1 - Dishonest behaviour, certainly not comedians' trade (5,8) - FUNNY BUSINESS
10 - Cold and aloof humour, hot attraction in the north (9) - {WITH}{DRAW}{N}(Correction - {WIT}{H}{DRAW}{N} )
11 - Piece of music from a player on downhill run (5) - RONDO [T]
12 - Behind time in a way, in the outskirts of Tilbury (5) - T{A}{RD}Y
13 - Name an action document, a legal one (5,4) - {TITLE} {DEED}
14 - Something for the smoker or a loose woman, say (6) - HOOKAH(~hooker)
19 - What a job seeker must — be suitable (5) - APPLY [DD]
20 - Strange destiny of a small number of shares (3,3) - {ODD} {LOT}
25 - Very old and primitive dame alive to change (9) - MEDIAEVAL*
26 - The range of a train to New Dehi (express) skirting famous university (5) - G{AMU}T I remember travelling on the GT Express from Chennai to Delhi in the 50's, used to take almost 3 days I think. The first class cubicles had attached toilets!!
27 - It enables the police to make a charge (5) - LATHI [CD]
29 - Breaking into pieces an ornament, a gift trashed (13) - FRAGMENTATION*
DOWN
2 - Such a motive is not what it appears to be (8) - ULTERIOR [CD]
3 - A pet name for a donkey (5) - NODDY [E]
4 - Skin-deep may be, but it has its appeal (6) - BEAUTY [CD]
5 - Southern Railway admits girl is clean (8) - {S}{ANITA}{RY}
6 - Child-minder would sure mind a distraction (9) - NURSEMAID*
7 - Musician who could burn the capital of Romania (6) - SINGE{R}
8 - A change for a singular, wicked old woman (6) - {S}{WITCH}
9 - Drink for a man of religion, kept in a plaything (5) - TO{DD}Y Ever tried Toddy in the evening, Oooooh what a stink.
15 - Asking the umpire can be fascinating (9) - APPEALING [DD]
17 - Bone, large cervical variety with no trace of rot (8) - C{L}AVICLE(
18 - Fruit container with nothing but graphite (8) - {PLUM}{BAG}{O}
21 - Sway with one who adds up (6) - TOTTER [DD]
22 - Got a whiff of freshwater fish (5) - SMELT [DD]
24 - Where may one misplace something in an American state? A cupboard (6) - C{LOSE}T
26 - Ground grain, to the mill it is something useful (5) - GRIST [DD]
Hi
ReplyDeleteIt is no ULTERIOR FUNNY BUSINESS if an EDITOR MR NODDY who SMELT of TODDY made of GRIST on this breath TOTTER(ED) out of a SANITARY CLOSET made of PLUMBAGO, and CASTIGATE(s) a NURSEMAID, who is a RONDO SINGER and a BEAUTY APPLY(ing) lotions, for being WITHDRAWN and TARDY, attacks her with an entire GAMUT of CREAK(ing) LATHI or a SWITCH, causing FRAGMENTATION of her CLAVICLE, APPEALING to her to give him a TITLE DEED to the ODD LOT(s) of MEDIAEVAL HOOKAH
NODDY and TODDY being rhyming pair. Rondo had to be Googled for confirmation.
Singer reminds me of an anecdote about a gang of comedians (I am not sure if it was Groucho and gang) who received a request from a fan for a photo ‘ Singed’ all round and gleefully took a lighter and sent a singed photo; only to receive a letter saying “I had asked for a singed photo, you have sent a signed one”.
Hello friends
ReplyDeleteTook time to get GAMUT and PLUMBAGO. Otherwise, smooth sailing.
A happy weekend to you all.
@COL
ReplyDelete10 - Cold and aloof humour, hot attraction in the north (9) - {WITH}{DRAW}{N}
Shoud be {WIT}{H}{DRAW}{N}
humour - WIT
hot - H
attraction - DRAW
north - N
Defn: Cold and aloof - WITHDRAWN
@ Col: Liked the illustration of both homophones for 14a
ReplyDeleteThanks Venkatesh,
ReplyDeleteI saw the error simultaneously but you beat me to the draw.
THC No 9825 Saturday 24 Apr 10
ReplyDelete10 A - Time ran out for one of Islam's high achievements (7) - MINARET
Economic times, Mumbai, 30 Apr 10 (Page no 21)
24 A - Time ran out for one of Islam's high achievements (7)
What a coincidence!
The Economic Times crossword number is 4586
ReplyDeleteThe same clue appeared in ET crossword (Mumbai) 3599 previously on 28-7-2007.
ReplyDelete3D Neddy
ReplyDeletehttp://www.thefreedictionary.com/neddy
Since we are in a series by Sankalak, it needs to be clarified that THC 9825 was by a different setter.
ReplyDelete10A...
ReplyDeleteHOOKER and HOOKAH
Homophones maybe in the UK but definitely not in India, seeing that Indian accents are predominantly rhotic.
3 - A pet name for a donkey (5) - NODDY [E]
ReplyDeleteIt is NEDDY.
But Indian crossword setters could be more British/American than the British/American!
ReplyDelete26A - The range of a train to New Dehi (express) skirting famous university (5) - G{AMU}T
ReplyDeleteOne would need extra brains to think of two difficult leads, Grand Trunk and Aligarh Muslim University, together within the deadline !
3D - A pet name for a donkey (5) - NODDY [E]
As suggested by Giridhar and Sandhya, NEDDY is more appropriate. I too took it as NEDDY. Incidentally, a combination of both, a NODDING DONKEY is found near oilfields. :-)
CLUELESS of the forumhub also votes for NEDDY!
ReplyDelete@Dan: Not quite sure if 'Hookah-Hooker' are not recognized as homophones. As a pre-teen, I remember reading a joke in the Illustrated Weekly of India. The joke went like this:
ReplyDeleteTeacher visiting a student's home rings the bell. The door's answered by her student young jim.
Teacher: Good afternoon, Jim. Are your parents in?
Jim: Mum and Dad's out. Gone to the movies, I 'spect.
Teacher: Really, Jim! Where's your grammar?
Jim: Oh, she's upstairs takin' her nap.
I distinctly remember not getting this joke. My grandfather (graduate of Univ of Madras, 1918) explained that li'l Jim thought the teacher was asking for his grandma.
After that, I had come across PG Wodehouse rhyming 'cheetahs' and 'cheaters' in Ring for Jeeves, 'ringers' and 'stingah's', the last mentioned being a caricature of a Colonial accented pronunciation of the name of cocktail, very popular in the Gymkhana's of Hong Kong, Singapore and India.
LNS
ReplyDeleteThe point that Dan makes is that the homophones don't work when the words are uttered by most Indians. I agree!
As for the joke that you quote, you must remember Indian publications often lifted/lift jokes from foreign publications which will have such gags on the basis of how words are pronounced in those countries.
The above joke can be appreciated only on a cerebral level - not naturally!
A Scot gave a testimonial to his manservant when he left his service. "R__ worked to his entire satisfaction. If you're thinking of giving him a berth, make it a wide one."
ReplyDeleteHow many of us can laugh outright at this joke?
I was some 12 years old when this one appeared in RD; my father read it to me and explained what it was all about.
Chaturvasi, I guess the Scots joke is more along the lines of a dry British joke. To appreciate it you need to know some idiomatic English obviously.
ReplyDeleteMy original take to Dan was that it realized in India even way back that the way the English pronounced a terminal "-a-" in Indian words rhymed very much with the "-er" type words.
You can see the same thing in Satyajit Ray's 'Shatranj ke Khiladi' . Gen Outram, played by Sir Laurence Olivier, ranting about Indian morals. He says, "nautch girls, mootter wives, where does it all end" or something like that. I wondered when I first saw the movie what this 'mootter wife' was. Many years later a Muslim colleague told me that he was refering to the the custom of "mutaa marriage" which has a validity like a contract. The end date is usually specified. So like you engage in a marriage for a fixed period of time. Like a contract, this marriage is dissolved if not renewed!
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikah_mut‘ah