ACROSS
1 Actor announced stealing no good bills (5,8) ROBIN WILLIAMS {ROBIN}(~robbin
10 Thrash around and become tired (4,2) BEAT UP [DD]
11 Beauty, for example, found within eastern weapon (8) ELEGANCE {E}{L{EG}ANCE}
12 Creator has it finally — Ultimate power! (9) AUTHORITY {AUTHOR}{IT}{
14 Call to withdraw support and leave at first (4) DIAL {DIA<=}{L
15 Hitting it on one’s head is the right thing to do (4) NAIL [CD]
16 Foul swines surround zoo suffering from nausea (9) WOOZINESS {W{ZOO*}INESS*}
20 Layer of primarily organic mass placed inside tissue (8) STROMATA {STR{O}{M}ATA}
21 Kind-hearted person undergoes gender transformation (6) MELLOW (-f+m)MELLOW
23 Devils lull criminal at a boring place (10) DULLSVILLE*
24 Caught auditor with old horse (4) COLT {C{OL(~old)}T}or is it {C}{OLT}(~old)
25 Does water freeze along this line? (5,8) PRIME MERIDIAN [CD]
DOWN
1 Root node Eva cut oddly contains 13 lines (7) RONDEAU {R
It’s a pretty nice puzzle,
I really enjoyed solving it.
Quite a humorous business,
Clues that made me chuckle.
Plop went my ego’s bubble.
Annotating a few odd clues,
It’s a pretty nice puzzle,
I really enjoyed solving it.
There was a bit of wooziness,
That caused me some trouble.
It is a bit of a struggle,
and zero degree’s malicious!
It’s a pretty nice puzzle.
by Kishore
3 Poor hen that’s cooked for loser (2-5) NO-HOPER*
 |
| Cartoon by Rishi |
5 Females seek to hide tenant (6) LESSEE [T]
6 Respect for modern speech (9) ADORATION {AD}{ORATION}
7 Clients fancy designing tool (7) STENCIL*
13 Commoners, ill-bred, loot hippo oil and extract pot (3,6) HOI POLLOI {LOO
15 Ace is ever victorious on such a bridge (2,5) NO TRUMP [CD]
17 Last letters describe a doctor on drugs beside a river (7) ZAMBEZI {Z{A}{MB}{E}Z}{1}
18 Fake news describes endless polls that are inflated (7) SWOLLEN {SW{
19 They morph from molten rocks having the right energy (6) LARVAE
22 Food found in Napoli & China (5) LICHI [T]
Very nice puzzle.
ReplyDeleteFor a long time I had the answer to 4d yet also didn't have it.
To the Sonnets, Varsha & RameshJ, who celebrate their 11th Wedding Anniversary today,
ReplyDeleteMany Happy Returns of the Day.
Happy Anniversary Ramesh
DeleteHappy wedding anniversary, Ramesh.
DeleteAll the best, Mrs and Mr Ramesh
DeleteThanks for the wishes. But mine is on the 5th of Feb.
DeleteAll are requested not to make such blatant errors which put others also in embarrassing situations
DeleteCol. It may have been my fault. It is possible that my anniversary CW appeared on the same day last year. Hence the confusion
DeleteNow we've got Mrs Ramesh wondering at her hubby getting anniversary wishes today!
DeleteOkay. My 8:59 may be ignored in that case
DeleteThankfully she does not read this blog :)
DeleteHappy Birthday (read-anniversary)
DeleteWhose Biorthday?
Amaon.com- Easy returns!! ( My fault watching the Ads dyring cricket matches!)
To add to my comment @9:04. Yes the CW appeared on May 15th last year. So that is source of the confusion. Thanks Venkatesh for remembering it & for the thoughtful wishes
DeleteGreat work Kishore, a cartoon a Rondeau and you feature on Shuchi's Dramadose as well. Hats off to you.
ReplyDelete+2-plus
Delete+ 3
Delete++
DeleteThanks, Deepak. If not for your benevolence in permitting my little indiscretions here, I would have to hide my lantern under a bushel ...
DeleteKeep up the good work. Add more feathers in your cap. You are no longer 'Incognito'!!
DeleteCan I say +13 ?
Delete:-)
Delete19 They morph from molten rocks having the right energy (6) LARVAE {LAVA+R+E}*
ReplyDeleteDid you mean an indirect anagram or LA(R)VA + E
{molten rocks LAVA having R} + E(nergy)
DeleteLA(R)VA + E
That's what I've written after 'or'
DeleteThanks, Raghu. Wrongly annotated by me.
DeleteGood Crossword! Good cartoons and good Rondeau! Hopefully a good start to a good day!
ReplyDeleteHad a good time - thanks, Aspartame! And of course, to Col. for the blog.
ReplyDeleteRe. the annotation: wouldn't both NO TRUMP and PRIME MERIDIAN need GK markings too, especially because there is no wordplay for either and both can be got *only* through GK about card games and geography respectively?
Yes they could, but I felt the clues were written in a cryptic manner so I put it down as a CD.
DeletePM is a CD. PM by itself does not cause freezing of water. It does so because it is zero degrees out there. As it is on the Equator!
DeleteJokes apart, there is natural ice on the equator, atop Mt Kilimanjaro.
That's precisely my point, Kishore - to get the answer, I have to know that the prime meridian is at 0 degrees - hence my reference to GK! Similarly, I have to know the rules of no-trump to know that the ace cannot be beaten (trumped) there.
DeleteCol: I am not questioning the CD bit - I am suggesting that CD+GK might be more appropriate.
That way ever answer would be GK. You need to know what the word means ...
DeleteBetter late than never. Many happy returns of yesterday, Sandhya and also Sridhar Shenoy Panchmal.
ReplyDeleteAll the best S & S (figure out which S stands for which person). And the funny thing is these two people know each other through S's husband (no doubt as to which S stars here)
DeleteMy belated Best Wishes for Sandhya & Sridhar.
DeleteBelated greetings. Happy Birthday, Sandhya Ma'am and Sridhar Shenoy !
ReplyDeleteMany happy returns of the day Sandhya Garu
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the wishes! :)
DeleteA nice puzzle. As for 4Dn, I was totally clueless!!!
ReplyDeleteI got it immediately as I had the same idea when I came across clueless in a Gridman recently. Mine would have led to Clueless. Now I will drop it in cold storage and will use it hopefully when everyone has forgotten about this
DeleteThat's what I wrote in my first comment. When I looked at 4d, I thought "I haven't got a clue", yet I did not know that it was the answer, till I saw it in Orkut.
DeleteAn easier Aspartame today. Enjoyable as usual. Loved Prime meridian. I had the answer for a long time before I figured out the clue
ReplyDeleteOK, so let me play the devil's advocate here :)
ReplyDelete1a : bill ≠ Bill ! You can't take away the initial capital letter with proper nouns.
24a : olt ≠ ~old '[word] in audition' suggests a homophone of word. Not sure 'audition with [word]' does.
25a : Prime Meridian = Circle (not line) at 0° longitude. How do you jump from one unit longitude (length) to another (temperature Celsius) ?
6d : AD is an adverb. Modern is a noun or adjective. AD = 'in the modern age' or 'modern times'
17d : Drug = E, drugs = EE or Es
Bhavan,
ReplyDeletePrime meridian IS a line and not a circle. diametrically opposite is the Int.date Line. Also, both are represented by degree sign ( I do not know how to represent it here- I mean the longitude & temp.)
So I think it is in order.
What he means is that we are equating a line to temperature. I suppose it might be OK as the clue ends with a Q mark
DeletePaddy, the Equator, while being a circle is also a line (since it is only on the surface of the globe and represents the perimeter (a line) of a circle while it does not have the other atrribute of a geometric circle i.e. area( and satisfied the same CD wordplay of zero degrees and in fact brings in a bit of intrigue.
DeleteI agree. Though I got the word, I could not understand the freeze part till very late.
DeleteThe clue "I haven't got a clue' and its variations are chestnuts seen in CWDs from time to time.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, a similar clue is given as an example clue in the book 'Anatomy of the Crossword' by D. St. P. Barnard (G. Bell, London, 1963), one of the early and seminal works on the subject.
I read AD as in BC/ AD.So modern.
ReplyDelete1A- Robin of Mrs. Doubtfire fame (forerunner of its Tamil version- Avvai Shanmugi) A hilarious comedy- both of them in their own way.
ReplyDeleteTough one today, for me!
ReplyDeleteA bit rusty still, I guess. Loved 4D.
Thanks Aspartame for a nice CW. Could solve most of them.
ReplyDeleteAll the clues were good to read. Icing on the cake was 4D for its brevity.-) First thought "election eve" caught up with TH, but somehow figured it out with effort and some lateral thinking. Enjoyed 1ac, 11ac, 12 ac, 16ac, 20ac, 6dn, 7dn and others.
Missed out on 5dn and 22dn( telescopically challenged). 22 dn & misled me.
1ac reminded of "Good Will Hunting" (one of my fav).
For 22d, I thought fruit would have been more apt.
DeleteAgree with you there.
DeleteCGB,
ReplyDeleteKejriwal is now doing meditation at a VIPASANA camp at Sohna (near Gurgaon) away from the TV news cameras. Priyanka is also a vipasana regular
VIP ASANA !
ReplyDeleteBravo!
DeleteThis crossie has an 11 across, is 21 across and as smooth as 17 down . If any said 4 down, he/she is a 3 down and must be 10 across !!
ReplyDeleteWell done ,ASPARAME !!
At the outset, I thought , Orkut has played foul in 4 down by gobbling the area !!
Have you also given up Tea, like CV and AD?
DeleteI was spell-bound and hence challenged to go across the tea to coffee !
DeleteKishore @ 9.05-- Now we've got Mrs Ramesh wondering at her hubby getting anniversary wishes today!
ReplyDeleteSomeone tucked away in chinna andha veedu?
15 Ace is ever victorious on such a bridge (2,5) NO TRUMP [CD]
ReplyDeleteNo Trump by itself is not a bridge. It is just a bid in bridge. Auction Bridge, Contract Bridge etc. are the type of bridge games.
Right. Not a good clue.
DeleteHere is a sample of challenging clues I came across from the Times Crossword Championship, 2010:
ReplyDelete1) From entrance turned left regularly for church gallery (4,4)
2) Employed to keep books, wife started probably illegally (3-5)
3) My bill goes down a bit, but debt collector gets nothing back (6)
4) Go down with disease when in trouble (6)
2){ H (OT) (W) IRED} No idea about others
Delete1) ROOD<, L OFT
Delete4) A(BSE)IL
Deletedisease - BSE - Bovine Spongiform E ncephalopathy (Mad Cow Disease)
in
trouble- AIL
Defn: go down ABSEIL
3) {DUN}{LIN<=}
Delete10A: Cartoon works for BEAT UP and BEATEN UP. A very versatile fodder we got there.
ReplyDeleteToday NIE clue - Shortened game in these days (8) A (BRIDGE) D
ReplyDelete25 Does water freeze along this line? (5,8) PRIME MERIDIAN [CD]
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to imagine
Yosemite is only 60 miles from Fresno where it never, ever snows and rarely gets below 32 F in the winter.
This is an incredible video! It only happens in March and April. I have never seen a creek come to a complete stop like this before
and start up again someplace else. It's like a lava flow - Turn on your sound.
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=9V9p4mFEYXc&vq=medium#t=15
Truly an incredible video! Thank you Renga.
DeleteNice Video Mr Renga. Could feel the chillness when the temperature outside is horrible now.
ReplyDeleteSCD - Silly CD - my suggestion for classifying clues like 25A. ;-)
ReplyDelete