Friday 30 May 2014

No 11098, Friday 30 May 2014, Neyartha


ACROSS
7   Sophisticated Democrat and Virginia participate in dance medley (8) ADVANCED {D{VA}{D}ANCE*}
9   Bulk of the main level has been abandoned (6) AMOUNT parAMOUNT
10 Hollywood misinterprets owl’s intent (10) TINSELTOWN*
11 One may pump this for exercise (4) IRON [CD]
12 Adult taking out a chromosome from the novice’s edible starchy root (4) TARO T(-y+a)ARO
13 Child ran amok in the American city (8) RICHLAND*
16 Gadgets with flaws put behind revolutionary Ed (7) DEVICES {DE<=}{VICES}
18 Revered threesome attempt to capture heartless Eskimo (7) TRINITY {TR{INuIT}Y}
20 Four students take me inside after training hurriedly (4-4) PELL-MELL {PE}{LL-{ME}LL}
21 Frown after missing the first pastry ingredient (4) LOUR fLOUR
23 Fertilizer chemical provided by a bureaucrat (4) UREA [T]
24 Beautiful handwriting in article going into exercise by New Mexico vessel (10) PENMANSHIP {PE}{NM}{AN}{SHIP}
25 British car manufacturer’s big cat (6) JAGUAR [DD]
26 Trouble admitting anger at the Oriental moving in with the pastoral staves (8) CROSIERS {CROS{I(+e)ER(-e)}S}

DOWN
1   Sad minister conceals one enjoying root access? (5) ADMIN [T]
2   Corrupt agencies haul tea for the old European trade group (9,6) HANSEATIC LEAGUE*
3   Northbound lawyer’s trip to the estuary borders abandoned at retreat (7) ADJOURN {AD<=}{JOURNey}
4   Rule for the auditor in a thunderstorm (4) RAIN (~reign)
5   Factors that may determine why dialects vary between classes in the same region (15) SOCIOLINGUISTIC [CD] ([E] - See comments) Had to cheat on this one
6   Keen on covering sprocket with nickel for an identity-concealing person (9) INCOGNITO {IN{COG}{NI}TO}
8   Sets out with the Pole for a ball with a musical instrument (5) CELLO Anno pending (Addendum - CELL(-s+o)O - See comments)
14 Mongrel’s dead skin is trimmed (3) CUR sCURf
15 Drill and cutting tool brought up with catch inside (9) REHEARSAL {RE{HEAR}SAL<=}
17 Exchange component that may make everyone blind (3) EYE [CD]
19 Devil’s kin, cold after treatment (3,4) OLD NICK*
21 Put up total on return from a grassy plain (5) LLANO {LLA<=}{NO<=}
22 Caught my black bird with an IC chip (5) MICRO (~my crow)
24 Balkan money found in a Brazilian city (4) PARA [DD] Thanks to Google

33 comments:

  1. Does our Incognito live up to the definition in Clue 9d - with so many hats of his on sheer display?

    ReplyDelete
  2. 8 Sets out with the Pole for a ball with a musical instrument (5) CELLO Anno pending

    Sets = Cells ... as in a political cell {Chambers}
    out with pole = -s
    ball = o

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lot of superfluous words makes the clue confusing to me. I still can't see the relevance of all the words in the clue. Should the answer be CELLS or CELLO?

      Delete
    2. Me too. For a long time I thought Pole (S) for a ball (O) suggested S was replacing O, but then that was clashing with 12ac. I suppose we have to see 'out with the Pole' as the deletion and 'for a ball' as an indication to replace S with O

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. This blog is the theme to a small extent. ADMIN, INCOGNITO and the TRINITY of cartoonists.

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    2. That doesn't qualify for a theme

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    3. It was just in a lighter vein! ;-)

      Delete
  4. Copy of late last evening post by Jayashankar Jayaraman is copy pasted below

    Hello all,

    Just to inform you that The Caravan has carried an article about my father, Sankalak, in its June edition.

    Regards, Jayashankar

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was under the impression that tinseltown is 2 words

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're right! TINSEL TOWN is two words and so the enu must have been 6,4.

      Delete
    2. I think Tinseltown as one word also OK. My online Oxford shows it as 1 word.

      A couple of other questions:
      1) Why is 5d a CD? I can't figure out any cryptic element
      2) In 22d, how does the homophone work? Mi is pronounced 'me' isn't it?

      Delete
    3. Agreed on 5d - it is a fairly straightforward definition. I found 11a too to be barely cryptic.

      Not sure what problem you found with the homophone in 22d (although I must admit I didn't get the word) - MICRO is indeed pronounced the same way as "my crow".

      Delete
    4. True Abhay, but there are two components, and if you substitute My with Mi, it doesn't seem to work, since they are pronounced differently. Was wondering if I had missed something.

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    5. Perhaps I am making a substitution that's not called for, but...

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  6. I get print edition of Caravan but I am yet to get my copy of the June issue. Nor is it uploaded as yet. We've to wait for a couple of hours/days.

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  7. Looking forward to the Caravan's latest issue hitting the stands.

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  8. In the last round, I thought I was improving with Neyartha. Brought down with a thud this time- not being able to identify the man with many hats as well as 2 15's in Down. A few new words and cities as well.

    ReplyDelete
  9. There was some discussion on Amby cars recently. The following items may be of some interest.

    http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/an-ode-to-the-ambassador/article6062592.ece?homepage=true
    http://www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/till-we-meet-again-my-dear-amby/article6061550.ece?homepage=true

    ReplyDelete
  10. In the cartoon for 18A, the guy, apparently relaxing on a hammock, is definitely Terence Hill.

    The hammock would not have accommodated Bud Spencer or it would have simply given way or snapped. ;-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is T Hill. B Spencer would have been quite stout. But given that he has a hat covering his face, the positioning of the cartoon under Incognito was not wholly incorrect. WRT Raghu's Adnan Sami comment yesterday, not for a moment doubting the Trinity formed by Adnan Sami, Bud Spencer and me, I can only say "Adu naan alla, Saamy".

      Delete
  11. Defeated by three words in the SE corner. Found this a tricky puzzle overall. Too many wordy clues, IMO.

    Re. annotation for 24d: I think it should be T rather than DD, since there is no Brazilian city called PARA (that's a state) but there *is* a city called PARAna.

    Thanks to the setter and the blogger!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, it would be an indirect T - not sure how the annotation for that goes!

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    2. It's not a T as T stands for Telescopic clues

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    3. So how would PARA coming from PARAna be annotated? It is not a DD for sure.

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    4. It's an error by the setter not realizing that Para is a state and not a city

      Delete
    5. If PARA were taken from PARANA then it's a T, but here PARANA is not in the clue

      Delete
    6. I am not sure it's an error - given that the clue reads "...found in a Brazilian city", perhaps the setter meant part of the city rather than the city itself.

      Delete
  12. Refreshingly intricate cluing , for a change !! Had difficulty in clearing the long words. Knew that this is from Neyartha ! TRINITY was a heartless and cold clue ! (INUIT for ann eskimo minus U !)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Padmanabhan @ 10:08 Re.

    You are not the only one, Paddy. I too was brought down with a resounding THUD this time! I think it was a KO Punch!! Hope to recover tomorrow!!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. 5 Factors that may determine why dialects vary between classes in the same region (15)

    There are some comments on the difficulty in solving the above clue. But none has volunteered to say why.
    I think the whole clue is def.
    But "Factors etc" suggest as if we have to look for a noun that is in plural form.
    If the clue had been 'The sort of etc" then probably we would have immediately been looking for an adj, which is what the answer is. Arriving at it with the words 'dialects' and '.classes' would not have been much of a problem.
    Briefly, we might say there is a aprt of speech conflict in the clue.
    Am I right?

    ReplyDelete
  15. A new avatar from DG?

    ReplyDelete

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