Wednesday 20 June 2018

No 12348, Wednesday 20 Jun 2018, Gridman


ACROSS
1   Worker leaves US city — outstanding one — as criminal (11) SAFECRACKER {SantA FE}{CRACKER}
9   Beau married in an excited state (7) ADMIRER*
10 Eminent ruler leaves for northern city (7) NANKING (-r+n)NANKING
11 Southern side's energy (5) STEAM {S}{TEAM}
12 They kill time... toil disastrously with a couple of hesitations and begin striking (9) LOITERERS {TOIL*}{ER}{ER}{St...g}
13 German city's 'must-haves'? Not half! (5) ESSEN ESSENtials
15 Greek character's extremely limited cover for early years (9) CHILDHOOD {CHI}{Li...eD}{HOOD}
18 Vessel's brought back ruined society photographs (9) SNAPSHOTS {PANS<=}{SHOT}{S}
21 Close lead of victor disappears (5) INNER wINNER
22 Indian friend is beginning to misconstrue old religion (9) MITHRAISM {MITHRA}{IS}{Mi...e} Actually friend is just mithr. The problem with Roman English for Indian words is it can be spelt many ways, like Mitr, Mithr etc.
24 Left one child with one fruit (5) LICHI {L}{1}{CH}{1}
26 Major player besieged outside Indian city (7) LEAGUER beLEAGUERed
27 Middle daughter wearing spectacles leaves for cooking (7) OREGANO {O{REGAN}O}
28 Active gendarme overworking may finally get extra pay for taking risks (6,5) DANGER MONEY {DANGERM{ON}E*}{maY}

DOWN
1   All but authenticate experts, excluding advanced garment makers (9) SEAMSTERS {SEAl}{MaSTERS}
2   Mademoiselle goes after iron woman in France (5) FEMME {FE}{MME}
3   Small change over mere crumpled clothes for the dead (9) CEREMENTS {CE{MERE*}NTS}
4   Bill, with Cyril, tearing up fabric (7) ACRYLIC {AC}{CYRIL*}
5   Kit OK in rigged-up raft (3-4) KON-TIKI*
6   Get up around noon for wash (5) RINSE {RI{N}SE}
7   Clean exercise in window-dressing (4,4) WIPE-DOWN {PE} in {WINDOW}*
8   Is furious without redface for a long time (4) AGES rAGES
14 Firing squad exercised in the water around matter no end (4,4) SWAT TEAM  {SW{mATTEr}AM} No end or No ends? Is not exactly a firing squad
16 Mad, mad about tiller training in military marching squad (5,4) DRILL TEAM {MAD}* over {TILLER}*
17 Dirty room could well be turned into one for sleeping (9) DORMITORY* &lit
19 O, very short, new letter in Greek (7) OMICRON {O}{MICRO}{N}
20 Unknown person reported problem — area is without head (7) SOMEONE (~sum){SOME}{zONE}
22 Indian who has a growing concern in the household (4) MALI [CD]
23 Put through the mill, girl leaves circle (5) ROUND gROUND
25 The first big brother holds hard ornament (5) CHAIN {C{H}AIN}

GRID
Bhargav's Talepiece

The bouncer and the dancer - Part 67

DO PHOOL EK MALI !!

Men who for AGES were wanting to have a glimpse of Kayal were dumbstruck. The recent CHAIN of events made her SOMEONE. No longer a mystery, a MITHRAISM as one blabbered.Admired by some. Craved by many.

The LOITERERS aROUND Gemini increased by the day and by night. Many were ADMIRERS of the SNAPSHOTS circulated through Whatsapp.

SS realised the money spinning opportunity and made tiers of entry:

Special, Very Special and VIP.

What with the Inspector getting free VIP entry everyday and in return providing a SWAT TEAM with no DANGER MONEY to boot!!

SAFECRACKER Linda wore a sullen look. With a kerchief in her hand to WIPE DOWN the tears, was in no mood to continue reading Thor Heyerdahl's KONTIKI gifted to her by an admirer - not of her dance but the DELICATESSEN dished out by her. Some with an OREGANO trail!

Rita shifts from a DORMITORY type accomodation at Gemini to an INNER luxury suite provided by Clement who fails to discern the FEMME FATALE!!

Trivia:
1. Ek Phool Do Mali is a 1969 Hindi movie.
2. Oregon trail is the long East- West wagon route in US.
3. Free, Seekra (quick) and VIP queues in our Temples!!


33 comments:

  1. 22A-Hindi pronunciation generally omits the last syllable. In Tamil we call him Rama while in Hindi it becomes Ram. So it is with 'Mitra' or 'Mitran'.

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    Replies
    1. Agreed. But as Col. said in the main post Indian words can be written anyway in Roman English...I would have written it as Mitra

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    2. I thought Mithra was ok. I would, however, quibble about a couple of other clues (see below).

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  2. Delay in publishing regretted. Forgot to hit the publish button as I got involve in some other work

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  3. 14swat:specialised weapons and tactics, elite marksmen.

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    Replies
    1. Still they cannot be referred to as a Firing Squad. A Firing Squad refers to a team carrying out an execution

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    2. +1 Col. They are troubleshooters. Not mere shooters!

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    3. In the initial stages they were used just to shoot down the bank robbers. but after checking with chambers, it shows a very specific military terminology. Agree with col.

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  4. 14d extremely has been used to mean both ends. It has been also used in the sense of SWA(m) MATTE(r).

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    Replies
    1. The word used here is 'no end' and not 'no ends'

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  5. A tougher puzzle from Gridman today...some unheard of words today..cerements..Mithraism.This took time but thankfully didnt require any outside help.
    The blog was very instructive. Thanks to Col. and Gridman.

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  6. CGB Sir's trivia about the old movie EPDM..remembered the song..o nanhe se farishte

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  7. We have three clues on team today:
    DRILL TEAM
    SWAT TEAM
    and.......
    STEAM!!! Ha ha!

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  8. So, both teams evaporate in the third!
    It is world cup time.

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    Replies
    1. World cup interesting trivia. When Sweden and Denmark play, the playing teams are Swe-den. The non-playing Den-mark.

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    2. Nice one. Swe(den)mark. It's a T.

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    3. Sweden always the winner!

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  9. While the rest of the puzzle was in Gridman's enjoyably economical mode, the clues for 18a: SNAPSHOTS and 22d: MALI were imprecise.

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    Replies
    1. Thought Snapshots was precisely clued. As far as Mali is concerned, since it is a CD and with an Indian reference a few would look at it with askance-I personally liked the clue.

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  10. I think Mali's (Indian gardener) concern about 'growing'(plants) is well taken. Maybe, snapshots is a bit devious, though still technically correct.

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  11. MALI: Indian who has a growing concern in the garden would have been more appropriate? Or he takes a growing concern in the Indian garden? Or would he have been taking more growing concern in this country? (MALI as a country) But then, each setter has his own way !

    SNAPSHOTS : I think this clue is fine as it is !

    AMITA BAVISKAR: you are however welcome to make your comments as they provooke a discussion !

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    Replies
    1. I stand corrected! I was interpreting 'vessel' as SS and couldn't work it out.

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    2. But a MALI is just a gardener, whether of a municipal park or a private garden. The reference to 'household' is misleading.

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  12. Some houses have separate servants quarters where the cook, gardener etc reside. Such persons may be cosidered as belonging to the household IMO.

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  13. A mali is a gardener aka Ramu Kaka in Hindi films !

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  14. Many Happy Returns Of The Day, KKR Sir. Hope you had a great day and celebrating.

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  15. Many more happy returns of the day KKR

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  16. Many Happy SNRUTER OF THE DAY . kkr GAARU. May God bless you with long life with peace and good health.

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  17. Thanks Col., CGB and Raju! You made my night[?]!!!

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