Wednesday, 22 May 2013

No 10779, Wednesday 22 May 13, Sankalak


ACROSS
1   Waste some heads and reveal the secret (5,3,5) SPILL THE BEANS [CD]
10 Is dieting so bad for assimilation? (9) DIGESTION*
11 For the prosecutor, honour and a country home (5) DACHA {DA}{CH}{A}
12 It is possible to preserve pieces of dill and oregano (3,2) CAN DO {CAN} {D}{O}
13 Eight-limbed creature, small, extremely naughty in film (9) OCTOPUSSY {OCTOPUS}{S}{Y}
14 In grammar, is it a levy on reported wrongdoing? (6) SYNTAX (~sin){SYN}{TAX}
16 Place in Karnataka where lawyers take one penny (5) BIDAR {B{1}{D}AR}
19 Inspire one master, depressed, having lost 50 (5) IMBUE {1}{M}{BlUE}
20 Sudden attack on vehicle parked in a medieval hospital (6) AMBUSH {A}{M}{BUS}{H}
25 Directors prepared for chess, say (5,4) BOARD GAME {BOARD} {GAME}
26 A solution, new in a white, soft cheese (5) BRINE {BRI{N}E}
27 Sign up, put down name in reversed knowledge (5) ENROL {E{N}ROL<=}
28 A craze for bones is so unusual (9) OBSESSION*
29 Sambar with idli! (13) ACCOMPANIMENT [CD]

DOWN
2   One with no religion at home, independent violinist (8) PAGANINI {PAGAN}{IN}{I}
3   The long rope, behold, to catch a donkey (5) LASSO {L{ASS}O}
4   Support for a journey with party backing (6) TRIPOD {TRIP}{OD<=}
5   A German saint, a German physicist (8) EINSTEIN {EIN}{ST}{EIN}
6   Large maps done afresh to show a layer of the cell (9) ENDOPLASM {L+MAPS+DONE}*
7   A circuit in the house — nothing could be more pleasant (6) NICEST {N{IC}EST}
8   Prepares for publication about hundred proclamations (6) EDICTS {EDI{C}TS}
9   Woodland god posed on turned up track (5) SATYR {SAT}{YR<=}
15 Creature that is amoral, idle, dissipated without energy (9) ARMADILLO {AMORAL+IDLe}*
17 It spins around the body in gyrations (4-4) HULA-HOOP [CD]
18 An inspection, one about a voice test (8) AUDITION [CD] (Addendum - {AUDIT}{1}{ON} - See comments)
21 Using a garden tool, can he go in dancing? (6) HOEING*
22 Ibsen heroine, not good but more proficient (5) ABLER gABLER
23 School course for a master with little time curtailed (6) MATRIC {MA}{TRICe}
24 An enzyme that provides vigour at home (6) PEPSIN {PEPS}{IN}
26 Broom kept in a tube some times (5) BESOM [T]


47 comments:

  1. After many days, got to spend some time on THC. Thankfully, Sankalak didn't sink my luck. Some really well-crafted clues.

    10A - My COD.

    29A - Any grouse from solvers about the accompaniment of sambar and idli? Coming as it does early in the morning, possibly there shouldn't be.


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  2. 18 An inspection, one about a voice test (8) AUDITION [CD]

    My anno was AUDIT (I) ON

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  3. Continuing CV's gunny bag ref. from yesterday:

    The cry 'saakkupai'. "pai" of course is bag. Does the saaku come from the English Sack?

    Refer yesterday evening's posts for another Tamil reference.

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  4. Thanks to all participants in our BLITHE c w e, including late-evening entry of Padmanabhan from the U.S.

    My favourite is

    Cheerful bachelor inflamed her endlessly (6)

    Neat charade.

    Smooth surface reading as well but we might ask why a cheerful man should anger a woman (we could expect such men to take advantage of women like some corporate CEOs are ill-reputed to do).

    Perhaps we could think of a more appropriate def?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe he did take advantage and also let her know that he wanted to be a bachelor boy until his dying days, thus inflaming her endlessly.

      Enjoy this old favourite:

      http://www.lyricsfreak.com/c/cliff+richard/bachelor+boy_20032076.html

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    2. Thought of Careless first, but used 'inflamed' more in the meaning of provoking passion, so used Cheerful.

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    3. Today try Googling for phantom and see whar is sugested by the auto suggestor after the first four letters

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    4. Sheesh! That is phantastic!

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    5. Today memories crowd on me.

      It is years since I saw an English movie or even listened to any English songs.

      But in Sec'bad as a young boy I have heard English songs on the radio as my elder brother, uncle and others put them on.

      Cliff Richard's 'Bachelor boy' I remember. Unforgettable. After your hint, I heard it on youtube.

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  5. Name one dish you like (e.g., idli, dosai, thayir sdaham) and the most desirable accompaniment that you expect to be served with it - without which you just wouldn't enjoy the main dish.

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    Replies
    1. Tambrahms would swear on Venthaya Kuzhambu & Sutta appalam

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    2. That would lead to buns in ovens, Deepak.

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    3. Any dish? Recalled an earlier discussion here...

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    4. My personal choice would be Sri Racha Sauce as an accompaniment with any item which is not sweet. In fact, my next batch of this is underway.

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    5. Deepak's double pun is superb

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    6. Sorry, CV, I think I misunderstood your question. I took it as which accompaniment I would enjoy with any main dish.

      Comin to your question, I would not be able to enjoy pheni without the paal.

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    7. The memorable time that I ate pheni with haalu was in 1957 at the wedding of my sister.

      Before that I may have eaten it but I can't recall. We were living in Sec'bad and other places and had no chance of eating the sweet dish during any grand occasion.

      In 1957 I was 14 years - and when the pheni was served we children were excited and helped ourselves to it. The wedding took place in CBE.

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  6. Saakkupai: Excuse trotted out by a certain Mangalorean

    'Saakku' in Tamil also means 'excuse, pretext'.

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  7. thayir saadham with vadu maangaay

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  8. 23A MATRIC - This term, short for matriculation, was once popular to imply Grade or Class Ten, marking the completion of secondary education or high school.

    This happened a few decades ago. We had a seafood canning factory in our vicinity. I was just out of high school. There was kind of a PRO working there who was put in charge of the Japanese experts who were on a visit. I was impressed with the way he conversed in English with them.

    Being familiar with him, and out of curiosity, I asked the PRO what his educational qualifications were. He shot back saying M A (Tric).

    I took it to be something like M A (Trichinopoly). Later it dawned on me that he had played a joke by meaning to say he was a Matriculate.

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    Replies
    1. Real scholars wouldn't say "I am Dr. So-and-so". But people with degrees gained mostly by correspondence will flaunt them. I don't mind people adding a string of degrees after their names such as MA (Econ.), M.A. (Eng), M.A. (Hist.), M.A. (Psych.). - subjects unrelated to each other. But I hate doctors who after MBBS add another such as MS with a stroke above the last two letters - to mean they are at it and yet to win the scroll. How did this practice come about? Isn't it a very Indian - probably south Indian - thing? I could add some more lines but lest I should be hauled up for any defamation I refrain myself from doing so.

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  9. Regarding Kishore's query whether 'saakku' comes from 'sack', it could well have.

    Or it could be the way around, that is 'sack' coming from 'saakku'.

    The hobby of an 80-year-old cousin of mine, who self-taught Sanskrit after he reached 60 years of age and is by no means a trained philologist, prepares a compendium of English/Sanskrit/Tamil words with similarities.

    When I visited him yesterday he showed me the 40-page notebook that he has by his side and where he jots down whenever an idea occurs to him. Sack/saakku may well be in it.

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    Replies
    1. Further, I remember people in the market place squatting on a gunny bag. Sometimes they slept on it too. Is that called hitting the sack?

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    2. Usually the money used to be stored under a fold-back flap of the gunny bag

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    3. Yes, Kishore.

      With the emergence of till-boxes, cash registers, cash drawers, etc., all those old practices are disappearing.

      We must consider ourselves fortunate in having born and lived during the times when they were still there. Our children missed many: our grandchildren will miss much more.

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    4. Today gunny bags have taken centrestage.

      Jute boley kawwa kaaTe?

      During the Nehruvian era, many big-time newspapers were owned by jute tycoons. Hence he used call the newspapers critical of him 'Jute Press' - obviously playing a pun with jhoot (falsehood). Having lived in the north, CV may remember this.

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    5. Read 'Hence he used to call...'

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    6. Oru "sakkupai"kkuLLa ivvaaLavu vishayama?? Thanks CV sir, Kishore and Richard

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    7. இது எல்லாம் பேச்சுக்குத்தான். பைசாக்கு உதவாது.

      ( Idhu ellam summa paechchukkuththaan. Paisaakku udhavaadhu. )

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    8. That's the purpose of the blog, isn't it?

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    9. CV, summa missing in the Tamil version ...

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    10. Your summation is correct!

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    11. Summa cum laude

      Guess what this would mean if translated based on Indian language words

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  10. 20A Is MH a valid abbr. for medeival hospital? Would not Military hospital been more correct?

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  11. 27 Sign up, put down name in reversed knowledge (5) ENROL {E{N}ROL<=}

    What is reversed knowledge?

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  12. 16A made me think a bit, being from Delhi, was unfamiliar.
    Great to have Sankalak brighten the morning.
    Surely a samosa and coffee day! Doc Gayathri - are you there??

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  13. Richard,

    Can Lore or knowledge be reversed?

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  14. When you put lore in verse and then revise the lines you wrote, you're probably reversing lore.

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  15. Now Cryptonyte setting CW in Cricinfo

    http://www.espncricinfo.com/thestands/content/story/637174.html

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  16. AD,

    Could you tell me if the cryptic clues and the straightforward clues use the same grid and also lead to the same answers?

    I guess so, but, as you know, I have difficulty in accessing the puz quickly.

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  17. @C V Sir - 12.43 - Very nice usage of "pai-sakku" uthavaathu. Enjoyed it.
    Kishore & Afterdark - on Oru Thalai Ragam from yesterday - We call it "il poruL uvamai aNi" i.ie. Comparing a thing with another which doesn't exist.

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