ACROSS
1 - Trial marriage? (8,5) - PRACTICE MATCH [E]
8 - Study opening for sisters (7) - CONVENT {CON}{VENT}
9 - The Spanish are no twisters, the old queen found (7) - ELEANOR {EL}{EANOR*}
11 - Staff held by artilleryman in Africa (6) - RWANDA {R{WAND}A}
15 - The matter is to go to court (5) - ISSUE {IS}{SUE}
16 - During school time, I can be admitted for the intervening period (7) - INTERIM {IN}{TER(I}M}
18 - Missile blows poor Ted to pieces (7) - TORPEDO*
19 - Flood on road — now get out (5) - DROWN* (rd+now)
21 - No English paper moved to shape blessing (7) - APPROVAL {APPRe*}{OVAL}
23 - Sign of twins (6) - GEMINI [E]
25 - Victor expelled somehow by deceit (7) - EVICTED {E{V}ICTED*} Definition amidships again!
26 - Where water comes from window drop maybe? (7) - OUTFALL [DD]
28 - Practise how to be a pickpocket (3,4,4,2) - GET ONE'S HAND IN [DD]
DOWN
2 - Time given for payments (7) - RENTALS [CD]
3 - Reported line of people waiting for a reminder (3) - CUE (~queue)
4 - Spot rise of the first nine characters (4) - IOTA (A to I <-)
5 - Men on a diet should effect some improvement (10) - EMENDATION*
6 - Spy who should be good at concealing information (5) - AGENT {A{GEN}T}
7 - Study fashion and follow the crowd! (7) - CONFORM {CON}{FORM}
8 - Licence issued for each delivery? (11) - CERTIFICATE [CD]
10 - Diesel train disturbed such a district (11) - RESIDENTIAL*
12 - Dull and tedious daughter, brings up the rear (5) - DREAR {D}{REAR}
14 - Ladies seat where skirts get in a mess (4,6) - SIDE SADDLE [CD]
18 - Outer surface of a vessel above waterline (3,4) - TOP SIDE [E]
20 - Japanese art of making paper birds (7) - ORIGAMI [E]
22 - Put on a more lavish alfresco celebration (5) - OUTDO {OUT}{DO}
24 - A man content in the Inferno — a hellish place (4) - NOAH [T]
27 - People of fashion (3) - TON [E]
2 CONs, both from 'study' in 8a and 7d.
ReplyDeleteI think PM has to go to RWANDA to get the magic wand ;-)
blackmagic?!
ReplyDelete8 - Licence issued for each delivery? (11) - CERTIFICATE [CD]
ReplyDeleteLittle Anvi must have got one recently.
Paddy, Hutu-Tutsi voo-doo.
ReplyDeleteKishore @ 9:54,
ReplyDeleteYes she did, but as Avni and not Anvi!
4D is a good one! Probably a similar clue
ReplyDeletehas appeared in
FT before?
http://fifteensquared.net/2011/04/07/financial-times-13653-mudd/
The Brits were complaining about a THC setter yesterday
in the Guardian. Since the core vocabulary for cryptic puzzles
is somewhat limited, we should not be surprised by such
variations of similar themes. I wouldn't call it plagiarism; such
variations of good clues should be enjoyed by all.
Oooooooops, DG, my bad. Pardon the plagiarism.;-)
ReplyDeletePLAGIARISM:
ReplyDeleteLife itself is plagiarism.If one goes by the dicta 'imitation is the best form of flattery', and''nothing is an invention and everything is a discovery', one can understand that plagiarism is permissible. The very English language that we converse and write is itself a form of plagiarism. We quote the words, expressions and idioms invented by some one in the past .The OED defines plagiarism as ' take and use the thoughts , writings and inventions etc of another person as one's own'. In life, we conform and, comply what has been laid down as a practice by some one as a precedent. Reflexively, many of us use phrases and expressions used elsewhere and that becomes a stock item in the dictionary. No one can claim a fame to originality.
So, let's all plagiarise to our heart'e content.
No one is exempt from 'following the herd ' mentality.
A setter's life is more difficult! Coming up with some 40 or so
ReplyDeleteoriginal and innovative clues for every puzzle is a formidable
task (at least, couple of days of work). I understand this as a teacher
who sets question papers for students!
@RU: Yes, good and fun clues are worth copying, as long as it is not done ad verbatim! Let everyone have some fun.
ReplyDelete(I was just reading about a silly tablet pc fight between Apple and Samsung. Apparently, Samsung should not use a rectangular shape for its tablets!)
I really don't want to heap the blame for 'plagiarism' on either of the setters. To be fair, both the 'ACROBAT' and the 'NEEDLES' clues have too much of a similarity, but the setters will have their defence.
ReplyDeleteAt last it boils down to the integrity of the setters themselves and we can surely vouch for Gridman.
And it is natural human tendency to look up the 'COD's on Google from now on...
CV,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to Cookies by Douglas Adams.
There was a movie Dus Kahaniyan (Ten stories) with 10 short films,a few years back. Rice Plate (Director: Rohit Roy), which starred Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, was one of them. The story was said to be based on the 1990 short film 'The Lunch Date', which, now it is clear, was inspired by 'Cookies'.
An orthodox Brahmin widow, setting out to visit her grandchildren, forgets her purse at home, misses her train, goes to a canteen, orders a plate of rice with the change in hand. When she returns to the table after washing her hand, she finds a Muslim gentleman eating the rice. The enraged lady forgets that he is a Muslim and starts eating out of the same plate. Later, at the railway station, she remembers that she had left her luggage in the canteen and goes back. There, she finds a rice plate on the table near her luggage, and . Then comes the realization of her mistake. At the station, she offers place to a Muslim family. This shows the change in her attitude.
Venkatesh, the sounds exactly like the ad for biscuits (was it Little Hearts ad?) where a person at an airport is upset because the person in the next seat is also 'raiding' the same packet, only to realise that it is the other person's packet that is being raided by self.
ReplyDeleteAnother example, on 27/8/2011, my post of 20:44 quoted Robert Southey's poem 'After Blenheim' and the words 'But 'twas a famous victory' with ref to the news that day. Today's TOI, Bang Ed, has an article by Gautum Adhikari on the edit page, titled 'But 'twas a famous victory' on exactly the same news. I am sure Mr Adhikari has not read my post and has independently arrived at the same line due to concatenation of synapses and ganglions in his cerebral dura (or wherever these things happen).
As RU said above, good things are copied and preserved. Newer ones are rare. Genetics!
ReplyDeleteA curious coincidence where nature seems to be plagiarizing itself (if you that is possible):
ReplyDeleteIn the history of evolution of theories of the heliocentric 'universe':
14th century NICole d'Oresme claimed Earth as centre not fully proved.
15th century Cardinal NIColas said Earth not centre but did not suggest Sun.
Later Nicholas Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik) suggested Sun not Earth as the centre.
What the first two 'NIC's suggested, a double NIC NICholas CoperNICus improved and became famous for.
Thanks for agreeing with me, Mathi. Lifting off, verbatim and transplanting it as one's on---Makhi ka Makhi, is plagiarism, without giving credit to the author who created it just before one lifted it- That's plagiarism. Even that previous guy must have lifted it off from someone else's effort before and before and before-- Like piracy is thieving to avoid paying the actual cost-- no Kishore, not the Somaili type of piracy.
ReplyDeleteWorst is, claiming someone else's original creation as one's own -- who was that Indian girl in the US, who did something like that with a book-- is plagiarism.
I'd call Bhachi Karkaria's articles in the TOI as original-- she's a wizard with words and if any one of us adapted on her style of writing, that's not plagiarism but flattering her style and appreciating it. We can be at best termed as copy cats. We can adapt and improve and that's a step next in creativity and originality.
We all evolve as we go along and somewhere at some point, we have created a style of our own-- like what Kishore is doing here. Right, Kishore?
Venkatesh's story is very similar to Jeffrey Archer's short story entitled " Broken Routine". The only difference is the rice plate is replaced by a packet of cigarettes and the individuals concerned ara a Insurance claim adjuster and a Hippy neo Nazi.Of course it's more humorous
ReplyDeleteRaju, there is a madness in my methods. But sometimes people imitate me before I say something ;-). Seriously, I am miffed with Behenji for offering my billet at Agra to Assanje.
ReplyDeleteAnd kindly refrain from using the word 'evolve' in my context as critters back home in Xcorgy would resent it if it became known that I have adapted to terrestrial life forms.
Another of Jeffrey Archer's story uncannily followed the plot of a Paul Gallico story that I read years ago. It is about hoodlums destroying antique furniture before realising their true worth - now in shambles.
ReplyDeleteI don't remember the titles. Archer's book is in a box in a loft that I can't reach.
@RU: The trouble is: there can be no references/acknowledgments
ReplyDeletein a CW puzzle, as in academic publications. To avoid this
problem, the setter can set up a blog and discuss about such
things. Are we going to have editors and three independent
reviewers for each puzzle before it is published? That will
be ridiculous! Some Brits take their CWs too seriously. When
things become commercial and professional (with prize money,
salary, etc.), the game gets dirty and the fun is gone.
Although we have inherited these from them, we do have
our own style; the Americans do not have the concept of
'cryptic' CWs (well, mostly). It is good to see some
Indianness like RV, ARJUNA, etc.in our puzzles. We should
encourage such things and avoid becoming imitating brown
sahibs (or mem-sahibs, in some cases!). Remember, finally,
CWs are always about fun (whether sadistic or maschoistic)!
These NICs also have nicked from us in the past!
Kishore:
ReplyDeleteHahaha!! Some of your phrases themselves are cryptic, quite suiting this site. If we were to only comment on the annotations of the clues, oh what a dull affair would it be? At the same time, we can refrain from splitting a hair strand with a sledge hammer, Mathi. Take it as it comes.
I have come from a place where the stiff upper lip gentry would not even talk about the cross words that they do, especially with 'natives' like me! As we should expect, these cryptics are a delight to tackle than the drab NYT or Cal Times puzzles with obscure names of places and characters . So enjoy what's in our plate. Play the game, plagiarism or whatever.
Looking forward to tomorrow's .