Friday 11 April 2014

No.11056, Friday 11 Apr 2014, Sankalak's files


Vintage Sankalak as ever

ACROSS
1 The new vertebrate turned out to be surpassing all past performance (6,4,4) BETTER THAN EVER (THE N VERTEBRATE)*
8 Last character holding application is finished off (6) ZAPPED (APP. in ZED)
          You might get 8 if you use 9 ... or by 19
9 Tropical herb, second grade, is a drug source (8) CANNABIS (CANNA B IS)
11 Make out good English cronies in distress (9) RECOGNISE (G E CRONIES)*
12 Swashbuckling old hero cuts short lapse with a bit of laugher (5) ERROL (ERROr L)
          If you thought ABCDEF stood for American Born Confused Desi Immigrant Fellow, think again. It once stood for the American Boys' Club for the Defense of Errol Flynn
13 Symbols that the put-out pet mumbles about (7) EMBLEMS (PET MUMBLES- PUT)*
15 Cry out about oriental objective confining unknown class (7) EXCLAIM (E(X CL) AIM
17 Permission to fib with meaning, we hear (7) LICENCE (~(LIE SENSE))
19 Improperly treated master is exploited (7) MISUSED (M IS USED)
21 Trials resulting from non-professional objections (5) TESTS (proTESTS)
23 Figure producing a record snarl (9) RECTANGLE (REC TANGLE)
25 Clarity, a sufferer in cheerful readiness (8) ALACRITY (CLARITY A)*
26 Abduction by a reportedly drunken sailor (6) HIJACK (~HIGH JACK)
27 The key to a backdoor entry? (14) RECOMMENDATION CD
          Please do not see the cartoon as a recommendation for use of either product

DOWN
1 Very strange treatment of zebra: Revenue Inspector suspect (7) BIZARRE (ZEBRA RI)*
2 Theme of work captured by a jerk (5) TOPIC (OP in TIC)
3 Perennially raw growth (9) EVERGREEN (EVER GREEN) &lit too?
4 The world of scholars finds the dame lost in a church (7) ACADEME (DAME* in A CE)
5 Computer programme derived from Tavernier (5) ERNIE (T)
6 Discomfit English doctors grabbing wall hanging (9) EMBARRASS (ARRAS in E MBS)
7 A refuge for an unknown in an overcrowded place (6) ASYLUM (Y in A SLUM)
          With the kind of things happening, even an asylum would be an overcrowded place if one admitted all those eligible. My membership is on the waiting list. I understand they have reservations for politicians.
10 Partiality towards British Indian administrators (4) BIAS (B IAS)
14 The key to support and accommodation (9) BACKSPACE (BACK SPACE)
16 A car in USA smashed by a tree (9) CASUARINA (A CAR IN USA)*
17 Hate developed between students is deadly (6) LETHAL (HATE* between Ls)
18 True, arm twisting is a mistake (7) ERRATUM (TRUE ARM)*
          When you make a mistake, use 14
19 Staff of office, one to disable attackers (4) MACE 2

20 Fine leather from the deer family (7) DOESKIN (DOE'S KIN)
22 Motor that shows strange revs beginning to overheat (5) SERVO (REVS* O)
24 High title Ben dropped in Libyan city (5) GHAZI (benGHAZI)

34 comments:

  1. Hail Richard for his suggestion/ request for the next dose of Sankalak medicine. Your prayers were heard. Another of his beauties.

    100% for the second day, with a reasonable chance of a hat trick, is more than I can ask for.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Reg.cartoon-
    You have scored your point with your better half!

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  3. In the Variety page, they have changed two titles.
    Faith (prev. Religion)
    From the archives (prev. This day, that age)
    What next?
    Any guesses as to what the revised title can be?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Given the step-motherly treatment of the feature:

      Word sudoku (prev. crossword)

      Delete
    2. Talking of sudoku and crossword, from the time Sudoku was introduced till recently Sudoku was included in the Index on the front page. But the crossword which appeared in different pages (left or right, in the front section or back) never figured in the Index. The beauty is Sudoku had a fixed place - main sports page.
      It seems the new kid on the bloc gets all the attention.

      Delete
    3. Bhavan, You said it.

      CV, The Sudoku gets a front page mention (though with the same hackneyed words)

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    4. Ooops, CV, noticed that you mentioned that

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    5. Just a general question. How fair and politically correct is the term "step-motherly" when used in this fashion?

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    6. Don't see anything wrong as it's a universally accepted expression

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    7. One more observation is, there is one NORTHERN PAGE which includes all news, other than Tamilnadu. It is like Delhiites calling everyone 'Madarasi' south of vindyas. I brought this to editors notice, but to no avail. I think they have banned me.

      Delete
    8. I too noticed that the term 'northern' is too broad.
      How can it include UP as well as Assam or Arunachal Pradesh?

      Delete
  4. Is it going to be just a name change (if at all) or any other improvement? Third time lucky?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Curiously no mention of sudoku in the first page today! (at least in the Chennai edition)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As I wrote above, the Chennai edition stopped including Sudoku in the Index some months ago. It seems some other centres are still carrying it, w/o noticing the practice at the main place of publication.

      Delete
  6. Centum. We miss you Sankalak, as the file will be very limited.

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  7. Miss you Sankalak:( His crosswords were always such a pleasure to solve and he has been an inspiration for me.

    My latest Brand Crossword is out today. Please do try it and give me your feedback either on this thread or in the Comments section of the crossword. If you need any annos., or clarification please feel free to ask.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very good CW. Thank you Sowmya. Loved 3D & 11A. So was 17A. After filling in tried for a while to get the anno of 2D.

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    2. Thanks Paddy. Hope you got the anno. Cyst (Growth) <<<ATAL (former PM)

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    3. Sowmya, I think it would nicer if "former PM" is VAJPAYEE instead of ATAL.

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    4. I got it alright. Like VJ said the 'Atal' part made it a little difficult. Since a few may still be doing it, I did not want to give too many details.

      Delete
    5. Thanks Paddy..was very thoughtful of you..was travelling yesterday so wasn't too sure if you were asking for the Anno. and put it in, just in case

      Delete
  8. An intoxicating puzzle from Sankalak ! Centum for the second day. :-)))) I am not missing Sankalak ! He is still there with us, courtesy The Hindu !!

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  9. The good work of intelligent folks live on ever after they have passed on !!If we believe in reincarnation, I'm sure Sankalak must be still compiling some crossie somewhere !! Soul never perishes but it lives on through these blogs

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  10. Does this qualify for Lipogram? Well, Crossword Unclued carried one article, on this, which i remembered.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Our job could not have been/ we could not have felt1a.Clues serve as flow-chart and enable ideas gushing forth.Its a puzzle par excellence.A big salute to the departed veteran.

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  12. Sowmya
    When it is an acronym such as Nato, pronounceable as a word, the enu might be 4.
    But when it is say, NDTV, where every letter is pronounced the enu must be 1,1,1,1.
    Honestly, I couldn't complete the puzzle. That is not because the clues were unfair but my solving prowess has blunted. This confession is from a former blogger on fifteensquared and bigdave's website on DT crossword!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's not because your prowess is blunted, I would say it is because you do not watch soaps regularly. If you did then you would see these brands every other 10 minutes, some channels are kind enough to show these brands 3 or 4 times in each break. Most irritating.

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    2. Deepak

      I have watched Margo, Hamam, Medimix, Santoor, Vivel . . .

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    3. Thanks CV. Didn't know that about the enum..Lol on the long list of soaps:) Surely, liril must be there too:):)

      Delete
  13. Most of which are not from the current decade but our earlier decades, I also did not know a few brands and that is nothing to get worried about.

    ReplyDelete

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