ACROSS
1 - Some pest rang every number, being curious (7) - STRANGE [T]
5 - We back the film (7) - WESTERN {WE}{STERN}
10 - The French lies around for him (6) - LESLIE {L{SLIE*}E}
11 - No more jail for me, after the stretch I've just served (4,4) - LAST TIME [CD]
12 - Old city features ragged child (6) - URCHIN {UR}{CHIN}
13 - Trail after someone even when uninvited (3,5) - TAG ALONG [CD]
18 - The French song out for their guardian spirits (6) - ANGELS (le+sang) Sang or Song?
20 - Swindle uncovered in the courts (6) - RACKET [DD]
23 - So Arctic redevelopment is literally a puzzle (8) - ACROSTIC*
25 - Dried fruit grown? (6) - RAISIN'
26 - Be silent again for him to pay attention (8) - LISTENER {LISTEN*}{ER} AInd? Reversal for RE?
27 - Russian fighter enters before an asylum seeker (6) - EMIGRE {E{MIG}RE}
28 - A quarter of tent, allotted to her (7) - ANNETTE* (a+ne+tent)
29 - Kind of resort where disease is treated (7) - SEASIDE*
DOWN
2 - Plan of the old railway (6) - THEORY {THE}{O}{RY}
3 - No note tells passengers must detrain (3,6) - ALL CHANGE [DD] Only 'Chillar party' allowed!!
4 - Less experienced maybe, but environmentally aware (7) - GREENER [DD]
6 - Sensing distress in U.S. navy personnel (7) - ENSIGNS*
7 - Coordinating everything towards one end (5) - TOTAL [CD]
8 - Consider putting spirit in tea blend (8) - RUMINATE {RUM}{IN}{ATE*}
9 - The longest period ever served in prison? (3,4,6) - ALL TIME RECORD [CD]
16 - Matinee is arranged for social conveniences (9) - AMENITIES*
17 - Idleness in battle (8) - INACTION {IN}{ACTION}
19 - Bad taste in material (7) - SATINET*
21 - The core get organised for the funeral procession (7) - CORTEGE*
22 - A great hunter (6) - NIMROD [GK]
24 - Fantastic nothing — could be true (5) - OUTRE {O}{UTRE*}
Thanks to all the followers of my blog which has touched 300 yesterday.
ReplyDeleteDave and others:
ReplyDeleteTalking of FH, the following clue is in today's Hindustan Times cryptic, which is The Times crossword from olden times:
Changes in boy we’re seeing — facial hair, for instance (7)
(I haven't solved this at the time of posting this Comment. Anyone can try! And if the solver is a moustachioed person, he can rub his FH: again a Tamil expression. "Paaru, avan meesaiyai thadivikkuraan" means "Look, he's stroking his moustache" - expressing his pride through the action.)
Got it! And will raise one in surprise!
ReplyDeleteThis crossword felt so different from yesterday's and was much smoother.
Happy onam to all - it is so quiet here!
David,
ReplyDeleteThe noisy festival in Kerala is Vishu (invariably on Apr 14th), the only time you get crackers in Kerala
Just read the comments on Manna's plagiarism. Really ashamed to know this. CV Sir, is there no way at all to rein in such acts? Or to jettison such setters?
ReplyDeleteHappy Onam to all.
ReplyDeleteHappy Onam to everyone.
ReplyDeleteAs noted in yesterday's first post, I am now fit to be a Keralite. So I can follow CV's recommendation above. The FH will be sprung on old friends at the next S&B I attend.
Reg illustration for 13a, I am.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to Deepak on 3 centuries.
ReplyDeleteThe count reminded me of Barney Stinson in 'Right Place, Right Time' episode of HIMYM.
Two time prison/jail for the French today?
ReplyDeleteOnam greetings to all.
ReplyDeleteSo some of the clues elevating these crosswords are the result of lifting ?
Ill-formed clues are beginning to look preferable to well-formed swipes.
while on the hirsute theme, I ...
ReplyDelete... have dead fh (5)
A lot achieved over 3 centuries. Great work Deepak
ReplyDeleteDave
ReplyDeleteJust yesterday when someone somewhere wondered whether SIDEBURNS would qualify for the term FH, I thought: why not? (After all, cheeks are part of the face.) And immediately (as the mind flits from one thing to another - "manam oru kurangu") I mused to myself that even EYEBROWS can be termed as FH. The next day the word pops up in a crossword as FH.
Anyone game for a clue for EVENING SHADOW?
After writing the above line, I checked the phrase to see if it means what I thought it meant, I couldn't find any help.
The urban dictionary - one that I do not look up normally - came to my help. It has FIVE O'CLOCK SHADOW. So please try writing a clue for either of the phrases.
Where did pick up the phrase EVENING SHADOW?
Well, it was in one of the unlikeliest of places. A Madras city bus. I was a college student then and like members of the tribe (of that decade: now they use scooters and even cars) I was travelling by public transport. Seated next to me was an old man. In came a PYT and he uttered the words "evening shadow". It was noon and the glare from the sun above was beating down. So, I turned to the fellow-passenger and raised the relevant FH. He then conspiratorially told me that the light, thin hair above a girl's upper lip is called "evening shadow". Wicked old man who on that day paved the way for me to become a WOM.
Wendigo shaven? Lathered, this shows he has not shaved for some time. (7,6)
ReplyDeleteInspired by Ogden Nash's poem 'The Wendigo'.
Lathered in surface as covered with soap. In cryptic meaning as thrashed=beaten up as AInd.
'this shows he has not shaved for some time' as def.
Wicked old chap saw her (5)
"manam oru kurangu"
ReplyDeleteThe Sanskrit version:
markaTasya surApAna.n tasya vR^ishchikada.nshanam.h |
tanmadhye bhUtasa.nchAro yadvA tadvA bhavishhyati ||
Think of a monkey, gets drunk, is bitten by a scorpion and is further afflicted by a ghost.. the result is anybody's guess!
DIGITAL_IS : Thanks ye-all. So silly of me. I should have applied my mind a little, as the word Digitalis had appeared in very many cryptics of the past. It is only that I failed to DIG IT. This forum is so useful to keep one so uptodate and alert and ---- CHEW ONE'S NAILS ( DIGITS?) and also humbling when individually we all think that we are the CAT'S WHISKERS.
ReplyDeleteBy the way : HAPPY ONAM TO ONE AND ALL HERE. May the blooming of new clues flourish and bring in fresh harvests.
KISHORE: Nice to see that you are also a fan of OGDEN NASH- whose pen had created so much fun in pun.
CV: NEI Express crosswords are quick and slick. ORKUT ? Tut tut. I have too many clues to cook already. Hey, is there any one who can lend me some time out of their 24 hours? I could use some to solve more crosswords, the eternal virgin houri who enthrals you for hours.
EVENING SHADOW: Pressing image on your unclean face
ReplyDeleteWasn't a smooth sailing chantey for me today, as I
ReplyDeletehad difficulty near the NE quarter. A few clues
were vague and misleading (7D or 18A)! After such
clues, hope I don't become a HH 'trichotillomaniac'!
Raju: Hands gone wild for guy who wrote PG Wooster, Just as he Useter (5,4)
ReplyDeleteFull poem at:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pg-wooster-just-as-he-useter/
'the eternal virgin houri who enthrals you for hours'.
if eternal applies to the next word, don't you think it's much ado about nothing?
Much like CW clues that remain unsolved and get left over.
Some pest rang every number, being curious (7) - STRANGE
ReplyDeleteWhere is telescope indicator?
Labakku,
ReplyDeleteHere 'Some' is the telescope indicator asking us to take some part of the next words.
You may be interested in the following link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/crossword-blog/2011/sep/08/crosswords-blog-ethics-commandments
And in case you didn't have the patience to read the Comments and you didn't follow a link in one of them:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.woltermanns.com/misc/cookies_Adams.htm
DG: Congrats on scoring three centuries. May your blog grow in blanks and blacks and may our tribe increase.
ReplyDeleteIs'nt it fun ?
@CV: Thanks for the link. I didn't go thro' those comments.
ReplyDeleteI think I have heard that story before. I liked the newer
one about sadist setters! Now I also see that
there is a reference to THC!