ACROSS
1 - First to sign (7) - INITIAL [DD]
5 - Thrustful cattle-driver (7) - PUNCHER [DD]
10 - Fashionable country away from coast (6) - {IN}{LAND}
11 - Kenneth risked going out as it became more gloomy (8) - {DAR{KEN}ED}
12 - Plan of the French receiving Mark! (6) - {DE}{SIGN}
13 - With new income around the company becomes profitable (8) - {E{CO}NOMIC*}
14 - Many tried to function straight (6) - {DIRE{C}T*}
15 - Somehow cheats injury (6) - SCATHE*
18 - The way a guy points — right (6) - {MAN}{NE}{R}
20 - Skull pieces taken as tokens of victory by some Red Indian tribes (6) - SCALPS [CD]
23 - Mend a dud adaptor, though that's extra (8) - ADDENDUM*
25 - Within the limits of light entertaining song can be captivating (6) - {L{ARIA}T}
26 - Legally seize the goods appearing first in the pipe-line (8) - {D{IST}RAIN} Nice clue which took some time to dawn on me
27 - The old ran around him (6) - ARNOLD* could have been RONALD also
28 - Group of people swallowing a simple effervescent drink (7) - {SE{HERB}T}What's the link between HERB and EFFERVESCENT ? (Correction - {S{HERB}ET} - See comments)
29 - End of clues or anagram (7) - CLOSURE*
DOWN
2 - Ann set out for French town (6) - NANTES*
3 - Established custom to drain it off (9) - TRADITION* of our Indian politicians
4 - An ardent admirer of Beatrice, but slow (7) - {AN}{DANTE} Had to cheat on this one
6 - As ordered, troops in mid-January eradicates rebellion (7) - {U}{PROOTS*}
7 - Set of beliefs that many assembled to redo (5) - {C}{REDO}
8 - Vision? Yes, in eight (8) - {E{YES}IGHT} Could cluing get simpler?
9 - This notice determines VAT coding (13) - ADVERTISEMENT*
16 - Dishevelled partisans who aim at higher things (9) - ASPIRANTS*
17 - Fit tightly between two others (8) - SANDWICH [CD]
19 - To transmit by radio freely is best for trade (7) - {RAD{IA}TE*}
21 - Greeting that is exclusively stony (3,4) - {ALL} {HAIL}
24 - Go in to prise off some business (5) - ENTER
Hi
ReplyDeleteStarted initially with INITIAL. What a AN-DANTE Divine Comedy ! Wild west PUNCHER swinging LARIAT, SCALPS. ‘The’ TRADITIONal spelling used by most puncture repair shops in India who ADVERTISE their presence with a board with ‘Puncher shop’ conveniently forgetting the word ‘repair’ giving you a feel that the shop dispenses punctures. A missing word can give this wrong impression. Like page 9 of TH (Bang) today has a headline ‘Round-the-clock suicide helpline launched’. Any suggestions on how this headline should have read ? BTW, suicide is the only crime for which there is no punishment in law, as against punishment for making an attempt to commit the crime.
ALL HAIL, Gita’s state Guv’nor ARNOLD referred to recently under acrostic. RAD(IA)TE was sloppy, IMO. D(IST)RAIN was best. Saddling, I thought before the crossing of 28a, then SANDWICH gave the CLOSURE.
Good morning all:
ReplyDelete28D - Group of people swallowing a simple effervescent drink - S{HERB}ET
17D - Fit tightly between two others - SANDWICH
I found these two tricky.
Rest were OK.
19D - RADIATE is the anagram of TRADE and AI (best) - wonder what the radio is doing in the clue.
8D - EYESIGHT - cleverly set.
Small type in S(HERB)ET, Deepak
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteBTW, type is a typo for typo
ReplyDeleteLoved the two injuns, Deepak.
ReplyDeleteDeepak
ReplyDelete'effervescent drink' is the def, whether right or wrong. 'simple' gives HERB. If this isw hat you meant to ask.
Good morning Colonel
ReplyDeleteNowadays your preface to the blog has some comment about Suresh's reaction. I missed the background story, fill me in please - why will Suresh tear his hair out!
In my Orkut community, there are an instant anagram contest and an instant exercise to dentify any clue by the learner. I too commented that today most of the clues are by the maestro.
ReplyDeleteCV, I could not post my entry to your game on Orkut. So I have sent it to your personal email.
ReplyDeleteWhile commenting on a Gridman puz, Suresh said there were too many anagram clues and the presence of a plethora of such clues makes him mad.
ReplyDeleteShuchi,
ReplyDeleteLike my dislike for too many CD/DD/E in the CW, Suresh dislikes too many Anagrams in a CW. I think he made this comment on the last CW of Gridman's six
Richard
ReplyDeleteI am unable to understand why you are not able to post to my Orkut community. Anyway, I have sent you a mail asking you to wait and watch for a while as you are already admitted as a member.
Thanks CV.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a discussion on the permissible limit of anagrams in a crossword and also why a setter may occasionally exceed that limit. I typed out a long passage from a manual.
ReplyDeleteRichard,
ReplyDeleteI too have sent you mail on how to post on the Orkut community
Shuchi,
ReplyDeleteSee the CW of Monday 06 Sep for Suresh's comments and the subsequent discussion
ranunculaceous
ReplyDeleteI came across the above word in the definition of some other word while looking up the latter!
I am yet to look up this word!
Thought I will share it with you.
In this CW I disliked 20A SCALPS (I don't think it is a piece of skull), 7D (Terrible) and 8D(Deepak I think 7D is a little simpler).
ReplyDeleteWE had a UTAH Rotarian which stuck out as an anagram and in 29A the setter is telling us it is an anagram, and I started out by thinking it is something else. Decent clue this.
Also Sherbet is not effervescent as far as I know
ReplyDelete12 anagrams in this one. Maybe we should have an anagram crossword in place of a cryptic crossword once a week
ReplyDeleteyesterday was bad... for me that is. Then I realized it was Mr. Manna. :) Struggled with quite a few clues. After wresting with it on-n-off thro' the am, I called it a CW with more than a handful remaining.
ReplyDeleteToday was much better! Although some of the clues were still not particularly satisfying, I was still able to get most of them.
22d: I had this as HAULER... something that does the main work... hauls...
DISTRAIN was new... SHERBET was weird...
Also 24D is a straight lift off (or prise off)from ET 3588 and ET 4575
ReplyDeleteSuresh 10:04 - Agreed it is a wonderful idea to have a dedicated anagramm crossword once a week. But I wonder if it is technically / structurally possible to sustain setting of all-anagram puzzles week over week. It could be a daunting task, albeit not absolutely impossible.
ReplyDeleteGood morning all
ReplyDeleteA very good and almost coursing along. 15 mts straight 90 % fell in place thanks to anagrams and some straight clues. Advertisements, Aspirants, Enter,Initial, Tradition all easy pickings. The more in 11 a creates a ripple and i filled it as darkener earlier corrected later. Eye sight gives me a smile instantly. Similarly all hail i got stuck by filled it as all well.
All said thoroughly enjoyed
Eid-Mubarak.
Good day
Mathu.
Richard, and I could take a day off from the crossword on that day
ReplyDeleteA hair-saving idea?
ReplyDeleteSuresh,
ReplyDeleteWere you aware of this awesome website that figures out anagrams?
Wordsmith.org
I have found it immensely useful
Satya, Never tried an anagram site. Much rather solve them myself.
ReplyDeleteActually, don't mind anagrams if they are properly concealed or fit in well with the surface reading.
By the way, I agree with Deepak that overall today's was a above average offering from Manna. At least there were no gaffes
There is also the site www.anagramsite.com which i use (read cheat)for long anagrams, that i can't get a hold of.
ReplyDeleteRichard@10:30. Very little left to save. A hair-raising idea would be welcome:)
ReplyDeleteSuresh 10:54 :-)
ReplyDeleteFor hair raising ideas maybe we could contract NJ ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut how do we contract NJ. She has ten days and we would all love to contract it
ReplyDeleteHow about contracting 10 to 6 for a start ;-)
ReplyDeleteWill that raise hair?:)
ReplyDelete"....will Suresh tear his hair out!"
ReplyDeleteI don't know, this really made me laugh...
@CV How does Herb translate to simple?
ReplyDeleteSimple! One of the meanings of this word is 'a medicinal plant'
ReplyDeletethanks CV. That is a meaning of simple I wasnot aware of.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your query...
ReplyDeleteA quick and simple fix would be
‘Round-the-clock suicide-helpline launched’.
This makes it clear that suicide is not 'round-the-clock' but rather the helpline.
But I don't like the very term' suicide helpline'. Does it tell us how to find a way out?
CV: Exactly. That is the nub : My objection was mainly that it sounded like the helpline was to help prospective suicide candidates to achieve their end (pun unintended).
ReplyDeleteKishore, any way of referring to the chap wanting to commit suicide would be too contrived. Besides Those committing suicide are probably not Chartered Accountants or Crossword Solvers. So the words Suicide helpline convey the meaning quite well for the intended audience.
ReplyDeleteIf it gets a laugh out of them because of how it is constructed it will be good for them. :)
There is a way out!
ReplyDelete(I never add 'pun intended' within parantheses. This is drawing attention to one's cleverness. If you're punning - and punning well -, let the reader discover it and have the joy of having done so. If the pun was so weak and the reader didn't notice it, it's all the better for you! Similarly, I disapprove of the practice among Tamil writers to place a word within single quote marks to draw pointed attention to their pun.)
(Kishore, BTW, is the comma after dash OK?)
Now, coming to the point, I would say
Round-the-clock stop-suicide helpline
or
Round-the-clock forget-suicide-idea helpline
Good one or two CV
ReplyDelete"..... Round-the-clock suicide helpline launched’. Any suggestions on how this headline should have read ? BTW, suicide is the only crime for which there is no punishment in law, as against punishment for making an attempt to commit the crime."
ReplyDeleteLOL!!! So you'd be convicted if it was a failed attempt?? Well every possible way you look at it, the guy would have been better off dead.
I think I'd never understand why suicide is against the law. What freedom is if we can't do what we wanna do with our own lives?
As I see it, it'd be all right even if it was a helpline to help people achieve their end. And I think we need clinics that specialize at it. Makes the job much easier.
CV: What I said was the pun was unintended, i.e. I did not claim credit for it and did not want to be accused of punning on a macabre subject.
ReplyDeleteVJ: Talking of punishment for the attempt, it is also the only crime for which it would be counter-productive to award a death sentence ( I am not getting into the argument whether a death sentence is ok or not )
Euthanasia, of course, is a strongly debated subject. In fact a movie was made in the '70s (?) depicting an accident victim moving court for direction to doctor's to keep off. The movie was called 'Whose life is it, anyway ?'. I don't know if it inspired or was the inspiration for 'Whose line is it, anyway ?'
CV: I am not sure about the dash comma thing. But do you have any candidates where two punctuation marks can be used legally and correctly as in :- or ?! (in this case which comes first ? ) and not counting ... as three full stops/periods.
ReplyDeleteActually a few years ago I read a report on a Supreme Court judgement which held that attempt to suicide is not an offence.
ReplyDeleteMany a gap in the implementation of this judgement
Talking of suicide, would a cat have to do it nine times :-)
ReplyDeleteSuresh, did the SC really uphold the freedom of expiration ? Let me have the citation, if you can, so that I can be armed with should the need arise.
ReplyDeleteThe word 'ranunculaceous' means belonging to buttercup family of plants (ranunculus) or pertaining to or like buttercups.
ReplyDeleteI am in full agreement with your comment on 'round the clock...'
I had raised a similar objection for the The Hunger Project and The World Hunger Programme which give the impression that these are promoting hunger while their purpose is exactly the opposite - to combat hunger.
Trivia time:
ReplyDeleteA foreign visitor asks the librarian at an Indian university: "Do you have any title on Euthanasia?"
Not understanding the query properly, the librarian replies: "No, sir, we have one or two on 'Youth in India' !"
Suresh,
ReplyDeleteThose committing suicide are probably not Chartered Accountants or Crossword Solvers.
A study some years back had found that among the professionals, suicides were more common among doctors and, among doctors, ....... in pyschiatrists!
In India, the Registrar General of India's million death study through 'verbal autopsy' also covers suicides.
Some studies have focused on the para-suicides (attempted suicides). In most cases, it is to draw attention to themselves or to their problems.
A study some years back...
ReplyDeleteThe above report is from the UK.
Venkatesh, that is why I gave up medicine.
ReplyDeleteRichard: Height of such misunderstanding could be the Baldev Singh joke where he heard a lady bathroom singing : There was a cold day.
ReplyDeleteHe thought she was singing in Hindi.
Good one, Kishore. The Illustrated Weekly of India had, a few decades ago, carried a cover story on the Burra Sahibs or white masters of the Raj days. I think it had a box item listing some English sentences used by the goras which sounded almost like a command in Hindi - to their valets or pageboys.
ReplyDeleteE.g., There was a cold day - Darwazah khol de 'Open the door'. It was an interesting list. Sadly I can't recall the rest.
By chance, do any bloggers here remember having come across that cover story?
Kishore (1909), lol it wouldn't even seem like a punishment and would have to go down as the stupidest punishment/ law ever.
ReplyDeleteJust read a couple of reviews of "Whose life is it anyway (1981). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083326/. It's mostly positive. Would like to watch it sometime.
While I agree that euthanasia and assisted suicide are debatable subjects, to me it somehow seems open and shut.
VJ: 2306. One should not jump to hasty conclusions in such matters.
ReplyDeleteKishore, of course yes, but after all that's done, an individual's choice has to be respected.
ReplyDelete