Thursday 25 March 2010

No 9799, Thursday 25 Mar 10, Sankalak

ACROSS
1 - Getting the rod ready for the fish (7) - BAITING [CD]
5 - Weir, rather old, is broken (7) - {DAM}{AGED}
9 - What a star may make, when invited to a show (5,10) - GUEST APPEARANCE [CD]
10 - Does it hum with activity, with a sweet output? (6) - APIARY [CD]
11 - Highlander at liberty, unharmed (4-4) - {SCOT} {FREE}
13 - Oriental, caught unmoving, is rapturous (8) - {E}{C}{STATIC}
15 - A bit of hope for the jobless! (4-2) - WANT-AD [CD]
18 - Pope led astray in Montana by dear child (6) - M{OPPE*}T
19 - Means of help for leaders of urban establishment — crores distributed (8) - RESO{U}RC*{E}
22 - A tie, yet king and knight free to move! (4,4) - REEF* {K}{N}OT*

24 - Forty winks for Tom (6) - CATNAP [CD]
27 - Source of entertainment spelling out bestial violence (5,10) - CABLE TELEVISION* Good one
28 - Bi-continental landmass (7) - EURASIA [E]
29 - Elegance seen if travelling around the south (7) - {FINE{S}SE*}
DOWN
1 - The hunter's objective — great sport! (3,4) - BIG GAME [DD]
2 - Ancient British tribe getting something very cold back at home (5) - {ICE}{NI<-} )
3 - Bury the dial in a common boundary (9) - {INTER}{FACE}
4 - Stare at the opening with ecstasy (4) - {GAP}{E}
5 - Soak the children cavorting without LI (6) - DRENCH(-li)*
6 - French revolutionary leader, a master at concealing resistance (5) - {MA}{R}{AT}
7 - Source of power for Reno, great novelty (9) - GENERATOR*
8 - It should be off limits for non-swimmers at the pool (4,3) - DEEP END [CD]
12,17 - Great bell ebbing out (3,3) - BIG BEN*

14 - Period of 30 days in which EB power meters break down (9) - S{E}PTEM{B}ER* Nice clue
16 - A distraction from a divine calling (9) - {A}{VOCATION}
17 - See 12
18 - A saint could surely have performed one (7) - MIRACLE [CD]
20 - The kind of account popular with executives (7) - EXPENSE [E]
21 - Prayers for nine days — something hot in North America (6) - N{OVEN}A
23 - They are bended in a supplicant (5) - KNEES [CD]
25 - Are they the personification of callousness? (5) - NAILS [CD]
26 - Riches that the Spanish invested in Provident Fund (4) - P{EL}F

GRID

22 comments:

  1. Good morning friends

    Could complete the puzzle in less than half an hour. Liked 10A. Some neat anagrams.

    Quite inexplicably took some time for 15A, 8D and 25D.

    2D - ICENI - obtained from Google search.

    6D - Initially had some confusion over Jean-Paul MARAT, radical journalist, assassinated by Charlotte Corday and Joachim MURAT, prominent cavalry general who became Napoleon's brother-in-law and was later made King of Naples.

    23D - 'Bended' or 'bent'? I am curious to know.

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  2. @Richard,
    'He made his plea on bended knees'

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  3. The clues set by Sankalak today were very nice.
    The two words totaling 15 letters (5,10) each - in Across (9 & 27) were dead easy.

    9A What a star may make, when invited to a show = GUEST APPEARANCE [CD]
    27A Source of entertainment spelling out (bestial violence)* = CABLE TELEVISION
    Anagram of (Bestial violence) to mean a source of entertainment

    There were several other interesting clues. To mention but a few:

    5A DAMAGED [Anno: Weir = DAM; rather old = AGED]
    A weir is simply a small overflow-type dam used to raise the level of a small river or stream. Weirs have traditionally been used to create mill ponds

    22A A tie, yet king and knight free to move! (4,4) REEF KNOT
    Anagram of K (king)+ N (knight)+ free to
    To mean a type of tie = Reef knot

    24A Forty winks for Tom (6) CATNAP (CD)
    Forty winks = Sleep/Nap; Tom=Cat

    10A Does it hum with activity, with a sweet output? (6)APIARY
    sweet output = Honey
    Humming with activity – Beehive / APIARY (place where bees are kept)

    11A Highlander at liberty, unharmed (4-4) SCOT-FREE
    Highlander = Scot; at liberty=Free
    Meaning unharmed = Scot-free (also means unpunished)

    19 Means of help for leaders of urban establishment - crores distributed (8) RESOURCE
    leaders (first letters) of urban establishment — U, E
    UE crores) distributed (meaning anagram) = RESOURCE (Means of help)

    18A Pope led astray in Montana by dear child (6) {M(OPPE)*T}
    (Pope)* in MT (Montana) meaning dear child = Moppet

    21D Prayer for nine days = N(OVEN)A [Anno: OVEN (something hot) in NA (North America)]
    A NOVENA is a nine-day period of private or public prayer among Catholics to obtain special graces, to implore special favours, or to make special petitions. The word ‘Novena’ is derived from the Latin "novem", meaning nine (In Sanskrit also, navama stands for nineth!). As the definition suggests, the novena has always had more of a sense of urgency and neediness.

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  4. Thanks Deepak. When I first looked up the dictionary, it was not found. But a Google search helped me. Looks like I sometimes have a questioning bent of mind.

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  5. @ COL
    You had mentioned
    5 - Weir, rather old, is broken (7) - {DAM}{AGE}

    Pl note the correction to this in my post above.
    Anno: Weir = DAM; rather old = AGED
    Def: Broken - DAMAGED (7 letters)

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  6. Thank you Venkatesh, that was a typo from my side, I have since corrected the main post

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  7. Thanks Colonel. The definition required is for 'broken', not 'Weir'. The emphasis (bold, italic) has to be adjusted.

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  8. In modern parlance it is only knees and swords, sometimes also spears, that are bended.
    And its use is faceitous.
    In all other instances, 'bent' is preferable.

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  9. I could not agree with the Readers' Editor of The Hindu when he wrote today that 'on the anvil' is an expression in Indian English 9whatever this means).

    I shot off a mail saying it is in Chambers and the Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (a book that is a legacy from my dad). This dictionary, not my copy, goes back to 1860s.

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  10. Wikipedia says that 'on the anvil' is often used in the 'Indian Press' and not Indian English.

    If you do a google search for 'on the anvil phrase' the first link Google coughs up is 'Indian English - Wikipedia....' I suppose that is why the Readers' Editor has classified it as Indian English, without going into the contents of the page.

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  11. Good morning. Loved 27A bestial violence anagram of cable television.

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  12. Chaturvasi, I liked the usage of that word 'facetious'. It is one of the rarest words in English vocabulary which has all the vowels in alphabetical order -fAcEtIOUs. Another one I can remember is ABSTEMIOUs.

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  13. Can 19A be 'Recourse' instead of 'Resource'?
    The anagram fits in and there is no problem with the crossings.

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  14. Can someone please explain 3Down

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  15. @ Celluloidbiker

    Bury = inter
    Dial = face
    Common boundary = INTERFACE

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  16. 14 - Period of 30 days in which EB power meters break down (9) - S{E}PTEM{B}ER* Nice clue

    Here 'power' yields P as part of the anagram fodder. An acceptable practice when the abbr. is well-known.
    So the anno should really be S{E}{P}TEM{B}ER*

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  17. 22 - A tie, yet king and knight free to move! (4,4) - REEF* {K}{N}OT*
    what does yet indicate here?

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  18. Thanks Chaturvasi,
    This is what happens when the CW is wrapped up fast I then try to put my fingers in elsewhere, the HT CW in this case, net result being I become careless

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  19. @Dr Pankajam,
    Yet is not indicating anything here, it's just a filler for the surface

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  20. @tpa

    19A 'Recourse' and 'Resource' are from the same anagram fodder. As you said, none of the crossings are affected if either word is used.

    But, the definition required is for 'means of help'. Recourse means 'resorting to some source of help'. It is resource which stands for means of supplying a want. So, resource fits into the requirement in this clue.

    @ CVasi sir
    I agree with your views on 'on the anvil'. This expression is used all over the English speaking world and is popular with administrators. It has been in use since ancient days. Even in USA, I saw in a news article the other day that some new biotechnology legislation was 'on the anvil'.

    As to Wikipedia referred to by Col, I saw on a Google search that in a number of articles authored by many people on Indian Henglish, the same material is given as in that reference or may be it is the other way round.

    It is surprising that instead of doing a thorough search, the Readers' Editor has relied on the Wikipedia which has its limitations.

    There has been concern over the way the News Editor functions in some other matters also. To mention one incident: When the auto fares were raised last year in Delhi, there was a news article in The Hindu; but it failed to mention the important fact that the raise was to come in effect only in the subsequent week. So relying on the report which had appeared in The Hindu, many of us paid up the higher amount demanded by the autowallahs, only to realise that we had been taken 'for a ride'. When I raised the issue of this major deficiency in the report, the News Editor chose to remain mum.

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  21. In the first and the last lines of the last para, it should be Readers Editor and not News Editor.

    ReplyDelete

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