Brilliant surfaces from Arden for Ovule, Enticed, Northern Lights, Slush fund,Opera, Brainwash and Conger eel. Nice usage of Sweetheart, Endless and change of heart
Across
1 Back to speculating and criticising (6,8) SECOND GUESSING (SECOND GUESSING)
10 Unfertilised seed spreading universal love (5) OVULE (U LOVE)*
11 Hotel chimney's inside this French lobby (9) INFLUENCE (FLUE in INN, CE)
12 Firm rejection from Vietnam — a daily occurrence (7) ADAMANT (T<)
13 Removes antlers on herds, perhaps (7) DEHORNS (ON HERDS)* &lit
14 Caught by hand to go up (5) CLIMB (C LIMB)
16 Send contents on desk to interview (9) ENCOUNTER (
19 An island drink (9) MANHATTAN (2)
20 Andre, a man with ambition (5) DREAM (T)
22 So far a state rebuilt old town (2,2,3) UP TO NOW (Uttar Pradesh + (O TOWN)*)
25 Sweetheart seen rejecting love when seduced (7) ENTICED (
27 Saved to help ladies moving outside (4,5) LAID ASIDE (AID in LADIES*)
28 'No man is an island' — including this subject (5) OMANI (T)
29 Ron's back in the navy, finds slight variation in a natural phenomenon (8,6) NORTHERN LIGHTS (RON< THE RN SLIGHT*)
Reminded me of Lt. Gen.Jagjit Singh Aurora and Lt. Gen. Amir Abdullah Khan "Tiger" Niazi
Down
2 Learning institute — one managed to rope in old money (9) EDUCATION (DUCAT in (I ONE)*)
3 After work, time for some entertainment (5) OPERA (OP ERA)
4 Play test, India is the most exquisite (9) DAINTIEST (TEST INDIA)*
5 Anorexic nude female model (5) UNFED (NUDE F)*
6 Endless alcoholic caper, note with bribe money (5,4) SLUSH FUND (S LUSH FUN D)
7 Private meal, no starter (5) INNER (
8 Gang member goes off, agrees to end war (7) GREASER (AGREES* R)
9 A diversified thing about a law giver (6) MOSAIC (2)
15 Thinker was hard to indoctrinate (9) BRAINWASH (BRAIN WAS H)
17 Charlie's gone away with fishing gear to get fish (6,3) CONGER EEL (C GONE* REEL)
18 Ditch a soldier say, for being vigorous (9) TRENCHANT (TRENCH ANT)
19 Crazy to accept university short course? Just sentimental (7) MAUDLIN (U in MAD LIN
21 Old magazine gets free capital (6) MADRID (MAD RID)
Remembered Prohias' Spy vs. Spy, Dave Berg, Don Martin and Sergio Aragones' Drawn out dramas inserted somewhere in the margins. There also used to be a Hindi mag Deewana. A question, why 'old' in clue? The last issue mentioned at their site is of Aug.2014. Maybe Arden refers to the vintage of the mag.
23 He endeavours to be right in step (5) TRIER (R in TIER)
24 What you hear by turning (5) WHIRR (CD)
26 Strip before it changes heart (5) THONG (THING with a change of heart)
These setters seem to have a hang-up about thongs and supporters ...
I’ve waited and waited long,
For a lady from Kalimpong,
But, my dear mate,
On our very first date,
She wanted to play Mahjong wearing
nothing but a thong!
I was wanting to air my opinions about the recent hullaballoo created by an actress about a pic that a paper used.
ReplyDeleteI was hesitant to rake it up suddenly and out of context but today the blogger's comment against the last clue and the 'funny' article that the same paper has carried on its editorial page emboldens me to chip in. (That mirrored the opinion that I hold.)
From Day One I was wondering why the lady should object to the paper using a pic that she thought was offensive.
Now, my thought was and is: the supplements of many newspapers and our magazine in Tamil and other languages are full of pics of these actresses exposing substantial parts of their bodies. That being the case, why should there be objection to this particular pic?
Is it because what they reveal on the film sets of movies or advertisement clips is one thing and the papers can use those pics. When they are not in the sets but in public functions, it's quite another. Here they are as demure as any Indian female is supposed to be and if by any chance some flesh is exposed, the papers have no busines to take a pic of it and use it.
Isn't this hypocrisy?
Yes, the whole thing is blown out of proportion. That being said, firstly, the problem was with the caption and not with the pic. The pic as I saw it was not an issue, it was pretty harmless. What was really stupid was the caption. It wasn't something worthy of such a hyper-hysterical comment. Made the caption writer look like a pre-teen-7th-grader or something. The guy seriously needs to grow up. Probably the paper ran out of material and were clueless as to how they could fill up that empty space, so dished this one out as a last minute effort.
DeletePS: Since the said lady publicly declared to the effect that she was so-and-so and indeed she had such-and-such endowments, she perhaps needed to be aware that she was being photographed.
DeleteNow my answer is that I don't think the photographer invaded her privacy; it was in a public function that she was photographed (maybe from a vantage position.)
I may be corrected if I am making any false assumptions.
I take only cursory glance at these items!
VJ
DeleteThanks for your input.
I may have seen the video clip in a secondary source; so I did not know what the caption was.
Quite recently in a website of the modern times, I happened to read a write-up that said it was about actresses - some way down I moved away - the writing was so puerile - so immature - so unsophisticated, Perhaps it was the same writer as the one who wrote the caption that you're referring to.
VJ, your observation! " the whole thing is blown out of proportion" reminded me of a light a few days back. silicone ...
DeleteWhy is the focus only on the person at the receiving end and not on the one perpetrating? Why aren't we talking about the person who thought it appropriate to take such a photograph and caption it the way they did? If for whatever reason she is in a profession where she does what she does, is that a free pass for others to say and do as they please? Or do such people automatically lose/forfeit their right to express displeasure? She might be a hypocrite (aren't most people?) but there is a difference between posing for the camera and being photographed without your knowledge.
DeleteAh, I expected exactly this kind of a counter argument to take the discussion forward!
DeleteI don't think the picture was the problem but the comment that went with it.
DeleteThe difference between posing for magazines vs paparazzi clicking a person from "vantage points" is of consent. She was not aware that her photograph will be used in this manner - if so, I believe the photographer invaded her privacy, and she is perfectly justified in her response. Every person has the right to privacy and consent that we expect for ourselves.
Delete"as demure as any Indian female is supposed to be" - how "demure" someone else should or should not be is subjective opinion. For some a female wearing salwar-kameez is not demure enough, for others a female wearing shorts is normal. It'll be a better world IMO if females aren't constantly measured by everyone's arbitrary standard of demureness.
Consent, of course, is the difference. One could photograph Lady Godiva (pardon the anachronism) when riding in the public, but not in her private quarters.
DeleteIn a lighter vain, I wonder how Inspector YP Singh would interpret 'con-sent' !
I think the "consent" argument definitely doesn't work here. If whatever pics clicked during a public event need to be checked with the celebrity before publishing it, it would make our country as undemocratic as North Korea or Saudi Arabia.
DeleteIn this case, the paper was trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill, well, issue-wise I mean. The picture was okay, but the paper tried to divert the attention and sensationalize it, which is a cheap stunt IMO. If Deepika finds the need to take any offense, it's her call and we gotta respect that.
The question was why there should be objection to the TOI report, when she "exposes" as much in magazines. I do not see hypocrisy here, because in the first case the magazine has her consent. Nobody is suggesting checking with a celebrity before publishing *any* pic, but it should not be difficult to understand that purposely using a high-angled camera to take a video, and posting it with that caption, may be intrusive to the person targeted. More than the original article, I find TOI's response to Deepika's displeasure appalling - calling attention to the fact that she started her career as a calendar girl.
DeleteFor further information, wonderful drawings and photos about cleavage, please click HERE
ReplyDeleteTitillating !
DeleteNo Surprise and as expected...
Delete+1 !!
DeleteJust 'tilting'- not titillating.
DeletePadmanabhan,
DeleteYour statement is brilliant!
Ha! They are crystal clear!! I liked them immensely!!! ;-)
DeleteThank yu CV. Glad you liked it. Vasishter vayaale...
DeleteKishore: You have rightly used a cleaver to clear off the cleavage issue. Well-chiselled thought, thinking out of the cube !!
DeleteIn my opinion, , we should not'' dignify '' attempts at gaining publicity by making mountains out of mole-hills !!
Incidentally, What does a cute dimple (asexual, of course !) on a face qualify as ?
either on the chin or the cheeks? No clever come-backs please ! This is clearly not a cleavage comment !
Lots of nice clues. Loved OPERA the best. Simple, yet brilliant
ReplyDeleteKishore,
ReplyDeleteYour anno for 9D is more cryptic (for me) than the clue itself! I get the def. alright, but the link goes to Moses. Mos... (AIC?) How is it DD?
Simple, my dear Padmanabhan.
Delete'Mosaic' is an adjectival form of Moses. 'Mosaic' is derived from "about a law-giver" in the clue, which phrase our blogger has duly italicised.
Sometimes when an argument is given by somebody, we need the understanding of it.
Mosaic is the adj. from Moses, meaning of/about Moses, like Christian from Christ, Mosaic from Moses
DeleteThank you CV & Kishore- I missed the the adjective part.
DeleteQuite a few nice clues and surfaces. Enjoyed doing it though I could not complete.
ReplyDeletePlenty of nice clues.
ReplyDelete29 Ron's back in the navy, finds slight variation in a natural phenomenon (8,6) NORTHERN LIGHTS
'in' is misleading and seems like THE (NOR<-) RN. Maybe 'at' or
Ron returns to the navy...
Seconded.
DeleteYes, Ron returns to the navy ...would have been better
DeleteYes, the clue for OPERA is so smooth and has excellent surface.
ReplyDeleteGridman's clue in a THC published in 2003 was
21 Work! Time will come for entertainment (5)
Same wordplay, a different statement, may not be as wonderful as the clue in today's crossword.
What I am trying to say is that with the same word breakup, different clue-writers come up with different versions - not all of them of the same brilliance. That brilliance lies in the way the writer puts it down.
Subjective- not w.r.to the topic, but to the writer.
DeleteI had missed to mark 13a as &lit. Just updated
ReplyDelete...better late than never! :)
DeleteI feel &lit is quite often very loosely interpreted here. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in an &lit, the entire clue is supposed to independently function as wordplay. In this case, only "on herds, perhaps" functions as wordplay, and "removes antlers" is only part of the def.
DeleteThe clue, I believe, is a semi &lit [the wordplay element augments the definition. So the clue, in its entirety, could be considered an extended definition]
Correct me if I am wrong, but according to what I have gathered, in the above it has been stated that " the entire clue is supposed to independently function as wordplay." I feel that the last word in this statement is incorrect. It should not be wordplay, but 'definition". Pl refer http://bestforpuzzles.com/cryptic-crossword-tutorial/and-lit.html
DeleteAccordingly, I feel 13a qualifies. Opinions welcome.
Further quote from
Deletehttp://www.crosswordunclued.com/2008/08/and-literally-so.html
&lit stands for "and literally so". The wordplay is of any regular type in an &lit clue - say, container or anagram; the specialty is that the entire clue is its definition.
You have already said " So the clue, in its entirety, could be considered an extended definition" , which fits the description of &lit
DeleteKishore, this is borderline semantics, however, there's an objective distinction. If the entire clue is a wordplay i.e. no separate wordplay and definition components, then it's an "&lit." If the clue's got separate parts of definition and wordplay, and yet the whole clue could be treated as the definition, then it's "semi &lit." For instance, 13A, like Mohsin pointed out, is semi &lit. You got "Remove antlers," which is the definition and then there's "on horns perhaps," which is the wordplay component. Nonetheless, the whole clue could be treated as the definition.
DeleteHowever, a clue like, "I'm a leader of Muslims (4), is an &lit. You cannot separate wordplay and definition here.
I look at it as a simple anagram clue.
DeleteRemoves antlers - def. The rest of the clue is anag foder and anag signal.
When you re-read the clue, it has a meaningful meaning. That's a bonus, that's all.
In a typical &lit, you have to re-read the clue for def.
As for the so-called semi-&lit, I don't know what it is.
Further quotes from CU at http://www.crosswordunclued.com/2011/06/semi-andlit-clues.html
DeleteAccording to that 13a is a semi-&lit. However, the article starts off with
"A semi-&lit (semi all-in-one) clue is a variant of the &lit (all-in-one) clue type."
Which means a semi&lit is a subset of &lit. So calling 13a an &lit clue would not be incorrect, but only not narrowing it down further
Given that "canine" is a subset of "mammal" which is a subset of "animal", though to say "dog is a canine" would be the most fitting, it would not be incorrect to say"dog is a mammal" or "dog is an animal"
DeleteUnless I am wrong in interpreting "variant" as "subset" in my 2:27
DeleteThe links do seem to emphasise on "whole clue is the definition" bit.
DeleteMaybe Shuchi could clarify?
Having gone into the matter in detail, I am of the opinion that Mohsin is correct. Thanks for enlightening me
DeleteSemi-&lit (or semi all-in-one, as Tim Moorey's book calls it) - because, though the whole clue can be read as the definition, only a part of it is the wordplay.
DeleteThis is what Shuchi's "Crossword Unclued" says :
DeleteIn an &lit clue, the entire clue is the definition as well as the wordplay.
In a semi-&lit clue, the entire clue is the definition but only a part of the clue is the wordplay.
Someone please explain 6d slush fund.. alcoholic caper is lush fun... how is S and D in? endless note.. cd be S for sa and D for da... or S for So and D for Do .. but shouldnt clue convey in plural? Or do i hv it all wrong?
ReplyDeleteEndless = S, note= D
DeleteEndless= end of less= S
DeleteA.B.C...G are musical notes
Ah.. thanks .. :)
DeleteEnjoyed Arden's puzzle thoroughly - great surfaces and wordplay! Thank you, Arden (and thank you, Kishore).
ReplyDeleteAnother instance of of words recurring across crosswords published around the same time: INNER that appears at 7d here showed up in Kairos's crossword in The Independent yesterday (21st), with even the definition in the clue being the same (private).
Thank you Abhay. This crossword must have been compiled atleast six months before, and the day it appears you have another puzzle by another setter with the same word and same definition.Like I mentioned before this has happened to me quite a few times. Quite fascinating!
DeleteKishore: You have rightly used a cleaver to clear off the cleavage issue. Well-chiselled thought, thinking out of the cube !!
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, , we should not'' dignify '' attempts at gaining publicity by making mountains out of mole-hills !!
Incidentally, What does a cute dimple (asexual, of course !) on a face qualify as ?
either on the chin or the cheeks? No clever come-backs please ! This is clearly not a cleavage comment !
Part of a beautiful nursery rhyme.
DeleteChubby cheeks, Dimple chin
Rosy lips, teeth within,
Curly hair, very fair,
Teacher's pet, Is that you?
Not part of a nursery rhyme:
ReplyDeleteBony high cheeks,alas, no dimples
thin lips , most teeth within,
bereft of head's hair ,
can say fair,
never been a teacher's pet, that's RU
for You !!
What matters now is if you are a setter's pet!
ReplyDeleteVery satisfying exercise today for me. Not too easy but happy to complete without help.
ReplyDeleteCan imagine Kishore's boyish glee of taking other boys on a ride! Hilarious!
ReplyDeleteThanks, mam. Some, including you have admitted to falling for it. Some might not admit to clicking ....
DeleteFalling for it? Curious cat, rather!
DeleteRaju,
ReplyDeleteI will be in CBE from 24 Sep till 4 Oct, so we can have you long desired S&B meet at CBE. Let's see who all are willing to make it to CBE during that period. Dr DS is close and he may come as he had mentioned once earlier, besides him I don't think there is anyone else in the vicinity.
Really enjoyed it, got all except MOSAIC and OVULE... superb surfaces. I find Arden's clues always anno crisply... Thanks
ReplyDelete