Monday 19 August 2013

No.10855, Mon 19 Aug 2013, Arden

Last one of this nice series from Arden that I blog on ...

ACROSS
1 Stop one. Are the people powerless in this country? (6,8) BANANA REPUBLIC (BAN AN ARE PUBLIC)
          Remembered use of this in Parliament during discussion of Kishtwar disturbances
10 Harsh drug has some resistance (5) ACRID (ACID has R)
11 Put middlemen in charge before beginning of December and took part again (2-7) RE-ENTERED (mEn in RENT + ERE D)
12 Mostly wanting some medicine (7) ASPIRIN (ASPIRINg)
13 Narrate about many a bird (7) REDTAIL (RETAIL about D) Not sure how 'narrate' ties in Pl. see comments
14 Letter from French for some vacation benefits (5) DELTA (DE (from in French + LTA, leave travel allowance)
16 All he does to transform the property (9) LEASEHOLD (ALL HE DOES)*
19 Missed one moving to the U.S. city (3,6) DES MOINES (MISSED ONE)*
20 Royal family mostly go round without work (5) TUDOR (TURn outside DO)
22 The big man has to live with Dalai Lama, for example (7) TIBETAN (TITAN has BE)
25 Pressing in, Brown gets in the way (7) INSTANT (IN + TAN in ST.)
27 Blight on one about an instrument (9) HARMONICA (HARM ON 1 CA)
28 A gas examination area (5) OZONE (Oral ZONE)
29 Soppiness of a gent from Kolkata — it reflects on his character (14) SENTIMENTALITY (SEN IT< MENTALITY)
DOWN
2 A harvest grain storage set up in Athens (9) ACROPOLIS (A CROP SILO<)

3 It grows amid the red lavender trees (5) ALDER (T<)
4 It’s real and in fashion, causes excitement (9) ADRENALIN (REAL AND IN)*
5 The ruler will emerge, perhaps without the girl (5) EMEER (EMERgE)*
6 Unit making mould, by the way, is the most cluttered (9) UNTIDIEST (UNIT* DIE ST.)
7 It is immature to put raw beginner in hot soup (5) LARVA (R in LAVA)
8 Boiled first course with rum in front (7) CODDLED (C ODD LED)
          I wonder how the egg coddled by Molly felt: molly-coddled?
9 Story would end, chasing one in a vehicle (6) CANARD (AN in CAR,D)
15 All the more reason if a riot or disturbance happens (1,8) A FORTIORI (IF A RIOT OR)*
17 He attacks as worker goes after spanker (9) ASSAILANT (AS SAIL ANT)
           Use of a spanker and the ref. to the city in 29a proves that Arden is a knotty-Cal. man
18 He doesn’t fit in — he was not even dismissed (3,3,3) ODD MAN OUT (Not even=odd, he=man, dismissed=out)
19 Dumps in trenches (7) DITCHES (2)
          Reminded me of "Faster than fairies, faster than witches, ..."
21 Very bad model to rent (6) ROTTEN (TO RENT)*
          The type of onions you can get at Rs.40/kg
23 Oddly, Blair soon became noble (5) BARON (BlAiRsOoN)
24 Sound echo in cohesion (5) NOISE (T<)
26 Look unhappy that the boat has left (5) SCOWL (SCOW L)

26 comments:

  1. 13 is D (many) in RETAIL (narrate) as in "She retailed many anecdotes about her mother-in-law to the amusement of her friends."

    ReplyDelete
  2. Personally don't like 1: a or an.
    4 D has a problem. What is role of it's? I think the answer should not be a tradename. The correct spelling ends with an ' e'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry. Its there in Chambers too.

      Delete
    2. One and a or an are used interchangeably in many situations.

      Delete
  3. @ MB Sir, Just now saw your comment.I was enjoying my weekend holidays.Decided not to do any xwords and internet surfing.So missed all the fun.
    @ Kishore aka Incognito. Now the cat is out of the bag:). Only today I solved Incognito's Xword and finished it in 15 minutes:) Thanks for an enjoyable xword.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LV,it's good to know that you do solve unattempted/missed CWs and also go through all the comments !!

      Delete
  4. 16A: seems to an incomplete sentence.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. May be "is" is missing btn 'does' and 'to' in that sentence.

      Delete
    2. It seems like a complete sentence to me.

      However I got issues with some of the other clues in the puzzle...

      * Some thrown around freely in many clues
      * NOISE is not hidden in 24D
      * There's excessive padding in some of the clues. Like 26A for instance
      * Not sure if the syntax is right in 3D

      Delete
    3. 3 'some' in the clues . One to indicate that the first letter needs to be picked. Not sure if it is really that excessive

      Why do you say Noise is not hidden ?

      There is no 26A. IF you mean 26d Look unhappy that the boat has left (5) SCOWL (SCOW L)
      It looks OK ( Treating 'that' as a link word, not the best one , I agree )

      3d It grows amid the red lavender trees (5) Seems fine

      Delete
    4. "Some" has no role in 12A and 14A.

      NOISE, the problem is that there's no letter hiding "N."

      Yes, that is really not a satisfactory link word.

      3D, come to think of it, it's not all that bad. But could've been better IMO.

      Delete
  5. 20A : Royal family = TUDOR. Mostly go round = TURn. Work = DO. Without work means ?

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  6. I think here we have to take 'without' to mean 'outside of'














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  7. 28A I think the 'examination' may be referring to the O-level - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-level.

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