Wednesday 31 August 2011

No 10247, Wednesday 31 Aug 11, Gridman


ID MUBARAK
ACROSS
1   - Rio meets turning out to be boring (8) - TIRESOME*
5   - All's recalled about half-blue monster (6) - SCYLLA {S{CYan}LLA<-}
9   - Good manners of one hamlet resident — finding no regal retreat — in metropolitan area (8) - CIVILITY {C{I}{VILlager<-}ITY}
10 - Fit for the inner man? (6) - EDIBLE [CD]
12 - Money for one rebel leader in U.S. city (4) - LIRA {L{I}{R}A}
13 - In which condition we don't see doctors (4,6) - GOOD HEALTH [E]
15 - Language of some Intel gurus you heard inside? (6) - TELUGU {TEL{U}GU} [T+]
17 - Tilts shoe parts? (5) - HEELS [DD]
20 - Chose abode without publicity (5) - OPTED adOPTED
21 - Animal in parcel of land next to old church (6) - OCELOT {O}{CE}{LOT}
24 - Invigorating. Boris usual in activation (10) - SALUBRIOUS*
27 - Old writer abandons son in parliament (4) - DUMA DUMAs
29 - Bring into play volunteers in line-up (6) - ENTAIL {EN{TA}IL<-}
30 - Abbot and Mom flung a destructive device (4-4) - ATOM-BOMB*
31 - Cut alien's bill (6) - DOCKET {DOCK}{ET}
32 - Sot assimilated a short travel option (8) - DRUNKARD {DRUNK}{A}{RD}
DOWN
1   - Mark the French touch (6) - TICKLE {TICK}{LE}
2   - Turn back from Ranchi's top tennis champion (6) - REVERT {R}{EVERT}
3   - Therefore laid first one out: off the shelf (4) - SOLD {SO}{LaiD}
4   - Mark German king's byword (5) - MOTTO {M}{OTTO}
6   - Sponge from head of department in prison (5) - CADGE {CA{D}GE}
7   - Marked boy embracing beautiful girl (8) - LABELLED {LA{BELLE}D}
8   - Girl gets your old stone — precious stone (8) - AMETHYST {AME}{THY}{ST} Have heard of AMY but not AME as a name.
11 - Exhort Justice to interrupt a rude interpretation (6) - ADJURE {AD{J}URE*}
14 - Margaret's drink? (4) - MEAD [DD]
16 - More work (6) - UTOPIA [CD]
17 - Cover for thug? (4) - HOOD [DD]
18 - Wish to leave for Germany with dispatch (8) - GODSPEED {GO}{D}{SPEED}
19 - Vigorous wielding of lathi etc (8) - ATHLETIC*
22 - Copper — police — taking away diamonds to a dome (6) - CUPOLA {CU}{POLice}{A}
23 - Wearing clothes, rudely barge into the first of dressing-rooms (6) - GARBED {GARBE*}{D}
25 - Wait to grab right honeymooner (5) - BRIDE {B{R}IDE}


26 - Declare total (5) - UTTER [DD]
28 - Last word on a primarily mild measure (4) - AMEN {A}{M}{EN}



51 comments:

  1. Deepak
    Re your anno for 5a.
    That's exactly what G had in his mind.
    However, Bhavan's different take elsewhere - [ra]CY - is also equally applicable, I think.
    Question to purists:
    From 'half of' [a word], is either former or latter part derivable?

    ReplyDelete
  2. 8 - Girl gets your old stone — precious stone (8) - AMETHYST {AME}{THY}{ST} Have heard of AMY but not AME as a name.

    What's in a Namy? A durian by any other name would smell as foul.

    Quote from Bacon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. (from the blog 0f Aug 29)
    Jigsaw
    It will be helpful if you can write some brief 'Help' notes.
    I use Google Chrome though I also IE, FF and Opera.
    The drop-down has only certain numbers. How do we get 10247, for example?
    Is it available to us only when you have sort of put it there?
    As for 'collaborate', can we do so only with a specified person?
    And, more importantly, how does the PC to PC link happen?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Kishore,

    Durian chips from Bangkok are as tasty as jackfruit ('chakka') chips of Kerala.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. Venkatesh, possibly, but in KL and Bangkok, I could not bring myself to eat the ripe fruit.

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  7. As for Ame -

    G generally does research to ensure that he is not
    getting anything merely from the air (I do realise that the Col. didn't mean to say so).

    http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Ame

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sorry, that misquote was not from Bacon. It was from Silly-am Wake-spear.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Col,
    We are looking forward to the Ganesh Chathurthi special.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Jigsaw

    I like the cursor moving automatically to the next clue slot.

    I also like solved clue becoming grey and being struck off.

    Now all this may not be new. The first time that I came across such user-friendly devices was years ago at a UK/Irish website when I was just thrilled.

    Have you seen the Hindu Crossword Application by Chitra and Magesh that is available in Orkut as well as FB?

    ReplyDelete
  11. In college essays students wanting to appear erudite have been known to write a sentence and add 'as so-and-so said'.

    Fine, but when the language of the quoted sentence is as abysmal as the rest of the essay, would the examiner be fooled?

    CV
    (a former lecturer in a city college)

    ReplyDelete
  12. CV @ 8:51,

    I said I never heard AME as a name, I have a friend who's wife's name is 'Amarjit' and he calls her 'Amy'.
    It's like when my Granddaughter's was named AVNI, I had not heard it before and for the first few days I kept saying ANVI as that is closer to a more common name TANVI, I think I also typed it out as ANVI in one of my comments and Kishore remarked on it.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Jigsaw again:

    When once a slot is filled with some letters, it seems that we cannot delete those (to make an alteration). Is this true?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Will Ganesh Chaturthi special here have words like
    ELEPHANT
    TRUNK
    PAUNCH
    MODAK
    PARVATI
    KARTHIKEYA
    SHIVAJI
    LOKMANYA TILAK
    GANPATI BAPPA / MORYA

    ReplyDelete
  15. CV @ 9:15,

    No it won't, but it will definitely be a Jumbo special ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. 9A is the most convoluted clue I have seen in quite sometime - a charade, a container, a reversal and a deletion!

    I could not complete a big chunk in the top half today. The Es in 10A and 13A hurt. Also when using the partial device as in 5A, shouldn't the letters be made explicit? (half-blue=BL, I thought)...

    20A: Always thought ABIDED was the past tense of ABIDE. This was new to me...

    3 'Mark's in 1D, 4D, 7D - a statistic CV Sir noted sometime back in Buzzer's puzzle...

    15A: Is telescopic homophone allowed? This one was simple, but.

    Couldn't get the cryptic part in 16D. Anyone?

    ReplyDelete
  17. Sudalamani,
    For 16D see the link provided

    ReplyDelete
  18. Also when using the partial device as in 5A, shouldn't the letters be made explicit?

    No. Not necessarily.

    ReplyDelete
  19. @Sudalamani

    16D : More is Thomas More - whose work is Utopia.

    ReplyDelete
  20. 15d is actually a c/c with a homophone inserted in a component that is telescopic.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Also when using the partial device as in 5A, shouldn't the letters be made explicit? (half-blue=BL, I thought)...

    If we are happy to accept full words all's recalled (5A) or line-up (29A) of the clue in the answer, does the 'indirection' seem unfair?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Nice crossword. Good to be thinking in straight lines again.
    Thought the reference to cyan was fine
    Liked the word play on More
    Also liked the DD of declare total.
    All in all a rather pleasant experience.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Thanks Col and Bhavan. Really love 16D now!

    CV@0955: Haven't seen telescopics in conjunction with other clue types. It could get quite difficult in some constructions, though not this.

    Bhavan@0958:
    Reversal is fine, but this is closer to telescopics, right? Let me cook up a clue: Boat of some shooters (3) to get ARK, say. In any case, blue is not the same as cyan.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Hope the jumbo Vinayaka Chaviti special will be MAC Compatible

    ReplyDelete
  25. Another analogy is those 'regularly' clues - if we want to pick the alternate letters of a word, then only that word is given and not its synonym. What say?

    ReplyDelete
  26. Sudalamani, I was just saying that it is possible to get some parts for free and some needing to be deduced first before transforming. It is valid.

    Here is an example from today's Hindustan Times

    Urgent weapons, the last to get to the front (8)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Urgent weapons, the last to get to the front (8) (+S)TRIDENT (-s)

    So you first need to find the weapons and then move the last letter to first to get the final answer for urgent.

    This is a syndicated Times clue, so we can safely assume it is kosher.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Suresh @ 10:24,
    It will be in Across Lite format so you will need to have your browser Java enabled. I do not know if that is a problem with Macs.
    You could check it out with the 01 Apr 11 Peekaboo special CW that I had put up and see if it works.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Thanks for the example, Bhavan. But I still feel that these clue types are not similar to the one under discussion. Here you know for sure what the wordplay is. You look for a 8-letter substitute for 'weapons' and turn last letter to the beginning.

    Half-blue does not uniquely lead to CY. It could be NA{-VY}, DOWN{-CAST}, GLO{-OMY} or MOR{-OSE} and so on. I am sure Col got the answer first and then tried to 'fit' an explanation.

    Would love to hear from the experts on what is indirect and unfair and what is not. Seems to be a tricky issue this, indeed :)

    ReplyDelete
  30. @Suresh : AcrossLite software is available on Mac. You can install that, save the puzzle from here and solve.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Half-blue does not uniquely lead to CY. It could be NA{-VY}, DOWN{-CAST}, GLO{-OMY} or MOR{-OSE} and so on. I am sure Col got the answer first and then tried to 'fit' an explanation.

    But that's what we have to do with any clue right, discard those synonyms that don't fit and find the one that fits the bill.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Sudalamani,

    All's reversed was clear, what was left was to find half of a synonym of blue to fit between SLLA to get the answer. It's not that I got SCYLLA first.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I thought I wrote a Comment on Mac version of AcrossLite but I don't know what happened.
    Anyway -

    http://www.litsoft.com/across/alite/download/

    ReplyDelete
  34. I am sure Col got the answer first and then tried to 'fit' an explanation.

    No problem about that.

    I agree with Bhavan 11:33

    ReplyDelete
  35. But that's what we have to do with any clue right, discard those synonyms that don't fit and find the one that fits the bill.

    Exactly my point. In a charade, you find a synonym and just place it. In a container, you just put it in. In an anagram, if you find a synonym and then permute it to get the answer, it isn't allowed (indirect anagram). Similarly, if your task is not done even after getting the list of synonyms, it is unfair.

    Anyways, badly wanted to finish the crossie on a holiday. Allah was unkind to me, hopefully Ganesha is more merciful :P

    ReplyDelete
  36. Tks. I'll try that. I works on my Safari browser but not on my firefox despite being Java enabled.

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  37. "half blue" for BL is more fair IMO

    ReplyDelete
  38. I have installed Activelite. Stilldo not know how to use it for doing the PEEKABOO PUZZLE. Let me worry about it day after tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Kishore:

    One has to have an acquired taste for Durian-- a stink bomb for miles!!

    ReplyDelete
  40. Can someone advise me how to put in one's mugshot in that miniscule box next to our names?

    ReplyDelete
  41. Go into your profile Click on Edit profile. You will find a slot for Photograph. BROWSE FOr the photo on your PC or on web and add it and save the profile by clicking on the box at the bottojm of the page.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Comments from Dr DS on yesterdays 'Bell Pull'

    Quote
    Dear Chaturvasi sir,

    As I am still not able to post in Col's blog ( I tried all possible ways as suggested by you and DG ), I am sharing this note with you.

    BEST buses in mumbai were fitted with this bell and it was quite interesting on Double deckers. The coductor on the top deck will ring the bell situated at the staircae entry to indicate the lower deck conductor that passngers to alight from top deck have alighted upon which the lower deck conductor will pull the string of his bell to the driver to start.
    I had experienced it for several years working very efficiently. I think it still works that way .

    Best regards
    Dr.Srinivasan
    Unquote

    ReplyDelete
  43. Suresh

    I trust you've installed AcrossLite, not something you've mentioned above, perhaps in a momentary aberration.

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  44. No CV It is not momentary. I am having problems with some Java apps on Mozilla Firefox on MAC even though I have enabled everything. It works on Safari, so I guess I will have to use that for Java apps.

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  45. The problem is because we cannot download th puzzle from the blog. Only solve it there. If it was downloadable, then Acrosslite installation will be able to open the downloaded file.

    ReplyDelete
  46. If Safari also doesn't work I may request Deepak to email it to me and I will be able to solve it.

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  47. Yahoo. I just updated to the latest version of Firefox and Java apps are working.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Suresh,
    It is actually possible to download the puzzle. I don't know how these appear to you and others, but since my browser does not have the Java plugin installed, I got the following message...

    Alternatively, on a Mac or a PC, you can download this crossword to solve with Across Lite installed on your computer.

    ...with the word 'crossword' linked to a .puz file stored at icrossword.com.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Navneetc. I was only getting a blank space. No message.

    With the latest Firefox I was able to get the puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  50. @Gridman

    Vigorous -> athletic. Really?
    Tiresome -> Boring. Not really!!

    ReplyDelete

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