1 - Parrot beginning to mimic a raven's cry (5) – {M}{A}{CAW}
9 - Foolishly tearful girl left at home (7) – {MAUD}{L}{IN}
10 - Outdoor work drop of early rain ruined (4-3) – {OP}{E}{N-AIR*}
12 - Poet from Speke at service (5) – KEATS [T]
13 - One who usually makes a good impression? (12) – IMPERSONATOR [CD]
17 - Press delight in giving a hypocritical display of affection (8,4) – {CUPBOARD} {LOVE} (Hot press in Ireland means A warm cupboard where you put newly washed clothes for drying- Thanks to Bhavan's explanation at the ORKUT group)
20 - It covers it, nice gateau, initially? (5) – {I}{C}{I}{N}{G}
22 - Bay's fame (7) – LAURELS [DD]
23 - Dish served up by one doctor in story (7) – {T{I}{MB}ALE}
25 - Astute, head of stock exchange (5) – {S}{MART}
DOWN
1 - First to mention Egyptian god's greed (6) – {M}{AMMON}
2 - Reportedly rough passage (6) – (~coarse){COURSE}
3 - Dramatist, C. Marlowe, living rough close to playhouse (7,8) – {WILLIAM CONGREV*}{E}
4 - Listen and learn anew about Viking (4,2,3) –
5 - Doctor with a certain idle type (5) – {DR}{ONE}
6 - Talking books meaning much (8,7) – {SPEAKING} {VOLUMES}
7 - Fabulous runner from area within US state capital (8) – {AT{A}LANTA}
8 - Father on the way over in rowing boat, ridiculously inadequate (8) – {D{ERIS<-}ORY}
14 - Sailor's pique about getting a gunpowder ingredient (9) – {SALT}{PET}{RE}
15 - Longs to nurse sick hero (8) – {ACH{ILL}ES}
16 - Broadcast update about Italian's gift (8) – {APT{IT}UDE*}
18 - Lizard again roaming around for all to see (6) – {IG{U}ANA*}
21 - Girl, useful person climbing (5) – TESSA <-
4d LEND AN EAR: It's just that you have to look at it differently without including AND in the anagram container.
ReplyDeleteIt is refreshing to solve well constructed CW with nicely worded clues for a change.
ReplyDeleteA new phrase I came across was CUPBOARD LOVE (17A). Wikipedia mentions that the term derives from the way in which a cat will give a cupboard containing its food superficial "love" (which is not normally exhibited) when it wants to be fed.
A child will say "I love you so much" before or after requesting a treat, e.g., an ice cream.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cupboard_Love
20a: Deepak, I appreciate your choosing a pic of a cake not only with the ICING but also a card with the French word for 'cake' written thereon. Good job!
ReplyDeleteHello friends
ReplyDeleteLiked MACAW, LADY'S MAID, MAUDLIN, OPEN AIR, OBSTINATE, KEATS, IMPERSONATOR, ICING, TOP-FLIGHT, SMART, MAMMON, COURSE, LEND AN EAR (anno not clear), DRONE, SPEAKING VOLUMES (really good one), ATLANTA, APTITUDE, IGUANA ('for all to see'= U, Universal certification for movies - very nice one), ATTEST, TESSA...
Missed a few like STEVENAGE, WILLIAM CONGREVE, the latter cleverly contrived from the name of another famous man.)
CUPBOARD LOVE is a new expression for me.
4 - Listen and learn anew about Viking (4,2,3) – {LEN(D AN E)AR*} LEARN* about DANE.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Venkatesh.
ReplyDeleteLNS @16.39 0f 24 07
ReplyDeleteI have mostly bound volumes of different articles grouped as Rear Window, Herstory,Upfront,something on Mysteries,CY Gopinath & Desmond Doig's articles etc.
I did preserve the last issue for a long time but lost it somewhere.
JS once asked : "Well what do you collect..."
I did write a piece " I collect JS' but it didn't get published.
Misquote in response to illustration for 4d:
ReplyDeleteNot that we love Everyman more, but that we love NJ less !
I had asked sometime back:
ReplyDeleteWhat is the collective noun for a group of owls and that for a group of eagles?
Both are interesting words. Any takers?
A parliament of owls hooted at a convocation of eagles that peered at them.
ReplyDeleteMaybe murder a few crows in the process
ReplyDeleteI was about to post the answers, but C'vasi overtook me by a minute.
ReplyDelete@ CV/ Suresh
ReplyDeleteGreat. Maybe they will make for good CW clues.
Here are some other interesting collective nouns:
• A congregation of alligators
• A crash of rhinos
• A murder of crows(also a storytelling of crows/ravens/rooks)
C'vasi and Suresh: Before doing that, did they attend a school of whales?
ReplyDeleteVenkatesh: from my 'collective' collection -
ReplyDeleteA culture of bacteria
A singular of boars
A rabble of butterflies
A parade of elephants
A scourge of mosquitoes
A mischief of mice
A pandemonium of parrots
An ostentation of peacocks
A parcel of penguins
A turmoil of porpoises
An unkindness of ravens
A raffle of turkeys
Not forgetting the oft-used 'a bevy of beauties' and 'a pride of lions'.
Adding any more could be a gaggle of geese. (That's the expression for them while on land. While in flight, they are a skein of geese.)
Can someone tell me if the expression 'a parliament of owls' came into use after our netas began hooting at each other? (I hope I won't be hauled up for contempt!)
@ Richard
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these gems.
Really, it would be interesting to know how these words came into use.
Here are a few more CNs:
A faculty of academics (hopefully with all their faculties intact!)
A decanter/decorum of deans (ready for their wines to be served!)
An obstruction of dons
A conflagration of arsonists (out to achieve their fiery ambitions!)
A shuffle of bureaucrats (shuffling files around?)
A tabernacle of bakers (tabernacle was the tent used as a sanctuary by Israelites. The word is used for any canopied niche or receptacle)
A goring of butchers
A hastiness of cooks (which might make for the mess!)
A worship of writers
A shrivel of critics
A talent of gamblers
A melody of harpists
An observance of hermits
A neverthriving of jugglers
A rhumba of rattlesnakes
A surfeit of skunks
An ambush of tigers
The sitehas a good listing of Collective Nouns neatly categorised.
ReplyDeletePl exclude a conflagration of arsonists from my post at 13:19 as it is not an accepted term.
ReplyDelete@Richard
ReplyDeleteAdding any more could be a gaggle of geese. (That's the expression for them while on land. While in flight, they are a skein of geese.)
I understand that "flock" is correct term when the geese are standing around on land killing time. Only when the geese are on the water, they are a "gaggle". If the group of geese is flying, it becomes, as you mentioned, a "skein". Please confirm.
Someone said in jest that the group term for Cubs varies according to where they are meeting -if it is at someone else's house, then it is a "den"; if they are meeting at your house, they are a "din"! A very important distinction no doubt.
James Lipton in his book, "An Exaltation of Larks", mentions that many a collective noun orignated as a hunters' term and has been in the language for centuries.
Here are some example from his book:
A covey of partridges
A murder of crows
A rafter of turkeys
A brood of hens
A fall of woodcocks
A dule of doves
A wedge of swans
A party of jays
A company of parrots
A colony of penguins
A cover of coots
A sord of mallards
A dissimulation of birds
A peep of chickens
A pitying of turtledoves
A paddling of ducks [on the water]
A siege of herons
A charm of finches
A skein of geese [in flight]
A tidings of magpies
A cast of hawks
A deceit of lapwings
An ostentation of peacocks
A bouquet of pheasants
A congregation of plovers
An unkindness of ravens
A building of rooks
A host of sparrows
A descent of woodpeckers
A mustering of storks
A flight of swallows
A watch of nightingales
A murmuration of starlings
A spring of teal
A parliament of owls
An exaltation of larks
A blog of solvers?
ReplyDeleteA clog of bloggers
ReplyDeleteA crop of riders
A clump of trees
A round of boxers
A puzzle of solvers?
ReplyDeleteMay be a grid of crossword solvers would sound better. But, again there are many stalwarts who go for it gridless.
This could be a point for discussion at the upcoming S&B Meet at Chennai.
Sorry to bring in JS (Junior Statesman )once again. Like Venkatesh's poser, one issue then carried a full article on collective nouns.
ReplyDeleteIf I can locate it, will post next week.
@ Dr DS
ReplyDeleteYour memory of things published 35-40 years back is remarkable.
You mentioned Tiruppur in your post. Are you with the textile industry?
Being a relatively newcomer to the Blog, I was going through the archives. The ones for Jan 2010 were, as Richard puts it, eNJoyable. They make entertaining reading and show the battle of wits (or war of words) as the solvers group themselves together for the arduous task of reading (into) the mind of the setter.
ReplyDeleteI particularly liked the comments on 19th Jan when CV took umbrage at the use of roof as clue for M {in (M)(egaron*)} and prepared a list straight off his head: If M is roof, then Y must be catapult, J umbrella, V neckline, I stick, O bangle, C broken bangle, Q coiled snake, S love chair, U gorge, ww - saw teeth... . It was a superb feat.
This was the same CW where Suresh, who is a CA, raised and solved a matter on 'article/s'.
Some things in life never seem to change, and we have to live with them. NJ appears to be one such constant unless we make a collective effort.
Several clues are being repeated in Sunday's CW:
ReplyDeleteToday(#2595), we had at 14 D - Sailor's pique about getting a gunpowder ingredient (9) – {SALT}{PET}{RE}
#2569 at 14D - Sailor about to collect special gunpowder ingredient (9) – {SALT}{PET}{RE}
Dear Dr. Sreenivasan,
ReplyDeleteYou brought back so many memories of JS- the Youth glossy that claimed to be the Magazine that thinks young, in the 70s. A pity , it literally folded up. I used to enjoy reading about, Just Fings, Papiya and Tuk Tuk Ghosh,and articles by CYGopinath, Jug Suraiya,with his REAR WINDOW, who now is with the Times, with his Jugular Vein and Second opinion. I still enjoy reading him.
Being an inveterate letter writer to the Editors, I can claim that my admonitionary missive to the JS was responded to and respected by their publishing -the first ever- pictures of the Airforce Heroes of the Indo- Pak war ,who were the real intrepid youth of India then, viz;Lazarus and Massey, Majors Khare, Dhadkar and Nathan. I had decried the Magazine's glorifying JayaLalitha and other wannabe stars waiting to be discovered. See the issue of 8th Jan,1972, which I went back to, from my Lib rary solely for this purpose.The cover page, was titled, ''Face to face with the sabre-smashers'with the blow-ups of the heroes in the cockpit of their MIGs.
Raju Umamaheswar
Cupboard Love also means ''love or faith displayed purely to gain some material gains or favours.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, A Gold-digger. Someone out there, can concoct a clue, working backwards?
Raju Umamheswar