| # | Name | Clue | Points | Voters | Anno | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lily Geller (@lilygeller) | Who’s that entertaining emcee? (4) | 53 | 24 | Def: “emcee” Wordplay: hidden word in “w[HO’S T]hat” with “entertaining” as the indicator | |
| 2 | Tejas Siddharth | The organizer of those endless parties! (4) | 32 | 16 | The organizer = def, THOSe* with parties as an anagrind | |
| 3 | Madhusudan H | Anantakrishnan has often secured the top spots (4) | 32 | 15 | Defn : Anantakrishnan, host for this round ... Acrostic ... Acrostic indicator : Top spots |
- Meta, lovely, and "top spots" is bang on. |
| 4 | Sree sree | Who's the lodging manager? | 25 | 15 | T -w(HOST)he | |
| 5 | anand ranganathan | Section of WHO studying infected organism | 25 | 14 | hidden; def=infected organism | |
| 6 | Sowmya Ramkumar | Receiving Oscar, Smith egregiously strikes one man -the MC (4) | 24 | 10 | O SMITH* - I (one) M (Man). Egregiously - Anagram indicator. the MC - Definition |
- Rock wasn''t really the MC, but the wordplay is so good here in "egregiously" and "strikes one man." Love it. |
| 7 | Yossi Fendel | Who's typically entertaining? (4) | 21 | 13 | &lit, hidden in w(HOS T)ypically |
- Succinct, and I think the most successful of &lit attempts this go-round. |
| 8 | Jyothish Balakrishnan | Naked spirits entertain(4) | 21 | 11 | def:entertain, wp : naked spirits i.e. G(host)s |
- This works, but the surface is almost too terse. |
| 9 | Hari Mannarsamy | One who entertains a large group (4) | 19 | 12 | DD: One who entertains, a large group (both have different roots: Latin Hospes, Latin Hostis respectively) | |
| 10 | Ananth Srinivasan | Put up with those endless shenanigans (4) | 17 | 10 | Def: put up (THOSE-E)* with = connector, shenanigans = anagrind |
- Outstanding. |
| 11 | Developing hots for crush (4) | 16 | 10 | (hots)*; Definition: crush (as in a large number of people or things) |
- Lovely word choice. |
|
| 12 | Some lavish, ostentatious party-giver (4) | 15 | 9 | Def = party-giver, telescopic | ||
| 13 | Phantom loses girl to the entertainer (4) | 15 | 9 | phantom = ghost Girl= g, ghost - g | ||
| 14 | Mob beheading Nearly headless Nick, maybe(4) | 13 | 8 | Def - Mob, Nearly headless Nick is a Ghost from the Harry Potter Series, beheading is (-G)HOST |
- Cute; that''s a fun ghost to choose for a beheadment (the only one, really). The "maybe" is unnecessary, though. |
|
| 15 | Anchor gets letters from psycho stalker (4) | 12 | 8 | psycHO STalker (def - anchor) | ||
| 16 | Who's truly welcoming many? (4) | 12 | 8 | Telescopic (wHOS Truly) &lit with many also being a def of host and the whole clue working as an extended def | ||
| 17 | Smith ostracized? Tackled Chris Rock for one (4) | 11 | 6 | Hidden word, defn= Chris Rock for one |
- It''s a stretch for me; a topical clue should be accurate. |
|
| 18 | Husband of Stella - the leading entertainer | 11 | 6 | acrostic, definition: entertainer | ||
| 19 | Large number used in psychostatistics (4) | 10 | 8 | "large number" = def.; answer is hidden (used) in psycHOSTatistics | ||
| 20 | Letters from psycho stalker to Letterman, perhaps (4) | 9 | 7 | Hidden in plainsight. psycHOSTalker. Indicator - letters from. Def - Letterman, perhaps. David Letterman is a very popular American TV host. | ||
| 21 | MC Hammer, one-of-a-kind songwriter's tragic beginnings (4) | 9 | 5 | MC- def , H O S T ( First letters selection) | ||
| 22 | Well-organized shows have one talking in the beginning (4) | 8 | 6 | Anagram &Lit; Anagram of the first letters of S(hows) H(ave) O(ne) T(alking), "Well-organized" being the anagram indicator |
- I don''t think I''ve seen an acrostic anagram before; deceptive! |
|
| 23 | Mass entertainer (4) | 8 | 5 | DD. Different roots (hostis enemy and hoste/hospitis) | ||
| 24 | Those about to give up are finally present (4) | 8 | 5 | Those* (about as anagrind) to give up (deletion indicator) arE (finally) present (def - host) | ||
| 25 | Opens harbour, offering ships to anchor (4) | 8 | 5 | Anchor (Defn), Opens - Acrostic indicator | ||
| 26 | One who's throwing a party resides here | 8 | 5 | Telescopic. Def: One w(ho's t)hrowing a party; "Resides here" as container indicator |
- Not quite parsing for me as a whole, especially compared to other similar entries like "Who''s typically entertaining?" - tele indicator is not adjacent to the fodder |
|
| 27 | Leaderless spirit army | 7 | 4 | (g)HOST, def: army | ||
| 28 | "Ho ho ho!" Santa's regularly taken role of entertainer | 6 | 4 | def=role of entertainer. every 3rd letter (regularly) of HohOhoSanTas | ||
| 29 | He may be shot to pieces to entertain (4) | 5 | 2 | Def: to entertain; Anno: SHOT to pieces -> HOST |
- "He may be" seems superfluous here. - Not sure how “he may be” works here |
|
| 30 | Who still contains multitudes? (4) | 4 | 3 | (Who still) hides HOST (multitudes) | ||
| 31 | Have nachos tortilla chips (4) | 4 | 3 | Definition: Have ; Wordplay: Telescopic, with chips as telescopic indicator | ||
| 32 | Historically army shot to pieces (4) | 3 | 2 | Anagram (to pieces) *shot. Definition Historically army. Chambers. Host (2nd entry) 1. An army (archaic) | ||
| 33 | Basically high octane stylish television announcer (4) | 3 | 2 | Basically : Acrostic indicator, Announcer : HOST | ||
| 34 | Jeeves! What ho! Street house for Mass? | 3 | 2 | Telescopic |
- Confused by the "Jeeves! What" part, but love "house" and "for Mass" - what is the role of Jeeves? |
|
| 35 | Great deal in Khajuraho's trading center | 2 | 2 | Def - great deal, host : in - Khajura "hos t" rading | ||
| 36 | Announce "Poltergeist released girl" (4) | 2 | 2 | Def: announce. (-g)HOST | ||
| 37 | Glamorous Sierra to visit Paris in 2024? | 2 | 1 | Glamorous HOT Sierra S to visit (insert) HO[S]T def: Paris in 2024 (host of olympics) (? To indicate indirect def) |
- I like the idea, I just don''t love random names in surfaces |
|
| 38 | Anchor cut off those discordant (4) | 2 | 1 | Definition: Anchor; last letter removal indicator: cut off; Anagrind: discordant; {Those -e} * = Host | ||
| 39 | Large number shot out | 2 | 1 | (shot)*, definition: large number | ||
| 40 | Dinner party thrower removes sides from Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde (4) | 1 | 1 | Inky, Blinky, Pinky, and Clyde are the [-g]HOST[-s] from Pac-Man |
- What does the surface mean? |
|
| 41 | What boiling does to sulphur in this case? (4) | 1 | 1 | HO(S)T |
- Don''t get the anno |
|
| 42 | Party girl so upset enters empty hut (4) | 1 | 1 | Def: Party girl; So upset=OS (upset being reversal indicator); Empty hut=HT; Enters=Content indicator |
- Nice wordplay, just a bit vague in the surface (why an empty hut? maybe something with a heart?) |
|
| 43 | Headless spook is one providing entertainment (4) | 0 | Spook=ghost, headless=remove first letter, so (-g)HOST, definition=one providing entertainment | |||
| 44 | No escort initially available in organising those present (4) | 0 | Anno:(THOSE-e)* Def: Present |
- Fun use of "present" as an adjective in the surface. |