"Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey"!
Pangrammatic Plum pickings today from Sunnet. Happy landings in the
wor(l)d of Blandings! Luckily, it has fallen to my lot to blog this
puzzle, for today, I'm the (im)poster at Blandings, which even at the best (or is it worst?) of times has quite a few imposters creeping about in the woodwork!
ACROSS
1 Study following Indian party’s growth (6) SPREAD (SP READ)
4 Boot with metal blade kills a girl (3,5) ICE SKATE (ICES KATE)
10 Doctor, do we provide accommodation to a writer? (9) WODEHOUSE ((DO WE)* HOUSE)
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse: Shortly before his death, Wodehouse said that "he had no ambitions left, as he had been knighted and created as a wax figure at Madame Tussaud's". I felt somewhat similar after being interviewed by Shuchi ... I don't have a waxwork, but a snowman built a few winters back resembled me. He was eventually liquidated.
11 Japanese poem honouring all internationally known union leaders (5) HAIKU (acrostic)
My friends from Hyderabad may say: Yeh haiku-waiku, kaiku?
12 Rushed vehicle back to editor (5) RACED (CAR< ED)
13 Writing desk from Anchorage, taken to backward state, is unfinished (9) DAVENPORT (NEVADa< PORT)
Horace Davenport: "Nature, stretching Horace Davenport out, had forgotten to stretch him sideways, and one could have pictured Euclid, had they met, nudging a friend and saying: ‘Don’t look now, but this chap coming along illustrates exactly what I was telling you about a straight line having length without breadth." Davenport also being a kind of sofa, one can have Davenport lying on a davenport near a davenport.
14 Chivalrous man ate at the end of festival (7) GALAHAD (GALA HAD)
Hon. Galahad Threepwood: "apparently never went to bed until he was fifty". His reminiscences were the stuff of legend and were consumed by The Empress, or were they?
16 Audible record of ceremony (4) RITE (~WRITE)
19 Run away from navy? Not quite (4) FLEE (FLEEt)
21 Trim dog after dog (7) CURTAIL (TAIL after CUR)
24 Mentioned capital law (9) PRINCIPLE (~PRINCIPAL)
25 Britain’s single stupid mistake in America (5) BONER (ONE in BR)
Ahem! Ahem!
26 Cost’s not in energy (5) OUTGO (OUT GO)
27 End without Romeo’s penance (9) EXPIATION (EXPIrATION)
28 Perhaps Thatcher’s ban on media lacked a bit of public resistance (8) BARONESS (BAR ONprESS)
29 Plan to breathe with difficulty (6) WHEEZE 2
DOWN
1 Darn fad to ingest Ecstasy and refuse liquid (8) SEWERAGE (SEW RAGE ingests E)
2 Law held one retrograde police department in contempt (8) RIDICULE (RULE held 1 CID<)
3 Bled a trace of chromium out of store’s diamonds (5) ACHED (cACHE D)
5 Remove round pieces of veal from chopper (7) CLEAVER (CLEAR round VE)
Reminded me of old Bingley chasing Wooster with a chopper
6 Ring like muscle altering small pert chin (9) SPHINCTER (S PERT CHIN)*
"I do not know if you are familiar with the word ''excesses'' ", but the word Sphincter reminded me once again of the "excesses" committed at the Yugadi feast
7 A fighter with big friends (6) AMIGOS (A MIG OS)
8 Fairness of investment (6) EQUITY 2
9 Underwrote amusement activity that lacked energy (6) FUNDED (FUN DEeD)
15 British coin equivalent to sovereign and two quarters at first (4-5) HALF CROWN (CROWN, with HALF (2 quarters) first)
17 Mishandled Anju’s cut leading to an ailment (8) JAUNDICE (ANJU* DICE)
18 Conservative British officer in Arabia withdrawing west in a horse drawn carriage (8) CLARENCE (C LAwRENCE)
Clarence Threepwood, or Lord Emsworth: A pearl of an Earl: "Once the pig fever has taken him, he is mostly to be found draped bonelessly over the pig pen, looking like an old sock."
20 Measure to squeeze monarch (7) EMPRESS (EM PRESS)
The Empress of Blandings: "requires a daily intake of no less than 57,800 calories, consisting of barley meal, maize meal, linseed meal, potatoes and separated buttermilk." A pig after my own heart!
21 Horrible backward fellow seen in empty urban area (6) CREEPY (PEER< in CitY)
22 Poise of a doctor in pursuit of middle-eastern fighters (6) APLOMB (A MB in pursuit of PLO)
23 Lean beside Queen’s plough (6) LISTER (LIST ER)
Bill "Blister" Lister: "an artist, a large and muscular man (he was once a finalist in an Amateur Boxing championship) with a face like a gorilla". Was my Sam Bahadur quote yesterday night, on the occasion of his centenary, a sort of premonition of things to come today?
25 Say, a tree in sand (5) BEACH (~BEECH)
Sebastian Beach: the Head Butler at Blandings, "a dignified procession of one"
Note: All quotations are from PG Wodehouse books
ACROSS
1 Study following Indian party’s growth (6) SPREAD (SP READ)
4 Boot with metal blade kills a girl (3,5) ICE SKATE (ICES KATE)
10 Doctor, do we provide accommodation to a writer? (9) WODEHOUSE ((DO WE)* HOUSE)
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse: Shortly before his death, Wodehouse said that "he had no ambitions left, as he had been knighted and created as a wax figure at Madame Tussaud's". I felt somewhat similar after being interviewed by Shuchi ... I don't have a waxwork, but a snowman built a few winters back resembled me. He was eventually liquidated.
11 Japanese poem honouring all internationally known union leaders (5) HAIKU (acrostic)
My friends from Hyderabad may say: Yeh haiku-waiku, kaiku?
12 Rushed vehicle back to editor (5) RACED (CAR< ED)
13 Writing desk from Anchorage, taken to backward state, is unfinished (9) DAVENPORT (NEVADa< PORT)
Horace Davenport: "Nature, stretching Horace Davenport out, had forgotten to stretch him sideways, and one could have pictured Euclid, had they met, nudging a friend and saying: ‘Don’t look now, but this chap coming along illustrates exactly what I was telling you about a straight line having length without breadth." Davenport also being a kind of sofa, one can have Davenport lying on a davenport near a davenport.
14 Chivalrous man ate at the end of festival (7) GALAHAD (GALA HAD)
Hon. Galahad Threepwood: "apparently never went to bed until he was fifty". His reminiscences were the stuff of legend and were consumed by The Empress, or were they?
16 Audible record of ceremony (4) RITE (~WRITE)
19 Run away from navy? Not quite (4) FLEE (FLEE
21 Trim dog after dog (7) CURTAIL (TAIL after CUR)
24 Mentioned capital law (9) PRINCIPLE (~PRINCIPAL)
25 Britain’s single stupid mistake in America (5) BONER (ONE in BR)
Ahem! Ahem!
26 Cost’s not in energy (5) OUTGO (OUT GO)
27 End without Romeo’s penance (9) EXPIATION (EXPI
28 Perhaps Thatcher’s ban on media lacked a bit of public resistance (8) BARONESS (BAR ON
29 Plan to breathe with difficulty (6) WHEEZE 2
DOWN
1 Darn fad to ingest Ecstasy and refuse liquid (8) SEWERAGE (SEW RAGE ingests E)
2 Law held one retrograde police department in contempt (8) RIDICULE (RULE held 1 CID<)
3 Bled a trace of chromium out of store’s diamonds (5) ACHED (
5 Remove round pieces of veal from chopper (7) CLEAVER (CLEAR round VE)
Reminded me of old Bingley chasing Wooster with a chopper
6 Ring like muscle altering small pert chin (9) SPHINCTER (S PERT CHIN)*
"I do not know if you are familiar with the word ''excesses'' ", but the word Sphincter reminded me once again of the "excesses" committed at the Yugadi feast
7 A fighter with big friends (6) AMIGOS (A MIG OS)
8 Fairness of investment (6) EQUITY 2
9 Underwrote amusement activity that lacked energy (6) FUNDED (FUN DE
15 British coin equivalent to sovereign and two quarters at first (4-5) HALF CROWN (CROWN, with HALF (2 quarters) first)
17 Mishandled Anju’s cut leading to an ailment (8) JAUNDICE (ANJU* DICE)
18 Conservative British officer in Arabia withdrawing west in a horse drawn carriage (8) CLARENCE (C LA
Clarence Threepwood, or Lord Emsworth: A pearl of an Earl: "Once the pig fever has taken him, he is mostly to be found draped bonelessly over the pig pen, looking like an old sock."
20 Measure to squeeze monarch (7) EMPRESS (EM PRESS)
The Empress of Blandings: "requires a daily intake of no less than 57,800 calories, consisting of barley meal, maize meal, linseed meal, potatoes and separated buttermilk." A pig after my own heart!
21 Horrible backward fellow seen in empty urban area (6) CREEPY (PEER< in C
22 Poise of a doctor in pursuit of middle-eastern fighters (6) APLOMB (A MB in pursuit of PLO)
23 Lean beside Queen’s plough (6) LISTER (LIST ER)
Bill "Blister" Lister: "an artist, a large and muscular man (he was once a finalist in an Amateur Boxing championship) with a face like a gorilla". Was my Sam Bahadur quote yesterday night, on the occasion of his centenary, a sort of premonition of things to come today?
25 Say, a tree in sand (5) BEACH (~BEECH)
Sebastian Beach: the Head Butler at Blandings, "a dignified procession of one"
Note: All quotations are from PG Wodehouse books
ReplyDeleteRan out of time after completing about 75%.
Liked HAIKU, DAVENPORT, AMIGOS, EQUITY, APLOMB and a few others.
15A - I guess the homophone intended here is RIGHT. Does it mean 'record'?
My COD 21A - CUR+TAIL made of dog (n) and dog (vb).
My doubt about 15A cleared after reading the blog.
Delete"Right" is not right. Write!
DeleteI drew a pigtail, in line with the theme for your COD. Spent a lot of time pulling out quotes, so drawing was minimal - Just a little curlesque .
I got SPHINCTER from Google.
Delete17D - Struggled to create an anagram of ANJUS CUT* and gave up
Luckily you did not get Jaundice from Google.
DeleteI am immune...
DeleteGoogle can give anyone any disease. It transmits, not by air, water, or touch, but over the internet
DeleteI got SPHINCTER from Google.
DeleteHow did you manage without it till now?
Stand-by system...
DeleteNever knew Google provided replacement parts !
DeleteMaybe eBay or Flipkart or Amazon.
DeleteTalking of Sebastian Beach and the tendency in Wodehouse books to nobble a favourite, it reminded me of the recent antics of Wayne Rooney possibly nobbling Bastian Schweinsteiger
ReplyDeleteNo Schweini surely tripped him
ReplyDeleteCant be sure. Did you see the look on Rooney's face after that? But I did give benefit of doubt by using possibly.
DeleteHe acted as if he got injured but
Delete21d ....empty urban area... Emptying the following word itself or an equivalent word? Any specific rule?
ReplyDeleteThat doubt can also be applied to many other clues by many setters. For eg.16a: Homophone of record or its equivalent word?
DeleteAsking the solver to remove the central letters after substitution doesn't seem fair, IMO.
DeleteExpert opinion solicited on the above.
DeleteNothing wrong there, after all almost everything in CW relates to substitutions. However the indicator for deletion should be unambiguous, unlike clues which say 'some' where you wouldn't know how much 'some' is, 1, 2, 3, 4 ... letters. In this clue since it says 'empty' there is no doubt that the entire central portion is to be removed leaving only the ends.
DeleteExactly. 'Some' is ambiguous.
DeleteVj@10:22
DeleteWhy do you believe that asking solvers to remove central letters is unfair ?
Well would this be considered fair?
DeleteDangerous extremely = RiskY = RY
I don't think so. Indicators like initially, firstly, finally, extremely, first of, end of etc work better without having to substitute.
Agreed for the list above, but not for 1) Head/tail removed 2) Centre removed
DeleteOf course it depends on what is expected to be substituted. Urban area probably has three or four words that can match it
But lets say it was used to remove the center of an animal, then it becomes less fair. And if it used to remove the centre of a city name , then the setter might as well have said 'use two random letters' to get part of the answer.
My '56 FIAT odometer has crossed the 2,99,000 Mile reading. Another 1000 miles and the meter will enter it's fourth round
ReplyDeleteDG: There's no fiat against running such Fiats ( not a Banger?) on Bangalore roads. Here's wishing it many more 100,000s and may it remain well-preserved for posterity to know that 'old is indeed Gold !!
DeleteCan we have pic of the cutie? is it a Padmini?
DG 1:50 It calls for a celebration...
DeleteSure does. And how much more time will it take to complete 1000 miles?
DeleteRaju, 1956 was not the age of Padminis. Came much later.
Raghu
Delete1000 miles is going to take a while as I don't run it very often.
More power to your Millicent-o.
DeleteCol
DeleteThat's the reason I asked you.
Those were the days of PAL & Standard Motors. HM is still around.
DeleteDG: Come to think of it, while on the subject of your odometer reading, weren't there times when it was out of function or needed a cable replacement?
DeleteIn such instances, the car may have run some extra kilometres and the actual aggregate distance run could be little mor than 299,000.
A silly point, as they say in cricket? ;-)
Richard,
DeleteThat may add about a 100 odd miles
Raju @ 2:08
DeleteSee some snaps of the car at this link THCC FAMILIES
Nice pix, Deepak. The white one next to yours reminded me of my Padmini.
DeletePadmini, who?
DeleteDG 4:50pm That may add about a 100-odd miles.
DeleteYou reminded me that in the late 1950s and 60s we did not have kilometres for distance, but miles. :-)
Richard,
DeleteJust sent Padmini's photos (front and rear) sent to DG for uploading, along with one more.
The one more was a miler and not a kilometrer
DeleteThanks SUNNET for the themed crossie on our all-time favourite PGW. Kishore did manage to bring the characters alive once again. I have full collection of his books , so precious to me. This crossie will certainly make me to go back to the shelf and re- read a few of them. My on favourite is UKRIDGE where the trade-off of raising cats and breeding rats can send anyone MBA to roll on the floor. !!!
ReplyDeleteThis is where I feel that such geniuses' DNA should be preserved !!
I Tamil , Appusami and his inimitable battle-axe martinet of a wife can be compared to PGW but just so !!
I have enjoyed reading Bhakkiam Ramaswami's Appusami-Seethapaati stories.
DeleteOne line I can never forget - Avar baathroomukku ponaar -aanaal bathroom pogavillai.
That was when these stories used to appear in Kumudam.
Never in those days did I know that I would get a chance to meet him.
After retirement, when I started socialising, I got a chance to meet this prolific writer. He must be some ten years senior to me, but is always bubbling with energy.
He has become a good friend of mine and when we meet he will hold my hand and chat with me in a very cordial manner.
I have heard him give speeches in these past 10 years - you must hear the audience roaring in laughter.
One must be fortunate to gain the friendship of lovely people.
The servant maids who come and go, the milk deliverer, the flower seller in the street corner, the watchmen of neighbouring buildings - all these people have smiles for me because I have never ignored them and treat them as fellow human beings.
It used to be irritating when in Indian movies one heard the heroine/ hero calling "driver, chalo" or "driver, vandi yedu".
DeleteE&OE. Posting from mobile phone.
DeleteRacism, for want of a better word, in some form or other is still prevalent here. A few months ago, I read a book called The Help by Kathryn Stocket and it really got me thinking. Well, it's set in the '60s and dwells on the subject of racism in one of the Southern American towns and some of the racist practices that the protagonist in the story is supposed to be fighting against, are still very much existent in our so-called modern society. Consciously or subconsciously, we seem to be winking at these as if they don't matter or mean nothing.
DeleteTHCC CC update
ReplyDeleteOut of 36 clues, 23 are in place. Only 13 need to come in yet. No worries. Deadline remains as indicated in individual emails.
Nice clues.smooth surfaces.10a -doctor is not def. but anagrind.wow.27 a end is expiration. Really I had to swot a lot to crack Br. coin . First I tried pence. (15d) two quarters came in handy.Likewise 22d appealing clue plo for ME fighters.Good entertainer tody.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the feedback folks.
ReplyDeleteWow, tough one today Sunnet. Tried it on and off fora couple of hours at work, but just couldnt finish it. Took a fair amount of help from dictionary as well. There were a few too many options within clues (e.g. backward state ~ too many states to invert it becomes a random letter exercise unless you have a lot of time). But loved CURTAIL and WHEEZE (didnt know about this). Also, how did the OS come in AMIGOS?
ReplyDeleteAnd also loved WODEHOUSE... lovely clue.
DeleteYeah, On hindsight, I think the backward state clue had too many possibilities.
DeleteOS comes from big (Outsize)
Ah. Thanks Ramesh. Even then Anchorage for PORT was clever. I kept trying ALASKA<- for the returned state :-)
Delete