Thursday, 14 March 2013

No 10720, Thursday 14 Mar 13, Sankalak

Relief for all those who crave samosas.

ACROSS
1   Weaken a casserole by adding sulphur (7) DISABLE {DI{S}ABLE} Couldn't find a link to the 'Diable casserole' anywhere on the net. I found it in my BRB though.
5   A large quantity found in a copper flask perhaps (7) SACKFUL {CU+FLASK}*
9   It is when you have to pay additionally for lunch and dinner (3,3,9) BED AND BREAKFAST [GK]
10 Investment abroad by the non-professional (6) OUTLAY {OUT}{LAY}
11 Keep a little polite aloofness (8) PRESERVE {P}{RESERVE}
13 Watchman, dispatched because of the Spanish, … (8) SENTINEL {SENT}{IN}{EL}
15 … frightens daughter backed by relatives (6) DAUNTS {D}{AUNTS}
18 Harmless and good in what was Dahomey (6) BENIGN {BENI{G}N}
19 Stress about identity causes mishap (8) ACCIDENT {ACC{ID}ENT}
22 Fish, with a bit of grease in diet can be causing a mood of wellbeing (4-4) FEEL-GOOD {F{EEL}-{G}OOD}
24 A place for legitimate shooting (6) STUDIO [CD]
27 Source of entertainment spells out noticeable lives (5,10) CABLE TELEVISION*
28 Stage, with left and right adjusted, is second to none in size (7) LARGEST {STAGE+L+R}*
29 A snack with energy prepared with scepticism (7) ASKANCE {A+SNACK+E}*

DOWN
1   Give a name to promissory notes — “uncertain” (7) DUBIOUS {DUB}{IOUS}
2   Old Middle-eastern leader with a way to accommodate a prosecutor (5) SADAT {S{A}{DA}T}
3   Covering the wound of players getting on in years (9) BANDAGING {BAND}{AGING}
4   Goes down like the tide (4) EBBS [DD]
5   That girl on the right track gets a drink (6) SHERRY {SHE}{R}{RY}
6   They are likely to be cut on birthdays (5) CAKES [CD]
7   Scrap in European state has a pleasant influence (9) FRAGRANCE {F{RAG}RANCE}
8   Forms a foam with French and English articles on empty roads (7) LATHERS {LA}{THE}{RoadS}
12 Moisture that is said to be expected (3) DEW (~due)
14 N.B. More men are upset by an outsider (3-6) NON-MEMBER*
16 Somewhat dense, more than what one can put up with (1,3,5) A BIT THICK {A BIT} {THICK}
17 No negative in the advertisement, cold stuff (3) ICE notICE
18 Such a lens as may be made if black coal is processed (7) BIFOCAL {IF+B+COAL}*


20 Soundly thrash and transpose big cat (7) TROUNCE {TR}{OUNCE}
21 Foreign Office people, with end of rest, foster evil (6) FOMENT {FO}{MEN}{T}
23 Diving bird that Dongre besottedly sheltered (5) GREBE [T]
25 Spirit of excited Ninja, trading article for 500 (5) DJINN {NINJ(-a+d}D}*
26 Greek character’s wager on apple to start with (4) BETA {BET}{A}


36 comments:

  1. 22a at last


    5 That girl on the right track gets a drink (6) SHERRY {SHE}{R}{RY}

    Reminded me of FM Manekshaw's daughter

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    Replies
    1. BTW for those interested Sherry's daughter's name is Brandy

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    2. Also, co-incidentally the late FM's sons-in-law are a Batliwala and a Daruwala each

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    3. Thanks for the interesting info :))

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    4. K 8:33 - A quote which ran something like 'John Gielgud no feel-good' had been attributed the great late actor. Any idea about the context?

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    5. Kishore - Speaking of names, one of the Engineering College classmates of a nephew of mine, who hailed from Kerala, used to visit our place very often. His name was Sony. On casual enquiry about his family, we came to know that he had a brother called Saneo.

      We wondered if his father's name could be a 'branded' one. The answer was in the negative. But an uncle of his was Philips.

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    6. My post @ 10:56, pls read 'attributed to the great late actor..'

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    7. Maybe there was a Murphy lurking around in the family tree too..

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    8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    9. I think Sherry Batliwala settled down in Chennai and if doing this crossword might also be enjoying a samosa as is wont with the denizens of that city

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    10. HERE is a recent write-up on the late FM Sam. A must-read for all his admirers.

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    11. Nice reading that article from Nithin. My father in law had spent some time with Sam. I, however, remember hearing about him post retirement as Chairman of some companies like Nagarjuna Fert. Etc. where he used to conduct meetings with an iron hand.

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    12. There is a photo of a black ambassador with the IAF ensign in the article with reference that an Air Chief had visited Sam. Given that the vehicle is 2000 model and that even if service chiefs or RM does not visit funerals of FMs, service chiefs probably get a new car, we can deduce that the visitor must have been ACM Anil Tipnis.

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    13. On the chance that the visiting Air Chief was using a car allotted to one of his juniors, the window becomes wider, the possibilities expand to cover ACMs Tipnis, Krishnaswamy, Tyagi and Major, since the time frame is from 2000-2008.

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    14. The car cannot be the service chiefs car as his car would not be taken from ND to Ooty, it is one of the cars of DSSC Wellington so it can be anything within a couple of years after 2000

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    15. The car cannot be the service chiefs car as his car would not be taken from ND to Ooty, it is one of the cars of DSSC Wellington so it can be anything within a couple of years after 2000

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    16. Fully agree. So it has to be Tipnis or Krishnaswamy then 2000-2004. However, I have heard of several IAF officers who have actually ferried their vehicles (even personal ones) when they were flying transport aircraft, may be in violation of service rules. So if they do it, why not for the chief, though it really does not make sense to do it, since just the insignia can be put on the local top car.

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  2. Good morning Colonel and others. What's with samosas? Have I missed an inside joke?

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    Replies
    1. Shows you have been out of touch with this blog, Shuchi.;-) The Chennai bloggers apparently go in for samosas whenever the crossword is easy. I think this was started by Dr Gayathri who would call out for a samosa celebration whenever she was able to crack the crossie.

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    2. Today might be one of those gorging orgy days when the samosa sales in Chennai hit the roof

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    3. I am one short missing out on the Ninja!

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    4. I am trying to locate the original samosa comment.

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    5. Thank you everyone, especially Suresh for looking up the original comment. I've seen samosas being discussed a few times in the comment space but earlier thought it was the usual food talk of THCC :P Since it made it to the blog's headline, it had to be more than that!

      On another note, this update from @dontattempt on twitter made me smile thinking of one of our regulars: https://twitter.com/dontattempt/status/312085134331478016.

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  3. Sankalak does come as a welcome relief. Smooth and enjoyable as ever.

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  4. Responding to Karry's comment yesterday about losing interest. He has a valid point. If The Hindu shuffled setters on a daily basis rather than having 6 days of Sankalak/Gridman at a stretch, it would give a better mix of the simple with the difficult. This may help retain interest among both the newer and the more seasoned solvers.

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    Replies
    1. I have also voiced that opinion a number of times, don't know why they don't do it. It should be no problem

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    2. This is an interesting topic. My take is that The Hindu folks that run the cryptic crossword should think about what their brand is and what people find appealing about them. We should take a leaf from papers like the Guardian, Daily Telegraph, The Times, Independent etc. I would wager that for example, you would never find a Times puzzle make it to the Guardian or a Guardian puzzle in the Times, though some of the setters set for both. Similarly, when solvers access the puzzles, they are also sure of what they are getting, though like the setters, a few of the solvers overlap. In fact, the Daily Telegraph has neatly (debatable?) solved the problem of tough vs. regular by separately sating those "toughie" solvers' appetites through a less regular DT Toughie. This blog is extremely popular but even here, I feel like though a lot of us appreciate the cleverness of the new setters, but still, like old wine, find Gridman's and Sankalak's down-to-earth simplicity very clever as well. And I daresay (no statistics to back me here), that this blog while ever more popular, still represents a minority of all Hindu solvers but a majority of all its nuanced intellectual solvers. Keeping this in mind, it is probably in the Hindu's best interest to say what their quality of puzzles should be and allow our crop of intelligent setters to craft the crossword hewing to those "house rules" if you will, but also express their creativity with this brand that Hindu stands for. Any maybe, just maybe, one of the house rules could be a toughie once a week or so..

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  5. The original

    In response to Incognito on 12 Oct 2012

    Dr.gayathri Sreekanth8:32 AM GMT+05:30

    this is my facebook status... yay!! my day is gonna be WONDERFUL... after many many many months, completed the Hindu crossword in one go. planning to treat myself with coffee and samosa. :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And ever since, samosas have attained a legendary status out here..

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  6. 12D-DEW
    I am reminded of a Tamil folk song which says-"Moongil ilai mele thoongum pani neere" meaning the dew drop that sleeps in the bamboo leaves. Story goes that the great poet Kambar heard only the first part about the bamboo leaf and was left wondering what could be on such a flimsy leaf. It hurt his ego not to know such a thing and requested them to complete the song and they said it is the simple dew drop! DS may know this.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Padmanabhan for remembering me. I have heard of the song but the anecdote is new to me. That's why this blog is a great University ( as we learnt about military and bottle connection from Kishore today)

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  7. Nice CW. I enjoyed the punch in 20d 'soundly thrash' employed in an unusual connotation.

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  8. Great opener as always, looking forwarding to the next few days. Hopefully its not mini-run of 4 this time around.

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  9. In my opinion, we have special liking for SANKALAK & GRIDMAN, because, generally they use words from regular parlance.

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  10. Yes, definitely samosa day!
    Missing Gayathri - hope you are recovering well.

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