Monday 14 December 2009

No 9713, Monday 14 Dec 09, Nita Jaggi

ACROSS
 1  - A disturbed boss holds lad playing with money having a lot of confidence (2,4,2,5) - {AS BOLD AS*} BRASS
 8  - A right reverend’s own goal can change ultimately the judge’s pride (9) - {A}{RR}{O}{G}{ANC*}{E}
 9  - Round object on a golden ball (5) - {G}LOBE Anno pending
10 - Guide the supernatural being (7) - BROWNIE [DD]
12 - Charm everybody, you are to leave at last (6) - {ALL}{UR}{E}
14 - Vegetable is initially not available for the doctor (5) - {NA}V?L
16 - Baby may be put in this tube for an examination! (4) - TEST
19 - A mother for someone who didn’t have one (4) - {A}{MA}H
20 - Bursting in endless anger, redhead is up into action (9) - {IR(-e)}{R}{UP}{TION*}
21 - Look through, specifically at the headless man (4) - {SC}{(-m)AN}
22 - No piece on the sad notice (4) - {O}{BIT}
25 - Heartbroken clod (5) - EARTH*
27 - Stop the sound of a respiratory disorder catching the tax officer (6) - CU{TO}FF (~cough)
29 - True air blowing in an ancient country (7) - ETRURIA*
32 - Holy man in the east has to regularly tend to the lively horse (5) - {ST}{E}{E}{D}
33 - Somehow hide ma and pop together from the sea monster (9) - HIPPODAME*
34 - Stand up to be hit at unexpectedly to fall into a trap (4,2,3,4) - RISE {TO THE BAIT*}
DOWN
 2  - Dangerous to be very ill (7) - SERIOUS [DD]
 3  - Headless dragon has a new body part (5) - (-d)ORGAN*
 4  - Every second, drains arenas for the plants (6) - {D}{A}{N}{A}{E}{A}
 5  - Get rid of the gardener’s building (4) - SHED [DD]
 6  - Girl is following the religious education fit for a king (5) - {R}{E}{GAL}
 7  - Maria sat around guarding Bapu in front of an ashram (9) - SA{B}ARMATI*
 8  - A couple of boys get the Holy Writ for the monk (5) - {A}{BB}{OT}
11 - It may be written down concisely (2,5) - IN BRIEF [CD]
12 - It’s okay to be hale and hearty! (7) - ALRIGHT [DD]
13 - Everybody comes up on an elevated plain (5) - {LLA<-}{NO<-}
15 - Snake device, overheard (5) - VIPER (~wiper)

17 - Regularly been near, holding the nobleman in a face-to-face disagreement (9) - {E}{N}{COUNT}{E}{R}
18 - Money to get wine (5) - {TIN}{TO}
23 - Head boy, a Persian is eating a bit of yoghurt with the dish (7) - {B}{IR{Y}ANI}
24 - Draw a small amount (5) - TRACE [DD]
26 - Health food for Lawrence and a politician, eh? (6) - {TE}{MP}{EH}
28 - Candy for the woman judge losing head (5) - {F}{(-j)UDGE}
30 - Right hand to start off an explosive on the four-sided figure (5) - {RH}{(-b)OMB}
31 - Wave away three abandoning the gunman (4) - SHOO(-t)


GRID


17 comments:

  1. 19 - A mother for someone who didn’t have one (4) - {A}{MA}H

    Could it be ADAM? He did not have a mother and DAM is another word for mother.

    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  2. There were some nice clues today, esp. 16 across, 25 across, 7 down and 15 down.

    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  3. 12 down - It’s okay to be hale and hearty! (7) - ALRIGHT [DD]

    ALRIGHT, although it finds an entry in recent dictionaries, is still being frowned upon by British lexicon gurus. They insist on the usage of ALL RIGHT, while ALTOGETHER AND ALREADY have long been accepted.


    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  4. 9A Golden ball would refer to Goldden Globe (awards0

    Nice Anno for ADAM, Richard

    ReplyDelete
  5. My English teacher from school will be appalled by the homophone clues in this crossword. The two examples here were both taught as mispronunciations to avoid.

    27a: COUGH is supposed to be pronounced as 'kof', not 'cuff'.

    15d: 'WIPER' and 'VIPER' aren't homophones as the 'W' and 'V' sounds aren't identical. In fact, our office had recently organized a 'Voice Gym' training conducted by a communications specialist. One of the exercises was to speak aloud a set of words with 'V' and 'W' in them, stressing their difference.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good one Richard .
    But why is DAM = mother?

    A few new ones for me today were
    SC= specifically
    TE = Lawrence

    Did anyone manage to crack NAV?L ?

    ReplyDelete
  7. The closest I could get for NAVAL was
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kohlrabi

    In Marathi and still doesn't explain the doctor bit

    ReplyDelete
  8. 14a: This is far-fetched but here is one "Val" who goes by the nickname 'The Doctor'.

    My first thought (ignoring the crossings) was NAVET, a French word for what looks like turnip in the images.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @sriks7

    I have come across DAM being used for mother in crossdwords for many years in the past. To confirm it today, I ran a Google search which said, 'A female parent, esp., of a four-footed animal'.

    @Shuchi

    You are absolutely right about the subtle difference between the pronunciations of letters V and W. The latter is perhaps closer to the sound of F. A telling example is the German car brand - Volkswagen, pronounced FOLKSWAGEN.

    A professor of ours used to pronounce certain words very faithfully, like MOOFFMENT, GUFFMENT and IMPROOFFMENT.

    Being a linguistic expert, he used to argue that Indian names were being wrongly spelt as Virendra, Vishwanath etc. whereas 'W' should be the right alphabet there. Perhaps, the Sri Lankans with their Weeraratnes and Wickramasinghes are more accurate from that point of view.

    In Arab countries, since they don't have the equivalent of 'V', foreign names are written as Firendra, Fasudeva, Folfo (for Volvo) etc.

    Forgive me for the long post.

    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  10. @Shuchi

    27a: COUGH is supposed to be pronounced as 'kof', not 'cuff'.

    You have hit the nail on the coffin of bad English, since barely two days ago, we had come across COFFIN, which used the 'cough' clue, with the right pronunciation.

    Missed a point while posting earlier:

    2  - Dangerous to be very ill (7) - SERIOUS [DD]

    Not a convincing clue. One is serious only when conviction / commitment in attitude is involved.

    Although we say colloquially that someone is 'serious' when he is critically ill, it is his /her condition of health is serious, and not the person.


    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  11. Correction:

    Please read one of the paras posted by me above as:

    (as sole correction - the word 'latter' should read 'former'.)

    @Shuchi

    You are absolutely right about the subtle difference between the pronunciations of letters V and W. The former is perhaps closer to the sound of F. A telling example is the German car brand - Volkswagen, pronounced FOLKSWAGEN.

    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  12. Sorry, not trying to hog the whole space here:

    14 - Vegetable is initially not available for the doctor (5) - {NA}V?L

    After reading Shuchi's mention of NAVET, it appears to be the right answer. Not available -NA and the veterinarian - VET.


    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  13. If NAVET is right which looks convincing, then 12D ALRIGHT needs amendment

    ReplyDelete
  14. When I endorsed NAVET, I did not take into account the crossing - ALRIGHT.

    Now, who would relieve us of the dilemma?


    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  15. NAVAL or NAVET where is the vegetable fit in

    ReplyDelete
  16. Unless NJ means naval orange, which is a fruit

    ReplyDelete
  17. 13 DN - Gunman is shooter - three abandoning is removing ter?

    ReplyDelete

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