EV 1043 - Dark by Chalicea

[Twit-Who]

A pleasant romp........nothing too taxing and sadly nothing too challenging either.

[DocHH]

Hello Twit-Who,
I found this enjoyable. I am not convinced that the cryptic part of 11a indicates the extra letter that is used in the first word.

[Twit-Who]

Quite happy with 11a. Voters hosting 'a' (for American) = wild west films.

[devadolly]

Hello All! Aren't WW films called 'cowboy films'? Not done too much yet as still swamped with the detrius of coming back from hols. India fantastic by the way, must go again. Anything interesting been happening????

[Twit-Who]

Glad you loved India. Very adventurous - not sure I could face the daunting crowded cities.

You'll be pleased to know you missed an Oxymoron puzzle - EV 1041 - while you were away. Actually it was very good indeed.

[DocHH]

Thank you for that Twit-Who, the adjustment makes more sense now. devadolly, pleased to hear you had a good holiday, I'd have trouble persuading herself to go there, but I'd love to! As to what has happened, dr b seems to travelling, probaly for family reasons, Novalis is conspicuous by his absence, but no-one knows why, Christiana is in Portugal, and relying on an expensive dongle connection to commune with us EVers, K is regularly contributing, but has blogging responsibilities elsewhere! Ringer has failed to meet her new year resolution! We are off on holiday next saturday, so I'm going to be absent for at least 3 EVs. Before you ask, the normal riposte ends with the punch-line, "no she wanted to go!"

[devadolly]

Delhi is amazing, crowded but only like London. Admittedly hotter and more chaotic but in such an organised way. Rhajasthan(?) fantastic, Udaiphur the most wonderful place as was Shimla, eating breakfast in the sun with 7 ranges of hills and valleys spread out before one culminating in the snow-capped Himalayas seemingly near enough to touch. Chinese border 350k away and Tibet and Nepal considered a day's drive away...............Both Himself and me were totally captivated by the whole place, went on all sorts of trains....brilliant! You should persuade Herself to go DocHH, we didn't go steerage and everything was sorted out for us at every stage.

Am getting carried away and haven't quite finished the EV for this week

[dr b]

well, I am around today although I have been traveling a bit. Visited daughter I in NYC a few weeks ago; she survived Sandy with power intact but her work has been closed all week and she did take in one of her coworkers whose home had lost power for a few days. She's hoping things get back to semi-normal this week, esp. the subways.

Enjoyed this EV; I was held up for a bit by thinking of one definition of the first word of the extra letters when I should have used a different one.

[kayakamina]

Welcome back DD.

It is a few years since I was last in India but I vividly recall the vast contrasts.
The stunning scenery & architecture but not too far from the most heartbreaking poverty. Both left me in tears at times.
I can't believe that, at my advanced age, I am getting better at these crosswords so I must assume the last couple of ones have been on the easy side!

[Christiana]

Good evening all. Nice to hear from you Devadolly. Would love to go to India, but no pennies left after our Australasian romp at the beginning of the year.
As others have said, this was an easy but enjoyable romp. For me, there were two or three tricky ones in so far as my LRB (little red book) didn't have some of the more obscure words. But my little Franklin's Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver came up trumps on most occasions.

[Ruthrobin]

Dear all, kayakamina, devadolly, and DrB. You know of course that setters consult the Answerbank and I admit I am the culprit this time. I do always appreciate your generous comments.

[DocHH]

OK Ruthrobin, we will have to be more carefull in future, and certainly less complimentary, especially when you fail to mention specific individuals who are regular AB contributors!

[turast]

While filling the grid , I was thrilled at the possibility of a developing PINK FLOYD theme. With DARK as the title, and seeing ATOM, then HEART, I was hoping to see MOTHER appear somewhere else in the grid, but was disappointed. There is a SID in row 8 though. Surely not a coincidence? Spooky. Ruthrobin, are you a secret Floyd-head?

[Ruthrobin]

Dreadfully sorry DocHH, Twit-Who, Christiana - the 'all' was honestly addressed at you - no intention at all to offend. DocHH, as you probably know, I join threads here and know how important that first kind remark 'Well, I enjoyed it ...' is to the compiler, as it tends to set the tone of the thread and limit the harsh gripes.

[Ruthrobin]

The odd thing is, Turast, that I have test-solved two with Pink Floyd themes recently. There was no intention at all to hide a second theme, but, of course, the mind plays weird tricks when you are hunting for words. It is never deliberate plagiarism but words reappear.

[DocHH]

Ruthrobin, I was just being a little playful! It is actually quite interesting that some of the EV compilers keep an eye on our weekly thread! I cannot remember when I started attempting EV, it was quite a few years ago. I do remember however that there was one week when there was not one correct entry! I would have been very happy if this week's offering actually had included a Pink Floyd theme. AGE?

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, indeed, 'age'!

[ringer]

Hello All
Thought I would just show that I haven' t disappeared completely and am still trying to keep my New Year resolution ( though the others went by the board in January!!). I seem to be playing catch-up with EVs - very busy as usual especially at work. Whoever thinks that part-time = spare time is most definitely wrong. Enjoyed this EV although I agree with T-W that there was very little to challenge the rapidly greying cells.