Saturday 8 October 2011

No 10278, Saturday 08 Oct 11, Gridman

ACROSS
1   - Brooch I presented to unknown singer (8) - CHOIRBOY {CHOIRBO*}{Y}
6   - No hard bind – yet there's a reason to scratch the head, perhaps (4) - ITCH hITCH
9   - Apply oil to one in unknown time (6) - ANOINT {ANO{I}N}{T}
10 - Conceal balls in vessel (5,2) - COVER UP {C{OVER} UP}
13 - In effect, one's emerging as capable (9) - EFFICIENT {IN+EFFECT+I}*
14 - Feel Royal Engineers get going (5) - REACT {RE}{ACT}
15 - Support ten in trade – no start-up (4) - AXLE {sA{X}LE}
16 - What a litigant will do for an action (3,1,6) - SEE A LAWYER [CD]
19 - A person thus has a whiff of ill-repute (2,3,5) - IN BAD ODOUR [CD]
21 - Honorific for old emperor right out (4) - BABA BABAr
24 - Approaches listener mobbed by Poles (5) - NEARS {N}{EAR}S}
25 - Graduate and daughter reportedly scrutinise kite (3,6) - BAD CHEQUE {BA}{D} {CHECK} (~check) Never knew this meaning
26 - Potshot directed at area of unrest (3,4) - HOT SPOT*
27 - Twin's displaced appeal for fool (6) - NITWIT {NITW*}{IT}
28 - Guards for hip homes? (4) - PADS [DD]
29 - Most expensive epee swung in two ways (8) - STEEPEST {ST}{EEPE*}{ST}
DOWN
2   - Some worker fulsome, some not! (7) - HANDFUL {HAND}{FULsome}
3   - I had taken a number to empty town – that's stupidity! (6) - IDIOCY {I'D}{1O}{CitY}
4   - No sweet resolution of some determined fights (6,3) - BITTER END {BITTER} {END}
5   - Yes, talk dismissed a boat (5) - YACHT {Y}{ACHT*}
7   - Potent in swallowing Tory hat when in predicament (7) - THROATY*
8   - Rehearses tip about a lady's garment in style (7,5) - HIPSTER SAREE*
11 - Springy? (6) - VERNAL [E]
12 - Break hip Orientals' association (12) - RELATIONSHIP*
17 - Sailor goes to a French ball for oodles (9) - ABUNDANCE {AB}{UN}{DANCE}
18 - Makes sense out of figures (4,2) - ADDS UP [CD]
20 - Denounced Burmese leader and survived (7) - BLASTED {B}{LASTED}
22 - Releases a Conservative and calls it a day (7) - ACQUITS {A}{C}{QUITS}
23 - Somehow push around Union Territory and keep quiet (4,2) - SHUT UP {SH{UT} UP*}
25 - Crunches sound digital data (5) - BYTES (~bites)



38 comments:

  1. 25 - Graduate and daughter reportedly scrutinise kite (3,6) - BAD CHEQUE {BA}{D} {CHEQUE} (~check) Never knew this meaning

    Richard might have seen a few patangs during his days as a banker. In fact, a kite is worse than just a bad cheque, it is a bad cheque floated with an intent to accommodate its bearer to use it to obtain finance from a banker. Sometimes the proceeds of the loan from the bank is used for a few days and used to remit it into the drawer's account to pay for the cheque. With core banking, I think the concept is not useful, in view of the reduced time lag for collection of the cheque.

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  2. 8 - Rehearses tip about a lady's garment in style (7,5) - HIPSTER SAREE*

    Hipster saree ter show the hips ;-)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had "get a lawyer"
    Thanks for the picture from my favourite (Bollywood) movie - I love the way Farah Khan can poke fun at, but still be extremely affectionate towards the genre.
    A very nice crossword today.

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  4. Deepak

    Your anno for 5dn YACHT makes it a concealed anagram which G generally avoids. The intended anno is
    YA-CH[-a]T

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  5. 25D- I had put 'bites'. Not sure which is correct since sound is in the centre-cat on the wall?

    I had also put in 'get a lawyer'.So,I am not alone.

    Nice tongue twister for the 'hot spot'.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 'reportedly', as per grammatical rules, goes to the next word 'scrutinise' (check) which gives the homophone 'cheque'. I don't think that there is any ambiguity though the hom ind is in the middle.

    Readers will confirm.

    Sorry that I don't know grammatical terms to explain the situation. I go only by usage and sound sense!

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  7. I'm in the GET A LAWYER camp too. Let's SEE if we can GET Gridman's understanding...

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  8. CV ji
    Even though I could get the word YACHT I could not get a satisfactory anno and col's anno was also not convincing. I could really appreciate the clue after seeing your anno.

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  9. I too would like to GET THE SETTER to give his intention.

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  10. I had GET a Lawyer too. But See a lawyer is also fine.

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  11. 8:34 Kishore

    I did want to comment on kite-flying by clients in olden days, when I saw the clue. But you were the early bird as usual.

    9:46 Rangaswamy :)

    One follower from here is sure to scream 'Boys will be boys!'

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  12. 9:46 Rangaswamy :)

    One follower from here is sure to scream 'Boys will be boys!'


    Will probably say 'Sush'. BTW, Rengaswamy, I am sure she will take umbrage of the word 'cartoon' ;-)

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  13. Off track -

    Got this in email today. Thought of sharing with all.

    Overheard from an american –

    10 years ago we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. Now we have no jobs, no hope and no cash.

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  14. That picture appears to be today's centre piece about the centre.

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  15. It may be centre. But it is meant for top as seen in many in Tamil films.

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  16. I must admit that the image that sprung to my mind for hipster saree, was Deewangi Deewangi and the divine Ms Shetty.

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  17. DD, you are perfectly correct in identifying SS. I was distracted by the belly and did not look properly at the belle's face ;-)

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  18. Liked 25A; it was only after the Q appeared in the crossing that this flashed on my radar!

    Am also in the 'Get a Lawyer' camp. The fact however that both fit is a shortcoming of the puzzle.

    Likewise if you take 25D: the solution could also be BITES if you treat Crunches as the definition.

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  19. Richard@10.08-
    Great one about Steve Jobs- the best I have read so far,not to mention being most apt.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Comment made by PP at The HUB

    "Age cannot wither the boys' boyishness?!(A comment I wanted but could not post in the Colonel's blog!)"

    I presume it is with reference to Richard's 10:03

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  21. @ Richard 1009:

    Pardon the contrapuntal view,but no Osama bin Laden, but still laden with worry and anxiety.

    @ DG:

    Girls will be girls ;-)

    But some times they become women !

    ReplyDelete
  22. Kishore @ 14:31,

    Now that you brought up Laden I thought I should share with you'll the cartoon I found in the morning for 19A but didn't put it thinking it was not in good taste, however here is the link to it CHECK IT OUT

    ReplyDelete
  23. DG: I firmly and stoutly deny that I brought up Laden. Why, I have not only not met him or spoken to him, I have not contributed a pie to his upbringing (except maybe by buying gasoline). But I have seen the fantastic architecture by that family at Putrajaya.

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  24. I am sorry that 16a held quite a few solvers.

    In his lawyerly defence, G says that before one gets (hires) a lawyer, one must must see a lawyer.

    I could not post this earlier as there was a time when the blog won't accept comments. This probably happens when Blogger undergoes periodic maintenance.

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  25. I firmly and stoutly deny that I brought up Laden. - Kishore

    Kishore can't deny that he's laden with wit and humour.

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  26. KTV was just airing Quantum of Solace. I wonder how 'shaken, but not stirred' translates into their native Indian language. Let us see how that looks. Have a go !

    DD, of course, is stymied because he can't translate it into English, so mebbe he can try Welsh or whatever.

    To set the sphere bowling:

    In Konkani: Hallownu, khironu nai.

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  27. CV: Except, of course, when the person seeking legal advice is blind. Because what you dont see is what you get.

    I, for the record, had put in see, not get.

    ReplyDelete
  28. In Tamil: adhirndhu vittaen, aanal asaiyavillai

    அதிர்ந்துவிட்டேன் ஆனால் அசையவில்லை

    ReplyDelete
  29. As French is my second language:

    Agite pas bouge (with the appropriate acute accents on both e's - but my phone won't do them)

    Or in Yorkshire

    Reet shuck not diddled

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  30. This is the correct meaning of "shaken but not stirred"-
    As a formet bartender, I can tell you that 'shaken, not stirred' means EXACTLY what it says. The patron does not want you to 'stir' the ingredients with a metal spoon, which is [or at least was] the common tool to 'stir' drinks with. Instead, they want you to pour the ingredients into a 'shaker', cap the shaker and give the shaker several sharp 'shakes'. That is as plain as I can say it.

    About the only drink that you might want 'stirred, not shaken' would be a Gin martini; as the shaking 'bruises' the Gin and changes the taste, or so I have been told by Gin drinkers.. Never drank that myself so can't say for sure on that!!

    The 'stir, not shake' is supposedly because that is how Ian Fleming, the first & most famous, James Bond" had his Martini. I believe that he coined THAT phrase in his movies.

    CV's Tamil version,though correct,does not seem suitable in this context. I am also not able to immediately translate it properly.Maybe I will keep trying.

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  31. I did not do the "copy & pate " job properly. It reads as though I have been a bartender!!

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  32. Padmanabhan,
    Good thing you clarified, I thought that we were getting a clarification from the 'horses mouth' !!

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  33. DG, Paddy said neigh ;-)

    BTW, Fleming was a regular at Bletchley Park, the Mecca of code-breaking.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Read more about the Enigmatic Op Ruthless at:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ruthless

    ReplyDelete
  35. The context must have been given when trans. was invited.

    Padmanabhan, even when you are not a bartender, what's the problem in translating the phrase in the now-revealed context?

    Pottu nallakulukki kudu, summa kalakki kuduththudaadhae!

    போட்டு நல்லா குலுக்கி குடு, சும்மா கலக்கி குடுத்துடாதே

    (in a supercilious manner as people in Madras would speak to others unlike, say, in Coimbatore where common people, including bus conductors and traders, are addressed respectfully)

    ReplyDelete
  36. CV, the context was given: Quantum of Solace

    ReplyDelete

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