Thiru Gridman had me scurrying around today to meet the 8:30 deadline.
ACROSS
1 - Soft diaper — and how you settled the bill for it? (7) - {P}{REPAID*} Didn't know prepaid diapers were available!!!
9 - Bill artist for city (5) - {ACC}{RA}
10 - Is a Norman settled in this city? (3,6) - SAN MARINO*
11 - Charm girl, married, and pour out softly (7) - {ENA}{M}{pOUR}
12 - Foreign nationals feature Orientals going round the Pole (7) - {CHIN}{E{S}E}
13 - Care for sister? (5) - NURSE [DD]
14 - Where one might be expected to be trying to get a clean image? (2,3,4) - IN THE BATH [CD] All our MP's need to be sent to this bath.
16 - Disease of smoker in hotel, with zone abused initially (9) - {IN{FLUE}N}{ZA}
19 - Leaning type? Just the opposite! (5) - ROMAN [CD]
21 - Net facility — we are told it is for acrobat's use (7) - {TRAP}{EZE}(~ease)
23 - Admit to office by an oath — answer one is to spell out (5,2) - {SWEAR {I}N*}
25 - Ruth bewildered about one Tamil honorific (5) - {TH{I}RU*}
DOWN
1 - What eventful lives get when chronicled (5,2,7) - PLACE IN HISTORY [CD]
4 - Dieters on binge in abandonment (9) - DESERTION*
5 - Dress code initially adopted by Andhra Pradesh town (5) - {TUNI}{C}
6 - Greed shown by woman on food (7) - {AVA}{RICE}
7 - Fancy a fabled creature? (7) - CHIMERA [DD]
8 - One is sated when one has had this (4,4,6) - MORE THAN ENOUGH [CD]
15 - Remove entrance? (9) - TRANSPORT [DD]
17 - When a historical event is celebrated — when collectors solicit contributions for charities (4,3) - FLAG DAY [DD]
18 - What a driver did with a pre-owned vehicle (4,3) - USED CAR [DD]
19 - Become a participator again (2-5) - RE-ENTER [CD]
20 - Rifle for vermouth? (7) - MARTINI [DD] Never heard of Martini Rifle. Google does show Martini-Henry etc, and Vermouth is only one of the constituents of a Martini.
22 - Spirit shown by those breaking out (5) - ETHOS*
Good morning everyone
ReplyDeleteThe top right corner posed a bit of a problem today. PREPAID, ACCRA, SAN MARINO, ENAMOUR, NURSE (cute one. The clue I mean), INFLUENZA, ROMAN, TRAPEZE, SWEAR IN, RADICCHIO (a Google find), THIRU, HYDRAS, TARNISH, PLACE IN HISTORY (characteristically Gridmanesque), EN CLAIR, DESERTION, AVARICE, TRANSPORT (good play verb form of 'trance'), FLAG DAY, USED CAR (good one), RE-ENTER, MARTINI, ETHOS (good clue construction, simple though) - all fell pretty fast.
27A - Just seeking a clarification. 'Tarnish' is normally used to mean 'to sully or spoil' (someone's name, reputation etc. or make it lose lustre) Can it mean 'to lose lustre'? I could be wrong. Can someone explain?
AnbuLLa THIRU/THIRUMATHI
ReplyDelete19 A ROMAN, surprising that both Roman for straight letters and Italic for slanted refer to the same place ! RADICCHIO, Italian chicory again refers to the same place. And SAN MARINO is surrounded by Italy. Gridman seems to be getting outside pizza and pasta.
EN CLAIR was quite clear, IN THE BATH was quite clean. I had not hear of TUNI in TUNIC or MARTINI-Henry rifle. I should PLACE IN HISTORY that I was quite ENARMOURed of the PREPAID USED CAR, pardon my AVARICE.
Tarnish as in tarnishing of silver.
ReplyDelete5a comment by Col: And the contractors and politicans will make money removing the present roof and putting in thatch. Call it making hay /thatch when it rains !
ReplyDelete1a They are always prepaid ! No shopkeeper will wait till it is used.
17d FLAG DAYs used to be seen in earlier times. Nowadays I understand government offices like the RTO push paper tokens on prospective applicants and no one wears them on lapels.
Only patriotism is worn on their sleeves and not in the heart.
1A: I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteSoft = P?
And which is the anagram indicator here?
Never head of Tuni.
It's ironic that I didn't know what en clair meant.
"Initially" appears twice today. After seeing the second one, my head impulsively turned toward the top right corner of the section.
ReplyDelete@Richard
ReplyDeleteApart from sullying or dimming (reputation), Tarnish also means to dull lustre of or discolour (metal) by oxidation, lose lustre or colour.
VJ: Yup initially night janitor uses jain ends backward regularly in zoological name for cobra.
ReplyDeleteKishore, NJ NJ Naja Naja.... A catchy title for a bollywood song.
ReplyDeleteBeen used already in Rafi song:
ReplyDeleteNaja, kahin ab na jaa, dil ke sivaa,
hai yahii dil kuchaa tera, ai mere humdum mere dost
(Mere Humdum Mere Dost 1968)
And most people here would say NJ Na Aaa, not Na Ja !
Kishore @ 08:32 and Venkatesh @ 08:55 - Thank you for letting me brush up my GK without TARNISH.
ReplyDeleteGoogle does show Martini-Henry etc, and Vermouth is only one of the constituents of a Martini.
ReplyDeleteFollowing the above remark, I checked Chambers - while the Colonel is correct, Gridman too is!
Chambers defines martini (without cap) as 'a cocktail of vermouth, gin, bitters, etc, perh. named after its inventor' and Martini (with cap) as 'a type of vermouth made by the firm of Martini and Rossi'.
Chambers has Martini or Martini-Harvey defined as a 19c rifle.
In Tamil 'thiru' is OK, but 'thiru thiru' is the blank expression on one's face when one does not know the answer to a question!
ReplyDeleteBTW, the picture 'thiru thiru thuru thuru' last year was great fun and I liked it for it being so clean.
Raavanan, I didn't like it at all: except for picturisation in wonderful locale it was a great disappointment. Even music was a flop.
I hope to see Madrasapatnam which has been mentioned here.
VJ
ReplyDeletep expands to pianissimo, which in music means soft or softly.
Opposite is fortissimo, f, loud or loudly.
Both are Italian terms, I think.
Thiru is really regionalising the CW. I don't think it is appropriate in a national newspaper
ReplyDeleteThanks Chaturvasi
ReplyDeleteSuresh, (IMO) thiru is all right 'cause the clue clearly spells that we have to look for a tamil honorific. It's pretty much like 5D (where we have to look for a town in Andhra Pradesh).
ReplyDeleteWhat I do object is the usage of Hindi honorific "JI," which appeared couple of days back. It has no place in a crossword printed in TAMIL Nadu. (nah, jus kiddin)
We don't think anything of a river being Dee or Exe or Po in a crossword that is published in a newspaper from Madras. But if THIRU is used, we say it's regionalising! Why can't we think that we are internationalising THIRU in a 'thuru,thuru' (brisk) manner.
ReplyDelete@ 14:58 on 'p' for soft -
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have gathered, in the music field 'p' stands for 'piano' (soft) and 'pp' for 'pianissimo' (very soft); similarly 'f' stands for 'forte' (loud) and 'ff' for 'fortissimo' (very loud). They all are Italian terms, owing their origin to Latin.
Agree with Suresh about Thiru. Not happy about 5D either.
ReplyDeleteWe don't think anything of a river being Dee or Exe or Po in a crossword that is published in a newspaper from Madras. But if THIRU is used, we say it's regionalising! Why can't we think that we are internationalising THIRU in a 'thuru,thuru' (brisk) manner.
In my opinion, because two wrongs don't make a right. Its probably no more meaningful to have DEE or EXE or PO over THIRU or TUNI in THC.
Regionalising is too broad a generalisation I feel, but on the other hand there are enough words that can be used instead of THIRU or TUNI.
No matter how obscure it is, information is knowledge. And well they say, knowledge is power. IMO, we should learn to accept with open arms any unknown/ regionalized/localized/ trivial (or whatever) words and usages in our daily dose of crosswords. I think we should give our setters this leeway.
ReplyDeleteOur setters (if they are composed enough!) will not have THIRU in a crossword that is submitted to a UK or US paper. There it won't wash!
ReplyDeleteThe point that is to be noted is the paper in which the crossword is published.
Most readers of the paper, including those in north India, would know, given the pattern, what the Tamil honorific is.
And I am sure the paper itself might have it in ads if not a stray item.
So what's the problem in an occasional use of a term to give the crossword a local flavour, the place of publication being Chennai.
And let me add that most Indian words will not be amenable to cryptic treatment. The components that you get after breakup may not yield themselves to reasonably good indication.
Here the treatment is neat, the def, as VJ noted above, is clear (if it had been just 'honorific' there can be valid objection) and even the surface reading is that of a Ruth
(whether she stood in tears amid alien corn or not) being bewildered about one ... what's it? Ah, yes, Tamil honorific.
Richard
ReplyDeleteThanks for correcting me about what 'p' and 'f' expand to. I was less than careful.
...but on the other hand there are enough words that can be used instead of THIRU...
ReplyDeleteReally?
After we have entered answers for the Dn clues in the bottom right corner, the pattern that emerges at 25a is T?I?U
I invite my readers to suggest a word for the above slot other than what Gridman put in there.
I agree with Chaturvasi.
ReplyDeleteIf spelled out clearly, localized words like THIRU, JI, TUNI etc are all right.
The way I see it, there's nothing wrong in bringing in some local flavor. We often see it happening even in British crosswords. In Hindu Sunday crossword (a british one) I've stumbled upon street names (if my memory serves me right), dialectic slangs etc.
I give below a link to Lloyd King's puzzle site:
ReplyDeleteAha
By a coincidence, I have given a hint to the first poser in my first post today.
The above site publishes lateral thinking puzzles on the first of every month. If interested, you can request for a monthly intimation of new puzzles released.
ReplyDelete@ Richard
ReplyDeleteRe. P and F, you have expressed it correctly.
piano or p: gently; i.e., played or sung softly
pianissimo or pp: very gently; i.e., perform very softly, even softer than piano.
This convention can be extended; the more ps that are written, the softer the composer wants the musician to play or sing, thus ppp (pianississimo) would be softer than pp.
More than three ps (ppp) is uncommon.
On similar lines,
forte or f: strong; i.e., to be played or sung loudly
fortepiano or fp: strong-gentle; i.e., 1. loud, then immediately soft, or 2. an early pianoforte
fortissimo or ff: very loud
As CV mentioned, the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions.
Kishore
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Aha link.
I solved the first puz in no time! I am yet to look at the rest.
My qn: should we send answers to all the puzzles there? Would you know?
TUNI is a small town close to Vishakapatnam on the Coromandel coast. Those who have travelled by train on the Kolkata-Chennai main line will be familiar with this stop.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly solvers are more familiar with TUNIS (the Tunisian capital) than our own TUNI.
THIRU has again been made popular with ads from the Textile Ministry (with Thiru Dayanidhi Maran at its helm) being published in most national dailies almost every second day where the MOS Panabaka Lakshmi and Secretary Rita Menon are also referred by the honorofic THIRUMATHI.
Kishore
ReplyDeleteThe other two word puzzles too I got almost instantly.
The coins puz - well, I have to break my head!
.but on the other hand there are enough words that can be used instead of THIRU...
ReplyDeleteI invite my readers to suggest a word for the above slot other than what Gridman put in there.
Perhaps I should have been clearer. What I meant was Gridman choosing his clues such that he wouldn't be pushed into using words like THIRU in the first place.
We all make choices and Gridman chose to go with this. Nothing wrong with that per se, I was just expressing my opinion. So hopefully we just agree to disagree.
CV: You can send one or all answers and will be acknowledge by LK. However, to be mentioned and to be in the running for the lucky draw, you should solve all and send it in one go.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you are interested in logic/math/language puzzles, you can join me at puzzleteasers, a yahoo group.
Bhavan
ReplyDeleteOf course, yu are quite entitled to your opinions, which may be expressed freely on this enlightened forum in which a lively bunch of solvers add comments to a blogger who so dedicatedly puts up answers to THC.
Now, you have said very clearly that Gridman must not have painted himself into that corner! On which there can only be agreement and no further discussion.
This drives home the point that for that 5-letter slot with a particular word pattern Gridman had no other choice and that he found a way out!
@CVasi : Agreed and understood.
ReplyDelete"thiru" va paatta onna, tamil kaarangala tavira mattavanga ellam thiru thiru nu muzhikaranga polirukku, paavam....
ReplyDeleteVJ, Tamil teriyaad. Konja English-le translate pandringe.
ReplyDelete