Plenty of question marks today.
*10 Across, with enumeration (2,3), is not a separate clue in itself. Instead it is the central component in clues that invoke it.
ACROSS
1 - Crazy sister goes after partly blue carbuncles (8) - BLISTERS {BLue}{ISTERS*}
5 - Consumes drink after exercise (4,2) - USES UP {USE}{S UP}
10 - *See other clues (2,3) - IN THE
11 - Result of oversleep — expect ambush (3,2,4) - LIE IN WAIT [DD?] First part not clear (Addendum - {LIE IN} {WAIT} - See comments)
12 - Politician's work breach very deplorable (9) - GORBACHEV {go+breach+v}*
14,10,14 - Manna from heaven? What fantasy! (3,2,3,3) - PIE (IN THE) SKY [CD]
16 - Obedient daughter's stylish and ravishing when seen without boyfriend (7) - DUTIFUL {D}{U}{beauTIFUL} U for stylish?
19,10,19 - Around North India, they eat dal at inappropriate times (4,2,3,3) - LATE DAY {LATE {IN<-} THE DAY*}
21 - Treat bones? He may or may not! (6) - DOCTOR [DD]
23 - Say no to special trophy for The Ashes (5) - SPURN {SP}{URN}
25 - A chief priest's chromosome structure (9) - HIERARCHY Anno pending (Addendum - {HIERARCH}{Y} - See comments)
27 - Is it a chop sawn off a tree? (9) - PISTACHIO*
28 - See 7 -
29 - No active duty during these times? Absolutely not! (6) - NOWAYS {NO}{WAYS} I hate this word (Addendum - {NO W(-ad)AYS} - Thanks to Sridhar at the Orkut group)
30 - Implant bombs around nuclear fuel which is an extremely precious commodity (8) - PLATINUM {PLATIN{U}M*}
DOWN
1 - Couple could be flying (6) - B?I?G? (Addendum - BRIDGE [DD] - See comments)
2 - Do not allow charge to overcome temperature and electronic resistance (9) - INTERDICT Anno pending (Addendum - {IN{T}{E}{R}DICT} - See comments)
3 - A letter from the army (5) - THETA {THE}{TA}
4,10,4 - Experience pleasure amongst fodder, perhaps (4,2,3,3) - ROLL HAY {ROLL} {IN THE } {HAY}
6 - Summarised article replaces work that's sham (9) - SYNTHETIC {SYN(-op+the)THETIC}
7,10,28 - A treacherous person sees Khan's rating going down (5,2,3,5) - SNAKE (IN THE) GRASS*
8 - Wretched one in bed getting competent (8) - PITIABLE {PIT}{I}{ABLE} One in bed becomes PI(I)T
9 - Assisted the priest and waited (6) - SERVED [DD]
15 - Mobile nerd, as yet not quite mobile (9) - SEDENTARY*
17 - Eatables at a series of restaurants where vegetarians get first priority (4,5) - FOOD CHAIN {FOOD} [CHAIN}
18,10,18 - New health spa, fine to a large extent, could turn out to be a temporary hit (5,2,3,3) - FLASH IN THE PAN (n+health+spa+fine)*
20 - Calling for attention with ‘Hey!', while sitting on top of double house (2-2-2) - YO-HO-HO {YO}-{HO-HO}
21,10,21 - Husband oiled new toy, setting out to provide a permanent colour (3,2,3,4) - DYE (IN THE) WOOL {h+oiled+n+toy}*
22 - Plastic mugs storing unknown phosphorous compound (6) - GYPSUM {G{Y}{P}SUM*}
24 - Cause to be in stitches? On the contrary! (5) - UNSEW [CD]
26 - Soldier guarding famous opera artists shows anxiety (5) - ANGST Anno pending (Addendum - {AN{GS}T} - See comments)
CW too complicated to annotate!!
ReplyDelete2 - Do not allow charge to overcome temperature and electronic resistance (9) - INTERDICT Anno pending
ReplyDeleteIN{T}{E}{R}DICT
26 - Soldier guarding famous opera artists shows anxiety (5) - ANGST Anno pending
ReplyDeleteAN{G}{S}T
G&S: Gilbert and Sullivan
A real monster, the first time I am seeing one such in TH!
ReplyDeleteA couple of annos:
26D: AN{G S}T: Gilbert and Sullivan
11A: {LIE IN} WAIT, LIE IN = result of oversleep
13 - Animal has nearly conquered hunger (5) - HYENA Anno pending
ReplyDeleteH{YEN}A(-s)
Thanks Sandhya,
ReplyDelete@ 8:39 Shades of NJ in the Interdict Anno!
@ 8:43 Good one, though a little far fetched.
PS: As per Kishores theorems S=S. So are you Scintillator ;-)
25A, HIERARCH (Chief priest) + Y (Chromosome)
ReplyDeleteDef, structure = HIERARCHY
@Colonel: Ha ha, thanks for the credit :P
ReplyDelete1D: BRIDGE? Couple and ref. to flying bridge?
ReplyDeleteThe main turn-off today was the long winding clues and the choice of tough indicators. The setter does not seem to like anagrams. But I can't find if anything is really *wrong* wordplay-wise,
Just got back from an outing:
ReplyDeleteAs I noted in Orkut, I had a difficulty in posting there. As the length of the post was exceeding the max permitted, the app was auto deleting the last few characters from the last clue. Hence, I deleted enu for solved clues. But that too was not enough. Hence, I had to divide and rule and put the across and down in two separate posts.
The number of character used in clues today, including enu etc, appears to be an all time high, looking at the sheer space occupied on the news paper.
As per review function in MS Word,
Words 315
Characters w/o spaces 1551
Characters with spaces 1870
If TH paid by the word, I am sure this puzzle will rank as the one with maximum takings.
As Plum would say, IN THE style of this puzzle, it is Money IN THE Bank.
But on the whole, I liked it!
1 - Couple could be flying (6) - B?I?G?
ReplyDeleteBRIDGE
Couple=join things=bridge
flying bridge is a type of bridge, hence could be flying
PS: As per Kishores theorems S=S. So are you Scintillator ;-)
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to one from Dynamic Grandpa ;-)
Kishore @ 9:51
ReplyDeleteWho knows, the sky may fall on ones head then !!
Shades of NJ in the Interdict Anno!
ReplyDeleteIt had me goggling ;-)
DG 958:
ReplyDeleteNothing to fear! Luckily we ain't Gauls with names like Kix and Dix.
16 - Obedient daughter's stylish and ravishing when seen without boyfriend (7) - DUTIFUL {D}{U}{beauTIFUL} U for stylish?
ReplyDeleteMaybe S'tor is thinking STYLISH = POSH =U?
@sudalamani @ 9.24: Guess you are right - compared to some of the other regular setters, no glaring errors. A couple of nits that I came up with (could be sour grapes too, as I did not write down some of the answers with plenty of crossings b'cos I could not make the connections that were made here):
ReplyDelete8D which seems to get the inserticator wrong (unless the intent is for the insertion indicator to indicate placing "I" between PIT and ABLE which could be I guess)
19Ac where North India's initials are part of the anagram (indicated by AROUND) which is usually frowned upon as being indirect. I can't spot the anagram indicator otherwise.
2D ER for Electronic Resistance is quite far fetched IMO. Even Electrical Resistance which I believe to be a more correct term can lead to its common abbreviation of only "R". Wish it was indicated by a initial letter picking indicator.
Also for 6D, are "synoptic" and "summarized" in the same part of speech / tense?
Veer
ReplyDeleteI'd agree with you on 8D and 6D. For 19A, I saw I=India in that phonetic list a coupla days back and N=north is also common. Is one-letter abb. in anagram fodder also considered indirect? Buzzer also had N=new in 14A in the anagram fodder yesterday...
For 2D, the surface seemed meaningful to me. E=electronic, as in e-mail etc and R=resistance. The surface looks physics-oriented, try to hinder the motion of a charge of q Coulombs (say) using some E/B field application...
I have a doubt in 25A - HIERARCHY. Usually is it okay to clue one word using another that has the same etymological origin as it? I generally would not like it, but here the 2 words seem to have developed very different meanings. Think an experienced person like CV/Shuchi can answer this...
Just done yesterday's and today's x-words this morning. Both new setters for me. Thought buzzer was very smooth and liked the playfulness of scintillator!
ReplyDeleteI think U is ok for stylish. Nancy Mitfords essay on U and non-U usage wasnt just about class but was a statement of style too.
ReplyDeleteNope, not all one abbreviations are considered indirect - the most common, unambiguous ones requiring no special knowledge are considered good for fodder (these usually also find a place in Oxford's or Chambers as an accepted abbrev.). So in that sense, N-North and I-India should be good unlike my comment earlier.
ReplyDeleteBut for 2D I think I would still hold some grudge towards the term electronic resistance (which is necessary for the surface meaning but the sense it is used here for the surface is as if electrical and electronic are interchangeable which it is not) but it is almost passable, I admit. Maybe the ASIC verification engineer profile dude that you ferreted out yesterday has more of a clue on this.
Off track:
ReplyDeleteArrived in Hyderabad this (Aug 12) morning.
Was amazed to come across a large number of sparrows near the place of stay (Kukatpalli).
Recalled a discussion here about their vanishing tribe on account of microwave towers.
And as an aside. A non U and hence very unstylish sentence which would have the fictional Uncle Matthew turning in his grave " I left the note paper by the serviettes on the mantelpiece in the lounge" Oh the complexities English usage!
ReplyDeleteVeer@1142:
ReplyDeleteLOL. Didn't really ferret out, veer. We are of around the same age, EC-CS engg. background and I also have friends in the US employed in semiconductor-software industries.
I have come across 'electronic resistance' somewhere in my B.E. days - the era when Milman, Neaman and Streetman occupied my time.
It will be great to have Neyartha participate amongst us in his Vinayak avatar - have never seen him comment here anyday.
Did not particularly the 'IN the' clues. Because many of them like PIESKY. ROLLHAY DYEWOOL do not make words or common phrases at all. The interesting part of this device comes when the two words separated by IN THE, when the fall in the same number in the grid should form a word or phrase independently.
ReplyDeleteRichard 1143: Does that debunk the microwave tower theory, for Hyd too has such structures, I think?
ReplyDeleteHi all
ReplyDeleteSorry about the complexity, but honestly this was something I chose out of my volition. Most TH puzzles are on the easier side, so I wanted to test the waters on how the reaction would be when faced with more serious challenges. Now I need to mellow down considerably, I believe.
I just wanted to go for a daring theme and was bracing only for mixed comments - as I've got here. A wordplay is not a success unless the solvers figure it out, so I was pretty anxious when Col had his blanks. Thankfully the others have saved my face ;)
One area where I perhaps missed the trick is the choice of wordplay. Usually I do not enter words that are out of my vocab in the grid unless in extreme cases (YO-HO-HO was the only one in this grid). But I failed to follow this for wordplay elements, as LIE IN and HIERARCH were out of my lexicon before setting this puzzle. Good lesson to learn there, but a tough one to abide by every time, I guess.
Most clarifications are already in the comments. A couple from my side:
8D: 'get' is a valid charade indicator. So 'bed getting competent' = {PIT}{ABLE}. The insertion follows.
21A: Treat=bones (slang)=DOCTOR. The remaining is shamelessly padded up for a semi-&lit.
Also Suresh@1228 has an interesting point. I think he asks if every slot in a grid should stand for a meaningful word (INTHE or PIESKY do not form words). I do not know of such a rule and if it exists, it ought to be relaxed for phrases in a puzzle. And trust me, I have once seen "May your shadow never grow less" clued in one of the Brit puzzles.
So cheers and will be back with a gentler (pl. note the comparative) one next time :)
Scintillator
Tks Scintillator. I am not talking of any rules, since there is no law on the subject. But as a corollary when an answer spreads over two clue numbers, even though the answer is intended as one word, each element would normally make a valid word.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly I spent a lot of time looking for this kind of combination and do think it will be more elegant.
And to differ from others I did not mind the difficulty level. I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteBeing a doctor myself I missed "DOCTOR". What a shame.
ReplyDeleteWell jaggu I am glad you do not doctor the way we do.
ReplyDelete@Scintillator: Thanks for an interesting puzzle.
ReplyDeleteBuzzer and Scintillator kept my mind buzzing and scintillating for two days. Challenging setters, I should say. When one gets so used to doing the simpler ones, a bit of offbeat convolution of the mind does help the brain cells being kept abuzz and scintillating. Keep buzzing and scintillating.
ReplyDeleteMany of the clues are solvable with a bit of bheja fry. So, lets quit carping and nitpicking.
These setters help us think out of the grid.