1 - He facilitates communication between parties, but not for illicit contacts! (7,7) - LIAISON OFFICER [CD]
8 - A city within four walls, say (6) - INDORE (~indoor) Famous for Maheshwari from yesterday's monologue.
9 - Fence for protection against loss before fight (8) - {HEDGE}{ROW}
11 - Dance thus arranged is without suffering damage (9) - UNSCATHED*
12 - Product of two different cats (5) - TIGON [E]
15 - Entry to underground work! (7) - MANHOLE [CD]
17 - He searches for food for containing anger (7) - {FO{RAGE}R}
19 - It provides shade to a soldier — a big star (7) - {PARA}{SOL}
21 - A time to confine endlessly boring grown-up (5) - {A}{DUL
23 - Fruit, divine food in the east… (9) - {NECTAR}{IN}{E}
26 - Brief cover for an atoll (6) - BIKINI [DD]
27 - Prickly plant found in tent, glistening mysteriously (8,6) - STINGING NETTLE* In hindi I think this is called 'Bichhu booti'
DOWN
1 - The French, free from doubt, take one in for relaxation (7) - {LE}{I}{SURE}
2 - Range — 5000 miles, sporting some of the grandest scenery (5) - ANDES [T] 4,300 as per wiki
4 - But it should be tempered with responsibility (7) - FREEDOM [CD]
5 - Bit of metal that sailors obtained (5) - {IN}{GOT}
6 - Ego urges one to turn shocking (9) - EGREG(I)OUS*
7 - Stab of pain suffered by Lawrence, swallowing part of a bird (6) - {T{WING}E}
10 - Top cover, hard inside, for old politician (4) - {W{H}IG}
14 - Abusing port, uncle became very fat (9) - CORPULENT*
16 - To bring about order, Bellini's opera girl lies outrageously (9) - {NORMA}{LISE}
17 - Fine business, protecting administrators in a catastrophe (6) - {F}{IAS}{CO}
18 - Domestic art sounded a bell before oil spill (7) - {RANG}{OLI}
20 - Old general possibly right in a sheltered part (3,4) - {LEE} {SIDE}
22 - Ill-fated craft lost one hundred to one of great strength (5) - TITAN
24 - Paper girl backs a stupid person (5) - {ID}{IOT}<-
Hi
ReplyDeleteJust 14 more on the countdown timer and then THC moves to 5 digs.
16d Norma reminded of arguably the most famous actress born Norma Jeane Mortenson, who was on the cover of the first issue of Playboy. In contrast to the image the magazine has, it is reported to have carried stories by Arthur Clarke and PG Wodehouse.
5d*=12a*
The 5000 mile mountain range was well hidden in the grandest manner.Apropos mention of TuLu here earlier, it is one of the few (only?) languages where the p sounding word represents mother (appe) and m sounding word represents father (amme) compatered to the opposite trend in most languages. (Pater, Mater, Pappa, Momma, Appa, Amma, Padre, Madre,...)
Hello everyone
ReplyDeleteMany intelligent clues. Liked LIAISON OFFICER, INDORE, HEDGEROW, UNSCATHED, TIGON, ETCHING, MANHOLE, FORAGER, PARASOL, ADULT, NECTARINE (this took some time), BIKINI (cute, in brief!), STINGING NETTLE (jumbo anagram), LEISURE, STREAKING, FREEDOM (good one), INGOT, EGREGIOUS, TWINGE (felt the stinging pain in solving), WHIG (very nice), CORPULENT, NORMALISE, FIASCO (well-constructed with IAS thrown in, but catastrophe?), LEE SIDE and others.
ANDES and PICA were good telescopic products.
The ones I liked most - RANGOLI and IDIOT (TOI, short for Times of India featuring in The Hindu crossword? Something out of this world! ;-))
BIKINI, STREAKING... thankfully it didn't go further. :-)
Streaking reminded of Ms Bedi and the first cover of Cineblitz.
ReplyDeleteNice cartoons. It would have been a scream if the sticker on the tum of the cartoon for 3d was positioned elsewhere.
Not much to argue about in the puzzle. These are the days you wish for a more controversial clue setter : )
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm happy with what Sankalak dished out today.
Bhavan, be careful what you wish you for, for it might come true. :-)
ReplyDelete@Satya : It is going to in the next few days. My wish notwithstanding !
ReplyDeleteHow appropriate that at 10,000 we will be in the company of Gridman.
ReplyDelete@Colonel, that's cool. Is that after factoring in the new setters ?
ReplyDeleteYes
ReplyDeleteEnjoyable CW today
ReplyDeleteHope Gridman already has special plans in place for number 10000! He got to surprise us as he did this New Year!
ReplyDeleteAnother excellent offering from Sankalak... although I was a bit impatient today and ended up referring to the blog earlier than usual.
ReplyDeleteHad TIGON pegged as LIGER earlier (I had thot the other combo was TIGLION instead, and didn't bother cross-checking). And this was after I had got INGOT... and stubborn moi thot INGOT must be wrong 'cos I was so sure of LIGER! :) Btw, I've actually had the opportunity to see a Liger in the Miami zoo (finally visiting it after living in the neighbourhood for 6 yrs!!) :)
Really LMAO for 3D!!! :)
As always, great toons by the Col!
@Kishore 8:37 - Lol! Then it would have been a kick-@$$ 'toon!!
@ Bhavan 8:39 - No I don't!!! :) Setters like Sankalak are essential to keeping the sanity of the majority of amateur/mediocre solvers like moi, who can handle just about "that much" of controversial clues. haha
ReplyDelete@Hari: Even I was sure of liger, as I have heard of a liger and a tiglon, but not a tigon.
ReplyDeleteHar & Shyam
ReplyDeleteTIGLON and TIGON are the same see the link in the main post
Tigon, Forager, Hedgerow, Nectarine, Freedom all eluded me.
ReplyDeleteLiked some like Liasion officer, Stinging Nettle, Ingot, egregious etc.
Satisfactory offering from Sankalak. Happy days ahead
Mathu.
In the Calcutta Zoo there used to be Tigons,Ligers and Litigons
ReplyDelete@ Col 10:24 - No arguments Col! Have already seen the link. Was just cribbing about myself (and stubbornly sticking to Liger w/o keeping an open mind) to anyone who'd care to hear!!! :)
ReplyDelete@ Suresh 10:37 - Litigons?! Is that what they call 'caged lawyers'?? hehe
ReplyDelete@ Shyam 10:09 - Glad I wasn't alone with that error! :)
@ all... if u haven't seen all the toons today, you are missing a few laughs, especially w/ the streaker and Kishore's subsequent comment on it! hahaha!!!
In case anyone wants to blow their mind with the history of tigons, ligers, litigons, titigons (no! it's not what it sounds like, it's a real word!), etc,.. check out the foll. link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.messybeast.com/genetics/hyb-lion-tiger.htm
Without sounding very finicky, I have to concede that I do not regard fiasco and catastrophe as synonyms. Fiasco is a disastrous failure while catastrophe is a disaster itself...
ReplyDelete5 - Bit of metal that sailors obtained (5) - {IN}{GOT}
ReplyDeletewhere are the sailors in INGOT?-
Sumitra
ReplyDeleteIN - Indian Navy
No takers for the Norma gambit in my 832 ? Marry lean, she said.
ReplyDelete@ Shyam, Thank you
ReplyDelete@ Kishore 14:08 - ?? Not sure there was a question? :) By the way, isn't it monroe w/ 2 os.. which takes the anagram off by an a for an o?
ReplyDelete"takes" = makes!
ReplyDeleteDeepak 08:57
ReplyDeleteDuring this November, besides THC No.10,000 there is another landmark to cross - your visitors' tally will surpass 300,000. Let me be the one to congratulate you, well in advance.
Monroe is with 2 os as you have noted, Hari. But no anagram was intended. Norma is her real name and marry lean is a near homophone of Marilyn
ReplyDeleteThings seem to be comparatively drab and dry out here. Just for a chuckle:
ReplyDeleteA lion was getting married. At his wedding was a mouse shouting away and congratulating the lion,"All the best, my brother. Good luck."
Seeing the mouse shouting away claiming that the lion getting married is his brother, another Lion grabs the mouse in anger and asks: "Who the hell do you think you are? How can a lion be your brother? You are only a mouse."
The Mouse replies: "I, too, was a Lion before I got married."