Saturday 19 July 2014

No.11141, Saturday 19 Jul 2014, Lightning

A nice Saturday morning stroll with Lightning. Liked most of the clues, especially FREAKISH, SCION, SHOOTING GALLERY, FRET, OUTRIGHT and ANTIC.

ACROSS
8 Arrange a non-stop shuttle for an unwelcome person (7,3,5) PERSONA NON GRATA [ARRANGE A NON-STOP]*
9 Strange novel describing a king, initially interesting (8) FREAKISH [FRESH outside A K I]
10 Distorted, foolish person stealing article (6) MUTANT [MUTT outside AN]
11 Detailed sack record botched in contest's official log (9) SCORECARD [SACk RECORD]*

                                                                                    Cartoon by Rishi
12 Child caught in Mumbai suburb (5) SCION [C inside SION]
15 Fans move left to get hats (7) BOWLERS [BLOWERS with L moving ahead]
17 After commencement, put on and spoil accessory (7) EARMUFF [wEAR + MUFF]
19 Hypothetical medium under neutron does not exist (5) ETHER [nETHER]
20 Enigmatic Seabiscuit, perhaps an unexpected winner (4,5) DARK HORSE [DARK + HORSE]
23 Party to leave control to a sycophant (6) MINION [doMINION]
25 Genial worker following petitions (8) PLEASANT [ANT after PLEAS]
26 Largely, a place for buying drugs? (8,7) SHOOTING GALLERY [Rev anagram of LARGELY]
 DOWN
1 Standard faced rigorous inspection at first by chapter (6) METRIC [MET + RI +C]
2 Squad's footwear, primarily customised for power (10) ESCADRILLE [ESPADRILLE with C for P]
                                                                                    Cartoon by Bhargav

3 Lying at home during religious education (9) INSINCERE [IN + SINCE + RE] during=since?
4 Toxins, horticulturist held briefly (2,5) IN SHORT [T]
5 Vatican image showing one's inner self (5) ANIMA [T]
6 Regularly ferment trouble (4) FRET [FeRmEnT]
7 Stanford fellow, losing resistance, involved in stalemate (8) STANDOFF [STANFOrD F]*
13 Ordinary rating for seasoning (6,4) COMMON SALT [COMMON + SALT]
14 Support young man returning after training? Think again (9) BACKPEDAL [BACK + PE + LAD<=]
16 At once, breezed through it, without a bit of hesitation (8) OUTRIGHT [THROUGh IT]*
18 Distortion in episode supporting conflict (7) WARPAGE [PAGE under WAR] episode=passage, but page?
21 Mixed by star on the wagon (6) SUNDRY [SUN + DRY]
22 Fast to disappear — splendid trick (5) ANTIC [fANTastIC]
24 International criminal's image (4) ICON [I + CON] 

59 comments:

  1. Ram, CGB, Paddy and others will have seen that in the note at lower bottom of my cartoon I am pulling the leg of a popular, widely circulated Tamil newspaper. In the past decades, it used to carry a cartoon called sirippu! on the front page. On days when the cartoon did not need any caption (what is this known as in English? Silent cartoon? Mute cartoon? Captionless cartoon?), it used to have the note "indha sirippukku vasanam thevai illai" - meaning 'this cartoon doesn't need any dialogue'.

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  2. Since: from Chambers (http://www.chambers.co.uk/search.php?query=since&title=21st):

    during or throughout the period between now and some earlier stated time •

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  3. "This cartoon requires no caption" and also the caricaturist's name?

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  4. CV, Just logged in an inserted Me !'s toon and credit for your toon. I am on 'French' leave from cartooning for some while ...

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    Replies
    1. Thank you.
      Raghunath, I endorse your calling me a caricaturist. I am not a trained artist and I use 'DoodlePad' on my mini iPad for the sketches. The drawings are not perfect - I am yet to come to grips with MS Paint but even if I use it I cannot import the half-done sketch to DoodlePad to add embellishments. I can import a DP sketch into MS Paint and add some effects but that is not an easy or desirable thing. So my friends must excuse me for the sketchy drawings. Also I am unable to bring in correct expressions on faces or correct postures as Richard does. The tip of the finger is of no use. But you do get a feel, don't you?

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    2. sketchy drawings?

      All our drawings are sketched. Carry on, sir!

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    3. CV,
      I think your cartoons are brilliant, they are definitely not sketchy as you say

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    4. CV,
      My intention was just to point out that the credit was missing from the toon. To me your sketches are sketches and not sketchy in the sense you say.

      Delete
    5. Thanks for your encouragement, overlooking any imperfect lines.

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    6. CV your caption that "This cartoon requires no caption" reminded me of an old song which had the following lyrics ...

      "ain't no words to this song, you just dance and hum along

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

      Delete
  5. Found going today a bit difficult than usual for Lightning's puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. Especially on the West- I mean left half. Gaps were all there.

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  6. Hi everyone! Is anyone able to login to Orkut? Post 30th of Sept., where will we be solving the crossword?

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    Replies
    1. Sandhya, long time no see?
      You can migrate to Mrs PP's hub right away for solving. Link is available under links on the left hand side of this page

      Delete
    2. Thanks Col! I'd gone on a holiday - returned a few days back

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  7. We missed you for cracking the tough nuts!

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  8. 19A- Is 'Hypothetical' for nether (as in nether world)? In which case 'medium' is the def. and it appears in the middle. I take it 'Does not exist' refers to deletion of N.

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    Replies
    1. On holiday, Sandy, I am sure you stayed at the Nutcracker Suite ...

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    2. Huh?!
      Kishore, what do you mean? I can only think of Tchaikovsky.

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    3. I had to google to connect him to nutcracker.

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    4. Sandhya,
      See Padmanabhan's 10.03

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    5. Thanks Raghunath!
      Just shows I was out of touch with Kishore's sense of humour :P

      Delete
  9. CV,
    Yes, I remember those cartoons appearing on the first page of the said paper. They had to give a title- Sirippu- meaning laugh. Otherwise no one will laugh- probably only laugh at it being called a joke.

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  10. Hypothetical medium under neutron does not exist (6)
    I take it this way:
    Hypothetical medium: Ether
    Under = Nether
    Neutron not existing = deletion indicator for N
    (-N)ether

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  11. An S&B meet in Hyderabad JUNCTION on a pleasant TWILIGHT evening and we get another participant!!

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  12. But is 'Ether' a hypothetical medium?

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  13. Yes. Free Dictionary:
    3. (General Physics) the ether the hypothetical medium formerly believed to fill all space and to support the propagation of electromagnetic waves

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  14. With so many cartoonists on this blog, it's no more just S&B. Our sketchers deserve a mention too I feels.

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  15. I wonder if the cricket score being held up by the third judge in Rishi's cartoon has ever been achieved

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  16. A clarification - 1 A - Can one use a word which is the definition. In this case NON.
    One may think, why silly questions like this. In fact, i get satisfied if i solve many clues. I am not like You people who solve it very easily.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It has to be since it is part of the anagram fodder shown as the solution.
      No question is silly and many of us like you have a few clues that we cannot solve and the blog comes to our rescue.

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    2. It is probably not very elegant to have the same block of anagram fodder appear as is in the solution so your question is very valid.

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  17. Col./ Kishore,

    What CV has shown in his cartoons are not cricket scores- book or otherwise. This is the latest rage here in TN on the TV- music shows where the judges award marks to different contestants on a scale of 0 to 10 (of course 10 for the best) There are shows for elders as well as for kids and it is now shown serially with elimination in each round and finally a grand Final.

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    Replies
    1. Paddy,
      The last Judge is showing 10000 for 10

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    2. Beats me- unless CV wanted to indicate how ridiculous things can get!

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    3. That it is not cricket is apparent from the bpard showing 5. While one may hold a 4 or a 6 board asking for a boundary, 5 has no such meaning. Also, three people together is clearly the judges of some TV show. While two of them are displaying the score awarded by them , the last one seems to be advertising his asking rate for awarding a perfect 10 a la nadia comaneci or Bo Derek ...

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    4. Yes. Times have become so bad that bribe demands are made openly.

      Delete
  18. Colonel Sir, do I need a Facebook Account to register my name in Mrs PP's blog?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not necessarily. You can register directly without a Facebook account.

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    2. I tried but no success. Shall try once again, Sir.

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    3. Col. Sir,

      After logging in, while posting 7Dn clue Answer, this is what I get :mukundala Balasubramanyam, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

      Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
      If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation.

      Delete
    4. Maybe the account has to be activated. I too got the same answer when I tried a test post with my second ID

      Delete
    5. I had the same problem like MB sir when I used google account for posting . Now I use facebook account.

      Delete
    6. Just checked the FAQs on the Hub where it says that an activation mail will be sent to the e-mail ID with which one registered

      Delete
    7. This is what is written there

      How do I register?

      You register by clicking on the 'Register' link near the top of the page. You will be asked to choose a user name, password and enter a valid email address. In addition there will be some other fields to which you will be invited to respond. Some will be mandatory while others are optional. Once this is complete you will either be fully registered, or in some cases you may have to click on a link in an 'activation email' sent to your email address. Once you have done this you will be registered.

      Delete
    8. Thanks, Colonel, for all your efforts!

      Delete
  19. When I tried to register I am being asked about facebook registration details. No google/ email options are indicated.

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  20. THE HUB
    (1) Eventhough I have a Facebook account, I could not enter the site.
    (2) After entering D0B, I could go past step 1 and thereafter logged in with FB account.
    (3) I did not find today's crossword. Only yesterday's crossword is up.

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  21. Here is the link to the CW on the HUB. You can see it without registering but will ahve to register if you want to comment. I just checked you can register direct without clicking on the Facebook links

    http://www.mayyam.com/talk/showthread.php?10502-THC-crossword-thread-6-4-ans-PP-till-4-pm-IST/page161

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just registered another ID of mine at the HUB without any problem

      Delete
  22. LV has registered and comments there regularly since the last week or so

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  23. Few clarifications:

    3D: I thought during == since was ok at the time of writing the clue, but on review yesterday, changed it to: Lying at home unaffected (9). Unfortunately, the change never made it.

    18D: Both free dictionary and chambers (online) list episode (say a historic one) as a meaning for page. Ref: Chambers: 3 literary an episode or incident in history, one's life, etc.

    8A: Use of "non" in both fodder and solution totally escaped my attention all along, especially given how diverse the words in the fodder & the solution are.

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    Replies
    1. And persona in the solution and nearly repeated in the def.

      Delete
  24. Another enjoyable grid from Lightning on the trot. Also like the ambiguity between anind, fodder and def. in the first couple of clues (arrange/shuttle, novel/strange). I wonder if it was intentional.

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