Took me 20 minutes in fact 15 without 22D, 25A & 6D, for some strange reason I was stuck on 6D!!
Surprisingly Sankalak has 11 out of 30 as CD/DD/E's today.
Surprisingly Sankalak has 11 out of 30 as CD/DD/E's today.
ACROSS
1 - But surely it is not a permit for road rage! (7,7) - DRIVING LICENCE [CD]
8 - Transform a cricket match, friendly to start with, in the outskirts of Monterrey (6) - {M{ODI}{F}{Y}
9 - Birthplace of big craft (8) - SHIPYARD [CD]
13 - Dog that may go wrong in a row (7) - {T{ERR}IER}
17 - Minimal cover as used by the first man (3,4) - FIG LEAF [CD]
19 - Old actress, a life saver for a drowning man (3,4) - MAE WEST [DD]
23 - What Parliament may do if a member is behind time? (9) - {LEG}{IS}{LATE}
27 - Rude, embarrassing person would relent if banter fails (6,8) - ENFANT TERRIBLE*
DOWN
1 - Negative mark of French excellence (7) - {DE}{MERIT}
2 - Indian flower in a business try out (5) - INDUStry
3 - Very childish worker included in trendy list (9) - {IN}{F{ANT}ILE}
4 - Get something left (7) - INHERIT [CD]
5 - Pravasi, in short (5) - EXPAT [CD]
6 - A pre-condition for the end of hostilities? (9) - CEASEFIRE [CD]
7 - Modifies notice on small apartments (6) - {AD}{APTS}
10 - Note suppressed by Southern Railway causes agitation (4) - {S{TI}R}
14 - Parade ground command for the correct action (5,4) - {RIGHT} {TURN}
16 - Exaggerate the turn to correct severe rot (9) - OVERSTEER*
17 - Treatment for presenting a better front (6) - FACIAL [CD]
19 - Excellent, not necessarily like some unending serials (4) - MEGA [CD]
20 - A support in time to relax, upsetting the Spanish (7) - {T}{REST}{LE<-}
Good morning friends
ReplyDeleteSo we have a FIAT from the boss to mention the time taken to solve. Here we go.
Had a late night function. Yet started working on the The Hindu xwd - my breakfast no. 1 - the moment I received the newspaper at the door at the usual time.
To be honest, I got all but 6 clues, viz., 19A, 25A, 26A, 16D, 19D and 20D, in about 45 minutes. Then felt tired and rested again.
Maybe with a better frame of mind I would have solved all of them.
DRIVING LICENCE was issued at first shot. MODIFY, SHIPYARD, FIG LEAF, LEG+IS+LATE, ENFANT TERRIBLE, INHERIT, EXPAT, CEASEFIRE, FACIAL, F+ALL+OUT, AD LIB etc. had nice clues.
2D - INDUS - A river which flows, so 'flower', a clever ploy often used by cryptic setters. But was not sure of the anno.
14D - RIGHT TURN may have provided a ground to the Colonel to feel nostalgic.
Hi
ReplyDeleteIs it right to LEGISLATE or MODIFY law permitting the issue of DRIVING LICENCE DEMERITS as a FALLOUT of the ENFANT TERRIBLE EXPAT Ms. MAE WEST’s attempt to OVERSTEER a RIGHT TURN in the TROPICS, causing a STIR wearing only an INHERITed ABUTILON or FIG LEAF on her FACIAL CUTIS, just after the shower of PELLETS stopped during the CEASEFIRE in the SHIPYARD, while the MEGA RESONATOR on the TRESTLE ADAPTS to the TIE(d)UP TERRIER’S AD-LIB INFANTILE barking at the SPICA on the banks of the INDUS.
17A and 19A coming together was an eye-opener ! What with ET 4656 1A Sexy female good enough to eat (7) today.
20 mins with outings to orkut
19A - Thought of MAE WEST, but wasn't sure of the anno. Something to go with life VEST?
ReplyDelete21A - I have always admired the guy who created the brand-name CUTICURA (talcum powder), derived from this Latin root, cutis.
Martial tune again with CEASEFIRE, Parade ground, PELLET, FALLOUT (both in sense of falling out after a parade and a nuclear fallout)
ReplyDeleteCol: Typo in 25a: Should be ABUTILON and not abutlion.
MAE WEST was the nickname to floppy life jackets which when worn made the wearer resemble the busty actress of that name.
ReplyDelete08:40 Kishore: Oh, that is!
ReplyDeleteAll of 45 minutes, because I did not open my laptop till 5 minutes ago. Did not know what Pravasi meant, and abutilon and spica
ReplyDeleteKishor @ 8:39,
ReplyDeleteThanks, typo corrected
Don't know if it is right to equate Spica with flower-head, which is typically used for cauliflower and the like
ReplyDeleteKishore @ 8:39,
ReplyDeleteThanks, typo corrected
5D - Pravas usually means tour and pravasi a tourist. Only when the Government of India began holding the Antarashtriya Pravasi Din every year did I come to know that it also referred to NRIs (not to be mistaken as Not Required Indians or Nervously Returning Indians).
ReplyDeleteSo EXPAT immediately flashed, since I was one a few years ago.
Suresh: Spica is also a visible star in constellation Virgo. I think it's called Chitra nakshatram.
ReplyDeleteFor me this was not one of those easier puzzles by Sankalak.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, it took me some precious moments even to find a foothold. As Deepak has noted, the CDs (for which the answers have to come from the top of one's head) delayed the proceedings. This is not a plea against CDs.
In 13 minutes, I had all except some five.
Deepak, the ones you mentioned in the intro were not among them. (BTW, you don't mean 22a.)
My post 08:54 - It should be AntArAshtrIya PravAsi Diwas.
ReplyDeleteCV,
ReplyDeleteYes I meant 22D and not 22A I have since corrected it
Richard
ReplyDeleteRe CUTICURA
'cura' is L. for 'care'!
(My wife's favourite talc and I got a tin for her yesterday. Her skin is... never mind))
Thanks, CV )9:01. I was aware of the 'care' part.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't mind, may I complete your sentence: '....taken well care of'.
If Mae West were invented only now in this present day and age, what name would have been bestowed on it? Any guesses?
ReplyDeleteA few years back, Dolly Parton, Pam Anderson... I am not upto speed with the latest !
ReplyDelete@LNS
ReplyDeleteSpica is also a visible star in constellation Virgo. I think it's called Chitra nakshatram.
I know, but how does it become 'flower head'
CV 09:05
ReplyDeleteA friend here suggests NAMITA or RAMBHA.
And I won't be surprised if p p madam pops up a question here now - 'Boys never grow up?' ;-)
ReplyDeleteNot one of those easy ones.
ReplyDeleteHad trouble with 5D 'cause didn't know what pravasi meant.
Spelled 1A as LICENSE and got stuck with 6D
Though 19D was funny.
Shouldn't 24A be (2-3)?
@VJ ad lib is not hyphenated.
ReplyDeleteLight moments here!
ReplyDeleteC-Vasi,there is an old song in my childhood days, a sort of vernacular nursery rhyme- cuticara powder vaangi thaanga annaachi. The song is a dialogue between a brother and his younger sister. In those days when Johnsons and Johnsons were not heard of cuticara was the powder for newborns. Till today my mother uses it as the only safe powder for her sensitive skin!
Re AD-LIB
ReplyDeleteThe way the clue is worded, it expects an adjective and the adjectival form is certainly hyphenated.
The Minister came to grief by his ad-lib remarks to the Press.
@CV Beg to disagree on ad lib. My OED (UK) gives ad lib as an acceptable spelling without the hyphen where it is used as an adverb or adjective.
ReplyDeleteThe American version of OED which I have on my computer gives ad lib without hyphen in all its forms
Joining the ad-lib issue.
ReplyDeleteMy Concise Oxford Dictionary (Tenth Edition) shows ad-lib with the hyphen as an adverb as well as adjective and goes on to show it as an abbrev of Ad Libitum which too is shown as an adverb and adjective
So should we conclude that ad-lib could be hyphenated ad lib?
ReplyDeleteWell I checked a couple of online dictionaries and hey all suggest that the word is not hyphenated only in its adverbial form.
My Oxford Dictionary of English is an edition of 2005 reprinted in 2006. The primary spelling is with the hyphen but in brackets under 'adverb and adjective' it is mentionde 'also ad lib'. Maybe later Dictionaries are permitting this usage
ReplyDeleteWell, besides what the dictionaries say (and, mind you, they will differ), I always have personal preferences in using English.
ReplyDeleteRichard@ 9.11 and all the football Fans of this forum:
ReplyDeleteWhy not "Larissa Riquelme"-- though she may not qualify as an actress.
What an idea, Dr ji!
ReplyDeleteExcuse my ignorance, is she the one who said she will do a certain act if a certain team emerged the champion?
ReplyDeleteYou mean barely visible?
ReplyDeleteActually the name would suit a cell phone case rather than a life vest
ReplyDeleteI just googled....
ReplyDeleteWell now that her team's lost, she gonna do away with the colors??
Psychic trivia: Breaking News -
ReplyDeletePaul has picked SPAIN for the World Cup.
And Germany for the third spot.
ReplyDelete@Suresh: Star names are a little less obscure than botanical and biological names. Frequently I find in the Hindu Crossword, some rare words which are clued. The setter clues an obscure sense of this rare word. This just shows that the setter perhaps just picks these words up from a dictionary or something.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, in the entire Neyartha cycle, many clues would only have done a toolsmith or a plumber proud. You screw in a word letter by letter. The joys of words and their resonances are completely lost. It completely violates my sense of aesthetics.
@LNS At 16:27
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Sankalak was looking at a star name here. The meaning given by Deepak is probably what the setter intended. Only I do not think that flower-head is a correct definition even remotely. Maybe a botanist will confirm.
Sorry. My son, D.V.Sashank had logged in to Google on my laptop and the last post has appeared in his name. That post is mine
ReplyDelete@Suresh: Let me rephrase. When a setter picks up a vague word, I wish he/she could at least use its more common connotation. I think in this case, S neither picked a common word nor its common connotation. In fact, 'flower head' may actually be misleading. That's the problem.
ReplyDeleteSpica has a Latin origin from spca, meaning ear of grain. In botanical usage, the word is synonymous with spike (ear of corn). The star referred to by LNS also got its name for resembling an ear of grain.
ReplyDeleteFlower head may not be the right description.