1 - Welcome visitor, come December (5,5) - SANTA CLAUS [CD]
7 - What makes for white Christmas (4) - SNOW [E]
9 - The opera for transport people (6) - {CAR}{MEN}
10 - She could be from Cuba, for example (8) - ISLANDER [CD] Why she ?
11 - Something monstrous, the mob going wild and confining His Excellency (8) - {BE{HE}MOTH}
12 - Could an old American writer attempt such writing? (6) - {POE}{TRY}
13 - A flask for water from a restaurant (6) - CANTEEN [DD]
16 - Free from germs and unable to produce one! (7) - STERILE [DD]
17 - Not fighting (2,5) - AT PEACE [E]
19 - Fabric ordered, to cover a fabulous flier (7) - {B{ROC}ADE}
22 - Weak in business partnership (6) - {IN}{FIRM}
23 - Everyone on a voyage is completely disorganised (3,2,3) - ALL AT SEA
26 - Brainy ones cooked an Indian dish (8) - {B{I}RIYAN*}{I}
27 - Church official finds work unit taken in by priest in retreat (6) - {V{ERG}ER<-} New word for me
28 - Festival held in safe territory (4) - FETE [T]
29 - Resemblance to the military is deceptive (10) - SIMILARITY*
DOWN
2 - Stop sleeping! (5) - AWAKE [CD]
3 - The Bard's big blow (7) - TEMPEST [CD]
4 - Part of a long poem in slang, on love (5) - {CANT}{O}
5 - A journey by air failing to start? Get off! (6) - {A}{
6 - Sailor and saint find potassium nitrate in America (9) - {SALT}{PETER*}
7 - The creature for a big star to put up with (7) - {SUN}{BEAR}
14 - Considerate abstainer taken in by sham naivete (9) - {A{TT}ENTIVE*}
15 - Directions to officer to overtake and surround (9) - {EN}{COM}{PASS}
18 - Impressive building for a journalist, provided there is solid water underneath (7) - {ED}{IF}{ICE}
20 - Food supplier may react oddly, with hesitation (7) - {CATER*}{ER}
21 - Element used in a test meal (6) - BARIUM [CD]
24 - A floor in a multi-storey building, the same from either side (5) - ->LEVEL<-
25 - Turn inside out, always, on time (5) - {EVER}{T} Never knew this meaning
Good morning friends
ReplyDeleteSANTA CLAUS, SNOW were easy.
10A - Was 'she' used to make it difficult to solve?
12A - POETRY, 23A - ALL AT SEA, - nice ones.
28A - 'held' used very cutely - festival held and telescopic indicator.
3D - The bard's big 'blow' - TEMPEST - liked this very much.
6D - US spelling of 'saltpetre', good one.
18D - EDIFICE, 21D - Barium test, Barium meal, nice though easy.
Hi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThe blog was up today at 8:30 and your comment in at 8:33 so all seems ticketyboo with regards to the time checks
I had initially put down as SALTPETRE FOR 6d, then changed it to SALTPETER after cracking 19a BROCADE.
ReplyDeleteLike the double Christmas reference in 1a and 7a, liked CANTEEN, POE-TRY, ATTENTIVE, ALL AT SEA.
V(ERG)ER<-- 27a reminded of Short Story by Somerset Maugham.
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/frat.st.paul/ComVerger.pdf
I remember my mother telling a similar story from Tamil television. Probably CV would know of both.
Is 'saint' used to represent a specific saint (Peter) or generally be used for any saint's name?
ReplyDelete@Giridhar,
ReplyDeleteIn today's context it is the specific St Peter
Ok, so it is contextual, could be 'st', St Peter or some other saint.
ReplyDeleteThanks Deepak.
Sankalak seems to be in high spirits. Lotsa food and festival related clues the last two days.
ReplyDeleteand Christmas, that too white, in Spring! The first clue I solved today was Biriyani.
ReplyDeleteDeepak
ReplyDeleteBack home after my out-of-town trip.
Re 'verger': I must have come across this word when I read Somerset Maugham's story decades ago:
http://sinden.org/verger.html
Kishore
ReplyDeleteI had not read your post when I wrote the above suggestion. Thanks for remembering me and my interests.
VJ
ReplyDeleteYou may have filled in SALTPETER correctly even without Sankalak's helpful addendum at the end of his clue.
Long live America.
10A: "Why she?"
ReplyDeleteSankalak could have gone with "He," but maybe he felt it'd have been a bit sexist. He could have used "He/ She," but it'd have been a give-away.
So, a nice gesture and a good one!!! IMO...
Chaturvasi, lol... yep, I got it right without trouble... and I learned that it could also be spelled "saltpetre."
ReplyDelete10 A Also why Cuba, and not any other island? Would it have made the clue easier or harder with a different island?
ReplyDeleteGiridhar, that's exactly what I thought.
ReplyDeleteSeems like Sankalak's celebrating ahead of time.
Giridhar, maybe the compiler was smokin' a cuban cigar at the time.
ReplyDeleteAnd perhaps it was after a meal of Biriyani!
ReplyDeleteThank God in His infinite mercy and goodness, there is no SCREWED among the answer-words in the grid.
ReplyDeleteLOL Chaturvasi. Hilarious!!!
ReplyDeleteDeepak @ 8:36
ReplyDeleteTicketyboo - a cute word. It reminded me of my relatives who have emigrated to Canada. Apparently a popular expression there.
The clock seems to be OK now. No more ticket to 'boo-hoo!'
@Richard : While researching the origin of this cute word ticketyboo, I came across this: "But some find a link with the British Army in India, suggesting it comes from the Hindi phrase tikai babu, which is translated as “it’s all right, sir”.
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteTomorrrow onwards it's no more ticketboo but real 'boo-hoo' as NJ is going to rule the roost!!
Krishnan @ 13:08, Good bit of research. Thik hai, babu becoming 'ticketyboo' makes sense.
ReplyDeleteDeepak @ 13:38, true, not only 'boo-hoo', but also brouhaha. Expecting 40-plus comments a day tomorrow on.
Brace up for action and fireworks, friends !
Read/Listen to the Prayer of the Day:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00sl5w0
@CV: 0939: Today's Telegraph CW in CGB's forum had :10a. Big copper’s ex gets to greet under the mistletoe (8)
ReplyDeleteGood this forum does not discuss that CW ! Incidentally, that CW seems to be Christmas Eve special.
Kishore
ReplyDeleteMy responses are in CGB's Orkut community, CROSSWORDMANIA.
CV @ 14:13
ReplyDeleteNice one. Thanks for sharing it.
Am I the only one unable to see today's (Thursday NJ) edition of the Col.'s blog? Hope all is well..
ReplyDeleteVeer, I had the same doubt. Wonder what's happenin'
ReplyDeleteBlog post not up yet for some reason?
ReplyDeleteHi friends, received a message from the Colonel saying his Internet connection is down since last evening and asking me to intimate it to all of you.
ReplyDeleteHe had sent the message around 7:45 am. But I happened to read it late.
Except a few clues, I have managed to solve the puzzle.
Maybe we can have some useful shop talk here in the meantime.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteKishore, useful shop talk - does this qualify to be an oxymoron?
ReplyDelete@Richard is 2D colors in a ribbon decorations ?
ReplyDeleteKrishnan 10:11
ReplyDeleteYes, I too took it that way. A friend feels that it could be DECORATIVE. But I go with DECORATION.
Isn't today's (Thursday, June 10) a curious grid? A dozen four-letter words, two thirteen-letter answers, two ten-letter answers, and limited crossing options.
ReplyDeleteNo complaints, nevertheless. It added to the challenge.
What is others' opinion?
Quite often NJ uses regularly, what does it connote ?
ReplyDeleteKishore @ 10:22
ReplyDeleteShe is in the habit of using 'regularly', very regularly. It means you have pick the alternate letters from the word. e.g. Kishore, regularly, will be KSOE or IHR.
Sorry, my 10:26 post was for Krishnan.
ReplyDeleteThanks Richard.
ReplyDeleteProves that we need to know our four letter words properly. Also, four letter words have limited crossings, many a time a vowel, rendering it difficult to guess, as against longer words, where we guess the word mainly on crossings and then fit in the annotation.
ReplyDelete@ Richard: 1026, 1027: Fine. You can even anagram me: REAR I SHOOK. Your use of regular twice reminds me of some one who was regularly irregular.
ReplyDeleteWhile talking of regularly irregular, doctors often while describing heart's rhythm, use the words regularly irregular, irregularly irregular, etc.
ReplyDeleteIndian (I think) food clue today following biriyani yesterday
ReplyDeleteI wonder what that "hot stuff" is. I'm clueless. could somebody help?
ReplyDelete@ Richard 1405 yesterday: Due to Col's net issue, the number has been crossed today in yesterday's blog ! And today's blog, like the Pigtail in Bill Thackeray's 'A Tragic Tale' , remains steadily at Zero:
ReplyDeleteThere lived a sage in days of yore,
And he a handsome pigtail wore;
But wondered much and sorrowed more
Because it hung behind him.
He mused upon this curious case,
And swore he’d change the pigtail’s place,
And have it hanging at his face,
Not dangling there behind him.
Said he, “The mystery I’ve found,—
I’ll turn me round.”—
He turned him round;
But still it hung behind him.
Then round and round, and out and in,
All day the puzzled sage did spin;
In vain—it mattered not a pin—
The pigtail hung behind him.
And right, and left, and round about,
And up, and down, and in, and out
He turned; but still the pigtail stout
Hung steadily behind him.
And though his efforts never slack,
And though he twist, and twirl, and tack,
Alas! still faithful to his back
The pigtail hangs behind him.
Think Goan food !
ReplyDeleteSo what is the protocol in such circumstances? Colonel's connection to the internet not on and fix time unknown. Is there a precedent?
ReplyDeletePrevious time Col. had a problem with putting up the blog, I had put the answers in the previous day's blog. By mutual consent, now we wait.
ReplyDeleteKishore I got it, but only from crossings, not from the clue.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the clue is pretty insipid, unlike the dish itself.
ReplyDeleteA friend even came up with BORDELLO, I dont know what he has been eating there with rice.
ReplyDeleteDon't know a thing about Goan food.
ReplyDeleteBORDELLO??? LOL, Perhaps he's taken "hot stuff" in a different sense.
Re VJ @ 10:43
ReplyDeleteSince the answer denotes a Goan dish of Portuguese origin, it will elude many readers here. The word root relates to wine and garlic.
That was funny!
ReplyDeleteAs for the dish, I have often heard it mentioned with pork, not so much with rice, but then I have never been to Goa or Konkan.
Richard, I don't know what this elusive dish is. Got all the crossings, even googled... no answers yet.
ReplyDeleteVJ @ 11:13 I can readily give the answer. But what would others feel if the challenge is taken away?
ReplyDeleteWhen I Googled it now (after seeing 11:16 post), I found it very much there.
ReplyDeleteRichard, I think I got it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteGoogle 'Prominent Goan Dishes'
ReplyDeleteVJ, OK, Happy that you got it.
ReplyDeleteYea, I found it finally... Something that sounds like wind and Indian potatoes.
ReplyDeleteVJ, absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteHi all,
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping the discussion alive. Today's post is up