Wednesday 5 November 2014

No 11232, Wednesday 05 Nov 2014, Incognito


Incognito on a tour of Chennai. He missed out the infamous Cooum river.

Note: Some locations mentioned in this puzzle are not very far from one another

ACROSS
1   Join! Before I divide The Constitution State (11) CONNECTICUT {CONNECT}{I}{CUT}
9   Remove insects from Budge Budge (5) DEBUG*
10 Reconstitution of shire was followed by monarch letting out a cry (9) SHRIEKING {SHIRE*}{KING}
11 English town has male deer (Indian) with great smoked meat (10) BUCKINGHAM {BUCK}{IN}{G}{HAM}
12 Go after a flower and get a jumping toy (4) POGO {PO}{GO}
13 Ensure, without having right, what may happen later (5) ENSUE ENSUrE
15 My laptop has no top and is kept on some mineral matter in a locality having a famous temple (8) MYLAPORE {MY}{LAPtop}{ORE}
17 Long race held in Myanmar at honeymoon time (8) MARATHON [T]
19 Roman marketplace for primarily unique merchandise (5) FORUM {FOR}{Un...e}{Me...e}
22 Right before pie is cut up and ready for consumption (4) RIPE {R}{PIE*}
23 Why main hag turns into a robber? (10) HIGHWAYMAN*
26 Cancelled out: “Ill, unfed I travelled around” (9) NULLIFIED*
27 Tin and aluminium are found in a waterway (5) CANAL {CAN}{AL}
28 Intoxicated, Big Ben raids suburban station (5,6) BASIN BRIDGE*

DOWN
1   Little one in charge of things shaped lie a die (5) CUBIC {CUB}{IC} Should that be 'like a die'? Didn't understand the reference to a 'die'. See comments
2   Careless to hide books under underwear endlessly (9) NEGLIGENT {NEGLIGEe}{NT}
3   Standard symbol below a small dash (6) ENSIGN {EN}{SIGN}
4   Circular hot tray may be rough (7) THROATY*
5   I left chief and cook (4) CHEF CHiEF
6   Auditor's attempt to lead officer with our French flag, for example (9) TRICOLOUR (~try){TRI}{COL}{OUR} Indian instead of  French would have suited the surface better, in view of 'our'
7   Stew wildebeest (after bits of waste are thrown away) and it becomes fit for consumption (6) EDIBLE wILDEBEest* Is 'bits of waste' sufficient to mean that 'wste' are to be taken?
8   Tailless bird carries doctor to railway station (6) EGMORE {EG{MO}REt}
14 Remove paint from golfing equipment at an entertainment venue (5,4) STRIP CLUB {STRIP} {CLUB}
16 Betrothed, a couple of females and I danced around engineer (9) AFFIANCED {A}{FF}{IAN{CE}D*}
17 Scattered rain in Massachusetts harbour (6) MARINA {M{RAIN*}A}
18 Conclusion: Greek character consumes bulb? Actually, the other way round (7) OPINION {O{PI}NION}
20 Town in HP has male boxer (6) MANALI {MAN}{ALI}
21 Loose cloak-like garment found in a bivouac had ornamentation (6) CHADOR [T]
24 Pulverise rodents with a pole (5) MINCE {MI{N}CE}
25 Assumes a horizontal position and fibs (4) LIES [DD]


41 comments:

  1. 1 Little one in charge of things shaped lie a die (5) CUBIC {CUB}{IC} Should that be 'like a die'? Didn't understand the reference to a 'die'.

    DIE - DICE

    ReplyDelete
  2. What she is saying is that 'die' is the singular form of 'dice'.
    More usual in the phrase 'The die is cast'.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have reason to believe that it is a misprint at the publisher's stage.
      How these things happen, GOK.

      Delete
    2. Means they are still retyping the clues ...

      Delete
    3. CV's "More usual in the phrase 'The die is cast'."

      Avid Asterix readers will recall the old pirate, JC etc saying this in Latin "Alea jacta est" or rather 'Alea iacta est'

      Delete
    4. Sometimes also put as 'iacta alea est'

      Delete
    5. Does not really matter if you say 'Greek & Latin or the other way round as long as both are unintelligible!

      Delete
  3. I have known these various terms for the women's wear in 21d but did not know the precise differences. Thanks, Col. Deepak, for the pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  4. As a user of the English language rather in a professional capacity - whether as a writer of sort, editor or crossword setter - I have known the difference between 'forceful' and 'forcible' but I am amazed at a court verdict which seems to have depended on dubious semantics to decide a case.
    See
    http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/forceful-sex-is-not-rape-hc/article6565078.ece

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Worse, the sentence starts 'We find force in the contention ..." Was this some attempt at wordplay?. She had consumed alcohol ... forcibly? A murder weapon that makes murder non-cognizable?

      Delete
  5. Thank you K for a mini tour of Chennai,nee Madras and thank you Col. for a nice picture of Mylapore tank.
    A small grouse- could have included more of Chennai.
    Reg.Col.' byline about Cooum- why not make it next 'Mangalayan'? BTW when is it going to be announced?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Coming soon at a newspaper near you : Another dose of Chennai. To avoid overdosage, gap between city specials will be about 3 months ...

      Delete
    2. Yes, I did think of Cooum, but I am sure Chennaites would not have liked it to be their brand ambassador ...

      Delete
  6. Re. 6d, I initially put in Indian, but 'our Indian' sounded like a tautology, hence changed it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Replies
    1. Jigarthanda finds mention!

      I think this aggregation of bits is common everywhere. Ref usage of North east, north Indians etc. here. Funnily East Indians are based in Mumbai ! Check it out at
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Indians

      Delete
  8. Wonder what the book was in 2D?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That secret is known only to Victoria

      Delete
    2. Thanks to technology, pockets and password-protected cellphones do this job pretty nicely. Nothing conspicuous either.

      Delete
  9. Paddy @ 9:01,

    The gauntlet is yet to be picked up

    ReplyDelete
  10. Getting to see the paper after quite a while ... being a relatively incompetent solver, I was content with completing the cwd (barring POGO) ... :P thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  11. A gentle work out & a tour of the city of my birth

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  12. smashing. My joy knows no bounds. Apt clues come in handy.4d-circular is anind. I initially tried as def. 24 d - mince no words to find 'mince'. In fine,quite an enjoyable puzzle thanks to escalating clues. Thanks Incognito.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 12a- po , is flower ie. river.wow- simply bowled over.Very nice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Flower and banker are fairly common words in crosswords for river.

      I loved the picture of pogo stick

      Delete
  14. Got hold of The Hindu today and set about doing the crossword after a long time. Was rather disappointed because today's clues were too easy.

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  15. VJ@11:20, Tell that to the celebs whose photos were outed from the iCloud. It was a case of carelessly hiding underwear, sometimes not even that, in (Mac)books (and iPhones). ;-) Regadless of what technology is used, the most important component, of course, is common sense. :-)

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  16. By any chance 14D part of the theme?

    ReplyDelete

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