Wednesday, 26 June 2013

No.10809, Wednesday 26 Jun 13, Sankalak

 Sankalak is in form and the old format's back again !

ACROSS
1 By the seacoast, I turned up an accomplice (9) ASSOCIATE (SEACOAST I)*
5 More depraved bachelors about to return (5) BASER (BAS RE<)  
          We had BASHER yesterday
8 I leave the stormy Caspian with two knights to get a bag (8)  KNAPSACK (CASPiAN KK)*
9 Confront retired accountant with a charge (6)  ACCOST (CA< COST)
11The antenna, say, of a gazelle (5) ARIEL (~AERIAL)

12 The meaning of the position taken under a U-boat perhaps (9)  SUBSTANCE (STANCE under SUB)  
          Unter unterseeboot ? If it's not waterproof, my socks will get wet
13 Relish disturbing guest after dinner starts (6) DEGUST (D GUEST*)  
          I used to relish the Reader's Degust
14 A certain dip in the Mediterranean that is deliberate (8) MEASURED (A SURE in MED.)
16 Kind of colour given to a blunder about a quarrel, new (8)  BROWNISH (BISH around ROW N)
18 Inn with permit clipped by the people (6) PUBLIC (PUB LICence)
          MakkaL in Tamil
22 Broadcaster of a disembodied voice? (9) AKASHVANI (CD,DD)
          Remember the lilting sound with which it used to wake up, once upon a time
23 A right taken off in the advent of a competitor (5)  RIVAL (a r RIVAL)
24 Officer carrying travel permit in a brood pouch! (6) OVISAC (OC around VISA)
          This is what a poultry farmer uses to collect eggs, just like a fisherman uses a creel
25 Sponge, could be, a robber’s undoing (8)  ABSORBER (A ROBBERS)*
26 Indian gold? Right, for a sound system (5) SONAR (SONA R)
          Tagore wrote 'Amar Sonar Bangla', which was later adopted as Bangladesh's national anthem
27 What the arbiter reportedly intended to say in his decision (9) JUDGEMENT (JUDGE ~MEANT)
          Richard mentioned the declaration of Emergency yesterday. It was effective from today 26th
          June, 1975 and was a direct result of the Judgement of the Allahabad High Court. Kuldip
          Nayar wrote a book The Judgement on this.

DOWN
1 A protégé accepting work foregoing gold — that is embarrassing (7) AWKWARD (WorK in A WARD)
2 Shutting up a marine fish? (7)  SEALING (SEA LING)
3 Daydreams (7,2,3,3) CASTLES IN THE AIR (CD)
          Is what a 3d-chess player does when he wants to move a rook and a king on the top deck in the
          same move
4 A measure to exploit and make a charge (6) ACCUSE (A CC USE)
5 A banqueter’s cook, let loose, is again where he started, with no progress (4,2,6,3)  BACK TO SQUARE ONE (A BANQUETERS COOK)*  
          This is what always happens on the Penrose stairs, better known to people through Escher's
          drawing
6 He said “the kinquering Congs their titles take”! (7) SPOONER (GK)
          A not so young man having heard the daylight saving message on radio 'Time to turn your
          clock back' went straight to the shoe cupboard and picked up the black shoe polish before
          retiring to the loo
7 Give new life to the old tyre (7) RETREAD CD
          Makes sense for people who go bald
10 English baby dressed for church (5) ABBEY (E BABY)*
15 A small, pale city in Africa (5) ASWAN (A S WAN)
          This is the place where the Nile was dammed
16 Could the warning lights be a cheater’s? (7) BEACONS (BE A CONS)
17 Too vain, working for applause (7) OVATION (TOO VAIN)*
19 On the rise, Melba, voluptuous, was somewhat worthy of affection (7) LOVABLE (T<)
          The voluptous Melba might be lovable, not loved, as discussed yesterday
20 Priest, one housed by a sect, was the one at fault (7)  CULPRIT (PR 1 in CULT)
21 Arab sailor who found wrongdoing wicked (6) SINBAD (SIN BAD)
          He was the guy who found himself between a roc and a hard place

59 comments:

  1. Children in India learn to call him Sindbad, the variant of the name also used in the film produced in the last Century.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sin-bad exhorts you to do evil, whereas sinned-bad just reports it

      Delete
    2. SINBAD can be taken as an exhortation, "SIN (is) BAD".

      On the format mentioned in the byline: Old is SONA (a la the clue in 26Ac).

      Delete
    3. Anything like SIN-GOOD? :-)

      Someone had asked, 'What is so good about BADminton'?

      Delete
    4. Someone pronounced my name as 'Bad manabhan'!

      Delete
    5. Then we can call you 'Buddy' instead of 'Paddy'!

      BTW, are you still away or are back home?

      Delete
  2. +1 for both parts of the byline

    ReplyDelete
  3. 11A - What could be the connection between a gazelle and the washing powder brand ARIEL?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you looking for a real connection?

      Delete
    2. Usually swift-footed wild animals inspire car-makers. Wondering what the soap-makers had in mind...

      Delete
    3. Any woman (it's always a woman in the ads) who wears clothes rendered "palich" after having been taken through Ariel in a washing machine makes me to gaze at Elle.

      The two words are telescoped to GAZELLE.

      Delete
    4. And after that did you say, I came, I saw, I kinquered

      Delete
  4. 27A - Re Kishore's comment, the landmark judgement handed by Justice J L N Sinha invalidating Indira's election in early June 1975 perhaps totally changed India's political history.

    ReplyDelete
  5. 22 AKASHVANI is a DD. What is CD about it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Akashvani is a broadcaster of a disembodied voice, so the whole works as a cd defn.

      Delete
  6. 26A - Remembered an old Ajitism.

    Asked about his priorities, Ajit, ever fond of Mona and gold, answered 'Mona aur Mona ke saath....'

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ajit always Hammid his lines

      Delete
  7. Replies
    1. I heard it from the teening lover of Pisa

      Delete
  8. I find it easier to solve a THC or even a TT in its HT form, but I have to do a lot of head-scatching first to comprehend Kishore's afterwords and then try to find an answer to them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just look at them afterwards...

      Delete
  9. But my wards are all with me right now - including my grandchildren from the U.S.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then don't go unto ward.

      Compliments to Sharanya on her drawing the cartoon a few days back.

      Delete
    2. She writes poetry.

      Here is one written on her iPad and emailed to me:

      Will there ever be a world
      Where balloons did not twirl
      And frolick up so high above our heads
      On the Fourtheenth of March?

      Will there ever be a place
      Where every single space
      Was not filled with decorations
      On the Fourteenth of March?

      Will there ever be a land
      Where in each child’s hand
      There was no colorful balloon
      On the fourteenth of March?

      For the fourtheenth of March is no ordinary day,
      Thousands of children come out to play
      They bring a balloon, to dance with and smile,
      And stay outside for quite a while.
      Soon, they know the day is done,
      Because outside there is no sun
      Children everwhere gather up near the lake
      Their tired bodies must have to awake.
      The time to end the night is here
      With a ritual that occurs each year
      Slowly, the children gather together
      And stare up at the peaceful weather
      But every person’s little heart knows
      Everything ends and everything goes
      So with one final, meaningful goodbye
      They watch their balloons disappear ‘to the sky.
      What would life be, without Balloon Night?
      Each child wonders as they snuggle tight
      Cozy in their dear beds,
      the children rest their tired heads
      And start to, again, patiently wait
      For next year’s Balloon Night.

      Delete
    3. Nice. 3.14 is also pi day

      Delete
    4. Really nice one. Cld not help but think of Einstein (his b'day) at this line "For the fourtheenth of March is no ordinary day,"

      Delete
  10. Kishore, thanks for standing in at short notice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My pleasure. Anytime you say. Your command is my wish.

      Delete
    2. My God! What a standing in!!

      Delete
    3. And stand-up too, packed with humour!

      Delete
  11. 6 He said “the kinquering Congs their titles take”! (7) SPOONER

    A question for veteran solvers:

    Don't 'kinquering Congs' have to make sense, even if it is Spoonerism.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is an exact quote (or so Spooner-masters say). Hence, Sankalak would be right quoting it.

      However, there is a larger debate if Rev. Archibald Spooner did ever say any of the oft quoted ones.

      Delete
    2. Thanks. Didn't know about it being a quote.

      Delete
    3. As far as I know, the Spoonerized version of a phrase/sentence need not be sensible in itself.

      Let's say "He went by the town drain." Here the sentence as a whole doesn't make sense. But it is an acceptable Spoonerism which is merely transposition of initial letters of words. Here down train has become town drain.

      Sujatha the celebrated Tamil writer once talked about Spoonerism in a Tamil essay. The Editor thinking that the Spoonerized version is ribald, published not it but the straight sentence. How can we call it Spoonerism? Just imagine: To publish the above sentence as 'He went by the down train' and calling it Spoonerism, even without mentioning that it becomes Spoonerism when the intial letters of down train are transposed.

      I wrote a letter to the Editor but they didn't see my point and published a highly abridged version which never made any sense.

      I then wrote a personal letter to the writer and called the episode 'intellectual dishonesty'.

      Delete
    4. Down and train as such are words. Whereas kinquering and Congs are not words. But, as Kishore said it's a quotation no arguments about it.

      Delete
  12. Back to square one ! The old format is back again. Believe me it looks easy on the eye. "Old is Gold" you see !!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I found myself more comfortable with this format. Maybe since old habits die hard...

      Delete
    2. Especially if they are on sildenafil citrate

      Delete
    3. En route to Taj Mahal town?

      Delete
    4. Extra A to be thrown out somehow

      Delete
  13. Kishore,

    Today's a day for spoonerisms?

    ReplyDelete
  14. Kishore: awesome commentary, keep 'em one and two liners coming.

    CV: lovely poem, congrats to the author

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I too enjoyed the lively banter btn Kishore and CV Sir. Also I do enjoy, in particular, the ones btn Kishore and Richard that turns out mostly on regular basis !

      Delete
  15. Just had a go at the Tableizer format one last time (see the post below this post), however if a lot of text is added to the last column like I have done in 6D where the annotation is (I copy pasted Kishores comment there), the font size gets automatically reduced to fit the table onto the screen. Otherwise it looks fine.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Tried enlarging all the fonts but it becomes too big.Shall revert to the old format tomorrow onward. Old is gold I suppose.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Not only old is gold:

    When you get old, you become really rich. Silver in your hair, gold in your teeth and an inexhaustible supply of natural gas.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...and finally all this wealth goes back to mother earth and we start unearthing them again !

      Delete
    2. Except the gas, which the government allots to Reliance ;-)

      Delete
  18. Wonder whether Spooner was from Sheffield.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Replies
    1. BTW, Richard, do you remember the Konkani spoonerisms. Pretty risque they were: Examples:

      Neelu Coatu (blue coat)
      Malho hanga ayilvey (Did Mallya come here?)

      Sorry, friends, can't translate the answers...

      Delete
    2. You.....! Knotty as ever!

      Delete
    3. I could recall many others. That is a different matter..

      Delete
    4. Looking forward to hearing from you on your stock.

      Delete
  20. Request friends to read the second letter in this:


    http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=ETNEW&BaseHref=ETBG/2013/06/26&PageLabel=10&EntityId=Ar01004&ViewMode=HTML

    ReplyDelete
  21. 16 D - BEACON - Seems to be very apt to India, presently.

    ReplyDelete

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