ACROSS
1 The first light casting out universal grief (7) MORNING MOuRNING
5 Example of minor boy going south (6) LESSON {LESS}{sON}
8 Gentleman's cereal (3) RYE [DD]
10 William's heart consumed by murderous beauty (5) GLORY {G{wilLiam}ORY}
11 Perfume worn by Great Tartars (5) ATTAR [T}
12 The morning star misleads men (7) LUCIFER [DD]
13 Fuel possessing right kind of dark orangey-pink colour (5) CORAL {CO{R}AL}
15 Zodiac sign of some born into money (5) LIBRA {LI{B}RA}
16 Knowledge that is partly oral (3) KEN spoKEN
18 State transport's profitable reuse of waste (7) UPCYCLE {UP}{CYCLE}
19 Doctors are next, on the edge in medical terms (7) EXTERNA*
20 Endless walk back to the bar (3) LAW WALk<=
21 Looking forward to journey on recycled fuel (7) HOPEFUL {HOP}{FUEL*}
23 Expert, genius, guru! Basically brains! (7) EGGHEAD {Ex...t}{Ge...s}{Guru}{HEAD}
25 Why Odin hid a letter from Judea? (3) YOD [T]
26 Groan about government agency (5) ORGAN*
27 Bright dot on forehead put to conform (5) POTTU* Does this need an indicator?
28 Talk and talk endlessly for movable property (7) CHATTEL {CHAT}{TELl}
30 No calcium and iodine in pasta for this islander (5) MAORI MAcaRONI Anno pending
31 Right about moving out for large raise (5) EXALT EXA(-c+l)LT
33 Back after a journey (3) AGO {A}{GO}
34 A quiet retreat aiding meditation mainly (6) ASHRAM {A}{SH}{Re...t}{Ai...g}{Me...n} &lit
35 More than disgusting ... like chasing new relationship? Right! (7) NASTIER {AS}<=>{N} and {TIE}{R}
DOWN
1 Hallucinogenic plants, ancient priests and century old ladies! Entertaining Happy Hours! (5,9) MAGIC MUSHROOMS {MAGI}{C}{M{HOURS*}OMS}
3 Leaderless Sicily led astray, leaving east peaceful (7) IDYLLIC {sICILY+LeD}*
4 Actress had good run before uniting with King! Limitless young beautiful woman! Heart of Hollywood! (5,5) GRACE KELLY {G}{RACE}{K}{bELLe}{h..lYw..d} Semi&lit
7 Good time over fine beers, brews and cocktails in the middle (11) OKTOBERFEST {OK}{T}{O}{F+BEERS}*{c..kTa..s} Semi&lit
9 Main source of income of black see school band, say (5,3,6) BREAD AND BUTTER {B}{READ}{BAND*}{UTTER}
14 Pit areas for Spooner's birds (4,7) ROCK PIGEONS (~pock regions to rock pigeons)
22 One in France, somehow is more elegant (7) FANCIER {FANC{1}ER*}
24 Continuous kind of pages, large and small (7) GAPLESS {PAGES+L+S}*
29 The first male worker banished from firm (4) ADAM ADAMant
32 A quiet one connects programs (3) API {A}{P}{1}
Reference List
Universal = U, Right = R, Born = B, About = C, Large = L, Quiet = SH, New = N, Century = C, East = E, Good = G, King = K, Left = L, Time = T, Fine = F, Over = O, Black = B, Small = S, Quiet = P
27A. Bottu is a telugu = of Pottu. Time telugu = enters the dictionary!.Else, need to know Tamil , sorry Tamizh..
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete27a needs an indicator if this crossword is intended for a national audience
ReplyDeleteI think "conform" is the anagrind here
DeleteI too thought that KKR ji.
DeleteBut the doubt is about answer being a Tam colloq vs std (non-std) english
Liked 1A. COD...
ReplyDelete9D- Not happy with surface reading. What does" Black see school band" mean? I had even doubted if it is a typo for black sea?
ReplyDeleteSEE refers to Church. Bishop's diocese
Deletesee in British English
(siː IPA Pronunciation Guide )
noun
the diocese of a bishop, or the place within it where his or her cathedral or procathedral is situated
See also Holy See
Collins English Dictionary. Copyright © HarperCollins Publishers
Word origin
Yes, that is known. But how does that give us 'Read'? (to get bread)
DeletePaddy, surface it indicates the holy see. In cryptic see:read.
DeleteHave you seen the document
Is actually asking have you read the document!
First of all, is 'pottu' an English word that can be found in a dictionary?
ReplyDeleteI did not find it in the online freedictionary. But you are right that if it is found in a standard dictionary no indicator is required. Which Dictionary do you use Paddy?
DeleteI mean, even with an indication, can a word not in the dictionary be used?
DeleteThere are some typically Indian words like Dhoti, Turban etc. but they are now part of English.
Free Dic. on line
DeleteI did not find it even in the Chambers CW dict. that I have.
DeleteIt is in wordweb: https://www.wordwebonline.com/en/POTTU
DeleteThat link also directs us to wiki- Bindi, pottu etc.
ReplyDeleteRe: IXL Practice round.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to see many familiar names from this blog's following appear in the top 100 announced by IXL for the practice round. Scoring 100% accuracy in 52-53 minutes put me at 25th, a few spots behind Jacob B and just ahead of Mukundala B who comment here often. I'll have to speed up to catch other regulars like KKR, Veena, Sowmya and of course Ramki.
I found the puzzle reasonably easy, with the theme centered around the recent moon landing and 99% fair clues. The only gripe I had was with 5D Arrangement with buds to bake in a pie (7) IKEBANA in which "pie" as a noun-anagrind was non-Ximinean. Otherwise it was fun.
I wonder who ENIGMA from Mumbai is. Is it a setter's name or an attempt to obfuscate identity?
DeleteI was also not able to find a good reference for MOON as a synonym for "pine" in 19A Second to get on pine (4).
DeletePer chambers, which does not list the two as synonyms:
moon (verb) to wander around aimlessly; to spend time idly.
pine (verb) to long or yearn for them or it. 2 (also pine away) to waste away from grief or longing.
It is very much there in Chambers Thesaurus. Wonder how you missed it. See the link:
Deletehttps://chambers.co.uk/search/?query=MOON&title=thes#
You are correct KKR. My mistake.
DeleteObviously to obfuscate identity- like Economizer!
ReplyDeletePrasanna's artwork for Engineers day has been added to yesterday's post. Sorry for the dlay, I saw his mail only today.
ReplyDeleteNice artwork Prasanna.
Delete+1
DeleteThanks a lot Col.sir.
DeleteThank you Economizer & RR
DeleteCould anyone annotate MAORI at 30A or is there an error in the clue?
ReplyDeleteNo sir, I had filled MAORI but marked as wanting anno in the marginalia, hoping you would have cracked it. It looks like it could be a setter's blunder.
DeleteIodine- I couldn't accommodate in Maorai. Macaron- gived the meaning of Food & Macaroni gives the meaning of Pasta. either addition / deletion indicator is my perception.
Deletesetter clearly stated No calcium and Iodine in pasta. so, Macroni to be considered, wherein Ca will be ejected. deletion indicator I will be the question mark.
DeleteMy bad. Apologies. It was last minute edit. The saved clue didn't get saved and the earlier in making got saved.
DeleteThe intended clue was: -
Can this islander make macaroni? (5)
Really sorry.
23A should be marked as &lit.
ReplyDeleteIf it is an &lit, what's the role of Brains? At the most you can call it a Semi&lit
Delete23 Expert, genius, guru! Basically brains! (7)
DeleteExpert, genius, guru! Basically = EGG (basically is acrostic indicator)
Brains = HEAD
Since the entire clue functions as both definition and wordplay, it is technically &lit.
Re: Today's puzzle by Vidwan.
ReplyDeleteTIMING. Out of 10 Vidwan puzzles this year, the first 6 were printed in the middle of the month, while the last 3 came at the end/beginning of the month. Now with this edition we are back to seeing Vidwan at the middle of the month. Perhaps the editor has regularized the schedule once again.
LONG WORDS. Usually the fun cryptic grids have a couple of long words or idioms in the 13-15 letter range. Dr. X makes a point of it. Today, Vidwan's 1D MAGIC MUSHROOMS with 9D BREAD AND BUTTER was delectable. However, I must object to the definition of "plants" in 1D. Mushrooms are neither plants nor animals - they are classified as fungi.
GRID DESIGN. The last 2 Vidwan grids had some unusual features such as consecutive unches in the beginning of words and an unfillable white square in the center. Today's grid marks an improvement on both of those, with nothing totally objectionable. The grid was well-connected (the pattern flows well, it breathes) and had even a few 7-letter words with 5-checks, perhaps to compensate for the consecutive unches in the past. Something unusual about it was the presence of seven 3-letter words, something that perhaps Gridman might have objected to based on his articles.
WORD SELECTION. One of the setter's duties is to pick interesting words to solve for that are not too obscure. Vidwan has done a good job today, with some Indian words like ASHRAM and POTTU, middle-eastern words like ATTAR and YOD and other eye-catchers including MAORI, LIBRA, LUCIFER, OKTOBERFEST and GRACE KELLY. Writing the clues for these words is another matter altogether...
WORDPLAY. It's quite nice to see setters execute &lit clues, and there were 3-4 fair examples in today's grid as marked by Col. I also noticed a number of selection- and deletion-type clues - more than we usually see from other setters.
SURFACE READINGS. Most of the clues were interesting to read. A few, such as 23A, 4D and 1D, were written in the style of tabloid headlines or adverts. Most of the clues avoided using too many link-words. Some of the best surface readings were in 21A, 25A and 26A. The theme of the sentence remained consistent between the start and the end of the clue (for example 19A). On this last point, other THC setters can be rather weak, stuffing unrelated phrases together into clues like weary economy-class passengers sharing elbow-rests with strangers.
CRYPTIC GRAMMAR. The setter Gussalufz has an article on the subject "cryptic grammar" in which he argues that apart from an unobjectionable surface reading, the cryptic reading of the clue should also have correct grammar, reading like a set of instructions to arrive at the solution. In other words, he argues that the cryptic reading should not be like a maths formula with consecutive operations tied together, even if the surface reading is grammatically right. For example, in 1A, correct cryptic grammar would be something like "...casting out universal IN grief" or "...grief casting out universal". Again in 5A, "...minor boy leaving South" would be more appropriate as South (S) is the one that is going in the cryptic sense, while the boy (SON) is staying in the solution. As a final example, Gussalufz might insist that 27A's anagrind was "...conforming" as opposed to "conform". This is a very high standard requiring much nuanced analysis, and I have been revisiting my own clues to address their cryptic grammar after being convinced about its importance by the article. https://viresh-ratnakar.github.io/writings/2023/cryptic-grammar-04-2023.html
DeleteNITS TO PICK. The clue 35A would have worked without "than". Re: 8A RYE I was unable to find "gentleman" listed as a synonym for this word anywhere. The definition "misleads men" in 12A LUCIFER meant that "stars" was doing double-duty in both definition and wordplay - the problem could be addressed by rephrasing the clue to "...one who misleads men". In 18A, the part of speech differed between the definition and the solution - "reuse of waste" is UPCYCLING, not UPCYCLE. Similarly, in 32D the definition should have been "connector of programs". Since 27A is not a dictionary word, it should have an indicator that can help international solvers research it. As noted in other comments, 30A MAORI appears to have an error in the clue. In my opinion, 14D POCK REGIONS ~ ROCK PIGEONS is not an exact spoonerism as the "i" sound is different between "pigeons" and "regions". In 24D, "kind of" as anagrind seems to be non-standard - I am curious to hear what others think of this usage.
I keep saying spoonerism has become abracadabra of crosswords.
DeleteA funny play og words has become a technical debate of how setter sees it, since anyway there is no std def.
I gen stopped solvong thwm. Thinking how i will surcive if faced in ixl.
This case letter spoonerism and then hp.
Recently we had some clues in THC (below) which were deletion-type clues but pretty close to indirect anagrams if you think about how we arrive at the solution. The steps are: think of a word given a charade, think of which half of the word to delete, think about whether the remainder after deletion satisfies the clue definition.
ReplyDeleteTHC No 13972, Saturday 16 Sep 2023, Vidwan
16 Knowledge that is partly oral (3) (-spo)KEN
No 13969, Wednesday 13 Sep 2023, Afterdark
24 Half of the rescued were old (4) (-salv)AGED
These are pretty close to indirect anagrams, where we have to consider a very high number of permutations of an unseen fodder (on the order of n! or n-factorial for string length n) - the only difference being that the number of permutations we need to consider for deletion of an unseen fodder is capped at two (2) in these clues above.