Tuesday 21 August 2018

No 12401, Tuesday 21 Aug 2018, Incognito


ACROSS
1  "Commander's fit to capture stronghold — At ease!" (11) COMFORTABLE {COM}{FORT}{ABLE}
9   Rule Niger badly (5) REIGN*
10 I am on time, you hear! Without any preparation! (9) IMPROMPTU {I'M}{PROMPT}{U(~you)}
11 Abreast, like LR? (4,2,4) SIDE BY SIDE Definition by example
12 It's chokey for one just over 18 shortly (4) BRIG [DD] (Abvn of Brigadier)
13 Spoilt, stale unit (5) TESLA*
15 Indy team danced for Wodehouse's uncle? (8) DYNAMITE*
17 Ban bird's tap (8) STOPCOCK {STOP}{COCK}
19 Dramatist: "First, nothing less than 10 to the power of 100" (5) GOGOL GoOGOL
22 Din, in India, may follow this type of pain? (4) ACHE [DD]
23 Foreign country expels national leader resulting in estrangement (10) ALIENATION {ALIEN}{nATION}
26 Perhaps, trunk-callers erroneously telephone, substituting a nine, at first, for one six in the beginning (9) ELEPHANTS {TELEPH(-o+a+nine}ANE}*{Six} (Addendum - {TELEPH(-one+an)AN}*{Six} - See comments)
27 Goodbye, heads of all departments in English university (5) ADIEU Acrostic
28 Gardner lies about chief troublemakers (11) RINGLEADERS*

DOWN
1   Behind church, daughter consumes one large tot (5) CHILD {CH}{1}{L}{D}
2   Con man on the run consumes BLT preparation in the peak of European tourism (4,5) MONT BLANC {CON+MAN}* over {BLT}*
3   It's built with two rings and ellipse to start with serving no practical purpose (6) OTIOSE {O+O+ITS}*{El...e}
4   Unenthusiastically dresses pet lazily (7) TEPIDLY {PET*}{IDLY}
5   Bishop loves king? Novel, perhaps (4) BOOK {B}{OO}{K}
6   Sending out old wine and gin cocktail (9) EXPORTING {EX}{PORT}{GIN*}
7   Test paper, set without presence of PTA, is determined in advance (6) PRESET {TESt+paPER}*
8   Swiss psychiatrist is at the French forest (6) JUNGLE {JUNG}{LE}
14 Track deer footprints with some hesitation, followed by swallow, an insectivorous creature (5,4) SLOTH BEAR S{LOTH} {BEAR} Anno pending (Addendum - {SLOT}{He...n} BEAR} - See comments)
16 Increase, in Agra, government value added tax on energy (9) AGGRAVATE {AG{G}RA}{VAT}{E}
17 Reptiles slither? Ask Sen (6) SNAKES*
18 Foreign currency is with the Spanish officer (7) COLONEL {COLON}{EL}
20 Indian monkey found in Jalan Gurdwara (6) LANGUR [T]
21 Somehow aspire for Iran of yore (6) PERSIA*
24 Plants four Romans, that is, senators initially (5) IVIES {IV}{IE}{Se...s}
25 Mongolian ruler takes thousand ethnic Chinese (4) KHAN {K}{HAN}

GRID

39 comments:

  1. Track/deer footprint:slot swallow:bear with H

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. +1
      Chambers definition:
      slot /slot/
      noun
      Tracks, esp a deer's footprints

      transitive verb
      To track

      Delete
  2. Should the anno for 26A) be
    {TELEPH(-one)AN}*{S}

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jungle jungle baat chali hai, pata chala hai
    Chaddi pahan ke phool kila hai, phool kila hai.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for reviving lot of memories Incognito.

      Delete
    2. Welcome, Vasant. The latest remake was a bit of a disappointment, especially with King Loie's dark role

      Delete
    3. Didnt see except for odd scenes in television.

      Delete
  4. 22A makes for a terrific Hinglish pun.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, people going crazy over spelling in one of my whats app groups. the way its spelt aachche means "coming" in gujarat ("mota bhai simply meant "coming days" and hindistan took it as good?!!!"), aa chche in telugu is noise you make while sneezing (hutch!)

      Delete
    2. In Gujrati coming is aaveche or aavanu che. Perhaps in Bangla aache is coming.

      Delete
    3. Saara divas aavanu che/aavse

      Delete
  5. Didn't understand 12A. Could someone please help?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. refers to 18d: rank over col is brigadier, in short brig.

      Delete
    2. Thanks. I didn't understand the expression chokey either. Sorry, duh me.

      Delete
    3. Chokey is a hindi word meaning outpost, shed, thana. Police chokey e.g.

      Delete
    4. Police chowki, adapted to English as chokey, was most commonly used in the expression "It's chokey for him/you"

      Delete
  6. Not able to follow Acrosses, 12 19 and 26 also 14D. Can anyone explain to me please?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 12A anno explained above
      19A Gogol=dramatist
      10 to the power of 100= Googol
      Remove the 1st zero from googol.
      26A anno given by Karthikeyan at 8:50
      14D anno given by sree_sree at 8:40

      Delete
  7. 12A) Explained already by Sree @10:35
    Defn: it's chokey;
    "one just over 18" means look at the solution for clue 18 dn which is colonel and one rank above it in the army is BRIGADIER; BRIGADIER shortly is BRIG
    chokey=jail=brig

    19A) Defn: Dramatist;
    If you click the link given by col in the solution, you will know that
    ten to the power hundred is called as "GOOGOL";
    "first nothing less" implies delete first "O" from GOOGOL to arrive at GOGOL (who is a Russian Novelist) as solution

    26A) Defn: trunk-callers
    "a nine at first" = AN
    "telephone, substituting a nine, at first for one" implies AN to be substituted for ONE in TELEPHONE which now gives TELEPHAN; erroneously is anagram indicator and TELEPHAN* = ELEPHANT;
    add S (six in the beginning) to give ELEPHANTS

    14D)look at the comments from Sree @8:40 and KRK@8:46
    Defn: insectivorous creature
    Track deer footprints = SLOT
    some hesitation = H
    swallow = BEAR
    Soln is therefore {SLOT+H+BEAR} = SLOTH BEAR

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, Karthikeyan. You have explained to me very clearly!

      Delete
  8. Looking for the envelope was the role
    Given to this not so intelligent mole
    Did his best
    And the worst
    He did was he googled. LOL!!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thank you Kishore. Enjoyed the fast solve yesterday evening (over here). Liked the 'Trunk callers' reviving old memories of 'booking' a call followed by an indeterminate wait sometimes resulting in a call. Nice pun.
    Enjoying all the comments now.
    Looking forward to tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, sir. Missing PP madam too ... ;) Remember those PP calls?

      Delete
    2. How heartening to see myself still remembered by you folks!!!

      Delete
  10. And when we travelled we used to take our trunk-boxes along. (TRUNK PETTI!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Petit? It used to be quite big at times, refusing to go under the train seat.

      Delete
    2. Armed Forces soldiers still carry that Peti

      Delete
  11. Col. We know you are busy..but whenever free do highlight the theme words from Jungle Book.

    ReplyDelete

deepakgita@gmail.com