Monday, 20 August 2012

No 10546, Monday 20 Aug 12, Gridman

ACROSS
1   - Later action changed into fight (11) - ALTERCATION*
9   - Film where you get on or off (3,4) - BUS STOP [DD]
10 - Plotted for revolutionary setter to be caught in South Dakota (7) - SCHEMED {S{CHE}{ME}D}
11 - Piece of paper in body of water (5) - SHEET [DD]
12 - Wealth of disease in a criminal (9) - AFFLUENCE {A}{F{FLU}ENCE}
13 - Tree – to head of botanists, it’s more leafless (5) - ALDER bALDER
15 - Of strain Orsino suffered during tal (9) - TORSIONAL {T{ORSINO*}AL}
18 - If you do, you become reputed (4,1,4) - EARN A NAME [CD]
21 - Endlessly detest ruffian horse (5) - STEED DETESt*
22 - Former U.S. President going round enclosure for woodworker (9) - CARPENTER {CAR{PEN}TER}
24 - Pushed back, say, obscure insect (5) - MIDGE {MID}{GE}<-
26 - Ado Mira created in visual arts show (7) - DIORAMA*
27 - Orderly’s military outfit? (7) - UNIFORM [DD]
28 - Not working, having left the stage (3,2,6) - OUT OF ACTION [DD]
DOWN
1   - Lie-in-wait for Mother returning on a public transport with bad guy and drug (9) - AMBUSCADE {AM<-}{BUS}{CAD}{E}
2   - Set out to hold a small armour plate (5) - TASSE {T{A}{S}SE*}
3   - Italian roundabout getting a class of worms (9) - ROTATORIA [DD]
4   - A special stop on the road (7) - ASPHALT {A}{SP}{HALT}
5   - One new piece of furniture to wear finally to such an extent (7) - INSOFAR {1}{N}{SOFA}{weaR}
6   - Revolting female takes on Russian leader in India (5) - NEHRU {NEH<-}{RU}
7   - Height of dignity? (8) - EMINENCE [DD]
8   - Irritability caused by two sides falling off the account book (4) - EDGE lEDGEr
14 - Where some developments used to take place after a shoot (4,4) - DARK ROOM [CD]
16 - One con man is tossing and turning – he can’t get sleep! (9) - INSOMNIAC {1+CON+MAN+IS}*
17 - U.S. city maidens drop at the sight of womanizer (6,3) - LADIES MAN {LA}{DIES MAN*}
19 - A model area to draw (7) - ATTRACT {A}{T}{TRACT}
20 - Warmer attention to bungler (7) - EARMUFF {EAR}{MUFF}
22 - Jest brought to a conclusion (4) - CODA {COD}{A}
23 - Muse to appear after a long period (5) - ERATO {ERA}{TO}
25 - Girl wearing sexy clothing of Indian male (5) - DHOTI {D{HOT}I}




45 comments:

  1. good morning all. i enjoyed THC today. I understand gridman better now...

    A word of request to the host... CAN U PLS ADVANCE THE TIMING??

    this is getting to be an addiction, but positive addictions are good.

    good day all

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you are getting addicted to crossword and you have surgery to perform, don't try solving in the morning. Try as you might, the clues for which you didn't get the answer will hover around your mind subconsciouly and you can't concentrate on work. This is my experience in the early days.

      Delete
    2. Also, taking your mind off helps in getting the answers to some clues which at first prove intractable.

      I have a collection of crossword books in which puzzles have some "holes" - those were the late Sixties when we did not have Internet, crossword pattern search software and so on. I never looked at the answers to fill the gaps. Now if I idly take a book, turn the pages and read a clue that was not cracked earlier, thea nswer suggests itself instantly.

      What I am saying is: don't be obsessed about seeing all-filled in grids.

      Enjoy solving! with experience you become an expert!

      (As suggested below, at the end of the day, read this blog and see the answers for the clues that eluded you.)

      Delete
  2. yes, Mr. CHaturvasi... i am an eye surgeon. i used to leave home @ 8:00 but now i post pone surgeries to 9 0 clock , so i get my unsolved answers.no regrets, though :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eye surgeons encounter different kinds of humours: acqueous and vitreous...

      Delete
    2. Before the Colonel started his blog, THC was being tackled by a Yahoo group.

      Later, a happening place was the Orkut community: The Hindu Crossword. Here the puzzle was solved by members/posters entering three or four answers each. The crossword was completed within a reasonable time. There were discussions on clues, clue-writing exercises and so on. A sense of bonhomie existed among the members. I, as the co-owner, kept a close watch on the proceedings and was writing prolifically. I have since ceased to be the co-owner. The Community is still there with some devoted members but the postings are not not on a scale that we saw once.

      Actually, after the Colonel began this blog and posted all the answers with annotations at the appointed time, a reference point has emerged. In the Comments section a whole lot of posts appear in which there is banter, nostalgia, leg-pulling besides informed critiques of the crossword.

      A good deal of success is due eminently to the fact that the blog appears at a given moment. Members quickly follow it with their comments.

      The fact that it appears at 8-30 a.m. means that the Colonel solves it early in the morning after the paper has arrived and then spends some time and effort over the writing of the blog. We owe our thanks to him. We shouldn't expect him to do this earlier.

      A word to Gayathri: Do the crossword as much as possible and leave for work. Don't visit the blog in the morning. Later, after the day is done, do return to your crossword and it's possible that you get some more answers. When you have finally given up, visit the blog. You can comment too, as this section is quite alive till late in the evening.

      Delete
    3. To add to what CV said, if you *must* have the answers before 8, you can try looking at the facebook THC app. There are a few solvers (Gita Iyer among others) who complete the puzzle before the blog appears here.

      But if you have worked out the answer but not sure how it is derived, I'm afraid you'll have to wait till 8.30 : )

      Delete
    4. Hi Doc,
      Are you the same person who wrote 'The Name is Rajinikanth'?

      Delete
    5. See

      http://www.behindwoods.com/features/Gallery/tamil-movies-events/photos-4/rajini-book-1/the-name-is-rajinikanth-05.jpg

      where there is a photo of the book launch

      Delete
    6. The author of the book is also an ophthalmologist. So Ajeesh you may be right. But let Gayatri confirm, if she chooses to.

      Delete
    7. Bhavan - the Facebook does not carry THC, anymore. I used to participate.

      Delete
    8. So Gayatri, we now have a reputed (or should we say for purists, reputable) writer in our midst.

      Delete
    9. Good to know we have purist and pundit in our midst

      Delete
  3. Aye, Aye.
    You have an eye for the crossword I presume.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. haha, yes Mr. Kishore, never looked at it that way,i guess i lack your sense of humor.
      @ chaturvasi ji, thanks a lot! i understand the history now. i shall of course wait till 8.30. i start solving around 7.30. an hour is more than enough to solve THC.
      @ Bhargav ji yes, i do have a keen eye for CW now. @Bhavan ji, sure!
      @ Mr. RIchard, i am non violent by nature, so no Hammurabi codes for me :D...
      @Ajeesh, that s correct. My next bio is releasing this december. :)

      Delete
    2. All the best for the next bio. May we know the name of the subject, if it's not still in the covers. And, please, dispense with the Mr., we are all chums here and you will save at least 25% of the typing, if you count it as 4 chars, not forgetting to count the extra space that comes with it.

      Delete
  4. Hi Doc,

    It's always been 8:30, I have no plans of advancing the time, in fact I did have plans to retard it to 9 when The HINDU started appearing late.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh no! please don't do that... 8: 30 is absolutely fine.

      Delete
  5. 18A - If you do, you become reputed (4,1,4) - EARN A NAME [CD]

    No nitpicking, this. I liked the clue. But I remembered our professor's advice in college not to use 'reputed' in the place of 'reputable'.

    'Reputed', derived from the root verb 'repute', means 'what is popularly or widely believed (to be)'.

    E.g., The house was reputed to have been sold for a whopping price of Rs 3 million.

    The up-and-coming heroine is reputed to have had intimate relationship with a much-older hero of yesteryear.


    Classified ads carry the message that 'A reputed firm requires....'. It could mean, according to my old mentor, that it is believed to be a firm while not actually being one, and it has nothing to do with its reputation.

    I have not referred to any recent crop of online dictionaries.

    Yet, I lie flat to stand corrected.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I do not agree!

      Yes, in the two sentences above 'reputed' means 'supposed'.

      But when I say "Mr X is a reputed journalist" I mean he is a journalist of repute.

      See 'reputed' in Chambers. It has the sense 'of repute'.

      Professors may not always be correct.

      Delete
    2. Agree with CV.Me OED gives a meaning of reputed as 'be widely known and well thought of' as in the context mentioned by CV.

      A reputed firm in the ad would also generally mean a firm of repute. The meaning given by Richard's mentor was perhaps just in jest.

      Delete
  6. Tree with a head of a botanist becomes balder.

    Suresh with no head for Botany is anyways becoming Balder.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was just making a point. However, please read these opinions.

      ONE

      TWO

      THREE

      Delete
    2. Opinions two and three above agree that reputed is correct is the sense of reputable, but that reputable is a better word and unambiguous.

      Delete
    3. Or at leas do not disagree on the usage of reputed in the sense of reputable.

      Delete
    4. I am firm in my opinion, whatever others may say. That when I write "Mr X is a reputed journalist" I am not at all casting any doubt.
      Here 'reputed' is an adjective and it means 'of repute'. Mr X is a journalist of repute.

      Delete
    5. Even assuming (just for the sake of argument, I'm not taking a stand now) that Richard's point is valid, for the purposes of the clue, 'Reputed' would still work fine I believe. In the sense that you could have earned the name, whether you deserved it or not!

      Delete
  7. How do you nitpick on a bald head???

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quite a hair-raising question!

      Delete
    2. If that be the solution, it would be so simple.

      Delete
  8. G for Gridman. G for Great.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very good crossword. Long clue for 1d:-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. For this word, I once wrote a shorter clue with one component being 'Cade', a title of the thriller-writer, James Hadley Chase.

      Delete
  10. Nice one today too. Learnt a few new words Ambuscade,Midge. The cluing made it straightforward to get ambuscade. Midge required crossings and a reference to the dictionary.Even after reading the annotation, I have not been able to figure out midge.

    Why is pushed = mid ?

    Overall today's crossword was :

    Farmer growing Lavender is likeable. (8)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nice one. Good to be able to pick up some obscure meanings and words (the usage of Cod as jest for eg)

    ReplyDelete
  12. 25D, I thought "girl wearing sexy.." is "girl covered in sexy..." which equals "DI in HOT" and not the other way around. Or am I wrong?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You may have a point, I grant!

      However, when someone wears something, someone owns it, someone has it, so 'wears' could probably be used as an inserticator.

      Delete

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