Friday, 28 May 2010

No 9854, Friday 28 May 10, M Manna

Manna has spoilt his effort of the past few days with some vague and pedestrian clues today.
ACROSS
1   - Lick into shape a revolutionary performance (6) - {RED}{ACT}
4   - Cigar-ring drifting over America? Goodness! (8) - {GRACI*}{O}{US}
10 - Cake for member getting in the condiments (7) - {CRU{MP}ET}

11 - Conditioned for expectancy (7) - ALERTED [CD]
12 - Offer goods at reduced prices (4) - SALE [E]
13 - Stock freely distributed to investors (5,5) - SCRIP ISSUE [E]
16 - Half an escudo placed on line of legal document (6) - {ESC}{ROW}
17 - Treasonable legislator? (7) - SENATOR*
20 - List of employees kept on side in different stores (7) - {ROSTE{R}S*}
21 - Restricted to certain class (6) - CLOSED [CD]
24 - Frustrate by removing high C from a disc concert (10) - {DISc}{CONCERT}
25 - Got into trouble in search for a boy (4) - TONI* Toni is normally a girls name, a male would have been TONY. Reminds me of our discussion on MONA-TONY the other day
27 - Cover up entirely to hide (7) - ENVELOP [CD]
29 - Freckle observed by astronomers (7) - SUNSPOT [DD]

30 - Curse the executive, briefly, for the price set (8) - {EXEC}{RATE}
31 - Loved making a theologian admit alternative point (6) - {A}{D{OR}{E}D}
DOWN
1   - Withdraws into alcoves (8) - RECESSES [DD]
2   - Cheat a score of Romans (6,5) - DOUBLE CROSS I liked this clue.
3   - Many copy to make a sleeveless cloak (4) - {C}{APE}
5   - Accomplished to obtain money by selling property (8) - REALISED [DD] 
6   - Tick can be believed (10) - {CREDIT}{ABLE} [CD]
7   - Not in (3) - OUT [E]
8   - Improvised with swift action (6) - SUDDEN [DD]
9   - Animals kept on a farm (5) - STOCK [E]
14 - Displays opera-hat, the one that brings the house down (4,7) - {SHOW S}{TOPPER}
15 - He'll manage to hoodwink a fisherman (10) - {CON}{TROLLER}
18 - What a madman will do if he can't get a jar open? (8) - {CRACK}{POT}
19 - Didn't deny dad met it in a devious way (8) - ADMITTED*
22 - He breaks a bent red stick (6) - {A}{D{HE}RE*}
23 - Grossly stupid to give credit to dope (5) - {CR}{ASS}
26 - One end may be given to her (4) - {EN{I}D}
28 - Bid to put forward in competition (3) - VIE [CD]

24 comments:

  1. Good morning folks

    Posted before going through the Col's annos.)
    The only clue that eluded me - 22D. Obviously a proper name?

    Not clear about the anno for 2D. The clue having noun / verb ambiguity, was not sure of SALE or SELL. While both fit in, the former in fact holds good.

    Otherwise enjoyed solving REDACT, CRUMPET, ALERTED, TONI, SUNSPOT, SHOW STOPPER, CRACKPOT and a few others.

    17A - Treason*able legislator? - SENATOR - very cleverly set. But will the lawmakers in the US, Pakistan etc. take it kindly? :-)

    5D -The 'real' estate sector seems to have inspired REALISED.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I got stuck on 22D because I took 27A as OVERLAP.

    ReplyDelete
  3. 2D DOUBLE CROSS was superb.Cheat=def. In Roman numbers score=twenty= XX

    ReplyDelete
  4. 10a CRUMPET reminded of Bertie Wooster, Monty Bodkin and the like who order for crumpets in their clubs and give the glad eye to other 'crumpets', as they call them.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Deepak, the cartoon for 10A was very apt.

    ReplyDelete
  6. 25A TONI reminds me of my dabble with electronics: A compact portable soldering iron with brand name TONI, it used to have a plastic(bakelite?) handle that could be unscrewed and used as a cover for the metallic part of it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Toni is certainly a common girl's name..but is also acknowledged as a common variant of Anthony / Antonio etc. As such, Toni is an uncommon name for men, but nevertheless is also considered a masculine name. I recently dined at a restaurant by the Vatican named Dino y Toni's and I met the owner who introduced himself as Toni (did not spell it for me but the name of the restaurant is as I have spelled it). Toni is also a last name of some popularity in Italy (Luca Toni is a star Italian footballer in the 2010 squad for the world cup). Manna is technically correct in calling it a boy's name but whether it is a nice enough clue is another discussion, IMHO.

    ReplyDelete
  8. 24A and 7D...

    Could have been better.

    ReplyDelete
  9. 12A: "Offering of goods....." would have been a nicer way of putting it.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kishore @ 8:53

    I still have one of those soldering irons and I just used it the other day to do a spot of soldering. Bought it in 1979 and it still works.
    It is bakelite that's how a small portion of the handle/cover of mine broke of when it fell accidentally

    ReplyDelete
  11. @ Col: Aaaah, you are a soldier with some soldering iron who is soldiering/soldering on !

    ReplyDelete
  12. I am no longer soldiering but I definitely solder at times!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Deepak,

    You had asked in your last post(18:58) yesterday whether what CV had written would be read as 'Theepak Kopinath'. Yes it 'can' be. It could also be read as 'Deebugh Kopinath' or 'Deebugh Kopinadh', etc.

    As Kishore and others have mentioned, this is because for Pa, Paa...and Ba,Baa..sounds in Tamil, there is a single set of letters unlike in say Kannada or Telugu where there are two sets of letters. So is the case with Ka/Ga and Tha/Dha.

    So, two words similarly spelt in Tamil with Pa/Ba and/or Ka/Ga and/or Tha/Dha would/should be pronounced differently based on the context (which Kishore has explained, and CV and Veeven have given examples).

    As a reader, I would pronounce what CV had written in his post as 'Deepak Gopinath' as I know it stands for the name 'Deepak Gopinath'. As you can imagine, there is more of a problem when names are involved. Not so much in the case of 'Coffee' (Ka fee) not (Ga fee) - just an example to indicate the difference.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Thank you Giridhar. So it is like they say for proper nouns in English which can be pronounced any way one likes.

    ReplyDelete
  15. On pronunciation of proper names and our friend Toni, Tony is usually a short form of Anthony, which is pronounced in various ways (not counting variants like Antonio etc): In some places it is pronounced with the th being pronounced as in throw ie. An-th-nee, whereas in Mangalore it is pronounced as un-tony (which itself is funny Tony and un-tony are the same and not opposites, just like flammable and inflammable.)

    Regarding Col's remark proper nouns in English which can be pronounced any way one likes", I would like to say: 'which can be pronounced as the the person named desires'. Otherwise we end up with problems when pronouncing Dikshit and Shithole.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Well, what I meant was, that there is more of a probability of mispronouncing an unfamiliar name than mispronouncing common words. The fact that the same letter represents two sounds is not a licence to pronounce proper names(especially unfamiliar ones) anyway one likes, but rather a nudge than one should be careful to find the right pronunciation.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kishore,

    The story behind Punjabi names (Captain Singh, etc.) was a revelation. Thanks.

    I am wondering whether there is a similar story behind such first names as Lovely, etc. which go with Punjabi last names.

    ReplyDelete
  18. In my 19:44 post, 'than one' should read 'that one' in the last sentence. Sorry

    ReplyDelete
  19. Kishore's comments call to mind a Professor in the Goa Medical College in the early eighties who got the spelling of his name changed to DIXIT after riled students mocked him by crossing out IK in his name and writing OG over it on the college wall in Panjim.

    ReplyDelete
  20. All the interesting comments about names reminded me of this old post by Scott Adams. He finds much mirth in the name of "Dikshit". I didn't immediately see what was so funny, as the D/T of "Dikshit" isn't pronounced the same way as the English D/T.

    http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/just_one_catch/

    ReplyDelete
  21. A friend Sai, on an assignment in Singapore, used to be greeted with uncomfortable silences or loud guffaws every time he introduced himself. He soon learnt that the word "Sai" has an not very nice meaning in their local language.

    ReplyDelete
  22. @Kishore 19.41 Is there any word other than numerable - innumerable (u hv already mentioned flamable)in this set?

    ReplyDelete
  23. @ Subbu: Off hand, I can think of fatigable & defatigable, flatable & inflatable.

    ReplyDelete
  24. contd.
    habitation and inhabitation may just pass muster

    ReplyDelete

deepakgita@gmail.com