Great form from Sankalak !
Some diseases and annoyance (accompanied by medicinal stuff and surgery), 'clothed'
in various garbs, but still showing a bit of muscle and skin
Some diseases and annoyance (accompanied by medicinal stuff and surgery), 'clothed'
in various garbs, but still showing a bit of muscle and skin
| ACROSS | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1 | BOARDING SCHOOL | Where pupils may get educated — and sleep (8,6) |
| CD | ||
| In a boarding school, boarding comes first, then education, for us 'saapaTT-ramas' ! | ||
| 8 | ATOMIC | Cat, one caught in current, shows this kind of energy (6) |
| (TOM 1) in AC (alternating current). Thought of various alternatives including A (TOM) I C etc., but then decided to stick with this one  | ||
| 9 | BERI-BERI | Vitamin deficiency, one seen in a North African? I follow (4-4) |
| 1 in BERBER followed by I | ||
| 11 | ANNOYANCE | Anyone can be upset by aggravation (9) |
| (ANYONE CAN')* | ||
| 12 | TEASE | It’s time to relax for one who vexes others (5) |
| T EASE | ||
| 13 | TIFFANY | Silk-gauze gives very little covering for a doubly fine article (7) |
| TINY around 1 FF. For alternative anno, please see comments | ||
| 15 | SCABIES | A crust that is small shows skin infection (7) |
| SCAB IE S | ||
| Is this crust mortal or immortal ? | ||
| 17 | CERAMIC | Clay product from a producer, a microwavable one (7) |
| T | ||
| 19 | LADANUM | Boy, almost unfeeling, holding a fragrant resin (7) |
| LAD NUM This resin does not change even when a bee gets embedded in it and it becomes LABDANUM | ||
| 21 | CLASH | Money, about a pound, causes a fight (5) |
| CASH around L | ||
| 23 | MEDICINAL | Having a healing quality, as claimed in error (9) |
| CLAIMED* | ||
| 25 | DIASPORA | Migration of a community so rapid — a surprise (8) |
| (SO RAPID A)* | ||
| 26 | DISOWN | Abandon the pig: she’s in a racket (6) |
| SOW in DIN | ||
| Our marriage invitations invariably have a 'Sow'. But sometimes the groom can be a pig ! | ||
| 27 | AMERICAN INDIAN | Lincoln, Nehru or Geronimo (8,6) |
| Exemplary charade: AMERICAN INDIAN from Lincoln, and Nehru leading to Geronimo | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | BLATANT | Infectious disease around African province on the rise? That is glaringly obvious (7) |
| (TB around NATAL)< | ||
| 2 | ACORN | The fruit of a hard growth on foot (5) |
| A CORN | ||
| 3 | DAIRY FARM | Where milk can be had on a Friday, possibly, by heads of rural militia (5,4) |
| A FRIDAY* R M The milkman, Annamalai, comes from this place. To brighten up your morning, watch Rajini Sir, who is here today. I don't see the good Doctor here anymore | ||
| 4 | SHEKELS | Something that a visitor to Tel Aviv would need (7) |
| CD | ||
| 5 | HOIST | Lift up one held by the innkeeper (5) |
| 1 in HOST | ||
| Lifting would be a new move for Procrustes, who is reported to have used two beds to ensure that his guests were stretched or chopped | ||
| 6 | OPERATION | Surgery that is revealed to contain balance (9) |
| OPEN containing RATIO Had a bit of a reservation on ratio=balance, but rationalised that it was okay as the substitution can work in the phrase 'to maintain the ratio' | ||
| 7 | BICEPS | Muscle built by cooking black spice (6) |
| B SPICE* | ||
| 10 | ONLY | Just a bit of onion lying uncooked (4) |
| T | ||
| 14 | FIRE ALARM | It warns of a possible flare up (4,5) |
| CD | ||
| Smokers usually know how to get around this | ||
| 16 | ABDUCTION | A black pipe, one working in kidnapping (9) |
| A B DUCT 1 ON | ||
| 17 | CICADA | Reportedly ailing, a prosecutor finds a noisy insect (6) |
| ~SICK A DA | ||
| 18 | CAMBRIC | Material from British river, building block, chopped at the tip (7) |
| CAM BRIC | ||
| 19 | LUDO | Game played in liberal party around 2nd of July (4) |
| L DO around U This was once the mainstay of summer holidays, in an ancient bygone era | ||
| 20 | MELANIN | Pigment found to be new in male development (7) |
| (N IN MALE)* Not only pig, pigmen found here too! | ||
| 22 | HYPER | Over-excited drug addict with a touch of rubella (5) |
| HYPE R | ||
| Though HYPE is used as a short form for Hypodermic, I had always thought that a druggie was called a Hypo, not a Hype | ||
| 24 | NAOMI | Name a mantra initially invoking Ruth’s mother-in-law (5) |
| N A OM I Instead of the MIL, I would have liked to see Ms Campbell here. I had met her once on Malindi beach | ||
Silk-gauze gives very little covering for a doubly fine article (7)
ReplyDeleteTINY around 1 FF
I took this as TINY around FF + A(article)
Where milk can be had on a Friday, possibly, by heads of rural militia (5,4)
FRIDAY* R M
Typo: {A FRIDAY*}{R}{M}
Thanks, Sandhya.
DeleteI took a=1 in Tiffany, but then article would be redundant. So your anno is better.
Typo corrected.
Sandhya,
DeleteTI(FF)(A)NY is right.
Pl check the second one again. {A FRIDAY)*{R}{M} = DAIRY FARM is right.
Nice one from Sankalak, but that's not surprising.
ReplyDelete+1
DeleteWhy can't we have Sankalak everyday? A great puzzle and I solved it by 8.30 AM. If others want more cerebral or challenging puzzles they can have it but ensuring that Sankalak's will appear everyday. His puzzles are silk smooth.
ReplyDelete,
I think it tends to get a bit monotonous when you know that you've to deal with the same style and level of difficulty each day. It's like waking each day up to a Monday morning.
DeleteI think it's not reasonable to expect a crossword to be easy and capable of being completed in half-an-hour or less to be called 'great'. Conversely, a crossword that takes a bit of time and demands some more patience and brainwork in unravelling the clues cannot be dismssed in one word such as 'awful'.
ReplyDeleteA crossword may be easy or difficult by a small measure or a great measure.
It must be judged by the cluemanship to be classified as great or average.
One must also realise that for certain solvers to have a Sankalak every day, Sankalak must work very hard.
Alavukku meerinal amirthamum nanju aagividum.
Agreed CV Sir, but why his offerings have been reduced from 6 to 4 of late ?
DeleteJust got back after losing 25% of my wisdom!!
ReplyDeleteI have lost all of it over the years
DeleteI know that this compiler has been at the other side of this two-man game for several years - I am not mentioning any figure lest what I state is less than what it actually is - from the time before the crossword carried any byline.
ReplyDeleteThere might come a time when one wants to do less of what has one been doing for ages. One might even want to call it a day.
We shouldn't expect good things to last for ever.
Let's say you go to a restaurant and you enjoy the out-of-the-world masala dosa that is served. But if we do the mistake of ordering one more of it, we can't be sure that the second one is as good as the other - it might be an earthly piece. We are most likely to be disappointed. We must leave the restaurant with the taste of the first dosa still lingering in our mouth and heart.
Read: There might come a time when one wants to do less of what one has been doing for ages.
ReplyDeleteI didn't want to give SR a chance.
Beg your pardon. Could you please expand SR ?
DeleteNice one with some smooth clues.
ReplyDeleteAnother splendid opener from Sankalak. Will take whatever Sankalak can turn in every cycle (3, 4 or 6) - they are all a delight to solve.
ReplyDeleteDid not get a chance to comment last week. Aspartame's puzzle was really nice one as well. Looking forward to many more.
24D - I had met her once on Malindi beach
ReplyDeleteHow could you identify her in that attire there?
I was introduced.
DeleteAs Tennyson said:
As shines the moon in clouded skies,
She in her poor attire was seen;
One praised her ankles, one her eyes,
One her dark hair and lovesome mien.
Font size too small in the blog post, today. (Desktop/Windows/Firefox.) Are the votes in yet on the formatting? ;-)
ReplyDeleteJust increased it. Is that better now ?
DeleteI was monkeying around with it, but does not seem to have helped much. Will try in Excel next time.
DeleteI think some kinda differentiation for the anno part would help. Right now, the explanations aren't easily seen.
DeleteKishore,
DeleteI'm on a different computer now, where the display is almost always different from the earlier one. I can only let you know tomorrow, as it's my work PC. :-)
A request in general to the blog posters: Could you please standardise how you post the solutions (text formatting and annotations)? The primary reason for so many hits to the blog is the clockwork-like precision with which the Colonel (and later, others) post the solutions here*. It's the blog's calling card, if you will. With so many beginners coming to this blog, it will only be helpful to have a single, readable format. (Individuality can always come through comments, comics and cartoons. ;-))
*This is of course not to belittle the mini community this blog fosters or the camaraderie that has developed among some of the regulars who hardly ever need to look up solutions, but which make it worth one's while to visit this site every day.
I like the "original" type of formatting done by Col Gopinath instead of these tabular ones. The clue comes first, followed by answer and then the annotation with different colours and fonts highlighting them. So if there is any voting I will give my choice to the earlier type.........
ReplyDeleteSo do I. The one that appears today needs lot of scrolling up and down.
DeleteI too am thinking of jumping back to the old format
ReplyDeleteSR are the initials of a member here whose handle is SrinivasaRaghavan (I think). He is also known as Venkatesh. He is an advanced solver.
ReplyDeleteHe is prone to pointing out mistakes in usage.
What I promptly corrected was a transposition of words.
Thank U, CV Sir.
DeleteKishore: re:Naomi Campbel in Malindi beach:l: Did you mistake the( Palm) tree for the woods ? or the reeds? By the by, seeing is believing; but meeting is ?
ReplyDeleteSo what was it? You met her or saw her? or was it a con(FRONT)ation?
Oh, the dichotomy of solvers. If its too simple it too easy, If it is too hard, its too difficult. So what do we want? A steak that's rare, medium hard?
ReplyDeleteLets enjoy the juicy steak,( or the masala and the dosa and the chatni, as cooked) and relish the after- taste.
Again, I have been reading about samosas. Please annotate the background , as I know not the etymology of this..
Re: Samosas
DeleteDr. Gayathri Sreekanth, recently AWOL, celebrated her first (?) completed grid by eating samosas. Ever since, the term samosas has become a sort of metaphor for expressing one's joy in completing the grid, especially among new solvers ("Lots of samosas today!").
Thanks. Navneeth. Samosa it is for everyone today.
DeleteIncidenally, its samosas too at home here in Nyork, where we have a family reunion for self and wifey -as per my son's farmaish for his mom's cooking, after getting tired of Japanese food in Nagoya.
A steak that's rare, medium hard but well done
ReplyDelete