Monday, 6 January 2014

No.10975, Monday 6 Jan 2014, Arden

Aaaaaaaaaah ! Arden!*

ACROSS
1& 1 dn Little alien, he has one round to show resolve (4,3) BITE THE BULLET (BIT ET HE BULLET)
5 Misconception that a city loses it post season (7) FALLACY (FALL(American season) A CitY)


Let a=b
a2=ab
a2 +a2 =a2+ab
2 a2= a2+ab
2 a2-2ab= a2+ab-2ab
2 a2-2ab= a2-ab
2(a2-ab)= 1(a2-ab)
Dividing both sides by (a2-ab) gives 2=1
          Of course, if you were thinking that miscarriage=misconception, then you were labouring under a misconception

9 It is a problem on hand to have bought such a car (5) LEMON CD
10 Feast day gets hundred and fifty from west, same from east (9) CANDLEMAS (C AND L SAME<)
11 I once went around some organisation to save…. (9) ECONOMISE (I ONCE SOME)*
12 ….one on top of tree, mostly in cave (5) ANTRE (AN TREe)
          Arden seems to composed a couplet with 11a and 12a. Makes me rave ! Or as Austin Powers says "Behave!"
13 Animal shows no interest in language (4) HIND (HINDi)
15 To the French seasons are for patronage (8) AUSPICES (AU='to the' in French + SPICES)
18 Stay long to classify capital (8) BELGRADE (BE L GRADE)
19 Rolls over, just slight (4) SNUB (BUNS<)
22 Collect the right amount (5) EXACT 2
24 Calmness shown with extremely painful complaint (9) PLACIDITY (PainfuL ACIDITY)
26 So called independence may be restricted to a small area (9) LOCALISED (SO CALLED I)*
27 One will get sick of reviewing a plant (5) LIANA (AN AIL)<
28 Painter is crazy about mates (7) MATISSE (MAT(IS)SE*)
29 Make money and invest half in deposit (7) EARNEST (EARN invEST)

DOWN
1 see 1 ac. (6) Look up ...
2 Speed up but avoid immediate commitment (9) TEMPORISE (TEMPO RISE)
          I thought I would say something here, but I think I will do it a bit later
3 Dance with volunteers attached to a civil rights group, perhaps (5) TANGO (TA NGO)
4 ….and Chile prepared a hot dish (9) ENCHILADA (AND CHILE A)*
5 Bogs said to create a barrier (5) FENCE (~FENS)
6 They calm babies not born and also later (9) LULLABIES (LULL bABIES)
7 Allow Bill and another boy to come up (5) ADMIT (AD TIM<)
8 Sycophants surround head of state in a country (3-3) YESMEN (S in YEMEN)
14 One, for example goes by another name, not a drug (9) DIGITALIS (DIGIT ALIaS)
16 Desk assembly will go bad…run (9) SKEDADDLE (DESK* ADDLE)
          Not much time available today. I gotta run for it ...
17 Explain cryptic clue on island fruit (9) ELUCIDATE (CLUE* I DATE)

20 Total confusion over what the Bishop made up about novice (6) BEDLAM (B MADE* about L)
21 Try out a contract with a dictator (6) TYRANT (TRY* A NT=No Trumps, a contract in Bridge)
           Remembered the dictater in THIS POEM
23 A Caledonian meet of sorts (5) ASCOT ( A SCOT)
           This place clearly wins the race when it comes to having more books than a library
24 Armed men sit around school (5) POSSE (POSE around S)
25 He does nothing but gets riled badly (5) IDLER (RILED*)

* with the emotions of the Mirinda ad ...
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44 comments:

  1. Richard6 January 2014 at 09:08

    Re comment on 5A : Indeed a fine delivery...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richard6 January 2014 at 09:26

    Liked the cartoon for 17D. 9A, the subject ofcrossword, getting marooned on island, fruit ( a coconut tree contrary to the melon) - all squeezed into one creative piece. Good job, Kishore!

    But from where on earth did they get a newspaper to solve a crossword while being stranded mid-sea?

    Can someone 17D the annotation for 9D? Could not quite get it. After all, at the stage of striking a delicate balance between the grey cells and grey hair, you know...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore6 January 2014 at 09:35

      The got the crossword from the paper that was wrapped around the fish they caught ;-)

      9A, you mean

      9 It is a problem on hand to have bought such a car (5)

      Buying a bad car is idiomatically ref. to as having bought a lemon

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_%28automobile%29

      Delete
    2. Kishore6 January 2014 at 09:37

      You can also look at it this way:

      Person B has drawn a grid on the sand and is trying to teach A the basics of cryptic crosswords

      Delete
    3. Richard6 January 2014 at 09:49

      9:35 Thanks, Kishore. Yes it was 9A. I have had the lemonade now.

      9:37 Quite a graphic explanation.

      Delete
    4. Nadathur Rajan6 January 2014 at 10:02

      Instead of a message in a bottle, may be it was a Crossword in the bottle floated to commemorate its Centennial!

      Delete
  3. RameshJ6 January 2014 at 09:54

    Good to be back to solving THC after a two week break. Congrats Col for winning the IXL championship. A belated happy new year to all the folks on this board

    ReplyDelete
  4. Suresh6 January 2014 at 10:02

    I thought the enumeration under 1A should read as (4,3,6), with no enu given against 1D. This coupled with THCs occasional "printos" had me quite confused for a long time.

    Nice cartoon Kishore, equally applicable to the clues above and below it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Chaturvasi6 January 2014 at 11:14

      When a multi-phrase solution is spread over two slots, at the first slot the clue numbers will be
      (in this instance) 1 and 1dn. Clue (4,3,6)
      At 1 dn it will be just See 1ac. No enu here.

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 11:23

      This looks very clear. I too was confused with the 'enu' given for 1A and 1D in the puzzle !

      Delete
    3. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 11:25

      ...nevertheless an enjoyable puzzle from Arden.

      Delete
  5. Nadathur Rajan6 January 2014 at 10:04

    2(a2-ab)= 1(a2-ab)
    a2-ab = ab-ab = 0
    Anything multiplied by 0 is 0.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Groucho6 January 2014 at 11:02

      I think the fallacy here is that dividing anything by 0, ie, a^2-ab in this case, is a meaningless operation, rendering everything fallacious.

      Groovy CW. I hope it's Arden again tomorrow?

      Delete
    2. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 11:16

      His quota in each cycle is four CWs :)

      Delete
    3. Richard6 January 2014 at 11:27

      Since there have been many new setters and also new members here in the recent past, can someone please provide us with a fresh list of the cycle / pattern with each setter's quota?

      Delete
    4. Groucho6 January 2014 at 11:37

      Yes, please do that, very helpful for new members like me. Also, does the Hindu have a CW editor? Gridman, maybe?

      Delete
    5. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 11:45

      My calculation :

      Gridman (6), Arden (4), Sankalak (3), Neyartha (2), Buzzer (2) and rest all one each.

      Delete
    6. Richard6 January 2014 at 11:49

      MB, I will not allow you to rest. Can you give a list of the rest, as far as you can remember?

      Delete
    7. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 11:50

      ...and their sequence in each cycle is Sankalak,Gridman,Neyartha,Buzzer, followed by others.

      Delete
    8. Chaturvasi6 January 2014 at 11:55

      If, on the left sidebar, you click on Dec or Nov (click on the arrow so it faces downward), then it expands to show all the dates, cwd nos. and the setters' names so carefully and diligently entered by the Col.
      By starting at some point (say Arden) as you read upwards (or downwards) you will get the setter sequence and the number of appearances by each setter.
      This is interrupted by the Sunday THC (Everyman) and the Sunday Specials.

      Delete
  6. Col_Gopinath6 January 2014 at 11:52

    Richard & MB,

    Go through the Blog Archive which is there in the panel on the left hand side. Check posts over the last 30 to 40 days and you will get the cycle and the number of entries per setter

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 11:59

      That's how I arrived at that figure, Sir ! Anyway for their benefit, the sequence after Buzzer is as follows :

      Scintillator,Mover,Incognito,Skulldugger,Klu Klux Klan, Lightning,Vulcan,Sunnet,xChequer,Phantom,After Dark,Aspertame and Spinner. The sequence may change at times.

      Delete
    2. Richard6 January 2014 at 12:05

      Thank you all.

      Delete
    3. Richard6 January 2014 at 12:07

      Now looking back, I realized that I could have done it myself. Just being lazy, maybe..:-(

      Delete
  7. Richard6 January 2014 at 12:12

    Re intro and bottomline:

    Aaaaaaaaaah ! Arden!* * with the emotions of the Mirinda ad ...

    The 'Aah..Taj!' line for the tea ad had perhaps preceded this one by at least 15 years

    ReplyDelete
  8. Deepak Gopinath6 January 2014 at 12:24

    Here's the sequence for lazybones

    Sankalak 3
    Gridman 6
    Neyartha 2
    Buzzer 2
    Arden 4
    Scintillator 1
    Mover 1
    Incognito 1
    Textrous 1
    Skuldugger 1
    Klue Klux Klan 1
    Lightning 1
    vulcan 1
    Sunnet 1
    xChequer 1
    Phantom 1
    Afterdark 1
    Aspartame 1
    Spinner 1

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. pavalamani pragasam6 January 2014 at 13:40

      What happened to Manna, Spiffytrix, Cryptonyte and the much maligned female setter?

      Delete
    2. Col_Gopinath6 January 2014 at 13:56

      Manna and NJ have resigned from the panel. No idea why Spiffytrix and Cryptonyte have disappeared.

      Delete
    3. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 14:09

      Col Sir,

      Textrous was last seen here on 23rd Aug 2013 and thereafter no puzzles from him !

      Delete
    4. Richard6 January 2014 at 14:17

      Thank you very much for the list. Cross my heart, I will save this.

      For record's sake, does this qualify to be branded a 'loooooong list' like the other, much-bandied-about one? :-)

      Delete
    5. Chaturvasi6 January 2014 at 15:34

      Both Spiffytrix and Textrous have told me that work and family upkeep leave them with little spare time to set crossword puzzles. Spiffytrix was posted abroad when he left the panel but has since returned to India. They opted out of the panel.

      Cryptonyte, who I know was very eager to join the THC panel, left after contributions for a few months. He (with another) continued his work in Mint before that publication threw out the feature as a whole. He too must be busy with work and family.

      Delete
    6. Suresh6 January 2014 at 15:53

      Richard, the order is not consistent. So you can keep guessing

      Delete
    7. Chaturvasi6 January 2014 at 16:19

      I would say the order is fairly consistent but it is not rigid.

      The sequence may be slightly upset if a setter's crossword is not received in time, or if a last-minute problem compels the scheduled CWD being held over for the day. Sometimes the sequence may be interrupted to accommodate a special CWD such as the one that appeared on Dec 21 or a festive day.

      Delete
  9. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 13:21

    A nicely worded cartoon by Kishore ! I'll add one more to the stranded ones on the island and here goes the joke :

    Three chicks were stranded on an deserted island – a brunette, redhead, and a blonde. The brunette looked over the water to the mainland and estimated about 20 miles to shore. So she announced, “I’m going to try to swim to shore.” She swam out five miles and got really tired, by the time she made it ten miles she was too tired to go on, and she drowned.

    The second chick, a redhead, said to herself, “I wonder if she made it. I guess it’s better to try to get to the mainland than to stay here and starve to death.” So she attempts to swim out. The redhead had a lot more endurance than the brunette, as she swam out 10 miles before she even got tired. After 15 miles, she was too tired to go on, and she drowned.

    The blonde thought to herself, “I wonder if they made it! I think I’d better try to make it, too.” So she swam out 5 miles, ten miles, 15 miles, nineteen miles from the island. The shore was just in sight, but she said, “I’m too tired to go on!” So she swam back.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Padmanabhan6 January 2014 at 14:10

    I was waiting for the Golden catch!! I had to wait till the last sentence.

    BTW, I am all at sea about 9A- Lemon. Can someone pl. explain?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6 January 2014 at 14:19

    Paddy, pl see my 935am post. Your query answered over 4 hrs before you asked!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Richard6 January 2014 at 14:23

      Yes, you happened to squeeze it much before he laid his hands on it. ;-)

      Delete
    2. Kishore6 January 2014 at 17:00

      But you were the one who proffered it for the squeeze

      Delete
  12. Anonymous6 January 2014 at 14:20

    Groucho at 1102 is correct. It is a fallacy to divide by 0

    ReplyDelete
  13. Padmanabhan6 January 2014 at 15:33

    It is my fault. Having logged in late, I was more intent on filling the gaps in my grid than reading earlier mail. Got to be more careful in this blog of you know who all...!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Mukundala Balasubramanyam6 January 2014 at 17:38

    2 Speed up but avoid immediate commitment (9) TEMPORISE (TEMPO RISE)
    I thought I would say something here, but I think I will do it a bit later

    That was Kishore @ 8:30 AM ! Now it's 5:30 PM ! :)

    ReplyDelete

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