Apart from Di, Phantom's got Monica Seles and Simi Garewal in the skull cave ... But why do I feel I am missing something ... on the tip of my tongue ... but I am not able to pinpoint it
ACROSS
1 Nut finally shut and bolted church door (8) ENTRANCE (EN T RAN CE)
5 Sad physician’s distressed? On the contrary (6) SOMBRE(MB SORE)* (SO(MB)RE) See comments
9 Problem horse starting off without right master (8) SURMOUNT (SUMmOUNT outside R)
10 Girl’s oath heard in competition (6) DISCUS (DI'S CUS ~cuss)
12 Fair lady meeting knight (4) EVEN (EVE N)
13 Without doubt one can be repelled by the Spanish in challenge (10) DEFINITELY (1 TIN< EL in DEFY)
15 Sweat according to Greek character exists in small measure (12) PERSPIRATION (PER, PI in S RATION)
18 Focusses on criminal cases about import of English books (12) CONCENTRATES (CON, CRATES around E NT)
21 Election involving councillor, broadcast over this media? (10) ELECTRONIC (ELECTION involving CR)*
22 Strong beer without trace of bitterness (4) ABLE (ALE without B)
24 Jail as punishment revoked for American’s honesty (6) CANDOR (CAN ROD<)
25 Fuel ignited shelters without oxygen? (8) FIREWOOD (FIRED shelters W/O O)
26 Scatter remains after small pail's emptied (6) SPLASH (S PaiL ASH)
DOWN
1 Made certain run out resulted (6) ENSUED (ENSUrED)
2 Jailor leaves Norway for another country (6) TURKEY (TURnKEY)
3 Small unit of weight in India comes up with plenty! (1,3) A LOT (TOLA<)
4 Averts dispute in conservation discussion (12) CONVERSATION (CON(AVERTS)*ION)or CONSERVATION* ?? See comments
6 Free drink taken inside after beano finally began (10) ORIGINATED (O RID outside GIN ATE)
7 Viruses from environment, alien vehicle brought back (8) BACTERIA (AIR ET CAB)< Aren't viruses and bacteria different?
8 Testing contents of boxes, say in godown (8) ESSAYING (T)
Cartoon by Bhargav
11 Resemblances Ms. Garewal and late Iris shared (12) SIMILARITIES (SIMI (LATE IRIS)*)
14 Court No. 1’s restored, included in Monica’s preferences (10) SELECTIONS (CT NO1< in SELES)
16 Disciplines son and playful niece involved in vacuous capers (8) SCIENCES (S, NIECE* in CaperS)
17 Modern terminal’s nucleus moved out inside (8) INTERNAL (TERMINAL-M+N)* IN TERmiNAL
See comments
19 Stomach muscles brother built up to digest! (6) ABSORB (ABS BRO<)
20 Poisonous dye, lad mixed (6) DEADLY (DYE LAD)*
23 Dancing feet to entertain (4) FETE (FEET)*
ACROSS
1 Nut finally shut and bolted church door (8) ENTRANCE (EN T RAN CE)
5 Sad physician’s distressed? On the contrary (6) SOMBRE
9 Problem horse starting off without right master (8) SURMOUNT (SUM
10 Girl’s oath heard in competition (6) DISCUS (DI'S CUS ~cuss)
12 Fair lady meeting knight (4) EVEN (EVE N)
13 Without doubt one can be repelled by the Spanish in challenge (10) DEFINITELY (1 TIN< EL in DEFY)
15 Sweat according to Greek character exists in small measure (12) PERSPIRATION (PER, PI in S RATION)
18 Focusses on criminal cases about import of English books (12) CONCENTRATES (CON, CRATES around E NT)
21 Election involving councillor, broadcast over this media? (10) ELECTRONIC (ELECTION involving CR)*
22 Strong beer without trace of bitterness (4) ABLE (ALE without B)
24 Jail as punishment revoked for American’s honesty (6) CANDOR (CAN ROD<)
25 Fuel ignited shelters without oxygen? (8) FIREWOOD (FIRED shelters W/O O)
26 Scatter remains after small pail's emptied (6) SPLASH (S P
Cartoon by Rishi
27 Rally efficiently to control return of disorder (8) ASSEMBLY (ABLY around MESS<)DOWN
1 Made certain run out resulted (6) ENSUED (ENSU
2 Jailor leaves Norway for another country (6) TURKEY (TUR
4 Averts dispute in conservation discussion (12) CONVERSATION (CON(AVERTS)*ION)
6 Free drink taken inside after beano finally began (10) ORIGINATED (O RID outside GIN ATE)
7 Viruses from environment, alien vehicle brought back (8) BACTERIA (AIR ET CAB)< Aren't viruses and bacteria different?
8 Testing contents of boxes, say in godown (8) ESSAYING (T)
11 Resemblances Ms. Garewal and late Iris shared (12) SIMILARITIES (SIMI (LATE IRIS)*)
14 Court No. 1’s restored, included in Monica’s preferences (10) SELECTIONS (CT NO1< in SELES)
16 Disciplines son and playful niece involved in vacuous capers (8) SCIENCES (S, NIECE* in C
17 Modern terminal’s nucleus moved out inside (8) INTERNAL (
See comments
19 Stomach muscles brother built up to digest! (6) ABSORB (ABS BRO<)
20 Poisonous dye, lad mixed (6) DEADLY (DYE LAD)*
23 Dancing feet to entertain (4) FETE (FEET)*
Very tricky surface reading and word placement in some clues, like 12A, 25A, 19D etc.
ReplyDeleteMany good clues like 21A, 16D.
27 A - The setter has 'ably' put 'mess' back in ASSEMBLY. Great clue, the risk of the contempt law getting invoked apart.
11D - Liked this one as well. She has been my favourite.
I didn't find anything tricky in them..
Deletegood clues though
The bad news is that, surprisingly, the link to TH miscellaneous page still shows yesterday's page as of now. Good news is that yesterday's puzzle is linked in it.
ReplyDeleteLooks like Miscellaneous page itself is in limbo
DeleteRip Van Winkle?
DeleteRest in peace?
DeleteOr,
Deletewake up after 20 years!
Interestingly all items (not just the CW) pertains to yesterday's paper.
Rishi's toon reminded me of Mother Goose.
ReplyDeletehttp://www3.amherst.edu/~rjyanco94/literature/mothergoose/rhymes/ifalltheseaswereonesea.html
Kishore
DeleteIt was fun (re)reading that verse.
Thanks for the link.
Your brain is always abuzzing - even without a bee in the bonnet.
My favourite bee's hive is in Oz
DeleteThough India was recently described as a beehive ...
Delete5 Sad physician’s distressed inside? On the contrary (6) SOMBRE (MB SORE)*
ReplyDeletephysician MB
distressed SORE
inside, on the contrary - outside
Defn: sad SO(MB)RE
The word inside does not appear in the published version. Did you guess it?
DeleteMessage from Raghu in Orkut:
Delete5 Sad physician’s distressed? On the contrary (6)
"inside" is missing from the fodder following distressed. Apologies to all.
Original clue was:
Morose physician nursing ulcer? On the contrary.
Changed it at the last minute and missed inside.
I'd E mailed you and Col about this, but you were probably busy blogging.
DeleteI read it as
DeleteSad = def
Physician's = MB has
distressed = SORE,
On the contrary = distressed has physician SO(MB)RE
Bhavan's anno, makes sense inspite of Raghu's confession!
DeleteI know that 's is used for has and is, but I did not mean it that way.
DeleteLooks like the Phantom had short term memory loss :-) as the clue works without the 'inside'
DeleteVenkatesh @ 8:36 & 8:43,
DeleteIn the first instance itself you could have mentioned that the 'inside' information came from the setter through Orkut
It has been Weeks since he met the Colonel ...
DeleteMy 854 in response to DG's 853
DeleteYou get 'inside' information regarding their meetings?
DeleteVenkatesh
DeleteAt 8-36 itself you should have told us where you got the revised version of the clue from.
To leave readers in puzzlement first and then explain after queries is not in the best interests of this blog.
Re your preamble, Kishore. You've not missed anything. In fact I've missed an important indicator in the clue annotated by Venkatesh above.
ReplyDeleteMy sincere apologies to all who visit this blog and to all those elsewhere who must be scratching their heads for the anno.
In trying to set this sort of clue in which I've indulged often, I've been over zealous trying various synonyms for SORE and missed out 'inside'.
I apologise again to all solvers.
Oh well, I was too slow typing and posting my take on it then.
DeleteRaghu, anno required for 4d, please
ReplyDeleteI think it's an anagram, though it would have read better as
Delete'Discussion averts dispute in conservation'
4 Averts dispute // in conservation discussion (12) CONVERSATION
DeleteI took it as
AVERTS* (dispute - AnagrInd) in CONSERVATION = CON(VERSAT*)ION (defn: DISCUSSION)
What is CON-ION, SV?
DeleteNow that I look at it again it's not a total anagram only the 'AVERT' part is in dispute. So CON ION is nothing
DeleteCol's clue has better surface reading, though I meant it as a partial anagram as indicated by Venkatesh
DeleteA partial anagram of AVERT inserted into what?? That is why I expressed a doubt in the blog. Conservation* looks fine with a slight change in the clue but the other anno is weird ...
DeleteIt's not inserted. In CON SERVAT ION, SERVAT is jumbled.
DeleteI took it as a full anagram, but still not convinced.
DeleteDispute is anagrind for AVERTS or CONSERVATION? If the former, imo, CONION should have some meaning/wordplay. If the latter, averts is superflous as you have indicated.
DeleteAverts = Anagram fodder
Deletedispute = Anind
in = Position indicator
conservation = Word within which the above is to be executed
discussion = Definition = {CON{VERSAT*}ION}
I think the proper parsing would be, take CONSERVATION and anagram the AVERTS part of it to get CONVERSATION ...
DeleteThat's what has been said earlier too.
DeleteAnyhoo, the clue led to a lot of 'conversation' here
DeleteThat's not conservation of time and energy!
DeleteAgree, it's entropy
DeleteNo, it's enthalpy. Energy content.
DeleteVery entertaining and had to work/ think hard. Still, 2 blanks- one doubtful. Apart from that I had to fill in many and look for anno in the blog. Quite a few not 1D. Liked the Assembly,Firewood and bacteria.
ReplyDeleteI got 'assayed' for tested and got stuck for 5A.
I too had put in assayed and got myself into twists, especially since I put in 5a as M.O. ROSE and was looking for words starting with E for 7d, exogenic? especially since bacteria is not the same as viruses ...
DeleteFrom http://www.chambers.co.uk/search.php?query=bacteria&title=thes
Deletebacteria
n
germs, viruses, microbes, micro-organisms, parasites, bacilli colloq. bugs
Thesauruses/crossword dictionaries give associated words - not exact equivalents. So while using one word for another, we have to use our discretion.
DeleteRaghu, as CV has rightly said, we should use discretion. If our doctors mixed up between anti-bacterial and anti-viral drugs ...
DeleteI'm not sure about the 'exact' equivalent, but maybe a 'say', 'perhaps' might have been better. How does flower become a river (when used as a def)? Leave alone a dictionary it's not even found in a thesaurus.
DeleteI had micro-organisms earlier, but the clue seemed longish and too technical.
Touche! This is called a 'thirugu baaNa' in KannaDa. An arrow that bounces back at the archer. Raghu has used an example I gave him in an earlier mail. But flower as one which flows can be explained. Not the case with bacteria-virus. And seriously, yes, some indication would have been better ...
DeleteMaybe a doctor setting crosswords would have been better ;-) Just as you have the licence to extrapolate river to flow er, V and B both spread diseases and are micro organisms, broadly ( some B are good but V), so could be used. I would not have carried on if there was no ref to it in the Chambers.
DeleteThe inside story:
ReplyDeleteThe mood was sombre. Prespirations increased. After thinking a lot, the conversation definitely was essaying to surmount the difficulties encountered.
In this assembly, the able participants splashed plenty of ideas with candor. After the ideas originated, there ensued the final decision.
Let us all go to Turkey to unwind!
Details were sent in the electronic media so that people could discuss and absorb the details.
Selections of hotels were made considering the similarities of food habits and reviewing the internal working of the kitchens,
how they handled the food sciences avoiding deadly bacteria, etc.
They even went to the extent of: "Do they cook traditional food with firewood concentrates?"
Finally, the grand entrance at the airport welcomed everyone to the grand fete!!
Bravo! Any of our elected reps. going to Iraq on a junket?
DeleteRaju, on reading that essay, must be immensely happy that there is someone who has followed his suggestion.
DeleteOnly, he and we would have appreciated if the used words has been highlighted in some manner.
Kishore
DeleteI appreciate your 'kuththal'! Yes, Iraq must be a good place to make a "study tour".
Not Iraq though quite a few of us are going to Chennai on 6th Jul to do all that Bhargav has said
DeleteHe left out the 'gin'. Are you going to follow suit?
DeleteI've suggested Vodka instead ;-)
Deletestronger the better?
DeleteCartoon for 26A
ReplyDeleteIs it a small version of anaconda wound around Mr Not-so Fatso?
17 Modern terminal’s nucleus moved out inside (8) INTERNAL (TERMINAL-M+N)*
ReplyDeleteMy anno is
Modern = IN
terMInal nucleus is MI moved out to make it TERNAL
IN+TERNAL = INTERNAL = inside
That's what I had intended.
DeleteMy anno was
Deletemodern=anagrind
terminal with nucleus moved out, terminal-n+m
def=inside=internal
Agree, Renga's anno is more convincing. Thanks.
Phantom has crafted a grandmother of all cryptic crossie! Phantastic !
ReplyDeletePhantom has crafted a grandmother of all cryptic crossie! Phantastic !
ReplyDeleteHad to sweat A LOT but finally SURMOUNTed Phantom's marvellous puzzle. Thank you Phantomji. :-)))
ReplyDelete14D: I feel MONICA for Seles is better than SELES for Monica.
ReplyDeleteMonica is such a common first name and there'd be many famous celebrities sharing it. However, if it's a popular second name, it narrows down the options for the first names to just a few. So I feel the latter is more fair.
"Court No. 1" in the clue suggest's a tennis link. In the recent past we had a clue with a first name, I think it was Bruce (Lee).
DeleteSeles woud have been a giveaway. I had thought of tennis player, but with 'ex' or 'former' added to it, but then it would have been a lengthy clue.
My first thought on Monica was someone more notorious and after crossings realised it was far more mundane.
DeleteIn Madras we had Monica Felton who wrote a book on Rajaji.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteA few years back I was at the Voltas product launch at Vizag in a five star hotel. After the formal launch, a girl sang this song and repeated a few times, waiting for some one to react. I shouted MONICA with gusto (after a few drinks) and it was great fun for all!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEGOEUyRDiU
OMG, did you also follow up with OMD?
DeleteNext time you r in Vizag we can have an informal lunch and talk/shout about Lewinsky as much as you like.
Deletea la Premnath or Clinton?
DeleteI was about ask Suresh the conn. between Vizag and Monica.
Delete12.58 wrt 12.40
DeleteIf the discussion happens, not in Vizag, but on a flight, it will be lewd in sky
DeleteJust a discussion and you've termed it as lewd in sky! Probably depends on what the chat's all about.
DeleteI did not bring up Monica or Lewinsky, buddy, I just played with words. That's why perhaps names of living persons should not be used in crosswords. And here we have Simi Garewal and Monica Seles in consecutive clues
DeleteWhen I visit our blog I find some words in the Comments section are highlighted with links to ads; also, the right top corner of the page peels down - which expands when the cursor is taken anywhere near to show some msg.
ReplyDeleteIs this peculiar to me or is the blog attacked by something?
Which words, so we can check?
DeleteNow no word is highlighted.
DeleteLast time some random words were in green.
They were not words such as 'soap' or 'underwear' that might attract an ad for either product. They were random words.
Now that corner dog's ear alone is there.
It keeps moving down, tempting you to pull it down completely to see ad.
Minutes later, the words Suresh and times are highlighted.
DeleteThere is also a color change in the corner dog's ear.
No such problems on my PC.
DeleteNothing dogging on my iPad
DeleteOh No! Then the chat may turn out to be a pre-lude !!
ReplyDeleteSplendid xie. Quite engrossing & engaging. 11,14d wonderful worday using first names. Very interesting puzzle rife with turns equivalent to fairytale twists. Thanks to Phantom.
ReplyDeleteVery enjoyable puzzle from Phantom.
ReplyDeleteCG Bhargav: Your essay using the words in this crossword is a good go at essaying. Thus, one's imagination is put to use in essaying. Say, why not everyday, like the toons that appear here? This is what I meant by saying that we should build up and use gainfully our vocabulary acquired from these crosswords.Kishore attempted the reverse engineering by weaving a clue- conceal in a story, as opposed to what you have done. It need not be necessarily in prose. Poetry is also welcome ! Even, short skits ? (KIshore, I did mean skits and not what you thought !) Adds zest and tang and tabasco and Worcester to this fare, by expanding the Col's menu !! So, ye-all, let your imagination produce a great spread on this blog !
ReplyDeleteWhy shpu;d Kishore alone think anything else for skits?
DeleteBecause, he is the one who is most likely to give the most interesting response!
BTW-
Kishore,did you do the quick Guardian of TH? There is a ref. to you by another name!
Kishore: Monica Seles did not boost sales but the other-- Lewd-in-sky sure did?
ReplyDeleteSeles or rather her attacker boosted sales quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteMe@2.30-
ReplyDelete2nd word should read "should". Sorry for typo- before any motives are attributed!
Paddy: You have also gilded the Lily pad !
ReplyDeleteenjoyable crossword..
ReplyDeleteI found the cryptic readings in 4d and 6d to be very awkward though..
Somebody got infatuated with Monica
ReplyDeleteTook a picture of her with his Konica
Ooh la la
He's now happy-ya
And playing on his Harmonica !
Wonder who is playi.......
DeleteI do not think that even a lay person should confuse bacteria with viruses. Both are microorganisms but totally different in their structure and the way they cause disease. I came back from work and got stuck thinking of all the viruses that I know and even thought of computer virus., till I realised the setter meant bacteria.Of course one can look up Wikipedia for the differences .between viruses and bacteria.
ReplyDeletePaddy, 15a. Thanks
ReplyDeleteIncidentally I read a press report the other day about 40 year old Monica Seles getting engaged to a 72 year old man!
ReplyDelete