12/12/12 is here finally, wonder how many babies will be born today! Plenty of facial expressions in Neyarthas CW today.
ACROSS
7 Free the listless nun with immoral piercing (8) UNLOOSEN {UN{LOOSE}N*}
9 Mock the microblogging service’s loss of direction (6) TITTER TwITTER
10 Figure found on the truck with the gang (10) SEMICIRCLE {SEMI}{CIRCLE}
11 Law practice (4) RULE [DD]
12 Supporter gets help in recital (4) AIDE (~aid)
13 Impeach corrupted Turkish chief employed in firm (8) EMPHATIC {EMPHA{T}IC*}
16 Get exceptional yield around the French retreat if things go
well (7) IDEALLY {IDE{AL<=}LY*}
18 Coach gets Chandler’s lost margins (7) HANDLER cHANDLERs
20 Mysterious showman harbouring one with feminine characteristics
(8) WOMANISH {WOMAN{1}SH*}
21 Quote on the radio for the ground (4) SITE (~cite)
23 Glib student replaces the egg to get a flower (4) LILY (-o+l)LILY
24 Artificial article taken out by yours truly was a fake (10) FICTITIOUS F(-a+i)ICTITIOUS
25 Skipper used to hide in the study (6) PERUSE [T] 'In the' had me confused
26 Left attached to Alaska’s mysterious large freshwater body
(4,4) LAKE ERIE {L}{AK}{E ERIE}
DOWN
1 Mock when the Supreme Court’s missing screens turn up (5) SNEER SNEERcs
2 Sought by some Eastern Bloc citizens during the Cold War days
(9,6) POLITICAL ASYLUM [CD]
4 Renounced the student’s approach to the eye infection (4) STYE STYlE
5 America’s Old Glory? (5,3,7) STARS AND STRIPES [CD]
6 Appropriate to let mildew break down (4-5) WELL-TIMED*
8 Beam made from elms raised in the island’s interior (5) SMILE {SM{I}LE<=}
14 Appeal to include an edible seed (3) PEA [T]
15 Personal attack to sidestep the main issue? (2,7) AD HOMINEM [E] Had to cheat on this one
19 Pitch of the Spanish revolutionary’s quiet laugh (7) CHUCKLE {CHUCK}{LE<=}
21 Avoid Henry’s headmaster’s leer (5) SMIRK {S(-h+m)MIRK}
22 Copper line sent up to the Pope’s court (5) CURIA {CU}{RIA<=} Line in the sense of a song?
24 Flute with one end garbled found in a piece of feudal land (4) FIEF FI(F<=>E)
Great gross = 1728
ReplyDeletehow do u work out 13 a?? turkish chief -aga
ReplyDeleteis it not? but there is no Aga/agha in emphatic.
and where does 'figure found" fit in? can u please explain? thanks
As indicated by Deepak Turkish chief refers to 'T' inserted into anagram of IMPEACH.
DeleteDoc, 12.12.12 today, your Shivaji Rao's B'day...
Saying 'Mind it!' in Style King Gaekwad fashion...
DeleteDoc,
ReplyDeleteTurkish chief is 'T' that should make it clear.
Figure is the definition, found is for the surface reading
Deepak, looks like you will hit 999999 before the weekend.
ReplyDeleteWeekend is too far off, it will happen tomorrow
DeleteMissing the Million on 12/12/12 by a whisker ? May be some part of the world will be on 12/12/12 when that happens.
DeleteGood to able to eat a Samosa on Neyartha's day.
ReplyDeleteABCDE :
Roll on which a light roller or a heavy roller is used (5)
P...h?
Delete:) . Welcome back Richard. Long time no see..
DeleteThat is 'IT' see (C)- P IT C H
DeleteTrue.
DeleteAbsence makes the heart grow fonder. (-Thomas Haynes Bayly)
Nice puzzle today.
ReplyDelete25 Skipper used to hide in the study (6) PERUSE [T] 'In the' had me confused
By now we should be used to Neyartha's penchant for sticking unnecessary articles into clues. In my opinion, his usage here goes from wanting-to-mislead into wrong territory.
Peruse is a verb and it can be "study(v)" but not "the study" which is a noun.
Wonder what Kishore is going to at 12:12:12 on 12-12-12...
ReplyDeleteMaybe a double great gross sandwich!!
DeleteThat should have read 'Wonder what Kishore is going to do at 12:12:12 on 12-12-12...'
DeleteI read it as 'going to eat at'!!!
DeleteEven that would fit in perfectly.
DeleteNow, wouldn't that be gross !
DeleteSo net-net eating a great gross sandwich at 12:12:12 on 12/12/12 is gross ?
DeleteRamesh,
ReplyDeleteSamosa on a Neyartha day should be most delicious.
Bhavan,
Yes, I get easily misled by Neyartha even when he is within limits.
Yes it was a nice samosa. But there are lots of claimants to 'most delicious samosa' among the THC setters.
DeleteNo samosa for me to-day! I was not at my brightest best, I'm afraid. Should have done better on 12-12-12!
ReplyDeleteGood day all. Enjoy this special day....
How is 4D : Renounced the student’s approach to the eye infection (4) STYE STYlE parsed in cryptic reading of the clue ? How is the 's interpreted to mean 'from' ?
ReplyDeleteRamesh, a valid question. As I see it, it doesn't work.
DeleteI think it is fine. Renounced being the deletion indicator. 's is only a filler
DeleteShouldn't there be an indicator stating that the student is being renounced from approach ? Or is that considered unnecessary ?
DeleteSuresh, don't think purists will tolerate such fillers. The instruction doesn't seem clear.
DeleteI think I have come across similar clues in the Guardian.
DeleteJust missed the moment
ReplyDeleteI don't understand "STYIE" itself. It should be "STYLE" (approach)with deletion of 'L' for student. Am I right?
ReplyDeleteRight
DeleteWhat you have missed is that the Col. has used the small letter l (instead of the capital letter L) to indicated that that letter is deleted; additionally he has struck through it.
DeleteMy problem was that amid all the other capital
ReplyDeleteletters I took it to mean capital 'I'.
Had trouble dissecting some of the surfaces today and gave up on a few clues in the end. Hope to fare better tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHow "free"="unloosen" in 1A?
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/unloosen
DeleteInteresting word. Both loosen and unloosen mean the same
DeleteThanks for the clarification. After posing the question, I referred the dic and got the answer. First I thought freeing is loosening and unloosening is antonym of loosening.Got stuck up there though the bridging words indicated "unloosen".
DeleteFrankly I don'y enjoy Neyarta's puzzle
ReplyDeleteLoosen and unloosen
ReplyDeleteThere are a few other similar words like flammable and inflammable. Because of the possible confusion, the former is more commonly being used.
Any more contributions?
Valuable / Invaluable ?
Deletenumerable / innumerable
DeleteJust a couple of points on these clues:
ReplyDelete9 Mock the microblogging service’s loss of direction (6) TITTER TwITTER
21 Avoid Henry’s headmaster’s leer (5) SMIRK {S(-h+m)MIRK}
In TWITTER there is no indicator to suggest which direction is to be removed (could have been something like: westerly direction).Could not work out the second anno? How does M replace H?
21 :
DeleteI interpreted the clue as
Avoid Henry is head master is leer = Avoid H is M is leer = Shirk H is M is leer = SMIRK
It is an accepted practice to use either N,S,E or W for direction in CW's. Here only W is available and there is no confusion about it. "Loss of direction" could only mean remove W.
DeleteThere is an E sitting there as well :)
DeleteIf I understand you it is H is M in S_IRK? Does Henry is head master is leer make sense?
ReplyDeleteSurface as given seems fine. In the cryptic reading yes it seems to make sense to me.
DeleteJust as 23A Glib student replaces the egg to get a flower
would boil down to
Glib L replaces O to get a flower ( Does this make any grammatical sense ? Is it even a sentence ? )
or to take last Sunday's THC
Delete17 - Causing laughter about limitless bulbs for tree (8) - MULBERRY {M{bULBs}ERRY}
becomes
Causing laughter about ulb for tree ( Doesn't make sense again )
=
Merry about ulb for tree
=Mulberry = tree
I get it. Was looking for a 'FOR' or as in the OILY clue 'replaces' in the clue, but H is M seem's fine. Tks.
DeleteRichard@5.35 pm-
ReplyDeleteLoosen & unloosen
5 such words are listed by A word A Day (though not that obvious)
enjoin (Join issue- for/ against)
liege (Master & slave)
nickel-and-dime ( save by the penny/ squander the same way)
prodigious ( plenty of best/ worst)
cull ( pick out the best/worst)