASSAGAI on a wild guess which proved to be correct. No such luck with 20D ABOMASUM for which I had entered ABOMAMUS. "Salamander" for EFT had me scratching my head until I checked the dictionary and found that EFT means a young newt.

    3D OCTROI ("Tax crooked corporations exporting aprons") is an example of a clue which I consider to be fairer than the Combined Anagram format. At least it contains an anagrind and subtractive language, neither of which the CA format provides.

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  13. 1A - (R)(ASP)
    R - Rex = King
    ASP - a small southern European viper (a venomous snake)
    Thanks to Google. Hats off to Col.sir for selecting this challenging puzzle.

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  14. R-King > I got it from reference lists of cracking cross word.

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  15. As usual a walk in the park with a breeze blowing!
    My fav - SCANTY, ASSAGAI, LEFTOVER (Fan to lover - a bit of a stretch though)
    Thank u Kishore!

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    Replies
    1. Chambers lists "lover" as a synonym for fan. Perhaps a different type of "lover" than is meant when the word is commonly used.

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    2. A stretch is a good thing after that walk, but this ain't no stretch ;)

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  16. I knew it's a synonym. Lover of sports. Lover of classical music.
    Just that - it doesn't strike u easily.

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