1 - Can follow the popular girl starter at hand (10) - ATTA{IN}{ABLE} Anno pending
9 - Noisy bird pair is oddly trapped in the big game (6) - {MAG{PI}E*}
11 - Significance of the first letters of editor following fans excitedly in the city (6) - {E}{F}{F}{E}{CT}
12 - Island sells the last of the rugby shirts (7) - {JERSEY}{S}
16 - Hyderabad gemstones have some mark (5) - BADGE [T]
17 - Animal fur sound (4) - HARE (~hair) I have a lot of fur on my head !!
19 - Pledge to pay the ringleader (5) - {WAGE}{R}
20 - Origin of a virus (4) - GERM [CD]
21 - Follows the man partly in this kind of column in the back issues (5) - {HE}EDS or is it {HE}ELS Anno pending
22 - Open up the flower (7) - BLOSSOM [DD]
29 - Standardise the all-purpose tissues regularly (10) - {GENERAL}{I}{S}{E}
30 - Seizes the royal seat (6) - USURPS [E]
31 - Deliberately break the rule (10) - TRANSGRESS [E]
DOWN
2 - Fall in the pond (4) - TANK [DD]
3 - Relates the character outside with the spider monkeys (6) - ATELES
5 - Wash oneself to be up for the man (5) - {BAT}{HE}
6 - Fail to start the device on the stock feed (5) - EMMER Anno pending (Addendum -
8 - Timbal kept out softly on time for the French doctor initially understanding music (10) - {KE
12 - Steel city that Tata built (10) - JAMSHEDPUR [E]
13 - Worker will use our boat design (10) - ROUSEABOUT*
14 - Spread these put on the bed (5) -
15 - Morsel of bread (5) - CRUMB [E]
23 - Gets to know an islander working without identification (6) - LEARNS
24 - Auction list has no introduction for the crew member (6) - SAILOR Anno pending (Addendum - (~sale){SAIL}{
25 - Old English leaders missing the on stage performance out of fear (5) - ANGST
26 - Group will first alight at the holy river (5) - {GANG}{A}
1A Perhaps ATTA is a girl?
ReplyDelete17A LOL
21A HEELS - Heels archives?
Hi
ReplyDeleteCRUMBs, one LEARNS(-id) from Gita’s natter (remember Nita’s Natter ?) on Orkut that setter was unspecified and that gave me a GERM of an idea to the E-F-F-E-CT that something new had BLOSSOMed and a 7d shed and I was ready to beat the KE(-p)T-T-LE-DRUM, even take a WAGE-R cheering the USURP(-S)er. However, the clues showed what BADGE was on the JERSEY(-S) and the Bangalore edition SHEET puts the blame for TRANSGRESSions of a ROUSEABOUT* squarely on NJ’s mat. JAMSHEDPUR could have been clued better, methinks, A lean to between a spread and incomplete Indian bread where steel is made (nonsensical, yes, but more fun !). After all the Bull in the Inner and Outer rings, we have an ATTAINABLE MAG(P I)E in the middle, so no need to dunk ATELES(-r) into N(EARB*)Y TANKs in DUB(L)IN to BAT-HE them.
Good wrapup, sir. I had 10a as UNDERACTOR, 6D as ERROR, 9A as RIPPLE, 13D as ROUSTABOUT and 21A as HOTES...was just hitting my head on the desk for the annos...but good to see there are better alternatives with some explanation at least. I would say today's was better than yesterday's grid on the whole...but with Spider Monkeys I think yesterday's prediction of 'stealth geek' like clues was somewhat correct. NJ stalks this blog, I say!
ReplyDelete1a Atta girl, Gita.
ReplyDelete17a Hair today, gone tomorrow, Colonel, without GENERALISE(-E)ing.
Visit
ReplyDeletehttp://www.hindu.com/mp/2010/08/25/stories/2010082550070100.htm
See also Campus Jottings where it is mentioned students used to 'take proxy' from classes and watch matinee shows in 'Roxy'.
6d Hemmer(-h)
ReplyDelete6D - Lemmer (-L)?
ReplyDelete24d
ReplyDeletedef CREW MEMBER= SAILOR
auction= sale=sail
no introduction for= for minus introductory (first)letter f =or
Gita, but Lemmer is not a device.
ReplyDeleteIn 24d, how does 'list' indicate 'sounds like', and in 9a, how does 'big' indicate 'anagram'?
ReplyDeleteWhat logic!
Hi all
ReplyDeleteHad limited success today.
Today's Chennai edition of The Hindu Metro Plus carries a report on the Sloggers and Bloggers meet held there. Congrats to everyone concerned as well as to the author.
Read DIVYA KUMAR ON S&B MEET
AA, you looking for logic in a NJ puzzle ? It just went outta the window into the recycle bin and will be resurrected tomorrow to be thrown out again. Mebbe auction list=sale.
ReplyDeleteVJ, Hemmer is a device.
I think my subconscious will automatically associate NJ with 'spider monkey' from here on in, as the sheer bizarreness of that term seems to best to describe her.
ReplyDeleteAA, big game had got me initially thinking of the big 5 from Africa, Rhino, Lion, Elephant, Buffalo and Leopard, but then one bags what one gets in an NJ special.
ReplyDeleteI didn't solve this puzzle as the setter is not my favourite and I want my blood pressure to be steady.
ReplyDeleteBut let's give the Devil its due.
Auction is 'sale' of course (at least from dict. defs.) and 'list', which has the archaic sense of 'listen' must be the intended homophone ind.
Eng. Lit. students will know that meaning as it occurs in poetry.
@Chaturvasi - thank you for the explanation. Of course, being an economics student I immediately associated auction with bidding and it was one track from there.
ReplyDeleteAash Anand, I think you're being harsh on her. NJ's just doing her job the way she knows it. If at all anybody to be blamed, it's her employer.
ReplyDeleteKishore, I agree... Hemmer is a device. Gita suggested LEMMER - L and hence the comment
ReplyDeleteShuchi in a post on her blog informs us that she has reliably learnt that the crossword in tomorrow's Indie of the UK will be of especial interest to Indian solvers.
ReplyDeleteHemmer? Bummer!
ReplyDelete@VJ, maybe you're correct, and I am being harsh on NJ. But for the record, I mean most of it in jest. Most of it.
ReplyDeleteIt's all right, Aash.... seemed to me like you were complaining a lot since yesterday.
ReplyDeleteChaturvasi, read about it on Shuchi's blog too. Can't hardly wait...
ReplyDeleteVJ: You're at it again! The double negative.
ReplyDeleteKishore: If my memory serves me right, Nita's Natter was a column in Stardust.
@VJ: I wonder why you get annoyed whenever someone comments -vely abt NJ.
ReplyDeleteShe might be doing her best but still it is her work, isn't it? Yes, TH is her employer, but does it mean she can be careless?
Yes yes, I agree...something suspicious about VJ's comments. VJ...NJ...any relation? Lol.
ReplyDeleteYes, in initial days we too had a strong suspicion of that sort.
ReplyDeleteBut VJ is not NJ and no relation of NJ: he is a resident of Chennai and one of those who attended the S and B meeting.
He is in the pic that the paper carries with the article.
21A - HEEDS (Can this be?)
ReplyDeleteMan = HE
Partly this kind of column = ED (Editorial)
Back issueS = 'S'
Follows = HEEDS
or is it imagination going wild?
14d - 'these' does not match with sheet - another NJism?
ReplyDelete@subramaniam - I think 14d is actually an anagram of 'these', not a DD as Col's anno says.
ReplyDeleteSubramaniam, I think it's an anagram, with spread as the Aind. and "these" as the fodder - "put on bed" being the part to be defined.
ReplyDeleteBala, annoyed??? LOL +vely not. I was just sharing my opinion. The way I see it, TH has greater responsibility than NJ.
ReplyDeleteBTW, my name's got nothing to do with NJ. VJ is just short for VJ.
correction, short for Vijay.
ReplyDeleteVJ wrote: The way I see it, TH has greater responsibility than NJ.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
Some of you must have noticed that the crossword published in the magazine section of the paper last Sunday had a copyright notice. This made it clear what the crossword's source is.
Until last Sunday only those who were doing the Everyman crossword knew of its origin. Others were left to guess, considering the huge difference between a weekday puz and the Sunday puz.
Also, I just can't understand how both the daily puz and the weekday puz can have the same title The Hindu Crossword but with different serial numbers. New solvers online used through the week to seeing the sol the next day are bewildered by the sol grid that appears the next day (Sunday). There are no suitable pointers.
On these points and others I have written several times to the Readers' Editor but to no avail. Under what circumstances they have now suddenly started using the copyright notice, I wouldn't know.
CV: You are perfectly right, Nita's Natter was in the Stardust with cat pictures. BTW I linked it because the HCF is Nita.
ReplyDeleteI am wondering currently what will appear next in the 'obscure creatures' series by NJ. First 'coreid', then 'ateles', so will the next one be 'ouroboros'? Or 'tatzlwurm'?
ReplyDeleteAash, nice ain't it? We get to learn new stuff everyday.
ReplyDelete@VJ, agreed...looking back on my high school days it's safe to say that THC was an integral part of my education...I think this was because I spent most of my time in class breaking my head over it!
ReplyDeleteI said 'list' has the sense also of 'listen'.
ReplyDeleteWell, here's a crossword clue from an FT puz set by Armonie that I came across a while ago.
Car commonly first in wish lists (6)
Don't you think it's superb?
Is it 'chaise' (~choice)?
ReplyDelete{W} {HEELS}
ReplyDeleteAashirwaad, that's really nice. During our high school days, we used to break our heads trying to figure out how we could knock the other guy's pen outta the bench with our own. We call it pen cricket. It was real fun.
ReplyDeleteWe had a similar game called pen-fight, with multiplayer versions and house rules which we would fight over. Also there was book cricket. Too bad we were not smart enough then to figure out using probability which books gave us better chance of winning!
ReplyDeleteI think it's the same. We used to call it either pen-fight or pen-cricket. Multiplayer version was more fun you know. And we used to carry fat pens just to improve our chances of winning.
ReplyDeleteI never really liked book cricket. We stopped playing it after middle school.
VJ, That's it!
ReplyDeleteLet me now write my appreciation of the clue.
Car commonly first in wish lists (6)
Not a word wasted!
'Car commonly' is the def. Why 'commonly'?
Because 'wheels' is not a formal word. It is a popular term.
'first in wish' gives W. Note that 'first wish' is not really a good way of indicating the letter W in wish. (cf. 'first alight' in a clue above.)
'lists' gives HEELS but it gels so well with the previous word, for 'wish lists' is a collocation in itself with a meaning of its own.
And WHEELS is likely to be commonly in wish lists. Most of us can't have a private jet in our wish lists! So 'commonly' takes another dimension.
Chaturvasi, I agree. It's a really nice clue. It's precise and succinct. I like these kinda short/ crisp ones more than long winded clues. Easy to recollect/ remember too.
ReplyDeleteTrivia of another kind. Got this in email today. Crossword-lovers will relish this, for sure. Thought of sharing with you all.
ReplyDeleteAnagram of the season: In the backdrop of the CWG - SIR U MADE LAKHS
Two words. No prizes for guessing.
Clarification: Fodder is only SIR U MADE LAKHS.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think he was an Air Force officer...; and an Amchi to boot !
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteThis anagram was put up by Vijay on the Orkut group on 21st
I used to love book cricket at school.
ReplyDeleteDeepak 18:59 - Sorry I was not aware that it was on Orkut already. I am not a member of any social networking sites. (Surprised?)
ReplyDeleteShould I be surprised?
ReplyDeleteI lived in Jamshedpur some 3 years. It saddened me to note that the Steel City did not get a clue, only a description.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the other clues are too bookish and lack creativity. Either Wikipedia is pressed into service or the word is chopped into its contituent letters. In either case, the clueing is rather obscure.
NJ's puzzle is merely an extreme example of a malaise that is noticeable in most Indian puzzles. I wonder if many Indian setters would have been able to set their puzzles before the age of the Net. I mean some of the setters can't be considered widely read nor have they lived among native speakers of English for any length of time. That's why words don't have their common resonances for them. So they have to clue using Wikipedia type trivia or they have to clue most words letter by letter.
And I thought it was called a Crossword puzzle, not a 'Cross Letter' puzzle.
NJ stands merely at one end of a continuum. An extreme end admittedly but it's a continuum all the same.
LNS's is a good assessment, I would say.
ReplyDeleteExcept I don't agree that an Indian crossword setter should have lived among native speakers of the English language.
That most Indian crosswords betray the setters' lack of grip over the language and that they are not alive to the resonances of words or their nuances is quite correct.
Yes, before the Net a typical setter might turn the pages of the dictionary and as he is looking for a word his eyes might alight on another and he might be be tempted to browse and learn. Now even that possibility is gone!
LNS, you're generalizing a bit there. Just 'cause English is not a native language for Indian setters, it doesn't mean they cannot set good enough, creative clues. Well we often see sparks of brilliance in clues written by our own setters. Indian compilers might not have the kind of linguistic focus British setters have, well, it's like the language that they were brought up in ever since they first learned to speak. This of course is an advantage we cannot ignore. Though we're well familiar with the language, English is still a foreign language for us. In spite of this handicap, our setters are doing an awesome job
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me like crossword setting in India does not have the kind of recognition it has in a country like, say, Britain. If more Indian dailies start publishing crosswords compiled by Indian setters and professionally review the puzzles by employing professional crossword editors, we could see a world of change. I think it's just a matter of time. Personally, I feel it'd not be fair to blame any of our setters or compare 'em with British compilers.
CV: Thanks for your response.
ReplyDeleteOf course one's not speaking of an accountant or an IT person who's using English to do his job whcih primarily involves some other skillsets.
We're more or less talking of a wordsmith even if he/she is only setting a crossword puzzle and not writing, for example, an essay.
VJ: You've got the wrong number here :)
ReplyDeleteWhatever :)
ReplyDelete