Monday 11 September 2023

No 13967, Monday 11 Sep 2023, KrisKross

Solution to 23A 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   Instructions about reviewing The Odyssey, say (6) RECIPE {RE}{EPIC<=}
4   Our team starting to load new copier (8) EMULATOR {OUR+TEAM+Load}*
10 Setter, overwhelmed by popular sympathy and honest feedback (4,5) HOME TRUTH {HO{ME}T}{0RUTH}
11 Jet from Belgium with defect (5) BLACK {B}{LACK}
12 Some painting luxury car get allowance (7) ALIMONY {A{LIMO}NY}
13 Orders senate shuffle after November (7) NEATENS {SENATE}*<=>{N}
14 Steep cut, reportedly (5) SHEER (~shear)
15 Doubting atheist forced to accept religion finally (8) HESITANT {ATHEIST}* over {r...oN}*
18 Code in PC game eventually cracked by that woman (8) ENCIPHER {IN+PC+gamE}*{HER}
20 Blessed courageous leader departs (5) LUCKY pLUCKY
23 Extremely bright, grasping essence of trickiest set of software programs (7) T?O?K?T (Addendum - TOOLKIT {TOO LIT} over {t..cKi..t) - See comments)
25 Ran around overwhelmed by confusion in cyclone (7) TORNADO {TO{RAN*}DO}
26 Coordinates with the French municipality's head to make a wooden waterway (5) XYLEM {XY}{LE}{Mu...y}
27 Raunchy, extremely deplorable novel creating uproar (3,3,3) HUE AND CRY {RAUNCHY+De...lE}*
28 Actors make a judgement to cut an important part (8) CASTRATE {CAST}{RATE}
29 Daughter and father in recess outside British ruins (6) DEBRIS {D}{SIR{B}E<=}

DOWN
1   Train again tries to reach Spain (8) R0EHEARSE {RE-HEARS}{E}
2   Merge with technology firm reverse-splitting 100:1 (7) COMBINE {C}{O{IBM<=}NE}
3   Mix poori with a bit of rajma and put away (9) POTPOURRI {POORI+Rajma+PUT}*
5   Wasting the day in dreams, I am unable to act (2,5,3,4) MY HANDS ARE TIED*
6   Sign: "Replace Yen with Rand in African country" (5) LIBRA LIB(-y+r)RA
7   Aim to collect hollow decorative item in exchange (5-2) TRADE-IN {TRA{De...vE}IN}
8   Smart child, almost drowned in flood (6) RAKISH {RA{KIn}SH} (Correction - {RA{KId}SH} - See comments)
9   Make peace, transforming hate and butchery to hope, primarily (4,3,7) BURY THE HATCHET* {HATE+BUTCHERY+To+Hope}*
16 Dream about faceless character in play (9) TOLERANCE {T{rOLE}RANCE}
17 My sons, lost without nanny on vacation, become scared and afraid perhaps (8) SYNONYMS {MY+SONS}* over {NannY} Defintion by example
19 Stupid people who could be stranded in a restaurant (7) NOODLES [DD]
21 Poet in Switzerland missing opening partner for Cup (7) CHAUCER {CH}{sAUCER}
22 Unable to control movement of Patna taxicab (6) ATAXIC [T]
24 Ancient Cambodian knows his Mahabharata, even Ramayana for starters (5) KHMER Acrostic

Reference List
About = RE, Belgium = B, Noivember = N, Coordinates = XY, The in French = LE, Daughter = D, Spain = E, Hundred = C, Yen = Y, Rand = R, Switzerland = CH

37 comments:

  1. 23 Extremely bright, grasping essence of trickiest set of software programs (7)

    {TOOL{K}IT}
    "TOO LIT" (extremely bright) around {K}, the "essence" of trickiest

    Really liked today's puzzle. 10/10. Thank you KrisKross

    ReplyDelete
  2. In my mind, 8D's "Child, almost" was KID - D, but I suppose KIN -N works about as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Maybe ou are right. Child= kid is better.

      Delete
    2. Pl give chance to novice commenter, you seem to be an expert in crossword

      Delete
    3. Child = KID is what I had in mind when setting the clue. Kin is family - equating it to "child" may be a bit of a stretch IMO.

      Delete
    4. @Sarathi Thank you and sorry. I will lay off!

      Delete
  3. 10A There are 2 T's. Solution has one onky

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vladimir was LUCKY enough to get a RECIPE for success by SHEER chance.

    "I should not raise a HUE AND CRY, stop being HESITANT and exhibit TOLERANCE!"

    ReplyDelete
  5. Neat package, making one work that bit extra. Thank you KrissKross for an absorbing hour in the morning.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sympathy= Ruth sounded new until I noticed that Ruthless is more common.
    Play= Tolerance was good and different.
    25A- Confusion= To do?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "to-do" is a state of commotion, fuss, confusion etc.

      Delete
    2. Thank you Ramki. The other 2 are logical but I was confused about the cofusion part!

      Delete
  7. Lovely crossword from the Master solver.
    28A is the first in 27A. Made me chuckle.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 1a, Instructions, being the definition in plural does 'Recipe' fulfil a solution in singular.?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Did anyone submit the practice round of IXL ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I completed but did not submit! I will do so now. Thank you.
      Dr.X said we can check the results on Wednesday.

      Delete
    2. Just submitted. Thank God it is only practice round

      Delete
    3. In the IXL site, there are 3 buttons beneath the grid. "Clear" = remove your solutions. "Save" = preserve your solutions. "Submit" = confirm your solutions. I think scoring is based on the solutions and time of submission.

      Delete
    4. "The first(on time line) submission with all correct answer get 100" Second gets 99.......
      So yeah time too plays a role.
      But one mistake (say sunday 1130) goes behind say monday evening all correct.

      Delete
    5. Paddy my error. Contest is open till Wednesday midnight. So results only after that.

      Delete
  10. Yes. Time plays a very important part.

    ReplyDelete
  11. 'Partner for cup;' for saucer was good and enjoyable.

    ReplyDelete
  12. There were many excellent surface readings. For example, "15A Doubting atheist forced to accept religion finally" was brilliant, as was "5D Wasting the day in dreams, I am unable to act". 18A and 27A also had plausible and interesting surface constructions. 17A was also beautifully written like a story of lost children. 20A was overall a good clue with crisp construction and wordplay involving deletion. 14A was a nice homophone-type clue, of which we ought to see more in THC. 3A had "poori and a bit of rajma" in the anagram fodder which was nicely done.

    In 25A, TODO as "confusion" was new to me, as was RUTH for "sympathy" in 10A. "Wooden waterway" as definition for XYLEM was rather clever in 26A. In 1D, "tries" = HEARS was smooth. "Faceless character" as (-r)OLE in 16D took a little pondering to make sense of. One wonders whether the setter works in the software industry given a number of references such as 4A EMULATOR, "code in PC game cracked" in 18A, "set of software programs" in 23A and "technology firm = IBM in 2D. It is interesting that TOOLKIT (23A) can be a collection of software programs (per NAOED) or a hardware box containing spanners, screws and the like.

    Chambers lists "tornado" as a synonym of "cyclone", though I had a doubt about their equivalence in common parlance. I suppose a tornado is technically a cyclone, as in a "spiral wind formation". In 12A, "Some" was used as the definition for ANY, for which I was unable to find a reference in Chambers. As far as I am aware, "some" is used to refer to specific items that are distinct from the generic whole, while "any" is used to refer to generic items that are completely interchangeable with one another. Re: 29A, I see "in recess" listed as a reversal indicator in Azed's site (http://www.clueclinic.com/index.php/reversal-indicators/), however I wasn't able to understand how it works as such. Recess is defined as a small space (further back from the rest) or a break in proceedings. Should we take "in recess" -> set back -> reversed? Reversal is not indicated by any of the formal definitions of the word.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Recess is a temporary withdrawal

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the detailed comments Economizer.
      Col has explained how "recess" works as reversal ind.

      Delete
  13. As I had said earlier we are more familiar with 'ruth-less' without thinking about what ruth means.
    Yes, indeed Ramki (KrissKross) IS in the software line and so it is inevitable like aches and pains are in Dr.X CW's.

    ReplyDelete

deepakgita@gmail.com