Gridman finishes this run much the way it was throughout, with an entertaining puzzle. I do have a bone to pick with 2D though. How far is too far with regional references. Your thoughts?
ACROSS
1 Drivers rack and rasp angrily when not finding these (3,5) CAR, PARKS (RACK RASP)*
5 Rest books the woman scribbled on top (6) OTHERS (OT + HER + S)
10 How Leander swam the Hellespont to meet his beloved (7) NIGHTLY (GK)
11 Delight in lather worked up to smother the nude’s head (7) ENTHRAL (LATHER* outside N)
12 Regard sessions recalled by evaluator at first (6) ESTEEM (MEETS<= after E)
13 Din Croat created is characteristic of a violent wind storm (8) TORNADIC (DIN CROAT)*
15 Aquatic creature, duck seen lying in shade (4) TOAD (O inside TAD)
16 Insignificant flow of millstream (5-5) SMALL-TIMER (MILLSTREAM)*
18 If one is sitting there, one is undecided (2,3,5) ON, THE, FENCE (E)
20 No limits to pasta! I will get wine (4) ASTI (pASTa + I)
23 The skill of our broadcasters in a flying machine (8) AIRCRAFT (CRAFT of A.I.R)
24 Leader of piety in Indian city finds site of temple (6) DELPHI (P inside DELHI)
26 Sounding natural and grammatical? No, Mother, it’s nonsensical (7) IDIOTIC (IDIOmaTIC)
27 Fancy ring given to the artist (7) CHIMERA (CHIME + RA)
28 Bird, no upstart, in a pound (6) THRASH (THRu(+A)SH)
29 Able peon described as tall, thin person (8) BEANPOLE (ABLE PEON)*
DOWN
1 Viol Constantine played is moderate (15) CONVENTIONALIST (VIOL CONSTANTINE)*
2 On roistering in Tamil Nadu, Al leaves boat race (7) REGATTA (RE + GalATTA)
3 Song puts worker on edge (6) ANTHEM (ANT + HEM)
4 King’s ‘yes’: first of orders to strike (4) KAYO (K + AY + O) K.O more familiarly
6 I, with ten, at it — producing mineral (8) TITANITE (I TEN AT IT)*
7 A title that could make me a lord (7) EARLDOM (ME A LORD)* &lit
8 A document in which one vouches for oneself (4-11) SELF-CERTIFICATE (CD)
9 Remember to band together again (9) RECOLLECT (DD)
14 One MP gets ref. and ‘tec’ tossed and disfigured (9) IMPERFECT (I MP + REF TEC*)
17 Lot of waste — dirt set haphazardly around the lid of urn (8) DETRITUS (DIRT SET* outside U)
19 Dog’s blunder in row (7) TERRIER (ERR inside TIER)
21 Boss’ super-duper modus operandi (7) SUPREMO (SUPER* + MO)
22 Kind girl in African nation (6) BENIGN (G inside BENIN)
25 Spots cane arrangement (4) ACNE (CANE)*
Hi all
ReplyDeleteSome very cleverly contrived clues today. Liked CAR PARKS, AIRCRAFT, IDIOTIC, ASTI, BEANPOLE, IMPERFECT, RECOLLECT, ACNE and others.
CONVENTIONALIST was breath-taking.
i solved them all... wow... i feel good :D
DeleteRichard the First............ after a few years!
DeleteThe catalyst is active.
Def. Plus one !!
Delete+2. While it is very refreshing to see lot of new people participate nowadays, it is always good to see people like Richard and David coming back.
DeleteThanks, Bhavan, for the kind sentiment.
DeleteDuring the past year or so, I could follow the blog only late evenings because of time constraints. With all crosswordesque subjects depleted by sundown, literally by the end of the day, there was hardly anything left to comment on.
Now on, I want to be back in action. Maybe partly because of some prodding on by Dr D Srinivasan. I am grateful to him too.
Welcome back, buddy.
DeleteRichard@10.24 Reverse catalysis?
DeleteOh, for a while I thought you said catharsis!
DeleteSee some snaps of the dinner meet between Suresh, Kishore and self at RSI Banaglore at the THCC Families blog
ReplyDeleteSuresh in a red T-shirt. Hmm... Revenge or repentance?
DeleteWith a vengeance, maybe...
DeleteIs RSI the Rajendra Sinhji Institute off M G Road?
DeleteYes, ex Army chief, of the Jadeja family which gave us KS Duleepsinghji and Ranji and lately Ajay.
DeleteI did not have the pleasure of meeting Suresh and hence was expecting him to have some resemblance to the photo on the blog!
DeleteThere used to be a joke about the GT (between Delhi & Madras) being a day late. Suresh, by being several days late for S & B, has beaten that record hollow!!
BEANPOLE reminded me of the beanpoles here, Bhavan and Bhargav, making 4 Bs in all.
ReplyDeleteWho are the other 2?
DeleteBeanpole is the third and a certain bee the fourth ;-)
DeleteBack in my old routine - and it feels like I never left! Great to start off with a lovely puzzle from the ever entertaining Gridman!
ReplyDeleteWelcome back, David
DeleteHi DaDo, welcome back. Did you get a good look at the Crown jewels recently on display?
DeleteThanks!
Delete@kishore - The Harry pictures have been banned in the uk! But obviously everyone has just googled them.
Will be running around a lot on this trip. My daughter is now living in Bangalore, and is engaged. I have to go up to Lucknow (where the boys family live) to finalise the wedding date and book the venue etc. I am also about to embark on a road trip from kottayam to Bangalore in a car loaded with spare furniture we are donating to her new home.
Oh - and other good news, my elder son just got his A level results and will be going to Oxford in October.
Great, David. See you when you are in Bangalore.
DeleteAgree with Bhavan's comment on 2D, regional references which are commonplace could be acceptable.
ReplyDeleteGalatta (Tamil) over 2D?
DeleteDid not realise 'galatta' is so Tamil-ish. Crossings and of course the boat race are there ready enough. To be frank, galatta was the last thing to connect for me.
DeleteThe Hindu, though a National Daily, is from Tamil Nadu.
ReplyDeleteThe setters are mostly from TN and the solvers too maybe mostly from TN. I felt Galatta is not out of context.
After DG and CG's diametrically opposite views, it is my turn to sit on 18a
DeleteBeing off fence may not be an offence.
DeleteIn my de-fence, I don't want to fence some stolen fences, let they eat the grass they are supposed to guard.
DeleteI have no problem with a regional word being used in the grid. I object to using such a word (hard for non-TNers) as a component of wordplay.
Deleteok... 5 ac cannot be stress?? ( anag rest + s in scribble on top)?? 20 a/c could be ziti... ziti is a tubular pasta...so got stuck there. over all, it was a good puzzle, but i had to rely a lot of anagrammer.com
ReplyDeletegood day all.
'Rest' being the def., stress is antonym and not synonym. Still, stress crossed my mind too before being scored out.
DeleteRest- def.
books- OT (OLd Testament)
the woman- her
Scribbled on top- S
ot-her-s.
No. Stress won't fit here. its a cryptic crossword where all the components have something to do . stress has 3 s also. same with ziti. We are not consuming wine here :-)
DeleteDr.Gayathri @8:38 so got stuck .. on the word or pasta?
Delete24 Leader of piety in Indian city finds site of temple (6) DELPHI (P inside DELHI)
ReplyDeleteThat makes me think: Oracle was there at Delphi, when SAP had not yet been launched.
Then Oracle moved out of Delphi?!
Delete@Kishore,
DeleteSAP was there much before Delphi or Oracle. Of course, I meant SAP as in 'Snake' :)
p.s. above comment has nothing to do with my professional affiliation.
Sir, how do you know that today Gridman finishes his round?
ReplyDeleteBased on past cycles. Of course it is not a hard and fast rule. There might be a 7th puzzle tomorrow to surprise us.
DeleteIf there is a 7 I will accept it with both hands. Enjoyed this run from Gridman
DeleteLoved 'Benign'. Nicely put.
ReplyDeleteOK, here I am on 'galatta'.
ReplyDeleteREGATTA has appeared in Gridman's puzzles four times in the past decade.
The clues were:
Somehow get a tar for the boat race (7)
Rashly target a boat race (7)
A target set for the boat race (7)
Gun put in hold, our sailors lost in the boat races (7)
Faced with the word once again, G wanted to give a different twist to it and so came up with what we have today.
G thinks that though it is a regional word it is well-known enough. Why, we have had film titles (e.g., Galatta Kalyanam); there is the website galatta.com; there is a Blackberry app. by this name.
To seasoned solvers the def 'boat race' and the enu 7 in themselves might fetch the answer. Having got it, it is a question of finding the justification and musing about the bloody regional flavour that a harried (much like the Prince) setter has given.
DeleteGalatta is not a word that is well known outside Tamilnadu. Even in Andhra people would not know it. so I do not think it is a fair clue.
I had the answer without the anno because I did not expect such a reference.
I had a similar thought on a clue some days back, when to be out of place implied being away from Chennai! (wondered how the likes of Kishore and Suresh solved it)
DeleteAt least in today's clue the reference to TN is there, even if it makes it a bit difficult for non local lingo speakers
Solving for Kishore or me is not a problem. Both of us speak Tamil. But in a National newspaper with editions in Delhi etc. a clue like this is like an African's left leg (avoiding the original version for reasons of propriety). It is neither right nor fair.
DeleteMy dear Bhala, quite elementary. Galata also exists in Kannada and Konkani as Galate and Galato, so mentioning TN, with ref to me, would be stating a subset of the domain where the word is in usage.
DeleteBut Suresh, while I know the the leg in question is neither right nor left, why bring racism into it by saying it is not fair? ;-)
Ah it looks like both of you have taken me a bit too literally, while the comment was somewhat tongue in cheek. The point was, why should 'out of place' be with reference to Chennai in a national edition
DeleteFor me today's crossword wasn't one :
ReplyDeleteSimple sweet path (8)
You can walk the cake and have it too!
DeleteFrom sweet talking to sweet walking ?
DeleteFor @Richard7:40
DeleteStatement of understanding or possession. (3,3,2)
The Hindu Web Edition has goofed up miserably. One whole Column on the left 1 Dn was missing. It is very remiss on their part. After uploading anything editors should check the webpage. I cannot help feeling very let down.
ReplyDeleteThey are ahead of the TIMES, as they claim, in their time capsule?
DeleteCan we call it Journalistic malfunction? Denuding our dear virgin crosswords?
Sloppiness, omissions and commissions in this Desk top era are unpardonable.
Reminds me of the saying " To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer."
DeleteRemember we had the 'floppy' discs?
DeleteA huge Gadbad Gottala on Galatta? I agree, Hindu may be a national paper with a regional flavour and hence shouldn't use local dialects. Rather presumptuous to exclude hard-core solvers beyond the Vindhyas? When I was cursorily running thru' today's comments, I just couldn't figure out the annotations; may be upon solving the entire Grid- man's creation, I would have stumbled upon the only inevitable answer as REGATTA.
ReplyDeleteLets say Ta ta to such galatta and Gadbad Gottala.After all, we are all cryptomaniacs?
Great gappa goshti here on gadbad gottala- galatta
DeleteNow then, putting our backs on galatta-ghotala, here is some diversion:
ReplyDeleteAn innocuous-looking headline from the IANS (news agency) on August 23:
CURIOSITY MAKES MAIDEN MOVE ON MARS
Do the tongue-in-cheek experts in this forum see any mischief potential? Annotations on connotations welcome.
Changing one letter M to L in the fourth word...
ReplyDeleteHow about this blatant headline 3 days back in ET, Bangalore:
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETBG/2012/08/21&PageLabel=1&EntityId=Ar00101&ViewMode=HTML
Mind you it was central, top headline on the first page...
Kishore,
DeleteMy curiosity made me copy & paste your link. Lo & behold, it brings me back to our blog !!
I tried it just now, and it works fine...
DeleteGoing back to Galatta, is it a word in Tamil , really? or is it a derivative of Ghottala, guttorily pronounced, from the north? Gaffla and Ghottala are the passwords amongst our worthy rulers who always guffaw their way to their Swiss banks.
ReplyDeleteGalatta means confusion? uproar? melee? prithee,can our Tamilian scholars herein clarify?
Yesterday's Crossword:
ReplyDeleteRHUBARB : '' Any of several plants of the genus Rheum, especially R. rhabarbarum, having long green or reddish acidic leafstalks that are edible''
Rhubarb also means a row, used in yesterday's crossword context.''fray, free-for-all, fuss, hassle, melee, quarrel, rhubarb, riot, row, ruckus*''rumble, rumpus.
Compilers of crosswords in the English newspapers love this word to beguile the solver by using in various contexts, as is my experience.
Incidentally, Rhubarb (homophone in Bambaiyya Hindi) also means r'ob jamaana or to over-awe.
Oh, the beauty of languages !!
CURIOSITY MAKES MAIDEN MOVE ON MARS
ReplyDeleteRichard: cat killer made men from here to shift the girl.
( A possibility of clue formation only by Bheja fry NJ
I am sure someone is going to find this 'creep'-tick!
DeleteOn Roistering in Tamil Nadu, Al leaves boat race.
ReplyDeleteREGATTA is a new word to me. I was stuck for a long time trying to remove Al from Tamil Nadu and shuffle the remaining letters to find out a word meaning boat race! Today's discussion will help me to remember this REGATTA for a long time :)