Tuesday, 24 June 2014

No 11119, Tuesday 24 Jun 2014, Spinner


As of now things are back to normal with the CW having reappeared in the miscellaneous section of the online edition. In case the paper discontinues it again we will resort to publishing the answers only without the clues. Let's hope that does not happen.

Some definition problems today.

ACROSS
1   Note to help instrument player (7) BASSIST {B}{ASSIST}
5   Animals don't have time for priests (6) RABBIS RABBItS
11 Practising without original permit is dishonest (5) LYING pLYING
12 Project X included a display to contrast (9) JUXTAPOSE {JU{X}T}{A}{POSE}
13 Poster bundle hides a book (4, 2) WANT AD {W{A}{NT} AD} I've heard of a "WANTED AD' but 'WANT AD'? See comments
14 Enlised (6, 2) SIGNED UP [E] Seems to be a typo for enlisted. I put in 'JOINED UP' and wasted a long time looking for the Tax collector!!
16 Some parrot exercise? (4) ROTE [T] &lit ?
                                   Illustration by Bhargav
17 Betels I dig out are eatable (10) DIGESTIBLE*
20 Riyadh, a crisis? (3, 4, 3) BAD HAIR DAY {RIYADH}* (Correction {RIYADH A}* - See comments))

 Cartoon by Rishi
21 Boast about dress (4) GARB <=
24 Throw beers out without doubt (2, 2, 4) TO BE SURE*
26 Without hesitation, bathed and exposed to view (6) SHOWED SHOWerED
28 Manage a leader's inconveniences at the temple (9) HEADACHES {HEAD}{A}{CHE'S}
29 Wetland animal returns to Southern Hemisphere (5) MARSH {MAR<={SH}
30 Dig westwards with shovel to Oregon (6) ROOTLE [T<=]
31 Ban lad caught with book (7) BOYCOTT {BOY}{C{OT}T}

DOWN
2   Made an ideal ET? (9) ALIENATED* Semi &lit (See comments)
3   Recruit gangster as a show of intent (6) SIGNAL {SIGN}{AL}
4   Toni just had a revolutionary Japanese delicacy (4) SUJI [T<=] Is the definition correct? I could find only Gyu-suji as shown in the link.
6   A returning north Indian god at top of Himalayan shrine (8) AMARNATH {A}{MAR)(N<=}{AT}{H}
7   Big Street is wide (5) BROAD {B}{ROAD}
8   Small church has 2.71828 m outside– spire (7) STEEPLE {S}{TEm{E}PLE}
9   Werewolf returned, had cream (6) FLOWER [T<=]
10 Formerly, Kimi Raikkonen, we hear, was a tax collector? (9) EXCISEMAN (~ex iceman)
15 Ranking that woman's curve takes one year (9) HIERARCHY {H{I}ER}{ARCH}{Y}
18 Sausage, uncooked, with a touch of turmeric, split open on the outside (9) BRATWURST {B{RA{T}W}URST}
19 Military officer wrecks room (8) MARSHALL {MARS}{HALL}
20 Slaughter last of leader's following, except revolutionary (7) BUTCHER {BUT}{CHE}{R}
22 Indian fool rejects University, takes up agriculture initially and becomes the enlightened one (6) BUDDHA BUDDH(-u+a)A
23 He's at the heart of Carbon and Methyl Isocyanate? (6) CHEMIC {C}{HE}{MIC} Definition? &lit See comments
25 A cry when innerwear's visible outside, initially (5) BRAVO {BRA}{V}{O}

Illustration by Rishi
27 Capital of Sri Lanka's Colombo, ultimately (4) OSLO {O}{SL}{O}


79 comments:

  1. Bravo, CV. The 'coat' is rather PrETTY !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As a retired person Rishi may in future, classify himself as belonging to the Petty bourgeoisie class in KYC forms!!

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    2. Bravo ! Nice colourful (eye catching) illustration by CV Sir !!

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  2. CHEMIC is a scientist trained in the science of chemistry. So, the clue can be read as &lit.

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  3. 6Dn For correction: {AMAR}{N}<={AT}{H}

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  4. Want-ad is very much a term that is used abroad.
    Gridman once clued the same term.

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  5. In Triplicane, Madras that is Chennai, there is Big Street. But, as you know, it is anything but big by modern standards. Maybe in that distant past when the road was made, it was of a size that earned that name. For in many of our old towns we have roads by the same or similar names. In CBE there is Periya Kadai Veedhi in an old part of the city. I was living in another street in the vicinity..

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  6. Nice one Spinner. Liked HEAD A CHE'S.
    Could this have been more explicit: Does it mean that at a dist of 2.78 m aspire stands. Or the ht of the spire is 2.78 m? Felt wordplay missed something.
    8 Small church has 2.71828 m outside– spire (7) STEEPLE {S}{TEm{E}PLE}

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  7. A post Venkatesh is likely to make:

    For CHE, Spinner has used 'revolutionary' twice.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually he has CHE appeared 3 times:
      28a as leader
      20d as revolutionary
      23d as Carbon and He

      The other use of revolutionary in the clue is not for Che

      Delete
  8. Raghu,

    I think you are trying to connect 2.71828 with metres & height. But it is simply 'e' (or value of 'e') Here 'e' substitutes 'm' in temple. I was also trying to o the same, even trying to convert it into feet etc.

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    Replies
    1. I meant I was trying to get the meaning of the sentence. I know e = mathematical base and that it substitutes 'm'.

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    2. I took the meaning of the sentence as small Church has a small (2.7.. m) spire.Usually spires are much taller than that.

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  9. In 'Headache' manage is for head?
    I did not get headache doing the CW but by 'roting' Kishore's table in the toon! Bravo!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Time to eat a 'parotta' ?

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    2. from Chambers: HEAD
      lead, rule, govern, command, direct, be in charge of, be in control of, manage, run, superintend, oversee, supervise, administer, control, guide, steer

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    3. My 9.44 is in reply to Kishore.
      Thank you Raghu for clarifying Head.

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  10. My doubt is about Church=temple.

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    Replies
    1. Collins has temple as the second word in the list of synonyms for church.

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    2. synonyms listed are not necessarily equals..

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  11. Did any of you see the Ad about bad hair being a draw and a man trying to get it with the help of birds rifling his hair? Saw it several times yesterday during the match. Alas, product does not get that much attention.

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  12. I too joined up till I saw the blog.

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  13. 6D- Why 'A'? Then Indian God is just Ram?
    A
    Returning North Indian God- NRAM=<
    At
    H for Himalayan
    Am I right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had this anno. But then N RAM is an ex-Editor in Chief of The Hindu ...

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    2. The only NRAM<= I know of is TH Chief ed. or something like that!

      A N Indian would call RAM and S Indian usually RAMA.

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    3. Raghu, but in Tamil they say 'aam' and 'aama' ...

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    4. Actually Kishore, the written word is 'Aamaam'. It is shortened in speech to aama & aam etc.

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    5. Wonder where He (Lord Ram) was returning from? Seems during winter a surrogate idol of the Badrinath deity is carried down to Joshimath by the ruling priest (namboodri) in Badrinath.

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    6. A + MAR N (returning North + Indian god) + AT + H

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    7. As
      Paddy says, it is Aamam for yes, variously pronouncec as aam and aama

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    8. Col will have to correct the anno again or else the 'A' is superficial.

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    9. comment wrt to VJ's post

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  14. Replies
    1. Good catch. None of us noticed it. Must be the football effect!!

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    2. Where do you get these days from? Normally all such days start from the U.S., but cricket is not likely to start there.

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    3. Paddy he meant,

      Cricket is the theme

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    4. Got it late! Thank you. I thought it was one of those father's day etc.!

      Delete
  15. Good mental exercise today! I could solve all but one i.e 13Ac. Spinner had me grafting for runs a la Rahul Dravid style with his tight spell. Finally he had the laugh by denying me my hard earned century :(

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  16. Firstly, apologies for 14A. In the initial puzzle, I had left out the clue. I had written the clue later, but I sent the old file again. So 14A was clueless as it is. My apologies, once again.

    As for Suji, it is a Japanese delicacy made with tendons.

    Small church has 2.71828 m outside– spire (7) The clue's surface was intended to mean a small church has a 2.7m long outside spire. Spires are definitely longer, but this is a small church.

    VJ's annotation was the one I had in mind ofr AMARNATH.

    And as RameshJ has pointed out. there is a theme. but it is a little more specific than just cricketers.

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  17. As for 2D, the clue has the anagram indicator and the fodder. The entire clue is a definition. Isn't that an &lit rather than a semi &lit? There are no extra words as such.

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  18. Suji is also the name of a cricketer, along with Signal. But there's another connection between these 'names' in cricket.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Srivathsan,
    You're not going to be in Chennai on 6th Jul?,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, sir. I will be in Trichy on said date.

      Delete
  20. Boycott had a brother who played cricket ?

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  21. Thanks to Spinner for a good time, and to DG for the blog. And to the cartoonists for a fun time!

    In the annotation for 20, the last A is missing: it has to be {RIYADH A}*.

    Re. the question about the definition of 4dn, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suji has it as the second definition in the list.

    I was wondering about MARSHALL, since the military designation takes only one L. But then I remembered General Marshall (of Marshall Plan fame) and assumed that the clue referred to a specific military officer rather than to a military rank.

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  22. I was initially wondering about presence of marsh and marshall, but did not follow up ...

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  23. All the Cricketers highlighted are Left-hand(ed) Batsmen, I believe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Boycott doesn't fit there either. Boycott Boycott I say

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  24. All are not just names, but mean something else as well.

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  25. Sl,Pak & Bangladesh are not represented. Suji is from Kenya. WI has 3.
    BTW there are 2 Butchers, one each from England & WI.

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  26. Liz & Rose Signal are twins and women cricketers from New Zealand

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    Replies
    1. Extrapolating this a little bit, is it that each of the names mentioned have 2 players from the family who have played cricket ? Apart form Signal, Broad, Amarnath, Bravo, Flower, Suji, Butcher, Marsh all fit this category. Not sure about Boycott.

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    2. Again Boycott is to be boycotted!

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    3. Doubtful case - Marshall too, I think.

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    4. Among family member related cricketers, one is a left-handed batsman and the other is a right-handed batsman, I believe.

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    5. Hamish & James Marshall from NZ fit the "family" theme.

      But yes, Boycott does not fit it.

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    6. Time to boycott Boycott and Marshall your thoughts ...

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  27. The theme is indeed cricketing families. All the said names have more than one player from the family who has played cricket. Boycott is an unintentional coincidence.

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  28. Nice theme and crossword spinner..
    got all clues except 13A. filled in 27d late as I didn't expect the double-duty on 'capital'. 21A also came in after crossing letters as the answer could have been either 'garb' or 'brag'..

    ReplyDelete
  29. Enjoyed this spun silk from Spinner. However, since I'm cracked up against cricket, (since it is no longer cricket?!) didn't bother about the theme.

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  30. 27 Capital of Sri Lanka's Colombo, ultimately (4) OSLO {O}{SL}{O}

    Can someone help me understand why the O in "of" was taken? How do we identify such clues?
    the other "SLO" are fine....

    ReplyDelete
  31. David, as Aakash mentioned two comments above yours, 'Capital' is on double duty.

    Another thing I notice is the (more than average) appearance of a letter appearing twice successively.

    1A - SS
    5A - BB
    30A - OO
    31A - TT
    8D - EE
    19D - LL
    22D - DD

    Had there been a UU (well nigh impossible, methinks) we could have formed the word DOUBLETS twice! :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well nigh impossible? Certainly not. There are a number of common words with UU:
      Vacuum, Continuum, Menstruum, and Residuum.
      There is also a word in clothing: Muumuu ( a woman's loose unbelted dress).

      Delete
    2. thanks Navneeth...but I'd go with Srivathsan's explanation

      Delete
  32. Capital is not on double duty here. O for of is as in will o' the wisps. SL for Sri Lanka.

    ReplyDelete

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