Tuesday 12 November 2013

No 10928, Tuesday 12 Nov 2013, Afterdark

A double pangram or is it a triple from Afterdark much better than the one we had from Doppleganger a few days ago. A Triple pangram it is afterall. Greta Great work from Afterdark.


ACROSS
1   Flummox, kidnap monarch in silence and place head there (6) PUZZLE Anno pending (Addendum - MUZZLE  (-m+p)PUZZLE - See comments)
5   Mouth a composition about animal trainer (6) MAHOUT*
10 Old horse escaped outside when whipped (7) FLOGGED {FL{O}{GG}ED}
11 Teju alongside Manu scrambled to release reserves to gather Jack’s intestine part (7) JEJUNUM {tEJU+MaNU+J}* (Addendum - {JE{J}UNUMta*} - See comments)
12 In between, meat found related to blood vessel (6) VEINAL {VE{IN}AL}
15 Collect Bill’s team for the audience (6) ACCRUE {AC}{CRUE}(~crew)
16 Bird, without enthusiasm goes with another bird (7) GOSHAWK {GOeS}{HAWK}
17 Worry about tyro’s reign (4) RULE {RU{L}E}
18 Stations stranger aboard ship (4) SETS {S{ET}S}
19 Perfidiously downplay Prince’s desertion and surrender (3,4) LAY DOWN DOWNpLAY*
20 German approval overturned to get short hacker programming web development techniques (4) AJAX {AJ<=}{AXe}
22 Charge for time spent in the celebrations (4) FETE {FE{T}E}
25 Animal in retreat with difficulty accepts first solution and matures (7) FLOWERS {FLOW<=}{ER}{S}
27 Stained and endlessly sad Rajasthan Royals’ year starts … (6) BLURRY {BLUe}{R}{R}{Y}
28 Plunge without hesitation and evolve (6) DERIVE {D{ER}IVE}
31 Hundred plastic tawa with the regular bloke brought to the stage (7) CATWALK {C}{TAWA*}{bLoKe}
32 Revealed chromium work on the rock formations above the soil (7) OUTCROP {OUT}{CR}{OP}
33 Unruly cast at the university misbehaves (4,2) ACTS UP {CAST}* {UP}
34 Prison key-head lost in the game (6) HOCKEY {HOCK}{kEY}

DOWN
2   Related to wife? You ten empty devious liars, leave the son… (7) UXORIAL {U}{X}{O}{LIARs*}
3   Unknown police officer’s final letter, a gruesome beginning but winding … (6) ZIGZAG {Z}{IG}{Z}{A}{G}
4   Nervous daughter took the place of girl in the whirlpool (4) EDDY ED(-g+d)DY
5   Modus operandi by judge was to take a circular charm (4) MOJO {MO}{J}{O}
6   Commandeer shelled ship’s sailor (6) HIJACK {sHIp}{JACK}
7   Intimidate, even run helter-skelter (7) UNNERVE*
8   According to report, line in front of iron wielding priest from the east has a complaint (1,5) A FEVER A {FE}{VER<=} Anno not clear (Addendum - Q FEVER (~queue){Q} {FE}{VER<=} - See comments
9   Raging seer consumed doctor to ashes (6) EMBERS {E{MB}ERS*}
13 Adoringly look at Victorian sailor’s young apprentice going in front (7) LOVABLY {LO}{V}{AB}{L}{Y}
14 Laid-back lawyer in ostentatious surroundings is suspicious (7) SHADOWY {SH{AD<=}OWY}
15 An empty week at the room is uncomfortable (7) AWKWARD {A}{WeeK}{WARD}
20 Swedish band retiring disheartened from the church office (6) ABBACY {ABBA}{CoY}
21 A queen you adored first has spasm relating to water (7) AQUATIC {A}{QU}{Adored}{TIC}
23 King with energy follows oriental fighter who has settled in another country (7) EMIGREE {E}{MIG}{RE}{E}
24 Let go of former spouse with a measure of odd pity (6) EXEMPT {EX}{EM}{PiTy}
25 Clergies from French island arrive at the South (6) FRIARS {FR}{I}{AR}{S}
26 Step out with incharge who is infected (6) SEPTIC {PEST*}{IC}
29 Jump to taste vitamin inside (4) SKIP {S{K}IP}
30 Hebrew character primarily questioned on pilfered Hadith (4) QOPH {Q}{O}{P}{H}

65 comments:

  1. It is a triple!
    The funny thing about this triple pangram is a lot of words not only have the same letter more than once in a word, they are adjacent to each other many a time.

    1A MUZZLE-M+P
    8D Q FEVER ~QUEUE

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eg: Puzzle, Flogged, Accrue, Blurry, Eddy, Unnerve, Abbacy, Emigree

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    2. Kishore, that was the optimal way to get all the alphabets thrice in the grid. :)

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  2. I don't want to 6d AD's glory, but I think you have missed my toon ;-)

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    Replies
    1. Richie might identify with the toon, since the guy who did that was named Ritchie, if I remember right

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    2. Thank God I was not on that flight. Otherwise there could have been a horrible mix-up! :-)

      Remembered the panic created during a flight when one of the passengers greeted a long-lost acquaintance across a row of seat by yelling, "Hi, Jack!"...

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    3. Terrific cartoon Kishore . Could not stop laughing :)

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  3. 11 Teju alongside Manu scrambled to release reserves to gather Jack’s intestine part (7) JEJUNUM {tEJU+MaNU+J}*
    JE(J)UNUM*-ta Anag of {[-t]EJU+M[a]NU} to gather J

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teju and Manu, by the way, are Afterdark's creations

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    2. By the way, Teju and Manu are not triplets!

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    3. :) Someone asked me whether this is a dedication of watching Fight Club with family

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  4. @Afterdark: Congrats for the triple pangram!

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  5. Who is this Greta Afterdark has been working on?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Greta work from Afterdark."

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    2. Or did you mean 3 is greta than 2 ?

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    3. I had a classmate called Greta (a diminutive of Margaret)...

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    4. A reverse anagrammic compliment :)

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  6. Triple Pangram- the bar is being continuously raised!

    A couple of points-
    8D- reversal of 'Rev'- do you call it from the east or from the south since it is a Down clue?
    A point to appreciate-
    Hebrew alphabet is unlikely to be known to many, but the wordplay directly leads to it making it much easier. Referring to yesterday's discussion, I feel this is one of the differences between an hard & easy puzzle.
    24D- Is 'em' for measure?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The bar is definitely now out of the reach of midgets and teetotalers ...

      Yes, em is a measure, just like ell and en, though ell is a measure of cloth and em and en are measures of the length of dashes

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    2. Yes Padmanabhan, 8D should have read from the South.

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    3. Yes Padmanabhan. It was a mistake :(

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    4. Sorry for nitpicking on your hour of (triple?) glory. But I asked more for my clarification.

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    5. Not at all. Such an elementary mistake. Should have been avoided

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  7. Col, on your byline, why did you have to make a comparison like that? What do you have against an upcoming setter like Doppelgänger? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They have had many face-offs in the past ...

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    2. Thanks Colonel for the byline, even if it is at the cost of Doppelganger :) :D

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  8. An enjoyable triple pangram from Afterdark. Had problems in the north-west corner, otherwise it was a smooth ride for me today ! Thanks, Afterdark.

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  9. Oh what a tangled web this one was at first!! And then, sheer delight, as it started unravelling! Enjoyed Afterdark's offering, to-day, but those grey cells did have to work" double time".

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  10. Also, I put A Fever for 8D. What is Q fever? Would be obliged if someone could further clarify this for me. Thanks.

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    Replies
    1. Rita here it is .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_fever

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    2. Can Q(uestion) fever be the discomfort one undergoes when facing difficult questions? :-)

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  11. A joke I had read in connection with the route of a plane (luggage in fact)

    A passenger bound for Chicago was checking in NY airport and said,
    " Book me to Chicago, but my luggage to London,Paris, Amsterdam,Boston and then to Chicago."
    Airline staff-" That is impossible"
    Passenger-" But that is exactly what you did last time!"

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  12. 2D: Can a clue end with an unfinished sentence? If it did, I thought it ought to be taken into an another clue and stopped there. It don't seem to be the case here.

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  13. I realised to my horror today that I had something called a jejunum inside me

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  14. We carry so many things which we do not know about. Jejunum is just one of them.

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  15. 10A : Old horse escaped outside when whipped (7) FLOGGED {FL{O}{GG}ED}
    Anno : GG for please ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GG= Horse . More about the GG here is the link http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2011/12/why-is-horse-gg.html

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    2. GG is gee-gee which is horse

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  16. @Afterdark Congrats for a triple pangram!

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  17. Excellent effort to put a triple pangram. Except for a couple of clues, wordplay was also good.

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  18. That is just the point. Nothing seems to be contrived or out of place. It is great to have a triple pangram within these constraints.

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  19. Of late, I find a couple of new lady 'avatars' ! First it was Rita ma'am and now LV ! Who next ? Hope LV hasn't discarded her Chimpanzee friend of Madras zoo totally !!

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  20. An excellent puzzle-- yes indeed, truly HARDCORE CRYPTIC puzzle, from After Dark,.and to make a Pangram is indeed a great feat. Congrats except Sri no one else Kan be up to it I had eyestrain, flitting between the clues and the blocks in Orlkut. Can thewy not make the letters a bit more bold? Is there a way of getting dtodo them in Acrosslite format, which is far more easy?

    This puzzle is much higher in standard as compared to many I had done from the UK papers. We have an Araucaria in the making amidst us !! Not for jejune souls, with or without jejunum !
    Clue of my day: ABBACY-- It is a pity that this Abba band got broken , as they produced all time masterpieces in great teamwork.When I'm under the weather, I listen to their soulful renderings.

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  21. ABBA produced some very cheerful numbers, too! Mamma Mia, Voulez Vouz, Dancing Queen, to name a few. Many beautiful, soulful numbers, of course - The Winner Takes it all, Chiquiquita - so many more. Glad to meet another ABBA fan!

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  22. Right you are rita.makes two of us.my favourite is hasta manana. So soul stirring.

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  23. Thanks Kishore.

    Raju, Rita count that as 3. They are my favorites.

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  24. You can count me too ! My favourite is "Dancing Queen"

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