Manna has maintained his CD percentage today also!!
ACROSS
1 - Approximate idea of how far you've strayed from the fairway? (5,8) - {ROUGH} {ESTIMATE}
8 - Send out again and again to get the children (7) - {RE}{ISSUE}
9 - A friendly gathering — or quite the opposite? (7) - {A}{SOCIAL} &lit
11 - The principal first violin in an orchestra (6) - LEADER [DD]
13 - Dad for a change, scares them to flight (8) - ESCAPERS {PA + SCARES)* How does A become E?
15 - Some of the dailies rejected the epic (5) - ILIAD [T<-]
18 - Be about your business! (7) - CONCERN [DD}
19 - Gold coin used formerly on the continent (5) - DUCAT [CD]
21 - Is, on being cast into the old prison, tortured (8) - {AG{ON}{IS}ED}
23 - One of us has a merciless headache (6) - {ME}{GRIM}
25 - Bill makes best pot of potato starch (7) - TAPIOCA (AI+POT+AC)* ?
26 - Snake! Stop! It's on the footpath (7) - {ASP}{HALT}
28 - Bribe to ensure a catch will be dropped (6,3,4) - GREASE THE PALM [CD]
2 - Art of folding papers into decorative shapes (7) - ORIGAMI [E]
4 - Appears to observe narrowly (4) - EYES ?
5 - I left carriages by the factory, having had a change of heart (10) - {TRAiNS}{PLANT}
6 - A benign tumour (5) - MYOMA [E]
7 - Vessel once controlled by three banks? (7) - TRIREME [CD]
10 - The stab that ended it all (4,7) - LAST ATTEMPT [CD]
14 - Declare that a fool never fasted (10) - {ASS}{EVER}{ATE}
17 - Dan again makes an effort to find him (5) - {AND*}{RE}
18 - A butcher's knife (7) - CHOPPER [E] Why not CLEAVER?
22 - She may possibly turn into a lion (5) - ILONA*
24 - A series of unexpected occurrences (4) - RASH [CD]
27 - To slip pass suddenly (3) - POP [CD]
Seriously bad clueing today. For a while I thought NJ made a guest appearance.
ReplyDeleteGood morning
ReplyDeleteAh! Yawn...!
Not a well-spent early morning.
13A - Could not guess this.
Liked ASPHALT and GREASE THE PALM (and Deepak, the cartoon as well!)
14D - ASSEVERATE - got this word after a search.
20D - CURTAIL - a nice clue.
EMDEN and Chennai connection:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardment_of_Madras
This perhaps led to the term 'Emden gundu' in Tamil (probably only in Chennai?). Long time Chennai vasis may have heard this used.
18D: CLEAVER would have been a better answer.
ReplyDeleteInstead of using a dictionary, I think Manna's using a directory for reference. Seriously, what's with all these name clues?
ReplyDeleteWith World Cup fever drawing to a close, here's something Richard wanted to share with us
ReplyDeleteLoving husband !
A man had two of the best tickets for the FA Cup Final. As he sits down, another man comes along and asks if anyone is sitting in the seat next to him.
"No", he says, "the seat is empty."
"This is incredible!" said the man, "who in their right mind would have a seat like this for the FA Cup Final, the biggest sporting event of the year, and not use it?"
He says, "Well, actually, the seat belongs to me. My wife was supposed to come with me, but she passed away. This is the first Cup Final we haven't been to together since we got married."
"Oh... I'm sorry to hear that. That's terrible. I guess you couldn't find someone else, a friend or relative or even a neighbour to take the seat?"
The man shakes his head...
...."No. They're all at the funeral."
I am just 6 comments under ! A new record ? As the Director General said at 1125: They're all at the funeral ?
ReplyDeleteKishore,
ReplyDeleteI too was wondering about the general lack of activity on the blog.
Manna seems to be going the NJ way.
ReplyDelete@Giridhar: Re Emden, Madras city was evacuated upon approach of the ship Emden.
ReplyDeleteEven now, when they say in Tamil "He's an Emden", they mean he's a dangerous guy.
Similarly one of my relatives was nicknamed Tojo who was a general in the Japanese Imperial Army and later PM, I think.
Writing this solely to increase post count for the day :)
@Giridhar, Re Emden:
ReplyDeleteThere was even an evacuation of Madras City during WW I as they feared the ship Emden would wreak havoc in coastal areas like Triplicane, Royapuram etc.
Even now they say "he's an Emden" in Tamil to mean "he's a dangerous guy".
Likewise, one of my relatives was nicknamed Tojo after the Japanese General and PM during WW II.
I sent in two comments - both disappeared into the void :(
ReplyDeleteAt Col: 1949: I feel so too. Pardon my logic, Solving is no fun, if you dont get fun out of solving it. For the record, I solved it. Also for the record, I did not enjoy it. I don't like funerals. Chinese proverb: When you come to the end of a book, shut it. I think I will go back to Maths, if this sort of thing continues.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteCol: There is some problem with the blog too today. My comment just disappeared first. When I retyped it and posted it again at 2005, lo and behold, the earlier version at 2001 also popped up. Looks like LNS too had the same problem, with 2 similar posts popping up. Yes,LNS, post count has gone up by this devious double dealing !
ReplyDelete@LNS
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that this one incident has led to a word in Tamil still used almost hundred years after the fact! I was for a long time not aware of the origin of the word.
@ LNS: No they didn't. They were hiding behind the curtain playing peekaboo and waiting for you to write them off, before taking off their whiskers and surfacing again.
ReplyDeleteCol,
ReplyDeleteIf you are saying Manna makes it frustrating like NJ, yes, but his style of overdoing CDs is different from NJs who does a good mix of CDs, charades, etc but still produces an unsatisfying puzzle.
Is some expecting 28a to get things to improve?
ReplyDelete...and nothing less than 19A's
ReplyDeleteCan EMDEN be an abbreviated form of YamaKandan? I always think cryptically and and hence , sorry friends, don't be critical, as this could be my befuddled croswword obsessed mind's imagination.
ReplyDeleteRajun umamaheswar
The post in Mandarin says: Maturity is the ability to adapt to life in the model.
ReplyDeleteAnd the link leads to a Taiwanese site on models!
@ Richard: Does that make it a site for Mandar(in)a hoove?
ReplyDeleteThat's bloomin' funny!
ReplyDeleteYup, your response reminds of the florist's family, the father dealt in flowers, the wife was pretty as a flower, the daughter was a budding genius and the son was blooming idiot !
ReplyDelete