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Ev 1155: Reductions By Oxymoron

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DocHH | 19:24 Sun 28th Dec 2014 | Crosswords
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Hello all,
I hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas. Ours was fine until saturday morning! Overnight there had been quite violent gales, which managed to blow down several trees in the back garden, one of which has damaged a back fence, obstructed a bridle path, demolished a neighbour's fence and a section of the small gauge railway that runs around his garden! Needless to say I am dreading dealing with the Insurance Claim!
Despite that I quite quickly found 3 clashes, which lead me to deduce where the rest of the shortage of space would occur. That in itself was helpful with solving a lot of clues. A leap of faith with the resolution of the clashes "reduced" the options.
I learnt at least 2 new words, both of which are not in my version of the BRB, including 43a!
Happy New Year to all EVers! Am planning to travel north to view the New Year Day Parade in London!
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43ac is in the BRB under say(3)
Hello Doc! It's Mr O isn't it? Huh! Very lost.
Had a good Christmas? Happy New Year.
Question Author
Hello Devadolly,
Yes it most certainly is MrO, but not as demanding than past offerings! Yes Christmas was fine. We strolled along the seafront on both Christmas and Boxing Day, listened to the band on both days, and watched the brave souls do their sponsored swim on Boxing Day. No sign of a wet-suit, and one brave lady was in a bikini! They all posed for photographs, before and after their dip!
Happy New Year to you, and Himself, how is GingerMog?
Hello Doc, lovely to have a bit of N & Cing, so lacking of late I feel. Christmas just ourselves and excessive indulgence with wonderful wine and fabulous food.
Ginger Mog thriving and very demanding, not quite as ratty as he used to be (now a senior cat of 9 years old). Kat-Dog is also ageing (along with their Humans) but is just as lovely as ever. GMis currently curled up in Himself's place on the sofa.
We didn't have the gales of the S but I think we are due for the next lot on Sat (www.farmersweather.co.uk fantastic site.....doesn't get hysterical like the media) so no doubt one of the greenhouse doors will be on the lawn again!
Happy New Year
Mr. O. it is DevaDolly and for once allow yourself to be caught short(ened).
Question Author
Excuse me Devadolly, but who is Kat-Dog, and how old is he/she? Christmas is always just me and Herself, and that is fine by me. We washed our Christmas meals down with some most acceptable Cava.
I'm like DD and struggling with this one. We had a lovely Christmas here and are now getting ready to go to London for the New Year celebrations so not much time for crosswords. Some clues I am having difficulty with include 26d. Rule not stopping wavy writing at the bottom.

Happy New Year to all.
I've been lighter on EVs lately -- actually, on crosswords in general. It's been a long year and I've solved or attempted loads of puzzles, and I guess the end of 2014 has brought on puzzle fatigue!

Roll on 2015, though, I'm sure I'll get back into the swing of things.
Oh Hello novalis & copelander + jim of course. Not meaning too much at the moment novalis as I have battled my way through a number of clues to the south of the grid and they all seem to fit as they are so something is wrong/not showing itself/confusing me. If Mr O read my pathetic posts he would be laughing his socks off.
Doc, Kat-dog is now our only work dog now 9 years old, as we now have no milk cows we only have one dog and never replaced Bessie when she died. Her registered name is Kat of Rooten-brook and she was named after her grandmother - she comes from a long line of sheep-dog champions and has got the name Kat-dog to differentiate from the cats aka Ginger Mog & Felix-Oliver. I wonder she hasn't appeared in Chalicea's FG xword!
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Devadolly,
How does Himself direct working dogs, by calling, whistling or signs? Particularly interesting for when he was working more than one dog. I had a colleague whose husband had around 1000 ewes, and worked 2 dogs by calling instructions to them. Is it a different technique to direct dogs to "shepherd" cows than "shepherd" sheep? When I had a dog, (a Golden Retriever) purely as a pet, I trained him to react to both calls and hand signals, the latter being useful in the later years when he lost his hearing.
You will find that the SW corner and the NE corner are fairly well behaved!
Am leaving here tomorrow morning at around 09.30 to catch the north bound train to the Metropolis, and will be home by late thursday.
Hello Doc, hope you had an enjoyable NY and didn't get trampled! As I say, K-D comes from a long line of championship working dogs and needs very little training. When the young dog arrives they spend their first 2-3 weeks tied up somewhere they can watch everything that is happening without being in danger from tractors, *** etc. They go round feeding up on a lead, begin to herd the hens, follow the senior dog around the sheep and then gradually find their way around the farm. After about the first year, they know what is going on and after 2-3 years, just do it, they know the seasons, the gates, the different fields, time of year and think for you. The only problem arises when you want to do something they hadn't planned for because they are the world's biggest control freaks and everything has to be done in the right order, at the right time and woe betide anyone who tries to deviate! Himself uses his whistle (teeth & tongue, not a mechanical aid) and gesticulation with hand & stick. K-D is equally happy working sheep, ***, milk cows (or was) hens, chicks or the Ginger Mog!
Having great trouble with this EV and very heavy hints would be most acceptable.

Happy New Year all EV'ers.
PS The asterisks were in the place of the term for incomplete bulls......don't you just love the thought police?!!!!
devadolly:

I needed a lot of help to solve it.
Just look at the word going down diagonally from 1 to the last letter in 43A.
Take all the letters that pile up in each of those squares and decide what one letter it can be reduced to.
Many words were new to me.
Many thanks for the hint hankir, will have a concentrated look tomorrow.... feeding time calls! + a very good bottle of NZ SB. I think I panic when I see Mr O as the compiler!
Question Author
Devadolly,
That was absolutely interesting. Had never even considered that a new dog from a lineage of champion dogs would need less training. I guess I underestimated them!
We had a nice NY, the London NY Parade was good fun. Never seen so many American Marching Bands!
Hankir has given you a very good hint on where to look. I guess the initial capitals of this site might give you a hint of the start of the REDUCTIONS!

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Ev 1155: Reductions By Oxymoron

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