Wednesday 1 February 2012

No 10374, Wednesday 01 Feb 12, M Manna

ACROSS
1   - Scoops out river swans (7) - DEEPENS {DEE}{PENS}
5   - Praise greatly (7) - APPLAUD [E]
9   - A city that attracts interest? (7) - CAPITAL [DD]
10 - One who puts up an English parson (7) - ERECTOR {E}{RECTOR}
11 - Inferior assistant returned to Bill in Asian capital (5) - DACCA {DAC<}{CA<-}
12 - A dunderhead came into line when spoken to (9) - ADDRESSED {A}{D}{DRESSED}
13 - Damage sacred seed scattered on box (9) - DESECRATE {SEED*}{CRATE} Sacred seed?
15 - Spare a change, for a barbed fork to catch fish (5) - SPEAR*
16 - Decided to govern (5) - RULED [DD]
18 - Same as infamous (9) - NOTORIOUS [E]
21 - Ted is poor maybe, but a saver (9) - DEPOSITOR*
24 - Moving an arm both ways (5) - ROTOR [CD]
25 - First man with his worker remained unyielding (7) - ADAMANT {ADAM}{ANT}
26 - Graduate for dollar, soon to get a wind instrument (7) - BASSOON {BA}{S}{SOON}
27 - They find pleasure in inflicting pain on others (7) - SADISTS [E]
28 - Finally rose somehow, to give sanction (7) - ENDORSE {END}{ROSE*}
DOWN
1   - Unravelled last month, an ode to daughter (7) - DECODED {DEC}{ODE}{D}
2   - Looks forward to arrive (7) - EXPECTS [CD]
3   - Sent to fourth door (9) - ENTRANCED {ENTRANCE}{D} ? 'D' being fourth alphabet?
4   - A lass to dance to Latin American music (5) - SALSA*
5   - A change designed to improve a text (9) - AMENDMENT [E]
6   - Small portion of pie for engineer (5) - PIECE {PIE}{CE}
7   - Being an entertainer, Lawrence takes up sitar for a public performance (7) - ARTISTE {TE+SITAR}*
8   - Laugh at Red as he takes a ride round (7) - DERIDER {RED+RIDE}*
14 - Adds comments on the year the state collapsed (9) - ANNOTATES {ANNO}{STATE*}
15 - Taken aback to find Pru is involved with Reds (9) - SURPRISED {PRU+IS+REDS}*
16 - Flushed, runs rings around military policemen (7) - REDCAPS {RED}{CAPS}
17 - Boy conceals scheme to see part of Scandinavia (7) - LAPLAND {LA{PLAN}D}
19 - Exit naturally without cover (7) - OUTDOOR [DD]
20 - Odd to find a good man stirred with anger (7) - STRANGE {ST}{ANGER*}
22 - Marks on car indicates crash on board ship (5) - SCARS {S{CAR}S}
23 - Rule out boy taking Russian money (5) - RUBLE{RU{B}LE}



16 comments:

  1. 13 - Damage sacred seed scattered on box (9) - DESECRATE {SEED*}{CRATE} Sacred seed?

    I think 'Damage sacred' is the def.

    11 - Inferior assistant returned to Bill in Asian capital (5) - DACCA {DAC<}{CA<-}

    Shows M's '71 hangover :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think 3D is a CD, though I am still to locate an article which gives the meaning entranced to being sent to the fourth door. It has something to do with Buddhist philosophy, I think

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  3. 24 - Moving an arm both ways (5) - ROTOR [CD]

    also <> both ways

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  4. Manna is becoming quit intolerable. Not an enjoyable crossword this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Buddhist philosophy

    In CWs I came across this gyan a few days back

    MAOIST*=TAOISM*

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  6. I go with the Col's interpretation that fourth door = Entrance D.

    So far so good.

    Whether 'sent' is an apt def for ENTRANCED is debatable.

    Unless -

    sent = transported = entranced

    Rather a stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Something I picked up bout the five training doors.

    The Five Training Doors

    How does one visualize? How does one elicit belief? If good men and good women come to achievement through the five doors of vigilance, they will be reborn in the Land of Peace and Bliss, and see Amitāyus Buddha. What are the five doors of vigilance? The first door is making obeisance; the second door is praising; the third door is wishing; the fourth door is visualizing; the fifth door is transferring merit.

    The link is http://www.sutrasmantras.info/sutra26.html

    Is visualising the same as entrancing, or is entrancing a process for visualising.

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  8. To govern is to rule, not "ruled".

    Is Derider a verb?

    And I'd rather not get into 3D, as much has already been said about it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks to be a forgettable CW, going by the above comments and my thinking as well.
    8D- If 'laugh at' is the def. (obviously so) it should be deride and not derider.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Referring to comments yesterday about the ongoing Hindu-TOI war of words (or ADS) here is an interesting article in Bloomberg-

    http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-31/india-s-top-newspapers-battle-for-readers-hearts-and-souls-choudhury.html

    ReplyDelete
  11. Thanks for the link, Padmanabhan.

    To summarise TOI's POV, I quote Senthil from the movie Boys: Inburmasian iz velth (in more ways than one, if I might add).


    P.S.: Who calls TH "The Mahavishnu of Mount Road"?? It was actually Nehru who called their building/paper "The Old Lady of Mount Road".

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  12. KISHORE:
    That algebraic Hebrewic equation was a no-brainer!! Why this TILTED SLYNESS to IRK us? One Manna ain't enough? Why put us thru' this HOLY grail? I was LOW like a SLOB under the influence of GROG and hence there was not a SLIM chance of my even attempting it!!
    What next? a geometric progression to biometry of all solvers?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry to have put an apiary in your topper ! Will exercise ....

      ....

      exercise in stagnation.


      ie. res(train)t.

      Delete
  13. Can I ask you guys a question?
    In 1a the wordplay uses river=DEE. In UK puzzles we often use the names of British rivers but, surely, these references would almost certainly be lost on non-UK solvers? How many of you regularly encounter the likes of DEE, FAL, URE, EXE, in Indian newspaper puzzles?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. DEE and EXE are regulars in Indian Crosswords, haven't seen FAL and URE of late. Our Indian CW setters do use quite a few such references from the UK & US

      Delete
  14. Anax

    References to British rivers, etc, may not be completely lost on older solvers in India because of their schooling and reading or because of their regular solving of British crosswords. You must remember that most newspapers in India simply reproduce crosswords from UK publications. These are ignored by a large percentage of readers or done fiendishly by a small percentage. For the latter Dee is as well-known as Di in the film song Kolaveri-di.

    Dee one might know from the famous story poem 'The Miller of the Dee'. Exe may have been picked up from crosswords as that is also used frequently, I think. The others are rather rare.

    But you have a point. Younger solvers might be flummoxed by references to British rivers, towns, counties and city divisions.

    This raises a larger question: can original crosswords set for Indian publications get along without such references that are so much part of the UK crossword vocab?

    Secondly, should an Indian setter have 'British river' rather than mere 'river' for Dee, say?

    Finally some setters here do inject an Indian element in their crosswords and some - if not all - of the devices may be lost on the casual solver in the UK.

    ReplyDelete

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