 | Someone I admire greatly says this about rules of thumb - in another field, but it applies equally well to crosswords.
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Regular solvers will be accustomed to replacing "way" with ST or "fifty" with L in their heads without second thought, but sometimes a clue comes along that upsets that convention.
So it is with charge = ION. That isn't even much of a "rule of thumb" – exceptions are abundant!
When is charge in the surface not equal to ION in the solution? Here are a few cases:
1. When "in charge" = IC
Guardian 24714 (Rufus): Commanding Officer in charge set about sergeant major – great! (6)
ET 3220: In charge of an animal, in charge of a country (9)
2. When it means "accuse"
Times 24234: Reportedly, a means to control horse's charge (7)
THC 9548 (Sankalak): Charge that supporter is steeped in drink (6)
3. When it means "control" or "supervision"
New Indian Express 31-Dec-08: One in charge is possibly a German (7)
THC 8898: People in charge of wardrobes and cupboards (8)
2. When it means "payment" or "price"
New Indian Express 07-Jan-09: Anticipate charge for concealing minerals (7)
New Indian Express 19-Nov-07: Soldiers hold deserter without charge (6)
4. When it means electric charge
Guardian 24717 (Araucaria): Store charge here for top performer without one (9)
New Indian Express 9871: It's extremely small and free of charge (7)
Answers? More clues that use CHARGE in another sense not mentioned here? Share them in the comments section.
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10 comments
5 Left in charge? (4)
With the pattern ?V?R which I just now figured out with the answers supplied in this thread, I would think the answer is OVER
two def, I thought at first but it may not be.
When one commentator hands the mike to another, he says: "Over to ..." where 'over' is perhaps left in charge.
I am just conjecturing...
Note: The comments above are by C.Vasi
From NIE:
Reverse the charge (13)
Somewhat of a coincidence that you have a posted a blog on exceptions to rules when Iam halfway through reading "The Black Swan" by Nicholas Taleb.
Among many other things,it talks about our propensity for generalisation and searching for patterns and conformance to a fixed set of dogmatic rules in everything. He says our stubborn reluctance to accept exceptions and desire to make all events appear less random and more predictable is one of our biggest downfall.
In his words, "We are unable to estimate risk, falling vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate and categorise, rather than opening ourselves to the impossible".
I highly recommend the book, more so for his inimitable style of writing, utter irreverance, especially for intellectuals(with Plato, may his soul rest in peace,his prime target) and fantastic sense of humor. For instance a complete chapter is dedicated to deriding the The Bell Curve, a tool which we all must have used in our college days. He calls it "That great Intellectual Fraud". It has finally confirmed what I believed all through my Btech days, that our bete noir, "the CGPA system of grading", which is an offshoot of the bell curve principle is nothing but a big fraud.LOL
An elaborate write up about the book will be out of place in this forum. So, before any one reading my post mistakes your blog for one dedictaed to book reviews, let me put a stop. Anyone interested in reading the book can borrow it from me after I finish it :)
My original intent was to post the answers to the clues which i forgot :)
Commanding Officer in charge set about sergeant major – great! (6)
{CO{SM}IC}.
In charge of an animal, in charge of a country (9) IC{ELAND}IC
Reportedly, a means to control horse's charge (7) ARRAIGN ~A REIN
Charge that supporter is steeped in drink (6)AL{LEG}E
People in charge of wardrobes and cupboards (8)DRESSERS, DD
Anticipate charge for concealing minerals F{ORES}EE
Soldiers hold deserter without charge (6) G{RAT}IS, It has used two rules of thumb to give an exception.
Store charge here for top performer without one (9) {CAP}{AC{I}TOR}, shouldnt it be with one??
It's extremely small and free of charge (7) NEUTRON??CD
How infinitely easier clues become when such broad hints are given!
I remember posting two comments here, but neither is refelected here.As far as I can remember there was nothing objectionable in them, except may be that one was not irectly related to crosswords as such. Is it an oversight or have I been rendered persona non grata??
I had missed a whole string of comments on this post, maddy, sorry about that. Your comments are always most enjoyable, please consider yourself a persona grata.
Will you believe it, this is the second time that "The Black Swan" has been recommended and quoted from over here. Anokha talks about it too, check out the comments on http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2009/04/hindu-crossword-solutions.html
Now I MUST read the book!
You've got all the answers, right, congrats! NEUTRON is right, too.
Store charge here for top performer without one (9) {CAP}{AC{I}TOR}, shouldnt it be with one??
"without" here means "outside of".
Sankalak today has both ION and CHARGE in his THC. Funny thing is I read this blog and then went to print the crossword and look what I found!
@Vasana: It must be the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon at work. See this.
[I would've linked to the Wikipedia article, but for some strange reason it doesn't exist anymore.]
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