Wednesday 3 August 2011

No 10223, Wednesday 03 Aug 11, M Manna

ACROSS
1   - Surprisingly youthful conservationists thwarted mains water scheme (4,9) - WELL PRESERVED {WELL} {PRESERVED}
8   - More can play the violin (7) - CREMONA* Isn't this is a Brand name for a Violin or is it recognised as a Violin? Any Violin players amongst us?
9   - Not so many in Rose's home were made happy (7) - BLESSED {B{LESS}ED}
11 - In disturbed state turn towards perceptive person (6) - ASTUTE {AST{U}TE*}
13 - Impressed by Oriental bolt (8) - STAMPEDE {STAMPED}{E}
15 - Blush when pierced? (5) - GORED {GO}{RED}
16 - Listener heads home in determined mood (7) - EARNEST {EAR}{NEST}
18 - Colours allowed in by the head (7) - PALETTE {PA{LET}TE}
19 - With direction hunt on another track (5) - SHUNT {S}{HUNT}
21 - A woman's handbag (8) - RETICULE [E]
23 - She and I caught one in Alabama (6) - ALICIA {AL{I}{C}{I}A}
25 - Getting things straight at the end of the day (7) - EVENING [DD]
26 - In Asia England starts to be seen to be behind (7) - EASTERN {E}{ASTERN}
28 - Did they mount Hitler's lightning offences? (5,8) - STORM TROOPERS [CD]
DOWN
2   - He may give a seat to someone standing (7) - ELECTOR [CD]
3   - A lion for the French ring! (3) - LEO {LE}{O}
4   - Ran around yard to catch him (4) - RYAN {R{Y}AN}
5   - Sad tales of the conservatives under new boss (3,7) - SOB STORIES {SOB S*}{TORIES}
6   - Discharge ambassador in strange surrounding (5) - RHEUM {R{HE}UM}
7   - See it as being the least difficult (7) - EASIEST*
8   - Sister who is male? (6,5) - CHARGE NURSE [CD] ? They are not always male?
10 - This engine upset residential characters (6,5) - DIESEL TRAIN*
12 - Regulated by the sudden flow of feeling (5) - TIDAL [CD]
14 - First trip of airliner? Check steps! (4,6) - TEST FLIGHT {TEST} {FLIGHT}
17 - Lease made out for a blackboard frame (5) - EASEL*
18 - Doctor's client sustaining pain (7) - PATIENT [DD]
20 - Not free from obstruction (7) - UNCLEAR [E]
22 - He shouts to make official proclamation (5) - CRIER [E]
24 - Old timer famous as hot fiddler (4) - NERO [CD]
27 - Proceed insidiously towards a week person (3) - SAP [DD] That should have been 'weak'!



40 comments:

  1. I only know that 'cremona' leads to ROMANCE.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 8 - More can play the violin (7) - CREMONA* Isn't this is a Brand name for a Violin or is it recognised as a Violin? Any Violin players amongst us?

    I indulge in non-violin(t) fiddling.

    27 - Proceed insidiously towards a week person (3) - SAP [DD] That should have been 'weak'!

    This may be a printer's devil. But I would haave liked 'offensives' instead of 'offences' in 28a, though MM might have meant it as an apposite opposite to 'defences'.

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  3. Kishore

    Holding no brief (I don't like jockeying) for the setter, I don't understand your reservation wrt 28a.

    What's the best form of defence?

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  4. CV, conceding your argument, I felt that storm troopers were involved in offensives, though they might have committed offences in the process.

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  5. (from yesterday)

    I was not talking of the device, FER by itself is not a word, that's what I meant.

    ---

    A point to ponder!

    Often we have homophone clues where the homophone is not a word in itself.

    I don't think G resorts to this device.

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  6. 8 - Sister who is male? (6,5) - CHARGE NURSE [CD] ? They are not always male?

    (Brit) a nurse in charge of a ward in a hospital: the male equivalent of sister...(Freedict)

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  7. "Holding no brief "

    That evoked a vivid image of your holding out an undie for MM to step into, somewhat like parents holding shorts for their kids to step into.:-)

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  8. I was not talking of the device, FER by itself is not a word, that's what I meant.

    Apart from the homophones that CV mentioned, partial anagrams in clues too have the same issue.

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  9. My long letter in MM (read: Madras Musings) on briefs fetched me an unexpected letter from a senior, long-lost relative who said he liked it and who indulged in nostalgia going back to the Forties in CBE remembering my Dad and several members of the clan (when 'nuclear family was a term that was 'unclear' and when I was a mere child).

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  10. I thought today's offering was "manna" from heaven.
    Some elegant clues. I was however an idiot and spent an embarrassingly long time trying to work out how gored related to blush, until I finally saw go red.
    I can't see any issue at all with 28A.
    My COD 13A

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  11. A point to ponder:

    How brief would be the briefest of briefs?

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  12. Exactly!

    The one that pictures depict a Hindu god wearing.
    Made of silver.

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  13. Back to FER

    It does have a couple of meanings
    It is a red wine grape
    It also means iron in French which wouldn't be allowed, but I think chemin de FER is in common usage as it's a card game.

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  14. I was not talking of the device, FER by itself is not a word, that's what I meant.

    Fer is listed as a word in fredictionary. Source Websters. And meaning far.

    But I take Deepak's point. If it is a word it is definitely more elegant. If it isn't it feels a bit crude.

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  15. I knew 'chemin de fer' only as 'railroad'.

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  16. Some old timers might remember an ornament called 'puchataaLi', if I remember the word right.

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  17. I am not sure which language that word is from.

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  18. The perils of swearing by one dictionary!

    'fer' is not recorded in Chambers.

    However, it has 'fer-de-lance', which is the lance-headed or yellow viper of tropical America.

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  19. Kishore @ 9:13,

    Now that would be telling, wouldn't it!!

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  20. I remember the briefest Headline item

    NUT, SCREWS AND BOLTS

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  21. I have this book

    Eats shoots and leaves

    Place the comma where you will.

    BTW, I don't have a great opinion about the book. I have read better books on usage, e.g., those of G H Vallins, Eric Partridge et al.

    The author of ESL approaches the subject in a light-hearted manner (about which I don't have a problem) but it's repetitive and has other drawbacks (like using big font, double space and blank pages, to make a book out of the matter on hand.

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  22. Richard used to talk about this book, of which I too have a copy

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  23. I remember the briefest Headline item

    NUT, SCREWS AND BOLTS

    I had read one which said NUT SCREWS WASHERS AND BOLTS

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  24. Talking of odd books, has anyone here read Aphabetical Africa (an odd sort of book)by Walter Abish which starts:

    Ages ago, Alex, Allen and Alva arrived at Antibes,...

    Notice why it is odd? ;-) Well, each chapter changes the constraints a bit (though the narrative is not very gripping, and there are violations of the self imposed constraints).

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  25. If you like, read my post "Living off crosswords?" on my blog

    http://cgrishi.wordpress.com/2011/08/03/living-off-crosswords/

    You may leave a Comment if you're moved to do so.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Man O Man, Manna, Maan na maan, the Tuesday's crossword was a cake walk. Maybe, he was somnolent and that's why he had put in too many anagrams? Or is that he was on a pressure to beat the dead line with the publishers?

    Rishiji, I wanted your comments on conjoined clues. I had posted my remarks three days ago.Didn't you see it?

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  27. It is called 'twinning'.

    As far as THC is concerned,Gridman and Sankalak have used that clue-type. Others may have.

    In any case I am not able to cite any readily.

    As for the instance you're talking about, there might have been a possibility of linking them together, but as mentioned earlier the clues were written some six or seven months ago and so it was missed.

    In any case, we don't know whether there is an END IN SIGHT. Any linking will be fraught with unpleasant consequences.

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  28. Former student of violin-playing and lover of violin music here (not to mention being an accomplished air-violinist): Cremona is/was home to many of the most-valued violins made by famous lutenists of yore like Antonio Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu, to name just two, but I haven't come across instances where the violins were referred to by the name of the place itself as opposed to the name of their makers.

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  29. @DG 10.27

    A news-writer was fired by editor to give short headlines for the news items. The writer had a story next day.

    A lunatic escaped from an asylum after raping a nurse. Since he had to give a brief headline for this story, he gave the headline as
    "NUT SCREWS AND BOLTS"

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  30. Rengaswamy,

    Kishore had further amplified it with his 11:30

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  31. Thanks DG. I missed Kishore's. It is still better.

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  32. 8 - Sister who is male? (6,5) - CHARGE NURSE [CD] ? They are not always male?

    Can we have it as CHANGE NURSE?

    ReplyDelete
  33. Rengaswamy@18:53,
    That's what I'd guessed and, after some hesitation, wrote down in the grid.

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  34. Look up charge nurse in freedictionary. Quoting from Collins chrge nurse is the male equivalent of a sister

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  35. If you can have Gibson Guitars, then I suppose you can also have 'Cremona' Violins

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  36. An interesting article on the Cremonese violins from Engineering & Science:
    http://eands.caltech.edu/articles/LXVII4/Hsieh%20Layout.pdf

    ReplyDelete
  37. Thanks for the link, Venkatesh.

    ReplyDelete

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