Driving around with Incognito today.
ACROSS
8 Decree ordering one to be put into lard (4) FIAT {F{1}AT}
9 Having a fish after morning, Dora danced for a diplomatic representative (10) AMBASSADOR {AM}{BASS}{DORA*}
10 Material used in prefab rickshaws (6) FABRIC [T]
11 Colouring material is hard, one hears, but can be used for colouring (8) DYESTUFF
12 Such a chair can kill the occupant (8) ELECTRIC [CD]
14 Type of dance where mirrors are broken after loss of a bit of rhythm (6) MORRIS MIR
16 Has nothing before regular wine with first sandwich (4) OWNS {O}{W
17 Small street in Police Department compound was tiled (5) PAVED {P{AVE}D}
18 Drown in the kitchen tub (4) SINK [DD]
21,23 Mad uncle baffles OPEC resulting in crimes (8,8) CULPABLE OFFENCES*
26 Setter holds first person for the lady (6) MADAME {M{ADAM}E}
27 Rhythmic reason for flight of talent (5,5) BRAIN DRAIN [CD]
28 Dashed before first gong made sound (4) RANG {RAN}{G}
DOWN
1 Prohibited everyone liable to pay money after Princess started to seduce (10) DISALLOWED {DI}{S}{ALL}{OWED}
2 Lures at some places (8) ATTRACTS {AT}{TRACTS}
3 Soldier carrying a spear has left crane mutilated (6) LANCER {L}{CRANE*}
4 Setter made an offer in the same place (4) IBID {I}{BID}
5 Indian car journalist followed was treasured (8) ESTEEMED {ESTEEM}{ED}
6 Pollux’s twin may yield oil (6) CASTOR [DD]
7 Game that begins with a tea, we hear (4) GOLF [CD] (tea~tee)
13 Commander-in-chief- captures six Romans about town (5) CIVIC {CI{VI}C}
15 Atticus reformed failing men (3,7) IAN FLEMING*
17 PIN or ZIP, for example, used in delivery (8) POSTCODE [E]
18 Normal flag (8) STANDARD [DD]
20 Believe gold is lost by financier (6) CREDIT CREDIT
22 The Spanish soldiers start to cry (6) LAMENT {LA}{MEN}{T}
24 American president and actor cross river (4) FORD [MD]
25 Guns sent back to ‘men-only’party (4) STAG <=
Remembered Murder By Death -
ReplyDeleteIn the last spoken line of the movie, Sydney Wang, when asked if there had been a murder or not, replies: "Yes; killed good weekend!" (Wiki)
With Ian Fleming around, it had to happen. A couple of clues killed.
I thankfully acknowledge the suggestion of this theme by the Irishman from Chennai
ReplyDeleteThank you Kishore. If yesterday was fast, today it was faster with all cars around including our dera old Amby (swan song?) Finished well ahead of time and waiting to share.
ReplyDeleteOne more ref. to ian Fleming-Atticus.
ReplyDeletehttp://jamesbondmemes.blogspot.in/2012/01/atticus-ian-flemings-nursery-of-ideas.html
W.R.to the cartoon-
ReplyDeleteOr throw everything around including the kitchen sink!
'Electric' may also be considered as a car though not a model as such (just the type)
ReplyDeleteMy old faithful, FIAT, still runs gracefully at age 58
ReplyDelete58!! Congrats!
DeleteI am already proud ( now looks vain compared to 58) of my Chetak scooter at only 36.
Paddy my 'Yezdi' also beats your Chetak by a year, it's 37 years old
DeleteWhat the heck, Deepak! Your car beats me in age!
DeleteCol.,
DeleteYou win hands down.
11 Colouring material is hard, one hears, but can be used for colouring (8) DYESTUFF {DYES}{TUFF}(~tough)
ReplyDeleteI parsed this as in Orkut: Dye is (DYE'S) tough (~ TUFF).
That was the intended anno
DeleteMy post @ 856 should have been without the 'as'.
DeleteThe kitchen sink clue reminded me of the Hindi saying: "Chullu bhar paani mein doob maro"
ReplyDeleteIn the Open magazine (June 16) Mark Tully writes an excellent requiem for Ambassador.
ReplyDeleteHow many of you remember the famous joke: What is the difference between Ambassador Mark II and Ambassador Mark III ?
ReplyDeleteThe Mark ?
DeleteOnly the Mark plate !!
DeleteWith Incognito around, can I miss my 'centum'? No way! It was like a BENZ Car ride all the way!! Thank you Incognito. :-)
ReplyDeletecan I miss my 'centum'? No way!
DeleteBut, only yesterday you said you had missed out on one.
Past is past! :)
DeleteIn other words - "gatham gathaha" :)
DeleteBut it is already today!
ReplyDeleteIt is always today!
DeleteIncognito's turn is now the much anticipated one in the cycle. Flows like a breeze. :) ... But in 10A , I urgently filled in bricks and banged my head on it for a while, though Lancer was easy and crossings were at loggerheads.
ReplyDeleteIt would have been easier (on your head) to have banged your head on fabric instead of bricks (though that word too is available in the fodder). Much softer and less prone to damage. But then, if you had put in fabric, there would have been no need to bang your head.
DeleteI agree that the alternative answer fits the clue, but as you say, it does not fit the grid and this, as we all know, is a 'crossword'.
Def was singular, so I am not sure that Bricks will fit.. maybe if we stretch
DeleteMaybe bricks made of elastic material. Safer on the head too.
Delete"Bricks" are a material that go into building like cement, steel, etc. The plural form is acceptable as an answer. So, if we ignore other things, BRICKS is a plausible answer. We can't argue that bricks don't go into the building of prefab rickshaws. Is that kind of accuracy required in surface reading? I don't think so!
DeleteMaybe the 'S' in rickshaws made him think of a plural. The surface goes well with 'Rickshaw' as well.
DeletePlease read
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dramadose.com/jungle-book-rangbaaz/
O/T
ReplyDeleteFor those who love Malgudi days, all the episodes are made available for viewing for free on youtube.
Thanks, B. See you all at Agumbe ...
DeleteHello all, many of you provided comments yesterday in the blog as well as through email--thank you for the feedback! I have incorporated some of the changes in the website (http://the-hindu-crossword.appspot.com/) and a few more are pending. Also, I was making the latest crossword available at midnight EST so far--this will change to 7 AM IST starting tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteSo that is why the CW was not available. Venkat why do you want to give it a fixed timing? Why not make it available as soon as the online paper is uploaded which is around 6:15 or so.
DeleteVenkat, I feel that the grid is too large. While it is convenient, there is a tendency to scroll down to see whether one more row is left. Similarly like in the guardian interactive, if the appropriate clue can appear at the top when the cursor is placed on the grid it will be useful .. saves from scrolling up and down the clue panel
DeleteSure, both problems have been fixed--the latest crossword should now appear within a minute of the online paper being uploaded, and appropriate clues should appear at the top when a grid cell is clicked.
DeleteThe time change would be most welcome. Thank you for all your efforts.
ReplyDeleteGot stuck at NW for four answers. Ran short of time because of an outstation trip. Now back, just read the blog.
ReplyDeleteLiked the car theme. Got them all easily.
Further to Raghu @ 8:56 on 'sink' - remembered a poster I had seen in the kitchen of a friend which had been put by his wife:
When I married him, I had thought every evening, after the daily chores, I would sink in his arms. But, instead, I end up with my arms in the sink.
Read NW as NE.
DeleteFrom the word go, from across to all the down clues, in that order, I could solve this without any halt !! Bravo, INcognito ! No brains to drain. The stuff of cryptic crosswords to die for !!
ReplyDeleteAs for the brands of cars, when once we were compelled to to be content with three or four models , we are now spoiled for choice. Way to go on the roads, India ! Variety is the spice of life ! But why only limit one-------- for a life? (guess is yours ?) I don't want frying pans and rolling pins to fly !
CV & Kishore: On yesterday's erasable pens, While I'm aware of Papermate being the only one that was in the market, though not in India, my point seemed to have been missed. I'm desirous of patenting a white-out on one end and a ballpoint at the other !
I have a good collection of ball point pens in my armoury for writing.
Solve this poser for me: How does one revive a dried up refill, lying unused for years? I have spoiled many refills, heating them over a lamp, literally spilling ink, with wifey spilling my blood,
boiled them in hot water, scratched them on emery-paper, glass and cardboards, spoiling many apparels in the process with stains, with hard stares to match the stains, from wifey to remove them as they refuse to vanish even with Vanish. No luck ! So don't give me those ideas. Googling for answers produces weird solutions. Though the refills come dirt( literally !) cheap, try and match one to fit another pen! So many have been vandalized with spareparts of springs, bodies, tops and mechanism-pieces that refuse to fit each other , lying in a heap in a box !. Many man hours wasted . Hahaha
Raju,
DeleteI thought only I was an old timer asking for refills (only selected shops keep them) while everyone nowadays have only use & throw pens (if they keep pens at all) You have beaten me hollow. You will only have to go in for another patent- with no takers. BTW I have one more variety of unusable ball pens- where I have dropped them by mistake and the ball is damaged and refusing to roll. Shall I send them over to your collection?
I remember Richard had sent a list some time back of things which are either obsolete or may become so shortly. I have seen pens, cheque book etc. in that list.
Best of luck!
I have a good collection of branded and ordinary , ink and ballpoint pens pens. So I'm not looking for a new patent but want to create a patented pen of a ball-point on on end and white-out at another !
DeleteI am still waiting for a response from others as to my problem of reviving dried refills.
A question of usage
ReplyDeleteI believe 'alphabet' is the whole system of letters.
E.g.
The Tamil alphabet has many letters.
The child knows the English alphabet as well as the Tamil alphabet.
E.g., The letter E in his writing is rather peculiar. - Here we can't say 'the alphabet E'.
The use of the plural form 'alphabets' can be in a sentence such as
There are scores of alphabets in use around the world today.
I think you probably mean that the caption should have read 'letters' in stead of 'alphabets'.
DeleteThat'right Chambers defines Alphabet as a System of letters, esp when arranged in coventional set order
DeleteWe got the English word alphabet, via Latin, from the first two letters of the Greek alphabet, 'alpha' and 'beta', which in turn are derived from the original Semitic names for the symbols: aleph ("ox") and beth ("house").
ReplyDeleteSparrow sighted
ReplyDeleteAt 4-47 p.m. today (June 10) in Gopalapuram, Chennai, I sighted a single sparrow.
It flitted in and perched on the top steel frame of the glass window - but only for a moment. Before I could take a pic on my mini iPad, which was at hand, the bird turned and flew away.
The window is at second-floor level.
Keep looking. It is bound to visit again if it is in the vicinity. Generally birds and animals move around within their territory only. I think you have been looking out for the sparrow for quite a while.
DeleteLovely xie.Easily could clear 100% thanks to step-like clues.In certain cases, we could infer the word appposite to given context eg.castor.(6d, 15d).Quite enjoyable puzzle.Thank you In cognito.
ReplyDeleteRaju
ReplyDeleteYour patent will fail. Go to the Guardian crossword website where on the right hand side you will find a box with 'Crossword aids from the Guardian' written on top, within that box you will find a link to 'erasable pens' which are available at £4.99 for 6
Unfortunately they won't deliver it to India
DeleteIndia has far too many deliveries anyway ...
DeleteThanks all for liking the puzz
ReplyDeleteTut - tut. What's this talk of erasable pens? If all the pens are erased, what will we do?
ReplyDeleteOnly beginners at cryptic crosswords - who are yet to learn the ropes from arana kayiru to thaambu kayiru - will use pencils. They use these instruments because if they go wrong they can reach for the - for the rubber - don't snigger, we are all Indians and are very much in India though the sons and daughters of many of us may be in the US.
Experienced solvers - juicy record-holder solvers will, exuding supreme confidence in their prowess, will use pen. And when they put pen to paper, where's tentativeness? where's doubt? where's the need for second thoughts?
Yet, with experience comes age! And with age, memory might play strange tricks! The brain may think of one letter - 'aleph' - of the alphabet and the hand might write 'beth" - and then the thought might fly to Eliza and the rest of the puz may go all haywire. Hey Ram!
All of us who are mentioning erasable pens forget that Raju's dream pen is one that has a ball point at one end and a whitening fluid at the other. That is to say, the pen will be double-barrelled, one barrel filled with writing fluid and the other with whitening ink.
Today we have software that lets us fill any letter and immediately thereafter change it to any other letter (if we want, we can go thru the whole gamut) but we refuse to exploit it and look for erasable pens.
We live like thrisankhu - neither here nor there.
Our Govt. has taught us the way- to be a Trishanku! All Govt. records are partly in paper and partly on computer (it is a different matter that some records are just NOT there) and it is easy to play the blame game. I have been to some Govt. departments who do not have a copy of their own letter- neither soft nor hard- and ask us to produce the copy for them!
DeleteRemember the scene from 3 Idiots about the astronauts, pen and pencil? I believe anti gravity pens are available for Rs 1750/- at William Penn. You can use the pen to write anywhere irrespective of how hot or cold it is, even underwater or upside down it seems.
DeleteAmongst all of you, only CV is spot on , on my desire to patent a double-barreled pen and a white-out at either ends ! Erasable in pens are useless and a waste of money, patented or otherwise !
DeleteAny solution for my dried up refills to be revived for use?
Asw for Paddy's problem, at times, the roller ball that is sssso tiny comes off. I have tried many times to fix one from another and have succeeded. I prefer medium as opposed to fine points. BY far, Reynolds ball points with gel ink are the best and the cheapest i the market. As they say in the ads: Sasta and tikau .Remember the old ad on Dawood shoes? Dawood ke joothe ghis to sakte magar phat nahi sakte !!