Tomorrows post will be delayed as I am driving down to Coimbatore, will be leaving Bangalore at 5 AM.
ACROSS
1 - Again cast's in a ferment about one of the performers (7) - ACT{RE}SS*
5 - Are called in to make the preparations (7) - AR{RANG}E
9 - Gone very pale like a timber tree! (5) - ASHEN [DD]
10 - For recording music? (9) - NOTEBOOKS [CD]
11 - Has rig dressed up to look quite showy (6) - GARISH*
12 - Hit hard on US ring roads (8) - {BELT}{WAYS} How I wish all the NH's in India were like these.
15 - A top man's pride sent crashing (9) - PRESIDENT*
18 - Company taking great number of men for December assembly, began work (9) - {CO}{M}{MEN}{CED*}
20 - Start home in pleasant corner (5) - NIC{H}E
22 - Put an arm through the broken panes to get the cheese (8) - P{ARM}ESAN*
26 - Noisy class with a loving disposition (9) - {CL}{AMOROUS}
27 - In short, go over again, the main points (5) - RECAP [E]
28 - Yells to me to take shelter inside — they're on the prowl (7) - ROA{ME}RS
29 - Exceeded the limit (7) - OVERRAN [E]
DOWN
1 - A single fluctuation in electric supply has a numbing effect (9) - A{N{A}LGESI*}C
2 - May get tawny brown here, in this capital (7) - T{EHER*}AN
3 - Girl might resent change in the east (9) - {ERNEST*}{IN}{E}
4 - Direction to cease dispatch (4) - {S}{END}
5 - Waiting by the new theatre, as arranged, the day after (2,3,5) - {AT THE RE*}{ADY*}
6 - Android needs mainspring with bolt head in the middle (5) - RO{B}OT
7 - Newly born child (7) - NEONATE [E]
8 - Moves gently to be free from pain (5) - EASES [DD]
13 - People who watch a trot take place through glasses (10) - SPEC{T{A}TOR*}S
16 - Island where people are accommodated without charge (9) - {INN}{IS}{FREE}
17 - Immediately put one on patrol to guard her (9) - T{HER}EUPON*
19 - Spoils a not for Sicilian wine (7) - {MARS}{A}{LA}
21 - Tale teller who had tea cure brewed (7) - {CHA}{UCER*}
22 - Horse trained to run at a rate of speed (5) - PACER [CD]
25 - Look after outsize capital (4) - {OS}{LO}
19down - Spoils a not for Sicilian wine (7) - {MARS}{A}{LA}
ReplyDeleteNOT seems to be a typo for NOTE
@Sandhya,
ReplyDeleteI felt so too
Good morning
ReplyDeleteINNISFREE and AT THE READY eluded me. Oslo, cha have made repeat appearances (at least thrice) in less than a month.
19D - Spoils a not for Sicilian wine (7) - {MARS}{A}{LA}
I guess the clue should read 'Spoils a note...' since LA is a musical note.
Oh, I have been overtaken by a whisker on that note.
ReplyDeleteHi
ReplyDelete3d Ernestine was a new name.
10a ‘Notebooks’ was cute. 26a Clamorous, 28a Roamers and 17d Thereupon were nice. Olso turns up again in 25d (there was a time when Nairobi used to be a turn in a tree). Yeats’ The Lake Isle of ‘Innisfree’” (quoted below) in 16d coupled with Chaucer in 21d was poetic.
I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honeybee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.
And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the morning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight's all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet's wings.
I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart's core.
@ Col: We have come a long way from the 2 minute noodle to the 10 minute crossword...
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteDeepak, 10 min is great. I got stuck with Innisfree and also beltways
ReplyDeleteFriends,
ReplyDeleteThis morning I was occupied otherwise. See:
http://fifteensquared.net/2010/04/23/financial-times-13367-falcon/
@Col and Suresh
ReplyDeleteIt is heartening to note that there is now some acceptance that THC CWs can be solved in 10 minutes as opposed to the earlier skepticism that even the grid cannot be filled in in that time frame.
@Kishore
It was great to read the wonderful lines.
The name Innisfree is an anglicisation of the Irish Inis Fraoch, meaning "heather island". When William Butler Yeats wrote the poem, the "Lake Isle of Innisfree" (1888), unlike many other poems from that era, did not contain direct references to mysticism and the occult. Yet, it was acclaimed in the UK and France.
The poem was published first in the National Observer in 1890 and reprinted The Countess Kathleen and Various Legends and Lyrics in 1892. It was included in The Rose collection (1893).
As a teenager, Yeats wished to imitate Thoreau by living on Innisfree, an uninhabited island in Lough Gill, and this formed his inspiration for this poem, one of his earlier works. In "The Lake Isle of Innisfree", he attempted to create a form of poetry that was Irish in origin rather than one that adhered to the standards set by English poets and critics.
@CVasi sir,
ReplyDeleteThe solutions and the explanations were interesting .
Picked up a new French word Calepin which means notebook
@ Chaturvasi: Looking at the link you sent, I have one question: Are you Rishikesh (CG seems to tie up), sir? I had gone to the Hindu office in Chennai many summers back to try and meet the setter (not Irish) of the non-by-lined crosswords and on enquiry was given Rishikesh as the name of the setter. I had asked them to check if I could meet the honourable gentleman and was told that he was out of town. If you are he (pardon the glut of pronouns), then I am indeed fortunate to bump into you in this forum.
ReplyDelete@ Venkatesh: Thanks for the Irish man update. And one thought the Irish were only about Faith and Begorrah, Pat and Murphy and of course, Bushmills !
ReplyDeleteKishore,
ReplyDeleteChaturvasi is a cyberian ID (hey, we met this phrase somewhere, didn't we?). My real name, as bestowed on me by my parents, is C. G. Rishikesh.
I was on the staff of Frontline magazine of The Hindu group for some 16 years and during that period any visitor or any telephonic query on the crossword would be directed to me.
Had I not been on leave when you came, you would have met me in flesh and blood.
For instance, one of the visitors was Mr. Gopalakrishnan whose word squares used to appear in a supplement of the paper and which now find a place in a supplement of the New Indian Express.
BTW, the initial C stands for Coimbatore, which is my hometown. I was born and brought up there before I started raising myself and rearing.
ReplyDelete@ Chaturvasi
ReplyDeleteNice to know about your Coimbatore roots.
The city has still retained the name in its old, Raj-time form unlike many places, e.g., Conjeevaram to Kanchipuram, Trichinopoly or Trichy to Tiruchirapalli, Tuticorin to Thoothukudi and so on.
Maybe some day we may hear a new name KOYAMBATHUR ! Do you foresee the possibility ?
I read somewhere quite recently that some organisation there have placed a demand before the Government that the place name must be de-anglicised.
ReplyDeleteFellow crossworders,
ReplyDeleteI don't usually solve the online Guardian crossword.
I came to know that today's puzzle was quite easy.
I wanted to try it: I took only 12 minutes.
Do try yourself. The clues are all good. Some interesting comments are on 15sqd but be forewarned that the blog reveals all answers. So you must go there only when you are ready to see the answers revealed.
@ Chaturvasi Sir: Thanks. It would have been my pleasure to have met you in flesh, blood and spirit (no pun intended, as I am usually abbreviated as TT). The last enquiry I made was sometime when Mr Sivakumar (no longer with us) was the Circulation Manager. BTW we definitely didn't meet the cyberian id in Siberia.
ReplyDelete@ CV Sir: Is the id similar to chaturanga, you live in the four square?
ReplyDelete@ CV Sir, Is the id something similar to the black and white chaturanga, you reside in the four square? Long back I used to use an id "Kaiser" (a bit megalomaniac one, I know, but there you are !) in some forums (not crossword) because it was phonetically close to my name.
ReplyDelete@CV sir,
ReplyDeleteProper name and Cyberian ID are OK. We knew that before. Many of us have read your interviews and articles. But tell us one thing.
Divya Kumafr mentioned in her feature that you are one of the five setters of THC. Seeing your penchant for the grid which you use as your sign, are we right in guessing that you are GRIDMAN?
Kishore et al
ReplyDeleteAll of you may call me just Chaturvasi or C-Vasi or just CV, dropping 'sir'.
Kishore, are/were you connected with the paper as you mention Mr Sivakumar's name.
Yes, 'Chaturvasi' is a coinage supposed to mean resident, [crossword] square.
Venkatesh
Thought is free.
Sounds like other than crossword fans, there are some dedicated sleuths too in this group. I had mentioned 'not an interesting clue' in Anokha's blog. I'd like to take that back after seeing the anno for Innisfree. Nice verse. Thanks, Kishore and Venkatesh.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally from a sleuthing perspective, a bit of hindsight. George Smiley (the character created by John Le Carre) always used to advise his co workers that they must take everyone's cover story seriously. A guy with a fake passport and a false name gives himself away still because he would list his actual occupation in the passport application etc etc.
I've had a lot of fun in this group. For which I'm much obliged to everyone.
Obviously I don't know anybody in the group since I live in Michigan. I'd like to, if possible, look up some of you when I'm in Madras or Bangalore.
@CV: Yes, I have done their ABC audit several times. So, when I went there, I made it a point to try to trace the unnamed setter. Then I was off THC for some time (de addiction !) and heavily into maths and science puzzles.
ReplyDelete@ LNS: Innisfree is also the name of a school in Bangalore named after the lake isle, the Inn is free, but the school is expensive. You have some lake isles in the northern part of Mishigama I see. Welcome to contact when here. You must be knowing George's code name: :-)
Can you say: "I solve crosswords.I don't nurse grudge against anyone after an argument."
ReplyDeleteIf so, read the first item in this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/2010/apr/06/crosswords-hugh-stephenson
LNS
ReplyDeleteGoogled your name and landed on your comment 'tropical error' under an Outlook article some ten years ago.
I used to send very occasional letters to Outlook and a one-liner I wrote several years ago was not only published but was reproduced under 'best letters' in an anniversary issue subsequently.
As I don't keep clippings I am unable to quote it now.
CV: Read the article: Speaking for myself, I fully confirm that I don't carry grudges. Life is too short to carry unwanted baggage. I have put one foot across the line several times and then got yanked back into this world. I also agree that we should give setters some setter's liberty (akin to poetic licence) and not be too pedantic. After all, we don't intend to cross swords (!) with them and put them off. I personally enjoy the aha moment every good clue gives me and the thought process it triggers off, sometimes quite mundane: Yesterdays ET4317 5a: One has to make cuts at the highest personal level (6) reminded me to go for a haircut!
ReplyDeleteC-Vasi
ReplyDelete"Had a cross word? Do a crossword to get over it."
That seems to be a nice promotional slogan for X-words.
Here is another:
"Want to get over a bust-up with a partner? Here's a CLUE: Go ACROSS to the nearest armchair and shove your head DOWN into a crossword.It is the perfect SOLUTION after a blazing row."
Mental stimulation, such as solving a crossword or sudoku, can stop one harbouring a grudge against a loved one.A very interesting study by Dr Christine Hooker and her team from Harvard (my alma mater).
Those who want to read the article, can look it up in Biological Psychiatry 2010 Mar 1;67(5):406-13 or see the abstract at the PubMed site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20004365
What was delectable was Hugh's tongue-in-cheek comment that being a Harvard study, it has nothing to say about whether the more developed British-style of cryptic crossword puzzle has greater therapeutic value than an American-style crossword puzzle.
@ Venkatesh: if one had a row boat on fire, one could do a crossword (it is the perfect solution for a blazing row):-)
ReplyDeleteAlso, the solutions are out there, in the X word files.
For those interested, I give below a sample of a geography, geometry and language puzzle I had set some time back in some other forum: (answers may be sent to kishoremrao@yahoo.com).
ReplyDeleteGeography: Grin and bear it!
A hunter walked one kilometer south from his camp. Then he walked one kilometer west. There he shot a bear. Then he walked one kilometer north, and found that he was back at his camp. What color was the bear?
You all must have heard this chestnut earlier and would answer ‘white’. But continuing in the same artery (Christopher Lee likes me), I have two questions:
1. Lattitudes: Is the north pole the only point this can happen? If not, how many points are possible where the camp could be located (let us presume the camp is dot size) and you could dispense with the bear?
2. Longitudes:A person heard this conversion (this not the verbatim text, but the sounds he heard):
A person was telling his son: “Eat it and heat it”.
The son obeyed his father(or mother!) and said ”I ate it but I hate it”
Can you tell me which approximate longitude of the location would have the highest probability?
@Richard,
ReplyDeleteCoimbatore is KOVAI nowadays, I continue to use Coimbatore though
@ Col: I will look forward to your blog and check at various times during the day. Have a safe and comfortable journey. Though place names changed from a swashbuckling Wandiwash to Vandavasi, I do not have serious regrets as most were reverting. But I do miss the Cheran, Pandyan, Cholan, Pallavan et al bus corporations (excluding JJTC) being replaced by an insipid SETC.
ReplyDeleteWhat a variety of topics today's comments threw!
ReplyDelete@ Kesi: Can I have your email id, please. Please mail to kishoremrao@yahoo.com
ReplyDelete@ Deepak, so Coimbatore is Kovai now. That is news to me.
ReplyDeleteSome months ago, I had narrated on this blog my night-long drive with a few others from Avanashi Road, Coimbatore towards Mangalore, via Satyamangalam, Chamarajnagar, Nanjangud and Mysore.
That was the winter of 1986. Those were the days when Veerappan ruled the roost. Now looking back I keep wondering what risk we took, but yet cherish the memories of the lovely drive over his terrain. Have had no opportunity of a repeat experience.
By the way, Deepak, I presume your mother is in Kovai. As usual, please convey our wishes for good health and long life to her. I am sure all my friends here would join me in chorus.
@ Richard: Adeous korche veLu ailo. Goodnight.
ReplyDeleteChaturvasi: Those days I used to spend long hours at work. So used to write some letters to the ed.
ReplyDeleteKishore: yes, we have simply miles and miles of lake shore her in Michigan. Also, 4 of the 5 great lakes. And countless smaller lakes - still much bigger than anything you could find back home.
Venkatesh: I love to read abt poets and poetry. Please keep 'em coming.
If anyone's stateside, please mail, call etc.
We have heard that there are two types of setters, Ximenean (the first letter of this pseudonym reminds me of the X in Xwords) and Libertarians (as distinct from libertines) and of course the grey areas in between...
ReplyDeleteI am sure solvers too fall into these distinctions, some like precise clues and answers without any additional verbiage (or roughage), whereas some don’t mind liberties being taken. Ditto, the posts in this blog. Some of us (I for one) tend to run into obiter dicta. In the same spirit and without the explicit or tacit knowledge or permission of the Colonel (my apologies to him, but the idea struck after the time he must have started on his drive, so I did not want to bother him), but with due regard to the concept of the show must go on, I have given today’s answers in the post attached to the Colonel’s Thursday’s blog (shades of Lincoln’s Doctor’s Son’s dog here). I was missing my morning dose of the Colonel (as I am sure others were) and decided that a quickly put together instant coffee could provide some respite, though it cannot hold a candle to filter coffee. Pardon the insubordination, Colonel, and the delay, the idea germinated on my way to office, and I had to take initiative in the absence of the boss I have used this concept of layering the answers in the previous day to satisfy both types of people.This post is in a plain vanilla style, no frills or annotations. If you tolerate my gumption, please go to this post. Otherwise, you may ignore it. The choice is yours. You may peel the next layer of the onion only if you wish to do so.