Friday, 19 September 2014

No.11194, Friday 19 Sep 2014, Arden


Entertaining one from Arden, with a bit of Church and the sea ...

Across
1 Organised that sale for the genuine people (4,2.3,5) SALT OF THE EARTH (THAT SALE FOR THE)*
10 Nail about to nail (5) PITON (PIN around TO)
11 OBairn’s issue comes before union (4,5) LOVE CHILD (LOVE CHILD)
12 More trouble behind, not a regret (7) REMORSE (MORE* ARSE -A)
          Ahem! Ahem! It took me a little time to get to the bottom of it
13 From the East fairway, evenly land falls (7)  NIAGARA (fAiRwAy GAIN)<
14 Sloshed over, but looking bright (3,2) LIT UP (2)
16 Prompt resolution as stage direction lacks credo (9) INSTIGATE (STAGE DIRECTION - CREDO)*
19 Executioner's got our central bank messenger (9) HARBINGER (HANGER around RBI)
20 Volunteers told to perch, it's understood (5) TACIT (TA ~SIT)
22 Great Britain made Iran engage initially with another country (7) UKRAINE (UK IRAN* E) GB=UK? I thought UK=GB+NI.
          The equation may change after the results of the Scotland referendum: United or Untied? Minced almonds seems to be the flavour of the season ... UPDATE: As the vote is negative, the status quo ante remains
25 Feeler that girl has to get back (7) ANTENNA (ANNA has NET<)
27 Will try the last word by Tuesday (9) TESTAMENT (TEST AMEN T)
28 Strange for one to admit perjury (5) ALIEN (AN admits LIE)
29 Art can pinpoint mistake — he plays no role (3-11) NON-PARTICIPANT (ART CAN PINPOINT)*
          Reminded me of Columnist Art Buchwald and his stogie

Down
2 Instrument will modulate the built-in clock right away (9) ALTIMETER (ALTER with TIMER - R)
3 Voice raised in anger — one trembles (5) TENOR (T<)
4 Frequency isn't keeping steady and is wavering (9) FALTERING (F ALTERING)
5 Paradise lost — point to a safe place (5) HAVEN (HEAVEN - E)
6 Such a rite makes for the Holy Communion (9) EUCHARIST (SUCH A RITE)* & LIT my COD
7 Something to eat and some water mostly for volunteers (5) RAITA (RAIn TA)
          They volunteered in 20a too!
8 Compound's hard, yet fractured (7) HYDRATE (HARD YET)*
9 Tears up a letterhead — may be a screw up (6) SPIRAL (RIPS< A L)
15 Victorian pair ill-treated a new mother (9) PRIMIPARA (PRIM PARI* A)
         Her antonym Nullipara has come in THC a few times
17 Taunting Senator's regularly scathing — not acceptable (9) SARCASTIC (SenAtoR CAUSTIC - U)
18 Celebration for a rise (9) ASCENSION (CD,DD)
19 Cramped accommodation not coming up in US city (7) HOUSTON (HOUSe NOT<)       
21 There are coaches and coaches (6) TRAINS (CD,DD)
23 Reserve banks wrong solution (5) RESIN (ReservE SIN)
24 It happens with every other shirt (5)  EVENT (EVEN T)
26 Transport midshipman to ship (5) TRAMP (TRAM P)

Cartoon by Rishi

GRID:

32 comments:

  1. Re: CV's toon and 15d: Nalli, paaar Da!

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  2. Nowadays few women are grand multiparas.

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    Replies
    1. Only one sentence? I thought you would write someparas ...

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  3. Suggestions in answer to the footnote in the cartoon are invited. One per person, please!

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  4. If you do not want to strain your eyes or draw yourself closer to the monitor, it reads: What would you give him?

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    Replies
    1. Just a click on the toon is enough to get a magnified version of everything that is there in it.

      Delete
  5. A hungry begger with an empty Nalli Silks bag thrown by a rich gal and sitting right in front of the food-laden FCI godown. Super-o-super. Of late CV's cartoons are avant-garde

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  6. Didn't see the footnote. Wish Amma canteens sell coupans like Sodexo. For Rs.150 I could give him 5 Idlis per day for one month.....

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  7. This is a nice crossword with lots of very good surfaces

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  8. "Not 'some more'"
    Poor fellow- he gets only the empty carry bag from Nalli.
    O/T,
    What picture was it? A dentist trying to locate the mouth of a bearded patient gives him some water and asks him to spit to trace his mouth!

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  9. For quite a few words (which I was able to get) I had to look into the blog for anno. But 'Primipara' & its antonym were both new to me.

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    Replies
    1. We tend to forget the words that we met in crosswords.
      If all of us remembered all the words, the crossword will cease to be fresh.
      * * *
      NULLIPARA was clued by Mover in THC 10796. It was blogged by Bhavan.
      Padmanabhan may have been in the US at that time and missed the particular crossword.

      Delete
    2. CV: This has been my bugbear !! How many of us have built up a treasure chest of glossary of words and phrases and have used them in our day to day use and write ups? If not of what use are these words to us or to any one else? Haven't we all wondered as to how we can use these for articles, stories and other essays? Difference between knowledge and experience? Difference between intelligence and cleverness? Some are endowed with the capacity to use by total recall and for most others, does it not mean a waste of space in our mind's memory banks ?

      This is why I welcome usage of each days crossie to build up a story that Bhargav started but gave up !!

      Comments welcome please.

      Delete
  10. 26 Down : "Transport", I think, needs to be shown in red colour pl.

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  11. ...err, could u pl highlight 12 Across definition? :)

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  12. I feel that just the solution in bold colour and the anno in black (with the necessary symbols for anag, rev, combination, palindrome, etc) are enough.
    At best, the definition in the clue may be highlighted.
    It must be left to the reader to figure out the components in the clue from the indications in the anno.
    This will save a lot of typing for the blogger.

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  13. Raju at 1.23-

    It is also my problem. But nowadays our writing tends to get greatly reduced, not only the frequency but thanks to texting many words are being abbreviated and we tend to forget the original spelling itself. So we would hardly have occasion to use rare words. But that does not mean that we should forget them except a very few weird words. I agree it may be difficult but like CV says it should at least be familiar when it comes up again in CW (our best chance to see them in print) and be able to get them with the help of the clue and crossings.
    CV,
    Thank you for trying to bail me out, but the fact is that I do the CW's even when I am in U.S. except when I go out on outstation trips. So I must have def. forgotten this word (and its antonym pointed out by K) and I feel bad about it..

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  14. Kishore,
    Thank you. You are prompt in updates and take on the responsibility without going SCOT FREE!!
    I was also very curious to find out if a new nation is going to be born and checked up BBC website.

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  15. Engrossing puzzle. Easy-to-follow clues.19,22a &9,19d simply captivating. But alas! for 1a ,I wrote as 'last' of the earth instead of salt.That caused a fly in my ointment.Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed todays puzzle.Thank you Arden.

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  16. I was unable to get to the new mother, otherwise took care of all others.

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  17. Raju at 1:23
    Since you've invited Comments I am writing.
    It pays to increase your word power, yes, but I am of the view that we must make no conscious or deliberate effort to use them in everyday conversation or even writing. Mark the words 'conscious' and 'deliberate'.
    Any use of a new word must come naturally and effortlessly. The reader/listener should not get the feeling that the writer/speaker is showing off his vocab.
    A well-known Congress leader's speech, if you hear, is fluent and uses big words but these come quite naturally and torrentially. I never get the feeling that he's flaunting them.
    Another Congress leader, even when he runs down the BJP relentlessly, is so articulate and is never known to search for words.
    Their education is so palpable! One needn't necessarily have gone to JNU to cultivate it.
    Take these para words. Would we ever get a chance to use them? I don't think so.
    Even if ever I need to refer to a woman who has borne no child, I would hardly call her nullipara. I would simply say she is childless. For, the reader/listener must be able to see what I mean.
    OTOH, if I happen to take a woman who is childless to a fertility clinic and the doctor in his case sheet writes 'nullipara' I would know what it is and would in fact be proud that I have known.
    So words are for use. Words are for recognition.

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  18. CV: Thanks. Though I see your point, why do folks treat we crossword buffs as '' a cut above" them ( My dear wife calls me one though mildly termed, as Schichi puts it an ''oddball''! We also , at times, feel that those"" others"" who do not know even the rudiments of a cryptic crossword, as '' lesser mortals"". Is that all?

    The crux of my question is: Are words and phrases and idioms collected merely pure knowledge as opposed to applied knowledge?

    Of course, beyond these asseverations, solving cryptic crosswords does help in lateral thinking, an organized mind( ?), not mine though, and immense patience that beats even that of an angler waiting with his bait ! You had mentioned in an earlier comment on my collections, as a very patient effort. There no patience is involved. It is only persistence and perseverance, that amounts to a compulsive meaningless but not purposeless obsession ( dis-ORDER?) !

    Who knows, one day, I might sit down to use all those words and phrases and idioms in a serious effort at penmanship to author a book !

    Paddy: Good thinking . That'e why I always novel concepts and words used by some of our THC compilers, no matter how complicated and confusing the clue-writing gets to be !

    A few odd cluing that I found witty while solving recently:

    What one might see of the elephants when little cover is provided ? (8,6)---- SWIMMING TRUNKS. ==== Not a favourite among the moral brigade ?
    The revolutionary fork-lift?(9) ---- SPAGHETTI --- very tangled indeed !

    Take by surprise like a sleepy fisherman? (5,7) ---- CATCH NAPPING

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  19. Thank you Raju for those lovely examples, needing quite a bit of lateral thinking (as you put it) You rembered those clues offhand?

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  20. The crux of my question is: Are words and phrases and idioms collected merely pure knowledge as opposed to applied knowledge?

    This question made me revisit the following classic sketch from the inimitable pair of (Stephen) Fry and (Hugh) Laurie.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSyIhapMdI8

    Incidentally, SF was in Madras last weekend -- he's playing Sir Francis Spring in Hollywood's take on the life of Ramanujan.

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    Replies
    1. I love their performance in the Wooster/Jeeves saga and also in the Black Adder.

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