ACROSS
1 Coal is used at-home (6) SOCIAL*
4 Is under arrest, carrying tin pot (8) CANNABIS {IS}<=>{NAB} under {CAN}
9 Make it hard for boy to stalk girl (6) ANNEAL {AL}<=>{ANNE}
10 There is lot of foot tapping as the sergeant comes under fire (8) FLAMENCO {NCO}<=>{FLAME}
12 John's despatch said to be getting unscrewed (8) LOOSENED {~ loo send)
13 Baby fattening? Get off, off! (6) INFANT FATteNINg*
15 I am, say, now on edge (7,5) PRESENT TENSE {PRESENT}{TENSE}
24 Cross with first class travel (8) BESTRIDE {BEST}{RIDE}
25 Felt taking a short time with animal handler (6) MAHOUT {MA{HOUr}T}
DOWN
1 Queenies, behold hiding among head hunter's trophies (8) SCALLOPS {SCAL{LO}PS}
5 Cut outside length of shaft (4) AXLE {AX{L}E}
6 Saw that everyone is inter-dependent (2,3,2,2,6) NO MAN IS AN ISLAND [C&DD]
11 Teach manoeuvre on area (7) HECTARE {TEACH}*{RE}
14 Proper European English? (7) GERMANE {GERMAN}{E}
16 Whiskey that's drunk plus our energy! (4-4) WATT-HOUR {W}{THAT*}{OUR}
17 Game in fact not liked at all (8) DETESTED {DE{TEST}ED}
19 Maybe anaerobic, lost one tongue (6) ARABIC AnAeRoBIC*
20 Not more, a time to come up with a decorative piece (6) TASSEL {LESS}{A}{T}<=
23 Thought one was carrying fish (4) IDEA {A}<=>{IDE}
Reference List
Time = T, Neat = COW, Party = DO, Behold = LO, Study = CON, Democrat = D, Length = L, On = RE, English = E, Whiskey = W
Anneal is an interesting word. It is not exactly hardening, it is more of realignment of molecules to make the metal less brittle. Though I have used a lot of annealing of copper wires, I used to think it is softening. It indeed made the copper wire soft and flexible, but now I understand (with the help of dictionary) that it is due to realignment. The same thing makes steel harder.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is de- stressing.
DeleteWe used to manufacture transformers and annealing the transformer core...
DeleteAnnealing is a heat treatment process we often doing in projects site. It's basically a rapid / gradual cooling process after post weld heating. As said by Paddy. its a stress reliving process. internal stress will be removed after welding.
DeleteArden CW being easy and fast was a one day affair!!
ReplyDelete15A, I believe, should make Economizer very happy- absolutely any redundant words!!!
ReplyDelete15A was my clue-of-the-day! Brilliant and simple charade.
DeleteVladimir was in a break-up SOCIAL function.
ReplyDeleteSitting beside him was his friend Ernest with A FAREWELL TO ARMS in his hand. Vladimir had no IDEA of the connection between the two...
Neither the fact that the farewell to his arms was a result of his SNOTTY behaviour.( the very REASON he was not ADORED but DETESTED).
Was he CONDONED for his behaviour?
What happened next?
When do we meet after the 'break up' social?!
DeleteBest in 18A & salad in 26A are very apt anagrinds. they go nicely with the subject and surface reading- I don't know if they are listed or not.
ReplyDeleteYes, both are in Chambers CW dictionary.
DeleteFrom Free Dic.,
ReplyDeleteneat 2 (nēt)
n. pl. neat Archaic
A cow or other domestic bovine animal.
Very often used in CW's. (sometimes with archaic)
ReplyDeleteJust finished watching the spectacular launch of ADITYA L1 mission vehicle from Sriharikota.
ReplyDeleteFantastic job by ISRO!
👍👍Same here.
ReplyDeleteSolving an Arden puzzle is always very satisfying. Despite knowing that it was an anagram, I didn't get 18A, but I learnt a new meaning of ultramontane
ReplyDeleteSolving an Arden puzzle helps me recollect the meaning of the term "masochism" every now and then.
Delete😀
DeleteThere were many tricky clues. It took a long time to solve, and that too with the help of cheats. There is certainly mastery involved in setting a grid so difficult that solving it takes one beyond enjoyment into the domain of pain and humiliation.
ReplyDelete"At-home" as definition for SOCIAL (as in 'party') in 1A was new to me. NAOED defines it as a dated usage. Recently for my generation, "at-home" has become the place-of-work and is hardly a social place with few visitors. Similarly, CON = "study" in 2D is a dated usage, perhaps indicating the generation gap between the setter and myself.
What was the deletion indicator for 21A (-t)REASON? I am unable to figure it out.
Once again, Arden shows his preference for tough wordplay over surface reading, with bizarre sentences like (19D) "maybe anaerobic, lost one tongue". The anagram w/ subtractions in 13A INFANT was technically brilliant, though again the surface reading left much to be desired.
Is "cross" a fair definition for BESTRIDE in 24A? I am unable to find a good reference. Can one be both "cross" and BESTRIDE in relation to the same object, for example a horse or a fence?
"Manoeuvre" was a nice anagrind in 11D. However, "salad" as anagrind in 26A falls foul of the Ximenean thinking that noun-as-anagrind should be denoted with a preposition (eg. "salad of [fodder]").
How is 6D a DD clue? I had marked it as CD. But I cannot understand how to split the clue into 2 definitions.
A brief list of seemingly redundant words: "getting" in 12A, "the" in 27A, "of" in 5D, "with" in 20A.
When you talk of redundancy, you don't seem to bother about surface reading at all. It is as much essential as cryptic meaning. In fact a good surface meaning (possibly humorous) enhances the value of the clue. I can't understand your insistence on this point- all are prepositions which are the connecting links in surface reading.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, 21A can be a CA? T + Reason (to argue) giving treason.
High treason
Delete@Paddy regarding 21A, if it is a CA then it is an indirect CA, which is unfair to the solver. Otherwise it is a deletion clue missing a deletion indicator.
DeleteRe: surface reading, I think we had this discussion under Arden's THC 13934 around one month ago. The surface reading is important, but it should also cleanly translate into a cryptic reading consisting of definition + wordplay with at most a link-word functioning symantically as the "equals" symbol between definition and wordplay.
Quote:
"
I do care a lot about the surface reading, especially when writing clues.
I think a good clue has an interesting surface reading, and also a second, under-the-surface reading that breaks cleanly into an expression of definition + wordplay, or definition = wordplay.
The clues which I dislike are those that do not transition smoothly from surface to under-the-surface, usually by having some redundant link words.
It is more than an aesthetic preference. As a solver, one tries to dig beneath the surface by analyzing each word and asking "what role does this play? Is this an anagrind? Is it a fodder word? Is it a homophone indicator?..." and so on.
Many linkwords as they are used commonly serve as avoidable red-herrings for the solver by playing no role in the definition, in the wordplay, or in describing the directional relationship between the definition and the wordplay.
The art of the setter is to employ double-entendre so that the surface reading of a clue also has a clean cryptic reading without these superficial odds and ends attached.
"
6D- Saw (proverb) is the 2nd def.
ReplyDeleteThank you - that clarifies my query.
Delete12A= Col.has marked 'getting' as part of def.
ReplyDelete"At home" is very common-
ReplyDeleten. also at home
An informal reception in one's home
From Free Dic.
Many usages these days have become Americanised, but that does not mean it is a dated usage.