WHAT A RELIEF!
ACROSS
8 - Fashionable elite (5,2,2,5) - CREME DE LA CREME [E]
9 - Boy goes back to the mother to first learn the language (6) - {NOR<-}{MA}{L} Not sure if this is right.
10 - Speed up the switch for the gadget width (8) - {DIA<-}{METER} DIAMETER
11 - Passenger getting a free ride (8) - STOWAWAY [CD]
13 - Neat mask made from this type of leather (6) - {OX}{HIDE} OXHIDE
14 - Substitute for alms (6) - RELIEF [DD]
16 - Gap left in the current international primary account (6) - {L}{AC}{UN}{A} LACUNA
19 - Ancient manuscripts (6) - PAPYRI [E]
21 - Clappers for this reason tip-off the followers of the German car (8) - {AUDI}{hENCE} AUDIENCE
24 - Izmir native will mostly prohibit the Diva's headwear (6) - {TURk}{BAN} TURBAN
26 - Tricks the Scotsman in an important venture (6,8) - {MONKEY} {BUSINESS} MONKEY BUSINESS Monkey is 500 pounds don't know if it is a Scotsman also. (Addendum - {MON}{KEY BUSINESS} - See comments)
DOWN
1 - To equip a couple of colleges known to the king (8) - {A}{CC}{OUT}{ER} ACCOUTER
2 - Duration of a prison sentence (4) - TERM [DD]
3 - Further on is the sound of thunder (6) - (~below) BELLOW
4 - Sure shot of the French journalist in regard (4,3) - {DE}AD {EYE} Anno pending DEAD EYE This is one word and not two as shown.
5 - Geometric curve (8) - PARABOLA [E]
7 - Threaten the paid men roaming out on the road (6) - IMPENDa* IMPEND
12 - Maybe it is a two-way communication device (5-5) - WALKY-TALKY [E] Why maybe?
15 - Plant embryo (8) - EPICOTYL [E]
17 - Old-fashioned church, an artist describes is in Malta (8) - {A}{R{CH}A}{IS}{M} ARCHAISM
18 - Time the worker, freakish in a fit of anger (7) - {T}{ANT}{RUM} TANTRUM
20 - Further behind an endless jungle is a mythical warrior (6) - {A}{MAZe}{ON} AMAZON Not sure of anno
22 - Particular detective is in distress (6) - {DET}{AIL} DETAIL
25 - Soundly scan the marsh plant (4) - (~read) REED
9 - Boy goes back to the mother to first learn the language (6) - {NOR<-}{MA}{L} Not sure if this is right.
ReplyDeleteBOK MA L . Bokmal is Book language; one of two official languages of Norway; closely related to Danish
Will ask just a couple of questions.
ReplyDeleteAre 'below' and 'bellow' homophones (sound-alikes). In which language?
ACCOUTER is US spelling. A setter who does not fight shy of US spelling when the paper uses UK speeling and the crossword in it too should adhere to the rule.
Rengaswamy,
ReplyDeleteNever heard of BOK or KOB as a boys name. Even if we take just B for boy then how do we get 'OK' or 'KO' from 'goes back'?
CV @ 8:44,
ReplyDeleteMay be in BOKMAL Language or in one of the exquisite languages NJ taught us over this week.
Izmir native will mostly prohibit the Diva's headwear
ReplyDeleteNow does 'mostly' apply to 'native' or 'prohibit'.
Here is a setter who never bothers about word order in clues and shoots off clues that occur to them the first thing. Never revises their work to be proud of their submission to a national newspaper.
How can solvers put down answers unquestioningly?
Threaten the paid men roaming out on the road (6) IMPEND[a]
ReplyDeleteDeepak,
Does this clearly indicate that the letter A is to be removed from the anag fodder?
How do you ever get into the setter's mind?
CV @ 0851,
ReplyDeleteThere will be insufficient space to put in questions
DG @8.46
ReplyDeleteYes. That is why I was hesitant to put in orkut. May be Knocks out (goes) back to give OK.
CV @ 0856,
ReplyDeleteNJ uses 'A' for 'the' and sometimes 'A' for road and she has used 'out on' as deletion indicator. After a week of grappling with her CW's one gets used to such quirks
Thank you, Deepak.
ReplyDeleteUltimately, crossword solving is getting accustomed to a setter's quirks that may be self-founded without adhering to any standard practices, caring two hoots to the manuals written by leading UK/US setters right from the time of Afrit, Torquemada and Ximenes. Who are they? We are Hindusthanis and we will have our own rules.
17d ARCHAISM is a noun. The def. 'old-fashioned' is an adj. So it's a mismatch.
ReplyDeleteBut then, who cares for grammar? What is it? Who is Fowler? Or Wren and Martin, for that matter?
4d DEAD EYE
ReplyDeleteI suspect that there is an error in wordplay. But I shall restrain myself. Will wait for someone else to unravel the anno. which is pending in your blog.
Speed = AID in 10A?
ReplyDeletePlant embryo (8) - EPICOTYL
ReplyDeleteA setter who can write impossible clues is here beaten and offers an "E" clue.
Your task is to write a convoluted clue with usual quirks.
Plant embroyo above Greek bed lay out on the road winding backwards (8)
EPI COT L[a]Y <-
I, one of Raju's 'gentlemen of leisure', am withdrawing to spend time with my grandchildren visiting us from CA.
ReplyDeleteCV@ 9.34-better thing to do.have a nice time.Having a hang over after my grandson's return to U.S.!
ReplyDelete12D-
ReplyDelete"maybe" may be because it is walkie talkie instead of 'walky talky'.
Walky-Talky is an accepted alternate spelling for Walkie-Talkie
ReplyDeleteCol.'s byline on top says we can start doing (real?) CW's from Monday!
ReplyDeleteStem of seedling which uses language found adjacent on opposite initial young lady (8)
ReplyDeleteSlight change in anno for 26A.
ReplyDeleteMON KEY, BUSINESS
Thanks Suresh,
ReplyDeleteThat's not a slight change it's the intended anno that you have given
Reference bj3sh29's transmission reproduced under yesterdays comments section. He has got a response from NASA as reproduced below
ReplyDeleteQuote
This is Houston.Come in bj3sh29.Request for backup from MIB denied as ALPHA team is busy in ABBOTABAD and BETA team is engaged in round the clock security underwater to prevent the body from spawning. We also have the alieN-J craft on our radars and frankly we too are unable to comprehend the gibberish it's spewing out.(Off the record - you HUBBERS are doing a much better job deciphering its codes than all the brain power here at NASA ). So it's all yours and please do not send it our way.Transmission terminated.
Unquote
raju umamaheswar said...
ReplyDeleteOh Great.!! I'm so gratified to see such an enthusiastic and ardent response to my comments. I had sent these comments to Schuchi but there was no response from her-probably, she's very busy with her career , unlike we 'gentlemen of leisure'.In a small country like Kenya, where I spent my career time, we had a few weekly Prize crosswords,granting the winner a free one night for two full board in some exotic game reserves or to the wonderful beachside. I had the good fortune to see almost all of them by winning frequently, in the face of stiff competition from fellow-solvers- mostly settlers from the UK. So why not in a large country like India with its wonderful hospitality industry and a vibrant marketing force that caters to the corporate sector?
As for Chat-sir's comments on crosswords being a loner's pursuit, I remember the earlier days in Nairobi where in the Coffee house, a group of Britishers used to huddle around the London papers that used to arrive at around 10 am and solve the crossword. Being new and a fledgling in that insular milieu, I used to poke in and give my 'two bit' answers to the clues and I was referred to as the 'native' from whom 'we have to learn English'..... only to become later on their friend and reference pointsperson to exchange notes. Crosswords did get me a whole lot of friends, whom I had not even seen, as those settlers were upcountry, a few of them being elderly ladies with their penchant for crossword solving.!! Did any one also notice that in the UK newspapers , most of the solvers and winners of prizes are ladies-- probably housewives?
I think we should make an effort to persuade the Hindu and other newspapers to introduce a weekly prize crossword, to begin with.
Thanks for all you out there to have responded so spiritedly.
Lastly, Chat-sir, I fulfil my writer's thirst by sending in mails and articles to the Indian press, a habit that I have had ever since I left India. Dr. Srinivasan had mentioned about JS magazine some time ago, in nostalgia. My letter took the pride of place , featuring the Airforce Gnat-pilots who heroically fought the Indo-Pak war, on their cover page in the 70's.
Raju Umamaheswar
After tipping my hat to Mzee Bwana Raju and remembering the Thorn Tree at The Stanley and the nyama choma at the Panafric, today's obiter dicta:
ReplyDeleteThis run we have learnt PUTONGHUA, TSHILUBA and ***MAL (BOK/NOR). Now I only need to travel to Lopnor and Timbuktoo to fulfill my aspirations.
On the positive side, PARABOLA continues my dialogue with CV on PGW poems: Remember the lines 'Across the pale parabola of joy' from Leave it to Psmith.
Sound of Thunder in 3d reminded me of an excellent short story of the same name by Ray Bradbury.
For those who get this:
ReplyDeleteI have spent quite some time in my life changing text from small letters to capital letters. If any of you have also participated in such an exercise, please let me know.
And unconnected to the above para,
Deepak, I echo your WAR cry at the top of this blog.
Mz Raju, BTW, I being vegetarian, stuck to sukuma wiki and not nyama choma...
ReplyDeleteUnasema kiswahili kidogo kidogo...
ReplyDeleteAre we being unfair to the rest?
Sorry, missed out on yesterday's fun altogether. I had never heard of Tshiluba as a branch of Bantu. Phew!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the flattery, Deepak. I am not as much an expert in Swahili as Kishore is. It is Kish-wahili for him.
Good, Pun-dit.
ReplyDeleteRaju may be a bigger ex-pat ex-pert, having been there for prolonged periods. My stints were usually a max of 3 months at a time. However, it gave me opportunity to work with locals in several hotels (mainly Sarova group), hospitals (AKHS)and game parks in Kenya and Uganda (Nakuru, MM, NNP, etc..
Bwana Kishore, Habari? Mzoori saana?
ReplyDeleteNice to hear about your Kenyan experience. I have come to India with very fond memories of Nairobi. When, where and how long were you there? Where are you now and what's your profession?
Talking about upper and lower cases, being unused to the keyboard, I have vbery often discovered that my letters have changed into caps from lower cases and it is such an annoying thing to erase the whole lot and type them afresh. Why is it that the Caps lock is next the letter A ? Any short cuts to avoid such 'miscaps' and if none, how to retrieve without retyping all over?
Looking forward to tomorrow's Hindu Sunday Cryptic. Good luck to ye=all.
Raju Umamaheswar
Kishore, you may be knowing this already, but just in case, a Shift+F3 of the selected text would mean a toggling between caps and small letters.
ReplyDeleteBwana Raju, was there a total of 6 times between 2000 and 2006 including being stuck in Entebbe on Sep 11 2002 for over 3 hours in the plane. I stayed at various places including Panafric, Stanley, Azee House (Nbo), Whitesands (Msa) and gameparks.
ReplyDeleteI liked Msa the best since I saw less of "Hatari! Sitima!" signboards and it looked like Securicor had lower clientile there, probably because it was considered safer. I used to cycle daily from White Sands to the Nyali bridge past the Bamburi Nature park and cement plant on the Malindi Mombasa Road. When in NBO, I had the privilege to do some financial projections for AKU, Karachi, a rare case of Indo-Pak colloboration. I continued to do studies on Gherkins and Guar for the Aga Khan group after return to India.
I am a CA by qualification and have been relieved of my duties just a week back though I gave my notice a long time back. I am now looking for a change after a brief hiatus.
Well, chaps, that was not what I meant by small letters to capitals...
ReplyDeleteKishore, I knew that you must have had something up your sleeve.
ReplyDelete(Question: Where do those ladies who wear sleeveless jackets hide things?)
PS: Sudalamni's keyboard shortcut works in MS Word but not Wordpad.
CV,
ReplyDeleteIn Chennai, whether they have sleeves or not, most lady vendors in the market hide their purses along their sari waist or down their cleavage...