Monday, 24 February 2014

No.11016, Monday 24 Feb 2014, Vulcan

I am a few annos short !

ACROSS
1 Horrible travelling salesman (8) NAMELESS* (SALESMEN*)  I am presuming that there has been a typo.  But though a nameless fear = horrible fear, I am not sure nameless can be equated to horrible, per se
5 Angel? Not true we’re told (5) FALLS (~FALSE) 
9 Measure of vehicle’s acceleration by time (5) CARAT (CAR A T)
          What's up, Doc?
10 Symbolic of everyone with ego — amusing for the most part (9) ALLEGORIC (ALL EGO RICh) Rich as in 'That's rich!'
12 Victory one had in a case that’s not so significant (7) TRIVIAL (V 1 in TRIAL)
13 Small story about hard bicycle trick (7) WHEELIE (WEE LIE about H)
14 It works on shopper’s weakness (6-8) WINDOW DRESSING (CD)
          Of course, the euphemistic usage is probably better known
17 Bad film with a bad ending or a hit movie? (4,1,3,6) DIAL M FOR MURDER ((FILM A D)* OR MURDER)
          Stone the crows! I first got the crossing M from 15d and cottoned on to this. The hit=murder part came later
23 Old dialect found in a coin — central to understanding origin of civilization possibly (7) OCCITAN (A COIN T C)*
24 Goes with any cooking spray (7) NOSEGAY (GOES ANY)* Not sure if spray is a proper defn.
26 Take back espressos served (9) REPOSSESS (ESPRESSOS)*
27 Pound of broth mixture (5) THROB (BROTH*)
28 Beginning to gain power and velocity (5) SPEED (SEED to gain P)
29 English daily — excellent, very exquisite (8) ETHEREAL (E TH(=The Hindu) E REAL)

DOWN
1 Fine distinction in Germanic etymology (6) NICETY (T)
2 Concoction of 4 and 1 (7) MARTINI (4=swallow (bird) = MARTIN 1) Nice device of combining numbers being used for two different purposes. My CoD
          I used this dodge yesterday and I find it here today. Some of you who got a mail from me yesterday might find this device helpful.

3 Heavy stick made from strip of wood — ironwood primarily (5) LATHI (LATH I)
4 Drink to relish after beginning of sunset (7) SWALLOW (S WALLOW)
          Reminded me of the Empress wallowing in pigswill! Hogwash!
6 Gross rage exhibited by assailant (9) AGGRESSOR (GROSS RAGE)*
7 Beautiful girl learning floral arrangement (7) LORELEI (LORE LEI)
          Remember our dashing Major Johann Schmidt whistle the tune in Where Eagles Dare?
8 Area with an enclosure to keep rebel leaders hidden (7) ACREAGE (RE in A CAGE)
11 Quieten and start off at a lesser speed (5) LOWER (sLOWER)
15 Cup of tea missed badly (9) DEMITASSE (TEA MISSED)*
          This too gets repossessed along with the Espresso in 26a
16 Put off by a bad journal’s content (7) ADJOURN (T)
18 Fizzy cola and ginger drink (7) ALCOPOP (COLA* POP) not sure of POP and ginger parts of it
19 Oz attack losing momentum (5) OUNCE (pOUNCE)
20 Reason to have fixed outlook (7) MINDSET (MIND SET)
21 Danger alert essentially used in fencing — a warning (2,5) EN GARDE (DANGER E)* But is this a CD with a chance anagram? If the anagram is intended what is the indicator? Used? Then what happens to alert?
22 Mark’s instrument, say (6) SYMBOL (2) (~cymbal)
25 French composer with South African link (5) SATIE (SA TIE) I, for one, had not heard of him and had to Google to confirm.

57 comments:

  1. 24A - Nosegay/Spray - no problem there, it's a small bunch of flowers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. While I agree Nosegay is a small bunch of flowers, I am unable to get the spray connection

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    2. I faintly remember having come across 'nosegay' as spray in THC once earlier.

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    3. I was deluded by the recent sprayer

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    4. He must have really peppered you with the stuff to delude someone like you

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    5. I was flying with a wing and a sprayer when the ack-ack peppered me

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    6. Or it might be the martini at work. Time for an Espresso in a Demitasse ...

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    7. Let's come to a compromise. Nosegay=bouquet. It was an airfreshner aerosol with its fragrance marked as 'bouquet'. Period. ;-)

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    8. And now you are in a compromising position ...

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  2. 24 Goes with any cooking spray (7) NOSEGAY (GOES ANY) Here is the link http://www.thefreedictionary.com/spray

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  3. Your remark at 2D. I am still floating around in your numbers trying to get a lead ;-(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The same comment applies. Numbers are sometimes numbers per se and sometimes references. Logical reasoning will help you to decide which one to you

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    2. Since it had to do with numbers, coming from our friend capable of numbing anyone with them, I just shuddered before even opening the mail

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  4. 1 Horrible travelling salesman (8) Nameless !=(salesman)* ??

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One A and two E are becoming two A and one E

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    2. The anagram works if there was a typo and the intended word was SALESMEN. However, I am not comfortable with the horrible=nameless

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  5. Replies
    1. I have even dranked it ! But if Ginger-pop let us equate ginger with pop, two-wheeler should let us equate two with wheeler

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  6. Many new words today, missed them all.

    14A - Auditors come across it often.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I got fed up of encountering it once too many times.

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    2. I think that should be 'one time too many'

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  7. Danger = DANGER
    alert essentially = E
    used = AInd
    in fencing — a warning = Definition = {EN GARDE}*

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  8. 22D - Couldn't it be homophonic (~cymbal)? Cymbal = musical instrument. I took it that way.

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  9. I had posted a link in the blog quite late yesterday, which might have been missed by many of our friends. I am reposting it here.

    Inviting your attention to an article on CW in Economic Times Sunday magazine of Feb 23.

    You can read it HERE.

    There is ref. to Col. winning the national CW contest and also about Shuchismita's blog.

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  10. Considering the number of difficult/ new words, I did fairly well today though I could not get a few annos and I am glad I got them from the blog- (e.g) martini.

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  11. Window dressing- sometimes resorted to by auditors themselves, though legally it goes against the grain.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With or against the grain, it is improper

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    2. It is improper even when governments do it. And the dressing is not always upwards. Entities wanting further funding/rescheduling do it downwards.

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    3. whoever does it gets a dressing down from all quarters

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  12. 10A-'That's rich' has an amusing connection?

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  13. 'Oz' for ounce was meant to mislead and indeed I was!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Remember we used to get those liquid concoctions for cough etc. and be asked to take an ounce of it. The doc. used to have those large glass jars with different coloured liquids and powders were also dispensed in paper pouches folded on the spot.

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    2. Yes, I remember to have taken both many times. You hardly get to see them nowadays. There is still a general physician here who uses at least the 'mixture' as the liquid used to be called.

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    3. The colloquial euphemism (if it can be called that) in Konkani for the cough mixture was "Horse urine"

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  14. Maria von Trapp is no more. RIP. I had visited their place in Stowe.

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  15. Unforgettable Sound of Music!
    Another iconic figure- survivor of Titanic passed away some time back.

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  16. 7D - As a coincidence, LORELEI made me remember the song 'The Lonely Goatherd' and its chorus from 'Sound of Music':

    O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
    O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay

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  17. Though the siren, Lorelei, was a far cry from the yodelling, lonely goatherd!

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  18. Hi Rita, nice to hear from you. I just drew a distant, phonetic parallel between the word and the yodelling voice and not a straight comparison.

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  19. Yesterday a friend of mine, actually the elder brother of Mr Krishnamurthy who attended an S and B meeting in the Colonel's flat, called from Bangalore and mentioned the ET article.
    I read it by visiting the URL mentioned here.
    It is nice to be following an interest with friends.
    (I thought the article had no focus and drifted from one thing to another without really delving into anything. If the writer had confined themselves to the evolution and growth of the crossword in ToI from the British times to the present degenerate days when a US synonymic puzzle is being used with clues in a font so small that your naked eye is useless, it would have sufficed.)
    Yesterday I had a pleasant surprise when I walked for the first time into a monthly meeting of members of Shakespeare Millennium Club here in Chennai. Instantly a lady asked "Are you from MCC?". She said she remembered me from my college days and even mentioned my interest in crosswords. How people recognise people after a lapse of 25-30 years when they have never met in the intervening period! If she had been my class/batch mate at the same college, I might have recognised her but she must have been from a women's college who came to MCC for inter-collegiate classes.
    Another lady, who too I have not met for the past 15 years, said Hello to me and called me 'Kesi' - by which I am known only to relatives and close family friends.
    It is great to have such friendly encounters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dashing young men will be remembered for decades, by ladies in particular.

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    2. Even if they have crossed words with them ...

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    3. Mere Mehboob had a dashing Rajendra Kumar at AMU

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    4. Now now, you are reminding someone to hum...

      Phir mujhe nargisi ankhon ka sahara dede
      Once again, give me the support of these Iris-like eyes

      Mera khoya hua rangeen nazara dede
      Bring back to me the beautiful outlook that was lost...

      ps: Nargis is in fact the narcissus flower, if I am not mistaken.

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    5. The dashing part of the song is

      Jab tera husn mere ishq se takraya tha ...

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    6. Confrontation or 'encounter' in modern sense? Real 'dash', that is.

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    7. You ref to Mere khoya reminded me of the doggie song:

      Mera cain khoya hua hai

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  20. We recently celebrated the Golden Jubilee reunion at our college (1964 batch) We managed to rope in 76 of our classmates, some of them with their spouses- all 70+ - and all of us had the most enjoyable time together for 3 days. Some we could recognise though we have not met for decades, but it was difficult to recognise a few. Probably it all depends on how friendly you were at the time and how much you mixed with them. It depends on common interests as well. Anyway, I am not surprised people could remember you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 76 is quite a commendable figure. How many were there totally in your batch

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    2. Though we started off with 300+, the actual pass out figure is only about 130 (there were a few detentions along the way). We had earlier arranged a similar meet 5 years ago and we made it a point to stay in touch. More surprising is that about 40 spouses made it to the meet.

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  21. I am bit confused. I THINK 'DEMITASSE & REPROCESS, both(26 a & 15 D) , overlaps. Am i wrong?

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  22. 15D is 'repossess' and not 'reprocess'.

    ReplyDelete

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