Wednesday, 17 June 2015

No 11423, Wednesday 17 Jun 2015, Spinner


ACROSS
1   Uninitiated rider follows horse's lead in sport (6) HOCKEY {Ho..e}{jOCKEY}
4   Associate from Prime Minister's office about to be mobbed by party workers (8) COMPADRE {C{OMP<=}ADRE}
10 Decompose Lead-free smoke (7) MOULDER sMOULDER
11 Draw lots of drawings (7) DOODLES {D}{OODLES}
12 Army officer's negligence leads to breakdown (8) COLLAPSE {COL}{LAPSE}
13 Queen's call is mistaken (6) ERRING {ER}{RING}
15 Swimmer to escape score of zero (4) DUCK [MD]
17 Audiotaping jingle with electronic cable (9) RECORDING {R{E}{CORD}ING}
20 Circular patterns for cooking Dokla in vessels (5,4) POLKA DOTS {PO{LKA DO*}TS} Who all remember 'Little Dot'?
21 He basically inherits on ancestor's end (4) HEIR {HE}{In...s}{a...oR} &lit
24 Individual takes training in public (6) OPENLY {O{PE}NLY}
25 Operator resulting in value-addition (4,4) PLUS SIGN [CD]
28 Endlessly large ice formation (7) GLACIER {LARGe+ICE}* Semi&lit
29 Fantasize about silver buried in one mine (7) IMAGINE {1}{M{AG}INE}
30 Green revolution that is beginning to strengthen sources of power (8) ENERGIES {GREEN*}{IE}{St...n}
31 Happy reporter's dead (6) ELATED {ED} has {LATE}

DOWN
1   India’s top investigators entering location of murder (8) HOMICIDE {HOM{India}{CID}E}
2   Hard clue set to trap solver ultimately (5) CRUEL {C{s...eR}UEL*}
3   Make oneself beloved with close attention (6) ENDEAR {END}{EAR}
5   Chance of defeat demotivates spineless leaders (4) ODDS Acrostic
6   Project on hollow rocket accepted by arrogant engineer (8) PROTRUDE {PRO{TekcoR<=}UD}{E} Anno not clear. How is hollow rocket reversed?
7   Love affair beginning to destroy marriage (9) DALLIANCE {De...y}{ALLIANCE}
8   Flag hoisted bearing emblem (6) ENSIGN {EN<=}{SIGN}
9   Goal inside soccer ground leading to increase in volume (9) CRESCENDO {END} in {SOCCER}*
14 Remembrance for slain goat arranged (9) NOSTALGIA*
16 Operations head and retiring agent had to work together (9) COOPERATE {COO}{PER<=}{ATE}
18 Moving stealthily, king enters, brooding (8) SKULKING {S{K}ULKING}
19 One weird variety of plant (8) IRONWEED*
22 Stare, girl! Stare through girl! (6) GOGGLE {G}{O{G}GLE}
23 Attack beast to cause pain (6) ASSAIL {ASS}{AIL}
26 Setter's spot occupied by one fool (5) IDIOT {I}{D{1}OT}
27 Correct time to lament (4) TRUE {T}{RUE}

GRID

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35 comments:

  1. SandhyaP17 June 2015 at 08:40

    Neat clues! :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. SandhyaP17 June 2015 at 08:41

    I remember Little Dot as well as Little Lotta.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RameshJ17 June 2015 at 08:45

    Nicely tossed up one from spinner.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mukundala Balasubramanyam17 June 2015 at 08:49

    Nice puzzle. Missed out on 17Ac & 6Dn. Maybe not correct time to lament! An enjoyable solve though. My COD truly is 27Dn. Thanks Spinner.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Chaturvasi17 June 2015 at 09:13

    I am a desi. Polka dots dress would remind me of the girl in Amul ads and then the full-bodied Miss Fonseca in MM's pocket cartoons in ET.
    Richard? Kishore? Please come to my aid.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Chaturvasi17 June 2015 at 09:14

    These girls are far from dotty, aren't they?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Richard17 June 2015 at 10:26

      You are on the dot...

      Delete
    2. Kishore17 June 2015 at 12:32

      CV, not only Miss Fonseca, but also Rajni Nimbupani !

      Yeah, I remember Little Dot, Lotta. Henry, Hot Stuff, Screaming Mimi, and the Hostess Twinkies in the ad opposite/ behind them

      Delete
  7. Padmanabhan17 June 2015 at 09:15

    4A was the googly for me. New term. I could not place the PMO properly.
    Anyone remembering Miss Fonseca of the famous polka dots? Nostalgic?
    A doubt aboyt 16D- Is the def. 'To cooperate' or 'to' serves just as a connector?
    Smooth interesting clues nicely spun.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Padmanabhan17 June 2015 at 09:16

    I entered before reading CV's comments.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Padmanabhan17 June 2015 at 09:23

    Sorry about my comment on 16d. I meant to say- "is 'to work together' the def."?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ramani17 June 2015 at 09:34

    Thank you Spinner for the samosas! Enjoyed solving.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Chaturvasi17 June 2015 at 10:04

    Do polka dots have any particular size?
    Do they all have to be of the same size?
    I have seen sari designs where the dots are of different sizes, some big, some small. Are they stll called polka dots?
    What if the dots are of different colours?
    -- Doubt Dhanabalu and Muzhoo Sombaeri Murugesan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Deepak Gopinath17 June 2015 at 11:36

      All variations acceptable, different sizes different colours

      Delete
    2. Shuchi17 June 2015 at 12:18

      I've understood polka dots to mean largeish dots (say, over 0.3cm in diameter), even-sized, symmetrically placed and not too widely spaced.

      If the print doesn't fit the above description, I wouldn't call it polka dots.
      Tiny/widely spaced/different-sized dots would be simply 'dots', and very tiny dots 'pin dots'.

      If the polka dots had different colours, I would qualify it: multicoloured polka dots.

      Delete
    3. Kishore17 June 2015 at 12:35

      TIC: what happens when the polka dots are the same colour as the background?

      Delete
    4. Richard17 June 2015 at 12:59

      And you deem yourself colour-blind!

      Delete
    5. Kishore17 June 2015 at 14:40

      Ergo hoc, ergo propter hoc

      Delete
    6. Richard17 June 2015 at 15:17

      Je, unaweza tafadhali kutafsiri?

      Delete
    7. Kishore17 June 2015 at 15:54

      Happana, mzee!

      Delete
  12. Padmanabhan17 June 2015 at 11:43

    Sorry about my comment on 16d. I meant to say- "is 'to work together' the def."?

    ReplyDelete
  13. Srivathsan17 June 2015 at 12:31

    Greetings to all!

    First up apologies for 6D. There ought to be a reversal indicator there somewhere, which I think got lost while I was revising the clues.

    To answer Paddy Ji's query,

    I think 'to work together' = 'to cooperate' and not just 'cooperate'. The 'to' is just the connector.

    ReplyDelete
  14. mohsin17 June 2015 at 12:39

    Beautiful clues. ENERGIES and DALLIANCE are my CoD picks

    ReplyDelete
  15. Shuchi17 June 2015 at 14:57

    The clue for CRESCENDO - excellent.

    Endlessly large ice formation (7) GLACIER {LARGe+ICE}* Semi&lit
    Not a semi-&lit, more like a case of wordplay partially doing double duty. A different starting word (e.g. 'mostly') could have made it into an &lit.

    Also curious about 20a. Is 'dokla' an acceptable spelling variant for 'dhokla'? Why is the word capitalized?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Kishore17 June 2015 at 18:03

      I am amused when people from the north pronounce dosa with a hard D. Spinner's revenge for that maybe ...

      Delete
    2. Srivathsan17 June 2015 at 22:53

      Haha! Although the whole clue can be seen as an attempt to bridge the Dokla-Idli shape disparity. Maybe I should clue about cuboidal Idlis in future puzzles, to set right the balance.

      Delete
  16. Srivathsan17 June 2015 at 17:17

    I intended the clue to be an &lit. Since a glacier is an expansive mass of ice I felt the hyperbole 'endlessly' was justified. I think 'mostly' doesn't quite convey the same thing.

    Dokla- I spelt it such because of the wordplay obviously and because that's how it's spelt on the menu of a shop near my place. I'm not sure if it's a no-no.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Suresh17 June 2015 at 17:31

      D capital, so I thought you may know someone with that name:))

      Delete
    2. Shuchi17 June 2015 at 18:24

      Thanks for the clarification Spinner. 28a doesn't work as &lit for me if that was the intention. But a nice smooth set of clues overall.

      Delete
    3. Srivathsan17 June 2015 at 22:47

      Thank you!

      Delete
  17. Padmanabhan17 June 2015 at 21:12

    Thank you,Soinner, for the clarification. Nice CW today and enjoyed solving it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Padmanabhan17 June 2015 at 21:13

    Sorry for the typo in Spinner's name!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Richard17 June 2015 at 21:21

    Re the exchange K and I had earlier during the day. It was a bit of fun:

    Ergo hoc, ergo propter hoc ('So this, therefore because of this' in Latin)

    Je, unaweza tafadhali kutafsiri? ('Would you please translate?' in Swahili)

    Hapana, mzee! ('No, senior!' in Swahili)

    ReplyDelete
  20. Sumit17 June 2015 at 21:38

    How would you read 31A? Happy that reporter's dead or Reporter, the happy sort, is dead?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Srivathsan17 June 2015 at 22:50

      I didn't quite think of the other possibility. In my mind, I was happy that the reporter's dead. Seeing by the looks of intensity/helplessness on their faces these days as they stand in the foreground of events they cover, I doubt there are any happy reporters left :P

      Delete

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