Nice and smooth from xChequer. Have a doubt on the bouquet in 5D. Liked the mouse in 1A.
ACROSS
1 Instrument maybe mouse and rat flipped over (6) GUITAR {GUI}{RAT<=}
4 Released vandal, deprived of leader, imprisoned (8) UNLOCKED {hUN}{LOCKED}
10 Eye specialists duck out from alternatives to cover security organisation (9) OPTICIANS {OPTI(-o+cia)CIANS}
11 Communications found in hotel exchanges (5) TELEX [T]
12 Boring pest, after a period it’s the beginning of ennui (7) TERMITE {TERM}{IT}{Ennui}
13 Lad, not so old, finally back for good (7) YOUNKER YOUN(-g+k)KER
14 Very intense near the boundary (4) DEEP [DD]
15 Impressive doctor insane about Greek character (10) MONUMENTAL {MO}{NU}{MENTAL}
19 Confront soldiers in left flank abandoned for withdrawal (10) EFFACEMENT {lEF{FACE}{MEN}T}
20 Bird caught with line (4) CROW {C}{ROW}
23 Three letter word fit to describe grand artist (7) TRIGRAM {TRI{G}{RA}M}
26 Normal to combine or unite (7) ROUTINE*
27 The most powerful energy illuminated earth (5) ELITE {E}{LIT}{E}
28 Make a mountain out of a molehill perhaps about participating in complete pretence (9) OVERREACT {OVER}{RE}{ACT}
29 Fruits or meats too well cooked (8) TOMATOES*
30 Threaten an annoying child with death (6) IMPEND {IMP}{END}
DOWN
1 Smugly satisfied, behold restricted crossing (7) GLOATED {G{LO}ATED}
2 Blank paper inserted in book concealed by a relief maybe (9) INTERLEAF {I{NT}ERLEAF*}
3 Extremely cold spasm consequent to electrical discharge (6) ARCTIC {ARC}{TIC}
5 Bouquet presented to unknown busybody (5) NOSEY {NOSE}{Y} Isn't Bouquet 'NOSEGAY' rather than 'NOSE' ? See comments.
6 Bust rode perkily, thrusts out (8) OBTRUDES*
7 Wealthy Russian peasant originally kept under lock and key (5) KULAK {K}{U}{L}{A}{K}
8 Right handed driver initially takes, say, a wide left (7) DEXTRAL {D}{EXTRA}{L}
9 Second opportunity to consume beer in auction hall (8) SALEROOM {S}{ALE}{ROOM}
16 One longing to own recreational vehicle is ill at ease (8) UNNERVED {UN}{NE{RV}ED}
17 Miner laboured in gallery end (9) TERMINATE {T{MINER*}ATE}
18 Most uncommon mark, it’s French (8) SCARCEST {SCAR}{CEST}
19 Request for uncapped pen stand (7) ENTREAT {pEN}{TREAT}
21 Male abstainer sent inside to marry gets excited (7) WHETTED {W{HE}{TT}ED}
22 Aliquot part, between 3 and 7, odd number required? (6) QUORUM {aliQUOt}{RUM} Nice way to indicate the part. I'm sure Kishore will have an apt quip for this one.
24 Current fashionable uprising about international dialect (5) IDIOM {I}{D{I}OM<=}
25 Deer with low hollow shape (5) MOOSE {MOO}{ShapE}
4a This was the rummiest: Even when all the crossings came in, several words matched the defn., if one ignored the wordplay, UNHOOKED, UNLOCKED, UNCORKED (with spl ref to 22d)
ReplyDelete7d Russia had only Kulaks and Gulags. Made me do a double take, especially since G would match with Younger in place of Younker, which was a new word for me.
22d Happy Hours started quite early. Aliquot made me think of a quart.. and phrases like “Mud in your eye !” and “Skin off your nose !”
5 Bouquet presented to unknown busybody (5) NOSEY {NOSE}{Y} Isn't Bouquet 'NOSEGAY' rather than 'NOSE' ?
ReplyDeleteNose = Bouquet = smell of wine
She ~knows that ;-)
DeleteA few years back, I enjoyed a wine tasting & sniffing trip in Napa Valley, California.
DeleteI too have visited the vineyards in Napa Valley.
DeleteSandhya, did you go to Lake Tahoe?
A few years back...
DeleteKitna experience hai ?
CV: Unfortunately, no. I had to choose between Yosemite & Lake Tahoe.
Delete@Kishore: Bahut zyaada experience hai!
Chalke tere aankhon-se sharaab aur zeeyada !
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyi172-x0-Y
I had gone to Chateau St Michele in Woodinville, WA, which incidentally also happens to be the home of Anu Garg of AWAD
DeleteChalke tere aankhon-se sharaab aur zeeyada !
DeleteI guess it should be Chhalke teri and not chalke tere. Chalke gives a different meaning to it.
It is one of my old Mohammed Rafi favourites. Sung in a mischievously romantic tone.
Agree. Rajendra Kumar at his best !
DeleteThe 1965 movie Arzoo had some great Shankar-Jaikishen-brand hits like 1. Ajee rooth kar ab kahan jaaiyega, 2. Ae phoolon ki raani baharon ki malika, 3. Bedardi baalma tujhko, Ae nargis-e-mastana and the like.
DeleteOf course, Rajendra Kumar was at his jubilee best. Not forgetting Sadhana with her trademark 'haircut'.
Beautiful lyrics in those movies and you tend to remember them without any effort. Sadhana was at her peak: Woh Kaun Thi, Mera Saya, Arzoo, Hum Dono, Ek Musafir Ek Hasina, ...
DeleteHAAI Hai
DeleteA few non Sadhana films like Mere Huzoor, Jhuk Gaya Aasman (remember O, Priyaaaaa...aaaa..aaa in Kaun Hai Jo sapnon mein aaya)
DeleteWhat romantic poetry:
DeleteYeh Palkon Ki Chilman,
UThakar Girana,
Girakar UThana, Gazab Ho Gaya,
Translation for people not familiar with the language:
"These eyelids,
after opening them fall closed (in shyness or acknowledgement of the beloved)
are again lifted after closing,
What a wonder it is ! "
And sung with just the right pauses...
What a wonderful sight !
Unnai-k kaanaadha kannum kann alla...
DeleteHad the gumption to sing this song when we boys from Tambaram MCC were invited on an occasion to visit girls' hostel (and their rooms) located then in Guindy.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete;-) I observe you use plurals in the parenthesis.
DeleteThe same song might have been sung in different rooms.
DeleteHow about Sau baar banakar malik ne sau baar miTaya hoga, mere mehaboob ko kisne banaya sochta hoga for that occasion?
DeleteSung by Mohammed Rafi in the movie 'Ek Raat' 1967. Lyrics: Yogesh Gaud - Music: Usha Khanna.
You seem to have produced a hybrid, Richard. Khudha bhi aasman se jab zameen par dekhta hoga, is how that starts (Dharti)
Delete@ CV 1020:
DeleteReminds me of Jeeves and The Song of Songs.
Kishore, 12:37. You are right. I happened to mix up both the songs.
DeleteNot for nothing does the second song aptly say:
Delete"Mussabir khud pareshaan hai ki ye tasveer kiski hai"
Even the lyricist would have been amazed as to how you managed to blend the two songs.
22 Aliquot part, between 3 and 7, odd number required? (6) QUORUM {aliQUOt}{RUM} Nice way to indicate the part. I'm sure Kishore will have an apt quip for this one.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have read my mind. But sorry to disappoint you if you were expecting a mathematical discourse on aliqout parts.;-)
Not to take attention away from this crossword, but I would like to tell Navneeth and Raju and others that some Comments are entered in yesterday's post following their late-night entries.
ReplyDeleteMy creaking reply is posted there
DeleteCould quorum have come from a Latin gent enquiring for liqour ? Quo rum ...
ReplyDeleteLooking for a quid pro quo?
DeleteQuo vadis, amicus?
Spiritus Sanctus !
DeleteAmen!
DeleteNice crossword. Enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, had the pleasure of Google-chatting with Paddy ( Padmanabhan PB). He is currently in the US. Says he enjoys reading all the posts here, not actively participating, though.
He has conveyed his regards all his friends out here.
Missing Paddy. Here's a song for his return:
Deletehttp://www.ireland-information.com/irishmusic/comebackpaddyreilly.shtml
On a lighter note, another Paddy song:
Deletehttp://www.irishsongs.com/lyrics.php?Action=view&Song_id=386
@Kishore: You really come up with apt songs/lyrics!
DeleteBird caught with line (4) CROW {C}{ROW}
ReplyDeleteSimple, easy maybe but what an elegant clue, so neat, so concise, so clearly leading to the answer, so plausible in surface reading.
Nice one XC.
ReplyDeleteFew nits to pick:
1a Isn't mouse a device to use on GUI rather than GUI itself?
1d I can see 'smugly satisfied' as an adjective but is 'gloated' similar in the same sense?
19d Chambers has the phrase 'stand treat' meaning 'To treat the company, esp to drinks', but does that mean stand=treat?
1a Def in freeonlinedictionary " An interface for issuing commands to a computer utilizing a pointing device, such as a mouse, that manipulates and activates graphical images on a monitor." Seems to fit IMO
Delete19D Treat can be both noun and verb. I can stand you drinks or treat you (to) drinks. Either way when you have drunk it does not matter.
Suresh, the 'such as a mouse' is an example of 'pointing device' not the GUI.
DeleteThanks about the 19D clarification.
Now I see your point on second (or third) reading.
Delete1a. Valid point
Delete1d. I gloated = I was smugly satisfied. Doesn't it work?
Your example actually illustrates my question.
DeleteI gloated suggests a verb (to gloat) so does it match the adj satisfied?
Touche. O mea culpa
DeleteSmooth crossword. Easier than his usual ones. Must be a pretty harsh guy in 30 A.
ReplyDeleteSeems to have spared the rod !
Delete30a, lol, it is a shocking clue. Could have been worded better 'cause it's kinda insensitive
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, we have to look at a clue from the point of wordplay - is the def properly indicated? Are the components properly indicated? Is the surface smooth? Is the grammar - straight and cryptic - OK?
DeleteThe import of the clue - whether it's desirable or terrible - shouldn't bother us.
If the clue were to suggest that you go and kiss a girl, are you going to do that?
My answer to that would depend on which girl you are referring to and whether she would be inclined to reciprocate ... ;-)
DeleteWhile I gotta admit that wordplay, cryptic reading etc. work well, the imagery created by the message is kind of unpleasant. If it was a reference to pedophilia, though it might not have been meant to be taken literally, we would definitely object. It'd be in bad taste. Why should reference of extreme violence against children be tolerated?
ReplyDeleteVJ
DeleteI respect your opinion.
While on the subject, US straightforward crosswords don't even use words relating to death, disease, etc, but UK crosswords are a little more liberal.
US crosswords don't wish solvers at the breakfast table to be reminded of grim topics.
I suppose this might be another reason some papers/editors don't allow references to living people.
DeleteEven though it is all make believe and the actual answer may be far removed from the surface, there might a few people who take offence at the literal meaning...
...like some of the solvers from yesterday's Guardian puzzle who panned the setter's use of Costa Concordia in a clue.
Point of view I suppose. There was a clue I came across recently about 'mutating mice' which as an animal lover I would not condone.
DeleteAnyway I don't believe one can read a newspaper or watch news without coming across reference to death (or even more gruesome stuff). And I think for the large part, most of us would have come across 'Dai unna saavadika poren' sometime or the other, directed at the child.
No offence meant to anyone of course
Talking of Costa Concordia reminds me that we have had the Titanic and The Flying Dutchman in the past. Sanskrit dramas never depicted death on the stage, but if at all the plot required it, one of the actors reported a death that had occurred offstage. Well, death and all that is part of life, and the papers are full of it, and I am sure all of us understand it. Headless horses (mice might become ice) may be gruesome (or worse horseless heads - The Godfather), but head-off and tail-off wordplay may sometimes require it.
DeleteBTW, I was amused by Bhavan's use of 'far removed from the surface' in close juxtaposition to a ship that went down under.
For info of lovers of old romantic films, today's TH informs that Joy Mukherji's Love in Bombay (a part of his series ... in Shimla and ... in Tokyo) will be released shortly.
ReplyDeleteReally nice one today. Bhala's comment at 12:05 ('Dai unna saavadika poren') was exactly what crossed my mind on reading 30A !
ReplyDeleteMaybe little devil in place of child would have been apter
DeleteCV: Thanks for drawing the attention of other bloggers to comments entered here late by me and Navneet. Unfortunately , we late- lateefs do feel left out wondering whether such comments go unnoticed or unresponded ! Is there any purpose then in our monologue ?
DeleteDeepak: I often find a remark under the DELETE column ,"This comment has been removed by the author " Who does it refer to? the author of the comment or you as the owner of the blog, exercising your right to blue pencil unsavoury, unpleasant or sexist comments?
Today's by Esxchequer is a bit offbeat and I did find the convoluted clueing a bit outre' ! Afew words inserted as answered fitted it but had to be re-analysed on paper for parsing to justify. I still congratulate the compiler.
Comment removed by the author refers to the person who has made the comment. If I as Admin delete a comment it will not be visible to anyone after deletion.
DeleteThanks, Col.noted.did you ever exercise your rights to delete any comments?
ReplyDeleteYes, on a couple of times I did do so.
DeleteRaju Umamaheswar @ 8:36
ReplyDeleteFirst thing in the morning, say by 7:00 AM or so, I do notice your late night entries, without fail !