Saturday 13 February 2010

No 9765, Saturday 13 Feb 10, Neyartha

ACROSS
1 - Censor former partner’s denouncement letter (13) - (-ex)COMMUNICATE (Correction - (-ex)COMMUNICATION)
9 - Internet access that may cause rings to go missing (4-2) - DIAL-UP
10 - Accomplished boxer’s completely taken in by an animal from the east (8) - RE{ALIS}ED <- )
11 - Care to help? (3) - AID [DD]
12 - Lunatic affected, after a time lapse, by a style of orthography (6) - UNCIAL(-t)*
13 - Old barman, initially a restaurant employee, was the eyewitness (8) - {O}{B}{SERVER}
14 - Pole enters dangerous race scene on revival (10) - RE{N}ASCENCE*
17 - Hold on tight to the flag ripped in part (4) - GRIP [T]
18 - Secretly supply reporter on the radio with a vegetable (4) - LEEK(~leak)

19 - Wrong sign in end piece designed by Yankee leader shows self-interest (10) - E{X}PEDIENC*{Y}
21 - Glove material from the ram and the ewe, say (8) - {LAMBS}{KIN}
23 - Calling a knight for the right list (6) - (Addendum - CAREE(-r+n)N - See comments below)
25 - An untidy place by the interminable mythical river (3) - STY(-x)
26 - Cosmetic preparation from the spring harvest vegetable (8) - {KOHL}{RABI}

27 - The thing taken out in haste for a herb (6) - CELER(-it)Y
28 - Hear! Welder Lee turns out to be a smooth operator! (7,6) - WHEELER DEALER*
DOWN
2 - Greek character missing view of kitchen bulb (5) - O(-pi)NION
3 - Concurrently run more than one job (9) - MULTITASK [E]
4 - Cactus drink on counter (5) - {NO}{PAL}<- )
5 - Plant model replaced by Dutch chief in animated feature (7) - CAR(-t+d)DOON
6 - Leave behind the craze to collect fancy cans (9) - TR{ANSC*}END
7 - Old German rice turns up in a willow tree (5) - {O}{SIER<-} )
8 - Clear ice cracked up to reveal an edible root (8) - CELERIAC*
15 - Lift the airfoil on the tailplane (8) - ELEVATOR [DD]
16 - Final move on board? (9) - CHECKMATE [E]
17 - Insurgent sounds like an ape (9) - GUERRILLA (~gorilla)
20 - Dear lover, once sent out for being wistful (7) - PENSIVE Anno pending (Addendum - (-ex)PENSIVE Thanks to Chaturvasi, see comments)
22 - Letters from a rebel challenging Shakespeare’s Sir Toby (5) - BELCH [T]
23 - Tree found by upset lawyer following Yankee into cricket club (5) - {C{Y}C}{AD<-} )

24 - Lofty treehouse? (5) - EYRIE [E]


GRID

34 comments:

  1. My favourites (Ind. English) are
    1A
    9A
    10A
    18A
    21A
    16D
    23D

    23A was impossible because I had used Aerie instead of Eyrie - both mean the same in different dictionaries ;-(. But, that E instead of A makes a difference!

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  2. 23across: CAREER?(meaning: CALLING) Not sure of the anno.

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  3. Thanks Sandhya. Woke up late and in the hurry made some errors.
    23A has me stumped as well

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  4. 23a is CAREEN which means 'list', v., in the sense 'tilt'. Derived by changing the letter R (right) in CAREER (calling, n.) to N (knight, chess notation).

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  5. I think 'Calling a knight for the right list (6) = CAREEN';

    Calling : CAREER
    a knight = N (chess notation)
    for the : Substitution indicator
    right = R
    list = CAREEN (Required definition)

    It is not career because the clue explicitly states 'knight for right', which means N for R ; Now, which R to replace in CAREER? The first option would give CANEER which doesn't make sense, so it has got to be the second option. Not a very fair clue, but not unsolvable.. that is my opinion.

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  6. 23a looks like CAREEN.

    Calling = CAREER
    a knight for the right = N in place of R
    defn: list i.e. to heel over

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  7. Ah, yesterday, CVasi's postings crossed with mine, but today he beat me to it!

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  8. 20ac is very good. It is EXPENSIVE minus EX. Ex is indicated by 'lover once' meaning a former lover, after mentally removing the comma between Dear and lover.
    Kudos to the composer for excellent surface reading and able management of wordplay that some clue-writers can only gape at.

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  9. 20DN's Anno. is simple but so very cool - one of these annos. wherein one has to congratulate the Composer and the Solvers who cracked it while at the same time rueing one's own inability to have seen it (as I am) !! Great work..

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  10. Today was a tough nut to crack for me, able to get only handful.

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  11. 20D's comma is the one that misleads, punctuation marks need to be ignored

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  12. Ignoring puncutation marks is a well-accepted principle and does not fly in the face of Ximenean conventions.

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  13. Rabi -Spring.Fine.
    But Khol...Does it mean harvest? I could'nt get it ,Sir...!

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  14. Great Crossword, though I did not get 23A and 24D. Wish Neyartha had more CWs to replace the NJs and Mannas

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  15. Sadaippan. Google for Kohl and you will get the answer

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  16. 20D ...As Veer said .. "rueing one's own inability to have seen it (as I am) !! Great work.."
    Hope to get the satisfaction of solving one like that one day!

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  17. Today's Mangalore edition of The Hindu has the Metro Plus supplement - a regular Saturday menu - carrying Divya Kumar's write-up on THC. Hope more readers from this city will log in here.

    Richard

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. Two clues pertaining to former partner (EX), two clues on vegetables, two clues alluding to cricket (willow and cricket club)...

    Interesting !

    Richard

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  20. 18A, 26A, 27A, 2D, 7D, 8D, 23 D- all clues pertaining to plants.

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  21. Anyone notice that 7 of today's words start with the letter 'C',looks like Neyartha opened his dictionary/thesaurus at C and built the crossword from there

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  22. @Sadaiyappan,
    Suresh answered your query, just adding on to that, KOHL is nothing but KAJAL/SURMA in Hindi and KAN MAI in Tamil used extensively by ladies and of course for small babies. It is difficult to believe that the basic ingredient of KOHL is soot or lampblack!!

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  23. how does 14 A work ? is pole == N ? why ?

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  24. @Col
    Thanks.
    @Krishna
    South and North poles.Could be any one.

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  25. @Krishna,
    Yes Pole = N, North pole, I forgot the * for the anagram, the explanation is

    Pole enters dangerous race scene on revival

    Pole = N
    enters = inclusion indicator
    dangerous = anagram indicator
    race scene = anagram fodder
    on = connector
    revival = Defintion = RE{N}ASCENCE*

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  26. Thanks Colonel. I was thinking more on the terms of polish pole and hence "P". Completely forgot, that the magnetic poles.

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  27. I remember my maternal grandmother in CBE making kohl at home in the late Fifties.

    Another thing I remember is my mom always wearing only kumkum; she used to have a small round box of wax which is applied for the powder to stick. Things which I never see now - what with these fancy stickers - an abomination with those being placed temporarily on bathroom tiles and mirrors in hotel rooms and leaving ugly stains behind.

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  28. My grandmother too used to make kaNmai! An art lost in this fast-paced era! Fancy stickers are my favourite which are an abomination to me too when found on the said places!!!

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  29. My wife for one is anti-sticker, she uses a particular brand and shade of kumkum for which at times I have to hunt, high and low,to procure and she wears a trademark bindi of the size of the now almost extinct 25 paise coin she makes a perfect circle using her fingers only, no wax etc

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  30. My mil is an expert in putting a perfect round black saanthu pottu with her index finger on her very small grandchildren who have a knack of moving their face in a split second. In less than a split second she successfully puts the dot in the correct centre of the forehead with perfect circumference. I never stopped admiring the dexterity!

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