Friday 18 December 2009

No 9717, Friday 18 Dec 09, Nita Jaggi

ACROSS
 1  - One may throw a party to bid them goodbye! (8) - FAREWELL [CD]
5  - Lively dance on the carpet (4) - SHAG [DD]
 9  - Pious leader has a short time for the duke (8) - REVEREN(-d+t)T
10 - Kofi’s second American lawyer is in a state of bliss (6) - {ANAN}{DA}
12 - Gumbo ingredient is acceptable by soldiers (4) - {OK}{RA}

13 - Payment of the bill for a small community (10) - SETTLEMENT [DD]
15 - It may be granted to the male staff at the time of their newborn! (9,5) - PATERNITY LEAVE [E]
17 - Terrorist may get shot in this kind of staged killing! (5,9) - CLOSE ENCOUNTER [CD]
21 - Engineer has a right to be in the workshop that is heat-resistant (10) - {RE}{F{R}ACTORY}
22 - Jane Austen’s strange girl (4) - EMMA [E]
25 - Regular Turk, exactly signs an agreement (6) - {T}{R}{E}{A}{T}{Y}
26 - Mates manage to secure your gemstone (8) - AME{THY}ST*

27 - Pinkeye? Can be tender in the morning (4) - SORE [CD]
28 - Left out an issue of the prisoners ordered to follow an elected leader (8) - IN{SPIRER(-son)*} Where did IN come from?
DOWN
 1  - The French cover the tube in a line in the trench (6) - {F{U}R}{ROW}
 2  - Wanderer has a machine (5) - ROVER [DD]
 3  - Small protuberance on the trimmed plant material taken up (4) - WART(-s)<- )
 4  - Note the new bird lamp (7) - {LA}{N}{TERN}
 6  - Thinner lad is in distress in a remote area (10) - HINTERLAND*
 7  - Drink for a soldier in general is intoxicating (6,3) - {GI}{NGER ALE*}
 8  - Hairdo for a heartless pal is accepted for sex appeal (5) - {P(-a)L}{A}{IT}
11 - Editing mark is anyhow set by the typist in front (4) - STE*{T}
14 - Supporter is in an inner room with a sequence of letters for the performer (10) - {BEN}{EF}{ACTOR}
16 - Lesson of a different kind of human nature (9) - ALOOFNESS*
18 - Money for an official letter (4) - NOTE [DD]
19 - Rower will arrive with us in the country (7) - O{AR}{S}MAN
20 - Uncle turns up thrice with the teacher (6) - {MAS<-}{TER}
21 - Tries to organise the ceremonies (5) - RITES*
23 - Politician in the fringe of Madras always has an alternative (5) - {M}AY{OR} Anno eludes me
24 - Do not start on the way to work (4) - {ST}{OP}


GRID

14 comments:

  1. Colonel,
    28A - IN for elected? Also, how is "son" related to issue?
    23D - AY for always

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  2. Had difficulty with the top left corner. The rest could be easily seen through.

    10 across - 'Kofi's second' - does it mean that the second letter from his family name ANNAN has been omitted?

    Richard

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  3. @Sembhayya,
    Thanks.
    Sons and daughters are known as 'issues'.

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  4. @Richard,
    What NJ means here is Kofi Annan's second part of the name. The deletion of N has not been indicated maybe NJ feels he spells his name as Anan!!

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  5. Liked 13, 15 and 17 across clues.

    Richard

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  6. @Richard - I know why you had difficulty with the top left hand corner. Foxed me too for a while. The clue "one may throw a party to bid them goodbye" is faulty - it appears from the clue that the definition is 'them'. I thought of "Retirees" and the like before cottoning on to farewell

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  7. Not sure why thrice is TER (20D)

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  8. 27A - "can be tender in the morning"- not sure what 'morning' is doing here

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  9. @Vikram,
    Maybe NJ has experienced Pinkeye only in the mornings!!

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  10. Not to mention so many problems in so many clues but to answer a query above -

    'ter' is a prefix meaning 'three'

    Tercentenary celebrations would mean celebrations of three hundred years

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  11. Somehow the pathetic quality of NJ's clues appear much more magnified to me these days and the reason is this. This week, I've been conducting final exams in all my classes and to pass time during proctoring, I've been printing out old Gridman's puzzles and solving them. The qualities of a good crossword are so manifest in Gridman's xwds, that juxtaposing those with NJ's clues causes me to feel, how should I put it, repulsed?

    I believe it was Shuchi who correctly remarked the other day that she did not want the newcomers to think that it was their inability that was the problem (while solving NJ's xwd), rather it is the sheer inferiority of the xwd itself.

    I seriosly wonder if there is some way to petition The Hindu to replace her. Any ideas, anyone?

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  12. Please pardon the spelling error - seriously not seriosly. So much for proof reading. :-)

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  13. @ Satya

    Tell you what, I too had the same thought which you have mentioned in the last sentence. So an impeachment motion is in the pipeline. Maybe a petition-online via email to N Ram will work.

    Richard

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  14. This comment has been removed by the author.

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