ACROSS
1 - Quick payment for an item purchased through dishonest means (13) - {SHARP}{PR{ACT}ICE} Is this one word or two ?
8 - Beach material on the edges of raised areas (9) - {SAND}{BANKS}
9 - Pursue the boy endlessly in the first and last scuffle (5) - {CHAd}{S}{E}
12 - Article at that time was first sold in the city (6) - {A}{THEN}{S}
14 - What one does when one is dead (5) - MOURN [CD]
16 - Money is initially saved in containers (4) - {TIN}{S}
19 - Short fibre of cotton (4) - NOIL [E]
20 - Helping a couple of saints in one operation (9) - {A}{SS}{I}{STING}
21 - Smart bag (4) - KILL [DD]
22 - They are slippery, caught in reel spools (4) - EELS [T]
25 - Tucked into East Africa for a decade (5) - {EA}{TEN}
27 - Kind of job undertaken when one is in a fix (6) - REPAIR [CD]
29 - Design set out is new by one in Sri Lanka (7) - {STE*}{N}{C{I}L} How are CL and Sri Lanka related?
32 - French leader has a powerful story (5) - {F}{ABLE}
33 - Seen his pa translating a book of the Bible (9) - EPHESIANS*
34 - Soft shell is in front of the plant (6,7) - {YELLOW} {TRUMPET} Don't ask me how Shell and Trumpet are connected.
DOWN
2 - Executioner of the accused (7) - HANGMAN [CD] Play hangman HERE
3 - Hood for the bird (5) - ROBIN [DD]
4 - Chap on Chowringhee Lane smuggled a cloak (6) - PONCHO [T] Remember DJANGO
5 - Even faults first observed in an item (4) - {A}{L}{S}{O} What's the definition here?
6 - Indicated a couple of times for the regular script (5) - TA{C}{I}{T} Anno for TA not clear
7 - Important to see, salt in is purified (9) - ESSENTIAL*
8 - Walk on the street treadmill (5) - {ST}{RUT}
11 - Hit character in a film (7) - {SMASH}{ER} ER is which character ? Is this the name of a movie?
12 - Can I argue with the specialist in an old city? (7) - {ANC*}{I}{ENT}
13 - Carpenter's joint (5) - HINGE [CD]
15 - Worried about an ailment (5) - UPSET [CD]
17 - It may be drawn out before a journey (9) - ITINERARY [CD]
18 - Firstly sprinkle a little salt around the sauce (5) - {S}{A}{L}{S}{A}
23 - Very energetic leaders follow the clean process in the territory (7) - {ENCLA*}{V}{E}
24 - Transactions on the ship (5) - {S{ALE}S} ALE from?
26 - Shelter built outside for a queen (6) - ESTHERl*
28 - One market that is flawless (5) - {I}{DEAL}
30 - Bit of powder is mixed in some substance (5) - {E{P}SOM*}
31 - Sound in some owls (4) - MEOW [T]
Hi
ReplyDeleteWe can only 14a.
CL might be a short form for Ceylon.
All your other doubts remain doubts for now.
Hello folks
ReplyDeleteMr Guesswork had a field day today. The top left corner rattled me totally.
My guesses:
34A - Soft shell is in front of the plant (6,7) - {YELLOW} {TRUMPET} Don't ask me how Shell and Trumpet are connected.
Maybe 'shell' is used in the sense of a 'conch' - remember the discussion we had here in the not-a-too-distant past?
24D - Transactions on the ship (5) - {S{ALE}S} ALE from?
Looks like a homophone indicator - SAILS-SALES - is missing here.
I am not defending the setter, but making an effort to stretch the imagination.
All said and done, a few clues were good.
11D - SMASHER sounds all right for a person or character who has attained popularity or become a hit.
ReplyDelete11 - Hit character in a film (7) - {SMASH}{ER} ER is also used as adjective or adverb suffix like hotter and completer besides its various meanings referring to person or thing.
ReplyDelete28 D - Deal is a market?
ReplyDelete14 A - When one is dead some one else mourns!
16 A - Money is TIN? Can some body explain this please?
I was expecting Col to have a comment at the top today too.
Giridhar,
ReplyDeleteI am afraid only NJ can answer your first two questions.
Yes, TIN is money, it occurs frequently in CW's.
Giri @ 08:59 While I had the same reservations about the first two mentioned by you, TIN is British slang for money (see no. 9) here. Very often it is used in cryptic crosswords.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Giri, it is no. 8 and not 9.
ReplyDeleteI did not realize that solving a crossword entails deciphering the (somewhat strange and sometimes patently wrong-headed) thoughts of the crossword-setter. I might as well sit in front of some of my (strange) relatives and try to read their minds: both strike me as equally joyless pursuits.
ReplyDeleteCopied from Orkut. Do any my peeves from today have answers? I'd love to know how the others deciphered these clues; or am I the only clueless person here?
ReplyDelete1A How about a comma? I feel like I'm in a coma.
25A Makes me tense.
32A has=can=powerful? I'm UNable to guess.
34A What? Maybe, the thesaurus part of my brain has become soft.
12D What city is that?
15D Huh? This one upsets me.
24D Must be drink deals.
26D built = 'l'?
28D noun to noun, or verb to verb, or verb to noun - the words just don't mean the same thing!
@Giridhar - One is not the same one ..;-). You should know by now that you don't work out answers, but just fill in the grid as per crossing.
Probably its old news, but when I googled for the setter out of frustration, found links talking about her being in limca book of records. Reading that article, I'm stunned by the irony of some of her statements.
ReplyDeleteThanks Col and Richard.
ReplyDelete@Gita
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing Col's solution I was trying to imagine the dead mourning for themselves. My best guess at an answer was 'REST' (as in RIP)
correction - RESTS not REST
ReplyDelete@Giridhar - most of us were dead in the water with this puzzle, and like the rest of us, you mourn the situation, I think?
ReplyDeleteI think the setter is trying to work in adjectives, and verbs that apply to her, perhaps? There must some elusive, clever plot here.
Gita,
ReplyDeleteI have an answer to your 26D peeve
outside = - l and not blunt = l :-)
5D ALSO. Maybe 'Even' is doing double duty as definition. But then 'in an item' is redundant
ReplyDeleteNJ also seems to work in phonetic style with the soft "C" freely replaced by "S" etc. That may explain Sri Lanka. Of course Wren and Martin has to be consigned to the back shelves for these ten days.
ReplyDeleteGrammar book authors Wren & Martin have been thrown out of the window. Luckily for them, both of them are birds and can fly.
ReplyDeleteWell regarding 14a, the first 'one' and the second 'one' are pronouns not referring to the same noun, if we have to take mourn as correct. Again, like Richard, I am not defending the setter, only testing the elasticity of logic and grammar. Otherwise, if crossings be forgotten, and both the ones are treated as referring to the deceased, why not HAUNT? I remember a PGW sentence going something like this: He said he would twist of his head and stuff it down his mouth. This sentence was followed by a clarification that the first two pronouns refer to the first person in the argument and that the two his-es refer to the second person, all the while expressing the physical impossibility of stuffing one's head into one's mouth.
Mention of Sri Lanka recalls to mind the word Serendipity. This is used for the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident, the fact or occurrence of such discoveries, or an instance of making such a discovery.
ReplyDeleteThe most noteworthy examples are from the fields of medicine, pharmacology, chemistry and physics - Walther Fleming's accidental discovery of antibiotic property of penicillium notatum, Luigi Galvani's discovery of bioelectricity, Archimedes' realisation in the bathtub that allowed measurement of the weight-to-volume ratio of any irregularly shaped body, and Newton's laws resulting from his musings on an apple falling from a tree.
[For a comprehensive list, pl refer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity ]
The word 'Serendipity', coined by Horace Walpole (1717-92) in a letter to Mann, is from the Persian fairy tale "The Three Princes of Serendip," whose heroes "were always making discoveries, by accidents and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of."
Its origin is from Serendip (Swarnadweep - the golden island), an old name for Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka) [Arabic - Sarandib].
Venkatesh, @12:36 - That was an informative piece. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteLNS from yesterday 21:52
ReplyDeleteYou have addressed me as 'Hon'. I presume it is not some kind of RIGHT Honourable, because I would not like to be LEFT out of the group of lovely people here.
Most ostensibly, you meant to call me a honorary Madras-wallah. I am indeed honoured. I love your city, now called Chennai or Sinnai, whatever.
The emotional connection may be attributed to the fact that my home district of Dakshin Kannada, earlier known as South Canara and later South Kanara in the present Karnataka, was part of the Madras Presidency until the reorganization of Indian states.
One of the many things I have appreciated about Chennai - some shops have very creative and catchy names, esp. eateries, and fashion and lifestyle shops.
When I come across an opportunity, I would certainly watch the movie Madrasapattinam.
@ Gita
ReplyDelete32 - French leader has a powerful story (5) - {32A has=can=powerful? I'm UNable to guess.
French leader, gives F as the leading alphabet
powerful is able, and fable is the story.
{F} {ABLE}. this is the only answer I have for your 9 wonders!
Col:
ReplyDeleteLooks like because of 14A, no cartoon clips today!
Giridhar @ 08:59 - I was expecting Col to have a comment at the top today too.
ReplyDeleteAfter Good Heavens yesterday, Oh Hell would have been most fitting for today.
"Serendipity is like looking for a needle in a haystack and finding the farmer's daughter " [remember reading this as a footnote in Reader's Digest]
ReplyDeleteRichard 1843: Two divergent phrases with the same import, in these circumstances !
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the boy who asked the girl to tell him a popular phrase having 3 little words and 8 letters. Expected "I love you" but got "Go to Hell". Shows how important it is to state the number of letters in the expected solution. Apropos Sharp Practice in 1a as noted by Col saab.
ReplyDeletejaggu@1942
ReplyDeleteWhich brings to my mind the title of a book in my uncle's bookshelf that I used to see as a boy of some 15 years in CBE: Love in the Haystack. It had the pic of a haystack with a woman in red gown leaning over it. I can't recall the author for I had not started reading pulp fiction; all my interest was in the cover pic!
Kishore 20:13 A thousand apologies, I did not comprehend the gist of your comment (courtesy, Ranjit Singh in Mind Your Language)
ReplyDeleteI quoted Giridhar in the first line. My comment followed in the form of the second line.
I must add that on the cover there wasn't any man who went looking for the needle!
ReplyDeleteNeedle(ss) to look for. ;-)
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteHon was actually for Honorary
Reg 14a - Once Kripanandavariar asked the children in front row of his religious discourse: A crow is flying in the sky; a dog, twirling its tail, is sitting on it - is it possible. All were blinking, including elders. Later he explained that 'it' refers not to the crow but the twirled tail.
ReplyDeleteRich 2030:What I meant was both the expressions 'Good Heavens'and 'O Hell' while referring to opposite destinations, refer to the same pathos in this context i.e. frustration with the setter who must not be named.
ReplyDelete